Studio Purge

 It's that time again - time to reorganize and purge my studio of things I no longer use or (worse!) duplicates of things I already have.  I love pretty patterned paper so I buy it and  then feel guilty for not using it, but I just cannot make myself cut it up. I just hope that I will be ruthless when it comes to culling the pretty papers!

I will be listing  "Pay It Forward" items over on Splitcoaststampers.com in the Pay it Forward 2022 thread on the General Forum.   I will be listing items for sale on a couple of Facebook groups that I belong to. One is specifically for Tim Holtz items and the other is for all cardmaking or scrapbooking supplies.

My niece is turning 4!

 So, one of my nieces is turning 4 in a couple of weeks.  She is such a cutie-patootie!  She is a spitfire combination of "girly girl" who loves hair bows, horses, & mermaids and "tomboy" who romps around playing in the dirt with her brothers and dogs!

Here is the card that I made for her.

I followed a recent YouTube tutorial from Sam Calcott, Mixed Up Crafts, where she made several cards using up scraps. As soon as I saw Sam's Happy Birthday candles card, I knew I wanted to CASE it for my niece.  This was definitely a Clean and Simple (CAS) card that came together quickly. It took me longer to select the scraps than it did to actually complete the card!   It was so very satisfying to use up small pieces of patterned paper.

Most of the scraps are pattern papers from Fun Stampers Journey and a couple are from Stampin' Up!  I cut the scraps 1/2" wide by however long the scrap was.  I laid them out along the front until I was happy with the layout.  Before gluing them down, though, I stamped the sentiment with Ranger Archival black ink.  That way, I knew how much room I needed to leave in order to color in the candle flames. After gluing down the scraps, I cut off the paper that was hanging off the bottom of the card. It's not visible in the picture, but I colored over the flames and the sentiment with a clear glitter pen.

The finished size of this card is 5x7.

Masculine Birthday Card

Hello, Blog Friends!

Today's offering is a masculine card made from a tutorial from Sam Calcott, Mixed Up Craft, on YouTube. It is called a Vertical Easel Card.   Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvKLZOfprn8

The finished size of my card is 5x7.

Start with a piece of 10 x 7 cardstock for the base. Along the 10"" side, score at 2-1/2 and 5.  Both score lines are mountain folds.  Then put a narrow piece (popped up on foam tape) along the unscored 5"  section - this will create a ledge (so to speak) that the other edge can slide under & be supported to form the easel.  Sam explains in her tutorial how to make a support mechanism for the sentiment panel.

I hope you will give this card a try as it is very easy to make.

First Post of 2021

 So!  Here it is, more than a year after since my last post.  Oh my!  I certainly am lazy about keeping this blog current.  [sigh]

Last summer, I took a step out in faith and bought a cute little condo.  It is definitely small, but it is all I really need.  And I am quite comfortable.  My son helped me hang a ceiling fan recently - his comment was that I live in an art studio!  

Oh! Big news!  I did something I never thought I would do again - I signed up to be a Stampin Up! demonstrator.  It has been at least 10 years since I was with Stampin Up.  The sign up special for May was too good to pass up - since they are offering additional amount of product during the sign up special, I was able to purchase just about everything I wanted from the new catalog for the $99 cost. In a month or so, I'll order the rest of what I want from the catalog and get my demo discount!  That is a definite win for me.

Life has been good to me this past year. I was blessed that I was considered an essential worker during the covid pandemic. I did put on quite a bit of weight during that time, but I did manage to lose most of it since the beginning of this year.  Just a few more pounds to go and I'll be back to my pre-covid weight!  Gluten-free Keto diet and Weight Watchers is what helped me drop the weight.

More to come  so stay tuned ... I need to post some pics of cards that I made recently.

Yes, I'm Still Alive!

Oh my, time has a way of just slipping by!  I had a post started about an ugly page in my art journal, but never finished it!  Maybe at some point I'll get around to finishing the blog post, but that remains to be seen.

So for now, I'm just going to post pictures of a couple of cards that I have made this year.  I have completed a lot more than these, but I either did not take a photo of the card or I have already sent it to the intended recipient.

Without further ado:

This is the latest finished card.  I made it using a technique called "Adhesive Resist."  This is where you put matte medium through a stencil (instead of paint) onto cardstock, let the matte medium dry, then sponge color onto the background.  *Don't forget to clean your stencil right away!

This card was made using scraps and other miscellaneous diecuts from my stash.

More to come at a later date!

Christmas Tree 2019

Now that Christmas 2019 is over and everyone has gotten their gifts, I can share a picture of my little tree. I made four of the red "97" ornaments in honor of my Dad; my mother and both of my brothers each got one. 97 is our race team number.

MMTPT587

This week’s Teapot Tuesday Challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com is to make a card with flowers to cheer up a lady in Bentonville AR who is waiting for a kidney transplant.

Here is my card:

When I went into the drawer where my white cardstock is stored, I found a scrap that was a leftover piece from a die cut.  I already knew which stamp set I wanted to use (Fun Stampers Journey Thistle), so I was very happy when I saw that it fit onto the scrap!   I colored the stamp with Tombow markers and used my MISTI to stamp it. That was a good decision because I had to at least three different colors of blue markers to get the mason jar to show up!

After I stamped the sentiment, I inked a Stampin Up embossing folder then laid the green cardstock down & ran it through my Spellbinders Platinum machine. I was very happy with the results! I finished putting the card together by popping up the white die cut onto the green piece, then gluing the front onto the A2 card base.

Card Shower Request

I belong to a Facebook group called Random Acts of Cardness where we send cards out when a request for a card shower is posted.  Yesterday, I saw a post for a veteran who has been hospitalized for several weeks and is need of a “pick me up.”  It was late when I saw the request so I didn’t have time to make a card, but I did find one in my stash to send.

I’ve had this card for quite a while, so I’m glad I finally found a reason to send it out. I remember some of the details, so I’ll post as much info as I can.

The airplane stamp is from Prickly Pear – I stamped it in black permanent ink on white cardstock. I used markers to color the image, then fussy cut it out.   I do not know the brand of the tree stamp, but it is similar to one of the stamps in Stampin’ Up’s retired set, Lovely as a Tree. I stamped the trees with Stazon ink onto glossy cardstock. After the ink dried, I sponged around the trees with blue ink to create the sky – this gave the illusion of clouds. I sponged green ink along the ground to create the landscape.

The card front is 5-1/4” x 4” and is layered onto a piece of black cardstock measuring 5-3/8” x 4-18”.  The size of the finished card is A2, 5-1/2” x 4-1/4”.

Featured Stamper Challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com, FS662

This week’s Featured Stamper at Splitcoaststampers.com is Diana Gibson. See her gallery HERE.  The idea of the Featured Stamper Challenge is to look at the featured stamper’s gallery and choose a card to CASE (Copy And Share Everything) but to change at least three things to make it your own.  I chose THIS CARD  

because it is very pretty and I have enough similar items to use.

Here is my version of Diana's card:

The focal image that I used is a smaller stamp than what Diana used on hers. I chose to make mine a birthday card and I used a multi-step stamp set for the butterflies.  The focal image is layered onto a scrap piece of designer paper from Graphic 45’s Flutter collection. I don’t have any colored cardstock that matches the sentiment ink, so I used that ink to color the edges of white cardstock. Doing so tied the card together. I then layered the card front onto an A2 sized Kraft card base.

Inspired by a Card on Mixed Up Crafts - Z-Fold Pop Up Card

I saw a card on Mixed Up Crafts  and wanted to make one!   I changed mine up, though.

Instead of a Christmas card, I decided to use designer paper from Graphic 45’s Flutter collection.  I followed the instructions from Mixed Up Crafts for cutting & scoring the card base as well as cutting the larger panels.  But I didn’t like the open space left after making the slits horizontally across the two center sections. 

I cut a panel to fit underneath the slits, then scored it in half lengthwise. Since that panel was nearly the same size as the card base, I cut an additional set of the larger panels from the designer paper. I did not cut the smaller sections that the tutorial from Mixed Up crafts called for since they weren't necessary.  I also added a panel on the back side of the card to hide the seams and to give the card more stability.

I used a layering die set from Stampin’ Up to cut the accent piece on the front of the card. I only had two different sized dies and thought there was too much space between the two layers, so I cut another piece of designer paper with the larger die. I left it inside the die, then traced around the inner edge with a pencil. After that, I carefully trimmed away along the pencil line to make a slightly smaller die cut shape.

There is no stamping on this card as of now.  When I decide who is getting it & for what occasion, I’ll stamp a sentiment on the back panel.