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!