Stampfest with Lynette

Lynette and I had a great time stamping and visiting on Monday.

We tried a distress oxide background technique

demonstrated by Richele Christensen on the Ranger blog.

Since I didn't have the oxide in peeled paint, we just used the regular distress for that color

along with the faded jeans oxide and cracked pistachio oxide.

After we dried the background with a heat tool
we spritzed a stencil with water
and placed it on the background to "lift off" color.
Our result was not as dramatic as Richele's. 

Perhaps we did not leave the wet stencil down long enough?

Jennifer McGuire has a tutorial for stamping with water for unique backgrounds.
Would like to give that a try.

We sponged ink with stencils and stamped with a manuscript stamp on the background.

Cut Wildflowers #2 Thinlits from black cardstock and attached with glue.
Punched butterflies from Lynette's 2 butterfly punches and attached.

I used a piece of muslin fabric to stamp my sentiment and mini stapled it to the black cardstock.
Lynette used cardstock.
Then the layers were attached with dimensional foam.
I copied Richele's idea and used twine.

I would like to try this technique again adding an orange as shown on Richele's California Art Girl.

Addtional inks used:
distress vintage photo, hickory smoke, frayed burlap
Versafine black onyx

Stamps used:
Tim Holtz cling, saying stuff
Hero Arts H2141 manuscript background

Friday Booklet of the Day

Today I am featuring Michael Strong’s Cloisonné Penguin Pals

on two card sized sticker booklets that I made for my grandchildren.

The penguins are "walking" on blue ice made with some swirls drawn in blue.

I made these quickly on Monday when two of our three grandchildren came to visit.

I bound the pages together with bakers twine, 

punching 3 holes in the center about 1 inch down from the edges.

You can see a diagram HERE with directions that I learned from Hetty Sanders' booklet.

Both Gavin and Vivian had fun adding stickers to their booklets.

They left the booklets here. We can play with more stickers when they come on Saturday!

Thanks for visiting me this week. 

It was fun sharing cards with members of the Enjoy Michael Strong Stamps group.io

Have a great week end!

Thursday Card of the Day, Corner Pop Up Cards

It's Technique Thursday at Enjoy Michael Strong Stamps groups.io.
 I am featuring  Michael Strong's Cloisonne Flowers, large and mini
on two versions of Corner Pop Up cards.

Here you see a Corner Pop Up card where
the bottom part folds up diagonally and into the card when it closes.
I really liked Lisa Cursio's Corner Pop Up video tutorial.

Basically you cut your paper into an 8 x 8 inch square
score in half, then turn 1/4 and score in half again to get 4 quadrants.
Then some diagonal scoring and some cutting depending on the style of card you choose.
It's so much easier to see a video of the process.
So I would recommend you watch the videos and work along.

I need to sit in front of the computer and watch Lisa's video each time I make one of these.
If you start with an 8 inch square, the finished size of your card is 4 inches square.
You can start out with a 12 x 12 inch square which results in a 6 x 6 inch card.
You will be adding panels and embellishments to the squares
before finally put the card together.

I think these cards are so much fun!
I encourage you to give it a try, if you are like me and enjoy fancy fold cards!

My paper is from a 12 x 12 DCWV pad called Posh & Pink.
I'm on a mission to use up that paper! Have made 4 cards and a name frame with it.
There is still a ton of paper left!

I used a punch for scalloped circles and flowers,
a spellbinders die for the message portion,
gemstones, dimensional foam,
and Scrapbook Adhesives Crafty Power Tape
(double sided adhesive tape that comes in a roll and is easy to tear)

This Corner Pop Up card featuring Michael Strong's Mini Cloisonné Flower
 has has a pocket for a gift card, money or note.
I used Lisa's Corner Pop Up Gift Card Holder tutorial which I really liked!
You can find many Corner Pop Up card tutorials online.

 Used Versafine black onyx ink to stamp the flowers
which were then fussy cut and adhered with dimensional foam.
Cut my own leaves and punched some flowers and added some gemstones.

The right panel has to flip down for the card to close properly.
I've tried to show that in this photo.

I wrote my own sentiment on lined printed papers from the pad.

I chose to make this style because I wanted to add a gift of money.
You can see it would be great for a gift card and/or a note.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Wednesday Card of the Day

Happy Wednesday dear friends!
Today's card for the Enjoy Michael Strong Stamps Groups.io
features Michael Strong's Cloisonné Flower and Cloisonné Leaves.

I started with a wrinkle free distress scrap from my stash.
 Harlequins were cut from it using a Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits set
called Mixed Media #1.

Mike's flower and leaves were stamped with distress oxide abandoned coral and pistachio
then fussy cut.

The layers were attached to a pink card base with dimensional foam.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Tuesday Card of the Day

Happy Tuesday my dear friends! Hope things are going well for you!
Today's Card of the Day for the Enjoy Michael Strong Stamps Groups.io
features Michael Strong's Mini Hummingbird from his Mini Wings set.

The embossed layer was a scrap I saved.
It was made with an embossing folder stamping technique
where I DID run the paper through my Cuttlebug afterward.

1. Dabbed distress broken china and walnut inkpads
onto my Sizzix Retro Circles embossing folder
-the side with the logo

2. Spritzed with water, added the paper, closed the embossing folder

3. Ran it through my Cuttlebug.

Normally for this technique, I would skip the 3rd step
and just press the paper down with my hands.
There would be no raised surfaces, just color.

It's fun to experiment with this. Here are two tutorials I really like:
Heidi Wegman's Embossing Folder Stamping
and
Audrie Magno-Gordon's Embossing Folder Stamping

For the rest of my card, I added a strip of turquoise paper
which was dry embossed with the Flowers and Leaves folder from Spellbinders.

I made my own background on the front
by stamping repeatedly repeatedly with a "thanks" word stamp
from Stampin' UP! in distress antique linen ink.

The curvy banner is from a Hero Arts Stamp & Cuts set.
Used a piece of fiber/ribbon from my stash to tie around center layer.

Here is a look at the inside of the card
where I stamped Mike's Mini Hummingbird and sentiments from Stampin' Up.

Thank you so much for visiting!

Monday Card of the Day

This week I am card captain at the Enjoy Michael Strong Stamps Group

 which moved to a new home at Groups.io.

Today's card features Michael Strong's Mini Dragonfly, wrinkle distress technique
and a piece of muslin fabric.

I used distress oxide inkpads for the background layer.

When the paper was dry, I sponged ink onto waste canvas as a stencil.

 The bottom of the card shows a strip of muslin fabric
dipped into the puddle of distress oxide inks.
Fastened it to the card with the Tim Holtz mini stapler.

Stamped and fussy cut Michael Strong's mini dragonfly and attached it with dimensional foam.

The curvy banner is from a Hero Arts Stamp & Cuts set.

Inks used:
distress oxide: abandoned coral, picked raspberry, twisted  citron
Versafine black onyx.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Easter 2018

Happy Easter!

Here is the 2018 lamb cake. 

I always use my mom's aluminum lamb cake mold

and her recipe for Wonderful Pound Cake. 

This recipe make a lot of batter.

After filling the lamb mold, I pour the excess batter to a loaf pan. 

Wishing you Easter Blessings!