Rainbow Birthday

Here’s another card from the OCC class Sparkle and Shine. It is kind of funny I am not big on shiny sparkly but I love their classes so I signed up. It was great as usual and I am seeing that depending how you use it glitter can look great. It’s not that I don’t like it. I also don’t care about any glitter mess but if you don’t do it right well of course it doesn’t look right. So I will just say I was really pleased with this card especially the glittery part.

I can’t remember if I made this glitter paper or used a pre-glittered piece. I think this one I actually added the Warm Diamond Elizabeth Craft Designs micro fine glitter to paper using Sookwang double sided adhesive. I then used my Copics to color the rainbow colors. I used a The Stamps of Life die called Happy Birthday Circle and an additional Spellbinders Circle to cut out the glittery rainbow sentiment. In real life it looks cool with the ultra fine glitter which I prefer. The background paper is from a DCWV paper pad.

Petunia Hello

I created this card using a stamp set from Rubbernecker Stamps. This stamp is called Petunias (866). I like their stamps and I got another set like this one called Poppies. I like the look and that you can be a bit more free with it instead of trying to line things up perfectly. They do some nice demos at the stamp shows. I stamped on watercolor paper. I forget what I used for the color in the flower but I am pretty sure the outline is Versafine Onyx Black. I might of used some pens and spritzed them with water? Then I did a little watercoloring around the flowers. The oval and frame is cut with a Spellbinders die Card Creator Filigree Delight. The sentiment is stamped with a stamp from Hero Arts set Everyday Sayings (CL342).

County Fair Entries

It is that time of year again for our county fair. It is the Alameda County Fair and it starts in just under a month. Kind of fun this year they are having a cattle drive down the main street of the town where the fairgrounds are. Let me just say I do not live in a rural area. This is the first time they are doing this and I want to go check this out.

So last year my son suggested that I enter some of my cards at the fair so I entered two last year. This year I got more ambitious and entered four. I picked 4th of July, Sympathy, Birthday, and a Thank You card. At the same time as I was creating the cards starting about 2 weeks ahead of time the OCC Sparkle and Shine class was going on so there was a tiny bit of overlap but also it took a lot of my time to come up with so many cards in a short period of time. And.. I only did 2 days of the 6 days of classes. You know when they are going to be on display at the fair you have to be more picky. So you know how that goes. Try something it doesn’t look right, sleep on it, try another combination of things and on it goes. Finally you get them done.

Here they are all together.

And here we go with the details on each card.

I created the watercolor background some time back and finally put it to use. I stamped the flowers using Hero Arts stamp Blooming Meadow (CG171). I die cut the scalloped oval with a Spellbinders die Big Scalloped Ovals (S4-251). The tree is cut with Memory Box die Small Alder Tree (98792). The greeting is from a somewhat new set to me by Altenew called Painted Greetings.

This one took several passes before I got the look I liked. Seems like a simple card but it took a bit to get there. The background is Neenah Desert Storm paper which I was waiting for from a recent order from Simon Says Stamp. I have not had any of it before. The fireworks are stamped and heat embossed with Hero Arts stamp Fireworks (D5999)(strange name ha). I used Ranger Red Tinsel embossing powder which has some glitter in it but it doesn’t show to much in the photo. The sentiment is heat embossed using a Hero Arts stamp from the set Celebrate Everyday (CL498). The stars is a die from Simon Says Stamp called Star Parade (S227). I cut it out three times from a paper pad by Authentique. The die cuts the outline and the stars/partial stars. So I laid them all out and put various patterns back in.

This was a fun one! I just got this die set that cuts the card back and front, the heart panel and hearts and the thank you. This is a card that worked for the OCC class Sparkle and Shine and for the fair. So you cut out the back and front at once from a long piece of paper. The die is by Sizzix/Stephanie Bardnard called Thank You Drop-in. Then I cut out the white panel with the hearts. I also used that panel part to cut out some colorful hearts from the Lawn Fawn plaid paper pad. I glued the hearts back in some of the open spots. The Thank You is where the OCC Sparkle and Shine came in.  The first day was all about glitter. I used some glitter paper with the ultra fine glitter on it already. It was white so I colored with Copics to match my card and cut the Thank You out with the die that comes with the set.

And here is the last but not least. As you can see it’s a floral birthday card which is one of my favorites to make. For the background I used an embossed white piece of paper from a DCWV paper pad I got on sale. I inked over it with some Quick Quotes ink. I love this ink for when you are looking for a more subtle chalky look. The panel behind the flowers is cut with a Lawn Fawn die Stitched Journaling Card.  The flowers and leaves are from a brand new set to me from WPlus9. Actually they are from 2 sets Modern Peonies and Modern Anemones. I heat embossed all the leaves and flowers on watercolor paper using brass embossing powder. I then painted them in with Oxide inks that I put down on my mat and watered down and also did some mixing them together. I used Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick, Fired Brick and Peeled Paint. I also did fussy cutting and the largest flower is raised using foam tape. The sentiment is from a somewhat new set to me also by Altenew called Painted Greetings using the same brass embossing powder and heat embossing.

This is a pretty lengthy post wouldn’t you say. If you read all the way to the bottom or skimmed to the bottom.. let me know which card you like best.

OCC Sparkle & Shine Day 1

This was really fun to make and I am happy with the way it turned out. I had a blue watercolor panel already done. I stuck some Sookwang double sided adhesive to the back of the panel. I cut the butterfly out and put the detail part of the butterfly back in the die cut area.  I dumped on some Elizabeth Craft Designs copper glitter and kind of pushed it down onto the adhesive. Then I kind of burnished it with my finger. I used the Swiffer Sweeper pieces to clean up the glitter and they worked great. I cut out the panel using Spellbinders die Marvelous Squares (S4-383). The sentiment is heat embossed with PSX copper embossing powder with a Hero Arts stamp from the It’s Your Day set (CL661). The copper background paper kind of looks glittery but it is not. It is more shimmery.

Here’s another watercolored background. The stars I created using a Simon Says Stamp die called Star Parade. I adhered Sookwang  to white card stock. I die cut it and then took the adhesive release paper off. I sprinkled blue extra fine glitter all over and used the same technique as above. The fireworks are stamped with a Hero Arts stamp called strangely enough Fireworks (D5999). My intention was to stamp with Versamark and emboss with silver glitter powder. Well I had a bunch of stuff out and grabbed the wrong thing. So I did stamp with Versamark. I thought I was grabbing the silver glitter powder but it was actually Judikins Sticky Stuff embossing powder. Oh no for just a second, then wait this is an opportunity. So I heated it up with heat gun like Kristina mentioned in class and then sprinkled extra fine glitter on it. BONUS! I got to try another one of the techniques from Day 1 of Sparkle & Sprinkle. The greeting is from Hero Arts set Celebrate Everyday (CL498).

Aloha Pineapples

I had some fun today making this at my local paper crafting store. We are so lucky to have this great store. They have the latest and greatest stamps, dies and paper. Many other crafty things too. It is called Live Happy Paper Crafts in Danville, California. On some Mondays they have free make n takes. This was so cute I had to go up and make one.

This was made with a Hero Arts color layering pineapple set. The background is just one layer of the top leaves of the pineapple stamped randomly or in lines (depending on how your mind works) with Hero Arts ink. The pineapples were cut out with dies and then stamped with a Misti type tool. The hints I got today from Veronica was to cut the pineapple out from your white paper then cut it out again with a different color like kraft. Use that negative piece to line things up. So put the negative piece in your Misti or similar tool then put the stamp piece in the negative piece and shut the lid and pick up the stamp. Then put your diecut in the negative space and stamp. I just never thought of doing that and it helps make things easier. So away I went stamping the layers this way. One pineapple is glued down on the background and the other has foam tape under it. The sentiment I think is also from that stamp set which I do not have. All the inks were Hero Arts too. Fun!

To All A Good Night

I was inspired by Merry Monday #246 with a theme of Twas the Night Before Christmas. I did not enter it for the challenge but I made the card.

So I got the idea to create a scene looking out the window and seeing Santa waving to all and saying Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night. This means a lot to me because my Mom liked to read it on Christmas Eve even when were all grown up.

I started out thinking that I would put a tree on the edge like it was inside the house but I decided to just do a border. The border is a holly embossing folder. I inked over the holly with Oxide ink Peeled Paint.

The window frame I cut with my Cameo. I need to get that out more often. Instead trying to create in the middle of the holly I just made the outdoor scene on a piece of paper slightly larger than the window opening. I inked the background with Faded Jeans Oxide ink on bristol paper. I forgot this takes a bit to dry. I then stamped the snow with Versamark using an Altenew stamp called Snowing. When I went to sprinkle on the embossing powder… oops it stuck all over because the Oxide ink wasn’t dry. I brushed a bunch off and decided it was going to be a bad snow storm night and went with it. I just bought the Santa Sleigh Silhouette stamp at Hobby Lobby pretty much to make this card. It was only a couple dollars. I stamped it with Watering Can Archival ink.

The blue on the base of the card is Faded Jeans Oxide ink. I just couldn’t find a blue paper I liked with the rest of the card.

And as you can see I hand wrote my sentiment.

 

Hero Arts Scramble 152

We had a fun 24 hour Scramble ending this morning. I made my card yesterday and took a little longer than the 90 minutes. Scramble 152 was hosted by LaVon and her theme was use a single image 3 times. I decided I wanted to use a wood mount Hero Arts stamp because they don’t come out as much.

Background – That took a few passes and I started with different colors that I didn’t like. These are Oxide inks Peeled Paint and Fossilized Amber watered down on wet watercolor paper.

The flowers – I heat embossed them with brass embossing powder. The stamp doesn’t have a name but the number is H5481. One of them, as you can see, I colored in painting with Oxide inks Fired Brick and Spiced Marmalade. Towards the center of the flower I used Vintage Photo Distress ink. The center of the flower was done with a yellow Glaze pen. The other two flowers are just heat embossed on the watercolor background with that same brass powder.

The leaves – They are from Hero Arts set Three Dotted Flowers (CG291). I heat embossed them with the brass powder and painted them with Oxide ink Peeled Paint and a tiny bit of watered down Vintage Photo Distress ink.

The sentiment – It’s from Hero Arts set It’s Your Day (CL661) stamped with Vintage Photo Distress ink.

Dog Wrestling Matches

Our two dogs Lucy and Aspen. We adopted these two at the same time. We wanted two so they would have each other to hang or play with. At first it was kind of a challenge. Partly because one of them has taken much more time to come around. For instance she is afraid of the dark. Anyway they are not buddy buddy but they like each other and get along well. They romped and chased a few times when we first got them 5 months ago but not much since then. Just the other day out of the blue for two days in a row they decided to chase each other like crazy and do some wrestling. I think the first day Lucy (the black and white dog) took the points. The second day I think Aspen (the brown and black dog) took it. I got photos each day.

They are fun to watch and each one has their own thing going on. Lucy will fetch and bring back a ball or toy the entire day long and doesn’t care about much else. Aspen likes to chew on the toys and squeak them but doesn’t care much about fetching. They are both sweet girls.

This is Lucy. She is such a smart dog. She slide open the shower door to lick the water off the shower floor and it is not that easy to slide. She also knows when the phone rings around 7 pm it is Scott my husband calling to make sure the dogs are in the house or secure in the back yard so he can pull in the garage. She starts running back and forth looking out the front window and going to the garage door to see him. She also loves chasing the flashlight beam so when I go out to roast coffee beans at night she follows me right out and will wait for at least 7 minutes for me to play the flashlight game with her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Merry Monday Holly Wreath

I created this for the Merry Monday challenge this week with the theme of wreath.
You can check out Merry Monday here. This was fun to create.

•  I created the background bricks using a stencil from My Favorite Things called Small Brick Wall (ST-46). I mixed the embossing paste with Fired Brick Oxide ink.
• The wreath and holly are from an Impression Obsession die set (DIE23-X). The wreath and leaves are cut from colored cardstock. I layered 2 wreaths. The lower wreath has a bit of Heidi Swapp gold Color Shine sprayed on it but I didn’t love it so I kind of tucked it underneath.
• The holly leaves were a bit tedious to cut since there are only the two leaves connected together. I put some Nuvo clear drop on them to create a bit of shine. I spread it with my finger to not have it be to thick. I am not crazy about the look but there it is.
• The berries I created with Nuvo drops. I think I need a bit of practice. Some of them kind of ran together. One bunch of them I completely removed and redid them.
• The sentiment is cut with a die from Find It Trading which you will see on many of my cards. I love the way it looks and the size too. I used a Xyron sticker maker to add adhesive to the sentiment. I got the sticker maker in a package from a thrift store and it didn’t work to well on getting the adhesive removed from around the word so I may be dumping that roll of adhesive. I sprayed the sentiment with a little bit of the gold Color Shine.

More Ms. Bunny Cards

Here is a couple more bunny cards that I made. I had two bunnies already colored and I like the way my Scramble bunny card looked so here’s a few more. I was inspired by Hero Arts Scramble 151 that was hosted by Cindy to make my first bunny card. I really like the way the orange dress turned out on my Scramble card so that is why you see another orange dress here. You will notice each is a bit different. I get bored making many cards exactly the same. I like to make my life more complicated instead of easier sometimes.

Background Paper – Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid – Rainbow. I love their plaid paper pads. I have two different ones.

• The long stem flowers on the purple plaid card are from a Hero Arts set I found at a thrift store. I don’t have the name but they are from 2004. All of the flowers are colored with Copics. I added Clear Wink of Stella over the flowers.
• The group of flowers on the other two cards is by Kolette Hall called Flower Garden.
• The grass is a stamp from Avocado Arts. I stamped it several times and then ink blended over it.
• The bunny is a La-La Land Crafts – I colored some of the bunnies with colored pencils and the others with Copics. There is a little bit of Nuvo glitter drops on the third card.
• The sentiment on the first and second card is from a Hero Arts set Celebrate Everyday (CL498).
• The sentiment on the third card is a stamp from Peddler’s Pack Stampworks.