IMPRESSION OBSESSION FURRY FRIENDS CHALLENGE

                                             

Furry Friends Challenge

I made this card for the Impression Obsession Challenge, Furry Friends.  I used some Mowed Lawn Distress Ink for the background on Tim Holtz watercolor paper.  The die is Impression Obsession #DIE161-1, Large Bird on Branch. In my world, a bird is sort of a furry-feathery creature.  I cut two of them and added an extra branch on the bottom to fill in some of that white space.  I love the way they hang over the black mounting paper.  The stamp is Impression Obsession, C14071-CLG, Able To Fly.  I looked in their store and they no longer carry this stamp.  I love the message and use this quite frequently.  The font is like an old typewriter style, so unique.

Impression Obsession makes great products.  It is hard to browse the Impression Obsession store without finding something you have to have.

Thannk you for visiting.

MEMORY BOX CHALLENGE #13 - WATERCOLOR

The Challenge from Memory Box for the month of June is Watercolor.  It certainly is the popular medium now.  I had so many ideas for this card, but I decided to keep just the watercolor as the centerpiece.

I die cut the Memory Box die called Dizzy Butterflies.  Memory Box is known for their beautiful intricate dies and this one is no exception.  I cut it out of watercolor paper and painted it with Distress Ink using Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade and Twisted Citron.  I think they are my favorite colors.  I used the Memory Box Parker Lower Case alphabet to stamp "fly" and did it in a light blue embossing powder.  Seemed too bright, so I lightly sanded it which gave it some texture.  I added blue rhinestones in the middle of the flowers and it was finished!

Thank you for visiting.

ALTENEW ACADEMY - SCENE BUILDING - LESSON FOUR

In the Altenew Academy Scene Building classes, today's lesson was about making a frame for your image.  A window, what could be a better frame than that?  A friend just got two new puppies and the breeder gave him this photo.

I embossed the brick wall using the Darice Brick wall folder.  Since it is only 4 1/4 wide, I emboss it, then slide the folder to the other side, matching the pattern.  This now fills this 5 1/2 square card. The window is made using the Memory Box Grand Madison window die.  The grass is the Clearly Besotted Fresh grass die, with some grass in the middle, made with a Martha Stewart punch.

Making cards is just fun.  What is even more fun is making these custom cards to fit special situations.

Thank you for visiting.

ALTENEW ACADEMY - SCENE BUILDING - LESSON THREE

I am taking the Scene Building Classes at the Altenew Academy this week.  They are being taught by Nichol Magourik and so far, I have learned many new techniques.

For Lesson 3, she taught the principal that backgrounds can compliment the scene and help set the message.  A friend of mine had a horse that passed away.  As we know, pets become a member of the family.  I did not want to use the standard message sentiments, but thought the artwork could convey my message.

The background was made using silver embossing powder with a small star stamp on a dark blue cardstock.  I then cut two borders using my Poppystamps Puffy Cloud border die, staggering them.  I stamped the horse using my Deep Red Wild Horse stamp and used platinum embossing powder.  I cut some stars from silver foil paper using the Simon Says Stamp Holiday Shapes die, selecting various sizes.  I mounted this on a piece of silver foil.  I purchased several foil gift bags at the dollar store and cut them up into pieces to use for mounting.  An inexpensive way to add that beautiful foil look.  I then adhered that final panel to the card front.  Inside, just a message from me to her about her loss.  I think the card ended up being very tasteful and I hope she likes it!

The Scene Building Classes have been lots of fun.  Nichol has shared many tips and tricks while making her cards.  The class was priced right and I will definitely take another course from them in the future.  Sadly, none of my products were from Altenew, but when this class is over, my wish list will be much longer!

Thank you for visiting.

RIGHT AT HOME BLOG HOP

This is National Craft Month and is being celebrated with a blog hop by Right At Home blog and there are many wonderful sponsors with great prizes.  With that link to their blog, take a moment to check out the store.  They carry many fabulous brands, plus one of their own.

Lawn Fawn is one of my favorite brands.  The stamp sets are so creative and the sentiments that come with them are so clever and make it easy to apply to all kinds of occasions.  We will all be scrambling to find something green to wear on Thursday and that gave me the idea for this card.

My new fun technique is masking.  It makes stamping have great dimension and give sort of a 3D effect.  This new stamp set will work for just about any occasion, just color the clothes or add a new logo to the shirt. 

Thanks for visiting and have a Happy St Patrick's Day! 

NBUS CHALLENGE #6

Darnell is just a riot!  I love to read her blog.  NBUS is something we all suffer from, so I dug around and here is what I came up with.

I have to admit where I got this idea.  I have a pair of pajamas and they have bikes all over them with this sentiment.  I ride my bike almost everyday and I love it. Along with an old never used stamp set, I thought this would be my theme for the NBUS Challenge #6.

The NBUS on this card is the word "RIDE" using the stamp set Sketchbook Letters by Hero Arts.  I won the stamp set in a contest a year or two ago along with many other things that I also have not used. The letters are big and have these sketchy lines on them that most of the time look out of place.  So I just thought of another NBUS - the stamp word "beautiful" is from the stamp set Everyday Words by Impression Obsession. Never used it because it is BRAND NEW!  25 different words in a bold script and I am sure this will become a go to stamp set since it can makes dozens of expressions.  "Life is a" comes from a Simon Says Stamp set called Life is a Journey.  I think the three different fonts all work well together. I heat embossed the text with white embossing powder. The bicycle die is from Memory Box, Brand New Bicycle and hard to see, but it is hot pink glitter paper.  Plain black paper and it is done.

Thank you Darnell for the chance to enter your contest.  I have to say, crafting makes life a beautiful ride!

Thank you for visiting.

ONLINE CARD CLASSES - WATERCOLOR DAY 3

I have taken several of the Online Card Classes and have learned so much from them all. But I must say, this is the best class I have taken so far.  I think the easiest part is you probably have the supplies you need to practice techniques.  I have learned about the quality of paper and the big role it might play in the technique you are applying and of course it is all about the water!  I wanted to learn the basics and this has been fabulous. Sadly, this has been a very busy week for me and I am unable to spend time, adding to the gallery.

This is a Stampendous stamp called Sweet Sunflower.  I thought it would allow the watercolors to flow around.  I used Simon Says Khaki ink and stamped it off once to get a lighter outline.  This was fun and looking back, I was probably too cautious and stuck to just several colors.  My ink splatters spread a bit, but I love it!  A greeting, a few gems and done.

Thank you for visiting and a big thanks to Dawn, my new idol . . .