the buses are coming

Simon’s Monday challenge is a Back to School challenge.  Hey, i just did this last week for the Wed. challenge.  You guys are really making put on my thinking cap.  This time I found something in my stash that looks a little more school like.  And whoo-hooo the note book stamp is a NBUS that has been taking up space for about four years.  So thank you very much for another school challenge.

This also fits the SCS challenge for this week to have diagonal corners.

This card is for a young friend who’s birthday coincides with the beginning of the school year.  I put his name on the card but didn’t want to photograph the name since I post on FB and don’t want him to see it yet.  He has a sweet rag doll cat that loves to lay by him when he does his homework. 

Back to School

Another school year begins in a few days but our daughter-in-law teacher started this past week with conferences and getting the room ready etc. 

Simon Wednesday says use Avery Elle if you have them and make a school themed project.

These sentiment stamps and dies are the only Avery Elle I own and I made it work.  For my school theme i just decided to use School Bus yellow card stock and primary colors.  I’m still in love with this little coffee cup die from Simon.  He’s adorable.  The hearts come from the Sending/Wishing Simon sentiment stamps.  faux stitching done with my scor-buddy and a  cutter b tool and gel pen.

Ever done an ATC?

ATC= Artist Trading Card  I get a kick out of all the abbreviations we use in our stamping community.  I have a stamping friend that doesn’t read any blogs and when Angie and I are posting on FB she is confused a bit by all the abbreviated terminology we use.  I remember wondering what all those terms meant.  I think SCS has a page where they explain all that.  (that would be Split Coast Stampers) 

Simon’s Monday Challenge this week was to do an ATC card.  The dimensions are 3.5 x 2.5  In the picture it looks large of course but it is indeed a wee little card.  I use these to tuck into my packages when people order from me.

This is a pre-embossed full sheet of which I had a little scrap left that was perfect for this challenge. Another piece of scrap covers the end of the sentiment label.  Some Nuvo drops complete the soft look.

A simple thanks will do

MFT Sketch Challenge #347

I used my Blue prints 5 (i think) to get the curved frame look.  IRL it is longer than this but I positioned my paper so i would get a shorter arch that would fit the look I wanted to create on my card.

This new Spellbinders die is so beautiful and i had to use this scripty Thank You from Sizzix because of the frilliness of the die.  I’m so glad i found that on sale at Michaels and grabbed it up.  My clear sequins are MFT dies also (this was one on sale recently but i had purchased it long ago) i get a lot of use out of those sequin dies.  Left over acrylic from packaging makes excellent clear sequins.

Simple and sweet for an elderly friend who gave all the ladies in our Bible Study one of her antique serving bowls a couple of weeks ago when study was her home.  A real treasure and memory of her.

R is for red

The large doily is in my stash and I don’t really know which company it is but i love it.  I used a Prickley Pear die for the center and also for the images and sentiment. I cut the main panel with my stitched die from MFT.  A little banner looks held in place with that cute clip that Angie Bode gave to me. 

ABC Christmas Challenge R

Q is for quick

It doesn’t get much quicker than this.  Grab a piece of cardstock that is navy on the outside and white on the inside.  Cut, Score, Fold.  Add some stickers, stamp on the inside and done!

ABC Christmas Card challenge Q

Is Santa a people???

P is for people.  I don’t know if Santa is considered a peep or not but I’m gonna roll with it.  I got this new spellbinders die and I wanted to use it.  I had some left over 12 x 12 scraps from making and envelope with LARGE images on it and it made a perfect strip for this card.  I cut out another that i need to apply somy thinking cap for.

I used distress ink to add a bit of color to the edges of the lacy strip.  Then stamped the images with tea stain distress ink and embossed them with an espresso embossing powder.  A small amount of light water color to the images and down the middle of the strip, hmmmmm….grab that squeezy thing that makes paint splatter from your markers and i’m calling this one complete.  Oh wait, it needs a strip of something down the opening side of the card.  Used a marker and a ruler.  DONE!!  Not my best work but still passes the it’s okay to mail test.

ABC Christmas Challenge P

Camp Create Delightful Die Cutting

Finally, a day to stamp.  I was getting worried I was going to miss the last day of MFT Camp.  Here’s the die cutting card i was wanting to make.  I had this pre-colored image sitting on my desk since winter.  With the MFT stitched frames dies i was able to make it into a nice frame with the image partially cut and  I sponged around the flower and the sentiment with some distress ink in fossilized amber.  I like the look of the double stitched frames together.

The sentiment is from MFT also.  Such a sweet set for those sad occasions.

ombre day

Campfire night.  I decided to make a scene.  Yep!  Still loving these little MFT mice.  This went together so easily don’t know why I don’t do it more often.  

My mom lives in Alabama.  My siblings that live down that direction got her moved into a memory care home today.  I am sending this to my brother and his wife who did most of the moving.  I’m going to type and inside sentiment that says “thanks for lifting the big things”

Day 4 Camp Create Monochromatic

Now that my mono card is finished I see what i did wrong.  I applied the ink direct to the stamp from my stamp cube.  It would have been a smoother transition had i used a blending sponge to apply the ink to the stamp.  I took a baby wipe and kind of tried to blend the edges together.  I used my new gauzy back ground from MFT for the background stamp.  LJD for MFT wild flowers are one of my favorite MFT stamps.

MFT Camp Create Day 4

Camp Create day 3 Backgrounds with stencils

I don’t know if i’ve really tried this technique or not.  It turned out better than I anticipated.  The samples were all rainbow colors and i just have an aversion to all those colors on one small piece of cardstock and I decided to go more monochromatic with my stencil.  Using this cute little MFT Pure Innoncence image my card turned out perfect for the person I am sending it to. MFT Camp Create day 3 Stenciled Background

BIG card

It’s been on my mind to make a multiple stamped sentiment card for quite awhile.  I watched Jennifer Mcquire do this with the MISTI and i tried it with my new Tim Holtz stamping platform but i ended up taking it off and just using an acrylic block. 

This particular layout was featured over on the Unity blog and I liked the curved edge.  I used my Altenew stamps and used a strip of painters tape to cut the images in half.  The ribbon is covering up a black line that somehow got on there.  it happens far too often but i can usually fix it.  This card is for our daughter and it is a 5x 7 size because I had a sticker that size that is all about daughters and i needed a large card to hold that sticker on the inside.

Camp Create day 2 masking

Using a sheet from my  new MFT Sweet Sunshine paper pack, I chose to use a sentiment stamp over the DP and cut out my MFT large butterfly.

masking was the class today and I used some distress inks and painters tape to get this effect.  The clouds add a spot of bright and draw your eye to the butterfly.  This is another look i like and rarely do.

 

Camp Create Part 2 Inlaid

the inlaid look is really a great technique.  I’m not sure why i don’t do it more often.  I think it is especially nice with sentiment dies.  I like to play in Camp Create by MFT because they re-visit a lot of techniques that I just forget about. 

This was fun to make with all MFT dies and stamps.  Though I did to major stamp surgery to the sentiment die to get it to fit on the tag.  I used some metallic gold to make the thimble, needle and  scissors.  You can’t  really see how cute it is in this photo, though.

scraps ahoy!

The other day I pulled out all these spell binder flower dies i have.  I don’t ever remember even purchasing them.  But wow, they cut and emboss so pretty.  I used distress inks to sponge color on them with the dies still in place.  This entire card is made from scraps.  I just can’t stand to throw them scraps away.  A little splatter with Heidi Swapp glitter spray and it looks professional.  ha ha  The checked piece is designer paper and it looks like a pretty riboon.   I have several more flowers to use that i already sponged.  We’ll see what happens with those.

kind of like it

 MFT had a sweet sketch this week but i didn’t get time to play along with them.  I used a loose interpretation of the sketch as i wasn’t going to be able to enter it any way.  I kept the side strip and the main panel.  This dotted piece was sitting on my desk from something i had planned for that didn’t work out.  Using my Penny Black poppies stamp i placed it to stamp a bit onto the panel.  I popped up the panel.  Also added a bit of gesso to the top to give the sentiment a little separation from the designer paper.  It looked a little bare and i dug around and found this ribbon that just ties it all together.  It is all sitting on a linen like piece of light gray cardstock. 

hitting the trend

with all the blogs i’ve been looking at lately i definitely see the current trend is foil.   Foil borders, foil rub ons, foil metallic shards.  This time I thought i would get in on the act before the trend is passe` I don’t have any of the before mentioned products or foil dust or whatever it is but i did still have some foil paper from Christmas.  I die cut both pieces out of black and foil and then used the negative pieces to fill in the mostly foil flower. I got to use my new MFT die cut leaves too.  All in all i love the elegant creation this turned into. 

moving right along

That other card went together so easily I thought I would try another piece of patterened paper and die cuts.  We have a wedding comping up.  I love the look of this paper from the Simon June kit.  It looks like scallops but it’s all one big print.  The hearts are from Tayloered Expression I believe.  MFT label stamps and dies.  Simon’s Wishing sentiment die.

gettin’ the mojo back

it takes a bit to get back into the swing when you  have been gone for about ten days.  I started out simple just to get my fingers moving.  A piece of patterened paper with a large die cut over it and some enamel dots and my creativity started to get warmed up. 

saving money

Another kit not purchased.  I love the new Altenew kit but sometimes a gal just has to say no.  Can I use some of the Design Teams ideas with things I have on  hand?  Absolutely.  Here’s a great example.  This is  a photo of the card Svitlana  on the Altenew team created.  I liked the one on the right. That framed die is what’s pulling at me.  It is so pretty. I thought I had purchased something similar but going through all my dies i couldn’t find it.  Must be on a wish list somewhere. Here is what i did to CASE that card on the right.  I like it just as well.  Mine uses Simon’s flowers from the June card kit, a Spellbinders die and my new MFT label stamps and die.  I used a light gray cardstock and because it is a four and quarter small square card I didn’t think it needed the water colored background.  It satisfies me and I get to keep my $$$.

one that got away

Here’s one I made before I left last week.  I just kind of forgot to post it.  It’s Unity stamps and I just love how it turned out.  I love the cuteness of the Unity stamps. 

back at it

watching the little guys this past week left me ZERO stamping time.  it was such a fun week.  2 1/2 year old twin boys will keep a person busy.  I was sure i lost five pounds but no such luck.   

It was interesting how long it took me to get the mojo back to begin stamping.  Where, what, which do i start with and since I couldn’t decide I just waited until today and it just started by putting two pieces of scraps together.  The stripe and the checked and then it just came together.  Every once in awhile i like to pull out my Tim Holtz spray tool to make fine mist spatters.

Simon’s Monday Challenge is for Happy Birthday

Word Art Wednesday

 

ladies ladies

Guess I’m into the ladies this week.  Isn’t this such a sweet image from Unity?  You know that background on the other card i just posted.  Well I had die cut this circle out to give me a circular area to use my stencil over on that card and this was the piece that I had used to mask the rest of my card.  So totally accidental.  I am in love with this back ground.  I popped it up with some extra thick pop dots and added a strip of washi.  She looks likes she’s sitting in a cafe and you’re seeing her through a window, doesn’t she?  So i LOVE this card.  
Simon’s Monday Challenge –die cut edge
Word Art Wednesday

unusual yee-haw

When I bought these dies from Spellbinders i knew I wouldn’t be using them much but they were so cute I just couldn’t say no.  Well really, they were 70% off and THAT’s why I couldn’t say no.  I had this vision of this card in my head and here it is come to fruition.  I used some Heidi Swapp gliter spray over a Tim Holtz stencil and after cutting, embossing and inking the die cuts I decided to splatter the left side of the cardstock with that pretty shimmery pink.  The sentiment is from a Unity set.  LOVE how this turned out so realistic.  I do have a couple of cow-girl friends that will appreciate this.  Thanks for stopping and for taking the time to comment.
Simon’s Monday Challenge  I pushed the stencil right along the edge to decorate that up a bit.  
Word Art Wednesday

making do!

Sometimes you have to make difficult choices.  Like this.  I was so intrigued with the new MFT card kit but it was just out of my price range.  I figured I had enough goodies on hand to similar cards out of the things i had on hand.  I was so happy to find out, i did , indeed, have a SMILE die on hand.  I just cut a bunch of those flowers out that I had won (stamps and dies last november at a craft show) I think i did well enough to keep me from purchasing the kit.  Now I know I really don’t need it.    that makes me happy and gives me money to spend elsewhere.  Well, i mean at another stamp store, of course.   I tilted this top layer to give the card an interesting edge and to enter it into Monday’s Simon Challenge. 
Word Art Wednesday

new stamps from Dina

I don’t know, I buy so much stuff when it’s on sale and come home and put it away and then later on I find it and I’m like, Wow, I forgot i bought that.  Or I buy it with the intent of making something i thought up in the store and then i forget what that was by the time I get it home and everything out of the bag.  Michaels and Hobby Lobby are dangerous places for me.  ONCE in a great while I go in and actually only purchase the adhesive or cardstock that i need.   
Here is one of theDina Wakely images i purchased a while back from a sweet set marked waaaaaaaay down.  That was fun.  I made this into a double edged card layerto fit into Simon’s Monday Challenge.  I added the polka dots on her top with a white gel pen and used a stencil over the background to add a bit of interest.  I stamped the gal first and then used rubber cement painted over her with a small brush.  It works just like masking fluid.  It rubs off really easily.  Before rubbing off the rubber cement i added a water colored back ground using my distress inks.

Word Art Wednesday

love you a ton

color challenge at MFT #73  I have so many new things to play with.  I’ve had these Unity stamps for quite some time and just didn’t get ink on them yet.  This elephant is so cute.  I first cut my Tropical Teal color with my MFT stitched rectangle die from one of the blue prints and proceeded from there.  I knew i wanted the gray piece to be the piece i stamped on.  I used my MFT mirror stamping stamp to get a reverse of the elephant and then i stamped on the back of the DP and cut it out to have the colors from the challenge be the paper pieced Ellie. 
I used some Viva Pearl pens to make the eyes for both elephants and that was it.  Used all the colors and it was super easy this time.  Oh right, i ran the teal piece through my Big Shot with a Tim Holtz heart die.  That was a challenge to get it to fit in the right orientation.  I also cut Miss Ellies ear and popped it up a bit for a little bit of fun.  isn’t she cute? 
Word Art Wednesday Simon Says Monday Challenge pierced edge die cut. 

the little things

there’s not much i can do to help stamp out cancer.  I can be a friend to those who are going through this experience.  We have and elderly friend that has chosen to forego anymore medical intervention on her journey.  It is the third time this hostile disease has returned to her.  i like to just send her a weekly card and let her know I am thinking of her always.  She’s a courageous woman.

WORD ART WEDNESDAY #292-293

Technorati Tags: SU,Brayer,Summer,The Journey,Bernice

O is for Old

This is one of my favorite old stamps.  I’ve had it about four years I think and i just love the peaceful feeling it gives me.  It’s also an “old” image with that parchment paper look to it.  I stamped with versafine and embossed with a mixture i have made up of detail black embossing powder and clear.  It gives a really nice look and covers better than detail black alone.  Water colored with pan colors and a water brush.  I added my own home made snowflakes in the corners with Nuvo Drops in Silver Lining.  ABC Christmas Challenge

N is for New

Still keeping up with ABC Christmas Challenge.   N is for new and after the challenge we had a bit ago to use a jingle bell, well, i found out i didn’t have a jingle bell in my stash.  I remedied that when Casual Friday had a sale on a sweet set with a die included.  SCORE!  The die cut bell and image are my NEW things for this challenge.

unusual design

MFT sketch 341 this week was a bit unusual.  This card took on a life of it’s own as i was intending to use the little fairy on this sketch.  Ah well, sometimes that just happens.  Using the Wild Flowers set seemed the perfect image for the square with the papers I had chosen.  Using MFT images and dies except for the sentiment label. (spellbinders)

More TCP

The Cat’s Pajamas stamps are so cute i wondered why i don’t use them more.  Then I realize that I only have four sets and two of those are summer only.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Here’s the other summer set.  I CASED this layout from Jo’s card that she entered as a DT member at Simon.  I thought her layout was so cute.  I still couldn’t get the hang of that partial die cutting.  I had to glue some cardstock pieces on the back so it looks like it’s supposed to.  (there’s always a way to fix it, eh? ) 

Simon’s Wednesday Plaid Challenge

it’s ice cream time

Are you doing your part to keep the cows happy?  I love ice cream.  Here in the dairy land of Wisconsin there are ice cream shops EVERYWHERE.  Some are open all year long.  Winter weather doesn’t seem to be a factor in diminishing the amount of ice cream served in our state.

Thought it was time to play with my Cat’s Pajamas and once again try that partial die cutting technique.  I still didn’t get it completly right but close and i was able to cover up my mistakes.

Simon’s Wednesday Challenge is to use Plaid.

Oxide Inks

I caved!  Had to try the oxide inks!  Are they the rave others seem to think?  Well, I don’t know about that.  They are fun to play with and I’ll try some other techniques but truth be told, at this point, i think i could have lived without them.  Will have to google some ways to use them. For this card, i used the oxides direct to paper.  I have the first batch of inks that came out and only eight of the colors, not all twelve.  I then took this stencil stamp that i always have trouble with.  Too big of spaces to work easily with.  The bird always comes up and product seeps under weather it’s inks or pastes.  Anyway, I thought I would try it.  I spritzed water onto the stencil and then pressed it onto the  water color paper with the oxide inks.  It didn’t turn out so well but i did love the way the leaves turned out by removing the color around them.  I dried the stencil and laid it back down and used a light touch with the oxide inks to give it a bit more definition.  I then spritzed the  entire piece with water.  Now, I love the soft look of it.  It’s going to a good elderly friend that is in her last months of life.  She’s a sweet soul and has chosen not to do any treatments for the cancer that has invaded her body once again.  Thanks for coming by. I always appreciate the visitors.

SUNSHINE

Simon’s Wednesday challenge this week is Sunshine and also to use Simon stamps if we had them.  This little set called Circle Friends hasn’t gotten much use and it felt the perfect time to use it.

With the striped circle looking like a sun and such a sweet little bear and sentiment in that set this turned out “oh so cute.” I stamped the bear twice on water color paper and cut him out and popped up the top layer. He’s got a bit of glossy accents on his eyes and nose.

I used the Simon Sunshine die and cut it twice.  Once in black for a teeny little shadow and then in white.  I sponged three distress inks on for an ombre look and took that look over to the hearts to tie it together.  The top panel is embossed with a Taylored Expressions folder called Weathered.

It was fun to play with some sunshine because here in the northern highlands of Wisconsin we haven’t seen very much of that yellow orb.  A week of clouds and rain is predicted. Please send sunshine our way, if you would.  Thanks so much.

Red White & Blue 2017

Some classic colors adorned the MFT color challenge this month.  I couldn’t let the month go by without a patriotic colored creation.

Using my Blueprints 5 and one of the sketches that i modified this came together pretty quickly.  The sentiment is from MFT flamingo set.

It’s simple and perfect for busy summer days.