The Last Card of August

When you need a card in a hurry, there is nothing like  the quick magic of stickers.  I have always gotten my stickers (and I do have a GREAT supply of them) from the Stevens who own Pop-Ups-Etc.  This is a GREAT time to fill your cache and help vicitims of the disaster through and because of the love of crafting that the Pop-Ups-Etc make possible today.  50% of the proceeds from ALL ORDERS placed August 30th through Sept 6th with Pop-Ups-Etc will be donated to the  American Red Cross Hurricane Harvey campaign.

FAIRY Best Wishes as you go off to College!   Enjoy all the wonder and the magic that you'll find between the covers of your books as you pursue your goals. Reading and learning are the keys to your future!  Have fun!  
The darling Bookworm Fairy is from the Paper Shelter, and it is pencil, wink of stella and glitter gel pens over artist drawn image, rather than a colored digital stamp this time--in the interest of time.  The white and holographic lines and the glitter hearts as well as the Best Wishes sentiment are all stickers from Pop-Ups-Etc. 

Peace & Joy

This is the first of several Christmas cards using the Airin Bird from Memory  Box die.  This is cut from white shimmer paper  and mounted with Stick It on the diecut  on blue cardstock that has been coated with a thin coat of Nuvo Glimmer. This is rich and almost holographic. The card's matte is created on smoky slate cardstock and uses three colors of blue Distress Oxide ink with white Hero Arts Unicorn pigment ink across some of the top of the  Distress Oxide.   The finished inking was embossed with Tim Holtz Snowflake Flurries  EF then each snowflake covered with clear Wink of Stella.  The Peace Wreath is white heat embossed on acetate and from the Inkadinkadoo  Christmas Stampsetl.  Other accents on the card mat are Stickles, Nuvo clear dots, white paint pen, clear sequins, and clear star glitter gel. The Peace diecut is by Spellbinders (beautiful set) "Peace Sentiment" S2-120

This one is created using the Winter Berries (658273) Tim Holtz  EF on Night of navy blue.   The die-mat is Labels 17 by Spellbinders.The Joy stamp is heat embossed clear over Night of Navy ink and Versamark.  The snowflakes are edged in night of navy and are from a Martha Stewart edge punch.  Pearls and stickles finish this card.

Anboo Animals Owls

Just Stopping by to say HI! is created with the darling Anboo Animal series die I found at Amazon.
Ows are cut from tip top taupe paper, shaded with distress oxide inks and distress inks. Fonts for the sentiments are Tingler Script and Ariel.  BK paper is from my stash.

The Wizard of Owls

If I only Had

Brains, Heart, Courage

This card was created using the adorable owls created by Jessica Lynn Originals.  The Owl Oz characters are colored with prismacolor pencils.  The background  is created with a rainbow created by Snickerdoodle Designs by Karen in her kit Imagination Station.  The quote is from Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum, and reads:

 “…and remember my sentimental friend
 that a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.”

Color Burst wishes

This all occasion card is bursting with vibrant color.  This is another background technique that we did in my recent backgrounds class for Papers N Pixels here in Mesquite.  These are Ken oliver colorburst powders sprinkled over white heat embossed flowers (a  Gina K stamp).  The Fairy is  the Posing  Fairy by Poppy stamps holding a sentiment that reads Have a Very Magical Day.  

Thanks a Whole Punch

Created with various  sized punches, over a stenciled Distress Oxide multicolor background, this little thumbs-up tooth was sent to thank my dentist for the textbook perfect extraction of the last of my wisdom teeth yesterday.  It served me well for over 65 years, but time to go--and it did.
Thank you Dr. Paul Harmer for your care.

Colorblocking AND

A couple of weeks ago I  taught a class on creating dozens of background using all kinds of  techniques.  One of those was colorblocking with edge dies. This card uses papers from my stash with Spellbinders Edgelits, Die-Namics Scribble Roses Overlays, SU Butterflies Embosslits, Leaves From Scrap n Craft, and Hello Halos by Memory  Box.  A touch of wink of stella and Black satin 1/8 inch bow trim finishes this card full of curves and pink!

I used cuts from the same curved dies in Eat What Bugs Ya
                                            

Inside of the card stamped sentiment by Impression Obsessions D14201

Bird of Paradise

This delicate Bird of Paradise Sprite comes to say: 

" Stay open to new possibilities and seek your freedom wherever you can find it.
Explore the world with a sense of optimism and excitement."

When do you use a Bird of Paradise blossom in a floral Arrangement?

for the 9th wedding anniversary

to represent the freedom and the ability to travel,

 (because of the flower's resemblance to birds in flight)

Royalty and Regal bearing

Paradise on Earth

Joy through challenges and successes alike

Faithfulness in Romantic Relationships

Optimism towards the future

The Bird of Paradise Sprite is worked in prismacolor pencils, and accented with stickles, rhinestones and enamel dots.  Edges are distressed and sponged in distress inks and mounted on Old Olive (SU) and SU black designer paper from the  Botanical Garden series.  She is done for the Air, Fire Water or Earth, Challenge #55 at Aurora  Wings.

Oxide butterflies

This card is made with stickers (from Pop Ups Etc) this time painting with distress oxide for the brilliant color inside their wings.  They are mounted on a watercolor washed paper, washed with distress inks and shimmer mist.   The artpiece is edged with Spellbinders pierced border die, and the word Believe is cut from black glitter paper and is a die from Cheery Lynn..

Iris on vellum over wash

This card was created with the Ken Oliver  liquit metals waterolor paints on Vellum.  Behind the vellum is a light wash of the blue purple and green metallic  paints.   Their shimmer does not show through the vellum very well, but the  top brushed metallics on the iris are absolutely gorgeous. The w atercolor was and the vellum are topmounted to a piece of blue textured paper and that adhered to a white cardbase.  The Iris is white heat emobossed which made the paint behave like a resist.  The Iris is a Sentimental Iris by Memory Box stamp

                                                                                                                              

Foamarin Foam Flowers

My first attempt with Foamarin Foam resulted in this perfectly gorgeous card.  It is  a  very unusual medium, essentially thinner than cardstock foam that can be shaped and molded.  It is soft, takes color well, and so much fun to shape and mold..  The petals are cut with Sizzix Tattered Flowers Bigz die (which is NOT the right die for this process--Rosy Owl Heart Flower Die IS the right one but it's still  swimming the  Atlantic.)  The products are imported and I have gotten them from Poland via Scrap and Craft in the UK  Orders take a couple of weeks to come in.  

The leaf die is from Scrap and Craft also and I used watercolor washed paper spritz with gold spritzer by Heidi Swapp.  The ribbon is a glittery organza (Really Reasonable  Ribbon).  Flowers are touched with gold Stickles. The background is stippled Walnut Stain Distress ink with a Red  Brick brushed over the stunning Simon Says  Stamp Heart Mandala (SSS121393) The artpice is centered over a top fold cardbase with SU Tip Top Taupe
I have not decided whether this will be a wedding/anniversary or other card.  But now I am on the right track with this new technique.

Wrapped in Love

I've knitted blankets for the two grandchildren who are off to College---Ryan's  a Jr.  in Vermont, and Georgia's a Freshman  in  California at the beach .  Here are the cards that go with them.

 It is good to seek perfection but it is better to seek excellence. It is good to work hard but it is better to work hard smarter. It is good to study but it is better to learn. It is good to have a dream but it is better to actually pursue it. Good luck  at UCSB and at SVC!

The pattern for the blanket can be found at:  Ravelry  So quick and easy and absolutely beautiful, warm and cozy!

Ribbit! Eat what Bugs You

I had fun with this color blocked Froggie Beach Baby, from a gift from Whimsey Stamps   The beach babe is colored in prismacolor pencils, and touched with nuvo crystal drops.  The color blocks are created from three interlocking Spellbinder dies cut from paper in my stash. 
I am going to do this one again with a different background and a sentiment that will read "Frogs get wet even when it rains." for a get well card.

Say Cheese---Pleeeeze

This is a Stampendous (Penny Black)  Stamp  called "Say Cheese" (from SSS)  I just love her little furry critters.  This little mouse is done with copics and the rest of the camera with wink of stella silver and delicata inks. Artpiece is mounted on craft card stock.  "Smile" is printed from Karen Schuls "Rise and Shine" kit.

Something funny happened on the way to the project.  The stamp came in today and I couldn't wait to play with it. I had a TERRIBLE time getting the release acetate off it. And when I did the image and its glue left a sticky mess on the foam behind it.  So I figured well, I'll just put it back together and then use double stick removable tape in my Misti when I want to stamp it.  It was THEN THAT I SAW that I had pulled the soft plastic off its glued on base and realized that there was another thin piece of plastic I hadn't seen attached.  SO this stamp wasn't trimmed around the foam at all, rather on a rectangle that you CAN see in the picture below.  This really works SO much better in the Misti than the shaped foam mount stamps because it is easier to peel off when you are finished--although a whole lot bigger.  HEY PENNY BLACK and STAMPENDOUS.  Would you COLOR the film for me---any color, just not clear! 

 Now THAT'S a  FIRST!

Kind Soul Hello

This is another watercolor technique that I included in the BIPS SIG demonstrations.   I used Wplus9's beautiful Kind Soul floral stamp which is a very big stamp.  It has been trimmed for this card. It is black embossed on watercolor paper and then colored with watercolor pencils, painted water color, watercolor crayons and distress markers.  Finished with sequins and tiny rhinestones, the Hello is Memory Boxes  Little Halo Hello (1896) which coordinates with Memory Box   Clear Sentiments of Hello stamps.  The papers are black and Watermelon  Wonder by SU.

The BIPS SIG

In the summertime the PnP Club meets in small Special Interest Groups.  There was a class on creating backgrounds of all kinds, focusing on watercolors, distress oxide inks, and stenciling.  We were swimming with ideas through the three hour class, so little money angel fish adorned some blue ocean waves backgrounds that were  created through the nine background techniques Priss taught at the SIG

We used watercolors paints, watercolor pencils, crayons and markers, distress ink, distress oxide inks and most fun of all was using Color Burst (by Ken Oliver) dry watercolor powders that produce WOW's every time they are activated. Background paper is by Karen  Schulz in her kit Love Yourself.

Skly's the Limit

Birthday Greetings and the Sky's the Limit at what you can do and accomplish, R. C.  Have a magnificent and wonderful day and year.  Created with SU stampset, and SSS Cloud template, embossing powders, and textured paper 

Aurora Wings Linnea Sprite

The Linnea flower is the "flower of Sweden."  The name is of Scandanivian origin meaning "lime or linden tree."  This tiny pinkish-lavender mountain flower was named after the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, who is the inventor of the universally recognized system of classifying plants and animals.

This sweet little sprite was created by Mitzi Sato Wiuff She's colored in prismacolor pencils and mounted on a watercolor background.  The Thinking of you sentiment is a sticker from Pop-ups-etc. The borders are also silver stickers.

Three little Candles

With SO MANY possibilities!  The principal dies I used were Wrapped Stich Rectangles 30094 by 5Craft Dies), Little  Candle Trio (99857 by Memory Box) and Stitched Holly Leaves (99263 by Memory Box.  The greetings are not complete on some of them, but I will use vellum, acetate or stickers to finish.

This one uses micro glitter and diamond and foil papers

Sticker sentiments from Pop-Ups-Etc. the stitched mats oval and rectangular dies are by Lilk Inkers

This dramatic one is gold and silver "Mercury Glass" by recollections in Christmas Noel paper pack