Gingersnap Creations Challenge - Use Markers!

It's Wednesday, so that means another brand new challenge over at Gingersnap Creations.  This time it's one that I know *many* of you will appreciate..... a Spicy Supply Challenge to Use Markers! 

Aaaah, we DO love our Copics, those of us who are addicted.... but for this challenge I decided to do something different.  (After all, there are tons of excellent tutorials on Copics out there, and I've never even been to a class!)  I've had this idea swirling around in my head for a while. 

For both the background paper (the damask-looking design) and for the bird, I used a combination of ink pads and water-based markers.  I first inked up the stamp (for the damask I used Desert Sand (Memento), and for the bird I used Baja Breeze (SU!)), then took a brown maker and drew all around the outside edges, as well as into the interior of the design to highlight it.  You can achieve this design on the outside edges of any stamp by doing the "rock and roll" method, where you lightly run a contrasting ink pad around the outside of the image.  But I wanted to get some of the contrasting color into the nooks and crannies in the interior of the image. 

Here's a close-up below that shows what I mean (you can click to enlarge).

As you can see, this is a very imperfect, shabby effect, but that's what I was after.  The damask background image is from Inkadinkado - I just inked, traced the edges, and stamped repeatedly to form the design.  For the sentiment, I inked up the words with Baja Breeze, then touched the bottom edges of the letters with a brown marker.

I used a brown Copic marker to edge both sides of the plain blue seam binding from Martha Stewart, to shabby it up and make it coordinate with the rest of the project.

So... time to get out your markers and play, LOL!  The other gals on the design team have come up with some positively stunning cards to inspire you over at Gingersnap Creations.  If you decide to play along, be sure to link up your project over there for all to see.  Have fun!

Show Us How You've Grown....

.....more precisely, how you can incorporate "Growth" into a project for the new Gingersnap Creations Random Redhead Challenge.  As always, Gingersnap challenges are wide open for interpretation!  Your piece could be inspired by Spring and new growth, personal growth, or growth in your family.  Anything grows.... I mean goes. (I can hear you groaning.... ugh.... again... make me stop!).  For my card, I used an image from Tin Can Mail (Inkadinkado), stamped in a sepia tone and colored with Copics to make it look like a faded old photo.  The sentiment is from Close To My Heart.  Hope you'll be able to join us and play along... you've got until April 25th to enter!!

Tag Tuesday - Brown + Color

Finally getting my Tag Tuesday Challenge #42 posted.... Louise challenged us to use brown plus another color.   The hardest part was picking the other color, since I LOVE to pair brown with just about anything, LOL!  I finally settled on blue, after getting in the mood for the sea with my Graphic 45 papers.  The "tag-on-the-tag" image is from their "On the Boardwalk" collection.  I colored the fab retro lady blue, and gave her a starfish.  The base tag is spritzed with Glimmer Mists, stamped with images from Stampington, Inkadinkado, and Stampabilities, and distressed with Distress Inks.  I added another little accent from the Graphic 45 paper, along with a few more seashells and some Distress Embossing Powder in antique linen to give the effect of sand. 

You'll want to head on over to Kard Krazy..... Louise's artwork is looking fabulous in the new Take Ten!  I am playing catch-up..... we've still got visitors, lots of activities, and I soooo want to visit everyone's wonderful blogs!  Tonight after everyone's in bed, I'm planning on playing with a few Gingersnap Creations challenges, some Playdate Cafe fun, and of course, I've got some new Cornish Heritage Farms to ink up.  So much crafty goodness to be had, so little time!! :)

Gingersnap Creations Three Colors You Love Challenge

 

Well, I fiddled with this one for waaaaay longer than I expected, LOL!!  The latest color challenge from Gingersnap Creations is to use Three Colors You Love.  Aaaah, I love all of them!  In fact, I think I can become easily overloaded by color - perhaps my brain becomes overstimulated - which  probably explains why most of my decor is creams and linens, with dark brown woods.  But I am decidedly partial to robin's egg blue, dusty purple, and blush pink.  I knew I wanted to make a collage-style card, using scraps of paper and some stamped images that I already had floating around in my "too-pretty-to-throw-away-but-not-gonna-use-it-right-now" box.  Perhaps that's what got me into trouble.  Anyway, here's my card for this challenge, using stamps from Cornish Heritage Farms, Martha Stewart, Inkadinkado, Stampin' Up!, Stampington.... pretty much anyone who sells stamps, LOL!  

This ultimately was quite fun... if you'd like to play with color today, you can head on over to Gingersnap Creations for some inspiration and a peek at the blog candy from The Artistic Stamper.  It could be yours, just for playing with colors you love :).

Boo Banners

A couple of little projects that were inspired by THIS project by Hilary Kanwischer.  Hilary has a wonderful tutorial on her post if you'd like to make these.  I just got out a bunch of stuff from my stash and had fun.  I used Inkadinkado stamps, Colorbok alpha cards, some Martha Stewart punches and stickers, and lots of old stuff  from my stash (I won't say how old, but the cobwebs looked awfully authentic for some reason, LOL!).

For more Halloween inspiration, check out Gingersnap Creations, where Lynn Stevens has a frightfully inspiring post of several of her gorgeous Halloween projects.

AND.... there's a chance to win some great Cornish Heritage Farms blog candy over at Gingersnap Creations as well... check out these two posts: HERE and HERE.

One more little card before I go... During World Card Making Day over at theCLASSroom, I came across a wonderful card posted by Nimue (HERE).  I was super inspired by her design idea of letting the patterned paper do some of the work, so made this using Memory Box Twilight paper:

 Happy Haunting! :)

World Card Making Monday? EHWCMD1 Inchie Challenge

Well, it's a dark and rainy day here in my patch of North Carolina, and so, thanks to the weather and Ellen Hutson's generous gift of an extra day of cardmaking, I'm still at it, LOL!  This card is my entry for Cindy's challenge over at the CLASSroom, which is to arrange three inchie squares on a simple card, and stretch the image over the three squares.  This was great fun for me, since I usually don't do clean and simple cards (jumped out of my box again!).  All images are from Inkadinkado.

If you want to get in on the fun, there's still time to play in the World Card Making Day challenges and have a chance at winning a great little batch of goodies from Ellen Hutson's store.

Copics on Vellum, an Inspiration Challenge, and a Blog Candy Alert!

Boy, photographing a vellum card is tricky! Scroll down for the Blog Candy Alert... it's a good one!

Anyhoo, these are a couple of cards I made for the Splitcoast Stamper's Inspiration Challenge today, which was Bellacor Vases. I used Copics on vellum to try to mimic the effect of the frosted glass on these two vases. The poppy image is from Cornish Heritage Farms (Botanical Bliss), and the butterfly is from a Martha Stewart set. I stamped with Memories ink on vellum and let it dry for an hour or so. Then I colored the images with Copics - some coloring on the front, some on the back to get a better depth of color. For the poppy card, I cut a panel of yellow cardstock, with a strip of orange, and adhered it to the inside back of the card as the panel for writing on. For the butterfly card, I cut a square of white cardstock, stamped the grasses (Inkadinkado) in Kiwi Kiss ink, and adhered the panel to the inside back.

Here's a side view of the cards, showing a bit of the inside. Now, ordinarily with vellum, I would make sure that the image was backed with cardstock, too, so that the writing wouldn't show through the front of the card. But the vintage-lover in me had an idea.... maybe if the writing shows through, it will look like a collage image that has a text background, with a colored image floating on top. Maybe? Hopefully? When I use these cards, I'll post the result so you can see if it worked ;)!

Okay, on to the Blog Candy alert..... How'd ya like to win these beauties? I just stumbled across this post, and it is the LAST DAY to enter! Quick go to Crafty Goings On to link a card you colored with Copics! There are lots of entries already, but somebody's gotta win, right (it's a random draw, so ya never know!)

My Midnight Madness

Okay, so perhaps I took this a little too literally, since it is one hour until midnight, when this sketch challenge is over!! I felt a little like Cinderella trying to get this card done on time, LOL!! Anyway, this is my entry for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #12.
I loved this sketch, and wanted to get back to doing these wonderful Midnight Madness Sketch Challenges. I was inspired by Kard Krazy's Tag Challenge (#11) for today, which was Summer Flowers. The two challenges just seemed to naturally come together! My idea for this card was that of an old botanical journal sort of springing to life.
My tag image is from Inkadinkado, colored with Copics, cut out, and popped up on a tag made with some K and Co. text paper, set atop a hydrangea background image from Mary Mata in vellum. The background of the card is made up of Graphic 45 paper (cut up and repositioned), with some Laura Ashley printed vellum at the bottom. The ribbon across the card and the flowers are from my stash. The ribbon on my tag is Martha Stewart.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful evening!

Winter Wonderland Skaters

My card today incorporates three challenges: The Winter Wonderland Week #10 challenge, which has a sketch this week; the Splitcoast Stampers' Inspiration Challenge from Saturday, which is Heavenly Hostess; and the Gingersnap Creations GC16 Spicy Supply challenge, which is to use ribbon on a project. What fun these were to use together!

The Winter Wonderland theme this week was "Winter Wonderland" (how 'bout that?) and Beth Jaffe came up with this adorable sketch.


Over at SCS, Stef found the Heavenly Hostess site, with the cutest aprons! My inspiration apron for that one was this retro skater apron. I included a close-up of the fabric too - showing my favorite winter sport!

Finally, the Gingersnap Creations ladies have been inspiring me so much lately, I just HAD to play along with one of their challenges!! It's my first, so I chose an easy one, LOL! They have three challenges going on right now, and they always allow lots of time for each one. You'll want to check out their site this month, because they have some wonderful blog candy up for grabs (you don't have to play to enter, but after you visit, you'll probably be inspired to create!).

So, onto the details. My main skater image, along with the sentiment, is from Stampin' Up!'s Winter Post stamp set (Loooove it!). The trees and the iceskates for the background paper are both from Inkadinkado. For that background paper, I made a little mini patterned paper by randomly stamping the skate image, masking it, then gently tapping Baja Breeze ink over the white areas with a sponge dauber. I then colored in only the laces (red, to match my ribbon laces embellishment). Both the skates and the main image are colored with Copics. I used two rows of eyelets to resemble those of iceskates, and then laced 'em up! The patterned paper is all from My Mind's Eye Bohemia Bliss line, and the colored cardstock is SU!'s Riding Hood Red and Baja Breeze. (Those two lines go GREAT together - I know those are retired SU colors, but come on, we're all hoarding some, right? ;)) The white cardstock is PTI, and I cut out the image with Nestabilities Labels One. Did I forget anything? Hope not.

Thanks for looking and have a great Monday!

Little Paper Shop Masculine Birthday

A little birthday card for my hubby. His birthday request was for cymbals to go with our Rockband drum set, so that inspired me to go with the "Rock Star" stamp set from The Little Paper Shop (the guitar, the U Rock sentiment, and the little border of notes). I stamped a music score in the background (Stampendous) and added a little badness with a skull from Inkadinkado. I then distressed the entire image and colored it with Copics. I stamped the guitar again on the card background. All patterned papers are from My Mind's Eye, and the inks are from Stampin' Up! (Riding Hood Red), Colorbox, and Ranger Distress.
Hope you have a wonderful, musical Saturday! :)

Winter Wonderland Challenge Week 5 - Christmas Crackers!

This one is coming in just under the wire LOL! The Week 5 challenge over at Winter Wonderland is Christmas Crackers. I don't know why, but I was totally indecisive about what to do (too many possibilities, I guess). So I finally just had to cut the scrap and do one :) This cracker uses a sheet of white crepe paper as its base. The image is from Inkadinkado, and the embellies are: poinsettias from Making Memories, rhinestones from Hero Arts, patterned papers from Basic Grey, and ribbon from A.C.Moore. Pretty simple, really. Don't know why it took so long to figure out! Well, that was sort of an odd post for Independence Day! Although maybe not too much of a stretch... firecrackers, Christmas crackers... *groan*! Have a happy 4th!

Secrets

Yesterday's Inspiration Challenge over at SCS was the amazing work of Sarah Collier. I chose as my inspiration this piece, entitled Frozen Custard. How amazing is her work?!?! I started by ripping out a page of old text (I liked that the chapter heading was "Secrets" - perhaps those shared by a boy and his dad) and painting it with ivory craft paint. While that dried, I stamped text with StazOn on a piece of acetate (stamps by Hero Arts and Limited Edition). I stamped the main image (Tin Can Mail) on the dry paint with ColorBox Chestnut Roan pigment ink. I stamped it another time on scrap paper and cut out just the sentiment. I then layered the image, the acetate, and the sentiment, and fixed them together with brads. I added a ticket (from Tim Holtz Idea-ology) to the top with a little paper fastener from 7 Gypsies. I then layered this whole thing onto a card base made with Basic Grey and K and Co. patterned papers. Fairly quick-n-easy.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend - thanks for stopping by!

Sea and Sand

A little card for the Limited Supplies Challenge over at SCS today. The challenge: use only the colors of the sea and sand, and must use fibers, piercing, and brads. My seahorse image is from Anita's, stamped in SU's Blue Bayou on River Rock cardstock. I then distressed and pierced this main image panel. I used a bunch of different stamps to create patterned papers on SU's Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, and River Rock cardstocks, including Inkadinkado and Stampabilities. The sentiment is from Anna Griffin. The side panel with the fibers was crinkled and distressed, in honor of yesterday's Ways to Use It challenge. :) This project really made me long for the shore.... but it's a landlubber's life for me, for now :) Have a wonderful day!

Quoth the Raven, Nevermore!

I am a transplanted Northerner, living in a wonderful little town (small city, maybe?) in North Carolina. The people are friendly, the environment is safe, warm, welcoming, and it's a great place to raise a family. HOWEVER..... I can't stand the heat and humidity. There, I said it, probably one of only three people who have moved here from colder climates and don't love the weather. Anyway, as the thermometer and hygrometer sore into the 90s, my thoughts turn to fall - crisp nights, beautiful leaves, Halloween! While blurfing, I have been running into a lot of references to one of my favorite poems, The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe. So, I thought I'd jump into the Halloween spirit (no pun intended) and share a spooky little ATC. I typed out the poem, strategically placed some of my favorite parts in a square a little smaller than the size of an ATC, printed it, and distressed it. I got the Poe image and butterfly wings off the web as clipart, printed them on vellum, then glued them to the poem. I stamped the raven image (Inkadinkado) on orange cardstock, colored in the moon with white gel pen, then cut slits to slip in the poem layer. I computer-generated the word Nevermore, and inked and distressed it. Lastly, I affixed a black feather with a skull brad (sorry, I can't remember the vendor for the brad, but I got them at Michael's, and I think they're still there). It's never too early to start thinking about Halloween :) Thanks for looking, and have a great one!

Ornamental Beauty and Some ATCs

Hello! This card was made using the SCS sketch challenge for this week. What a fun and challenging sketch this was! I've been dying to use my new Ornamental Beauty stamp set from Cornish Heritage Farms. This is just one of those sets that spoke to me when I saw it... I love Julia's style (see a link to her blog, Belle Papier, on the right). I know I will use every single image at some point.... for backgrounds, ATCs, collages, cards, you name it. Anyway, all of the stamped images on this card are from that set. I colored the main image with Copics. The flower is from Prima, and the patterned papers are from Autumn Leaves (dark pink) and Anna Griffin (lighter pink). Thanks, Roxie, for a wonderful sketch.

I thought I'd also post some pics of a series of ATCs I did using some of my photos of my blue hydrangeas, along with an Inkadinkado hydrangea stamp.



There are twelve altogether, plus I posted them again in sets of four below.
I think my favorite new technique that I learned by trial and error was stamping on mulberry paper, then adhering it to a photo background... the photo subtly shows through the paper (maybe not so easy to see here). It's the bottom left ATC in the middle photo.





Thanks so much for visiting and have a wonderful day!

Mojo Monday Week 85 - Shabby Chic Baby

Here's a Shabby Chic style baby card that I made using the Mojo Monday Week 85 challenge sketch. I LOVE the sketch this week - although it took me a couple of tries to put it together correctly LOL!! I also used kraft cardstock to fit in with the Ways to Use It challenge over at SCS. The little feet image is from All Night Media, and the sentiment is from savvystamps. I used an Inkadinkado paisley stamp and Riding Hood Red ink (Stampin' Up) on kraft for the background panel behind the feet. I also used some of my stash of My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus paper that I've been seriously hoarding! The strip of kraft scallops was made with Fiskars threading water punch. I distressed the panel edges with a variety of inks... white pigment, red, Antique Linen (Ranger), and Colorbox smoke blue. Thanks for looking and have a wonderful weekend!

Teacher Appreciation Week Gift Set

I made four sets of cards like this one for my kids' teachers. This week is Teacher Appreciation Week for us, and on Thursday we were to send in a "little gift." Is that a throw-down challenge for us papercrafters, or what? LOL! Anyway, these cards all use Stampin' Up's Parisian Breeze Specialty Paper, along with Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, and white cardstock and matching ink (with a few exceptions if you're reading on.....).

This first card uses the tree swallow Stamp of the Month (April) from Cornish Heritage Farms - Oh, how I LOVE their stamps!! I stamped the swallows in taupe ink from Anita's, then overstamped the script from Inkadinkado in Baja Breeze. The distressing is done with Ranger's Vintage Photo (same for all the cards here). I also added a cute little corduroy brad from SU... they're so soft and cuddly, it's hard to part with them! The border punch is from Fiskars.

This card was lots of fun to make. I debated using my Copics to color the image, but instead used a blender pen with Baja Breeze and Ranger Antique Linen inks (and a tiny bit of Pink Pirouette on the shell). SU's white cardstock is THE BEST for this sort of thing, because it has such a smooth surface. The image is from Inkadinkado. The starfish in the background are from Stampington (Christine Adolf's collection - LOVE IT!!). I used some regular old twine (glued down) and some Making Memories brads (to make it look tacked down :))

Nothing too complicated here... another of my fav stamps from Inkadinkado. The background Baja is embossed with Cuttlebug dots. Added another fuzzy corduroy button (sniff sniff, it's okay, I know they're going to good homes LOL!)

Okay, for all you Stampin' Uppers.... First of all, a big THANKS to "eured99" on Splitcoast Stampers, whose card I CASEd from HERE. The stamps are from Sense of Time. I ran the Baja CS through the Cuttlebug textile embosser. This was the only time I snuck in a non-SU paper (the bottom pinstripe is from the Bohemia line). I figured I needed to keep at least one card semi-masculine :)

Another SU card, and another SHOUT OUT to "bigsky", the lady whose card I cased HERE. Hers is MUCH more beautiful, but at 3:00 in the morning, I was desperate! So I simplified. The image is from SU's Bloomin' Beautiful. I again used the same inks (plus Always Artichoke) with a blender pen. I used a Fiskar's border punch, and some velvet ribbon I got at Michael's... this stuff is VERY close to Baja Breeze and it's on sale this week (from Dashes, Dots, and Checks).

Wow, that was long-winded. Hope you found something you liked. Thanks for looking and have a great day!