Fabulous Finds Friday — Fireworks! and Goosebumps

(Warning — long post!!!)

I’ve recently been playing with color misters.  This week, I tried the new Fireworks! sprays from Tsukineko. The spray bottles are small (only .05  oz.) but pack a lot of punch. The water-based sprays come in 24 Memento colors and have a delicious dash of shimmer. (Also shown: Goosebumps, a clear texturing spray.)

So let’s spray! I started by spritzing Fireworks! on scrap cardstock cut to ATC size (using this handy tool from European Papers — a great source for everything ATC). Be sure to spray in a “spray box.” (I used the nifty Color Catcher from Clearsnap.)

Here’s the finished ATC:

(Stamps by Purnima Girouard for Stampington & Co.)

Naturally, when you spray there is spray leftovers. Can’t let all that extra spritzy goodness just dry up, right? So I took a piece of ATC-sized watercolor paper and smooshed it into the overspray:

I repeated this process a few more times, using cornflower blue and then walnut antique spray (also from Tsukineko.) The darker colors took over, but I liked the aged look.

I played some more, and finally stamped:

(copper embossed images by Judikins; quote from Tweety Jill; butterfly punch from Martha Stewart, text stamp from Hero Arts)

Then I started playing around with the Goosebumps, and went a little crazy, spraying the Goosebumps on cardstock and then on a piece of scrap plastic, as seen here:

When the Goosebumps dried, I covered the left half of the sheet with Clearsnap’s Smooch pearlized paints and the other half I covered with Ranger alcohol inks. Here’s a close-up to show you the texture from the Goosebumps:

I punched flowers using a Tim Holtz die and my Sizzix Big Kick:

The flower looked too flat to me (and it was too big for the ATC), so I CAREFULLY and gently warmed it with my heat tool (holding the flower with a tweezer) just until the plastic softened and started to curl.

I affixed the flower to my stamped ATC using a Glue Dot, then added Judikins’ Diamond Glaze and beads to the center. Here is the finished ATC:

(TIP: I used Judikins’ Tidy Tray to catch those teensy beads. The plastic tray has a spout. Background stamp by Stamper’s Anonymous; sentimet and frame by Technique Tuesday.)

Tired yet? Wait, I’m not done playing! This time I spritzed a bit of Fireworks! directly on my craft sheet, which was placed in my Color Catcher:

Smooshed the ATC around to pick up the color and here we have it:

(stamps: Prickley Pear)

Before putting away my spray box, I sprayed cornflower blue, cherry blossom and walnut ink antiquing sprays and added a spritz or two of Ink Potion No. 9 blending solution, all by Tsukineko. And so I leave you with this:

(All images: Tweety Jill.)

Whew! Thanks for sticking around so long!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Purnima’s Whimsey

A year or so ago I made a new online crafting friend — Purnima Girouard. Her creative cards — which range from artfully elegant to layers of vintage goodness — make me ooh and ahh. Now her doodles have been turned into wonderful whimsical stamps. The collection is dubbed Storybook Village and the simple line drawings include fantastical houses, charming creatures and hooded girls.

Here’s a fast card I made:

(Glitter paper by Core’dinations ((see my last entry on the Core’dinations collection)); sentiment by Hero Arts; daisy punch by EK Success. Purnima’s stamps are available through Stampington & Co.)

I also made a little gift for Purnima (if this hasn’t arrived in your mailbox yet, P, close your eyes!!)

(Notice the little glittery flower at the girl’s feet? Yup, it’s a piece that was trimmed from the above daisy border! It was just sitting on my desk when I made the necklace. I was about to throw it away when I thought, “Ah ha!” Don’t you love a Eureka moment that works?)

Thanks for stopping by! Next week I’ll show some new product from Tsukineko.

Check out my latest article in the August Crafts ‘n things magazine — it’s all about die cutters!

Cards for a Cause

I love making cards and have compiled quite a stash. I send cards for birthdays, or just to say hello. I give cards to friends. And I still have a large stockpile!

For the past year or so I have been sending cards to Operation Write Home, a non-profit that sends blank cards to U.S. military personal; they, in turn, can use and send these cards home to loved ones. It is a very satisfying project!

For the upcoming July 4th Independence Day celebration, We Are Memory Makers and Scrapbooks Etc. are teaming with OWH to donate thousands of blank cards.

We R Memory Makers is having a great contest — lots of fun prizes. Find the rules and details at www.weronthenet.com.
Blank cards must be received by 5 p.m., July 6th.

OWH — which has sent out a million cards so far! — is looking for blank, handmade cards that servicemen and women can send home.
These can be birthday, love, miss you, thank you, thinking of you, etc.

There are certain rules to follow in making cards (for example, no glitter), so before making your cards check out the OWH website at www.operationwritehome.org. You
can also send “Any Hero” cards, which are cards with notes inside of them from you to the troops. This is a great school or scout project!

Here’s my hero card:

(images: Artistic Outpost; giant ric rack border from Bazzill Basics.)

Here’s another from my stash:

(bird image: Martha Stewart. Colored with chalk.)

Thanks for stopping by — come back Friday for a Fabulous Find!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Cool to the Core!

I’m a big fan of the cardstock from Core’dinations, maker of the colored-core paper that is such fun to tear, sand and otherwise mangle. And guess what? Yup — more colors, more designs, more fabulousness. Core’dinations has teamed with designers such as Jenni Bowlin, Graphic 45, Cosmo Cricket, Basic Grey, My Mind’s Eye and others, including Ranger’s Adirondack and Distress colors.

I couldn’t wait to, ahem, “tear” into these bundles:

I cut two sets of flowers using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die (Sizzix) and papers from the Adirondack collection. I ran them through my Cuttlebug dots embossing folder, then sanded a bit and gently distressed the edges to bring out the core color.  Then it was a mix ‘n match par-tay! (Sentiment: Hero Arts)

And here we go using the rest of the flowers:

See the border? On the top card I cut a border from the olive paper using Tim’s Scallops border die. For the bottom card I used the leftover piece from the first border! The light background on both cards is the envelope liner stamp from Hero Arts. The saying (one of my faves) is from Inkadinkado.

I made one more card before I went to sleep… this one using the glitter paper:

Isn’t that the perfect paper for the rock star sentiment?

Thanks for stopping by … come back next week to see some new stamps by the very talented Purmina G.

Fabulous Finds Friday — Pop Goes the Cling!

What a great concept! Interchangeable pieces of rubber! Take a look at the new Cling Pops by Hero Arts:

Various bits of the cling rubber pop out — making these mix-and-match sets such fun!

I was able to make a complete set of cards in no time:

I stamped the images several times on scrap carstock, mixing the sayings, stamped some background flowers and added the top piece.

On this next card, I popped out the two removable dots and stamped on white card stock:

I stamped two flowers (also Hero Arts) and substituted the flowers for the missing pieces:

I rounded the corners of the card and added a saying (also Hero Arts) and some bling to the flower center. So fast! So easy!

Here are some quick and easy gift tags from another set that I used as is:

Thanks for stopping by! Next week I’ll show you some new cardstock from Core’dinations.