Clean & Simple 2 - Day 4

I'm so happy that I've been able to keep up with class & make one card each day from the lesson.  Today's lesson was on white space.  I used a Hero Arts floral stamp on a green cardstock with Colorbox white ink:

I didn't think the ink contrasted enough against the green, so I traced over the image with the Signo white pen.  I didn't feel the need to embellish at all and left plenty of negative space.  This class is certainly stretching my creativity and I love it!



Clean & Simple 2 - Day 3

Today's class lesson is stamping techniques.  I used the chevron stamp from Simon Says Stamp to make the background for my card.  I tried using chalk inks, but found that the Memento inks of Rhubarb Stalk, Potter's Clay and Desert Sand had the best effect.

 

The paper bow was a freebie from SVG Cuts Paper Bow, which will lays flat and doesn't add much bulk to the card.

I think someone at OWH read my blogpost where I admitted that my last box had no birthday cards in it because that's this week's Midweek Throwdown theme!  Ha ha.  Now I'm getting busy with those cards!

 

Take care and thanks for looking.



Clean & Simple 2 - Day 2

I colored over the sentiment in today's card with my Inktense pencils, then went over them with water.  I used a Spellbinders die to make a mask out of transparency film and inked over the sentiment with Tumbled Glass distress ink.  It was a bit scary for me to do this directly on a card, but I conquered my fear!

Stamp from the Stamps of Life

 

Then I used the positive part of the transparency to make another watercolor image. I messed the outside of the die because I made a mistake and just colored the rest of the image!  A happy mistake, I guess.

Stamp sentiment from Simon Says Stamp.

 

Catch ya tomorrow!



Clean & Simple 2 - Day 1

Today is the start of another fabulous online card class - Clean & Simple 2.  I look forward to each day of the class and when it's over, I go thru withdrawl and have to see a therapist.  Ha - not really - but I do feel a letdown when it's all over with.

 

Never mind all of that negativity - today's class had wonderful tips and inspiration.  I modeled my card from Julie Ebersole's card:

 

Supplies:

Hero Arts Envelope Pattern Stamp

Hero Arts Soft Leaf Shadow Ink

Black washi tape

Thanks stamp from ?

Green paper from Hobby Lobby

Papertrey Ink Smoky cardstock

 

I love the tone-on-tone effect with the background stamp against the green paper. I totally had an Oops! mistake where the pattern stamp left a blank area and guess what - that's where my Thanks embellishment went.  I sooo wanted to add some ribbon, but I didn't and I love the way it came out. This will be a great card to put in my OWH box!

 

Catch ya tomorrow.



OWH Sketch #157

This week's sketch is great!  I had to study it for a bit to get the paper piecing right, but I love the layered look that this sketch produces.  All of my papers came from my stash. 

The stamps are from Stacy Stamps.  I stamped the sailboat twice; once on blue and once in white, then cut the white sails out and glued them on top of the boat.  I used my Copics to color in the hull of the boat and around the water.  I thought the background needed embossing, so I used the Swirls cuttlebug folder.

 

I just sent off 75 OWH cards and when I went through my box, I realized that I had no Birthday cards!  I'll have to get more of those made for the next box and this card will be the first one.

 

I'm looking forward to another online card class for the next two weeks - hope to see some OWH bloggers there!

Have a great day!

 

 

A musical thanks

I needed a thank you card to give to the nice lady who is accompanying my son in an audition and the card fits nicely into two challenges.  Over at the FCCB, their latest challenge to make something musical on a card.  With my musical family, I've really used the Quarter Note cartridge a lot (I think I've cut almost every image on it)! 

 

I cut the piano on page 46 at 2 inches and the phrase "perfectly executed" on page 36 at 1 1/2 inches.  The paper I used is from the Nov 2012 Simon Says Stamp Kit Just a Note and I put a piece of lace tape on the side as well.  Here's my card:

I'm also going to enter this card in Challenge #2 over at Paper Playtime, which is to use some brown.

 

Thanks for looking!



5 happy things

Hello bloggers!  Today I've got five things that make me happy:

 

1. I added another Easter card to my OWH box for the OWH Midweek Throwdown:

2. I made the top 5 winner's circle at the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog:

 

Challenge 144 winners

(Thanks FCCB!)

 

3. I worked out after work!

 

4. Tomorrow we're supposed to get sleet/snow in South Carolina!  When it arrives, we'll be outside snapping pictures like crazy.

 

5. It's almost Friday!

 

Yippee!!!  I hope your week is going well too!



Chalkboard tutorial

This week's tutorial at OWH is to create a chalkboard technique for a card.  I loved the video tutorial by Jann!  Using a stamp set from Fiskars called Asian Inspired, I created the following card and "chalked" my stamped images:

The picture is blurry and my lighting is off, but this was my fourth picture! (I gave up trying to get a good picture)  I used a ribbon technique from Sandy Allnock as well.  It's a great way to hold that little ribbon in place.

 

I was on an Asian-themed kick and I completed two more cards. For this one, I used the Cherry Blossom background, colored with Copics and the Love symbol embossed over vellum.

My second card used the same background stamp, but this time, I colored the blossoms with a pink Smooch ink and used the Happiness symbol:

There's just something peaceful about using Asian images, isn't there?  I enjoyed our tutorial for the week.  OWH is just chock-ful of ideas for 2013 and I can't wait to learn more!

 

 

 



A day to play

How I wish I had a three day weekend all the time!  I would spend it like today- taking a walk, shopping and playing in my craft room.  Oh how I envy people who get to do this for a living!

 

OWH started a new series called BootCamp and the first lesson was today. Paula wrote a great article on color basics which is a good lesson for me, since I'm a computer geek by day.

 

Our homework assignment: make a card using one of the color harmonies.  Here are mine:

 

Monochromatic

I created the background using green & yellow alcohol inks, then stamped over it with a flower dipped in Alcohol blending solution.  Sentiment is from the "Very Special" stamp set at Simon Says Stamp, stamped on vellum paper with a white organdy ribbon bow. The cardstock is a mint color that matches my background paper.

 

Analogous

I created another glossy background paper but didn't use the Alcohol blending solution, so the colors stayed green and yellow.  I loosely based this on this week's OWH sketch with ribbon & vellum paper from my stash.  Stamp is from the Stamps of Life:

I look forward to more BootCamp lessons!

 



OWH Sketch #156

Thanks to an OWH blogger, I discovered the Creative Jump Start which is full of creative ideas.  I started in the middle watching a video on alcohol inks and it inspired me to get out my glossy paper and play with my 6 inks (I don't have very many). 

 

I used a felt piece on my ink tool and blotted a few colors, then swished them around to make the purple & green papers.    The two papers that are splattered are from a Tim Holtz technique using canned air: 12 tags of 2012 - July. 

 

I enjoy the splatter technique so much that I've used up an entire can of compressed air!

When I saw this week's OWH sketch, I wanted to use my papers and make the rectangle look like a piece of art.  My first attempt:

I backed my purple inked card with purple and orange vellum.  Hmmm...not too sure if I like this one that much.  My second attempt:

That's better!  The stamp  sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp.  I double layered the back of my splatter image with teal and yellow vellum.

 

I totally had an oops moment with this and ruined one splattered paper.  I thought I could heat emboss an image over the glossy paper and watched it bubble up when I pointed my heat gun at it.  Duhh...I know that glossy paper/heat tools don't mix! I'm inspired to buy more alcohol inks and canned air now. 

 

I'm proud to say that I did a bit of scrap wrangling and threw away papers that I hadn't used in six months.  Feels good to clean out a bit!

 



Freshly Made Sketch #69

I'm making my fourth card from January's Simon Says Stamp Card Kit.  The papers and stamps are so much fun!  I hopped on over to Freshly Made Sketches for inspiration and used Sketch 69 for my card:

 

I pieced together two zig zag papers from the card kit and stamped the sentiment with Archival Ink.  The buttons were stamped with Versamark and then embossed.  The card is a 4.25 inch square card, which can be used for a short note for our soldiers to send home.

 

Here's the inspiration:

Thanks for looking!



Gettin' green!

Happy Half-way day!  The midweek throwdown at OWH is a color challenge - green.  Not exactly my favorite color, which is evident because I have SO much leftover green paper. 

 

So let's see what I came up with.  All of my cards use items from January's Simon Says Stamp card kit.

 

The zigzag stamp is part of the kit and the digi sentiment is a freebie from BrossArt here: Groovy Sentiment

This card uses paper and the sentiment from the kit, which I stamped with Hero Arts Soft Leaf Shadow ink.  It's hard to see in the picture, but the sentiment says "Thinking of you makes me smile". 

This is a card using scraps and a Martha Stewart border punch.  The sentiment is stamped with Versamark and embossed in white.

 

Have a green day!  Can't wait to see what my fellow OWH bloggers came up with!



A fun weekend & a few challenges...

I had a great scrap weekend at Scrapbook Creations in Spartanburg SC with a few girlfriends.  The best thing (in addition to seeing my friends) was that everything in the store was 40% off!  Wowee!  I spent too much money on new stamps and I can't wait to try them all out.

 

Since I had very little time to work on a card, I put these together quickly, loosely based on OWH's Sketch #155.  I liked the sketch a lot and want to give it another try doing it exactly as shown, but I changed them up a bit based on the visual element I used.

 

I had the Nifty Fifties cartridge in my Cricut because I've been working on a heritage album and cut out the car on page 46.  The plaid paper is something I've had forever and I was glad to finally use it!  I printed the sentiment on my computer and cut it to fit.  I made two cards - the first with the car cut at 2 inches; the second card with the car at 3 inches:

I'm submitting the above two cards for FCCB's latest challenge - It's a Man's World!

 

This Easter card is also inspired by the OWH sketch.  The paper is glitter, but it DOES NOT come off!  I listen closely to Sandy Allnock's glitter rule - does it rub off with a fabric?  No!  I bought the paper at Hobby Lobby last year in a small paper pack.  The easter egg is from Heather M: Flourish Eggs:

 

My last card is from a card class I took this weekend.  I love the happy little bears, which I colored with Copic markers.  This card is a 5x7 card, so it won't go to OWH, but it was fun to make something a little different.  I think I'll send it on to my mother-in-law:

 

I'm racing to fill my OWH box before the Jan 27 deadline!  I can see so many of my fellow blog friends are busy too! Good work, ladies!

 

 

 

OWH MWT & FCCB challenges

This week's Midweek throwdown at OWH is to make a No-Sentiment card.  I often end up with cards like this when I finish a card and there's no rule that says you HAVE to have a sentiment for every card.

 

I'm packing up for a scrap retreat this weekend and my Distress Inks weren't packed up yet, so that's what I used.  I started out with a Hero Arts diamond background stamp, which I stamped with Versamark ink and then embossed in white.  Next, I sprayed the image with Perfect Pearls mist and dried it with my heat gun.

 

Taking it another step, I used Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink to bring out the diamonds.  I cut a tag from the Cricut Celebrations cartridge and stamped Inkadinkado Fleur-de-Lis stamps, embossing them with Antique Gold embossing powder.  I used Aged Mahogany and Walnut Stain distress inks on my tag.

 

Whew!  What a lot of inking!  I finished my tag off with an antique brad and button paper that I distressed.  I think the card is a bit bulky now, so it will be an Any Hero card instead of one that can be mailed home.

 

Voila!  Here it is:

My fingers are all inky now!  I really enjoyed making this card and I appreciate your kind comments. 

 

This will be in the following challenges:

Fantabulous Cricut  Challenge 143

Stars and Stamps Midweek Throwdown



One sketch - three ways

Hi everyone!  This is my second post of the day, using OWH's latest sketch Sketch 154.  Thanks to Marlene for taking over the sketch duties from Julie!  I challenged myself to make three cards using the sketch (which I love) with different techniques.

Card #1 - a masculine card

Supplies: OWH Hero Arts Right At Home sentiment, Ali Edwards clock stamp, Graphic 45 paper:

Card #2: Rotate the sketch!
I used papers from the November Simon Says Stamp card kit with an Ali Edwards stamp sentiment.  I embossed the sentiment in white, then used Rusty Hinge distress ink over it:

Card #3: Stickers!
 I've still got Mrs Grossman stickers from about ten years ago that I recently found.  I used them to make a border of Easter eggs.  The digistamp sentiment is a freebie from Netty's Cards: Easter Hugs.  The paper is from Basic Grey's 6x6 pad - Indie Bloom.

I cranked out these cards in just a few hours.  Using a card kit or paper stack makes it quick because I don't spend a lot of time searching for matching papers.

Cat in a box anyone?

 

 And to think I bought her a fluffy cat pillow to sleep in!  Stupid human!

Take care and Happy Sunday to all you crafty gals....



January ODBD challenge

It's time for another ODBD challenge at OWH.  This month, Our Daily Bread Designs challenge is dry embossing.  I recently bought the stars embossing folder and used it to make a kid's card.  The image I cut is from the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge - Super Boy!  I used stamps from the September card kit from Simon Says Stamp.

 

My cat, Suzume, is back from her visit to the vet.  She had her back paw lanced and is feeling better now.  I'll never know what bit her.  She's ready to get back outside, but I'm waiting until her paw is fully healed.  She's half asleep here....what a great life she leads!

I'll be posting again today for our weekly OWH sketch challenge!



OWH MWT - Flowers

Hi bloggers!  There's two card challenges this week that I wanted to join in on - the Spring Flowers challenge for OWH's Midweek Throwdown and the New to You challenge at A Blog named Hero.

 

I've had the OWH pinwheel tutorial on my "Gotta try it" list for a while and I made two cards with it from my scraps.  It was simple, yet it really perked up a potentially bland card.  The tutorial is posted at OWH here: Pinwheel 2.  I used paper that I had in my stash for each card.  The sentiments are from Inkadinkado:

 Hope you're having a great week!

 

Happy Creative New Year!

I've caught the card addiction this year and have enjoyed making cards for OWH.  Looking back at my cards for 2012, I see that I've learned so much from fellow OWHers and our president, Sandy Allnock.  The BEST thing about blogging for OWH is the support and inspiration I get from fellow bloggers. The weekly sketches, tutorials and challenges have helped me grow as a cardmaker.

 

THANKS so much!

#10 - Sandy's challenge to make children's cards after the Sandy Hook incident

 

#9 - Another children's card

#8 - An AnyHero card

#7 - A card using the Interactive Card Project as inspiration!

 

#6 - A holiday card using OWH sketch #142

 

#5 - A Midweek Throwdown Color challenge - Teal & Silver

#4 - A winter card made for the Virtual Card Making Party 

 

#3 - White embossing with Perfect Pearls resist

#2 - Flower colored with Inktense pencils

#1 - A simple Thinking of You card - the colors appeal to me!

 

I can't wait to see what everyone else lists for their top 10 of the year and I look forward to more card-making fun in 2013!

 

Happy New Year!