Spellbinders Flourished Fretwork Collection

Hey everyone!  I've got a couple cards today featuring some products from Spellbinders' Flourished Fretwork collection.  If you love intricate dies and inlay these will be right up your alley.  I wanted to show off two very different looks/techniques today.

First up, I used the Rosa Diamante set.  There are five dies in this set that layer to create a very intricate and detailed look, but for my card, I focused on the middle layer which creates a really lovely inlaid look.

I die cut both a piece of white cardstock as well as a subtle gray print.  The white piece was my base layer into which I inlaid the patterned paper pieces.  Before I adhered the pieces, I used Copics to color the flower and leave pieces as well as some of the accents at the ends of the pattern.  

I love that the pattern is still subtly visible even when you color the pieces.

The sentiment is from Neat & Tangled's Thanks So Much set.

I added a light gray mat that adds a border on either end of my panel and then popped the whole thing up with foam tape.

This second card features the Sentimental Finery set.  This set has four layering dies, and again, I'm featuring just one, the third layer.  This layer creates a framed center portion into which the fourth die sits.  The technique I'm sharing allows you to stretch your dies to create unique patterns by highlighting specific portions of your dies.

I really loved the outside portions of this die.  I think it's got a wonderful graphic, deco feel.  I die cut a panel of black, dark gray, and a lighter gray cardstock.  Then I trimmed down the black negative cut piece to use as template for placement.  

Using a Quickie Glue Pen, and my template, I adhered each of the pieces to a white card base, using black for the inside 'layer', then dark gray, then light gray.

This is not a quick process, but the results are so striking.  I thought that the finished look was quite masculine, it almost reminds me of a car grille or motorcycle emblem.  The sentiment is from an older MFT stamp set.

That's all for me today, but be sure to check out the rest of this collection over at Spellbinders.  There are some great dies sets in the collection.  Thanks for stopping by!

SSS Sunny Days Ahead Release

Hey all!  I'm helping to celebrate a new release at Simon Says Stamp as well as the fact that they are once again shipping.  They were shut down for a while due to COVID-19, but shipping has now resumed.  The new release has lots of great Mother's Day and graduation products as well as some general spring items.  Today I'm showing off a couple cards using the A Mother's Love stamp set.

For this card I stamped three of the figures from the set sitting together.  The mother's image was stamped first.  Then I created a mask for the image and stamped the little girls on either side of her.  

I added a ground line with a journaling pen, and stamped the sentiment, and then colored the image with Kuretake watercolors.

There's a wonderful detail and simplicity in these images that I really wanted to highlight, so I stamped the same grouping on a kraft card base.

 

I once again added the ground line and a sentiment, and that's really all that this card needs.

Be sure to head over to Simon Says Stamp to check out the rest of the release.  Thanks for visiting! 

Paper Smooches Get Well Soon

I took advantage of the AMAZING birthday sale Kim at Paper Smooches had earlier this month.  One of the sets I picked up was this Well Wishes set.  I love this big sentiment which is perfect for coloring.  I ended up creating essentially the same card, but using two different coloring media - markers and pencils.

First up, Copic markers:

The sentiment was stamped with GinaK Black Amalgam Ink.  I used three different shades of color for each of the letters.  It's hard to see in the photos, but to finish things off, I went around each of the letters with a very light gray (C0). 

Next up colored pencils on kraft.

For this card, I stamped the image with Versafine on kraft cardstock, and then colored the letters in with Prismacolor pencils, using three shades of color for each letter, just like with the Copics.  

Once I was done coloring, I placed my panel back in the MISTI, where I had left the image in place, and stamped again with Versafine.  This covers up any areas where I might have strayed a bit with my pencils and sharpens everything up.  You can stop there, but I then embossed with Ranger Frosted Crystal Antiquities embossing powder.  It gives the image a matte, but slightly raised texture.

The panel was trimmed down and layered on a white scalloped mat created using Neat & Tangled's Scalloped dies.  

I really love the size of this sentiment/image and that it is kind of a one and done image.  It is super cute and easy to color.  Would love to know which version is your favorite.

You Are My Sunshine

Hi all!  I've been ignoring my blog a little...I've been crafting, but it's been scrapbooking!  I'm determined to finish up at least one, if not two (or even three) of my backlogged vacation albums.  Maybe by the time this is all over I'll be caught up enough to go on vacation again!

Anyway, I have missed working on little projects that you can get done in one sitting.  I think that's what really drew me to cardmaking in the first place.  You feel a sense of accomplishment and you don't necessarily have to think as much as when you're working on an album.

I picked up this You Are My Sunshine sentiment from MFT a while ago, an decided it really needed to get used.

I stamped it on a panel of cardstock and then added a couple of adorable little birds from the Rain or Shine set, also from MFT.  To give make it a bit more scene like, I added the clouds and puddle from that set too.

The images were colored with Copics, and I added a swirl of yellow to the center of the card to mimic the sun.  

I liked the card when it was done, but it still needed something to make it pop.  Enter my white gel pen.  I am no gel pen expert, so I'm always a little wary of using it, especially on colored critters, but I figured letters might be easier, and they were.

It felt like the card was still missing a little something, so I die cut a little heart (from white cardstock that was colored red with Copics and to which I added a little white accent).  The heart was clear embossed a few times for dimension, and adhered it over the i to finish off the card.

Hope that there's a little sun in your day today!

Hipsters and Experimenting with Underpainting

I'm channeling our quarantine/social distancing frustrations with these cards.  These images are from Tim Holtz's Hipster set by Stampers Anonymous, and they just look so conflicted/frustrated to me.

Each of the images was stamped with Versafine on a panel of watercolor cardstock.  Then I did some underpainting, adding highlights with a coordinating color so that when you do the painting with the actual color you want, it creates more natural shading.  It's a technique I've been wanting to try for a while, and I thought this would be an easy way to do it.

It kind of was, except that I think it works best with colors.  Obviously, two of my images here are painted with grays/black, so I don't think these first two are as effective, but tell me what you think.  For this first guy I used browns.  Note that for all of these I added the underpainting just the the critter itself, not any of the clothing/accessories.

The sentiment is from the Crazy Talk set by Tim Holtz for Stamper's Anonymous.

You can better see some of those brown highlights in this close up, but again, it's not very pronounced.

Next up the ostrich.

For the ostrich I used some blue and brown in the underpainting.  Since the ostrich is a lighter gray you can see a bit more of that underpainting.  

The sentiment for this one is from the Hipster set.

Finally, this bird, no idea what kind of bird it is, but isn't his hair great?

The underpainting is most obvious on this one.  Normally you use the complementary color to what you want the image to be.  In this case, I knew the bird would be yellow, so I used purple for the underpainting.

The sentiment for this one I actually used in my previous post as well, but it is so appropriate for this time that I might be using it a whole lot.  It's from Simon Says Stamp's Healing Hugs set.

I definitely need to do some more experimenting with underpainting.  I liked the results, and I'm thinking I'll try some florals next.  

Hoping your week is going well and you're staying safe and healthy!

SSS United We Craft Blog Party

Happy Saturday!  Today I'm taking part in a blog party to celebrate Simon Says Stamp.  Because of the current situation, they've had to stop shipping, which is a pretty big bummer, so today we're celebrating Simon and showing off projects using their previously released products.

I decided to pull out one of my favorite stencils, Abstract Triangle, and create a couple of simple backgrounds using masking.

I started by cutting a panel of white cardstock and taping it to my stencil using washi tape.  Then I picked out some coordinating Distress Ink:  Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberry, Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire, Shaded Lilac, and Dusty Concord.  I used Post-It tape to mask off a discrete triangle within the stencil, and blending ink onto that area.

I repeated this process across the panel, working from lighter to darker and more intense colors. For a sentiment, I pulled out the Healing Hugs sentiment set.  These sentiments are meant for get well cards, but I thought this sentiment was perfect for this season where we're all missing each other and trying to stay healthy.

I had so much fun creating this first panel, that I decided to create another card.  This time I used Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Carved Pumpkin, Festive Berries, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, and Evergreen Bough.  I started by inking the entire panel with Scattered Straw, and then went in with the Post-It tape to ink specific areas.

I again went from lightest to darkest, using the greens for triangles that were right side up, and the oranges for upside down triangles.  Once I had the basic design complete, I added a couple of small triangles with the colored reversed, so a few dark orange right side up and a some dark green upside down.

The sentiment is again from the Healing Hugs set and was stamped on one of the Skinny Strips dies from Neat & Tangled.

These panels were so easy and fun to make, and what I love about this technique with this stencil is that there is no end to the variations you can create.

Be sure to head over to the Simon Says Stamp blog today to check out all the different creatives participating in the blog party. 

March 2020 in Books

Lots of books this month, and I suspect with the ongoing social distancing/stay at home orders this will be the way it is until I run out of books.  Thankfully I was able to run into the library before it shut down and borrowed a LARGE stack of books that I'm working my way through.  A lot of historical fiction and memoirs this month.  My favorites were The Fountains of Silence and A Star for Mrs. Blake.  Here's the full rundown:

The Making of a Miracle: The Untold Story of the Captain of the 1980 Gold Medal-Winning U.S. Olympic Hockey Team - Mike Eruzione - memoir - five stars - As a big hockey fan, I love the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team.  When I saw that Mike Eruzione had a memoir out, it went right on my to be read book.  This is a great story that really focuses on hard work, and the fact that it's not just about hard work, but there's a bit of luck that plays into success as well.  It was really interesting to hear about these incidents and how they led to his success.  I also liked how readable it was, and that it was appropriate for a younger audience.  I handed this one off to Ellie and she's finished it already as well.

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years - Julie Andrews Edwards - memoir - four stars - I have always loved Julie Andrews, so I enjoyed reading more about her.  This was a great look at how she got started - she was actually pulled into the business by her stepfather (whose last name she uses), and for many years, even as a child star, she was the main breadwinner for her family.  Although her writing reads a bit slower, I liked the her voice and how candid she is about her life.  This books takes you right up to where she heads to California for Mary Poppins.  Andrews has another memoir out that picks up where this one left off.  I'll definitely be picking that up once the library opens back up.

All for Nothing - Walter Kempowski - historical fiction - four stars - Translated from German, this is a story that tells about the last days of WWII.  The von Globigs, a well to do family with a manor house and estate, are waiting for the inevitable.  Refugees are fleeing from the occupied territories, and the von Globigs don't know whether to go or stay.  Eventually they also load up their most valuable possessions and flee.  The time span of this book is probably only a few weeks, but much happens, and you get a glimpse of the different personalities, what they are hiding, how they deal with the pressure, etc.  While it was a slow read, I found it a really interesting character study, and while the book doesn't have a happy ending, I appreciated how it tied up the stories of the characters.

House on Endless Waters - Emuna Elon - historical fiction - five stars - Famous Jewish author Yoel Blum long ago promised his mother that he would never return to Amsterdam, the city of his birth.  Long after his mother's death he's pressured to go there by his agent while promoting a book.  While there he is startled by seeing images of his family in the Jewish museum, and starts to unravel his family's story, which he is writing as a new book.  He becomes fully immersed in his surroundings and the story, almost as if he is living it and watching it occur around him.  I thought it was a really interesting literary device, as opposed to flashbacks, and I really enjoyed the story and how he became so enmeshed that he was floating between past and present. 

The Fountains of Silence - Ruth Sepetys - historical fiction - five stars - This was another of my favorites this month.  I love Septys books, and was excited to see another historical fiction work from her.  This one is focused on Spain, post WWII, when Franco was starting to open the country up.  I confess that I know very little of the history of Spain, and this book was an education for me about the Spanish civil war and Franco's dictatorship.  The story centers around the visit of Daniel Matheson, an aspiring photographer, to Spain, his mother's country of origin, in 1957.  His father is a Texas oil man and is trying to negotiate a deal with Franco for oil rights, he brings Daniel and his mother along for the trip.  While there, Daniel develops a relationship with Ana, the maid assigned to clean his family's hotel rooms.  She opens his eyes to the realities of life in Spain at the time.  This is a love story, but it also exposes one of the most egregious crimes of the dictatorship.  A must read.

Such a Fun Age Such a Fun Age - Kiley Reid - fiction - two stars - I was so disappointed by this book.  It was one of Reese Witherspoon's book club picks and I just didn't like it at all.  There was no one in the book that I actually liked.  All the characters were annoying or just so self absorbed and ridiculous.  It's about a girl Emira who babysits for a well to do family.  One evening, while at the local store, she's accused of kidnapping the family's daughter, which leads the mother to over compensate.  She becomes obsessed with being Emira's friend, to prove that she is not racist.  Meanwhile, another customer in the store befriends Emira and they become romantically involved.  Eventually everything comes to a head when her new boyfriend and employer meet and realize they have a history from years before.  Skip it.

One Light Still Shines: My Life Beyond the Shadow of the Amish Schoolhouse Shooting - Marie Monville, Marie - memoir - five stars - The story of the wife of the man who killed and injured multiple girls in the Amish school shooting in 2006.  Monville details her story, how she met her husband and their life together, and tries to make sense of what occurred and how it could occur.  This is very much about grace and forgiveness and how the Amish community forgave and blessed her family despite those horrible events.  The story details Monville's healing journey and how she found love again.  This is definitely a faith story and so inspiring.

A Star for Mrs. Blake  - April Smith - historical fiction - five stars - One of my favorites from this month.  In 1929, Congress passed legislation to fund travel for mothers and wives of soldiers killed in Europe in WWI to go there to visit their graves.  This book follows the story of one mother in particular, Cora Blake, and her party of mothers as they travel to Paris and then the Meuse-Argonne cemetery.  I love how as the story progressed, Smith peeled away more and more layers of Cora's story and personality.  This is another example of why I love reading historical fiction, you learn so much about things that you wouldn't know about otherwise.  This one is a must read.

I Should Have Honor: A Memoir of Hope and Pride in Pakistan - Khalida Brohi - memoir - four stars - The story of Brohi, a women's rights activist from Pakistan.  When she was young, a cousin was killed by an uncle as an honor killing, this spurred Brohi on to make a change in her society.  She was blessed with an extraordinary set of parents in that culture.  They valued education, even for daughters, and despite great hardship ensured that their daughters were afforded an education.  They also supported Brohi in her work to educate and provide skills to women in the hopes that as their value in society increased, traditions such as honor killings would cease. 

Cheese - Sarah Weeks - juvenile fiction - four stars - This is actually two books in one - Oggie Cooder and Oggie Cooder, Party Animal.  Carina and I have been reading this book, and I'll say that I love it mostly because she loves it.  She loves reading, but mostly loves graphic novels, so whenever there is a chapter book that captures her attention and that she wants to read daily, I'm all for it.  Oggie Cooder is a kid that marches to the beat of his own drum.  This means that most kids don't appreciate his quirky style and he's a bit of an outcast, until he becomes famous for his amazing ability to charve - carve cheese with his teeth.  This hidden talent could be his ticket to Hollywood and suddenly he is much more popular.  I love how Oggie stays true to himself and is a good friend to everyone, even when they are not kind to him.  Cute and quirky, we're planning to read more from Weeks.

Girl with a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier, Tracy - historical fiction - five stars - This was one I picked up in my mad dash through the library before it closed.  I remembered when this movie came out, but never actually saw the movie.  I really love the premise of the book - a story based on an iconic painting by Vermeer.  Chevalier imagines who the girl is and her connection to Vermeer.  Griet is the daughter of a tilemaker who has fallen on hard times, as a result she must become a maid for Vermeer.  It's a difficult situation in which she has to tread carefully, over time she becomes a trusted assistant to Vermeer and eventually finds herself the subject of one of his works.  I love how Chevalier wove this story together, highly recommend.

The Stowaway: A Young Man's Extraordinary Adventure to Antarctica - Laurie Gwen Shapiro - biography - three stars - Billy Gawronski dreamed of adventure and going to Antarctica with his hero William Byrd.  His determination paid off, and eventually he was able to join Byrd's expedition (after stowing away on one of his ships for the THIRD time).  Gawronski's enthusiasm and hardworking attitude made him friends on the crew and also made him a minor celebrity.  This book had such potential, but is was written in such a dry and boring manner.  It was hard to get through, but at the end of the day Gawronski was really a very remarkable man and I'm glad that I know about him. 

Next up for me is Cold Mountain, and after that, I'll just look at my big pile and see what I'm in the mood for.  I ended up picking out a lot of non-fiction from the library, so I've been trying to rotate between those and fiction/historical fiction.  I'm also planning to throw in some books that Ellie has been on my case to read, so there'll be more juvenile fiction in the coming months too.  Please share what you've been reading!