What fun tags

Aren’t these tags just the cutest.  I distressed this one up a bit with some wild honey ranger ink.  The doily die is from Whimsy and the flowers where some I pulled out of a pack and put together.  The die cut leaves are SNSS.  I added some wild honey with a wide brush and water to the under flower.  So fun to be stamping spring.  I am so sick of winter.  six to ten inches of snow predicated for Monday.  I think they are lying.  

I am entering this into Simon’s Work It Wednesday challenge to think spring.

Hawaiian Anniversary

 

I had a request for a 20th wedding anniversary card.  The wedding took place in Hawaii.  The card was supposed to be more serious in nature and not a funny one.  I don’t have any serious Hawaiian like stamps and had to really put a thinking cap to this one.  I had these sea shell cut outs that I love and that is my last strip of them.  In each photo of the shells there is a knot.  I let that signify “tying the knot” for the anniversary couple..  tThose gorgeous trees are stickers.  They were way to intense to stand alone on the card.   I embossed some Hawaiian butterflies onto one edge of some vellum (for you Princess Judy~getting’ the trend out there)  Does anyone know how to keep the vellum from warping and staying that way when you heat emboss?  After embossing the sentiment I could not get that piece to settle down.  I did, however get the effect I was after, to soften the trees.  A strip of washi seemed to have a natural place here.   Entering into Simons No Rules Monday.

My first Magnolia creation

while in NC, JoAnn had stamped me a few Magnolia images.  I brought this one home and then had an order for a nurse’s birthday card.  I thought it would be perfect for her.

Entering this into Simon’s Anything Goes Wednesday

Making Thank You’s

I received an order for several Thank You cards.  It was so fun to create each one differently. I used the inlaid technique for the die here from MFT.

This will be entered into Simon’s No Rules Monday challenge.

Spring Things

This sweet little rabbit tag was given to me by my friend in NC.  She printed off several from her computer and we did a work shop with them while there and then she gave me the rest.  they are so adorable.

I used the Simon curved sentiments banner and the little gold heart is from the mini hearts Simon die.  It’s mirror gold and really shiny. 

The little doily die strip is SNSS.

I am entering this into The Simon Says Work It Wednesday Challenge.

had a couple of fun stamping days

I’m having so much fun playing with different techniques lately. I am so far behind in posting that these posts are going to be very short.    The same paper napkin, one with glitter, one without.  Entering into Simon Says No Rules Monday.  The little tags are from MFT Blue Prints sets and of course the Simon Double Stitched frame die on the bottom card.

 

Stamp #457

Tim Holtz image and MFT dies.  This made the cutest card ever.  I went through and stamped and colored all the bird images with my Inktense pencils.  I had no idea what I was going to make them into but I love what has transpired.  Isn’t he adorable.  Sentiment and heart are old SU rub ons.  I am entering this into Simon Says Anything Goes Wednesday Challenge.

STamps# 454–455-456

Having SUCH fun with these Tim Holtz images.  They make me laugh just to work with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tim Holtz and a very old Stamping Up set.

Things from friends #452 & 453

 

Fun things from friends.  It was fun to receive this package of goodies in the mail.  I love stamping friends.  When we are done with a technique or we find we are not using some supplies we pass them on to others.  I was so excited to get all these stencils.  I had to use that ivy one because it just looked so cute.

I grabbed my paste and went to work.  Then I liked how it looked and it reminded me of this very old Stampin’ Up set with the grapes and leaves. 

I used my new Walnut Stain glossy pearl pen to make the embellishments.

Oh my goodness, that reminds me.  I HAVE to tell you about Betty’s Creative Studio.  I was in NC with my stamping friend and she said we MUST go to Betty’s while you are here.  I have never seen a store so packed full of stamping goodies.  Go to her site and scroll down to click on Last Chance items and you can purchase Tim Holtz stencils for $2.75.  Betty’s prices are the best of any stamping site around.  You will want to check out all the goodies in her on-line store.  But if you EVER get to Greensboro, NC you must stop in and meet Betty.  They have an entire back room dedicated to pre-owned stamping items and they are CHEAP.  You see all those stencils above?  Those came from a friend but Betty would have things like that packaged all together and sell them for $2.00.  I got the most beautiful water color sets from Germany and Italy along with some spray mist bottles and palettes for mixing paints all for $4.00.  what a deal.  I got a TON of other things too and you’ll just see me filtering things in over the weeks.  Thanks for stopping by.  I appreciate you.  I enjoyed my trip but it’s fun to be stamping back in my own stamping room where I know what I have and where everything is.   

Happy Birthday to Gilbert

Gilbert loved his card. He said the popped up frame looks like real leather and had to feel it to be sure. He thought maybe he should smell it to be sure.  ha ha.
This card  is similar to one I made before with this image. You can find the first card,  HERE,  if you care to compare them.  Even though last time I gave credit as Susan Louise image several commented how perfect my coloring was.  I want to make sure you know that these images come pre-colored.  All I do to the image is use Ranger distress inks and sponge around the images and add my sentiments. You can build a card quickly with these.  You really will enjoy seeing all her images.  Even the moon comes from Susan Louise.  Everything is printed on Ranger Specialty paper and when you sponge around with color you can also do the water drop technique to remove color.  You can see that on this card.  I will enter this into Simon's Bright Cards challenge.  I used my favorite Simon's Double Stitched dies.

Technorati Tags: Susan Louise,Masculine,Birthday

Sentiment is from CTMH

non traditional #451 Stampendous

To help Princess Judy bring back vellum, I chose to use a full card size sheet of printed vellum for this creation.  I have been seeing a few of these vellum pieces with the die cutting into the vellum and then letting a piece of patterned paper show throw the peek a boo holes.  Thought I would try it with this one.  It wasn’t what I had in mind when I started out as I thought I had a pink piece of vellum like this.  But in the spirit of using up what I have I went with this design.  The only thought process I had when starting this was using this heart die and using pink vellum.  Oh well, you can see where this ended up.  So I was very pleased with little Mr. Hedgie holding onto that sparkling heart bling and to bring a bit of life to the overall image I  colored all the other blings with a copic marker.  NOW, I like it.   --Mr. Hedgie had a surgery as he was holding on to a basket of flowers  with his left  hand and also had a butterfly friend he was trying to entice with that hand that now holds the pretty heart of bling.  --gamsol colored with koh-i-noor pencils

Technorati Tags: Stampendous,Valentine,Masculine

Stamp #450 Stampendous

Today I tried playing with some koh-i-noor colored pencils and gamsol.  I am trying to decide if I should make an InkTense purchase.  This technique that I have tried before with the gamsol has a very nice look but each time I seem to not enjoy the blending part so much.  I think I would rather blend with copics.  but then to get ALL the copics…GASP…it is cost prohibitive.  I have my Staedler water color pencils but that always seems to leave a pencil line on the edges which I don’t like.  I think I have played around with enough color to know that blending is a favorite past time for me but just not with the gamsol.  
I needed a baby girl card.  Stampendous to the rescue.  This image is the cutest.   This will be entered into Simon’s Wednesday Bright Colors Challenge  I used that nice bright blue and then bright pink ribbon I laced through the eyelet border die from SNSS. Hero Arts CL342 Sentiment stamp.

Technorati Tags: Stampendous,Baby,Girl

H is for Husband

and Hooray and Heart, just like the last post.  Using the Simon hearts die cuts and more from that wonderful Simon Kit from way back in 2012.  I still have pieces of it left.  It really was a fabulous kit.  This is of course going to be added to the gallery at Simon Says Monday

So I will be away from Dear Hubs on Valentine’s Day which is no big deal.  We don’t do the obligatory holidays and we have a valentine card that we keep passing back to one another for several years now.  but since I hope hope hope (there’s three more H’s for you.) I will be in NC and some sunshine for that week, anyhooooo, I thought I would go ahead and make him a card beside.  Maybe the mailman can surprise him. 

Technorati Tags: valentine,gilbert,Simon Kit,GKD

Stamp #449 SU

Friend Angie played along in the SCS color challenge and used that sweet doily die again from SNSS.  It just made me want to grab mine and use it.  I used the companion die that comes with the one she uses.  I love them both.
I have been wanting to do this technique again.  I keep forgetting how beautiful the embossed dies are.  That makes me want to try all my dies with the same technique.  (watch for more of that)
I followed the MFT sketch challenge for the week.  I hope I’m not to late to get it into their gallery bit if so, oh well, I enjoy the process.  And I know I am on time for yesterday's Simon Says Monday challenge which is H.. I have a couple of Hearts on here and Hooray, one of them is from the Simon die, and also Hooray, i am using items from my Simon Kit of May 2012.  the paper and the tag.

Technorati Tags: valentine,MFT,embossed dies

Close to my Heart 446-447-448

These sweet little critters were another GoodWill purchase.  I love when I find bargains like these.  These little images are so cute and being open lined they worked perfectly for this application.

Still re-visiting my Stenciled class.  This video was on using water colors to paint over your stencils.  While I knew you could do it I just forget all the fun things you can do with stencils for different looks.  I used Michaels Water Color paper and wet the surface first then used a broad brush to swipe color from my Kraft mat where I had scribbled with some distress markers.

I let it dry by my furnace register while I got a pot of Pinto Beans started.  It sure smells good in here.

When I came back the rest of this card just popped into my head and voila`  a Star is born.   I stamped, colored with pencils and blender pen, cut out and pasted down the images.  I had first stamped the trio of tulips onto the water colored panel so I would know where to place them.

Technorati Tags: Birthday,Spring,CTMH,Stencil,Water Colors

Loving that class

I am so happy I thought to revisit that Stenciled class from On Line Card Classes.  I had forgotten about this technique and look what a beauty.  This was so easy, I think I need to make about a dozen more.  But I often say that and in reality, I like creating NEW things and rarely go back and visit a card I have already made.  but maybe this one, I will.

I simply sponged over a Dream Weavers stencil with a couple of distress inks. I added the MFT tag that I embossed with retired MFP stamps. Added a gold ribbon and a couple of enamel dots and a clear sequin (also MFT die) to finish it off.

I love how you can still see the pretty holly through the embossed tag.   I really made this for Merry Monday to use Carolers or Music on your card but I didn’t get it loaded to their gallery in time to count.   However where it really counts is; I have another beautiful Christmas card to add to my stash.

Technorati Tags: Christmas,Dream Weaver,Stencil

more stencil fun

The On Line Card class was really informative and I felt I got my money’s worth.  This class was called Stenciling.  Here’s a link if you have any interest in these.  There is a CAS class going on now.  drool! 

In this class we learned about using Versa Mark and wet embossing through the stencil. 

What I learned.  This technique works best with a larger wide open stencil.  This wasn’t the best choice as I had a really difficult time getting the versa mark to go through the small holes on this more detailed stencil.  In class they did this on white with clear embossing.   I chose Kraft and did a shiny Espresso embossing.  I didn’t think the distress inks would look so good on the Kraft and I chose some Stampin’ Up chalk inks that were given to me and sit there unused.  They have been around for a long time.  So I did fulfill one of my goals to use Stale Stuff. 

This card is for the last remaining really good friend of my husband.  He lives in AZ and I wanted the colors to reflect his surroundings.  I used some tissue paper and some really fine raffia to twist about underneath the tissue paper.  I did use distress ink on the tissue paper and made it more brown but the camera didn’t pick that up. 

All in all…I am quite pleased with how it turned out even with the mistakes I made which I won’t tell you about.   I computer generated the sentiment and cut it out with a Blue Print die.

Technorati Tags: masculine,birthday,stencil,embossing,Doug Killam,MFT

Stamps 444 & 445 Gina K Designs

I took an online stenciling class a while back and kind of forgot that I have access to it anytime.  Now that I have a supply of stencils and sprays I thought I would revisit that class.  The first lesson was in using sprays. I started with a 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inch panel that I will adhere to my card base.

 Lessons I learned.  I need to hold my sprayer back farther than I did.  About 18 inches would be better then the spray won’t leak under the stencil.  I also realized my stencil is Tim Holtz so it is long and narrow.  I wonder why he didn’t make them 5 1/2 inches across to cover the entire card panel.  I notice he works on tags a lot but Hello!!  Anyway, silly me, I taped my stencil and sprayed with the intent of moving the stencil over and spraying again but when I removed the stencil, uhm……oh yeah, what I didn’t have covered up will also get inked.  Thus I had a nice pink strip going down the edge of my card.   Next question is, without cutting that piece and putting it down the middle, how do I make this work?  Angela Bode has been using these great doily dies from SNSS and she inspired me to get some and they came in last week.  Raised eyebrows here…oh boy, why not try that???  YES!! it is perfect in the silver.  The rest is pretty self explanatory.  This card gave me a chance to use my “online word” dies from My Favorite Things too. 

Technorati Tags: valentine,GKD,MFT,SNSS,Stencil,Sarah