Many years ago, my sister (-in-law), Judy, Retired2stamp, invited me to a Stampin' Up Party. I was drawn to the 6X6 recipe card swap our local group was doing and had wanted to scrapbook too. I wasn't really interested in card making because I had witnessed my brother (in-law) Ed fold up a handmade card and put it in his pocket. I almost fainted and I didn't even make the card. But after a few parties, I was hooked and now make more cards than I had ever thought I would. My most recent passions are ATCs, tags & altered art. As you look through my blog I hope you can see how I've grown in my crafting ability!

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Dressmaker- Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2016 Technique Remix - June

Wow...we're half way through the year & that means only 6 more tags for 2016! Time sure flies when you're having fun & Tim's June Technique Remix is no exception. This month Tim used Tissue Wrap Collage from January 2015 & Stencil Plaid from June 2015.   Below are some things I tried that worked & didn't work.  Also a group of us get together to do Tim's tags each month & since yesterday was National Selfie Day we took a selfie so for fun I included it below.

Tissue Wrap Collage: I wanted to use different dies & background stamps. The only big challenge was finding a die that fit the larger size tag we use. Most of the Bigz dies have different pieces & because of the way they are arranged on the die it would cut out pieces from our tag that we didn't want. I think you could get around it with some of the dies by cutting before putting the tissue on then replacing the pieces that you didn't want cut out.  Once the tissue was on it would cover the piecing up.  I decided to use the Dress Form Die but I cut it from card stock then traced it on the tag & cut it out by hand. Some of the girls used Movers & Shapers & one even used WPlus9 quilt dies. We didn't have any of the Substrate Sheets so we used a tag but from there we followed Tim's directions by stamping on the tissue, etc.

Supplies: Ranger #10 tag, Idea-ology Plain Tissue Wrap, Ranger Black Archival Ink, Hero Art Script Stamp, Bo-bunny Stitches Stamps, Stamper's Anonymous Random Thoughts Stamp Set, Papertrey Ink Quilter's Sampler Stamp Set, Ranger Distress Vintage Collage Medium, Ranger Collage Brush Set, BigZ Dress Form Die

Stencil Plaid Technique: I was afraid I'd ruin the textile sheet so I decided to practice the technique on a piece of card stock first...well it looked terrible! I finally just took the plunge & it was perfect because the textile absorbs the ink. I used the mini ink pads to ink the stencil but decided to try using the markers. I felt I had more control over applying the ink with the markers. I also didn't need to use a full sheet of the textile.  After I put the 2 tags together using matte medium I used a distresser & ink the edges & crinkles.

Supplies: Ranger #10 tag, Stampers Anonymous Stencil Stripes, Idea-ology Textile Surfaces, Ranger Distress Markers Black Soot, Walnut Stain, Fired Brick Markers, Ranger Distress Sprayer, Ranger Multi Medium MatteTonic Paper DistresserRanger Walnut Stain Mini Ink Pad

To embellish my tag I used a lot of things from my stash...buttons, a slide with sheer black ribbon, Idea-ology Occasions Small Tall Stickers outlined with a Black Soot Marker, metal scissors on a Idea-ology Loop Pin, a tag made with Stampers-anonymous Adverts Stamp Set with a Maya Road stick pin through it then stapled on the tag using Idea-ology Tiny Attacher, a resin flower inked with Adirondack Mushroom Alcohol Ink & Adirondack Cranberry Alcohol Ink, a piece of ribbon with a Idea-ology safety pin through it.







National Selfie Day:  Here are the Gigglers (minus 1 who had to leave before we took the selfie) who make Tim's tag each month at The Craft Shack. Although we follow Tim's techniques we each have our own style & ideas for our tags.  We love doing them & learning new ways to use Tim's products but the best part is making them together!  From left to right is Lisa, me, Mary Ann, Judy & Susan.  Robin was home sleeping by the time this was taken...LOL!

Well until next month...TFL!!


Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Wedding Congratulations


This was a quick card I did for a friend's son's wedding.  The card base is SU Brown Sugar CS & the card front is popped up.  The dress & sentiment are stamped in SU Brown Sugar Ink from SU's Love & Laughter.  I used the SU Modern Punch with mini Taupe pearls as accents. 

What's special about this card is the lace is from their wedding invitation.  TLF!


Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Happy Birthday Pam!

This is another card for the Giggler's June Birthday celebration dinner & it's for my SIL, Pam.  I don't have any sisters & I was lucky enough to marry a guy with 5 sisters! This card has 2 techniques by Jennifer McGuire called Faux Dimension with Stamping and Stencils.  I would recommend watching her video but I did make a few mistakes which I talked about below.

Faux Dimension with Stamps - It's a little hard to see but 'happy birthday" is shadowed.  I started with white cardstock & used my Mini Misti to stamp "happy birthday" from My Favorite Things Party Balloons Stamp Set in VersaFine Black.  The only problem I had was getting the stamp clean.  Once the stamp was REALLY clean, I moved the cardstock up & to the right just a little then stamped "happy birthday" in Versamark. Then I moved it back to the original position & stamped again in Versamark.  It's important to do it in that order because the Versamark will pick up the black ink & you'll end up with a gray shadow instead of white. Ask me how I know...Mistake #1 because that's what I did the 1st time!   Then I heat embossed it using WOW Clear Embossing Powder.  The shadow is hard to see until you do the next technique.

Faux Dimension with Stencils - First using a ink blending tool I put a light layer of Shaded Lilac over the entire card front.  I didn't have any large stencils so I used Tim Holtz's Lace Stencil. Mistake #2 because I had to move it & it's not a repeating stencil but it still looked pretty good.  If I would have planned better I would have put the seam at the bottom so I could have covered it up with a ribbon but I didn't...LOL!  I used masking tape to hold the stencil in place & went over it again with the same color ink & made it darker.  Then I moved the stencil slightly & dabbed over it with white ink.  I gently wiped the ink off the sentiment & then heat set the ink before adding the embellishments.

One other thing Jennifer did in her video was remove the embossing using an iron & copy paper after applying the white ink.  I was going to try it but forgot & put the card together.  I'll save that for another day because I'm definitely using this technique again.  I think Jennifer McGuire is such an inspiration & her techniques aren't very difficult.  Hope you take time to watch her videos!

TFL!!

Monday, June 13, 2016

A Cheesy Birthday Wish

This is a birthday card for another NEPA Giggler, Shannon who has a June birthday too.  She LOVES cheese so when I saw a card done by Sara Rayner on Pinterest I knew I had to do something similar.
Super easy card.  The hardest part was masking the sentiment which is part of the stamp with the cheese.  I placed masking tape over the sentiment but forgot to take it off when I stamped it so of course I had to do it over! For dimension, I used foam tape to put the front on the base.  I love the sentiment & wanted to use it on the inside of the card which is below.  Isn't it perfect for a cheese lover?

TFL!!


Supplies:  SU Cardstock-Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Whisper White; SU Stamp Sets-Perfectly Penned, Giggle Greetings; SU Punches-Circles 1/2", 3/4:, 1", 2 1/2", Scallop 2 3/8, Inverted Corner; Inks-VersaFine BlackMemento Tuxedo Black; Copics-Y06, Y15, T19; Misc-Jelly Roll Clear Star, Masquerade Art Masking TapeScotch Foam Mounting Tape.



Happy Bee-day!

This month our group, the NEPA Gigglers will be celebrating 4 birthdays!  One of the girls, Laney has a honey bee business so I decided to make a punch art bee for her card.  I was inspired by a bee I saw on Pinterest by Barbara Roe.
The bee is made with SU punches:  Ornament - body; Large oval - black stripes & wings; 3/4" - head; I drew the antennas on with a marker.  I think the wings are too big & I should have used the a smaller oval punch.  I went over the wings with Clear Wink of Stella for a little shimmer.

The flowers are stamped using a mask & colored with Copic markers. For the centers I punched a 3/4" circle from double sided sticky paper then added Elizabeth Craft Fine Glitter & colored them with a Copic.

Very easy card...TFL!

Supplies:  SU Cardstock-Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Basic Black, Velum; SU Stamps-Birthday Greetings, Petal Potpourri; Copics-Y02, Y06, Y08, Y19, Y35, Y38, YG95, E47 & E49;  SU Punches - Ornament, Large Oval, 3/4: Circle.  Ink-SU Basic Black, VersaFine Black, Memento Tuxedo BlackWink of Stella

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Oh Bananas, Look Who's 50!

This is a snarky card (in a fun way) for a friend who recently had her 50th birthday!  Of course the occasion called for a little humor!
I've used the paper & stamps on cards before but never with partial die cutting.  The technique is in Jennifer McGuire's YouTube Video See Through Cards. In her video Jennifer cuts the card stock at one angle but my cut on the "5" fell at an odd place so I added another angle.  We also used this technique in a recent class at The Craft Shack & the girls loved it.

Jennifer is so creative!!



This is the snarky part...the inside sentiment!  She had a good laugh over it but she doesn't feel she needs to stop buying green bananas...yet!!  LOL!



TFL!
















Supplies:  Sweet 'n Sassy's "I've Got Your Number" Stamp & Die Set; DeNami Design Banana Stamp; Whipper Snapper Designs "Green Bananas Sentiment Stamp; SU Whisper White & Wild Wasabi CS; DSP Reminisce "Hangin' Around", VersaFine Black; Copic 100, G82, G85, Y32.