Blog Archives

Challenge: Food and/or Drink

7/31/2017

The Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for July 31, 2017 is "Food and/or Drink". Pretty self explanatory but I don't have that many food/drink -related stamps or dies. But...

On a recent stamp-buying spree, I did acquire some ice cream stamps by Carabelle Arts Stamps so I decided to go with an ice-cream-themed card.

I stamped the ice cream cone twice on white card using Archival "Shadow Grey" ink., I colored them with Distress Markers and fussy cut them. I attached them to a matted background (created by blending what I thought of as "ice cream colors"), adding a "Vintage Photo" drop shadow and stamped a sentiment that worked for me.

Products used in creating this card were:

Stamps: Carabelle Art Stamps "Cornet de glace" (SM10212) and Simon Says Stamp/Waffle Flower "How We Roll" (SSS101566)
Inks" Archival "Shadow Grey" and "Potting Soil"; Distress Inks "Antique Linen", "Cracked Pistachio", and "Spun Sugar"; Distress Markers "Scattered Straw", "Old Paper", "Spun Sugar", "Picked Raspberry", "Vintage Photo", and "Gathered Twigs"
Paper: Paper reflections "Create Your Own" car in kraft (trimmed down a quarter inch); scraps of dark brown and glossy white card (use the matte back); Neena "white"
Adhesives: ScorTape; Ranger Collage Glue Stick

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Just Playin' - with a Dina Wakley Kit

7/31/2017

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Yesterday, after finishing my craft space tidying (which was minimal at best, sad to say), I decided to play with a new purchase, the Dina wackily Mixed Media Technique kit released by Ranger (MDK55075) and sold through Michaels Stores.

While I have had some of the Dina wackily products for some time now, I have only used her gesso so far, so this was a first time for me to really get in and inky with her products. And believe me, there is NO WAY to avoid paint and gesso from fingertip to elbow with Dina's approach! Thank good ness for artist's soap! LOL

In the kit were three mixed media boards cut to card size, three bottles of acrylic paints, one bottle of white gesso, a stencil, a brush and a sprayer:

Technique # 1 was called Reduction Stenciling and I followed her instructions to the letter:

Technique # 2 was Gesso Resist and, again, I followed the instructions to the letter:

Technique #3 was Stencil Painting and here I misread the instructions and used the steps/colors in the wrong order. After wiping the panel down, it left me with that pale yellow background (instead of turquoise) so I used the stencil painting technique a second time for this result:

These techniques weren't really big diversions from techniques I had learned from the Tim Holtz kits or the class with Dyan Reavely, to say nothing of Tim's three volumes of Compendium of Curiosity or classes in "Creative Chemistry", all chronicled on this blog. But they were useful in getting me used to using acrylic paints. They would be excellent introductions to a beginner as well.

Although I am not sure I am a fan of these super-bright colors, I think I would use the techniques again with some of the more toned down hues available.

These panels may well end up as backgrounds for a project in future, or I may keep them as reference pieces for future experimentation.

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Challenge: Anything Goes

7/26/2017

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"Anything Goes" is the July 26, 2017 challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday!

I've been playing around this last week with dies and stamps in my stash and techniques from magazines and online. One background I ended up with was a result of the use of a die "gone wrong". I salvaged the die-cut from another card front, ran it through my Xyron sticker maker and adhered it to a pre-folded card:

Now the issue was: what to do? I decided to resort to a portrait stamp from Indigo Blu and the thinly stitched dies from Sizzix to create a portrait card in shades of kraft, ivory and pink:

Products used in the making of this card were:

Stamps: Indigo Blu “Miss Austen” (IND0102) and Memory Box “Love and Hearts” (B1423)
Inks: Distress Inks “Vintage Photo”; Distress Markers ”Spun Sugar” and “Worn Lipstick”
Dies: Sizzix Thinlits “Stitched Ovals” (661188); Sheena by Sheena Douglas “Hedgerow Corner” (SD-MD-HEDGE)
Papers: Paper Reflections “Create Your Own” kraft card; Hot off the Press Paper Flair card “ivory” (HOTP 7402); Neena “white”
Embellishments: Bobbin Ribbon 990417-112
Adhesives: EK Tools 3-D Foam Dots; Xyron 500 sticker maker

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Challenge: #hipforsummer, final week

7/25/2017

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This is the final week for the Tim Holtz/Sizzix "Get Hip for Summer" promotion and I wanted to make a summery card for it.

I started by stamping three images of the Hipster Bird and one of the Hipster Ostrich as well as a fish skeleton from the Crazy Cat set. I die-cut the images with the coordinating Sizzix dies and watercolored with Distress Markers:

You may notice that the "whole body" die cut of the bird was blank --- I used that to create a goatee and a hoodie for the bird.

I took the eyeglasses, colored them in with Black Soot Distress Marker , added some Versamark ink and black embossing powder and heat embossed them for some shine:

I could now assemble my Hipster Bird, adding get Ostrich hat to his newlyweds cropped "hairdo"!:

Now for a background. This was a multi-step process, with the first being a creating of a river using two different layering stencils and three colors of Distress Oxides on Neena white cardstock, liberally misted with water:

After trimming this "river", I added blue sky and green grass using scrap card stock...

And then layered the piece on glimmery green card and then on a kraft card:

Now that I had a base for my Hipster, I needed a reason for him to be there. Clearly, he wanted to fish so I had to create a fishing pole and some fish...

The fishing pole was scrap kraft cardstock, tented with Inktense pencils while ether fish were Neena white cardstock, colored with Distress Markers and a silver pen.

Now for assembly. I attached the bird with foam dots, added a string and the Crazy Cat fish wot the pole and attached it to the bird and the background, stamped the word "CRAY" in Archival Ink and finally arranged my fish, a clippings sticker and some rub-ons for a finished card:

As you can see, there are abundant fish in my river but the Hipster Bird had problems actually catching one. I suspect the little skeletal fish is what is left of his bait after the larger fish finished nibbled at his hook!

Products used in the making of this card were:

Stamps: Stampers Anonymous “Hipster” (CMS288) and “Crazy Cats” (CMS280)
Dies: Sizzix Thinlits “Hipster Bird” (662246), “Hipster Ostrich” (662250) and “Crazy Cats” (661209)
Stencils: Stampers Anonymous Layering Stencils “Feather” (THS079) and “Splash” (THS080)
Inks: Archival “Jet Black”; Versamark; Distress Markers “Fossilized Amber”, “Broken China”, “Spicecd Marmalade”, “Back Soot”, “Mustard Seed”, “Squeezed Lemonade”, “Pumice Stone” and “Wild Honey”; Distress Oxide Inks “Broken China”, “Faded Jeans”, “Salty Ocean” and “Cracked Pistachio”; Intense Pencils “Antique White” (2300) and “Sun Yellow” (0200); Pigma Micron 05 “black”; Signo Uniball “white”; MArvy Uchida “Liquid Silver”
Embossing powder: Hero Arts “black” (PW 119)
Embelishments: Idea-ology “Clippings” (TH93583) and Remnant rubs “Life Quotes” (TH93120)
Papers: Paper Reflections “Create Your Own” cards “Kraft”; Neena “white”; scraps of pale blue, light green and glimmer green card
Adhesives: ScorTape; Ranger Collage Glue Stick; and EK Tools 3D Foam Dots

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Challenge: You've Got The Edge

7/24/2017

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The Simon Says Stamp Monday Design Team, July 24, 2017, wants us to use some sort of edge "treatment" on this weeks piece: use die cut borders, distressing, embossing, inking, stitching or any other way to draw the eye to the edges!

Now I have all these border punches from way back in the beginning of the stamping craze and they haven't been dusted odd in ages so I went searching for one that wasn't seasonal and could fulfill the function of this challenge. I found a Fiskars punch which clearly is no longer in production as it is no longer on the Fiskars site but I have it so I used it!

I cut a border along the edge of a kraft card and layered green glimmer paper behind it:

I used a layering stencil and Distress Oxide Ink to create a pattern on the main body of the card front:

I die-cut a sentient from a scrap of dark green card which had been run through my Xyron sticker maker:

And, because the card was a little "dark" in color for a "kindness" card, I added some sparkle with a Psst! Sheer Shimmer spray:

Products used in the making of this card were:

Stencils: Layering Stencil “Lattice Work” (THS019)
Dies: Hero Arts “A Bit of Kindness” (D1383)
Punches: Fiskars border punch
Inks: Distress Oxide “Peeled Paint”; Psst! Sheer Shimmer spray “Sparkle”
Papers: Paper reflections “Create Your Own” cards, “Kraft”; Green glimmer card and scrap dark green card
Adhesives: ScorTape; Byron 500 sticker maker

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Mini-Challenge: "Go"

7/23/2017

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Time for another More Than Words mini-challenge where we are to use a word on a card, tag to etc. For July 2017, the word is "Go"...

I went for clean and simple on my card this time, using die-cuts to got with an Idea-ology "ChitChat" sticker:

Products used in the making of this card were:

Dies: Sizzix Thinlits "Stitched Rectangles" (66189) and "Scribbles & Splat" (660222)
Inks: Distress Oxide "Worn Lipstick"
Papers: Hot Off The Press Paper Flair notecard "ivory" (HOTP 7402); scraps of black, glimmer red and glimmer gold card
Embellishments: Idea-ology "Small Talk" (THS 93193)
Adhesives: ScorTape; Xyron 500 sticker maker

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Challenge: Christmas in July

7/19/2017

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Over at the Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog, Cec from the Design Team said:

"You might be experiencing summer heat but let's think cool by getting a head start on Christmas preparations. Your vintage or shabby chic creation could be a card, something to present a gift in or a decor item for the house or tree."

So the challenge for July 19, 2017 is "Christmas in July"! And a challenge it is, indeed, to get into a wintery holiday mood. It is a far cry from winter here today, with heat and humidity that reminds me more of the Deep South than NW Ohio!

I started with a rustic feel, stamping a "Pine" background on Mixed Media Cardstock with "Vintage Photo" Distress Oxide ink:

While that was drying, I stamped a "Mini Doodle Greeting" in Versamark on a scrap of textured black card, heat embossed it with "White Pearl" EP, and die-cut it with a "Stitched Rectangle" die:

Next, I stamped three large snowflakes in versamark on the background and heat embossed them with "Metallic Platinum" EP:

I layered the greeting on metallic silver text-weight paper and attached it to the background:

I then die-cut a number of small snowflakes from "Metallic Silver" and "Metallic White" text-weight papers that I had run through my Xyron sticker maker. I scattered them around the greeting to complete my card:

Products used in the making of this card were:

Stamps: Stampers Anonymous "Birch & Pine" (CMS280), "Mini-Doodle Greetings" (CMS287) and "Weathered Winter" (CMS245)
Inks: Versamark; Distress Oxide "Vintage Photo"
Embossing Powders: WOW! "White Pearl Super Fine" (WE10SF) and "Metallic Platinum Regular" (WC06R)
Dies: Sizzix Thinlits "Stitched Rectangles" (661189) and "Paper Snowflakes - Mini" (661599)
Papers: Hot Off The Press Paper Flair Notecard "ivory"; Ranger Mixed Media Cardstock (ISD44628); The Paper Company "Metallic Silver " and "Metallic White" text-weight papers; scrap of textured black card
Adhesives: ScorTape; Byron 500 Sticker Maker

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Challenge: Seeing Stars

7/19/2017

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The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge for July 19, 2017 is to "see stars"! I had a plan for this but it turns out the die I wanted to use simply wasn't suitable so I opted, instead, for a clean-and-simple stamped and heat-embossed card.

Products used in the making of this card were:

Stamps: Simon Says Stamp "Seeing Stars" set (SSS1016400
Inks: Versamark
Embossing Powders: wow! "Metallic Gold Rich" (WC04R)
Papers: Soiree A2 card, scrap of velum
Embellishments: gold brads

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Challenge: Use Plaid, part 2

7/18/2017

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The Tim Holtz / Sizzix #hipforsummer promotions for the "Hipster" stamps and dies had me going and I had an idea for a Hipster card…

I was working with some plaid papers last week and had decided that I had one paper that wasn’t too inspiring a color palette for what I wanted to do with that card. But it works for the paper collection it is part of: “Master Detective” by Graphic 45. And when I was thinking about creating a card for week seven, it occurred to me that Sherlock Holmes was a hipster in his day. So… here is a second entry in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge for July 12, 2017: Use Plaid!

I started with a fancy fold technique demonstrate by Dolores Sanders (for Riley and Company) i the Autumn 2017 issue of Cardmaker Magazine (Vol 13, issue 3, pages 20 and 21). After one failed attempt, I managed the proper cuts, scores and folds on a scrap of Bazzill palest green card and added a cut of the plaid paper, a journaling card and a chipboard embellishment to the front:

The back valley in the folded card needed a larger backdrop for my detective so I created a 3” x 4” cut of the same Bazzill card, adding “blood” spatter through a layering stencil with Distress Ink, Versamark and clear embossing powder (this blood is so fresh it shines!). I printed out a fingerprint and added it to the background as well as a magnifying glass stamped with the word “clue”:

Now it was time to make my detective. I stamped three images of the cat “hipster” from the stamp set on white card: two were stamped in Archival “Jet Black” while the third was stamped in Distress Oxide “Peeled Paint”. I sketched out a deerstalker cap and added a bit of the plaid paper to it. I also sketched out a pipe and colored both it and the hat with Distress Inks. Assembled, the “hipster” has become “Master Detective Purrlick Holmes”!

After attaching “Purrlick” to the front valley fold, the card folds up like so:

When opened, it stands like so:

Products used in the making of this card were

Stamps: Stampers Anonymus “Hipster” (CMS288) and Karen Foster SnapStamps “Mini-Formal” (00372)
Dies: Sizzix Thinlits “Hipster Cat” (662247)
Stencils: Stampers Anonymous Mini-Layering Stencil set 3, “Splatter” (THMS009)
Inks: Archival “Jet Black”; Distress Oxide “Peeled Paint”; Distress Ink “Vintage Photo” and “Candied Apple”; Distress Markers “Vintage Photo” , “Peeled Paint”, “Pumice Stone”, “Worn Lipstick”, “Hickory Smoke”; Versamark
Embossing Powder: Stampendous Deep Impression “clear”
Papers: Bazzill very light green; Neena Heavycard “white”; Idea-ology Paper Stash 8x8 “Etcetera” (YH93551); Graphic 45 Master Detective Collection 8x8 “It’s Elementary” (45015700), Chipboard “(4501574) and Journaling and Ephemera Cards (4501575)
Adhesives: ScorTape; Ranger Collage Glue Stick; EK Tools 3D foam dots

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Challenge: Get In Shape

7/17/2017

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The Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Dsig Team has issued a challenge for July 17, 2017: Get In Shape! Their instructions: This week we would like you to create something shapely! You could create something 3D, a box or folder for example, or you could create a card with 3D elements or a fitness theme"

As a rule, I am not a fan of 3D projects, mainly because I don't have any place to display them or store them but also because my fingers and little tabs simply don't coordinate well enough to not result in frustration! But I certainly have no intention of exhorting anyone to get fit! So, 3D it is, or was!

In the latest issue of Cardmaker Magazine (Autumn 2017, Vol 13, No. 3), Robin Arnold had an article on a card and an accompanying treat box (pages 12-13, continued on page 62). While the cuts and folds weren't that difficult, they were made trickier by the small print in the magazine (I misread 3/8" for 1/8"!) and by having to score angles blind. Still, I managed to cut and score the base and add the cut patterned papers:

It was time to actually assemble the "box" --- tricky because the top isn't a wide-open aperture but simply a "slit", but with a little discrete timing, I managed to create my 3D object:

Now for embellishing: two taffy rolls stamped in Altenew Crisp Dye Inks on Neena white card and die cut with the coordinating die; a sentiment stamped in Archival "Jet Black" and die-cut with a die from the Sizzix Framelits Tag Collection; and a length of Idea-ology paper string:

All it needs now is some saltwater taffy to fill it! And someone to gift it to!

Products used in the making of this treat box were:

Stamps: Simon Says Stamp/Waffleflower "How We Roll" stamp set (SSS 101566)
Dies: Simon Says Stamp/Waffleflower coordinating die; Sizzix Framelits "Tag Collection" (658789)
Inks: Archival "Jet Black"; Altenew Crisp Dye Inks "Coral Berry" and "Parrot"
Papers: Bazzill palest green; Basic Grey Two Scoops Collection "Sprinkles" (tlc-1053)
Embellishments: Idea-ology Paper String "Solids" (TH93044)
Adhesives: ScorTape; Ranger Collage Glue Stick; EK Tools 3D foam dots

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