Fun with Flower Cards

Hey, long time huh?  

Did ya think I feel off the face of the Earth?  

Nope, just stampin' away.  Each year about this time Just For Fun Rubber Stamps puts out a new selection of stamps and I have the honor of creating samples for them.  They put on a big stamping show in FL ~ in a couple days as a matter of fact and they like to have their display boards all spiffed up with samples using their newly minted stamps.  I have create 92 cards in 2 weeks time (with a week of vacation in between those 2 weeks).  YES, Ninty-Two!!  I'm pretty impressed with myself and can't wait to start sharing those creations with you but you'll have to wait for just a little while longer.  I can't share until after they get the stamps up on their web-site which will be a couple weeks as they have another show in Raleigh, NC next weekend. 

So in the mean time I needed a few cards to send to some friends and I decided to play with some flower stamps since so many are now blooming. 

I love this card...it's very simple for me but the flowers turned out so cool.
Can you believe the grass is actually a pineapple top!

This was a personal challenge to use orange...it's not a color I use often.

Finally a "me" card...

lots of ink, stamping and some sponging with a bit of messy thrown in - LOL!!

My fingers were very inky after I was done with this one ;)

So what have you all been up to???

Supplies:

Imagine - VersaFine Clair; Memento, Sponge Daubers, On Point Glue

Rubber Stamp Tapestry - all image stamps

Just For Fun Stamps - sentiment stamps

Cardstock
Glitter

Magical Origami

Happy Day my Ink Stained Friends!

Today I am thrilled to share a bit of origami with you all.  If you have visited before you know I like to dabble with origami from time to time and I wanted to share how perfect Rinea's foiled papers are for this fun paper art.

If you recall I mentioned a couple weeks ago that Rinea released a few new variety packs this month - Misfits, Patriotic and Magical...which is what I want to share with you today.

Aren't they adorable???  I am so excited at how they turned out.

I searched for a good pattern/video for Mickey for quite some time - 

there are lots of them out there but very few actually turn out looking like THE Mouse. 

I stumbled upon this video and gave it a try...

Origami Mickey Mouse 

I am so happy I did, he turned out so cute and it was easy to switch a few things up to turn it into Minnie.

He was made using Ebony/Glossy Gold Foiled Paper and Ruby/Ruby Starstruck Foiled Paper from the Magical Foiled Paper Variety Pack and Silver/Glossy Gold Foiled Paper. His eyes, nose, mouth and buttons were all free hand cut (which is really easy). 

Minnie was made using the same instructions from the video above but I did change the dimensions a bit when folding to give her a slightly different look.  I also cut her features a bit differently from Mickie's.

You'll also notice that I gave Minnie her iconic red bow.  This is another tricky piece of origami which believe it or not I had more trouble with than the mouse!  I finally figured it out and I'm glad I did because it's the perfect finishing touch for her don't you think?

The video for this can be found here:

Minnie's Origami Bow

Have a magical day friends!!

Supplies:

Rinea Magical Foiled Paper Variety Pack

Rinea Silver/Gold Glossy Foiled Paper

Scissors

Adhesive

Sharpie Marker

Good Bye Etsy....

Well, this final price increase does it...I won't be able to continue to sell on Etsy anymore.  I started my shop in 2009 at the urging of several friends by selling vintage ephemera, art supplies and assorted vintage goodies I've found in my travels. 

I chose to focus on vintage ephemera because I love use it in my own art and I thought it would be fun to share that love with others at a reasonable price so everyone could enjoy it.  Many of my items sell for just a couple dollars and in smaller quantities so you could pick and choose the goodies you wanted to incorporate into your own art.

Since I started selling there have been numerous increases to postage prices, changes in how fees were accessed, increases in fees, the mandate from Etsy making it a requirement to use their check-out system (and all of the fees associated with it) and finally the increase from 3.5% to 5% of your sales INCLUDING the shipping price.  That final bit about charging you for the shipping price is just asinine - with the exception of a few sellers who charge exorbitant shipping fees nobody makes any money on the shipping so why charge us for it?  It's ridiculous.

Obviously they don't care about the small shops that were their backbone for so long.  Once their stock went public it was all about the almighty dollar and lining the investors pockets.  I have read that since the price increase announcement their stock has risen substantially.  Good for them but I think that may be a short lived bump...this increase has angered many of the small sellers and even some of the larger ones. 

If you're interested in anything I have listed on my etsy shop, I will keep the shop open until mid July...after that I'm closing it.  I do however have huge amounts of vintage ephemera so if you're in need of something after that, please let me know...I'd be happy to help you out at a great price.

Circles Circles Circles!

Welcome, welcome! I am so excited to share my circle card with you today.  The newest challenge over on the Lost Coast Portal is Round and Round.  I thought this circle stamp was PERFECT for the challenge!

I was so excited because I was able to use my new to me Marabu Art Crayons to color it.  I'm sure you've heard me talk about them but I just have to say they are so much fun to play with!

Anyway, to see how easy this card was to create, hop on over the LCD blog and check it out....

Lost In Circles?

Challenge #55 - Round and Round

And be sure to join in on the fun and enter your own card into the Round and Round Challenge for your chance to win $'s to the Lost Coast Design / Carmen's Veranda Rubber Stamps! You can't win if you don't enter!

CSI Case File No. 256

Hello Friends! 

This month the Imagine Artist Team is joining up with CSI Challenge blog to share a bit of inspiration. I was assigned case file #256 to try to solve the case (shown below) and this is what I came up with...

I was so excited about this as I had the perfect stamps to go with "The Scene" and since we like to travel so I thought the inspiration was the perfect way to celebrate how we "camp" on road trips!  You see, our idea of camping is the Holiday Inn, Marriott, Hampton Inn and Suites, etc.  The photos are from a trip earlier this year when we had to stop in Harrisburg/Hershey area during a pop up snowstorm. We lucked out and got the last room available at Spring Hill Suites and it was beautiful to boot!   

My inspiration from Case File No. 256 was "The Scene", Colors, Banners and more.  

These stamps from Just For Fun Stamps went with the theme perfectly!!

And I had this Club Scrap "Road Trip" stamp that worked out so well...

I also used a map and travel sign stamps to create various background pieces as well...

Hope this inspires you to pull out your stamps, inks and photos to scrap your travels.

Supplies:
Imagine - VersaFine Clair - Nocturne, Cheerful, Tulip Red, Warm Breeze; Memento Dual Tip Markers
MFT - Banner Die
Just For Fun Rubber Stamps - Camper 1, Camper 2, Wash Tree, Campfire
Club Scrap - Vintage Travel Stamps, Washi Tape, Cardstock

Multi-Color Stamping

Stamp: Sea Turtle Seascape

Hello Friends!  It's so nice to have fun tools to help you with art and today I wanted to share how I made this card...my multi-colored sea turtle scene.

Directions: 

Trim a piece of white cardstock a bit smaller than an A2 card.  

Place the card panel into a stamp positioner (like a Misti or similar tool).  

Center the stamp on the card panel face down on the panel, close the lid of the positioner and open. Your stamp should now be affixed to the lid.

Ink the turtle portion of the image with desired color then stamp.

Now it's time to have fun. I like using my Memento Dew Drop Ink Pads for this technique as you can add ink in smaller areas than you can with larger pads.  Select desired color of ink and dab it onto portions of the image and stamp.

Repeat with one or more additional colors until the entire image has been stamped on the card.

The results will be a very colorful fun card!

Hope this has inspired you to play a little with your stamp positioner!

Left-Overs Card

Happy Monday Everyone!

I hope you had a spectacular weekend!

If you recall over the weekend I shared the Sunflower & Watermelon Welcome Summer banner with you.  Well I had a few extra pieces left over that I wanted to use up so I created a fun left-overs card!

I chose a piece of Emerald/Emerald Starstruck foiled paper for the background and then layered on all of the extra bits I had left over. I die-cut the "hello" sentiment from a scrap of Ebony/Gold Glossy foiled paper.

Now I have a shimmery, sparklie fun card to share this summer.

Who knew left-overs could be so good!

Supplies:

Rinea Misfits Variety Pack

Rinea Ebony/Gold Glossy Foiled Paper
Rinea Silver/Silver Starstruck Foiled Paper
Rinea Gold/Gold Glossy Foiled Paper
Rinea Ruby/Ruby Starstruck Foiled Paper
Rinea Fuchsia/Fuchsia Starstruck Foiled Paper
Rinea Emerald/Gold Glossy Foiled Paper
Rinea Mocha/Gold Glossy Foiled Paper
Sizzix - Watermelon & Sunflower Dies
My Favorite Things - "hello"
X-cut Banner Die

Sunflower & Watermelon...Welcome in Summer!!

I am so excited to welcome in summer with my project today but I am also excited because this is my first official post for the Rinea Design Team!  I think you're going to love this foiled paper!

And here it is....my Welcome Summer Banner!!  I die-cut both the inside and scalloped outside banner pieces then adhered them together. All of the components for the watermelons and sunflowers were then cut using sizzix dies and assembled accordingly. The letters were die cut from the Ebony/Gold Glossy Foiled Paper using an alphabet die set from My Favorite Things.  

All of the individual pieces were then glued to the individual banners and left to dry.  Once the glue had dried a hole was punched at each corner of the top of each banner and threaded onto a green/gold ribbon from May Arts.

For complete instructions please see: Welcome Summer Banner by Roni

So easy yet a stunning piece sure to draw oohs and aaahs from your guests this summer!

This month Rinea introduced the new Misfits Variety Pack...a mystery collection filled with both glossy and starstruck foiled papers in a variety of colors. A fun pack to get a taste of just how handy Rinea foiled paper is.

Another fun brand new variety pack is the Magical Foiled Paper Variety Pack! Perfect for all those Disney projects you've been putting off making!  Wait no more - these lovely foiled papers are reason enough to get them done!  I'll have a project to share with you later this month using this collection ;) 

Rinea also released the Patriotic Foiled Paper Variety Pack! A lovely collection of the ole' red, white and blue! A perfect choice to show off your patriotism on cards, in scrapbooks, home decor, mixed media and more!!  Unlike the first two new variety packs, the Patriotic Foiled Paper Variety Pack is available for a limited time only. Once it's gone it won't be available again this year!!! I so can't wait to share the project I made using this collection!!

Supplies:

Rinea Misfits Variety Pack

Rinea Ebony/Gold Glossy Foiled Paper
Rinea Silver/Silver Starstruck Foiled Paper
Rinea Gold/Gold Glossy Foiled Paper
Rinea Ruby/Ruby Starstruck Foiled Paper
Rinea Fuchsia/Fuchsia Starstruck Foiled Paper
Rinea Emerald/Gold Glossy Foiled Paper
Rinea Mocha/Gold Glossy Foiled Paper
May Arts - Ribbon
Sizzix - Watermelon & Sunflower Dies
My Favorite Things - Alpha Dies
X-cut Banner Die

Spread Your Wings...

Hello Friends!  I hope you're all having a lovely week so far.  Today I wanted to share a piece that I made just for the heck of it.  A bit of Art Therapy if you will.  It's been a stressful couple of weeks and I just wanted to stamp and ink and futz around so that's just what I did.  I had no real plan so this took a few days to come together but I am so happy with how it turned out.....

Stamps - Lost Coast Designs - Butterflies, Butterfly Lady, Circles Background
Rinea - Oma's Postcard (writing)
Viva Las Vegas - artys elements (can't find the names on their web-site...too many stamps to sort through)

So I am playing with my Marabu Art Crayons again...

they are just too much fun!

A bit of scribbling, blending

water spritz - but as you'll note in the photo below, this was covered.

And here's how it turned out.
I should note that this is a piece of foam core board.

Before I added color I used a piece of tape to tear away a couple of the top layers of paper just to give it some character.  You can sort of see it in this photo.

Used a pretty stencil from Club Scrap to pick up some of the color off of the board.

This is what it looked like...

Now, here is where I really started getting into it and forgot to take photos of the process.

I added several layers of stamping using VersaFine Clair Morning Mist, Golden Meadow, Summertime (orange) and Tulip Red.

I then spritzed the left 2/3rds with Frost Shimmer Spritz.  I adds the shimmer of glitter without having to explain why there is glitter everywhere ;)  LOL!!

Next I spread some Creative Medium through a stencil and let it partially dry. I then sprinkled on metal leafing flakes and used a paint brush to gently brush away the excess.  

I then applied VersaMark ink around the edges and embossed using Seth Apter's Rocky Road Baked Texture EP.  LOVE this stuff!

I stamped the butterfly fairy, water colored her plus a few extra tiny butterflies.
She and the sentiment were the affixed to the panel.

A few more looks

You can see the Shimmer Spritz near the tiny butterfly and "wings" area.

Amazing texture from the Rocky Road huh?

Hope you enjoyed the journey...

Supplies:

Imagine - Shimmer Spritz; VersaMark; VersaFine Clair - Nocturne, Morning Mist, Summertime, Tulip Red, Golden Meadow, Creative Medium
Lost Coast Designs - Butterflies, Butterfly Lady, Circles Background
Rinea - Oma's Postcard Stamp
VivaLasVegasStamps - Art circle, Dots, BubbleWrap
Marabu - Art Crayons
Seth Apter - Rocky Road Embossing Powder
Club Scrap - Flower Stencil
Kuretake Watercolors
Prima Watercolor Confections
Stencil
Double Stick Tape