I used the same stamp as yesterday but on watercolor paper. This time I colored it with Distress Markers and an aquabrush. I colored both panels at the same time to allow the paint to dry. the main difference is the first one did not get as dark of impression so it has a more casual look to it.

I took advantage of the casual look and found some patterned paper with a yellow burst on it. With careful centering and cutting I was able to make it look like the sun streaming in behind the window. I bordered with glimmer mauve and added a rub-on sentiment.

The next uses a printed paper with a watercolor look to it that echoes the colors in the feature. I added a single strip of mauve glimmer paper and bordered it all in pale blue. The sentiment is a clear sticker.

Both cards have the feature popped up on foam tape.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

This stamp is one of the first I owned when my daughter bought the set of four seasonal stained glass for me. For today's cards I stamped on regular cardstock and colored with alcohol markers.

I did not do any shading on these as I wanted them to look like flat glass rather than 3-dimensional objects. This one was done in 2 reds, 2 yellows, 2 greens and 2 browns. I trimmed the panel and bordered it in black. The base card is also trimmed in black and features a large diamond in two-tone green. The sentiment is metallic red stickers.

For the next I changed some of the colors. One of the blues is lighter and I swapped out orange for one of the reds in the border. I used a rust-colored base card and left bands of it showing downthe sides. Wide strips of yellow and green patterned paper form the background and are bordered in black along the outside edges. I popped the feature up on foam tape and added a peel-off greeting.

The coloring on the last one swaps 2 yellows out for the reds in the border and it certainly changes the character of the piece. I chose to change the orientation for this card and made use of brown and black bordering. The colored background strips were decorated with a gold foil sentiment and gold peel-off stickers.

Stay tuned for an encore....

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Snow is forecast for today but I'm hoping today's cards are all I see of it!

Last week I showed some cards stamped with the 4-way Christmas stamping block - one day the poinsettia and another the pinecones. I didn't use the side with the holly this year but did stamp several of the snowflakes. These are stamped on regular white cardstock and colored with the palest values of alcohol markers. I did the flakes themselves in yellow, peach and pink and then filled in the swirly background with blue.

These were cut out and all of them matched up with a snow-covered glossy cardstock. It is hard to match up blues but these worked together so beautifully.

For the first card, I used a dark blue shimmer card base and a pink shimmer border on the feature. Then I added a sentiment sticker.

Next I did two identical ones (I KNOW! Right?) by using Sizzix dies to cut the block into a shape and backing it with a larger version of the same die shape. The base border is glimmer white and the shape border in glimmer mauve. These got a plastic sentiment sticker. I'll just show one of them:

I then repeated the style using different border colors. The first uses the same glimmer white for the base and a bright glimer yellow for the shape. The second uses blue glimmer for the base and a pale yellow for the shape. Both got a gold peel-off greeting:

Finally, I used a cream glimmer for both borders and made the block border thinner. This got a couple of penguin stickers and a peel-off sentiment on the feature block.

All of the cards have the feature block popped up on foam tape.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 8:27 AM PST

Updated: Monday, 9 December 2013 8:47 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

When life gives you scraps, make stained glass.

WHAT???

I saw a photo of a quilt for which a pattern was being sold and it was SO simple I knew I could graph it out easily and save the cost of a pattern. And it would be in the size I wanted instead of having to convert from the prescribed measurements.

I decided on a rather large block size - 15 inches - composed of sub-units of one 9 x 9, one 6 x 6, and six 3 x 6. Each piece needed to be in the same color family with similar values.

So, I pulled out all my scraps and sorted them into those color families and then into values. I ended up with 10 divisions so I used two groups to make two blocks: 2 orange, 2 dark purple, 1 dark blue, 1 medium blue, 1 teal, 1 pale yellow, 1 bright yellow, 1 pink, 1 dark green, 1 lime green. From each of these I used the largest scrap to cut the 9 x 9 unit (plus seam allowances of course), then selected a largish scrap for the 6 x 6 unit, and on down. If I did not have enough variety I used some fabrics twice as some fabrics could be repeated in the same block but not placed next to each other (this will all make sense when you see the block). Speaking of that, here is my favorite block - in rich dark purple:

Ah yes, you noticed that black line between each unit. That is 1/2 inch single fold bias tape. I used 1/2 inch Steam-A-Seam² to attach it after the top was assembled.

The quilt was laid out in a 3 x 4 grid with the center row of blocks rotated one quarter turn.

I wanted a border that would not compete with the blocks and found this marbled print that echoes all of the colors. I used it for the backing as well.

Before binding I quilted by stitching close along both edges of every bit of black 'leading'. I stitched in a particular order so that the ends of sewing that butted up to an edge would be locked in by later stitching over it. Here you can see a little of the stitching:

This quilting also makes a lovely grid of double lines on the quilt back.

The final touch was to bind with black.

This quilt finished at 53 x 68 inches and will be donated to the hospital's Passages program.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

I always make a Christmas card for our quilting group leader that has a 'quilted' look to it.

This year I went BIG with a 6 x 6 inch card. I used scraps from some of the recent Christmas papers I had on my desktop and started cutting lots of strips from them. Then I used the plaid and cut a 1 inch square. I used the strips around the squares to create a log cabin block - 9 times. 

These were arranged in a grid with a quarter turn between each placement. The seams between the blocks were then covered with a striped band to make a faux sashing and borders.

I used some plastic stickers of poinsettias to create a little focal area and then applied a gold peel-off greeting to some of the brown and trimmed it out. The greeting is popped up on foam tape and I added a gold star to the center of each flower.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

From the same big block of Christmas images as the poinsettias I used the pinecones and branches. This is an overall image and works well when stamped continuously as a background.

I used very simple watercoloring on this with one brown and two greens. Since there was so much stamping (9 times) I just did one piece of this and kept as much as possible for the card.

I selected a piece of cardstock with a plaid stripe and some supporting trims already printed on it. I used red bordering to pick up on the plaid.

The plastic sticker for the sentiment has a little edge of pines that makes it blend in with the background.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

One of my dollar purchase stamps had this image of a cup of hot chocolate. You can't mistake it for coffee because of the mini-marshmallows on top!

I wanted this scene to be a cup shared with friends so I used masking to add a second serving.

For the first one I used a snowflake background. Chocolate brown is the bordering and I combined two stickers for the greeting.

So, here's to a cup of cheer!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

The stamp used on the card today is one of 4 on a large cube. They are all Christmas images: poinsettia, pinecones (showing later this week), holly, and something I've forgotten now. The poinsettia works best as a self-contained unit so I stamped once on the watercolor paper for coloring. I used the Distress marker ink in three reds, two greens, and a yellow.

The other got a better inking and is much easier to 'read'.

I decorated both the same - glittered strip, red borders on card base and strip and then an acid green border on the rounded cornered feature panel. It is also popped up on foam tape.

Both got the same gold peel-off greeting.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Continuing with the watercoloring on stamps I went back to the image of the two birds in the pines. I have colored these up as bluejays before since that is what we have locally, but for Christmas I decided to go with the cardinals as the stamp is designed for.

I used the ink from Distress markers again, three reds and two greens. I used a dark yellow directly from the marker for the beaks.

The first one got sage bordering and a strip of glittered stripe as an accent. I used aplastic sticker for the sentiment.

The second one uses the same background paper and strip but I bordered with dark green and added a gold peel-off sentiment.

These birds are very time consuming to paint but the result is very regal.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Time to get serious about making Christmas cards! I decided to do some sets of stamped/colored images and started with a small pad of watercolor paper.

The first set I did was by combining a little polar bear with a decorated tree, stamped three times.

I used ink from Distress markers and an aquabrush to watercolor the image. The bear and snow have just a touch of blue shading.

On the one above I added three silver stars in the sky. Below I added the stars to the tops of the trees.

I bordered with dark red and added a silver peel-off greeting.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

A couple of weeks ago my mom spied a dangle earring in a parking lot and gave it to me for crafting. I immediately remembered a stone charm at home from who-know-where and could imagine them combined.

The charm had a bail on it already and that had a long upright shank. No idea what it was designed for but I took some small round-nosed pliers and created a loop out of it. This was used to link onto the hole in the earring where I had removed the ear wire.

I just added a silver chain and it was ready to wear.

The ghost image is from taking the photo in the mirror.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

A little late, but I thought I'd show what I used to decorate the table for Thanksgiving dinner. This combined the napkin, the glassware and the place card all in one!

I opened the paper napkin out flat and pleated it. Then I folded over the base of it and tucked it into a wine glass. When I pulled out the pleats at the top it curved it over a bit and make it stay extended.

From golden-brown cardstock I cut scalloped ovals and added a red upside-down heart, two tiny orange triangles and a couple of googly eyes.

I wrote the guest names on the left side and... voila!

Ddd 

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Updated: Saturday, 30 November 2013 8:19 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

I needed a person-specific birthday card this week and decided to do some stamping. I started with two birthday stamps, left off the greeting on the upper one and stamped them one above the other on bright yellow cardstock. There was not much room for coloring on these but I added some bright markers to the candles and flames. I also decorated the lettering with some black dots.

This panel got bordered in black. Then I found two pieces of graphic black and white cardstock. The chevron got cut into 1/2 inch strips to use as a frame. The diagonal wide stripe got colored with a variety of bright markers.

I mounted the graphic panels onto a yellow card base and the text panel is popped up on foam tape.

I seldom decorate the inside of cards but decided to do it on this one. I cut a couple more strips of the graphic cardstocks and mounted them down the left side. Then I drew a black border to contain the elements and echo the look of a frame from the front.

The age was stamped with my 'hacked' number set and a greeting got hand-lettered. When the sentiment mentioned 'banner' I knew I needed to include one in the card. I hand-drew and decorated the banner and colored it and the numbers with bright markers.

I added some black dots around the numbers to echo the dots on the front panel text.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Yet another quilt from my marathon cutting/piecing sessions. The fabric for this one started out as a wide stripe repeated 5 times across the width of the fabric. By leaving 1/4 inch on each side of the dark blue strip the width was 7 1/4. I cross-cut these long borders to 7 1/4 lengths giving me that size of a square.

I turned every other block and the result looks like long strips that are woven together. That's it! 25 big blocks and 4 borders. Easy-peasy!

Here you can see what ONE block lookks like:

Like the three previous quilts this one is done with a meandering line. On those with only 2 inch borders I did not quilt in the borders. This one had 6 inch borders to the quilting goes all the way to the edge.

I chose a tone-on-tone dark blue for the binding.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Here is the third quilt I made with the same pattern. This one features a Christmas print of holly, poinettia and amaryllis in teal, cream and berry pink. I used a teal print and a tone-on-tone cream for accents.

The border is a wine tone with small multicolored dots in teal, cream, pink and yellow. 

I think I am REALLY done with this pattern, though I reserve the right to change my mind and make another sometime down the road!

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

Mystery of the Vanishing Blog Post - I have NO idea where the post went for today. I'll tey to recreate it with all of the original wit and wisdom but who knows how that will go. And, it may always magically turn up at some point and make me look foolish!

This is another of the three quilts I made from the same pattern. For this one I wanted to use this rich fruit fabric but did not have enough for the 20 block called for in the pattern. So I re-drew the pattern! I enlarged the feature square from 6 to 7.5 inches and this allowed me to get 12 out of the fabric I had available. 

Then I decided to made 12 inch blocks so redrafted the surrounding parts of the block to make that work.

I used a golden yellow as the background and a green marble for the boxes. The border is a rich purple with a tiny flower.

In the above shot you get a better view of the feature fabric as well as a hint of the meander quilting I used.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 8:38 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

It does seem rather quickly that this quilt finish is following on the heels of another but it is really true! I did a massive one-day scrap sorting, pattern selecting, piece cutting session and managed to wrangle all the parts for five lap quilts. I then did two days of piecing them, one after the other, and one day of pinning them all to backings.

After having finished up the birdhouse quilt I then had all five of these lap quilts ready for quilting. With meander quilting I can do two per day and then I can stitch the binding down at a rate of one per evening.

So, expect to see several coming up here right-quick.

The first I finished off features a tulip print that was gifted to me in a box of leftovers from a friend's stash (thanks, Kim!). I added some green left from the birdhouse quilt and some red solid left from the backing of the long-ago Nebraska Huskers quilt. The yellow is from a short yardage I bought for the stash because I needed a bright.

The pattern is from a Sewing With Nancy session that my mentor watched and calculated out. She drew it out in three size variations and gave copies to us to play with for making lap quilts for the hospital's Passages program.

Finished size is 40 x 49 inches.

The backing is red with white polkadots.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

From the paper scrap strips I sorted yesterday I created a red/pink background to use today. I also added some strips from the scrap bins.

In scoring through my vast collection of stickers I found a sheet of flower stickers made from layers of colored papers.

I 'planted' all of them along the edge of a black piece of cardstock and then used a craft knife to trim out the top and side edges.

The bottom edge is adhered directly to the card background while the leaves and flowers are up on foam tape.

I used a yellow sentmient to key off the centers of the flowers.

Ddd 

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

After doing so many cards with background using 6 x 6 pads I end up with a lot of paper strips. I grabbed a bunch of these and sorted them into color groups to use as striped backgrounds.

To create the background I run a piece of white cardstock through the Xyron to cover it completely with adhesive. Then, starting at one end, I lay strips side by side and then trim the piece to size with the paper cutter.

For this piece I used strips in greens and golden yellows. I pulled a few older strips from the scrap bin to have more variety than I found on the tabletop.

I added a rub-on illustration that I got in a swap. The little birds just floated in space so I used a Sharpie marker to sketch in a branch. I added some black peel-off leaves and mounted the whole piece with a black border.

The rub-on is a style I have not used before as it is very plastic-y and has some fine glitter embedded in it.

I added a black-trimmed greeting stamped on green cardstock.

Ddd

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink

I grabbed another set of those free digital images to color up for cards. These are again colored with alcohol markers.

I used the same two reds for the balloons on all of them and then pulled some color off with the colorless blender to create 'shine' to make them look 3-dimensional.

I colored each of the bears with a different set of two browns and gave each a different outfit color using two coordinating markers. Each bear was trimmed into a rectangle and the corners rounded. Then I chose a background to go with the bear colors and accents to pick up on the other parts of the stamp.

First bear actually got a green background and bordering to go with the clothing. The hearts paper repeats the heart balloons and I added some tiny green rhinestones down the left edge of hearts as an accent.

Bear two is dressed in purple so the bordering paper is also. I used red accent paper to echo the balloons and a strip of self-stick ribbon to pull some of the pink from the outfit. 5 rhinestones in pink are the accent.

I didn't want to go too bold with the fuschia of the outfit so I used the honey color of the bear, red hearts like the balloons ad then added a soft green accent strip. The light pink bordering gives nod to the outfit colors without competing for attention.

Lots of red hearts to key off the balloons on this one. I used the bear color for the accent strip and a strip of blue self-stick ribbon to echo the stripe in the outfit. Three blue rhinestones finish it off.

These cards will go to Operation Write Home to be used as 'Love', Valentines' or 'Kids' cards.

Ddd 

Posted by studio3d@ccgmail.net at 12:01 AM PST

Share This Post

Post Comment | Permalink