WMS Blog Party June 2012

Here's my card for the Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Party for June 2012. I used the inspiration photo to provide the colour-way.

The Authentique paper did the work, and coordinated nicely with the Big Blooms- Poinsettia stamps from WMS. The sentiment came from the versatile Say it Loud set. An orange Swarovski heat-set crystal and a few teal ones scattered on the background finished this off nicely.

Today was also Father's Day in Canada. I used the Stampendous Changito stamp I picked up on sale recently and coloured with Copics. So appropriate as my daughter used to do this when she was little! I used the WMS stamp "Thanks for being there!" for the inside greeting.

Part of my husband's Father's Day gift was this sock monkey adoption kit. Fun! 

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to go and see all the inspiration on the WMS blog.

100 Sketches!

Congratulations to Waltzingmouse Stamps Sketch Blog. They have posted their 100th Sketch Challenge this week. Here is the sketch:

I rotated the sketch slightly and used a couple of different stamps from Waltzingmouse Stamps for this pretty in pink card.

I paper-pieced the dress and added some pearls and clear glitter for posh highlights. My Spellbinders Nestabilities helped frame the dress.

Thanks for visiting. Be sure to go and see all the entries for this special centennial sketch challenge. 

Mixed Media Collage

Recently I took a Mixed Media Collage Workshop at my local stamp store Stampers!, with pewter/metal artist Elitia Hart from Alberta. I had taken foundational classes with her last year and was happy to have an opportunity to take a project-based class with her.

Elitia provided us with 9 inch square pieces of masonite covered with lovely art paper featuring antique French postal marks. This gave us a sturdy base to apply our tooled metal. We used a Ten Seconds Studio mold to create a basic grid pattern that we then filled with some metal embossing, more of the art paper, coloured ink jet transparency art images, and patinaed copper which Elitia also provided.

I followed Elitia's design and sample fairly faithfully as I wanted to focus on technique. I added the Swarovski crystals, above, and an embossed black background mat, below, once I got home, but the rest was pretty much as Elitia instructed. I look forward to trying some other collages using stamped images and other mixed media ideas.

If you have an opportunity to take a class with Elitia, don't hesitate! She is a lovely, generous teacher with a supportive nature. She'll even help fix your odd boo-boo, as I can attest!

Sweet Birthday Wishes X 2

I normally only make one of anything, but I was having a lot of fun making this birthday card and the materials were all out, so I made two similar cards using the same layout.

The ticket is made with a die from Memory Box, and the matching stamp. I coloured it with Copic markers.

The sentiment is a Waltzingmouse Stamp. I distressed the bird wing to give it a bit of interest and the eye is a dot of Ranger's Enamel Accents. 

I cut the branch out of cardstock and popped it up on foam tape to 3-D it.

I put some pink-peach pearls in the center of the blooms made with a set of graduated Marianne Creatables dies that look like this:

By snipping one or more petals away and then glueing the shortened ends together, the flowers become 3-D.

Here is the second take. I added some glitter to the blooms, and I like the two-ribbon treatment on this one best.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Great Big Hugs

It's time for the Waltzingmouse Blog Party, which was delayed one week. The theme this month is "felt." Now - I am not a trendy girl. It takes me a long time to warm up to a fad or phase and pretty much once the parade has passed, then I start to get interested. 

There are four fairly "new" things for me in this month's card.

1) I used felt. I have long admired cards featuring felt embellishments, but I think this is the first time I have used it on a card myself. I made a little rolled flower with some pink felt in my stash.

2) I used baker's twine. I think I have only used this once or twice before, even though card makers have been tying one on for a few years now. I think Martha Stewart started that craze.

Sentiment from Frame-it Set, embossed in pink.

3) I made a fairly Clean and Simple Card. Totally atypical for me.

4) I made a PASTEL card. I never use pastel colours. I normally like deep saturated hues.

This card also works horizontally. How fun is that? Head over to the WMS blog to join in the fun and see all the lovely creations this month using those "little stamps that could" from Ireland!

Birthday Nostalgia

I like cards with unusual folds, especially if they display well, but also fold down into a standard 4.25 X 5.5 inch format. The Z-fold card does this. These can be made horizontally or - as here, vertically. 

I wish I could tell you where I first learned to make these. I think it was Splitcoast Stampers, which is a wonderful online resource.

I used a portion of my Sizzix ScoreBoards XL Die - Box w/Scallop Flap & Flowers  to create the flap for my card. It is convenient when you have a set of rubber stamps that all work well together. All the stamps in this project came from this Inkadinkado Nostalgia clear stamp set:

The Prima Flora paper did the heavy lifting here, all I needed to do was clear emboss Versafine black ink.

The hidden panel in the Z-fold is where the sentiment went, and I put my personal greeting on the back of the card.

One more photo - the side view so you can see how this card stands upright so well. Thanks for visiting today!

Happy Mother's Day! 2012

Recently on the radio they reported that in a survey of mothers, when asked what they would like most for Mother's Day - 80 percent replied "To be left alone!" LOL!

Sunday, May 13 is Mother's Day here in Canada. I sent my card off to my mother last week - am hoping she got it in time. My colour scheme fits for the  CR84FN color challenge to use Mint, Blue and Neutral as seen here:

I had fun playing with some new craft items to make this card. The bird and birdcage were part of the Pink Paislee London Market Ephemera Pack that I picked up last weekend at Scrapbook Parade, a local store that I have not been to since they moved out of my neighborhood three years ago. I added some Rock Candy stickles to the bird to add a bit of shimmer, and distressed with Tea Dye ink. Mounted these pieces to a "ticket" die (Memory Box) on which I had sewn some Tim Holtz Idea-ology tissue tape.

These flowers were made using the Cheery Lynn Cuties die strips 1, 2 and 3. I bought them at my local stamp store, Stampers! and I talked about them in this post. Thanks to them, I am able to enter this card in the May Creative Accents challenge here to use handmade flowers. The Happy Mother's Day stamp is an Inkadinkado stamp from the happy Days clear set. A little lace and pearls and that's all, folks!