And the winner is…..

Howdy folks! It’s time to draw a winner from last weeks About Art Accents stamp giveaway! And the winner is Emilie Boyd! Congrats! I’m sure you will find many ways to use that beautiful Kokopelli stamp set! Well, we made it to the beach yesterday, it was a glorious 85 degree day and the kids played and had a ball. I met one of my best friends who also has 9 year old twin girls (our twin sets have been friends since they were a few months old!) and my son brought a friend he has had since kindergarten and they were all so good. No whining, no injuries, it was a great day! I drove my kids and the boys and I loved overhearing their conversation about the recent Red Sox game and which players were best. I’m so glad they are into other things besides tv and video games. We stayed at the beach until dinner and when we came home I was exhausted, boy that lying around in a beach chair, watching the kids swim really takes it outta me! LOL! I did however, eek out enough energy to make this card:

I stamped the geisha on purple and embossed it then painted it with metallic watercolors. I used up some backgrounds I made recently (I seem to love making background papers but never use them, must correct that!) and I also used one of those Making Memories metal tag curler tool thingies that I have had for years! I win the day!

The stamp is by About Art Accents. I wanted to try a stamp I have never inked before (shameful I know, I hat the think how many stamps I have in the “uninked” category, one time I said I was not going to buy another stamp until I had used everyone I had at least once…ok…you can stop laughing now…really, stop.)

I have another busy end of summer day today, the dog has her yearly checkup (and shots!) and we are going to visit my parents. Wow summer is ending fast! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

A “Best Day” Giveaway!

Howdy folks! Happy Monday! I am so excited today because Annette, the owner of About Art Accents, sent me an extra stamp set to give away to one of my blog readers! Here is a card I made with one of the images from the Best Day stamp set:

I used my stamping gear and a few small stamps to create my background and there was enough space in the center to stamp my couple. I wasn’t intending on stamping and coloring on this cheap Georgia Pacific cardstock but hey, it doesn’t look too bad for a 2 cent sheet of paper! I stamped the same flowers on a piece of masking tape, colored it and stuck it right on the card base.  I stamped a small double happiness on a punched stamp square and adhered it with skeleton leaves over the tape. Pretty simple…I wonder if this counts as a one layer card?

 

So do you wanna win a set of 9 stamps from About Art Accents? Great! Just leave me a comment on this post telling my your favorite About Art Accents stamp…that’s it…really, no strings attached:) Although if you do feel compelled to do a bit of shopping at About Art Accents you can use the code Lindsay10% to save 10% off your order! They have a lot of good stuff on sale right now too! BTW, here is what the winner gets, I’ll draw a name out of a hat next monday so be sure to leave a comment before then!

Good luck & Happy Crafting!

Another Easel?

Yep, another easel card, these things are addictive {you were right Cheryl!} Seriously, they are so fun and easy to make and use very little paper but the fold is so cool it looks like you slaved over it (like the lady in the rice krispies treats commercial who pats some flour on her face before she comes out of the kitchen with a plate of treats) I love faux effort LOL!

Geisha digistamp: Mo's Digital Pencil, Rubber Stamp: MSE!, Pattern paper: Nicecrane Designs, Die Cuts: Cuttlebug

I used the Japanise Patterns Vol 1 collage sheet from Nicecrane Designs for this card.

Here is a tip: I wanted to print a bigger swatch of this paper rather than the ATC size that comes in the sheet so I cropped it in PaintshopPro and printed it the size I wanted. The papers are so well done that you an enlarge them quite a bit without noticing any image loss. I love that the Nicecrane design collage sheets are jpg, I can print them as-is or alter them so I don’t waste any paper or ink, yay!

Here is a 3/4 view of the card, this is an easel-fold card, it displays well but folds flat, nifty!

I used one of my new CB dies that I got for $2 at BigLots friday, I love the ornate flowers on the die! Also I used a butterfly corner punch (McGill I think) on the top edge of the image and PP so between the flower dies and butterfly punch this card qualifies for the Sir Stampalot challenge.

Here is a look at the sentiment, it is from my sentiments exactly:

I love this saying...My mom says it all the time and so do I!

Another note, craft with your kids! My son {age 7} asked if he could pick the colors of Copic markers for me to use and I let him, I love the colors he picked, it gives you a fresh look at things!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Easy Paper Marblizing {and OSA challenge #41}

Here is a fun technique! Paper marblizing! All you need is a pan of water and some oil based paint. Look what you can make

Stamps: About Art Accents, Tool: Scor-pal

I used the sketch over at Oriental stamp art and Geisha stamps from About Art Accents to make this simple card, it only took a few minutes (that rarely happens folks, LOL!) I also wanted to keep the layout simple so I could show off my hand marblized paper. Here is how to do it:

Fill a tray (you can use a disposable aluminium tray, or dedicate a metal or glass pan for this purpose, you won’t want to cook or eat out of the pan again after this project 😉 with water at least an inch deep.

Drip drops of thin oil base paint on to the surface with a skewer or toothpick. I used gold leaf paint but any thin oil pain will work. If your paint is too thick mix it with mineral spirits to thin it to the consistency of cream. Drag a toothpick through the paint to make interesting swirls.

Lay a sheet of paper on the surface of the water making sure the whole paper makes contact, lift the paper out and hang to dry.

variation: I wanted a pink shimmer on my paper too so after I swirled the paint I let the paint dry a bit (3 minutes) on the surface of the water then I sprayed it with some pink glimmer mist before pressing my paper, it is a subtle effect but quite lovely!

Marblilicious!

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Just For You!

This card started off as a castoff from another project (that you will see later this week) I was making a window card but cut the hole too big so rather than tossing the card I made this:

Stamps: About Art Accents, Paper K&Co, Other: SCAL + Cricut+ DB Dainty Swirl Font

I cut the swirls with my cricut and SCAL software using the font DB Dainty Swirls, note this font is , well, dainty so you need to use a shadow of .50 to 1.00 to get a nice clean cut. The flowers were punched with an EK success punch and inked in turquoise ink. I used my homemade dew drops with a dusting of pearl-ex to top them off.

Here is a close up.

The stamps I used are from About Art Accents,

and I stamped them on ivory cardstock with green chalk ink.

I found the pattern for the crochet butterfly on the Crocheted Sass blog, she has lots of nice patterns there. I used variegated thread and a size o hook to crochet it.

Here is a peek at the inside of the card, there is plenty of space around the focal image to write:

Stamp: About Art Accents, Paper K& Co.

Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

I’m a Cover Girl!!!

No, not the make-up silly, I finally got a card of the cover of Vamp stamp News July 2009 issue! My card is the purple one on the bottom. If you subscribe to VSN you should get the issue in your mailbox within the week or look for it in stores in a week or two! I’m very excited as it was one of my 2009 goals to get work on the front cover of a magazine!

Stamps: About Art Accents

I have a couple of projects to share today. I was cleaning out my OOOLD pattern paper the other day (and believe me I had some doozies in there) when I came upon a lovely print that I just had to use immediately or else I would forget I had it with all of the lovely papers that find their way into my craft room (or lately my hard drive) so I made these Oriental fans:

Stamp: About Art Accents, Tool: Scor-Pal, Paper: unknown

For this fan I cut my 12″x12″ sheet in half and used my Scor-Pal to score lines 1/2″ apart and I accordion folded it then used my crop a dial to punch a hole to run gold cord through and I wrapped it around the handle. This is an excellent craft to do with kids because it doesn’t take much time or supplies and they can leave it as is or embellish it. I stamped the Geisha from About Art Accents with Burgundy Versafine pigment ink and colored it with my Prismacolors and blended it with goo gone; you see I’m very sloppy when I color and blending with the goo-gone hides that fact a bit 🙂

Stamps: About Art Accents, Tool: Scor Pal, Paper: Autumn Leaves and other

On the round fan I also used stamps from About Art Accents (check out their website because the are running some good specials right now and if you email them before you order they will adjust the shipping on small orders) I just stamped and trimmed the images and used hot glue to attach them to the fan. Here is how to make the fan. Cut 2 3″x12″ strips of paper and accordion fold them every 1/2″ (I used a Scor-Pal to do this) and glue the strips end to end then glue a popsicle stick to each end of the long strip. Join the popsicle sticks together and wrap them with gold cord. The paper should fan out in a circle but will not want to lie flat. When you hot glue the stamped items on it will make it sturdy. I also hot glued a stamped circle to the back for added stability.

I think I will recycle this craft come Independence Day. Make one of these fans today and just try to resist the urge to say “I Declare…” when you fan yourself with it LOL!

Have a great weekend and until ext time happy crafting!

toot toot!

What can I say, I’m having a good month 🙂 I just got the June issue of Vamp Stamp News in the mail and I have a card in there! Woohoo! The magazine had a challenge to make embossed backgrounds with a die cut machine and well, I love my die cutters so I made a couple cards to send in. Here is one that did not make it into the magazine but I like it just the same so I thought I would share it here:

Stamp: About Art Accents, Cardstock: SU!, PP: Basic Grey

I used a Fiskars Texture plate in place of one of my cutting pads, placed my folded cardstock on top then a sheet of rubber gasket material (form the plumbing section of a hardware store) then the other cutting plate and ran it through my Big shot. Then I distressed the card with brown ink and white acrylic paint. The focal image is from about Art Accents and a colored it with chalk and a blender pen for a vintage look.  made the die cut shapes with my cricut and scal software. SCAL is on sale for 10% off until the 26th with the coupon code:3847758. SCAL lets you cut any font on your computer and svg files with your cricut machine!

Speaking of Cricut, and die cutter in general, the June issue of VSN had a great article on choosing a die cutter and it review most all of the consumer grade machines out there so if you are in the market for a die cutter check it out!

Have a great Memorial day weekend, we are building the kids a playhouse, so much fun, I hope the weather stays nice for us, it have been lovely all week (hence a couple of days I didn’t post, I was too busy enjoying the weather!) Until next time happy crafting!