Simon Says Challenge::What do you say?

The Simon Says Challenge this week is to use a sentiment in your project.  It can be stamped, written, pretty much how ever you want to share a thought.  I've been working on a series of dress template projects using the Tempting Template printed in the current issue (jul aug sep 2012) of The Stampers' Sampler.  If you want to submit some projects you have until Nov. 15, 2012 to do so.  You can find the template on their website.
The little dress and apron made me think of family dinners and all the women in our family who work so hard to make them special.  There are 4 different phrases or words on the card:  Capture Life's Moments, Love You, Kisses, and Memories.  I think that just about says it all.  Personally I love to cook and bake so any type of a shared meal is based on me wanting to make everyone happy with some kind of food that they love.  I never look pristine when I do this, like the sweet dress, I usually look like I've been through the mill.  But I love it and I love the food memories that I help create in people's minds and hearts.

Instructions:  Print out a copy of the template.  Trace and cut out the dress and apron.  Spritz Bubblegum Glimmer Mist on the wide ribbon used for the apron.  Cut out pieces of patterned paper for the hem and sleeves of the dress.  Glue the apron to the dress and glue the paper on the hem and sleeves, attach 2 pearls by Queen and Co.  Randomly stamp hearts by Rubber Stampede on the light colored paper using Spun Sugar DI by Ranger, heat emboss with clear powder.  Glue the decorated dress to the paper.  Attach to navy cardstock, glue to pink patterned paper.  Wrap tiny pink ribbon around the panel attaching the Tim Holtz metal word band in the center.  Glue to a blank card.
Speaking of baking.....I'll be doing my annual baking day with my teenaged neighbor, Kristina, next week for the Bolton Fair.  We're doing Cherry Pie for the fruit pie competition.  It is always fun teaching her how to bake, it certainly brings back memories of all the women in my past that spent a day with me teaching me how to make pie crust and bake bread.  Ah, memories.  Makes me smile.

Zentangle

I've been doing some letters with tangles around them.  I liked the way this one turned out.

Have a great weekend!

Congratulations Card using Stampotique

Lately so many friends and family members have had reasons to celebrate big milestones in life.  I like to try to come up with cards that reflect the personality of the person I'm making the card for.  This one goes to a dear friend with tons of energy!  Does it show?

I used the image "Twinkie" by Stampotique.  I stamped the image twice, once using Ranger's Archival Coffee colored ink and the second time I used Memento's Espresso Truffle ink.  After trimming out the image I cut each of them in half and exchanged their pants.  I glued the boys to the blank white card.  I stamped the phrase at the upper right corner also in the Coffee color.  For the bottom border I cut a strip of paper and trimmed it to fit the card.  Using just the head of Dina Wakley's "Silhouette Script" girl, I stamped it right side up then upside down.  I used same colors of ink on the border.  The edges are also inked with Ranger's Coffee ink, I really love that color!  I think I love anything with the word "coffee" in it.  Sigh.

Simon Says Challenge: Hey Girl!

The challenge at Simon Says this time is anything with a feminine touch.  That does not necessarily mean pink...whew!  I'm still not crazy about pink and I don't see that changing any time soon.  I used a feminine looking stamp by Alpha Stamps called "Why She Sings".  I stamped her on a kraft colored paper and then used a phrase by Hampton Art.  The borders are all Dyan Reaveley stamps.  All the coloring was done with Distress Markers and Gelly Roll pens.  I matted this panel to white paper and then to a patterned paper.  The entire unit was glued to a piece of paper from Tim Holtz's collection called Paper Stash.  I cut the paper to become a folded card measuring 5" x 6 1/2" and used the patterned side of the paper as the outside of the card.  For a tiny bit of bling I added a few dots of Ranger's Liquid Pearls in the Bisque color.  The flowers in the lower right corner match the paper used in the matting.  I distressed the paper, cut the flowers using Tim's die called Tattered Florals, put a brad in the center of one and then glued all three down with glue dots.

Have a great day!  The weather here is perfect, I hope yours is too.

Going in Circles with the Artistic Stamper

The Artistic Stamper has "Circles" as their theme this month.  I don't seem to have a circle stamp (does this pity party ever stop? lol) but I do have tons of circle scraps.  I have a little container that is full of punched circles in every size and color under the sun.  Sometimes I have just a small piece of some wonderful paper left over and can't bear to part with it so I punch some circles or squares and salvage just a little bit of it for later.  For this card I stamped a face from Dyan Reaveley's "Bits of this" collection on an old book page.  Her "hair" is a mass of circles.  I colored her face with Distress Markers and did a tiny Zentangle across the bottom.  It is a tangle pattern created by Diana Sexton called "Itsy Twisty".  Since I mastered it a couple of days ago I can't stop doing it.  It reminds me of buttons with a ribbon running through them.

Our weather here has finally cooled down a bit, I hope yours has too.  Have a great weekend!

Stampotique Challenge~SDC 58::Sentiments

Stampotique always presents a challenge that to me is, well......a challenge.  I guess that's why I like to play along.  It is a great opportunity to think outside the box and try to get my limited collection of Stampotique stamps to do double duty.  (My husband would disagree about the "limited" part but that is a story for another day.  In my mind if I don't have them all I have a limited collection.)  The challenge this time is "sentiments" using only their stamps, of course.  I wanted to have some flowers on the card so I turned my favorite ladies upside down and used their skirts to make flowers.  This seems appropriate since my sentiment is "Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it".  The one I am entering is using Glimmering Hope.

I used water color paper and Reeves Water Soluble Wax Pastels to color the flowers.  If you haven't tried those yet you are really missing out.  I stamped the images with Ranger's Black Archival Ink, then  just added my color and sprayed it with water for a very soft effect.  If you want to dry it with paper towels a la Dyan Reaveley you can or use your heat tool.  I think children would love this technique and the crayons are very reasonably priced at Michael's.

Glimmering Hope

Then I tried using "Angel", her skirt looks like some type of tube shaped flower.

Same watercolor paper but I used Ranger's Distress Markers to color the images.

Angel

Have a great day and try to stay cool.  It has been unusually hot here in New England this year.  I have to water my garden every day which is not the norm!  But I have loads of tomatoes to look forward to and lots of fresh herbs.

Simon Says Challenge: No Rules!

The Simon Says Challenge is a "no rules", do whatever you like type of challenge.  My favorite.  I have chosen to do a tag using Dyan Reaveley's stamps.  The face is from the Dylusions collection called "Bits of This".  First I sprayed a manila tag (Ranger's size 8 tag) with Dylusion spray inks.  I used Fresh Lime and Vibrant Turquoise.  A quick dry with my heat tool.  I stamped a large leaf pattern with Ranger's Rusty Hinge Distress Ink randomly on the tag.  I stamped the face on a scrap piece of practice paper card stock using Ranger's Black Archival Ink and then colored the lips in with my Distress Markers.  Using my Gelly Roll pen called Clear Star, I added some highlights and sparkle to her face.  There was an acrylic butterfly in my stash left over from some long forgotten class so I dropped a little alcohol ink on it, dried it, then stamped a crackle finish on it using a crackle stamp by IndigoBlu.  The butterfly stays in place nicely with the help of some Glossy Accents.  Next came the phrase by Stampotique and a piece of ribbon dyed with spray inks to match.

Color Challenge @ CR84FN!

The current challenge at CR84FN is a color challenge using red, yellow and neutral.

This is what I came up with.  Have a great day!

July Tag Tim Holtz style

Tim Holtz's tag for July involves alcohol inks and canned air.  Sounds like fun, doesn't it?  I used Ranger's Glossy Paper cut in the shape of a tag.  My alcohol ink colors were Butterscotch, Aqua and Latte.  I dropped a couple of drops of each color and sprayed the air on each drop to get the effect, just like Tim showed in his video.  Added a few embellishments and Voila!

I used the flourish from Stampers Anonymous and the words are from Anna Griffin.  I ran the silver foil through my machine using the Patchwork texture fade and punched the bottom with my EK notebook punch.  The flower was cut from scraps with Tattered Florals by Alterations.  I dyed the gauzy ribbon to match with the alcohol inks.  Then I decided I should do one more:

I used the same alcohol inks but added pearl on top of the aqua.  Then I rubbed a little of the new seasonal color from Ranger called Shaded Lilac.  I love that color it is so soft.  I stamped the Eiffel Tower by Stampers Anonymous on the tag and followed that up with the word "Paris" by Stamp Camp.  I used the flourish from SA again and added the paper flower, a metal word and metal number (both Tim Holtz products).  The bottom was edged with EK's notebook punch and a little ribbon tied at the top to finish it.

Anything Goes using Artistic Outpost Stamps

The theme for the July challenge at Artistic Outpost is "Anything Goes".  I have been playing around with my Dylusion spray inks quite a bit lately so I thought if anything goes then I will practice some more with journaling pages and submit them in the challenge.  I colored the pages in this old album type book with Dyan's inks using Lemon Zest, Bubblegum Pink and Squeezed Orange.  I wanted a little glimmer so I misted it with Cadillac Pink by Tattered Angels.  I also added a few markings with black and white acrylic paints.  Since I'm using Artistic Outpost stamps I used the Wizard of Oz stamps that they produce.  A few strips of Tim Holtz's tissue tape and an ATC in the center using AO's Scarecrow.  I was on the phone for a while when I made these pages so of course there is the usual doodling all over the place.   I'm still not happy with my journaling pages but I guess it just takes a lot of practice or maybe a class.  Or two.

SDC57: Out of the Box-Stampotique Stamps Only (6/27-7/10/12) 5 p.m. E.T.

Stampotique has a new challenge, "Thinking outside of the box".  Instead of a card I chose to make a tag based on the current Tempting Template in the June issue of The Stampers' Sampler.  In that magazine they had a template that looks like a perfume bottle.  So I made an ocean themed bottle with a mermaid inside.

First I traced the template onto watercolor paper and cut it out.  I colored the paper with Ranger's Distress Ink, I used Broken China and Wild Honey and then activated the inks with a spray of water.  This was followed with a quick dry from my heat gun.  I stamped the image of Smushallaum with Ranger's black Archival Ink.  I colored in the image with Copic ink pens.  I had some scraps of paper left over that had been sprayed with Dyan Reaveley's Dylusion sprays in Cut Grass and Vibrant Turquoise.  I used a Hexagon punch in several sizes and glued this on the stopper portion of the bottle.  I had a dimensional flower from K&Co that I attached to the center of the stopper.  Underneath that I used 5 deep green self adhesive pearls from Queen and Co.  I stuck a tiny sliver of mesh under the pearls and then added a green polka dot bow.  The phrase Sunshine & Seashells was a self adhesive tag from a sheet of cardstock beach stickers made by Paper House Productions.  And there we have our summer beach memory...a mermaid in a bottle.