PaperFections

WSC91: August Calendar

Just in time for August tomorrow, here's my monthly 6-inch calendar. I can't believe how quickly the summer has flown by and school will be starting here in just 3 weeks (yay ... did I say that out loud?!!). Beate is back with this Weekend's Sketch Challenge #91 and this is my sample. You can find the sketch and Beate's sample over at her blog today. For an accent to this page (atop the rose Prima flower), I chose Karen Lockhart's English Daisy stamp and stamped it onto an Inchie Arts White Inchie Square, then colored it with these Copic markers to match the patterned paper: E31, E25, B000, BG72, BG75, R83, R39 and accented the flowers with Copic's new Blossom Spica Glitter Pen. I thought the stamped flowers looked a lot like the ones in the patterned paper. I also lightly stamped the English Daisy stamp along the bottom of the bracket journal paper in a light Desert Sand ink. I printed my own calendar onto the journal paper. I hope you'll check out the samples these talented ladies created with this sketch and play along with us this weekend: Charmaine, Jenn, Laurie, and sweet Lori. Have a wonderful... Read more →

Postage Keeper

Today over at the CLASSroom, I'll show you how to make this postage keeper notebook I created totally from scratch ... I hope you'll join me! I'll be back later this morning with my sample for the Weekend Sketch Challenge, hosted by Beate this week! Read more →

Pearly Butterfly Pair

It's a little difficult to see in this photo, but I tried out making my own "glimmer mist" from Perfect Pearls. I hope you'll join me today in Ellen Hutson's CLASSroom to see how I used it on these Summery cards and find out some other Fall color combos I came up with! Read more →

JustRite Autumn Apples

JustRite Stampers is sponsoring 2 Sketches 4 You this week and has a $100 gift certificate up for grabs if you play along and link to your project! Here's what I came up with for their sketch #31: I used JustRite's beautiful new Autumn Blessings Borders & Centers set ... I adore Fall and this set is fast becoming one of my favorites! It fits onto the Large Oval Wood Stamper (2-1/4" x 3-1/6") and the Spellbinders largest Classic Oval Nestabilities die in the small set fits it perfectly. I matted it with the largest die in the Classic Oval Large set. This image stamped out perfectly and beautifully with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then I colored it with these Copic markers: I'll have a step-by-step Copic coloring tutorial on these apples hopefully later today, so watch for that. (Edited: As luck would have it, my photos didn't turn out very well for the coloring tutorial, but I do have a Red Fruit Coloring Tutorial located HERE that I did a few months ago, which includes apples done this same way. I hope that helps!) I hope you get to play along with this sketch -- it was very... Read more →

Sale at Ellen Hutson LLC

Just a reminder of Ellen Hutson's sale that starts today and runs through July 31 -- Click HERE to have fun shopping! Includes everything in the store ... Nestabilities, Copics, stamps, you name it! Read more →

Dare To Get Dirty JustRite Journal

Splitcoaststampers' annual Dare To Get Dirty challenges are in full swing. They started yesterday and will run through Saturday evening. You can find all the details here and can jump in at any time, to participate in as many or as few as you'd like. My challenge is now posted there. It's a color challenge to only use black and white with just a little accent (15% or less) of red on your project. I hope you'll play along! Here's my sample: This is an 8.50" tall notebook I picked up at Michael's Dollar Bin a while back and altered it just a bit. Here's what it looked like to begin with: I guess you get what you pay for sometimes ... notice that crooked red binding?!! So I camouflaged it with the black velvet rick-rack, to make the binding look straight. This stamp from JustRite Stampers' new Friendship Borders & Centers (released earlier this month) is my favorite image from the set -- I love the swirly tree and beautiful sentiment/font! It fits on JustRite's 3-1/4" Round Wood Stamper. This image, including the border, would normally stamp at about 3" in diameter -- which would have been a little... Read more →

WSC90: Fan Thanks

Do your hot days of summer need some cooling off? Maybe this fan will help! Laurie is our hostess for Weekend Sketch Challenge #90 today. You can find the sketch and her sample over at her blog this morning. Here's my interpretation: I seem to be keeping things very simple lately, so I minimized on the layers shown on the sketch and added machine stitching to act as one of the layers. Adding to the quick & simple ... instead of using two squares behind the focal image, I used one rectangle and then used twill ribbon to visually cut the layer in half, while adding some texture. Karen Lockhart's Electric Fan (#2088) image was stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa ink, to keep with the brown tones of the kraft cardstock and patterned paper, and colored with these Copic markers: I used Clear Copic Spica Glitter Pen on the air blowing from the fan. Hopefully that will show in this closeup: These talented ladies have samples of this sketch for you today, too: Beate, Cami, Charmaine, Jenn and Lori. I'll be back at 3pm Central today with my Dare To Get Dirty Challenge! A bit of houskeeping: Yes, I got... Read more →

JustRite Stampers Giveaway

This week's CPS Sketch #125 is sponsored by JustRite Stampers and there's a big JustRite prize package of new product up for grabs ... you can see it here! All you need to do is make a project with this week's CPS sketch, post it online, then link to your project on the CPS Sketch blog here. You have until late Saturday evening to do this, before a new sketch is posted Sunday morning. One winner will be chosen to receive the prize package. Good luck and you're welcome! I'll be back on Friday afternoon at 3pm Central to share my JustRite project I created with this sketch and earlier on Friday morning with the Weekend Sketch Challenge! Read more →

Scrapbook Art

"Beauty ... ... is not in the face. It is a light in the heart. I will let my light shine." Isn't that a beautiful quote on this lovely Webster's Pages paper, designed by Terri Conrad? I thought it fit nicely with this photo of my youngest ... a totally unsolicited pose she struck for me while on vacation earlier this month! It was so adorable, I had to make it into a piece of scrapbook art. Please join me today over at the CLASSroom and I'll share how I made this page. Read more →

WSC89: Morning Glory Cupcake

Today's Weekend Sketch Challenge #89 is hosted by Lori. You can find the sketch and her sample at her blog today. I was in need of a birthday card for my husband's aunt this week, and Karen Lockhart's new Morning Glory Cupcake came to the rescue! I love this latest addition to the Lockhart floral cupcakes, as my Mom used to have Morning Glories growing all in our back yard when I was young . . . I stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Neenah Classic Natural White cardstock and colored it with these Copic markers: The middles of the flowers are accented with Lavender Copic Spica Glitter Pen. I used the new YG0000 to color in the background behind the cupcakes ... I hope it shows up well in the photo (click on it for a larger/closer view). I love how these new lighter Copic colors are so easy to achieve an airbrushed-look background! Supplies: Stamps: Lockhart Morning Glory Cupcake & Happy Cupcake Day sentiment Paper: Stampin' Up Old Olive, Chatterbox Violet Parlor Paisley, Neenah Classic Natural White Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers & Lavender Spica Glitter Pen Accessories: Spellbinders Classic Oval Nestabilities & Labels One... Read more →

JustRite Summer CHA Release #2 Blog Hop

It's time for round two of JustRite Stamper's Summer Release of new stamps! I combined two new sets for a fun Fall calendar page and coordinating 6-inch scrapbook page. The Calendar Set I used for the "October" title was released last week and these beautiful fall images are from a new oval set, Autumn Blessings, which will be available at the JustRite site next Wednesday, July 22. This set fits on the 3-1/6" wide Large Oval Stamper and you can see all the images in this new set at the JustRite Blog today. I made my calendar in Excel and printed it onto cardstock, then stamped the October title. I have my blank calendar available for download here: Download 2009_Calendars_SharonHarnist The file contains both styles of calendars I've been using this year -- just look for those tabs at the bottom. You can just change the dates on this blank calendar, for each month you'd like to use it. It prints out about 4-3/4" x 4". I used the Copic markers shown above for both Fall images shown here. Isn't this new artwork and font gorgeous?!! The coordinating 6-inch scrapbook page uses another wonderful pumpkin image from the Autumn Blessings... Read more →

Summer Countdown Calendar

Want to keep your kids entertained this summer? How about a countdown calendar filled with fun surprises, to keep them busy until school starts again? I hope you'll join me today over at Ellen Hutson's CLASSroom to get the details on this project I created! Read more →

WSC88: Birthday Pie?!!

Happy Friday morning! I just got back from a week of vacation but I think my mojo is still on vacation! This is what I finally came up with for the Weekend Sketch Challenge #88 hosted by Jenn today. You can find the sketch and her sample at her blog this morning. Be sure to check out the other samples made for this sketch by Beate, Charmaine and Lori ... wonderful weekend eye candy for sure! I needed a birthday card and thought birthday pie might be a nice change of pace ... what do you think?!! Yummm ... warm summer cherry pie, you just can't beat it! This stamp, of course, is from fun & whimsical Karen Lockhart. I stamped the Berry Pie Shoe with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Neenah Classic Natural White cardstock and then colored it with Copic markers R22, R27, R29, E50, E31, E33, E35 and shadowed with W1 and that brand new W00. The also-new Y0000 was used to give a soft yellow glow around the shoe ... I'm finding these new lighter Copic colors are wonderful for giving a soft airbrushed quality to my backgrounds. Then I cut and matted the image with... Read more →

JustRite July Calendar: New Set Preview!

Happy Independance Day to all my fellow Americans! Yes, I'm just a tad bit late posting my July calendar -- sorry about that! But I was waiting on something new and very special (keep on reading!) If you are a regular reader here, you know how much I love making (and using!) my desk calendars each month. They are 6-inches square and hang on THIS wooden display stand on my desk (available from Taylored Expressions -- I stained it to match my desk). You can find a Photo Album of all my calendars over in my right sidebar. I decided upon this 6-inch format because my intent is to then use these monthly calendar pages in a photo album, along with a coordinating 6-inch scrapbook page of a favorite photo of my girls or our family for the month ... a nice, commemorative album for the entire year! So if you may not be interested in calendars, keep in mind that the calendar portion of my pages can always be substituted for a photo and used as a scrapbook page. JustRite's new Calendar Stamp Set (pictured above) is great for either calendars OR scrapbooking, I think, and I've been highly... Read more →

WSC87: Summer Girl's Birthday

Today's Weekend Sketch Challenge is provided by Charmaine. You can find the sketch and her sample on her blog this morning. I needed a young girl's birthday card, so I hope these pinks & greens combined with chocolate will do the trick! I stamped a few of Karen Lockhart's Itty Bitty summer-type images (Baby Bee, Lady Bug, and Escargot) with Adirondack Espresso ink onto patterned paper. I chose this ink due to its very deep brown color. Then I used Martha Stewart's 1" scalloped square punch to punch out the images and adhered them to Inchie Arts White Inchie Squares that I prepped by inking the sides and edges with the same Espresso ink. I used Melon & new Chocolate Spica Glitter Pens to accent the images just a bit. The center striped panel is machine stitched around the edges and popped up on dimensional foam tape. I hope you'll take a look at the samples these ladies created for you with this sketch and then try it for yourself over this long holiday weekend: Cambria, Charmaine, and Lori. I'll be back tomorrow with a new JustRite stamp set preview to share with you, so I hope you'll check back!... Read more →