Tag: cardmaking

Sunflower Sunshine Card!

Hi there friends! Whatcha up to this weekend? Did you get crafty? I hope your weekend was marvelous! I'm in the craft room this afternoon with my sidekick Mr. Buddy and I just finished a card I started yesterday. I have to tell you that I had THE BEST day yesterday!! I have been working lots of extra hours at work and feeling sorta burned out…. Yesterday I spent all day gettin' my craft on with a wonderful bunch of ladies. My friend Sharon hosts a scrapbooking day once a month – in her work conference room! Everyone gets two giant tables, and we had snacks and pizza and music and tons of natural light. My friend Caroline is Sharon's sister and she met me there and we just talked and relaxed all day. It truly did my soul good. I felt refreshed and calm afterwards. Just truly what the doctor ordered.

I worked on some more watercolor cards yesterday (I'll share those soon) and then I did some Copic coloring. Coloring relaxes me – does it do that for you too? I brought all 300 of my Copic Markers to the site so I could color whatever I wanted. Well, this adorable stamp set just came in my mailbox this week and I decided to color it. The set is from My Favorite Things and is called Sunflower Sweetheart! She is so cute!!

The stamp set has matching dies! NO, I did NOT cut all these pieces out by hand! LOL. Those birdies are soooooo cute!!!

You can see a tiny peek into the inside of my card…. I put another sunflower in there! The layers on the front of my card were made with the GENIUS die set from Mama Elephant – called Femme Frames! OMG where has that been all my life?? Seriously. You can see I popped up certain pieces with foam tape…

I started by coloring her dress, using four shades or true blue. I made pleats by adding darker blue lines going up the length of the dress with a darker shade. You really should try this – it's easy!! But the look is dramatic. Love.

Next I colored her face and cheeks using the shades int he photo…. I added some tiny dots with my white gel pen to her cheeks.

Next I colored her straw hat using several shades of brown and yellow. I made faint hash marks using a brown marker… Also, I wanted the top of her dress to be white… So I added very faint light grey lines to show shadows and to make the eye think "oh that's white." It's a little trick.

Sorry this photo is wonky… You can see here I've colored her hair and the flower…

Here are all my pieces ready for assembly. I cut a gingham rolling hill using a scene builder die from Taylored Expressions. Perfect. You can also see the Femme Frames layers here. The white layers onto the green, and then onto an A2 card. By keeping the color families the same on all my pieces it gives a very cohesive look to the finishes card. The birds are the same color as her dress, and the brown in her hair matches the fence. I have found that if you get too many color families going on it doesn't look as nice.

Sending YOU Sunshine!! XOXO

Now as if yesterday couldn't have been any better…. On the way home from the scrapbook day I stopped at the Outlet Mall nearby and found a KATE SPADE OUTLET!!! OMG. I thought I died and that this is what heaven looks like. Since it was their grand opening weekend everything was 40% off and then 20% more off! Wha WHAT???? Excuse me???? Um, so I had to buy these three things. Just had to. I got a new aqua wallet, that gorgeous bag and also a fun clutch! Me likey.

OFFWEGO!!!

Hope to see you very soon my friends!

Have a great week!! XOXO

June 15, 2014
Market Street Collection – I’m in love!

Howdy crafty friends! I am renewed with creative energy after spending the entire day in the crafty cave! The perfect way to end a really nice weekend. It's 105 degrees out today, so you bet your bippy I am NOT going outside! Got the AC on, and a nice big glass of water, and some new craft supplies! I finally took watched some of the videos for the Watercolor for Cardmakers class, and I made two watercolor cards that I'll share later. The main thing I played with today was the new Market Street Collection from My Mind's Eye. That is one of my all time favorite companies, and this new stuff is AH-MA-ZING! Yowza. LOVE. I'm glad I bought it! It's not my 'usual' color palette but I just was drawn to it and had a blast.

Here is a shot of the two cards I made. NO stamping on these! Just die cuts, embellishments and paper…oh….and enamel dots. NEVER forget the enamel dots. :-)

The peonies that hubs bought me on Wednesday are SO GORGEOUS!!! They are so full and fluffy! I thought it would be fun to use them as an accent for my photos today.

Here is the first card I made – with the Ashbury Heights Collection. I adore the flair buttons in the brushed gold color…especially with pink! MMMMMMM. I cut out some butterflies with an old Martha Stewart punch (doesn't everyone have this punch?) and cut a black oval out too. I just really had fun combining patterned papers. It's so vintage feeling…

I think this would make a perfect 'encouragement' card and I'll save it in my stash for the right occasion. The artwork on this paper blows me away. Do you see that the enamel dots in the center of the butterflies ARE GOLD!!!!!

The second card was made with the Nob Hill Collection! The big butterfly is the new one from Papertrey Ink. It's a great size! For this card, I distressed all my paper edges to make it shabby chic. Added just a touch of washi tape and layered patterns. Something cool about black with all that color.

SHINE!!!!

I gently curved the banners and the butterfly wings with my fingers to give the card some more depth and 'movement.'

Best messages: Shine and Be Happy!

Have a great week my sweet bloggy friends! What is going on in your craft room right now? I hope you are enjoying the Summer time and having fun. Talk to you soon! XOXO

June 8, 2014
Lazy Sunday Crafting….

Hi there! I was lucky enough to have some quality time in the craft room on this lazy Sunday afternoon. I didn't have a plan, nothing in mind that I wanted to make… Got out some watercolor paper…and a new die….and then some ink pads… And before you know it, I had every single Tim Holtz papercrafting item on my desk! LOL. I whipped up quite a frenzy in here! I love those kind of days! I love it when things just happen and I lose myself in the creative process. It rejuvenates me!

I'm entering this card into Linda's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge #3! (CLICK HERE) She is making challenges each week based on Tim Holtz's book – very cool.

So here's what I came up with:

All my supplies are from Tim Holtz (except the yellow polka dot paper, which is from Websters Pages). I used only Distress Inks for my stamping and coloring. The center panel is a 4×5 sheet of watercolor paper and my finished card is a 5 1/2 inch square!

Oops! I forgot the butterfly – that is a Martha Stewart punch! I punched it out of watercolor paper also, and then used Distress Inks and Distress Glitters on it. Ya know, made it kinda shabby chic.

One of my favorite shabby chic tricks is to curl the edges of my paper up. Makes it look worn and cool. My center panel is mounted on foam tape.

I tried out a new technique today and I really like it! First I took these three colors of Distress Inks and sponged around the edges of my paper with a sponge dauber. Was really messy with it. Then I spritzed water over the entire paper and let it kind of run together. Then I dried it with my heat tool and this is what it looks like!

It is sort of hard to photograph!

Next I used the Corduroy Ink pad to stamp this neat saying on my paper. After that I used some water and more distress inks and flicked spots all over the page!

Here is the die that I used to make my yellow rose! Yep, it's a pinecone! LOL.

I cut the pinecone rose out of watercolor paper using my Vagabond and then put the yellow inks directly onto the die cut piece. After I got all the yellow ink on there, I spread it around with a wet paint brush. Later I went back and added some Marmalade Distress Ink around the edges.

After the color was dry, I rolled the rose starting from the outer piece until it formed the flower. Then I glued it together using Glossy Accents. Once that was dry, I added a mixture of Clear Rock Candy and Mustard Seed Distress Glitters…. (Yeah, this card took all day!)

Here is a close up of the finished rose!

Here's a close up of the cool saying! Doesn't it look neat in the brown with the spots? It looks old and romantic to me. I couldn't resist adding a little gem heart with some twine.

Thank you very much for letting me share my process with you today! This card was really fun to make and I like how it came out! I think I'll throw it into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge too – for this week it's "Anything Goes!" Best wishes to you for a great week ahead! XOXO

June 1, 2014
Anchors Ahoy! It’s the first week of Summer!

Hi peeps! Today is my Friday since I am off work tomorrow! WAHOOOOOOO! What's better than a three day weekend? A three day work week! Yeah, this old girl has been working hard and tomorrow she is ready to party!!! The hubs and I are going to the Bottlerock Napa Music Festival and we are really excited. Do you have a 'concert bucket list?' I do! It's my list of bands that I really want to see in concert. One of those bands has eluded me for a long time, and guess what? They are playing tomorrow night… The Cure! (Yes, I'm a child of the 80's for sure) I'll be Instagramming from the festival tomorrow if you want to follow me!

I have some fun nautical cards to share with you today. This anchor card was inspired by a store window we passed by while shopping this winter. I snapped a quick pic with my iPhone to remind me of the idea and then just now finally sat down to make this card…

The anchor die is from Memory Box, and the beautiful stamp is from Waltzingmouse Stamps. Love the font combination. And, you can't go wrong with crisp white embossing…

Here is my iPhone pic. Sorry it's so bad. It was pouring rain and I was trying to juggle my purse and my umbrella along with my phone. You get the idea though….

I simply lined up all my pretty anchors in rows on some bright blue paper and that was it! Nice and easy card (well, after you cut out all those anchors).

Is anyone else as obsessed with nautical as I am??? Cannot get enough!!

This fun and happy card was up on the Taylored Expressions Blog this week! All the supplies are from TE and I LOOOOOOVE that whale! But you know what I love more? His teeny sailor hat!!!! Yes, that is a die that comes with the stamp set! OMG.

Okay my friends! Have an excellent day and an excellent weekend. Time to kick off Summer and have a good time! XOXO I would love to hear who is on your concert bucket list!

May 29, 2014
Botanical – gone wild!

Hello everyone! Nice to see you here with me today! Before I post anything else I just want to say a big giant thank you for all the love that has been coming my way! Thank you all for the nice comments here on my blog, on Facebook and on Instagram – regarding my entry for Gallery Idol. (see post below) Wow, I am so touched by how sweet everyone is. I think it was worth it to enter – just to read the nice things people said. Now I don't even care if I make it to the Top 20! (well, maybe I care a little LOL). Sincerely – THANK YOU! When people ask me why I craft and blog I always say – the people! We will know if we made it to the next round sometime on Friday. YAHOO! So many of my fun and talented blogger friends entered cards – the creativity blows my mind. Good luck everyone!

Today I'm sharing a POP of color and a pretty flower I made! One of the things I HAD TO HAVE from CHA was this gorgeous Brenda Walton (Sizzix) Camellia Die!!! OH. MY. WORD. Had to have it. I live in Sacramento and we are known as the Camellia City – and I have three giant Camellias in my front yard. Okay, I totally digressed right there with trivia. Well….the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week is BOTANICAL! Okay – right up my alley. I got my hands on this die and got inky!!

Here is my finished card and below are step by step photos:

POW!!! Did I not tell you it was a POP of color!!?? I adore this Raspberry Distress Ink. Yummmy. The Hello Die cut and the Sweet Friend sentiment are from WPLUS9. I stacked three green die cuts on top of each other to get the dimension off the page. (As if this card didn't have enough dimension)…

Here is a view from the top down. I made the flower first and then designed the card around it. I stamped the giant word stamp (Impression Obsession) in the matching Shabby Shutters green ink and then edged the paper in brown.

I thought this card needed a pearl, too. The card base is a 5×5 square….

Here are all of my die cut pieces – cut out from Watercolor Paper. This is how many pieces you need to make the flower as shown. Of course you can always add or subtract according to the look you want. I think in this form, they look like Dogwood blooms!

One of my favorite techniques – watercoloring with Distress Inks…. What a mess, but oh, so worth it. You can see I'm not super careful with this process – just have a good time!

While the petals are still wet, gently curve them up with the palm of your hand and let them dry like this.

OOOOOOOH. Pretty!

Glue it all together and this is what you get! Yay!

Um, I'm pretty sure this one won't fit in an envelope! I'll have to deliver this one in person! Have a very happy day and thank you again for being a part of my creative journey! XOXO

CLICK HERE TO ADD YOUR ENTRY TO THE CHALLENGE!

May 21, 2014
Seashells…

Hi crafty friends! I'm super excited to share my project with you this afternoon! I have been in the crafty cave creating a mess and having a good time! I am so inspired by the ocean lately! Today I'm showcasing some new stamps from Tim Holtz – stamps that I have been SO wanting ever since CHA back in January! Sketch images of sea life and sea shells! Can I get a woot woot!!?? So fabulous, really. I got out my new stamp sets and some watercolor paper, and ALLLLLL my distress inks… And this is what happened!

The #journey stamp is from a new Tim Holtz set called Hashtags! LOVE. I stamped all my images, including the sentiment, with dark brown Memento Ink. For the little banner, I hand cut it out, with a rough edge and watercolored it to match the rest of the card.

I found this cool new product at the most recent Rubber Stamp Convention….sand in a jar! I spread some around and let it dry at the bottom of the card. You might also be seeing a glimmer of "spun sugar" distress glitter! A pretty, soft pink. I put that on with my finger and swirled it around so it would be 'messy' like sand also.

Here is a side view so you can see how I layered my pieces. The sand dollar and sea horse are popped up with foam tape. Everything else is glued down with crystal effects.

Here is a close up of the sand….

I started this project by stamping everything on nice thick watercolor paper. Then I used a water brush and my Distress Ink pads to color all the images. After everything was dry, I hand cut out the smaller images.

Here is a shot of the sand container and the spun sugar glitter… yummy!

I like to call this "girly grunge" because I love the look of grunge but I loooooove color too! This is my take on combining the two styles. I probably used twenty colors of ink! I kept adding more and more and more! One trick with watercoloring – let it dry! Sometimes I will really not like how something looks, and then when it dries – I love it! Leave it alone for a minute and then come back to it.

Thank you for visiting my blog!
Best wishes for a happy week ahead!

April 27, 2014
Super Sized Hug!!

Hey!!! I'm here today to share a SUPER fun card with a SUPER sized hug! LOL! Last weekend I had time in the stamp room to sit and color and it was wonderful! I made this card to enter the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge CLICK HERE. I love it when the theme is "Anything Goes" and I got out all my Paper Smooches stamps to see what I wanted to make. Well, with the warmer weather, I thought picnic! I got out the "Think Fast" set and the "Alfreso" set and colored up some cute food!

I am loving this trend that I'm seeing on blogs and Pinterest – to set your top layer of your card at an angle – and decided to give that a try. Of course I chose some red and white gingham to go with my picnic theme. I kinda like it all together! Clean and Simple and FUN. My food images are mounted with foamt tape onto the card. If you look close, you can see that I added touches of glossy accents to parts of the images.

Um, yeah, I used a LOT of markers on these!! It is so therapeutic for me to sit and color and concentrate. I really love that.

SUPPLIES:

InLinkz.com

March 25, 2014