Attitude of Gratitude

From The Funkie Junkie

The challenge this week at Flourishes Timeless Tuesday is stamp misting. I'd been itching to get going on this piece all last week, but just couldn't squeeze it in. I got a chance to stamp on Sunday and finished it up just under the wire today. Stamp misting is a technique that I hve always loved. It gives such a gentle, soft-focus look. I haven't used it in forever so I really wanted to see what I could do with it now. I purchased this Inkadinkado set a couple of weeks ago at Jo-Ann's at 40% off when I realized I don't really have many autumn stamps. The misting technique worked perfectly with the solid stamps in this set.

I am also entering this card into several other fall themed challenges:

Allsorts Challenge this week which is Autumn Days - it can be anything that makes you think of autumn

OohLaLaCreations - Shades of Autumn

If the Shoe Fits - Must have leaves

I stamped the flourish leaves in Close to Cocoa, More Mustard, Really Rust and Always Artichoke. Each time, after inking the stamp, I lightly misted the stamp with water before stamping. Using markers, the pumpkin was inked with Pumpkin Pie, Close to Cocoa and Always Artichoke, misted and stamped. The corner treatments and the piece the pumpkin is mounted on are die cuts from the Spellbinders Lattice Pendant die. I heat embossed them with gold embossing powder. The Gratitude stamps is also gold emobssed.

The ribbon thingy was made by stitching two satin ribbons straight down the middle with a long stitch and then gathering it to pucker it up. I found a matching button and tied it on with a piece of hemp thread. The Pumpkin Pie layer is clear embossed with a leaf flourish stamp from this set. As always, I couldn't resist roughing up the cardstock edges with scissors and sponging a bit of Creamy Caramel and Tim Holtz Vintage Photo ink to age it. The designer paper is by Melissa Frances.

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

A Monochromatic Christmas

From The Funkie Junkie

This week's challenge at Our Creative Corner is to make a monochromatic card! I have never done one, at least knowingly, so here is my first-ever monochromatic card. Actually, I'm not even sure if I have achieved a monochromatic style. I tried to make it several shades of red, but even though I used several papers and embellishments, they all seem to be pretty much the same shade of red. And this card is RED. Good thing it is my favorite color so I really do like how the card came out, but I'm sure not everyone will feel the same way.

I used one of my last sheets of Cosmo Cricket Be Good paper and one from last year's Oh Joy collections. I love that paper and hate to see my stash dwindling away (I'll probably end up surfing the 'net to order a few more sheets if I can locate any). I wanted to make it a shabby chic collage type card. For some reason, all my Christmas cards come out shabby. I swear I don't plan them that way - they just take on a life of their own. Anyway, shabby was lots of fun making this card. The edges of the DSP were scissor distressed and inked with Creamy Caramel. All the stamping was done with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap ink. The stamp set used was SU's Yuletide Montage. Spellbinders used were Lattice Shapeabilities Pendants and one of the tag dies. I also used several Prima flowers, some red velvet Prima ribbon and Prima crystals. The tiny red crystals were from Joanns. The snowflakes were cut with a CB die and coated with SU Dazzling Diamonds glitter. The red gingham paper is from Creative Memories which was altered by sanding and sponging with Creamy Caramel ink. The Christmas sheet music was printed out from a graphic on The Graphic Fairy's website.









Let me know what you think of this card. Do you like the Shabby Chic style or do you prefer a more clean and simple style?

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!



Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

Night of the Black Cat

From The Funkie Junkie

Here is my last guest designer card for the Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog. Whew, those three months sure went fast. I have so enjoyed being part of that talented group. This challenge is a sketch challenge and I chose to make it a seasonal card - Halloween. I haven't really gotten into making Halloween cards in the past, but last year there were so many great vintage Halloween images out. I didn't get a chance to make any cards with them so I have been looking forward to making two or three this year. I love the way this one came out. The black cat images are vintage ditigal images that I bought on Etsy (sorry I don't remember the seller's name). The card is made on a shell of Basic Black; The next layer up is also Basic Black, clear embossed with the old SU Filagree stamp. I love the black on black effect of the clear embossing on the black. The stamps used are from Pink Paislee's Twilight Collection. The paper is Melissa Frances "Garnet" and the retired SU Pumpkin Pie DSP. Both papers were altered. The black design on the Melissa Frances paper was brown, but I took a black marker and inked over the brown.

The orange striped paper from the Pumpkin Pie collection was sponged with Creamy Caramel and a little Tim Holtz Vintage Photo to tone it down a bit. I used the same ink treatment on the orange gingham ribbon. It was to bright and white. The tiny little cats were punched out with an old craft punch. The ones on the front were also glazed with Crystal Effects. I also created a flourish by making small dots with black dimensional paint. Below you can see the inside of the card.

I am also entering this card into the Creative Card Crew challenge this week, which is to decorate the inside of your card. Additionally, the Cute Daisy May blog has a challenge this week to use texture on your card. I always load up with texture. I think that's my favorite part of card making! So I have entered this card in that challenge too.

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

OCC Challenge - Strawberries, Chocolate & Pearls

From Our Creative Corner

Have you checked out the OCC challenge for this week? It's an mummm, yummy color challege reminding me of some of my favorite foods. It's an inspiration color challenge featuring the colors hot pink, light pink, chocolate brown and white which reminds me of some of my favorite foods, namely strawberries and chocolate!! even though my mouth was watering, I still struggled with this challenge I think I spent at least three evenings on it! Here is the result. I actually had chocolate brown pearls instead of the white ones, but I re-read the challenge guidelines just before I uploaded and yikes(!!) I realized I missed the color white. So I carefuly pried off the brown pearls and replaced them with the white ones - but I really liked the chocolate brown pearls a lot better!! Anyway, here is my response to Dana's challenge this week. Be sure to check out the challenge and see what the other DT members have come up with to inspire you this week.



Update: Here's another Pink & Brown challenge that I am entering. It's the C. R. A. F. T. Challenge. Check it out and maybe enter your card there too!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Always and So Many Sayings by Stampin' Up!, various clear stamps from Laudry Line (My Mind's Eye)
Paper: Stampin' Up: Close to Cocoa & Pink Piourette (retired), K& Co.
Ink: Versamark, Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Spellbinders Labels One and Lattice Borderabilities, silver EP, Martha Stweart ribbon, Martha Stewart leaf punch, Blue Moon charm, paer flowers by Prima (colored with Copics), Hodege Podge Hardware - Silver, KaiserKraft pearls.

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

Back to School

From The Funkie Junkie

About a month ago, I discovered a fabulous blog called The Graphics Fairy. Karen, the blog owner, has some amazing vintage graphics that are downloadable for free. I spent an entire evening delightedly wallowing in vintage art. This darling vintage drawing of a school boy really grabbed me. I saved it and have been dying to use it to make a vintage card, but I wanted to use just the right DP. I finally settled on this Cosmo Cricket Jack's World-Lessons paper along with a little Basic Gray Cupcake paper and this creation was born. I really had a ball making it. The only stamping involved was on the inside where I stamped a Rubbernecker sentiment. I created an old-fashioned slate using black cardstock which I framed with a piece of chipboard covered with a woodgrained paper and cut with Nestabilities. I took a sponge that I had used to sponge craft white a few weeks ago. There was still some white on it that I rubbed on the black cardstock to make it look like a blackboard that had been erased. Then I stamped the Rubbernecker sentiment in white craft ink. I think it looks just like it was written with chalk. The word studies page is a digital image of an old fashioned lesson book. It is also from The Graphics Fairy website. The ruler is a download from the Just Something I Made blog. If you haven't visited that blog, it's a great oppotunity to spend time browsing all the fun and amazing things Cathe Holden has on her blog.

Please leave me a comment and let me know how you like my latest vintage creation.



Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

OCC Challenge - Happy Fall Y'all!!

From The Funkie Junkie

This week, the Our Creative Corner hostess Dana Grothaus has a timely challenge - make a card using fall elements and colors. It's my favorite time of year, hence one of my favorite kinds of cards to make. So I went happily hunting through my stamps and stash of paper and embellishments. It took me awhile and I realized I don't have very many fall stamps. but I dug out an old favorite, Seasonal Sprays from SU. This is one of the first stamp sets I purchased, back in the day when I first started stamping - LOL!! I have used diferent coloring media to color it in this past - watercolor pencils, watercoloring using re-inkers and even chalks. This time I used Copics and I really love how the image looks. It took me a very long time to design this card. I played around with different papers and elements and I am finally happy with this way it looks. The shell of the card is SU Really Rust, followed by Chocolate Chip. Both of the designer papers are from K&Co. Classics - a huge box of 150 sheets of beautiful chintz-type prints. On the upper layer of DP, I stamped the leaves and acorns from Fantastic Foliage in Chocolage Chip and Close to Cocoa ink. The bottom panel of DP was stamped in Chocolate Chip craft ink and heat embossed with clear EP using the Baroque Motifs stamp. The top corner embellisments are chipboard cut with the CB Fancy Corners die then coated with Chocolate Chip craft ink and clear embossed. The leaves in the bottom right corner were punched out of the upper panel DP with an old Creative Memories leaf punch, then stamped in craft Chocolate Chip with the Baroque Motifs stamp. The edges of the leaves were sponged with Really Rust and the entire leaf was coated with Crystal effects. When dry, I punched a hole in the cetner and added a jewelry rondell and a brass brad. The bottom of the top layer of DP was punched with the SU Scalloped Punch and punched again with the Crop-a-dile to make the holes. The circles and scallops are Nesties. On the main image panel, I applied a Tim Holtz scroll mask and sponged Creamy Caramel ofer the whole panel. I removed the mask and stamped the Rubbernecker sentiment in Chocolate Chip dye ink. A piece of crocheted lace and two copper brads finished off the front panel. The inside has similar decorations and the leaves were die cut and embossed with a Cuttlebug set. The edges of all panels were sponged with Really Rust, but I restrained myself and didn't do any scissor distressing on this piece. Not an easy task - LOL!!


Be sure to stop by Our Creative Corner to see the rest of the talented design teams's work!Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

Under the Weather?

From The Funkie Junkie

Note: I have to apologize for purple colors in these photos. My camera does not like PURPLE!! I know it doesn't look like it in the pics, but the background purple really does match the Copic-colored Willow.

Here's this fortnight's Creative Inspirations guest DT card. The challenge this time is the color combo purple or lilac and gray. When I saw the guidelines for this challenge, I was not inspired. Ugh - purple and gray? I'm in a fall mood and want rich auburns, oranges, browns, mustards and olive greens, not purple and gray! I struggled to think what image would go well with gray.

Then I remembered this Whiff of Joy stamp that I purchased several months ago and still had not used. Perfect - a gray day! I found this Creative Memories purple and green designer paper in my stash and paired it up with SU's Green Galore. It looked great! Willow is colored with Copics, stamped twice, trimmed out and popped up. Her umbrella is paper pieced and the top surface glazed with Crystal effects. Willow is mounted on a die cut from the Nesties Labels 4. While it was still in the die, I sponged the surface with Going Gray ink. Stickles were applied to the rain drops and also used to create a pubble at her feet.

I cut two scalloped rings, one out of chipboard and one from purple card tock. The card stock went through the Cuttlebug with the Tiny Bubbles EF. I dropped a bubble of Crystal Effects on each of the tiny bubbles and added clear dew drops for good measure.

As always, the inside was also finished off in coordinating papers and embellishments. Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

Sweet Dreams - Let's Get Shabby #3

From The Funkie Junkie

A couple of months ago, I ran across a wonderful new challenge blog called Let's Get Shabby. They have a monthly challenge. If you are a regular visitor to my blog, I'm sure you already know that shabby and I are very tight! Of course, this will be one of the challenges I participate in regularly!

The current challenge is to make a shabby chic card that is mainly white with a hint of one other color. Here is my challenge entry. I maybe interpreted the word 'hint' a bit losely as this card ended up with more brown that I had planned. But I love it. What fun it is for me to work with shabby/vintage genre!
The only thing I don't like about this challenge is that you can only enter it into their challenge - no double dipping allowed!

My card started with a vintage card image that I found on the Shabby Chic Papirskatter blog. If you love vintage and you haven't been to her blog, you need to pay Heidi a visit. She has amazing vintage images that she allows you to download for free. Since I decided my one color would be brown, I changed this image which was in color to sepia tones with my photo editing software and printed it out on white cardstock. I trimmed it out and distressed the edges with scissors and Chocolate Chip ink. I ran a square of the white cardstock through the Textile EF, swipped it lightly with my glue pad and applied Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I decided it was too glittery so I cut a smaller panel of white, ran it through the Swiss Dots EF to be layered over the glittered layer. The edges of both white panels were both scissor distressed and sponged with Creamy Caramel. On the Dotted Swiss layer, I ran a length of lace trim vertically along the right side, applied a layer of craft foam to the back and layered it over the Textile layer. The vintage image was slanted and layered over the top white panel. I found a white Nestie frame in my scrap box, stamped the top and bottom with a scrolly flower in Close to Cocoa and applied glitter to just the very tip edge all the way around the frame. The frame was then layered over the vintage image to frame just the angel and baby. I cut a thin cardboard heart with my Nestie heart dies and applied white Tim Holtz crackle paint (I LOVE that stuff) which I edged with Creamy Caramel when it was dry. The sentiment Sweet Dreams was computer generated and printed in a chocolate brown. I added a couple of Boss Cut flourishes, also glittered, two prima flowers which I sponged with Close to Cocoa ink, pearls, a beautiful button and the front panel of my shabby masterpiece was good to go!

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

I'm So Excited!!

From Our Creative Corner

Several weeks ago the Our Creative Corner Challenge Blog had a call for a few new design team members. I recently decided that one of my artistic goals this year was to become a member of a prestigious stamp art design team. I have been a fan of the OCC blog since its inception and try to participate when time allows. Even when I don't participate, I always check out what is happening on a weekly basis. In early August, I was excited to see a DT call. I decided it was now or never and entered a card into the challenge. I held my breath and hoped against hope. I even scoped out the competition by looking at all the cards entered into this challenge - LOL!! The day came when the call closed. I checked my email; I checked my blog comments - I think almost hourly!! And then, almost a miracle - an invitation to join the fabulous OCC design team.

Today's the day of the big announcement and the publication of my first card on the OCC blog. But before I show you my card, I want to introduce you to the fabulously talented OCC Design Team. I hope you will take the time to stop by their blogs and congratulate them on their achievement and their beautiful creations!

Jenny Gropp - One Krafty Cat
Loretta Lock -Love to Create
Silke Ledlow -My Life
Joycelyn Turner -Stamps 'n' Coffee
Jennifer Meyer - Jennifer's Sweet Designs
Dana Grothaus - Dana's Dabbling Studio
Lori Rider - Diva Stamper
Cindy Burgess - Mrs. B's Craft Room
Wendy Janson - It's All About Stamping

Melissa Young - Stampin Fabulous

So on to this week's challenge. Since this is Labor Day weekend, the last of the summer's patriotic weekends, Dana Grothaus thought it would be fitting to do a stars and strips challenge. The entry didn't have to be patriotic, just that it needs to have some stars and stripes. I actually set out to do a western style card in non-patriotic colors, but somewhere along the line, my creativity took an unexpected turn. I found myself looking through my paper stash for reds, whites and blues. I've had the wonderful western Bronc Buster set from SU for over a year and it has never seen ink. I thought I could use it to do an American Hero themed card. I started out trying to use the DSP from SU's retired Western Sky pack. But I had the idea that I would cut out the stars in denim covered chipboard and the Western Sky blues didn't really work with the denim color I was using. Plus with the denim, I wanted to use Night of Navy embossed with the CB Paisley embossing folder that is then sponged with Craft White. It gives it a great washed, weathered denim look. So that's where I was - stuck with denim stars and weathered paisley. What to do? Nothing in my paper stash really worked with those colors. And this was my first OCC DT card. I had to get it right! So I did what I have been doing with increasing frequency lately, I went surfing for digital paper. I came across The DesignerDigitals site and this wonderful Stars and Strips paper pack by Katie Pertiet. Perfect! I purchased it, downloaded it and printed it on my home printer. I teamed it up with a Night of Nayv base. A tag was created out of some old, old, old Creative Memories paper in a red bandana print. The red in it was too bright so I sanded the surface off to dull it and then sponged it with Creamy Caramel ink. The tag was cut with the Nesties Long Rectangle die and I rounded the corners to give it more of a tag look. I glued an old piece of denim to some chip board and when dry, I cut it with a Sizzix star die. The smaller stars were made with some old blue bandana fabric that I also glued to chipboard. I used Tim Holtz Crackle Paint along the edges of the stars to cover the gray of the chipboard and to give it a vintage look. When the crackle paint was dry I also sponged it with Creamy Caramel ink. I cut another piece of the bandana, frayed the edges and tied it to the tag along with some red gingham ribbon. The sentiment stamped on the distressed red bandana paper is from a retired SU set (sorry I bought it second hand and it doesn't have the name on it) and says "It is love of country that lights and keeps glowing the fire of patriotism - J. Horace McFarland".

The inside is finished off with the same digital paper. In keeping with the genuine American hero theme, I stamped the Genuine stamp from the set onto the distressed bandana paper and heat embossed it in white. It was cut with the die from the Cuttlebug Halloween Sign set and then mounted on a piece of paisley embossed Night of Navy cut with the Nesties Mega Rectangles. I toppped this off with a frayed piece of the bandana and red gingham ribbon.

There is so much detail on this card. I tried to cover the main points, but if you have questions, please leave them in the comments and I will happily get back to you with the details.

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Bronc Buster, Land That I Love, Baroque Motifs

Paper: Night of Navy, Whisper White, Stars & Strips from DesignerDigitals

Ink: Craft White, Night of Navy, Creamy Caramel for distressing

Accessories: Cuttlebug Paisley embossing folder and Halloween Sign, white EP, Vanilla HodgePodge Hardware, scraps of denim and blue bandana, gingham ribbon from Jo-Ann's and SU, hemp string, Spellbinder Long Rectangle Nestabilities, tag die and Mega Rectangles, Sizzix star die, sewing machine, SU Photo Corner punch

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.