A Time of Plenty

It's time again for another Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  I'm so happy you stopped by to see my design team inspiration piece.  This week our challenge is Distressed and Sanded.  Sounds like great fun, right?  I certainly enjoyed making this wall hanging as a beautiful home decoration for the autumn season.  I covered a piece of cardboard with burlap and then spritzed it with my homemade vintage photo glimmer mixture which darkened it and gave it a bit of shimmer.  The leaves were die cut from plain white card stock and colored with distress inks and water.  The water allowed me to wrinkle them so they looked more realistic.  Once dry, I spritzed them with my glimmer mixture too.  I really love the way they turned out and will probably be making more to enhance my fall creations.  The canvas sunflowers were cut with Szzix and Cuttlebug dies and were also colored with Tim Holtz Distress Inks - this time in Wild Honey  . The clock and calendar were cut from paper in the Lost and Found pack. I embossed several layers of aluminum foil (didn't have any of the embossable metal you can buy) with Cracked Texture Fade and dripped Adirondack Alcohol inks on it. A sheet of card stock was embossed with the Collage Texture Fade, sanded and ink distressed with Vintage Photo. Tim Holtz Game spinners became clock hands and the whole creation was topped off with one of the fabulous Tim Holtz Ornate Plate.

The flourish and the tiny die cut pumpkin next to it were colored using a technique called Drunken Scotch that I found on KAT's blog.   Check out the link for her quick and easy tutorial.  It makes a great grungy look.  The young harvest boy is a stamp from Artistic Outpost, the vintage pumpkin label is from the Graphics Fairy and the cork letters were cut with the Oliva alphabet for the Cuttlebug. 

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.  I hope you will stop by Simon Says Stamp and Show to play with us this week.  And I hope you will take time to visit the rest of the designers for this challenge.  They all do such amazing work and I'm sure you will be delighted by what you see on their blogs.

♥Linda Elbourne, DT Coordinator - A Crafting Journey

♥ Dan - My Crafty Life

♥ Lynne Forsythe - The Next Best Thing

♥ Lori Hassler - I Been Thinkin'...'Bout Inkin'

♥ Nancy Crissinger - What's Next???

♥ Nancy Wethington - Art From the Heart

♥ Terry Weitsma-Girbes - Terry's Cards & Creativity

♥ Katie Davis - Chantilly Rose

♥ Kim Costello - Paperbabe 

Blessings & hugs,

Ric Rac Attack!

It's time again for another Fairy Fun Friday.  They only come around every other Friday now.  This week we are welcoming two new Fairy Princesses - Lynne Salmon from Stamp Around the Block and Maddy Hall from Mad Imaginations.  Welcome to the design team ladies - can't wait to see what you will do with Roberta's awesome images!

Our challenge this time is Ric Rac Attack - use ric rac somehow on your card.  This fun embellishment comes in several widths.  I went for the jumbo.  We are being sponsored by Cowgirl Up and they are giving five images to the random winner of this challenge.  The design team was given a Cowgirl Up image to work with.  This one is called Little Bit and I have colored her with Copics.  The sunflower is made from canvas cut with a Sizzix and Cuttlebug dies and dyed with Wild Honey distress ink. 

Products Used:

Stamps:  Little Bit by Cowgirl Up Designs

Ink:  Copic, Printer Ink, Vintage Photo, Wild Honey and Creamy Caramel

Paper:  Whisper White, Pacific Point, Barely Banana

Accessories:  SU Daisy Punch, SU Apron border punch, Artsylicious brad, Spellbinders Mega Rectangles and Circles dies, Sizzix Flower Layers #3 die, Cuttlebug Flowers die

Now that you've seen my card, I hope you will bop on over to Fairy Fun Friday to check out the other designer's beautiful work.  Hope to see you joining in the fun with our Ric Rac Attach this week too!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I usually don't make cute cards, so let me know what you think of this departure from the norm. 

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges entered:
Paper Romance - Make Your Own Flowers
Digital Tuesday - It's All About the Girls
If the Shoe Fits - Flowers

Maid of the Harvest

It's so great to be back again with another Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge. It's been almost two weeks since our last challenge because of the joint blog hop with our sister site. Now Simon Says Stamp and Show is ready to challange you to show us your best grunge work. That's right, the theme this week is "Your Grunge". How cool is that - grunge any way you like it. Should make a lot of creative hearts happy this week! It sure made me happy...I am never happier than when I am ripping, tearing, inking and generally making something look old and grungy.

Being in an autumnal harvest sort of mood, I went searching for something to fit that frame of mind and found this wonderful vintage image of a girl with a basket of something...veggies, fruit?? Anyway she sort of looked like a harvester. I distressed her up with Vintage Photo ink and a bit of my homemade vintage glimmer mist, mounted her on a tag that I ran through the Tim Holtz Collage Texture Fade and likewise distressed. The DP is from my growing digital paper files (don't remember the source) and mounted on a panel of Always Artichoke. The bottom panel is Very Vanilla stamped with the floral flourish stamp from Flights of Fancy with Vintage Photo ink. I cut the border with Spellbinders Borderabilities Fleur De Lis die and embossed it with Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder in Vintage Photo - love that stuff with its cool rusted color and texture! I typed "Maid of the Harvest" and printed it out, cut it with a Spellbinders tag die and again used the Vintage Photo Distress EP. I don't know what I'm going to do with this little gem, but I really like it and have enjoyed having it displayed in my craft room this week.

I hope you will stop by the blogs of my incredibly talented team mates to see what else they've been up to lately. I promise you it will be time well spent.

♥Linda Elbourne, DT Coordinator - A Crafting Journey
♥ Dan - My Crafty Life
♥ Lynne Forsythe - The Next Best Thing
♥ Lori Hassler - I Been Thinkin'...'Bout Inkin'
♥ Nancy Crissinger - What's Next???
♥ Nancy Wethington - Art From the Heart
♥ Terry Weitsma-Girbes - Terry's Cards & Creativity
♥ Katie Davis - Chantilly Rose
♥ Kim Costello - Paperbabe

Thanks for stopping by today. Can't wait to see Your Grunge over on the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge blog.

Blessings & hugs,

Autumn = Apples

Good morning! I have a de-lic-ious vintage card to share today. Several weeks ago, my card was picked as one of the Top 3 at Raise the Bar, which was an honor in itself. But even better, their prize is a one-week guest designer slot - woohoo!!! How exciting!!!

The challenge theme at Raise the Bar this week is Something Yummy. I am definitely deep in the grip of autumn, even though I live in sunny south Florida and the daytime temps are still hitting the high 80s with lows in the high 70s. I yearn for a cool, brisk breeze. I grew up in upstate New York, in the fruit belt - strawberries, cherries and peaches in the summer and in the fall - apples. Some of the best apples you could ever want to taste! My favorites are Cortlands and MacIntoshes. For years, after we moved to Florida, my mom and dad would take a fall trip in their motorhome and bring back bushels of apples so we didn't have to be apple deprived. Honestly, the kind you buy in the supermarket are no comparison!

Enough reminising! I just wanted to tell you why my "something yummy" isn't ice cream, cookies or cake. Actually, I tried to go that route, but my mojo ran off screaming. It was only when I started leafing through my vintage images that it slinked back. Then when I discovered this cool apple crate label, my mojo stood up to be counted. I am a huge social justice advocate and collect quotes that support equality. I love this Ghandi quote and thought it was perfect for the Fresh Living theme at The Shabby Tea Room which is inspired by nature and/or using something green.

Being in an earthy sort of mood, I chose to use the red weathered wood Doc Holiday sheet from the Cosmo Cricket Wanted DP. Did I tell you I grew up on a farm? So I wanted something barn-like for this rustic piece. Everything is heavily distressed with scissors and Vintage Photo distress ink. I curled up the edges of the vintage label - you know how when you peel a label off something? I wanted that effect.

I'm listing all the products used below. Let me know what you think of my little nostalgic piece. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments and check back for an updated post with your question anwered.

Products Used:
Stamps: Garden Silhouettes by SU stamped on tag
Paper: SU Garden Green, Cosmo Cricket Doc Holiday/Wanted pack, Autumn Thyme Digital DP by Raspberry Roads
Ink: Printer ink, Vintage Photo Distress Ink
Accessories: Spellbinders Tag die, Tim Holtz Chackboard Texture Fade EF, Martha Stewart Scallop Border Punch

Alrighty now, that's the scoop on this card. Hope you will stop back by tomorrow morning to check out my sample for Our Creative Corner. Thanks again for stopping by and for your wonderful comments!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges entered:

The Shabby Tea Room - Fresh Living

Paper Sundaes - Use at least 3 kinds of embellishments

Kaboodle Doodles - Get Inspired

Fresh Brewed Challenges - DARE (Distressing, Autumn, Ribbons, Embellishments)

Stampin' B's - Use food on a card or project

Frosted Designs - Quote Challenge

Beary Sweet Challenge - Go Vintage

Stampin' for the Weekend - Tag It!

Gingersnap Creations Spicy Supply Challenge - Punches

Artful Inkables - Color Challenge - my choice was red and green

Pixie Cottage - Sketch and/or Mellow Fruitfulness (to go with the autumn season)

Simon Says Blog Hop Winner

Thanks so much to everyone for taking part in our first joint Simon Says Stamp and Simon Says Stamp and Show blog hop. What a fantastic turnout of entries we had. I'm pleased to announce that the winner of my blog candy for the hop, the Tim Holtz Fragments, is #188 Esme of The Crafty Vet blog. Congratulations Esme. Please email me at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com with your mailing address details. Your package will be sent to you directly by Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks again everyone for making this hop such a wonderful success!

Blessings & hugs,

Fun With Folds

Good morning and a warm welcome to you! Thanks so much for stopping by to see what I have made for this week's Our Creative Corner challenge. This week, our lovely hostess, Lori Rider, has challenged us to have Fun With Folds - make a card that has some sort of non-traditional fold associated with it. It can be in the card itself, such as the gatefold card that I have made, or your embellishment can be made with special folds. I took a quick peek at the DT samples and it looks like we all used a different sort of fold so there will be lots of inspiration over there this week. I used the tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers to make this card. It's the first one I have ever made and I wasn't quite sure of the dimensions. But it was very easy to make.


Products Used:
Paper: SU Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Peach Parfait and Pear Pizzazz CS, K&Co. DP
Stamps: SU Elements of Style, Sentiment from Raindrop Echo Designs
Ink: Dried Marigold, Peeled Paint, and Vintage Photo Distress Inks
Acessories: Spellbinders Frameabilities Classic Frame die, Tim Holtz Scrollwork Die, Cuttlebg Moraccan Screen embossing Folder, Misted with solution of Vintage Photo Reinker, water and Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls

Thanks so much for stopping by and for your lovey comments. Have a great weekend!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:

Project Tuesday - Gate Fold Cards

Frosted Designs - Quote Challenge

Raise the Bar - Color Challenge: Green, Orange, Brown

Allsorts Challenge - The Colors of Autumn

Flourishes Bring Back Beauty - Rustic Beauty

Speedy the Cat Challenge - Use Fall Colors

Harbor Gulls

Isn't this a wonderful image? It's a new digital image from The Prairie Fairy called Harbor Gulls. I was so pleased at how it looked when colored with Copics. I thought the image was striking enough that it didn't need a lot of embellshments so I kept it pretty plain. Our challenge theme this week at Fairy Fun Friday is Embossing. I used both heat and dry embossing on this piece. Heat embossed was the map stamp on the frame and with clear ultra thick embossing powder around the parimeter of the base layer. Everything else is pretty self-explanatory, but if you have any questions, just leave a comment and I will update this post with the response.

Products Used:
Paper: SU Natural and Not Quite Navy CS, Digital DP Coming Home pack from Little Scrap Garden (looks like it is no longer available - couldn't find a link)
Accessories: SU Word Window Punch, Top Note die and brass brads, Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles and Distressed Stripes embossing folders

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Have a great day!

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges entered:

City Crafter Challenge Blog - One for the Boys

Prairie Fairy Blog Hop Winner

Congratulations

to Sandy Ang, the winner of my blog candy for the Prairie Fairy Blog Hop.

Sandy, please email me at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com with your mailing address so I can send your package on it's way.

Welcome to the Simon Says Stamp Blog Hop

Welcome to the first ever combined Simon Says Stamp and Show and Simon Says Stamp SUPER HOP. If you are lost, please go back to the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog for the complete list of blog stops. Don't forget, you must comment on each blog along the way to be eligible to win prizes in the September 15th drawing.

You are currently on Linda Coughlin's blog. The letter you are picking up from this stop on the hop is S. Your next and final stop will be at the Simon Says Stamp blog. Be sure to leave a comment here before you leave, both to qualify you for the grand prize drawing and also for the blog candy I am giving away here. The ingredient used to make my project that I am giving away is Tim Holtz Fragments Charms. Have you tried these? They are so much fun. Check out Tim's A Compendium of Curiosities, page 30, to learn all the wonderful ways to use them.

Now that we have gotten through all those blog hop instructions, here's my part of the hop. I decided to make a Halloween tryptych. Here it is in all it's final glory.


But I must say, it took me FOREVER to make this. It was a fun project, but so many elements and details, all hand cut and hand distressed. I was so glad that we had an extra couple of days to create our project this week. For the distressing, I sponged the edges of everything with Vintage Photo distress ink, plus some were misted with a solution of Vintage Photo reinker, water and Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls.

Here are some close up shots of my project.

The center panel was dry embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder. Then I brayered Versamark over the high points and applied Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress EP to give it a nice rough texture. Most of the vintage graphics are from The Graphics Fairy, a free on-line source. Three Tim Holtz stamp sets were also used: Halloween Ticket stamp, Urban Grunge, Spooky Stuff. The letters for the banner are from The Graphics Fairy and are mounted on pendants stamped with the floral filagree stamp from Flights of Fancy which was stamped on white CS with Versamark and then clear embossed. After that, it was sponged with black ink so the pattern of the stamp shows in white. The skull from Grungeboard Altered Elements Plain was painted with Picket Fence distress crackle paint.

Both the left and right panels were embossed with the Patchwork Texture Fade and then painted over with Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabber in Snow Cap. The raven and the Happy Halloween stamps are from the Spooky Stuff stamp set. The raven was stamped on white with versamark and Memento Tuxedo Black ink and clear embossed, then trimmed out. Happy Halloween was stamped in Versamark and Dusty Concord, clear embossed and then sponged with Peeled Paint. The filagree frame for The Raven quote is from The Graphics Fairy. I found The Raven text on line, layered it over the frame with PSE and also created another layer in PSE to add "Nevermore."

A vintage photo of a witch was digitally overlaid on a digital playing card, which was printed and mounted on a bingo card. I printed and punched out the letters for WITCH and glued them to the card. The Tim Holtz Fragment Charm was stamped with alcohol inks and then a stamped image of a witch's cauldron was affixed to the back with Glossy Accents. The black cat was stamped with the Spooky Stuff set and black glitter was applied. The flower was made with Grungepaper cut with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and the flourish was cut with a Sizzix die. The flower was embossed with the Textile Cuttlebug embossing folder and sponged with Dried Marigold and Dusty Concord distress inks.

There you have it, folks. Best of luck to you in all the drawings for this outrageously generous blog hop! Hope you have a blast looking at all the lovelies we have created for your inspiration. Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Blessings & hugs,

Playing With Canvas

Today's post is just for fun - no design team commitments, but a couple of challenges I wanted to get in on. If you've visited me recently, you have probably noticed that I have been experimenting with canvas. My interest in canvas started when I saw some canvas tags on a blog (don't know whose - sorry). So I purchased some at my local Jo-Ann's and have been playing around with making flowers, but hadn't gotten around to making a tag. This week's challenge over at the Shabby Tea Room is to make a tag which presented me with the right opportunity to use canvas.

I pulled out a tag like Tim Holtz uses and used it as a pattern to cut my canvas. I punched a hole in the top with my Crop-a-Dile and set in a jumbo eyelet. I stamped the plain canvas with a couple of script and text stamps in Vintage Photo and then spritzed it well with plain water to make it run. That wasn't quite grungy enough so I spritzed it again with the mixture of Vintage Photo, Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold and water that I have been using a lot lately. That gave it a nice vintage feel. Using Archival Brilliance pigment ink in Graphite Black, I stamped a few French label stamps. For the flowers, more canvas was cut with the Sizzix Flowers and Vine #3 die and dyed with SU Pumpkin Pie ink and Butterscotch alcohol ink. The lace at the bottom was also dyed. It started out white and I sprayed it with the Vintage Photo/Perfect Pearls mix until all the white was gone.

I got the idea for the crystals from one of my Simon Says Stamp and Show teammies, Lynne Forsyth. She used them on her latest project for the challenge blog. I was in an antique store last week and they were selling these crystals loose, probably from a damaged chandelier. I got a zip lock bag with about 40 of them for $7. Later I was in another antique store and they were selling them for 50 cents each, so I got a good deal. Plus my baggie has a bunch of the larger teardrop crystals too - very cool! I like that they are real glass - very sparkly when I washed them!

Products Used:
Stamps: Tim Holtz Urban Grunge, 7 Gypsies Avignon Clear Stamps, free vintage image from Night Owl Vintage
Ink: Vintage Photo Distress Ink, Archival Brilliance Graphite Black
Accessories: Sizzix Flowers & Vine #3 die, Spellbinders Deckle Rectangle dies, Tim Holtz Addage Tickets, Tim Holtz Trinket Pin, Stampin' Up brad

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today. I sincerely appreciate all your encouraging comments!

Blessings & hugs,


Challenges Entered
The Shabby Tea Room - Tag, You're It

Flourishes - Use a Ticket
Our Vintage Affair - Vintage Tags

Stampin' for the Weekend - Vintage or Shabby

Creatalicious - Vintage

My Partner in Crafting Crime - Let's Try Vintage

Stamptacular Sunday - Distress It

Pocket Full of Posies - Floral Fantasy

My Time to Craft - Jeweled

ABC Challenge - C is for Charms (I think my crystals count as charms)

All That Scraps - Lace

Crafts & Me Challenge - Sparkle and Gems

Dutch Dare Card Challenge - Vintage Summer

Res-Q-Challenge - Tools of the Trade (scissors used to cut canvas into tag shape)

Love U 4ever

Welcome to my Saturday post for Our Creative Corner. It's a new month of challenges at the OCC and Lori Rider is our hostess. This week Lori has sort of a back-to-school challenge for you - it's use ABCs and 123s on your project. I've done a couple of back-to-school cards and wanted to more on to something fresh. So I incorporated a letter and number into my sentiment and used it with a vintage image. A new type of embellishment for me, I used canvas to stamp on and to create the flower. LOVE was stamped on a scrap of canvas and the flower was cut with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die, the leaves with a Spellbinders die. The flower and leaves were sprayed with Tim Holtz alcohol inks in Cranberry and Lettuce. I also used the mixture of Vintage Photo Reinker, Water and Perfect Pearls to mist several of the panels.

Products Used:
Stamps: Tim Holtz Urban Grunge , the "ever" was printed on my printer
Paper: River Rock, Always Artichoke, Purely Pomegranate, K& Co. DP, Whisper White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Vintage Photo, Printer Ink
Accessories: Spellbinders Labels 3 and Classic Hearts dies, Sizzix Flourish die, Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die, Cuttlebug Oliva alphabet to cut chipboard U and 4 and Script embossing folder, gold dimensional paint, SU brad, Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks in Lettuce and Cranberry

That's a wrap on another Our Creative Corner sample. Let me know if you have any questions. BTW, I am loving using canvas so you'll be seeing it again. I bought a yard - it goes a LONG way when you use it in bits and pieces.

Thanks so much for stopping by. If you're in the U.S., I wish you a happy and safe Labor Day weekend. Hope you can have a rest from your labors and enjoy the last weekend of the summer.

Blessings & hugs,

Challenges Entered:

Fab 'n' Funky - Living in a Material World

Cute Card Thursday - Material Girl