a work in progress

 Hello Friends, How are you?? Any exciting plans for the weekend? We are heading to the beach...can you believe summer is over ?? Which means it's official my DD is a senior!! So many good things happening. :)
I have been itching to make cards with these absolutely adorable owls from Penny Black called "Moonlight Owls" 

On most images I alter the eyes in some way ...so I thought I would share some of those details today. Almost always I enlarge the eyes with a black Sharpie marker. On the second owl I drew eye lids and lashes. I also LOVE to use Glossy Accents and or Enamel Accents on the eyes. The second pair of owls above I added white enamel accents and waited for them to dry. After they were dry I added black enamel accents ON TOP of the white. So dimensional 

The owls at the top of this photo (above) I applied a thick coat of glossy accents. The next day I added black enamel accents ON TOP of the glossy accents. You have to be careful and practice on a piece of scrap first...be sure to get all the air bubbles out too. THIS IS MY FAVORITE...today! 

In this photo all I did was add the enamel accents. Don't get me wrong...I love this look and use it often but, I love the layering of the liquids. Which is your favorite? 
Many thanks for your visit today and hugs, Kathy

P.S. the STAMPTEMBER activities begin Sept 1 at the Simon Says Stamp's blog. Have you seen SSS's exclusive stamps & dies?? Check them out here. 

Penny Black and another giveaway

I am updating this post to share the full cards and give you a few details.

Hello my friends, What can I say...you all are such a wonderful bunch!! Thanks for hopping over to the Penny Black Blog to leave a comment. I just want to reiterate that to be eligible for the GIVEAWAY you need to leave a comment on the Penny Black blog here. 
(I tried to cross reference the names from my blog comments to the PB comments to email you individually and that wasn't as easy as it sounded. Sorry about that)

So many little details on this card that I wanted to share with you so I am going to list them starting from the top :)
BACKGROUND: Love the texture of the watercolor paper I found at SSS. Inked it up with distress ink and die cut a circle from spellbinders.
SENTIMENT BANNER: I applied the SRM sticker on top of some washi tape. Both banners are made from washi tape. Clip the ends of the washi tape, tape on white paper and clip the ends again.
THE TREE: I cut apart this tree to stager each section, added a longer thicker trunk from scrap paper. It was colored with Copics ..then I applied rock candy distress stickles (see supply list)
BUTTERFLIES: my favorite martha stewart punch. After coloring I lined the edges with a black marker.
VILLAGE: was colored with copic markers and the center was cut and popped again. Applied rock candy to the roof tops. 

Isn't this the coolest stamp?? I can't wait to ink it up again. All of the papers were scraps from this card kit.... so layering this up was easy. Here is one of my cards with the kit. I wanted more texture and structure to my orange flower so I applied a heavy coating of rock candy and it worked beautifully. I suggest you give that a try :)

Ahhh and one last detail.... I added eye lids to her eyes. Here is the Penny Black stamp called "Shadow Monster". 

NOW THE PART BELOW IS MY ORIGINAL POST ... I HOPE I AM NOT CONFUSING YOU. WASN'T SURE OF THE BEST WAY TO UP DATE WITH THE CARD DETAILS.
Have a happy weekend and THANKS for being the best blog readers!! 

Hello Friends, How are you today?? Have you been following the "designer" &  the "contributor" spotlights at the Penny Black blog these past six days? A few months ago I stepped down from the "desiger" position to a "contributor" position on the team. It was a tough choice for me to make after being on the Penny Design team for TWO years. Fortunately, I am still able to contribute, participate & create with PB's beautiful stamps!  Today is my turn on the Penny Black blog and with one single click you can see my two cards.  

Before you go ... you may want to know that I am giving away the stamp below. A winner will be selected from the comment area on the Penny Black blog here. I will draw a winner next week. 

I have three cards to share .... with this woodgrain stamp here, here & here . Another thanks for your heartfelt prayers for Jacob and for your visit. Hugs, Kathy

P. S. the countdown to STAMPTEMBER IS ON!!

CARD SUPPLIES (NOTE: PAPER IS ON SALE RIGHT NOW! ) 20% OFF

The winner is .....

Hello Friends, A huge thank you for the prayers for Jacob and his family. If you are interested you can find an update here. Please continue to add them to your prayers. :)

The winner of the Simon Say's Stamp  September card kit is (as seen in this post) :

A BIG CONGRATS TO Yaritza!! I just contacted you :)

A big thanks to Heidi for the card kit giveaway ...you are so generous! Speaking of card kits ... Simon Says Stamp has a "JUNIOR card kit" for  your children or grandchildren... and a back to school challenge that they can enter. I LOVE this stamp that 's in the kit and it's on my wish list.

Before you go I hope you will check out the sale this week at Simon. I use the papers below all the time so you might want to stock up while they are 20% off(for a limited time) COUPON CODE BSSP 

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Please say a prayer

Hello Friends, How's it going?? Usually my posts are light in nature but, today I feel it's important to reach out to you all. I know you have big hearts and Jacobs family really needs prayers....prayers for Jacob to heal without surgery. 

Meet Jacob who just turned 8 years old and he has ADL (adrenoleuko dystrophy). The good news that Jacob's family found out about his disease early.  The hard news that the ADL was discovered because his older brother Eric, also had ALD and they found out too late for Eric.  In November 2011, Jacob had a bone marrow transplant in the hopes of stopping this disease and he's still counting the days until he can come home especially since he's been in the hospital about 8 months?? 

and here is the newest photo from yesterday.....breaks my heart. You can read about his story here.
I hope you understand why I am compelled to post this photo and for the prayer request. Personally I believe in the power of prayer and this family really needs all they can get. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Hugs, Kathy

(ALD is an inherited recessive genetic disorder linked to the X chromosome.  The 1992 movie "Lorenzo's Oil" brought this rare disorder to the world's attention.)  
Jennifer McGuire had a card drive for Jacob's brother Eric if you want to check it out you can go here.

basicgrey blog hop ... giveaway

Hello Friends, How are you today?? Welcome to the BasicGrey Design Team Blog Hop! 
You should have arrived here from the blog of the seriously

 talented Kelly Rasmussen "kr creations"here.  The BasicGrey design team is so diversified with talent ranging from Scrapbooking, Card Designs, Digital Designs, Altered Art, to Fabric Creations. So you can imagine I am pretty excited and honored to be included in this group of inspiring ladies. As you hop along you'll see what I am talking about. :)

To celebrate the new design team, BasicGrey is allowing me to give away an 12x12 "Indie Bloom" collection pack here. For your chance to win,see the giveaway box at the bottom of this post. 

My entire card was created with BasicGrey's new collection called "Soleil" I was delighted with the beautiful papers, designs and the stickers in this 12x12 collection pack. I discovered that I enjoyed using the 12x12 papers instead of 6x6 because the prints are larger & more dramatic on a card. 

Not only did I color the flowers purple with some yellow accents but, I cut out  a few. 

The paper is so pretty but, I was in the mood to color so I picked up some of my Copic markers and  happily discovered that the Copics worked great on the patterned paper. 

These are all of my elements except for the lettering that I used on my card.  Don't you just love these soft papers? The one on the right looks like a watercolor painting.

After coloring these two flowers with a light pink Copic marker I applied the Rock Candy stickles with a paint brush in a thin layer on the paper. I love the even subtle look you get when using a brush.

I mounted the sticker letters on some white card stock and trimmed them so I could move the letters around easily to see where they would fit best on my card. Mounting "Birthday" on a banner gave me the same flexibility. 

Now it's time to hop over to Amy Friend's blog "During Quite Time" here. Amy is going to make you dust off your sewing machine because of what she creates! Keep in mind if you find a link that doesn't work, you can always hop back to the BasicGrey blog for a list of direct links to all of the blogs in the hop. 
Thank you for your visit ....it's so appreciated! Hugs, Kathy
a Rafflecopter giveaway


CARD SUPPLIES:

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