I’m just getting ready to head outside to paint the trim on our house, oh joy. But before I disappear for the rest of the day I put together a card.
Here is the link to the sketch I used; Mojo Monday, Week #94
I still had scraps of papers left out from the Best Occasions Punch-Out Pack (a Wally-World purchase) so I used all of those. The words are by SugarLoaf. I took liberty and did surgery on the stamp to remove the extra line drawn flowers. I’d rather add my own flowers; thank-you very much lol!
I used a number of different things…
Gold metallic marker
Scallop boarder punch
Sizzix leaf die cut
Nestabilities oval & scallop die cuts
Sizzix 3-dot embossing folder
Cuttlebug Swiss dots embossing folder
Gold office brad
Sharpie purple marker
white & clear embossing powders
Here is a close up of the crocheted flower. A few weeks ago Nichole Heady shared a tutorial on how she made her own. You can see I used a white thread with a silvery thread.
When Nicole shared her instructions I copied them and showed them to my daughter. She promptly sat down and made one for me. She adjusted the instructions to suit her tastes better. Her sample is on the left and Nicole’s is on the right.
I don’t have time for a tutorial on the flower because I have to get outside and get painting but the quickie written version follows:
#2 metal hook & thread of choice
Ch 5; sl st together; ch 1
sc 10; sl st together; ch 1
sc 1; dc 3; sc1; skip stitch. Continue around chain until 5 petals are completed. sl st together; chain 1.
turn piece over and work from back side. Insert hook into center of flower and then out through center of hole of the petal; sc 1; chain 3; sc 1. Continue this around flower. sl st together; sc 1. You will have 5 chain loops.
Turn piece over fold top petals down to revel chain loops. In chain loop sc 1; dc 5; sc1. Repeat in each chain loop for a total of 5 petals. sl st together and end off. Weave loose end back into back of flower petals.
Clean and simple although it does have 3 layers. I cuttlebugged the top 1/3 of the card with Stylized Flowers. I added Scor-Pal lines above and below the swirl image and even added some embossed dots with my Scor-Bug.
The stamps are both by Stampin Up. The swirl is a stampin around wheel called swirl style and the words are from the set Happy Harmony. I believe both of these are retired. 99.5% of my stamps are retired, so maybe I should just quit saying that, huh?
I punched some 1/4″ hole punches and topped them off with crystal glaze. I also used some white 3-d puffy paint with glitter and traced over the swirl lines for accent.
This may look clean and simple but I don’t think it would qualify. It took quite of bit of time to cut the large seashell into three layers; water color them and then 3-d mount them to a card that has seven layers.
All the seashell images are by Stampin Up from the set Stippled Shells (retired). This is another of my rummage sale purchases. The words are by Vap Scrap and I purchased them from Michael’s Craft Store in the $1 section.
I was hoping this shot would show the three layers of the seashell and the gold flecks are the gold Pearl-X.
Hopefully you can see the dimension on the seashell. I also sprayed it with some gold Pearl-X for a slight glimmer.
I have this huge scrap box of card stock and decorative scrapbook papers. I pulled the scraps out of the box and added them to a white base card and came up with this clean and simple card. Even the ribbon is a scrap and I barely made it go around the card lol!
All stamps by Stampin Up from the set Love without End (retired). This is one of the sets I purchased from E-Bay a while back. Always good to get some use out of one of those impulse buys.
This shot shows that I added crystal lacquer to the circles on the letters friends. I stamped in sepia ink and then also added some sewing holes around the swirl.
When I looked at MaryJo’s sketch (TSSC76)** this morning I was already thinking about the papers I was going to use. I have a pad of DSP from Wally-world that I had picked up. It’s Best Occasions Punch-out pack for those of you who need to know. I just liked the colors of it.
I used my nestabilities scallop/standard ovals to die cut the ovals from the DSP package. Even the rick-rack came from punch out pack; how convenient is that?
I added just two stamps; the girl silhouette is by Close to My Heart; (Thanks again to Dawn for giving this set to me. If you really like it be sure to visit her site and order it at: Dawn’s Craft Place.) and the sassy words are from a sheet of unmounted rubber by My Heart Stamps For You. The only other thing I added was a crystal on the silhouette’s hand…we all know married women are just about unbeatable in an argument. They’ve had soooo much practice lol!
I used some 3-d mounting tape under the scallop and then again under the oval to add dimension. The gold boarder on the mat is a Marvey metallic marker.
**MaryJo is always looking for players…so hop on over to her blog and play along with us.
I was looking for a sketch to work on this morning and decided to go with Laura’s Sketch #29 at 2 Sketches 4 You.
I also had some wrinkle free distress backgrounds on my desk from the other day, so I took the blue color and the sketch design and came up with this clean and simple card.
The words are by Wordsworth.
Two Peas in a Bucket have been sharing wonderful videos of distress inks. This is one of the techniques that was shown. Take a plain (or in my case ugly) button and emboss it. I had some weathered white embossing powder, so I inked up the button and embossed. Here you can see the before and after.
To make the flower I just took a Hero Arts text stamp and inked it up with faded jeans distress ink and just stamped. I added the embossed button. It looks much better embossed than it did bright shinny gold.
My nemesis has been color theme swaps. I do not have all of the colors, so I have to make due with what I do have. I try to find shades that are close and then sponge with additional color to see if I can match up with what I’m aiming for. With that being said, don’t look too closely at the peach flower petals. In my honest opinion they look quite pink but this was the closest I could come.
I used only a text stamp on this card (Hero Arts; Art, Life & Beauty). It’s in the background of the flower.
The other day I pulled out a texture plate and it was still laying on my machine. It is the plate called fabric. I took that, rubbed it with chocolate ink and ran it through the machine with a lt. blue piece of card stock. Next I put through just the lt. blue with no ink.
The flower petals are just punched; put through an embossing folder (Cuttlebug swiss dots and Sizzix 3-dot folders); and using a blending tool rubbed some chocolate ink around each petal.
The flower center is a 3/4″ circle punch by Punch Bunch. I added some sepia lacquer too. The stem is a die cut by Sizzix called doodles.
I added some faux brads and added sepia lacquer on them for a shine too.
This card was made for a pocket swap I joined. If you would like the tutorial for the flower pot pocket card, you can find it HERE. You will find a very clear description of how to get your flower pot folded and trimmed up by Stephanie Luman.
Die cuts by Cuttlebug & Sizzlets. Leaf boarder punch by Fiskers. 3-dot embossing folder by Sizzix.
The flower was stiffened up with some versa-mark ink and clear embossing powder. I added two coats of it.
The only rubber stamping is done on the tag part of the card. Words by Hero Arts and Flourish by Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous.
I’m still working on the distress thing. Yesterday on my errands, I made sure to get some Perfect Pearls so that this technique would turn out the way it was intended.
I used the set Lost and Found by Tim Holtz under the name of Stampers Anonymous. This is a very artsy and vintage look.
I made the background using Tim’s instructions as seen here: Perfect Distress. I also started with pealed paint, but used 3 colors to do the main image; vintage photo; pealed paint and faded jeans. I also added a 1/4 frame image and a flourish from another set by Tim called Regal Flourishes those are done in pealed paint and tattered rose. I cut it down to the size I wanted then used my Scor-Pal to add embossed lines to the edge of the photo. I took a sanding block, roughed up the edges and sanded the embossed lines.
I didn’t think the word “Memoirs” stood out, so I stamped it again, this time on a prepared background of faded jeans; then I dusted it with white perfect pearls, cut it out and 3-d mounted it.
For the base I used a prepared background of pealed paint. Then stamped it with gold pigment ink in a crackle background by Rubber Stampede. I dusted it with a brush to soften it. Then I used the Fiskers Texture Plate; fabric for texture. Lastly, I used a blending tool to added more pealed paint to the boarders of the card.
After that I mounted and matted; adding a die cut flourish that has been embossed with gold (by Spellbinders doodle set) and some black photo corners. The black matted piece is edged with a metallic gold marker.
I still have the distress inks on my desk so when I decided on today’s sketch that I found at 2 sketches 4 you, that’s what I used.
I made my own DSP by starting out with the wrinkle free distressing samples I started the other day. . I used a variety of stamps from the Tim Holtz line from Stampers Anomyous and one stamp from Stampin’ Up that was a map background. A number of the lines and shmearing that you can see on the largest DSP are made with one of those fake credit cards that are mailed to solicit you to apply for a credit card. I took the edge of the card and rubbed in in the pealed paint distress ink and then randomly scrapped it across the DSP I was creating. In some places I took the side of the card like a pallet knife and swiped the ink across the paper.
This is really pretty relaxing and the DSP will match the rest of my project because I used all the distress inks to create it with.
and a close up of the bird. I stamped him on the same wrinkle free distressed paper that I had made. I made sure to save a piece that had not been stamped on so you could see a clearer image. I then spritzed him with water and dried with my heat gun to soften and blend the colors. After I assembled the card; I sprayed over-all with Pearl-X and a fixative for an all-over glimmer.
