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Sunday, December 5, 2010

I'm Back...again!

Hi Everyone!


I'm back!  I've missed you and hope you have missed me. For several weeks a cold was wearing me down. The cold transformed into a sinus infection and an ear infection that completely wiped me out and sent me to bed. Happily after a week of taking antibiotics I am starting to feel energized again.

Backtracking just a little...
I had the most amazing Thanksgiving in my life. My son, Robbie, baked 4 beautiful pies from scratch...apple, blueberry, mince, and pumpkin. My daughter, Marie, made the most incredible stuffing, a yummy squash casserole, a delicious peas and corn casserole, glazed carrots with cranberries, and a perfect lump free gravy. I just roasted the turkey, made mashed potatoes, and baked some date nut bread. I couldn't have asked for a nicer day.  I was and am so proud of both of my children. 



I haven't created many cards lately, but I do have a few to share with you today. I played with all of my small alphabet stamp sets and couldn't get the size and look that I wanted for the message on this card. Finally I decided to create the text on my computer. I was very satisfied with how it turned out.  I printed the text and ran the paper through a Cuttlebug music embossing folder. The holly leaves were punched with a Martha Stewart holly punch. The holly berries were created with Stickles.



I used a variety of tools to create this card. I am not sure that you can see all of the effects in my photograph. I used my copic markers to color the snowman's cheeks because I don't have any pink watercolor pencils...YET! I used watercolor pencils to color the snowman's scarf and arms. I am pretty much convinced that I like using watercolor pencils more than I do my small collection of copic markers. My very dear friend, Susan DeMuth, gave me a cool watercolor brush that has a tube that is filled with water. As you paint water over the pencils you give the brush the tube a little squeeze and more water drips onto the brush.



I used a glue pen and some very fine glitter to add some sparkle to the outline of the snowman and snow. I used a glitter marker to color the snowflakes and added a tiny rhinestone to the center of each of the larger snowflakes. The snowman's eyes are tiny black adhesive jewels.  I used Stickles to embellish the buttons. I put glossy accents on the carrot nose.  The snowman stamp is from Great Impressions and the text was stamped with a Studio18 stamp.



The ornament on this card was created with a Sizzix ornament die. . The text was created with stickers and I used a small Fiskars paper punch to create the snowflakes.










The traffic report that I receive from blogger showed that one of my Thanksgiving cards posts was opened 341 times! The report also shows that I have lots of readers each day. I wish that more readers would become followers and leave comments so that this blog can become more interesting and more interactive. Since I know from experience how much time it takes to write a post and add photographs to the post, I am now making more of an effort to leave comments on blogs that I follow.

I am going to end this post with some thoughts and a question and hope that at least some of the readers of this blog will post a response to it. You'll have to sign up as a follower, but that's easy to do. Just follow the instructions that will appear on your screen.  When I first started to stamp I preferred clear stamps to wooden ones because I could see through them as I stamped so I knew exactly where I was stamping. Now I prefer the feeling of a wooden stamp. 
Here's today's question...
Do you prefer to stamp with clear or wooden stamps and why?

Talk to you again soon. 
Carol

4 comments:

Cindy said...

Hi Carol,

Glad you're feeling better. Your Thanksgiving meal sounded awesome. How cool to have such productive & efficient children.

As for your question, I prefer not to stamp! LOL! :) I keep going back and trying it, but I haven't gotten to the place I want to be with it. I prefer the crispness of my computer type & graphics.

However, I did buy a beautiful Christmas tree stamp to use and I created most of my Christmas cards with it. It is a wooden stamp. I didn't have a problem using it, so I really don't have a preference yet between it and the clear stamps that I have.

Enjoy the holidays,

Cindy

Carol Hartery said...

Hi Cindy!
Thanks for leaving a comment. It's so nice to know that I can always count on you.
I realized something as I was stamping today that may be helpful for you. Dye inks dry more quickly than pigment inks so they may be easier for you to use. If you are planning to emboss what you stamped you'd need to use a pigment ink, but if you are not going to emboss, you could use dye inks.
I used to always use pigment inks, but now I find myself using dye ink more and more often.
I hope you have great holidays too. I am sure I will talk to you before Christmas. Carol

Peggy Burns said...

I don't stamp either and I am a buyer of your cards not a maker. I can tell you the kids love your cards as do their parents. I will be in touch so I can set a time to come buy my Christmas cards. Glad you are feeling better.

Carol Hartery said...

Hi Peggy!
I've missed you. Hope you had a Happy Birthday. This week is going to be insane for me so maybe we can do next week. Any day but Tuesday and Friday will work for me. TTYL. Carol