Bird, Music and Masculine card

 This card fits in with the Scrapbook Expressions challenge (Birds and/or Music) and the PaperPlay Challenge (masculine) card.  I started with a white card base, and stamped the Hero Arts Musical Background in Antique Linen Distress Ink. Taking the bird on a branch stamp from Tim Holtz, I stamped it in the middle of the card in Vintage Photo Distress ink.  I took the crown, also from Tim Holtz, and stamped it on the card in Wild Honey Distress ink, and on some scrap white cardstock, cut out, and foam mounted on the card.  I used the sentiment (Studio G) and stamped it in Wild Honey Distress ink.  I finished the card by rounding the two right hand side corners.

Thank You Card

There is a family that has kind of taken over for us as "parents" for my youngest, who is across country in university.  Since they have been so wonderful, I thought I could send them some cards to use, as well as a thank you card.  This is the Thank You card.   With SU Certainly Celery cardstock, cut and scored to a standard sized card, portrait style.  I took some Basic Grey Kioshi patterned paper, and cut it to a .25 inch smaller than the base cardstock, and rounded the bottom corners. Using Tim Holtz's nature Elements mini stamps (Stampers Anonymous)  I stamped the weed three times in Forest Moss Distress Ink.  I stamped the butterfly from the same set in Walnut Stain Distress ink once on to the patterned paper, then stamped it again on a scrap of the patterned paper.  I cut out the butterfly on the scrap paper, and foam mounted it right over where the butterfly was above the weeds.   I used a Hero Arts stamp "Merci" from the Paris clear set, and stamped that  in Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I took some polka dot ribbon (Michaels) and wrapped it around the paper, tying a knot just off centre to the left.  I finished the card by adhering the patterned paper to the card base, and rounded bottom corners on the base card stock.

ATC Crazy!!

Well, Tuesday was stamping day for me ( a group of us in town here meet weekly to stamp and share ideas, and supplies :D).  I haven't touched making ATCs for a while, simply because there are so few swaps that I'm involved in.. it's sad, but on one group I'm in, I am the ONLY ATC swap going.  However, a friend of mine hosts a vintage collage ATC group, and I am blessed to be a part of it.  So, I decided I was going to catch up, and try and get most of the year finished yesterday... not hard when I have some Tim Holtz stamps to play with, that I hadn't even inked up before yesterday.

For the first ATC, I took some pale pink patterned paper (close to Tim's Tattered Rose colour), and added a strip of Nostalgia tissue tape to it. I then stamped the image over both the patterned paper and the tissue tape with Onyx Black Versafine ink.  I finished the ATC with 3 gems in pale pink in the upper right hand corner.

The second ATC was done on some cardstock I had. I was playing with my Distress Inks one day, and made a sheet of distressed blue cardstock. I added some shimmer to it with the Tsukinenko shimmer spray.  I stamped the image  in Majestic Blue Versafine, and finished the ATC by sponging some Memories Soft Peach ink on the ATC.

The car ATC was fun to do.  I had some travel patterned paper that I had no idea what to do with, so I cut it to ATC size, put it on some cardstock backing, and stamped the image in Vintage Sepia Versafine.  I was going for a masculine feel for this ATC (for Father's Day), so I didn't add anything else to the ATC.

The Fourth ATC was done on some Distressed Yellow cardstock.. I had just randomly stamped some yellow Distress Inks on some acetate, misted with water, and laid the cardstock on it.  It needed a punch, so I just randomly stamped some Wild Honey Distress ink in places and spritzed with water. Once it was dry, I stamped the image in Versafine Vintage Sepia.  I sponged some Memories Soft Peach ink on the edges of the ATC, and completed the ATC with some fun fibre that I had lying around.

The Tattered Sparrow ATC (the only name I can remember :)) is just the Tattered Sparrow stamped in Versafine Vintage Sepia over some WalMart patterned paper backed on to some cardstock.

Please pardon the photos.... I am having issues with my camera not staying in focus,  and I tried to photograph the images with a fabric backing.

Crazy 4 Challenges 82 card

This is the card that I did for Crazy 4 Challenges week 82, which was the colour challenge Brown, Green and Vanilla. I started with a chocolate brown card base, and cut some pale moss green and vanilla patterned paper to 4 x 5.25 inches. Using a Tim Holtz stamp, I stamped the butterfly 3 times on the patterned paper, using Forest Moss Distress Ink. I rounded the bottom corners on the card base and patterned paper. Taking a small vanilla panel, I rounded the bottom corners, and stamped “Thinking of You” (Hero Arts) in Forest Moss Distress Ink. The card needed some dimension, so I stamped the butterfly again twice, once on vanilla scrap and once on the patterned paper, and cut them out. I adhered the vanilla panel to the moss and vanilla panel. I used some sheer chocolate brown ribbon, and ran a piece across the front of the patterned paper. The card still needed a little something, so using a light brown button and some linen thread, I wrapped the thread around the sheer ribbon, through the button, and tied a knot in it. I taped the bodies of the cut out butterflies to the bodies of two of the butterflies that I had stamped on the patterned paper. I finished the card with 5 tiny gems above the Thinking of You.

The Colour Throwdown Challenge Card

This is my card for the Colour Throwdown challenge. I used Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and Marina Mist cardstock. I did a 1 inch strip of the Marina Mist on the left hand side of the Olive card base, then I did a 3.5 inch square of the Pumpkin Pie. I then did a 3.25 inch square of white cardstock, so that I could stamp the images (Tim Holtz). I stamped the sentiment (Inkadinkado) last. I used Versamagic Olive and Agean Blue inks.

PDCC 72 Card

This is the card that I made for the Play Date Cafe Challenge 72.  The colour challenge this week was yellow orange, hot pink and navy.  I started with a card base of yellow orange, and stamped the Hero Arts Large Fabric Background in Wild Honey Distress Ink.  Taking some hot pink cardstock, I punched out 4 circles in different sizes, distressed the edges with the Tim Holtz Tonic Distress Tool, crumpled the circles, ran Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink over the mountains, and flattened the circles.  I used a hole punch to punch a hole through all four layers, then added a gold brad from my stash for the centre.  I used some sheer navy ribbon, and ran it down the length of the card.  I mounted the flower on the ribbon.  Using some scrap hot pink cardstock, I cut a 1 x 3 inch rectangle, distressed the edges with Tonic Distress Tool, edged it in Wild Honey ink, and stamped Hero Arts Happy  Birthday in Chipped Sapphire.  I foam mounted the happy birthday on to the card.

Please pardon the bad scans of my cards lately.  My camera just doesn't want to give crisp photos, and I am not sure if the camera is dying, or my apartment is just too dark.  The scans, although don't show the dimension as well as I'd like, at least it's more clear and crisp than my photos.  I am also putting this into the Hero Arts March challenge, which is birthday cards.

Weekend Challenge Cards

These are a couple of cards that I made this weekend for a couple of Hero Arts Flickr group challenges.  The top card was a colour challenge, it had a picture of what I think is a reddish yellow cone flower. The closest colours I had were SU's So Saffron cardstock, and Aged Mahogany Distress Ink.  I used a So Saffron card base, and taking the Hero Arts Large Fabric Cling stamp, inked it with the Aged Mahogany ink, and stamped it on the So Saffron cardstock.  Then, I took some Tim Holtz Tissue Tape and inked it with Aged Mahogany ink, then lined it up on the left hand side of the card.  It's hard to see in the scan, but I rounded all four corners with my new Corner Chomper :) ( I really LOVE the corner chomper, IMO it's worth every penny). Taking a length of creamy yellow ribbon, I wrapped it around the card front and attached to the back.  I took the Thank You stamp from the Type clear set and stamped it in Aged Mahogany Distress Ink on the ribbon.


For the second card, I started with a white card base, brown paper, and cream cardstock.  I cut the brown paper 5.25 x 4 inches, and the cream cardstock to 5 x 3.75 inches.  I took Tea Dye Distress Ink, and stamped Silhouette Grass on the cream cardstock.  I rounded all the corners of all the cardstock and paper.  I had some scrap brown ribbon left over in my stash, so I wrapped that around the cream cardstock, then adhered the cream layer to the brown paper layer.  I then adhered that to the white card base.  I took some scrap cream cardstock, and rounded the corners.  Using the "Hugs" stamp from the Hero Arts Type clear set, I stamped it in Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I punched a hole in the cream scrap, and used some cream yarn to  tie it onto the brown ribbon.  To keep the Hugs from moving, I used a small piece of foam tape to stick the back of the cardstock and stuck it to the cream layer.

Simon Says Stamp and Show card

This is a card for the Simon Says Stamp and Show vintage challenge this week.  I  started with a distressed background that had some writing on it.  I then took a Hero Arts Cling (I think it's Antique Brocade) stamp, and stamped in Versamark, then clear embossed.  I then used Tim Holtz Distress Inks to distress the piece. Once that was done, I took an iron and a another piece of blank cardstock, and ironed off the embossing powder. This left the original distressed background peeking through the over distressing.  I took a piece of dictionary, and distressed that ( Worn Lipstick, Dried Marigold and Broken China), and distressed it, and added it to the card front.  I then took SU Chocolate Chip ink and stamped the crown three times and the bird on a branch once ( Both Tim Holtz stamps).  I then mounted the card front onto some dark brown cardstock for the base.

Going Dotty.....

This is another card I did today.  I got to use a Tim Holtz embossing folder (DOTS) and sanded the patterned paper so that some of the pattern came off the raised dots.  I then ran Chocolate Chip ink lightly over the whole thing, not worrying whether or not I got all the dots.  I love this distressed look. I took a flower stamp from Hero Arts Antique Engravings (the floral set) and stamped it three times, once in Victorian Velvet Distress Ink, and twice in Worn Lipstick Distress Ink.  I took an extra piece of the dotted paper, and put it on the bottom of the cream piece with the stamping on it, and added a Hero Arts sentiment in Chocolate Chip ink (SU).  All of this was on a  cream base cardstock

August Christmas Card Challenge!!

Well,  today has been great... not only did I get to spend time with the family, a buck and his doe were in the back "yard" of our apartment building..... eating whatever they could.  There was some thunder, which unfortunately spooked them and they ran off.  It's such a blessing to me to see wildlife like that.... you certainly don't see as much of it in the big cities, and in the big cities, they don't tolerate any wildlife there, unless it's in a zoo.  Here, the deer were left alone, and hopefully they got back into the forest.

Now, on to the challenge for Christmas cards in August.. this month, your challenge is to use TAGS on your cards.  I don't care what size or colour the tags are, just as long as there's at least one tag on your Christmas cards.. here is my sample...

I used cream based cardstock, and distressed it with Old Paper and Tattered Rose inks.  I then put some embossed cardstock on the cream, leaving a 1/4 border. I also rounded two corners of the embossed cardstock and the base cardstock.  I took some Shipping tags, and distressed them in Tattered Rose, Old Paper, Worn Lipstick and Fired Brick inks.  With Versafine Onyx Black ink, I stamped a Tim Holtz Santa Claus on the tag.  I added some black and red fibre to the top of the tag, and mounted the tags on an angle to the embossed cardstock.