Lazy Summer Challenge

Hi everyone can you believe that today is the last day of June. Will someone please slow down this year it will be holiday time at this rate before I know it.

 I'm still waiting for images to do projects for the design team so I thought I would do a card for Shopping Our Stash Lazy Summer Days challenge. The challenge is to create a project either of what you will be doing or would like to do this Summer. My first thought was go to the ocean. As some of you know I didn't leave my heart in San Francisco I left it at the ocean the very first time I saw it as a child.

O.K. be prepared to pick your jaw up off the floor after the curtain lifts. I know I'm biased but this card turned out better than the one in my head. In fact I managed to capture the sunset that is in a photo I took during my last beach trip. Lol! Now I don't want to give it away.


*Music plays as the curtain rises.* Ta Da!

I started by airbrushing two different shades of pink on my card stock for my sunset. I then air brushed a dark yellow on "patty paper". The paper which goes in between hamburgers. I glued it onto my card stock using white glue so it would be more transparent.

I airbrushed my sand. Then I took recycled coffee grounds and mixed them into Matte Medium which I brushed over my airbrushing.  The Matte Medium dries clear so  shows whatever color you use. I really need to buy some sand but a friend reminded me there are some beaches with dark sand.

I flunked 101 drawing so after doing some modifications to an ocean image I printed on patty paper.  I then applied white Radiant Neon Amplify and used my heat gun to puff it up. I then took two different blue color pencils and filled in the water. After I was done I cut around the top breakers and wrapped my image around to the back of my panel where I adhered it.

Then the only thing left was to stamp my sentiment. I used a Just For Fun stamp and Stazon Timber Brown ink. I cut around using fancy scissors which reminds me of waves. Adhered it to my card and I was done.

My days will be full of relaxing sunsets while I drink cool drinks on my patio. Who knows I may even go to the park and walk through the sand box barefoot. Lol! I may even put on a CD of ocean sounds and close my eyes opening up my mental scrapbook of days spent at the ocean and be there once again.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Seahorse card + Stencil Card

Hi everyone I'm still waiting for images for my Design Team so decided I would play with metallic pan watercolors. As well as experiment to see if a stencil could be used as a stamp and heat embossed before painting. It was a learning experience and next time I'll use a brayer to apply the ink to the stencil so I get better coverage of ink and embossing powder. The copper water color came to the rescue covering the white areas.

I will be entering this for the Happy Little Stampers watercolor challenge. Details can be found here:
http://www.happylittlestampers.com/2017/06/hls-june-watercolour-challenge.html

I love how this turned out but wish I was not out of waterproof ink so I ended up having to use color pencils for my Seahorse. (Lol! My spending moratorium does not cover such things as buying waterproof ink pads so I can do that. Otherwise this year other than replacing my embossing machine which died I've not been buying crafts things unless I've found them at a thrift store or Dollar Tree and knew I would use them.)

I took my VersaMark embossing ink pad and stamped it all over the stencil. Then I took the stencil and turned it over to the ink side and laid it down on my card stock. I took a rubber brayer and rubbed the stencil down being careful to not move it. Then lifted my stencil up and heat embossed like usual. I have no idea who makes this copper embossing powder. I've had it now for several decades.

Since I had my metallic water colors out after touching up my embossing I went ahead and used the colors for my panes of glass.  I decided using one of my water brushes to not go for a complete coverage of  color in each open area.  Instead I wanted it to look like glass I used to have back in the days when I was making stain glass articles.

I adhered my panel to my base using black electrical tape on both long edges.  Remember you don't always had to use a tape runner or other adhesive. Different types of tape will work just as well. 😄

The Seahorse is a Just For Fun stamp. I used Stazon Timber Brown ink on Patty paper.. Using color pencils I colored some of the areas on the reverse side only and other areas on both the front and back.. Coloring on the back side only gives you a lighter more pastel look. Coloring on the front and back gives you not only darker but more vibrant while still allowing patterns to show through.

Since I didn't want this to be transparent and had not used a waterproof ink I ran my Seahorse after cutting out through Xyron Creative Station.  Tip: If you use waterproof ink and a glue which dries clear your image will be transparent.  Most tape runner adhesives will show through. I have not tried yet adhesive for vellum.

What do you think? Are you going to see about using a stencil as a stamp and heat embossing?

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Think Pink Challnge

Hi everyone I did another Think Pink challenge piece for the Shopping Our Stash challenge for this week. You still have until Monday night to enter if you would like to challenge yourself. Details can be found here Think Pink Challenge.

I don't usually use pink so when I buy a pack of assorted card stock I usually have the pink gathering dust. Especially if it is not a soft pastel.

The border piece was created by cutting squares out of pink tissue wrapping paper and then after applying acrylic floor wax on a piece of plastic randomly placing assorted sizes of square and overlapping so that there is at least two layers of tissue paper. While still wet I sprinkled pink glitter. I did discover that the pattern shows more on the side which was against the plastic instead of the side I used for my border. Also the wrinkles are more subtle. It depends which side you use on what effect you are after. If you decide to ever try this technique make sure the paper is embedded in the floor wax. Also make sure the wax is totally dry before peeling your custom paper off the plastic.

I wasn't sure how my play was going to work with the oval for a previous project so I had printed out two of them. I airbrushed the background with a pink marker. Then colored my image with metallic color pencils which I found at Dollar Tree. I figured for a dollar I had nothing to lose and I could always donate them to my granddaughters.

That is all for now but do come back as I may be entering more challenges while waiting for images for the design team I'm on.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again.

Any Holiday

Hi everyone where did June go. I can't believe it is the fourth Saturday. Which means it is time for the Any Holiday challenge over at Hiding In My Craft Room. This week the challenge is being brought to you by Digital Delights. The prize is a $5 gift certificate.

Without further ado here is my card.

For the background I was playing with tissue paper and acrylic floor wax. For those who have been following me for awhile you know I would rather be crafting than doing housework. After embedding my pieces of white tissue wrapping paper into the wet floor wax I sprinkled hot pink fine glitter. A happy accident was that whatever was used to die the glitter reacted with the glitter bleeding pink color.  I then decided to see what Brusho powder pigments would do with the wet wax. I love the results.

I printed and cut out my tree. Then I brushed green glitter glue over my tree and of course the ink bled since I had not coated the tree with paste floor wax on both sides. To finish off the tree I glued a star sequin on top.

In Silhouette Studio I opened up a cutting file with the sentiment un-grouping and using just the sentiment.  I filled in the letters turning them into a print and cut. I also added my digital stamp from Digital Delights. For my Christmas bird I used Martha Stewart flocking on the rim of the hat and his boots as well as the mouth.. The pink I used for inside his mouth had never been opened. The rest of the image was colored using pencils. Alas my silver pencil ended up looking more gray than silver in the photo.

Because my custom tissue paper ripped when I was trimming it to size I ended up using foil holographic tape. For some reason my camera photographed the tape weird.

Thank you for stopping by. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

CAS Plus Pink Challenge

Hi everyone I normally don't do Clean and Simple otherwise known as CAS nor do I normally craft using pink although I seem to be doing it more often. I'm not sure I like how this card turned out but I'm going to enter it anyway in two challenges. The first is the Cas Mix Up Card Challenge. The challenge was to use paste or gel, stamping  plus something of your choice.  The other challenge is Shopping Our Stash Think Pink Challenge.

Here is what I created:

I mixed String Gel which had been sitting on the shelf with acrylic paint. I tried to use it for stenciling but alas when I lifted up my stencil the card stock stuck to it. tearing. I then decided to pour the leftover onto card stock. However, I didn't like how that turned out.  I took my wide house paint brush and brushed it over my mess and using the flat of the brush created texture. I then took a rose foam stamp and stamped into the wet mixture.  This left indentations and raised areas. Once it had dried I tried coloring with alcohol markers but the pink didn't really show up and I wasn't happy with the green. I decided to see what would happen with Ken Oliver Liquid Metal being painted on. The Liquid Metal caused the marker to bled but I like the effect it created on the petals.

By the way is you are interested in playing with paste or gel there are some good tutorial on the Cas Mix It Up blog. I will be definitely watching these and trying some of the techniques using paste.

Wishing You Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Feminine Challenge

Hi everyone it is the third Saturday and time for a theme challenge over at Hiding In My Craft Room. This Saturday the challenge is to create a feminine project. The challenge this week is being provided by Graciellie Design. One lucky person will win a $10 gift certificate.

Gracie sent me the recent release of Lady and I have to say I love this digital stamp set. I couldn't quit playing with it. There are also three other new releases "Wonderful Things", "Sending Kindness" and "Simple Wisdom". Not only are the images awesome but the prices are reasonable.  In fact I may have to have the dogs tell me what they changed my PayPal Password to so I can buy these images also.

Now for the reveal. Ta Da!

My card base was actually the base for a Christmas card cutting file from the Silhouette store. I used Stazon Royal Purple with a lace stamp I have which had been gathering dust. I had forgotten how much fun it is to stamp a background.

My shape was a frame from the Silhouette store. I discarded the square. Then I filled my shape in with the Newspaper Grunge Pattern from the store. I edged the panel with a Sharpie which was really juicy.

I opened Lady 2 in PhotoShop Elements and changed her from black and white to color. Then saved her. Since Lady 2 is a JPG it is not transparent and alas I could not figure out how to make the background transparent and not the rest of the white. I resized her to fit on my panel. I colored with a color pencil the lady. Then added one of the sentiments in the set which has a transparent background.

I was playing with my Soft Pastels and a stencil. I rubbed a few different colors over the stencil. Then used a cloth to rub the color into the stencil openings. I lifted the stencil and then took a soft brush and brush the excess powder over filling in the background with a subtle color.

The great thing about using a program like Silhouette Studio which by the way you don't need a cutting machine to use is it is easy to change images and sentiments.

I used pan chalks and a cotton swab to color lady 1 and the background.

I hand sewed lace on the stenciled panel before adhering it to the card base.

Thank you for stopping by. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Challenging Myself With Stencils

Hi everyone on Facebook the eBrush group is having a challenge to create a background using two stencils. I decided since I'm caught up once again for my design team to play. Also the Mixed Media blog has a challenge of putting a spin on one of the past challenges. I saw their past "Put A Stencil On It" and thought it would be fun to join. Details can be found here
https://mixedmediamc.blogspot.com/2017/06/mixed-media-monthly-challenge-37-year.html

Here is my card using two stencils for my background. .I love how it turned out.

I started by taking a chipboard photo mat and drawing around the oval and cutting it out to use as a mask. After I placed the mask where I wanted it I placed the dot stencil over and used my eBrush with Spectrum Noir markers.  Then I removed the mask and placed a Waverly stencil down and the chipboard mat on top. And once again used my eBrush. Then I took my card front with the mat still taped on and ran it through my embossing machine using an embossing mat to emboss the oval.

I opened the bird and sentiment from Graciellie Design Believe digital set into Silhouette Studio. After I had it like I wanted I grouped them and drew an oval around. I then printed and cut out the oval. I once again took the eBrush and taking a big breath as I had never eBrushed the background of a digital image before eBrushed with a light grey marker. I colored with pencils and pop dotted onto my card front.

It was a little nerve wracking to get out of my comfort zone and do something with more than one stencil. As well as to see if I could emboss using a chipboard cutout.

Thank you for stopping by. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

MHK Designs June Challenge

Hi everyone since I was caught up with my design team obligations for June and waiting for images for July I thought it would be fun to do some challenges. When I saw MHK Designs challenge for this month I knew I had to do a project and enter. Details are here: http://mhkdesignsbymynn.blogspot.com/2017/06/june-challenge.html
Here is the inspiration piece.

I decided to use Beachy Keen digital set and Serene Seaside. Serene Seaside along with the digital papers that go along are the giveaways.

For my card base I used an eBrush and Spectrum Noir marker to color my white card stock. Then I used VersaMark ink through a stencil. Then I brushed Cappuccino and Aged Gold Perfect Pearls over the ink.

I took the Beachy Keen image and using the erasure in Silhouette Studio to erase the little girl. I then added the poem from Serene Seaside. I printed out separately the girl and one of the shells.

I used chalk and a cosmetic wedge for the sky. I colored with pencils the waves, snail, sand, shell and girl. I used Radiant Neon Amplify for the breakers. The girl's feet are adhered down and the rest of her is pop dotted.

Thank you for stopping by today. Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Happy Little Stamper Glitter Challenge

Hi everyone the only challenges I've been doing lately is for the challenge blog that I'm a design team member. Since I'm caught up on my obligations for this month I thought it would be fun to see what I could do for a challenge. Gracie from Graciellie Designs sent me the Lady Set which is a new release. There are also three other releases of digital stamps which had me drooling. Luckily my dogs have hidden my credit cards somewhere and changed my PayPal password.

 You can see and order the stamps sets here and while you are at it check out her blog where she has all kinds of tutorials:
Graciellie Design Stamps

Next Saturday I will have on my blog here projects using the Lady Set but thought it would be fun to do a card with a collage of the images and some of the sentiments. I'm so in love with this set that I can't stop playing with it.

As the title says I'm entering this card in the Happy Little Stamper Mixed Media Challenge.

I would love it if you would join me in this challenge. Details can be found here:
http://www.happylittlestampers.com/2017/06/hls-june-mixed-media-challenge.html

O.K. I know you don't want to read all of my babbling like a brook so without further ado here is my card. Which like usual as the mad scientist I am I did experimenting.

My first experiment was creating my background. I've read about making marks in wet acrylic paint but have never done it. I probably should have use my mixed media paper but since I couldn't find it I used a piece of 110# Georgia Pacific card stock.

I knew that Folk Art metallic paints dry super fast so I decided to see what would happen if I added matte medium which I happened to recently find on clearance and had not played with. I went ahead and squirted directly on my card stock both the paint and medium. Then used a sponge brush to blend the paint and medium over the card. While still wet I took a round plastic canvas and randomly stamped into the wet paint. I discovered you have to be quick doing this and preferably do a small piece instead of a letter size piece.

After the paint was pretty much dry I looked at it and decided to see what would happen if I brushed on Folk Art Extreme Glitter. I brushed my glitter paint on and realized that my design was being covered up. So once again I took my canvas plastic and randomly stamped.

I let the paint completely dry and then brushed Precious Metal over the piece. Wet a brush since Precious Metal is sort of thick and brushed over my panel and with a paper towel removed some of the gold. A paint glaze could be used, antiquing glaze, Liquid Metal, etc.

I bought at a thrift store water resistant photo paper so decided to print on that and see what would work to color it. This was Glossy and I've only used the matte before. I printed out my images and on a scrap tried different things. Gelatos used as paint only worked for a small area like the face.  I could not get a good coverage on the dress. So I ended up reprinting the lady wearing the dress. Since I had only done the faces I decided to color lady 1 and 2 using Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. Normally the markers seem to only get used with my airbrush.

If you look carefully you may be able to see the sparkle on the feathers. I used a Sakura Gelly Roll to accent the feathers.

I should have used my guillotine trimmer as my trimmer for some reason mangled my piece on one edge. Luckily I just happened to have the plain gold tape in my stash.

Thank you for stopping by today. Wishing You Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Super Scraps Saturday

Hi everyone today is Super Scraps Saturday over at Hiding In My Craft Room. Time to get out those scraps and use them. I don't know about you but I have a hard time throwing out scraps even if it is a narrow piece. However there comes a time when it is either use the scraps or toss them or you will be drowning in scraps overtaking your play space.

This week Star Stampz is the sponsor. They generously provided the Sunday Best image I used for my inspiration piece. One person will win 3 digital images.

The top strip was a stamped piece that didn't turn out right so I cut it down but the rest were scraps which I adhered down horizontally after cutting to size as they were too long.

The girl was colored with pencils. Although you can't really see it in the photo her earring and the beads on the flower are glitter glue. I used photo corners

This was a quick card to put together. Scraps depending on their size could be placed diagonally or vertically.

Thank you for stopping by and do check out the images at StarStampz if you are into digital stamps as there are some cute ones their.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!

Summer Colors Challenge

Hi everyone it is the first Saturday of the month which means it is the color challenge over
at Hiding In My Craft Room. Here are the colors:

This week's challenge is being sponsored by Oddball Art. The give away is two digital images. Here is what I did with the image I was provided with this bathtub buddy image.

The dark blue background was created by brushing liquid acrylic floor wax on a sheet of plastic and then placing strips of torn blue and white tissue paper in the wax. Once the wax was dry peeling my custom paper from the plastic. The image was colored with pencils, gel pens, and glitter glue. I especially like how the glitter glue worked with the bubbles and suds.

I generated on my computer the word "Soak!" I have in my bathroom a picture of an old tub with the word. That was my inspiration piece.

Wishing you Happy Frugal Crafting till we meet again!