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11/30/2017

Dry Embossing Christmas Trees

Good afternoon, and thanks for stopping in. Hope you've been having a good day, and enjoying whatever it is that you might be doing.

Here's another background card from playing with Ken Oliver Mineral Burst and other products, using mixed media card stock and a Sizzix 3D embossing folder. This time the background dried overnight, was dry embossed with this folder, then  spritzed some different mica sprays over it. I'm trying to teach myself to keep the sprayer about 18" or more back from the card surface. I've been finding if I spritz, let dry well, then emboss, the piece still doesn't feel the 'hardness' to yield as good an emboss result.

Had some bits & pieces from previous backgrounds, so they got pulled into use for this card too.



The Impression Obsession die cut tree was cut from a snippet of created background. Used the foam tap that comes in a 'line' form (rather than the squares). Cut into skinny pieces to be able to pop up the tree. Colored the tape with a copic so it was not so visible from the side. I was trying to position the tree trunk between the raised letters, so it's not evenly placed; hence the sentiment out to the left side. Hoped to create a more balanced look. Thought this worked with the embossed sentiment. The sentiment was cut from 3 layers of snippets, and is from an Echo Park die set. Snippets were just big enough for the die to fit - the 2 back layers were from a messed up Halloween scene. Goes to show, those little bits come in handy :-).

Ya'll have a wonderful afternoon, big hugs.



11/29/2017

Spiral Christmas Tree for Rudolph Day

Waay Haay! Finally, have a simple card ready in time for Rudy Day. In case you don't know about Rudolph Day, it's hosted by the very fabulous Scrappymoi (Maureen), is open every month from the 25th to the end of the month, and the only rule is that the card have a Christmas theme. Pretty simple, yes?

Have been playing with some products, making a few backgrounds if I had a little time and was in the mood. So today's card is the product of those efforts. Found a Sizzix 3D EF at the local Hobby Lobby, had a coupon, and well, you just couldn't not buy one, right?

 
 
Background made from sponging DOX in blues and lavenders, with some iced spruce to tone down the colors just a tad. Sprayed some pearlized water over this and dried overnight. (A tip: Do the embossing and _then_ spray with the pearlized stuff...; tried that next time and that seemed to work better for me)
One caution on these Sizzix 3D embossing folders: Check the sandwich with _your_ machine, as it would be easy to break the machine. After a few efforts and the machine felt 'too tight', I just opened  the tabs on the multi-purpose platform, put the EF down with no bottom plate; added a shim from some saved die backing (like you get the S/Binders dies on), added the top cutting plate. It rolled through with no forcing and I still got a nice impression. It was not the sandwich suggested on the Sizzix package.
 
Impression Obsession Swirl Tree die cut from another play piece made from Ken Oliver Mineral Burst, colorburst crystals and pearl spray.
 
Sentiment from an Echo Park word set, cut from the same tree paper... used some snippets from other spray pieces to make 2 more layers to add dimension. Added Glossy Accents after this was adhered, then sprinkled some white glitter over the wet. It's quite bling-y after drying. Did the same on the star as well.
 
Very simple to do with pieces handy. So now I'm off to join some lovely folks over at November's Rudolph Day Challenge.
 
Didn't include links to products used, but if you are interested, will happily try to provide the info.
Thanks for joining me, and have a wonderful blessed day! Hugs
 
 
 

11/25/2017

Christmas Card Club - Mixed Media

Hello and welcome to a Christmas Card Club post. This great group of cardmakers have a challenge every 2 weeks, and one member selects the challenge for that week.  I've not participated in a long time due to all the family things we've dealt with for a while. However, since I picked this week's challenge, I felt honor bound to try to get something ready to join in. (hanging head in shame for being away from my CCC pals for such a long time. We're praying that 2018 will be a quiet year and we can get back to our normal routines once again).

So here goes:

 
 

 
- Ken Oliver Metallic Sky Mineral Burst applied to Mixed Media c/s. This is a liquid product that spreads easily as a wash, and is a gorgeous blue. It can be mixed with acrylic paint and other products, and Youtube has some good videos on it. While this was wet, sprinkled Color Burst Osta Blue and some yellow Ken Oliver Color Burst (more powdery than the colorburst crystals). Spritzed some pearlized spray over the surface to help the crystals & powder bloom. After using a spritz tool to blow the puddles around the card surface, let this dry well. This certainly doesn't look as though it started off blue, does it?!
 
Stamplorations Christmas Tree stencil used with Golden Glass Gel Beads to create the dimensional tree. It's been a while since I used this product, and left it a bit thicker than it should be.
 
Let the piece dry overnight, trimmed down. Added 2 mirror gold strips to each edge. A Memory Box tiny snowflake stencil used with pearlized texture paste to add dimensional edges at the sides.
 
- Echo Park die cut from the same gold mirror paper. Remembered to use double side adhesive to the c/s before die cutting. Usually think about that as I'm tediously applying glue to the letters. Recently got a Penny Black O Holy Night die, tried using it, and the slender shapes of the words made it very tricky to glue & put in place properly. (that was the first card I meant to use today! May share it later, but needs some TLC first). Added a few little bits of color around, and called this one done. Mixed media is always fun to experiment, even when it turns out not like your first plan :-)
 
Please do visit my fellow team members to see what beauties they shared today. You will see links to each member's blog in the right sidebar.
 
Would encourage you to check out some new Thanksgiving cards shared on the Cards by Friends page as well. We were so blessed to enjoy these gorgeous cards by such sweet friends.  
 
Also would like to extend a warm welcome shoutout to a lovely new follower, Mac M. of The Sweetest of Peas. Thanks so much for becoming my newest follower. It's been a while since I have been able to make some new friends, so I was delighted to see your name in the lineup! Do check out Mac's work...you'll enjoy it, I promise.
 
Thanks for joining me today, and I'll try to get back to post a couple Thanksgiving cards that were made, but not sent. I seem to be developing a very bad habit with that! Certainly need some improvement on the Christmas cards!!
 
Hugs & God Bless.
 
 

11/09/2017

Mixed Media Fall Birthday

Good afternoon and welcome. We've had several days of overcast & dreary, with some much needed rain. Had to be out of the house on these days, and the temperature felt a lot more chilly than it has been todate, so I guess Fall is officially here in our area. Still have "things" going on, but more the normal day-to-day stuff - thankful to get back to that kind of day.

Neighbor has a birthday coming soon. A few afternoons I did a little experimenting play with some Ken Oliver Mineral Burst  product, Silk acrylic paint, Distress Oxide Ink and colorburst. Used some of these backgrounds for this card.


- Background for the leaves (Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Foliage) was made first. Spread Copper Mineral Burst on watercolor paper (think it was #140 weight). Added some Silk acrylic paint in a gold color (sorry don't remember specific color, but the link will show the texture of this product). While the paper was still quite wet, sprinkled on some yellow & leaf green shades of colorburst, sprayed a little water and let it spread. This piece was quite wet, so placed another w/c on top of it to absorb some of the wetness, and got a two-fer. Let this dry overnight, and then die cut the leaves.

The card background was done using DOX inks -  (just got some fall-ish colors and played with sponging). Used a mister to spray droplets, and then sprinkled some leaf green color burst over the surface. Sprayed again to get the crystals to spread. Once dried, used a Darice Fall EF to dry emboss. Picked this particular one because it had the maple and oak leaf patterns in it. Since the embossed Fall is part of the design, decided to just do the birthday bit on the inside. A S/Binder label die cut a cream snippet of C/S for the interior sentiment, and added one of the oak leaves as well. Thought this turned out ok, and I think she will like it. Used Nuvo Crystal Copper to add the pearls.

There's a new Halloween card added to the Cards by Friends page and also added the DOX definition to the Blog-a-nition page. Saw that used on a blog and don't remember where so as to give credit. Seems easier than typing out Distress Oxide Ink every time it is used!

Here's a couple pics of our Halloween night. We had about 15 kids; some were tiny & adorable. Some were too old to be out after candy. One delightful toddler was fascinated with the lighted ceramic pumpkins and wanted to stay to talk with them. Her parents had to coax her to come collect her candy from where we were sitting in the swing. As she left the porch, she said "Bye Bye punkins, thank you for the candy". She was about 15-18 months old and was the star of the evening.  We had made the pumpkins long, long ago when our daughter was very small. We both worked, so she wasn't able to stay after school for a ceramic class. She was so disappointed that we decided we would go as a family to a ceramic shop to take classes, and that's when we made 3 pumpkins. The owner's husband was DH's friend, so they let us come at night when the day's kiln firing was being done. That's another expensive hobby we got into, buying a kiln, all the supplies. Years later, donated to another person who was getting involved in the hobby.   After it got dark, these pumpkins really showed up quite spookily.

 
My own little pumpkin sitting in the swing ready to hand out candy. We moved the mums off the steps to avoid any stumbles. It got dark right after I took these pics..came down quite rapidly and was a bit chilly too.

Thanks for popping in to visit. Wanted to catch up on all my previous post's commenting before I did another post. Ya'll have a great afternoon and come back when you have time, heah?

Big hugs, God Bless.