Lilacs and butterflies

a new me

2012-02-01T12:00:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends. It's a new me! Well, not really, ha! I finally decided to post a new picture.

A few months ago, I decided that after about 35 years of coloring my hair, I was going to let it go natural. It took a couple of months to get all the color cut off, and then, I've been letting it grow out - don't know how long that's going to last though. When it gets to a certain point & I get fed up, I may just take my scissors to it again. Here I am -- Shocking!

let your dreams fly

2012-01-29T17:08:00.000-06:00

Hi my friends. It's masking time. I finally sat down and created a card for the masking challenge at the OWSE yahoo group. Stamps used are a Hero Arts butterfly, French script background from SU, and a sentiment from Gina K.'s take flight.

I stamped the butterfly with tuxedo black memento ink and colored it with copic markers and a bit of white gel pen. I then stamped it again on scrap paper, cut it out and used that for a mask while I stamped the background script. I did a lot of sponging around the butterfly with ballet blue ink and somewhere along the way, I smeared some red ink on the paper from my hand. Since it took me quite awhile to color the butterfly, rather than completely redo it, I just went with the spotches of ink and added a bit more here and there. It's pretty light and barely noticeable anyway.

The sentiment is stamped on white, sponged, and then I added a couple of faux brads punched from card stock. Then I just added layers of white and brilliant blue and placed it all on a ballet blue card base. I don't know why the butterfly looks all scratchy in the middle - something to do with lighting and my camera. IRL doesn't have any of that.

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your week.

love

2012-01-28T13:16:00.000-06:00

Happy Saturday, my friends. I hope you're all enjoying your weekend. I made another card for another challenge for my OWSE yahoo group. This challenge was anything goes. That's a fun type of challenge, because you can do just that - anything.

I've been thinking about signing up for Julie Balzer's online stamp carving class. I think that would be a fun thing to learn, but I'm saving my money for another purchase right, so I'll have to wait. Anyway, I was talking to another girl in my group and she had heard that it might be possible to carve on thick fun foam. Since I have some of that, I decided to give it a try.

First off, the fun foam is much much softer than stamp rubber, and it's foam with air pockets - not solid rubber. If you draw a design on it to carve, your pencil makes an indent. Not good if that is an area that you want as part of your image. I tried carving with my stamp carving tools. I have to say, I really did not have success. Rather than 'cut' the foam, the blade 'tore' it, leaving jagged edges instead of a smooth, clean cut. I did make an image, but it was either torn or I pressed down with my tool and made an indent as part of the design. Here is a closeup of my stamp and a stamped image. The stamp is 1-3/8" across. It is not what I would consider a good stamp image.

I decided to go ahead and use what I had made to make a card. Using riding hood red ink, I stamped three times and then cut around the images with deckle scissors. I sponged the edges with the same ink. Then I punched three hearts, two from red patterned paper and one white one, on which I had stamped the word 'love'. I sponged the edges on those, too, as well as on the edges of the card. Then I glued them all to the card and added faux stitching.

I think I'll use stamp carving rubber next time. What do you think? Thanks for stopping by.

it's been awhile

2012-01-27T15:56:00.000-06:00

Hi my friends. Although I haven't posted any completed projects, it's not because I haven't been playing with my art supplies. I've been doing bits on journal pages - a little on each page for backgrounds, but nothing completed. I was reminded this morning that January is almost over! Can you believe that? And I have some challenges to do if I want to get in the prize drawings at OWSE yahoo group.

So today, I decided to concentrate on getting a challenge or two done. Here is my first one. The challenge for this card is to use silhouettes.

This is a one layer card and super easy. I made the background with distress stains - wild honey, spiced marmalade and barn door. Then everything else is stamped in jet black archival ink. All the stamps are from Cornish Heritage Farms (nature silhouettes and silhouette blooms I & II). I also scribbled a little bit at the bottom with a black marker. And that's it. Done! I hope you enjoy. Thanks for visiting.

Another beginning

2012-01-22T00:59:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends. After not getting any snow until January 1st, we've been 'blessed' with several good snowfalls this month already. Really, I don't mind it, as long as I don't need to drive anywhere when the roads are slippery. But once the road crews have done their jobs of clearing all the snow off, it's not so bad. I grew up in northern Wisconsin and learned to drive on snow covered roads, with snowbanks along side that you couldn't see over.

Anyhow, along with learning to art journal, I decided to join this year's Divine Design Bible Verse challenge, which is a monthly challenge over at splitcoaststampers. I thought making my monthly challenge in art journal format would be a great place to start with an art journal.

I started with watercolor paper and coated it with gesso before adding paint, an old book page, some stenciling and stamping. I even used some bubble wrap with acrylic paint. It will probably take me awhile to figure out my own style, but I'm having fun in the process.

I bought some new paint brushes with fibers that have some stiffness to them, so it was a little bit easier for me to paint with some control, but there is certainly no perfection there.

I printed the verse on my computer. The butterfly from Flores suaves (SU) is colored with sponges and white gel pen and cut out, and the flourish is a Tim Holtz stamp from Stampers Anonymous.

I'm also entering this in the art journal challenge at OWSE yahoo group, which required an old book page as part of the journal page.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'd love to know what you think.

3rd post today

2012-01-13T22:38:00.000-06:00

I'm back! I guess I've been on a creative streak today. Gotta take 'em when you can. When I checked the inspiration challenge on SCS, the center sample that was given just jumped out at me and I had to make a card. I just love the color combination, so it was an easy one. And I used a simple layout that is an old standby that I've used many times.

This piece of designer paper was sitting on my table, so it was perfect. I just backed it with black on a pink passion card base. The flower is Hero Arts. I colored the center with markers and the petals with a sponge, pink passion and tangerine tango ink.

The leaves were cut freehand with deckle scissors. Then I folded them in half and again at an angle a few times and then used a sponge dauber and artichoke ink to highlight the folds and around the edges. I would have used my crimper, but I was too lazy to go get it from the another room. I like the way these turned out. I popped up the flower with dimensional tape.

The sentiment is from Sincere Salutations, one of my most used SU sets.

Thanks for stopping by.

going to Paris?

2012-01-13T18:00:00.001-06:00

Hello again, my friends. I did more shoveling today. I think there was another two plus inches, so that would make over 7" total.

I made another challenge card for Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium yahoo group. This one needed to be a Parisian theme. I looked on line for some images of Paris and decided to use the Eiffel Tower.

There is no stamping on my card. I used my computer to type the words and print the photos. I added a strip of lace and made some faux leather from brown wrapping paper and distress ink. I couldn't resist a little bit of fun.

Thanks for visiting today.

ATC

2012-01-13T10:19:00.000-06:00

Hi everybody. We have SNOW! Officially S.N.O.W. is covering the ground. I think winter has finally arrived. Yesterday morning I made a quick trip out to the store to get some essentials for the refrigerator, so I didn't have to drive out in the snow - something I avoid whenever possible. It was misting when I left the house and raining by the time I returned. Not too long after, the snowflakes started to come down and it snowed the rest of the day. I went out and shoveled the drive around 5 o'clock. That made it easier for my husband and daughter to pull in. I'm guessing we had about 5 inches on the ground and it was still coming down. It stopped for a while later, but it's snowing again. I'll have to go out and shovel again.

This morning I made an ATC for a challenge on Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium yahoo group. It had to have one stamp and be pink and green. I pulled out a clover image from Serendipity Stamps and colored it with copic markers. I kept the whole thing really simple, with some sponging and faux stitching along the edges, some faux brads and some black hemp tied on the edge. This will probably eventually end up on a card, but it was fun to work with something small for a change.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a great weekend.

something to work toward

2012-01-08T15:04:00.000-06:00

Happy Sunday, my friends. Do you make new year resolutions? I know that we're already a week into the new year and half the people who make them are probably already missing their goals. I never make new year resolutions. I guess their too intimidating and since I tend to be a live-in-the-moment type of person, I think making resolutions is just setting myself up for failure.

With all that being said, I decided to set some goals to work toward. I'm not resolving that I will do them; maybe I'll accomplish them and maybe I won't, but I do think they are some things I can try to do.

One of them is to start an art journal. Will I work on it everyday? Not likely. But I think it's something that will push me to try some different things with my art. So I made a page. It's taken me all week to get from start to finish.

I started with a piece of watercolor paper and glued on some scraps of newspaper and designer paper and then proceeded to cover it all with gesso. I just played around adding paint, stamping, doodling and added some images and die cuts that were just sitting in my stash waiting for a home. I used sharpies and gesso to color the quilt.

A couple things I learned. I'm still terrible with a paintbrush in my hand (but brushstokes leave a lot of texture) and gel medium smears ink (at least water based ink anyway). I may have to use pigment inks from now on.

As far as those goals go? I just worked on two of them. I started an art journal and I tried something new. Finishing a quilt should be attainable. Organizing my studio? Who knows. I haven't been very successful in that. But I think it's a good goal to work toward.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

bright, happy colors

2012-01-07T23:28:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends. I've been exploring. I thought I'd try my hand at art journaling and using some different media that what I'm comfortable and familiar with. So the last few days, I've mostly just been playing, without finishing what I've started. Except, of course, I also needed to prepare cards for an upcoming class. I finished the last one tonight, so I thought I'd show it to you. The color combination - orange, bright pink, and black - is one of my favorites. Enjoy!

And thanks for stopping by.

a little bit of vintage

2012-01-06T16:26:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends. Yesterday in the late afternoon, I looked out the window and saw robins, maybe five or six. Now what on earth are they doing in Wisconsin the first week in January? I think they are confused by the non-winter weather that we've been having. We had maybe an inch of snow early this week, but most of it has melted. Today was about 50 degrees. I'm just waiting for the big blizzard that is sure to come.

Although I should have been working on cards for my class next week, I was inspired to work on a challenge over at Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium Yahoo group, that called for something vintage. I made a card.

I started with a scrap of background left over from a card last week, where I had collaged with a Gina K set called Nana's Needlework. I brushed a coat of matte medium over the piece, causing the ink to bleed and smear a bit, and I really liked that. Then I went and searched for a vintage digital photo and found this sweet little girl (sorry, I don't remember what site it came from). I used pastels to tint the photo just a tiny bit, and used deckle scissors to cut around it.

I added a piece of black velvet ribbon, and flowers and trim which I crocheted. The flower centers are card stock and pearls and the leaves are a Martha Stewart punch.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a great weekend.

struggles in mixed media

2012-01-05T00:18:00.001-06:00

Hello, again. Trying to expand my artistic horizons, I recently signed up for an online course called 'doodles unleashed' taught by Traci Bautista. I wasn't sure exactly what I was letting myself into, but since the class is free, I decided to go for it. This is my first attempt at mixed media.

This is the first week and I really struggled with my first project. We started by using found objects as stencils. OK, that part was easy. But then as we began to add layers of paint and markers, etc., mine became a real mess. My first attempt was treated to some gesso and painted again, and still I hated it. I ended up completely covering it with gesso and setting it aside to use as a base for something else.

I wasn't going to share my second attempt here on my blog either, but my daughter convinced me that I should.

Let me first explain that I have never been very comfortable with a paintbrush in my hand. I prefer something that has a more rigid tip against the surface of my work - a pencil, pen, marker - you get my drift. So here I am trying to put acrylic paint on my project with a soft, squishy paint brush, and I am NOT HAPPY. Maybe I need to go out and buy some brushes that have stiffer bristles. I don't know, but I ended up setting aside the paintbrush and picking up a sponge brush to apply the paint. I was much more successful.

Another issue I had is that applying a layer of wet paint over a layer of color wash mist, caused the color wash to bleed into the paint. Maybe it's the paint that I'm using. I chose to use whatever I already had on hand, rather than purchase something that I might not use again. I'm frugal that way. So I tried to be careful with how much paint I used and how hard I pressed, so the layer beneath didn't bleed so badly.

As part of the project, a white correction fluid pen was suggested, so I went to the office supply store and picked up a package of two. Another struggle to use, but I think this time the design of the pen is at fault. You have to press the tip to your paper while squeezing the soft part of the pen. But because the squeezable part is about an inch and a half above the tip of the pen, you can't rest your hand on your paper while squeezing and pressing, so it's very hard to control your lines of fluid and I also got nasty cramps in my hand. Not fun at all. It was impossible to make nice straight lines. I didn't like how bright the white was all over, so I used some sharpie markers to go over some of the white lines and change the color.

I thought there was too much white space, so I used a wet paintbrush to spread around the color wash that I used during the stencil part.

Anyway, I finally decided that I was finished with this one. I don't love it, but I don't hate it either.

Thanks for stopping by.

grungy monday 31

2012-01-04T21:26:00.001-06:00

Hello, my friends. It's birthday time for THE TIM HOLTZ. So our challenge this week is to make him a birthday card using some of his signature products. To check out all the details of the challenge, go to Linda Ledbetter's blog, Studio L3.

I started by swiping distress stains on my card stock to make sky, grass, and a road. Of course, the road needed a white line down the center, so I used my white gel pen.

The rest of the scene is made of die cuts, pine tree, mini pine tree, and mini jalopy. The arrow is part of the jalopy set. I just cut a strip of brown for the post. I used vintage photo distress ink to sponge the edges of everthing. I wrote the word on the sign with a black marker. I attached the sign and the car with dimensional tape.

All in all, a pretty simple card that I had fun making and I think it turned out pretty good.

Thanks for stopping by.

sending smiles

2011-12-30T22:49:00.000-06:00

Hello, again. One more challenge card. This one is again for a StampTV challenge - to use stamped flowers as your main image. Since your name goes into the drawing twice if you use Gina K stamps, I try to do that, although I only own a few sets. The set I used for this card, Signs of Autumn, has given me a lot of mileage. The sentiment is Hero Arts.

I stamped the image with tuxedo black memento ink and colored with copic markers. Then I die cut it with a spellbinders die. The flourish is also a spellbinders die. I doodled some veins on that. The red trim is a punch by EK Success.

Thanks for stopping by.

you are special

2011-12-30T21:49:00.000-06:00

Yes, you are. I am so appreciative of each of you that visit my blog and especially those of you who leave comments.

With the year winding down, I needed to get another card done by tomorrow for an Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium challenge -- to use glitter, ribbon and packaging material. So I made a card with a glitter window, using packing tape and glitter. The ribbon part was easy.

(Just a big of glare from the flash on the packing tape. I always seem to have trouble photographing shiny stuff.)

Stamps are all Hero Arts, stamped with tuxedo black memento ink and colored with copic markers. I used my stamp-a-ma-jig (stamp positioner) to line up the flowers on the layers, and I still got it off kilter, so I had to trim my paper to square it up.

I added some faux stitching as well.

Thanks for being special and visiting my blog.

double spirelli

2011-12-30T17:51:00.000-06:00

Hello, my friends. Are you glad that the busyness of Christmas is over? We still don't have any snow. Not that I'm complaining, but I don't think I can remember a year when we haven't had some snow before the end of the year, even if it melted. Seriously, we've seen maybe a half inch on the ground, and that was gone before the end of the day. We were getting some flurries earlier, but now that it's dark out, I can't really tell if anything is sticking or not. Anyway, I'm sure we'll get some before too long. This is Wisconsin after all.

Today, I made some stamping time and created a card for a StampTV challenge of making your own designer paper, as well as a challenge for Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium to use hearts.

The stamp set I used is called Nana's Needlework from Gina K Designs. The background is stamped with various colors of distress inks. I stamped the image with tuxedo black memento ink and colored with copic markers. Then I cut out the image. The doily hanging on the shelf was done as a separate piece.

For embellishment, I tried something a little different. I did a double spirelli corner, basically just two spirelli corners that are offset. I'm not sure if I like it or not, but it was fun to try. I also added some pearls in the corners.

The sentiment is from SU.

Thank you for stopping by.

Joy to you

2011-12-25T07:33:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

May your day be filled with JOY!

Tim tag #12

2011-12-23T23:26:00.000-06:00

YAY! I have them all finished!

Here is the link to Tim's tag #12. And here is my version.

I again needed to improvise:
I have none of Tim's tissue paper, so I used a jumbo wheel and stamped that on some plain white tissue paper.
Next -- no glue & seal; I substituted a glue stick.
I don't have rock candy distress stickles; I substituted rock candy crackle paint. I put on a very thin layer and added some glitter, so there is lot of shimmer.
I don't have the artful dwellings die; I just cut one freehand.
No blue paint dabber; I pulled out some old acrylic paint.
I tried the tissue paper flower; a total failure - it kept tearing; I substituted a flower punched from phone book pages and colored with glimmer mist. (You can see bits of yellow in there from the phone book.)
No fractured dolls (although I refuse to put a dead doll with missing body parts on anything artsy!); why not butterflies? That's always a good choice.
No vintage lace die; at that point, I decided to crochet an edging in a blue that matched. That took about 20 minutes, and I really love how it add softness to the tag.

I added some of the same crochet cotton at the top of the tag. And with that I decided to call it quits.

I really LOVE this tag. It's blue. There are butterflies. There's a flower. And there's lace. What's not to love!?

Looking back on all my tags, I realized that I made three that are blue with butterflies. Imagine that!

Thank you so much for joining me on my journey through Tim's 12 tags. This is the first year that I've played along and I am so happy that I made it all the way through.

Tim tag #11

2011-12-23T22:44:00.000-06:00

Hello again. One tag closer to being done! Ha! Actually, I AM done! I just have the last two to post. But one at a time.

Here's the link to Tim's tag #11. And here's my version.

Oh, and more improvising... I don't have a melting pot. So I die cut some holly leaves & berries from shrink plastic and put them in the oven to shrink. Then I attached those tiny pieces to strips of post-it note in order to hold them in place while heat embossing. I pressed the leaves into versamark ink and then in clear UTEE, heated to melt the UTEE, and then, while still hot, dipped them in the UTEE again and heated. When using UTEE, I almost always use at least two or three coats, so that I get a nice, smooth surface. Once the leaves were cool, I colored them with alcohol inks.

I don't have a single Santa Claus stamp, so I decided to use a Christmas cardinal (SU) and just colored the bird red and the leaves green. It's a little hard to tell, but I used a sponge dauber to add yellow to the beak.

I love how the background turned out. At first I thought I flicked too much water on it, but it was OK once it was dry.

After attaching all the pieces, I realized that since my image is so much smaller than the one Tim used, my tag looked a little bare. So I added a border of faux stitching.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll have my final tag posted shortly.

Tim tag #10

2011-12-23T00:12:00.000-06:00

Hi my friends. I think I might just get them all done. I'm one more tag closer to getting finished. This is my second one today, but by the time I finish typing my post, it will probably be a new date, since it's almost midnight.

Here's the link to Tim's tag #10. And here is my version.

More improvising was required on this tag. I had actually started the first step a couple of days ago - packing tape transfer - but my first one (actually two) have disappeared. I think static is probably the reason. They grabbed onto something and are hiding. But that's OK. I actually like this one way better. I pulled out some old Christmas cards and found a picture that was small enough to use.

Then came time to do some improvising. Although I'm sure all the paper was gone from the tape, the metal foil tape didn't show through at all, so it made no sense to even use it, so I didn't. I also don't have any facets, so instead, I used a piece of plastic packaging on the front of the picture and on the back, I built up a few layers of card stock to give it some stability. I used my cropadile to punch holes in it for the brads.

My music background stamp is from Judikins and the greenery is from Cornish Heritage Farms. After I stamped the green, I heat set it before I put the embossing powder one -- oops! So I pulled out my versamarker and went over all the stems and leaves and then embossed it. You can't even tell the difference.

No banner die here, so I cut that freehand, and added some distress ink to make it blend with the rest of the tag. I stamped the sentiment and cut it apart, because it was in three lines. It was too long to fit the banner, so I just left out the word 'still'.

Then I added some hand cut holly leaves and some punched berries, to which I have added some glossy accents.

I'm so glad you stopped by to visit. I'm not sure I'll be posting again before Christmas, so I hope you have a wonderful time with your dearest friends and family. We have two get togethers this weekend, one with my husband's family and one with mine. Tomorrow I need to do some food preparation.

Tim tag #9

2011-12-22T19:39:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends. The house is a mess, there are dirty dishes in the sink, but... I have another tag done!

Here's the link to Tim's tag #9. And here's my version.

The background is a Hero Arts stamp called pine flourish, stamped with pine needles distress ink and embossed and then colored over with barn door distress ink and embossed. Over that I added vintage photo distress ink.

Since I don't have the candlestick die, I made a street lamp using the sewing room die and the mini bird & cage die set. I did something similar in this post. I just trimmed off part of the dress form to make the post taller. It's painted with pitch black and snow cap paint dabbers. For the light in the lamp, I trimmed a piece of packaging plastic to fit and colored it with sunset orange and sunshine yellow alcohol inks and then backed that with white card stock. The bow is part of a haul I made when a local craft store closed several years ago.

The letters are from a retired Sizzix alphabet called block party. I inked the black card stock with versamark and then with two coats of clear UTEE.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I guess I need to go wash the dishes now.

Tim tag #8

2011-12-21T17:38:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends. I'm getting closer. I was able to finish another tag today. This is the first year that I've done them, so I feel great that I've gotten this far.

Here's the link to Tim's tag #8. And here's my version.

Since I've already done a tag in a steampunk theme, I kept this one a quite a bit more mild. The windmill and lady stamps are B&J Artstamps. I colored her with sponge daubers, q-tips and waterbrush and distress inks. I also used a white gel pen on her eyes

I decided to use card stock instead of grungeboard for the gears, so the tag is much lighter in weight. I used copper, silver, black and white paint dabbers on the gears.

Thanks for stopping by. Just four more tags to go. Do you think I can get them all done?

Tim tag #7 (faux kraft glassine)

2011-12-20T21:38:00.000-06:00

Hello again, my friends. I had the house to myself for a few hours today, so I got busy creating. Another tag closer to getting them all done. And more improvising. There is just no way I can justify having every product in Tim's arsenal, so I figure what I don't have is an opportunity to get creative. I have a large enough stash of my own, that I don't usually have any problem making substitutions.

Here is the link to Tim's tag #7. And here is my version.

(Sorry, my photography stills are somewhat lacking, so there's some glare from the embossing.)

I actually started working on this tag last week, but there were other things to do that just pushed it aside. For starters, I didn't have any kraft glassine paper. I knew there was a tutorial available that showed how to make faux glassine paper using tissue paper and Future floor finish. Of course, the only tissue paper I have is white. So I decided to get creative and see if I could make something at least resembling the kraft glassine. I had a lightweight brown paper bag, as well as plenty of heavier brown grocery bags, so I decided to try both. Following the tutorial, but without adding color, I coated a piece of each weight of bag on both sides with the Future floor finish and set them aside on plastic to dry.

Once they were dry, I checked the results. The brown grocery bag really showed no major difference in appearance, so I tossed that. I think it was just too porous. The thin brown bag, however, was exactly what I was hoping for... SUCCESS! And it didn't matter that there were fold lines in the bag, since I was going to crumble it up anyway. Now, I just need to figure out what stores use those bags so I can get more. I'm pretty sure one of the local art supply stores is one source. Must make a trip over there...

Since I wanted to see how the faux glassine paper would react to crumbling it up, I kinda reversed the steps, crumbling it first and then adding color with alcohol inks.

I didn't have the holly leaves die, so I used tattered leaves mini. I also don't own any of Tim's Christmas stamps, so I substituted one from SU.

To add a splash of color, I attached some hand-crocheted red flowers with some old white buttons. I'm really happy with the way this tag turned out.

Thank you for stopping by. I'd love to know what you think. And be sure to check out the tutorial on the faux glassine.

origami leaf gift card holder

2011-12-20T12:16:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends. Do you feel like December is just whooshing by like I do? I guess I feel like this whole year has zoomed past. I want to complete Tim's tags, but I'm not sure if I'll get them all done or not. I needed to take a break from creating in order to get other obligations finished. I have all my presents wrapped, with the exception of a couple that are baking related and the gift card shown below.

I thought I was done wrapping, and then I found a little note from DH attached to a gift card. I wanted to dress it up a bit, so I decided to use a fun origami leaf that I'd seen on a video. I made several before figuring out the correct size. It's not difficult, but does require some nimble fingers. If you attempt this, I recommend thin paper. I started with a 7"x10" piece of one-sided designer paper to get the size for the gift card.

I used several Spellbinders dies - classic scallop small rectangles, wonky rectangles, and lattice rectangles.

Thanks for stopping by. If I don't get a chance to post again this week, I want to wish you all a merry Christmas. I hope you get a chance to spend it with your favorite people. I appreciate each one of you who visit my blog.

Tim tag #6

2011-12-10T00:17:00.000-06:00

And here's my last one for tonight. This one was so fun to make, but certainly had a mind of its own and went in a completely different direction than what I had anticipated.

Here's the link to Tim's tag #6. And here's my steampunk version.

I didn't have the sheets of sticky back foil, so I started by using metallic tape from the hardware store. Since it's only about 2" wide, I had to piece it on my tag.

Since I really didn't care for the bright colors Tim used on his tag, I decided to limit my colors. I pulled out my Cuttlebug clockwords embossing folder and knew right away that I wanted to use black. I suppose that there is something different on the coating of the tape, but the black paint didn't want to stick -- just kept beading up. So I wiped it all off and pulled out pitch black alcohol ink and used that instead. I covered the whole tag with the black ink, let it dry and then sanded over all the raised areas. Awesome! From that point, it was steampunk all the way.

I die cut umbrella man in black and white & trimmed off the umbrella. I wanted him to be holding up a wreath. Well, guess what. That was just not happening. He ended up carrying some big gears over his shoulder instead. I die cut the gears and clock from brushed silver and copper card stock and then dirtied them up with a black paint dabber.

Although I really love the look of steampunk, I usually struggle with creating anything like that, but this one just seemed to evolve all by itself. I'm really happy with the end result.

Thanks for visiting. I'm hoping to get some more creative time on Saturday, but the afternoon is my lace guild Christmas party, so I'm not so sure that I will.

Tim tag #5

2011-12-09T23:58:00.000-06:00

Hello again. I told you I'd gotten several tags done today. I still have one more after this one. That makes me closer, but still not caught up.

Here's the link to Tim's tag #5. And here's my version.

I'd read that a lot of people had trouble with this technique, so I was anticipating that I probably would as well. Imagine my surprise that it worked the first time. I was careful to read the instructions carefully and had them in front of me to refer to step by step.

I again chose to not do Christmas on this one. I used a Hero Arts floral stamp and the butterfly is also Hero Arts. I had the butterfly already finished. It's painted with twinkling h2o's. I just darkened the black lines with a marker. I guess I used the wrong kind of adhesive, because it shows through the plastic, but other than that, I really love this tag.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tim tag #4

2011-12-09T23:48:00.000-06:00

Well, here I am again with the next segment in the tags. This one took a long time to make, mostly waiting for things to dry.

Here's the link to Tim's tag #4. And here's my version.

Again, I did a lot of improvising. I decided to do something other than Christmas on this one. I used the mini baroque die and then the butterflies movers & shapers. The recycled plastic packaging is cut with my new vintage doily on the edge die (love this die). I used the snow cap paint dabber to make it mostly white, so it would show up against the background.

I really love how this one turned out.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tim tag #3

2011-12-09T23:19:00.002-06:00

Hello, my friends. Today was mostly a play day for me, so I got a few more tags done as I'm following along with Tim Holtz as he does this year's 12 tags of Christmas.

Here's a link to Tim's tag #3. And here's my version, which I actually finished yesterday.

I did a lot of improvising on this one. I didn't have any of the cut 'n dry felt, so I just colored my stamp with distress stains and stamped. And after that, I pretty much went my own route. The letters are grungeboard left over from the die I used on tag #1. I colored them with barn door distress stain and inked the edges with vintage photo distress ink.

I cut the holly leaves free hand, added some vintage photo ink and some snow cap paint dabber. The little curly pieces are very narrow strips of card stock, wrapped around a dowel to curl. The red rhinestones are from my stash.

Oh, boy... frustration with learning how to use Picasa. I think I may have it... hoping.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be back with another tag post.

Tim tag #2

2011-12-06T23:01:00.000-06:00

Hello again. Still struggling with the photo software. I had to ask my daughter for help, but she uses photoshop, so she wasn't real sure either, but we may have figured out at least part of it.

Anyway, on to my tag. Here's a link to Tim's tag #2. And here's my version.

I didn't have any of the kraft resist paper, so I had to use other methods to come up with something similar. I stamped on kraft card stock in black, then stamped the sentiment in versamark and clear embossed it, then colored over the tag with picket fence distress stain, and wiped off the embossed area.

I have a gold paint dabber, but it was hiding and so I substituted some gold perfect pearls and spritzed over that with pearl mist.

My little angel is a really old Sizzix die (one of those red ones). I made the halo by braiding some gold ribbon, hand stitching two braided strands together and attaching with gold brads. The beads are all from my stash.

Thanks for stopping to visit. Hopefully, tomorrow I can get caught up a bit.

Tim tag #1

2011-12-06T22:19:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends. I think I've sorta figured out how to work with Picasa, but not totally. I still haven't figured out how to file and label my pictures in special folders, etc. But hopefully, I can find them to post here on my blog.

This is the first year that I've played along with Tim Holtz's 12 tags of Christmas. Of course, I'm already behind. This is day six and I have the first two finished. I'm going to post them separately, since I'll be linking my post to some other places online and it's just easier that way.

Here's the link to Tim's tag with all the instructions. And here's my version.

I didn't have the coordinations paper, so I painted a piece of kraft card stock with pool paint dabber. After embossing in the wood grain embossing folder and heat embossing with white, I sanded it and think it gives the same look as the coordinations paper.

I don't have the noel die, but I have the phrase 'peace & joy', so that made a good substitute.

Another substitute -- I used a 3-D flower die by Sizzix instead of the pine cone. It's basically the same thing, but the shape of the petals is slightly different. It's definitely not a favorite die, but I think they look like little pine cones, which is what I was striving for. The little branches are punched with a Martha Stewart punch and the poinsettia leaves are cut freehand. I love the addition of the snow cap paint dabber and stickles.

The music banner was cut freehand from some music printed off the computer. All the fibers and beads are from my stash.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

trying something new

2011-12-03T02:15:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends. I've had some computer issues, so I'm again in a learning process. I've gone from windows XP to windows 7 (I think that's what it is anyway). And apparently this software does not accept the camera upload software that I was using, so I've switched to Picasa and I feel rather lost.

I made another wall hanging. I was making it for a November challenge on Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium yahoo group, which was to alter something, but I didn't finish until the last day of the challenge, and that's when my computer decided to act up, so I didn't get it in for the challenge.

I altered an old CD and made it something useful. I started by lightly painting over some designer paper that I really didn't like and then spraying over a couple of stencils with Adirondack spray wash and sponging some tea dye distress ink around the edge.

Then I die cut a bunch of grunge board with some Tim Holtz/Sizzix dies (branch tree, caged bird, mini branch & leaf set, and mini bird & cage set). I colored them with a combination of distress stains and copic markers. I was going to use a different bird die, but decided I really didn't like it, and chose this one instead.

The 'fun' part was attaching them all to the CD. First I arranged everything where I wanted it, but in order to glue it down, I had to remove everything, so I took a photo for reference. Because the grunge board is so thick, some of the front pieces are attached with dimensional tape.

For the back piece, I glued three pieces of corrugated cardboard together, which makes a really nice thick, sturdy back. Then I peeled the front layer and added several colors of acrylic paint. Once that was dry, I distressed the edges with a scissor blade. Then I attached the CD. I still have to add a hanger, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

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

1st Chrismas tag

2011-11-27T11:15:00.001-06:00

Hello my friends. I hope you've all been enjoying your weekend. My days are all mixed up from the long Thanksgiving weekend. We spent Thanksgiving with family and had a wonderful time. My husband & daughter were off work on Friday, so I kept thinking yesterday was Sunday. I guess I'm easily confused.

I made a tag for a challenge at Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium Yahoo group. The challenge was to have a Christmas tree on your project and it had to be 3"x5". So I made a tag. For the background, I sponged some weathered wood distress ink on a piece of watercolor paper. I added a little tea dye distress ink along the edges and some faux stitching with a black marker.

For the tree, I glued some dotted green paper onto a piece of cereal box chipboard and then die cut it with my pine tree die (Tim Holtz/Sizzix). I added some snow cap paint dabber and dazzling diamonds glitter. I tore some white card stock for the snow and glued some more glitter to that. Then I tucked the tree in between the layers of snow.

The tiny bird, which I colored red, is from A Muse Artstamps.

For the sentiment, I used a Tim Holtz stamp, which I then punched out with a ticket punch (EK Success) and colored with a waterbrush and pine needles distress ink. I also added some tea dye distress ink on the edges, as well as some faux stitching. The ticket is attached with dimensional tape.

I attached some fibers to the top of the tag and added a dangle of beads, attached with a tiny safety pin. The little black thingy is black card stock punched with a circle punch and coated with two layers of clear UTEE.

I'm also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge: tickets.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.

neglected

2011-11-23T19:15:00.000-06:00

Hello, my friends. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you celebrating tomorrow. I have really been neglecting my blog. It's not that I haven't created anything... just haven't taken time to post anything.

Last week I started a free online class at willowing.ning.com on making mandalas. While I love the end product, I can't say that I am totally enjoying the process of getting there. It's somewhat meticulous and I guess I prefer quick and easy. Many of the class participants have said how relaxing it is, but I don't find it that at all.

It's all based on circles that are symmetrically divided, then colored and decorated with doodles. I suppose part of my problem is that my eyes don't like the fine detail work anymore, especially at night or in poor light. Anyway, since I've committed to the class, I plan on finishing, but I'm not sure I make any more mandalas after the class is completed.

Here are some that I've finished. Some are on plain white card stock and some on watercolor paper. The means of coloring is watercolor pencils & water brush, copic markers, prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I'm not sure which I prefer. On a couple of them, I also used some small stamps. I like how that looks.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you like them.

love my distress stains

2011-11-11T12:27:00.000-06:00

Happy Friday, my friends. It's 11-11-11 today. What fun! I'm not sure that has any significance except that it's a cool number that'll only happen once in my lifetime.

Today I made a card for a challenge at Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium yahoo group (group membership required). The challenge is clean and simple fall. This card could not have been any easier to make.

Using distress stains, I swiped three colors (wild honey, rusty hinge, & crushed olive) across an ivory card base. I used the same colors to color my stamp, spritzed with water and stamped. After cutting out the leaf, I edged it with chocolate chip ink.

I added some speckles and the sentiment with chocolate chip ink.

Then I tied a piece of chocolate grosgrain ribbon around the card and attached the leaf with dimensional tape.

All stamps are SU.

Thank you for visiting here today. Have a great weekend.

a new use for something old

2011-11-09T23:39:00.001-06:00

Hi my friends. Today was a cold windy, rainy and SNOWY day. Yes, you read that right. For quite a while today, we had flakes coming down. I'm just glad it was still warm enough that nothing accumulated. I'm not quite ready for winter yet.

Maybe that's why the card I made is nice and summery. Back in March there was a technique challenge on SCS to make a trellis card. At the time, I didn't get a chance to participate. But today, I finally made one. This card is also for this month's challenge at Inspiration Emporium showcasing our favorite tools. Without a doubt, I'd have to say my favorite tool is my cuttlebug. I used it for both cutting and embossing on this card.

The trellis instructions call for cutting 1/8" strips of paper, but I decided that since I have bin full of quilling paper strips in the basement from many, many years ago, those strips would be perfect and I wouldn't have to cut any. And I was right - they were just what I needed.

The stamps are SU - wings of friendship and always in my thoughts. I used a new embossing folder from a set of four called paper lace II. The designer paper is from Indian Summer stack from JoAnn's.

This will be one of my class cards for next week, so I'm not going to go into detail on how it was made.

Thanks so much for visiting today.

the first step

2011-11-08T21:45:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends. Today I tried something new and different... for me, at least. Recently, I've been drawn to art journals. I'm not sure there is a simple definition for an art journal, but it seems to be a form of self expression and connecting with your inner self through the process of making a journal which is more than just words, but includes pictures, which can be drawn, painted, cut from another source and pasted in, stamped, etc., or a combination of those and more, as well as using other mixed media. So, anyway, I decided to try my hand at making an art journal. I have never kept a diary or journal, so I don't know how successful I'll be at actually completing a full journal, but at least I'm giving it a try and taking the first step.

To begin, I bought a large pad of watercolor paper and cut it into some smaller sizes to make a book or two. I was going to bind them with my bind it all, but when I pulled out the box the other day, it was empty, so I'm not sure where the machine is hiding. I may end up taking it over to Office Depot and having a coil binding put on. But before I do that, I need to cut some chipboard for the covers.

To start my first page, I pulled out some new stencils from Crafter's Workshop and decided to play. (As a side note, I'm taking a free on-line course from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer called Stencil 101.) Using a 6" Bricks stencil, I sponged distress inks in victorian velvet, dusty concord, and bundled sage. Then with a 12" Butterfly Meadow, I used Adirondack color wash sprays in lettuce and wild plum. This is the first time I've used that and got a little heavy handed, so the ink bled under the stencil, but not too badly. After removing the stencil, I used a fine black marker to add just a hint of shadow along one side of the stems, leaves and flowers. I guess that would have been easier if I had left the stencil in place. I then sprayed some butterscotch color wash over the background, because I thought there was too much bright white space.

The words are computer generated, sprayed with butterscotch and then cut apart. I sponged the edges with tea dye distress ink and two sides with black soot.

I wanted to add some butterflies, so I went searching in my stash to see if I had any already stamped and found two that were perfect from Wonderful Wings (SU) already colored and cut out.

I had fun making this and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Maybe next time, I'll be brave enough to actually draw something. Since, I'm a very private person, I'm unlikely to share anything really personal on my pages. But I think this is a really great way to experiment with different techniques and products, because it doesn't matter if you make mistakes.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. Be blessed.

inspired by old boards

2011-11-05T00:03:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. Summer is definitely over. We've had frost on the ground just about every morning this week and the temperature during the day has only been about 50. Not that I mind. I love fall, but I don't really look forward to the cold that's coming soon.

Tonight when the inspiration challenge was posted on SCS, I looked at the samples shown from the selected website and didn't even go check out the site. I could easily have used any of the first four given, but chose the fourth one, which looks like a wall made of old boards. I decided to make a background that had a similar look, so I cut strips of designer paper, sponged the edges with chocolate chip ink and glued them to my card front. I added a few dots for nails with black marker.

The flowers are made with my new stamp set, greenhouse garden (SU) using chocolate chip and sage shadow ink. The leaves and branches are punched from rust card stock and sponged with chocolate chip.

The sentiment is from another SU set, a beautiful thing, stamped in jet black stazon.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a fabulous weekend.

holy cow

2011-10-29T13:55:00.000-05:00

Hello my friends. Last night I found this cute digital image (free this week) on Bugaboo Stamps. I normally don't do 'cute', but I thought this one was just the thing for a fun birthday card. My little brother (although at 6'3", he's by no means little) turns 59 on Halloween and I'm seeing him today, so I just had to make him this fun card. I used this "crybaby calf" book as my inspiration for the inspiration challenge today on SCS.

The image is colored with copic markers. The background is fax leather, created by crumpling some card stock and coating it with tea dye distress stain, drying and then giving it a coat of matte gel medium. I used an iron to flatten it out.

The strip of faux wood is a scrap left from a previous project. The brads are also faux, punches of grungeboard colored with black copic marker.

The sentiment inside, which is computer generated, says: "You're HOW old?"

Thanks for stopping by.

black purple and orange...

2011-10-28T20:16:00.000-05:00

but it's not Halloween. Happy weekend, my friends. Goodness, it's been awhile since I've posted. I guess I just haven't created anything. Sometimes I pull out things to play with, maybe try some new techniques or use a new die, but never complete a project, because there is just no cohesion. Does that happen to you? And other times I can sit down and make several cards with no problem at all.

I was doing some blog surfing and saw a card using Tim Holtz' gridlock embossing folder with the grid lines to the front rather than the square bumps and really liked the look. I don't know why I thought it should be the other way. So that was the beginning of my card, which I made for the Inspiration Emporium October monthly challenge. It's a color challenge - hence my title. Now I know these colors are often associated with Halloween, but I have no desire to make a card for that, so mine has a big flower instead.

I embossed a piece of ivory in the gridlock folder and then sponged it with pumpkin pie, spiced marmalade and dusty concord inks, with some black soot along the edges. I adhered that to a black card base.

I stamped classic bloom (Hero Arts) three times on some orange designer paper with tuxedo black memento ink and colored them with copic markers. I was not going to completely cover the design on the paper, but decided I liked the darker orange. I cut them out, cutting in between many of the petals, so I could add some dimension to the flower. The edges were all sponged with black soot distress ink. Then I crumbled the flowers and gently opened them back up, gluing them so the petals were offset on each layer.

For the center of the flower, I used a Martha Stewart bachelor button punch, punching six layers from some black cardstock. After crumbling them and straightening them out a bit, I attached them all to the flower with a black brad. Then I fluffed the centers so there is a lot of dimension. I really like how that turned out. I should have taken a picture from the side, so you could see how much dimension there is, but my camera battery died. But trust me when I say the flower is about 1/2" high.

The purple flourish is a Sizzix die (decorative accent w/ flower) and the sentiment is from vintage labels (SU).

I'm so glad you stopped by for a visit. I hope your weekend is wonderful.

Grungy Monday #23

2011-10-19T13:42:00.000-05:00

Hello, my friends. I can't seem to get warm today. I added socks and a sweatshirt, but my hands are still cold. I even have the heat on. It's cloudy, windy, and a little rainy. Maybe a few trips up and down the stairs would warm me up.

It has been many weeks since I've participated in Grungy Monday. These challenges are all about the products and creativity of Tim Holtz. So when I saw Linda's post for Tim in 10, how could I resist.

My card actually took less than 10 minutes to create.

I started by swiping some distress stains (milled lavender, victorian velvet & aged mahogany) across a piece of ivory card stock. A quick dry with my heat gun and then I added some tea dye distress ink around the edges with a sponge.

I stamped the bird and sentiment in Adirondack Pitch Black and then used a sponge dauber to add some aged mahogany to the bird.

The foliage was colored with dusty concord and peeled paint distress inks and stamped on both sides. The card base is burgundy.

All stamps are Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

tissue paper

2011-10-14T21:25:00.001-05:00

Hello my friends. I got lots of goodies today. The mailman, the Fedex man and the UPS man all brought boxes to my door today. One package had some Crafters Workshop stencils in it, so I decided to play.

I used cherry blossom on my background with scattered straw distress stain. Then I crumpled up some tissue paper and spread it over the stenciling with a glue stick. The technique is called faux silk, although normally you stamp on the tissue rather than behind it.

I used another stencil for the stem and then stamped the leaves with an old SU set called paint prints.

The flower, colored with mustard seed and fired brick distress inks, is hero arts and is two layers, with dimensional tape between. The button is from my stash. I cut a very thin strip of black card stock to use as a 'thread' in the button holes.

The sentiment is one of my newest Tim Holtz' stamps.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a great weekend.

butterflies

2011-10-11T00:07:00.001-05:00

Hello my friends. Although it's still Monday, by the time I finish this post, it will probably be after midnight, so technically I'm not doing two posts in one day.

This is a card for another challenge from Our Daily Bread Designs. This challenge was to make your own embellishments. I made some faux brads by punching out little circles of black card stock with my crop-a-dile and then covering them with two coats of clear embossing powder.

The butterflies (ODBD) are stamped on shimmery white card stock that had been spritzed with water and then dropping ink refill on the wet card stock and allowing it to run and blend together. I cut them all out and mounted them on mega classic ovals from Spellbinders, using some dimensional tape underneath the wings. Behind that is a lotus pendant (Spellbinders) die cut from Basic Grey Indian Summer paper.

Thanks for visiting.

make music

2011-10-10T13:46:00.000-05:00

Happy Monday, my friends. The weather here has been lovely - cool nights and warm days. I love fall. I am loving the wonderful colors on the trees. Today, my challenge card for Our Daily Bread Designs is all about fall colors.

My card base is cajun craze. The background is wrinkle free distress - a piece I had done about a week ago while playing with my distress inks. Colors are mustard seed, rusty hinge and shabby shutters. The edge is faux stitched and sponged with ruby red ink.

Stamps used are ODBD Don't Worry and Sing to the Lord. I stamped the flowers twice, once on the background and once on a piece of white. I colored the flowers with sponges using summer sun, tangerine tango and ruby red ink and cut them out to glue over the image stamped on the background. The stems were colored with certainly celery and old olive.

The black gingham ribbon is retired SU.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you have a wonderful week.

inchie art

2011-10-03T16:08:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. With so many challenges in honor of world card making day, I have found it hard to choose which ones I'd like to do. I made this card for a challenge on the Classroom. The challenge was to make a fall themed card using an inchie to spotlight a larger image.

I kept my card very simple. I used three different hero arts stamps. First I stamped the woodgrain on ivory cardstock with scattered straw distress ink. Then I stamped the leaves on top of that with frayed burlap distress ink. I stamped just a portion of the leaves with shabby shutters distress ink on ivory and punched it out with a 1" square punch. I backed it with black and popped it up on top of the same place in the larger image.

I used deckle scissors to cut around the big image and sponged the edge with frayed burlap and added some piercing from the back.

The sentiment is stamped in jet black stazon. Everything is mounted on black and then a kiwi kiss card base.

To highlight the inchie, I used a fine black marker and outlined all the leaves.

Thanks for stopping by today.

origami

2011-10-02T22:18:00.000-05:00

Happy October, my friends. September swished by so fast, I feel like I'm spinning. We had frost on the ground this morning, so I guess fall is officially here.

My card today is a bit different than normal. It's called an origami diamond fold and starts with an 11" square. Most directions (this one has a video) are given for a square card. But since I prefer A2 cards (or close to that), I kinda went out on a limb with my folds, and ended up with a card that is actually 5" x 4-1/4". This also made the top flap shorter, so I made the additional front pieces larger, so there was a deeper pocket for the flap to tuck into.

This was a first use of two of my Spellbinders dies - lotus pendant and tear drop circles. The largest circle on the front was colored using wrinkle free distress technique with wild honey, rusty hinge and shabby shutters distress inks and edged with vintage photo.

The sentiments are SU. I used a corner chomper to round the corners on the inside sentiment piece.

I forgot to take a picture of the right inside flap, but my camera battery died. It hasn't been holding a charge very well, so I guess I need to get a new one.

This card is for a October challenge on the Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium yahoo group.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope your week is wonder-filled.

more recycling

2011-09-28T23:25:00.000-05:00

Hello, my friends. Even when I was a child, my family was recycling and reusing things, so it is just a continuation for me to do it today when it's the 'in thing' to be 'green'.

The background on my card is actually a piece of junk mail. I used pool and purple twilight paint dabbers to color over the entire surface. When that was dry, I lightly brushed on some gesso. I found this trash to treasure technique here.

The flower, which is colored with markers, was in my stash already cut out. I thought it would look nice with the background, but I was really stuck on how to finish off the card.

I finally decided to use a ribbon punch (SU) to add some extra color (cool caribbean, sponged with turquoise, & elegant eggplant, sponged with elegant eggplant).

The sentiment is stamped with black pigment ink and clear embossed.

For a bit of sparkle, I rubbed diamond stickles on both the flower center and the card stock strips.

a little recycling

2011-09-26T15:26:00.000-05:00

Hello, my friends. I made some time to stamp today and did a little recycling in the process. I love being able to use free materials.

I started by cutting some pieces from a brown grocery bag and rolling them around a bamboo skewer and gluing the end to form tight rolls. I didn't want them all the same size, so I made sure I varied the width of the pieces I was rolling. I used a few pieces of newspaper as well. Then I pulled out my distress stains and dyed them all with various browns. After arranging them how I liked, I stuck a sticky note to the front so I could flip them and glue them to card stock on the back without going through the process all over again. Once the glue was dry, I added a bit of matte multi medium in between the rolls for more stability. I then added a piece of raffia tied around the rolls.

My card base is creamy caramel with strips of more mustard and DCWV Indian Summer fall stack.

I used Tim Holtz/Sizzix movers & shapers mini branch & leaf set dies to cut the leaves and branch from chocolate chip & pumpkin pie card stock. I scored the leaves, folded them and ran them through my crimper and then sponged over the ridges. I love the look that gives.

My sentiment is from an older SU set called Season by Season, stamped in jet black stazon.

My card fits the following challenges:

Ways to use it #341 - Back to School Week 4: Lunch Sack

Inspiration Challenge #303 ~ Creature Comforts: Inspiration Daily - inspired by cinnamon & spice #3

September Quick Fire challenge at OWSE Yahoo group (membership required) - autumn themed with at least one die cut

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a wonderful week.

crunch time

2011-09-23T20:10:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. Well, I must say that it's been awhile since I've posted. I've been working on the Inspiration Showcase online class. Today is the final day and I was way, way behind. So I spent the day crunching out my samples & I finished. Here's row one.

Here's row two.

Here's row three.

Here's row four.

And here's row five.

Since I don't have a canvas yet, these are just temporarily mounted on some card stock, so I could take pictures. I had some trouble taking the photos, since there is embossing, glossy paper, and other shimmery stuff. I am not entirely happy with all the samples, but I really wanted to get them done.

Thanks for stopping.

resist again

2011-09-14T09:24:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. Well, I was behind before... now I'm further behind. Sometimes life is that way. Since I'm teaching a class tomorrow, preparation for that had to take priority over classroom homework, right?

My second card for the class is paint resist. Stamp an image using paint and then ink over it. Totally fun technique. This is 2 of 5 for day one and there are 5 new ones today. I hope I can catch up. Enjoy!

Thanks for visiting today.

resist

2011-09-12T23:06:00.000-05:00

Hello my friends. Last week I signed up for an online class with Jennifer McGuire, which started today. Guess what! I'm already behind. First thing this morning, my coffee maker died, so I ran out to Walmart to get a new one, so I could get my caffeine fix. Then I wanted to print the PDF file for today's class session, but my printer was out of colored ink - another trip out to the store. Boy, does that eat into the day! Any somewhere along the line, someone sneaked in and took my mojo! I just didn't seem to be able to get going on anything stamping related. Not only did I want to keep up with the class, but I also am teaching a class on Thursday and need to get my samples ready.

Anyway, finally after dinner tonight, I decided I was going to push myself to get started on the first technique - traditional versamark resist. So here's my first card.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a wonderful week.

I used to be...

2011-09-07T10:58:00.000-05:00

a cereal box - or maybe ten! No, not me (ha ha)... the project that I've been working on for a week or so.

I had placed an order for all of the newly released distressed stains to complete my collection and knew that I was going to want some sort of box to keep them in - in an orderly (that means alphabetical) fashion, so I wouldn't have to search for the color I wanted. In addition to wanting something very specific in size, I'm also very frugal and not willing to spend a lot of money on it, so out came my stash of cereal box chipboard, rotary cutter and mat (quilting supplies), glue (my favorite for gluing large areas of anything paper related is PVA), etc.

Much inspired by Laura Denison of The Paper Trail, I started by gluing layers of cereal box chipboard together and then letting them dry underneath a stack of books. I ended up using four layers, which is approximately 1/8" thick and quite sturdy. Lots of measuring and cutting involved. At each corner joint, I adhered the sides together with strips of brown paper grocery bags.

I used several sheets of designer paper from an older stack (I think DCWV) to cover both the inside and outside of the box.

For the top of the box, I found a shape online that I liked, copied it into a word document and then stretched it out to the size I wanted - actually two sizes to layer. Then I printed it on paper, folded it into quarters and cut it out to make a pattern. I cut the final pieces from cereal box covered with DP and then embossed it in my cuttlebug. I glued the pieces together and then added a bazillion copper brads and glued it to the top of the box.

On the back side of the box, I used grungeboard for hinges, attached with paper fasteners.

On the ends of the box, I die cut two pieces of chocolate chip card stock with styled labels die (Sizzix), embossed them, cut them so part fit to the box top and part to the bottom. The faux enamel pieces are made by printing some words on my computer, punching with an oval punch and embossing three times with UTEE.

On the front, I made a faux lock by die cutting a piece of brushed copper card stock with hardware findings die (Sizzix) and then using a circle punch to get just the part I wanted. The piece behind it is card stock die cut with a Spellbinders labels die and embossed.

All of the corner pieces are card stock. The small circles that look like nail heads are punched from brushed copper card stock.

For the inside dividers, I cut cheap card stock into strips 5.5" x 1.5", scored every 1.25". I folded each score line, added glue on the 1/2" tab and glued it by pressing it flat and then opening it into a square tube. Then these are glued together in rows. Because I made the box to fit, the dividers fit pretty snugly inside.

There were a number of 'learning' mistakes made as I went along, but overall, I am really pleased with the final result. I did not add a lot of dimensional embellishments on the outside, because I want to be able to stack this, if necessary, and I lean toward practical rather than decorative. I forgot to add a ribbon or chain to hold the cover when open, but I can live with that. I'm thinking about adding a picture of some sort to the top embellishment, as well as something inside the cover, but my colored ink cartridge is out of ink and I haven't had a chance to get out and buy a new one, so that will have to wait.

I would love to hear your comments. Thanks for stopping by.

faux antique pressed tin ceiling

2011-09-01T14:57:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. Today's ways to use it challenge on SCS was painting and this card also fit the got paint challenge on Inspiration Journal blog - IEMC05. I wanted to see if I could make a background that looked like the old pressed tin ceilings. So I started by brushing ivory paint on some always artichoke card stock and when it was dry, I used my textile folder to emboss it. Then I used my Tim Holtz sanding block to sand over all the raised areas and remove some of the paint. I got exactly the look I wanted. How cool is that?

For my image, I used an older SU set called paint prints - stamped the flower twice in rose red, cut out and sponged the edges with cherry cobbler; stamped leaves in old olive, cut out and sponged the edges with always artichoke. I also added some leaf veins with a marker. The stem was hand cut and sponged for color. The flower center is made with two different punches.

For the sentiment, I rubbed my rose red ink pad on the ivory card stock and then stamped the word, trimmed it and sponged the edges with cherry cobbler and then backed it with black.

The filigree corners are a spellbinders die called parisian accents.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you're having a great week.

got paint?

2011-08-31T15:07:00.001-05:00

Hello, my friends. I painted today. On my card, which I made for the Inspiration Journal challenge IEMC05. The challenge was all about using paint on your project.

I started with a kiwi kiss card base. First I swiped on some white acrylic paint with a sponge brush. After allowing that to dry, I stamped my flower image (Local King Rubber Stamps) with jet black stazon ink and then painted the image with twinkling h2o's and a water brush.

I picked up a piece of purple scrap and was going to punch both sides, but on the third punch down one side, my punch broke. Although I've had the punch for years, I think this might be only the second time I've used it, so I guess that wasn't a great loss. So, anyway, on to plan B. I sponged the edges with perfect plum ink, and then used a ribbon punch from SU to punch the green strip, sponged the edges with always artichoke ink and added that on top of the purple strip.

I distressed the right edge of the card and sponged over the roughened edge with always artichoke ink. I stamped the sentiment with black stazon.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a great evening.

sisters

2011-08-30T19:03:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. Yesterday, I spent the day at my sister's house creating. When she emailed me early in the morning if I wanted to come over, I said yes, grabbed a few brand new Tim Holtz stamps, distress inks & stains and some black, white and ivory card stock. Usually when we get together, I play, but don't get any cards completely finished, because I don't have the right embellishment or something. But yesterday I managed to complete two cards. On the first one, I used distress stains to color the background and stamped some of Tim's stamps and a Penny Black flower.

The second card background is wrinkle free distress. I added just a bit of white gel pen to the sentiment to make it stand out better. The flowers are Victorine Originals and the leaves are cut free hand. The faux brads are just punched card stock.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Be blessed.

a fun technique

2011-08-23T00:05:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. Today's technique challenge on SCS was to CASE the first card we had added to our favorites gallery. Here is the card I copied. It included a technique that I was unfamiliar with called brazen brilliance, so I did a Google search to find instructions. Here are two links. One is a blog entry and the other is a .pdf file.

Since I don't like to just copy someone else's card, I did make a few changes. The first change was a new color scheme. I started with a piece of glossy white paper and stamped a background image (filigree - SU) in pearlescent sky blue brilliance ink and then dried it with my heat gun. The next step was to use a stipple brush to add color to the background. I also stamped some images from petal prints (SU). My main image is also from that set.

The corner punch hadn't been used in so long, I needed to dust it off.

I also added some ribbon and pearls, and popped up the main image panel on dimensional tape. This was a fun technique. I like how the background just glows.

Thanks for sharing a little piece of my day.

coffee anyone?

2011-08-19T21:18:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. It's been another hot day here today. At least the past several nights have been cool enough to turn off the A/C and open the windows.

Tonight I made a card for a challenge on the Blockheads facebook fan page to use a faux fabric technique. For mine, I used faux silk, but instead of using tissue paper, I used a coffee filter. After emptying the grounds, I washed the filter and dried it. Then I did some stamping using distress inks and Hero Arts stamps.

I colored a piece of card stock with spiced marmalade distress stain and then stamped the large Hero Arts flower on it, cut it out and added white gel pen to the center. The leaves are cut with deckle scissors, folded and crimped. Then I sponged peeled paint distress ink on the ridges. The black strip is punched with a Fiskars border punch. The sentiment is SU. Both the flower and sentiment are raised on dimensional tape.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a great weekend.

Is it snowing?

2011-08-15T23:55:00.001-05:00

Hello, my friends. We've had a few days with some cooler temperatures, but no - not snowing. I did, however, make a snowman today.

The technique challenge on SCS today was telescoping cards. When I taught this technique last month, I knew I was going to have to make a snowman and today's challenge was the perfect opportunity.

I started by die cutting three circles of different sizes from white card stock. I sponged the edges with cool caribbean and bashful blue ink. (The photo makes it look a lot brighter than it actually is.)

I cut the hat, nose, and scarf freehand. I decided to leave off any stick arms, so there would not be a problem with them catching as the card was opened or closed. I used several small punches for the accents

The circles are connected togther with brads. I really liked how it turned out and it was fun to make.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you all have a wonderful weeks.

art

2011-08-13T11:07:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. Happy Saturday. Can you believe another week has flown by? We're getting a bit of rain today. A few storms came through last night, too. I have my lace guild meeting this afternoon, which is an hour drive away, so I hope it's not storming while I'm driving.

Yesterday, Eclectic Paperie issued a challenge to their blog readers to play along with their design team for this week's challenge.

Here are the details of the challenge:

Distress Inks (could be a combination of Distress Ink Pads or Distress Stains)
Any kind of die (could be Spellbinders, Sizzix, Cuttlebug, Circuit, etc...)
and an EGG CARTON - incorporate into your project somehow. You could flatten it out, cut it up, or use it as a surface.

This sounded like a fun challenge to me, so I played along. I started by cutting three pieces of corrugated cardboard 6-1/2" square and gluing them together for a nice sturdy base. Then I covered this with some patterned paper. I inked the edges with some vintage photo distress ink.

I save my egg cartons for a lady (at lace guild) who has some chickens and sells the eggs, so I pulled a carton from the stack to use on this project. I cut it apart so I had some flat areas and went to work with my dies to cut some leaves and butterflies (Tim Holtz/Sizzix movers & shapers). Of course, not really knowing where I was going with this, I cut more than I needed, but that's OK; they'll get used on something else. I also cut a couple of edgings using my scalloped on the edge die (Tim Holtz/Sizzix), but decided not to use them on this project.

I used some distress stains to color the butterflies (broken china & spiced marmalade) and leaves (peeled paint), and then edged them with vintage photo distress ink.

The flower is brown grocery bags die cut with tattered florals (Tim Holtz/Sizzix) and colored with spiced marmalade distress stain. I crumbled them up while they were still damp and then opened them up again, but kept a lot of the crinkles. I glued the layers together and added a large black brad to the center. I realized that the flower was much more brown than I wanted, so I pulled out barn door distress ink and sponged all over the flower petals and then added some vintage photo distress ink as well. Much more happy with the color it is now. Here's a closeup of the flower.

For the letters, I glued some black card stock to a piece of cereal box and then die cut using serif essentials alphabet dies (Sizzix).

Since I don't usually start gluing the pieces down until I'm sure how I want the layout, I knew that I needed more, so I pulled out elegant flourishes (Tim Holtz/Sizzix) and cut a few of those from some scrap paper, which I then colored with peeled paint distress stain. I added just touches of vintage photo distress ink on the edges.

After deciding where to put everything, I glued it all down with matte multi medium. This is the first time I've used that and I really loved how it worked.

To finish off the butterflies, I took the little circles that came out of the scalloped on the edge die cuts and made some faux brads by coloring them with black copic marker and attaching them with matte multi medium. The antennae are small pieces of hemp cord, also colored with black copic marker.

I added a strip of black grosgrain ribbon around the outside edge of the base piece and made a hanging cord with the same ribbon. To make sure it held, I pushed a couple of small nails (with a bit of glue on them) through the ribbon into the corrugated cardboard and then colored the heads with black copic marker. I'm really pleased with how this turned out. Let me know what you think.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. Have a great weekend.

a new week

2011-08-07T21:51:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. Did you have a great weekend? I didn't do any crafting today. So I thought I'd show you a few more of the cards I made for the Dare to Get Dirty challenges on SCS. I do want to point out that the technique used on the background of the red card can be found here on Jan Tinklenberg's blog.

Tomorrow I need to concentrate on cards for my Thursday class. I think I can pull one or two from the mass that I produced last week - at least I hope so. Double duty is always nice.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a week full of wonder.

and DONE!

2011-08-07T00:37:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. I can't believe I haven't posted since Wednesday. I guess I got so busy making the cards for the fan club fun on SCS, time just whooooshed by. I'd be so tired when I finished for the night, that I had a hard time keeping awake long enough to upload my cards on SCS, nodding off in front of the computer and finding something like this -> dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd on my screen. And now here it is after midnight early Sunday morning. So here are a few more cards I made in the last few days. There were 37 challenges total and I combined a number of them in different cards, but still made 22 I think. I won't put them all in one post, but will spread them out over the next few days.

But first, I'll show you the one I made for the inspiration challenge today, which was inspired by these utterly scrumptious doilies.

I used a doily die (French pastry by Cheery Lynn Designs) and cut three, one white, one tangerine, and one pink passion. The colored ones I cut in half and used on the outer edges of the card. The white one I stamped with Hero Arts lace background, which I colored select portions of with markers. I used several punches and dies to layer, with a crochet flower and button on the top.

And then here are some of the Dare to Get Dirty challenge cards.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

still going...

2011-08-03T22:31:00.000-05:00

Oooo, it's like the energizer bunny! haha! It feels really good to create without too much struggle. I plugged out some more cards today for the Dare to Get Dirty challenges on SCS for fan club members. Two of them I combined with challenges for Gina K. latest release challenges on StampTV. Of the fan club challenges that have been posted so far, I only have not done four, so that means I'm pretty much keeping up. I think there are two more days of posting new challenges, so hopefully I can get them all done. I've been combining challenges whenever possible to make that a more workable goal. Here are today's cards.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

still on a roll

2011-08-02T00:19:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. Apparently my mojo is still working, because I made four more cards for the Dare to Get Dirty challenges for Splitcoaststampers fan club members. I'm a bit behind, though. There are still five posted challenges that I haven't done, and tomorrow, more will be added. I guess I need to work faster. I've kept them pretty simple, but I get bogged down trying to decide on all the details -- too many choices.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope your week is off to a good start.

grungy monday #17

2011-07-31T17:33:00.000-05:00

Here I am again, my friends. I decided that if I was going to get my card done this week for grungy Monday, challenges which are all about Tim Holtz products and techniques, and brought to us each week by the lovely Linda Ledbetter at Studio L3, I'd better get at it. This week's challenge link can be found here on Tim's blog. So I combined the challenge with one of the Dare to Get Dirty challenges for Fan Club members on Splitcoast.

Friday night while working on VSN cards, I was playing with distress stains, which I am really loving. I had a piece of stained card stock, which didn't make the cut for my card, so I decided to use it today. I die cut it with Tim's mini butterflies dies and then coated each butterfly with rock candy crackle paint. While that was drying, I worked on the background.

I stamped some flowers (echoes of kindness - SU) with black stazon and colored them with SU markers. Then I stamped French script (SU) with tea dye distress ink.

The sentiment is from another SU set called small script.

I added some vintage photo distress ink around all the edges and some brads in the corner.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a wonder-filled week.

Dare to Get Dirty

2011-07-31T10:20:00.000-05:00

Happy New Week! It's going to be hot again today, so I plan to keep my cool on and do some more stamping.

This week (starting yesterday) special challenges for Fan Club Members only, are posted each day on Splitcoaststampers by past and present members of the Dirty Dozen. To participate, you must be a Fan Club member. It's a great way to support the BEST STAMPING SITE on the web! To learn more, click here.

Several challenges are posted each day and I'm hoping to be able to do them all. I was at a family gathering yesterday, so was only able to complete one challenge so far, but I have high expectations. We have about two weeks to get them all done.

Here's my first card, using some paint, old cardboard, a button, pearls, some hand crocheted lace, a Penny Black stamp, and a little shimmer.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today.

happy mojo

2011-07-30T09:47:00.000-05:00

Hi, my friends. I think my missing mojo has returned. I already have another card done this morning. I had checked the inspiration challenge on SCS last night and the sample of a beautiful blue lake was calling my name.

I pulled out some glossy white card stock, a brayer and my blue breeze kaleidacolor ink pad and went to work. After making the background, I stamped a Hero Arts silhouette image on it with jet black stazon, then trimmed it down and added white and black layers. A trio of black brads for an accent was added and then all was adhered to a white card base and DONE! I just love when I card comes together so fast.

There are also some special Dare to Get Dirty challenges going on starting today for Fan Club Members only on Splitcoaststampers. I'm planning on full participation in those as well. But before I can get started, I need to put together a salad for a family get together for later today.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Be blessed.

vsn cards

2011-07-30T00:17:00.000-05:00

Happy Saturday. At least that's what the clock is telling me. I haven't gone to bed yet, but it's just a bit after midnight. In my last post I mentioned that I was planning to play along for VSN on SCS. Well, I did! I made a card for every challenge. There were six challenges starting at 4:00 central time and then one posted each hour. Of course, right in the middle, my camera battery died and had to be put on the charger, so I had to wait to finish posting my cards on SCS. The challenges were fun, but not too difficult. Here are all the cards I made.

I'm not going to go into all the details, because I'm just too tired. However, if you are really interested in knowing what I used on each card, that information can be found in my Splitcoast gallery (see sidebar) under each card.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Enjoy your weekend.

have a delightful day

2011-07-29T13:50:00.001-05:00

Hello, my friends. Today my card is quite simple. Since I ordered all the newly released distress stains (except for picket fence, which wasn't part of the deal) last night, I decided I should open the ones I have and use them. So that's what I did, well... I used ONE anyway on my card. I swiped wild honey three times across the white card stock. So fun how quickly the stains fill in the area and the colors have so much depth. Then I stamped the butterfly and sentiment (vintage butterflies from Cornish Heritage Farms) with jet black stazon. I backed the piece with black card stock.

I used the same distress stain to dye a piece of white ribbon, since I didn't have any the right color. I dried it with my heat gun and tied it around the black card stock. I used summer sun for the card base.

To finish off the card, I added some little half pearls.

My card fits the ways to use it challenge and the free for all challenge on SCS this week.

I hope to get some more stamping done later today, because it's a mini VSN on SCS. What's VSN? It's a fun, fast-paced stamping marathon, with a new challenge every hour and just 45 minutes to complete each one. For more information, click the link and check it out.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a wonderful weekend.

follow your bliss

2011-07-23T00:04:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. I guess I've been pretty silent this week. Other than class projects, I haven't stamped all week until today. When the inspiration challenge was posted on SCS, I checked the site and was pretty awed -- some very cool stained glass art. However, I was in the midst of some much needed cleaning and wasn't sure I would find time to stamp. I made a lot of progess on the cleaning, but decided to take a break and watch the Brewers baseball game, so while I was watching, I made a card.

My inspiration came from the mosaic glass gallery - follow your bliss. I knew that I could use my rays embossing folder to make the background. I inked it with brilliant blue ink and then ran it through my cuttlebug with white card stock. It gave me exactly the look I wanted.

Then I stamped Lady of Grace (Stampington) on white with brilliant blue and die cut it with a big scallop oval nestabilities die (Spellbinders). I sponged the edges and die cut a larger one for a back layer. I added some blue gems and used dimensional tape to attach the image to the card. Easy.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I value and appreciate your comments.

cake inspiration

2011-07-15T21:44:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. A second post today. Stephanie asked if I would make a sample for this week's inspiration challenge on SCS, so of course I said yes. The site used this week, Maggie Austin Cakes, has some really awesome cakes. The one I chose for my inspiration is called peony frill. To simulate the frilly frosting, I punched rows and rows of eyelet lace edging.

For the big flower, I used my peony nestabilities dies (spellbinders) with shimmery white card stock. I spritzed the layers with water and then added tangerine ink refill. I like how that gives a bit of variance in color. When the flower layers were almost dry, I crumpled them up and then flattened them back out somewhat, forming a more dimensional flower. I also snipped in a bit several times around each layer to give more of a look of petals. I attached the layers together with a bit of glue and a black brad and used dimensional tape to adhere it to the card.

The black strip of card stock represents the strings going around the cake. And then I added a tiny tag with a sentiment from an older SU set.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Your comments are appreciated.

published

2011-07-15T08:57:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday, my friends. I hope you've been having a great week. I've been enjoying a couple of days with cooler, comfortable temperatures. I am most definitely not someone who enjoys the heat and humidity. I love having four distinguishable seasons, with Autumn and Spring as my favorites. Right now I'm waiting to enjoy some fresh zucchini and yellow squash from my very small garden -- soon. I tried a bit of container gardening this year with my tomatoes, so I'm hoping to get some of those as well, but so far there is only one, and it has a ways to go before it'll be ripe.

I do want to share a card I have in the July 2011 issue of Paper and Pixels.

You can see step by step instructions on how I made it in the issue. I used a fun technique on some recycled packaging. In order to view it, you need to be registered and signed in.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Your comments are always welcome and appreciated.

you've got style

2011-07-07T16:39:00.000-05:00

Hi, my friends. I seem to have my days mixed up this week. I guess that usually happens when there is a holiday. It actually feels like Friday today.

Today's ways to use it challenge on SCS is to use doilies, so I pulled out my French pastry doily die from Cheery Lynn Designs and die cut a couple of doilies from white card stock. I also cut a couple of dress forms with my Tim Holtz sewing room die. I had this idea to make a dress using the doilies and hang it on the dress form. There was a lot of figuring and manipulating involved, so this ended up taking me all morning to do, but I'm really happy with how the dress turned out. I can see where I should have added some other dark accents to balance the sentiment, but otherwise I really like it.

The background paper is really old and was pulled out to match the bashful blue ink sponged on the dress. I also embossed it with Swiss dots embossing folder.

The top and base of the dress form is colored with gold metallic rub-on cream and then shaded with vintage photo distress ink. I added a double layer of card stock behind the dress to pull it away from the dress form a tiny bit.

All the paper started out white, except for the blue dp. The frame, which is die cut with fancy ovals from Spellbinders, was sponged with tea dye and vintage photo.

I added some pearls to the dress to fancy it up a bit.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Your comments are always welcome and appreciated.

let your heart soar

2011-07-02T15:59:00.000-05:00

Hello again. This is my second post today. My daughter urged me to stamp, so I decided to make a card for the inspiration challenge on SCS. Rather than spend time searching through the chosen site, I just picked one of the samples that had been presented.

I picked out some stamps to work with that were similar or at least representative of the sample. For the bird (elements of style - SU), I stamped in tempting turquoise craft ink on watercolor paper and then embossed with clear EP. The flower (fabulous florets - SU) was stamped in barely banana craft ink and then again in bravo burgundy craft ink and both embossed with clear EP.

The next step was the most fun. I used distress inks in spiced marmalade, fired brick, aged mahogany, and vintage photo and swiped them across the paper till I had some pretty good coverage. Then I took a water brush and spread the ink across the paper, blending and softening the look. Being a bit impatient, I dried it with my heat gun. Then I moistened a paper towel and wiped the ink off the embossed images.

I added a couple of flourishes (Inkadinkado) and the sentiment (Innovative Stamp Creations) with jet black archival ink.

The black grosgrain ribbon is attached with some copper brads. I also added some piercing before attaching the piece to a black card base. I really love the way this turned out, but it was hard to photograph with the embossing.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Your comments are always welcome and appreciated.

Grungy Monday #13

2011-07-02T09:20:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. I have really not felt the pull to be crafting this week. Sometimes I think it's good to take a little break, especially when I don't have any mandatory projects to get done. But I finally forced myself to sit down and do a little stamping last night. I wanted to get my card done for Grungy Monday, which is a weekly challenge celebrating the techniques and products of Tim Holtz. Tim's blog is filled with ideas and tutorials. You can find this challenge on Linda Ledbetter's blog, Studio L3 each Monday. This week our challenge is using alcohol inks, demonstrated HERE by Tim Holtz himself.

I decided to do a bit of recycling at the same time and pulled out a piece of plastic packaging, which I then inked up with some alcohol inks and die cut with Tim's butterflies movers & shapers dies. In order to make the colors pop more, I die cut the same butterlies from ivory card stock to back the plastic ones.

My card stock base is ivory, then black, and ivory for the background. I stamped the background with SU's cheesecloth in mustard seed distress ink. Then I stamped the Tim Holtz flourish in tumbled glass distress ink. The sentiment is stamped in black archival ink.

I added some turquoise grosgrain ribbon for a bit more color. The butterflies are held together with black brads and attached to the card with dimensional foam tape.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Your comments are always welcome and appreciated. Have a wonderful weekend.

Celebrate Liberty

2011-06-27T07:00:00.001-05:00

Hi my friends. Happy Monday. This is my final assignment for the Squigglefly design team. It's hard to believe it's been six months already.

With Independence Day just a week away, our challenge this week is Red, White & Blue. I'm using sketch challenge #338 on SCS for my layout. I decided to make my card using Fancy Flowers, again. This set is so versatile. Although I have flowers on my card, they have been made with a leaf image. I colored the images with copic markers and then cut them out. The flower centers are punched with SU's itty bitty punch pack. I layered three together, so they are raised a bit from the flower petals. All the faux piercing is done with black marker.

For the partial circles, I traced around a CD and a cream cheese container.

The sentiment is computer generated, punched with an oval punch and edged with copic marker.

We'd love to have you play along with the challenge this week. Although you may use any images on your creation to enter the challenge, in order to qualify for the prize you must use at least one Squigglefly image! You may combine SF images with non-SF images to qualify! If you don't have any Squigglefly images, there are many to choose from, or help yourself from the FREEBIES available. Be sure to also check out all the new images.

You have until Sunday evening to upload your new creation to your blog or any on-line photo gallery. Please use SFC104 in your keywords.

Please add a DIRECT link to your project in the InLinkz box on the SF blog, so we can find it -- (new creations only and no back-linking please!). If you have more than one entry, link each one separately.

The winner will be announced at the same time the new challenge post comes up next Monday, so be sure to check back to see if you are a winner!

Be sure to stop over at the Squigglefly blog to see what the rest of the design team has done for today's challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a wonderful week.

Grungy Monday #12

2011-06-24T10:40:00.000-05:00

Hello my friends. It's another Grungy Monday card. I was starting to think I might not get this one done, but a persevered and made it. I can't say that I love this card, because I don't. I think it's way too busy - too many things competing with one another. I also prefer to use black as an accent rather than so much a part of the design. However, I really struggled with the technique - this is my second attempt - and I didn't want to go a third time. This one did what it was supposed to do; I just don't like it. It's just as well that much of it is covered by the pocket and the tag. (I haven't thrown out the first attempt, but it will probably get cut up and end up as part of a serendipity technique on some future project. That's a great way to utilize the art attempts that don't find a place on your current project.)

Anyway, moving on... Grungy Monday is a weekly challenge celebrating the techniques and products of Tim Holtz, and is presented each Monday on Linda Ledbetter's blog, Studio L3. This week's challenge details can be found HERE on Tim's blog.

The background stamp I used is Lattice from Cornish Heritage Farms. The paper in the background is the same as the front of the pocket. I'm still amazed how much you can change a printed paper with stamps and ink.

I stapled the pocket on with my NEW tiny attacher. I thought that was a good way to use a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby on Tuesday. We don't have a HL by us, but my daughter had to take her kitty to Kenosha for the day for some surgery (drop off at 8:00 in the morning and pick up at 5:00). Since it's a 50 mile drive one way, she didn't want to make the trip twice, so I agreed to spend the day with her. We spent two hours wandering the aisles at Hobby Lobby. I also got a new corner chomper with a 2nd coupon that my daughter used. We spent most of the afternoon shopping for clothes for her - she shopped while I sat and read a book. We were both pleased with our purchases.

I used my hardware findings die for the brace on the pocket. It was too long, so I just spliced it and glued it down.

I'm pretty sure that I have a label maker somewhere, but it's probably been 30 years since I've seen it, so I just repeatedly stamped 'dream' (Collage Stuff) on a strip of card stock and then sponged vintage photo ink on the edges.

I wanted to use the birdcage die for my tag (had to do this one twice - argh! - the first one sorta blended into the background.) I trimmed off the outermost parts of the birdcage to make it narrower and then glued some kraft card stock to the back and trimmed around it. I used some hemp to attach some rolled paper beads and the wonder tag, which is made by punching three circles from cereal box, gluing them together, stamping the word & punching a hole with my cropadile and then embossing with three layers of clear UTEE. It's so much lighter than metal and the word choices are endless.

The bird is die cut from cereal box with a piece of card stock glued on and then embossed with gridlock embossing folder. I sponged crushed olive and vintage photo on it and cut off the legs, so it could rest on the hardware brace.

I appreciate you stopping by and your comments are always welcome. Have a wonderful weekend.

Father's day card

2011-06-18T17:29:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. After spending some time shopping this morning with my daughter, I came home and realized that I needed to make a couple of father's day cards. The card I made for my husband, I blatantly cased from someone else, so I won't post that one, but I will show you the one I made for my father-in-law. I decided to check if I could fit it in the inspiration challenge today on SCS and found this plate that had some great colors to work from.

I started by brayering desert heat kaleidacolor ink on glossy white cardstock. Then I stamped a windmill (B & J's Art Stamps) in jet black stazon. I love that look of a silhouette in a bright sunset.

I then stamped a truck (Cornish Heritage Farms) in tuxedo black memento ink on white cardstock, colored it with copic markers, and cut it out. I glued it to a piece of the background that was trimmed from the brayered piece. I rounded all the corners and used a black card base. The truck is popped up on dimensional tape.

The letters (EK Success Nostalgiques) are stamped in stazon on a scrap and punched out with a 5/8" circle punch and adhered with dimensional tape.

Thank you all for stopping by today. If any dads are reading, I wish you a wonderful father's day.

GM11

2011-06-17T14:59:00.001-05:00

Hi my friends. I finally had a chance to work on my Grungy Monday card for this week. The weekly challenge, a celebration of the products and techniques of Tim Holtz, is announced on Linda Ledbetter's blog each Monday. This week's challenge is found here. Stamps used are Tim Holtz, B & J's Art Stamps, and gears that I die cut from thick foam using gadget gears die from Tim Holtz/Sizzix. Inks are all distress inks, except the black.

I also used on the fence die (Tim Holtz/Sizzix) to cut a picket fence from corrugated cardboard, which I roughly painted with white acrylic paint and then added vintage photo ink along the edges.

I added some coiled hemp as an accent.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a wonderful weekend.

SFC102 a masculine birthday

2011-06-13T07:00:00.002-05:00

Happy Monday, my friends. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. It's time for another Squigglefly challenge over on their blog. Today's challenge (SFC102) is to make masculine cards.

I started by using an image from Monogram Frames Set and stretched it out from a square to a rectangle that would fit my card. I also typed the sentiment on my computer using Impact font and printed it in blue. I trimmed them both and added black marker along the edge of the sentiment rectangle, as well as some tiny photo corners (EK Success punch). The dots on the corners are made with a black marker. The center rectangle is raised on dimensional tape.

We'd love to have you play along with the challenge this week. Although you may use any images on your creation to enter the challenge, in order to qualify for the prize you must use at least one Squigglefly image! You may combine SF images with non-SF images to qualify! If you don't have any Squigglefly images, there are many to choose from, or help yourself from the FREEBIES available. Be sure to also check out all the new images.

All proceeds from this cute little Fairy Klara by artist Jane Beljo will go http://www.one-happy-mama.com/2011/05/fundraiser-for-hope.html, a fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. View the full image at Squigglefly.com.

You have until Sunday evening to upload your new creation to your blog or any on-line photo gallery. Please use SFC102 in your keywords.

Please add a DIRECT link to your project in the InLinkz box on the SF blog, so we can find it -- (new creations only and no back-linking please!). If you have more than one entry, link each one separately.

The winner will be announced at the same time the new challenge post comes up next Monday, so be sure to check back to see if you are a winner!

Be sure to stop over at the Squigglefly blog to see what the rest of the design team has done for today's challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a wonderful week.

simple sympathy

2011-06-12T00:06:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. Last night when the inspiration challenge was posted on SCS, I took a look around the website and when I came across these large cherry blossoms, I knew that I exactly what I wanted to do on my card.

I pulled out a hero arts flower and stamped it twice in cherry cobbler ink on blush blossom cardstock. Then I added the sentiment from Warmest Regards (SU) in the same color. I added some punched 1/8" circle punches and the card was finished. I love when a card goes together so quickly.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

a sketch challenge

2011-06-09T12:57:00.000-05:00

Happy Thursday my friends. It feels wonderful to have cooler temps today. It's about 60, so welcome after being in the 90's for the past few days. Last night we had some thunderstorms and quite a bit of rain. I have some lavender in pots, waiting to be transplanted in front of my porch (after I dig out the poppies). To make it easy to water the lavender right now, they are sitting in a couple of old metal dishpans. This morning, though, I had to empty the pans, since I really didn't want them sitting in that much water. In other garden notes, my yellow squash and zucchini are already up. The seed package said 10-14 days & they were popping up after only a week.

Yesterday, was the sketch challenge on SCS. It was such a simple one, I just knew I wanted to play along. I made a piece of faux woodgrain by swiping my ink pads down the cardstock (mellow moss, more mustard, creamy caramel, really rust and chocolate chip). To go along with the wood theme, I pulled out a happy birthday stamp that the letters look like wood. I think it's a Rubbernecker stamp, but not sure.

Using a bordering blue card base, I glued the smaller piece of woodgrain on, stamped the sentiment, and then added the longer piece of woodgrain. I used my mat pack plastic guide to add some faux nails and then used a black marker to add a little bit of dimension to the letters. It's a very simple card and would be so easy to change the paper and sentiment for a completely different look.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a blessed day.

grungy monday #10

2011-06-07T13:57:00.000-05:00

Hi my friends. It's way hotter than my comfort level today. 90 last I checked. I went out & picked some asparagus and rhubarb and watered my small garden, but now I'm inside where the AC is keeping me cool.

I finished my card for Grungy Monday #10 today. This is a weekly challenge celebrating the techniques and products of Tim Holtz, hostessed by Linda Ledbetter on her blog, Studio L3. This week the challenge is to use distress inks.

I started with a piece of corrugated cardboard, which I sprayed on one side with water and let it sit for a few minutes to make it easy to remove the outer layer and reveal the texture underneath. I tore the edges and added a bit of ivory acrylic paint on the ridges. After letting that dry, I inked the edges with vintage photo distress ink.

The flower is heavy interfacing cut with Tim's tattered florals die. I inked all the layers with mustard seed distress ink and then scrunched them all up and put them together with a brad which is colored with a copic marker. I added a little bit of vintage photo on the tips of the petals as well.

I tore a strip of unbleached muslin and dyed it with spiced marmalade and worn lipstick DI's and dried it with my heat gun. Then I stamped the butterflies with black archival ink. I attached it with staples and glue dots, forming pleats. I also added some magic mesh.

I chose groovy guava cardstock for the base, because it matched the fabric. The flourish is stamped in vintage photo DI. I used my new stamps from Michaels (the only Tim Holtz stamp set I own).

The sentiment is from a set of words that I purchased locally a number of years ago. I just cut it out with deckle scissors and sponged the edge with vintage photo DI.

A large brad, a metal flower from a necklace and a piece of hardware from my son's old jeans complete the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope the remainder of the week is a good one for you.

Some old roses

2011-06-02T19:34:00.001-05:00

Hi my friends,

Today, the ways to use it challenge on SCS was using die cuts. Well, I have many dies to choose from, so I decided to play along. I first die cut a piece of white cardstock with the mini baroque movers & shapers die from Tim Holtz. Then I pulled out an old, much loved SU stamp set called Roses in Winter. I stamped the rose in pink passion and rich razzleberry and also used the rock 'n roll technique. The leaves were stamped with pear pizzazz and always artichoke. I sponged a very narrow edging of rich razzleberry around the edge and on each layer of the card.

The next layer was die cut in certainly celery with frame back ornate #3 die from Sizzix and then embossed with retro diamonds embossing folder (Quickuts). For some color in the background, I stamped lattice backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms) in certainly celery and added some mini photo corner punches.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Grungy Monday #09

2011-05-31T12:46:00.005-05:00

Happy Tuesday, my friends. We had a nice family day yesterday for Memorial Day. In the morning, I spread weed & feed on our lawn. I was so hot and tired by the time I finished. It felt really good to wash off my feet with the hose. Of course, I picked up a bit of sunburn at the same time. It doesn't take much for that to happen, so I really don't spend a lot of time out in the sun.

In the afternoon we got together with some of my husband's family, plus a few others that my FIL invited to share with us. I found out that one of the ladies I met is the sister to none other than Mrs. Rubbernecker (Patty, Dave's wife), and just as sweet. How fun is that! We had a great time chatting.

Today I have a card that I made for two challenges. One is Grungy Monday #09, celebrating the products and techniques of Tim Holtz. This challenge can be found each Monday on Linda Ledbetter's blog, Studio L3. This week's challenge can be found on Tim's blog here.

I started with a piece of black cardstock and embossed the image in clear ep. Then spread pool paint dabber and Apple ivory acrylic paint over it. I'm not sure what I was doing wrong, but for the life of me, I couldn't get the paint to wash off the embossed image, so I improvised and used a sanding block to sand it off instead. I thought the problem was because I mixed two types of paint, but I tried it with just one paint dabber and had no better results.

The second challenge this card is for is Inspiration Emporium Monthly Challenge (IEMC02) using packaging. I used some plastic packaging from a Spellbinders die. I did heated pearls technique on the plastic, which basically uses white glue, pearl ex and a heat gun. Instructions can be found here on Splitcoaststampers.com. Then I die cut the plastic with Tim's butterfly movers & shapers dies. I reheated the butterflies a bit, so I could shape them while they were warm. I really love how they turned out. I attached them to the card with mini glue dots.

One edge of the main image panel was die cut with Tim's on the edge scallops die.

For the sentiment, I stamped the word 'delight' from an old SU set, paint prints with black stazon ink. Then die cut it with a nestabilities petite oval die (Spellbinders). I added some black ink along the edges as well, and then covered the piece with versamark and clear UTEE (3 layers). I punched holes and added some brads. This is a takeoff of Shelly's tutorial here. This piece was attached with dimensional foam tape.

I hand crocheted the edging.

Squigglyfly challenge #100

2011-05-30T07:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Monday, my friends. The challenges on the Squigglefly blog have reached #100 - Triple Digits!

For my card, I first printed a piece of digital paper from ComputerScrapbook.com (girls night out), and then printed flowers from Squigglefly set Fancy Flowers (can you tell I like this set?) on the same paper. There may be an easier way to to that, but my computer skills are somewhat limited, so I just do what I know how to do.

I cut out the flowers and then used some of the scraps to die cut with my Doily Pendants die from Spellbinders and sponged the edges of both the flowers and the die cuts with cherry cobbler ink. In between the flowers and the die cuts, I put 1-3/8" circles of ivory cardstock, with the flowers raised on dimensional tape.

I punched fancy photo corners and added a few dots with a black marker.

I printed the sentiment on my computer and to go with the theme of threes, I printed 'laugh' three times. I cut the words out and backed them with more scraps from the digi paper. I attached them with dimensional tape.

As I looked at what I thought was my completed card, I realized that it needed something to 'pull it together' a bit, so I added a meandering dotted line with my black marker. Kind of a fun way to fill in the blank areas.

We'd love to have you play along with the challenge this week. Although you may use any images on your creation to enter the challenge, in order to qualify for the prize you must use at least one Squigglefly image! You may combine SF images with non-SF images to qualify! If you don't have any Squigglefly images, help yourself from the FREEBIES available.

You have until Sunday evening to upload your new creation to your blog or any on-line photo gallery. Please use SFC100 in your keywords.

Please add a DIRECT link to your project in the InLinkz box on the SF blog, so we can find it -- (new creations only and no back-linking please!). If you have more than one entry, link each one separately.

The winner will be announced at the same time the new challenge post comes up next Monday, so be sure to check back to see if you are a winner!

Be sure to stop over at the Squigglefly blog and check out what the rest of the design team has done with today's challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a wonderful week.

Butterflies

2011-05-27T20:16:00.004-05:00

Hi my friends. Today was a sunny day, with temps around 60, so it seemed like a great day to get some planting done. I bought some large planters about a week ago and a few tomato plants to put in them. I also put a few marigolds around the edges of the planters. I put some cilantro in some smallers pots. I want to plant a few zucchini and yellow squash, but I need to do some more digging for that. I bought some lavender to replace the poppies by the front porch. Although I love the poppies, they bloom for such a short time and then just get ugly, so they are coming out. I may transplant a few of them to the back end of our property. We'll see how much energy and motivation I have when I start digging them up. Hopefully, the weather will stay cool for awhile, because I have a hard time working outside when it is really hot.

Last night was another Gina K Designs release party on Stamp TV, so of course, there were some card challenges. I managed to get both of them done after all my planting.

The first one was a single layer card, using only one image stamp, one sentiment and one embellishment. I used a stencil (SU) to add some color to the background with tea dye distress ink. Then I stamped the butterfly (take flight - GKD) with vintage photo distress ink and used a water brush to lightly spread the ink onto the image. The sentiment from the same set was also stamped in vintage photo ink.

I pierced a butterfly trail and then used a needle and brown thread to stitch along the trail. I sponged some vintage photo ink around the edges of the card and it was done.

My second card had to be black and white. I used the same stamp set, but used the other butterfly. I stamped it with versamark on black cardstock and embossed with white ep. Then I die cut it with my classic ovals nestabilities (Spellbinders). I cut and embossed a beaded ovals nestabilities in white to back the black oval.

Using a white card base, I put a layer of black and white dp (Me & My Big Ideas), and a strip of black on top of white cardstock. I used dimensional tape to attache the ovals.

I love simple cards.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a blessed weekend.

GM08 wildflowers

2011-05-24T18:12:00.004-05:00

Hello my friends. I really haven't been doing much stamping lately. Saturday, my sister and I went to the stamp expo in Milwaukee and managed to do our part in helping the economy. I got a few stamps, dies and embossing folders. Then on Sunday, the offspring came over for lunch and some games and then, by the time we finished the 2nd game, it was late enough for them to stay for the evening meal as well. It's always nice to spend some time with them.

I finally pulled out some stamping supplies today and made a card for Grungy Monday, challenges celebrating the techniques and products of Tim Holtz. Each Monday, Linda Ledbetter shares a new challenge on her blog, Studio L3. This week's challenge technique can be found here on Tim's blog.

I used floral images from Hero Arts and Paper Inspirations, a butterfly from CHF, and the sentiment is from Penny Black. Paper is rose red (SU) and watercolor paper. Since the number of Adirondack ink pads that I own is limited, I combined Ranger distress inks, SU classic inks and Adirondack inks on my card.

The letters on the sentiment are so fine and delicate, I needed to write over them with a black marker so they would stand out a bit better. I also added some doodling along the edges and a ribbon from my stash.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a great week.

born to fly - GM07

2011-05-18T21:51:00.003-05:00

Hello my friends. It's time for another grungy Monday card. This challenge is found on Linda Ledbetter's blog, Studio L3, and it's all about celebrating the techniques and products of Tim Holtz. This week's technique can be found here. I think I need to get some ink refills for my distress ink pads. My background is rather pale.

I stamped on the dress form with a stamp from Club Stamp and the wings are stamped with lady of grace (Stampington). The sentiment is computer generated.

In order to fit the dress form on the card, I cut off the stand and tucked it underneath the bodice.

I did a lot of faux stitching and sponging along all the edges.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Anything but the usual - SFC98

2011-05-18T04:02:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure what happened, but I just realized that this post never published. I had it set to auto post & never checked. So here is my Monday post a few days late.

Hi my friends. I hope you had a great weekend. It's Monday and that means it's time for another challenge on the Squigglefly blog. This week's challenge is to do something different than what you usually do. Since I usually color my images with copic markers, this week, I first printed some digital background papers from ComputerScrapbook.com and then printed my Squigglefly images from Fancy Flowers on top of those. I then used some colored pencils to add shading and cut out all the images and arranged them on a black card. The strip on the left is punched with a SU punch.

We'd love to have you play along with the challenge this week. Although you may use any images on your creation to enter the challenge, in order to qualify for the prize you must use at least one Squigglefly image! You may combine SF images with non-SF images to qualify! If you don't have any Squigglefly images, help yourself from the FREEBIES available.

You have until Sunday evening to upload your new creation to your blog or any on-line photo gallery. Please use SFC98 in your keywords.

Please add a DIRECT link to your project in the InLinkz box on the SF blog, so we can find it -- (new creations only and no back-linking please!). If you have more than one entry, link each one separately.

The winner will be announced at the same time the new challenge post comes up next Monday, so be sure to check back to see if you are a winner!

Be sure to stop over at the Squigglefly blog and check out what the rest of the design team has done with today's challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a wonderful week.

Happy Birthday

2011-05-14T13:27:00.002-05:00

to me! Yes, I was born on this date many years ago. Actually, I was a Mother's day baby, so my birthday lands on Mother's day every once in awhile. We also celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary this week. Nothing like crowding them all into one week. We are going out to dinner with my husband's family and he's making me wait for my gifts.

I worked outside digging a bit in the garden this morning until I got rained out. So then I came back in and sat down to stamp. I made a card for the inspiration challenge on SCS. As I was checking out the selected site, this piece called shiny floral just jumped out at me. Uhmmm, it's BLUE! 'Nuf said.

I pulled out a very old SU set called Morning Soft and stamped the flowers on white with paris dusk memento ink and then colored with copic markers. I added a bit of white gel pen in the centers of the flowers. I die cut the image with a Sizzix circle die and sponged brilliant blue around the edge.

For the background, I die cut turquoise cardstock with a flourish Sizzix die and then sponged the edges with brilliant blue and arranged the pieces around the black card base and glued them down.

I used dimensional tape to adhere the circle, trimmed off the excess and sponged the open edge.

Then I used a white gel pen to add some dots and hightlights around the flourishes. I really like how that brightened up the background. I love this card.

Thanks for stopping by today. Help me celebrate and have a piece of cake!

let your light shine

2011-05-13T20:19:00.005-05:00

Hi my friends. My card today is for Grungy Monday, a weekly challenge posted on Linda Ledbetter's blog, celebrating the techniques and products of Tim Holtz. This week's challenge technique can be found here. I used a pool paint dabber along with peeled paint & vintage photo distress inks.

Something I've wanted to try for awhile is to make a lamp post using the sewing room die and the mini bird cage movers & shapers die. I'm tickled that it turned out. I used some yellow stickles to give it a bit of sparkle. I also used a glitter gel pen on the post to catch a little shine. I think next time I'll clear emboss the black die cuts to make them look more like metal.

The sentiment is computer generated.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a great weekend.

sister challenge

2011-05-08T22:55:00.005-05:00

Hi my friends. Today, while at my sister's for a mother's day celebration, we decided to sit down and stamp for awhile. She wanted to work on a card for the featured stamper challenge on SCS, so we picked one card to use. Even though we were starting with the same inspiration, we were pretty sure our cards would end up quite different, knowing that our creative styles are not at all similar. I hadn't planned on stamping, so I had to use her supplies, since mine were all at home. Makes for an interesting process of creating. The card we chose is this one.

For this challenge, there is a requirement that you change at least two things from the original card to make yours different. I used different stamps, different colors, a different edge punch and instead of a big bow, I crocheted a little edging from embroidery floss for the top right corner.

I used a Penny Black stamp called casual, which I stamped in versamark and then embossed in white on a piece of 7 Gypsies designer paper. The butterfly is a comotion stamp, which I colored with copic markers, cut out and popped up.

I used an edge punch on the left side.

If you want to see my sister's card, you can view it here.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you were able to spend time with your family today.

You are special

2011-05-08T10:44:00.003-05:00

Hi my friends. To all you mothers, I want to wish you a very happy Mother's Day, because you are special. This is just a super quick post, because I have to go put together my deviled eggs before we're off to my sister's for lunch. Enjoy your day. Here's a card I put together really quickly this morning using a bunch of scraps mostly.
Thanks for stopping by.