I've worked and worked using this stamp from Penny Black, "Berry Kissed". I love solid-image stamps. I think they offer opportunities to use various mediums. This particular one keeps challenging me, and I welcome the challenge because it's an excuse to keep playing. Berry Kissed 40-492 stamped with the MISTI With this first card, I stamped with VersaFine ink in Toffee on the smooth side of watercolor card stock. Caron d'Ache Luminance colored pencils were then used to color

Okay, after I looked at yesterday's card again today, I decided it wasn't very good at all! So I re-did it. Sorry to be repetitive but I think it's all worth it in the end. Hopefully, we'll all learn taking that second or third look might result in a much improved card design. I still used the Soft Finish card stock but used it as a stamp panel on an A2 card base. The bear was stamped in the lower left of the card with the same colors. The bow was stamped with Teal Zeal the f

My nephew is expecting his second son any day, any hour. His wife is going to the doctor tomorrow and they may find themselves with a new addition to the family before they return home . . . who knows! All I know is I cannot wait to meet Reed when he chooses to make his debut. Reed also has a big brother, Jack, who is 5 years old and is quite anxious for everything to happen. While I've been waiting to hear, I made this card. When I saw this stamp in the current Stampin' Up!

Another graduation card ready to go. I came upon my stash of Lost Coast Designs' stamps and this stamp I've waited and waited to use. I thought all of the pencils were appropriate for a high school grad, since Lord knows how many pencils a student goes through over the years. I stamped the background stamp with VersaFine in Toffee onto white card stock. It was matted with a piece of So Silk card stock in purple because that's one of the school colors. Both panels were adhered

The day started when my husband skyped our granddaughters in London. Can't miss that opportunity of love! The rest of the day was spent preparing the house for the pet sitter and packing for our Las Vegas trip beginning tomorrow morning at 4:45 a.m. Ouch! I've been wanting to use the dragon fly stamp from Magenta. And today was the day! On the card panel, I used the stencil with Pan Pastels. After applying a spray fixative, I stamped the dragon fly 3 times using different Kal

It's been a busy two days. I hosted a home jewelry dinner party last night. I reluctantly signed up for this duty at a friend's party last fall; it was a weak emotional moment I'm sure. And then I was going to prepare a birthday lunch for my sister-in-law today but the number attending kept growing, so we met at a restaurant instead. All I had to do was bring the cake . . . Costco cheesecake with huge fresh blackberries. Ta dah! We leave for Las Vegas at o'dark thirty Saturda

There is a new stamp line design, Pen and Ink, that a good friend directed me to find. I was to purchase 3 stamps for her while I was at this store; I loved them so much I had to buy a few for myself. Thanks, Gail! The artwork is by Josephine Kimberling, who resides in the Seattle area, and has an extensive background in art and design. She has created designs for Nordstrom and Hallmark according to her website. I'm so happy she is sharing her beautiful art with the stamping

I am back from our trip to London to visit our granddaughters. The weather was cold, windy, rainy, icy and snowy, as well as sunny. I had vertigo that kept me in bed on 2 different days, and I ended up falling in the shower two days before we left. It was quite an eventful stay. The best part was spending time with Cecilia and Hailey. Our hearts were warm the entire time spent with them. Hoping to get back into sync with the local time, I actually didn't start reading in bed

The term "black gold" is one used quite often by asphalt producers. They lay down millions of miles of black asphalt on our roadways every year. It's black and they make money. My card today is a "thank you" card to an asphalt paving company who invited us to their annual employee awards and recognition breakfast last month. All employees from all over Washington State and northwest Oregon are invited to attend; there must have been 3-400 people. Everyone is like family; this

UPDATED COMMENT: This post was to have posted early Saturday morning and it didn't. So here it is. The day didn't go quite as planned. I lost track of time after lunch and squeezed in too many errands before returning to Puyallup. That meant I had to cancel, AGAIN, my Italian tutoring lesson. Dang! Before dinner, I sorted through my stash of embossing folders; I hope I found them all! Inevitably, I came across a few duplicates. Then the Gonzaga U v. Syracuse basketball tourn

I was moving several of the boxes to the garage for temporary storage while I sort through them. Luckily, the cleaning lady helped me. We had a common mission . . . free up the floor space in the living room and hallway so she could clean the floor! As we finished up, my back gave out. So, my progress was stifled while I iced and laid on the sofa with sweet Hannah. There was an article in a British stamping magazine that really caught my eye. Washi tape was partially applied

While beginning the 'serious' clean out of my studio, I rediscovered my Zig Clean Color Real Brush water-based markers from Kuretake. It's been quite some time since we've known each other, so it was a quick learning curve that I delighted in. I'm not saying I'm totally back but I felt we made some progress in our relationship. This Penny Black stamp was shouting at me, so I paired them up. Layer the colors, starting with the lightest and then the darkest; blend with the mid-