Happy Hanukkah!

Today at sunset several of my friends will begin their Hanukkah festivities. I made a little card for the Hero Arts blog today to celebrate.

Sadly when I made this card, I completely had a brain malfunction and SPELLED IT WRONG! Ugh. I had to redo the lettering with the alphabet stamps a couple times, which can be... um... "fun"... so I guess it all of that I ended up spelling it wrong. Ah well, what can I say - Happy Hanukkah, however you spell it!

Head on over the Hero Arts blog for the card details. :-)

Tutorial for Hero Arts - using gesso with stencils!

I'm over on the Hero Arts blog today, sharing this card that was inspired by Candy Canes!

I had fun using gesso with my Tweed Pattern stencil. I put together a little video to show how it's done!

Thanks for stopping by!

My Video Setup

I recently created a new setup in my craft room for filming videos - I broke it in with this one that I created for the Hero Arts blog. I couple people have asked about my setup, and I meant to post it already (Hi, Lisa!) so I thought I'd finally make good on that promise. I had some old existing Elfa shelving (from The Container Store) in one little area of my room. It's a bit disorganized, but here it is:

My friend Mary Dawn recommended this mounting bracket, and it's absolutely perfect for my setup. And it's CHEAP! Less than $7 on Amazon...

It has a little X-clamp thingie that pinches over the metal slats on my shelving perfectly.

Then I just screw on my video camera (I use our Panasonic digital camcorder - we bought it for filming family events but it doubles as a hobby tool!) to get the perfect top-down angle for my videos.

Not sure this would work for everyone, but I love it! After I film a tutorial, I import it onto my laptop (PC) and use Windows Movie Maker to edit - it's free, yay, and I can add photos, music, crop out portions, etc. It's relatively easy to use. Then I upload to YouTube when I'm done!

Not that I'm a video tutorial expert, but that's what I do. :-)

Thanks for stopping by,

Christmas Tree Box

Did you see?? I'm over on A Blog Named Hero today, as part of their Dear Santa event! This week the theme has been gifts, so I created a little Christmas Tree Box to package a gift in.

I picked up this tree-shaped cardboard box at a craft store a while back and it's been begging me to decorate it! I began by coating it with gesso.

Then I painted it with some gorgeous Ranger Adirondack Paint Dabber in Pool. (I used a paint brush - I used the dabber because it's the pool paint I happened to have. A color I am utterly in love with these days.)

Then I got to work with lots of Hero Arts goodies. I stamped the pretty Pen & Ink Christmas Tree in Splash ink & trimmed. I also used a couple Hero Arts dies for the oval & background shape (cut out of more of that burlap paper I'm obsessed with!). "Enjoy the Season" comes from Banners & Messages, and I finished it off with a bunch of Studio Calico wood veneer stars - love those!!

I'm going to fill this bad boy with fudge and give it to someone. Not sure who. Although I hear Mary Dawn may want it... :-)

Now head on over and check out the rest of the awesome gifts they've shared on A Blog Named Hero! And stick around, their event will be continuing for the next couple weeks!

Thanks for stopping by,

SDC125: One Layer Creations

Today's Stampotique Designer's Challenge is to create a single layer card! Never an easy task for me, but this is what I came up with:

I began by stamping this lovely Dance image and coloring her with Copics. I wasn't able to play along with Sarinda's fab gesso challenge last week but still wanted to give it a try, so I brushed on some Claudine Hellmuth Studio gesso after masking off my dancer. While it was still wet, I pressed Daniel's Hearts into the gesso. I also spritzed on a bit of Goosebumps. Once it was all dry I swiped on some Distress Stain - Dusty Concord & Broken China. Here's a closer look at the texture from the gesso and Goosebumps.

There's a lot of stuff going on with this little card, but it's all on one layer of paper! Well... almost. The Dance Text was stamped on a scrap piece of paper and added with Matte Multi-Medium. But it's on there FLAT! That counts, right? :-)

I hope you'll play along with us this week over at the Stampotique Designer's Challenge!

Paper Mosaic Tutorial on Splitcoaststampers!

In case you missed it - I was on Splitcoaststampers with my Paper Mosaic Tutorial last month! Yay!!

I used my Hero Arts Circle Ornament Tree, adding sequins for the ornaments! Fun! You can find the full tutorial to create the mosaic on Splitcoaststampers right here.

My tutorial was a bit lost in the shuffle of the stamping madness of their awesome Hope You Can Cling To event - only one person played along so far. I would soooo love it if you gave it a try - make a card and post it to Splitcoast!

Thanks for stopping by,

Moxie Fab Thanks!! ~ a blog hop for Cath

(Psst... if you're looking for my Thanksgiving Inspiration post, it's right here!)

Today I've joined a ginormous group of crafters for a blog hop in honor of the one and only amazing Cath Edvalson! You should have arrived here by way of Gretchen Belknap. If you've just stumbled upon the hop, head back to the Moxie Fab World blog to start at the beginning!

Last week, Cath shocked us all with her post announcing it was her final blog post on the Moxie Fab World blog. Personally, I really haven't been an active participant in the blog (you know me, I'm barely an active blogger in general!!), but I have many many MANY times gone there for inspiration, to learn more about what's on trend, and to generally make my crafty world a bit more moxie fab! I truly love that blog, and I know enough about Cath from a distant to know she's an amazing woman with impeccable taste and the hugest of hearts, and her influence on us stampers will be sorely missed.

I did make one lonely little card this past summer based on one of her posts! She posted this gorgeous bicycle photo. I swooned. It was during my month of Tour de France madness and bike-themed cards, so of course I had to make a card inspired by it! Since my one and only Cath-inspired post had a bike theme, I decided to make today's card with a bike stamp as well!

This is a repeat of my own idea from back in June to use a heart-shaped mask along with the Hero Arts bicycle stamp. This time I chose pink and black - both to make a card for Cath, and because I am overdue on making some quick and easy thank you cards for my amazing friends and family who sponsored me in the Tour de Pink bike ride for breast cancer at the end of September. I had to bust out my Neon Pink because, well, I love it! And the oh so perfect sentiment I used is from Lots of Thanks from Simon Says Stamp.

Now please hop along on your merry way, there's another gazillion or so blogs to visit! So many people who love & appreciate all Cath has done! Next on the hop is Hannelie Bester.

Thanks for stopping by,

Thanksgiving Inspiration Blog Event!

Welcome to the Thanksgiving Inspiration blog event, brought to you by "The Inspiration Crew". We're just a group of online crafty friends who love being creative. This time we're doing a one day event to provide you with tons of autumn and Thanksgiving-themed inspiration. This is what I made - a card to send greetings to out of town family.

For my card I played with the beautiful Lisa's Painted Maple Leaf stamp from Hero Arts - it was designed by my friend Lisa Spangler! It is absolutely gorgeous, I love it so much. I inked it up with the new Just Rust mid-tone ink, then added bits of Pumpkin Pie here and there. The stem is Cup O' Joe. I used more of my beloved DCWV burlap paper stack, and the sentiment is from Banners & Messages.

Now be sure to visit all the blogs for loads of great Thanksgiving craft ideas!

Donna Bowman
Rachel Kleinman
Angi Barrs
Ceal Pritchett
Annette Allen
Lalo Ik
Libby Hickson *** you are here!
Laurel Beard
Geri Greening
Ardyth Percy-Robb
Darnell Knauss

Thanks for stopping by!

Bokeh Stamping Tutorial

This is an "in case you missed" it post! I was on the Hero Arts blog last week, woohoo! I made this card...

I've noticed this "bokeh" stamping technique around blogland and in magazines recently, so I wanted to give it a try myself! It was super quick and easy using Hero Arts ink daubers and also sponge daubers and ink (Tide Pool & Mint Julep)! I made a little tutorial if you'd like to have a looksie.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mazel Tov!

Recently a friend asked me to make a card for her to bring to a bat mitzvah party. She asked for flowers and purple. Could I possibly be happier with those instructions???

I decided to play with my lovely older Hero Arts Flower Medley stamp. The background is from my DCWV burlap paper stack, which I've been obsessed with lately! *love* And the mazel tov is from Paper Smooches. I created a ginormous embelly with twine and a button:

Because it was so big, of course I couldn't fit this card in a standard envelope, so I dug out my favorite new-to-me tool, my Envelope Punch Board!! Oh my, coolest thing ever!!!

I didn't actually take a photo of the envelope, but I will say it took about 2 minutes to make and it was perfect. My friend paid me for this card with New Mexico chile peppers fresh from her garden. Best commission ever!!

Thanks for stopping by,