Shabby Chic #11

Hi and welcome to my blog! I have always loved this sweet stamp from Stampa Rosa. I found this imge in my stash that had been smooshed with silver and gold metallics, but they brushed off! I wiped off all the silver and gold and used some metallic rub ons instead to make subtle colors on the image. This time the colors stayed on.

I cut out the image using the Spellbinders small oval die, the leaves are from a Memory Box die - Fresh Foliage, and the frame is from the Spellbinders Decorative Labels 8 die. 

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

Challenges entered:

Cuttlebug Mania:  Frame It

Bits and Bobs #19

Hi and welcome to my blog! Autumn is my favorite season. I love the colors, smells and crisp air! I only wish it would last longer. I made an Autumn card for my bits and bobs card today. I used some fun material called wire or copper mesh. I have not used this in ages and found some that was already heated and stickers applied to it. I found the wire mesh at Hobby Lobby I think in the wood section. To make this product more interesting, you take a heat gun and heat it and it will turn gold and blue in some areas! Place outline stickers over it and cut them out to use as embellishments as I have done with the leaf stickers here.

I had this image already stamped on glossy card stock in my image stash. I matted it to black card stock and then added it to the cream card base. I then adhered the leaves and label with the saying.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a lovely day!

Challenges entered:

Crafting By Designs:  Anything Goes

Day Dreamer:  Always Anything Goes #3

A Fallen Leaf

Hi and welcome to my blog! I am really wanting Fall to hurry and get here! It has been in the 90's here most of the week! I love Fall with all its colors and smells. I love the beautiful colors of the leaves on the trees especially. I guess this comes from growing up on the prairie in Texas and not seeing tree leaves turn colors. My mother recalled that when I was around 5 years old we traveled somewhere in the Fall where the leaves were turning colors. I yelled out - "look, the trees are blooming!" So, I have made a card using this neat tree from Just For Fun Stamps. I used a background I made awhile back where I patted Distress inks on my mat, spritzed the inks with water and smooshed glossy card stock through the inks. I used my clear Wink of Stella pen over the paper leaves.

    Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have wonderful and blessed day!


Challenges entered:

Just For Fun:  Fall
Simon Says Monday Challenge:  Stamp It
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Stamp It
Word Art Wednesday:  Challenge #246-247

Altered Dies #14

Hi and welcome to my blog! I usually show my altered die cards on the first and third Thursdays of each month, but due to being a guest designer this month for Word Art Wednesday I am showing this altered card today. I know many of you hit the beaches or the lake in the summertime. I have made it to the beach once this summer. It certainly feels good to be near water in the middle of the hot summer, so I have made an underwater altered die card today. The background was made by using the salt technique.

I altered a die to make the "coral."  I started with the Blooming Branch die by Memory Box and cut it out using blue glitter card stock and purple card stock.

I layered these on top of each other and added Clementine embossing powder from Sparkle N Sprinkle.

I used Mudd Puddles Sea Glass and Shell Pieces on the bottom of the card. Glisten embossing powder from Sparkle N Sprinkle was also used with them to look like sand. The mermaid is also a Sparkle N Sprinkle stamp.

It was fun making this underwater scene. I hope you enjoyed how I altered the die to look like coral. Have a wonderful and blessed day and keep cool!

Challenges entered: 

Dies R Us:  Water and/or Beach

Scrapy Land:  Emboss It

Simon Says Monday Challenge:  Add Some Texture

Altered Dies #9

Hi Everyone! I have another altered die card to show you today. You might remember that I showed this card a few months ago. I entered it into some challenges then, but today I want to show you how I altered the die on it.

I started with this Cheery Lynn Lattice Valance die and cut off each end.

I added Sparkle N Sprinkle's  Blackened Bronze embossing powder to it and turned it upside down to make it look like the top of an iron gate!

I hope you enjoyed seeing how the gate was made using this valance die. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Altered Dies #7

I am back again with another altered die card. I have had so much fun with these altered dies. I hope you enjoy what I have done with my dies today. April is the month of rain so I have made a fun "rain" card with this cute duck from Rubber Stampede.

I wanted some raindrops on my card so I used this Spellbinders butterfly die that I cut from blue glitter card stock and kept the small cut outs for my raindrops!

Next I used one of Gina Marie's Stitched Circle dies to make the umbrella.

I cut the circle in half and used some decorative scissors on the bottom of one of the halves.

I scored the middle of the umbrella so that it would pop up a little and added some Stickles Crystal glitter to the raindrops for more sparkle.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a great day!

Challenges entered:

Scrapy Land:  Anything Goes

Flower Garden

Hi Everyone! Welcome to my blog. I hope you are enjoying your day. I made a card with a stamp that I have not used in awhile. It is the Colonial Spring stamp from Impression Obsession K1006. I stamped it on glossy card stock using Jet Black Staz On ink. Then I used Rub On's to color the scene.  I added yellow and red flower soft to the flowers. Part of the Cheery Lynn Lattice Valance Border die was used at the bottom of the card. I used Blackened Bronze embossing powder from Sparkle N Sprinkle to make it look like an iron gate.

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

Challenges entered: 

Cheery Lynn:  Anything Goes/Dies

Crafty Card Makers:  Punches and/or Dies

Frilly and Funkie:  Enjoy Your Embossing

Impression Obsession:  Flower Power

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Anything Goes

Ombre

Hi and welcome to my blog. I am happy you stopped by today. I want to show you a card I made using the ombre technique. This was new to me but easy to do. Ombre means graduated color. I sponged darker blue to lighter blue colors on glossy card stock starting with the darker color at the top. I used an old stamp I had from Our Daily Bread to stamp over the colors. I used a newly purchased die from Spellbinders called Vintage Flourish Pattern for my music notes. I faux stitched around the die and the card.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a fantastic day!

Challenges entered:

Dies R Us:  Stitching

Frilly And Funkie:  Sing Sing Sing

Our Daily Bread:  Something New Something Old

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Ombre

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

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

Quiet Garden

Hi Everyone! I hope you had a good Labor Day weekend. I want to show you a tag I made using alcohol inks, a stencil and some acetate.

I used glossy card stock, put various purple and blue alcohol inks along with silver on my craft mat. I swiped the card stock through the ink for my background. I laid the leaf stencil over the background and used translucent stencil paste. After it dried I outlined the leaves with a white marker.

It was fun using my new dragonfly stamp from Our Daily Bread. The dragonflies were stamped on acetate and glittered on the back of the wings. I fussy cut them to add to the tag.

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

Challenges entered:

Artistic Stamper:  Things With Wings

Mod Squad:  Marvelous Marbling

Paper Take Weekly:  Things With Wings

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Use a Stamp

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2015: September

Oldies Technique #15 -- Polished Stone

Welcome back to another Oldies technique. I love using this polished stone technique because no piece ever looks the same. I also want to thank Debs Smith for joining my blog!

Supplies you will need:

several colors of alcohol inks

white glossy card stock

felt applicator

91% alcohol or blending solution

I wanted an old world look on my card so I chose Current, Slate, Ginger and Latte alcohol inks. Apply the inks to the applicator. I just cut a small piece of felt to fit the applicator and applied my inks side by side in a row.

Spritz the applicator a few times with alcohol or blending solution ( I used 91% alcohol ) and start pouncing the applicator over the glossy card stock. You will also want to make sure you are in a well ventilated room!

Here is the finished background!

You can also do this same technique on plastic or acetate. In fact you can used this on any non porous surface. I love the look of it done on plastic as shown below.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope your day is wonderful!

Challenges entered:

Crafting From The Heart:  Always Anything Goes #73

Penny's Paper Challenge:  Anything Goes

We Love to Create :  Anything Mixed Media/Creative Goes

Stamping With Spectrum Noir Markers

Hi and welcome to my blog. I am always looking for new to me techniques and I am happy to have stumbled onto this one. On the Artsy Inkers stamping board there was a discussion about trying to stamp using copics. Someone suggested that maybe by coloring on the soild stamp and then spritzing alcohol on the stamp that this would activate the copics ( the copics dry fast ) and you could stamp the stamp. Well, I immediately tried it and it turned out great! I stamped on matte card stock first and it looked good. It gave a marbled effect kind of like when you do the polished stone technique. Here is the example on matte card stock.

THEN I tried it again on glossy card stock and boy was I impressed! Here is the card I made with my image. The flowers were stamped using Spectrum Noir markers.

Here are some more examples on the glossy card stock.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your day is wonderful!

Challenges entered:

Artistic Stamper:  Anything Goes

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards:  A Flower in Your Image

Love to Scrap:  Anything Goes

Mod Squad Challenge:  Anything Goes Plus a Die

Penny's Paper Crafty:  Ribbon or Twine

Oldies Technique #12 -- Watermark Resist

Hi and welcome to my blog! Happy July 4th! I hope that you will have a wonderful 4th and be safe. Before I show my technique and card I want to give a salute to all our military past and present who have served and are serving to keep our country free. Thank you and may God bless! Let us not forget the sacrifices many have made to keep us free.


I wanted a subtle background for this card and remembered this OLD technique. It is another easy technique that I hope you will enjoy revisiting.

Supplies needed:

white glossy card stock
stamp
watermark ink ( I used Versa Mark ink )
ink pad ( I used Distress Faded Jeans )
sponge


Ink up you stamp using Versa Mark ink and stamp it carefully ( so it won't smudge ) onto the glossy card stock. Let dry or use a heat tool to dry ink.

After the ink is dry sponge on the ink color and cover the while card. Where you stamped with the Versa Mark ink, white will show through as a resist. That's it! Quick and easy.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a great day and Happy Independence Day!

Oldies Technique #10 -- Shadow Stamping

Hi and welcome to my blog. It is time for another Oldies technique. Today I am showing how to do shadow stamping. I have not used this technique in years and had nearly forgotten about it! I like this because it is so simple yet really neat looking.

Here are the supplies you will need:

shadow stamp

any lighter color ink ( I used a tan pigment ink )

light card stock

several stamps to stamp over the shadow

dark ink ( I used Distress Faded Jeans )

Here are some examples of a shadow stamp. It is any stamp that is pretty large and solid so that you can stamp something over top of it. Here I have an oval and rectangle shape. 

I am working with the oval shaped shadow stamp. I have stamped it with the lighter color ink. I like using pigment ink on the shadow stamp because it seems to go on more evenly and stamp more evenly, but you can use dye inks as well. 

Here is the result after I have stamped it on the card stock.

Now you can take your other stamps and stamp over the top of this shadow using your darker ink.

That's all there is to it! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day. I hope you have a fun time working with this technique.

Challenges entered:

Penny's Paper Crafty:  Anything Goes

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge;  Make It Masculine

Stamp & Create:  Summer Fun

Vintage Tag

Hi Everyone! I hope you are having a good day. I want to show you a vintage tag I made. I love the vintage look and I had this stamped photo image from a swap that is perfect to use for this theme.

I colored the girl's dress using a pink Sharpie marker since the image was stamped on glossy card stock. I pounced some Tea Dye Distress ink over the image for it to look old and sponged the edges of the shape with black Staz On ink. The shape was cut using Spellbinders Labels 20 die.

On the side I used white matte stencil paste and a butterfly stencil. While the paste was wet I added blue glitter embossing powder and heat set it. This dried the paste at the same time.

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

Challenges entered:  

Scrapy Land:  Anything Goes/Dies ( Spellbinders Labels 20 )

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Inspiration Color Swatch

Tim Holtz:  12 Tags of 2015 -- May