Happy 29th Birthday (yeah right)

I don't mind revealing my real age but I like to joke that my birthdays stopped at 29. Somehow all my nieces got older than me. I thought this card illustrated how to wish someone that forever 29 birthday. The photo image stamp is from Stampsmith and the words were created using JustRite letter stamps. The two patterned papers on the right are from K&Co. The one on the right is from DCWV. A bit of inking the edges and a corned punch from Fiskars completes the card.

Until my next post,

Diane

It has been brought to my attention...

Being a customer oriented blog I had to take action when I received a comment about the size of the pictures I post. I had been using the "small" size when I was uploading posts. My whiner, I mean complainer, oops I mean the customer said bigger pictures would result in a more positive blogging experience for them. Instead of shrugging off the complaint, I mean comment I quickly reacted and made a change to the size. I'm now using medium and hope this meets the satisfaction of all of you out there in cyber land. Check out tomorrows post and see the exciting changes I have in store for all of you.

Until my next post,
Diane

New Baby Card for a friend

Most of my friends are in the AARP age bracket as opposed to the having babies age bracket but I do know a few "kids" that are still in the Pepsi Generation. I went on a trip a few years ago to the British Isles touring Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England. For two weeks Mimi and I were roommates. Although we have an age difference we've stayed in touch. She just had a baby and this is the card I sent her. The main image is from Crafty Secrets and the paper is from Autumn Leaves. The flower embellishment stickers are from K&Co.

Until my next post,

Diane

Rome ATC for lottery

I won the Stamper Corner Yahoo Group ATC lottery last month so this month I had to pick the topic and at the end of the month pick a random winner. I did a little research and remembered that August was named for the emperor Augustus since July was named for Caesar. So I chose the theme for August to be Rome. My background layer is a bunch of travel and hotel labels for Rome that I assembled in Photoshop. The stamped/embossed image is from Non Sequitur. I added a few mini stamp embellishments as a final touch. Good luck to all the players.

Until my next post,

Diane

Can you hear me know?

Along with some great stamps Crafty Secrets makes some real cute and funny collage sheets in card stock and cloth. This image is from the Girlfriends Creative Scraps collection. I love the entire sheet of images which are just perfect for card making. I used paper from K&Co and cut some Spellbinder embellishments with my Cuttlebug to complete the card.

Until my next post,

Diane

Celestial ATC

Did you know that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy in honor of the 400th year anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope to study the skies? As a tribute, I made an ATC for my Stampers Corner Yahoo Group to honor him. Our theme was Celestial. The background layer is stamped with a stamp by Inque. I used an image of Galileo from an old book and got Euro coin, Italian Lira and a stamp image of him from the internet.

Until my next post,

Diane

Trees ATC

This Stampers Corner Yahoo Group ATC had the theme of Trees. I took an extra piece of background paper (watercolor) that I had used a gesso wash on. I used two leaf stickers as a mask with Ranger Distress Inks and stamped an Impression Obsession stamp with the same inks. I then used a fine mist spritzer to mimic the Tim Holtz watercolor stamping technique. I outlined the edge with a red Krylon marker and used Ranger Alcohol Inks on a pewter colored leaf embellishment.

Until my next post,

Diane

Thinking of You

I sent this card to one of my Yahoo Group swappers for the ATC of the month club. She recently had a stroke (no pun intended) of bad luck. A severe thunderstorm came through her area and her house took a big surge of lightning. No one was injured but her electrical appliances are toast (again no pun intended...well maybe a little one). She is in the process of dealing with the insurance company and buying new computer hardware, a TV and other electronics. Let's hope it all goes smoothly and she's back up and running soon. This card has background paper by DCWV (Old World collection) and just a touch of watercolor type stamping ala Tim Holtz using stamps from Impressions of Faith. The embossed sticker is from K&Co.

Until my next post,

Diane

Another butterfly ATC

I felt a little guilty sending this for a swap since I didn't make it specifically for this swap but while back. But it fit the theme so I made a slight change/adjustment and added an outline of Krylon Pale Gold to the edge. I believe I've shown these before but as a recap I took watercolor paper and marked it with bright crayons and neon color pencils then added dabs of Lumiere paint in metallic or pearl colors and sprayed with watercolors. The stamp is by Stampsmith. I embossed it and then used a bleach pen to remove the colors inside.

Until my next post,

Diane

Monochromatic ATC for Stampers Corner

The theme for this ATC was Monochromatic. This ATC really looks better in person. Most of them do but this one more so than others. I started with some lightly patterned paper and stamped using the Doodle Flower set by Inkadinkado. I colored the images using both watercolor and regular colored pencils. Next I used some Tim Holtz masks and Distress Inks. On top of those images I added some emphasis with Glaze markers by Sakura. That's the part that looks much better in person, the scanner didn't capture the subtlety. I added some flower brads in the corners and a dimensional flower embellishment.

Until my next post,
Diane

I know you are sick of the feet but here's one last look

My blog readership has plummeted. I never set any records that's for sure but lately I've only been getting a small handful of viewers. It's quite possible it has something to do with the feet. Either people want more or less. I'm going on the less so with that in mind, here's the last you'll hear or see of my feet (unless something really crazy happens). The before x-ray is on the left and the after x-ray is on the right. Note the small plate and the four screws. I had my follow up appointment on Wednesday and don't have another for 3 months which will be 6 months after the surgery. Hopefully my slight limp and swelling will be gone and I'll be wearing real shoes all day and getting ready for a ski season with out pain.

Until my next post,

Diane

Presto chango, two looks with the same paper

Here's two cards I sent recently with my ATC swaps. I used the same paper from K&Co but they look just different enough. The paper is double sided so just like the old Doublemint commercials you double your fun and looks with this. I got the paper supper cheap at Ollie's a wholesale discounter. The store reminds me of Forrest Gump and the box of chocolates...you'll never know what you find until you go inside. Since they buy last years models, overstocks and inventory from stores going out of business or downsizing the stock always changes. The design of these cards is from Sheetload and the stamps are from The Paper Company.

Until my next post,

Diane

Thank you card

Last month I got the lovely and yummy Edible Arrangement from the folks I volunteer with at the Friends of the Newport News Public Library BUT I forgot to post the thank you card I sent them. This was a design that I got from what is called a One Sheet Wonder. You can use patterned paper like I did or create your own background paper (8 1/2 x 11 or 12x12) and rubber stamps. Next you cut the paper into different sized pieces and then use them on cards. Google "One Sheet Wonder" and you'll find a bunch of different templates and how the pieces look on cards if you don't want to figure out how to cut the one you made. The stamps on this cards are the $1 Studio G brand.

Until my next post,

Diane

Before...and after

Here's a bunch of old broken watches. One looks like it might have some value but would need to be fixed (Mickey). Except for one they are all wind up watches. I resurrected my old Snow White watch from my Mom's house a few years ago. I got it repaired and it cost about $50 plus a new band. I wasn't about to spend that much to fix these (except maybe Mickey) so I decided to so a bit of dismantling.






Last time I bought some watch parts at a craft show it was about $3. I've got about 8 times that much so in my book I saved about $25.

Until my next post,

Diane

Hail to your Highness ATC

This past week at the Altered Designs Yahoo Group the the TGIF ATC theme was Royalty. I used stamps from Party Queen set by Crafty Secrets. The background paper is the Rock King pack from DCWV. I've used that paper more than I thought. I bought it for a project for my nephew but there are some papers that have come in handy for certain themes.

Until my next post,

Diane

Open theme ATC

For me, it is generally easier to think of what to for a themed ATC than an open theme. When I have boundaries I immediately know what of my stuff I can't use. That makes the choice of what to do easier. When there are no boundaries now I have that much more stuff to filter.

I hadn't used this Mad Hatter's Tea Party stamp set yet so in this case the decision of what to do and use wasn't as agonizing as it could have been. I used some Gold Glimmer Mist on the handmade swirly background paper. The tea party image is stamped and embossed with detail embossing powder then cut out and colored in with Whisper Watercolor markers.

Until my next post,

Diane

Black, Ivory and Touch of Red ATC

The title of this post was the theme for this Stampers Corner Yahoo Group ATC Mingle. I used a stamp from Hero Arts and then layered it on red and black cardstock. I used a couple of tags that I colored with Ranger Alcohol Inks to accentuate the words "art" and "life".

Until my next post,

Diane

Another poster created with Illustrator

Here's another poster I did for of my Computer Arts classes. This class focused on advertising. Some of our projects were for the print media and others could be created for an online market. You had to have already taken the basic Photoshop and Illustrator classes before you could take this. Some folks already had taken a video class or two so they created some projects in Final Cut.

I used Adobe Illustrator for this project. This was a "real" assignment in that the school had a concert coming up and the winning design (voted by the school choir) was going to be used to market the event. We had a short turn around time (like the real world) to create a poster, a program and a post card to invite the VIP's. Once you got the concept down it was a matter of making things a bit smaller. The choir director said it was a very tough choice, I didn't win but enjoyed the project.

Until my next post,

Diane