Two Challenges with One Card

Finally, I am going to post something. We are having a snow storm right now in Oklahoma. It started last night with freezing rain and sleet and finally turned to snow around noon today. So far we have not lost our power. I am keeping my fingers crossed and saying a little prayer that we don’t. The last time we lost power due to freezing rain was in 2007 and we had no power for six days. Ugh! And this time around I am on oxygen 24/7 and I certainly need the electricity.

Any way, I am posting a little Valentine’s card that I came up with due to a challenge on “Any Stamp Will Do.” Really two challenges for the groups Sketch Challenge Mondays and The NEW Color Challenge (just one card for two challenges). This is a fairly new group on Ning. Come on over and check us out. We have some very talented people to chat with and exchange ideas.



I have colored the main image with Copic Markers and it is from The Greeting Farm Miss Anya Love Collection. I purchased it from Die Cuts R Us. The sentiment is from the Unity Stamp Company. I have also used two techniques, Cuttlebug Highlight and Out of the Box, from the Technique Junkies Newsletter. If you have not subscribed to this newsletter yet you are truly missing out.



That’s it for today. I hope you have a great weekend. And I hope you enjoyed another one of my experiments with whimsy and Copic Markers. (I am really enjoying those markers!)

Winter's Song

I am going to try something a little different…self-promotion. During now and the middle of November I will be preparing for an arts festival. And with that preparation comes new creations.

This first creation came about as a result of one technique called “Terraza Tones” from the TechniqueJunkies Newsletter. Thanks to Terri with Cards and Moore by Terri for turning me into a TechniqueJunkie. You can find subscription information at http://techniquejunkies.com/. These newsletters are fantastic and well worth your time. They will keep the creative juices flowing. The beautiful Southwest stamp was created by I Brake for Stamps. Check this site out. Her stamps are creative, wonderful, deeply etched, and just the right size! I don’t need anymore rubber stamps! But my addiction is so strong and uncontrollable!


This 5”x7” greeting card was so much fun to make! The “Terraza Tones” is created using instant coffee. I had nothing in the house other than drip. I tried that and could not accomplish the depth in color that I wanted. So my wonderful husband went to the store for me and purchased Chase and Sanborne instant coffee. Much, much better. The close up photo below will show the depth. You can control the strength of instant coffee. All the brown in this piece is the instant coffee. I do want to try and find the Terraza coffee. This coffee is a high-end instant coffee and hopefully it will be in gourmet shops.

The base card is a gorgeous Stardream metallic oyster color card stock. Other stocks I have used are watercolor paper and metallic copper card stock. Color enhancements are optional, but I used Twinks watercolors, copic markers, and copper ultra fine glitter. I have even used an unbleached coffee filter.


The stamp (central image) is stamped with black pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. The piece of ivory stock that the central image is mounted on has been accented with copper pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.

More self-promotion…I have Winter’s Song for sale in all of my online shops/studios. Here are the links:
Etsy-http://ajsdesigns.etsy.com
ArtFire-http://ajsdesigns.artfire.com
1000Markets-http://ajsdesigns.1000markets.com
Zibbet-http://zibbet.com/ajsdesigns

Thanks so much for stopping by! And I hope everyone has a good week!