New Challenge Blog

psssst....I have a secret.  

There's a new blog starting called The Flower Challenge and I'm exited to be a part of it all.

It will be all about Flowers, easy right? 

  I know so many of us have quite an array of flower stamps, stencils and die-cuts in out collections.  It's going to be great fun.

This is just a little 'sneak peek' of the card I will be posting.

So, come join us on October 4tth for the big launch.

You can find more details here:

The Flower Challenge

Holiday Wishes

Phew...feel like Christmas is creeping up on us so quickly.  

I am so inspired by the beautiful new image from Penny Black and wanted to play with it today.

I began by placing the Berry Kissed stamp into my MISTI, painted it wish diluted Brushos, sprayed with a bit of water and stamped.  I repeated that process until I was happy with the way the image looked.  

When it was dry, I added some details with a watercolor pencil on the leaves and then added highlights with white acrylic paint to the berries and splattered some on the background too.

I did some watercoloring around the image using Peacock Feathers Distress ink and then stamped the sentiment from the Festive Cheer set using black Memento ink.

Adding my card to these challenges:

Love to Create:  ANYTHING CREATIVE/ MIXED MEDIA

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas:  ANYTHING GOES

HLS September CAS- WATERCOLOR SPRITZ

Paper Creator's Crafts- CHRISTMAS

Penny Black Saturday Challenge- NATURE

Thanks so very much for coming by and taking a look

Supplies:  stamps- PB/ Brushos/ MISTI/ watercolour pencil/ paint brush/ Mini mister/ wh acrylic paint/ Distress and Memento ink

Falling Leaves

Fall is in the air.

Meet today's card I made to welcome Fall.  I also need to get a few cards made for Thanksgiving as we will be celebrating here in Canada in just a few weeks.

I have had some Distress stains in my stash for awhile and wanted to use them and see what kind of results I would have.  This card turned out to be simple but a lot of fun.

I began by masking my white card front with Painter's Tape so I would have a nice clean white border.  I placed my leaf stamp from the Penny Black set called Lush and Lavish into my MISTI, inked it up with Antique Linen Distress stain, sprayed with water and stamped.  Then I moved the stamp over slightly, inked it up with Peeled Paint Distress stain and stamped over the first stamping.  By offsetting the image a bit, I was able to add the green and give more of an impression of a wet leaf.

Using the wet stain, I pulled some of the color into the background with a wet paintbrush.  I sponged the edges with some Distress ink then removed the tape and stamped the sentiment with black Memento ink from the Penny Black set called Foliage Fancy.

Adding my card to these challenges:

Simon Says- CLEAN AND SIMPLE

City Crafter- TURNING A NEW LEAF

Time Out- PHOTO INSPIRATION

Cards in Envy- GOODBYE SUMMER, HELLO FALL

Craft Your Passion- ANYTHING GOES


Thanks so much for coming by and taking a look.

Supplies:  stamps- PB/ Distress ink and stains/ Memento ink/ Painter's tape/ paint brush/ MISTI

Inked Feathers

 Hi there.....I'm back.

Life has just gotten in the way of me stamping and I was really missing it, so today I was determined to make a card and this is what I came up with.

I was inspired by the challenge at Splitcoast today and a hat with a peacock feather on the side.  Love the vibrant, beautiful colors of those feathers.

I began by placing the stamp into my MISTI, then coloured the image using Zig pigment markers.  I wanted to try and see what the image would look like if I stamped it onto YUPO paper so I sprayed it with water to blend the colours and pressed it onto my paper.  I was very pleased with how the colours held true and the inks spread on their own giving it the look of being watercoloured.  

For those of you that are not familiar with YUPO paper, it is a synthetic, plastic-like paper that has a a mind of it's own and the inks flow wherever they want to go.  Sure made for a quick and easy card.
NOTE:  I did spray it with Krylon Fixative when dry to seal in the colours.

I die cut a circle using a die from Spellbinders and stamped the sentiment from Impression Obsession onto it then pop dotted it onto my card front.

I am adding my card to these challenges:

Simon Says- CLEAN and SIMPLE

Addicted to Stamps and More- ANYTHING GOES

Craft Stamper Magazine- TAKE A STAMP, ANYTHING GOES

Craft Rocket- MOSTLY BLUE

Thanks so much for coming by for a visit and have a great weekend.

Supplies:  stamps- Impression Obsession, Technique Junkies/ Zig pigment markers/ mini mister/ MISTI/ Yupo paper/ Memento bl ink/ Spellbinder circle die/ pop dots

Masked Stenciling

 Morning. 

I am enjoying another sunny day of a long weekend.  

Meet today's card. 

I have long loved stenciling.  It makes for such an interesting backdrop for stamping, adding interest and depth of color.  I thought today I would try doing some masked stenciling.

I began by cutting a circle mask using a Spellbinders circle die.  I laid the negative over my heavy weight cardstock, then took my stencil from Gourmet and placed it over the mask.  I used some Rusty Hinge Distress ink and rubbed it over the stencil.  I removed the stencil and added more detail by stamping a script from Penny Black over the masked area.  I also splattered some ink and some water to add even more interest over the masked area.

After that was dry, I placed my piece in my MISTI then I stamped the flowers from Rubbernecker by coloring them with Memento markers, sprayed with water and stamped.

The sentiment from Impression Obsession was stamped using Memento black ink in the corner.  

To complete the look, I sponged more Distress ink around the edges then pop dot mounted the piece over a kraft colored background paper.

 Adding my card to these challenges:

Simon Says:  ANYTHING GOES

Little Red Wagon- LET'S GET INKY

Shopping Our Stash- TRY SOMETHING NEW

Addicted to Stamps and More- CAS

Come and Get It- FLOWERS

Thanks so much for coming by and taking a look.

Supplies:  stamps- Impression Obsession, Rubbernecker, PB/ stencil-Gourmet/ ink- Memento, Distress/ Memento markers/ Spellbinder die/ sponge applicator/ MISTI/ mini mister

In the Garden

 Happy Saturday!

As we watch the summer fade away, I wanted to have some fun playing with my Tim Holtz wildflower stamps today and this is what I came up with.

 I began with a piece of heavy weight cardstock and masked the edges using painter's tape.  I inked up my acrylic block with Shabby Shutters Distress ink, sprayed with water and pressed it onto my paper.  That gave my my framework to stamp into.

Next, using my MISTI, I coloured the stamps with Memento markers, sprayed with water and stamped.  I tried to give the flowers some light and dark colour values for interest and to add more depth.  I stamped the sentiment from Impression Obsession with black Memento ink and sponged the edges with more Distress ink to help define the stamped area.

I thought it needed a bit more interest, so I randomly inked up my script stamp from Penny Black with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with white powder over the flowers. 

 Adding my card to these challenges:

Little Red Wagon- LET'S GET INKY

Simon Says- ANYTHING GOES

Addicted to Stamps and More- CAS

Craft Stamper- ANYTHING GOES

A Vintage Journey- CREATE WITHIN A FRAME

 Have a great weekend and thanks so much for taking a look.

Supplies:  stamps-IO, TH, PB/ wh embossing powder/ heat tool/ ink- Distress, Memento/ Memento markers/ acrylic block/ mini mister/ painter's tape/ sponge applicator

All Natural

 Good Morning.

I have the pleasure of hosting the TLC (Technique Lovers) Challenge at Splitcoast this week.

The challenge is called 

ALL NATURAL

  My challenge is all about using 'natural' elements to create a card.

I love being out in my garden and trying to bring my love of cardmaking and gardening together is always a favourite technique I like to play around with.

For my card, I used some geraniums from my garden, placed them onto a piece of watercolor paper and ran them through my Cuttlebug.  The flowers transferred their color onto my paper and I was left with a most beautiful impression.

Keeping my card super simple, I stamped the sentiment from the Penny Black set called Treasured Sentiments with black Memento ink and mounted the piece on some pale purple cardstock.

I added some scored lines to the top and bottom to add some definition to the panel.  

I would love for you to give it a try.  You can press leaves, flowers, weeds; anything you can find outside and use it to press and transfer an impression onto your paper.

If you don't own a die-cutting machine, place a piece of paper over the natural piece and hit it with a hammer to transfer the image onto your paper.

Helpful hints:  if your impression is too wet, dry with your heat gun a bit and press again.

If your natural element won't press because it's too dry, give it a light spray of water to help transfer the color.

 Adding my card to these challenges:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge:  YOUR FAV TECHNIQUE

Brown Sugar- BLACK, WHITE and a SPLASH OF COLOR

Simply Papercrafts- ANYTHING GOES



If you get a chance to try this out, I would love to see what you create so drop me a note and a link to your card!

Thanks so much for coming by and taking a look.

Supplies:  stamps- PB/ Cuttlebug/ garden finds/ ink- Memento/ ScorPal