Quilling = pasta machine

I’ve been looking for a used pasta machine for a long long time! Back in the day I had one when I played with Fimo but I got rid of it years ago. 😩 Who knew it also cut paper into perfect strips for quilling!?!  

Found this one at Goodwill for $10. It’s a little dirty and I had fix some bent hinges to get everything to fit together but it works really well. Now I have to dig out the quilling patterns and samples I saved! 

November HB Cards 2020

Sample the of the HB cards I’ve made for my November commission. I try to mix up the styles and keep some very simple for men. 

Splatter Cards 2020

I wanted to do some splatter on my base cards (thank you AmyR, the Queen of splatter) using my twinkling H2O watercolors. Since I had so much paint left on my acrylic blocks, I stamped the leftovers on to blank white paper. I should have used card stock but I wasn't really thinking I would end up using it. 

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with but it sat on my work table anyways and then the light bulbs went on. :)

When a friend destashed her craft room, I kept a few stamps (the rest went to Cottage Crafts to be sold in their ZZ booth - use art supply section) I liked these very old (2007) SU stamps. 

Because I didn't use card stock, it takes a long time to glue these suckers down and keep everything from wrinkling! These cards are going out to friends just because. 

Bunny HB card 2020

This is another stamp that came from a friend's craft room destashing. I thought it was too cute not to do something with it. Bunnies are just for Easter anymore!

 It's an old Inkadinkado stamp. I can't remember the last time I made a shaker card! I was going to add grass and have the bunny peeking out with a happy birthday sentiment stamp on it but at the last minute I decided to use a embossing folder. This is another card I will make for the standing order I have for birthday cards. 

First slimline card - Penny Black Cat 2020

I've be hired to make birthday cards for a person who owns several restaurants and she gives a handmade birthday card to each employee. I realized I don't make many birthday cards! So every night now I sit down and design something. I kit it and when I have a big block of time, I crank them out. 

This Penny Black stamp is from 1999 and I picked it up at a used stamp sale years ago. It doesn't stamp well on the block (reason it was probably in the sale) so I pulled it off the block and used my Tim Holtz stamping tool. At first I made it in a A2 size card and thought it was funny to have the balloons going sideways. 

Slimline cards are now all the rage in the card making world so this is my first card in that size. Only thing I don't like about slimline, is that it takes a whole sheet of paper to make one card. Still it's cute and I'll do a few more. 

Whipper Snapper stamp

I got this stamp a few years ago because I thought it was funny. Didn't really like the sentiment so I just masked off the tag image in the past. Now that I'm making more birthday cards, (will post about that later) I needed a tiny HB stamp for the tag and the only one I had was too long.  I did something that I've never done before  - I cut apart a stamp! Very scary to do that with a stamp so small but it fit inside the tag! I still have to mask off the inside of the tag but all over it made the stamp do what I wanted it to do. Now to make sure I don't lose the HB sentiment!

Gelli Press

So I decided to break down and get a gelli press and see what the fuss was all about. Since I already had all the parts it wasn't that big of an investment. I'm not into junk journals which seems to be what all the youtube artists do with the prints they make. It is a very fun and messy creative thing to do but if I didn't already have the brayers and paints, I don't think I would have gotten the gel mat. I wanted something I could use up my paints so this does fit the bill. 

Card Swap 2020

I joined the 2 peas refugees holiday card swap. I make 4 different designs so I don't get bored making 100 cards.

A friend was destashing her stamps and most of them went to Cottages Crafts ZZ booth, where you can resell your craft supplies. This one stamp, I decided to keep for my swap. Very simple but cute! Old stampin up stamp (2007), TH new ink Tumbled Glass and black embossing power.  

Tim Holtz has been doing a lot of YouTube videos showcasing his products, which I always find inspiring. He released a new  ink color "Crackling Campfire" which is so in my wheel house!

I made tons of backgrounds using his inks and then had to think of what to do with all of them. I pulled out a very old set of stamps from Memory Box and my FineTec metallic water colors. 

Once again the images sat on my desk because I couldn't think of what type of base card to use. After watching all the new leaf stamp sets being released this month, I went through my stash and found a big background stamp. Sorry there's no marking on the stamp to who made it but I'm sure I've had it for over 25+ years. Mailing these out to friends for a just becasue fall card. 

The Rabbit Hole Design - Squirrel with Donut 2020

I thought this stamp was too cute to pass up. I have a good friend who loves donuts so I made this card for her. I hope the beads I used for sprinkles make it through the mail!  

I haven't used my copic markers in a long long time!  I did try color pencils first but what I thought was dark brown was really purple. Oops! 

The squirrels sat on my desk for a weeks before I could figure out what to do with the base card. I think is makes a really nice  thinking of  you fall card. 

Loose water coloring 2020

I've been trying to learn how to be more loose in my water coloring painting. I mean how hard can it be to make a simple tree? When ever I try, my tree leans right even if I turn the page at an angle. I've watched dozen of videos on how to do it too.  Finally after many attempts I tried paint from the bottom up which I've never seen a YouTuber do. And it worked!  I have finally can get a straight tree. Now just have to keep working on being loose and not overwork it. 

Since I had so many test runs, I decided to turn them into Christmas cards for my upcoming card swaps. another great thing besides learning something new is I'm shopping from my stash for the swap. Didn't have to go out and buy anything. Now I just hope the USPS is still up and running at the end of the year. 

Tim Holtz inks - Water Color 2020

Tim Holtz was doing product videos every Saturday during the shut down. It was so inspiring and encouraging to use your art supplies and just play. I had this Penny Black stamp for years and finally broke it out. :)