You are one of a kind

Playing along with Friends with Flair this Friday.

This stamp is from one of my favorite Unity Kits, One of a Kind.

For the misted background I wanted to create a sort of sunburst effect.  I used four different Dylusions ink sprays and a scrap piece of cardstock.  It's really easy to do.  Lay your scrap cardstock over about half the card on an angle.  Mist the exposed half of the card.  Let dry (I used a heat gun to speed the process along).  Pivot the scrap cardstock to cover a different section of card and repeat.  Each time you'll be misting over parts of what you misted before, but you create some fun diagonals and layers of color.

To accentuate some of those angles, I created a cardstock mat from multiple coordinating colors of cardstock that extended the lines/angles of misting.  I cut three mats of colored cardstock, one serving as the base.  For the other two, I lined the panel up and then used a pencil to mark where the lines met the mat and then trimmed away the excess.  I really like the extra oomph the mat gives to the card.

That's all for today.  Hoping to get caught up with some scrapbooking this weekend...and tackle the loads of laundry in the basement.....

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Avery Elle - White, Vino, Fizz, and Mimosa
Stamps:  Unity - One of a Kind set
Ink:  Versafine
Other:  Ranger - Pure Sunshine, Lemon Zest, Squeezed Orange and Cherry Pie Ink Sprays; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Valentines for Friends with Flair

Well, we were supposed to be handing out these Valentines at school today, but alas, school was cancelled yet again due to the weather.  At least I get to share them here with you guys!

Our school district is rather communist strict, so we aren't allowed to bring in sweets for Valentine's day.  Since Ellie seems to be obsessed with all sorts of key chains/zipper pulls these days we decided to create them for her and Carina's classes, the Penguins and Puffins respectively.  Now let me tell you, I was really nervous we wouldn't find a Puffin stamp, but Unity came through for me.  In fact, I just saw that Paul the Puffin is on sale for $1 this weekend!

Anyway, the keychains were pretty straightforward to make, I used regular white shrinky dink material, stamping with Stazon.  The shrinky dink material is slippery, so be prepared for some duds, and you have to give it some time to dry too.  For Ellie's penguins, once the ink was set, I let her color the hats with Sharpie markers.  Note - the Sharpies will reactivate the Stazon, so color quickly and try not to touch any of the Stazon or it starts to get muddled.  I also used the Sharpies for touch up where the Stazon didn't fully cover.



Once the birds were dry, I added a hole punch, carefully cut around the figures and the hole punch, and baked them.  Then it was just a matter of adding the clip/ring.

The hearts were actually last week's free Silhouette cut file (heart marquee, Design #54960).  It was perfect since it has the holes for stitching.  I used Lawn Fawn's Milo's alphas for the sentiment, the to/from are written on the back of the valentine.  A little natural Divine Twine finished these off.

Hope that you have a happy Valentine's Day and a great weekend!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - Holiday Red Yardstick
Stamps:  Unity - Paul the Puffin, You're Cool Itty Bitty; Lawn Fawn - Milo's Aphas
Ink:  Stazon; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  Divine Twine - Natural Twine; Sharpie Markers; Jewelry findings; Silhouette cut file #54960

Oh Gosh - one more STENCILED card for Friends with Flair

I've just loved this last week of really intentional work with my stencils.  Hopefully I will be able to keep it up and use them more regularly!  I'm starting out on the right foot by incorporating a stencil in my Friends with Flair card.

I used the SC Sunburst stencil and incorporated both inking and misting.  I first used a sponge dauber to add a pale yellow to the rays.  Then I went over that with some Dylusions ink spray.





I really wanted to accentuate the rays and tie them in with the stamped image which is a little darker, so I just freehand doodled some extra lines along the rays.

The image was stamped with Versafine and I added color highlights using a water brush.

I have to say the one thing I'm finding and loving is that in using stencils, I am able to make a really high impact card without a whole lot of work/time.

Thanks for coming by and have a great weekend!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy and Black cardstock
Stamps:  Unity - Lightbulb Moment Itty Bitt
Ink:  Versafine; CTMH - Sunkiss Yellow, Honey, Chocolate
Other:  Dylusions - Pure Sunshine Ink Spray; Studio Calico - Sunburst mask; Ranger - Waterbrush; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Friends with Flair - Thinking of You

Yesterday I pulled out my new Inktense pencils and tried them out.

I thought this Unity image would be the perfect one for my first project.

I first added a soft wash to the background by applying water to the base piece and then adding some very watered down color.

The image was stamped in Versafine and then colored by just pulling color off of the pencil tips with a brush.  Once that was done I added the horizon line and stamped the sentiment.

I do love how bright the colors are, can't wait to use these again!

Have a great weekend!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Watercolor paper from Target; Avery Elle - Silver Fox Cardstock
Stamps:  Unity - Country Side Blooms Itty Bitty; WPlus9 - Fresh Cut Florals
Ink:  Versafine
Other:  Derwent - Inktense Pencils; Tombow - Stamp Runner

Go in the Direction of Your Heart for Friends with Flair

Hey all, popping in betwixt the de-Christmasing and cleaning to share a card for Friends with Flair.

The background was made with Gelatos that I rubbed on dry and then went back over with a wet brush to blend, four colors there.

Once that was dry I used some gold acrylic paint and a Crafter's Workshop stencil to add the map.  I used a pretty dry brush with a light hand and brushed it on towards the right of the card so you get the build up of the paint against the stencil edge, adds some nice texture.

The sentiment was colored with a Faber Castell PITT marker and stamped and I used the same marker to color in the compass headings (from the stencil) at the top of the card.

It's a little hard to see, but I stamped the sentiment a second time to fussy cut one of the hearts which was colored red with some Liquid Glass on top and then adhered over our home - in Virginia.




OK, short and sweet.  Back to cleaning......  (the girls are watching Mary Poppins.  I felt a little bad plopping them down in front of the TV, but really, it's Mary Poppins....that's culture.)

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Strathmore - Mixed Media paper; Avery Elle - Cherry cardstock
Stamps:  Unity - Direction of Your Heart Itty Bitty
Other:  The Crafter's Workshop - Small USA Map stencil; Faber-Castell - Gelatos, PITT Metallic Gold Marker; Liquitex - Gold Paint; CTMH - Liquid Glass; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Friends with Flair - Perfect Just the Way You Are

Thought I would play along with Friends with Flair again this week.  Another card featuring another one of my favorite Itty Bitty stamps (I have a lot of favorites).

You might remember this card that I posts for FWF a couple weeks ago featuring what I like to call reverse watercoloring.  

I did something similar here.  I inked up the tag (with Mowed Lawn on the bottom and Salty Ocean on the top, blending in the middle), stamped the image in Versamark and then removed color.  This time though, I went back in and re-watercolored some areas using those same colors as well as some Evergreen Bough.

For the more saturated sections, you will need to go over the area more than once, but I like that you have so much control over the process.

Another little cheat on this card.  It has the look of one of those folded banner dies, but it's not.  Instead, I cut two 'tails' and tucked them under the tag, slightly off set from the top piece that the sentiment is stamped on.  Really easy to do, and if you don't have a die cutting machine or a fancy die, this is a great way to achieve the same effect.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great Friday!

Supplies Used

Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - Colonial White Cardstock

Stamps:  Unity - Perfect Just the Way You Are Itty Bitty

Ink:  Versafine; Distress Inks - Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean, Evergreen Bough

Other:  Ranger - Water Brush; May Arts - Black Burlap String; MossyMade - Black Button; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; Cricut - Art Philosophy Cartridge (for tag cuts)

Thinking of You for Friends with Flair

Hey everyone!  Hope that you are all recovering from over eating yesterday!

We had a very nice, quiet Thanksgiving here at home.  Today we'll be starting to pull out the Christmas stuff, bagging leaves, and doing a whole lot of stuff that has just got to get done, but I thought I would pop in and play along with Friends with Flair this week.

A very CAS card today.  I used what I refer to as reverse watercolor.  If there's a real name for this, feel free to enlighten me. 

I took a piece of water color paper and applied two complementary shades of distress ink - one at the top and one at the bottom, blending in the middle, and stamped the image with Versafine.  Then I used a water brush to remove color from the flowers so that they are lighter than the background.  I went back a few times, until I was happy with the amount of ink that I had removed.  This can tend to dull the color of the stamped lines, so I touched some of those up with a fine journaling pen.  Also, watercolor paper is highly recommended for this.  You can use regular cardstock, but depending on how much color you take off/how many times you go over the image, the paper will start to pill and degrade.

Once the panel was dry, I adhered it to a black mat and stamped the sentiment.

This is a fun technique and really doesn't require a whole lot of skill, but I think the results are quite striking.

Have a wonderful day, and if you're shopping, good luck!

Supplied Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy and Black Cardstock; Watercolor paper from Kids paper pad purchased at Target
Stamps:  Unity - Wishing You Joy Itty Bitty; Avery Elle - Modern Leaves
Ink:  Versafine; Distress Inks - Festive Berries, Pickled Raspberry
Other:  Ranger - Water Brush; American Crafts - Black 01 Journaling Pen; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

That's how we roll - Friends with Flair and SSS

It's my first Friday without a DT post in a while, so I thought I would play along with Unity's Friends with Flair challenge.

I pulled out a couple of my favorite itty bitties:  Crappy Day (my all time favorite) and Happy to be Me.

The main image was stamped with Tsukineko Brilliance ink in Cosmic Copper and the clear embossed.  I used my CM custom cutting system templates for the ovals, Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go papers, and some Twinery Peapod twine.

Lots of layers, but pretty easy to pull together.

Since it's Anything Goes week at Simon Says Stamp, I'm linking up over there too.

Hope you are fully recovered from your Halloween sugar binge.  We had a great time.  The rain held off, just a few little drops when we were wrapping up.  We went further than I thought we would, as we ran into one of Ellie's classmates and trick or treated together for a while.  Carina didn't ask to be picked up at all, and the girls were able to hand out candy to a few trick or treaters at our house too.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy all that candy!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  AC - Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go 6x6 Pad; CTMH - Colonial White and Autumn Terracotta cardstoack
Stamps:  Unity - Crappy Day and Happy to be Me Itty Bitties
Ink:  Tsukineko - Cosmic Copper Brilliance; CTMH - Topiary
Other:  The Twinery - Peapod Twine; CM - Custom Cutting System (ovals); CTMH - Clear Embossing Powder; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

A Contender...with Flair

Last Friday was a GREAT day for me.  After many, many attempts, I finally had a card picked up by Papercrafts Magazine....it'll be published in this year's July/August edition.

Of course I submitted more than one card, so there were several 'unloved cards'.  Annette Witherspoon is hosting a blog hop for creations that didn't get picked up called 'The Contenders', and I'm linking this one up there.

This was for one of the sketches.  For the four quadrants, I just pressed my ink pads directly on the paper.  It's an inexact science, but I think it goes with the look of the card.  I only have a yellow, pink, and orange neon pad, so the fourth quadrant was colored with both the yellow and pink pads.

The sentiment is from Unity's One of a Kind set, so I'm going to link up over at Unity for this week's Friends with Flair too. 

Hope you have a great end to your week!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy cardstock; Bazzill - Licorice Twist Card Shoppe cardstock
Stamps:  Unity - One of a Kind
Ink:  Hero Arts - Neon Orange, Yellow and Pink; Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  Tombow Mono Adhesive

The rest of the Unity WCMD cards

I totally DID NOT plan to complete all the Unity challenges for WCMD.  I had a couple that I wanted to do, and then ended up getting ideas for a few more when I was looking through my stamps, and then realized that I really only had a couple more to do, and what the hey, might as well do them all and try for the big prize, right?

Some of these I like more than others, but here they all are (I'm not going to include full supply lists in the interest of time, but if you have any questions please ask):

Shaped Challenge - I'm not generally a shaped card kind of girl, so I went for an easier shape.  This one was so easy to do.  Word bubbles are so in right now, so I basically cut a rectangle (leaving a small part uncut for the little tail) and then rounded the corners.  The 'hi' sentiment in the background paper is from Frames in the House, and then I used some vinyl thickers for the main sentiment. 



Fall Card - I knew I wanted to use Brave Boots for this, and the sentiment came to me while I was falling asleep one night.  The die cut alphas are Taylored Expressions, and the little alphas are Jenni Bowlin.  The leaves were cut using the Cricut Artiste cartridge and I ran the leaves and die cut alphas through my 1" Xyron to make it easier to put together.  I'm linking this one up over at the Oozak October challenge to use Die Cuts too. 



Sketch - This one I am still not sure about.  Sometimes I love it, sometimes, I think it's just a 'clown card'.  I kind of did it on purpose.  I colored the socks first and wanted to kind of highlight the idea of 'mismatched' (although all those papers come from Echo Park's Happy Days collection so it's not really that mismatched I guess.  The scallopped edges were drawn freehand with a Zig marker, again to get that kind of mismatched imperfect look.  The stamp set is the Matching Socks Itty Bitty.



Texture - This is one I had high hopes for, but I'm not sure it worked out in the end.  It was a bit of an experiment.  That's some Coredinations Glitter Silk paper that I embossed the sentiment on.  Added some pom pom trim, and instead of using regular ink, I used a Jenni Bowlin paint dauber on the stamp.  The red strip on the left is AC glitter tape.  The stamp set is the everyday, EVERYWHERE Itty Bitty



Colors - This is by far my favorite of all the cards I created for Unity's WCMD challenges.  It uses the Perfect the Way You Are Itty Bitty.  I colored it with Spectrum Noir markers, and I just love how the color combo turned out.  The butterfly is adhered with a glue pen just in the center, and then I used dimensional foam tape to pop the wings out.  I'm also entering this one into Crafter's Companion's October challenge - to use fall colors.





So there you have it.  Now I HAVE to get back to my regularly scheduled programming....I actually have several deadlines looming that I have been ignoring.....

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Trust in the Lord With All Your Heart

Quick post today to share this card for Unity's monthly challenge which is to create a project with a pennant/banner, and for CAS-ual Friday's challenge to use hearts on your project.

I'm using the Trust With Your Heart Itty Bitty.  There's this great little row of hearts, within the stamp.  I wanted to make a little banner with them, so I masked the stamp with tape and stamped it.  Then I stamped again to get the hearts.

I colored the hearts with my watercolor pencils (using Cranberry and Holiday Red) and then cut them out.

It was a little tricky to create the banner - used my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher - just need a steady hand.  Then I added a little dimensional foam tape under the hearts.


Actually a relatively simple and quick mini card (finished size is 3" x 3").

Have a great end to your weekend!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy and Cocoa cardstock
Stamps:  Unity - Trust With Your Heart Itty Bitty
Ink:  Cocoa
Other:  CTMH - Watercolor Pencils; Dimensional Foam Tape, Liquid Glass; May Arts - Burlap Twine; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher

You can NEVER have too much Happy

Another card for the Unity WCMD challenges.

This one features a couple Unity Itty Bitties:  Happy, Happy, Happy and Never Too Much Happy.  That's a lot of happy!

This is for the stamp a border using non-border stamps challenge.  I created a sentiment border with the Happy Happy Happy stamp.  The actual sentiment from the card and the bottle are from the Never Too Much Happy Itty Bitty.

I actually stamped the bottle three times.  Once in Cocoa as the base, once with the yellow color for the 'wrapper' and once in Cranberry for an extra straw. 

The papers are My Mind's Eye, On the Bright Side. 

Hope that you are having a great weekend.  I've been finishing up a couple more cards to mail into the World Cardmaking Day contest, but getting the itch to do some scrapbooking....

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  My Mind's Eye - On the Bright Side 6x6 paper pad; CTMH - White Daisy cardstock
Stamps:  Unity Stamp Co. - Happy Happy Happy, Never Too Much Happy

 

Ink:  CTMH - Cranberry and Cocoa; Hero Arts - Butter Bar
Other:  CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; Kuretake - Craft Glue Pen; May Arts - Burlap Twine

More WCMD - Unity Coloring/Pamela Young Sketch/Ellen Hutson Holiday Card

Couple more cards for World Cardmaking Day.

First off, is a card for the Unity coloring challenge as well as Pamela Young's sketch challenge.



I'm using the Life is a Verb Itty Bitty.  I colored the body of the wagon with colored pencils, and the wheels/handle with the blending pen.  I stayed pretty true to the sketch, and used some May Arts chevron twill, kraft buttons, and twine to embellish it.  The alphas are from Basic Grey.

I also finished designing the Christmas cards we're going to send out this year.  I'm sharing this one (of five) for Ellen Hutson's Holiday Card challenge.



It's really CAS. The stamp is from the Pear & Partridge cardmaking kit. It's stamped in Cocoa, and I used a sponge dauber to color the birds red. I didn't clean them off/mask them off so it's a more subtle color since it's a blend of the Cocoa/Cranberry.

One more day til the weekend!

Supplies Used

Card 1
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - Kraft, Cranberry, Black and White Daisy cardstock
Stamps:  Unity - Life is a Verb
Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  CTMH - Colored Pencils, Blending Pen, Kraft buttons; The Twinery - Maraschino twine; Basic Grey - White Alphabet Stickers; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; 3L Dodz Adhesive

Card 2
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - Colonial White and Olive cardstock, Colonial White bulk card base
Stamps:  CTMH - Pear and Partridge Workshop on the Go stamp set
Ink:  CTMH - Cocoa, Cranberry

 

 

 

Other:  CTMH - Cranberry Grosgrain Ribbon, Sponge Dauber; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Good Day Sunshine - Adventures in Embossing

So I made my first card that involved hot embossing the other day.  It was a ton of fun, and I thought I would fire up the craft heater for another card tonight - which is for the Unity WCMD embossing challenge and Kim Kesti's sketch challenge.

I love the way this looks, except for the little stray embossing powder specks.

I used four Spectrum Noir markers to create the ombre coloring and then embossed my image on top.  Not sure if it's because I did all that coloring and the powder kind of stuck to it more, but I had a hard time getting the powder off.  I also embossed the little circle around the hole in the tag.

So, for all you embossing pros out there, help a girl out with your best strategies/tools for preventing stray embossing powder specks. 

Other than that, I really do like the look of this, and I do plan to try it again, after I figure out how to keep it a little cleaner.

Thanks for coming by!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - Dreamin papers, Black and Colonial White Cardstock, Colonial White bulk card base
Stamps:  Unity - Good Day Sunshine
Ink:  Versamark
Other:  CTMH - Black embossing powder, craft heater; Spectrum Noir Markers - OR1, GB5, CT4, CT3; The Twinery - Marigold Twine; 3L - Small Dodz Adhesive; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

hi hi hi for Unity April Color Challenge

I was lucky enough to receive the Frames in the House stamp set from Unity last month during their release/Friday the 13th extravaganza, and put this card together for their April challenge, whcih is a color challenge.

The frames in the house set has a whole slew of cute little frames, and my plan was to use a bunch of them and make something more involved, but that card just didn't want to be made.  This card was dying to get out.  Isn't it funny how stamps sometimes have a mind of their own?

It's pretty self explanatory, so I'll save my words for tonight.  Got a bunch of other projects that are in various states of conception and completion, so I should get back to those.

Hope you are having a wonderful week...halfway through!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - Colonial White bulk card base; CM - Green cardstock; Reflections - Pink Cardstock
Stamps:  Unity - frames in the house
Ink:  CTMH - Black
Other:  Bonding Memories Adhesive; Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher