Let It Snow....

Hello again, I've been a crafting bee lately. It's been really cold (like below zero) and snowing here so I've been staying home and using my time to craft. At any rate, there is a super fun challenge over at 

Tag A Long called "Frosty the Snowman" and all you have to do is create a tag in the theme in order to play along. How Fun!!

Also, over at Stampotique Designers Blog it's "Anything Goes" this month. So I am entering my tag for that challenge as well.

So for this theme I chose a stamp by Daniel Torrent called Snowy Fran you can see her over at Stampotique Originals. 

I stamped my Fran onto card stock and then colored her with copic markers and then cut her out. 

I set Mrs Fran aside and went to work on my background. I used Tim Holtz distress paints and tissue paper to create this portion. I simply added the paint directly to my craft sheet and spritzed with water and then ran my tissue paper though it

Once that was dry I used a manilla tag by Ranger and some glue and seal to adhere my tissue paper to my tag. I sort of scrunched it up a bit as I went

I spritzed my background and a few snowflakes that I will be using for my background with silver perfect pearls 

I used some delicate Memory Box dies along with red card stock to create some flourishes for the edges of my tag

I wanted to do some star stencils in my background so I used Archival blue ink and a crafters workshop stencil. The stencil that I used had too many stars so I taped some card stock underneath in order to block some of them off.  I just put some stars here and there onto my background.

I made a flower for the bottom corner with the Tim Holtz tattered flower die strip and card stock. I also used some of the tissue paper. I added a red glittery center to finish it off

I created this star with some mirrored paper and card stock. I added a rivet so that I could hang it from Fran's arm

After adhering everything to my background and creating my phrase, this is what my finished tag looks like

Thanks for stopping by, I hope that you stay warm and safe in the comfort of your home!! 

Cheers!

2014 Postcard

Hello there, today I have for you a New Years postcard. It's so hard to think that in just a few weeks we will be into a brand new year. Time really does go by quickly, it teaches us to cherish each and every moment. 

I am entering this postcard into the Simon Says Stamp Wendesday challenge. They are asking us to make our own background this week. 

I started this background with some off-white colored card stock and some acrylic paint.  I started with white paint and used an old credit card to wipe it here and there.

The paper I used was thick and was almost like watercolor paper. I ended up dripping paint over parts of my card stock and then using a straw to blow it around. 

It didn't turn out so great. lol... I almost threw it away to start over but I kept thinking to myself. This will be ok, I'll work with it. 

I let it dry a bit and then just didn't like it so I took the credit card and drug it across the paper to spread out my paint.

I'm not sure if it helped or made it worse haha!!! This was just one of those projects. LOL

At this point I was determined. 

I took quite a few stencils and some archival ink and just went to town with them. It was so much fun to watch this background transform before my eyes. I was having so much fun I forgot to take a photo of this process. I did take a photo of the finished background, check it out. Stencils can really save something that you think might not work out, amazing.

I then wanted to use a favorite stamp from Stampotique for my image. This one is called Cockatoo Screech by Kylie DiOrio, it's such a cute stamp. 

I colored my Cockatoo with copic markers and then cut him out.  I adhered him onto the front of my postcard and he didn't stand out as much as I wanted him to so I took some white paint and a fine point paintbrush and went around the right side of him. Perfect!!!

I used the Tim Holtz stamp set Numeric and embossed them to make the numbers on the background.

Here is my finished postcard....

Despite how the background looked at the beginning I really like the outcome and how it turned out, it has really transformed. I hope my friend likes it too.

Thanks again for stopping by, have a great day. 

Christmas Ornaments - Take 3

Hello again everyone, for my last post on Christmas ornaments (for now) I wanted to do something for my kids, I make them an ornament every year and it's become somewhat of a tradition. I really wanted to try something similar to an ornament I saw on pinterest. (love pinterest for ideas!) I used some clear plastic ball ornaments that I bought at Michael's. 

I use plastic so that if anyone drops one they won't break. 

Just like the on the first day, I started by sanding these just a tad in order for the gesso to stick

I then applied two coats of gesso

Once completely dry I used glue and seal and applied bits of torn book pages here and there. This is a messy job so make sure your ready to get your fingers dirty. LOL

I actually used pages from the book 20,000 leagues under the sea by Jules Verne that I got at the thrift store. The book pages were nice and distressed and old looking and since I already have a nice copy, I used it. I already love the way this looks

I then used my Faber-Castell oil pastel crayons to draw hearts and went around with a black outline. I really like the Faber-Castell oil pastels, they are permanent and you can use a finger to blend them. They are awesome and turn out so vibrant.

I ended up drawing three hearts, one purple, one red and one orange

I then added some dots here and there with punchinella and black Archival Ink  

I didn't take a photo of this last step, but I used Tim Holtz Mirrored sheets and his Christmas Stacked Words die to make the word JOY. I applied a bit of the glue and seal to the back (even though it has it's own sticky back, I need more adhesive for the rounded ornament) and added it over my hearts. 

For my last step, I coated the entire ornament with Claudine Hellmuth's Multi Medium Gloss to give it a nice shiny look and also seal everything

Take a look

I made three of these, one with hearts, one with stars and one with butterflies. 

Thanks again for stopping by, have a great day!!

Christmas Ornaments Take Two

Hello everyone, I'm back for another Christmas ornament tutorial today. For today's ornaments, I wanted to make some for some friends of mine. We always exchanged home made ornaments every year and I really love swapping with them, they are some talented and wonderful friends. Not to mention, I just love ornaments that are home made. 

For starters, I took some plain cardboard picture frame ornaments that I bought at Michael's a few years ago. I always buy these things thinking I'm definitely going to use them right away and then they sit around. LOL

 They were perfect for the type of ornament I wanted to make.

I apologize, I didn't take many photos but I can explain what I did. It's super easy but the outcome is really beautiful.

All I did was take some decorative Christmas paper and cut them to the size of my frame. 

I then used embossing powders in various glitter colors and embossed them here and there to give them to look of snow.

I used the Tim Holtz Stamp Set Mini Holiday 5 and stamped my man in embossing ink and embossed him with black powder. I then used my distress tool with Vintage photo ink and went over him to cover up the white paper underneath. You can see in the photos that behind his wreath looks distressed. That is the vintage photo distress ink. 

I used the same stamp set for my Merry Christmas sentiment and also embossed it with black embossing powder. I also used Vintage photo around the edges.  I then cut it to size and slid it into the frame.  

I edged each of my frames with my metallic marker and used white distress paint to go over the embossed part of my Tim Holtz metal corner. This made that design on the metal corner stand out. 

For the snowflake, I used cardboard and painted it white and then cut out my snowflakes from the Tim Holtz movers and shapers mini snowflake die. 

I used the Tim Holtz Festive Greenery decorative die strip to cut out my greenery and edged each with vintage photo distress ink.

I then attached them all to the corner of my frame and added a pearl gem to each.

I love how each frame came out and each one is a little different. I hope the girls like them. They were fun to make.

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial, sorry I didn't take step by step photos.
I am entering these into the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - This week is anything goes week!! 

Thanks again for stopping by.

A Few Christmas Ornaments - Take One

I have been getting into the Christmas mood lately and have been working on several ornaments this week and last week and the week prior haha!! 

I have several to show you over the next three or so days.

For my first ornaments these will be entered into the 

Stampotique Designers Challenge

This week Nellie is asking us to do something with a Christmas theme in mind. A card or a Christmas Project.

For my ornaments here, I chose to use a really cute Stampotique stamp by Maryse Carrier called Wow.

I used some plastic flattened ornaments that I bought at Michael's. I took the tops off and set that aside and then sanded them a bit and then applied two coats of gesso over each one.

I made my first ornament by applying old torn book pages to the surface after applying gesso first. I used Glue and Seal to apply the book pages all over the ornament. The Glue and Seal worked like a charm.

I then stamped my image onto a piece of distressed paper and colored her with Copic markers.

I wrote my sentiment in black marker and then added everything to the ornament. I also added some ribbon around the top and will add a gift tag for the person this one is going to.

For my second ornament I also painted this with two coats of gesso. I also added two coats of green acrylic paint and splattered some red and white paint across it.

I then used tissue paper to stamp my image and write out my sentiment. I colored my image with Copic markers again and used glue and seal to apply them to the ornament. I added a little ribbon to the top of this one as well.

I then went around the edges with of my image and my sentiment on both ornaments with black Faber-Castell oil pastel crayon.  I love how you can smear the colors around the edges and then it's also permanent so I can seal everything. 

Here are my finished two ornaments.

Thanks again for coming by and if you didn't catch my last post, I made the announcement that I am honored to be on the Stampotique Design team for 2014.

You can check out the official post 

HERE

So excited!!!

I Made It!! Stampotique Design Team!!

Hello all, I have been holding onto a secret for a couple months now and I am SO thrilled and excited that I can now tell you that I made the 2014 Design Team for Stampotique Stamps. 

You can check out all the new design team members

Here:

Design Team Blog

And Here:

Designers Challenge Blog

If you haven't checked out Stampotique Stamps or aren't familiar with them you can go see all the wonderful stamps 

Here:

Stampotique

Stampotique has some fabulous stamp designers headed up by Carol and Jim who are the wonderful owners and work very hard on each and every stamp that comes out of their home office.

I am over the moon excited to be a part of this wonderful team of talented designers and I am really looking forward to the new adventure with Stampotique. 

Here is a look back at a few of the things I have created with the wonderful Stampotique stamps.

Thanks for coming by and taking part in the joy I'm experiencing right now. I'm SO excited to find out what the future hold for me!!

Have a great day!!