It's A Party

Hi and welcome to my blog! I can't believe it is almost time to say goodbye to 2015! This year really went by fast for me. We are thinking of all those New Year's Eve's parties coming up so here is a card I made using altered dies. I will be starting a series on altered dies in 2016 and will post on the first and third Thursdays of each month. I have been going through my dies and looking at different ways to use them than normal. I hope you will check in often and maybe this will help you to see different ways you can use your dies too.

On this card I used the Perfect Petals dies that Spellbinders made for Heartfelt Creations. I made these petal dies into a party mask!

I started with these dies.

The glittered pieces are ones I cut from sticker paper and then added Impulsive Purple glitter to them courtesy of Sparkle N Sprinkle.

I then put my pieces together to form the mask. The first Thursday in January I will have another altered die to show you. I hope you will come back for a peek at it. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day and a Happy New Year!


Challenges entered:

Sparkle N Sprinkle:  Anything Goes With Loose Glitter/Embossing Powder/ Flocking
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Party!

Rainbow Colors

Hi Everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. I still have decorations to take down and then get ready for 2016! I made a birthday card today using rainbow colors. I used Color Bursts for the cake "icing" and paper pieced it to the image. I used the Dianza w/ Angel Wing Cheery Lynn die behind the mouse.

For sparkle I used Diamond Dust glitter from Sparkle N Sprinkle on the "icing" and circles on the die. The image was pop dotted to the middle of the die.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!


Challenges entered:

Cheery Lynn:  Anything Goes/Cheery Lynn Dies
House Mouse and Friends:  Rainbow Colors
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Make It Sparkle
We Love 2 Create #26:  Anything Goes Creative/Mixed Media

Merry Christmas

Hi Everyone! I trust you have been having a wonderful Christmas season. I have and boy have I been busy! Amidst all the hustle and bustle let us take time to remember the true meaning of Christmas and why Christ came -- "Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost."  Luke 19:10.  Enjoy spending time with your families and friends. Merry Christmas!

Cardinal and Tree

Hi Everyone! Do you have your Christmas shopping done yet? How about those Christmas cards?  This season has been real busy for me, but I am enjoying it. I hope you are too. Today I want to share an easy Christmas card I made.

I used a Martha Stewart deep border punch on the side. The green background paper came with the embossed design. The tree was cut from some patterned paper using a Sizzix die. I stamped and colored the cardinal and fussy cut him and pop dotted him to the card. My extra "pinch" was adding the sticker pine cone and greenery to the branch!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!

Challenges entered:

Simon Says Monday Challenge:  Just A Pinch

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Die Crazy

Joy

Hi Everyone! My Christmas season has started off with a bang. How about yours? I have had many Christmas activities stacked up one after the other. I am enjoying it and I hope you are enjoying this joyful season as well. Here a tag I made I call joy. I started by cutting burlap into the shape of the tag, adhering double sided sticky paper to the tag and then sticking the burlap onto it. I used Tim Holtz's sweater stencil and sprayed the burlap with Fired Brick Distress spray.

I stamped Tim Holtz's tree from the Just Believe stamp set, fussy cut it and pop dotted it to the tag. I added a deer svg die and a burlap poinsettia. I made the pine cones by cutting circles with my deco scissors and rolling them up. To finish the tag I added Stickles Diamond glitter on the tree, antlers  and pine cones.

Thanks so much for stopping by. have a wonderful and blessed day!

Challenges entered:

Frilly & Funkie:  'Tis the Season

Shabby tea Room:  O Christmas Tree

Tim Holtz: 12 Tags of 2015 -- December

Thanks a Bunch!

Hi Everyone! I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving. I sure did and ate too much! I want to share a thank you card I made today. I used a new to me background die from Spellbinders called Crisscross. After I cut it out I ran it through a dotted swiss embossing folder. I stamped the cute hedgehog and cut him out using the Spellbinders Labels 9 die. I added some Stickles Diamond glitter on the hedgehog's fur to add interest.

I am glad you dropped by. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Challenges entered:

ABC Challenges:  V is for Violet

Penny Black:  Dies and/or Punches

Simon Says Monday Challenge:  Thanks/Thanksgiving

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Anything Goes

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We all have been so blessed. I hope you are having a wonderful time with family and friends and being thankful for all that God has done.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Christmas Fun

Hi Everyone! I hope you are having a good day. I want to share a Christmas card I made using this cute little House Mouse fellow. I used the Cheery Lynn snowflake 1 die three times. They are the 2 snowflakes sticking out on the edges and one is behind the little mouse. I added Sparkle embossing powder to each one, courtesy of Sparkle N Sprinkle. Sprinkle Sugar Stickles was used around the edges of card and on the mouse's hat. Two glitter snowflake stickers were also added to the card.

Here is another angle of the card where you can see the glitter and embossing powder better.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!


Challenges entered:


Cheery Lynn:  Anything Goes
House Mouse and Friends:  Anything Christmas/No Red or Green
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Christmas
Sparkle N Sprinkle:  Anything Goes With Embossing Powder/Loose Glitter

Leaf Fold Card

Hi Everyone! Welcome to my blog. I am always looking for fun and different cards to make and when I stumbled on to this card on line I just had to try it! It is called a leaf fold card.

Here is the card opened on the front to reveal a saying under the "leaf."

Here is the inside of the card.

I used an 8  1/2" x  4  1/4" piece of patterned paper and followed these instructions here --

leaf fold card

       I hope you enjoy making this as much as I did. Have a wonderful and blessed day!


Challenges entered:

Addicted to Stamps and More:  Anything Goes
Crafting With Friends:  Anything Goes
Creative Moments:  Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon:  Technique Card

Oldies Technique #21 -- Pear Ex Powders

Hi Everyone! Welcome back to another Oldies technique. I pulled out my Pearl Ex powders to play with and here is the result. I have not used these in ages! I also have some Powdered Pearls that are similar to the Pearl Ex and used one of those too. I love the shimmer these powders give. I hope you enjoy this technique today.

Here are the supplies you will need:

Pearl Ex or Powdered Pearls  ( I used a white, light green and light blue )

Versa Mark ink

dark card stock

small paint brush

tissue or soft cloth

First I took a background stamp and inked it up with Versa Mark ink. You can see I have used this stamp a lot! LOL!

Next I laid my card stock over the background stamp and rubbed my fingers over it to get a good impression. I do this a lot with my background stamps in order to let the ink soak in better and to give an even look.

Now start to add the different colors of  powders to the background using the paint brush. The powders will stick to the ink. I just added color randomly. It looks real messy at this point.

Next take a tissue or soft cloth and wipe off the excess powder and you will have a wonderful, shimmery background!

This is so easy, but beautiful. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Challenges entered:

Scrapy Land:  Monochromatic ( dies used -- sizzix tree )

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Christmas

Thanks Tag

Hi Everyone!

I hope you are having a good day. I can't believe it is already November. It doesn't even feel like November here. It has been feeling a lot like Spring along with the rain too! I want to show you a Fall tag I made using some fun techniques. For the background I stamped a basket weave background stamp using tan acrylic paint. After it dried I applied Walnut Distress stain over it. Next I spritzed some water over it to lighten the center to give it a more distressed look. I also did a little stamping on the edges of the tag.

I wanted to use gold foil around the edges of my tag, but among ALL the colors of foil I had I did not have gold! LOL! So I used a glue stick on the edges and applied some gold leaf instead.

The pumpkins were stamped on watercolor paper and colored with Distress markers and a water brush. I fussy cut them to add to the tag. I swiped colors of  Distress inks on my craft pad, spritzed with water and swiped my card stock through the inks and let it dry. I then punched out the leaves to add to the tag. I used a thick cream color embossing powder on the fancy label and stamped Thanks on it.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful and blessed day!

Challenges entered:

Love to Create Challenge #23:  Anything Mixed Media/Creative

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Thanks/Thanksgiving

Tim Holtz :  12 Tags of 2015 -- November

Oldies Technique # 20 -- Mono Stamping With Craft Foam

Hi Everyone! Welcome to my blog. I have another Oldies technique to share with you today. I hope you will enjoy trying this.

Supplies you will need:

craft foam

embossing folder

pigment ink

brayer

heat tool

I used a cuttlebug embossing folder for my impression. You can use other things like stamps, coins, etc. -- anything that will press into the foam. 

Have the embossing folder turned where the raised impression is on the top. Heat the craft foam with the heat tool for about 30 seconds. Quickly place the heated foam in the embossing folder and roll the  the brayer over top of the embossing folder several times in order to make a good impression.

This is how mine looked after I took it out of the embossing folder.

I used  brown pigment ink on the craft foam because it stays juicy longer, but you can try other inks to see how they work. I rubbed my ink pad over the foam a few times and this is how it looked.

Lastly I placed my yellow piece of card stock over the craft foam and brayed over it to get a good impression on the card stock. This is the end result!

I hope you enjoyed seeing this technique. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Winter Wonderland

Hi and welcome to my blog! It feels like Spring here instead of winter, but I want to show you a winter card I made with a Penny Black stamp called Snowy Park. After I stamped I sponged on pink, purple and blue Distress inks for the sky. The background was made by applying a blue gray chalk ink pad to the smooth side of a snowflake embossing folder, placing my white card stock inside and running it through my vagabond. I patted the raised snowflakes with Versa Mark ink and added sparkly embossing powder to them.

I cut snowflakes using a cuttlebug die and added sparkle embossing powder to these also and placed them behind the image that I cut out by using the Spellbinders Labels 8 die. My card was layered on a piece of black glossy card stock that I had smooshed some blue Inka Gold on.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a good day!

Challenges entered:

Penny Black:  Embossing

Scrapy Land: Embossing 

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Anything Goes

Singing the Blues

Hi Everyone! I hope you are enjoying your day and not singing the blues! I want to show you a card I made using the color blue. I used this sweet Cat in Window H1938 Impression Obsession stamp and stamped it with blue ink on glossy card stock. I am a fairly new cat owner, so I have been collecting cat stamps recently. I have three cats and they love looking out the window since they are only inside cats! I also used the Impression Obsession die Poppies DIE169-R. I cut the poppies out of blue card stock and white glossy card stock and layered the white glossy card stock over the blue for a shadow.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!

Challenge entered:

Impression Obsession:  Feeling Blue

BOO!

Hi and welcome to my blog! I hope you are having a good day. I want to share a Halloween tag I made using a neat technique. I mentioned this technique before, but I will show you how it is done today.

I saw this technique on line and just loved the spooky look of it. I patted Mustard Seed, Dusty Concord and Broken China Distress inks onto the center of the glossy card stock tag and patted Black Soot Distress ink around the sides.

Next I spritzed the whole tag with water. You can see that the colors are running here.

I then took my finger and started with the outside black and ran my finger in circles. I then went in and blended the colors in the center together and pulled in some more black. This is the finished background!

I stamped over the tag using a script background stamp. I then used the Sizzix tree embossing folder and a Cuttlebug spider web embossing folder to dry emboss the tag. I went over the raised areas with Jet Black Staz On ink.

I colored the owl and placed the Tim Holtz Splatters stencil over him and sponged on the spots. I added the wooden pumpkin beside the owl and glued the "boo" buttons to it.

Lastly I added 3 confetti bats to complete the tag!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a great day!

Challenges entered:

Crafting From the Heart: Anything Goes Challenge #82

Paper Take Weekly:  Two by Two ( 2 embossing folders )

Simon Says Monday Challenge:  Monster Mash

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Color Inspiration

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015:  October

Oldies Technique #19 -- Rubbings.

Hi and welcome to another Oldies technique! Remember doing rubbings when you were a kid, rubbing crayons over fallen leaves in the Fall? Well, you can do the same thing using rubber stamps. That is what I will be showing today.

Supplies you will need:

several rubber or acrylic stamps

several colors of crayons or watercolor crayons

plain white or cream paper ( I used white copy paper)

I used leaf stamps, turned them over with the rubber side up, laid my paper on top of the stamp and began rubbing the crayon over the paper. I peeled off the paper on the crayon and used the side of the crayon to rub. I found it was better to start with the lightest color first and go over areas with the darker color so that it blended better. 

These look nice using regular crayons, but they looked a little pale to me, so I pulled out my watercolor crayons and made more leaves. These are the ones I used on my card. I found that the watercolor crayons are more vivid and they are softer so that you don't have to rub as hard.

I came across some gold pigment powder that I had not used in ages, added water and flicked it over the leaves to add some sparkle.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have fun trying this technique. Have a great day!

Challenges entered:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Color Inspiration

Stamp & Create:  Brown or Kraft Colors

Stamping Sensations:  Colors of Autumn

Sweet Stampin':  Use a Script or Text

We Love 2 Create:  Challenge 21/Anything Goes Mixed Media.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Hi Everyone! Welcome to my blog. I have made a special card today for a very serious matter here in our country. Purple is the color of Domestic Violence Awareness month. Did you know that 33% of the women you meet have experienced domestic violence over the course of their lifetime? This does not count the men and children who have also been abused.

SO, many of us are making cards to raise awareness about this issue. Together we CAN make a powerful impact. Fourteen paper crafting companies are supporting this Hop to Stop Domestic Violence event. They are giving away amazing prizes for those who enter a card by October 14th. You can see the hop and rules here -- Damsel of Distressed.

I hope that you will join us in this Hop to Stop Domestic Violence.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Here is a closer view of the silk flowers I used. 

I stamped a butterfly on light purple card stock, fussy cut it and popped it up on the die cut background. Bridal glitter from Sparkle N Sprinkle was used around the edges of the card.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Challenges entered:

Damsel of Distressed:  Hop to Stop

Crafting From the Heart:  Anything Goes

Paper Take Weekly:  Anything Goes

Sparkle N Sprinkle:  Anything Goes/Embossing Powder, Loose Glitter, Flocking

Christmas Gift

Hi and welcome to my blog! I want to share a clean and simple Christmas card I made. Clean and simple cards are a challenge for me because I love adding layers and embellishments. On this card I used the Memory Box Debutante and Frostyville frame dies. I embossed the blue frame using a dotted swiss embossing folder and added white embossing powder to the raised dots. The cute hedgehog is from Penny Black.

I also added some Waterscape glitter from Sparkle N Sprinkle on some areas of the snowflake frame.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Have a wonderful day!

Challenges entered:

Chocolate Coffee and Cards:  Animals

Penny's Paper Crafty:  Anything Goes #248

Penny Black:  Embossing

Scrapy Land: #27 Anything Goes/Die

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Clean and Simple Christmas

Sparkle N Sprinkle: Anything Goes/Embossing Powder, Loose Glitter, Flocking