If I Missed You Enough...

Would this bring you home?It's a suitcase, with a map of land and sea, so you can get your bearings. When you get closer, the little flower, which you can learn to make here, is a map you can use to find me.Stamps: Stampin' Up Old World Map Ink: Chocolate Chip Paper: Kraft, old atlas

Accessories: Big Shot & Bigz Box #2 die, Scallop Punch, Brad

Who needs a Tom Tom or Magellan, when there is such beauty in these paper routes?

Shimmery Russian Trees

I love my used Russian dictionary so much it's hard for me to use big pieces of it, so I went small with this one, but did something very fun for this week's 2S4Y.

First, I took a piece of the page and painted some Stampin' Up! shimmer paint on part of my dictionary page. It was sooo beautiful and didn't obscure the print, just made it all silvery and frosty.LOVE this look.

Then I took the three little trees fromDoodle Factory Into the Woods and stamped them on my silvery text and cut the tops out so I could paper piece them.


The rest of the card is made with specialty Stampin' Up! brushed metallic cardstock, Basic Grey patterned paper, a Stampin' Up! rubon, punches and ribbon.

Stamps: Doodle Factory Into the Woods, Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Paper: Basic Grey, Stampin' Up!
Accessories: Eyelet Border Punch, dimensionals, Square and Round punches

One of the things I really like about the DF images is the amount of white space they have - great for filling with patterned paper or security envelopes or book pages. Perfect reanimation stamps!!

Hope you're having a great Tuesday!

Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! I made a tag! :)

This is an often neglected part of my holiday preparations, for some reason, so I was determined to make tags this year. This is a Nativitag! :)

I wanted a light background for the little scene, but the white was too stark against my pretty metallic paper, so I went with a magazine page instead and I think it works nicely.

It's my fave reanimated magazine - Food and Wine - because of the matte paper it's printed on.

Stamps: Doodle Factory O Holy Night, Sentiments Christmas Nativity
Paper: Stampin' Up! metallic DSP, Whisper White, Magazine Page Ink: Copper Memento, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, Copper Embossing Powder, Stampin' Up! Ribbon Originals

I need to re-subscribe to a few magazines - my supply has dwindled! Hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

It's all About the Gifts

Tis the season of gifts, right? Well today's card started with one of the best birthday gifts I've ever gotten. My friend Lisa gave me a little bag of antique findings she had had for many years. There were beautiful, one of a kind buttons, quilt squares, a gorgeous old pattern, and several varieties of vintage trims, including this one.I hated to even take it out of the package, with its fun retro typography and beautiful yellow label, which I carefully saved. But I promised her I would use it, so I did. It is black and stretchy fine mesh organdy trim, with the most delicate and interesting scalloped crocheted edge. It is a work of art.

It inspired me.

Great, thoughtful gifts like this are so rare and wonderful. Since it tis the season, I thought about three gifts in particular for a special baby boy. I thought I would do a little piece where the givers were not the focal points, but the gifts.

So I took the new O Holy Night set, and colored the wise men in shades of grey Copics. The only color on them is on their gifts, which I carefully glittered.
It's hard to photograph, but they are brilliant and sparkly, I promise.

I added the vintage trim under their feet, and put it all on some Graphic 45 Communique paper. I stamped the Noel and sponged it until the colors blended with the paper.

Remember this holiday season - it's the thought that counts!!

If You're Like My Family...

We went through this phase where we all bought the same books for everyone at Christmas. One year, everyone got 4 copies of The Firm. One year, Into Thin Air. One year, Little Green Men.

It was hilarious. We'd open copy 1, copy 2, copy 3. We'd redistribute to anyone that hadn't gotten the ubiquitous book of the year, but then still have extras.

If this has happened to you, I suggest you make cards out of the book(s). :)

Here's a little Christmas ditty made out of books as homage to the Blakley conundrum.
Stamps: Patterned Pines Ink: Perfect Plum Paper: Very Vanilla, Book Page Accessories: Glitter, Sponge

PS - We've solved this by eliminating all Christmas gifts that are not either regifted - something you already own, or handmade with things you have on hand. Best Christmases ever!!

What are your holiday traditions?

For Jaimie

Thank you for stopping by. If you are stopping by on the Spread the Love Blog Hop, since I'm pretty far down the list, you already know why you're here, and thank you so much for visiting me, and thank you to Denise and Erin - the wonderful women behind this.

If you came here another way, please click here for the first part of this story. I hope this hop inspires you to make a card and send it to Jaimie.

I chose a few things that might make a little girl happy. For the background, a reanimated Hardy Boys Mystery, which I was reading at about Jaimie's age. There's nothing like a good mystery to transport you to another place. Then, I added lots of pink, courtesy of Basic Grey's Indian Summer and Stampin' Up!'s Melon Mambo Ribbon.

The hedgie I chose for its symbolic contribution - most things that seem prickly on the outside can turn out to be sweet and soft and surprising on the inside. I hope that something awful turns into a positive and sweet life for little Jaimie.
This adorable image is from my new favorite Etsy seller - Niko Art. Nicole is an amazingly talented designer and her images are adorable and perfect. I hope it brings a smile.

If you want to help more, please visit the special blog that has been set up for this effort.

It's people like Denise and Erin that really put joy in creating art, and making sure that art connects us to people and not things.

Say your prayers for little Jaimie, and if you have time, send her a card.

Your next stop on the hop is the lovely and talented Amanda Newton.

If you'd like to start at the top of the hop, please click here to see Katharina's Card.

My, What Big White Teeth You Have...

Every weekend on my walk, I see a pair of coyotes that live in the woods near my house. They are probably 200 yards from me when I see them. They stand perfectly still and watch me until I pass.

They are as big as timberwolves. I have never seen coyotes this big, and I always see them together.

I fear for the small creatures.

It always makes me feel like Little Red Riding Hood - one of many terrifying childhood tales...

So here she is. On an old playing card. With her friend, the wolf.Supplies: Stampin' Up! greeting, rhinestone brad, ink and paper, Stamps by Niko Art, Playing Card by Bicycle

Hope you enjoy your day, and that it is free from wolves with big, shiny teeth..

Caturday - Purr Like a Pirate!

Tomorrow is not only Caturday, it's Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Splotchy finally said ARRRRRRRRRight... I'll dress up like a Pirate for ye!

Treemendous

Fine - you want to turn trees into books? No problem - I'll turn them right back into trees when I'm done :)

Stamps: Into the Woods (Doodle Factory) Ink: India Paper: Basic Grey,
Accessories: Tangerine TangoRhinestone Brad (Fire), Stampin' Dimensionals, Distressing Tool

Nesting!

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting to receive my Flower Folds Big Shot die so I could cut some nested foldy flowers and make 3D stuff!

When I saw these little birdies, I squealed because I knew I could punch them out and fit them down inside the flowers.

For the inside flower I thought it would be fun to use print - my original idea was newsprint, but I don't subscribe to any newspapers so I turned to my old friends, the print design magazines I have scads of. I found a cool one with a black background and white text! So I used it for the background and the inside flower. Hard to see the glittery nest in the photo, but it's sparkly and fun.

Stamps: Into the Woods Ink: India, Crushed Curry Accessories: Stickles, Blender Pen, Dimensionals,
Flower Folds Die, Big Shot Cardstock: Crushed Curry, DSP, Magazines

I really love these little guys. This would make a fun and different "we've moved" card.

Have a great evening!

Three Candles

Someone on Twitter suggested three candles to me for my birthday dessert - Past, Present and Future. Besides cutting down on the fire hazard we all present as we get older, I thought it was really sweet.

For my guests at a little gathering last night, I decided to use the Past, Present and Future idea a little differently.

I thought your birthdays are a nice time to look at the map. See where you've been, find where you are, and plan where you're going.So, for favors - the maps signifying all those things.
I took an atlas I bought used for 50 cents and used my Sizzix Big Shot Fancy Favor die to cut bags. This is very quick - you can do two sheets at a time. Then just fold them up.

The tags are made from the latitude and longitude tables in the back of the atlas, which I could use for all sorts of things. I love them with their small, precise print. I hand cut the tags.

Enjoy the route :)

I Once Was..

I once was an article someone read. In Food and Wine. I was about a summer place in Kennebunkport. I just wasn't destined for the trash.

I was destined to go into a Sizzix clear circle die, then to be clear embossed with a tiny bird, then brayered , because my special, matte Food and Wine pages absorb ink so nicely.

I'm better than I was.
Cardstock: Dusty Durango, Sahara Sand, Razzleberry Lemonade DSP, Magazine Page| Stamps: Autumn Days, Berry Christmas|Accessories: Autumn Harvest Rub-on, Soft Suede Ribbon| Ink: Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Soft Suede, Basic Black |
All supplies Stampin' Up!

I am reanimated :)

Grim(m) is Right!

I'm terrified of fairy tales.

The Brothers Grimm and other assorted HORROR writers (that's what most childrens' stories are, at least the fairy tale variety) pursued me through many a nightmare as a child.

I never understood why it was appropriate to read a child a story about a witch baking a brother and a sister in an oven, or a wolf eating a little girl in the woods, or assorted other hideous fates that awaited the mostly parentless tinies in the pages of these awful books.

I've heard the pointless rationalizations about how they were designed to keep children safe, but can we all agree that that is complete balderdash, and that the quite successful aim was, in fact, to give us all phobias?

Well bravo, Grimms. I'm still afraid.

I thought I would put together a few little creepy fairy tale ditties after discussing with a coworker how dark and dismal the subject matter most modern graphic designers choose is. Communication Arts magazine, which is really one of my favorite designer magazines, features some horridly dark illustrations.

I believe these designers were terrorized by fairy tales as children, and hence deserve our pity. ;).

To twist that all together, I took the pages of that magazine and an old used book to create three little scenes for you.

Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel and Alice in Wonderland.I cut the pieces freehand, and collaged them with the book pages to 4X4 canvases with matte Gel Medium, thanks to some instruction, found here, by Claudine Hellmuth.

After cutting, I just laid them out on the canvas one by one to help me cut the next piece and make it fit in the scene.Something about collage takes me back to my childhood, so this project was the perfect mix of memories for a Sunday...

Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to look behind you.

My Heart For my Country

For this card, I reanimated some old snare drum lessons in a book of sheet music I bought from Half Price books. I used my Stampin' Up! punch with two of the three hearts it makes. Very quick and easy card, using only scraps!

Happy Independence Day!

Petersburg, 2011

Wouldn't that be cool?

I may get to do just that. We will see. St. Petersburg is a place of my dreams that is for sure.

So today I reanimated one of my old Russian dictionaries. I probably have 20 of them. It was okay to dedicate one to the fires of art, yes?

I started by making some "water" out of a reanimated security envelope. The insides of these are crazy cool.

If you want to use a lot of the real estate of these, use a heat gun to neatly undo the seals where it is stuck together. Just heat them up and the glue will let go. Then cut it up as needed. I just needed a little stripe.

I punched squares from my Russian dictionary and rounded their corners. I sponged them with brown ink to age them.

Then I stamped little fishies from the Stampin' Up! Just Beachy set and colored them with gel pens.

I outlined them in white to pop them off the page a bit.

I added some of the new dotty Stampin' Up! ribbon and voila - quick and easy double Reanimation.

Lots of paper in the world. Use it, don't buy it! :)

Memorial Day

I prepared this card for today's 2Sketches4You Challenge!It's a hero for all our fallen heroes today. Handsome and brave. Loved and missed.

The stamp set is the Super Parents Doodle Factory set, and I loved the sketch, because it once again gave me an opportunity to do thought bubbles.

Just a girl, dreaming of her boy. As they do :)

I used as a background a page from a Fantastic Four compilation comic book that I got at Half Price Books. I cut extra talk bubbles out to add along the edge of the main circle.

I colored both characters with Copics and then added the rub-on dots for a Lichtenstein effect.

Comics are one of my favorite places to find beautiful use of red, white and blue together.

To see the rest of the Starving Artistamps' team's submissions for the challenge, click here. To see the 2Sketches blog entries in the challenge, click here.

Take time today to remember America's fallen heroes as you enjoy your freedoms. They gave so much.

God Bless America.

Post Secret

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone thought I meant postage stamps were my hobby instead of rubber stamps. I'd for sure be stamping full time!

However, I do love postage stamps.

And I love office supply stores.

So put your hands together, and you have a very cool project.

When I was at CHA, I fell in love with Graphic 45's paper. It was warm, collagey, interesting and inspired this idea.

A while ago, I bought some full sheets of Avery label paper - 5353 is the product if you're interested. I also have bags of old postage stamps.

I peeled off the lining of the label paper - one row at a time, since the lining is in three pieces - and started sticking my stamps down one by one. Since they are all different shapes and sizes, some need to overlap a little - just make sure you cover up all the sticky parts.

When I had a rectangle big enough for what I needed, I stopped and cut the paper in my paper cutter. Look at this cool new Graphic 45 style paper!You can reanimate anything into paper with these label sheets. Just think of the possibilities. Wait - you don't have to, because I'm going to do it! :) Stay tuned.

Anyway, I took this piece and ran it through my Big Shot with the Stampin' Up! Bird and Leaves with Flower die and then just stuck them on some black cardstock, used reanimated music sheets as a background, and put it on a black base.

So now you know my secret! :)

Wonder Mom!

I found this awesome book of WonderWoman comic covers at Half Price books for basically nothing.Do you know how inexpensive making your backgrounds out of used books is? Consider designer paper for 50 cents a sheet, and books for 50 cents a book!

It was the purrrrfect backdrop for my Super Mom for Mother's day.
The image is from the new Doodle Factory set "Super Parents". The card base is Basic Black, and I colored her with copics, chose a good cover from the book to use as a backdrop and punched a few circles for accents.

Do You Get It?

See if you get what I did on this card.

The paper is retired Stampin' Up! DSP and the little bear is from Doodle Factory's new Oh Baby! set. I stamped him on a reanimated Hardy Boys mystery. when I opened it to rip a page out, a 1950 wheat penny fell out of it.

Cool.

I colored him with pure color pencils.
The reanimated book pages take pencil sooo nicely because they are a little rough.

So do you get it?

If you do, leave a comment. ;)

Sustainable Summer!

I entered this card in the Cards Magazine cover contest - it's made from the pages of Cards Magazine - it's like a meta-card!

Alas, I did not win, however, they were kind enough to feature me on the blog today! They have incredible photography and projects over here.. It's like getting their magazine every day. Check it out by clicking the link above or the picture.

Craft magazines have such beautiful pages - use them for something fun!

PS - I twittered a special offer today... check it out!

Bunny Week...

Is pretty much the best week ever!!!

I made this little fella for Bunny Thursday.

He's reanimating the pages of the last Martha Stewart Living Magazine.

I punched him out and then punched his pink ears from a cool pink ad from the same issue.

I made the grass just by hand cutting a strip of Kiwi Kiss paper. The ribbon is Stampin' Up!

The polka dots on the pink background are made with the eraser of a mechanical pencil. When they're new they are such perfect circles. Just pat them on your ink pad like a stamp and stamp them! I used basic grey ink. The greeting is from A good egg!

Happy bunny Thursday!!

счастливая пасха!

I studied Slavic Linguistics in grad school, and Russian Literature in undergrad - yes, including Old Church Slavonic - and loved the icons, so I thought I'd make an Easter icon out of Stewie... If you've never seen a traditional icon, this is what they look like. They are mysterious and sad, like Stewie. They are also brightly colored, which I adore.This is what they look like in the Doodle Factory.

I used Russian text I printed from my computer (reanimated from my Christmas card) on the right and sponged it with red ink. The blue paper is Basic Grey Marrakech. I hand cut the cross and decorated it with a silver Pentel. I wrote theRussian word for Easter on the horizontal strip.
I traced a circle from a piece I punched with a black felt tip marker and then filled it in with gold Pentel for his halo. I colored the torn edge with a gold Pentel and mounted it on brushed gold cardstock.

счастливая пасха!!!

Sometimes, you gotta make lemonade...

Bills.I hate em.

I hate all the trash they generate even more than I hate sending my money away.

So I fixed it. with the help of Lisa Vollrath.

See what you think.

First.... Steaming letters open is for housewives of the 50's. Take one of the envelopes from your bills and use your heat gun to release the glue. Be sure and remove the plastic window first though. Don't ask me how I know things. I just do. :)


All opened up, nice. Use the open version to trace onto cardstock and use as a permanent bookmark template. After tracing, reseal.

Next, measure 3" from the corner on each side for your cut marks.
Use a ruler to draw a line and cut.

Now you have your bookmark, and you just need to decorate it!

For the first one, I took the Amex envy and painted it with Golden's Micaceous Iron Oxide which is a gorgeous grey with sparkles. I'm sure there's a technical term for it. I don't know it.
Paint it over the envelope. I liked the stripe on this one because it showed through and became part of the design.
On top of this, I painted Tempting Turquoise Craft Ink.
Then I attached an old postage stamp - orange for a pop of color. I used Golden Gel medium to attach it, and to paint over the whole thing to make it a little more durable. It's just clean and clear and glossy like Mod Podge.

Here's the book I'm readingAnd here it is with the new sassy bookmark.I love having the template.
I made this one out of Basic Grey's Marrakech paper. I love this.I covered this with more gel mediumNothing better than turning a credit card bill into something that holds my place in a book called play!!