New Stamp and Old Paper

I bought a new stamp and die set at the Stamp and Scrap Convention and decided I had to use it.
I decided to use the challenge at The Paper Players which is a sketch.

I chose some bright colors for my bird and somewhat coordinating papers.  The sentiment is an old one I had laying on the design table.  I believe this card will go into my pile for the Collins Home.  I am sure it will make some child smile.

Thanks for stopping by.

Gypsy Cards and Gift Bags

I am featured on the Canvas Corp blog today with a post featuring cards I made for my Ya Ya's and some gift bags for a couple crafty friends.  You can pop over there for all the details.

Here are some pictures of the cards.

Here is a picture of the gift bags I made.  I stapled everything together so it was easy to make.

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday - time to show some love for your older supplies.  I have had this paper and the orange twine for a very long time.  The little monkey is a new stamp from Taylored Expressions.

Remember your old supplies still make beautiful creations.  I made two of this girl monkey design.  One will be sent to a friend who's favorite color is orange and loves monkeys.  The other one goes in my box for the Collins Home.  I have also used this same design and made two boy cards (there is a boy monkey in the set also.)

Thanks for stopping by.

ATC Project Featured on Canvas Corp Blog

Yesterday my ATC project was featured on the Canvas Corp Blog.

Here are the ATC's I made from 7 Gypsies paper.

If you want to see how I made them, there is a step out at this link.  I do love my layers.

Case This Sketch

Lazy blogger - I have created cards this last week along with starting to clean the mess I call a studio.  OMG - I have a job in front of me.

Today's card is based off the weekly sketch from Case This Sketch.  A very nice sketch that has many possibilities for designs.

The paper I used is from two different new 6 x 6 pads.  One was gifted to me and I bought the other one.  I love the ombre colors in both the die cut and the background.  I die cut the hearts with my Silhouette Cameo.  I also cut two more pieces out of white and glued all three layers together so the image pops off the page.

I have a friend collecting cards for a troop being sent overseas next year.  She has given us lots of lead time so that helps.  I miss making cards for Operation Write Home.  I made two of this design.

I have my boxes for the different charities I support for which I make cards.  There is now going to be a soldier box to go along with my Collins Home box and a box for the two fundraisers my friend Mary is involved in - one for Hospice and another for the Collins Home.  It helps me stay busy and use some of my supplies.

Have a wonderful Sunday.

Christmas Card - First of the Year

It is time to start making Christmas cards.  You have to start somewhere.

I started out with a card I really liked in the end.  It has been running around in my head so I am glad to get it out.

The monthly Christmas Challenge at Happy Little Stampers is Anything Goes with the optional twist of embossing.

I had embossed some panels of watercolor paper.  I had stamped in VersaMark a large overall stamp.  It did not stamp overly well.  I still went ahead and colored the panel with distress inks.  I decided that if I die cut out elements out of the embossed paper I would be able to use the piece.

I wanted to used silver on my card.  Well of course the silver I had did not match my silver thread.  I them took a piece of the silver paper, ran VersaMark over it and heat embossed silver on it.  It worked fine.  Sometimes when you die cut, it takes off the embossing but you can hide that.  I die cut a sentiment and small and larger stars from the silver.  I cut small and larger stars out of the colored embossed paper.

I artfully arranged the elements on the card front.  The two large watercolored stars were pop dotted.

The die cut was a new one I bought in Minnesota.  It was on clearance.  I really like it.  The card is pretty non traditional but that is OK.

Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

Monday, time to show some love for your old supplies.  I made 2 of this card.  I found the digi images all printed out and I just needed to color them.  The paper is an old 6 x 6 from Basic Grey.  Love the colors in the pad.

I will send one card to the Collins Home in Seneca South Carolina and the other card will go in a box to be sent to a friend who is going to provide cards to a military unit.  I miss doing cards for Operation Write Home so I like to help when someone does send a box to a military unit.

Remember those old supplies still make great projects.

Distress Oxide Inks and CAS Card

Last week end I visited a friend in the Twin Cities and we played with all kinds of different things.  One of the things we had fun with was playing with the new Distress Oxide Inks.  I love the look you get with the oxide inks.  I did not make any cards until I got home.

I had one piece of paper and I cut two panels out of it with a die.  I stamped the floral image and heat embossed it in white.  The flowers are a stamp from Gina K.  I took a piece of paper and added the purple oxide ink to it so I could stamp a sentiment on it and have it stand out.  I pop dotted the stamped layer on top of another die cut panel and all was placed on a card front.  I also punched a small butterfly out of the purple paper.  I love this card.

I am entering this into the monthly challenge at Happy Little Stampers for their CAS challenge which is to use blending.  I blended those oxide inks.

Thanks for stopping by.  I had a lovely week end of doing some creating.  Traveling is wonderful but it is nice to be able to start creating again.

Canvas Corp Traveling Journal - March Edition

It is time for my group of designers to reveal their March pages for the Canvas Corp Traveling Journal.  We have two groups of journals traveling the world.  The first group always posts of the 1st of the month.  This is the link to their journal pages for March.

Our group shares their post on the 15th of each month.  Here is my page for the month.  I went with bright, cheerful colors.

Here is a picture of  the page before I can to decorate it.  I used Tattered Angels High Impact Paint in Orange and Yellow.  I used two different sheets of paper from the Canvas Corp Collection:  Heirloom Collection Brushes on Ivory and Black and White Newsprint.  I also used a bright pink acrylic paint to round out the paints I used.  The newsprint paper was colored more intensely and used for accents on the page.

I had bought a new shaped die cut and used that on my page.  I cut the shapes from the colored newsprint paper.  I added black thread behind each large grouping of the shapes.

Brushes were fussy cut from the Brushes on Ivory paper.    I used these brushes on both pages.

I had found an old alphabet stamp where the letters were in individual squares.  I stamped them on painted paper and heat embossed them so they popped.  I fussy cut out each letter.  I had to stamp the alphabet around 5 times to get the letters I needed.

I added a few of the painted shapes around the page.  I also have stick stamps with circles on the ends and I stamped them around the page to bring a little more black into the design.

You can see some of the different elements I used to add more texture to the page.  I used bubble wrap and pink paint and stamped around the pages in different areas.  I also have a script stamp I love to use and I stamped that in a bright pink ink.

I also stamped an art quote in black on this page.

  This spread was great fun to make.  I love the bright colors.  March can be very dreary and I wanted to bring a little brightness into my corner of the world.  Pretty soon our flowers will be blooming and adding color to our landscape.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sympathy Cards

I have decided to get some sympathy cards made and in my supplies.  It seems so hard to make them when you need them.  This card design has been in my head for quite awhile.  I believe it is why I bought the branch stamp so I could release it.  Now I will have room for a new design to pop into my head.

The branch stamp is from Fun Stampers Journey.  The sentiment is from Gina K Designs and it comes with a coordinating sentiment for the inside.  I have made a kit with six of these cards in it so I will have more in my supplies.

Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

The last card from a 6 x 6 pad.  Yeah - done with that pad of paper.  Now to move onto the next one.  I have lots to work through.

I added a doily to this card along with a die cut Hello.

Happy Little Stampers April Die Cut Challenge

Time for another challenge at Happy Little Stampers for Anything Goes With Dies.

I had a new flower die from Penny Black which I wished to used on this card.  I had made a card similar in design last year but changed it up for this month.

I made the background using watercolor paint and the smooshing technique.  You put your color on a piece of acetate and you smoosh it on your background paper.  You keep doing this until you get the look you want.  I love the variety of looks you can get when you smoosh.  (this is a favorite technique of mine.)

I placed the front in my Misti and stamped the sentiment.

I die cut the frame out of watercolor paper also.  I taped two dies together to get the window I wanted.  I did cut two more layers of the die and layered them together to get a small amount of depth to the window.

I die cut the flowers with my new die.  I decided to use both layers on my flower but on the other two flowers I only used the upper layer.  It gives the card a more airy look.  The flowers were colored with Dina Wakely acrylic paint.  The leaves were from the same die.  The pink flower is pop dotted off the page so everything else slides underneath it.

I made three cards of this design.  Two of this design are for friends who are retiring and the other is a birthday card.

Please come join us at Happy Little Stampers this month for our Anything Goes With Dies challenge.

Happy Little Stampers April Mixed Media Challenge

We have made it to April - spring should be coming soon for us here in Wisconsin.  We have days that hint of Spring but then we get those blasts of Winter to remind us not to get too anxious.

But it is time to have a new challenge at Happy Little Stampers in Mixed Media.

Here is my card for the challenge.

I used the spray to color my background, color  the background that the image is stamped on and to also color the ribbon.

I sewed together two pieces of patterned paper (I was working on using up a 6 x 6 pad and there were a couple sheets that would work fine for a background - so I started two cards).

 I then sprayed the papers with different shades of blue, teal and purple Tattered Angels sprays.

I then added white embossing paste through a stencil on the page.  This was also a scientific experiment.  I had read that the colors would bleed through the embossing paste and color it.  Well that did not happen with my project.  I  then had to spray the card front with the sprays to get the colors I wanted. Below is one that has been colored and one that was white.

I created the backgrounds for my stamped image.  I then stamped the image in black Versafine Ink and added clear embossing powder.  The image was matted with black.

I colored the ribbon with the sprays.  I just put the sprays in a container, added some water (not too much) and scrunched up my ribbon and let it soak up the spray.  I then kept it scrunched up and let it dry.

I added some black thread behind the stamped image which was pop dotted on the front of the card.  The ribbon and bow was added to finish the card.

Here are some close ups of different parts of the card.

Here is the other card I created.

Please join us at Happy Little Stampers this month with your mixed media projects using sprays.

Oldie Moldie Monday

Finishing up the last sheets of paper in a 6 x 6 pad.  Here are a couple more cards.

A couple more cards for my stash.

Sympathy Card

I always hate to do sympathy cards and I needed one.  A childhood friend has lost his sister to cancer.
I decided to use a simple tree for the focal point on my card.  It was colored with distress inks and the background was also done with watered down distress inks.

I am entering the card into the challenge at Clean and Simple on Sunday.  The challenge is to use a tree or leaves.  Both of these subjects are favorites of mine.  I do hope it is clean and simple enough for the challenge.  I always struggle with that.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Birthday Avery

Last year I made a goal to send birthday cards to my immediate family and I did accomplish that.  One was a couple months late because I had put it in a safe place and the funny thing is that I had the card done months before his December birthday.

This card is for my great nephew.  I find it hard to make cards for teen boys.  I hope he will like this card.

I put googly eyes on the dog and thankfully the one eye has finally let the dot fall to the center of the eye.  The heart was cut out and glued onto the dog.  Glossy accents were added to the heart.

I am entering the card into the Wednesday challenge at Simon Says Stamp - the challenge is Anything Goes.  

Thanks for stopping by.