3.31.2019

Flowers in Chintz

This weeks featured stamper is Proudarmymomof2 and I happened across this pretty card and just loved the off the edge look to the framing.

 
So, to make changes I did flip this up to portrait and used a stitched die on the mat for framing instead of the raised embossing. I also switched the stamp and colors. The flowers in chintz is from Karen Lockhart stamps (retired) and the fabric trim I have had a long long time. ( I think it may be Making memories but, really I don't know for sure anymore) the printed paper is from My Minds Eye, the green is SU seafoam. and this one finished out at A2 in real life.

A closer look at the coloring, this was done with polychromos and prisma pencils on Neenah solar white. Thanks for stopping by.

3.30.2019

Pretty Colors

This week the color combo challenge is one that I actually own packs of all three colors card stocks.
and the colors are Powder Pink, Seafoam & early Espresso. with a side option of add a printed paper.

So, I colored this Unity Stamps (as we go along) bouquet with pencils ( polychromos & prisma pencils) This was die cut with a Poppystamps double stitched frame die. and diecut the Hero Arts (you are loved) with a Spellbinders labels trio die. And then when I got to the add a printed paper I found this chevron print from Basic grey that looked like the cardstock colors to me ( this actually looks better in person) and then when I added the watermark to the card shot I kept thinking the neutrals in that printed paper appear yellowish on my screen. (in real life this blends better) however after it was glued I decided there was entirely too much of the print for me so, if I were to make changes I would totally make that strip skinnier. This card finished out at 5 1/2" square in real life, thanks for stopping by.

3.29.2019

Inspired By {snurk}

This week Stef is guest hosting the Inspiration Challenge and she has chosen the Snurk store online.
When I first started poking around in the store I did the usual and looked at the linens and happened to click on a long version of a staged room shot for the bedding seen below and what struck me instantly was the bright purple flowers hanging on the wall and the exposed bricks and my mind was off and running. So, over the last two weeks I have managed to use both of the Floral images I have been hoarding for so long I had forgotten I was gifted with them, last week it was the potted Geranium. This week is the PSX Heather image that was gifted to me from Chautona Havig.

 I have never seen Heather growing but, I had assumed it is a shade of purples and greens. So, that is the way my mind went and my bricks are a little on the yellow tinged side but, I think you get the idea here. I did rub some Distress Oxide vintage photo and spiced marmalade over the embossed basic grey print to add more color to it, cut it out with scissors and then cut off one corner so I could have it peek out from two corners under the bloom.

 While I was pushing these pieces around I did play with having the flower hang upside down because I could have tucked the Gina K sentiment over the stamped floral names in the image and in the end I decided to leave it like this and tell you it is more along the lines of an inspired by piece than an true CASE. The flower was colored with polychromos & prisma pencils and the frame is a Poppy Stamps double stitched frame die, This is up on foam pop dots over the brick layer and this card finished out at A7 in real life.

You can find this bedding here in their store. And you can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

3.24.2019

Bird Day Greetings

This week the featured stamper at Splitcoaststampers is Sharon Madison. I was already familiar with both Sharon's gallery from past VSN events and her blog due to What's on your Wednesday workdesk hops. I spent a lot of time poking around and kept coming back to this bird tag. I just love the colors of the background, so since this requires changes I made a card and switched out the stamps.

This bird is from the Katzelkraft set called Les Piafs (birds) the whole set I think was drawn by the same artist that drew the Tim Holtz bird crazy set. It was stamped with some versafine on Neenah and colored with both Polychromos and Prisma pencils. I did cut this with a Memory box stitched circle die.

The long tall tag is from a set from My Favorite things with two skinny long tags in it, I did use this to wipe off an almost dry brush of green acrylic paint a while back. the original tag was cream cardstock. the shorter tag used on the sentiment is from Hero Arts. that sentiment is from the Club Scrap Adirondack greetings set and the inside of this card was lined with a blue scrap diecut with a Simon Says Stamp wonky stitched rectangle die. This card finished out at A2 in real life and because the ribbons do overhang it, I have it set aside to go into an A6 envelope.

3.22.2019

Inspired By {Country Door}

This week Brenda has led us to the Country Door store online where I just love the colors in this rug I found. last week when I was digging through my stamps looking for a lilac stamp, ( I even looked in the stamped images drawer to see if by chance I had an old RAK image squirreled away.) and I came across this Geranium that I think maybe Misti gifted me with years and years ago. and I thought Oh, you could color one of those someday. and when I seen that rug this week that is instantly where my mind went.

 The Image I think is from My Heart Stamps for you, The sentiment is from Pretty Pink Posh thoughtful greetings. The background was embossed with a Cuttlebug 5X7 Wicker weave folder and the old basic grey printed paper covers up the gap between the sides. ( this card finished out at 6" square) the ribbon is from Michael's, The base is textured bazzill and I ended up popping up the sentiment with some foam pop dots to keep it flat over the ribbon.


 A closer look at the pot, this was stamped more than likely with Versafine because, that is what I usually asked for and I colored it with some Polychromos & Prisma pencils. I did use the largest wonky stitched rectangle die from Simon Says Stamp on this image.

You can see this rug here in their store. I just love all the colors in this, it is not something that would work in my house but, its pretty dreamy as an IC piece to me. You can find this challenge here to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

Ways to Use it


This week for the ways to use it challenge Cathy picked a theme of how does your garden grow... and I went with a fantasy garden. I have tried planting these Agapanthus flowers in my flower beds 3 times now, and every spring ~ nada. nothing comes up again for me. ( I had them in beds near the house hoping it would be warm enough for the tubers to survive but, I think it's just too cold here in the winter) because, those are also beds that I can keep the gophers from eating the tulip bulbs in. So, I was really tickled when I had seen Hero Arts had come out with this set recently. I stamped the leaves, stems & blooms with Distress oxide inks and colored that with some polychromos pencils. the background was done with some Soft sky and DOX ink in puddles that I kept mostly to the edges for texture, I did not get too close to the flowers so, that it would not run. This one finished out at A6 in real life. Thanks for stopping by.

3.20.2019

WOYWW#511 {a few things}

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
There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW

So, I had a dr. visit for my ears ( if you didn't know I am completely deaf and have bilateral cochlear implants) and my dr. is about a 5 1/2 hour drive from my house. So, when we go we tend to go early and spend the day before shopping in that city and eating at places they don't have at home. and I knew I need a Quickbooks 2019 book and that there was a Barnes & Nobles bookstore not far from the hotel and walking through the shopping center we came across a Paper Source store (before it was open) and of course we had to walk past it leaving the book store on the way back to the truck so, yes some envelopes followed me home.

 the book I want is not out yet but, these just jumped up in my hands as I was walking around watching hubs thumb through books.
We don't have a book store here where we live anymore and most of our books are bought online so, it was fun to poke through them in person. The one on the bottom is a "journaling" magazine I think maybe art journals. ( I liked the colors on the cover) I have not thumbed through that yet.

 So, I am almost embarrassed to show you this. this is the corner of that room above the garage where you get a glimpse of the plastic table I stand to stamp at. on the floor on the left is the box of stamped cling stamps waiting to be laminated. Over in the corner are metal file cabinets holding stamps and papers and such. and you see that box on the top? (it is a crafters companion jr. electronic cutter) I have taken it out of the box exactly one time. there are no plug ins up here with easy access the lights on the table turn on from extension cords on the floor.
so, for me to use it I pretty much have to take it down the stairs to a counter. and I forget about it. until I read all the comments that those dies work better in those machines. ( slaps forehead shoulda had a V8 moment)
at any rate I did use a piercing tool to pop out the parts that did not cut completely that I showed you last week (this is the same piece) and then I cut it a second time with some pale blue card and again poked out the non cutting parts, and I started adding some ink to that) and then I ran out of time messing around with it so, it is just sitting there waiting for me to steal more time to play. the bag is green envelopes from paper source and the box is hero arts last kit of the month that was I think an aquarium type stamps set. I just moved that out of the way to slide the butterflies to the center to shoot that this morning.
Thanks for stopping by.

3.15.2019

Inspired by {Pottery Barn}

It's my turn to host the Inspiration challenge this week and I have chosen the Pottery Barn store because, I just fell in love with the colors of the current catalog cover that arrived in the mail recently.

 

 I know this does not look much like the cover at all but, I was mostly grabbed by the colors and then I was very surprised to find out that I do not own liliac flower stamps but, I am good to go on bunnies so, I pulled out this bunny hugs set from Whimsy Stamps that I bought geeze, almost a year ago now and inked it up for the first time. The hugging bunnies were stamped with Versafine smoke grey and mostly colored with some Zig clean brush markers and a little bit of Polychromos pencils for shading. the sentiment was done in Onyx Black ink. This panel and the two on top of it were all cut with the Poppy stamps double stitched frame die. So, what I found is I do own lilac and razzleberry cardstocks from SU and the base is some going grey and if you squint, the colors are close enough in my world.
This finished out at A6 in real life.

 A closer look at the bunnies.
You can find the online version of this catalog here. and the challenge inside SplitCoastStampers here to play along with us. Thanks for stopping by.

3.13.2019

WOYWW #510 {crafters Companion die}

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
There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW
So, I have a few (less than a handful) of crafters companion dies. and I really have not figured them out. ( how to get what I seen someone else do that made me feel like I wanted that die.) ( I have the one that looks like a brick wall too) in this ones case, I like the card on the front of the package. the discard on the right was cut twice in the big shot and it jumped so, its headed for the trash. the one on the left has been cut 12 (yes, you read that right) passes through the big shot back and forth spun this way spun that way and it is not all the way cut out but, it is possible that I can poke out the ones in the center that just do not seem to make contact with the rollers. ( or what ever the technical difficulty was) so, that second attempt, I did use both wax paper and I used a metal cut sheet between the die and the cut pad for the machine too.
so, then it will be a matter of what the heck do I do with the split frames?
( no clue) but, this is the puzzle I am working on at the moment. I am procrastinating making my this weeks IC sample.
the DOX pad is out from last week's inspiration card and the reinkers are out from the traveling ink VSN challenge. That is the first Celtic Cross card in that post if you go looking. and peeking in from the left is a sliver of the newest Pottery Barn catalog that has gorgeous colors on it.
That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by. 

Inspired by {Wedgwood}

This week Angie has sent us hunting for Inspiration inside the Wedgwood site online.
And I do not know about you but, when ever I hear the words Wedgwood I instantly think of things such as the Jasper Rose magnolia bowl seen below. so, that is what I chose for my inspiration piece.


 I originally ran the earthstone cardstock through the Tim Holtz botanicals embossing folder with some Distress Oxide broken china ink on it, it was not really all that visible when it came out so, I grabbed an old SU Bashful blue marker and started inking the flat spots and it was pretty flat looking so, then I added some Sky blue polychromos pencil to some of the crevices to add more shadows. the sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp moments of grace set.
This is the bowl I chose and you can find it here inside their store. You can find this challenge here at SplitcoastStampers to play along with us. Sorry these are so late, I had a headache all weekend so, it pretty much wiped out the online things I normally do. Thanks for stopping by.

VSN Mini

 There was a VSN Mini last friday night and I read through the challenges and made these over the weekend. the first one from Kim, you needed to put re-inkers into a container with some marbles to get the lines of ink. I had worked on the recreate one of your own cards challenge from the free for all last friday and seen this Celtic Cross (our daily bread designs) in my already colored images envelope on the table so, that influenced the color choices for the ink trails.
 A closer look at the cross and the ink trails layer. the sentiment is from SU.

 Misti had a challenge that involved inspiration photos of snacks to pack on a trip and one of the containers had some chlorine soaked "baby" carrots. ( you knew that right? the mfg takes the crooked carrots and grinds them into that baby shape and soaks them in chlorine to bag them up so they don't grow mold so fast since they have cut off the skins.
(ever since I have known that I have always bought carrots with their skins on and peeled them my self)
PSA over. at any rate this Karen Lockhart carrots dress was also already colored and so I just added the Simon Says Stamp sentiment to it really easy peasy.

Lee has a challenge that needs to include an arrow on it. ( the whole VSN is travel themed) so, I knew I had this split arrow stamps from Club scrap and it was just a matter of finding a sentiment to highlight and I ended up using this one from Avery Elle. the painted corrugate was a scrap on the table and I thought it fit with the slightly rustic theme. the scallop border is a MFT die.
 I believe the rest of the VSN will happen in April some time so, there are a couple of weeks to get these Mini ones done and loaded to the gallery if you are going to be playing along in every challenge.
Thanks for stopping by.

3.11.2019

Recent Projects

This is something silly I did based on a memory of one of the first interent jokes I ever received in a email a long time ago. it was a photograph of an ostreich peeking in from the top corner of the screen and the words said something like just peeking in to see how you are doing. The bird here is from Katzlekraft and colored with pencils. the sentiment is from Club Scrap)

There was a try a new technique challenge not too long ago (last week?) to ink your embossing folder and and then stamp on your embossing folder to have it print with some depth, the parts that are raised resisted the stamped image. so, the falling snow on this after that was done have some white gel pen on the dots as this was an off white cardstock. I really do not have that many embossing folders that have open space on them to stamp an image on. the tutorial uses trees, and I do have that but, I wanted to see what else I could come up with.

My insurance agent needed a sympathy card not too long ago so, I made a couple quick ones to boost up his choices. the sentiments on both of these are from the Simon Says Stamp Moments of grace set.

They are both 6" square in real life.

There was an "under the weather" Clean and Simple challenge recently and so, I had grabbed this Coronado Island Stamping ocean ballet stamp and added some color slightly with pencils to the rays, water and orca's. the sentiment is from Altenew.

There was a free for all to use flowers recently. and so, This image live love laugh mailboxes is from Impression Obsession and the sentiment is from Club Scrap.

The featured stamper a week ago was Olga and I chose this card of her's to try and CASE. The Baby stamp here is from PSX and was heat embossed on the blue and then I used some markers to color it just slightly. the frilly mat is an Spellbinders die called Devine Eloquence, the flowers are prima ones.

Now last week there was a Three in a Row challenge for the clean and simple one and I started making the card on the right. and when it was done I decided it had too many layers to be clean...


So, I grabbed the drop pieces and inked them a little and added this Power Poppy sentiment to the row. This one is A2 in real life.

A closer look at the other one. the butterflies were cut with the Hero Arts nested ones and the corrugate was done with the SU embossing folder. This one is A6 in real life.

The free for all this last friday was to chose a card from your own galleries first page and recreate it.
and I kept coming back to this birthday card with the shadowbox card tutorial and grabbed a couple of scraps to see about how to score and cut and then decided this dog would fit through the window opening and then I had to laugh when I went to cross link them as the birthday card was mostly green too haha. that was not intentional.
That's about it for me right now, I do have some VSN mini cards to share and this weeks Inspiration that will follow this post. thanks for stopping by.

3.06.2019

WOYWW # 509 {very little}

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
There is also a new Instagram hashtag of #WOYWW
 
So, I have been stalking amazon off and on waiting for things on the buy list to go back to normal-ish prices. ( which did happen for the foam, it went up 10 then dropped 9 but, when I seen that I also seen this Penny Black ballerina die and tossed it in the cart too...)
So, not much has changed. I am very slowly still working through the stamps but, because it is not an every day thing anymore I do have room on the table to make things.
our snow has switched over to rain this week and most of the snow that was here is almost gone now and that makes it nicer for driving to work. That's about it from me, thanks for stopping by.

3.02.2019

Inspired by the V&A Museum Shop

This week we have a Polly as our guest designer who has sent us hunting inside the V&A museum shop for inspiration. and I started out looking at all the fashion pieces and books then stumbled across these Camera X rays and kept coming back to them.

 This was my first trial, I had gotten the Club scarp photo booth set in the mail for this sentiment mainly and I had originally thought I could do the camera on a dark background in a pale blue and them maybe make the card base Acetate and overlay the sentiment over the top. ( it was too cluttered) so, I changed gears and used this camera diagram also from that same set to squeak in a camera into the card. this was embossed with white SU powder on PTI smoke grey cardstock and finished out at A2 in real life.

This is an Xray print from Nick Veasey which you can find here in their online store.


 This is a second trial because, in my head I was seeing my self heat emboss a camera on black in pale blue and having that translucent look. instead I went with some sparkle WOW! powder on smokey grey and it did get a little translucent as that powder has some glitters mixed into it. The sentiment is from the Club Scrap photo booth set and the camera is from Darkroom Doors capture life set. this one finished out at 6" square in real life.

You can find this print here in the store.  You can find this challenge here at Splitcoaststampers to play along with us, Thanks for stopping by.