Introducing our Newest Family Member

Meet Sasha the newest member of our family. We brought her home from the shelter yesterday and as is their tradition, they didn't exactly get her breed correct on the first try. They had her labeled as a Border Collie when we picked her out last week, well she's not, she's part black German Shepherd. She's a cutie for sure. She's 9-10 weeks old and already very much a mommy's girl. Now if we can just get her trained proper we'll be doing OK.

Bamboo ATC

Here is the ATC I originally created the background for that I used on the middle eastern style card below. I was really please how this turned out because I created the haiku before I new what design I was using on the card. The moon is watercolored in gold and I embossed the bamboo image in topiary which is a green/gold mix. I would give credit for the image except I can't remember who I bought it from. I can tell you it was at a convention about 6 years ago. I have since learned to label my UMs when I get them.

Middle Eastern Beauty

I had fun making this card for my bellydance instructor. Because of the ice storms I missed giving her the Christmas present I got her. So since Christmas has come and gone I made her this card as a thank-you for being such a great instructor and tucking her gift card inside. And speaking of inside, I decided to carry the design theme into the inside of the card so you see the front and the inside here. I used Radiant Rains to create the background that I stamped on. A combination of Irish Mist and Solar Gold. I often brush out the colors after I spray them to blend them more. I had actually designed the background for a set of ATCs and since I made extra, I decided to use it here also.

Decorating Envelopes

I'm in a new swap this year where we make mail art envelopes hopefully to match the stamp that we've picked out to mail it with. I've only decorated a couple of mail art envelopes before this so I was really tickled when this one came out so good. The background is made with Twinkling H2O's and since a little edged over onto the back, I figured, what the heck, lets do both sides of the envelope. The lighthouse stamp is from Prickley Pear rubber stamps, the rocks in the foreground and the water on the reverse are from Stampscapes, the clouds are from All Night Media and the birds are a Penny Black stamp. The saying is my own. It's a little hard to see on the scan but there are light "rays" coming from the lighthouse. I used my favorite glitter pens by Uniball Signo in gold to make the rays. The whole envelope was sealed with workable fixative to protect the watercolors. I'll be making an envelope each month and it's definitely a challenge to come up with a design to match the stamp but it should be lots of fun!

Japanese Stab Bound Books

This book was so much fun to make. I just love this peacock stamp from Prickley Pear rubber stamps.The peacock is gold embossed and studded with black rhinestones. The red book came out great also. I used the peek-a-boo geisha from About Art Accents and the diamond stamp is from Above the Mark and is actually a larger background stamp that I just inked and stamped a row of and then added more black rhinestones to.
I hosted a book swap on the Oriental Stamp Art list in 2007 and these books are quick to put together and are just beautiful when done. Can't wait to come up with an idea for this years swap.

ATC Extravaganza

These are some of the ATC's I've created the past couple of months for swaps and RAKs.
I often use just bits and pieces left over from previous projects and will often grab whatever stamps are handy at the time. Other times they are carefully planned by theme or color. They are always fun to put together.

The orange butterfly was done on a hand colored paper done with Easter egg dyes. Lots of fun. The turquoise fans were done with a new stamp and scraps. The glittery flower used DCWV Far East paper and diecut. The 3 red flowers are made with the remaining negative after punching flowers and a scrap of yuzen paper behind.
The geisha collage looks similar to the butterfly paper above but was created with Zia's color wash jewel sprays.




















The "B" is for butterfly and bamboo ATC was made using pieces left over from previous projects. The cat in the bamboo was made from stamps that I had out at the moment. The "C"
is for Cat ATC was made from pieces but I specifically looked for papers with the colors used.

My handpainted scraps make excellent bits for ATCs. For the "D" is for dragonfly ATC, I used a piece of the "patchwork" paper I made from yuzen scraps. Too pretty and sometimes costly to throw out the smallest piece, I took a sheet of cardstock, applied xyron adhesive to one side and then started layering scraps on top to fill the whole sheet. It's really beautiful when done. I had the dickens of a time coming up with something for "E" in my stamps so the kanji for eternity was printed off the net and I stamped the word underneath.

















ATCs are lots of fun and so quick to make.