just saying hello

Hi friends.  Today I made a card for last week's alphabet challenge post #2183 on splitcoast.  It was week 26, which meant the letter Z.  A 2nd part of the challenge was to add up the numbers in your zip code & also use the letter that number represented.  Mine added up to 25 (Y). 

I thought I had finished my card, took photos, & started to write this post, when I realized that I had forgotten to do part 2 of the challenge.  Oops!  So back to add some yellow for Y, retake all the photos, crop, etc.... and here I am. 

I made a waterfall card.  It's a fun interactive card that looks really complicated, but actually is not hard at all, if you have some good directions to follow.  Splitcoast has a great tutorial, and there are also others online, including videos.  I used a bit of both, but then made some slight alterations in the measurements to fit the stamp image.  I also made my waterfall mechanism horizontal instead of vertical.  I also added the round tab punch to act as a pull tab. 

Here is the card before you pull the tab to activate the waterfall.  I made some stripes with black and white cardstock.

And as you pull the tab, each image becomes visible. 

The next one is zebra striped paper.

And with the tab fully extended.  

Here is a closeup of the zebra image. 

If you've never made a waterfall card, I recommend that you try it.  It's really a fun card. 

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

and more calendar art

Hi friends.  Here are some more days from my calendar art that I did late last night.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

It's been awhile

Hi friends.  Yes, I'm still here.  I know it's been a long time since I've posted.  I really haven't been doing much crafting.  I guess I needed a break.  I've done a bit of gardening.  I had to replace all my lavender plants that died over the cold winter.  I think because of all the rain we've been having, they aren't doing too well.  Of course, they need to be weeded badly - not something I enjoy and it's really too wet. 

I do have some tomatoes coming on -- little green ones.  And a few tiny zucchini plants are up -  I planted those really late, but we'll enjoy some before summer is over. 

I took my hexagon quilt with me to my lace guild, because I knew I could set up some extra tables and pin the layers together.  So I have that ready to baste and start quilting.  

Last night I made a card for the Rubber Stamp Event contest, but will wait to show that one to you.  I won 2nd place last year, so here's hoping. 

Here are the cards we made in my technique class last week. 

The first is a pop up box card -- a bit labor intensive, but well worth it.  There's a tutorial here. 

The 2nd is a card using inchies.  Little works of art that are only an inch square.  They are great for using your tiny stamps. 

The 3rd is a stair step card.  A tutorial can be found here. 

I used a pretty sunflower stamp that I picked up recently at a rummage.  It's part of a set - one solid image and one detailed image.  The only problem with that is the stamps are mirror images, so they really don't fit together.  But they can be used separately, so that's how I used one of them for this card. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

happy little birdies

Hi friends.  Today was the mixability challenge (mixed media) on SCS.  I haven't participated in this challenge very much, so I thought I'd play today.  The challenge was to make finger painted clouds.  The only other requirement is that more than one type of medium is used.  I used acrylic paint for the clouds, and my other medium is ink. 

I started with a piece of periwinkle cardstock and made the clouds.  Then I stamped the birds on the wire (a muse) with black stazon.  I extended the line with a pitt pen and added the extra bird on the left.  The birds are colored with a creamy caramel marker. 

I punched the corners with a ticket corner punch and backed the piece with black, adding a few dots in each corner with a pitt pen. 

I used two strips of pattern paper and added fancy photo corner punches. 

The sentiment is hero arts.  All in all, a pretty quick and easy card. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

flowers and inspiration

Hi friends.  Tonight I noticed that the inspiration challenge on SCS had been posted, so I decided to play along.  I was inspired by this halter dress that is all in brown flowers.  I knew right away which stamp I was going to use.  It's a flower (A Muse) just like those on the dress. 

I stamped the flower randomly in tea dye, gathered twigs, and vintage photo distress inks and then sponged tea dye and vintage photo over to darken the card stock.  I layered this on chocolate chip and an ivory card base. 

For the main image, I used the same stamp, but used salty ocean distress ink.  I added the sentiment (Endless Creations) in jet black stazon.  The sponging around the edge is vintage photo.  I again used chocolate chip as a layer. 

I used my crop-a-dile to punch a hole for the ribbon, and added dimensional tape to raise the image piece up off the background. 

This was a really easy card to make and will also be my entry in Robyn's flower challenge on facebook. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

inspiration challenge

Happy Saturday, my friends.  We have a beautiful winter wonderland outside this morning.  The sun was shining earlier, but now it's snowing again.  I don't think we're supposed to get any more accumulation today. 

I decided to play along with the inspiration challenge on SCS today, using macaron mod cake as my inspiration. 

It's actually a pretty simple card, although punching all the little 1/2" circles from blush blossom card stock and sponging the edges with tea dye distress ink took a bit of time. 

The flower is from A Muse and the sentiment from Very Verstile (SU) and both were stamped in early espresso ink on ivory card stock.  I also used early espresso card stock for the little strip.  The colors really got messed up in the photo.  I think my camera takes better pictures with flash.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

1st Chrismas tag

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.

inspired by a table

Hello my friends. I hope you enjoying your weekend. This morning we have frost on the ground - at least it's not snow. But cold, nevertheless. When I checked the temperature, it was less than 30 degrees -- *shiver*.

Last night I made a card for the inspiration challenge on SCS, but it was rather late when I finished, so I waited until this morning to post it. The site had an overwhelming amount of inspiration. There are some wonderful textured decor pieces that I would love to have hanging on my walls. I had a hard time choosing, but finally ended up using one of the samples given by the hostess - a cute little table with a color blocked top and a butterfly. I'm not quite sure how that evolved into the card I made, but that really is where I started.

Rather than make very defined color blocking, I chose to let mine blend together a bit more. If you look closely, you can see the different sections of color on the background. I started by stamping three ferns (hero arts) in versamark on ivory cardstock and then heat embossing with clear embossing powder.

Next I used a technique called wrinkle free distress. You can see a tutorial here. I used distress inks (sorry, I can't remember which ones I used - crushed olive, a brown & an orange). After drying that, I stamped two of my brand new (package just came yesterday *grin*) A Muse stamps several times over the background with crush olive, aged mahogany & ??something?? marmalade (sorry, I'm still learning the names after using SU inks almost exclusively for 10 years). Because the embossing resists the ink, it gives more depth with a look of layering. I used a paper towel to wipe off any ink from the areas where the embossing is and then sponged some vintage photo ink along the edges.

The butterflies are from Flores Suaves (SU) and Take Flight (Gina K). I stamped them with jet black stazon and sponged on summer sun and tangerine tango. After cutting them out, I sponged the edges with cherry cobbler and added a bit of creamy caramel to the body. I attached them to the card with dimensional tape underneath the wings and glue dots under the body.

The card base is ivory, sponged with vintage photo, and a layer of bravo burgundy separates the card base from the stamped piece.

I appreciate you stopping by today. Spend your weekend making special memories.

heavy metal

Hi my blog friends. Sunny most of the day today and MOST of our snow has melted. But I'm not holding my breath. It is, after all, still March and this is Wisconsin.

Are you wondering about that title? I have metal on my card. Is it heavy? No, but I thought that made for a catchy title.

Last night was another stamp release for Gina K Designs over on StampTV. Of course, there are always some challenges and I like to play along when I can, because there's also the possibility of being drawn for a prize and who doesn't like prizes?

This challenge was to use metal on the card, so I chose to use a piece of aluminum foil. First I dabbed on some alcohol inks, because I didn't want to leave it silver. Then I scrunched it up, while still keeping it fairly flat. Using Spellbinders ovals, I made a frame with black cardstock and then fit the foil to the frame. To hold them together, I pierced some holes and then stitched around the frame with black crochet cotton. I added some fun dots with white gel pen around the scallops of the frame.

The flowers (Inkadinkado) were stamped with black stazon and then sponged in summer sun and tangerine tango and then cut out. I added a bit of cherry cobbler on the outer edges of the petals and creamy caramel and tea dye distress ink in the centers. It was a little tricky gluing the flowers down, since the glue wouldn't stick to the foil, so I had to make sure that I was attaching to the frame. The punched leaves (Martha Stewart) were sponged with always artichoke, veins added with marker, and then tucked into the spray of flowers.

The embossed mustard strip was in my stash and was the right color, so I decided to use it. I added the narrow strip of ruby red and stamped the sentiment (A Muse) on it. A certainly celery card base ties it all together. It seemed like it needed just a bit more, so I added the pearls.

Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit today. Have a joy filled weekend.

double inspiration

Hello my friends. I do have to tell you that my daughter loved the card I made her (see my last post).

Today I made two cards for the inspiration challenge on SCS. I found a couple of things on the selected sight that I just loved and knew that I'd be able to use a couple of new dies that I just got from cheery lynn designs.

The first card was inspired by this wonderful lacy shoe. The lacy leather reminded me of doilies, and one of the dies called French Pastry looks just like a doily, so it was perfect. I pulled out some chocolate cardstock and die cut the doily. These dies are just gorgeous, but they are very, very detailed and require a lot of work punching out all the tiny little holes. But to me it's worth the effort.

To accent the chocolate, I decided to use a card base of groovy guava, sponged with cherry cobbler. Then I die cut a lacey circle from ivory cardstock and stamped filigree (SU) in groovy guava on it. I sponged the edges with the same ink.

The flowers are a digital image called Flowers Set from squigglyfly, which I colored with copic markers and cut out. I wanted a little more color on the flowers, so I sponged the edges with cherry cobbler ink. The leaves are from all natural (SU), stamped on certainly celery and then I pretty much changed the color with some copic markers and sponged the edges with always artichoke. Then I tucked them in behind the flowers.

The sentiment is from A Muse, stamped in cherry cobbler.

My second card is based on this beautiful butterfly bracelet. I started with some very old textured gold wrapping paper. Since it curls rather stubbornly and is really difficult to straighten out, I glued it to some cardstock with tacky glue to make it easier to work with. I then die cut it with my Oriental Butterfly doily die. I also took a strip of the gold and scored it using my Scor-Pal to imitate the bracelet band. I wanted to make the gold look more vintage, so I painted over it with black acrylic paint and then lightly wiped over it with a paper towel to remove the paint from the surface, but not the grooves or the texture.

Using a black card base, I added a red oval behind the butterfly, some red ribbon and a red jewel for accents.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.

coffee & poppies

Hi my friends. It's not so windy today, but much cooler. I've had to keep the heat on today.

Can you believe it? The month of October is almost over. That means there are only a few more Hope challenges remaining on SCS. I hope you've been playing along. Today's challenge was to make time for friends.

I chose a coffee cup image (Rubbernecker) and an accent border (also Rubbernecker). I colored both with copic markers. I'm still learning how to use these. I don't have a great selection of colors, so I have to use what I do have.

After coloring the cup, I cut it out with a labels eleven die (spellbinders) and added sponging and faux piercing. The brads are just cardstock punched with a 1/8" circle punch.

The sentiment is computer generated.

I also had time to make a card for the ways to use it challenge on SCS -- use a frame on your card.

I made a faux wood frame. It's a good thing I don't work in a framing shop. I had a really hard time matching the corners.

The image is an old PSX stamp of poppies, which I stamped twice and colored with copic markers. I used white paper and thought it was too bright, so I sponged creamy caramel ink over it to soften the brightness a bit.

The background on the lower portion is pretty pattern (CHF) stamped in daffodil delight on natural ivory cardstock. The sentiment is A Muse.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

A wall of butterflies

Hi, my friends. I think fall has officially arrived. I had to turn on the heat this morning.

Yesterday, about mid-afternoon, I decided that I was going to do a card for the inspiration challenge on SCS, using the sample on the right given in the post. I finished the card just before we were headed out to an Indian restaurant for dinner, so I didn't get it posted last night.

I used a tiny butterfly (a muse) to randomly stamp in black on white and then I embossed the piece with my new bricked embossing folder (Tim Holtz/Sizzix). I really like this folder. I used a flower stem (Lizzie Anne) and a flower & butterfly (Innovative Stamp Creations), which I stamped in black, then sponged with tangerine tango, cut out and sponged the edges with cherry cobbler. A sentiment (SU), some black layering and a bit of dimensional tape and I was finished.

Thanks for stopping by today. May your day be wonder-filled.

are you normal?

Giggle! Hi there. Do we even know what normal is? Is it just being like everyone else? Most people like to think they're normal. We don't want to be classified as different, odd, weird, rebel..., right? Stay on the main road - follow the crowd - dress like everyone else - join the club...

Well, some of us have always had a bit of that rebel in us. We want to be a little different - not a clone of everyone else. But we have a fear of being too different, so that we might stand out and be mocked or made fun of. So what do we do? We pretend to be like everyone else - normal.

I made this card for today's ways to use it challenge on SCS. The challenge was to use just one sheet of cardstock and no designer paper. We could make more than one layer as long as we only used one sheet.

All my stamping is done on the card base. The only extra layer is a die cut oval (spellbinders classic ovals nestabilities), which I sponged with creamy caramel, chocolate chip, poppy parade and cherry cobbler. The faux brads are also colored with a marker and punched from the same piece of cardstock.

The bird stamps are A Muse, the border is Cornish Heritage Farms, and the sentiment is River City Rubber Works.

Thanks for stopping by today. Now go out and be different.

Happy Sunday

Hey, everyone. I hope you're all having a great weekend. Yesterday, I did a lot of stamping. It's virtual stamp night (weekend) on SCS, so the challenges were coming Friday evening and all afternoon and evening yesterday. So far I've done 8. Here are some of them.

Colors amber & purple based on song America, the Beautiful
Using water on your card (watercolor crayons)
Resisting the heat
Summertime food
Summertime activities
Camping


Since we have until Monday night to upload, I'm going to try to get some more of the challenges done, but it's always a bit more difficult to get the time in when family is home.

Thanks for visiting. Have a wonderful day.

stamp a pattern

Hi everyone. I am loving the weather today. It started out under 60 this morning, but is around 70 now with a clear sky and a bit of breeze. I am so looking forward to autumn.

Today was another stamping day for me. I decided to do a challenge for the A Muse Lounge. It was to either use their pattern paper or create your own with their stamps. Since I don't have any of their paper, my choice was made for me.

First I created a diagonal grid with my scor-pal and then in each segment, I stamped the tiny bird (a muse) and colored them with turquoise marker. I added some dots at the scored intersections. I sponged the edges with pacific point ink and mounted the piece on black.

For the die cut bird, I first inked chrysanthemum solid (a muse) with markers, then huffed on it and stamped. I did that twice and then ran the stamped cardstock through my cuttlebug with a nested bird die (spellbinders). The wing is the smaller bird with the beak cut off. I embossed the wing with my Swiss dots embossing folder and sponged over the dots. The bird and wing are raised on dimensional tape.

I punched a border on white cardstock with a fiskars punch and added some sponging.

The sentiment is also a muse, stamped and then die cut with ribbon tags trio (spellbinders). I attached that with some 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.

The flower is one that I crocheted. I added a button with black crochet cotton and some punched leaves (martha stewart). I also added some faux piercing in the upper right corner.

Thanks for visiting today. Be blessed.

inspired trees

Hi everyone. This morning I checked today's inspiration challenge on SCS and decided to use one of the samples given rather than look through the webside. This card was rather fun to make. So not my usual style.

I selected several colors of cardstock and ink for the trees. With a wood grain stamp (Hero Arts), I inked the following: really rust ink on really rust cardstock, always artichoke on mellow moss, creamy caramel on creamy caramel, and chocolate chip on cranberry crist & chocolate chip. Then I punched different sized circles from the pieces and cut narrow strips for the tree trunks. Then I arranged them on the cool caribbean cardstock. I stamped the little bird (A Muse) on top of the tallest tree and again on really rust and cut out the rust one, leaving off the legs, and gluing the body over the first one.

I rounded the corners with a punch, added a strip along the bottom with some brads and a computer generated sentiment, which I punched out with a word window punch. Then I glued everything to a chocolate chip card base.

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

play day

Hi everyone. Today was another play day for me and my sister. I was able to finish one card and do a couple of other partials. I'll try to get those done tomorrow. The one I finished is for the ways to use it challenge on SCS. The challenge was to make a crinkled flower. I checked the challenge before I left for my sister's, so I knew I would probably need at least one button. So I reached into one of my button jars and grabbed a handful -- definitely limits your choices, but at the same time makes it easier to choose.

The tutorial showed a round flower, but I really didn't like that, so I freehanded some curves on my 'circles'. I cut them from some designer paper. The leaves were cut freehand as well. I did some crinkling, some sanding, and some sponging. The button is sewn on using crochet cotton. I raised the flower using several layers of card stock.

I might have used regular brads, but didn't have them with me, so I used some of the tiny squares from the border punch as faux brads.

What's in it?
stamps: butterfly (A Muse), sentiment (Innovative Stamp Creations)
ink: jet black stazon, chocolate chip
paper: close to cocoa, basic black, dp (Black Market Paper Society)
other: diamond border punch (Fiskars), button, black crochet cotton, sponge dauber

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

a double challenge

Hello. I surprised myself and stamped 2 cards today. However, you only get to see one now, because I'm charging my camera battery and can't get a picture of the 2nd one until that's done. This card follows the sketch challenge for this week on splitcoast, but I also needed a card for another A-Muse-a-palooza challenge, this one using some glitter or bling.

I decided to start with some glittery designer paper from a stack by Die Cuts With a View and build the colors around that. The under layers of black just make a nice frame for the rest. The two colors I chose to emphasize are regal rose and soft sky.

I stamped the tiger lilies from Rubbernecker with black stazon on regal rose and colored them with markers - regal rose and just a bit of apricot appeal near the center. The flower centers are coated with crystal effects and dazzling diamonds glitter.

The sentiment from A Muse is also stamped in black stazon.

I added white dots with a gel pen and glued the ribbon across the seam between the two colors of card stock. The image panel is raised on dimensional foam tape.

Supplies:
stamps: lilies (Rubbernecker), sentiment (A Muse)
ink: jet black stazon, regal rose, apricot appeal
paper: basic black, regal rose, soft sky, dp (DCWV)
other: white gel pen, ribbon (Michael's), crystal effects, dazzling diamonds glitter, dimensional foam tape

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Just a quick post

Hi. I hope you're enjoying Father's day with your family or friends. I managed to get two cards done today for a couple of A-Muse-a-Palooza challenges.

I used cuttlebug embossing folders on both cards and inked over the embossing to highlight the raised areas. The only stamping is the sentiment on each card.

The first one is an inspiration challenge and the 2nd is a sketch challenge.

Card 1 supplies:
stamps: sentiment (A Muse)
ink: jet black stazon, petal point chalk ink (Colorbox)
paper: black, white
other: cuttlebug, cb perfectly paisley embossing folder, piercing tool, dimensional foam tape



Card 2 supplies:
stamps: sentiment (A Muse)
ink: basic black, purely pomegranate
paper: purely pomegranate, groovy guava, apricot appeal
other: 1-3/8" circle punch, scalloped circle punch, cuttlebug, cb textile hearts embossing/die combo, black marker, white gel pen, sponge

I'm so glad you stopped by today.