Pastel + Cactus =

Hey there everyone...I have been playing with some of the new peg stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry, the "Build a Prickly Pear Cactus" set as a matter of fact.  I've seen lots of posts and challenges about building a scene recently so I thought I'd "pear" these stamps with my pastel pencils to see if I could come up with a scene.  I chose my pastels because I hadn't used them in a while and I hate to see things sitting on my shelf unused.

I took two randomly stamped card fronts that I made using these stamps and wove them into a desert landscape...   What do you think?

I started out by stamping various size of prickly pears just to see what they looked like.  I hadn't planned on using this piece since they were just for practice. I actually think it turned out pretty cool for something that was going to end up in the trash.

This lonely little cactus was going to be die-cut but I miscalculated and didn't have enough room for what I had originally planned so I drew in a few smaller cactus in the distance and added some hills...

You'll notice that in both of these cards the cactus have blooms...those aren't really on the stamps, I just added little "X"'s of color using my pastels for flowers.  I thought it just added an extra little something.  

I'll be back soon with a few more cards using this set but in the mean time, have an inky day!

Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Build A Prickly Pear Cactus

Imagine - Memento Dye Inks

Stabilo - Pastel Pencils 

ClubScrap.com - Cardstock

Creative Medium Faux Wood Grain

Hi friends - I hope you've all had a wonderful week so far.  I wanted to share a fun technique with you - Faux Wood Grain using Antique Creative Medium!

I used my vintage wood grain tools but you can find new tools at home improvement or paint stores, usually in the faux painting section. 

You can find a little video showing this technique on the Imagine blog here:

Learn How to Make Faux Wood Grain With Creative Medium

Hope you enjoy!

Joy Clair Challenges

I worked on a few more Joy Clair World Card Making Day Challenges today...

Pinspiration with Lori

This challenge was to use the photo that Lori chose from Pinterest as the inspiration for your card. I was inspired by the colors as well as the succulents on the cake. I used several of the flowers from the Doodle Flower set which I stamped on green papers for my succulents, the pot was hand cut/colored and the sentiment is from Hello Sentiments.  Amazing how just changing the color of paper/ink that they go from flowers to succulents huh?

CASE a Card with Jessica

Jessica challenged everyone to choose a card from the blog made by any DT member and CASE it.

Sweet Hello by Kerry

Since I only have the Doodle Flower and Hello Sentiment sets I did a search for the Doodle Flower set and found this lovely example by Kerry!

And here's my card!  I didn't want to copy it exactly so I changed it up with colors, orientation and sentiment.

Make a Card for a Friend with Donna

The final challenge I joined in was make a card for a friend and tell why you did so.  Recently a friend across the country was able to move out of her apartment into her very own house. I thought it would be nice if she rec'd some fun mail at her new residence and she loves flowers so this will be perfect. I hope she will enjoy it even though she might see it in advance ;) 

I had lots of fun joining in on these challenges - hope you've enjoyed seeing my interpretation of each.

Supplies:

JoyClair - Doodle Flower, Hello Sentiments
Imagine - Memento Dye Inks, VersaFine, VersaMagic, Memento Dual Tip Markers, Sponge Daubers
ClubScrap.com - Cardstock, Pattern Papers

Spooky Treat Boxes

Happy Monday Everyone! I hope you had a nice weekend. We did here and if you saw my last few posts you'll see that I also had lots of fun playtime too!

Today I wanted to share my Spooky Treat Boxes I made...

(All Stamps JFF Stamps)

All sorts of inky fun on those...of course you can decorate them with any images.  If you'd like the pattern to make this tombstone treat box head on over to Imagine for a free downloadable PDF pattern (scroll down - it's near the bottom).

Tombstone Treat Box

World Card Making Day 2017 #3 - Joy Clair Challenges

One more post before the weekend is over...A friend of mine is on the Joy Clair Design Team and told me about all of the fun challenges they were hosting for World Card Making Day.  

Well I only have 2 stamp sets from JC - Doodle Flower and Hello Sentiments, but I took that as a personal challenge to see if I could create cards using just these 2 sets for the challenges they were going to post.  I haven't worked my way through all of them yet (but I may in the coming days) however I thought I'd share what I have completed so far!

The first challenge was easy - Show Us Your Desk.  As it happened I was working on my friend Martha's challenge at the time I took it....

And here is the card I made for Martha's challenge - CAS. 

I used her card example as inspiration for mine. 

I really like how the background I stenciled shows through the mason jar.

Next up - Background Builder with Kerry.

This was a fun challenge.  I used VersaMagic (chalk inks) to create the color part of the background;  I then stenciled works from a Club Scrap stencil - bloom, grow, peace, serenity, cultivate joy, etc.  I thought it paired nicely with the flowers.

Rainbow with LeeAnn

I made the rainbow swishes using a sponge dauber and memento dye inks.  I then stamped the posie on white cardstock and colored each using the same inks from the rainbow.  They were fussy cut and adhered - green & orange directly to the card and blue, yellow and red using foam tape.

The final challenge I have today is 

Color Combo with Helen

The color combo is red, orange and brown.  Seemed perfect for Fall so I stamped/masked the wreath using a flower that looked like a mum. I then colored them with a variety of red and orange Prisma colored pencils.  The sentiment is stamped using Dark Brown Shimmer Delicata which has a lovely shimmer IRL.  Wish it showed up in photos but alas it doesn't so you'll have to take my word for how pretty it really is.

I may try to tackle the rest of the challenges soon if I have time this week.

If you haven't joined in the fun you should give it a try.

Supplies:

Joy Clair - Doodle Flower, Hello Sentiments

Imagine - Memento Dye Inks, Memento Markers, Delicata, VersaMagic, VersaFine, StazOn, Sponge Daubers

Club Scrap - Stencils, Cardstock

PrismaColor Colored Pencils

Other - Ribbon, Twine, Vellum

World Card Making Day 2017 #2

Well didn't get to post these last night due to storms but I did get to make some more cards yesterday.

This first card was made for the Just Add Ink Challenge Sketch #380...

(Stamps: Club Scrap Scandinavia Kit 10/17)

I stamped the background using Angel Pink Memento ink. The flower on the main image was actually colored with Memento Dual Tip Markers then stamped on the die-cut square. I really like the  contrast of the bright colors of the Love Letter (deep pink) and Bahama Blue Memento Inks against the softer pink and blue from the Scandinavia kit.

Just Add Ink Challenge #380

Since I had my inks out I went ahead and stamped up another card just for the fun of it...

For this card I used a piece of pattern paper that had the large circle and flower designs. I then stamped the sentiment and geo elements in more of the Memento Dye Inks that coordinate so well with this kit...Bamboo Leaves; Bahama Blue and Love Letter.  I actually made a few more cards but have yet to photograph them...I'll be back with them later today.

Supplies:

ClubScrap.com - Cardstock, Pattern Paper, Stamps

Imagine - Memento Dye Inks; Memento Dual Tip Markers; VersaFine Black Onyx Ink

MFT - Stitched Square Die

World Card Making Day!!

Happy Day friends!  I hope you'll all be able to carve out some time to play today and make at least one card for someone you love!

I've been busy...here are some cards for your viewing enjoyment to get you in the mood!

(JFF Stamps - Memento Markers)

(Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Itty Bitty Punkin' Patch

Memento Dye Inks)

(JFF Stamps - Memento Inks)

(Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Itty Bitty Punkin' Patch

Memento Dye Inks, VersaFine Black, Memento Markers)

(JFF Stamps - VersaColor Inks, Clear Embossing Powder)

(JFF Stamps - Prisma - Club Scrap Cardstock)

I'll be back later today to share a bit more!

Have fun creating!!

Autumn Elegance

Tomorrow is World Card Making Day...is everyone planning on making at least one or two??  I hope so, I'm sure someone in your circle of friends/family could use a ray of sunshine in their day.

Today I wanted to share a couple cards I made using the new Rubber Stamp Tapestry set - Autumn Elegance.  It's such a beautiful set and oh so perfect for this time of the year.

This set comes with 5 stamps - pumpkins in 3 different sizes/shapes; a vine w/ leaves and a tiny sprig of flowers.  This is such a fun autumn set of stamps. I had fun with the first card stacking the pumpkins up.  All of the images were stamped using Memento Inks and then the ground & pumpkins were colored using Prisma Colored Pencils.

My next card was stamped using a combination of Green Kaleidacolor inks for the wreath and Memento Inks for the pumpkins in the center. This time I colored the large pumpkin and ground using pastel pencils.

Supplies:

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - Autumn Elegance
Imagine - Memento Inks, Kaleidacolor Inks
Club Scrap.com - Cardstock, Thinking sentiment
JFF Stamps - Happy Autumn Sentiment
Prismacolor colored pencils
Pastel Pencils

Handyman's Holiday Hop

Today I have the honor of participating in the Handyman's Holiday Blog Hop and our challenge was to alter a paint brush!  Make the rounds and be inspired. We could choose any of the Fall/Winter holidays we wanted but of course I choose Halloween...my fav...

BOO!  Here is mine! It's been so long since I've taken some time to make a fun Halloween item and this was the perfect opportunity to do so.  If you can't tell, I had lots of fun making this...I got painty, inky and sticky all over.  Do you know how hard it is to make glue gun strings when you actually WANT them???  Silly me!

As luck would have it a couple weeks before I was invited to join in the hop I bought this grungy old paint brush at a flea market at an antique tractor show. It just had such a fun look - I couldn't pass it up for just 50 cents!  Of course everyone thought I was nuts because it was stiff with old paint, rusty and all gunked up.  In my eyes I knew it would be perfect for something.

I started off painting the paint brush with a coat of Micaceous Iron Oxide (Golden). I LOVE this paint - it's got an instant grungy feel to it...yes, I grunged up my grungy paint brush even more.  LOL!! I then dipped the tips of the brush it's self in red paint for a bit of drippy looking "blood".

I then started on the main "character"...  I knew he had to be a bit dark and spooky so this was my guy...  He was also grunged up with a touch of the iron oxide paint, his "wings" are MDF pieces I've had in my stash for years that were painted black then highlighted with Lavish Green Metallic Lustre (DecoArt).  His vial is a plastic candy holder I bought just for the vial - LOL!!  Can you guess what it's filled with???

He has a pet eyeball as well as a pet spider that's trying to climb up his leg.  I didn't have an eyeball in my collection so I made one...from trash.  No kidding, I pulled out a piece of shipping tape and some pattern paper tissue that I threw away. I wound the tissue around the tape, painted it white then colored the eye with markers.

I also made a book for him to hold his "recipes".  In this pic. you can see some of the glue gun spider webbing that is all over this piece.  I mentioned it above but it's so hard to make those darn glue strings when you actually want them on your project. 

I hope you've enjoyed this spooky stop on the 

Handyman's Holiday Hop!

The next stop is Colleen.

Anytime you get lost a list of blogs is on D’s Paper Studio.

Our “Be Inspired Giftaway” is featured at D’s Paper Studio.  Check out Debby’s blog for details. Four winners will be chosen from comments on all the blog posts in the Handyman’s Holiday Hop.

Thanks to our generous sponsors:

Quick Quotes Scrapbook Company

Heartfelt Creation

Helmar 

D’s Paper Studio 

Supplies:

Grungy Paintbrush

DecoArt - Metallic Lustre - Lavish Green, Fab Fuchsia; Black & White Acrylic Paint
Golden - Micaceous Iron Oxide Fluid Acrylic

Imagine - Memento Dual Tip Markers; All Purpose Ink

Misc. "Stuff" from my stash - skeleton, birdcage charm, labels, book pages, vial, spider web die-cut; etc.

Countdown to Halloween!

I'm starting my countdown to Halloween with these fun cards...

I love the colors for this card - made using Chameleon Markers.

Spooky house on the hill...

Love this sentiment...it's true some days too!

Of course a witches work is never done!

And if you have a bit of time and make a Halloween card be sure to enter it into the JFF Card Challenge - this month's theme is Halloween! Anything goes just as long as there is a bit of stamping somewhere on the card.

JFF Halloween Card Challenge