Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy New Year!




Happy New Year everyone!  The challenge sketch twist at Try Stampin' on Tuesday is "sparkle it up". Well duh?!!? Isn't New Years all about the sparkle?!!? The party chick stamp is a very old Inkadinkado stamp. It sure was perfect for this challenge. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see all the glitter and bling on it. 




 I had such fun with this sketch that I made two cards. Hubby will get the house mouse card as he just loves cute cards with cute little critters on them. 

Wishing everyone a healthy, creative and blessed 2014!

  


Sunday, December 29, 2013

Place mug here...


I have been so busy working on school, holiday stuff and challenge team commitments that I have not had any time to participate in other challenges. 

Over at Just Add Ink they are having a "Just Add Your Christmas Project" and I thought YAY!! I have a gift project I make every year with my niece and nephew for their teachers. The art teachers go gaga over these!

 I color stone tiles, easily available at Home Depot or Lowes with alcohol inks or in this case copic markers. I then stamp my image on tissue paper. I spread a layer of Future floor finish by Pledge on the tile and lay the tissue paper on top and it embeds itself into the tile. If any areas seem dry, I add more floor finish. I tear off the excess tissue paper. (by this time everything is so saturated it tears easily.) When it is completely dry, I spray it with a few layers of Krylon triple thick crystal clear glaze. I adhere cork to the bottom of the tile and the coaster is ready to use. 

One of these day I will make a video or photo tutorial. Let me know if you have any questions and I will try to answer them.


Saturday, December 28, 2013

Embracing trends



2014!!! Yikes that is so scary! Where did 2013 go? I mean here it is 2014 in just a few days and I am finally getting around to embracing the sequin trend. Sometimes it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks! 

I gotta tell you though, that the photo challenge this week at Just Us Girls just had sequins written all over it! 


Off to the store I went for a sequin fix. I tried not to go overboard, remembering the old adage that "less is more".

I hope you find my interpretation of the photo fun and will give the sequin trend a try if you haven't already.

See you all next year for another great JUG challenge.


Sunday, December 22, 2013

Warm Christmas Wishes



This card fell together quite by accident. Isn't that the best way? I was searching for another sentiment stamp and came across this stamp set from StampinUp and the Christmas sentiment jumped out at me.

Since Swanky Snow Dudes have been my go to set for this years holiday cards, naturally I grabbed them. I stamped the snow flake background from Hero Arts first, then the sentiment and added the snow dudes. A quick and easy and ever so cute card!

Hope you are enjoying the hustle and bustle of Christmas!


Saturday, December 21, 2013

Be Jolly!


I don't know about you, but this holiday season has been a whirlwind. I haven't stopped from Thanksgiving and don't see any stopping till December 26th! But heck, isn't that what the holidays are all about, hustling and bustling. My studio time has been my outlet to decompress and relax. My art is what keeps me sane.

This is my first time hosting over at Just Us Girls and I picked a color challenge that is a fav of mine.



I just love reds and browns for holiday cards! The card I am sharing with you today, could so easily be done with blues as you can see, but how fun is the same card done with reds and browns. 

It is fun to make the same card and switch the color scheme. This is something I do quite a bit. 
 



I hope you will take some time over the next week to participate in the color challenge over at Just Us Girls

Wishing all of you a peaceful and blessed holiday!

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Faux Silk Technique Challenge


This week at Just us Girls, Sue V. is hosting a technique challenge. The challenge is using the faux silk technique. You can see a tutorial and video here. 

I switched it up a wee bit. I layered my tissue onto kraft paper and swiped some antique linen distress ink across it, to show up the wrinkles. 



Here's what I did with the snow cutout from the front of the card. I put it in the inside of the card. I rarely decorate my insides. I like the way the whole card came together.


I hope you are inspired to play along this week with us at JUGS!


Saturday, December 7, 2013

Vintage Christmas sketch



Boy, did I escape from my CAS look with this card! I went totally vintage- something I am not real good at. See this post for more of an explanation. It wasn't that hard though, these great vintage papers from Authentique made it easy. I worked my card around them.

Here is the challenge sketch from Just Us Girls that I was was working from. Fun huh?



I used a stamp from Picture show, they have these whimsical vintage images. I wish I could give you a link, but they never went the online route and only did stamp shows. Unfortunately the last convention i was at they weren't there. Makes me think they went out of business. 

I asked my at home art critic, Mr. George what he thought- immediately he said to busy. He is a real proponent of CAS and can not go outside of his critic beliefs.

My sweet girl Pinkie loved it though.


Please join us at JUGS and show me your take on this great sketch!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

CAS card from Memory Box with a surprise.



Today I am posting over at Memory Box's, Outside the Box blog. I am featuring this CAS card. It has a little surprise to it. What is it you ask? Well you will just have to go over to Outside the Box and see the surprise and the tutorial! 


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Getting my art on.



Usually I don't bother with tags, but this year I have had a few requests for them. At Try Stampin On Tuesday, we are skipping our usual sketches to provide all of you with holiday tag ideas.

It was the perfect opportunity for me to get my art on and forget about CAS - if just for a wee bit. :) 
The tags I will be showing you harken back to a number of classes I took from the king of distress himself- Tim Holtz.

Here is how I made them.

First- I gathered my supplies.


Second- I stamped my image with white pigment ink and embossed with white powder.


Third- I sponged on a variety of blue distress inks.




Forth- I grabbed a big background stamp and stamped over the whole tag with walnut stain ink.

 The baby tag, I stamped my sentiment with espresso truffle and sponged it with the same distress inks from the base tag. I added a ribbon at the bottom as an accent and lastly I tied the baby tag to the base tag.

Here are each of the tags by themselves.

 





Please join us at TSOT with your tag designs!


Sunday, December 1, 2013

House of Cards Holiday Blog Hop



Welcome to the House of Cards term one blog hop using this photo inspiration. This is my first blog hop and I sure I hope I get it all OK. It has been so exciting being on the ground floor of this awesome new stamping challenge blog. I have been blown away not only by the art of my fellow designers but by all of you. My hat goes off to those that have entered in all of the styles.

I had fun with this photo inspiration and had variety of cards done but I just love this one. It features the washi tape stamps from Inspired by Stamping, who are one of our sponsors for this blog hop.



If you have come here from Daen'Ys blog then you are in the right spot. If you have stumble here and would like to participate, please hop over to House of Cards challenge blog to get started! Be sure to leave comments at each spot for a chance to win some fabulous prizes from our sponsors!

Thanks for stopping by! Please join in the fun of our hop and make your way over to Tara's blog for more inspiration!



Saturday, November 30, 2013

One Layer CAS Holiday Card



This is the fifth weekend, so that means a wild card week over at Just Us Girls. Today Nancy is challenging us to create a one layer card with a winter theme. What a great challenge! You have no where to hide with a one layer card! 


I had fun with this and used a technique I saw awhile back on Jennifer Maguire's blog. She showed a way to use your dies to emboss with. I grabbed the Frostyville border die from Memory Box. 


Let me show you how I made this card. I have a Big Shot so I will be showing the technique using it



I opened my platform to page one and put one plate down. I put down the soft mat, then my card base, the die, second plate and a metal shim.


I ran this through my machine.


The image will be embossed but not cut through because of the soft mat under the card.


I sponged blue ink over the embossing to make it stand out and added stickles to make it glittery and added a sentiment. Quick and easy and ohhhh so pretty!

Please head over to JUGS and see what the other design team made and be inspired to join us in this one layer wild card challenge.