Clean and Simple - Put A Tag On It

I try to challenge this layer loving person to make clean and simple cards.  I usually do a challenge or two to help kick off some creativity for this journey.

The challenge this week on Clean and Simple on Sunday or CAS on Friday is to put a tag on it.

I recently got the new distress oxide ink colors so decided to use the color ripe persimmon.  It is a beautiful color.  Let's say this card did not turn out how it started but I do like the final result.

The cards is smaller than an A2.  The bottom panel is dry embossed.  The white/persimmon piece of paper is the remaining paper after I cut off the sentiment piece.  The butterfly is from Bo Bunny and the sentiment is from Gina K. 

Remember to never give up on a card.  Eventually you do get something you like. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

I found this beautiful paper - there were 4 sheets of paper that all coordinated.  They were too pretty not to make cards with.  The cards are very simple  and they will go in my military box.  There will be six cards that will help keep family and friends in touch while a loved ones serves their country.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

Time to share some cards I have made from an old paper collection.  The paper has a wonderful weight to it and great colors. 

These cards have gone into my military box.

I have four more of this card to assemble.

The collection even had some die cuts with it and I have used two of them for the design elements in the center panel.  I used kraft card stock to mat the card and also used a butterfly punch to add a kraft butterfly to the center panel.

Come back next week for more cards from this collection. 

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

I had bought some spider man stickers at The Dollar Store and made a couple cards - one for the military box and one for the children's home.

It is hard to find red and blue to match the stickers but I found a print that had multiple colors in it.  It worked.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Happy Little Stampers July ATC Challenge

It is time for the new ATC challenge at Happy Little Stampers.

An ATC is a tiny piece of art that measures 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches.

This is a fun challenge - coffee - a favorite subject.

Of course - distress oxides were used to color the kraft paper before I head embossed the image on it.
This is a very simple ATC.

Please come join us at Happy Little Stampers for our July ATC challenge. 

There are prizes so please come play.

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

These cards will go in my military box.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.

Happy Little Stampers July Anything Goes With Dies Challenge

It is time for the fun monthly challenge at Happy Little Stampers - Anything Goes with Dies.

I recently visited a friend in Minnesota and we went to the Scrapbook Expo.  Needless to say I did a little shopping.  I bought the dies I used on this card.

The flower dies were 5 dollars - I think.  I paid regular price for the rectangle die.  It has four sizes in it.  Those rectangle dies add such a nice finishing touch to your card.

The background was made with a couple colors of distress oxides (sorry - I like the oxides).  The flowers are distress oxides also.  They were done on glossy paper and you use the distress glaze over the top to make it shine.  I had the card together and did not like it - it was missing something.  I added the grey centers to the flowers and it brought the card together.

The sentiment is from Gina K Designs.  How lucky am I that I have sequins that perfectly matched this card.

Please come join us at Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With Dies July Challenge. 

There are prizes. 

Playing With Oxide Inks and Freshly Made Sketches

I decided to play along with the new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week - I do struggle to make clean and simple cards.  White space is something for me to achieve but I do keep trying.

Here is the sketch for this week.

 This was my seventh attempt at the sketch.  The other cards were not trashed but didn't make the cut.  Six of the cards were sent to my great niece since I knew she might want some special thank you notes since she just graduated from high school.

Back to this card.  Of course, the background was done with oxide inks.  I think someone needs to take them away from me so I can play with something else.  (so when are the new colors coming out - don't they know I am anxiously awaiting the new colors.)  For the diagonal stripe I used some clear sparkle embossing paste through a stencil.  It is really very pretty when you see if.

The flower and sentiment are from a new stamp set I got recently from Altenew.  One day I just stamped and embossed the entire set of flowers and cut them out with my Scan n Cut.  I now have flowers already to be colored for cards.  The blossom is pop dotted with foam tape as is the sentiment.

Here is a close up of the sparkly diagonal stripe.

I had another panel ready to go and wanted to try a different stencil.  I laid it on my pinkish panel and added the embossing paste through the stencil.  There was blue paint on the stencil and it went onto the card front.  OMG - I immediately scrapped it off.  I liked my happy accident and added more paste through the stencil on the other parts of the card and scrapped it off.  Here are pictures of my "happy accident card".

You can see the faint images of the blue circles in the background.  I added a strip of scrap dotted paper.  Love how it grounds the design.

Here you can see a close up of the background.  It was hard to pick up the sparkle.  It has already been mailed to someone battling some shoulder issues.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Little Stampers July Mixed Media Challenge

It is time for another Mixed Media challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  It is time to get a little messy.

The challenge is "newspaper".

I had one piece of patterned paper that kinda resembled a page of a newspaper.  This is what I went with.  I cut it to size and put a light layer of white gesso on it so that the words still showed through.  I then added distress oxides to color the gesso.  (of course - that is no surprise - I use the oxides on almost every card.)

The focal point (the man with the umbrella) is a die my friend has and I cut 4 of them when I was visiting.  I glued two together to give a little weight to the focal point.  I heat embossed the stars in gold embossing powder.  The triangles and little dots were stamped with black ink.

The sentiment was heat embossed in gold on black paper.  I used my stapler (which has blue staples in it - which was OK for this card) to attach the sentiment to the side of the card.  I used a different orientation for the sentiment.  (there is a closer picture of the sentiment further down in the post).  I added a few more staples around the card to add more texture.

Gold and silver thread were added behind the focal point.

Here is a close up of the image.

Here you can see the background at the top of the card with the staples, embossed stars and black triangles and dots.

Here is a close up of the sentiment.

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

There are prizes so please come play.

Best Fishes

In my wide collection of stamps and papers, I do not have lots of male themed items.  Recently at a Stamp/Scrap Expo I found a new stamp with fish on it that I could use for masculine cards.

I recently found a new challenge site which is dedicated to cards for men.  Their challenge this week is fish/fishing.  The name of the challenge blog is The Male Room. 

This background was made with alcohol inks.  You drop alcohol inks on top of water and then dip your regular card stock in the water.  The alcohol inks grabs onto the paper and gives you some wonderful results.  Both sides of the paper are beautiful and sometimes it is hard to decide which one to use.

The image was stamped with black onyx VersaFine Ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder.  The fish were colored with copics.  Some green was added to the sea weed.  The bubbles have some glossy accents added to them.

I did make the sentiment on my computer.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Little Stampers July Christmas Challenge

Time seems to fly - and now it is time for the new Christmas challenge at Happy Little Stampers. 

It is always good when December rolls around to be able to have some Christmas cards already made.  I know I sure appreciate it.  I hope you play along with us.

The challenge this month has the optional twist of our favorite jolly man - Santa.

This card uses some very old paper.  I am a great believer in using our well aged supplies.  The Santa image is a photocopy of a fabric piece with Santa on it.  I had one piece left and I did not want to use it and then I had an idea to see how it would copy.  It copied wonderfully so I will be able to make more cards with this image.

I distressed the edges of all the paper.  The sentiment was heat embossed with dark brown embossing powder.  A big twine bow finished off the card.

Here is a close up of the sentiment and bow.

Here is a close up of the image.  Isn't it the greatest image - kinda a primitive Santa.

Please come join us at Happy Little Stampers July Christmas Challenge. 

There are prizes so you know you want to play along.

Crafty Friends Are The Best Friends

I recently made a stop at the JoAnn Fabrics store in Madison.  It is one of their super stores.  I lucked out and found the new Dyan Reavely stamps and stencils.  Plus they were on sale.  Bogo bonus.

Last week I also found a new challenge site so I made a card using their new sketch for the week. 

The new challenge blog is Sunday Stamps.  Here is the current sketch challenge.

I am also playing along with the watercolor challenge at Happy Little Stampers.  There challenge is a monthly challenge.  My card goes along with the Anything Goes - I did not do the optional twist.

Here is my card.  The background was done with Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide Ink.  The ink was put on a craft sheet, sprayed with water and then my Bristol Smooth card stock was dipped in the watered down ink.  This is one of my favorite ways to add color to a background.  OK - we can say I am obsessed with my distress oxide inks.

The circles and scalloped border were stamped with black pnyx VersaFine Ink and then clear embossing powder was added and heated.  The elements were water colored with more distress oxide inks.  I also used some small stamps from Stamps by Judith to add more detail to the card.  They were also colored with the same inks.  The sentiment was heat embossed on the bottom of the card front.  I colored a strip of paper to add a little more detail to the border.

The sentiment is from Altenew Stamps.  It is a stamp dedicated to crafting.  I have so many crafty card making friends that this card will come in handy.

Thanks for dropping by. 

Oldie Moldie Monday

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

I am working on some cards for a military box and a children's home.  I made 4 total cards - 2 for each box.

Remember to show some love for your old supplies.  It was great with this paper that the images I found made the card.

Celebrate With Flowers

I only made one card last week and finally found some time to play today and it was hard to find any creative spark to get me going.

To hopefully jump start by creativity, I went out and checked some challenge blogs.  A couple of them started the wheels to slowly turn.

The Paper Players are celebrating their 400th post.   The theme is birthday/anniversary.   Wow - I have played along with a few of their challenges.  I wanted to play along today.

AAA Cards (Clean and Simple) challenge is to use a frame on your clean and simple design.

I had these beautiful flowers sitting on my design table from stamping a week or two ago.  The flowers are from Gina K Designs stamped with the Gina K Ink.  The sentiment is from a new inexpensive set from Momenta.  A person can celebrate a birthday, an anniversary or any milestone in your life.

The frame is a die set from Taylored Expressions. 

The background had been made with a very waterdowned ink from Gina K.  It was the lightest ink used in stamping the flowers. 

The large flower and sentiment were popped up with foam tape.

I hope you enjoyed my creation.  Hopefully this has jump started my creativity.  But alas now I must go clean up my kitchen. 

Have a wonderful week.