Taylor Made Tag . . . . . Take Time!

I'm still playing with my New Julie Nutting Doll Stamps by Prima. Today's tag/card uses the doll named "Taylor". I started by making a card from two tags, using the Julie Nutting Tag Pad. I adhered the tags together at the top of the tag, and then started to decorate them.  I adhered printed scrap book paper to the front, and then stamped flowers and clock faces over the front of the tag using Ranger Archival ink in Sepia. While the papers were drying, I stamped Taylor on the Julie Nutting "Buff" paper pad and colored in her clothes and hair with Copic markers.  After fussy cutting around the doll, I adhered her to the left side of the tag using foam tape for dimension.

On the right hand side of the tag I die cut some leaf shapes  from a Tim Holtz Alterations die, and shaded them with my Copic markers. I combined them with flowers and leaves from the Prima Cartographer Collection and some covered wire springs.  The flowers have a little glitter on them, so I added a piece of sparkly gold trim across the bottom of the tag, some Maya Road Ginger Twine tied around the tag, and a crinkly rust bow tied at the top of the tag/card.

To complete the tag, I stamped a few open circles from the Scenery: Big Bang Confetti clear stamp set from Winnie & Walter set, to fill in between elements.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and come to visit with me again soon.

Celebrate Fiesta !

Celebrate Fiesta, San Antonio!  Our city wide celebration is drawing to climax, with the two BIG parades, The Battle of Flowers Day parade on Friday, and the Fiesta Flambeau night parade on Saturday!

Today's card "Celebrate" with the Chili Ristra strand stamp from Deadbeat Designs reminds me so of Fiesta days gone by.  Since the Chili Queens of Texas had so much to do with the original celebration years ago, I thought it would be symbolic to use this stamp to show the "HOT times in the BIG city!"  I stamped the chili pepper strand on Xpress Blending stock and on white card stock and colored both with my Copic markers.

I cut out the peppers from one set and used foam tape to pop up the peppers on the card front.  I then stamped the "Celebrate" from a Hot Off the Press Birthday Sentiment set and added "Yipee" and the background "Moon and Stars" from two other stamp sets, to complete the background.  Using my Wink of  Stella dark blue glitter marker, I then touched the letters and some of the moons to give it a spot of bling. I also inked the edges of the card stock with chestnut roan chalk ink before attaching it to the card front with double-sided tape.

Enjoy the weekend, Saturday is just around the bend.

Kate's Garden Tag

Happy Hump Day!  The week is just speeding along. Today I am featuring a tag using one of the New Julie Nutting Doll Stamps from Prima.  Her name is Kate, and this tag reminds me of a garden scene.

I started this tag by adhering various printed papers on a Prima Doll large tag. I also did a little stamping on top of the papers with Ranger Archival Inks. Decorative ribbons were also attached after the collage papers were dried. I stamped the doll stamp on Julie Nutting "Buff" paper pad by Prima, and colored with Copic markers. This paper pad consists of perfect colors to use with Julie Nutting's popular doll stamps. After coloring and shading, I fussy cut around the doll and set aside for the next step.  I then ran the New Spellbinder's Card Creator die called "Tranquil Moments" through my Cuttlebug and die cut the frame from primitive white card stock. After adhering the frame to the tag with foam tape, I adhered the doll figure to the side, and a Prima Natural Flower next to it.  To complete the tag I embellished it with two Maya Road resin flowers, some cotton cluny lace trim across the bottom of the tag, and a ribbon bow at the top.

These tags are so much fun to decorate with Prima products, and my favorite Julie Nutting Doll Stamps.  I hope you purchase a stamp-or-two and give it a try!

Sailing, Sailing. . . . . . .

Sailing, sailing over the bounding Maine. . .  A song that sprang forth in my brain while making this card.

I am so in love with die cuts, that lately I have been trying to use at least one on each card I make. I enjoy how they give dimension to cards without having to fussy cut the image. To begin today's card, I recently purchased this sailboat die from Die-Versions Universally Crafty. I won a gift certificate to their online store, and found three dies to purchase with my "winnings"!  I already had this awesome 6X6" background paper pad from Websters Pages Petite Papers, that I purchased at the Classy Cards "N Such online store .

The Yacht Club paper seemed to match my card theme perfectly, so I cut the background to fit my A2 size card front, and then chalked around it with Prima chalk ink.

I then die cut my sailboat in white, red and brown print card stock. I started with the boat in white, then paper pieced the sails from the red, and the body from the brown printed paper. I adhered the layers with Tombow Mono Multi liquid white glue, and then used foam tape to adhere it to the card front. I stamped the 

"wanted" and "No.4" with rich cocoa Memento ink, and my card was completed.

I am entering this card in the weekly challenge at the Classy Cards 'N Such blog: Challenge- Die Cuts .

I hope you will join in the challenges at Classy Cards 'N Such. Check out their calendar for a listing of their weekly challenges, and start creating and sharing your talents with others. 

Mindy

Spring Cottage Try-Fold Card

Today's card is the Try-Fold card featuring the Art Impressions "Cottage" Try-Fold stamps. I hope you enjoy it.

This is the outside of the card, with all of the flaps folded to form the A2 card. The card itself is made following the instructions on the stamp set, stamped on Blending card stock especially made for Copic coloring, and tuxedo black Memento ink.  The entire card was colored with Copic markers. 

This is with the first fold opened, I printed the sentiment stamp enclosed in the set on this flap.

And this is the card with the two folds open, to show the interior of the card.  I stamped the message "Welcome" with this view to welcome all to the cottage.

As you can see, the stamp set includes 4 stamps, the cottage, the garden gate with foliage, the garden chair and bird houses with a white cat in the chair, and the sentiment "The road to a friend's house is never long."

I added the "black cat" die-cut to cover a mistake on the card.  When I stamped the sentiment on the gate panel originally, I stamped it upside down.  (We all make mistakes, sometimes!) So, to remedy the problem I stamped the phrase again, right side up this time, on another scrap of card stock. I inked the edges, and then to cover my mistake, I adhered it over the boo-boo.  Then when the card was closed, some of the edging showed, so I placed the die-cut cat on the front, looking into the flower pot.

These cards are so much fun to "create" and color, and I hope you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. Visit with me again, soon.

Mindy

My Price is. . . Chocolate!

Happy Tuesday one and All!  Today's card celebrates my favorite . . . . . CHOCOLATE!

Of course, this stamp came out at Valentine's Day, but in my opinion, chocolate can be celebrated everyday!

The stamp is the "Love Chocolate Set" from Art Impressions. I stamped it on the blending card stock especially made for Copic markers with tuxedo black Memento ink. After coloring in the image with my Copic markers, I fussy cut around the image with a small white border around it.  I then cut the  image,"Turkish Lace Doily" from Cheery Lynn Designs from magenta colored card stock. I cut it in half, and adhered half to the front and half inside the card. I also took two pieces of the fall-out and attached them to opposite corners. Using my Posca paint pen in brown, I doodled a dot border around the card, and then stamped the saying from AMuse Artstamps on the side. My Wink of Stella Brush pen in dark pink highlighted the saying and the lady's earrings.

I am entering this in the Classy Cards N' Such Weekly Challenge , Die-Cuts.  The Lace doily is one of the many Cheery Lynn Design Die Cuts sold in the Classy Cards "N Such store . Plus, there is a coupon available on the web site for a discount on the Cheery Lynn Dies.

Thanks for joining me today, and enjoy a little chocolate, too!

Thelma's Cottage

Hello Friends!  Another wonderful week is upon us, and the card I have to share with you was so much fun to make. The cottage and scenery is from one of the New Art Impressions Try-Folds stamp sets; "Cottage".
The birthday sign is from the "Gazebo" Try-Fold set, and Thelma is from Deadbeat Designs Stamps.

I am a big fan of Art Impression stamps because they make stamps that are bits & pieces and you combine them to make your own scenery.  I learned how to watercolor with their stamps years ago, but this set I colored with my Copic markers.  The Try-Fold line of stamps is a play on words of a three-fold card.  But this time I stamped two of the designs together on one layer, and then added Thelma and the birthday sign popped up with foam tape for a second layer, all on the card front. 

I stamped the image on Blending card stock especially made for Copic marker coloring with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and then colored it in with my Copic markers.  Thelma and the birthday sign were stamped on scraps of this stock, fussy cut and adhered with dimensional foam tape.

I will probably stamp this card out on the three panels instructed by the stamp set, and will share it with you soon.  I just thought you might like to see how you could also use this set on a one-layer card to decorate the entire front of the card. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and join me again soon for another card. Keep on Stampin'!

Mindy

Easter Greetings

Hello Friends!  I just purchased some of those "action wobble springs" that you can use on cards and paper crafts, and decided to make an Easter card with a "wobbly" bunny!

Just give him a nudge, and away he wobbles!  So cute, and it folds flat for mailing, too! I got the card made, and then couldn't find an appropriate sentiment that had to do with Easter. So, I had to get out the alphabet stamps and stamp out the word Easter.

This card was made from a sheet of the Botanical Tea Collection from Graphic 45. I cut the card to an A2 size card, and then using a Martha Stewart punch, "Iron Fence" I punched down the front flap of the card with the punch.  Now you can see the back of the double sided paper in between the fenced design. I then used an extra strip of the paper and a length of green printed grosgrain ribbon lengthwise on the card front before attaching the wobble spring with the bunny design attached.   The bunny is a stamp I have had for many years, and I don't remember where it came from. (no label) I stamped it with Memento tuxedo black ink and colored in the design with Copics. To finish off the card, I attached a sheer and satin bow to the top left corner.

I have been so busy with my Online Art Journal class, that Easter has crept up on me and left me scrambling for ideas for cards. Also, our big city-wide celebration, Fiesta 2014, begins tomorrow April 10, 2014.  Weeks full of celebrating with parades, pageants, foods from all over the world, and any excuse to eat and partaay!!!!!!! We really know how to party here in San Antonio!

I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week, and an enjoyable and safe Fiesta! I will be back soon with more cards and projects to show you. Stay tuned. . . . . .
Mindy

Art Journaling Class I am Taking

Hello Friends! I am in the process of taking an Art journaling class from Christine Urias on her blog;
Scrap Time;"More than just Scrapbooking"  and it is called "Exploring Art Journaling 3".  It is a 30 day class, each one concentrating on different media used for backgrounds and pages, with a different journaling prompt each day.

It is very interesting, and is helping me use many of the products I already have in my studio, to make amazing pages. I am posting a few of the ones I have completed so far in the class.

Some of them are two page spreads, and other's are just a one page spread.  I am doing them in my small journal from Dyan Revealy and Ranger.  If I really get into one specific technique or medium, I will do another page in my larger journal. The background for the Transportation page (above) is done in acrylic paints mixed with Gesso.

The background for the favorite TV shows page (left) is made with Lyra watercolor crayons.

And the background for the Daydreamer page (bottom) uses Stencils layered and then misted with Dylusions Sprays.

Most of my doodling and drawing is done with my Posca paint markers, and Dr. Ph Martin's Bombay India Inks.

I hope you enjoy seeing some of my Art Journal where I test out products and ideas, to see which I enjoy working with, and how they work together on a project. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave a comment or question below, and I will get back to you as soon as possible.  Have a Great Day!

It's A Blowout!

Happy April, and Happy Birthday to my dear friends who celebrate birthday's this month. The card for today, is "A Blowout"!

The stamp I used is "Balloon Trio" by Stampendous, and is from my favorite line- The House-Mouse Designs.  You can just see how hard they are trying to blow up these balloons for the birthday party. The image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo black ink on the specialty paper for Copic markers.  I colored the images with my copics, and then mounted it to the front of my card base with foam tape for dimension. The card looked rather plain, so I punched two borders with a Martha Stewart punch from a sheet of Neenah White Gold Metallic paper. I adhered the border strips with double stick tape, and added three dots of Hydrangea Liquid Pearls by Ranger.  To top it off, I tied a simple shoe-string bow from some Gypsy Hand Dyed Ribbon from Paper Wings Productions.  Paper Wings has some really beautiful hand dyed ribbons in their online store,www.paperwingsproductions.com.

The many antics of these tiny mice always leaves me smiling. I hope you have a wonderful day, just don't "Blow It"! (tee-hee)