"SITTING ON THE FENCE" TAG

     Tags are just the ticket for me when I don't have a lot of time to play.  I had colored this tag a few days ago without a plan in mind, but when I got up this morning, I picked up my Wendy Vecchi "Dots and Stripes Border" stencil, embossing paste and knife and stenciled a row of stripes down the right side of the tag -- making it eligible for the Stripes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  The paste was dry by the time I finished breakfast, so it was time to decide how to finish the tag.  I decided to combine stamping and stenciling, so I went through my collection of Wendy Vecchi stamps until I found a flower that almost matched a flower on the "3 Fresh Flowers" stencil by Wendy Vecchi.  I stamped a flower on the tag and an extra one on a scrap of tag paper.  I stenciled the flower on the tag using Rusty Hinge and Crushed Olive Distress Ink.  After coloring the extra flower, I colored it and cut it out, and placed it over the stenciled one, giving it a nice 3-D look.  To pick up the "Stripes" theme, I cut out a white fence with the On the Fence Die, inked it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, and placed it at the bottom of the tag.  I also cut a small black bird with the Movers and Shapers Mini Bird Cage and Bird die and placed the bird on the fence.  I cut a butterfly with the Butterfly Movers and Shapers Die and placed it in the corner of the tag for a finishing touch.  I hope you enjoy this tag.
     I'm entering this tag (#2) in the "Stripes" Challenge at:  simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com

                                                                                                                                                                                                       

COLORS OF SUMMER

     Another card, another Challenge -- Color Me Creative's theme for the current challenge is "Colors of Summer" and I have the perfect card featuring a cute Magnolia image.  I stamped the two images used on the card and then colored them with my Copic Sketch markers before cutting them out.  They are mounted on an oval which I colored with chalk.  The two ovals were cut with Spellbinders dies and mounted on papers from my stash.  The flowers were also from my stash and the tag embellishment is from my Tim Holtz collection of tags, etc.  Hope you enjoy all of the "colors of summer".

I am entering this card in the "Colors of Summer" challenge at: scrapbitzcopics.ning.com

CUTE MAGNOLIA CARD

     I haven't made a card featuring a Magnolia stamp for quite a while, but wanted to make something special for the 4th of July and thought this cute image and color combination was perfect.  It's also a good card to enter in the "Stripes" challenge at Simon Says.  I colored the image with Copic Markers and then fussy cut it and mounted it on an embossed oval.  The design behind the oval was cut using a Spellbinders die.  The background paper is a "stripe" or rather "stripes" running on the diagonal and is an older Reminisce paper from my stash.  The card base is Night of Navy by Stampin' Up.  It felt good to use my Copics again!  Hope you enjoy the card.
    

       
I'm entering this card (#1) in the "Stripes" Challenge at:  simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com  

KRAFT PAPER MINI- ALBUM

     The challenge at simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com is to use Kraft Paper or Kraft items in any shape or form and since I love the look of Kraft Paper, I decided to make a mini-album for some photos that I had tucked away in my computer for a long time.  First,  I printed the pictures of hand blown glass that had been displayed at a local botanical center and cut them down to the size that I wanted.   Next,  I cut several pieces of 4" x 4" Kraft Fun Day paper by My Mind's Eye and ran it through my Xyron and adhered it to some 4" x 4" chipboard pieces, covering both sides.  I then rounded corners with my Zutter corner rounder and inked the edges of each piece with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  After laying out the pictures, I decided what I wanted to use for embellishments and die cut  flowers and butterflys with the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Dies from a variety of Kraft-Core Cardstock which I had first embossed with a Swiss Dot embossing folder.  I then heat embossed them before placing them on the cover and pages of the album.  Sayings and images were a combination of Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi rubber stamps which I inked with Memento black ink.  Finally, I bound the album with my Zutter Binder using a 3/4" wire.  

     Below are pictures of the album cover and 2 of the pages.  I really enjoyed making this mini-album and I hope you enjoy it too.  Thanks for stopping by!

VINTAGE LOOK WITH KRAFT PAPER

     "Kraft" paper or anything "Kraft" related is the subject of a challenge at simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com this week and that made me think "vintage".  With that thought in mind I printed a copy of my Grandma and Grandpa Mock's 1898 wedding picture on a textured photo paper, which gives it a vintage look.  I have always loved this picture, so creating this tag was very special.
     I used a #8 kraft tag, which I

stamped with script using black

Memento and then added high-lights using Vintage Photo, Stormy Sky, and Seedless Preserves Distress Inks.  For a little texture, I used stencil paste and the honeycomb stencil.

Next, I die cut the Distressed Doily from kraft paper using the On The Edge Tim Holtz die and adhered it the left side of the tag.  Paper flowers were sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists Wild Currant and Fall Breeze.  Leaves that I cut from coffee filters were sprayed with Olive Vine.  Finally, I added an embellishment by Recollections that I purchased at Michael's.  

     I'm very pleased with the way this tag turned out and love the vintage look.  I've printed out a few more truly "vintage" family photos and can't wait to play with them.  After having put these photos in a scrapbook a couple of years age, it has been fun to do something completely different with them.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy this tag!  

    
    
    
    

HAPPY HUSBAND'S DAY

     I know it's officially Father's Day, but at our house, it's Husband's Day.  Since my husband, who is a great guy by the way, never wants any gifts, I surprised him and didn't buy him anything this year.  We kind of "gift" ourselves throughout the year, so it's difficult to buy things for special occasions.  I did "drive" him to breakfast though and made him a rather unusual card.
  

    
     I made this card in a Stampin' Up card workshop Saturday morning.  The "ocean" background was created with a "new-to-me" technique that used shaving cream.  I sprayed foamy shaving cream into a styrofoam plate and smoothed it out.  Next, dots of 3 different ink colors were randomly placed throughout the cream.  I then took a popsicle stick and pulled it through the cream and ink horizontally.  The white piece of coated paper was placed into the cream and patted down to make sure it was covered.  After removing the paper from the cream, I wiped it with paper towels until the cream was removed leaving a colorful background.  After the paper was dry, I stamped it in the usual manner.  It's a rather messy technique, but it does give you a "one-of-a-kind" look.  If you feel like playing sometime, this is something you might want to try!
     Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great day.


    

BUTTON, BUTTON, WHO'S GOT THE BUTTON?

     Simon's Challenge this week is "Buttons", so I decided to create a canvas using the Tim Holtz Sewing Room die as the main element and embellishing it with BUTTONS.  I used a 5" x 7" mounted canvas as the foundation and colored it with Weathered Wood Distress Ink, accented with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I stamped it with a stamp from the Tim Holtz Papillon Rubber Stamp Collection and then used embossing paste to stencil it with a honeycomb design.  I cut the dress form and spool with the Tim Holtz Sewing Room die and colored them with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I wrapped the dress form and spool with metallic ribbon.  White paper flowers were sprayed with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and assembled with a  small brad.  The outer edge of the canvas was wrapped with Tim Holtz tissue tape.

                                            

  
     This project was a departure from the "usual" for me and was a lot of fun as well as a good learning experience -- I hope you enjoy it too.  I am entering it in simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com  Thanks for stopping by.
 

SIMON SAYS GIVE ME AN "S" . . . .

     Since I've now collected a few stencils, I thought I would use them again and make a tag to enter in the "S" Challenge at
simonsaysshowandshare.blogspot.com.  I used a couple of different STENCILS and STAMPS to make this tag.  First, I colored the background with Weathered Wood Distress Ink, and then stenciled polka dots over it with Scattered Straw Distress Ink.  Next I blended several Distress Inks in the background, including Wild Honey, Scattered Straw and Rusty Hinge.  I stenciled the flower head with Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo and the stem and leaves with Crushed Olive.  The bird was stenciled with Black Soot.  I stamped the butterfly and verse with Memento Black Ink.  I colored the butterfly image with Weathered Wood and Rusty Hinge, cut it out and then embossed it with clear embossing powder.  I added a little SPARKLE to the butterfly with blue stones.  The verse says "There are always flowers for those who want to see".  The verse, bird, and butterfly were from Wendy Vecchi. 

     I really like the look that is achieved using stencils -- it's clean and simple and reminds me of folk art.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy my tag.

     Just a short note about the day here in Iowa -- it's cool (low 70's) and cloudy.  We had some beautiful days this past week and if we're lucky we'll have some sunny days this week.  Thankfully, we've had less rain lately.

Hope everyone has a good week!

                                     

    

"INTO THE WOODS"

     I decided, at the last minute, to make this tag and enter it into the current Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge, which has the theme "Into the Wood".  I already had the tag embossed and colored, so I just needed to come up with an idea as to how to complete it.  Since I didn't have a lot of time, I decided to limit myself to using embossing folders, dies, and of course, ink.  All of the supplies were Tim Holtz products, including the wood grain embossing folder and the Mover and Shapers dies and the On The Edge tree die.  The Distress Inks included Vintage Photo, Crushed Olive, Forest Moss, Pine Needles, and Fired Brick.  It was a really fun tag to make and I hope you enjoy it.  (I know everything is not quite in proportion, especially the cardinal, but I liked the touch of red. 

www.simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com

PLAYING WITH STENCILS

     Just a short post today, as it was a pretty uneventful week except for the thunderstorm late Thursday afternoon.  We had some rain, but mainly high winds (65+ mph).  Luckily we didn't have any damage, however when we drove down to Clark's Landing in Buffalo for dinner, we saw several trees down and the restaurant was closed because the power was out.  We drove to Rock Island IL for dinner and didn't really see any damage.  When we got home our cable was out, so it was a "quiet" evening.  It's cloudy and cool (60 degrees) today but no rain.  They expect flooding from the Mississippi River again in downtown Davenport, so they are busy putting up barriers again.
     I spent a little time yesterday playing with some stencils.  They are fun to use and give a different look to things.  I decided to make a tag triptyche featuring butterflies and some flowers -- thought it would look pretty on the hutch.  I used Distress Ink and a variety of stencils -- nothing too fancy, but pretty.

                                

                                  
     Hope you enjoy my attempt at stenciling.  Have a good day and stop by again.