Fun with a single 12 x 12 collage

 Have you ever played with the Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Inks?  I used to pick them up every once in a while and play with them but I didn't really appreciate the fun things they could do until I started watching Tim's demos last year.  Turns out I've just scratched the surface of them.  This project uses several distress ink pads and stencils and then the finished page is cut down to make some slimline cards.  Depending on how you cut your page, you can get 4 or 5 cards.  I chose to cut 3x8 panels so I got 5.

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.

A few cards for the fellas

Some stampers say they have trouble creating cards for the men in their lives.  I don't have that problem.  I think whatever hobbies your favorite guy is into will make a great theme for a card.  Here are some sports car and other designs that I've done in the last several months.

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!

Happy New Year to all of you party animals!

My mom used to use a saying "Putting on the dog."  It's not something we hear anymore, but Wikipedia defines it as an expression that means 'to make a display of wealth or importance, especially by dressing stylishly and flashily'.  And isn't that what we do when we get out our fanciest party clothes for New Year's Eve?  I took it just a tiny step farther with today's card.

This fancy pooch is ready to party!  You can find her on the Hounds collage sheet at the DIY Design Studio web site..  That tiara she's wearing makes me giggle whenever I see her.

The background paper and embellishments I used on this card are all shiny and add to the festive feel.  The clear florals were stuck on more of the same red paper and then cut out and layered.  The tiniest of them are attached with foam squares to give it more dimension.

Because it's New Year's Eve, I thought a clock would tie the theme together.  The Celebrate sticker sheet has a few beautiful clock designs.  You can even choose which clock hands to use.  All of these were layered with black card stock and scraps of patterned paper and collages cut into geometric shapes.  I added a couple of Dew Drop centers to the White Gold flowers.

And the words "Time to Celebrate!" make the inside of the card bright and shiny, too!  Just sign it with a gold gel pen and it's ready to give away.  Happy New Year to one and all!

Supplies used:
Celebrate and White Gold sticker sheets  and other fun gold glam designs
Red Satin Shimmer paper
Hounds digital collage sheet
Dew Drops and glue dots
Foam  squares and double sided adhesive tape
Card stock

Christmas with Graphic 45

All paper artists and crafters understand how supplies can accumulate when you aren't looking.  I swear they multiply all by themselves!  When I buy scrapbook paper it's because I think it's pretty and /or has great greeting card potential.  This year as I was thinking about what to make for Christmas cards, I found a few sheets of an old Graphic 45 pattern called Twas The Night Before Christmas that I had forgotten about.  It was finally time to use them.  Enjoy!

Want to go for a ride?

I love the style of this old-fashioned bicycle.  It's one of the chipboard die cuts available at DIY Design Studio and it is a lot of fun to use.  

My first idea was to try and distress the image with ink.  The StazOn is good for distressing chip board because it's permanent and dries quickly.  It just wasn't the look I wanted today.  So I decided to paint them instead.  Perfect for my project.

I liked the gold bike so well that I decided to paint the other one, too.

I added some rhinestones just to blint them up a little bit.

For the gold bike, I chose the Life Time pad of Prima paper.  You've seen me use this one before.  It's one of my favorites because of the range of shades and splatters.  They are beautiful papers.

I needed a piece of paper 6 x 4 1/4.  I opted to make the darkest section the body of my card and then use the part with the sentiment as a layer.  

I added some light brown ink to the edges of each piece so that they stand out once they were pieced back together.

This paper pad has a sheet of tags and embellishments.  I wanted to use a mini brad on the mini tag.  I could have used the cream color but it matches the paper a little too much.  I painted it the same gold as the bike to pull it into the card more.

Because the bike is chipboard it really stands off the page.  Foam adhesive squares hold the little embellishments up off the page to balance that out.

Card one - great for a note card or special occasion.  But it's almost Christmas and the other bike is red, sooooo...

I painted some chipboard snowflakes white to go with the second bike.

I found this piece of snowy scrapbook paper in my stash and added a washi tape sidewalk, then glued on the chipboard pieces. 

Products Used:

Die Cut Chipboard Bicycles

Die Cut Chipboard Snowflakes

Inks and/or Acrylic Paints

Adhesive Gemstones

Prima Life Time paper pad

Dimensional Foam Squares

Double-Sided Adhesive Tape

Glue

Scans of each card