Showing posts with label digistuffs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digistuffs. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Merry Christmas

Wishing the happiest of holidays to everyone who is celebrating today!

♥♥♥ 

Thursday, November 25, 2021

Happy Turkey Day!

Whether you're celebrating or not, I hope that everyone 
who sees this will have a wonderful day! 
♥♥♥ 

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

From Meme to Card

Last week I saw a very funny meme on the Coffee Loving Paper Crafters' Facebook page, and I immediately wanted to make it into a card featuring my Eyelet Outlet Coffee Brads. So I did, see?


It's quite a simple card, mostly built around the computer generated word art I made, which you can download below, or visit our Eyelet Outlet Freebies Page. I used free fonts called Bohemian Typewriter and Stamp Act. I added a nice rich brown to the word "coffee" as well as a very thin black outline and a small grey drop shadow, to make it stand out more. I lined up all of the text on the righthand side, so that I'd have room for a Coffee Cup Brad and some Coffee Beans


I love that the Coffee Brad sets have white cups, red cups and coffee beans, all mixed in together. They pair really nicely with the new Holiday Coffee Cup Brads, as well!


What funny memes or sayings have you seen online? Why not think about making one into a card? I bet there's an Eyelet Outlet brad style to will make it even cooler! ♥

Saturday, April 6, 2019

everything circles!

the very awesome birgit koopsen is hosting a fun challenge on instagram this month, it's called "everything circles" and the brief ...you've guessed already, right? ...is to incorporate circles into any kind of project, using any kind of media, each night. you'll have possibly noticed that i love having some sort of theme or challenge or prompt list simmering away in the background. that's because at 10:30 pm, i generally still have enough energy to work on something, but i hardly ever have enough to think up what that ought to be. so having a plan or theme already in place shortcuts me right to working on an actual sketchbook page, when-and-if some freestyle art time materializes. here's what i've made so far:

april 1st 
...happened to fall on mandala monday, so this was a no-brainer, lol. super-vivid colorbursts, pitt artist pens and a few posca paint pens.

april 2nd
when we drive to maryland and back to see jeff's dad, i have just over two hours each way as a passenger in the car. and no, i can never just sit. (if you want to torture a hyperactive person, try to make them sit still and do nothing!!!) so i take my laptop and fiddle away with digital brushes and things. usually i make a new header for my blog, but this seemed like a good time to make something circle centric. at one point this composition had A LOT more circles, but i liked it less. the nice thing about digital design is, you can go back three steps! digital brushes by katie pertiet at designer digitals; digital paper by somerset studio.

april 3rd
one of my favorite things about sporadically minding the store at paper anthology is, unlike other jobs in retail, when it isn't busy, not only are you allowed to get out the colorbursts and fill a page with watercolor circles... such behavior is actively encouraged! for this i used only peony, gamboge and cerulean colorburst to see how many different shades i could make from a limited palette. (the answer turned out to be, "LOTS"!)

april 4th
i think for me personally, this challenge could easily morph into all collage. because i have a lot of collage ideas. (A LOT!) this is the first one, a collage of interesting circles.

april 5th
another digital composition in which the end result actually has less circles than i expected. but i'm cool with being "inspired by" the circles and letting things kind of emerge organically. paper and steampunk diagram brushes by girlfriday from digichick, music brushes by anna aspnes, grungy doily brushes and mixed media butterfly by katie pertiet, designer digitals 

♥♥♥
stay tuned, lol...
meanwhile, happy weekend, i hope you have fun and 
that you get to do something creative!
♥♥♥

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

WHOOOOOOOOO loves ya, baby?!*

Is it just me or is almost everything better if when comes in ♥RAINBOW♥ colors?! Case in point: The cards I've posted on the EO Blog today, featuring Eyelet Outlet Owl Brads. There are twelve brads, in a variety of shades, in every packet. AND... They come in Bright and Pastel colorways! It's a rainbow of awesomeness, really, as you can see:


Of course you don't need to use all the colors, all at once, lol! But it's nice to know we have the option, right? The Enamel Hearts I've placed between the owls also come in LOTS of colors and sizes, so you'll OWL-ways have the right ones on hand!


Once again I have made my own texty patterned paper by typing the phrase "love, OWL-ways" over and over in a word document, matching the colors to the Pastel Owl Brads; then printed it out onto cardstock and layered it onto my card. I've made the file into a .jpg so that you can use it too, if you'd like. It's just one of the fun things available on the Eyelet Outlet Blog's FREEBIE Page, which you might like to check out!


Another way to use the sweet Owl Brads, and the same sentiment is to pair them up and place them in an appropriate setting. When I found this cute journal card with the branch right on it, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. This time I stamped the phrase, to make it a bigger part of the design. I finished off with woodgrain mats and more Enamel Hearts!


I hope you'll be inspired to make something with ALL your favorite colors today! Meanwhile, hop over to the Eyelet Outlet Blog and see what kind of awesomeness Carri has for you!


*My maternal grandfather (aka Pop Pop) was a big Kojak fan, and for years and years afterwards would say hello or goodbye to us grandkids with, "Who loves ya, baby?" ♥♥♥

Friday, August 14, 2015

special delivery

to you... from ♥JINGLE BELLES♥! this fortnight we're making holiday cards with a mail or postal theme. so what do we mean? well, you could use faux or real  postage... or postal images (mailboxes, postcards, stamps, etc.)... or another option is to create a holiday postcard or make a holiday card with a matching decorated envelope. see, there are LOTS of choices, and you are cordially invited to choose any (or all!) of them and join us in the card-makin' fun! here's what i made:

postcard+santa collaged image: xmas postcard journalers #1 by katie pertiet, designer digitals, printed on kodak premium glossy photo paper; patterned papers: basic grey, october afternoon, jenni bowlin; "noel" letter stickers: echo park; glossy white cardstock: paper accents; ink: colorbox; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape

one of the very first digital items i ever bought --and it's still one of my all-time faves, actually-- was a set of katie pertiet's christmas postcard journalers from designer digitals. and holy moly, i have used the heck out of those things! ironically, i'm pretty sure the one thing i've never used them for is journaling. package tags? yepper! address labels? lotsa times! a couple of years ago i even used the bell one as part of our ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ header. but my favorite thing is to make them the centerpiece of a postal-themed holiday card. so that's what i did here. :)

meanwhile, miss stephanie has a pretty fab collection of mail-related stamps, and she's used an uuuuuuuuuber-cute one this week! check it out, won't you? 

Friday, May 15, 2015

happy and hybrid... with BELLES on!

...over at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ again this week, because we've got a fab kit called "jingle all the way" to work with, courtesy of our lovely sponsor, deedee's digis! jealous? no need to be, since deedee's digis is offering this kit absolutely free for the length of the challenge! how cool... and generous... is that?! head on over to the "try before you buy" section of the shop and grab that fun kit, and be sure to say a big jingly THANK YOU, ok? then hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and link up a hybrid holiday card (using ANY digital element, whether it's from deedee's or not) for a chance to win a $15.00 shopping spree in the deedee's digis shop!


want to see what i made this week? i hope so, because it's what i'm planning to show you right now!

digital bell paper and "jingly" sentiment from the "jingle all the way" kit at deedee's digis; printed on a 3m inkjet transparency, enhanced with machine stitching and framed with ranger black glossy cardstock and paper company textured red cardstock. florals: prima, making memories, k and co; jingle bell brad: oriental trading co; scallop scissors: michaels; adhesives: elmers brand gluetape, 3m foam tape, sewing machine 

one of my little tricks for making my favorite digital elements look brand new is to print them on an interesting surface. you'd be surprised how different the same paper or stamp can look when printed on smooth cardstock, glossy photo paper, clear labels, sticky-back canvas, etc; the variety is AMAZING! in this case i've used one of my all time faves: an inkjet transparency. i've talked about these before, so i won't go into detail here, but the reason i love doing this is that the layering possibilities are absolutely endless. also... they are pretty much the best (and easiest!) way to make a shaker card, imo!


the other great thing about digis generally, and deedee's digis in particular, is that she gives you at least *two* versions of every image: a plain background for coloring and a transparent background, so you can easily place... say... a fabulous sentiment right on top of a pretty paper and print the whole thing as one layer. niiiiiiiice! :) being a texture junkie, i couldn't resist machine stitching over the beautiful script of the word "jingly" to make it stand out even more, and popping on a few flowers held with a jingle bell brad before backing the edges with foam tape to hold the tiny heart confetti inside the shaker part of the card.

i told you earlier this week that i was going to take another shot at crooked stamper sketch challenge #4, so i think you've probably guessed by now that this is it... what with the dramatic sentiment over a fab background... but let's see leslie's terrific sketch again, shall we?


want to see another cool idea for using the "jingle all the way" kit? hop on over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see stephanie's gorgeous card; then start planning what *YOU* want to make! ♥

Friday, May 8, 2015

happy hybrid holiday!

this fortnight at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we are especially excited to have deedee's digis as our lovely new sponsor. not only are they offering a fabulous prize for one lucky random cardmaker who links up with us, they've also created a brand new kit especially for us to use (how cool is that?!) AND they are going to offer that kit absolutely free to our readers during the course of this challenge. awesome or what??! yeah, we thought so too! speaking of the challenge, i bet you've already guessed that the brief is to use a digital element of some sort in your brand new holiday card. it can be a brush, a paper, a digistamp... whatever you like! don't have anything fab? jump over to deedee's digis and grab the very festive free kit, "JINGLE ALL THE WAY!" which looks a bit like this:


want to see my card? (please say yes, or the rest of this post falls kind of flat, lol!) awesome! here it is now:

"jingle all the way" digital kit available *FREE* this fortnight to JINGLE BELLES readers at deedee's digis! i've used the bell image (as a template to paper piece), the "jingle all the way" sentiment and the red grid paper here. other ingredients: core'dinations cardstock, petaloo flowers and leaves, a fabric covered brad of unknown origin, and scraps of red and gold ribbon from my stash.

my favorite thing about digital supplies is how much freedom they offer: you can make the elements any size and scale, print on any type of paper, use a pre-colored image OR go to town with your own markers and pencils... the choices are pretty limitless! then when you add in the fact that they NEVER run out, that's kind of hard to beat, right? for this card (which is 5x6.5") i printed the plaid/grid paper as a 5x7 panel on regular old copier paper and the sentiment as a wallet-sized photo on soft tan cardstock. i formatted the outline of the jingle bell as if it were a 3.5x5" photo and printed it on plain copier paper, too, which i then used as a template to paper piece twice; once on the sand-colored cardstock and once on some super-sparkly gold glitter paper! i used my cropodile and a craft knife to cut out the holes in the bells and backed the interior with scraps of black paper; it's hard to see in the pic, but in real life it adds just that little bit of extra texture. speaking of texture-- which you know i lOOoOoOooove-- i swapped out the printed bow in the image for a "real life" version in red satin, that i embellished with dimensional florals and velvetty leaves. all of the above are popped up on textured red cardstock layered with a scrap of chunky metallic ribbon. will this card fit in a standard envelope? maybe not, but i always have a bunch of gifts to mail at christmas, too, and nothing decorates a plain wrapped package as well as a unique and fabulous card, am i right? ;)


speaking of unique and fabulous, we have another treat in store at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ as *four* of the very talented designers from deedee's digis  have joined us to show off this festive kit! why not hop over and see the lovely work of TamaraMarjiDonnaFaith, not to mention our own amazing stephanie! and be sure to JINGLE ALL THE WAY, darlings! ♥

Thursday, November 20, 2014

more miscellany

designing:
...a new header for the blog. this one's got A LOT of color, doesn't it? maybe too much? i dunno, but it was so much fun to aimlessly play around in photoshop on a recent road trip (don't worry, i was a passenger!) and the result definitely brightens up the top of my page. the background is a real-life collage i made last summer, scanned and forgot about; i found it in a file on my laptop whilst looking for something else entirely.

planning:
...a LOT of small crochet and knitting projects, maybe too many to realistically complete before christmas. but then i always get carried away by "project lust" especially around the holidays! at the moment i'm working on another version of a crocheted rainbow purse for a special young lady; it's loosely based on the pattern for this adorable change purse, which stephanie* found for me.


listening:
...to the roof literally being ripped off our house (!!!) and replaced with a new one; one that doesn't have badly retro-fitted, leaky skylights. it will be so cool to only worry about my *HAIR* the next time it rains! (ps: holy wow, roofing guys work HARD, in all kinds of weather and crummy conditions, twenty feet up in the air; yet another job you could not pay me any amount of money to do!)

teaching:
...my first-ever "victorian christmas" card class last sunday at paper anthology in kenvil, nj. i had the nicest group of students you could possibly imagine, who made the whole experience SO MUCH FUN! i'll be teaching the same three cards again on wednesday, december 3rd and saturday, december 13th; i'd love for you to come!


admitting:
...quite sheepishly... that a typography junkie like myself had never heard of corita kent until i saw this morning's google doodle! (how was that even POSSIBLE?!)

watching:
...the delight with which my husband is preparing to cook TWO thanksgiving dinners, two days in a row. we'll be at his parents' house in maryland next thursday; then home again on friday, where we'll be joined by most of my family. i should mention that all of the above was his own idea, it's something he's done other years, and it's kind of like his own personal version of playing in the world series or running a marathon. except his sport is *COOKING*!  (mine is washing dishes, lol!)


finishing:
...holiday journal kits to list in my etsy shop. i LOVED working in one of these last year for december daily, and i had a blast making something similar for the lovely amy tsuruta, so i'm pretty excited to be able to share them! each one will feature a little collection of holiday ephemera, some music paper, and a hand-made ring-bound book with 25+ pages composed of a mix of vintage christmas illustrations, christmassy patterned papers, and write-able patterns (like stripes, notebook patterns, graph paper, etc) for journaling. at the moment i'm covering the chipboard covers with vintage sheet music; then they'll get with fun endpapers, and a remove-able decorated cover that's built on a sturdy piece of transparency. so folks who want to jump right in with a pre-made book, can use the cover provided; those wanting something more personal can re-purpose the transparency as a page, instead, and build their own collage on the front of the book! hoping to get these into the shop over the weekend.

wishing:
...everyone who reads this an absolutely lovely rest of the week, darlings! ♥♥♥

*amongst her many other talents, stephanie is world-beatingly good at finding and pointing out things she knows her friends and family will love. she also provides a more general service for the world at large with her awesome link love posts every thursday. obviously you should be reading her blog EVERY day, but if you want to know a great day to start, i'd go with thursday. hey wait a minute... TODAY'S THURSDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (gee... what are the odds...? off you go!) :) :) :)

Friday, September 26, 2014

the statue of liberty is NOT left-handed (observations and tips for working with ink jet transparencies)

today on the daisy yellow blog, i'm talking about using one of my favorite "non traditional" art supplies: transparency sheets made specially to use with an inkjet printer! i ♥LOVE♥ printing photos and other elements on them to simultaneously add my own personal content plus another texture and finish to my work! my daisy yellow piece references the images and results; this companion piece talks about the more practical/mechanical aspects of using them. please feel free to ask any questions via email or in the comments!

the transparency element is the yellow hibiscus photo. i lightly penciled the word "aloha" on the paper below the transparency, and hand-stitched along it with embroidery floss.

1. first things first: inkjet transparencies aren't cheap. sorry. i realize that the price alone will deter a lot of crafters, and i completely understand not wanting to dive into something you may not even like working with! keep an eye out at garage sales (where i often scoop up 2/3 full boxes of bargain office supplies) and maybe occasionally cruise the clearance aisle at your favorite discount office supply store. meanwhile, if you work for a business which uses transparencies, or know someone who does, you might be allowed to buy or borrow a few to experiment. it can't hurt to ASK, right?

2. since they ARE pricey, i like to use the entire 8.5x11" sheet every time. i add "filler" in the form of re-sized photos, digital papers and brushes, real-life or digital collages i've made, scans of vintage postcards or book pages... whatever's laying about my computer's desk top when it's time to print is fair game! (sometimes the weirdo "extras" turn out to be cooler than the well-considered image i intended to print in the first place, lol!)


the transparency element is the chandelier, from the first digital brush set i ever bought c.1999 from scrap-n-fonts; the great advantage of digi is you can print things any size, any color, and you never run out!
(for the record i STILL love this set!)

3. all inkjet transparencies have a smooth side and a pebbly side... it's the latter which is able to hold the ink and allow it to dry. this is actually the "back" of the sheet, so if your image contains text you're going to need to flip the whole thing. most printers have a dialog box somewhere --it might be in a printer menu called "paper settings" or "print properties"-- that you can check to do this easily. it could be called mirror image, reverse printing or iron-on transfer mode.

the geisha is the transparency element in this one, i scanned her from an old book 

4. i've occasionally forgotten to do the above, and it's not the end of the world. you CAN place the transparency pebbly-side-up on your work, with very little chance anyone except you will notice. in "borderline" cases, without text, you can also just go ahead and use the image in reverse. the title of this post alludes to the fact that i've done this, even with fairly well-known icons! :)

three index-card sized examples from last year's ICAD, the transparency elements are: the 1950's lady, the chandelier (told you i love those!) and a real-life collage of random text papers i scanned. 

5. if your printer has a setting for transparencies, you should definitely click it, or the one for high gloss paper; this allows the printer to use exactly the right amount of ink to avoid smearing!

6. forget about using proprietary store-bought scrapbooking transparencies (such as the late great hambly) in your ink jet printer. the ink will literally never dry, and it WILL smear... maybe even while it's still inside the printer.

the face is from a magazine, the transparency here is a very subtle watercolored pink background paper from a discontinued vera lim digital kit. I placed some sequins between the layers before sewing them to the ledger page... it's kind of a new take on a shaker card.

7. ink jet transparencies are not archival, if that kind of thing matters to you. some may even go slightly yellow over the course of time. (we're talking YEARS, though!)

8. you may need to fiddle about a bit before you find a brand that works perfectly with your particular printer. my old hp photosmart liked 3m brand transparencies best, they're a tiny bit thicker than normal and have a little "gripper" strip at the very edge which helped the printer grab the slippery surface better to draw it into the printer. my epson artisan 837 prefers highland brand, which have a thin cover sheet of paper attached to the reverse side of the transparency. it may be possible to "fool" your printer by using a thin line of repositionable adhesive to add such a sheet to a brand that doesn't have one.

The butterfly's a store-bought transparency; you don't HAVE TO create your own elements... but it IS fun! :)

9. the good news is that the print quality seems to be uniformly good and once you find a style that your printer is willing to "grab" your worries are over. it's POSSIBLE that you might find transparencies made for copiers or laser printers that will also work in your ink jet, but you would definitely want to try before you buy!

the letters are old heidi swapp acrylics that i frankly didn't like anymore until i outlined and layered them over an enhanced and stamped photo; gave them a whole new vibe, because staples are COOL, lol!
10. a few thoughts about adhesives: dryline glue (the kind in taperunners and ATGs) and gluedots will be very hard to spot under dark ink, but may show on lighter colors. wetter glues, gel medium and some brands of gluestick MIGHT smear or erase the ink, so be sure to test on a corner! i use hardware a lot: staples, brads and eyelets are all fairly awesome and give a nice industrial vibe. i also love to sew on top of transparencies since it adds such a nice texture. (if you sew only on three sides you have a transparent POCKET... just sayin'...) photo corners also work not to mention washi tape. like everything else in creative life, sometimes a "problem" like this inspires the most creative new ideas!


looking for cheaper alternatives to add customized clear elements to your work?

A. the clear labels for inkjet printers do a similar job of letting you layer a computer-printed image over something else. i buy the 8.5x11" sheets, but seldom work with a single image greater than about 4x6" since sticking a BIG label onto paper without wrinkling can be challenging. oh and test a scrap of the label on your preferred background because sometimes they can look cloudy; as a rule of thumb lighter backgrounds will look more seamless.

the small square bird collage tucked somewhat behind and to the left of the vintage landscape photo is a real life piece i scanned in and printed on an avery clear label made for inkjet printers. it's layered over some neutral text paper.

B. bits of clear plastic packaging (such as the salad bar containers from the grocery store or the extra-heavy zipper bags for freezers) won't work in your printer, obviously, but you can use permanent markers to draw, doodle, letter and sketch on them. the same is true for pre-printed transparencies and acrylic embellishments, actually, you can alter those to make them into your very own creations!

this window is also made of packing tape, with smooshed up cellophane and magazine bits inside and a photo + doodles + machine stitching on top. the best part of journaling is you can make WHATEVER you want using ANY ingredients you choose!  so g'head... walk on the wild side!!!

C. clear packing tape can be used for image transfers, which can be incorporated in a similar way to digital transparencies; but you can also use it to "float" real life elements over... or within... your main design. i like doilies, sequins, and bits of cellophane, especially. if you work neatly and flatly (see doily pic below) you get a window... if you scrunch and wrinkle the tape (see pic above) you get texture and interest. now that's what i call win/win! :)

this page is in last year's DPP journal, right before the "shaker card" one i showed you earlier. i cut a hole in the page and made a window of clear packing tape with doilies sandwiched inside; but plastic packaging, cellophane, or a commercial transparency would work just as well.

i hope this post has given you a bit of practical advice for using inkjet transparencies in your creations, and maybe even inspired a few new ideas you'd like to try. i'd love to see what you make, so please leave me a link! ♥

Friday, August 22, 2014

it is a truth, universally acknowledged...

...that the cards we love most are always the hardest ones to photograph. a fact i shall be happy to prove in a moment; but first, allow me remind you that this fortnight's card prompt at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ is called "the hanukkah song"* and the brief is to make cards for our friends and relatives who don't necessarily celebrate christmas. despite the title, you're not limited to hanukkah however; ANY of the "other" (aka non-christmas) winter holidays will work: kwanzaa, new year, hogmanay, solstice... OR... you can go completely non-denominational and make a general winter-themed card.

i went with hanukkah this time, and built my card around a grungy, layery, digital collage i made in photoshop and printed on an inkjet transparency. that's where the photo troubles began. because of course anything reflective is almost impossible to photograph in sufficient light. which essplains why the background of picture has such a grey cast. sigh. but the card's pretty cool anyway, i think:

(digital products: trimmed down grungy blue background paper from kathryn wilson's "inner artist" set; handwritten "happy" overlay from anna aspnes' "retro holiday" art play palette; see-through snowflakes brushes by rhonna farrer; grungy lace brushes #1 by katie pertiet, designer digitals; real-life products: white texty patterned paper: basic grey; chunky silver glitter thickers: american crafts; glossy black cardstock: paper accents; ink: stewart superior; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, sewing machine)

you may not have noticed right away-- at least i kind of hope you didn't-- but there were NO official hanukkah-themed products involved in the making of this card. i used hanukkah colors (blue, white and silver) and sparkly letters to spell out the sentiment, and that's all; but i think it gets the message across. the letters are glitter-encrusted chipboard and the "happy" has been machine stitched to add a little texture. because even though i love and appreciate CAS cards, rather to my chagrin, i am physically unable to make them. here's a shot that shows the detail a little better. the operative words here being "a little":


be sure to hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to check out Stephanie's gorgeous (and wonderfully photographed!) card and upload your own masterpiece!

*in tribute to the awesomely eponymous ditty by the great bard adam sandler! :)

Friday, August 15, 2014

warm winter wishes

this fortnight's card prompt at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ is called "the hanukkah song"* and the brief is to make cards for our friends and relatives who don't necessarily celebrate christmas. despite the title, you're not limited to hanukkah however; ANY of the "other" (aka non-christmas) winter holidays will work: kwanzaa, new year, hogmanay, solstice... OR... you can go completely non-denominational and make a general winter-themed card. that's what i did:

(digital products: vintage findings papers by jen allyson, design house digital; vintage christmas blendables #2 and text clusters #3 by katie pertiet, designer digitals; brushes from anna aspnes' "retro holiday" art play palette... collage printed on an inkjet transparency; real-life products: white texty patterned paper, green snowy paper and cardstock alphabet stickers: basic grey; other paper scraps: daisy d's, studio calico, crate paper; chunky white glitter thickers: american crafts; silver flowers and white felt snowflake: michaels; brad: my mind's eye; ink: stewart superior and colorbox chalk inks; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i know i've said this before, but in my opinion it's still true: the old school basic grey cardstock alphabet stickers are some of the coolest ones ever made! here i've combined them with chunky (and glittery!) chipboard letters to make a sentiment to be the focal point of the card. the background is a digital collage i made in photoshop some time ago. it was actually the label i used to mail my holiday packages last year; when i saw it again recently, i thought it would make a nice base for a card, and i stand by that decision! a few border-punched cardstock strips, a silver flower and lots of machine stitching round out the design.

be sure to hop over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to check out Stephanie's gorgeous card and start planning your own!

*in tribute to the awesomely eponymous ditty by the great bard adam sandler! :)

Sunday, August 3, 2014

hello, august!

i know for a fact that every day, week and month of the year consistently and unwaveringly takes up exactly the same amount of time as every other day, week and month of this (or any) year. having said that, july positively flew by at light speed, didn't it?! with the coming of august, we've transitioned out of the index card a day project and embarked on an equally cool tradition on the daisy yellow art blog, namely the daily paper prompt, in which miss tammy will give us a suggestion for something we can do each day to keep up our art journaling habit!

after 61 consecutive days working on 3x5" index cards, it's awesome to have the freedom to work at any size or shape that takes my fancy. on the other hand, in some ways, more choices can be overwhelming. i'm trying to stay loose, work fast, and not get bogged down in decision-making. i want to stay process- rather than outcome-based. having said that, i really like how day one came out, and it must be said that having a really cool first page in any new journal or collection is pretty motivating! :)


i scribbled water soluble wax crayons in the order of the spectrum, and blended them with a really really wet paintbrush to make them run. then i added some hearts diecut from rainbow colored scraps. in retrospect, i realize this would look better with the stitching horizontal rather than vertical, which is AWESOME... i'm so glad i did the experimental thing instead of tried-and-true!!!


ok, you caught me, there's nothing fast or loose about this one; it became a full-on graphic design extravaganza. you can't say it isn't experimental, though, because for me minimalism is the ultimate challenge. another smudgy rainbow, seen through a cloud-punched piece of white woodgrain cardstock, mounted on grey patterned paper. and for the record, NO, not every single dpp is going to have a rainbow. at least... i don't think so... hmmmmm...

oh yeah, i almost forgot AGAIN to thank everyone for the awesome comments about my new header! midway through ICAD i thought it'd be fun to have a photo of all my cards sprawled out on the table. i liked it so much, i decided it should be my header for the rest of the summer. it's by far the simplest one i've ever made: just the photo with text on top. the fab grungy font was free from dafont.com and is called 4990810; i made it look sparkly using a photoshop layer style called "over the rainbow glitters" by studio flergs from sweet shoppe designs. easy, peasy! ♥ 

Friday, July 18, 2014

taking a header

the ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ header, to be specific. and this fortnight we're using it as the inspiration for our holiday cards! ok, yeah, i suppose it might sound a little conceited, seeing as i was the one to *make* the header, but actually this theme was the suggestion of our lovely guest star and christmas-card-maker extraordinaire, marie bingaman. i mean... it would've been rude of me to argue, wouldn't it? :) so here's the piece in question, just to refresh your memory:

(digital image credits: paper: antique prints, jen allyson, design house digital; elements: christmas joy kit, mary pop designs, o'scraps; brushes: snowsprays #3, anna aspnes, o'scraps; glitter layer style: over the rainbow, studio flergs, scrapbook graphics; font: vogue, dafont.com)

and here's what i made:

(patterned paper: studio calico, glitz design, lily bee, prima, k and co; chunky silver glitter letters: mambi; sentiment sticker: my mind's eye; poinsettia die: velvet blossoms: prima; snowflake stickers: recollections; snowflake e/f and label die: tim holtz/sizzix; brad: oriental trading; scrap of lace from my stash; border punches: recollections and martha stewart; inks: tim holtz, colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape, mini gluedots, sewing machine) 

ok, yeah, i had a serious advantage this time, since i did make the header and thus it's full of the digital versions of things i love to use in my real life christmas cards. things like bling, distressing, loads of layers, glitter, flowers, lace, and all that good girly stuff! one thing that may surprise you: apart from the poinsettia die, the sentiment sticker and the snowflakes, everything here came from my ordinary, non-xmas stash. it's surprising how often you can get away with that kind of thing, really, and i love doing it because i think it makes my cards just that little bit more unique.


but i don't want to keep you here all day when there are AMAZING cards by marie and stephanie over at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥!

Friday, June 28, 2013

a card that looks JUST LIKE the picture in my head!

dontcha ♥LOVE IT♥ when that happens?! you have an idea... you work on it... and it materializes almost exactly as you pictured, or maybe even a teeeeeeeny bit BETTER?!! it's crafty heaven, am i right?! :) in this case, the card is my second hybrid effort in our ♥JINGLE BELLESdigital challenge, for which my lovely friend gina is our special guest star!

for the first card of this prompt, i printed out a bunch of digikit elements, to show how such items can be used EXACTLY like "real" supplies. but this time, i wanted to focus more on the way that digi-stuff can be used differently than actual supplies; for one thing, in terms of collage, you are spoiled for choice since you can change the colors and opacity levels of each individual item used! which means that you have almost infinite options, even with just one set of supplies. and of course you have infinite "do-overs" as well, because anything that doesn't work out can be undone with a keystroke. pretty awesome, right? let me show the card, and then i'll talk a little bit about what i did:

digital elements: paper: snowy mapprints no1 by anna aspnes; brushes: see-through snowflakes by rhonna farrer; snowsprays no3 and hipster plume edgers and frames by anna aspnes; chrsitmas magic and joyful christmas magic by vera lim; letterbox christmas overlays no2 and one-word challenge freebie ("joy") by katie pertiet; software: adobe pse9; "real" stuff: patterned paper: glitz designs; sparkly snowflake stickers: martha stewart crafts; brads: my mind's eye; ink: colorbox; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, sewing machine
you can see from the supply list that there are quite a few individual elements to this card, which add up to three main components: first, the central (all-digital) collage, which consists of 6 or 7 different brushes "stamped" in various colors and intensities on top of a (digital) map paper, which is printed on glossy photo paper; then the large sentiment as focal point... again a digital element... that one's printed on an inkjet transparency which i layered over the collage, and machine stitched into place; finally there are the real world "finishing touches" that turn this into a card: some grungy grey patterned paper, sparkly snowflake stickers, and a few brads.

i made the digital collage in photoshop elements 9, on my laptop, in the car, on the way to and from a visit to my in-laws' house over the weekend. that scenario represents 90% of my digital compositions, actually; i know it is theoretically POSSIBLE for one to make something similar whilst sitting at a stationary desk, but somehow i never actually DO that, lol! 

do you have a "funny" place to work, or way of working? i'd love to hear about it! i'd also love for you to check out this fun hybrid prompt at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ and maybe even play along! 

Friday, June 21, 2013

we wish you a digi christmas!

this week at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we are lucky enough to have one of my favorite lovely guest stars AND one of my favorite types of prompt, and they are BOTH in the same fortnight, so let's get right to it! our guest is the uber-talented gina cunningham, and the brief this time is near and dear to her heart... (and mine!) ...we're making holiday cards with at least one digital element involved, whether that be as simple as printing and coloring a digital stamp, or as complicated as making a multiple layered collage in photoshop that uses loads of actions, blending modes and digital elements. be as simple or as complicated as you like, just make sure to have some fun with it!

i've got LOADS of digital supplies, but sadly, i mostly use them only when i am making blog headers or other things that will be seen online. apparently, i'm slightly lazy when it comes to making hybrid cards, which is a shame. because they're fun to make, flexible, and so economical... since you can customize each bit, and you only ever need to print what you're actually going to use! for instance, i've been meaning since january to make a card that features the kit i used for this year's JB header, but it took a specifically digi-based prompt to make me actually DO IT. having said that, i really like how this came out:

(digital elements: christmas shopping kit by polka dot pixels + christmas postcard journalers no1 by katie pertiet, designer digitals; printed on plain paper, cardstock and kodak premium photo paper;  irl supplies: patterned paper: my mind's eye, cosmo cricket; deco tape: martha stewart, recollections; ribbon: october afternoon; other: distress inks, doily; adhesives: staples brand gluetape runner, 3m foam tape)
you can see that in addition to using the same ingredients, i stuck pretty close to the layout of the blog header, too. well, i mean, i did DESIGN that, and i think it's pretty decent, and i sort of thought it'd make a nice card. i stand by that decision, lol! :)

when i'm doing a fully digital project (like the header) i spend a lot of time adding drop shadows to give the appearance of depth and texture. when i'm doing the hybrid version, i tend to want to cut things out and layer them loosely; sometimes with a bit of foam tape under the top edge, like this:


and now i bet you'd like to head over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ to see gina's and stephanie's hybrid masterpieces, right? then i hope you will start thinking what you can make when you JOIN US!!! ♥

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

it's new header day! it's new header day!

and about time, too, eh?! not that i didn't love my old blog banner, but i do like to change things up once a year or so, just for the variety, and it's been a bit longer than that at this point! usually header-making is something i do on my laptop, on long car trips, but i guess we just haven't been traveling as much with the move, etc?!

digital elements: city maps #1 (manhattan) and lace from collageables #4, both by katie pertiet, designer digitals; multimedia flowers #1 and artplay palette #4 stitching both by anna aspnes, o'scraps; ephemera clusters by juliana kneipp, design house digital; washi love tape pieces by robin meierotto, dhd; antique prints paper by jen allyson, dhd; chunky stitching from spudunkity kit by corina nielsen, funky playground design; fonts: bohemian typewriter, porcelain; software: pse9
anyway, thanks to a longish wait at subaru yesterday, i was able to grab a few of my favorite recent acquisitions and knock this baby out! i figure that the specifics of digi-collage constitute one of those things you either already KNOW how to do, or don't really care about, so i'm going to limit myself to image credits, but as with all the things i make, i'm happy to share whatever minor insights i might have, and will gladly answer questions, if i'm able. in general, my best digi tip is, if you're only going to learn ONE THING in photoshop, it really ought to be layer styles; specifically the application and variation of the drop shadow. because there is no quicker way to elevate a combination of varied elements, and also make them much more dimensional (and thus realistic-looking) than by giving the impression of depth, and it's hard to beat shadows for that, in my opinion. so there. you now know my best digital-collage-making secret! you're welcome, darlings! :) :) :)

eta thursday morning: sorry for the re-post, after seeing the header full-sized on the big monitor i went back and tweaked a few of the background flowers, added some stitching, etc; isn't it funny how things can look totally different, just depending on the format??

Thursday, December 27, 2012

2012 xmas gift wrap wrap-up! :)

hello, darlings! i hope you had a ♥FABULOUS♥ christmas if you were celebrating this week, or alternately, just an especially nice tuesday! we had a blast... and got to see ALL but one of our nieces and nephews, in three different states, over the course of several days! it was wonderful, but admittedly a little tiring. i actually think lovely husband jeff was somewhat relieved to get back to work on wednesday, just for a day of comparative restfulness, and a bit less driving, lol!

something which i find restful, or at least soothingly pleasant, is, as you know, wrapping gifts; especially if i can think up a cool or unusual way to do it. this year i used quite a few store bought gift bags-- mostly because target had AWESOME stuff for .50 to .99 cents each, which is kinda hard to beat, right? so i just personalized some of those, using foam thickers:


these red bags are from the same source; i added a digi-collage (composed of ornaments from vera lim's "joyful xmas" and a bit of rhonna farrer snowflake paper) printed on photo paper for maximum dimension and glossiness (thus the light bounce, sorry!) as well as some glitter chip letters, machine stitching, and real lace:


another use of digital images (this time mindy terasawa's "jolly little friends" from designer digitals) on a not quiiiiiiite 12x12 paper base adorns nephew matthew's BIG present... because when you are five, you want THE BIGGEST present, lol!


you *know* i love vintage xmas cards and have been lucky enough, over the years, to have been given the "collections" of more than one older friend who had saved them. i often cut out motifs to use on cards, but sometimes i can't bear to trim 'em and then i do this:


these next couple were from the december round of birthdays, and aren't xmassy at all, but this seemed like a good time to show them off. first up, papaya art glitter giftwrap plus vintage lace. i kinda didn't want to give this away, but i did!


this one combines a gloriously illustrated page from an actual vintage (though seriously damaged!) children's science encyclopedia with some paper source gift wrap that features penguin classic editions; plus some very funky hand-dyed ribbon:


i'm not sure how lindsay marie's birthday bag got lost in the shuffle, but i only just found the picture! i used a sketch for the placement, and about 17 pounds of embellies, including vintage eyelet lace that i hot-glued around the top edge. it was a BIG HIT with the birthday girl, and i have to say i was touched to see it in her room the other day, holding a few "treasures"! :)



tomorrow i'll show you what's INSIDE matthew's "big present", so do drop by then if you have a minute! ♥