guest designing at muse: ChristmasVisions

Welcome, friends! Today I have the honor of playing the role of the muse over at Muse: ChristmasVisions. Inspired by the logo above and the desire to use red and green (my all-time favorite Christmas colors), this is the card I created.

I pulled out some Basic Grey PP and sponged red and green Avery Elle pigment inks through the ARTplorations Christmas Trees stencil.  TIP: Use scrap paper snippets to protect the areas around the circle you are sponging from stray ink ;)

When done inking, I applied gold metallic embossing paste through a couple circles to add dimension and shine to this geometic card.

The final touches included a stem (STAMPlorations Retro Mod Shapes), a star atop the tree (STAMPlorations Art Marks) and a repeat-stamped sentiment (Winnie & Walter Comfort and Joy), all in brown ink.

Would love to see your interpretation of my card over in the Muse: ChristmasVisions gallery. And an added bonus - your card stash for Christmas 2016 will have grown too!

I'm stopping by at Winnie & Walter Join in to Win too.

STAMPlorations inspiration #68

Stopping in quickly today with another watercolored oriole. But I'm calling him a Rosella (right Jenny M.R.?) Not rainbowed. But with some Picked Raspberry ;)

Pulled out this oriole again (a larger version of the one in The Birds and The Blooms) and watercolored him. Added a sentiment from Sentiment Builders: Love.

Even gave the BG some special attention with dry embossing.

Needing some post-Easter mojo jumpstarting? Check out the rest of the inspiration over at STAMPlorations.

I'm joining the Water fun at Happy Little Stampers.

And it's Anything Goes over at Addicted to Stamps and More.

winnie walter leading lady - take four - metallics

It's already Easter! Time flies when you're having fun! And boy did I have fun playing with my w&w goodies. I appreciate your stopping by on this holiday weekend for Take Four of my Leading Lady stint at w&w.

I'm wrapping up my gig today with trendy METALLICS.

So. Gold. I don't think you could have missed this trend, thank you iPhone. Just when you thought gold might be going out of style in the cardmaking world, gold foiling hit the market and now metallics of all colors are all over the place. A touch of metallic sure gives a card pep. Let's take a look at some metallic options.

I sneaked a couple cards using gold foiled PP into Take Three. Did you see them? Well, I personally like metallics in stripe form, so I went about creating my own rose gold (thank you iPhone) stripes using recycled Schokokuss packaging to make this banner for my daughter's room. I missed her while she was on a ski trip :)

I die cut the circles using the solid and faceted dies from True Multifaceted Circle. I left some of the facets in and backed the faceted circles with a circle of pink watercolor washed CS. Added punched circles of vellum and die cut woodgrain letters using MFT By the Letters to the circles too.

To assemble the banner I first die cut five solid circles from white CS. I temporarily adhered them to a few sheets of printer paper, spaced out like I wanted them to be on my banner. It's about 50cm long. Then I stitched straight through them all, stitching them to the scrap paper (sounds weird I know - just wait). When done, I flipped it all over and carefully tore the scrap paper off of the stitched circles, leaving the white circles strung on a nice stitched line of thread. You can pull the thin paper up pretty easily right along the stitching. Then I adhered my pretty pieces to the white circles using Matte Medium. TIP: Stitch through the circles a little higher than the middle to ensure there will be more weight on the bottom to keep the circles facing the front. Ask me how I know ;)

Moving on. Another great way to get a touch of metallic onto a project is with those shiny little pieces of plastic we've come to know and love. Sequins. And why not use lots of them from Lucy's Winnie's Sparkly Shaker Selection mix. And pair them up with shimmer cardstock, gold washi and gold ink spray?

Meet Card #1

The Flawless Diamond Cutaways lends itself perfectly to shaker making. I cut it from aqua shimmer CS, cut the solid out of a Neenah white panel and added a smooshed-with-Distress-Inks-and-splattered-with-Heidi-Swapp-Color-Shine background piece behind it. My sentiment is from My Precious which complements the faceted dies perfectly. Just look at all that metallic goodness trapped in that gem! Even tiny little clear stars - how lovely!

Card #2

Another oldie, but goodie for adding a metallic touch to a project is Perfect Pearls. With this faux metal technique (a la Jennifer M.) you brush them onto a Distress Inked area while it is still damp. I inked the masked area with Evergreen Bough and Cracked Pistachio and used white Perfect Pearls. TIP: Use a water/Perfect Pearls mixture in a mini mister to lightly spray the finished area and set the Perfect Pearls.

When the panel was nearly dry I dry embossed it using Cover Model: Multifaceted which I had cut from a cereal box. Isn't this geometric design perfect for the faux metal look? To finish off my card I added an offset layered "wishes" cut from shimmer CS using The Big, The Bold and Party Cutaways. and a heat embossed sentiment from The Big, The Bold and Party.

Remember how I said I like a little touch of metallic on cards? Well get ready for metallic overload.

Meet Card #3

Yep. That was white CS. Applied metallic embossing paste through the Scenery:Pattern of the Rings stencil. Punched a circle out of scrap paper and used the negative as a stencil to sprinkle silver embossing powder onto the lower portion of each of the circles only while the paste was still wet. Let it dry and then hit it with my heat gun. Voila! How's that for sparkle and shine? And the texture is fabulous.

Couldn't cover up all that gorgeousness, so I added a heat embossed on vellum tree from Kindness over one stamped onto PP and fussy cut. The "hugs" is from The Big, The Bold and Friends. The secondary sentiment is one of the many wonderful options in Kindness.

Well, friends, that brings us to the end of this month of my Leading Lady gig! It sure was a pleasure to share my takes on WATERCOLOR, ILLUSTRATED, STRIPES and METALLICS with you. I hope you enjoyed it, too. Remember to leave a comment on all four of my Leading Lady posts to be in the running for this giveaway. Today I'd love to hear if you had a favorite project from my entire Leading Lady gig. I'll announce a winner on April 6th. And if you're celebrating, have a beautiful Easter!

cherry blossoms = spring!

If you've been around here for a couple years, you might remember this post. Well, that's what our yard looks like right now. I think Spring has sprung.

So when I saw the inspiration photo at The Paper Players, I knew which die was coming back out to play.

Memory Box Cherry Blossom. This time paired with some freehand-stamped branches and foliage thanks to Winnie & Walter Anna's Flora.

Did the BG stamping with gray ink. I die cut the blooms from some tissue paper I'd used for mopping up leftover smooshed Distress Ink. And the centers were cut from a Gelli print. Added a gold embossed sentiment from Mia's Stempelkueche Gruesse II.

I was also inspired by these challenges:
Inkspirational - Pink and Gray

The Card Concept - Naturally Pink

And I'm hooking up at Winnie & Walter's Join in to Win.

For those of you sick of snow, hope Spring has sprung in your neck o' the woods too! Thanks for visiting today.

ETA: Since 18,993 days ago I was in the process of being born, and since I consider many of you dear friends (thanks for the cards Cornelia, Darnell, Loll and Anita - GORGEOUS!), I'm having a giveaway. Just decided. Don't know what, but I'll choose a random winner from comments on this post and announce the winner on April 6th. Same day I announce the winner of the $30 W&W GC.

spotlight on ghosting

Check out my tutorial over at STAMPlorations to see how I created the background for this card using Distress Markers and the ghosting technique.

STAMPlorations inspiration #67

Been "rainbowed" yet? Makes me think of getting "booed" at Halloween. And it's what I'm calling what I've been playing with lately - watercoloring an outline image with rainbow colors. Maybe you saw this card. Or this cake.

Well I decided to pull out this oriole (which is just a larger version of the one in The Birds and The Blooms) and "rainbow" him.

Hmm, let's "imagine" he is as cool as the "rainbowed" wedding cake, OK? Trying to figure out why he's not ... besides my lack of watercoloring skills. The technique is definitely easier with a heat embossed image. And watercolor paper probably helps! The image might be kinda large too. I used Fossilized Amber and Shabby Shutters and probably should have used brighter yellow and green. I didn't use Picked Raspberry, and man, Picked Raspberry makes anything look good! And I probably should have left the inked areas alone instead of adding watercolor over them. (In case you're thinking of giving "rainbowing" a go.)

Anyhoo, I added a sentiment from Vignette Artful Flutters and some cork chevrons pointing the way to it. Oh and splatters. Lots of them. Had to use up the ink that was on my acrylic block palette ;)

You can see more inspiration from the DT here.

I'm hooking Mr. Rainbowed up at:
CAS Mix Up - Watercoloring (and I've got cork)

Curtain Call - Rainbow

A Blog Named Hero - Rainbow

winnie walter leading lady - take three - stripes

I'm so happy to be back for Take Three as Leading Lady over at Winnie & Walter and I'd like to take a moment to thank you all for your lovely comments. You've really made my day! Don't forget to leave a comment on this post too to have a chance at my $30 GC giveaway!

Today we're talking STRIPES.

I must admit I love 'em. And I must admit, they're not new. Stripes are classic actually. Maybe it's the three different variations of daughter's Breton shirts that I've been seeing every week in the laundry... but methinks stripes are "in" again. Just google "stripes fashion trend 2016". Wow. Big, bold, loud, flashy. Any way you like 'em apparently. Best of all mixed with something else!

Did you see Take Two where my theme was the ILLUSTRATED trend? Well these first two cards use a little of that, in the totally trendy "uncolored" style, but mixed with some big and bold stripes.

Card #1 and #2

So where did those stripes come from? I die cut the solid True Multifaceted Border from craft foam and inked it up with Squeezed Lemonade, Chipped Sapphire, Salty Ocean, Mermaid Lagoon, Broken China and Mowed Lawn Distress Inks, spritzing it with water before stamping. After scrubbing the leftover Chipped Sapphire off the foam before re-inking it, it dawned on me to spritz the leftover ink and stamp off on another piece of CS. And that's how Card #2 was born! TIP: Attach your die cut foam to an acrylic block with temporary adhesive. Distress Inks work well for a watercolor effect. Pigment inks work best for more thorough coverage.

Card #1 was finished off with a layered In a Word: Hello and a fussy cut tweetie bird and sentiment from So Tweet. I die cut the panel for Card #2 using Essentials: Audrey Cutaways and washi taped and stitched it onto my cardbase. Using So Tweet, I gave this birdie a fussy cut, heat embossed sentiment cloud over his head and some whimsical leaves from In Bloom: Maggie's Roses Cutaways, a fabulous set of dies thanks to its positives and negatives.

Card #3

On a whim I cut the faceted border from True Multifaceted Border from foam too. TIP: Add adhesive to your block and use it to pick up the die cut from cutting plate keeping all the pieces intact.

Thinking this geometric pattern might be good for a masculine card, I inked it up with olive dye ink and stamped it five times onto Neenah white cardstock. Trimmed the sides, stapled it to a kraft cardbase and added a layered In a Word: Hello. which I cut from an olive-inked CS scrap. Heat embossed a "happy" from The Big, The Bold and the Party onto it to add a touch of color. 

Continuing with the "stripes are good for masculine cards" line of thinking...

Card #4

... trimmed some strips of white CS, swiped yellow and rust ink pads over them and stamped secondary sentiments from Wishing You onto them. I heat embossed the main sentiment and three stars from the set in gold and adhered the strips with dimensional adhesive. Easy. And easy to change up the colors for a girly card too.

A design that always catches my eye is stripes paired with florals. Think Kate Spade. I decided to take some elegant gold foil striped PP (Pink Paislee and Me and my Big Ideas) and pair it with illustrated florals.

Card #5 and #6

Stamped floral images from In Bloom: Addie's Garden, Elsa's Flora and Anna's Flora in navy (Memento) and coral (Radiant Neon) pigment inks on white CS for Card #5. Cut In a Word: Hi and adhered it on a layer cut from foam. Card #6 was made by stamping the second generation images from Card #5 onto cream CS. The striped die cut was offset on a coral (Amuse) one. Do you make multiples when creating cards? I'm a slow crafter so it really helps me reduce the average time I need to make a card!

Whew! Stamping. Using patterned paper. I didn't even talk about painting watercolor stripes to create a background! So many ways to incorporate stripes into your cards. Hope I've inspired you to hit your craft room this weekend. Leave a comment on all four of my Leading Lady posts - today telling me what your current favorite trend in cardmaking is - and you'll be in the running for this.

Next Saturday I'll be exploring METALLICS in Take Four...

spring coffee lovers blog hop

Spring? Coffee? How about a latte lattes wrapped in spring rainbows?

Hope you can see my embossed cups pattern. I gave them a touch of watercolor using Distress Inks  and a two-tone sentiment from STAMPlorations Latte Love.

Thanks for visiting. Can't wait to see what others have made. I'm joining a few fun challenges in addition to the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

Mod Squad - The Rainbow Connection
CAS Mix Up - Watercolouring

Happy Little Stampers - Mixed Media - Water (+embossing+splatters+raised sentiment)

Curtain Call - Rainbow

A Blog Named Hero - Rainbow

MMCC #21 reminder

There is still plenty of time to join us at the Mixed Media Card Challenge where this month it's about

 A Gelli plate print came to my service. Surprised, right?

A few birds  and birdhouses from Artemio Birds and Cages a few white embossed trees from Winnie and Walter Kindness and a sentiment from Hero Arts Happy Hello. TIP: Archival Ink works well on acrylic paint surfaces like Gelli prints.

Join us for some mixed media trees and birds fun, won't you? The challenge is open until March 25. Thanks for visiting today.

I'm playing at:
Craft Stamper - TIMI March Anything Goes with stamping
Penny Black and More - Feature a Creature
Anything but Cute - Crazy for Colour (hope my card isn't too "cute")

STAMPlorations inspiration #66

More inspiration for you today over at STAMPlorations. This is my CAS contribution.

Some blooms from Folk Flowers, some masking, some hand-drawn stems, a strip of washi and some MFT Royal Leaves die cut from, yep, you guessed it, a Gelli print!

I used the reverse of the small stamps to add a spot of orange to the flower centers cuz I was inspired by the Rubber Dance March challenge:

I'm playing at SSS Wednesday Challenge too, where it's about A Bit O'Green.

Stop by the STAMPlorations blog for more inspiration from the rest of the team, and leave a comment to be in for a chance of winning a gift certificate.

lotsa die cuts

My Big Shot and I had some fun die cutting, yep, you guessed it, Gelli prints. I had this wonderful idea to use the leftovers from this card to create another CASE of Betsy V.'s card for the March CASEplorations since the colors were perfect for it.

When I was contemplating which flower die to use, Wild Garden came to mind so I popped by the CLASSroom to check out the Mix It Up Challenge. It's with Pretty Pink Posh and I just happen to have some great sequins from Paulina. So this card happened.

A gold embossed sentiment from STAMPlorations Noteworthy. A watercolor wash with my Gansai Tambis. Lotsa die cut blooms. Some stitching to accentuate the wreath look. And sequins.

See those wonderful sparkling sequins. Love the flat ones too, although they don't appear to be in the store anymore :(

Inspired by Jennifer M.'s New Year's resolution to make multiples of cards, I decided to choose a couple more challenges for variations on my design. So these happened.

Inspired by the March challenge at Rubber Dance and SSS Wednesday's challenge A Bit O'Green.

Inspired by Colour Q. The blue watercolor was a nod to Brilliant Blue. The other colors are close, based on what I could find in my Gelli print scraps from these cards.

Appreciate your visit. Have a wonderful day!