6 new cards, new Facebook page and new contest pages

Here's a quick summary of what I've made/posted this month so far on sharedcards.com:

	This is one my older and simpler cards.
	Another one of my earlier cards based on the same paper that shows it doesn't take a room of supplies to make an interesting card.
	I gave my Mom some of the butterflies I had stamped for the earlier butterfly cards and this what she created from my leftover butterflies.
	I've been blogging about different coloring techniques over on my main blog at sharedcards.blogspot.com and this was the one of two cards I did based on a Make and Take from a convention to get some experience using colored pencils and Gamsol blending.
	An alternate color scheme take on the previous card. It's not obvious from the scanned image but the card is really two cards in one. The puppy is the top of a card and the bottom flap is tucked inside that card so you pull up on the puppy to open the little top card.
	Same stamp, new original gatefold card, but colored with Copic marker.

In the near future, I'll be putting the watercolor version up and a take 2 on the Gamsol version where I figure out how to get darker, more fully colored images. I started it this weekend but I was disappointed with my attempts to turn those images into new cards.

Sharedcards.com finally has a Facebook page. My posts on this blog tend to be more digests of what I've gotten done since my last post and I'll continue doing that so if you just want to see the cards every couple of weeks, along with everyone else's card posts, this will be the place to come. I am going to start taking the time to update Facebook, and as result Twitter, as the cards are uploaded, so if you want real-time updates on what's been added that will be the place to go. The links are on the sharedcards.com at the bottom of every page, just click on one of the card images above. If you really want more of the back story reading behind the cards, I am going to start putting up more elaborate posts that I'm not sure everyone here might be interested in reading, like the blog posts on coloring techniques mentioned above, at http://sharedcards.blogspot.com. Since the blog posts will usually be related to the current card, that will tend to be fairly up to date, but blog posts take a little more effort than a quick scrible on the wall.

The sharedcards blog is also where I'm trying to get contests going so if you want to win completed versions of some of my cards and maybe some other stuff, you may want to check out the new contest page I put up this month on the sharedcards blog. All you have to do to win right now is publically follow the blog and then read it once a week to see if you won, once there are enough people following.

New Rubber!

I have been to two rubber stamping/paper crafting shows so far this summer and have picked up a ton of new stamps and a lot of unmounted rubber images that I had to stick on cling foam and cut out but got for about a third of what I would have had to pay if they were on wood. Ok maybe its gonna end being more like half by time I get more binders and add in the cling sheets for the binders but I could have never afforded this many images if they had been premounted on wood and its going to save me a lot space and they are real rubber. I love the acrylics for the same reason but rubber just seems to work well with any ink and the clear stamps are hit or miss sometimes.

I mainly got stuff that fit three main categories:

• Really cool words
  
• Images that can be colored
  
• Images suitable for Flowersoft, usually in combination with coloring.
  

I'm not expecting to get a lot of cards done this month but using the new stuff is going to be the theme so it will be lots of coloring - Copic mostly but maybe I'll throw in new colored pencil and watercolor pencil techniques I learned at the shows.

I also have 24 older cards I scanned to finish putting online as well. Those might actually get some time this month. We'll have to see what I really feel like doing after putting in long days at work.

Here's a quick index view of the uploads since my last post if you haven't found them on the website already. Click on them to get the directions and larger views:

	This butterfly escaped the last posting and was found in hiding.
	He was not alone either.
	Mostly Stampin' Up!, except the paper
	New rubber and Copics!
	Even the Cricut machine wanted to play with the new rubber!
	More new rubber, sayings and Copics
	New and old rubber, Copics and distressing for an any occasion male card.