Happy New Year Everyone!!

2017 Texture Calendar!

It is time for another fun technique calendar. In the past my calendars have all had some sort of theme - everything from product specific techniques, "experimental" techniques, mixed media techniques to last years watercolor techniques.  

Well this year I wanted to switch it up a bit and make a calendar with the focus being on creating amazing background textures that can be used not only on calendars but collages, cards, art journals and more.  These textured backgrounds can be then finished off with any color play you would like.  

I am very excited about this...I've been thinking about it for quite some time now and have a list of about 24 ideas starting from something very basic to more complex.  Still not sure which 12 will be included in the finished calendar so it will be a surprise for both of us.  I may take the leftover texture ideas I have and make a book later in the year just for fun.

Not sure how quickly we will get through this as my life has changed in the past several months but I'm going to shoot for a couple techniques a week...making it a 6-7 week project. Working mostly full time has limited my art time (since I also take care of all of the office/purchasing/accounting for the business and of course taking care of household chores - yuck!  LOL!!) so it may extend a bit but hopefully not too much.

Each year I like to make the calendar a different shape.  This year I'm using this fun card die to create my calendar pages.  Unfortunately it's not available anymore as it was from Top Dog Dies which has now permanently closed.

The calendar that I will be using is from Calendar Labs.com - 2017  but of course you can use any style calendar you would like.   If you're like me you have several calendars here and there...another of my favorite calendars is the one from IMOM - Cute & Crafty 2017.  

As far as supplies go - we'll be using lots of gesso, modeling or embossing paste.  I'm also going to throw in Creative Medium (from Imagine), some acrylic paint, white glue and more.  Most supplies will be fairly common, easy to locate and probably already in your stash.

So gather up your calendar, papers/chipboard, pull out your gesso and get ready to make some texture!  I'll be starting with our first page on Monday.

Steampunk New Years

I hope you're all having a wonderful week so far...

Today I wanted to share a really fun project I made recently to help celebrate and welcome in 2017!

My Steampunk New Year card!!

I had sooooo much fun making this card.  I made the background using kraft paper and a variety of Delicata Metallic Inks. I think with the addition of the Green Encore ink it helped bring it together.  Once I achieved the rusty, crusty metal look I was going for I stamped the metal riveted plate image over top.   This is a great steampunk foundation for so many projects besides a card.  

Once the card base was done I cut lots of die-cuts...the corner pieces, gears and sentiment were all treated with a metallic product of some sort and popped onto the card. 

I love how it turned out and hope you do too!

For a complete supply list and instructions please see:

Steampunk New Year

Club Scrap Shades of Winter Blog Hop

Welcome friends...  Can you believe that it is December 28th already? Only 3 days left in 2016!!! I just don't know where the year has gone.  As you know the last Wednesday of each month is the Club Scrap Blog Hop and this month we are sharing a lovely kit - Shades of Winter with you.  It is filled with beautiful papers, stamps and goodies as always but it's even better because it's Blues which you know I LOVE!

I decided that this year I would make something different as stocking stuffers for the boys so I made them mini albums.  Yes I know it's an odd thing to make for guys but I thought if I made a winter themed album then filled them with photos of christmas/winters past it might be something they would enjoy.

I decided upon a Mini Maze Album.  This little devil is made from a single 12 x 12" sheet of cardstock that has been scored and cleverly cut so that it can be folded in such a way that allows you to create an entire album.  It was a technique challenge for June 2015 but I had so much fun making it I thought it would be a great little album for stockings.

(NOTE: These photos are from another album I made) 

To create this album simply score a piece of 12 x 12 cardstock at 3", 6" and 9" lines; turn and score along the same lines.  The 12 x 12 piece of cardstock should now be divided up into 12 - 3" x 3" squares.

Next step - cut along the score lines to make an "M" as shown.

Finally crease, flip and fold until you have a nice set of album pages!  From there it's up to you on how you want to decorate it.  I like to use my ATG adhesive to glue together the folded pages but it's not necessary.  I have seen some of these albums where people leave the pages loose so that the entire album can be opened back up again so that the 12x12 paper lays out flat to be viewed.  So how you present the album is up to you.  I'm a mini album nut so I like to keep it in a book form.

For these albums I used a piece of cardstock cut 3" x 6.25" and wrapped it around the outside of the album pages for a cover (which also covers up the ribbon closure). To add a bit of interest I decided to make the pages flip up instead of from side to side like a normal book.  Just something a bit different and fun for a change of pace.  

Your next stop on the hop is 

Julie

and if you would like you may view the complete list of participants here:

Club Scrap Shades of Winter Blog Hop

Have a wonderful day friends!

Supplies:

ClubScrap.com - Shades of Winter cardstock, rubber stamps, ribbon, stickers

Imagine - Memento Dye Ink, Delicata Silver Shimmer ink, Sponge Dauber

Winter Wonderland

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! We did...the boys and Morgan came over and we had a nice breakfast, gifts and fun.  I do have to admit I sure miss little kids on Christmas morning though.  I guess that's why God made grandchildren...I can't wait till we get a few - LOL!!

I thought I'd share a few winter related cards that I made for some friends who don't celebrate Christmas.  Winter is always a good theme and the newest Club Scrap kit - Shades of Winter is perfect for making these cards. 

For my first card I used a piece of "Frost" pattern embossed cardstock.  This stuff is wicked - I inked up the upper 2/3's using Nautical Blue Memento Ink and the bottom portion using Grey Flannel.  Added my border strip and die-cut the "Let it Snow" circles.  Stamped the sentiment and added a few metallic snowflake circles and I'm done! 

This card was soooo easy.  One of the pattern papers in the kit shows a feathery frost scene which I used as the main focal point.  Added the sentiment and a few more of those wicked snowflakes and it was done!.

This is my favorite of the cards I made that day. I colored the berry branch stamp with my Memento Markers using Rich Cocoa for the branch and Danube Blue on the berries.  Huffed a bit on the stamp to moisten the ink and stamped it onto a piece of cream cardstock.  I used the Paris Dusk marker to give the berries a bit of a shadow on the bottom and a white gel pen to add the highlight.  I then stamped the evergreen branch several times using Bamboo Stalk and Grey Flannel.  LOVE how that panel turned out.   I stamped the sentiment on a piece of white cardstock, inked the edges and matted with a bit of the blue metallic paper included in the kit, a few snowflakes and double stick foam tape and it was finished.  It took a bit longer to create but I think the results were worth it.

Tomorrow is the monthly Club Scrap Blog Hop...be sure to stop back and check out the stocking stuffers I made for the boys.  Not what you'd expect for guys but made with love.

Supplies:

Club Scrap - Shades of Winter collection

Imagine - Memento Dye Inks, Memento Dual Tip Markers, VersaFine Onyx Black, Sponge Daubers

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Wishing you all the peace and joy now and in the year to come.

Merry merry Christmas friends!

(undated)

(1912)

(1908)

(1911)

(1903)

(1911)

Snowman Hugs

Sending you a little snowman love!

I had so much fun creating this card. Yes, sometimes creating a cleaner simple card is fun but I had such fun making all of the different layers of this card - from the card base layer to the embossed die-cut to the vellum, the layers of the snowman and more. It was nice to dive into the world of ink and just play!

For complete instructions, please see 

Do You Believe?

Any snow in your area?  We are currently experiencing a warming trend...we still have a nice layer of snow though that will last through Christmas.  Afterwards I'm not so sure because it's supposed to get up into the 40's which is crazy for this time of year in Indiana.  Hope you all stay safe and warm over the holidays!

A Bit of Christmas Card Fun

Just wanted to share a few Christmas cards I've made recently...

My all blue nutcracker prince. JFF stamps and he was colored using Memento Dual Tip Markers.

A Stamptangle Star (2 sizes).

The first 2 star cards were made using Brusho Colour Crystals.

This one I colored to highlight the pretty poinsettia hidden in the center of the star.  The stars are actually embossed, colored and several layers stacked.  It's very dimensional IRL but it just didn't show up in the pics.

Supplies: 

Just For Fun Rubber Stamps

Imagine - Ink, Embossing Powders, Markers
Brusho Colour Crystals
Club Scrap - Cardstock

December CS Artist Team Challenge

Welcome to December's Club Scrap Artist Team Challenge!  This month we were invited to participate in one of the many challenges offered on the Club Scrap Forum Challenge section.   There are many challenges to choose from including a Tool and Stash Challenge, a Monthly Lay-Out Challenge, Idea Deck Challenge and even the Card Sketch Challenge which I am a co-author.

I didn't want to cheat and participate in my own card sketch so I decided to do a little challenge combo.  I chose to participate in December's Project USE IT! Challenge which is to make an old or unfinished Club Scrap project and combined it with December's Tool and Stash Challenge which was to incorporate a liquid glitter glue on your card, lay-out or project.   Here is what I came up with....

This is the Clipboard Collage Workshop from the 2016 Club Scrap Retreat.  This is such a fun project because you have a printed sheet with little stitched windows that you fill with various papers and goodies to finish off the collage.  The kit includes papers cut to size plus extra goodies for embellishing.  I choose to use the papers from December's Color of Winter kit plus a few of the items from the workshop supplies, a few die-cut snowflakes and a sled I made using Fun Foam!

I am going to hang this up by my front door for my Dec/Jan welcome sign.  This project was so much fun that I'm thinkin' of making a different collage page for each season so that I can switch 'em up every few weeks. 

The tag, tiny sparklie snowflake stickers, and metal charm snowflakes are from the Shades of Winter kit, the "Hello" die-cut is from the project kit....  I die-cut several snowflakes (MFT Dies) from the Champagne and Blue Metallic papers from the Shades of Winter kit plus a few from the Glitter Cardstock from the Celebrate kit (Jan 2016).  

Welcome letters are cut from one of the metallic papers from the Shades of winter kit as are the berries and "let it snow" piece.  The roses and "find beauty" sentiment are both from the kit contents.

And finally my sled!  I had made some of these before using popsicle sticks BUT they are hard to shape with scissors because the wood splinters so easily.  I had some brown Fun Foam laying on my desk because I had used it to emboss a die-cut (when I couldn't find my embossing pad) and I decided to give it a try.  It worked like a charm and the foam was soooooo much easier to cut and shape than the wood popsicle sticks.  

To participate in the Tool and Stash challenge I applied Stickles Glitter Glue to the centers of the Metal Snowflake Charms and to each of the berries on the center and lower left corner Berry Pieces.

Your next stop on the Challenge Hop is...

Pam Peeling

and if you get lost along the way you can find the complete list here...

Club Scrap Artist Challenge Hop

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Non-Traditional Christmas Cards

It was my turn to pick a challenge for the December Technique Challenge on the Club Scrap blog.  I decided since it was Christmas time it would be fun to create Christmas cards without using Red, Green or Gold.  As an added challenge I thought it would be fun to toss in some Glitz somewhere.

I created 4 different cards using various colors that you normally wouldn't think of as traditional greeting cards for Christmas.  While I was at it I gave myself an extra little challenge to use a color I normally don't use much to see if I could make a card using it....what color is IT?  ORANGE!!!  I normally shy away from bright colors but I did it....

What do you think?

Despite the very bright, un-Christmas like color I think it turned out pretty good.

The stamped image was inked using Electric Orange, Tangelo and Morocco inks.

Do you see all those teensy-tiny gemstones?  Were those ever a PITB to glue down....

They stuck to me more than they did the card - LOL!!
Everything (besides the ink) is from Club Scrap.

If you'd like to see the rest of the cards I made be sure to 

jump over to - December Technique Challenge.

Have you ever made a non-traditional holiday card before? 

What colors did you use?

IC 2017 Artist in Residence Announced!

And yours truly is on that team :)

Please see - 2017 Artists in Residence - for an introduction to each of the members of the team in the upcoming year.  So excited and can't wait to share more Imagine inspired projects of all kinds.

SIP Challenge #77

Now it's not a sip and paint challenge but it is a fun one...Stamp, Ink and Paper Challenge #77 is a sketch challenge (shown below).  It looked like fun so I thought I'd join in.

I created this card using December's Club Scrap Kit - Shades of Winter.  I have to tell you I LOVE this kit...of course there is blue but the prints are amazing.  The background is one of them.  It's actually an off white embossed print that you can color any ole' way you want.  

I used Silver Metallic ink paired with Paris Dusk Memento Ink.  I randomly sponged each ink on the paper and it turned out amazing.  There is also metallic blue and champaign text weight paper in the kit which I used to cut out the snowflakes (along with some Sparkle Paper).  The blue strip along the edge of the card is the metallic that I added a few faux stitches with my white gel pen.

Supplies:

ClubScrap.com - Shades of Winter - Papers, Stamp, Silver Ink, Sparkle Paper

Imagine - Memento - Paris Dusk; VersaFine - Onyx Black, Sponge Dauber

My Favorite Things - Snowflake Dies, Scallop Stitched Circle

Other - Gel Pen, Sequins, Vellum

Card Sketch Fun

Happy Day friends!  I hope you're all enjoying the season and getting into the holiday swing of things.  I'm woefully behind but hey...I'm still here so that counts for somethin'.

This month was my turn to create the sketch for the December Card Sketch Challenge on the Club Scrap Forum!

This was the sketch I created!

It's a great sketch to use up leftover cut-offs, ribbons, border strips, etc.

And here's what I created....

This card actually utilizes two different pattern papers from the Girlfriends kit.  The first is the flower/chevron paper - so easy to cut short strips from the paper.  They were mounted onto the blue background which amazingly enough already had the horizontal dot stripe!  That stripe looked to me like a piece of ribbon which worked out perfectly!  The sentiment was stamped with Delicata Dark Brown Shimmer ink (really beautiful IRL). 

My second card uses materials from the Paradise kit including a piece of flamingo ribbon, hibiscus border strips and some fun stamps.  The images were stamped using a variety of Memento Dye Inks and I finished it off with a bit of ribbon.

A bit later this month I'm going to share a couple Christmas cards I made using this sketch as well.

Also, several people have asked about the technique calendar which I usually start in January sometime.  I have already started planning and I think I'm going to start it a bit early - shortly after Christmas so if you'd like to play along be on the lookout :)

Christmas/Winter Challenge

Happy December everyone!  It's the beginning of the month and that means a new stamping card challenge at Just For Fun Rubber Stamps.  This month's challenge is your choice of Christmas and/or Winter!    If you stamp a card or any other creation with one or both of these themes be sure to enter it into our challenge for the chance to win a Gift Certificate to the JFF Rubber Stamps on-line store (GC are chosen at random by Random.org).

NOTE: you do NOT have to use JFF stamps in your creation but it would be great if you did!

and here are a few cards I made for a bit of inspiration....

Remember, you can't win if you don't enter :)

Happy Stampin' my Inky Friends!