"SUMMERTIME AND THE LIVING IS EASY"

     It's "summertime and the living is easy" or so they say -- it's been our warmest week of the summer so far (mid-90's) and we're ready for it to cool down.  However, because of the heat I've spent more time inside and tackled moving some of my papercrafting supplies to a better location and worked on a project to enter into a couple of challenges.  I am happy to say that I was selected as the winner of the Funky Challenge last week for my "Get Your Wendy On" entry, so I'm inspired to keep on creating!  
     For my current project, I cut a 5 1/2" square of watercolor paper and inked the background with Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive, Weathered Wood, and Stormy Sky Distress Ink.  Next, using white stenciling paste, I stenciled the honeycomb design in a couple of places for texture, and colored it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I then stenciled some leaves with Crushed Olive Distress Ink to accent the white paper flowers that were sprayed with Tattered Angels Pashmina Glimmer Mist.  After the dragonfly from the Tim Holtz Classics #1 set was stamped with black Memento Ink, I colored it Distress Markers and then went over it with Polished  Pigment to give it shimmer.  I finished off the piece by cutting a ticket and spelling summertime with Tim Holtz Label Letters.  I'm entering this piece in the Simon Says Stamp and Show "Good To Be Green" challenge and the Frilly and Funky "Summertime" challenge.
                                      frillyandfunkie.blogspot.com
                                                        simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com

     Thanks for stopping by and have a nice day!

 

"PLAYING TAG"

     Our summer is beginning to heat up today (90 degrees), so I'm "playing tag" where it's nice and cool -- designing tags for a "Get Your Wendy On" Challenge.  Wendy is Wendy Vecchi,  a talented designer, teacher, etc. in the papercrafting world and since I've taken a couple of classes from her in the past few years and have collected many of her rubber stamps as well as some new stencils from her line, I decided to play along.  I really like the look of stencils and like to combine them with stamps, which I have done on both of my tags.
     The first tag was colored with Antique Linen and Stormy Sky Distress Ink and and then antiqued around the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I next stenciled a flower and some blades of grass using the Wendy Vecchi stencil "3 Fresh Flowers", and Crushed Olive and Dusty Concord Distress Inks.  I then decided to try the black Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste by stenciling along the right edge of the tag using a honeycomb stencil.  Next, I stamped a flower head and two butterflies with stamps from Wendy Vecchi collections.  After coloring them I cut them out and attached them to the tag.  I also cut out a blackbird with a Tim Holtz die for an added accent to the tag.
     I wanted to try some different things on my second tag.  I first
decided to stencil a background using the new brick stencil which I just received in the mail this week from the Funkie Junkie Boutique.  I used Antique Linen Distress Ink for the bricks and then colored the background with Stormy Sky and Tea Dye Distress Ink.  For something different, I mixed a drop of Dried Marigold Distress Ink refill into some white Embossing Paste and stenciled the flower head with it.  It wasn't quite dark enough, so after the paste dried, I colored it with Dried Marigold and Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I stenciled the stem with Crushed Olive.  The fence and saying were from Wendy Vecchi collections and I used Memento Black Ink to stamp them.  
     The tags were a lot of fun to make and gave me a chance to play with some new materials and stamps and stencils I had never used before.  I really like the "folk art" look that I think I achieved.  I hope you enjoy them too.
     These tags are entered at:  frillyandfunkie.blogspot.com
                           

  
    

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

     This is a birthday card I made for my great-niece, a little sweetheart who loves my Magnolia cards.  I used 2 layers of background papers from my stash and punched the top layer with a Martha Stewart punch.  The 2 images were stamped and colored with Copic Sketch Markers before I cut them out.  I used pop dots to attach the girl which gives the card some depth.  The flourishes were made with a Fiskers punch.  The paper flowers came from my stash as did the pink gemstones. 
     I am entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge which has the current theme of "anything goes".
     simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com
  

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY

     It's a beautiful day here in Iowa -- a great day to celebrate our independence!  Our flag is gently waving in the breeze as a symbol of our freedom and long may it wave. 
     In honor of this day, I've created a patriotic tag using Distress Inks (Stormy Sky and Fired Brick) and Wendy Vecchi stamps.  First, I colored the tag.  Then using a Wendy Vecchi honeycomb stencil, I added a touch of texture with white embossing paste.  Using Memento black ink, I stamped some stars representing fireworks and the word "imagine".  The heart was stamped separately, colored, and cut out.  I used pop dots to attach it to the tag, thereby adding depth.  It was a fun tag to make as I didn't use all of the traditional symbols for the 4th of July, but used my imagination in choosing some stamps I had never used before instead.  I hope you enjoy it too.
     This tag is entered in the "anything goes" Challenge at:  simonsaysstampandshow.blogspot.com 

"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