Anything Goes for Cute Card Thursday!

Hello friends!  Hope you had an amazing Christmas and Santa brought you everything you’ve wished for!  It’s always a fun time of year to celebrate with family and friends!

Today is Thursday which means a brand new challenge over at Cute Card Thursday!  Another easy theme of “Anything Goes” for this week!  Looking forward to seeing what you’ve been crafting through the Holiday Season!

Sometimes I like to try out working with different media that I don’t normally always use on my creations, so for this one I’ve pulled out my watercolor:

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I have used one of the prints from Simon Says Stamp Suzy’s Winter Warmth Watercolor Prints.  I’ve decided to use my Kuretake Gansia Tambi Watercolor set with a #4 and #8 Silver Brushes to color the complete panel.

For a little bit of “snow splatter”, I took some white Folk Art Mixed Media acrylic paint spray around the edges of the dried watercolor piece. (Something new and fun for me to try out with this too!)

To finish up the design, I added some doodling in a couple of areas with my white gel pen and then attached the entire panel onto a white A2 sized top folding card base and rounded the corners of it with a corner chomper.

It was simple, but a fun card to make.  Because SOMETIMES, you just need to take time to chill and have fun coloring or playing around with different media, right?! 🙂

Challenges I’d like to enter:

  1.  SSS Work It Wednesday – Try Something NEW (Mixed Media acrylic spray is new!)
  2. QKR Stampede – Anything Goes #327
  3. Crafty Creations – Anything Goes
  4. The House that Stamps Built (D6218) – Anything Goes
  5. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Grateful We Are Friends

Hello friends!  Stopping in today to share my card using the Koi Pond Friends rubber stamp set.

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I started out with a piece of watercolor paper and sprinkled three different colors of Nuvo Shimmer Powders on it:  Atlantis Burst, Green Parade and Blue Blitz.  I sprinkled all the colors at once before applying any water to it.  I sprinkled VERY little and just added a bit more here and there as I spritzed it with water.  I saturated the paper and moved it around until it was covered how I wanted it to look.  I dabbed it up with a paper towel and used a heat gun to dry it up a bit.  I just love the beautiful shimmer on this background!

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Also, for the background, I took the bubbles image from the same stamp set and stamped them in VersaMark ink around the right corner and bottom over the watercolor piece.  I heat embossed the bubbles with some Frosted Juniper and Sparkle (Semi-transparent) embossing powders.  I then mounted this watercolor background panel onto the top edge of a black A2 Sized top folding card base.

With the close-up view of the fish, I heat embossed them with the Copper Embossing Powder over some Bristol paper.  For the flower image, I just stamped it with black waterproof ink in the same Bristol paper.  Below I will share how I went about coloring both the fish and the flower.

After heat embossing the fish and stamping the flower, I took the Nuvo Glitter Markers in the following colors:  Midnight Shadows, Ember Glow and Urban Graphite and pressed the pens down onto my Tim Holtz Glass Media Mat to get a “pool” of it and then used my Water brush to blend and color the images. It leaves a beautiful shimmer and blends the colors together so nicely!

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Here’s a closer view of the colored flower with the shimmer.  I fussy cut all the colored images and glued them on the card base with glue.  For the flower image, I decided to off-set it and trim off the edges with scissors.

For the greeting, using the same rubber stamp set, I stamped it with a black pigment ink and then sprinkled it with some Sparkle (semi-transparent) and heat embossed it to give it a nice sparkly look!

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For the bottom portion of my card, I cut out a strip of cardstock the width that I wanted to go across the bottom and underneath the watercolor panel.  I covered the entire strip with Glue and then covered that up with these stunning Bronze Mica Flakes and let it dry.  After it was dried, I pressed and burnished them into the strip with my finger and bone folder.  The extra pieces will come off the sides as you rub it around or you could also trim it off if you prefer, but I found it to not be necessary.  You can see how big the flakes are in the photo as I scattered a few of them around my card in the photos.  This was by far my favorite thing to play with on my card! 🙂

I hope you’ve enjoyed my creation today and I thank you so much for stopping in!

Card Results For Dare to Get Dirty Event

Good evening friends!  I don’t normally post in the evening, but I had been working on some other things this weekend and today and hadn’t had a chance to create a post to share my creations with you for the “Dare to Get Dirty” challenge on Splitcoast Stampers!

And of course since the challenges are exclusively for the SCS fan club members only, I cannot share the details with you about what the challenges are about…so please keep that in mind when you see my creations for this without full details! 🙂

The first three cards that I’m sharing were created for my challenge during this event.  It went “live” yesterday and there are really so many wonderful and creative entries in the gallery for this!  I’m so glad everyone has been having fun playing along with it!

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I couldn’t stand how stinkin’ CUTE this My Favorite Things stamp set was, so of course I HAD to go grab it!  I had been holding off on it for quite a while and then finally broke down and just got it!  That cow in there just kills me! LOL!!  I am talking about the MFT BB The Whole Herd stamp set.  I’ve used a ton of different paper from my stash to create a scene for the pigs.  I’ve also used various MFT dies to put everything together.  I have handwritten the words that are on the trough the little piggy is standing in.

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My next card is made using the tutorial on SCS called the Herringbone technique. (You do NOT have to be a fan club member to see this technique…it’s open for everyone.)   It’s been around for a while, but I really love the results it can bring to a background on a card!  I have used the flower image from a retired Lawn Fawn stamp set and a greeting set and die from Impression Obsession.

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This final card for my challenge is done using an ‘Iris Fold‘ technique.  I have used a circle die cut to create my design and then went around the circle with a tag die from Lawn Fawn that I also used an additional circle die that I’ve used to cut out the center of it for a framing effect and so that it looks more like an ornament.  I used an embossing folder from SU! as well as the snowflake image in the middle of the ornament along with a wonky stitched rectangle die to cut the panel out with and then added a sentiment cut with a die from CAS-ual Fridays with gold foil card stock.  The gold thread was added through the tag hole at the top and secured around the back of the main image panel and lastly, I added a crystal in the center of the snowflake.


Another card I wanted to share was for another challenge issued from a fellow Dare to Get Dirty Dozen design team member.  This one took me a while to grasp how to make it happen, but once figured out, it turned out pretty cool:

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Again, I can’t share with you the details about the challenge, but it’s sort of a ‘mixed media’ based design! 🙂  I’ve die cut some stars using some silver foil card stock and added a sentiment to go with it embossed with white EP over a black banner strip.

Thought this would make for a fun masculine style card.

Be sure to stop by again tomorrow!  I have something fun to share with you!!!

Christmas Non-Card Creations and Final ICAD Week 9 Results!

Hello friends and TGIF!!  Hope you have some happy plans laid out for the weekend!  I will be doing various things including helping my son move!

If you remember my post from last Friday, I shared some hand-made cards that I had entered into my local County Fair.  There are a few other items that I’ve entered besides cards for certain categories and I thought you’d enjoy seeing a few other things that I’ve created just for the fair:

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My first project was entered into the “Christmas Centerpiece” category, and I was excited to see that I had won first place with this!  Can you tell what I’ve used to create the “snowman hat” design?

Let’s take a closer look…

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I asked hubby to save me one of his empty coffee cans and I’ve spray painted it in black.  I’ve also bought a $1.00 charger plate from Hobby Lobby in black and then attached them together to form the snowman hat.  Then I took some white paint and splattered the entire thing for a fun “snow fall effect”.  I then began to decorate it by attaching some ribbon, pine tree sprigs and pinecones.

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I bought a really pretty snowflake ornament with lots of sparkle to use as a center piece for the front of the snowman hat.  The ribbon bow was attached below that and then the pinecone and sprigs were placed and attached in the center of the bow.  (Even the plaid ribbon has some pretty sparkle in it!)

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For the pinecones and the “snow” over the top of the hat, I have used some embossing paste mixed with some texture stones to give it a thick snow appearance.  While it was still wet, I’ve added some glitter to all of it.  Love the way this turned out!  It will be a great center piece at Christmas time! 🙂

And since I was in a Christmas mood, I also made another item for the Fair:

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This poinsettia basket was entered into the “handmade basket” category, and I was happy to see that I had won first place for this entry as well!  For the fair entry, you can have a basket made of anything as long as it was handmade…so of course I made a paper one! 🙂

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I remember a while back this awesome basket with a tutorial that someone had made from Heartfelt Creations, and I knew I wanted to give it a try.  It is such a sturdy basket too as I’ve used some pretty heavy-duty paper to compile it together.

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The papers that I’ve used are actually some pretty old ones from a past Stampin’ Up! collection.  They’re double-sided and you can see the pretty poinsettia pattern on the other side from inside the basket walls.  The poinsettia die was a purchase I had made from a sale item in a booth at that Stamp Convention I went to earlier this Summer.  I love the embossing details it made with the poinsettia flower.  I also took some white ink to pop them out a bit so they’re more noticeable.  There is one on each side of the basket and a smaller one at the top of the handle.

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I’ve used some gold foil paper for the center of the flowers and then added some gold enamel dots on random spots for the centers.  I took some thin and narrow gold ribbon to the edges of the handle and then tied a triple bow with it and placed the poinsettia in the center.  I just filled the basket with pinecones that I had on hand, but I could see so many things that this basket would work for!  Maybe I need to make one for another Holiday too?!

Well although I made these for the fair, they will be nice to use for my own home and of course the photos do not do justice to what they look like in person!  I had so much fun with these projects too!  (I may still have another project or two to share with you from the fair entries…so keep watching!)

Lastly, I’m also very excited that I have fully completed my ICAD challenge for 2018!!  Yay!!  I cannot believe that I kept up with it the entire time and did a card for every single day the last 61 days in June and July!!  I know that I’ve posted every week what I’ve done, and this is my final set for week 9:

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These were so much fun!  Some days were really hard and others I zoomed right through it!  I learned many things not only from other ICADians, but also about myself with art and how it affects me physically, mentally and emotionally.  I am very surprised in more ways than one.  Just when you think you don’t have it in you…you can surprise your own self! Have you ever done something like this?  I urge you to try as it is such a learning experience.

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There is just NO WAY I would have enough room to get every single one of these cards in a photo shot!  I had a huge ring binder that I kept them all on and they actually just barely fit on it!  LOL!  Such a fun thing to see all of these together at once and it will be great to go back and look at later too!  Glad I wrote on the back of what each one was.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my post today and have been inspired in some way!  There are SO many crafty things I enjoy doing…. there are just never enough hours in the day sometimes! LOL!!  We crafters can understand that! 🙂

Thanks so much for dropping in, I really appreciate your kind thoughts and read each and every one!  See you soon!

Crafting Retreat Hang-over Plus ICAD Week 7

Hello friends!  Oh no…It’s been a week since my last posting!  I have a “crafting hang-over” if there is such a thing! LOL!  There were so many things to get done after my 3 day crafting stint and I just couldn’t get it all in!  I ran out of steam!

For my 3 day crafting event, it was a local friend who puts together 3 days full of classes, prizes and food! I am still a true blue stamper to the end, but since it was mostly painting, I brought my painting supplies with me and not my stamping supplies.  Here’s a mixed media sample I helped teach for a class:

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I had a Jack Daniels bottle to alter and went with that for my sample.  The advantage that I had compared to everyone else is that I had four flat sides which made it a tad bit easier to attached items to it.  These girls were creative and made it work and had fun!  The window that I put on even glows in the dark with some special glow-in-the-dark embossing powder!  I then covered it with some glossy effects for a “window” look.  They are all so cool looking and I loved seeing all the different results!

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A closer look at the bottle and turned to the other side, you can see all of the texture that I attached to the bottle with the flowers, embossing paste, gears, bats, etc.  I was going for a steam punk look for the bottle portion (which is why I went over the texture with just a gold metallic texture paste.)  and I thought it would be cool to make the green goo coming out at the top, so that was fun to paint with a metallic green.  There were lots of little tips and tricks everyone learned along the way.  It was funny because everyone didn’t understand why they were painting over everything they worked so hard putting onto the bottle.  LOL!  After the texture paste, there was the excitement!

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This is just another side view of the bottle with the added texture I’ve put on it.  I was able to collect some unique items for everyone’s bottle through my husband’s work in a manufacturing setting that had little metal pieces…no idea what they are, but it was something fun and unique to add texture to the bottle.  And of course I had gears, buttons, stencils with embossing paste, flowers, etc.  The windows and bats were all cut out with some dies that I had.  That window die is actually from Lawn Fawn!  The tiny bone sticking out on the window is of course Tim Holtz.

Painting Divas 2018

Here are some of the girls having fun with their bottles in class.  They are very intently working on getting their bottles just right! 🙂  Of course it’s hard to get everyone together at one time in a photo, but there were a couple more people there including myself not shown.

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Here’s a look at the bottles from class!  I think everyone enjoyed this concept and I even had an additional bottle that I made they really enjoyed the other sample that I made too.  So I made a different theme on this one:

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For those that are not Halloween fans, I showed them a completely different look with the bottle.  This is my “Mermaid bottle” that I’ve made with Patina Effect Texture Pastes and copper metallic paints.  I used some sea shells that I have along with some rope, beads, texture paste, cheese cloth and lots of other little tid bits I had on hand.  I  got a cork and used it for the top of the bottle and added a gem on top.  I really like how texturized the paste made the bottle look.

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Turning the bottle around, you can see more detail on the bottle along with the charm and tiny jar I have hanging down around the cork at the top.  I painted a silver mermaid charm with some Mermaid Sparkle metallic paint of course and then touched up the edges of it some copper texture paste.  For the bottle, I had a package of tiny bottles and I filled one with some blue sequins and made this tiny tiny label over vellum and attached it to the bottle.  It says “Mermaid Tears”.

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On the back side of the bottle, you can see that I’ve made a little “path” for the beads and sea shells to flow all the way around it.  I have taken a mermaid die cut and cut it out several times to create a dimensional look by adding several layers of cardstock together.  I had her sitting on top of one of the stone pieces I’ve attached to the bottle along with some gems above her for a “bubble” affect.  This mermaid die along with some of the stones, gems, pebbles, mermaid charm and the gem on top of the cork all came from a past card kit.

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And here is just another angle of the bottle before we come back to the front of it.  It just gives you a better idea of what all the dimension is on the bottle and how I’ve highlighted it with copper metallic paint.  I even had a little toy compass to attach to the front.  I had a piece of decorative paper from an older paper collection that I cut of piece of to attach to the front of the bottle and then wrapped the rope around it.  I gave it a bit of a white wash over it with paint so it fit with the theme of the bottle….old looking.

And finally, yes, when I got home I realized that I was behind on chores around the house as well as my ICAD challenge!  So I sat down yesterday to try and catch up with those so that I don’t get too far behind!  I’m happy to say that I’m all caught up and there is not many left to go either!  Another 2 weeks and it will be complete!

So here are the results of Week 7 ICAD:

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With the theme and prompts given this last week, I didn’t expect mine to be as colorful as they are, but some of them turned out very colorful!  I also enjoyed playing with some things I rarely get out to play with!

So now you know what I’ve been busy with this past week and maybe you’ll excuse me not being around so much! 🙂  Hope you’ve enjoyed my mixed media projects.  I’d love to know what you think!  Have you ever tried mixed media?  Do you like the concept of it?  Just curious how many of you out there enjoy it!  Thanks for stopping in!

Challenges I’d like to enter my bottle(s) for:

  1.  A Inky Mess – Just For Fun (mixed media)
  2. Creative Artiste – Anything Mixed Media Goes
  3. Altered Eclectics – Anything Mixed Media Goes (no cards)