Hello friends and welcome to my Saturday posting for the Our Creative Corner design team. This is my last week as host and I am challenging all our participants to a sketch challenge.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
The Funky Chicken
Hello friends and welcome to my Saturday posting for the Our Creative Corner design team. This is my last week as host and I am challenging all our participants to a sketch challenge.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Monochromatic Butterfly
It's Wednesday again - Happy Hump Day, everybody!! Here's my DT card for this week's Creative Inspirations challenge. This week's challenge is monochromatic. For some reason, monochromatic cards always scare me. Don't know why - maybe I think I won't be able to stick to just one color. This one was easy peasy once I decided on the color.
This cute little primitive butterfly is a creation of Tracy over at Sugar Creek Hollow, a brand new digital stamp company specializing in vintage and primitive stamps. I decided to use Bashful Blue and Very Vanilla. The DP is digital and I matched up the colors by scanning a piece of Bashful blue and changing the colors in the DP to match. Nothing too complex on this card - a bunch of layers and a mess of Spellbinder dies and you've got yourself a card. If you have any questions, leave it in the comments or email me. I'm always happy to share.
Wishing you a beautiful rest of the week!
Blessings,
Sunday, February 21, 2010
More Get Well Wishes
It's my team's turn to post samples at Pile it On this week. The DT is split into two teams and we rotate posting every other week. I really like that approach. It allows for a bigger team so more designers get the opportunity to be on the team, plus it gives us all a break, only having to produce samples ever other week. We have some really terrific designers so I hope you will stop by to check out this week's challenge, which is to make a get well card. Since our sponsor this week is Magnolia, I decided to dust off one of my two lonely Magnolia stamps. This one had never even seen ink! I don't know why, but I really struggled with this card. It took me about 7 hours, with a couple of major interruptions, so probably at least 4 solid hours of work here. I fiddled around a lot, trying different layouts and embellishments. So what you see is what I FINALLY settled on.
The DP, both gingham and patterned, is part of the Wild Apsaragus collection from My Mind's Eye. I LOVE their DP. It's so rich and heavy, nice and textured and heavenly patterns. I've been wanting to use these sheets for quite awhile and I thought it would go nicely with this Tilda stamp. Tilda is colored with Copics and her get well card envie is glittered. The Hugs and Kisses stamp is from Rubbernecker and the ...and Get Well Wishes was done on my computer. I made the paper flowers using Spellbinders dies, brads are from SU, spacers and end caps from the jewery asle at craft stores and a Martha Stewart punch to make the strip of paper lace. Oh, and a little distressing and Close to Cocoa ink sponging.
Here are all the challenges I piled on for this card:
- Pile it On - Get Well Card
- Papertake Weekly - Check This Out
- All Sorts - A tag, ticket or label
- Saturday Spotlight With Hidden Potential - Do the Mess Around
- Fussy & Fancy - Dazzel Us
- Paper Cutz - Get Well Card
- Crafty Creations - Stitching
- Corrosive Challenge Blog -Sew it Up
- Crafty Angels - Fantastic Flowers
- Incy Wincy Designs - Punch it Out
- Hand Full of Stamps - Sending You Wishes
- Cute Card Thursday - Metal Mania
- Sophisticats - Stitching
- One Stitch at a Time - Stitching
- Paper Sundaes - Distressing
- Quirky Crafts - Cute
- Practical Scrappers - Flowers
- Lots to Do - Use a Machine
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Faux Buttons - My New Technique
I am the host for the month of February over at Our Creative Corner. That means I get to set the challenge - whoohoo!! This week I decided to challenge everyone to learn a new technique. There are so many wonderful papercrafting techniques, but I am guilty of never slowing down enough to stop and learn something new. I'm sure many of you have the same M.O. So this week, let's see what we can learn. If you are stumped for a technique to try, check out the Resources page on Splitcoast Stampers or the Tutorials page at PaperCraft Planet.
I fiddled around with several new techniques this week, but settled on faux buttons. There are several tutorials available. One is Stamping with Sheryl and here's a video tutorial by Linda Lloyd. I followed the step-by-step instructions from Linda Lloyd's video, but instead of punching the circles out, I cut them with my circle Nesties. I wanted the embossed ring around the inside of the top circle to simulate a button look. I thought it was cool that I could have "buttons" that matched the images on my card.
I finally broke down and purchased the set Peaches and Cherries from Flourishes a few weeks back. I have wanted it since it came out last summer and this is the fist time I have used it. I'm not real happy with the Copic work I did on that panel. I got a little bleeding around some of the edges. I haven't really mastered Copic coloring yet. I don't do it enough to get really good at it.
I LOVE this paper from Webster's Paper. I got the 6x6" pad with some Christmas money and this is the first time I have had it out. I started to use one of the papers with a cute retro cooking image on it and that's when I decided on the recipe card as an embellishment. But later I decided that I was covering up too much of the cook image so I sent it aside for a later card and used this beautiful red starred paper instead. But I still stuck with the recipe card. I pulled this card out of my recipe file. It's called Recipe for Home and the ingredients are things like friendship, thoughtfulness, tenderness, loyalty, faith, etc. It's my grandmother's handwriting and she wrote it for me when I was in high school (back in the '60s) so it is almost 50 years old. No I didn't rip and distress my grandmother's gift. I photocopied it onto white cardstock and tucked the original back into my recipe file. I also made up the sentiment and seal on my computer and printed it onto the card before I cut the card out. Not too many details on this card, but if you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section or email me privately.
Now it's time to scoot on over to Our Creative Corner and check out what the rest of the design team learned and used on their samples this week. Have a wonderful weekend!
Blessings,
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
You Light Up My Life - A Sepia Challenge
This week, the challenge at the Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge Blog is to make a sepia card. I was a little nervous about this assignment too, since I am pretty new to the design team I wanted to make a seriously nice card. Then I saw this Tiffany lamp, a Friday Freebie from Sugar Creek Hollow and everything just clicked. I was off and running.
The designer paper is from K&Co., and the brown textured CS is from the DCWV Heritage Pack. It came textured and then I ran it through the CB Textile embossing folder. Once embossed, I used a sanding block on it to reveal the white core. Then I scissor distressed the edges and sponged the entire panel with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo distress ink. The edges of the main DP panel were cut with a Spellbinders die and sponged with Vintage Photo ink. The frame around the lamp is also a digital image from Sugar Creek Hollow. I don't think it's for sale yet. I have it because I am on the Grand Opening design team. That panel was also sponged with Vintage Photo distress ink. I made up the sentiment and printed it on my home computer. It was cut with a Spellbinders tag die.
Now here's the part I'm not sure about. See how the lamp shade is sort of cloudy looking? Well I tried watercoloring it with my Vintage Photo ink, but that smeared the printer ink, even though I had heat set it. I covered it over with gold Distress Stickles and I like how it looks. But then I was thinking it was too cloudy, so I makde another lamp shade and colored it with Copics. Then I glazed it with Crystal Effects. The updated photo is below. My dilema - I can't decide which I like better. I think its the first version. Even though it the lampshade looks cloudy, it think it looks weathered and attractive. Which one do you prefer? Leave me a comment and let me know!
Once you solve my dilema, I hope you will hop over to Creative Inspirations and see the awesome sepia creations the rest of the team designed. This week our prize is a 10% discount at Happy Hippo and the chance to be our guest designer for the month of March! So what are you waiting for? Let's see those sepia creations!!
Hope you're having a great week!
Blessings,
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Get Well Wishes - A CCC Challenge
This week the challenge at Creative Card Crew is to make a get well card. It's always good to have a few get well cards tucked away so I happily got down to the business of designing my DT card for this week. This card features an image from the new vintage/primitive digital stamp company Sugar Creek Hollow plus a sentiment I made up and printed on my home printer. The digital image of the pretty spring bonnet was colored with Copics and popped up with craft foam. The lovely mellow yellow paper is from SU's Parisian Summer pack.
The frame and border are both Spellbinders dies and the corner pieces are a Cuttlebug die. All edges are distressed with Creamy Caramel and the main image panel has also been sponged with Scattered Straw distress ink. The flower was also made using the Flower Petals Spellbinder dies. The leaf is a Sizzix die purchased through SU.
I think that's about it for the details. Let me know if you have any questions. I was really happy with the way this card turned out. I really like the gentle feminity of it. Be sure to stop by the Creative Card Crew blog and check out the lovely work of the rest of the design team ladies. Our sponsor this week is Truly Scrumptious Crafts and the prize is some lovely ribbon and charms.
Thanks for stopping by. Wishing you blessings on your week.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
A Giving Heart
This week the challenge at Our Creative Corner is Something Old That's NEW, a challenge to dig into our stash and use something that we've had for awhile, but have never used (or haven't used in forever). As hostess this week, I set the challenge and surprisingly enough, was very challenged to find something to use. Of course, I have tons of DP that I've been hoarding, but I really didn't find too many embellishments or stamps that hadn't been used. I finally decided to use a Tim Holtz mask that hadn't even been opened yet, along with some Ranger alcohol inks
that haven't been out in a almost a year. The mask is 12" so it makes a large pattern. It's sort of hard to see on the background layer. It's a large flourish that I laid over an 8x10" piece of natural cardstock and spritzed with Meadow and Ginger and just a splash of Butterscotch alcohol inks. Then I lightly stamped the Script BG stamp in Vintage Photo distress ink. I used that paper for the background and also cut a heart out of it. The DP by Creative Imaginations is sort of grungy rust with a green leaf pattern on it. I don't believe I have ever used this particular stamp either. I have used one of the other stamps in the set, but not that one. And the ceramic "hope" charm has been in my stash forever so I was happy to be able to work it in.
Although I met the challenge, I'm not sure if I like this card. Maybe it will grow on me. I had envisioned doing something green and springlike, but it didn't come out as I had hoped. I'm not sure of the occasion I would use it for but maybe someday I'll find just the right person and occasion to send it for.
Be sure to stop by Our Creative Corner to see how the other DT members met this challenge. There are some really beautiful samples over there this week!
Thanks for stopping by. Wishing you a love-filled St. Valentine's Day!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Sugar Creek Hollow Design Team Preview
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Love Conquers All
I love that sentiment "Love Conquers All". It's so perfect for this card using the Wings of Hope digital stamp from Whimsey Stamps. It's a special limited edition only available through February 28th. All proceeds are being donated to the American Red Cross to help with the Haitian earthquake relief effort.
This is my design team card for this week's Creative Inspirations Wednesday challenge. The theme this week is Anyone for Leftovers? I thought Nat came up with such a cute name for a challenge that all of us should be able to take part in. I have a bin brimming with bits and pieces of past cards. I was able to make this entire card (except for the base piece) out of leftovers from cards made earlier this week. The rose chintz and Mellow Moss pieces you will recognize from a pretty vintage Valentine I posted several days ago. You'll see the rose chintz again, as well as the cranberry dotted paper, when I post my quilt card on Friday. The upside down hearts have been in my bits and pieces box for at least six month. They were the punched out part from a Cuttlebug die. I don't know why I didn't toss them, but they finally found a home here on this card.
Sugar Creek Hollow
You may remember this post from last week when I announced that I had been invited to be a guest on the design team for an brand new digital stamp company specializing in vintage/primative stamps called Sugar Creek Hollow. Well, things have developed from there and I have been asked to stay on as a full time design team member . They have also asked me to write a monthly vintage/primative tutorial. That's an awesome opportunity for me and of course I said YES!!!!
Sugar Creek Hollow will open on March 1st, but you can already go to the website and sign up to be a follower and perhaps win a digi. There are also some freebies on the site to get you started. While you are there, check out the design team and their awesome samples. Tracy, the owner and artist, created a special quilt set for us to use this week for the DT introductions. We have all made a card with the set. My day to be introduced is Friday so be sure to stop by Sugar Creek Hollow and see the card I made with the quilt set.
I created this card as a Country Valentine with two digi's that are already for sale on the site. Click the New Releases butto and you will see a number of images that are already up for sale, long with beautiful samples from the design team. This is a pretty simple card - card stock is Basic Black, Ruby Red and Old Olive. The DSP is digital papers which I digitally paper pieced. Tools: A Martha punch and a Spellbinder die, some ribbon and black lace and a tiny metal frame from SU's Silver Hodge Podge Hardware.
Hope you'll all stop by Sugar Creek Hollow and get acquainted!!
Blessings,
Challenges Entered:
My Time to Craft - Hearts & Kisses
Saturday, February 6, 2010
To Someone I Love
This week's challenge at Pile it On is "To the One You Love". I made this card to send to my daughter who is away at college. I wanted to do something vintage and girly for her. I have had this heart with the beautiful rose chintz pattern cut out and sitting on my desk for a couple of days. I had used the DP for another project and the heart was just one of those elements that you cut or make and then they really do work for the current project so you set them aside. But I didn't really set it aside. I had it propped up on my craft table because it was so pretty and have been looking at it all week. This just seemed to be the right project to use it on. I silver embossed the Letters of Love (SU) on Mellow Moss and cut them with Labels 1 Nesties. All the DP is digital paper printed on my home printer. I embossed a layer of Very Vanilla and sponged it with Creamy Caramel. The main element is from SU's See it With the Heart set stamped on vellum with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo ink and trimmed out. It's layered over a Very Vanilla heart. The leaves were cut with a Sizzix die purchased from SU, cut from Mellow Moss CS and then silver embossed with a filigree pattern. Add some pearls, end caps and Prima flowers and this card was ready to be photographed and posted. Here are the challenges I have Piled it On to this week:
- Crazy4Challenges- Be My Valentine
- Fussy & Fancy - Hearts
- Stampin' for the Weekend - Love is in the Air - Valentine's Preparations
- Stamp Something - Love SomethingsCRAFT
- Gingersnap Creations - Romance
- Raise the Bar - Heart to Heart Talk
- Charisma Cards - I Love You
- PaperPlay Challenges - Love Notes
- C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Valentine's or Love
- Just Buggin' - Love Ya
- Creative Craft Challenge - Roses are Red
- Simon Says Stamp - Photo Inspiration (red rose)
- Humble Pie - Love
Blessings,
You Make My Heart Sing!
Before Valentine's Day comes, I needed to make a couple of cards suitable for guys. I think I've pretty much run the gammet with feminine Valentine's cards for this year and it was fun making one for a guy. Since this is my month to be hostess over at Our Creative Corner, I thought a good first challenge would be to make a masculine Valentine.
I wanted to do a vintage guy card and what I actually had in mind was a photo or an ad for an antique car with a sentiment of "You're a classic" or something similar. But when I came across this motorcycle ad, the ideas started popping and I had to go with it. This image came from Heidi at Shabby Chic Papirskatter. The CS is Night of Navy and Bordering Blue with some gray DSP also from SU. The sentiments were both computer generated. I actually created the seal myself on the computer. The square sentiment was cut with Labels One Nestabilities and the frame stamp is from Waltzing Mouse Stamps. They have a number of what they call Nestie Friendly stamps - stamps that work perfectly with Spellbinder's Nestabilities.
I used aluminum foil for the Diamond Plate EF since I don't have any of the craft foil sold for that purpose. The way I did it worked, but not great. I used three layers of foil. I was afraid they would separate so I spread a very thin layer of glue between each layer. Then I glued a sheet of cardstock to the bottom layer. I let the glue dry for about an hour. Well, let me warn you, glue between foil takes FOREVER to dry because no air gets in there. When I pressed the foil with the EF and Cuttlebug, it squeezed the glue out the end of the embossing folder. What a mess - I had glue all over!!
The wings and heart are Tim Holtz Grungeboard type chipboard. I painted them with Distrss Crackle paint - white that I mixed a drop of Night of Navy reinker into. When dry, I pressed them into my gray stamp pad to grung them up a bit. I really like the way the paint came out - sort of verigated in color and then has the dark gray on it. Grunging things up is one of my favorite crafting activities - LOL!! The screw brads came from Michael's and probably the silver key did too. The winged heart brad is by Marah Johnson for Creative Imaginations. That's about it for this card. Let me know if you have any questions.
And right now, hurry over Our Creative Corner and check out the Valentine each of the DTs have made for a man in their life.
Thanks for stopping by. Wishing you a fabulous weekend!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
With Love, From Me to You
Last Wednesday, when I posted my guest design team card for the Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge Blog, I thought my time with that team was over. But the lovely Nat, the blog owner, emailed me and asked me if I would like to join as a full time member. Of course, I said yes, and here I am with a weekly Wednesday post for Creative Inspirations. Here is my first card as a full fledged member of the design team. The challenge this week is Pink & Cream. It should have been a realitively easy challenge, right? NOT!! I had something in mind when I sat down to create and it just was not working out. This is the card that I struggled until 2 a.m. on the night before last. I had several lovely vintage Valentine images loaded with pinks. But my paper didn't match well with the pinks, I couldn't find any pink DP I was very excited about, tried doing several different elements with silver embossing, my desk was littered with rejected elements and cut paper. I finally found this MME DP in my stash but it didn't go well with the candy pink CS I had cut, so I ended up going with deep rose accents. When I made that decision, things finally started to fall into place.
Not too many supplies or tools on this one. As I said, the DP is MME, the cream CS is Very Vanilla and the rose is Rose Red. Dies used were Cuttlebug and Spellbinders, plus two CB embossing folders. If you want to know any specifics, leave me a question in the comments and I'll post a reply.
I hope you will stop over to the Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge Blog to see what my new team mates have designed for this week's Pink & Cream challenge. There are some really wonderful samples there. And while you're at it, stop by their blogs and get acquainted with my new teammies!
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you again for my next scheduled post on Saturday.
Challenges:
Raise the Bar - Old Paper
Pink Elephant - All About Pink - In Honor of Ella
Frosted Designs - Embossing Challenge
By the Cute & Girly - Love
The Corrosive Challenge - All You Need is Love
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Everything & Always
Good morning friends! Thanks so much for dropping by to view my weekly Tuesday posting. I'm sorry to be running a bit late getting it up this morning. If the truth be told, I was up until 2:00 a.m. struggling with a challenge card for later this week and then went to bed forgetting to schedule this morning's post. I guess sometimes I get too obsessed with certain projects - LOL!!
I dug way down into my stash and came up with this designer series paper from SU. I've had it for at least three years and tend to hoard it because the reds are so lovely. This cool paper ribbon has been sitting on my craft table since Christmas. I have had it literally 10 years. I don't know if they even make the stuff any more. I found a bundle of it with my Christmas wrapping gear this year and grabbed it for my cards rather than pack it away again. Two stamp sets were used - SU's Always and a Verve set my DD gave me for Christmas called Thankful Accents. A couple of Spellbinder dies and a Martha border punch also contributed to the design of this card.
This week's challenge at Creative Card Crew is sponsored by Crafty Addicts. You can win this sweet stamp to be given away by random drawing. This challenge is now biweekly so you have until February 15th to play in the challenge and participate in this drawing. I hope you will stop by and see what the other wonderful ladies in the Crew have contributed.
Blessings on your day,
Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.