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.

 

 

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.

Santa Sleigh with Deer & Trees for Rudolph Day

Good afternoon. Tried very hard this month to get something ready in time for September's Rudy Day, since I missed last month. What is Rudy Day, you ask? Well, it's a challenge more properly called Rudolph Day, that is open from the 25th to the end of each month, and hosted by our sweet Scrappymoi, (Maureen). I happen to like the name "Rudy Day", and it's faster to type!

Did ya'll notice the Seasonal change-over to Fall on the Blog look? Isn't that a fabulous Fall banner with that gorgeous Cardinal? Thanks Loll!  Loll and Bonnie are starting a new challenge ( CAS Watercolour Card Challenge.) You might want to check this link out.

Even though today's card was started earlier this month (with bits & pieces) - still was finishing it up last night. Just too many things going on lately. DH had his 2 navy friends visiting, and then we were gone for a few days. Went to Charleston, SC, so we could tour the USS Yorktown. I'm very happy that these 3 Vets got to be together one more time. Next day, we toured the city of Charleston, very nice to see the old houses. (Hot & humid though, so we were all tuckered at the end of the day. Even though part of the tour was on an a/conditioned bus, we still did a lot of walking). Next day, 5 hour drive to Atlanta to see the Georgia Aquarium (2 hours south of where WE live, and we'd never been!) Worthwhile visit, saw an amazing dolphin show. Back home, and then some local running around. One fella left yesterday to fly home, the other drives back to Massachusetts tomorrow. (Usually he's here at least annually).

OK - on to the card:

- Leaping deer & trees were cut from a piece of corrugated paper (torn from a packing box - so big time snippet!). This paper had caught a lot of overspray and has been on the airbrush/spray table, for a long time! I didn't add any more colors to the crinkles - just found dies and cut the shapes. The glitter trees in the background - also from a snippet piece, think this was a Memory Box border die. Don't remember what companies for the trees and the deer.

- base was started for This card - with sponging on the background, and I got it way too dark for the first card. Thought it could work ok for this one. Added a bit of 'snow' to the horizon line where the glitter trees are placed. Then added the smaller corrugated tree shapes, the leaping deer, then the largest tree. There is shadowing with the tall tree and the deer, but not showing in the photo.

- Decided to add a circle punch glitter moon (snippet), behind an Impression Obsession die of Santa & 8 reindeer. (cut off some of the front deer to fit this card). This black piece was another salvaged snippet.  During the recent closet cleaning efforts, found 3 pretty velvet type boxes, which had held Christmas ornaments. Have no idea why I kept these, but planned to pitch the boxes. The inside had partitions, black velvet textured material (like you find in a box that has held jewelry). Hmmm...could I take this out and use it? So I did. The die was cut to use the velvet side showing on this card. When it went through the Big Shot (and I used the nifty special metal shim so it cut pretty well), the die left 'impressions' on the velvet stuff, so I used the backside of the material...which is a bit glossy.

- Sentiment is from VOS sheet of sticker sentiments, and sponged a bit of DI Broken China on the edges. Pretty easy card to do, should not have taken as long as it did! Lotsa interruptions!!!

I'm skating in at the last minute to enter this card at Rudy Day, so I hope Maureen will still let me sneak in! Please take a look at all the fab cards that have been entered, and you still have til tomorrow night to get something linked up!

Hopefully next week all things will be back to normal. My cleaning efforts are still going on, been working in the stamp area a little bit. Slowly, slowly. Thanks for joining me this afternoon...and big hugs!

Mixed Media Challenge for March 2015 - Hint of Spring

Good afternoon and today's card was a result of the Mixed Media Challenge for March - Hints of Spring.

Lately I've been having some fun playing with the Brusho water crystals background. Was working on a St. Pat's card (scheduled for tomorrow) and had an extra background that I thought - with some effort - could fit the bill for this Mixed Media Challenge. So here 'tis:

- Brusho background (I like the colors too!) was stenciled over using some pearlized paste and TH Splatters stencil. Let this dry for a bit, then decided to add some Sparke n Sprinkle Aztec Gold glitter...it's pretty, but I sort of wished afterwards, that I'd left off the glitter. It was going Everywhere! So spritzed some Tattered Angels gold spray over the piece, which helped with the glitter staying put, -- but then the w/c paper looks buckled. Weighting the card down will probably help this problem, but it's buckled in the photo.

- Inkadinkadoo bird image was colored with Intense pencils, then blended with gamsol, and die cut with MFT stitched circle.

- Cottage Cutz sentiment created from a snippet of Brusho background (on tomorrow's card) and a 'wipe-up' piece of vellum. Tested vellum to see how it would work blotting up extra color from the wet brusho background. Didn't work very well as I see it, but used a snippet from the vellum to die cut a 2nd sentiment, which was glued over the green Brusho background. The green base made the vellum color show better. Think I'll add a pearl for the dot over the 'i'.

- Impression Obsession DIE055-N for the branch. Cut from white snippet, then colored with copic shades of green. The green branch has a more delicate spring green than the yellow greens in the Brusho background. This is the shade we're see on the daffodil and tulip stems that are poking their heads up in our yard.

Hope you like this one. It's definitely got several different 'mix media' going on! Along with being submitted to the Mixed Media Card Challenge - March Hints of Spring, it's going over to the Snippet Playground for week 166. Hope you have time to check out both of these fun places and perhaps play along with a fun card.

Thanks for joining me this afternoon. Our day was so-so with the sunshine & overcast, but temp was ok, but it feels damp. It's lovely to see some tiny green things beginning to poke through the earth again. Come again when you can. Big Hugs & hope you had a grand day.

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!

A Halloween Friday Fun Day Challenge

Hi, and welcome to another Friday Fun Day challenge over at Jo's Scrap Shack. Today the challenge is Anything  but a Card, with a Halloween theme, and our sponsor is Bugaboo Digi Stamps.  Now I don't scrapbook, am not into making baskets/boxes/treat bags or the like - yes I know I am rather set in my ways! But there you have it...a truth about my character. So what to make? Here's what I came up with, using this really spooky digi, printing it out on plain whiteWalmart GP Brand cardstock.

Dylusions Card

Hi everyone and welcome to 2 new followers. Ryn and Charlene.  I would invite you to visit both these fantastic blogs when you have a moment, for some serious art inspiration!

I have another of the Dylusions experiments that I finally made into a card - not sure what occasion it will be used for. This one has quite a few different techniques I was just experimenting with, and I had to look at it, think about it for several weeks. Last night, I decided to make a card with it.

Dylusions Card

Good morning and welcome. Here's another card that started out as something else, fizzled out, and I sprayed some Dylusions over it just to see what the colors would do. Covered up my boo-boos for one thing. Left it for a couple nights, then added a little Distress ink sponging around on the edges (most of which got trimmed off as I was framing for the card). I've got some unmounted stamps in plastic binders, so was looking for some Halloween themed ones that I know DH bought at a convention. Found this pretty butterfly - not sure what vendor made it. I recalled a beautiful Dylusions butterfly card seen here  done by Shirley - who enabled me with the Ryn water stamps and {sigh} now with the Chocolate Baroque stamps. (You'll see why I succumbed if you look here.) After placing the order, I realized I had forgotten to order the Gothic window.

Anyway, once I found the butterfly, stamped it on the sprayed piece using Ranger Archival Ink, I added the wonderful Ryn water droplets stamp. Just to see how it would look, as this was the first chance I've had to ink it. I think it is fabulous. There's a rain drops stamp that I'm drooling over, but I have to wait to get my Chocolate Baroque angel set first. (budget, don't you know!) Now if DH would just hit that big lottery...

Sorry this picture looks skewed. We were busy on errands all day, and by the time I could photograph, it was late evening, raining, so I had turned the card to get best light. Not sure why the right side of yellow mat looks white. My lousy photography probably!

Collage

Good Morning. Back with another experimental play card this morning on this scheduled post. I've been seeing some lovely cards with collages on them lately, but don't have a clue as to where to start one. Had bits & pieces of this'n'that on my desk, so got out the Mod Podge glue to give it a go. Showed this one to Mr. DH and his first comment was "It doesn't look like you". Tried again "But do you like it?"...."No, not especially. It doesn't look like what you do".

Hmmm.... well, I promised that when I started this blog, I'd post warts & all...so maybe this one is a wart!

All Occasion

Good Morning...Hope your day is going great so far. Here's another 'mess-up/try to save' card to share today.

Tag

Happy Friday Afternoon. Welcome to Joan, a new follower. She has some lovely pictures on her blog, and I encourage you to check out this site when you have time. Such an intriguing blog name as well. Thanks for joining me, Lakeslady!

It's been beautiful in our area today, but warm & muggy. Been trying to do a little housework & have some errands to run in a few minutes. Recently Miss Sandy issued me a challenge to do a tag. Well, I'm not really 'into' tags...mainly because I never know what to do with 'em, if I did one. But I thought I'd give it a whirl when I found some tags (while looking for something else that I never found!). So here is the result:

Dylusions Cards, Outlawz Paper Ala Mode Challenge

Good Morning, and I'm back with an experiment that I've been trying. Folks, this card was really out of my comfort zone. I don't "do" grunge. I like it when I see it on others' cards, just not something I've wanted to do. I have been seeing some Dylusions videos lately, have bought a few sprays along. Don't usually have great success with sprays either. (I was the kid who always tried to color within the lines, so I guess it's a carryover from childhood?). Anyway, after seeing some videos, I gave this a try. So here's my very first effort....not sure if it would be called 'grunge' or not..<g>

Spritzed water over water color paper to dampen it, then just picked various colors of the Dylusions sprays. Spritzed a bit here, there, changed colors, did it all again. I have to watch myself that I don't hold the bottle too closely to the paper, also to not  have a heavy hand.

- Once the paper was dry, I took a Judikins stencil and sprayed some white Dylusions over the stencil (the white flower in the center).

- after drying, returned the stencil, spritzed some plain water...doesn't show well in photo, but IRL you can see where it faded just a bit.