Double D Challenge: Kitchen is the Heart of the Home

First order of business -- announcing the random winner of the prize I offered in our previous Double D Challenge.  As stated in my post, all challenge participants were eligible and I let random.org do the job.  Here you go:

Yogi (Art with Yogi), come on down!  Thanks for playing along with your very pretty card!

A reminder to everyone:  Be sure and check the Double D blog and all the designers' blogs for more winners.

This fortnight we're doing "Kitchen is the Heart of the Home", and the inspiration board is full of wonderful ideas.  There are so many ways to go I could hardly decide, so I ended up with a card that incorporates several parts of the board.

You can see the board below -- the aprons, the green cupboard, the wood plank in the lower left corner photo, the colander in the middle lower photo, the red here and there throughout.  I used a little bit of all of it.

Since we're still celebrating Double D's birthday month, there are two prizes for two random winners:

The stamp set I used is Power Poppy's Sage Advice.  Colored with Copics.  The apron is a Frantic Stamper die -- Kitchen Dress A2 Card Maker.  I used just the apron, the buttons, and the heart.  Stitched the sentiment panel onto the apron and added die cut ric rac.

There are so many cute team samples, you just have to check them out at the Double D blog.  Unbelievably fun stuff inspired by this challenge.  I can't wait to see yours!  More details below.  Have a good day!

Stamps:  Power Poppy Sage Advice  Paper:  X-Press It Blending Card, Neenah white, Memory Box Dill, Bazzill Brown, scrap of old gingham paper, Snap Wood & Notebook Basics designer paper  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics for coloring  Accessories:  Frantic Stamper Kitchen Dress As Card Maker, Taylored Expression Ric Rac Borders, Die-namics Stitched Rectangle Frames, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

Watercolored Azaleas

Hello again!  How about starting off the week with a watercolored Azalea?  Probably one of Power Poppy's best selling stamps, but I'm just guessing.  They're so pretty!

I made this card for someone amazing, as you might guess.  Stamped in Ranger Distress Tea Dye ink and watercolored with an old never-been-used set of SU's Watercolor Wonder Crayons.  Do they even still sell them?  Hanging my head... I've had two sets of those watercolor crayons for years and just now used them for the first time.  What is up with that?  They're actually very nice watercolor paints.

I picked up ink from the crayons with a wet brush.  The progression of color on the blooms is Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, and Ruby Red.  Interesting how it turned out with those colors.  Garden Green on the leaves.  When all was dry I did the stamen filaments with Gansai Tambi white paint.  Since the image was so soft I kept the rest of the card soft and simple, as well.  More details in the recipe below my signature.

Have a happy day and I'll see you again soon!

Stamps:  Power Poppy Azalea  Paper:  Arches 140 lb cold press watercolor, soft yellow, vanilla Bazzill  Ink:  Ranger Distress Tea Dye, Palette Noir  Coloring:  Stampin' Up! Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor paints  Accessories:  Sequins, Scotch brand foam mounting tape

No Card, Just Some Info About Commenting and Following

😖  Having trouble leaving comments on Blogger blogs?  It works, but the process is slow.  I've noticed that the problem lies with embedded comments, but the pop up window works perfectly.  Slick as a whistle.  Therefore, I've changed my comment setting to the pop up window.  If you have a Blogger blog, you might like to affect this change, as well.  If you have any tricks up your sleeve, please share.

😌  Also, I've finally managed to get the Followers widget to work on my blog.  See it there in the sidebar with pitifully few followers.  I don't know how they managed without the widget being there, but I thank them.  If you like to follow blogs in that format, it is now available.  Thank you!

😃  Other options for following this blog:  Subscribe by email, Bloglovin', or Feedly.  My favorite is Feedly and it's what I use for following my fellow bloggers.  You can see the tiny green Feedly widget in my sidebar.  Click on that or Google search "Feedly" to get yourself set up.  It's free and easy.  You can follow any blog and set them up in categories.  I've divided blogs into stamping, challenges, photography, and sketches categories.  Updates are virtually instant.  LOVE Feedly!

That's it for now.  I hope this information is useful and helpful.  I'll be back Monday with stamping.  Enjoy your day!

Feathers and Frame

Perhaps you know there's a new challenge blog in town:  Darnell's "Twofer" Challenge.  The idea is to make two completely different cards for different purposes using the exact same stamp.  I thought it sounded like a lot of fun!  There are specific, but easy and clearly stated rules to follow, including the fact that we are to include both cards in one photograph, so I'll start off with that.

The prompt this time around is "feathers".  They can be dies or stamps, with or without birds attached.

I made a birthday card with an embossed panel and designer paper.  Coloring was done with Copics.

Full details, birthday card:
Stamps:  Hero Arts Three Song Birds, Inque Boutique Sentiments  Paper:  X-Press It Blending Card, other white, blue Core'dinations card stock, Echo Park Fine and Dandy designer paper  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics for coloring  Accessories:  Sizzix Flowers embossing folder

With a few changes I used the same stamp for a Christmas card:

I hope it looks enough like a Christmas card.  The frames and poinsettias were already made up and in my stash, waiting to be used.  The poinsettias and some of the enamel dots are covering up the stamped flowers.  Frame and image colored with Copics.  I used a white gel pen and glitter on the red frame.

Full details, Christmas card:
Stamps:  Hero Arts Three Song Birds, Power Poppy Bough Wow Wow (sentiment)  Paper:  X-Press It Blending Card for bird panel, Neenah 110 lb white for colored frames, Echo Park The Story of Christmas designer paper  Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics for coloring  Accessories:  Impression Obsession  Rectangle 6-in-1 Frames, Poppystamps Small Blooming Poinsettia, enamel dots, Stickles Stardust and Golden Rod glitter glue, Signo Uniball white gel pen

I made the frame for the second card specifically so I could play along with The Sisterhood of Crafters "Frame It" Challenge.

I'm pretty sure it took longer to write this blog post than it did to make the cards.  I'll come back and visit again Monday.  You all have a nice weekend and I hope you can find time to do whatever makes you happy.

My Sweethearts

Do you think they like each other?

A few days ago our little LuLu had an episode of all-night vomiting that ultimately turned bloody.  Blood from the other end, too.  Don't worry, that's as graphic as I'm going to get.  She was a very sick little girl and we were all worried about her, including Wally.  She's better now, but we're keeping her relatively quiet and on a restricted diet for the time being.  Our vet believes she has gastric ulcers, which are fairly common in Golden Retrievers.  It would explain a lot.  Did you know dogs can take omeprazole (generic Prilosec)?  Always check with your vet first, of course.

Wally is giving her plenty of tender loving care.  They melt my heart.  When I'm sick (thankfully not often) they give me this same kind of therapy.  It's why I like living in our Golden Retriever bubble.  It's peaceful here.

I routinely receive emails from Shutterfly -- "Your memories from this week six years ago", etc.  It prompts me to click and revisit those stored images.  I always think I have my favorites on calendars and in photo books, but there are so many of Wally and LuLu, and when I look at them with fresh eyes the "awwws" just keep coming.  I brought the photo below back to the computer.

Six years ago this week.  Love.

I Challenged Myself to a Challenge

Since I'm having such a struggle getting in the stamping groove this year I thought I'd give myself a jump start with a challenge.  I always mean to do the CAS Watercolor Challenge, so now is the time.  Their theme this month is "birthday" and, of course, clean and simple and watercolor.

Due to a goof, the embossed border is wider and further up than intended, but that's seems to be the way it's going for me lately.  Try to picture it with a narrower border at the very bottom edge.  Got it?  Much better, right?  Nevertheless, I think it's usable and I had great fun with the watercolor.

Now, here's a shock -- it's a one layer card.  I used Strathmore Mixed Media Vellum Surface paper, which is plenty heavy enough for a one layer card and, as with all watercolor paper, the color does not bleed through to the other side.  The painting is done very loose style, not my usual way, but it sure was quick and I actually like it a lot.  Ink moves like crazy on this paper.  That can be good or bad when it comes to watercolor, but I'm finding it a good thing now that I know what to expect.

One handy dandy tip I'll point out:  See the card edges where the gold cord wraps around.  There are tiny notches there, barely noticeable at first.  I did that with a 16th" hole punch.  It helps hold the cord in place so it doesn't slip around all cockeyed on the one-layer card.  Also, there is a dab of Aleene's Tacky Glue under the cord knot. 

The stamps are Power Poppy -- Vibrant Thanks for the flowers, and Party Time for the sentiment.  Watercoloring was done with Tombow markers.

So, here's that challenge link:  CAS Watercolor Challenge -- Birthday

Thanks for dropping by today!

Double D 2nd Birthday/Anniversary Celebration!

Call it a birthday, call it an anniversary, the Double D Challenge is two years old this month and we feel like celebrating!

To kick off the celebration we're asking for anything birthday or anniversary-themed using the inspiration board as a guide.

Visit the Double D Blog to see prizes.

I'm offering a prize today, too.  PLAY THE CHALLENGE TO WIN.  See the end of this post.

Many of my Double D teamies are offering prizes today, so be sure and visit everyone to see their stipulations.

All our participants have made this a very successful and fun challenge for us.  Of course, Diane and Darlene, the Double D originators/administrators, deserve tons of credit and thanks and love.  After all, they're the ones who provide us with fabulous inspiration boards such as this:

Cute stuff there!  I especially love the birthday cake and I had a whole card made up with a starry cupcake and striped candles, all in colors matching the cake in the inspiration board... and then I made a hideous card with it.  Seriously.  Hideous.  I was so disappointed I didn't want to start all over with the cupcake so I went in an entirely different direction.

I was happy to have finally gotten the kick in the pants I needed to color this very detailed and, oh, so pretty butterfly from my Penny Black "Touch of Whimsy" set.

I stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black on X-Press It Blending Card and colored with Copics.  Stamped several smaller images from the set, as well, but didn't want it to look too busy so I used them sparingly and left a lot of white.

Finished with ribbon and a Tutti Designs Butterfly Strip.  The Butterfly Strip was cut in white and colored with a B02 Copic marker.

READY FOR A PRIZE NOW?

Since it's a birthday party, I have a cute little birthday mini-stamp set and a perky pad of paper which I thought coordinated nicely with it.

I'm sharing the love with our Double D challenge participants.  At the end of our current birthday/anniversary challenge I'll let Random.org select a winner from among everyone who plays along.

I hope you can join us.  Have fun!

Also sharing at The House that Stamps Built "Things with Wings" challenge.  Thank you!

Birds and Flowers and Happy New Year!

Hello, friends, and happy 2018!  Are you ready for a fresh start?  I generally feel super charged at the beginning of a new year.  However, I'm off to a slow start in terms of stamping.  I'm reading similar stories on many of the blogs I visit, so at least I'm not alone.  It will get better eventually.

Today I have two birthday cards I made in the middle of the busy Christmas season, so I was happy to have everything I needed to keep them simple, but pretty.  The die is Tutti Bird Tapestry, which is retiring, but I'll always think it's the prettiest thing.  You know how I feel about birds and flowers, sigh...

In the photo below you can get a better look at the alcohol-inks-on-acetate background behind the die.  Playing with alcohol inks is on my 2018 to-do list, but these backgrounds were made for me by my friend, Nancy.  The Bird Tapestry die cuts were shared by my friend, Sherri.  See what lovely friends I have?  Thanks girls!

The second card has a more subtle background, but still very pretty.  I like warm colors.

Moving right along...  I will be here Wednesday with the Double D Challenge.  Wishing you all a happy new year!