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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Enjoy Simple Things

I know I don't stop often enough to enjoy the simple things. We recently took a family road trip which gave us plenty of family time and lots of time looking out the window and seeing all of the natural beauty and enjoying the simple things.  This week at Simon Says Stamp and Show the challenge is Anything Goes!  Easy enough and there is the wonderful $50 gift certificate for one randomly selected participant.

I have been holding onto a Assemblage Clock waiting for a chance to create something special.



I painted the outside with a mix of white acrylic paint and pink acrylic paint. I put flower trim on the inside to cover the inside walls. I covered the back of the clock with pattern paper and smeared a touch of white paint over the surface. 

I trimmed out the outside with lace trim.

I painted the banner white and stamped the sentiment in teal. I added the white flowers to the side and stuck the little banner in with some white ribbon.

Inside the clock I stamped the large clock face using StaZon onto acetate. I did the same with the Eiffel Tower and painted on the reverse side with the pink paint. I added a highlight to the flowers.  The little broken doll earned a set of butterfly wings stamped with versamark on tissue paper and embossed in light pink embossing powder.

Products:  Snow Cap Dabber, Claudine Hellmuth Pink Painterly StudioPaintTim Holtz - Idea-Ology Assemblage Clock, Banners, TIm Holtz Worn Lipstick Embossing Powder, Versamark, StazOn - Teal Ink, Hero Arts Big Clock, Stampendous I Love Paris SStampendous Jumbo Butterfly Trio, Idea-Ology Fractured Doll, Stazon - Black, Prima Flowers, Trim, 
Artistic Outpost - 

Don't forget to play along with us for a chance to win a gift certificate from   Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks for stopping by!


Suzz




Thursday, June 27, 2013

Just Celebrate

How about a little red, white and blue?  Ranger Ink posted up a fresh summer color palette and I used that to inspire a 4th of July card.  July has quite a few birthdays in the family and many of them happen right around the Fourth of July.   This will go off to one of our nephews for his birthday.

The images are from a variety of sets including: Artistic Outpost - Hero, Darkroom Door - New York Volume I, Stampers Anonymous - Simple Sayings, 7 Gypsies - Very Beautiful, Artistic Outpost - Ephemera,  The inks used: Ranger Distress Ink - Fired Brick, Versafine - Majestic Blue

Have a lovely day!

Suzz

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Domesticated Bliss

My project this week for the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge highlights a skill I am sadly lacking in....  Cooking!  I can do the basics but when I try to do more you can never tell what the outcome might be. The challenge is stripes.  You can use that inspiration anyway it strikes you. My project is Wendy Vecchi inspired and started with her stencil and her silver embossing paste.

 I started with a plain piece of corrugated cardboard:
 I painted the background with a mix of white acrylic paint and light blue paint. I than laid the stencil over the surface and added areas of silver embossing paste.

I punched two holes in the top and attached an old fork purchased at the antique mall using blue metallic wire.


































I stamped the images from the various sets and colored them with a touch of watercolor. I layered the images over the doily. I accented with a few flowers. I can't wait to hang this up in the kitchen as my family will get a chuckle out of it!

Products:
 Wendy Vecchi Domestic ArtsStampers Anonymous Vecchi Yikes Stripes Stencil  Metallic Silver Embossing PastePaperArtsy Chalk Fresco Paint - Inky Pool , 
Ranger Archival Ink - Black, Artistic Outpost - Country Life
 
Come show us your stripes for a chance to win a gift certificate from the ever generous  Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz
 
 

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Snapdragons

Happy Saturday!  I have been busy creating this week.  I have not shared anything because they are all projects for future hops, challenges or publication. :(

I am sharing a sweet card using the Stampendous Snapdragons.  I love Snapdragons and this stamp is a beautiful spray of flowers.  I even pulled out my much neglected Copics to color the flowers. 

I die cut the cardstock.  Stamped the image using Memento Black ink on the die cut. I colored the beautiful flowers and butterfly with Copics.  I highlighted the flowers with white gel pen.  I embossed the background panel and done. :) The Stampendous DT is sharing very cool etched glass projects this week. If you hop over to the Stampendous blog you can see the links to all the projects from this week.  If you hop along and leave comments before Sunday night you will have an opportunity to win some excellent prizes!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Suzz

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Americana

Welcome to the Artistic Outpost Design Team Monthly Hop!  The Design Team has whipped up some fantastic projects celebrating Americana. 

I was inspired by the historic images of Atlantic City and the Boardwalk.
I started from a wood piece found at the rehab store.  I think it is a wood leg from a table.  I thought it would be fun to re-purpose the wooden leg. It reminded me of something you would see down at the beach.

Each side reflects a few of the different images from boardwalk.  I used the colors of red, blue and gold tones as they fit the Americana theme..

The finishing touches were the shell, sand and raffia.

Products: Artistic Outpost - Boardwalk, Artistic Outpost - Cowgirl Strength, Beyond the Sea, White &  Light Blue Acrylic Paint, White Cardstock, Sand, Shell, STAEDTLER Watercolor Pencils

For all the fantastic projects by the Design Team stop by each of the team members:


Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Krafty Flowers

Are you feeling krafty?  This week we are playing with Kraft paper over at the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge.  I had a piece of my brown paper bag laying on my desk leftover from my previous gift bag.  I decided to use that paper as the base for a garden.


 I painted the paper bag with white acrylic paint leaving the edges smeared with paint. 

I repeated the process several times to create my layers and to create a base for the butterflies and sentiments.  I stamped the flowers using black ink over the white background.  I added color with my watercolor pencils and a waterbrush. 

I then layered the sheets of painted paper.   I stamped the butterflies on one of the extra pieces of paper bag.  I colored them in coordinating colors using the watercolor pencils.  I then created the sentiment by stamping it on the painted kraft paper and tearing the edges and putting them over the layers.

I attached the papers using the Mini Stapler and glue dots for the butterflies.


Products:  Snow Cap Paint Dabber , Butterflies , Flower Path, Hero Arts Delicate Blossoms, Ranger Archival Ink, STAEDTLER watercolor pencils, Waterbrush, Tiny Attacher
  Come play along for a chance to win a gift certificate from the ever generous  Simon Says Stamp.

Thanks for stopping by!
Suzz

All Tied Up

Happy Father's Day!  I remember my dad in his suit and a variety of ties!  I don't see that as often in my every day work life but I have fond memories of my dad dressed up in his suit.  In honor of him and father's day I made a few cards using the tie as my inspiration.  I made three ties using the new DarkRoom Door  Gazette background stamp.  I made this card and shared it previously.

 I cut out three ties using a template I created that looked like this:



I cut little rectangles to fit on the top of the tie to give an extra layer for the knot in the tie. I then cut a background panel from white cardstock.  I stamped all of the pieces using the  Gazette stamp and Black Archival Ink.

I sponged each of the ties using a different color (blue, green, and orange) dye inks.  I distressed the edges with a distressing tool and then sponged the edges with brown dye ink. I attached the knots to my ties.

After that I added a few metal charms with twine to the tie and used the Alpha Strips to create my Happy Fathers Day Sentiment.  I wanted the words to look like tie pins so I mounted them on black to make them pop out.

After I assembled the card I started thinking about how I wanted to try creating a card for each tie to give it more of  a focal point.  I pulled the three ties off the card and made three separate cards.

First I made a small tag card:
I remembered I had several cigar bands in my stash which would make a perfect tie pin.  I pulled them out and found a lovely red and gold band.  I cut it to fit the center of my tie.  I then designed the card around those colors.  I mounted the tie onto a white background distressed with a hint of brown.  I layered that onto a red cardbase.  I added a few strips of red cardstock at the top and bottom.  I added touches of gold all the way around the edges with a gold Krylon pen.  I added a couple of vintage buttons with a gem inserted in the middle.  I finished it off with a Dear Santa - Wordstrips which says celebrate.  I think this looks a little like a champagne bottle.

My next card went with a more CAS design:

Following the idea of a tie I decided to make a background that looked like a white shirt.   I created a white cardbase and scored a few lines on either side of a white mounted background.  I distressed everything with a touch of brown ink.  I cut the corners to follow the lines of the tie. I added a new tie pin from metallic cardstock with the same charm moved up onto the tie pin.

My final card used the most pieces from the original card but changed the cardbase and design.
I hope this gets your ideas flowing for those hard to make masculine cards.  I love the way the gazette background provides wonderful textures and depths to the focal image and the background.

Happy inking!

Suzz




Friday, June 14, 2013

Dream a Little Dream


Happy Friday!   My card today uses a sweet fairy who is holding a little ladybug. The Mojo Monday Sketch #297 as my inspiration for the layout of my card.


I love the Mo Manning illustrations and was happy that Penny Black started selling her images.  I purchased this set of fairies and haven't had a chance to play with them until just recently.

I stamped the image using Ranger Archival Ink on white cardstock. I then colored the image using my STAEDTLER watercolor pencils.  I was looking for pattern paper to coordinate with my image and found a  little bit of the My Minds Eye - Stella Rose 6x6 pad of paper.  I layered the papers in the background.  I painted the wood sentiment with white acrylic paint and smudged with a touch of blue dye ink. I added a few details with flowers, tulle and twine. 

Have a fabulous weekend!

Suzz

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Summer Shoes

The STAEDTLER Design Team was given the challenge to decorate a pair of canvas gym shoes. 
I used the STAEDTLER watercolor crayons to create my warm summer tones on my shoes.

A plain canvas shoe was our starting point:
I started with the yellow watercolor crayon:
 I colored patches of yellow onto the canvas shoe.

 I repeated the process with the orange crayon:

I finished off the shoe with the red crayon.  The beauty of this is that you can always add more color when you are finished. 
The next step is to get the shoe wet.  I spritzed it with water until it was soaked and used my finger to smear and blend the colors to get to this effect:
 
 I added the color to the inside and the tongue after I achieved the effect on the outside. I also came back and added more color in areas that didn't get enough or I wanted more of one specific color.

After I had finished that I decided I wanted a slight pattern on my shoe.  I pulled out a cling stamp from Hero Arts with a lovely damask pattern. I inked it up with an orange pigment ink. 
 The cling stamp gave me the flexibility to press the stamp into the fabric.  I also added touches where the stamp didn't completely stamp on the canvas but inking up the stamp and pressing portion of the stamp into empty areas.  I repeated this until the outside was covered.
 I then used the same techniques to color a sheet of muslin cloth.  I used the coordinating fabric to create flowers to decorate my shoe.  I die cut them using the Tattered Florals Sizzix die. I also colored white tulle by smearing the watercolor crayons on my craft mat and spritzing it until it was watery. I dipped the tulle into the inky water until it was covered in the colors.  I then let it dry. 

I wanted something to seal my shoes to help them from bleeding watercolor ink and had a lovely Krylon spray with a glittery finish.  I used this to coat my flowers, shoes and tulle.  I would test out your seal before wearing your shoes out in the rain or washing them! I wanted to heat set mine but our dryer decided to go on the blitz.  I would treat them as if you had tie dyed a t-shirt. (Cold water, like colors, etc)
 Here is the finished shoes.  I used my stylus to poke holes in the center of my flowers and brads to hold them together. I poked holes in my shoes to put the brads through the canvas and hold my flowers in place.  I would recommend covering the brads on the inside of the show to protect your feet. ;) Or attach them with stitching.
My daughters have shown a great interest in how my shoes had turned out.  Luckily my feet are a little bigger than theirs and I don't have to worry about them walking off. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Suzz


Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Be Brave

I have been happily inking away this morning.  We just arrived back from vacation and had a splendid time.  I was happy to come back and use Tim's June Tag to kick off my re-inking.  We have been visiting the National parks including Yellowstone.  The colors were phenomenal and the tag Tim created used some of the beautiful mix of colors we saw in the hydrothermal features in the park. This all blended together into my tag.


 Tim's tag used the beautiful dragonfly, I wanted to use the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous - Traveler as I haven't had a chance to use him yet.


I thought I was using watercolor paper to stamp and color my image but as I worked with it I realized I had grabbed a scrap of regular sketch paper. It worked okay but I didn't get the blending of the watercolor markers that you get with watercolor paper.  I stamped my image onto the paper using Ranger Archival Ink. I then added color using STAEDTLER watercolor markers and waterbrushes.  I blended some of the colors on my kraft mat to get a peachy color for his skin but the rest were applied to the paper and blended with water.

I added a touch of the Eye chart in the background and distressed with Walnut Distress Ink around the edges. I painted and stained the background of my tag and added the sentiment from the Stampers Anonymous -  Wat With Words in the background and used it to add the sentiment on the front.

Here is a few photos from our trip that shows the fantastic colors that inspired me:


Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz












Sunday, June 9, 2013

Button Button

Button Up!  We are playing with buttons this week at  Simon Says stamp and Show challenge.  I had these fabulous Prima Buttons that I have been hoarding and decided to use them for the challenge this week.

I decided to create a matchbox drawer set:


I recently acquired a new set of stamps and couldn't wait to ink them up.  I used them to create tamp all the images in black on pattern papers.

I created a template for myself. I am not good with visualizing three dimensional shapes so I usually will play around and sketch what I want to try first and then create a template with scraps of paper that I have ruined or copy paper that was printed and recycled. 

If you click on the photos you can see the measurements:

I created the template and then repeated it on the pattern paper.  to assemble I used the score tape to give it extra stick.  I used a variety of embellishments and border punch to finish off the top of the box. 



Products: Prima Engraver Wood Buttons, Pink Paislee - Hope ChestEK Success Binding Edge punch  Stampers Anonymous - MemoirsJourney Awakens , Cavallini & Company - Paper Tape - Paris, Ranger Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Prima Clock Parts, Tim Holtz - Chit Chat - Stickers, Filmstrip, Gem Handle, Ranger Archival Ink - Black,  .


Come join in the challenge  for a chance to win a gift certificate from   Simon Says Stamp.


Glad you stopped by!

Suzz

Winner Winner

Winner of my Stampendous, May Arts and Coredinations package is:

Barbara who said:


What a lovely gift bag! I have some friends who would absolutely love it and it gives me some ideas and inspiration for making some favor bags I will need later this summer.
June 7, 2013 at 7:20 PM

Please send me an email with your information and I will get your goodies sent out to you! 

Thanks for everyone who stopped by!

Suzz

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Henry & Harriet

I love that the new DarkRoom Door collage stamp is called Henry and Harriet.  They are posed for their portrait and they look so lovely in their finery.

The couple is framed in a house made using the numbers from the bottom of the stamp. 

The background is a corrugated cardboard with the top layer pulled off in areas to expose the underneath layer.  Smear white acrylic paint across the surface. Stamp the Corrugated Iron background stamp over the background using black ink.Stamp the script from the Vintage Office.  Add touches of paper tape around the edges. Die cut the clock from kraft paper. Distress with brown dye ink. Stamp the numbers from Home Sweet Home using black ink over the surface. Add touches of white paint to the clock frame. 

Stamp the Home Sweet Home sentiment using black ink on white cardstock. Distress with brown dye ink and ink up the edges with black ink. Cut into tag shape. Punch hole and add ribbon.  Assemble the collage and add button accents to the side.

I had fun creating this vintage scene with the sweet couple.  I colored the image with my STAEDTLER watercolor pencils. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzz




Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Stampendous Core dinations and May Arts Hop

Yes, it’s blog hop time again! This time three terrific companies are partnering  together and they are sharing inspiration all week long.  StampendousMay Arts Ribbon, Core’dinations papers and the new David Tutera line of creative papers and embellishments are all teaming up to hop together.

AND there will be prizes! On the  Stampendous Impressions Blog they will be giving away three prize packages including the Cling Jumbo Butterfly Trio (WITH Free Template included), A Jumbo Perfectly Clear Handle, a random assortment of the David Tutera products,  some Core’dinations goodies (again random), a Sand-It tool to make the most of your ColorCore paper, and some  May Arts Ribbons (random assortment). You will want to be commenting on every post this week for a chance to win!.

I was unable to play along with the team this week but wanted to share something fun I made with the newest release from Stampendous.  I created a birthday gift bag. 
Products: Stampendous Cling Birthday Fairy, Copics, Ranger Distress Inks -  Blue, Prima Flowers, Stampendous Fuschia Glitter

To celebrate the hop I am giving away a package of goodies to a randomly selected comment. If you leave a comment on my post by June 7th 11:59 you will be entered for a chance to win.  I took a quick photo of the goodies I have set aside so far.  I will be adding a few more things in the package when I send it out!

For more chances to win head over to Stampendous daily to see the inspiration from the Design teams!


As always thanks  for stopping by.

Suzz