Thinking 'Bout Summertime

 With summer fast approaching I thought it might be a good time to share some past summery cards.  Maybe if we all wish hard enough summer will come early.

This nutcracker is sweet!

This nutcracker stamp may be my find of the 2020 Christmas season.  He's one of many nutcrackers in the Stamplistic collection.  There are dies to help cut out all of the pieces if you want to layer them.  Three of these are layered together and two are painted with Twinkling H20 watercolors.  Love him!

Christmas cards!

As we near the end of this unusual year I find that I'm as happy to see 2020 in the rearview mirror as everyone else.  This year of the pandemic has been tough on a lot of people and I'm no different than most...my job is now done from home, my shopping is done online and I drive up for my groceries and they load it in to my car.  We eat at home or get carry-out.  I miss my co-workers, I miss the occasional dinner out at our favorite restaurants and I don't miss grocery shopping.  I won't lie...I may never go back to conventional grocery shopping again!

Thank God for art.  Pandemic stress, work stress, election stress - I can shrug it all off in my studio and ignore the madness.

Here's what I'm working on for Christmas.  I choose a single design to make multiples for friends and family, but I still somehow end up making one-of-a-kind cards, too.  This pine cone by Heartfelt Creations on paper by Graphic 45 is the main design this year.

And a lot of pink this year!

There was a big sale at Sizzix on the Fourth of July and I found this Nativity die set that I thought my aunt would love.  I chose all metallic papers and it has a lovely shine.  Sadly, she passed away this summer.  I think I'll hold on to it because it makes me think of her.

It's been over a year since my last post? That's crazy!

 I swear I don't know where the time goes!  Before I saw the date on the last post I would have sworn it was only since the beginning of the year.  No way I would have said 1 1/2 years.  It's been too long.  So, how are you?

Since my last post I've been trying to get better at my flower making skills and I've also made an effort to get back to my stamping.  Being on the Altered Pages and DIY design teams was a wonderful opportunity to grow as an artist, but it meant that I didn't just sit down and play with the old stuff in my studio because I had deadlines to meet. That design team really expanded my mixed media skills.  I hope to be on another design team some day, but for now I'm taking it leisurely and playing around with my stamps more - both old and new.

Here are some things that have been keeping me busy.  Today I'll start with some stamped cards.  None of these use just a single company.  I just designed with the stamps in my collection.

Can you spot what all of these cards have in common?  That's right.  They all have multiple stamped images.  Some are masked and stamped on a single sheet of card stock and others are cut out and pasted into a scene. After 25 years in the hobby, I still love my stamps!

Using color with abandon - a Day of the Dead celebration

This is such a fun time of year with the Fall colors outside and Halloween decorations inside.  And then there is Dia de los Muertos!  The Day of the Dead celebrations use color with wild abandon.  Sugar Skulls and flowers burst with a rainbow of color.

The Altered Pages Design Team is highlighting stencils by The Crafters Workshop and I couldn't be happier.  Check out the full post on making this card on the Altered Pages Artsociates blog.

Products Used:
6 x 6 stencil by The Crafters Workshop, designed by Carmen Medlin
Dye inks in various colors
Stickles
Ole cutouts by Sabor
Honoring the Day of the Dead collage
Standard cardmaking supplies: Scissors, glue, etc.

Purrfect Halloween Wishes

Halloween is coming!  I love the costumes, decorations, whimsy and fun that this holiday brings.  My project this week is a cute Halloween card to get us into the spirit.

I recently got three new stencils from The Crafters Workshop and one of them is a pattern that reminded me of both flames and animal print.  Both of those things say Halloween to me so I decided to make a card with this great pattern by Carmen Medlin as the base design.

I used a piece of orange card stock with a shape cut out like a window.  If you don't have panels with windows already cut out, just grab your favorite basic shape die and cut one.  I sponged black dye ink onto the card stock. 

That's a great start.  I wanted to add a richer color to it so I added touches of red, green and yellow here and there.  Use your favorite blending tool, sponge or spouncer and just keep adding layers until you're happy.  I added green around all of the cut edges and then filled in.

Now for a focal point.  Altered Pages has many Halloween collages ranging from cute enough for toddlers to scary and macabre.  I chose one on the cuter side.  It's from the Halloween Memories sheet.  A Wink of Stella adds just the right touch of sparkle to the pumpkin's glowing face.

Since the image also has a black cat, I thought it was a wonderful chance to use my cat chipboard cutouts.  They are natural chipboard color so I sponged on black ink.  And every tasteful feline needs a collar!  This sheet of border stickers was purrfect.  One strip of the dotted pattern was all I needed to highlight the cat and the stripe on the card front.

A little black bling to balance out the top corner and this card is done and ready to be mailed.  A mail art treat for a friend!

Supplies Used:
Inks in your favorite colors
Blender tool (or spouncer)
Cat chipboard shapes
Border Design 2 stickers
Black bling
The Crafters Workshop stencil
Halloween collage sheet
Card making supplies: scissors, adhesive
A basic shape cutting die

Also posted at Altered Pages Artsociates art blog.  Click here to see the blog post.

Gearing up for Steampunk

I love all these great gear shapes from Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts.  Large, small, thin, chunky, smooth, teeth...a little bit of everything.  Our Design Team has shown you several ways to decorate your chipboard.  My favorite way is to paint them.  I have several bottles of metallic color acrylic paint and I painted several gears in each of the colors.

So bright and shiny!  Well, that won't do.  Some brown StazOn ink and a cotton swab makes these chipboard gears look aged.

For the background of my card, I chose a gray pattern from the 6x6 Authentique paper pad Durable.  I chose two pictures from the Fly With Steam collage sheet for my Steampunk theme.  Two stencils and more of the same brown ink from the gears help blend the image into the background.

And now the fun part!!  I grabbed my Tacky Glue and layered the gears all around the image.  Everything was adhered to a black card base and it's done!

Supplies:
Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Gears
6x6 Authentique "Durable" paper pad
Fly With Steam collage sheet
6x6 Stencil - Bricks & Well Rounded
Tacky Glue & double sided adhesive
StazOn ink, Sponge Sweeper, Cotton Swabs
ScorPal