New Embroidery

Sorry for not posting much recently. I've been feeling poorly due to some medication I've been taking for a health problem I'm fighting.

Pardon the poor quality photo, but this is the best I could get. I recently finished this embroidery piece and just got it hooped the other day. The design is by Andrea Zuill at http://zuill.us/andreablog/ . I used a variety of stitches to set it off. I used split stitch on the birds, stem stitch, lazy daisy, satin stitch, French knots, and fishbone stitch.

Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge #20

This week's challenge is a sketch. All the papers are digital scrapbooking papers, the flowers are by Tracey Lynn Miller.

Digital Tuesday Challenge

This week's challenge is Things With Wings. I decided to make an ATC using dragonflies and butterfly.

Digital Tuesday Challenge

This week's challenge over at Digital Tuesday Chalenge is "BOO!" Rather than make a card, I chose to make a tag. The background with pumpkin was created digitally, then I added the bear by Dustin Pike and dahlia by Tracey Lynn Miller

Two-fer-One Challenge

Stamp Something Challenge Blog is having a Brown Plus Something Challenge, where the main color must be brown with other colors. Stampin' for the Weekend is also having a color challenge with the colors Orange, Brown and Leafy Green.

Since these two challenges were so awesomely similar, I am submitting one card for both challenges. The Pilgrim girl is by Inger Harding Design and is colored with BIC markers and Prismacolor pencils. The flower and leaves are by Tracey Lynn Miller of Fred,She Said Designs The green paper is a digital scrapbooking paper by Terrell Sanzone. The orange paper and brown cardstock are unknown.

Happy World Card Making Day! CHALLENGE

Tracey at Fred, She Said is hosting a card making challenge to celebrate World Card Making Day. All you had to do is make a card using her designs. I started with her dahlia outline set and colored the flower parts and leaves with Inktense water-soluable pencils. I then used a freebie paper piercing pattern on a piece of her new pinstripe paper in peach. The flowers and leaves are folded for a dimensional effect and stacked for a further 3-d result. The brown and gold cardstock came from my stash and I antiqued the finished piece with brown dye ink applied with a stiff bristle brush.

Crocheted Doily

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the West Texas Fair and Rodeo and I 'scouted' out the needlework competition. I decided to begin for next year now in case my hands had a long bout of not working. So.......here is my first finished piece: Small Chanukah Doily from www.freepatterns.com . It is in size 10 thread and 6" in diameter.

Digital Tuesday Challenge #25

This week's challenge is Falling Leaves . I used some leaves I cut from a sheet of House Mouse paper, fall leaves paper from my stash, and Dustin Pike's new scarecrow freebie. He was colored in BIC markers and Prismacolor pencils.

Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge #14

This week's challenge is a color challenge. It is an unusual trio - orange, teal, and pink. I went simple to accent the colors. I used digital papers by Kay Eflin and a digi-stamp by Tracey Miller at Fred, She Said.

Digital Tuesday Challenge #22

This week's challenge is Lace and Pearls. I used a digital image by Tracey Miller (Fred She Said), paper and lace from my stash, and pearls from my jewelry-making stash. It's hard to see in the scan, but the pearl loops hang freely from the corners.

Simon Says Challenge #19

This is my first time for the Simon Says Challenge, so here goes.....this week's challenge is Heidi's Choice . It is a sketch to use as a guide. I used old stamps, paper from my stash, vintage trim and flowers from a lei. I used my 'old faithful' of comic book backing board to make it a plaque.

Stamp Something Challenge

This week, the Stamp Something Challenge is Animal Somethings . I decided to make a Halloween tag. Both stamps are by Stampin' Up! and the tag and papers are from my stash. The bear is colored with Prismacolor pencils.

Change is in the Air

Big Changes are coming to the Infinite Visions. Over the next few weeks I will be transferring my freebies from here to House of Ratz. I figure it makes more sense to put all my digital art in one place to make it easy to find. Also, I will soon be adding free digi-stamps for card-making and scrapbooking. Keep an eye open......

RATMOMMA

Digital Tuesday Challenge

This weeks challenge at Digital Tuesday Challenge is "Hop to It". I used my usual magazine backing board for my base, Easter Bunny from Dustin Pike and a tea bag medallion and paper, ribbon,eyelets, stamps and a rhinestone from my stash. Bunny is colored with BIC pens and Prismacolor pencils and then attached with pop-dots for a 3-d effect.

Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge #12

This week's challenge is 'Pink and Grey'. The bird stamp is a hand-carved one I made myself. The flowers are 'Fred's Faux Foldy Flowers' by Tracey Miller at Fred, She Said Designs......The Store and everything else came from my stash. The flowers were base colored with BIC permanent pens and detailed with Prismacolor pencils blended with baby oil.

Digital Tuesday Challenge #20

This week's Digital Tuesday Challenge is Male Cards . I decided to use an image by Dustin Pike that I colored with BIC markers and shaded and highlighted with Prismacolor pencils.

Digital Tuesday Challenge #19

This week, Digital Tuesday Challenge is having a sketch challenge. I used a digi-stamp by Tracey Miller of Fred, She Said Designs that I colored with watercolor pencils, paper from Angel Stamps, quote from Hot Off the Press, and brass, fiber, and paper from my stash. Once again, this is a wall hanging.

Two Fer One Challenge(s)

This week, I'm doing two challenges that ended up working well using the same entry.

Over at Stamp Something they have a challenge to use a charm in your design. Mine is the brass heart in the upper left hand corner.

At Stampin' for the Weekend, the challenge is to follow a sketch to create your design. The sketch is here on the blog.

My design was too large to make into a card with the supplies I have, so I made a wall hanging. I don't have all the latest toys like personal die cutters, so sometimes my cuts are not quite perfect. I figure that proves its handmade. :) The stamped image is by Stampin' Up!, the gold embossed paper word charm is from Hot Off the Press, the flowers are by Fred, She Said Designs, everything else is just stash. I mounted the piece on comic book baking board, which is acid-free and VERY sturdy.

Digital Tuesday Challenge #18: 'Bling'

This week's challenge at Digital Tuesday Challenge is 'BLING'. I went a bit overboard. :) Santa is a digi-stamp by Dustin Pike and can be found here. I used iridescent glue for his skin and moustache. Everything else is glitter glue. I continued the Santa motif with a tea bag motif accented with a rhinestone. The message came from a freebie at Fred, She Said.

Stampin for the Weekend Challenge #9

This week's challenge at Stampin' for the Weekend is "Alterations". I decided to work a little magic on a fast food item. This is a cup used for fried foods at a local conveinience store:

NOW it is a hangable Halloween decoration that can be filled with candies or dried flowers. I used scrapbooking paper, cardstock, eyelets, ribbon and glitter glue for the transformation.

Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge

I guess I'm on a bit of a roll this week! :) This is for another challenge site I discovered: Stampin' for the Weekend. This site uses good old-fashioned rubber stamps to create with. They post a new challenge every Friday. this week's challenge was 'masking'

Since most of my stamps are smaller images, I created an ATC for my submission. Every element was masked by the time I finished stamping. I colored everything in Prismacolor pencils.

Digital Tuesday Challenge

This week's challenge at Digital Tuesday Challenge is 'simplify'. I went back to the very basics with this card. The digi-stamp is a doodle-dallion by Tracey Lynn Miller of Fred, She Said.

I wanted to capture the sunflowers blooming wild in my neighborhood. I did my base coloring with PITT pens. Shading and highlighting was donw with Prismacolor colored pencils and blended with a colorless blender. I then mounted the cut-out image on gold paper. The dark brown square has accent lines in copper (unfortunately they didn't scan well).

Digital Tuesday Challenge

I am definitely back into my paper crafting. I discovered another great 'kick in the butt' blog over at Digital Tuesday Challenge. Their requirement is that you use a digi-stamp in your project. (A digi-stamp is what we used to call clip art, but it can be colored like a rubber stamped image).

This week's challenge is 'Christmas in July'. My image is a freebie by Dustin Pike that I got from her blog. The papers are from my stash. I colored two copies of the digi-stamp in watercolor pencils. I then cut out the hat, spoon and dress from one image. I used pop-dots to attach the cutouts in a 3d effect. The shiny hearts and frosting are done with colored laquer.

I Took the Challenge

Over at the wonderful blog site, Fred, She Said is a challenge I decided to take. The blog owner designs 'digi-stamps' that she sells for paper/digital crafting. She often has a special freebie for her readers. This time, she is offering a prize to the best rendition using the current freebie.

Despite having most of my paper crafting supplies still in storage from the move, I decided to take the challenge. The card below uses layering to accent the printed image. The light blue paper was from my stash as was the purple mulberry paper. I used watercolor pencils and a waterbrush to paint the image. I tore the edges and inked with ink pads to enhance the image. The message was from a metal sticker set.

New Sketches

These are a series of leaf studies I did working from one of my favorite pen & ink how-to books....DRAWING IN PEN & INK by Claudia Nice. I've been a bit lazy in keeping this blog updated. Hopefully, I'll have enough projects to keep the blog going.

Missing In Action

I know I've been missing for a while, and I want to apologize. I am currently fighting a major health problem and the medications are causing me to have very little motivation to get much done, let alone share it.

I've been working on the never-ending tatted orniments for the soldiers, doing a little beading every day on a surprise project and just whatever I get in the mood for (lots of reading and tv). One new thing - I am exploring the world with food. I am trying to eat healthier and am trying new foods from around the world so I won't get bored. :->

Here is one of my embroidery projects I managed to final do and finish. It is a cross-stitch kit in 18-ct Aida.

This is my pride and joy! I started this piece last fall and finished it about a week ago. It is all freehand embroidery using the split chain stitch. It began as an experiment to learn the stitch and just kept growing and decided it wanted to be a complete piece.

25 Motif and a Design Challenge

Well, here it is - my final motif for the 25 Motif Challenge. I have enjoyed this challenge as it made me try new things I wouldn't have otherwise tried just to get 25 different tatted items. I have done MUCH MORE than that, but I have recorded 25 unique items.

I call this piece Rose Snowflake since it is also a submission for the blog Design Challenge. This is my first original tatting design.

Rose Snowflake

by Carolyn McComas

size 10 thread 5 1/2" diameter

I would like to share the pattern with you, so here it is (pardon my not-so-pefect graphics):

ENJOY!!!

25 Motif Challenge

Motif #24

Suncatcher

by Birgit Phelps

size 10 thread 4" diameter

25 Motif Challenge #23

I'm getting near to the finish line on this challenge. :) Only two more to go....

Lacy Bookmark

by unknown

size 20 HH Lizbeth 11" long (with fringe)

25 Motif Challenge # 22

Motif #22 - Clover Leaf Heart

by Mrs. J. M. Blackman found in Handy Hand's Catalog

size 20 HH Lizbeth

2 1/2" across

25 Motif Challenge

Here are my latest 'new' motifs for the 25 Motif Challenge. I've been busy tatting, but they've been repeats.

Eight-Inch Doily

by Rozella F. Linden in "Easy Tatting"

size 20 Flora HH 4 3/4" across

Large Heart

by Rozella F. Linden in "Easy Tatting"

size 20 Flora HH 1" across

Small Heart

by Rozella F. Linden in "Easy Tatting"

size 20 Flora HH 1 1/2"long

February Fairy

Here she is - the last in the calender fairies. I hope you've enjoyed these as much as I have making them. I hope to have more clip art available soon.

Click here to download

Rattie Sketch

This little sweetie was drawn using a photo of a rat from the Dapper Rat, named Nimbus. I fell in love with his smile and had to try a sketch.

A Different Rodent

This little character is called "Hamtaro" from a Japanese cartoon of the same name. They are adorable!

I'm working on my pure pen & ink work again. I'm a bit shakey, but I'm going ahead and doing it anyway as it has always been one of my stronger media. This piece is a fan piece of the character Hector in the latest Castlevania video game. it is totally done in dip pens and India ink. I'm quite proud of this one. :)

Chibiwonder Woman

Just a little fun. (I don't like the marker skin color)

'Bishie' Boy

Daily Sketches

The blog had a major hiccup last night and wouldn't let me upload images, so here are three to enjoy. The little mousie is a valentine wish. :)