About Me

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Mesa, Arizona, United States
Hi: It's Merniebug here. Well actually it's Melanie but I answer to a variety of sobriquets. My mother had been reading Gone With The Wind at the time of my birth, thus, I was named Melanie. My friends call me Mel, It was my sister who coined the moniker Mernie when she was too young to pronounce Melanie correctly. It was eventually shortened to Mern. And then later when my nephew came along he called me Melwee because he couldn't pronounce Melanie either. Now my husband of thirty-four years is so confused he just calls me whatever comes to mind first. Actually I was Sweetheart until the day he realized the honeymoon was over. It was my cousin who added the bug to Mernie which is who I've always been to him and who I am on Splitcoast Stampers. So now that we've gotten past the odd name business, who else am I? I'm a child of the King, a wife and a mother to one grown son and five tailwaggin' fur babies. I am a retired interior designer, a rubber stamper, and a wanna be author who is just completing a first novel. I got into scrapping and rubber stamping to fill a creative void after retiring--it's less expensive than redecorating the house every year. LOL

Monday, February 8, 2010

HOGS N KISSES AND VALENTINE WISHES


Hi to everyone out there, if you are out there. 
It looks like I've officially stepped in it this time, haven’t I?  After fending off well meaning friends for the longest time--you know the kind I'm talking about—the kind who persistently pester you about your need for a blog while just as adamantly you insist that you do not need one?   Why? Well it seemed to me that creating a blog just because everyone else had one wasn’t a good enough reason, so I dug in my heels and resisted. That said, you probably wonder why I’m here now and all I can say is, I don’t know.  But now that I am, I’ll try and give it my best shot.
      
If anyone out there is still reading this, I’ll get to the point by sharing my latest card and telling you a little bit about it. 
       This card technique is called a Side-Step card-- like a Stair-Step card with a twist.  It’s actually a simple technique, a fast technique, and a lot of fun to create.  Here are two Side Step card Tutorial links (two different styles) and if the links don’t work, just cut and paste them into your browser.



Once your basic card base is complete, all that is left to do is to decorate it.  For my card I used the following: 

1.   Scalloped hearts were cut and embossed using Spellbinders dies.
2.  The lattice hearts and border hearts are Martha Stewart punches
3.  The flowers are by Prima and are mounted on punched daisies.
4.  Hogs n Kisses: A digi image is by Jill’s Jems and can be found here: (Please take the time to check out Jill’s adorable images.  They are wonderful and so easy to use.)


After down loading the image, it was re-sized, colored with Copic markers, and cut out. I’m adding this because I recently learned that some of you out there are confused about digital images and have the mistaken idea that they must be colored using some sort of fancy-schmancy photo shop, drawing program. Not true. These images come in black and white, can be resized, and printed directly onto your cardstock. At this point you color them the same as you would color a stamped image. Also some of you have the mistaken idea they are intended for one-time use only.  Again, not true. These images can be used over and over and will last indefinitely as long as you save them to your hard drive. That way they will last until you or your hard drive croak (which ever comes first--LOL). I save my digi's to a disk as well as the hard drive.  

2 comments:

Andrea said...

A very loveley card - great design!
Many greetings and thanks for your comment at my card
Andrea

Chriss Blagrave said...

Oh My Goodness! What a beauty! I will look at these tutorials! Your creation is stunning!