It's hard to be sad about a rainy day when you see such a happy little chick as this one.
You can also tell that I have some new toys! One of them is the set of Small Pinking Circles Nestabilities, and the other one is a border punch from EK Success. I bought both of them at the Heirloom Rubber Stamp Convention at Grapevine from the Stamp On It booth. To me, their display of the Nestabilities was well done, and I liked the fact that I was able to use the border punch on sample card stock at the booth. I have been disappointed with the Fiskars and Martha Stewart border punches because they will not punch card stock. The EK Success punches will.
To make the card, I used an orange card stock for the base with a lighter orange dotted CS layered on top. Before I layered it, I punched a border on the right side. I liked the effect of the narrow strip so left it instead of trimming it as I had originally intended to do.
I used the Pinking Circles Nestabilities to punch an orange circle and a smaller yellow circle. The yellow circle was punched from a paint chip. I wound a darker orange thread around the orange circle, mounted it on the card and mounted the yellow stamped image on top. I stamped the Shower Chick image from Stampendous using Jet Black StazOn ink. I colored the umbrella, flower and beak with Copic markers and had a bit of trouble using them on the paint chip. I found that I had to use a marker that was several shades darker and had to use a dotting motion instead of a dragging motion in order to get the alcohol ink to adhere to the paint chip. I let the first layer dry and then colored it again before I could get the color as well defined as I wanted it to be.
The sentiment was stamped on regular CS and mounted on the darker orange. Since I have divided my clear stamps up so that the same sentiments go in one CD case, I don't know the name of the company that sells this stamp.
That's all, folks. See you tomorrow ... or whenever I get a round TUIT!

I found a new stamp company, or at least new to me, at the Heirloom convention in Grapevine this week. It's called Eccentric Images, and they are that indeed. I loved this little Queen Bee so much that I couldn't wait to use the stamp.
Card base is yellow cardstock, and the patterned paper is adhered to a green CS and placed on the card base. I stamped the bee on more of the yellow and mounted it on the solid green and then on the prepared card. The words were stamped with black ink, and the "Queens Rock" image was punched with a Stampin' Up oval punch. I punched a larger oval out of the solid green and sanded the edges lightly so the white core would show. It's mounted using foam tape. The bee is lightly colored with Twinkling H2Os and with darker Copic markers.
I can't wait to buy more stamps from Eccentric Images. They are available in both mounted and unmounted versions.

I joined a group recently that uses only Magenta stamps. I have been a fan of Magenta for years and was privileged to take some classes which were taught by Nathalie Metivier. What a lovely person!
The swap that I am doing requires that I make two cards a month and send them to two different swappers. This is the card I made for one of the swappers, and I played with colors on the card rather than a lot of "geegaws". (That's a down home term for embellishments.)
The card base was Cougar Opaque and was natural (which is a fancy term for off-white or ivory). I topped that with a light wine colored patterned paper from Hot Off the Press. On top of that I placed a light green CS to echo the green in the image. It's faint, but it's there on the flower buds. More patterned paper and then a rich wine card stock. The image was stamped on a pale, pale pink card stock scrap and embossed with JudiKins' Detail Black embossing powder. I colored the flowers with a Rose Pink Copic marker and then used the colorless blender on the end of the petals to remove some of the color. I went back over the flower close to the center with the Rose Pink to make it even darker than it originally was. Although the center of the flowers is mostly black, I colored the open areas with a Canary Yellow Copic marker. I cut the image out closely with scissors and glued it to the wine CS and embellished the flowers with a few drops of JudiKins' Diamond Glaze to resemble dew on the petals.
The Heirloom Rubber Stamp Conventioon was held in Grapevine this past weekend, and I went to the convention on Sunday. There were several vendors who were not there but also a few new vendors or at least ones I had never seen before. I think some of my favorite stamps were the ones I bought at the Eccentric Images booth. There were two vendors who had Nestabilities, but I thought that Marco's Paper did not have them displayed well. It was hard to see which of the Nestabilities they had because they were scattered throughout the booth. I saw the new acrylic Sizzix folders similar to the ones that are made for the Cuttlebug. These folders will work in the Cuttlebug, and there was a good selection to choose from. I'm not sure the name of the booth that I saw a lot of the Dreamweaver stencils in, but I think it was Polly's Pals. We watched a great demonstration using the embossing pastes, and I bought a couple of the stencils for Christmas cards.
The July convention is always smaller than the January convention, but I thought there was a good representation of vendors this year. I also liked the fact that we were seeing new vendors which means the show must go on!

Today's card looks a little wonky, but that's because I didn't get it in my scanner as straight as it should have been. I can't redo it because it was for a swap, and it's already been mailed.

The card base is white card stock, and the images were stamped with a black ink pad from Marvy Matchables. I punched the images using round circle punches from EK Success. I also punched out circles on a strip of white CS with a punch that was 1/8" larger than each of the stamped circles. I mounted the strip on black CS and then glued the stamped circles inside the larger circles on the black CS. This strip was mounted on aqua CS and then glued to a larger strip of black CS. The black strip was the height of the card base when glued to it.

Coffee, anyone? For someone who dislikes coffee as much as I do, it's a little strange that I love making cards using coffee images. Go figure!
This card was made using stamps from two different companies. The coffee cup image is from A Muse, and the word stamp is from the Coffee Cafe set by Elemental Doodles. I covered the front of the card with a patterned paper from Hot Off the Press, and stamped the images with Marvy Matchables' Dark Brown. The images are edged with a dark brown Copic marker.
Again, it's a simple but, I think, eyecatching way to use these stamps.

LOBSTAH CHOWDAH!The recipe on this page is long enough that it takes up most of the page, so I kept it pretty simple. The base is black card stock from Paper Pizzaz by Hot Off the Press, and I mounted a checkered patterned paper on top of it. The rest of the CS was red, white and black CS scraps. I used a stamp from the Elemental Doodles Coffee Cafe set to stamp the word "mmmm..." around the edge of the red card stock. The recipe was computer generated on white bond paper, and the embellishments are lobster brads from Eyelet Outlet, thanks to Jan, my sister-in-law who brought me metal lobsters instead of the real thing! (Jan, in case you're reading this I'm just kidding! Loved the brads.)
Once again, I want to remind everyone reading this that Elemental Doodles has a new design team call. The web site is http://www.elementaldoodles.com/.

IN LOVING MEMORY

Bonnie Allen Stewart

Arlington, Texas

LIAM & MAEVE

Aren't these wonderful pictures of a little boy and his baby sister? Maeve doesn't seem quite as thrilled with Liam, though, as he is with her!
This is a simple layout done with yellow and black card stock from Paper Pizazz by Hot Off the Press in an 8x8" format. The name and date ovals were punched using the graduated oval punches from Stampin' Up! I used Marvy Matchables black ink to stamp the sun and stars from the Heavenly Tea set by Elemental Doodles ... because aren't these two beautiful children the stars of the show?!

AT THE POUND

This layout brings back some good memories of the lobster pound in Maine which is located just before crossing the bridge to Bar Harbor. My husband's father used to take him to eat at this pound when he was a child. I think he enjoyed it even more as an adult.
To assemble this layout, mount a square of red card stock on an 8x8" black page. Stamp the corners of the red with black Marvy Matchables ink using the leaf stamp from the Elemental Doodles' Create a Basket stamp set. Mount the pictures on light gray, medium gray and black card stock; place on page. Cute a black card stock rectangle, punch the corners with a ticket punch from Stampin' Up!, and run through the Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots folder. Mount on a larger rectangle of medium gray card stock; punch the corners and glue to the layout page. Mount a lobster embellishment from Jolee's with foam tape on the black rectangle. Use rub-ons from One Heart ... One Mind to embellish the page; stamp flourish under the word "entree" using a stamp from the Elemental Doodles' Create a basket stamp set.
Today was a fun day. We went to visit friends who own a ranch in East Texas. Part of our visit included lunch at a wonderful Italian restaurant and ... my fave ... a visit to the scrapbook store. Tomorrow promises to be good also since my Coast Guard son called today to let us know he is here from Alaska for a visit and will be over tomorrow to see us. This calls for a celebration ... a fireworks display is in order.

LET THEM EAT CAKE!

I have finally started using more of my stash of scrapbook papers. This layout is done on an 8x8 page using the following:
Dark brown base - Coredinations 8x8"
Medium brown CS 7-3/4x7-3/4"
Buttercup Yellow CS 4-7/8x3-7/8; 3x7"
Chocolate Chip CS - Stampin' Up! 5x5; 5x4"
Brown patterned paper 4-7/8x4-7/8"
Flowers - Prima
Flower centers - Dew Drops by The Robins Nest

Stamp - Coffee Cafe by Elemental Doodles
Brown ink - Marvy Matchables
Instructions: Print recipe from Word document on Buttercup Yellow CS; trim to 4-7/8x3-7/8"; mount on 5x4" Chocolate Chip CS and set aside. Stamp image on three sides of 7x3" Buttercup Yellow CS; mount on page. Glue patterned paper to 5" Chocolate Chip square; offset and mount over stamped paper. Glue prepared recipe to patterned paper, offsetting slightly. Embellish with flowers and Dew Drops.
I made this page for Elemental Doodles, but I like it. Do I have to send it in? Yeah ... guess I do. A deal's a deal.

It's a Good News Day!
I sent the card I posted on my blog on June 24th to a stamping friend in Florida. She showed it to her boss, who liked it so much that she is having the card framed as art for her vacation home in the Florida Keys.
The card I'm showing today was so much fun to make. The dress was a two-part pattern I received in another swap, so I used my copier to copy it on the back of my paper. The light green paper was plain so I decorated it using a flower stamp from the Elemental Doodles' Create-a-Basket stamp set. The ink was Adirondack's Lettuce.
I punched the corners of the dark green card stock and mounted it over a piece of the light green CS. I then trimmed them to be the same size and mounted it on a white card base. I then folded the pleats in the skirt and mounted it and the top of the dress on the card. A small strip of dark green CS made the belt, and flat-backed pearls were used as buttons. A gold slipper and gold purse are the embellishments.