Sketch Challenge Card

I was busy creating and using some old paper.  I found a cute sketch at Paper Players and decided to use it for my card.  Here is the sketch.

I got out one of my cute Whipper Snapper Stamps for the image.  I think I could have chosen a better color for my hedgehog but it is colored and we will go with it.  A friend had sent me the yellow flower many years ago and I placed it over the flower that came with the stamp.  It looks so cute.  I may still put some glossy accents on the nose.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Simple Sweet Birthday Card

I was inspired to make a clean and simple birthday card by the challenge on AAA Cards Challenge Blog.  the challenge is a clean and simple birthday card.

I also am entering this card in the challenge at CAS on Sunday where the challenge is repetition.

The cupcake stamp is from Stampendous.  I colored it with Copics.  The background was dry embossed in a polka dot embossing folder.  One more sheet of 6 x 6 paper was used up in the making of this card.  Yay.  Only a million more to go.

This will go into one of my donation boxes.  I have not decided which one yet.

Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Monday - time to show some love to your old supplies.  I have a couple cards to share with you today.  These cards will be sent to a friend who is then sending them overseas to a troop.  This is a much smaller scale than Operation Write Home.

In a private facebook group I had issued a challenge to do embossing on patterned paper.  I did gold embossing.  I did kit of few of these cards to assemble at a later date.

Thanks for stopping by.  Remember to show some love for your older supplies.  They still make beautiful projects.

Another Hero Card

This is another card for my Hero Box.  Check yesterday's post to see what I am talking about.

I am using the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches.

I used the same paper I used on my card from yesterday.  The bird is a Dina Wakely stamp.  I added some chalk to the bird to give it some contrast from the background paper.

A quick and easy card that you could use for any type of celebration.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hero Cards

For many years I made cards for Operation Write Home and I do miss making those cards.  Through Operation Write Home I have made lots of friends and we keep in contact online.  One of these friends is collecting cards for a unit who is being sent out in the fall.  It is time to start making some cards.  My goal is 30 cards.

I looked to some challenges to help me with my goal for making cards.  It is also a great way to use up some of your supplies.

The first challenge is from Try It On Tuesday where the challenge is Feathered Friends.

I decided to use the sketch challenge from Try Stamping - Or Not - On Tuesday.

Here is my card.  I have wanted to use this bird stamp from Hero Arts for several weeks and the challenge gave me the opportunity to use it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Oldie Moldie Monday

Monday time to show some love for your old supplies.

I actually found the paper and image laying on my table top when I was cleaning.  It quickly was made into a card.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Ordered Chaos - Part Two

Today I will share some pictures with you of the first pages I threw paint at.

Interesting aren't they.  That is about all I can say about them.  I have chosen to work in my journal because I don't want lots of loose pages of paper floating around.  I started working in this journal when I took my class from Dina Wakely last summer so I wanted to keep all my stuff with her influence in one journal.

Ordered Chaos Class

I am taking an online painting class called Ordered Chaos taught by Dina Wakely.  She is a fun instructor.  I was lucky enough to take some classes from her last summer in Oregon.  I am having fun.

The first part of the class is making marks - so I will share some of those projects with you today,

I am learning a few things but I don't think the art world has to worry about me being a great painter.

Oldie Moldie Monday

Once again I needed to make a sympathy card so I decided to make 3 of them.  I used some scraps on the one I am posting and then I found a very old packet of coordinated paper and used that for the other two.  Trees area favorite subject for me to use when it is a sympathy card when the person who passed away is a man.

Thanks for stopping by.

Traveling Art Journal for Canvas Corp - April Edition

It is time for Group Two in the Travel Art Journal story to share their creations from April.  On May 1 - Group One - posted their April creations and you can find them at this link.

It is so fun to do this journal.  It shows up in your mail box, you get to see all the wonderful entries done before you and you hope that you will be able to create something as wonderful as what you have just seen.

It is interesting how each journal varies when you get it.  This one was hand made and you could remove the page and complete it and then put it back in the journal once it was completed.

My mind was on Spring when I created my page.  Every morning and then all day you hear the happy songs from the birds.  It is such a beautiful sound to hear and once in awhile you will get a glimpse of the bird who has the wonderful song you are enjoying.  I love to lay in bed in the morning and listen to them sing.  They make it sound like your day is going to be wonderful from the song they sing.

Here is a picture of the double spread completed.

I stamped the birds in black ink and clear embossed them.  I then cut them out.

I colored the birds with various High Impact Paints from Tattered Angels.

I die cut clouds to help me create my sky for the birds to be a part of.

I die cut branches from Kraft paper for the birds to sit on and sing their beautiful songs.

I used various Tattered Angel mist to color my sky background.  I then put my cloud stencils over the top once the background had dried and dabbed on white gesso to make clouds.  The branches were adhered with gel medium.

I colored a piece of gessoed book page and printed the sentiment on it and cut it out.  Do you know if you remove a sheet from your ink jet printer (especially if you have printed on a painted surface, you can heat emboss it.)

I stamped the sentiment from the bird stamp set on a cloud for easy reading.

Here is a close up of the two birds.  I love their colors.

Once again is a look at the finished journal page for April.  The Traveling Journal is such a wonderful artistic project to participate in.

If you wish to see all the April projects from Group Two, hop on over  to the Canvas Corp Blog - The Creative Studio.

Hello Distress Oxides Ink

I have been enjoying playing with the Distress Oxide Inks.  I save every piece of background I make.  For this card I used a small piece that fit perfectly with the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.  

I really like this sketch.  Here is my card.

I found this stamp set when I was cleaning and have put it to very good use.

Happy Mother's Day week end to everyone.

Oldie Moldie Monday on Wednesday

I had a post scheduled on Monday so could not post my oldie moldie Monday creations.

I was cleaning my tables and found some treasures on my table that I was able to make into cards.  It is amazing what you find in those heaps of beautiful stuff.

This one I sent as a Mother's Day card to my sister.  Her middle name is Bea.

The next card I mailed to a friend's Mom who is aging and having some health issues as we all do as we age.

Remember to show some love to your old supplies.

Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With Dies May Challenge

It is time for the new challenge to start at Happy Little Stampers for Anything Goes With Dies.

I have bought some new dies on a few of my shopping adventures lately and I decided to use a couple of them on my card.  First I had to create the background.  I have started to play with the Distress Oxide Inks.  You never know what the background will look like.  I believe I used purple, pink and blue on this card.  I really should write this down.  I die cut the panel.

I die cut the flowers abd butterflies out of white card stock.  The butterflies were colored with the oxide inks also.  The sentiment was stamped with VersaMark and white embossing powder.  I found these enamel dots in my stash and they were a clear colored which matched my background perfectly.  After the card front was finished, I sprayed it with Tattered Angels Dazzling Diamonds.  It added the perfect sparkle to the card plus it added some more oxidation to the front.  I really like how the card turned out.

Here is a close up of one of the flowers and one of the butterflies.  You can see some of the sparkle on the butterfly.

Please come along and play with us this month at Happy Little Stampers with your dies.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Little Stampers May Mixed Media Challenge

It is May - time for a new mixed media challenge at Happy Little Stampers.

Now what is your definition of a SPLAT.  There are many different ways to incorporate this into your mixed media challenge.  I know that I have splat stamps, splat stencils, I think I can cut splats on my Silhouette and there is the wonderful standby of loading a paint brush with paint and splatting it across your creation.  I think I always have to add this last type of splats on everything I create.  One must be careful not to oversplat.  (I created a new word.)

I was having trouble this month.  I couldn't get started but a friend put me on the road to creating and I was happy with what I did.

Here is my card.  I used mostly Dina Wakely paints and the bird and sentiment are her stamps.

Here is a close up of the sentiment.

Here is a close up of the bird sitting on his branch of corrugated cardboard.  I think she is gathering thread to make her nest.

The background started as mixed media paper with pieces of book pages adhered to it with gel medium.  Gesso was smeared over the top of the book pages.

Embossing paste was added in several spots through stencils.  Everything was left to dry.  The hardest part of mixed media is allowing things to dry.

Paint was smeared across the page.  Water was added in places to help it move around.

Gesso was applied through a circle stencil by Dina Wakely.  You can also see where I stamped with a script stamp and blue ink.  I took a bottle cap and dipped it in black ink and put it around each white circle.  I had bought a new triangle stamp so I had to add a few of those to the front.  The background was matted with black.

Now we are going to create our bird.  Gesso was added to a book page and yellow paint added over that.

I stamped the ink in black and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I did two in case I goofed up in my painting.

Here is my bird painted.  Not the best job in the world but it is OK.

I did the sentiment the same way.  You can see the corrugated cardboard on which paint was smeared.

Everything was added to the card front with gel medium.

I then added my splats of white.  I got some big ones and some small ones.  I love to do this and usually I splat myself in the process.

Come join us at Happy Little Stampers for our May Mixed Media Challenge.

Happy Birthday Monica Blog Hop

I am participating in a blog hop to celebrate the birthday of Monica Taylor.  Happy 50th birthday Monica - may I say the best is yet to come.  To be so young - I can only dream now.  I do remember a few things about when I turned 50.  The blog hop starts at Monica's blog - Taylor Made Cards 4 U.

Monica wanted us to talk about a journey we have taken in our lives.  I will share my card and then I will talk about the journey.

Here are some close ups of different parts of the card.  You can see all the different layers of paper on this section plus the embossing paste which was added on the right side of the card.

Here is the fabric bow that I used to embellish the card.  I tore a strip from a fat quarter and tie it into a bow.  Sometimes torn fabric makes a better embellishment than the more refined ribbon.

Here is a picture of the typewriter.  This stamp has such wonderful detail in it.  You can also see the cheesecloth that I stained which is peaking out from behind the typewriter image.  Along the bottom is a strip of stamped paper which looks like the edge of a torn notebook.  All the paper was inked and distressed on the edges.

Now the journey - I want to talk about my journey through technology.  When I learned to type in high school (we had typing class and we also learned shorthand), I did learn to type on a manual typewriter.  It may have been a little more updated than this image but it was a manual.  I was never a fast typist.  The electric typewriter came along and made things so much easier on the person typing.  You did not have to hammer the keys to make they type.  You did not have to do the manual return, you just pushed a button.  IBM came out with the selectric typewriter.  This machine had little balls you inserted which had different fonts on.  Slowly the surely the computer came along and eventually we had word processing programs.  The ease of producing a document was so much easier.  As the program evolved over the years, the ease of operation continued to evolve.  Many younger people do not know what a typewriter is.  When they says things like that, you feel very old.  I am sure many of you reading this probably have never through the journey through time of typing.  My aunt is 91 years old and she worked in an office and did so much typing.  Her fingers are crippled and bent to the side from her many years of use.  I am actually sending this card to my aunt.

I hope you enjoyed my journey.  Think about what other things have evolved in your lifetime.  Leave me a comment and tell me of something you can think of that has changed.

Happy Birthday Monica.