Merry Christmas!

Recently, I got together with a couple of friends and we had a fun day of creating boxes with Crafter's Companion "The Big Score".  We had seen this featured on an HSN crafting show, and of course, just had to have it!  

It is manufactured in the UK so if ordered through HSN, you don't have to pay international shipping.  This box size is perfect for a scarf or other smaller gift item.  The die cuts are from Penny Black and I added Stickles to the vines.

Isn't this box gorgeous!  Fantastic card stock from a friend:)  I added a snowflake die from Darice and a pearl and voila!  This box is approximately 6x6x1.  

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Winter Wishes!

I do love altering objects....and giving them as gifts!

I purchased these unfinished wood pieces from Red Lead Paperworks in St. Louis.  Such fun to alter!  It only took one coat of red paint to cover these pieces.  Then I strategically placed a star stencil from Memory Box on top and stenciled with gathered twigs distress ink.  The ephemera (from my stash) on the inside of the pieces was glued in place.

With the ornament on the right, I glued the top on and then with glaze, I adhered the glass.  My husband (thank you!) drilled tiny holes on the top to run string through.  The snowflake and pearl were then added.

The snow globe was done a little differently.  I glued the plastic cover to the top and once dry, turned it over and added the glitter.  Then the back was glued in place.  The rocking moose was purchased at Michaels and dabbed with white paint and adhered to the front.  The wood sentiment was also purchased from Red Lead.  I just distressed it a little with gathered twig distress ink and adhered.  The globe then just slides into the base.

I'm going to submit this to Virginia's View Challenge and to the Color Throwdown challenge.

Chance to Win at Art Scrap & More!

Just follow this link to Art Scrap & More's blog post and follow directions.  Good luck!

Tis the Season

This is one of the cards I created to share with the stamp club in our annual Christmas card exchange. 

 

The main image is two die cuts from Memory Box just released this fall called Corby and layered onto the new Drop Ornament die.  The drop ornament die was die cut from sticky paper and was burnished with micro glitter.  The sentiment is from Endless Creations.  I'm going to share this creation at Christmas Cards All Year Around and Christmas Card Throwdown.  Their challenge was to pick a previous challenge which was from June 2013 using ornaments.

Winter Wishes

Friends and I were shopping recently at this awesome little gift shop in Plover, WI called Beyond Ordinary.  I bought a pack of paper napkins and we split the napkins among us to create cards.  Below is my creation and I'm submitting it to Crafty Hazel Nuts Christmas Challenge.

The napkins are large and I could create 6 A-2 cards from one napkin!  The napkin is peeled apart and then layered onto card stock with cling wrap between the layers and then ironed to seal together.  I then pressed Versamark Ink all over the top of the napkin and sprinkled it with poly sparkle embossing powder and heat set.  There are such a wide array of beautiful napkins on the market to play with this technique.  Give it a try!

Peace on Earth

I'm entering another card at Craft Stamper Magazine's November challenge.

Craft Stamper Magazine is my favorite stamping/mixed media magazine!  This month, they're sponsoring an anything goes challenge and I'm submitting a card created with Bisters.   The die cuts are from an  unknown source since we had a die cut exchange at one of our stamp club meetings this past summer.  I distressed the tree and deer die cuts with vintage photo distress ink.  The background was created by sprinkling black and brown Bisters on water color paper and then spritzing with water.  Once dry, the Tim Holtz trees from Stamper Anonymous were stamped with black ink.  The dies were then layered over the top of the background.  The sentiment is another vintage stamp.  Having fun creating holiday cards!

November Challenge at Craft Stamper Magazine.

I'm posting my Brusho creation at Craft Stamper Magazine's November Challenge - Anything Goes.

The stencil is from Tim Holtz and the dies are from Impression Obsession.  The sentiment is a vintage stamp, stamped on vellum and embossed with glitter embossing powder.  The stencil is taped to water color paper and Brushos are sprinkled onto the open areas of the stencil.  Spritz with water, blot if necessary with paper towel, and remove stencil to dry.  You may speed along drying with a heat tool.

Magenta is offering reduced shipping if you place an order with them this month.  I would love to try their Nuance pigments.

Color Burst and Alcohol Inks

Had this idea but not sure that I like it......color composition and the mix of Color Burst and alcohol inks but still want to share.

The Dee's Distinctively hummingbird die was cut from white Modeling Film.  The die was not sharp or deep enough to cut through the Modeling Film so had to trim by hand.  I then colored the hummingbird with various colors of alcohol inks.  And remember - you can apply heat to modeling film and bend it to your liking.  Hard to see in this photo but I bent both wings.

I then took a 5 x 5 piece of water color paper and stamped Ryn's hibiscus stamps with black archival ink.  I used Ken Oliver's Color Burst by tapping out a LITTLE red, green and yellow onto the flowers and leaf and spritzed with water.  I mounted this piece to dark green card stock and added some sequins.  I think I like both components to this composition but just not together.  Fun to play and experiment:)

September Stamp Club

Our stamp club has been experimenting with paper napkins and what a fun technique!

You take apart a napkin until you're just left with the decorative side.  Place card stock on top of scrap paper, then plastic wrap and then your napkin with another scrap paper on top.  With your iron on medium hot, iron this sandwich until the napkin is adhered to the card stock.  Be careful not to get plastic wrap on your iron.  

I die cut a Memory Box butterfly from card stock along with the matching cut out die from 40# vellum.  The sentiment is also a die cut from Memory Box.  

August Sketch Challenge for Stamp Club

Hello!  Noticed I haven't posted here in a while.  I will be sharing this post on the Scrapyland Blog challenge.

All the stamped images are from Fiskars.  The flowers are colored with Copics.  The sentiment is cut from Spellbinders' Circles Nestabilities.  I added little pearls around the entire card.  Hope you're having a fantastic August.

July Sketch Challenge

I can't believe I almost followed our stamp club's sketch for this month!

The sketch is fairly clean and simple.  The strips are from a piece I created at a recent Ken Oliver class using Color Burst.  The paper flower pieces are from Prima and sprayed with Prima's new spray which I love!  It is a gun spray instead of the typical pump spray.  The sentiment is from Flourishes.

Playing with Brushos

Lovin' playing with my pigment powders and in this case, Brushos.

I created this card for our stamp club.  This is a very basic approach to using pigment powders.

Sprinkle and spritz as Ken Oliver says.  I was very fortunate to take classes from Ken, and of course, his product is Color Burst.  They were two of the most inspirational classes I have ever taken.  The classes really stretched my creativity.

The main image stamp is from Stamper's Anonymous - Tim Holtz and the sentiment is from Dyan Reaveley.  I recently purchased some of Dyan's color sprays and look forward to playing with them along with some newly purchased stencils.

Pretty Peacock

Happy Saturday!  It's a beautiful day here in my neck of the woods.  I created this card for a make and take evening at my friend's home.

The stencil is from Dreamweavers.  I taped the stencil to 80# white card stock and smoothed black stencil paste over the entire stencil and remove the stencil.  Once dry, tape the stencil back onto the dried paste and sponge Stamp and Stick Glue over the entire stencil image.  Then we took various colors of FX Powder and Pearl Ex  and stippled the powders over the stencil.  Remove the stencil and let dry.  A fun technique to use with your brass stencils.

Brusho Background

This card was also created for our May stamp club challenge.  Of course, I almost always deviate from the sketch:)

The background was created by sprinkling various colors of Brushos on glossy paper.  Then the Brushos were spritzed with gold spray and then wrapped with cling wrap and left to partially dry.   You remove the cling wrap and leave air dry or dry with a heat gun.  Love, love this look and thanks to Karen and Pat for sharing this technique!

The main image is from Impression Obsession and the sentiment is from Endless Creations.  Thanks for stopping by!

Modeling Film, Alcohol Inks and Gelatos

The design of this card used Memory Box dies - both the flowery background (Tanglewood) and butterfly (Darla) - for our recent stamp camp.

I started with A2 size watercolor paper.  On the front of the card, I scribbled two different colors of blue Gelatos (one is metallic though hard to see in the photo) and then wiped with a baby wipe to spread and blend the colors evenly across the watercolor paper.  The Tanglewood frame is cut from white card stock and adhered to the front of the card.

The butterfly die is cut from Modeling Film from Wendy Vecchi.  Various blue colors of alcohol inks along with silver are sponged onto the film.  Then heat the film with a heat gun and bend.  The film immediately hardens to the shape you have molded.  You can reheat the film and re-bend.  Awesome stuff to play with!  The sentiment is stamped onto a Spellbinder's banner die cut and sponged with distress ink.  

Alcohol Inks and Yupo Paper

Happy Saturday!  Beautiful afternoon!  Here's another card I created for our stamp camp.

The Papertrey Ink feathers are die cut from Yupo paper.  After placing several drops of alcohol ink and extender onto a craft sheet, I smooshed the feathers in the ink until the Yupo paper is fully covered.  The alcohol inks only take a few minutes to dry on this polypropolene paper.  You can also drop the inks on the paper and watch it magically swirl around!  So fun to use!  I'm going to submit this card to Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes.

Happy Father's Day!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Karen and I hosted a stamp camp at my home.  We had a great time with fellow stampers and they enjoyed our projects.  Here is one of my projects using Penny Black's Hot Rod set.

We used Tim Holtz's copper and gold stain by putting stain directly onto the stamp.  There are several sentiments in this set which I love.  The edges were distressed with a distressing tool and edged in Antique Linen distress ink.  The gear dies are from Cheery Lynn.

I'm going to enter this card in the Simon Says Challenge Anything Goes.

Shaker Valentine

Oops.....a little late in posting a valentine card but better late than never.

The background on this shaker card was created with stamping SU's crumb cake card stock with a background stamp from Impression Obsession inked with white pigment ink.  I cut acetate with Spellbinder's Nested Hearts and stitched most of the edge.  I left a small section open and sprinkled Posh Pink's sequins and Tim Holtz's gold distress glitter into the heart and finished stitching the heart.  I die cut the sentiment with a Spellbinder's label die and stamped the sentiment with Versamark ink and embossed with a new glitter embossing powder (the name escapes me).  Hope you had a great Valentine's Day, although a little belated!

Friend

I created this card for a friend's birthday and am submitting it to Craft Stamper Magazine's January challenge "Take a Stamp".

The main image is a cling stamp from Cracker Box Palace Rubber Stamps.  I fell in love with this stamp the moment I saw it!  The image was colored with several Copic markers.  The piece was then cut with Spellbinder's Gold Labels 4 and then mounted onto Graphic 45 paper.  The black card base measures 5 x 7.  I also added copper metal corners.  This image is so much fun to color....the color combinations are endless.  

Impression Obsession Snowflake Die

I have created several cards this past year using this snowflake die from IO.  It is very intricate and one of my favorites.

I die cut the snowflake from the front of the blue metallic card base.  I then cut it again from blue mirror card stock.  I layered silver dotted fiber paper behind the cut out before gluing the snowflake onto the front of the card.  The bling on the front is from Stampin' Up.  

Holiday Gift for a Friend

A year ago, when I was with friends in the St. Louis area, I found these awesome wood pieces to alter.

The piece I chose for Karen is a shadow box.  The pieces come unassembled so they are very easy to embellish first and then assemble.  

I added some scrapbook paper to the back of the shadow box and then over the course of the year, I shopped for various findings along with what was in my stash.  The front was painted with Radiant Pearls.  Remember those from years ago?!  I found quite a few of mine were dried up but found some pretty colors still good to use.  This was a fun project to work with.  I also made wood ornaments that I glittered, and of course, forgot to photograph.  

January Stamp Club Challenge

Yvonne provided our sketch for January using a winter theme.  Here is my take using the Susan Louise cardinal image.

Using Distress Ink, I sponged the background of the cardinal and then spritzed with water so it gives the appearance of snow.  Very hard to see this in the photo.  The sentiment is a new die from Tim Holtz/Sizzix.  Used these new dies quite a bit for the holidays.  Today, he posted on his blog new word dies he designed with Sizzix and they are a must-have for me!  Happy, happy!