Masculine Cards and Copics

After spending an evening making feminine cards, I was in the mood for something different. I felt like coloring, too, so I stamped these images from Peace, Be Still by The Angel Company.

I really didn't know what I was going to do with them when I started coloring. After I got this first one done, I knew I wanted to put blue and brown behind it. When I looked through my Cuttlebug Embossing Folders, I saw this one and figured it could look just like crashing waves! I embossed DCWV paper, then sanded it lightly.

Ok, I'll admit that I was clueless as to how I wanted to begin to color this image so I cheated. I looked at Debra Miller's card on page 88 of TAC's last catty. She colors so beautifully, that I just sorta went with what she had already done. Mine's not exactly like hers, but I'm please with how it turned out. The sentiment is from that same new stamp set that I can't put down. Don't you just love a great vertical sentiment?!?!? :-)

Maggie Floral Vase

Remember that new stamp Market Street Stamps set that I first showed you here? Well, I just can't quit using it! The flowers are supposed to look kind of like those blue-ish, purple-ish hydrangeas that you see, so I used watercolor crayons to color on the stamp before misting with water. It's interesting that the acrylic stamps don't react the same way as rubber with this technique. It took about six attempts until I was happy with the results.

The other coloring you see is with Copics, and the paper is from TAC's Maggie collection
I wanted to show you the inside of the card because the sentiment is such a good one and it's pretty too! Me likes the way the font ties the outside and inside together. :-)

Variations on Floral Vases

I've always loved the simplicity of this vase and flower set so it was fun to pull it out and play with it again. If you haven't yet, you might want to go back and look at yesterday's post--it has the first two cards I made the other day while using this set.
I used the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder but did not use Glossy Accents this time.

I'm honestly not too sure about the card below. Something about it doesn't seem right to me? Is it my experimental brown dot background instead of the usual blues? Is it the color palette (I pulled them all from TAC's Juliette, though)? Is it just a bad layout/design? If you have any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear. I'm leaning toward teh fact that the brown dot background looks so busy to me...

First Day of Fall Blog Hop

Yep! You're getting two posts in one day! The other one was pre-scheduled, and then my former Angel friends announced a blog hop to celebrate the first day of fall. This stamp set is the same one that I used in this post, and I thought these flowers looked like the wild sunflowers that grow along the roads here in Kansas in the fall.
I colored the image with my copics and left off the Glossy Accents this time. The card base is brown (even though it looks black in this photo), so the colors have a true "fall feel."
Now hop on over to the blogs of my Angel buddies!

More Floral Vases

If you read yesterday's post, you know that I'm a softie for floral arrangements in vases. While I was waiting for my new stamps to come (see yesterday's post), I pulled out this really old TAC set and played with it.

I colored with Copics and added Stickles to the middle of the flowers. To make the vase look ceramic, I used Glossy Accents. I'm still working on my Copic shadows for grounding. :-) Oh, and if you look really close, you can see the little flowers on the bottom half. It is a single flower that I stamped repeatedly with Bordeaux.

After doing the first card, I decided to see what wold happen with the solid vase. Would you believe I had NEVER used that part of the set before?!?!? After stamping it, I used Copic markers to give it depth and a shadow along the right side (kinda hard to see in the picture). I used the Stardust Clear Gelly Pen in the flower centers.

Again, Glossy Accents on the vase. Brilliance Moonlight White added the textured look I wanted.

Come back tomorrow for 2 more cards using this set.

New Stamps!

For some reason, I am ALWAYS drawn to floral stamps--especially flower arrangement in "clear vases." When I saw this card by my friend Laurie, I knew I wanted that stamp set. Plus, it seems I'm always needing more sympathy sayings. This set from Market Street Stamps had it all!

As soon as it arrived, I inked it up and made this quick card. I started with these flowers because I didn't have time to do much coloring. One thing I'm not very happy with on this card is how the Glossy Accents turned the vase so yellow. I had never used it on ivory cardstock until now, so at least I'll know what to expect in the future!
I colored the "water" with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. I didn't have much time to color, and I'm still trying to master my Copic technique so I figured this was faster. :-) There are two lines above and below the main image--I did those with my Scor-Pal. Love that thing!

Another Version of the CASEd Card

Yesterday I showed you a card by Heather, my CASE and another similar card. I made this one at the same time, but if you hadn't seen yesterday's post, you may not realize that it was inspired by the same card. It just kept getting further and further from the original. :-)

For this one, I stamped the flower all three times without re-spritzing the stamp. You can't really see it in the photo, but I stamped several more times to fill in the white space. The die is from the same Tim Holz Mini Butterflies set. I sponged the edges of this one with Bordeaux and glued it flat this time.

Couldn't decide how I wanted to adhere my sentiment panel. I ended up with it overlapping a bit and rounding a corner. Best option? I'm not sure...

CASEd sympathy

For my next set of sympathy cards, I CASEd a card from Heather Scott but used an old TAC stamp instead of the one from the current catty. I have the newer one, but I was just in the mood to use my VERY old stamps. :-)


This first card is almost an exact CASE. You can see Heather's card at the end of this post.

The technique uses watercolor crayons. I colored on the stamp, spritzed with water then stamped--sometimes more than once before repeating the process. The embossing folder is Swis Dots from Cuttlebug.

The next card is similar, but I changed the direction and colors and added a butterfly using the Tim Holz Mini Butterflies die.

The card below is Heather's original. See why I wanted to CASE it?!?! It's beautiful!
Tomorrow I'll show you another version of this...

Another Tulip Card

First let me apologize for the funky angle of this photo. It kinda makes the card look like it's a really odd shape. Sigh...

Again, I had the tulip stamped before I ever decided what to do with it. Since I had used ovals on the other cards (posted yesterday), I wanted to use a different shape this time. I also wanted a vertical card since the others were horizontal. Here's what I ended up with.

Both the ivory and green are embossed--hope you can see that! I used Swiss Dots embossing folder by Cuttlebug for the bottom panel.

My next posts will include older stamps again, but not this tulip. Stay tuned! :-)

Old Stamps, New Fun

Unfortunately I've needed several sympathy cards lately so my stash has been depleted and I needed to make more. Plus, I've been itching to play with some of my very old TAC stamps.

When I started the cards below, I didn't know this is what I'd be making! I simply started by stamping the tulip on ivory cardstock, using colors I thought would be pretty. After I punched the main image oval and put it together with the green and red, I remembered a card I have received in a swap a while back. Voila--the first card came togehter!

I hope you can see the scoring on the card base. I used my handy dandy Scor-Pal. The green label is also embossed, but I'm not sure you can see that very well. Patterned paper is TAC's Penelope.

After I finished the red tulip, I started on the purple tulip. I decided to stick with the same layout, but I scored the lines closer together this time. Patterned paper is TAC's Angelee.

Here's the card that inspired me. Is it close enough to calle it a CASE? I'm not sure! Either way, it's a card by former TAC Angel Jeanine Jensen.

Teddy Bear; Take 2

After making this teddy bear card, I thought that my stamp class ladies might enjoy making it too. Then I remembered that they pretty much despise paper piecing if it involves fine cutting. What do do? Revise it so that cutting is minimal!

This is what I came up with, but I have to say that I think it loses its unique-ness and cute-ness factors.
So...I think I'll give my stamping ladies a choice. They can do either card--paper piecing or not!

I colored the bear with Skin Tone Pencils and used OMS. For the balloons I used Prismacolor Pencils and OMS. The polka dots are from Circles of Love, a Level A Hostess Set in TAC's last catalogue.

Sweet Silhouettes

Yesterday when I made the teddy bear card for the blog hop, it was the first time I had created anything since TAC closed. That must have got the mojo going again, because today I spent a while in there. Here's one of the things I did before I got distracted talking to my lovely daughter.
The set is called Sweet Silhouettes and was a brand new one in TAC's last catalogues. I've noticed online that the cameo/profile/silhouette thing is kind of popular right now. I stamped the image several times and even refilled my Noir Palette pad, but I'm still not totally pleased with the lack of "solid-ness" of the image. sigh...
In this shot you can see the border punch and the image panel raised with pop dots. I was going for white ribbon and a big bow under the image and to the left a bit, but it was just too much. In this case, I thought plain was better. The pearls aren't quite tiny enough for what I wanted , but it still gives the same effect.

Teddy Bear Day Blog Hop

September 9 is Teddy Bear Day, so my Angel friends and I are celebrating with a blog hop!
My card is not "typical me"--at least it didn't "feel" like me when I was making it! LOL I was looking through my images to see what teddy bears I had, when the idea for this just popped into my head. The bear, the balloons, and the sentiment are all from different sets that were retired long before The Angel Company closed. I've kept them because they're just so handy.
The twine is from The Twinery, and the punch is ek success. It's hard to tell in this picture, but the teddy bear's hand is up so it really does look like he's holding the balloons. :-)






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New/Uncut TAC stamps for sale

The following are all Brand New/Uncut. Paypal preferred. Money orders accepted.

Prices INCLUDE shipping:

TAC3268 That Guy $11

T3373 Noble Notes $20

T2800 The First Thanksgiving $7 (rubber only)

T3053 S is for She $8 (2 sets)

T3281 Hope Perches $12

TA3206 Floral Mug $8 (2 sets)

TA3209 Build-a-Background $8

TA3146 Tiny Tidbits $8 (3 sets)

TA3121 Rose Collage $8 (2 sets)

TA3155 Enjoy Nature $8

TA3409 Happy Today $8

TA3239 Swirled Spring Life $8

T2998 ?? $14 (Special Set--script fonts for words Love, peace, Family Beautiful, faith, pray, etc. Plain font for words thanks a, an everlasting, raised on, the essence of life, for you, etc.)

Lots of TAC stamps for sale!

The following stamps are used and 50% or more off regular price. Postage FREE with $10 purchase. Paypal preferred, MO accepted.


G539 Mini StorRite Storage Portfolio—Never Used--$8

T2672 Salsa Flowers $4

T3349 HedgeHog Happiness $11

TB3124 Floral Fruits $6

T875 Squiggle Hearts $5

T434 Candy Stripes $2

T606 Fresh and Fun $5

T543 Brushed Tulip $7

T2747 Treasure It $6 (missing sentiment)

T2566 Tip Toe $8

T2769 He Said She Said $4

T2746 A God Thing $5

T2604 Autumn Smiles $3 (rubber only)

T3136 Happy Thoughts $6

T3043 What a Hoot $8

T3038 Artsy Owls $10

T3165 Be Square $5

TA3155 Enjoy Nature $4

T2709 Love Doodles $5

T906 Little Tidbits $5

T1146 Fa La La $4

LE of T2745 Rose Garden $2

T2976 Homespun Holiday $11

T2319 Word Plates $4

T 2802 Spring Flowers $8

TA3483 Lovely Butterfly $4

T3132 Joyful Tags $9

T2515 Buggie Christmas $10

TB 2830 Thank You $6

T2270 Swirly Flowers $10

T2215 Christmas Joy $5

T2408 The Arts $8

T2982 Welcome Home $4

T2327 The Buzzz $8

T3311 Autumn Leaves $6

T2706 Holiday Magic $8

T2669 Bold Flourishes $9

T2943 All Occasion Circles $11 (only 2 circles cut out/used)

T3262 Branches in Bloom $10

R2041 Hoppity Skippity $8

T30936 Fruit Collages $5

??? Beautiful Outcomes (I think that’s the name—has flowers in a mailbox, toilet, buggy, etc) $5

??? Hello Sunshine? (It was a SOTM in 2005, I think. Has swirly butterfly, flowers, dragonfly, ladybug, etc.) $5