Peir One Inspiration

I have been seeing this poster when ever I walk by Pier One and have been wanting to create a card based on it. I finally got the chance and now I can't find a photo that has my inspiration. The best I've got is the above butterfly from their online site. The posters I've seen have stripes of white too. I thought this is a perfect summer time inspiration since it is their summer ads and the bright bold colors are perfect for the season.

 The card was easy enough as I just played with two rays I have in different widths. The sentiment and star is from PTI's Star Prints. Love how I can play on the senitment with the star and can become a focal point. Colors are all from the Distress Ink line by Ranger. Thought this would fit three different challenges: A Passion for Papertry Ink (summertime), Simon Says Stamp & Show (sentiments), and Simon Says Stamp Challenge (Anything goes).

Tropical Christmas

With today being the 25th of July (and that means only 6 months until Christmas) I thought I would post a Christmas card. Not just any Christmas card either but a tropical one. The challenge this month over at WMS's Christmas Card Challenge is to use orange. How NON-traditional is that right. I laughed about it with my DH until he said something about fire. Then my wheels started running and I started to think the way I like for my students to think, outside-of-the-box. I started thinking about different Christmas card greetings and the one that kept jumping out at me was "warm winter wishes". Well you can't get any warmer than the tropical islands and that's when it hit me. Why not use my new stamp set love My Island (MI) and create a tropical Christmas cards. What I lacked in orange paper I made up for in inks (Distress and copics). I started off with a Mojo Monday sketch before it took on a form of its own. To create the sunset on the top two back panels I used a sunray from PTI's Hello Sunshine set in Wild Honey and then sponged on Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade. For the bottom panel I used the barn boards from a PTI set stamped in Vintage Photo onto Kraft c/s. I stamped the distressed rectangle from the MI set onto vanilla c/s in Wild Honey and then sponged over it in Spice Marmalade before I distressed the edges. Once my edges were roughed up I sponged some Walnut Stain to darken the edges. The island image was created by layering the stamped images. I frist stamped the distressed sunrays by inking up the image with Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, and Spiced Marmalade. Then I took the "ground" image and stamped it in Vintage Photo as well as the small cluster of palms. The cute little hut was stamped last in Walnut Stain. I then sponged the edges of it in all of the same colors before I roughed up the edges. Once the Edges were distress I sponged on a little more of the Walnut Stain. This stamped layer was then popped up over the rectangle backing piece. I then decided that you can't have a tropical winter scene without some tropical flowers so out came my Free Spirit set and the cluster of flowers found there. I stamped them twice onto vanilla c/s and colored them in with several shades of orange in my copic collection. The large middle flower was cut out from the second stamping and popped up over the first one. Since the colors and images alone didn't make for an obvious Christmas card I new the perfect set to use to get my message across: Say It Loud Winter Holiday. I used the large 'warm' and paired it with the smaller 'winter wishes'. To make sure the sentiment could be read I ended up embossing it on to some clear acetate in white. I wish I could have used a softer, not as bright color, but all I have is white and black. Black didn't work at all so white it was. I stamped it onto acetate so that it would look like it was floating on the wooden beams (the top part is glued under the island image/mat). In the end I really had lots of fun with this challenge and can't wait to see what next month's will bring.

Punched Metal Tutorial

Disclaimer: I am pretty sure I didn't come up with this idea; however, I truely don't remember where I got the idea from.

Here is the tutorial I promised ya'll. This is photo heavy as I don't have the ablility to make a video.

Supplies: cardstock cut/punched into the desired shape (doesn't really matter what the color is as it will all be covered in the end), needle or other pointer thingy, foil tape sheets cut into strips of different widths, and black paint/ink

Step 1:

cover your c/s in the strips of foil tape. overlapping here and there.

Step 2:

 On the parts that hang over just snip them so that you can wrap it over your c/s

Step 3:

When you are done with the wrapping/overlapping it should look something like the above picture.
Step 4:

Wherever the seams of the strips meet up you will want to take the needle/sharp pointy thingy. The bottom picture shows what it should could look like when you are done.
Step 5:

Put a little black paint and rub it in and around with your fingers. Yes this part is messy but hey it is for the good of being crafty, lol. Or you could use some alchol ink to add color with a Ranger felt thingy (I am so sorry for not knowing the technical terms) as this is alot less messy. 
Step 6:

Let the paint dry just a little and then take a napkin and rub/buff off the paint. Sometimes I pounce it off depending on the texture I want.

Final Product:

This is what it will look like when done. I it aged with the seams and punched parts highlighted some.
My card: I added my pieces to a cute little Tiddly Inks robot. This would make a cute card for a boy. You can see other examples of the technique here, here, and here.

PTI's Stamp-A-Faire

Man I had a busy day today. My birthday present from DH was an entire day to myself. He took the boys to go visit his dad and step-mom so that I could have the house to myself to create. I am so blessed to be married to him. During my day off time I was able to complete 8 cards. Four were for the Stretch Your Stamps class and four were for Papertry Ink's Stamp-A-Faire challenges. I was not able to get to all of them as they are still happening but I just plan ran out of steam.  That being said I am just simply going to post the cards I did complete and label the challenges they were for. Tomorrow I will be back with my tutorial I have been promsing ya'll.

Morning Make-N-Take

Ribbon Techniques

Limited Supplies

Tye-Dye Techniques

Stretch Your Stamps: Day 11

I did it. I finished all eleven classes and I even have time to spare! I am so excited about that. It was a great class where I was abel to learn lots of new technquies but more importantly how to see my stamps differently. I learned what stamps I am missing in my collection too. Day 11 was all about reverse stamps. This one was another hard one for me as my mojo was starting to run low and I only have one reverse image stamp and it is a taperstry looking one from Hero Arts.

Left card: This card was inspired by Jennifer McGuire's card with the circles and colored in image. Since I don't own colored pencils I just colored it in with my copics but NO shading (I don't think I ever have colored with my copics without shading before). The sentiment is from PTI's We Go Together. I really like how soft this card came out with a little bit of whimsy in the sentiment.

Rigth card: This one was inspired by Kristina's card where she stamped the image in black ink and then colored in the blank spots. I didn't want to color in everything so I only colored in the large flower with the watercolor technique. Then I trimmed it down to fit a 4.25 x 4.25 black card. I created a little black banner to hold the sentiment. Simple but nice I think. I also thought this would make a great cards for the CAS-usal Friday Back in Black challenge.

Stretch Your Stamps: Day 10

Day 10's lesson was all about border stamps and how to use them as anything but a border. I used the same set as the "teachers" which is Lawn Fawn's Belinda's Borders and had a fun time trying something new. I don't really own any border stamps unless you count the big thick ones that are something like an 1" x 5.5" so this was something completely new to me.

Left card: A simple Hello card using one of the borders as grass. I made a mask  with the border so that I could layer the grass.. The tree and sentiment is from PTI's Trendy Tree Tops.

Right card: Was inspired by a Lawn Fawn stamp set that has the stars and moon hanging. I decided that the spiral background looked like spring so I used them to "hold" my hanging stars. The little stars and sentiments is from a star set from PTI too (sorry I can't remember the name and my desk is so messy that I can't find the set either, lol). What the picture really misses is that the large stars are embossed with clear glitter embossing powder so they really sparkle.

Stretch Your Stamps: Day 9

The lesson for day 9 was all about lined stamps. Surprisingly I don't have many of these types of stamps (thought I did but I guess they are all digi images). I hadn't really played much with WMS's Half Pint Heroines so I decided to use it for this lesson.

Left card: Kept this one simple and used the technique that had the color strips and no coloring (something I have never done before). I took the hotair balloon from the stamp set and flipped it over to stamp only the balloon (and embossed it in white). Then I took the flower from my go-to flower set and embossed that. I hand drew the steam (and so don't like how that turned out but oh well). I stamped the sentiment onto a banner. I liked how quickly this card came together but I think I need to work on the finishing touches on these types of cards.

Right card: I just had to play with the cute little elephant in this set so I thought he would be cute paper pieced instead of colored. Except for the cutting out the elephant three times this was another rather fast card. Guess I got into a banner mood as I added one to this card too.

Stretch Your Stamps: Day 8

I am slowly getting caught up on my SYS classes. Today was the last lesson so I am hoping I can get the last few cards done this weekend. Lesson 8 was all about labels. I love labels and use them to frame sentiments to images but I rarely see them as anything more than labels. After watching the videos today and seeing the samples I started to look at the labels a little differently. I used the same stamp set that was used for the lesson: Indadinkado's Maison Frames. Also, since I know some birthdays coming up I decided to play along with CASology's Happy challenge and Moxie Fab's Stamp it: Happy Birthday challenge.

Left card: I stayed fairly literal with this card and also very CAS. The only layer of the card is the white one that everything is stamped on just so I could get the thread through. I first stamped the label in brown and then masked it off in order to stamp my pink flower. The sentiment is also in brown. I then went back with a blender pen to lightly color in the flower for depth. To make it look like the thread is under the label I put a small slit on either side and then threaded it through.

Right Card: I was really inspired by Kristina Werner's cupcake card. My problem was that I don't own a big cupcake like hers. Then I started looking at the Maison Frame stamps and saw a cupcake frosting. The idea of turning one of the stamps into a cupcake would get out of my head so I set about to create it. I just knew I could find an image in my stamp collection that would make a perfect cupcake bottom but no such luck. Then I decided to try something that I don't like to do often: draw. So I drew the bottom half of the cupcake just so I could use that one stamp for the frosting. To soften all of the edges I did the blender pen coloring thing (boy does that take some practice). I really like how it turned out. To have my cupcake be the focal point I embossed a layer of white c/s with the sunbeams IP from PTI and then created a pink birthday banner to tuck right behind the image. Since this card was inspired by Kristina I decided to take it all the way and add white stitch lines to the banner.

Tin Ceiling Tiles

Ever since I made those Tin Man cads I have been wanting to try out an idea with the hexagon IP from PTI. I thought it would make a really neat punch tin ceiling tile kind of card (not to mention a great way to paly along with Moxie Fab's Hexagon challenge). I really enjoyed creating this card and when I was done I realized that I still hadn't done my turorial on this so it will be coming this weekend. It is done and just needs to be written up.

I simply cut a sheet of Rangers Tape Foil to the size of the card (should have maybe done this part last due to crookedness of the final result, live and lern right) and ran it through my CB with the Impression Plate as though I was going to emboss it. Turns out the foil is so thin that it still cut through most of it. Carefully peeling the backing off I laid it on the card base. After applying the punched tin technique I didn't want to cover it up so I kept it simple and used a wonderful frame and senitment from a WMS set (Fancy Phrases). I black emobssed the sentiment onto white c/s, swipped Pumice Stone over it and then sprayed the whole thing with Ranger's Perfect Perals Mists Perfect Pearl. Love how it gave a pwetered look. I popped it up so that I could thread some black thread through it to anchor it to the card. I decided the sentient needed to  be a little elegant and what could be more elegant than saying "hello" in French.

Stretch Your Stamps: Day 7

Day 7 is all about flowers. Something I have very few of in my stamp collection. However, one of my first floral stamps I bought was PTI's Friends Till The End. I have one (maybe two) other flowery stamps but this tends to be my go to one (however, I did finally cave and order the PTI annv set this year as I have seen so many cards that uses the flowers from it that I would really use it and their newest set Life is Sweet). Even though I have the dies for them I went the old-fashioned way and fussy cut them out as I didn't want a border around them like the die would have given. It was great seeing the different techniques used with them flowers as some I had forgotten about.

Left card: So many new to me things going on here. I have seen several of the sample cards use the watercolor paper ink splotches (where the ink is on a craft mat and then sprayed with water before placing watercolor over it) that I thought I would finally give it a try. Once it dried I thought it looked really bright, almost neon-y, so I went with it. I took Distress Ink's Picked Raspberry, Squeezed Lemonade, and Salty Ocean and rubbed them over white c/s cut to size for my layout (from Mojo Monday). I heat embossed in black the banners and used my copic black multi-liner to draw the lines on the blue piece as well as the long pink one. For my tag I took one of my many charms from Tim Holtz's collection and did the faux frosted glass technique using the smaller flower in the FTTE set. Then I decided that I needed a sentiment so I went with hello and embossed it in black on the from. I thought it would be a fun card for the Hello Stamp It challenge over at Moxie Fab too.

Right card: and now for not my fav card. I love the flower and the sentiment but the rest of the card is just blah to me. It is missing something and I just can't figure it out. The layout is from CPS's current sketch challenge and the idea for the front of the card being cut off a little came from Jennier McGuire (I think) in an earlier class over at SYS. I thought the sketch lended itself to the idea quite well. I white embossed the flower from FTTE onto watercolor paper and then inked it up with shades of yellow and orange brefore spraying it gernerously with Perfect Peral Perfect Peral Mist. Love how it blended the colors together and gave the flower a nice shine. Once it was cut out I popped it up for some depth. For the sentiment I played around with the idea of stretching my sentiments and seeing just how many I could use together from this set. I ended up using 8 of the sentiments and I think they all read well together. For the blue strip I masked off the bottom part I wanted to keep white and rubbed some blue ink accross the top part. When the inked dried I then stamped the polka dots in Fresh Snow.

I am now 2 days behind in the SYS class but now that my VBS project I waited to the last minute is done and my pieced metal tutorail is done (this should be posted in the next couple of days) I am hoping to start catching up tomorrow. My goal is to have all of my cards from this class (total of maybe 11 days) done and posted by Sunday. It is a goal I think I can make, even if I just do one lesson a day.

Love Notes the Finale

And now for the last of the cards as I think I have now shown them all (except for the two that I am saving for the tin man tutorial). These cards were made in diferent sizes for intertest and I chose 24 because they can each use one a month to surprise the other one with a little love note each month. These two big ones I am sharing today I thought would make great 1 year annv cards (or at least used sometime during that month) as they are the normal A2 size so have plenty of room to write a little letter to the other one.

The hot airballoon, girl, and sentiment is from WMS's Half Pint Heroens.

The clouds and girl are from HP Heroens while the boy, car, and setiment is from HP Heroes. I colored the car to matching (sorta) my brother mini-coup.