A Magical Read

This stamp is from A Day for Daisies and I looovvee it! It's so sweet and reminds me of my daughter, who would rather read than almost anything. She taught herself to read at age three, by saying, "point to the words" as we read to her. So we did. And I remember her getting the little words, a, an, and the right away in a Berenstain Bears book. It wasn't long until she cracked the whole code and I could get her books from the library that she could ready by herself at age 3 and a half.

I made this notebook over by tearing text from old books (painful and yet a great way to upcycle stained books), and adhering them with Mod Podge. Then I used distress inks to smudge color about. I colored the image with pencils, trimmed and adhered with more Mod Podge. Then I added white gel pen accents and a sentiment and use some sequins to make a galaxy.

My darling daughter is twenty-two now and still devouring all the books...and gives me recommendations along the way. I'm so glad she found the same magic in books I did. There are worlds and people and ideas you've never dreamed of found in the pages of those books and I learn so much each time I pick up a new one. I remember my husband saying he only read superhero comics as a kid until about 16, when he discovered Stephen King. Now he has a special limit from the library on how many books he can have out at a time. The limit is 50 and his is 75. And thanks to Thor comics, he knows his Norse myths history when we play Jeopardy.

So, whatever your kids are reading, let them read. Our son loved Captain Underpants and I seriously disliked it. But it got him reading and he ended up starting Harry Potter books in the 4th grade. That would never have happened without Captain Underpants.

So, yeah, we love books here and believe in the magic of reading. If you want to get this Magical Read digi stamp, head to ADFD.

Happy Monday!
Chark

Have A Fairy Happy Monday

I used this adorable image from A Day for Daisies to make a birthday card for my niece. I made a background for her with Distress Inks. I smooshed the ink pads on a craft mat, spritzed with water and then lay the paper on top. 

I mounted the panel on a card, after I colored the edges with my new Sparkle Spectrum Noir pink pen. Talk about shine! I love these markers, so much glitter and sparkle. You can see it here. You can also see I need to go back over the card and cover those white edges! The wings' sparkle is from Stickles.

The sentiment die is from Lawn Fawn and I cut it from gold paper. The rest of the sentiment "to you" is inside the card.

Happy Monday!

Chark

You're a Doll

I got this fun image at A Day for Daisies and love it! She looks like the old-fashioned Barbies with the real eyelashes that my older sister had (which is why I added this sentiment). I had Malibu Barbie, and she was definitely more modern with her tan and straight blond hair.

I added some retro colors (aqua and rose pink) and some fun glitter gumdrops by Your Next Stamp. I gave her a little mole too, just for fun. Of course I added some glitter paper strips to match the gumdrops and a patterned paper with roses for the base.

Did you hear Mattel is coming out with some new Barbies that are more like our population (varied in color, size and shape)? Seems like a fine idea to me. Course, now you'll have to buy all different kinds of clothes because one dress won't fit all the dolls...clever, Mattel, clever. 

Thanks for being such a doll and visiting and commenting on my blog!

Happy Monday!
Chark

Am I Dylusional?

So, I love the new Dylusional Spray Inks and Paints. I think it's a play on words with the artist Dyan Reavelely's name. I'm not so delusional that I got that spelling messed up, although it is pretty early for me.

I got four sprays for Christmas and put them to use one day. Now, I'm never a neat crafter to begin with, and when I get spray inks and paints, well, everybody better take cover. I made a huge mess in the garage and I should've taken a picture of my hands by the time I got finished, because they were an epic mess. :)

 

But I did get some beautiful papers with the inks...one of which I'm using today for my A Day For Daisies digi stamp. Isn't this an adorable scene? I made it into a card after I colored with my Prismacolor pencils and fussy cut the image out. 

I kept thinking I should add something to the card, but the whole scene actually felt complete to me, so I'll add a sentiment inside and that will be that.

I did, of course, use Stickles to make it shine. Diamond on her wings and Yellow on the fireflies.

I gave her a little grassy hill to sit on too. The variation in the sprayed paper looks like dusk to me, with the sky changing colors into nighttime. I also  took the paper and ran it through the Big Shot with an embossing folder for some subtle variation.

Here's a close-up of the glitter.

I'm entering this in the Anything Goes Challenge over at ADFD, hope you'll join me! You can use their freebie to play along and hopefully win some beautiful images from the store...your choice!

Happy Wednesday!
Chark