Grungy Thanks

Happy Monday!  Never been happier for a Monday for it means our house is full of family and the holidays are upon us!  So very thankful that my son and his fiance had a safe flight here yesterday.  Now I can relax a bit more and enjoy.

I have been needing to make some thank you cards and this one is for SOS (Shop Our Stash) and Repeat Impressions Designer Choice Challenge. I chose a pastel type color pallete to go along with the teal color that PKD Foundation has adopted.   I love making my own backgrounds with spray inks and paint and so I did some more on water color paper.  I was going for a grungy feel this time.  After all the painting, I distressed the edges.  I stamped the sentiment  in Teal Zeal.  I used a Spellbinders die border on the one edge and added ribbons and buttons in various teals and pale yellows.  The flowers are Prima flowers with a felt white flower and pale yellow button.

SPIES:
Stamps:  Thanks.
Paper:  Watercolor paper and white cardstock.
Ink:  Teal Zeal (Memento); Scotch Blue, Robins Egg, Blue Skies, Sea Glass Glimmer Mist (homemade and Tattered Angels.
Extras:  Ribbon, button, flowers, Spellbinders die cut, rope.

50 Shades of Santa

My first time playing with the Drunken Stampers!  Funny, seems like I should have opened a bottle of wine when I started.  But, then again, who knows what the card would have looked like at the end!  hahahaha  That really didn't put me in a good light, yet I do enjoy a good Merlot!  Who knows, maybe it would actually help me get more organized so I'm not always posting at the last minute for a challenge.  <sigh> 

Too many challenges, too little time!  Today the Hubs and I went grocery shopping for the Thanksgiving week, leaving the store with two carts of food.  Two hungry college boys coming home to be fed!  We rushed home just in time for me to drive to Chapel Hill to take Ben to dinner and then attend Round 2 of the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament.  UNC women trampled (sometimes literally) the women from Illinois 9-2.  In all fairness, one of those 9 goals was actually made for us by one of the Illinois players!  It happens.  Course it was freezing out and of course, Ben wore NO jacket, NO gloves, and NO hat!  What's a mother to do?  Warned him about getting sick next week on his break and then made him promise to take a hot shower when he was back at the dorm. 

So back to the card ---

I really like it now that it is done.  It's a shame I didn't have time to do more to post for the challenge, but I'm thinking I will still make some more like this. 

SPIES:
Stamp:  Santa (Stampers Anonymous).
Paper: White and black cardstock.  DP-Me&My Big Ideas Black and White Flock.
Ink:  Versamark and black emboss powder.
Extras:  Black ribbon, snowflake, silver cap button.

Thankful Napkin Holder

One week til Thanksgiving in the U.S.  Two, Three and Four days from now we will have different members of our family coming to North Carolina to celebrate with us!  One in particular, our oldest, Patrick, who hasn't been home in over 2 years and we are so excited to have him AND his fiance, Helen, fly in to spend the entire week with us!  YEA!  No, I'm not excited at all!  :) Along with them, my youngest brother will be arriving from Myrtle Beach on Saturday with his two dogs in tow, and then Monday night after a nice celebratory dinner at Top of the Hill in Chapel Hill, our youngest son, Ben, will come home with us.  So by Monday night our house will be bustling and busting with people and dogs --- four dogs to be exact!

So, the Hubs and I have been very busy for the past couple weeks trying to get the house in order, menus and grocery supplies bought and of course, I've had to do my crafting.   I'm finally getting ever so much closer to finally stocking my Etsy shop.  It's only been five months, one of those out of town and then two of those recovering from surgery.
Yet, I digress from the task at hand --- my first ever napkin holder tag.  I've made one, have five more to go. 

Just Us Girls had this cute ribbon wreath tutorial with their technique challenge this week and I fell in love with it!  So, all the tags will have these ribbon wreaths.

And, as I was putting it all together, I realized one of the Moxie Fab challenges includes burlap.  Double challenge!

Moxie Fab Challenge - Canvas, Cork and Burlap

SPIES:
Stamps:  Sentiment (Inkadinkadoo).
Paper:  Tag.
Ink:  Versamark and maroon emboss powder; Alcohol ink (Adirondack): Butterscotch, Lettuce, Ginger, Latte, Currant.  Glimmer Mist:  Pearl, bronze.  Distress Ink:  Mustard Seed, Barndoor Red, Tea Dye.
Extras:   Burlap, orange ribbon; leaves (Prima); wheat stalk; berries, button, rope, black elastic band (attached to back of tag to slip napkin through).

I'm so thankful!

Baby Rockstar

A baby card tonight, one of my first ones.  Recently purchased the onesie die cut from My Favorite Things and wanted to try it out.  Soooo love it!  And, I must apologize for a not so good photo.  I took it with my Iphone and got a slight glare.

 This photo was a little better. 

SPIES:
Stamps:  Drums, Rockstar sentiment, music note (Inkadinkadoo, I think); record and Baby sentiment (My Favorite Things).
Paper:  white, navy and lime green cardstock; black houndstooth DP.
Ink:  Jet Black and Midnight Blue (Staz On).
Exras: Onesie die cute (My Favorite Things); regal border (Taylored Expressions); black gem dots.

Tuesday Morning Sketches #171

'Teal' Thanks!

Good evening all!  I'm behind on some thank you cards for many different things.  One is being to thank all my family and friends for donating money to the PKD (Polycystic Kidney Foundation) Walk my husband and I walked in back in October.  A great cause and one near and dear to me.  You can read why here .

The challenge this week at Case Study inspired some creativity and got me moving to get some of these done.  This card I made very simple.  I had the teal embossed cardstock laying around from another project and since teal is the color for PKD it seemed perfect.  I cut a label die out of the middle of the embossed teal for a negative label as opposed to the positive labels I cut out of varying shades of teal with the same die, stamping the last and lightest one with the sentiment.  The ribbon finishes it off.

Case Study Challenge #115

SPIES: 
Stamps:  Sentiment (Hampton Art).
Paper:  Various shades of teal cardstock.  White cardstock for card base.
Ink:  Teal Zeal (Memento).
Extras:  White pearl gems; striped ribbon; heart brad; Framabilities Label die (Sizzix); Imperial emboss folder (Spellbinders M-Bossabilities).

Cat On The Bag!

Another post today --- two mini gift bags.  First, a cat bag done with paper piecing.  This was inspired by an old school Halloween craft one of my boys made in elementary school 12-15 years ago.  I found it in keepsake papers and thought it would be cute to make one for a Halloween card or craft.  As you can see from the above right photo, the original made by my son has seen better days and is actually missing a couple parts.

This is one of the crafts I had taken to my parent's to finish and once I got there I realized I did not pack any black ribbon or yarn for the cat's tail.  So, my mom to the rescue!  I took a black ribbon of of one of her gift bags in her stash.  Don't all women keep and recycle gift bags?  LOL!

Mine is made out of black cardstock.  I used a scallop oval Spellbinders to make his legs and the scallop circle to make his body and head.  I cut to small triangles for his ears and colored them with a white paint marker.  I drew his mouth with the marker also.  I used googly eyes (again) and some funky orange transparent sticky dots for his paws.  I left off the tie on mine also but added a sentiment to his tummy.   I think it made for a cute bag, which was filled with treats and given to a friend's granddaughter for Halloween.

The here on the left  I just pieced together a flower similar to the one made on another gift bag project and wrapped a ribbon around underneath the flower for a simple but elegant decoration.  I gave this bag to my friend with the granddaughter with a treat inside for her!

Soul Stampin' Designer Paper

More homemade designer paper.  Above, I used the Dylusions Ink Sprays again and same technique on watercolor paper, as in previous post about homemade paper.  This time however, I also stamped on top of the ink sprays to create a pattern using two leaf stamps and a damask stamp with teal, pink and tea dye stamp inks.  I also made a tag to match the paper and used it on a gift bag for my best friend's birthday (which she and I just happen to have the same birthday)!  Below, I just used a cream cardstock for my base and then using the same stamps and stamp inks and left out the spray inks.  My inspiration for the paper below was the ribbon seen in the far right of the photo.  I was originally going to use the paper on a gift bag project, but the decided to use something else.   So I have it for a future project.

Below is a photo of all the supplies I used in making these papers:
 

I only used four of my Dylusions ink spray on the first paper shown in this post.  At right, is a close up of the one leaf stamp I used from the set of fall clear stamps by The Paper Company.

The other supplies were Angel Pink and Teal Zeal inks by Memento; Tea Dye Distress Ink by Ranger Ink; a leaf branch stamp by Taylored Expressions; and a damask stamp by Savvystamps.com.  I also used Scattered Straw Distress Ink to color in the small brown leaves on the 2nd paper.  I forgot to add it in the photo of supplies.

I guess you can see that I love making my own paper designs and backgrounds!

Bird On A Hoop

Well, after two weeks of really good sleep, I'm back to not sleeping!  So, what better thing to do when one can't sleep --- craft and blog!  LOL!  While on my trip, I spent some time cleaning up my computer files and photo files.  In doing so, I came across some photos of a craft I never posted!  What, you say?  How can that be?  Well....long story short, this craft I made for my husband's stepmom last year for her birthday.  I did manage to send it off to her, just didn't post it!  It was also around the time I had medical issues and was preparing for a trip to my parents' to help my mom after her surgery.  So, needless to say, it was forgotten.  I had seen some crafts on Pinterest that involved embroidery hoops and so I think I decided to create my own.  I was and still am very happy with how it turned out. 

As you see, I used a burlap type fabric for the background and continued it with the bird, which I used the bird die cut from Tim Holtz.  I cut his wing from the same fabric as the birdhouse.

The birdhouse is a Sizzix die cut and I cut it out of a maroon fabric that I had purchased from a vendor at the local weekend flea market in Raleigh, NC.  At the time of making this, I had just purchased my first bottle of liquid pearls so I had to try it by outlining the birdhouse with it.  I also cut branches from a die cut from Taylored Expressions in green and brown papers and spritzed with some glimmer mist.  Finishing touches were adding the "Family" metal embellishment, fall beads, green bow and yellow button.

Tags N' Paper

When I visited my parents in WV two weeks ago, I had taken some stamp supplies with me to hopefully get a head start on some things for Christmas.  I painted 20 tags and made two sheets of background paper with my Dylusions paints and water.  I only have about six bottles of Dylusions colors and I used about three colors per tag.   I love the way they came out.  The Instagram photo above is a little brighter than they really are.

I followed the technique used by Ranger's Dyan Reaveley in this tutorial video.  I did the same for the background paper, which was done using watercolor paper and lots of water!  I can't wait to use all of these in upcoming projects for Christmas!

I leave you with a quote from Andy Warhol, whose work I had the opportunity to see  in person at the Museum of Metropolitan Art while in New York two weeks ago.  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to photograph his exhibit or I'd share some of those also.
 
"An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them." ~Andy Warhol

A Cat's Life

It's Monday and boy, I would sure love to have a cat's life right now, wouldn't you?  Nothing but playing, eating, frolicking,  napping, playing some more.  Of course I can't complain because in between holding down the fort at home, I do get to craft and pursue my artsy cravings!

Now that I'm back from my NYC and WV trip, I'm busy trying to get caught up on household projects and FINALLY maybe get my online craft shop up and running before all the Christmas rush!  It's been one roller coaster year, physically and mentally, and I'm hoping I can now make up for lost time.

And along with that, I have been trying to expand my comfort zone and try different crafting techniques and use different elements more often.  So, here I've experimented with some acrylic paint splattering for homemade DP paper.  I used Folk Art and delta acrylic paints and some Adriondack paint dabber, took a small artist paint brush, loaded it up with paint and some water and just flicked and splattered.  Then, I took my trusted heat gun and blasted it for quicker drying.  I cut the corners with a ticket corner punch.

I then used those adorable little cat stamps from Stampendous and stamped with Versamark and then embossing powder so they would stand out against the paint.  I tried a different method with the sentiment by just stamping it with archival black ink, coloring "life" in with a Copic marker and then went over the entire sentiment with Glossy Accents.  I like how the glossy accents gave it a more 2D effect.

Finally, I poked holes on either side of the sentiment to run the ribbon through, added the black gem dots along the ribbon and smaller ones along the bottom of the card then adhered it to the black card.  In keeping with the "three" approach, I added orange gem dots to each corner of the black card.

I originally had planned to post this card for last week's Retrosketch challenge, but just didn't happen.  However, I'm in time for the ColourQ challenge!

SPIES:
Stamps:  Cats (Stampendous); Sentiment (Autumn Leaves Stampology).
Paper:  White and black cardstock.
Ink:  Jet Black (Staz On); Black emboss powder; Pale Yellow, Lemon Custard, Sunset Orange acrylic paints.
Extras: Ticket punch; orange ribbon; black and orange gem dots.

Shabby Tradition

A Thanksgiving card for the following challenges:

The Pink Elephant Challenge - #172 Shabby Chic or Vintage

The Shabby Tea Room- 

Challenge #138 Hey Pumpkin

I had this tag lying around for about a week trying to figure out what to do with it.  VOILA!  Here it is!  I painted it with Dylusions paint, stamped the image in Vintage Sepia and inked the edges in the same.  The flower I had put together for another project but didn't like it with it so I had it sitting there staring at me too!  I liked the sketch at Sketchbook Saturday challenge os in keeping with it, I fixed the tag to another tag.   I added the green tulle for more shabby chicness and painted the doily in the same Dylusions colors and glimmer mist and affixed behind the tag.

The background paper is a green/brown DP I have had forever and can't even remember who it is by (forgot to check before I cut it up).  I dry embossed it with a leaf emboss folder to give some more depth to the card.

I went back and forth with two different sentiment stickers.  The other one said "memories" and was a more white background with brown letters and a green border.  It was a little more vintage, but I just liked the balance of the green on here.

SPIES:
Stamps:  Pumpkin and corn (TPC Studio).
Paper:  Brown and white cardstock.  DP from stash.  Manila Tag.
Ink:  Vintage Sepia (Versafine); Vintage Photo Distress Ink (Ranger); Lemon  zest, Postbox Red Dylusions (Ranger); Pearl Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels).
Extras:  Doily, paper distresser; flowers; leaves; green tulle; emboss folder (Cuttlebug); sentiment sticker; orange button; black gem.