Fall Trees - Swap cards

The topic for the Swap of the Month with the ORSA group (Ontario Rubber Stamping Artists) yahoo group is "Fall Trees".

I used the Sheltering Trees stamp set and the Stamparatus to create the 3 cards I needed for the swap.

On a 4 by 5 1/4" piece of Very Vanilla cardstock, I stamped 2 trees using Soft Suede ink, and then used the following colors for the fall leaves:  Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, and Pear Pizzazz.  Some Real Red was added to one of the trees.

The grass was stamped in Pear Pizzazz; the birds from "Wherever You Go" were stamped in Basic Gray.

The sentiment is non SU and stamped on Very Vanilla, matted with Cajun Craze card stock and then Pumpkin Glimmer card stock.

A bow tied with thick Crumb cake Baker's twine was added to the upper right corner of the sentiment piece.

After adding the image piece to the Cajun Craze card front, I added a 1/2" strip of Pumpkin Pie glimmer paper on the left edge.

Supplies Used:

Stamps:  Sheltering Tree, Wherever You Go

Inks:  Black Memento, Basic Gray, Soft Suede, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Pear Pizzazz, Real Red

Papers:  Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Pumpkin glimmer paper, pearls colored with alcohol markers, thick Crumb Cake baker's twine, Stamparatus.

Watercoloring with stamps - another Occasions sneak peak

The "Water front" stamp set is so neat!  The stamping makes it look like watercoloring - but of course it's stamping.

See what I mean?  I finished the card so that it looks like it's been placed in a frame. 

The placement of the sun provided orientation for the rest of the images. Here are the colours of inks I used:

• Mountains:  Soft Suede
• Grass:  Lucky Limeade
• Trees:  Trunk - Early Espresso marker;  Branches - Always Artichoke marker
• Cabin:  Early Espresso.  Windows coloured with Daffodil Delight marker
• Water:  Pool Party, Soft Sky, Marina Mist
• Sun:  Crushed  Curry
• Birds:  Basic Gray

The birds are from the stamp set "Wherever You Go"

After I finished the scene I took the fine end of an Early Espresso marker and used "grounding" marks under the hut, and trees, and along the shore line and base of the mountain.  I also sponged lightly around the sun and incorporated some Crushed Curry reflections into the water.

The edges of all card stock were sponged with Basic Gray ink

The art piece was masked with Soft Suede card stock, layered onto Whisper White card stock and then added to an Always Artichoke card base.

Supplies Used:

Stamps:  Water Front, Wherever You Go"

Inks:  Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, Lucky Limeade, Early Espresso, Pool Party, Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Markers (Early Espresso, Always Artichoke, Daffodil Delight), Basic Gray

Papers:  Always Artichoke, Whisper White, Soft Suede

Happy Birthday - a Joy Fold Card

One of my down line has a birthday today.  Since she is crazy about horses, and owns her own horse, I made a card featuring horses it.

I used the Joy Fold to make this special card, but instead of the smaller fold being held down by the focal image, it is held down by the birthday sentiment. In the last picture below you can see my finger holding the card back so it doesn't slip under the sentiment.

The image of the horses and fence are from Frog's Whisker's Ink The horses were coloured with copic markers, the fence stamped and coloured with Soft Suede ink
The grass around the fence posts were stamped with Always Artichoke using the grass stamp from High Tide.  The water stamp from High Tide was also used to stamp the ground around the horses.

I made the clouds in the sky using scallop circles and a Marina Mist ink. The birds are from "Wherever You Go"

Sentiment is from Vertical Greetings.

The greetings inside is also from Frog's Whiskers.  The horse in the corner is from a retired SU stamp.

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  High Tide, Wherever You Go, Vertical Greetings, Pals (Frog's Whiskers)
Inks:  Black Memento, Copic Markers, Marina Mist, Soft Suede, Basic Gray, Always Artichoke
Papers:  Crumb Cake, Whisper White,  Coffee Break DSP
Accessories:  3?8" Old Olive mini chevron ribbon, dimensionals

Circle of Spring Easter Card

It's wonderful that the framelits from the Christmas stamp set "Wondrous Wreath" can be used to die cut the Circle of Spring wreath!

This really cute floral wreath in the "Circle of Spring" stamp set was used to make an Easter card.

I stamped the Hardwood background stamp on Crumb Cake card stock with Soft Suede ink.  This was cut into 2 pieces, the edges sponged, and then formed into a cross.

Before adhering the card to the Whisper White art piece, an image of a sunburst from the stamp set "Wherever You Go" was stamped so that the rays would show just over the top of the cross.

At the base, I stamped some grass using a stamp from "Sheltering Tree".

The die cut wreath was placed over the top of the cross, and the Easter sentiment was added using a dimensional to the center of the wreath.

The Wreath:

After stamping with Black Memento, the various parts of the wreath were coloured with a Wink of Stella glimmer brush and the following ink colours:  Mint Macaron, Peek-a-poo Peach, Flirty Flamingo, Sweet Sugarplum.

Four (4) extra flowers were coloured, die cut, and three were added to the wreath, and the 4th were reserved for the inside of the card..  Pearls were placed in the center of each of these flowers; tiny pearls were also added to the center of the smaller flowers

I extended the main part of the cross over the bottom of  the art piece in order to maintain visual proportions of the wreath covered cross.  In other words it did not look right when it was shorter.

Before matting the art piece with Crumb Cake I wrapped a 1/4" ruffled Flirty Flamingo around the base and then added a bow.

The Art Piece was added to the Soft Suede card front which had a piece of  Flirty Flamingo DSP attached.

Supplied Used:

Stamps: Circle of Spring, Hardwood, Wherever You Go, Sheltering Tree

Inks: Soft Suede, Mint Macaron, Flirty Flamingo, Sweet Sugarplum, Peek-a-boo Peach, Crushed Currie, Old Olive

Papers: Soft Suede, Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Flirty Flamingo DSP

Accessories: 1/4" ruffled Flirty Flamingo ribbon, Wondrous Wreath framelits, Pearls, dimensionals, Wink of Stella glimmer brush.

Cost Effective Altered Journal for SUO Challenges

The challenge this week with SUO Challenges is to create something using the "stuff" from the Occasions and/or SAB catalogue. Since I had products from both catalogues I decided to use both to alter a journal. Because I sell the journals, I like to keep the cost down as much as possible by purchasing inexpensive journals (and make them look like a million dollars), and decorate them using retired products purchased from the clearance rack plus scraps from my scrap bin.

I purchased this journal from the Dollar store.  Because I like to braid the spine ribbon, I choose journals that have a wire spine.

The front and back cover of the journal were covered with "Carried Away" SAB designer paper, and I used the colours in that paper to decorate the journal. The insides were covered with coordinating Mint Macaron card stock.

Art Piece:

One wonderful thing about this year's Occasion and SAB catalogues is the cooperative interplay between the two.

The DSP from the SAB catalogue features hot air balloons, so naturally the "Lift Me Up" stamp set from the Occasions catalogue, with its coordinating framelits (Up & Away Thinlet dies), was used to create the scene on the front of the journal.

The edges of the Whisper White piece were first distressed with Basic Gray ink using the Timeless Texture stamp set.  Some large and small clouds were stamped randomly on the art piece as well as on separate scrap pieces of Whisper White card stock. The ones on the scrap piece were die cut and placed aside. Once I knew the placement of the hot air balloons, three birds (from "Wherever You Go) were stamped between the clouds.

Three balloons were die cut - the large one with Night of Navy card stock, backed with die cut pieces of various patterns of the SAB Designer paper.  The medium and smaller ones were die cut with the SAB designer paper. Three balloon baskets were die cut with Night of Navy scraps.  One was adhered to the larger balloon; the other two were cut to fit the other balloons.  The edges of the two smaller balloons were sponged with Calypso Coral ink.

After the balloons were adhered to the art piece with dimensionals (except the smallest) the die cut clouds were also adhered with dimensionals among the stamped clouds.

The art piece was matted with Calypso Coral card stock and adhered to the front of the journal.

Decorating the rest of the Journal:
The Tasteful Trim die (retired) was used to cut the Night of Navy trim which was adhered next to the spine, on both the front, back and inside.

The sentiment was punched with the Classic Label punch and matted with a Night of Navy modern word label punchie.

This was adhered to the top of the art piece.

Spine:
Four rows of retired Calypso Coral seam binding was used to braid the spine.  The ends were left a bit longer because I like to attach beads to them.  But because this is a SU only challenge, I used 2 retired Antique brads hot-glued together and to the ribbon end.

Book Mark
As a bonus, I made a book mark using 1/4" strips of the same DSP and the Calypso coral card stock.  These were braided together.  The top was decorated with  2 Calypso Coral and 1 Mint Macaron flowers die cut using the Succulent framelits. The center of the flower was punched in Night of Navy card stock using a 3/4" circle punch.  Before adhering them together with Tombo glue the edges were curled up with a bone folder.
After attaching the flower to the top of the book mark, dazzling details was applied to the edges and center of the flower

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Lift Me Up (Occasions), Timeless Texture (Annual), Wherever You Go (Annual)
Inks: Basic Gray, Calypso,
Papers: Carried Away DSP, Night of Navy, Mint Macaron, Calypso Coral, Basic Gray, Whisper White
Accessories: Up & Away thinlets dies, Succulents framelits dies, Classic Label punch, Modern Word Label punch, 3/4" circle punch, 1/2" Calypso Coral seam binding (R), Antique brads (R), dimensionals, Tasteful Trim die (R), dazzling details.

Cards made with Serene Scenic DSP stack

Yesterday I made a card that I had made using the DSP from the Scenic Scenery DSP stack with a promise that I would make some more todayl
Well, I made two, and it took me under 5 minutes to make both.
The first card is a sympathy card, and I used Old Olive as its base, layered with Whisper White.

The sentiment is from Flourishing Phrases, stamped  Whisper White, die cut using the layering ovals framelits and adhered to a punched out decorative label punchie.

The second card features the stamp set "Wherever You Go" and the image of the bridge was stamped directly onto the DSP.  Add some sunrise in Daffodil Delight, and some birds flying in the sky and wholla you have a card.

Here are both the cards along with the DSP stack.

Again, this DSP stack is on Page 174 of the Annual catalogue.

Wherever You Go - Watercooler Wednesday Sketch Challenge #75

This card, using the stamp set "Whever You Go" was made for the sketch challenge with Watercooler Sketch Challenge

 

You will note that I turned the sketch onto it's side.

I love the image of the bridge.  It reminds me of the bridge between Prince Edward Island and the mainland.  That one is absolutely huge!!  Driving across the water is so much faster than taking the Ferry Boat!

The image was stamped onto Whisper White cardstock, adding the sun with Crushed Curry. the colour from some of this reflecting in the water below.

This image piece was matted with Pacific Point cardstock, which was added to the card front using dimensionals.

Supplies Used: 

Stamp: Wherever You Go

Inks: Black Memento, Marina Mist, Soft Sky, Crushed Curry

Papers: Pacific Point, Very Vanilla, DSP (retired)

Accessories: Small oval punch, Modern word label punch, dimensionals, Pearls