#495 Judith

I love my Judith stamps but for some reason I find it difficult to use them as cute as they are.  I have made a promise to myself to start using them and see what I can create.  This seemed the perfect image to go with the MFT Sketch Challenge #235 and also I deliberately used the dotted back ground to add to my entries to Simons Dotty Challenge.

I have made this as a thank you card to dear friend Heidi for gifting me with all those stamps and supplies.   I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder, and dies from MFT and Simon.  Also used an embossing folder on the dotted paper.

Technorati Tags: Heidi,Thank You

Gifts galore

Isn’t it special  when someone just goes out of their way for you.   My friend Heidi went rummaging last week and  came upon these stamps.  She left the rummage without purchasing them and then after a bit she told her husband;  What was I thinking, I bet Janeen would love some of those stamps.  She had him go back to the rummage and she picked out all these things for me and brought them to me the other day. 

We had a beautiful lunch together and I was so excited to received this gift. And now, if anyone needs or wants a brayer please reply below and I will send one to you because I now have four brayers.  First one to respond to me via e-mail at janeenkay@gmail.com  with your address will be the lucky recipient. 

It was so fun to receive these that I had to quick make a card with my favorite one, which is this large sentiment stamp that I know I will get tons of use from.

 

Once again there are dots in the centers of the flowers and I will enter this into Simons Going Dotty Challenge.  The embossing is a new to me Spellbinders folder that is reversible.  I love the deep impressions these folders give.  I used just a touch of sponging on the flowers and colored the dots in the  middles with a Spica pen for a tiny bit of shine.

Flourishes #494–water colored

Lots of fussy cutting to this flower even thought it looks simple.  It’s a new Flourishes stamp I purchased and I was wanting to get ink on it.  I used distress markers and blended them on my kraft mat to get the color that I wanted and after gluing it onto it’s background of Simon Says dies, I went in with a SU marker and added more shadows.  because there are dots in the embossed background and a few on the flower petals and the brad is a DOT also, right?  I am entering this into Simon’s Wednesday Challenge Going Dotty.

Technorati Tags: Sympathy,Flourishes

Stamp #493 NBUS

This card was a long time in the making.  I started it on June 17th and life has been a whirlwind since then.  Whew, you never know what kind of things life is going to throw at you.  Anyway, it was good to sit down and finish this and it was therapeutic to think of others.  There truly is a lot of Joy in the world but there is a saying that we wouldn’t know Joy if we didn’t know sorrow.  At this time a dear friend has lost her eldest daughter age 53 to brain cancer.  She did have seven good months after her diagnosis and she slipped quietly away with no pain but my heart aches for her and her family and all those left behind.  Such a beautiful life.  We will miss you, Lynnae and because your life brought others so much Joy we truly feel sorrow. 

entering this into Simon’s Dotty challenge b/c of the dots down the side.  The water can die is a Memory Box die, the heart is from Whimsy, the stitched circle opening is Simon Says, the flower border is marker colored onto a Flourishes Easter stamp.

forgotten photo stamp#492

this turned out just as I envisioned.  I have several of these old SU tag stamps that I picked up at a rummage and they have mostly not been used at all.  This tag and embossing folder just looked like they belonged together.  I used a Simon Says die sentiment and loved how this turned out.  I sponged the edges very lightly with some distress inks.  --oops, the reason I said it’s forgotten photo is because I forgot to take a photo of it before I dressed it up in it’s acrylic sleeve.  since it was part of an outgoing order I just snapped it inside the sleeve with it’s envelope behind it.

Using the Misti Stamps #488-489-490-491

Close to My Heart stamps that were a find a year or so ago at Good Will.  I decided to try doing the two step stamp process with my new MISTI tool.  I don’t have many two step stamps in clear, most of them are wood and that doesn’t work to well with the MISTI.  But this came together nicely and it was so much fun to make the set.

ahhhhh

Expressive!! That’s what this is.  With bold colors toned down a bit with water color over lays, a sweet curve from Spell Binder’s die and that gorgeous hand made look paper from Michael’s, well, I just was so pleased with the end result, I just had to say right out loud….AHHHHHH.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope this beauty gives you the same peaceful feeling I received.  I stamped the happy birthday on the ribbon and on the tag. 

Technorati Tags: Stencils,Crafters Work Shop,Birthday,Water Colors

Masculine Card and Stampendous #485

uhhhhmmm…I went to Michaels to get a pack of white card stock.  $120 later I came out.  Everything was on sale.  I had to do it.  These beautiful stamps from Stampendous 40% off…how can a girl walk past them?

The background layer that is striped is something I did with translucent embossing paste and just added a bit of distress ink to the mix before spreading it on.  I had this scrap of peeled paint paper that I just felt this would look good with.  Stamped in Memento Faded Dusk ink it just turned out way better than I had anticipated.  I needed a masculine card to fill an order and I think this would work, don’t you?  It could go either way.  I am happy happy happy with this serene look.

How can it be the middle of June?

It’s supposed to be warm enough for ice cream.  The calendar says it’s June 15th but brrrr we haven’t had too many ice cream days yet.  So this one is less calories anyway that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.  The new sentiment dies from Simon Says were a gift to me from friend Angie and I couldn’t wait to see what my first card would be.  I love those hand writing script dies.  Especially Kristina Werner’s.  Try not to lose those little dots for the “I’s” though, that was the tough part. 

I used some white embossing paste that I tinted with a bit of a distress marker peacock blue color before applying it.  Those pastes sure are fun to play with.

Bun-Bun is from The Cat’s Pajamas. I just love his big ears.

brrrrr and Stamps #483 & 484

It’s raining (again) and cold and damp.  I was glad I got my walk in this morning.  Go ME….I am back up to walking four miles a day.  I wondered if I would ever be able to do that again…but anyway it’s raining now and no walking in the rain.  It was a good day to stamp and finish up several cards that just needed a tweak here and there.  I saw this on Laura’s blog and just knew I wanted to try it.  She used a die and must have sponged in her color, she didn’t say the technique she used but that’s what it looks like to my eye.  I used water color.  It was a challenge but fun to do. Maybe next time it will be a little bit neater but hey’; it IS water color after all, it’s supposed to be a bit soft around the edges.  I appreciate Laura’s inspiration.  Using OLD SU stamps (of course) all my SU stamps are old.    Michaels water color paper and distress markers.  I softly stamped each balloon in a very pale coordinating color and then outlined them with my distress markers and pulled the ink in.  The sentiment is from MFT and I stacked it three times.  I love how this turned out.  So fun to play and see things come to life.  Have yourself a fun day.   If you can, make it a stamping day.

And a couple of “remembered” grads. oops!

when you’re rollin’ you just keep on rollin’

And sometimes when something works ya gotta just run with it.   Showing the dimension of the sentiment.  I die cut it four times and glued them on top of each other.  Perfect for this embossing folder.

making duplicates

I posted a similar card as a sympathy card last week.  I liked it so much I thought it would make a good birthday card also.  besides, I wanted to finish up that scrap of burlap DP……did you ever do that?  I decided to enter this into Simon’s Monday challenge, Plants!

MFT Sketch

This cool card came about just because I wanted to use up that scrap of magenta card stock I had and I wanted to use this MFT Sketch this week.  it was the perfect size to cut out these Sizzix sentiment dies.  I used an arrow from a Tim Holtz BIG die that I found marked down at Michaels.  Too good a deal to pass it up.  it has several arrows of all shapes on it.  I used my little splatter stamps that are a hundred years old, at least, from SU.  Here’s the inside of the card where I used the MFT Accent It word die. I loved how quickly this came together.  Sometimes it happens.

Stamp #483 Flourishes

It was so much fun to try these two new techniques.  I have been seeing the “smooshing” technique where you use several colors of ink, moisten them and then apply to an acrylic block or sheet and smoosh it down onto your cardstock.

When Simon Says posted Work It Wednesday post of Rainbows I knew I wanted to try this technique.  I’ve also seen a couple of videos of using rubber cement, as the mask, recently and wanted to try that.  I had to sign my life away to purchase the $1.89 bottle of rubber cement.  LOL  Seriously, I had to show my drivers license at Target to purchase it. 

What I did.  I used my MISTI to line up the stamps from FLOURISHES.  I inked up with Ranger Archival ink and then colored in with Distress markers and shadowed in with a water brush.  Next step, DRY IT with my heat tool.  I then covered over the rose image with rubber cement using a paint brush.  DRY IT again.  Next I took mini ranger distress ink pads and smeared the colors I wanted in a rainbow pattern on my craft mat but left a little space between so they wouldn’t get muddied when I sprayed them.  Using a fine spray mist I misted the colors I had laid down.  Then took my acrylic block and smooshed it over the wet inks and pushed it down onto my water color paper.  Oh yes, I first sprayed my paper with a bit of a light mist.  after drying it once again, I simply rubbed off the rubber cement.  Look at the soft outline around the flower from the wet inks.  Isn’t it pretty?  I will do both these techniques again.

Vivid color fun with dies

Using the MFT BlluePrints Dies #3 I CASED this card from my friend Angela.  This  the link to her gallery on Split Coast Stampers.   I used the angled die as an embossed element instead of cutting out a piece and laying it on the back ground.  It was simple and fun to make with all the bright colors.  The small picture is the card I cased.

Expressing Sympathy

I’ve never really gotten into tags so much but for some reason this just appealed to me to use a tag on this card.  I was so pleased with how it turned out.  The BG sentiment piece is a piece of designer paper from a scrap.  It was perfect for this card. Usually I stamp this silhouette in a dark color but I recently saw silhouettes stamped in other colors and I was so…Why didn’t I think of that?!!!   Thanks to my friend Angie from I’d rather be Stamping and a card that she sent to me, I used the teeniest dots of Viva pearl pen in Kiwi Green.  It needed “something” across the bottom and ribbon didn’t work.  that is when the twine and the bow came together.  Thanks for dropping in.  I am entering this into Simon Says Wednesday challenge, Anything Goes.

Sympathy Cards

I made several similar sympathy cards this week.  I use more sympathy cards than any other type.  I need to get ahead on these.  These use the Stampin' Up Wheel, remember those things.  I hardly ever use it but this is one that i do grab quite often.

"The inside sentiment says:  The tide recedes but leaves behind bright seashells in the sand.  The sun goes down, but gentle warmth still lingers on the land, The music stops and yet it echos on in sweet refrains...For every joy that passes, something beautiful remains."
It's such a beautiful verse that this becomes one of my go to sympathy cards to make.

 I will enter this into Simon Says Anything Goes Wednesday Challenge.  Entry #4

 4

Monkeying Around with Stampendous Stamp #478, 479, 480, 481, 482

Aren't they cute?  These stampendous monkeys.  I know they have a name but i can't think of it right now.  Starts with a C....:D    Picked these up at a really good sale and just couldn't resist their fun little faces.  I think I'll use this a lot.  I will enter this into Simon's Wednesday Challenge for Anything Goes.  I always felt kind of funny entering more than one entry into one challenge but Simon's crew assured me that they say FIVE entries and not to be embarrassed.  So here goes!  :D

Fun Stencil Card

This was really a fun card to make. When Simon told us last week to use stencils I had pulled this one out and never finished the card.  I sprayed over the stencil with my home made glitter spray and then added the leaf stamp from one of my Stampendous stamps.  Twisted the ribbon and added a fabric flower and it was really a simple card to make.  I am entering this into Simon's Challenge this week for Anything Goes.