Absolute Bliss & sponging

Happy Saturday, everyone. This is a big Harley anniversary weekend in the Milwaukee area and for a number of days now, everywhere you go, you see bikers. Not the normal two or three here and there, but lots and lots of bikers. And something that most people probably wouldn't even notice, but when I have the windows open, I can hear the constant rumble from the highways in the distance (even in the middle of the night). Now I can't say that I've ever ridden a Harley, but my husband used to have a Honda and there is really nothing like riding on a motorcycle. Unfortunately, Wisconsin weather tends to allow a rather limited amount of time in which to comfortably ride one, which is why my DH finally sold his a number of years ago.

The splitcoast inspiration challenge for this week was posted early enough last night that I was able to finish my card before I went to bed, but by the time I uploaded it on SCS, I was getting too tired to try and post it here as well. I chose this room as my inspiration -- big surprise, no? It's blue and there's a butterfly! I can't miss with that!

I picked three different stamp sets to combine for my image and literally stamped each image right on top of the previous. All were stamped in versamark on white card stock and then clear embossed. I forgot to use my embossing buddy, so I got a few extra speckles, but that's OK. There was a time that I was a perfectionist, but have learned that life is just too short to allow some minor defect to interfere. Then I did some serious sponging.

Let me tell you how I sponge. When I sponge, I like to use the round yellow sponges cut into quarters. I also have some sponges that in another life were packing cushion for computers, etc. This cushion was about 2" thick and I simply cut it into cubes with a pair of scissors. Then I used the scissors to snip, snip, snip away at the corners until I had a relatively rounded shape. The advantage of a round shape is that you don't end up with ink lines from the square edges. I squeeze or smoosh the sponge in my hand until I only have a small area (maybe an inch or less) that will come in contact with my ink pad. I tap it on my ink pad, then press it onto my paper in a circular motion in one spot and then gradually move around on the paper. I repeat this process until I like the amount of coverage I have. Remember, this card stock started out as white, so you can see I sponged a lot of ink onto it. I started with turquoise, then added ballet blue, which simply darkened the turquoise in areas, then added brilliant blue. You can cover as little or as much as you want, but to get the smooth transition from one color to the next, you have to move the sponge around and overlap the colors. It's also a good idea to start with your lightest color and end with the darkest.

Because the embossing resists the ink, that area will remain white. Once I was satisfied with the amount of color added, I used a white gel pen and added dots around some of the curves and the butterfly and in the corners.

I wanted the sentiment to say 'pure bliss', but don't have a stamp that says that. I had forgotten about this one that says 'absolute bliss' -- close enough. I stamped it in black stazon. Then I added a few rhinestones and layered this piece on brilliant blue.

For the card base, I knew I was going to use turquoise, but I also wanted to incorporate some curves, since that was part of the inspiration piece. So I took a large cardboard circle and simply traced some curves and cut them out and glued them to the turquoise base. I attached the front panel with foam tape and it was done. This is a color combination that to me is absolute bliss!

supplies:
stamps: baroque motifs, garden silhouettes, kind thoughts, so many sayings
ink: versamark, tempting turquoise, ballet blue, brilliant blue, jet black stazon
paper: tempting turquoise, brilliant blue, whisper white
other: clear ep, heat gun, rhinestones, white gel pen, sponge, foam tape

I'm so glad you took the time to visit today. Have a wonderful weekend.

A little something

Happy Friday. Are you glad to see the weekend? A long one with Labor Day on Monday. I managed to get the limited supplies challenge on splitcoast done today, even if it took me all day. Well, it didn't really take me that long -- I just worked on it off and on all day in between other things. One of the other things I had to do was return a couple of things at Target. As long as I was out, I decided to stop at JoAnn's as well. And guess what I found? A scalloped circle punch that is 2" across, just big enough to use as a layer with SU's scalloped circle punch. It's also made by EK success and has the same number of scallops. How cool is that?

Here's a picture of the two punched circles. Light blue is SU, dark blue is the new one.

OK, on to my challenge card. The requirements for the inspiration challenge were something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

I knew the blue part would be no problem for me at all and I have lots of old stamps and new stamps, embellishments, etc., but the borrowed part was going to be a problem. I decided to borrow an idea, so I went with using faux bleaching, which I saw on a recent card made by Sherry Cheever (BadSherry on Splitcoast).

I stamped an iris background stamp in versamark on a shipping tag and clear embossed it. Since I don't have any colorwash, I just sponged on some color and spritzed it with water, blotted with a paper towel and ironed between scrap paper to remove embossing powder. What a fun technique. Some of the color bled underneath the embossing giving a very splotchy look. I stamped some swirls from Priceless and the sentiment from Nature Silhouettes (CHF) with black stazon over the faux bleach. The 2 larger primas were a recent rak from another stamper (thanks, Kim), and the top one is punched from some handmade paper that I made a few years ago. I used a stylus to give it a bit of dimension. The flowers are attached to the tag with a rhinestone brad.

I was just going to attach some of the blue grosgrain ribbon, but by itself it was just too bright, so I dug through my trims and found a piece that worked perfectly. I just attached them with staples. The left side of the tag is pierced.

For the background, I knew I wanted to repeat the iris theme, so I pulled out another seldom used stamp by Penny Black. I colored it with markers and then misted it before stamping on the amethyst card stock. I didn't like all the blank area, so I stamped sanded in ballet blue right over the irises to lightly fill the space without being overwhelming.

Originally, the amethyst was the card base with just the tag on it, but after taking some photos, I realized that it didn't look quite right, so I trimmed off the amethyst and attached it to the barely banana card base. What a difference that bit of frame made, tying the card together.

So here is my listed requirements:

Something old: iris background stamp (American Artstamps) that I've had forever

Something new: primas (recent rak from Kim Hughes)

Something borrowed: borrowed the faux bleaching technique from this card by BadSherry

Something blue: blue ink, blue primas, blue ribbon

supplies
stamps: priceless, sanded (SU), single iris (Penny Black), iris background (American Artstamps), sentiment (nature silhouettes - Cornish Heritage Farms)
ink: jet black stazon, ballet blue, brilliant blue, lovely lilac, tempting turquoise, versamark
paper: barely banana, almost amethyst, shipping tag
other: lace trim, royal blue grosgrain ribbon, primas, handmade paper prima, flower punch (EK success), stylus, clear ep, heat gun, staples, rhinestone brad, piercing tool & mat

I'm so glad you stopped by today. Have a wonderful and safe weekend.

a double challenge

Hi everyone. I got a chance to stamp today, so I decided to combine two challenges on splitcoast, the sketch challenge and the ways to use it challenge.

There was really no pre-planning for this card. I needed to use a set that I could color, as well as images that would fit in this layout and these pumpkins from Autumn Harvest worked quite well for both. That also determined the color scheme, so this card was quite easy to put together.

I stamped the images in black stazon on vanilla card stock and colored them with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The gourd and the large pumpkin are cut out and popped up on foam tape. I've gotten better with my coloring, but still haven't achieved real depth in the images. I need to work on that.

The backgrounds are both from Cornish Heritage Farms and are stamped with creamy caramel ink. I sponged all the edges with chocolate chip and added faux stitching. The photo corner punch is also stamped with the burlap backgrounder and popped up. The brads are faux, as well.

supplies
stamps: autumn harvest, season by season (SU), burlap backgrounder, canvas backgrounder (CHF)
ink: jet black stazon, chocolate chip, creamy caramel, black marker
paper: basic black, more mustard, old olive, really rust, very vanilla
other: mat pack, white gel pen, prismacolor pencils, gamsol, sponge, foam tape

I'm so glad you stopped by today.

More VSN cards

Since I haven't done any stamping since the weekend, I thought I'd show you a few more of the cards I made for VSN this past weekend. If you want any details on the cards, just check out my SCS gallery (sidebar). Enjoy!

I've been stamping

Happy Sunday. It's virtual stamp night (VSN) weekend at splitcoast, so I've been busy stamping. A total of 18 challenges, including 3 for kids, have been posted, with an upload deadline of 10:00 p.m. today. So far I've done 7, plus I managed to fit in the inspiration challenge yesterday as well. I just have a few minutes to post, so I'm just going to show you a few cards. If you want details, please check out my gallery on SCS (see sidebar).

The first card is for the inspiration challenge, the 2nd inspired by a favorite childhood book (Blue Willow), and the 3rd uses pearl ex - I did the heated pearls technique.

Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by.

Torn with abandon

Hello everyone. I have not stamped since Saturday. I really didn't have any stamping mojo and no deadlines for classes. Instead I've been crocheting little flower embellishments.

I've been doing thread crochet for years and still enjoy working on doilies, so this project was a perfect way for me to sit and relax and still accomplish something. Last week when a local craft store went out of business, I picked up a few crocheted flowers at 90% off. They were a bit more complex than mine, but the original price was over a dollar. At that price, I knew that I wasn't going to be purchasing any, but should be able to make some usable flowers without too much effort.

So I did a Google search for crochet flowers and came up with several sites that had step by step instructions.


After trying several different versions, I decided to alter/combine different instructions to make my own style that was fast and easy. I played around until I found a design that I liked and that wasn't complicated.

I ended up with these that take about 10 minutes each to make. And since I have tons of crochet cotton, I should be able to make just about any color I want.

Now on to today's card, which by the way, doesn't have one of my crocheted flowers on it. I tried, but it just didn't look right.

The ways to use it challenge on splitcoast was to use tearing on your card. I also challenged myself to use designer paper on my card, since that is something I still struggle with.

The stamped floral image was laying on my desk - a reject from a project last week. The single coneflower from Cornish Heritage Farms is stamped on clear acetate with black stazon and colored on the back. I think I may have used Copic markers to color, but I'm not sure. There is a lot of streakiness in the coloring that shows up with white card stock behind it, but it just blended in with this darker color, making the piece salvageable. The sentiment and swirls are stamped on the ruby red card stock. I grabbed some scraps of designer paper and tore the ends off, wrapped it around the layers and added some buttons from my stash.

supplies
stamps: priceless (SU), single coneflower & sentiment (Cornish Heritage Farms)
ink: jet black stazon
paper: purely pomegranate, basic black, ruby red, dp (Basic Grey)
other: acetate, buttons, black crochet cotton

Thanks for stopping by today.

birthday pocket

Good morning. Today my son turns 20, so last night I made him a card. I wanted it to be appropriate for him, but I don't have much in the way of stamps that would fit his personality and interests. So this card required a bit of creativity. He actually has a pair of jeans with a swirly emblem on the back pockets, so I tried to duplicate that look.

I used the denim backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms, which I stamped in bordering blue on the card base and another piece of bashful blue. I cut the smaller piece in the shape of a pocket. I added faux stitching along the edges and an emblem from SU's Kind Thoughts on the pocket in navy ink. I also sponged navy on all the edges as well as lightly over all the surfaces. In the corners of the pocket, I added navy eyelets.

















For inside the pocket, I cut a piece of basic gray and rounded the corners to look somewhat like a mobile phone. The 'keypad' is stamped with 'happy birthday' using Antique Alphabet from Image Tree. I used a white gel pen for some highlights on the 'phone'.

supplies
stamps: kind thoughts (SU), denim backgrounder (CHF), antique alphabet (Image Tree)
ink: bordering blue, night of navy, basic black
paper: bashful blue, basic gray
other: sponge, corner rounder, white gel pen, horizontal slot punch, crop-a-dile, navy eyelets

Thanks for stopping by.

swimsuit inspiration

Happy Saturday, everyone. I've had a busy week with two classes, so I haven't been blogging much. I haven't stamped much other than cards for my classes, either. But I did manage to get a card done today for the inspiration challenge on splitcoast. I went with a really simple layout, but I think the embossed panel carries enough weight to stand on it's own. I just added some faux stitching and a few buttons.

supplies:
sweet dreams (SU), baroque background (Stamp oasis/Rubbernecker)
ink: basic black, white craft
paper, basic black, bashful blue
other: white embosssing , heat gun, buttons, white crochet cotton, white gel pen

Thank you for stopping by today.

Stained Glass

Hello everyone. Today I tried a new technique called stained glass. This was the technique challenge on SCS for this week. Although I love how the card turned out, the technique part of it gave me some problems. The technique is done by stamping your image on acetate (transparency) with black Stazon and then coloring the back side with a mixture of ink refill and crystal effects. The one aspect of crystal effects that I have never liked is the time it takes to dry. When SU first started selling it, I got a bottle, really hated it and actually traded it to someone. Eventually, I decided to try it again and have basically made my peace with it. I love to use it to adhere glitter and things like gems. I still don't like to use it as a glossy coating. So you can imagine that the stained glass technique was somewhat outside my comfort zone, but I decided to be brave and give it a try anyway.

I started by stamping the single coneflower from Cornish Heritage Farms on the acetate with black Stazon. I let it dry for a couple of minutes and then turned the acetate over. Using an artist palette, I mixed a drop or two of CE with a couple of drops of orange ink refill and started by painting the flower petals. Although I was using a pretty small brush, I still had a hard time keeping inside the lines. Then I washed out the brush and used chocolate chip and CE for the flower center and olive for the stem. Now the next part is really simple... let it dry. The instructions said at least an hour. So I set it aside, started some laundry, took a shower, ate lunch. By the time I came back to it, at least a two hour period had gone by. I lightly touched the color... seemed dry, so I started figuring out what card stock I was going to use and wouldn't you know, I smeared a spot that wasn't quite dry... ARRRRGGGGHHHH! I tried a couple more times on another piece, but those just didn't look right, so I came back to my original and decided to use it anyway. Maybe if I try this technique again, I'll use Future floor finish instead of CE.

I decided to use river rock, rust and black card stock. I used my cuttlebug and oval nestabilities to make the window and frame. The acetate is simple glued in between the layers. I stamped the sentiment and added faux stitching, but it was still too bare. So I punched out some photo corner punches, added some copper brads and attached the corners with foam tape. And I love it. It's hard to see from the photo, but the inside oval is actually transparent and the color behind the flower is the inside of the card.

Supplies
stamps: single coneflower (Cornish Heritage Farms), sentiment (bloomin' beautiful - SU)
ink: jet black stazon, ink refills - only orange, old olive, chocolate chip, black marker
paper: river rock, really rust, basic black
other: acetate, crystal effects, paint brush, cuttlebug, oval nestabilities, piercing tool, copper brads, photo corner punch, foam tape

I'm so glad you stopped by.

A lot of Red

Good morning. I didn't realize it's been a whole week since I blogged. So you get to see double today. I spent yesterday stamping with my sister and cousin, and only took two stamp sets with me, since I had looked at the inspiration challenge on SCS and had an idea of what I wanted to do. I meant to grab a background stamp and forgot, so what I had in mind was a bit different. I may start with an idea, but I am really a 'design as I go' type of stamper, so I don't usually like to limit myself quite so much. But this time, I think the limitations actually worked for me. I ended up making two cards, a little bit similar and yet quite different.

Both cards use stamps from SU's embrace life and Innovative Stamp Creations' friendship. I finished the second card after I got back home, since I wanted to use my white gel pen, some glitter, and a different sentiment.

On the first one, I started by stamping a few flowers on the white circle. I had three flowers that were already colored with a copic marker and cut out, but I could see right away that wasn't enough, so I just kept stamping, coloring and cutting flowers and stacking and arranging them until I liked it. I really have no idea how many flowers are on this. I kinda like having the one falling off. The butterfly is also stamped twice and layered. All the piercing is faux.

I hadn't planned on making this second card, but I had finished the first, also made another for my Tuesday class and cut all the kits, and still had time, so I just started playing and ended up with a second card. Easy watercolor on the blue flower (stamp with stazon on watercolor paper, outline a bit with marker and use waterbrush to spread the ink around - I love it). The red flowers are just colored by scribbling the marker back and forth, not worrying about staying in the lines, since I was cutting them out anyway. I cut the piece of kraft card stock at an angle and then played with my new scalloped border punch from SU. I love how easy it was to use.

supplies card 1
stamps: embrace life (SU), friendship (Innovative Stamp Creations)
ink: jet black stazon, sahara sand, read red, Copic marker (R29)
paper: sahara sand, bashful blue, whisper white
other: coluzzle, black marker, dimensionals

supplies card 2
stamps: embrace life, warm words (SU), friendship (Innovative Stamp Creations)
ink: jet black stazon, read red, ballet blue
paper: basic black, kraft, ballet blue, whisper white, watercolor
other: waterbrush, coluzzle, crystal effects, dazzling diamonds glitter, white gel pen, piercing tool, scalloped border punch, dimensionals

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great week.

card tote

Happy Saturday, everyone. I don't know why I didn't post yesterday. I meant to, but I guess I got lost in a book and forgot. Today's inspiration challenge on SCS showed some fun tote bags called Pink Lemonade from an Etsy store. Being a quilter, I was immediately drawn to the center picture, since I have actually made some quilts similar to the bag. What I really wanted to do was make a quilted tote bag, (probably change the size a bit) and perhaps a matching card. But I wasn't able to use my sewing machine this morning, since the room it is presently residing in was otherwise occupied -- (someone was sleeping in there).

So, alas, my creativity had to go in another direction. I still used the same picture, but taking my inspiration from only the upper left square, since I had some designer paper that was similar in design and color. Along with that, I've been wanting to make one of these totes that I saw on Cami's blog, or at least an adapted version of it. I don't have any carousel notes, so I used a circle without scallops, just made a 6" circle to use as a pattern.

Using the dp for my color scheme, I made the bottom portion ruby red, with a faux stitched ribbon in chocolate chip.

The big flower is made up of several parts. The bottom is two stamped and cut out images from Doodle This on really rust card stock. The next layer is a faux prima. Using this tutorial on nestability flowers, I stamped French script in ruby red on creamy caramel and then punched out a piece using my SU scalloped circle punch. I sponged the edges, then snipped between each scallop to about 1/4" from the center. Then I flipped it over and misted it lightly. Then I placed it on a piece of fun foam and with a piece of waxed paper on top, used my stylus to give some dimension and shape to the petals. The great thing about this, besides being inexpensive, is you can make your faux primas to match your card stock and can also stamp them with whatever design you choose. The next layer is the largest flower on the boho blossoms punch punched from the same designer paper as the tote. All the layers are sewn together with a button on top.

The handles are chocolate grosgrain ribbon threaded through eyelets and taped to the inside.

Since I also didn't have the envelopes that come with the carousel notes, I also had to ad lib a bit on the inside of the tote. I used some white card stock. I can fit an A2 sized card inside, but I didn't make it wide enough to fit envelopes, so I'll have to adjust the size a bit next time.

supplies:
stamps: doodle this, French script
ink: jet black stazon, ruby red
paper: ruby red, chocolate chip, creamy caramel, really rust, white, dp (Michael's stack ??)
other: white gel pen, fun foam, stylus, boho blossoms punch, scalloped circle punch, button, black crochet cotton, chocolate grosgrain ribbon, sponge, crop-a-dile, caramel eyelets

Thanks for stopping by.