Inky Hands

Hey people! I spent the last two days working for Rubbernecker Stamps at a Loveland scrapbook show! What fun! Of course I am fried today, but it really was an experience that I will soon repeat. In fact, I'll be traveling to the Springs this weekend to be a demo again. Perhaps you have a need to get dirrrty with me.

I gotta say, I was not super pumped for the demo I ended up having to do. In fact, to me it was a real dog, but people seemed to think it was the best thing since sliced cheese. I sold alot of product, and I was using the crackled paints from Distress Inks, and the Tim Holtz products from Ranger. Never ever used them before, but they are fun!

So by Sunday, the first demo we were highlighting, sold out of product, so we had to come up with a new one. Cindy.... aka Mothermark... Yeah I know, I was working with a Splitcoast Celebrity! So exciting, and she is extremely funny! I think at one point we went to hold our hands up, and hers were black and mine were dark red...uck!

Back to the story, I decided I really needed to dress up my "dog", or should I say... "put some lipstick on my pig". I just couldn't make it another day making those ugly cards. So I went back to some of Tim Holtz's techniques, found at timholtz.com, and found a layering technique that would highlight several products that don't move all that well. Honestly, we did such a good job the day before, we really needed to focus on some other things. Dave from Rubbernecker Stamps is such a wonderful and encouraging person, you just want to help him sell stuff.

Now many of us tend to layer layer layer with cardstock, so imagine coming up with a design with no layers but stamping, embossing, inking, misting, painting, daubing, blending etc. Nothing else. NO Paper layers. It's hard! But the products were fun to work with, and I think by the end of the day we all had some success selling our products.

I know that MotherMark, as I will refer to her, didn't really dig her demo either, she thought it was a little ugly, but it was Halloween, and I thought it looked great. Maybe we are all a little too critical of our work? Ya think? It sure was fun, lots of laughs, and sore aching feet by the end of the weekend. So now I am off to play with some of the goodies I received! Post a card later. Big Ups to my chica's Madeline, and Cindy/MotherMark! It was fun!

Card fun

I love that new sneak peek set, and found a way to create a stamp from the petal cutout on the card. I used a scrap piece of rubber, and traced the petal onto it, and cut it out.

I then stamped the flower and cut it out. Once I cut it out, I flipped it over and then punched the center flower with a Martha Stewart punch. I sponged around the edges to add a little color, but I really like how the simple flower and layers turned out.

I also double stamped the Dreams sentiment, first in the sweet blush then I stamped off once and stamped over the top with the Berry Sorbet, both from Papertreyink. I added the dazzling diamonds by going over the sentiment with a 2way glue stick.

Hope you like it!

Another one, same challenge

That's right, two in one week, same day for that matter. This card was pure fun! Bright, cheery and easy. I used a Cuttlebug to emboss the bottom part of the paper, but stamped the images first. I used some dazzling diamonds on the bird, and also the rock and roll technique for the variations of the color. For the orange, I stamped off twice, and then rock and rolled the edges for more color on the rim.

I used crystal effects to get some shine on the orange segments, and used my trusty blender pen for some shading on the leaves and the segments. I like this challenge. I find it one less decision to make, and quite frankly, I am on decision overload, so this was great! Check out some other cool cards at splitcoaststampers.com, great site for stampers.

I'm BACK

Yeah,

That's it, I am back! I love cards, and I have missed it. Last year, not so great, this year...magic. So I have been playing on Splitcoaststampers challenges this week, and this is what I have come up with. So fun.

This was from the limited supplies challenge, use only white and one color. It's actually easier than it sounds. I got this idea off of March Pottery Barn Catalog. It's gawgeous! A yellow quilt with this leaf image, and a beautiful yellow linen pillow with a simple flap and a wood button. It is so refreshing! In this time of snow and muck and cold, I find it uplifting.

I used a blender pen dipped in the stamp pad to make stitch marks, but I would have preferred a marker. It works though, so no complaints. I popped the button up with a dimensional, and then roughed the edges to make it look fabric. I added the silver hodge podge detail in the middle, don't you just love that stuff?

I used a crease from my bone folder to make it look like a seam on the yellow cardstock, and then went back through the crease with a blender pen to add stitching detail. Enjoy!

Been a month YIKES!

Yes it has been nearly a month since I posted anything... what a drag! But today is a new day and I have lots to post. Here is a Christmas card I am working on for mass mailing. It's a bit detailed, and as usual I am over ambitious, so need to scale it back. I did have fun making it, and playing around with some of the embossing stuff to get some texture.

This card was inspired by AKJUDA at Splitcoaststampers! Here is her nice card:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/635636

I really love these classic colors for Christmas....of course Certainly Celery is included....obviously! I got the swirl thing from a junk email I received over the weekend, I think it just adds something fun to the card.

I started by stamping my image on white cardstock from Papertreyink, then coloring it in with markers and blender pens. Blender pens are great if you aren't wanting lots of hardcore color in one blop! I used my 2 way glue to adhere the white embossing to it, and that made the stuff crackle and thick. I then went back in after heatsetting it and used a thick clear embossing powder to add some dimension to the snowman, and although it didn't work out like I wanted to, it did adhere to the white embossing powder, and melted together, giving the little cap some streaks and gloss. I did the same on the scarf.

The background was stamped by placing all 3 snowflake stamps on an acrylic stamp pad, and stamping the background by dipping in the celery ink, then the versamark. I have an extra pad just for this purpose because it tends to leave the ink on the pad. I embossed it in thick embossing powder to give some "wetness" to the snowflakes. I went back in with the Merry and Bright snowflake background stamp, and lightly stamped the background, you know stamp on stamp off, then on your paper!

The red scallop tag was stamped in Papertreyink Borders and Corners Circle loopy stamp in white, then dazzling diamonds added. After I mounted the snowman to the scallop circle, I went back with the stitched circle from Papertreyink to add some more texture. You could make it easier on yourself by putting that detail on before you punched it out... but hey I don't think that far ahead sometimes.

Wrapped it in celery ribbon, and then attached the circle with some of that new stretchy silver cord from SU. Have fun making your own card! I sure did.

Life happens!

What can I say, Life got in the way, and I have not even had an inkling...hee hee, to get to this blog. I literally have fallen off of the earth. One thing I am thankful for is my family! Our family has been to heck and back, and if my Sisters, Dad and Brother-in-law had not been there in our darkest times, I don't know what I would have done.

With that said, my favorite sister asked me to make her some cards for a Theater production she was helping to create costumes for. She is UBER talented, and makes some amazing things from fabric. These cards were for cast members she had designed for, to wish them luck.... or as they say in the theater.. Break a Leg! The production is a spoof on Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, so the look she was going for needed to fit that.

The layout and inspiration for this card came from Nichole Heady, and her super cute ( does she do anything bad???) bag design on the front page of Paper Craft magazine. I stamped the background image first, then printed the Break A Leg sentiment on cardstock. I stamped it with Borders and Corners and then punched it out with a Marvy Giga punch. I found a coordinating Nestabilities to add some depth to the card and a little punch. I love the little bling, and the soft velvet, it just feels so Dickens to me.

When my sister was here, she slipcovered a chair AND an ottoman out of fabrics I have been hoarding. How amazing is that... and it's sooooo CUTE! LOVE IT!

One piece I had leftover was a red ticking stripe, and it just looked so cute with this card. Since she only wanted to write a quick note on the flipside, she didn't need a full card, so I decided to stich the outside border of the card in red, so that when you flip it over it has a red stiched border to write a note in.

I hope she likes it..... she means the world to me! SISTAH!!!

The never ending card!

Okay, so it's been ions since I have crafted a card, and you can tell! Ha ha! I have been so busy with work and kids and activities, that I can't find a spare moment. That said, I finally found a few HOURS to make ONE card....how sad is that! Seems like the longer you stay away from this stuff, the longer it takes to make one....you want to make it perfect, AND use all your cool stuff!

So this card I wanted a Halloween card, and I had been thinking about this for awhile. I like the idea of interjecting the turquoise into this color scheme, it just makes it different.

So I started with my Cuttlebug and my Spellbinders Nestabilities. I embossed the center of the card. I used a pre-cut and scored cardstock from Papertreyink, and it just turned out so nice with little effort. Those Nestabilities are awesome, and if you don't have any, I would encourage you trying one set. They seem to fill in where the punches leave off, plus I LOVE the embossing capabilities.

I then cut a piece of computer paper out to a 4.25 x 5.5 piece, and then ran it through the Cuttlebug with the Nestabilities to remove the center rectangle. I used that to MASK off the area that I didn't want my Cheesecloth Stamp to print on.

Once that was done, I painted the outside of the embossed frame with my Certainly Celery marker, and then lightly ran my Versamark Marker over it and embossed it with Silver. I didn't want a heavy coat of the Silver Embossing because I wanted to see the green underneath.

I stamped the witch in White Craft on Black paper first, and cut it out. I didn't really define the edges that much, I really just left it more as a outline of the image. Then I stamped the Witch again, and colored it in. That's when it happened.... I went Silver Stickles crazy.... eeeeek!

I needed some bling, so I just added it where it fit. I also used a white gel pen in her eyes, and dress, and broom just to jazz it up a bit and give some more dimension. I cut out the image, this time paying closer attention to the the image, and cutting more away. The idea was to create a shadow. I used StampinUp Dimensionals to give the depth to the two pieces.

Initially I had cut out and embossed the circular moon, but it just didn't look right, so I used my StampinUp punch 1 3/8 to cut the circle out, then used my Stampin Pastels to color the Moon! I blended 3 different colors to get the look. I used one of the sponge applicators to move the Silver Stickles around, I just wanted a little shimmer on the moon.

Before applying the witch and shadow and moon, I went back to my embossed cardstock and used the Stickles in the "ditch" of the embossed frame, to add some glitz, and also dimension. Stickles!

I then decided that some funky circles would be nice on the outside, so I pulled out my Green Thumb set from Papertreyink, and used several circles stamped around the edges. I didn't want the interior stamped, so I just used a scrap to cover and mask the interior of the square when I got close to the edge, and that worked out okay. It still needed something else, so I went back in with the circular piece from PRICELESS from StampinUp. Yet it STILL needed something.... wait for it.... wait for it... YES! STICKLES! See what I mean about that never ending card thing?! So I just went back again, and filled in the circles with some Silver Stickles.

I then cut a rectangle piece with my Marvy Super punch, and stamped "spooky" on a piece of white cardstock. I have always thought that "ransom note" look would be fun to try, so here is my attempt. I just used markers to color where I wanted, stamped the image from the Papertreyink set, and then cut it apart. I used some black eyelets to attach the ribbon to the tag, and attached it to the card. I guess you could say it's "spooky" with all that SticKles! haha. Enjoy, I sure did while I was making it. Man I need to get back in the cave and be creative!