Veni, Vidi, Ventus --
The randomly chaotic and crafty scribblings of a deranged, wannabe artist allowed too many colours in her Crayon box.

Surgeon General's Warning: Some content of "From Pooka's Crayon" may not be suitable for: work, blue-haired little old ladies, the politically-correct, rabid moonbats, uptight mothers, priests, chronic idiots, insurance claims agents, Democrats, children, small furry quadropeds from Alpha Centauri, or your sanity.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Cardisms


Layers of vellum and diecuts, with a sticker strip, stamped backgrounds.


Thing 2 had a birthday party to go to. Guess who helped me make this card? :D I've got to remember to STAND on big stamps to get solid impressions.


Foam stamp, gingerbread girl embossed. Liquid Pearls make awesome frosting. Cuttlebug snowflake diecuts. For Thing 1's secret santa.

I actually didn't manage to get ANY pictures of the Christmas cards I sent out. I'd do another, only THE DOG ATE MY FOAM CHRISTMAS TREE STAMP!! A cat knocked it off the table, and the dog ATE IT!

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Get Inked! -- January

The following card was made using some of the techniques I wrote up for the January Get Inked! kit at Queen Kat Designs.

The Love, Hearts, and Be Mine stamps are part of the kit as well. If you haven't signed up yet to get in on this neat new kit -- what are you waiting for??


The scanner didn't do the greatest job of capturing all the embossing, or the resist very well, nor did it really capture the hologram-look of the embossing done on the edge and in the center heart, but you get the idea.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

I feel all sparkly

Surgeon General's Warning:
The surgeon general warns you that the Pooka is thoroughly medicated thanks to a doctor visit today and while I can almost, ALMOST, type, getting anything ELSE is going to be a several hour-long trial. Be patient, get the rum and the popcorn.... and be ready to run.


It may be chilly or downright cold some nights and there But I'm a firm believer is that, if can pretty yourself up, that you're going to feel better, especially while being trapped, bound, and gagged from usefulness.

Sure, there's seasonal goodies thrust madly into faces, mothers doing the old fabric applique trick on sweat shirts that get hurt when you don't wear it All The Time.

Don't leap to conclusion by me having a new blog entry, You can leap. So, here in this little.... "retro rook"


Dancing Dragonflies.

Sold to a lovely Hobbit lass in the UK. Matching earrings. The long center silver dragonfly is jointed, so each segment moves. The silver and pearl strand is part of the necklace design and is attached at the clasp, which is also a dragonfly. You can only see one of the earrings hanging from the chain -- also made to match. Model: my eldest Thing 1.


Earthbound

Model: Thing 1. Full set: earrings, necklace, and bracelet. The smallest rounded coin shapes are actually glass designed to look like the jaspers and agates that make up the other stones. Swarovski crystals and tiny glass beads as spacers. The looser look to the bracelet is deliberate. Since the earrings and necklace were all very clear and clean in form, I wanted something a little looser for extra texture, so I took more of the long block agates, paired them with the larger jasper coins, and made a double/single strand, with some wire visible to give it a feel of motion.


Indigo swirls.

Inspired by a pattern in Margot Potter's Impatient Beader book. Even the above dragonfly necklace took some inspiration from her, seeing that she had two necklaces that focused on my favouritest insect, so I combined to make something that worked for me, and then it obviously worked for the woman who later bought it.
The big sparkly disco ball cluster that inspired this particular piece wouldn't have worked for my eldest, who was wanting something darker and deeper. We found these blues, and she went berserk -- yep, that was it.
The bulk of the design is built around blue sodalite, including the pendant. Swarovskis and seed beads complete the design. It's not as hard as it looks, it's just time consuming and definitely requires having a plan ahead of time.

Said and aforementioned Thing has another of those swirl necklaces, all in red and white, I believe. I had one in amber, agate, citrine, and red jasper, but I think it may have gotten sold. There is, however, a small problem (an eleven year-old problem) which may be the reason why that necklace cannot currently be found -- considering that Thing 2 really has no idea where ANYHTHING she owns is, much less something she "borrowed." Lemme tell ya, THAT gets old.

And now, my Ambien is saying that it now needs to sleepy time.

Clear Ether! (I will personally make sure a present is sent to the first reader that knows where that phrase comes from)

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Round Robin Blog Party News

Queen Kat Designs is happy to announce it's first ever Round Robin Blog Party or RRBP. It will begin on Jan 2nd at the Queen Kat Designs Official Blog for a day of fun and stamping. Each blog after that will have 3 days to party!

Each of the 10 Royal Court Members will host 3 challenges during their mini crop. You'll have a chance to win a mini stamp set on each of their blogs. So, make sure you play through the month and win a set!

Below is the list of when and where for our party. Come and join us to celebrate the new year and the next 12 months of new stamp designs.

Jan 2: QKD Blog
Jan 3-5: Penny

Jan 7-9: Jen
Jan 10-12: Nina

Jan 14-16: Tanis
Jan 17-19: Nancy

Jan 21-23: Vicki
Jan 24-26: Bev

Jan 28-30: Jules
Jan 31- Feb 2: Pooka

Feb 4-6: Anam

Visit our blogs to see what we have going on right now. We love comments so feel free to leave some love. Happy Stamping and Merry Christmas from Queen Kat Designs.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

What a card!!

Right, I'm feverish and punny, and that's never a good combination. So instead of trying and failing to be witty (just half-witted here tonight) ...


Charcoal cardstock. Asian coin mosaic stamped onto watercolour paper, embossed, then watercoloured. I just love my watercolour pencils. Pearl-Ex blended to make the coins metallic.


Yep, more watercolours! Dragonfly postcard stamped onto watercolour paper, and then painted. I got a little carried away with adding the mulberry paper punches. Ooops. It happens to the best (and worst) of us.

Done for a challenge at Queen Kat Designs. The card isn't blurry, it's my scanner, which hates dimensional accents. Gold is Pearl-Ex added to Versamark stamped images, with a wooden button as a clasp for the door.

Thank heavens DG gave me my Christmas present early. I now have a functional digital camera to solve the image problems.

2008 Queen Kat Royal Court

Hear ye, Hear ye!

Queen Kat Designs is proud to announce the 2008 Royal Court! Please help us welcome everyone to the castle and re-welcome those who have signed on to stay.

We're very excited to introduce to you our new designers...

Tanis Geisbrecht aka Paperprincess
Nancy Grant aka Inkcicles
Jen Pohl aka Jen
Nina Patena aka cbpatenaand...

And our wonderful returning designers...
Bev Douglas aka Sierra Grannie (that's me!)
Juliet Diley aka Jules
Penny Hartley aka Penny
Suzeanne Peak -- ME ME ME ME ME!
Anam Stubbington aka Kihaku

and of course, last, but NEVER least ... Vicki Beland aka Queen Kat!

A new year is coming, so don't be left out!
We have some fun things planned, including an upcoming Round Robin Blog Party, our new GET INKED kits, and a whole lot more.
Stick with us to join in the fun.

The NEW Queen Kat Designs "GET INKED" kit is revealed!

This is a new concept in kit design!! This is for the stamper at heart. We have come up with an awesome kit that will please every palette from beginners to advanced inkers (stampers).
Each month, you will receive a kit that has a different kind(s) of ink, a tool or two and techniques on how to use your kit. Below is the list of what we have in store for the next 12 months!

January: Heat Embossing
February: All about Versamark
March: Learn how to Distress
April: Add some sparkle
May: All about Chalk Inks
June: Learn to use Re-Inkers
July: Stamping w/ markers
August: Resist Stamping
September: Paint Stamping
October: Brilliance Ink
November: Versa Magic
December: Memory Mist w/ chalk ink

(subject to change at our discretion)

As you can see, we have a year of fun and INKING planned! You can't go wrong with these kits. You're sure to learn alot as well as collect a wide variety of different inks, tools and supplies. Each month, we will feature an EXCLUSIVE stamp set from Queen Kat Designs that has been designed just for the Get Inked! Kit that month. The stamps are not available any where else!
January's kit will feature embossing powders of all kinds..

Here's what you'll get in the first installment of Get Inked!.

1 Stamp Set
1 Full Size Embossing Ink Pad
1/2 oz. Black Embossing Powder
1/2 oz. Ultra Thick Clear Embossing Powder
1/2 oz. Worn Lipstick Distress Embossing Powder from Tim Holtz
1 Technique News Sheet written especially for the Get Inked! kit

(Note: Many of the techniques come from my own little crayon box -- yes, I share!)

And a bonus! Everyone who purchases a Get Inked! kit will have access to a free download that has more embossing techniques in it.

Each month, we will have a new download with additional techniques for you to try and keep. Access to this feature will run from the 1st of the month through the 31st. You will receive an email on the 1st with a link to the download.

Kits ship on the 10th of the month if not before. If you sign up for a monthly subscription, your card will be billed between the 1st and the 10th of each month. Also, if you subscribe to our monthly kit club AND the Get Inked! kit, BOTH of your kits will ship on the 8th of each month of before! Get your Ink on even faster by subscribing to both kits!

For a limited time, if you subscribe to a 12 month card kit or scrapbooking kit and a 6 or 12 month subscription of the Get Inked! kit, you'll get 10% off your subscription each month of the Get Inked! kit.

Have you inked today? Kits on sale now!