Simply Ampersand

I had so much fun with my stencil card that I tried the technique again, this time using a cut file from Bird's Cards. I cut the stencil from white window-cling material, which worked pretty well. Plus, the plastic washes right off and I can stick it on my window for safe-keeping!

I inked the stencil with watermark ink, removed the stencil, sprinkled it with silver powder & heat-embossed it. Then I inked it with an orange ink.I'm happy with how it came out, as I took some risks with the faded look. I'll definitely be making more of my own paper!

click images to enlarge

The banners were cut/embossed with a die from a mirror-like silver paper. I edged the banners with a black marker, and carefully hand-stamped the sentiments in watermark ink using rubber stamps. The letters are heat-embossed in orange; I used a brush to clean up the extra powder to get a clean surface.

I cut the ampersands from black paper on my Silhouette. I covered one of the ampersand with orange embossing powder and, while the powder was still hot & melty, stamped it with a decorative rubber stamp inked with silver.

Stampin' Royalty #267

Inspiration/Challenges:
Addicted to Stamps #98: Embossing + Stamping
Stampin' Royalty #267: Photo Inspiration
The Male Room #4: Create Your Own Background Paper


Update: This earned a Top 3 spot at The Male Room Challenge #4! Thank you!

Thank you for visiting,

Simply Fan-tastic

I had lots of fun with the color combo at CAS for my stencil card yesterday, so I used the same inks & embossing powders to make another card, with more stenciling and inking. My fingers are blue, and not from the cold!

Everything is stamped/inked directly onto a shiny white cardstock, which is mounted on a white card base. I inked the Retro clear stamp by Kaisercraft with Versamark watermark ink and heat-embossed it with orange & yellow powders. The fan & sentiment are a rubber cling stamp from the Retro Technology set by TPC Studio, stamped with blue & orange inks. I added details with a yellow marker & an orange gel pen. I used simple masking to ink the blue stripes. The splashes are made with a Tim Holtz stencil.

Inspiration/Challenges:
CAS: Colours and Sketches #112: Blue, Orange, Yellow + CAS (2nd entry)
Freshly Made Sketches: Sketch #174

Thank you for visiting,

Pilin' on the Puppies - Sketch Challenge at Pile It On

Pile It On #57

This week at the Pile It On Challenge we have a Sketch created by our own Katie. We're sponsored by All Dressed Up Stamps and I used their Cute Just Got Cuter digi stamp.

I printed the adorable puppy on three patterned papers & paper pieced it. I added a bit of pink to its ears with a marker. I cut the yellow piece with a Spellbinders die, and used the same die as a stencil for the white piece. Both are textured papers to look like fabric, and I added faux stitching with a Pitt artist pen.

I've had the background patterned paper for a long time. I made the sentiment using the Ahoy in Stitches font, printed it on a textured paper, and cut/embossed it with a PageMakers die. It's attached to the card with two small button-shaped brads.

Challenges/Inspiration:
All Dressed Up Challenges: Anything Goes + All Dressed Up stamp
Crafts Galore Encore: Use a Stamp or Digi (+ DT call)
Crafty Gals Corner #7: Bingo (Bottom row: Buttons, Brads, Ribbon)
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge: Patterned Paper (2nd entry)
Creative Moments #62: Anything Goes/Paper Piecing
DoubleClick Skittles #16: Use Any Animal
Fresh Brewed Designs: Animals
Natalie and Amy's Challenge #29: All About the Love

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

Simply Stenciled

On my long list of "techniques I want to practice" is stenciling. This week's freebie at the Silhouette online store was this diamond-patterned stencil cut file, so I cut it from thin cardstock and used it to heat-emboss the pattern in yellow and orange. I used masking to ink the stripe with China Blue distress ink. The circles were also a Silhouette freebie. The sentiment is a stamp from my stash that I heat-embossed in white & then inked with more blue. I was going for an artsy feel, and I'm pleased with the result.

Inspiration/Challenges:
CAS Colours and Sketches #112: Blue, Orange, Yellow + CAS
Pals Paper Arts #240: Sketch
Sparkle N Sprinkle: Anything Goes with Embossing Powder

Thank you for visiting,

Baltimore Love

When in doubt, I often make a shaker card. It adds just the right touch of interactivity and is an easy technique. I use plastic packaging for the clear cover and two layers of foam tape to pop it up. I know folks who use chipboard or foam sheets instead, but I like the precision that foam tape gives me.

This card was partly inspired by the current UnstampaBelles challenge: National Symbols with option of your flag colors. Although I think this woven adhesive sticker came from Florida originally, the pink flamingo is a favorite cultural icon in parts of Baltimore City (you may be familiar with Pink Flamingos by John Waters), so I incorporated a rowhouse design to make this B-more Valentine:

Sorry about the photo...it was the best I could get on a cold gray Baltimore day! I used an MFT stencil & red brick distress ink to create the brick pattern on the red paper. The window is cut with a Memory Box die. The fence is an IO die cut from a scrap of woodgrain-patterned paper. The grass is that plastic grass you get with sushi!

This card would also be appropriate for the "Love" Challenge at One Stitch at a Time (OSAAT). Check out my challenge list below, and join the fun!

Shaker Card Tip: I found that included some micro beads along with paper die-cuts helps to make the pieces move inside the shaker.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Inky Chicks #46: from (your country) with love
One Stitch at a Time: Love
Mojo Monday #383: Sketch (past sketch; not entered in the challenge)
Top Tip Tuesday: Favorite Color Combo or Tip
UnstampaBelles February Challenge: National Symbols with option of Your Flag Colors

Thank you for visiting,

Pilin' on the Butterflies

Our theme this week at the Pile It On Challenge is Butterflies. We're sponsored by A Day for Daisies and I used their sweet Butterfly D digi stamp to make a birthday card.

The embossing folder & border stamp are from the "Taste of India" set by Sheena Douglass that came free with an issue of Simply Cards & Papercraft. I embossed a blue frosted Core'dinations cardstock and sanded it to show the lovely designs. I backed it onto a teal paper & used Stickles to make a border. I stamped the border on a green frosted cardstock, heat-embossed it in olive green, sanded the edges, and added strips of double-sided tape which I covered in glitter. The butterfly is printed twice, once on a textured white paper for the base, and again on a white cardstock. I fussy-cut the top butterfly and colored it with Copics and gel & glitter pens.

TMS #287

Color Throwdown #329

Challenges/Inspiration:
A Day For Daisies: Glitter + ADFD image
Color Throwdown #329: Aqua, purple, red, green + inspiration photo
Craft for the Craic: Birthday or Anniversary
Everybody-Art-Challenge #311: Baker's Twine
Penny's Paper-Crafty: Embossing
Perfectly Rustics: Wings
Southern Girls #104: Winged Things
Tuesday Morning Sketches: Sketch #287

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

Lots of Love for Valentine's Day

Although I do a lot of craft blogging, I do occasionally make projects that don't get posted to my blog. Here are some Valentine's I made for family this year:

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Cupid Card-in-a-Box

Valentine's came came early at our house with my Smarties Pants treat bags, and I received an extra treat when those bags won the challenge at Decorate to Celebrate. My prize was 25 beautifully hand-made puzzle piece embellishments. Thank you so much, Rhonda!

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Friday the 13th Valentine

My husband & I don't celebrate Valentine's Day, at least not officially, but I did tease him that since Friday the 13th is the day before this year, he should get me a bouquet of black cats! That's not gonna happen for so many reasons, but I figured I'd make him a special card.

Note: Well, my husband surprised me with a fabulous Valentine's gift ... "He went to Beacon!"

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For the Nieces

I couldn't resist grabbing the last sheet of this My Little Pony™ paper at Michael's last week to make a special Valentine. I grew up with these plastic ponies, and apparently they are on the third generation now. Oh my. Happily, my sister-in-law has passed on this fun toy to her daughters, so I went on their website and found some great coloring pages. I chose this sweet image of Spike the dragon & Twilight Sparkle to use on the card, and also printed a few of the coloring-book pages for our nieces to play with. For the design I used Tuesday Morning Sketch #286.

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Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Love

You can't go wrong with a shaker card! I used my Silhouette to cut out the tiny hearts, and used the resulting mask to ink the blue hearts. The clouds were cut with IO dies. It's almost impossible to see in this photo, but there is a city silhouette heat-embossed in white along the bottom of the card. I wrapped the bottom of the card with some actual baker's twine, which I got from a New York-style bakery in Arizona a couple of years back.

Thank you for visiting, and lots of love to you & yours!

Heart Triple Easel Card

A friend gave me a template by HOTP for a Heart Triple Easel Card, and I used it to make this Valentine for my folks.

I sorta surprised myself by choosing a rose-red & teal color theme, but I loved this double-sided heart-and-notebook DP from Lawn Lawn, along with this teal heart-patterned DP from my stash.

I used the Gluber Flower technique to make the ribbon rose, but since I couldn't find my Glubers I used an adhesive sheet. This ruler-patterned ribbon went perfectly with the papers. The heart button is die-cut with a PageMakers die. I used a watermark pen to create the border and messily heat-embossed it in white to create a chalkboard effect.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Amusing Challenges: Valentines
Crafting By Designs #62: Love Is In The Air
DoubleClick Skittles #15: Use a heart
Really Reasonable Ribbon #111: Buttons & Bows + Ribbon

Update: This made the Top 3 for Amusing Challenge #113, and was Spotlight project for Crafting By Designs #62!

Thank you for visiting,

Power of Love

OSAAT February Prize Pack

Tell everyone you see
How much better the world could be
For them and for you, for me
With the power of love.
Luther Vandross / Marcus Miller

After three wonderful years as part of the One Stitch at a Time (OSAAT) Design Team, I've decided that it's time for me to move on & become a customer! You can see all my OSAAT projects here.

This fortnight at OSAAT, our theme is Love. StitchyBear's Digi Outlet has hundreds of digital products from many wonderful artists. Even if you don't use a store image, you'll still be in the drawing to win the super-duper February prize pack.

For my farewell project I couldn't resist using The Power of Love by Stitchy Stamps. I used this digi stamp back in 2012 on a card for my handsome husband. This time, I used a quote from the song "Power of love/Love Power" by Luther Vandross (the full video is here).
 

I made a notch swing card, so the sentiment circle rotates to reveal a silver vinyl heart design from Silhouette.

The patterned papers, including the message section, are from Recollections' "Comic Heroes" collection.

Inspiration/Challenges:
2 Cute Ink Challenge: Valentine's/Love
4 Crafty Chicks #232: Hand Coloured Image
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge: Patterned Paper
Crafty Sentiment Designs: Include a Heart
Going Grey With Scrap-Creations: Love

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us at One Stitch at a Time,

Happy Year of the Green Wooden Sheep!

I always enjoy an excuse to send a card and I especially enjoy making Chinese New Year cards, so I just had to make a card to celebrate the Year of the Green Wooden Sheep.

For the sheep-y background, I used an idea from a card I made in 2012 ("Do Sheeple dream of electric Peeps?") but I started with a polka-dotted Graphic 45 DP. I made faces & legs on some of the dots with a black pen and then filled in those dots with a glittery white Wink of Stella brush pen. The piece was cut with a Spellbinders die that I just purchased with some holiday money.

I had too much fun making the sheep embellishment! I painted a wooden clock, cut clock hands from a shiny white paper on my Silhouette, backed the clock with the same paper, added black bits and a pom-pom tail, and attached it to the card with a brad I heat-embossed in glittery white. It reminds me of Tock!

The wood-panel paper is a scrap from my 2014 Chinese New Year card, and I've had the light wood-patterned backing paper since last year as well. The numbers were cut on my Silhouette from a small scrap of a different wood-patterned paper. The banners are ARC crafts wood tape, something I just had to have but have just used! I inked the smaller piece with Vintage Photo distress ink.

Sketch #383

Inspiration/Challenges:
Crafty Calendar: What's New? (New Year & new stash)
Mojo Monday: Sketch #383



Thank you for visiting,

Flowers, Burlap & Love

I managed to go almost a month without [completely] burying my work table in craft supplies & scraps, but I guess this week I'm making up for it! I'm not so good at putting away things after I've used them ... but instead of tackling that job I decided to make a card and add to the pile!

My paper choices were inspired by the current {PIN}spirational Challenge (see image below). The burlap-printed paper is by Recollections (available at Michaels), and the Memory Box Wildflower Corner die cut is cut from silver adhesive vinyl from Joanne's. The pink patterned papers are scraps.

The layout was inspired by the current Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. The label is cut/embossed with a Pagemakers die form a thick silver cardstock. I heat-embossed the sentiment with a glittery white powder, and attached the piece with small silver brads. I finished the card with adhesive lace.

I'm very pleased with how this card came out, so my procrastination was worth it!

I'm entering this card in the following fabulous crafting challenges::
Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge: Sketch #93
City Crafter Challenge #247: Roses & Lace
Ooh La La Creations #173: Love
{PIN}spirational Challenge #133: Photo Inspiration

Thank you for visiting,