Underwater fun

Today is my birthday!  Happy Birthday to me!!! (liberties taken with the popular song on the radio)

Today I thought I'd show you a card I made for an exchange at Oriental Stamp Art.

 I used some washi purple paper as the background and stamped this mermaid from Inkadinkado.  I covered it with a same size piece of Vertigo sheet by Imagine.  The layer was wrapped with sheer purple ribbon and held in place by Stickapodomous Stickers. The combnation was matted on another purple cardstock layer and placed on a black card front.  The right edge is punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.

I hope I captured the watery effect in this shot for you.  Cool stuff these Vertigo sheets!
Hugs!

Show Off Your Paper!

Hello!

At a meeting of our stamp club in April I was reminded of a way to show off our special pretty paper that we all collect or make!  A simple layout that we can make lots in one session.  For those of us at Oriental Stamp Art who collect a lot of Asian Washi paper, this is a wondersul way to share some our stash:) 

 Pick two patterned papers that have a similar colour in them in common.  Separate with band of plain paper or ribbon.  Add a simple greeting or image and you're done!  You can mat the papers like in my crane friendship card or mount them flush to the edge.

I like to use the scraps to decorate the inside to match the front of the card. 
Have fun!
Hugs!

Cancer Donation + Mojo Monday

Hello All!

I know I promised this to be a month of Oriental cards, but I've finally been able to do something I've been planning for a while now:  Donate my hair to cancer.  We lost my dad AND father-in-law to 2 different cancers in 2009.  I found out this was an option to donation a couple years ago when a friend's son started growing his hair to donate...  This month my hair was the minimum 8 inches long ponytail to donate.  So my sister, a red-seal hairdresser did the honours for me and when sending it along to Pantene... well we must make cards!!!

I did this card using the sketch at Mojo Monday for their Challenge/Contest 405.

I used Best Creation glitter cardstock, black glossy cardstock, cancer print paper by Me & My Big Ideas, pink paper from a gelli plate session, a flower from the Re-Use Centre here in Edmonton, half pearl from Stampin' Up! and a Magenta Stamp called Be-YOU-tiful.

These other cards used various supplies from my stash, a ribbon stamp and various greeting stamps.

I wanted to send 10 cards so I included a card I did last year and recycled a beautiful pink oriental card I received from Bonnie at OSA last year too.  Hey!  I guess there is some oriental!!!

Here is the package ready to go through Canada Post :)  The girl at the counter said I got points for wrapping! :)

Oh yes.... Here are before and after of my hair, if you're interested...

Hugs!

July OSA Spotlight Artist

Hi All!

Lots of activity here in the Connell household...
The Oriental Stamp Artists named me the Spotlight Artist for the month of July and I'm thrilled!
OSA is a stamping group on Yahoo Groups and we have multiple challenges, swaps, mingles and share art on an Oriental theme all around the world!  Check us out if you also enjoy oriental art...

So for my project I decided to complete another page spread in one of my art journals:

Started with a set of pages I had already prepped in purple watercolour, some scrap paper and images cut out of advertising.

Then I found some perfect stencils in the Stencils 201 Book.  I used acrylic paint through the stencil to get these pretty blossoms:)

Then my stamps and Adirondak inks were added to continue the flower theme.  All was well until the last impression on the far left...  Arg! Hate edge stamping!

So I took out another stencil, my Inka Gold paste and my trusty finger to cover some of that up and provide some texture.

To finish it off, I stamped this greeting onto vellum and matted it onto some washi paper.  This placed on the gold pattern finished it off. 

Keep checking this month for other oriental projects!
Hugs!

New Tag

Hello!
I've been participating in a monthly tag swap at a local scrapbook store since February.  Each month we get given a theme and the requirement to use the Prima tags.  This month the theme was 'All About Me'.  I like the idea, but get stumped when doing this theme with people I do not know well...
I decided to pick a favourite quote I try to live by and some favourite elements.  After I completed the tags, I thought of a GREAT idea. (figures!)  Anyway, here is my June All About Me tag, step by step:

First I used Prima Hancock Park tags and embossed them using my CutNBoss and it's wood grain embossing folder.  Could do 2 of these large tags in one pass!

StazOn ink was rubbed over the raised embossing and I sprayed the tags with ? spray and used baby wipes to spread the stain... brown fingers for the next 2 days!

This tree stamp is by Magenta and a favourite.  I stamped it and the greeting on textured cream cardstock that has a fuzzy feel to it.  I got it through a group purchase with my stamp club and we dubbed it 'dirty paper' as it feels rather sexy! :)

The leaves on the tree and saying were coloured with my Stampin' Up markers and the texture of the paper helped smooth out the lines quite nicely.  The last thing I did was distress the edges of both saying and tree panels and pop dot adhered them to the tag. 

Hope you like this attempt at showing some of what I am about...

Grad Season

Hello again!
Tis' the season for graduation celebrations.
High school, kindergarten, university and even grade 9.
The last one is the focus of this post.
I deliver lunches that have been ordered to kids at their schools.  "Hey it's the Lunch Lady!!!"  Needless to say I get a lot of smiles and occasionally hugs:)  These past 3 years though there's one young lady at a school I deliver to that has amazed me.  Even in Grade 7 she would be unfailingly polite to me each week and went out of her way to let me know why she wasn't ordering the next week.  (Here's where I start to sound old) Most kids do not have respect for adults anymore... I am lucky that my schools are pretty ok, but I have seen and experienced the indifference and even rudeness that seems to be the norm these days.  So this girl stood out!
Back to the card...
So this young lady is finishing her junior high education this June and since my last delivery was last week, I wanted to let her know she was amazing and encourage her to keep aiming high. I made this card for her:

I followed a past Mojo Monday pattern and stuck to the black and white theme.  Papers are mostly from my scrap stash.  I used a shimmer white for the punched border and centre circle.  The mat on the circle is plastic mesh from when we replaced a window screen :)  The alpha strip is fabric tape from Prima, I think.  Last but not least is the greeting, which is from an old Stampin' Up set. 

End of the story: She loved it, thanked me for the card and not and gave me a big hug.  I love hugs!

More Peacocks

Hello!

It's spring!
It's warm again!
It's hard to stay inside and stamp when there are growing things to take care of!
I have been starting a new job and also doing some needed prep work in the yard for this year's growing season... Sooooo the blog got neglected.  Sorry about that!

I did play with more of the papers and stamps from the new Heartfelt Creations Peacock Paisley line though and thought I'd show you the results of an afternoon of no deadline fun.  Many of the papers are double sided which only double the fun of creating.

This is close up of a card using a scrap that struck me as looking like an "L".  As some know, I love to look for uses for scraps :)

And as these papers are double sided, the inside can be rather busy so I made an inside panel to be able to leave a sentiment and visible signature.

Hope you enjoy!
Hugs!