Dina's Handwritten Heart Collage Cards

I am on a roll and having fun making my own backgrounds with distress ink.

Smooshed color onto an acrylic block, added a bit of water using my water brush and painted the colors onto white cardstock. It actually works better with watercolor paper because the regular card stock does not hold up well to a lot of brushing. I used distress fossilized amber, worn lipstick and picked raspberry.

Allowed to dry and stamped with Dina Wakley's Handwritten Heart Collage stamp using Versafine Onyx Black ink. After the stamping was dry I fussy cut along the edge of the stamped border. Then dry embossed the layer with Park Lane's Flower Repeat embossing folder 

and sponged distress ink onto the edges and over parts of the top.

 Wrapped twine around the layer and tied with a bow before adhering to a kraft card.

This one became a thank you card--used Stampin' Up! sentiment, fussy cut with a deckle edge scissors.

Thanks for visiting! Hope all is well with you and yours!

Black Card Challenge-Fa La La La La

Here is the card I made for the black card challenge on the Michael Strong Facebook group.

I am seeing these dear penguins shop till they drop before the black Friday sales end! 

Why not make up your card, submit it to the Facebook group and hope for a chance to win a Michael Strong stamp!

I copied the details of the challenge here:

One day challenge: share your black card with us and you have a chance to win a Michael Strong stamp. Of course you can add a little color, but a lot of black and MUST have a MS stamp of course. You have until Cyber Monday - Dec 2 - to add your card!

The penguins are from Michael's Cloisonne Penguin Pals stamp set.

Sheet music from  Cuttlebug Allegro embossing folder, fussy cut and sponged with distress black soot ink. The snow is cardstock, fussy cut and then put through a Fiskars corrugator tool.

Sentiment hand written and fussy cut.

Happy stamping! I'd rather stamp than fight the crowds!

Friday Card of the Day

Today's card of the day features a penguin from Michael Strong's Cloisonne Penguin Pals stamp set. 

This cute penguin was residing in my stash, already stamped and embossed! All I had to do was fussy cut him...or is it a her? I love the gym shoes she is wearing!

She is standing near icy cold water...maybe on a snow packed seashore on a sunny day.

Not sure if it actually looks that way???

For the background "scene" I used watercolor pencils and a water brush.  I used an acrylic block for my workspace, wetting the tip of the watercolor pencil by squeezing the water brush. The color lifted/transferred to the water brush and then I could paint the colors onto my watercolor paper. I took a photo of what I am trying to describe, however I did not use any red on this project.

These are the watercolor pencils I used from my collection:

Crayola yellow

Staedtler Karat "blue" 3

Staedtler Karat "blue" 30

Derwent "spectrum blue" 32

Using a Nestabilities Labels 8 oval die, I cut the paper and hand wrote the sentiment with a Faber Castell PITT pen XS. The edges were sponged in distress salty ocean. Then the layer was dry embossed with a Swiss dots embossing folder.

Thank you for visiting! I am thankful to be part of the Enjoy Michael Strong Stamps group.io

Peace and all good!

Thursday Card of the Day

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today's card features Michael Strong's Cloisonne Leaves stamp.
My inspiration is from Patty Bennett's card.

Stamped Mike's smaller leaf in distress inks: crushed olive, barn door, frayed burlap and carved pumpkin. Fussy cut the leaves and sponged the edges. Used Tim Holtz' Sizzix Thankful embossing folder which I sponged with dried marigold distress ink.

Stamped the sentiment in Versafine onxy black using Stampin' Up!'s Day of Gratitude stamp. Punched with a 2 inches wide x 1.5 inches high oval punch. Sponged the edges in distress carved pumpkin ink. Tied twine around the Thanksgiving embossed layer.

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Wednesday Card of the Day

Today's card features the small seahorse from Michael Strong's Cloisonne Seahorse stamp set.

My inspiration is from Kim Undseth's card.

My card base is Stampin' Up cardstock from my stash. Using a Time Holtz stencil from a Distress Mixed Media Spray Stain kit, I stenciled the circles and numbers with Artist's Loft Acrylic modeling paste and let it dry thoroughly. 

My tag is made with watercolor paper from my stash. Used distress ink smooshed onto acrylic block plus water and a paintbrush to add color to the tag: abandoned coral, crushed olive, carved pumpkin. Used a corner punch and a 1/4 inch hole punch on the top, then added twine.

The edges of a doily and torn sheet music are sponged with frayed burlap distress ink.

Stamped Mike's seahorse and sentiment (by Momenta) with distress barn door ink.

Thanks for visiting!

Tuesday Card of the Day

Today's card features the vine stamp from Michael Strong's Pumpkin Harvest stamp set.

Today's background was made with Tim Holtz distress crayons, water and a paintbrush. I scribbled onto an acrylic block, dipped my paintbrush in water then wet the scribbles and applied the color to my watercolor paper. Colors used: fossilized amber, festive berries, peeled paint and rusty hinge. 

When the background was dry, I applied distress crayon directly onto the vine stamp, first spritzing the stamp with water so the crayon would dissolve and stick to the stamp. I worked quickly before the crayons dried on the stamp. I added a spritz of water to a few dry spots on the stamp before stamping. Tim Holtz mentions in this YouTube at the 3:00 minute mark "you can stamp over the top of them but not with them".  It was fun to experiment with the distress crayons. If you don't like the "runny" look, regular watercolor crayons or pencils might be a better choice.

When the layer was dry, I dry embossed it with Park Lane's Flower Repeat embossing folder.

The dreams sentiment, stamped in Stampin' Up's rose romance, is from a Tim Holtz Visual Artistry set called Flights of Fancy.

Thanks for visiting! Hope your you have a wonderful day!

Monday Card of the Day

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

Today's card features the smaller leaf from Michael's Cloisonne Leaves set.

My inspiration came from Karen Dunbrook's Leaves card. Probably the only similarity is that I used distress inks and a paintbrush. Does that happen to you? Being inspired and then going off on a tangent? I had fun with it so I guess that's the main thing.

I used some watercolor paper from my stash...not sure of the brand or weight, but it was a thinner type.

I smooshed distress ink onto my craft sheet and spritzed with water. Then I pressed the leaf stamp into that puddle of color and stamped with it. Used squeezed lemonade, fired brick and rusty hinge. The lemonade came out too light. After it dried I re-stamped with fossilized amber oxide right from the inkpad over the dried lemonade impression. 

For the background I smooshed scattered straw  and crushed olive in two spots on my craft sheet. Spritzed each with water.  With paintbrush I picked up the scattered straw color and applied it to the unstamped parts of the paper. I ended up blending both the straw and olive colors together with my paintbrush and applied that to the background and let it all dry.

I used my paintbrush loaded with crushed olive ink and water to flick spatters.

Then I embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. 

Stamped the sentiment in Versafine onxy black using a Stampin' Up set called Day of Gratitude.

Thanks so much for visiting! Hope you have a very blessed week! 

November 20 Stampfest at Lynette's

Lynette and I had a wonderful time Wednesday visiting and making cards!

Our first card was inspired by Dawn Turley's butterfly card.
We used Tim Holtz' watercolor crayons-festive berries, seedless preserves, fossilized amber and peeled paint, scribbling on our craft sheet, spritzing with water and using a paintbrush to apply the color onto watercolor paper. I found the Tim Holtz distress crayon watercolor kit on clearance for about $14 at Michaels.

Once the paper was dry we stamped a Hero Arts script stamp in hickory smoke using Hero Arts H2141 Manuscript Background. Then we used a stencil from another kit: Tim Holtz distress  mixed media spray stain kit-numbers and circles.

Lynette stamped some butterflies in hickory smoke.

I added more stenciling with fossilized amber and picked raspberry. Used a stencil from my stash that I had bought in The Netherlands a few years ago-thanks Hetty!!
We dry embossed the layer with Park Lane's Flower Repeat embossing folder and sponged the edges in hickory smoke.

We used Lynette's Tim Holtz "butterfly duo" thick die and embossing folder for the butterflies. We sponged with a few colors ending with festive berry and hickory smoke.

 Our flower card was inspired by Karen Dunbrook's card. We spritzed the flower stamp, applied Tim Holtz watercolor crayons directly to the stamp, spritzed again then stamped on watercolor paper.

Stamps: Hero Arts: E2900 A Real Candytuft, F2897 A Real Wild Poppy, C3270 Verbena,
C2830 Real Wild Aster, C2899 A Real Bluebonnet

TH watercolor crayons: seedless preserves, peeled paint, fossilized amber, festive berries
We used the same Park Lane "Flower Repeat" embossing folder on the green layer for this card.

The butterfly is punched from a Martha Stewart punch and "painted" with picked raspberry

Our third card was inspired by Jacqueline de Groot's Winter Scene houses card.
We used Lynette's Stampin' Up set, In the City. We started stamping the houses at the bottom. Lynette cut out masks and we proceed to stamp above each row, using Stampin' Up creamy caramel ink. The stamp set has a separate stamp to fill in the color of the houses. Very easy and fun. Other inks used: SU close to cocoa, chocolate chip, pistachio pudding, pretty in pink, bordering blue, barely banana.

Thanks for visiting.
Wishing you a very special week of remembering our blessings and giving thanks!

Drawing with Grace, November 18, 2019

My sister Grace, and I spent some time together on Monday testing out art supplies.

Grace made this drawing of the Farnsworth House using colored pencils.

I revisited a stampfest project that Lynette and I worked on in October inspired by Heather Telford's  Lake Wanaka mountain scene card. This time I used Stampin Up watercolor pencils with an aqua painter/waterbrush.

Grace made these cool origami paper cranes with some printed papers that she gave me. When you hold onto the bottom, you can pull the tail to make the wings flutter.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!

Halloween Cards 2019

I started making some Halloween cards on Saturday.

Punched a circle to use as a mask for the "moon". Then sponged distress inks onto the paper: chipped sapphire, fossilized amber, peeled paint. Used hickory smoke to add cloud streaks in the moon and sky and also along edges of the paper.

Pumpkins stamped in distress carved pumpkin and colored with coloring pencils.

Used Versafine onxy black for the sentiment.

Stamps from:

Michael Strong-cloisonne alphabet (Boo), and pumpkin harvest (large pumpkins)

Posh Impressions-tree

Hero Arts-Halloween sentiment

Bat and tiny pumpkins are unmounted stamps from my stash given to me by Lynette.

Trees are from Lynette's Sizzix Branch Tree which I had in my stash.

I made six more cards on Monday.

This time I drew trees on brown cardstock and cut them out. 

After dry embossing a Darice tree, I sponged it with fall colors using distress inks:

wild honey, fired brick, peeled paint, fossilized amber, rusty hinge and gathered twigs for the tree trunk.

This tree was created with the embossing folder stamping technique.

 I like to refer to these two tutorials for the embossing folder stamping technique:

Heidi Wegman's Embossing Folder Stamping
and
Audrie Magno-Gordon's Embossing Folder Stamping

Onto the raised side of the embossing folder, I dabbed distress inks: rusty hinge, wild honey, fired brick, peeled paint, fossilized amber on the leaves and gathered twigs on the tree trunk and branches of the embossing folder. Spritzed with water. Placed a piece of watercolor paper in the embossing folder. Closed it and pressed it down with my hands. When I opened the embossing folder the tree image was transferred to the paper.

I decided to add color to the white space using a paintbrush, distress ink and water. I transferred distress ink to my craft sheet by dabbing it. In another spot, I spritzed some plain water. I wet my brush with water then grabbed some ink with the brush. In that way, I added color to the paper. It was fun playing with the color. After it dried, I added some lines  with a black XS Faber Castell PITT pen. With distress carved pumpkin ink, I stamped the tiny pumpkins on a separate piece of watercolor paper. Then added some distress inks with my paintbrush: spiced marmalade, carved pumpkin and peeled paint to color in the white areas.

Variations on a theme...hope you are not bored! I switched to faded jeans for the sky and used a favorite Penny Black tree stamp, fantasy 3880K. Used mowed lawn and my home made curvy hills templates. 

I made a Birthday/Halloween card for my friend's daughter who was born on Halloween!  I was heavy handed with the sponging of color on the dry embossed Darice tree. Cut apart a Hero Arts Happy Birthday sentiment and the Halloween sentiment combining them.

Thanks for visiting!

Hope you have a very fun Halloween!

Stampfest with Lynette October 16, 2019

Lynette and I had a great time stamping last Wednesday. We started by looking at ideas Lynette had pinned on Pinterest. The mountain scene card was not one of her pins. We were in search of Heather Telford's Lilac card and ran across her Lake Wanaka mountain scene card! It looked so dreamy and beautiful we wanted to play with that idea.

We used a pencil to draw the basic lines of the mountains. Then we decided to use inks and a water brush to "paint" them. We smooshed distress inks onto an acrylic block and picked up the color with a water brush. We used the distress ink colors Heather listed: faded jeans, stormy sky, weathered wood, frayed burlap, rusty hinge wild honey, tea dye, vintage photo, early espresso and forest moss.

Lynette used markers to color a tree from a Stampin' Up set called Artistically Asian.

I tried to paint in the tree and shrubs. I found the distress forest moss to be too dark, so I used peeled paint on the shrubs.

For our flower card we used a stamp set called Blossoms Abound from Stampin' Up.

Lynette found a Pinterest Pin showing a Lilac card made by Heather Telford. However the link went to a page that had many cards made by various people. Not helpful when looking for details about a specific card. After some web searching, we found the actual blog post for Heather Telford's Lilac card. Since we did not have the ink colors that matched Heather's beautiful lilacs, we substituted Stampin' Up's lavender lace and distress wilted violet for the 2 step flower stamps in the Blossoms Abound stamp set. We used Stampin' Up mellow moss and  old olive for the leaves.

We had fun trying to make a wreath card after seeing Karen Day's card here.
We made many samples and ended up using a 1-1/2 inch circle mask in the center. However we did not like the very defined circle look. So, we started with the mask but then removed it to get some stamped images into the circle area.

We used leaves stamps from Altenew's Wildflower Garden,  Judith stamps, Stampin' Up Yay You and an old foam SU set from 1996 that had a pumpkin in it.
Ink colors:
SU old olive, mellow moss, and close to cocoa
distress crushed olive, aged mahogany, fossilized amber,

Thanks for visiting!
Hope you make today a special one!

Stampfest at Lynette's on September 11

Lynette and I spent the day stamping at her house on Wednesday, Sept. 11. Lynette showed me the pink and purple hydrangea layers below which she made using a "crumpled tissue paper" aka "faux silk" technique. (We did not do any crumpled tissue technique on Wednesday.)

Lynette did an experiment and ran these through the cuttlebug with her new Tim Holtz Sizzix Botanical 3D Texture Fades Embossing Folder.  They came out so pretty with the various textures! I would love to do a stampfest with the crumpled tissue/faux silk technique sometime.

Back to our current stampfest...we experimented with color combos.
Inks on the card above: distress tumbled glass, pumice stone;
SU (Stampin' Up!)  pistachio pudding
Dry embossed with Tim Holtz 3D Botanical embossing folder.

Inks: SU almost amethyst and pistachio pudding

We have been noticing that Stampin' UP! seems to be recycling themes of their stamps. Lynette used the bell pepper stamp from the old SU Very Veggie stamp set. She was inspired by Betty Saccocia's Garden Goodness card on her Booptique blog.
Inks from left to right: SU summer sun, cucumber crush, rocket red, yoyo yellow. Used old olive for the stem.

Lynette was inspired by Emily Midgett's Sixth Street Sundries floral card. 

She used a variety of stamps: Stamps by Judith, All night media, Altenew wildflower garden.

SU markers: pixie pink, cucumber crush

Inks: wild wasabi, ballet blue, and not sure what the fuchsia colored one is. Will check with Lynette and update later...

Sept. 15:  Lynette says we used an old inkpad with another brand of reinker. In my stash of inkpads, I would go with SU positively pink or SU pink passion or distress picked raspberry.

I am always in need of cards, so I completed mine. Sentiment (think it's SU) stamped in Versafine onyx black. Edges sponged in SU's pistachio pudding ink then adhered to a white card.

Here you see the wreaths we stamped and fussy cut. I laid them on top of blue paper for easier viewing. We were inspired by Karen Day's wreath card.
We punched a 1.5" circle and placed it in the center and stamped the branches and flowers around it. We also used a mask to avoid stamping the bottom of some of the stamps outside the wreath area.
Inks: SU bliss blue, almost amethyst, wild wasabi, certainly celery, pistachio pudding, creamy caramel, close to cocoa
Stamps: Stamps by Judith,  Altenew wildflower garden, SU-all season wreath, bird from 1999!
It was fun to use some very old Stampin' Up stamps!

Later at home, I made this card with my wreath. From my stash I found the green, Tim Holtz sizzix embossed layer (retro circles, which deeply embosses to the point of almost ripping the paper). The happy birthday sentiment and die cut is from Hero arts.

Here are two photos from Lynette's craft room while we worked on these cards.

I like to look back at our sampling of stamped images, etc.

Hope you have a great week ahead!
Enjoy every minute of the good times!

Stampfest with Lynette, August 1, 2019

Lynette and I made some cards way back on Aug. 1st. Finally have some time to blog these.  

We used two Stampin' Up! sets: 

Lynette's In the City set and my Fresh Cuts set.

Lynette designed the In the City cards.

I was in need of several birthday and anniversary cards. Graciously,  Lynette came to my rescue and helped me make 12 cards! She stamped the main outlines. And created the itsy bitsy cars, fussy cutting them all. I used the fill in stamp and added color to the buildings.

This is our sample card-the one I found in my Fresh Cuts stamp set. I think I bought it second hand from a demo, Karen Weber. This card may have been made by her.
 

Here are our cards. We changed the colors a bit and made a few simplifications. 

Here are further modifications by Lynette. Love the addition of the circle layer stamped with "from the heart" She mailed this to us as a thank you for the stamping and visiting day. Her husband came along and we spent the whole day together.

Here is my card.
 I cannot find the list of ink colors we used. I usually write the colors down as we work. But that was over a month ago. If I find my scrap of paper with the info, I'll edit this.

Thanks for visiting!
Enjoy the last few days of summer!