Kings 'n Things

Good morning all you wonderful followers!  Wonderful to have you back again.  This week the challenge at  Simon Says Stamp and Show is Kings and Queens.  I decided to do a guy thing and kept it to only Kings.  I cut piece of CS roughly the size of a tag and layered Foil Tape over it and then cut it with the Tag and Bookplates die.  After that, I ran it though the ultimate guy icon - the diamond plate EF (and then of course I covered it all up).  The King of Spades was cut from Kraft-Core Core'dinations and embossed with Tim's Poker Face Texture Fade.  I made what I fondly hope looks like a roadside sign using the Styled Labels die to cut chipboard, which was then painted black with a paint dabber and then painted over with a gold paint dabber.  When good and dry, I sanded it giving it the worn streaky look.  Because it's the only Tim Holts letter die I have, the letters were cut with the Vintage Market die (need to branch out in that tool area - LOL).  They were again stacked on a layer of black letters to give them more dimension and covered with Crackle Accents.  The vintage pickup truck from The Journey set.was stamped in Gathered Twigs and I cut the license plates out of the paper from the Lost and Found Paper Stash.   The piece of vintage ephemera was from a vintage image blog that is now closed down.  Sorry, but I've never run across this one anywhere else.  

Now that you have seen my piece for this challenge, I hope you will scoot on over to Simon Says Stamp and Show and see the DT's projects which are WAY more impressive then my simple tag.  And don't forget, Simon Says Stamp will be giving a $50 shopping voucher to some lucky random winner.  

Challenges:
Fashionable Stamping Challenge:  Make it a Guy Thing

Cutie Pie

Hi there, I'm back again today with a post for Artistic Outpost using their Cutie Pie set.  It has some great retro Valentine's Day images.  You can see that I had fun with this one.  I started by stamping the Be Mine and Cutie Pie sentiments plus the XOXOXO in Real Red on white CS.  With a strip of Real Red CS, I clear embossed more of the same.   I swiped it with Picket Fence distress stain and rubbed it off the embossing with a damp paper towel.  The white heart embossed with the TH BINGO texture fade was actually left over from last week's marathon cupid piece and was still sitting on my desk waiting for its ultimate destiny, which it seems to have found here.

The letters were cut in black and red with the Vintage Market decorative strip die - a little trick I learned from Tim Holtz doing his 12 tags this year.  Gluing the darker shade on the bottom just a tad offset gives them so much more depth.  They were coated with Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  The strip along the bottom was cut with the Vintage Lace die, one of my current favorite embellishment tools, available in my Etsy shop.



Challenges Entered:
The Craft Room - Valentines

The products shown here were used to create this project.  With the exception of the stamp set, they can all be found in my Etsy boutique.  Check out  my prices on Ranger products - I offer them at less than MSRP.

Artistic Outpost Cutie Pie	Multi Medium Matte	Alterations Vintage Lace Die	Picket Fence Distress Stain	Alterations Mini Rosette Die
Burlap String 10 Colors	White Corrugated Cardboard

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Shabby Dreams

Good morning, friends!  So glad you stopped by.  I'm here to share my Saturday post for Our Creative Corner.  This week, Lori Rider is hosting and she has a lovely sketch for us to follow - it's sure to get your creativity jump started. 

Here is my interpretation of the sketch.  It seemed that most of the rest of the team had a die that they cut the edges with for the scalloped part.  I have just one Punch Around the Page border punch but it's not the right size so I decided to go really shabby and just tear the edges.  I thought a couple of weeks ago that I hadn't done that in awhile and jumped at the chance.  

I started out with a square piece of music sheet CS and applied Golden Fiber paste fairly thin because I wanted texture but also wanted the music to show through.  I used four filigree metal squares from my Etsy shop for the bottom layer of the four shapes.  I white embossed them and then sanded the high points to give them a shabby worn enamel feel.  The top squares are cut with Spellbinders Labels 1 dies, the smaller squares were stamped with Tim Holtz's Papillon set in Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs.  The top square was stamped with a sentiment from Tim Holtz's Stuff to Say set in Victorian Velvet DI.  The tiny tribud appliques and the hand dyed seam binding were from the Vintage Valentine's kit I had for sale earlier this month.  There's actually one kit left hanging around in my Etsy boutique.  Everything was glued securely down with Claudine Hellmuth's Multi Medium Matte.  If you haven't used this stuff, you should try it.  It is perfect for gluing down embellies as it dries clear with a MATTE finish - not a shiny one.  

Hope your weekend is off to a great start.  Be sure to stop by to see what the rest of our talented team is up to this week.  And give the sketch a try - it's easy and fun!

Challenges Entered:
Crazy4Challenges - Layer it On

LINKS FOR PRODUCTS USED FOR FOR THIS PROJECT:

Tim Holtz Sanding Grip	Distressed White Enamel Filigree	ictorian Valentine's Paper Crafting Kit	Victorian Valentine's Papercrafting Kit	Multi Medium Matte
Vintage Photo Distress Ink

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Cupid, Let Your Arrow Fly

What a fun challenge we have going for you this week at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  We want you to show us your project based on a song.  I picked "Cupid, draw back your bow and let your arrow go" by Sam Cooke, listening to it on YouTube while I worked away on my project.   

This was a marathon project and I'll skim lightly over the details.  The stand is an empty ribbon spool and I covered both top and bottom platforms with designer paper.  The core is wrapped with white paper twist ribbon.  The flowers were made with the Tattered Pinecone, stamped with Tim's  Sheet Music stamp with Vintage Photo distress ink and the branches are from the same die and were gold embossed.  

I used Shelly Hickox's Faux Crazed Porcelain technique on the four hearts that I cut from white chipboard.  I need practice on this technique.  Shelly's comes out awesome, but I was less than pleased with my results.  Two things I want to remember the next time I try it is to use much thicker chipboard and less crackle paint.  My chipboard warped so badly.  I kept straightening it but it just warped again.  I put the crackle paint on too thick resulting in cracks that were larger than I preferred and I think the heavy layer of crackle paint contributed to the warping.  The arrows are from the Love Stuck die and gold embossed - shot straight into the heart - great aim, Cupid!

The topper is two sided so I made two exact topper pieces and glued them to a dowel which extends down into the stand.   I cut thin chipboard with the largest Spellbinders scalloped heart, gave it several coats of Picket Fence Distress Stain, and when dry, ran it through the BINGO texture fade.  Then I sanded it with my Sanding Grip.  The Paper Rosette was stamped in Vintage Photo with the Tim Holtz Sheet Music stamp and then ink distressed on the edges with more Vintage Photo.  That sweet cupid was cut with the Love Stuck die from white chipboard and then ink distressed on the edges with Vintage Photo DI.  I liberally smeared him with Claudine Hellmuth's Multi-Medium Matte and sprinkled coarse chunky white glitter over it.  

Okey dokey...I think that pretty much covers it, but if you have questions, please leave in the comments section and I will update the post so everyone benefits.

Now it's time to stop over to the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge blog to see what amazing art my teamies have made for the song inspired challenge.  And don't forget, it's just like clockwork - every week our generous sponsor, Simon Says Stamp, gives a $50 shopping voucher to a random winner.  So what are you waiting for.  Show us a project inspired by a favorite song!

A reader asked:
- how tall is this piece?  It stands 11 inches tall.

An Artsy Inspiration

Greetings and happy weekend!  Welcome to my Saturday post for Our Creative Corner.  This week, our hostess Lori Rider has put together a lovely photo inspiration challenge to start our weekend mojo jumpin'.  We have to pick a minimum of two items from the photo and tell what it was that inspired us.  And a little extra twist is that this is a baby shower photo so you can make a baby card if you wish.  No baby on my card, but a sweet little vintage girl from Artistic Outpost.  For my piece, I was inspired by the colors and the branch in the inspiration photo.  I was also inspired by the flowers in the very back which could be tulips.

This card will be used as my first DT card for Artistic Outpost so I wanted it to be suitably artsy.  But now that it's finished, I just don't know if I like it or not, but I did have some fun playing around with my new Tim Holtz Tattered Banners and Distressed Doily dies, which I am now carrying in my Etsy boutique.  (And now that it's photographed I see that when I put craft foam behind the main image it made my doily ripple a bit - my tired eyes didn't notice that last night when I was creating this.)

The background is kraft CS covered with a wash of Picket Fence Distress Stain with a little Worn Lipstick and Dried Marigold reinker mixed in.  Then I embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder and sanded the top with my new Tim Holtz sanding grip, which I think I am going to love.  The images are from Artistic Outpost Lovely Day and were stamped Gathered Twigs DI.  I added a bit of coral color with a Copic marker.  The branch was cut from chipboard, painted with Expresso Paint Dabber and sanded, a technique I picked up from reading Shelly Hickox's blog.  I layered it over a piece of turquoise CS to tie into the inspiration photo.  There you have it.  Now hope over to Our Creative Corner to see the other masterpieces from the rest of the DT.  Hope you will play along with our challenge.  And don't forget, our DT call is open until Monday the 23rd.

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for any comments you care to leave.  If you have questions, please leave them in the comments section and I will update the post with the information so all can see.

Artistic Outpost Lovely Day

Tattered Banners Decorative Strip Die

On the Edge Distressed Doily

Tim Holtz Sanding Grip

Venise Lace Trim

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It's Not a Card

I'm back again, dear bloggy friends, to share my weekly make for Simon Says Stamp and Show.  I'm so happy you stopped by to check it out!  This week Simon Says Stamp and Show Us Anything But a Card.  And of course my talented teamies all have amazing and fantastic projects to share and I have this lame tag - LOL.  I thought and thought this week about what I could make, but no fantabulous project came toodling through my brain so I settled for a tag.  I set out to make one of Tim Holtz's 12 Christmas tags that I hadn't done.  I chose #12, the one with the tissue paper adhered to the base of the tag.  His had the Frozen Charlotte doll, which creeps me out so I went for something a bit more shabby chic with the cameo.  

I started by cutting a tag with the Tag and Bookplates die from vanilla card stock and stamped it with the Fabulous Flourishes stamp and Sepia Ranger Archival Ink but the stamping didn't show through the tissue paper.  After stamping the flourish, I applied Picket Fence Distress Stain as per Lord Tim's instuctions.  I don't have Tim's new tissue wrap so I stamped his Sheet Music stamp on regular tissue paper, again using the Sepia Ranger Archival Ink, then ironed it dry with my craft iron and smeared Rock Candy Distress Stickles over the entire tag.  

After that I went my own way.  I decided to fiddle around with some crinoline and tried cutting it with the Mini Rosette die.  It worked great.  The folds in the rosettes were actually crisper, but I misted it with a bit of vintage photo DI and water to make it less white and the water relaxed the crisp folds somewhat.  I tried gently pulling it into an oval and it worked!  I continued adding bits and bots until I had it suitably shabbied up including a chipboard heart that I created using the Spellbinders Classic Hearts die, a little LOVE (from Stuff to Say) banner hand cut because I don't have Tim's die YET, a ruffle made from that wonderful Melissa Frances vintage style crepe paper and and the bottom strip was cut with the Vintage Lace die (which Shelly Hickox totally enabled me to buy because she uses it all the time and makes me drool).  

That pretty much sums it up for this week's project.  Hope you will stop by the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog to see the seriously wonderful projects make my my team mates.  And don't forget, every week there is a random drawing for a $50 shopping voucher compliments of our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp.  

Thanks so much for stopping by and for any comments you care to leave.  I very much appreciate your visit!  Have a great week.

The DT Piece That Wasn't

Good Saturday morning to you!  Thanks so much for stopping in to see what I made this week for the challenge at Our Creative Corner.  Unfortunately, you won't see this card on the challenge blog today because I messed up and didn't follow the challenge requirements.  Our lovely hostess, Vicki Burdick has given us a paper piecing challenge, which I did but the twist is no ribbon and only one (yes, that's right, only one embellishment).  Oops, I guess this card doesn't fit the challenge requirements.  I was so fixated on the paper piecing part that it totally slipped my mind about the other requirements so I went my merry way throwing embellishments on by the handful.  I had it all finished, photographed and loaded onto the team blog yesterday before I realized my mistake.  Oh well, maybe I can find other challenges to play in this week.

Here's the deets and I've linked up the products  below, many of which are from my Etsy boutique because I sell what I enjoy using for my crafting.

The paper is old, old Stampin' Up DP which I love and use very sparingly.  My paper piecing is on the Wendy Vecchi stamped heart from the Love to Make Art set, paper pieced using papers from the same DP set and trimmed out.  I die cut white corrugated cardboard with two Sizzix dies -  Hearts, Primitive #3 and Tags, Scalloped Combo #2 and edged them with Metallic Gold Acrylic Paint Dabber.  Then I added a little red tri-bud applique.  I cut another smaller tag and overlaid it, stamping it with a sentiment from the Tim Holtz Stuff to Say set.  The flower was cut with the Sizzix Flowers & Vines #2 die and the pleated ribbon by May Arts and sold in my Etsy shop.  The metal filigree, also from my shop, was coated with white embossing powder and heat embossed for a worn enamel look.  Oh, and the sweet red burlap thread is also from the Etsy shop.

I hope you will stop by Our Creative Corner.  The designers there are awesome and always have something wonderful to share to get your mojo revved up!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and for any comments you leave.









Challenges Entered:
The Stamp Man - Use Red
Stampin' for the Weekend - Out with the Old (old, old, old Stampin' Up DSP)

Sizzix Flower and Vine #3	Filigree Metal	Burlap String 10 Colors	Alterations Tattered Florals Die	Acrylic Paint Dabber
Venise Tribud Appliques	Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink	Ivory Pleated Ribbon	White Corrugated Cardboard	Wendy Vecchi Love to Make Art

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