By George, I think she's got it!

Yes, finally! I believe that I have found a program which is easy enough for me to figure it out and the price is right...meaning it is free! Thanks to my friend Connie Smith who suggested that I try the Fast Stone photo Resizing program, I did give it a try and it seems that I have managed to apply a watermark to my artwork.


Now, in case you are wondering, a "watermark" is that overprint giving the name of the artist and more important giving the copyright info for Stampin' UP! which is required (by SU) for all artwork being posted online.



Clearly, I still need a little bit of work to get the size, position and colors of the watermark "just right" but if you look closely in the bottom left corner of the above photo, you can see some teeny tiny print...THAT is the watermark! Whoo hoo....success!



Several people have asked me which program I used, so here is the scoop. I chose the Fast Stone Photo Resizing program. If you go to www.faststone.org/ and scroll down to the bottom, you will see that option. Just download it and then when you are ready to work on it, choose "advanced options" to apply the watermark. After that, you are on your own...I just kept clicking buttons until I got it where it looked like it would work. Did I mention that I am not a technical person?



As for the artwork, the photo at the top in various shades of blue was done with the snowflake stamp set from Stampin' UP!'s Nov/Dec 08 Country Living special. It's called "ghosting" otherwise known as Versamark resist. Just use glossy white cardstock and stamp on it with Versamark ink, then brayer a color over it . In this case, I used Baja Breeze, (a light blue shade of classic dye based ink) then I sponged a darker blue (Pacific Point) ink around the edges and stamped the greeting with the same color, then mounted it on Pacific Point cardstock. A bit of silver stretchy cord and voila! the card is finished! The glossy white cardstock was run through my Big Shot with the Top Note BigZ die before I started stamping.




This project (also with a teeny tiny watermark in the bottom left corner...like I said, I still have some work to do!) was done on a bathroom floor tile-- but what an adorable coaster, don't you think? I used "A Christmas Cardinal" which was a set in the most recent Holiday Mini and I am really crossing my fingers that it will pop up again in the next catalogue (Fall/Winter '09 which will be available in July '09) as it is a big favorite of mine. The fact that I live in St. Louis Cardinals baseball territory might explain that, but I also hail from Ohio and everyone knows the official state bird of the Buckeye State is the cardinal, right?



Anyway, I used an unglazed bathroom floor tile (tumbled marble, Botticino style) and stamped on it with black StazOn ink. Then I colored it using the Stampin' UP! craft reinkers and a blender pen. The colors used were Real Red, Old Oliver, More Mustard (for his beak and teeny tiny little bird feet) ad Chocolate Chip for the tree branches. If you have the craft pads or craft spots, you can use those by smooshing the ink onto a platette (slick glossy paper plate, junk CD that comes in the mail, whatever....as long as it's slick the ink will bead up on it) and you can pick it up with a blender pen to apply to the tile. If you don't have the craft pads, I usually get by with a few craft reinkers....thankfully I already had Real Red. Since I sponge everything (or it sometimes seems that way), I did sponge some Real Red craft ink around the edges of the tile to make him "pop" a bit. After stamping, I baked it in the oven (250 degrees for about 15 to 20 minutes...not too long or the tile will begin to brown) which heatsets the inks and makes them waterproof. Mr. Cardinal is a magnificent bird...and he also makes a decent drink coaster! What I really like is that these tiles are absorbent and very similar in quality to the "Thirstystone" coasters you can purchase at a boutique for considerably more than the cost of a bathroom floor tile! Hope that you like it too. Thanks for stopping in to have a look. Jan