Seashell Clock and Happy Birthday Colleen (early)

My friend Colleen's bathroom has the nicest seashell wall paper. She and I made, a long time ago, a little dish of shells using a large scallop shell as the dish and all sorts of shells she had collected on various beach trips. Then I sort of got the seashell bug and have been contemplating other homemade seashell fun for her bathroom. Here is a clock I stamped and decorated for her birthday coming up soon. I think it turned out mighty fine, don't you?

Motto for the day: Live Laugh Love

My First Stampscapes Experience!

I went to a class at Stampers Warehouse in Danville, CA a couple of weekends ago with a stamping buddy, Carol. We made 4 really amazing pieces with Stampscapes stamps. The instructor, Brian Miner, was great and I learned so much!


I'm excited because I have two friends who have a handful of these types of stamps and I plan on making a bunch of scenes. More to come on that one... So for the ingredients: For the three cards, we used Marvy Uchida Dye Ink and Qtips or those oval sponge daubers that have purple handles (name??). The Old Mill up River scene was made with 7 different stamps. The Wolf spirit in the sky was made with 3 stamps. The Lighthouse was made with 3 stamps. And the little one with the moon peeking out from behind the clouds was made on Stampboard (ceramic covered board), stazon ink, and using 3 stamps.

Thanks for looking!

Kicking Back at the Old Number 9

Here Edwin and Tilda are enjoying their little house and cat under the Wisteria. The stone wall was made by me. I just love their overalls, don't you? TFL!

Dreaming by the Wishing Well

This is my card I sent to a Sharon, a fellow Magnolia lover over at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MAGNOLIA-licious/ as a RAK (and sort of for our January Mingle). I'll put a link to her awesome blog of cards and more cards over there on the right (it's http://grammashouseofcards.blogspot.com/). The rules were pink, red, white. So... I had Tilda sitting by the wishing well down by the duck pond. I cut the purse out of Traveling Tilda's hands and put a heart in its place. I drew the rest of the stone path, the hillside on the right, and the grass. The pond scene, Tilda, and the bench are Magnolia. The cattails are by Stampendous. The little Valentine hedgehog (possum?) is Stampin Up and I forget who made the "Be Happy" (I've long since unmounted it). The Wishing Well is part of a wonderful stamp set by Gina K Designs. (Here's a link to the Gina K Make a Wish set: http://www.addictedtorubberstamps.com/ProductDetail?ProductDetail.SKU=6-758-448193&ProductDetail.ListIndex=1) Thanks for looking!

Camping Edwin + Italy Traveling Tilda

So, I'm continuing my theme of drawing what is missing. I think I've come to realize two things in this... 1) I don't need to buy word stamps (my handwriting is pretty good) and 2) I can draw basic landscapes pretty well. My Copics Multi-liner pen (.35mm) is the key to my drawing.


For my Camping Edwin card, I envisioned this boy and his dog as camping troopers. Then I made an ink mistake on his forehead which led to the bandaids. I tried to smudge him up a bit, but think he needs a dash more. His yellow scarf was to attempt (underline attempt) to make a Cub Scout scarf to cover his tie. (He’s the only Edwin I have.) I had no model for the scarf, so my apologies to the Cub Scout organization for my artistic interpretation. I made the "Enjoy the Moment" banner wrinkled by using 3 pop up dots. Looks cooler IRL (in real life). The tent is from Stampin’ Up, Edwin and the dog are Magnolia, the fire and marshmallows came to me unmounted and are unknown, I forget where the "Enjoy the Moment" stamp came from, and the rock he sits on and the grass and background bramble were drawn by me!

For my Traveling Tilda card, I wanted to have a Venice cityscape and the little Italian bridge with the Gondolier. But my drawing hasn’t advanced there yet, and I think I need to see some more pics of Venice before I’ll attempt that. I used Stampin’ Up pens to color most of her clothing. I love the warmth of Real Rust, Old Olive, Creamy Caramel, Almost Artichoke, etc. The bridge, gondolier, and lampposts are A Muse, Tilda is Magnolia, and the bridge extension, stone walls, grass, water lines, and suitcase were again, drawn by me! So I toast to myself and say, in my best Italian, "molto ben fatto!"

OH… A WORD ABOUT HOW TO POST A COMMENT: a lot of people say posting here is hard. Here’s what you gotta do… Click on the (Click here to view and post comments) thing at the end of each post. Scroll down to the bottom of the list of comments (if there are any (ROFL)). Write your comment. Then to post it, sign in if you are one of the IDs listed: Google/Blogger, Open ID, Name/URL, Anonymous). (I just use my Google ID). Type in the weird word for security and hit the button that says "Publish Your Comment". If you don’t want to sign in, you can post as Anonymous, just put your name at the end of your message if you want me to know who you are (and I do!).

So.... keep on creating! It’s cheaper than therapy and has an end result! ~Makani