here I am again

Bet you didn't expect to see me again today. Well, I managed to do the other two challenges for Gina K's May release. I made two very simple cards.

Challenge #2 needed to be a card for a child, so I made a T-shirt card for my 14 year old nephew. The front of the card is made with some digital paper from Gina K. I added a couple of stamped words, punched stars and strips of card stock. I sponged the entire front with bashful blue and the edges with brilliant blue.

Challenge #3 had to be an artist trading card (ATC). Well, it's been a long time since I've made any of those, so I kept it very simple. Just two layers of card stock, images stamped in stazon and colored with colored pencils and gamsol, sponged the edges and added some brads. This will probably end up attached to a card at some future date.

Thanks for stopping by.

masculine card

Hi again. I managed to gather up enough energy to stamp a card this morning. Gina K had another stamp release party on Thursday, so I wanted to play along with the challenges. This is my card for the first challenge - make a masculine card.

I don't have a lot of Gina's stamps, and most of them are floral, so that narrowed down my choices quite a bit. I pulled out a couple pieces of digital paper (which was free from Gina K) and decided to match my ink to those.

Using Take Flight, I stamped the butterfly in black stazon on white and sponged the color on, using ballet blue and bashful blue and navy around the edge after I cut it out. (Was that a run-on sentence?) The sentiment is stamped on a piece of the digi paper. I punched the ends with a square punch and sponged along the edges. Then I added some piercing under the words.

The corners and edge punching are done with my new diamond border punch from Fiskars. I think the card is pretty self-explanatory, so I won't go into all the details. The panel behind the butterfly and the wings are raised on dimensional tape.

What's in it?
stamps: take flight (Gina K)
ink: jet black stazon, bashful blue, ballet blue, night of navy
paper: night of navy, whisper white, dp (Jersey Shore digital paper - Gina K)
other: mat pack, piercing tool, sponge and sponge daubers, diamond border punch (Fiskars), square punch, foam tape

Thanks for visiting. Be blessed.

no energy, but lots of buttons

Hello, everyone. Needless to say, I've been missing. Why, you ask? 'Cause I have I have a nasty head cold that just doesn't want to go away. You know, the kind that makes it hard to breathe through your nose. And along with it, I seem to be zapped of energy. Just don't feel like doing much of anything. And that includes stamping. I do, however, have a card to show you that I made Thursday for the ways to use it challenge on SCS -- yup -- Thursday, and I'm just now posting it. That just shows you how little energy I have. I was going to post on Friday night and couldn't keep awake. Then I actually started a post yesterday, again having trouble keeping my eyes open in the middle of the day... arrrrggh! I had typed a paragraph or two and then it just disappeared. So I gave up. So here it is Sunday morning and I am going to try again.

The challenge was to use buttons. Well, I have buttons, several large jars. Buttons are fun and interesting. Mom always had Velveeta boxes full of buttons (that was when the cheese still came in a nice solid box). I remember playing with her buttons as a child and my children have done the same with mine. I think I've collected buttons forever, from old worn out clothes, from rummages, etc. You never know when you'll need a replacement on some garment and maybe, you just might have a match. When Mom passed away, my oldest sister and I got her buttons. In order to be fair in splitting them up, we dumped them all together -- a huge dishpan full -- and then split them by weight. Fun!

OK, I digress. On to the card. I knew that I wanted to use buttons for a butterfly body. I've seen people use beads, or flat pearls, or glitter, and I th0ught buttons would be fun. So I chose some really rust, groovy guava and blush blossom card stock and went to work. I wanted to use a lot of texture on my card, since I tend to forget that I have all those embossing folders (you know the ones I just had to have).

I started by stamping a music background on the blush blossom. Since I accidentally stamped it a bit crooked, I decided to just tear off the edges and distress it a bit. I have a distressing tool, but a scissor was handy, so I used that. I sponged the edges with chocolate chip.

Next I die cut and embossed two butterflies with my cuttlebug butterfly combo die on groovy guava card stock. I sponged some rust on the embossing to highlight it and chocolate chip around the edges. Then I decided to try a new to me product, bronze glimmer mist, and spritzed it. Impatience made me dry it with my heat gun. It gave a really nice shimmer. I bent up the wings and glued the butterflies together along the center and then added the buttons. I wanted to have thread in the buttons, so I pierced holes to make it easier to sew through the card stock.

I embossed a piece of groovy guava card stock with my CB textile folder, sponged the embossing with rust and the edges with chocolate chip. Then to add a bit of interest, I punched each corner with my Martha Stewart leaf punch.

I sponged the really rust card base along the edges with chocolate chip. And then on all these layers I spritzed with the bronze glimmer mist. Can you tell I like this stuff?

I decided I wanted to use a couple of my crocheted flowers, but wanted something behind them. Last week I bought a clear Hero Arts set of flowers. Since I really prefer wood mounted stamps, I rarely purchase clear ones, but I really like this set and it only comes in clear, so I caved and got it. I stamped one of the flowers twice with chocolate chip on guava, cut them out and sponged the edges and spritzed with the glimmer mist. Ahhh, back to the button jar. I found a couple of brown buttons for the flower centers and sewed the buttons, crochet flower and stamped flowers together.

I was going to use a different sentiment, but it was just too long, so I pulled out an old favorite, stamped in chocolate chip, punched out with my large oval punch, sponged the edges, and backed with a guava scalloped oval punch, also sponged.

Now I was ready to assemble the card. The textured layer was glued to the card base. The music is popped up at an angle. The butterfly, the sentiment and the lowest flower are all popped up.

One last little addition was the flat back pearls along the sentiment piece and in the corners.

What's in it?
stamps: small script (SU), music background (Judikins), flowers (Hero Arts)
ink: basic black, really rust, chocolate chip
paper: really rust, groovy guava, blush blossom
other: cuttlebug, CB textile embossing folder, CB butterfly combo die, buttons, needle, brown thread, crochet flowers, bronze glimmer mist (Tattered Angels), flat back pearls, sponge daubers, large oval and scalloped oval punches, leaf punch (Martha Stewart), foam tape

Thanks so much for stopping by. Until next time, be blessed.

a play day

Hi everyone. Today I went to my sister's and we just played. One of the cards I worked on was for a class, but the other was just for fun. I incorporated today's ways to use it challenge from SCS into it.

I stamped the heart flourish (Hero Arts) in chocolate chip on both green papers. I used my top note dies to cut the middle layer. I just trimmed off the perforated edge on the dp, so that the black would be a larger layer. The birds and sentiment are stamped in black stazon and the bird panel is popped up. I added piercing along the edges of the top note die cut. I used three different designer papers, which is pretty significant for me.

What's in it?
stamps: heart flourish (hero arts), birds & sentiment (inkadinkadoo)
ink: chocolate chip, jet black stazon
paper, basic black, dp (SU juntos - Spanish supplement)
other: piercing tool, black brads, foam tape, cuttlebug, top note die

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Be blessed.

altered crochet flower

Happy Birthday! to ME! God has blessed me with another year to count. I got some toys from my hubby for my birthday and was going to play with them, but ended up using some others instead.

As you know, I've been crocheting these little flowers for cards and I wanted to try inking just the edges of the flower.

First I tried using a sponge dauber. It worked OK, but only got ink on the top of the stitches, not down in between the threads.

I have some Copic markers, but don't have an airbrush system, which I think would work. Well, a week or so ago, I was doing some blog reading and came across the coolest trick -- using Copic markers in my color spritzer tool. Here's the link.

Since I only wanted to color the edges, I figured I better mask out the center of the flower, or I would end up coloring the whole thing. So I took a medium flower punch (EK success) and pinned it to the flower on a piece of corrugated cardboard and went ahead and spritzed. I got exactly the look I wanted and made it into a card. (Doing a happy dance - *grin*) I started with a peach flower and spritzed the edges with cadmium red (I think that's R27).



For the card, I used a ruby red base, blush blossom background embossed in my cuttlebug textile embossing folder and sponged a bit with chocolate chip.

The image is flower wood grain background from Hero Arts, stamped on celery with chocolate chip. I layered that on ruby red and chocolate chip.

The small flowers are punched with my boho blossoms and trio flower punches. I added brads to all the flower centers and darkened the stems with chocolate chip marker.

For a little accent, I punched a couple of word window punches, folded them over and punched holes with my crop-a-dile and added the celery ribbon.

What's in it?
stamps: flower wood grain background (Hero Arts)
ink: chocolate chip, ruby red
paper: ruby red, chocolate chip, blush blossom, certainly celery
other: cuttlebug, Sizzix bigz dies, boho blossom punch, trio flower punch, word window punch, piercing tool, brads, crop-a-dile, celery grosgrain ribbon, crochet flower, color spritzer tool, copic marker (R27), sponge dauber, CB textile embossing folder

If you want to purchase some of these crochet flowers, Lindsey over at Jacksonbelle Embellishments is having a presale until tomorrow the 15th, so hurry on over there to get yours.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a blessed day.

crochet a bandana

Happy Monday to you. This morning I checked the technique challenge on SCS and knew I wanted to participate. I've seen others using the bandana technique and really like it, but I hadn't had a chance to try it out. What a fun technique. Just stamp your image and add lots of dots with a white gel pen.

For my background, I used another of my new Hero Arts stamps, heart flourish and a tiny flower from SU's flight of the butterfly. Then I made dots, and more dots, and more dots. I did have a problem with a few smudges, but not too bad.

The main image is a butterfly from Inkadinkadoo. This is the first time I've inked it, although I've had it awile. I added a folded over 1" circle with some more dots and some hemp tied in a knot. And then I added a scalloped circle punch (dotted, of course) and a crochet flower tied on with a piece of ribbon.

AND JUST A NOTE: If you would like to add some of these crochet flowers to your stash of embellishments, just head on over to Lindsey's store, Jacksonbelle Embellishments. She's taking preorders on them right now, but hurry, the presale ends this Friday, May 15.

What's in it?
stamps: heart flourish (Hero Arts), flight of the butterfly (SU), butterfly (Inkadinkadoo)
ink: night of navy
paper: night of navy, ruby red, whisper white
other: white gel pen, 1" circle punch, scallop circle punch, white hemp, red gingham ribbon, crochet flower, foam tape

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

Happy Mother's Day!

Good morning. I wanted to wish all you moms a special day today. Both my moms are gone now, but I still miss them. My mom was one of my friends, and my MIL was a sweetheart, too. When my mom was still here, we'd all get together at my oldest sister's and celebrate. We actually kept getting together on Mom's day for several years, even after she was no longer with us. But my other sister moved to SC a few years ago to be close to her daughter and her family, and it's just too hard for everyone to make it, so this year we're celebrating alone with our own families. But that's OK.

It's my anniversary today -- 29 years -- doesn't seem that long. DH is at church right now. I have a terrible head cold, so while he was gone I whipped up a card for him - don't know why I left it 'til the very last minute. And since I was rushing to get it finished before he came home, I forgot to take a picture before I sealed it in the envelope. I guess I'll have to get one later.

Have a wonderful day and be blessed.