Monday, July 21, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
New Fun Toy - Mica!
Anyway, I had remembered seeing a cool project done using something called Mica. When I was at the stamp show in Airdrie a few months ago, I saw a package of the stuff so I bought it! Since then, another stamping friend (Hi Robin!!) has also become interested in this product. So, what is it?? It's actually a rock! But this rock is cool...it is in many many layers that you can pull apart to the point of being transparent. And it is totally heat resistant so you can emboss til the cows come home..if you want to. My Mica is from a company called US Art Quest and it is the regular tile size but you can get it in many different shapes and sizes, all the way down to "dust" !! Go have a peek!
For my card, I wanted to try stamping between 2 thin layers of the mica.
So I started by seperating one piece of mica til I got the 2 thinnest pieces I could get. Then, on one I stamped my wheat image using StazOn Black. It is like stamping on a transparency so you need to be careful that it doesn't slip. When it was dry, I used a small bit of Tombow Mono Multi glue behind the black image and along the very edges to glue the two sheets together. I wanted to add some color so I used my alcohol inks in butterscotch and a little caramel and put some color on the back of the image.The rest of the card is pretty straight forward. I am proud to say that the layout is a Donelda original. I don't often come up with original layouts but I had thought of this and sketched it into my creative journal a while ago so I thought I'd actually use it!
You may wonder where all the texture came from on the Pumpkin Pie and Summer Sun pieces. Well, a long time ago, I made some textured paper by misting it with water, crumpling it, and then ironing it flat. I made A LOT of it a while ago and I'm still slowly using it up. If you were to look, you would noticed it in a number of my projects over the years in my SCS gallery. It is especially great for making leaves and flowers but also for great background paper - you can see some in this project, this project and this project. You will note that on these projects there are some red, purple, and yellow texturized paper. I think the colors you see on my current card came from a different scrapbook page where I made leaves for a fall family photo shoot!
Anyway, that's my first project using Mica! If any of you have used mica and have some great ideas to share, I'd love to hear about them!
Supplies: Ink-Basic Black; Paper-Summer Sun, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black (all SU!); Stamps - Wheat (Cornage Heritage Farms), Simple Little Things (Papertrey Ink); Other - Mica (US Art Quest), Alcohol Inks (Ranger), Stamp a ma jig (EK Success); Coluzzle.
Wow, was I ever long winded tonight! I try to keep my blathering to a minimum....but I guess it got the best of me this time.
Thanks for visiting. Donelda
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Matching Card

Sunday, July 13, 2008
Name Frame for Karis

Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Off to USA.....
Monday, June 30, 2008
Knotty Card

yellow, green and brown. The brad is a Build a Brad from Stampin' Up. I stamped more polka dots on vanilla for the top of the brad. The dots on the edges are hand drawn with a black marker. Friday, June 27, 2008
Teacher Cards
This card was totally inspired and cased from Alli Miles' card that you can see HERE. If you haven't visited Alli's blog, you definately should poke around there for a while. She is an amazing card maker!!Wednesday, June 25, 2008
June Blog Hop with Papertrey Ink!
Yeah, it is Blog Hop time again!! This is such a fun event where Nichole from Papertrey Ink gives us a challenge. Then we all upload them on our blog or PTI gallery and spend the evening getting inspiration from everyone!! It is so much fun.This month, the challenge was to use acetate or transparencies in our creations!

I had so much fun creating this trio of cards. I let Heather (pine is here) inspire me this time. Not only did I use her favorite cardstock color (Kraft) but I used paint on my stamps. Here's the story.....
You see, I bought the Aqua Mist twill tape because it looked so yummy but the ink was out of stock....so, I had this awesome twill but nothing to "match" it colorwise. But I decided not to let that stop me. I pulled out my acrylic paints and started experimenting to see if I could come up with a color to match my twill. And I did!! I used a lot of white, a little green (that I bought to match SU! Mellow Moss) and a small little bit of a royal blue color. Voila, Aqua Mist paint! You can check out Heather's blog HERE for a great demo on using paint and your stamps.
I love the end results! I love the color combination! Where is the acetate??? Well, that little butterfly on the front left is acetate. On the front right card, the leaf is stamped on acetate with Versamark and then embossed with white embossing powder. Then I painted my Aqua Mist paint on the back and attached it to the card with dimensionals. Although I was going to trim
the painted part to be straight, I really liked the "loose feel" that the uneven painted edges gave the card, so I left it. The card in the back has the most acetate. I stamped the butterfly on acetate using StazOn Jet Black. Then, when it was dry, I turned it over and painted my Aqua Mist paint onto the back. I even made a darker tint to paint onto the back wings (looks great in real life, you probably can't really tell in the photos). Then, I cut it out and set it aside. Next, I stamped the flowers onto another sheet of acetate. I attached this sheet to my Kraft cardstock using some eyelets which I had in my stash that are almost a perfect match to the Aqua Mist color as well. Then, I attached the butterfly to the flower acetate layer by using dimensionals. Here is a close-up!Here are the 3 cards individually so you can see some of the other details. Yes, I used the same home-made Aqua Mist paint on my Polka Dot stamps for some of the backgrounds and also the leaf stamp from Beautiful Blooms (I love that leaf stamp!!).


Well, I hope that my cards inspire you some. I am off to check out all the other blogs and get more great inspiration!!
Supplies: Cardstock-Kraft, Basic Black, Whisper White (all SU!); Stamps-large butterfly (All Night Media), small butterfly (Rubber Stampede), Beautiful Blooms, Polka Dot Basics, Green Thumb, Text Boxed, Simple Little Things (all Papertrey Ink!); Ink - Versamark, Basic Black (SU!); Other- Aqua Mist Twill (Papertrey Ink), acetate (unknown), white embossing powder, acrylic paint, sponge brush, eyelets (unknown).
Thanks for visiting.
Donelda
Monday, June 23, 2008
Exhausted !
Does it happen to you?? You are exhausted after a weekend of camping, come home on Sunday night, get a good night sleep in your own dry, warm, bed and then feel even more tired the NEXT night?? Well, that is exactly where I am ..... exhausted :-)
Anyway, I thought I'd leave you with our little friend who visited us while we were camping. He really enjoyed the peanuts we brought for snacking!
Have a good evening.
Donelda
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Yoga Tea Anyone???

Wet and Tired!!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Good Bye to a Friend and Coworker

We are going camping this weekend so I'll see you all on Mon.
My friend and co-worker is leaving to go on to bigger and better things!! We got her a gift certificate for one of her favorite shops. I was asked to make a card for it to fit into.
Since it was square, I decided to use one of my new 4 1/4 " square envelopes as a size guide. I made this square card with a gate fold. The main image is only attached to the left side of the card and it opens there.
I love this tree from the Lovely as a Tree set (Stampin' Up). I've longed for this set and decided I'd better get it before this catty retires...you just never know. I watercolored the tree using my ink pads. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink (Mixed Messages).
On the inside, I made a pocket for the gift certificate to slip into! It was a simple but fun card to make. I hope she likes it and the gift certificate!!
Supplies: Cardstock-Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip (SU!), Old World Stack (Die Cuts with a View), Watercolor paper; Ink- Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss, Garden Green, Basic Black,(SU!), Black (Archivers); Stamps- Lovely As A Tree (SU!), Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink); Other- watercolor brush.
Thanks for visiting!
Donelda
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Farewell Boss

My boss is leaving to go work in a neighboring school division. We got her a gift certificate from one of her favorite tack shops. The gift certificate is really long and comes in a really big and long envelope. So, I was asked to make a "western" style card to put the gift certificate in.
I borrowed the horse image from Chris (thanks again Chris!!). Stamped it on vanilla cardstock with chocolate chip ink. Then I stitched around the vanilla with brown thread. I lightly sponged around the edge with chocolate chip ink. Then I added some brown hemp and a few brass brads. Next, I stamped the Riveting sentiment onto vanilla cardstock with versamark and embossed it with copper embossing powder. I attached that to a copper vellum tag and added it to the other end of the card for balance. I added the brown designer paper and stamped the paisly image from Stampin' Up using versamark to get a subtle look on the background.
When I looked at the finished card, the horses looked like they were floating so I used my sponge dauber and put a little bit of chocolate chip under thier hoofs.....ground for them to run on!!!
Thanks for looking,
Donelda
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Father's Day Tree
I love the new Father Knows Best stamp set from Papertrey Ink (well, it's not new anymore since I think there have been 2 releases but it is from my newest bunch of stamps ordered from Papertrey Ink!). This tree is fantastic!!!Thursday, June 12, 2008
Father's Day and Popsicle Sticks
Keep checking in...I'm watching my counter.......blog candy is being gathered!!!
ink from spreading, then I cut the stick to be the right length! I really like the look -- feels masculine!! Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Faux Cloisonne Technique

This is a very interesting technique. I saw it on SCS for the Try a New Technique challenge #159
The technique is called Faux Cloisonne and what you do is stamp a line image onto a piece of magazine with an interesting design. For my flower, I found a silver watch that had pink gems in the band. I strategically placed my inked up flower image. Voila!!
I added the flower onto some light cardstock and then attached it all to this grungeboard leaf die-cut! The color of the grungeboard was perfect so I didn't do anything to it.
Added all this to some pink cardstock matted with black. On some grey cardstock, I randomly stamped
the smaller version of the bigger flower. A sentiment and some grey satin ribbon and voila, a card for someone who needs a "pick me up".All cardstock and ink is Stampin' Up, Stamps are Papertrey Ink, ribbon is from Michael's $1.50 bin.
Thanks for dropping in. Don't forget I am gathering some blog candy............
Donelda
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Grad Cards 08
I had a request for a grad card so I made a few. I generally like to give my customers some options, especially when they make a special request.It was for a young man who was graduating from University....
So, which one do you like the best?? I really like the cranberry square card.... and the many word card. I'm not sold on the grey card but....who knows.
Supplies:Many Words card: Cardstock-Sahara Sand, Buckaroo Blue, Whisper White (SU!); Ink - Buckaroo Blue, Basic Black (SU!); Stamps - Sketch an Event (SU!), Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink); Other - watercolor brush, black cord, stickers (EK Success).
Cranberry Square card: Cardstock-Cranberry Crisp, Sahara Sand, Basic Black, Whisper White (SU!); Ink- Basic Black, Cranberry Crisp (SU!); Stamps-Sketch an Event (SU!), Congrats (Studio g); Other-sticker (EK Success).

Grey card- Cardstock-Going Grey, Basic Grey,
Whisper White (SU!); Ink-Basic Black, Versamark (SU!); Stamps-Sketch an Event (SU!), Mixed Messages (Papertrey Ink); Other-silver cord (unknown), black embossing powder, black marker (Zig), photo corner epoxy sticker (unknown).
Thanks for visiting.
Donelda
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Hubby's Birthday Card

Keep checking back, I'm gathering some goodies for blog candy to be offered soon..........
spell the word behind him like in the photo. So, instead, I used strips of cardstock.
And here is the card that my son made for him .... he is so creative. He wanted the card to be a "book" so built the pages inside to fold up so it looked like a book. And he used some foam stickers for the binding -- they are actually sattelites but he thought they could look like the binding on old books. Wow!! Dad loved this card too, of course.Friday, June 6, 2008
Wildlife Inchies


Thursday, June 5, 2008
Quick post

I received this blogging award from my friend Chris. She just said the nicest things on her blog about me and my blog. It is amazing how wonderful this crazy craft is....I have met some of the nicest people through Splitcoaststamper and blogging. And also some very creative people. You must check out Chris' blog as she has become addicted to Tilda's these days and has some incredible coloring on her cards!!
Thanks Chris and thanks everyone for visiting.
Oh, and I am gathering some yummy items for some Blog Candy...coming soon :-) so come back and visit often~~
Donelda
Raspberry Wishes

Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Local High School Grad card

I totally cased this idea from SmilynStef !!! Of course I changed the school name. I saw her card and loved it. I don't actaully know anyone who is graduating from our local high school but I do have a co-worker who's son is graduating so I gave it to her and told her she could use it if she wanted to :-) She seemed to like it!!
The background is made on my computer. I printed the school name and symbols and then cut the paper so it was on a slant when I added it to the card. I have no idea if this is how Stephanie did it but that's how I did it! The rest of the card is pretty straight forward.
Supplies: Cardstock-Whisper White, Brilliant Blue (Stampin' Up!); Ink-Brilliant Blue, Basic Black (Stampin' Up!); Stamps-Sketch an Event (Stampin' Up!), Simple Little Things (Papertrey Ink); Other-Computer (which is how I made the background paper).
Thanks for visiting. Donelda
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Father's Day Round Duck card

Monday, June 2, 2008
Dusk Sympathy

I have really enjoyed Michelle Zindorf's blog since the day she started it. She has such a wonderful style of card making. You must go check her blog out!!
I used her brayering technique on this sympathy card. Started with summer sun along the bottom, then added pumpkin pie across the top and finished off with really rust at the very top and corners. And some close to cocoa and chocolate chip sponged across the bottome. The setting sun was made from a post it note!! Simple!!
Supplies: Cardstock-brown (Bazzill), Apricot Appeal, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!); Stamps-Pond Life, Simple Little Things (both Papertrey Ink), Of a Feather (Memory Box); Ink-Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Really Rust, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip (all Stampin' Up!), StazOn Jet Black; Other-brayer, post it note, versamark pen, clear embossing powder, sponge.
Thanks for visiting.
Donelda

