NACHO regular crayon card

Sometime when I make a card I have a name for it right away sometime I struggle with a name. Today I decided to call my card NACHO regular crayon card. The Ways to Use it challenge was to incorporate crayons somewhere on our project. WT485 

I remember when I was little, I loved opening a brand new box of crayons. The smell, the joy of new unused crayons. But what I also remember is how when I colored with them, crayons left "crumbs". This next photo,you can see the "crumbs" on the flower pot. 

I was wondering how to get rid of the crumbs and get a nice finish. I just happened to look up from my coloring and see my jar of prisma colored pencils. That made me think of the baby oil technique. It works with the prisma pencil to blend because they are wax, so I wondered if it would work with crayons. Well, I'm here to tell you that it works with crayons. I dipped a q-tip in baby oil and blended the flower pot. No more crumbles. I used crayons on the flowerpot and the flowers.

I did a watercolor wash background. I used my itty bitty background stamp to add dots of green and blue and white acrylic paint. I took a black ink pen and a stencil. I was planning on cutting around the oval but as it sat on my desk I decided to cut with a border. I doodled in between the edge and where I traced the oval.

I wanted to use a funky embellishment. I looked over at one of my embellishment containers and saw safety pins. I thought I would do a throw back. I loved the friendship pins of the 80's. I took some glass beads and made 2 pins. Do you remember friendship pins?

Since I was thinking crayons... school, I picked this dp that looks like lined school paper. I also picked dp that had numbers on it because that looked "school" to me.

I used Daydream Designs Poppies in a pot image.

Poppies

 The colors for today's splitcoast color challenge CC484. made me think of poppies. The poppies in the pot  are a digi from Diane's Daydream designs. POPPIES IN A POT

I used prisma colored pencils to color the poppies. I added some glue to the centers and put black marker over the glue.  I added copper inka gold on the card. I splattered with white acrylic paint. I also dipped the end of a paint brush in the paint and added random dots to the card.

My second card I still was thinking poppies. I decided to try painting some poppies. I used white cardstock. I took crayola markers and scribbled on a lid to make my pallette for painting. I started with the blues and turquoise for the background. I dropped a water wash behind my sketched poppies. I kept adding blues and turquoise. I sprayed it with water so that the colors blended. I let it dry really well before adding poppies. I started with the yellows. I then dropped in oranges and then added the reds. I let it dry and the added the greens. On my first card where I splattered the paint with a paint brush, the drops of paint were a little too small, so I was trying to think of another way to splatter the paint. Then I took my my itty bitty background SU stamp. I dipped it in white paint and stamped the paint to the paper. It gave the look of splatter but with a lot more control. I loved how it worked so I know I'm going to be using that set a lot in the future on my mixed media projects.

I added the sentiment from Diane's Digital Designs set called GARDEN INSPIRATION.

Close up of my painted poppies.

Faux enamel

The TLC487 Challenge at Splitcoast today was to make a Faux Enamel embellishment. I did a lot of experimenting with this technique today, I made a really cool stained glass piece as a result. I'll share that another time. I ended up making a turquoise blue and green butterfly. I used bic permanent markers on a piece of foil I covered the foil with UTEE and melted it. When it was cooled I used a butterfly die to cut out the butterfly. In retrospect I should have cut it out first because the UTEE was not hard enough and got stuck on the antenna part of the die. I added more color to the top of the UTEE and then added psychedelic embossing powder. Heated it up again. When it was cool I noticed that you could see the foil around the edges. I really liked that look so I added to it with a silver marker. I outlined the butterfly. When I was done I ran into a creative brick wall. I loved how the butterfly looked but I had no idea what to pair it with to make my card. I decided to take some photos of it on several different pieces of cardstock. I sent the photos to my friend Pam and in the process of sending them the inspiration hit even before she had a chance to respond. So I joked with her that she was so good she helped me before I could even ask.   Here are several of the photos of the butterfly sitting on different dp.

I finally had the paper that I wanted and I decided to use the Mojo Monday 

sketch. I ended up taking white acrylic paint and added little white dots to the paper. I cut a paper doily down so it would fit. I didn't have a small tag so I kinda freehanded a tag. I used a sentiment from MFP set called BEARDED IRIS. I was going to add the tag with a turquoise rhinestone brad, but when I put it in I thought it was competing too much with the butterfly. So I swapped it out for a plain brad that I covered with the silver marker. I took several photos of the butterfly to try and capture the psychedelic effect.

Mixed media butterflies and bubbles

Yay it is Friday, and one of the best things about Friday is the Mixed media challenge at Splitcoast Stampers. Today Lydia shared a challenge to paint circles add white highlights and stamp a black circle around it. MIX73 Round and Round.

Well, I tried it and when I got to this stage I got stuck.So I texted this photo to my friend Pam.She said add flowers, more dots and butterflies. So I listened to her advice. 

This is the result of listening to my friend Pam

.

I had so much fun painting these circles which kinda looked like bubbles to me that I had to make two more cards Butterflies and bubbles.

I think that this last one is my favorite. Which one do you like best?

SC493 Sweet Pea

Today's sketch at splitcoast stamper. SC493

 I started with all white cardstock. I did the marker embossing folder technique on the background. I used a sentiment form Daydream Designs, from Garden Inspirations Set.

I printed it on white and watercolored with green markers and added touches of turquoise water coloring. Going along with the sentiment I made tiny flowers. I used the same technique that I used on the big blue flowers yesterday. I thought they looked like sweet peas. I also made some baby's breath.

 The square panel behind the circle was done with white cardstock with a border punch. I painted a rectangle of green on the white cardstock to go behind the punched out areas to make it stand out. The thin horizontal panel I took tissue paper, added green to it and added glitter and silver inka gold metallic rub. It is hard to see, but it IS THERE behind the sweet peas.

Encourage and Inspire

Today when I saw what the splitcoast stampers color challenge colors were, I got really excited. They just happened to be in my "favorites" color pallete.

CC483

I decided to use Mojo350 sketch.

I decided to call this card encourage and inspire.

There are some special friends who encourage me almost everyday. My mom loves all my cards, but she kinda has to, being my mom. But I appreciate her encouragement Thank you mom. I also have a dear friend Pam who daily encourages me. We message on facebook and when I can't figure out what I am going to create she always encourages and inspires me.Thank you Pam. I have one more friend who faithfully leaves me comments on my cards and is such an encourager, so another big thank you to my friend Maxine.

  

There are lots of wonderful crafters who inspire me everyday. This card was inspired by my friend Jerri shared this tutorial on making dahlias

I used her tutorial to make the flowers on my card. So thank you Jerri for your inspiration.

The vertical panels of my sketch were inspired by my friend Lydia. She had a post recently about glitter. It challenged me to use some blue glitter that I had in my stash. I find it hard to add glitter and not have it look kitschy. I wanted it to look glamorous. I took white tissue paper and added blue and green ink and sprayed it with water. When it had dried, I scrunched it up into a ball and then spread it out. I took a piece of white cardstock and covered it with glue and put the tissue paper over the glue, purposely making sure it wrinkled. I added glue to the top of that and added the glue. Lydia also had one her blog several months ago a tutorial using inka gold. After watching that I knew I wanted some and my friend Pam bought me some. I rubbed silver inka gold over the wrinkles of the tissue paper. So thank you Lydia for your inspiration.

Here is a close up of the glittery silvery tissue paper.

 Another close up.

 The background for this card was done using blues and green markers and a swirly embossing folder.

Hello

Lately I have been experimenting with mixed media. I have been watching videos on youtube to give me instruction and inspiration. I saw one the other day that had a fabulous stenciled tree with birds on it. My immediate reaction was... "Oh, I NEED that stencil". which turned into "Oh I WANT that stencil." that turned into, "How hard could it be to draw it by hand?" so in my typical McGyver style, I got out a pencil and drew a tree with 2 birds in it.

This is my first drawing. I used prisma colored pencils for the tree and birds. I water colored the background. I wanted dots and wished I had little bubble wrap for dots. I tried to think of ways to get my little dots. I tried running acetate through my embossing folder but that wasn't the look I was going for.... then it hit me. My very first SU stamp set was the itty bitty background stamps. I have frequently used the very fine dots but until making this card I had never used the bigger dots. It was just the look I was going for. I used the big dots in blue and I used the little ones with green. I love how it adds to the tree and leaves. I took drywall tape and rubbed silver inka gold metallic rub in the corners then removed the tape. I stamped the word "HELLO" several times and doodled around the edges with a black in pen. I matted it on black and doodled dots with a silver marker and added brads in the corners.
 

What I wanted to change was how I drew my bird facing to the right. I felt like in my first drawing that his neck had disappeared. I also wanted to simplify the amount of times I stamped the sentiment. I also outlined the birds and tree elements with the black ink pen to add definition. When I was done I liked the bird facing right, but didn't like my left facing bird.So maybe I need to make a third one and maybe I will like both of the birds. My daughter liked the first one that wasn't outlined. I am still undecided.

MFP- Blog Hop- Day 4- Please Snow "Snowy night"

Welcome to the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Company

June Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured  June 10

Gears To You & Gear Up

Featured June 11

Pretty Pears

 Featured June 12

Great Flowers & Flower Blocks

Featured June 13

Please Snow

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 six winners will be announced on 

June 14, 2014 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 June 13, 2014

It sure was hard to think about making a winter card, especially after this long winter. The snow can stay away for a long time and I'll be happy. But craft snow is ok. The technique that I did on my cards yesterday about using makers on a swirly embossing folder and adding water, I did it again on this card, except I used blues and purples instead of blues and greens. I stamped the snowman first and to keep him from getting "BLUE" I also stamped him on a post it note and used that to mask him. You can see a tiny spot under his raised arm where he got a little blue, but it is not much. I tore cardstock to make a layer of snow. I covered the snow with texture paste and while the paste was wet I added glitter and I pressed down on the snow with a swirl stencil to add extra texture. I thought I was done but then I "accidentally" smudged the side of the card, so I fixed it by adding punched out snowflakes that I added glue and glitter to the centers. I love happy accidents like that, because I think the snowflakes finish it off. I think the sky looks kinda like Vincent Van Gogh's painting Stary Night, so that is where I got the title of this card.

Close up of the texture paste.

Close up of the snowflakes.

 Thanks for reading through my post. I hope you enjoyed learning how I made this card. Check out what the other designers have done with these sets.

Here's the Design Team:

Lois

Kelli Jo

Karen 

 Kathy

Toni

Janine

Shirley Q

Vickie
Sandy

Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

Which version do you like better? Don McLean or Josh Groban?

MFP Blog hop day 3

Welcome to the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Company

June Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured  June 10

Gears To You & Gear Up

Featured June 11

Pretty Pears

 Featured June 12

Great Flowers & Flower Blocks

Featured June 13

Please Snow

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 six winners will be announced on 

June 14, 2014 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 June 13, 2014



When it comes to flower stamps, I am super happy. I love finding creative ways to use them. I am in love with the big blossoms in the GREAT FLOWERS set. I made 3 cards with it because I was having so much fun playing with them. I shared them because each one is a little different and unique. For the cards I took a piece of white cardstock.I stamped the flowers randomly on the cardstock. I tore pieces of encyclopedia pages and glued them to the cardstock. I took a swirl embossing folder and colored the inside of the folder with multiple shades and hues of blue and green markers. I spritzed the folder with water and placed the cardstock in the folder. When it came out there were swirls of white where the pools of colored water didn't reach the cardstock. I added drywall tape to the first one and on all three I added texture paste with a swirl stencil. I used pinks and reds to water colored the flowers. I enhanced the colors with prisma colored pencils.  I stamped the sentiments randomly. 

For the second set for today, FLOWER BLOCKS, I decided to go CAS. I stamped the butterflies. I added a butterfly from MFP set called BEARDED IRIS. 

 Thanks for reading through my post. I hope you enjoyed learning how I made these cards. Check out what the other designers have done with these sets.

Here's the Design Team:

Lois

Kelli Jo

Karen 

 Kathy

Toni

Janine

Shirley Q

Vickie
Sandy

Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

Come on back tomorrow for more creativity.