STAMPlorations inspiration #9

What up with that, you ask? Just blame Keisha C., enabler. I saw this card and immediately put the MFT jumbo dot cover plate (and sweater BG stamp) on my wish list. OK, I digress.

So I test drove the cover plate and had the piece out on my workspace. And I was making a flurry of cards with The Bee's Knees: Newlyweds. And somehow that led to this idea of busyness and buzz surrounding a wedding couple on their big day. You know the little tidbits of conversation you catch here and there throughout the day?

Meet the perfect couple. The one the "buzz" is all about.

It did seem a bit odd to me to hide the couple behind the dots, but I figured the strong sentiment (spoken by guests just out of sight around the corner, ya know?) compensated. I pieced it together using words from Sentiment Builders: Love on PTI Bubble Talk die cuts.

I played around a bit deciding where to place the couple. The strip of washi along the bottom of the cardbase gave them something to stand on. Like that tiny heart down in the bottom corner? That was a byproduct of die cutting :)

So, have you joined the Inspiration CASE Playground over at STAMPlorations yet this month? You still have time - the Playground is open until April 5th. All you need to do is CASE one of the DT's cards from the March Inspiration Project Posts (like my card today) and hook up. A random winner will receive a $15 GC or choice of two ARTplorations stencils.

STAMPlorations inspiration #8

It's inspiration time over at STAMPlorations today. I've pulled out one of the oldies but goodies from the Subway Art series, Mom Subway Art Builders #5 for a Mother's Day card. Or just to let Mom know she's a great lady. I, for one, am still working on the "unconditional love" thing.

Dang, it ain't easy!

I used a spray of posies from Basic Grey in the BG, but the beautiful rose bud from Blossom Overture would look great peeking out from behind the tags too!

I revisited a technique and design you might remember from teamie Vicki's birthday card! Stamped the posies in SSS Stone on the creme cardbase and the sentiment on the tag die cut with a MFT tag STAX die.

I applied yellow, orange and blue gelatos to a second die cut tag, swiped them with a baby wipe and then dry embossed the tag with a Cuttlebug polka dot folder. Adhered it peeking out a bit behind the sentiment tag. Added a strip of envelope liner along the bottom of the card. A few MME enamel dots as flower centers finished it off.

Remember, if you feel like CASEing this card, or any of the DT cards from March's Inspiration Project posts, hook your card up in the gallery here and you're in the running for a $15 GC or two stencils of your choice. The winner is chosen randomly.

bring on the tulips

A few challenges caught my eye and inspired me to create a card. And, well, these beautiful tulips adorning my dining room table - first batch I bought this year.

Three layers. I adhered the glossy remnant from a heart sticker pack to my cardbase and then stamped and inked randomly with Spun Sugar DI with the fabric-looking stamp from WPlus9 Sweet Nothings. Good thing about the glossy paper is that you can wipe the ink right off of it so that it only stays in the negative areas.

The next layer was a scrap of watercolor paper which had been sloshed through yellow, blue and pink Distress inks. I left it as it was with that "chunk" cut out of it. Tore the bottom edge. And white heat embossed some WPlus9 hearts randomly on it. See 'em through the vellum?

The top layer was what started the card. I heat embossed Sketched: Tulips from STAMPlorations and the WPlus9 sentiment onto vellum with pink embossing powder. Tore the edge. Added a strip of fabric washi and then stitched the panels onto the cardbase.

And voila!  And cuz I thought something was missing (the "chunk" - duh!), the tiny striped PP scrap and glitter heart were adhered on the corner of the cardbase.

These are the challenges which caught my eye:

WOW! Embossing Powder UK - Spring (Hello pink tulips!)

WPlus9 - Throwback Thursday #2 (pull out an old WPlus9 stamp and give it some love)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Pinterest Inspiration (Hello pink tulips!)

ETA: Late to the party, but I must join the Embossing fun at gracious Virginia's challenge #13:

And you still have a couple days to hook up at The Mixed Media Card Challenge #9 where the theme is "Spring" with the optional element of "Bird". Remember, it's all about stamps and ink with some texture, dimension and technique thrown in for good measure. Join us, won't you?

So this is what Lake Huron was looking like when I left it - notice the open water? Mom tells me the melt is continuing. Yay! Let's hear it for Spring before July 4th in the Midwest too.

return of the wonky cake

Wanted to share a card with you, very similar to this one. Seems to be the year for DD's friends to be hitting the magical sweet 16.

Stuck with the pink and orange color combo, multi-inking the STAMPlorations Birthday Cake stamp for the BG. Heat embossed the sentiments (Technique Tuesday and the numerals from We R Memory Keepers) on pink CS.

Added a layer of vellum and some sequins strung on metallic gold thread too.

Playing at:
A Blog named Hero where it's Bright and Bold  this time around.

The Card Concept #31 where it's about (cup)cakes! I've created a freestyle collage design.

Seize the Birthday where the focus is on the sentiment.

I'm pretty much over jet lag and can see the pinnacle of Mt. Laundry on my laundry/craft room floor (our washing machine went kaputt while I was in Michigan!) so I'm hoping the creative juices will get to flowing normally soon. Thanks for coming by today.

FYI, Here's the view that greeted me at 6 a.m. on my first day at my parents'. Whether reflecting off open water or jagged pieces of ice, the morning sun creates diamonds on the lake...

STAMPlorations inspiration #7

Another inspiration project for you today using The Bee's Knees: Houses from STAMPlorations. You may recall this card from awhile back.

Today's card was actually the first design that came to my mind when I decided to mask and stamp a village. And the idea for a baby card originated when I saw the words "special" and "delivery" in the Joyful Christmas stamp set! All I needed was a die cut stork. Thanks to Little B dies, that problem was solved.

Yep, Welcome to the neighborhood, baby! Thanks for looking. Feel free to CASE this card and hook up your creation at the March Inspiration CASE Playground!

The stork is also resting over at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge where it's all about Things that Fly!

simply create too 81

It's all about "Easter or Bunnies" over at Simply Create Too this time around. I went Easter with this cute Chick Stack from Stamping Bella.

I started by trimming a panel from watercolor paper and watercoloring with yellow and green. When dry, I stamped three different sizes of eggs with white pigment ink to achieve a bokeh look. TIP: You get an even better bokeh effect by sponging white pigment ink through a stencil. But I wanted to use the egg shape so I used the reverse of clear stamps.

Then I temporarily adhered the panel to the card front and die cut the oval. Stamped chicks on the inside of card (with sentiment) peeking through aperture. Tied a bow with crochet thread and adhered it.

How about getting a jump start on your Easter cards? Simply create, too, and join us. Thanks for visiting today.

STAMPlorations stencil blog hop day 3

Hope you've enjoyed the STAMPlorations DT's work with stencils this week. I've got the last in my trio of 20x20cm canvasses I made as thank you presents for my cousin's kids. Today's is for the 12-year old gal whose new room looks like this.

I took my inspiration from the colors (blues, green and brown) and circles.

First I watercolored a piece of watercolor paper with Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Shabby Shutters, Tea Dye and Gathered Twigs. Splattered some turquoise Glimmer Mist onto it too. Let it dry then punched circles in various sizes.

For the canvas I started with the Bold Florals stencil from ARTplorations and some turquoise and blue paint. Notice how I carefully placed the stencil to only place a few blooms on my background. BTW, I use a sponge brush for this. You can see it in the upper left corner of the photo.

Then I played with the punched circles, deciding where to glue them down. Used Matte Medium to adhere them.

I covered the Tim Holtz grungeboard A with some old K and Co. PP (used a glue stick, brayered over it and then trimmed around the grungeboard with a craft knife). The Prima paper flowers with gem centers were strategically placed. To cover two creases which happened when I not-so-cleverly ran the A through my Big Shot! I also inked the edges of the alpha with brown to cover the grungeboard edge and define the letter better.

So it ended up looking more "tropical" than "circle-y", but I hope she likes it.

Hope you enjoyed the hop. I appreciate your stopping by. Have a great rest of the week.

STAMPlorations stencil blog hop day 2

Welcome to day 2 of the STAMPlorations stencil hop. Today I've got a 20x20cm canvas for an eight-year-old Yankee fan. Ready?

Start by masking stripes on the canvas. Then paint the exposed areas with black paint.

Remove the masking tape and voila! Lookin' like a Yankee's uniform yet? OK, so you have to cock your head.

Adhere navy cardstock to chipboard and apply textured embossing paste through the ARTplorations Oh My Stars stencil to the panel. Don't ya just love the random pattern of those stars? While it's drying, paint the edges of the canvas navy blue. Then apply a coat of varnish to protect it.

Paint a Tim Holtz grungeboard D orange and doodle some stitching in red around its edges. Adhere everything with dimensional adhesive (which I gave an extra shot of Matte Medium to be sure it stays adhered forever) for some depth and voila! If you know your baseball, notice how I got a nod to the Detroit Tigers in there too ;) These canvasses are going to my cousin's kids. She and her family just moved back to lovely Michigan from South Carolina!

Thanks for looking today. Come back tomorrow for canvas #3.

STAMPlorations stencil blog hop day 1

I'm certain you've seen the new line of STAMPlorations stencils in use on cards already. This three day hop came along at the perfect time for me. I'm actually in Michigan visiting family and made three canvasses using my stencils to take with me. The first is for the five-year-old girl. Whose room is full of pink and orange and flowers and peace signs ;)

I had seen this alphabet wall art for a kid's room and decided to run with that idea but using flower images instead of ABCs. First I roughly pencilled in my squares, then painted them with acrylic paint. I painted one square with the full color, then added some white to it to paint the lighter tone square.

Used the Clouds, Bold Florals, Hello and Company (lips) and Oh My Stars stencils from ARTplorations! The two floral images on the bottom row are from MFT Wildflowers stencil.

The L is OLD Tim Holtz grungeboard painted white. The butterflies are die cut from OLD PP with Clearly Besotted's Butterfly Wishes. The chipboard tulip and posie are OLD. Just painted them red. Darnell K., you should be proud of me ;)

TIP: To make polka dots, use the eraser of a new pencil.

You can't see it, but the L has a coat of glitter on it and I sprinkled a tiny bit of glitter all over the canvas before spraying it with a coat of varnish. Figured that would be right up the five-year-old's alley ;)

Enjoy the hop. Come back tomorrow for canvas #2 for an eight-year-old fella.

idea for dad

Back today to share an idea for a guy. If you skipped the "sick" part, it could even be for Father's Day.

Started with a panel of woodgrain paper. Adhered a strip of foil tape to scrap and dry embossed it. Heat embossed the tools. Printed the secondary sentiment onto yellow paper, added die cut letters and adhered adding two brads at the top. Wrapped a strip of PP (measuring tape) around the seam and adhered the panel to a cardbase.

PP: woodgrain Bringmann, tape WeRMemory Keepers, stamps Jane's Doodles, brads Basic Grey, font Hollywood Hills, embossing plate Cuttlebug, alpha die Memory Box.

This card appeared in the Cool Tools issue of Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking.

Thanks for stopping by. Heads up - I'll be back at the weekend showcasing mixed media projects made with ARTplorations stencils from STAMPlorations!

idea for mom

Sharing a published card with you today. Maybe for Mother's Day. Maybe just to say thanks.

Relied on PP for this one. The stripes are from Plus One by Amy Tangerine 12x12 and the floral for the die cut from Studio Calico Print Shop. The thanks die is Savvy and the Mom stamp STAMPlorations. A stream of heart confetti finished it off.

This was to be published in the May 2015 issue of Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking. Oh well.

Mixed Media Card Challenge #9

Spring has sprung. Not. But we're wishing for it at The Mixed Media Card Challenge #9 for March! This month's theme is "Hints of Spring" with the optional element of "Bird".

I went "butterfly". Cuz these wonderful Tim Holtz Easter Blueprint stamps were in my NBUS basket waiting to be inked up.

So what's mixed media about this card? Well, I've got stamps and inks. And...

TEXTURE - heat embossed butterfly, embossing paste through a stencil
DIMENSION - distressed and curled edges
TECHNIQUE - ink and paste through stencils

Here's another view of the wonderful dimension of the wonky layers.

Products used: 

stamps: Aha Arts (Border and Pattern, Flower Set), Tim Holtz Easter Blueprint

ink: brown Memento, yellow Adirondack, pink Aladine, Versamark

paper: polka dot Basic Grey, vellum Ursus

stencils: ARTplorations (Bubbles and Hello and Company), Crafters Workshop (Mini Spotted)

Mixed media and Spring. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Join us -the challenge is open until March 25th.

CASEplorations march

It's the first of the month so time once again for a dose of CASEplorations from the STAMPlorations Inspiration DT. This month we have CASEd the one and only Loll Thompson of Stamping with Loll - a worker of wonders with stencils and white space. This is the gorgeous card of Loll's which we are CASEing.

source: Loll Thompson

Hang on to your hats. Here is my CASE.

Whaaaaaat? you ask. Well, take another look at Loll's card. It's got red, gold, green and white and black. It's got embossing paste. It's got circles and a gold die cut. It's got candles and leaves. So does my card :)

I stamped the cake from STAMPlorations Sketched: Birthday Cake in red. Watercolored some of the frosting red. Used a Sharpie to color the candles red and the flames yellow (plus gave them a Wink of Stella too). Die cut the wreath (Poppystamps Chocitlan Wreath) from gold CS and adhered it. Stamped the sentiment (PTI Keep it Simple: Birthday) and the wonky dots (Aha Arts Geometric Borders). Then I used an old Pink Paislee stencil and white embossing paste slightly overlapping the green dots.

I'm callin' it a CASE! Hope you agree. And I hope you will join us. CASE any DT card from the Inspiration posts during March and link it up on the CASEplorations Playground. You could be the random winner of a $15 GC!