TECHNIQUE JUNKIES TREASURE HUNT!

Welcome to Technique Junkies TREASURE HUNT!

This month we are treating you to SNEAK PEEKS from the Technique Junkie CD #7 (It has TEN bonus techniques not covered in any of the newsletters)…Didn't Vada and Judy inspire you with their creations?!! (If you didn't arrive here from the Technique Junkie blog, you don't want to miss what our whole Design Team has in store for you! The Treasure Hunt starts at http://techniquejunkies.blogspot.com/)

In the process of going from Blog to Blog you will want to collect small treasures! At the end of the treasure hunt, see what your collection says and follow Pat’s directions how you can enter your answer to win a FABULOUS treasure!

My project gives you a SNEAK PEEK to the Technique "COMPRESSED SPONGE PETALS". The technique instructions will be available in the upcoming Technique Junkies CD7! If you are not a Technique Junkie subscriber, that's okay! Anyone can purchased the CD's. They are packed with 100 techniques (90 from the 6 newsletters this past year AND 10 bonus techniques). Each CD has step by step pictorial directions on how to use al of these WONDERFUL techniques!
Now........Here are the details for my project:
Stamps by FireCracker Designs by Pamela
Cardstock: Glossy
Accessories: Compressed sponge and inks, EK Success flourish punches, Nestabilities Ovals, copic markers, sponges, corner punch by Imaginations.
Paper: Bazzill, White Neenah


The treasure you will find here is the letter "A". For your next CLUE to the TREASURE go to Beth's Blog and follow her directions to the next blog. Keep linking to the next blog to collect the rest!

You have until September 4th, 9 am EST to have your entry in on the final blog destination! Have fun hunting for your treasure! I hope YOU are the one to win! We will be hosting a TREASURE HUNT every month on the last Monday.

I have a little blog candy on the post before this too! You need to post a comment on THAT day's post....not on this post to enter.

BLOG CANDY!!!

WINNERS HAVE BEEN ANNOUNCED AND THE BLOG CANDY CONTEST IS CLOSED. See the entry for Friday, Sept 4th for the winners!

I am so tickled that I have over 3,000 visits to my blog! So I decided that we should celebrate!

I was shopping (online) and happened across this darling unmounted stamp from Hambo. Doesn't it make the most darling card? Well.......it happened to be on sale and I decided that I would order three instead of one and share with my cyber friends! That's TWO winners. I'll post the video of the drawing on Friday.

Here's how you can enter!

1. Make a comment on this post (one entry)
2. Put a post on YOUR blog telling others about the candy (one entry). Include the link to your blog on your original comment to be counted!

Your name will go on a slip of paper and into a big bowl so even early posters have a great chance!

If you are "anomynous" in the comment area, please leave your e-mail addy. You can replace the @ and the . with words instead if you wish (i.e. mommy at msn dot com)

I will leave the candy contest open until September 4th, noon (Pacific Time).

The background on the card is called Simple Sumi and it is one of my favorite techniques from the Technique Junkie newsletters! It was colored with copic markers.

Enjoy!!

Artful Sentiments Copic Challenge #23

Make sure you read the purple words at the end before you leave!

I swear that the clocks are on double time lately! Another week has gone by and it seems like only yesterday that I posted the last challenge card. This week the colors were quite different. The card did not start the way it ended but I'm sure many of you have had that happen! I grabbed this angel stamp by Nicole Croy. When I purchased the stamp I didn't see a printed image only the rubber. So, I had this image in my head and when I finally stamped it, the image was a little different than I had imagined. A little more dotty and the head wasn't particularly to my liking. BUT, I figured that I would work with it just the same. For the background, I used the GESSO OFF technique from the Technique Junkie newlsetter.

It happens to be a technique that I came up with. After completing the technique, the background needed to be toned down a little so I brayered SU's Apricot Appeal over the top. N0ne of the ribbon I had seemed to go well and after digging through my fibers I found this one. You can't tell in the scan very well but the colors of the fibers are golden and bronzy. The color palette is quite removed from my normal but that's okay. It is good to stretch your wings. (pun intended!) My cyber friend, Nancy Judd, always comes up with beautiful earthy colors in her cards. She and I have often joked about it. She has a hard time with the pastels and brights and I have a hard time with the earthy colors. So, when either of us would post a card that was out of our normal comfort zone, the other would make comment on how unusual it was! So this card, Dear Nancy, is for you!!

Yesterday I went to the Local Stamp store (LSS) to pick up some Amuse stamps that they had ordered for me. I don't really need anything at the LSS....really....I don't. But when I came away I had a nice little bag of ribbons, a few stamps and a couple pieces of patterned paper. Like I truly needed any of it!! I did feel good though knowing that I was helping the local business stay in business, right?! One of the stamps I picked up is a DARLING little racoon with his hands (paws) in the air. I hope you'll see it soon. I have a hard time letting go of any of my stamps. The 20 year collection is getting rather large now. So......what is your opinion? Purge a few or keep? What do you do and why? Tell me!

OH!! I don't want to forget....you WILL want to watch the blog on SUNDAY and again on MONDAY. On Sunday I will have some blog candy!! Then on Monday, the Technique Junkie Design Team is hosting a blog hop with a fabulous prize at the end. Sign up for e-mail notifications so you don't miss the candies!

A Sweet Blog award

Well.....I opened my e-mail the other day to find a note saying....."Please look at my blog post. There is something for you!" That was the message from Laurie on her blog "Ministering Hands". Laurie and I are both on Kimm Bennington-Thompson's Copic Challenge Design Team. What was the 'something'? A lovely blog award called "Circle of Friends"

As I picked my five friends to award, I found that some had already been chosen by others. Isn't that a nice thing to know.....that the people you consider part of your "Circle of Friends" are considered that by other people too!

To pick up the Circle of Friends blog award:
Cut and paste the award logo and cut & paste it on your own blog. Nominate at least five other bloggers that you feel have become part of your circle of friends. Link to your nominees within your blog post and include these instructions on how to pick up your award on your blog post. To show your appreciation to the person who gave you the award, link back to their blog. Finally, comment on the recipients' blogs to let them know they've received the award.

I don't regularly follow that many blogs.....I don't have enough time! But the people below certainly deserve the award! Let me preface it with this fact. Two of the people haven't been blogging very long or haven't made many posts BUT I've been an e-mail friend LONG before they had a blog, so they deserve this award on that note!

I would like to award: Sue, Evelyn, Barb, Cathy, and Caz

It has truly been an honor to be friends with the above ladies! AND thank you, Laurie!!

Artful Sentiments Copic Challenge #22

This week Kimm is featuring greens as her copic colors of choice. I thought about what image I would use. Frogs........well, I have a few but none of them really called to me this week. Leaves.......hmmmm.......I guess leaves could work but I would really want to add more colors in than just green. So I looked over the stamp shelves.....still no inspiration. Next I grabbed my unmounted notebook. I keep a printed version in a notebook for all my unmounted stamps. It is categorized into sections......nature, animals, words, people, etc. As I was going through the gladiola stamp from RubberStampAve caught my eye. I have always loved those green glads. So.......here is the card I made. I had some green striped paper in the decorated paper stack but it was a little too bright for the image. So, I took the colors of copic markers that I used in the image and made my own stripe paper. Thanks to Kimm for this idea....she used it several weeks ago for a card that she did. After everything was together, it looked a little bare. One of my friends in my submission group, Mari, is working on a card for a submission this month. It was a monochromatic card where she had put on a butterfly (she later took it off!). So, I thought.....hey!.......I should put a little butterfly on my glad! So here ya go! The little antennea on the butterfly were too little to cut and stay attached, so I used a little bit of dark wire instead. Hope you like it!

This has been a busy week for me. A couple of days watching Zander thrown into the mix as well. Most of my time was spent getting ready for the car rally we are having tomorrow. A rally is where you are given a set of vague instructions(like turn left at stop.....instead of the street name) and asked to follow them and fill in the answers to questions that are asked along the route. Our rally centers around the Oregon Trail. The pioneers ended their pilgrimage to the Northwest right where we will be starting our rally. The Oregon City Interpetive Center. There are three HUGE wagon type buildings there. Our rally has lots of references to the Oregon Trail. Each 'wagon' (car) loads up on supplies that are in small bags, they choose a child, and some furniture. Along the route, they can barter with the Indian (My Ray) for extra supplies, they will encounter a calamity with their furniture, and then there will be some sillyness with their child. The people with the most correct rally answers, the best poker hand, the closest mileage to actual, and the people with the most points from their supplies will all get prizes. It is a special way to have fun with you cars! We'll meet at a local pizza place to grade our rally pack and award prizes.

Quirky.....

Okay.......I just have to say that I have this morbid quirky sense of humor that I inherited from my father. I passed it on to several of my kids too! My daughter calls me today. "Hey, Mom", she says, "I need a card to thank the lady for the side of beef we got from her." She tells me that it can be a quirky card........so, this is what came about. Not too terribly far out there but morbidly quirky just the same! ;-) The inside of the card says, "But we sure are!!" The paper slipped when I was cutting the verse on the front so I had to doodle a little above it. The cow was colored with copic markers. The cow originally has this cute happy little face with little dots for eyes. I turned the dots into 'x's and added the frown. I originally thought of putting it upside down but the tail didn't look right and I didn't want to have to completely redraw the tail. Hope you enjoy my humor! I also like Gary Larsen's Far Side cartoons.......sure wish he was still drawing!! Tell me what your favorite Far Side cartoon was. Mine was the bird standing at the fridge with the fridge door open. The spouse is sitting in the living room watching TV. The bird at the fridge says...."All right, who ate the middle out of the daddy long legs!"

Artful Sentiments Copic Challenge #21

I can't believe that the week is already over. It was a very busy week for sure! Here is my copic challenge card for Artful Sentiments by Kimm's copic challenge. The colors for the week are shown to the side. AND I actually had them all this week. BUT this week I did add another color with them.......a green. I used some digital flower images from Fred She Said. Such fun flowers to cut and make 3-D. The butterfly is from Sweet N Sassy Stamps digital designs. Korin's butterfly is wonderful and being digital you can make them any size you want.....a definite plus! The blue piece under the flower and butterfly is a piece of AI Float. (AI - Alcohol Ink). The AI float technique is one that I discovered one day while I was playing. I thought......if you can float spray paints on water for cool backgrounds.....maybe you can float alcohol inks as well. I tried it and I got these wonderful results. The scallop lace edge is a Martha Stewart border punch. This was the last piece of paper that the punch decided to punch. I have tried all weights of paper and it is hopelessly broken....ugh!

Hope you enjoy!

Artful Sentiments Copic Challenge #20

Well....it is that time again for the Artful Sentiments Copic Challenge. Did you know that you can play along too? Click on the link (to the right) to go to Artful Sentiments blog and you can post a link to your creation and play along. Show us what you can do!!

This week the colors are BV04, YR65 and B29. I happened to have all of them this week! Yeah!! Earlier this summer I ordered some sheets of rubber from Artistic Outpost and this week was the first that I used some of it. I loved most of the creations that Lisa Sommerville did with the clown and just had to have him. I also used one of the new Technique Junkie techniques called Brushed Inks.....it was a technique that I submitted to Pat for the newsletter and she accepted. It is so quick and easy. I saw a card made by a fellow Junkie with the corner punch I used for this card. I asked her who the manufacturer was.......2 Grrlls. Her statement was "You'll probably have a hard time finding it". Well, it was a little hard but I happened on someone selling it on ebay and including shipping got it for less than $5. Cool, huh?

Hope you like the card! Remember........play along with us!!

For Non-Junkies

For those of you who aren't Technique Junkies.......here are some of the cards I did for the most recent Technique Junkie newsletter. Scene Silhouettes is a real fun technique from Kimm Bennington-Thompson that reminds you of Michelle Zindorf's awesome brayered techniques. This one is a little different but gives real fun results. The Scene Silhouette cards are the first two shown. My favorite is the one with the white dots. It just reminds me of something in the desert!

The card with the darling Magnolia girl sitting in a pot is called Sanded Whitewash. I love all the texture it gives.

The next two are also a technique by Kimm called Inside-Out Vellum. I tried it first with a light weight vellum and just couldn't get the technique to work. When I actually followed the instructions and used the heavy weight vellum, the results were perfect!

The last card is called Zig Zag. I probably confused the issue by using paper that had too much of a pattern instead of just stripes but I think it came out okay!

Wonderful vacation!

I'm back! Spent the last week in Montana and Yellowstone and had a really great time. Only two low spots in the whole vacation. One was the evening I was SICK. Made full use of the hotel bathroom all night long..... The other was the day we were driving home and a rock cracked our windshield. But the sickness was short lived....hooray! And the windshield can be fixed. Other than that, we had a blast. We saw Custer's last Stand Monument and enjoyed that area for about 4 hours. The last day we were in Yellowstone we were pulled over at one of the wildlife viewing areas. We saw 3 Wolves, a 3 yr old Grizzly, and 50 head of elk all within the same area. AND while watching them all a bald eagle flew by. Can't get much better than that! More posting later. Maybe will even through in a picture or two.