Home Made Memories: July 2013

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Paint-Sand-Sponge

I tried a new technique today-Acrylic Distress. Here's the awesome tutorial by Beate and here's the resulting card. I've taken some step by step photos of the process.

Start with an embossed sheet-I used the Asian ef from MBossabilities. I love the deep embossing you get with these folders.

I started out trying to use my paint dauber, but I just wasn't able to get enough paint out-you want to cover the entire sheet.

So, I pulled my lid off and picked up a paintbrush. Next time I'll just raid my acrylic paint stash :)

Once your paint has dried (this is the hard part-being patient) You need to sand the paint off your raised areas.

Here's what the sheet looks like before sponging. I like this look too, but the sponging adds even more depth and definition to the look.

Here comes the sponging-Soft Suede going on!

Here's the final card with a sponged embossed Nestabilities Circle with an embossed Scripture verse and a die cut tree turned branch and added some tiny blossoms with pearls. I used today's sketch from the sketch challenge at splitcoaststampers.com

Stamps: Our Daily Bread Scripture Collection #1

Paper: Soft Suede, Natural Ivory, Recollections Ivory, Early Espresso, Blushing Bride and BB dp, Pink Pirouette

Ink: Soft Suede, Versafine Sepia

Accessories: Early Espresso ep, MBossabilities Asian ef, Impression Obsession Bare Tree die, Lacy Border Punch, Pearls, Stylus, Adirondak Cloudy Blue Paint, Nestabilities Circles, Sanding Block, Sponge, Distressed Texturz Plate

Techniques: Acrylic Distress, Dry Embossing

Monday, July 29, 2013

Creating a Layered Banner

Here's Sarah's card-don't you just love the colors and all the wonderful added details!


My finished card.

Notching the red layer.

Before the marker is added to the edge

Using the marker to add the depth to the edge.

Closeup shot

Stamps: Itty Bitty Banners

Paper: Real Red, Whisper White, Hostess Patterns Pack dp

Ink: Real Red

Accessories: Scoring Board, Borders Plate, Stylus, 3/4" Square, Lg Scallop Circle and 1 2/4" circle punches, Bitty Banners Framelits, Stampin' Dimensionals, Rhinestones, Real Red Marker

Techniques: Dry Embossing/Scoring

Sunday, July 28, 2013

CAS Typewriter

This is my sample card for the CAS Challenge this week which is a sketch challenge. It makes for a great, quick card. I wanted to use Washi tape for my vertical strips and that led me in the b/w direction. Love to add pops of red to mainly b/w cards.

I stamped my typewriter on an angle and added the "type" on the corners. I also masked and stamped more on the inside bottom of the card. A tiny red heart with the sentiment and the red base are my pops of color. I used a marker along the edge of the image panel to help set it off without adding another layer to keep it more CAS.

Stamps: You're My Type, Alphabits

Paper: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Basic Black

Accessories: Marker, Hearts punch, SMASH tape

Saturday, July 27, 2013

It's That Time of Year Again-Dare to Get Dirty

If you've ever wanted to spend a week of intense stamping with lots of great ideas and inspiration then the Dare to Get Dirty Challenges are for you! Today kicked off with 6 challenges...here's where the inspiration took me.

Mostly monochromatic-this one is a CASE of a card by a previous queen for the day Francie G. Lots of sponging and my pear was watercolored then masked before I stamped the script. Sponged the leaves in the die and added a linen thread bow. This will go to my mom who has had a rough time with a GI infection.

Stamps: Infinite Goodness, French Script, You Are Loved (sentiment)

Paper: Natural Ivory, Crumb Cake

Ink: Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, So Saffron

Accessories: Secret Garden Framelits, Sponge, Linen Thread, Aqua Brush

Techniques: Masking, Sponging, Watercoloring with Ink Pad

Used a technique to cut my own chevrons!

Stamps: Swirls and Curls Verses

Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight

Ink: Tempting Turquoise

Accessories: Scoring Board, ribbon flower from barrette

Techniques: Chevron Strips

The main panel is a paper napkin glued to the base.

Stamps: Kindness Matters

Paper: White, Cherry Cobbler, paper napkin

Ink: Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: AccuCut ant, Designer Label and Small Oval punches, Gingham ribbon, ModPodge

Techniques: Dry Embossing

Butterfly punch pansies against a faux denim bg over an inked embossed base.

Stamps: Too Terrific Tags

Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green, Natural White

Ink: various blues, Elegant Eggplant, reinkers

Accessories: Vintage Wallpaper ef, Butterfly, Wide Oval, Lg and Small Tags and Photo Corners Punches, Stylus, Crimper, Ribbon, dimensionals, foam circle, corner rouncer punch

Techniques: Butterfly Punch Pansies, Fork Bow, Faux Letterpress, Faux Denim

Sanded an embossed piece of Core'dination paper and added a watercolored image and denim strip.

Stamps: Summer by the Sea, Warmest Regards, Congrats

Paper: Natural White, Watercolor Paper, Not Quite Navy, Dictionary Page, Core'dinations

Ink: Stazon Black, Versafine Onyx, Bayou Blue

Accessories: Time Holtz Pocket Watches ef, sanding block, sponge, Designer Label and Modern Label punches, Watercolor Crayons, Aquapen

Techniques: Watercoloring with watercolor crayons, Tearing, Dry Embossing, Sanding, Sponging

I think my final card of the day might be my favorite. This was inspired by some wallpaper and took me out of my normal color palette. I masked the curved area and used markers to add color to the bg Floral stamp. A crumpled seam binding brad bow accents the great verse!

Stamps: Floral and Canvas bg stamps, Words of Wisdom, Thoughts & Prayers

Paper: Calypso Coral, Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke

Ink: Calypso Coral, Always Artichoke

Accessories: Markers, Antique Brad, Circle punch, Vanilla Seam Binding

Techniques: Masking, Thumping

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Two Blues & A Coral-AKA This Week's Color Challenge

Really pretty color combo this week for splitcoaststampers Color Challenge: Bashful Blue, Marina Mist and Calypso Coral.

Watercolored from ink pad lids and layered with gem centers then popped over die cut leaves and an embossed panel over and embossed base. The sentiment and backing piece are both double punched.

Stamps: Secret Garden, Sweets Sampler

Paper: Calypso Coral, Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Whisper White

Ink: Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Calypso Coral

Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots and Honeycomb embossing folders, Little Leaves die, Timeless Type alphabet dies, Designer Label and Word Window punches, paintbrudh, rhinestones

Techniques: Dry Embossing, Double Punching, Watercoloring from ink pad lid

The back panel is layered stamping with a sponged embossed frame. The sentiment panel is stamped multiple times without re-inking for the variation in color. I popped this panel over the ribbon and added a brad bow.

Stamps: Polka Dots And Paisley

Paper: Calypso Coral, Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Whisper White

Ink: Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Calypso Coral

Accessories: Tulip Frame ef, sponge, Dusty Durango ribbon, Hodgepodge Hardware Vanilla, Wide Oval punch

Techniques: Brad Bow, Sponging


This is a mostly one layer card. I'm not completely thrilled, but uploaded it anyway to show the versatility of these colors! Stamp sets:Polka Dots and Paisley, Seeing Spots and an unknown foam alphabet set.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Inspired Love

Made a few cards with a similar theme so I thought I'd throw them up together. The first two are for the CAS Challenge this week which is to be inspired by the pretty photo Denise chose. I went fairly literal with the first, and used similar elements for the second.

I started by making a faux wood piece using the direct to paper technique as in the tutorial from the resources here. I used: Soft Sky, Marina Mist & Island Indigo for the blue area as well as Bravo Burgundy and Chocolate Chip for the upper area. I then loaded up a sponge with Whisper White craft ink and used it to soften and lighten up the woodgrain. I also spritzed a bit more blue onto the bottom with reinker and water in a spritzer. I cut my piece down to the size I wanted then punched a heart out of a sticky note and then used a craft knife to cut out the heart from my wood piece. I used an emery board to smooth it out and then sponged blue where the white was showing through. I added some twine and a metal key brad to this. I used a Natural White base for my card. I stamped my sentiment then embossed in black ep. The card looked a little too bare for me, so I sponged Sahara Sand through some drywall mesh tape and then sponged a bit of Marina Mist on the edges.

Stamps: Small Script

Paper: Basic Black, Natural White, Whisper White

Ink: Soft Sky, Marina Mist & Island Indigo, Bravo Burgundy, Chocolate Chip, and Whisper White Craft, Versafine Onyx, blue reinkers

Accessories: Black embossing powder, Full Heart Punch, Spare Parts key brad, American Crafts twine, sponge, dry wall mesh tape, spritzer

Techniques: Faux Wood, Embossing

This time I used a strip of the wood grain piece that I accented with two metal pieces. I used drywall mesh tape and Versamark to emboss the texture in clear on my hearts. I popped one up for extra dimension. I stamped my sentiment in Night of Navy and used the same for my card base.

Stamps: Bloomin' Marvelous

Paper: Night of Navy, Natural White, Purely Pomegranate

Ink: Soft Sky, Marina Mist & Island Indigo, Bravo Burgundy, Chocolate Chip, and Whisper White Craft, Night of Navy

Accessories: Clear embossing powder, sponge, metal brads and pieces, Full Heart, drywall mesh, Stampin' Dimensionals, sponge

Techniques: Faux Wood, Embossing

I had seen this beautiful ring on the inspiration site yesterday, but didn't have time to make a card. This afternoon I gave myself a card-making session instead of taking a nap. I loved the metal technique from this week's technique challenge from this awesome tutorial and thought it would really work well for a card based on the inspiration piece. I took some thin cardboard and cut the narrow strips first and punched hearts too. I glued the strips down then added the hearts and some drywall mesh. I then cut my metal tape into pieces and covered the whole strip. I took my stylus to add definition around the texture and dimension of the cardboard pieces. I also "drew" some patterns onto the hearts. I also used my cropadile to add faux rivets. Next step is to coat the whole piece in black acrylic paint and then used a dry baby wipe to pull most of it off the piece. After drying the paint with a heat gun I smeared some gold ink on. I then turned my attention to my metal "30" piece that I'd purchased and daubed with the wipe I'd used that had the paint and ink on it. I then dusted the whole piece with a mix of ep that I use when I want to make old-looking metal. Once I'd embossed that, I decided I wanted some of that look on my main piece too so I smudged the same inks on and embossed the same ep. I stamped my sentiment &used dry wall mesh with Versamark to emboss clear ep onto my Cherry Cobbler hearts and made a Cherry Cobbler fork bow as well. I used a black bg and a Cherry Cobbler base. I used dimensionals to pop my 30 with its accent metal pins with flowers and beads and also the hearts.

Stamps: Polka Dots And Paisley

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black

Ink: Versamark, Encore Gold

Accessories: Hearts punch, black, gold, silver and copper embossing powders mixed, Large Heart punch, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, metal charm, pins & bead combo, metal foil tape, stylus, cropadile, sponge

Techniques: Metal Foil Tape Art, Fork Bow, Embossing

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Desk Top Creations

One of my favorite ways to challenge myself is to make something using leftovers from my messy desktop. Here's one that used a reverse from a die cut. I remember that I did intentionally cut the leaves in a row thinking that it might look cool on a future card or as a mask. I also used one of my favorite techniques-inlaid embossing to incorporate the leftover into my card.

This is also a CASE of this pretty card by Pam/Bailmac as the Queen for the Day challenge last week was to CASE a card from a previous Queen whose name starts with "A" or "B". Pam uses a lot of twine accents on her cards, so I added the linen thread and button instead of ribbon and a slide.

Stamps: Pursuit of Happiness

Paper: Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green

Ink: Early Espresso

Accessories: Little Leaves Die, Square Lattice ef, Linen Thread, wood button

Techniques: Inlaid Embossing

Here's a card I made previously using another reverse mask and paint before embossing with the Square Lattice. I liked the pops of red against the cool blues. This was made from a sketch from Janette for the splitcoaststampers.com sketch challenge a while back.

Stamps: Warmest Regards, Flourish from Season of Joy

Paper: Soft Sky, Pacific Point, Poppy Parade

Ink: Poppy Parade, Adirondak Paint Dauber

Accessories: Little Leaves Die, Medium Oval and Designer Label Punches, Baja Breeze Seam Binding, flowers, Square Lattice embossing folder

Techniques: Dry Embossing, Stencil

Monday, July 15, 2013

I Love Color Challenges!

I really love color challenges because they often pull me out of my comfort zone/go to colors and stretch me into those ink pads that would otherwise sit and gather dust. I loved the combos chosen for both this week's CAS challenge and the color challenge on splitcoaststampers.com.

The CAS challenge featured: Sahara Sand, Primrose Petals, Calypso Coral and White. I did a simple spatter and colored my sentiment in the same colors. I added some Sahara around the letters to add depth. I inked my ribbon on both sides by swiping it across my Calypso pad. I then poured a bit of rubbing alcohol onto this to distribute the colors more evenly. I love to use alcohol instead of water because it dries faster.

Stamps: Seasonal Sayings

Paper: Sahara Sand, Whisper White

Ink: Sahara Sand, Primrose Petals, Calypso Coral, Basic Black

Accessories: Markers, Paint Brush, Ticket Corner Punch, Whisper White Organza

Techniques: Spatter, Dyed Ribbon

A simple popsicle formed from tags cut with a sizzix die with the tops cut off. I thumped my sentiment and popped it over the embossed bg and popsicle.

Stamps: Sweet Sampler, Canvas

Paper: Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Primrose Petals, Calypso Coral

Ink: Primrose Petals, Calypso Coral

Accessories: Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Stampin' Dimensionals, paintbrush, Sizzix Tags die, Corner Rounder and wide ovalpunches

Techniques: Punch Art, Dry Embossing, Thumping

This one is for the color challenge which is: Baked Brown Sugar, Wisteria Wonder, Crisp Cantaloupe & Very Vanilla with a dessert of adding a pin or clip. I inked with Versamark then Brown Sugar and embossed in clear. Colored the butterfly with a brush and inks from the ink pad lids. I strung some pearls on linen thread for accents.

Stamps: Swallowtail, Simply Sketched

Paper: Very Vanilla, Crisp Cantaloupe, Wisteria Wonder, Neutral Patterns Pack dp

Ink: Versamark, Baked Brown Sugar, Crisp Cantaloupe, Wisteria Wonder

Accessories: Clear embossing powder, Linen Thread, pearls from Pretties kit, Vintage Trinkets, Brush

Techniques: Embossing

Metal Foil Tape Art

Today's technique challenge was to make metal foil tape art and included this awesome video tutorial. I decided to make a sign for my studio (aka corner in the unfinished basement). Here's what I ended up with.

Started with a piece of heavy cardboard and embossed it in the Tim Holtz Steampunk ef. I liked the ideas of gears like the creative ideas that roll around in my mind!

Glued down grunge board letters (also Tim Holtz) and added some wire mesh and dry wall tape accents.

Here's where the metal tape comes in. You cut it in various sizes and layer it over the entire surface.

Use a stylus to go around your letters for definition.

I also burnished over the background areas with my bone folder.

I went back with the stylus to bring out the mesh, gears and tape more clearly.

A closeup pre-paint

Paint over the whole surface with black acrylic.

Use a tissue to remove most of the paint. I did this while is was still mostly wet.

I had forgotten to "distress" the metal so I went back with my scrub pad, a wire brush was used in the video.

I didn't have the type of paint used in the video so I added layers of 3 paint colors intended to sponge a verdigris look.

Added eyelets with my cropadile

Another look at the final product. It was a lot of fun. Hope you'll give it a try!

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Emerging Color

Today's color challenge was a Christmas in July with Cherry Cobbler, Gumball Green and Crumb Cake as the combo. I have made Christmas cards using the emerging color technique before and thought I'd do a spin on that. Here's the card I made last year (probably one of my all time faves).

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Medallion, Seasonal Sentiments

Paper: Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Versamark, Always Artichoke

Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder, Sponge, Pearl

Techniques: Emerging Color, Embossing, Sponging, Omitting With Markers

I love the look of the layered stamping. Here are step by steps of the process I used to make my card today.

I masked off the back side of the card so I could have a nice flat surface without the bulk of folding the card first and trying to stamp it. I stamped my flourish in Cherry Cobbler.

I then stamped the Medallion in Versamark and embossed it in clear ep.

Here's the easy wow factor, sponge a dark color over the embossed image and it will really pop! Here I'm using Gumball Green.

The finished product...wish I hadn't messed up the star, but such it is. I added more Crumb Cake sponging to the bottom and sides. I may play around with design some more and use it for more cards this Christmas. I'd like to lower the Medallion and change to a vertical layout.

Stamps: Come to Bethlehem, Baroque Motifs, Medallion

Paper: Very Vanilla

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Gumball Green, Versamark

Accessories: Clear ep, Rhinestones, Gold ep, Sponge

Techniques: Emerging Color

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