Thinking of You

The Illustrated Garden CMS295 is one of my favorite releases this year. Paired with Flutter CMS294, you have a winning combination.

On this card I made a light Watercolor wash background on Distress Watercolor paper and then colored the stamp with my Distress Markers. Once that was done I spritzed it with water and stamped it on the Watercolor paper. 

The butterfly was stamped with Black Soot Archival Ink and then watercolored. 

It really couldn't be easier to make a beautiful card with these two stamp sets! 

Patriotic Card

In honor of President's week, I made this patriotic card using Tim Holtz Tiny Things 2 CMS305 (Shipping in March)

I chose each of the items on the card to represent different Presidents, but mostly Washington and Lincoln.

The music because Lincoln loved the Battle Hymn of the Republic, the band leader and title to honor composers of patriotic music, the military leggings which were worn by soldiers under Gen Washington and Pres Lincoln as well as many other presidents, the watch and hour glass because presidents are given a limited time in office, the lightbulb for the ideas of freedom, liberty and democracy that changed the world (globe)

The stamp shapes are from the Labels 660060 Sizzix Alterations die set.
The background is the Stripes and Holiday Type CMS281 set.

I added one of the new Ideaology Adornment Stars and the title is from Small Talk Occasions.

Creativiation Samples 2017 Part 5

This sample card used several stamp sets but I love the way it turned out. First I had to make the background, which included several steps.

Using Distress Specialty Stamping Paper, I inked up the Vines and Roses CMS298 stamps in Spun Sugar, Tumbled Glass, and Shabby Shutters. Stamp o to the paper and dry, then use a blending tool with the same color and lightly blend in the background.

Next I inked the various background stamps from Victorian CMS 300 and Etcetera CMS302 with Pumice Stone and stamped the text portions all over the floral backgrounds.

Once I had three backgrounds completed, I cut them up into 1" squares. You could also use a square punch. Then adhered them to a plain piece of Distress Specialty Stamping paper with a Ranger Collage Glue Stick.

Once all the squares are adhered, see diagonally across them in both directions and then around the outside edge.

To finish the card, stamp a butterfly from the Flutter CMS294 set in Hickory Smoke Archival Ink. Water color it in the same three colors as the background, then cut it out.  Lightly color a small piece of Distress Specialty Stamping Paper with Hickory Smoke and Pumice Stone Distress Inks. Then stamp on it with text stamps from the Etcetera and Victorian stamp sets. Cut out a shape from the Labels 660060 Sizzix Alterations die set.

Color some Ideaology Crinkle Ribbon, tie in a poofy bow, and add a Typed Token.

Creativation 2017 Samples - Part 4

First an apology- my desktop computer is being completely uncooperative and freezing up so I am unable to post from it and am forced to post from my phone. Therefore I'm going to have to keep it simple and let the pictures do the talking. There also will only be limited links until I can get my computer fixed and go back to link to items. 

Continuing with my samples for Creativation CHA 2017, I made this card with Flower Jars CMS297

I started with these supplies.

Put some Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke, and a tiny bit of Vintage Photo onto a craft mat and spritz with water until it beads.

Wipe the Distress Mixed Media Heavystock through the ink. Dry. Add more of the Ink. Dry. Build up layers of color.

When  that step is complete it will look something like this.

Using the Distress Sprayer, spritz large droplets of water onto the background and dry.

You can see how this adds a layer of lighters spots to the background.

Put some Ground Espresso Distress Ink onto the Craft Mat and spray with water. Load the Distress Splatter brush with the into and splatter it across the background.

Use the stone stamp from the Slate & StoneCMS jj

Stamp the stone in Ground Espresso Archival Ink. I added one more step here. I covered the background with a layer of Distress Collage Medium Matte. Do this quickly so you preserve the background details.

Once the background was completed I stamped the flower jars and flowers onto the corner using Dround Espresso Archival Ink. Let it dry. Scribble a few colors of Distress Crayon and water brush and color in the jars and flowers. I used the Crayons because I wanted them to be opaque and not see through like Distress Inks. 

The last two things I added were the Mini Motivations  quote and I die cute a tag from Distress Heavystock and then stamped the wood grain from the Birch and Pine Stamp set. 

Again I apologize for the horrible state of this blog post. I've tried the computer, iPad and my phone and all three are fighting me, so it's a small miracle that I even got this much posted. :-D 

Thank you so much for sticking with me if you got this far! 

Creativation 2017 Samples Part 3

Today I'm going to feature the two cards I made using the Hipster CMS288 stamp set. It is shipping now so you can get a set of these fun stamps right away.

I chose to use the cat first because I have two male orange tabby cats who look at me like this pretty much everyday. One of them is trying his mind meld powers to get me to feed him all the time and the other is giving me his look of absolute disapproval that I decided to bring all these other kitties into HIS home. But they are both totally hip cats.

I couldn't do this post without showing them to you. Such handsome devils. This is James Otis (named after my favorite American Revolutionary - look him up, he was revolutionary before revolutionary was cool!) who was called The Patriot by Samuel Adams, so I call him Patriot too. He was my first cat and is the one who owns the house and is annoyed by all the other cats. This is him demanding attention by laying on my work space in my studio.

This is X Atencio (named after my favorite Disney imagineer, Xavier "X" Atencio. You should look him up too. You'll be surprised at what an important role he has played in your Disney memories!) He is the one who is always starving. Always. He is almost 15 pounds of Maine Coon mix cat and he just wants to eat.all.the.time. As I'm typing this he's meowing and rubbing against my legs wanting dinner.

Ok, enough about two of the loves of my life and on to creating, right?!?  I wanted the cat to look like he was standing in an alley, you know, like O'Malley the alley cat from Disney's Aristocats - another reason why I colored him orange.

The alley required some Distress Grit Paste, Palette Knife Set, and the Slate Layering Stencil.  While I was at it, I decided that I would make several backgrounds from the Slate and Stone Layering Stencils so that I only had to do it once. I wanted to let it dry naturally so I didn't want to have to keep waiting on drying time if I messed up.

You use the palette knives to scraped the grit paste over the stencil and then lift up. I did some with  part on the sides and also a few that were solid. Don't dry this with a heat tool or it will puff. I didn't want a puffy wall, I wanted a gritty wall. Isn't that some fabulous texture?

When it is dry you can do two things. You can seal it with Distress Collage Medium, or you can leave it as is.  I did both and will show you the difference between the two.
Collect some Distress Crayons in colors you want to use to make brick, or stone, or slate. Remember that often these surfaces get dirty or moldy and so you should include brown, black and green in your choices.

For the background in the alley, I scribbled some Walnut Stain, Candied Apple, and Black Soot directly onto the grit paste.

Then I used my fingers to rub the crayons into the grit paste.

Then I spritzed my fingers with water and continued to rub the crayons into the grit paste.

Let it dry between layers and then keep adding layers of the color and wetting your fingers until you get the color and look you want.  The beauty of the Distress Crayons is that if you hate it, just spritz it with water and most of the color with come off. Enough that you can start over and build up color again.

This is the brick wall I did with the Distress Collage Medium over the Grit Paste. See how the area in the center is very light and you can see the brush strokes because the Collage Medium seals the paper and grit paste.  It does make the dry crayons move much easier over the surface and you need very little water to get the colors to mix.

This is the piece that was left from the card I made. It is unsealed and notice how there is no sheen to it, it is very matte, and the paper in the center is a grey/brown color because it wasn't sealed. 

If you want the same stencil to look like Slate or the Stone background, you will probably want to go with more of a grey color scheme. I only did little bits of green and brown in spots and Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke and Frayed Burlap for the bulk of the stone color.

Same thing, I rubbed it in with my finger tips.  Just a note here, I would refrain from doing this too many times in one sitting.  Grit paste is truly gritty and you will rub your fingertips raw, or at least very, very sore. LOL!

With the stone backgrounds, you don't need to spritz very much water on your fingers when you are blending the crayons.

You will have some white spots showing through and you might like that but I wanted my stone/slate walls to be darker, so I scribbled some Black Soot Crayon on my Craft Sheet and used a Water Brush to brush in in the crevices to cover the white spots and then blended it in with my finger.

See, much better! You just need to play with the colors until you get the look you want. This is what the crayons look like on unsealed grit paste.

This is what the crayons look like on grit paste that has been sealed with Distress Collage Medium. It's definitely a different look. I like both for different purposes. You may recognize this from my Tell Your Story fish over the mantle card.  I'll be posting that card later and will link it back here.

This is another example from yesterday's post of the Stone stencil with grit paste that had been sealed.  Notice again the brush strokes in the center area where the sky is showing through, and how the light colors show through between the stones on both this sample and the one above.

Hipster Card #2 is a completely different look. I loved this hip ostrich.  I thought she looked like she would be a sweet, sassy grandma. 

The background was very simple. I inked the Roses stamp from the Vines and Roses CMS298  set with Shaded Lilac Distress Ink, lightly spritzed it with water and then stamped it onto Distressed Mixed Media Heavystock, then I lightly blended the background with the same color ink, and edged it even darker with the same color.

I stamped her in Ground Espresso Archival Ink, then watercolored the image with Distress Markers. I added two flowers from the Flower Jars set and detail cut them out before I added them to her hat and shoulder.  
I could see this as a really fun Red Hat Society card or invitation but I didn't think of that until after I had made the card. To make the background, I covered the image with Distress Microglaze and then lightly colored the whole background with the large watercolor brush in Picked Raspberry.

There you have it. Two totally different Hipster cards. Such a fun set, I'm looking forward to playing with it a little more soon!