Crafty Friend

Hello!  I joined in on the August Card Chain Challenge over at Society of Stampaholics. I decided to go with the sketch.  My card is going to Lisa of The Purple Place blog.  She of course loves purple, and I decided to send her a purple and blue card. Using Deborah's sketch option allows me to pic colors.

I started with a piece of Bazzill purple dotted paperm for my base panel, and my sentiment strip.  Next I water colored a piece of water color paper using distress inks.  After it was dry I added the flower using a Penny Black stencil  and embossing paste.  The embossing paste was covered with dry rock candy stickles distress glitter.  I heated the embossing paste to get it a bit puffy. I kinda like that look.  The sentiment was heat embossed using versamark and white Hero Arts embossing powder.

Thanks for stopping by, and think about joining in the fun next month.

Don't Let Anyone Rain

I recently had a crafting weekend at a couple of meet ups.  This card is a result of winning a sampler set of stamps from A Muse.

Cardstock - Stampin Up
Pattened Paper - Scraps
Embossing Powder - Wow

Have a great day

Another card made based on lessons learned in the recent Online Card Class. This involves using a coated paper, and adding doodles to stamped flowers.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Layered Flower

I so loved Shari Carroll's technique of layering portions of a flower stamp to create depth, that I gave it another shot. I put it in the mail to a blogging friend and she's received it so I can post it now.

I used a stamp set from Clearly Besotted, it was paper pieced from a scrap of patterned paper.  The coloring of the stem was done with Distress markers.  Once it was assembled, pearls and wink of stella were added. The sentiment is from Avery Elle.

Thanks for stopping by!

Celebrate...

My FIL is celebrating his birthday, and hubs and I wanted to wish him a wonderful happy birthday.  He is a wonderful caring grand-father and father.

Thanks for stopping by!


Stamps - My Favorite Things; Avery Elle 
Embossing folder - Lifestyle Crafts
Twine - We Are Memory Makers
Stars - Michaels
Cardstock and Vellum - Bazzil

Meet Up...

I've been here living with hubs for a while now full time.  I miss my Dad back in California, and I miss my girlfriends.  The ones to go crafting with, or to the movies, or even just out to lunch. So, I decided I needed to get out there and see if I could meet some women.  I joined a few meet up groups, centered on crafting.
I attended two meet ups this weekend.

I met some lovely women, and look forward to seeing them again.  I enjoyed myself, the socializing was fun.  I made a few cards, which will appear this week and next on the blog, once they are received by their recipients.  I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise.

I do have 1 card and 1 project to share today.

Another man card, I made this one for my Dad, in the hot So Cal sun he is probably wishing for a cool scene like this.   This is my second card with this stamp. I water colored it with distress markers and added a bit of glitter.  I used two die cut circles to frame it, and a stacked die cut Hello from SSS for the sentiment.  I added a couple of wood veneer shapes as well to balance it. This time the chairs are red. They stand out a bit more, than in my last card here.

While at one of the meet up's I spied a cute little craft tote one of the ladies had.  I asked if I could take a photo of it.  I just thought it was the perfect size to tote along basic supplies for crafting to a crop or card party. I have one I like in  CA but I keep it out there with my scrapbook supplies.

I made a stop at the fabric store this weekend, and bought a few pre-cut squares of material and made myself a little tote and a tool roll up.  The tote is reversible, which I think is fun. I won't get tired of  it. The tool roll up reminds me of stamping, and might just provide some inspiration for future cards. I thought I would show them to you. They are around 5 by 5 by 5 (or 6).  I don't used patterns, I am not a good direction reader. I had fun making these crafty items, and they make me smile when I look at them!

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks

This is my second post today, scroll down for my Day 9 homework. Thanks for an amazing two weeks of class, Online Card Classes.  This was so enjoyable and I learned fun things.  My day 10 and  last card is my take on a card presented by Laurie Wilson. She had some background tone on tone stamping and then stamping on white mounted onto fun foam. She did this with letter die cuts.  I have no fun foam, and I really did not want to cut stacks and stacks of individual letters to gain the height. So I went another route with this idea as my jumping off point.

I had a heck of a time with the tone on tone stamping and after ruining 3 card bases, I decided on another route.  I just stamped the Paper Smooches Botanicals 2 stamp on white card, die cut several of the Simon Says Stamp Diamond Parade in white, and one out of the stamped white card.

I stacked the die cuts pairing the stamped insides with the white outline.  I like the contrast the white outline provides.  I added a Thanks die (also from SSS) stacked and offset just a bit on top of the diamonds.  The ink is from Hero Arts - Cup O Joe as is the note card.

Thanks for stopping by.

Love you bunches

I am so bummed that Stretch Your Stamps 2 is coming to a close. I more play day...but its a busy day for me, so I likely won't be playing.  I have to say these classes have been great, but it seems from the stenciling to the water coloring to this current class the lessons have been so exciting  in a renewed mojo kind of way. Such awesome talents sharing their visions.

Like many of the students, I was in AWE of Dawn Woleslagle's card session. The mixing of stamping and doodling is flat out Amazing!  If you have a chance you should check out her You Tube channel, she is a wonderfully creative artist. 

So on with my attempt at the style she presented for our Day 9 lesson focusing on floral builder stamps. I used More Fresh Cuts from WPlus9, with Brilliance Inks in Pearlescent -Coral, Sky Blue, and Lime green. My sentiment is from Jillibean Soup, and cardstock scraps from DCWV.  Card base is Stampin Up whisper white.

Off to work on day 10  homework. Its going to be a two post morning.  Thanks for stopping by.

More of Graphic Stamps

Also known as Day 8 of Stretch Your Stamps 2.  My initial thought was that my card for day 7 more closely fit with the day 8 lesson, but I tried out something else anyway.  I liked the colors in Nichol Magouirk's card- shades of gray and yellow and used that as a jumping off place. 

It was going well until my die cut didn't cut well on the card front, I had a bit of a tear on the lower right one...but in the spirit of soldering on, I glued the two cut pieces together stamped some color on and popped it up over the torn area.  I quite like the way it turned out.

My inks were Hero Arts Inks in soft granite, charcoal,  and butterbar, as well as some white embossing powder. My sentiment is the Simon Says Stamp small hello die, and the sequins are Darice. The small center pearls are from Stampin Up, as is the crushed curry card base.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Rounded Diamonds...

Another installment of homework for Stretch Your Stamps 2.  Lessons 7 and 8 are focused on graphic stamps.  The instructors are all using Avery Elle's Rounded Diamonds stamps.  I loved all of the examples and may try a couple more later.  I followed Laura Bassen's design, but opted to make a flower instead of a rainbow colored tear drop circle.

After making lots of  panels that ended up in the trash, I decided on a six petal flower, I wanted to use 5, but could not consistently get them to stay in a circle. Six worked fairly well.

 

I used Hero Arts inks in Soft Vanilla and Fresh Peach.  The image was created with the largest tear drop stamp in the Avery Elle set Rounded Diamonds; the sentiment is also from Avery Elle, the set is Oh Happy Day. Sequins are from Darice, and the seed beads are from Mode.  I added a couple of scrap strips of glitter paper from DCWV, and inked 2 strips with Fresh Peach to add some color matting.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Caring and Encouragement

Yes, my third post for the day!  I played in Lisa's scramble today here is her blog post about the scramble and an "encouragement" challenge at A2Z Scrapbooking. I will be entering my card to the challenge.

Lisa gave us a specific recipe for the challenge :
Theme - Caring, Colors Teal & White plus one other color is optional. (you bet I added another color!)
There had to be matching bling, a Hero Arts Sentiment, and the main image or background had to be from Hero Arts as well.


I don't used my wood stamps that often because they are in a large pretty box on my shelf.  I decided to go through the box and pick a few out for the challenge.  I came up with S4878 Old Letter Writing for the background, C5372 Enjoy the Moments for my sentiment, K5586 Daisies for my main image. 


I also used Pale Tomato and  Tide Pool inks from Hero Arts, as well as white embossing powder and bling from the blush collection. 

I stamped and embossed the daisies on watercolor paper and then embossed in white. I colored the petals and leaves and added a soft wash of tidepool to the background.  As that dried, I stamped old letterwrting on some SU Coastal Cabana cardstock, matted it in white and then placed it on a Card base of the same Coastal Cabana.  The sentiment was heat embossed on thick vellum in white. My water color panel was mounted using foam tape, and the sentiment was attached with a bit of glue and some clear foam.

With such busy lives, I think we all need the encouragement to take a bit of time for ourselves.


Thanks for stopping by!

Celebrate

On to Day 6 of Stretch Your Stamps 2. Again while downloading and printing the class PDF, I was struck by Debby Hughes' card on balsa wood, the colors she achieved were so striking.  As it was after midnight, another CASE was in order.

I scrounged through my scraps box and found some patterned papers, and some balsa wood...well maybe it was a bit thicker than balsa wood -- it was not happy being die cut, but with a few judicious scissor snips all is good.

I used the same stamp from Clearly Besotted's Fresh Flower set, along with a die from Cottage cuts for the sentiment. The balsa wood really does suck up the ink. I used Spectrum Noir markers, and got some color on the white stamens...but the blender solution on a cotton swab took most of it off. The bits and pieces include a Tim Holtz paper clip, some Hemptique hemp cord, Martha Stewart sequins, Heidy Swapp spray color mist and Stampin Up Pearls.

Thanks so much for stopping by, I am off to bed!

Thank you

Its going to be a 3 post Sunday...only because I am up so late Saturday night that it has turned into Sunday morning by the time I get these cards done.  So here is my Day 5 card, a complete CASE of Shari Carroll's card.  (Her artistic vision is so Awesome!)

When I was downloading the PDF for the class before watching the videos, the photo of her card really grabbed me.  I had to try it.

The stamps we are stretching for Lessons 5 and 6 are outline stamps.  Shari gave us a method of adding some wonderful dimension to flower stamps through paper piecing.

I used the Clearly Besotted Stamp set Fresh Flowers, and a sentiment from Avery Elle's Oh Happy Day set. My patterned paper was a left over scrap. Coloring was done with Derwent Intense pencils. Pearls are from Stampin up, and I used Smokey Grey ink from Versafine for the sentiment.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

You're One of a Kind

I made a promise to myself...no more eye candy...blog reading...you tube watching...or lesson skimming until I caught up with my class homework.  So as I was hosting an online poker tournament this morning (requires a lot of waiting for things to happen) I caught up with my day 4 homework.

I loved Marion Vagg's tweed pattern background card, and I went with it.  I didn't have quite the die cut to go all bendy with the stamps, but I understand the theory of.  So, I so love this tweed pattern stamp by Hero Arts, I forget about it because it is stored in a box...I usually just flip through the clear and cling stamps when looking for something to use.  But I knew I had this one!

After stamping and clear embossing on white card, then inking up with distress inks - I used a baby wipe to make sure no inking was left on top of the embossing. Next I used  a lifestyle crafts die to cut my window. I left the die in place and put the inked panel over my black base, and traced the inside of the die to create a line frame inside the window (a fun trick with open center dies.)

I pieced together two stamps from two different Paper Smooches sets - Word Salad and Sentiment Sampler and heat embossed those in white.  I found a few enamel dots for embellishment, and then as Marion did, mounted the panel using foam tape. This was a fun card to make, and I love the pop of white on black surrounded by so much color.

It's Friday and hubs is taking me out for lunch, so off to get ready.  Later on...on to lesson five and all the blog and you tubing I have missed!  Thanks for stopping by.

Make Life Beautiful

Today I tackled homework for Day 3.  I was quite taken with Jennifer Rzasa's card. 

She cut up portions of sentiments from the My Favorite Things stamp set Simply Fabulous Sayings, in order to make new sentiments.  She added a collage of stars in a curved line along the length of the card.

I used bits and parts of the sentiments to create mine as well.  I used Elizabeth Designs Bunch of Flowers to die cut the flowers placed for decoration from left over scraps.  Stampin Up pearls were used for flower centers. It took a bit of time to put this one together.

 

For the flowers, I placed them all where I wanted them, and piled them for a particular look.  There was no way I could re-do that with the gluing.  I placed a piece of 2 inch thick post it tape on the flowers, made sure they were all attached to the tape, then flipped the card.  Next I added glossy accents in small bits making sure each flower was dotted with glue.  Then I placed the entire bunch onto the card. Pressing down firmly.  Once the glossy accents dried, I slowly pulled up the tape.   Over hanging petals were trimmed, then pearls were added to some flower centers.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blue and Gold

My last effort for days 1 and 2...Backgrounds and Reverse Backgrounds.   Here is my version of Laura Sterckx's sweet ombre card. Hers was done in pinks and white embossing.  I could have gone that route...but I have this huge spool of gold thread...

The distress inks I used are Chipped Sapphire, Salty Ocean, and Tumbled Glass. I love the color that comes out when you mix the Salty Ocean into the Chipped Sapphire. I will have to remember that combination.

My background comes from Hero Arts - Magical. I love those dot swirls. Hero Arts is also the gold embossing power brand I used. The sequins come from Darice and Pretty Pink Posh. Sentiment is from W Plus 9.  I will have to catch up with two days of lessons tomorrow.

Thanks for taking a look!

Reverse Background

Another card from Day 1 of class.  Believe it or not I started with 2 4x6 pieces of background stamped paper.  After all my fussing and fiddling...I had this much left.  Shari Carroll makes it look so easy.  IT IS NOT! That's why her cards are so eye-catching. They look simple and just tossed together, easy breezy...but that lady puts a lot of thought into placement. I am even more in awe than before.

Though this did not match the idea in my head...I am feeling it!

Thanks for stopping by!

I Love Color - Bold Color

Another card made with that left over piece of water coloring from my day 1 homework; for Stretch Your Stamps 2, presented by Online Card Classes.

It too started out as a CASE of one of Kristina Werener's cards.  I put a yellow shadow behind my diecut, and then colored white sticker letters from Kelly Purkey with a yellow wink of stella glitter pen (after determining that yellow embossing powder does not show up on black card stock...maybe if I had stamped in white first...)



Kristina's card is much more clean, one thin strip of color at the bottom, but her card is landscape and mine needed to be vertical to accommodate the water color strips--not to mention the unfortunate embossing issue!  (It's all good.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Black is not white...

The things I learned today as a result of taking the Online Card Classes latest installment Stretch Your Stamps 2...have very little to do with the lessons.  The learning is in the DOING!

Today's class had some awesome examples, one can expect nothing less. The videos are fab and these women are just so GOOD at what they do. The first two lessons are confined to background and reverse background stamps.

For homework I make card fronts only I save them in a notebook with the lesson PDF's. 

My lesson tonight while DOING...black is not white. As a card base it is not nearly as forgiving as a white card base.  It shows every little tiny mistake and hint of a mistake...or as we crafters call them OPPORTUNITIES.


Kristina Werner presented a card with  rainbow water colored backdrop strips using  a white emboss resist technique on with a background stamp, on a white card base, and with a black bold shiny die and coordinating sentiment.

I CASED her card. My OPPORTUNITIES though,  required a few change ups.

I made it landscape---because my watercolor piece was not colored in the right direction to go portrait.  I used a black card base, and made my sentiment and die cut white. I thought they might pop more that way.  The die cut is covered in white wink of stella (Kristina used black on black) and glossy accents as well.

I love the design and have another card in the works.  I will be visiting my Dad again and will need cards for hubs!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Butterfly Wish

Hi, I had so much fun making this card, probably because once again my vision and my card looked so much alike.  I love shaped cards, they add so much interest for the recipient.  Virginia's View Challenge this month is shaped cards, and I wanted to get a card made early, lest I run out of time.

The challenge runs through the 18th 11:55 pm Eastern time.  So make a shaped card and enter it, you know you want to!  Any shape but square or rectangle qualifies!

I made a mini butterfly card, it measures 3.75 by 3 inches. I used Spellbinders Wonderful Wings dies.  I cut the solid shape twice from watercolor paper for my card base. My embellishment is the overlay die that has the spaces cut out for the butterfly wings' colors to be outlined.

I still cannot watercolor enough, so I used blues and greens for my background.  Once it dried I added two layers of wink of stella to give the wings that shine that some butterflies have. After that dried I added a layer of clear embossing.  Next on to the overlay piece, I layer it with 3 layers of Ranger fine detail powder in black to give it some heft and shine.  The sentiment comes from Simon Says Stamp, and is heat embossed in gold on heavy weight vellum.  The banner die cut is also from SSS.

I will also be entering this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.
And also a third challenge, the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge -J-  This butterfly reminds me of a jeweled piece with the gold sentiment and its inlaid enameled or cloisonne look.

Thanks all for stopping by! I appreciate the visits.

A new to ME challenge

I have a card for a new to me challenge, the Mama Elephant and me challenge. I couldn't resist the challenge watercolor plus birthday.  I still love to play with watercolors, so this was a fun challenge for me. It runs through August 28th, 2014.

 

I started with a piece of Canson 140 cold press water color paper.  I taped it down, wet it pretty good with a misting bottle, then added a wash of soft blue from my set of Koi watercolors.  Then I added a periwinkle and some soft lavendar strokes to give a striped feel.  While that dried, I added some diagonal lines to my card base with Hero Arts Cornflower blue ink and a stamp from the Mama Elephant set Basic Borders. 

Once my panel was dry I heat embossed the main image from the Mama Elephant set Water Blooms. I added a small strip of glitter paper from DCWV. Other embellishments include Hero Arts pearls, and Pretty Pink Posh sequins.  My sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp.

I am also linking this up to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything goes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Simple Thanks

 

Hi, it has been a busy summer so far with traveling and projects.  I made 31 cards in July...thanks mostly to card kits by Simon Says Stamp.  Now I am all caught up with the kits I had and won't have another for a while. 

I had time and decided to get some challenge cards made. It has been a while since I played along with Freshly Made sketches. 


When I saw the sketch, I  knew immediately what  I wanted to do.  My final card is pretty close to what was in my head so I am pleased with this simple card.

Now if I could just find a friend with a beach house to stay at --  this card would be the perfect thanks. (wink)

 

I skipped one layer, because I wanted to maintain an organic beach-y feel. The Kraft card reminds me of sand here.  I water-colored a piece of watercolor paper with Koi watercolors.

After it dried, I white heat embossed the shells from the Stampin Up By the Tide stamp set.  I cut the piece into three strips and atached them to the card front.

Next I added some white string and a softly glittered white shell brad from Michaels.  The thanks die cut is double stacked and from Simon Says Stamp.


Thanks for stopping by!