Moments

This year, I post with a promise to craft more then disappear for several weeks. Truth is, my only excuse is too much screen time. But I broke away from the current events long enough to make this card using Simon's Monday challenge prompt, "We're Going Around in Circles."

It's simple enough, the paper is all Tim Holtz along with the foregound stamp (Tiny Prints). The flowers were accented with white Distress. A thin line of silver Stickles along with Nuvo Crystal Drops (Malted Milk) were used to accent the edge of the circle and I used a Small Talk sticker for text.

I felt I had to balance out the top of the circle somehow so I added a scrap of cheese cloth and a tiny Mirrored Star.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Window Cat Times Three

I really like this stamp (Colorado Craft Company, New Day Windowsill), so I used it to make three more greeting cards that I'm sharing with you today.

The first one was cut-out after water coloring, placed on a stamped background (Tim Holtz Tiny Prints), and trimmed with Nuvo Crystal Drops and a Remnant Rub.

The next one was left on the watercolor paper (hot press), placed on a stamped background and trimmed out with lace and another Remnant Rub.

The final card (which is my favorite) was also cut-out and mounted as above. I tinted the tiny flowers in the background with white ink, distressed the edges with walnut ink and trimmed it with Nuvo Crystal Drops and a stamped greeting (from the set).

I tried to select sentiments that conveyed contemplative thoughts--human or feline.☺

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Valentine Love

My card-making friend, Thelma, always mails a large batch of her handmade Valentine's Day cards to Loveland, Colorado, each year, where they receive a special postmark before forwarding to the recipients.

A special poem is also stamped on the envelope--here is what was on mine this year:

Travel by train, by letter or card,

My love note will find you, wherever you are.

Via Sweetheart City my message departs

And speeds on its journey straight to your heart.

 

The card above is what I'll be sending to her. It's made with Idea-ology lace, Botanical collage paper, paper stash, a scrap of fabric and lots of Stickles and Nuvo Crystal Drops.

I'm linking up to Simon's Monday challenge, "Love is in the Air."

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

 

No. 3 for Christmas, 2022

I took inspiration for this Christmas tag from Paula Cheney and a piece she created several years ago for an Advent calendar (see it here).

I cut the wings from a vintage portrait folder and distressed with paint, sandpaper and crackle medium then mounted on paper, tissue scraps and fabric. The text was made with a Tim Holtz Christmas stencil and covered with Glossy Accents.

The crown was cut from a discarded book then covered with Stickles, Glossy Accents and Nuvo Crystal Drops. I outlined the edges with more Stickles and darkened them with a water-soluble graphite pencil.

The crowning jewel (so-to-speak) is a vintage button from my great aunt's collection.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Elizabeth II

Who could not be moved by the most honorable life of Queen Elizabeth II? With respect to her passing, Simon's prompt this week is "Sparkle and Shine" and she certainly was all that and so much more.

"May flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest."

 

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Ethical Skeptics

Sharing a mixed media collage today whose base is a vintage portrait folder combined with cuttings from scraps of Paper Stash. A vintage postcard (1915) creates another layer and includes an image transfer of a vintage photo that took my fancy. The text is also an image transfer and the borders were embellished with Nuvo Crystal Drops.

Just in case you are wondering:

praedicate evidentia – hyperbole in extrapolating or overestimating the preponderance of evidence supporting a specific claim (even to convention), when few examinations of merit have been conducted regarding a hypothesis, or few or no such studies of the subject have indeed been conducted at all.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Uvalde

  (Quote: Jandy Nelson, The Sky is Everywhere)

Hero Arts Succulent Bouquet

 

I purchased a new stamp set and used it on hot-press watercolor paper. Ever experimenting, I used an olive green shade of Nuvo Crystal Drops to fill some of the leaf areas then couldn't help but throw down some dots around the flower edges.

I created a border with a fine-line marker and green gold Nuvo Glitter Drops. It was mounted on plaid printed paper with a black card stock foundation.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

The Spring of Youth

I made this card by stenciling with paste over a book page then tinting it with inks. The butterflies were cut from scrap book paper. I stitched it to a card and used dimensional dots and glitter for accents.

I'm linking up to Simon for the weekly challenge, "Use At Least One Stencil."

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Chickadee

First time using a new stamp (Whimsy Chickadee), one I had my eye on for awhile, but was a little disappointed once received because it's not trimmed and doesn't have an image on the top side to help with alignment.

I stamped on book paper, tinted with colored pencils and Distress inks, and placed the image behind an oval cut from scrapbook paper (also distressed). I machine-stitched the borders, darkened the edges for accent, added crystal drops from Nuvo and heat-embossed the text.

I'm linking up to Simon's "thinking of you" challenge.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Plain Jane

Describing how I made this card will be a challenge but you might like to try it yourself so here goes.

I used two designs from a coordinated set of 6" square printed paper, one was a solid green brocade, the other two were matching pages with stripes and handwriting.

One non-solid became the background. One non-solid was stamped with the flowers (avoiding the green section). The solid sheet (all green) was also stamped with the same image.

All the stamping was fussy-cut, I removed the leaves from the non-solid piece and pasted it one top of the all green sheet lining up the images.

I darkened the blossoms with a tiny bit of Distress ink and left the leaves as is. I framed it with solid papers and Nuvo Crystal drops. 

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Splendid Things

 

I'm posting this just in time to link up with Simon's Monday challenge. This week's theme is to make anything but a card so it was a fine time to make a tag.

I've noticed a new greeting card format that's long and skinny and happens to be the same size as a #8 manila tag (obviously without cut corners and a hole on top ☺). I've sent tags through the mail before (I make a custom envelope) but I've never used this format to make a card and plan to try it.

The background for this tag is a scrap from the Abandoned paper stash (Tim Holtz) and the flowers (Simon's Beautiful Flowers) were stamped on kraft paper and tinted with colored pencils before fussy-cutting. The kraft paper gave the flowers a nice vintage vibe.

I used a strip of Design Tape (Tim Holtz), some text cut from a book and there's a tiny bit of Nuvo Crystal Drops along one side of the tape.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

Neighbors

Fortunately, during this pandemic and the stay at home orders, the weather here is suitable for walking outdoors and my neighbors are taking advantage of it.

As I gaze out my window, I am seeing many of them for the very first time!

The "neighborly" text sticker (Tim Holtz) seemed right for this tag made with a printed vintage photo that was cut-out and pasted over succulent plants cut from scrapbook paper (Kaisercraft).

I'm linking this up with Simon's Monday challenge blog because many succulent plants start with the name Echeveria and this week's theme is the letter E.

As always, I hope this post finds you well and happy and I appreciate your visit.

Until next time, take care.

12 Tags for Christmas 2019 - Peace Love Joy

Wishing all of you peace, love and joy this Christmas!

Tag 10 for Christmas 2019 is book paper covered with tissue, pasted with die-cut pieces and tinted/embellished with ink, paint and glitter.

Click to Enlarge

The black and red tinting was created using ink pens and a waterbrush. I draw the ink lines and before they dry, I use the brush to spread/blur the color.

The die-cut pieces (Tim Holtz Poinsettia) came from Thelma's Christmas card.

The best feature here is the area inside the poinsettia where I applied Rock Candy Distress Stickles. Remember this stuff? It's a product that's been discontinued and one I wish they'd bring back!

This Happy Life

Thanks to Columbus, I had the day off yesterday and an opportunity to make something for Simon's Monday challenge (this week's theme is "Pink").

Nothing says pink like a coneflower so I made this tag by stamping on watercolor paper (Tim Holtz Flower Garden), the text is an old Remnant Rub, and the border was machine-stitched and dotted with Nuvo Crystal Drops.

Just a few things, technique-wise, that you might appreciate:

I'm sure you've seen the "no-line" technique when it comes to stamping an image that you plan to watercolor using a light shade of dye (water-based) ink so the lines disappear. But I like the lines! So for this tag, I stamped with archival inks using a pink, a tea stain, and a dark brown shade. The lines darkened somewhat after the watercoloring was applied.

Obviously, I had to do some masking to stamp this arrangement. But I didn't use the stems that come with the set and drew them on instead.

The photo above shows how I painted the background first using a juicy puddle of cobalt blue.

The bee was an after-thought. It was stamped onto a piece of tissue paper, cut-out, pasted on and then I dabbed a tiny bit of yellow paint on to its body.

It's also worth mentioning that I prefer to use a "hot-press" version of watercolor paper when I plan to stamp on it. Cold-press has bumps that I think make it harder to get a crisp image.

If you haven't tried watercoloring with rubber stamps, I can tell you it really is a lot of fun and very rewarding. Go for it!

Purple Martin

Autumn is Simon's Monday challenge this week and was the inspiration for this greeting card. I dug out an older (but favorite) paper stash by Tim Holtz called Wallflower and the bird (a Purple Martin), leaves and feathers were cut from it.

The background paper is this year's Halloween release from Tim called Abandoned. Run, don't walk to purchase (before it's all gone) if you like dark-colored, jewel-toned distress-looking paper.

I couldn't resist adding the book text. It accidentally showed up on my desk while working and it just seemed like karma to add it. I expect to use the card as a kind of "get well" greeting to provide words of encouragement.

The border was made with Copper Scribbles and Olive Branch Nuvo Crystal Drops.

To prevent warping, I pasted the various cut-out bits using tiny drops of a quick dry adhesive only where needed (on the floppy bits, etc.).

I also tinted the leaves ever so lightly with colored pencils and a bit of ink to alter their original neutral appearance.

Fortune Cookies

What have I been up to lately? Making Asian-inspired paper-folded Christmas box ornaments that can hold a treat--of course!

It was the project idea I came up with after being invited to a guest spot on the The Funky Junkie Boutique blog. The challenge is "Treats Not Tricks" and here's the description:

• Choose a theme and make something that will hold a treat for someone.  It could be a Halloween treat bag, a Valentine's candy box, a birthday card for a special person that holds a treat (could be a gift card "treat" or a bite of chocolate), anything that can hold a treat.

To make my box ornaments, I found some patterns here and used the Oriental Garden paper collection by Stamperia and lots of different glitter glues for decoration.

I used tracing paper and a scoring tool to transfer the patterns and quick-dry adhesive to hold them together after folding.

They looked rather plain in the beginning, but the real fun comes when you get out the glitter glue to decorate them. Nothing says Christmas like a little bling ☺!

Ornaments before decorating - click to enlarge

For gift-giving, I can tuck a treat inside or perhaps a note with a special wish or promise (kind of like a fortune cookie). Here are a couple examples of how the boxes open.

I look forward to seeing everyone's projects and encourage you enter the challenge--you might win a guest spot like I did and it's been a lot a fun. Thanks for stopping by!

Hello Friend

This card/stamping took so many tries that I almost gave up.

My artistic point-of-view takes a turn when I set about making a card. I try to be very precise so it looks "store-bought" but if it were a tag or mixed media project, I'd embrace the imperfection.

Eventually, I come around and remember that the hand-made qualities are what makes card-making superior to those that are mass-produced and machine-made. I will be bookmarking this post so I can remind myself of this point for the next time!

In this close-up, I'll point out that I stamped the image (Tim Holtz Flower Jar) on scrapbook paper using archival ink and tinted it with gel pens. For the water in the jar and the table-top, I spread the ink using a water brush (same as with the tops of the purple flowers).

The submerged stems were hand-drawn and smudged and it was tricky to get it to look right. I should have practiced on some scrap before attempting it on my card and I wouldn't have had so many do-overs (duh!).

The oval frame was machine-stitched but needed something else so I used a white Gelly Roll pen to highlight the edges.

Some of my readers know that I often use dimensional products like Scribbles or Liquid Pearls to make dots. I recently discovered a new product called Nuvo Crystal Drops (which I really like) and went kind of crazy with them here.

Mounting all of this on kraft cardstock helped convey the old-fashioned feel of the card.

I'm linking up to Simon, this week's Monday challenge is Beautiful Blooms and then I'm tossing this card in the post. 

BTW, the sentiment is from a new stamp set by Simon called Delicate Flowers. I splurged and bought the May card kit and am excited about using it.  Stay tuned!

Love Always

Tim Holtz (Idea-ology) came out with a new product this year called Baseboard Dolls and I received some of them to use on projects for the Creativation booth. The little girl on this tag was a Baseboard Doll that I converted to a regular one by peeling her off the substrate.

She sports one of Tim's new Transparent Wings and I used a flower from the previous version of Botanical Layers that also comes on sturdy paper which I peeled off to make more suitable for collage.

The background was part of the instructions from a needlework pattern that I tinted with Distress Ink.

I dabbed on a very small amount of alcohol ink to tint the wings (originally clear) with a combo of Butterscotch and Watermelon and some hand-sanitizer to help dilute it and spread it around.

They were attached with a drop of epoxy in the center of the girl's back and the remainder of the wing surface moves freely.

Click to Enlarge

For the first time, I also used a product call Nuvo Crystal Drops (Olive Branch) to make dots along the tag border.  Some of you probably know how much I like to use Scribbles (a 3D fabric paint) or Liquid Pearls to create a similar effect but that paint is opaque and this product is transparent, behaves like a tinted version of Glossy Accents, and I like it a lot!

I'm linking up to Simon's Monday Challenge Blog--this week's theme is Love is in the Air.