Husband and Wife a Team

This card was created for a challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil, using "Superduper Girl." "It's a Girls World" is the theme.


I just want to talk a bit about what went into making this card, which is a truly collaborative effort between my self and my wonderful husband Sandy. Like most of my recent cards, Sandy takes the shots (this is the carousel in St. Augustine, Florida) and then somehow in his camera manipulates the photo, resulting in a scene with amazing colors and line.

Yes, his work could very well stand on its own and has! What makes this different is that the shots were done a specially for the backgrounds of my cards! I follow that work by placing my pencil colored digital images in the forground using the Craft Artist 2 program.

I want to thank Elaine Wheeler and Sue Peck for tipping me off about this marvelous program and for being there for me, when I'm in a jam. Both of these lovely ladies are my newest good friends living in the UK!

Cancer and Cards Almost Two Years Later an Update

It has been almost two years since my ordeal with Cancer began. This was my blog post at that time. It was not the end of the story, but just the beginning my journey to continue to be here to enjoy my family. My story continues at the end of this blog post:

I’ve been staying busy using my wonderful Sheena Douglass stamps in another style of greeting cards. These stamps are so versatile and fun to work with. Check these out:

I’m going through a very serious health issue, which could, in the future limit my blogs. Right now I’m recuperating from a melanoma cut from the bottom of my right foot. Plastic surgery was performed reconstructing the bottom of that foot. It’s healing and I should be walking on it some time soon. But that isn’t the end of the ordeal. A pathology report shows a microscopic amount of melanoma in a lymph node that was taken out at the time my foot was operated on. Now, we are deciding on the next course of action which looks like a lymph node dissection and it might include a year of interferon treatment. At this time I am gathering information to make an informed decision.

Please be aware this issue didn’t just happen to me…although for some people it could be the case. But I was a beach bunny since I was a child. I went with friends to the beach often and to the town pool working on a good tan. Now, we know what that leads to. When you read your book on the beach lying on your belly, the sun gets to the bottom of your foot! Now I live in Florida originally because we love the beach…I haven’t been on the beach for 3 years and I only live 7 miles away!

Please be careful with your own exposure to the sun. Take the right precautions!

• Seek shade, especially during midday hours.
• Wear clothing to protect exposed skin.
• Wear a hat with a wide brim to shade the face, head, ears, and neck.
• Wear sunglasses that wrap around and block as close to 100% of both UVA and UVB rays as possible.
• Use sunscreen with sun protective factor (SPF) 15 or higher, and both UVA and UVB protection.
• Avoid indoor tanning.

I decided to update this story now because it is summer, the kids are out of school and the sun is out and it's hot! In years past my husband and I would be getting ready for a glorious day at the beach, still only 7 miles away! Now a days we take those precautions that I mentioned earlier.

Well after the surgery and meeting with the doctors who took care of me, I was of course dreading the future with what they said would come next! Then my children suggested a second opinion!

I made an appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida and saw Dr. Joseph. From the moment he walked into his examination room we had a good rapport. He had read the reports, he believed that it was not the stage that the original doctors said and that there was an 85% chance there was no cancer left to treat. He also believed and showed me charts that the interferon, the other doctors recommended, did not work! He recommended periodic sonograms, CT scans and blood work to watch for any signs the cancer is there. Dr. Joseph at the Mayo became my doctor and it will be two years the end of next month since the beginning of the ordeal began.

If it had not been for my children, I would have believed that all doctors used the same guide line...well they don't! They do not use the same charts and they can read the reports and see things differently. If you learn anything at all from this updated blog post, always get a second opinion. By the way, I have had many scans and blood work and there has been no Cancer found. I will continue to be monitored until 5 years is up. I'm here enjoying my life and my wonderful family...who saved me from making a bad decision.

Coloring Digital Images

People have commented on my colored pencil digital images. I enjoy coloring my many digital images using Prismacolor Premier Pencils. These pencils have a soft wax core, which makes achieving gradations from light to dark and from dark to light, a matter of graduated hand pressure. They blend beautifully. The same color can be soft or intense. Unlike markers, you can really change intensity and achieve nice gradients by using a light touch and then adding more pressure. You can also slowly build up the intensity which makes these pencils very forgiving.

Students who study drawing learn to make a ten-step value scale showing the range of possible light and dark. Drawing with no change in value tend to look flat or more patternlike. Artist translate actual light falling on forms manipulating their use of light and dark.

Value and tones can be created by rubbing, smudging and erasing. Each time a layer of color is added the value darkens.

With Prismacolor Premier Soft Core Pencils, I can produce saturated color and develop a wide range of values. I truly believe they are the best colored pencils.

The images I used in this post are Adele a digital stamp, a product of Mo's Digital Pencil. Just a few colors make Adele stand out...look carefully at the gradation of blue throughout the image, which gives this little girl a round more realistic appearance.

Try working in just Prismacolor Premier Pencils and see effect you can achieve.