Welsh Corgi

Hi everyone, this is a card I made for my fiance's sister. 

She raises Welsh Corgis. One Christmas, I almost came home with one, 

but decided that I needed the $500.00 more. She normally sells them for $800.00, so I guess the 500 was a deal. Yikes!! Think of all of the stamping supplies that could be bought with that. LOL....

Any ways, my Dad informed me that the footprints on my card were Cat prints, so I guess I need to find some dog prints. I thought it was cute either way. 

Here's the recipe:

Stamps: The Stampin Place = Corgi, Paw prints are unknown. 

Inks: Stampin Up Baroque Burgundy (Retired) Paw Prints, & Corgi = Close to Cocoa.

Paper: Stampin Up Naturals Ivy, and Whisper White. 

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Circle and Scallop Circle Nestabilities, Dew Drops, Stampin up Baroque Burgundy Ribbon (Retired), Mini Glue Dots, Prismacolor Markers used on Corgi = Blondwood on rear, Deco Pink on tongue, and Light Tan for the Body, and then Light tan again on the highlight areas, and lightened in the ears with the Colorless blender. Sponged Baroque Burgundy on the Whisper White panel, while keeping the circle nestability in place as a mask. Scotch Double Stick tape, to put it all together. 

Enjoy,

Alena 

Hi everyone, I hope all of you had a good Christmas. 

I have to apologize for not being around much. My chemo treatments have been making me really tired, so I haven't had much energy to stamp anything new. 

Plus, I have something called Ascites, which is a build up of fluid in the Peritoneal cavity. This fluid builds up so much so that I have to go to the hospital to get it drained every 5 to 7 days. They usually get a little over 3 1/2 liters out of me. The chemo doesn't seem to be working, so they will switch the kind of chemo that I'm on, next week, or when my oncologists gets back from India. 

Any ways, I just wanted to share with you all, a photo of my parrot Merlin. He's a Senegal and about 4 years old. He's too funny, and loves to sit under the head rest cover on the recliner. He's very needy and screams when I leave the room, but I love him any ways. LOL....

I hope all of you have a Happy New Year.

Hugs, 

Alena :o)

Hi Gang, thank you for all of you that left comments about my Christmas cards. The consensus was the Snowman card being reserved for my special people that will appreciate my efforts. Then the other two and a few extras will be for everyone else. 

Any ways, here's another Christmas card I just made. I love this Owl made by Pamela at Firecracker Designs. The santa hat is a stamp from

Coronado Island Company.   Sorry, no photos along the way. But, above are the supplies that I used. If you actually want to know how I did something, then ask, and I'll be happy to let you know. 

Here's the specs: 

Stamps Used: Stampin Up = The snowflakes from Trees Three, and the Merry & Bright saying from All Yea Cheer I, Firecracker Designs by Pamela, and Coronado Island Co. 

Paper Used: Stampin Up Whisper White, & Pacific Point.

Ink Used: Stampin Up Baja Breeze, and Pacific Point, and Versamark and Palette Noir Black. 

Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Crimson Red, Mahogany Red, Light Cerulean blue, colorless blender for the Santa Hat. Then, Cool Grey 10%, Buff, Sand, Cool Grey 30%, Black for the Owl. Hodgepodge Hardware from Stampin Up. Ranger fine detail embossing powder. Sponge, brayer, scissors, Fiskars Glue Pen, and Scotch Double stick tape.  Last but not least, my Scorpal.

Hugs to all, 

Alena :o)

Christmas Cards

Hi everyone, 

I did a test run on some Christmas cards, trying to figure out which ones I liked the best. So I thought I would ask you guys . Which card is your favorite. Then, that will be my card that I send to my friends and family. 

Sorry I don't have tutorials for these. I'll try to remember what I used though. The photo of the Markers are the ones I used on the card with the Snowman. 

Card # 1 Red & White Card. 

Stamps Used: Stampin Up = "Best Yet" Christmas Saying, "Background Basics," HamptonArt.com Acrylic Candy stamp set.

Ink Used: StazOn Jet Black, and Stampin Up Real Red.

Paper Used: Stampin Up Real Red, and Glossy White.

Accessories: Sponge, scissors, double stick tape.

Card # 2 Snowman with Critters.

Stamps Used: The Stampin Place Snowman and Critters. 

Inks Used: Palette Noir Black, Stampin Up Baja Breeze, & Pacific Point, and VersaMark. 

Paper Used: Stampin Up Whisper White, & Pacific Point. 

Accessories: Uni-Ball Signo White Gel Pen. Prismacolor Markers seen in photos above. Frrom Left to Right, Colorless Blender, Flagstone Red, Sand, Cool Grey 70%, Cool Grey 80%, Cool Grey 10%, Mahogany Red, Crimson Red, Sienna Brown, Dark Brown, Black, Orange, Burnt Ocre, Pale Vermillion, Sky Blue Light, True Blue.

Scotch Double Stick Tape, Ranger Super Fine Detail Embossing Powder.

Card # 3 Ornament With Owls

Stamps Used: Gina K. Designs Winter Foliage. The Stampin Place Ornament. Great Impressions   Owls stamp # F378.

Inks Used: Stampin UP Black, Always Artichoke, and Chocolate Chip.

Paper Used: Always Artichoke & Chocolate Chip. 

Accessories Used: Zig Painty Zilver pen. Prismacolor Markers = Crimson Red, SiennaBrown, Dark Brown, White Gel Pen. Scotch Double Stick tape. 

I hope all of that makes sense. 

Hugs to all, 

Alena 

Well, I didn't win the House Mouse contest. I'm totally bummed and don't feel like playing in anything ever again. How's that for a poor loser. I never win anything. Poop. :o( Does that mean that I really suck, or that there are a ton of other people entering too, and being hit with lightening is more likely than winning? hehehe.

Any ways, the winner card is above, my house mouse card is below. I still like my card better, so that's all that matters. The winner's name is Beth Scott. You can see her gallery here.

Hugs, 

Alena

Hi everyone, 

sorry about not posting a card today. I had to undergo chemo and then parencentesis which is a procedure where they stick a needle in the side of my stomach to drain the extra fluid out of the cavity. Fun stuff huh? I wish that they knew what was causing the extra fluid to build up, but they don't. They just say that it's all part of being stage 4 cancer. The chemo does slow it down, so that's good. 

I did find a JoAnn's Fabric store locally. I didn't know that we had one. The stamping section was kind of hurting, but I ended buying 2 of the $1.00 sets that were clear and for Christmas. Oh, and at Michael's I finally bought a "Stamp-in-ma-jig." That should be fun to use. Maybe my stamping will be neater now. LOL....

Until next time, 

Hugs, 

Alena :o)

Hi everyone, 

I couldn't sleep last night, so I decided to play in my stamp room. This is the biggest card that I have ever made. The finished card measures 6 4/8 x 6 7/8. I'm not big on accurate measurements. LOL.....I kind of eyeball a lot of stuff. The Polar Bear stamp from Coronado Island is huge. Probably the biggest stamp that I have. So much so, that I had to use a wood stamp to stamp with it, since I don't own an acrylic block big enough. Any ways, here's all of the specs, in case anyone was curious. 

Stamps Used: Coronado Island Design = Polar Bear & Santa Hat, Inkadinkado Flourishes, Stampin Up = Lots of Thought. 

Paper Used: Stampin Up Whisper White, Basic Black, Baja Breeze.

Inks Used: Palette Noir Black, Stampin Up Baja Breeze, and Not Quite Navy. 

Accessories: Prismacolor Markers in Scarlet Lake, Mahogany Red, Cool Grey 10%, Eggshell, Colorless Blender. Marvy Metallics = Silver. Scotch Double Stick Tape, and Fiskars Glue Pen. 

First stamped the Polar Bear with Palette's Noir Black on Whisper White, then stamped it again, and cut it out to use as a mask later. 

Colored the Polar Bear with Marvy Markers with the color Eggshell. I actually colored the marker first on to my acrylic block, then picked up the color with the Colorless Blender, so the color wouldn't be so dark. You probably can't see it in the photo, but it's a really light eggshell color.

Colored directly on to acrylic block. 

Cut out my Polar Bear mask and lightly taped it to the first image. I just used a piece of double stick tape under the middle of the mask, but stuck it to my jeans a few times, so it wouldn't be as sticky, and rip the paper when I take the mask off. 

Then I put a post-it note a little above the middle of the image, making sure that it was straight.

Brayered Baja Breeze on the exposed area, then sponged baja breeze around the Polar Bear's head to cover up the white part that the brayer didn't get. If you under cut your mask a little, it won't leave much white behind, when you brayer over it. Then I brayered Not Quite Navy on the top half of the card and then sponged it a little more to get rid of the brayer lines. 

Remove the Post-it note and lightly sponge baja breeze over the rest of the snow area, then you can remove the mask when you get it how you like it. The yellowish part that you see in the photo was just some extra color left on my sponge. I covered it up in the end, with the saying. 

I used a ruler to apply the silver to the edges. I first tried it free hand, but I can't ever get it straight, so I ended using the ruler. 

Then I stamped the Santa Hat with Palette's Noir Black ink. 

Colored it first with Scarlet Red, and before it dried, went in to the darker areas and shaded it with the Mahogany Red. Then I colored the white part of the hat with Cool Grey 10% on the edges and then used the colorless blender to bring it to the rest of the white part. 

Then I cut it out, and glued it to the Polar Bear's head with a Fiskar's glue pen. 

I thought it was still a little plain looking, so I stamped the Inkadinkado Flourishes around the right and top edges with Baja Breeze. 

Then I stamped the Stampin Up "Lots of Thoughts" saying, Merry Wishes on to Whisper White CS and sponged some Baja Breeze on it, and then layered over Basic Black and Baja Breeze CS. 

Then I assembled it over Basic Black and Baja Breeze. 

The End. 

I hope you enjoyed. 

Hugs, 

Alena :o)

House Mouse Contest

Hi all, this is a card created for a contest in the House Mouse & Friends group

at the paper craft planet.

The actual dimensions of the finished card is 6"x 6".

Stamps Used: House Mouse = Party Mouse (Monica), Stampin Up = Petite Patterns, Stampendous = Marble Texture Cube. 

Ink Used: Memories Black, Stampin Up = Baja Breeze, Taken With Teal, and Pale Plum. 

Paper Used: Pale Plum, Whisper White, and Black. Provo Craft Bitty Scrap Pad Heritage Post. 

Accessories Used: Stampin Up Ticket Corner Punch, and a Tim Holtz Ruler, Pergamono Hole punch and pad, Ranger Super Fine Embossing Detail Powder, Great Impressions Glitter in Sparkling Ice, Fiskars Glue Pen, Sponge, Veramark Pen, Tombow pens in 800 & 723, and Markers markers in Deco Pink, and Blush Pink on the hat, then Cinnamon Toast on the body of Monica. Paper Flowers and Silver Brads. I hope that's all. Other than that, I used a hospital glove on my right hand while I was sponging.

Seen Here, after I stamped Monica on whisper white with Memories Black ink. I'm still waiting for my Hybrid Black Noir ink to show up. I hear it doesn't smear as bad. I colored Monica's body with a Marvy Marker in Cinnamon Toast.  

Then I used Marvy Markers in Blush Pink and Deco Pink to color the hat. 

I went back over the hat with Deco pink to blend in the Blush Pink. I also punched the 

corners with a Stampin Up Ticket Corner Punch. 

Then I colored The rest of her body with Tombow Markers. I used 800 on her tail, feet, ears and tommy, and then 723 on her nose and a little on her tommy too. Unfortunately, that Memories ink isn't the greatest with Alcohol based Markers. I can't wait for my Hybrid ink to show up. Grrrrrrr. Did I say that already. LOL.

Then went over the image with a Versamark Pen and embossed it with super fine embossing powder and heat set. 

Then masked off the bottom of the image with a post-it note and sponged 

bajabreeze on the top. Medical gloves really saves hand from being inked to death.

Then I ink the top-right corner with Taken With Teal.

Then I removed the post-it mask and sponged Pale Plum on the bottom and stamped the Stampendous  Marble Texture Cube with Pale Plum, on the right and upper corner. Then I used a paper towel to wipe the extra ink off of Monica. 

Then used a Fiskars Glue Pen on the hat and sprinkled glitter over the hat, shook off extra,

and heat set. 

This is everything before assembly. I use Scotch Double stick tape to tape everything together. All cut-outs were not really measured, just eyeballed and cut out and stuck on.

After assembly, I used the Timholtz ruler and a Pergamano punch with the black punch pad, to punch the holes on the corners. It's still hard for me to punch them in a straight line, even with a ruler. hehe. 

Then I added the paper flowers and silver brad to the corners. 

That's it. I hope you enjoyed my first picture slide show. 

Let me know if you prefer all of the photo steps along the way, or just the finished card. 

Hugs, 

Alena 

Snuggling Wolves

 

Hi there, 

I just couldn't help myself. I had to do another one of Michelle Zindorf's tutorials found here. I used a different wolf stamp though. I don't have the Stampin Up Wolf set. Anyone want to sell yours to me. LOL. I really love the Wolves stamp that I used though. It's from an amazing company called Coronado Island Designs & Stamps. The wolves stamp can be found here.

Stamps Used: Stampin Up Best Blossoms, Coronado Island Snuggling Wolves.

Card Stock: Stampin Up Whisper White, Old Olive, and Basic Black. 

Ink Used: VersaMark, Stampin Up Basic Black, Old Olive, & Really Rust. 

Accessories Used: Prismacolor Pencils, Goldenrod on eye, French Grey 20% Watercolor prismacolor pencil on ears and face, black on nose and eyes, blender pencil.

I hope you enjoy, and thanks for looking. 

Alena 

Flamingo Little Tee

Hi all, 

here's a card I made for the contest that Melanie Muenchinger is having here:

I got the idea for the beach from Michelle Zindorf, but she used a brayer, and I tried it first using a brayer, but it didn't turn out right, so I sponged the background instead. The rest was just made up in my crazy mind. I hope you all like it.

Stamps Used: Little Tees, Stampin Up "Tickled Pink." The Sign I think is by RubberNecker, but I don't think they make it any longer. The BUG car can be found at Sundayint here. 

Paper Used: Stampin Up's Whisper White, Positively Pink, Pacific Point.

Ink Used: Stazon Jet Black, Stampin Up's Baja Breeze, Pacific Point, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate chip, and Positively Pink. 

Accessories: Marvy Brush Marker #30 Rosewood, and #90 on the hat, Tombow # 800 on the Flamingo. Signo Uni-Ball White Pigment Ink Pen for the ocean foam. Making Memories Mini Flower Brads. Versa Mark Pen and Ranger Super Fine Detail Embossing Powder. Sponges. 

Hugs,

Alena :o)

Hi all, 

just a quick message. I just wanted to let you all know that

Starving Artistamps is having a wonderful blog candy and a new

stamp release. So, hop on over to Starving Artistamps and leave a comment

by Nov 11th, to win a wonderful Christmas stamp set. 

Enjoy!

Alena :o)

Baby Onesie

I made this card for a friend of mine that just had a little girl. I followed this great tutorial that I found here. You don't need a template for this one. 

Card Stock: Stampin Up Whisper White, and Pale Plum. 

Ink: Stampin Up Pale Plum.

Stamps: Stampin Up Cuddles & Tickles, and Background Basics, and Great Impressions E555 = Moon with Bear, and C373 = saying. 

Accessories: 1 3/8 circle and scallop Stampin Up punches. Prismacolor pencils.

Enjoy, 

Alena 

Clown Fish Love

Hi all, 

I just thought I would share with you my cute, Maroon Clown Fish. He finally adopted our Green, Bubble, Tipped, Anemone. We got the Anemone about 2 months ago, and it took the Clown that long to adopt him. Now they are inseparable. The Clown even feeds the Anemone, and protects him from other fish. It's too cute. 

Hugs, 

Alena 

Congratulations On Your New Home!

Hi all, 

I made this card for a neighbor of mine that just moved across town. I already miss her, but hopefully we'll get together to stamp again soon. 

The yellow brick background was an attempt to make bricks in Photoshop, but it didn't turn out like I wanted, but I printed it out and used it anyways. 

Card Stock Used: Stampin Up Bashful Blue and Whisper White.

Inks Used: Stampin Up Basic Black.

Stamps Used: The Window is by Wood Cellar Graphics.

Congratulations is from Stampin Up's, "All-Year Chear I." Keep in Touch bird is from Stampin Up's, "On the Move." The Cat and rug are from Art Impressions. 

Accessories Used: Quick Kutz Empire Alphabet set. Prismacolor pencils, pink and white and silver, and window was colored with Stampin Up blue pastels. Exacto knife to cut out shapes on window. 

I love Art Impression stamps. I haven't used them in eons. I bought a bunch of those two way stamp about 6 years ago, and I think it's been that long since I used the cat. 

Enjoy!

Alena