Monday, May 30, 2011

CBC - White/Breathe


This weeks Created Byhand Challenge is Breathe and/or White.  I immediately thought of this quote from Quietfire... which I really like!!!!  The huge challenge for me was keeping my card mostly white... I could not believe how tough it was for me to do!!!!  This is a regular size card 4 1/4" x 5 1/2"... a folded white base.  The next layer is slightly smaller... I painted white cardstock with Lumiere super sparkle paint, let it dry and embossed it with the Tim Holtz embossing folder rays.  The quote is stamped on white cardstock with Archival Ink sepia.  The butterflies are stamped on white cardstock with Versamark ink and embossed with white embossing powder... to give the design a little definition I sponged Distress Ink antique linen over and around the butterflies, cleaned off the embossing powder with a damp cloth, and cut them out.  White pearls added to the body of the butterflies.  Roses ribbon is from Tim Holtz trimmings pack.

Challenge blog entry is Here.   Challenge ning forum post is Here.  Both include links to all the supplies for this card.  We'd love to have you join along with the challenge if you have time!!!!

Simple 4x4


This 4x4 again shows one of Quietfire Design's new stamps along with a couple of older stamps.  Suzanne has added this to the Designer Projects area of her website complete with directions... find it HERE.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Trees to Speak


I'm using another new Quietfire stamp on this card - Trees are the earth's endless effort.  You can see all the new stamps here (page 1) and here (page 2).

The base is cardstock from the Core'dinations Distress pad.  The next layer is kraft glassine embossed using the patchwork embossing folder... the top of the embossing sanded so that it accepts ink better, Distress Ink fired brick, the actual inkpad is rubbed across and excess ink wiped up with a paper towel... This Was inspired by a post on Roni's blog Ink Stains here... she has some step out pics and lots of color examples.  I've added gold paint to the edges.  The tree is cut from grungepaper, the trunk inked with walnut stain and vintage photo, the tree inked with forest moss and then embossed with Distress Embossing Powder pine needles... some gold paint dabbed along the edges and a tiny bit inside.  The quote is stamped on off white cardstock with Archival Ink jet black, the edges distressed with the paper distresser and inked with bundled sage, two corners rolled forward... a hitch fastener and mini paper clip  hold it on the card.  

Friday, May 27, 2011

Invisible tears


I'm again sharing one of Quietfire Design's new stamps on this tag... Invisible tears are the hardest to wipe away... now if you've noticed the blurry flourish at the bottom right... have no fear, the stamp stamps perfectly... I, however, brushed over it before I'd dried the jet black Archival Ink (20 lashes with a wet noodle)... I started with a #8 manila tag and applied Distress Inks chipped sapphire, pine needles, and dusty concord using the ink blending tool, dried the ink, sprayed over the tag with water and dried it - this caused the inks to have a mottled look.  Brushed on gesso where I wanted to stamp the quote and dried it... also dabbed gesso around the edges of the tag.  Stamped part of  a flourish (top left flourish in the set) around the edges with dusty concord.  The umbrella man is cut from grungepaper, inked with Distress Ink black soot and gesso dabbed around the edges to help it stand out... attached to the tag with foam mounting tape (you could also use scraps of grunge to elevate it).  7mm white silk ribbon tied at the top.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

How old would you be....


Quietfire Design has a whole bunch of brand new stamps... you can see them all Here.  And there is a great deal if you want to buy them all... see it here... you save about 20% off the individual prices.

This card uses one of the new stamps and I'll be showing some of the others over the next days.  The clock is grungepaper cut with Tim Holtz's Weathered Clock die... both sides sponged with gesso and after it was dry Archival Ink sepia added to the edges and heat set.  The clock is attached to a piece of paper from the Core'dinations Distress paper pack that is embossed with Tim's burlap embossing folder, sanded, the edges distressed and inked lightly with walnut stain.  The next layer is also paper from the Distress paper stack, the small butterfly stamped with Distress Ink pine needles (stamping off once on scrap paper and then onto the cardstock), edges distressed.  The quote is stamped onto white cardstock with pine needles ink, cut and embossed with Spellbinders oval die and the edges inked with pine needles... a 1/8" hole punched on each side for the ribbon to run through.  The ribbon is 13mm white silk ribbon inked with pine needles, spritzed with water, dried (scrunching as it was drying), and the small butterfly stamped along the length of the ribbon with pine needles and dried.  Everything is attached to an off white folded card (finished size 5 1/2" x 8 1/2"). One small butterfly stamped on off white scrap with pine needles, cut out and pearls added to the body.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

MAC #13


Making Art Challenge #13 on the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group...

I've had this done since last week but am just getting it put on my blog.  Lori was inspired by the project on page 22 of Wendy Vecchi's first Make Art, Studio 490 Style book when she posted challenge #13 with our challenge to show an image using the brushless water color technique.  This is a fun technique that I hadn't done in a long time.  I chose this fabulous flower image from the Studio 490 set Botanical Art and I needed a birthday card so that was my goal.  I first inked the stamp with Distress Ink stormy sky and peeled paint, did the spritzing and stamped it onto watercolor paper.... Beautiful - except for those 2 tips I didn't press enough :-))  However I wanted the card to be brighter so I changed to Adirondack ink for the actual card... I used sail boat blue and meadow and stamped onto white cardstock (I was being lazy and didn't want to dig out the watercolor paper pad since I was out of handy scraps)... I also used the top of the flower to create a border along the left.  All stamps are Studio 490.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Grungy Monday #7


Linda chose an awesome technique for the challenge this time... get all the details on her blog.... and since I also need a birthday card I thought I'd work it into the technique.  Distress Ink colors used were mustard seed, dried marigold, shabby shutters, stormy sky, and worn lipstick.  The weeds (Tim Holtz) are stamped with coffee Archival.  The sentiment (Wendy Vecchi) is stamped with jet black Archival.  The edges of the background are done with gold Paint Dabber.  The flourish (Tim Holtz die) is cut from grungeboard, inked with peeled paint Stain, embossed with dot matrix embossing folder (Tim Holtz), lightly inked over with forest moss DI, and sprayed with Perfect Pearls mist forever green.  The flowers are cut (Tim Holtz tattered florals) from kraft glassine paper, well crumpled and spread back out, the larger flowers rubbed with fired brick Stain and the smaller flower with wild honey Stain (if you let the stain sit on the glassine for a bit before blotting off the extra and drying, it leaves on more color), stacked, a hole pierced in the center, brad added, and then the petals crumpled back up a bit.  The bird (Tim's movers and shapers small bird) is cut from grungeboard, inked with fired brick DI and walnut stain DI. Tim's Ideology film strip ribbon attached with the Tiny Attacher.  Dots made with black Glaze pen.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Eyes Wide Open ATC


The dream stamp is from Quietfire Design, it's the mini size found in this set.  The girl image is from Dezinaworld and can be found on this page.  The background is Ranger's sticky back canvas, atc size...  I sprayed it with Color Wash, dried it, stuck it to cardstock, trimmed it a little smaller than an atc, stamped it with a large map image (Stampin' Up), sewed it to a cardstock atc blank, and sponged some Distress ink around the edges.  Cut out the girl image and glued it to the atc.  Stamped Dream.. on a scrap of cardstock, cut it out with deckle scissors, sponged edges with Distress ink, and glued it on.  Glued German Scrap along the bottom.  The butterfly is rub-on that I had terrible trouble with.... I could not get it to stick down - it just kept pulling back up taking the top layer of the image with it... I finally gave up, pulled it up, cut out the butterfly and glued it down with matte medium.... tried to hide the mess I'd made by coloring around it with a glitter marker, lol.  The flower is shrink plastic... I have several that I made years ago... added a glitter sticky back gem to the center.  Glued the whole thing to another atc blank to sturdy it up and hide all the stitching on the back.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Way Cool Flower


A couple weeks ago a stamp/scrap store up by Des Moines was having a sale that we went to and I was able to get a couple new sets of Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 stamps.. yay!!!  As I was putting things away I took the stamps out of the plastic bag they were in and started to threw that packaging away - like I've done with all the other sets I've acquired in the past couple of years - when my mind thought " flowers... Tim's die... I should keep that" and I took it back out of the garbage :-))  Later I took that packaging, stacked it up, and cut it with the Tattered Florals Die... I was thinking I would color the individual flowers with alcohol inks and then stack them up, add some heat and see how things went... so the flowers sat here for oh a week and I decided to just stack them because a clear flower could be cool.  I stacked all the flowers I cut from largest to smallest offsetting the petals as I worked up - there were 6 or so of each size of flower - poked a hole through the center and put a brad in.... then used the heat tool carefully holding on heat, backing up, doing quick bursts as things got warmer so that just the ends of the petals were curling, working my way around the flower.  VERY COOL!!  Then I decided maybe just a little alcohol ink for highlights so I put some caramel on a piece of felt (on the tool) and started pouncing it on the flower.... WAY COOL!!!  I also colored the brad with the caramel alcohol ink.  I took a few pictures of the flower laying on different colors of cardstock (remember you can click on a picture to make it larger and then use your back arrow to get back to the blog).  Now to use it in a project!!!!


Tuesday, May 17, 2011

MAC #12


We are up to #12 for the Making Art Challenges on the EverythingWendyVecchi Yahoo Group.  Our challenge this time was to stamp on patterened paper and use a saying in some sort of bookplate.  I chose paper from Tim's Crowded Attic stash and covered a large Art Parts Circle base with it.  I used two stamps from Wendy's Evidence of Art set on this project - the way cool tree and the saying.  The Circle frame is colored with Distress Stains - I first used weathered wood and then decided I wanted it to be green and put peeled paint over the weathered wood.  I stamped the tree on the papered circle base using Archival Ink jet black, sponged Distress Ink bundled sage around the edges, and then added little sticky-back gems in the swirls of the tree.  The tips of the tree are stamped with jet black on the frame working my way around the whole frame.  I used the smallest Bookplate from the Art Parts package of bookplates.  The center piece is covered with the same paper as the circle base but I used the flip side of the paper so I didn't have any lines... stamped the saying with jet black and some tree tips... sponged bundled sage around the edges and added 5 gems.  The frame of the bookplate is first coated with silver Paint Dabber pressing up and down to create texture - it is very cool how the metallic dabbers will hold the texture as they dry!! -  after the paint was dry I sponged on some olive Archival Ink and also some jet black.  I cut part of the prongs off the brads and glued the brads into the holes so the back of the bookplate could stay smooth.  Glued on an Ideology D-ring for a hanger.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Over The Rainbow


I'm participating in an Over The Rainbow ATC swap on the EverythingWendyVecchi Yahoo Group.  We were each assigned a color for our atcs and, as I'm sure you can tell, I have green.  I had a lot of fun with the backgrounds... I started with manila ATC blanks.. my 'first layer' was Distress inks (shabby shutters, peeled paint, crushed olive) applied using the Wrinkle Free Distress technique (rub ink direct from the pads keeping each color separate onto the craft sheet, spritz with water, press/slide atc in the ink, dry, repeat tapping atcs in the left over droplets of ink and drying again)... the next layer was distress stain peeled paint slapped on to create round splashes (you can see one at the top of this atc)... next came Adirondack meadow ink applied with the blending tool more around the edges and lighter in the center... next is Perfect Pearls Mist forever green, just a light spraying over the atcs... stamped the script with Archival Ink olive... stamped attitude lady with Archival Ink jet black.  The saying is stamped on white cardstock with olive ink and cut apart.  The butterfly is stamped onto grungepaper with jet black, colored with crushed olive and peeled paint.  The Ideology spinner is colored with Adirondack paint dabber willow. The brad was off white and I tinted it with Archival Ink olive.  Dots of white Enamel Accents in the corners and after they were dry I rubbed just a bit of olive ink on them.  Distress Ink forest moss on the very edges of the atc.  All stamps are Wendy Vecchi Studio 490.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Created Byhand Challenge - Lined Pages / Journals


This weeks Created Byhand Challenge (blog or ning forum) is lined pages/journals.  It did cross my mind to finally start an art journal and do a page in it for this challenge but as you can see, I didn't (some day I will start one).

On a #8 Ranger manila tag I sprayed Color Wash butterscotch and meadow, dried it, embossed it using the Tim Holtz notebook embossing folder (used his trick of making a slit in the top of the EF so the top of the tag can slide through it), inked around the edges and over the embossed lines with Distress Ink tea dye, stamped the flourish at the top and the pen nibs at the bottom using Archival Ink sepia.

Glued an old book page to cardstock using matte medium, let it dry, sponged gesso and tea dye reinker over the words to mute them, let it dry, die cut with Tim Holtz Sizzix mini baroque die, inked around the edges with sepia and also sponged on some Color Wash butterscotch so the color matched better, stamped Words of Love with Archival Ink jet black and sponged some black on the edges.

Stamped the pen on grungepaper using jet black ink, cut it out using Tim's tonic scissors, inked with tea dye, and using a very small paintbrush added silver Lumiere paint to the nib area.

The flower, made from grungepaper, has been laying on my workspace for quite some time - the color was actually pale pink but a few sprays with the butterscotch Color Wash changed that.  I also sprayed it with Perfect Pearls sunflower sparkle.  The leaves (an old Quickutz die) was cut from grungepaper, sprayed with Color Wash meadow, dried, sprayed with sunflower sparkle.

A Tim Holtz pen nib (some gesso added to the etched word) and 13mm white silk ribbon colored with Color Wash finish things off.


Saturday, May 7, 2011

Be Strong and Courageous


I made this card for a friend's birthday.  The background started as white glossy cardstock.. I stamped the flower (Michelle Morlan Image) using Versamark ink, dried it, sponged on Adirondack inks sunshine yellow and raspberry, stamped flowers again using raspberry, dried it,  and edged the panel with gold Krylon pen.  Stamped the scripture (Our Daily Bread Designs) on white cardstock with raspberry ink, cut it out with Spellbinder's Labels Four, sponged raspberry ink around the edges and then edged it with gold Krylon.  Flowers are Prima.  Leaves are grungepaper cut with a Quickutz die and colored with Distress Stains.