Sunday, August 31, 2014

12 Tags of 2014 - August

I didn't want to play along the 12 Tags of 2014 - August on the last day of Christmas.  Unfortunately, my order just came in yesterday so I had to wait this long.

It is my first time playing texture paste and I am quite impressed!  This thing is different from embossing paste in that it dries much faster and it absorbs color rather than resisting colors.  Too bad I went too crazy with it and it covered up the stamped deer:


Let me link this up to Tim Holtz's blog then play the texture paste again to explore its properties further!

Trick or treat

How's everyone's Labor Day weekend? I'm enjoying mine so much that I almost forgot to post this card:


It was made based on the sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge:

I used up some scraps from an older patterned paper called Laughing Lola from Close to My Heart and I think purple is the perfect color for a Halloween card!  Oh the black hemp and brads are from my stash too.  The monsters, however, are from the latest Lawn Fawn release.  The stamp set is called Monster Mash.  The sentiment comes from another set called Spooktacular. 

As we are approaching September, I should get my Halloween cards ready!

I'm also linking it to
Amusing Challenge - Anything Goes
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Circles

Oops.  My blog has been quiet these days.  I was still active in my craft area but instead of crafting, I spent quite some time organizing my mess.  :P

I'll share my journey of organization on another day.  Today I'll share a scrapbook layout that I am very happy with:


I like many things about this layout.  First of all, it's the circles!  I rarely use circles on my layouts.  Correction.  I doubt that I've cut my pictures into circles before.  Then, it's the colors!  It's a variety of colors against a neutral background and that's very neat.  Third, some scraps were used!  Apparently some circles were cut out from scraps.  Do you see the two butterflies in the top right circle?  I just happened to have cut extra ones for a card then I thought I could inked them up in pink and put them here.  Nice!  The words Buffet Lunch also came from a scrap piece of brown cardstock.  These scraps of patterned paper come from a Crate Paper Maggie Holmes collection.  I love the pack a lot and I think I love it more when I see them on my layout!

I haven't scrapbooked for quite a while.  This page gets me excited.  I think I should create more layouts!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Two birthday cards

I am sharing two cards that are very similar:


Which one do you like better?

Here is a closer look at the left one - one with outlines of the floral images:


Then the right one:


I had the joy to play with specialty stamping paper while making these cards.  I had quite a few packs of those (Thanks to the absent-minded self) but I don't play with them often.  They have been sitting at the bottom of the drawer for the longest time.  I was excited to learn a new stamping technique with the specialty stamping paper from Stretch Your Stamps 2.  Don't you think they look quite different from the traditional floral images?



In early July I made a birthday card using the exact same stamp set with watercolors, then this time I'm using specialty stamping paper.  They result in dramatically different looks and feel!  Just love how versatile these stamps are!



I'm linking the one with the outlines to the following:
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes
Love to Scrap challenge - Anything Goes
Stamp and Create - Anything Goes
The Paper Nest Dolls - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

It's play day!

The last day of class over at Stretch Your Stamps 2 is a play day.  What's better than a play day in class?  I took out Rounded diamonds, the graphic stamp set from Avery Elle and Simply Fabulous Sayings from My Favorite Things to play.

I didn't have a plan for the card.  It's play day!  I'm just going to play.   Here's what I came up with:


I first cut out an A2 size panel for stamping.  Originally there was a row of red "fans" on top but it was trimmed off because I had to put the sentiment on the card base.  Have I convinced you that clear stamps make it really easy to line up images?  I don't have steady hands but I still managed to line them up fine.  Woo hoo~

I wanted to use the word "Amazing" from the Simply Fabulous Sayings then I thought I'd say "Have an Amazing day".  "Have an" comes from a retired Close to My Heart set, then the word "day" comes from the Winnie & Walter set.  Mixing and matching the words does stretch the use of our stamps.  Again, thanks to clear stamps I can first see whether they fit on my card and play with them to determine the placement of each words.  It's not difficult to line them up either. :)

I'm linking up my card to the following:
Fan-tastic Tuesday - Anything Goes
Sweet Stamps - Anything Goes
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by and have an AMAZING day!

Monday, August 18, 2014

Graphic stamps again

To make up for the bad picture for my post earlier today, I'm sharing another card that made use of geometric shapes and blue and green:


I'm linking up my card to
Crafting at the Weekend - Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Background stamp

Early this year, I got this Hero Arts background stamp with a million geometric tiny flags.  I liked it so much that I've also bought the triangle background dies.  I have not really used them much but after taking the classes at Stretch Your Stamps 2 I'm going to play with the background stamp!

This is the card I made using the background stamp:


Sorry for the quality of the picture.  I took it at night and the lighting just wasn't right.

I stamped the background stamp twice, one in blue and one in green (as I wanted to play along the Just Us Girls Challenge!).  Then I cut out triangles of different sizes and placed them randomly on the card.  I think it is quite a cool masculine card idea due to the geometric shapes, simplicity and color combination.  The two full panels are enough to make more than one card.  I guess I'll make the other card a Thank You card.  How I like that I can kill two birds with one stone!

I'm linking up my card to the following:
Just Us Girls Challenge - Blue, Green and neutrals

The Squirrel and The Fox - Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes
Addicted to CAS - Geometric



Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Birthday Wishes

My computer was "sick".  And you know how inconvenient it can be.

About two months ago my phone was "sick" and I had to restore it to factory settings in order to turn it back on.  Sadly most of my data stored were gone.  With my computer I am much better at backing up.  I didn't lose any of the files but I was just waiting impatiently until it had restore to the settings that it can fully function.

Phew.  Finally got it working again. 

I would love to craft but it took me quite a bit of time to click "OK", "proceed" to install the softwares but nonetheless I have a lovely birthday card to share:


I still have some CTMH Lucy paper left and I decided to make a background for my card above.  This card was based on the sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge:


I'm also linking up the card to
613 Create - Anything Goes
Amusing Challenge - die cuts

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, August 15, 2014

Bright Birthday Card

I sent this bright birthday card out for my friend's early July birthday and she loved it!  I thought I would make another birthday card using the same color combo!


Boy I have got the Altenew Hennah Elements stamp set for a long time but they still haven't seen any ink.  This will be a good opportunity!  At Stretch Your Stamps 2 one of the topics is outline stamps.  Here what we do is basically absorb or dilute the distress ink inside the white embossed image so the color is less intense than the background.  This is such a cool technique!

I'm linking up my card to:
Seize the Birthday - Anything Goes birthday
Little Red Wagon - Happy Birthday
Card Mania - Birthday Party
Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes
Stamp and Create - Anything Goes
Through the Purple Haze - Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge - Birthdays

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Merry Christmas

Let's take a break from graphic stamps and go back to one of my favorite types of cards - Christmas cards!

At Stretch Your Stamps 2 we were shown some creative ways to use alphabet stamps.  I pulled out one that I haven't used for a while (interestingly this set was bought around Christmas time last year!) and wanted to play with it.

I did some stamping and some STITCHING!  Yep, stitching!


I haven't done stitching for the longest time and I think it would be nice to take a picture to capture part of the process:


The process is quite simple.  I first stamped the letters from Lawn Fawn Quinn's Capital ABCs on white cardstock, then I used the Tim Holtz tool to punch holes along the stamped image.  I used DMC floss to stitch on the letters using back stitching.

After making this white panel I stamped the snowflakes in grey on the grey card case.  The tone on tone effect remains one of my favorites for backgrounds!  I added a strip of patterned paper, and an earmuff onto the "M" to finish off the card.

This is a very special card as I have not done stitching on cards for a very long time.  Will it be so special that I won't be willing to part with it when Christmas comes?  We'll wait and see.

My card is linking up to the following:
Addicted to Stamps - Holiday
Kraftin Kimmie - Anything Goes
Creative Moments - Anything Goes
Stamps and fun - Christmas in Summer
Amusing Challenge - Christmas

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Third card with Graphic stamps

I hope you are not bored by the series of Thank You cards I made using graphic stamps.  I'm sharing one more today:


I'm sorry that the quality of the picture is not that great.  I took the picture using a bird's view angle and even though it looks fine on the screen, it does not look nearly as good on the blog post. :(  

Can you tell where the graphic stamp was used?  It's an outline diamond shape that I've stamped repeatedly using teal and green (CTMH Lagoon and Pear):


The picture above should give you a better idea of how the stamping was done, but boy, the glue was not even dry when I took this picture.  My profound apology about the low quality of picture again!

I have never been a big fan of graphic stamps but Stretch Your Stamps 2 does give us some great ideas!  Isn't the repeatedly stamped diamond shape a good disguise for some patterned paper?

It's my first time using this new "Thanks" die from Impression Obsession and I like it a lot!  Sticking the itty bitty pieces back to the negative space is not easy but the font and the size of it make it great for cards!

I'm linking my card to the following:
Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, August 11, 2014

Graphic stamps again

I am sharing another card made with graphic stamps!  I am very inspired to make more cards with graphic stamps even though they were not my favorite but now that I've learned some techniques from Stretch Your Stamps 2 I would like to challenge myself to use them more often.

 


Isn't it a great clean and simple masculine card?  I think so.  The color combo certainly suggests masculine, the font of the sentiment is straight-forward and to tell you the truth, I've actually removed the enamel dots after putting them on.  Fortunately the adhesive behind the enamel dots is rather weak so the removal did not leave any marks. 

Because it is so simple, it is importantly to ensure that the stamping is crisp and clean.  Every minute flaw could be magnified in a simple card like this.  After stamping the pattern, I went back to double stamp on them so the coverage is good.  Nothing bothers me more than a crooked sentiment in a card like this.  I am a big fan of starting with the sentiment.  Who wants to repeat the hard work because of a crooked sentiment?  I forgot to do it this time (because the card was quite an experiment for me) but I was fortunate that I got the sentiment right the first time! :)

In case you've missed it, please check out the feminine version of a Thank You card using the same stamp set here.

I'm linking up my card to the following:
The Squirrel and the Fox - Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes
Robyn's Festish - Anything Goes
PR Design - Masculine card
Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks with Graphic stamps

Just a quick post showing what I did with my set from Avery Elle.  I made a background out of it!


I am normally not appealed to using graphic stamps but Stretch Your Stamps 2 does give us some great ideas!  This is my first attempt using this set and I had ideas in my head to make more cards!  For this card, after making the background I just used the die cut "thanks" from Lawn Fawn, added some Wink of Stella glitter and Glossy Accents to give it dimension.  Quick and easy and simple!  Guess what?  I'm going to switch it up to another color combo to make it a masculine card!  Yay!

I'm linking up my card to
Crafty Girls Challenge - Anything Goes
Crafty Calendar - Anything Goes
Suzie Bee's Bloomin - Anything Goes
Time 4 Scrap - Anything Goes
Treasured Times Stamps - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday

I am speeding up the typing for this post as I have to rush out for work!  Please excuse any errors.  This post should have gone live yesterday but alas, that's the fate of procrastination!

I'm playing with three things that I have not played for a long time.  One is sticky back canvas.  I almost forgot where I had this good stuff.  This card shows a resist technique where white embossed flower is showing through the canvas that was heavily colored with Peacock Feather distress stain:


Now that I got the sticky back canvas done.  What do i do?  The easiest thing is to get a sketch for it!  I got this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  Boy it has been the longest time I can remember since I last played this challenge:


The third thing to which I have not given love is my buttons!  I have my buttons nicely stashed away in a neat box.  The box was sitting quietly in the corner of a drawer when I retrieved.  Poor thing.  The sketch provides for some space in the middle panel and I think that's a good place for buttons!  I threaded through some waxy flax so the holes are covered to give a more finished look.

That's about it for this card.  I'm also linking up my card to Dies R Us - Birthday and Crafty Calendar - Anything Goes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, August 8, 2014

Pink Christmas

My favorite Christmas color combination remains the traditional one - red, green, and perhaps with a pop of gold.  I love making Christmas cards and albums in these colors but once in a while I'd like to make things rather non-traditional.

Let's take a look at this pink Christmas card:


There are many shades of pink here: I first used Spun Sugar distress ink with my favorite Tim Holtz Harlequin Layering Stencil to create the background.  The layering stencil is not wide enough to cover the whole card but never fear, the  pattern is so easy to line up to create a continuous background.  Then I used the Lawn Fawn Milo ABC set to stamp "XMAS" in each diamond.  Over at Stretch Your Stamps 2 we are talking about alphabet stamps.  I like to use them as background but I don't want the background to be just letters.  Here, by secretly sneaking them in with the camouflage Hear Arts Bubble Gum, they become part of the background and part of the sentiment "Merry Christmas."  Of course, I like to mix and match my supplies too.  I like that the distress family blends well with the whimsical Lawn Fawn stamps!

I do not have the matching cardstock for the word "merry" so I used direct to paper method to ink up the cardstock using the Spun Sugar distress ink and die cut the word out.  Oh enamel dots!  How can I have not used them earlier!  Everyone raves about enamel dots and I jumped on the bandwagon too.  I do like these rather flat embellishments that still give interest to my card.

I'm linking up my card to the following:
Creative Card Crew - Christmas
Holly Jolly Christmas - Anything Goes with Non-Traditional colors
Southern Girls Challenge - Christmas
Completely Christmas - Anything Goes
Winter Wonderland - Christmas
Craft for the Craic - an item that I have not used before (Enamel dots)
Crafts 4 Eternity - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Hello

Before the end of the summer, I should send out my last round of Hello cards - many of them have bright colors and I really want them to be received in time!

I'm sharing one that was made when I was on the analogous color kick:


I first white heat embossed the background stamp on plain old white cardstock, then apply distress inks onto the panel.  I did flick some water onto it so the strips of color blend well.   I like this color combo - Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed.  I've probably added some Squeezed Lemonade too.   And you know me, I love window cards.  Window cards just make everything nicer and everyone (especially me) happier.  So I cut through two layers of cardstock (the colored panel and the card base) with a heart die.  Finally I die cut the Lawn Fawn Scripty Hello die in navy cardstock and stick it across the heart.

I did want to add shimmer or even glossy accents onto the word Hello but I decided against it eventually.  If you see this card here closely, you may see that the word Thanks tend to curl up a bit.  It was fine in this thanks card because the entire word was stuck down on a flat surface.  In this card here, however, the word hello is just having very little supporting area for it.  I can't risk the word coming off when it curls up!

My card is linking up to the following:
Kraftin Kimmie Challenge - Anything Goes
Milk Coffee Challenge - two or more die cuts
Creative Moments - Anything Goes
Little Red Wagon - Embossing
Penny's Paper-Crafty - Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Background stamp & die-cut inlay = fun

Over at Online Card Classes there is a class called Stretch Your Stamps 2.  It is a class designed to help us stampers use our stamps more creatively to get more mileage out of the stamps.

The first two days of class focus on background stamps.  I dug out my old Hero Arts Merry background stamp to create this card:


I thought the picture above would show you better what I did.  I heat embossed this image with clear embossing powder on both a red and a green cardstock, then I die cut out the tree from both of them in the same position of the stamp.  I put the green tree into the negative piece of the red embossed panel. The two pieces fit together perfectly to form a flat piece.  I used the My Favorite Things Blueprints die 15  to create the tip topped panel, added the pennants with glitter paper, and a star to finish off the card.

From far away this card looks very plain and simple but when you look closely you see how fun it is to have a die cut inlay in a big background.  :)

Now let's see the card in its upright position.  You can still see that the letters align perfectly well:



My card is linking up to the following:

Creative Card Crew - Christmas
Stamps and Fun - Christmas in summer
Christmas cards all year round - Sparkle and Shine
CHNC Challenge extra - Christmas
CHNC - reach for the stars
Sparkles Monthly Challenges - Christmas in July

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, August 3, 2014

A Vintage Christmas Card

In this hot summer I'm sharing a Christmas card:


It is based on the sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge:


I did want to use the sketch like it is shown above.  I've even gathered some of my favorite butterfly stamps and the paper that goes well with those stamps.  But I didn't like them.  So I rotated the sketch counterclockwise for 90 degrees and made a Christmas card.  Butterfly stamps, let's wait for next time. :)

It is almost impossible (at least for me) to stamp once to get the horses and sleigh image complete.  So I stamped it twice - once on the background paper and once on the red strip with embossing ink, then emboss both with ultra fine black embossing powder, then line up the two so they appear to be one image. 

I love silhouette stamps.  They appeal magically to me.  When I saw this set designed by Tim Holtz last year I bought it immediately.  He has just released this year's Christmas sets and I guess my bank will be broken.  Hahaha~ 

My card is linking up to the following:
My Perfect Life - Christmas card
A Gem of a Challenge - Embossing
Completely Christmas - Anything Goes
Left of Center - Christmas in August
Winter Wonderland - Anything Christmas
Fantastic Tuesday - Anything Goes
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge - see above image

Thanks for stopping by!