Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Harvest Moon

Hello!

The days are getting shorter, the mornings are cooler (boo to scraping my windshield!), and the trees are once again putting their colors on display.  Fall is definitely here and just like that the landscape of my craft room changes as well.  The flower image stamps get pushed to the back of the shelf for images of leaves, trees, and acorns to be closer at hand, as do all my rich autumn colored ink pads.  It is without doubt the prettiest time of the year in my books and provides such inspiration I can't decide what to work on first!

I was in the mood for a good ole 'burning up the sky' sunset when I made this card.  It's been awhile since I created a landscape scene; and this one couldn't have been more simple to create!  A little masking and embossing, only 4 colors of ink, and one main image stamp.  I hope you like it!

Supplies:


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Have you signed up for my Holiday Newsletter yet?  It begins this Friday, October 2nd!  Each week for the next 12 weeks you'll receive and exclusive project sent right to your inbox to help you along with your holiday planning!  If you've missed the sign up form and would like to be added to the list, just email me and I'll be sure to have your name added.

Have a wonderful day!
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Thursday, September 24, 2015

Front Porch in a Tea Cup


Hello!

I thought I'd share something a little different today.  I built this little porch scene inside of a tea cup and if you look really closely you'll find that I used a lot of Stampin' Up! products to create it!

I've become more than a little obsessed over the last couple of years with miniatures and fairy gardens.  They create such whimsy and spark imagination in both young and old and frankly take me to a happy place when I plant and care for them.  I've seen these little miniatures popping up in my Pinterest feed over and over and finally decided to take the plunge and try make a few of my own using papers, clay, and dried mosses. The one pictured here is my first attempt and I must say I'm hooked! The possibilities are endless!


Most everything is hand made, with the exception of the moss and tea cup (of course!).  I made the little pots from Polymer Clay, painted them a Terracotta color, then filled them with a little dry moss.

I wanted to use some of the colors in the tea cup and saucer so I used Tempting Turquoise card stock to make the little Adirondack chair as well as the vase sitting in the window.  The porch floor and stairs are made from Smoky Slate card stock, as well as the window and door trim.  White details were a must and added a nice touch to the railing and inner door and window frame.  The wall of the house was painted to resemble pink barn board and helps to add a little visual texture.


Small pieces of lace trim were added for curtains, and that little tiny doormat?  Well, that's a kitchen scrub sponge cut down to size!

Mosses were added along the sides of the stairwell and run up along the side of the tea cup.  This helped create garden beds and vines to add a few tiny flower blossoms to.


I hope you enjoyed this little tour of my Front Porch in a Tea Cup!  They are definitely a labor of love but I love crafting in different mediums.  If I can get a few more made watch for them to appear in my Etsy shop; I think they'd be so cute as a gift for someone who enjoys wee things!

Have a great day!
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Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Forest Fox



Hello!

My hubby's birthday was last week and as per usual I was in a time crunch.  Now, it's not like I don't know his birthday is on the same day every year I just happen to be a procrastinator when it comes to making cards for him.  And as I'm sure I've said before, masculine cards are probably the hardest to execute as far as ideas go.

I simply love the trees from the new Holiday set Wonderland.  Stamped repeatedly they create the best forest scenes and with the addition of a little critter and you have the perfect masculine card! Here's a few simple instructions to guide you through how I created this card:

Begin by stamping the fox from The Wilderness Awaits set in Tuxedo Black Momento ink onto a piece of Whisper White card stock and a sticky note for masking.  Cut out the fox on the sticky note and place over the stamped image. Stamp the tree images repeatedly across the Whisper White card stock using Wild Wasbi ink. Change the height of the trees as they move across the card stock for a little interest.  Offset the tree images and stamp again across the page, this time using Mossy Meadow ink.  A Stamp-a-ma-jig is a great guide for this process.  Add highlights to the tree trunks with a white gel pen.

Sponge the areas around the fox and beneath the trees with Mossy Meadow and Soft Suede ink.  To color the sky first sponge Soft Sky ink then Marina Mist ink along the outer edges of the card stock for depth.

Remove the mask from the fox image and color with an Aqua Painter using Tip Top Taupe and Cajun Craze ink.  Small amounts of ink added a little at a time work best to not warp the paper and get better results.  Green grass was added with an Old Olive marker beneath the fox.


Finish off the card front panel with a sentiment, a little linen thread wrapped around the far edge, and a metal button for a masculine flair.  The card front is layered on a Soft Suede mat embossed with the Woodgrain folder, and the card base is standard size in Soft Sky.



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I hope this has inspired you to give a masculine card a try!  I'll be back later on in the week with another share but until then please make sure you sign up for the 12 weeks of Holiday's newsletter (a pop up should have greeted you when you stopped by today).  It's going to be full of projects and great tips to get us both through the busiest time of the year!

Until next time...
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Thursday, September 17, 2015

Build a Birthday Clear Shaker Card


Hi There!

I love the look of a Shaker card; its an extra element to a card that adds visual texture (and let's be honest, it's just plain fun to shake the confetti around!)  Instead of creating a small shape on a card front to act as a the shaker piece I decided to make the entire card a shaker and I'm so pleased with the way it turned out!

You can use many clear materials to create a shaker card like this; window sheets or even a heavier page protector will work.  I was short on both of the previous mentioned so I went on a supply hunt in my craft room to see what else I could come up with.  And low and behold I realized that Stampin' Up!'s 4" x 6" Cellophane Bags were a perfect option!  I trimmed the open end down to measure       
5-1/4" and I was all set.

The first step in creating a card like this is to design the card front.  Keep in mind that whatever is added to the front will be visible through the back.  I'll share a quick tip on how to camouflage this a bit further down.  Stamp images onto card stock and cut out.  In the case of this card I used the Build a Birthday set.  I stamped the cake stand using Crumb Cake ink onto Whisper White card stock, cut it out, and added small rhinestones to each scallop along the front edge. Each of the cake layers were stamped twice, cut out and a dimensional was sandwiched between the layers to add height to the card front.  Small strips of Washi Tape were cut to create the candles and the flames were stamped in Crushed Curry ink onto Whisper White card stock and cut out.  I stamped the 'happy birthday' stamp in Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto a piece of Washi Tape before adding it to the bottom of the card front.

When assembling the card try to use the clearest glue that you have on hand because as mentioned before the downside to a clear card like this is that literally everything shows through to the backside.  I used a few minimal glue dots but a dot or two of the new Fine Glue pen would do the trick too.  To mask the back of card, add a small rectangle of card stock that includes your sentiment.  It gets a few jobs done all at once while looking intentional and adding interest. I let this piece "float" within the shaker card without adhesive.  

At this point the card is ready for some bling!  I added sequins and glitter but feel free to add what you have on hand.  You could also add a gift card within the card.  The recipient would then just have to cut the top from the card to get it out.  Once this is done I used my sewing machine to quickly sew along all four sides of the card; my stitching was beyond perfect but I like that it adds a bit of whimsy!
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As I mentioned in my last post I'm working on a 12 week Christmas newsletter to share tips, tricks, techniques, and projects to help you along with the Holiday's this year.  I've created a separate pop up sign up form that most likely greeted you when you entered my website.  If you'd like to subscribe to these weekly newsletters please be sure to sign up!  These projects will not posted on my blog or any other social media.  This means that even though you might subscribe to blog posts you'll have to subscribe to this newsletter series separately.  This is the best way for me to send relevant info to email accounts that want this content without flooding inbox's that maybe do not.  I plan to begin the series on Friday October 2, 2015 and have them go out each Friday thereafter for 12 weeks.  I hope you'll join me in the fun!  If you missed the sign up form and would still like to be included on the list, feel free to email me and I'll make sure your added.

And don't forget that I have a discount code set up for 10% off any tutorials purchased until Sunday September 20, 2015.  Enter SAVE10 at checkout for your savings.

Until next time...
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Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Garden in Bloom Marker Layering


Hello, hello!

Yes, I'm still kicking AND card making!  Maybe you have or haven't even noticed my lack of presence around these parts but I went on a little hiatus for a couple months.  I'd love to say that I was on an exotic vacation and just arrived home relaxed and tanned but the truth of matter is I committed myself fully to my boys this summer.  We attended swimming lessons, camps, camp outs, birthdays, and went on our first real family holiday.  It was definitely relaxing but I can't say I came out at the end of the summer tanned (I'm truly thankful for Fall so I can go back to hiding my pasty pale legs again!)

Griffin started Grade ONE (how does this happen?!) at the beginning of September and I just dropped Sawyer off for his second year of Pre-K (we have the great opportunity for both 3 and 4 year old's to attend the program).  And even though he attended last year and was excited to go again, this time around meant a new teacher and a few new friends.  He clung to my neck for dear life and it just about broke my heart to pry him off and walk away!  This Momma thing is hard work let me tell ya!!

So now that both boys are back into a regular schedule I'm pulling up my socks and doing the same. I still did plenty of creating over the summer and now have a huge back logged file on my computer titled "To Be Blogged".  My to do list and want to do list are HUGE but I'm determined to slowly pick away at it and bring you fresh content.  I have video tutorials lined up along with a weekly Christmas project newsletter coming your way.  Stay tuned!

Okay, after all that catch up I think its time to finally talk about the card I'm sharing today!  I've revisited my water color paper, Stampin' Write markers and Blender Pen for my last couple of projects.  Boy oh boy did I feel rusty on my first couple of attempts.  Let's just say the term use it or lose it came to mind when that marker tip touched that first flower petal...thank goodness this Garden in Bloom set is so forgiving to work with!

I began by stamping my images in Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto water color paper.  To color the larger flowers I chose four shades of purple markers and began putting down color using the lightest shade first at the bottom of the petal, then blending the color upwards and inwards on each petal using a Blender Pen.  Using smaller amounts of the next shade I repeated the process.  I repeated this step twice more until all four colors were added and blended.  Two shades of yellow were added into the center of each flower in the same manner.

When I was completely done coloring the flowers and bee I added a shadow around the images with a Sahara Sand marker, stamped the small sentiment from the same set into the middle of the card, and with Smoky Slate ink added a few "splatters" from the Gorgeous Grunge set randomly on the card front.  The main image was layered over Rich Razzleberry cardstock.  For my Elegant Eggplant card base I wanted to add a little something without embossing so I chose the burlap patterned stamp from Awesomely Artistic set and stamped around the edge of the card base to create a pattern for a interest. It makes for a perfect birthday, friend, or just thinking of you card, don't you think?

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Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I so appreciate you taking time out of your day to check out my content.  As I mentioned earlier I'll be setting up a 12 week of Christmas/Holiday newsletter soon. I'll make more info available as I have it but I'm looking to set up a separate newsletter that you will have to subscribe to so I don't flood inbox's that don't want additional content outside of my blog posts.  

Until I get back into my regular posting schedule I'd like to offer you a 10% discount on all tutorials within my Tutorial Store.  Simply enter the code SAVE10 at checkout to receive your discount.  This offer begins today (September 15, 2015) and ends on Sunday September 20, 2015.  To access my tutorial store just click on the Tutorial Store tab at the top of my homepage and you'll be taken right there.  I hope you'll take advantage of this offering; you'll find techniques, punch art, and 3-D projects to keep you crafting through the night and chilly fall air!

Until next time...
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