STAMPlorations inspiration #105

Welcome to another STAMPlorations inspiration Tuesday. Election day for us USers. Hope we're all still friends tomorrow. Enough on that. I've got a one-layer Christmas card for you today, made with a great little set Framed Christmas: Peace, Love, Joy!

Stamped, colored with Polychromo reds and greens and voila! Just followed the shading on the stamp to do my shading. Still working on that whole getting-the-shading-right-while-coloring concept!

Check out the rest of the DT's creations in this post and don't forget to leave a comment for a chance at a GC! Thanks for coming by today.

I'm going over to Kathy R.' Daily Marker Challenge and Addicted to Stamps and More.

p.s. Have you checked out this month's CUTplorations inspiration photo? Quite fun if I do say so myself ;)

happy 90th to my daddy!

Stopping by to share with you the card I created for my Dad's 90th. Actually, as you read this I am on my way to MI to celebrate with him :)

It was a labor of love. I had the brilliant idea to use ink smooshing with acetate to create a watercolor version of this.

This is the view from my folks' house. Those cedar trees are ancient and such a part of our family's history at this property :)

I masked horizon and lawn and smooshed Distress Inks for the grass (including dandelions ;) and lake. Again and again.

Then I stamped the trees from Stampendous Winter Trees and heat embossed them with clear to protect the ink from the rest of the ink smooshing process.

When I was satisfied, I used an iron and packing paper to remove the embossing and added a sentiment from SSS Handwritten Borders. A little PP to add a punch and voila!

Thanks for visiting.

Since I was definitely thinking of my Dad when I created this, I'm hooking up at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. where it's Thinking about You. And to Simon's Work it Wednesday for October since I've used SSS product.

I'm also joining in at Seize the Birthday with this birthday card. No stencil topping though.

And at Kathy R's Daily Marker Challenge. I colored all this. Albeit, with a piece of acetate ;)

And lastly, I'm hooking up at Craft Stamper, Take it Make it for November where it's Anything Goes with stamps.

CUTplorations November

November's here! Halloween over. Election Day upon us. And we're heading toward Thanksgiving and Christmas. Wow! I think this month's CUTplorations inspiration photo captures the weather mood of November perfectly. Still pretty in some ways. But often wet. Here in Germany at least.

image source: Smashing Magazine

OK - what do you see? Playful? Grim? Autumnal colors? Rain? Cartoon images? Even the numbers along the bottom or the faint leaf veins in the gray BG? SOOOOO much to work with. I was overtaken by the colors which reminded me of an old Basic Grey PP - Indian Summer - which I bought cuz I loved the colors.

I started with a panel of PP. Heat embossed leaves from Trendy Leaves onto it in white. Then I took Seedless Preserves, Spiced Marmelade and Vintage Photo Distress Inks and applied them around the leaves where those colors were prevalent in the PP design.

A stamped sentiment from Vignette: Chevron and Arrows and a die cut Birthday Word finished off my card.

I hope you'll join us this month - our only requirement is that you use a die cut and one STAMPlorations store product on your project. (There's always a free digi here.) You can read the challenge guidelines here and find the gallery to link your project here.

I'm linking up at The Artistic Stamper where November's challenge is Autumnal. Cuz it is!

holiday TAGplorations fun

I'm joining in the fun over at STAMPlorations. We're all about making Christmas tags today. Take a look at the plethora of great ideas the DT and guest designers have come up with. Maybe you'll find a design you'd like to use on your Christmas tags this year!

For my tag I've gone the chalkboard route and also used a die cutting technique I've used here and here. It's quite fun when you have a symmetric shape like this Trendy Christmas Trees tree.

It's simple. You just fold up some tissue or crepe paper to get lots of layers. Then you die cut it once or twice. I think I have 20-30 layers. Then you stitch down the middle to keep them all together. The most tedious part is separating all the layers that have been pressed together so nicely by the die cutting machine ;)

I cut my tag shape using ATC Tag Builder from CUTplorations fun. Just love that playful feel to it. Keeping with the feel, I heat embossed a sentiment and star from Trendy Christmas Trees and added some faux stitching with a white gel pen.

A gingham PP hole reinforcer, some baker's twine and some chalkboard "smear" completed my design. Do have a look at the tags being shared on the STAMPlorations blog. And check out the prizes that are up for grabs too, both for commenting and linking up a tag! You have through Nov. 25th. Thanks for visiting.

I'm going over to the Holiday challenge at A Blog Named Hero with this tag. And at the Black + One other Color challenge at Inkspirational.

doggie sympathy

A quick post to share a quick design which I unfortunately needed twice last week. Two families lost their golden retrievers (as did Shona C.) in one week. Our Ellie is only 3, but it sure makes me dread THE day...

Decided to use a stamp from Artemio and give it a cloud/halo effect by lightly Distress Inking around the embossed silhouette image. The sentiment is Technique Tuesday.

One was a girl.

The other a boy.

Thanks for looking. I'm sharing these cards at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday where it's about Thinking of You. And at Stempelkueche where it's about Saying Goodbye.

STAMPlorations inspiration #104

Welcome to the blog today and welcome to November! Thinking holidays yet? I've got a Christmas card for you as my contribution to the STAMPlorations Inspiration post. Here's the stamp set I used (with its coordinating dies).

Trendy Christmas Trees

Very versatile. Check out all the styles and sizes. And fun sentiments. Do you agree those stars could double as gingerbread men?!?!?

Meet my card.

You may remember my spritzed and splattered piece from this card. Well I've used a bit more of it for my Christmas trees today. Die cut three of them. Stamped onto one and popped it up in the middle of my Christmas tree gathering. Thought that sentiment was uber-appropriate.

A silver star up top gave the card a fun little touch of sparkle. I#m taking my splattered trees over to Addicted to Stamps and More where this week's theme is Make your Mark.

And also to Allsorts Challenge where it's about Make a Start on Christmas cards.

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful November.

MMCC #29

There's a new challenge up at the Mixed Media Card Challenge for November and it's certainly season appropriate for those of you in the US.

At the challenge we define mixed media as a mix of stamps and ink and mediums which add TEXTURE, DIMENSION and allow use of TECHNIQUES.

So here's what I've created.

I began with a TECHNIQUE - applying distress inks through a stencil (coming soon to STAMPlorations) and then spritzing them with water for added interest. Then I added TEXTURE by applying clear embossing paste to some of the leaves, moving the stencil first to get an offset image.

Out came a pumpkin (cuz nothing says Thanksgiving to me like pumpkin pie) which is also coming soon to STAMPlorations. I stamped it three times, Copic colored and fussy cut - the stem from one, the pumpkin from another and the leaves from the third image. For DIMENSION I layered them all up with lots of foam adhesive.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will join us this month with your mixed media card. Check out the other beautiful creations by the DT for inspiration. See you in the gallery!

I'm heading over to the gallery at Steckenpferdchen #78, where it's about Natural Materials. Hope kraft counts!

To Penny Black and More October challenge.

And to the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday.