Mixed Media July Challenge

It is July 1 and it is time for a new challenge on the Mixed Media Mojo Blog.  The challenge is Summertime with the twist being Shells.

There are so many things that are fun in the summertime.  I chose a nautical theme.  My card is a birthday card for a friend.  I think he will like it and appreciate all the work that went into it.

All the paper and fabric came from a Recollection collection from Michael's.  The wood anchor was purchased there also.

If you come back to visit the Mixed Media Mojo Blog on July 6, I take you through the steps involved in making this card.

Come play along with us with a mixed media project.

Floral Birthday Cards

As I was going through my paper I found this text paper with just the word WISH on it and I decided to use it for a few cards.  I think I had seen a similar card on  the internet somewhere - where - no one knows - least of all me - and made two of this particular design.  I had stamped three but I messed up one.  I will have to see if I can save part of the paper for another card.

The stamp is from Art Gone Wild and I believe the sentiment is from Penny Black.  I used Dylusion paints to color the flowers.  The blue background is a distress paint.  All the paints were diluted with water.

I am entering this card in the challenge at Inkspiration where the challenge is Text.

I am also entering it into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the challenge is summer garden. I think these colors scream summer.

Everyone enjoy your Sunday.  I hope to do some more creating.  I need to complete 20 cards for a friend's daughter.  The daughter has MS and has a fundraiser going to fund an MS walk she does in the fall.  I already donated 20 cards to her other daughter for the same cause.

Happy Birthday Tamela

I wanted to make a special birthday card for a former co worker.  Tamela is very talented.  She sews beautiful costumes for herself and others for Ren Fairs.  She makes jewelry and the list goes on and on for her many talents for such a young soul.

Since she loves to sew I wanted to use this dress form stamp.  I had a new die cut for flowers so used that with old pattern pieces.

Here are some close ups of different parts of the card.  You can see the leftover gold trim from a class I took with Frank Garcia.  The gold filigree was also left over from the class and the paper too.    There is a bunch of thread from canvas that I tore.  A small piece of burlap is up in the corner.  I have many pieces of lace in my collection and I used a small piece on this card.  All the edges were distressed.

I think sewing patterns make such great flowers especially on a sewing themed project.

I even decided to make a special envelope since I had to hand deliver the card.  I cut a brown paper bag into the correct size and sewed up the sides (I almost made it too small. I dug into my supply of paper doilies and added a piece of leftover Prima paper.  Both the card and envelope were sprayed with a gold Tattered Angels spray.

The card was delivered last night and she loved it.

I am entering this card into the weekly challenge on the Wednesday Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog where the challenge this week is Flowers.  I have a few hand made flowers on the card.

Thanks for stopping by.  It was fun to get out my vintage stuff and go to town.

Happy Birthday Card

I wanted to make a card for a polka dot challenge and found this wonderful colored paper in a 12 x 12 pad I had bought at Michael's.  I needed a birthday card.  Away we went on a creative journey.

I think this stamp is wonderful and I have no idea where I bought it.  I heat embossed it on a more solid piece of paper from the same pad.  I picked out an area of the paper that brought in all the colors of the dots and stripes.  Here is a close up of the sentiment.

I had the ribbon - once again I have no idea where it came from but it was the perfect finishing touch for the card.  Someone asked how I tied the bow - I said:  lots of loops, scrunch and tie.  I just do it and with a soft ribbon like this it is very forgiving and turns into a beautiful bow.

It is a beautiful day in Wisconsin and I am going to putz, pick up and when it gets a little warmer out go outside and do some work in the flower gardens.  It is nice in retirement to be able to do those things.  Have a wonderful day and I hope you get to do something fun also.

Happy Birthday

It is Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies.

The paper is a spring bundle from Die Cuts With A View from 2014.  I need to keep that pad out to make some Easter cards.  The stamp is an old favorite from Stampendous colored with Copics.  The sentiment stamp is new.

Remember to dig out your old supplies and show them some love.

Happy Birthday Annie

Recently, when I attended Bella Crafts Connection in the Twin Cities, Cindy Shepard inspired us to try and draw a bird.  Well she did inspire me, I was so surprised that I could kinda draw and I just keep drawing birds.  I look on Pinterest for inspiration and then go from there.  This particular bird started with a curved arrow.

I decided to make the bird into a birthday card for my friend Annie.  Annie I became online friends many years ago and luckily we are close enough that we can be friends in real life and create, shop and inspire each other.  If you look closely there is a little Zentangle on the bird and then just some doodling.

I added some embossing paste dots to the background and decided to make them stand out more, I outlined them with a fine black pen.  The sentiment seemed perfect for a bird.

Be brave, try to draw.  Can you find the original arrow that starts the bird?

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy World Card Making Day

I have been lazy and not posted lately.  I have created but was taking a break from blogging.  I have lots of exciting things to talk about so hopefully I will share it all in the next couple weeks.

Today is a day near and dear to all card makers.  Papercrafts created this day to celebrate card making.  There have been so many wonderful things to look at on blogs today.  Simon Says Stamp had a beautiful card on their post today and are asking people to link up what they are working on.  I worked on this card all day since it has many layers and they had to dry.

The base for the image is a book page which has a layer of Gesso on it.  I have started doing some drawing so found a "how to" on Pinterest on how to draw a cupcake.  So Simple and I had so much fun doing it.  I drew the cupcake in pencil.  I colored the cupcake with two shades of purple and two shades of orange.  I then drew around the cupcake with a black pen. After this was dry I colored the background with another Gelato.  If you look closely you can see that I used a beaded/glitter gel through a stencil to add another layer.  The Paper Smooches sentiment was stamped and cut out.  I then went a little crazy adding black splatters.  It is matted in black on a purple card base.

Normally the person receiving this card gets a card with a monkey on it - the monkey will have to be on the inside.  I hope she is not too disappointed.  Maybe when I tell her it is original artwork she will be very excited.

Have a wonderful evening.

Mixed Media Birthday Card

My dear friend Mary will be celebrating a birthday in October.  It will be a surprise to her to actually get a card for her birthday before her birthday.  The shock of that and the mixed media madness in the card may be too much for her to take.

The monthly challenge at Mixed Media Card challenge is Friend with the optional element of ribbon.

The card is just a little under a 6 inch square.  The first layer is brown card stock.  On top of that is a layer of fabric.  The fabric is leftovers from drapes from my Aunt's house.  It has the little flowers on it as you can see in the picture below.  I colored the fabric with a green gelato and wet the color (it was cream originally).  Stamped some brown leaves on it and then added some embossing paste/paint mixture randomly across the fabric.  It was then sewed to the brown card stock.

The focal point on the card is a piece of fabric.  I adhered the fabric to card stock with a lite wonder under product.  A layer of blue and brown card stock are the mats.  I stitched the fabric to the mats.  The bow (ribbon) is fabric.  Different elements were added to the fabric base of the card:  paper doily, couple pieces of brown lace, recycled brown paper bag piece (Panera if you need some) and the green threads in the corner are from tearing the fabric strip for the bow.  The focal point was pop dotted at an angle on the front of the card.  The happy birthday and friend are stickers from SRM Stickers.  They were adhered to a piece of patterned paper.  I added a strip of the paper to the fabric strip at the top.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Everyone have a wonderful Friday and week end.

Happy Birthday Kendall

Yesterday I colored two images of a cupcake.  I made one birthday card yesterday and today I used the other image to make another belated birthday card.  I decided to use the sketch from Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge.

I chose to use a square/rectangle instead of a circle in the sketch.

The paper is from My Mind's Eye.  The stamp is from Whipper Snapper Designs and the sentiment is unknown - it is a floater - floating around the design table/stamp box.  The image was colored with Copics.  The cherry has glossy accents on top of it and all the frosting layers have Wink of Stella on it.

Enjoy what remains of your Sunday.

Happy Birthday Kristin

One of my sweet neighborhood grandchildren turns 14 today - actually two of them turn 14 today.  This is the card for Kristin.  When she was little she called me Bark instead of Barb.  She loved to play with my hair.

She also likes to make cards.  She came over a couple times this summer and made some cards.

I decided to make a card for her.  Luckily I am somewhat stuck in a design rut so I went looking for a sketch to use.  Sketch Saturday had a great sketch to use; it is square and the card is hand delivered so I don't have to worry about extra postage.

On my card the paper is from My Mind's Eye.  The cupcake stamp is from Whipper Snapper Designs colored with Copics.  The cherry has glossy accents on it and all the frosting has Wink of Stella.  The sentiment is homeless so I don't know who makes it.

The paper is My Mind's Eye.  The cupcake stamp is from Whipper Snapper Designs colored with Copics.  The cherry has glossy accents on it and all the frosting has Wink of Stella.  The sentiment is homeless so I don't know who makes it.

I am also entering it on the Wednesday Challenge on Simon Says Stamp which is to use a stamp.  I have used two stamps on this project.  They also have a blog hop with the challenge.  There were some wonderful cards on the blog hop.  They are celebrating Stamptember on Simon Says Stamp.

Enjoy your Saturday.

Happy Birthday

A birthday card for my daughter.  Paper Smooches owl and sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by.

Belated Happy Birthday

Sorry - no Oldie Moldie Monday post - I was cleaning/clearing, moving furniture, etc so I did not get a card made using old supplies.  I started but it was not falling together so it will wait for another day.

I did finish this card this week end.  It was a background made with distress inks.  I used pink, yellow and green  I love how the backgrounds always turn out so different.  The flower was colored with distress ink or paint - don't remember.  Too much swirling in my head right now.  The tape was colored with distress paints also.

A birthday sticker from SRM Stickers finishes off the card.

Four more days of work and I will be retired.  I am so excited.  Maybe I will find more time to create and explore new techniques.

I am entering this at the Monday Simon Says Stamp Challenge Blog.  Anything Goes is the theme this week.

Summertime

What says summer better than the colors of Yellow and Green.  Yellow represents the sunshine and Green represents the grass (that keeps growing and needing to be mowed) and birds - birds who wake up singing at the crack of dawn.  They are so happy.

I combined several challenges for this card.

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - Summer

Simon Says Stamp  Monday Challenge - Summer

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - We're Going Dotty  

The background was made with a yellow gelato and Green Grass distress ink.  I scribbled the gelato on my sheet and added water.  I dipped the watercolor paper in it.  The distress ink was done the same way.  You needed to let them dry between dippings.  I believe I came back and redipped the yellow so it was a little brighter.  The cute little birdie was stamped on gessoed book pages and colored with distress paints.  He was cut out and glued to the panel.  Googly eyes were added with glossy accents.  The ribbon was dyed with the distress inks also.  The dots are embossing paste - the dots add just a little contrast to the green/yellow back ground.  Everything was matted with dark grey cardstock.  

I hope you are enjoying your summer.  Thanks for stopping by.  

Golf Themed Birthday Card

I have a friend who's birthday is in June and he loves  to golf.  I have this wonderful impression from Art Impressions which I had actually colored quite awhile ago.  I had gessoed some dictionary pages and then heat embossed the image on the paper.  It was colored with distress inks.

Finishing up the card this morning, I found two masculine card challenges I am going to enter the card in.

Wednesday - Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Blog

Sunday - The Paper Players

I am so looking forward to my retirement in July.  I will be able to play with my toys so much more and be able to create to my heart's content.

Here is today's card.

This is a 5.25 inch square card.  The patterned paper is actually a winter collection from Simple Stories but I loved the colors for a masculine card.

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy your Sunday.

Mixed Media Mojo Monthly Challenge

The monthly challenge at Mixed Media Mojo is to choose lines from a tic tac board.  The twist is to use every square on the board.  Here is your tic tac board to inspire your creativity.

I chose the middle line:  Gesso, Stencil and Chipboard.  I am behind in my birthday cards so I decided to make a birthday card.

I took a piece of mixed media paper and colored it with a light pink Gelatos.  I then used my clear Gesso (yes there is clear Gesso) and put a layer over my pink color.  I wanted the pink color to be sealed.  I took a stencil and used a watercolor pencil.  I outlines the octagon shapes and colored them in with the watercolor pencil.  I took my water brush and blended the colors.  I added lighter color in other openings.  A second stencil was used to add the silver chevron stripe with silver embossing paste from Faber Castell.

The chipboard is from Basic Grey.  I first colored the chipboard with distress paint.  After it was dry, I inked it up with VersaMark and used a new product called Enamels from The Rubber Cafe.  The color is Sea Glass.  (of course, now I wish I had bought several more colors).  I punched the butterfly and colored it with silver embossing powder.  It is so pretty.  The sentiment was stamped on vellum with the same enamel.  The chipboard was glued to the front of the card with Glossy Accents.  I also used Glossy Accents to adhere the butterfly.

I wasn't quite happy with the color on the card front so on the one side I took my watercolor pencil and added the deeper pink into the openings of the chevron.  I was much happier with the front then.

To finish the card, I matted it in dark gray cardstock.  Wrapped the sentiment around the card front.  Added some silver cord above the sentiment.  The front panel was popped up on the card front.  I then took some enamel dots which are silver glitter (from a Halloween collection) and scattered them around the card front.

I hope you will join us at Mixed Media Mojo this month and play with our tic tac board.

I am also entering this card into the weekly Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp.

The Dog Ate My Birthday Card

This was the birthday card I made for my daughter.  She never got to see it; she brought it from the mailbox and laid it on the table and Axl (the dog) ate it.  Axl loves paper.  He even ate the dog shaming book.

The stamp is by Whipper Snapper Designs.  It was colored with distress paints and Gelatos.

It was a very nice card.  He also ate her Christmas Santa canvas.  Good thing I love that darn dog.

Playing With My Paper Smooches

Trying to get back into the swing of card making and planning ahead of what I need.  I have some birthdays coming up so wanted to get a head start on those December birthdays.  I thought I would play along with the weekly challenge on the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge.

This week it is a picture picture challenge.  I loved the picture this month.

I love the colors, the heart and the wood.  I used those as my inspiration for my birthday card.

Isn't this owl just the coolest - he is the largest owl in the set.  It has coordinating dies also to make your card making easier.  I took out some of my tension by distressing the edges of my paper.  If you would like to buy your own Paper Smooches stamps, you can pop over here.

I am also entering it in the weekly challenge at Addicted to Stamps - Anything Goes.

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is time to make a birthday card for my Mom.  I used some pretty colors for her card.

Everyone wants cake for their birthday.  I made her a cupcake card.  This is a stamp from Whipper Snapper Stamps.  I got it on clearance but you know you can never have enough cupcake stamps.  The image was colored with Copics.  I made polka dots in the cupcake liner by using the color remover.  I then added clear Stickles.  The cherry has glossy accents on it.

The sentiment is from SRM Stickers.

Enjoy your Monday.

Friday - More Unity Stamps

Friday - the day I try to share a card I made using a Unity stamp or stamps - the Unity Blog has Friends With Flair on Friday - so I try to play along.  I think it is safe to post my daughter's birthday card here - I would be very surprised if she ever looked at my blog.  Plus she is away for a wedding this week end.

the card is larger than an A2.  This is wonderful paper and had the patterned paper with the little bikes on it so it was perfect to use for this card.  The paper is by Basic Grey.  The stamps are by Unity.  (insert smile here).

I am also going to place it in the Anything Goes challenge on the Wednesday Simon Says Stamp challenge blog.  

A long week end - I took today off to try and accomplish some things around the house.  Enjoy your day and week end.

Mixed Media Birthday Card

This month the challenge on the Mixed Media Card Challenge blog is to make a summer card and if you wish add some burlap.

I had been playing with acrylic paints in a old book and had added embossing paste through a stencil.  I was going to do a journal - well - that did not last long - but I had this great page of mixed media paper I had made and I did not want to throw it away.  Very slowly it has made it into a couple cards.  I think the colors scream "Summer" so thought I would use it for this challenge.  It also screams "Happy".  (See paper does talk to me).  If I remember correctly, it is two pages of the book glued together with gel medium.  I add a layer of gesso on each side and then go to town with whatever mediums I want to use.  This time it was bottles of acrylic paint (inexpensive so you can lots of different colors).  Are you ready - here it is.

It is a larger card but it is a birthday card for a very good friend.  She deserves a special birthday card.  I stamped the butterfly in white embossing powder on another sheet of paper I had made.  It was just teal and it stood out too much so I dabbled different colors of acrylic paint over it to bring in the hues of the background paper.  The sentiment was white embossed on vellum (I need to find some heavier clear vellum).  After the card was assembled, I thought it needed some more white to tie in the white mat and embossing.  I used my Big Pen to dab white circled diagonally across the card.  Some pearls and enamel dots were added to the card.  The sentiment and butterfly are from Hero Arts.

Since the paper was a "work of art" I decided to mat it like an art piece.  I used a small mat of a dark teal, added a larger mat of white and then another shade of teal. Birthday card done and I am so happy with it.  It is such great therapy to get messy.

I am also entering this in the current challenge on the Monday Simon Says challenge blog.  The current challenge is "Anything Goes".

Thanks for stopping by.  Now that I have had my therapy I must accomplish something.  I need to go to the post office, get some food and I was thinking of running to Janesville but I did say I was going to hibernate.