Dirt Rides

I have combined two challenges for today’s card, the first being a challenge at Speedy TV, the second is a sketch challenge from CPS. 

I already had another card made for week 56 at Speedy TV, which is tone on  tone with the main image popped to post today, but when I saw the new sketch challenge #219 at CPS, I switched off and made a new card. It’s funny, but my other card has just about the same layout as the sketch challenge, and I hadn’t even looked to see what the CPS challenge was. I will probably post it tomorrow.

I have been playing around with the Acrylic Distress Technique, by trying out different colors, I just love it, as you can probably tell.  Acrylic Distress is done by running your cardstock through an embossing folder, painting it with acrylic paint, after it dries sand the high spots, wipe off the dust and sponge a distress ink over the painted areas, then wipe with a damp cloth. The distress ink will not stick to the acrylic paint. If you missed some spots, or would like the raised spots to be darker, just repeat the steps.

For today’s card I chose the CDS set Dirt Rides. The 4 wheeler was stamped onto white cardstock using Versamark and heat embossing with detail black ep. Next it was colored with Prismacolored pencils and Goo Gone, afterwards I went over all of the green with a water brush dipped in perfect pearls to give it a shimmery look. It was then cut out, stickles added to the headlights and laid aside to dry.

The next two layers of white cardstock, were cut and embossed, one with a Nestie Oval die, the other with a Nestie Scalloped Oval die. A sentiment from the same stamp set was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with detail black ep on the plain oval. The scalloped oval was sponged with Peeled Paint Distress Ink (my favorite color in the Distress line).

I used a white ribbon over a strip of white sponged with Peeled Paint behind the ovals. The ribbon wraps around the behind the next plain white layer.

Now we come to the Acrylic Distress. I chose a Cuttlebug frame embossing folder from the Heritage Collection, embossed with white cardstock, and trimmed off the outside for a different look. The acrylic paint is an Adirondack Dabber in Pearl, sponged with non other than Peeled Paint.

The white layer behind is just cut to size, with a corner rounder punch used on the corners. The base card is a green cardstock that matches the Peeled Paint.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed your visit, please feel free to leave a comment, they make my day.

Happy Stamping!
judy

Memory Thinking

This is my second card today I wanted to at least get one more entry for a couple of the challenges that are ending today; the Spotted Canary Spring Challenge at SCS, and the Green Challenge at Spotted Canary. I used the sketch from CPS #211 if it is still running I will enter it there. It may be like the one I did this morning for Stamping 411, when I went to post it, the challenge was closed. I’ll get back into the swing of things sooner or later……as soon as I do, I’ll have to go back to my non-stamping land, then start all over again.

For this card, I wanted to try something different, so I went to the technique page at SCS and jotted down a couple different ones by just randomly selecting them. One of the selections was Joseph’s coat…..I went upstairs to my craft room, got everything together to do this technique earlier this morning, brayered the colors onto the paper, and I’m still waiting for the ink to dry, I have made two cards since putting the ink to paper. My second selection and the technique for this card was Pastel Embossing. I had never done this before and it was really easy. I’ve had the blender pens a while now and never bothered to use them. I chose the SU set Close as a Memory for the main image. I’m still in a Use It Tuesday mode using stamps I’ve never used before. You need a solid image stamp, and that is the first one I ran across, and I had never used it before. I needed a dark color cardstock, and since I was making spring cards I went with a dark purple. I stamped the image with Versamark, sprinkled detail white ep, and embossed the image with my heat gun. Then I pulled out my SU chalk set and a blender pen and proceeded to color the white ep. I gave the yellow flowers a two-tone look by adding some red chalk around the edges. After coloring you are supposed to spray a Matte finish clear sealer on it to keep the chalk in place……I didn’t feel like going from upstairs all the way to the basement to see if I had any, so I spritzed hairspray on it. I then decided on what Nesties I wanted to use, the ovals won out, so it was cut and embossed with a Nestie oval, I ran a white gel pen around the inside of the die before removing……no more Soufflé’ pens for this after yesterdays mess that you can read about in my Mice Birthday post. I had to pick out some dp, so I went with a piece from a DCWV Flower Shower Spring stack, the yellow flowers are similar to stamped flowers. Then I decided to use green cardstock for the layers, the scalloped oval and the layer behind the dp. The base card is the same dark purple that the image is stamped on. The sketch is actually not this detailed, I just got went with the flow. A ticket punch was used on the dp corners, a corner rounder punch on the green layer behind the dp. I thought the MS flower border punch would look good, was trying to decide on what color to punch, when a light bulb lit up in my pea brain…….punch white, color with chalk & blender pen to match image. That same light bulb lit up again when it came to the sentiment, since I was working with a small space I again chose the SU set Teeny Tiny Wishes, I really wanted to stamp on the green, but I don’t like that paper…love the color though…..I guess you would say the paper is textured and I don’t find stamping results too good, mainly I use that paper for layering, so I went with purple, stamped the  sentiment with Versamark, embossed with detail white, colored it with the chalk and blender pen. I have started using some glue to put the cards together, since money is really tight and my ATG tape is getting low. I hate gluing the layers, it takes forever to dry, and usually looks like it would fall apart if touched, even though I stack heavy stuff on top of the card when gluing. My brilliant idea today after getting the card all together and wanting to add some bling and half pearls, but the glue wasn’t drying fast enough, was to heat up an iron, I knew it would melt the embossing if I held it on too long, I had a piece of scrap paper on the front and back was running the iron on the back, which may have worked, but nooooo I had to turn the card over and iron the front. Somebody should have been standing over me saying Don’t try this at home!! I ironed the embossing from the main image and the sentiment onto my scrap piece of paper and had to redo both purple pieces. Luckily the stupid glue wasn’t even dry and I was able to remove the main image. I redid both purple pieces, I just added the sentiment over top the old one. Then continued on my merry way to add the red flower centers (MFT adornments), the green half pearls on the corners and one lighter half pearl on the sentiment (Basic Grey).
 
Thanks for stopping by, I’d love to hear your comments.

Mice Birthday

I’m back!! I’ve been here at my stamping land since Sunday, but today is the first chance I have had to play. I think I’ve lost my mojo, so I figured I’d start with an easy sketch to help get it back. My help was supplied by sketch #211 from CPS and I also had in mind the green challenge at Spotted Canary.

Since I won a challenge over at Use It Tuesday, I am supposed to be creating a card for a future challenge, but that doesn’t seem to be happening yet. If only I didn’t have to go to my non-stamping land, I could probably roll off one after another, but the lapse in time since I left has really done me in.
At least I started this card off right for a Use It Tuesday challenge, using a stamp I have never used before and image from a SU set called Say Something Mice. It was stamped with onyx black versafine on white cardstock, colored with prismacolored pencils & goo gone and  SU markers. I touched up the eye with a black glaze pen, after the candle and balloon was colored, I hit them with a versamark pen, dusted detail clear ep and embossed. The candle flame has yellow stickles added to it. The image was then cut out and embossed with Nesties Labels One. Now I can tell you what not to do…..I like to run an ink pen around the inside of the die before removing it, this time I decided to get a little fancy and used a green Souffle’ Pen, the ink in these pens comes out a little thick, therefore it smears real easyhence the green balloons on the two corners, they are covering up the worst spots. Needless to say I won’t be using Souffle’ pens for this anymore. I found the balloons in my stash and don’t remember where I got them, they are not brads more like buttons without the shanks or any holes to sew them on.  The main image is layered over what I would normally call a piece of lace, but since I just bought this I can tell you it is called Flexi lace hem tape, and it comes in all sorts of colors. I do not sew as you can probably tell from the sewing on the card…….I can’t even sew a straight line with the sewing machine, and I was trying so hard to keep it lined up with that foot thingy. Anyways the main image is separated from the yellow layer by the hem tape, the yellow layer had the same green Souffle’ pen run around the die and it also smeared in places. The next layer is a green dp from a DCWV Flower Shower Matstack, sewn onto another layer of the same yellow. The base card is green.

Thanks for stopping by and I’d love to hear your comments.

Bird Watching

For today’s card I used this week's sketch challenge #209 at CPS to create a card, that can also be entered in the House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge #91, the Spotted Canary Spring Challenge over at SCS and the green challenge at Spotted Canary.

I chose a House Mouse Image called Bird Watching for this card. The image was stamped on white cardstock with jet black Stazon, colored with prismacolored pencils & goo gone, then cut out. The mouse and flower was placed on a yellowish orange oval cut out and embossed with an oval Nestie, before removing the die, I ran a white gel pen around the inside of it, then a layer of green cut out with a scalloped oval nestie. For the next layer I chose a MS border punch and punched the white flower strip, then attached it to a strip of the yellowish orange. The dp is from a DCWV Flower Shower Spring mat stack layered onto a piece of white cardstock with top and bottom punched with another MS border punch. I also punched two strips of green with the same punch and offset it a little. The base card is the same yellowish orange. In the picture the yellowish orange looks more yellow than orange, but the paper matches the flowers in the dp. The hummingbird is popped on foam dots, and after the card was put together I added yellow stickles to the flower in the image.

Thanks for stopping by, and I’d love to hear your comments.

Nice Rain

Today’s card is for the sketch challenge over at CPS, and since April showers bring May flowers, I’ll submit this one to the Spotted Canary Spring Challenge over at SCS.

For this card I chose a retired SU set And Everything Nice, just because I ran across the dp with the umbrellas & rain. I thought it would be fun to paper piece this image. The image was stamped three times with Versamark and embossed with detail black ep. Once on the red checked dp, once on yellow, and once on white. First I had everything matching in red checked, but that was too much, so I changed her to a yellow raincoat, boots and hat, almost felt like I was playing with paper dolls. The umbrella was left in red checked dp because it matched the red checked umbrellas in the background dp. The red checked dp is from the DCWV Flower Shower Spring Stack Mat Stack. Stormy Sky distress ink was stippled around the image, SU markers used to color parts of the hat, umbrella handle, pockets, buttons, duck bill, ducks feet and soles of the boots. A prismacolored pencil was used to fill in the water puddle, afterwards colored the rain drops and puddle with a clear glitter gel pen. The image was then cut out and embossed with a Nesties Label Two die, but I decided to trim off the embossed part, as the next size die would have covered up too much of the background dp. The yellow layer behind the image was cut with the same size die as the image. Next I added a yellow ribbon over a strip of the red checked dp, which is sewn onto the background dp. I keep trying with the sewing machine, some day I won’t have this ongoing battle with it, to keep the darn thing threaded. Right in the middle of sewing the thread breaks, or the needle comes unthreaded before I even get started, and I don't think I could sew a straight line if I tried.. I used black thread and straight stitches to add the red checked dp. The background dp is from the DCWV Flower Shower Spring Stack, and even though I just about covered them up with stitching, the four red checked umbrellas still show. First I did a straight stitch across top and bottom of the background dp to the red layer behind it, then I added a zig zag stitch  on the edges, the base card is yellow.

Unless I get a card done tomorrow, it may be the last one I can work on for a while. We had company this weekend, which was great, but took me away from my toys. I’m hoping to get some work done outside tomorrow, Tuesday we will be heading out for a visit with my DH’s aunt it’s like a three hour drive one way, and Wednesday we will be heading back to the other house. L

Thanks for stopping by, I’d love to hear your comments.

Lace Hello

This card is for this week’s sketch challenge at CPS. I thought I had a good idea that turned into a bad idea, maybe that's what I get for thinking :)

For this card I chose two shadowed images the bear and moose from the Stampin Place. The sentiment is from a SU set Fundamental Phrases. All three were stamped on black cardstock with versamark and embossed with detail white ep, then punched out. Next I was going to punch another larger square for the layer behind the image squares, but I happened to have a scrap strip of black just laying there and liked that look, which I later changed to red. The good idea/bad idea was the lace. Lace isn’t something I have bought a lot of, and was thinking it would look nice as a backer, but didn’t really want it to be the color it was, so I was sitting there thinking…..if you can change the color of ribbon by running it across your ink pad…….why couldn’t you do lace the same way??? Well, let me tell you, this particular piece of lace was not that easy! I tried running it across the ink pad, I tried brayering the color on it, my fingers were getting blacker than the lace. I could not seem to get the ink to color the whole thing. I should have done it with stazon jet black, I have a re-inker for that, but noooo I was trying it with onxy black versafine. I started this project last night, and figured to let the lace sit all night to dry…….didn’t happen. Today when I went back to work on it, originally I had another Shadowed image of trees from the Stampin Place, in the middle but decided today the middle should be a sentiment. So thinking the lace was dry, I was throwing the stuff around changing things and found out that the lace was not dry. I had more black ink on my fingers and it was coming off on the red & black checked dp, luckily the most came off where it would be covered by the lace, but if you look closely you will see some spatter looking on the left side edge and above the bear.  The red & black checked dp is from my scrap pile, I chose it because it just looks like something to go with bear & moose, behind the dp is a black layer and the base card is red. Now I’m ready to put the card altogether. I placed some tape on the dp where I wanted the lace to be………..guess what? The lace would not stick, I tried a couple different types….no go. So I used two black mini brads in the end of the red strip to help hold it in place. Then I put all the rest of the card together, and distressed the edges of the red base card. The next step was to take pictures, I did this, then set down to write my description, I looked over at the card and realized I had put the lace on backwards, it’s a good thing the tape wasn’t holding that good, I took it apart and turned the lace over, then retook the pictures.

Hope you are having a better day. Thanks for stopping by and I’d love to hear your comments.

Bug Catcher

I want to play!! I have the house all to myself, and can play and play all day! It’s miserable looking outside....changing from rainy & foggy, to the sun peeking for a second, to cloudy & real windy, so what better thing to do than stamp???

This  card came about while flipping through  a DCWV The Spring Stack, when I spotted those bugs, out came the Crafty Secrets set Feeling Yucky. I decided to use this week’s sketch challenge over at CPS. I hope it’s ok to enter more than one card. I’m also going to enter it at Use It Tuesday for their challenge to use your hoarded pretty patterned paper…………bugs are not exactly my idea of pretty patterned paper, but the colors are pretty, and it fit so well with the image & sentiment. Those bigger bugs remind me of stink bugs……maybe this card will be stinkin’ cuteJ. Since anything goes this week at Party Time Tuesday’s I’ll go ahead and enter it there too. Maybe I need to get a life?

The main image and the bug in the jar was stamped with versamark on white cardstock, colored with SU markers (red crosses and blue dress) prismacolored pencils & goo gone (skin & hair), black glaze pen (eyes & shoes), black gel pen & waterbrush (bug in jar), then cut out. Before cutting out the bug in the jar, the crystal lacquer had to dry, that was applied to the jar. The sentiment was stamped on yellow with onyx black versafine and punched out with a circle punch. For a backer to the image I chose a green, then a layer of yellow. I wanted bigger circles for this card, and since bigger circles means less background showing…….and I wanted to show off those bugs, I pulled out my Circle Scissor and cut out one layer of the bug dp and a layer of yellow matching the basecard.  Looking back at it, I’m wishing I had cut the bigger circle out of the green instead of the yellow. Behind the circle layers is another layer of the bug dp, then a  layer of green. The corners of the layers were punched with a Southwest corner punch (had to look it up, couldn’t remember the name), and yellow Hippie Hemp (that’s the name on the package) was wrapped around the slits. The nurse is attached with pop dots. I cut around her hand with an exacto knife to insert the jar.

Who knows what I’ll come up with next, ya’ll come back ya hear!

Thanks for looking and I’d love to hear your comments.

Lower Cholesterol

I ran across a new (to me) challenge site today called CPS (Card Positioning System) followed the sketch and made this card to enter for CPS #206. I’m going to enter it in the Use It Tuesday’s challenge USE002 also, because this is a lot prettier dp than the other card I submitted, and I can also submit it to Party Time Tuesday's PTT #4 cause it's anything goes this week.

The main image is an American Art Stamp called High Heels. You can’t clearly read the sentiment because of the card holder, it says : THE DOCTOR TOLD ME TO LOWER MY CHOLESTEROL…SO NO MORE HIGH HEELS! The image was stamped on white with onyx black versafine. I colored the skin with prismacolored pencils and goo gone, the rest of the image was colored with cheap gel pens and a waterbrush, sprayed hairspray on it, then cut it out with a nesties rectangle. I like this technique because it makes the image shimmer. I have a close-up picture below. I just wanted a little frame around it so I trimmed up a piece of the light blue cardstock just to peek out around it. The next layer is a piece of patterned paper, it may not show up in the picture, but it has very light squares on it, cut with a circle nestie, with a light blue layer cut with a scalloped circle nestie, then I used a different patterned paper for the next layer, backed by a piece of red. Both of the patterned paper is from a DCWV Spring Stack. After, I put the layers together,  I did the sewing with three different stitches, then attached the layers to the light blue base card.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I do not have a lot of patience. I bought a Singer Pixie Plus sewing machine a couple of years ago, because I like the looks of some of those cards out there with sewing on them. I finally got it out of the box and managed to make a card back on the 3^rd of this month. Since the third it has mainly been sitting in the floor of my craft room, because the needle came unthreaded, and I broke my needle threader trying to rethread it. I finally got it threaded, and the thread messed up and unthreaded it again, in the middle of making a card, so back in the floor it went until today. I figured I’d give it another try. I’m sure if someone out there had a video camera they could win prizes from America’s Funniest Video, videotaping me with the sewing machine. Because I had fooled around so much with it before, I had to change the thread and bobbin, so I would have thread to work with, had to drag out the book for this, maybe I should have paid more attention to sewing in school, I think I failed this part of home economics which I believe I did mention in another post.  I used three different stitches on this card, as you can see, I need plenty of practice!!  I have yet to figure out how it punches the holes, but skips putting thread in them, as I am sewing along. The good news is, it didn’t come unthreaded and the thread didn’t get all tangled up again. With a little practice, I might get this down somedayJ

As promised here is a close-up of the shimmer that using cheap gel pens and a waterbrush creates.

Thanks for looking, and I’d love to hear your comments.