Watercolored Wings

 This week the ways to use it is to do a "bug" card and Butterflies count as they have 6 legs...

So, this particular one is from the Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Butterflies set, its stamped with some versafine on Strathmore watercolor paper (twice once to the base for the antenna's) and the second on a piece that was painted with Kuretake gansai watercolors and cut out with scissors and paper pieced back into the design. there is also clear wink of stella over the whole thing for some shimmer. 

a look at the finished card, this is the second one for C this year as her first card I mailed to the wrong ( old address ) you yeah, you have no idea how much that bites. Its highly unlikely that I will receive the box back in the mail so I can turn around and re send it to the correct address. (is my thought) So, the Happy Birthday is inside the card here. And I am just embarrassed and heartsick over that one as I spent months collecting the goodies that went into that box. good thing she doesn't read my blog eh?

Hopefully you are all continuing to do well & thanks for stopping by.

VSN Mini {Parks & Rec}

 Last weekend there was a Mini VSN hosted at SCS and there were three challenges, the first was to do something inspired by Music in the park. (so you had to have an element from each) The birds and tree trunks dies here are from Impression Obsession. the Music/Lyric stamp is from Hampton Arts Cosmo cricket line and the tag is a very large one ( larger than a size 8 shipping tag, I need to measure it) It was run through an Anna Griffin snowfall folder and where the line is when I ran it through the second time to extend the pattern, That is where the sentiment strip goes across.

the second challenge was to do something with Butterflies on it. And this was the newest set in the room that had an un-inked butterfly in it. ( Colorado Craft Co. Anita Jeram's 4 leaf clover set colored simply with pencils real quick to fit the time frame.

And the third was to have snow covered mountains on the project. This one the halfdome scene is from Crafters Companion. The sentiment and eagle are from Club Scrap. And this one finished out at A7 in real life.

And like always you have a one hour time limit for the construction. the thinking can be an how ever long it takes but, the execution is timed.  So, for my third one I also combined it with this week's featured stamper Dawn who had this gorgeous Purple mountains scene card here. 

You always need at least two changes from the FS card you are casing so, I did move the eagle up in the design and chose a mountain scene image with the water below the bridge of the half dome so, that I could just color the blue there and have less layers. 

I think the main event for this VSN happens in a few weeks in March. And I find my self looking forward to that. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {Retro-Stage}

 This week Amy has us peeking inside the Retro- Stage site for inspiration where I just loved all those dresses from the 50's with the crinolines... And I decided to just pick this one because, I loved the colors of the roses and I don't know about you but, I am getting totally ready to start seeing blooming flowers again.

This is one of the oldest "fashion" stamps in the room here its from Inkadinkado called My Mothers Dress. It's stamped with some versafine clair nocturn ink on a piece of printed paper from the carta bella spring market pad. the stripe printed paper is unknown and the solid pink is from a die cuts with a view shimmer Christmas pad.

if you look closely at the words in the circle die you can catch a glimpse of the tulle peeking out from under the dress. I just used glue dots on this and no foam but, the tulle did give it some dimension. You can find this challenge here to play along with us at SCS. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {Monika Winden homemates Pinterest boards}

 

This week I am hosting the Inspiration Challenge and I sent everyone to Monika Winden's homemates pinterest boards. And I came across this one as one she had saved. I just love the colors and textures of the space. would I live there. no, but it was interesting in a thing to me to catch my eye because, I really used to tend to skip over the yellow and orange tones. And a few years ago someone said to me, she see's the orange colors best so that was her reason why it was her favorite. and I think I started looking at a wider range of colors after that but, not really moving out of my comfort zone of greens and browns and pale colors very often. So, when I seen that space. I thought of this stamp because there are so many patterns layered right next to each other and So, I started coloring this Colorado Craft Co. Anita Jeram's puppy hugs image with some Polychromos & Prisma pencils. there is a tine bit of Stardust Jelly roll pen and some white gel pen bumps on those flower centers on the bottom pattern. The Bricks printed paper is from crate paper and the yellow is some really thin paper from Joanns. The base is Bazzill and this one finished out at A7 so far. There is not a sentiment on it because, I am not sure what I want to do with it yet. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are all continuing to stay safe out there.

Cute Bunny Hugs

 There was a challenge thrown down by Angie to do a "hugs" card for the free for all a few weeks ago. 

And I knew I had this set in my pick me pick me next pile. So, the bunnies were stamped on a scrap of Strathmore 400 series watercolor paper and watercolored with Mission Gold watercolors. That panel was cut out with a Simon Says Stamp stitched rect die.

And I stamped a couple more of the sentiments from that same set ( Colorado Craft Co. Anita Jeram's Lots of love) on a scrap of solar white and cut it with a smaller rectangle die for the inside. This one is 6" square in real life. I have to tell you the more I water color even for something like this and the easier it comes to me the more I want to do more of it to have that whole ability thing increase. I am pretty tickled with how this turned out. Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 612 {loot, painting, etc}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

So, yesterday when I got home from work. ( isn't that great to have some daylight at that time of day again?)

Promptly made a cup of hazelnut coffee and topped it off with some spray whipped cream. just because.

a closer look at some eBay loot that arrived on Monday night and I had not finished admiring them ( or photographing them for the evernote file) so, after that was done these were just moved out of the way so I could start on a sample for this coming weeks IC. I am slowly collecting some of the stamps I wanted way back when, when I could not afford them. So, its kind of exciting to see that some of them are still for sale out there.
 

 

 But wait there's more ha ha. on Saturday I actually had an interesting desk for a while, I had watched the Wednesday watercolor challenge link to a painting watercolor mountains video ( the thread is here with the video here) and Saturday morning I tried to duplicate that from memory. ( which is always an iffy thing) I also grabbed brushes that were the size she used in the video, which were not my best fine tip round brushes so, I struggled with that. That particular pan of watercolors are Mission Gold ones. I also tried to use the colors she used which were not a normal choice for me. I also gave the first one ( card on the right below) some lifted paper towel "clouds" in the sky but, I lost too much of the orange-ish sky at the top of the gradient so, they are hardly seen.

The finished size of these is A7  and the sentiments were made possible by Saturday's happy mail from Club Scrap. they came out of the "Pacific Northwest" stamp set. It really took me by surprise when they moved over to clear stamps last year, I had one wine set from them that after all this time is still clear and holding up so, I felt confident about picking up some more of them.

The papers and ribbons pile is a Kit for making cards that are vintage Americana type themed and I did get the stamps for that too. ( I normally do not buy kits like this so, it surprised me when I kept going back to it while looking at the store) there are two sheets of printed things to cut up and a few sheets of solid colored card stocks, three sizes of envelopes and some glitter star stickers. not sure if I should cut up the printed sheets now. ( probably as I just may be more likely to use them if they were little pieces I could move around on a card front) and so, I just scooped the whole thing back into the box and it sits for now. So, that's about it from my corner of the internet, hope you all are doing well. & thanks for stopping by. Oh, I wanted to mention that my antivirus program is shutting down some of the blogs when I click on them. ( its not very many but, BJ's is one of them again today) so, I am not sure what it setting it off.

WOYWW # 611 {late}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

So, I don't have anything on my desk and I spent a great deal of time yesterday trying to decide what was my best Shaz story to share with you all and I cannot decide. so, this morning I started poking around in a folder I have of things I have made this year and not blogged about and came across this card that I had made for my MIL when I borrowed her embossing folders a few weeks ago. the texture under the stamped panel is some Crepe paper I found at a Micheals crafts store. The heart here is from the Paper Rose you warm my heart set colored with pencils and the sentiment is from the Simon says stamp set home sweet home.

 My MIL has mad knitting and crocheting skills and it is her go-to thing indoors to work with fibers and she loves hearts. so, the story is that, its been years now but, she made me a few tiny crocheted flowers when she caught me buying some from a SU party to use on my projects. and I have used a few of them over the years but, a bunch of them are in a wide mouth vintage jar on the penny candy wall of things behind the table I stamp on. So, this has you know all the feels. And that is something that I frequently found my self doing when I would happen across something Shaz helped people with at SCS. If you didn't know that, she was very helpful in the forums and people there are missing her too. no surprise right. I would find my self agreeing with quite a few things she shared and it made me pay more attention to her posts when she did make them. She is also a big reason why I stuck around WOYWW for so long, the humor and warmth and kindness is very comforting you know, and its not easy to be the new kid on the block but, she never made me feel that way and was nearly always one of the first people to say Hey. and that really touched my heart. So, she will be missed by more people than her family knows. 

I hope you all are continuing to do well, Stay safe. I will be driving all day for work today, and they are predicting 6-12" of snow in the mountains I have to drive over to get the Ice so, it may be Friday before I start making the rounds. And since I have just bawled and not left any comments with the ones I have read I may not say much either. Thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {The Happy Housie}

 This week Kia has shared with us "The Happy Housie" for the inspiration destination and I happened across these Vintage type writer printables.

I loved the clean and simple aspect to them and the solid colors of the typewriters. I knew I had this Club scrap Office space art Nouveau set with a solid typewriter that I have not played with. Yes, it was another set I bought for the sentiments. which happen to be in a typewriter font but, I decided to make a few changes to the Original prints on the site by die cutting the stamped panels with Hero Arts rounded rectangle dies instead of countersinking them behind frames and choosing random Type sentiments from other sets. This particular typewriters page space for a sentiment is pretty small so, I took that as an challenge to find things that would fit in that space and chose clear stamps so I could lay them there before inking.

Another change because, the the space was smaller on the paper of the image, instead of quotes I picked smaller greetings and picked some more Spring like colors. The blue ink is Versafine Clair Warm Breeze and the Pink is Distress Oxide worn lipstick, the fonts were stamped with some versafine clair nocturn. The Hello there and just for you are from the Altenew sentiment strips 2 set, the XOXO is from the Simon Says Stamp Love greetings mix, the There are no words sentiment is from the SSS tiny words support set and the I love you is from the SSS Introverts unite set. I did the bases for these as A2 and used an 1" corner rounder on the edges. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW # 610 {loot & mugshot cards}

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

 So, I had some happy mail a few days a back ( Saturday?) something like that from Technique Junkies... and the mug shot chick came out to play first. the stencils came in that order with the stamps.

 

The sentiment on the top two cards are from the Casual Fridays hot coffee set and the two sentiments on the lower left (grey) card is from Hero Arts My Bad Messages set. The Square cards are 6" and the other two are A6 in real life. Just simple flat cards for laughs.

 

because, it made me laugh. (and Orange is def. not my color ;) )

 The sentiment on this one is from Riley & Co. what little snow we had last week is long gone and the rumor is the same thing will happen again for the weekend here coming up. (so far we are at under 50% accumulation for the water year of normal so, people have their fingers crossed some of these storms coming in will bump up the snow pack in the mountains ) The water year where I live is from Oct 1st to April and it determines how much water is available for crop irrigation and fish/bird wildlife concerns etc. I live on the Pacific flyway and last year was a short water year and so far this one we have less than last year. and the forest fires were bad last year. so, hopefully. the slightly encouraging news is the covid numbers in the county I live in have been steadily improving since Christmas so, coming this Friday some indoor dining will resume at Restaurants. but, these numbers are evaluated every two weeks so, it could shut down again two weeks from now. Right now they have only vaccinated about 10% of the county I live in. I have no intentions of going out. but, it is nice I think for the people who are absolutely gone around the bend with stir crazy that they will have that option again I guess. maybe I would feel different about it if I had been at home this last year. I do miss eating out but, for me its not practical because, the county I drive to to fetch the Dry Ice is still in extreme level and they are not opened up. ( where I am more likely to want to go out and eat out kwim?) hopefully everyone's numbers will be progressively going down as the more shots are given. 

Hope you all are doing well, Take care of your selves & thanks for stopping by.

Paper Hugs

 So, this is a combination of challenges because, the first one had me thinking all week and then I finally got lucky and this week they announced that Jen Guarino would be the featured stamper destination, and I found this pretty card that I seen as a quilt rather than tiles. and then it was an Ah-Ha finally moment where everything just falls together and you can move forward. 

The week the teapot destination this week is for Cheryl 

And the theme for that was to do a tribe, native American thought with scripture and that just stopped everything in my brain to a total blank. but, I knew I wanted to do a card and I figured even if I didn't play along with the prompt, sending a card along was the main goal for me. So, as I said I seen the "quilt" in Jen's gallery and knew I had this embossing folder from Crafters Companion called Pretty Patchwork. So, I cut a piece of Strathmore watercolor paper to A7 and misted it with water and ran it through the big shot. I did loosely add some Distress Oxide inks to that (tattered rose, bundled sage, speckled egg, antique linen & dried marigold) after that was dry I added some stardust gelly roll pen to a few of the spots in the design for some slight sparkle.

While that panel was drying I found this Paper Market die ( paper hug) and cut the base layer from some Lasting Impressions Snickerdoodle paper and the top layer from some white cardstock. but, it really had not enough contrast when it was layered to the base so, after it was all glued together I added some Tumbled glass DOX on the white parts of the letters, and when that was dry I added some clear wink of stella on it. The lace here is vintage. And the base is Sundance Felt natural (that has some texture to it)

A peek at the inside the bottom panel is more of the lasting impressions cover sheet with some Accent Opaque white over that, both were cut with a lacy  layers dies from Waffle flower. The sentiments, ( the top thought and sending hugs on the bottom are from Neat & Tangled NO Words set, the my thoughts are with you line is from the Unity Stamps face the sunshine set, and the praying two in the center are from Our Daily Bread Designs, that is called Faith Card Sentiments. That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

Inspired by {Zabana Jewellers}

 
This week Julie has shared with us the Zabana Jeweller's pinterest boards and I came across this color combo here that I thought was pure gorgeous. So, I set out to recreated it with Alcohol inks on some Yupo paper and at the time when I did this the weather was very overcast and shooting the card washed out some of the color in processing... ( well, and its not as dark as the IC either)

I recently received this Tim Holtz Sizzix Perspective butterfly die in the mail this was cut from a 5 1/2 inch piece of 80# cardstock if that gives you an idea of how big it really is. ( with wax paper, metal shims, embossing shims and many many passed through the big shot to get one that "almost" cut out completely.) The part of the butterfly that is cut off the edge had a spot in the center that just did not cut for me on this version and I had quite a bit of time into this so, I decided to off set it since the one in the Inspiration shot is landed and not flying anyways. I added some clear wink of stella over this diecut for some shimmer.

The Yupo paper AI background is layered with some Fancy Pants black corrugate cardstock and I loved the little sliver of black peeking out as framing so, I started looking through my word die cuts I have in an envelope and I came across this one that says its from Paper Smooches. and the thing is, I cannot find this die. So, I am fairly certain it was something that was RAK'd to me years ago from Janice but, I have not received confirmation from her that that is actually correct. There is also some clear wink of stella on the sentiment die cut. I will have to see if I can get a better shot of this card maybe this weekend as the colors are truly gorgeous in real life. You can find this challenge here at SCS to play along with us, Thanks for stopping by.

WOYWW #609 { embossing }

 

Happy desk peeking day, if you'd like to see more spaces or play along 

the link up for this blog hop starts here at our hostess

Miss Julia's Blog.

There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

 

 So, as it happens a while back I had been adding ink to some previously embossed sheets I found in the file cabinet and that one in the top left-ish corner on the glass mat was the one I had one left of. and I knew it was an Anna Griffin one and I didn't find the folder in the basket of mine so, that meant it belonged to my MIL. ( she is a big fan and has bought most of her sets off the TV) at any rate I knew it was older and decided to go poking about on ebay to see if any were for sale. ( holy cow, people are asking 50-60 dollars for that folder) ( you could have knocked me over with a feather) So, I texted her and said hey, can I borrow this folder? ( and 4 others followed me home on Sunday) (we are in hubs parents bubble & the lonely is getting weary for them) and during the free time I have been rolling some and inking some. So, I tend to spread them out when I am doing this so I don't make a million of the same thing ( with colors on printed papers)  that folder is big enough to paper piece it. This was where I stopped at yesterday evening as I hauled some of those folders down to the sink to rinse the inks off of them. That's about it from me, It's pretty cold here the rumor is we may actually get some snow here again today. Take care of yourselves, & thanks for stopping by.