Fabulous Finds Friday: The Cats’ Meow

Today, I’m obsessed with cute cats.

Here are two quick and easy cards using two different kitties:

I love this playful cat set from Waffle Flower. Above is just one of the cute kitties from Flora Cat Play.

I die cut the Stitched Journal die from Lawn Fawn then painted a soft blue watercolor wash rectangle. I stamped the kitty in black VersaFine and lightly colored in the images with a bit of grey. Gel pens added color to the cat’s flowers and a Wink of Stella added a touch of glitter.

The background was stamped in Hero Arts Unicorn white pigment ink using images from Spellbinders Designer Series Feather stamp and die set. When everything was dry, I mounted the cat panel with foam dimensional tape.

I’ve always loved Laurel Burch designs, so I was delighted to find that Stampendous! has licensed her images for stamps. This was also fast and easy, and came about as I was playing with the stamp, testing it out. (This cutie is from the Indigo Cats set.)

I stamped the cat on watercolor paper with VersaFine black ink, then colored with a mix of Ranger Distress yellow and mustard markers (which I first scribbled on my palette, then picked up with a watercolor brush.)

I added some color with sparkly gel pens. I did a light wash of blue watercolor around the cat and decided it needed more interest, so I used the stencil that comes with the stamp set to add a bit of Ranger Distress blue ink. I trimmed the panel, edged it with black permanent marker and attached it to a top-folding yellow 4Bar card. A few sequins finished the deal.

Have a great weekend! Meow!

Fabulous Finds Friday Typewriter Die

Yes, yes, I’ve been away a while… but here is a Fabulous Find that maybe makes up for it!

The journalist in me loves anything having to do with newspapers, typewriters, and all the things associated with writing. And I love dies. It’s a magical mix. Naturally, I went nuts for this typewriter die from Spellbinders.

I love how easy these cards were to make:

The typewriter was cut from a scrap piece of black paper. The background paper is a monoprint, made using acrylic paint on a Gelli Plate. The stencil is ColorBox Art Screen Jumbled. (I’ll have more on monoprinting with Gelli Plates in an upcoming article in Craftideas magazine.)
(My journalism friends went nuts over these!)

Two similar cards, using background paper by Basic Grey, from the Carte Postal collection:

Thanks for stopping by!

More Stencils

Yes, we’re still on stenciling. When I’m in the mood to stencil, I figure I may as well do several at a time!

Here’s what I’ve done with three different stencils from Gourmet Rubber Stamps.

(I think I used Distress inks and a foam applicator on all of these! I used Ranger Dimensional Pearls on the butterflies.)

That’s it for today! Thanks for stopping by!

Scintillating Stencils

On Friday, I showed some new large stencils. Today, let’s get card-sized with some of my new favorite stencils.

Here’s a little beauty from Gourmet Rubber Stamps.

Using Ranger Distress inks and a foam applicator, I pounced color through the stencil.

Ta-da!

And put it all together….

…trimmed the panel and layered it to brown cardstock. Added a die cut bird and cage (Tim Holtz/Sizzix). I also stamped a text image to the bird’s body — you can barely see it in the photo. (I need to fix the wing. I may glitter it.) I’ll eventually get around to adding a sentiment.

I’ll have another in my next post.
Thanks for stopping by!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Stencils

Stencils have been around for ages, but they have made a comeback in a big way… and I mean that literally! You can now find stencils big enough to cover a 12×12 sheet of paper.

Check out these new stencils from DecoArt:

I used the stencil (and DecoArt’s Americana Paint) to create a large panel on watercolor paper, which I will cut down to a card:

And here it is uncovered:

Ta da!

Tried it again, this time using sprays:

(I did more spraying on this but don’t have a photo.)

And since nothing should go to waste, let’s clean our stencil on paper:

Next week I’ll show some cards made using stencils.
Thanks for spending some time with me! Have a great weekend.

Fabulous Finds Friday — New Inks

New inks (from Clearsnap and Ranger) were introduced at the recent Craft and Hobby Show, and I love them both!
Today, I’ll play with a new palette of Archival Inks created by Wendy Vecchi for Ranger. The vintage-y colors coordinate beautifully with Ranger’s Distress Inks. These inks are permanent, which means they won’t react with water. Yay! You’ll see why that’s a good thing.

The Buzzing Bee image (from Close To My Heart) was stamped first in Ranger’s Archival Fern Green. I heated the image with my heat tool, then applied Ranger Distress Inks (crushed olive, broken china, fired brick) with a foam applicator. (When rubbing on inks, start off the paper to get a softer look. You can see how imperfect I am at this … I have one semi-harsh line on this sample.)

Now here’s the fun part: Using a dot stencil (The Crafter’s Workshop), I sponged water over the Distress Inks. Because Distress inks are water-reactive, I could take away color, leaving the cool ghostly imprint. Sponge over the stencil, blot with a paper towel, and there ya go. I also flicked a bit of water on it to get some ghostly spatters.

The panel was mounted on paper from Close To My Heart’s new Laughing Lola collection. The fun embellishing “dots” are also from CTMH.
I love the modern color combos!

Here’s a card that uses the same archival ink in a more traditional way:

The papers and embellishment are also new, from Close To My Heart’s Sarita collection.

Stay tuned for Clearsnap’s SurfaceZ inks, coming up!

Fabulous Finds Friday — Craft Hot List

Yay! It’s finally out! My exhaustive report from the Craft and Hobby Association about what is new and hot and fabulous from the latest show.

You can see the entire report (in two parts!) on the Crafts ‘n things website. The CHA Hot List is listed under the Craft of the Week button. (You may have to register on the site, but it’s free. You simply register to join the Crafts ‘n things community).

It sounds complicated, but it’s not: go to http://www.craftsnthings.com, click on the Craft of the Day. You can try searching for “CHA 2013 Hot List” or …
click on the March archives, then scroll down to the

CHA 2013 Hot List

— it’s easy to find: it’s a big blue icon that says “March is National Craft Month.”

If you make it there, leave us some love in the comments section!

In the meantime, here’s a trendy bag made at the craft show:

Here’s a close-up:

The darling camera iron-on and spray paints are from S.E.I.
(Yes, that overspray is because of my sloppy masking! I get SO impatient…. sigh.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Awash in Color!

Every so often I get on a kick to use something that’s been stashed away too long. This week it was my color spritzers. I’m not always successful with spray misters, but I thought I’d re-visit the technique, so I pulled out my beautiful, vibrant Stamp Zia water color sprays. These colors are so bright, they always make me happy! (Even though my efforts pale besides the stunning artwork done by Stamp Zia’s Zana Clark — you really must see her work.)

I started with water color paper, because it is sturdy and takes liquid color well.

First, I sprayed on dry paper, then stamped and white embossed this new image from Stampendous!:

(sentiment by Hero Arts.) The white embossing shows up much brighter in person.

For the next sheet, I wet the paper first, then sprayed with the colors, which blended nicely. Then I stamped and embossed this big, beautiful Stampendous! blossom, cut it out and glued it to the grey base.

I like the softer colors from the wet paper.

Next up was a resist technique:

(this came out VERY yellow in the photo… it’s really more of an ivory background and prettier!) I stamped the flower (Hero Arts) using VersaMark clear ink, embossed with clear powder, then sprayed with color.

For the next piece, a little tag, I sprayed the colors on my craft sheet, then smooshed my paper (yes, “smoosh” is the technical term!) in the wet spray. I dried it with my heat tool, then spritzed it with Ranger Perfect Pearls mist (which makes evrything look better!).

The next card I made a while ago… so I don’t remember what sprays I used. But as long as I was showing sprays, I figured I should use up this piece.

I sprayed over a stencil from Crafter’s Workshop (they have the cutest designs!), trimmed the sheet, added a bow and some Ranger Liquid Pearls to the centers of the flowers, then attached the piece to my card base.

The fun thing about playing with sprays is that you can make several background sheets at once, giving you a nice stash for later.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by.