Mad about Metallics Spotted Canary Challenge

As a member of the Creative Artist Team for EK Success, I contribute to the website, Spotted Canary. This month, I am hosting the monthly challenge and my theme is Mad about Metallics. It will feature all types of crafting that include something metallic. We use a lot of metallic items in paper crafting!

This was my christmas card from 2006. Notice all the uses of different metallic items...metallic cardstock, metallic embossing powder, metallic rubons (one of my favorite things to use!), metallic ribbon, metallic mica product, metal eyelet.....do you get the idea? I think the shine we get from metallic items works great for holiday cards. I usually switch off and do shiny and classy one year and country, natural or rustic another. Metals can have a rustic look also.

Twice in the last week, I was in a friend's home where they had my cards from previous years out displayed and I must say, seeing all of them grouped together makes you see the value of handcrafted cards. Most of them I don't even have a sample of or the photo is on some computer I killed by overloading it with photos {:-)} ....not funny!

How about you...are you making cards this year....are they shiny or rustic? I did a quilt theme last year with moose, after going to Alaska. Well, I spent three weeks in the Rockies this year and the new Forever stamps are very cool evergreens, so I think that will be my theme. I do sometimes plan around the postage stamps that are available. Then there was the year that I had postage stamps made to match the card and had a bet with my hubby about whether people would notice or not. He won....guess my postage stamp design looked like something that would be on a postage stamp! Most people did not even notice!

Anyway, come by and check out the Spotted Canary. I would love to see you post something in the challenge....you never know, you might just win!

Tulip Magnolia

I love photography and enjoy using my photos in my cards. When I saw this tulip magnolia stamp, I thought of this photo I took at Arlington Cemetery earlier this spring. It is a somber card, but would make a nice sympathy card. I used the Curvy Cutter, but did not cut the full oval, stopping when I came to the stamped image. I like that overlap that helps connect the stamped image with the photo. I colored the stamped image with Copics.

Bouquet of violets

I just love this violet stamp. It reminds me of early spring at the cabin. I also like the detail of the stems....it is all so very delicate and works great with wc crayons. You can probably tell that ovals are my favorite shape also. The opening was cut with Curvy Cutter and the Happy Birthday message is on a Spellbinders die. The little flowers were already embossed on the paper.

I use my coupons for cardstock at Archivers by first choosing some print paper that is in their clearance section and then I choose solid cardstock to go with it. That way, when I come home, I have all the colors I need.

I used some Stickles glitter glue in the centers of the violets (love those!) and my deckle edge paper cutter to cut the hard to cut embossed paper that feels like handmade paper.

Welcome Home

With this Serendipity Stamp, I stamped with Versafine ink and then painted the scene. I had this paper that looked kind of rustic, so I used those colors in the painting so I could use that paper. Sometimes I paint first and then match paper, but in this instance, the paper determined the colors I used when painting. I added the clay colored road heading up to the barn, as that is what we would have here in most areas of Georgia. The shading in the corners done with Metallic Rubons does not look so severe in real life as it does in the photo.

Hope you are having a great day!

In a Mauve kind of Mood

I showed you some of the new Serendipity images I had gotten and was playing with...now time to get some of the images I have done made into finished cards. I just love this kitchen crock stamp. The saying is cute....personally I thought cooking itself was love! I did the image with watercolor crayons used on the rubber. The patterned paper is K & Company (my favorite for patterned paper!)...the border I did in the Wizard with a cuttlebug die. I cut the ovals with the Curvy Cutter Cutting Tool (EK Success) and scored the edges with the Scor-It.

I put the image inside where the really cool other side of the paper shows. I know some people don't like double sided paper, but I am a big fan of it.

Here is another one of the Serendipity sayings and I think it is so pretty and meaningful that it can stand alone, without an image. I used the other border I had cut to thread ribbon along the side. This saying and the cooking saying were both cut out with the Wizard using Nestabilities. Only with the nestability do you get that very finished embossed line around the edge.

I am still coloring mice and also making Mother's Day cards and graduation cards. Our DIL graduates from Law School this Saturday, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, so we will be going over for that. Seems like those three years have just flown by....probably not to her! :-)