Parrot cards as promised!

All of the following cards were designed for display at a parrot expo we attended this month.

Most of these cards are simple to make, using only basic supplies (cardstock, inks, copic markers and pop up dots)

Eclectus pair

This cockatoo is actually a sulfur crested,

I snipped off the yellow head feather to make her a Goffin instead.

white bellied Caique

Parakeets

Eclectus

amazon christmas card

Cartoon macaws

blue and gold macaw

African Grey, you could also make this guy an amazon fairly easily.

African grey

white bellied Caique with wicker ball.

I kept the embellishments to a minimum with these cards as they are designed for a non stamper (yet!) crowd. I made sure these were generously sized images so they would fill up a card with little effort. Their large size also makes them great for framed art and other large scale products. The backgrounds are from Stamp Camp and they will be available shortly. All of our parrot stamps and accessories (including our Stamp Camp backgrounds) are pre-mounted on 1/8" cling cushion. We are still loading images to the website but if you see something you want and need it now, you can always email us.

I did a bad bad thing..

I am a bad blogger!

Here are some of the cards I forgot to load up back when we released the new Prehistoric and Into the Woods stamp sets. I have probably another 12 parrot cards that I will do my best to upload later today.

Most of these cards feature a technique I like to call "flat layers" its sort of like paper piecing but the goal is not to layer papers but to make a subtly dimensional card. I used 110- 120# cardstock for my layers. I start with the base image and then work my way up. I don't know if you can see in these photos but even cave dad's tooth is a layer! In person it make them look alive!

(Flat layers: ferns, Dino, and snake)

Thanks for stopping in. Stop by tomorrow for our new release blog hop!

Its going to be a blast!

Blog Hop Winner Announced!

Congratulations to: TONILEA!

Tonilea is the winner of our Classic Decor blog hop candy!

Please send me your mailing address and we will get your Classic Decor Stamps, Classic Decor Sentiments and Cling cushion right out!

Tonilea's comment:

I am still chuckling as I write this! The folks in this blog hop have to have the best sense of humor on the internet! Not only are the stamps and sentiments clever, wonderful and useful, they provide the artist to use any and all of their talents and creativity. Wonderful fun!

thanks
tonilea

BLOG HOP DAY!!

Hooray!! You did it! You made it to the end!

I'm so glad you stuck with it because I've got the candy :o)

Here are the final cards in the hop,

the blog candy info can be found at the bottom of this post!

(this is my favorite card out of the bunch. I love Mrs. Poose!)

Mrs. Poose is so spoiled. Look at her with her fancy collar!

Flowers in the vase:

Flower soft in colors christmas green, shamrock, bright pink, poppy red, baby pink.

card inside:

I made the card above and decorated the chandelier with clear austrian crystals.

Then I decided I wanted to see what it looked like colored crystals and made this

card using the smaller chandelier.

Austrian crystal chandelier accents.

Idea to note: use the oval frame as a mirror and reflect another image.

I hope you enjoyed our new release blog hop! If you love these stamps and don't want to wait for the random drawing and want to take advantage of the 3 day only Blog hop special visit the website today. (don't worry, you can still enter the drawing and if you are our winner we will let you choose a different set of stamps and coordinating sentiments with cling cushion instead!)DECO

R STAMPS:

You can find the new stamps here:

http://starvingartistamps.com/doodlefactory_classic_decor.html

http://starvingartistamps.com/sentiments_classic_decor.html

And now for the BLOG CANDY....

All you need to do to enter to win the

COMPLETE COLLECTION OF CLASSIC DECOR UNMOUNTED

STAMPS, CLASSIC DECOR SENTIMENTS WITH CLING CUSHION

...is post a nice comment about our blog hop (on this post) and be sure to leave a way to

contact you. The winner will be chosen randomly.

We are going to leave the blog candy open until SUNDAY July 12th, 2009 midnight Eastern time. The winner will be announced no later than Tuesday July 14th EST.

If you arrived at my blog independently, and didn't make all the stops on the hop

You can start at the beginning by visiting our company blog:

www.starvingartistamps.blogspot.com

Random NYC photos

On the way home from Uncle Eddies memorial service we hit some major traffic in Jersey and John decided that the quickest way home would be to cut thru NYC to get from New Jersey to Long Island. Normally I opt for going up and over via the George Washington bridge (thru the bronx) or even settle for cutting thru Staten Island but heavy traffic on a Saturday evening made him think NYC would be the quickest of the 3 routes. Needless to say I was a little apprehensive. Although John works in NYC and drives there daily, I myself can count on one hand the amount of times I have driven in the city. Add to my nerves the fact that I was driving my very large (and powerful 8.1 liter V8 -insert manly grunting) but not very responsive or known for its handling Chevy Avalanche in a place where aggression, speedy lane changes and quick braking is the expected driving technique. My big black behemoth was amusingly out of place amongst the two doors coups, taxi cabs, bike delivery boys and infesting pedestrian population.

Fortunately sometimes MIGHT makes RIGHT and I managed to muscle my way in after much tailgating, some quick lane changing, and lots and lots of avoiding double parked cars (All you people in NYC, just so you know double parking is illegal!) we manage to get to 34th (or something around that number) street and have to cut across to get to the mid town tunnel or at least that is what John was telling me we did. Due to all the jaywalkers, backed up traffic and double parkers I had some time to snap a few photos of our 1.5 mile Jaunt from NJ to the midtown tunnel.

Its really not possible to feel the immensity of NYC in any photo. In person its much much bigger, busier and chaotic than a still photo can possibly capture.

broadway and 34th street

Empire state building reaching way way way up into the clouds.

(my favorite photo)

church photos

John's Uncle Eddie passed away unexpectedly before Christmas. He and his wife lived in Florida and after his passing the family decided to bring his ashes up here to be buried near his son in New Jersey. The service was last weekend in John's cousins church. The church was lovely and I managed to snap off a few photos before the service.

I wish you could see how nice this looked in person,

the arches and stain glass windows were beautiful.

The entire inside of the church has incredibly archways and domed architecture

and all of the arches are hand painted. This photo was taken where I was sitting

The statue up near the ceiling is larger than it looks here.

I'm not quite sure these marble columns are real. They have a clear coat on them that

doesn't look like what you would seal real marble with. I wonder if these are incredibly

well painted faux marble or poorly sealed real marble.

From far away they were really quite handsome.

After the church service we went to the funeral. Uncle Eddie's ashes were laid to rest

in a vast and tremendous cemetery with more crypts than I have ever seen in any other cemetary. There were hundreds of them. They were everywhere. I happened notice that a good amount of those crypts were of substantial size and engraved with Italian last names. I didn't recognize any of the names on the crypts we passed as possible crime family names but I watched the Sopranos so I know there are lots of them in New York and New Jersey. I would have taken photos but the rainy graveside service started right away.

After the services we went back to John's cousins house for what turned out to be an

"Irish" funeral. (I was designated driver and refrained from the spirits)

Johns cousin's house is quaint. Although he is a bachelor

John's cousin has a talent for mixing interesting historical and vintage pieces, sports and guy memorabilia, hand painted furniture and feminine botanicals for what has got to be one of the most eclectic yet comfortable houses I have ever been in. Its part museum and part English cottage. Its a cosy little old house filled with interesting artifacts that makes you feel like you can kick off your shoes, settle in on one of the many mismatched chairs and enjoy time spent with family and friends.