Thank you, Joy (dustypenny)

On the Society of Stamp and Scrap-aholics, we sent out cards to the person above us in the chain. I happened to be last and dustypenny (Joy) was first, so she sent her card to me and I sent mine to Nancy K. Joy makes ATCs and she surprised me with a beautiful card and ATC. Aren't these fantastic? Just downright fantastic! My family loved these. I had to share the delightful ATC with the card.

I'm sending her a surprise ATC. I won't share what I sent her until I think she's received it.

Hannah has some wonderful ideas for Christmas

I was just over to Hannah's site Jorguanna Place of Facination and she has some terrific ideas for Christmas cards. I love the winter swirl card - it's just like a winter day.... Fantastic job.

I think we're all in the holiday mode - not enough time to do everything we need to do, but still fun. It's also great seeing all the new stamps and peek previews for the Hero Arts new 2010 edition.

Off for the evening. Take care everyone.

Card Trade on Society of Stamp and Scrap-aholics

I liked Debbie's template so much I made three cards right away. I am ready to send my card off very soon - will have to decide with one.

Cat Nap
Ice Skating
Girl with a present

I can't get my "add image" to work today, so I put in the links above.

Debbie's site should be visited for pure wonderful reading. She's an artist and her interviews with other artists who work with stamps and papers are so much fun!!! Debbie's card chain for December is here.

Maybe my partner will give me a hint on which card she would likes.

I haven't been on in so long...

I have done some coloring and stamping, so I'll include a couple pieces that I've finished, but I haven't been on in so long, I hardly know what to say... well, not really, but almost the whole month has slipped by without a peep from me. I colored Slide Uvend, which was a sketch off a web site I will have to locate again and then an ATC that I wanted to have the colors of Autumn come alive.

I was surfing the Hero Arts site and saw some wonderful flowers and had to follow them to their source at Endless Possibilities with Wendy Smedley. I'm not putting them on sticks, but love this simple and wonderful idea for making great dimensional flowers.

I first viewed Rosemary D's card on Flickr and admired her flower, as well as the great card she'd posted. I was intrigued with the flower which she said she snagged from Dawn McVey's site. From there, it was straight to Wendy Smedley's site.

I will have to try it after the holidays. My third son is in from Denver and we've had a lot of catching up to do. My granddaughter, Angelina, is having a ball. She also had a birthday, turning 10 years. She was very happy... such fun!

And I'm back out to sit with the family. Have a great Thanksgiving.

SOS partner card - - October challenge

SOS partner card October challenge,
originally uploaded by Clarian's Hawk * Arlene.

I received the cutest card yesterday. I just love it. It is sitting right on top of my computer hutch. Love the colors and coloring... this is such a wonderful challenge that Deborah is running over at Society of Stamp & Scrapaholics! YAY

Thank you Judith.

I'm addicted. Love receiving a card - so wonderful to open something snailmail :))

Fingerpainting.... A challenge on ATC Beginners

I've never wanted to fingerpaint - well, the closest I came to fingerpainting was making mud pies when I was a little girl... that's my homemaking experience... no... not that bad, really.

But a challenge is a challenge and I got all messy and had a GREAT time.... I really made little trees - I thought fingernails counted too... not one brush touched the ATC... I thought I would take the challenge to heart. My ocean became a mound of hills - last ATC.

Autumn card

Autumn card,
originally uploaded by Clarian's Hawk * Arlene.

Time to submit a card for Deborah's October Card Chain Challenge. I was a bit leary at first, but found a background that Monika sent me before I got my own Dots and Flowers stamp from Hero Arts. I cut the cardstock into four panels, got some ribbon that I liked with the card and found an old flower that I first cut out with a Nestability die, but then decided I wanted to cut the flower shape out. It really does look much prettier in person. I dotted the middle of each of the dots with a color from the flower. I really liked the way it turned out and hope my partner will too.

Hugs from Arlene!

Her Arts ATC Trading

I thought a Hero Arts Trade was a wonderful way to end the Hero Arts ATC week. Making 10 of them, however was a challenge. I made some extras just in case. I have already traded an extra one out and have one on hold, so it's really a good thing I made a couple extras.

I cut most of my backings from a thinner cardboard (an old Root Beer 12 pack package) and had them ready to put the finished ATC front on them in an assembly line. The very last thing I did last night was put the gold Stickles on the trees and the Liquid Pearls on the trees and background stamping. My fingers were going numb from holding the Stickles because it's getting down to the dregs, but lasted long enough to make 13 ATCs.... YAY!

I printed out the information for the ATC, cut and glued to the cardboard backs and voila... done.. This was great fun... now I'll see if I can get a card or two done for this week's contest.

Dreamin' ATC

Dreamin' ATC,
originally uploaded by Clarian's Hawk * Arlene.

FIRST TIME COLORING WITH COPICS... wow - they are sweet.

I picked up a couple of skin tones, some reds, which I use most, 3 in the blue tones, an orange, a yellow, 2 brown tones so that I could color most anything. I can make a green from mixing yellow on the bottom and blue on the top, but wish I had purchased a couple greens. The green I used in this ATC was a marker which I then took some yellow and blue to highlight the leaves. Where there's a will, there's a way. I haven't used thiscute House Mouse stamp in 10 years and it just seemed the perfect stamp to test my new Copic Markers with.

I distressed the cardstock with Distressed inks: Worn Lipstick, Concord Grape, Shabby Shutters, & Broken China for the background. I stamped the cardstock, stamped again on white cardstock & cut out the image, then colored the image. I cut two different sets of grapes and a large grape & glued them back onto the grapes after coloring. I thought he looked like he was dreaming. I took a Hero Arts stamp and stamped the hearts so it looks like he's dreaming hearts, Hero Arts hearts.



.

Entry for Society of Scrap and Stampaholics

I chose to go with the sketch and a Halloween theme. I'm not real happy with this, but I like the sketch... I may color the BOO bones in with orange. I wanted to try the sketch. I like the way it overlaps the top and bottom outsides.

Manweek at Hero Arts

I'm sure that title is going to catch an eye or two. Sounds like we're setting up for the Chippendales, doesn't it... No no.... sorry....

I saw so many wonderful cards for the guys at the local meeting hall - yes - flickr. I would visualize all kinds of different sentiments, scenes... but never had the time to create... but my mind was working overtime.

I sat down, keeping in mind a wonderful card by Anette and ONE, TWO, THREE.... it was done!

Beautiful Blogger Award

Hello all my friends, Guess what? I received this Beautiful Blogger Award from such a loving person, my friend, fika . And fika won my "Pay it Forward" giveaway. I would like to pass on this award to my lovely friend’s blog (in no particular order) below: ~ Paula ~ Pia ~ Kelly ~ Donna ~ Sanne This award is dedicated to appreciate their beautiful artwork (cards, pages, videos) which I admire so much. Thank you for all of you who always inspiring me in many ways. I would be glad if you could visit each of the blog and leave some words, including fika's blog…  Have a WONDERFUL DAY!

Pay it forward winners!

The winning commenters are:::: DRUM ROLL:

Fika

Paloma

Raven

The winning commenters can do their own "Pay it forward" on their blog if they have one. This is supposed to be fun and when it ceases to be fun, then stop, take a breath, step back and begin in your own time. If you can't pay it forward, not to worry, because I know your hearts are paying it forward. Congratulations to the winners. I had my granddaughter pick the winners before leaving for school.
I will send the goodies sometime within two weeks if not sooner. I'll need names and addresses. Hope you enjoy what I made and pass on the hugs and random acts of kindness.

Pay it forward

I seem NOT to have much time lately, but I finally created three separate gift sets. I was lucky enough to be picked on Dawn's Pay it Forward day on her blog. Yes, it's taken me a bit of time, but finally the day has come. But I think I was also given the Pay it Forward from another person too and I'm frightfully sorry, but I did not have the time to pay it forward the first time(and I've forgotten who sent it to me). So this is a two-for-one. Whoever my other wonderful pay it forward person was, please let me know and I'll include you in this "thank you for awarding me the honor" of paying it forward.

If you are interested in playing leave a comment on this post, I’ll draw 3 names from the comments and you can then play “Pay it forward” on your blog. If you want to play along and don’t have a blog, that’s perfectly fine. I know my lovely crafty friends will pay it forward in some way even if not via a blog.

The winning commenters can do their own "Pay it forward" on their blog. I will send the goodies sometime within two weeks of picking the 3 winners. At that time, you will have to give me your home addresses.

Here are the cards and tags I've created for you. I hope you like them. So let anyone interested in playing the game, to come and leave me a comment. I will draw the winners in a week. I'll post the winners here and on the Hero Arts flickr group too.

Caardvark challenge sponsored by hero Arts

Holiday Dolls Aug 4 2009,
originally uploaded by Clarian's Hawk * Arlene.

I fell in love this new cute Hero Arts set. I had to make a card the same day I purchased this darling set. I can't wait to make more. The little gal is adorable (two dolls in this collection) and I stamped the face with pigtails on a pale tan cardstock, the body with scarf on the wonderful double-sided cardstock (the red vertical panel is the back side of the red and green dotted paper) from "The Paper Garden" in Sacramento, CA. I stamped the snow hat on white cardstock and colored in. I bought "Nailheads" metal stickers by Mark Richard as well as the wonderful new Hero Arts set at "The Stamp Art Shoppe" in Roseville, CA. Both shops are so wonderful, can't say enough about the wonderful service and talent of the owners.

Hope you like this card... it was fun to make.

Blog hop candy... are you ready to go visit....

Come fly with me.... to the Little Shop of Crafts. She is celebrating the Hero Arts flickr group's BLOG HOP by HAVING A BLOG CANDY GIVEAWAY! It is open to EVERYONE & ANYONE who leaves a comment on HER post telling her what your favorite HERO ARTS stamp is!

Go see how you can have extra chance of winning!

Sending you on to blog heaven

Isn't blog hopping fun? I'm afraid I'm a late starter for the Hero Arts Flickr group blog hop, but better late than never. On one of the blogs, I happened to find a link to another blog with some very exciting blog candy. Just take a peek at Creating from the Heart. I haven't even touched the surface of following the hops from blog to blog... Have fun!

Gaal Creative: Footprints Giveaway!

Visit Anne Gaal's blog for a wonderful drawing - Anne is so creative. I love her photos and can't wait for you to find out about her.

Gaal Creative: Footprints Giveaway!

New Hero Arts Hostesses (Hosti - inside joke)

Inside joke first - if you don't know what a Hosti is... well, neither did we until three months ago... Deborah Nolan invented this new word in a thread on the Hero Arts (HA) blog and it just caught on... So it's not a "big" joke... I'll settle for a little baby one.

Now, there are 8, yes 8 Hero Arts Hostesses... Our new hosti for the next three months. A big welcome to our eight new Hero Hosteses…
Lucy Abrams (Lucy, England)
Cathy Andronicou (newkidfish)
Lin Brandyberry (quilterlin)
Tiffany Ervin (Paper Girl)
Tracey Kuzniak (TRace44)
Virginia Lu (Virginia L.)
Sarah Moerman (sarahjane4kids)
Kathy Racoosin (crzy4stamps-kathy)

For the next three months as they will wear their aprons (only allowed on the internet... no apron anywhere else - that would mean no time playing... They'll all be helping the HA community be the best it can be! The Hostesses will receive lots of fun Hero products to play with and they are encouraged to enter the weekly challenges to provide inspiration; however, they cannot be selected as winners. After their hostess term is up, they can once again enter contests.

Hugs to our new apron-wearing hosti!

Visit Hero Arts this week - July 13th - July 17th

This is the week to visit Hero Arts.... if you've never done so, hop, no... skip, no... RUN to the Hero Arts (HA) website and visit the blog! Why, you ask? Double the prizes!!!! Double the fun! I've been a fan of the HA blog for over a year now and can tell you the inspiration I get every week is phenominal as well as techniques to enhance my card making. Following the step-by-step videos will improve your card-making abilities ten fold. This week’s challenge is to create something that is inspired by anything on heroarts.com (the HA main website, not their blog). It can be a card, scrapbook page, technique article, or more from heroarts.com. Post your NEW cards on the Hero Arts flickr group after reading this week's challenge. So why are you still here?

Caardvark challenge

Doesn't the name Caardvark just make you want to do a doubletake? yessssss..... but you remember it! Wonderful challenges are to be had on the 5th and 20th of each month... so without further ado, today is the 5th, I stalked the site... yes, I admit it... I was there numerous times today... even in my pajamas... tsk tsk.


The challenge this week is based on a sketch. It was late and I followed the sketch pretty much the way it printed out without deviating because it was late... yes, late... ahhh, that felt good to tell everyone that I brainlessley followed a sketch... but it's a GOOD sketch. So here is my card.




I could have added circles popdotted instead of bows, I could have punched a border instead of running ribbon down the side, but... I didn't and I think it turned out good, not extraordinary, but I LIKE it... it'll be the perfect Birthday card for my granddaughter's mom in August and that's really all that matters. This photo is a couple years old, but her mom will be delighted.

Hero Arts gets a new face

I added a blinkie for the Hero Arts website. Watch for July 15th, 2009 for the new look at Hero Arts.... click on the new blinkie to check out Hero Arts. Can't wait... and of course there will be prizes.....

The Hero Arts stamps are high quality and style. I've stamped with them for years and I think I started in 1995 or so, give or take a year. Take care for a mid-week salutation.

Giveaway at Paper Fashions

Donations by Wausau Papers and Fiskars tools and adhesives at Paper Fashions. Be sure to visit to see how you might win. Be sure to visit by July 3rd. I think winning is great.... so check it out!

10 Honest things about me.

Ten honest things about me....

Got this from Sanne, one of my online friends through Hero Arts. When you receive this "honest Scrap", you are to write 10 things about yourself! So here are 10 things about me.

1. I had 3 boys who are now 41, 39, and 37.

2. My 3 sons were born in different cities, Landstuhl, German, Pasadena, Texas, USA, and La Mesa, California, USA.

3. I read one book a week.

4. I have a guinea pig named Sundae.

5. I once made and sold ceramic vases wholesale to flower shops in my area.

6. I make jewelry from time to time.

7. I love to watch comedies, action, and science fiction movies.

8. I could lose myself crafting for hours.

9. I don't like to cook anymore

10, Last but not least, my granddaughter and I spent most of the day with online friend Nancy Demond... we went to The Stamp Art Shoppe, Michaels, Joanns, and Green Tangerines, plus had lunch at Mimi's Cafe.

I'm sending this to Nancy Demond, Deborah Nolan, and Paula Laird.

June $100 Shopping Spree June 2009

June $100 Shopping Spree June 2009,
originally uploaded by Clarian's Hawk * Arlene.

I had to share the wonderful stamps I was able to order as a result of winning the June $100 shopping spree at Hero Arts. My granddaughter, Angelina and I were able to choose 5 clear stamp sets and two wood block stamps, as well as a little treat just for Angelina of 3 aqua-flo pens (plastic clear pens which you fill up with water that each have a different brush tip at the end) for fine, medium, and large water color painting.

I just LOVE the heart winged butterfly. It is fast becoming my favorite. I love the effect of stamping on patterned papers.

I'm going to be busy today doing paperwork and not stamping... oh well.... Have a great day!

Lins Giveaway: $25.00 Gift Certificate

Lins Giveaway: $25.00 Gift Certificate,
originally uploaded by quilterlin.

I've never blogged from another person's blog... we'll see how this works... pardon me if it doesn't work, here goes. AND it works! Wow... the things you learn. Straight across to the right of the title of Lin's giveaway, I was able to blog her thread directly into mine... will wonders never cease...

Gaal Creative (MAIN): End of Civilization Giveaway!

The card for todays giveaway at Gaal Creative is just stunning. Please visit to take a look at her inventory and to enter a comment to win this fabulous card - Gaal Creative (MAIN): End of Civilization Giveaway!

A WIN AT HERO ARTS

I won... yes, WON the Hero Arts (HA) Shopping Spree of $100.00 just because I joined the Hero Arts Club. It came as a total surprise. I hadn't yet checked the Hero Arts newsletter, but my friends on the HA flickr group had... and I wondered what in the world they were congratulating me on.... I had that feeling of holding back belief because the person they're referring to might not be you....

My nine year old granddaughter was as excited as I was when I read the newsletter which is on the Hero Arts site under Hero Arts Club; use the pull down Navigator to select newsletters.

We opened our Spring and 2009 catalogs and put post-it notes on the stamps we liked, the initial A for her and M for me... we had tons of post-it notes and most had both our initials. Here's what we ordered:

CL337 Birds and Branches
CL349 World Dolls
CL229 Asian Borders
CL228 Asian Elements
CL275 Asian Frames
F5158 Heart Winged Butterfly
S5154 Three Ferns
MW012 Aqua Flo Brush - my granddaughter gave up her pick of the mushrooms stamp for these. We, yep, we are so excited and Angelina can hardly wait to receive our wonderful treasure!

Two for one day...

I just posted some news about the great weekend I had, including the three cards I made, but I was also so excited about some tutorials. On the Hero Arts flickr group, I spied a card by swanlady21 that was so beautiful and looked quite complicated. I need to email her and see if she has a template or tutorial. She has posted panels. Then just recently hetty4you posted a similar card and I asked her if there was a template. She's created several tutorials for different sizes of paper and they seem easy to follow. Here is the 5 1/2" X 12" tutorial that also links to Split Coast Stampers for more samples by other stampers. There's also a 5 1/2" X 11" tutorial. It's something a bit different to try and I'm all for trying out new techniques. Hope you follow my links to the cards and The Cratifblog.

This past weekend

Almost June, can you believe it? Over the Memorial Day weekend, I enjoyed some crafting and a couple of outings.

A life-long friend of my beautiful and talented daughter-in-law, Rosalie, graduated from college with a Bachelor's degree in Interior Design. We had a wonderful time at the party on Saturday. The kids got to decorate and take home flip-flops. Wonderful food and conversation. A beautiful day out - temperature was perfect. So happy to see Hope complete her education and achieve her dream.

On Sunday, I had some time to craft and made three cards with colors I don't think I've ever used together. I'm not a fan of yellow, certainly not a mustard to almost goldenrod color. Not sure I'll ever buy this color again, not even sure where it came from, but I do like the dramatic cards the yellow combined with other colors produced. I was only going to create a card based on Avital Gerner's layout at Creativity Prompt and was working with tans and creams, but wanted a good vivid color too - grabbed this yellow card that I had been trying to work through my printer for a backing for one of my ATC cards that didn't work out. Stamped the cards with different sets of Hero Arts stamps and added a Tim Holtz stamp on the card featuring the man with the umbrella and saying. Made this card:
, then went on to make a card with a stamped yellow stripe on black. Used two border punches by Martha Stewart here:
and then spied one left-over piece of yellow and wanted to use the man with the umbrella stamp. I glued the rest of the papers I worked with on the first "rayed" card and glued them all to the front of the notecard. I used the Cuttlebug and Nestibilities to cut a black border to frame the stamped image:


I'm so pleased with these and amazed that I used that yellow paper at all.

And last, but not least, we celebrated a late Mother's Day - went out to eat at "The Cheesecake Factory" and thoroughly enjoyed the experience... I was amazed at the menu - a book of delights and we did NOT have desert - for a lunch, I still have left-overs... I think I might go back just for desert.

New stamp set - Artistic Borders

I have been eyeing the wonderful creations on the Hero Arts flickr group using the Hero Arts Artistic Borders large flower - such eye-catching creations. I am not going to list the selections here because I don't want to miss anyone's beautiful submissions, I'll just tell you how to check on flickr for the wonderful views. The search will show you all cards/projects that were tagged with the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) number for this stamp set. The projects will include any of the large number of stamps in this set. Once logged into flickr, click on the arrow beside the "Search" button on the upper right side of your screen, a list will display, then click "Everyone's Uploads." You will now have a new "Search" window. Key CL322 into the "Search" window, click "Search" and you will see everyone's projects that posted CL322 as a tag. I just finished doing this and was again amazed at how many different and totally awesome projects were made with stamps from this set.

Here are my two entries on Sunday - yes a last minute entry.

and side view


I'll be using these stamps for quite some time... the borders and flowers are wonderful... and I loved twisting the stem in this set to follow the curve of the background stamped image. Have a great week.

52 Questions - a year of mini art journaling

I found an intriguing ATC on llaurenb's photostream and saw something about 62 Q... what was that? llaurenb is so sweet and took the time to explain what 52 Questions was all about and that she is recording her mini art journaling on ATCs. I'd not seen anything displayed on the back of ATCs other than information about the card itself. The back was much more personal... You can see I was falling into the "Well, I'll just see what it's about...." trap She sent me two links, one to Ember's and the other to a flickr group at 52 Q - a year of mini art journaling. I liked what I saw...

Some I'm having trouble deciding what I want to do.... How do you create an ATC on the movie Schindler's list.... well, I haven't done this one yet.

I definitly like the book ATC and the Hopes for 2009 ATC I did for this challenge. I don't like handwriting on these so I type them out - all except one... Here are two of my favorites that I've done... Enjoy the weekend.



and

The Renee Award
Hello! Today I'd like to share an award that was generously given to me by my friend Anne Gaal called the Renee Award. It is such an honor to receive blog awards and I am so very grateful!
The Renee Award




The Renee Award was created by Bella and Ces in honor of their friend Renee.
In Bella's own words: "this is a brand new award and I have the pleasure and honor of spreading the seed, watching it grow. I hope it finds it's way to those who are like Renee: the acorn, a small package becoming a tall and sturdy oak, giving more acorns, becoming tall and sturdy oaks, giving acorns..."
There are no "rules" for claiming this award, but I would suggest the following:
Thank the person who nominated you for the Renee Award.
Click on the picture above to see it larger, then download it and post it on your blog.
Mention the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.
Nominate others to receive the award.
Comment on their blogs to let them know you nominated them.
Visit Bella, Ces, and Renee and let them know you received the award and passed it on. Consider linking your blog post to them, too.
Now I am supposed to share in the fun by nominating others. This is hard for me, because I know, like many of us, we are always trying to obtain that extra minute to accomplish something, from repairing that vacuum with the army man stuck just beyond your fingertips to building a coat rack. I have met so many wonderful artists, bloggers, and friends and I love being part of this blogging community. But, I also understand the value of awards in exposing us to a few blogs that might be new to us.
Out of oh so many wonderful blogs and friends, I think I will nominate a few of the newest ones I know about... doesn't mean it's brand new... just new to me. I'd like to nominate the following bloggers, (in no particular order):



Susanne Andersen

Pia Overgaard

Hannah Nicole F



I hope you'll take a moment or two to stop by these blogs (including Anne!) and leave a nice comment or two. It takes just a moment, but it is sooooo nice to receive those comments! :-)

Generous give-away by Siri

I was visiting Joshua Jiraffe Designs today and followed her lead to a fantastic give-away from Siri. You won't believe the gorgeous papers and wonderful handmade papers. As I scrolled down the beautiful papers and peeked at the flowers, my first thought was, "I want these" and the second thought was "How do I get these?" and a posting will do it... it's all up to us... she will have her granny pick a name at the 3500th hit on her blog. Hurry on over and check this out.

Paint Chips & ATCs

I've really enjoyed the Hero Arts blog and flickr group for over a year now... and we were challenged to use something other than just ol' paper just last week. Some of the gals in the flickr group are just amazing!!! All kinds of suggestions emerged... no - erupted! One of the suggestions was to use paint chips. Since I had to go to the hardware store anyway, I also dropped by the paint display area.... so many wonderful colors to choose from.



I never thought of "erasing" the printed colors on those little rascals... no... I cut them off... which was ok... here's the card I finished... not too shabby, but do I have a great site to direct you to .... after this demonstration of a simple paint chip card... ta da!







I was checking for different swaps on swap-bot, then checking some of the profiles, then some of the swaps they were in and found one that is too late to enter (waaaa!!), but which had a great link to Go Make Something on... what?... paint chips. Cutting on the diagonal, creating unusual cards, tags, ATCs are just some of the amazing ideas for paint chips - so you have got to check it out if you're a paper crafter. Go Make Something also has some great information on the most efficient way to get the most ATCs out of a regular 8 1/2" X 11" piece of paper too.



The back of your cards should contain your name, any contact information you wish to provide, e.g. Title of the ATC, Date the ATC was made, your name/email address or whatever method you might wish for the person to have to contact you later , and the number or series of the card. Some artists start numbering their cards with number 1, and just keep going. Others will do series numbering, such as 1 of 7 or 1/7. How you number is totally up to you. I haven't been numbering mine except when I made a series of tree sets of a particular style/method of crafting, then 1of 3, etc. I'm kind of wishing I had started off numbering them right away.

Oh well... do I start now by counting my flickr group... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... we'll see.

Cat Nap Fantasy - a Caardvark's Challenge entry

Cat Nap Fantasy,
originally uploaded by Clarian's Hawk * Arlene.

I have been coloring on this little quilt and the cat for awhile now. colored blue, then a week later, I colored pink, and so on. Sooo you see it's taken awhile... But then all of a sudden, the colors seemed to magically appear in my hands as I set to filling in the blanks... I guess filling in the squares is more applicable.

This is a glossy paper and I didn't know what I wanted to do with the area behind the cat at all... I'm happy it just kind of flowed.... upwards from the shadows. I always thought this image was so sweet, but I only ever colored this image twice and I was not real happy with it either time.

I have no idea what stamp company made this, all I know is I've had the stamped images for years! If anyone knows, please knock, but not too hard, because you might wake the sleeping kitty.

What can I say? Stamping Mathilda...

I joined Swap-bot about a month ago and have had a pleasant trading experience. My name is Clarian on swap-bot. I was certainly leery at first, but decided I'd get my feet wet by participating in some easy swaps. They have a rating system of 1 to 5, 5 being the highest rating and a bonus heart if the item you sent/made was above the expected. Here's some of the first few I've done:

• Email your partner your flickr photo address and for a heart, a few additional favorite flickr person's photos address.
• Send a naked postcard to 3 partners (naked - as not in an envelope... yes written on)
• Sender's Choice (ATC)to 2 partners
• Tree ATC
• Send 2 notecards with envelopes to 2 partners

You have to get your feet wet, so to speak. People don't want other people flaking on their trades, so that's why they have a rating system... Yes, all this to get to Stamping Mathilda...

I have joined 3 groups and on ATC Addicts Club I found a wonderful post on a folded container for ATCs. And guess where it took me? No guessing required when it concerns Stamping Mathilda and her most delightful, interesting and instructional blog.

If you'd like to try ATCs, there are many flickr groups that are fun and you might do some one-on-one trading at first. You send a message or write a note on the comment for the particular ATC you're interested in and ask to trade. I usually send an email. I'm picky about what I like and don't want something with just stickers on it... sorry to those I might offend, but that's just my likes and dislikes... I'm also not a fan of putting wings on a little girl and such...

Have fun visiting Stamping Mathilda and maybe make an ATC or few...

Joshua Jiraffe Designs: Never done before --- “Blog Candy” offering!

Joshua Jiraffe Designs: Never done before --- “Blog Candy” offering!

I've never tried linking before, so let's hope this does what I think it does :)))

Check out Joshua Jiraffe Designs to see what she's giving away and leave a message if you want. Talented stamper seen on Hero Arts and Caardvarks. Who knows... she may be coming to your part of the country...

Remember to visit Joshua Jiraffe Designs. I'm hoping we'll get updates on the big move, aren't you?

Visiting a blog today

Of course I started the day visiting the Hero Arts flickr group to see all the wonderful cards and see if any inspiration might ooze its way into my drowsy head. It didn't... oh well.... I did find a wonderful card that shows how long a friendship can last... And I had to visit her blog... YAY!

Why don't you go visit and leave a little note for Sanne Andersen yourself. She's already updated her blog today with the cutest little frog and elephant cards for a new baby girl.

I also made my every Wednesday trip to The Society of Stamp and Scrap-aholics to see the spot-lighted guest of the week, Paula Laird, a wonderful person and talented stamper. Off to clean house... well, upload a couple photos and then go clean house... at some point in time today, I am going to clean house.

Stamping Mathilda's Fun Fold Card

I had wondered how Stamping Mathilda created her unusual folded cards. First I had to find out what size an A4 sheet of paper was... to the web! An A4 card is 210 × 297 mm, which is about 8.2677" X 11.69289" - so we can use an 8 1/2" X 11" sheet of paper... we Americans. Stamping Mathilda has a bit more paper to create with. I had to make a card today... couldn't wait.




Stamping Mathilda's Instructions: (my liberal spray of words in blue)



Fold in half on the 8 1/2" side so you have two long cards, not the way I would normally cut to make a notecard. I hope that makes sense. Cut in half, you have two folded cards now, which fit in a regular envelope and indeed they do. Score at 10,5 cm... that's 4.1 inches... You can decorate the narrow part (stamp, emboss, punch,...). You have to see how many ways she has used this card - like a shaker card, embossing and glueing shut... go check it out at Stamping Mathilda.

Tree Landscape ATC

Tree Landscape ATC,
originally uploaded by Clarian's Hawk * Arlene.

I like the way this turned out.. I darkened the cardboard back with Distressed ink (Vintage Photo) adhered stamped and sponged background to the cardboard, then made zigzag lines about three times around the tree scape to create a wood frame look.

How I created the scene:
I cut a piece of white cardstock about 1/4' less all around than the Artist Trading Card (ATC) I was making. I just held the paper up to the card and cut it out on my paper cutter. I usually don't measure, unless I'm following instructions on a project - then I usually follow them strickly so I can see how it's done before I think of changing it. I knew what I wanted in a wide sense - a scene of trees on a landscape of green and a sky of blues and pinks.

I sponged green distressed ink on the bottom using a piece of torn copy paper to make the landscape look like gently rolling hills - took the same torn paper and sponged the sky, only I used several shades of blue, levander, pink, red, and yellow.

I stamped the line of trees (perfect for this size) on the sponged surface, darkened some of the trunks with brown marker as I thought the tree was too light with the color of distressed ink I used - Vintage Photo.

I'm going to swap this... even though I love it... and I hope the person who receives it likes it too.

Just found a wonderful link for a bonbon box

On the Hero Arts Flickr group, Monika Reeck posted a link for a bonbon box and it's so simple and easy to make. The original blog is Mandys Kreativwelt, where you can find the wonderful bonbon box Mandy created.

I will try to translate the German into English here. Of course, I'm mostly using babblefish to do so. When I insert my comments I'll use a different color for the comment.


One needs paper in the masses 27.5 cms (10.8 in) x 21 cms (8.3 in) (you can take of course also greater or smaller) one folds all 5.5 cms (2.2 in) on a fold line.

Then one folds the paper like a harmonika (accordion). On the not so nice side (back), one draws 4 triangles in .... There are pictures that you can follow, step by step. You really don't need the translation.

Then one cuts out the triangles. Now paper is ready to stamp or paste something on. Glue the entire length of one side, no matter whether on the left or on the right and stick it together, thus you have a tube.

Then you notice the side parts snap automatically together. Loop tape around and it's ready. Of course you could use two-sided tape on the inside of the ends to give it a nicer finish. You can tie ribbon, yarn, string, whatever you fancy around the ends to finish it off.


Great little tutorial, easily followed from the photos. How nice it would be to give someone a homemade treat in this box. Have a great day!

Caardvarks challenge

I love the design for the cards - simple and elegant. I created two cards to enter, but will continue to use this wonderful design.




I had fun working with this design. April 3rd, 2009 is the last day...

Latest Cards

I have stamped one layer cards, but mostly non-Hero Arts (HA) stamps, so when the challenge went out for a one layer card this week, I really didn't want to do it... which surprised me.. well, no, it didn't... to be honest, I just knew it would be more work than I wanted to do... hahaha

Here's a fairy (dearly love this stamp) that I stamped, colored and mailed to a wonderful person I've met through Flickr in Japan along with the second card here:



I love the fairy stamps from Stamps Happen. I just checked and I don't see very many now. The one I have must have been retired... she must have become a bit overwhelmed with taking care of all the flowers. The woman collage is by Inkadinkado - no name on the stamp.

Now on to the HA card. I am pleased with the results, but I just didn't want to cut out the masks so I could do the background for the little dolls. Oh, well, it didn't hurt... much... and now I have the masks for future use. I used a torn piece of copy paper to hold against my card so that when I sponged the colors, there wasn't a straight line definition, but a more natural flow. I used the piece of copy paper with the torn edge facing down from the top of the card, moving the paper around the card, dabbing in greens for the bottom and blues, pinks, yellow for the top. I turned the torn part so it was on the bottom for some of the sky. The two dolls stand out so vividly against the background. I stamped the Slanted Tree onto the sponged background and masked images twice; the second stamping looks like little bushes. I lifted the masks and colored the dolls, fan, and tree. Voila!



Thank you for checking here.

A good day to stamp

I got two envelopes with stamped images to send out today for a swap on swap-bot and some of the copies that didn't turn out as well as I wished, I kept for me. You know the ones - stamped too light in one area and too dark in another or missing pieces. Frankly I had a lot of them turn out that way. Then after I sealed the envelopes, I found I had left out two stamped images I had wanted to include.... big sigh... and I was not going to open the envelopes... I'd had stuff in and out three times already.



I wanted to do a card for the Hero Arts challenge this week - a card with a window. I choose a circle - simple and fairly quick. I got out the little ol' Cuttlebug and easily cut a circle in the front of the card. I stamped the Hero Arts Slanted Tree on the front with scrap paper where the cut circle was, stamped the same stamp on the patterned paper I had also cut and just a little bit more patterned paper, stamped some flying birds (Tim Holz - Stampers Anonymous), some simple sentiments and I was done.





Then the stamped images that I had set aside kept calling my name, so I worked on three more cards - non-Hero Arts images.





I was pleased with the colors and variety of the cards. I hope you like them too.

Chipboard - a link to a wonderful how-to spot

It's been awhile since I last posted and I've been busy at swap-bot or checking all the great cards out at the Hero Arts flickr group... or watching a movie or two.

I have discovered a great place through one of the card makers , Avital Gertner, in the Hero Arts group who made referrence to Creativity Prompt which has tons of ideas on what to do with that naked ugly chipboard to turn it into a lovely creation for your scrapbook or card.

I don't have time to check it all out, but since I know next to nothing about working with chipboard, I think this is a good start.

I did make a geisha bookmark last week that I think I may try in washi papers. It's very delicate though, but lovely.



Have a great weekend.

Winterfest 2009 at Two Peas

Upon reading Andi's blog, I discovered she is hosting a challenge at Two Peas . You have to visit if you love challenges and stamping... lots of challengess and goodies being offered - it's a time to get your creating juices whirling in a winter fever... winter and fever - hope you don't have any fevers other than the stamping, creating kind.

Go now... read, create and challenge yourself, post and do it again...

Walking shoes Mar 2009

Walking shoes Mar 2009,
originally uploaded by Clarian's Hawk * Arlene.

Hero Arts bloggers won a day on Hero Arts to amaze and tantalize us all. Loved every day - such unique and wonderful displays. I loved them all and wanted to do a card for each one. Sadly, it was not to be.

I liked Deborah Nolan's parading elephants and just couldn't help think of that song with these lyrics, "these boots were made for walkin' and that's just what they'll do..." So, I created shoes walking across the card. I chose bright red and hot pink to make sure no one missed a walkin' shoe. All I was hoping too, was that I not color OUTSIDE the lines on the last shoe. Whew! It turned out much better than I thought too.

When I saw this set of stamps in my local stamp store, The Stamp Art Shoppe, it drew me. Never in a million years did I think I would use this little shoe so often. It is so utterly versatile... I think I have more cards with shoes than I have shoes.... ooooh. And I'm not into shoes or fashion... except for this set... Neither am I, nor have I ever been a girly girl... much to the chagrin of my grandmother...

There is a contest for best scrapbooking in Sacramento area and the Stamp Art Shoppe is listed. If you've been there, you may wish to cast a vote at KCRA A-List.

One more thing. I just posted a blinkie for the Hero Arts site here too.

Swirls and circles 02-16-09

Swirls and circles 02-16-09,
originally uploaded by Clarian's Hawk * Arlene.

Angelina (9 years old) stamped almost two full sets of Inkadinkadoo stamps I received from a give-away at Gaal Creative, Anne Gaal's blog. Angelina and I spend quite some time stamping together. She takes her art seriously. She loves to color. I'm sure most of us stampers never left coloring behind. I wanted to showpiece her two newest stamping sessions here.

Stamping Cafe

Is this a coffee place where you can stamp too?????? Nah, it's a fellow Hero Arts artist whose card today just struck me as so dramatic and rich, I just had to write about it.

Stamping Cafe always has such wonderful cards, but you must hop over to see this card. I'm not sure that it's any one thing that draws me to her card. I loved the cardstock colors right off the bat, the design was great, the sentiment spoke volumes and the embellishments were perfect.

Let's toast to Kiara Lee for creating a work of art!

Challenge for Caardvarks

Dress Feb 15,
originally uploaded by Clarian's Hawk * Arlene.

I had colored and cut the dress from the Hero Arts stamp set "Glamorous, sku CL297" but never used it. I wanted to enter the Caardvarks challenge using hearts as the theme for the week, but really wanted to do a little something with this dress. I stamped the background, but wasn't happy with the stamp I intended to use... so dump that... I used red stickles on some of the centers of the flowers on the dress to "dress" it up. I used the Cuttlebug to die-cut the heart... love the little bug.

One more thing, I should never do something when I'm half asleep - forgot I had to tie Mr. Linky to my blog. I know I'll get this straight soon -Third time's the charm, they say.

Stampersuzz's ATC

Stampersuzz's ATC,
originally uploaded by Clarian's Hawk * Arlene.

This ATC is so beautiful. The letters stand out and you find you want to touch them... I'm a touchy feely person...

The lady, flowers, lace and letters are adhered to clear acetate that has also been stamped with a script stamp - looks like that to me. Then there is a lovely softly colored pattern paper under the acetate.

All in all, a real gem and lots of detail and time in the making. Thank you so much for this card. See Stampersuzz on Flickr and her blog for her marvelous cards.

Feb Asian Round card 2009

Feb Asian Round card 2009,
originally uploaded by Clarian's Hawk * Arlene.

There's a Cuttlebug Challenge at Cubblebugchallenge.blogspot.com and I thought of the wonderful scallop pocket card which was featured on "Watch it Wednesdays" at Hero Arts dated January 14, 2009. Fantastic little video gives all the 'How to" and this is so easy to do.

I used the Nestabilities Circles in my Cuttlebug (nice little bug) and cut cardstock 3 times - the other two are white and I used some wonderful papers from DCWV "The Far East Mat Stack" for the top of the stack. It's so easy if you watch the video just once.

DIe-cut all three circles at the same time
Punch out small circles (I used 10)
Decorate the top circle as you wish
Adhere all small circles with removable tape (OK NOW you NEED to go watch the video - look on the right side-bar for "Watch it Wednesdays").

The middle will be cut and all but the slider part will be adhered to the bottom circle Take two of the small circles and adhere to the middle slider permanentlly. Adhear the top circle to the other circle so you can slide your slider in and out. Just watch the video... I put an eyelet in and put some yarn through so the receiver of this card will know she should pull it. This fits so snugly that you would never know there was a hidden pocket.

I'm also entering this card in the Hero Arts challenge for this week - our favorite stamps. And the Four Dolls set and Slanted Tree are my favorites for the past month or so. Brand new and wonderful to work with.

I stamped the lantern, doll and tree in brown ink as part of the Cuttlebug challenge was to use an Asian theme but NO BLACK OR RED allowed. I used a complementary color for my small circles and stamped the lantern, fan and doll out of the same cardstock. There's some variation in color so I could stamp the face in a suitable face color. Some pearls and gems dot the images. The doll is holding the fan.

I am pleased with the results and hope you like them too.