Six New Cards

 

I finally had time to take photos of the recent cards I created!

I was working on them before I went on a road trip over Labor Day to Kentucky to visit family. I just didn't get a chance to photo and blog them.

I'm happy to be back in the North where we don't have the humidity that they have in the South. It just about kills me, I hate it! I know we have humidity here in Minnesota, but nothing like they have there. Normally when we visit we either go in May, June or July when it's even worse. We had one day that we could tolerate and that was the first day we were there! Anyway, it was nice to see family.

Moving on.....my first card the background was created blending distress oxide inks - fired brick, worn lipstick and fossilized amber. I then spritzed the background with water to get the droplets where the water reacted. The leaves are from a die called Outline Clustered Leaves from Simon Says Stamp. The sentiment is from a stamp set by Reversed Confetti called The Most Beauty.

 

For the card above and below I used a stencil called Wonky Grid from Altenew. 

I used Brusho Crystal Colours (which are similar to Ken Oliver's Color Burst). I used the colors gamboge, turquoise and cobalt blue. I laid my stencil down then sprinkled the power over the stencil and spritzed watered over it. I set a stamp block on top for a few minutes then lifted it. I cut the panel in two for two cards. The stamp used on the top card is called Bold Colour by Visibile Image. The sentiment used on the bottom card is from Simon Says Stamp called Handlettered Encouragement.

 

 

For the card about and below I used a stencil from Altenew called Ombre Stripes.

I applied distress oxide inks over the stencil on both. The colors used for the top card are cracked pistachio, salty ocean and blueprint sketch. For the card below I used blueprint sketch, hickory smoke and wilted violet. After I blended the inks I spritzed both cards with water to get the inks to react. 

The top card uses a sentiment from Visible Image called So Much Stronger. The card below uses a stamp for Gina K Designs called Lettered and Lovely. 

 

 

For my last card I used a stencil from Gina K Designs that I applied distress oxide ink through. The colors I used are fossilized amber, ripe persimmon and candied apple. I die cut my panel using a die called double stitched rectangles from Our Daily Bread (they've changed their name to Divinity Designs LLC now). The sentiment is from Gina K Stamps called Lettered and Lovely.

I am working my way through the pile above. I'm basically just deciding what sentiments to use on them. I may decide at last minute to add stenciling, embossing paste or die cut into flowers......the possibilities are endless...... I'm trying to keep the pretty clean and simple.

I've been working on the details for a crop I'm hosting the end of October/beginning of November. This will be our second year going to this particular retreat. It's always so fun to get together with others for three nights. I never get anything done, but that's okay! I hope we keep going year after year. The place is always booked so you reserve it a year in advance. 

This year I'm going to be doing a very casual card class. So, I'm thinking of ideas so that I can make a few sample cards for them look at. We'll be doing watercolor, stencils, paste etc so all cards will turn out different. 

We also have one of the ladies doing a Chalk Couture class, so that will be fun. I took her class back in April and loved it!

That's it for now! Thanks for stopping by!

Breathe

I'm back again with another card for three different card challenges!

I'm adding this card to the No Patterned Paper challenge for Dragonfly Dreams, the Anything Goes challenge for Dare 2B Artzy and I'm going to add a second card to The Flower Challenge. 

For my background I used four distress oxide inks. I used evergreen bough, hickory smoke, mermaid lagoon and blueprint sketch. I added the ink to my Tim Holtz glass mat and spritzed water over the ink. I took my alcohol ink cardstock and kept swiping into the ink. I used my heat tool to dry in between layers and proceeded until I was happy with the background. 

After the background was dry, I used the Wacky Boxes stencil from Dare 2B Artzy randomly on the background with hickory smoke distress ink. I splattered evergreen bough and blueprint sketch inks over the background with a paint brush. Once I made sure the ink was dry, I went over the background with Distress Micro Glaze. Because I had used oxide inks on alcohol ink cardstock the background looked a little milky. Using the Distress Micro Glaze makes the color more vibrant. It also seals the background. 

The flower is from the Sizzix Tim Holtz Wildflowers dies. To color the flower I used distress ink in these colors: crushed olive, peeled paint, mustard seed, worn lipstick and barn door. 

The sentiment is from Picket Fence called It's Going To Be Okay. I stamped it using my MISTI with Ranger archival ink in black soot. Instead of using a white card base like I normally do, I used a base from Papertrey Ink called new leaf. 

The Flower Challenge

Dragonfly Dreams: No Patterned Paper

Dare 2B Artzy: Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Altered Notebooks

 

About a week ago I picked up two fifty cent notebooks with the intention of altering the covers. This past Sunday I saw a blog post from Simon Says Stamp that showed an altered notebook and that's all it took for me to be inspired to try one! I went through my stash and picked things out to use. I was so inspired that I made two!

I flippin' love how both turned out! I haven't done anything to the back covers or the inside front and back covers. I'm not sure yet if I plan to or not. If I do I'll just cover them with patterned paper from one of my Tim Holtz papers. If I was giving them away I would, but if I'm going to use them I don't really need to. When the paper's gone I just have more art for my craft room!

 

I've posted photos below of my progress along the way creating both of these notebooks. 

It takes awhile with all the drying time. 

 

I added gesso to both covers. 

 

I went through my stash and added patterned paper, dictionary paper and ephemera using distress collage medium.

 

After the collage medium dried, I added some white paint. 

 

After the paint dried, I used stencils to add distress grit-paste. 

 

When all was dry, I added several different acrylic paint colors. 

I spritzed a lot of water to move the paint around and dried in between the colors. 

 

After all the paint dried I added some distress crayon with my finger in vintage photo with my finger. 

 

For the second notebook, I added gesso first and then die cut some leaves using a die from Simon Says Stamp and added acrylic paint. After the paint dried, I added the leaves using collage medium. 

 

Once the paint dried, I added more paint drying in between layers. 

 

When all paint layers were dry, I smudged some distress crayon in places with my finger. 

Below are the products I used. I missed adding a few products in the photos, but I've listed all the names below. 

 

 

 

I thought I had lost the dictionary pictured above! I would have been so sad if I hadn't been able to find it! I use dictionary paper for a lot of projects.

I cleaned my craft room a few months ago and put things where I thought they should go. Three times now I have been looking for a particular item and haven't been able to find them. When I clean I purge a lot and I'm always thinking I've gotten rid of something that I want to use. Thankfully, I have had to rip my room apart on several occasions but I have found the items that I've been looking for!

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used:

These were the products not pictured:

Simon Says Stamp: Clustered Leaves die

Tim Holtz Distress Paint - Vintage Photo

Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink - Vintage Photo

Products that were pictured:

Tim Holtz Distress products:

Crayons - Vintage Photo

Grit-Paste

Collage Medium

Paint - Picket Fence

Paint - Vintage Photo

Tim Holtz Idea-ology products:

Quote Chips

Hardware Heads

Fragments

Ephemera Pack - Snippets

Layers - Collector

Layer - Remnants

Paper Stash

Design Tape: Butterfly

Design Tape: Postal

Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Layering Stencils:

Gradient Hex

Grid Dot

Linen

Gradient Square

Gradient Dot

ARTplorations Stencil: Happy Flowers

Master's Touch Acrylic Paint:

Scarlet

Virdian

Permanent Black

Violet

Yellow Med

Titanium White

Phthalocyanine Blue

Ranger Glossy Accents 

Addicted To Stamps and More! Anything Goes Challenge #316

One more card for a challenge today!

This one is being linked to the Addicted to Stamps and More! Anything Goes Challenge.

 

I love random thoughts. I adore Visible Image stamps. They have so many cool sentiments. 

This stamp is called Creativity. 

This was a second generation print using a stencil from The Crafters Workshop called mini chickenwire reversed and leftover ink from another card I had made. I used distress oxide ink for this print, but I'm not sure of the color. This was one of the prints I pulled from my overflowing container  of backgrounds. 

I used some bling from my stash to finish off my card. 

Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Freshly Made Sketches 361 Challenge

Another day, another challenge!

Today's card is going to be linked to the Freshly Made Sketches challenge.

The sketch is below and my card is my interpretation of it.

I'm also linking this card to the Simon Says Stamp Flicker Challenge Let Your Stencils Shine.

 

Today I'm trying to link all the cards I made at a crop this past weekend to the challenges that are ending in the next day or so. I think right now I have three including this one that I have to link. 

I had to wait until I got home to get decent photos so I could submit them. 

I make a lot of backgrounds when I don't know what I want to do while in my craft room. I usually toss them into a container until I decide if I'm going to use them for a card or die cut sentiments from them. I was able to use a few of my backgrounds this past weekend and create cards!

For this card I used a PaperTrey Ink stencil along with distress oxide ink to create a watercolor background. The colors I used were wild honey and crushed olive. 

I die cut some garden greens using a Tim Holtz thinlet die from Sizzix. I've started die cutting more and just tossing them in a container for use on cards at a moments notice. 

The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp. The set is called Handlettered Encouragement. I love all stamps from Simon Says Stamp. They are one of my favorite companies.

I finished off the card with some cork bling from Recollections. 

That's it! Now on to the next card!

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #360

 

Where does the weekend go?!

I feel like it was just Friday and I was so happy to be leaving work and looking forward to two days of doing what I want to do. The weekends never last long enough. At the very least they should always be three days long. All I can say is thank God I'm super close to retirement! I can't wait!

I watercolored some mixed media cardstock Friday evening and Saturday morning with distress inks. The colors I used were peeled paint, dried marigold, barn door, wild honey, crushed olive, spiced marmalade, mustard seed and rusty hinge. While letting my panels dry I started looking through challenges to see if there were any that I wanted to link up some cards to. I found a few with one being a sketch challenge for Freshly Made Sketches. 

I started by stamping leaves using the Reverse Confetti stamp set called Fall Foliage and then die cutting them with their companion die set.  

I used mustard seed distress ink first on my background. Then using a Tim Holtz layering stencil called linen, I used a stencil brush to lightly ink the background with spiced marmalade distress ink. 

I die cut my circle from one of the watercolor panels using a double stitched circle die from Our Daily Bread. 

The sentiment I used is from the Gina K Designs Autumn Wreath Builder stamp set. 

Thanks for taking the time to stop by! 

AAA Cards - CAS Game #123 - Sketch

I created a card for a Clean and Simple Sketch challenge over at AAA Cards. 

AAA Cards - CAS Game #123 - Sketch

The white space on your card outside of the sketch has to be plain, non-patterned, and non-textured.

I think I achieved that. 

 

I really love challenges! I get so many more cards made by participating in them.

I've been playing along with challenges for quite a few years. I take breaks occasionally but I always come back. I find that I miss them when I'm not playing along. I like that there is such a wide variety of challenges. Every type you can imagine. 

For my background instead of a circle, I decided to go with a square.

I die cut a square from a piece of cardstock that was the same size as my card panel using the Sizzix Tim Holtz Framelits called stitched squares. I then placed the negative over my card base and used magnets in my MISTI to hold the stencil in place. The stencil I used is from Echo Park called Christmas Plaid.

I used a Clarity stencil brush to add four Distress Oxide inks over the stencil. The colors I used are: barn door, spiced marmalade, fossilized amber and crushed olive. 

 

I had a few leaves left over from another card I made. They were made using Distress Oxide inks and Rubbernecker stamps called Splatter Leaves and Die set called Fall Leaf. 

The sentiment is from Sunny Studios called Autumn Greetings.

I finished off the card by adding some sparkling clear droplets that I picked up from Kat Scrappiness.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by!

Cards In Envy - Yellow & Black Card Challenge

Cards In Envy - Yellow & Black Card Challenge

I love yellow and black together!

While I was perusing one of email lists I get everyday of card challenges, my eye caught this one and I knew I wanted to participate. The project has to be flat meaning no lumps or bumps that are thicker than 1/4". The sequins are no problem as far as adding dimension. 

I'm just going to enter the card above in this challenge even though I made two. This is my first time creating a card for this challenge. 

What I find interesting and something that I like is that they have a list of upcoming challenge themes on their blog. Right now they are out to January 21, 2019! I love that I can find the themes I like and create a card further in advance. I wish more card challenge blogs would do this. I'd probably be able to participate in more. When you work full-time, some days are more exhausting than others. It's hard to make the deadlines of some of the challenges you want to play along with. Some evenings I just can't get any crafty time in. I don't always have the whole weekend to craft. Enough of that, on to my cards!

Products for both cards are identical except for the sentiment and the stencil I used. The first card uses a stencil from Hero Arts. I'm not sure what the name of it is. The second card uses a stencil from Heidi Swapp. Again I'm not sure what the name is. The image on both is from Rubbernecker Stamps called Floral #4. Both sentiments are from The Most Beauty stamp set by Reverse Confetti. I used Distress Oxide in fossilized amber for the background and VeraFine in onyx black for the sentiment. 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Funky Glasses

This card is my favorite!

I've had the die for the glasses for some time.

When I went to a stamp show here in Minnesota in June I bought two sentiments that work perfectly with the dies. I went through my stamps and found that I like the sentiment above also.

Here's the crazy part. I have a stamp set that I bought a few years ago at the Taylored Expressions booth at one of the stamp shows I went to. I have the stamp set logged in my Evernote program (I am terribly behind in organizing my stamp sets etc in!) and I can't find it! It's a perfect set to use with this die, which is why I bought it in the first place. I've been looking through everything and I haven't come across it yet. I have no idea where I have misplaced it. 

Backgrounds for all cards were created using distress oxide inks and water.



For the glasses I used some watercolor panels I had previously made.

I used more distress ink and a stencil to add patterns to the paper and then die cut the glasses.



On this card I used a Paper Trey Ink to add interest.







I used a Tim Holtz stencil over the background on this card.

Such a fun die! I'm continuing to look through my stamp sets to find more sentiments that I want to use. Hopefully I'll come across the set I can't find!

Products used:

Endless Creations Stamps: F295 Make It (spec) & F294 Have (spec) Birthday

Distress Oxide Inks: mermaid lagoon, picked raspberry, twisted citron, wild honey, peacock feathers

Stencils: Paper Trey Ink, Tim Holtz Dot Fade

Impression Obsession: Lg Glasses Die

The Ton Stamp Set: Get It Girl