Vintage Postcard Sunday - St Pats & Flowers

Sounds like an odd combination I know but a few people mentioned that they'd like to see more holiday postcards while others have stated they like the regular postcards better. SOOO I decided that when it's near a holiday I'll post a few of those and a few regulars at the same time to make everyone happy ... well, at least try to keep everyone happy. That way if you celebrate ~ super and if not you'll still have some fun postcards to use too!

Here goes...

Flowery Postcards

...for all of us who are tired of winter and ready for something other than snow covering the ground!

All the back says is..."Along the Florida Coast"

Purple Dawn - Cammellia Japonica
(no idea what this flower is but it's beautiful!)

Bluebonnets in Bloom

Texas State Flower

This place looks soooooo warm!!!!

This is a Russian postcard so I don't know what it says but they are so very pretty!

Birthday Poppies

And now for those of you who are into St. Patty's Day....

A few Irish Postcards!

An Irish Homestead

Blarney Castle

Erin Go Bragh

Eagel's Nest, Killarney

McSwine's Castle

Rathmullen Co, Donegal

Remember tomorrow I'll be sharing the products used in the newest Mystery Technique. If you haven't posted your guess be sure and do so to be entered to win :)

Later this week I'll be sharing a bit more on GlueFoil. Seems there are lots of people out there who haven't heard of it yet so I'll answer a few questions and maybe even share a video if I can get it made/edited in time.

Have a wonderful remainder to your weekend everyone!!

Ink Stained Card Sketch 2-26-10

Hi Guys!

I had a great time last night at the chat! It was loads of fun and really put my speed typing to a test - LOL!

Here is this weeks Ink Stained Card Sketch....

And here is my card...

"Just between you and me."

These stamps are all from Cat's Life Press. Archival, Distress & Smooch Inks were used for the stamping/coloring as well as faux gemstones & Stickles Glitter Glue. Fiskars Deco Scissors and the Ink Blending Tool were also used.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend

and

hope all you folks out east are safe, sound and warm!

Take care friends!!

Fisk*A*Teers Collage Give-A-Way!!

YES!

We're at the room right now!!

I just want to thank Rebecca and all of the Fiskateers who were at the chat tonite...it was SOOOOOOO much fun!!!! I had a great time :)

I am going to be giving away these collage projects tonite...

hope to see you there!!

WINNER - Maxine 2981

Winner - Tami 804!!!

Winner - Stampprincess!!!!

Good luck everyone!!!

Fisk*A*Teers Chat TONITE!!!

To all you Fisk*A*Teers out there...

Tonite's the Night!!!

I'm going to join Fiskateer Rebecca in the chat room to talk about my book! She'll be giving away a few goodies ~ a few copies of my book as well as some of my FAVORITE Fiskars Toys Oh...I mean TOOLS - so I know you'll all want to be there ;)

Be sure to stop by the Fiskars chat room tonite at 9:00pm EST and join in on the fun!

Hope to see you all there!!!

New GlueFoil Colors & Cards

Did you hear Streuter Technologies unveiled several new colors of GlueFoil at CHA?

Well they did and I've got a couple cards to share with you today that I made for their booth which incorporates some of their new colors!!

The line of colors now includes the original colors of Aluminum, Copper, and Stainless Steel along with the new colors of Blue (my fav!!!), Red, Green, Pink, Gold and Black!

On to the cards.....

We Moved....

Each of the little houses is a Maya Road chipboard house which was covered with the GlueFoil. I thought they looked a bit too prissy so I scratched them up a bit with sandpaper. I used a paper punch to cut out the heart shape and the black and pink strips are GlueFoil as well.

Thank You

This card was FUN to make. The grass was cut using a grass design deco scissors by Fiskars (this metal cuts very easily with deco scissors and most paper punches!!). I then added scratches on the back to imitate individual blades of grass. The flower is made from Copper, Pink and Gold GlueFoil that I had cut in random free-form flower shapes, stem & leaves. To add definition I again embossed the back of the GlueFoil using a plastic stylus. It was all attached to the card in layers using my handy dandy little travel iron! The background is white cardstock inked with Broken China Distress Ink & the Ink Blending Tool.

In the coming weeks I'll be sharing more creations I made using the original and new colors of GlueFoil!

Mystery Technique - 2-24-10

YES!

So many of you have told me how much you enjoy trying to guess what the Mystery Technique involves and have asked for MORE!

Soooo

Here you go...

This is the next mystery technique project ~

actually there are two photos to make it a bit easier.

You have to guess at least 3 products used to create this project (a couple of them are REAL easy!).

Monday (3-1-10) I will reveal the project

and

choose a winner who will receive some of the products used to create this project!!

Good Luck

and be sure to post your guesses here!

Remember ~ you can't win if you don't post!!!

Olympic Inspired Cards!

I'm so glad you like the technique!

It was so much fun to create all those fun waves!

BTW, I'm not sure what happened to yesterday's post with all those spaces?!?!? It does that sometimes and I have no clue how, why or what I did to mess it up!

Also, Kristy and Angie asked about the photos not loading if I had another way to check it out. I *think* you can go to my flickr account and check out the photos. Everything I post here is hosted there. I hope that helps...otherwise I'm not sure. Sorry!

Below are 7 cards I created using the various pieces...I could have kept going because I had lots of waves left to play with....

As you can see I could have made another 3-4 cards...possibly more! So while this is a bit of a time consuming technique it is well worth it in the end because you really can make soooo many cool & versatile cards in one sitting.

Just a note before I share them...I left card sentiments off the cards...I was going to add them but then thought these would make great cards for virtually any occasions I wasn't going to pin them down to one event/holiday just yet. That way I can use them for whatever I need ;)

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Inspired Cards

I am going to add a ribbon on the left side of this card...that's why there is extra space.

So there you go...

ya just never know where inspiration might strike!

Have a great day!!

Olympic Inspiration!

As promised today I wanted to share a fun idea that I got from watching the Winter Olympics recently.




I had so much fun reading the comments...love the mica for snow idea ~ will give that more consideration...I'm thinkin' that's a great idea!



I HAD to go check out the Norwegian curling team's outfits after Trine's comment...




Trine from Norway said...
YOu must been inspired of the Norwegian curling team..... (LOL)Do you see their dress....it's so funny, they look like clowns.
February 22, 2010 2:00 AM




I hate to agree but they do....

Sorry, neither of those guesses were correct. Not sure if you've had a chance to catch much of the Olympic action or not but the graphic designs from this years Olympics are wicked awesome!


I'm talking about the blue & green waves that are on the participants numbered jerseys, on the sidelines and other places.


Here is a cool video put out by the Vancouver Olympic Organizers about how they came up with their Transmoflection designs. Below are just a few examples of how their designs are being used...

Beautiful aren't they?

I think this design is one of my favorites of all the Olympics I can remember.

So, it got me thinking ~ I can do something similar with stamps, ink, embossing powders and paint!!



Now, this does take a bit of time but I think the final results are well worth it. Let's get going....for this particular example I'm going to be sticking with the blue/green color theme but you could work this in any color combo that tickles your fancy. Pink & browns, purple & red, orange & yellow...it doesn't matter ~ the sky's the limit!

Supplies:



Cardstock

Inks

Paint

Clear Embossing Powder

Embossing Ink

Ink Blending Tool & Foams

Heat Tool

Stamps, lots and lots of stamps!



Instructions:



1. Apply desired color of ink to a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of cardstock. I made two of each color.

2. Stamp multiple designs* on each piece of inked cardstock using embossing ink. Sprinkle with clear embossing powder and heat to melt.

*Note ~ I used each stamp only once...this way I have the max. number of designs/textures and no two pieces will be the same. You don't have to stamp to this extreme but it was fun to pull out all the different stamps.



3. Continue until each color has been stamped & embossed...

4. Add a layer of color over each piece of embossed cardstock! I did so using two different techniques ~



The first was to use Adirondack Acrylic Dabbers ~ simply swipe the ink over the entire piece of cardstock then wipe away the ink off of the embossed areas.

The second is by adding a darker shade of ink using the Ink Blending Tool & Foam.

Now you'll have a set of solid color cardstock pieces (both inked & stamped)....

And a set of embossed & inked (or painted) cardstock pieces....

Time for the fun... Cut each piece of paper up into a wave...any size or shape desired.

Now, you're ready to go...piece together the waves in whatever design you desire. This would be great for cards, scrapbook pages, ATC's, collage projects, etc. The possibilities are endless!



Here is a preliminary example I came up with pretty quick.

Tomorrow I'll have several finished examples to share with you!

So, what do you think?

Pretty cool huh ~ just think of the possibilities!

Vintage Postcard Sunday - Snowy Scenes!

In honor of the Winter Olympics now going on I thought it would be cool to share some snowy scenes today.

Winter in the Mountains of the Southwest

From right here in Indiana...

Turkey Run State Park

Trail Scene

(Turkey Run State Park)

Not sure where this is at....

Schlosshotel Bludenz

Another I'm not sure about....

Neuschwanstein mit Allgauer und Tiroler Alpen

Not sure how much of the Olympics you've all been watching but we've tried to catch as much as possible. You already know I love snowboarding but I also love the skiing & speed skating as well. Curling is pretty cool too but I have no idea what is going on ;)

As I sat there and watched I was truly inspired so I thought that I'd start the week off by sharing a fun technique inspired by the Olympics...

Anyone wanna take a guess at what specifically inspired me?!?!?!

You'll find out tomorrow if you were correct!!

See you then!