Michael Strong Sketch Set

The frames in these cards is a Michael Strong stamp which I also used on yesterday's card. Hetty on the enjoy Michael Strong Stamps Yahoo list gave us a sketch to use and these are what I came up with.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Aren't they cutie pies? This was a black and white photo of my sisters when they were little girls. I played with colorizing them in Photo Shop Elements. It was very fun. The red frame is parts of a Michael Strong frame stamp. It was embossed in pink. Sentiment is computer printed.

I sent this card off to my parents who will be hosting a do with my brother, one of my sisters (the little one with big eyes) and the son of the other sister. I hope they get a smile out of the photo.

Naughty or Nice?

The challenge at The Cat's Pajamas this week is embossing, hot or cold;-) Of course mine is hot. Couldn't be anything else with devilish Sprinkles on the front. This was one of the first of The Cat's Pajamas' stamps I bought. The sentiment and the pierced swirl are clear stamps from a set of Alma's Christmas stamps. I stamped the swirl on a text weight heart die cut, layered it onto the hot pick heart and pierced through them both with a push pin. You do need a foam pad or stack of newspaper to stop the pin. The words are gold embossed and I used bleach to make them stand out on the pink.

Lady cards

It is harvest time here in Wine Country so you can see why I love this stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. This beautiful Arts & Crafts period image is very fun to color. I did two prints, one in Black and the other in Sepia Versafine inks. The lady was cut out and popped onto the sepia print. The rosy background is pink cardstock embossed using a Cuttlebug folder and painted with a blend of shiny rose acrylic paints. I was thinking this would be a good card for the Gingersnapcreations Harvest challenge. http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2009/10/gc25-chestnut-challenge-harvest.html

This lovely lady is a digital freebie from Clearly Vintage. http://clearlyvintage.blogspot.com/ I colored it lightly with colored pencils. The background was made with clear embossing on newsprint and then adding ink to cover. You just wipe off any from the embossed area. I love this quote from Abraham Lincoln. Yes, the card is for my mother. Both the backgrounder and sentiment stamp are from Cornish Heritage Farms. The corner pieces are die cut using a Cuttlebug die.

Cats, buttons and scraplings

I love Sprinkles no matter what she gets up to! Here she is gracing the fronts of a pair of scraplings I made for the Two Peas Stamptoberfest challenge as well as Amy's supply challenge for The Cat's Pajamas's TCP Tuesday.

Feels like autumn

Tonight the air is crisp with a hint of chill that may bring color to the leaves. Must be time for some cards with a feeling of fall.
This squirrel card was stamped with Hero Arts stamps. I had fun making little punchie acorns.

The leafy background on this one is a paper napkin. It was fused to Freezer Wrap and adhered to the card front. I made this one for a challenge to use eyelets. It is a rare thing for me to use fancy eyelets so this really was a challenge. Fun one though. The stamp is an older dollar stamp from Michaels.

Falling leaves

Leaves are die cut from dyed papers. The sentiment is an Inkadinkado image stamped using a Kaleidacolor pad. Love those! I added some stitching to this one. The background paper was sponged with Distress inks.

As a personal challenge I printed out the Mountain Biker ding bat (from Cycling) 3 times and made a set of cards with them. The colored papers are from Lasting Impressions. The stamp is one from SU! I know, this one looks like I went crazy with the 'saturation' option in PSE, lol. The green is flourescent green posterboard with paper toweling glued down and painted. I was going for that down hill in a rush feeling.

I love this paper which looks like the hills here in California in the summer time. The oats are dry and the wind sings through them as you go past. The Japanese style clamshell stamp is from Stamp Magick.

I love having access to free ding bats for images I will probably only use this once. Life is good.

Wheels

The fourth prompt for the 15 - 21 year old guy card challenge is up at Stamp Haven. Wheels. Bicycles, cars, motorcycles, skates and skateboards, trucks and tanks. Do you remember the sense of freedom having your own (or access to) wheels gave you? To get on your bike and ride away without the cautioning voice of your parents in your ears? The cache' of a driver's license? The speed at which your skateboard took you out of reach? As old and gray as I have become I do remember. I don't have stamps for this these so I needed to branch out. This skateboarder is a ding bat. No not THAT kind of ding bat ;-) A font of images rather than letters. This one is called 4yeoSports and is free at DaFont.com. I colored cardstock with a brayer and Kaleidacolor ink plus a touch of Distress ink and let it dry. Then I ran it through the printer and voila, Skateboarder! Sentiment was printed out too.

Back when I was young our family really had a copper colored Mustang. It was a trip down memory lane to make this one. The image is a coloring page offered as a freebie by Dover Publications. I sized it and printed it out twice. The card was colored, cut out and covered with Diamond Glaze before being popped up with foam on the card.

The cyclist here is clip art I've had on the computer for so long I can't remember where I first found it. I printed him out, colored with Prismacolor pencils and added him to the card. The metal embellishments were punched from an aluminum can and embossed using a Cuttlebug embossing folder. They are attached with eyelets. So I hope you feel inspired to create some paper wheels! Look beyond the obvious for images to use. Have fun.

Doodle Factory funnies

I love the Doodle Factory stamps from StarvingArtistamps! My cards had gotten stuffy and overly polite so I needed a change.

The birthday card sentiment uses a fabulous font from

http://www.kingthingsfonts.co.uk/ as well as stamps from Inque Boutique, Maryse Carrier and, of course The Doodle Factory. Party On! Did you grow up with the legend of William Tell? He was said to be able to shoot an apple off his son's head with an arrow. Don't try this at home folks!

Goofy guy is a stamp from The Doodle Factory, alphabet stamps from PSX, and the apple is a G stamp. I colored him with Prismacolor pencils using oil as a blender. It was fun to make those arrows and the target from misc. dies. Check out the Doodle Factory images
http://starvingartistamps.com/

15-21 y.o.guys challenge #2 Puns

Definitely a young guy kinda pun! The stamp is from Scottish Borders Stamping You know this one will tickling a funny bone or two! The dancing skeleton is an oldie from Stampa Rosa. Sentiments were computer printed. I used masking on these to create the spot lights.

Does the Count give you a nervous giggle or two? He was clip art I downloaded years back. I gave him a little color in his face. He didn't look like he'd had a good meal of late. ;-)

Rainbow challenge GC20

The rainbow as a symbol of hope has a lot of meaning for me. This card says it about as simply as possible.

The challenge was given by the Gingersnap Blog group. http://www.gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/ I used my inch punch and had at some old magazines to get the rainbow squares. For some time I had looked for a simply 'Hope' stamp without finding one I liked. Then I was given a set of clear acrylic stamps which included the one I used here. 'Hope' is from Kimberly Poloson's Words & Whimsey from Fiskar.

Cowboys and CASEing Pt.2, cards

Sorry to make this 2 posts. I'm not too swift with Blogger and couldn't get the images where I wanted them. They go with the following post!

Cowboys and CASEing

On StampHaven one talented cardmaker worked with clipart to create a papercut silhouette that she then used to make some very cool cards. Take a look at two of Karen's cards http://www.stamphaven.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=23&pos=11 She kindly shared the link to the cowboy silhouette clipart with us. http://www.freeclipartnow.com/people/professions/cowboys/

I thought it would be fun to try making a full sheet of Distress ink background and then print the silhouettes onto the colored cardstock using the computer. The Distress inks were swiped on a non-stick craft sheet, sprayed with water and then soaked up with the cardstock.

The sheet would make 4 cardfronts so I decided to use a silhouette image of troops on 2 sections of the sheet.

15 - 21 Challenge #1

Sketch by Julee on Mojo Monday http://www.mojomonday.blogspot.com/I've been thinking about 'hosting' a series of prompts on cards for boys in the 15 - 21 age range. Each one lasting 2 weeks. My interest comes from wanting to have more of these cards sent to CFH.
Want to play along?

Sketch by Jen del Muro http://iheart2stamp.com/ I've never been a guy aged 15 to 21 but I have been in that age group. In my memory it was a time of feeling grown up and wishing everyone else would treat me that way. Of course in time I discovered a few of the down sides (can we say taxes & power bills?) to actually being an adult but that isn't what this is about. This is about making cards for the guys.

Our first prompt is "Western Swing" Make a card focusing on the west. Cowboys, deserts, high mountains, First Nations/Native Americans. Kraft card stock, maybe Distress inks. This is just a jumping off place so don't feel constrained if you get an idea that wasn't spelled out.

Paper towels & acrylic paint challenge

Pam on StampHaven challenged us to use paper towel and acrylic paints to create a background. I tried a couple of pieces but felt I wasn't coming up with anything I really liked. By co-incidence I visited the Stampbord website's Featured How-To page and fell in love with July's piece by Åshild Ruud. My inspiration from the Stampbord website- http://www.stampbord.com/featured-how-to.html

I used a background stamp from All Night Media in the corners and then used Elmer's glue to adhere the torn toweling. The acrylic paints are just cheap ones from the craft stores. Between the glue and the paints there is a fair bit of drying time required if you want to give it a try.

And here is the card I made. I don't know who made the skull stamp. The sentiment is from K & Co's Marcella line. The flourish is from Hero Arts. I used lots of Nestability dies. Love them! And I had to throw in a little recycling. The mesh is from a bag of lemons.

Scrappy Sketch

If you seem to have a lot of those little strips of colored and patterned paper left over from your cardmaking this sketch is for you.

You'll need a 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" cardfront, a 1 1/16" x 5 1/2" scrappy strip (instructions below), and a focus piece in whatever shape you like. Pretty easy!

I like to make a 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" piece of strips adhered to cardstock. [You don't have to do this but is makes enough Scrappy Strips to make 4 cards. You can make just the one strip for your challenge card.] Once you have covered your cardstock with strips cut it into 4 sections measuring 1 1/16" x 5 1/2". I like to layer this onto a piece of cardstock that is 1 3/8" x 5 1/2" to mat it. Tip: Choose your colors to work together and repeat patterns.

Now you get to choose your focus piece. The sketch shows it as a circle but it can be any shape you want. You might choose text on it or an image, a flower, chipboard, a button, really any embellishment.

Hope you feel inspired! Have fun creating your own Scrappy Strip card.

Inventive Recycling two

Summer Haven is up and running! You can participate for free. Here is the link to come join us. http://www.stamphaven.com/

This medallion was made using foil seals from yogurt containers. The blue was added using a StazOn pad direct to foil. This is a Dahlia fold piece. You'll find it in the Yellow Pages! It is fun to use a page form the yellow pages which relates to the theme of your car. The golf ball is a dollar stamp from Michaels. The sentiment was printed on the computer. Yes, you can run a sheet of Yellow Pages through your printer.

Attaching it to a sheet you have test printed lets you select just the spot you want the printing on the yellow page. Love these Mylar seals which come of various canisters. They emboss beautifully with Cuttlebug folder.

This owl is an Inkadinkado stamp.

Inventive Recycling, one

This was the card I sent my dad this year. The blue patterned squares are all envelope liners. This sketch was designed by Kristina Werner for her A Year in Cards class at Two Peas in a Bucket. The star stamp is from Outlines Stamps.

The center image is from Scottish Borders Stamping. It goes amazingly well with the 2 envelope liners I used!

For this card I used 3 envelopes all of which had that cross hatched pattern. It made a nice quilt style background for the dragonfly stamp. The sentiment and the dragonfly are from Serendipity Stamps. The pieces really are sewn together on a sewing machine.

Summer Haven, the stamping event at StampHaven begins on Saturday the 27th. I'm hosting a challenge on Inventive Recycling. The idea is to use things you would recycle to make or embellish your card. You can join in the fun. It is free and welcoming! http://www.stamphaven.com/

Using the liners of bills is a favorite bit of recycling here. My family saves their liners for me too. (We're a big recycling family!) What will I do when we are all paying our bills online? LOL

The Cat's Pajamas

The sketch is the only part that is from The Cat's Pajamas actually. This is Carole's sketch found on Jen del Muro's blog. How fun it is that! I like stampers helping stampers.

The River City Rubber Works stamp of the 2 boys is a current favorite of mine when paired up with the sentiment from Inkadinkado. Such a guy card!

Cheeky little card

I made this card hoping it would make a soldier laugh. The fun little creature is from Starvingartistamps' line- DoodleFactory. They are so fun! The background I made on my computer.

Michael Strong stamps

I love hot, bright colors but don't use them as much as I might. When the Michael Strong stamps arrived I decided to just play. Out came my homemade spray mist colors, Versamark ink and clear embossing powder and I did a sheet of resist stamping. Then I did a sheet of unstamped sprays that I stamped with Versafine black when the paper had dried. At some point is struck me that it would be fun to use the frame stamp corners "spooned" and this card came about.
The sentiment stamp is by Cornish Heritage Farms.

Hummingbirds were around my parent's garden so much when I was growing up that I associate them with home. I love the wonderful graphic design of this bird. The leaves are an Outlines Stamps design. The origami flower is like my previous post only a size smaller. I guess you can tell I love them.

Missing you

This origami flower is a favorite of mine. It takes a scalloped circle die from Spellbinders for cutting the circles. The orginal instructions called for two sided paper but I always ink, paint and stamp my own. The green and yellow background paper was bleached in spots and over stamped. All the stamps on this one are from Cornish Heritage Farms.And here are the links to the Origami flower tutorial videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq13kni7eBA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3alEQUGx04

The background on this one is more of the Technique Junkies Camouflage technique paper. The long landscape panel is one of my favorite Biblical Impressions stamps. It reminds me of the time I have spent in the Sierra Nevada mountains. I used markers and a waterbrush to color it.

These will be going to Cards for Heroes. http://cardsforheroes.org/