HAD TO SHARE

I am so pleased with some yellow iris that I transplanted and forgot exactly what they looked like. They are so frilly, lacy, and just plain beautiful that I couldn't contain myself by not sharing these photos with you.

Some time today (hopefully) I'll get to play with an Iris stamp I have and try to "copy" what nature gave me. I'll post my results later. Thank you for looking, and its all my pleasure to share with you.

GOT A QUESTION

I've made my mothers day card and for the background I used some of my distressed ink sheets. I think it turned out okay, but it seems a bit bland all done in pinks. What do you think?

ALSO, I've created a "floral" card using a Hearts in Touch stamp "Iris", colored the iris with my Derwent watercolor pencils, and then attached it to a purple card stock, then atop a white card stock, and then to the card itself in purple. It is very "simple" looking, and sometimes simplicity can be very elegant looking, but I think it just needs a bit of something. What would you add?

Thanks for helping me out, and thanks for stopping by.

BEING DISTRESSED

Yesterday I said I would upload a photo of some "distressed" papers that I made. Well I ended up making four of them. Now what to do with them. I have cut each sheet in quarters and so now I have 16 ready made backgrounds. OMG, I think I should have chosen some brighter colors, but a girl has to use what she has in her stash, right? From left to right they were made by layering distress inks (from Ranger products) on my craft sheet, watering the ink with a mister bottle filled with water (what else...LOL), and then the paper laid atop of this ink mixture. (Next time I'll use more water.) The far right sheet I made by crumpling the card stock first, then running my distress ink pad over this. When I got it the way I thought I wanted it, I then ironed it flat. (At least I did remember to put down some papers over my ironing board so the ink wouldn't get ironed into my ironing pad - whew!) To get to this point I had watched Tim Holtz's demoes and his videos were a great help.

The next photo is of a card that I made with one of the distress ink sheets. I don't think it turned out too bad considering I didn't like the background in the first place, so I'm happy how it turned out. I guess you could say that I was too critical of my own work, but being a type A personality, well sometimes it gets the better of me. The stamp is from Hearts in Touch, and the ink is Violet from Colorbox. The ribbon is some ribbon I had on hand and I colored it to match the card. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by.

A GIFT & I'M A HAPPY STAMPER

Today my husband surprised me with a "gift" he made. I showed him a photo of this heat gun stand and asked if he could make one similar to it for me. He didn't say much at the time, more or less grunted like most husband's do when us wives give them a "hint" that they would like something...LOL He is a master carpenter (retired), so I knew he was up to the task, but when would it get done is another thing. Well today I received my "gift" all painted and ready to use. In the photo it looks as if the heat gun is tilted, which I guess it does look that way, but it does stand perfectly straight up and down if I'm not pulling on the cord. Duh!!! This tool is a good thing (as Martha Stewart would say) as it frees ups my hands. I have experimented with it by making some distress card stock sheets and it really is a beautiful and doable gift. Thank you dear husband.

Later I will show you my distress card stock that I made. I went hog wild and made 4 distress sheets following Tim Holtzs' technique. You can view the technique here: http://www.timholtz.com/vid_distressink.htm Enjoy and thanks for stopping by.

EASTER TIME

I got a chance to play this weekend in my studio. All I wanted to do was to make a card depicting Easter, but I didn't have the "proper" stamps to make what I wanted to convey. The card on the right is what I had floating around under my grey strands for some time now. The photo doesn't do the colors justice, as they are muted colors on some glossy card stock that I had laying around. I gave the inks a half swirl (or curve) to look as if it was a rainbow above the opening of the tomb of where Jesus was buried. The cross is of some brown textured paper (mounted onto card stock for stability) that I had purchased several years ago. In one of our fiber swaps I received this piece of purple ribbon and I attached it to the cross with vellum tape and affixed all of this with foam mounting tape to the glossy card stock. I then affixed the card front to a lavender/purple card stock that I had in my stash and I think it turned out "fairly" well. The words are inked with little stamps that I received in another swap we have had. (Too bad I can't print straight..LOL) The words were mounted onto the card stock with more foam tape. Back to the drawing table for another card similar to this. Enjoy. ( inkyfunstampers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ) Thank you for taking your time to have a look see.