Thinking of You Cards

I haven't made any cards in almost a week. This past weekend my husband and I took a trip to the Atlanta, GA area and I went shopping at two different Archiver's stores. While I went to Archiver's, my husband spent some time at Barnes and Nobel. We arrived on Friday afternoon and after lunch I took about an hour and purchased the stamps that I wanted. On Saturday, I went to the second Archivers and took about another hour shopping for stamps.

The card below was stamped with Hero Arts Clear Design Flower Blossom set (CL223) and Clear Design Thinking of you (CL140). This stamp set is one of the things that I bought on Friday when I was at Archiver's. I stamped the flowers versa Mark ink and embossed with white embossing powder. Then I colored the flowers and the leaves with markers. I can not seem to get away from the resist embossing technique. I find that the resist embossing is my favorite technique. The last thing that I did to this card was to apply broken china destress ink and shabby shutters destress ink. This next card was stamped with Clear Design Water Color Petals (CL431) and Clear Design thinking of you (CL140). This card was an inspiration from the card that Sally Traidman featured on the Hero Arts Blog today (6/29/2010). I did my card a little different, but I did use the same flower stamp. To create the background, take a small acrylic block and ink it with any color distress ink and lightly mist it with water. This process is repeated with various color inks until the paper is completely covered. After the background has dried, stamp your image over the background that was created.

Mojo Monday Challenge 144

I will not be making any cards this weekend because my husband and I are going to Atlanta, GA for the weekend. My intention is to go to both Archiver's stores in the Atlanta area and see what new stamps are available for purchase. Where I live, there are not many scrapbooking stores--we have Hobby Lobby and Michael's, but after awhile you start seeing the same stuff over and over again. So, my main interest this weekend is stamps and paper. So, this card that I posted will be the last one until I get home.

This sketch is the Mojo Monday Challenge for this week. It took me most of Wednesday evening (6/24/10) to come up with my take of this sketch. I used my Lacy Labels cartridge that is used with the cricut machine to cut out the panels on the card.



All the stamps used are Hero Arts. CL Antique Engraving CL383, Earth Flowers CL428, and Sparkel Clear Hello Birdie CL177. The sentiment was used from the Hello Birdie stamp set.

The card base is actually a off white but, the camera makes it look more like a light pink color.

The first thing that I did was to stamp the butterfly in versa mark ink and then emboss it with white embossing powder. Then I colored the butterfly in red, green and blue Stampin Up markers (The green doesn't show up very well and I used a tiny amount of green). I covered the butterfly with a mask and destress the white background a tiny bit with broken china destress ink. While the mask was still in place, I stamped with the Hero Arts Clear Design Earth Flowers stamp set. This was an easy card to do, but it took me a long time to put it together because I always have a difficult time visualizing how I want my card to look. I also had a problem choosing the type of panel that I wanted to put on the card. But, I did have fun cutting out different tags in different sizes and in various colors of paper. I think that I spent more time cutting than I did stamping. I used the scallop punch for the sentiment.

You're One of A Kind

This is one more card that I made for the Hero Arts monthly challenge. This is the second half of the challenge (june2010B).

The stamps that I used are all Hero Arts and are the following: Large Posey S5368 and Antique Background CG120. I used a simple resist technique. I stamped the posey on white cardstock and embossed it with white embossing powder. After I stamped the image, I colored the image with a dark pink (pigment) marker. When the coloring was complete I covered the flower with a mask and destressed the paper with antique destressing ink. Then I stamped over with the Antique Background stamp. The sentiment was created by using the Microsoft word on my computer. I printed the sentiment on white vellum and used the chelsea font in the font size of 20. I used the heat gun to dry the ink after I took the paper out of the printer. But, the heat gun distorted the paper and it does not lay flat. The vellum also gives the flower a fuzzy look. This was the only way that I could think of to use a sentiment where it did not look out of place. Thanks for stopping by.

Challenge Cards (Hero Arts June2010B)

I haven't posted anything new in a few days. It has not been a very good 6 days for me because I have had to put down another cat. (I lost a cat in May due to old age.) My younger cat had cancer on his leg and it was just a matter of time that I would lose him, but I did not expect it to be this quick. When my cat, Jasper, died 3 1/2 weeks ago, I thought that Skooter was just grieving over the lost of his buddy. As the days went by, I noticed that he didn't look like he felt good and that he was running a fever. So, last Thursday, I brought him to the vet so that he could be checked. He wasn't eating or drinking and sleeping most of the time. To make a long story short, Skooter had a tumor in his mouth the size of a walnut and it was inoperable. If he would of lived, he would of been in a great deal of pain and would of suffered greatly. It was a hard decision to make and I feel bad that I had to give him up. My house is so empty now and I miss these guys so much. But, I know as time goes on, the loneliness will not be quite so bad. This is why I haven't made many cards in the past week. But, I need to go on and making cards will help me; I could say that it is theropy for me because I am not thinking of my cats and feeling sorry for myself. I have worked on these cards for the past few days and that has help me to not think of my cats.


"You Make Me Smile" card was stamped with Hero Arts stamps. I did the resist technique using versa mark ink and chalk ink. I embossed the Scattered Flowers stamp (S5129) with white embossing powder and then I smeard tons of blue chalk ink over the image. Then I wiped off the excess ink so that the white embossed image would show. This technique was on the Hero Arts Blog on Tuesday, June 15th. (Jennifer McGuire is the hostess this week.) The sentiment is from the ClearDesign Thinking of You set (CL140).

"Hydrangea" Card was stamped with the Hero Arts Hydrangea stamp (K5376). For this card, I stamped the Hydrangea stamp with versa Mark ink onto glossy white paper. I heat set it so that the ink would dry. Once dry, I smeared lots of purple chalk ink over the image. The versa mark resist the chalk ink and the results is a white image with a purple background. This technique was featured on the Hero Arts Blog on Monday, June 14th.

"Today Tomorrow Always" card was stamped with Hero Arts stamps; Tall Posey (F4368), Dots and Flowers (S5213), Clear Design Mix and Match (CL266). The technique for this card was demonstrated Here on the Hero Arts Blog by Jennifer McGuire.

Thanks for stopping by.

Special Day

This is my first card for the Hero Arts Monthly challenge (June2010B). I used color layering for this card. The tulips come from Hero Arts Antique engraving (CL427), the scrip comes from Hero Arts Old Letter Writing (S4878, and the sentiment comes from Hero Arts CL266. I started out with a white piece of paper and destressed it a bit with Antique Linen Destress ink. I stamped the tulips using the color layering technique and then I made a mask to cover the tulips so that i could stamp over them with the Old Letter Writing stamp. I didn't have any ribbon to match the tulips, so I took white ribbon and dyed it with Memories Ruby Dye Ink. I laced the ribbon through the sentiment and then added the pearls.

supplies:

Hero Arts Stamps:

Antique Engraving 4 x 6 CL427

Clear Design Mix and Match CL266

Old Letter Writing S4878

Memories Dye Ink Pad: Ruby

Destress Ink: Antique Linen; Van Dyke Brown

Ribbon

Pearls

Mojo Monday Weekly Challenge #142

This is my take on the Mojo Monday Challenge for this week. The stamps that I used are Hero arts; Clear Design Birthday Messages CL139 and Hero Arts Clear Design Earth Flowers CL428. Thanks for dropping by.

Flowers Say Hello

Another card for the Hero Arts Challenge. It took me two tries to get this card the way that I wanted it to look. I have had this stamp for awhile (only used it once) and decided that I could paperpiece the flowers. Before I finished the card, I messed up and had to start all over again. I stamped the Dogwood stamp in sage shadow ink (stampin up) onto a 4 x 5 1/4-inch piece of a sage green paper. Then I stamped the flowers on a medium color pink paper with Memories Dye Ink -- Ruby. After stamping the pink flowers, I cut them out so that I could paperpiece the flowers to the green stamped image. I made a mask and covered the flowers and then stamped the Grid Pattern stamp over the flowers. Then I cut a piece of white vellum (4 x 5 1/4-inch) and stamped the sentament on the left hand bottom corner in the Ruby ink. After I finished that, I stitched the vellum to the flower image and then attached the brads and attached it to the base card. The grid pattern was stamped with Mellow Moss Ink (Stampin Up).

Stamps used are Hero Arts

Flowers Say Hello C2553

Dogwood S5362

Grid Pattern S5216

Thanks for dropping by and for looking.

Summer

This is another card that I made for the Hero Arts June2010A Challenge. It took me a few days to come up with this design. For some reason, I am having a difficult time trying to come up with ideas for cards for this particular challenge. There came a point where I had to put everything away and not make any cards for a few days. I wish that I could just get over this stumbling block and create cards without interruption.

I stamped the butterflies on a 3 1/2 x 3 1/2-inch piece of white cardstock in Rich Cocoa ink by Memento. Then the butterflies were colored with copic markers in Salmon Red (R05) and Buttercup Yellow (Y21). The Summer Memories Stamp (E3374) was stamped in black Stazon Ink onto a 3 1/2 x 3 1/2-inch piece of acetate and attached to the butterfly image with brads. The bottom half of the card was stamped in Close to Cocoa Ink by Stampin Up.

The butterflies come from the Hero Arts ClearDesign antique engraving CL383. The background on the bottom of the card come from Butterfly Wallpaper (these stamps are made for Archievers by Hero Arts.) AR172. The words on the piece of clear acetate come from Hero Arts Summer Memories E3374.

Thanks for stopping by.

Summer Time Butterflies

This is the second card that I have made for the June challenge at Hero Arts. I attempted to do the color layering technique for this card, but did not have any shadow inks so I tried to choose the lightest and darkest color inks that I have available. This card started out as an experiment because I wanted to see which inks that I had on hand worked the best. I love butterflies and during the summer butterflies are always among the flowers and the grass.

The stamps that I used are Hero Arts: Woodland grasses F3182 and Antique Engraving CL383. The butterflies are from the Antique Engraving set. Thanks for dropping by.

Hello to Summer

The June challenge at Hero Arts started today and this is my first card for this challenge. I have wanted to make a card in the shape of a birdhouse for the past 2 to 3 weeks and I finally got one finished. I thought that this was perfect for the summer part of the challenge because of how I titled the card and birds and flowers are part of summer. I love the sweet smelling flowers of summer and the sounds of birds chirping on a beautiful day. This was a fun card to make once I figured out how I wanted to design the card. The color of the paper is actually brighter in person. The background paper is actually a sage color green with some streaking of reds and yellows and is by Basic Grey. The flowers were stamped on martha stewart paper. The stamps that I used are Hero Arts. Clear Design Sending Happy thoughts CL305, Clear Design small variety alphabets CL137, Thanks Flowers CG137, and Two Birds (3 Images) CG152. Thanks for stopping buy and looking.