StampTV CSS Favorite Things blog hop

 Hallo,
    Welcome to the Gina K Stamp TV Favorite Things blog hop!!! We are using stamp sets that were release from August 2012 through Jan. 2013 and the theme of "Our Favorite Things'.
   If you are following along the hop then you came to me from the very talented Sharri - http://istamp4u.blogspot.com/2013/02/stv-css-alumni-favorite-things.html

 For my card I used 3 sets - Basket additions #3, Holiday Baskets, and Fall Foilage. I used the leaves on the background panel - stamped with tea dye distress ink and memento brown. The main image is colored with copics and cut out with a Spellbinders die and an out-of-the-box technique.
  Fall is my favorite time of year, I love when the leaves turn and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays too!!!
  Next along the hop is Vicki -    http://allidoisstamp.blogspot.com/2013/02/css-hop-my-favorite-things-feb-26.html  - and I am sure she has some great eye candy for you!!
  That's all for me today -  Take Care!!
       Tera

Locker Hook rug

 Hallo,
   A quick post this afternoon - a rainy afternoon. I had hoped to spend most of the day in the craft room but other than one card I haven't gotten much done :)
   Here's is a couple pics of the latest project with my newest hobby - Locker hook. The canvus  is a 30 by 36 inches but I am sure it will be slightly smaller once done.
  I thought about doing a more geometric grid with rectangles outlined in red but ended up giving in to whim and just brought out a sharpie and drew some circles and then some waves - there will end up to be 4 red waves around the tan circles and the rest filled in with whites and creams.
  This rug is coming together nicely - its very easy to do and I love that it uses strips of fabric that were scraps. I have several ideas for projects with the locker hook so should keep me busy for awhile...
  All for today - Take Care
       Tera

Red Pointsetta

Hallo,
  A quick early post for you this am - a few errands to run early today then hopefully back to the craft room (although I really should do some cleaning - I think I said that yesterday too....:)
   I did this card for the current Tuesday challenge over at Flourishes which was simply to use 'red'. Well that was easy - I had this image done up with watercolors onto watercolor paper for my 'Coloring for cardmakers' class with my local CLL, so I just pulled it out and made it up - It is my second Christmas card so far....I had thought about trying to do one a week starting in Januaray but things got away from me and this is only my second one so far .....
   The stamp is from Flourishes and I cut out the image and the next layer of red cardstock both with Spellbinders dies. The black die is a label from one of the paper packs from 'Paper Temptress' - I love it when I can use something instead of throwing it away!!!!
   Some sweet Christmas DP, a red fluffy piece of yarn and some gold pearl drops with a Viva Decor pen finish off this card.
   Check out the challenge here - www.flourishes.org/blog/
   All for this morning - time to get a move on....
        Take Care
                Tera

IO Hobby challenge

Hallo,
  SUNSHINE this morning!!! Although we will be back to rain by late afternoon or early evening which is sposed to last through late monday night....
   Miss Kyna - my puppy - took me for an hour walk and then some play time in the yard too boot - she had lotsa energy this morning :)
   Well the current challenge over at the IO blog is 'What's your hobby' and my first thought was 'Which one?' :) Rubber stamping, encaustic wax, locker hook, crossstich, knitting, sewing, beading, clay, scrapbooking, blogging,  painting, glass etching, or anything that  looks fun.....well Rubber stamping is the biggest one - and I use rubber stamps when I am painting, beading, clay, with encaustic and glass etching too so I guess that is what I will show you today - and IO stamps made that very easy :)
(I dont do much crosstitch, sewing or knitting anymore but ever so often - and there are a few projects set aside for those hobbies, for when i can find time...)
   This card was done with 2 stamps from IO - H8889 Wild sweetheart rose and D1383 Predict the fucture. I stamped the rose onto watercolor paper and used my watercolors and then embossed the phrase with vintage photo distress powder. I cut the main image with a Spellbinders die and edged it with Walnut stain and tea dye distress inks. I used some vintagey looking paper and lastly added some bronze pearls with a Viva decor pen.
  Check out the challenge here - www.mitrafriant.typepad.com
    All for today - kids are both working this afternoon and DH is hanging out with the Nascar crowd so back to the craft room I go - all my windows and doors open, sunshine and a nice breeze wafting through the house :) I should probably do some house cleaning....
   Take Care
        Tera

Jan Marie's Birthday!!!!

Hallo,
  Jan Marie - owner of Flourishes - has a Birthday this next week and the gals from the DT's have asked us to join in a special Birthday hop for this very Special lady by making her a Birthday card!!!!
  Check out the hop and the challenge here - www.flourishes.org/blog/

  I used 2 sets from Flourishes. The cherry blossums were done with watercolors onto watercolor paper - embossed with gold. I cut the flowers out with a Spellbinders die and added the phrases from the 'Inside and Out - Just Because' set ( which I just got in the mail today :)
   I added some gold accents with a gold Viva Decor pen and a paper bow which is a die cut from my friend Vicki!!! (she has designed a sweet handful of dies for Accu cut - one of them is the bow set - you can get the dies from Accu cut but you can get pre-cuts off Vicki's etsy shop and at Crafty Secrets too.
   All for me here today - back to the craft room (yup its still raining :)
    Take Care
         Tera

#2 Watercolor class

Hallo,
  A very rainy day here in NW Florida. It has been raining since the we hours of the morning and it looks like to continue through saturday night with a short break and rain again Sunday night and on into late Monday or even Tuesday. But that is a good thing as we need the rain and it was so nice to sleep this morning with the rumble of thunder and the sound of rain!!! And there is nothing like sitting either in my craft room or in the living room doing crafts or reading a good book in the rain!!!
  Course my puppy loves to walk in the rain so she still takes me for a walk....
   Well today I am showing you the photos of my demo board for the second watercolor installment of my 'Coloring for cardmakers' class with the CLL. We used 2 images from Flourishes - both we used before in the pencil section of class, so I thought it would give a different look to do them with watercolors too. I embossed both images in gold - the cherry blossums in an antique gold and the pointsettas is a brightrer gold. For card makers who still want to do watercolors but are a bit shy about the 'out of the lines' look of watercolors, then embossing the image can make coloring with watercolors a shade more precise because of the little  ridge  that the embossing has.
   The very first image of both I did a very light wash and then with a dry brush pulled the wash color back out of the flower petals so the red color I wanted to use on them would stay truer red. The leaves being green it would affect because of the blue already in the green color.
  I darkened the background to one side of each of the images as a 'shadow'  and gradually added layers of color to darken and define the image until it was what I wanted. Although I almost left the pointsetta more pink like the second image just because I liked that soft color..
   I will have some sample cards made up to show you in the next couple days - I plan to give one card to each of my students just so they have a finished project - with the images I have used -  to look at too. ( we aren't acually making cards in this class - I am just demonstrating coloring techniques and showing them a few things about coloring with the blendable pencils and watercolors)
  All for today - I am headed off to the couch to work on my new locker hook rug project - I will have to get some photos of that too  - when the sun peeks out again :)
   Have  great weekend!!!!
     Tera

Pink, red, hearts and flowers....must be Valentines....

 Hallo,
    Just a short post this afternoon so I don't forget in the morning :)
A card for the current FTTC challenge over at Flourishes which was to use a heart.
  I colored the stamp - from Flourishes of course - with pencils and used a Spellbinders die to cut both the hearts.
 Check out the challenge here - www.flourishes.org/blog/

  I kept the background simple because I really love how the flowers turned out and wanted them to stand out :)
  Pink base cardstock with a red heart edged with gold mettalic pen, the main image is edged with the mettalic pen too. Then I used a couple ribbon scraps that were on my desk and a charm in from my stash. Lastly I added some pink pearls using fabris paint from tulip - the big bottles last forever and have a nice small tip too. I added some of the fabric paint to the pink lilacs too....
  All for today - DH is back in town, DD is at church with a friend and DS is at work so I guess we parent types are on our own for lunch :) I will have to work tonight too so a late afternoon nap is in order :)
  Have a great week - the kids and DH are both off work/school tomorrow so it will be a good family day :)
   Take Care
         Tera

Coloring class - watercolors

  http://www.iostamps.com/
Hallo,
   I am a bit late postiong the pictures from my friday class - this was the first of the watercolor section of my class. I first gave them a big sheet of watercolor paper to practice on - wet on wet washes, then wet to dry and so forth. Some of the folks had played with watercolors before and some not so much.
  I believe they had fun . They all really seem to like doing flowers the best but then again between Flourishes and Impression Obsession  - so do I :)
Todays stamp is a new one from   Impression Obsession - called 'wild sweetheart rose' and I saw it done in watercolors on one of the gals on the DT's blogs (sorry I don't remember which) and had to try it myself.
  Check out IO's stamps here - www.iostamps.com
   The second stamp is from Serendipity Stamps and you can find thayt one here - http://www.serendipitystamps.com/
I love doing 'guy' cards with this one!!!
   Well I ended up on call for work tonight so I have a few hours this am that I am going to catch up on some craft stuff - then I will pick my DH up at the airport (he made a quick trip home for his younger brother's 50th birthday party)
   All for today - Take Care
        Tera

Locker hook

 Hallo,
    Just a quick couple pictures of my newest hobby - locker hook - it uses a mesh canvas similar to latch hook but instead uses strips of fabric (which is a perfect way to use up scraps of material.)
  This is just a practice piece - will start one for a rug in the next day or so....
   I just drew some lines with a sharpie and outlined them with black and then filled in the 3 spaces - one with yellows that I did in a circular pattern, one in browns which I stitched horizontally and one in reds stitched vertically - just to see what kind of look they produced.                                                                                                            
   I have some flannel material that I bought several years ago to make rag rugs with but never got them done - so I plan to finally use that material. I also have an idea for a wedding theme wall hanging made with the satin of a wedding dress along with ribbons and lace - cannot wait to start that one except that I want some more practice first!!!
   All for today -  I guess I should get something made for super!!!
      Take Care
               Tera

Memory box

 Hallo,
   A non -stamping project for you today.....
  A baby memory box made from a plain wood box, covered with pretty paper, button trim, paper flowers, die cut letters and some metal corners from Tim Holtz.
   Around the side I used a coredinations paper - burgondy with a pink core that I had run through a polka dot texture folder and then sanded off .
  The memory book inside the box is a chipboard book from Tim Holtz - decorated with the same papers plus coordinating papers, more button trim, die cut letters and some gold corner stickers.
  I usually include some stamped images on these boxes but this one was a special request from my Etsy shop :)
   All for today - back to cleaning house and maybe I will be able to get to the craft room later :)
      Take Care
            Tera

Family post - JROTC Ball

 Hallo,
   A few pics of my kids and some of their friends this am from the JrROTC Military Ball last night.
  Jack was in charge of organizing the ball this year - from location, food, invites, music, all the way to the Senior video - and he did a fine job of it too!!!
  Paula as Corp Commander was front stage and center making the announcements and leading the ceremony.
                                                                                                           At this type of function they always post the colors and set a table or place for our missing and fallen soldiers. Everything on the table has a special meaning...its a way of remembering.....

 The boys were all in uniform and the gals all dressed to the 9's - a few parents stayed for the dinner too but the DH and I opted not to bug the kids further and went out to eat on our own (which, even though we have been able to do this more often lately - still feels a bit 'different'...)
  Miss Angie had to make Tom dance with her quick before we left - a running joke because Tom almost never dances but Angie has persisted and succeeded on several occasions :)
  All for this am - headed for the craft room - dreary morning and will probably be raining by lunchtime for the rest of the day.....
         Take Care
              Tera

Together

Hallo,
  A quick card for you today as the DH and I are going to pop in on the Jr.ROTC Military Ball tonight for a bit - both my kids are ROTC - DS did all the planning for the ball this year and DD is Corp Commander, a Senior and will be announcing all the activities(along with one of her co-officers) - then we will leave early and go out to eat on our own....
   I did this card for the 1st release challenge this month over at Flourishes. The challenge was to pick 1 from each of 3 catagories - sketch, colors and then either buttons. lace or ribbon. Check out the challenge here - www.flourishes.org/blog/
Enter and you could win the entire release this month!!!
   The stamp is of course from Flourishes - colored with pencils (Koh-i-noor). I did flip this sketch. Cut the image out with a Spellbinders die.
   All for tonight - bette get a move on :)
    Take Care
                                                                                                Tera

Coloring class - 4

Hallo again,
  Its not often lately that I post twice in one day - having trouble just keeping up with once a day posts.....
  But had to show you what I taught in class today ....I showed everyone a little about the pencils (Koh-i-noor) and OMS (= oderless mineral spirits).
   The first picture is my demo board for todays class - in the top example I pretty much colored as usual and then blended the last image with the OMS.
  On the bottom row I did half and half - the left half of the image was colored by dipping the tip of the pencil into the OMS and then coloring and the left side colored and then blended at the end as I did the top one.
   The OMS smoothes out the pencil a bit for a subtle but differnt look. 
   Both stamps are from Flourishes - www.flourishes.org
   All for today - Take Care
          Tera

Watering can

Hallo,
  Another night of work is done, its a sunny morning so I took missy puppy for her walk (or rather she took me is more like it - left to my own devices I would have gone straight to bed) a quick note here since I am still awake, and then off to bed with me.....
   I did this card for the current challenge over at Impression Obsession which is for ' shades of green' So the fence I made dark green and the watering can is bluegreen with a bit of red for some pop.
  I used a stamp from Impression Obsession called 'Watering can fence' #H1799.
   Check out the challenge here - www.mitrafriant.typepad.com
   I have my coloring class this afternoon and then the weekend off - 5 days off total!!! YIPPEE!!!
   Have a great weekend!!!
       Tera