Sunday, November 11, 2012

A couple more Christmas cards

Well I have close to 30 cards done, mostly no duplicates. So I think that's enough! I have to finish the insides though, and add a little something to the envelopes before they can go out. Also on a couple of them I messed up the back with ink smears (doncha hate that?) so that'll have to be fixed as well.

 This one uses another gorgeous silhouette stamp from Sweet N Sassy Stamps. I used glossy card stock so adding color is super easy.


And this one was inspired by a YouTube video by Countrybutterflygirl, here. She made some gift bags and used flower soft on the trio of trees. I really like that look so I decided to try it. I added liquid pearls in pearl, green and red, along with some gold stickles.

I was tickled that this card made the SCS CAS faves this week!

TFL, hope your Christmas project list is coming right along!

Mary

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Serendipity Stamps

I'm really drawn to scenery stamps. I pulled out one from Serendipity Stamps and made a couple more Christmas cards :D


I used glossy cardstock for these, and Versafine black ink on this one. I used distress inks to color it in lightly. I pulled out some SU old olive cs and their embossing folder. The sentiment is from Sweet N Sassy Stamps.


On this one I was going for a CAS look. The ink I used is SU Not Quite Navy, on glossy cs. I have some DCWV silver paper so I matted it and popped it up on Neenah Solar White cs. I struggle with CAS but I'm trying to leave it alone LOL. I may add some glitter here and there.  TFL

Have a wonderful week!

Friday, October 26, 2012

I have 2 more Christmas cards today...really I have enough done and need to move on LOL


I found this stamp by Hampton Arts, a negative image. I stamped it in Baja Breeze onto Neenah cs. I added a little brown chalk to the trees and colored the birds with red colored pencil.

I matted it onto A Muse red cs and wrapped it in red twine. The sentiment is from Technique Tuesday. I inked it up with versamark then Baja Breeze and clear embossed it.

The snowflake paper is from MME, Winter Wonderland. I sponged some Baja Breeze on the edges.



I love how this next one turned out. I used this adorable Memory Box stamp. After stamping it in Memento black, I masked off the hills and sponged Stormy Sky and then Dusty Concord. Then I made little shadows from the tree with a C1 copic marker.

Framelits from SU were used to cut it out. The mat for the main image is paper from DCWV Winter Magic that my daughter gave me for Christmas last year (thanks Krissy!) It's silvery and shiny, love it.

The background snowflakes are from a Sweet N Sassy stamp (stamped in story sky) and the silver embossed ornaments are from Penny Black. I stamped them in versamark onto some other DCWV blue paper. Twine was used to "hang" the ornaments and the sentiment is from Sweet N Sassy too.

Thanks for looking, hope your week went well, TGIF and blessings.

Mary

Saturday, October 20, 2012


 Fall is definitely in the air!! So that means I'm working on Christmas cards. I have about 20 done. Some are shameless cases of inspiration I've seen out on SCS or Flickr or blogland but I'll post my "originals"!

This first one is inspired by Beth a.k.a. Scrapbook4ever on SCS. She made a beautiful birthday card with a technique called Broken Borders. Well I favorited it with the thought I'd like to make a Christmas card with the technique.  Here's Beth's card.

I did not use punches but instead some holiday dsp. The greeting is from Stampendous and the poinsettia was cut with my Silhouette. I colored it in with copics and added gold stickles to the center.

I matted the panel on some green cs and popped it up. Beth will have to let me know if I did it right! I'd like to do another, using a blue color palette and snowflakes.



Next I took an unknown Silent Night background stamp and stamped it in Memento rich cocoa onto Neenah Solar White cs. I distressed it with Antique Linen and mounted it on some red cs.  I cut out three bells using my Silhouette (love that thing), and used copics to color them in. I embossed them with clear ep, and added red stickles to the bows. The little bird (dove?) is from Hero Arts (with glossy accents) and the sentiment is from a Fiskars set.
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  This little polar bear is actually part of a Penny Black stamp including Mimi. I'll probably do another card or tag with the both of them but for this I just wanted the little bear.

Impression Obsession has this neat background stamp with gradient dots. So I stamped it on white cs and white heat embossed it. I then sponged broken china onto it.

I added white snowy "ground". In hindsight I don't like the flakes, they're too pink. Oh well :)

The little bird is from a cut file for the Silhouette. I just made a ton of them in different sizes to have on hand.

I used an alphabet stamp from Lawn Fawn to spell out joy and put some twine in the bird's mouth.

A small amount of coloring and shading was done on the bear with copics. Then he's cut out and layered onto the card. The first level of ground has antique linen sponged - dunno why but I wanted to set it off a bit.




The background on these cute snowmen is bluer irl, I know I have camera issues. Lots of paper piercing with bg Nordic Holiday, it was fun! The snowmen and sentiment are from Lawn Fawn. I also used a snowflake die from A Muse Studio and some Hero Arts snowflake stamps.

Here's a CAS card, with a simple sponged oval in Scattered Straw. The tree is from A Muse Studio and it was stamped in some Hero Arts mid-tone green (I forget the actual color name). I put some diamond stickles in some parts of the tree, put a little ribbon at the top and stamped a PTI sentiment at the bottom.



Lastly, for now, I made a mostly white Christmas card. This embossing folder was sitting all neglected and forlorn. I embossed it with my vagabond (love it) and then using my versamarker, I tried to carefully go over the raised image at the center.

It was a pain but irl the finished product is cool.  I used some two-toned embossing powder from Lindy's that had green and gold in it.

Then I stamped a Hero Arts sentiment in the center in green. The poinsettia was cut with my Silhouette and I just sponged a little green on the petals before nesting them together. I added an orangish rhinestone to the center. Simple!

I'm so pleased that I'm getting a lot of use out of my Silhouette this year. It really does a good job. And I still have the old machine! Not even the SD, LOL. I think about getting the Cameo but can't justify it right now.

Thank you for visiting! Have fun with your holiday cards! 

Mary


Sunday, September 30, 2012

2 Cards with Distress Smashing



 Love this tree die from Impression Obsession! I cut it out in white and colored it in with copics. First I took a qtip and saturated the tree with colorless blender so the brown copic markers would blend easily. I rolled mini glue dots to attach the tree.

The blue panel is watercolor paper, with distress inks smashed into it and then I spritzed with some shimmer water. The edges have some vintage photo.

I mounted it on very vanilla cs, and used HA envelope background in antique linen. Faux stitches were used and the sentiment is from Amuse Studio. TFL!

I was thrilled that this card made into the Favorites at SCS for the week of Sept 16th.




Some textured white cardstock really started looking like canvas when I smashed distress inks into it. Love it!

I layered some memory box flowers on the top and used it for a sympathy card. This card also made it into the Favorties at SCS, boy that made my day!


Saturday, May 5, 2012

Brother birthday

My brother restored a VW or two, so I thought this stamp might be appreciated for his birthday.


I decided to try the crisscross card and used a tutorial from Splitcoaststampers. I used Tim Holtz papers, nesties, SU's tab punch and copic coloring. The card base and mat are SU's soft suede. The thin brown satin ribbon is from my stash. The sentiment is from Flourishes.

I got an email that he liked it, yea!


I used glitter pens on the metal parts of the car. The car stamp is from Stamper's Best. Thanks for looking!

I'm working on Mother's Day cards now and will post as soon as they're given away.

Blessings, Mary

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Easter is coming

I have a couple of Easter cards to make but I don't have any Christian Easter stamps. I feel strongly about keeping Christ in these wonderful holidays. But I did have this Stampendous stamp so I put this together and added a Scripture verse to the inside: "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." 1 John 2:17


The die cut layering technique was taken from a Jill Foster video - I like how it turned out. Copic coloring was used for the flowers and I distressed the edges with Antique Linen distress ink.

The pink paper is from Basic Grey Porcelain and the green dsp is MME Miss Caroline. The sentiment is from Stampin Up! All Year Cheer. Nestabilities Label 4 was used 4 times!  And the lattice work is from a Martha Stewart punch. The ribbon is also SU.  I rounded the corners too.  Thanks for looking!

Happy Easter everyone!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Stampin Up Fresh Vintage

I finally was able to play with SU's Fresh Vintage stamps and their Everyday Enchantment dsp. I have seen a lot of wonderful projects. But in an effort to be creative, I pulled out the paper and put together a card without casing someone else. Here's how it came out:


Grandbaby No. 3!





What a cutie huh? So far she's got a very nice mellow temperament and big sister is very loving to her. So many blessings...

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

You're the Best

For those of you who may not know, I run an adult foster care home. For the last 2 years I've housed three people with others part time. So after Christmas I had a dry spell of NO residents. It was worrisome but God is faithful! Yesterday my first new resident moved in, a miracle for sure. So we are unpacking and getting acquainted. Welcome Bobbi!

In project news:
My friend had a birthday, so I made a card for him with a '57 chevy!


Class Act makes this great (large) stamp. So I made the card A6 size so it wouldn't be too crowded. 'Cuz I have to add embellishments, you know!

I colored in the car with copic markers (on vanilla cs) and added glossy accents to the windows and headlights. I used the coluzzle to cut out an oval around the car, stamped the sentiment and distressed the edges with brushed corduroy.

The layer behind the car is actually Sticky Back Canvas, from Claudine Hellmuth. I heat embossed the diamond background with white powder and then went over it with Broken China distress stain. It was a little too bright so I applied a little brushed corduroy over it.

I sewed the canvas to the brown cs and popped the car up on dimensionals. Then I added three buttons and twine to finish it off.


Here you can maybe see the windows. The diamond background stamp and the sentiment are from A Muse.

Thanks for checking me out - have a great day!

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Birthday Cards

Hello...there are a lot of spring birthdays for the people in my life. So I've been busy creating!


First up is a tall card that fits nicely into a no. 10 sized envelope. I used a Hero Arts stamp and stamped it twice with versamark, then heat embossed on white paper with clear embossing powder.

Then I used distress stains in fired brick, peeled paint and wild honey to add color. Before cutting it down, I spritzed a home made shimmer over it.

The card base is kraft. I stamped a script background over the top of it in brushed corduroy ink. I held a small piece of black cs behind the top of the white cs and ripped them together. Then I offset them a bit. The butterfly is a dimensional sticker from my stash.  The sentiment is from Stampin Up! I added a little green stitched grosgrain ribbon from A Muse Studio.


The next one is mostly Stampin Up! I took 2 of the new framelits and embossed my white cs instead of cutting it. Cool!  Then I stamped the image (Stampin Up! Apothecary Art) in the middle and colored it in. The ribbon is crushed silk from A Muse Studio. I like the simplicity of it. A few jewels adorn the top left and I rounded the corners.


I just love patterned paper don't you? So here I have a white base and a layer stamped repeatedly with an Inkadinkadoo floral stamp. I used bermuda pigment ink from a | s.  Then I took 3 sheets from a crate paper pack (portrait collection). I layered two of them and used the light one as a banner. It's got a small calendar print, might be hard to see. The congratulations is from Stampin Up! and the inside turns it into a birthday sentiment. I put some flowers from my stash as an accent.

Thanks for looking! Have a blessed day.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

We have a 2 yr old!

My darling grandson turned 2 this week - what a joy he is! We love you Jake! Here's a picture of me with him. Isn't his little fedora adorable? 

For the occasion, I made a card for him, cased from Niki Estes, here. I loved the layout and the colors so much.


The paper is from Jillibean Soup - Blossom Soup and the cute stamps are from Stamping Bella, called Bye Bye Boy. The mat paper is Soft Suede from Stampin Up! and the buttons were just from my stash, along with the linen thread. Antique Linen distress ink was used to sponge all the edges and the image was colored in with colored pencils and gamsol. I sewed a zig zag stitch vertically between the panels and a straight stitch around the panels. Oh and the large scallop border is an A Muse Studio die.  The sentiment was stamped with Soft Suede. Thanks for looking!

In a couple of weeks, my third grandchild will be born - a little girl named Sierra Marie - can't wait!!

Blessings, Mary

Monday, February 13, 2012

Card Set

I made 4 cards using new A Muse products. They turned out so well! I made the envelopes to match too.

I am listing them on Listia. If you're not familiar with that site, it's like ebay but everything's free. Listia.com You use credits instead of money, altho sometimes you pay shipping, it's fun!





Hope they "sell"!




Saturday, February 11, 2012

New stamps from A Muse!

I had fun with my new rubbah - the set is called Charming Gardeners. First I white embossed the flowers on watercolor paper and painted with liquid pearls, water and distress inks. The second one is colored with copic markers.


After the white embossing I didn't like the look so I went over the flower outline with copic markers. The background was water colored too, with the liquid pearls. There's a nice shimmer. I made a frame with nesties and popped it up on a|s blue polka dot paper. The quote from the set is one of my faves. I'm so thankful for the people in my life who support me.


This Get Well card is on a|s lichen cs. After stamping the flowers twice with memento ink (I used masking), I colored them in with 3 copic markers. The one on the right was stamped and colored separately, and covered with glossy accents. You can't really see it here, but it gives a little dimension.

I sponged lichen ink around the perimeter, added pearls and the satin watermelon ribbon worked perfectly with the copic colors I used. The panel is adhered with dimensional adhesive. The panel is sponged with french roast along the edge too.

Have a lovely weekend, Mary


Saturday, February 4, 2012

New A Muse Stamps!

I got my goodies the other day in the mail so I came up with a couple of cards to hopefully showcase them. I'm excited about the new images from the new catalog!


This lovely silhouette stamp is called Sunny Side of Life. It's big enough to stamp the whole width of an A2 card!

I stamped it in black memento ink and clear embossed the image. Then I masked off a sun and sponged distress inks to make a sunset.

The paper is sugar and it takes the sponged ink well. Then I just added a banner sentiment from Essential Sentiments.



This big stamp is my fave right now - Touch of Nature. The detail is amazing. I stamped it rich cocoa memento ink and then using cut n dry nibs, I added some color with distress inks.  I cut it out with labels 8 and did that hand-cut mat around it with sugar cs. The french roast dotted paper is the card base. It's hard to see but I put some Kaiser craft lace behind the image and some flowers from Recollections. There are some pearls beneath the sentiment (also hard to see) from my stash.

The sentiment is also from my go-to greeting set, Essential Sentiments.

Have a great day, thanks for stopping by! Mary



Friday, February 3, 2012

A Muse and Penny Black!

I made a couple of cards with Penny Black stamps and A Muse papers, to mix it up a little.


Penny Black clear stamp set Flower Gallery and a background stamp are used here. I used copics to color in the iris flowers and the mat image is A Muse eucalyptus. I added glossy accents to the flowers.





This one uses the same clear stamp set. I stamped the daisy image very lightly with antique linen distress ink. Then I used colored pencils to color it in. At the end I added white gel pen to highlight parts of the flowers. I saw this technique in several videos on YouTube. 

I matted that image after sponging the edges (it was cut with a nestie) with kraft and then espresso from SU. The leaves are A Muse, from the set Wild Rose. The sentiment is from Hero Arts and the ribbon and button were just in my stash. Oh the base paper is A Muse buttercup.
Thanks for looking! Have a great weekend~  Mary




Thursday, February 2, 2012

A Muse - We're coming up with favorite color combinations

In the Lounge consultants are starting to come up with their favorite color combinations so I put them into a document. Below is a snapshot of page one. My plan is to update it periodically when more ideas appear. Thanks for looking!


If you're a consultant, follow this link to get the download. Otherwise shoot me a message with your email and I'll send it on. It's a PDF.

Have a great, creative day!
Mary

Sunday, January 29, 2012

More with Wild Rose

With this card I'm trying for the look of a trellis. I'm using vanilla cs and the inks used were french roast, cranberry (so sad to see it go), and fern.

I stamped the border from Wild Rose along each side, masking the back of the card. The hardest part was getting a good impression. Then I just stamped the roses in cranberry and the leaves in fern.

I sponged sky at the top and fern at the bottom and then used one of the labels dies. After die cutting out of vanilla cs, I stamped the corresponding outline stamp from the Vintage Labels set. I wanted to add a "ghosted" rose on that label so I stamped the label stamp again on some lightweight vellum and cut around the little dotted line for a mask. 

Using the outside of the vellum, I positioned it so I could stamp the rose in the upper corner. I stamped off the cranberry twice. Then I sponged some more blue and green on the label, and finally used the sentiment from Wild Rose and clear embossed that, also in french roast.

I popped up the label with foam adhesive with some red doodlebug twine underneath. Let me say that I use the stamp-a-ma-jig positioner and temporary adhesive whenever possible. Also my old mouse pad under the cs helps to get a good impression with stamps. Finally, I rounded the corners to soften the look.

I just love this set but since my catalog arrived of NEW A Muse products, I'm putting together my wish list of new products to try out!

 Okay, here's a happy card that is a bit wonky but I still like how it turned out. I love A Muse gingham paper and this pretty blue called out to me.

 I like window cards a lot but they're a challenge for me. I used 1 3/8 inch and 1 1/4 inch square punches to achieve this look. It's crooked, don't look too closely!



I stamped the little vase from the set Smile Inside. I had fun trying to position it three ways. I used a flat rubber stamp to do a mirror image on the right. Then in the middle I inked up the flower only with onyx ink and using the stamp-a-ma-jig, I stamped it down, making the flower straight. Then I inked up the vase, and stamped it. Cool! Fun techniques, mirror stamping and partial inking.

I lightly colored in the flowers with copics, a little blue in the vases and some gray for grounding. See it's crooked here too but I like it. I may go back and fill in the vases with glossy accents.

Then I just used a nestie banner die, sponged it a little with broken china distress ink and stamped the sentiment from Essential Sentiments. Then I added some black doodlebug twine.

Thanks for looking, have a lovely Sunday, Mary

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Different Ways to Use a Stamp

I tried to extend the use of some of my A Muse stamps and here are the results, fun!

















Here I stamped the leaves repeatedly from the set Just Because on lichen cardstock. I love the a|s cardstock because the inside is white. You can see that below, the scallop edge (made with their die) makes a nice edge. The ink I used here is the new Rialto from the Venetian palette, love it!


After heat embossing it in clear, I stamped little flowers (from Clever Girls) on separate sugar cs, and cut them out. I used orange, rialto and cranberry inks. I stamped the oval from Victorian Charm in onyx and masked it off. Then I stamped the leaves to peek out on the top and bottom.

It seemed like it needed brightening up, so I stamped the sentiment (from Essential Sentiments) on sugar cardstock, die cut it and sponged papaya ink on the edges. Rialto ink was used, and clear embossing.

Lastly I put a little glitter in the flower centers.


On this card I repeatedly stamped flowers on sugar cs. The big flower is from Graphic Sunflower. It's hard to see, but I stamped in sky the little flower used in the card above, from Clever Girls. I used nugget ink, sky and orange on different flowers. The small flowera were from my stash.

So I was kinda going for a tan and blue color combo. The ribbon was from Joann's and the buttons, linen thread were from my stash as well. The sentiment is from Essential Sentiments. I just made a faux banner with sugar cs.

I rounded the corners on this one with my Corner Chomper and called it done.

Thanks for checking this out - have a lovely day!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

A couple of cards using A Muse Friend to Friend

I made 2 cards, one with warm colors and one with cool colors but using the same image. I used the Friend to Friend stamp set for the flowers. After curving one of the stems and masking I stamped it again and heat embossed them. Diamond stickles cover the stems. The sentiments come from Essential Sentiments. Thanks for stopping by!


A little more detail on each:


This get well soon card uses the french roast polka dotted paper, love it! I sponged papaya around the lacey circle nestie. The flowers and sentiment were stamped in french roast too and heat embossed. The ribbon is papaya, stitched grosgrain.

I used red and green copic markers (a couple of shades each) on the blooms and little leaves. I popped the main image and the sentiment up and rounded the corners with my handy dandy corner chomper. Oh and diamond stickles were put on the stems with a toothpick.


So on this sympathy card, I used slate paper and ink. The vintage onyx paper is on top. Love that! The main image was sponged with antique linen and dusty concord distress inks, I was trying to keep the color palette cool. The ribbon is slate stitched grosgrain. Oh, and I used the large scallop border die.

The sentiment is white embossed and the corners were rounded again,. See you soon! Mary

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Hangin Out

I've been hearing some wonderful things about the new catty - can't wait to have it in my hot little hands! Thanks Lori

I made a quick card for a friend, just to say hello.


So I started out with winter sky, green checkered and sugar cs. I cut a wavy edge to the green and punched the sugar with a MS punch. Can you see where I messed up the fence? Oh well, show me a perfect fence, right?

I used Avian Notes and the clouds are from Make A Scene. I stamped the flowers (hoping they double as trees here) with French Roast. Stormy sky distress ink was used for the clouds and birds.

I cut out 2 of the clouds and 3 birds to pop up. The label is stamped in rose romance (SU) and HA black ink was used for the sentiment. I tried to give the flying birds a little wing action with a blue colored pencil but that's hard to see. The label and birds are popped up on some twine. I used the corner chomper (love it!) too.

Just hangin' out ya know? That's how I'm feeling these days! Watching the world go by... (I'm in between employment assignments)