Independence Day 2013

Happy Independence Day Weekend, Everyone!  Since the fourth is mid-week this year, many will be celebrating this weekend, and some may wait till next weekend.  Any way you look at it, the Fourth of July is a good time to celebrate! Today's card is red, white, and blue, but the traditional Patriotic theme is not there. Instead, I have chosen an everyday type theme to "Celebrate" our Independence Day.

The card began with a stock base of royal blue card, and the words "Independence Day" cut from the Cricut Word Collage Cartridge cut from white stock, and the letters glued to the card front of the card with Tombo Mono Multi liquid glue. I then found a Mary Engelbreit Name Tag, that I stamped "4 th of July" on from a Fiskars Holiday Stamp set. I added a few stamped stars, and a few small die cut stars to the tag before gluing it to the front of the card. Next, I have been playing with scanning some of my rubber stamps into my computer, so I took one of the images of a Julie Nutting Doll Stamp, and shrank it down to 50% of it's regular size, and printed it out on my computer. Now the 4" image was just the perfect size to place on my landscaped A2 card base, so I colored her in with my Copic markers. I needed something else "Red" to add to the color scheme, so I added two strips of washi tape to the top left corner, and used large dimensional Zot Dots to pop up the doll image over the washi tape. I then took my Silver Outliner Gel pen and drew some stitching lines around several of the elements, and the card frame to give it a little sparkle.

I hope you will enjoy the time with your family and friends this weekend. Be safe, and celebrate sensibly. And Have a Great Weekend!

Mindy

I LOVE IT!

I Love It, I do! I am busy playing with my New Julie Nutting Doll Stamps from Prima, and I really love this recent release.  This card uses "Phoebe", and I have her set in a botanical setting with flowers from the Botanical Cartridge from Cricut.

I love stamping the doll stamps on the Tag Pad, also from Prima and Julie Nutting. This gives them an antique beige coloring with a lightly printed word background. Of course, I color the skin with my earthtone Copic Markers, in various shades of skintones, and either color in the clothing or paper piece it, to give the design more interest. On this card I stamped the skirt on a scrap of printed paper, and the blouse on white cardstock so I could color it in to match the green colors in my sentiment block and the twine.

I cut the daisies from the Botanicals cartridge with my Cricut machine, from ivory cardstock and glued it to the background paper from the Engraver 6 X 6 paper pad by Prima. I glued all of the elements to the cardbase with my Tombow Multi Mono liquid glue, and then used foam squares to adhere the skirt and blouse to Phoebe. To finish off the card, I added teensy half-pearls to the buttons on her blouse, and gold paint marker to the centers of the daisies, then tied a loopy bow from Limeade lawn clippings twine from Lawn Fawn and glued it to the stems of the daisies.

This card could be used for many occassions. I hope you have enjoyed this card.
I am entering it in the DL Art- Thankful Thursday June Linky Challenge- "Anything Goes". Stop by to see more wonderful card ideas submitted this month. Until next time,
Mindy

Picture Perfect Garden Angel- Mixed Media Canvas

Hello fellow artists!  Today's post is a first for me. My first Canvas Mixed-Media Collage piece. I have been studying pieces by other artists, and finally decided to give it a try myself.

Most of the supplies for this canvas was from the June Nesting Components Mixed Media Kit from Paper Wings Productions. I also used one of my New stamps from the Julie Nutting Doll Stamp Collection from Prima, "Riley" is her name.  The angel wings stamp is also new from Prima, and works along with the Doll stamps.

The canvas is an 8" X 8" stretched canvas I purchased throught Oriental Trading Co. I didn't photograph the step-by-step tutorial, because it was my first canvas, and I wasn't sure how it was going to come out.  But now that I know what to expect, and the steps involved in creating a canvas like this, I will try to do a tutorial on the next one I do.

If you have any specific questions about this piece, you can leave  a comment here on the blog, or email me to ask your question. I will be happy to answer any questions you have.

Thank you for joining me here today. See you again soon.

Peace, Love, and Margaritas

Fiesta in San Antonio is drawing to a close this weekend. The cards for today celebrate every day here in South Texas, not only during Fiesta. We have mariachis, sombreros, and margaritas that flow 365 days a year.

The backgrounds for these cards were made from the Firefly 6 X 6 paper pad from Prima, and the guitars were cut from the Folk Art Festival cartridge from Cricut. The phrase stamp, "Peace, Love, and Margaritas" the small sombrero, the margarita glass, and peace sign are all stamps from Mark at Deadbeat Designs.  The peace sign was stamped with the Blue Raspberry ink from ColorBox and the phrase, sombrero, and margarita were stamped with Tuxedo black ink from Memento. They were then colored in with my Copic markers and the margarita glass was highlighted with Icicle Stickles.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, whether you are out enjoying the great outdoors, or staying in. I personally, am staying in this weekend to work on some cards for next month, Mother's Day cards for the 12th of May, and a new project for a dear friend who is having a birthday near the end of May. Thank you for stopping by for a visit, and don't forget to leave a comment on my blog, to be registered for my 1 year Blog-aversary Give-Away.  See you soon.

Mindy 

Fiesta Time in Texas

Fiesta 2013 is coming to a close this weekend. Scheduled is the Battle of Flowers Parade, and the Fiesta Flambeau Parade, and several other events that are so much fun to attend.

My project for today is a tag, made with the julie Nutting Tag Pad from Prima and one of her Doll stamps; Doll with sleeveless dress. I stamped her on the tag with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and colored her in with my Copic Color Markers. I paper pieced her dress, also colored with Copics, and popped  it up with foam tape so that I could add a colored lace border at the top and bottom of the dress. I also added a Prima rose at her waist, and several sticky pearls on her crown to embellish her attire.

 I cut the letters of Fiesta from various colored card stock with the Folk Art Festival cartridge from Cricut, and backed each with a paper banner cut from the Firefly card stock 6" X 6" paper pad. I then adhered them to the right side of the tag and tied coordinating strips of grosgrain ribbon for bows at each end of the banner, and tied a white bias tape bow at the top of the tag for accent. To finish off the tag, I stamped dots of bright colored ink from my K & Co. Smash Book Ink Wand all over the tag to help it's colors tie in to the festive color scheme of the banner.

I want to thank you for stopping by my blog today.  Be sure to check out the previous post for instructions on how to register for my Blog-aversary Prize Package that will be given away on or about May 12, 2013. I will see you again soon.

Mindy

Happy Fiesta 2013!

Happy Fiesta, San Antonio, 2013!

It is party-time here in San Antonio. Although many think we party everyday, our BIG party event started this weekend through next weekend. Fiesta consists of lots of food, family, and FUN throughout the city. There are carnival rides for the kids, parades and pageants for the adults, and lots of food and drink for all!

There are also lots of arts and crafts on display and for sale all over the city, especially in the venues where the special activities are being held.

My card today, is a celebrating Fiesta card, with the Pure Innocence girl from My Favorite Things stamps. The Serenity set has the cute little girl sitting in a yoga pose, but works well for a girl sitting outside with her sparkler fireworks, celebrating Fiesta!  The letters spelling out fiesta, are cut from the Folk Art Favorites cartridge from Cricut, and the fireworks are from Deadbeat Designs stamps with a piece of twine used for their stick handle. I  stamped the Serenity Girl with  Memento Tuxedo black ink on white card stock, and then colored her with my Copic Markers. The fireworks were stamped with white Color Box ink and then Stickled over with Diamonds and Starburst Stickles. The die cut letters were cut from various colors of card stock, glued on to the black card base, then outlined with a white gel pen and glitter gel pen to really make them sparkle.

The weekend is here again, and if you are out celebrating Fiesta, celebrate responsibly, and have a wonderful weekend!

You're A Doll!

Happy Spring Friends!  Today's tag's are using my Doll  stamp from Julie Nutting, and Prima Flowers. The stamp name is Doll with Peasant Dress, and it is one of my favorites right at the moment. It is about 71/4" tall and fits on the 81/2" Prima Tag beautifully. I also can't wait to use her in my Art Journal, as she will be just the right size for the pages.

The large Prima tags are pre-stamped with a light stamping of words, but they are very light and hard to read. I inked around the edges with my Tim Holtz Distress ink in Salty Ocean and then stamped the doll stamp with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I paper pieced her dress with a piece of printed scrap book paper and colored her hair and skin and shoes with my Copic markers.  I also made a faux paper casting of flowers for down the left side of the tag, using my Australian flowers Bolilio stamp from Judikins.  The bunny cut-out is from the Folk Art Fiesta cartridge from Cricut. To finish off the tag, I stamped colored dots from my Smash Inks from K & Company behind the doll and tied a length of ribbon at the top of the tag.

My second tag uses the Doll with Peasant Dress stamp also, but I hand cut a different style of Peasant Dress for her. When you paper piece a design such as this, you can easily change the clothing with just a few stamping modifications. I just masked off the bottom flounce of the dress when I stamped the image, and then put the paper pieced long dress over the body parts. After base coloring with my copic markers, I used foam tape to adhere the dress. The background of this tag is another large Prima Tag highlighted with Crushed Olive distress ink and several stampings of a daisy stamp and polka dots. My embellishments for this tag were a stamped

piece of card stock with the Damask Background stamp from Paper Wings Productions with another faux paper casting piece off a button card stamp.  On the blog  from Paper Wings Productions (click here), you can search the archives for March 5, 2013, and Dana did a tutorial on the Faux Paper Casting Technique. It is very easy to do, and turns out really great in less than half the time and less than half the expense of regular paper casting.. I also used foam tape to pop up a punched out heart which I adorned with Hydrangea Liquid Pearls.(I also drew on a little necklace with the liquid pearls.)

To complete the embellishments, I added a piece of sparkly trim at the bottom of the tag, and a piece of braid tied at the top for a hanger loop.

There are six variations of the Julie Nutting Doll stamps by Prima that have been really popular. Most of the suppliers are already out of stock, so I am on several waiting lists for the stamps when they come in.
I read somewhere that there may be more coming out in July along with a book by Julie.  I have really enjoyed her designs so far, and am looking forward to seeing more from this designer.

Which leads me to mention that my "One Year Blogaversary" is coming up on May 9, 2013. Beginning about the middle of April, I will be promoting a Give-Away that will be held during my Blogaversary. I will have a prize package to give away, and you can place your name in the drawing just by visiting and leaving a comment on my blog during the contest period. More information to come soon!
I really do appreciate the visitors that leave comments on my blog, and this will give me an opportunity to Thank you in another way.  I hope you will tell your friends about my blog, and anyone that is interested in stamping, or mixed media art. Until I visit with you again, have a great week, and keep on "Stampin".

I Heart Texas!

Boy, where does time go when you are busy with other projects?  I started in January posting on a rather frequent basis, but somewhere in February I went terribly wrong. Of course, sickness will do that to you sometimes. Well, now I am feeling much better, and hopefully back in the groove of blogging!

Today's post is a card I have been working on for celebrating Texas Independence Day, which is March 2, 2013.  I decided to make a business size card or #10, therefore having lots of space to decorate about my home state!  I started with a piece of 12"X12" scrapbook paper that I cut down to 8"X9" to fit inside the business size envelope. I then scored it in half width wise, and used a circle template to round off the left side to make the front of the card.  Using stamps from Deadbeat Designs, I stamped the barbed wire, Republic of Texas post mark, and the open star, on the beige background with Pumice Stone Distressed ink. I also stamped the Texas Forever Star, and the pick-up truck on white card stock before coloring the star in with prismacolor pencils, and the pick-up with copic markers. I cut around the Texas Forever star and mounted it on a scrap of the Country Heritage stripe scrapbook paper, and mounted the pick-up truck with foam adhesive to make it stand out from the card. I then went to work with my Cricut machine, and the Going Places cartridge.

For the inside of the card, I cut a half circle of card stock to display activities one may partake of to celebrate the holiday. Along with more background stamping, I cut out a tent, a fisherman with his boat, a camper,  a hiker, a young couple (for inside the pick-up) and the words "ENJOY" for the card front, and  "INDEPENDENCE DAY" with two stars for inside the card. The small lettering was from a Cricut cartridge called Word Collage.

After adhering the blank card inside for a handwritten message, I closed the card and glued the tiny Independence Day letters so they would be visible from the front of the card. I am entering this in the following challenge:
           
                +Deadbeat Designs- Texas Independence Day Card Challenge

I even decorated the envelope, which was not required, but every little bit helps! Right?

I hope you all have a wonderful day, and take a little time to enjoy the place where you live!

Twas the Night Before Christmas Eve . . . . .

Merry, Merry, stampin' friends!  It's Christmas Eve eve, and this will probably be the last Christmas card post of the year 2012.  I just wanted to take the opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday from my house to yours!

Little Miss Tilda is sitting on the Christmas Word Collage from Cricut, I purchased for myself for the holidays. The Cricut cartridge is titled "Word Collage" and has many groupings of related words you can cut out and use.  I am just getting around to figuring out all of the many ways to manipulate the items you can cut from the Cricut, I'm like a kid with a New toy.  I have had my Cricut for years, but  never really had the time or patience to sit down and actually play with it.

The paper at the top is from The Nutcracker Suite paper pad by Graphic 45, and of course the Vintage Tilda Stamp is from Magnolia Stamps.  To all my family and friends out there across the World Wide Web, may you have the merriest of Christmas' and the happiest New Year! And until we visit each other again, "To all a Good Night!"