squirrely art

Rosettes

2012-02-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

It's really fun to make these rosettes, this one is made with the Tim Holtz Rosette die from Sizzix, but you can easily make them without a die. A little punched flower and a vintage button round out the effect!

supplies:
Paper: Club Scrap
Stamp: Club Scrap
Punches: Stampin' Up (flower & flower border)

Counterfeit Kit Challenge

2012-02-09T18:49:00.000-08:00

Another month has arrived for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. This month we had two choices, both from Scrapbook Circle. Check it out here. Jen and I went with the Valentine theme, and after we started pulling it together we discovered it was harder than we first thought! But I think we came up with some pretty good kits, that will work well for both scrapbook pages and cards. I can't wait to dig into mine - all kinds of new papers and products she included. Check out Jen's blog to see what I sent her!

The kit I received has some great papers, love the cool tickets and the little hearts are totally gorgeous. She included some doilies, which we've become a fan of after taking an online class from May Flaum! Great little embellishments from Heidi Swapp, fibers and a whole batch of embossed pieces ready to be inked up. Great thing was I have none of these embossing folders in my collection, hard to believe huh?

I'm looking forward to making lots with this kit, so stay tuned!

Unscripted Sketches

2012-02-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick card I made using my left-overs from my Counterfeit Kit and the sketch from Unscripted Sketches (#141). Jennifer had sent me a bunch of die cuts and so I inked up this bird with Distress Festive Berries ink and then gave it a quick squirt of Perfect Pearls Pearl spray. Add an eye and a little heart cutout and it's good to go!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge - the Results

2012-02-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

Earlier in the month I posted the goodies that my friend Jen sent me to work on the CKC with, you can see the raw materials here. After that I got busy making some blank layouts, using sketches that I learned in the Double Take class at Big Picture Classes. Tonight I added the photos to complete them. Since the basics were done, doing the layouts took me only about an hour - pretty good for me.

Above is the the blank layout and then the completed layout. I didn't add a whole lot to this one since the embellishments are pretty detailed and fit with the subject. These are photos of the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens in Santa Rosa. I added some white writing under the Shasta Daisy - which was cultivated by Burbank in 1901. Also some handwritten journaling regarding the green house. The Garden Views is made with Thicker Stickers, first spritz with green spray then wiped over top with Picket Fence Distress Stain.

And this is second layout, blank and complete. I chose to leave the bird on the left without coloring, as the wood I felt went well with the layout and the trees! On the right I did my journaling on the tag which was made by Jen and then sprayed the die cuts with some gold Perfect Pearls Spray.

Can't wait for February's Challenge!

Squirrely Challenge - Pencil Resist

2012-01-29T14:23:00.000-08:00

The end of January brings us to our second Squirrely Challenge, using the Pencil Resist technique from the December 2010 issue. All you need are some good stamps, colored pencils and some distress inks!

The hard part for me is coloring the images in, not my strongest area of stamping. Then you have to pick colors that will enhance the colored part of your image, not always and easy task. Usually a color wheel helps me - I have a small one pinned up on the bulletin board by where I work. I usually find using complimentary colors works well, the colors across from each other on the wheel. (yellow & purple, red & green). Also working with a triad or tetrad works well, usually the back of your color wheel will help explain all of this.

Check out the work of the Squirrel Girls (see the links on the right column.)

Bold Layers

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

This is the Bold Layers technique from the Dec 2011 Technique Junkies newsletter. I've used Distress inks and Club Stamp papers and stamps. A a little bling, from Stampin' Up!

Club Scrap Navajo Cards

2012-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

the background stamp is a very cool blanket texture, here I stamped it in blue ink and then again over the top of that in grey ink. the small diamonds were stamped by coloring Gelatos directly on the rubber and spritzing with water.

Using the large image in grey and smaller images in a coral and blues I created the background for this tag.

Large stamp stamped with Club Scrap's Lagoon ink, then smaller images stamped with grey and coral inks.

Add caption

the diamond shape was stamped and embossed with some turquoise embossing powder.

these are just a few of the cards I made this month for Club Scrap's monthly Scrap Rap. It was such an honor to be asked! I received the Greetings to Go pack along with the stamps and some other embellishments and went from there. Once I got going the ideas were pouring into my brain. I have even more ideas left to try. Check out Club Scrap here!

busy week...

2012-01-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

This week I was super busy in the garage. (aka studio/craftroom). It's been very cold here in the Bay Area and so my little heater is working overtime keeping me warm. These photos are the aftermath of about 8 hours of card-making... on a deadline! I can't give the details out just yet, but let's hope they are well received!

As you can see, lots of open drawers! Seems I leave drawers and cupboard doors open all the time when I'm working - even in the kitchen! This is sometimes dangerous. Don't ask.

Any offers to help me clean up?

Zentangle Postcards

2012-01-19T13:18:00.000-08:00

Over the holidays my artsy friend "Sherry in Indiana" sent me a Zentangle book along with some Sakura Micron pens. She claims it's relaxing - but I think that doesn't happen until you are much more practiced than I. There are plenty of books, YouTube videos and even websites devoted to this cool art style.

They claim it's an enjoyable and uplifting art form. I did find it enjoyable... once I figured out some patterns. It's pretty amazing when you see the step-by-step diagrams, some things that seem so intricate when broken down into steps appear easy. This is ofcourse before you put pen to paper! Sometimes I am going for a certain line and what comes out on the paper is completely different. Then you just improvise - add a dash, a dot, a squiggle and it works out!

The second picture is part of a postcard I did, I started by tracing a house shaped magnet and then going from there. I've found working on small sections is easiest. Give it a try!

January Counterfeit Kit

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

Last year I discovered the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog through my friend Rinda's blog. Each month they feature a specific kit club and you then make your own kit using supplies you have in your stash. Jennifer and I have been talking about doing this for a couple months, and came up with our own spin on the idea. We are making a kit for each other - so a counterfeit kit swap! This month's CKC has a great selection of kits to chose from Cocoa Daisy. I've been checking out their kits for the past few months, and really like them. However at this time I really need to use up some of my stash before embarking on anymore monthly commitments. So CKC to the rescue!

Above is the kit I received from Jen, Flightless Bird. She'll post mine on her blog. We gave our kits names, just like Cocoa Daisy does! Surprisingly enough, I have none of the items she sent me - except the Thicker Stickers. I have a stash of those, love 'em. There are patterned papers and cardstock along with the stickers, alpha sheet, Kaiser Craft wooden birds, K&Company dimensional stickers, Heidi Swapp journal spots, Recollections Bling, tags, ribbons and assorted die cuts. Jen has a Silhouette, so she can cut cool stuff. Like birdcages, birds, and a fun new cut called Quilled Flowers. Oh and a little Studio g stamp set to round things out!

I still have some sketches to do from the BPC class Double Take, so these will be put to good use. Stay tuned for a layout!

Blog Challenges

2012-01-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I get stuck, I don't know what to do creatively. So I turn to challenges on blogs. There are lots of them out there to chose from. Sketches of the Week, color combinations, design papers and more. I found a fun one over at Paper Crafter's Library, Make-over Monday. Since I needed to plan out some mainly flat cards I thought I would give it a try. This is my take on the inspiration card they provide.

The stamps and EP papers are new to me, I received them in a Secret Santa swap and am just getting a chance to try them out!

supplies:
Stamps - Hero Arts (Studio Calico, My Happy)
Paper - Club Scrap & Echo Park (yours TRULY)
inks - Club Scrap Palette inks
other - water-based markers, oval punch

Chalked Embossed & Squirrely Challenge

2012-01-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

such a fun technique - Chalked Embossed from the current Technique Junkies Newsletter. If you don't subscribe to this newsletter and are a stamper you are missing out on a whole lot of inspiration and fun!

This is also the Squirrely challenge for the first half of January. Hopefully the Squirrel Girls (see them on the right hand side bar) will all have time to participate this round!

supplies:
card #1: TCP Studio Vintage Birdcages stamps, The Paper Studio embossing folder, SU cardstock
card #2: SU & Club Scrap cardstock, Cuttlebug embossing folder
card#3: Club Scrap papers, ribbon and stamp

Sketch Challenge

2012-01-05T20:07:00.000-08:00

Here's the January sketch from my friend Jennifer, she dreams up something new for us each month over in the Challenges at Club Scrap. I decided to do the four triangles in the same color, just using different embossing folders. The sweet bird I received at Christmas in a Secret Santa swap, I love it!

supplies:
paper: Club Scrap (Sonoma, Simply Beautiful, Gratitude kits)
stamp: Club Scrap Henna
Dies: branch & bird are Memory Box, ovals are Nestabilities
ribbon: Club Scrap (Just Dandy kit)

Quick Happy Birthday Card

2011-12-31T15:29:00.000-08:00

Over on the Club Scrap boards my friend Jennifer hosts a card sketch each month. This was the sketch for December and I'm squeaking in at the last minute with this one! I used some stamps from the October Club Scrap Kit, Comfort Zone. The color palette is completely different from that kit, but these blue papers were out and the card will go to a man! The top part of the card was made by inking up a background stamp with two colors of blue Distress Inks, spritz with water and stamp. Then stamp the leaf image over the top, stamp another leaf and use a pop-dot to put it on the card. The sentiment is embossed with white.

Ho Ho Ho

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a cute little Santa Owl that I couldn't resist making for a friend's DH this year. He liked the Dracula owl so much I thought he would enjoy Santa too. Notice his sack of toys is actually part of the owl body and foot too! I should've really tied some jute fiber or something around the sack... next one!

I found the card idea here. You can find many versions if you google gift card holders. I like that the lid pulls up reveling your message and the gift card. This one has a gift card to the recipients favorite place to get coffee, and it's NOT Sbux!

supplies:
cardstock: Stampin Up & Michael's , Kraft-Core
Stamps: Stampin' Up
punch: SU Owl punch
other: Silver duct tape for belt buckle, Sprig from Tim Holtz Tattered Pinecone die, Fun Flock in white

Merry Wishes - Easel Card/Box

2011-12-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

I made this easel card with a drawer box for my hairdresser. The drawer opens to revel some Dove chocolates and some Christmas cash! The ornament on the top was fun to make. Punch out 4 ornaments from patterned paper and then fold in half. (The punch I have is from Emaginations, don't know if it's available anymore as I got mine off the RAK table at one of our West Coast Scrap crops). Glue one the right hand of one to the left of the next, leaving two of them unglued to attach to the front of the card. I colored the top with a silver sharpie and added the hanger made from aluminum tape and a Memory Box die. I love the MB dies, they are fairly ornate, and cut so easily.

supplies:

cardstock: Club Scrap

Patterned paper: Recollections, Michel's

Stamp: Hero Arts

Punches & Dies: Emaginations, Stampin' Up, Memory Box

other: felt flower, Hero Arts, brads & ribbon from the stash

Happy Hanukkah

2011-12-22T09:51:00.000-08:00

Needing a Hanukkah card and a card with glitter to fit a challenge over on the Club Scrap board, I came up with this silver and blue card to send off to some friends. The background that the stamped image is on was made by scribbling my brayer with blue and silver metallic Gelato crayons, spritzing with water and then rolling along a length of white cardstock. In real life it's a bit shimmery. (click on it to enlarge!) Then on some of the stars I added silver glitter.

I don't usually use a lot of glitter - mostly because it's messy and seems to linger on every surface for quiet awhile. Besides the fact that I'm not really a blingy-gal. But sometimes the sparkle of glitter really adds to a card.

supplies:
Stamps & Paper: Club Scrap
Silver ribbon
Silver Glitter: Martha Stewart

Rosettes!

2011-12-15T13:09:00.000-08:00

I worked on these rosettes a week ago and just last night was able to get them hung up in the entry hall of our house. If you walk in the front door you will see them straight ahead, a little to the left! Rosettes are pretty hot in the stamping and paper crafts world right now, many companies have special steel rule dies to cut out your base paper with. You can also cut, score, fold and assemble them on your own. The Martha Stewart scoring board is a great tool for making these. I watched the video that Jennifer McGuire did to make hers and followed her basic instructions.

The outer ring of the largest rosette is made of 4 pieces of cardstock that are 12" x 4" and scored every 1/2". Then you glue all four strips together to make a circle. I used the packaging for CDs to set in the middle of the circle to make it more of a wreath shape and glued it down to some chipboard. Then I made another smaller rosette with all the same patterned paper and it's 2"x 12, 4 of those glued together.A center round disc is in the center for the words/decorations. I used some chipboard covered with coordinating paper. Watch the video to see how to form the rosette if you haven't done that before.

The midsized rosette is made as above, but instead of allowing for space in the middle you glue it in tight.

The smallest rosette is made with just three strips of 4" x 12" paper and the edges cut at an angle. Then I added some Stampin' Up Glass Glitter in silver randomly on the edges of all the rosettes using Diamond Glaze to adhere.

supplies:

hot glue gun

Paper: Recollections, Michaels

stickers: Thickers Stickers letters & Ideology

Felt Poinsettas - Hero Arts

misc. brads & gems

Christmas Tags

2011-12-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

I haven't gotten into making the 12 Tags of Christmas a la Tim Holtz this year, but look at them each day and hope to make a few of them as time allows. This tag is inspired by his, but very simple in execution. Just some Distress ink on a manila tag with some pre-printed music paper adhered. I cut out the deer with the "Give a Hoot" cartridge on my Cricut and colored with Distress inks. Then I die cut the pine cone and branch with the cool Sizzix/Tim Holtz die using some Club Scrap Henna paper for the pine cone, great texture! The branch is a left over piece of patterned paper with greens and glitz. Add a bow and we are good to go! I hope to get a few more made up to add to the presents I still need to wrap!

it's beginning to look alot like Christmas

2011-12-07T14:04:00.001-08:00

Some of you may know that I do my stamping and crafting out in our garage. While it can be a bit cold in the winter and hot in the summer my husband has set things up to make it pretty comfy for me to work out there. And you cannot beat the amount of counter space I have!

A few days ago the small space heater I use in the winter months died, and while I know this will sound balmy to some of you - 56 degrees is not conducive to working out there for very long! With the space heater I get my "area" up to 65 or so, a huge improvement. I usually wear my Bear Claw boots (like Uggs, but not as pricey) and a sweatshirt and sometimes even my Wristies. But yesterday I needed to work on some cards, so I brought a small arsenal of supplies into the house to finish up these cards. When Mark got home he suggested we go purchase a new heater... methinks he's afraid I will keep bringing supplies into the house!

These cards were made using some inspiration from the holiday boot camp card class I took at OnLineCardClasses last month. I also used some Christmas patterned paper from "the stash". I have to admit it was warmer inside, but easier outside where all my supplies are! Where do you craft?

supplies:
Patterned Paper: Recollections, Michael's
Cardstock: Neenah White
Stamps: Unity
Ink: Club Scrap Palatte inks
other: Corner Cromper

Faux Letterpress

2011-12-02T09:22:00.001-08:00

Some call this faux letterpress, or it's also a Technique Junkie's technique called Cuttlebug Smoosh. Basically you ink up the inside of your embossing folder then place the cardstock inside and run through your machine. I found some purple card bases while cleaning up recently and thought it would be fun to try a different colored wintery card. The big snowflake is a chipboard piece that I sprayed with some Glimmer Mist and my homemade Pearl spray.

It's a very purple card! Now, it could go to Jennifer, Chrissie or my sister Barb, all who love the color purple!

supplies:
Memories Light Lavendar shadow ink
Cuttlebug & CB embossing folder snowflakes, snowflake die
Glimmer Mists
homemade pearl spray: Perfect Pearls Pearl color + water in mini mister bottle.
Let it Snow stamp - Gelatins
other: chipboard snowflake, big brad, purple & black cardstock ---> stash!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T01:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Turkey Speaks

I have never understood
why anyone would
roast the turkey
and shuck the clams
and crisp the croutons
and shell the peas
and candy the sweets
and compote the cranberries
and bake the pies
and clear the table
and wash the dishes
and fall into bed
when they could sit back
and enjoy a hamburger.

~Author Unknown

Tutorial - Embossing & Inking trick

2011-11-11T10:06:00.000-08:00

As promised, back to show you a neat trick!

I learned this clever trick for embossing or coloring items that are small from a class I took from Jennifer McGuire, works great for die cut cardstock!

Start by assembling your cut pieces, then working on a craft sheet adhere them to the sticky side of a post-it note. This gives you more "real estate" to work with; the pieces don't have to be held by your fingers and they tend to not move around so much. It's great for embossing also, gives you something to hold that isn't so close to the heat and your small pieces don't fly around the room!

these are my die cut flowers adhered to the post-it


Stamp and emboss (here I stamped with Versamark and embossed with clear powder)

add color!


and here is what I did with the little flower pieces once they were done!

The finished piece I will probably add to an art journal - I recently got some new stencils (shout out to Tracy!) and I thought she would look lovely with a flower in her hair. "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair" oops, slipped into the 60's there....

I am accumulating alot of these cool 6x6 stencils and am wondering if anyone has some good ideas for storing them? It's a pain to slip them back into the little plastic sleeves they come in, not to mention I'm starting to tear the edges of the packaging.

supplies:

Post-It notes - 3M

stencils - Crafter's Workshop

Stamps - Dina Wakley, Stampington (script) Hero Arts, background on flower

ink: India black and Distress inks

Die: Stampin' Up

Embossing

2011-11-10T16:26:00.001-08:00

Over at Club Scrap my friend Jennifer does a monthly card sketch, and this is the one for November. I had my Club Scrap Adobe stamps and papers out so I've been making several cards to fit into some challenges. I wanted to point out a few things on this card. The rust background is stamped with Versamark Ink to give a watermark look and the copper "beads" on the birthday die cut are actually from Tulip, paint for fabric, and are called "Beads in a Bottle". They come in packages of 4 and work the same as Viva Decor Pearl Pens, but are a little cheaper. You don't get as much in each bottle, but how many beads am I really going to make? I have the Pearl Pens in white and black because that seemed like the most versatile for what I use them for so when I found the Beads I picked up the metallic pack. I did not see them at my local Michael's, but found them at JoAnn in Spokane my last trip north!

And this close up shows how I made the center look like a little gem (sort of!) or perhaps a piece of turquoise. I stamped and embossed the image in copper ink and copper embossing powder. Then I stamped again so that I could cut out just the center diamond shape from turquoise cardstock. Then I covered each diamond shape with Versamark ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. I have a little trick I learn to make that easy, so I'll share it in the next day or two when I get a photo of it!

supplies:
Paper & Stamps: Club Scrap, Adobe
Ink: Colorbox copper pigment, Versamark
other: die-cut, Copper embossing powder, Tulip Beads in a Bottle

Double Take - sketch layout class

2011-11-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

Recently I took an on-line class at Big Picture Classes with my friend Jennifer, see her blog here. The class is called Double Take and was four weeks of sketches by May Flaum and Nic Howard, all resulting in double page layouts. I mostly work with double page layouts as they give me more real estate to get all the photos in. I'm not one to use just one photo on a page and haven't found a way I like doing single pages and incorporating them in a scrapbook. I'm using this class to stretch myself and try new things and to USE MY STASH!

For this layout I used some assorted cardstock from my stash and papers from a Grab Box I had ordered from Webster's Pages. They have some beautiful papers, flowers and what-not. I sometimes buy these supplies and then don't know what to do with them. This is a bit out of my comfort zone, but I thought all the botanical items went well with the photos of the Luther Burbank home and gardens.

For me having sketches to start from are a great way to get myself to get some scrapbooking done. I usually have a hard time coming up with something creative unless I have this foundation to build upon. Do you scrap totally from scratch or do you use sketches or other inspiration to start your pages?

sorry the photo is a bit crooked... can't seem to get a straight picture!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Club Scrap, Stampin' Up
Patterned paper & Vellum: Webster's Pages

Flowers, stickers, chipboard buttons: Webster's Pages
misc: Border punch from Fiskars

Technique Junkies!

2011-10-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

I've been a subscriber to the Technique Junkie newsletter for years and years! I love having a set go-to place for all the information. Sure lots of the techniques are out there in cyberspace somewhere, but who has time to track it all down? They also give me a creative challenge. I like to try all of the techniques at least once, that way I know if I like it or if it's something I can see myself repeating. Then there are a several techniques that I am drawn to over and over.

These cards are from the latest newsletter, which I am way behind in trying out! I can see these becoming regulars in my card making. I'm also thinking of trying the antique bookplate one as an embellishment for a scrapbook page from our trip to Sonoma.

Antique Bookplate. Stampin' Up and Club Scrap stamps.


Chalked Resist + Stacked Nesties : Hero Arts and Impression Obsession Stamps

Owl Punch Dracula

2011-10-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

I found this cool blog that has all kinds of cool things made with the Stampin' Up owl punch, so I thought I would make a fun little dracula for some of my Halloween cards. Isn't he the cutest? I also took a photo of the different parts and pieces you need to make your own little guy... punch two owls in black, one in red, some eyes in white and a green vest. You will cut out some fangs by hand. The cape is made by cutting the body in half vertically and then trimming.

supplies:
black, red, white and green cardstock
Stampin' Up owl punch
Echo Park Apothecary spiderweb paper

we got cows...

2011-10-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

way down there, do you see it? The ranch house!

Yesterday my husband, daughter and I went to the grand opening of a new trail for the Open Space Authority. The trail leads to the ranch land that my husband's maternal grandparents bought sometime in the 1940's. Mark has many great memories of his trips up to the ranch as a kid, and we would go for barbecues and picnics there after I met him. Our daughter remembers some of it - hiking around, flying kites. My son, he was so young he remembers none of that. My mother-in-law and her sisters and brother sold the property to the OSA and it is now open via trails to visit. They have big plans for the ranch house to become a hostel at some point in time, but ofcourse money is a big factor in that. It's a strenuous hike about 2 miles (mostly downhill) from the ceremony to the house... and then 2 miles back up! Gorgeous views all around and even some cattle to see!

I just loved being so close to the cattle!

Vintage Halloween

2011-10-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

And here's a Halloween card featuring the Technique Junkie technique - Vintage Art. The stamped image is from Artistic Outpost. The papers are all from Echo Park (the Apothecary Emporium). To make the orange strip of cardstock I just inked a piece of white with some of the Distress Ink colors I used in the main image. I learned this trick from Jennifer McGuire, although I had done it many, many years ago in a stamp class! Easy way to get the exact color you need!

supplies:
Paper: Echo Park
Stamp: Artistic Outpost
Ink: Ranger Distress Inks (Wild Honey, Scattered Straw)
other: Foam blending sponge, white pencil, little orange rub-on bats from Hambly Studios

Vintage Art

2011-10-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

Using some Tim Holtz designer papers and his film strip ribbon really made this card I think. The cute couple I imagine love to go to the show and have popcorn!

this card features the Technique Junkies "Vintage Art" technique on the central image.

Recently I had a request for a special card - movie themed. Since I had NO stamps I called my friend Connie who I knew would have just the things I might need. She did indeed and allowed me to borrow them to make a few things. The vintage line drawing really add to the vintage flair!

supplies:

Paper: Club Scrap, Tim Holtz, DCWV

Stamps: B Line Designs

Inks: Distress & Black India ink

other: Film strip ribbon, Tiny Attacher

Birthday cake and pennants

2011-10-11T14:07:00.000-07:00

Pennants are all over the place, maybe they are getting old? I hear clouds are the latest thing in card-making and scrapbooking, oh well better late than never! I got a sweet deal on an awesome package of Teresa Collins Celebrate papers and what-not. So when it came time to make a special card for my niece who recently turned 21 I thought this might be a great use of the fun papers! The front of the card is stamped and then I made some scallops and a strip from some of the patterned paper in the kit. I punched a circle and die cut a scallop circle then added the chipboard cake and stars. For the inside of the card I punched out some pennants and stamped 21 on the center one and added the stamped happy birthday "ticket".

supplies:
patterned paper, chipboard, stamps: Teresa Collins, Celebrate
red cardstock: Stampin' Up!
punches: Stampin' Up & Fiskars, Nestabilities
other: homemade baker's twine

Inspiration Showcase

2011-10-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

I took some time this weekend to finish up my canvas from my Inspiration Showcase class. I don't know if I can pick out a favorite technique, so many of them are useful and beautiful in so many ways. It was fun to just make stuff... now it can hang on the wall and remind me to create!

Fall leaves

2011-09-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago when I was at my group's "Scramp Camp" I spent one evening making a batch of backgrounds with my friend Jen. I taught her how to make this Technique Junkie background called Faux Sanding. Basically laying down some color with a rainbow pad and using gesso over top.

We did lots of techniques that night, which left us with a nice pile of stuff to use on future cards. Fast forward to this week when I needed a card, and it had to have a TJ technique on it. Short on time, I remembered the stash! Looked to SCS for some sketch inspiration and voila, a card in perhaps half the time it would normally take!

We have been enjoying a warm end to September, even though it says fall on the calendar! Here's to cooler weather, sweaters and shoes & socks ahead!

supplies:

cardstock: Stampin' Up, Club Scrap, KromeKote

stamps: Inkadinkado, A Muse

Inks: Kaliedecolor for background, Distress Inks for leaves

other: gesso, button, twine

Weekend Fun

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

I got no artwork done this weekend... I was off to the mountains! Last week we celebrated 32 years of wedded bliss so we took a few days to visit a new place. Our daughter's boyfriends family has a cabin up in the Sequoia National Park so they let us go up and use it for a few days. Dana and Chris (the BF not the DS) came along and were good enough to show us some of the sights. We saw lots of BIG TREES and even toured a cavern - which was a nice cool 55 degrees, nice on a warm day! We even saw a momma bear and her two cubs, from the safety of our truck , but as we were slowly driving by I did not manage to get my camera out and take a photo. Oh well, it was terrific to see them and we remained safe!

I'm looking forward to going back up there again, so many things to see and do. I feel we've only scratched the surface, well maybe a bit deeper since we went into Boyden Caverns!

Artist Trading Cards

2011-09-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

The first photo gives you a little peek at how I work. It's messy and inky!

Here's my work in progress and completed ATCs. I've been making and trading these little bits of art for many years now. If you aren't familiar with Artist Trading cards, they are 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 little bits of art. Always traded and never sold. These are for a swap over at PaperArtistsOnline, a welcoming group of stampers, scrapbookers, and mixed media artists. The theme for this swap was "Things with Wings". Butterflies have been high on my list of winged things this summer, so that's where I went with this. I also wanted to incorporate some of the things I've been learning in my on-line classes.

The green part is done with resist. The wings are stamped twice and colored/blended using two Distress Inks (Wild Honey & Worn Lipstick). The top wing is secured with foam tape to give some dimension to the piece.

supplies:
Paper: KromeKote glossy, Club Scrap red & Cream from Welcome kit
Stamps: Butterflies, Club Scrap. Bliss, Stampin' Up!
inks: Ranger Distress (Worn Lipstick, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint), Club Scrap India Ink Black
other: Cut 'n Dry foam to blend

Mail Art

2011-09-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I had a crafty day with friends, and was able to work on a few varied projects. Some are complete, others in the process. I needed to get some ATCs (artist trading cards) done for a swap and while I was at it I thought I'd whip up some mail art to send off to my artsy friend Sherry in Indiana.

I used some of the new ideas I learned in the Inspiration Showcase class with Jennifer McGwire. The purple background is made by stamping the words with Versamark ink and drying. Then I applied Distress Ink over the top very generously and buffed. The Butterflies were stamped on old book pages and colored with Distress Inks and Cut-n-Dry foam pieces.

Supplies:
paper: KromeKote glossy cardstock
stamps: Club Scrap Papillon
paper: old book
inks: Distress Ink from Ranger

SquirrelyArt Challenge - Embossed Glossy

2011-09-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Summer is pretty much over, although it's over 80 degrees here today, that's September in California! But it is time to start up our SquirrelyArt challenges once again. This time we are working on a technique I learned from Jennifer McGuire, Embossed Glossy. Basically embossing glossy cardstock with an embossing folder and then sanding off the glossy part of the raised images.

To the right is a close up of an embellishment we learned to make in Inspiration Showcase. I am really learning alot in these on-line card classes!

Please check out the other Squirrel Girls blogs -----> links on the right!

Supplies:

ink: Colorbox chalk ink, French Blue

cardstock: KromeKote glossy

paper: yellow is Stampin' Up!

stamp: Hero Arts

misc: Heart die (sizzix), acetate (packaging) flower (Prima), pearl (Michaels)

A trip to wine country...

2011-09-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

We went up to the Sonoma valley for the day on Saturday - we needed to deliver some skylights to a customer so it was the perfect excuse to explore the area. Our firs stop after visiting the job site was the Benziger Family Winery in Glen Ellen. There we took a tram tour that was pretty informative about the biodynamic way they run their vineyards. Then we got to do some wine tasting and ofcourse bought a few bottles to bring home.

Here's a close up of the grapes on the vine, with the cool summer we've had these aren't to be harvested for another couple of weeks. To the right is Mark at the winery with our goods!

From Glen Ellen we drove to Santa Rosa, and visited the Luther Burbank home and gardens. He was quite the horticulturist and came up with the Shasta Daisy. We like touring old homes and this time we were the only ones on the tour, which has happened to us before. This whole little house and garden plot is right in the middle of town, with brand new government offices right across the street.

And finally, after circling the bay we drove home on highway 101 crossing the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco and the drive down 19th Avenue. I always love looking at the houses along the drive.

Embellished Hearts

2011-09-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

Inspiration Showcase on-line class - the next step. This is the second row of our project, learning some great new things with dry embossing. My Cuttlebug and embossing folders are really getting a workout! Fun stuff. I didn't have time today to get a card completed, so hopefully in the next day or two I can get those up here on the blog. It's great to use what materials I have and make them fit into what each heart is. The heart on the far right has a metal embossed heart for it's embellishment, I just used some of that metal tape for ducts from the hardware store.

Inspiration Showcase - Week 1

2011-09-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

I'm taking another online card class from Jennifer McGuire this week and next. We are learning some cool techniques each week which we can then put them all together on a canvas as a finished piece of art. Since I have so many things going on this month I am just sticking with the hearts that she shows and copying her colors pretty much exactly. I have grand plans to make other canvas in the future, perhaps Halloween or Christmas themed.

The card is made using one of the techniques, basic resist. This technique is probably as old as I am - but sure gives some great results. I'm using KromeKote paper, Hero Arts background stamp and Wild Honey Distress ink for it. This card also closely follows one of the ones that Jennifer did. I know... really creative aren't I? But I did just recuperate from a fun long weekend. I was at my annual Scramp Camp (scrapbooking and stamping) with 20 of my artsy friends! As soon as I finish my canvas I'll post that and tell you all about the fun we had making them. In the middle of camp I had to leave to attend a very special wedding - so by Sunday night I was tired!

Wedding Cards

2011-09-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

I always have a hard time coming up with ideas for wedding cards and I don't really have the appropriate stamps to use for this occasion. So I searched through the SCS gallery and found a card that I thought would totally fit the couple that I'm attending the wedding of today. Get it, their anniversary will be 9-10-11.

I foofed* up the inside of the card also. At the last minute I realized that I had this tiny little Mr.&Mrs. stamp that fits the little tag punch from Stampin' Up, so I added it to the inside, I couldn't get it to work on the front.

I used the Shimmery White cardstock from Stampin' Up which lends a bit of sparkle and elegance to the card. Hearts were cut on the Cricut, since I don't have a heart punch.

May they have a lifetime of happiness ahead of them, Cheers!!

* my friend Lucy's term for a stamped/embellished interior of a card!

Supplies:
cardstock: Stampin' Up, Club Scrap
stamps: Stampin' Up, swirls unknown
ink: SU blush, India Ink black
other: ribbon and dimensional pearls, Sizzix embossing folder

Papillon Cards + Perfect Pearl Mist

2011-09-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

Club Scrap has a new card making deck, so out of three sheets of cardstock I got three cool cards. This is one of them. I pulled out my drawer of 8.5x11 paper - mostly stuff I picked up on sale because I loved the colors. These papers all happen to be from an old kit, Let Me Count the Ways. The stamps are from a recent kit, Papillon. Then I cut the paper according to the directions and planned out what to stamp on them.

I find that sticking with one set of stamps and minimal supplies I can get a lot of cards made. Sometimes too much is overwhelming and the "stuff" takes over. Next week I'm going to a weekend stamping/scrapping "camp" and so I think packing up my idea decks and a few supplies might be just the way to go. Usually I have such a hard time packing, and try to bring too much... but a whole studio of supplies isn't practical to back into one or two totes!

Do any of you have good ideas on how and what to pack for a crop or retreat weekend?

subtle sparkle on wings by painting with Silk Ink and then spraying different pieces with Ranger Perfect Pearls Mist in Kiwi

Back to Back

2011-08-31T21:45:00.000-07:00

this one uses a Stampin' Up scratchy type background stamp in addition to the other backgrounds. Paper from Club Scrap, Stamps for bkgrd. are SU, Hero Arts. Image stamp is Basic Grey, saying is Printworks.

bird stamp is Stampin' Up! Background stamps are SU, Hero Arts & Lost Coast Designs

That's the name of this new Technique Junkie technique - you need background stamps. This technique and another from the current newsletter use a crackle background stamp. I have a small one, but wanted a larger one so that I could make a card-sized mat out of the finished technique. It so happened my friend Chrissie was at Stamp Away in Cincinnati and said was there anything she could look for that I might "need"? Well... if you're looking... so she got me a cool crackle background from Lost Coast Designs. THANK YOU!

This week I finally had time to try it out, feels so good to get ink on new rubber! One of the background stamps is also new to me - Flower Dot Pattern from Hero Arts. It's one of the new stamps that coordinates with the BasicGrey Out of Print line.

supplies:
Paper: Club Scrap, Stampin' Up

stamps: Hero Arts, Stampin' Up, Lost Coast Designs, BasicGrey, Printworks

other: Nestablities die, SU Top Note die, brads, linen thread, flowers, button, EK Success punch

Win an InStyler!

2011-08-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

I'm always looking for better ways to get my hair done in the morning, and I've seen many a YouTube video, read many a blog post and this InStyler seems like just the thing that would work for me! Right now my friend Sonja has a give-away on her blog for two of these amazing stylers. Go check it out and enter to win! You can also find a link to the blog over on the left side of my blog, she's always got some good information on beauty products and habits.

ATC - Tim Holtz Inspired

2011-08-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here's an ATC I made recently for a trade, the only requirement being that it take inspiration from Tim Holtz. I was stuck for ideas, so I perused my copy of Tim's book "Compendium of Curiosities" to get some guidance. I really wanted to use my distress inks, that was my only criteria. I decided upon waterstamping - which is fairly faint in the background. This technique seems to work best with dark colors of ink and bold stamps and sometimes I get a much better look than others. What can I say? I'm no Tim Holtz, I swear he has the magic touch for some of these techniques!

Then built up layers with a stamped image and then added a grungeboard piece that I embossed with Distress Embossing powders, even the brads were embossed to fit it. The base paper is also from Tim's line of Adirondack's.

Spirelli

2011-08-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is a new technique from the Technique Junkie Newsletter, Spirelli. Makes great use of the scalloped circle Nestabilities die I picked up on a trade! I like the bright colors on here, no doubt influence by my recent on line card class with Jennifer and Kristina! They have more fun classes planned, so check them out here.

supplies:
cardstock: turquoise & white from stash
patterned paper: Echo Park, Springtime
stamps: Stampin' Up!
other: embroidery floss, circle punch, Nestiblities die, foam tape

Crayon Resist

2011-08-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Crayon resist is an oldie but goodie technique. I've been seeing resists of all kinds all over the Internet lately, so it must be seeing a resurgence this summer! Ever since I first tried the crayon trick I've been hooked - it really makes things pop.

You need glossy cardstock - I buy it by the ream, Kromecoat. Then you stamp your image, I prefer to use black India Ink and heat set, this seems to work best to avoid smears. Then color the area you want no ink to go on with the white crayon. I used Club Scrap's Palette inks in Leaf and Orchid to color the image using these applicators, which have become my favorite. They work fantastic, and feel good in your hand. Then rub over the image with a soft cloth to take the ink off the crayon. The white just POPs right out at you!

The base card is made from the same glossy cardstock, then a punched border strip in purple, and other border strip in green which I punched holes across using a paper piercer, add some fiber and voila!

supplies:

cardstock: Kromecoat, Club Scrap

stamp: Club Scrap Papillon

other: Paper Piercer, white Crayola crayon

Distress Stains

2011-08-18T20:27:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with the Distress Stains from Ranger this past week, they are fun and have lots of interesting applications. For this card I stamped the bird images with clear embossing ink and embossed with white embossing powder. Then I smeared a couple colors of distress stain right onto my craft sheet and ran the paper through them to color the image, the embossing resists the stains and makes the images pop!

The black "dots" aren't brads, but another cool new product I've been using, Viva Decor Pearl Pens. You have to let them sit to dry, but they are really great for making dots & embellishments. They come in a huge assortment of colors, for now I just have white and black. The pens hold alot so I don't think I'll be running out anytime soon. I purchased mine from Susana here.

Sketch is from my friend Jennifer and is the challenge sketch over at Club Scrap this month! Go see what she did with the sketch here.

supplies:
stamps: Club Scrap (birds), Stampin' Up! (greeting)
paper: Club Scra[
Punches: Stampin' Up!
other: Viva Decor pearl-pen, ribbon

Yosemite!

2011-08-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

Here we are atop Sentinel Dome in beautiful Yosemite National Park. And ofcourse a stellar view of Half Dome! Part way up the drive to Glacier Point you can stop and hit the trail for Sentinel Dome, from there you have a 360 degree view of Yosemite. Part of the drive was smoke filled as they were doing a controlled burn so things were a bit smoky for awhile. The views down and across the valley were awesome, as were the views from Glacier Point. I had not been to Yosemite valley since I was a kid, and do remember that we hiked to Glacier Point and it even snowed a bit on us one the trip up. Mark had never been to this part of Yosemite, only by Hetch Hetchy backpacking. Dana's been several times and hiked to Vernal and Nevada falls twice, we'll do that another trip! Next month, a trip to Sequoia National Park is in order.

Making your own embellishments

2011-08-05T12:43:00.000-07:00

This is the last week of my scrapbooking camp over at Club Scrap. Last month's kit, Just Dandy, seemed perfect for layouts of summertime in my area of California. The hills/mountains on the eastern part of our valley turn gold.

The ALSB for this kit called for many items that come with the Embellishment Side, which I don't have. What to do? Make your own! I used some of the unmounted stamps from the kit to stamp the border strip with some golden and rust Gelatos. Then I used a combination of the gelatos and dye inks to stamp some collage type papers and punch circles using my circle punches. The one that looks like a ring I first punched out a 2" circle then was able to get the ring by re-punching with a 2 1/2" punch.

this is the layout featuring some of the hills we hiked around. Lucky for us we are having a pretty mild summer, as it can get very hot back in these hills. I'm anxious to return in the spring for the wild flower show!

Joseph D. Grant Ranch house

Water tower and Cook House

Rose Garden with house and Mt. Hamilton in the background

If you look way at the top hill you can see Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton. From J.D. Grant's bedroom on the second floor he had a great view of the Observatory. There are still the concrete outlines of the swimming pool on the "front" lawn, I'm sure it was very handy to have that on those hot summer days at the ranch.

You can learn more about the ranch here. As a child we went on picnics up near this area at Smith Creek. This was before the Grant's daughter died and gave the ranch to the county in 1972.

Chevy Power

2011-08-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

Here are more layouts for my cabin over at summer camp! These feature Christine, my brother-in-law Ken's race car. Sister Barb is his crew chief and my Dad, Phil, is part of the crew too. We had such a great time going out to the races. It was really a shame that the last day we were able to be there the rain never let up and so we missed the end. Barb was texting us on our road trip south the next day to keep up informed on the days runs. Sadly, he did not come out the over all winner - but the journey is the fun right?

All papers, stickers and stamps on these layouts are Club Scrap.

Class with T!m Holtz

2011-07-31T16:46:00.000-07:00

Nancy, Tim and Connie

Connie and I chat it up with Mario

Connie and Tracy with their journals

what a fun day today was! I took the Artful Journal class with Tim Hotlz at Scrapbook Island this morning. I have had the pleasure of taking Tim's classes before, and he's a great teacher. Everything is so organized and his instructions are spot on. You get plenty of time to play and create also with the bones of the project done. It's always great to see him and his wonderful business manager Mario - who seems to keep everything running super smoothly!

Laurie and all the gals at SI had everything set up so nice, the new classroom/scrap room is big and spacious! And we all got welcoming leis to start the day! The store has the whole line of "TIM" products - so cool to look at all the stuff!

They also gave each student a raffle ticket, and I was happy to win a Tattered Banner die and a package of texture fades, yippee! the last 3 numbers of my ticket were 516, my daughters birthday and these numbers show up in a lot of things in our life. My husband suggested we go buy a lottery ticket!

New Technique Junkies!

2011-07-30T13:54:00.000-07:00

The latest Technique Junkie's newsletter hit my mailbox today - but I got an early peek on-line yesterday and thought these newest Just Dandy stamps from Club Scrap were perfect for a couple cards. I have a set of 5 cards ready to embellish from one of the new card deck ideas - see this post. So the first two were easy to make up with the new directions. So many techniques, so little time!

Spokane River Layouts

2011-07-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here are a few layouts from this week, our challenge is to use at least 50% materials from Club Scrap's February and March kits. I'm a little lacking in that supply area, except for a huge amount of Raku that I've been hoarding. Who knew that water photos would look so good on this gorgeous paper?

I google searched for "scrapbook sketches" this afternoon and found all kinds of them - so I picked a few I thought would work with the photos I had and used them as a basis for my layouts. Here's a neat place to get sketches, I also like PageMaps which also has Card sketches.

Just Dandy

2011-07-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

With the exception of the sentiment stamp, all the other parts of this card are from Club Scrap's newest kit, Just Dandy. The "flower" is made with the stencil from the kit and Distress Inks. Thanks to my friend Chrissie for the neat idea to have the small squares of colored cardstock under the main image piece!

Club Scrap's new ALCM deck

2011-07-26T06:00:00.001-07:00

Club Scrap has just issued a new Assembly Line Card Making deck! They already have one out for more than a year, and I've pretty much gone through that, so having some new inspiration is great fun. They also have decks with scrapbooking layouts. They are easy to follow, giving you sizes of cardstock and complete cutting instructions, and then a diagram of the completed layout. They really are helpful when you don't know what direction to go! These three cards are the results of one of the ALCM cards - you get 52 just like a deck of cards! With 3 12x12 pieces of cardstock and your imagination you can go far!

supplies:
Cardstock: Club Scrap, Farmer's Market & Nature's Retreat
Stamps: Club Scrap, Just Dandy
other: CS Palette inks, brads & fibers, Tonic paper distresser

Card Camp - last call

2011-07-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

this brings the end of Summer Camp for card making, my hope is that Jennifer and Kristina bring more on-line card classes such as these in the future as I learned so much! This is one of the alternate color combinations for the week. I used a sketch Kristina provided and the tutorial on letterpress from Jennifer to make this fun, bright card. I hope you like it and are inspired by it, or to take their class!

As my Dad likes to say... click on the photo to embiggen!

supplies:
cardstock: Club Scrap and Bazzil
stamp: A Muse, Stampin' Up
other: Sizzix embossing folder, SU punch

PSL - Scrapbooking Camp

2011-07-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

This week is the second week of Club Scrap's Summer Camp competition, sadly my cabin came in last place last week so we are hoping to improve upon that this week! It's hard during the summer - so many other fun things to do in addition to scrapping and card making. These are a couple layouts, from our recent trip up to Spokane. Bead Lake is in north-eastern Washington and we spent a great day there - the lake is so full from all of the winter snow that beach is under water! The the second layout is of the Sundial Bridge in Redding, California. It's a really cool pedestrian only bridge over the Sacramento River, and just minutes off hi-way 5, so an easy little detour! Check it out if you're ever up that way!

supplies:

everything is Club Scrap except the letter stickers on Bead Lake, they are Rusty Pickle.

Card Camp - week 4

2011-07-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it's the last week of camp. I have really learned a lot of cool things, tried color combinations that are out of my comfort zone and seen some incredible artwork from my fellow campers!

For this card I used a butterfly from Stampin' Up - I know my friend Jennifer will tell her husband I'm over-using the butterflies these days! I stamped it twice, colored with die inks used like watercolors. Then I cut out one full image and one partial, put Glossy Accents on them to mold it and then when dry glued them together.

supplies:
stamp: Stampin' Up!
papers: cardstock - Club Scrap, patterned paper - Basic Grey
fiber: Club Scrap

Text Art Journal Pages

2011-07-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

a few more pages from the swap... the next few weeks I'm going to be busy with Club Scrap's summer camp doing some scrapbooking. In addition to my OnLine Cardmaking summer camp - oh boy the "studio" will be getting a work out!

More Summer Camp & Stash Usage!

2011-07-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

This card features that same grungy inking method - did I mention I really have inky fingers? It also uses the Technique Junkie technique "Faux Tile" for the background piece.

supplies:
stamps: Stampin' Up
Cardstock: Stampin' Up and stash
Ink: Versamark, Adirondack & Distress
Ribbon: Club Scrap
Misc: Stampin' Up mini label punch, Sizzix shaped die, pearls from Michaels, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, tiny safety pin

Z-fold card - Summer Camp

2011-07-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

At camp this week I learned quite a few fun little embellishing techniques in addition to this cool look using watercolor paper and your Distress Inks. Kind of like a grungy polished stone in a way. I highly recommend taking a class here next time they offer one up, each day you learn something new with sketches, videos, tons of guest designers and a student gallery that will knock your socks off!

I don't have a good supply list for you as the papers are all from my stash - using up the stash is a goal of mine this summer! The Hello stamp is from Purple Onion Designs and the lacy flower is a "Me and Carrie Lou" stamp, not sure if they are still in business. My Mom up-cycled this stamp to me! The butterfly is punched out with a Martha Stewart punch.

Card Camp

2011-07-11T16:20:00.000-07:00

This week we have a pretty classic color palette - not sure I got all the tones of brown in this card, but I sure tried to. I got out my newest embossing folder from Stampin' Up that I've been wanting to try and added some inks directly to the inside of the folder before running it through my Cuttlebug to give the different colors and to have the image stand out in the ivory color of the cardstock.

supplies:
cardstock: Crumb Cake and Ivory, Stampin' Up. Dark Brown Club Scrap
embossing folder: Stampin' Up
other: Fiskars border punch, Club Scrap ribbon, Adirondack inks

Art Journal - theme TEXT

2011-07-11T13:42:00.000-07:00

In one of my small art sharing Yahoo groups we have a swap due this week where the theme is text. Our fearless leader was inspired by this type of art being sold on Etsy. She sent us little scrapbook and we were to decorate our pages to swap using the Etsy art as a jumping off point. Our basic instructions were that there had to be text of some sort on the page! I started each page with old book pages or dress patterns. Sometimes the words on the page inspired the direction I went, as in the stencil page.

summer camp card 2 & a sketch

2011-07-09T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here's another card I used with the colors from week two. I also used a sketch from my friend Jennifer, she challenged us with pennants. I cut mine with the Cricut Lyrical Letters cartridge. Patterened paper is Stampin' Up and cardstock is Club Scrap. I used the nestiblities scalloped circle die and the Stampin' Up butterfly embosslet. Stamps are from Purple Onion Design (happy) and SU.

Week 2 - Summer Card Camp

2011-07-06T16:58:00.000-07:00

Week 2 brings us more fun, bright colors. I still want to work with these more and try out the neat stuff I learned from Jennifer's video lesson yesterday. The card below uses most of the colors for this this week. The starfish stamp is from Club Scrap and it is colored with Gelatos from Faber-Castell. The paper and cardstock are a mix-up for sure. Club Scrap, DCWV and Creative Imaginations for the design paper. I colored the little gems with Copic markers - they were just ivory! The sentiment is from PaperTrey. I thought the colors were very fun and really gave a fresh feel to this image.

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. ~Erma Bombeck

Grungy Monday 13 meets Card Camp

2011-06-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

Trying to fit all the fun stuff into one week takes a little bit of doing! So since this week the technique that Linda's given us is a fairly easy alcohol ink technique of Tim's (basically polished stone using alcohol inks) I figured using just the right colors I could use it for the acetate window lesson over at Card Camp!

The alcohol ink colors I used are : Sunshine Yellow, Sunset Orange and Watermelon.

I used a Nestabilites label die cut to cut the window in the card, mat and alcohol ink pieces. The butterflies are from Club Scrap's Papillon kit and are embossed in white, colored with markers and cut-out. The saying is stamped with StazOn black ink on transparency film which is sandwiched between layers. Inside the card are some subtle vine stamps... again the Papillon kit. Some ribbon and dimensional pearls to embellish, and we've got a card!

Summer Camp

2011-06-28T16:27:00.000-07:00

I am going to be busy this summer... so many camps! Virtual they are, no actual tents, mosquitoes and the like! I just started this Card Making summer camp here, with fabulous instructors Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner plus other guest instructors. Then in a few weeks Club Scrap's annual PSL summer camp will begin, for that one I'll just participate in scrapbook layouts, no cards.

This is the card I came up with for the first color combo. I didn't really have much in the way of cardstock or background papers with these colors, so I made my own patterned paper with stamps. This is one of my newest Stampin' Up sets, Fabulous Florets. And for the flowers that are cut out and applied I followed along the directions on the technique video from the camp. The flowers are embossed with white EP and colored with markers - just basic markers not Copic!

This also qualifies for "using up the stash" as nothing was purchased to make this card! The baker's twine is from Martha Stewart and the button is vintage purchased off of Etsy. It does feel good to dig into the stash and not be afraid to use it!

Card Sketch Challenge & Using the Stash

2011-06-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

Over at Club Scrap my friend Jen hosts a card sketch challenge each month. This month we got to make a cool Z-fold card. In a continuing effort to use the stash, I found a batch of Castaway papers and thought the papers and stamps would make for some great summertime birthday cards! Bright enough for you?

The star fish are colored with Gelatos from Faber-Castell, similar to watercolor crayons but much creamier!

supplies:

Paper: Club Scrap Castaway kit

Stamps: CS Castaway and happy birthday from Dream in Color

brads & ribbon: stash

Grungy Monday 12

2011-06-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

This week we are prompted to follow the tutorial by the ever talented Tim Holtz in these techniques from 2008. Linda is really great at finding lots of things "tim" to challenge ourselves creatively over on her Studio L3 blog. Tim's tag is full of all kinds of good stuff and I think I've managed to incorporate most of the things he shows. Some of the products I didn't have and so improvised and used what I thought would look good for this tag. I started with some designer paper from Stampin' Up that has bees on it, and that was my inspiration! I don't have the darker colors of Paint Dabbers, so I used some Dick Blick black acrylic paint and a cosmetic sponge to paint over the embossed design. Hard to tell but the bee's wings have Distress Stickles (Rock Candy) on them, as do the tiny little bees flying around the hive. The image is colored with watercolor pencils, some fabulous Dewent pencils I recently got from my Mom who upcycled them to me! A tea stained mini tag with the letter B and a fancy swirly paper clip help embellish the piece. On Tim's tutorial he ran paper through his dymo-label maker, but I went with the black tape this time around.

Most of the time I don't know where a project will take me, I pick a paper or stamp and go with it! Usually it works out, however there are times that something ends up in the trash... or paper recycling box! The background diamond stamp is from Stampin' Up. The image of the bee and hive are an oldie from A Stamp in the Hand - and bees are so important to us, please plant a few bee lovin' flowers in your yard!

supplies:
Stamps: A Stamp in the Hand, Stampin' Up & unknown
Paper: Stampin' Up
Other: Dymo labler, Club Scrap ribbon, tag, Distress Rock Candy Stickles

Grungy Monday 11

2011-06-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

I missed posting the challenge for last week, but am making up for it this week as I don't want to miss a single challenge this time around. You can find the directions for Tim's great faux batik type technique here. Go and check out the Studio L3 blog since there are some stellar examples to be seen!

I wanted to use some yellows for this card, so I used Distress inks in Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade and Tea Dye... trying to get away from always using the blued! The background stamp is from Stampin' Up as is the butterfly. The saying is Tim Holtz by Stampers Anonymous. Some Making Memories vintage background papers and some lace, fiber and charm from my stash round out the supplies!

Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Fun

2011-06-23T13:32:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this photo book larger

Inland Empire

2011-06-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

I spent a week up in the Inland Empire! AKA - Spokane, Washington. This photo is actually me and the moose in downtown Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. We went for my niece's graduation, thank goodness we had a fairly sunny warm day for the outdoor party. The rest of the week was pretty cool and some days rainy. We did manage to have quiet a lot of fun! We saw the new Super 8 movie at the IMAX theater(I really liked it), we saw the Spokane River at record heights, went shooting (I have an impressive bruise on my arm to prove it), the girls all got pedicures, the guys went disc golfing, visited Bead Lake and even went to watch my brother-in-law at the drag races. We missed the finals for the races as we had to drive home Sunday - text messages kept us up-to-date on the races, sadly he lost in the final round. It was a fun trip!

Once I'm caught up on work stuff and house stuff I can get back to art stuff. I have two Grungy Monday's to complete... the faster I go the behinder I get!

Center Step Graduation

2011-06-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is the card I made for our niece who graduated from high school this past weekend. I looked like a boy card, but those are her school colors! I'm not sure if you can see the shimmer spray on the rosette or the Distress Stickles along the side panels, that makes it more girly! I must say I totally stole the stickles idea from Shelly's awesome center step card, she rocks everything she makes!

I had a wee bit of trouble with this card at first, let me just say that you should measure twice and cut once - something I should've learned from Tim the Toolman ;-) But in the end I was very happy with how it turned out. You can find the directions to make one yourself here. It's safe to post this now because Melissa's already opened it!

supplies:

Cardstock: Club Scrap Papillon kit

Stamps: Club Scrap Graduation & Stampendous congrats

other: Shimmer spray, Distress Rock Candy Stickles, Sizzix Tim Holtz mini rosette die, Nestablities die, Cuttlebug label, brads

Brushless Watercolor

2011-06-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

You can make some stunning and simple cards using the brushless watercolor technique. It was the Grungy Monday technique a couple weeks ago, but I like using it alot. It's a really quick way to get lots of color onto an image. My friend Jennifer and I have been using butterflies a lot in our stamping the past month and her husband fears we are on the cusp of over-doing. I hope you all aren't getting too sick of seeing them! You also get a feeling of just how versatile this stamp is!

Supplies:

Paper & Stamp: Club Scrap

Punch: EK Success

Inks: Adirondacks

Grungy Monday 10 - Distress Ink-o-Rama

2011-06-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

This week over at Grungy Monday headquarters we had a pretty easy assignment - use Distress Inks in any way! Ofcourse if you check out the Distress King's blog you will find plenty of great ways to use this ink!

I have several pieces in partial completion, but due to an upcoming vacation and a severe shortage of time I ended up finishing this fishy card! This technique is Non-Stick Color from the current Technique Junkie newsletter. Pretty easy, basically putting your Distress ink down on a non-stick craft sheet and using that as your "ink pad"... a bit more complicated, but the newsletter can give you exact instructions! I also used the Distress inks to add some color to the oval I cut out with my Nestabilities die. This card fits several challenges - use my stash, more masculine cards and GM!

I'm using one of my all time favorite stamps from Club Scrap, it's from the Fossils kit and it's one of the first kits I got from them. They had only scrapbook kits just prior to this kit and about 2 months before that they came out with a stamp kit, I signed up when I saw a sneak peek of these images!

Supplies:

cardstock: Club Scrap (Culinary, Great Outdoors)

stamp: Club Scrap

ink: Distress - Crushed Olive, Peeled Paint, Stormy Sky and Weathered Wood

other: black brads and a funky "fishing lure"

Mojo Monday & Using the Stash

2011-06-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

In my efforts to use up stash and get some masculine cards made I hit upon this latest sketch from Mojo Monday and thought it would be great, plus since I'm hand delivering some of these cards it doesn't matter that the rosette is so dimensional on the card.

The patterned paper I have had for at least two years, it's double sided and so great looking that I've hesitated using it. If I use it I won't have it anymore... crazy right? So I'm trying to get over that feeling and just do my shopping in my own cabinets and drawers. Goodness knows I have plenty of supplies!

I do have the Sizzix die from Tim Holtz to make the rosettes, but for this one I didn't want the scalloped edges; so I just cut, scored and folded this one on my own. Doing it this way also allows you to make the rosette any size you want. I stamped the ties twice, once on plain cardstock and once on the patterned piece so that I could cut one out to paper piece onto the circle.

Supplies:

Cardstock & Paper: Stampin' Up, Club Scrap and unknown

Stamps: ties are A Muse, sentiment is Hero Arts

Masking Magic

2011-06-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

This month the technique of the month at Club Scrap is Masking. In last month's kit we received some frisket, which was new to many people. From Wikipedia "A frisket is any material that protects areas of a work from unintended change". You can also use Post-It notes to make your mask. And there are liquid frisket products that you can brush on, rubbing off when your project is complete.

Masking and stamping is something I learned a long time ago as a new stamper, especially great when stamping scenes! For the card above I used the frisket to create two masks. First I stamped the image in waterproof India ink on watercolor paper. Then I placed the frisket over the stamped image and carefully cut out around the butterfly with a craft knife. If you press just enough to cut the frisket it doesn't harm your paper underneath. Then I took off the butterfly portion of the frisket, leaving a mortise mask. (think of this as a reverse mask) I painted the butterfly with Twinkling H2O watercolors and let dry. Then I removed the mortise mask and placed the butterfly mask over the butterfly and spritz with some homemade shimmer spray.

You can double click on the photo to see it larger, but the shimmer effect of the Twinkling H2Os and the shimmer spray are much better in real life!

Supplies:

Paper: Strathmore Watercolor, Club Scrap

Stamp: Club Scrap

Other: India Ink, Twinkling H2Os watercolors, homemade shimmer spray (Silk ink + water)

butterfly bead and waxed linen thread

Grungy Monday 09

2011-06-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

This week Linda over at the L3 Studio has us trying the Shabby Chic technique that Tim demos here. I have sort of a love/hate relationship with my paint dabbers. Perhaps because I don't use them enough to prevent them from drying out, but adding water to them always helps.

For this piece I used White, Red Pepper and Watermelon paint Dabbers. The swirl stamp is from Hot Potatoes and the bird image is Hampton Arts.

Supplies:
Paper: Red is Stampin' Up, Black is Club Scrap
Stamps: Hot Potatoes, Hampton Arts Diffusion line
other: Sheer black ribbon, edge distresser, Ranger Paint Dabbers

Squirrely Challenge - Graduated Color

2011-06-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

This is the last "official" Squirrely challenge for the summer - everyone is always so busy it seemed easiest to take a little break. But I do encourage everyone to get out those Technique Junkie Newsletters and play!

This card is using the Graduated Color technique. I contemplated a number of stamps for this technique, then settled on this one from Club Scrap's Dashing kit. I'm in need of more masculine cards, so although my first thoughts ran towards some floral stamps, I decided to give this one a go!

Please come back and visit throughout the summer... I have more cards, projects and mail art planned!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Club Scrap Weather and other asst.
Stamps: Club Scrap Dashing
other: Marvy Markers, screw brad

Squirrely Challenge - Pop Up Card

2011-05-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

This week we went with some paper engineering for our challenge. The Free Standing Pop-Up card. I made one at my Stampin' Up club last week and thought they were the perfect card for a bit of WOW to the recipient that receives it, plus lots of room for embellishment. You can find a great tutorial for making one yourself here at SplitCoastStampers.

I used some Stampin' Up cardstock for my base and then went with some patterned paper from the DCWV "Crafty Stack". I thought the flowered paper would be fun for the tea pot and cups. These are stamps and dies from PaperTreyInk. I just love them - a great couple of sets, coordinating stamps, sentiments and dies. I borrowed these from my friend Tracy, and will surely be making lots more cards with them before I return them to her! The little flowers are from the Stampin' Up Boho Blossoms punch, which I scrunched up to distress at bit.

Be sure to visit the other Squirrel Girls blogs to check out the Pop-Ups they've made. You can find the link to their blogs on the right side of my blog under "Squirrel Girls".

Enjoy the Memorial Day weekend - a tribute to all the brave men and women who have served our country.

Grungy Monday 08

2011-05-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

Here we are, already on #8, celebrating the techniques of Tim Holtz! You can get all the details about joining in on the Grungy Monday challenges over at Studio L3. This week the tutorial can be found here. Brushless Watercolor is the technique, using ink pads and your mister to create a watercolor look. This has been a favorite of Tim's techniques ever since I first saw it, I think it is on his very first DVD.

This week I received my fabulous pizza box from Club Scrap with all my Papillon papers and stamps. The colors are gorgeous, but the stamps really set my heart a-flutter. This is a fairly simple card, but I decided that it really looked best with just the simplicity of the butterfly and the saying.

Supplies:
Paper & Stamps - Club Scrap Papillon Kit
Inks: Adirondack Lettuce, Stonewash, Denim and Wild Plum for butterfly.
Club Scrap black India Ink

Club Scrap Die Cutter's Blog Hop

2011-05-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Club Scrap Die Cutter's Blog Hop, hopefully you've arrived here from Rachelle's blog - but if not you can certainly start here and keep hopping along!

I started with the flower pot project from Club Scrap's Blossom Kit. It has accordion like pages connecting the wooden pot shapes, which lends itself to lots of real estate for decorating. Not to mention the paper colors are simply gorgeous! When you get a project from Club Scrap it includes just about everything you will need to complete it, in addition to terrific written directions and lots of time there are videos to walk you through many of the projects. The Cinema at Club Scrap is a great resource!

I started the project painting my wood shapes with brown acrylic paint and when that was dry I dry brushed white over that. Then the front and back "covers" were stamped with the stamps from the kit. Then following the directions I assembled the accordion papers inside that connect all the wood pots. Then it was time to embellish!

I used the Cricut Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge to cut out all the flowers for this project. In addition there are a couple butterflies using the Give A Hoot cartridge. Then they were sprayed with Deep Plum and Spring Rain glimmer mists! Other shapes on some of the pages are made with the Stampin' Up butterfly embosslet die, QuickKutz dies and Spellbinders dies in addition to the occasional punch or hand cutting.

I'm going to give this project to my Mom and Dad. The photo off the house on the flower "pick" is the first house they bought when the Bay Area was really booming - orchards were becoming housing tracts, young families were moving in and life was full of potential. Now we're known as Silicon Valley, but back then there was still a lot of open space and freedom a kid!

I still need to gather some photos as my parents will have a "page" as will each one of us three girls. For now I have mine and Barb's done. It was a fun project to put together!

I want to thank Erin for organizing this whole blog hop! Next you'll want to head over to Wendy's blog and if you get lost anywhere along the way you can find the links below! Thanks for visiting!

http://www.pagesofpictures.com

http://chrissiecreations.blogspot.com/

http://scraphappysistersink.blogspot.com/

http://www.capecodscrapper.blogspot.com/

http://www.creatingwithconnie.blogspot.com/

http://orezonia.blogspot.com/

http://squirrelyart.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE

http://wbellino.blogspot.com/

http://craftchaos.blogspot.com/

Club Scrap Die Cutter's Blog Hop

2011-05-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Be sure to stop back on the 21st to check out the latest Club Scrap Blog Hop. This one is going to feature cards, layouts and projects combining all our great Club Scrap papers & stamps with die cut machines. Great ideas for your Cricut, Silhouette, Big Shot or Cuttlebug... or any of those type machines!

Squirrely Challenge - Cute Cuts

2011-05-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

this technique can be found in the Technique Junkies October 2010 issue or on the new CD "emboss or die". Fun way to use your embossing folders - and if you're careful you can get more than one card out of it! I'm using a cute little squirrel stamp (from the $1 bin at Michaels) to send a shout out to the Squirrel Girls! All of the cardstock is from Club Scrap's Adobe kit.

Grungy Monday 07

2011-05-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

This week we have a simple technique, Distress Ink Color Blocking. But as Tim says in the video "sometimes simple is a good thing". I'm really enjoying the challenges that Linda brings us each week, and having a fairly easy one once in awhile certainly helps when you have a busy week!

I decided to get a jump on Father's Day with this technique when I was perusing my stamps and came across this neat guy stamp (Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers) and thought of some colors to use that would seem masculine. I used Ranger Distress inks in Mustard Seed, Barn Door, Fired Brick, Olive, Frayed Burlap and Faded Jeans. The image is colored with colored pencils and then I thought it needed some color around the edges so just did that in the color blocking method. You can always click on the image to see it in more detail... see the corners?

Supplies:inks: Ranger Distress Ink

images: RBBB & sentiment from Club Scrap

paper: Club Scrap

Grungy Monday 06

2011-05-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

This week we're off on a faux barnwood spree, you can see Tim's original project here, way back from 2007. I've been trying to figure out what to do with this, then came up with an idea for a little notebook, the Ideology charm that says "simplify" is meant to imply that this little notebook carried with you might help simplify your life! The notebook is made with the Bind-it-All and 1/2" rings.

The base is a manila tag, done with the technique linked above. I embossed the edge of the tag with a Cuttlebug edge folder then highlighted with white pigment ink. The butterfly is one of the new Tim Holtz mover&shaker dies - I fit it inside the Ornamental die to cut them out. Then I embossed with an embossing folder in my Cuttlebug. Inked the edges with Worn Lipstick distress ink and a dusting of glimmer mist spray. Be sure to check out Linda's Studio L3 blog for other great ideas using this technique!

supplies:

manila tag

Lake Mist paint dabber

TPC Studio stamp

Sizzix butterfly die, Cuttlebug embossing folders

Squirrely Challenge - Bohemian Layers

2011-05-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

This week we're working on Bohemian Layers from the February 2011 Technique Junkie newsletter. This one is a little higher on the difficulty scale - and involves embossing and the use of a brayer! My first few attempts didn't lend themselves to card making very well, but I'll probably find some use for them in time. You really have to pick your stamps carefully for this technique!

The card above features stamps from Stampin' Up. The circles and sentiment frame& sentiment are the Just Believe set. The lacy background is one of their large background stamps. Along the bottom is a border punch (ek sucess) and I used the Stampin' Up Bohemian flower punch to make the burgundy flowers behind the sentiment. The inks are a real mish-mash! Blush from SU, a darker pink from CTMH and finally cranberry Adirondack. My ink pads are a large and varied lot.

This blue one uses stamps from the Stampin' Up set Elements of Style. Ink colors are SU sky, Adirondack Stonewash & Denim. I used the Cricut Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge to cut out the flowers. The newsprint flowers I colored with Adrirondack Stain in Broken China.Then I then sprayed them all with some Radiant Rain Shimmering mist that's a subtle gold - this is the first time I've tried these mists and they work fantastic! I picked this one up at a LSS on the 50% off table, too bad there weren't more! Remember you can double click the image to see it larger - not sure the shimmer is going to show up to well however.

Now to see more great Bohemian Layers cards check out the links under Squirrel Girls on the right, that's where the current participants can be found.

enjoy your weekend!

supplies:

cardstock: Club Scrap, Bazzil

stamps: Stampin Up

Inks: a variety ;-)

other: Cricut

Blog Hop scheduled

2011-05-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

On May 21st I'll be participating in a blog hop with other Club Scrap bloggers - it will feature die cut machines and Club Scrap products. It should be a lot of fun and you'll see lots of great projects and get some great ideas on how to use your Club Scrap papers with various machines. (Cricut, Silhouette, Cuttlebug, Big Shot etc.) So be sure to check back! The card above has only one die-cut on it... the black flower! There will be much more to see on the blog hop!

I'll have a new Squirrely Challenge up later tonight - it was ready earlier in the week but Blogger was down for posting so it's been delayed!

card supplies:

stamps: Club Scrap Expressions

paper: Club Scrap Expressions

other: Technique Junkies Millefloral technique on white cardstock, Cricut flower die cut .

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Best wishes to all the Mom's out there.

Happy Spring!

2011-05-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

It's National Scrapbook Day - and while I'm not actually working on any scrapbooking I am participating in some on-line challenges to celebrate the day. Over at Paper Artists Online we are having a weekend filled with different challenges.

My challenge is "the same, but different". Using the same papers, stamps, dies, ribbons etc. to make two entirely different cards, pages, projects etc. I read about this at Split Coast Stampers and have been wanting to give it a try. It seems like you drag all the supplies out to make a card and then have to clean up, why not make another when it's all out? I got a little carried away last night with the new set, Nature Walk, from Stampin' Up. As many may know I love bird images - so I spent a couple hours happily playing with the set!

Supplies:
stamps: Stampin' Up Nature Walk
paper: Stampin' Up, and DCWV background papers
Cricut cartridge: Mother's Day Bouquet for flower

Squirrely Challenge - Pinwheels

2011-05-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is from the August 2010 TJN - fun pinwheels! I've done them before but Jen wanted to try them and they are pretty fun. Mine is all made with Club Stamp papers and stamps from the Welcome Kit which came out just last month. The small squares are stamped on and then cut to size. The light blue panel is run through the Cuttlebug with a Stampin' Up embossing folder.

Check out these other squirrels:

Supplies:

Stamps and Paper: Club Stamp Welcome Kit

fiber: Club Scrap

Embossing folder & Brad: Stampin' Up

Grungy Monday 05

2011-05-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

This week we were challenged to a technique from 2008 that Tim Holtz shows how to make a niche for a scrapbook page. Ofcourse you can take those same instructions and use them on a variety of projects or cards, not just for scrappin'! You can check out the specifics of the challenge and find the link to a video that explains it on the Studio L3 blog.

I have been meaning to finish up on a swapped page book for sometime now, so the idea of a niche for the cover popped into my head a few days ago. You can see some of my pages in this post. But my ring-bound book will just have the pages I received in the swap. The pages are 6x6 and are quite dimensional, so I made the cover 6.5 x 6.5 and then opted to just use one ring in the top corner since trying to use the Bind-it-All would've been hard considering all the extras on each page.

I covered the foam core piece with papers from Stampin' Up and placed a rusted tin bird in the opening. I wrapped the edges with tissue tape just to be sure everything was covered! The saying is stamped and then edges colored with Distress Ink in Walnut Stain. The sentiment is from Oxford Impressions. It's fairly simple, but seemed to work best with this project.

Welcome, have a seat!

2011-05-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

From the newest Club Stamp kit, Welcome! I just love this chair image, and it kind of reminds me of a couple chairs in my living room. The zig-zag stitch I did with my new "toy" from We R Memory Keepers and some embroidery floss that my friend Chrissie sent me last week. I love the look of sewing on cards and scrapbook pages, but don't own a sewing machine. (7th grade Home Ec class soured me on that skill).

Sewing in a straight line was always hard for me, with this tool I just placed a ruler on the paper and ran it along side of it to keep it straight. It even comes with a needle, different heads for different stitches and a place in the handle to store your needles. Very clever.

Squirrely Challenge - Foam Stamping

2011-04-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

Another week, another challenge! I love that so many are jumping on board to participate, I think having a challenge makes it easier for me to create sometimes. I need a little direction!

My card started with the The Foam Stamping technique which is in the latest issue of the Technique Junkie Newsletter. I also wanted to use the pretty papers from the latest kit I received from Club Stamp so I used that as my starting point. The layout of my card is from the SCS sketch for this week. I love their weekly sketches - another way to get me started if I need a little push!

The flowers are made with a Stampin' Up punch - the bottom layer I punched some of the peach paper that was embossed and then the top layer is part of the designer paper. The designer paper is from a pad I found at Marshall's for only $3.99 and the colors are perfect! A shiny black brad makes the center.

Please hop on over to my friends blogs to see what they've come up with! Please note that sometimes they haven't posted yet since we don't have a set date. But you'll still see some good art!

Supplies:

Paper: Club Scrap Welcome

Stamp: Unity Stamp Company, Moments in Bloom

Other: Stampin' Up Punch & Embossing folder

Win a Caudalie Dream Body Spa in a Bag!

2011-04-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Check out the Hello Beauty blog for this cool give-away. It's everything you need to get your skin in great shape for the spring and summer. Then keep going back to the beauty blog, there's always great information, news on the latest make-up, tutorials and more! Tell Sonja I sent you!

Party in a Box

2011-04-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

This project comes to us from Club Scrap... Jubilee from January 2010. I'm a bit behind on some things you could say! Just a fun little box to make and four accordian mini books inside, all in a bright party theme. I made the rosettes out of the left over strips used on the woven top piece. Those are fun little buggers to get put together, they kept popping out of my hand! You can google how to make the rosettes, basically accordian fold a strip of paper then glue the ends together and form a circle.

Supplies:everything except the button is Club Scrap Jubilee kit.

Grungy Monday 04 - Texture Fades & Distress

2011-04-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

This week over at the Studio L3 blog we were challenged to use texture fades (embossing folders) and distress inks. You can see Tim's video that explains it very well here. Although I do have several of the Texture Fade folders by Tim I chose to use this one from Sizzix that fit with the new papers and unmounted stamps I just received from Club Scrap, the Dashing collection.

This was a special release kit that went with the annual PSL (Pro Scrapbooking League), which was a 7 week long competition of card making and scrapbook layout making fun!

I used Faded Jeans and Broken China distress inks to ink up the embossing folder. Using the same inks I stamped the two images. To get a two-tone look I inked it randomly with the lighter color, then the darker and stamped. Then I dug through my hardware and found a little hinge that seemed to work really well with the image. One year in my stocking my husband got me all kinds of washers, nuts and hinges from the hardware store to add to my creations.

Supplies:
Stamps and Cardstock: Club Scrap Dashing
Embossing Folder: Sizzix
Ribbon: my stash

Squirrely Challenge - Faux Artisan

2011-04-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

This is a new Technique Junkie technique called Faux Artisan. Each week I'm challenging more people to these fun techniques. This one involves some patience, as there is positioning and multiple passes with embossing powders. It may be hard to see, but it looks more like a tile in real life.

I used some Club Scrap DIY paper for the oval piece, I wanted some pattern in the background and not just plain cardstock. The stamp is Club Scrap's Study in Red. The rust colored paper is embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder and then I ran a black ink pad over it and then a bit of gold ink too.

You can check out the other "Squirrels" blogs too - sometimes we don't all post on the same days, but you'll see great stuff when you go to their blogs so hop on over!
Jennifer
Connie
Chrissie
Julie
Diana

Supplies:
Stamp: Club Scrap, Study in Red
Papers: assorted Club Scrap
Embossing Folder: Sizzix Tropical Paisley
misc: trim & black pearls