It's a Christmas Miracle!

You'll never believe it! I have actually finished all my Christmas cards and ATCs BEFORE the holiday! Yes, you read that right!!! My envelopes are already addressed and my cards will go out first thing on Monday. They should make it to your mailboxes just in time for Christmas this year instead of the usual two months late! God bless us everyone!

This is the first time I have tried making these pull-out, pop up cards. They were lots of fun! I stamped one of my favorite Penny Black cat images and colored them with Copics to make four different color combinations of my cards. The above photo shows them "open."

I just had to get this Penny Black snowman image when I heard it was being retired! I made these thank you cards using leftover papers from my Christmas cards.

I also put together some quick fall ATCs and used the pull-out, pop-up card pattern to make some snowman ATCs.

Finally, I just couldn't resist showing off this photo of my sweet, furry stamping buddy!

I wish you all a safe and blessed holiday season!
I look forward to sharing more artwork with you in 2010!

Halloween Cards and Oodles of Inchies!

I am a little late posting this... Here is my Halloween card.

I love this Trick or Treat stamp by Penny Black!

Here are my inchies for the last three swaps of the year:

I am happy to report that I am over halfway through with my Christmas cards and ATCs! I hate to jinx myself by saying this, but I may actually get them mailed before Christmas this year!!!!

PS: Look for the new Hero Arts 2010 Catalog sneak peek blinkie off to the side of my blog. I can't wait to see the new catalog! I am so excited!!!

Even More Cards!

Swap card -week #7:

Last week's swap card had to use stamping items that were new to us. I used a new clear stamp set that I found at Michael's and I used the new Spellbinder's Fleur del Lis Medallion die set to cut the tropical leaves.

Swap card -week #8:
This is the last week of the card swap and the theme was "Friendship."

I had seen this card idea on the Hero Arts Flickr group several months back and had been dying to try it. I really enjoyed making this one! The inside reads "Where you are, JOY blossoms." The card is not blurry in real life - I promise!

The third card is a thank you I made for a friend.

I won a fabulous giveaway that she had on her blog.

Seriously, if you haven't been to Jan's blog lately and seen her AWESOME(!!!) owls and other artwork, you really need to go look: http://www.artfriendzy.blogspot.com/

More Cards!

Since they are finally in the mail, I can show you the thank you cards that I made for all the awesome birthday mail that I received this year. I LOVE this Magenta tree stamp!!!!!!!

The theme for this week's swap card was coffee or tea:

I couldn't let this swap go by without using my swap partner's favorite Ink Bottle Girl stamp! I wish my scanner had picked up all the shimmer from the Spica pens and the Glimmer Mists...

Another Swap Card & Inchies

The theme for Week #4 of our swap was Dogs or Cats.

I got my inspiration from a card by Faith (snap_scrap_stamp) on Split Coast Stampers. I just love her artwork!

Our inchies theme for September was Dogs, Cats or Pigs.

More Star Book

Continued from my last post...

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Thanks for looking!

Mini Star Album

Every year I make a Butterfly theme mini album for a friend on her birthday. This year I used Graphic 45 papers to make a Star Album. This is the first time I have ever made a star album and I think there are a few things I would like to do differently next time, but I am still pretty happy with the final product. The pictures are a tiny bit blurry, but hopefully you will still find them viewable. I choose to blame the camera and not the photographer as I have tried everything I can think of to take clear photos with this camera and it just doesn't want to cooperate...

Cover (closed):

Open:
Cover (front and back):
I used Grunge Paper for the spine.


Page 1:


To be continued in my next post.

Swap Cards #1-3

The theme for week # 1 was bling:

The theme for week #2 was animals:
The theme for week #3 was anything that flies:

Another Catch Up Post!

This is the first of four posts I will be making tonight. I have lots of artwork to upload since it has been so long since I have updated my blog!

First, I have to show off my new Copic marker holder! I am so happy to have it! It is going to make my life even easier!!!!

I have to show off this picture of my very happy Cricket. This picture was just too adorable not to share!

These are my August Inchies:

(The theme was chickens or owls.)
I added way too many pearls to the owl and now it kind of resembles a Cher wig, LOL!

I've also been busy making bunch of birthday cards for the rest of the year and into next year, but I can't post them as I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Stay tuned for more...

Twitter

I am on Twitter now if anyone is interested. My user name is AmryJR I probably won't tweet much art related stuff there. I just like the idea of being able to post random, rambling thoughts out to the world whenever I feel like it, LOL.

For some reason I am not showing up on the Twitter name search. This link should take you directly to my page so that you can follow me there: http://twitter.com/AmryJR

Let's try this again...

This is my second attempt at posting this. My first attempt was briefly interrupted when we had an electrical fire about an hour ago. Thankfully we are all OK! Sadly our washer/dryer combo and the outlet it was hooked into went to that great scrap-metal yard in the sky...

Apparently the yahoos that ran the line to the machine and installed the power box didn't bother to ground anything. These are the same idiots who put the light switches in my bedroom ceiling when we remodeled as they were too lazy to move them to a proper location... I recall the electrician was too busy making little wire figures instead of actually working. But heck - we got some great little angel Christmas ornaments that we paid $20 + an hour for so all is well - right????!!!!! Did I mention we had to re-do every bit of plumbing they worked on too? GRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Anyway, it finally cooled off enough that I could create! I didn't think that heat wave would EVER end! Our little window air conditioner keeps this house really cool until the temps go over 95, LOL.

This month's inchie theme was kitchen and/or recycle. I combined the two themes and used "recycled" stuff for my kitchen inchies. The backgrounds are cut from the various covers of paper stacks that I have purchased and the words were cut from those book club catalogs that we get in the mail. Those catalogs are the best places to find sayings for inchies!

I think my favorite this month is the coffee cup inchie. I used dimensional white paint for cream and added some coffee scented embossing powder onto said paint while it was still wet to resemble sprinkles. Wonder if you will be able to still smell them after they have gone through the mail?

By the way, I have finally figured out why my scans are always blurry, but I have no idea how to fix the problem. When I scan anything dimensional, the scanner focuses on the thicker, dimensional item in the foreground and blurs the flatter background items. Guess I am going to have to start using the camera instead...

I am excited to get started on next month's inchies as I just read that the theme is owls and/or chickens. I just got some new owl stamps that I am eager to use!

Another Catch Up Post!

I keep uploading items to this post and never seem to have a chance to publish them to my blog. As a result this post is really going to be packed with art by the time it actually gets online, LOL!

My April inchies:

I finally got inspired to create some "Black & White" inchies for May:

The photo of my June "Celestial" inchies is really blurry. I don't think my scanner liked that I be-dazzled the heck out of them!

The top left inchie is made using the new 1" Memory Capsules by Ranger.

All of the backgrounds are made using various techniques that I have learned in the last year or so.

These are cards I made for a Croppinsville card swap. We got to keep the Stampology stamps used in the swap.

I also used this bird card design for a "jewel" card swap this month.

The fall card is made using some gorgeous Bo Bunny papers that I found in the sports section of all places. I also used a bunch of Dimensional Pearls on the leaves. I love Dimensional Pearls!

This scan shows the card open.

Cards for my Swap Partner:

This is the "cat" theme card that I made for my swap partner. Somehow he ended up looking too much like a valentine...

This is my ladybug theme card. I colored it using my beloved Copic markers.

This scan is really blurry too. I think my scanner has too much trouble picking up dimensional items...

This is the card I used for a flower theme.

I paper pieced one of my favorite Tim Holtz stamps.

Allie at Croppinsville showed us how to make these great flowers using Nestabilities dies and Glimmer Mists at a recent stamp club.

One week's theme was to make a card using corners. I stamped this wonderful corner onto some chipboard and added some fun embellishments to make these cute little houses.

All the stamps I used for this card are made by Stampers Anonymous.

Happy Owl-idays!

This are the latest cards that I have designed for Croppinsville. It was a lot of work to make up these kits, but I had lots of fun! Don't you just love this little owl by Stampology?

Catching up!

It's been a long time since I have posted any artwork! I have been very, very busy... Mom and I decided that since we no longer do any entertaining, we would turn the living room into a stamp studio. It took a lot longer than I expected to get things moved and most everything is finally in place. I've also recently started my new job as Assistant Manager at our local paper crafting store. I am not sure I can really call it a job though as I am enjoying myself too much!

Here is the bird card that I made for week #7 of the last swap. My friend Claudette sent us this fantastic card pattern that uses a chevron punch.

Week #8 of the swap required the use of a Whipper Snapper stamp so I used my favorite French poodle to make this card. I used my Copics to custom colored the pearls and the wooden purse embellishments to match the rest of the card.

March's inchie theme was buildings. It took me a while, but these are what I finally came up with:

Stay tuned!
I have a bunch more art to post over the next few days, including a sneak peek at my new Design Team card kit!

Hugs & Happy Easter!