TCC221 Gather Together

 

Hi Friends!

Today, we are starting our November #221 Give Thanks Challenge at The Card Concept today and I was inspired by the colors, autumn elements and theme from our photo this month to create two cards (see this post for the first card I designed for this challenge).

We hope that you will take a moment to stop by our challenge blog and check out how the rest of our fabulous Design Team was inspired as well!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have not had a chance to create cards lately, so I decided to pull out some of my older Autumn stamp sets and created two cards at the same time.

For this card I used the Artistic Outpost Seed Packets Background stamp (still available at 70% off at Divinity Designs LLC) and paired it with a sentiment from the retired Painted Harvest stamp set from Stampin’ Up!  

To create this card:

De-static a piece of white cardstock with an embossing powder tool, ink the Seed Packets Background stamp with Versafine Black Onyx ink, stamp onto the prepared cardstock paper and apply clear embossing powder.

Heat set the powder with a heat tool and once cooled, use an AquaPainter to watercolor the image with distress oxide inks (the colors I used are listed below),

Once you are satisfied with the coloring,“antique” the image with a stencil brush using antique linen and stone ink.

Trim the image close to the edge, mount onto aqua cardstock, trim again and mount onto black cardstock.

Adhere the entire panel onto a white card base.

Add a few pieces of burlap strings under the layered/embossed sentiment (from the Painted Harvest stamp set) to finish off the card.  FYI- I had a few of these strings hanging around, and thought I would use them, lol! 

Stamp Sets:  Seed Packets Background (Artistic Outpost), Painted Harvest (retired Stampin’ Up!_

Inks/Mediums: Versafine Black Onyx, Distress Oxide- Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber, Crushed Olive, Peacock Feathers, Antique Linen, Pumice Stone

Cardstock/Paper: White, Black,  Bermuda Bay (retired Stampin’ Up!),

Accessories/Tools: Gemini, Jr., MFT Banners Dies, Stencil Brush, Embossing Powder Tool, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool

I hope you have had a chance to stop by The Card Concept to see how the rest of the Design Team were inspired as well as check out the other challenge gallery entries- gorgeous inspiration from all!

We hope you are inspired to create a card and join us for our Give Thanks Challenge at The Card Concept!  The deadline to play along is Monday, December 8^th at noon EDT.  

Sound of the Sea- #RRCB192 Guest Designer

 

Hi Friends!

Woohoo! Today I am Guest Designing for the 

Retro Rubber Blog Challenge #192 Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge! 

I love participating with the Retro Rubber Blog Challenge since you are required to use a stamp/stamp set that is at least one year old! This encourages me to use my older/ retired stamps and I enjoy using some of my stash of paper and embellishments as well!

For this card, I chose the diagonal column, right to left (Nautical-Designer Paper-Blue) and I decided to pull out the 2015 Artistic Outpost Sounds of the Sea stamp along with the Divinity Designs LLC stamp set, Scripture Collection 9 and paired it with the Graphic 45 By The Sea designer paper, older washi tape and a nautical charm!

I enjoy participating with online challenges and will be playing along with the Simon Says Monday “Emboss It” Challenge (the main image and sentiment are both heat embossed) and the Word Art Wednesday #561-#562 Anything Goes Challenge.

If you have not had a chance to visit the Retro Rubber Blog Challenge site yet or the other challenge galleries, I would encourage you to do so- wonderful ideas and projects by all!

To create this card:

Ink the Sound of theSea image with Versafine Onyx Black ink, stamp onto white cardstock, apply clear embossing powder and heat set with a heat tool.  Once the embossing has cooled, color with water-based markers and distress oxide ink (see colors below).

Trim the panel, mount onto tangerine cardstock, trim again and mount onto navy cardstock.

Repeat the same process for the embossing of the verse sentiment from Scripture Collection 9, ink the Sound of the Sea stamp with the tangerine marker (I inked mainly the seashells and the map area) and stamp over the sentiment.  Sponge Antique Distress Oxide Ink over the sentiment to “age” the paper.  Die cut and layer onto two additional die cuts (one from tangerine cardstock and the other from navy, split both in the center and layer behind the sentiment).

Trim and distress the two different patterns from the By The Sea Graphic 45 paper and mount onto a piece of navy cardstock.

Layer the crochet ivory lace, striped grosgrain ribbon and stitched ribbon over the rough cut edge, wrapping the ends of the ribbon behind the panel.

Add the strips of washi tape to the lower right hand area and mount the entire panel onto a white card base.

Mount the main image panel and sentiment with dimensional foam/

Use an antique pin to add the nautical charm to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets: Sound of the Sea (Artistic Outpost), Scripture Collection 9 (DivinityDesigns LLC)

Ink: Versafine™ Onyx Black, Stampin’ Write Markers- Tangerine Tango, Midnight Muse, Gumball Green, Smoky Slate; Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink- Antique Linen, Broken China

Paper: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Tangerine Tango; By The Sea (Graphic 45)

Accessories: Gemini, Jr™, Deco Labels Framelit Dies (retired Stampin’ Up!), Embossing Buddy®, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Distressing Tool, AquaPainter™, 1 ½” Night of Navy Grosgrain Ribbon, 3/8” Midnight Muse Stitched Satin Ribbon, White Crochet Lace, Nautical Charm (ribbon and charm from my stash)

Thanks again for stopping by!  I hope you can create a card/project and join us at The Retro Rubber Blog Challenge!

TCC161 Our Land Will Yield Its Harvest

Hi Friends!

Welcome to The Card Concept #161 {Harvest Adventures} Challenge! 

For those of you who are not familiar with The Card Concept Challenge, we are a bi-weekly challenge that uses an inspiration photo for you to create a card. 

What a fun inspiration photo!  I love this red truck with the pumpkins and those glorious fall colors in the background, don’t you?  I was inspired by the Harvest theme as well as the colors to create a Clean and Layered Mixed Media card!

What will inspire your card?  Will it be the colors in the photo (or color dots), the elements, the textures, the theme or something else?

You can choose one card-making style or a combination of styles, the choice is yours, plus our Design Team of eleven ladies create a card to help give you even more inspiration!  We hope you are able to join us!

I enjoy participating with other online challenges and will be linking to one of my favs, Word Art Wednesday #511-#512 “Anything Goes” Challenge.

If you have not had a chance to visit The Card Concept, or the Word Art Wednesday challenge site yet, I encourage you to do so- gorgeous inspiration from all! 

To create this card:

Using a MISTI™ Stamping Tool, position a piece of 4 ¼” x 5 ½” white cardstock into the corner of the tool. 

Ink the Seed Packets Background image from Artistic Outpost (available at Divinity Designs LLC) with Brushed Corduroy distress ink, stamp onto the piece of white cardstock (leave the stamp in the same position in the stamping tool).

Once you are satisfied with the coloring, heat set the ink to dry thoroughly.

Using an embossing powder tool, de-static the stamped/colored panel, re-position the panel in the stamping tool and ink the Seed Background stamp with Versafine™ Onyx Black ink.  Stamp over the colored panel, apply clear embossing powder and heat set with a heat tool.

Once the embossing has cooled, trim the panel to approx. 3 ¾” x 5”, mount onto a piece of green cardstock, trim and mount onto a piece of black cardstock.

Adhere the entire background panel to a white card base.

Ink the verse sentiment from Plough the Fields (Divinity Designs LLC) with Versafine™ Onyx Black ink, stamp onto a prepared piece of white cardstock, apply clear embossing powder and heat set with a heat tool.

Once the embossing has cooled, die cut with a stitched oval die.  Mount onto another oval die cut from black cardstock (I split that die in half so only the edges would show slightly). 

Add the oval sentiment to the card front with dimensional foam.

Create a looped bow with natural twine, adhere to the front of the card and finish off with a button.

Stamp Sets:  Seed Packets Background (Artistic Outpost), Plough the Fields (Divinity Designs LLC)

Ink/Mediums:  Versafine™ Onyx Black, Tim Holtz™ Distress- Brushed Corduroy, Spiced Marmalade, Fired Brick, Mowed Lawn; Stampin’ Write Markers- Crushed Curry, Hello Honey, Tangerine Tango, Granny Apple Green, Always Artichoke, Poppy Parade, Cajun Craze

Cardstock/Paper:  Whisper White, Basic Black, Always Artichoke

Accessories/Tools: Gemini, Jr., My Favorite Things- Stitched Oval STAX, Sizzix Oval Dies, Embossing Powder Tool, Clear Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Natural Hemp Twine, retired SU! Cajun Craze Button

Thanks again for taking the time to visit- I hope you have been inspired to join us at The Card Concept! The challenge gallery will be open until 12 noon EDT Monday, October 18^th- we are looking forward to seeing your artwork in our gallery!

CC800_CC752 Sound of the Sea

Hi Friends!

I have been busy this week creating a few cards for the #800 Color Challenge at Splitcoaststampers(SCS).  Normally, the SCS Color Challenge consists of one set of colors but this week to celebrate the milestone of 800 challenges (wow!) they have six different color combos (one for each hostess).

I did not think I would have time to participate with all the combos but decided to make that a challenge for myself :-)  I was able to complete them all and will be posting each card in a separate post.

In order to save time (posting is so time consuming for me, lol!), I will be summarizing the creative instructions.  If you have any questions about any of the techniques or steps taken , please let me know in the comments.

This card uses the C800_CC752  Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight and Flirty Flamingo along with the dessert option of an embossing folder.

 

This color combination reminded me of summer so I decided to pull out an Artistic Outpost stamp and paired it with a verse sentiment from Divinity Designs, LLC.  

The main image was stamped with a waterproof ink and watercolored using ink from the ink pads in the color challenge.

The image and sentiment were hand trimmed and matted onto cardstock before using the Splitcoaststampers SC412 Sketch for the layout (another one of my personal challenges is to make a card with every one of the SCS Sketch layouts- this sketch was from 2011).  

I am also linking this card to the Hand Stamped Sentiments #343 Photo Inspiration Challenge (I was inspired by the beach theme as well as the seashells and ocean).

Stamp Sets: Sound of the Sea (Artistic Outpost), Scripture Collection 9 (Divinity Designs, LLC)

Paper/Cardstock: Whisper White, Flirty Flamingo, Pacific Point

Ink/Mediums: Stampin’ Classic Pads- Daffodil Delight, Flirty Flamingo, Pacific Point

Accessories/Tools: Gemini, Jr™, retired Square Lattice Embossing Folder, AquaPainter™, Heat Tool, 1 ¼” Pacific Point Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Rhinestones

Thanks again for stopping by- I will be posting the remaining five cards shortly, I hope you can check back again soon!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4^th of July, My Friends!

I have been so busy trying to organize my stamping/craft room (well, really "rooms" since it is all over the house- lol!) that I have not had a lot of stamping time lately.  

Since my self-imposed organization "job" is taking longer than I anticipated (I move much slower as I get older), I thought I would take a trip down memory lane and post a few of the cards that I have created for the 4th of July/ Memorial Day in the past. 

To find the cards and links for this post, I used my  “Labels” section at the very bottom of my blog.  In the beginning of blogging, I used quite a few labels for each post so I had to put this section at the very bottom of the page (keep scrolling and you will see it:-)). 

To find the cards, I "clicked" on Patriotic (I have 22 posts with a patriotic theme) and am sharing ten of those cards with you today.   This set of cards will showcase a a variety of styles as well as a few cards using stamps that are not normally considered "Patriotic" starting with the year 2013 through 2017.  

I tend to favor Mixed Media cards but do have a few Clean and Simple/Clean and Layered cards in the post as well :-)  If you have a chance to comment, please let me know which style you like the best and I will try to design cards using that style in the future:-)

If you would like to view the rest of the patriotic cards from the past six years, just go to this link and you can see them all (scroll through the post, then click onto "Older Posts" to continue to see all of the cards). 

This card was designed for an SUO Challenge in 2013 using the retired
 Stampin' Up! images (Sunflower background and Trust God)
- see the instructions here

This card was designed for the SUO150 Challenge in 2016 and
I "cased" my own card (from above) using a different
floral stamp (Dahlia background) - see the original post here

This  quick and easy card was designed in 2014
 using scraps for a few online challenges-
see here for more details

I have several family members that were born on July 4th
so this card was designed with Our Daily Bread Designs and
retired Stampin' Up products with them in mind-
I have more information in this post

This patriotic card was designed in 2015 for Memorial Day using
Our Daily Bread Designs- see this post for more details 

This Mixed Media card was designed in 2016 with Artistic Outpost and
Our Daily Bread Designs using a vintage watercolor technique-
see this post for more details 

Another fun 4th of July Mixed Media card from 2015 using
Artistic Outpost and Our Daily Bread Designs-
see this blog post for more details 

A fun carefree card using Stampin' Up! stamps  for the SUO177 Challenge
 (Beautiful You, Work of Art) - see this post for full details and free instructions

A quick Clean and Simple (CAS) card using a retired Stampin' Up! image -
 see this post for all of the details 

Playing around again with a CAS style using a retired
Stampin' Up! image- see the blog post here for more details

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane with me :-)    I am so thankful that we are free!! 

I am also so thankful for all of you that take the time to visit my blog.  I know that many of us have not met in person but I consider all of you "friends" and feel so blessed! 

When I started this blog in August 2010, I decided that I wanted this blog to be just for "fun" and not for profit.  As an artist, I find that I can design more freely when I am not under pressure for too many deadlines and/or if money were to be involved- for me, this stifles what I call my "mojo":-)  So at the time of establishing my blog, I decided not to monetize (you should not be seeing any ads) and am very honored that you are here. 

I noticed recently that I am currently at 999,739 visits and am humbled that people from around the world have stopped by to visit my blog :-)  I am sure that number is somewhat elevated by "bots" (false visits) but hope that those of you who have taken the time to visit, realize what a blessing you are to me! 

Thank you, again for the encouragement it is that you have visited my blog- hugs and I hope you have a wonderful  4^th of July!!  

Life is Better with Ice Cream!

Hi Friends!

This morning I am sharing another fun Mixed Media card created with the Artistic Outpost stamp sets, Ice Cream Shoppe, Grunge Elements and the Bottle Caps Background along with the ODBD Pastel 6x6 Paper Pack (all available from Our Daily Bread Designs).

I wanted to play along with the final Mojo Monday #500 Sketch Challenge (so sad to see this challenge ending but fully understand) along with the Tuesday Throwdown #346 “Sugar High” Challenge and the Happy Little Stampers June Mixed Media “Glitter” Challenge (I am honored to be their Guest Designer this month).

I also used the Splitcoaststampers CC638 Color Challenge into the design.  It is hard to see the glitter- I used a Spectrum Noir™ Clear Glitter Pen for all of the shimmer.

If you have not had a chance to check out the Artistic Outpost blog or the other challenge sites yet, I encourage you to do so!  Inspiration is posted each week on the AO Blog/ AO Facebook Page and the challenge galleries have gorgeous inspiration as well!

To create this card:

1). Tap the Distress Oxide ink pads (Worn Lipstick, Peeled Paint and Wilted Violet) onto a craft mat, spritz with water and lay a piece of watercolor paper into the ink.  Lift up and dry with the heat tool, spritzing additional water as you dry.  Keep repeating until you are satisfied with the results.

2). De-static the panel with an embossing powder tool, stamp the Bottle Caps Background stamp with Versamark™ ink, apply white embossing powder and heat set with the heat tool. 

Add additional distress oxide ink as needed to darken some of the areas and stamp the large splatter image from Grunge Elements with Wilted Violet distress oxide ink. Trim the panel and mount onto a piece of white cardstock, trim again and mount onto a piece of pear cardstock.

3).  On a piece of 4” x 5 ¼” white cardstock,  add a bit of the same distress oxide inks onto the panel, trim and adhere the ¼” lavender and rose satin ribbon (wrapping the ends of the ribbon behind the panel).  Using the dot stencil, add stenciling with the clear glitter pen.  Mount onto the pear card front before adhering to the white card base.

4). Create the vertical panels from pieces of the Pastel 6x6 Paper Pack, mount onto white and pear cardstock.  Add to the card front, popping up the lilac panel with dimensional foam.

5). Stamp the ice cream cones from Ice Cream Shoppe with archival black ink, heat set with the heat tool and watercolor with the distress oxide inks (adding vintage photo for the cone).  Fussy-cut the ice cream cones, mount onto black cardstock and fussy-cut again.  Use the clear glitter pen to add shimmer to the ice cream.

6).  Mount the focal image to the card front with dimensional foam, add the ice cream cones and apply clear shimmer to the bottle caps with the glitter pen.

7).  Stamp the sentiment from Ice Cream Shoppe with archival black ink onto white cardstock, heat set with the heat tool, trim the sentiment, mount onto pear cardstock and add the sentiment to the card front.

8). Finish off the card by adding Nuvo Crystal Jewel Drops to the corners and focal image panel.

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by and visit- hugs and I hope you have a great weekend, sweet friends!

Artistic Outpost Ice Cream Shoppe

Artistic Outpost Bottle Caps Background

Grunge Elements

Pastel Paper Pack 2016

Eau De Parfum

Hi Friends!

I had a chance to spend some time stamping last night and wanted to create another card using the Artistic Outpost Eau de Parfum background stamp along with the new distress oxide inks (I finally was able to order mine and received them this past week).

 

I decided to pair the Eau de Parfum image with the Grunge Elements stamp set, the ODBD Custom Small Bow Dies and the ODBD Birthday Brights 6x6 Paper Pad for the As You Can See It #151 "A Banner Day" Sketch Challenge, the Splitcoaststampers CC638 Color Challenge and the Watercolor Cooler #122 “Feminine Anything Goes” Challenge.

 

If you have not had a chance to check out the Artistic Outpost blog or the other challenge sites yet, I encourage you to do so!  

Inspiration is posted each week on the AO Blog/ AO Facebook Page and the challenge galleries have fabulous inspiration as well!

To create this card:

1). Tap the Distress Oxide ink pads (Worn Lipstick, Peeled Paint and Wilted Violet) onto a craft mat, spritz with water and lay a piece of watercolor paper into the ink.  Lift up and dry with the heat tool, spritzing additional water as you dry.  Keep repeating until you are satisfied with the results.

2). De-static the panel with an embossing powder tool, stamp the Eau de Parfum background stamp with Versamark™ ink, apply black embossing powder and heat set with the heat tool. Trim the panel and mount onto a piece of black cardstock.  Add additional color to the flowers and leaves with distress markers- picked raspberries, mowed lawn and use a wisteria wonder marker to color the perfume bottle. Add a few highlights with an extra fine white paint pen.

3).  On a piece of white cardstock,  splash a bit of worn lipstick and peeled paint distress oxide ink, ink the large splatter stamp from Grunge Elements using black soot distress ink, trim and mount onto a piece of black cardstock before mounting onto the white card base.  Use a stencil brush with a dot stencil to lightly stencil worn lipstick oxide ink to the opposite corners.  

4). Create the banner using a piece of green polka dot pattern paper from the Birthday Brights 6x6 Paper Pad, mount onto black cardstock.  Use a paint brush to apply peeled paint oxide ink and picket fence distress stain before mounting onto the card front.

5). Add the focal image panel onto the card front with dimensional foam.

6). Die cut and emboss a piece of black cardstock with the ODBD Custom Small Bow Dies, add a green button to the center and mount onto the card front to finish off the card.

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by and visit- hugs and I hope you have a great  week, sweet friends!

Eau De Parfum

Grunge Elements

Small Bow Dies

ODBD Birthday Brights Paper Collection