Missing you.....

I'm missing my oldest grandaughter....she's 24 years old now ~ I can hardly believe that fact! When she was just an infant, my daughter moved back in with us and the two of them lived with us until my grandaughter was about 9 years old. So, needless to say, we have a special bond with her! She decided to go to college in Illinois and, as Grandpa predicted, she wound up staying in Illinois after graduation. 

This stamp, "Chloe" from Whipper Snapper Designs, is one of my favorite stamps to color. And whenever I bring it out, it makes me think of my sweet grandaughter, so I thought I'd make a little "missing you" card to send to her. I colored Chloe with Copics this time and just did some shading with my Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Starting with SU! Chocolate Chip cardstock, I layered Close to Cocoa and Basic Grey Bittersweet paper. Then I gave it a little 'fru-fru' with some old fashioned looking lace that I threaded some thin pink ribbon through. I thought it needed a little more, so I added some corner treatment with some Chocolate Chip cardstock punched with a Martha Stewart lace punch and added a couple of flatback pearls.  I distressed the edges of all the paper with some Tim Holtz Distress Ink. I meant to do some more stitching on the first layer, but totally forgot (again!) so the stitching only made it around the layer with the image itself.

The last time I colored Chloe, I only used Prismacolor Pencils/gamsol. I'm not sure there were even any Copics in my possession at that time!  Here's a glimpse of my other card with Chloe.....

Now that I see the first one, I'm not sure which one I like better!! I love the deeper colors I can achieve with the Copics, but I do love coloring with pencils and the blending technique.  Watercoloring had somewhat of the same feeling for me. (haven't done any of that in awhile!) It's gratifying to see something coming to life with every stroke, isn't it?

What is your favorite medium to color with? Do you prefer markers, pencils, watercoloring? I'd love to hear what you like to use and how your preferences have changed over the years!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I started the day today going over all of my recipes for the big Thanksgiving day feast. It seemed like I had so many different cookbooks, magazines, torn out pages, etc. and I just wanted to simplify. So...I decided to copy each recipe and then just put away all the books & magazines and just have the copy to refer to. I hope this helps me get rid of some of the clutter and be a little more organized!  Yummm....I'm already hungry for all those taste tantalizing flavors that only Thanksgiving dinner brings!

My card for today is a Whipper Snapper Designs image: Megan. She's such a cutie! I colored her with Copics and did some shading to her skirt and around the image with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. Her shirt was paper pieced then I added some Star Dust Stickles (gotta add some bling!) and Crystal Effects to her glasses.  The sentiment is an old one from a Hero Arts set that I use a lot.  The scallop punch used is from SU! and I added the black inside the scallop edge to make it stand out a little more.  Love, love, love this paper!!  It's from My Mind's Eye and it's from the "So Sophia" collection. A little stitching, a couple of buttons and this card is good to go!

I know this is a short post, but I need to get back to my Thanksgiving preparations so I hope you'll forgive me!  Cleaning is next on my list, then checking to see that I have all the ingredients needed for dinner.  I'm ready for a busy, productive day!

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!  Don't forget to give thanks for all the blessings in your life.  

{{hugs}}

I'm back!.......

I guess I wasn't as ready as I thought I was to start this blogging experience!  I was so busy working, playing, stamping and reading everyone else's blogs that I totally forgot about my own! 

I'm going to turn over a new leaf and try to post something every couple of days. I've learned so much from visiting other bloggers that I can hardly believe it. The internet and YouTube certainly has made it easy to learn new techniques and gain inspiration from all over the world.  I'm continually amazed at all the different people I 'meet' from so many different cities and countries - all of them stampers/artists and all so talented! 

Hard to believe this, but that grandaughter I talked about in my first post graduated from college and is living in another city all by herself!  I'm very proud of her. She loves life in her new city and her world is continually evolving.  My other grandaughter, who is five, is a sweetheart too - she's full of giggles, loves to color and do everything all by herself! I also have two grandsons who are ten and eight years old. They're as different as night and day!  I love all of my grandchildren so much and am so blessed that they all live close by....well, except for the oldest! 

I'm going to post a card that I did using a stamp from Whipper Snapper Designs - I think the stamp is called "Chloe".  I loved coloring her with my prismacolor pencils then blending with gamsol.  Isn't she the sweetest? 

(Sorry this photo isn't very bright...I'm working on learning how to do better at this!) I still have soooo much to learn!!  But it's fun learning and I love every minute. Thank you to all of my blogging friends who answered my questions about all kinds of things and who helped me along the way.