Foiled

Long time, no blog.  I have had a crazy year, which is why I haven’t been online much and I haven’t been crafting too much.  My husband and I decided to get divorced, so we spent the beginning  of the year getting our affairs in order. The divorce was amicable and I'm happier now.  Then I had a roof leak in the beginning of June in my tv/craft room.  The leak wasn’t that bad, but it ruined part of the popcorn ceiling.  So I had to redo the ceiling and that led to repainting the room.  So I was without a craft space for 2 months.  At the same time, I had 2 coolant leaks in my car.   Then I had another leak in the roof that caused the ceiling in the bathroom to collapse.  And now my dog has cancer and I’m driving 2 hours every week for his treatment. 

On the happier end of the spectrum, my Mom and I took an epic trip to Oregon and Seattle for my 40^th birthday.  We went  to Portland, checked out the waterfalls along the Columbia River Gorge, row boated on Clear Lake, went to Crater Lake and drove up the Oregon coast before finishing the trip out in Seattle.  Crater Lake is absolutely amazing.

 

Now to the crafting.  Artsy Inkers is getting ready to have another party – Inktoberfest.  And I’m hosting a challenge for it.  So if you aren’t a member of the board, now is a great time to join.

The challenge is based upon a Plaid product my Mom demonstrated back in the 1990s.  She was a craft demonstrator for Plaid and would demonstrate the products at different craft stores in the areas.  

I’ve been wanted to try it for a card for a while.  Here's the finished card.  

Now here are the step by step photos and instructions.

Step 1 – stamp an image on a piece of acetate.  You will be putting a frame around it eventually, so just make sure the piece is big enough to fit your frame.  I used Staz-On and the image is by Stampendous.

Step 2 – color in the image with a coloring medium that will be translucent.  I used my Copic markers.  Because Staz-On and Copic markers are both alcohol based, I colored the reverse side.  Otherwise, the markers would have removed the stamped image. 

Step 3 – this is the tedious step.  You need to use something that will be opaque to color around the stamped image.  I used a metallic acrylic paint.  You need to color everywhere except your stamped image.  Do the painting on the reverse side.  Make sure you don’t paint where you colored.  You want the stamped image to be translucent.  It will probably take several layers to get it opaque.  Just let it dry between layers.  It took me about 4 or 5 layers to get it fully colored. 

Layer 1 

Finished 

Step 4 – lightly crumple a piece of tin foil.  It should be smaller than the frame.  You are going to attach the tin foil behind the image.  It will show through in the areas that are translucent but not where they are opaque. 

Step 5 – make a frame and attach your image to the frame.

I die cut the scalloped oval and used a regular oval to make the frame.  I used next size down of scalloped ovals to trim down the image and the piece of foil.  I cut another of the larger scalloped ovals from a scrap piece to be the back of the sandwich I created.

Step 6 - Attach the image to the back of the frame.

Step 7 -  lay the foil down.  Don't use any glue at this point because you don't want it interfering with the effect.

Step 8 - Glue the scrap large scallop oval to the oval frame and tin foil.  I forgot to take a picture of this step.

Here is what the finished piece looks like.

Here are a couple of close-ups to better show the tin foil behind the image.

And here is one more of the finished card.  I embossed the base with a Sizzix (?) embossing folder.  The ribbon was from my stash. I used by bow-it-all to make the bow.  I made the little poinsettia using a new Spellbinders die.  I added liquid pearls for the center. 

Instead of making a floating image, you can just die cut a piece of cardstock that is the same size as your card.  That is what I did with the first card I made using this technique.  Here is that card.

The image is by Power Poppy and I colored it with Copics.

Thanks for stopping by and please come again.  

Party Time (Project 39)

In an attempt to tempt you over to the Artys Inker's message board to play along during our summer party AIR15, I'm going to post the sample I made for the challenge I am hosting. You still have plenty of time to join in.  The party runs through next Sunday, June 7.

 

The challenge is called Sentimentally Yours and I've challenged the players to make cards featuring sentiments. Mostly because I have a ton of sentiment stamps and I hardly ever use them, so I'm looking for some inspiration.

I started by creating the background. And to do that I started by performing some surgery on the stamp. It is from a clear set by Fiskar and is actually 6 flowers arranged in a curved line (you know for stamping in a corner). But I wanted to create a background with flowers all over and plenty of white space so I cut the flowers apart. I did create a couple of masks to make the clusters of three. I colored them with watercolor pencils.

The sentiment was stamped on the die cut flower (My Favorite Things) and is by Kolette Hall ($1 bin at Micheal's). I've had it forever and I'm not sure if I've ever used it before. I colored the flower with watercolor pencils and added some gems.

The grey ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon from one of the monthly ribbon club assortments. The yellow was from Micheal's. I made the bow with my bow-it-all.

Update: I forgot to include the link to the cushions from Bed, Bath & Beyond when I first published this post.  cushions

Thanks for stopping by and please come again.

The Last of the Halloween Cards (Projects 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)

Woo Hoo!!! I'm more than half way to my goal of 50 cards.  I'm really going to have to get moving with posting if I want to meet my goal in time to do some crafty shopping on Black Friday.

The Raven

 

The image is a stamp by Stampendous.  I colored it with Distress Inks in Dusty Concord, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade.   I then used Frantage (by Stampendous) embossing powder and mica chips, and some Martha Stewart glitter along the edge.  I’m not sure if I like how it came out.  I have a love-hate relationship with the Frantage embossing powders and elements.  I love the stuff I’ve seen it used on but I tend to hate how it turns out when I use it.  I think I just need to keep practicing with it.

 

Pumpkin Head Girl

 

This image is by Stampendous, stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics.  I added stickles to her hat.  I inked the edges with Distress Ink in Dusty Concord.  I think it needs an embellishment but I can’t find one in my stash that I like how it looks with this.

 

Pumpkin Cat

 

This image is by Inkadinkado, stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and Colored with Copics.  I added stickles to the collar.  I die cut the oval and the scallop oval mat with Spellbinder nesties dies.

Girl Dressed Like Pumpkin

 

The image is by Recollections and was RAKed to me after last year’s Stamptoberfest over at Two Peas.  She’s stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics.  I added stickles to her tights and the three corners.  The candy corn circle and mat were cut with Spellbinder nestites dies.  The candy corn is from the same stamp set as the girl.  After coloring them, I added glossy accents for some shine and dimension.  The background was made by repeatedly stamping on the diagonal a long sentiment stamp by Stampendous.  It is about 5 inches long. 

 

 

Witch

The image is from the same set as the girl dressed like a pumpkin by Recollections, stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics.  I got a drip of ink on the top corner, so I covered it with the enamel pumpkin sticker.  The bow was made with my bow easy.  The sentiment is by Studio G.   

Owl

This is another fairly new stamp, by Outliners/ Hampton Art.  I stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics.  I added liquid pearls to the hat, stickles to the spider’s thread, metallic pen to the buckle and Wink of Stella to the flower.  I created the bow with my bow-it-all.  I love that thing.

 

Copic List:

Pumpkin Head Girl:

Head & Body – YR15, YR16, YR12, Y02

Clothes & hat – V12, V15, V17, YG06, YG09, YR15, YR16

Cat – C1, C3, C7, 100

 

Pumpkin Cat:

Pumpkin – YR02, YR04, YR07, Y08 (for the face)

Cat – YG01, YG03, YG06, G02, G05

 

Girl Dressed Like Pumpkin:

Pumpkin – YR02, YR04, YR07

Face – E00

Hair – E11, E17, E19

Arms & Legs – V15, G07

 

Witch: (I forgot to make a list of the colors I used, so this is my best guess)

Dress & Hat – YR02, YR04, YG03, V01, V04, V06

Hair – YG03, YG06

Face & Hands – E000, RV10

Pumpkin – YG02, YG04, YG07

 

Owl:

Body – V04, V09, Y38

Wings – YR07, YG03

Hat – YR02, YR07, YR09, YG01, YG03, YG06

Flower Stem – YG03, YG06

Pumpkin – YR04, YR07

Gourd – Y15, Y17, YG17

Flower – Y06, V04, V09, YR16, Y08, Y17

Spider – YG06

Stars – Y06

Leaves – E08, YG95, Y38, Y17, YR23, E79, YR07, E08, YR16, Y28, Y38, Yr23, Yr18, E09, YR68, R17, R08 (that’s quite a lot of colors for such small leaves).

 

Thanks for stopping by and please come again.

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Tag and a Party (Project 12)

For today’s project, I have something a bit different – a tag.  I made this for the September tag swap over at Artsy Inkers.  Which, before I forget, we are having a party over at AI starting on Saturday called Inktoberfest.  There will be a variety of challenges for member to participate in as well as games.  If you ever participated in one of the stamping parties over at Two Peas in a Bucket, Inktoberfest will be like those.  If you haven’t, you should come over and check out Artsy Inkers.  There is a great bunch of stampers over there and we have a ton of fun during parties.  So that is my pitch for joining us at AI.  On to the tag.

 

I used my silhouette to cut out the shape from watercolor paper.  The image is by Impression Obsession and I cannot remember what ink I used to stamp it.  I think it was Memento Rich Cocoa.  I watercolored the image with Distress Inks in Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Forest Moss, and Barn Door.

I created the base with used paper towels.  When I color with DI, I usually smoosh the ink on my craft mat, pick up the color with a brush or dauber, and when I’m done, I mist with water and wipe the excess up with a paper towel.  As a result I have some pretty paper towels.  So of course, I save them.   To create the base, I took a large snippet of white cardstock, applied Mod Podge, put the paper towel down and then coated it with more Mod Podge.  And I ran into some trouble.  The paper towel was 2 ply.  The glue didn’t go through both layers, so I had several spots that need more Mod Podge.  When I did the back of the tag, I separated the plies and applied them one at a time.  That worked much better.  And the colors weren’t bright enough if I used just one of the layers.

So when I went to add the focal piece to the base, I didn’t like how white the piece was.  So I added some Distress Ink.  I diluted  some Mustard Seed for around the image and inked the edges with Barn Door.  Finally, I added some liquid pearls to the image.

 

The leaves were punched with an EK Success punch from EK Success self-adhesive wood veneer paper and colored with Distress Inks.   The fibers are snippets that were RAKed to me ages ago.  The bow was created with my bow-it-all from ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon.

 

 

 

For the back, I stamped the same focal image.  I used Memento Ink in Rich Cocoa but I forgot that it needed reinking, so the image is rather faint.  I reinked the pad before stamping the leaves, which are by Inkadinkado.

I’m going to enter this over at Pixie’s Snippets Playground- Week 144.

Before I go, I know several of you have had some trouble following my blog.  Mary was nice enough to email me the fix she found when she was having trouble following me.  So here they are:

First - go to the blog you wish to follow, get to the Home section so you can copy & paste the URL for the blog…not just a particular post.

Then:

 1. Get to the reading list of the blogs you follow  (I had to manually go to the Dashboard, as my reading list does not always show up or populate)

 2. Look to the far right - there is a gear type of icon. Click it

 3. This brings up the list of blogs you are following. Scroll to the very bottom. Look for an orange block with the word ADD. Click it

 4.  Dialog box appears. Paste in the URL of the blog you’re trying to follow.

 5. NEXT (orange box) - click it

 6. Step 2: follow publicly - as whatever your google (blogger) id

 7. FOLLOW - Orange box.

 

Your picture should now appear in the following list of the blog you’re trying to follow and the new blog should now be in your following list.

Thank you everybody who has wished me luck with my etsy shop. 
Thanks for stopping by and please come again.

Funky leaves times 2 (Projects 4 and 5)

For today, I’ve got 2 cards I made using the same image but colored using two completely different techniques.

Card Number 1

The first card is one I made for the August vellum challenge over at Artsy Inkers.   So I’m a little behind in posting it here.

 

 



The image is by Impression Obsession.  I started by stamping it on watercolor paper with Versamark ink and heat embossing it with clear embossing powder.  Then I did a water brayer technique to color the image.  I inked my brayer using Kaleidacolor Autumn Leaves and then spritz it with water.  I rolled the brayer over the image and added more ink and water until I was happy with it.  I mounted it on a piece of bronze metallic paper.

For the card base, I used a piece of embossed colored vellum that has been in my stash for years.  Here’s a picture of what the vellum looks like.

I attached it to a base of an orangy-brown textured cardstock with glue dots in the corners.  It is always a challenge to figure out how to attach vellum to a project without the adhesive showing.  To hide the glue dots, I added the brown pearls.

 

Card Number 2

For this card, I stamped the image with Memento Rich Cocoa on X-Press It blending paper.  I colored the image with my Copic markers (the color list is at the bottom of the post).  I mounted it on a piece of orange cardstock from my stash that I cut with the deckle blade for my Fiskar paper trimmer.

 

The card base is actually a reject from a WSW14 fest challenge.  It was a reject, not because I didn’t like how it looked, but because it didn’t really show the technique of the challenge.  The technique was to take a piece of patterned paper and emboss it with an embossing folder.  Then you use a brayer to add Versamark ink to the raised portions and emboss with clear embossing powder.  Next you ink up the paper and whip the ink off the embossed portions. 

There were a couple of problems with this piece for showcasing the technique.  I picked a too subtle pp.  And I think the embossed lines were too thin to show the pattern of the paper.  So this didn’t get entered in the challenge and sat forgotten on my craft table.  I spotted it on my desk and figured it would make a great base for this card.  Oh, I used Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed (I think – I did make this back in June) to ink it up.  And I think the pp is by DCWV. 

 

For the final touch, I added ribbon from Really Reasonable Ribbon from the August ribbon of the month assortment.  I really loved August’s assortment.  Lovely fall colors.  So I added a strip of ribbon to the bottom and then made a double bow using my Bow-it-all.  Have I mentioned how much I love that thing? 

Copics used:

YR04

YR18

YR68

YG95

Y08

Y17

R05

R56

  

I’m entering this card in:

Really Reasonable Ribbon, Challenge # 102 Autumn Colors

and
Mixed Media Card Challenge!

 

Thanks for stopping by and please come again.

 

 

Brides and Babies

I'm a bit overdue in posting a new project.  The month of April just got away from me.  So I've got 2 cards for you this time.  I needed to make a wedding card for a co-worker and a baby shower card for a family friend.
 
For the wedding card, I took inspiration from the bride's struggle to find the right table linens.  She had seen a photo of a table setting that she really liked but she was having trouble finding the right linens.  The goal was champagne linens with a sheer overlay with a champagne/ pale gold swirl.  And it took her forever to fine what she was looking for.  So I used that for the background.

For the base, I stamped the swirls in Brilliance Galaxy Gold on a pale yellowy cream.  (I need to pick up some more cream cardstock).  To mute the effect, I topped it with vellum.  I used glue in the corners to attach the vellum and then used the pearls to cover the glue spots.
 
The focal image was stamped in Versafine Onyx Black on the same pale yellowy cream cardstock.  I didn't plan to cover it with vellum but the cardstock was too bright without it.  So I again glued the corners.  I covered the bottom corners with Liquid Pearls and the top with the bow.  I mounted it on a shimmery yellow cardstock.  When that blended to much into the background, I mounted it on a darker shimmery yellow/gold cardstock.
 
The bow is a double bow that I created with my new Zutter Bow-It-All, which is awesome.  I have always had trouble making pretty bows.  I've got  a Bow Easy, which is great if you are using very thin ribbon, but not so great with wider ribbons.  I had been seeing bows made with the Bow-It-All and a few weeks ago, a broke down and bought one from Amazon.  I am mostly glad I did.  My only hesitation in saying I'm thrilled with it is that Zutter just came out with a new one that will make triple bows.  Dang it.  If I had known, I probably would have waited until the new one came out.  Oh well.  I am thrilled with the bows I'm creating with it.  Here's a close up of the bow:

For the baby card, the friend is having a little girl and the theme is elephants.  So I kept the card fairly simple. 

I stamped the elephant in grey and colored with Copics.  Then I went back and added white polka dots.  I used the scallop blade for my paper trimmer to cut the mat.  I made the bow with my Bow-It-All and the ribbon is from Really Reasonable Ribbon's April Ribbon Club.  If you are a ribbon junky, like me, you need to check out Really Reasonable Ribbon.  Or maybe you shouldn't. :-)  In addition to buying a bunch of ribbon from there recently, I joined the monthly ribbon club.  Each month I will be getting a new collection of 7-9 ribbons (around 15 yards of ribbon). April's was grey and yellow.  And I should be getting May's soon, which is blue and red. 

Stamps Used:
Swirl - Hero Arts
Bride & Groom - Fiskar
Elephant  - Fiskar

Thanks so much for stopping by and come back soon.