Thoughts of You

Hi Friends!

I am sharing my final card that I created this past weekend using a quick Acrylic Block Watercolor Stamping technique (this is a fun technique and I am sure that I will be sharing cards with this type of background again in the future).

I wanted to play along with a few online challenges and will be linking to the Happy Little Stampers September CAS “Silhouette” Challenge along with the Simon Says Wednesday “STAMPtember- Stamp It” Challenge and the Word Art Wednesday #298-#299 “Anything Goes”Challenge.

If you have not had a chance to check out the above challenge sites yet, I hope you will find the time to do so- as always, fabulous inspiration from all!

To create this card:

1). SwipeTim Holtz® Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves Distress Ink onto a medium sized acrylic block, spritz with water, flip the block over onto a piece of watercolor paper and put something heavy (I used my electric pencil sharpener on my desk) and allow it to stay on the paper for five minutes.

2). After five minutes, lift the paper off the block, pat any excess water and dry with the heat tool.  Spritz again with water to add a few water spots and dry with the heat tool.

3). Once the panel has thoroughly dried, de-static with an embossing powder tool, stamp the floral image and sentiment from Long Stem Silhouettes (designed by Korin Sutherland available at Sweet ‘n SassyStamps) with Versafine™ Onyx Black ink, apply clear embossing powder and heat set with the heat tool.

4). Trim around the image and mount onto a piece of black cardstock.

5). Use a water brush with Picked Raspberry and Seedless Preserves ink to add a light wash to a piece of vanilla cardstock, add a bit of splatter with black ink, trim and mount onto a piece of black cardstock, trim and add to the white card base.

6). Mount the embossed floral image with dimensional foam to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets: Long Stem Silhouettes (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)

Ink/Mediums: Versafine™ Onyx Black; Tim Holtz® Distress Inks- Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves

Paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla (Stampin’ Up!), Canson™ Watercolor

Accessories/Tools: Embossing Buddy®, Heat Tool, Stampin’ Emboss® Clear Embossing Powder

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by! May the Lord keep all of you safe in the path of Hurricane Irma- hugs, sweet friends!

Peaceful Peonies- Block Watercolor Experiment

Hi Friends!

I decided to play around this weekend with the Acrylic Block Watercolor Stamping technique that Just Us Girls shared (see here) and I created two very different cards, of which, this one did not turn out how I expected for sure!

I used a block that had etching and learned a valuable lesson- put the inks on the smooth side, not the etched side- duh!!  I wanted to rescue the card so I applied additional ink layers (please see below). 

In addition to the Just Us Girls JUGS410  Trend Week “Block Watercolor Stamping” Challenge, I incorporated the Little Red Wagon #410 “Give Us Your Background” Challenge and the Watercooler Wednesday #135 “Judy's FeminineAnything Goes” Challenge.

If you have not had a chance to check out the above challenge sites yet, I hope you will find the time to do so- as always, gorgeous inspiration from all!

To create this card:

1). Using an acrylic block, pat Tim Holtz® Distress Ink- I used Wild Honey, Picked Raspberry and Chipped Sapphire.  Spritz with water, flip the block over onto watercolor paper and put something heavy (I used my electric pencil sharpener on my desk) and allow it to stay on the paper for five minutes.

2). After five minutes, lift the paper off the block, pat any excess water and dry with the heat tool.  Since I had mistakenly inked the etched side of this block, there was a distinctive grid pattern that showed and I was not thrilled with the result.  To fix this issue, I re-inked the block with Tim Holtz® Distress Oxide Inks- I used Wild Honey and Broken China (trying not to cover all of the distress ink), spritzed with water and re-positioned the inked block over the original background (this time using the smooth surface).

3). Once the five minutes have passed, repeat the block removal step and dry with a heat tool.  Spritz with water to create additional water drops, dry with the heat tool and de-static the panel with an embossing powder tool.

4). Ink the Peaceful Peonies large floral image (NinaB Designs available at Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps) with Versafine™ Onyx Black ink, apply clear embossing powder and heat set with the heat tool.

5). Repeat the steps above with the verse sentiment from Peaceful Peonies.

6). Hand trim around the edge of the block, distress the edges with a distressing tool and mount onto a piece of white cardstock.  Trim the edges of the white cardstock, mount onto a piece of black cardstock, trim and mount onto a piece of plum cardstock.

7). Use a 5/16” handheld punch (or a piercing tool) to position the antique pewter brads, insert the brads and mount the panel onto the white card base to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets: Peaceful Peonies (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)

Ink/Mediums: Versafine™ Onyx Black; Tim Holtz® Distress Inks- Wild Honey, Picked Raspberry, Chipped Sapphire; Distress Oxide Inks- Broken China, Wild Honey

Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White (Stampin’ Up!), Canson™ Watercolor

Accessories/Tools: Embossing Buddy®, Heat Tool, Stampin’ Emboss® Clear Embossing Powder, Distressing Tool, 5/16" Handheld Punch, Antique Pewter Brads

Thanks again for taking the time to stop by! Praying for all of you in the path of Hurricane Irma- may the Lord bless and keep you safe!

CAS Birthday Wishes

Hi Friends!!

Here is another Clean and Simple (CAS) card that I created with a quick watercolor technique using the Pals Paper Arts PPA275 Color Challenge along with the Splitcoaststampers Clean and Simple CAS351 “Fall Leaves” Challenge and the TLC524 "Stamped Acrylic Block Background" Challenge. 

 Again, if you have not already visited the above sites, I hope you will take a moment to do so- wonderful inspiration from all!

To create this card:

Lightly spritz water onto a piece of watercolor paper, ink an acrylic block with Hello Honey Classic Ink and roll into Tangelo Twist Classic Ink, pressing down onto the watercolor paper and re-inking.

Lightly spritz the inked acrylic block images to allow the ink to spread and dry with the Heat Tool.

Ink the branches from the retired Watercolor Trio using Blackberry Bliss Classic Ink and stamp repeatedly over the acrylic block background, spritz with water to diffuse the branches and dry with the Heat Tool.

Once you are satisfied with the background, ink the branches again using Blackberry Bliss Classic Ink and stamp onto the background, lightly spritz and dry again with the Heat Tool.

Use a paint brush to drop water onto the panel and dry with the Heat Tool.

Stamp the sentiment with Blackberry Bliss Classic Ink, trim the panel and mount onto the Blackberry Bliss card base.

Stamp Sets:  Watercolor Trio (retired)

Ink:  Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey, Tangelo Twist

Paper: Watercolor, Blackberry Bliss

Accessories: Acrylic Block, Water Spritzer Bottle, Paint Brush

Thanks again for stopping by- have a wonderful week, my friends!

CAS Ornamental Pine Christmas- Peace on Earth

Hi Stampers! 

I had a chance to create a quick Clean and Simple (CAS) card last night using the CAS(E)This Sketch #132 Challenge along with the Stampin' Royalty SR287 "Keep It Simple", the Splitcoaststampers’ CC539 Color Challenge (see details here and gallery here) as well as the CCC15 Christmas Card Challenge (see gallery here).

 

I hope you will find the time to visit the above sites and check out all of the inspiration from their Design Teams as well as their galleries!

To create this card:

Using an Acrylic Block- place it directly onto the Soft Sky Classic Ink pad (making sure that it is fully covered with ink) and stamp onto a piece of Whisper White cardstock.

Color the Ornamental Pine stamp using Stampin’ Write Markers- Early Espresso for the branches and Wild  Wasabi for the needles...”huff” onto the stamp to re-moisten the ink and stamp onto the acrylic block panel.

Create shadows using the Sahara Sand Stampin’ Write marker for the branches as well as a bit for the needles.

Stamp the pinecones using Early Espresso Classic Ink onto Whisper White cardstock and carefully fussy-cut the images.

Ink the sentiment with Perfect Plum Classic Ink and stamp onto the panel.

Trim the panel and mount onto the Perfect Plum card base.

Add the pinecones using Stampin’ Dimensionals® and the Rhinestones near the sentiment to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets: Ornamental Pine, Greetings of the Season

Ink: Early Espresso, Soft Sky, Perfect Plum; Stampin’ Write Markers- Early Espresso, Wild Wasabi, Sahara Sand

Paper: Whisper White, Perfect Plum

Accessories: Acrylic Block, Rhinestones

Thanks again for visiting- I hope all of you have a terrific Thursday!

JUN15VSNB Two Hands- A Color, Sketch and Virtual Stamp Night Challenge :-)

Hi Again Stampers! 

I wanted to share another card that I created for the Splitcoaststampers’ “Happy” Virtual Stamp Night (keep in mind that one of the rules is that you can only spend one hour creating the card – needless to say, very difficult at times for me).

This card was created for the JUN15VSNB “Clap Along If You Feel Like Stampin” Challenge (see details here and gallery here) along with the SC543 Sketch Challenge (see details here and gallery here) and the Paper Players PP249 Color Challenge. 

This was a tough challenge for me since I discovered that I do not have any stamps showing just hands…then I remembered the retired Handmade with Love II set from 2002  (I knew there is a reason I hold on to my retired stamps-  LOL!).

If you have not had a chance to do so, I hope you will find the time to visit the above challenge sites to check out the Design Team samples as well as their galleries-wonderful inspiration from all!

To create this card:

Using a small acrylic block, press the block into the Pool Party Classic Ink pad and stamp onto a piece of Whisper White cardstock.  Repeat this step leaving ample room around each “block” for using a punch.

Ink the “hand crafted” stamp from the retired Handmade with Love II set using Real Red and stamp over two of the Pool Party “blocks” and repeat the steps with Island Indigo Classic Ink.

Use the 1” Square Punch to punch out the “blocks” and trim off the top and bottom portions of the stamped image (just leaving the hands).

Mount onto 1” squares of Pool Party cardstock and mount those squares onto a MFT Stitched Square  die cut from Whisper White cardstock (approx. 2 ½” square).

Mount the entire “hand” panel onto a piece of Real Red cardstock and add the retired Real Red button with Island Indigo Baker’s Twine to the center.

Ink the sentiment from Trust God using Real Red Classic Ink and stamp onto a piece of Whisper White cardstock.

Adhere the retired Island Indigo Sycamore Street ribbon strips along with the retired Real Red ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon on a diagonal and mount the panel onto a piece of Island Indigo cardstock, trim and mount onto a piece of Real Red cardstock, trim and mount onto the Whisper White card base.

Mount the focal image panel using Stampin’ Dimensionals® to finish off the card.

Stamps: Trust God, retired Handmade with Love II (2002)

Ink: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Real Red

Paper: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Real Red

Accessories: Big Shot™, MFT Stitched Square Die, 1” Square Punch, retired ribbon- Island Indigo Scyamore Street Stitched Satin, ¼” Real Red Grosgrain  , retired Real Red button, retired Island Indigo Baker’s Twine

Thanks again for stopping by- I hope all of you have a fabulous Friday and weekend!  If you have the time, drop by again soon ( I will be sharing more cards this evening and tomorrow)- hugs to all of you and God Bless!

CAS Christmas Card- 10 Minute "Stepped Up" Version

Hi Stampers!

I wanted to share the “stepped up” version of the 5 Minute Clean and Simple (CAS) card from my previous post using Jaydee’s PP167 colors from The Paper Players and the Acrylic Block Technique. 

This version took a few more minutes and would be a 10-15 Minute card - I was able to complete in 10 minutes but I did use a few scraps in my stash for the layers...

Again, if you have not had a chance to stop by and visit The Paper Players yet, I would urge you to do so- they generally have 50+ entries each week and a wonderful Design Team with some of my all time favorite card artists!

To create this card:

Ink the Stampin’ Up! Acrylic Block D using the Pool Party Classic Ink pad and stamp onto Whisper White cardstock.

Ink the Festive Flurry stamp using Midnight Muse Classic Ink and stamp over the Pool Party block.   Trim to size and mount onto a piece of Pool Party cardstock.

Add the piece of Midnight Muse cardstock to the Whisper White layer, stamp the sentiment using Midnight Muse Classic Ink and mount onto the Midnight Muse card base. 

Add the focal image using Stampin’ Dimensionals®, adhere the 3/8” Midnight Muse Stitched Satin triple ribbon bow along with the Rhinestones to finish off the card. 

Stamp Sets:  Festive Flurry, More Merry Messages

Ink: Midnight Muse, Pool Party

Paper: Whisper White, Midnight Muse

Accessories: Rhinestones, 3/8” Midnight Muse Stitched Satin Ribbon

I have yet to use my coordinating Festive Flurry Framelits™ and will be making an even more “stepped up” version using this color combo, so stay tuned...

Thanks again for stopping by- have a terrific Tuesday! 

A Quick 5 Minute Christmas Card!

Hi again Stampers!!

I am still working on my October CCC13 Christmas card designs and wanted to create a CAS five minute card for the CASology #65 Crisp Challenge along with Jaydee’s PP167 Color Challenge at The Paper Players,   I have been waiting to create an Acrylic Block Technique card with the Festive Flurry set and as soon as I saw the PP167 colors, I knew what I wanted to create (love it when that happens:-))

I hope you have a chance to stop by to visit all of the challenge sites- great cards and entries by all! 

To create this quick five minute card:

Ink the Stampin’ Up! Acrylic Block D using the Pool Party Classic Ink pad and stamp onto Whisper White cardstock.

Ink the Festive Flurry stamp using Midnight Muse Classic Ink and stamp over the Pool Party block.

Trim to size, stamp the sentiment using Midnight Muse Classic Ink and mount onto the Midnight Muse card base using Stampin’ Dimensionals®.

Add the Rhinestones to finish off the card. 

Stamp Sets:  Festive Flurry, More Merry Messages

Ink: Midnight Muse, Pool Party

Paper: Whisper White, Midnight Muse

Accessories: Rhinestones

Thanks again for taking the time to visit- off to finish more for my Christmas stash! I hope all of you have a wonderful Sunday!! 

Acrylic Block Technique for the Pals Paper Arts PPA170 Color Challenge

Hi Stampers!!

I hope all of you had a great weekend!!  I had so much fun yesterday spending time with fellow demos at our Joyful Hearts Quarterly meeting (I must admit, I have the best upline ever- Cindy Fodor :-)) and loved seeing all of my stamping “sisters” :-)

One of the 25 swaps that I have been busy creating :-)

I apologize for not posting often this week but I have been a bit busy with work as well as creating the twenty-five card fronts for the swap at the demo meeting (I cased myself and this swap card was a variation of a previously designed card here) :-))

I wanted to create another card so I decided to take a moment this evening to create a card using the colors from this week’s Pals PaperArts PPA170 Color Challenge. 

This classic color combo is so wonderful and perfect for so many types of cards – if you have not done so yet, I hope you can take the time to visit the Pals Paper Arts site and see all of the Design Team projects as well as the many other entries!

I decided to use the Acrylic Block Technique for this card and create another landscape (hope you are not getting tired of the landscape cards yet) :-)

To create this card:

Using Stampin’ Write markers in Crushed Curry and Midnight Muse, color an acrylic block and spritz water onto the ink before laying a piece of Whisper White cardstock over the ink on the block.

Ink the solid tree image from Evergreen using the Midnight Muse Classic Ink Pad or the marker, stamp repeatedly at different heights and stamp again using the Early Espresso marker or Classic Ink Pad. 

Ink the script stamp from Notable Notions using Early Espresso ink and stamp off before stamping onto the image.  Spritz the image using the Color Spritzer Tool and the Midnight Muse Stampin’ Write marker.

Trim the image and adhere to a piece of Early Espresso cardstock and again onto a piece of Midnight Muse cardstock.

Emboss a piece of Crushed Curry Designer Series Paper using the Big Shot™ and the Argyle Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folder (I used a piece of retired DSP from the Hostess Level I pack) and lightly sand using the Sanding Block.   Mount onto a piece of Early Espresso cardstock and again onto a piece of Midnight Muse cardstock.

Adhere the entire panel onto a Whisper White card base and add a Tea Lace Paper Doily (cut in half).  Add the focal image and sentiment using Stampin’ Dimensionals®.  Adhere the ½” Midnight Muse Stitched Satin Ribbon double bow along with the Pearls to finish off the card.

Stamp Sets:  Evergreen, Notable Notions, Petite Pairs

Ink:  Stampin’ Write Markers- Crushed Curry, Midnight Muse, Early Espresso

Paper:  Whisper White, Early Espresso, Midnight Muse, Crushed Curry Designer Series Paper

Accessories: Big Shot™, Argyle Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folder. 1 3/8” Circle Punch, Tea Lace Paper Doily, Pearls, ½” Midnight Muse Stitched Satin Ribbon, Acrylic Block, Color Spritzer Tool (retired)

Thanks again for stopping by- I hope all of you have a fabulous Monday!!

CQC159 Always Thankful- A More Masculine Card

Hi Stampers!

What another wonderful fall week here on the East Coast!!  After a long week at work, I finally had a chance to spend some time creating a card for this week’s CQC159 ColourQ Challenge.  If you have not had the chance, check out the Design Team samples as well as the other entries- terrific examples of how one set of colors can be designed in so many different ways.

There are a lot of changes happening at my office (our company is relocating our office to a different state) and quite a few of us will not be making the long commute each day.  This week will be the last week for one co-worker- he is starting a new job next week and I struggled trying to locate a masculine card in my stash for him (I need to create more masculine cards)!!

I thought that this week's colors would be great for a masculine card so I chose to create a one to help fill in the gaps of my card "inventory" :-).

To create this card:

Using the “D” Acrylic Block, ink with Pear Pizzazz Classic Ink and stamp onto Whisper White cardstock.  Mask the white areas around the block stamped image using a sticky note or cardstock and stamp the feather images within the block image using Only Orange, Tangerine Tango and Pear Pizzazz Classic Ink.

Remove the masks and de-static the stamped images using the Embossing Buddy®.  Stamp the long feathers using Versamark™ ink and heat emboss with Basic Black Stampin’ Emboss® Embossing Powder. Trim around the edges cutting around the large feathers, attach the stamped sentiment below (layered onto an XL Oval Punch from Basic Black cardstock).  FYI- Originally I was trying to create a one layer card with this technique but I did I forgot to de-static the card when I stamped the sentiment, therefore I had to trim and layer- see now you know all of my secrets!! :-)

Close-Up of Collage (Acrylic Block Technique)

Use the Big Shot™ to emboss a piece of Whisper White cardstock with the Lacy Brocade Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folder and a piece of Basic Black cardstock using the Square Lattice Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folder.  Ink the interior smooth edge of the Lacy Brocade Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folder with Tangerine Tango Classic Ink and emboss a piece of Tangerine Tango Cardstock. 

Cut the Whisper White embossed piece with an Oval Framelit™ or Ovals Original™ Die and the Tangerine Tango embossed piece along the bottom edge with the Adorning Accents Edgelits™ Die (to mirror the oval in the sentiment and along the side).

Punch a circle from the scrap of the Tangerine Tango embossed panel using the 1 3/8” Circle Punch and assemble all of the panels onto a Whisper White cardstock layer (I split the Basic Black background layer for additional interest and added the strips of embossed Basic Black from the strip left from the "split").

Stamp Sets: Always Thankful, Soft As A Feather (both retired)

Ink: Versamark™, Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, retired Pear Pizzazz and Only Orange

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Tangerine Tango

Accessories:  Big Shot™, Lacy Brocade and Square Lattice Textured Impressions™ Embossing Folders, Adorning Accents Framelits™ Die, Sizzix™ Ovals Framelits™,  Heat Tool, Embossing Buddy®, Stampin’ Emboss® Basic Black Embossing Powder, Acrylic Block ‘D’,  XL Ovals and 1 3/8” Circle Punches

Thanks again for stopping by- I hope all of you have a wonderful week and find some time to relax and stamp!!