Humming Along

This is another of the wonderful stamp sets I recently purchased from Flourishes stamp company. Humming Along features two hummingbirds along with the Trumpet Vine and several leaf sprays. The sentiments range from Hello's to Thank You's, to "The tiniest thing" stamp I used on this card.

The background used here, was a piece of watercolor paper that I colored using the Tattered Angels Naturally Aged Rusty Metal Paint System.  After spritzing the colors on the watercolor paper, and letting it air-dry, I ran it through my Cuttlebug embosser and the Sea Beauty Embossing Folder from Spellbinders. I then stamped the Trumpet Vine on Neenah white card stock, along with the large hummingbird, and colored them with my Copic markers. I colored the vine as I remembered a vine my neighbor's yard, back when I was younger. It had bright orange trumpet shaped flowers that the hummingbirds used to love getting nectar from. I was always amazed at how those tiny little birds could move their wings so fast, darting in and out of the flowers on the vine.  I didn't remember too much about the coloring of the hummingbird, since they moved so fast, it was hard to see their coloring. But after looking at images on the Internet, I colored the "hummer" to blend with the background.

After fussy cutting the images, I adhered them to the background and card front using double sided tape. I also added a small banner with the sentiment, and outlined it with a Warm Violet ColorBox Chalk ink along with the embossed background. To add a bit of sparkle to the entire card, I dotted the background with some Apple Green acrylic paint, and sprinkled it with a fine sprinkling of two-toned embossing powder. I also added a bit of my Wink of Stella Glitter markers to some of the flowers and the hummingbird. The banner and "Hummer" were attached with foam tape to give the card some dimension.

Have a Great week, and enjoy your Halloween festivities. Don't eat too much candy, and have a spooky good time

Savor the Flavors of Life

Hello everyone! Hope you had a wonderful weekend. and savored the flavors of life.  I have really enjoyed this new stamp set I ordered from Flourishes titled, "Italian Garden".  The set has 11 pieces in it, and I have only used four, so far.  I love the Italian lifestyle, foods, scenery, and I hope to visit Italy one day.  Several of my friends are in Italy right now on a Tim Holtz cruise, and as they send back photos to their Facebook pages, I fall more and more in love with the country and it's surroundings. Here is how I created this card!

First of all, I stamped the ingredients cluster stamp which consisted of the olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and parmesan.  I then added the pot of oregano, along with the saying, and the word "Enjoy!"  Using my Cuttlebug and Romantic Rectangles Die, I diecut the border from a piece of yellow printed paper.  Then using the die itself as a border, I traced inside the design around my stamping, and cut along the pencil line for the "label look". I highlighted the edge of the label with my gold PanPastel chalk to blend with the yellow patterned paper. Before mounting the label, I colored the image with my Copic markers, shading and highlighting where indicated by the stamp.

I attached the background die to the card front with double stick adhesive, and then used foam tape to attach the image label on top of the die. To add even more dimension, I added a small cat die from Impression Obsession, highlighted with Brushed Corduroy Distressed ink, and used another layer of foam tape to give the card depth.  To finish off the card, I used my clear Wink of Stella marker to add clear sparkle to the oregano pot and the glass of water with the basil sprig in it.

This card reminded me so of the laid back and relaxed lifestyle of Italy. I hope you had a relaxing and comfortable weekend, and are ready for a kooky, spooky, week filled with Halloween cheer. Stay safe and have a great week!
Mindy

Don't Forget the Garlic

This Halloween season, "Don't forget the garlic" you may hear these House Mouse critters say!  You need the garlic to keep the vampires away!  Don't these little guys just make you smile?  I love the House Mouse line of stamps, and have many for different times of the year. I also purchased a new one for Christmas this year, which will be my Christmas card that I will be mailing out. I will share the Christmas Mouse soon.

The coloring of this card is very soft and soothing for this time of the year. I used a very soft palette of the traditional Halloween colors, green, orange, purple, black and white, to color the mice with Copic markers, and patterned papers.  I started with a background paper from the Memory Box, and edged it with a bracket edged paper from the DCWV Ledger line. Along this edge, I also added a length of black sparkly rick-rack.  I then colored my House Mouse stamp, stamped with Memento black ink, with copic markers and then fussy cut them out leaving a tiny white border around the image.  This helps the colored image to stand out from the printed paper. I also used some foam tape to pop it up from the card base.

The using a tiny clear Halloween stamp set, I stamped a label with Trick or Treat, a bat, and then bordered it with a piece of pearlized card stock I had in my scrap bin.  I also used the rest of the printed strip inside my card for decoration. Then to finish off the front of the card, I stamped a tiny black spider with a single line web, dropping over the front edge of the card, as if to say, "Hi there!"  I just added a bit of sparkle to the stamped images with my Wink of Stella markers.

This card is for a special friend, and I must rush to get it in the mail so it will get to her before the holiday. I hope you are ready for a fun-filled weekend.  Have a good one, and enjoy stamping if you will. See you again soon.

Mindy

Happy Harvest to One and All

Happy Harvest to one and all!  I love this new Happy Harvest stamp from My Favorite Things!

I stamped the Doodle Garden Girl on Neenah white card stock, and then colored in the image with my Copic markers. I then tried to center the image within my Romantic Rectangles Die from Spellbinders.  As you can see, I didn't get it exactly in the center, so I added a row of tiny flowers from the recent Prima Mixed-Media Border Stamp Set on each side.  It helps to disguise the off-centered image.

I then mounted the image on the front of a royal blue card with double stick adhesive. A banner was cut from a strip of printed card stock, and I stamped Happy Harvest from the set, and added it to the front of the card.  I also added a sheet of the lined card stock to the inside of the dark card, so I would have a lighter colored surface to write my message on.

My allergies have cleared for the moment, so I have been coloring images with my Copic markers.  Another cool front is promised for tomorrow, at which time my allergies usually go haywire when the new pollen is brought in "on the wind"!  Enjoy your week, and see you again soon.

Mindy

Stopping By to Say Hello . . . .and Thank You!

Today's post is a combo of cards that I have been working on. They have been decorated with papers/tags that I colored with the Tattered Angels Paint Systems that I purchased recently.  The first card, Stopping by to say Hello, uses a strip of watercolor paper colored with the Naturally Aged Paint System, Precious Stone; Turquoise, and then embossed with the Sea Beauty Embossing Folder from Spellbinders.


I adhered a strip of the watercolor paper down the left side of the A2 card, and trimmed with a row of cream iridescent double loop braid from Michaels' Dollar bin. I then added a cream colored fabric flower from Prima along with some pearl bling also from Prima. The Angel stamp is from American Art Stamp, and is stamped on Ranger glossy paper with Rich Cocoa Memento Ink and colored with copic markers.  I attached the angel with foam tape to pop it up, along with the sentiment stamped on a manila tag.

Card #2 has a manila tag colored with the same Turquoise Paint System, attached on top of a card base with a scrap of patterned paper as the background.

The angel is from the same American Art Stamp set, stamped and colored with the same ink and markers.  Using several leaf metal dies, I punched out some leaves from various green papers and attached a cluster to the card front and tied with a bow of Limeade lawn trimmings from Lawn Fawn.  I adhered a strip of wide Huckleberry rick-rack trim from Li'l Davis Designs and then stamped  Thank You on a die cut banner. The angel was again attached with foam tape to give it dimension on the card.

I hope you have enjoyed these cards as much as I enjoyed making them.  I love layering papers and tags, ribbons and embellishments.  I find it hard at times to stop, before making the card too thick, as to require more postage at the post office to mail them.  I know the poor Postal Service is going broke due to the drop in postal business, but I just can't see spending that much to mail an envelope. I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. Until next week, Joy to all and enjoy yourself!
Mindy

Trick or Treat . . . . . . . . .

Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat! Why do I always hear this song in my head when I see someone in costume?  Halloween is just around the corner, and although I no longer dress in costume, I remember the days when I dressed in costume for work. I worked retail, and on Halloween we always dressed in costume to entertain the customers.  By the time I got home from work, and being on my feet in my costume all day, I usually changed into my jammies and went to bed, without handing out much candy. It seems the neighborhood I grew up in, grew up with me. So, in the later years there wasn't much action, except for the house across the street.  As the kids in that house grew up, the parents started putting up a large tent, and would be the waiting spot for parents while their kids were in the neighborhood trick-or-treating. They would serve coffee, hot chocolate, and cookies to the kids and parents, and would have music playing during the festivities.  Years later when the carloads of  kids would appear in our neighborhoods, their house was always the gathering place for frivolity and fun! If I had purchased candy to hand out, and no one visited our door, I would end up delivering it to "the tent" to add to their cauldron of goodies.

Now, the neighborhood I live in  has no children. I may buy a bag of candy that I like, "just in case someone stops by!" I usually don't open my door after dark anyway, you never know who is out there anymore.  So, Halloween is not that big a deal.  I do love the art of the holiday though!

In this card, I started with a Prima large tag, and stenciled black chevron stripes on it. I then added two cat die cuts, and an image from a vintage postcard.  The tag was trimmed to fit the A2 orange card base, and I then stamped "Trick or Treat" and a tiny star down the open side of the card.

I hope you all have a wonderful Halloween, and a spooky, kooky good time!

Dia de los Muertos Skull & Halloween on the Way!

Hello fellow artists and cardmakers! It has been two weeks since my last post, and many thought I have dropped off the face of the earth.  Sorry, the first front of fall brought in all sorts of pollen, and I have just been down with a case of the allergies, and I really couldn't get my thoughts together to post! 

I have been working on projects during this time, and have 6 - 10 of them in various stages of completion.  The above Muertos Skull is on a piece of cardboard, and was traced on it with the help of a 12"X 12" template from the Crafter's Workshop.  Most of the coloring done was with my Copic Markers, and when I got the colors in, I highlighted some of them with my Wink of Stella Glitter Markers. I don't know if you can see the glimmer, but in person, the colors are awesome.

I haven't decided whether I will display this in a frame, or mount it on a canvas board and collage with other mixed-media products. I still have a week to finish my Dia De Los Muertos items, before putting up my shrine, so I need to make my decision soon.

I have also continued playing with my Tattered Angels Paint System Kits, and have lots of samples to use on cards and tags. I hope to share some of those with you tomorrow or the day after. I have also been working with the awesome kit from Paper Wings Productions, October Nesting Components Kit, which is full of pumpkin and fall clip art (2 pages), lots of fall and Halloween postcards, painted wooden charms, and ribbons.

I just wanted to check in with you all, and let you know I am still alive and kickin', and hope you are having a full and creative week. See you again soon!
Mindy

Sugar Skull Template

Happy October friends!  It is the first of October, the beginning of a season of holidays, cool weather, and lots of falling leaves.

I found this awesome Sugar Skull 6 X6 Template, and added it to my New Mini Art Journal from Ranger. I have been having so much fun painting, printing, and technique testing in my larger Ranger journal, that when the smaller size ones came out, I knew I had to have one of those to carry with me when attending classes, and spending the day relaxing and refreshing outdoors. 

The Crafters Workshop carries this stencil in both the 6 X 6 and the 12 X 12" sizes. I have always wanted to build a shrine to loved ones gone before me, for Dias de Los Muertos celebrated the first of November.  I have a month to experiment on what I want to include in my shrine, so stay tuned here, to see what I come up with.  I like things that are different, and unique, and if they are made-by-hand, that is even better. My family always appreciated hand made arts and crafts, so I'm sure my shrine will contain mainly hand made items in it.

I have many projects planned for the coming month, so check back with me, and be sure to leave me comments on the projects I will be sharing. I really appreciate your comments, and hope to keep in touch with you. Enjoy Fall,  and create something yourself. Hand-made is always better!

Mindy