Say a little prayer for you…

“From the moment I wake up, before I put on my makeup
I say a little prayer for you…
While combing my hair, while wonderin’ what dress to wear now
I say a little prayer for you…”

Aaaalrighty, nothing like a little Dionne Warwick (or Aretha Franklin – whichever version you prefer) to get your craft on!  You’ll have to excuse me for a moment, I’ve got it right at the good part, so don’t mind if I shake my groove thang before I share my project with you today! 

Okay!  I’ll just try to type while my shoulders do little shimmy shake-shakes!  The weekend was not the most productive weekend ever, in terms of crafting – actually, in terms of anything, considering I didn’t do much. If it’s still visible there on my sidebar, you’ll see that my fingers were quite twitter-y yesterday!  It you can still see it, you’ll have to pardon my “french” in one post…after all, one of Canada’s languages IS french, but unfortunately, not the en francais that I mean *clears throat* I think you’ll find that I did have good reason – I was planted in the  most comfiest spot of my uncle’s house for the BIG Canada vs. USA hockey game.  We went for GOLD and we did it!  Although, I am big enough to admit that it didn’t look that way in the last thirty seconds of the third period.  I couldn’t believe that Canada was about to not only HAND the gold medal over to the US, but they practically GIFT WRAPPED IT!  It was INTENSE, y’all!  This was pretty much the only thing I caught of the whole, entire Olympics (yeeeah, Olympics…wasn’t my thing, I guess!), but did it look like the medallists were being handed bunches of brocolli at the awarding ceremonies?  I was like, well, there’s pretty much every other sponsor under the sun, maybe brocolli is the OFFICIAL vegetable of the 2010 winter games – after all, brocolli has TWELVE essential nutrients and minerals all packed into little, tiny trees…now THAT’S a miracle!

But I digress!  Actually, I almost forgot why I was posting *insert small gasp here* I have a project to share! And even better, I am COMPLETELY, irrevocably (a la Bella and Edward if you noticed my choice of wording and you’re a big Twilight geek like me) in *LOVE* with it!  I think this is one of those cards that I won’t EVER be able to part with…not even to give to my MOTHER! *gasp* I know…

But anyhow, before I get myself all in a tither about my own project, here it is:

*swoons* Don’t you just love her? I do!  You’ll have to forgive the ugly photo editing.  I blurred out the background because you can totally, and I mean TOTALLY see the dust on the cabinet that I placed the card on.  BWAHAHAHAHA…who said creativity and…cleanliness go hand in hand?  Not I!  So instead of dusting and re-taking the shot, I just blurred it out…you can still tell where it is, but meh…LOOK AT THE CARD!

I don’t mean to toot my own horn so much, but this is the first project in a very long time that I have really ended up liking.  And it’s so funny how it came about from being really bored and mojo-less, to THIS!  I just wandered down to my scraproom on Saturday and sat here for HOURS looking around at my stuff and coming up with nothing.  I went online and ordered stuff (*giggles* I AM still the same ol’ me, after all!  I have some awesome Viva Decor pens – in glass, glitter and pearl and a BOW EASY coming!) but I still wasn’t inspired to make anything with what I had in front of me.  So I looked around some more, arranged my Copic markers and wondered which appendages or organs I don’t really need so I could sell them and use the money to buy more markers, but still…sadly, nothing!  So away I went and on Sunday, I was back to give it another go.

At least this time, I had SOMETHING in mind.  A colour scheme!  Sunday (besides being the most tinkle-inducing hockey game day) was also my grandmother’s death anniversary so we were getting together before the game to say a little prayer (inspiration #1) for her.  Before we got there, I stopped by the grocery store and picked up this sweetest, little daisy arrangement.  The daisies and flowers were all white and the tall vase that held them was this really nice creamy/ivory colour with a darker band of ivory/tan colour around the belly of it.  So I knew I wanted to make a prayer card with a stamp (I had just recently picked up a new stamp from my LSS at a ridiculous inflated price *shrugs* I’m supporting them, but I can still complain, can’t I?) I just got and I knew what colour theme I wanted it to be.  I also knew which stamp I wanted to use, but that was about it.  I had no idea in my mind what I wanted my card to look like, so to pass the time while my brain got creative, I decided I would stamp out some flowers.  I stamped out my first set of flowers three times and cut them out.  Staring at them, I thought I would layer them for a more 3D look to them, so I got out my mini mister, filled it with water and a little bit of gold Perfect Pearls and started spritzing my flowers.  I crinkled and crumpled and then dried them off with my heat gun.  I did the same for the other two flowers and once I was done, the idea was starting to take shape in my mind and voila, my card!

Since I was using a pretty basic colour scheme, I thought I would lively things up by adding more SHIMMER, but I didn’t want to use glitter because I still wanted to keep things pretty subtled.  After layering my little angel, I got out my pearl coloured Perfect Pearl and my water brush and brushed over her wings and her dress, and then I decided the flowers should get a quick coat as well.  I made her blonde with gold Perfect Pearls and pretty much over-shimmered everything else I could. I still couldn’t figure out how I wanted to lay the card out, so I left it and came back to it again this evening! WOW, is this blog post getting long or WHAT?!  I’m not even done!

Aaanywho, came back it it again tonight and it all pretty much just came together! YAY mojo!  Here’s a little close-up of the detail and shimmer:

 

Aaanyway, I guess that’s long winded enough!  See you all in a couple days, thanks for visiting!

TOOLS/SUPPLIES
Stamp(s): Whisper Angel – High Hopes Stamps, Flowers: Inkadinkado and Autumn Leaves, Sentiment: Verses Rubber Stamp
Ink: Memento in Rich Cocoa
Paper: Cardstock in cream and kraft, blue cardstock from DCWV Old World stack
Other: Cuttlebug system/embossing folder, Nestabilities, Perfect Pearls in pearl and gold, aqua brush, Sakura metallic glitter pen in gold, crocheted ribbon (dollar store), Fiskars border punch, half-back pearls

P.S. I would LOOOOVE to E-Mail my subscribers (are there any left?!?!) to let them know that I’m blogging again and that I’ve got a couple new blog posts up, but unfortuantely *screech* I’ve forgotten my FeedBlitz login and I’ll have to figure it out before I can get in touch with anybody – even myself, since I subscribed to my blog so I can make sure the subscriptions work, but I can’t send anything! *sighs*

Waaaiting…

…for days like THIS

Thanks a Melon!

I WANT SUMMER!  Heck, I’m not even asking for too much, it doesn’t even have to be SUMMER…could I at least see the SUN?!

*breathes* Hooookay, so who’s tired of me doing that cloud thing?! *raises hand* Don’t be shy! *LOL*  It’s just SO easy to do it, I can’t stop!  It’s an addiction.  I know…I have a problem.  I promise, the next one will look somewhat different!

This is one of stamps from my High Hopes order.   This little girl is sooo sweet! I thought it was hilarious that she was eating something bigger than her head – it reminded me of ME!

I coloured her in with my Copic Markers and layered her on to CM cardstock.  I drew the randomly flying ‘birds’ onto the cloud scene with my Copic Multiliner and added Stickles for nice, fluffy cotton candy looking clouds!  I also decorated a bit with my new Liquid Pearls but we’ll be getting more into those within the next couple of weeks with the April Spotlight.

Speaking of the APRIL SPOTLIGHT, the switch-up tutorial is now up for your perusal.  It’s using the same technique as the first tutorial, but on different cardstock, just to show how versatile these pearl powders are and how different mediums and paper can change the way that they look and the brightness of how they appear.  Hope you’ll find some time to check back in tomorrow, we’ll be MISTING away!

MATERIALS
All hyperlinked products and materials are from Pez-a-Doodle Designs

Stamp: High Hopes
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Brilliance Dew Drop Ink
Medium: Copic Markers
Embellishments: Ribbon, Liquid Pearls, Stickles

CURRENT MOOD: CURRENTLY LISTENING TO:

Lamb of God…

…a shorter post than usual for me today!  I totally overdid it at dinner last night and I think I’m in a semi-state of carb coma.  I am having the hardest time keeping my eyes open.  I think I might even have to re-do the card for today because my eyes were all wonky and it may not even be aligned properly.  *LOL*

I’m going to share a little secret with you.  I’m not sure how noticeable it is, but did you wonder about the flowers?  I don’t usually just go around sticking flowers just everywhere.  Well, I do, but that wasn’t really my intention this time.  I made the stamping beginners’ all-time-high mistake.  I was inking up a sentiment stamp and I dropped the stamp onto my work.  *CRIES* Yeah, I did!  So a big, inky, blobby mess is under one of those flowers.  I’m not going to point out which one…*sighs* Too bad I wasn’t working on a distress kind of project, I could have worked around it.  But I was going for a nice, clean look today and wasn’t really wanting the flowers, but what’s a girl to do?  Start all over again when The Mister is already in the next room making harumphing noises?  I’d still like a little stamping/shopping freedom…no need to get the significant other too irritated with my hobby, right?

So, moving right along!  I was very sad that I didn’t have a lot more quality time with my High Hopes stamps that came in.  I pretty much stamped on the fly and just ran with it – hence the stamping disasted.  A stamper should never have to feel rushed, I think!  I pulled out this stamp first because of the proximity to Easter and because it’s just so lovely!

I coloured the image with my Copics – really working the fake-it-’til-you-make-it colouring technique! *LOL* (This was NOT taught at the Certification Class!) and I took my aquapen and perfect pearled the garment over the cross.  I would definitely say that Jesus’ robes deserve the shimmer.  Plus, I really think it helps add to the whole look of it being HOLY and kind of calls to mind the transfiguration, etc.  Yes, Perfect Pearls can DO that, but I digress…

I Stickled the wonderful, grassy null that my beautiful little lamb is sitting on and I used my wonderfully creamy Versamagic ink to make the cloudy background.  This required a little masking.  I haven’t done quite so much masking in this way, but it was actually pretty easy.  I had already stamped the original image onto my oval and I just took one of my test stamps and cut it out pretty roughly and temporarily taped it on top so I was free to go crazy with the cloud-makin’!  Once I lifted off the mask, I had a nice cloudy background backlighting my main focal point.  I was very happy with it – and then I dropped my inked stamp on top of it.  *SCREECH*  Since I already had my aquapen and Perfect Pearls out, I proceeded to paint Perfect Pearl all over the raised parts of the embossed background paper.  Some non-Kaiser flat-backed pearls helped finish off the image.  I didn’t include the sentiment because I was harboring some resentment against it for it’s part in ruining my work and forcing me to succumb to the use of flowers.  I’m sure I will forgive it eventually…

That’s it for me today.  I’ve got an ALL DAY scrap day planned out tomorrow with a CM consultant but it’s kind of boring so I usually end up bringing all my contraband stuff and doing my own ‘thang’ at the retreat.  She never really specifically says it’s not allowed and she can hardly NOT let me because I always seem to come away with a ton of CM stuff anyway!  But I’m hoping that the mandatory all-dayness of the event will force me to get a TON of advance things done (RELEASE DAY IS COMING!!!) and I won’t have to worry about suffering from anymore carb comas.  If you’ve got a moment, please let me know what you think of today’s project and my first Perfect Pearl tutorial will be going up this MONDAY for the very start of the first week of my April Spotlight!  If you just NEED to know about Perfect Pearls ASAP, please check out Marti’s blog for the introduction and product comparison! 

Thank you SO much for stopping by, I hope that you’re having a wonderful Friday and let’s get our weekend OOOON!

(Will be back to post the products and materials)

CURRENT MOOD: CURRENTLY LISTENING TO: