Americana Art

Hi there!  Welcome back.  I'm so glad that you stopped by to see my Simon Says Stamp and Show make for this week.  This week our theme is Show Us a Word.  For my word, I chose Patriotism and in honor of America's upcoming birthday, I created an Americana piece using a lot of distressing and some Tim Holtz products and techniques.  It was fun working on this piece with all it's stars and stripes and vintage patriotic images.  

I started with a cheap frame from the Dollar Store and covered the edges with some vintage looking digital DP, then covered the main part of the frame with some Tim Holtz Lost & Found Paper Stash.   The large 3-D star was cut with a Sizzix die using some old Graphics 45 paper from my stash.  I couldn't resist roughing up the edges and doing a bit of ink distressing  on the star sections before I glued them together.  The small stars were cut with another Sizzix die out of Grungeboard on which I used Tim Holtz's Rusted Enamel technique.  I made the double rosette myself - still haven't bought that Tim Holtz rosette die.  I meant to add it to my last order and forgot!  Oh and the patriotism definition was done on my computer and printed onto the Journaling Ticket.  I threw in some of that awesome Kraft Glassine paper and lots of Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I guess that about sums it up.  Let me know if you have any questions.

I hope you will stop by the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog to see what my talented teammies have made this week.  You are sure to be amazed by their talents!  And how about showcasing Your Word for our challenge?  Our awesome sponsor, Simon Says Stamp, has a $50 gift certificate to their store just waiting for some lucky random winner.  But ya gotta play to have  chance to win! 

My Style?

Greetings to you on this gorgeous summer day!  So happy you stopped by to see my sample for the weekly challenge at Our Creative Corner.  Our hostess, Sarah Gough, has a cool challenge this week - she wants to see Your Style.  We want to see a card or paper crafting project that exemplifies your style.  And we are having a DT call.   So show us something that showcases your awesome abilities and tell us about you and your style.

This is what I came up with for my style.  The reason for the question mark is that I think it is too bright and that is not typical for me.  I love gingham and I love red, but this particular piece of red gingham is very bold and bright.  When I had the card all glued together, I stepped back and really looked at it - and wasn't sure if I liked it or not.  I don't see anything bad about - nice layout and embellies and technically sound, it's just a little (or a lot) too RED.  Too bad my PhotoShop abilities don't extend to just toning down the red a bit - LOL!  It all started with a yen to use up some of my hoarded Webster's Pages paper from a couple of seasons back.  I got stuck on the cherries and found this darling vintage image to go with the paper - unfortunately I covered up the cherries on the table next to the girl :(  The sweet little frame is a Spellbinders die.  I covered a piece of light cardboard with the DP and then die cut it.  I found just one small doily in my stash and it worked perfectly to wrap around the frame.  Then I strung a bit of my new burlap string around it and made a bow.  The bottom scallop was cut with a PTI die - same for the tiny heart tag.  The lace and crinoline are from my Etsy shop, as is the burlap string and the sweet red buds applique.  My tutorial for making the crinoline flower can be found here.

Now how about showing us your style?  Stop by Our Creative Corner and gather up some inspiration from our awesome design team and get going on your own submission.  We hope you will want to apply for the design team too!

Thanks for stopping by and for your wonderful comments.  They are so appreciated.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Good morning, friends!

Just a quick post this morning to let you know that I have brand new May Arts ribbons, laces and my very favorite - burlap string in my Etsy shop.  Quantities are limited for this batch.  I didn't order too much until I see how it sells.  So get these lovely new items while they are available.

Sweet Romance

Hello friends, I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  We had kind of a lazy Father's Day at my house.  The DH watched the golf match most of the afternoon so I worked on laundry and assembled a new batch of stick pins.  

It's time again for another Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  This week, we want you to show us some metal.  Here you can see my project for this challenge.  I have to tell you to be sure to stop by the challenge blog and check out what the other designers created for this project.  Honestly, sometimes that crew just gives me an inferiority complex, they are so darn amazing.  Their projects this week are simply WONDERFUL.  

Here is my take on the challenge.  For my metal I decided to frame a vintage image.  I used the Spellbinders Frameabilities Classic Frame die and also the Fleur de Lis border die to cut some Ten Seconds Studio metal.   Before removing the cut metal from the die, I lightly sanded the stencil areas with a burnishing block to reveal the silver colored core.  I used the Spellbinders scalloped heart die to cut another piece of metal and embossed it with the Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder, then dabbed it with Current alcohol ink. The metal key was cut with the Tim Holtz Hardware Findings die and the seam binding was dyed with Tattered Rose distress ink.   Chipboard hearts were created using a thin piece of cardboard to which I glued a vintage book page.  The Spellbinders heart dies were used again to cut four hearts, which were then run through the Cuttlebug Textile embossing folder and sponged with Vintage Photo ink.  I linked them together with tiny metal flowers and jump rings and allowed them to dangle freely.  The top one is anchored with a Tim Holtz Foliage metal flower and brad.  

And that's a wrap for another week of Simon Says projects.  This was a fun project.  I putzed around with it all day on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed making it.  

And now it's time for you to drop by the Simon Says Samp and Show Challenge Blog to check out the challenge and the inspiration.  And, as always, our generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp and Show has a $50 shopping spree for some lucky player so get in on the chance !

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  

A Simple A2 Father's Day Card

I made this card in an hour - whoopie!  That hasn't happened in years.  After I spent an hour this evening looking on line for a digi image of a golfer, I gave up and went back to the Tim Holtz sets for a Father's Day card for for my DH.  I decided to do a quick and easy card.  If you need a Father's Day card in a hurry, feel free to CASE it, just give me credit if you post it on line, please :)

I started with a shell of Confetti Cream and then clear embossed a couple of TH stamps for my background, then sponged it with Vintage photo.  A torn book page and torn crumpled glassine kraft paper made another layer and then I made a little chipboard label with more book page and a thin cardboard, cut it with a spellbinders label die and then stamped the old car with Stewart Superior India Ink.  The sentiment is a very old MFT stamp which came in very handy here.

Hope you all enjoy Sunday with a special dad - be it your DH, your own dad, grand dad or other guy in your life.

After another super busy week, I'm back again for my Saturday Our Creative Corner post.  Lori Rider is our hostess again this week and this week she has a color challenge for us - but it's a color challenge with a twist - you have to use three punches and one of them has to be a border punch!

I kind of panicked when I saw the colors, but then I realized I had the Springtime Vintage paper pack from SU with those colors in it - whew!  I really love Soft Suede so I featured it quite prominently.  The doily lace is the white border lace doily that I sell in my Etsy shop.  I sprayed it with the homemade glimmer mist I use a lot (vintage photo reinker, water and Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls).  I really love the way it looks with its new vintage paper look!  I did sponge the edges a bit with Vintage Photo ink too.

The three punches I used are all SU punches - two for the soft suede panel - the border punch and the corner punch.  The third punch is a large 5-petel flower that I punched newsprint with and placed it underneath my crinoline flower.  The rich razzleberry can be found in the two outer rosebuds and the regal rose is in the paper and the middle rosebud.  I colored white rosebuds with the reinkers, mixed with a few drops of water to mute the intensity.  That fabulous sentiment came from my favorite sentiment maker, Anne Vento.  Anne hosts the Sentimental Sundays Challenge Blog and you can pick up free digital sentiments every Sunday.  I sprayed the sentiment panel with a bit of my glimmer mist too.

You can find these items in my Etsy shop:
Venise lace rosebud appliques
White Paper Lace Doily
Shabby Crinoline Flowers
Crinoline to make your own shabby flowers - tutorial here

I hope you will stop by the Our Creative Corner challenge blog and see the beautiful creations by the other designers, and maybe play along with us this week too!

Thanks so much for stopping by - hope you have a great weekend@!

Back in Stock - Vintage Style Neutrals Kit

Just a quick post this evening to let you all know that my June kit, Vintage Style Neutrals, is back in stock in my Etsy store.  The supply is limited - only four.  Many of the items in the kit are hand assembled, die cut or distressed by me which mean it is very labor intensive to put these kits together.  Also, some of the supplies are limited.  Otherwise I would make up more.  This will probably be it for the June kit.  I have received rave reviews from the first four I sold.

Thanks for looking!

More Father's Day Art

I had so much fun making the wall hanging for my dad for Father's Day that I decided to do something similar for my husband's step-father.  Rather than using a book cover, for this one I used a piece of the corrugated cardboard from my Etsy shop.  This cardboard is flexible so I glued it to a same-sized piece of chipboard for stability.  I used my finger to smear some gesso up and down it for a whitewashed look and when dry, inked the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink.  I stamped the larger of the two Book Covers stamps with Brushed Corduroy onto kraft CS.  The vintage sales receipt is from Curiosities, stamped in black archival ink onto white copy paper and then ripped and ink distressed with Vintage Photo.  Again, the same for the auto panel, but onto kraft instead of white.  The sentiment had the same treatment as the sales receipt.  I ripped and crumpled up a strip of Tim Holtz Kraft Glassine paper, sort of pleated it and ran a straight stitch across it  The vintage keys came from my stash.  I have pile of old keys and was lucky enough to actually find an automobile key.  The piece of filigree metal is from my Etsy shop as re the small brass flowers.  A couple of scraps of black grosgrain ribbon and a vintage button topped of the piece.  

Thanks for stopping by today and for any comments you leave.  If you have any questions, I'm very happy to answer them.

Challenges Entered:
Creative Inspirations - Card for Dad
Sentimental Sundays - Father's Day/Masculine
Stamptacular Sunday - Dads and Grads
Oh-La-La Creations- Father's Day/Special Man
The Kraft Journal - Father's Day
Papertake Weekly - Dads and Lads
PaperPlay Challenge - Father's Day/Masculine
ABC Challenge - F is for Father's Day
Fussy and Fancy - Card for a Boy or a Man
The Stamp Man - Boys and Men
Craft Your Days Away - Monochrome
Crazy4Challenges - Masculine Card
Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - A Male Card
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle - Father's Day Card

Dad's Distressed Edges

Hello and welcome!  I'm here to share my challenge sample for this week's Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  This week we want you to show us your distressed edges.  That was no challenge for me - LOL.  You probably know that I just about can't make anything without distressing the edges - rip, torn, scissor scraped, inked - oh yeah, that definitely makes me happy!  As so I was, working away at this project.  

I decided that rather than make my dad a Father's Day card, I would make him a little wall hanging.  My dad likes old things, especially old things with wheels.  I started with a book cover, which I am finding that I really love using for a project base.  I started with my new Book Covers Tim Holtz stamp, which I stamped on kraft with Brushed Corduroy distress ink.  Then I did my distressing thing with scissors and Vintage Photo distress ink around the edges.  The General Merchandise stamp from the Curiosities set was stamped with black archival ink on plain white paper then distressed with Vintage Photo and Black Soot distress inks.  The same for the car stamp from The Journey stamp set, except that it was stamped onto kraft CS.  The bird from Flights of Fancy was stamped with Tea Dye distress ink and the sentiment from the same set was stamped in black archival ink.  The pocket watch face from Curiosities was gold embossed, inked with Vintage Photo and then Crackle Accents was applied.  I made a watch case with Ten Seconds Studio metal, cut with Spellbinders circle dies and embossed with the Textile Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I applied gold alcohol ink mixative and when dry, hit the hit points with a sanding block.  The metal bits came from a trip to my local hardware store and then I applied Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder to create faux rust.  I also added a bit of Ginger Alcohol Ink to the bottom piece to darken it up a bit.  Oh, and I used my new Kraft Glassine paper to cut the letters for DAD using the Vintage Market die.  

Them's the dets, folks.  Let me know if you have any questions.  It's really a pretty technique-free piece, even though I did manage to use a LOT of Tim Holtz products.  Now it's time for you to scurry on over to Simon Says Stamp and Show to check out how the rest of the team distressed their edges.  Plenty of great inspiration there, I tell you!  And as always, our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp has a $50 shopping spree just waiting for some lucky random winner, but you can't win if you don't play.  So be sure to show us your distressed edges!

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous week!

Weekend "Follow Me" Coupon for My Etsy Shop

I've decided to really take the plunge into the social networking world by setting up a Twitter account (funkiejunkie1) for my Etsy shop.  I'll be giving a 10% discount coupon to anyone who signs up to follow me on Twitter before midnight Monday night (6/14/11 12:00 a.m. ET).

Why follow me on Twitter?  Because I'll be letting my followers know when I list special items.  I won't bother you with tweets about items I have multiples of, but those limited editions such as the ones shown here, will get a quick tweet.

My hand assembled kits are a very limited edition.  I initially made 3 and now am making 4 more.  The first three sold out very quickly.  I take great care in hand creating or cutting a number of items in my kit and take even more care in the packaging and presentation for a very unique product.  Find out when the June kits are listed again by signing up to follow thefunkiejunkie1 on Twitter.

I'll be sending the shop coupon code for 10% off to everyone who signs up by the Monday night deadline.

Have a great weekend!

An Inspiration Photo Challenge

Good morning and welcome to my Saturday post for Our Creative Corner.  I do appreciate you starting your weekend off with a visit to my blog!  This week, our hostess Lori Rider has an inspiration challenge for us, but with specific instructions.

Here's the photo and Lori wants us to pick a minimum of two items to be inspired by and tell us about it on your post.  For my sample, I tried to stick to the color palette, just using lighter shades of these colors to give my card a vintage feel.  I loved that pleated pillow and mimicked it with my flower.  It was made with the same white crinoline that I sell in my Etsy shop.  I cut a strip of crinoline and then tea dyed it.  After drying it, I took a ruler and a brown Copic marker and drew stripes on the crinoline.  Then I cut it using the PTI scalloped dye.  I saw a flower made like that on Viola Mahr's blog, in fact she has a little tutorial on it.  

The designer paper is all digital - Raspberry Road and Designer Digitals, printed at home.  I found the faux vintage image on the internet.  I stamped in Soft Suede with a stamp from SU's Elements of Style and the Best Wishes stamp is from Crafty Secrets.  I just got a pack of Tim Holtz's Kraft Glassine paper and had to try it out - especially because the colors matched so well.  I used an SU border punch on it and ran it through SU's Square Lattice embossing folder, which I hope looks a little like the brick wall in the photo.  I added the buttons to look like polka dots and picked up the oranges in that gorgeous new stick pin I made.  

I think that's pretty much it.  Let me know if you have any questions.

The following items can be found in my Etsy shop:

Rayon Seam Binding

Crinoline

Stick Pins 

Thanks again for stopping by and for your lovely comments.  Have a great weekend!

Celebrating Our American Summer

Hello and welcome!  Thanks so much for stopping by today to see what I have made for our weekly Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  This week, we're challenging you to show us a tag.  I was still feeling patriotic after last week's Memorial Day celebration so I decided to carry the theme through on my tag for this week's challenge.  Actually, summer has very strong patriotic overtones for me.  With Memorial Day being the traditional kick off for summer, then July 4th and Labor Day, even though it's not really patriotic, it's still a celebration of how we fought for worker rights here in the U.S.A., which has a strong patriotic feel for me.  So I used all those feelings to develop my tag.

I started by covering a Tim Holtz tag with blue cardstock that was run through the Cuttlebug Stars embossing folder and brayered with Snow Cap Pigment Ink.  Then I played with some Tim Holtz techniques including rusted enamel and using Fired Brick crackle paint.  For the middle heart, I did emboss resist using the Fabulous Flourishes stamp set, applying Fired Brick Distress Ink after I clear embossed the stamp.  The tags were all cut with Spellbinders dies and the sentiment is computer generated.  A Tim Holtz fragment was combined with a vintage patriotic image and a slim Melissa Frances Vintage Crepe Paper ruffle finished it off.

That's pretty much the story on this make.  Hope you will stop by the challenge blog at Simon Says Stamp and Show to see the amazing work the rest of the design team has to offer for your inspiration this week.  And, as always, our amazing sponsor Simon Says Stamp has a fabulous $50 shopping spree for our random winner this week.

Thanks again for stopping by and for the wonderfully encouraging comments.  Hope you have a wonderful week!

...and the bride wore white.

Hello and welcome to my Saturday post for Our Creative Corner.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  Our hostess this week, Sharon Wheet, has such a sweet challenge for us.  We are to make a wedding card or other paper craft project but she has given us a recipe of what is to be included.  First it is to be soft and elegant, then you are to include a sheer fabric such as organza or tulle, some kind of trim such as ribbon, lace, baker's twine or crocheted trim, a flower, at least one pearl and some stitching (real or faux).  Wow, what a delicious recipe.  I couldn't wait to get started on this one!

Here's what I did:  I wanted it to be all white on white, but then rethought it and decided to include one slim layer of black to give it a little kick.  I applied a bit of my UTEE/gold EP mix around the edge to bring in the gold.  The white layer is embossed with an SU embossing folder.  Along the bottom, under the flower and bow, I ran a strip of very fine white tulle - it's actually four layers of tulle, stretched and secured at the back.  Across the tulle, I ran a length of that amazing embroidered lace.  Added one of my favorite crinoline flowers (tutorial here), tied a bow of the lace and inserted a gold and pearl stick pin through a tag to secure it.  I topped it off with a his and hers heart set.  It's really a pretty simple card for me - not as much layering as I usually do, but I wanted to give the embellishments the staring role.  Most of these embellishments can be found in my Etsy store as follows:
Venise Lace Hearts
Crinoline
Embroidered Sheer Lace (brand new in the shop and completely gorgeous!)
Stick Pins
Rosebud Appliques

That's it for this week's Saturday post.  I hope you will join in the fun with us this week at Our Creative Corner.

Challenges Entered

Tuesday Throwdown - DYI Embellishments

Cooking it Up with Katie - Give me a Romantic, Embossed, Ribbon

Little Boy Blue

I am having my usual busy week, but I couldn't resist this week's color challenge over at CR84FN Color Challenge.  It's light blue, light yellow and kraft.  What a sweet color palette and I had another darling nursery rhyme image from The Graphic Fairy that fit the colors perfectly. Here is my take on their colors and I am so pleased with how it came out.

The Dets:  

Image - The Graphic Fairy and Dreams stamp from the Sweet Kids set from Crafty Secrets  Frame - kraft CS cut with two Spellbinders dies, corners embossed with Cuttlebug Fancy Corners embossing folder, embossed with my combo of UTEE and gold EP. The tiny metal pieces are from my metals collection at my Etsy shop.  They were bright brass, but I took an SU marker and colored them black and then rubbed some of it off to give them more of an antique feel.  

Flower - cut from Crinoline (tutorial here) from my Etsy shop and dyed with Barely Banana reinker.  The rosette style backing is made from the kraft paper twist ribbon in my Etsy shop.  I may do a quick tutorial later on how I made it.

Lace - was white from my Etsy shop and I dyed it blue with my Bashful Blue reinker.  It came out GOREGOUS, but as usual I covered most of it up.

Tag:  Spellbinders die plus a small scrap of rayon seam binding that I dyed with Barely Banana reinker and added a sweet safety pin with a couple of small pearls and bead spacers.

Yellow panel - Barely Banana CS cut with the SU Top Note Die and embossed with the Tim Holtz Collage embossing folder.  

Blue Designer Paper - Raspberry Road digital paper printed on my home computer

All edges scissor distressed and ink distressed with both Creamy Caramel and Vintage Photo Distress Ink

Hope you are having a great week!  I'll be back on Saturday with my post for Our Creative Corner.  Thanks so much for stopping by.  If you have any questions, I'm very happy to share.  Just post your comment here or email me at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com.

Challenges:

Paper Sundaes - Vintage, Distressed

Tuesday Throwdown - DYI Embellishments

The Stamp Man - Tic, Tac, Toe (blue, ripped/torn, die cut)