A Bit of Gold Always Brings a Smile.

A few weeks ago I covered a card panel with Mowed Lawn and Twisted Citron Oxide Inks.  It was pretty plain but splotchy.  I then added a bit of Broken China oxide ink to the green panel and added a few water drops.  The panel was set off to dry and forgotten.

While doing a bit of clean up I came across it and thought it needed leaves or some natural greenery to it but wasn't sure.  It sat longer.  Then today I took it up again and sent it through an embossing folder that had a lots of leaf impressions.  Next I put a little bit of Gold Nuvo Mousse onto the glass mat and ran a roller though it so I could roll across the paper and hit the high spots of the leaves.

Because I have a leaf theme going I took one of my leaf dies that sort of matched the embossing leaves and die cut the leaves with gold paper.  It is held off the paper with a green fun foam cut with the same die.

I still thought the card needed more so I ran a tiny bit of Black Distress Crayon around the edge and smudged it with a damp finger as I did not want it very black.  I next bordered the panel with Krylon Gold pen for a little bit of gold right on the edge.

I wasn't sure how I wanted to mount it onto the actual card as a full panel or cut it down so it would have a border.  I ended up cutting the panel so there would be a border of something else around the edge of the finished card.  Looking though my stash of printed papers looking for something to match and coming up with nothing I used a black and white print and sponged Mowed Law Distress Ink all around the edge.  When it was dry I used the Krylon Gold pen to border it.

In the end I think it came out pretty good.  I am still trying to think outside the simple box so doing cards that seem multi-media are not only fun but pushes me into a more artsy form of card making.  

The sentiment if from Cornish Hens Stamp Company embossed with black on a cut off piece of the original panel which I also used Krylon Gold Pen on around the edges and sprinkled Nuvo Mousse watered down on it.   I don't think Corning Hens Stamps are still in business.

I am entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - All That Glitters is Gold.

Check out all the fantastic Cards using some Gold over on Simon Says Stamp Blog Wednesday Challenge.  Enjoy.

https://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-glitters-gold/

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peak at my creative endeavors.  May you day always have a bit of Gold sprinkled in somewhere.

Blessings,

Deborah

Gel Press Papers for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

The Monday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp Blog is to do your own background.  This gave me the perfect time to finally use the Gel Press I had purchased months ago.  I really had no idea what I was doing but for watching a few videos.

I gathered a few stencils, the roller, extra papers ready cut and my distress paints and thought I would go with that for my first try.  I later discovered it is better to use a more pigmented acrylic paints, as opposed to distress paints.  I have since purchased some of those paints but have not used them yet.  However the distress paints give a different effect and many people like how these paints separate on the Gel Press instead of a more even coverage.

I did four half sheets letter size paper.  I used standard card stock.  I wasn't too thrilled with the outcome, but have to recognize this is a new medium for me and in all likelihood what I produced is pretty standard looking for mono printing with the Gel Press.

I would like to in the future play with some other papers and of course the better paints.

I forgot to take a picture of the completed paper before making it into a card.  Here is a close up.

I have since fixed the glue over spill onto the white leaves, which show up in a picture but not so much in real life.

Full card

You can check out the Challenge here:
https://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/#TB_inline?inlineId=tb-7535

Thank you for stopping by.

Have a wonderful and blessed day,

Deborah

Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Starry Night

I don't often get a chance to post here on my blog however I do enjoy seeing he challenges by the various stamp companies and artists as that often will give my creative muse a burst of activity.

I have used Hero Arts, "Merriest Christmas Wishes Stamp Set."  This stamps really speaks to me about starry nights, clear cold winter nights when the stars just seem brighter then at any other time of the year.

I used Distress inks, a variety of snowflake dies, some silver ink for a bit of sponging highlighting for a bit of shimmer, and a bright red glitter pen for the bird.

The sketch idea came from the FB group Hero Arts Fanatics and a challenge over there.

Check out the https://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/ for more inspiration from other card makers.

Thank you for stopping by I hope this little card inspires your creative muse.

Have a Blessed Day, 

Deborah

Faux Leather Tape Background

As soon as I saw this challenge, "Tape It Up!" over on Simon Says Stamp Blog Monday Challenge, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  Many years ago, back around 2003 I had made a card using masking tape and I wanted to visit that technique again.  So many really fun techniques were floating around through those years that one never sees anymore.

It is an such an easy technique.  Cut your base card stock the size you want your panel of masking tape to be.  Tear up small pieces of common masking tape and over lap, try to cover as many of the straight edges as possible.  Burnish the masking tape to the card stock then cut off any over lap of masking tape.

Now the fun part beings.  Use any ink of your choice in any colors you want.  Ink the masking tape directly from the ink.  In this card I used Distress Ink.  You can even sponge some metallic inks onto it for a bit of shine and interest.  Once you are happy with the ink, let it dry and then cover the panel with Versa Mark ink by smushing the ink pad all over the panel until covered.

Now use clear embossing powders and cover you panel, heat melt it and repeat the process for a second layer.

This is now your background.  The darker the ink the more the finished item will look a bit like a faux leather.  But pastel colors are nice too.

For the main focus of this card I sponged metallic gold and copper inks onto a small panel of vanilla card stock.  I used a stamp by Stampin' Up! "Nature Silhouettes" and embossed it in black.

The swirl is a die from Spellbinders, which I just received as part of their Monthly club.  I didn't want to add a sentiment to the front because I wanted as much of the background panel to show as possible.  

While this card's idea came from the Simon Says Monday Challenge, I am also posting it at The Male Room Challenge Blog as a Birthday card.  In fact it is exactly that for the facilitator of my small Bible study group.  

Clicks on the links below to see what others have made for these two Challenges.

I hope you enjoyed visiting back in time to an older technique and do give this technique a try.

Thank you for stopping by and enjoying my creative muse.  

Have a Blessed Day,

Deborah

P.S.  Visit my daughter's new blog at www.StampingMommy.com 

Red and Craft Challenge Facebook Unity(Show & Tell)

Unity Stamp Company has started doing weekly challenges on their Unity (Show & Tell) Facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/434773279941105/

This week was to use two colors, Red & Craft.  Sometime ago I discovered that craft papers take to watercolor quite well, as long as the paper is not too wet.  For this card I used color pencils with a water brush.  To add a deeper red I used Distress markers as well.

Here is a close-up.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a blessed day,

Deborah

All images by Unity Stamp Company

Fresco Technique - Butterflies

I came across this technique from the Understand Blue website by Lydia and thought it was beautiful. The technique swirled around in my head for sometime before I actually got around to giving it a try.  I ordered Stampin' Up's Fluttering Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, which is a full embossing folder of different sized butterflies but it would work with other embossing folder as well.

The technique is a bit involved and took some time to complete.  While I love the finished product getting there, not so much.  It is however easy to do, it just takes some time.

Lydia used a watercolor pencil, but I did not have a brand that wouldn't reactivate the color once it was dry so I used Distress Paints by Tim Holtz.  I also did not have the acrylic white paint she used so I used Golden's Titanium White.

I won't go into how the technique is done because Lydia has a video and it would be handy to view if you wanted to give this technique a try.  If you refer over to her blog you will see her's is much more colorful.  I had a hard time sanding off the white paint to reveal the colored butterflies underneath.  I finally gave up and went with what I did mange to sand off.  Perhaps the Golden's paint is more resistant, it did seem to gum up a lot instead of turn to powder when sanding.  If I give this technique another try I will probably use the same paint Lydia used or just a simple craft paint.

The surface is gloss like because it has a layer of clear embossing powder over it.

Hope you enjoy giving this technique a try. Visit Understand Blue for the full directions and video.

The finished card is quite stunning though that does not show up well on a picture.

Thanks for stopping by and may your day be blessed with joy.

Deborah

Butterflies - Stampin' Up  - Papillon Potourri

Embossing folder - Stampin' Up  - Fluttering Textured embossing folder

Sentiment - Unity Stamp Company

Online Card Watercolor Class Day 2

Online Card Classes

Here we are on day two of the Watercolor Card Class.  While I am behind the exercises for the class at least I am giving what I can a try.  Day two had us making free hand flowers.  This is one of them.  I like the brightness and color of these flowers.  I am thinking of going back and extending the length of the stems and and maybe adding a tiny leaf.  I just don't think I like the short stems.

I mounted the watercolor behind embossed blue card stock and added a die cute butterfly in a shimmer vellum.  I also used the same vellum for the greeting.  I do like how the card turned out over all.

Close-up of the shimmer vellum

January 29 - update

I really thought the flowers would look more like a flower if they had a tiny leaf so I went back and added that.  I like it better now.

I have much to learn when it comes to water coloring, especially more 

so for a type A  person who is particular having things perfect.  

Perfect and water coloring cannot coexist.  I plan to keep trying/playing.

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a blessed day

Deborah

Online Card Class Watercolor Techniques Day One

I am off to a pretty good start, just a bit behind in getting this card finished and posted.  The plan of course is to do at least one card of the class techniques each day but I am not going to beat myself up if I don't get that accomplished.  There is no fun in being stressed.

The card below is simply butterflies traced onto watercolor paper and painted in with wet on wet color.  Yeah, it was easy and fun, plus very relaxing.

After the card dried I decided to stamp a greeting on vellum and overlay the vellum onto the card stock which I just painted.  I liked how it softened the butterflies and frankly it also sit imperfections.

Stamp - The Angel Company

Thanks for looking,

Have a blessed day,

Deborah

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Ombre

This is my first try with an Ombre technique using inks and it was actually easier then I thought it would be.


Simon Says: Ombr

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/

I used a Hero Arts background stamp and 3 colors of Distress Inks.

Stamp Images:

background - Hero Arts

Robot - Stampin' Up!

Thanks for looking and have a blessed day

Deborah

Challenges for Card Makers

I am getting hooked on card challenges and there are many out there to choose from.  I just don't have the time to do all the ones I am finding.  This week I came across this site, The Male Room.

There are many stamps that can be used in making a card for the men in our lives.  I find making a card for men is really quite fun.

The challenge for this week over on The Male Room.

A friend of my parents comes to help mom with yard work.  My dad died last year and this special person has been so very helpful for the heavy work on the property.  I wanted to let him know how grateful I was for his help and thus the creation of the card below.

The card includes water coloring, die cuts, ink, stamps and the inner part of a box.  

I attached a stand to the back so the card actually becomes a picture.

Hope you like it.  Hope it will inspired you to do more cards for the men in our lives.

Have a blessed Day,

Deborah

A Cupcake Inspiration challenge #341

This morning I ran across a card made by another blogger whose inspiration was off the blog  "Cupcake Inspirations" here: http://cupcakeinspirations.blogspot.nl/2016/01/challenge-341.html?m=1

The challenge is to make a card based and inspired by this picture.

This is the first time I'd seen this blog and when I saw the inspiration picture for this challenge I knew exactly the card I wanted to do.  It had been milling in my mind for sometime now.  I had even thought of doing it for my Christmas cards for this past Christmas but went a different direction instead.  So with this challenge it gave me the push I needed to make this card anyway.  

 The card is simple linen paper in a off white cream color.  I used a Tim Holtz die for the trees, cutting several of them.  Each one is then painted with picket Fence Distress Stain and Wink of Stella clear glitter added here and there. (see next picture for the highlighting effect it gives).

Over all a simple card which I think came out wonderfully.

Thank you for taking a look and have a blessed happy creative day.

Deborah

Go For the Gold Class Challenge

Sometimes I find the time to enter a challenge and this card is for this.  I want to thank Sandy Allnock for the time she has put into bringing this class of using different gold mica products.  It was a fun class full of beautiful art projects to try.

You can find this class over on Sandy's blog here: 

http://sandyallnock.com/go-for-the-gold/#.VhA6snpVhBc

Since it took me all week working off and on for this card I have only completed the challenge for only day one.  I did not have any of the products she used but was able to find similar products to use.  I used gold mica powders mixed with Golden's Soft Gel - semigloss mixed with the mica powder.  But in the end while I got the dimension I did not get the bright shine that I knew the mica powder really had.  After it dried I added a tiny bit of Lumiere paint for the green and over the top then added some Ranger Metallic Paints in Gold.  By doing this I was able to get the same look that Sandy was able to accomplish with one product.  Whew, well at least it all worked.  I could not get the gold brightness to show, no amount of tweaking the photo in Photoshop would bring out the yellow gold, it just continued to be an orange color.  Maybe I don't know what I am doing with the photo program The card is very shiny bright in real.  What do you think?

Thank you for taking the time to look.  Have a wonderful blessed day.

Deborah

Simon Says Stamp's #Stamptember

Simon Says Stamp had a drawing give-a-way on their Facebook page for leaving a comment.  I won a set of the new release stamp sets.  Whoo Hoo!

Being behind as I always am I didn't get a card made at the reveal of #stamptember

I have however caught up a bit and made two different cards using the set of stamps I won.

Simon Says Clear Stamps PRESENTS AND ORNAMENTS sss101441

http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/product.aspx?id=308231

There are 21 stamps in this cute little Holiday stamp set.

For the first card I die cut snowflakes and used silver embossing powder on them.  I stamped the snowflake from the set and added it to the center, and the words merry, & bright which I also embossed with silver embossing powder.

It was a pretty quick card to make overall and has lots of shine in it.

This second card I used another die for the background.  Love this die, by Memory Box, called Landscape die.  You can find it here:  http://www.simonsaysstamp.com/product.aspx?id=88379

I stamped the boxes onto craft paper with the country theme in mind.  The bows are embossed as are the little green trees.  

I plan on making some more cards using this fun little stamp Set

 Thank you Simon Says Stamp!

Enjoy your day!

Deborah

Card in Watercolor

I took the Online Card Class, Watercolor and finally got around to actually playing with watercolor paints.
I leaned so much from the class and it all looked so easy though painting in watercolor paints still intimidates me some.  I cannot seem to let go and use more water and paint. I guess it will take practice.  I am use to coloring with Copic Markers which is so controlled plus I am one who likes things very tidy within the lines when coloring in a stamp but I have loved the look of watercolor paintings for a very long time and have several hanging on my walls.  Thus my inner voice must be telling me to let go of the control I tend to want to have and be more free and spontaneous with my arts work.  And I have to admit when I do something completely out of the box for me I love the process of doing it.

I am posting this card over at Unity Stamp Blog "Friends with Flair" which goes on every Friday.  You can view the blog here: http://theunitystampco.blogspot.com/2014/05/friends-with-flair_30.html

The painting is mounted on a dark blue card stock, which does look much better then it does in the scan as the blue is lost with the black card stock behind it.

Close-up

Stamp Set: ...I will never leave you by Phyllis Harris Untiy Stamp Co.

Watercolor paints, hair was done using a Distress Marker.

Using watercolor paints with my stamps and card making is diffidently something I plan on doing more of.  

Walk hand in hand with the Lord Jesus and He will never leave you as is His promise.

Blessings....Deborah

Sweet little Love Bug and Friends With Flair

Ah I remember The Love Bug movie with the sweet lovable car character named Herbie. I just ordered the set of these movies for my grand kids.  Volkswagen Beetle, so small like a bug yet my parents manged three children in that back seat.  It was a time when not only did people travel with a lot less stuff but of coarse no seat belts were there either so we pretty much sat however we needed to be which included using the area buy the back window.  Yikes, it certainly wasn't safe.

While the Beetle is a cute car, maybe for one person, two at the most for driving in a small town where distance is not a factor I could not zip around in and out of traffic in one of those today.  Maybe it would be fun and easy to get around in, and through parking lots, still I need the metal around me today, the arm space on the sides and breathing room for all my stuff as well as me.  Then there is the car seats for the grand kids, four of them now sitting there in the car ready for use at a moments notice.  No time for sweet little love bug cars in my life today.  Nope, I want the big gas sucking room for all car to zip about in and travel long distance in.

May this card bring back some love bug memories of yours from a time when life really was more simple and innocent although a time of chance was taking place.

Peace Out

Close up shows the glitter on the bumper and lights of the car.  I added glossy accents over the back window area which really made the window appear more glass like.

Stamps by Unity Stamp Co

 This sweet little robin sat on a branch directly outside the window of my studio where the computer is.  It sat there for a long time, twisting it's head around listening for bugs to eat.  I thought for sure if I try and take a picture is will quickly fly away but it didn't.  I love watching the birds and hearing their sounds of music when I am outside.  How much I miss living where it is summer or nearly so all year round, if for no other reason 

then to hear the music of the birds everyday.

May your day be blessed with the sights and sounds of God's creation.

blessings...Deborah