Miss Libby

Greetings Earthlings-

Whew. I really challenged myself with this one. What was I thinking?!

Mo's challenge at the Digital Pencil this week was "All my Favorite Things". I needed to make a card for my sister... she is definitely one of my 'Favorite Things'! I decided to do one of her Favorite things...

She has had many pug dogs over the years.. Most were the usual buff color but I am sure her favorite was Libby.  My sister got Libby when she was just a puppy - really just a little ball of black fur with a very pink tongue sticking out... Libby is no longer with us due to extreme old age. She was full of love and a wonderful companion. 

My elderly aunt used the word MISS a lot.. As in "What are you up to, Miss?" or "Did you finish your chores, Miss?"  Somewhere along the way we started using this when talking to Libby. "Are you hungry, Miss?" , "Do you need to go outside, Miss?" , Do you want a cracker, Miss?"

Mo Manning had the perfect digital stamp for this. It's called 'Pug Love'. Did I mention Libby was black? I've never tried to color something that was black, and fury. I think I colored over this image so many times the paper was actually getting thinner.  I started really light but eventually realized Libby was a lot more of the BLACKest black than anything else. Well, near the end of her life she was almost white from age but I digress..

I Googled "Black Pug" images to give me inspiration. Thank God for the internet! Here are the Copics I used:

When I was satisfied with her I added some highlights with Copic Opaque White - it's actually paint. I made the whites of her eyes whiter (some bleeding from the blacks had occurred) and gave them highlights.

For a first try I think it came out pretty well.

I am not sure where I got the sentiment. I modified it slightly. It is labeled 'wuvyou--VIBGYOR-Krafts'. I tried a web search but couldn't narrow it down enough. If anyone knows where this sentiment is from, please let me know.

***Update***

I want to thank and give credit to E.T. from Karachi, Pakistan for the sentiment. She left me a comment saying it was from her blog - here is the link:

http://vibgyorkrafts.blogspot.com/2011/05/gingerloft-challenge-plant-tree.html

She has some beautiful projects on her blog. Also, a nice variety of freebies. Stop by and check it out.

THANKS FOR SHARING, E.T.!!!!

I used white VIVA decorator gloss gel to add the dots on the heart. I also used Glossy Accents from Ranger on her eyes (I put it on really thick on her eyes to make them more 'bulge-y) and nose and the corners of her mouth. In the picture you can really see how the eyes shine!

A doily from the cake decorating department at Michaels and some Recollections red crystal bling finish her off.

I hope my sister likes it! It's already in the mail!

Party on, Wayne.

Welcome Bailey!

Greetings Earthlings-

The folks over at Hambo Stamps got a new puppy! He is too cute - go over and see him! It looks like they are going to start a new line of stamps named after him - Bailey's Line. This week's free image is a puppy! Sweet!

The challenge this week is to make a card for a child that is in the hospital for long-term care. They are asking that we mail the cards to Send a Smile 4 Kids so they can then forward them on to hospitals. This is a great cause so why don't you join us? You can use ANY Hambo image - then post it on the challenge and email it in too. Then, next week you will get the new free image!

I used the puppy digi and combined it with an earlier freebie - Grove of Trees.

And I finally got around to playing with my Copics this week! I used a lot of green. I just kept adding greens until I was happy with how things looked. Since there were a lot of green textures on this one I got to use several combos.. 

I cut it out using my Spellbinders. (Is there any other way to cut something out? LOL) The tag was also cut with a Spellbinder. The embossing is from a Sizzix folder from Stampin' Up. The sentiment is from a really old clear stamp - then I added some ribbon and voilà!

Now, go check out Bailey and enter the challenge yourself! It's fun to play along and see what everyone comes up with. And you might win a free digi stamp.

Party on, Wayne!

Howdy!

Greetings Earthlings-

It's the wee hours of the morning and I have given up trying to sleep after watching the clock for the last 2 hours..

Have I mentioned that I love Mo Manning? I do. I really do.

The challenge this week at Mo's Challenge Blog was to make a project that was 'clean and simple.' OK, I cheated a little.. I had this image colored and fancy cut already.. I've had it on my bulletin board for a few months waiting for some inspiration.

I used Copic markers to color the image. When I decided to use it this week the color of her jumper clashed with the card base. Hmmmm. I decided to go over that part again using colors that were in the BG family. Originally the jumper was a light washed out denim color. Now it's more turquoise-y. This is only one of the many cool things about the Copics - you can play with them long after you have 'finished' something.

I combined Mo's image with a grassy background. I got this from a great  site called Make It Crafty. They have some fabulous digi images and they also have actual rubber! Their challenge this week was Color Blades of Grass. I think this will barely qualify. I made a copy of the digi with the watermark M.K. on it . It's called Daffodil-dell. I use it often on my cards. I especially like how Bronte seems to be sniffing around..

OK, so here is the final card:

The sentiment is a rubber stamp I bought at a convention from 'a pile of rubber'. I've had it for quite a while now..

That's it for tonight. It's 4:30 AM and I am going to try to get back to sleep. (Good luck with that...)

Party on, Wayne!

Giving Credit where Credit is Due!

Greetings Earthlings-

I've had this Mo Manning image for a while now. I've used it for 'birthday wishes' many times. She's so fun to color - different pallets can change the feeling so much!

When Mo's challenge this week asked for Elves, Fairies, Santa or Snowmen, I knew I would be giving her a Christmas makeover. Here she is from Mo's website:

I went a little overboard with the stickles..Oh well. Who is to say how sparkly a fairy's wand is?!  I used a Spellbinder to cut her out - but when I did that I lost the copyright insignia! Artists should get credit for their hard work! So I wrote it in again near the image.

I used Copics and Spicas to color the image.

Here she is in all her glory:

There are a lot of great new Christmas and Holiday images over at Mo's website. I am having a hard time deciding which to buy.. OK, which NOT to buy LOL.

Party on, Wayne

Santa Baby

Greetings Earthlings!

Today's card reminds me of the Christmas song, Santa Baby.. I made it for the challenge over at Mo's Challenge Blog. This week they asked us to make something that had the theme of 'Winter'. I've used this image many times in lotsa ways that I never dreamed of when I bought it. It's called Checking FB.

I love Mo Manning images! As soon as I saw the challenge I envisioned this image with her in a bathrobe with Santa Colors, and she's emailing her Christmas list to Santa..

I used some Memory Box dies to add some zing and of course a few rhinestones! The sentiment I made on PSE. If you want it, feel free to take it - no strings.. It's a png so the background is clear.

 I would love to see what you make with it..

Here are the Copics that I used to color the image:

Party on, Wayne..

3 for 1

Greetings Earthlings!

My first card today is for Mo's Digital Challenge. The theme is 'Give Thanks'.

I used the image called Girl and dog. The dog's name is Bronte.

I made the sentiment using PSE. Copics were used to add color. I cut the circles with my Nestibilities. Crochet lace and Liquid Pearls were added.

Here are the Copics I used:

And..the..card: 

Oh- here's the sentiment in case you want it for yourself - be sure to 'left click' on it to get the full size image:

I've made quite a few cards since I last posted.. I've been too busy to post them as I made them. If you want details just email me..This is a birthday card I made for my brother-in-law:

Next up is fun combo of digi images - Fall Fence from Shelly's Images and Trick Or Treat from Mo's Digital Pencil:

Yup, that's Bronte again. Meow!

I also added some black bling to the corners of this card - it doesn't show up well in the photos though.

I also made a spectacular birthday card for my niece's 3rd birthday. She's all about princesses and fairies just now.. BUT, I'll have to post that later - I'm outta time for today.

Party on, Wayne



Oldies but Goodies!

Greetings Earthlings-

OK. I don't like it when people ask me how long I have been rubber stamping. It makes me feel really OLD!

I bought my first rubber stamps while I was in high school. Back then you could use black india ink or if you were lucky, you could find a blue ink pad.

I still have those stamps. They are still nice and rubber-y. Some stamps that I have bought since have become rocks and useless. Here's a pic of my first step on a long, long and expensive path..

These are all the same brand and I bought them at the same time. How old are they? How is that any different than asking me 'How long have you been stamping?' !!  OK, fine. Here is a shot of one on it's side..

Happy Now?!!

I decided to get these out when a challenge asked us to get something out that we haven't used in a while.. It's probably been 25 years since I last used these.. I think that qualifies.

So, a new place I have found to spend a lot of time is called Outlawz.  This is the challenge that made me dust these puppies off. It is a CAS challenge. Clean and Simple..Here's the challenge.

So, here is the card I created cleanly and simply:

I used some Spellbinders to cut out and emboss the image and the sentiment. I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink.As usual I used my Copics to color this image:

Do you have any stamps that are really, um, old? Tell me about them!

Party on, Wayne

Hambo Hoedown 35

Greetings Earthlings!

I got another free image from Hambo stamps this week. I love getting these in my email each week. Well, each week when I have entered the challenge the week before and emailed my entry to them too.

This week's image is called dragonfly.

The challenge was to copy a layout from their gallery. There were so many to choose from!!! I chose a card made by Taylor Van-Bruggen.

She made a nice clean layout - I liked that because using a lot of embellishments is just not me..

I followed the original pretty closely.

I used a Hambo image of Trees and manipulated and duplicated it to make the background. Here is what the Trees looked like originally:

I used these Copics:

Oh, it felt so good to be back to my lovely Copics! I missed them!

Party on, Wayne.

Pushy Guest Designer

Greetings Earthlings!

Tomorrow is the big OPERATION WRITE HOME blog hop. Be sure to stop by then to get a lot of card making inspiration!

I had a pushy guest designer stop by to help me out today. And I have some more digi freebies for you! These are PNG files. I hope you can use them.

I am using an image by Mo Manning. It is called "Who Me?"  To make it look cold, I changed the color using Photo Shop Express. I made the outlines of the snow blue. I also made some of his clothes red. This is called CHEATING! I can't manage to use red without it bleeding - and it is almost impossible to correct red errors with the colorless blender! Having red lines means that I don't have to go quite to the edge with the marker.

Here is what the image looked like when I printed it out:

Well, ok, it didn't have the watermark all over it..

The Copics I used were:

And the finished card:

I cut out the image with a Spellbinders die and mounted it on dark gray card stock.  I used the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder on the card base and then I used a Memory Box die called 'Retro Border'. I think it looks

snow-flakey..

To help the cut-out show up more, I rubbed London Fog Memento ink along the edges of the card base.

Then I added my sentiment and a few snowflake buttons to finish it off.

I tried to get a picture showing how the border is cut out but my pushy guest designer would not co-operate!

Remember to stop by tomorrow for the big
World Card Making Day
 OWH blog hop!

Party on, Wayne

Flo & the Gang

Greetings Earthlings!

I made a QUICK card to send to my sister.. She deserved it! (know what I mean?)

I'm thrilled that one of my favorite rubbah companies has started selling digi's! River City Rubber Works. I sure hope that they digitize more of their catalog!!

I have these fine ladies in rubbah but I used the digi for this card. I wrote their names on their name tags. Meet Vi, Bea and Flo. (Yup, that Aunt Flo.)

I used a Spellbinders Grand Nestie Labels 4 to cut the card base out of DCWV card stock. I also used the Spellbinders Labels 4 for the sentiment, which I made with PSE.

Here are the Copics I used:

I had a hard time photographing this card. It has lace doilies on it but you can't really see them well. The flower is also 3 layers.

Like I said, this was a quick card I had to get in the mail NOW so I didn't get many details on it that I would have liked..

For example - 

1) Add momento ink on the edges of the base - that would have helped the doilies stand out

2) Add lots of paper flourishes.. probably in white

3) Use Glossy Accents on their glasses

4) Some kind of ribbon, somewhere (anywhere!)

Well, I know my sister will get a good laugh out of it. Especially since I'm the evil sister...(and so VERY much younger than her..)

Party on, Wayne!

Back to school

Greetings Earthlings-

YAY! We have survived another summer. There are a lot of back to school challenges out there. So many, I've lost track of where and when the deadlines are.. I am going to enter this card in the Mo's Digital Challenge this week.

The challenge was 'back to school'.I used a Mo Manning digital image, of course.  I didn't own any that screamed that theme so I tweaked the 'Paul Texting' image with the sentiment to make it more back to school-y.

I tried something a little different this time around. Instead of printing it in black, I used PSE to color the lines only before I used my Copics.  Here is what the print looked like before coloring.

I've seen lately that folks are trying the 'no line' technique where none of the outline shows. I don't especially care for that look but it did give me the idea to try this. I think it turned out pretty well. It's subtle. I used Prisma Colored Pencils for the skin areas. I was afraid I would loose the detail if I used my Copics.

I also made a fun birthday card but I have to wait until the birthday boy receives it in the mail before I post..

Party on, Wayne