Taxi

I am back with my next ICAD(Index Card a Day) and the prompt was Taxi!  I knew I wanted to do New York City and thought of the checker cabs.

 I ended up with about 7 attempts at this one... The checker part being a challenge. I found a square foam piece in my misc craft drawer and some mini wood blocks.  They ended up saving my checkerboard effect.

 Two variations on the same idea.  I hand drew the taxi piece which was the theme for the week to draw or doodle. 

This was my pieces that were leftovers from mistakes. I wish I had mounted it on the black like I did the other ICAD.

Products: Stampers Anonymous - Car, Altnew - Skyline, Darkroom Door - New York Graphics, Ranger Archival Ink, STAEDTLER watercolor pencil and Fineline Pen.

Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Suzz

Sunshine

 Is the weather getting warmer by you?  We have had some beautiful sunny days mixed with bouts of rain keeping everything watered nicely.   Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week is to be inspired by summer.  You can interpret it any way it inspires you.  I decided that I was going to do a bright summery card all in shades of yellow and white.  

I started with a lovely yellow background stamped with a floral background from Darkroom Door. 

I misted and painted my accessories to coordinate all the embellishments together.  I died my flowers with sprays and inks. I added touches of lace, buttons, and a keyhole. 

Products: Ranger Distress Spray Stain – Mustard Seed , Ranger Archival Ink – Chrome Yellow .    Darkroom Door Texture – Floral Stamp,   Ranger Distress Stain Picket Fence,   Prima Innocence Flower,  Prima Chantelle Flowers, Prima Leaves, Idea-Ology Memo Pin, Idea-Ology Seasonal Chit-Chat, Wplus9 Timeless Tags Dies, Graphic 45 Ornate Key Hole, Pearls, Lace, White Cardstock

Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher to a randomly selected participant in the challenge, come play along and share your summertime inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Stylish Wings

I had a chance to play with the new Darkroom Door stamps and couldn't wait to ink up the new buttons background. 

I stamped the buttons using tea dye ink and distressed and sponged the edges.  I then pulled out the dress form die and cut a dress form.  I stamped the background stamp Floral in tea dye ink over the surface and highlighted the flowers with a coral watercolor pencil.  I sponged the edges with the Abandoned Coral ink.

I added the Eclectic Butterfly wings with a few snaps for accents.  The dress form received some embellishments with zippers and chains. I finished with the word stylish from the Darkroom Door Corsetry set.

Happy Saturday!

Suzz

Who?

The prompt for the next ICAD was Owl!  I have this stamp bought awhile ago at a small stamp store of a fantastic owl! I was thrilled to play with it. 

Striking isn't he?  I created two different index cards using him.

 I started with a traditional wood grain with the owl peeking out from a circle.  This is a layered and a peek through card.

 And then I had a thought of creating a birch tree with the owl peeking out amidst the peeling bark.

 I had fun playing with this one and trying to layer in the shredded papers.  The stamp is from Grey Wolf Graphics. 

Happy Wednesday!

Suzz

The Mailbox

Good Tuesday to you!  The next ICAD prompt is mail.  I am also linking this up to the masculine challenge at Mixed Media World.

I created a mini envelope with 3 index cards.  I put two index cards together with tape around the sides and bottom.  I then cut a flap and attached it with tissue tape.

 

I stamped over the background on the bottom with a mail definition stamp from memory box. I hardly have used it and it was perfect for the challenge.  I then mixed in images from DarkRoom Door, Stampers Anonymous, and Deep Red. 

 To close my flap on my envelope I used two brads with a tiny Idea-Ology paper clip and a piece of twine.  I died a feather with blue ink for my quill.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz 

Don't Forget

Stamping and using sprays to mist are two of my favorite things. I was a very happy camper this week because that is the challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week.  You can emboss or stamp an image and spray over it. Use mist to ‘ink’ a stamp. Apply mist color with a paintbrush to a stamped image. Any which way will do!  

I had my sprays out in shades of pink and decided to use those for my project.  I had a variety of pinks and a hint of lilac.

I started trying something new for me.  I took and unscrewed the top of my mister and pulled it out. Now usually I would flick the end and drip all over but I decided to push the head of the sprayer down therefore shooting out what was in the tube all over my paper.

I loved the splotchy effect and repeated a few times and then flicked some of the sprays across the paper.  To soften my pinks I did the same with my white pickets spray over my original pink spots. Of course it isn't an exact science so it partially covered it. 

I repeated this process on several pieces of cardstock and then came back and spritzed in a soft lavender color over the surfaces. 

When  that had dried I mixed up some white acrylic paint with water and flicked it over the surfaces.

I then stamped the butterflies in gray ink on some of the paper and cut them out.

I stamped the chicken wire over the background of the tag. Embossed the tiny safety pins by covering them with versamark and dipping them into white embossing powder and then holding them with my tweezers I heated them up. 

I used the top of some of them for my baby butterflies and the rest of it for my antennas! I thought they looked very clever.

By the way when pushing out the spray make sure to mask/cover the spray opening otherwise you will be sporting a lovely palm of pink like myself! :)


Products:   Ranger Distress Stain Picked Raspberry,  Dylusions Bubblegum Pink,  Ranger Distress Stain Picket Fence,   Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Milled Lavender,   Prima Marketing Finnabair Rust and Dust,  Ranger Archival Ink - Watering Can, Idea-Ology Filmstrip, Idea-ology - Safety Pins, Versamark Watermark Ink, White embossing powder, DarkRoom Door - Chicken Wire Stamp, Prima Marketing - Don't Forget to Fly,  Prima Marketing - Now is the Right Time

Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher to a randomly selected participant in the challenge, come play along!

Thanks for stopping by!


Suzz

ICAD #3

Happy Father's Day!  We will be grilling later and hopefully a game of scrabble with my dad is in the plans.  I have been working on a few DT projects but also playing with my next ICAD. These little pieces of art are quite addictive.... The prompt is draw a map.  I have been using my stamps for the drawing piece.  I did add white highlights. :)

I used the map as the springboard for the rest of my index card.  I spritzed a bit of blue and green in the background over my map.

 

This is one of my favorite things mixing in all types of stamps and overlapping the images. I stamped the map first in the background.  I then came back with Mona and added the mix of  buildings and the cities.  I finished with the compass. The main images are all embossed with black embossing powder to make them pop over the background. 

I stenciled the Go Discover using black embossing paste.  Fun and easy! 

Products:  Stampers Anonymous, Altnew City, Tim Holtz Layering Stencil, Wendy Vecchi Black Embossing Paste, Idea-Ology - Clip, Signo White Uni-Ball Gel Pen

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Let's go to the Fair!

Good Morning! Saturday at last!  A little inking, a little gardening and :( house cleaning but overall a lovely day! I am still playing with the ICAD and decided to pull out my favorite Artistic Outpost Stamps and play along in their June Challenge.  The prompt for the ICAD was Carnival and I think that is a perfect fit with the Frilly & Funkie challenge of  It's Summer. 

 When I thought of carnival I thought of our local summer carnivals in town and the county fair that happens once  a summer. 

There are a few different boy images in the Artistic Outpost sets and this one reminded me  of a boy getting ready to go to the County Fair.  I mixed it with the fun background and of course you have to see the animals in the animal barns at the fair!

Products: Artistic Outpost - Country Life,  Whimsical Melange, Hayride,  Darkroom Door - Texture Dots, STAEDTLER Karat Aquarell Watercolor Pencils, Idea-Ology - Chit Chat Seasonal Stickers, Ranger Archival Ink - Black, Memento - Rose Bud

The only thing missing is the lemonade and corn on the cob dripping with butter and loads of salt!

Have a great Saturday!

Suzz

ICAD

Today I started exploring into ICAD art.  I was inspired by Miss Iowa and Astrid and their fantastic ICAD art. The ICAD prompts and overview is here.

Today I only had time to finish one card but it was fun, quick and relaxing to just pull together different things and create.

The concept is index cards and a series of prompts daily with themes weekly.  The challenge runs over June & July.

 Hopefully I will have more time to try to play with the different ideas.  This weeks theme is doodling /drawing which I really didn't do. I traced the circles and that was the extent of my drawing.

Products: Hero Arts, DarkRoom Door - Eclectic Butterfly, Stampers Anonymous - Visual Artistry, Stampers Anonymous - 2015 Postage, Ranger Distress Stain Spray - Spiced Marmalade, STAEDTLER Fineliner Pen, STAEDTLER Watercolor Pencil

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Time to Fly

Happy Thursday!  Where has the week gone?  I started a layout earlier this week and wanted to use the colors from the Word & Paintery June Challenge and include layers and textures inspired by the 13Arts Challenge #31. 

I have to say the colors inspired me from the challenge and I had this picture of my daughter taken on her last day of high school.

I see all these fabulous layouts with all the layers of embellishments but when I went looking through all my embellishments I couldn't find what I wanted.  Instead I decided I wanted to continue the photo which was all sunshine and shimmery sunshine.

I mixed three colors in the background added white paint splattered over that.  I then pulled out mica flakes, goosebumps, and ultra fine crystal glitter.  I wish I had protected my daughters image but overall I love the soft shimmery background.  The photo really doesn't do the layout justice.

 Thanks for stopping by!


Suzz 

Scrabble Anyone?

Simon Says Stamp Has a new release called the Color of Fun and boy are there some beautiful colors in this release.  I ended up playing with the new colors and a fantastic game tile letter set of stamps. My family is big on Scrabble!  My dad and I always try to get a game in when he comes over. A perfect way to celebrate Father's Day was to create him a Scrabble well wishes for Father's Day.

 I used the new Simon Says Stamp Game Tile Stamps along with some watercolor pencils.

Then I decided to play with the new ink pads: Scuba Ink and Jellybean.

 I added the pretty flowers (Simon Says Stamp - Artful Flowers) and sentiment with a touch of gold glitter.  I used the Tsukineko Delicata Gold Glitz for the gold touches. I also used the Simon Say Stamp Background stamp Falling Snow.

Suzz

Imagination

This week the challenge is "Don't Cut just Paste" at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this week.  Bring out your embossing paste and play!  I decided to use a background that I created with translucent paste.   

I pulled out my backgrounds and a bunch of bits and pieces.

I started with two tags backgrounds and a variety of bits and pieces using a layering stencil and Wendy Vecchi's translucent embossing paste.

While the paste was wet I laid the gold leaf on top and left it to dry.  After it dried I rubbed off the excess and misted the surface until it was saturated.

I then stamped he butterfly using gold ink and cut it out.  I used a resin face and touched it up with gold ink.  I added a golden stem and the gold ribbon on the bottom and the top. 

Products:   Ranger Distress Stain Spray -Peacock Feathers,
Gold Leaf Sheets, TIm Holtz - Idea-ology Remnant , Tsukineko Golden Glitz Delicata, Darkroom Door Eclectic Butterfly, Teresa Collins Wood Pieces (I used chipboard but these are comparable) , Lattice Work - Layering Stencil, Wendy Vecchi Translucent Embossing Paste, Prima - Figurehead Relics, Gold Trim. 


Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher to a randomly selected participant in the challenge, come play along!

Thanks for stopping by!


Suzz

Coffee & Seahorses

Tim's Tag for June features a cool coffee cup and a fun plaid background.  I ended up with two very different projects inspired by Tim's tag.

 I loved the plaid background on Tim's tag and had two new ink pads that I wanted to play with. I used them to create my plaid background.

 

I sponged on the two colors in one direction and then flipped the stencil and sponged the next direction. To grunge it up I sponged on Vintage Photo around the edges and sprinkled the distress ink across the surface.

I decided to use the seahorses with the layering stencil doily background and abandoned coral.  For the card I had a request from my son to create a coffee themed card for his girlfriend's birthday.    I had one coffee cup die cut and used it for the card.   My coffee cup is inspired in design by Tim's tag.

I added a birthday candle for the straw and had to hand cut my plastic cover but I like the transition to a birthday celebration.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz

Discover

Do your stamps speak to you?  A good friend of mine and I laugh about this.  Mine do inspire me to put together a certain style or theme.  It is much harder for me to take a cute stamp and go a different path.  Today's card was definitely inspired by the main image.

 I started with this leftover piece of cardstock with alcohol inks splattered and smeared over the background.  I knew I wanted a strong image to place amongst the varied background.

I specifically asked my LSS to order the Brett Weldele images from Stampers Anonymous as they are handsome gents with strong features and lines.  I decided to place him in the midst of the alcohol splatters.

After I stamped him (using StazOn ink as the paper is glossy) I decided to mix in stencils with Wendy Vecchi black Embossing Paste.  I also used a few rub-ons on the background.

I came back and added my metal accents and a touch of tissue tape. I had fun playing with this image.  I am entering this in two different challenges: Mixed Media World - Vintage and Anything But Cute - Make it Masculine. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz 

April Showers

April Showers brings May flowers. We have been in the midst of a shower of flowers.  With two girls having two graduations and having multiple awards nights we have been bringing flowers to a variety of events.  The Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge challenge this week is plants and I decided to use this as an opportunity to create some paper flowers to present to my daughter.  

Here is the finished picture with a few gift cards attached.  Saved on the flowers and bought her a few gift cards which she was thrilled with.

I have to admit that this was a bit addictive and I ended up with two bouquets of flowers in a variety of sizes.

You start with tissue paper and fold it into an accordion fold.  The most important thing is to have enough sheets of tissue paper so you get a nice full flower.  The rest can be varied (Length, Edges, Colors)

After you have folded it you will die the tissue paper and then wait, wait and wait some more to dry. I did use the heat gun to speed along the process but I let part of it dry overnight.

Once that is done you will need to add a tie in the middle. I used a light wire to tie the middle.

You will trim the edges.  On his one I chose to cut a rounded scallop on the edges and then cut out a little divot

You pull up each layer of the tissue paper up to the center from each side. This flower ended up not having enough folds and tissue paper so it didn't make it into the bouquet.

Here are a few other samples of flowers;

This was one of my favorites and ended up being quite large but a great focal flower for the center of the bouquet.

This flower I cut the ends into a point :

Less petals with a scalloped edge on the petals:

A fuller version:

To finish off the flowers I attached flowers stems by using the leftover wire on the center.  I sprayed some tissue paper to create my wrapping on the bottom of the bouquet.  I stamped on the gift card holder with some sentiments telling her how proud we were of her accomplishments.

Products: Ranger Archival Ink - Black  Ranger Distress Stain Spray -Fired Brick,  Mustard Seed, Barn Door,  Spiced Marmalade,  Cracked Pistachio,  Flower stems , Simon Says Stamp - More Sketchy  Banner ,  Simon Says Stamp - Tilted Banner Sayings


Simon Says Stamp is offering a $50 gift voucher to a randomly selected participant in the challenge, come play along!

Thanks for stopping by!


Suzz