I ran across a stencil technique on someone’s blog that I had not used before. So I got out the Wildflowers stencil from My Favorite Things to try it out.

This is the stencil I used - selecting just the two daisy shapes and the tall weeds.

I don't have a photo tutorial to go with this technique - just a verbal description.

I laid the stencil on watercolor paper and used watercolor pencils to scribble color into the blooms, leaves and stems where I wanted them to appear. I moved the stencil around to add more flowers. 

Then I used an aquabrush to blend out the colors and then added more pencil where I wanted additional color, Including a light blue 'sky' behind the flowers. This was also blended with water.

I trimmed the panel to size and then used a pencil to sketch a border and blended this into the background.

I mounted this onto a base card to match the flowers and added a text sticker.

This technique actually makes it look like the illustration is hand-drawn. Very cool!

Ddd

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

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We live in an area where the birds don't migrate away for the winter so we see a wide variety year-round. In fact, last year, during the ice storms and freezing temperatures of January and February we had hummingbirds trying to peck through the ice on frozen feeders. We started bringing the feeders in at night to thaw, warming the nectar in the microwave in the morning and putting it back in the feeder for the day.

In any case, this little bird was hanging out on the garden fence just after the rain the other afternoon. I love how the light is caught by the netting and spills across his back.

What a sweet little visitor.

Ddd

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

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For two people on my Christmas list I wanted to do some 'Gifts in a Jar' and set my goal at making a dozen for each of them. I sent not only the jars but the canned goods that they would need to make the recipes. The only things not included are fresh items (eggs, butter, milk, meat) and liquid ingredients (vanilla, oil).

I made half of them quart jars and half of them pint jars, depending on the recipe. I used a round of fabric over the cap before screwing on the jar ring. A fold-over tag, tied with baker's twine, identifies the dish on the outside and, on the inside lists the contents, what will need to be added, and the preparation instructions.

I added a couple of packets of home-made dip mix from the farmer's market. I also printed out a 'menu' of dishes that can be used as an inventory of what is available.

GIFTS IN A JAR PANTRY PACK

APPETIZERS

Heavenly Herb & Vegetable Dip

Southern Country Fair Dip

SOUPS

Beefy Chili Soup

Hearty Vegetable Beef Soup

Multi-Bean Soup

Potato Soup

Barley Rice Stew

BREADS

Ginger Spice Muffins

Dried Cranberry Muffins

Golden Cornbread

DESSERTS

Scottish Shortbread

Carrot Cake

Chocolate Chip Bars

Double Fudge Brownies

Yummo! Can I come for dinner?

Ddd

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

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I needed a couple more Christmas cards so I went looking through the trims from 12x12 papers I had already used. The leftover scrap from the Santa and Rudolph cards had a lovely stand of outdoor trees.

I trimmed these down to the required size and 'decorated' the trees with silver 'nail head' stickers. I then used alcohol markers to color these 'lights' and added a bird sticker to the tree tops.

Those silver peel-off sticker sentiments fit in perfectly.

Two papers = two cards, again.

Total made from the 12x12 card-making session 27. And it all started with 16 sheets and only 7 paper designs.

A perfect marathon session saw them all come together in just a couple of hours.

Ddd

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

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I made this wreath quilt over a month ago but saved it to show until after the recipient would have opened it. I quavered to make a quilt for this person as she, herself, has been quilting as long as I can remember. I figured that, by making something for the holiday season, she would only have it out for a short time every year. Therefore, not so much time to compare my efforts to her own!

This is actually a wall hanging and smaller than my usual projects, at only 33 inches square. It is made up entirely of half-square triangles and matching squares.

I quilted a bow in the center of the wreath with thread matching the background.

Then I quilted holly leaves in all the spaces and edges of the wreath, thereby rounding its shape.

You can also see that I added 24 round red buttons to serve as holly berries. The red binding ties in with the color of the berries, too.

Ddd 

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

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I know - doves are not really snow birds - but these cards have birds and they have snowflakes, so there you go.

After trimming the illustration down to fit on the card front with a little border I mounted it on a blue card base.

I used the paper design as a guide to add 6 silver peel-off sticker snowflakes as well as a tiny silver eye.

I had some silver peel-off sentiments on hand which made the perfect finishing touch.

Two papers = two cards

Ddd

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

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The 12x12 paper I used for today's cards is a brown line-art illustration on taupe cardstock. Not a lot of interest or contrast.

This was a large corner illustration that I cropped WAY down to just the essentials for a 4 x 5.5 panel.

I used colored pencils to lightly color in the picture. the beard, fur trim and snow were colored with Picket Fence Distress Marker as a whitener.

Vinyl sentiment stickers finish these off. Two papers = two cards.

Ddd

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

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Most of the 12x12 papers I've been working with were from a pad that all had a vintage feel to them. This is the case with the paper used for today's cards.

The leaping deer is a very subtle tone-on-tone silhouette on a swirl background. Not much was needed to elevate this to an attractive card front.

I simply added a red rhinestone nose - because that's what I do - and used a vinyl sentiment sticker.

Three papers, three cards.

Ddd

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

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Well, this was even more simple than the last few examples.

1) crop corner illustration

2) glue to card base

3) add glitter dots to the flower center

4) put on a vinyl sticker

And, just like that, I have three more Christmas cards done.

Ddd

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

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The next 12x12 paper I selected had one large corner illustration. I actually had to crop down to the bare essentials to fit it on a card front but I think it looks good this way.

The illustration started out as a generic reindeer but I turned it into Rudolph with the addition of a red rhinestone on his nose.

The colors were very muted in this and the snow and fur areas looked awfully yellow to me. So I used some Picket Fence Distress Marker over top to whiten them. This marker is a lot like a whitewash effect that allows you to still see the original artwork underneath - just whiter.

A clear acrylic sticker was used on the lower right.

I had two of these papers so only two cards came from this pattern.

Ddd

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

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The next 12x12 paper I selected from my Christmas bin was a bottom border of sweet little chickadees. Here is what the border arrangement looked like.

You can see that I was able to get two card fronts from each sheet.

Both cards were decorated with red rhinestones covering berries printed on the illustration, plus I added a few in a fit of artistic license.

Sentiment stickers from the Christmas bin are varied.

I had two of these sheets so that made 4 more cards for the supply.

Ddd

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

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I haven't been making Christmas cards hand over fist all year as I usually do so found myself short when it was time to mail cards to family and friends. I only had half of what I needed for the demand.

I went looking through my bin of Christmas supplies for some inspiration. This bin includes stickers, embellishments, some 3D images, 6x6 printed cardstock and 12x12 scrapbook cardstocks. 

Many of the 12x12 papers had corner or border designs that could be trimmed down to fit on a card front. Then I had only to embellish them and add a sentiment to come up with finished cards. I had 2 to 3 of each design so the stock of cards grew quickly.

I started with a 12x12 with a very large corner pattern of toys under the Christmas tree. This was big enough to trim down to three card fronts. Here is the original layout.

I started in the lower left corner. I cut the scene to 4x5.25 so I would have a 1/8 inch border of the base card showing. Aaaak! I ran out of white cardstock so I chose a variety of colored solids for my cards.

I decorated these cards with gold Stickles on the yellow parts of the garland and Diamond Stickles on the sparkly lights.

I used a variety of dimensional acrylic stickers as greetings.

With three sheets of 12x12 cardstock I have 9 cards done, just like that. BOOM!

Ddd

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

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I had seen one of my friends at quilting group making two different Hunter's Star quilts and found the process fascinating. The star is not actually in the block but appears when four blocks are placed together.

I had some scraps of bright prints that I wanted to work with and was persuaded to use some unbleached muslin as the background instead of the gray I had initially intended. I am glad for this change as the result was perfect.

I made the blocks oversized - at 12 inches - which makes for a very dynamic layout. I wasn't sure why this pattern was called 'hunter's' star until it was pointed out that the pattern includes large arrowheads.

Overall, this quilt is 66 x 78 inches.

The quilting was done first on the diagonal through the center of the stars. Then I designed a spiral with a paisley center and placed them with their terminus meeting.

The recipient is a lover of butterflies so a colorful background fabric that featured them was selected. You can just see a hint of the glittery finish in this photo.

At the top edge of the backing you can see that a soft teal tone-on-tone was selected for the binding.

Ddd

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

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I had a stack of images left over from that day with no power a couple of months back. I decided to use them up by combining them with table scraps left from the crafting sessions with my granddaughters.

Since I had several of this image of a flower in a frame I cut three of them into layers (background, leaves and flower, flower only, and flower center. These were shaped with a ball tool over foam and them mounted in layers using foam tape.

I used this image over a dotted background enhanced with two similar colored strips of table scraps.

I added a Thank You sticker in gold.

Ddd

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

Updated: Monday, 27 October 2014 7:56 PM PDT

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We are NOT running a wildlife park, despite the increasing number of animal sightings. We've lately seen the nutria come out of hiding a lot more and then suddenly, here she is with the ugliest baby on the planet.

It, unfortunately, looks exactly like the adult - which is one of the nastiest looking things on the planet. At about the same size as a beaver, this rodent has a giant rat-like tail and gnarly huge orange teeth.

Because of their dark coloring and the bright sunlight it was difficult to get a shot with any detail.

The question I have is - why doesn't the bobcat eat these nasty things instead of snacking on the cute little bunnies?

The only entertaining thing was when the baby did not see mom come up from behind him. She touched his backside with her nose and he levitated several feet and jettisoned into the brush - much like a cat that has been startled.

You wouldn't know by their lumbering gait that they were that quick and agile.

Ddd

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

Updated: Friday, 24 October 2014 10:26 PM PDT

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This year I was given three tomato plants and three pepper plants by a neighbor. It was a guessing game to see what varieties they were!

When it all shook out I had regular, heirloom and roma tomatoes as well as two bell and one hot pepper. I have no idea still what variety the peppers were but they got a nice bright red color to them.

When I had collected enough ripe fruits from each of the roma and hot pepper plants I added a couple of green peppers from the same plant. To this I added the remains of the white onions from the garden and made some oven roasted salsa.

I cut the tomatoes and the peppers in half lengthwise and placed cut side down on a baking sheet:

These were placed in a 450 degree oven for 20 minutes.

While this was roasting I added to the bowl of the food processor some Mexican oregano (1 tsp), cumin (1 1/2 tsp), plus salt and pepper (2 tsp each).

I measured out 1/4 cup each of lime juice and apple cider vinegar:

When pulled from the oven after a total of 30 minutes I had this:

I used a couple of forks to remove the seeds from the peppers and the skins from everything. Then all the 'good stuff' was placed in the food processor:

This was pulsed and the liquids added before more chopping. Oh My!

The recipe said it will keep in the fridge for 2 weeks and it can be frozen. So I measured out little containers of 1/4 cup for the freezer and a little more to put in the fridge for immediate use.

This may be the most ambitious I've gotten with my own garden produce. However, I am planning on trying some quickbread that uses acorn squash.

Ddd

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

Updated: Friday, 24 October 2014 10:24 PM PDT

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I had so much fun wandering around the SplitCoastStampers tutorials. I ran across a technique I haven't done for a long time - blue delft tile.

I decided to use 1-inch increments for the tiles, scored them on my ScorPal and stamped with dark blue Distress Ink. After the ink was dry I used an aqua-brush to blend the ink. I used a heat gun to dry it and then used a lighter blue Distress Ink and a sponge to tint the edges of the 'tiles' for dimension.

I went over the lines with a white gel pen (not effective) and then a white Distress Marker (much better).

I ended up with two panels to use and treated them only slightly differently.

First was by adding a sentiment stamped onwhite. I used some of the blue ink to tint the edges and popped it up on foam tape.

For the second card I added a blue stamped sentiment which I banded in white. This was also popped up on foam tape.

I'm going to have to go do more cruising around the SplitCoastStampers site for techniques and tutorials. These experiments have been a blast.

Ddd

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

Updated: Friday, 24 October 2014 10:22 PM PDT

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Also on SplitCoastStampers I found a suggestion to do the stamp etching with color. I actually did the illustration in black and then added the color in stripes over it. I used two colors for the flower and two for the leaves.

I pulled colors from the illustration to make up the background, including a black stripe.

When I ran across the stamped sentiment I knew it would be perfect for this card. I then added black dots along the edges of the green background to echo that on the sentiment.

I added a faux stitching line to the illustration and popped the sentiment up on foam tape.

Ddd

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

Updated: Thursday, 23 October 2014 4:55 PM PDT

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I was trolling through SplitCoastStampers for techniques and came across one on coloring with 'pointillism'. This uses dots of color - applied with alcohol markers - instead of the traditional blending.

I chose one of the new stamps from a Hot Off The Press set and used three greens, four pinks/reds and one gold for the flower and leaves. I used three blues for the background.

I selected many papers for the background, matching them to various parts of the illustration.

The sentiment was stamped on golden to go with the flower centers and bordered with maroon. The sentiment and illustration are popped up on foam tape.

I used a fine marker to add a double line border on the illustration.

Ddd

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

Updated: Thursday, 23 October 2014 4:54 PM PDT

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OWH 157 was such a complicated sketch that I had to simplify it to make sense of it.

I ended up going for the 'essence' of the sketch - a large bordered square center backed with a wide band bordered at least twice. I think I accomplished this.

I also included the leaves in the stamp etching and added black petal tips.

I went with a wider color palette by including teal, red and yellow as well as the black and white. By using all graphic papers they look like they belong together.

I added a double red pen border to the illustration and popped it up on foam tape.

Ddd

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

Updated: Thursday, 23 October 2014 4:54 PM PDT

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