My Friend Jane and Fun with Riley

My Friend Jane aka ladyjanek

A few years ago I invited several of my friends from work to my house for a Christmas stamping workshop.  Several of them had tried stamping with me and really enjoyed it.  Jane, however, always claimed to have no talent of any kind and totally rejected the idea.  I encouraged her to come even if to do nothing but enjoy all of our company in a fun setting away from the job. She did come and the rest of the story is very inspiring and proof to me that the craft of stamping can provide such an excellent creative outlet for anyone who cares to try.

Jane (see ladyjanek's SCS gallery here) came to my house that day and immediately fell in love with creating Christmas tags by stamping Christmas images in versa and coloring them with pastels. She became hooked.  Over a period of weeks she found that she loved coloring with blender pens and reinker and built up enough courage to jump with both feet into stamping.  Actually, Janehas become my best Stampin' Up! customer and really enjoys my Kittie Kits as well. 

A week or so ago I posted a Winter Snow Scene tutorial on the Rubbernecker Blog and invited our readers to create a snow project and link it to the post for a chance to win a se of Spellbinder Tag Dies.  No one posted a project so I kept my blog candy thinking I would use it again down the road.  Later in the week Jane came in to my office and told me how she enjoyed my tutorial and wanted to show me her winter snow scene.  I was thrilled. Nothing excites me more than seeing others realize their own creative potential. Jane has grown so much as a stamping artist  and I just had to share her snow scene with you.  Oh….and by the way….It was my pleasure to give Jane the Spellbinder Tag Dies blog candy. Didn't she do a wonderful job on this scene?

Winter Snow Scene by Jane Kennedy

Fun with Riley

 The Inspiration Challenge on Splitcoaststampers is always fun for me. It is like a "write a blank check" challenge that allows you to go anywhere you want with your inspiration.  We were given a link to an on line clothing store called Boden. Here is the outfit that inspired both of my Riley pieces. I loved the colors in this jacket, scarf and sweater.

I have said this many times before ……but I love the Riley image by Hanna Stamps.There seems to be no end to the themes and they just seem to get cuter and cuter.  Hanna released two new Riley's this week and I just coudln't wait to play.

I took inspiration from the checks on the jacket and decided it would be fun to create wallpaper for Riley's laundry room. I used Adirondack markers to draw simple lines in the green and red and then filled each square with little dots.  I thought a bright little window with curtains would be a nice addition to the room so Riley could have some much needed light for ironing. I took a scrap piece of watercolor paper and sponged on blue sky and green grass. I used a marker to add dots for grass texture and then used a brown marker to draw in the panes. I colored regular white cardstock with markers to create the curtains and valance, cut them out. I attached the window to the wall and popped the accessories over the window with mounting tape.

Riley was stamped on scrap watercolor paper and colored with markers. I used a wet brush to blend the colors, especially on Riley's face. I was so in love with the socks, etc hanging from Riley's antlers and I thought it would be fun to duplicate a few of them to lay on the folded piles laundry.  I drew a couple of extra socks with a black artist pen, colored and cut out. I colored white cardstock with markers to create two different sized piles of folded laundry and cut them out. I popped them up a little on the floor of the scene by using balled up glue dots and then attached the additional socks. I did a pretty sloppy job of creating a coordinating piece of dotted paper for the background layer but liked it well enough to use. I added a little piece of drawn clothing to the ironing board for one last little detail. I so love the sentiment "I don't do Moosework" even though poor Riley looks quite busy at it.

I thought it was quite appropriate that Riley should get to lounge on the couch eating chocolates after all that ironing. I was inspired by the saffron color in the sweater and the green in the scarf. I stamped Riley on the couch twice on scrap watercolor paper to color and cut out. I wanted to cut Riley out and actually pop him up on the couch.  You can't tell but his legs and antlers are popped up with rolled up glue dots and it adds such cute dimension in real life.  Darn these photos….. or….oh maybe it's the photographer.

I used plain white Papertrey cardstock to create the outside view from the window. I simply sponged on ground area in green and stamped the trees. I filled in each tree using a dry brush wiped directly over the ink pad. Hint….If you use a wet brush on water based ink you will smear it.  I stamped the grass with a little image from my Kittie Kits Outdoor Master and then sponged in the sky using blue and a handmade cloud template.  I cut strips of white cardstock to create the panes and the baseboard of the floor. The valance and drapes were created with SU designer paper.  I cut all the edges with decorative scalloped scissors and then ran the hanging drapes through my crimper to create the effect of gathering.  The valance was mounted with mounting tape. The actual sentiment says "Chocolate Moose Anyone?" but I just removed the moose part as I loved the "Chocolate Anyone?" for this darling scene. I would love to relax in a setting this sweet after doing laundry.  How about you.  Oh…and give me Godiva's.