Blog Archives
Coffee Lovers Bloghop Fall/winter 2021 Day # 4
This past Saturday I attended a charity crop retreat to aid an animal rescue group. It was a ton of fun and it felt so nice to get out and mingle with like-minded people even if we still had to maintain masks and social distancing. Hey, that reminds me of something…………………when I was growing up a very common phrase people would use was, “I wouldn’t touch him/her with a six-foot pole”. Who knew that half a century later, we would actually need “virtual” six-foot poles to stay away from everyone else. Truth really is stranger than fiction.
Anyway, back to the topic of coffee and cardmaking, I made another card featuring the Paper Rose Background Scenes. I used the Tim Holtz Bear and his trusty Woodpecker friend. My eyes were quite bleary as it was late at night when I made the card. As a result, I think I lost the eyes and mouth pieces three times before I got the card together. When I did get it together though, it turned out to be quite cute.
Spring Card Camp Day 10
Today’s tutorial was about recycling a craft tool that most of us would routinely throw away. That tool is a homemade stencil to use with glitter paste. I usually find myself taking the instructions from the tutorial and somehow making my cards a way more difficult to execute. By this, I mean that I select an image that has to have parts masked off, or I make mine into a shaker card, or I use a cover die that I want to pop up and it has lines that are 1/8th of an inch wide…………., you know the routine. Today was different though……………………not only did I stay simple (sat on my hands so that I didn’t add more embellishments), but also I didn’t even alter the glittery mess around the circle. I decided that the uneven scattered look suited the image I used and went well with the odd circle stencil that I used in the second card.
I think this is the earliest time in the day that I have managed to post to the gallery.
A Nod to Halloween
I keep thinking that I have all the stamps and dies that I could possibly need, and yet I buy more. There is a reason that crafters refer to this hobby as their addiction, and think they will stop buying as soon as they add this or that to their collection.
Today, I thought I would share some Halloween cards that I recently made. For the most part, they were made with stamps and dies already in my stash, but I confess to buying a couple of new ones.
I liked the crazy sentiments in the stamp set from Cathy Zielske called My Zombies, so I had to get that. I also liked the oval Spider Web from Hero Arts and even though I resisted buying it with my recent Hero Arts kit, I caved in and bought it when it appeared at Scrapendipity. I also had to have the Tim Holtz Stamptember exclusive stamp set, but have yet to make a card with that one (Stay tuned)
2018 Fall/Winter Coffee Lovers Bloghop #4
Today’s card is special. It is special because it is made with a stamp set that I won in the last Coffee Lovers Bloghop. It is from The Cat’s Pajamas and is adorable. The image is small but I wanted it to take centre stage. A soft and faded out stencil background is a good way to ensure that the image isn’t lost. I love the sentiment on this card and certainly for me, is true.
What is this? A card for no reason?
I am so far behind, that I think I am first!
I have had no time to enter any of the usual challenges, and the 25 days of Christmas Tags was only 12 days long for me before the wheels fell off.
Because of being busy with other things, my “new” drawer is starting to overflow as well. There are many amazing stamp sets in there, that definitely need to come out and play. One of them is the plaid maker from Concord and Ninth. This is a brilliant stamp set both in its simplicity and engineering. What is great about it, is that they had the clever idea of making the thin lines of the plaid on a wide base with two of the thin lines on it. The lines stay straight and the wider stamp stays upright when lining it up in the Misti. I rarely make more than one card front at a time, but this plaid maker stamp is “the best” for mass production. Just keep stamping the pattern in black on to various colours of cardstock. The thin lines are not necessary as you have a lovely Buffalo plaid without them, but you can add them at a later date, to co-ordinate with whatever image and occasion you opt to work with.
Creative Chemistry – Day Catch up
Holy crap! I have been trying to catch up on all the techniques presented in Chemistry 103 online class.
One thing I can tell you is that I have gone through enough baby wipes to keep the Dionne Quintuplets clean for five years!
There is at least 5 techniques a day times 6 days of classes, and each technique is a combo of mini techniques, so you can begin to see the toll on baby wipes. And that is before you count the mishaps, like the one when my Cracked Pistachio spray stain wouldn’t spray UNTIL I turned the spray bottle toward my face.
I am having fun getting inky, even though I am hurrying to complete my techniques binder before I leave on holidays.
This sample on Yupo just turned out to well to end up on a tag rather than a card.
You just gotta love how the ink sprayed out naturally from the middle of the one red flower. I am still in awe of that.
Creative Chemistry 103 Day 6
I have a pile of half completed samples from this class. There are several techniques that use products with a longer than usual drying time. This means my craft room looks like a paper laundromat.
The sample I am showing here almost went in the round file several times. Luckily I followed Tim’s instructions to keep working on it by throwing in more colour and more blending solution and most importantly more imagination until it started to look like something.
Creative Chemistry 103- Day 2
One of the techniques shown today used three products that I love, but have been languishing unused in my stash. What a great opportunity to break them out again. The products I am talking about are Distress Markers, Stencils and my Compressor. The technique is called Distress Marker Spritzed Watercolour.
I confess that I had never before used my compressor with any marker other than Copics. At first I fashioned a tape around the marker barrel to fit it snugly into the Copic spray handle, but it wasn’t long before I figured out a way to hold the marker just right and get it to spray with out the fuss.
I took Tim’s suggestion and decided to try it with a stencil, since I hadn’t used a stencil for a while either. I tried the Roses stencil and this Treads one. They both worked beautifully.
I like the resulting card. I think it is a great, and hard to come by, artsy masculine card.
Tim Holtz Chemistry 103
Today marks the start of the Online Card Class Chemistry 103. It has been a while since Chemistry 101 and 102.
Today there were five techniques presented. While I have seen the techniques in other forms, it is nice to see how to use the techniques specifically with the Distress line of products. It will take me a while to make cards for all the techniques as I am starting by making tag samples for my personal journal book first.
I did like how the highlight stamping technique turned out using the relatively new Picket Fence pigment distress ink. I did think it was very pale at first and it took me at least three stampings before I thought the coloured inks would show up very well on the white background.
Use some Lucky Stars
The Make it Monday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp is to use some lucky stars.
I decided to try out my new and precious Daniel Smith watercolours on this card. I think the result looks good and certainly meets the theme criteria.
Supplies: Stampin Up Life is Beautiful stamp set, Simon Says Stamp Birthday Balloons stamp set, Hero Arts CL582 stamp set, Daniel Smith watercolours, Stampendous embossing powder, Brillance Moonlight White ink, Zig Real Brush markers, recollections card stock, Scor tape, Tim Holtz Distrees watercolour paper.
DebSelby
Maverick Muses 