Using Alcohol based pens for coloring stamps

I am not a colorer as I've stated before.  But I played along today with May Flaum's challenge of doing a simple and fast holiday card by just stamping and coloring.  I'm not so sure about the fast part.  I did enjoy the coloring for once but I painstakingly took my time to blend the colors.  Not too bad but it did bleed just a bit.  But I'm happy with the results and will add this card to my growing holiday stash.  Now I need to get busy and actually address and send them out before New Year's hits.

Tussi Mussies Continued

This tussie mussie below reminded me just how much I love to get messy and inky.  This one is made from white glossy card stock.  I sprayed it with Dylusions in Vibrant Turquoise and Postbox Red.  The colors get muted due to soaking into the glossy card stock.  But I like them just the same.  I also liked that I had just the right ribbon and beads to embellish it.  The stamping was all done in a permanent black ink.  Stamps are from Hero Arts and Inkadinkadoo.

Christmas 2012 Obsession: Tussie Mussies

What's a Tussie Mussie you ask?  It is a cone shape device that traditionally holds a nosegay.  But the tussie mussie can also hold a host of other things for any occasion.  Two years ago I was obsessed with mini-houses and last year the rosettes.  Now I am on to tussie mussies.

Below are my attempts so far.   As the holidays progress I will refine and add to this collection.

These first two are cone shaped and a tad difficult to work with.

This one is an actual box with flaps to close and definitely easier to construct and handle.

May Flaum's Christmas Camp Day One

Day One - Make the most of 30 minutes:  I love May's style and challenges and today is day one.  I cheated a bit because I already had these cards made just a few days ago.  But each card definitely took less than 30 minutes to make.  Partly because in both cases I had the focal points already made and waiting to be used. The first card uses the Simon Says Stamp! December Card Kit and the second is from the class I took from May IRL just a few weeks ago using the Tim Holtz Blue Print Nut Cracker stamp and May's fun techniques with inks and sprays.

Graphic 45 Birthday Card and Gift Box

It's that time of year again when I get together with a neighbor friend of mine, Jana, and we exchange birthday gifts.  We are a bit late.  She is a hard working high school teacher and I, well, I'm busy doing "stuff".  But we take the time to make the most of our gift exchange and draw it out for hours.  We are hoping to see each other this week sometime.  But with Thanksgiving looming it could be tricky.

Jana is responsible for me being an addicted crafter.  After that famous embossing demo she did I was hooked on stamping.  She laughed at my little tote box with a few ink pads and stamps.  She knew that wouldn't contain my enthusiasm for long.  Now my craft room is overflowing along with my brain for card ideas.

My card for Jana merely started as a challenge among my dear friends Jen, Nancy and Chrissie.  Jen alerted us to this engineered style card and I threw down the gauntlet challenging us all to make one.  I made the entire card from Graphic 45 "Birdsong" which I have previously posted.  But while I was making it I realized I had Jana's birthday card in the making.  It is now embellished with copper metal corners and embossed sheet metal, beads, die cuts, chip board and ribbon.

I also made Jana a pair of earrings.  But they needed to go into a special box as well.  Again Graphic 45 "Birdsong" using the CTMH cartridge "Artiste" to make this gift box.  I am happy how it all came together.

A few more holiday cards

Since that Online Holiday Card Class I can't stop making cards.  These are ones that I just sat down and made after all that inspiration for two weeks.  I have such a variety of stamps for the holidays and typically never use them.  So happy I got the jump on this season and I'll be ready to send these out after Thanksgiving.

Thanks for looking.

Ms Nancy's Squirrel Girls Challenge

This time we are doing the TJ "Distress Dip" technique.  I'm calling it the distress mess.  I haven't gotten that messy in ages and I loved it.  I need to do more of this kind of play.  I ended up with an assortment of great backgrounds to stamp on.

This is my submission to Nancy's challenge this time around.  The stamp used is a street of line drawn houses from Club Scrap's "Neighborhood" collection.  The houses are stamped in CS India Ink Black.  The heart is a hand punch.  Doorways and trees were colored in with Distress Markers.

Day 9 Card

Today's card (yes, I am caught up!) is about stamping sentiments and I chose the faux metal stamping.  Rather than use embossing powder to create a metallic canvas to stamp on, I opted to use a teal metallic paper from Club Scrap's Raku collection.  Embossed background dots with an embossing folder, added washi tape and twines to finish off the card.  Sentiment is from Michael Strong's "Joyful" collection for Club Scrap.

Day 8 Card

Day 8's goal is to use a die cut of some sort.   A very, very simple card but I am rather pleased with myself for it's ease and quickness in making it.  Top panel is cut with a large triangle punch, stamped sentiment from Hero Arts, red gold dotted paper underneath from Club Scrap, topped with an epoxy star sticker.

Day 7 card: Reverse stamp

I think Negative Stamp might be a better name.  There isn't as much detail on this stamp to show off the inking technique but as my friend Nancy say's "everything is better with a bird on it".  I do love the simplicity and iciness of this Hero Arts stamp.  Snowflakes are Tim Holtz.

Day 6: Stained Glass Coloring

Again with the coloring!  I had to get inventive on this one since I did not have the stamp with the stained glass look to use.  I cut this star using the Cricut and CTMH Art Philosophy.  I then ran the star through an embossing folder to give it  the "leaded" borders to color within.  I used Distress Markers and then sprayed the star with Perfect Pearls for the shimmer but it doesn't show up in the photo. The card base was also put through the same embossing folder but I used the "negative" side for the base.  Added some printed paper and a little bling.  Meh...not me best card ever but I'm still plugging away to keep up.  I am now 2 days behind!

Day 5 Tag Card

The sample for this card involved some elaborate embossing and painting so I opted out and went with this ticket stamp from Tim Holtz and a lot of layering of printed papers.  Background stamp from Hero Arts.

Day 5 Tree Card

This class has really forced me to be on my blog, LOL.  My Cricut and CTMH cartridge really came through for me on this one.  I did die cuts for the trees rather than using stamps.  I intended to use red hearts but just didn't like the look so used red for the card base instead.  Like the more monotone look of the card that way.

Day 4 Santa Card

My final card for today's assignment and I'm all caught up!  This Santa is from the Tim Holtz collection that I won several years ago on his blog.  I love it's Old World charm.  Not my best coloring job but he'll do just fine for the "B" list, LOL.  

Day 4: Outline stamps Bird cards

Our assignment today was to make "quick" cards with outlined stamps and color them in.  I am not a colorer by any means but this did go quickly.  This cute little bird stamp of a Vermillion Flycatcher was a gift from two friends.  A real Vermillion Flycatcher is a very, very bright red but I just worked with what I had in Copic pens and Distress Markers.

Day 3 dry embossed card

This card is also dry embossed with a Hero Arts holly folder accompanied by it's own stamp of the holly.  I did not follow very closely the instructions for this assignment due to not having the suggested materials but it's close in look just the same.

Holiday Card Workshop Day 3 Dry Embossing

I am catching up with day 3 finally and even finished day 4 which I will post shortly.   I used a Cuttlebug dry embossing folder of sheet music.  It was fun to use this as a background for the Falala.  The ornaments are epoxy stickers.  Falala stamp is from Club Scrap.  Also from Club Scrap is the red, gold-dotted paper from "Gratitude" collection giving it a very festive feel.

Holiday Card Workshop Day 2 (late) Collage Cards

Getting a wee bit behind.  I feel like I Love Lucy in the candy factory.  This was a pretty easy card to make a bunch of.  After making the collage panels and cutting them up it went quite quickly.  Materials used:  Club Scrap stamps and silver paper from Culinary for snowflakes, Distress inks and large chevron stamp from Impression Obsession.  Snowflakes made using CTMH "Artiste" cartridge, "season's greetings" from Hero Arts.

Holiday Card Workshop Day 2 - Ornament Card

This was a tricky and very involved assignment.  I didn't follow the directions for the latter half of the assembly.  Just way too complicated for my tastes.  But all-in-all these turned out well and I will happily use them.  Ornament cutout was made with my Cricut and the Artiste cartridge from Close To My Heart.  Used flourish background stamp from Judi-Kins, heart punch and Purple Cow paper cutter made the scalloped edges.  All papers from various Club Scrap collections.  Top two cards I stamped flourish background with Mahogany Distress Ink.  Bottom card embossed with Ultra Thick Enamel in Pearl.

Holiday Card Workshop Part II...Owl Card

This is the second card lesson of today.  Finding everything I need in my stash is great.  Owl is colored with Copic Pens...not my best technique but then I rarely use these pens.  It does make a difference using the right card stock for this kind of coloring.  My first attempt on a matte finished paper was a disaster, LOL.  I added ribbon for the scarf and some tiny stamped snowflakes.  This card is only 3x3.

Holiday Card Workshop Day One

Day one is off to a great start with this brilliant way to mass produce (if you want) a large amount of cards.  I just made this one but the general technique of masking and using a stamp press is wonderful to have in my tool box.

All stamps are from Michael Strong for Club Scrap's "Joyful" collection.  Inks are a blend of Club Scrap Hybrid Ink and India Black Ink along with Distress Inks.  Base paper is from Carta Bella "Winter Fun".

Weekend Card Challenge

Club Scrap's blog recently showed an "engineered" card that caught the attention of my friend Jen.  So I opened my big mouth and set up a weekend challenge among friends to see what we could all come up with using the format as our guide.  The results have been amazing.  I am finally completing one worthy of displaying after several false starts and goof-ups.

With the exception of the ribbon, all materials are from Echo Park's "Chillingsworth Manor" collection.

FRONT

INSIDE

October Squirrely Art Challenge: "In The Middle"

My friend Nancy has given us Squirrely Girls a fun challenge for the month of October.  It's very simple but one that can be elaborated on.  Finding time a few days ago I sat down and played with some stamps that I have had for awhile but not played with.  This was a great way to jump in and see what I can do with my stamps.

My first card was made with stamps from the Simon Says Stamp October kit.  Sweet line drawings of flowers and leaves with tiny sentiments like "missing you" below.  Border paper is also a SSS paper selection from a previous kit. Can't remember which one since once I play with a kit I just mix it in with whatever comes next.  Some waxed linen and a single button added from my stash.

Next card was made with stamps from Close To My Heart collection "Wicked" from 2011.  This set is irresistible.  I recently went to a 3 day Scramp Camp with my Westies friends and they were very popular.  Witch, cat and sentiment all from the same set.  Paper is all from Club Scrap:  a textured silver from "Culinary", orange from "Salsa" and sparkly black from "Crusin'", make this card shimmery.  Ribbon and buttons from stash.

Slow-down Sunday

My husband and I have been extremely busy with large home improvement projects for several months.  This has taken a chunk out of my crafting time but in the end will be well worth it.  Today we are taking a much needed day off from any kind of schedule.  We are just being plain ole lazy.

So this gave me a chance to dig into my latest Simon Says Stamp kit for October.  It's colors are very muted in beiges, white and black...my typical colors that I feel very comfortable with.  I made this card from nearly all exclusive elements from the kit with the exception of the wooden heart and waxed linen.  Paper and stamps...what a great way to spend a quiet Sunday.

PINK!

I have this love - hate relationship with the color pink.  Most of the time I think I don't like it.  But then I look in my closet and realize I do own a few items of clothing in pink.  Paper crafting is where I have had real trouble with this color.  I think I like pink and then I receive a scrapping kit collection and the pink will remind me of Kaopectate...hahahaha.  Then I see another collection and I'll love it.

So I am enjoying May Flaum's "Kit-Tastic" class.  This is about making your own kits from what you already have or at the very least USE what you have.  I recently bought Carta Bella's "Paris Girl"...it is white, black and PINK!  What was I thinking?  So for one of the challenges this week of "contrast" I grabbed Paris Girl and made these cards attempting to show contrast.  I don't know if I achieved that particular goal, but HEY... I like them!

Card base is from Club Scrap's "Haberdashery", a very pretty and sophisticated grey pinstripe-textured paper.  All other papers are Paris Girl, paper tape flower, assorted buttons and Dazzles stickers in black on the right card.

BTW, the lacy background was just from me fooling around with the Inkadinkado Stamping Gear on white paper which I photographed the cards on.

New Addictive Toy

Thanks to my buddies over at Club Scrap Coffeehouse, I was enabled to purchase (with a 50% off coupon) the new Inkadinkado Stamping Gear.  I love when a simple tool like this gives old stamps a new look.  This is quite addictive as you search your unmounted stamps to see what fits the stamping handle and how it will turn out.  My first two attempts:

Stamps used:  Club Scrap "Navajo" unmounted stamps

and Club Scrap "Generations" unmounted stamps

Fell off the LSNE wagon!

I'm just not cut out for the everyday pressure to create something I don't understand fully.  So one evening this past week I just played with my stuff all for me.  I have the new CTMH Cricut Cartridge "Artiste" and it is chocked full of fabulous, buildable items such as this cute purse below.  I used Graphic 45 papers from the "Steampunk Debutante" collection plus their metal butterfly embellishment.  The rest is from my stash.  Also made a card for an "OCAM" out of the same collection.

I guess I did learn something: that I don't like pressure creating unless absolutely necessary.  I just had plain, good fun letting my imagination  guide me.  It was pure joy.