Home Made Memories: June 2013

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Wood Grain Wonderfulness!

I'm a big fan of wood grain and I've loved using the technique in this tutorial from Kim Teasdale in the past so when I saw our Round 2 challenge for the CAS Summer Design Team Search was to create a woodgrain on our card, I knew I wanted to use it. I added some paint with paint daubers at the end as I wanted my wood to have that bleached out driftwood feel to it.

Here's the final card with the torn wood grain piece, stamped and sponged sand dollar, burlap, and torn and sponged bg.

Stamps: Nature's Wonders, Our Daily Bread Scripture Collection 1

Paper: Baja Breeze, Sahara Sand, Whisper White

Ink: Sahara Sand, Going Grey, Basic Grey, Close to Cocoa, Soft Suede, Baja Breeze

Accessories: Paint Daubers: Adirondak SnowCap and Espresso Ranger Weather Vane, Sponge, Markers: Basic Grey and Early Espresso, Burlap

Techniques: Faux Wood Grain, Sponging

First layer of ink applied to the Sahara Sand piece was Sahara Sand smeared using the direct to paper technique.

Going Grey for the 2nd layer of ink.

Basic Grey was next.

Close to Cocoa was the last ink layer.

Ranger Weather Vane paint going on.

After the Weather Vane has been applied.

Adirondak Espresso was next. You can see where I've made some circular areas over some areas that were splotchy after the ink....these will be areas for swirls or knot holes to add to the wood grain.

I went back over the circular areas and added more softness with Adirondak Sno Cap.

Last step was to go back with a marker to add more distinct lines and whirls. If it gets too distinct for your taste, take a wet brush to soften it or just daub or smear ink right over it. The best part of making faux wood grain is how forgiving it is!

Here's another I made with the leftover piece!

Stamps: Music Notes Wheel, Stampabilities-Feel Better Soon

Paper: Kraft, Dictionary Page, Vanilla, Sahara Sand, Baja Breeze, Real Red

Ink: Soft Suede, Versamark, Sahara Sand, Going Grey,Basic Grey, Close To Cocoa

Accessories: Paint Daubers: Adirondak SnowCap and Espresso, Sponge, Markers: Basic Grey and Early Espresso, Tim Holtz Bricked ef, Square Lattice ef, 2 1/2" circle punch, corner rounder punch, Gingham ribbon, rhinestone brad, sponge, Early Espresso Embossing powde

Techniques: Dry Embossing, Embossing, Faux Wood Grain, Sponging, Brad Bow

Clean and Simple

I don't know about you, but I find clean and simple to be anything but simple to pull off sometimes! I love the look though and I find the challenge to create CAS cards well worth the effort. Here's a few I've put together this week.


This one was made for this week's CAS challenge which was a pinterest photo inspiration in these fun bright colors. I don't often use oranges, but I like the look of my Pumpkin Pie base on this one.

Stamps: A Little Love, Bloomin' Marvelous

Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Real Red, Whisper White

Ink: Early Espresso, Versamark, Real Red

Accessories: Clear ep, Perfect Polka Dots ef, Scoring Board, Markers, Stampin' Dazzle Silver Marker, Glitter Pen

Techniques: Dry Embossing, Embossing

I'm tossing my hat in the Summer Design Team Search for the CAS challenge and this is my card for the first round. The theme is a lobster bake with this photo collage as the main inspiration and the colors: Red, Navy or Aqua, Yellow and White as our marching orders. The beach/summer theme brought this image to mind and I loved the table cloth in the picture so I just had to bring some gingham! I sponged my sky, used markers on the hat, ribbon, and flowers and used a QTip with Pastels for the skin and dress. I purposely kept the coloring minimal to add to the clean look of the card.

Stamps: Summer by the Sea, Bloomin' Marvelous

Paper: Whisper White, Midnight Muse

Ink: Stazon Timber Brown, Midnight Muse, Tempting Turquoise

Accessories: Corner Rounder Punch, Markers (Real Red, So Saffron) Pastels (Night of Navy, Blush Blossom), Cloud Moon & Stars Template, Sponged, Red Gingham Ribbon

Techniques: Sponging

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Muted Mixed Media

I've been out of the stamping room for a few days with an out of town wedding and then right back home to VBS preparations. I took time today to play along with two challenges on splitcoaststampers. I CASEd this pretty card for the Queen for the Day challenge honoring Lori aka saintsrule. I also tried out a new to me technique from the Mixability challenge. You can check out the awesome tutorial from Kyra Sanders.
Here's the final card.

Stamps: Canvas by Stampin' Up, Stampendous Jumbo Peony, Stampabilities-Trust in the Lord

Paper: Kraft, Garden Green, Natural White

Ink: Melon Mambo, Gumball Green, Garden Green, Sahara Sand, Gesso, Adirondak snowcap paint dauber

Accessories: Rose Red seam binding, Linen Thrread, Eyelet, Button, Cutter Kit Distressing Tool,

Techniques: Brilliant Pastels

I started by smearing ink directly onto a piece of acetate.

I then spritzed liberally with water.

After laying my paper directly onto the ink, I dried with my heat gun then stamped over the ink. Note how bright the colors are at this point. If this were the look I was going for it would be good to go, but I wanted a much more muted effect.

So, I took matte white Gesso and applied it over the whole piece with a credit card.

I sponged some Sahara Sand along the edges and stamped over the whole piece with the Canvas bg stamp in Sahara.

I smeared some acrylic paint over the area where I was going to add my sentiment. After I stamped the sentiment, I went back over the area with the Canvas bg stamp again.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Sketch Challenge Time Again!

It is fun to see just how versatile a sketch can be when you play around with it! I love using split card backgrounds so I knew I'd love the sketch from splitcoaststampers today!

For my first card, I went in a masculine direction when I saw this dp on my desk. I cut my piece then cut it in half and flipped one side over. I added some recycled chunky twine across the join. I used the repeated stamping technique to make it look like my horse is running across the card by stamping it full strength on the right hand side of the panel then stamping 3 more times without reinking for the effect. I embossed my sentiment in Early Espresso ep and sponged the edges in Soft Suede

Stamps: Wanted, All Year Cheer

Paper: SU dp, Early Espresso, Chocolate Chip, Natural White

Ink: Early Espresso, Soft Suede, Versamark

Accessories: Sponge, Clear and Early Espresso embossing powders, 1 3/8" circle punch

Techniques: Repeated Stamping, Embossing, Sponging

Bought these pretty papers and tags the other day and thought they'd work well for the sketch. The paper reminded me of denim so I added that across the center.

Stamps: Vintage Labels, Silhouette Sentiments

Paper: Natural Ivory, River Rock, teresa collins-Damask dp

Ink: Not Quite Navy, River Rock, Soft Suede, Versamark

Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, Scallop Circle and 1" circle punches, Vanilla Seam Binding, denim strip, K&Co tag

Techniques: Reverse Masking, Sponging, Embossing

Flipped the sketch and used the full tag this time. Used another denim accent and distressed and sponged the circle as well as sponging in Not Quite Navy around the tag.

Stamps: Circle of Friendship

Paper: River Rock, Whisper White, River Rock dp,

Ink: Not Quite Navy, River Rock

Accessories: K&Co Tag, string, Cutter kit distressing tool, denim, sponge, Recollection gold and Michael's white flowers, 1/4" white grosgrain ribbon, foam squares

Techniques: Distressing, Sponging

Couldn't resist making one more while the family watched TV that I wasn't interested in. Embossed a piece of foil that once sealed a coffee can and embossed my sentiment.

Stamps: ODB Scripture Collection 1

Paper: Baja Breeze, Cherry Cobbler, retired SU dp

Ink: Versamark

Accessories: Early Espresso embossing powder and 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, MBossabilities Reverence ef, corner rounder punch

Techniques: Dry Embossing, Embossing

Friday, June 7, 2013

Smudging Around

Oh...my...word! I've had so much fun today smudging around with paints on my cards. Today's Mixability challenge was to smudge a frame around our focal point and I've been smudging away! Here are the cards I made:

On this one I smudged Espresso paint around the edge of my embossed dp panel and Snowcap (white) around the verse and roses.

Stamps: Watercolor Minis, ODB Scripture 1

Paper: Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, K&Co. Jubilee Pink & Teal Collage dp

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Versamark

Accessories: Paint Daubers: Adirondak SnowCap and Espresso, Le Fleur Cream Rose, Early Espresso ep, sponge, Ticket Corner Punch, Close to Cocoa velvet ribbon, MBossabilities Asian ef

Techniques: Dry Embossing, Embossing, Smudging

Here's a closeup of the rose panel. These are 2 step stamps stamped in Pretty in Pink and Regal Rose some stamped off and some tone on tone.

Found these cute robot stickers at Big Lots and made a set of cards with them. These are with some prints I made on my gelatin plate. I smudged around the edges of the prints as well as on the circles and squares.

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Vintage Labels

Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Pacific Point, Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz, Gelatin Plate Print

Ink: Pacific Point, Pumpkin Pie, Garden Green, Versamark

Accessories: White embossing powder, CB Argyle and Circles ef, 3/4" 1" 1 1/4" 13/8" circle and square punches, stampin' dimensionals, sponge, Adirondak Paint Daubers

Techniques: Gelatin Plate Printing, Smudging, Dry Embossing, Embossing

These have smudging over my sponged and direct to paper stenciled bg as well as smudging and spatter on the sentiment panels.

Stamps: Itty Bitty Backgrounds, A Little Birdie Told Me and Flexible Phrases for sentiments, Studio G chevron

Paper: Poppy Parade, Bashful Blue, Brushed Silver, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Marina Mist, Basic Black, Versamark, Poppy Parade

Accessories: Chevron and Tim Holtz Steampunk efs, Full Heart, 2 1/2" circle punches, CM Oval Cutting System, sponge, clear embossing powder, Stencils: Huey's V Pattern and TCW Mini Love Beads, TPC Stickers, Paint daubers: Ranger Weather Vane, Adirondak-Cloudy Blu

Techniques: Smudging, Sponging, Dry Embossing, Embossing, Stencil BG, Rock 'N Roll

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Brad Bow

One of my favorite ways to make a bow is to use a brad. I first saw these cute bows on Mary aka stampercamper's cards. She has a picture tutorial on her blog as well, but I've had some questions about them myself lately so I decided to put together a quick tutorial. Here are some cards featuring brad bows.

Gingham ribbon with a small, polka dot brad

Organdy ribbon with a corduroy brad

Seam binding with a small silver brad

Shoe lace type string with a small brad.

This is the card I made today by doodling onto a piece of dp to add color and definition to the flowers, stems and leaves. Today's color challenge is Sahara Sand, Pink Pirouette and Soft Sky with a dessert of butterflies. The bow is natural trim with an Antique Brad.

Flip your brad over and open the prongs as widely as you can.

Take the left end of your ribbon and fold toward the right.

Now fold the right side over the left.

Lay the folded ribbon over your opened brad.

Push the ribbon down into the space between the prongs. Then fold the prongs down over the ribbon. You can carefully pull on the ends to position them downward.

Here's the finished bow.

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