I wish I knew these people

I am working on my husband's family - heritage type album, so don't expect a lot of out of me over the next couple of weeks.  We also have a graduation and a birthday and a vacation.  I may pop in with a random story or two but you punch art fans better look elsewhere because the Fairy is still MIA.

As I said, I am deep in the Kemper Family past and gosh, I wish I knew some of these people...

I'm not really into the whole genealogy thing -- birth, death and marriage dates are necessary but what I'm loving is finding little tidbits out from their lives - which isn't easy unless you get lucky and someone saved a diary or a letter or two (obits only tell so much)

Found a great great Aunt (her father fought in the civil war) and have a copy of a letter she wrote in 1936 (just a few year before her death).  It includes stories from her childhood - stories of her dad - prices and weird items she found in his store records and she ended it like this:

This is a terribly written excuse for a letter but I doubt if I would do any better if I tore it up and wrote another so read what you can and guess at the rest and write to me sometime but don’t spell all the words right or make the letters too near perfect for it might discourage me from ever trying.  Love to all, Cora

Doesn't she sound like someone I'd like to have known?

SEW crazy

I really wasn't going to bore you with my digital scrappin' for awhile, but I'm so excited about the Simple Stitching download - I just have to show you some layouts - the first one is not the newest stitch download - the second 2 photos are.

sketch from Alesha Walls

Next, my idea (yes, it does happen)

Third, the  5.26 Sketchy Thursday Sketch

You might notice these are OLD photos - pre-digital days - I love MDS so much, I am scanning in my photos from DECADES AGO so I 'll have more to digi-scrap.  (yes, I realize that is pathetic) 

Link to Builder

Clare (Crafty Cow Creations) had Bob the Builder on her blog today.  I don't have little boys and I never watched his show or read his books or whatever the heck Bob the Builder has out there, but this would be a great start for any handyman card or layout.  Check it out!

Spring Break for Adults

Look at the first small photo on the first page - yes, there was a lady using a walker with a grass skirt...

Hornets

Saw a plea for a hornet over on SCS so I jumped into action with this:

Body and wings - large ovals
head - small oval
eyes - small heart cut in half
Legs and antennae - wide heart to heart next to hole of the same (antennae need to be trimmed)

Stripes were just drawn in - lay an oval down, trace the edge, move & repeat - color between them

What she really wanted was a "brown hornet" and when I googled that I saw the old cartoon The Brown Hornet from the Fat Albert show - Hadn't thought of this Super Hero in decades!  But he screamed PUNCH ME, so I did:

I didn't "fine tune" him since I have no use for him - but maybe one of you will need him - or he will trigger another idea for someone.

His face is medium oval and 2 small ovals
Hair - small oval
Neck - word window
Kerchief - wide oval, small heart next to same hole
His shirt is the butterfly punch trimmed
Muscles and Sleeves are the medium oval
Gloves are narrow heart to heart and  1/2 inch circle at the ends of the modern label
Narrow waist is the Blossom Petal Punch
Shorts - 5 petal flower trimmed
Shoes - wide heart to heart
Legs - wide heart to heart next to same hole

Never Give Up!

Never Give Up!

This post title could be talking about the Mavs - Thunder playoff game last night, where the Mavs were down 15 points with less than 5 minutes to play and came back to win by 7 points in overtime... but it's not.   (GO MAVS!)

Never Give Up, in this case, refers to talented crafter Barbara Diane, who also happens to be a faithful Blink Blog reader and commenter.  She has not given up asking me to punch Snow White since I did the 7 Dwarfs.  I kept putting her off.  I tried referring her to this beautiful Snow White but she wanted one in "my" style.

Famous characters are hard because they have to be "just right" since everyone knows what they are supposed to look like.  Famous PRETTY characters are even HARDER because those attractive faces aren't exactly your basic punch shapes.  But Barbara Diane, for YOU,  DEAR YOU, I have attempted Snow White.

I picked this pose because my vision of her is standing in the forest singing to all the woodland creatures with birds landing on her outstretched arms.  Too many years since I watched the movie, but that is what I remember.

Face  - 1 inch circle - trimmed in slightly on one side (for cheek bone)
Hair - 1.25 inch circle and 1/2 inch circle
Bangs - 1/2 inch circle cut in half - cut edges are hidden under the headband
Headband - 1 inch circle near same hole, top of small heart for bow (middle drawn with marker)
Face - drawn on (don't laugh at my attempt)
Neck - word window
Collar - 1 3/8 inch circle - trimmed
Chest - medium oval
Bodice - Owl punch (yes, you read that right) - insert head end into bottom of the ornament punch to get pointed part at the waist - repunch foot end with 1 inch circle to get curved neckline
Strip on bodice - word window at edge of paper (super thin) - didn't attempt to adhere to front - wrapped the strip around the bodice and attached in the back
Skirt - wide oval
Sleeves - large oval, both ends repunched with 3/4 inch circle, then throw away bits of the brand new Blossoms Bouquet Triple Layer Punch (in Summer Mini) in red
Arms - wide heart to heart next to same hole
Hands - small heart to heart trimmed down on the thumb side

Color your hair and find a new career...

Once a brunette baker, next a blond artist, this same "face" now belongs to a Red Headed Science Major.

or maybe a lab tech, or maybe a doctor - give her the prop you need for your project  (Graduation card perhaps?)

Face from THIS POST
White coat - large oval - cut flat on bottom, cut in V at neck.  I actually cut the thing in half to make her coat but it is exactly the same size so I recommend you just draw the line down the middle and keep the oval whole - draw on collar and buttons
Sleeves - 1/4 small oval
Arms - large oval around small oval hole - cut to get the pieces for her forearms
Pocket - end of word window
"dress" behind the coat - just a couple of tiny rectangular scraps (no punch needed)
Legs - one word window with line drawn down the middle to get 2 legs
Shoes -  drawn on - I tried the smallest heart to heart around a small circle hole  (small part and hard to attach - recommend you use liquid like Tombo Multi if you choose this option)

A Little Artist

So the baby steps continue... I took the first baby step face again and instead of making her a baker - I made her a blond...

This hair looks like one of kiddo's best friends, who happened to be in my kitchen at the time of creation so I asked her what she would like to be and she answered "Artist, artist with a green smock".

Just a few minutes later I had this done so I guess I am starting to find my groove.  I just need the I-fairy to find her way home and we'll be totally back in business!

Face, Neck and Hair info - HERE - from 2 or 3 posts ago  (I added another scallop oval behind her head to fill in the hair totally)

Beret - small oval and slot punch (slot is retired, use a tiny scrap)

Smock - half a medium oval at the top, wide oval trimmed (diagonally on each side) draw on the "gathers"

Sleeves  - wide heart to heart

Hands - itty bitty circle at ends of modern label

Palette - medium oval trimmed in, standard hole punch paint spots

Brush - tip of one of the Blossom Petals and word window on edge of paper

Hello Kitty - a "borrowed" punch art idea

When you lose your stampin' mojo, casing someone else's work is a great way to get back in business.  Well, that works for punching too.

This is NOT an original - I got it from Quiltmaniac46 on SCS right here and click HERE for her instructions.

I made a couple of adjustments but this is basically her Hello Kitty:

Here is what I used:
Dress - scallop circle - trimmed like hers
Head - wide oval - just like hers
Ears - narrow heart to heart
Shirt - small oval
Sleeves - medium oval cut in half to get 2
All paws - 1/2 inch circle
Face - drawn on  - just like hers
Bow center - itty bitty pack circle
Bow loops - 1/2 inch circle - trimmed

Another Baby Step

Slowly getting back to punching - continuing the baby steps....

Nothing fancy, no sponging, nothing complex but a character that you can use for just about ANY recipe card... or a card for a cook... or a scrapbook page about cooking up trouble...

oh, just use it for SOMETHING

How to:
Face from previous post
plus
Hat - 3/4 inch square (retired punch, just use your paper trimmer to make one) and small oval
Arms - large oval around small oval hole - trim to get the parts you need
Hands - itty bitty circle at ends of modern label
Chest - small oval - trimmed
Apron/Dress - first I punched the neck hole with that retired 3/4 inch square - then punched the 1.25 square around it, then trimmed the sides on a slight diagonal - so you might as well free hand this (sorry)
Bowl - 1 inch circle on edge of paper
Spoon - itty bitty circle - put on a post it note, the sticky part, and repunch with same to get oval spoon shape - add narrow strip of word window punch for spoon handle

Baby Steps

It really has been a loooooooooooong time since I punched.  I actually had to open a drawer and hunt for mini glue dots for assembly.  (I have plenty, they had just shifted to the back)

With the Inspiration Fairy MIA, (my MDS obsession must have hurt her terribly - but I LOVE me some MDS)  I will just have to start again with baby steps... baby steps back towards punching.

I saw some really cute stamps on a blog that I am FORBIDDEN to link you to because they sell competing product (GASP!)   but a cute stamp by a company that is NOT SU (GASP! again) is my inspiration for this start:

1 3/8 circle  - HEAD

word window on edge of paper to make a narrow strip - NECK

scallop oval punched next to scallop oval hole (and shifted so one end is narrower than the other) to make 4 locks of -HAIR

simple simple simple drawn on - FACE

now I just have to decide how to dress her?  Baker?  Princess?  Party Girl?

Tune in later for the results show...

Anita Anita ANITA!!!!

While I'm waiting to get my punch mojo rolling, let me show you who is Rockin' the Punches again...

It's ANITA (click on her name) - she turned the stamp set Totally Tess into punch art.

Mom? why can't you give ME cute stuff for my blog?  Oh yeah, you don't even remember I have one!

Great job Anita (as always and forever)

Honest, I did pull out punches

Honest, I pulled out punches today - didn't finish anything but I have 2 "in work"

Then I left that mess on my desk and hopped on the laptop and made this:

which makes the mess on my desk look pristine!

Digi Punch Art (kinda)

The oval blob in the middle of the page during my "watercolor" tutorial made me think of this.

Hope someone out there can use an over-caffeinated bug...

Color My World - Digitally!

Welcome to the first VC Rocks blog hop of the 2011 Season - Color My World!

If you were not "hopping" and just popped in to see me, why not follow along the hop trail and see what great things my fellow VC Rockers prepared? 

Home base is HERE. 

To go backward click HERE.

To go forward click HERE. 

To see how to watercolor in My Design Studio (MDS) scroll down.

WHAT?

Watercolor Digitally?

You betcha!

I about panicked when I found out our blog hop theme was "Color My World" since coloring is not my strong suit - but then, I remembered what I learned from Leah Fedynak on mydigitalstudio.net

This technique involves NO water. I'm going to show you how to color simple things like the center of the flower from Sweet Details (digi download) in a soft watercolor style.

First, I created the basic layout using Framed With Love, a photo replicated 3 times but cropped each time so it looks like I cut it apart, and a daisy from Sweet Details.

so it would look like THIS:

Then I added an oval (see the gray blob in the middle of the screen below?)

Then in the design center (right side) I added a drop shadow  - increasing the opacity to 100% and the blur to "full" - and I changed the color of the shadow from black to Rose Red (see photo below)

This next part is gonna seem a little weird but hang with me. 

While you have your oval selected, in your Design Center click on "paper fill" and fill the oval with ANY paper (I used a black stripe) - see it in the middle of the photo below?

Now click (or double click?)  on the 'paper filled oval' and you will get a screen where you can pull the paper down OFF the oval - see photo below:

So now, you have a blurry edge Rose Red oval in the center of your page. 

I'm betting you know what happens next....

I moved the oval over the flower center and rotated it slightly to match.

You can see that I zoomed in so I could place it correctly.

Zoom is at the bottom of your Design Center.

You may (or may not) want to adjust opacity to get the look you want .

It took many photos for me to teach you - but in reality it just takes SECONDS to do this.  If there is a punch you can use (or stretch and distort) to fill the area of a stamp you'd like to color, you can color it faster than you can walk to the sink and fill an aqua painter with water.  And with this method you can change your mind and switch colors as many times as you'd like without wasting supplies!

Want to know another cool MDS color trick?

You are not limited to SU colors

What if I wanted my background to be Rose Red?

When I did that - the center of my flower doesn't look the way I want.

But I still want ROSE RED as my flower center. 

Stomp foot decisively!

(Stomping will not help)

But, I have a solution.

Click on your oval and click drop shadow again - and click to change the color

Instead of picking one of the SU colors shown so nicely in little boxes -  click on the tab above the colors that says HSB

Then you can move your cursor to pick up a lighter or darker color - slightly off from Rose Red.

Below, you can see where I chose a lighter shade for the Daisy Center.

This HSB color choosing is also how you can have tone on tone stamping.

There is no Versamark in MDS.

You can also "color match" in MDS - there is a little dropper where you can exactly match another color in your photo or project but I'm not getting into that today.

I hope you learned a trick or two about MDS

Have fun with digital coloring!

One more time: 

VC Rocks Blog Hop Home is HERE

To go backward to Maddebug Designs, click HERE

To move on to see what Kelly Mayou, The Weekend Stamper, has for you, click HERE

VC Rocks has all kinds of classes, swaps, challenges and fun.  We are accepting new members this month ONLY.  I learn so much from the Rockers.  Come give us a try (if you can stand our chit chat!)  Read the side bar on the Blog Hop Home page and you'll learn a little more about VC Rocks!

A or B?

Blogger has had a bad case of ummm, "hiccups" this week.  Things disappearing.  No access.  Access. Things still gone. 

Maybe posts will still show back up!?!?!

Maybe it was my post that broke the system... those shoes I scrapped were sooooooo ugly - blogger couldn't handle it.

I hope all is running perfectly soon, so you can have a perfectly great time of the VC Rocks Blog Hop - Tomorrow and Sunday.

For tonight I'm going to show you two versions of the same page, cause I just can't decide which one I like best - which one should I have printed?  (while the printing is being offered at such great prices!

A? 

or B?

Shoes of my nightmares

Oh yes, there are lot prettier things to scrapbook - but these nasty shoes (the stuff of my nightmares) are family lore - the story needed to be recorded. 

As your children (or grandchildren) grow - don't just take pictures of the pretty things - document some reality.  Someday when I'm feeling really strong I'll scrap the photos I took of my girls rooms during their early teen years - HORROR movie material!

Quite a Pair

My daddy and my baby girl - before she "became" a red head and before he got so bad with Parkinson's.

Stampin' Up! is running a DEAL on printing your digital pages - I just got a huge stack back and the family was IMPRESSED with the quality of the product.  (it goes without saying that they were impressed with my work - hee hee)

Up to the Minute

This is what you call "current events"
Photos from Friday night and Sunday.
GO MAVS

I bet I took 15 photos of the scoreboard - thinking I'd get a shot of our biggest lead of the night - and it just kept getting better!  Sorry LA fans - you have the memories of ALL those championships to comfort you.  We are still hunting for our first.  And it feels great with each step closer.

Another layout sketch from Alesha Walls - following a sketch makes scrapping so easy - find a great sketch and give it a try!

Happy Mother's Day

If you are a mom - I wish you a Happy Mother's Day!

If you miss your mom - I wish you comfort from happy memories.

If you have a mom - stop reading this and GO CALL HER (or take her out to eat - YUM)

I spent Saturday with my mom (Mother's Day Eve) - 'cause I'll be going to the Mavs - Lakers game for Mother's Day.  We are sitting in the nose bleed sections but hey, that is where the true fans sit.

Enjoy the day!

Christmas in May

This is an idea you can use in traditional as well as digital scrapping.  If you have a page with LOTS of photos (this is a sketch from Alesha Walls again) - make a matching page and put your journaling for each photo in the corresponding spot.  This way you have the "purty" page and also you have all the info you want to share.  Like THIS:
Purty page...

Journaling page...

and more and more...

More Chicago pages... 

If I haven't convinced you to play with MDS YET - let me remind you that stuff doesn't retire in MDS.  ALL your old favorite SU colors are still there, along with Designer Series Papers (some new and some retired, but still loved) - now I'll never run out!

May is National Scrapbook Month - if you don't want to digi scrap, I hope you can still get a layout idea or two from all the pages I'm sharing. 

If you do want to digi scrap, this month SU is having all kinds of specials - printing deals and download bundles - you need to go to the SU website and check it out.

More Chicago (More MDS)

I LOVE these 2 layouts
Sketches again were from Alesha Walls

First one, I love because the title is PERFECT for the filmstrip.  And I love my little makeshift sunshine.  The circle on the sun is from a MDS download called Sweet Details. AND I love the font I found to use.  It is called Smitten Kitten - from a free font site.  Want it?  Google it!

Second one, I love because the older buildings and the black and white color scheme makes me think of the Gangster Days of Chicago.  (Like I am so gangsta)

It is an addiction...

Seriously, I can't stop...
These are all from my 50th birthday trip to Chicago (um, no that was not this year)
Sketches were all from Alesha Walls - she shares them on mydigitalstudio.net
More tomorrow... sorry punch fans

Digi Punch Art

Well, it is punch art - that is a small step back to normalcy...

To make his hat I took the largest arrow punch (not retired in MDS) and stretched it sideways.  Ha, can't do that with paper punches can I?  Added the arm stamp from All in the Family as the tassel.  Too Easy!

Don't know why I can't get punching - I think the Inspiration Fairy may be on a long vacation...

I keep on scrapping in MDS

I could show you TONS of pages but I think you'd be bored.

But here is one more

I saved this at a "lower" quality jpeg and the background paper looks weird - it is really a grid design.  This sketch was from Alesha Walls.  She is issuing a sketch every day this month - I'm going to attempt them all.  We will see what I do that is worth sharing with you.

OLD 4th of July

Back from my awesome scrapping weekend - I did 28 layouts (all I took) then switched over and did 10 MDS layouts.  But I've decided to show you 2 layouts with older photos - pre-digital camera days...

You weren't expecting these colors for the 4th of July, were you?  I went with the dress not the theme.  These are from 1990 - old photos but they look good with a fresh layout.  Check out that middle photo - all that hair is ME.  And the little girl with glasses is my oldest - "she who needs a REAL job and had a great interview last week"  - keep your fingers crossed.

Here is a layout a bit more traditional for this holiday- some of my favorite photos of  "kiddo still at home for a little while longer"

If you have kids or grand kids - remember to take photos from the side and back - no, you don't see their perfect little faces - but some of my favorites are these shots, you might find that works well for you too.

Happy Scrappin'