sympathy

I was cleaning and organizing and came across a negative image stamp that I haven't used in years and years!  This didn't really start out as I had it in my head - I was going to make a small tag - but with a very pale yellow-white flower.  But the flowers simply didn't show up!  As I added more color, they began to appear.  The process was to stamp the paper with the music, heat dry, then stamp the negative stamp over the music with clear embossing powder, let cool.  I started off trying to put a dark green watercolor pencil on the stems, and they got rather lost as the flowers got darker.  

So, what do you do with such a dark image? Rather than throw it away, I decided to go "elegant" and used the black glossy over matte pattern paper (CTMH), a ribbon from my stash, the sentiment is from a CTMH stamp set (retired, I believe).  I am getting to the age when I use a LOT of sympathy cards - so now I have one for my stash. 

Found treasure

Cleaning closets the other day in Steve's house and I came across three embroidered flowers.  I asked - he didn't know anything about them, so I decided to make quick use of them on a trio of cards!  

The blush design paper and zip strip are from Charlotte papers (retired) and the black design was from another retired CTMH paper pack (can't remember the name!).  I had some die-cut felt leaves, and rose-gold sequins.  The Thinking of You and the Happy Birthday are CTMH stamps.  The You Remind me of the Person I'd Like to Become is a stamp from the set "Carpe Diem" made by Verve.  I love that set!  

I am surprised how different they look just by changing up the arrangements on the card - and for the birthday one, making the size square rather than A2.  I used the black design and zip strip along the bottom edges of the insides to carry the theme over.  

Don't you love it when you find something so cool!?!

Create Kindness

These little M-size stamps from CTMH that are available in the September Create Kindness promotion are just adorable!  I cased a card made by Julie Carriere .  Julie has a lot of great ideas for using the stamps!  This was my first attempt - I simply used a piece of scratch paper at the place where the Raspberry cardstock would be, and stamped part of the "Love" stamp as a border.  I cut one of the 3x3 card bases in half to make a mat, and colored just the focal image. The card base is Slate with a White Daisy piece on the inside for writing. Easy!

Playing with smooshing again

I saw a card on Julia Aston's blog here. Julia has inspired me since before I began blogging - in fact, I copied her blog design because I admired it so much.  She's updated hers, and I haven't, but I must tell you, she has provided so much support and guidance and is so gracious about it all!  So, you won't be surprised when you go look at her post and find it is a whole lot prettier than mine.  But you will see the sincerest form of flattery in my imitation.

Buttercup, Blush, and Cashmere inks to smoosh in.  The stamps were done in Cocoa ink.  I also used a Chocolate cardstock for the 5 1/2" square card, and stamped a floral border in Chocolate ink all around the outside.  

Halloween

The set is called Monstrous Halloween - and these cute little monsters seem to be all the rage right now!  I've seen them on blankets, pillows, and birthday cards!  LOL  This was another "fancy" fold card.  When pushed flat is is the dimension of an A2 card.  When you open it, it can stand up by itself, which is fun for showing off.  The papers are Jeepers Creepers from CTMH in the brand new Holiday Expressions idea book.  

See ya later, Alligator!

I saw a card like this on Pinterest a long time ago and saved the idea.  While organizing all my stamp sets into Evernote (awesome tool!) I realized that I have a super alligator stamp - so I gave the card a shot!  The only tricky part was the reverse image stamp of the alligator who is going the other way.  What I did was get the stamp good and juicy, then stamped it onto a clean, blank acrylic block and then onto the paper.  You have to be careful to stamp straight down and up - to avoid slipping.  I love that my reverse alligator looks a little different - all fancy with puckers and a darker green color (the color was planned, not the puckers!).  Fun!

Still playing with watercolors.

I love images where the background was created by simply letting watercolor flow over the paper.  This one turned out neat - it looks like there are white clouds.  The "tree" looks wonky - in real life it has a lot more variation in color.  I inked the stamp three times - once in Saffron, once in Sunset, and once in Poppy.  The tree trunk was done in Saddle and the sentiment (from a Petite Perks reward package) was stamped in Cocoa. 

The background (first mat) is a woodgrain paper in the new Fundamentals package. I thought you might like to see something other than the rose-gold vellum!  The card base is a design paper from last fall, Zoe.  

Another card with Smooshing technique

I kept playing with the smooshing technique (I wish auto-correct would stop changing that word to smoothing).  This time I used Saffron and Creme Brûlée.  The image is another quick card "Fabulous You" and used watercolor pencils to color the Cardinal and the flowers.  The images were stamped with Cocoa ink.  I popped up the center section (you can see that in the first photo) and I added a wee stripe of the awesome rose-gold striped vellum in the Fundamentals pack.  Wow - I have been really finding ways to use that specific paper!  The right hand side is a piece from Florence papers.  

We had the family all over for an "impromptu" dinner - just grilled hamburgers, hotdogs, homemade mac & cheese, and a million side and snack dishes.  There were 10 of us - a nice small number (small in Steve's opinion).  Dessert was s'mores over the gas fire table.  

Steve made this out of a table that had a center well for icing down beverages (I guess!).  He had a hole opened in the base by a metal shop near home, and got beautiful glass pebbles for the basin.  There is a very small propane tank under the table that is nearly invisible because he painted it black.  It doesn't put off a lot of heat, but it certainly is beautiful to gather around and enjoy making a big mess (ooey-gooey marshmallows, melting chocolate, broken graham crackers - does it get any better than this?!).  The kids of all ages had a blast!

Fabulous You - Quick Card with Florence

I love this retired Close to My Heart stamp set.  It is so easy to create a card that looks like you worked for hours on it - and I've changed up this particular bird several times to look like a different bird!  Today it's a Chickadee.  (teacher, teacher . . .  chick-a-dee, dee, dee) I can hear them calling outside my window.  The chickadee is a fairly small bird but it's amazing how you can hear them yelling all over the neighborhood!  LOL

I used Florence papers, and the focal mat is a Picture My Life card that can be cut apart and used for quick scrapbooking. I added a little diagonal stripe zip-strip for some more interest.  The card base is creme brûlée - a color that has been discontinued but I will continue to show until it's all used up!

I'm still waiting for news on scheduling my surgery. Yikes - it's like waiting for my water to break or something! 

Smooshing

It's not at all surprising that I'm late to the smooshing party. I usually don't have all the elements needed to try out a new technique.  This one, I was missing clear acrylic sheets (although in hind-sight I could have used something from the berry or grape tomato baskets).  I used Raspberry, Tangerine and Blossom colors - all brand new from Close to My Heart.  I rubbed the ink pads directly onto the plastic sheet, then spritzed it with a spray of water and then smooshed it over the watercolor paper.  I went back to add and blend in a little bit - but it was basically like this first time out.  

I added a Verve sentiment that I absolutely love on a die cut that might have been Papertray Ink.  The thin silk ribbon in yummy grape color required a piece of design paper from Basic Gray and rather than create a simple mat, I decided to shape both ends of the focal piece.  It was really an easy card to make and fun!  I'm looking forward to having a little more work area (in AZ) so I'm not so squashed when I am smooshing!  LOL

One last card with the Stamp of The Month for August

There are a few Close to My Heart stamp sets that have proven to be so versatile and interesting that I've been using them for nearly 15 years!  I think this one will fall into that category!  This time I made a kitty couple (anniversary card - if you can't tell).  I found some darling cat related Washi tape (the kitty faces and the meow meow meow) and just had to use it right away.  The woodgrain paper is one from the new CTMH Fundamentals.  The kitties were stamped on white daisy cardstock and given design with a fine print from one of the retired stamp set - a really off the wall one like Later, Sk8r.  I added liquid glass on the eyes and a small piece of tulle in yellow. 

Love Blooms

Wedding cards are so nice to make - they always leaving me feeling warm and fuzzy. (or maybe that's a hot flash?) LOL I used a retired CTMH stamp set "Love Blooms" with the brand new Fundamentals paper (rose gold on vellum), a piece of ribbon from my stash (I think it was wrapped around some candles) and sentiment from another retired set. I stamped these with Sweet Leaf, Smoothie, Creme Brûlée and of course, black ink. The center of the flowers have rose-gold sequins to tie in with the rose gold on the vellum.

Z-fold card

The Z-fold card is not new, but this is the first time I've tried to make one!  It really wasn't hard at all.  The card base is 4 1/4" x 11 inches and it is scored at 2 3/4"  and 5 1/2".  The narrow piece (yellow chevron in my card example) is 1" x 11" and has the same score marks.

I used pieces of clear plastic from a strawberry package (after it was washed, of course) and cut roughly 3/8" by all sorts of lengths.  The clear plastic strips were adhered to the yellow strip with strong adhesive and the floating element (in my example, butterflies) at the top.  If you divide this card mentally into four sections:

1. Green

2. Thistle diagonal

3. blue chevron at fold

4. blue chevron at right

Then the 3rd section of floating elements will have their backs out when the card is folded closed (see first photo). This is where I added butterflies to both sides of the plastic strips.

I promise, this is not as hard as I've made it sound! Give it a try!

Hawaiian Hibiscus

I had to buy the CTMH stamp set Hawaiian Hibiscus - just HAD to, since 1) it's a flower (duh) and 2) we are going back to Hawaii next spring -   Woot!! When we were there on our honeymoon I kept taking photos of every hibiscus I saw - thinking that I'd collect a photo of every color there is.  Hahahahaha!  I read at a garden sign post somewhere near the end of our trip that there are thousands of colors and varieties of hibiscus, some even have ruffled edges! So, I felt much better about the artistic license I took with these.

What I did was heat emboss the flowers and leaves onto watercolor paper and then use the CTMH watercolor paint set to layer color.  I love the blending of colors!  I even love the details of the white embossing powder.  Then I used rose-gold sequins in the center of the smaller flowers and a bit of green ribbon from my stash.  

National Stamping Month - Create Kindness

This fun CTMH special for September 2016 ONLY is a kit of 24 pre-printed card bases (3 X 3" cards), 24 white daisy circles, eight (8) different M-size stamps, 24 envelopes, a mini-archival black ink pad, an acrylic block, and a storage box to keep all the stamps in!  It is a tremendous value at $46.95.  Get your kit while they last - when it is sold out, they are gone!

I should mention that the purple monster card uses another stamp set - Monstrous Halloween.  But it looked so fun on the green stripe paper!  

I am seeing awesome "variations" for this kit on the consultant web-page and I'd love to see what you create!

Love This

These blossoms are from the CTMH stamp set called Love This.  It includes the blossom, a bird, a border, a butterfly and sentiments.  I opted for a bold sentiment from Verve's set called Carpe Diem.  There are amazing sentiments in that set - such as this one. It seemed a nice contrast to the gentle flowers. Since I didn't use any leaves (green) on the design I opted for a sliver of a mat of green.  The card front and base are kraft cardstock. I used Derwent Ultrasoft pencils for the white and a little pink water-color pencil over the white near the centers and yellow in the middle.  

Rustic Home Fundamentals - card #2

This time I used an old CTMH stamp of the month that had big sunflowers!  I love sunflowers - I don't think one can have too many of them!  LOL  I used the technique where you cut the image mat smaller than the whole image so that some of it falls off the paper.  I stamped with Momento Tuxedo Black and colored with water color pencils.  The sentiment was a Waltzingmouse Stamps one.  Again, that amazing rose gold paper (it's vellum paper with the metallic stripe).  To adhere it to the card base I used the 1/8" Scor-Tape and placed it on three stripes (top, middle, bottom).  I love it when I can use vellum without the adhesive showing!

Rustic Home Fundamentals - CTMH

The new Annual Inspirations book from CTMH has cool new fundamental papers!  The rose-gold striped one is in the Rustic Home collection!  I took two photos so I could show the way the paper looks in real life!  The daisy is from a set called "Flower Silhouette". I can't find the source for that one!  Aarrrrrghh!  

I am hoping that going forward the software Evernote will keep me organized so that I can always tell you where I got something! I've got everything except my tools into the database for the MN studio and I use it every day to look up where to find a design or sentiment element.  I never knew how much time I was wasting looking through stamp sets!

I broke down and got the "One in a Melon" stamp set so I could have the two pineapple images!  After all, we will be spending 2 months in Hawaii in 2017 and I am still trying to finish our honeymoon scrapbook from 2012 (can you say "behind"? - Sure you can!).  This was inspired by a lovely creation by Melissa Phillips.  Most of her cards are way to advanced for me, but I thought I could pull this one off.  The sentiment  and the little twigs are from the CTMH stamp set  "Happy to Be Friends".  The leaves are from a retired Petite Perks set.  The black with tiny white dot paper is a current CTMH but the others are retired.  The ink I finally picked for the pineapple was Sorbet - the inks really changed when put over the Bamboo cardstock scrap that I was using.  The chicken wire is one from Distress Backgrounds (also retired).  

The weather here is absolutely glorious today!  The high is predicted to be 77, the sky is clear, deep blue and there are birds singing and wind gently moving the tree boughs.  I have the perfect location for my studio - upstairs in a corner room with West and North facing windows. Lucky me!