Card sketch #54 - Blue

Here's my latest sketch!



You know those designer papers that you get free in the Stamper's Sampler magazine? Well, I detached this one a while ago and just now found it again to use! The blue and yellow looked really good together and gave me an idea on how to go about designing this layout!

I started with a white card stock base of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2. The blue cardstock is ran through the new cuttlebug embossing folder called distressed stripes. The free designer paper is cut down to two 1 3/4 x 2 3/8 rectangels and layered with white cs. The top panel measures 1 1/2 x 3 and is also layered with white, and popped up with dimensionals. The two butterflies are colored with prisma color pencils and blended with OMS, then cut out and popped up with foam tape. The blue flowers were added in the top left corner with a yellow brad that matched the whole theme.

Supplies:
Stamps - Large butterfly - TAC, small butterfly - rubber stampede
Blue cardstock - DCWV
Designer paper - free from Stamper's Sampler
Palette Noir ink
Prisma colored pencils/OMS
Paper flowers from OTC
Yellow Brad

New CB embossing folder

I just got my four new cuttlebug embossing folders and made a card with one of them to show you how awesome they are! I'll be playing around with these for awhile! =)

The four that I got were: Alegro, distressed stripes, paisley and swiss dots. Here is the swiss dots one!


I used a white core piece of card stock, ran it through the cuttlebug and then took my sanding block to it. It really made the dot's pop out!

The gerbera daisy is colored with prisma color pencils and then blended with odorless mineral spirits. I used Palette moulin rouge ink to distress the edges of the two panels. The chipboard is painted white and sprayed with a gloss to add a bit of shine. They are both popped up on deminsionals.

Supplies:
Stamps - TAC Gerbera Daisy, sentiment from TAC - treasure it.
DCWV cardstock
Chipboard
White craft paint
Gloss spray
Palette Noir and Moulin Rouge ink

Sew inspired

Ok, I think everyone and their brother saw how cool Gina K's tutorial was on the sew mini machine. Well, this inspired me to get out my mothers old Sears sewing machine, weighing in at 25 pounds and sew on a card. As you can see, I kept it pretty straight! Next time, I'm gonna have to go bolder and do those zig zags!



The bottom left hand corners are chipboard that I inked up and sprayed with a glossy glaze. The card measures 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, and I sewed the bottom shut to form a pocket. The main panel is stamped with chalk ink in azurite and then embossed. I also added color and ep around the outside edges. When I was cutting the designer paper for this card, little did I know that the swirls would line up so well! Call that lucky!

Supplies:
Stamp - Inkadinkado
Chipboard
Chalk ink in Azurite by colorbox
Paper - DCWV luxury stack
Spray glaze
Beige thread

Card Sketch #53 - Hang in there!

I made this card for a fellow RAK member who's in need of some simple cheering up! She's been able to hang in there through some very tough times lately and I thought she'd appreciate this!


I used a few of my tools on this one. Marvy mega scalloped oval punch, coluzzle oval, nestabilities scalloped rectangle and straight rectangles.

I finally found something to use my stickles on! Check out the lace on the top of the teddie! I have a lot of colors of stickles but generally don't use them. I guess its because they always seem to glob up on the paper and make a mess, no matter how careful I am. I think I rather like my stardust gel pen to add a bit of bling. =)

Supplies:
Stamps - TAC, a girl thing stamp set
Lace background stamp from Inkadinkado
Palette Noir ink
Memories Chalk ink in delicate rose
Pink grosgrain ribbon
Stardust stickles
Bazzill pink and black cardstock

Card Sketch #52 - leaves

Changing things up for a twist on this card sketch.



The leaf panels are done using Memories mist pigment spray ink. Memories is made by Stewart Superior, who makes the Palette Hybrid line of ink pads. The stamp is misted lightly with water and stamped onto a heavy cardstock. Then you spray the mist ink over the top to get the watercolor effect. I then stamped the leaves in green chalk ink that matches.

The round chipboard label is painted black using craft paint and then sprayed with a glaze. It's popped up on the card using dimensionals. Olive green brads are added to the sides and keeping with the olive color theme here, I added a strip of grosgrain ribbon to the right hand side.

The Memories Mist comes in a multitude of colors and is a lot of fun to work with. I found that this company has it the cheapest so far.

Supplies:
Memories Mist - Wheatgrass
Memories Chalk ink in green
Stamps - Leaf branch from SU best blossoms
Bazzill basics card stock in - ivory, olive green and black
Label Chipboard
Black craft paint
Glaze spray paint
Brads
Grosgrain ribbon

By the way - As I was looking for the March Newsletter on the TAC web site, I found out that one of my submissions for our monthly contests was chosen for a "featured artist" spot! I posted a link to it down under contest publications if you want to check out what I did!

Card sketch #51 - Watercoloring

Here's card sketch #51 with a watercolor technique! This technique was a lot of fun to play around with!




I started with coloring my stamp with markers, I used Marvy LePlume II. Then I took a piece of watercolor paper and spritzed it lightly with water and then stamped the image. I used my heat gun to dry and then stamped over it with the outline stamp. I used the SU ticket punch for the corners and added white brads for contrast.

For the panel below, I used the same color marker and randomly marked the watercolor paper up. Then I spritzed again with water and let it run, dried it with the heat gun and stamped the flower outline.

The cuttlebug embossed panel was colored by lightly running colorbox alabaster chalk ink over the top of it.

Supplies:
Stamps - SU heartfelt thanks
Marvy LePlume II markers
Palette Noir and french lilac inks
Bazzill card stock
Watercolor paper
Brads

P.S.
Is anyone else out there having issues with the spell checker not working on blogger? Anyone know how to fix it? Sorry if there are any typo's or spelling errors, now you know why!

Celebrate - Spring

No sketch to go with this card, as it's a very simple one! I was playing around with a new stamp and just couldn't get the colors right on it. That cherry blossom pink was just not working for me!
I tried:

Markers
Painting with my waterbrush and ink
Watercolors
and all combinations of the above!

I ended up staying with a mix of different markers and colors to get the final result! I did add a bit of sparkle to the centers with a stardust pen.

The back ground is stamped with the cherry blossom stamp in versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. To add some interest, I cut some pink ribbon in 1 inch strips and looped/folded it under the main panel and the sentiment.

Supplies:
Stamp - Cherry blossom by Delta (40% off at Joann's)
Sentiment stamp - Studio G
Markers - Tria light brown alcohol marker
- Bubblegum pink, victorian rose and leaf green from Marvy LePlumme II
Stardust gel pen
Versamark
Clear embossing powdere
Olive green and pink cardstock from DCWV
Pink ribbon

Scrapbook page - Life is good!

Here's a recent layout I just completed. Wow, it feels like forever since I've done any scrapbooking.

This picture was taken by my DH while we were visiting Mt. Saint Helen's, and once I printed it up I knew I had to do a layout around the "Life is Good" theme. Especially since the tire cover on the Jeep describes it so wonderfully!

A little background on "Life is Good".....A few years ago we made a trip up to the Ho Rain Forest on the Olympic Pennisula and stopped in this hiking gift shop. They had some really neat hiking clothes, Indian arts and crafts and other items for sale. Among the stash of T-Shirts was this muted raspberry shirt with Birkenstock sandals on the front with the saying "Not all who wander are lost" and on the bottom left of the shirt is a tag that says "Do what you like, like what you do!" We fell in love with this company then and there. When you have some time, go to their web site and take a look around. Here's the link.

Our dog, Dylan is looking out the back of the Jeep like he's thinking "Liking what I'm doing!" So, I couldn't resist using that quote. The tags and cut outs are from merchandise and boxes that we've gotten.

Supplies:
Stamps - The Angel Company (running stitches)
White craft ink
Glacier white embossing powder
Tree die cut with Sizzix die

Card Sketch #50 - Chalk Hydrangea's

Wow, I can't believe that I've done 50 of these sketches! It's been a lot of fun putting things together and trying to be creative! Sometimes it works, sometimes it dosn't. I know that it helps me think outside of the box, when I have a diagram to go by. Anyway, I hope you all have enjoyed my sketches and have gotten some inspiration from them.



This is an old retired stamp from The Angel Company that just begs to be done in chalk. The lady that owns one of my LSS suggested that I try using these pastels from Faber-Castell as they are more vibrant. She was right. She taught me to pool them on a piece of scratch paper and then pick up the dust with either Q-Tips or eye makeup applicators. I used the eye makeup applicators so that I could have a bit more control over where the colors went. I also had my trusty chalk erasure handy to clean up around the edges.


The blue background is done with a dauber and ice blue chalk ink from Colorbox. All panels are layered with cardstock that matches the chalk colors I used.

Supplies:
Hydrangea Stamp - TAC
White Cardstock
Blue, pink and purple cardstock from Bazzill
Brads
Palette Noir ink
Ice blue chalk ink
Faber-Castell soft pastels