Birthday card for Cheryl

Sometimes I will start a card and not really have any

idea where it is going to take me. I had printed these

digital leaves the other day, and I had been wanting to 

watercolor them. The SCS MIX35  challenge was to

use tissue paper. I started with white tissue paper. I

used ink spray smash technique to dye it different

shades of blue and purple and green.

I messed up when gluing the tissue paper down, 

so I tried to salvage the tissue paper and ended up

with 4 little squares. It kinda reminded me of

a stained glass window in a country church.

I placed the leaves in a swag. I made it into

an easel card.  The leaves are from 

Diane's Daydream Designs Digital Images:

FALL IS IN THE AIR OUTLINE SET

dandelions

Same focal image and same designer papers, but two totally different looks. The black matting on the first one really makes it stand out and the white matting on the second one gives it a softer dreamy look. I stamped the dandelion from Mark's Finest Papers Nature's Brushstrokes mini stamp set. I used a gray marker to do the flower part and a green marker to ink up the leaves. After I stamped it, I used the end of my paint brush to add the dots. I used 3 different shades of acrylic paint. I used white, ivory and cream. I think the 3 colors gives it more depth than if I had done just plain white dots. After the paint dried I added glue and glamour dust. I tried to take close up photos of the flowers to give you a glimpse of their sparkliness but the camera just doesn't do it justice. One card is for my daughter who just got a promotion at work and the other is for a good friend who lost her father in law yesterday.
These card are for the color challenge at Splitcoast Stampers CC445. I am also going to enter them in the Word Art Wednesday challenge.WAW98

Don't worry if it takes a little longer to finish a card

Sometimes I can make a card in a few minutes. Sometimes I can make a card in a couple of hours, and then sometimes it takes days for a card to come together. This card was one of them. I had these scraps of designer paper on my desk. I don't usually use a lot of designer paper because I think it looks too busy together So using all of these different papers (9 to be exact) was a big step out of my comfort zone.I started this card on Wednesday.  The card was laid out using Splitcoast Stampers Sketch 454. It was a simple sketch with two horizontal panels one wide and one thin. It also had two tilted panels. If you look those elements are there, I just added some extra strips of dp underneath them. I was already to call it done and assemble, but it just didn't feel complete. I fiddled around with it and finally set it aside to come back to it later. Ok, Thursday came around and the Splitcoast Stampers Ways to Use it challenge to have a pocket on your card came. I thought, I can make this card a pocket card. I tried to figure out a way to have the pocket be the red panel under the butterfly, but it just wasn't working. I wanted the pocket to be able to hold a tea bag. So after a lot of fiddling, and it still not feeling "right" I set it aside again. Friday, today came with the Splitcoast Stampers Mixability Challenge 34 to use 2 different types of paint. I had already water colored the butterfly before I cut him out. so I added acrylic paints to the card. I know a lot of people are intimidated with adding paint to their cards. It doesn't have to be hard or even "artsy" it can be like I did. I put the paint on with the handle of my paint brush. Dots really add interest to the card. It finally felt complete. After 3 days I would hope so.

 

I made a pouch that the tea bag fits inside. That pouch then fit in the pocket.

MFP BLOG HOP- September - Day 4

Sept. Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured Sept 10
Koi Fish

Featured Sept 11
Primitive Farm

Featured Sept 12 
What a Scream
 

Featured Sept 13

Tailgate Party

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on Sept. 14, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday Sept. 13, 2013.

The special stamp set we have for you this month is:

Holiday Tags

 

The mini stamp set we have for you this month is:
Nature's Brushstrokes
                                                      

 

Can you guess what team my family roots for? 

Football, especially Packers football is very big in my family. I am in there yelling and cheering as loud if not louder than my boys. The only thing that would make me not watch them play this Sunday is the Miss America Pageant. Now I know football is so opposite of the pageant, so why am I bringing it up? I love Miss Iowa. She is a year older than my daughter and I have seen her do amazing things. She was on the dance team, she was in drama, she played trombone in the marching band... So what, people do that all the time. Well, she was born with half an arm on her left side. I think she is amazing. So while my card says go team, my heart is saying GO NIKKI! Here  is a story about her.




Check out what the rest of the Design Team did with this set.

Here's the Design Team:

Patty

Lois

Jane C

Debbie

Pam

Pat G
Thrfity Stamper
Marilynn (This is me)

Karen K

Bonnie

Kathy
Angela
Cathy C
Toni
Sue W
Janine
An'Jenic
Kate Z
Shirley Q
Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

MFP September Blog Hop Day 3 - What a scream or CRAZY CAT LADY STARTER KIT

Sept. Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured Sept 10
Koi Fish

Featured Sept 11
Primitive Farm

Featured Sept 12 
What a Scream
 

Featured Sept 13

Tailgate Party

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on Sept. 14, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday Sept. 13, 2013.

The special stamp set we have for you this month is:

Holiday Tags

 

The mini stamp set we have for you this month is:
Nature's Brushstrokes
                                                      

Now the set "What a Scream" is a really cute set, but I don't celebrate Halloween. I was struggling for ideas of how to use this set, and then inspiration hit me. And when it hit it hit me so hard it might have knocked something loose. I decided to use the little kitty cat to make a CRAZY CAT LADY STARTER KIT. I made an explosion box. I put the words "THE CRAZY CAT LADY STARTER KIT" on the 4 side panels. I made a lid out of coordinating dp. I used the tag and sentiment from the Holiday Tag set. I stamped the kitty with his tail and one paw sticking over the edge. Now there are crazy cat ladies for sure, but I might have been a little crazy stamping, painting and fussy cutting all the cats. I had more stamped and painted and I gave up after 6 cats. I hot glued their paws to the bottom of the box so that they would stand up.

Check out what the rest of the Design Team did with this set.

Here's the Design Team:

Patty

Lois

Jane C

Debbie

Pam

Pat G
Thrfity Stamper
Marilynn (This is me)

Karen K

Bonnie

Kathy
Angela
Cathy C
Toni
Sue W
Janine
An'Jenic
Kate Z
Shirley Q
Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

MFP September Blog Hop Day 2

Sept. Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured Sept 10
Koi Fish

Featured Sept 11

Primitive Farm

Featured Sept 12 

What a Scream

 

Featured Sept 13

Tailgate Party

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on Sept. 14, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday Sept. 13, 2013.

The special stamp set we have for you this month is:

Holiday Tags

 

The mini stamp set we have for you this month is:
Nature's Brushstrokes
                                                      

Here's the Design Team:

Patty

Lois

Jane C

Debbie

Pam

Pat G

Thrfity Stamper

Marilynn (This is me)

Karen K

Bonnie

Kathy

Angela
Cathy C
Toni
Sue W
Janine

An'Jenic

Kate Z
Shirley Q
Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

Before I show you today's project, I wanted to show you the panel, that I shared yesterday that I was sure was going to end up in the trash.(It is the Koi fish panel on the right. The left was my card from yesterday.) So many people encouraged me to just keep working with it. I figured I didn't have anything to loose. So I added more water, more paint, more water, more paint, more water, more paint... well you get the idea. When I was done, I actually liked it more than the panel I used on my card. So I see another card in the works.

Here is my project for today. It is an altered soup mix. The best thing about stamping, isn't the papers. It isn't the stamps. It isn't the markers, paint, ribbon, embellishments.... the list could go on and on. The best thing about stamping is the friends you make. One of my biggest blessings is my friend Pam. We have been giving each other extra challenges. I challenged her to alter a soup mix. I  decided to use today's set and she decided to use Friday's set Tailgate Party. 

Here is the soup mix I altered. I got it at Walmart the other day because I thought it would be cute to use to make a get well card. It was really inexpensive. I also liked the little chicken.

Isn't he cute?

 I took a brown paper bag and I stenciled cream acrylic paint. I splattered cream paint with a toothbrush when I was done. I then stamped the cow and sheep, house and sentiment. I painted with the same cream paint. I could have fussy cut the images close, but I purposely left a little edge to show that they had been stamped on the paper bag as well. I had first thought I was just going to do a "topper" but as cute as the little chicken on the bag was, he just didn't "GO" with the sheep and cow. So I took a paper lunch sack. I cut of the bottom. I sewed the bottom and side edges. I slid the soup mix in and the added the topper. To finish it off I added a little black and white gingham ribbon and three buttons with twine.

 I still REMEMBER.

September blog hop MFP- Day 1 KOI FISH

Sept. Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured Sept 10
Koi Fish

Featured Sept 11
Primitive Farm

Featured Sept 12 
What a Scream
 

Featured Sept 13

Tailgate Party

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on Sept. 14, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday Sept. 13, 2013.

The special stamp set we have for you this month is:

Holiday Tags

 

The mini stamp set we have for you this month is:
Nature's Brushstrokes
                                                      

I was drawing a blank on how to use this set, so I did what I usually do when I  have a blank, I google images to use for inspiration. I loved this painting by Rebecca Pearl  
and I wanted to water color my card to try and look like her painting. This is the end result. My first try was a total disaster. I am slowly learning how to watercolor. I decided to share my failure so you can maybe learn from my mistake. My biggest mistake on my failure was trying to rush it. And second was using wrong size of brush. I used too little of one on the mistake. Added ribbon and a oriental coin to finish my card.

 

My mistake that I am sure is destined for the trash unless.... I can think of some creative way to fix it.

Check out what the rest of the Design Team did with this set.

Here's the Design Team:

Patty

Lois

Jane C

Debbie

Pam

Pat G
Thrfity Stamper
Marilynn (This is me)

Karen K

Bonnie

Kathy
Angela
Cathy C
Toni
Sue W
Janine
An'Jenic
Kate Z
Shirley Q
Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

Nature's Brushstrokes -Mark's Finest Papers

This card is using a new release stamp set at Mark's Finest Papers. It is a set called Nature's Brushstrokes. SCS has a Virtual Stamp Night. One of the rules of the stamp night is that the cards need to be made in 45 mins or less. Well, I almost made it with this card. I had the card done in 45 mins and then I decided I wanted to add glitter. End result was that it took longer than 45 mins, but I think it was worth the extra mins.I started with a piece of green designer paper. I used a stencil and cream colored acrylic paint. I sponged the paint over the stencil. I then splattered the paper with a toothbrush dipped in the same cream colored paint. I added drywall tape and butterflies using MFP Daffodil Greetings set.  I stamped and masked the dandelion 3 times. I added green to the stems of the dandelions with prisma colored pencils. I added glue to the finished dandelions and added glitter. I was trying to use my heat gun to "dry" the glue so it would be done in the 45 mins. I got a little too close and the glue started to bubble. So I added more glue and purposely bubbled it with the heat gun because I think it added a really neat texture.

Close up of the bubbled glue and glitter.