Jump on World Card Making Day...

Did you know that World Card Making Day is set for October 7th this year?  Well it is and that time is quickly approaching.  I decided that I want to make lots and lots of cards so I'm starting early - today I have a few to share today that I made using Orchard collection from Club Scrap.  

My first set of cards are gate folds - where it opens in the center.  

I love the card above because of the pop-bottle cap embellishment and the tiny cloths pin. 

I was going for clean and simple on this one...just some border strips and the image.

A grungy brown/orange card that really screams fall.

The splatter stamp was one of my favorites in this kit.

Pear card using my favorite Memento Ink color - Pear Tart!

And finally...this is another one I love because of the two tiny pumpkins.  

The sign is real wood! It's got a tiny chalkboard that I wrote the sentiment on.

I want to challenge you all to make at least one card between now and October 7th...

and send it to someone you love! It might be the ray of sunshine they were needing!

Supplies:

ClubScrap.com - Cardstock, Pattern Paper, Cut-Aparts, Embellishments, Ribbon, Wood Sign, Bottle Caps

Imagine - Memento Ink, Tear It Tape, On Point Glue

Silk Flowers, Washi Tape, Chocolate Pearls

Rose Gold...Thanks!

Imgaine's color of the month for September has been Rose Gold in honor of the new Delicata ink colors. To help celebrate I made this card...

It's made by using a few different techniques. The background stripes were made by taping off a piece of cardstock with washi tape then sponging the inks between; the scroll panel is a stencil and "Thanks" is a stamp.  This ink is so creamy and shimmery IRL - I wish you could see just how rich this card is in person.

Club Scrap Orchard Blog Hop

Welcome friends to the 

Orchard Club Scrap Blog Hop!

Oh my, this month's Club Scrap kit - Orchard is amazing. It features artwork from one of my favorite watercolor artists - Swarup Murthy. It echos all that is wonderful about fall. I debated on 2-3 different ideas on what I wanted to make for the hop just because I was so inspired but I finally decided upon a paper bag album.

And here it is!! 

I absolutely love this piece of pattern paper from the collection...

and the cut-apart says it all.  

HELLO AUTUMN!!!

Of course I had to put my own twist on it and stitched each bags to the cover rather than the usual binding for a paper bag album.  Pretty adventurous for me since i'm not very good at that stitching bit yet.  I knew I wanted to use each half of the bag to tuck a pull out piece into so I wanted the extra space this binding afforded me.  As you can see the stitching isn't perfect but it's better than my first attempt that won't see the light of day ;)  LOL!!

As you might see from some of the photos my actual covers were made separately from the part that the book pages were stitched to.  That was me hedging my bets. I know from past experience that my stitching skills are lacking so I did this instead...I cut the "inside" of the pages as one continuous piece of red cardstock.  I fortified the center where the pages would be stitched to with a piece of chipboard which was then covered with more red cardstock.  You won't see this patch because it will be covered by the covers.  

I then measured, poked holes and sewed in each individual paper bag.  That way if I screwed it up too bad, just pitch it and start over...and my book covers will be safe and sound.  But as luck would have it I was able to get the pages all stitched in without incident.  Well, it's not perfect but pretty darn good for me ;)

And here's a look from above...

I did a bit of stenciling on the inside cover.  The stencil actually says Today's Special but I took the liberty of rearranging it a bit to fit my wants.

A little kraft colored envie from a previous kit - works nicely for a little note to the recipient don't you think?

The book open with pull-outs in both sides.

And a view of all the tabbed pull-outs. 

I must say I'm very happy with this album.

There is LOADS of space for all sorts of photos and memorabilia.

Hope you've enjoyed this look at my stitched paper bag album!

Have a great day friends...

The next stop on the hop is ~

Tricia

and if you get lost along the way

Club Scrap Orchard Blog Hop

Supplies:

ClubScrap.com -

Club Scrap Orchard Kit

Book Binding Glue

Tapestry Needle

Waxed Linen Thread

Other:

Paper Bags

Chipboard

Christmas Tags

I wanted to share an idea with you that I had recently. Our family has expanded greatly over the past year and I needed to come up with a new way to identify gifts for everyone. In the past I just bought a roll of wrapping paper for each person - Everyone had their own unique pattern.  Well, that's not gonna work now so I decided to go with butcher paper as my wrap and use these pretty tags as the pop of color...

Delicata has a whole new range of shimmery colors that are perfect for my idea...

Ink up the tag in a gradient pattern...

And stamp some gold sheet music

a bit of holly

And their name!

I'm hoping that this makes holiday preparations a bit less stressful and oh so pretty!

Supplies:

Imagine - Delicata Inks

Just For Fun Rubber Stamps (sheet music & Holly)

CTMH - Alpha Stamps

Tags

Yeah for Apples!

YEAH!!!  My apple card was chosen as one of the Top 3!!

So very happy...

I've been practicing my CAS and it paid off.

Thanks to Addicted to CAS!

Watercolor Me Fun!

Hello Friends! I hope you're having a wonderful week so far. Thank you for joining me for the Club Scrap Artist Team Challenge! If you're following along the hop you should have arrived here from Pam's spectacular blog...if you missed out you can head that way or go to the Artist Team Challenge post on the Club Scrap Blog for a complete list of participants.

This month's Artist Challenge is Watercolor ~ use any medium to create a watercolor effect.  Well of course you all know how much I love to play with watercolors so I jumped in and made several different projects with a variety of mediums.

All images - Orchard Kit 09/17

The first project I made was this bookmarker. I had a strip of leftover watercolor paper from a previous project and as it turns out it was the perfect size for this!  Initially I stamped the background with a text stamp from the Orchard kit in a brown ink. I then stamped the basket directly on the book marker, I stamped the fruit on another scrap of watercolor paper.  All of the elements were then watercolored using Prima Confections watercolor paints and a brush.  

A close up look at the basket of fruit.

My next card was made using a mask and Gelatos....

I colored the gelatos directly onto the mask, 

misted it with water and pressed onto the watercolor paper.

It was then removed and I let it dry naturally.  I added a bit of penwork and Bronze irRESISTible Pico Embellisher at the center of the sunflower.

All Stamps from the Lagoon Kit 08/17

My final watercolor technique is so much fun...Color Burst + Stencils.  I used the mermaid scale stencil from the Lagoon kit - placed it over a piece of watercolor paper then sprinkled on 3 different colors of Color Burst powder, leaving the stencil in place and I misted it with water.  

The first card was the piece of watercolor paper that I actually sprinkled the Color Burst and misted with the water.  Generation #1.  I LOVE how intense the colors are and how they pooled around the stencil. You can't see it in this photo but there is glitter on some of the scales.

This card was made with a piece of regular cardstock that I had pressed over the paper/stencil above after it had been misted.  Generation #2.

This final card is a piece of regular white cardstock that I pressed the still wet stencil onto. Generation #3.  I also added a mermaid charm I made a while back just for the heck of it.  It matched the sentiment perfectly don't you think?

Thanks again for joining me...hope you're inspired to pull out your supplies and play in the watercolor!

The next stop on the hop is...

Tina

Have a great day friends!!

Lost My Marbles

Some days I really do feel like I lost my marbles but recently I found them...rolling around in shimmery ink - LOL!!

Today I am sharing how to make marble Delicata paper over on the Imagine blog!  This technique is so fun and oh so easy, you'll have a ball...or a marble - LOL!!  I ended up spending a whole afternoon trying out different color combinations, experimenting with different sizes of marbles, different ways to roll the marbles to get a variety of effect, etc.  Before I knew it I had a whole pile of goodness ready to be turned into something wonderful.  I decided that I'm going to use it to create my Christmas cards this year.

I Pick You!

I don't know about it where you live but fall is definitely in the air here in Indiana.  The daytime temps have been in the upper 60's to low 70's and it's falling down into the 40's at night! I love love love this time of the year.  If I could I would choose this weather all year long.  As it happens the newest Club Scrap kit - Orchard is a perfect match for our weather here.

I was looking around various challenges and low and behold I was able to create a card for 2 challenges all in one!  That normally never happens for me because I'm not a good "combiner" when it comes to challenges...I get a challenge in mind and go with it then totally forget about the rest. Anyway, here's the card I made today...

So I stamped the image onto white cardstock using Onyx Black VersaFine Ink then colored it in using a variety of Prismacolor Colored Pencils.  I used the blender pencil to really combine the reds, yellows and greens and I added a bit of white on top for a little shine. As you can tell I wasn't aiming for the usual Red Delicious apple, I was going for a Jonagold apple - they are my favorite this time of the year...sweet with a little tartness.  The best in my book! Actually it reminds me I need to hit up a local orchard and pick up some. 

So, as it happens Addicted to CAS's challenge #119 is Apples! and CAS on Friday Challenge #116 is Color Me Pretty using Colored Pencils or Markers.

CAS On Friday Challenge #116

Color Me Pretty using Colored Pencils or Markers

Hello Again...

Been awhile huh?  Let me tell you it's been wild around here. I hope you are all safe and sound...  As many of you know we own our own business IRL - dh repairs industrial sewing machines and we also custom sew/screen print components for various companies.  Well, we went on vacation the 23-27th of August thinking we were setting pretty well.  We got everything done we needed to and stuff set up, ready to go when we returned.  

Silly us....during the time we were gone one of the companies we work for decided to change how they do things which put us like 2-3 weeks behind - EEK!! So we have been working every single day since we returned...including Labor Day.  How ironic is that?  Anyway, we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  Hopefully I'll be able to get back to a more regular posting schedule again soon.  I have to say though that this long without art/crafting is not a good thing - LOL!!  Driving me batty not being able to relax and enjoy the process of it all.

I did want to share a card I made for the new sketch challenge at JFF Stamps...using some of their brand new just released stamps!

I love the new mason jar stamps...I can think of so many fun ideas on how to use them.  I love stamping them on vellum.

JFF September Sketch Challenge

Here is the sketch in case you'd like to give it a try. The challenge is open all month long and a winner will be selected at random the 1st of next month.  The only stipulation is there has to be stamping somewhere on your card.  I hope you give it a try!!

I would also like to enter it into Just Add Ink's challenge - Just Add "D" - in my case Daisies!  Not too often I combine challenges but this time it worked out perfectly!

Have a great day...

to everyone in the path of the hurricane and forest fires...

please stay safe and take care!