bah humbug #718-719-720-721-722-723-724

i didn’t make many halloween cards this year, i didn’t turn the porch light on, i didn’t look at any little kids and say awwww….i really just simply did not care about this fantasy holiday at all.  sometimes life just overwhelms me and i have no energy for the external stimuli.   I did however enjoy the process of making these two halloween creations for my adopted grands that are 5 and 8 years old.  I copped out of the candy and put money in the card instead.  it can help pay for the dental work they’ll need after eating piles of candy.

alrightee then, this is a real downer of a post.   just wanted to get these cards recorded.  Happy whatever holiday is next to for you!!  i hope to make some happy cards today and improve my mood.improve my mood.

How much fun can you have with ONE kit? Stamps used up to 725

oh my word.  i have had the Simple Thiings kit from Gina Kay Designs for two years already.  I have made a couple of cards from it in the past two years and thought this was the perfect time to see how many cards i could make from it.  Well, there are a LOT more cards in that kit.  I love Gina’s kits.  You get SO much.  This one is now kind of extended even though i haven’t even come close to using up all the 6x6 paper pack that came in the kit.  I wond two little mini kits from GKD over the years and they both had fall themed 6x6 papers in them and i have incorporated some of them into this kit.

Technorati Tags: GKD,The Simple Things,Kit

Color Suggestions

Simon has a color challenge for their work it wednesday put up in September.  I used all distress ink.  First sprayed the water color paper, then swiped swatches of yellow, red, and orange onto the craft sheet.  Lay the sprayed paper into the swatches and tip the paper to move the color around.

After drying with a heat tool i laid a metal tree stencil from Dreamweaver over the paint and sponged with tea dye distress ink.  I used the brown for a back layering piece and for the deer.  I added three rows of narrow ribbon to finish off the scene. 

Groupon

i guess that’s the trend these days!! Groupon!!  I’ve never used it but thought it made a good title for this group of cards i decided to post together.  Thanks for stopping by.

MFT Color challenge 55

Once again these MFT color challenges work best for me if i pull out small bits of scraps in the colors laid down.  That’s how this sweet card came about.  I also used Blueprints #15 for the dies and the layout.  It’s truly the easiest way to make a card.   Grab the dies, grab the sketch, pick a stamp and GO!  From start to finish including coloring this took about 20 minutes.  I love that kind of time.

copy cat #714-715-716

My friend Angie sent me the cutest card that was so much like this one, i had to copy it.  I needed a one layer though as this is going into the prison mail system.  I stamped the little fox then used ink a dinka doo masking paper to cut out a mask for him.  then i layed wide frog tape spaced so i could sponge the blue stripe.  After removing the mask and tape i added the leaf images from SU and inked them up with my Spectrum sunset pad.  Tombow markers colored in the Unity mr. fox stamp and i love the little sentiment that came with it.  Thanks Angie for sending me such a sweet card. 

#713

it’s been a while since i’ve done emboss resist and it’s always so much fun to sponge around and see the image come to life.  I used this large daisy from Close to My Heart for this Simon Says Irrestible Wednesday challenge.  The cardstock is a semi gloss piece.  I then stamped with distress inks for a back ground.  Using white embossing powder i embossed the sentiments.  After drying all with a heat gun i used my Viva Pearl Pen in walnut stain to add the seeds to the flowers and a bit under the LOVE word.  Thanks for coming by.  Oh it feels good to stamp again. While visiting relatives is fun I do miss my stamping when I’m gone.

new technique

who ever thought of this technique has my stamping blessing.  isn’t it great to make a scene behind the embossed trees???  the possiblities are endless.  Find out how to do this HERE but use the right orientation for your embossing folder.  I stamped mine on the bottom edge of the top panel, you’ll see what i mean if you watch the video.  Anyhoo…I liked the MFT Sketch Challenge this week for it’s simplicity and this is what I came up with.  Trying a new technique and playing in a challenge, two of my favorite things.  Sizzix embossing folder, old SU pine trees stamp, light sponging with Steel Gray MFT ink on trees MFT sentiment from Essential sentiments set, tag from MFT Blueprints 3.   I popped up the senitment tag with extra deep pop dots because i really wanted it to be the focal.  Thanks for stopping by.  I can’t wait to do more of this technique.

i won i won

My first Unity stamps and now i have purchased more.  There was a face book challenge to leave a comment and the lucky winner would receive some stamps.  They drew my name. What a wonderful prize.  I always love sentiment stamps but check out that water color daisy, that’s my favorite though i am quite sure i will use every single one.

#712 sympathy

I’m playing catch up.  I made quite a few cards before we left on our vacation and didn’t have time to blog them.  I love how this one turned out.  Loose watercoloring for my nephew who lost his wife far too early to the cancer demon.  this is simple but impactful with the white embossing. This is a  sweet Penny Black stamp I recently ordered.  The card bae is a pearlized shimmery soft ivory color.  Very elegant.

Stamp 711

I am loving this flower garden set from Stampendous created by Tim Holtz.  I’ve wanted this set for quite awhile and mostly because of this cool cone flower.  I used a soft hand and distress inks and sponge for the background.  Flicked some paint spots and started coloring with my Tobow markers.  I added some white dots with a gel pen to the pod part of the flower.

The back ground is light embossing paste through a MFT stencil called broken bars or something like that. The sentiments is embossed with SU embossing powder Blushing Bride.  It’s beautiful.

hurry scurry

didn’t this guy turn out so cute???  I used a sketch from the blueprints and just love how it came together.  That is the fun of stamping, right?  we never really know how it’s going to turn out.  I admire those stampers that do videos cuz i never know where i’m going with anything.  I did learn from one of my classes if you use a striped paper you can pick colors out of there for your image and that makes it go easier and coordinates the image with the rest. The little candies were the finishing touch on this.  While i liked it, it seemed something was missing.  Brads didn’t look good, buttons…nah….eyelets?? hmmm can’t put them on after everything is glued down already.  Candies…perfect solution in the perfect color.  thanks for stopping by today.  Appreciate all my stamping friends.

Stamp 710 & 711 mum’s the word

i don’t know if this really is a mum or a zinnia but with all the mums sitting on peoples porches this season i thought i would go with mum!  trying out my Tombows on 110 lb. cardstock instead of watercolor paper.  it turned out not so bad.  I saw a video for how to emboss a small piece of cardstock with a regular size embossing folder and thought i would give it a try.  it’s a nice way to expand the use of supplies.  I used a SU large BG stamp with versamark to add some subtle movement to the purple piece.  The piece looked a little flat until i added the viva pearl dots in gold.  ahhh, now that looks better.

stamp 709

for the Simon Says Monday challenge TRAVEL….this card was inspired by a long ago trip to Colorado where we saw the balloons rising in the valley. We were up in the mountains.  The balloon and cloud image is cut from an old Simon Kit DP that i still have parts of.  The background paper is an old Afternoon Muse pack that conveniently had the flags and world grid lines on it. I added a die cut pine bough not sure if it’s memory box or impression obsessions.  I love how this turned out.  Would never have really thought to put these elements together without the challenge.  Thank you Simon.   It’s a guy card for a former Colorado resident.

Stamp 707 & 708

Hmmmm….maybe i should have put a green strip across the bottom?  oh well, i can still change it but somehow think the reciepient will like this bright golden yellow.  I stamped the candies across the strip to give some movement to the card.  This is an old MFP stamp that is retired.  I don’t have too many halloween stamps unless they are hiding somewhere.  i was thinking i had bought some.  Just getting back into stamp room after a two week trip and it takes a while to get back in the groove.  Thought i would play in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which is Halloween.

salvage

i should really just throw my scraps away….but the frugality in my won’t let me.  This started out as a salvage of a thin little frame of pink but i ended up pulling it off and throwing away the very thing i was trying to salvage.  I feel i made a mess of this entire card but every card has a home and it will get mailed to someone. I don’t do very well making shaking cards.  sigh.

#706 i heart u

love love love this kit from Simon Says.  The layered look on the bottom card is all one piece of paper cut oh so carefully to keep the little bird in there.  The small heart is stamp # 706.  The enamel like dots are my sweet Viva Pearl Pens.  Embossed the large heart in gold.  I LOVE the Ranger embossing pad.  It is the best i have ever used.  You won’t be sorry if you make that purchase.

Masculinity

The cycle is a digi stamp.  I had a request for that.  It is colored with copic markers and white highlights.   The one on the left was a request for a hunter themed card. I was glad to have the wooden tag to use.  i’m trying to use them up.  one more down! 

Technorati Tags: masculine,digi,die cuts,nature

hang in there masked

I’ve always think this simple masking technique looks so neat and clean and i rarely remember to do this.  Thought this was the perfect image to use this with.  I think this little guy is just so cute.  He looks lonesome though, don’t you think?

MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge.  This is a very simple sketch.  I used the branch in place of the banner they have coming out from the side.

#705 Music to my ears

Music to my eyes, that’s what i think when i see a fun challenge go up.  I’m always checking Simon for the newest challenge.  It truly challenges me and if i have stamps from the company they are highlighting i do like to use them.  That’s even more of a challenge.  This week Simon’s Wednesday challenge is to use a stamp and if possible use one of their exclusive stamps.  I chose this set.   it’s called Music to my Ears from the November 2012 kit.  I also used MFT’s color challenge #53 to create this and some items from their Blue Prints # 16.  I really like this color palette.  I hope i remember to use it again.  MFT is also a company i often check into for inspiration.  They have a great design team and i always hope i absorb by osmosis.

Bee Happy #704

Simon’s Monday Challenge is to use a stamp and no digi’s allowed.  Also they are featuring their own stamps this week.  I have a couple of their exculisve sets.  I love this set that has such a cute bee in it.  Otherwise i’m not much into bees.  I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of that dotted line trail though.

Using Simon’s stamp set called Circle Friends I’ll just go ahead and enter that challenge. MFT blue prints 15 and one of the MFT sketches.  now just so you know, IRL all these colors blend nicely.  Did you ever notice how most things that are green don’t photograph well?  ah well….

MFT Contest 2

Another entry for the My Favorite Things Super Designer challenge.   Using the MFT Scattered Bars stencil I lightly sponged through the stencil with MFT Grapesickle Premium Dye Ink  and variegated pressure.  Next step i took the LJD Wildflowers stencil and used some silver embossing paste on the one flower.  I did two of the same flowers at varied heights to draw the eye into the center.  After letting that dry I masked off the flower on the left with inkadinkadoo masking paper. Using my MISTI I stamped the two darker flowers three times rearranging the flowers.  Then I stamped the lighter flower with the mask still in place.  I added a leaf to the bottom by putting a smudge of the Grapesickle ink pad onto my craft mat and picking it up with a wet paint brush.  I extended the stem and filled in the blank spots that didn’t get the pressure when i stamped because of the embossed image.  I pulled out my die from Blue Prints five with the rounded corners and cut the grapesickle card stock.  Next I put some contrast to this with a piece of grape jelly cardstock cut to 4.25 x 5.5 inches.  I rounded the corners with a scalloped scissors to match the die shape of the inner panels.  Blue Prints six was pulled out to create the tag that I stamped with a sentiment from the Wildflowers set.  I took the leaves from one of the smaller flowers and pressed it into a Versamark pad to add a little something to the sentiment tag after embossing it with the silver embossing powder.  Using some ribbon from my stash i crsiss crossed and popped the sentiment over it.  It still looked a bit bare and I pulled out some silver pearls to finish it off.  Thanks MFT for the challenging me to design my own special card. 

MFT Contest

what fun this was to create this sweet fall card.  My Favorite Things is having a designer contest.  Check it out.  There’s $250 for each of ten people to win.  That’s a lot of MFT goodness.  Let me list all the products I used on here.  I started with cutting the card base panel from blue prints five with the rounded corners out of MFT Persimmon.  Isnt’ that a gorgeous orange?  For the next layer Whipped Cream MFT cardstock was used to capture the sun.  To color the sun I pulled out MFT sun rays stencil and used distress inks to very lightly make the rays and a bit darker for the sun.  Using MFT designer paper from the Fun and Frolic pack I cut a curved edge with my MFT pierced curved die.  But oh, oops the piercing was on the wrong side of the cut i wanted to use.  No problem.  Line up the die on top of the curve and emboss it through the Big Shot.  OOO…I like that look.  Next I die cut all the little mice from MFT BB Harvest Mouse  and then stamped them to see which ones i wanted to use.  It is so fun to color these little guys.  I die cut a pierced banner from MFT Field Green card stock with  MFT pierced fish tail dies.  I decided not to use the fishtail part and hid it under the hill.  Before adhering it I wanted to give it a bit of interest and used MFT swiss dots stencil and ran the banner through the big shot for a subtle pattern.  I colored all my images with Staedler water color pencils and used a blender pen to move the color around.  I popped up the little guy in the leaf pile and used adhesive spray for the other two.  Isn’t he cute looking like he’s going up the hill hauling that pumpkin and wondering why the other guy is playing in the leaves???  I added some crystal effects to the berries and wink of stella to the pumpkin.  Lastly I performed stamp surgery and spread the sentiment from MFT BB Harvest Mouse set to line up better with the layout I chose. I used MFT Paver Red Premium Dye Inkpad.  I had so much fun creating this little scene.  Thanks MFT for a chance to win such a generous prize.

drop in dies (702-703)

-Those drop in dies make CAS cards so easy.  Check out this frame with attached greeting cut out.  How simple was this.   Minutes!!  I want to make cards to give as sets of ten to be auctioned off at our family reunion next August.  This type of card would fill that order quickly and still be WoW!

Sizzix drop in dies video click HERE

hearts and flowers Stamp 702

ooo-ooo—some new dies came in the mail.  These are called drop in dies from Sizzix.  they have all kinds of cool things you can do with them.  Like this.  Lay the die on your open card stock and it cuts all these hearts with a frame around them.  add some designer paper behind and you have a great eye catcher.  To add some wow factor i water colored this flower from SU.  I sprayed my water color paper with water and then inked up my stamp in two colors and pressed and held it onto the dampened card stock.  For interest i turned the flower over and used a stylus to create some ridges for petals.  I carefully split the sentiment to stamp onto the hearts.  The little picture is what the inside looks like.  The washi tape came about, cuz you know, sometimes you get ink where you shouldn’t.  I was glad that happened because it looked pretty plain with that big old U on all that white.

hey foxy (stamps 700 & 701)

it’s probably been two years already that i ordered the autumn kit from Gina K Designs.  I’ve barely used it but i do love it.  I’ve used mr. fox before but he’s so cute i just had to pull him out again. 

I bought these “cover ups” in a variety pack from Michaels and this was the thought i had with how i would use them.  I love how it turned out.  it is a layer but doesn’t have such stark layering look after i used distress ink on it.  It was the perfect back ground for my fox and the sweet tree.

Embossed Vellum

Another super simple creation.  Princess Judy has sent me lots of various goodies in a couple of different giftings.  I don’t always remember to use things peeps give me because, you know, if you don’t purchase it you kind of forget you have it.  But THIS, THIS beautiful embossed vellum, I kept out in the open as i knew I wanted to use it but the big question was HOW?  I picked up a piece of green cardstock that was perfect to layer behind the vellum and really let the butterfly design show.  I had tried other colors before but none of them really worked like i wanted them to.  The “green” is the same green that the sentiment is stamped on.  That piece of satin ribbon with the vellum just upped the elegance of this card.  Thanks again Princess J. for thinking of me.

Stencil fun

This was such a simple card to make.  I used a Dream Weaver metal stencil and ran it through my big shot with 110 lb. card stock.  I took spong daubers and leaving the die in place i daubed ink into the various areas.  added a bit of gray to the trees and that was it.  I used a marker to put a green border around the white to set it off against the orange.  It was the perfect sympathy card for the family of a woodsman that recently passed. 

 

 

This next one is the same technique.  I think I will get more use out of my metal dies this way.  I do want to get some embossing paste out though and play with the drawer full of metal stencils that i have.  Be on the look out for those.

 

Really??? I made a winter card?? in the early fall??  I don’t know what this tri-fold die wouldn’t get out of my mind so i went ahead and pulled it out and laid that thought to rest.  I used pre-embossed card stock and the patterened paper i used was actually flowers but cleverly cut to look like snowflake beams.  proud of myself for using three pattern papers again. 

Thanks for stopping by again and i do enjoy all your encouraging comments.  mwhuaaaa!! 

Babies Babies

thought it would be fun to make a couple of baby cards.  i posted them on FB and boom, they were snatched up before the post finished posting.   So that was fun. 

Simply Striped

simple way to use up a bit of pattern paper.  one of the tips i learned was with striped papers you can just pick the colors out of the paper stripe and it just makes matching the coloring part easy.   I think this little guy is so cute and so lucky.  I never even bought a fishing license this year and there’s not too many days left for  fishing.  The evenings are shorter way too soon.  Simon’s Anything Goes Wednesday.

what a surprise

i just started playing with stencils and new die cuts and this beautiful piece emerged.  I want to thank my friend Princess Judy for the large chameleon die.  Ha Ha, when i opened that gift of dies from her I thought, whatever am I going to do with these large lizards.  I was a bit apprehensive back then.  I love how this came together and Mr. Lizard was the prefect finishing touch.  The bricks are the negative spaces of the new Tim Holtz corner dies.  It was just so fun to put this together without having a clue what i was doing.  The sentiment was hiding in a very old Mark’s Finest Papers set.  Perfect!  Entering into Simon’s Anything Goes Wednesday.

new names

Reinventing things…yep, old techniques come back if you have been in the stamping world as long as i have.  What used to be called “Two Step Stamping” is now called color layering.  ha ha  for some reason that just tickles my funny bone.  Here’s my card with this new technique with some very old stampin up two step stamps.  bwhhhaaa.   This looks like a good card to enter into Word Art Wednesday.  I’m glad i had the inspiration for those little sentiment banners as it finishes the card off nicely don’t you think?   I did go in and add another orange flower on the left to balance off that white space.  Simon Says Wednesday is having an Anything Goes challenge this week.  I will enter this there.