Christmas Card Club - Carols

Good morning, and welcome to another Christmas Card Club post. This week our bi-monthly challenge theme (#11) was chosen by Rita, of RMG Creations. Rita selected Christmas Carols.

In the stash, I found some music score paper with the song Jingle Bells, (not a traditional carol, but none-the-less a Christmas carol of sorts). Somehow I managed to cover up the left side where the title shows, but it IS the score of Jingle Bells (at least that's what it says! I don't read music so really wouldn't know LOL).

 

 

The background paper started as a white & black music score. Sponged DI Fossilized Amber to create a more vintage look. Added DI Antique Linen around the corners & edges. To create more depth, DI Tea Dye applied to the corners  around the edges of the paper, keeping the darker color minimal.  Lastly, sponged DI Iced Lemonade at the very center to create a golden glow. Distressed the edges with the Tonic paper tool. Darkened the edges with Vintage Photo.

- PBlack wooden Christmas motif stamp was inked with Versamark, heat embossed with Rangers Gold detail powder. Parts of the image did not show well, so added an embellishment over that.

- Impression Obsessions Carolers Die cuts inked with Versamark, then heat embossed with Rangers Detail Gold Powder. This gold is not as vivid a gold as my favorite Queen's Gold.

- Cottage Cutz Vintage Bells diecut from white, colored with copics. This cuts as 2 pieces. Added some glossy accents to the ribbon and bells after coloring. The Jingle Bells seemed to work with the song title.

- white card base was inked at the edges with versamark, heat embossed with Gold Detail EP.

Hope you will take time to visit my fellow team members, whose blogs are listed on the side bar, and see how they were inspired by Rita's Christmas Carols theme.

For my USA friends, let's not forget that tomorrow is our Memorial Day holiday, when we remember those who have died for our freedom while serving in the country's armed forces.

As always, thanks for coming to visit, and I hope you will have a most pleasant Sunday. Blessings & Hugs

SU Woodland Folder for Rudolph Day May 2016

Good morning, and welcome to Rudy Day, May 2016! I've had the Stampin Up Woodland NBUS embossing folder for a while. Had been seeing some really pretty cards using it, so after sorting the embossing folders for a couple nights, decided this folder needed to be used. Guess what? It was NOT in the SU plastic storage box....it was NOT in the Trees section of the other EF plastic boxes. So much for my sorting efforts  :-(  ! Then remembered putting it away 'carefully' so I'd not misplace it, (not in the EF boxes of course!). Began hunting through some other places. It did turn up, and after this use, will go into that SU box.  I liked the folder so much I made several cards - just using different colors of inks. Here's one of the cards that I decided would work for Rudolph Day. You DO know about Rudolph Day, right? It's a challenge hosted by Maureen of Scraps of Life by Scrappymoi, starts the 25th of each month til month's end. Only rule: have a Christmas theme. Easy Peasy, yes?

 

- SU Woodland Textured Embossing folder over a top fold tan cardstock, which was left from another project (Hmm...could this be considered a snippet? Perhaps). Copic warm grays to shadow the trees and darken around the tree bark. A white pigment ink (Hero Arts Unicorn - very wet)

was used to ink the folder. My first effort, I inked the trees instead and that yielded nice look - but that will be in a later DT post. Looked at some videos, yeah, you're meant to ink the background....Many thanks to all those bloggers & Pinterest posters who inspired me with their use of this pretty EF--- way too many to mention & link.

 

- MBox birds die cut the cardinals from a white snippet, then colored with copic reds, with black Spica for the birds' masks. (you knew they'd be cardinals, didn'cha?)

 

- MBox Woodland Fawn die cut from a snippet of copper that had been created by using a butane torch to patina. (Stamping with Loll's Heated Copper Technique - great video). Got a better result with the effort this time; my first try some time ago, was not very successful. Still do not have the lovely patina you'll see in the video, but it's improving. The fawn is popped up on dimensional tape.

 

- Simon Says Stamp sentiment - tried to cut this from the copper, but the lettering was just too fiddly; cut another from a white snippet.  First embossed with a Sweet Stamps Rose Bronze EP-- the color didn't look well with the rest of the elements. Re-embossed this with a Ranger Gold Detail EP, and liked it better. Just for grunts & giggles, have been using a WOW embossing pad, and like it just as well as the old faithful Versamark. It seems a bit 'juicier' - and not just due to being freshly inked either.

 

OK...so now I'm off to link up with May's Rudy Day, and ya know what, perhaps I'll see if Parsnip will let me in the gate at the Snippets Playground for Week 230.  It's been so long since he's seen me, he may not recognize me! Why don't you come along to both these friendly challenges, and have some fun with the rest of us?

 

Thanks for popping in today, and hope it's a wonderful afternoon for you. I'm waiting on some marble folks to (hopefully!) show up to put in a new shower pan. THEN we wait for some other crafts people to show. The coordination of crafts persons is what is taking this project so bloomin' long! (But I'm trying hard to be patient. Impatience doesn't help, I've already tried that!!! LOL)

 

Hugs & Blessings.

 



House Mouse Graduation

Happy Sunday! Thanks for coming over on a sunny but windy afternoon. Let's start out with a warm welcome to my newest follower, Pamellia J. of My Little Craft Things.  Thanks for joining as a new follower here, and I hope my friends will soon become YOUR new friends. Pamellia not only does some fantastic card creations, but shares some incredibly wonderful photographs that you definitely want to enjoy. So do please give Pamellia a look in, and let her know I sent you over.

We have a grand niece who is graduating from high school and so needed a card. Did the colors to match the invitation to the ceremony - the school's colors. Bought this cute little House Mouse stamp years ago, just exactly for family graduations...always have to hunt it up. Looked through many plastic bins of embossing folders to find the one used  here. After the 3rd look-through, and not finding the EF, decided to start a better category sort. (Found the folder TOO!). Had bought some brightly colored plastic file folders at the local Dollar store (Walmart has them also)...cut them to size, made a tab, and wrote down the theme category. I'm happy to report that 5 plastic bins of EF's are now sorted. I expect I shall be shaking my head later and saying "Why on earth did I put THAT one in here?". Still have some in the old blue zipper Cuttlebug storage bags that I started with - that need attention. But I feel righteous that I did something positive about some of the mess!

 

 

- Stampendous HM image, stamped with Memento London Fog, colored with copics, glossy accents. A gold Pentel Slicci pen colored the tassel on the ceremonial cap.

 

- S/B Opulent Ovals - die cut motif. S/B Petite Oval large cut the gold mat. Mat was done with Wow Gold Pearl embossing over white snippet, and the center of the oval was removed before embossing.

 

- Darice EF to emboss the blue background.

 

- sentiment & inside verse was computer generated. Printed on a laser printer, and foiled using the Minc machine.  I have to say this _did_ give better & more evenly foiled results than what I've done with the Nuvo glue pen, but the pen is faster & easier to do.

 

Now the card just needs to have the green added inside! (I'm sure you'll all know what I mean by the inside green!)

 

Hugs and have a fine Sunday afternoon. Come again when you can.

 



Green Butterfly

Good afternoon, thanks for surfing in for a visit. Today has been one of those overcast days you just wish it would rain and get it over with. It's been quiet, and I have just been a bit lazy..nothing that I _had_ to do, plenty I _could have_ done, but just not in the mood to do so. Had some oldies music playing, hunted through the music stored on the pc to create a flash drive to  have the car. Just piddly sort of stuff. The telephone hasn't even rung today, which means no aggravating soliciting calls. Now that's a rarity here.

Today's card is the remains of creating this card.

Popped the leftover die cut background over a purchased card and added a die sentiment - think this was cut with 2 layers of vellum, and colored with a copic pen.

Ellentina Elegant butterfly die also cut from vellum. Bottom layer colored on both sides with copics in yellow green shades. Top piece of vellum was dabbed with versamark, heat embossed with SnS detail white. Colored in with a new set of KaiserCraft Gel pens. Wasn't sure how these pens would look on vellum, but the effect was quite nice.

Hope your day was pleasant or just whatever you needed it to be. It's lovely to have a day now & again, when you don't really _have to do anything special_. 

And I will update on the bathroom project as things happen. Don't think it's going to get completed real fast...too many crafts people have to coordinate supplies, schedules, that kind of thing. Some of the elements have to be 'made', so that takes time also. Trying to be patient. Thanks for all the encouragement - appreciate it!

Blessings and Hugs

Embossing Paste and Copper Frantage



Hello and welcome to a scheduled post. Today's card has been finished for a while, but has been weighted down due to curling edges! The card front is a heavier water color paper. Started off with a Tim Holtz Scribble stencil, mixed up some white embossing paste with acrylic inks. Then think some watercolors were puddled around (smooshed) to create the top colors. (gosh, it's been so long, I don't honestly remember what created the background, but pretty sure it was watercolor of some sort).

Once again, tried my hand at frontage**. This stuff is a copper flake type of stuff, think it's made by Stampendous. On the stenciled area, dropped the flakes into the still damp paste, and then once this had dried, used some versamark over the top area, dropped some more copper flakes. Used a heat gun from underneath to try to adhere it. Something I must be doing wrong, cause this stuff just doesn't like me. Finally put out some glue, used tweezers, dipped the flakes into the glue, onto the card. The stuff is still falling off! What has stayed put, looks ok I guess.
**Edit: For the sweet commenters who suggested trying to heat the frontage from underneath, I did try that. (and  have with other efforts). Also very gently from the top, with the heat tool a distance away, moving and not staying on one spot. I just can't seem to manage to get the stuff to stick. This particular one was more of a 'flake' than the chunkier powders I've tried that are labeled frontage. But it was _supposed_ to stick when heated, according to the directions on the jar.

 

 

Butterfly has been floating around in the Crapalanche for a while, and it had been colored with Zig watercolor brushes, after being embossed with clear EP over black inking. Added some Bronze irResistible pico overe the body and on the wings. Doesn't show well in the photo, but IRL it looks quite nice with the copper flakes.

 

A die sentiment was covered with versamark, embossed with a WOW copper EP. While still warm from the heat gun, applied more versamark, EP, heat...Did this 3 times to get a very textured and dimensional appearance to the die cut that I liked.  Rounded off the corners, and called it done. Then put under a stack of acrylic stamp blocks to press out the curling watercolor front.  This will probably become a birthday card.

 

Ya'll have a grand day. Sharing a couple photos of the bathroom project...the demolition crew showed up Tuesday, in the rain. We'd had lovely days, so of course it's Murphy's Law, that it would rain on the day this tear out would take place. A bathroom window had to be dismantled in the pouring rain, so that the crew could toss the debris into a waiting dump truck. I could just envision them having difficulty replacing the sashes back in the track, and me being stuck with an open window and it raining. Pleased to report the crew were efficient, professional, and despite having to track in through the wet, left the area pretty clean. Hope the rest of this project will go as smoothly as this part did!

 

Come again when you can. Blessings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wood stuff was something from another project that was going to the dump. Our stuff is just the old marble walls and the glass blocks. Hopefully in a few weeks, I can share pictures of the finished project (fingers x'd!)

 

 

 

 



 

 

Butterfly Challenge = R is for Red

Good morning. Up very early on a rainy morning after many days of lovely sunshine. Oh yes, the demolition crew showed up to start taking down the bathroom walls this morning, so of course it would rain today. The window sashes were removed and as they were taking it out of the casing, and the rain was pouring down, I said "I do hope you know how to put that back in when you get all the material out". A little scary! The wall debris was tossed into a through the window into the bed of a dump truck pulled up next to the house, and will be disposed of.

Anyway, Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge (R is for Recycle or Red) is still ongoing, and I decided to use the Yupo paper butterfly I had made earlier - which was too big for the card previously entered.

 

 

Two different papers were created using DI inks and a Crafters Companion plastic flower stencil. On the solid piece, embossed the stencil using this Ellen Hutson video**; just removed the stencil and started sponging Barn Red, Scattered Straw. Added just a bit of Art gold 'wax' paste . Found this little pot of colored waxy product in Hobby Lobby/A C Moore. I've looked at gilding wax, but the USA sources (Amazon) are so expensive to ship. This stuff doesn't have the odor of the tube product I've used. Burnished the surface with dried baby wipe after applying. On the lighter stenciling, left the stencil in place after embossing, then sponged with the same colors of DI. What a different look this creates. Cut from the yellow portion, as the red wings of the butterfly showed better on the yellow portion.  After die cutting the fold edge piece, used an offcut of the same sponged c/s to add on the interior right edge.

 

 **Since viewing this video, been looking at all my plastic stencils with an eye to using in this fashion.

 

- Penny Black Swirling Wings butterfly die cut from alcohol inks dropped on Yupo paper. This looks very shiny. Probably should have placed the butterfly lower down the card so that it was all on the gold sections...think the red colors would show more effectively. Always 2nd guess myself!

 

- S/B Borderabilities A2 Bracket 2 dies to create the edges on each side.

 

- PB sentiment die, cut from the solid sponged piece, and added a white fun foam layer under the colored piece for some dimension. Some gold pearls on the butterfly, and call this one done.

 

Off to link to Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge #54...

 

Ya'll have a nice day. My workmen have finished this part of the effort, waiting on someone else to show up and measure the space for marble. Floors need vaccuuming, although the fellas did a great job of cleaning after themselves. Just complimented them to their boss, who came by to remove the dump truck with all the debris.  I think an afternoon nap will be in my agenda - I hope! Hugs

 

Christmas Card Club - Snowy Trees

Hello and welcome to another Christmas Card Club Sunday.  Christine of Christine's Cards and Crafts is our challenge hostess today, and Christine wanted to see Snowy Trees. Our Christmas Card Club is a group of ladies who make Christmas cards all year long, share our cards every 2 weeks -  and each of us has a chance to decide on that week's challenge. If you are interested in having fun with our group, please let me know, and I can provide the contact info for joining our little group.

On to the card:

- Penny Black Snowy Grove cling stamp was placed on the Misti, inked with Hero Arts Gray, stamped onto white cardstock. Stamping was not as dark as desired, so reinked with Memento Northern Pine (a green), restamped...that's the beauty of the Misti. The 2nd stamping was exactly perfect over the gray, with no smudges. Cleaned the stamp, reinked with versamark, moved the cardstock just a smidge, stamped a 3rd time to create a 'shadow'. Heat embossed with SnS Detail White, to get the snowy trees. In the photo, it's a bit hard to see the dark shadow, but IRL it shows nicely.

 

- Polychromos blue pencils to color the sky background. This was not dark enough, so then sponged over all with DI Chipped Sapphire. This looked more like the dark night sky I was going for. Burnished with a paper towel to clean the DI off the white trees.

 

- added a clear bird sticker, which was embossed with a red Ritz Glitter.

 

- white gel pen to emphasize the falling snow flakes, then added Stickles Star Dust over some of the flakes, which sparkles quite nicely. Also some Star Dust on the ground snow as well.

 

- Silver mirror mat, navy blue card base.  - Sentiment sticker...it's done.

 

While hunting through the sticker box, came across an old page of PBlack stickers, and there was a snowy tree scene. Easy to make up another card with the same supplies.

 

  

- Penny Black sticker, backed with silver mirror mat, then a pale blue glitter mat and topped onto a navy card base.

- added a few stickers from the sentiment sticker page, some Star Dust stickles, and another one for the stash.

Please do check out my fellow CCC members, whose links are on the right hand side bar. You'll enjoy their snowy trees inspiration and get some good ideas.

Thanks for joining me today. Hope you are having a Blessed Sunday. Big hugs.

Butterfly Challenge = R + Ruby

Happy Saturday! Here the sun is shining, it's fairly warm, and I finally got a card ready in time for the 54th Butterfly Challenge (where the theme is Butterfly +R for Recycle and/or Ruby Red! Last time I missed the deadline.

Here's the card and then will explain where the recycle effort comes into play (and you must promise not to laugh!!! - well, ok, you can laugh a little bit).

- SU Rose die cut from white and a created background, that looks pink, even though red sprays and other products were used (brusho, mica sprays, mica powders...it just would NOT turn red!) Decided to exaggerate the offset for this more so it would be more than just a shadow effect.

- MBox Pippi Butterfly overlay created with alcohol inks over Yupo paper...Liked this red, and die cut with my new metal plate, cut like a dream. All little bits just fell right out. This Yupo paper is such fun to play with using alcohol inks.

- MB Isabella Butterfly for the underlayer using some of the spray created background, and decided to hunt up a snippet of red for one of these...I was getting very discouraged at having some red. Now it looks more burgundy than red when I see the photo.

Now for the recycle - which is the background: Used a piece of very lightweight cardboard that came from a package of men's jockey shorts! (ahem...a new package was required at our house, and when I was gathering up the wrappings to toss, thought the white cardboard had a rather nice finish on it. Wondered how that might take to alterations. Remember, now: I don't DO altered stuff! So perhaps this is my 1st foray into that arena!! LOL). Ok, first I sponged on about 4 shades of DI red inks. Didn't want to really dry well, so heat set between applications of succeedingly darker reds. Still looked quite 'pink'. Then advanced to sprinkling brusho Osto Red, Scarlet and Crimson dry powders, spritzed very lightly.Now - - yes, getting some red. Puddled each layer of the brusho color around with the Ranger Spritzer tool, let it dry slightly, dropping another color of the red crystals over. Then dropped on some Ken Oliver Metallic Platinum, puddled that around. Still not as red as I wanted. Finally got Dylusions Post Box red, a Lindy's Stamp Gang spray that looked red, spritzed, spritzed, and finally said "that's as red as this is gonna get". Left it to dry. The pink rose and the butterfly underlays came from smooshing up the over sprays of the different sprays...and really created quite a pretty pink.

Added on some sequins..(and there's more than I would have used normally; the package spilled and it was easier to pick 'em up with the sticky pickup tool, adhere on the card front, than try to put back in the package. These are Pretty Pink Posh, so they were not going in the trash!!!

Hope you've gotten a chuckle from my adventures, (and psst...don't mention the recycle item!). Do join in over at Mrs. A's Butterfly Challenge and you can have some fun too!

Have added 2 new pretties to the Cards by Friends tab, that you'll be able to enjoy along with me. It's lovely to have such talented and generous friends!

Have a wonderful afternoon, thanks for coming by to visit, and Blessings and Hugs.

Edit: Forgot to say that the sentiment is 2 layers of vellum, colored with copic reds, because I want to keep a light effect in that corner. Used a glue that didn't show to adhere the layers together, since the vellum was colored.

White Leaves, Green Leaves - Celebrate!

Good Morning and thanks for dropping in for a bit. First off, please help me welcome a new follower, Nancy Stislow.   Nancy does not have a blog _yet_ (but some of us are trying hard to convince her to start one). If you are a Splitcoast Stamper, she has a gallery there, so you may already know her work.  I met Nancy through Loll and the CAS Mix up Challenge.  Nancy has been clever enough to design a unique metal plate (think Sizzix Precision Plate only better!) to do intricate die cuts. Loll and Bonnie provided Nancy's information & I contacted Nancy for the particulars; happy to say that this new plate is in house and I am LOVING it! It's a bit thicker & heavier than the Sizzix plate, but oh, does it cut like a dream. And even more fun, I've made a lovely new friend...which to me, is the very best part!

The die cut on today's card was done using the plate, and haven't had a chance to try the intricate doily dies I have that cause me so much frustration, but I shall soon.

On to the card:

Stamps were inked with versamark, and heat embossed with Sparkle n Sprinkle white detail opaque EP. (This is by far the best white EP I've used, although there are some others that I like. This detail white gives such a nice coating as it melts, and if the stamp has fine lines - this shows up so nicely).

Did the leaves just a couple at a time, with versamark, ep, heating, (layered embossing video). This technique worked much better for me so that the only 'overstamping' done, was intentional, not because previous placement was hard to see. (thanks Bonnie & Svitlana for this technique).

After all embossing finished, used DI Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn and Stormy Sky to sponge color...liked this a lot. Used a paper towel to burnish and clean some of the ink off the white embossing.

Die cut with a stitched curved die (not sure if MFT, Lawn Fawn or PBlack). Cut a matching edge out of American Crafts black glitter.

- Used versamark over a green textured paper, then dumped SnS Sparkling Snow semi-transparent glitter over all this to create a custom shade of green glitter paper. (Saw Jennifer McGuire do this). Die cut using the Palms Die.

Stamped a sentiment using a green ombre ink.

I was quite pleased with the final results, as it was pretty much the way I'd envisioned it. Remember my mention of 'smelling green' on Mother's Day as we sat on the front porch? Well, this is the result of that fragrance!

Penny Black Cling Breezy, Hero Arts Shadow fern wood block, Inkadinkadoo wooden block fern and Wplus9 Happy Wishes clear stamps
Hero Arts Fancy Die Palm die
Sparkle n Sprinkle Sparkling Snow glitter
HLS Bold Birthday Sentiments
Hero Arts Green Ombre ink for sentiment

Linking to Sparkle n Sprinkle May Anything goes as long as it has glitter, flocking or embossing!
Linking to CAS Mix Up May Challenge

Mother's Day Watercolor

 

 

To all my blog buddies in the USA...don't think Mother's Day is celebrated on the same day in other countries. So far ours has been pleasant and quiet. Mr. had my breakfast, coffee and a pretty card waiting when I got up. He proceeded to sit out in the porch swing, so I took my food and went out to enjoy the sunshine, blooming things and green trees that are in our neighborhood at present. I felt like I could 'smell the green'. Mr didn't smell a thing he said.

 

Been trying to finish up some cards  using bits and pieces of things I'm finding in the Crapalanche, or else in bins-boxes that are setting around. Many I'd forgotten having done. This is another Art Impression watercolor image I discovered. The mat color and background paper were in another box, and thought these looked pretty together. Not a great card, but an ok one. Good for another birthday, or whatever I might need it for, when a verse is added to the inside.

 

 

 

The stamps are all wooden Art Impression ones. Pot was stamped, colored with Tombow markers for the watercoloring, then other flower stems are added to the pot. Then the image was grounded with a little shadow under. (Art Impressions' Bonnie Krebbs has some good youtube videos showing her style of using these stamps).

 

- Stitched rectangle (either Lawn Fawn or MFT...don't remember) to cut the shape...burgundy red Bazzil trimmed to fit as a mat. Some Recollections DP - VOS...on a top fold card.

 

- PTI Hugs sentiment die cut from the same mat color using a single layer. Called it done. This one was pretty fast to come together...all the papers just seemed to float to the surface without a lot of 'hunting for the right thing'.

 

Thanks for all the sweet comments on the stencil embossing card...so appreciated.

 

Ya'll enjoy the remainder of the day, and if you're celebrating Mother's Day, sure hope your family is there to enjoy it with you, OR will be with you at a later time. Hugs, and come again when you can set a spell (that's what we say here in the South!).

 



 

 



Teal Butterflies Embossed with a Stencil



 

Hi, and in case you didn't already know this, I spend a lot of time watching Youtube (could this be why I accomplish so little during the day? Nah, probably not!)

 

 

Caught this video from Ellen Hutson using a plastic stencil. I'd seen this done before, and had tried it, but never felt like I got a good embossing. Loved the Hero Arts stencil used in this video, but don't have it (_yet_!). Hunted through my stencils, and thought to try this MBox stencil. Mrs. A's  Butterfly Challenge #53 was for teal & texture, and this was started with that challenge in mind. Doing my usual ploy of missing the deadline, decided this would also work for the May CAS Mix Up Challenge.

 



 

 

 

 

MBox Butterfly Vine Stencil was taped over white card stock, run through the Big Shot as instructed in the video. However, I had to go to Tab 1, and add a lightweight shim (cut from a tv dinner box). My B/S is a newer one, and the sandwich used in the video was too 'tight' to go through on Tab 2. Worked good on Tab 1, with the shim, and got a very nice embossing.

 

Used Memento Teal and DI Concord Grape to sponge over the still taped stencil.

 

MBox butterfly (solid die cut from a snippet from a heavier weight paper that came from a set of sheets..it was part of the packing that helps keep the sheet package in a shaped form. It was white on one side, so hmmm...to the craft room instead of the recycle box. It cut very nicely, and there's 2 layers). The matching overlay die was used to cut the top butterfly, and this was sponged the ink remaining on the sponge from the Concord Grape. Added a couple rhinestones for a little glitz.

 

Sentiment is from a PBlack clear set, chosen primarily because it fit the space where I wanted to put it. Inked with the Memento Teal, heat embossed with Ranger Clear EP.

 

The stitched edges were made from a Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle. (Jennifer McGuire recent video showing how to do this. Cut the rectangle shape. Replace the rectangle die so that it is only going to cut on a 2nd edge..and then you have the skinnier rectangle with the stitching all around it. Would post the link, but can't find it just now!). If anyone is interested, I'll try to hunt it up. I learn a lot from Jennifer!!!

 

Hope this will fit the bill of fare for CAS Mix Up. So thanks for skipping by and come back when you can. Blessings & Hugs.

 

 

 

 

Pink Shoes and Butterfly

Welcome and this will be another scheduled post. Pink Shoes  -- another Art Impressions effort done some years ago, using Tombow markers to water color. While hunting for one thing, I run across something else I had forgotten about (doesn't mean that I found what I was originally searching for, mind you.)

 

The green piece was a Brusho effort, in the background pile, so used a PTI Scroll Frame Die Coverplate. Even though this background was on thicker watercolor paper, this die cut into the c/stock a bit. By careful handling I was able to 'keep it together' so that the pink shoes could be adhered behind the oval aperture, and then placed on the corrugated paper for the card front.  



 

 

 

 

The butterfly is one that has been floating around, colored with Zigs, hand cut. There is just a slight place right under the oval where the Scroll die did not fit back together perfectly, and the white bottom of the pink shoe c/s can be seen (if you look hard - I did!). Wasn't sure that the butterfly colors would be that great with the pastels of the rest of the card, but Hey Ho...went with it anyway. Added some white spots to the butterfly wings with a gel pen. Not sure who makes the butterfly...

 

The sentiment for this card will be added inside. Probably this will be a birthday card, as we have lots coming up for the extended family in the next few months.

 

That's it...Ya'll come back when you can. It's good porch swing weather, and the grass is nice & green now. Big hugs.

 



Embossed Leaves and Vellum

Good afternoon and welcome - there is an new challenge going on over at CAS Mix up for May.

Thought I'd try to play along. A very old set of wooden Hero Arts leaves has been waiting patiently on the messy desk for months to be inked. A set of 4, bought long years ago. Had seen a video, where leaves were inked with versamark, stamped on vellum, then embossed with white powder -- very pretty effect. This leaf set was put out on the desk with all intentions of trying this technique.Have no idea who did it, what youtube it was, but....finally Got Rountoit.

Stamped on  vellum, embossed with SnS White Detail Powder, (very pleased with the results too). While thinking _just what to do_ with the embossed leaves, stamped again onto a white piece of card stock. Grabbed Lemonade, Twisted Citrus, Mowed Lawn, Tumbled Glass Distress Inks & sponged all over this card stock. Looked pretty good...Hmmm..wonder what some Perfect Pearls Gold powder might look like on this? Put 'er down, burnished well with dry baby wipe - it looked good! However, there were places where the PP didn't want to be burnished away as cleanly as I would have wished, but still liked the overall effect.

Then I visited Stamping with Klass and saw the card Bonnie had designed for CAS Mix up; great minds and all that! (I did email Bonnie about the path of my own efforts). However, aside from enjoying her lovely card, Bonnie added a link to a video, Layered Embossing using an Altenew floral set. The technique for doing each step was: ink,emboss an image or two, then move on to the next ink, emboss; this method yielded a much better placement of the stamps than the way I did it. After embossing, you can see where to place the next image, rather than trying to find the versamark inking & not overlap! What really inspired me though, was the manner in which Svitlana die cut the finished piece.

Used the MBox Open Studio Postage Stamp Square die to cut this shape. Then used a S/B square to cut out one of the vellum leaves, added a faux mat (from a snippet of another dry embossing - you can't see the texture in the photo, but it's lines). Placed this in the point as a spotlight effect.

- HLS Bold Birthday Sentiments inked with versamark, heat embossed with Ranger Liquid Platinum. This is a rather warm-toned silvery effect, and thought it looked better with the vellum than a heavier gold or silver would have. 

Thanks to Bonnie and Svitlana for the wonderful inspiration in finishing this card!

Now, I'm off to link up with the CAS Mix Up May Challenge. Why not come along and have some fun and fabulous inspiration?

Thanks for coming by and big hugs!

HLS Christmas Challenge - May - Gifts

Welcome to the HLS Christmas Challenge.  The challenge for the month of May is Gifts.

The May Christmas Challenge is sponsored by Happy Little Stampers.Shop

Winner will receive one stamp set from HLS

 

Let's get started with what I've done for this challenge. Had several techniques I wanted to try out with a couple of gift dies that were in the stash..

 

 

- Cottage Cutz die using Sookwang tape, then applied Gilding Flakes over the top of it.  EF was inked with Delicata Gold and embossed using paper from an old 12x12 Christmas pack. This particular EF cuts deeply and that's why some white shows in the embossing. Used a sponge to go over that lightly with the gold ink. (message to self: Emboss 2 papers when doing this, so the folder does not emboss so deeply.) Added some gold ribbon placed like a wrapped package. Then decorated the ribbon with Nuvo Crystal Drops (this was Apple Green). Previously I've never had much luck using Liquid Pearls to shape this kind of embellishments. Am pleased to say this Nuvo product is working much better for me..and when the pearls were dry, they held the shape. Easy to use the bottle tip without clogging too. Hope it stays this way!  The sentiment is a small sticker.

 

 

 Another Cottage Cutz Stacked Gifts die cut from a different brand of double sided sticky paper - which I discovered did NOT work very well with the gilding flakes unless I used some extra glue. After recutting the die, used versamark, and the WOW Pearl Gold. Added a few Nuvo pearls. This time another EF was used to emboss a Coordinations c/s - which is much thicker than the paper used in the first card, and worked better. Used a sanding block to bring out the core color. Again, wrapped as a 'present'; stamped a little package, colored with copics and WoS, and punched with a SU scalloped punch. Still playing with the Nuvo crystals. Sentiment sticker.

 

Since I was not best pleased with either of the above cards, tried once more to do a card I was happier with the results.

 Boo-boo on the placement of the right hand package. Did not notice this until I saw the photo.

 Boo-boo fixed with placing the package ribbon in the proper position





used 2 S/B bracket dies to cut the edges to fold over the inside of this card. Fussy cut some gifts from an old foil 12x12 Paper Studio cardstock stack, and tied with a gold ribbon

PBlack clear Party Time image, colored with copics, WoS. Added in a Woodware Forest tree stamped in green, then embossed with clear.  Used Copic W gray to ground the scene. Matted with green and gold mats, tucked in another present from the foil paper stack. Sentiment is from the HLS Mixed Christmas Sentiments, stamped in versamark, heat embossed with Ranger's Queens Gold.

THEN using some bits from the You-know-where pile, made one last card, because I wanted to use a foil set of the Cottage Cutz gift die that had been made while I was trying different products.

Cottage Cutz die, from the non-Sookwang tape, (it's sticky, but not sticky E-nough!); added some Nuvo glue, burnished on some Deco foil, then ran through the Big Shot. This actually looks much better IRL than it does in the photo. All the white patches you can see in the photo, are not visible to the naked eye! Had this snippet from Brusho play, which had been embossed. It has sort of a 'leather' look to it. The turquoise looked nice with this (at least I thought so!). The blue bubbles border is from another Brusho play, and the sentiment was die cut from a snippet of white water color paper. Glued this down, then colored with a Turquoise Pentel Slicci pen (it looks blue in the photo, but is really a turquoise that quite matches the foil). Added a bit of WoS over the top of this, matted on a turquoise top fold card. Whew!

Hope you will join in with this fun challenge, get a head start on building a Christmas card stash for 2016 & perhaps win a fab prize too!

PLEASE REMEMBER YOU DO NOT HAVE TO USE HLS STAMPS TO ENTER OUR CHALLENGES

Thanks for joining me today. Big hugs. 

 

 

Christmas Card Club - Poinsettias

Hi and welcome once again to the bi-monthly Christmas Card Club, where a group of ladies make cards based on a theme chosen by one of our members. This week, it was my turn to select the theme, so I chose Poinsettias OR Christmas Angels. For my card, I decided to pick my favorite Christmas flower, the Poinsettia. 

Before I share the card, however, let me give a warm welcome shout out to a new blog follower, Janice of My Craft Room Makes. Thanks for becoming a follower here, and I hope that my visitors will take a few minutes to pop over to say Hello to Janice, and enjoy the wonderful cards that she is sharing with us!

For this first card, I tried a technique using acetate, which I'd seen done some time ago, on this video:
It's called Stained Glass, and really was not that difficult to do. I didn't have the same image as used in the video, nor the colors of reinkers. Attempted it anyway, and the idea of wrapping the plastic palette with cling wrap, and tossing when you're finished was a good one, that I highly recommend. Mixed a few drops of glossy accents into a palette well, added about 3 drops of red & green reink colors (one red was a PTI Scarlet Red, and one was Ranger's Candied Apple. The Candied Apple was a bit thick coming from the bottle - that sort of surprised me. Usually the Ranger reinkers are quite fluid). The green reinkers were Stamping Up colors.

- Transparency acetate stamped with black Staz On, allowed to dry overnight. Be sure to follow the directions as to what side you should stamp and ink when using transparencies. Since I'm a rather slow painter, my ink probably got drier than it should have by the time I was ready to dump the glitter, which was SU Dazzling Diamonds. It did not adhere as well as shown in the video, but enough stuck to make a mess trying to trim out. Adhered the image to the white embossed card front with Glossy Accents, and no hint of it shows through the ink and glitter. You only get one chance to apply this, because the glitter, which has become colored, gets all over the white...at least mine did!

- Stampendous Create a Poinsettia Image, pretty, but with all the 'extraneous twigs' in the image, it was a bit difficult to see just where to place the color painting from the back side of the acetate.

- An old EF, embossed on the white top layer, and HLS Mixed Christmas Sentiments for the greeting. Bet you can guess that my first effort stamping over the white didn't stamp evenly, so when I tried to restamp, it blurred. Why didn't I use Misti? I stamped again with DI Candied Apple ink, using the Misti, and did 3 stampings to get an even inking...Then used an oval punch. It would have looked much nicer without the extra layer, as the whites look different.

This is a technique I'll be trying again.

Same Stampendous Create A Poinsettia inked with versamark, heat embossed with Ranger Queen's Gold, colored with copics.  Because this is a rather largish image, decided to cut it apart. Put the green twigs in flat layer, popped up the poinsettia petals & leaves on dimensional foam.

Another old Darice EF to emboss, the same HLS Mixed Christmas Sentiment, stamped with Misti and DI Mowed Lawn...3 inkings and looks much better applied directly to the card rather than an extra layer.

Please check the side bar for links to my fellow Christmas Card Club members, and take time to enjoy what each has shared.

We're off Sunday to our annual family reunion up in North Carolina, so I'll be missing at least for Sunday. Will try to catch up my visiting ASAP. Monday I think our TO DO will be going to a tile store to see what is available. Decisions must be made, and get this repair started.

Thanks for visiting, have a  grand Sunday, and come again when you can. Hugs.