and more vsn cards

Hi friends,

Here are more of the cards I made for VSN on Splitcoast last month. 

For more details on how I made these, click on the green button in the sidebar for my Splitcoast gallery.

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

a few more vsn cards

Hi friends,

Here are a few more of the cards I made for VSN on Splitcoast last month. 

If you'd like more details on how I made these, click on the green button in the sidebar for my Splitcoast gallery. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Christmas card

Hi friends.  I think I may have figured out my Christmas card for this year... waaaaayyyyy early!

Sandy Allnock is doing a a free online class called 'go for the gold' -- a week of daily videos.  She has some great ideas.  Day 1 was a Christmas card with a detachable ornament.  I love the idea of a card with an attached gift.  Since I don't have many of the products Sandy is using, I opted to put my own spin on it.

I die cut my ornament twice from cereal box chipboard and twice from cardstock.  I glued the 2 chipboard ornaments together.  I then die cut a star in the cardstock pieces.

I wanted the star to be bright gold, so I pulled out some very, very old wrapping paper (that used to be my mom's), and die cut some ovals big enough to cover the area behind the star opening.  After gluing the ovals to the chipboard, I then glued on the cardstock ornaments.  A little turquoise sponged around the edges defined the edges a bit.

I punched a hole in the top and added string.

The card base is turquoise.  A mint green layer was stamped with a pine bough stamp (Rubbernecker).

I made a pocket from vellum cardstock, which I edge punched and stamped with the sentiment.  I could have used gold for the sentiment, but can't seem to find my gold ink pad.  The vellum is folded to the back and glued to create the pocket for the ornament.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

autumn leaves

Hi friends.  I love autumn.  I think it's my favorite season.  I love the rich, vibrant colors of the fields and trees.  I love the crisp, cool air.  And I love the smell of burning leaves.  We've had a few cooler days and nights.  It was in the upper 40's this morning. 

My card making tends to reflect the current season, so I made some with autumn leaves.  This one was made for the mixability challenge on SCS. 

The background was done with a brick stencil and gesso.  Once the gesso was dry, I sponged turquoise ink over it and then wiped most of the ink off the gesso.  The leaves and acorn are stamped with wonderfall (SU) and cut out.  I added a lot of sponged color to the leaves.  Both colors of burlap are ribbon.

The 2nd card was made for the inspiration challenge on SCS, which was a zentangle site.

 
I used the die that matches the stamps from the first card, but did not use the stamps for this one.  On the die cut leaf, I added vein lines and then just starting doodling.  I used colored pencils and white gel pen to enhance the doodles.  I love how it turned out. 

The background is a rubbernecker stamp. The light green layer was actually a light yellow cardstock, but I thought a green would match better and bring out the green on the leaf.  Since I already had it glued to the black backing, I just sponged it with green to change the color.  All just part of the way I create as I go.  Not too much planning.  Even when I do plan ahead, I usually end up changing things along the way anyway. 

Thank you so much for taking time to stop by for a visit.

calendar art & a new technique

Hi friends.  I have more calendar art for you today.

And on this next one, I tried a new technique called no line watercolor.

You stamp in a light color ink and then watercolor the image starting with light colors and adding darker for shading.  You have to let the colors dry in between.  I really liked this technique.  Since I don't have any artist quality watercolors, I used my Inktense pencils with a waterbrush, taking the color directly from the pencil rather than coloring with the pencil and then adding the water.  You could also color a patch on paper and pick it up with your brush. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

calendar art - 3rd post today

Hi friends.  More calendar art for you to enjoy. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

sizzix challenge

Hi friends.  I decided to participate in this month's challenge on the Sizzix blog.  This is the inspiration for the challenge. 





I used the mason jar die to cut jars from white cardstock and clear acetate.  I also cut a partial from some shimmery gray cardstock for the jar cover. 

Using button, button from SU, I stamped a lot of buttons with tuxedo black memento ink and colored them with copic markers.  Some I didn't color.  All the round ones were punched out with various circle punches, but those that weren't round had to be cut out with scissors. 

Then I just started gluing them onto the jar back until the jar was filled with buttons. 

I attached the acetate to the back underneath the cover so the glue wouldn't show. 

Some faux stitching seemed appropriate with the buttons.  The jar is attached with dimensional foam tape. 

The sentiment is from rubbernecker, and is die cut with spellbinders labels seventeen. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

fan club challenges part 15

Hi friends.  Here is another installment of the cards I made for the dare to get dirty challenges on SCS. 

Gotta have coffee!

I used up some of my button stash. 

This is my favorite card out of the whole bunch. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

fan club challenges part 12

Hi friends.  Here are some more cards from the dare to get dirty challenges on SCS. 

A shaker card. 

I used some DIY spray paint for the background on this card.  This is one of my favorites of all the cards that I made. 

Polished stone background and some shrink art leaf charms. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

fan club challenges part 11

Hi friends.  Here are some more cards from the dare to get dirty challenges. 

Monochromatic in green, a color I don't use often. 

Some pink -- another color I rarely use. 

A simple tag.  I'm beginning to learn the advantage of using designer paper. 

And a nice rustic masculine card. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

fan club challenges part 9

Hi friends.  I have some more cards today from the dare to get dirty challenges. 

Clean and simple. 

A frame made with arrows. 

A little bit sassy. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

fan club challenges part 7

Hi friends.  Here's the next installment of dare to get dirty challenge cards. 

Meticulously cutting out flowers... I do that a lot. 

A triangle card.  I struggled to come up with an idea for this one.  To color on the kraft cardstock, you emboss the image, then color with white ink, dry it, and then add color. 

A set of 3"x3" note cards with a belly band. I made the envelopes with my envelope punch board. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

technique class cards

Hi friends.  As promised, here are the cards from today's technique class. 

The first technique is a ribbon frame.  I just never get tired of this stamp set - natural beauty.  The background is from Cornish Heritage Farms.  I colored the image with Derwent Inktense pencils and a blender pen. 

 

The second technique is paper embroidery.  I found this idea here.   The flower stamp is a new one I picked up last weekend at Endless Creations. 

The third technique is frosted embossed acetate.   It was impossible to get a decent picture on this one, since the acetate reflects the light, and because of the frosted technique, you can't see through the acetate clearly.   However, I can assure you that, in reality, the card is pretty awesome.  The lace and sentiment is from Rubbernecker and the flowers are from roses in winter, another SU set I won't get rid of. 

Thank you so much for stopping by. 

hope you can cling to day 31

Hi friends.  So here I am with the cards for the last day of challenges for breast cancer awareness on SCS.  There were three new challenges given. 

Challenge thirty-four - I *heart* you.  A heart shaped card or a card that contains hearts. 

I really wanted to make a triple heart easel card, but after about three tries, I gave up and made a simple heart shaped card.  I'm pretty sure that I can make the easel card, but I didn't want to spend any more time on it today.  

I die cut the largest scallop heart (spellbinders) on the fold for the card base.  Then I cut another heart to put on the front, as well as a slightly smaller one from some basic grey designer paper.  

I stamped the butterfly (SU papillon potpourri) on white and pink with black ink and then punched them out with the matching punch.  The sentiment (hero arts) was punched out with a heart punch.   

Challenge thirty-five - group hug.  A card that is simple in nature, but reflects a message from or to a group of people, and allows the patient to send or receive a Group Hug.

I used poppy field (rubbernecker) and stamped with bermuda bay and jet black stazon on white card stock.  The sentiment is hero arts.  I added a layer of bermuda bay card stock and used a white card base.  

For a little added interest, I glued on some narrow strips of bermuda bay card stock and some 1/8" punched circles.  

Challenge thirty-six - I can't believe it's over.  A black and white card, with just a pop of one of the colors listed below - indicating your "team."   These are somehow based on the show Breaking Bad, but since I don't watch tv, I have only a very vague idea of what the show was about. 

1) Green (Team Walt)
2) Purple (Team Marie)
3) Brown (Team Hank)
4) Pink (Team Holly)
5) Blue - (Team Skyler)
6) Yellow - (Team Jesse)

Since blue is my favorite color, that is the one I chose. 

I stamped the bluebonnet from stately flowers I (gina k designs) in tuxedo black memento, and die cut it with labels collection (SU/sizzix).  I also stamped just a partial image to use for the spotlighting technique.  I punched out a circle from the partial image and colored it with copic markers.  The I added a slightly larger circle in black and glued the colored image where it belonged on the black and white image.  I used a black marker to edge the die cut piece and then added faux piercing all around the edge. 

The background is a penny black stamp called circles and lines, which I stamped in black and then layered with black onto the white card base.  

Thanks so much for joining me this month. 

dare to get dirty - page 7

Hi friends.  More cards from the SCS fan club challenges.

The middle one was made for a little neighbor boy who is doing really well in baseball.  His mom said he really loved the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by.