Wishing everyone Happy Holidays!

 

I purchased a green wreath with a red bow.  Added some holiday picks, ornaments, fancy ribbon and it's ready to hang and welcome my family and friends.

I'm getting into the holiday spirit after seeing the latest Card Fusion Challenge.  My inspiration came from the teal and neutral color combinations.
 

 

Here is my holiday teal and neutrals design.  I had a fun and fabulous time creating it.

 I used my Inkadinkado snowflake stamp with Robin's Egg ink to cover white card stock.  I mounted it on silver foil and tan card stock.  Using the same ink I stamped presents and embossed with white and then added teal glitter accents.  I used my Dylusions couture dress stamp on tan cardstock and embossed with black and added a teal bow and glitter accents.  I used my holiday Reflections stamp to add my wording and then added gems to the background.  

Here is a closer look to see the detail.

 

Nothing says fabulous like glitter!

 

Now that my daughter is back at college with clean clothes, groceries, and lots of hugs, it is time for me to get back to my blog.  I have been working on a few projects that I would like to share with you.  This is the first one.  The color combinations of pink, black and white have always caught my eye.  So I decided to use them with my Outlines cat stamp.  

     


I chose different shades of pink card stock and stamped the image a number of times on pinks, black and white.  I also used black embossing powder to really make the image pop.  Then I cut out the different sections and layered them on top of my main image.  I also created a small card to fit within the "MEOW" space and added "THANK YOU".  When I was finished with my main image, I layered this on black, white and pink card stock.  This is a "purr-fectly" cute card to give to your favorite cat lover.

Have a purr-fectly wonderful day!  
Patti

Card Challenge

          Hey! I'm Patti's daughter, Julianna, and I just got back from college a few weeks ago and since I've been home, my mom can't stop talking about The Card Concept challenges. So I thought while I'm home on break I would try my hand at card making as well. I think these challenges are a great way to get people to think outside the box and really let their inspiration juices flowing!

         For this card, I used the Shabby Chic style. I started out with a plain white card which I colored with a taupe colored pencil. From there I took a thin brown marker and added wood grain textures and drew out each wood board. On top of that I used a weathered stamp background with white ink over the top. I added white embossing powder and used a heat gun to activate the embossing powder. This next part is messy I took sandpaper along the card edges and along the individual wood boards to give it a rustic look. Next I hand drew the wooden wheel and watering can. I outlined both in a paint pen and colored each in with colored pencils. I hand wrote the "Have a wonderful birthday!" and mounted it on black and then mounted that on yellow. For the final touches I stamped yellow flowers and added them to the wording and watering can. I had so much fun making this card!
 
     Have a Wonderful Day!
          -Julianna
     

 

As soon as I saw the bright colors for this Card Concept Challenge, I knew I had to take on this challenge.  This was the perfect chance to use my vibrant ink sprays from Dylusions.  I also used some stamps from Inkadinkado's "Fancy That" collection and accented with white embossing powder.  I also had to toss in a little glitter.

Since I was playing around with my ink sprays, I also made a muted background version of the card.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I had fun creating them. 

Have you met my assistant?  This is our family cat, Maco, and he is 7 months old.  He loves to sit at my craft table while I am working.  He is especially good at scattering my markers, walking in glitter and laying down right in the middle of whatever it is I am working on.  Anyone who has a cat probably knows what this is like.  Of course I love him dearly and wanted to show him off.  

 

Maco is ready for his close-up

While shopping in our local craft store I noticed portraits of animals wearing clothing and I thought what a cute idea to show off my handsome boy.   So I stamped Dylusions couture clear stamps on The Paper Studio's (Murphy's Square) paper.  I attached a photocopy of his head and mounted him on a Dylusions spray ink background.  For interest, I stamped leaves, flowers and butterflies.  I used my Marvy markers for coloring and, of course, I had to toss in a little glitter. 

Maybe this will inspire you to create a fun portrait of your favorite family member.

I love, love, love the latest inspiration photo for The Card Concept.  It immediately caught my attention because I love polka dots, stripes and flowers especially when combined with these shades of pink, blue and green.

Of course I knew I had pink and white polka dot grosgrain ribbon and then I had to pick through my stash for just the right papers.  You know how you pick things up hoping one day you'll use them, well today's the day.  As I was searching through my drawer of do-dads I found the 3-D dragonfly and thought how nice it would look on the card.

I really enjoy the card challenges and it gives me a chance to dust off my stash of goodies.

I had so much fun with the last Fusion Card Challenge that I decided to do it again.  Below is this week's challenge FUSION: Happy Days!

Here is my take on the challenge.  I combined both the sketch and some of the colors in the photo.

As you can see, I love bright colors.  For a background I used a square of yellow canvas and textured blue card stock.   The edges of the canvas were frayed for interest.  I used my Dylusions' ink sprays and stencils to create multi-colored sheets from which I cut the rectangles and flowers.  The flowers and leaves were rubber stamped and cut out leaving a border.  I then stamped my sentiment on white card stock and framed it with black.

I was looking at my previous card and I thought what a cute idea it would be to take the dress idea and turn it into a gift tag.  I punched a hole in the top of the card and added a fancy yarn tie.

                    You can personalize the tag by stamping their initials on the front.

 
 
By leaving the top left corner open you can tuck in the colorful "fabric swatches" or attach them to a note filled with happy birthday wishes or even a gift card.  It's a fun way to dress up a plain gift bag.

Crystal glitter added to the pattern.

I am up for the card challenge...I think?  Since I am still so new to blogging, I thought I would try my hand at a card challenge and then talk about it on my blog.  Let me tell you, I am not the most computer savvy person, but if you show me how to do something I can pick it up with a little trial and error.   That being said, I made the card in much less time than it took me to figure out how to upload, download, grab, insert, crop, rotate, etc.  But it was a great learning experience.

The Fusion card challenge looked like fun and caught my eye because of the color scheme.  These are colors I love to work with.  I decided to combine the sketch and the photo to create my card.  See the image below.

 
 Here is my entry for the FUSION (Elegance) challenge.  I used one of my favorite dylusions' clear stamps from the Couture Collection.  First I stamped the dress on white card stock and then I stamped the dress on textured blue card stock.  I found a fun swirl in my alphabet stamps and added it to the top of the dress silhouette.  I cut the blue skirt out and attached it to the white card stock.  I also added a pop dot under the left side of the skirt to add interest.  I used my dylusions' ink sprays on a manilla tag to create the color of the above flowers and then stamped the blouse, cut it out and attached it to the white card stock silhouette.  From the leftover scraps, I stamped "fabric swatches, flowers and my wording.  I fussy cut the left side of the white card stock around the dress and then tucked in the "fabric swatches."  Then I layered the dress over textured gray and blue card stock.

FUSION (Elegance) Card Challenge

 Now I am ready to submit my entry and hope everything falls into the proper sections on FUSION's website.  This was a lot of fun and I look forward to more challenges.

Be sure to check out their website, they have beautiful entries and amazing artists!

Thinking of Spring!

 

Glitter Accents

Spring has arrived and I am ready for warmer days and flowers in every color of the rainbow.  But the temperatures dropped into the 30's, the weathermen mentioned the possibility of snow flurries, and all we have peeking out of the ground is a hint of crocuses and the stems of daffodils. 

Time to dig into my floral stamps and create my own flower garden.

When I think brightly colored backgrounds, I immediately turn to my dylusions' spray inks in Funky Fuchsia and London Blue.  I used a water mister and a circle stencil to create the faded circle background.  Even though I combined different types and brands of floral rubber stamps, they worked well together.  Then I grabbed my bright Marvy markers and created my flower garden using all the colors in the rainbow.  Sunshine was added with glitter, of course.

Welcome Spring!

I have a lot of fun rubber stamping with one of my favorite Julie Nutting doll stamps.  This one is called "Mindy."  I like to stamp her a couple of times on white and/or beige card stock and then use my markers to color her in with different color combinations.  As always, I "toss in a little glitter" to accent her image.  I like to use white craft glue and a very fine paint brush to add touches of glue and then sprinkle with very fine glitter.  I also like to fussy cut around the doll stamp leaving a thin border.  This makes it easy to add her to greeting cards, gift tags, collages or just about anything you can think of.

Next weekend is the annual rubber stamp expo in our area and I am super excited.  I am looking forward to seeing what is new in the world of paper crafts.  I love to watch the demonstrations, try some of the make-n-takes and learn new tips.  

This year I decided to enter the artist trading card contest to win "rubber bucks".  The theme of this year's expo is "Kings and Queens."  So my version of  Kings and Queens is none other than the King himself, Elvis and the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin.

Kings and Queens, Artist Trading Card

I cut a manilla tag to 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 and created the background with ink sprays and stencils and then used a different stencil and marker to add the dots and swirls.  I printed my images and cut them down and attached them to the card.  The crowns were rubber stamps that I stamped on separate paper, cut out and attached to the heads.  I then added the music theme stickers and finished off the card with Stickles glitter.

Wish me luck!  I'll let you know how I did and what caught my eye at the expo.

UPDATE on my artist trading card experience...Silly me.  Since this was my first experience with ATCs, I totally misunderstood the purpose at the expo.  I thought you handed in your ATC and the vendors voted on a winner.  I didn't know that you made a bunch and traded them with other artists, crafters, etc.  So, silly me, after looking at all the creative and beautifully done ATCs, I stuck my ONLY ATC in my pocket and walked into the expo to shop, shop, shop!

Hello!  I was "getting my craft on" and thought of a few tips that might help you when you are crafting.

•  It is easy to add small glitter accents by using a very fine cheap paint brush to add craft glue and then sprinkle with very fine glitter.
•  Tired of coloring rubber stamp images, you can change it up by stamping the image on several pieces of printed card stock and then cutting the individual pieces out.

I hope these tips help and if you ever have any questions about something you see on my blog, I would be happy to answer them.

I finally purchased dylusions ink sprays in Cherry Pie and Funky Fuchsia.  I couldn't wait to try them out.  Let me just say, I love, love, love the colors.  I especially love the combination when using them with London Blue.  I played around a little bit with the ink sprays and stencils, added some flower stamps and my "go-to" girl stamp, colored everything with Marvy bright markers and this is the design I came up with.

Here is a close-up so you can see how I like to fussy-cut around my designs. I can then take this design and glue it on a blank greeting card.  I would also add colored gems to the center of some flowers for a fun look, add pop dots under the girl for a 3D effect, and maybe a little more glitter!

Hope you like this fun idea!

Spring is just around the corner, but I came across some cute winter stickers in my stash that I just had to use.  I also had a blank picture frame sitting on my craft table that needed some pizzazz.  I found a sheet of scrapbook paper that would set off the stickers and then I was ready to craft.  Since the stickers were already glittered this was a quick and easy craft.

The bare wood frame was primed and left to dry.  Mod Podge was applied to the dry frame, scrapbook paper was attached and layered with more Mod Podge.  When the frame was dry, the excess paper was removed and the stickers were added.

Even though the snow on the ground is getting sparse and dirty and I know Spring is just around the corner, this is so much better to look at and it brightens my craft table!

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that

we are fabulous!

I wanted to play around with the Dylusion spray inks again because I just love them.  I had only bought two colors to try out, Fresh Lime and London Blue.  I found that the more water you spray on your paper before you add your ink the better the colors blend.  You can also spray more water over the ink if you want to adjust the blending even more.  While it dried, which doesn't take that long, I dug out some stamps and my brush markers and created this design.  I will keep it on my craft table for those times when I question my creativity to remind me that I am fabulous!  (P.S.  I think I will definitely need to purchase the pink and yellow Dylusion spray inks as well as anything else I can get my hands on!!)

Of course, I had to "toss in a little glitter" with my Stickles.

   Have a fabulous day!

I came across some beautiful and brightly colored art work recently that I just had to check out.  They were actually art journaling pages that were done by Dyan Reaveley.  I watched her videos and just had to share how much I love, love, love her attitude, sense of humor, artwork, stamps and stencils, and the vibrant color ink sprays!  Dyan's videos are great and very informative.  They immediately made me want to try my hand at journaling.  I have never attempted this craft before and I don't know why because it was fun, easy-to-do and a little messy.  My three favorite activities. 

Here is the finished page...

Close Up to Show Glitter Accents

Of course, after it was dry I had to "toss in a little glitter."  So much fun...I will definitely be doing this again!!

The Beginning of a Dream...

Hello!  I have just entered the world of blogging and am looking forward to a new and exciting adventure.  I love the challenge of being creative and sharing what I have done or tips that I have learned to make crafting easier.  So I hope that my crafts will inspire creativity in you and we can share our experiences and ours dreams together.  

My dream craft was created by gluing pretty paper on chipboard letters.  I then cut some images from the same paper and 3D'd them on each individual letter.  I finished it off by tossing in a little glitter!

Visions of Sugar Plums