Robin's Birdhouse: 2013

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Christmas greetings! I can't believe how long it has been since my last blog post. Between dealing with some health issues and working long hours the days have just flown by. I've done a little bit of crafting since then so I've got a few projects to share. The first one is a postcard swap hosted by Art Papers Online. I'll have another ready to share in a couple of days.

There are 60 crafters and artists in this swap and we all started with a packet of 10 handmade Thai postcards. Each of us will send 9 cards off into the world this month to welcome in the new year with pretty mail. The first card I made was the stamped American Eagle design. I like the picture I came up with but I wanted something "different" for them so I switched over to napkin collage. I used US Art Quest's Perfect Paper Adhesive (PPA) matte finish on all of them. Some of the cards have fairy dust glitter on them but for some reason it doesn't show on the scans.

Since I only need 9 of the 10 for the swap one of these will be left out. I haven't decided yet which one that will be. So without further adieu, here are my cards for the swap!

I know which one is my favorite and I'd like to know which one is yours! Drop me a line and let me know if you like them...and if you do, which one you like best. And you can check out everyone else's postcards on this Pinterest board: http://www.pinterest.com/artpapersonline/art-postcard-swap/

Until next time...Happy Stamping!

Saturday, November 2, 2013

3D Flower Card

My favorite color is purple. I don't know if it started with my crush on Donny Osmond or if I would have liked it anyway, but it's my favorite. Yes, I know my craft room is berry-and-lime. I put a lot of thought into that choice and went with berry pink because more floral pattern scrapbook papers are pink and not purple. Although this doesn't explain why I like coffee and wine themes but my kitchen is all roosters. Don't try to figure me out, you'll just get a headache! Wait, what was I saying? Oh yeah! Purple. It's my favorite.

I found this pretty flower & saying on Facebook a long time ago and it's been up on the bulletin board next to my desk. I don't remember when I noticed it, but I have Dew Drops from The Robin's Nest in the same color! I keep all of my Dew Drops out on spice racks because they are bright and colorful and I don't think they should be closed up in my craft cupboards. Heaven knows there are already enough embellishments in there anyway! I bought some of the colors by the box but I keep them in my vintage spice bottles. I grabbed the labels off the little plastic boxes before I tossed them in the recycling bin..

This isn't all of them...just the rack that holds the purple!

I thought it would be fun to try to recreate the flower using just Dew Drops so I got out a plastic page protector to use as a canvas and went to work. I taped the photo to my desktop mat and then taped the plastic page to the page. (Ignore the photo of the tiger...I chickened out on making a Dew Drop tiger.) Using tweezers is always precise work and using plastic in place of paper is already tricky so I wanted to make it as foolproof as possible. I started with the center of the flower and worked my way out. All of the Dew Drops are attached with Sakura's 3D Crystal Lacquer.

When the Dew Drops were all in place and thoroughly dry, I gently removed the plastic page.

When everything was finally done and dry I used my craft knife to carefully trim the plastic tightly around the flower and then glued the entire design to white card stock and layered the card with matching purple & marigold papers. I chose plain papers rather than patterns because I didn't want anything competing for attention. "Happy Birthday" is stamped in a purple that matches the card stock.

Although you can't see a flower stem on the original photo it really needs one so it doesn't look silly on the card so I went back in with the tweezers and some green minis and hand-created one.

I love how the Dew Drops catch the light and make the flower shine.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my card project. I'd love to hear from you or have you follow me here on Blogspot! Until next time...Happy crafting!

(This is my application submission for The Robin's Nest design team Jan-Jun 2014)

Friday, October 18, 2013

Feeling Nautical

I wanted to share a card project with you using the Nautical 2 plate of stamps from Sin City Stamps. I stamped all of these images individually using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and then colored them with various markers. The sky and water were colored using a water brush and the blueberry Faber-Castell Gelato.

Each image was cut into 1 1/4 inch squares except for the anchor, which will be mounted whole. The card itself is black with tan and black panels. To be sure I had enough room on the card to hold at least a part of each image I chose to make a card larger than the standard invitation. This card fits an A-6 envelope and is 4 1/2 x 6 1/4.

I arranged and rearranged the images on the black panel, turning them in different directions and trying to find a nice balance of ship, net and fish. Once all of the squares were glued in place I added a couple strands of natural jute twine and a bow. The anchor was trimmed and outlined with a black permanent marker. After gluing all of the panels together I attached the anchor with foam tape for a little dimension.

So that's my card. I hope you like the project idea! Drop me a line or follow along! Until next time...happy stamping!


Scanned card

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Masquerade!

There is a masquerade mask contest over on The Robin's Nest blog and I couldn't resist entering! I love masks. In fact, I have a beautiful ceramic mask on the wall of my studio that I bought back in high school. I've made mask cards over the years and have won a club contest over at one of my previous Yahoo groups. I like them because they can be anything at all. Funny. Serious. Scary. Romantic. Masculine. Feminine. Absolutely versatile! This is the project I submitted for consideration.

I grabbed my very favorite Robin's Nest paper called Spring Stripe, downloaded a new template and went to work. I chose two from patterns from their glittered card stocks for the accent pieces. Shocking Pink and Red Sorbet were die-cut using the Harlequin pattern from Provo Craft.

I chose coordinating Dew Drops for highlights. The Robin's Red Dew Drops were used with the accent pieces and the Sprinkles Dew Drops highlight the eyes and were also used on the gold floss as dangles in place of beads.

I borrowed a technique from a previous post and used a pencil with a Dew Drop highlight for the stick that supports the mask. A scrap of double-layer lace gives it a feminine finishing touch.

If you would like to make your own mask there are a large variety of free mask templates available. I found this one by doing a Google search.

Here are the cards I have made using a similar template of a slightly smaller dimension. Wow, the files say they were created in 2004! Where does the time go??


My award winning mask card. Sorry, so long ago that I don't remember which club!

Valentine for my mother

Thanks for stopping by! I'd love for you to drop me a line and say hello or become a follower! Until next time...happy crafting!

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Three cards this weekend!

It's funny what you find when you clean the craft table, isn't it? Today I found stickers and other embellishments that I forgot I bought, the scissors I've been looking for, and quite a few unfinished projects. One of the latter is this goblin that I started this summer. The house shape was part of a challenge for Rubberstamp Madness magazine. I received a free sample magazine this summer and was going to give it a try. I made this base piece and before I could figure out if I wanted it to be a tag or a card the deadline had passed. It's not like me to miss a deadline once I start a project but this was so far out of my comfort zone that I really got stalled!

I got this Steampunk goblin in a grab bag from Sin City Stamps. The clock hand on the chimney, "Goblin" word, circle texture and the diamonds on the roof are also from Sin City Stamps. The little Happy Halloween I found in the Target dollar bin last year and the "Knock" saying is from Rubberstamp Ave. The second half of the saying pair is on the inside of the card. The spider rub-ons are from The Robin's Nest. The goblin's head and cowl were stamped again and out-mounted with foam tape. Today I made the card and added the words so it can be sent off into the world to wish someone a Happy Halloween!


Never knock at Death's door. Ring the bell and run away.

While I was out on Facebook yesterday I happened to see the Unscripted Sketches #226 photo. I've had my Robin's Nest Halloween paper on my table since I made those banners in my last post and I knew what I wanted to make right away! I got these cool bat embellishments with a gift certificate from the Robin's Nest. They are so cool! I love that they are in different poses. They also come in two different colors of glitter. These are black and there are purple, too. The Happy Halloween stamp is by Hero Arts.

The other card I from this weekend is made with a canvas that came in a gift pack of Faber-Castell watercolor pencils. The kit has a few pencils, a sharpener and four pre-printed canvases. This kit is floral but they make other patterns. I got it over at Altered Pages. The canvases have a black foam square about 1/2 inch larger to be used to mount and hang them, but I think the foam is a little tacky so I mounted it on a card instead. The canvas square is a little heavy so I had to use a pretty thick card stock so it would stand. The saying is one I've had for a while. It's unmounted and I can't find it in my index. Sorry!

Thanks for stopping by! I would love to hear from you or have you join my blog! Until next time, Happy Stamping!

Monday, September 30, 2013

Halloween Banners

Hi everyone! I am the guest designer over at Chattering Robins today – the blog site for The Robin’s Nest. I’m so excited to be able to share my project, which uses their wonderful scrapbook papers & embellishments. I created two different holiday banners using the same technique but different papers and embellishments.

Each of these banners was made using two different sheets of The Robin's Nest papers. One uses Black Bats Glitter (the B side) and Almost Black Classic Glitter Cardstock. The other uses Ghost Camo Glitter and Haunted House card stock. What fun patterns! I also used some wonderful glittery black chipboard bats from the Transylvania collection. And I can't forget the Dew Drops! They are were awesome to add dimension to this project.

Each banner is 6 /14" wide and 12" long. The width of the banner was designed to fit on a #2 pencil. I chose to use a pencil for the banner's top bar to make it easier to hang without allowing it to curl. Here in the Midwest we get dew or frost most autumn mornings, which can be a little rough on paper decorations because of the humidity. Using my craft knife, I cut the erasers off of two Halloween pencils and glued Dew Drops to the end of each one with Sakura's 3D Crystal Lacquer.

When I sat down to make this project, I was only going to make one. The black bat banner is what was in my head. I thought about it for a day or so before I actually put scissors to paper to make the panels. After adhering the inner two paper panels with double sided carpet tape, wrapped them with a metallic orange honeycomb ribbon to give the banner a little shine. Once the ribbon was taped in place on the back of the center panel they were attached to the back piece.

I stamped and heat embossed letters from the Almost Black cardstock so that they would blend in and colored them in with an orange glaze pen. A strip of orange glittery ribbon at the bottom of the banner gives it a nice border to balance out the orange pencil at the top. I pulled the black Diamond Dew Drops from my bottle of the Abracadabra mix to accent the ribbon and two black Tear Drops for the head of the bats.

After the panels and embellishments were in place, I used an eyelet template to evenly space the ribbon holes and then added copper colored grommets. (Silver was used on the other banner.)

When I ordered the Haunted House paper I thought it was just going to end up in my scrapbook. Wrong! I couldn't resist making another banner with it. It's so cute! And while the first banner took a while to design, this one practically made itself. The B-side of the Ghost Camo Glitter is a black and orange striped design, which made a wonderful background. The haunted house is matted on a black panel for a better outline.

The top of this banner is another strip of black card stock that I punched using my Fiskar's leaf border punch. The back of Haunted House is a different orange and black striped pattern and there was a wide orange stripe exactly the right size to fit under the leaves so that they show up without black stripes going through them.

I heat embossed "BOO" on the second half of top of the haunted house page so that they would color match. The largest of the leftover ghosts from the second half of the camo page was fussy cut (with a few additional curves trimmed off) and I attached both the word and ghost with foam tape. Black and pearl petite Dew Drops from the Classified mix adorn the fence posts. And because the haunted house page was cut down a couple of inches, I ended up with half of the fence leftover on my table. I cut out the little faces and added them with foam tape, as well. The little pumpkin on the fence is highlighted with orange and green Glaze pens.

Once the banners were done, the pencils were laced on using thin ribbon - making sure to securely wrap around the pencil at each hole. I started in the center and worked my way out to keep the pattern even on both sides. When it was in place, a tiny drop of 3D Crystal Lacquer was placed along each edge of ribbon...just enough to keep the pencil from slipping around. I removed the two tiny pieces of scotch tape that were holding the ribbon after the glue dried.

Now they're ready to hang up and join my other holiday decorations. And since I made two instead of one, I'm going to take the extra to work and decorate my work cubby. I just need to decide which one...