Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Olivias Flowers

Just up too late tonight...might as well stamp!!

This first card is SU's new Because I Care.  I colored it with markers, stamped it on glossy and matted it with Marina Mist, Early Espresso, Black and Websters Lullaby Lane DP.  Added a ribbon, button and charm.






This is made with Coordinating Woolies for the Basic Grey Oliva line.  Just made the panels, layered them in black and attached the flowers and a ribbon.  Easy peasy!! 
TFL, I'm so glad you stopped by!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Couple Cards

 Hi All,

Spent today making Aniversary cards for June -- apparently there are a lot of brides out there that got married in June and as such, there are many anniversaries to celebrate.  That said, I'm late for at least two of them.  Geep!!  But what else is new, I'm the worst for sending cards on time!!  {Hugs}!!

All 4 cards have these things in common:  They are all stamped onto white CS with Versafine Onyx black ink, all images were cut out with a Nestibilities die cut, there's at least one panel layered with dimensionals, all the images are from "Couple of Cuties"  set from Crafty Secrets, they are colored with Copics, they are all smaller sized cards than the standard 4-1/4"x5-1/2"s, and they are all for this week's Pile It On Challenge #25 -- to do something fancy, cool, extravagant.  To qualify, I made a bunch of cards with one set for a bunch of challenges -- ta dah!!  Extravagant, no?

DP for this first card is Websters Pages, the ribbon is Basic Grey.



The Crazy Challenge: All Things Spotty
Kah-wink-e-dink: Free for All!
Fresh Brewed: Anything goes.
I Did It Creations Challenge: Add 3-D
Bunny Zoe's Crafts: Nice and girly.
ABC challenge: Xtra Dimension.
Simon Says challenge: Friends 
The Color Throwdown #98 - blush blossom, chocolate chip, mellow moss




DP for this 2nd card is Basic Grey Cappella, MS border punch, Recollections ribbon and Basic Grey half-pearls.






The Crazy Challenge: All Things Spotty
Kah-wink-e-dink: Free For All!
Fresh Brewed: Anything goes.
I Did It Creations Challenge: Add 3-D
Bunny Zoe's Crafts: Nice and girly.
ABC challenge: Xtra Dimension.
Simon Says challenge: Friends
Really Reasonable Ribbons #2 - ribbon as border
The Color Throwdown #98 - blush blossom, chocolate chip, mellow moss









This third card uses DCWV Green Stack DP, SU Blue Bayou CS, and "love tags are made using SU tag punch and "Tiny Tags" coordinating Stampset.



ABC challenge: Xtra Dimension.
Simon Says challenge: Friends
Little Paper Shop: Bright and Colorful
Kah-wink-e-dink: Free for All!
Fresh Brewed: Anything goes.
I Did It Creations Challenge: Add 3-D










And the last card here used Basic Grey Max and Whiskers DP, misc buttons from my stash, mini clip is SU and "love tags are made using SU tag punch and "Tiny Tags" coordinating Stampset.


The Crazy Challenge
: All Things Spotty
ABC challenge: Xtra Dimension.
Simon Says challenge: Friends
Little Paper Shop: Bright and Colorful
Kah-wink-e-dink: Free for All!
Fresh Brewed: Anything goes.
I Did It Creations Challenge: Add 3-D
ABC challenge: Xtra Dimension.
Simon Says challenge: Friends 

TFL, I'm so glad you stopped by!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Sunflower Card


I had planned all week that I was finally going to take out the Heartfelt Creation stamps this weekend that I bought back in January at CHA to go with my new (at the time!) Nesties.  Now six months later, they're not so new!! LOL!!



First, I needed inspiration, so I checked out this week's IC that Stephanie hosted over on SCS The Bicycle Muse, and I found the perfect starting point, this "Kitsch Kitchen Pannier" bag that I don't have any idea what it's for except maybe a cool lunch box??!!  But it had great sunflower colors to go with!!

Second, I checked out some other blog challenges and noticed this week's Etsy Inspired challenge was featuring The Sand Box Studio, which had many sunflower inspired art pieces!!  Perfect!!  I went with the coolio "Sunny Sunflower Box" for reasons that should be apparent by the time I'm done with this post!  :)




Here's what I started with:  Nestibilities Blossom 2 dies, Heartfelt Creations Aztec Gold Sunflowers, Versafine Onyx Black ink, SU markers and Yo Yo Yellow CS.  I stamped two of each size sunflower on the yellow CS, then used the matching sized Nestie die to cut them out.  I colored the edges of the petals with Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa and More Mustard markers.  Could not be easier!!

 


Snipped in between each petal to make for easy shaping.




Working on a piercing mat (so there's plenty of "give"), I turned each flower over and "stirred" it up with my flower shaping tool (found here from Frantic Stamper!)





 

 After the flower "bowled" up, I turned it back over, pushed it down just in the center.






 Stirred it up in the center a bit more to get a good, shallow center....



(just because I like it to look real dimensional in there!).










Then curled up the petal tips just a bit.







I cut out a couple of leaves from Old Olive CS and added randomly scored vein lines, then sponged them in green and aqua.






Then I layered, assembled and glued everything together...





And we're done!!

TFL, I'm so glad you stopped by!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Bright Birthday!


Posting this for my first "Pile It On" Challenge that I came across this weekend.  The concept is to create a card (or project) and combine multiple challenges -- i.e., "pile it on"!  Now THAT sounds like fun to me!!  Here we go...the challenges represented on this card are:




Whoopsi Daisy June Challenge:  Ribbons and Bows







Crazy 4 Challneges #C4C42: Paper Flowers
Charisma Card Challenges #24: All About Bling








Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #SSSC74










Pile It On #24: Stickers









Supplies used for this card:
DP:  Basic Grey Green at Heart
CS:  SU White, Kiwi Kiss, Elegant Eggplant
Ribbon:  Celebrate it Holiday 100% Metallic Ribbon in Pink, Orange, Green
Buttons:  PTI Vintage Holiday Mix
Sticker: Chloe BD Images by KC& Company Brenda Walton

TFL, I'm so glad you stopped by!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Experimenting with the Marker Technique

These are more cards I made using markers directly onto the stamps and then stamping onto glossy paper.  (See my post from earlier this week.)  The effect is really crisp and clean when you see it IRL, not sure how much comes across virtually!

The two roses above were actually an experiment.  I tried out two different "qualities" of glossy paper.  The one on the left is the recommended "High Glossy" paper -- I purchased it from Lisa Yang (Local King Rubber Stamp) when I bought her Chicks stamp set.  The one on the right is photo paper that I got from the $1.00 store.  There is definitely a difference, although I don't know if anyone but the stamper would notice, especially since someone receiving one of these would not have the other to compare it to.  But in the photo above, can you see how the colors of the rose image on the left are more softened and blurred between colors?  That tends to look better than the hard lines like the one on the right.  But again, I don't know if anyone else would really notice, so if it's not in your budget to buy a high-quality glossy paper for this technique, I wouldn't worry about it.  Go with the glossy you have.



Side Note:  So as you can see, I went to town again with more of my Peel-off stickers (from Frantic Stamper) on the card on the left.  Can't be helped, they're addicting and I bet if you saw them yourself you would have a better appreciation for them!!  LOL!!  I love them!!






I also tried the technique on a stamp that is not solid -- typically you would stamp this image and color it in.  Instead, I scribbled marker directly onto the rubber -- and I really didn't try to follow the lines so much.  I just kept coloring the parts of the image as best as I could identify them (hard to tell when you can only see the rubber!).  When I turned it over to stamp it onto the glossy, I was pleasantly surprised that it looked half-way decent.  I actually missed a few areas, but in the end, I don't think it's that noticeable. 


Here's the image mounted onto soft sand and coral textured Bazzil papers: 

Both the stamps in this post are BRAND NEW!!  The rose is Penny Black "The Look of Love" and the Birdhouse is Impression Obsession.  Both of them, and many many other fabulous new ones can be found at Frantic Stamper... seriously, you need to check out all the new stuff there!! 
Hugs Everyone!!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Chicken Little - Marker Technique

This is pretty much a CASE of the cards that the artist, Lisa Yang, who designed the stamp set, did (does).  At the recent GASC in Arlington, way back in the corner, was a very sweet young lady demonstrating her technique for stamping with markers and "solid" stamp images.  She is the designer of all the beautiful stamps in her store called "Local King Rubber Stamp" (no "s" on the end there...).

Her results were amazing, fast, and of course {it looked} so easy!!  (See all the samples she's created for each of her stamp sets!) So I bought this cute "Chicks 5" set, gave it a try, and you know what, it IS easy!!  Lisa has posted her instructions for the technique on her website here, so DO check it out and give it a try!! 

To do the technique, you need to use glossy paper, dye based markers, a background stamp and a solid image (or 2) (or 3) like the chicks.  The best part about being able to watch her do this technique was seeing that you really do not need to, and you really shouldn't try to, color in details of the image.  Just scribble ink randomly onto the stamp and let the smooth surface of the glossy paper soften the borders between the colors you used. I really liked trying this out, it's very back-to-basics stamping!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Let me know what you think!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Is this Max?


One of Basic Grey's new lines is called "Max and Whiskers" and it features adorable pups and kittys and several other beasts of the earth.  So I really don't know which one of them is the renowned "Max" but for today, we're pretending this guy is Max.



The card base is Chocolate Chip and Blue Bayou with a layer of DP from the Max and Whiskers collection.  Max, his biscuit and the dog tag (seen here) are all coordinating chipboard pieces.  I stamped the dog tag using just the first "half" of the sentiment from Inkadinkadoos "Humorous Birthday" set. The rest of the sentence is on the inside.  It reads "almost human".    Bwahahahha!!



The little binder clip is from an office supply store.  The bow is 1-1/2" satin ribbon that I salvaged from some packaging that was being thrown away (do you believe someone would just toss that gorgeous stuff!!)?  Max is sitting on an oval of Blue Bayou which I dotted with a white gel pen to mimic the framed picture of the dog on the DP.


TFL, I'm so glad you stopped by!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Weekend Challenges

Hi there.  Thanks for stopping by!

I made this card for a few challenges out there in the blog world.  I like the challenge of combining challenges to see what happens.
 

This photo shows the rubon word that I used for the "Belli Challenge #93" (Hi girls!!) and one of the buttons that I used for the "YNS Challenge #18".  My color palette is So Saffron, Cool Carribean and Pumpkin Pie to be included in the "Color Throwdown #96" Challenge.






The DP and chipboard pieces are all from Basic Grey "Max and Whiskers" collection.  So fun!  My balloon is Inkadinkadoo's Birthday Sentiments and was stamped in Colorbox Blue Lagoon since I don't have Cool Caribbean ink.  I did have the right CS colors for the challenge though!!  Nice combo of colors, I kinda like it!





And because I'm crazy about rubons, I made a couple more cards that feature them...I really do have a ton of rubons, their cheap and easy. Hmmm, I know there's a joke there some where.




The sentiment is from SU's Hug's and Wishes set and all the colorful images, flowers, swirls are rubons from Basic Grey's Eva collection.  The DP is also BG Eva.  The glazed brads are Basic Grey as well, but I don't know which collection (they don't name the collection on the packaging, dunno why). 




And finally, this card is rubons also.  This one I actually made a few weeks ago and hadn't posted so since I'm all about rubons today, thought I'd throw it in.




Here's a close up of the rubons.  The stamped background and flower element is SUs Baroque Motifs.  The images are stamped on Groovy Guava textured paper with Groovy Guava ink.  The rubons are SU's "Love and Happiness".  The clear gems are from Hobby Lobby.

And that's my show for tonight folks!  I hope you had as fun a weekend as I did!!
TFL, I'm so glad you stopped by!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Roses and Teacups!


Found a  a wonderfully-girly-frilly website for the Inspiration Challenge this weekend!  It's called Roses and Teacups and it was so inspiring to browse!!


I created my card based on this page of the coolest hats you've ever seen!!  All of them were over-the-top gorgeous, funky and fun, and all I could think of was I want to be invited to THAT party!!!  (LOL!!)


I used Webster's Pages Lullaby Lane papers (again!) for this card along with Nestibilities Labels #4 and Small Circle dies and "Persia" Cuttlebug Embossing Folder & Die Combo.


The "lacy" embellishment and scalloped border around the main panel in light pink were cut from the "Persia" die






I made the little roses on my card with a quilling kit from Quilled Creations. The sprays of pearls are from my stash here in my room, not sure of the origin, but probably from Mikes!

The sentiment is "Expressions" set by Inkadinkadoo stamped in ColorBox Chalk Ink, Dark Brown.
All the supplies for this card can be purchased at Fran's amazing supply store:  The Frantic Stamper!  Check out "Newest Products" listed!!  She is the best!

Note: No ribbons were harmed during the making of this card.
TFL, I'm so glad you stopped by!