Sunflowers & Dragonflies

My First Magnolia Card

Good morning. Did you have a nice weekend? I finally had a chance to use my new Magnolia stamp, all the way from Sweden. This is such a darling line of stamps. Image was coloured with Prismacolours. Won’t a little boy just love receiving this card? Have a great day.

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Guest Designer – Kathryn Dodkin of Willowgrove Stamps

Let me introduce my first guest designer, and a very good friend of mine–Kathryn Dodkin. Kathryn is the designer behind her successful line of stamps called Willowgrove Stamps.
Here is the Jolly Santa card that was published in the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of RubberStampMadness on page 45.

This Earmuff Snowman is published in December’s magazine gift guide on page 58. He is also on the cover at the top listing what is inside.

Kathryn has been stamping for about 10 years. She added, “I have always loved creating. Even as a child I loved to draw animals and it is this love that has inspired my WillowGrove Stamps.”

Kathryn also loves to scrapbook and says scrapbooking is a wonderful way to re-live vacations and important events. She enjoys photography which she says definitely ties in with scrapbooking. Would she like to take photography to another level? She would indeed and added, “I would also like to incorporate my photographs with card making. I love how every art form can be connected.”

“My honeymoon scrapbook on Hawaii is my latest favourite project. I enjoy challenging myself creatively with each project and it is very exciting when I complete one.”

This is not Kathryn’s first time being published; she was was published a few years ago in Stampers Sampler, using a using a cross stamp from The Artful Stamper. “It is still one of my favourite cards because it used many types of Embossing powder in a unique way” she said.

“My stamp line began because I enjoyed drawing animals. I started with an Easter Bunny and it snowballed from there. Soon I was drawing countless animals and recently expanded my line to include florals, holidays and wedding stamps. I now do custom orders. There are many dog and cat breeds so it is almost impossible to have every one. If somebody has a pet that they cannot find on my website, they may email me a picture. I will create a custom stamp from a caricature of their pet. It costs a bit extra but it is fun to have a one of a kind stamp of your fuzzy friend.”

“I love clear stamps. Once I began to use clear stamps I soon found that I much prefer them to the original wood block stamps. For one thing, you can see exactly where you are stamping. There is no guess work at all. Clear stamps are also easy to store because they are thinner than a wood stamp. They fit great in calendar cases and you can store them like your CDs. Its fantastic!

In five years I would like to see my stamps as a common stampers’household name. It would be fun to open a magazine and see a card that somebody submitted that uses a WillowGrove stamp. But really, in five years I hope to be having as much fun with card making as I am now. I can’t wait to see what new products will be available in five years! Rubber stamping has already grown so much in the time that I have been stamping.”

You can visit Kathryn’s blog here.

I hope you enjoyed reading about Kathryn’s Willowgrove stamps. Have a great weekend.

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Double Take Thursday

As promised, Double Take Thursday starts today with Kim Prince and I challenging each other to use a product, technique, and even tools. Today’s card reflects what we had in mind and that was to use heavy duty kitchen tin foil and the Cuttlebug.

Tin foil was embossed with the Cuttlebug and then alcohol ink was dripped onto the tin foil and spread with a paint brush.

The fun in this is for you and I to see how someone else interprets the task at hand. Kim and I have two different styles which will make it even more fun to participate. Let’s see Kim’s creation here.

I had so much fun with this, and Kim I can’t wait to see what we come up with for next week.

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Baroque Motif Kaleidoscope Card

Can you tell I had a lot of fun with this tunnel card? Baroque Motif was combined with Groovy Gauva, Sky Blue, and K&Company’s Debbie Walton designer paper. Stickles and brads were added to give the card shimmer and shine.

Wanda Vinson sent me these pictures of her interpretation of the card. Aren’t those colours stunning?

I’m about to use my new Magnolia stamp, using this same style of card, and hope you aren’t getting tired of the tunnel card yet.

Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.

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Wine Anyone?

Good morning. Did you remember to turn your clocks back? This is a series of cards that I am making for my sister’s Christmas order. I had a lot of fun making them because they are different from my usual style. The colours gold, burgundy, cream, and black, were inspired by this month’s colour challenge at the Stamp-Shack.

Paper is from a K&Company pad and is designed by Brenda Walton. Unfortunately the mounted red rubber stamp does not have any information regarding the company it came from. Isn’t that strange. Each card was embellished with brads and ribbon.

I have something fun in store for you. Kim Prince and I are going to be showcasing “Double Take Thursday”, starting this Thursday. Each week we will challenge the other to create a card, or project, using a specific brand name, medium, or tool. Doesn’t that sound fun? We are both anxious to show off our first creations this Thursday, so stay tuned.

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Penny Wise Arts

Look at the gorgeous beaded cards I received from the Yahoo group of Penny Wise Arts. Interested in using beads, and getting the best price on them? Visit Pennywise Arts where you can shop and join their Yahoo group. See their side bar for listings. How did I find out about this wonderful group? Through Pat Huntoon’s blog. I’m a subscriber of Pat’s Technique Junkie newsletter.

When I joined the PAW Yahoo group, I was given a warm welcome by way of introduction by one of their members, right on the site. Then, I was pleasantly surprised with these cards in the mail. The pink hat card is from Terri Stewart, butterfly card is from Jami, flourish card is from Kathy MaDowell, and the oriental card is from Evelyn. The owner of Pennywise, Suzanne, sent me a card and I will post that one this week.

As a note of interest, the butterflies are covered in beads, the gray horizontal band across the top of the next card is beaded, and the oriental face is beaded as well.

Boy am I going to have fun beading. It is a new technique to me, and I’m anxious to join PWA in beading the world.

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CD Calendar

Wow, is it Friday already? I can’t believe what a stressful, and quick week, this has been. I know you can relate when I say “stress overload.” This posting almost got missed because I was so involved in my card making orders that I completely forgot to post. Then, when I went to post, Feedblitz wasn’t accepting my password and I started to freak out thinking someone changed my password. After three attempts, I finally got in. With the way the week has been going, that was something I could have done without. And, if things weren’t bad enough, I had to delete two mean-spirited comments that were left on my blog. I was warned that I would open myself up to these kind of statements when I started to blog, but I simply don’t have a thick skin. Have any of you had this happen? I’m curious to hear all about it. One last thing, if I’m a regular commenter on your blog, please forgive me for neglecting to say hello this week; I haven’t been on the computer much at all this week. In fact, I may go on just once a day to see what jumped into my in-box, and clear necessary junk off of my blog. Anyho, enough of that grumbling, and on to better things, better thoughts, and better carma.

Have you seen those cute calendars around that use a CD case as a calendar holder? Don’t you think they are so fun? This is my first attempt at making one of those calendars. What spurred me on? Well, Sunshine Designs had a contest that called for using one of their “sprig” or “branch” stamps, and this is what I came up with. The same stamp was used for both months. The pumpkin vines were made by colouring the stamp with Tombow markers, leaving out the flower portion of the stamp. Have a wonderful weekend. Don’t forget to turn back your clocks on Sunday.

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Love Is In The Air

It’s fall and the birds are flying south, and the cold wind is swirling in the sky. Look, there goes one of them, right over the balloon now. Stamps are justjohanna. The balloon was stamped on the back of the paper and cut out. Fibre was attached to depict the ropes. To depict swirling wind I ran Cool Caribbean through my cuttlebug.

Look at those owls just sitting and relaxing in the tree, while they watch the birds fly overhead towards warmer weather. justjohanna owls are so cute, aren’t they?

Well, it’s Thursday and you know what day that is, don’t you? Yup, beer and wing night. Mom, I wish you could be here with us again. Now that I’m in water aerobics I might allow myself one extra wing. Have yourself a great day. Thanks for stopping by!

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