March Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!

Hippity Hop and Easter's on it's way!

You should be coming from Laurie Newton's Blog,

if not just keep hopping and you'll make a complete circle!

This month the stamp set is all about Bunnies! Just in time to get your Easter cards out early! 

The stamp set it called Sensational Season (D1454)

 I was running out of time to post all these pictures so I opted not to crop. 
You can click on the photos to enlarge.  Hope none are blurry!

The Left . . . .

. . . and the right page.

 The letters for Easter I sponged with Blush Ink (these are color ready peal and stick letters!)

I then used some of our older rub-ons and decorated down the center of each letter.

 I put a heart on the letters that spell EGG - it's located in the center of the letter -

hard to see - it's our cream rub-ons.

Here is Mommy Bunny and 2 baby bunnies with carrots. 

I used orange and sunflower yellow to color the carrots giving it a 2 tone color. 

I used two colors on the carrot leaves too - can you see it?

 The sign is raised with foam squares to make it stand out of the garden of lettuce.

 Here is a side view of the sign - see the foam.

 I see him as that naughty bunny caught in Mr. MacGreggor's Garden - isn't that a real story?  Can't remember the story's name - Peter Cottontail? Peter Rabbit? I used Bamboo Marker to color his body and went over the stamp's shading lines a few extra times to make it darker.

 The word Hunt has X's and O'x on the the letters with rub-ons.

I just need some journaling on the right page and I'm done!

Here is the letters prior to sponging.  I put them on wax paper so they come off and I don't accidentally sponge the other letters on the sheet.  I picked that up somewhere. . . .

Now off you go to Michelle Loncar's Blog!

Thanks for looking and leave messages as you go!  Don't forget you can purchase or earn this stamp set for free - just go to Mary Eisen's CTMH website to shop!

Halloween Studio J Style - Last one for now - Promise!

I took a journaling box and put to a velum paper background and put it over the scary tree so that is dulls the black image.  I used a premade Trick or Treat banner for the left page. I added some star embellishments around the photos. You can zoom in and out with the pictures. I turned the right page sideways to better suit the direction of my landscape photos.  Thanks again for looking. I'll make more from paper packs soon. (But there will be more Studio J layouts too!)

Family Outings

I added the swirls above and streched them to fit.  I added journal boxes, I can turn off the velum look so that the words are right on the picture's frame.

A walk in the woods with the family.

Thanks for looking.

Photo Shoot Fun

What a year makes - just look at how older she looks in a year . . . .She's such a ham :)

She could have been Shirley Timple - if only she could tap dance.

Up North - More S.J.

I'm gonna have to add some hidden journaling to this page.  I the trees were wild to walk thru.  You could hardly see the tree house until you got right up to it. More of Hancock, Wisconsin.

Camping in Handcock, WI

Did you really think it'll be something Other than a Studio J layout???  Now, I haven't given up on my paper packs, but I am somewhat addicted to doing these - THEY WERE SOOOO EASY! I even added extra journaling boxes, embellishments and chose my own colors for paper, and extras.  I'll have to take snap shots of the screens to show you howeasy it truely is to do layouts. (the bar signs on this layout is a private running joke - we never were in any of them).

Coloring with Markers

I thought I had posted these a LONG time ago.  In fact these have been around so long that I've used a lot of them and it took me awhile to find any.  I wanted to show how I've colored with our markers.

 Here is a group of for ladies - actually it's just 2 stamps done with different colors.

 I colored the prego lady above in green and used a white pigment marker to highlight the edge of her dress.  I used a light grey to do the shadow on the ground.

 This little lady has our Sparkles for earrings! Adds some depth and sparkle.

 With this lady I stamped the image on B&T paper and cut out her dress and then stamped the image white cardstock, colored her and glued the dress onto the cardstock.

 I love purple!

My favorite stamp from this set is this lady!  She's SHOPPING!  I have a black belt in Shopping! I highlighted her shirt, the purse, the yellow bag too with a pigment white ink marker. (There is men on this stamp set too, but I think I've used all of them on cards!) This stamp set is called Family Ties - Adults, there is also Family Ties - Kids and Family Ties - Pets!

Enjoy coloring!

Easter Layout (shh - sneaking in another Studio J)

Easter! I know you can read - but I'm happy I'm getting photos for Jeanie onto pages and they really look great.  Plus the prints are coming in the mail!! I can't wait to get them into the album.  I'm even thinking of adding 3D embellishments onto the layouts - did you know you could do that?  Our digitals match the paper packs!  Thanks Again for looking.

Studio J

Sorry, you're going to get 10 layouts in 10 days because I'm tickled on how they turned out.  I got FREE JPG's of each layout with each purchase and I saved over $50 on this order!

Here's another one:

Jeanie playing dress up - you can click on the layouts to make them bigger. I love that you can put embellishments right onto the photos - see the last post for examples of that.

Thanks for looking - leave a comment.

Studio J! My First Layout

I decided to play with my Studio J membership and fell in love with how easy it is to get caught up on my past layouts.  I ended up doing 10 layouts - BECAUSE they are ON SALE - 10 for the price of 9!!! For the month of February only!

Let me know what you think of my first attempt to designing online!

Kraft Color-Ready Borders in Action

Transform your kraft Color-Ready borders into vivid embellishments for all your artwork.

This is a great video from our Marketing Department.

If you don't see the UTube Video, please click the title and go to my blog to see the video.
Thanks for looking!

Simply Scallops!

Discover clever uses for our new scallop circle punch. (just click video to start)

To purchase the items shown in this demonstration go to: Mary Eisen's website.

Items used:

2" Circle Scalloped Punch (Z1392)

My Creations Banner (Z1378)

My Acrylix Salutations Seals (C1461)

1 1/4" Circle Punch (Z1311)

Ribbon Rounds - Great Video

I just love the new ribbons we have in our catty this year! Check this great video that our marketing department made using these ribbons!

Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!

You should be coming from Annette Green's blog, if you're not, that's ok, keep hopping and you'll make a complete circle.  This stamp can be yours free or at a discount depending on your order in February - (click here for details)

This month's stamp set is called FRIENDSHIP (D1453)

This stamp set would be great for making backgrounds for all your projects, so I decided to do something different and make it more the center of attention:

 I used Crystal Blue and Black Cardstock.  The card is 6 x 6. I stamped the image in Daisy White Pigment ink, heated with a heat gun.  Using our colored pencils I colored in the image leaving a little white showing on all the edges.

 With a White pigment pen I added dots and a few lines.  Then comes the bling!  I added pink, blue and green sparkles on a lot of the circles that are in the stamp artwork.

The photos don't do it justice, it shimmers and looks a lot richer in person.

Now head over to Toni Hinchcliffe's blog to see more great work with this stamp!  Thanks for looking - leave comments on everyone's blog.

Design Studio Meets Spongebob & Gang!

I promised Jeanie for her birthday I would make cutouts of Spongebob and the gang to decorate the house.  These will be great for showing at classes but I think I would fair better by just putting them on her bedroom wall after the party and make more later.  The picture below is how I laid several colors of paper down on the mat at the same time so I could cut more than one at a time.  I have Lilac Mist in the corner, red, white and black for the base. I could see on the screen where I placed the pieces so I knew where to put the paper and how big.

 When using layering cartridges like this you need to cut the base first and then layer the colors on top.

 Here's Patrick the starfish, then I added eyes, and mouth parts.  The black becomes the "black outline" around the colors.

 The base has all the lines so you know how and where to lay all the pieces - the bad part is, the cuts also make the base a little flimsy.

 his pants flowers.

 I love how the little holes are cut out instead of having to add a little black dot!

 love those pants!  Citrus Leaf and Lilac Mist cardstock!

 Spongebob himself!

 When it came to Gary the snail, I reduced his size so he fit, but the machine wouldn't line up when cutting out the shape itself.  First it cuts all the details inside and then cuts the outer edge.  Every time it never met up at the end (see picture above) 5 cuts later I just used one and you can see Gary below, his bottom colors don't line up. I think it's because there is a line going around the shape that extend outside the cutting area, but the cuts didn't extend beyond the cutting area - think this cartridge has a flaw.

 Squidward above, Gary below

 The blue and green don't match the base on Gary.

And angry Plantain!  Thanks for looking.