Dreams Plaque

Hello Everybody!

I am so excited about this project.  It's started out as a wooden plaque-you know the ones that the big box craft store sells for a couple of dollars.  And they are filled with potential-and yet I am always afraid to commit to an idea.

Well I'm sure you have seen the beautiful canvases and projects done by Finnabair.  (If you haven't google it-they are beautiful!)  So I thought what if I could do those type of projects with stuff I already have.  So I started-but I couldn't paint everything in gesso.  And I think I'm some sort of weird purist-like I bought something in red so it's meant to be red not some other color.  I know--it's weird.

So here is my Finnabair inspired-but completely different plaque:

I couldn't paint those red flowers or bingo chips.  And once this lady (from Tim Holtz) was sort of placed on this plaque-I knew this is where she belonged.  

First I'm going to take care of some business-then I will show you the steps on how this wall hanging came together.

I would like to submit this plaque into the following challenges;

A Vintage Journey: It's their birthday -So all aboard!

Creative Carte Blanche: Numbers (bingo pieces)

Inspiration Destination #124: Anything Goes

For the plaque I started with the wooden surface.  Then I picked out the stencil I wanted to use which is Tim Holtz's.  I used light modeling paste.

It came out really nice!

I added more paste to the sides to make it blend in better.

I painted it with spun sugar.  But it started to look way too pink.  

So I added walnut stain and scattered straw to tone down the pink.

Once it was colored enough to go with the picture, I picked out things to glue onto the plaque.  Most of this fun things are Tim Holtz's.  The little wooden frame is not.  I painted it with the walnut brown paint.  The clock is from Michaels.  The flowers are some I had in my stash along with the pearls.  I was happy to use some of the bingo chips-I have lots of those. :)

My husband bought me these cool metal gears for Christmas, and I'm excited to use them on this project.  

Here's the plaque again,  Thank you for stopping by!

Until next time my friends...stay creative! :)

Farm Card

Hello Everybody!

A friend of mine needed a card for her children's 4-H club.  And House of Cards has this great inspiration photo-so I created this card:

This card is a bit unusual in that it is 12X12.  My friend needed a big card so that there was plenty of room for everybody to sign it.  I scored the first paper about an inch in and glued the short part to the back 12X12 cardstock paper.  

I used my silhouette machined to cut all of the die cuts.  

The barn doors open to say thank you.  I also cut out the H's in the clovers for 4-H.

Here is the inspiration picture for House of Cards:

I am also entering this card into Challenge 124 at Inspiration Destination-anything goes!

The colors are beautiful on this inspiration picture also--I might need to revisit this! :)

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time my friends...have a beautiful spring day!

Happy Birthday Set

Hello Everybody!

I'm so excited to share these 3 cards.  I help make cards for my son's school.  The PTO gives home made cards to the teachers for their Birthdays and for Thank Yous.  How cool is that!  So I contribute cards when I can.

You may be familiar with this technique.  It's a lot of fun.  But I stumbled upon it from this pin.  And so here is the tutorial.  And so I used 2 pieces of copy paper and went across the card panel.  I used two distress colors from ranger and then stamped with the 3 stamps.  Everything is from Tim Holtz.  The sentiments are from Crazy Talk.  I love the casualness of the font.

I am so excited to make different versions of these.  I know it's masking-but I hadn't masking that way.  There are so many possibilities!

So I would like to enter these cards into the following challenges:

Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes

The Male Room: Anything Goes

Inspiration Destination #119 Anything Goes

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time my friends...be inspired! :)

Autumn in the City

Hello Everybody!

I really like how this card turned out.  I made it with a set from Close To My Heart called Cityscape Everyday Life.  I bought the set at Scrapbook Expo a couple of years ago.  I tried to look them up on the CTMH website but they didn't have them listed anymore. :(  (Or not to where I could find them.)

I used Stampin Up inks though (lol).  I used really rust, chocolate chip, riding hood red, more mustard, blue bayou, and real red.  The sentiment is Tim Holtz and it's over 2 years old.  The photo corners are older than the stamps and inks combined--LOL :)

I wanted to submit this card to the following challenges:

Retro Rubber Challenge--50 fall colors  (leaves on trees)

Sunday Day Crafting--#20 anything goes

Inspiration Destination--109 anything goes

Thank you for stoppin by!  Until next time my friends...enjoy the colors! :)

Halloween Vignette Box

Hello Everybody!

I follow Tim Holtz on a few different social platforms.  And I have been so inspired by the Halloween projects that he has been posting from different people using his awesome products.

So today I am showing you a little Halloween Vignette Box.  All of the products are Tim's except the black paint I used to paint the Vignette Box and the cheesecloth that is spiderwebs (totally got that from one of the photo's Tim posted.  Creative genius!)  Also, the frame that the picture is in is from Making Memories.  It was nice and square and purple until I cut it down to fit into the vignette box and dabbed black distress paint on it.  I had to draw a little jack o lantern face on the TH pumpkin.  :)

Here is the breakdown of this little box.  For the pumpkin I drew the jack o' lantern face on it with a precision pen (american crafts).  The back design is the back of a found relative card (a scrap because I used the face in a different project, but kept it because I might use the back side one day.  And I did!!)  I dabbed crushed olive distress paint on the card.

The girl's picture is from the photobooth pictures.  I bent it to give it crease and used distress walnut ink to darken it.  And then i put it in the frame.  Here is where the Making Memories frame came from-but I had already painted it when I took this picture.

For the doll-I put collage medium crazing on it.  Then mushroom alcohol ink.  I was hoping to create the little cracks but not really.  It's so small that if there were cracks you can barely see them.  But the brown color makes the doll look even creepier so that's a positive.  :) 

The doll on the right is the original.  The one on the left is the one I used the crazying medium.

mushroom alcohol ink

Then I used dusty concord distress stain on the white rose ribbon.  I didn't have black and now I'm glad because it gives it some color-a slight contrast.  Then I glued everything down including the web from cheesecloth.

Here is another look inside of the box.

Lastly, I glued on the alpha tiles after I dabbed black distress ink around each one.  This was a super fun project-and since I have 3 more vignette boxes-I will be back with more.  :)

I would like to submit this vingette box into the following challenges:

The Mixed Media Montly Challenge-The pumpkins in the truck inspired the pumpkin in the vignette box.

Sunny Day Crafting-#19 Anything Goes

Inspiration Destination- Anything Goes #108

Until next time my friends...stay spooky :)

Frankenstein Card

Hello Everybody!

Tonight I'm sharing a cool Halloween card I made using my silhouette machine.  I am amazed at whoever created this file.  For the background of Frank I used twisted citron and dried marmalade.  I used a designer paper piece I had floating around for the background.  Then I added spiced marmalade distress paint around the edge to give it some depth.  I look at adding papers but that wasn't happening.

The stars are from Dazzles.  Boo is from some American Crafts letters.

I would like to submit this to the following challenges:

The Male Room: Halloween

Inspiration Destination: Anything Goes #107

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time my friends...boo!  ;)

Pumpkin Shaker Card

Hello Everybody!

I am so excited to share my pumpkin shaker card with ya'll this evening.

I used a Queen and Company circle pop up-it's the foam part that keeps all of the fun little sequins and stuff inside.  I used my silhouette to cut the pumpkin (bought from the sil store). and measured it to cover the circle foam tape.  The bottom circle was a bit too small so I cut a larger circle to make it work.

This circle was a middle circle.  And it got me thinking-there are a couple of big circles in the pack.  What are those used for?  This is a normal A2 sized card.  I guess bigger cards.  I will have to do some research-but if you have used the larger circles and it's on your blog-leave your link and I will check it out.  :)

The sentiment is washi tape that I bought at Michaels.  Also-I embossed the black panel with a bat embossing folder from Tim Holtz.  I used Black Diamond Stickles to go around the panel to add a little extra interest. :)

Here is a closer look at the stuff inside.  Mostly it's from Queen and Company and then there are some Halloween sequins that my friend Jodi gave me.  :)  

There are 2 bats and this fun jack o' lantern sequin.  So fun! :)

I am linking this card up to Use Your Stuff-orange, black and one neutral.  So I used kraft for my neutral.  

I would also like to link up to Inspiration Destination-Anything Goes 107.

Spooky Lady

Hello Everybody!

Halloween is on it's way-and I am getting started on making Halloween cards and other things.  There are lots of cute images at Silhouette-and they are full of inspiration.  Silhouette does pay me to say wonderful things about them (but I'm open for an arrangement!) ;)  One of their cool cuts is this Halloween Witch and her owl.

The cardstock and the card base is from Michael's.  The base of the background is a page from a book.  Except for the witch (which is Silhouette) the rest is Tim Holtz!  Even those cool decorative pumpkins.

I used paints for the background: crushed olive, endless preserves, and black soot.  I did use a stencil from the crafters workshop.  The spooky is from a thin Tim Holtz die cut set.  (There were other words too and a bat embossing folder.)

I would like to link this up to the following challenges:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Halloween

Sunny Day Crafting: Anything Goes  #18

Crafty Boots Challenge: Halloween

Inspiration Destination: #106 Anything Goes

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time my friends...stay spooktacular! :)

Sentiment Challenge

Hello Everybody!

October is here!  And it seriously is one of my favorite months of the year.  There's fall and pumpkins and Halloween.  The weather starts to cool off and it's so nice.

This month's challenge at Creative with Stamps is also super nice-it's about sentiments.  Make sure you show them off! :)

I used a sentiment stamp from Great Impressions, and it's one of my favorite birthday stamps.  I was playing with gelatos and wanted to see what two different colored cards would look like.

Here is the green one.

  

Here are the gelatos that I used and how I colored a border around the sentiment first.  Then I used a paint brush and water to blend the colors together.  Once it was dry I used Stickles around the edge.

Here is the purple card.  One of the gelatos was metallic so there is a little sparkle in on this card besides the glittery border.

Here are all of the supplies for the purple card except the Stickles.  I used Ranger's platinum embossing powder.

Be sure to check out the team's creative take on this month's challenge.  And we can't wait to see what you make!

Don't forget to add this to your post. :)

I would like to link this to the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday-Embossing Powder (Ranger Platinum for the sentiment)

Inspiration Destination #105 Anything Goes

Great Impressions Customer Gallery

Until next time my friends...See ya later alligator! :)  

Nothing's Better Than Being Together

When We're Singin'!

Hello Everybody!

Maybe that sounds familiar...maybe not (lol).  It from the Partridge Family opening theme song.  You can check it out here.  And this is what my card is inspired from.

I used the Tim Holtz bird mover and shaker and cut from solid cardstock.  The stamp is Stampin Up and I used a multicolor stamp pad from Color Box.  

I am submitting this to the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday: Inspired by Music

Freshly Brewed Challenge: Animals 

Inspiration Destination: 104 Anything Goes

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time my friends...Keep singin! :)

Hooray for a Hot Air Balloon

Hello Everybody!

I made a card using a stamp set from Fun Stampers Journey.  I used Tangerine Tango for the orange from Stampin Up and Brilliant Blue.  The TT paper I dry embossed with a polka dot folder. As I look through the different challenges I wonder if these count for Fall colors (Since they are the University of Florida colors and football has started.) ;)

I stamped with the Craft Ink for the hot air balloon-but then I added Firecracker Blue Embossing Powder from Sparkle N Sprinkle.

Here is a closeup of the balloon.  Oh-so pretty! :)

I would like to submit this to the following challenges (but no autumn challenges-I don't want to get into any trouble!) LOL

Sunny Day Crafting: Anything Goes #15

Inspiration Destination: Anything Goes #104

Creative Corner: No Pattern Paper Allowed

Sparkle N Sprinkle: Anything Goes with Embossing Powder (or glitter or flock)

Thank you for stopping by today!  Until next time my friends...Hooray! :)

Grateful Card

Hello Everybody!

The paper really inspired me for this card.  I was looking through paper packs and saw this one-and it was instant love.  It is from My Mind's Eye Meadow in the 6x6 paper pack.  And it's been around for a little bit-copyrighted 2012.  But that is ok!  It's finally getting used! :)

The butterfly is a sticker from Martha Stewart (which has also been floating around for awhile).  The sentiment is from Fiskars and I stamped it with chocolate chip stampin up brown ink.  Then I used a little walnut distress ink to go around the edges.  All in all not a hard card to put together-put it took me forever to find that grateful.  :)

I am linking this card up to the following challenges:

Use Your Stuff: Butterflies

Inspiration Destination:#103 Anything Goes 

Sunny Day Crafting: #15 Anything Goes

Thank you for stopping by today!  Until next time my friends...I am grateful for ya'll!  :)  Thank you for stopping by my little spot on the Internet.  :)

Chemistry Card

Hello Everybody!

I made a card for a sketch at Stick It Down.  And I love how it turned out.  This stamp set is called Positive Chemistry and it's from Close to My Heart.  And I just love it!

The inks are from Stampin Up-Green Galore and Summer Sun.  On the green galore base I used clear embossing powder so it would be easier to see those molecules.  (I guess molecules-it's been awhile since I was in a chemistry class.)

I would like to submit this card into the following challenges:

Stick It Down: Card Sketch

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Clean And Simple

Inspiration Destination:  Anything Goes #103

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time my friends...stay positive! :)

Geometric Fun!

Hello Everybody!

It's a new month at Creative with Stamps.  Last month was splatters-and it was super fun.  This month we want to see geometric shapes.

Here is what I created for this challenge:

I used different colors and different circles-all from Stampin Up- to make this card.  It was very cool to stamp using the different colors.  I am so used to stamping in brown and black and a friend of mine totally gifted me with all of these different colored stamps and ink pads.  I feel like she brought color to my sepia world. :)

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Inspiration Destination #96:  Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge:  Anything Goes

So please come join us.  Don't forget to put the graphic on your post! :)

I almost forgot to mention the prize!  Stamplorations is generously giving the prize this month.  Check out the rest of the Design Team's cards.  They are all super talented ladies.  

Until next time my friends....don't be square ;)  

a $15 Gift Certificate from STAMPLORATIONS

or 

Choice of any 2 ARTplorations Stencils

(for Challenge Winner)

Shop: http://stamplorations.auctivacommerce.com/

Blog: http://stamplorations.blogspot.com/

A Colorful Hello Card

Hello Everybody!

The challenge at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge inspired this card.  The challenge is to use stars.  (And Seth Apter is a guest there this month--sssqqqeeeaaallll!  I've seen his work in the Cloth, Scissors, Paper magazine.  It's awesome!) :)

So I started off with a gelli plate card background.  I used an almanac book page and golden paints and craft paints (dreamcoat, craftsmart, etc).  To read more about my gelli plate backgrounds go here.

Then I stamped stars around the edges.  The stamp is a Stampin Up stamp from the year 2000.  Wow!  LOL :)  Then I added Diarylide Yellow Golden fluid acrylic paint so the "hi" wouldn't get lost in the background.  The "hi" and the star are red modge melts.  I used a the modge podge mold for the star and wrote out hi with the glue gun.  I used Beacon 3 in 1 to adhere the "hi" to the card once the paint was dry.  Then I added the yellow star paper clip.  (Many moons ago Staples had a paper clip and binder bar.  You could fill up a cup with what you wanted.  That's where that star came from.) :)

Here is a closeup of the sentiment:

Here are the challenges that I would like to submit this too:

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge: Stars

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge:  Anything Goes

Great Impressions: Anything Goes

Inspiration Destination: #96 Anything Goes

Thank you for stopping by today!  Until next time my friends...keep reaching for the stars! :)