Calendar Layout Family in the Fall at the cottage

I have a calendar layout to share today. The title die cut "Family" is a Cricut cut from the cartridge Cricut Sampler. The leaves are stamps by Studio G that I inked with Colorbox pigment ink and let dry before cutting them out. The only patterned paper I know is the striped paper by MME. 

I received a bunch of paper (a lot on this layout) from my mom who would cut off the strips at the top which had the manufacturer's name on it. Oh well, what can you do? I'm not one to complain about free paper. 

The border punch on the left (by EK Success) is cut with Bazzill cardstock. My favorite part about this layout is I was able to use a bunch of scraps and get them out of my way. 

Thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow.

YIPPIE! Card

Today's card is very Stampin Up and by that I mean the aqua cardstock under the white, the embossing folder, the yellow mosaic ink, stamp and matching punch, and the aqua stamped character are all by Stampin Up. Ink color is called Daffodil Delight and the aqua is by Colorbox. The sentiment sticker is Pebbles.

Easy-peasy today. Thanks for looking.

Destiny Card

I made this card for a sweet lady who (or is it whom?) my husband fondly refers to as "The English Chick" because she taught English at the same high school. She accepted a new job and I wanted her to know we care.

The black paper is by Die Cuts with a View, black ribbon by Doodlebug and the black ink by Hero Arts. The stamp and the star brad at unknown. The star background is a The Crafter's Workshop stencil. I taped the stencil to my cardstock by Strathmore and applied silver embossing paste (Dreamweaver Stencils) over top.

Thank you for stopping by.

Deep Red Stamps Merry Christmas

I stamped the Merry Christmas Deep Red Stamps image onto Strathmore watercolor cardstock with Hero Arts black ink. I colored the image in with distress inks and added some iridescent paint in a few areas. I trimmed it down and inked the edges with red distress ink before adhering it to a green patterned paper by Pink Paislee.

I almost always work on a piece of cardstock or patterned paper and then add that panel to the card base. This embossed border is a reason why I do that. If I were to emboss the card base you would be able to see it inside the card. Although the border might not be the best example because it might look really nice on the inside but when using brads I don't want the prongs sticking out when the recipient opens the card. Just personal preference.

This embossed border is by Darice. The patterned paper is unknown. The snowflake sticker on the left is by We R Memory Keepers. I cut a Spellbinders die called Dahlia out of Die Cuts with a View green cardstock. I inked the edges with Forest Moss distress ink before adhering the sticker to it.

Thanks for looking.

Manly Monday Anchor

Manly Monday card today has an anchor stamp which is sponge stamp that I was able to get a good impression with regular Stampin Up navy blue ink. Die cut the image with a Spellbinders die. Die cut a Design Objectives die for behind and with the same die, cut out blue foam by Tiny Crafts. Adhere the three die cuts together.

Stamp a card base by Recollections with a Hero Arts background stamp with blue Stampin Up ink. Cover the top left corner with navy cardstock and cover the seam with Creative Memories patterned paper that has been cut with a swirly paper trimmer.Die cut the arrows and sentiment from Cricut and adhere all the parts together.

Thanks for looking.

Fall Stencil ATC's

These ATC's were for last month but I didn't get a chance to blog about them. For the background paper of these cards I used old packaging because I wasn't sure what I was doing at the time and didn't want to waste good paper. That "waste good paper" statement makes me laugh. What project do I think deserves "good paper"? Silly.

I added acrylic paint to white embossing powder and applied it to a Dreamweaver Stencils fall leaves stencil. After they dried, I covered each one with Perfect Pearls gold, bronze and copper. I liked the gold the best (left side). 

The leaf is a punch that I covered with Scattered Straw Crackle Distress paint (Ranger). After they dried, I stamped the word fall using My Stamp Box letter and Close to my Heart orange ink. I tied raffia in a bow around the stem of the leaf and covered the center with a leaf punch. Lots of leaves but they turned out pretty.

Thanks for looking.

Purple Arrows Thank you Card

I'm really into arrows and love this arrow embossing folder by Provo Craft. After I embossed the purple cardstock (The Paper Studio), I covered it with Perfect Pearls (Ranger). I die cut the two scallop circles (Spellbinders). One out of polka dot patterned paper and the other out of white cardstock. 

The center stamped image...I guess you may call it a flower, was stamped with multiple Colorbox cat eye pigment inks on a mint cardstock (Recollections). After it dried, I cut out the stamped image using the matching die cut (Sizzix). I die cut a label (Tim Holtz with Sizzix) and stamped an American Crafts sentiment with Hero Arts charcoal ink. 

I found the two strips of paper in my stash that happened to go together perfectly without having to cut them. I adhered the polka dot die cut behind the strips of paper and then layered the other two on top of that. I finished by adhering the sentiment. 

Have a great day and thanks for looking.

1950's Decade ATC's

I made these ATC's for a decades swap on Scrapbook.com. I stamped the Deep Red Stamps Jukebox image onto Strathmore watercolor cardstock with Hero Arts black ink. I colored the image in with distress inks and a few areas with distress markers. I fussy cut the image out and went to work on the background.

I daubed distress ink colors: Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon, onto my craft sheet. I sprinkled the area with some powdered chalks such as gold, sunshine yellow and fluorescent colors pink orange and yellow. I had a bottle of iridescent paint that was almost empty which made it easy for me to splatter some onto the work area along with the inks and chalks. I sprayed the area generously with water and swirled the paint, inks and chalks together but just a little bit. I wanted to see what was going to come out of this witch's brew. I took some packaging that was white on one side and swiped it through the mixture in different areas and at different angles.

After I did the initial paper swipe, I thought that I should stop with this piece of paper now and grab another piece of paper to see what we will get next. So I played some more with other papers and noticed that the first one didn't have a good showing of yellow. 

When the colors get all mixed together yellow loses to the darker colors. I decided that while the paper was still drying I had time to sprinkle on some bright yellow (think sunflower) powdered chalk on top. You have to have a light hand when adding something at this point of the "make your own background" craziness or you'll have to start over. Ugh! Not happening. I put some chalk onto a tool to scrape off pictures that has a flat surface and tapped a little off with the one hand as the other moved around. I think it turned out really pretty. It's sad sometimes that all the hard work on the background gets covered it up with stuff. I wish I could become "one" with white space.  (Hard work is really more like a little kid playing with paints)

Here's a look at all three. The sentiment stickers are by Stampabilities, the music note is a Cricut die cut that I wrote on with a ZIG Millennium pink pen and the small stamp in between the notes/under the 1950's writing is a stamp by My Sentiments Exactly that I stamped with Hero Arts ink.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks for coming by.

Manly Monday Off we Go!

I'm trying to work Manly Monday back into my blog and here's my new one. The stamp is by Great Impressions Stamps and it is called Old Fishing Truck. If you're looking for unique guy stamps that have to do with transportation check out these couple that I really like:

Vintage Motorcycle

VROOM -This one would make the in-law men smile big

Flaming Truck

Anyway, I stamped the truck with Hero Arts black ink onto Strathmore watercolor cardstock and colored the truck in with distress inks and a water pen (both by Ranger). The edges of the truck are inked in red. I layered two Spellbinders dies behind the truck. The red is patterned paper by Die Cuts with a View and the grey cardstock by Recollections.

The cloud embossing on top is a Stampin Up folder on off white cardstock. The bottom of the card is Basic Grey patterned paper and then I covered the seam between the two halves with an old Creative Memories sticker. The sentiment die is cut out using my Cricut and the When I was a Kid cartridge.

Thanks for looking.

Maple Leaf card

The background paper is by GCD and I inked all the edges with distress ink. The larger red leaves are old die cuts from Creative memories that I stamped with a canvas background stamp by Stampin Up. I punched the other leaves out with a CM punch. I inked all the edges of the leaves.

The bottle cap is by Molson Canadian that my husband flattened. I punched a circle (CM) out of burgundy cardstock and adhered the cap to it with Glossy Accents (Ranger). The white is a Spellbinders die. I kept it nice and white to match the cap.

Thanks for looking.

Vector Flourishes Cards

I made a few different anniversary cards with Deep Red Stamps Vector Flourishes. I stamped one and then turned the stamp upside down to stamp it again underneath the first. I used ink by Hero Arts, Love die cut by SU that I colored with silver powdered chalk, Offray and The Paper Studio ribbon, some patterned paper by Craft Paper and K and Co, cardstock by Provo Craft and Recollections and a border punch on one by Martha Stewart.

Thanks for looking.

Softball Card

I have a funny story to tell today. Disclaimer: I've been told I'm not a very good story teller-reader beware.

I send a lot of birthday cards because I can remember as child my aunt, who lived out of state, would always send a card and a gift. I looked forward to it every year. Also at my mom's house, a birthday was a big deal. Streamers, balloons, happy birthday signs, cake and ice cream with whatever I wanted  for dinner. This was a standard birthday affair back then. We actually looked forward to each others birthday because it was such a big deal and a fun atmosphere. 

My cousin lives on the east side of the state and he and his wife have three children. I send the two older ones a birthday card every year, even if I'm late, I still send it. I didn't think they knew who was sending these cards but I thought, oh well I'm family and it's a nice thing to do. 

Recently we had to attend a visitation and my cousin introduced his children to me. They kind of looked at me like a kid normally would until I said "I'm the lady that sends you a card on your birthday." For that I received a smile and an "Oh". So I asked my niece what she likes to do and she plays softball hence my card today. Later on I was talking to just their mother and she said that the kids look forward to receiving the birthday card, even if it's late, every year. That totally made my day.

The background is dry embossed with Darice folder. The bats and the sentiment stamps are by Stampin Up. The helmet is a patterned paper by Accord Publishing and the softball is a sticker. All of the pieces are inked with distress ink and matted with brown cardstock. I used foam adhesive under the sentiment.

Thanks for looking.

Skating into Christmas

Christmas will be here before we know it so I've started working on them. This one uses the Deep Red Stamps Ice Skates stamp. I stamped it with Memento black ink and colored it in with Copic markers. I fussy cut the skates out best I could and then ran a black marker around the edges. 

I cut the layered die cut the image is on with my Cricut and the Art Philosophy cartridge. The cream cardstock is by Bazzil and the burgundy by The Paper Company. The center paper is by Die Cuts with a View. The sentiment is a gold sticker by Mark Enterprises. They look really old.

The background of my card is an old Christmas card that was given to a friend and she in turn gave to me. I do love to recycle or would it be called upcycle-who knows. I just love to give old things new life.

This picture shows part of the Christmas card that I cut off in order to fit on a 4 x 5 1/2 pre made card base.

Thanks for looking.

Halloween Embellishments

I made some embellishments that could be used on a card or a scrapbook layout or whatever. Here's a look at all three and then I talk about them individually below:

The pumpkin is a digital stamp by Hope Jacare that I colored in with Copic Markers. I matted some orange cardstock by Coredinations behind it and added the brad from Around the Block in the left upper corner.

This witch stamp is by Inkadinkado and was stamped with Hero Arts black ink. I punched a circle out of a Post It note and adhered it to the cardstock to act as a mask for my moon. I inked the sky with 3 different blue distress inks with my ink blending tool. The gold you see in the witch's stamp and around the die cut sentiment is a gold gel pen by Creative Memories. The sentiment says wicked! but it didn't photograph well.

The last embellishment is on orange Coredinations cardstock. Every piece in this embellishment has been inked with distress ink. The RIP stamp is by Stampin Up with black Hero Arts ink. The patterned paper in the corner is by K and i Memories. The cat is a vintage "die cut" that I found in my MIL's craft stash. The white piece of paper in the center has been stamped with Deep Red Stamps Burlwood background stamp with Versa Mark ink and heat embossed with orange embossing powder.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cork Love ATC's

The theme for these ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) is use cork and this first part has nothing to do with cork but I wanted to show the background process. Hang in there until the fifth picture where you will see the cork.

 I found this very ugly paper in my stash and decided it needed to go.

I adhered the paper to a piece of cereal board and inked the edges with distress ink.

For this ATC, I added gold Perfect Pearls to white paint and painted over the ugly paper. After it dried I applied distress ink over a leaf pattern Dreamweaver Stencils, which is in the next photo all the way to the right.

The middle card was done similar to the one above however I added copper Perfect Pearls instead of the gold. 

The card on the left was done differently. I inked the card heavily with distress ink and adhered the stencil on top. Using the paint mixed with gold, I applied the paint over the stencil to reveal the leaf pattern.

Here's what they looked like in the end and you can hardly see the backgrounds. So anyway, the orange background is mulberry paper and the cork tag is by Little Yellow Bicycle. The green and orange tags were these super bright colors that I tried to tone down with distress ink, stamps and an emery boards for sanding. Two of them have orange hemp wrapped around the bottom by Tim Holtz. The leaf brad is unknown 

Thanks for checking out my blog today.

Manly Monday Vintage Delivery Truck

For Manly Monday I stamped this Deep Red Stamps Vintage Delivery Truck Stamp with off white paint onto brown cardstock. I added some cardstock behind it and some of the patterned papers are by Studio Calico and Prima.

Thanks for looking.

Halloween ATC's

I made these ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) for a Halloween swap. On each of the ATC's I made a spooky background by adding distress ink onto a Dreamweaver Stencils tree stencil. The patterned papers are all scraps that came from companies like: Imaginisce, Making Memories and K and Co. The orange paper is by C Gull and has been inked by different colored distress inks. The haunted houses, bats and small children by pumpkins are these vintage die cuts by Eureka that I found in my MIL's craft totes. The stamps are by Stampin Up-a bat stamp and the sentiment stamp with black ink by Hero Arts.

I used a Prickley Pear Zombie stamp and black Hero Arts ink on this set of ATC's. On two of them I die cut a headstone border for the background. The lantern stamp is by Inkadinkado.

Thanks for looking.