Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #161

Edna decided that yellow was just not her color so she ditched the party gown in exchange for All The Colors.  Yep, Edna has been inked.   The new challenge over at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers for this fortnight the challenge is I is for Inky.

I will admit that I do not have a tattoo nor do I want one so the idea of body tats never even crossed my mind for this challenge.  Instead my brain immediately focused in on crafty inks.  Duh.  LOL!!!  I took notice of a recent YouTube video by Jennifer McGuire where she demonstrated a very cool technique using Distress Ink, stencil and a baby wipe.  I decided to give it a whirl for today's challenge and really love how the background came out.

Isn't it cool?  Jennifer shows her process step by step in her video but in a nutshell, here's how to recreate my background.  Step 1 - swipe a Distress Ink pad onto a 4.25' x 5.5" white card panel.  I used the color Tumbled Glass in the mini cube size and continued swiping it vertically down the panel until I satisfied with the color.  Step 2 - Set up your die cutting machine as you would for an embossing folder.  Step 3 - Place the stencil over the top of your panel and then place a wet baby wipe over the top of the stencil followed by an embossing mat.  Step 4 - Run the whole sandwich through your die cutter, going back and forth a few times.  Step 5 - Remove the baby wipe and allow the panel to dry.   The moisture from the wet wipe will wick up exposed ink to remove some of the background color.

Any stencil will work.  I chose one that I thought would mimic bubbles for my party gal and I'm very pleased with the results.  You not only get the color difference but also the raised effect of the dry embossing.

I have a two part sentiment.  The front reads "That's a Horrible Idea..." with an inside sentiment of "What Time?"  (My kinda friends.  LOL!)  

The remainder of the card is quite simple.  I used Copic markers to color in my image and then fussy cut her out with scissors.  I double matted the panel and added some glittery shine to her apparel, some Glossy Accents to her Appletini and some blue and green droplets to the background.  

I hope to see your creation in our gallery!  Let me know if you give Jennifer's technique a try.  I'm really excited to see what other backgrounds I can create with this wonderful idea.

Supplies:

MFT Martinis on Me stamp set

Vicky Boutin embossing folder

Honey Bee droplets 

Computer Generated sentiment

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

  

CAS(e) This Sketch #373

(Due to a scheduling faux pas, this is my second post of the day.  Please scroll back if you missed my previous one.  Thanks!)



I'm killing two birds with one stone today by using the current sketch challenge over at the CAS(e) This Sketch blog to create a Miss You card for my grandson.

My son's family recently rescued a tiny kitten.   After a wellness check from the vet it was determined that the roadside stray is only 4 weeks old and weighs in at just over a pound. Whatever his story, he's safe and being very happily mothered by their thirteen year old Border Collie mix.

Isn't this just the sweetest photo ever?

I used Stimpy (you can tell my son named him...Ren and Stimpy anyone?) as the inspiration for my card.

I colored in the image with some cool gray Copics.  I used an embossing folder on the card panel to create the raised quilted heart images and then added a bit of hand drawn stitching around the border.  I added in two strips - one based on the sketch and the other for the heat embossed sentiment.  A few quick clay hearts finished off the design.

Supplies:

Impression Obsession - Mini Peekers stamp set

Clearly Besotted - Tiny Type stamp set

Sunny Studio - Quilted Hearts embossing folder

Lawn Fawn - pattern paper

I'm anxious to see my grandson again and meet Mr. Stimpy.  In the meantime it will be FaceTime calls and Happy Mail from Meemaw.  

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

Seize the Birthday #191

Today's card was created with the current Seize the Birthday Challenge in mind.  The theme this go around is one that this Florida girl I can totally do.  Tropical!

I always love the opportunity to play with my greenery dies so I pulled out a set with a tropical vibe and got started.  I fiddled around with different design ideas and in the end, came up with this card, 

I die cut out the leaves and flower from scrap cardstock and mounted them onto a white panel.  I ran the card base through my die cutting machine using an embossing folder to create the texture on just the front side.  I cut down the panel to give me a nice wide border and adhered it to the front of the embossed card using craft foam.  I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment in white onto a scrap of black cardstock and then added the glossy enamel dots for interest.  

Supplies:

Waffle Flower - Greenery die set

Ellen Hutson - Wild Garden floral dies

Altenew - Super Script stamp set

Sunny Studio - Quilted Heart Embossing folder

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

CAS Colours and Sketches #372

I hope everyone in the states was able to get out and enjoy their socially distant Memorial Day weekend.  Ours was basically very soggy as it rained all three days but hey, it's not like I actually had any plans.  *wink*  

Today is now Tuesday which means it's time for our last challenge of May over at the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog.  We have a wonderfully CAS sketch for you to try.  

I decided to go with a really CAS approach using blended Distress Inks.  It doesn't get much simpler.

To create my card I die cut the three shapes from masking paper and used the negative portion to mask off each section, one at a time.  Using Distress Ink I started ink blended the rectangle in blue.  I removed that mask and then ink blended the circle in yellow.  After removing that mask I finished with the heart in pink.  I stamped the sentiment in black pigment ink and added only a few clay hearts as embellishments.  I did pop up the panel onto a white card base just for a little added interest.

Supplies:

MFT rectangle, circle and heart dies

MFT Bitty Thanks stamp set

I hope to see your version of this sketch in our gallery this week.  Until then...

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

Graduation Card

I'm hopping on for another quick "drive by" post, this time featuring a graduation card.  There's no doubt about it, the grads got gypped this year but hopefully it's just a minor blip in the radar of their new adventures.

I created this card for the daughter of a good friend using our local high school colors. 

I try to mix up my designs each year as many of my cards go to siblings of different graduation years and I like to keep them unique.  This one was really simple to do using a set from CZ Designs and Simon Says Stamp.  I truly love Cathy's style and still have a copy of her first book on scrapbook design.  I used four stamps from her set to create my focal image. 

It's hard to see in the full photo but I heat embossed in clear over top of the stamped images to give it a bit of shine.  The stars add a bit of flair to the very, very simple design.   

Supplies:
CZDesign/Simon Says Stamp - Grad Rad stamp set
Honeybee Stamps - tiny stars

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

CAS Colours & Sketches #371

It's Tuesday so there's a new challenge up at the CAS Colours and Sketches blog.  Today's challenge is to use the color combination below.

For our color challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colors. You may also use neutral colors; however, the challenge colors should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up color names for reference, 

but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colors as closely as possible.

Yellow is not a favorite of mine but I do love reds and teals so I was particularly drawn to this color combination.  I dug into my Christmas stash and made a non holiday card.

I just "had" to have this gnome die which was part of a holiday kit from Simon Says Stamp.  Naturally the holidays came and went and my kit had remained untouched.  (Tell me I'm not the only one....)

I used the circular stencil from Taylored Expressions as my guide to the ink blended background.  (Love these products!)  I die cut the gnome from several colors of various cardstocks using the challenge colors.  I added a bit of Copic shading to his beard and white gelly roll stripes to his hat and popped him up on the background with some foam squares.  I chose a non holiday sentiment and finished it off with some red clay hearts.  I really love how this turned out, yellow and all.  :-)

I hope you find some time to come play with us at CC&S this week!

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

CAS(e) This Sketch #372

I have had very little crafting mojo lately and I'm conveniently blaming it all on Corona Brain Fog.  (CBF is a real thing, my friends.)  My brain may not have been feeling creative but apparently there was nothing wrong with my typing fingers as I did manage to place several online crafty orders this week.  *blush*  Just doing my part boost the economy!

Seriously though, I forced myself in the craft room yesterday, gave myself a pep talk and then pulled up the latest sketch over at the CAS(e) This Sketch challenge blog.  I've found that often times sketches are the best way to pull myself out of a crafty funk. 

In all honesty, I wasn't feeling it with this sketch but as luck would have it, I came across the perfect stamp from an order I received this week.  It made the sketch super easy.  In fact, perhaps too easy.  It's a stretch but you keep an open mind, the sketch is totally there.  

As per the sketch I have a horizontally centered banner sentiment with images flowing above and below it.  Can you see it?  :-)  The part that makes it really "too easy" is that this lovely background is all one stamp.  All I did was color it in and add in the sentiment.  

If interested, I visited The Ton's website in search of this stamp, which I purchased along

with several items from her awesome sale catagory, the stamp above being one of them.

Her shipping was lightning fast and I received my products within just a few days of ordering.  

It felt soooo good to get back into the swing of things again that I actually made two identical cards.  (Yay me!)  Hopefully you see more of me this week, especially since I have lots of new things headed my way.  

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #160

Has anyone gone bonkers yet?  I do love my social gatherings but I've always been somewhat of a homebody so I've been faring really well these past few months.  Thankfully at home hobbies keep me entertained.  Speaking of entertaining, Edna appears to perhaps be thinking of breaking the social distancing guidelines, unless she dons party dresses as pajamas these days.

Is it just me or does Edna look a bit uncomfortable in her formal evening attire?  LOL!!!

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers

The theme is yellow which if you know me, is one of my least favorite colors.  But in the spirit of a good challenge I pulled out my yellow Copics and designer papers and came up with this little diddy.

When in need of snark, look no further than Art Impressions old fart image stamps.  I paired the old bitty image with a standalone sentiment, from Riley and Company.  I think they work perfectly together.  My Edna (apparently her real name is Jean) looks like she's been around the block a time or two but she's managing quite well in these trying times.  

As far as prompts go, it really doesn't get any easier than a color challenge, even when it's a color you despise.  *wink* I do hope to see you in our gallery soon!

Supplies:

Art Impressions - old bitty Jean image 
Riley and Company - sentiment stamp

Lawn Fawn - designer paper

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

CAS Colours and Sketches #370

It's just another Pandemic Tuesday which also means it's time for a new challenge over at the CAS Colours & Sketches blog.  Today we have a sketch challenge for you to try.

While the sketch may be basic, the possibilities are endless.  Here's what I came up with....

It's hard to see but I cut a strip right out of the center of a 4"x5.25" stitched card panel.  I positioned a strip of gray cardstock in the horizontal center of a kraft card base and then popped up the white panels using some foam tape.  I added two die cut pieces of kraft leaves in a circular pattern and then added a gray circle over top.  I heat embossed the sentiment in gray onto a smaller white circle which I adhered over the top.  My little additions make it my own without losing the integrity of the original sketch.  

You can see the gray embossing a bit better in the photo below.  

I really love the combination of gray, kraft and white.  I hope to see you in our gallery this week!

Supplies:

Pinkfresh Studio - Leafy Branches die 

The Stamp Market - A Few Words stamp set

Ranger - Watering Can embossing powder

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

Online Card Class Days 19 - 20

Today represents the last of the cards I created for the Online Card Spring Card Camp.  I thoroughly enjoyed knowing that there was something new waiting for me in my morning inbox during this stay at home time.  I'm not sure I can say I actually learned anything new but I absolutely stretched the normal of my wheelhouse.  OCC has opened up a new class but I'm going to take this time to get my craft room straightened up, perhaps actually mail a few cards,  and ease my way back in to card challenges creating in a style that's more authentic to me, aka Clean and Simple with a focus on Copic coloring.  So, for the last of my cards!

Day 19 was hosted once again by Jennifer.  I followed her technique

of next generation stamping however each of my elements was stamped

three times in total in order to get a nice deep color to my images.

Ashlea Cornell was the final hostess on Day 20.  My

two cards are a take of one of her finished products.  

I need to go back through my completed pile to see just how many cards I ended up creating as a result of this class.  I'm guessing anywhere between 40 to 45 which makes me very happy.  I'll be back soon with my regularly scheduled programming.  :-)

Stay safe and healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

Online Card Class Days 16-18

I'm here with another "drive by" post of the cards I created for the Online Card Class Spring Card Camp #1.

Day 16 was hosted by Kathy Racoosin.  I love her dearly (you may remember I 

attended one of her Coloring Road Trips last December) but dang it, I did not love 

her technique.  I forced myself to complete it and while the results are exactly how 

she demonstrated, neither example is "me."  I probably won't be making these into 

cards but I will share my creations here.  I guess I don't have the artsy fartsy gene.

Extra points for anyone who can guess just what her technique entailed.  

Day 17 was hosted by once again by Julie Ebersole.  She's a fellow 

CAS card maker so I'm really loving my cards from that day.

Day 18 was hosted by Shari Carroll.  I really loved her twofer blended strip 

technique but like most of the other hosts, she chose to use large die cut sentiments as

her focal image.  I couldn't resist the urge to make these a bit more "me"  so I added

in some cute Copic colored images and couldn't be happier with the end results.  

I entered this second card into the (now expired) 

Seize the Birthday challenge where the theme was food/drink.

I'll be back tomorrow with the last of my class cards.  Please leave any questions about the products I've used in the comments and I'll get back to you.  

Stay healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

CAS Colours and Sketches #369

It's Tuesday and I don't know what's going on in your state or country, but here in Florida things are in Phase 1 of reopening.  It's a slow reopening and to be honest, I have no plans to change my current shelter at home behavior.  The only business that I do hope they open up soon are pet groomers.  I have three small dogs and man are they ever looking like street urchins right now.  (My grooming shop is a two woman operation with a drop and leave policy so it's entirely safe and honestly could have been operating this whole time.)

OK...enough babble.  You're all here to see the current color challenge over at the CAS Colours and Sketches challenge blog, right?  Today's color scheme is brought to us by Wei.  She creates the most gorgeous CAS cards!

For our color challenges, you must use all of the stated challenge colors. You may also use neutral colors; however, the challenge colors should be the most noticeable ones featured on your card. We use Stampin' Up color names for reference, but you are welcome to use any other companies' products as long as you match the challenge colors as closely as possible.

And here's the card I created using her very interesting color scheme.  It's definitely not a palette I would have combined on my own but I am loving the mix of it with the black floral outlines. 

Supplies:

WPlus 9 - Amaryllis stamp set

WPlus 9 - Birthday Wishes stamp set

MFT - small floral dies from a past MFT card kit 

I hope to see your cards in our gallery this week!  Stay safe, my friends.

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

Online Card Class Days 13 - 15

I'm going to do a (very) quick share of the cards I created on Days 13 through 15 of the Online Card Class Spring Card Camp #1.

Day 13 was hosted by Cathy Zielske and here are my two cards for that day.  I 

decided some masculine cards were in order and I'm pretty happy with the results.  

Day 14 was hosted by Laura Bassen and here are the three cards I 

created using her techniques.  I especially love the first one.

Day 15 was once again hosted by Kristina Werner.  I did create 

two backgrounds using her technique but chose to make only one card.  

I'll be back on Wednesday with more cards from the class.  Please leave any questions about the products I've used in the comments and I'll get back to you.  

Stay healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules

Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #159

It's time for another challenge over at the Sisterhood where Edna's been using her social distancing down time to practice up on her magic skills.

I will admit, this theme was a difficult one for me and I procrastinated until I could procrastinate no longer.  In the end I grabbed some previously created alcohol ink backgrounds and turned them into a magical mermaid card.

My original sentiment was going to be "In the World of Social Distancing, Mermaids Do It Best" but I was lazy and stamped a sentiment I already owned.  It was a tad more sarcastic and honestly, there have been many days lately where I have been totally done with adulting by noon.  

To create my card I stamped and embossed the mermaid tale onto a piece of alcohol inked Yupo paper.  I also did some embossing onto the purple alcohol inked background to create some additional texture to the die cut waves and yet more embossing on the card panel.  I stamped the sentiment in black pigment ink and used a clear embossing powder over the top.  I do love the extra "oomph" that the silver pearl embossing powder gave to the overall effect.  

Create some magic and share it in the gallery with us!

Supplies:

Ellen Hutson - Mermaids Tale stamp set

Impression Obsession - Wave Edge dies

Simon Says Stamp - Rebecca Lace background stamp

Hero Arts - Ocean Waves background stamp

Ranger - Silver Pearl embossing powder

Ranger - alcohol inks

Yupo paper

Stay healthy my friends!  

_________________________________________________________________________

Thank you for visiting my little crevice of the crafty blogosphere.  Your time, comments and friendship are much appreciated.  

Happy Crafting!

Jules