Vintage Fluffles

I'm almost positive I made this card based on one from Sharon Johnson's blog . . . but I can't find it anywhere! I remember it was a sketch challenge, and that the three embellishments arranged vertically along the bottom right edge was part of the sketch, along with the overall layout, but I am not sure of the who or where or when; I just know I loved the sketch and found it very fun to work with!Using a double-sided patterned cardstock, and coordinating solid cardstocks from Stampin Up's 2006 In Colours made this card really easy and relaxing to create. I received the stamped Fluffles image in an image RAK -- so sweet! I cut the image out using my oval Coluzzle template, and after colouring it with my Prismacolor pencil crayons, and gently sponging Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink around the egdes to soften the starkness of the white cardstock the focal image is stamped on, I layered that onto a scalloped oval punched out of white cardstock. If you look closely, you can see that I coloured around the insides of the scallops with a light blue Prisma, to keep in the theme of the overall look of the card.

I always place the card elements together first without gluing them down, and when I did that with this card, I realised sponging the edges of ALL the layers would tie everything together really well -- I think this is the first time I've tried that, and just love the results. I also did a little rough rubbing of the inkpad around the edges of the patterned paper layer, and made the Buckaroo Blue card base recede a little by stamping a small flower from a Studio G clear stamp set in Frost White pigment ink randomly all over it.

Paper: Stampin Up solid cardstock (Buckaroo Blue, Vintage Violet), white cardstock (Domtar), double-sided patterned cardstock.

Stamps: Stampendous Fluffles and snail, "hello" by Inkadinkado

Ink: Brushed Corduroy Ranger Distress Ink, black, Frost White by Colorbox

Other: Giga scallop punch by Marvy, Threading Water border punch by Fiskars, Prismacolor pencil crayons, ribbon by Offray, sponge by Royal & Langnickel, foam dimensionals.

Christmas Fruitcake

I'd wanted this paper collection by Basic Grey called "Fruitcake" for *forever*, a few years at least, and finally picked it up when I saw it on clearance at Hobby Lobby earlier this fall. I'd been wanting this paper for forever, and also wanted to use it to participate in Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Challenge #10! (Keyword ssnotime10) I fell in love with the cards she made for that challenge, and looked forward to creating my take on them. :) So here they are!!
For this challenge, we had to let the patterned paper do the work for us, and were limited to using only sentiment rubber stamps. I chose to computer-generate my sentiment, so I didn't pull out my stamps at all for these cards! The only "stampy" thing I did was use my Frayed Burlap Distress Ink pad by Ranger to distress the sentiment cardstock and get it to blend in better with the patterned paper.
These cards were totally awesome to make, because:

• they went together very quickly
• I happened to have some perfectly-coordinating cardstock and ribbon that I received in a surprise box from The Angel Company that I had been hoarding up til this point -- double points for both the perfectly coordinating AND the use of hoarded items!
• I loved using the pewter tree brads by some of the sentiments!
  

Part of what let this set of cards come together so quickly is my habit of making up the fussier things six at a time. I spent some time choosing the style and colour of the sentiments and then printed out six at once and brought them to my crafting table. Once that was out of the way, I was free to carry on with the serious business of cardmaking with everything I needed right in front of me!

Ink: Frayed Burlap Ranger Distress Ink
Papers: patterned paper from the Basic Grey "Fruitcake"collection, confetti blue-green cardstock from TAC
Other: taffeta ribbon from Making Memories, pewter tree brads from Paper Salon Spare Parts

Ruby Christmas

I saw these wonderful little houses on the Martha Stewart Christmas line and fell in love with them -- I think they have such personality and are so unique! Luckily for me, three houses in this style were available in the MS Gingerbread men stamp set! I think I'll get good use from them year-round, not just at Christmastime.
When I sat down to make these cards, I knew I wanted to use:

1. my Giga scalloped oval punch
2. one of the houses from the MS gingerbread men stamp set
3. some of the ribbon in the American Crafts Christmas set I picked up at Hobby Lobby on clearance a few years ago
4. my new Memento dewdrop inkpads

Other than that, I had no clear plan, so it took me FOREVER to make the first card. I started out by stamping the house on white cardstock and punching it out, but quickly found it was much easier for me to punch first and then stamp my image centred in the oval. So, I created several focal images (about a half dozen) so I could move on to the card design; this also let me use some of the less-perfect stamped ovals to test the results of inking, sponging, etc before I committed to using a technique or product on the card itself.

After much trial, error, and gnashing of teeth, I finally made a card I was REALLY happy with using SCS Card Sketch #201 as my starting point. I worked on that first card for an entire evening before leaving it unfinished and going to bed. Then the next morning, I assembled it in fifteen minutes, then made a second identical card in ten minutes flat! The second card is on the left in the topmost photo -- you can see I went a little haywire with sponging on the walnut stain ink on the mat for the focal image. :) The design choices I made to get this card to "work" were:

• go with a monochromatic colour scheme
• sponge my neutral colour (in this case, a chocolatey brown) over the patterned paper and on the white cardstock to reduce contrast and thus let the focal image take centre stage
• sponge the edges of the card base with my neutral colour to unify the cardstock base and the patterned paper attached to it, and frame the focal point of the card
• go with clean lines to balance the scalloped shape and richly patterned paper
• use the complementary colour to accent around my focal layer and give it more visual weight

Stamps: house and snowflakes from Martha Stewart gingerbread men stamp set
Inks: Rhubarb Stalk, Bamboo Leaves, and Rich Cocoa dye inks by Memento, Walnut Stain Distress Ink by Ranger
Papers: "Devotion" patterned paper from Basic Grey Blush collection, Cherry Bazzill Smoothies cardstock, white cardstock by Domtar, brown cardstock from Hobby Lobby open stock, so probably by Paper Salon
Other: paper edge distresser by Heidi Swapp, black antiqued mini brads, silver-edged double-faced satin ribbon by American Crafts, Giga scalloped oval punch by Marvy

Because I had made several of the houses on scalloped ovals the previous night, it was very easy for me to continue playing around with making another card using the supplies I already had out. :) For this next card, I used the same Cherry card base, chocolate brown cardstock, and focal image, but this time incorporated some American Crafts Christmas rub-ons I'd picked up last year.
I found I liked this little house image best when it is set against patterns more than when it is against a plainer background. I wound up stamping the grey layer with a "Season's Greetings" script stamp from an MSE holiday sentiments set in Versamark. The card base is stamped with paisley images in Moonlight White ink.

Here's a closeup of the stamped grey cardstock. Don't tell anybody, but I glued the grey cardstock onto the brown upside-down... the "Season's greetings" script is facing the wrong way! But, it still fills the design role I needed it to, and it took me a while to notice this so I'm not too worried. :)

Stamps: house from Martha Stewart gingerbread men stamp set, sentiment from My Sentiments exactly
Inks: Rhubarb Stalk Memento dye ink, Versamark, Moonlight White Brilliance
Papers: Cherry Bazzill Smoothies cardstock, white cardstock by Domtar, brown cardstock from Hobby Lobby open stock, grey "True Value" cardstocks from Michaels
Other: ticket corner rounder punch by EK Success, white Gelly Roll Souffle pen, green sentiment and flourishes American Crafts rub-ons, paper piercer, Quickie glue pen, Martha Stewart yellow gold glitter

Sheldon and I will be putting up the Christmas decorations today -- woohoo! We spend SO much more time in our office/hobby room than in our living room, maybe we will decorate the office this year and leave the living room plain -- who knows!

Trio of cards from Blossoms and Butterflies

I managed to knock out another little project! I'm on a roll -- first the canvas clock, now this one!! I picked up a fun and pretty paper stack by DCWV called "Blossoms and Butterflies". It's nice, thick paper, and includes embossed, glittered, and foiled designs. For this project, my criteria were:

1. use papers from B&B stack
2. use stamp set I got for a good price from Hobby Lobby and haven't inked up at all
3. use some coordinating bling and brads I picked up the same time I got the paper stack
4. base cards on SCS sketch challenges

This first card is based on SCS sketch challenge 201. The sentiment layer is popped up on foam dimensionals. I made the jaggedy matting layer by stamping on and trimming the white sentiment cardstock layer down to size, then laying it on the matting cardstock and tracing around it lightly in pencil. Using my Dragonback Fiskars decorative-edged scissors, I cut the matting by carefully lining the bottom of the cutting edges with the pencil line. I've seen this kind of matting edge done elsewhere and really like the effect, so I was happy to be able to give it a shot myself!

Stamps: sentiment from clear set at Hobby Lobby -- if someone could let me know which company they're by, I'd appreciate it! I threw away the packaging.
Paper: colourful butterflies on brown, green with blue stripe and flowers, and yellow blossoms and butterflies on white patterned papers from DCWV Butterflies & Blossoms paper stack. Brown cardstock base, white cardstock.
Ink: Chestnut Roan fluid chalk ink by Clearsnap.
Other: yellow brad with white flower on it by Spare Parts, small sunshine punch to make cardstock flower, Lemon Ice Stickles.

This card is based on SCS Sketch challenge 199. I knew I just had to showcase this lovely glittered cardstock on one of the cards, and this sketch was perfect for it! The large panel is popped up on foam dimensionals here. To make that panel stand out even more, I also ran a blue inkpad around the edges of the matting layer to define that edge. I really liked the card with just the main panel and the sentiment panel, but in order to conform to the challenge sketch, I needed to include a vertical panel on the left. I got around this by using lightweight vellum stamped with yellow ink for that third panel. How sneaky!

Stamps: circle cluster and concentric dots from Circles & Dots set by Inkadinkado, mystery stamp set from Hobby Lobby.
Paper: glittery flowers, blue flower, and yellow blossoms and butterflies on white patterned papers from DCWV Butterflies & Blossoms paper stack. White cardstock, vellum.
Ink: Lime Pastel, Blue Lagoon, and Yellow Citrus fluid chalk ink from Colorbox Queue

This last card is based on SCS sketch challenge 117, and took approximately fifty billion hours to finish. The pink swirly foiled patterned paper is so fun and eyecatching, but also a little overwhelming and out of my comfort zone. I had to pull out some of my shabby chic/distressed techniques to tone down the fuschia a little bit. I did several things to the edges of the hot pink layer:

• sponged with Broken China Distress Ink
• sponged with Vintage Photo Distress Ink
• doodled a border
• stamped over the doodled border with a dotty flourish in Starry Night Palette Ink

Possibly the hardest part of this card was finding a suitable colour for the card base. I finally wound up using an ecru-coloured cardstock for the base and stamped it with a background stamp in Vintage Photo, then stippled Vintage Photo around the edges, and then finally ran the edges along my Chestnut Roan inkpad. This was just one of those cards that you spend FOREVER on and don't really get much satisfaction from finishing because you were so focused on averting disaster, you can't really like the results. Know what I mean?

Stamps: sentiment from Inkadinkado clear set, dotty flourish along border from Circles & Dots set by Inkadinkado, butterflies on focal layer by PSX, daisies on focal layer by Studio G, dotty flower background stamp by Judikins.
Paper: blue flower, and hot pink swirly foiled patterned papers from DCWV Butterflies & Blossoms paper stack. White and ecru cardstocks.
Ink: Vintage Photo and Broken China Distress Inks by Ranger. Chestnut Roan fluid chalk ink by Colorbox. Starry Night Palette hybrid ink.
Other: blue bling around edges of focal layer by Spare Parts, bling along swirl in bottom right corner from Michaels.

Colourvision Clock

I finally got some good photos of that project that I've mentioned a few times now! Hurray! It's an altered canvas clock that I was inspired to make after seeing a scrapbook canvas clock tutorial/thread on SCS. And in honour of the return to standard time from daylight savings, I thought I would upload this project. :D

The clockworks and hands came from a cheapie clock at Walmart (<$5); I saved the frame and face part of the clock for possibly another project. I bought the 11"x14" stretched canvas in a duo-pack from Hobby Lobby. I've got no immediate plans for the other canvas yet, aside from trying to store it in a way that won't damage it. I used swirly grungeboard stars for 12-3-6-9 hour markings, and plain grungeboard circles for the rest of the hours. To colour the canvas, I painted two coats of Watermelon gel paint by Keepsake Colours (Plaid). Then, after I let the gel paint cure for about two months because I had no idea where to go from there, I got inspired by the Inpsiration Challenge #150 on SCS and finished my canvas off by masking my base coat with some grungeboard flourishes and spraying Memories Mists by Stewart Superior. I used the dark Amaretto and Wheatgrass colours towards the edges of the canvas, and gradated to the centre with Strawberry Daiquiri, Orange Juice, and Mango Lemonade. Finally, I sealed with one layer of Royal Coat Decoupage medium by Plaid.

To make the hour markers, I knew I wanted to use my fancy-dancy Distress Crackle Paint in Spiced Marmalade, so I took the extra step of applying a coat of colour (Daiquiri scrapbook paint by Making Memories) under the crackle paint so it would show through and look awesome. It turns out I couldn't see the undercoat through the crackle anyways, but that's ok. To make the Spiced Marmalade blend more with the colours on the canvas, I stippled Coffee Bean Brilliance ink around the edges of each hour marker, and also rubbed some brown ink over each piece with a tissue so the cracks would have a brownish hue. To make the markers stand out from the canvas and take centre stage, I coated them with a layer of liquid glass product, and mounted them onto the canvas using foam dimensionals.

And yes, my clock really is as hypersaturated IRL as it is in the first photo; I love it! :) It's really tough to get a pic of that kind of colour (mebbe my camera was too busy moaning, "It burns, it burns!" to take a good pic?)

Some comments and tips:

• Paint and Memories Mists can take a reeallly looonnnnggg time to dry on canvas. Usually MM dries within minutes on paper, but took a few hours on the duck canvas.
• Don't use a heat gun on canvas the way you would on paper. It creates an alarming smell.
• You'll want to glue your clockworks to the back of the canvas. Otherwise, it'll hang askew and interfere with the ability of the hands to move as they are supposed to.
• If your clock is making a tic toc sound but the hands aren't moving, the hands are likely hung up on each other. To fix this, just push the hands into the motor lightly with one finger on the hand on each side of the centre of the clock, if that makes any sense.
• I applied my Royal Coat satin finish using a plastic promotional card, like a credit card but not worth anything. The Royal Coat is less prone to showing brushmarks than Mod Podge is, and applying with a card allows for more consistent and smoother coverage.
• You don't really have to let your paint cure for a few months on the canvas. I was just being silly saying that.
  

Manliest pink trees you ever saw!

This is my card for the Unity Challenge Wednesday, where we were to make masculine cards. I received this totally awesome 'happiness' stamp as a free gift with my first order from Unity. When I realised it was the same length as these mini giggle grove trees from the September Kit of the Month, I wanted to have the trees growing out of the word happiness! It was super-easy to line these up withOUT using any kind of stamp positioner; I did a test stamping of the trees just out of prudence to make sure the trunks ended where I thought they did from the back side of my acrylic handle.

I coloured the trees in using three shades of Prismas (Blush Pink first, followed by Pink around the edges, followed by blending using the Blush Pink pencil crayon again, followed by some highlighting around the edges with Dark Umber to make them blend in more with the papers). Then I topped the leafy parts off with a convex layer of Liquid Glass by Plaid -- love the effect now that I'm comfortable using this product!!! To tone down the stark white focal layer, I stippled the edges with Shabby Shutters and Vintage Photo inks. To help balance the patterns in the background layers, I also doodled a dashed border using the Burnt Sienna Prisma. To finish it off, I mounted the focal piece on dimensionals, and it looks really cool in real life.

Stamps: Unity gift 'happiness', trees from Unity's September KOM

Paper: True Thyme cardstock (SU, retired); white cardstock by Domtar; Saturate, Instill, and Condense patterned papers from Basic Grey's Infuse collection.

Ink: Coffee Bean Brilliance ink, Dark Moss fluid chalk ink by Clearsnap, Shabby Shutters and Vintage Photo Distress inks.

Other: liquid glass by Plaid, Coluzzle circle template, stipple brush, Prisma pencil crayons.


And now for something completely different -- a pic of my cat Fozzie!!! He LLLOOOOOVVVVES doing the faceplant into his Daddy's arm!!!!!

Two challenge cards in one day!

I'm just loving the inspiration pieces that SmilynStef found for this week's Inspiration Challenge -- Domino Paint Palettes. I made a second card for this challenge using my Unity Sept KOM. This time, I chose Room 34.


This is not exactly a "wild riot of prints" that I used with the "controlled colour palette" of pale blue with oatmeal-ish brown, but I just loved the idea of making a linear border with the giggle grove image. The ribbon came about because I was concerned the card would be a little too plain for my confidence level to give to anybody, and the sentiment is from a Hero Arts clear set that I use on just about every card I make, it seems like.

ETA: I'm sending this card to my brother for his birthday. :) He and his wife are in forestry, plus I like this card so much it is "family-worthy". :D Inside, I stamped a larger trio of trees image from this same stamp set and coloured them in in browns using my Prisma pencil crayons -- they look like a yummy chocolate forest!

Stamps: giggle grove of trees from Unity Stamps, sentiment from Hero Arts.

Paper: pale blue cardstock from Fiskars "Country" cardstock pack.

Other: brown organza ribbon by Offray.

Received my Unity KOM today!!!!!!

After a slight delay, I received this month's Unity Stamp Co. Kit of the Month!!! It got here only two days after being shipped out, woohoo!! Today is the day my favourite challenge at SCS, the Inspiration Challenge, releases new challenges, so I made my challenge card using my new stamps of course. :D I used Room 13 as my inspiration, and took a cue from the little description for that room and used white to balance the green colour scheme and strong visual impact of the swirly pinwheel background. I love these images, and wanted to let them take centre stage.




Stamps: swirly pinwheel, polka-dotted scallop border, and giggle grove of trees from Unity's September stamp kit of the month. "hello" from a Hero Arts clear stamp set.

Paper: white cardstock by Domtar, white card base by Halcraft.

Ink: Ranger Distress Ink in Shabby Shutters, Versamagic chalk ink in Aloe Vera

Other: Prismacolor pencil crayons to colour in the leafy bits of the trees.

My other major achievements of today are:

• I ***finally*** got to the post office to mail off my Dad's birthday card (his bday is at the beginning of AUGUST!) and a parcel of altered mailboxes to my sister's family. They've been sitting in my craft room for a couple of weeks now and with my husband's help, I finally got it together enough to make it to the PO today.
• Finished up two other cards that basically just needed to be assembled.