A cuppa

I got a new stamp set from Michael Strong Stamps. It is called Hetty's Coffee Cup. On this card I used the small cup for the background and the large cup for the focal image.

Raspberry circles

I quite like this Chinese coin background stamp. It has tiny bats on the coins symbolizing happiness. The background was clear embossed on white cardstock and colored with beet root juice. Yes, really :-) The Cloisonne Circle stamp (Michael Strong) was white embossed over Twinkling H2Os. The circle was popped out over the die cut. It is a very simple card but the stamps are so interesting that it works in my opinion.

Autumn Leaves

It is getting to be autumn here. The pistachio trees are starting to turn their amazing bright colors and the liquid amber trees are just getting color on the tip-top of them. They inspired me to make this card.The focal image is one of the Cloisonne Cameo stamps from Michael Strong. The leaves are all stamped with his Cloisonne Circle and die cut using Sizzix and Cuttlebug leaves. The stamps were white embossed and colored with Distress inks.

I thought it would be fun to see the circles with the leaves cut out. Of course you can die cut the plain paper and then stamp. I just did it the other way on these.

A change of palette

It was fun to work in a very different palette than I usually use. There is more peach to the background print and a bit more to the circles than I could catch with my camera. The 3 circles are Michael Strong stamps. The smaller circles are from his Cloisonne Medallion set and the large circle is his Cloisonne Circle. I mounted the large circle on black to match the look of the medallions. The stamped images are embossed in black EP. I love the grayish sage green of the base and background print. Sure wish I could find an ink pad that color!

Nightingale song

Here is a pretty simple card. The Michael Strong Cloisonne Circle was embossed in gold EP and colored using watercolor pencils and a waterbrush. I mounted the circle on an acrylic gold painted die cut circle. I went on die cutting for the rust background shape and the line of gold dots. That old DCWV paper with the birds and flowers from the Far East stack still does it for me. Gold Leafing pen was used to edge the print paper layer and the base.

Time to Celebrate

I've seen some great clock face cards of late and was inspired to make my own. The Roman numeral face is a digital image which I sized specifically to work with this Michael Strong Cloisonne Circle stamp. The sentiment is one of the dollar stamps I picked up at Joann's. Both the Michael Strong stamp and the sentiment were white embossed on black cardstock. Did lots of digital cuts layered and trimmed on this card.

Easel card 2

This is for Mo's Digital Challenge; an easel card with one of Mo's animals or birds on it. This image always makes me smile. That poor cat!

Easel card 1

I'm finally trying easel cards. Pretty fun! This sweet image is Bronte Kisses from Mo Manning. It was colored with Prismacolor pencils. The text and bones are from an old Crafty Secrets sticker page. The border punch is Fiskars.

This card is for the OWH Stars and Stamps midweek challenge of Dogs and Mo's Digital Challenge #94- Easel cards with an animal or bird. http://www.mosdigitalchallenge.blogspot.com/

twigs

I painted Michael Strong's Cloisonne Pot with Twinkling H2O watercolors. They are so yummy and combined with heat embossed stamping really make a WOW card. The background was sponged on acrylic paint patterned through a paper doily with added color using Distress inks. I used a small doily behind the pot for contrast. The twiggy branches are die cuts.

Deeply embossed embellishments, part one

I used Michael Strong's Cloisonne Circle stamp and lots of gold embossing powder on this card. The focal image is the full circle stamped, embossed and watercolored. The embellishments on both sides are made using chipboard circles, layers of gold embossing powder and the inked up Cloisonne Circle stamp. The chipboard circle was inked up with Versamark before being loaded with the embossing powder (EP). After heating and melting the EP I added another layer of EP and melted that one too. I did 4 or 5 layers of gold EP in all. While all that gold was nice and hot I stamped it with the inked up Cloisonne Circle. I'd chosen the area of the stamp I wanted to use to impress into the EP.

Michael's Mini's, Medallions, Alphabets and Cameos would all work very well for making these deeply embossed embellishments. His designs have such clean and clear graphic designs that they are terrific for this technique.

The rippled gold frame is corrugated card cut with two Spellbinders dies.

Part two of this technique is in the following post. Blogger is fighting me tooth and nail and refuses to allow me to upload more than one photo in a post today. Sorry about that.

Deeply embossed embellisments, part two

Pinwheel card

Pinwheels feel like summertime to me. Child's play in the garden. While this pinwheel is a whimsical bit of imagination and would never translate into a real one I had fun making it. The two stamps that make it up are both from Michael Strong, his Cloisonne Star and Cloisonne Paisley. There is a Serendipity pinwheel stamped on the background.

Can't stop thinking about you

Used a couple of Michael Strong stamps on this one. His frame stamp is perfect for creating layered frames. The copper on blue layer was heat embossed and then popped out on adhesive foam. The curved image under the sentiment is a portion of Michael's Cloisonne Circle. The sentiment itself is a G Stamp.

a little star power

A cool Michael Strong star stamp, an encouraging sentiment from Verve Stamps, a die cut little window and a string of cute little puffy stars. That's it!

heart of gold

We were challenged to make Valentines without using red, pink, or purple on the enjoyMichaelStrongstamps list this Feb. Added to the challenge was the fact that I don't have his heart stamps.

My solution was to die cut hearts with Nestabilities dies, stamp and emboss them on a couple of the stamps I do have. The first and third card were stamped on Michael's pot stamp. The second card was stamped on the large star. I went for a clean and simple look.

The sentiments were printed on the computer. I had fun using the sewing machine too.

You are amazing!

This was the sketch Jen del Muro challenged us with for Feb. i{heart}2stamp.com I've done it on a white background and a kraft background just for fun.

The little guy lifting more weight than you or I could is from Mo Manning ;-) There are silver metallic embellishments on both cards but they didn't scan.

I love Jen's sketches and can't wait to see what she comes up with for March.

Year of the Rabbit

On the EnjoyMichaelStrongStamps Yahoo list Michael challenged us to make a Year of the Rabbit card. I love Chinese New Year cards so this was a challenge which totally appealed to me. Enough so that I made 3 cards ;-) The frame stamp is a Michael Strong design. The rabbit is no longer available but was made by Good Stamps Stamp Goods.

Canon has a website with printable paper designs. The blue print with the rabbits on the moon design is one of their freebies. Here is the link http://cp.c-ij.com/en

This last card uses the same Chiyogami design from Canon with a paper doily and a handcarved Rabbit on the Moon stamp.

I {heart} 2 Stamp Jan. challenge

Here is Jen's sketch for January. I confess I made the card weeks ago but hadn't photographed it until now. Now that January is almost over I had to get it done!

I love these Kids' Quotes from Inkadinkado. Fun and oh so on target. The rainbow background was brayered on. The printed papers are from a very old stack but it was great to use some of them up. The embellishment was made using a Cuttlebug die and embossing folder plus other circle dies.

Gingersnap Creations Polar Animal challenge

Long time no post! With luck it won't be so long between posts again. This card is for the Gingersnap Creations GC 83 Random Redhead Challenge: Polar Animals.

http://gingersnapcreations.blogspot.com/2010/12/gc83-random-redhead-challenge-polar.html

This amazing polar bear stamp is from Sue Coccia who's artwork I adore. Check it out at www.earthartinternational.com The background was printed from inked cheesecloth. Kinda cool looking I think. The stars and moon are silver though you can't tell in my photo.