It's a Keeper

Good Monday morning to you bloggy friends!  The great thing about Monday mornings is that its time for another Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  This week we want you to show us something For Men Only.  Oooohh, tough challenge for a lot of us, right?  I actually like to do a guy card/project periodically, but I will admit that I have to be pushed into it.  This week I made a card for my project.  I used an old favorite stamp set called Keeper from Artistic Outpost and combined it with a newer Tim Holt set Curiosities.   I made a little sign with the Photographs stamp, covering it with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel.  I like the irregular coverage you get with it when you only do one coat.  I created my own designer paper by stamping randomly on kraft CS with Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink and the stamps from the Tim Holtz Ultimate Grunge set. I finally broke down and bought that set and I love it.  Its fabulous for grungy background stamping!  That layer was scissor distressed on the edges and sponged with Vintage Photo DI.

The shell of the card is black CS and then next layer up is plain white CS that I embossed with the Checkerboard Texture Fade and sponged with Scattered Straw DI.  The fish were stamped onto kraft CS with Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink and then I went over them with an olive green Copic to make them look more realistic.  Then I coated them with a layer of  Glossy Accents.

That's about it.  Let me know if you have any questions.  Hope to see you over at the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog.  You know there will be plenty of eye candy to get your mojo started over there. Hope you will leave the other designers some love too!  And if you play, you just might win a $50 shopping spree that is given to a random player each week by our generous sponsor, Simon Says Stamp and Show.

Challenge: 12 Tags of Christmas - Funkie Junkie Style - Week #4

Greetings bloggy friends and happy weekend to you!  I'm combining my Week #4 inspiration tag along with the Our Creative Corner challenge this week which is Numbers. That makes me a few days early with the #4 tag challenge since I have been posting that challenge on Wednesdays.  No worries, you still have until December 15th to play in this challenge.

 Sharon is our hostess again this week and she wants us to use some sort of number on our submission this week.  If you've been reading my blog, you have probably noticed my 12 Tags of Christmas - Funkie Junkie style.  My theme for my tag series is December 25th.  Since I am very pressed for time over the next few weeks I thought I could combine the two challenges.  

You can check out the sidebar links to get an idea of how the challenge works.  You can make any kind or any style of card, scrapbook layout, tag, wall hanging, home decor project - anything, you name it. Read all the rules here and then get going so you can play along!  A $25 shop in my Etsy Boutique is up for random grabs if you have completed all the tags by December 15th.  

Tag #4 is pretty simple.  I first stamped the snowflakes with Ranger Archival Jet Black ink and then covered the entire tag with Clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint and let it dry.  Once dry I went over it with Vintage Photo Distress Stain and wiped off the excess.  It gave it such a nice vintagy tone.  The cheese cloth was sprayed liberally with the mixture of Vintage Photo Distress Ink, water and Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls that I use so frequently.  The snowflakes were cut with Spellbinders dies and painted with Gold Acrylic Paint Dabber.  The reindeer was cut with the Reindeer Flight die and sponged with Vintage Photo.  She has a cute little rusty bell on her burlap twine collar.  The numbers 25 were cut with the Tim Holtz Vintage Market letter die and coated with Crystal Effects.  The icicles were made with Star Dust Stickles.

That's it for this week's Tag and OCC challenge. I hope you will stop by Our Creative Corner and see the wonderful work by our designers.   And I warmly invite you to join in the fun with my 12 Tags of Christmas - Funkie Junkie Style by linking your winter holiday craft item.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Challenge: 12 Tags of Christmas - Funkie Junkie Style - Week #3

Here's my inspiration photo for Week #3 of the 12 Tags of Christmas challenge that I have running through December 15.  

For those of you who read this post earlier about my broken camera and lousy phone photo, I was able to borrow my daughter's point and shoot and have updated the photo so it actually looks decent!

Here are the deets on this week's tag.  It was sponged with Frayed Burlap distress ink and then I stamped BELIEVE from the Tim Holtz Mini Holidays set with Frayed Burlap to create a background.  The flourish was cut with the Elegant Flourishes die from Grungeboard and sponged first with Pitch Black and then Gold Acrylic Paint Dabbers.  The little flower was cut with the Tattered Florals die from Very Vanilla CS, then it was spritzed with Heirloom Gold and Vintage Photo spray, crumpled up, dried and then dabbed with the Gold paint dabber.  The center is a crystal from my beading supplies.  The "sheet music" is a stamp from the new Tim Holtz set Mini Holidays 3, stamped onto vellum.  

Continuing my tag theme of December 25th, for the 25, I punched the numbers from a stamp from the Ultimate Grunge stamp sets, edged them with Vintage Photo DI and mounted them on the Type Charms.  The Believe tag was copper so I dabbed it with gold ink and then clear embossed over it.  I used a piece of Tim Holtz Lavish Trimmings across the bottom.  I went over it with the Gold paint dabber before gluing it down. The stars are from a Sizzix die and were embossed with Judi-Kins Egyptian Gold EP.  The metal corner is from my Etsy boutique.  

I hope you will want to play along with me as I do my 12 tags project.  You can find all the challenge "rules" here.  And just a reminder, you can complete the challenges in any order you please.  The only deadline is the final one December 15th.  If you have linked a project to each of the 12 tag posts by December 15th, your name will go in a drawing.  There will be one random winner and the prize is your choice of a piece of my artwork or a $25 shopping spree in my Etsy boutique.  

POST UPDATE:  A reader asked about the sheet music.  It's a stamp from the new Tim Holtz Mini Holidays 3 set.  

Short and Sweet

Hi gang, hope you had a wonderful weekend.  I'm back with you this Monday morning to share my Simon Says Stamp and Show project.  This week are are challenging you to show us your ATC.  Wow, what a small palette to work on, huh? ATCs are not something I do very often - usually limited when I am challenged - LOL!   This time I decided to use my brand new Wendy Vecchi stamps to make a fall feeling ATC.

I started with a piece of corrugated cardboard as the base and spritzed it with my new bottle of Denim Color Wash, then sponged the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink plus swiped a bit of gesso across it.  Using the Elegant Flourishes die, I cut a piece of chipboard, then sponged it with Faded Jeans distress ink and stamped it with the gingham stamp from the Wendy Vecchi Nature's Art set.  It's kind of funny, but all the blues in this piece are Faded Jeans, but depending on what I stamped on, the shade changed.

The paper flower was cut with the Tattered Florals die and then I painted a Foliage piece with a bit of Snow Cap Acrylic Paint Dabber, let it dry and then brushed a bit of Faded Jeans distress ink on it.  The butterfly from the Wendy set was stamped with Faded Jeans DI and also Brushed Cordury.  I coated it with Crackle Accents and because I used water based distress inks, the ink ran and bled.  I was ready to toss it out, but decided I liked the distressed look and decided to stay with it.  The leaf from the Wendy set was stamped in Rusty Hinge and then coated with Antique Linen Distress Stickles.  A stamped sentiment, a scrap of burlap from my craft table and a button from my stash and this ATC was finished off and ready to post.

I hope you will stop over to Simon Says Stamp and Show to see the wonderful ATCs that the rest of the design team have for your inspiration.  And don't forget about the $50 random drawing to shop with our generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp.  Hope to see your ATC entered in our challenge this week.

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

A Delightful Dash of Pink

Good morning, you all.  So glad to see you back here again!  Hope your weekend is off to a great start.  The DH and I are in Gainesville, FL this weekend to attend our Florida Gators football game against Tennessee.  I had a busy week trying to come back from a nasty bout of flu and turn out 12 of my sunflower kits from last week.  Then a scramble to make this card and my Simon Says make before we left on Friday.  And I got it all done!  Didn't sleep much, but made all my deadlines.

Enough about me, I'm sure you came here to see something pretty.  How about this pretty pink?  Our hostess over at Our Creative Corner this week is Sharon Wheet and she is severely limiting our indulgence in pink - LOL.  She's stacked up quite a challenge for us this week - here are the requirements:

• Your card has to be blue with just a touch of pink (no more than 1/5 pink)
• You must incorporate some texture (fabric, ribbon, floss, etc.) and you must include some sort of metal (brad, push pin, charm, etc.)
• Make something pretty without going over the top with pink

Here you have what I came up with for the challenge.  When I first read the challenge requirements and started thinking about pink and blue together, I thought yuck!  But now that it's done, I really like the color combo.  I think this is the first time I have used one of the triangle filigrees from my Etsy boutique for a corner embellishment and I really like it - nice and big and bold - pretty flashy and I think it looks great with the pink resin flower sitting on it.  I had the flower sitting on my work table and it matched the pink seam binding so I thought, why not.  The wider burlap is new and going into my shop over the weekend, I hope.

I think everything here is self-explanatory, but if you have any questions, just leave them in the comments and I'll get back to you.  Briefly - the hydranga stamp is SU, the lace directions is newly acquired Wendy Vecchi Believe in Art set, the tag sentiment is from PTI.

Now hop on over to Our Creative Corner to see what the rest of the team has to get your mojo revving this weekend.

Challenge: 12 Tags of Christmas - Funkie Junkie Style - Week #2

Welcome back to Week #2 of my 12 Tags of Christmas challenge.  Here is my Week #2 inspiration sample.  I hope you will play along by creating some sort of holiday craft project - a tag, card, scrapbook layout, home decor piece - it's wide open.  It just needs to be hand made with a winter holiday theme and it must be inspired by something on my piece.  Don't forget, you have to tell us what inspired you in your post and link back to this post so others can find the challenge and play along too.  You will have until midnight on December 15th to complete all 12 challenges to be eligible for the random prize drawing at the end of the challenge.  The complete rules are in this post.  To learn all the details about this tag, see the original post here.

Last week, we had one brave crafter who submitted a lovely piece.  Thanks to Sue from Scrumplescrunch for being the first to play along with this beauty:

Thanks so much for dropping by today. I sure do hope you will decide to play along!

Studying Steampunk

Good Monday morning to you, bloggy friends.  Hope you all have had a nice weekend.  I'm still fighting my way back from the flu.  It seems like it is really going around early this year.  Our Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge to you this week is to Show Us Your Steampunk.  Oh my, was this ever a tough challenge for me.  I have never done anything steampunk and really didn't have an angle to start.  I did a bit of research and surfed a few blogs for inspiration but never really got inspired.  I got an early start because I was so uncertain of what to do but that didn't seem to help.   Anyway, I settled on Artistic Outpost's Paris Exposition set because I thought it might be reflective of the mechanical age that birthed steampunk.  And of course I needed the requisite cogs so I purchased the Gadget Gears die and headed into my craft room.  I've also wanted to give fiber paste a try again and thought I could use it for this challenge.  

I die cut the gears, layering two pieces of chipboard together for extra height and glued them to a book cover.  Then I covered the entire piece with fiber paste.  Once dry, I could see that it needed another coat of fiber paste which I gave it.  After the fiber paste had thoroughly dried, I made a wash out of Vintage Photo Distress Stain and gave the entire piece a wash with that.  Then I took a paint brush and painted the gears with full strength distress stain and then gave them all a second coat to deepen the color.  

Images from the Paris Exposition set were stamped with Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink onto tissue paper and trimmed out closely.  I watered down a little of Claudine Helmuth's Multi Medium Matte and brushed some onto the areas where I was going to affix the tissue paper images, laid down the tissue paper and then gave it a good coat of the watery multi medium matte.  Unfortunately the tissue paper didn't just dissolve into the fiber paste background and it stands out :(  I did this technique once before and now I think that I put the tissue paper down onto the fiber paste while the fiber paste was still wet because that time the tissue paper couldn't be seen.  It looked much nicer - LOL!

I made little signs Dream, Explore, Discover using the Artistic Outpost Huck Finn set and Shelly Hickox's faux French enamel tutorial here.  I have been wanting to try that technique ever since she posted it, but haven't had the occasion.  (I actually have another piece in mind to try it with in a couple of weeks.)  I mounted my signs on scraps of rusted metal mesh, but you couldn't really see the mesh - it sort of blended into the background so I gave it a few swipes with Snow Cap acrylic paint dabber.  And it wouldn't be a Funkie Junkie piece without a flower, so I made one out of the rusted metal mesh and my trusty Tattered Florals die.  

That's my take on steampunk.  Not my favorite piece, by a long shot - I'll blame it on the flu or maybe the flu meds as I've been feeling pretty spacey the last few days!

I hope you will join our steampunk fest over at Sion Says Stamp and Show.  The DT, as always, have some amazing art to share with you!  And of course, our ever generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp has a $50 gift certificate to shop in their store for the lucky random winner!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and for any comment you care to leave.  Have a great week!

More Sunflowers!

Hello again,

I'm back with a second post of the day and my second sunflower card!  I have the honor of being the guest designer at Sugar Creek Hollow this week and the challenge there is Sunflowers.  Not a hardship for me because I LOVE sunflowers.  I made this card first and was on a roll with sunflowers and used that theme in my earlier post for Our Creative Corner.

For this card, I started with an outer shell of Garden Green, followed by a layer of brown polka dots by Pink Petticoat (more digital paper printed on my home printer).  The yellow gingham is a stamp by Wendy Vecchi which I think will be a go-to stamp frequently for me because I love all things gingham!  I overstamped it with an Artistic Outpost ledger stamp in Brushed Corduroy.  I ruched some brown gingham ribbon and ran it across the burlap strip and also rusted the filigree corner piece before adhering it with Claudine Helmuth Multi Medium Matte.  The post card was printed on my printer and I added the words "You are my sunshine" to it along with XOXO.  See the prior post about the crinoline sunflower.  

I had a little extra time so I went ahead and finished off the inside and made a gift box too.

I want to thank the design team over at Sugar Creek Hollow for choosing me as the guest designer this week.  They didn't have a sponsor lined up so I asked if my Etsy Boutique could sponsor their challenge and they agreed.  This is my very first advertising so we'll see how that goes!  And if you are interested, I made a little embellishment collection with some of the embellishments from the two sunflower cards.  I listed 5 sets, but if it is sold out, check back later because I will add more.  If you don't see it appear, email me at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com and I'll let you know the availability of additional collections.







Challenges Entered:
The Pixie Cottage - Mellow Yellow and/or Sketch
Truly Scrumptious - Decorate the Inside of Your Card

Wonderful Windows

Good Saturday morning my blogging friends!  Hope your weekend is off to a great start.  I'm feeling rather poorly myself, having come down with a cold/flu type of deal on Friday so I'm hoping to be able to squeeze in a bit of rest this weekend - amongst my crafting and ministry work at church.

Our challenge this week at Our Creative Corner was set by our hostess Holly and is called Wonderful Windows. Wooeee, this was a tough one for me!  I'm not too fond of window cards because they are so fussy and take so long to make, not to mention how tough they are to photograph! That said, I am very happy with the results of my labor.   As you can see, I wanted to work in some yellow crinkled seam binding, but there was no room for a large floppy bow so I ended up weaving it in and out of the filigree metal.  I like the way it looks!

Details for the front of the card - Chocolate Chip outer shell, then a layer of whisper white stamped in Ranger Archival Black with a Tim Holtz (Christmas) music stamp then sponged with Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo.  The checkered paper is from Raspberry Roads but I changed the color from light blue to the garden green shade I had in mind to go with the sunflowers.

The window was cut with a Spellbinders label die and I used the music stamp plus an Artistic Outpost postcard stamp on the inside.  My sunflower was cut from crinoline with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and dyed with Summer Sun reinker.  The leaves were cut from canvas with the Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves die and dyed with Garden Green reinker.  The ledger paper is also (digital) from Raspberry Road.  

I made up a little embellishment kit with the crinoline sunflowers and am offering it in my Etsy boutique.  I listed 5 but if they are sold out, come back later and I'll list more.  If you don't see them listed and are interested, email me at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com and I'll let you know the availability of additional kits.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Hope you have a great weekend.

Challenges Entered:

Crafts and Me - Buttons and Bows

The Pixie Cottage - Mellow Yellow and/or Sketch

Truly Scrumptious - Decorate the Inside of Your Card

Challenge: 12 Tags of Christmas - Funkie Junkie Style

While I was working on my Christmas tag triptych last week I decided I wanted to go ahead and make it a 12 tag project.  It occurred to me that this would be an opportunity to have some fun and also to get to know some of my readers.  So I have cooked up this 12 week challenge and invite everyone to play along. Here are the deets (rules, if you will):

• This is an inspiration challenge.  Each week, I will post my tag and you will use it to be inspired to make something.  You can enter any sort of craft.  It can be a tag, a card, a home decor project, a scrapbook layout - your choice.  
• You must take inspiration from something on my tag and tell us in your post what inspired you.  You don't have to use my style, my layout, my colors, my theme or anything except be inspired by something on my sample.  Your make can be shabby, it can be grungy or it can be clean and simple.  I don't mind if you CASE my work, but if you do, please give me credit.  
• We will have 12 weekly challenges beginning today, Wednesday, September 7th.  You can link your project using the linky provided.  If you don't have a blog, you can use another hosting site such as SplitCoast Stampers or PhotoBucket, but you must link back to this challenge and tell us what inspired you.   Be sure to mention this challenge in your blog post, tell us what inspired you and provide a link to the weekly challenge.
• All 12 challenges will remain open until December 15th.  You can play any challenge up through that date.  At the end, I will do a drawing for a random grand prize winner.  To be eligible to win, you must have submitted an entry into all 12 weeks of this challenge by midnight Eastern Time December 15th.  The prize will be the winner's choice of one of my art pieces/cards or a $25 shopping spree in my Etsy Shop.  

Please let me know if you have any questions.  I hope you will join in the fun.  Can't wait to see what you make.

Love = Love

Good morning, friends!  I hope the beginning of our Labor Day weekend finds you well and getting ready to enjoy the last official weekend of summer.  And if you aren't in the USA, I hope you enjoy your weekend also.  We are entering my very favorite time of the year - autumn.  Unfortunately so many of the things I enjoy about fall aren't present here in Miami, Florida - no turning leaves, no fresh ripe apples, no smell of smoke in the crisp air from leaves burning.  So I'll have to make due with decorating my home and making crafty fall items.

This week at our Creative Corner, one of our brand new design team members, Holly Kean is our hostess.  The fun challenge she has for us is called Stamp Happy and she wants us to stamp on our designer paper.  I love the look and creativity of stamping on designer paper, but I never think to do it, so thanks to Holly for giving me a push in this direction!

This card is my very first piece ever made with a Wendy Vecchi/Studio 490 stamp.  I finally broke down and ordered a couple of sets.  I admire her work, but I'm not sure her style fits with my style very well.  I've been alternating between liking this card and being very lukewarm about it.  I'm still haven't made a final decision on that.  I purchased two sets - Love to Make Art and Nature's Art, and this card combines stamps from both sets.  What I really like is the text stamp (directly under the heart and also used it to make the second layer of the card) and the sentiments (I'm a big sentiment/quote fan).

I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch

My DP started life as a book page.  I used a technique I saw on Tim Holtz's blog to lift some of the print off the page.

Here are two photos of the process.  I used a vintage book, about 50 years old. I don't know how this would work with a new book.  Basically you just lay the tape directly on the paper surface, burnish it a bit and then rip off.  In the bottom photo, you can see on the tape that about half the surface ripped off.  After that step, I stamped the leaf and the gingham stamps directly on the paper with Brushed Corduroy distress ink.  The two top panels were cut with PTI dies - one is the Spiral Notebook Page die and the other is the Button Card Collection die.  For the notepad, I also embossed it with the Tim Holtz notepad texture fade.  The heart was stamped and trimmed out.  Peeled Paint and Scattered Straw distress inks were used on the notepad and the heart and butterfly.  The hardware and lace are from my Etsy shop.  I stamped the sentiment on the butterfly "and in the end, the love you make is equal to the love you take" a quote from an old Beatles' song probably written by John Lennon.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I'd be interested to know what you think of this card/style.  Happy weekend everyone!

Challenges Entered:
Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Ribbon or Lace