On Our Way to Summer---at PNP

This little miss is on her way To Grammy's, a Mo's Digital Pencil graphic.  I love how "felted" the texture in her little coat came out and how she is the perfect poster for the window our Papers and Pixels Club has at the SCM Rec Center Craft Room.   We'll not meet until September, now .  This 8x10 "poster" is done with Prismacolor Pencils, and will be on an easel in front of an accordion display that that has photo layouts of the Club's activities each meeting through this year. 

Punch Board Gift Card Holder

To go with this year's Graduation Cards, I've made some Punch Board Gift Card holders inspired by Dawn in her UTube Video.I have used cap and gown paper that I designed, and the GRADUATION  set  #B556 Cheery Lynn Mortar Board and Diploma dies.  The inside  Congratulations is a SU Sassy Salutations Stamp. These are fun to make and go together pretty quickly to accompany any card. They fit in an A2 envelope.

Poppies_Thinking of You

This pretty poppy digi stamp was a gift today drawn by Zoe at MakeItCrafty distributed in tribute to Anzac Day in Australia where Poppies for their Veteran's Day are a tradition too.  I used some different techniques to create this card that included masking the poppies and stems with Winsor watercolor Art Masking Fluid, then stenciling the "burlap" over that with Tim Holtz Burlap layering stencil and Tim Holtz  Distress ink (Black Soot). The stamp pad needs to be reinked, so the sponging is very light (which is just what I wanted) but I think spritzing very lightly with either water or alcohol would change the attributes of the sponging and might produce an interesting background on the right paper..  After removing the Masking Fluid, I colored the poppies to be orange-ish like California Poppies with Prismacolor Pencils, finished the centers of the flowers with Wink of Stella Gold, and added a Thinking of You sticker from Pop-Ups-etc.  Since this was the first go at some new ideas, I had printed this on high-quality matte photo paper, which is NOT good for pencils, but worked out okay for this proto-type.  I've found Penciling done best on Stonehenge vellum surface watercolor paper, or do the flowers with Copics on Neenah.  Mattes are  SU Tangelo Twist and Hello Honey. 

Happy Taurus Birthday, Karen

This little Tilda Taurus from the Zodiac Collection (Magnolia Stamps) has been created for my friend Karen Schulz, (Snickerdoodle Designs by Karen) whose gorgeous kits I use almost exclusively for my photography digital scrapbooking pages. Tilda's on craft color paper, with white embossed mat -"spring flowers" by SU with edges punched with  "cloud" punch. There are little beads and rhinestones in her horns, Wink of Stella and Stickles clear glitter on her dress and horns, and she is colored with Prismacolor Pencils and Copic markers. The flowers are Recollections, and the ovals cut with SU basic oval set of dies.   The inside sentiment tells the personality traits of the Taurean, and my friend is true to her astrological sign!

Baby Lady Bug_Just for YOU

This baby fairy lady bug was drawn by Mo Manning and is colored in Prismacolor Pencils.  The Just for you Starform sticker sentiment is available at Pop-Ups-Etc.  The card is finished on red and black matting with the card front embossed with Cuttlebug's bubbles embossing folder.  A touch of Wink of Stella on the fairy's lace skirt, and on the "ground" under her,  finishes this card for my friend who LOVES ladybugs--and who recently made some lovely wine-bottle lanterns for my Sister.

Cowgirl Hello

This card was created with Cowgirl Bonnie drawn by the artist,  Miran Jung.   This little cowgirl graphic is available from her Artbymiran Etsy store and was colored in Prismacolor pencils.  It is mounted on ovals cut from Lifestyle Craft's nesting oval dies.  The craft paper is embossed with Tim Holtz Texture Fades (Retro Cirque Set) and brushed with  Tim Holtz distress ink.  All mats have heavy distressed edges.  The inside of the card is word art created by Paulette At TLC Creations, and the gold foil boot is cut from Cheery Lynn Arizona Cowboy dieset (B517)  I was inspired to buy this graphic  when I saw the work that Crafting Vicky had posted on her blog.

This second card is for a friend who has been laid up for 10 weeks with a horrible broken ankle. so the sentiment and inside of this card is similar to the one above. Again artwork is colored in Prismacolor pencils. Oval cutout is with a  SU die, and the boots and horseshoe are from Arizona dieset by Cheery Lynn as above. (date-May 12, 2015.)

Jade Dragonne Queen Bee

I love the artwork of Jade Dragonne and thank her so much for permitting her graphics to be used to color, practice and create with.  This is her Queen Bee from her Fantasy collection, and I tried to follow her posted example of this artwork.   The matting is SU black and Hello Honey paper, cut with LilInker Stitched Rectangles, and mounted on craft-colored cardstock trimmed with linen thread and flowers from a Recollections collection (Michaels.)  The wings and little bees are detailed in Wink of Stella clear sparkle and the whole image is colored in Prismacolor Pencils after Kit and  Clowder classes for Perfecting Pencils.  I especially loved practicing highlights and reflections on this graphic.

Fancy Pants Tea Time--Get Well Janice

I made this card for a lady who is in our Sun City Sunbreros Red Hat Club who is in the hospital today.  Get Well Soon, Janice!

The card is created using  Sheri Baldi's Fancy Pants Tea Time  Img 378 available in her Etsy store (and others). She is colored in Prismacolor Pencils, and is just SO cute!  The Get Well Sticker is from Pop-Ups Etc.  The artpiece is mounted on Cherry Cobbler paper, by SU which is pierced with the Stitched Rectangles from LilInker.  Thank you Alyce at Kit and Clowder for teaching me how to use these pencils correctly.

Graduation Cards

I have several friends who have children graduating this year, and so does our own grandson,  Ryan--bound now for Southern Vermont College.  Congratulations to the Class of 2015.

 I have used a mortarboard sticker, washi tape (SU) and embedded the gold  "happy" from SU "Hello You" thinlits dieset on these white cardstock base A2 top fold cards.  Next card below is unfinished, waiting for shipment of a mortarboard die to come in from Sizzix which I will cut in school colors for the graduate.  This artpiece is mounted on Smoky Slate Gray by SU, matching satin ribbon, (also SU), and stitched with Lilinker  Stitched Mats dieset. (She has SUCH a nice assortment of stitched frames at LilInker.)

 The bottom one is the same technique, (embedded diecutting) and washi again with a Jolees sitcker owl and Teeny Tiny  Wishes graduation stamp (SU)

I will make two cards, similar to the one below for two girls who graduate from Virgin Valley High School here in Mesquite in June.  The graphic is a Sheri Baldi colored in Prismacolor pencils, in the school's colors. She is matted on mortarboard and diploma paper I created, and topped with the school's crest.  I will diecut "congratulations" when the script die comes in.  

This one  below is a Mo Digital Pencils design called Glad Grad Girl.  She's done in Prismacolor Pencils in the school colors for the recipient.  The gold foil diecut "graduation" is by Cheery Lynn Designs called B 578 "Graduation".  The gold border and the Good Luck are stickers.  

This is another adorable MoManning  (Mos Digital Pencils) drawing--the Glad Glad Boy, done in the school colors of this card (and gift card holder's) recipient.  I used LilInker stitched mats and the Spellbinders Wonky Rectangles (S40306), Graduation stickers are from Pop-Ups Etc, and Cheery Lynn Mortarboard and Diploma dies are found in in a die kit called "Graduation Set" B556  The graduate is colored in Prismacolor pencils and the cap and gown paper background is one I made.  See the gift card holder here

And this last one for 2015 is a beauty beauty, drawn by one of my favorite artists, Chow-Ching.  This one is for a local graduate, daughter of people we know. ..Sister of the girl who is getting the Mo's Magic Pencils Glad Grad Girl above.

Redheaded Thinker

This Sheri Baldi graphic (from her My Bestics collection)  is colored with Prismacolor pencils with techniques learned at  Kit and Clowder's Perfecting Pencils class. The Thinking of you sentiment is from Just Rite stamps  Grand Sentiments collection and the green die-cuts are cuts from Quinn  Flourish, a Memory Box die (98267). Papers are  SU, and graphic is on Stonehenge vellum finish watercolor paper.

Vellum Anniversary

This Anniversary card is vellum embossed with gold hearts on  shiny photo paper cardstock (SU).   The Hearts are diecut with Sizzix 657561 Hearts die from silver glitter paper, and gold foil paper.  The holographic heart edged in gold is  a sticker from Pop-Ups-Etc  The word Happy is a SU Framelit from the Hello You thinlits dieset.  It is glitter paper first "stuck" to scortape, then diecut and adhered to the card.  It is created especially for our friends Robb and Becki Sue.

Hang in There

The graphic was drawn by Sheri Baldi (There's a cute video on UTube for her Challenge for her Design Team of her "Besties.")  "Hang in there" is one of the stamps in the Besties set.  I colored her with Prismacolor pencils, and accented the drawing with Glaze pens,  Wink of Stella, and Metallic markers.  The artwork is matted on a full cutouts of the Marianne Creatables LR0-242 Square Anja Frame die in Rich Razzleberry, and Pretty in Pink SU papers on white.  The card is about 6" square.  (As usual, the purples in saved for web photo don't match the papers---but they DO on the card itself)

Bee Wonder---Birthday

This is a 5x5 single easel card with the  adorable Emmanuelle Colin graphic colored in Prismacolor pencils. The papers are SU except for the honeycomb designer paper which is Happy Bee by Pebbles Garden Party.  The labels "stopper" is a  Spellbinders die, and the sentiment is from Just Rite Fancy  Sentiment stampset, colored in Mossy Meadow (SU).  

My Pencil Holder

I am so excited.  I made this pencil holder for my Prismacolor pencils for the Perfecting Pencils class at Kit and Clowder.  I printed the color chart, and penciled in the colors that I have.  I took the lips off ten 3  1/2 inch tall (by about 1 1/2" wide) pill bottles and glued five of them side by side, ending up with two of the two inch wide bottles to hold the stubs, sander and electric eraser.   I also glued five of the shorter Rx pill bottles together to hold current projects.  The first bottle of the shorties is labeled skin, and the second hair--the rest are for the pencils for a current project.  Then the taller bottles cannisters are labeled with the color of the group they hold Row 1 labeled in yellow, holds those pencils found on row one of the color chart, row two is printed in Pink, to correspond to the main colors of the pencils in row two--etc.  Before I made this holder I was keeping the pencils in SU flat stamp storage boxes, and that worked okay for separating the groups, but involved a lot of shuffling, where this doesn.t.  You can see a clothes pin still in there, because the glue was a little tacky and not entirely set up when I took the picture for the blog.

Happy Aries Birthday, Syd

This card is going into the mail today for a friend whose birthday is next week.  I created this card with Sweet Magnolia Zodiac Tilda for April's Aries birthdays, colored with Prismacolor Pencils.  The paper is SU from Moonlight DP series, matted on Rich Razzleberry and Hello Honey cardstock.  The card is finished with a swirl of rhinestones on each of the Aries horns a little diamond bracelet, and the sunburst Zodiacal sign (from internet) finished in Gelly Roll star pen and edged with Delicata gold ink.  The inside of the card contains a sentiment that includes the characteristics of the Aries person which my friend typifies in everything she does. (Colors are not true on web-save)

Happy Anniversary!

---Happy Fifty Fifth Anniversary---To my beloved Roger---

I made this 5x7 card for my husband on our anniversary and used Sheri Baldi graphic, colored in Prismacolor Pencils (following instructional techniques of Alyce at Kit and Clowder).  The paper is  Island Indigo and Baja Breeze on white by SU with  polka-dot embossing on the top mat die-cut with ovals from SU  Framelits 129381 collection. Stamps I used are from SU Hello Life, and inside from Just Rite  Fancy Sentiments collection.  I finished the card with Wink of Stella and Gelly Roll stardust touched on all the little Miss' polka dots.

Baldy Birthday

The artist for this adorable graphic is Sheri Baldi who sells at Etsy (and other places). For this birthday card I practiced my "Perfecting Pencils" prismacolor pencil class taught by  Alyce at Kit and Clowder.  I have finished my lessons now, still battle the search for the perfect paper,  (this one is printed on the not so good for pencils "Canvas" textured paper.    The texturing is still too heavy for the perfect results with pencils, but I am enjoying the cute results.  I also used SU Island Indigo and Baja Breeze papers, and organza rose; I punched leaves from parchment,  little flowers from a Recollections punch, and part of a rhinestone swirl from Recollections.  The stamp for the Birthday greeting was from SU Petite Pairs stampset. 

Kit and Clowder Perfecting Pencils

Here's my work for the first two exercises in Alyce's Perfecting Pencils Class at Kit and Clowder.  I LOVE the class, LOVE her feedback, love the progress I am making and HATE the paper I am working on until the "Right kind" comes in from Red River Paper company this week. (All my paper was very slick paper, and you need one with a bit of texture. All I had was very heavyweight watercolor paper, and texture it has--so much that I'm not able to blend perfectly..but getting the hang of the technique nevertheless.)  So!  My practice grows, and the fun increases as I learn all sorts of techniques with Prismacolor wax pencils.  Whatever medium you'd like to perfect (or just dabble in and try out), Alyce is there with a phenomenal course for you--from gaining creative confidence, to color theory, to copics, pencils--you name it!  AND  this amazing Australian Teacher is going to be presenting two weekend workshops here in the US, one in Anaheim CA and the other in Florida this   year. For information see the Kit and Clowder website, blog and facebook pages.

I had trouble with the lighting on this third lesson when I photographed it.  Turning the paper to the smoother side and trying this was a little easier.  Now I know that watercolor paper does not work for me and I am trying some others, including canvas paper (didn't work), and heavy matte (didn't work) And now to Strathmore and La Tiente paper.

Since this class was a "project" class as well as a technique class, here's my Lesson 2 finished project!  I used Spellbinders SCD-012 Pierced  Rectangles on the Prismacolored Pencil graphic by Ppinky Doll, a Flourish Die from Cheery Lynn, (B 37--tiny fanciful flourish)  and flowers from my stash from I am Roses.com.   Inside stamp, (white on Rich Razzleberry SU) is "You are Amazingly Amazing." The flower that looks so yellow in the photograph is the same color as the watercolor paper.

And this is the project card from the Greeting Farm image used for Lesson 1 in the Perfecting Pencils Class.  This is mounted on SU Island Indigo and Baja Breeze, and on Very Vanilla cardstock.  The gel/epoxy hearts are SU and the I love you diecut is from the "labels" framelit (SU.)

Spring Maid

This graphic, drawn by Jade Dragonne called Spring Maid was colored with Prismacolor pencils practicing tutorials from Kit and Clowder Perfect Pencils class.  The Twisted Double Easel card follows a tutorial by Dina Kowal at Splitcoast Stampers posted April 1, 2015.  I used Spellbinders Fancy Tags 3 S5-030, and Cheery Lynn DL 184 Sophia's Heart Doily Die.  This card folds flat for #10 envelope, and opens to a double easel.  

Petal Blossoms

I am beginning to get the hang of Prismacolor Pencils following the excellent class taught by Alyce at Kit and Clowder.  This was the first attempt with hair and fabric for me, on Marianne Designs artwork called Petal Blossoms.  I am waiting for paper with a little more texture to come from Red River Paper. SU whisper white does not really work well with the pencils.   Then the blending, I think will be more uniform (I've had better results stamping on watercolor paper for now.  The Die is Marianne Creatables Anja Squares LRO 2242. The sentiment is from Just Rite Stamps CR-03885 Grand Sentiments collection.   The Easel Card was suggested at Splitcoast Stampers in Dina Kowal's Wednesday  Double Twisted Easel Technique challenge. Papers are whisper white and island indigo by SU.