Spring 2017 Catalog and Sale-A-Bration

January 4, 2017

The Spring 2017 Occasions and Sale-A-Bration 2017 Catalogs went live this morning and it must have created quite a commotion! I woke up to a message from our lovely CEO Sara Douglas on FB Live explaining that they had everyone hard at work fixing the online problem. No worries. I am sure things will be up and running soon. In the meantime…here is a glimpse of what is on my worktable this morning.

The Beautiful You Stamp Set (143637 clear block and 143004 wood block) is sure to be a huge favorite this Spring! I need to narrow down some of the ideas I’ve already pinned to my Pinterest board for the Beautiful You Stamp Set because I just don’t have enough hours in the day to make them all if I want to use my other Spring stamp sets. And I DO want to use them!!!

I have one card made from the Everyday Hero stamp set 143080. It will surely be another favorite.

To see more fun ideas from the Spring catties, check out my Pinterest Boards. https://www.pinterest.com/klspeer1/   or see the catalogs at http://kristyspeer.stampinup.net. “like” me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/stampinupkristyspeer/

Blue Pennants-June 2012

Blue pennants

Since blue is my favorite color, this swap was appealing to me. It seems that I am enjoying other colors more and more. Its funny when I think about deciding on a favorite color when I was younger. I picked blue because I liked it, and red seemed too obvious. I am drawn to blue, especially cobalt blue, but now other colors catch my attention. I’ve seen blue rooms that look boring, so I am a little afraid to go “too blue.”

I wanted to make some drawings influenced by the  Blue Willow china pattern. My Great Aunt Gail, love the Blue Willow pattern. As I went over images of Blue Willow designs, I found many interesting patterns that work well for tangling. The main problem was fitting designs on the small pennants. I will have to revisit the designs on a larger canvas. I wanted to do one design that was not Blue Willow at all. I used plenty of chalks on that one.  I enjoyed using the iridescent chalks. In part I used chalks because my blender pens were wearing out. The chalk expands the fibers in the blender pens, so when I go to use them on other inks, it is difficult to get a sharp line. I finally ordered new blender pens, so my upcoming work might be easier.

Owls ATC Swap

I enjoyed working on this one so much! I wish I had time to make more owls.  I use Bing images for inspiration and then try to make the work my own. I found a “How to Drawn an Owl” and used that as a basis for the owl with the turned head. The owl with its eyes closed came from a picture of 4 different owls. I used the basic outline and changed it, then tangled it. The paisley owl is the one with which I had the most difficulty. I thought I would like it more. I made five of them before I found one that I felt was acceptable. I like it, but thought it could be better. I gave one of the paisley owls to my daughter Joni, because she really liked it. Part of the problem might be that I need new blender pens and aqua pens. I can get more accurate shading and coloring with them.

Sleeping owl

Comical Owl

Paisley Owl

I forgot to scan it in first. The originals look much better than the scans. Sometimes I scan in my work and the scans look great. I haven’t figured out if there is something I can do to make the scans more accurate every time.

Button Flower

I drew this for a ZIA challenge. The basic outline of the big flower is from a coloring page and I drew and colored in the rest. I looked at picture of stitches on a sewing machine for the lines going down the middle of the flowers. Then I thought the buttons would be a nice addition to the sewing theme. I printed the original flower line drawing on regular card stock, so it limited the ways I could color it. I used markers and colored pencils. I used a few colored sharpies this time, along with my Stampin Up markers and Crayola markers. I use Crayola colored pencils for now. Some day I would like to get nicer pencils and more nice markers. I tried using pastels with a blender pen, but it just pilled the paper. I am anxious to do some work on water-color paper now, because the colors I can get are amazing. I never thought of using my scrap booking pastels with a blender pen until I saw it online somewhere. I have a nice variety of colors in the pastels, so I can’t wait to see what happens with those. At first, when I was coloring in this drawing my mom and my daughter saw it and each one said, “eh,” as though it wasn’t very interesting. It was hard for me to be enthusiastic about it after that. Now that it is done, I like it. 

Tangled Western Vase