A man with a plan

This post is going to focus on the plan I made to challenge myself. I asked a few friends and family what kind of cards they would like to see more of and one of the answers I got back was that cards for guys. This seems to be a weak point for me and I wanted to make a plan to work on manly cards. So, here are some that I came up with I would really like some feed back from you the viewer what you like and what other things that would good to try too.

(This is more of a baby boy card)

Some of these are one layer wonders and some have layers and embossing. So, that was plan to for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge to work on my skills for making guy cards now I have to decide which one that I want to post for the challenge, oh man. Hope you enjoyed and please remember to leave me some feedback. Thanks

Masculine rusty truck card

Today's card has a lot of die cutting for the Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesaday Challenge and their die cutting theme. I started by doing some ink smooshing of distress ink on water color paper to create the look of an old truck that the paint had peeled off and it was starting to rust. I used Pumice stone, Iced spruce, and Rusty hinge. While that was drying die cut my wheels and tires and the window. To make the window look like glass the used a little bit of blue distress ink that was left on the blending tool. (Not really sure which one it was.) Then I added liquid glass over the top to give it shine like glass.

I  added the red balloon in the back of the truck for an element of fun.  The clouds were added with an ink blending tool, some tumbled glass distress ink and a cloud that was free handed out of some scrap paper.  Guy cards are some of the harder cards to do and I am going to challenge myself to come up with some more guy cards soon. This card is for a family friend in fact he is the person that introduced my husband to me. Him and my husband are always talking trucks so this was very fitting. I even found a sticker with a vintage V8 on it for the envelope.  Hope you enjoyed this card and the rest of your day.

"If tea cups could talk..." - Art Journal

My newest die cut that I have is my first steel rule die (I believe its is considered a steel rule die). The Tim Holtz Tea Time die; I have been eyeing this die since it came out and I finally purchased it. Part of the reason I held back from buying it was that I have a Cuttlebug machine and I did not want to have to buy a new Sizzix machine just so I could use this die. But I discovered through a You Tube video that I found on Pintrest that you can indeed use this type of die in a Cuttlebug. All you have to do is use the B plate and card stock with this die to cut out the tea cups. 

When I got this I had so much fun just cutting out the tea cup, saucer, and tea bag tag that I had to cut out more than one and play with different techniques on them. In this stack of cups I did the orange cup first. I used gelatos on it. I used two different oranges and blended it with an ink dauber (thanks, Nina and the Waffle Flower blog is where I learned how to do that) and then I shaded the edges with a red. After that I put stencil over it and removed the color a little with a baby wipe to create the dots. The blue cup was made with a light and dark blue gelato blending like the orange cup and then adding texture paste over it with the doily stencil (Tim Holtz again). The green saucer followed that same idea with the gelatos. The cup with the flower and the greenery were done using distress inks. The cup on the bottom of the stack was stamped lightly with cracked pistachio using the distress marker on the stamp then stamping and going over the stamped image with the marker to define the outline and veins. I added some antique linen with a water brush to add some shadow and age to the cup since these cups have chips and wear on them. The floral cup was painted with the antique linen and water brush first then stamped over with distress inks once it was dry.

I am entering this in the Work It Wednesday Challenge  on the Simon Says Stamp blog, their challenge theme is die cuts. I do believe that I had enjoyed myself with die cutting when I made this art journal layout. I hope that you like my project and that you consider coming back and visiting my blog again in the future. Have a wonderful day and be blessed. 

Colored pencil on black - Sparkle and Shine

This week the challenge on Simon Say Stamp Wednesday challenge blog is Sparkle and Shine. I wanted to see how colored pencil would do on black card stock with this card, I have seen it on kraft card stock before and thought I would give this a try.

(You will have to excuse my unedited photo, I couldn't  get it  work so I put it on as is. )

I stamped some succulents as flowers and greenery for my card in white heat embossing and then colored them with my colored pencil. After that I stamped my sentiment and popped it up on a circle of 

fun foam and matted it with Juniper card stock and adhered it to a white card base. For my finishing touches I have gold, yellow, and moonshine sequins.

Supplies: 

110lbs white card base

Black card stock (CTMH)

Juniper card stock (CTMH)

Hero Arts Stamp Your Own Succulents  Stamp

Lawn Fawn Stitched circle

Mama Elephant stitched frame

WPlus 9 Hand Lettered Thanks

Prismacolor  colored pencils

Sequins

White fun foam

Hero Arts white embossing powder

MFT Summer School - Primary colors

Summer school is in session again. We have been learning about colors and the color wheel in the latest sessions of summer school over at My Favorite Things blog. You learn in grade school that there are three colors that you have to have to mix and make other colors. Those are your primary colors. 

This simple water colored card today was made with the three primary colors. But in this case I used distress inks in Mermaid Lagoon, Abandon Coral, and Squeezed Lemonade. I embossed the balloons in white and wet the panel and dropped in my colors and let them blend and mix a bit. 

Then I trimmed my panel to size to go on a 3.5x 5 card and popped it up on fun foam and mounted it on Dove grey card stock. Hope you enjoyed my home work? 

Supplies:

Dove grey card stock WPlus9

140 lbs water color paper

2mm White Fun Foam

Lawn Fawn Year four stamp (balloon)

SSS Birthday messages (sentiment)

Distress Inks: Mermaid Lagoon, Abandon Coral, and Squeezed Lemonade

VersaFine Black Onyx ink 

Hero Arts white embossing powder

Hero Arts Ultra fine clear embossing powder

SSS moonshine sequins

Colored pencil on kraft - Simon Says shape challenge

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge  is "Get in Shape" as I don't have very many shape dies that are large enough to make a shaped card I went with a scalloped edge shape for my card today. It was a little bit of a challenge to get my 110 lb white card base through my cuttlebug to make this card but I did. We were suppose to try and use Lawn Fawn products too.  For all of my embossing I used Lawn Fawn stamps. 

Debbie Hughes had a card about week or so on her blog with color pencil on kraft card stock that also inspired my card. I masked off the area for my sentiment with some post it tape and stamped and heat embossed flowers and leaves from the Flutter By stamp. Then I colored them and die cut the stitched panel from Mama Elephant. Then I pulled off the masking tape and embossed the "Happy" with gold Hero Arts embossing powder. Then I die cut the Birthday from some white card stock and a Simon Says Stamp Happy Birthday die.  

So, this is my twist on the "Get In Shape" challenge, I hope that you enjoyed my work and that you come and visit my blog again soon to see what else I have created. 

This is where I was last night. My first ever pro baseball game. It was exciting and fun. I was blessed with some free tickets for donating blood at Community blood drive. It's kinda nice being able to donate blood to help some one else and receive an unexpected blessing in return.

Thanks - Happy Mail Animals

I got the Abandon Coral distress color set this week in the mail.  When you get new stuff you just have to play with it, you got to love mail that contains new supplies.  The thanks was die cut from a watercolor panel that was stained with abandon coral, mermaid lagoon, and cracked pistachio stain. The animals were stamped from the Happy Mail stamp set from Wplus 9, and colored with Copic markers. I have used the bear and the birds from the Happy Mail set but I hadn't really used the squirrels or rabbits yet on a project. 

I mounted it on a Dove grey card stock base and trimmed it with Coral lawn fawn trim. The white words on the black are from the Wplus 9 hand lettered Thanks. The challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog is things inspired by the letter "I" this card was inspired by the letter "I" for inlay. The stained piece was inlaid into the white panel with the forest animals. 

Hope you enjoyed my card and leave me some comments please. Thanks!

Watercolor flowers three color blend

This is a card that was inspired by a Kay Miller card that I saw on Pintrest. And it was also inspired by the MFT lesson on Secondary colors. I was inspired by Kay's colors and the flowers in the center. So, I did some ink smooshing on water color paper with Salty Ocean and Mustard Seed and it blended together to make the green in the middle.  Then I flicked it with pearl water color. 

I used the water color flowers stamp from My Favorite Things. They were stamped with Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Cracked Pistachio, Mowed Lawn and Mustard Seed. Then the sentiment was heat embossed with white Hero Arts embossing powder, with Birthday Messages from Simon Says Stamp. 

The water color panel, the flowers, and sentiment were all popped up on foam. The card base is Dove grey card stock from Wplus 9.  Such a fun card to make, and I love smooshing the ink. 

Virginia's View Challenge with Mums

This is a card I made this week. I stamped this with WPlus 9 Coconut husk on water color paper. Then I water colored the flowers in layers and added embellishments. A very straight forward card made in my spare time so I could just relax and enjoy myself playing with paper, ink, and embellishments.  Entering this in the Virginia's View Challenge 100% stamped inspiration. Hope you enjoyed this short and sweet post and my card.

Supplies:
110lbs white card base
140lbs water color paper
Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Flower Garden stamp
WPlus 9 coconut husk ink
Gansai Tambi 36 count water colors
Distress ink vintage photo
Simon Says Stamp Birthday Messages stamp
Hero Arts gold embossing powder
Copper/ Brown glitter tape trim
Sequins in gold, brown, and yellow

Peace like a River - Art Journal layout

Today I have an Art Journal layout to share with you. This is in honor of Heidi Swapp. Jennifer McGuire shared that Heidi had lost one of her sons. I have never meet her or spoken to her before but when someone loses a child I can not imagine the pain and hurt that they must go through. I pray that God would bring her and family comfort and peace. 

The scene that I am try to show with this art journal page is a peaceful river with flowers fallen from the trees and floating in the water, and the water ripples gently as the flowers land on the surface of the water. 

The words on the page are from the hymn "It is Well With My Soul" there is a very profound and moving story behind the writting of that song. I don't think that I could do the story justice but I encourage you to google the song and read about the man that wrote the song and what he went through before he wrote that beautiful hymn. 

The background was done with Mermaid lagoon stain, with Broken China paint, and some Vintage Photo on the edges. The flowers and leaves were heat embossed with gold heat embossing. The sentiment was gold heat embossed on vellum and the rest of the words were stamped with black versafine ink. I used a white gel pen to highlight the ripples in the water. 

I am also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge the theme is anything goes. 

Copic Ballerina encouragement card

I  stayed up last night to make this card for my daughter. She has learned how to read this year and not without some tears and frustration. She tends to be hard on herself and she knows more than she thinks. I wanted her to know what a good job she is doing and that I am proud of her.
 Last night I pulled out one of my practice sheets from taking the Online Card Classes; there is a fabulous  Copic marker class they have. I like to color when I am stressed or need to unwind, so last night the kids were making me crazy, being with them only with no break was starting to wear me out. So, I decided I needed a coloring break.

 I decided to cut this Ballerina out after I colored her with Copic markers. I added a wink of Stella to her outfit and shoes, then a white gel pen to add a scalloped trim to her outfit too. My card base isWplus9 Dove grey card stock and die cut vellum scalloped panel to go between the grey and white stitched panel. Next I heat embossed my sentiment and then splattered the white panel with pearl water color paint. I glued the Ballerina down with multi medium matte. Then adhered the vellum and white panel to the card base and finished with the hearts and a tiny gem on the Ballerina.

My daughter was so excited that I made a card just for her. I hope you enjoy my card and have a great weekend.

Recent favorite color trio with Congrats

For my card today I used a color combo that I fell in love with. Cracked Pistachio, Shaded Lilac, and Worn Lipstick.  I heat embossed the Quilt Prints from WPlus 9 first on water color paper. Then I used my distress inks to water color. 

 After that I heated embossed my sentiment staying with the gold as an accent color. Next I heat embossed the humming bird on vellum and fussy cut it, positioned it and glued it down. 

Then I put the panel on Dove grey card base. And for some embellishments I added gold sequins and some twine with gold thread. I am entering this in the Wplus9 throw back Thursday challenge since it goes with her wedding and congrats theme. Hope you enjoyed my card, I sure had fun creating it and sharing it.

Art Journal - Celebrate Freedom

In anticipation of Independence day on July 4th for those in the United States I made this art journal lay out.

The colors in the picture are little bit washed out. I wasn't sure the direction I was going with this page when I first started it. The whole page was painted in distress paint with fired brick (after a gesso base of course.) Then I decided that I wanted a flag for whole page and wished that I had masked things off to begin with. But I was going to make it work and not start over on another page. I went over the red in the upper left with a blue gelato and masked off the stripes with post it tape and painted gesso for the white stripes. For the blue field I sealed it with gel medium before gluing down my die cut stars.

Before removing the mask for the white stripes I used some Antique Linen distress ink and a blending tool, I also did that on the stars before gluing them on the blue field. The fireworks and stars were heat embossed with gold embossing powder. The highlights and stitching lines were added with a white gel pen. And of course some vintage photo distress ink to frame the whole layout. I finally got myself a really art journal instead of using a regular old notebook, my goodness I should have done that sooner. It was well worth it. I am going to enter this in the Work It Wednesday Simon Says Stamp Challenge. Hope that you have a safe fourth of July with your family and friends and thank all those who help keep us free. 

Summer Simon Says Stamp Challenge

Summer... it goes by way to fast. I was thinking of summer roses and flowers that come after summer cool weather pansies too. My newest stamp water color flowers from my favorite things was something I keep coming back to to  try different things with and see what works. Since  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is about summer I figured these cards would be good for that challenge.

 It's a little bit hard to see but a layer of the roses has been stamped with versamark and heat embossed with WOW silver embossing powder.

The roses and the sky have been done with distress inks: Salty Ocean, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet,   Shabby Shutters, and Peeled Paint.

These little flowers on the stamp looked little pansies so I stamped them in typical pansy colors and I used my ink to color my ribbon to match with mustard seed. I drew the centers in with a gold pitt pen. If you enjoyed my cards please leave me some comments, it is nice to know what you think. 

Supplies: 

110 lbs white card base

140lbs water color paper

 Distress inks: Salty Ocean, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed, Dusty Concord, Cracked Pistachio,Mowed Lawn, and Vintage Photo

MFT Water color Flowers stamp

MFT Get Well wishes

Lawn Fawn gold trim

Wow ultra fine silver pearl

Hero Arts gold embossing powder

WPlus 9 Hand letter Hello

Paper Studio honey comb embossing folder

ribbon 

Wplus 9 Color Challenge

Today's card is playing along with Wplus9's Pure Color combination. The colors are Falling Star, Wild Mango, Flamingo, Mojito, and Appletini. I used all the colors for the challenge except Appletini since I don't own that color yet. Everyone else's  cards had florals and butterflies, so I thought I would change it up and let the sentiment be the focal point of the card. I really wish that WPlus9 had some enamel dots in some of their pure colors, I would have loved to had some in Falling Star to add to the front of this card. The hello sentiments have an ombre effect going from Falling Star to Wild Mango then to Flamingo.

Suplies:
Artist Loft 140lbs. water color paper
kraft card stock
WPlus9 's Hand letter Hello stamp
WPlus 9 pure color dye inks: Falling Star, Wild Mango, Flamingo, Mojito, and Fairy dust
Lawn Fawn's Flutter By stamp (leaves)
MFT diagonal stripes background stamp
Hero Art's gold embossing powder

Card Concept #38 Yellow and greys

This is my card for the Card Concept Challenge #38, I am not entirely sure how to classify my card either clean and layered or classy and elegant. But I love these sweet little birds from the Happy Mail stamp set that WPlus9 release earlier this month. 

 I was thinking this would be a great baby shower card. The grey on grey with the birds, flowers, and music notes reminds me of a nursery print. The flowers were colored with a Copic marker and white gel pen.  The banner and the birds were covered with a wink of stella. 

 The two frames the stitched and scalloped frames were cut from Mama Elephant's die cuts and so was the yellow bow.  It's a simple but cute card I would say. Hope that you like my card and leave me some feedback.

MFT summer school White space lesson

I am trying to learn about good ways to incorporate white space. This is not always easy for me since I don't consider myself a Clean and Simple kind of gal. Sequins are something that I am starting to love and sometimes I tend to over do things and then not be happy with it. For my homework for My Favorite Things summer school I tried to not over do it. 

There is white space and I still have sequins too. This card was really hard to get pictures of that did it justice. My grey panel has wood grain that I stamped with white pigment ink and an embossing folder since I didn't have a woodgrain stamp. 

My vellum flowers have gelatos on the back so the color shows through and they are embossed with silver pearl embossing powder.  When I made this card I started to put a printed piece of paper on the background but then I remembered the lesson about white space and decided that white space looked far better on this card and I could put to use what I had learned. 

Art journal - letters and heart

Today I have an art journal page that has been in the works for awhile. Art journaling is relaxing and a good place to just let lose and be messy. I did something fun with this background that I tried for the first time. After I gessoed my page I put down some distress paint for background color then I got out an embossing folder and dabbed some seedless preserves paint on the raised side and then pressed it on to my page in a random pattern. I think that it turned out pretty cool and I have used this on some other art journal pages and some cards too. 

" I am a little pencil in the hands of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." 

 Mother Teresa 

                                                                                                    

Polar bear and northern lights

When I first saw Wplus9's Happy Mail stamp from their June release I fell in love with the bear. He made me think of a polar bear and I knew that I wanted to make a card with him in a polar setting. I figured the best way to create the an Aurora Borealis background was with water colors or distress inks.

For my snow I used white glitter fun foam to add dimension and to give a glittering snow effect. My polar bear was colored with Copics and popped up on foam tape. The sentiment was heat embossed and so were the stripes on the dove grey card stock that was used to mat the polar scene. I really love to mix and match different companies. I have things from Wplus9, Lawn Fawn, Mama Elephant, My Favorite things, and Simon Says Stamp all on this card. (see the supply list.)

I am going to enter this card in Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday challenge. I think I really worked it on this card, I took a idea in my head and got it to come together on my card and had fun.

I appreciate anyone who takes the time to leave me some feedback and input on the cards I pour my heart into to create.

Supply list:
110 lbs white card base and 65 lbs white card stock
Wplus 9 Dove grey card stock and Happy Mail stamp
Artist loft 140lbs water color paper
MFT diagonal stripes background stamp
Wow ultra fine silver embossing powder
Mama Elephant stitched border die
Lawn Fawn stitched hillside die
Versafine Black onyx ink
Hero Arts ultra fine clear embossing powder
White glitter fun foam (I bought in a multi color pack at walmart)
Tim Holtz distress inks: shaded lilac, cracked pistachio, picked raspberry, and mermaid lagoon
Gansai Tambi  pearl white water color paint
Simon Says Stamp Moonshine sequins
Copic markers
Ranger multi medium matte

a trendy birthday

The card I made today was inspired by several things by the Hero Arts tic tac challenge and by the My Favorite Thing's Summer school lesson about lines.

For my three squares in a row I choose to go diagonal. With heat embossing, birthday theme, and watercolor. I heat embossed the succulent with Hero Arts Stamp Your Own Succulent stamp and hero arts gold embossing powder. And the sentiment is also heat embossed as well as the background words on the black panel.  The birthday theme is evident in the sentiment. For the water color is used gold watercolor for the splats in gold. 

I used what I learned in the Summer School session about lines to direct the flow of the content and emphasis the birthday part of the sentiment. I hope that you enjoy my card today and leave me some feedback please.