Altered Playing Card Challenge - Winners Post

Hello all, thanks once again for coming back to the blog. Today I am going to announce the winner of the big give-a-way and also go over my storage idea for this entire deck.

First I want to thank those that followed along each week, weather you finished your deck or not, I appreciate everyone who followed along. Here are the links for each week just in case your finishing up.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6 
Week 7
Week 8

Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Week 16
Week 17
Week 18
Week 19
Week 20
Week 21
Week 22
Week 23
Week 24
Week 25
Week 26
Week 27

and our Facebook group

Facebook Group

and the Pinterest Board link

Pinterest Board

I decided use an Artist Trading Block (by Eileen Hull) to hold my entire deck, it was the perfect size, there are several sizes of this block but for this I'm using the largest, you can find it HERE

I used the black Matboard for my box and I'm going to decorate white paper for each side

Here are what my squares look like for my sides

My process was to paint the backgrounds and then stencil and doodle on each square. I used Dina Wakley's paints 

For my hearts, I used gelli print backgrounds and drew hearts and cut them out, I also used torn gelli prints

I pasted each decorated square to each side of my artist trading block

I cut the lid off, the altered playing cards will stick out the top, which is what I want, this way I can flip through them. Here is what my box looks like

The feet are mini dominos glued together two high

Front View

However you decide to display yours, I'm sure it will work for you.

I hope you have had a great time playing in this challenge and hopefully you finished your set. If not, keep going! 

And now for the winner of our giveaway

I put all the names in a hat and had my daughter draw one. I added some names from my Facebook group as well, people that don't blog but have followed along each week

AND THE WINNER IS............

Susan K.....

SusanKMarch 23, 2015 at 6:50 AM

Great look on the last 2 playing cards of the deck! Off to see what I can do with mine....

Congrats Susan, email me with your address or message me on Facebook. Either way, I will send your prize out asap! YAY!

Some of you have expressed that you want me to do the jokers so next week, I will do the jokers and those will be the last. Come back next week to see those

Once again, thanks so much for following along!!

Stampotique Challenge 188 - Favorite Background Technique

Good day everyone, thanks for coming by again.  Over at Stampotique's Designer Challenge Blog this week Nellie is our hostess and she has challenged us to use our "Favorite Background Technique"

Here is what Nellie says about this challenge:

"What's your favourite technique to make backgrounds? I love making backgrounds on a crafsheet. Quick and easy and yet a different result all the time."

One of my favorite techniques was introduced by Dyan Reaveley and it's called Ghosting. Using Dyan's sprays, I sprayed my page with several different colors. You then use a stencil and water to "lift" some of the color off the page and you get this "ghosting" in the background. It's really cool.

On this page I used Stampotique Stamps:

Dog Cube, Breakfast and Skiddy - By Daniel Torrente

Arch - By Arwen McCullen

Backgrounds are so fun to play with and create, there are so many things you can do with yours. Come by Designer's Challenge Blog and join us in this challenge.

Have a great week!!!

The Altered Playing Card Challenge Week 27

Thanks so much for coming by the blog again today. We are on week 27, the final week of the Altered Playing Card Challenge

If you have missed any of the previous week's here are the links

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6 
Week 7
Week 8

Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Week 16
Week 17
Week 18
Week 19
Week 20
Week 21
Week 22
Week 23
Week 24
Week 25
Week 26

and our Facebook group

Facebook Group

and the Pinterest Board link

Pinterest Board

I cannot believe we have made it through the entire deck of 52 cards, how fun has this been? I hope to give you all a couple of weeks to finish your decks and then move on to something else. I'm not sure what yet but keep following the blog to find out. 

This week I want to do some embossing onto our backgrounds
the first thing I did was add color with my Archival inks

Once your cards are inked you have to let them dry thoroughly, either use your heat gun to dry or set them aside for a couple hours to dry. 

Next I'm going to use a stamp, versamark ink and embossing powder to heat emboss onto my background
 The reason you need to let your card dry thoroughly after you first inked it, if you don't your embossing powder will not only stick to your stamped image it will stick to your background ink too. So it's important to let your card dry before this step

For the next card I used colored powder
I also used the stamp several times and then sprinkled with the colored embossing powder and heat set

These are my two backgrounds after the embossing step

For the next step, I'm using some old book paper, I chose a stamp and stamped directly onto the paper and cut out my image

I also drew my own heart and cut it out, I edged it with black marker

Working with the green card first I found a stamp that I liked that will go behind my butterfly

I used my Faber Castell oil pastel black to edge the stamp

Using my same piece of book page, I cut out a ribbon and edged that with black marker
I also used Tim Holtz chitchat stickers and grabbed a few words that I wanted to use

I went over the words with distress ink old paper so they would look aged. 

I glued my stamp and butterfly onto the card and using a smudging tool and my oil pastel crayon I went around my butterfly with the black, I simply rubbed the tool onto my crayon trapping some color and then using the tool I colored around my butterfly. This gives a soft hue around my image

Lastly, add everything to your card, I also went around my ribbon with the oil pastel just like I did the butterfly.

Here is my finished card

Working with the second card, I took a lot of the same steps
I used Tim's chitchat stickers again, this time I chose some words that were brown colored instead of white

I figured out what stamp and stickers I wanted to use and kind of positioned everything onto my card to see how I wanted to lay everything out

I then used my oil pastel and my tool to go around some of the items in my background

This is my finished second Altered Playing Card

and here are the two cards together

And the entire Deck!

Have fun making your last two cards, I hope you have enjoyed this adventure. I know it has been such fun for me to put out these tutorials each week. Seeing what you all create is the best part of this whole thing! I have loved it!
I know some of you have asked how I am going to store my cards so.....
Next week, I'm going to post a project I did for that purpose, come back next week to check it out
I had promised a give-a-way for those of you that have followed along and attempted to complete this challenge
So one lucky winner will win this prize pack!

In order to win the prize you must have 

1. followed along with the challenge 
2. Attempted to complete or completed the challenge 
3. Displayed my blog button or the challenge button on your blog (if you have a blog)

So just leave a comment to win and I will draw a winner and announce them next week with my display tutorial

Thank you for following along and have a wonderful week!!

Stampotique Challenge 187 - Use Neon

Hello all and welcome back to another week and another challenge over at Stampotique's Designer Challenge Blog

I think this week's challenge is going to be tons of fun. Astrid is our host and she has picked the theme "Neon"

Here is what she says about this challenge:

"At first I was a bit afraid of these intense colors, but after using them I really love them. They give your work such a nice 'pop'. I challenge you to use at least one Neon color. Can't wait to see your eye popping work "

I love bright bold color so Neon is right up my alley...

I decided to work with an artist trading block this week. If you haven't heard of these they are all the rage and are by Sizzix and Eileen Hull, they are a lot of fun to work with

Here is a photo of all the sides, I used quite a variety of Stampotique stamps on this project

I am going to use this artist trading block as a holder for some of my smaller color sprays on my craft station

I think with the bright colors and bold design it will be great inspiration for me. 

For this ATB I used Stampotique Stamps:

4 Dwarfy Gnomes - By Kira Nichols

Feline and Artiste Block By Roc Nicholas

Agatha Star - By Magda Polakow

I sure hope you will come by the Designer's Challenge Blog and join us this week, you might even win a 30.00 gift certificate to the online store.

Altered Playing Card Challenge Week 26

Oh my gosh, only one more week to go for The Altered Playing Card Challenge, Wow. How fun has this been? I've had a great time and I can't believe it's almost over

We are now onto week 26 of this challenge

If you have missed any of the previous week's here are the links

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6 
Week 7
Week 8

Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Week 16
Week 17
Week 18
Week 19
Week 20
Week 21
Week 22
Week 23
Week 24
Week 25

and our Facebook group

Facebook Group

and the Pinterest Board link

Pinterest Board

This week I wanted to focus on something called Monochromatic which basically means creating something with one color in many different shades. You can also use white or black in a monochrome project. 

I am no good with monochrome and it's a tough concept for me so this week will be a sort of challenge for me as well.

I started out with two different printed papers, one was a light teal color and the other was purple

I then grabbed some stencils, both of these are by Dylusions

For the next step I used acrylic paint but feel free to use inks if you choose

I did the purple card first and used a slightly darker shade of paint along with the stencil

( I like to use sponge dabbers with paint and stencils, you don't want too much paint on your dabber, I usually dab in the paint and then dab onto the craft sheet a few times and then begin to work)

For the second teal card, I did the same

Working with the teal card first, I first added a bit of ink around the edges

I then used my fine tip Bic marker and doodled a bit 

I then stamped Roc Nicholas's stamp called Screaming Bunny onto white card stock and colored him with copics

I used several different shades of teal for this

I then cut my bunny out

I used a different color ink to stamp Bla Bla Bla by Jill Penney and Daniel Torrente onto my background, then adhered my bunny and my words Even Silence Speaks By Jo Capper-Sandon

Here is my finished card

For the purple card I first used ink to edge my card

I then used my white gel pen to created some doodles here and there

I added some wash tape, I like to tear my washi tape and then add it to my backgrounds

I stamped  Mervynboy and Hat onto white card stock and colored them with several different shades of purple

I added the Goody, goody gumdrops sentiment last

Here is my finished card

and here are my two cards together

I hope that you will try this monochromatic theme this week. You don't even have to do yours like I did mine, as long as the concept is the same. The same colors in different shades.

Have fun this week, next week is out last and we will have a huge giveaway!! So come back!

Cheers!