Northwoods »

Snowman Twinchie!

Challenges, Christmas, Copic Markers, Holidays, Northwoods 8 Responses »

Aug 152008

Happy Friday! It’s already been a busy day here. Mallory and I made a trip to Target to purchase the remaining, much needed , items for her room at school. She moves in Monday, so I’ll be making the long road trip to help her move in and finish purchasing the groceries, etc., that she and her roommates will need. Because she is only home for a few more days, I had a date with my daughters last night. We went out to dinner and then to see Mama Mia. Oh wow – I LOVED it! It’s one of those movies that I will need to watch over and over again. I will be making a purchase when it comes out on DVD – when couldn’t be soon enough!

Yesterday on my walk to the pond, I did see hundreds of little bitty frogs. Mallory was correct. With every step you took, little frogs were jumping everywhere. I never did get a decent picture, but I did run into some guy feeding the fish. He told me if I wanted good pictures to come back in the evening around 8 or 8:30. He did point out the resident goldfish for me. Someone in the neighborhood must have cleaned out their fish bowl.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but I have been in the process of slowing narrowing down the Design Teams I have been on. I have so enjoyed working for all the great companies, and their owners, but for me it was time for a change. There are so many other things that I would like to pursue, and one of them is just stamping for the fun of it. It seems like I haven’t truly stamped for fun in such a long time. I was watching how many uploads I had for this company as compared to how many for another company, and when I made a card there was always a purpose. In our little world of paper crafting and design, there is so much available that wasn’t when I started stamping. I want to explore it all and have fun while doing it.

Today I had fun! I stamped a card for the Limited Supply Challenge on Splitcoast, Think Snowman, without needing to make a card. I dug through the boxes of stamps in my cabinet. The long forgotten ones that haven’t seen ink, or even daylight for that matter, in a very long time. The one I finally decided to use is from Northwoods. Actually, I’ve never used it and I’ve had the stamp for over a year – AND, I even made a twinchie! Not to be confused with an inchie (which is 1″ square), a twinchie is 2″ square. I’ve been making these forever, and didn’t even realize it – BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

The card is 4×4 and the background is made with scraps of my favorite holiday paper, BasicGrey Figgy. I lightly distressed the edges of the paper, and sponged on a bit of Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The snowman was colored with Copic Markers, with some stickles added to his hat. For the snow I used Tulip White Puffy Paint, applying it directly from the bottle to the image. Once it was puffed, it was a little too puffy, so I pressed down on it with my thumb to flatten it just a bit.

Stamps: Snowman from Northwoods Rubber Stamps
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; SU Red Riding Hood; BasicGrey Figgy
Ink: Ranger Adirondack Pitch Black and Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress
Accessories: Copic Markers; Tulip White Puffy Paint; Ranger Stickles; Tonic Tim Holtz Distress Tool; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Venture Foam Tape

I hope you have a great day and enjoy whatever it is you have planned!

Rejuvenated and Ready to Stamp!

Challenges, Copic Markers, Northwoods 19 Responses »

Sep 252007

Amidst all the comings and goings and phone calls this morning I found a little stamp time. Of course, I actually need plenty of stamp time and hope that I will have the rest of the afternoon. Well, at least until 4:00 – that’s when Reba comes on. Hopefully I’ll get one of those second winds today and be ready to hit the studio again around 8:00. Since I’ve had my week of back to basic stamping, I feel rejuvenated and ready to work.
I checked in on the Splitcoast Color Challenge last night before I went to bed, and had an idea in my head immediately. I had forgotten about it this morning and completely changed what I was going to do. I love this image of the Rural Mailbox from Northwoods Stamps and since I’ve done a back to basic card with watercoloring in reinkers, I decided to redo it with Copic Markers.

The image was stamped in Brilliance Graphite Black on Neenah Classic Crest Solar White and then colored with Copics. I picked up the Bashful Blue ink in the background by lightly watercoloring in a rough way, then went back over with a sponge dauber in a circular motion to blend the color. The image was mounted on Chocolate Chip (which isn’t part of the challenge today, but I so needed to use it) and then mounted on Old Olive. Using a wider piece of More Mustard, I made a half frame by making the photo corners and attaching them over the image to the back panel with brads. All of the edges were sponged with Tim Holtz Ranger Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink. To add a little more oomph to the card, I cut a piece of Old Olive just slightly smaller that the card (which is 5.5 square) and stamped Linen in Old Olive. The edges were also sponged in the Distress Ink. Ribbon is wrapped around the bottom panel and the bow is attached to the side of the main image with Hodgepodge Hardware. The top frame panel is raised on mounting tape.

Stamps: SU Linen; Rural Mailbox by Northwoods Rubber Stamps

Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White; SU Old Olive, Chocolate Chip and More Mustard

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black; SU Old Olive and Bashful Blue

Accessories: Copic Markers, Offray Ribbon, Hodgepodge Hardware, Square Punches, Sponge Dauber, Mounting Tape