Chalk Popping Easter

Today's cards were made for the Oldies Challenge over at Artsy Inkers hosted by Stampwilly at Stampwilly Designs. 

I stamped the eggs (Studio G) with Versamark and added chalk. I used a Fiskar corner punch.  It is an embossing punch.  Depending on how much pressure you apply when you punch determines if it will emboss or not.  So for the shimmery paper mats, I pressed down extra hard to get the embossing. 

The band on the left side is one of my favorite ways to use ribbon.  You start by cutting a piece of paper to 1.5 by 4 inches.  Then you add pieces of ribbon on the diagonal until the piece of paper is covered.  I've used my tape gun in the past when making this, but this time, I used a red tape sheet.  So much easier.  This is a great way to use snippets of ribbon, but I did not use snippets of ribbon this time.  That's because I really loved the look of the March's Really Reasonable Ribbon Club pack.  So I used the ribbon from it.

When I got done assembling the cards, they needed something.  So I stamped the sentiment by My Favorite Things with Versamark and added chalk.

Here are some individual pictures so you can see more of the details.

 

 

I didn't realize until I was photoing the cards that I used the wrong punch for the mats for the pink egg.  Whoops.

 

 

I used snippets of white cardstock to create the ribbon band.  All of the black cardstock are snippets and the green and blue shimmer paper are snippets.

 

I am going to enter these cards:

 

Pixie's Snippets Playground Week 170 

 

Really Reasonable Ribbon Blog - Challenge #114 Bright Spring Colors (RRR114)

 

Thanks for stopping by and please come back again. 

Ribbit the Exhibit and Rudolph Days (Project 16)

Before I forget again.  I want to welcome Heidi as a follower.  She is one of my buddies over at Artsy Inkers and has a great little blog - My Little Stamping Blog.
 
So today I went with my parents to Ribbit the Exhibit at Leu Gardens.  It is a traveling exhibit of frog sculptures by J.A. Cobb and it was fabulous.  And the weather was absolutely lovely for wandering around the gardens.  I figured I would share photos of some of my favorite frogs:
 
I'll start with Clyde the Greeter, who ironically was located at the furthest point from the entrance to the garden. 

 

 

I can't decide if Bentley and Tortuga the Tortoise or Eduardo the Tree Frog is my favorite:

 

Aptly, they had Freddie the Butterfly Frog in the butterfly garden and I managed to get a photo of a monarch.

I love that the trombone player is tapping his foot and snapping his fingers in the Jazz Trio.

I've got to include Diana the Huntress since my grandmother was named Diana.

And here is me with Emerson the Sitting Frog.

And finally a moment of Zen with Zenny the Frog.

And I figured I should share a picture of the real frog we spotted in the little pond in the arid garden.  I have no idea why the arid garden has a little pond but it was full of tadpoles and this guy.

Now on to the card.  I made this card for March's Rudolph Days over on Scraps of Life by Scrappymo! 

The starting point was actually the March Christmas All Year prompt over at Artsy Inkers.  This month's prompt was to use the letterpress technique.   So I inked up the Darice embossing folder with silver ColorBox pigment ink.  And debossed the blue paper.  I think you can see the debossing a bit better in this close-up.

The image is by Lilly of the Valley and it is NBUS (never before used schtuff) since I bought it after Christmas last year.  So I'm going to enter this in Darnell's NBUS challenge.  The ribbon is also NBUS.  I actually layered two ribbons - the silver and a blue ribbon from December's Really Reasonable Ribbon Club, which had not even been opened yet.  I stamped the image on a snippet created when I used a Spellbinder die to cut a frame for another project and had the shape left over.  It was colored with Twinkle H2O watercolors and I added some Stickles to the bottom for the snow. 

So I'm entering this in:

March's Rudolph Days

Darnell's NBUS challenge




Pixie's Snippets Playground Week 170 

It's been a while since I've played over at pixie's snippet playground and it will be my first time joining in Rudolph Days and NBUS. 

Thanks for stopping by and please come again.

 

 



Swinging Tire Swing (Project 15)

I interrupting my Winterfest recap to post an Easter Card.  Mainly because I used my March received kit and I want to be able to link up to the detailed directions here when I post the card over at Artsy Inkers.  Don't worry, I share the rest of the new techniques I picked up during Winterfest in the next couple of post.  And before I start with today's project, I want to put in another plug for Artsy Inkers, Jan/ Far North (here's her blog Far North Designs) is hosting a 3 week Alcohol Inks technique challenge at Artsy Inkers.  We just started week 2 and I've learned a ton. 

Now on to the card.  When I got the kit from my swap partner and saw the tree image with the tire swing, I knew I wanted to make the swing move.

 

What I ended up doing is a variation on a spinner card.  But instead of creating a channel across the card, you just make a slightly larger hole.  Don't worry.  I'll explain.

 

First, you will need a round pop dot and 2 pennies to do this. 

 

Step 1

I colored the background with Distress Inks.  I used Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass for the sky and Mowed Lawn for the grass.

 

In this picture, you can see where I traced the pop dot on the paper.  I had also traced the tree so I would know where my hole was going to go.  You can see in the picture that I started cutting out the circle by cutting a line down the middle.  I wish I had a circle die that was the right size, but the smallest circle die I have cuts a whole bigger than the penny, which won't work.

Step 2

Make sure the hole is a bit bigger than the pop dot, but not bigger than a penny.

See, the pop dot fits in the hole. 

Step 3

Attach a penny to either side of the pop dot. 

You can kinda see the penny through the whole in this one.

And here is a side view once both pennies are attached.  I actually had to pull on of the pennies off and make the hole a little bigger because it wasn't rocking well enough.


Step 4

Attached the piece you want to swing to the penny.

Step 5

Use pop dots or foam squares to attach the image that is going to hide you rocking mechanism.  I actually cut pieces from the pop dot sheet.  You know the pieces left behind when you remove the pop dot from the sheet.  Oh, and before I added the tree, I stenciled some clouds.  I made the stencil using a Purple Onion Design stamp (it is actually a speech bubble) and dabbed on Hero Art's Unicorn white.

Actually, I may have done the stenciling after attaching the tree.  I also added the squirrel to the tire.

And I decided that the tire was too high up.  So I pulled it off the penny and added an extension to the "rope."  The added bit of paper is a bit messy but I suspect that I'm the only one who will notice.

I also die cut grass, which I colored with Distress Ink in Mowed Lawn and Pine Needles.  I wet the paper well and added some salt for even more texture. The die is by My Favorite Things.  I kinda wish I had put the layer closest to the tree on before the tree and done it flush to the page.  Oh well. I also added the second squirrel and the Easter basket.  The basket is a Studio G stamp.  I colored it with Spica glitter pens and Copic markers and added Distress Ink in the sky colors so I wouldn't have to fussy cut the inside area of the basket.  You can see in the last photo that the tire swing is in a different position than in the first picture.  If you shake the card, the tire swing moves back and forth.

I actually had to trim the grass under the swing because it was too high.  The tree, squirrels and acorns were from my received kit, are Fawn Lawn stamps and were colored with Copics.  And they were fussy cut.  Those squirrels and acorns were a pain.

The kit also included another of the trees and some bunnies, so I think I will be making another swinging tire swing card with bunnies.

I am going to enter this over at the Mixed Media Challenge.



Thanks for stopping by and please come again.

 

 

 

 



Winterfest Part 2 (Projects 11-14)

Here is the next of the new techniques I picked up during Winterfest - faux patina.  To make things simple, I copied the directions posted by Heidi.  You should check out her blog.
Here's what you do:
1) Emboss your piece of cardstock with any embossing folder you wish.
2) Sponge on at least 2 different ink colors, starting from light and going to dark.  At this point, you will probably want to set the piece aside to dry completely, or dry with a heat gun.
3) Lightly press the Versamark ink pad on the panel, mostly focusing on the embossed (raised) portions.  Add your metallic embossing powder.  You may want to brush away embossing powder if you want there to be less metallic portions. 
4) Heat emboss the panel. 

Here is the first project I made.  I used DI in Tumbled Glass, Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire. The embossing folder is by Darice. When I added the silver embossing powdered, the whole piece was covered and I had to go back and brush it off or I would have had a solid silver piece.

 
 I combined this piece with another challenge to create a birthday card for my dad.  For the second challenge, you were supposed to create a piece that was your impression of a photo posted by the challenge host.  The photo was of a train crossing a tranquil lake on an arch bridge with snow covered trees in the background.

When I saw the picture, I knew I wanted to use this train stamp by Stampendous. It is actually a Christmas postcard stamp. But I knew it would be perfect because the train is in an oval, and the arch of the bridge in the picture with it's reflection created an oval. So I wanted to use an oval on the card. I used the bottle cap embellishment to cover the bit of holly from the stamp that overlapped the oval. The stamped sentiment actually has a flower at the center but since this is going to be a birthday card for my dad, I covered it with a button. I covered the sentiment with glossy accents and used that to attach the button. I colored the twine with silver ink.

For the second piece, I used DI in Shaded Lilac and Dusty Concord. The embossing folder is by Darice and I used a metallic green embossing powder, which you can't really tell from this photo. This was the third Darice folder I used, and I used my brayer to added the Versamark because,  the Darice folders don't emboss very deeply and swiping the pad on the piece got too much ink on the piece.

You can see the green embossing powder better in this picture. The butterfly is by Inkadinakdo and the sentiment is by Stampendous.

For the third piece, I used Distress Ink in Barn Door, Spiced Marmalde, and Mustard Seed. The embossing folder is by Cuttlebug. I used a bronze embossing powder. 

The stamps are by Stampendous. I colored the shoe with metallic watercolor paints. I added copper embossing powder to the edge of the circle.  I originally fussy cut the shoe and was going to add it like that but it kinda blended into the background.  So I stamped the square with the little gears to help it stand out.

 

I created two more backgrounds with this technique, but I haven't turned them into cards yet.


For the first one, I colored the base with Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean. The embossing folder is by Darice. I used a metallic blue embossing powder.

I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with it.  I may just add a sentiment and leave it mostly as is.

For the last one, I used Distress Inks in Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans and Tumbled Glass for the base. The embossing folder is by Darice. This is another one that I had to clean off some of the powder before heating. I used a silver embossing powder.

This one is eventually going to be a Christmas card.

I'm going to share one more technique I picked up during Winterfest.  For this technique, you take a background created using alcohol inks, embossing it with an embossing folder and the brayer white paint over the piece.

I created the base with alcohol inks in Purple Twilight, Eggplant, and Cool Peri, and I added some Silver Mixative. I embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I had a bit of a problem when I added the white paint. I got too much on it and so I wiped off all the paint and did it again. But when I did that, I removed the glossy finish on the cardstock.

The image is by Inkadinkado. I stamped it with Dusty Concord Distress Ink. Then I rubbed some silver Gelato over it. I fussy cut the bird. But I didn't like how it looked, so I mounted it on silver cardstock. I used a Fiskar corner punch on the corners.

 The flowers were created with air dry clay and colored with Distress Ink in Dusty Concord and Shaded Lilac. I added some Wink of Stella to add some sparkle.

 

Thanks for stopping by and please come again.

 

Winterfest Part 1 (Projects 8-10)

In my last post, I mentioned that Artsy Inkers was gearing up for a stamping party.  But alas, if you did not sign up, you missed out on Winterfest 2015.  Even though there isn’t a party currently going on, you can still join the message board and participate in challenges and stamp related discussions.  And then you will already be a member when our next party comes along (tentatively scheduled for the beginning of June).

I had a blast during Winterfest and learned 5 new techniques.  Well, technically, they are new to me techniques.  So for the next couple of blog posts, I will share what I learned and the projects I created with the new techniques.

So the first one is watercolor dry embossing.  There is a step-by-step tutorial on splitcoast stampers.   But here is the gist.  Emboss a piece of watercolor paper with an embossing folder, preferably one with a lot of debossed space.  Use a brayer to apply Versamark to the raised portions and heat emboss with clear embossing powder.  Now you are set to watercolor.

Here is the first background I created. I used an embossing folder by Darice and colored the image with Distress Inks in Spun Sugar, Dried Marigold, Picked Raspberry, Squeezed Lemonade and Ripe Persimmon.

 

 

To make the finished card, I trimmed the piece down and mounted on green cardstock.  The ribbon was originally cream but I dyed it with Shabby Shutters.  The flower was created for another challenge.  For that challenge, we had to create a flower using three layers of punched pieces, but the punch did not have to be a flower punch.  I used a butterfly punch.  I punched a dozen butterflies and colored them with Distress Ink with Picked Raspberries, Squeezed Lemonade, and Ripe Persimmon. I used a 3D glue dot to create the flower. I colored a pearl with a Copic marker for the center.   That is my money saving tip – don’t buy pearls and gems in a bunch of colors, just buy white and clear and color them with a permanent marker.  I have a set of Bic markers for color gems and Copics work too.  On the little tag, I used a sentiment stamp by Inkadinkado and a butterfly by EK Success.

 

 

 

For the next one, I used a background embossing folder by Cuttlebug. I colored it with DI in Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door, Fired Brick and Mustard Seed (another favorite color combo). The tree stamp is by Recollection. The shadow effect on the tree was a happy accident - the middle of the tree didn't stamp so I restamped but didn't have it lined up quite right. The flowers are a Cheery Lynn die and colored with DI. The ribbon is seam binding that I dyed with DI. And of course, the pearls were colored with Bic markers.  I forgot to take a picture of the background before I finished the card.    

For the final piece, I used an embossing folder by Darice. I colored the birds with Distress Ink in Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Peacock Feather, Dusty Concord and Shaded Lilac. I used Shabby Shutters for the background. To finish the card off, I added the branch and bird made from air dry clay and a cake decorating mold.   Don’t worry, I bought the mold for using with air dry clay and it will not be used in the kitchen.  I colored them with Distress Ink in Peacock Feather, Shaded Lilac, Mustard Seed, Black Soot and Vintage Photo.  Again, I forgot to take a picture of the background before finishing the card.

 

Thanks for stopping by and please come again.