STAMPlorations inspiration #49

I've caught the paint-your-own-watercolor-striped-background bug that seems to be going around. I mean, stripes... they're the next best thing to polka dots, right?

So for my inspiration project for STAMPlorations I've done that. And then I decided to create a wheelbarrow full of posiesinsettias. How did I do? Can this pass for a Christmas card?

I stamped the image from Friends and Flowers in Antique Linen Distress Ink on watercolor paper then colored the blooms with coral and red Zig Clean Color Brush Pens. For the leaves I chose dark green. I made the edges of the blooms less round and more jagged. I'm callin' 'em poinsettias!

Since it might have been the spark that caused my wheelbarrow of poinsettias, I thought I'd share with you a blast from the past (2007) when my kiddies were still so sweet and had their fun decorating cutout cookies... Actually DD still helps me every year.  Anyhoo, notice the poinsettias on the corner of the island? My standard decoration every year. I glued pine cones around the outside of a plastic bowl and then I buy 3 mini poinsettias to set in it. You get the "abundance of poinsettias" look for cheap. Just sayin'.

Can you see the touches of golden shine - the heat embossed sentiment from Sentiment Builders: Christmas and New Year, the bloom centers and the strip of washi at the bottom of the watercolored panel? I even put some gold watercolor over the top of the wheelbarrow but it doesn't show in the photo.

I'm hooking up at Addicted to Stamps and More where it's Make your Mark this time and Simon Says Stamp where the Work it Wednesday for November is about Christmas. And where the Wednesday challenge is Anything Goes.

giving thanks mini blog hop

Hello and welcome to a mini blog hop several of us STAMPlorations girls are doing today!

It's definitely that time of the year. We just had our big turkey dinner on Sunday so now I'm in the middle of eating up leftovers. And you can't have missed all the "thanks" and "Thanksgiving" challenges happening in blogland. Well here's my contribution.

Do you get a table/tablecloth/place setting feel? Cuz that was my goal. See the lovely gold touches?

I must tell you, this card was actually a byproduct of another project. The SSS Giving Thanks die came to live at my house last year. Well it earned its keep, being the star of this year's place cards. You can check them out in this post.

So I took one of the leftover negative images and used it as a stencil to ink up my "tablecloth" on this card. I inked the area a bit smaller than the die originally is, to accommodate my 4x4 pattern of wonky squares from Vignette: Retro Mod Shapes. I used Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmelade and Ripe Persimmon Distress Inks to sponge the BG. I stamped the squares with SSS Audrey Blue and Khaki. Then highlighted a few with Delicata Gold.

I gold embossed the place setting from Vignette: Eat Drink Be Merry onto CS and swiped Audrey Blue ink over it before cutting it into a square.

I gathered up the die cut letters to create "thanks", inked up the bottom half and adhered them. Bon appetit!

Hope you have time to head on over to STAMPlorations and check out the hop. If you comment on all the stops by Nov 27th you may win a stamp set of your choice. And there's a sale going on too. Happy Thanksgiving!

spotlight on glitter and embossing paste

Feeling the need for more sparkle and shine on your Christmas cards? I'm up with a Spotlight over at STAMPlorations using a stencil, embossing paste and glitter. Check it out here.

oh those colors. oh that texture.

Howdy friends! Have you seen the mood board over at Ellen Hutson's Pinsights Challenge?

How exquisite are those colors? Absolutely gorgeous. I had a technique in mind involving embossing powder so I was limited to colors I have, but this is what I came up with.

Stamped a few elements from STAMPlorations Mixed Media Elements on my creme cardbase. Laid down the ARTplorations Honeycomb Delight Reversed and applied clear embossing paste. Removed the stencil and sprinkled brown, copper and teal embossing powders onto the wet paste.

I hit it with a heat gun which caused the powder AND paste to melt a bit leaving a nice bumpy texture. Perfect since I'm playing at the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge where it's about Texture this month.

Then I die cut words from Essentials by Ellen Merry and Bright from woodgrain and glitter papers and used the positive of "be" and the negative of "happy" layered onto a swatch of vellum for my sentiment. Inside reads "it's your birthday". 

Cool colors. Lotsa texture. Another card for the guy stash! Thanks for visiting today.

I'm also joining in at Ingrid's Mixed Media World  for challenge #9 "Anything Goes".

STAMPlorations inspiration #48

Oh my. Pinks and reds and oranges and watercolors... and PartyGirl. Oh my!

Yep, it's inspiration time at STAMPlorations again and once again I found my inspiration for using Folk Flowers on my Pinterest board. Can you say "Margaret Berg"?

Image Source: Margaret Berg

Gathered up my Distress Inks in Festive Berries, Worn Lipstick, Barn Door and Picked Raspberry. And a mini mister with water. Inked up the reverse of several blooms and spritzed them before stamping around the border of my panel (which I had given a yellow and orange watercolor wash prior). Then I added the outlines of some of the blooms as well as several stems and dot clusters in black.

Then I masked the blooms and stamped PartyGirl. Gave her dress a light wash of pink and some Wink of Stella and her hair a wash of brown. My sentiment is from Blooming Buds. A strip of PP and a black cardbase finished off my project. Oh, and three tiny blooms from gold glitter CS from this punch.

Kinda crazy, but kinda cool. And since I've used stamps (even fronts and backs of stamps) I'm hooking up at Craft Stamper Take it Make it November challenge.

And at a new-to-me ARTastic November Challenge which I discovered while perusing Paper Playful.

Thanks for visiting. Please check out what my teamies created and join us at the Inspiration Playground. It's open until December 5th.

giving thanks for easy peasy place cards

Thanks to my enabler, Virginia L,  the SSS Giving Thanks die came to live at my house last year after this card knocked my socks off.

Every year I get so excited about some decorating idea I've seen in a magazine and dream of making it happen for my Thanksgiving dinner. And then, suddenly, it's the week before (we celebrate it with friends on a Sunday since it's not a German holiday) and the reality of shopping and cleaning and baking hits and those dreams fly out the window.

Just in case you are a better planner and have time, here's what I'd hoped to do this year for place cards. Here's what I did.

There are 14 in total, but here are two of my favorites.

After die cutting, I white heat embossed a leaf with text from STAMPlorations Trendy Leaves. Then I smooshed watered-down Distress Inks onto them and let them dry. Scored each one an inch from the bottom so that it would stand nicely and added PC-generated names.

I chose Colour Me's #97 red and olive for inspiration although I used some oranges and yellows on some too.

And I'm hooking up at the Let me Espresso my Gratitude (how great is that name, eh?) challenge at Paper Issues, the November Anything Goes at WOW Embossing Powder and Thanks/Thankful at SSS Monday Challenge too.

Turkey smells just about done. DH is slicing ham. The sun is shining. I'm a happy hostess. If you're in the middle of Thanksgiving prep, may everything go as you planned! Enjoy.

simply create too 99 and goodbye

It's time for challenge #99 at Simply Create Too. Our theme this fortnight is "Snow/Use mostly White". And my card was inspired by both!

I just love the little houses and trees from the Essentials by Ellen Home Hearth die. So I built a snowy little scene with them on a Stitched Rectangle panel.  I backed it with a white panel, dry embossed with stars using a Sizzix Texturz plate.

Added a touch of ink to the die cuts, green on the trees, pink on the stars and gold on the rooftops. And then, my fave of the season, chunky glitter on the trees and along the MFT Snow Drifts.

Isn't it just so peaceful? I only hope there are nothing but peaceful nights around the world this holiday season. 

This is my last post with the lovely ladies over at Simply Create Too. What a great place to play "just for fun" with all types of projects. After two years, I am stepping down from the DT to make way for fresh new faces. Thanks for supporting me and the challenge! 

It would be great to see you over at Simply Create Too too!

I'm joining the Tic Tac Toe challenge at Live and Love Crafts with my card. Glitter, snow, star. Check.

Thanks for coming by today. Have a safe and healthy weekend.

mixing mediums for the MMCC

I've got another card for you for the Mixed Media Card Challenge. The theme this month is "Family" and I've got another special birthday in the family this month. This time it's my uncle. Meet his card.

Stamps and ink? Yessir. I just love those numbers from We R Memory Keepers. I've gotten so much use out of them! And the sentiment is one of my fave ever, from PTI Keep it Simple Birthday.

And mixed media?

TEXTURE - embossing paste, heat embossed "80" and sentiment, textured cardstock, even the die cut "uncle" from MFT Bright Lights Alpha
DIMENSION - raised focal panel, mirror cardstock hearts
TECHNIQUE - embossing paste through stencils, heat embossing

I pulled inspiration from the Sketch 254 and Color 33 challenges over at MFT.

And I'm joining the lovely ladies at Seize the Birthday for Anything Goes.

Appreciate your visit today.

STAMPlorations inspiration #47

There's a load of colorful, fun inspiration happening over at STAMPlorations today. Do check it out. I've done my part too. I made a shaker card for a little girl.

As inspiration I chose one of the many folk art photos that I'd pinned as ideas for using Shirley's Folk Flowers.

Image Source: JillMcDonald

And cuz the inspiration reminded me of a shaker card, I went with that. So I'm joining the Shaker Card fun at Challenge Up Your Life #27 too. Oh and since I've used Shirley's stamps here I am going to join the Craft Stamper Take it Make it November challenge too.

My Mom is always telling me she needs more birthday cards for kids, so this one's going to her stash.

I kept to the same design of blooms and vines and used softer colors. I used the fronts and backs of the smallest flower and the small flower center to create my flowers. Used the front and back of the smallest leaf too, with lighter and darker green pigment inks.

And where's the bunny from, you ask? Take another look at the stamp set. See the center and right stamps in the top row. Stamped them in antique linen onto CS lightly inked with Spun Sugar DI and then colored with Copics and added eyes and a nose. Ta da! Bunny!

I swiped pink ink onto CS and used Avery Elle Build a Banner die. Heat embossed a sentiment from Party Time onto it. Layered a PP banner behind it too cuz I really liked the washi holding the sentiment label in the inspiration photo and wanted to mimic it.

Hope you're not sick of this stamp set yet. I've got more for you. Be sure to check out the Inspiration #48 post for a kinda crazy card, also Pinterest-inspired ;)

Remember, we'd love to see you CASE our Inspiration Posts' cards, or this month's CASEplorations card and hook up to Inspiration Playground. There's a random winner every month and if you use STAMPlorations product you can hook up to the Never-ending Anything Goes challenge for a chance to win as well.

non-traditional Christmas colors

Here's a card for you using pink and green. Funny, pink and green was the color combo of the diehard preppies back in my days at Hillsdale College. Think pink cable knit sweater and green wide wale corduroys. It's a good thing not all fashion trends come back again...

Meet my card.

Made a cardbase from kraft CS and stamped dots (Technique Tuesday) as falling snow.  Cut the tree line die (Impression Obsession) twice from white and once from PP (Kaisercraft Silly Holiday).

Trimmed the trees from PP die cut and adhered them to one white die cut.  Trimmed trees off of the other white die cut and used it as my second snow slope.  Adhered washi to chipboard and die cut deer (Memory Box) from it.   TIP: This is a way to stretch your stash. And washi tape prints are usually nice and small and therefore perfect for small die cuts.

Adhered slopes and deer and then a recycled vellum strip with a sentiment. TIP: Sentiments are a great thing to recycle from your yearly supply of received Christmas cards. Voila! Non-traditional but still clearly holiday.

I'm playing at:

Merry Monday Christmas challenge # 179 and Christmas Card Challenge #49 where it's Anything Goes.

a christmas tag

Or is it an ornament? I stamped the front and back sides so if it twirls around when hanging on a package (or a tree) it looks good too ;)

I die cut a wreath twice from creme CS with a 4" MFT Circle Stax. Stamped with a tweed pattern from WMS Heirloom Patterns and Amuse Latte pigment ink, masking with a Post It each time to create effect of ribbon wrapped around the wreath (cuz that's how I make wreaths!). Glued front and back together and attached a crochet thread hanger loop.

Heat embossed the poinsettia from WMS Big Blooms Poinsettia twice onto some red/pink tiger print vellum and fussy cut. Trimmed away some petals from one and layered the flower. Added Stickles to flower center and glued it onto the wreath. Trimmed burlap ribbon and formed a bow.  Wrapped the bow with crochet thread and glued it onto the wreath. Voila!

You've probably seen the two Christmas tag events happening in blogland as we speak. One is over at Loll's Twelve Tags of Christmas and it's about mixed media tags. I've got several mediums here (heat embossing, Stickles and burlap and twine in addition to stamps and ink). I was lucky to join Loll on day six.

But my design is kinda simple cuz I'm joining the fun at Tracey's 25 Days of Christmas Tags. She's putting on this huge event for the fifth time! I saw Tracey's ornament tag for Day 6 which reminded me that I have those ornament dies. And WMS stamps to use with them. But the poinsettia sidetracked me when I went to peruse my WMS stamps. And thus this decorated wreath (instead of a decorated ornament) was born! 

Have a great day. I appreciate your visit.

spotlight - emboss resist and acrylic paint

Take a gander over at STAMPlorations where I'm working with acrylic paint as a medium for the emboss resist technique.

And while you're there, you might want to check out the store...

Loll's mixed media christmas tag event

My subtitle to this post would be: "Um, Santa? He was just here..."

If you've arrived from day six at Stamping with Loll looking for my mixed media Christmas tag, you're in the right place. What an honor it is to be joining her lineup of tag makers for this event! If you're just here by chance, you must take a gander at the Mixed Media Christmas Tag Event happening over at Loll's place when you're done here. Talk about a sleighload of inspiration! Either way... welcome to the evolution of a mixed media tag!

I inked up a tag with DI and stamped a couple clouds then spritzed it with water/Perfect Pearls mix for a little shimmer. (I ended up adding even more Picked Raspberry up top for more contrast.)

Keeping the journey real here... I had thought I would make a stencil out of recycled cardboard (yes, the Oreos were yummy) with the IO Birch Trees die so I lined the trees up as I wanted them to be when I would apply texture paste.  But my spatial thinking skills stink and I hadn't realized I'd have to create my stencil with all the little negative pieces. Nixed that idea and die cut more trees and swiped gesso onto them. Twice.

And then added some interest to the tree bark using Pumice Stone DI and a Prima Crackle stamp (thanks, Loll!). Hit them with a heat tool to dry the ink.

Tore some snow banks from old dictionary and adhered them, roughing up the edges a bit. Notice I swiped the leftover gesso onto the snow banks to subdue the dictionary print a bit.

Die cut three Essentials by Ellen Laurel Wreaths to create my wreath and the Memory Box Holiday Hat. Chose a sentiment stamp from Technique Tuesday Holidays in a Box and heat embossed it on a snippet of black CS. Tested my layout before adhering the trees.

Don't you just love the puff paint on the fur of Santa's hat? And those gold glitter berries on the wreath? They came from the CC Designs Mistletoe die.

And my absolute favorite element of texture and dimension on this tag... the chunky glitter lining the snow banks! (Why didn't I buy the larger gold glitter too when I was at Hobby Lobby this summer?!?!?)

Here's the tag at the end of its journey. Often it seems my projects take on a life and story of their own as I go along. I knew I wanted this tag to be modern and playful. My "storyline" then evolved into Santa stopping by woods on a snowy evening. Doesn't it look like he just dropped his chalkboard and hat and stepped off-stage for a moment...

Long post, hope you stuck with it. I thought you might like to see the steps I took to create a mixed media project - one using stamps and ink and two additional elements adding texture and/or dimension.

TEXTURE: glitter, glitter CS, heat embossing, yarn
DIMENSION: torn dictionary pages, puff paint, die cuts

Have I inspired you to create a scene on a mixed media tag? If so, be sure to link up at Loll's challenge by November 22nd. There are wonderful prizes to be had ;) Thanks again to the uber-talented Loll for having me.

ETA: Had to join the Tag fun over at the new Happy Little Stampers mixed media challenge. And I'm hooking up at the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge where it's about Texture.