Merry Christmas 2012

Oh what fun it was making this year's Christmas card!  Lots going on here so let me break it down.
1)  The background is a combination of dry embossing with heat embossing on top.  It's a technique I learned in a class last year that gets the shiny stuff into the impressed areas of the paper.  I won't go into all of the boring details...
2)  The big green ornament is distress ink and crackle glaze on grungeboard that has been die cut into the ornament shape.
3)  The vintage girl was found in a junk shop.  She was just a little cardboard ornament hanging on a wall and they sold it to me for 14 cents.  I had her scanned and copied in multiples on fresh paper.
4)  Finally, the text is stamped and punched out.  Whew!

I want to wish everyone (well, the two of you who read my blog anyway) a Very Merry Christmas!!

Faux Metal Birthday

Every since Tim Holtz posted his method for making faux metal finish effects on paper, I have been playing with the idea.  It makes a nice masculine background and I had a couple of 'guy birthdays' that I wanted to make cards for.  I put so much stuff on the card that you can hardly see the background, but, it looks like sheet metal riveted together.  Then I stapled some of the film strip and added some dictionary page and a stamped typewriter.  Oh and I glued on some hardware, too.

Here is the link to the technique - I am thinking about doing a picture frame this way...

http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-2012-september/

Halloween Cards!

Happy Halloween my friends!  Oh this is definitely my favorite time of year and I love making all things spooky and scary.  This card design came from a Stampin Up workshop and  I have to give Teresa Clark credit for the design.  She is my Stampin Up contact and I have learned a lot from her club meetings and workshops.  Those paper rosettes are so much fun to make!  My husband provided the cord that ties in the button.  He found it at work and I thought it looked like licorice.  There were several different buttons used - I couldn't pick just one.  Here is the inside as well.

I've got some other things to post soon and I am looking for my Halloween masthead.  It is somewhere on a jump drive I think - I really need to get organized some day...

Lynne Perrella Stamps

Happy Birthday to You!

 

This birthday card was made using stamps from Lynne Perella's line (http://www.lkperrella.com/).  I used the bottle template offered from Stamper's Sampler and the funky ribbon came in a supply swap I participated in (it looks like a green feather boa and I added a punched decorated butterfly).

 

I hope my lovely niece receives it eventually - I decided to track the letter via USPS and I see that it was sent to the wrong city!!  Looks like the mistake was caught because it was returned to Atlanta.  Where will it go next??

 

I absolutely love these stamps and have made several cards from them including this one I sent to my Mom.  I took one of the leftover images from the birthday card, colored it, and then liberally coated the image in Glossy Accents.  Which is a technique I will use again.  I love the way it looks!  The background is dry embossed using one of Tim Holtz's Texture Fades and then dabbed with paint.

 

 

Discover Swap Results - Wow!

Here is what I received from my Canadian swap partner for the Great Stitched Postcard Swap.  This lady really can sew up a beautiful collage.  That is an actual leaf sewn to the card folks!  I love the colors and the sewn on bling.  Thank you swap friend!

And here is what I sent to Canada.  As you can see, I am not much at stitching.  The punched out circles are from a map and they are centered around Georgia and Canada (where my swap partner lives).  Just looking at the zig zags kind of gives me a headache now, but, at the time I thought it was cool.

Butterfly Dream Box

'I'm going to keep catching that butterfly in that dream of mine'  The Verve.

I have always loved that song - it almost became a mantra for me in the late 90's.  I made this box for my sister who is celebrating a significant birthday this month.  She is an amazing woman and I love her dearly.

The box was just a plain old wooden recipe box (the large variety) that I found at Goodwill.  I stained it using the Tim Holtz distress stains (warm honey and fired brick).  I then stamped the butterflies with Staz'on and added the 'dream' label with a metal Tim Holtz frame.  I got the idea from a British Stamping magazine, so this is not an original idea.

Oh and the card!  I made this using a Nick Bantok stamp that my friend Gloria loaned me.  I've been waiting for the right occasion to send this card.

Happy Birthday Sis!

A Blast From the Past

I was cleaning up the computer the other day, and found these pics of a card I made for one of my grand-nephews (is that how you describe the son of a niece?) a couple of years ago.  There is that robot stamp again - I do love that stamp and space themes are another favorite of mine.

It is hard to read, but, the card says 'Earth to Niko - you are 1'.

A Gift from Dr. Craftenstein

Check out this very cool card I received from my friend Dr. Craftenstein.  This card was stitched by hand!   I absolutely love it and will be framing it and putting it on my desk at my new job.  (Yes I am moving to a new programming position - I have to fund my craft obsession somehow).

You can check out my friend's blog at  drcraftenstein.blogspot.com.

Speaking of stitching cards, I am again participating in the Great Stitched Postcard Swap.  The theme is 'Discover'.  I'll share my results when I am done and whatever I receive in return.  Here is the link to the swap - http://www.dowhatyouloveforlife.com/swap

Captured Fairy

Well, here she is!  This is the result of a swap on rubberstampchat (my favorite place for stamping swaps).
The fairy is stamped, colored with Copic markers, and then glittered up with some gel pens.  The difficult thing is assembling.  Assembling so that it won't fall apart when shipped.  Very difficult at times, and next time I will find a jar with a wider mouth.

 However, with copious amounts of Diamond Glaze and some judicious use of (hopefully) hidden toothpicks, she is standing up and staying up.  The shiny greenery in the background came from a sheet of Martha Stewart stickers - God Bless Martha.  Yes that is an egg!

One requirement was to decorate the lid and to add a tag. I hear she arrived safe and sound - I miss her sturdy presence in the craft room.

Happy Easter 2012

Happy Easter Everyone.  Here are some of the cards I sent.  I've used this rabbit stamp before on my very first Easter cards, but, it is such a favorite that I reused it for my 2012 cards.

Each card has different button embellishments.  I found a big jar of bright buttons at the flea market for $2 and it was great fun picking out the combinations for my Easter card flowers.

Have a blessed Easter holiday!

Happy 50th Birthday!

This tag was created to hang on a gift for my dear friend's 50th birthday, and yes, she IS a smoking hot vixen.
Happy Birthday!!

Stampapalooza ATCs!

I am sure you are all aware that the 'Heirloom Rubber Stamp and Paper Arts Festival' was in town Feb 4-5.  That is a mouthful, so we just call it 'Stampapalooza' at our house.

During the festival, there is an ATC (Artist Trading Card) contest and so I entered these two (the theme was Robots):

ATC's are 2.5" X 3.5" in size and very fun to make because there isn't much space to cover.  I didn't win the contest, but, I have to admit that the prize winner created a beautiful ATC.  I am pretty happy with mine, too.