Geocaching Stamping with Grace

My sister, Grace asked me to help make some SWAG for Geocaching. She came over on Holy Saturday, April 3rd and we had a blast playing with stamping and also just hanging out! 

Since I don't know much about geocaching, I found some information about it online. According to the Geocaching site, geocaching is..."a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location." There is a lot more information about Geocaching at that website in case you are interested.

I think the SWAG stands for "Stuff We All Get". Click HERE for info on SWAG and trackables.

Grace brought some wooden tags and chose some stamps from my stash. 

Stamped:
FTF (first to find) from various clear alphabet stamps

Birds on a line from Tim Holtz/Visual Artistry/Stampers Anonymous CSS25870 Life's Possibilities, 

Sun outline from a Sunshine stamp set labeled: JB0844 Jillibean Soup/Hampton Arts,

Sentiment from Stampscapes Scenic Sentiments Sheet #4,

Tiny flowers from Stamps by Judith

fuzzyace printed by hand with Faber-Castell PITT pen-black

Inks used: VersaFine onyx black. I cannot remember if I used Stampin' Up or Distress inkpads for the tiny flowers.

Grace took a couple photos of me at my stamping desk. I thought you might like to see how I look now, at age 67!

Thanks so much for visiting! Peace and all good!

Beach Birthday Cards

I have been playing with my new (for me) Hero Arts Beach sets: Color Layering Waves CM316 and Color Layering Sea & Sky CM317. 

These cards were inspired by Nichol Spohr's video tutorial from June 2017. Using my new Gina K inkpads, I started with lighter then worked to darker blues: Ocean Mist for the bottom water stamp which is solid, Turquoise Sea for the next layer and Blue Lagoon for the uppermost layer of waves.  This worked out well in my Misti (thanks Grace!)  I cut my paper 3-1/2 by 4-3/4 inches so that the waves would extend all the way to the edge of my panel. 

I applied distress oxide antique linen with a blending brush, for the sand, leaving some white right before the edge of the waves. 

Brushed regular distress broken china for the sky. Nichol Spohr reminds us that because distress oxide inks  have pigment in them, they take longer to dry. So I used a heat tool.

I stamped the clouds with a Versamark Watermark inkpad, then used American Crafts Zing Opaque White embossing powder. Experimented with stamping the birds in distress Black Soot (above), and Memento Tuxedo Black (below). 

The Happy Birthday stamp is from an old Dimensions Clear Stamp set called Thoughts of Fancy. I used distress tea dye ink for the happy birthday and vintage photo for the footsteps on the card above. 

I mounted the layer on turquoise paper from my stash. The card base is kraft paper. The front side is dry embossed with Park Lane's Mini Heart embossing folder.

In the card above, the happy birthday was stamped in distress vintage photo and the footsteps in tea dye. I think I like this combo better.  I used a narrow border with black paper and then added that to a turquoise card base.

On this card, I left the sky plain and stamped the clouds in distress broken china. The birds and boat were stamped in Stampin' Up's Going Grey. Sentiment from Stampin' Up! stamped in VersaFine Onyx Black. Shell and starfish are from Michael Strong's Mini Cloisonne Creatures. They were stamped in SU's Pink Pirouette and So Saffron then fussy cut.

Thanks so much for visiting! Peace and All Good!

Easter Cards 2021

 

I had lots of fun with wrinkle free distress technique on my Easter cards.

Used Georgia Pacific 110 lb cardstock. 

Inkpads used:  Stampin' Up! peekaboo peach. Distress shaded lilac, worn lipstick, salty ocean, spiced marmalade, squeezed lemonade

After the papers were dry I flattened them with my hands. Then I stamped with Versafine onyx black ink using an Embossing Arts Co. stamp called "He is Risen!"

On a white card base, with distress worn lipstick, stamped the left side with swirly stamps from Autumn Leaves called Elegant Flourishes by Rhonna Farrer. Used distress squeeezed lemonade and worn lipstick on the other two cards, using an old Hero Arts Cleardesign set called Borders.  The borders stamp was short so I had to stamp multiple times. Decided it was much easier to arrange the Elegant Flourishes stamps in my Misti. I experimented with mounting the panels on yellow and pink paper.

Here you see the panels mounted on black paper. Used distress shaded lilac, worn lipstick and SU peekaboo peach for the swirls.

Below you can see more detail in the individual cards. You can always click on an image to see a larger image. On some cards I sponged additional color onto some of the panels.

Below I switched to using ink sprays, for these four cards:

Used Dylusions ink spray: London bridge (blue) and fresh lime. I sprayed color on my craft sheet and spritzed with water. Then placed cardstock on the wet ink and turn the paper a bit to "collect" the colors.

Thank you for visiting me! Hoping you are well and healthy. Wishing Easter Blessings for all who celebrate.

Valentines 2021

I was late getting started with making this year's Valentines. I mailed them before Valentine's day, but many people received them late. Now I am late in posting them. Oh dear...maybe the ideas here can also be used for anniversary cards. 

The cards above were made with printed papers from my stash, Michael Strong's mini cloisonné heart and some red fibers. 

These card backgrounds are made using "embossing folder stamping" with distress worn lipstick and festive berries. I used a "new to me" embossing folder from Momenta's Hey Love Emboss & Stamp set that I bought on clearance from Hobby Lobby (maybe last year?). 

The Tim Holtz blueprints heart is from a set of 4 stamps that Archiver's put out many years ago.  The heart with the XOs is from an old set of 4 Hero Arts cling rubber heart stamps. I used the cover of a pad of Valentine papers on the last card. 

Another variation... using D'vine Swirl embossing folder by Cuttlebug, printed paper, Micheal Strong's mini cloisonné heart and some fibers.

I made some kid's heart pop up cards based on these two YouTubes: Crafting Colors and Experts of Creativity. I found it was best to add "half hearts" on the inside. The full hearts did not work as well when opening and closing the card.  Cat and sentiment stamps from Inkadinkado: 97621 Cats.

I had a lot of fun making these Valentines. I especially enjoyed making the pop up cards! 

I hope you are having a great day! Stay safe from Covid! I am SO HAPPY  to have received my first Covid-19 vaccine a week ago! Wishing you all good health, happiness and love!

Inside Shadow Box Cards

Recently, I ran across a 2018 tutorial for Inside Shadow Box cards made by Jennifer McGuire.  I just had to give this a try. This card was fairly easy to make and it fits into an envelope for mailing! I used these Hero Arts stamp sets:  Color Layering Waves CM316, Color Layering Sea & Sky CM317 and Seas The Day Seagulls CM276. I was happy to find these stamp sets 40% off JoAnn's!

The first card I made didn't fold quite right at first. However, I was able to press it flat and adjust the crease slightly to make it work. For the water, I played around with different inks, never finding a combo that I thought perfect. But the colors look better if I don't examine them too closely.  I've noted some of the color combinations I used:

* Distress soft sky, SU bashful blue, SU tempting turquoise (or Ranger Caribbean coast)

* SU bliss blue, SU ballet blue, SU tempting turquoise

* Distress tumbled glass, distress broken china, Ranger Caribbean coast

Jennifer used pretty colors that I didn't have, more in the "sea green" family.

Here is the outside of  one of my cards. The "thanks" die cut is from Hero Arts, Thanks Stamp & Cut DC152. Palm tree colored with Tombow marker green #177 and distress vintage photo. Birds stamped in distress hickory smoke. Clouds stamped with distress tumbled glass.

Here are the inside panels which will go behind the oval cut-out. Jennifer gives us the tip to use the back part of the cloud stamps to create the islands in the distance. I stamped mine with distress peeled paint. Then stamped a second time with right side of the cloud stamp using in the same ink to give the islands some dimension. I used blending brushes for the sky with distress tumbled glass ink and for the sand, antique linen ink.

Here you see the finished "inside shadow box". I added the fussy cut chair stamped in SU's groovy guava ink. Attached it with Gina K Connect glue which worked great.

The sand here was made by sponging distress oxide fossilized amber. The boat and birds were stamped with distress hickory smoke.

Here I switched to  stamps from Seas The Day Seagulls CM276, stamping the birds in versafine onyx black and the wood stump with SUs close to cocoa. I used markers to add red to the hat and scarf and wood stump.

I used the oval cut out from the inside part to make some cards with kraft cardstock.

I had a lot of fun with the Inside Shadow Box cards. Thanks to Jennifer McGuire for sharing her creative ideas!

Thank YOU for visiting me! Hope you are well and staying safe from Covid-19!