Play Time

Happy Tuesday Everyone!  Today I am featuring Play Time, a celebration of having a full day of play with my papers, stamps, and die cuts.

I started by stamping one of Janie's Girls stamps from Hot Off the Press, and coloring in with Copic markers.  I then cut out the design very close to the edge, and set aside until I arranged my paper scraps  in a favorable arrangement. I also had some flowers stamped and colored in my embellishment folder, and the colors seemed to blend with the coloring on m hula-hoop girl.

I adhered a background stripe paper to the card front, and then attached a small dot print covered with vellum with foam tape for dimension.  I then place my cut outs, flowers and girl on the papers. I then stamped the word PLAY on a coordinating scrap using my Deadbeat Design Alphabet stamps. To finish off, I stamped the Poppy Flower center from Deadbeat Designs in various positions on the card to set off the background.

I am so thankful to have Play Time in my studio.  I love getting in there to create something fun to send to family and friends. Until next time . . . . . . 

Mindy

"Don't Be Afraid to Sparkle" Art Journal Pages

Don't be afraid to Sparkle!

I love that phrase! I think everyone should be allowed to sparkle if they want. This is the left side page of a double page spread in my art journal. If you have visited my blog before, you have  probably noticed that I just love the Doll Stamps from Prima and designer, Julie Nuttingl. When I get an idea for a project using my stamps, I usually like to try them out, before stamping on my project.  That is one reason I purchased my art journal.

This page was started shortly after I purchased my PanPastel artist chalks and Faber-Castell Gelatos. I started making circles with the Gelatos and then blending them with a little water and my finger. I filled both sides of the double-page with circles of various sizes and colors. Then using the PanPastel chalks I shaded around the edges of the pages and in between the circles.  Several weeks later, I purchased a couple of clear stamp sets from Paper Wings Productions; Sparkle Sayings and the Stars and Sparkles.  Using Majestic Blue Versafine Ink I stamped the stars and sparkles around the pages, and the word phrases in the empty areas. When the ink was dry, I used the multi-sparkle Gel Pen to highlight the stars and sparkles. The larger sparkles were highlighted with Starry Night Stickles and Mermaid Glitz Stickles. I stamped a tiara and colored with Silver stickles on one of the large circles.

 Several days later I found a sheet of scrapbook paper in my stash, that had the giant Gerbera Daisies printed on it, and the centers were glittered. I cut out a few of them and used Gel Medium to adhere them to the page. I let that dry for several days, with weight on the book to keep the pages from warping. When I was chosen to participate in the Prima Doll Blog Hop, I stamped one of the Doll Stamps on the left page, with the Gelato circle masked, so it would look like the doll was standing behind it.

Stay tuned for page two (2) blog post to follow. Thank you for stopping by today!

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

USA Memorial Day 2013

Happy Memorial Day 2013!  This is Memorial Day weekend, a good time to honor those who fought for our country, and those that still do so.  It's time to remember the Red, White, & Blue, and celebrate the flag we hold so dear.

Today's card is my take on celebrating the Red, White, and Blue with Stars and Flourishes from the Liberty Clear Stamp from Bo Bunny Stamps. I took a white pearlized card base and tried several ink types to stamp on the pearlized side of the card.  First I stamped the star design with the Love Letters Red Memento dye ink. The stamp slid on the slick surface of the card, and smeared. Next I tried inking the stamp with  Majestic Blue Versacolor pigment ink. I knew the pigment ink would take longer to dry on the slick surface of the card, so I was very careful when stamping not to smear the image.  It worked well, but before I got the heat gun to it to dry the ink, I laid my hand in it and smeared the design anyway!  We all have problems now and again.

Luckily, I had another piece of the pearlized stock from the 12 X 12 sheet, so after trimming it down to A2 card size, I folded it inside out, which put the pearlized side inside the card. I then used my two inks mentioned above, to stamp the star and flourishes on the card.  After the ink dried, I took my die cut Star Stax from My Favorite Things, and matched the star size die that matched the star on my stamp. Next, I ran the front of the card through my Cuttlebug machine with my all over Star embossing folder.  I then cut out the inside of the stamped star with the die, and adhered a printed paper with writing behind each opening.  I took the piece I cut out with the die, and cut the next smaller size star from it and switching the colors, put the red cut-out inside the blue star opening, and the blue cut-out inside the red star opening. This gave a little more dimension to the stamped stars on the card front. Using the flourish stamp that accompanied the star with flourish stamp, I stamped it along the lengthwise sides of the card, and then die cut tiny blue stars with the smallest die in the set, and poped them up with foam tape bits to give still more dimension to the front of the card..

After I got all my stamps, dies, and pop-ups positioned on the front of the card like I wanted them, I covered the inside of the card front with a rectangle of red card stock. From the photo you can barely see the print and pearlized finish on the inside of the card. I'm not sure whether I will be able to find some type of permanent marker to write inside the card with or if I will have to write on the red side with a white pen or marker for my greeting.

To finish off the card, I wrapped some peppermint twine from Lawn Fawn, twice around the fold of the card and knotted it on the outside.
I had two white star die cuts left in my scrap pile, so I wrote the letters "USA" on one, and glued it back-to-back around one end of the twine for a dangle embellishment.  I would have loved to add some bling to the card, but there was so much going on with the front of this card, I dared not add more bling.

I am entering this card in the Little Scrap Pieces-Fun Friday Challenge:" Let's hear it for the Red, White & Blue"

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, stay safe, and cherish this time with your family. If you have a little extra time, create something crafty!  See you soon.

Mindy

Chocolate for Mom!

Happy Tuesday everyone!  I am in a chocolate mood today, the darker the chocolate the better!

This card is made with two of my favorite stamps from Deadbeat Designs, the Chocolate Background and the "forget love * fall in chocolate!" stamp. I stamped the background stamp twice, side by side with Versacolor Sepia Ink on natural kraft card stock.  The image stamp was then stamped with the same ink on white stock, edged with the sepia ink and matted on a piece of Pool Layering paper from Hero Arts, and then foam taped to the right hand side of the card.  I forgot to mention that I also tied a knot with the striped ribbon before I adhered the image. I also outlined the pool of chocolate on the image with a light blue gel metallic pen to give it a little bling!

Mother's Day is a great time to give chocolate to the one you love!  Better yet, give it to yourself, beings it is so good for you! Enjoy some everyday, and until I see you again, have a great day!

Mindy

Spring Break 2013

Today is the first day of Spring Break 2013 here in Texas. In honor of all those who leave town to hit the water at the beaches near by, I have created this cute little House Mouse card titled "Sail Away".

The card base is a pre-printed card with glitter and sparkle squares. I stamped out a sheet of chevrons from Hero Arts stamps on their Pool colored paper, and then cut it to size for 1/2 of the card background. I used some silver thin background strips from Dazzles to divide the various chevron stamped panels, and then adhered a border around the entire stamped part.

I then stamped the House Mouse rubber stamp with Memento black ink on specialty stamping paper, and colored it in with my copic markers. I added some stickles to the water lines to make the water stand out, and give the card some motion. After cutting out the stamped area, I popped it up with foam squares to give the card some dimension, also.  To make the banner, I cut small triangles from white card stock, stamped the letters with Versafine ink and smugged a little chalk ink around each pennant, and then used a strip of Dazzles to "hang" them across my card. I also added a tiny grosgrain ribbon where the two backgrounds met, with a bow tied at the top of the card.

I hope the weather on the Texas coast is as nice as the weather casters say it will be; sunny with no chance for rain Monday through Thursday with highs in the 70's. The water may still be a little cool for playing in the surf, but there are still may other water sports you can partake of down there.  Have fun, stay safe, and have a great week!

Party Hearty . . . It's Your Birthday!

Greetings fellow stampers and paper artists!  The card for today is titled "Party Hearty" it's your birthday, and is a paper pieced card that is similar to one I saw on a Paper Wishes blog post. I am a huge Paper Wishes Fan, and love their projects and supplies. This card is made using one of their Design Template tools kit #2.

Background paper #1 purple with lt. blue polka dots is cut from "A Beautiful Life" 6 X 6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye with the Vintage Label Stencil.  Layer #2 floral print is also from "A Beautiful Life and the Vintage Sign stencil. Layer #3 is a chipboard tag covered in a yellow print from "Sunshine" 6 X 6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye, and has the sentiment "Party Hearty" stamped in Versacolor black ink from the Birthday Greetings clear stamp set from Hot Off the Press. Each end of the tag was punched with a small hole punch, and a crinkled purple ribbon was looped through the holes around the edge of the design stack of printed papers.

The stacked flower was made by punching several layers from the scraps of paper I used, and then arranged with foam tape between the layers to give the flower depth. A single bow was tied with the same ribbon used in the tag and placed behind the flower.  Finally, to add some bling to the card, I added pink Stickles to the outside edge of the tag, and small coordinating stones and pearls in among the stamped letters of the sentiment.

If you have any questions on how this card was done, or any questions or comments, please feel free to leave me a message. I would love to hear from you. See you again soon.

Winter Wishes Collage Card

Brrrrrrrrr! Is Jack Frost nipping at your nose? Hello fellow stampers and collage artists. Today's card that I want to share with you is a Winter Wishes Collage card made from the 8" X 8 " "A Place in Time" paper pad from Graphic 45.

The January collage item page has snowflakes and snowmen in shades of teal. So I pulled out a teal card base to construct my card. I first got all my collage pieces together that I wanted to use, and arranged then on the front of my card to check the size. I then stamped the Snowflake #2 stamp from Penny Black in Versamark Clear Embossing Ink in several places on the front of the card, sprinkled them with white opaque embossing powder, and then heat set them. I then attached the collage elements to the card front with double stick adhesive and foam dots for the postage stamps.
I then stamped the phrases, "Brrrrrr!" and "Jack Frost" on the front of the card, and "Baby, it's COLD outside!" on the inside of the card. All of the phrases came from the "Snow Day" clear stamp set from Cardz TV with Mary. They have some of the cutest phrase stamp sets ever, I just went crazy when I saw them.  Of course, I wanted all the phrase stamps when I saw them, but had to limit my purchase to just a few.  Why not check them out HERE when you get a chance.

Have a great day, pour yourself some tea, and make some greeting cards. You will be glad you did! See you soon.