Trying out a template

Hallo,
Well in case you are wondering - Idid survive the game of RISK last night - 5 hours worth - I even won. But they conned me into another game today and I was the first one to lose (darn - more time at the craft table :)
Rarely do I use a card template when I do cards but I decided to start trying them more often - I used this same template to do the faux layer cards from the last couple posts.
Today I used some patterned paper - had it in my stash a looong time so haven't a clue where it came from (I think it is from a kids oragami kit that my daughter never used up). The stamps are from Sonlight Impressions, word stamps from Stampin Up, punch from SU also for the word window. I colored them with prismacolor pencils. I did 2 almost exactly the
same but changed the layers a bit - still can't decide which one I like better. Truthfully this card is just a little busy for my taste. I will have to try something simple with this template when I next get to the craft table (wednesday probably as I work the next 2 days).
If anyone is looking for a great convention to go to there is one coming up the middle of febr. in St. Mary's Georgia (southeastern tip).
It is called Creative Palette . They start on thursday/friday with classes - stampin, beading/jewerly, clay, altered stuff of all kinds - it is a really great mixed bunch of classes. Saturday is the convention with all the stamp booths. I, my cheif enabler Pat and one or 2 folks from our small stamping group are going again this year. If you want to take a look go to http://www.bettysstamppad.com/ and look under Creative Palette. If you are going give me a shout and maybe we can get together live and in person :).
Well gotta get some super rollin here.....
Have a Happy New Year!!!!
Tera

Color variations and Blog Giveaway

Hallo,
I hope everyone had a Great Christmas!!! Not too much stampin time the last couple days - lots of Wii time:) with the kiddos.
First before I forget you need to hop over and see Vicki as she is giving away a PILE of good stuff from Crafty Secrets!!!! Here's the link - http://vickichrisman.blogspot.com/2007/12/two-give-ways-at-same-time.html
Next I have 3 photos for you - as usual I can never do just one color it seems when I make up a card - the first one shows from left to right green/blue, all blue and then a purple/blue combination. The second photo shows (also L to R) a green/red, an all green and an all red/pink combo. And the last photo is a close up of the pink/red and green combo and the all green.
All these cards use 2 backrounders from Cornish Heritage Farms and then the Hydrangea and lace stamp are from Stampin Up (both retired) - and all these cards use the Faux layering technique from Technique Junkies. No real layers are employed in these cards :).
No more craft table time today - the kids have talked me into a game of RISK - you know the game about taking over the world that LASTS FOREVER - usually longer than monopoly or super scrabble.
Well wish me luck - off to try and dominate the world.....
Tera

Florida white Christmas

Hallo,
Just a short note while the DH sets up the Wii for the kids. The first is a card I did yesterday when I had a little play time. It uses backrounds from Cornish Heritage Farms and other stamps from Stampin Up. This technique is called Faux layering from Technique Junkies.
Next are some Christmas pictures - DS Jack 'altered ' his tee shirt (thats my boy) - It usually says 'Do Not Disturb - Game in progress' - and he changed it to read 'Do Not Disturb - Opening Presents' .
The next picture is both the kiddos opening the new Wii game.
And last but not least we have a White Christmas in Florida today after all - big thunderstorm with lots of sleet - pellets about
the size of rice and a good bit of it too .
All for now - Merry Christmas to ya'll!!
Tera

Beachy Christmas to you!!

Hallo,
I was sposed to work today but being the wonderful Nurses we are in the Unit I work in, our patients didn't need all of us there today due to our splendid care so I got to be off today!!!! :)
We went out for lunch at our favorite beachside resterant so we could look at the ocean - and the kids even talked me into a game of tetherball after lunch. This is a picture of them playing tetherball.
The next 2 pics are of all of us with the beach behind - we haven't gotten family pictures taken in a long time but 2 years ago we took a picture of all of us in almost the same spot so we decided to do the same again this year.
It was really pretty out today - almost 70 degrees but just a little breezy. Tomorrow is sposed to be colder and maybe rainy.
Tom, Paula, Tera, Jack

Cat Plaque - Fancy

Hallo,
Well I got Fancy's portrait done today - it isn't perfect but I think it's pretty close. This first picture shows the first white, yellow and orange layers and half face of the brown layer.
I did very little blending on Fancy's picture as her fur is more feathered whereas Cochiese's was more blended. I did blend her eyes and nose. After the brown layer I went back and added alot of black,
The second picture is the finished one - now all I have to do is decided if I am going to do anything with the edges of the plaque and then seal it.
The third picture is of Fancy herself - she doesn't like her picture taken because she doesn't like the flash - and the weather is rainy and stormy so I needed the flash. This old cat
is the most loving cat - if you are sitting she is either beside you or on your lap, and she has a very loud purr. She always seems to know if someone is sick because she will stick to that person like glue until you feel better. There wasn't a time the kids were sick that she wasn't there to comfort them. She pretty much sleeps with me at night next to my pillow - unless one of the kids isn't feeling well - she tried helping cure the DH once which was commical as he doesn't like cats. Course she was pretty ticked at me for a couple weeks when we brought the kittens home to stay with us but she seems to be adapting and she puts the 'boys' in their place on a regular basis.
I may not have much time to blog tomorrow as I am going to Pensacola with my main craft enabler Pat to go to Hobby Lobby, the JoAnn's supperstore and the knit shop, maybe a thrift shop or 2 if we have time......we don't get over there too
often as its an hour drive each way and can often be a budget crasher :) so I may not get a chance to blog again until monday as I work sat. and Sunday - Have a Great weekend everyone!!!
Tera
P.S. Sorry for the dark photos - even under the lamp they are dark - will try to get another pic when its not so dreary outside!

More Christmas ornaments

Hallo,
Starting the morning off with some Christmas Ornaments for you - I made these 2 years ago and I still can't find the ones I made last year :(.
I really like the bronze/copper beads on this one. The second one is a red bulb with clear sparkley beads and the last one is one of my favorites too - It is a gold ball with white and gold trim and then the bead strands are gold, red and black. 2 years ago I made about 60 of these in many different colors - sold a few at craft fairs but most went for Cristmas presents - I kept about 6-7 for myself.
All for now - hope to have some stampin to show you later today - for now I need to get my poor ol pooch out for a walk before it starts to rain here...
See ya later
Tera

Cochiese and kittens

Hallo,
Well I got Cochiese finished and will start on Fancy thursday. Its not a perfect likeness but its pretty close. After the last layers of lightening that I did and then blended, I added black to her stripes. Her whiskers I first did with the white pencil then I went over it with a silver gel pen and added a spot of silver gel pen to her eyes as well. Then I added her halo with a gold mettalic pen.
I wrapped some Xmas presents yesterday and the kittens had a field day with wrapping paper - I got one pic of Shadow but Smitty was way too crazy and I couldn't catch him until he fell asleep.
My old cat Fancy decided it was time to hide away for a nap while the kittens had at the wrapping paper - you could almost see her rolling her eyes at them - therefore I didn't get a pic of her yesterday. I will try to get a pic of her
beautiful face on thursday.
This is Smitty - aka Thunderpurr.
This is Shadow - aka Shadow clone jutzu (from one of the kids gameboy games I think).
All for tonight - I worked today, busy day as usual...:)
I will have some Christmas ornaments for you tomorrow night.

Christmas Ornaments

Hallo,
Sending you some pics of Christmas ornaments that I have made in past years - The first 2 were made a couple years ago with a Holly Berry stamp that I stamped several times in different colors and layered together with double-sided foam tape. In the blue one I used blue glitter embossing powder on the outlines and silver on the image in the middle of the Angel from Son Light images - now carried by Cornish Heritage Farms (this is a stamp I've had for over 10 years).
The second one was embossed with gold powder and the midle cut out so I could hang some jingle bells in the middle.
The last 2 are plain ornaments that I glued beaded ribbon and other ribbons to with my hot glue gun - I made these the year before last.
Sadly I am still looking for the ornaments I made last year with my Outlines stamps - anything made with the hot glue gun doesn't survive summer in florida up in the attic- no AC. I know they are here somewhere but haven't found them yet.
I have the next 2 days off so hope to start work on Fancy's portrait tomorrow. See you then.

I really like the blue one !!!
But the green one with jingle bells is cute too.
Take Care
Tera

Cat Plaque

Hallo again,
Looks like Picassa is going to let me do all 4 photos today (usually it only lets me do 3 ???).
I am making a plaque that has my 2 oldest cats on it - the one on the right will be Cochiese who went to Kitty heavon about a year ago at age 14. I stamped the cat stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms in timber brown stazon for Cochiese and jet black stazon for Fancy (age 17 - still active and assisting me to train 2- 4 month old kittens - lots of hissin the first week the kittens were home LOL ).
The second photo I started coloring with my prismacolor pencils - I tend to work light to dark and always put on more white than will be there in the end because I like the way it makes the layers on top look more translucent. Second color is a medium yellow and with the eyes some golden, mustard shade of yellow. For the second photo I did a layer of a sienna brown and then
started with a medium gray. I only did the left half of the pic with the gray when I took this photo so you could see the difference. I also added the hint of green to her eyes and pinked up her nose with white, coral and pink. Up to this point the only part I have blended with mineral spirits is her eyes.
The last photo - after I finished with the first gray layer I blended with mineral spirits and added more sienna brown, more gray and started with the orange and blended once again.
My next steps will be to go back and lighten up certain areas, I will probably add some more gray too and then the last layer will be black to highlight the stripes and her eyes.
This old cat got her name Cochiese because when we adopted her she was a wild an rowdy little thing who could yowel like an indian on the warpath. She was my guard cat - one day when I was pregant with my daughter I was sitting on the floor reading when all the sudden she places herself
between me and the window with all her fur standing on end and started GROWLING. They had been working on the outside of the building and she heard them coming up the ladder before I did. She was very protective of me when I was pregant. The other funny thing about her - when my daughter was only about a month old I heard Cochiese meowing in the middle of the night - real soft like, so I got up and went to the bedroom door . My daughter was cooing and making little noises in her sleep and Cochiese was talking back to her - my daughter would make a noise and then Cochiese would coo back at her - it was so adorable.
Cochiese was never a lovey lap kitty but she was pretty special none the less - we lost her last year to a very fast growing kidney tumor, she wasn't sick but a week.

All for now - I have a bunch of errands to run today before I get some craft table time - I should be able to finish Cochiese today and start on Fancy's potrait - should have more pics lined up to show you tomorrow.
Tera

Tutorial round 3

Hallo again,
What I did with this first photo is to add color on top of the base in each column and then in the second and third column I blended with the mineral spirits - I know its hard to see but the differnce from the first to the second column is that the colors are smoother and melt into each other a bit in kinda a translucent layer. My photos are kinda dark as it is raining like crazy here today - winter in Florida, rain before the cold front - warm and muggy one day, one day of rain and then its COLD and damp.




For this second photo (after blending the first column to catch it up with the others) I added lighter colors (white and yellow) on top of the 2 base layers to show you how they show up - then again I blended the second and third columns. When you blend the lighter colors they do melt into the base a bit and aren't as bright. But the beauty of this is you can always
add more on top until it is the way you want it . I have done as many as 6 or 7 layers and it
doesn't get to looking gunky.
Last but not least I added more of the lighter colors on top of the prior spots in the second and third columns.
All for now - will show you more tomorrow.
Tera

More tutorial

Project/Tutorial round 2.
More suplies for my project - the plaque, stazOn ink - jet black and timber brown, cat stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms and photos of my 2 oldest babies.
This photo shows 4 colors on white card stock - light blue, navy, purple, and green - 2 columns of a light application and one of a heavier application. To blend you dip the tip of the blending stump into the mineral spirits and start rubbing over the color to pull it where and how much you want. When it starts to pull or stcik on the paper dip again. The mineral spirits doesn't get 'oily' very easy so just practice until you get the feel of it.
In this photo I blended the second and third columns - the heavier the color is initially the more color you can pull off. In the third column starting with the navy I pulled color up with a circle motion from the top and off the bottom in straight lines down. With the purple I then went over the bottom and pulled more color downward diagonally.
You can pull color anyway you like depending on the effect you want and you can pull as much color as you want .
These pencils are made to layer and blend - you can add layers with or without blending for different effects. You can even dry blend with a Qtip or small tools used for coloring with chalks.
All for now - I will continue tomorrow - I owe the kids a game of supper scrabble.
Take Care
Tera

More silly stuff and the start of a project/tutorial

Hallo,
Well I suvived my days to work (3 - 12 hour shifts in a row gets harder to do every year) and I survived the 5am to 730 pm field trip with 4 bus loads of 6 & 7th graders.....
The first thing I played with today was to finish off another card made with Gina K Designs 'Way to go' set - I call this the Manly thinkin spot - the toilet and rug are done with a backround stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms of diamond plating and the 'photos' in the backround are inchies made with some left over Harley paper from one of my 6-pack box projects that I did.
My next project is going to be a plaque depicting my 2 cats
Fancy (age 17) and Cochiese (went to kitty heavon last year at age 14).
I thought I would take pics of the project as I am going on (it will take me several days) and give you a little tutorial on prismacolor pencils as well.
Looks like Picassa is only going to let me post 3 pics with this post so I will probably have several posts today.
The first 2 pics in the tut are supplies - the Prismacolor pencils, some oderless mineral spirits (paint thinner) and a smaller container of same makes it easier for me to work with,
blending stumps, a pencil sharpener made for soft pencils(if you use a regular sharpener or an electric you will break leads ALOT and waste the pencils - I found this out the hard way :) They have different sizes of the stumps for blending small areas or large.

Also shown is the block of sanding paper you can buy with the stumps - it has dual purpose as it will sand off the color you just used so you have a clean one to blend next with and you can use it to keep the stump sharp for detail work.
In the last pic you can tell which one I have been using.
Stay Tuned for more pics in another post....
Tera