Boo Two

Yowzahs! I made a quick Halloween card today!

The image, from Close To My Heart, was white embossed on white glossy paper. Then I swooshed on Distress Inks peeled paint, marmalade and a touch of lavender. (My lavendar pad is nearly dry, so you can barely see the lavender tint.) I layered it on a piece of black. The sentiment is from the same stamp set. I stamped it on a left over scrap of the inked glossy paper using VersaMark. I knew as soon as I stamped it that the image had slipped. I decided to emboss it anyway… and I kind of liked the double image for the Halloween sentiment! I edged the sides with some black dye ink, then added Ranger Stickles Gunmetal to the bottom. The polka dot paper is from Bazzill Basics Miss Teagen Sue collection; the spidery punch is from Martha Stewart.

Thanks for stopping by!

Boo! Happy Halloween 2012!

Happy Halloween boys and “ghouls.” (oooh, scary pun.)

Here’s a quick Halloween card for you:

(Yes, I made this last year… but I am posting it because despite my good intentions, I ran out of time.)

Hope your treats are tame and not tricky.

Using Journaling Cards

I don’t often enter challenges, but this Journaling Cards Challenge in the Moxie Fab World sparked something in me. The challenge was to use scrapbook journaling cards to create something else. I have quite a few of these cards and since I rarely scrapbook, I didn’t really have much use for them. But then I was inspired by the Moxie!

These large cards from Bazzill Basics made me immediately think of a mini book! So I took the eight horizontal ones from the School Days set, added some plain cardstock cut to size, and used my Cinch machine (We R Memory Keepers) to bind them into a book!

(The apple was stamped and embossed in red. I think that’s an old Hero Arts image, but I’m not sure. Everything else is from Bazzill)

Check out one of the inside pages:

Then I cut apart this journaling card ….

To create this card:

(paper is still from Bazzill, Miss Teagen Sue Collection; woman with shades is AB10G from American Art Stamp, embossed in copper powder from EK Success. You can’t see it, but there is a touch of Stickles Diamond in various spots)

You know I can’t stop when I’m on a roll. Here’s something cute from Basic Grey’s Aspen Frost collection:

The papers are from Basic Grey, the ornaments from Heartfelt Creations and embossed in red and teal; sentiment from Hero Arts, die cut using a Lifestyle Crafts die and edged in Ranger Distress Ink Bundled Sage. The tiny pieces of sparkly red thread on the ornaments is from Kreinik.

Really… last one….

Journaling card from Bazzill Basics; “age” sentiment stamped using a small Hero Arts clear alphabet set; blue border is a scrap left over from Die Cuts With a View paper. Edges were distressed and colored with blue pigment ink.

Thanks for coming by!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Dies, Neons and More!

I have some Fabulous Finds for crafters!

First, I’m really excited about these new dies from Spellbinders. Called Die D-Lites, these 20 new dies are small and intricate, with shapes running from a beautifully detailed cattail scene to medallions and a darling window. You have to see them.  Check out this helpful tutorial from the Spellbinders blog:

http://spellbinderspaperarts.com/Community/Blog/Post/12-10-25/Introducing_Die_D-Lites.aspx

The tute gives some great tips, such as: 1) use wax paper to make it easier to pop out the delicate pieces; 2) try placing dies at the edges of your base plate on the  Grand Calibur (instead of in the middle) for optimum pressure on these intricate dies. These were award winners at the Craft & Hobby Show in July.

I can’t wait to get my hands on some! (I’m crazy about the tree one!) Sorry I don’t have one to show you in a crafty way, but I do have this Spellbinders Botanical Swirls die:

Isn’t that lovely? Be patient with me here… This is my first time using such a delicate die. After cutting it out, I ran it through my Xyron Creative Station to get it nice and sticky. As you can see, I didn’t burnish it well enough and some of the adhesive leaked through. I decided to sprinkle on some clear embossing powder, thinking it would give the piece some interesting highlights (and take care of the excessive adhesive). Not sure I succeeded…. Ah, well, the card needs some finishing touches … like a focal point, sentiment, embellishments, etc. But I love the die!

Last week I showed some embossed flowers using Zing! neon powders from American Crafts. Check out these colors:

Can you say yummy?

The last of my Fabulous Finds for this Friday are new stamps from Rubber Stamp Plantation. This Hawai’i-based company has wonderful Hawaiian and Asian-themed images, decals and other exotic crafty toys. Here’s a tease:

Being the Impatient Stamper, I couldn’t wait to stamp these!  These wonderful background scraps were piled on my desk, just begging to be used. So I did some random stamping. Next week we’ll see what I do with them!

Thanks for coming by to see what’s fabulous!

Random Bits….

Oh, what a lazy blogger am I! Busy, busy work period… but I hope to have some Fabulous Finds by Friday.

In the meantime, here are some things I’ve been working on:

(flowers by Hero Arts)

I’ve been playing with embossing powders, especially these fun Zing! neon colors from American Crafts. Hmmm…. now I just have to figure out what to do with them….

And when I figure that out, I can use these:

(Hero Arts)

But here is one card I finished:

(Images all Hero Arts)

Cleaning off my desk I found a purple background I had made using alcohol inks. I stamped the silhouette flower image over it using silver pearl embossing powder. So fast and easy!

Hope to make some cards this week!

Leftover images and bits ….

Wow, what a mess on my desk! After a week of playing with neon inks and embossing powder, there were lots of bits and pieces left on my desk. Some fell together.

Here’s what happened:

(Background squares by Hero Arts; all other stamps from Close To My Heart. Purple embossing powder from American Crafts. Stores stamped in VersaFine black from Tsukineko.)

And some leftover pieces from Core’dinations. Here’s the mess:

And a card:

(Sentiment from Stampin’ Up) And a close-up:

Thanks for stopping by!

More Fashionista

In my last post, I played with the Fashionista set from Close to My Heart.

In this trio, I went for simplicity. I stamped one of the models on white cardstock using VersaFine black ink, layered her and added her to a premade card (from a pack I found on clearance!). But I wanted a pop of color — red. Check her out:

To create the red dress and bag I stamped her again, this time using VersaMark clear ink and red embossing powder from Judikins (it was the purest red I had and it was just perfect!). I then cut out the red embossed dress and bag and ran them through my “Baby X,” my small Xyron sticker maker:

So easy! I just peeled and stuck the dress and bag in place. I made two more cards using this technique, each time adding another element … a piece of red ribbon here:

… and a Spellbinder’s border here:

Fashionista was a fun set to use and I can’t wait for these gals to hit my card runway again!

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Oh So Chic… the Fashionista!

I needed a fun card to send to a fashion-forward young woman … and this Fashionista set from Close to My Heart fit the bill like haute couture on a model!

My mojo is slow. Sometimes it takes me a while to get started, so I often need to play around with images in seemingly random fashion and see where they take me. I started by stamping (on scrap cardstock)  three of the four female images in the set using olive, sunset and lagoon inks from CTMH:

I paired the image and sentiment with a Basic Grey paper (Lucille) and added touches of Ranger Crystal Stickles to strategic points. Fun!

But you know me… since I had the stamps out, I couldn’t stop at just one card. While I was stamping off the ink in the process of cleaning my stamps, I noticed how cool they looked in the faded second impression on my scrap paper (seen on the right side):

So I stamped the images again, then without reinking, re-stamped on another piece of folded cardstock. Here’s the first impression:

And the second impression, made without reinking:

Fast, fun, fashionilicious!

Did I stop there? Nooooooooooooo…. see more in my next posting!

White on White

I love seeing the blog challenges that showcase the amazing cards from fellow stampers. But I’ve never entered one … until now. I do love the look of white on white, especially with a little texture. So when I needed a card for a wedding, I figured … what would be better than a white card? Which fit in perfectly with the White Out challenge currently on A Blog Named Hero, a fun site that features all things Hero Arts. (if the direct link doesn’t work, try this.)

So here is my simple card:

The embossing folder and dies are all from Spellbinders; the sentiment is from an old Hero Arts set, Hip Hip Hooray CL494.

Do check out A Blog Named Hero for great inspiration!

Random Cards…..

It’s Monday and I worked all weekend. So here are two random cards, both fast and easy to make  ….

When I first got this  newspaper bird (from Hero Arts), I stamped about a dozen images on white cardstock using VersaFine black (Tsukineko. So when I needed a fast card, I just pulled out a pre-stamped bird. To make the card, I stamped the Large Canvas Stripes in Cup o’ Joe brown ink (both Hero Arts). I inked the bird’s wing and the edges a bit with the same Cup o’ Joe. I added the darling bird paper (Basic Grey) and covered the seam with a bit of trim. There … done!

The next card is so simple I made six within about 15 minutes:

Simple stamp, in black, with a bit of an embossed edge provided by a Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Here’s a close-up:

Thanks for stopping by!