Live Love Cards Charity Drive Donations

Hello,
Welcome back! I have gotten my fingers inky a bit, and wanted to share with you a TON of cards that I created, and are donating to a Card drive! Darlene at Live Love Cards has THREE different organizations that she has spotlighted to interest members to donate their time to. I wanted to participate, and show everyone the cards I created, before I send them off. (I don't believe you need to be a member to give cards)

These two backgrounds were tucked in my "I'll do something with this someday" pile. I added the flowers and the sentiments. Mounted them on to complimentary cardstock. These are distress ink colors and spritzed with water.

Hard to tell, these are on glossy cardstock. The left card background is from En Francias from SU! Both cards are done with distress inks and the flowers and sentiments in black ink.

These two backgrounds were tucked in my "I'll do something with this someday" pile. I added the flowers and the sentiments. Mounted them on to complimentary cardstock. These are distress ink colors and spritzed with water.

These flowers are from Rubbernecker stamps, stamped on watercolor paper, and mounted.

The left butterfly is the very first stamp I purchased over 14 years ago. I have to do some digging to see if it is even produced anymore. The right butterfly is from Penny Black "Free Flight" and the flowers are Hero Arts "Wild Flower Garden". Colors are distress inks again on water color paper.

The flower on the left card is from Fiskars "Petals from Scratch" and the sentiment on both are three separate stamps that I pulled off their wooden bases. They are from INKADINKADO and Dawn Houser I combined the three words to fit the cards.The texture on the right card was smeared embossing paste. Once dried, I used distress inks.

The left card background was created with watercolor pencils. I honestly thought they would blend, and when they didn't, I was disappointed, and placed it away for another day. The effect works with the flowers and the sentiment. the right card, I did not create, I don't know who made it, it was a card front that I mounted and I am donating.

This left card is a repeat of the first card at the top of this post, I didn't want the last card to be lonely. I just may keep these two. They are so bright!

I am using a new camera, and the Florida sunshine. I am not sure about the pictures. I will continue to play with the lighting.

Overall, I am very pleased with this collection, and I hope they bring smiles to many people. I need to create a box and send them off! Thanks for dropping by! More to come!
Cindy

Crazy Dogs - Tim Holtz 2

Happy Hurricane Day!
I am located just north of Tampa FL. We are expecting Tropical Storm Hermine to hit land late today. All the local schools are closed as a precaution, so I have a day to craft!

I am in love with these dogs! I am loving how easy it is to water color with distress inks and get a messy/crazy look and it is all ok!

I love the surprised look on the dog's face, so I created a funny belated birthday card. I have no bold, funny, crazy sentiments, so I ran to MS Word and created my own!

My cell phone was misbehaving, so I bought an inexpensive replacement. I love the Samsung Galaxy phones, so I purchased the Samsung Grand Prime. These are the second set of photos from my new phone, and I have to say these show a definite decline in quality as compared to my Galaxy S2. (yes, I had an S2 for four years, never needed to upgrade) I believe they are on S6 now? for $600? Can't afford that. I will try a few more pictures.

Supplies:
Stamps: Crazy dogs - Stamper's Anonymous
Sentiment: handmade with MS Word
Paper: Canson XL cold press Watercolor, Sentiment is on Neenah Solar white
Ink: Distress Inks and water.
Dies: Spellbinders Nestabilities A2 Distressed Edges
SSS Stitched Rectangles
Font: Grilled Cheese size 24

Thanks for stopping by! More to come! Four more dogs!

Crazy Dogs - Tim Holtz

Hello again,
I am always surprised when I simply can not keep posting during the school year. Each year, I honestly think that I can teach full-time AND continue to craft and post each week! And...each year I am disappointed in myself for not being able to do it. Silly, huh? What is this, year 5?

I caved. I LOVE cats, but I am not as excited about the CRAZY cat stamps as I am about the CRAZY dog set!!
Weird, huh?
I bought them as soon as I could. THEN they sat in my craft room each week taunting me!  So, What do you think!?! Please keep in mind, I am SO learning water coloring techniques.

Directions: First I stamped the dog onto watercolor paper with Simon Says stamp Intense Black ink, and with a paint brush and distress inks, I painted in the dog using scattered Straw, Mermaid Lagoon and Picked Raspberry. The hash-marks helped with the shadows and the shading (something I am SO not good at...yet). I even took some burlap and created a grassy area around his feet.  

I have a challenge I want to enter this in, so I hurried to post this. I know I have a lot to learn, but I am so pleased with the results. Only 5 more dogs to go!  TEE HE!

Challenge:

Live Love Cards - Happy Birthday - August Challenge

More to come!
Cindy

A new Paint Brush makes such a difference!

Hello, and welcome back!
I have been trying my hand at water coloring. I watch videos of how other very talented card makers paint such detailed stamps with such simplicity. I thought, man, can a artistic leveled paint brush make that much of a difference? Take a look....

   I was so proud of myself! The pink is picked raspberries, and the blue is peacock feathers. Guess what the purple color is? I simply mixed the two colors together! It is my purple!! :) I love the variation of color from the centers of the butterflies to the edges. I guess the professional brushes are TOTALLY worth it! who know $12 could do all this!  lol


I stamped the butterfly several times using a masking tape mask with black ink. This card stock is actually ivory Stampin' Up! I love the warmth it gives the card. It isn't stark white like my solar white Neenah card stock. Then I simply painted each section of the butterflies with distress ink placing more emphasis on the edges than the centers. Last I stamped the sentiment with my MISTI. LOVE IT!


Challenges:

Addicted to Stamps and More- CAS

Simon Says:  ANYTHING GOES

Card Recipe:
Paper: Ivory from SU!, various other from stock
Stamps: Butterfly - Penny Black, "Free Flight", Sentiment - Stampendous "Precious Gift" (retired)
Ink: Distress inks Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers, and a mix of both to create purple.

Hummingbirds are beautiful...

Hello again,

I fell in love with a card I made a long time again, and decided to duplicate it before giving it to a friend. I had so much fun, I made several!

First, I masked each card off with low tack masking tape, and left a narrow strip showing. I used my blending tool to blend two distress inks together. These two were created with Bundled Sage blended with Salty Ocean. Used water to create waterspots.

Then I removed the masking tape, and stamped the hummingbird with versamark ink and used a glittery black embossing powder. Then used my MISTI to stamp my sentiment straight.

These two were created by blending Picked Raspberry and lots of Salty Ocean.

On this bottom card, I tried a new twist on matting it in black. I tried to show just a sliver on top and on the bottom. I am not sure I like it. What do you think? I know you can not see it in the photos, but the hummingbird is very glittery. I wish the pictures did it justice! 

Supplies:

Stamps:  Allegro - Penny Black, Free flight - Penny Black, Mindscapes - Inkadinkado

Inks: Distress inks: Salty Ocean, Picked Raspberry, Bundled Sage. 

Paper: Neenah Solar White, black cardstock and Stampin' Up! colored cardstock

Thanks for dropping by! More to come.

Cindy

Unity Stamps and Distress ink Galore!

Hello friends, welcome back!

I am on summer vacation, but I have not had a lot of time to do much creating. Whenever I get stuck, I run right back to my favorite stamps and I grab distress inks. You just can't go wrong, ever!

For this duo set, I used Neenah Solar White cardstock. I stamped the unity flowers in various distress inks by spraying the stamp with a spray bottle a bit before stamping to get the watercolor look. The lower stamps on the left card I forgot to spray, so they came out crisp. (I still like the look) 

Then I used salty ocean to blend the background avoiding the very center. Then I stamped the background image by stamping off a few times.Last I stamped the sentiment in the center using my MISTI to be sure it was straight.

The same goes for the Happy Birthday card, I just love the look of purple and blue. I think I stamped off three times to get a very light wording in the background.

I joined one challenge for these cards:

Addicted to Stamps and More- ANYTHING GOES

Thanks for stopping by!

Card details:
Stamps: Insightful Meadows by Unity stamp, Sentiments by various stamp sets, background, En Francis (Stampin' Up!) 
Cardstock: Neenah Solar White Cardstock, colored cardstock from Stampin' up
Inks: Various Distress inks and blending tool
Extras: Black Brads

Birthday Present to myself! Vintage Roses Altenew stamps

Hello again, thanks for stopping by,
I gave myself a present since my birthday was next week. Altenew was having a very RARE sale and discounted shipping, so I ordered a stamp set and the matching dies - entitled "Vintage Roses".  I have been eyeing this set for a while, and just couldn't think of anything else I wanted more!

I was SO excited when it arrived. I had to play with the roses, and download and print out the "cheat sheets" so that I could create the roses correctly. OMG, which inks do I use? Which colors work best? TOO many to choose from. So, I searched google, and only found combinations of ALTENEW's inks (makes sense, right?) But, I don't own any of their inks. So I looked for Stampin' Up combinations....didn't find any! Time to get inky! Here is my creation:

Vintage Roses by Altenew color combinations

My favorite combinations are the starred ones.  I tried all sorts of colors together. Of course, the same brand of ink looked the best together. I know my handwriting is horrible, but you get the idea. I even tried using one ink three times (in the lower left corner) Yuck. I got so excited about my trial and error color combinations, I haven't even created a card yet! Which ones do you like?Soon to come.

Live Love Cards challenge

Hello again!
I had a minute to join a challenge. I am a member of LIVE LOVE CARDS. It is a great community of stampers created by Darlene. Each month has a challenge. June's Challenge is to use a large Sentiment! I found the largest sentiment I owned and unmounted it! I get so nervous every time I do that. I have only unmounted a handful of stamps. I really wanted to use the stamp in my MISTI, so I ripped off the wood block and slapped it into my MISTI. It took 6 stampings to get it dark enough. Take a look.

I found a few more to join:
Addicted to Stamps and More- CAS 

Crafty Creation- ANYTHING GOES

The Crafty Addicts- ANYTHING GOES

Cindy

More Challenges...

I had time tonight to join the Wenesday Simon Says Stamp challenge! The challenge calls for the use of PATTERNED paper. EEECKS. I am so not good with papered paper. this was a challenge. However, I just purchased a unique pad of 6 by 6 paper last week that I was eager to use. Take a look.

I bought this at joann's. It was $6.99 on sale for 60% off. SAY WHAT? I think that is a no brainer. I had never seen anything like this before, and the colors and texture were wonderful! Less than $3. It's MINE!  :) I love purple, the blue is perfect, and the grey is awesome! I love getting a bargain, It makes me feel less guilty about spending money on my obsession! Better known as craft therapy!






Then I pulled out this pad, and used a sheet from it.

Here is my creation for the Simon Says Stamp challenge.

 I know you can't see it, but I heat embossed the letters several times, they are raised and shiny in real life.

I love the distress color combination! I used peacock feathers, wilted violet and salty ocean. My pictures do not bring out it's true colors! Thanks for stopping by!

Pet sympathy card

Welcome back,
Can you believe I ran out of pet sympathy cards? I am not very excited about this design, but I am working on another design that I am excited about! Here is the less excited one...

I will be posting the other design as soon as I find the perfect sentiment. I have to either purchase a new stamp set, or create one and create a label or something. 

Also, my name stamp at the end of each entry just stopped functioning. I'd better figure that out! 

Summer Vacation - Sort of

Summer Vacation is here!
I am off to a slow start, things are a bit rocky over here. Please keep us in your prayers. This summer is a bit shorter than others by two weeks. You would think I would use my time more wisely, huh? I will get there. Anyway... As I was searching through my favorite blogs challenges, I was inspired for these two cards.

Wow, you can't tell the card bases are different colors! The left one has a black base, the right one has a dark purple base.  I use three different distress inks in the stamping and in the background. I really wish you could see the sparkle on the left one, I sprayed it with simmer mist.

Here's How:
On a piece of Neenah white cardstock, I stamped the flowers three times with versamark ink, and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. then I filled in the background with three different distress inks using my ink blender. (Salty Ocean, Peacock feathers and Blueprint sketch). Then I stamped two with salty Ocean, and two flowers with Blueprint Sketch to show depth using my MISTI.  I may have used purple distress ink around the edges too. I love purple! No masking involved.

I entered the top card into one lonely challenge:

Seize the Birthday - Happy birthday

Thanks for stopping in. More to come!

Sympathy Cards

Hello again,
I good friend of mine's dog died. I ran into my card stash to pick out a pet loss card, and they were all gone! In eight years, I have never run out of any singular type of card.
I found this card, and it inspired me to create more just like it.

Here are my takes:

I've had the itch to use ribbon in my cards recently. The blogs I follow don't use ribbon often, (I'm not sure why). This series of cards fulfilled that itch.  :)

Just got stuck.....

Have you ever created something really bwautiful, but couldn't finish the card? Nothing you try works right, or fits? I hit that wall with this card. Tell me what you think.

I loved the flower, but and the magenta mat was the perfect compliment, but the card base color was the problem. Nothing worked. Then I couldn't fit a sentiment on it at all! HELP! I posted it anyway. Maybe someone will comment a suggestion for me.

Inspired again....

Happy Sunday!
I was inspired again by Karen D at her blog - Snippets. Take a look at her newest creation, then take a look at my versions. What do you think?

 This one I used peacock feathers and silver embossing powder.

 My second try, I used spiced marmalade and silver embossing powder.

I sure like the look, and the fact that it is not perfect sure helps me hide imperfections....They look like I meant them!  lol! Thanks for dropping in.
I joined in some great challenges too. See below:

Simon Says- FLOWERS

Craft Stamper- ANYTHING GOES

Purple is wonderfully peaceful

Purple is wonderful,
I think 45% of everything I own is a shade of purple, violet or lavender. Clothing, accessories, shoes, coat, etc...It is an import part of me, and of course in my crafting! Take a look!

Seriously, you can't go wrong with purple! This card is so peaceful to me. I adore it. I distressed the edges, so it has a loved worn look to it. Thanks for stopping in. Have a peaceful-purple day!

Butterflies, Butterflies, Butterflies....

I admit it, 

I LOVE butterflies! I think I have 10 different butterfly stamps in my tiny collection, this is, by far, the biggest butterfly I have. It is so easy to work with when I stamp with my MISTI tool. Again, I am trying to improve my copic skills. What do you think? Take a look:

I originally tried to create this card using a mask, but I messed that all up! This version required no mask at all, I simply overlapped them in small parts. I then used the masks to help color in the background without running into the butterflies. LOVE the look! Paper crafting will forever intrigue me with all the new techniques/skills you can master!

Challenges:

Come and Get It- CARD FOR A WOMAN

Craft Stamper- ANYTHING GOES

Where the Heart is Challenge - ANYTHING GOES - One layer

Just Us Girls - Butterflies 

Heard the News?

Good Morning!
I am determined to keep my creative flow going. Here is another creation. Take a Look:

 

I am so sad that Whiff of Joy is no more. I LOVE Henry the Mouse. I wish I had purchased more while we was still available. I am getting better at Copic coloring (I think) All the videos make it look so easy.  The Sentiment came from my brain and my font list. More to come!

Happy Sunday Challenges

Happy Sunday
I was in the mood to participate in a few challenges, I have been intrigued with a few particular bogs lately. I call them my "GOTO blogs". I go to them first to get fresh inspiration.  One of my goto blogs is SNIPPETS (Karen D).

She plays in many challenges and so I thought, if she does, so can I! Here is my card for today. Take a look:

 

I submitted this card to a few challenges:

CASMIXUP -  May Challenge - Heat Embossing

Crazy4challenges - C4C335 - Use Green Somewhere

Addicted to stamps - Make your mark

Card Fever

Good Morning!
FUNNY STORY:  Last weekend, I was looking through some of my older cards that I created some time ago. I started to set aside a few cards I wanted to duplicate. I choose a few that had a bunch of distress inks on it, and I just purchased a few new colors and wanted to see if I could duplicate the same look with a few new colors.

Several hours later, I had created close to 15 different card backgrounds and they all looked FABULOUS! I was loving ALL of them! (don't you love it when that happens?) I began to think that I could produce and complete all these cards in one weekend, what an accomplishment that would be to brag on my blog!

Just as I began assembling my cards, I RAN OUT OF ATG tape! Can you believe it? I order tape 12 rolls at a time. I guess I did not realize how low I had gotten. I had to stop my assembling, and go online and order more rolls. GEEZ!

Needless to say, I found a great deal on EBAY, I placed an offer for 4 dollars less than their advertised price, free shipping to boot....and they accepted my offer. It was mailed out of Miami (I'm north of Tampa) and it was here in 4 days.

This weekend, I had Friday off of work, and I assembled all 15 cards beautifully. I am very pleased with the fresh look of these cards. What, you want to see them? Oh good. Here are just a handful. Take a look:

 The twine I used was not matching the color of the distress inks used, so I dyed the twine! that was new to me. It looks great! On the right card, I attempted to use sequins. They were bigger than I wanted, and not quite the right color. I am not that thrilled with the look. I tried to cover a few ink blotches. *he he*

 Many of the other ones look VERY close to these, so I didn't want to post all of them. I had TOO much fun creating these. I even gave a few away as gifts already. Thanks for stopping by. More coming!