Autumn Birthday

I decided to share some of my past projects on my blog as I have time.  2014 was the year of tags for the Gigglers so I did one for Susan's birthday because I know she loves tags.

The tag was dyed with coffee, vanilla & cinnamon then baked in the oven. I saw the technique by QueenBe Mixed Media Art  on Pinterest.

After adding the scent, I randomly stamped leaves from SU Faith in Nature with embossing ink then heat embossed with WOW Clear Embossing Powder.

Then I used a blending tool to apply small amount of Tim Holtz Dried Marigold Ink randomly over the tag.  I wiped the ink off of the embossed area with a tissue.

The leaves are silk & some were trimmed to match the embossed leaves then adhered to the tag.  To make the tag, I stamped a sentiment from Happiest Birthday Wishes (in 2 of 2), punched it out & placed it in a rim from the We R Memory Keepers Tag Maker. The twine is wrapped around the tag & holds the sentiment tag.

This tag smelled ssooo good!!

TFL!!

 

Flip or Flop

A group of my friends decided we'd do 4 ATC swaps last year, one for each season & place them in a 7 GYPSIES Artist Printer's Tray.  This is my ATC for the summer swap which is the 2nd in the series.

For the colors, we selected SU Daffodil Delight, Mellon Mambo, Old Olive, Pacific Point, Real Red and Whisper White. We could use all or some of the colors & optional neutral accent colors.

I heat embossed the sentiment, A Walk in the Sand by Great Impressions, using WOW Clear Embossing Powder on Whisper White. Then I sponged Pacific Point ink at the top & Crumb Cake ink on the bottom, blending them together in the middle. Using a tissue, I wiped the ink off the embossed sentiment.  On the bottom of the card, I stamped Flip Flops & Sea Shells by Great Impressions in Crumb Cake then stamped it again on Whisper White.  I colored the flip flops using the Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point & Real Red then fussy cut them out & used dimensionals to pop them up.

TFL!

Let 'em Eat Ice Cream

Last year, nine of us from our group, the NEPA Gigglers, decided to do a seasonal ATC swap. We are doing them quarterly so some of us will do 2 ATCs for a total of 12 & we'll place them in a 7 GYPSIES Artist Printer's Tray. This is my ATC for our spring ATC which is the 1st in the series.

We had specific SU colors to use:  Pink Pirouette, Soft Sky, So Saffron, Wisteria Wonder, Pear Pizzazz, Whisper White.  If needed, we could use small amounts of nueturals as accent colors.

"Lickable" by The Cat's Pajamas is stamped in black ink then colored with SU markers. Once the image was fussy cut out, I drew lines on the cone & put Glossy Accents on the scoops of ice cream. When I cut him out, his whiskers were cut off so I glued slivers of SU Basic Black were they were. The image is popped with dimensionals so I could put a tail on him which is part of a cotton ball. The grass is a Martha Stewart Punch.  Of course, he'd rather have ice cream than a carrot so he threw it to the curb!

TFL!

6X6 Technique Card - Watercolor Lifting & Heat Embossing

I made this 6X6 technique card for a local swap.  For the swap, we choose a technique, write up the instructions & put it on a pretty card.  This is a small swap & I only need to make 6 cards.  I'm not sure how many really use them or just collect them but they are cute!  I watched Jennifer McGuire's video (no relation...LOL) on this technique & thought it would make a great technique card.  Jennifer's video is wonderful but I'll show you what I did & didn't to right.

 

On this card, I used Tim Holtz Distressed Markers.  Jennifer used Tombow which I did try on another piece of CS.  I think both are pretty but each have a different effect.  Pictured are 2 shades of 2 colors but I think 1 color would be very pretty too.  I cut my watercolor paper a little bigger than what I needed. Using the brush end of your marker, color back & forth putting a lot of color on the watercolor paper.  I would recommend overlapping the color more than I did in this photo.


Once all the color was on, I wet my brush & went over the ink.  I keep wetting my brush & did use a lot of water.  I also flicked the water but should have mixed my colors a little more.  On this card I didn't overlap my ink as much so it didn't blend as much as I would have liked.  I didn't use this card because I didn't like the blocks of color.  Let the water air dry or hit it with a heat tool but it needs to be completely dry.

Before embossing you MUST use an anti-static tool over the entire card.  I used a patterned background stamp to stamp Versamark on the card then covered it with clear embossing powder & heat embossed it.  It's hard to see the pattern but you will after the next step.

The last step is brushing water over the card again & blotting it off with a paper towel.  This will remove more of the ink.  The embossed area is a resist & the ink trapped under the embossed area will be more vibrant.  If the colors on the unembossed area look washed out you can add more.



The "recipe" was printed on white card stock then trimmed to 5 3/4 X 5 3/4 & adhered to the 6X6 cardstock.  The sample of the technique is matted & adhered to the white cardstock.  I finished my technique card off with ribbon, flowers & a butterfly.

Hope you enjoyed the design of my technique card!



Supplies:  Cardstock-SU Pacific Point & Whisper White; Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Watercolor Paper; Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Markers-Mowed Lawn, Twisted Citron, Broken China, Mermaid Lagoon; Misc-SU Pacific Point Grosgrain Ribbon, Floral Doodles Flowers, Oriental Traders Butterflies, WOW Clear Embossing Powder.

Heartfelt Sympathy

I'll be going to a shoebox event in a few weeks & I'm participating in a sympathy card swap.  I was looking for ideas on Pinterest & found this beautiful card posted in 2008 by sharmill on Splitcoaststampers.  I fell in love with it & decided to case it.

The stamp set that was used, "Close as a Memory" from Stampin Up! is retired & fortunately I had it. There are a lot of layers on this card & I had to figure out the sizes so I thought I'd include them.   This also features 2nd generation stamping which is inking the image, stamping & without re-inking stamp again.

Basic card:

• Base card (SU Elegant Eggplant) - 5 1/2" X 8 1/2, scored & folded at 4 1/4"
• Middle mat (SU Whisper White) - 5 3/8" X 4 1/8
• Top mat (SU Elegant Eggplant) - 5 1/4" X 4"

Card front (small squares):

• Bottom mat (SU Whisper White)-1 3/8" square
• Middle mat (SU Elegant Eggplant)-1 1/4" square
• Top mat (SU Whisper White )-2 1/4" square

I inked the flower stamp with Elegant Eggplant & Alway Artichoke markers.  Then using a stamp-a-ma-jig, I stamped the image on the 2 1/4" top mat with the point at the top.

 Card front (large square):

• Bottom mat (SU Whisper White) - 2 1/4" square
• Middle mat (SU Elegant Eggplant) - 2 1/8" square
• Top mat (SU Whisper White ) - 2" square

After stamping the 2 1/4" mat & without re-inking, I stamped the flowers on the 2" mat using the stamp-a-ma-jig with the point at the top. Using Versa-fine black ink & the stamp-a-ma-jig, I stamped the sentiment over the flowers.  The 3 layers are put together with liquid glue.

The 2 1/4" flower is cut into four 1 1/8" squares & I discarded the lower left square.  The 3 layers are then put together.

To assemble the card front, I laid the squares on the 5 1/4" X 4" Elegant Eggplant panel.  The outside points touch the edge of the base panel & I left a small reveal between all the squares.  Ones I had them in place, I picked them up individually, applied glue & then put the square back in place.  Add this layer to the middle mat & then add to the card base.



I put a 5 1/4" X 4" Whisper White panel inside the card & stamped a sentiment from this set too.

Hope you try making this card, it really is easy & beautiful.  TLF!

Soup's On! Recipe Card

It's time for my March Recipe card for The Craft Shack's Recipe Card Club. I'm not sure who to give credit to for the recipe but I saw this anniversary card by MattsGirl on Splitcoaststampers & was inspired to incorporate it into my recipe card. I'm also using this recipe card for a swap at a shoebox event I'm attending the beginning of April. 

First I have to tell you about my new best friend, Tombow liquid glue!  I know, I know you've probably been using it for along time but I was stuck on using the Tombow mono tape runners but I'm tired of 1 or more corners of my layers not staying down no matter how close I get with the tape runners.  I've used the liquid glue before but just didn't like it.  I recently used it on all my recent projects & have seen the light!  Well onto the recipe card!

The card is pretty basic:

• Bottom mat  - 6"X6"
• Top mat - 5 3/4" X 5 3/4"
• DSP - 5 3/4" X 3"
• Scalloped border - 5 3/4" X 1.4"
• Recipe size will vary depending on font size (I used smallest except for title), trimmed close
• Recipe mat is 1/4" larger than recipe.

The peppers are stamped in Memento ink then colored with Copic markers (G94, G99, R24, R27, R29, Y32, Y35, Y38).  I added a little highlights using  a white gel pen then fussy cut them out. The green pepper on the left is popped up.  The cutting board is textured CS, stamped, fuzzy cut then popped up. The sentiment is stamped in chocolate chip.  All edges are sponged in Crumb Cake except the bottom mat & the peppers.

TFL!

Supplies: Cardstock-SU Garden Green, Crumb Cake (smooth & textured), Ivory, Early Expresso, Whisper White; DSP-DCWV Indian Summer; Stamps-CookBookin' Eat Your Veggies & Tasty Phrases; Ink-SU Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip & Memento Tuxedo Black; Markers-Copics; Punches-SU Scalloped Border & Fiskars Notebook Border Punch, EK Corner, Hole Punch; Misc-Twine Thread, Dimensionals, White Signo Uni-ball Gel Pen, Tombow Liquid Glue

Dream - Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2016 Technique Remix - March

It's time for my version of Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2016 for March! This month Tim did a remix of textures from November 2014 & dimensional die cuts from August 2015. I thought this was much more challenging than the January & February tags but I really enjoyed learning both techniques.  It took several tries on a couple of them before I was happy with my project. I'm hoping in the future to think out of the box but because of the supplies I had, I loosely followed what Tim did with a few variation.  This tag is thick, in addition to the corrugated cardboard there are 2 manilla tags attached. 

I used corrugated cardboard from a box I had & cut it slightly larger than the tag.  They say three's a charm...on my first attempt I had a ridge across the top of the tag & the second try the die cut was off to the side to far & too low. Instead of die cutting the butterflies straight, I placed the cardboard on the die at an angle & was still able to get it through my Big Shot machine.  I then peeled some of the paper away from the cardboard, blended walnut stain ink all over it & randomly applied gesso.  Then I sprayed it with ground expresso, picket fence & tarnished brass spray stains.

On the 1st tag, I decided to use the mixed media dies which are smaller than the Mixed Media 2 dies used by Tim plus I use #10 tags which are larger than the tags Tim uses. Because of the size difference, when I placed the dies on the edge of the tag on my 1st attempt they didn't show up through the butterflies.  Also I wanted the die cuts to only partially show through the butterflies die cuts.  So I held the cardboard over the tag so I knew where to position the dies. The dies are held in place with removable masking tape & placed on a precision base plate which helps cut detailed dies then run through my Big Shot.

On the 2nd tag, Tim's instructions said to use paper but I decided on his postale tissue wrap because I like the script. Again the paper would only show through the die cuts so I didn't cover the entire tag.  I used multi medium to adhere the tissue wrap to the tag.  In this photo I read the instructions wrong & applied the gesso which is in the next step.

Using multi-medium, I adhered the die cut tag over the tag with the tissue wrap.  Then I brushed a thin coat of gesso over the die cut area & quickly wiped some gesso away with a baby wipe. Because of my mistake I have 2 coats of gesso so the tissue paper does show through as well on the finished tag.  Maybe it would have been better to use paper but the tissue wrap took my eye.

Now for the fun part!  I used Tim's new crayons from the set of primary colors because that's the only set I have right now.  They're a hot product & I can see why.  When I first tested the crayons, I used a piece of cardstock & wasn't impressed because they didn't blend very well.  The key is gesso!  The gesso seals the surface & makes it so easy to blend the colors ....I've changed my mind & I'm sold!   When I blended the colors it left white around the die cut which made the die cuts stand out more.  Again, so I knew where to color I placed the cardboard over the tag. This is where I was so excited to see the finished tag that I stopped taking photos...LOL! The next step was to adhere the cardboard to the tag using multi medium.  Once dry, I used a paper distresser to rough up the edges & blended walnut stain ink over the edges.

Now to start adding the finishing touches. Gold foil was randomly added to the edges by rubbing a glue stick to the areas I wanted to accent then laying the foil, gold side up, over the glue & rub gently.  Leave on for about 5 mins then peel off & there's your accent!  It looks much better in person.

I didn't have any quote bands so I made my own.  I applied gesso to white cardstock then stamped a quote from one of Tim's stamp set, "It's never too late to find out who you want to be".  I applied embossing ink & used clear embossing powder then heat set. The crayons are randomly blended over my quote band & then gently wiped away from the embossed area with a paper towel.  I cut the quote out, rounded the corners & used a ribbon punch to make holes.  I tied natural hemp cord to the quote band & attached it to the tag using the tiny attacher.

I did feel I needed some metal so I colored a typed token, "dream",  with the purple crayon. I'm not sure the color shows up very well & feel I should have used a lighter color.  After punching a hole through the cardboard, I tied a strip of burlap at the top then placed the token on using a loop pin.


Well that's my version of Tim's tag!  Hope you enjoyed my variations (& learned from my mistakes...LOL)! TFL!!