Special Friend and Lace Card

I'm still busy, but thank you to all my friends who visited and left comments. I'll be back to see you by next month.

I had this really pretty pink Mulberry paper from PSX, still sealed in it's plastic bag from years ago, and decided I wanted to use it on a card. I knew I wanted the card to be 5x7, so I ran a sheet of 4.5 x 6.5 white CS through the Xyron and applied the mulberry paper to that. The matte is white CS colored with Gold ink from a stamp pad, and both were mounted onto a white 5x7 card, and everything was outlined by running the edges over the stamp pad.

My favorite lace was applied before I mounted the paper onto the card, and I chose a very old Anna Griffin label from my stash for the sentiment. The label already had the bow, and I think the pink backing was also attached. (I made the card two months ago, so it's hard to remember). The label layers were also outlined in gold. The foliage was punched with either my McGill punch, or the Martha Stewart branch punch, and the roses are also from my stash.

Last, I added gold half pearls and pink rhinestones.

Seahorse Card

I'm sorry I've been gone for so long, but it's been really busy this summer. Besides keeping our shop open, I've been helping my mother get straightened out, and trying to get her house so she will be comfortable in the winter, now that she's going to be here year round. I don't have any new supplies, since the economy here is much worse than it was last year, but I have been making cards with all the nice things I already have.

I've had these K&Co seahorses for a couple of years now, and have never used them because we don't have seahorses here in Maine. I started this card by stamping this sentiment panel from JustRite, embossing it with gold EP, and coloring it with Brilliance inks.

After that, I cut and embossed it with a Spellbinders die. Next, I cut two larger sizes in the same shape, and colored them with more of the Brilliance ink, so they would match the colors in the stamp. Those were mounted onto layers cut with Grand Labels One, which were also shaded with the Brilliance ink.

The colors in these seahorses matched the colors in my card perfectly, and went very well with the sentiment, so I added those, and two K&Co shell stickers, which I added two shades of Stickles to, to make them match the glitter on the seahorses. All the layers were outlined in gold.

I hope to be able to start visiting you all soon, but it will still be very busy for another month or so. I miss you all!

Red Altered Cigar Box and Mini Album

I've had a really pretty little piece of hand marbled paper for years, and hoarded it because I didn't want to use it. Finally I decided to use it on this very nice cigar box. The box had black enamel on the latches and a black, gold and red label. I cut the marbled paper and some metallic gold paper for a mat, and left a bit of the original black label showing under them, then used deep red pearls, gold mirror card and leftover pieces of the marbled paper cut with some Spellbinders to decorate the front.

There wasn't enough of the marble paper to decorate the sides with, and I haven't been able to find a red paper I have liked the shade of for years. Most of what I can find now is either orangey, faded looking or purpley. Years ago, an art supply place near us had red paper in a very deep rich shade, but unfortunately, I don't know what company made it, and I've never been able to find it again. I wish I could have gotten the red to look the right color in this photograph, because I managed to make a sheet of my faded looking red look almost that same color by using Distress Barn Door all over the sheet. I applied it with one of those Tim Holtz foam square things, and kept applying layers of the ink all over it. It looks orangey in the photos, but in real life, it's pretty. The red was matted with black, and I used Dresden trim on each piece.

After decorating the inside of the lid, I made an album using CS, origami paper, and various other handmade papers inside. I also made a bunch of tages with origami paper on the fronts and plain handmade paper on the backs. You can see the tags on top of the album in this photo.

This is the back side of one of the tags with the hand made paper.

This is the front of the album inside the box.

Underneath the album, I made dividers with a place for a pen and other items.

Flowery Happy Birthday

Today I decided to use one of my old Anna Griffin background stamps and color it with my Copics. The design was stamped with VersaMark, and embossed with gold EP. I stamped onto Core'dinations pearl CS so the Copics would shimmer. The sentiment is from JustRite, and was cut with Spellbinders.

The card was matted with Green CS and a pearlescent pink CS, then I edged each layer with a gold Gellyroll pen. The sentiment was also accented with the gold pen and mounted dimensionally onto the card.

Now I need two refills for my Copics. I ran out of R81, and YG63, which are two colors I use all the time. I almost didn't get the whole stamping colored. I guess it's time to get the refills and a few new colors!

Butterfly Bush Birthday Card

I have a lot of hand made paper I have collected over the years. A few weeks ago, I was going through it, and decided to use this piece to make a card. The paper has grasses and flower petals in it. The grasses are rather delicate looking, and I wanted to use a stamp that also looked fairly delicate, so I chose this one from Our Daily Bread Designs. I stamped it twice, then cut out one of the stampings with the matching ODBD die. I didn't color it because I wanted to keep the outline look, and also wanted the card to be only yellow and green. The butterflies were fussy cut from the second stamping, and were applied over the first butterflies with their wings raised.

Last, I used a JustRite stamp to add happy birthday, and cut it with Spellbinders Labels Ten. The butterfly bush was mounted dimensionally using glue dots, and the sentiment was mounted using dimensional tape, and green half pearls were added. It's not one of my favorite cards, but it's different from my usual style.

Another Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse Card

I haven't had a chance to make cards or visit blogs since last week, so I'm putting up a card I made before that. Since I sold most of my nautical cards a few weeks ago, I had to make another lighthouse card. I don't ever make two cards exactly alike. This time, I used Memento Black to stamp with, but once again, I colored it with Ranger Nibs and sponge daubers, using ink from various stamp pads. I'm really liking the subtle colors I get when I use this technique on lighthouse cards.

The stamping was matted with green CS, antique gold Cs, and some white CS I shaded with sponge daubers, then I added a square knot at the top, and a carrick bend to the bottom.

Butterflies and Dogwood Easel Card

This is the first card I made with the Sizzix/Hampton Arts stamp and die set. Now that it's finished, I think it's a bit busy for such a small card, but it is what it is.

All the butterflies and flowers are from the stamp and die set, and the squares and fancy borders were cut with Spellbinders dies.

All the paper is Core'dinations white pearl CS. The pink part of the card is shaded with a brilliance pink ink, and the butterflies and flowers are colored with Copics. The stamping was done with VersaMark, and embossed in gold, then pink Liquid Pearls were added.

Yes, it's pink Jill. :-)

Gold and Butterflies Congratulations Card

When we went to JoAnn's last weekend, I wasn't surprised that there were only a few old Spellbinders, but I was very surprised that they actually had two new Sizzix dies. They haven't had any new Sizzix in ages. Both were Hampton Arts Stamps in a kit with matching Sizzix dies. I got the set with dogwood and butterflies, and I love them! The butterflies on this card are from the set.

Everything was die cut from Core'dinatins white and gold pearl papers, and a piece of the handmade gold embossed paper I got a few weeks ago. I also used Spellbinders Labels One, Grand Labels One, Decorative Lavels One, and Labels Ten.

The sentiment layer is from JustRite, and all stamping was done with VersaMark, and embossed with Gold EP. All shading is done with Delicata Gold, and I used Liquid Pearls as accents.

WOYWW #210

I'm so sorry I missed the last few weeks of WOYWW. My mother is selling her house in Massachusetts and moving to Maine permanently. We have been back and forth a lot, as well as helping her to get unpacked. Plus, I have been getting our summer shop open and watching it. I will try to visit as many people as I can, but with things so busy here, it may not be very many, since she is due back with more stuff this weekend. (She's 82, so I try to help her as much as possible). I may take a little break from WOYWW until fall, since I don't think it's fair for me to participate if I don't get a chance to visit as much as I should.

Anyway, here is how I have things set up in a room behind my shop at the moment. Right now, I have a set of shelves sitting on the counter with jars of flowers and bows in them. The large jars with the red covers on them are instant coffee jars our supermarket used to sell. They were wonderful for storing all sorts of things, but alas, the supermarket has changed to cheap plastic jars, and we can't get these any more. The rest of the jars are a couple of antique glass cookie jars which belonged to my grandmother, and a very old blue Mason Jar. There are also a few flat plastic containers with more bows and flowers, as well as assorted stuff.

On the left is my precious wooden box with scissors and other things I use every time I make cards, (the tape is what I use to tape down dies. It's easier to remove from that, than from the tape dispenser), as well as my wax paper for die cutting. On top of that is my favorite Core'dinations Pearl paper. I hope they haven't stopped making it, because I haven't found any other paper I like as well, and JoAnn's has stopped selling it. The paper is sitting on my sponge dauber box.

Next is a small notebook from Staples with JustRite stamps in it. On my cutting mat is a card I am working on. Behind that is a plastic container with embossing powder in it, and behind that are my cups of pencils, brushes, blending tools and embossing styluses, and some jars of Ranger Nibs.

Leaning up against the wall, are my Grand Calibur plates, trimmers, my scoreboard and various other cutting mats and things. On the right are a bone china cup I found in the stuff my mother is selling on a yard sale, (Her stuff is all in that same room). A decorated cigar box I am finishing is behind it with my ATG on top, and my Really Useful Box organizer thingy is to the right of that, with some other boxes I have stamped and am painting. Usually the Really Useful Boxes aren't right there, but I put them in the photo because I know Shaz Silverwolf likes them too! You can also see the end of my heat gun peaking out from behind them as well as scissors and a stamp on an acrylic block.

If you want to see what WOYWW is all about, go visit Julia at The Stamping Ground, and find out how you can snoop into people's craft rooms all over the world!

Oh, it's quite neat because I am so used to having to pick everything up all the time at home. Sometimes I leave everything out, but I am trying not to do that. I will try to do some visiting tonight. I was supposed to open the shop 15 minutes ago, but I haven't even left the house yet!

Blue Butterfly Card

A few months ago, I made a pink butterfly card using some paper I had stamped and embossed in gold using an old Anna Griffin background stamp I had. I really liked that card, and decided to make a blue one just like it.

The blue paper for the card was made by taking some white moire paper I bought a few years ago at an art supply store, and painting over it with some watercolors I made from two shades of PearlEx. I ran out of sheets of Gold Mirror card, and only have scraps left. The mirror card is really hard to find, and the new owners of the craft store where I bought it are terrible about ordering, so I used some gold gift wrap I bought years ago at a paper mill outlet store for the matting. The butterflies were cut from my scraps of mirror card using Cheery Lynn Exotic Butterflies, then I used those Angel wing things to cut some blue paper for behind the wings. I still hate those angel wing things, and wish they were whole dies instead of half dies though. Usually I have to run them twice through the Grand Calibur to get a whole butterfly. This time, I used lighter weight paper, and folded them, but the bodies came out thinner than the bodies on the filigree butterflies and didn't quite fit. Anyway, after gluing the butterfly layers together, I used a sparkly Gelyroll pen to color the blue in the wings a little bit deeper shade of blue than the background.

The label is from Spellbinders, and is cut and embossed from more scraps of mirror card, then I gold embossed a JustRite stamp on blue paper for the sentiment. This was stamped with VersaMark, and the whole label was mounted dimensionally.

I'm really sorry I haven't been around to visit much lately, it's still pretty busy here.

Gold and White Special Day Card

I thought I had enough nautical cards made up, so I decided to use some new paper I had to make a white and gold card. I finished this one, and started another non-nautical card. Then some women came into the shop and bought all my nautical cards, so it looks like I will have to make more nautical ones when I finish the one I started after I finished this one. I'd rather make flowery cards than nautical ones.

When we went to Rockland a few weeks ago, I stopped at a place in Camden, Maine which sells artist supplies. They had some really interesting paper there, and I got a few packs of assorted handmade papers. The gold and white paper on this card was in one of the packs.

I used white Core'dinations Pearl CS and gold mirror card for the layers, then used JustRite stamps, VersaMark and gold EP for the design. The stamped design was die cut with matching JustRite Spellbinders dies, and painted with watercolors I made from Pearl White PearlEx, and is very pearly and sparkling in person.

When I was holding the die cuts over the card to decide where to put them, it looked kind of plain, so I decided to add a piece of ribbon, then mount the die cuts dimensionally over that.

PSX Marshall Point Light Easel Card

Here is another nautical card from and old Marshall Point Light stamp by PSX. If you've ever seen the movie Forest Gump, this is the lighthouse from the movie. It is located in Port Clyde, Maine, near Rockland.

I stamped this onto K&Co DP using brown ink, then embossed it with clear EP. The sentiment is from JustRite. I used my Ranger nibs to color it with white and various shades of brown. It was matted with generic CS in shades of brown and mounted onto an antique metallic copper colored card, and K&Co dimensional stickers were added.

Isle Au Haut Lighthouse Card

I hope you're not bored seeing another lighthouse card, but since I live on an island, I need to make more nautical cards for my shop.

This one is a very old stamp of Isle Au Haut, by a company, which I think is out of business, because I can find nothing about it on the internet. This lighthouse is very close to us. In order to get to the island where it is located, you have to take a mailboat from our town. My father-in-law used to run the mailboat before he passed away. The lighthouse was a bed and breakfast for quite a few years, and I wonder if the people who made the stamp stayed there, since it is a very obscure lighthouse. The company that made it was in California.

I made this one exactly the same way as I made the Portland Head one yesterday, using various stamp pads to color it using Ranger nibs and sponge daubers. This is a really difficult stamp to get a good impression with. So far, the only ink I've ever gotten a good one with is Stazon, so that is what I used to stamp this card with.

PSX Portland Head Light Card

I finally got a chance to make a new card. My shop is pretty well set up for the summer, even though it will be a few more weeks before the tourists arrive on our island. I don't have very many nautical cards, so I figured I'd better concentrate on those for a while.

This one is done from my old PSX Portland Head stamp. I was planning on coloring it with Copics, so I stamped it with Memento Black, then I remembered the soft coloring I got when I used stamp pads and Ranger Nibs on another card a few months ago. I liked the softer colors, so I used various inks to color this one with the nibs as well. The colors aren't quite as bright as this in real life, and the red is much less bright.

The blue around the lighthouse, as well as the wider blue mat were done using VersaMagic Aegean Blue with a sponge dauber. The narrow mats were done with a dark green and an antique gold metallic. The anchors were punched from the same antique gold using a MS punch, and the square knot was tied using hemp cord.

Christina Olson's House and Andrew Wyeth

I'm still here, but haven't been able to do any paper crafting for a while, and haven't had time to visit any blogs. We are still working on getting my mother moved.

Over the holiday weekend, we took some time off and went to Rockland, Maine. While there, we visited friends we hadn't seen for a long time, and went to one of my favorite places, The Olson House. (For those who have never heard of it, it was made famous by many of Andrew Wyeth's paintings, especially the one titled "Christina's World").

It's funny, I have been to this house lots of times over the years, and every time I have been there, something has gone wrong with my camera. The same thing happened this time, but luckily, I finally have a cell phone with a halfway decent camera in it. It isn't as good as my real camera, but I did get a lot of nice pictures anyway.



This is looking down at the shed and the kitchen and pantry area from the third floor.



This is one of the rooms. There is a print of Christina's world on the wall.



I had never been down to the family cemetery before because it is on private property. (Even though most tourists go there anyway). Now my niece is with a member of the Olson family, and she took us down to see it. Christina was going home from this cemetery when Wyeth decided to do the painting. My niece lives on the Olson property, and says almost every day during the summer she sees tourists down in the field posing as Christina while getting their picture taken.
When Wyeth did the painting, he turned the house slightly in the painting so you could see the front better. He also painted the barn further to the left than it really is, and didn't paint in the tree line.



For years, Christina lived in the house alone with her brother Alvaro. This is their grave.



Andrew Wyeth is also buried here.

I hope those of you who love Andrew Wyeth's paintings of this house, but live too far away to visit, enjoyed seeing these pictures.

Green Altered Cigar Box

I've finally got another jewelry box finished, except for the protective coatings. This one looks a lot like the first one I did, because the lady who ordered them wants them all similar. I don't like the corners on this one as much as I did the first one, but I don't have any more of those corners.

I've started the third one, but it's not as much fun to make the same box over and over again. I like variety! :-)



Sorry this view is blurry, but I've got so much going on that I hurried with the photos.



This is how it looks open. I added pale gold Core'dinations Pearl CS for all the bottoms, and the top of the box, but decided to paint the dividers. It looks neater than covering them with CS.



This is the box with the top layer of dividers removed.

I'm a little Behind....

A lot is going on now, with still moving my mother, (we have to go back to Massachusetts again next weekend), college graduations, and having to finish those jewelry boxes, so I haven't had anything to show you.

I'm also way behind on my visiting, but I'm still here.

I'll be glad when I can get back on schedule. Hopefully in a few weeks we will get the shop open, then I will be able to get some more new card making things. I need some of those gorgeous new dies!

I hope everything is going well with all of you!

Hugs, Kathi

Roses and Butterflies Twisted Easel Card

I have been working on those commissioned altered cigar boxes, so I don't have a new card to share. Instead I'm uploading one of my very early cards. I think it was only the second twisted easel card I ever made.

As I was looking through my old card photos for something to post I ran across this one, and even though it's different from the cards I make now, it actually was quite pretty in real life. I put it into my shop at the time, and someone bought it the first day. I think if I was making this card now, I would probably add more embellishments, but in those days, I didn't have much to work with.

I have no ides where the rose graphic came from, it might have been from Dover Publications. I do know that it is matted with gold mirror card and mounted onto some Anna Griffin paper in my stash.

Finished Mini Album to go with Cigar Box

I finished the mini album which goes with the cigar box I posted a few days ago. The cigar box will have to wait though, I had to start the other two jewelry boxes because they were commissioned.

The front of the album is done with a copper colored pearlized CS from Core'dinations. The lighthouse is from JustRite, and is stamped using VersaMark onto a pale gold Core'dinations Pearl CS, and embossed in gold. All die cuts were done with Spellbinders. The tags at the top and bottom are for labeling with whatever the recipient wants.

I only photographed a few of the pages, but they are alternating pages made with DP from K&Co, white CS, which I distressed with Antique Linen and Tea Dye, and made journaling lines with a gold Gellyroll pen, and white CS distressed with Antique Linen and lightly stamped with gold ink. There are four different stamps used for the various pages, Portland Head Light from PSX, a fish shack and boat from PSX, a clipper ship from Stampendous, and Bass Harbor Head from an unknown company.

The stamped pages can be used either for journaling, photos, or memorabilia, and the DP pages can either be left as is, or photos or memorabilia added.

This album is quite small, 4x7, to fit into the cigar box, so the recipient may want to use it more for a journal than an album.

Went to AC Moore Again and got some Marker Storage

First, it's been a busy few days, so I'm really sorry I haven't been to visit. Hopefully I will get around to see you guys in the next couple of days.

Anyway, the lady at the cigar shop who has been saving boxes for me finally got two more of the Robusto boxes. She wants me to make two more jewelry boxes for her like the first one I made, so I think I will be very busy trying to get those done. I did manage to get the cover finished on the album for the cigar box I posted the other day, and made a few pages for it, but her jewelry boxes will have to come first.

I make the dividers out of basswood, which I used to get at a local craft store, but unfortunately, the new owner is not good about ordering things, so we had to go all the way to AC Moore for basswood.

While there, I got this marker storage tray from ArtBin. (It's the square thing with the Spectrum Noirs in it). Some of you will probably remember that I talked about ArtBin's wonderful customer service a month or two ago. Their customer service was even better than I told on my blog. I don't want to say what they did for me, because there are so many people who might take advantage, but I will say that they are an unbelievably good company!

The storage tray has clip things to hold it in place about half way up the inside of the Double Deep Super Satchel, the Super Satchel Semi, or the Marker Storage Satchel. To use the markers, you can place the satchels vertically without them falling out of the holes, so you can easily see and reach your markers.

My Copics are still in the 36 marker case, which exactly fit into one of the divided cases of the Super Satchel Double Deep. I don't have a large selection of markers yet, so I keep my one Copic Refill, and the Copic Syringe things in another compartment, and 6" origami paper and paper stacks in another compartment.

The double deep is exactly the right height for Copics and Spectrum Noirs, so they won't fall out when carrying it. It is too short for things like distress markers, but I would rather have the exact fit for the markers I have the most of than have it deeper and have the markers fall out of the slots.

AC Moore also had Spectrum Noir pens on sale for $7.88, so I bought a pink set and a blue set. I like my Copics better, but I have to send away for them, and they are more expensive. At this price for the Spectrum Noirs, I couldn't pass them up!

They also finally had the refills for my ATG, so I got two of those!

Then there was the Managers Special on a portable file folder thing with 300 sheets of 12x12 Nicole CS. I hesitated on that one, because I'm really fussy about my paper, but a lot of it wasn't bad. I really wanted the zippered file folder thing though, because I've been trying to figure out a place to keep my Christmas papers. I figure I'll keep only Christmas papers in that, and it will free up space for the paper I use the rest of the year, as well as keep the Christmas paper protected.

I also really wanted something easy to carry when we go out to New York at Christmas time. I usually go wild buying paper that isn't sold at JoAnns and AC Moore when I get out there, but it's always a struggle to get it home without messing it up. I will be able to take the paper out of it when we go to visit, then put all my new paper into that to get it home safely.

It was a fun trip!