Shake It!

TGIF folks! Snow is in our forecast today. I am so not ready for snow! But cute snowman are a different story, especially if they are the paper variety.

Back in August, I went to a stamp show south of Buffalo. One of the stamps I purchased from the Motivet booth was this patchwork snowman. It is actually made by the Artful Stamper but Motivet carries it, the official name is Snowman and Patches.

The framed shape of the stamp makes it perfect for turning it into a shaker. I stamped the image several times onto some pattern papers (retired SU) and twice onto white. One white layer was colored and used for the bottom of the shaker and the other I cut out the patchwork frame and paper pieced with the pattern papers. A piece of acetate is adhered behind the frame, foam tape creates the space between the layers and some of thick glass glitter acts as snow. Shakers are soooo much fun!

Instead of using the shaker on a card I used it to adorn a gable box that I will use for packaging a gift this Christmas. I embossed some light blue cardstock with snowflakes before adding some stitching and ribbon. I added a fancy tag that I made with the Tim Holtz Rosette die. I glued some of the same glass glitter onto the formed flower.

Several jars of homemade jams would work well in this box. Oooh and a bottle of my homemade vanilla too!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Thanks for visiting.

And a Top Hat

Wahoo!! We made to Friday. It's a very good thing.

I worked on another Motivet sample, this image is aptly named Boy Building a Snowman.

I think the paper is Imaginisce, the bright colors make for a happy card.

Do you have anything exciting planned for your weekend? I don't and I couldn't be more thrilled, lol. Well, maybe a bit of housework so I don't feel guilty for the hours of stamping I hope to do. Whatever your plans, I wish you a fun weekend!

Hot Dawg!

My youngest is into skateboarding so when I showed him this stamp by Motivet called Morris on a Skateboard, he said it was a must have.

I am glad to have more stamp options for those challenging boy cards. I found this blue "gear" paper in a Basic Grey pad I have, it seemed a good fit for the image. The banner across the top is part of a Tim Holtz Sizzix die, I folded it for added dimension.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Penguin Hugs

Happy Hump Day! Today I have an adorable image to share from Motivet, called Penguin Hug. Sweet right? These cuties could be used for so many occasions, Christmas, Valentines, anniversary and more. This time around, I used some new Basic Grey paper to make a Christmas card.

The coloring was done with Copics and pencils and I couldn't resist paper piecing their scarves. There is also some Polar White Flower Soft along the bottom. I cut the blocks of paper and thought they were all even. Then I attached them and discovered they weren't. I ended up cutting the bottom edge off and adding the punched border to fill in the space. That was one goof I was happy to make cause I like the results.

Gotta go to work, thanks for visiting!

Angel Girl

The Harp family is in need of prayers this morning. We have a black lab that is a year and a half old and last night while we were at dinner she got into a tube of medicine we had on a table. She chewed it to bits, ate the contents and even some of the metal from the tube. The medicine is a pretty caustic substance, definitely not something to be consumed. She has spent the night throwing up and is in bad shape this morning. Greg will be taking her to the vet first thing. We barricade her in the family room when we are not home and "kid proof" it but our older son left the tube on a side table and she is tall enough to reach up and pull things down. Oldest son is a wreck, feeling really guilty. Hubby is a wreck cause he loves this dog. Daisy needs an angel today!

Here is an angel of a different kind. She is from Motivet, called Angel Girl.

She is delightful, no? I colored her with Copics and cut her out with a Spellbinder die. Ahhh, to be so giggly and carefree!

We have plans with our long weekend so I will not be back to blog again until Tuesday. I wish you a fabulous weekend! And I wish us a recovered canine.

Fishing "Trip"

Saturday was my FIL's birthday. I used a Motivet stamp called Man Fishing to create this card for him.

The image was stamped onto watercolor paper and colored with Distress inks. A good watercolor paper is so important to the final outcome. Watercoloring allows so much more movement of color than Copic markers. I like that we have so many options at our disposal. Some days Copics are the order of the day, other days inks, embossing or something else. I used a mini clothes pin to attach my sentiment and added a bit of twine. Nothing frilly!

Keepin' it short today. Tomorrow I have a few things to share for the grand opening of Shady Tree Studios. Hope you can stop by!

A Very Good Day!

Yesterday had more goodness than I could write about in a single post. I am so glad to see so many of you excited about the return of Shady Tree Studios.

There was another little bit of news that was announced yesterday and I am equally excited about it! Remember when I told you about meeting the owners of Motivet last month at a stamp show? Well, they offered me the opportunity to work on their DT, it just took awhile to get it out there. If you follow their blog at all, you might have seen Stephanie announce it. I had quietly added it to my sidebar a few days ago but so many of you read my posts through some kind of reader that you might not have noticed. Motivet is also a newer company, they started in April of 2009.

I love the personal touch of all the company's I have the privilege to work with. And for now the requirements are something I can handle. Now, if I could just get rid of that pesky need we have for a regular paycheck, lol.

Speaking of work, my new boss's birthday is next week so I thought I would make her a card that everyone in the office can sign. I have been there 4 weeks and no one really knows about this little obsession side hobby of mine. It is time to change that! I used a darling Hilda stamp from Motivet to create her card.

She is mostly colored with Copics with some shading with pencils. The papers are Cosmo Cricket. You might have noticed that my addiction to using polka dots has changed to my new addiction-- these new Spellbinder dies. I found some old ric rac that was being tossed {{gasp}} and added a bit of that. I hardly ever use big, chunky embellishments. I told you, I have postage issues. Well, I have issues in general but that is another matter ;). But since this one is being hand delivered, the extra bulk is okay. I hope she likes it!

Thanks for stopping by! I will be back on Monday with a new Stampavie challenge sample.

Til then,

Fall on My Mind

August in Upstate NY is a crap shoot in the weather department and this week the dice are rolling on HOT, HOT, HOT! Well, despite what the thermometer says, I can make it fall in my stamp room.

This is one of the stamps I bought from Motivet this weekend.

Isn't she adorable? I colored her with a combo of Copics and Prismacolor pencils. There is black glaze pen on the shoes, eyes and polka dots. Small accents, big impact. The Spellbinder frame is another one of the goodies I picked up at the show. The sentiment is from Rosie's Roadshow and I had to stamp it twice to fit into the oval I wanted to use. Don't look too closely, it is slightly crooked! As you can see, this image is quite large, it fills up most of 5 1/4" card.

The fun thing about small companies is that when there are shows like this weekend, you can actually meet the owners. They are a lovely young couple with a darling little girl! I have a feeling this little company won't be little for long!

One last thing, the Buffalo Stampers are the winners of the PaperWorks Co Ultimate Challenge! Wahoo!! I knew I picked the best of the best for this team. Thanks for your votes everyone!!

Puddle Jumper

I have one more card to show you from the Copic/Prismacolor pencil class I took last week. Oh to be a kid again and jump in the puddles! Now my mom-sense cringes at the thought of wet and muddy clothes, lol.

The little frog was stamped twice and is popped up a bit on the card. Those little 3-d touches really make a card fun!

Our church was invited to be on a local cable cooking show to help promote a big event we do in September. It was booked months ago and as the day approached we suddenly had no one willing/able to go. So, guess who it falls on?? Hubby and me! I am not happy at all about this turn of events. We will be making the peaches and cream pie, prayers are most certainly welcome!

Later,

Surprise!

Whoa, it's Friday already! Where does time go? Oma and oldest son are back in the house, they arrived just in time to enjoy funnel cakes last night. I spent almost 2 hours frying up cakes for the crowd that came. At the end there was one left for me to enjoy. Oh. My. Goodness! Crispy, sugary delight! I will share the recipe at the end of this post in case you want to impress your family and friends. Just don't blame me when your pants won't button, lol.

Here is the second of the three cards we made at Tuesday nights class.

Again, she had us stamp second parts to pop up, this time the bottom and top box pieces. We used an exacto knife to cut around the ear so we could tuck the ribbon behind. The greens and oranges are a nice contrast. There is more black glaze pen on the polka dots of her dress and the pupils of her eyes.

Okay...for that calorie busting Funnel Cake recipe:

3 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 whole eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cups milk

powdered sugar

canola oil

Heat oil to 350 degrees. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl then whisk in eggs, vanilla and milk. The batter should look like pancake batter, add a little more milk if necessary. Pour 1/2 cup batter through a funnel while making swirls in the oil. Fry until lightly browned on both sides. Drain on paper towel and dust with powdered sugar.

This recipe says it serves 8, I thought the batter would never run out!

I was so busy cooking that I didn't get a chance to take a photo but here is one I found on the web just in case some of you have never had the pleasure!

Blessings on your day!

The Best Medicine

is often stamping and hanging out with friends! At the very last minute I decided to attend a class at my LSS on coloring with Copics and Prismacolor pencils. Really, I was stalking my stamping friends Lisa and Cheryl. We all regularly use our Copics but there are always new things to be learned and discovered. The teacher, Debbie, is mostly self taught and has mad skills! One of these days we will convince her to start a blog! It took us more than 2 hours to color up 3 cards. She shared some of her tips for blending and combining the two mediums. Of the umpteen browns we used, I only owned 1! Guess what I am adding to my collection next?

All three of the cards we made used Motivet stamps. This one is my favorite cause the red and black are just so stunning!

Some of the fun details you may not be able to see in the photo...

-the doctor bag was stamped twice and popped up

-the black details (eyes, polka dots, shoes) are covered with black glaze pen

It was a fun class for sure! We were joined by a nice lady from Canada {{{hi}}}.

I will share the other cards we made another time.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

My LSS, Buffalo Stamps and Stuff, (the best on the planet!) is now carrying Motivet stamps. I thought I would try one out. Meet Dexter...

He's a cutie though I am not quite sure what he is. Do you know? He is colored with Copics and the edges are sponged with a bit of Versamagic ink. The DP is from Basic Grey and the sentiment is CHF.

Not much to blab about today, we are still soaking up the sun on vacation. Probably shriveled up like prunes from all that time in the water.

Thanks for stopping by!