Make it Monday #190 - Stamping A Plaid Background

Good morning friends.  Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday?!!  Ate too much, but had a wonderful time visiting with my mom and my brother and his family! :0)

Today I'm playing along with the Make it Monday challenge over at Papertrey Ink.  Ashley Canon Newell shows how to make a plaid background and her card was SO pretty, I wanted to completely CASE it, except that I don't have the "Background Basics: Super Stripes" stamp set to create the plaid pattern that she did.  (It's on  my wish list now!!!)  So anyway, I did some digging through my stamps, and while my card is a simple, simple CASE of Ashley's, I was quite happy with what I figured out to use to create my plaid.  Take a look and see if you can guess what I used:

 
Well...any guesses??  I actually used part of the stamp from "Boutique Borders: Baby".  The parallel lines on this stamp are only about 2 1/4" long, so I had to do some matching up to make the lines fit across the width of my cardstock panel, but if you don't look too closely, it looks ok.  I used Scarlett Jewell (stamping twice to get the darker and lighter stripes) and Simply Chartreuse inks.  I used a grosgrain ribbon to cover the edge and then pop dotted my sentiment ("Season's Greetings") that I stamped inside the "Boutique Borders: Thanks" stamp and die.  I added a few gold sequins to finish and voila!... a humble copy of Ashley's beautiful card that you can see right here .

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  I'm going into Christmas mode and pulling out all the decorations today and am excited for tonight to come when I can sit back with some Christmas music playing, gazing at the lights on the tree, and taking the time to contemplate the real meaning of the season! :0)  Last year Melissa Phillips posted a link to a video by the Piano Guys doing O Come, O Come Emmanuel that is absolutely beautiful...I probably play it every couple weeks and never get tired of it.  If you have a few minutes, I highly recommend taking the time to watch it and it really will get you into the right frame of mind for this amazing season that's now upon us.  O Come, O Come Emmanuel - Christmas Version   

Papertrey Ink November 2014 Blog Hop - #2

Hello again friends.  Just a quick entry for the "Snow" blog hop over at Papertrey Ink.  I've been making lots of tags lately, and thought this one would be perfect for the hop.  Take a look:

I started with a Tag Sale #4 die and also the snow die from "Wonderful Words: Snow".  I masked the center of the tag with the word snow, and then used some TH distress inks to color the tag.  After removing the mask, I added the "snow" I had die cut  (and embossed with silver a part of the snowflake from Phrase Play #9) with pop dots so it would stand out more.  I added a few of the silver stars from the Shakers & Sprinkles Make it Market kit to my background, and finished with a seam binding ribbon (I dyed to match), silver cording, and a snowflake sequin.

Hope you're having fun blog hopping and seeing all the great projects out there!  You can check it all out right here .

Thanks again for stopping by! :0)

Papertrey Ink November 2014 Blog Hop

Hello friends.  Playing along with Papertrey Ink's monthly blog hop, where the theme this month is SNOW!  And while we haven't had as much snow as the folks in Buffalo, we've had our snowiest November since they started keeping records back in the 1800's, so I feel very qualified to play along with this challenge! :0)  While I may not be thrilled with the real stuff, I do love the beauty of snowflakes, and my favorite snowflake this year is from PTI's "Phrase Play #9".  And of course falling snowflakes made me think of shaker cards.....

Because of the poor lighting, it's hard to see, but after cutting out several snowflakes in white cs, I lightly pressed them into my Aqua Mist ink pad, and then dipped the edges into my Versamark pad and embossed with silver.  The Aqua Mist on the snowflakes ties in with the "wishes" I stamped behind the shaker part of the card.  Most of the confetti is from the "Shakers & Sprinkles" Make it Market kit.  I love how my flash picked up on the sparkle of the holographic paper I used to make the shaker part of the card!  I also added a few of the rainstones to my background to finish off the card.

You can check out all the other great cards and get all the info you need to play along today right here .

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do! :0)

Happy Birthday Sue!

Good morning friends.  Today is my dear friend Sue's birthday.  We have been friends since our oldest daughters (they're 25 now) started pre-school, and share the love of many of the same things (our faith, reading, music, Charlie Brown, m & m's), and of course the biggie...stamping!  So today I would like to share the birthday card I made her.  Ever since another stamping friend of mine sent me this Halloween card, I have been in love with the screen panel cards.  Checking them out on Pinterest gave me lots of ideas, and this is what I came up with:

I started with a 5 1/2 x 11 piece of Blackberry Bliss cs and scored the long way at 2 3/4 intervals.  I used the Decorative Label punch (SU!) on the bottom and the Scallop Trim Border punch (retired - SU!) on top.  I used Gina K's Pure Ivory cs to do my stamping with "Mum's the Word" and Delightful Dahlia Additions" (PTI). The die cuts are from PTI's Wet Paint.  These cards are really very easy to do and make for something not only different, but fun too! :0)

I have a really cute snowman screen panel card to share with you too, so stay tuned!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and if you'd like to wish Sue a Happy Birthday too, you can go to her blog to do that and also see all her beautiful creations. Sue's Stamping Station
  

Who Doesn't Love a Little Sparkle & Shine????

Good morning friends.  Sharing a couple more gift tags today, and who doesn't love a little sparkle & shine (aka shaker tag) on their Christmas gifts??? 

I used PTI's Tag Sale #4 die to create the background piece and the red overlay, and then used a Spellbinders circle die to cut out the center of the red overlay piece.  I stamped the background piece with PTI's "Sparkle & Shine Holiday Additions".  The confetti is red, white, & green (Hobby Lobby) and the "Shine" die cut (also PTI) was cut from silver holographic cardstock (Michaels).  Easy peasy and fun!! :0)

Here's another version using the same "Shine" die cut:

This tag started with a Tag Sale #8 die cut (PTI), and then I used a few TH distress inks to stencil the starburst (Memory Box) on.  I used the same sentiment from my shaker tag and added a few iridescent sequins to finish this simple tag.

 Got to spend some time with our granddaughter Addy this weekend and have to share a couple pictures...she is growing so much!!

She is such a happy baby and just a joy to be around!! :0)

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I'll be back tomorrow with a birthday card and couple of projects for PTI's blog hop.  Have a great day.

Make it Monday #189 - Impression Line Watercoloring

Hello friends.  Playing along with Erin Lincoln and Papertrey Ink's Make it Monday challenge today.  Again, I was a little limited in my choice of dies for this challenge, but it turned out ok and I have another Christmas card to add to my stash!  I used the Songbirds stamp set and dies for my card (have I mentioned before how much I like this set?!!!), and used the branch/leaves die to partially emboss and then paint the outlines with my Twinkling H20's.  Take a look:

The 2nd photo shows the outlines a bit better, and I used my Aqua Painter with Golden Jade Twinkling H20's. (I haven't used these in years and years and years, and was very surprised to find that they still work!  Hard to tell, but IRL the outline really shimmers!)  I filled in the leaves with New Leaf ink.  I used a script background stamp and Crumb Cake ink to give a little more visual interest to this layer and also sponged the edges with Antique Linen distress ink.  I added some scraps of DSP to my card base along with some paper lace.  The banner and the birds are both from the Songbirds set.  I finished with a few dots of red Stickles for the berries. 

You can check out Erin's video and beautiful card right here .

Thanks so much for stopping by...love it when you do! :0)

More Tags....

Good morning friends.  A little bit like blizzard conditions in my "neck of the woods" today, so a good time to just stay inside and stamp, right?!  Anyway, been making LOTS of tags lately, so over the next few weeks I'll be showing them to you...hopefully you'll be inspired to make your own! :0)  The tags I'd like to share with you today are using a new to me product called Frantage Shabby White Embossing Enamel.  It's a white and gold embossing powder that you sprinkle directly to the top of your project without using any sticking agent like Versamark, and then use your heat tool from below rather than on top.  YES, it is extremely MESSY!!  And yes, there is a bit of a learning curve in using it, but the results are SO cool looking!  Take a look:

 
We haven't had much sunlight here lately, so it's hard to see the gold speckles mixed in with all the white, but IRL it is definitely there and looks so neat and "vintage-y" (is that a word???).  The trees are from a TH die, the joy die is PTI's Holiday Wet Paint, and my back ground is a faux mother of pearl technique (found on Loll Thompson's site here ).  I used Antique Linen and Tea Dye distress inks along with White Opal Liquid Pearls to create that look, along with SU!'s "Pattern" and "Script" background stamps.  Quite a process for "just tags", but I really like how they turned out, and they are going to look great on the vintage-y wrapping paper I found at Michael's in their dollar spot! :0)

Thanks so much for stopping by today...I love it when you do!! :0)      
 

A Little Birdie.......

Hello friends.  Just a quick post today, but wanted to share a card and some tags I made using Penny Black's  little birds from her Winter Wonderland stamp set.

Don't these birdie's just make you smile?!!  LOVE them!!  If you have any questions about what stamps and dies I used, just give me a holler! :0)

Thanks for stopping by...I love it when you do!! :0)

Peace & Joy

Good morning friends.  Been busy this week making LOTS of tags, and thought I'd share a couple using SU!'s "Ornamental Pine" stamp set.

Both backgrounds were sponged using TH distress inks (Stormy Sky, Tumbled Glass, & Salty Ocean), and then the first tag I embossed with white and then used a few Copic markers to color over the embossing.  (Alcohol inks like Copics will stay on heat embossing, where regular markers will not)  The 2nd tag I colored with SU! markers (Always Artichoke, Old Olive, & Whisper White) directly onto the stamp.  The embossing and Copic colors take a bit more time, but pop a bit more and I think look a little more realistic.  Finished with PTI's Holiday Wet Paint dies and a few gold sequins. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful (and warm if you're in my "neck of the woods"...COLD and snowy here!!) weekend! :0)

Make it Monday #188 - Stamping Ombre Backgrounds

Good morning friends.  Laura Bassen is hosting this weeks Make it Monday challenge and shows us how to use the ombre effect for backgrounds on our cards.  I thought I had a quick and simple idea for my card that should only take a half hour or so to make.  Two and a half hours later and a fuller wastebasket, I finally had a card that I considered "ok". 

I knew I wanted to stay in the "blue" family and use my "Fancy Flakes" die, but the colors became my first issue.  I only have 3 blue colors from PTI: Hawaiian Shores, Aqua Mist, & Spring Rain.  I used "Background Basics: Super Chevron" to start building my ombre background, but once I added the Spring Rain to the Hawaiian Shores and Aqua Mist, I didn't like it!  I tried it a few different ways, but it just didn't look right, so I ended up only using the Hawaiian Shores and Aqua Mist.  Then I cut out the snowflake and replaced all the small pieces to keep my chevron pattern going and stamped my sentiment....and the center of my sentiment didn't stamp...grrrrrr!!  Of course I tried to match up and stamp over it, but no luck!  Stamped another background and carefully stamped my sentiment...so far so good!  Cut out my snowflake, punched out the small parts, replaced the stamped snowflake with a plain white snowflake on the card (inset), and then went to replace the small stamped pieces, and couldn't find them all!  My elbow must of brushed them off my desk, and I don't know if one of the dogs got them or what, but I could NOT find them!  Started at the beginning AGAIN, and this time when I stamped the sentiment, I also added a small black line right over the bottom of the snowflake (top of my acrylic block got some ink on it and I didn't realize it until after I stamped the sentiment!).  At this point I was SO frustrated, but refused to start from the beginning again, and just added the bakers twine to cove up the black line.  Anyway, it's done and it is what it is! 

Make sure you check out Laura's beautiful card and video, and all the other great entries, over on Nichole's blog right here .

Thanks so much for stopping by today and listening to me grumble...hopefully the rest of the day will go much better! :0)

Joyeux Noel

Good morning friends.  Sharing a card today that I had made for a Merry Monday challenge a few weeks ago, and then forgot to post it! 

Believe it or not, I started with a piece of Smokey Slate cardstock for this card.  After embossing it with a new (to me) snowflake ef (Darice), I sponged it with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, and now the color is more tan than gray.  Coupled with the sponged snow banks and deer die cut (TH), the card took on a very vintage look.  Here's a closer view of the deer:

 
I used a newsprint DSP (SU!) for the deer, and after also sponging him, I embossed a small snowflake with white embossing powder all over his body.  Added a seam binding ribbon around the deer's neck and the sentiment (PTI) to finish.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful start to your week! :0)

November Birthdays

Good morning friends.  LOTS of November birthdays in my family and circle of friends, so thought I'd share a couple cards I made for the birthdays this week.

I used the same stamp set (PTI's "Mum's the Word") for both cards...just different colored card bases.  The first card uses Blackberry Bliss and the 2nd card Hello Honey cs and inks (SU!).  I also used Pumpkin Pie and Old Olive inks.  The top card uses PTI's "Wet Paint" die and stamp set for the sentiment, and PTI's "Think Big Favorites: #24" for the 2nd card.  Both simple, but bright and cheery with bold and bright fall colors. :0)

Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful weekend! :0)

Make it Monday #187 - Partial Die Cuts for the Holidays

Good morning friends.  This weeks Make it Monday challenge has Melissa Phillip's showing her magic with partial die cuts on holiday tags.  I can't resist anything Melissa does, and had a delightful time making Christmas tags using the "Basic Bookmark #3 Die". 

I started with an extra heavy weight cardstock (it's almost like chipboard and had to use my metal shim to make it cut out!) and then stamped the bottom third with SU!'s "En Francais" background stamp in Crumb Cake ink, and then the music lines twice in black from PTI's "Songbirds" stamp set.  Next I used some distress ink (TH - Antique Linen) on the edges of the bookmark to give it a bit more vintage look. I used the leaf die from "Songbirds" on kraft cs and the snowflake from "Phrase Play #9" stamp set on white card stock and then lined them up on the bookmark so that the edges were cut off when I ran it through my Cuttlebug again.  (I also embossed some gold on the edges of the snowflake beforehand like we learned about a couple of MIM's ago!)  I used a gold mirrored cs for the joy sentiment (PTI's Wet Paint Holiday Dies) and for the layer behind the bird die cut. I finished by adding a few rainstones (PTI) and some dyed to match seam binding ribbon and bakers twine.  Here's a bit closer up view for you:

 
I also sprayed the heck out of the bookmark with Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist, so it really, REALLY shimmers in real life!  (wish I could figure out how to photograph that shimmer...grrrrr!)  Anyways, super happy with how these bookmark tags turned out (I actually made 3 of them) and am excited to put them on special gifts this year! :0)

Make sure you check out Melissa's video and beautiful Christmas tag, and then play along.  You can find all the info right here on Nichole's blog.

**Edited to add:  It was suggested that I add this tag to Loll Thompson's "Twelve Tags of Christmas" challenge.  Loll has some absolutely stunning tags on her blog already and it's only day 3!  You can check it all out right here .

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day! :0)

O Holy Night

Good morning friends.  A deceptively simple card to share with you today using distress inks and a new stamp set from Paper Smooches (A Blessed Christmas SES220).  Take a look:

I started with a die cut circle (Lil Inkers) and then curved the photopolymer stamp of Bethlehem to fit in the bottom curve of the circle and stamped the image in black ink.  Next came the fun part of creating the night time sky using TH distress inks and blending "Faded Jeans", "Stormy Sky", "Tumbled Glass", and "Dusty Concord" together.  I used gold pigment ink and one of the stamps from SU!'s "Glorious Grunge" to create the stars in the sky.  The sentiment is from the Paper Smooches stamp set.  Here's a closer up view of the blending and stars:

 
There are a lot of different videos out there on how to do these blended skies, and what I've taken away from the ones I watched is using Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tools, a LIGHT circular motion to blend, and repeatedly going over your color until you reach the intensity you like.  They all come out differently, but oh so pretty! 

That's all for today, but I'll be back tomorrow with a tag I made for the newest Make it Monday challenge if I can get enough light to photograph it.  Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day! :0)

Fall Wondrous Wreath

Good morning friends.  Hope you all had a great weekend and Halloween!  The rain and snow mix stopped in time for trick or treating here, but we still only had 13 kids come to the door.  Yep, that means I have LOTS of candy left over, dang it!  I also had time this weekend to play with some TH distress inks and a new Paper Smooches stamp set, but haven't had time to photograph them yet, so today I'll stick with the Fall season and share a card I made using a die cut wreath my cousin sent me.

This wreath is from SU!'s "Wondrous Wreath" die and stamp set, and she used the baby wipe ink pad technique.  I'm guessing at the colors here, but I think she used Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey, Tangelo Twist, and Old Olive.  I sponged around the edges with Old Olive ink to give the wreath a bit more definition, and then pop dotted it onto a Old Olive "Stitched Circle Die" from Lil Inker.  I used the "Hardwood" background stamp (SU!) and Crumb Cake ink for the card base layer.  A little tag (PTI) with a stamped leaf (SU!) and some twine finished off this simple but pretty (IMHO!!) rustic Fall card. (Thanks Sue for the great start to this card!!)

Thanks so much for stopping by today and have a wonderful Monday! :0)