WARNING! This could be addictive

One of the neat things about reading blogs is that you find neat web sites that you might never run across on your own. I read Suze Weinbergs blog all the time and she showcased Dumpr a while back. It is really easy to use and all of the photos I'm showing are free. Just find a photo on your computer and you will see some cool things done almost instantly with your pictures. Here's what I did with some pictures of BC:

Here's a few of Tigger and I in the viewfinders of the paparazzi:

Here's Tigger and I on a Rubics Cube

There are other options (some not for free). Check out Dumpr and you'll be addicted. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Until my next post,

Diane

What I didn't do on Black Friday

Black Friday is the term for the day after Thanksgiving when the retailers finally get in the "black" or profit area as opposed to all year when they are running in the red. I didn't get up or stay up for the local outlet shopping that began at midnight. I didn't get up for the 4am JC Penney opening or the 5am opening at Target or other stores. I didn't rush out to the mall. So what did I do? I went grocery shopping at the base commissary. It was a very pleasurable experience to shop without crowds. My commissary gets very good traffic and it if often quite full. I did go over to the Base Exchange which is right next door. There wasn't that many people there either. I think it is hard for them to compete with the specialty stores, the mall and the outlets for many items. I did get a 1.5TB external hard drive for $99 and the limited edition collectible DVD of the 70th anniversary edition Wizard of Oz for $49 so I was pretty happy with my purchases and didn't have to fight for a parking spot or the crowds. After that it was back home to watch TV and decorate the house and Christmas tree.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here in the USA it is Thanksgiving Day, a chance to gather with family and friends and give thanks. Of course there are parades and football too.

This card was made from a Sheetload template using patterened paper by Reminisce. I used my Cuttlebug on the gold paper and stamps from two different $1 Studio G stamp sets.

Until my next post,
Diane

Another Guy Birthday Card

I made a bunch of cards a while back using a template by Sheetload. The papers and dimensional stickers are by K&Co and came in a pack.

Until my next post,
Diane

Farm Animals ATC

On the Stampers Corner Yahoo group I signed up for the ATC of the month for the whole year. Some folks pick and choose which ones they want to do but with the good I got the "bad". I didn't have any stamps for this theme until I ran across the Down on the Farm stamp in the $1 bin at Michaels. I wasn't sure how I was going to use it but at least I had something to start with. This is what I came up with.

First I stamped the Down on the Farm (Studio G) group and then masked it. Next I stamped the background (Repeat Impressions) but not the trees on that stamp since they were too close to the animals. I stamped the trees next and placed them in a better location. Now I colored in the background and animals with watercolor and permanent markers. I blended the watercolor markers with a Dove Blender. The final steps were to stamp and cut out the cloud and sun (Studio G). I used Rock Candy Stickles on the cloud and glitter glue on the gun. The final touch was the butterfly embellishment.

Until my next post,
Diane

Another door panel done - more nondestructiveness

I upgraded from Adobe CS2 to CS4 a few months ago. I'm really glad I did. There was a BIG jump in functions and I've fallen in love with Photoshop all over again. What was cool before is WAY COOL now. The function I used on the photo on the left was actually available on CS3. It is called auto align layers and works great when you take photos of a group of people but someone wasn't looking at the camera and someone else had their eyes closed. I didn't think I'd really take advantage of it since it is very rare for me to take group photos like that. BUT what it did work great on for me was a photo of a bottom panel of my non-destructive doors. I had another panel ready to go a while back but couldn't seem to locate the 3M stick-ons. I knew if I bought more I'd find them. When a few weeks went by and this panel kept getting in my way I knew I had to buy more. When I took photos of the panel one had glare in some spots and the other photo had glare elsewhere. This is the beauty of this Photoshop function. Just open the images and drag one to the other so you have two layers. Then add a layer mask and paint away the bad to reveal the good. That's a real simplistic way to explain it but that's what is happening.

So if you didn't see any of your traded artwork before maybe you do now. If you still don't then we haven't traded...maybe we can fix that some day!

Until my next post,
Diane

Triangle ATCs

Sid and I decided to do a Traingle ATC swap for the months of September and October. We both had too much stuff going on so I suggested we just extend our deadline. He came up with the theme of triangle. He said to measure halfway across the top and then cut to the bottom two edges. ATC's are small enough to begin with (2 1/2 x 3 1/2") so I was feeling very constrained in what I could create in this small space. I finally decided on famous triangles so I chose the Bermuda Triangle for the top one. I used a map that just happened to come in the mail from an organization that was soliciting donations. The top stamp is from Craft Secrets and the destination stamp is from Royal Langnickel as are the two embellishments. They were stamped on shrink plastic with StazOn and then heated with a heat gun to shirk to their current size. I used Ranger Distress Inks to color over the map after stamping the top compass stamp and embossing with clear powder. 

The next one is Isosceles. I made the name of the triangle into a Greek God since the word has Greek origins. I ripped out portions of different dictionaries that had isosceles or triangle definitions. I used a stamped with brown ink on a stamp by Non Sequitur to represent Isosceles and embossed with clear powder. I colored in with Ranger Distress Inks to show the image better and then added a charm of the Parthenon.

The last one is called Love Triangle and has a base of marbled paper. I stamped a few words and hearts with Brilliance Inks first. Then I lined up the words "he", "she", "him" and her using Just Rite stamps and stamped them with VersaMark ink and stamped with detail white powder. I had recently purchased a Stamp-a-ma-Jig by EK Success and it worked great. There is no way I could line up these on the paper and have it be even. I stamped three times so that made it more difficult.

Until my next post,

Diane

Use a punch ATC

For this Altered Designs TGIF ATC we were to use a punch. I used one by McGill and then some stamps by Inque. I colored in the flowers with water based markers and elevated the design on the left by stamping it again and using pop dots. The background paper is colored using Ranger Distress Inks.

Until my next post,
Diane

Collage ATC

Here's the ATC I did for the Stamper's Corner ATC of the month with the theme of collage. Sometimes I have to resist the urge to be organized, stop thinking and just play when I collage. I used some of the marbled paper I made and stamped a hand (hard to see) by Artful Illusions and an image by Stampers Anonymous. On top of that I added a portion of a dictionary page, an old stamp, two faux coins, a chipboard die cut and a key (Artful Illusions) that I made using shrink plastic.

Until my next post,
Diane

A Tag from Ted!

There I was at the Stampers Anonymous booth at the Hampton Stamp Scrap Art Tour a few weeks ago...the crowd had thinned down and there was only two of us watching Ted doing yet another demo. The gal standing next to me asked Ted to repeat the concept he used on another tag. As he was doing this I saw an image appear in his work  where the water was blending with the inks and said "you know, from here I see an Eiffel Tower". He said "I can change the stamps from Halloween to Travel". I didn't want to be a buttinski and mess up what this gal asked for so I sort of mumbled something and he said "she got her tag this one is for you, she just wanted to see the technique". WOW! I was getting a tag from Ted.

Anyone that follows these shows, Stampers Anonymous, or Ted knows that we've been giving him a bunch of grief for the "Coming Soon" note you get when you click on their link for a blog. It's been like that for at least two years! I asked the gal I was with to take a photo so I could put this on my blog since I told Ted we'd have to wait a long time before it ever appeared on his!

I even got him to sign it. It will be displayed with my other trades in my craft room.

Until my next post,

Diane