Friday, September 18, 2015

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.

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Hi - Merry Christmas

I am joining the challenge on Merry Monday  -  a weekly Christmas card challenge - I am joining a little late into the year but hopefully will have a few more made when it comes to mail my holiday cards.

Their challenge is to focus on the sentiment.


I used three different sentiments on my card front.  The top one is a $1 stamp from somewhere.  The Merry Christmas is from Paper Smooches and the bottom sentiment is from a very old Hero Arts set.  They were embossed with white embossing powder.  The top sentiment is matted in red and pop dotted.  The snowflakes are from an old Quickutz die.  They worked perfectly for this card.  I splattered some white paint on the card front, tied a red twine bow and added some red enamel dots.  I really like how the white pops on this wood look paper.


Thanks for the challenge.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Apple for the Teacher

I am posting over on the Mixed Media Mojo Blog today but wanted to share the post here on my blog.

 It is not to early to start thinking about gifts for teachers for the upcoming holidays or for just any day.  I don’t think we can say thanks in enough ways to the educators of our youth.

Our challenge this month is back to school with book pages as the added element.  I chose to alter a small recycled jar (the jar could be filled with many different things).  Wash your jar very well and let it dry. 

I covered the jar with strips of book pages which were adhered with gel medium.  After they dried I brushed on a coat of clear gesso.  I was thinking I wanted the words to show through from the page pages.

 I then painted a layer of red paint.  After that dried, I sponged on two different reds to give the color more depth. 


Now to add the finishing touches.  I left the lid the color it was which was a goldy brown.  I colored a piece of wood that looked like a knob dark brown to represent the stem.  I adhered two layers of book pages together; cut out two leaves freehand and colored them with green ink.  A touch of brown ink was added also.  I took a piece of brown twine, doubled it, wet it with gel medium and wrapped it around a pencil so I could get the curl in it.  Once it is dry remove it carefully from the pencil.  I wrapped natural twine under the lid; tied a bow, and added a tag with thanks stamped on it. 




I do have an artistic conflict going on.  Should I leave the jar as it is or should I brush shiny modge podge on it so my apple shines.  What do you think?


 I am going to enter this in the monthly challenge on the Faber Castell blog.  The challenge is to alter something.  

Enjoy your Wednesday.  

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Merry Christmas Holly

I am trying to get some Christmas cards made for the upcoming season.  I have been looking for Christmas Challenge blogs to inspire me.

I found two that worked together to bring this card together.  The first challenge is from Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge.  Their challenge is Holly.  I happened to find this Holly stamp in my supplies one day while I was searching for something.


The other challenge is from the Monday Simon Says Stamp challenge blog.  Their challenge is "love this technique."  The technique I used is smooshing your color onto your card stock.  You put some ink on a piece of acetate, spray it with water and smoosh the color onto your card stock until you get the color smoosh you want.  Every time you do it it turns out different.  I used Salty Ocean Distress Ink for the color.  If you go through my blog you will find many cards recently using this very difficult (yeah right) technique.  



The berries were a much brighter red (I thought).  I have glossy accents on top of it now so I don't think I can make them any darker.  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.  In my world, grey or gray is the new black for matting.  I need to buy more grey or gray card stock for matting.  

One more Christmas card made.  Thanks for stopping by.  

Monday, September 14, 2015

Oldie Moldie Monday

It was great to see that the challenge on Jingle Bells along with Shop Your Stash is to make a Christmas card from your supplies that are at least a year old.  It makes Oldie Moldie Monday so much more fun to do when I can do a challenge also.

The paper I chose to use is not a Christmas or Winter paper.  It is patterned paper from Bazzill.  I have had it for years and then a few more on top of it.  I love the challenge of using non holiday paper.  The stamp image and sentiment have been in my supplies for a few years.  I love the Paper Smooches snowmen.




I now have two more holiday cards done.  Yeah.  Thanks for the challenge and yes our old supplies do make beautiful projects.  It just takes our creativity to bring it out.  Show some love for those old supplies.

Sunday, September 13, 2015

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.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

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.