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!