Heather Stamps

These are the cards that we decided on for Sunday's workshop. The birthday card is a version of my tulip cards from a week or two ago (with new colors and stamps, but the same layout and card base). The v-day card is one of the ones from the last post. I did cut the paper, however, so that everyone coming could simply stamp the 'Love You' part without fussy cutting it. I will bring scissors, in case anyone wants to fussy cut it.

This is one of my favorite sets. I think I cried when I saw it on the retiring list a few years ago. Since I love it so much, I kept it and still use it.

Today I needed 2 cards, but for very different occasions. Tomorrow is my mom's birthday and last week, a friend's father died. I pulled out the spring set hoping that the tulips would be both celebratory and comforting. These two cards are the results. I think they worked out just fine.

I'm really drawn to the kraft cardstock these days. I'm not sure if it's the cold of winter, the "green" look of the specks in the paper, or just needing a change from my usual white. I hear it calling out to my owls. It says that the owls would love to come and be stamped on the brown, earthy goodness. Hmmmmm...

Ok, this is another ''no stamping'' entry.

I'm knee deep in owls right now and it's my own fault. And I think I like it. I was browsing around Etsy the other day and found a felt stuffed owl. "How cute," I thought to myself. I can do that. My Brownies could do that, too, if I had a little felt. Off I ran to get some. Unfortunately, Wal Mart only had enough in browns for the troop, but they did get to make owls. They sewed them by hand and only a couple finished during the meeting, but I think they had fun.

So, later that week, I decided I wanted some colorful owls to give out for Christmas. A trip to Michael's and $4 bought me enough felt to make 20 owls (later I added another couple of dollars for bead eyes). I cut out bodies, wings, beaks, and eye whites while I watched Little Miss Sunshine. For whatever it's worth, every restaurant shown in the movie is within 10 miles of Redondo Beach. I thought that was pretty funny.

Then I stitched the little owls together. Blanket stitching for the wings and sometimes the beaks, zig zags for the eyes, straight stitching for the rest. A roll of ribbon for the hangers, glass beads for the eyes, and a bag full of stuffing to bring the little guys to life.

3 of the little guys have been sent off to their new homes. 17 more will be sent off in the next few weeks. I'm hoping I have enough so that I get to keep one!

Edited to add the pattern:
owl.pdf
Right click to save the.pdf to your hard drive.
The fine print- For personal use only. Do not distribute or sell the pattern. Please do not sell owls made with this pattern.

You've probably noticed that I've been doing a lot of coloring on my cards. Here's my secret- I spend a ton of time waiting for my kids. I've started stamping out a sheet of images with Basic Black or Basic Brown and taking my colored pencils or watercolor pencils with me. If I use colored pencils, I usually use the Magic Colored Pencil techniqueat home when I get a few minutes. You simply wet a blending stump with odorless mineral spirits (AKA Gamsol) and use small circular strokes to blend the pencil strokes and colors together. With the watercolor pencils I use either a blender pen or a water marker to blend the pigments.

This card was inspired my mariemc. I really liked the Kiwi Kiss with the Pacific Point strip across the card. Since this card is for a swap that requires an accessory and I had honestly no idea what accessory to add, the bear got google eyes. I'm liking the effect of them quite a lot. The card is much more whimsical.

Oh, and the "Thanks" on the front is done with an alphabet set from the $1 bin at Michael's. I rubber banded the letters together so I wouldn't have to do the letters one by one and they would have pretty uniform spacing.

For the last few years for my mother in law's birthday, I've been making her birthday cards. This year her birthday really snuck up on me, so I needed so fast and simple cards. These are what I came up with. The 3 shown here I made after I gave her her set of 10.

Cake and birthday greeting are from the Bitty Birthday set. I love the price of this set. It's great for just starting out or adding to your existing collection. The images are cute enough so that you can get by with just stamping them in a colored in if you're in a hurry or in a neutral and coloring them if you're not. I think a lot of people overlooked this set when it was new last year, but I'm hoping to gets the notoriety it deserves soon.

The background is Stitched. I love it for giving the paper just a little bit of color and texture without overpowering everything.

The colors I used were Creamy Caramel and Riding Hood Red. I love RHR. It's not quite as fire truck as real red, but is great for real world colors like apples. I also added just a little bit of Dazzling Diamonds as accents on the cake. Just because a card is simple doesn't mean that it can't sparkle!