Friday, June 28, 2013

Artful Delight Friday - Tired of Texting and June Recap


Hey everyone!  Today's Artful Delight card was so much fun to put together.  I just love the typewriter stamp set in the kit.  I inked up the more vintage typewriter image, fussy cut it and popped it up with foam tape.

I stamped a bunch of the hearts from the stamp set as well and popped most of them up too.



The Canvas Corp cording was adhered with my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher.

I'm going to link this up to Simon Says Stamp's Anything Goes challenge also.

I really had so much fun with this month's kit.  Here are all the cards that I created this month.  Such a versatile kit, don't you think?










We'll be revealing the new kit and sketches on Monday.....you don't want to miss it!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Verve June Diva Dare


Hey everyone!  Sliding in a card under the wire for this month's Verve Diva Dare.  The challenge this month was to create a card using coloring/paint and as an extra challenge to include kraft cardstock.

This was a fun, fun card to make, and I got to use some of my new goodies:  the peacock feather stencil from The Crafter's Workshop and some Liquitex Modeling Paste.

I first added the feathers using modeling paste.  Once that was dry I added color using Salty Ocean Distress Ink.  I used a wet brush to moisten the areas I wanted to color, then I used a waterbrush to pick up the color and apply it.  I wanted to keep the feathers pretty light, so when I was adding the color, I went right behind with a paper towel to pull color off of the modeling paste.

After that it was just adding the embossed sentiment and mounting the panel to the card base.  Really simple in terms of steps although necessarily lightning quick because you have to wait for stuff to dry.

I'm also going to link this up to Simon Says Stamp as it's Anything Goes week. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, hope your week is going well!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Papertrey - Kraft cardstock
Stamps:  Verve - Phillippians 4:4 Plain Jane
Ink:  Versamark; Distress Inks - Salty Ocean
Other:  The Crafter's Workshop - Peacock Feathers 6x6 Stencil; Liquitex - Modeling Paste; Ranger - Waterbrush; Zing - White Embossing Powder; American Crafts - This to That doublesided adhesive

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Kindergarten Loves


This month is "Something Old and Something New" month at Punky Sprouts.  We each received a 'retro' album--one of the original albums as well as new Punky Sprouts embellishments.  That's right Punky Sprouts has some gorgeous new buttons and crochet trims.  I am in love!

I received a Punky Love mini and decided to create a 'Kindergarten Loves' album for Ellie:  things that she's loved about this past year.  The pages in this mini are a mix of clear acrylic and cardboard, but I opted to go ahead and cover all the pages regardless of what they were.

In keeping with the Something Old part of the challenge, I decided to do some stash busting and use some of my older collections.  There's a bunch of My Little Shoebox Up in the Trees and Oh Deer, Pink Paislee Hometown Summer, and Echo Park This and That.

For the cover on the canvas piece I painted color on using a paintbrush and a couple spray mists.  The 'loves' thickers are DIY thickers that were colored with a Spectrum Noir marker.

Ellie loved her teachers this year, so the first page is going to hold photos of her with her two teachers.  You'll notice the album is mostly devoid of photos.  That's because I got most of them at the end of the year and haven't had a chance to print them yet, plus I don't want to post pictures of her friends without asking their parents and I haven't gotten around to that either.

I used a black journaling pen to add some doodles around the pages and frames for a little definition, and you can see those great new buttons/trim.

 

Field trips are next.  Ellie's kindergarten class went on FIVE field trips.  Granted I only went to 1/2 day kindergarten, but I'm pretty sure we didn't have field trips until we were in the higher grades when I was growing up.  Ellie loved them.  They were lots of fun, plus she is a walker so any reason to ride a school bus at this point is aces with her.

The numbers are Elle's Studio stamps stamped on the same paper I'm using for a mat on the right hand side, and I used a few of the stickers from MLS's Oh Deer collection as accents.  I'm going to create a mini collage of field trip photos to add to the right hand side.


Learning:  Ellie is really made for school.  She loves structure and she loves to learn.  I was actually really surprised when I asked her what her favorite subject was and she said math because that is the subject that caused the most frustration for her this year.  When I asked her why she liked it best she said because even though it's hard she likes being able to do it and that there are different levels that get harder.  LOVE that she likes to be challenged!

Ellie also learned to read this year, a big deal for someone who is as into books as she is.  I included an excerpt from her report card:  "Ellie is reading independently.  She has a lot of confidence when she is reading and is not afraid to make mistakes."


And finally making new friends.  On the first day of school I asked Ellie what specifically she'd like me to pray for and she said "that I would make some new friends."  She definitely has.  We have been so blessed to have her in this class!


This mini came together so easily and quickly, and I think it will be a lot of fun for Ellie to flip through to remember her year.

Supplies Used
Punky Sprouts:  Punky Love Album, buttons, and crocheted lace
Other:  Pink Paislee - Hometown Summer collection; My Little Shoebox - Up in the Trees and Oh Deer collections; May Arts - White Burlap String; Elle's Studio - Number It Stamp; American Crafts - Assorted thickers; Studio Calico - First Kiss Mister Huey's; Dylusions - Bubblegum Pink Ink Spray; Pigma - Black Micron Pen; Fancy Pants - Childish Things Alpha Stickers; October Afternoon - Mint & Creme Mini Market; Helmar - Craft Adhesive; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; CTMH - Colonial White cardstock; Corner Rounder


Sunday, June 23, 2013

Budapest/Romania First Page - Lily Bee/Gossamer Blue Challenge


I've been buried under end of school activities, birthday parties, DT assignments, and I finally came up for air.  Cleaned (or at least mostly cleaned since you can see the table) my craft area/dining room, and decided it was time to work on a layout!

Lily Bee and Gossamer Blue have a challenge this month - create a summertime layout.  I recently received the Destination collection, and will be incorporating it into our Budapest/Romania album.  I thought making the cover/first page of the album would be perfect for this challenge.

I started by painting the center portion of my page with some Dylusions ink sprays - just dip your paint brush into the bottle and paint away.  I painted the whole thing blue, then added the brown to deepen the blue color as well as add the brown tones in there.  Then I splattered a bit of both of the colors on the page.

Once it was dry, I went about picking out the papers.  Destination is full of blues and woodprints with some red and yellow sprinkled in too.  I wanted this to be a summery layout, so I opted for some of the lighter blues/yellows.

The light blue pattern that is layered beneath the yellow airplane print I modified a bit.  It was a softer blue and I wanted to lift/brighten the color a little, so I added some of the blue mist to some water and applied a light wash to the edges.  It's subtle, but I think it ties it together with the background a little better.


I tucked a little glassine back behind the photo to hold a tag with the journaling.  Some of the stickers from the Destination collection, some stitching, and some strategically punched globes from the woodgrian globe paper embellish the page.  Another little trick, I left the strings from the stitching free.  Instead of adding enamel dots or something else to secure them, I just tucked them under the closest sticker/thicker.  It's subtle, but adds some great texture.

Thanks for coming by, the weekend has flown for us, but lots of fun going on here!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Lily Bee - Destination collection; CTMH - White Daisy Cardstock
Other:  Dylusions - London Blue and Melted Chocolate Ink Sprays; American Crafts - White Journal Thickers; Lily Bee - Destination Collection alphas/stickers; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape; The Twinery - Denim Twine; Curtsey Boutique - Glassine Bag; Cricut - Art Philosophy Cartridge; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; Creative Memories - Circle Punch

Friday, June 21, 2013

Artful Delight Friday - You Are Awesome

 

I have really enjoyed working with the journaling cards in this month's Artful Delight kit.  This week I used two of the cards from the Studio Calico Snippets paper.

The diagonal striped mat is actually a journaling card.  I layered the geotag card on top after trimming it down a bit.

The alphas/stickers are from the Simple Stories 24/7 sticker sheet, and I finished it off with some BossyJoscie flair from my stash.  A really quick and easy card - love how journaling cards do a lot of the work for you!

You have a couple more days to play along with our sketch challenges this month.  One winner will receiver his/her choice of the June card or scrapbooking kit!

Hope you have a great end to your week.  It's the last day of school for Ellie....I'm going to have a first grader on my hands!

Supplies Used:
Artful Delight June Card Kit; BossyJoscie - Lemon Assortment 2 Flair pack


Thursday, June 20, 2013

You're My Favorite


A quick card to share today using Avery Elle's Rounded Diamonds stamp set (designed by my friend JJ).

I love this set, there are so many possibilities.  I used the same stamp that I utilized in this card, and only one color of ink stamped in three generations.

I like the how your eye is drawn towards the center of the card. 


This is another card that took several tries, and I ended up penciling some guidelines to help with my stamping.  Pencils are my friends!

The sentiment is from Mama Elephant's Smitten set.

That's all for today!  Have a great one!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy
Stamps:  Avery Elle - Rounded Diamonds; Mama Elephant - Smitten
Ink:  CTMH - Outdoor Denim





Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Teacher Gifts


I decided to make card sets for our teachers again this year.  Since there is a lot going on this week, quick and easy were the key words I was thinking of, and both of these sets were exactly that.

This first set of cards is for Carina's teachers.  The flowers are from Unity's Wishing You Joy Itty Bitty.  They are stamped with Versafine, and then I used a water pen to add the color.  What I love about the combination of this type of image and the water pen is that you do not have to be precise at all.  I did this FAST.  The three sets of 8 cards took two hours max, and I was catching up on some shows all the while.




The sentiments are from Avery Elle's Modern Leaves set.  I thought the kind of brush stroke-esque font worked well with the flowers.  I like providing at least a couple different sentiments when I make sets because cards aren't always one size fits all.



 

This second set for Ellie's teachers was completely cased from Donna Mikasa's cards here.  I loved the simplicity of the cards, and I would have completely cased them except I couldn't find envelopes for 4" x 4" cards at the store (someone please tell Andrew that I need a WRMK Envelope Punch!) so I added a mat and made 5" x 5" cards.  Another fast and easy set.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Supplies Used:

Set 1
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - Colonial White Bulk Card Pack
Stamps:  Unity - Wishing You Joy Itty Bitty; Avery Elle - Modern Leaves
Ink:  Versafine; Distress Inks:  Festive Berries, Salty Ocean, Evergreen Bough; CTMH - Goldrush
Other:  Ranger - Water Pen
Set 2
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy; AC - Summer Cardstock Value Pack
Stamps:  Avery Elle - Oh Yeah
Ink:  Hero Arts - Butterbar and Bubble Gum
Other:  Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Monday, June 17, 2013

Stay Young and Go Dancing


This card so doesn't resemble me (I'm old, I have kids, and I don't go dancing), but I had a great time making it!

Lots of blending involved on this one.  I wanted to create the effect of the glow you get when the sun is just starting to rise.  I used some Eclipse wide masking tape to create the horizon line.  Then I went in with some Sunkiss Yellow ink, slowly changing to Gathered Twigs, then Slate, and then Black.

Once that was done, I switched the masking tape from below to above the horizon line and sponged in black so that I could match the color at the top of the card.

I taped the stencil in place using masking tape and inked in the image with a sponge dauber.  

The sentiment was stamped on vellum and adhered with vellum adhesive.

Hope your weekend was great.  Ours was busy, but a lot of fun.  I was able to get a lot done around the house, and I think Andrew enjoyed his Father's Day.  I just had to share the present that Carina made Andrew at school.....she is adamant that this is "a BIG coconut tree."


Have a great start to your week!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy; Recollections - Vellum
Stamps:  Mama Elephant - Good Times
Ink:  CTMH - Sunkiss Yellow, Slate, Black; Ranger - Gathered Twigs Distress Ink
Other:  The Crafter's Workshop - Urban Landscape 6x6 stencil; Tombow - Mono and Vellum Adhesive; CTMH - Sponge Daubers; Ranger - Blending Tool

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Another first

 

Just popping in to share my first publication with Paper Crafts!

This card was for the Wonder of Watercolor section, and appears in the digital version of the magazine. 

I spent many many months submitting to PC before finally getting my first acceptance at the end of January....definitely delayed gratification! 

If getting published is a dream of yours, keep trying!  It's hard to find that right combination of elements/particular style that PC is looking for.  I'm still learning, and I definitely don't always get it right (see these cards that I submitted for the same topic here and here).  But keep your chin up - if you work hard it will happen.  And just because a card doesn't get accepted doesn't mean they don't like it, just might not be right for that particular topic/challenge (I just had a previously rejected card accepted in the last call).

Have a great Father's Day and end to your weekend!


Saturday, June 15, 2013

Tool Cool


Popping in to share my Father-in-law's Father's Day card.  He's a very handy guy (I make lists of things that need to be fixed when they come to visit), so I think he'll really like this.

I used an oval cutting template to trace a curve on my cardstock, and then used that as a guide for stamping the screwdriver and wrench images.

The sentiment actually has an exclamation point at the end so that it stands alone, but I thought it would be fun to add the thickers to create a new sentiment. 

Pretty simple, although you wouldn't know it since I managed to stamp it about five times to get everything nice and straight and lined up.

Hope your weekend is going well.  June has been a whirlwind month around here, and I was a bit under the weather at the beginning of the week, so I feel like I am WAY behind.  The good news is that we are ready for Father's Day and my sister is in town this weekend, so we are getting a date night to boot!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy and Black cardstock
Stamps:  Jane's Doodles - It's a Guy Thing
Ink:  CTMH - Slate; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  American Crafts - Doll Flocked Thickers; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Friday, June 14, 2013

Artful Delight Friday - And how to make flatish sequins


TGIF!

This week I have a card and a little tutorial/discovery for you guys.

I really love the Hero Arts typewriter stamp that comes with the June card kit and I was kind of surprised with myself for not using it last week.  I was determined to get it inky for this week's card.

I had the basic layout/papers pulled together for the card very quickly, but I thought it needed a little pop of color, so I added the machine stitching.  When I did the machine stitching the first time, it came out kind of wonky and wavy....solution, go over the area again.  It adds some extra texture and the additional stitched line balances out the imperfections.

I decided to add some sequins too.  I happen to have a fair amount of sequins from Neat and Tangled.  I have regular gold and gold matte, but I thought it would be fun to add gold embossing to a red sequin so that you could kind of see some of the red peeking through.



Well, I got some unexpected results....when you heat cupped sequins, the cupped creases melt away.  They don't quite lie perfectly flat, but they are definitely no longer cupped.  Kind of a cool trick, and if you happen to have the cupped version of sequins in a particular color, and you want to mix up the textures a bit this is such an easy thing to do.



And just in case you're wondering how I heat/emboss sequins, I use my trusty craft tweezers:


 

I'm going to link this up to the sequins challenge at Let's Get Trendy Now!3.

That's all for me today.  Have a great end to your week!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Ribbon Carousel's June Challenge - Fun in the Sun


This month's challenge at Ribbon Carousel is a fun one.  I pulled out my Faber Castell Gelatos and Gel Medium and created this mixed media-ey card.

To create the background I first put down a light layer of my yellow gelato, then added water with a paint brush to get the yellow base.  Then I placed the Studio Calico mask over top, adding orange gelato in the rays.  Once that was done, I used the wet paintbrush to paint/set them.

After stamping the sentiment, from Mama Elephant's Smitten set, I colored the heart in with a colored pencil.

At this point you could call it a day and be done, but I thought it would be fun to add some texture, so I cut strips of May Arts white burlap string and painted them on using Faber Castell Gel Medium.  It was a little bit time consuming, but I like the extra definition and texture.

There's plenty of time to play along with this month's challenge.  Link up your project HERE, and you'll be in the running to win your very own Ribbon Carousel!

I'm also going to link this card up at Homemade Cards by Erin.  She's a big May Arts fan and is celebrating her 1000th post (wow!) with a contest on her blog, as well as CASology where this week's cue card is yellow.

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Bazzill Card Shoppe - Circus Peanuts cardstock; CTMH - White Daisy cardstock
Stamps:  Mama Elephant - Smitten
Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  Faber Castell:  Yellow and Orange Gelatos and Gel Medium; Studio Calico - 12" x 12" Sunburst Mask; May Arts - White Burlap String; Close to My Heart - Holiday Red Watercolor Pencil; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Friday, June 7, 2013

Arful Delight Friday - Journaling Card Cards


Hey everyone!  I've got two Artful Delight cards to share with you this week.  I have to say I am LOVING this month's kit.  Last month's kit was so pretty and delicate and lovely, this month is bold, and colorful, and trendy.

Both of my cards today use journaling cards from Simple Stories 24/7 collection. 

The first card is a very CAS interpretation of this month's card sketch:


The photo fit the speech bubble perfectly - it's from a couple years ago when Andrew and I took Ellie to the beach near my hometown.

I added one of the little 24/7 stickers as well as some of the Canvas Corp hemp cording.  The cording is actually quite thick, so I separated the strands to get the skinny pieces.  I'm going to link this one up over at Simon Says Stamp as it's Masculine/Father's Day week as well as A Blog Named Hero - It's a Man's World.

My second card uses some of the My Mind's Eye papers from the kit as well as some more of the 24/7 stickers, and some fun embellishments:  camera and striped paper clip.  I left the journaling card blank because I figure I will fill in the date and the notable/congratulatory event when the occasion to use it arises.  I added a little doodling around the edges of the papers to give it a little more definition.



I really had a great time creating these.  You guys definitely want to play along with our sketch challenges this month....a random winner gets their pick of the scrapbooking or card kit and they are really so fun this month!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

First Publication!

Late last year I got that email that I had been hoping to receive for months:  my first publication acceptance.




It was from Paige Evans at Cards, and here is my card in print in the May issue!

I created the flower element by layering a Punky Sprouts doily, with four Punky Sprouts Lil' Parchment Blossoms that were folded into quarters with one edge folded back, a crocheted flower, Teresa Collins button, and Twinery Twine.

The sentiment is one of my favorite Verve Plain Janes, and the patterned paper is from GCD Studios.

I'm very happy to report that I have a number of other cards that will be published this year, but the first one will always have a special place in my heart. 

Hope that you are having a great week!

Monday, June 3, 2013

Winner!


Just popping in to share the winner of my birthday/blogaversary giveaway.  The great and powerful Random.org has spoken, and has chosen.....

JINNY NEWLIN!

Congrats Jinny!  Shoot me an email and I'll get your package out to you.

Thanks again to BossyJoscie (who is also hosting a giveaway on her Facebook page right now:  https://www.facebook.com/BossyJoscie/app_228910107186452),  Paper Sweeties, and Laurie Willson for helping out with my giveaway! 

And since posts should not be photo less.  Here are a couple of my crazy girls.  Screaming and crying often starts out with a hug (some people squeeze too hard and don't let go).


And then there are photos like this that would be really cute except for Ellie's inappropriate use of her middle fingers....


Have a great evening everyone!

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Thank you for being you for AEI♥U challenge

****It's the last day to enter my Birthday/Blogaversary giveaway....scroll down to get the details.


Just a quick post today.  I decided to play along with the AEI♥U challenge....last minute as usual!  Here's the inspiration photo:


I was inspired by the colors as well as the pillows, and here is what I created:  


I pulled out my Rounded Diamonds set and started playing with just one of the images to come up with this design.  It's amazing how many possibilities you have with basic shapes!  I first stamped a square with the corner of the diamond that has the square in it pointing out, at the corners.

Then I colored the image in very lightly with Spectrum Noir markers.  I say lightly because I planned to stamp and color over top and I didn't want a lot of running/feather of the stamped lines.  I used TB1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 graduating the colors.  

Then I turned the stamp around, stamping it on an angle with the corner pointed toward the center of the image to create a diamond over the square.  I colored it the same way/order so that you can see changes in shades where the colors overlap.

I created the little mat out of a piece of white cardstock and that I colored with TB5, and added a bit of TB6 on the outside edge.

The stamped piece was fussy cut and is popped out using Zots.  I added a little bit of glitter tape (which I also colored with TB6 to deepen/darken the color) for a bit of bling.

Thanks for coming by!  Hope your weekend is going well!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy
Stamps:  Avery Elle - Rounded Diamonds; Hero Arts - Thanks a Bunch
Ink:  CTMH - Outdoor Denim
Other:  Spectrum Noir Markers - TB1, TB2, TB3, TB5, TB6; American Crafts - Glitter Tape; Thermoweb - Zots Dimensional Adhesive; Tombow - Mono Adhesive







Saturday, June 1, 2013

Artful Delight June Kits and Sketches

Hey everyone, just popping in to share this month's Artful Delight kits and sketches. 

I'm so excited about this month's card kit.  I LOVE the Hero Arts stamp set and the papers are so much fun.  I can't wait to get started!

Without further ado, here are the kits:

June Scrapbook Kit


 June Card Kit

And here are the sketches.  Remember that one random winner (entries are pooled between both sketches) will get their choice of June kits. 


 June Scrapbook Sketch

 June Card Sketch

Thanks for coming by, hope you are having a great weekend!