Trip to the Mountains

Hi again. Back with some pictures, and before I share those, I should answer a question posed by a UK blogger as to why I used the term 'punkin' instead of Pumpkin. Well, most properly, Pumpkin _is_ correct term. However, here in the South USA, the regional idiom is primarily 'punkin'. That can refer to the item or it can also refer to a sweet little child. F'instance, when our daughter was very small, Punkin was one of her nicknames. Sugar (pronounced Schug-AH here in the South) is another term of endearment, either for a child or a loved one! Some sweet Scottish blogger recently explained to me what a Hoolie was (Thanks Kate!). Anytime I use a term that is odd to you, please do ask me, and I'll try to explain. I find the different terminologies used by all of us - that mean the same thing but we use another word - to be so very much fun & interesting. To me, that's just one of the joys of this blog hobby. Hmmm...maybe I should add Hoolie & Punkin (and Sugah) to the Blog-i-nition section. Also do check the tab Cards by Friends for a nifty Halloween card we received last week.

Ok, on to the mountain ride pics. I'll just share a few so I won't bore you to death. I tried to share some that had the lovely blue color of sky that we refer to as Carolina Blue - when it's an intense shade, with absolutely no clouds to be seen. I will keep these photos in the small size.

Entrance

 

The water in the picture is part of a reservoir that supplies water to many counties that are quite distant from here.

The blue haze that can be seen in the pictures is part of what makes up the name Smokey Mountains. This particular area is not part of the Smokey Mountain chain (at least I don't think it is) but I think it is considered part of the Applachian Mountain chain. We've been to the Smokies and it looks very much like what is shown here. Actually we're not seeing a real blaze of color, as it has not been that cold in the area as yet. Next week would be an even better show, but a Ranger told us rain is expected Tuesday - Wednesday, so the rains will wash off a lot of the leaves. We were glad we chose to go out today. It was just very lovely. Wish I could have shared the magnificent sun & scenery with all of you who are enduring the nasty rain & storms around the world.

DH looking at an old truck that was parked outside Aunt Sue's, a famous restaurant up in this area. Very rustic & atmospheric, some nice gift shops to enjoy...only the restaurant was open by the time we got there, about 4:30 pm. We were lucky to still get a meal!

Some decorations in front of the restaurant. It's a very pretty place to eat and the food was good too. Had some delicious ice cream - pumpkin pecan & cherry amaretto. Yum.

DH, SIL, and Bro #2 and Sunshine the Schnauzer at Cesaer's Head. Everyone loved the dog, and she doesn't like strangers, so had to be very careful with her that she didn't upset somebody!!

 

Hoping to make some pretty screen savers of the leaf closeups. Isn't that hanging rock something? Who knows how long it's hung this way.

OK...that's it for now. Hope I didn't put you to sleep, and that you enjoyed seeing a little part of the area that we call home.

One more little story and then I'll close: In Europe, small hamlets are called Villages. Here in the USA, they are called 'towns', and the South is literally dotted with tiny little towns. One close to us is called Pumpkintown (yes there is a sign to let you know what the name of the little town is named), and we traveled through it this afternoon to get to the Mountain Park. All the locals call it Punkintown!!! Have a great week. Thanks for visiting tonight. Big Hugs.

Karen Burniston Class Cards

Good evening. Sorry to be late sharing the class cards photos but about 1:30pm, my brother (who lives down the street) suggested we all take a ride up into the mountains to see the fall color. Changed clothes and off we go. They had their miniature Schnauzer along, so we took 2 vehicles, as I have a bit of an allergy problem with the dog. It was a magnificent fall day & perfect for a ride. Will share some pictures in another post, as that one will be picture heavy. I snapped photos here & there, but haven't even looked to see what I got. Here's the Friday class cards:

Front of the pine tree popup card (this die was sold out so my friend & I have it on order)

The card opened. This was the easiest card that we made.

Believe this is called the Spiral die. The die just has the mechanism dies or shapes to make the card work. The trims are from other sets. We used the clock face die which has some gear shapes with it.

Swings open to show the interior. Didn't get this die, but my friend did. We tried to get different dies, unless it was something we both loved and thought we might not want to 'share'. Believe this is G45 paper, and it was all gone by the time we checked out. There were about 30 students in the class, and once it ended, there was a mad scramble to make purchases.

Front of the Happy Birthday Popup die. This was simple, just 2 rectangles of card stock, top piece embossed, red trim hides the join and decorated with some dies from an accessory die set.

The interior of the Happy Birthday popup card that was made in class, along with the die that cuts the shapes. The little bear is from another set called Honey bear, and the features have to be cut and assembled. (we got class kits so did no cutting)

Katie Label Accordion die (think Karen said she named this after her Grandmother). This set took most of us the longest of all 4 cards.

Front of the folded up Katie Accordion card.

All three pieces of the Katie Accordion card. The embellishments come from other die sets. I learned a tip for applying this frame (which is similar to the pumpkin swing card shared earlier.  Karen cut the pieces and ran them through a Xyron. Much easier than trying to glue the pieces on. Also said to float each piece evenly on the space, starting with either the bottom or top piece. Then butt up the next adjoining piece matching the miter and using a brayer to roll it down well once the frame is all set. It was much easier than the way I did it!

Hope you enjoyed the cards. It was a very good class, once I calmed down from the stress of our trip up to the shop. There's a lot of information to absorb, so I was very happy when I heard Karen B. say there are Youtubes for each technique! If you have a chance to take a class with Karen Burniston, my recommendation is Go for it!

My intention this afternoon was to pay visits & comments, then share these cards, then finish up the insides of the Halloween cards. {Sigh} I did get round to a couple blogs, but still way behind. I'll do one more post tonight if I have some decent pictures of what we saw today.

Thanks for stopping in. I'll catch up with all my lovely visitors as I can. In the meantime, God Bless and big hugs.

Halloween Punkins

Good afternoon. There's another gorgeous day in Upstate South Carolina. We have certainly had some lovely Fall days this past week, but today our temp shows 80F, even though the air is pleasantly cool. I am playing 'catch up' on the house stuff that is behind, since yesterday was a class day. 

Met my friend about 8:45am, and set out on what is - at worst - a 45 minute drive. Well it took us over 2 hours plus to arrive, and be 45 minutes late for the class. Two very serious accidents on the interstate had bumper to bumper traffic. We called to let the shop know why we'd be late. There were some other folks that were further behind on that interstate than we were. Karen Burniston & the shop staff were very considerate to make sure we didn't miss any of the class presentation - caught us up on what we'd missed. It was a very large class too- think there were 30-40 students. It was hard to concentrate until some of my traffic stress had dissipated, and there was a lot to absorb. It was a very productive class - so was very happy to learn all of the class cards are covered in online Youtubes. Had taken my swing card along to have an expert show what I did wrong. Now I know!!! Learned a couple very simple tips that will help me (I hope!) in making future cards with this die. Will share the class cards in a later post.

Here's today's card:

 

 

- image is from a Hampton Arts clear set, colored with copics, WoS, die cut with S/B label.

 

- card base embossed with SU spider web. Inked the EF with Delicata gold prior to embossing, and it looks quite nice.

 

- Sue Wilson Border die from the Austrian collection, and a Cheery Lynn sentiment die. Very simple ingredients, just took time to assemble them into a card.

 

Broke a tooth this morning while eating, so have an early dental appointment on Monday. Called the office emergency phone and asked to please get me in fast, so fortunately they did.

 

Don't forget today is the 25th, so the monthly challenge of Rudolph Day is open over at Stamping for Pleasure.  I hope to get 2 cards finished up so that I can play along.

 

I have to apologize that once again I am behind on visiting & commenting, but will do my best to make the rounds. Thursday DH wanted me to go with him on some errands & I'm pleased to be invited after more than 50+ years of togetherness. It was a beautiful day, we had a lovely lunch along with a pretty ride along some country roads. Then finished up at a stamp store. (trying to be restrained since I knew I'd be at the class in another store on Friday!). I have to confess that an outing with DH on a beautiful day, with promise of lunch, tempts me a lot more than sitting at the computer, to be looking outside the window at the sunshine. Don't give up on me visiting...I'll get there!  I would wish the same for each of you: that you have somebody you love to go enjoy a pleasant day in their company & are able to do so. Life is short. We have to make the most of each day we are given.

 

Come again when you have time. We'll sit on the porch-- (#2 brother stopped in on his morning walk, and we had coffee on the porch- which is when my tooth broke!). Big Hugs, and have a terrific day.

 

PS: I've been seeing some beautiful cards done by international friends using Brusho crystal watercolors. Dick Blick was the only USA source I was finding, and the product was expected to be in stock on 10/23. Checked the site on 10/23, some sets in stock,  but no time to place the online order until last evening. Once again, showed out of stock but I phoned, and was able to get the 24  color set ordered. Just passing along the info, in case any USA crafters are looking for this product.

Porch Fall Decorations

 

Hi & as promised, back again to share some pictures of what our cleaned (!) front porch looks like just at present. Many of the homes in our subdivision are decorated up so nicely for Fall & Halloween, so we decided to make an effort too.  Hopefully those who pass by, enjoy it, and on Halloween night, the tricker treaters will too. We have some small ceramic pumpkins with scary faces that we add right by the door (in front of the wagon & wheelbarrow).  We do that Halloween evening as the punkins have tea lights inside of them that glow in the dark; but only if the weather is such that we can sit outside when the kids are coming. Thought about arranging on both sides of the steps that come up to the porch - but didn't want to cause a trip hazard. We don't want some little one stumbling or bumping into a candle; so if it's too cold to sit out, we don't put these out.

 

 

 

Now on the other side of the front door:



Just in front of the porch:

 

This guy moved from Florida and usually has some straw bales with pumpkins & mums surrounding him, maybe a corn stalk or two. Mr didn't want to go to that much trouble, so all we got was Mr. Scarecrow. This was about the time he remarked to me, that whatever we put out, is going to have to be picked up and put away. This dampened my enthusiasm for adding yet more decorations. We have some colored Halloween lights but decided to go with just what you see. In 2 windows that face the other road (we are on a corner) we have some ceramic pumpkins from long, long ago, that have orange lights inside. When it gets dark, we turn those on, and they show pretty scary in the dark windows. We had 3 of these (and we have 3 windows that could use them!), but somewhere along the way, one got broken. Neither of us can remember if we made them during our 'ceramic hobby phase' or if we bought them - they are really old. In Florida Mr. would put them outside and he really decorated up so well, with skeletons, crows, even made a 'grave' out of bags of mulch, sprayed a sheet to look like dirt, and had an RIP tomestone. The kids used to love it. We had to be careful with the really tiny tots, that they didn't get scared. It was fun, but we don't do that now.

 

Hope you enjoyed seeing the pictures. Come again when you can. Big Fall Hugs.

DeeDee's Digis - Pumpkin Pals

Good afternoon and thanks for stopping to visit. First welcome to a new follower, Sammy of Sammy Jean. Gosh, it's great to see more faces populating that Members' Following List. Thanks so much for becoming a new follower. Do please take time to pay Sammy a visit, say hello, and enjoy some lovely projects.

Today's card uses some super DeeDee's Digi images and the set is called Pumpkin Pals...oh so cute, and some nice fall papers are included in this set as well. There is a Clear it Out Challenge going on  this this week and DeeDee's Digis is a sponsor. The challenge (if you choose to accept it - is Halloween  - or Black & Orange). It's time to make the last minute Halloween cards or do what Faith did and make a black & orange card. If you join in the challenge at Clear it Out Challenge you will have a chance to win a $10.00 gift code to the store!! There's some featured designs posted to inspire you, one of which uses the cute Beagle you saw here earlier this month. If you look on down the post, you'll see a great new Freebie digi that is awfully versatile & cute too.

Well, here's how I used the Pumpkin Pals - on one of those popup cards. I'm not happy with my results with the die (it's my 2nd try using it), but I do love these images. Here goes:

 The card base was cut with the popup die - which does the base frame and the ovals. In a class, we cut 3 of these bases to make an album card. For this card, I only did 2 base cuts, because I didn't want the thickness for mailing. The pieces are joined, and the oval swings have to be adhered together 'just so'. You can see what makes the oval swing so that the reverse side is visible (next photo). The cut out frame is a separate die, (later photo). Love this little punkin fox - which was precolored, but some extra copic shading was added; S/B die to cut the scalloped oval only. Shaded with DI Antique Linen while still in the die.

 

Inside with the front oval flipped to show another image from the Pumpkin Pals set, done the same way as the fox. The right oval was cut with the same die, using some of the pattern paper included in the set, as was the top sentiment. Wanted this to serve as a Halloween card, so added a SU sentiment that had been heat embossed with WOW orange EP, punched with a SU punch. As you can see, the inside is not finished off (I don't like this look...but that's how we did it in the class & I'm not quite sure how this could be finished off - perhaps with pattern paper?).

 



This is the very back of the card, and a strip of the dp was added to cover the raw edge. Liked this treatment better. Once the pieces are joined - I couldn't think of a way to cover the inside raw edge, and I'm not thrilled with this look. I thought these DeeDee's Pumpkin Pals were perfect to use on the swing, and there's one more cutie in the set. I decided to use the sentiment instead of the image so there is one left for another project.

This is the die set that creates the front trims - which were cut using the dp from the set. If card base is rectangle shape, there are 2 pieces that must be cut - two times - to form the outside trim frame. Obviously the position of the shape determines side or top placement. On the square pop up, just one trim piece is cut 4 times, and will fit  any side.Mine did not fit together in a smooth miter. Had the same trouble in class, where we did a square card. Hence the leaves on the card front to camouflage the area that didn't miter well. The leaves are from DeeDee's Pilgrim Owls set which was printed earlier for a project not finished. The leaf branch was handy, so decided to snip off a bit, add the leaves to trim & hide the messy miter. I'm still deciding on whether this card will get some surgery, and then just use the ovals with the images. I'll have to study the card a bit. I'm hoping that the class I'm taking Friday with Karen Burniston - whom I think is the designer of these frames & popup dies...anyway, I'm hoping to get some technique tips for using these dies better. I'm also not liking that the card won't open 'flat'. Wondering if I have something put together wrong, but I looked at the earlier class card & think it's the same way. Anyhow, thought I'd share it as it is.

 

Check out the nifty fall releases over at DeeDee's Digis . There are some darling designs, the prices are extremely reasonable, and I'm sure you'll find something that will inspire you for Fall & Halloween (and maybe Christmas too?).  

 

Have a wonderful evening, and I'll try to get round to all my visitors ASAP. I was caught up on Sunday, but am behind again. I can't make cards & visit as fast as I should. So please do forgive me if I don't visit immediately. I keep the email comments in the folder until I get a moment to pay some visits to my lovely followers. I DO appreciate you taking time to look in and leave your thoughts.

Big Hugs.

PS...There will be another post with some front porch pictures - in case you want to see it!

Halloween Witch with Textures

Good morning, and here we are at another Monday. Yesterday afternoon I took some time to play catch up with all the blog visits I was so behind on, which made me feel more productive than usual. Have got to get me out of the lazy routine I seem to have fallen into. Have great intentions of creating a card, then I just don't get rountoit. Do you ever do that? I hope I'm not the only one that's guilty of that trap. Need to get caught up on some Halloween cards that should get in the mail soon.

Here's a quick card, using a previously created background from a play/experiment. I'm still working on the embossing paste techniques & trying to improve.

- mixed media paper (Canson #90) was colored with brush strokes & dibs & dabs of leftover inks, left to dry.

- added some gold embossing paste over a stencil. Let that dry. Came back with some black Dina Wakely paste over a leaf stencil. Finding that I don't like the harsh black, and also see in the photo were it didn't cover well. Can fix that with some black paint I think. Covered one place with a foil leaf (which is not showing well in the photo, but looks ok on the card itself). Thanks to Miss Brenda at Inkspired to Stamp for sending me these foil leaves and the acrylic leaf that is added to the tag  - along with the pumpkin showing to the side of the card.

- Witch image stamped on a snippet of white c/s, trimmed and used an SU tag punch top to create this tag. As you know, I don't do many tags. This image was small, so thought it would work this way. Colored with copics, some WoS for glitz; added all the embellies. The bat was a DH purchase of some dimensional Recollection products - and {sigh} will require extra postage.

- sentiment stamped with Memento Espresso Truffle, punched with a SU punch, edged with DI colors in Scattered Straw & Spiced Marmalade as it was way too white (part of the same snippet that the witch was stamped upon). If you should have any questions about products, let me know.

In the meantime, have a wonderful Monday. Thanks for visiting, and big hugs.

Christmas Card Club - Rita's Reindeer

Happy Sunday. Today is another Christmas Club Card - and the theme was selected by Miss Rita of RMG Creations. (a very lovely blog in case you don't know about this one).

Today's card came together fairly quickly, once decisions were made about which dies to use. I'm  not going into depth about the dies used, but if you want the info, let me know. I'll just explain a bit about the creation of it. Here goes:

 

 

- white card base was embossed, just a bit peeking out behind the popped up S/B die cut,. The die cut paper was VOS indeed. Found in the stash, though the swirls were evocative of a snowstorm. There is a noticeable difference in the white colors, since the swirled paper is quite old, but I rather liked the look.

 

- IO Santa sleigh & IO tree die, Sweet Stamps reindeer & MBox joy sentiment. All these dies were cut from a white snippet that has been floating around the desk for a while. To get the pearly glisten, a wet brush was swiped over a Mica Color Stargazer iridescent white (see below) and painted the shapes. Was quite pleased with the effect achieved, as I couldn't find any white pearlized paper. Good to know I can do this.

 

 

 

This is another VOS product...comes in handy when I rediscover it time after time!

 

Please take time to visit the other members of this fun Christmas Card Club- their links are on the sidebar. Let me also welcome a new follower, Lorraine (Rainey's Craft Room) who is a member of our group. Thanks for becoming a follower Lorraine!

 

 

Ya'll have a nice day, and hope it's as beautiful wherever you may be in the world, as it is here in Upstate South Carolina today. We've had several just perfectly wonderful Fall days lately. Big Hugs.

 

 

 

In a Garden by Northwoods

Hello, did you think I had run away???Sorry for being MIA, but sometimes I just have to take a little blog break to do some Real Life Things (or just be lazy - or both!). Before I share today's card, let me say a big warm welcome to some lovely new followers:

Lynn B of Crafty Linby

H Moffett of Crafty Creations

Sharon F of Higgledy-Piggledy Crafts

 

Thanks so very much for joining as new followers! Hope you'll take a few minutes to pop over and say a big Hello to these talented crafters. Gosh, I am seeing some blog candy in the future. So you might want to stay tuned and if you see that following list* hit 300 (GOSH, what a big milestone that is to contemplate)...there's gonna be some celebratin'. (*if you follow with Bloglovin, you won't be in the data spreadsheet & your name won't be included in the Random Generator count. So if you're interested, please check the followers' list and add yourself to that list as well. I'd hate to miss including anyone).

 

We have had some rainy, overcast days here in Upstate South Carolina this week, but today is a perfect sunny Fall day. Blue skies (but there are some fluffy white clouds floating around), nice breeze, and the ground has dried out enough that Mr. could get out to mow the lawns.  We finally got a few of the Fall decorations out on the cleaned front porch, but decided to keep it minimal - with the thought of having to pick up and pack it all away again. I'll try to share some pictures.

 

Still haven't gotten the HTML problem solved. I'll ask again, if anyone knows an HTML expert, I'd appreciate the information. In the meantime, I've left the coding alone before I really hose up things.

 

When I'm not posting, many times I'm still coloring images or playing with making backgrounds - for when I'm in the mood to get a card ready & posted. Today's card is a pretty Northwoods image I've had colored for a while. It's really more of a Spring card rather than our current season, but I liked it.

 

 

 

- colored with copics, die cut with S/Binder Valiant honor. Did just a bit of stenciling in on the corners. This is such a pretty die. There's also some sparkle added with WoS pens.

 

- card base was sponged with DI Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn and Worn Lipstick (discovered I don't have the larger size of Picked Raspberry. How did that happen?). Then sprayed with some Tattered Angels gold spray purchased recently on sale. Went to clean the spray head after using the spray, and it was already clogged, just with one use. Some of the metallic sprays are difficult to work with - but one doesn't know until that first spray. Usually flushing the sprayer with water immediately after use helps to avoid this. Not this time. I did get some replacement spray heads, so will try it on this one. Also noticed the moisture of the spray made the card base curl, so it will need some major heavy flattening.

 

Have a wonderful afternoon, hope it's as lovely where you are, as it is here. Thanks for popping in. Big Hugs.



DeeDee's Digis Halloween Pirate YoHoHo

Good afternoon, and please help me welcome some lovely new followers:

Lynn Platt (and I'm sorry I don't have a blog link - so Lynn if you will contact me with that info, I can add your link in a later post)

Laurie of Stamping up North

Lucy Woods of Little Lucy's Handmade Cards

Brenda of Floral Fantasies  (Brenda has several blogs so I hope I've linked to the correct one)

Lynn B. of Crafty Linby

 

I saw the numbers in the followers' section change, but could only account for the names shown above. If you are a new follower here, and I missed giving you a shout out for your blog, please let me know so I can be sure to do that. I appreciate all my followers - hope you like what you see here, and it's always so lovely to meet new folks and see their work too. It's equally nice to be able to invite readers to visit some inspirational blogs to get new ideas and enjoy crafters' work. So thanks for taking time to become a follower here.

 

Secondly, in trying to add the Hover P (Pinterest button) to cards I post, with help from the very kind Lisa  of A Mermaid's Craft, I've discovered that some of the blog HTML code in this blog, is rather hosed up. If anyone knows how to repair HTML code, I'd love to have some help. Lisa was very helpful in her suggestions & advice, but then we became concerned that our 'fixing' would damage the blog. I don't want to lose my posts, and even more importantly, all my lovely followers. So I need someone who knows how to edit code to give me a shout if you would. If you know of someone who designs blogs, I'd appreciate a contact. Thanks so very much to Lisa for her time in trying to help me with this, and thanks to anyone else who might be willing to give some assistance.

 

Now onto my card for today.

 



_DeeDee's Digi's Freebie for World Card Making Day . DeeDee offered this really cute puppy pirate and his parrot companion free over this past weekend. Didn't get my card finished & posted in time to celebrate World Card Day, but the image is still available in the store Newest Releases and is priced very reasonably. Do check out these newest images, as there are some adorable sets for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Also for October's Digi of the month, there is another cute set available for just $1.25 and the challenge is open until November 2. It's a great way to build up your digi stash. Some of the talented DT have presented some wonderful inspiration for the October Digi to give ideas of how the set can be used.

Here's how it works:
If you are new to the Digi of the Month challenges, it's not too late to join in the fun! This is a monthly progressive freebie challenge. You can purchase this month's featured set for just $1.25 in the shop, or get it for FREE with any $10 purchase of Deedee's Digis products. NOTE: Deedee will email this set to you after payment clearance of your qualifying purchase. Create and share any wholesome project made with this set by the challenge deadline, and you will be sent  next month's featured set for FREE. Keep playing, and keep collecting freebies -- it's as easy as that! :-)  

image was printed twice, one die cut with a S/B label and airbrushed with various copic colors while still in the die. Second image fussy cut, and shaded with copics and some Spica pens. Used a stylus on the pumpkins, hat & the puppy's ears, but don't think the photo shows this. Did the same treatment on the treasure map.

- background was 2 triangular snippets used from a previous project, and liked the colors with my puppy's background.

- Washi tape covers the paper join and the sentiment is washi as well.

A very, very easy card - once I got started on the process! Life has just been getting in the way of card making & posting. I'm sure all of you know how that goes! Since this card has some snippets, and since some nice prizes are on offer, I'm off to visit the Snippets Playground, Week 145 . 

Thanks for joining me this afternoon. I hope to get some more cards finished up and posted. Halloween is getting closer & there's cards to get ready! Have a wonderful afternoon, and if you have time, please do visit my lovely new followers, DeeDee's Digis & the Snippet Playground. You'll be glad you did! Big Hugs.

Another Autumn Butterfly for Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge

Hiya, back again with another Butterfly card for Mrs. A's Challenge #15 (Autumn Butterflies).

First though, let me extend a warm welcome to my newest follower, Tammy of Tammy's Spot. So  happy to have you visit here, and hope you'll like what you see! Many of you already know about Tammy's wonderful blog, but for those who might not, please pop over to say Hello.

Now onto the Butterfly card:

 

 

This card was inspired by Friend Donna of Creative Smiles after seeing how she made a recent card.  I've seen other bloggers use this die technique; had just finished this bit of color play, and decided to try the technique for this card.

 

First the mixed media paper had been watercolored using an old Stargazer watercolor set I found.

 



- dampened the w/c paper, and using a wet brush, applied swaths of autumn tone colors in stripes down the length of the paper. Let that dry. Using Distress Inks in Fired Brick, Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade and Mowed Lawn and a small stencil brush, applied these inks using a MB butterfly stencil.

 

This is the stencil I've used recently for paste embossing and was not pleased with the results achieved. Worked a bit better using inks & brush to stencil - think the card photo shows the stenciled butterflies. IRL they show better.

 

Staz On Saddle Brown stamped some butterflies from a clear set purchased at a consignment/garage sale. This set was quite brittle, and in removing one from the clear sheet. it simply tore apart. Lesson learned: perhaps don't buy acrylic sets from consignment or garage sales in future. I'm glad I didn't spend a lot of money for this set. Would have been a waste, because I think this set will get trashed as being unusable.

 

Wet a tiny brush, inked with some of the purple stargazer, and did a bit of outlining while the stencil was still in place. Shows up nicely IRL but think you can see a little bit of it in the photo.

 

- die cut both sides of the dried piece with S/B curved bracket - using 2 of the dies for each cut (one is decorative, one cut the curved edge shape). Adhered to cream card base. Used the cut off waste from the bracket to adhere to the inside right of the card base - on the right side of the cream edge. Cut the card front with the same dies so that this color would show.

 

- Fern is a snippet from a past project trying to the inlay technique. Had used UTEE on the die cut positive piece, and then it didn't fit back well into the negative cut. It's been on the desk for a while. Gold butterfly is an outline sticker, applied over a snippet  of clear packaging from a S/Binder.

 

- sentiment stamped using the Saddle Brown. That's it! Hope seeing the supply pictures helped to explain the how-to's. This was a fun card to make, and was done in bits & pieces as a thought to 'try this' would occur.

 

Ya'll have a wonderful day. I'm off to link up at Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge and the Snippets Playground Week 145. Sorry I missed World Card Day yesterday, but was just too busy to participate. Hope your day was just grand. Hugs

 

Edit: Just realized this might work in the Mixed Media Challenge Card Challenge #4 (which is vintage) so I hope this could meet the requirements! It's kind of 'vintage' as some of the supplies were pretty vintage for sure!!!(the Art Quest mica paints!)

Christmas Card Club - Carol Singers

Good Morning and today it's Christmas Card Club Sunday. Our group submits cards every other Sunday with a theme decided upon by one of the members. Today our theme was chosen by Sweet Sue P. of Planet Susie and her choice was Carol Singers.

The card I finished is not what I started out to make. I have had the Tim Holtz Carolers die for a while, and when I saw Sue's choice, I thought "Aha, finally will use this die". So cut some chipboard  & black cardstock using this die. Layered these together, and then discovered, the images are quite a bit larger than appropriate for the size of card I usually make. So what to do? Remembered another PBlack image in the stash, with Caroling Penguins and thought "These are carol singers too" so off I go last evening to hunt up this stamp. (and not so easy to do in the mess I have! LOL).

Had made up some backgrounds after seeing this pretty card over at Benzi's (she has a link to the SCS tutorial for this alcohol marker marbling technique). So basically all I needed to do was stamp the image using Staz On Black, and do a little coloring. Just loved the result I got trying this new-to-me technique with copics.

 

 

- Copic alcohol markers in shades of blue were scribbled over a taped Ziploc baggie in random splodges, then spritzed with rubbing alcohol from a spray bottle. Then a piece of glossy cardstock was placed down on the wet ink and lifted. You can see the lovely marbling achieved. Please do visit Benzi's tutorial link to the Splitcoast Stampers video showing exactly how to do this. It's such fun (and easy too!).

 

- PB Caroling penguins stamped in Black Staz On since I didn't know how my usual Memento black tuxedo would work over the glossy marbling. Stamped the same image on 3 different Christmas patterned papers, cut out the hats & scarves and did some paper piecing. Once the pieces were glued to the main image, highlighted with some copic markers and spica pens.

 

- Beaks & feet were colored with yellow, then orange Spica pens. Decided to try Orange Wink of Stella and liked the darker look much better.  White gel pen around the hat fur & pom-pom. Thought about adding some glitter while the ink was wet, decided not to. Some Spica green & red on the holly that is on the song books.

 

- Stickles Star dust added for the snow flakes and snow, and then added some Sparkle n Sprinkle Twinkling Clouds for the dusting of snow.

 

- Memory Box Lamp die - light colored with WoS. Sentiment is from the PB stamp set.

 

- Silver glitter mat, then placed over another marbled c/s before adhering to the card base.

 

Thanks for joining me today. Will be back in a bit with a 2nd post. Do check out the other Christmas Cards submitted to our challenge by the Club Members that are listed in the side bar. Big Hugs. Enjoy your day.

 

 



Here's the plastic baggie taped down over a piece of paper the size of the card stock used to marble. The underneath paper serves as a template to aid in placing the marker colors. Bottle is labeled as to contents. Do please check out the tutorial video..it's fun to watch it.

Edit: Also linking this to the Penny Black and More October Challenge: Get Ahead for Christmas and CHNC Challenge Extra for October. (Thanks, Hazel - for reminding me!)

Pumpkin and Mouse Fall

Welcome and thanks for stopping in for a visit. Will cut right to the chase & show the card.

- Image is a from a clear Hampton Art Halloween set, and the greeting is from an Inky Antics clear fall set. Image stamped on a square snippet left over from cutting the center from another project die - just the right size to stamp this cute little image. Colored with copics and some WoS.

- die trim pieces were from an experiment working with mixed media paper, some water colors & Dale Rowney pearlescent inks. Looked good,but then used a PB Halloween tree stamp inked with Versafine black (image is quite detailed). Did NOT stamp sharply on the mixed media paper (or the previous ink layers could have added to the problem) - even using the Bonnie's Best Stamp press. Liked the inky colors so decided to use it as the scalloped mat, the trim dies, rather than toss it.

- Die trims were from a S/Binder die (think it was Resplendant Rectangle). Hunted through the die stash to find something that would work with the remains after cutting the scallop mat.

- Flower was a freebie in a recent order and sponged Fluid Chalk Pumpkin Spice over to work better with the colors of the pumpkin. Card base is a textured orange Bazzill that has been hanging around the desk for a while.

That's it! Wishing all a Happy Friday, and sending big Hugs your way.

Edit: Thanks to some very sweet bloggers giving me a heads up on the Scrapy Land Challenge#3 this card will be submitted there. This is an Anything Goes Challenge using any brand of die sold by Scrapy Land. So thanks to those bloggers who gave me a shout about this challenge.

Autumn Butterflies - Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge

Good afternoon & welcome friends. Hope that you're enjoying a lovely afternoon. Today is our DD's birthday. So today has been a day of much reminiscing for DH & me....how blessed we were all these years ago, and neither of us can realize her age! (That's when you REALLY feel old, is when you know your kids are are in middle age. DD might not like to hear that term applied to her however!)

Yesterday afternoon the front porch finally got cleaned...and boy was I tired last evening. Muscles  not used for a while are protesting vigorously. When this post is finished, the back porch is next on the agenda. (thankfully it's much smaller). Next week we'll try to get out some fall decorations on the cleaned porches.

Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge has an Autumn theme for #15, so I wanted to play along. Have been making some backgrounds using Daler Rowney Pearlescent inks. One of these just needed some butterflies added to meet the requirements (autumn colored butterflies).

Here goes:

-  mixed media weight paper, Hero Arts swirl stamp inked with versamark, heat embossed with  WOW Pearl white EP. Nice resist to color with Daler Rowney Pearlescent colors.

- Pearlescent red, pearl white  were placed with a dropper dispenser in small blogs on craft mat along with another type of yellow acrylic paint since no yellow DR in the supplies as yet. With a fairly wet brush, diluted each small dab of color to dilute, then swiped over embossed resist. Randomly dabbled colors until I liked the effect. Dried, then sprayed an orange Lindy's starburst color- which created some glimmering splats. 

- After drying, a MB butterfly stencil to add texture using embossing paste. (under the 2 lower butterflies, but it's a bit hard to see after adding the dimensional butterflies). This is a pretty stencil pattern, but think it might work better with pan pastels or other inks.

-  some overspray paper (snippet) used to die cut MB butterflies. (The newspaper weight paper comes as packing in craft supply shipments. It's a bit sturdier than tissue paper, but still very thin. Saved to line the air brush desk or a box when spraying. Creates some lovely colors too). Because of the thinness, doubled the paper prior to die cutting each solid & overlay butterfly layer.  Adhered the layers with a tiny bit of Tombow glue. Tiny insect body cut from a snippet of brown c/stock.

- Silhouette cut sentiment cut from white c/s (also a snippet), colored with copic gold marker, then again with a gold gel pen.  (The snippet was a 12x12 c/s from past Silhouette efforts to cut a motif. I'm learning to place the items so that the Silhouette moves past previously cut out places. Because of the calligraphy design of the letters, which were sized down to fit the card, it was tricky removing from the sticky mat.) Still at Baby Steps at learning to use this tool.

- matted against a chocolate brown, then a rust color cardstock. The base card is cream but it looks white in the photo.

Linking to Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge 15 - Autumn Butterflies and Week 144 at the Snippets Playground.

I'm off to clean so thanks for joining me this afternoon. Do check out Mrs. A's Butterflies and the Snippet Playground. Tons of inspiration for you. Big Hugs.

Edit PS: I keep forgetting to say I've added a new Fall card to the Cards by Friends tab. It's pretty!