Aladine Projects for Creativation Part 2

Here are a few more projects made for the French company Aladine which were featured in their booth at Creativation and then again a few weeks later in Germany at a trade show.  Just a cute little tag and a card made with their Cassis ink, stamps and embossing powder.

Thanks for stopping by!  I'm in China right now with my daughter, we left Joe here to hold down the fort, but I'll be back soon and hope to share some photos of our adventures there.  Maybe I will find some cool ephemera that I can mix into some projects.  Who knows?  Take care, we'll talk soon, hugs ~ Renee

How to make a quick card with stencils

Sometimes you just need a simple, organic, very quickly made card.  That was the inspiration behind this stenciled card today.

You could use any stencils you have on hand and make the cards any color you choose.  I happen to love this stencil from Artistcellar called Bodacious Pods.  It is one of Chris Cozen's Playful Pods Series stencils.  I just pulled a blank, white card from my stash and taped the stencil over the front of the card, lightly tracing the stencil with a permanent black pen.

It isn't necessary to trace all of the stencil images onto the card, just as many as you would like.  Next I placed the stencil again on top of the card, taped it down to my craft sheet, but this time it was a little off from the original pen work.  Then I scribbled some purple Gelatos on my craft sheet, sprayed the Gelatos with water to activate it and sponged the light purple color on to the first pattern of pods.

I like the water color effect made by the Gelatos when used this way.  When this had dried it was time to stencil a sentiment onto the card.

I chose to use Tamara Laporte's stencil in the Articellar collection called "Tam's Inspiration".  I sponged StazOn Jet Black ink through the stencil.  When the card was dry I added some touches of gold and some doodles to finish it.

As I mentioned before you could use any stencils or colors that you prefer.  Try pulling your stencils out and making a quick card the next time you need one and don't have much time to make it.

Thanks for stopping by today, I always appreciate your visits and support.  Take care ~ Hugs,  Renee xx

Master Board Class at Ink About It

I taught my last class at Ink About It a few days ago.  I mentioned a few weeks back that they will be closing their doors in another month.  I'm trying not to be too sad about it.  We are all putting on a brave face and trying to focus on the good times that were had there over the past ten years.  With that being said, here are my students and some of the master boards that they created that night.  Every one has different combinations of their favorite colors.  We used the new irRESISTibles by Tsukineko/Imagine Crafts and Dylusions by Dyan Reaveley to make our master boards and then Sizzix dies to cut portions of the boards into flowers for card making.

This is my demo using Dylusions and a new stencil by Seth Apter.

I'm sorry I didn't get every one's photo and their work.  I always mean to do the group shot and forget every time.  Any way, we had a lovely time and all of us got good and inky.  Thanks for stopping by, take care~ Renee

Another Card with Kaleidacolor Vineyard ink pad

I'm still using up that Vineyard brayered paper.  Here is another card creation.

Use every little scrap!  Just keep layering stamps, flowers, ribbon, etc. on top of the brayered paper.  The phrase is stamped with StazOn Royal Purple ink.

Hope you're having a great day.  Thanks for stopping by, talk to you soon!

My Word for the New Year::Balance

Hello!  I'm back amongst the living.  I finally recovered from my "flu" bug and finished all my projects that had a deadline so I can take a deep breath before 2013 officially begins.  It seems a lot of artists that I follow have chosen one word to represent what they feel they want to focus on this year.  If I had to choose one word it would be "Balance".  Life is such a balancing act most of the time.  I want to make sure I stay balanced spiritually, physically and creatively.  So that will be my goal.  If any of you want to share your word for 2013 I would love to hear it.
I will have news that I feel is very exciting to share with you tomorrow.  In the meantime I'll share a couple of cards that I keep meaning to send in to be considered for publication.  Obviously I'm still in love with those little girl images from Hidden Vintage Studios.

My thanks to all of you who read my blog, I really do appreciate it and love to read your comments.  The reason I got so involved in blogging was to keep myself focused and on task.  I think it has helped me more than I expected since I have met so many other artists along the way.  They in turn have taught me new techniques and ways to push myself by meeting different challenges all through the year.   I can honestly say I have gained more than I have given.  My thanks to all of you all around the world!  Be safe.  We all get to start fresh tomorrow.  Isn't that the beauty of a new year?  Talk to you soon!

Stampotique Designers Challenge #74::Nature

The Stampotique Challenge this week was issued by Nellie and it is "Nature".  I decided to use my Stampotique ((Hello)) and Mushroom Group stamps.  That took care of part of the "nature" theme, the rest was satisfied by Dyan Reaveley's leaves and spider.  I recently paid a visit to DeviantScrap.com and purchased the "Tangled Up" designs by Hidden Vintage Studios.  Little girls with Zentangled clothing and hats, etc.  Just download and print.  Doesn't get any easier than that.  Instant gratification.  After stamping the mushrooms,  I cut out the girl image, cut out a party hat and glued her on top of the mushrooms.  The leaves are stamped randomly with Ranger's black Archival ink and colored in with their Distress Ink Markers.  Then came the spider, hello and another bit cut out of the "Tangled Up" paper.  I used my Star Gelly Roll pen to add highlights to the leaves and a tiny drop of Distress Stickles in the Scattered Straw color to the tops of the 'rooms.  This card only took about 10 minutes to make so I believe I'll do an entire series of them showcasing all the cute little girls from Hidden Vintage.

The weather here today is beautiful, about 50 degrees F.  I finally finished putting my garden to bed and lifting up the dahlias, washing them clean and putting them in the basement.  They won't see the light of day again until Mother's Day.  That's when we turn on the fountain again and put those bad boys back in the ground.  I'm looking forward to that already!