Playing Again....

With some paper!!! Been a while but it was fun!!! I had to complete a swap for Handmade Cards With Care a yahoo group.......The theme was "Glitter, Glitter, Glitter"......I love glitter but being in the digital world for a while I had to work on my "mojo"....LOL.....



I used my cricut to cute the decorative edges of the two layers and after I cut out the top layer I ran it through my printer and printed the image.....I then highlighted certain layers with glue and added glitter..I love the sparkle it gives the card.....Stamped the phrase with a new rubberstamp I was sent by Gloria.....she's such a sweetheart!!!! It's a perfect phrase don't you think???





I then wrapped a ribbon around the inside of the card and over the green layer underneath the top layer and used a ribbon punch to punch holes on the top layer to thread the ribbon through and tied in a bow....I'm quite happy with the way the card turned out!!

I would like to THANK YOU for stopping by again to visit with me.......I hope you all have a wonderfully blessed day...please come by again...until then....

I'm SO Spoiled...

I just gotta share with everyone how spoiled I know I am.....I have the best hubby ever!!! He let me got ahead and get my Christmas present today.....and I AM LOVING IT!!! Guess what it is.......It's a Cricut expressions!!!!! It's the one that cuts up to 12x24......SO nice....I also got the Design Studio and a total of 5 cartridges.....I also got a black/brown set of the markers to use with the Cricut.....Did I have a GREAT early Christmas or what!!!!

I've been messing with it most of the day and did use it to create one card so far...Just thought I would share it with you.......

I had been debating back and forth about wanting either the Cricut Expressions or the Wishblade.......I gotta say I do totally feel I will be quite happy with my CE!!! The possibilities are really endless with the software that you can use with it!!!

Ok, now it's time to come back down out of the clouds!! Just had to share with everyone my wonderful surpise!! Thanks so much for stopping buy and please come back to visit with me again!!! Until then....

Happy Saturday....

Hello everyone....I hope you 've been enjoying your weekend so far......Fall has arrived and it has been a brisk day here....just the perfect weather to be indoors all day....Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....Most of last night and earlier today I was working on scrubbing my main hard drive and attempting to load XP on it....however since it came with mfg version of Windows Home Premium I was not able to...which I thought would be the problem.....but decided I wanted to give it whirl anyway.....alas, I accepted this and reinstalled Vista.....Luckily since I keep all my images, graphics and important files on my 2nd hard drive on my computer it wasn't that bad as I didn't lose anything important and now I have a squeeky clean hard drive...:)

After I finished that I started working on a swap I'm signed up for in a Hand-Made-Cards@yahoogroups.com that I belong too....the Theme is "Buttons Swap".......I didn't want to just stick a couple buttons on a card so I tried to be a bit creative and use the button as the center of a flower.....Anyway, Here's what I came up if you wanna see....



I took a close up of the button just so you can see.......


So now I'm off to complete some more swaps I'm signed up for and due dates are rapidly approaching....not to mention the Christmas gifts I must get working on!!! I want to thank you for stopping by to visit today!! I hope you have a wonderful evening and a very blessed Sunday!! Until then....

It's FRIDAY!!!

Yippie!!! I'm excited...how about you!! I have a whole weekend to play with paper....no events taking place and that's just fine by me...My yougest will be going out with his girlfriend and her sister and her boyfriend for a "date night" so that leaves me and hubby to have a lazy weekend!! I'm sure he'll be watchin' tv and working in the yard.....Me.....he lets me play with paper all day...he's such my sweetie!!!

I received an order earlier this week for 2 cards that I had previously made before...she found them on my blog.....I changed up the colors a bit and tweaked a couple changes on the first one I've made so far....Just thought I would share it with you if you wanna see.....

The other I've started working on and will complete this weekend.....just takes a while with all the cutting and layering but I always love the affect I achieve when I'm done......Time certainly flies by when I'm playing with paper!!!

Well, that's about it from me for now.....I hope you all have a FABULOUS weekend!!! Please come back to visit...until then...

Happy Hump Day!!!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Wednesday!!! Half way through the week!!!

Today I had a desire to create a card for a lady who is suffering from cancer....her daughter is trying to collect cards for her to have to open when she gets out of surgery!!! What an awesome daughter she is!! Anyway...I was inspired to create one for this special lady and thought I would share with you my creation......


Of course by now you realized I am in to 3D affects....so yes I did layering of the flowers......the "Thinking of You" is stamped with brown Stazon Ink.....on the inside I stamped with Opaque White Stazon the Survivor phrase stamp I have...I felt is was the perfect message for this lady!! The envelope I made doesn't match but I made it to coordinate nicely......

I believe I will go and crochet on a purse I am making.....I'm having a bit of a creative block so will take a break and come back to my paper later!!! I want to Thank You for stopping by once more to visit with me.....I pray you all have a safe evening and wonderful Thursday!!! Until then....take care!!!

I got to play with Paper!!!

Today was a fun and quite day.....This morning I had to haul everyone home then we came home to a quite house!!! :) Was a nice change of pace....I did some laundry, though not much.....caught up on my ETSY store by getting several things posted.....caught up on email and PLAYED WITH SOME PAPER!!! :) I had fun....I had a swap I needed to get completed so I can get in the mail tomorrow...I used alot of a wall paper in this card...

The base of the card is a dark brown heavy cardstock....then a layer of burnt orange cardstock that I then stippled with stazon olive green and stazon red around the edges.....I applied the same colors of stippling to the next layer of wallpaper and punched each of the 4 corners with a decorative punch....the top layer is also wallpaper theb I rubber stamped with my stazon black ink a word stamp that I have over and over to fill the whole sheet...I love this stamp....I took a pretty gold colored fancy trim and taped to the bottom portion of the top layer with a metal embellishment slide on the trim.....I then placed the layer into the punched corners of the layer below it....

The flower was also wallpaper border...I scanned the flower.....cut out the wallpaper to leave just the flower and adhered it to the burgandy layer then I printed out an extra image of the flower I had previously scanned......glued it to some aluminum and cut out the flower and a few leaves....gave them a 3D affect adhering it to the card....

The butterflies were also part of the wallpaper...I cut them out separately and gave them some added embellishments....the top one I added a little green glitter to and some sephia glossy accents to the wings and attached to the card in a 3D affect. The bottom butterfly I borrowed the idea from a card I received from my friend Rita the other day...I LOVED the affect a butterfly that was on the card had....I thought she had done it but she shared with me she had actually found them and purchased them already made that way.....Well I LOVED the idea so much I decided to do it myself.....I took some glue around the edges of the bottom layer of the butterfly and sprinkled brown glitter.....I then punched 2 small holes and took some wire and thread through the top cut out I had done and the bottom to attach them together.....I trimmed the edge with glue and also sprinkled with brown glitter.....then I took some Sephia Glossy Accents and applied to the top layer of the butterfly......then once dried I attached to my card...doesn't it have a WOW affect!!!

I've taken an angle shot so you can see the depth of the 3D embellishments I created!!! I really like the way the card turned out...though it's a bit busy I still think it looks great!!! Of course I also made a matching envie...I made this one out of actual wallpaper!

Anyway, that's my creation for today!! I had fun making it and I sure appreciate you stopping by to visit with me again!!!! I hope you all sleep well and have a WONDERFUL Monday!!! Until next time...

Happy Tuesday!!

And Good Morning to you all.....I was able to get my paper fix last night and had quite fun.....I have an order for 5 cards which I'm now working on......thought I would share with you the first one I've completed...This is a Birthday Card for someone's mother...Have not yet put the phrase on the inside...will do that this evening....


but the flowers started as a black and white image from my computer....I sized it to the size I wanted...printed off onto white cardstock....before I started coloring I decided on the background paper I would want to use....the base of the card is brown....Anyway, on the flowers I colored them with my water color pencils....This is something that is also a first for me and I will definately be doing again....I absolutely love the softness of the color....I used a bit of colored pencil on the tips of the flower petals...then I take a water brush and wipe the water color pencil to cover the entire petal.....really cool look....I used green water color pencil on the leaves and stems and brown on the center of the petal....but after that I put some elmer's glue in the center of the flower and took some brown yarn that I had chopped and chopped into fine dust and used that in the center of the flowers to give them a fuzzy feel.


I colored a seperate sheet of flowers and cut 3 of them out...backed them with aluminum so they would be moldable....and placed them as a 3D effect on the card......I then took several of my dye inkpads and stippled the background around the flowers to match my background paper.....punched the corners and placed raised dots on the back.......I then rubber stamped and embossed the image onto the background layer...I gotta tell you a REALLY cool trick I learned off the internet and it WORKS!!! Take a used dryer sheet and rub all over the surface of the paper you are wanting to emboss.....When you stamp and sprinkle the embossing powder over it........you'll see once you pour off the excess powder there is VERY LITTLE left over on the surface of the card!! I use this technique every time and it's wonderful....now I will have to take a loose bristled brush to flick away a few strays but NOTHING like before.....Try it sometime, I bet you'll love the trick!!


Ok, back to the card.......I then took a sheer ribbon and wrapped around the card then took a smaller piece and tied a knot on the ribbon that wrapped around and angled the edges.....I love the look....and LOVE using black and white images to create just the color scheme I want!!!! I of course made a matching envie, which completes the card!!!


Tonight I will be again in my ART Studio playing with paper...trying to work on the remaining order I have and who knows what else!!! I want to again THANK YOU for stopping by to visit with me!!! I pray everyone has a wonderfully blessed day!!! Take care, till next time!!

It's Tuesday...but feels like Monday!!!

Good Evening everyone......WOW what a wonderful weekend I had playing with paper...sure was hard getting back into the work groove today....All day I was thinking it was Monday!!! LOL But tomorrow is ALREADY hump day!!! :)

After posting all the cards I created this weekend I couldn't resist doing one more last night.....I have 2 boys as I've shared previously.....one that's 14 and one that will be 23 in March.....He's and ARTist in his own right but will never admit it....He LOVES to draw....he also loves to get tattoo's (which mom doesn't like) but what to do....anyway.....he also draws art for people to have tattooed on their body.......I love what he does and I always scan them and save them to my computer so I'll have them forever and ever....I've been wanting to use some of them in my art....so yesterday I decided to do just that!!!

I printed the image on to vellum paper...layered it over black cardstock and used square brads to attach them together...I think it gives the vellum a cleaner look.....the base of the card is black and then I created a red/black crayon paper to use as the background......Have I mentioned how much I LOVE crayon paper!!!!! :) LOL, you can custom make whatever color you might want!!! LOL...BUT, I MUST warn you...it is VERY addictive!!!! LOL....Just like Lay's potato chips...You CAN'T MAKE JUST ONE!!!! LOL

Ok, back to my story...sorry, I tend to get distracted easy when it comes to crayon paper!!! LOL
The message on the card I did combining 2 different Rubber Stamps....then layered my layers of paper them the same way.....I've raised the image and the words up off the card in different levels.......I also took a photo of my crayon paper then imported it into my graphic program, duplicated turned duplicated layer....etc, you get the point to create another designer page then printed on my large format printer and made the envie to match the card!!! I think the colors of everything work awesome together...I believe my baby will be happy with the results....


Today I've decided that I MUST organize my graphics on my computer.....I have literally thousands and thousands and thousands of images....some of which I know I'll never use......some are in folders I don't want them in and I know I'm not accessing them the way I want....so I'm going through each folder and doing just that.....talk about taking a LONG time!!! But I'm super anal and I know it's gotta be done or it's going to drive me CRAZY!!! LOL

Also have several swaps I'm signed up for I need to get working on...which is one of the reasons I want my images organized so I can FIND SOMETHING!!! LOL

OH YEAH....Almost forgot to share....I purchased a slot today to showcase my ETSY store all day http://pennyduncancreations.etsy.com/ .....I'm kinda excited about it only cause it's something I've never done before and I'm just wondering if it will make any difference...only time will tell but I'm surely hoping so!!!

Ok, guess NOW that's about it....I want to again THANK YOU for stopping by to visit with me!!!! Please come again....I love having you stop by!!! Until then, I pray you ALL have a wonderfully blessed evening!!!

Happy Saturday....

I hope you are all enjoying your long weekend!! It's been very nice so far for me....After taking my youngest to Nashville (actually met in Hopkinsville for the trade off) my hubby and I ate at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants for dinner....Very good as usual....We made it back home about 8:00 p.m. and I came directly into my ART Studio to play!!! I had fun reworking the Christmas card I was working on and added some crayon paper corners to the card as well as creating an accompanying envelope with a strip of my crayon paper on it and the words stamped on it with Versa Ink....turned out very nicely!!! I like this look better, the card looks more complete......finally layed my head on the pillow around midnight......









Then this morning when I got up I had the below listed design on my mind......I used cardstock layered over with aluminum foil...then used my sizzix and an embossing sleeve to emboss the aluminum.....This turned out SO nicely!!! The rest of the card came together quite well too....The flower is a combination of the twall paper, pearlized paper, faux flower petal, alchol paper, crayon leaves and a brad.....I think it adds the perfect touch to the card......





I also had to make a matching envelope....I LOVE to have my envelopes match my card....I just think it makes it complete!!!





I've completed my grocery shopping today and it's amazing how just a few craft items happened to hop into my cart!!! It's like I can't control them!!! LOL





Now I get to play for the remainder of the evening.....what to do what to do!!!


So, I've been playing and playing all evening.......I have created the below card using a coffee filter, crayon paper, pearlized paper, cardstock RS' of course and some Pearl Ex Mist I made up today......It turned out cool....First is a picture of the card and the accompanying envelope....second picture is a close up so you can see how awesome the Pearl Ex Mist shows a shimmer on the coffee filter!! I LOVE this effect!!!





Now I also must share this.....I was wanting an envelope that would accent the card.....so I decided to take a copy of one of my crayon sheets I had made......duplicate flip, duplicate flip and continued that til I covered the entire 11x17 area on my page (I did this all digitally) then I printed it out!!! OMG....It's GORGEOUS!!! Take a look at the envelope and then below is the whole sheet I created!!! I am SO proud of this and will be DEFINATELY making more of these!!!!




I am surely keeping the people in the south in my prayers as this terrible hurricane makes its path....I have a VERY dear sweet friend that is preparing to evacuate her home for safer area.....just waiting on the word for her postman hubby to be able to leave......They were hit with Faye just a few weeks ago and also Katrina 3 years ago!! I commend her cause I know I couldn't handle what she does......I just pray they and everyone is safe!!!!



Thank you for stopping by...I hope you come and visit me again soon!!! Until then, I pray you all have a very blessed and safe evening!!!

Happy HUMP Day!!

Hello everyone...been a few days since I've been able to post...been busy trying to complete an ATC swap I was in and I had an order for a card!! The ATC is for a swap I'm involved in with ATC_World@yahoogroups.com the title of the swap is "Shuttered Windows"..I came up with this idea and though I LOVE it...it about whipped my butt!! The ATC is definately 3D and even has real curtains..and window panes!! :) Isn't it cute!!








Now This next piece of ART is for an order for a card a friend requested for a cousin of her's that lives in California....She left the creation all up to me and this is what I came up with.....To me it shouts Fall is coming!!! I did an angle shot as well because there is alot of intriqite work done on the flowers and butterflies as well as the birdhouse and leaves....I love things that show texture....the flowers and butterflies I backed with aluminum (soda cans actually) and cut them out..this allowed me to shape them the way I wanted them and they would hold their shape...worked wonderfuly! Additionally on the flowers I wanted the fuzzy feel on the center of the flowers...so I took some brown yarn and chopped it up real fine...then used come Matte Accents by Inkabilities made by Ranger and covered the center of the flower and put some of the fuzzy yarn there...It looks and feels amazing!! I layered the birdhouse and all the embellishments over a layer of wallpaper then two different colors of cardstock.....the base of the card is brown....I printed the inside paper with the same wallpaper design...as I scanned it and printed it...then I made a matching envelope!! Turned out quite nice I think!!




Also thought I would share with you some ideas that popped in my head the other night......The first was my Dymo label maker.....I like how you can make the raised words...however I never really liked the colors available....SSSSOOOOO, I had this brilliant idea of using my alchol inks to cover them in a marble type pattern....then I sprayed with a matt fixitive and it worked wonderfully!!! Take a look.....

Then...since that worked so well I decided to take an aluminum can and cut it apart to use the inside of the can and I stamped with Stazon ink a dragonfly.....dabbed the background and edge with alchol inks...painted the wings and dragonfly with pearlized paints then took some Glossy accents by Inkabilities made by Ranger over the wings to give it a shiny look......

BUT.....my creations with the aluminum cans didn't stop there.....I thought..."hummmmmmmm..wonder how it would do embossing the aluminum"....so I got out some of my brass templetes and tried using a stylus to emboss the metal....didn't work well...THEN...a light bulb went on!! (Yes that does happen from time to time....:) )....I tried using my Sizzix die cutting machine (you know the one you probably have sitting around collecting dust as mine did) and it is AWESOME!!! Take a look at what I dabbled in.....I flipped one of them over so you can see it is really a soda can!!!


See, I have this friend named Angie who is WONDERFUL with recycling things into her ART...so it's got me thinking and rethinking everything I touch anymore!!! LOL...so I thank Angie for giving me the desire to want to THINK of what I'm throwing away!!!!

Well, guess that's about all my updates for this evening.....I need to get those things posted into my ETSY store that I was supposed to do on Sunday.....I want to thank you all for stopping by and visiting with me.......I do hope you come again...leave me a message if you want...I LOVE seeing them......And most importantly...I pray you all have a safe evening and a blessed tomorrow!!

Good Morning...

Everyone and what a Saturday I had....when I said I wanted to spend my entire Saturday in my ART Studio...that's pretty much exactly what I did....with the one exception of hubby taking me to my FAVORITE Mexican restaurant for lunch/dinner!! Yummy......

My day began trying to design an envelope for the card I shared yesterday...I had this wonderful idea to take vellum and stamp with Stazon brown ink all over the paper and cut my envelope templete from that....but once that was completed I decided to add a little of my chalk ink pads...well...ooooppppssss, the Stazon ink smeared which totaly surprised me....SOooooo I thought, "crap...what am I going to do with this"....so I decided to play with some alchol inks on the paper to see what I came up with.....wasn't anything I would use for that envelope BUTTTT, definately had potentional for background paper...added a little crayon to the mix and see what I came up with.....



That just got my creative juices flowing even more.....Have I mentioned how fun playing with crayons and an iron is..... :) So I decided to use some of my glossy printer paper and made these below.....





In total...I designed 6 different designs.....Pretty Cool huh........Then I thought, you know...I'm gonna put these in my store...so I cut them down to 4 1/8 x 5 and packaged them 6 to a set....keeping one set for myself of course......


BUT, I thought.....will people think...."what could I do with these"....soooooooooooo, I decided to come up with some ideas.....the first picture is a tag I created and some embellishment items....and a card I created using the crayon paper for leaves....Aren't they realistic!!!!



then after I got all this done I kept staring at the tag I had made.....It is SO gorgeous in person.....looked over at my paper supply....and came up with the below card...



The background paper on this card I printed myself from my computer (it's actually the design I did for the envelope for the card I shared yesterday!!)....the message is of course a rubber stamp, stamped with my Stazon brown ink...I love those stamps!

So, can you see how much FUN I had yesterday!!! Never did get that birthday card made yet....gotta make that today after church...especially since her birthday is tomorrow!!! :)

I have had SO much fun sharing all of my play and ART with you this morning...I do hope you will come again and visit.....until then, I pray you have a VERY blessed day!!

Happy Saturday...again...

I hope this posts finds everyone having a wonderful day!! It's another beautiful day here in Robards, KY....was a really good week but am surely glad the work portion of it is over!! I had much fun this week in my ART Studio....I of course did more organizing and did take new photos...as usual they are to the right of my blog.....

Thursday I decided I wanted to challenge myself to use a rubber stamp I've had for years but have never used do to being intimidated by it's volume and being able to give it justice....It did take me a couple days to create because I didn't want to just throw it together...Here's what I came up with....I do really like the way it turned out.....and will be using the stamp again as I really can see it has alot of uses....

For the background of the main image I used 3 different colors of chalk ink, then stamped my image in Stazon Brown ink and colored with my Zig markers and Gelly Roll pens...on the butterfly I colored the same and used Pearlex then squeezed a layer of Inkabilities by Ranger's Glossy Accents...I love that stuff....once dry I added 2 different colors of glitter....Have I mentioned I'm LOVING using glitter...it just adds such a pop to your creations!!

The layer below the main image I used some pearlized paper and stamped with the Stazon Brown ink the same stamp over and over to cover then used a decorative edge punch and went all around the paper...the main card is a pearlized cream cardstock....then of course you see the brown ribbon I made into a bow and added a paper flower as well as a ribbon flower layered over each other.....Just to finish the envie!! So that's it.....and I love the affect!!

Once I complete an accompanying envelope for it and add wording to the inside it will be going into my ETSY store. Of which, I must get busy working on more creations for my store...as well as making a birthday card today for my youngest son's girlfriend...her birthday is Monday! I'm excited that my whole day is able to be spent in my ART Studio...so we'll see what I come up with....

I've spent the morning uploading photos into my online photo gallery as well as updating my blog...BTW, did you notice my new header...created that myself this morning...says warm and inviting to me...I use, most of the time, my favorite graphics program Corel Paint Shop Pro X2...though I have pretty much all the other graphic programs out there.....Adobe CS3, Photo Impact Pro and Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.....my second favorite would be the last I mentioned...it works great for extracting images from the background with just a couple clicks of the mouse!! Have a few more things to do to my blog then on to creating for me again!!!

I want to thank you for stopping by and visiting with me....Please come again...I enjoy sharing my ART with you!! Have a blessed day all!!