Penny Black t-time

Here are some adorable little girls from a stamp set that is new to me; Penny Black's t- time stamp. It is great to have some images stamped and heat embossed on water color paper ready ready paint for whenever you have a spare moment. I had busy day and needed some de-stressing time in the evening. Coloring of any kind is good for helping you relax and clear your mind. 

 This first little girl I decided I wanted to paint her dress so it was like a watermelon. I tried mixing my own colors for the browns and the skin tones. The background begged for a cheerful color, so I went with a wash of yellow.

The second little girl's hair was a little more of a challenge. I decided to go back over her hair with a second layer after the first had dried, then I was finally satisfied with her hair.  The colors for this card have more pale and a shabby chic feel to them. I also to set a scene with the background with this card too. You can just see a little girl in her dressiest dress have a tea party in the back yard cupcakes and all.

Both cards have a wink of Stella on them. The first little girl's sheer apron has the wink of Stella on it. And the second little girl's girl dress is all shimmery with a wink of Stella and also the pink cupcake icing. It is so hard to get the shimmer to show in the photos. So, go color something and relax.

Supplies:
Artist Loft water color paper
Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi 36 count water color set
Blue printed paper CTMH
Mint printed paper DCWV
Mama Elephant dies femme frames
Hero Arts silver and gold embossing powder
Zig wink of Stella clear
Iridescent and buttercup sequins

Trying Something New

Trying something new is the theme of the Lawnscaping Challenge #106. This is a great challenge idea, trying something new is how we learn. I tried a few things new on this card that I made today.
  The first thing new I tried was a technique to iron off clear embossing powder.  After heat embossing the "oh deer" sentiment from the  Into the woods  stamp set. I used my blending tool to color the background with yellow.  I had read about this on Jennifer McGuire's blog and had not tried it yet.  It was pretty simple all you have to do is sandwich the panel between a folded  piece of printer paper and iron it on low.  Then the embossing powder comes off on the printer paper. After that  I stamped the deer  and the speech bubble with the heart on some water color paper and used my distress inks to color them.  Popping the the yellow panel, deer, and the speech bubble up on foam tape gave it dimension.
  Also I used a new supply in making my card, the pink and yellow washi tape was something I got at Hobby Lobby. Lawn Fawn has great stuff and they are coming out with their summer release soon. (Can't wait and I am sure I am not the only one that is excited about that.)

Supply List
Lawn Fawn: Into the Woods stamp and die, gold lawn trimmings
Distress inks: squeezed lemonade, vintage photo, tea dye, rusty hinge, and worn lipstick
Paper Studio: wash tapes
gold sequins

  I am hoping to get the Flutter By stamp and die sets in the mail this week. Then I would maybe like to try some water coloring with it and the die cuts. Maybe I am the only one that does this but I have to admit I hover at the window watching the mailbox when I know I have new paper crafting goodies on the way.

update

It has been awhile since I have posted. Now that I have Internet back, I hope to begin to post more often. I hope to have cards as well as art journaling to share with you. Art journaling is a new outlet of creativity that I have been trying. It has been enjoyable to have an outlet that I can have creative out bursts on. Art journaling is also good place to try new techniques that I want to use in my card making too.
My attitude towards card making is changing too. Some times its hard not to compare your work to others especially in challenge blogs. It is difficult not to become discourage with the out come at times. But then I have to remind myself why I am doing what I love. I love making card. It is a love of mine because I want to be creative, but more importantly I want to encourage and up lift others. When I make cards I want to  have fun and make art. At times I admit I get tense when I have an idea and it just  doesn't come together the way I want it to. That is part of learning and some times you just have to learn what doesn't work. Hopefully when I look back at the end of the year I can say that I have grown.   I am not to proud to say that I have a lot to learn and God is still working on me.

Snowy Birthday card

  I have a lot of birthdays that are coming up in January and with the holidays they always seem to creep up on me and surprise me.  That encouraged me to get a start on them today. Since it is a week before Christmas and the Christmas cards got mailed this week. I made today's card with water color paper, vellum, and distress inks.

I blended dusty concord, worn lipstick, and tattered rose on my water color paper first,  them I took my grape fizz perfect pearls pigments and splattered the background.  Then I heat embossed the sentiment from Mama Elephant.  I cut out snowflakes on my Cricut machine using the Art Philosophy cartridge.  I cut one in water color paper and the rest in vellum. 

For a finishing touch I trimmed the card with clear sequins and coral Lawn trimmings.  I am entering this card in the Simon Say Stamp Wednesday Challenge, the theme of the challenge is Winter Inspiration. I was inspired by Debby Hughes's lovely cards and the Simon Say Stamp card kit for January for this card.  This card was very fun to make.  I hope you enjoyed viewing my work. 

Joy to the World!

   Today I am going to share my Christmas card with you that I made to send out. I have been trying a lot more clean and elegant cards lately. I like to embellish my cards especially with a little sparkle. I keep a bit of sparkle but the over all design is clean and simple.

   The colors I choose are not traditional Christmas colors, and the picture isn't the best quality. I die cut my letters with Clark's ABC die from Lawn Fawn. The Sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's Wish You Were Here set. I cut the stamp to get the wording I wanted; no my stamps did not scream when I cut it. The glitter fun foam is actually a lime green that matches the globe, but I was losing my good lighting for the day so the color in the picture is a little strange.  The inside of my card says: "May the  glory of Christ's birth bring you joy and hope at Christmas time and always." The stamp for the inside is a rubber stamp by Stampabilities that I found at Hobby Lobby.  Believe it or not that was the first rubber stamp I have ever bought.  This is my entry for the Lawnscaping Challenge #96 Merry Christmas and I also entring it in Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge and their anything goes challenge. I hope that you enjoy it, even if it isn't fancy. Let's keep focused on what Christmas is all about: The joy that Christ brought when he was born as a tiny baby in Bethlehem and the eternal joy that he brings to our hearts when we know him as Lord and Savior. 

You Color My World

  Today I have two fun cards that I made with a new Lawn Fawn stamp I just got today.  These cards are two different takes on this stamp set featuring the crayon and the sentiment from this mini set.

  This card is an early Valentines day card. The background was made with distress inks, glimmer mist, and watercolor paper; with embossed hearts to resist the inks.  The crayon was colored with Copic markers. For a final touch some white and gold  trim from Lawn Fawn.  This card is going to be my entry for the Virginia's View Challenge, Challenge #10 all things distressed. 

This is my other card. I used the globe from the Wish You Where Here stamp. The white letters were heat embossed and I lined up the globe over the black stamped sentiment on the card base. The crayons were colored with Copic markers. The tiny silver stars were cut from glitter tape and Mama Elephant's tiny stars from the basic die set.  Hope you liked my fun cards today. 

White on White Challenge #95

Today I am playing along with Lawn Fawn's Challenge blog; Challenge #95 White on white. This was an interesting challenge for sure. Here is my card, I kept it clean and simple. that is what I think of when I think of white.

I love this little bunny from the Hello baby set. I second generation stamped this in a grey wool ink. Then I took a couple of Copic markers and shaded the bunny a little. I added a wink of stella to the balloons and put liquid glass (which is like glossy accents) over the balloons. Then I die cut my letters from Clark's ABC die cut. I put a vellum panel behind my happy letters to give it a frosted look.

I love these bunnies, they remind me of little nut brown hare and big nut brown hare. My girls love it when I read the story "Guess How Much I Love You?" That is what inspired this card. The very last line of the book big nut brown hare says, "I love you to the moon.. and back."

I didn't have the greatest stamp for my alphabet to put the sentiment for the bottom of the card. I ordered Violet's ABC's stamp since Lawn Fawn had such a great black Friday sale. So, there may be a remake of this card in the future. Hope you enjoyed today's post, please leave some feedback if you liked it and if you didn't give me some pointers how I could do better next time.