Will I Always Be Distressing?

As you can see I've been having fun with the distress inks again!  Here we go again with the warning labels...  distressing can consume your entire day, it's just one more and then maybe one more...  My friend Priscilla who lent me her box of distress inks was over the other day and she finally got to try it and loved it as much as I do.

Here's my problem, there's ink on my plastic sheet that I've spritzed with water and I just can't help dipping one more scrap of paper in it to see what it will look like, then I have to finish it!  I've been told in recovery meetings that addicts don't finish things...  that means I'm not one right?!!  WRONG!  Okay, I can face it, I'm a paper crafting addict, there I said it.

I brought out some dusty old boxes of stamps today with the black embossing powder and heat gun.  The pear is from a 2004 Stampin' Up! hostess set called Ageless Adornment.  The woman is made by Stampington & Co. dated 2000 & the sunshine is recent from Verve Visual.  Have a good day!

Card Pattens Sketch 57 & Bookmarks

I discovered a really great sketch blog over the weekend to share with you!  It's called Card Patterns and I made a card using their sketch #57.  The directions said,   "Here's our 57th sketch! It's clear, plain therefore, very easy! Rotate it, embellish it or keep it simple - entirely up to you."  So I did!

 The snake is a digi from Dustin Pike that you can find HERE, it's a freebie!  I printed out a sheet of four snakes in two different sizes and colored them with Copic markers, cut them out and used SU Crystal Effects on the edges and spots to make them look shiny and give them some reinforcement because two of them are bookmarks that are going to be used. 

The body of the card is SU Green Galore, I embossed the SU Creamy Carmel panel with a Cuttlebug embossing folder (I'm sorry I can't remember the name), cut a white panel & mounted it on another scrap of SU Green Galore and attached the snake with pieces of foam tape to pop it.  My "missing you" sentiment is computer generated because I wanted the snake to do the talking ;).  I used SU small and medium Oval punches to cut out the sentiment and attached it with more foam tape.  The three Dew Drops were a little too light in color so I used my YG25 Copic marker on the underside and attached them with SU Crystal Effects.   Can you see the resemblance to the sketch?! 

I also wanted to share the other snakes I colored, the two big ones are book marks.  My son wanted his to be black and red so it looked real.  I wanted mine to be "cute" so I colored it just like the one on my sketch challenge card. 

OWH Sketch Challenge #9

Happy Saturday~ this week has flown by at our house, the kids are back in school following a nice spring break and it's the weekend again, wow...  

I'm still in the after glow of last Saturday's Operation Write Home blog hop, that was so fun!  I must have spent 12 hours in front of the computer blog hopping and leaving comments.  I did get up to stretch, change the laundry, do dishes, check out what the kids were doing, etc.  

Today's card is the weekly sketch challenge from Sandy's Stars and Stripes blog.  I love the simplicity of this sketch, I need to get back to that.  I used Papertrey Ink Aqua mist and Spring moss as well as the last sheet of the first package of their designer paper I ever bought.  (How many years ago?)  The butterfly stamp is from Verve Visual's Fluttering By set and the birthday wishes is theirs also.  The butterfly is colored with Copic markers and I used my new Papertrey Ink medium scalloped border die and Spellbinders squares.  My butterfly was cut out using the Silhouette machine so I had to draw in the antennae because they were cut too fine to survive and I also drew in the trail.  

Enjoy your weekend!

Beautiful Blooms One

I enjoy checking out the blog Capture The Moment especially as she previews projects being made with Papertrey Ink new stamps and goodies each month.  I just loved the new set Beautiful Blooms II with it's die cutting accessories.  I don't have the new set but have the first Beautiful Blooms, I was inspired to make a card using the set I already have. 

There was an already cut out top note die on my desk along with a scalloped oval frame I'd cut out with my Quickutz Silhouette.  I'd used a Nesties Oval die in the middle of the top note die to make a frame, stamped it in Plum Pudding Palette ink using PTI Polka Dot Basics and set it aside.  I cut out the Cuttlebug flower dies that go with my Beautiful Blooms set and stamped them with Plum Pudding & Berry Sorbet Palette inks, colored two clear rhinestones with a Copic marker and die cut some smaller leaves with a Quickutz die.  After making a card body from Neenah Super Smooth Solar white card stock I added a panel of PTI Plum Pudding and started layering all the pieces I'd made.  When I was happy with how it looked I fastened it all down and had my card finished.  It was an experiment in using all the different dies and putting them together, I like the way it turned out.  What do you think?

With Faith

I woke up this morning with the Violet from Papertrey Ink and distress ink on my mind. I needed to see if I could color the large violet image with sponges and distress inks. I didn't even make it to the shower and getting dressed first! I know, I'm sick.

I stamped the large violet and leaves with Versamark on my favorite white card stock poured black embossing powder on it and melted it. Next I used Scattered Straw distress ink with a big dauber in the middle of the flower, changed to Milled Lavender then Dusty Concord on the outside edge. I spritzed water on it several times and reinked in places until I was happy with it. I used Peeled Paint and Pine Needles on the leaves, spritzed them with water and played with them till I was happy with them too.

The card body is SU Barely Banana with a strip of Kraft at the bottom, the border is The Paper Mill's deep purple that was cut using my Quickutz Silhouette machine. I also heat embossed the verse on the Kraft strip. The center of the flower is cut out and popped on foam tape and I colored in some of the center tendrils with a Copic marker and dotted Crystal Effects in the very center.

I think it came out looking pretty realistic, what do you think?

I made this card a few weeks ago, I've been waiting to post it because it was for a swap that never happened. I'm not sure what went wrong, I signed up, sent the e mail and haven't heard anything so I'm just going to move forward with it.

I found a fabulous site for vintage art that's free called The Graphic's Fairy. Karen does a beautiful job scanning and fixing these images and offers them for free to anyone who'd like them. The digital image I used today is from her Spencerian Saturday collection.

After a little playing in my Microsoft Publisher program to get the pen and ink drawing re colored as dark as possible and just the right size to fit on my card I printed it on Neenah super smooth white card stock. I cut it out using Spellbinders Nestabilities long narrow rectangles and the scalloped companion set. Next came the coloring part with Copic markers. I was a little nervous... what I was about to color was really SMALL! I used a magnifying glass to color this image as carefully as I could. It's not the most relaxing way to color but it was necessary for this image, my husband was amused watching me hold a magnifying glass and color with my pens.

The challenge for the swap I was doing was to use your Scor-Pal and make a card. I tried the diagonal background with the Scor-Pal and inked the scored lines with distress ink for an aged look.

This image is from the late 1800's and i'd imagine cards made at that time would be a single layer. I think it would look more realistic that way too!

Operation Write Home blog hop!

It's blog hop day for Operation Write Home! The theme for this blog hop is spring, living in the desert we don't have major seasonal changes until the arrival of summer. From the beginning of November to the beginning of May our temperatures are very mild. Today the temperature here should be in the mid 70's, we begin planting our gardens the second week of February because the chance of having a "freeze" is past. I haven't seen snow here since 1989. I remember calling my boss that day to tell him I couldn't get from where I was to work because it was snowing and I just knew he was going to think I was crazy!

So anyway - butterflies are really popular right now and I can't seem to get enough of them. This butterfly is a Hero Arts digi stamp that I re sized, re colored to make it's outline nice and dark and printed it on Neenah super smooth white card stock. I used Tim Holtz distress inks and their sponge applicators to color the butterfly then applied SU Crystal Effects and black half pearls. It took a couple of days of the butterfly sitting on my desk to come up with a card to put it on. I looked through my stash of stamps and found the swirl from this Rhonna Farrar stamp set and thought it might be just the thing. I cut my Neenah white card stock to the size I needed and stamped, placed the butterfly with it and liked it! I thought more black half pearls would tie it all together and used a Verve stamp for the "you make me smile". Clean and simple isn't easy for me so I had to get used to it after I had the card together to be sure I was "done".

In my blog browsing not too long ago I came across the Operation Write Home blog and was truly inspired as I looked around. What a neat opportunity to bless other people with our gifts and talents. My dad was a WWII veteran and the 2nd anniversary of his death was a few days ago. I thought making cards for Operation Write Home would be a meaningful way to honor his service to our country and his memory. He always encouraged me in my artistic endeavors and for that I'm grateful.  Below is a picture of my dad in Tokyo in 1946.

I've copied OWH's mission statement for you: OUR MISSION
Supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.

I hope you are as inspired as I am!

...and now I'd like to introduce our next blogger Melissa, enjoy!

Creative Recycling

My second post for today is about recycling and having some fun with my two youngest kids yesterday. We didn't have any big plans and I wanted to try a tutorial about making these flowers.

I went out and picked up the mail out of the box after lunch and it was junk so I came in and tossed it in my trash beside where I work at the table. The kids were playing with my SU scalloped circle punch cutting up the grocery ad they'd been using as a drop cloth to paint on. I thought hmm, they've got a cool idea! I wonder what the flower would look like if I used the grocery ad. It was easy to work with and looked good!

For some reason that shiny Kohls ad I'd thrown in the trash beside me was calling to me. It had kids in Easter clothes on the front and bright kids clothing through out. I started punching scalloped circles and made the first flower, it was even better out of the shiny paper, then I punched some leaves out of the front cover using Quickutz dies and my Cuttlebug.

I had to do something with the flower so I checked out Splitcoaststampers sketch challenge 272 again and saw how I could possibly use it. I also used a photo from the ad as a panel in the sketch.

Pictured below are my card, what the table looked like when we were done, my youngest with his flower and the kids on to the next thing.

We're Distressing!

Spring vacation week 2, day 5 we're distressing! The kids are out of school and we have an extra friend over today so there's an "odd kid out". My daughter was feeling left out of the boys play and not happy. I asked if she'd like to do some stuff with me today. ...not really...

We started off packaging up Mother's Day cards to ship off to Operation Write Home and going to the post office. Once she got into the swing of it she was enjoying herself.

When we got back home we started playing with Tim Holtz distress inks my friend Priscilla let me borrow. We decided we should make cards for Operation Write Home and got busy.
The above card is my daughter Jenny's. We really got into blending the distress inks with sponges and a mini mister. The first two images we stamped we used a Veramark pad and black embossing powder. The butterflies below I'd stamped on my first attempt and decided heat embossing would show up better in the future.
Operation Write Home is also doing a blog hop starting tomorrow morning, I hope you'll join us!

I wanted to say THANK YOU! to everyone who visited my blog yesterday and THANK YOU! to everyone who left comments. The Waltzing Mouse Blog Hop was very fun, I enjoyed seeing everyone's take on those digital images Claire Brennan gave away.

Today's card is a hybrid. I printed the orange dotted paper and blue moth from the Mod Moths digi kit I got at Two Peas In A Bucket.com. I did add a little color to the moth with a Copic marker before I cut it out. Stamped I'm praying for you and the butterfly trail in black Memento ink. It's a pretty simple straight forward kinda card today.

Thanks for stopping by, have a blessed day!

Supply List: SU Pumpkin Pie, SU Ballet Blue, Neenah Super Smooth Solar White, Mod Moths digi kit - 2 Peas In A Bucket, Stampedous butterfly trail, There She Goes - I'm pryaing for you, Copic marker.

Waltzing Mouse Blog Hop!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! It's blog hop day and I'm excited to share my projects with you. I have a link to Waltzing Mouse forum in case you aren't signed up yet to play.

For this card I used Waltzing Mouse's free digital image and colored the shamrocks with Copic markers. I next cut out my colored image with a Spellbinders Oval Nestabilities die. Emerald Blessings is also a digi stamp that I printed and cut a strip to use on my card front. I made the rick rack out of card stock using my Quickutz Silhouette machine and attached it to my white strip. Then I put the light purple card stock through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder and attached it all to a white A6 card body. Clean and simple, I have a hard time with that!

Claire had free digi stamps on her blog for us to use along with what ever Waltzing Mouse Designs stamp sets we might have.

The shamrock with Irish Blessings under is one of the digi stamps I downloaded, the frame around it is one of their clear stamps.

This was such a fun project! I came across this box tutorial at Kirsten's blog and thought the WM stamps would be perfect for it. You can find her tutorial HERE.

I downloaded the digi stamps and re colored them in my Microsoft Publisher program, I was trying to get as close a match as I could to some of my card stock. I was able to get a shade that coordinated with my Papertrey Ink Avocado & Spring Moss card stocks.

I stamped the Labels 4 frame around the digi stamp in PTI Ripe Avocado ink and cut it out with the Labels 4 Spellbinders die. I cut out and extra shamrock and popped it on top of the first one and set it aside.

Then I started working on the box! The directions said to cut 2 chip board pieces and 4 designer paper squares. Hmmm, designer papers... I couldn't think of anything I had in my stash that would match so I checked out Waltzing Mouse's digi papers and wasn't sure if I could get a match that way either. I started browsing my own digi paper stash and came across this swirl paper but it only came in red and black.

I've just recently learned how to re color images and thought, I wonder if... and I was so excited to see that digi paper I'd copied and pasted into Publisher change to the exact same green as I'd used on the shamrocks! I was so excited, I learned something that's gonna be really valuable! (to me anyway, hehehe).

I went back to the box directions and got it all put together. I sponged the edges of my designer paper with PTI Ripe Avocado ink and the drawer pulls are from an old Stampin' Up! Hodgepodge Hardware kit.

To finish the top I cut another Labels 4 die in Ripe Avocado card stock for a matte, and found the white scalloped border in my stash. I'd cut a sheet of those a few days ago playing with a new GSD file and my Silhouette machine. Another strip of Ripe Avocado card stock and some pearls and I was satisfied. I'm done.

I really like the way the box with drawers turned out but need to make a few more. Two of my drawers are tight and don't open easily. That's okay, I'm happy to keep practicing!

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the blog hop!

Hero Arts

How about this Hero Arts digital butterfly?! I know it's rather LARGE but I was playing with Tim Holtz distress inks and didn't really intend for it to end up on a card. Being a card maker I didn't really know what else to do with it!

I watched a video by Jennifer McGuire of Hero Arts on how to color using distress inks and thought I'd try it. The only colors of distress inks I have are Antique Linen and Old Paper. I really think I'd like some more distress ink pads now. ;) She used Glossy Accents around the edges and on the spots so I used the next best thing... Crystal Effects and black pearls.

I have a friend who's husband has been spending a lot of time in the hospital so I thought this might be nice for him. I used the Verve Visual Serenity stamp set to stamp the background on the tan panel and attached my enormous butterfly.

New Blog Template

It's been a busy couple of days around here, the kids are out of school and looking for fun and I'm trying to keep up with it all! I must admit they're easy to find, just follow the trail of crumbs...

I did get some time to play , the two cards I'm posting are my experiments in distressing. I think the Tim Holtz distress inks are pretty neat and their sponge applicators and mini misters are great tools. I heat embossed the stamped images so they'd show up better on my distressed papers.
So, what do you think of my new blog template? I'm very inexperienced using my Photo Shop Elements program but I got the job done with the blog header using a CD tutorial I have. It took quite a while and I learned a lot of valuable stuff. For everything else I followed the directions in the kit and much to my delight and satisfaction it worked!

SC267 & Verve Fluttering By

I just had to make this sketch again, I kept seeing it in my mind with butterflies! Am I the only one with this problem? (I hope not...)

Anyway - Before I could do anything else this morning I had to make this card. I used Verve Visual's Fluttering By clear stamp set and the Cuttlebug Swirls and Swiss Dot embossing folders. The card stock is Neenah White and Via Vellum's Blue and the butterflies are colored with Copic markers. A nice simple sketch to start the day! Hope yours is a good one~

Verve Fluttering By

I thought it was time to get out my Verve Fluttering By stamp set again. I was inspired by Debbie Olsen using Papertrey Ink's new Butterfly Dreams set last month, she showed how she makes a template to get all the squares on a card to line up and look right. I wonder why I never thought of that?! She's a genius, it works great!!

I was experimenting with my Quickutz Silhouette machine and this stamp set, it says it will cut out just about anything. Everything but the butterflies antenna! That's okay, I drew them on three of them, if you look closely at the photo one of them has cut out antenna. The card stock is PTI's Aqua Mist and the patterned paper is one of the first packages I ever bought from PTI (I need to use that up!). The ribbon and "make a wish" are also PTI products. I colored the cut out butterflies with Copic markers and added pearls. Some of those pearls were white when I started, love my Copic markers!

This card has quite a bit of dimension to it so I made an envelope with my Scor-Pal and decorated it to match.

Another Fred She Said Hybrid

I've been having fun with pre colored digital images today. This is another digi image from Fred She Said Designs along with the patterned digi paper. It's so nice to print my own matching paper for the project I'm working on. Love it!

This means a lot to me because I live in a very small town, there are no stamping or scrapbooking stores here. My supplies come from shopping on line or going to Lake Havasu City 35 miles away. Anyone that knows me very well knows I'd rather be at home working on paper crafts!

I printed my digi paper and the sheet of flowers and leaves, cut out three of the flower petals and leaves, bent them around my piercing tool (a pencil works too) and stuck a yellow brad through the flower. The flower and leaves are attached with foam tape. Birthday wishes is from a Papertrey ink stamp set and the sketch for this card is also from a card I saw on Nichole Heady's blog during their 3rd anniversary countdown. Other supplies are SU Pretty In Pink, Barely Banana & White card stock and Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

This was a quick fun project, I used my Quickutz Silhouette to make the little purse from a box that came with the software. I cut a second box in black so I had spare parts to decorate with. I also used the Scor-Pal to add scored stripes to the body of the purse. After attaching the black panel under the purse flap I added the punched flowers and brads. The handle is stitched black gross grain ribbon threaded through holes in the flaps that really belong on the inside of the box secured with Scor tape. This little purse measures 3 x 4 1/4 inches.

I made this for my daughter to give to her friend so she needed a card to go with it. Splitcoaststampers sketch challenge 267 intrigued me, I had to try it. It was definitely a challenge making it so small! I had several ideas for stamps but everything was too big so I used an EK Success flower punch and a new stamp from a set I bought at CHA by Clear Magic Stamps. The card stock is a combination of PTI Hibiscus Burst and SU Pretty In Pink.

The verse stamp she chose for the inside didn't look like it was going to fit, the wood block was exactly the same width as the white panel inside. Perfect! We tucked the card and a little package of Sweet Tarts from our Valentine candy inside and it's ready to go.

Here's a better picture of the score lines on the body of our "purse".

Fred She Said Hybrid

Today's card is another Hybrid, my image is a colored digital stamp from Fred She Said Designs. The set is called Smelling The Cherry Blossoms. These cute little girls come in several different colors and you can buy matching designer digi papers too.

I didn't use the digi papers today, I saw a card made by Silke Ledlow using this layout with Cuttlebug embossing folders used on the white panels. I like the clean and simple effect. The only stamping I did was the With Gratitude from a Flourishes Thank You stamp set.

My card is an A6 size so I had to run the largest white panel through the Cuttlebug twice using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I made sure to leave a blank strip about an inch wide to place my purple ribbon in. I didn't want any dots showing through my organdy ribbon. The pre colored digi stamp was easy to cut out and pop with foam tape on the Swirls embossed panel. A pretty bow from my ribbon above the image panel and the card was finished!

Clean and Simple... C.A.S.E.

Or should that title be a C.A.S.E. of Clean & Simple...
If you haven't yet discovered Jennifer McGuire Ink you should go see what she's doing!

She made these wonderful butterfly cards and did a tutorial on how she colored them HERE. I couldn't resist, I had to make some too!

The butterflies on the top card are from Hero Arts clear stamp set called Antique Engravings. Did I mention Jennifer is on the design team for Hero Arts?

The butterflies on the bottom card are from The Angel Company several years ago.