Blog Hop Day 1

Welcome to the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Company

November Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured Nov. 25

Java Time

 

 

Featured Nov. 26

Crisp Winter

 Featured Nov. 27

Ice Skating

Featured Nov. 28

Vintage Fashion

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the participating 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 Saturday, November 29, 2014, on the MFP Stamp Shop 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, 
November 28, 2014.

For my card, I took a piece of yellow cardstock that already had a distressed look to it. I stamped the coffee rings on the the paper. I used an old flourish stamp that I've had for years to make the steam. My cup was cut out and colored and I shaped it to be 3-d. I felt it needed something for embellishments. I took burlap and lace, pearls, buttons and raffia to add a lot of texture to my card. 

 

Check out what the other design team member made:

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.

Deck the Halls for Christmas

This week Diane's Daydream Designs is sponsoring Tuesday Morning Sketches.

 

This is my card using their sketch # 276. 

I used Daydream Design DECK THE HALLS OUTLINE SET

I printed it a couple of times.

 I water colored it with markers and water. 

I then cut the poinsettia apart into 3 sections.

 I used faux paper tole technique to give it dimension.

I added gold paint to the center of the poinsettia.

I punched four pine branches. 

I made the pine cones by quilling 

 a punched scalloped circle of brown cardstock.   

 I used glue to add some of my fake snow. 

My fake snow is styrofoam balls that I rubbed together

to make crumbles. I added glitter to the crumbles. It makes

really pretty fake snow, and it is cheap.

I wanted to keep the sentiment simple.

 I used an old alphabet set to make SCRABBLE tiles.

Here is a close up of one of the pinecones.

You can also see the dimension of the poinsettia.

  

Another close up.

 

 

I love making easel cards because they are so easy to make

and they have a wow factor.

This photo shows the side view. 

 

 

Mountain Plains Crafters Blog Hop Day 2

Today is the second day of the Mountain Plains Crafters blog hop.  How would you like to win this prize? 

Make sure you check out all the design team member's blogs and enter the rafflecopter on the Mountain Plains Crafters.

The theme for our hop is being Thankful. We decided to do projects instead of cards. I decided to make a Fantasy Box. I first found the instructions for making a Fantasy Box in 2007. They are easy to create and have a WOW factor. If you want to make one yourself, I have added the link to the Stubbystamper website here:

 FANTASY BOX INSTRUCTIONS




Materials Used:
Cereal Box,
Typing Paper
Cardstock
Acrylic report folder
Markers
Water bottle
Gold shimmer paint
Spellbinders Bitty Blossoms Dies
Cuttlebug
Tombow Extreme Adhesive
Tombow Fastener Tabs
Unity Stamp Co :
         Classified Newsprint
         Stitched Daffodils
Pearls
Lace

I started with an empty cereal box 

(This cereal is my favorite. I love the peaches and apples.)

One cereal box has enough cardboard to make 2 fantasy boxes.

I used the following Unity Stamps Co. stamps:

Classified Newsprint
Stitched Daffodils

I used black stazon ink and I randomly stamped the two stamps onto plain typing paper.

I did a technique that I call INK SPRAY SMASH. This picture shows the markers that I used... That's right cheap Crayola Markers.

I took an acrylic report folder and I cut the bottom off and cut one side off so that it opens up like a book.  I randomly scribbled with the markers on the inside of the open folder.

I sprayed the scribbles with my spray bottle of water.

You can see how the water makes drops of colored water.

I closed the folder and gently smooshed the colored water around. 

(I know, smooshed is such a technical term.)

I opened up the folder 

I carefully placed the stamped paper into the colored puddles.

What it looked like when I turned it over. I love this technique because you never know what you will get and you will get a different result every time.

I took the gold shimmer paint spray and sprayed it in the areas that had a little more white showing than I wanted.

I repeated the ink spray smash with the inside paper and the cardstock that was used for the lid and the inside boxes. 

Time to put the fantasy box together. I used the Tombow Xtreme adhesive to adhere the cereal cardboard box pieces to the typing paper.

 I used the Tombow adhesive tabs to close the box. You can make the box without

them and the lid will hold it closed, but I think it is a nice touch.

The little inside boxes can be used to hold small trinkets. I put some quilled roses, some buttons and some charms. You could also put chocolate or some other small candy.

 ( I was going to show it with Hershey kisses, I bought some last week...  but for some reason... I didn't have any left when it came time to photograph the box)  

 See how the Tombow fasteners hold the box shut...

I decorated the top of my box with quilled roses that I made using the Bitty Blossoms Dies. I added lace and pearls around the edge of the lid.

l

You made it to the bottom of my super long post. Thanks for taking the time to read it. Now you might be looking  at this and wondering how it shows being thankful. Well, it is a box that you could put keepsakes in so it made me think of memories. I am thankful for good and happy memories. Last week a friend of my daughter, a young 19 year old man had what Doctors think was similar to a stroke. His college room mate found him unconscious on his dorm room floor. When he was revived, he had lost his memories. The Doctors think that he had some brain damage due to lack of blood flow that made it so he lost his memories. He didn't remember his parents when they came to pick him up at the hospital. I feel so bad for his family. I can't imagine lost memories. Sometimes it is the little things that we take for granted that we should take time to be thankful for because they can be taken from us. Please join me in praying for the man and his family.


Check out Paula's blog Next or go back to the Mountains Plains Crafters blog.

Since this is a mixed media project with the theme of thankfulness I am entering it into this month's Mixed Media Mojo November Challenge.

Little dancer

Today my friend Pam and I decided to use the Splitcoast Stampers Color Challenge  CC504  and this week's Mojo Monday sketch MOJO 371 We also added our own special twist. She choose pearls and lace and I chose non sentiment text and glitter. 

 I used the little dancer from Diane Daydream Designs set called MY HEART STILL DANCES

Yesterday I watched a video on youtube. It was about making ballet slippers out of toilet paper tubes. I took the concept and made a little pair for this card. Here is the VIDEO  I tried to make the slippers a coral color by mixing hot pink and orange and then I covered the slippers with white tissue paper. It looked pretty but it didn't quite match what I wanted. So I ended up painting them. I had orange ribbon that was the right width, but wrong color. So I painted the ribbon too.

 I finished off my slippers with pearls and itty bitty quilled roses.

NOT WHAT YOU THOUGHT... mixed media DANCE card

This week's Splitcoast Mixed Media challenge, MIX93 

was to be inspired by the videos or blog of France Papillon.

I was inspired by this video called TOP SECRET.

I was inspired by the turquoise brown color combo and I was inspired by how she applied the texture with a plastic bag. 

I used a plastic bag to add the gold to the base of the card. You can see some of the gold in this close up of the left hand top corner of the card.  I made scrabble tiles using tan cardstock and two layers of cereal box cardboard. I stamped the alphabet stamps and cut them into squares. I used a pen to add the numbers. I inked around the edges to give them some depth.

I used this little dancer from Daydream Designs MY HEART STILL DANCES digital set. I printed her 4 times. I used markers and water to Watercolor her. I tried to get an ombre look for her dress. What you can't see from the photos is that the legs and skirt are 2 layers and from the waist up is 3 layers .It is a subtle paper tole look. I added a little drop of gold paint to the heart bracelet on her arm.

Of course no card of mine feels complete without quilled roses. So I put some in the corners.

The music notes and rest of the sentiment were printed onto white cardstock. I used green, blue and brown markers and water and an acetate report folder to make the variant colors. I sprayed it with gold shimmer paint and also stamped SU itty bitty background stamp in white ink on the background. I used brown ink to in the edges of the sentiments and the music sheet panel. I stapled the rectangles of burlap to the base and glued the sentiment on top of them.

Now you would think that this was a card to inspire people to dance, because dancing is important. Now, I'm not saying that it isn't important, but for today, what was important to me was laughter and character.. I printed the words. "We could all use a laugh"  Kind of a snarky comment, but it did make me smile. The part about character is not letting what others do affect us. You know what if people see me dancing, they are going to laugh till their sides hurt. I could choose to be upset and stop dancing or only dance where no one could see me or I could choose to laugh along. and keep on dancing. THE CHOICE on how I feel is mine.

So that is what went into this card. I hope you enjoyed reading all the way down to the very end. I hope you choose to have a wonderful rest of your day.