Papertrey October Blog Hop Challenge: Take 2

The second color palette I liked was this one:

I love to knit.  In fact, I have several paper bags of projects in progress clustered around my end of the couch. I liked the whole stripey thing here and wanted to recreate it.  Too bad I haven't gotten the new Sweater Knit stamp from this months release yet.  I really made this a lot more complex than I needed too because I started out with another idea in my head.  I was going to cut out the center of the striped block with a limitless layers die and then stamp the Christmas sentiment inside it.  I am here to tell you that you cannot die cut through 3 layers of PTI cardstock! But, you can use an Impression Plate and get some nice embossing going on.  The rest is pretty self explanatory.  I popped up the Limitless Layers big oval over the hole I tried to die cut. Should have done that in the first place.  I like how it so clean looking.  I want to recreate it using the knit pattern stamp for the stripes when it arrives.

I was at work today stressing about how I was going to get pictures in the daylight and my son took these. I really, really like the photos, he has a great eye. Thanks for looking!

Supplies for "Cozy Holiday"

Stamps:  Happiest of Holidays(PTI)

Dies/Impression Plates: Herringbone Impression Plate, Limitless Layers 2-1/2" oval

Cardstock:  Aqu Mist, Ocean Tides, Smoky Shadow, Soft Stone

Ink:  Smoky Shadow

Other: Clear Embossing powder

Papertrey October Blog Hop Challenge: Take 1

I haven't ever participated in a Blog Hop before but thought I'd give it a shot.  I was inspired by the whole idea of non-traditional Holiday colors so I picked the following ones and this is what I came up with.

I love all these colors together and decided to experiment with this technique  that Heather Nichols showed.  I've certainly used colored inks to emboss with before but never thought of using Versamark first, then a dye ink on top.  Cool idea. I did all the embossing first and then the background stamping.  I really liked how it turned out.

Check out Take 2, and thanks for looking!

Supplies for "celebrate the season"

Stamps: Snowflake Medley, Backgroun Basics: Postmarks  (all PTI)

Sentiments: Framed Out #7

Cardstock: Classic Kraft, Rustic White

Ink:  Aqua Mist, Hawiian Shores, Simply Chartruese, New Leaf, Fine Linen

Other: Clear Embossing powder

Make it Monday #77: Painting With Ink

This week Dawn McVey showed how to use ink pads to watercolor in images.  I've done this before with Distress Inks on watercolor paper, even taught several Scrapbook Expo classes utilizing this same technique on embossed images for a cool resist look.  This was fun just to do for me, coloring is therapuetic and relaxing.

I love folk art and that's what I was going for here.  Clean and simple.  I had ink smudges on the left hence the blue piece of cardstock but I really liked how it turned out.

Thanks for bopping on by, Craig and I are going to Monterey this weekend.  I think I blew our budget on the hotel, good thing there's a free breakfast!

Supplies

Stamps: Stitches and Swirls, Year of Flowers: Violets (all PTI)

Sentiments: Framed Out #1, Tagged Sentiments (all PTI)

Cardstock: Winter Wisteria, Ripe Avocado, Solar White Neenah (Violets). Pure Poppy, Blueberry Sky, Solar White Neenah (Stitches and Swirls)

Ink:  Winter Wisteria, Plum Pudding, Lavendar Moon, Spring Moss, Simply Chartruese (Violets). Pure Poppy, Blueberry Sky, Summer Sunrise, Simply Chartruese, Ripe Avocado (Stitches and Swirls)

Other: Summer Sunrise button, Hemp twine

MIM #75 - Entry #2 Under the Wire!

I am getting this in just under the wire.  I had a great time yesterday participating in the Stamp-A-Faire.  I will most likely be posting those projects later, only one or two are completed, the rest are skeletons waiting to be fleshed out.

This is the second Roll the Dice MIM card I did.  My computer is doing something weird with PDF files, like not opening them.  I posted on the forum for help and Derbylea was kind enough to send an attachment.  Thank you!

My second bunch of rolls called for a Vertical layout using Sketch #1, Stitches and Swirls and We Go Together stamp sets plus patterned paper using the colors of Summer Sunrise, Classic Kraft, Canyon Clay, Spring Moss and Aqua Mist.  

I thought I did OK.  The buttons are Spring Moss, don't know if you can tell or not.  It was fun cutting up the sentiment to use a little differently as far as placement goes.  I used just the swirly bits from the Stitches and Swirls stamp set.  I have trouble using that one, don't know why.

First...Challenge, Sketch, MIM

I have been a rabid Papertrey Ink user/shopper/follower for several years now but always as a watcher.  This weeks MIM video for some reason inspired me to want to participate.  I've made lots of cards using the MIM concepts and techniques but never wanted to participate.

I'm not saying that I really like this particular card but I really enjoyed the PROCESS of creating it.  I have never created from a sketch and wouldn't normally have used these colors.  Everything about it is outside my comfort zone.  I didn't know it would be so satisfying!

I thought I would edit the post to include what my challenges were: Horizontal layout of sketch #5 using Trendy Tree Tops, Background Basics: Farm and Barn, glitter as an embellishment and the color combo of pure poppy, summer sunrise, simply chartreuse and aqua mist.  It probably took me 2 hours of messing around!

Recipe Boook

Craig took these pictures, aren't they good? I made this as something to display for the store, using Teresa Collins paper and the tabbed covers. I am really proud of the way it turned out. I custom mixed the green color with the new line of Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints. They are easy to mix because it's basically half and half. I wanted a little more of an olivey color so I added red to the blue and yellow I already had mixed up. The glossy multi media is great to add a little less opacity to the color plus it's great to use as a glue. Just coat the back of whatever it is you're trying to adhere, press out all the bubbles, and paint the same stuff over the top. Very cool!

These are a couple of the inside pages, I used the Cricut to cut the shapes and lettering. I used the Home Accents and the Accent Essentials cartridges for the shapes and Plantin Schoolbook for the lettering. Some of those Home accents shapes are pretty intricate, I learned that the hard way and wound up using the Scrapbook Adhesive brand adhesive sheets on the card stock before I cut it so I could just stick it down. What a pain to stick down all those little itty bitty bits otherwise. Anyway, it was fun to do and I guess enough other people liked it enough for me to teach a class on it in August! Wouldn't it be cool to do this kind of thing full time?

I LOVE these stamps!  I love the vintage feel and I especially love how i can color them in with Copics.  the 2 stamp sets I used were both by Clear Art Stamps and  are "Little Chef" and "Bouquet of Joy" 

Bleaching

This was a technique I saw described on SCS.  What caught my eye was the the stamp, and the asian feel.  It turns out that the stamp was retired from Stampin' Up, 'Riot of Petals'.  It took me forever to find it. (I paid way to much on ebay!) The technique is simple; emboss the image onto dark cardstock then apply bleach (regular Clorox) to the image to take out the pigment in the cardstock.  What's cool is the variations of color that the bleaching gives you.  This was dark blue Creative Memories paper that bleached out into various shades of purples to white.  I found that drying between bleach applications worked better.  I went back in with my Copics and colored in the leaves and the branches.  It didn't seem to hurt the pens any, I was worried about the bleach affecting the nibs.  I used an aquacolor waterbrush and filled it with clorox. Kept the smell down to a minimum.  It would be fun to experiment with different colors of darker cardstock.

You can kind of the see the variations in this this close-up.  It's really beautiful in person.

Acetate Overlays

This is a card I designed for the Scrapbook Expo class that Kara and I taught in San Diego. She really encouraged me to go for it, it was agony because I am my own worst critic. I always feel like I have to get it right the first time, I don't expect that from anyone else, guess I'm weird. I colored in the Karen Lockhart blueberry shoe with my Copic pens (I don't remember which colors I used, didn't keep track). I do know that I airbrushed the background after masking off the shoe. The paper is all by Graphic 45, great line of paper. The rub-ons are by K & Company, way cool because they came with the jewels.












Close up of the shoe.

This is another of the overlay cards but with the "Lilacs" stamp by Karen Lockhart. I once again have no idea what color Copic pens I used!

Close-up of the pitcher and the lilacs, I love the vibrancy of Copics. I did this after I became an official Copic instructor (in LA during CHA).

A Really Green Vacation Book...

I went down to the scrapbook expo in San Diego with my friends Kara and Jana. I had a great time even though I was there to work.  Jana and I were cruising around before the Expo opened up morning and we saw the greatest album in the Rusty Pickle booth.  It was made using regular old cardboard and I loved it.  So, I bought their kit but also tried to make on of my own.  I cut up some boxes from the garage when I got home and used the "Snorkel" paper from Cosmo Cricket ...taadaa! Craig took all the pictures so it was truly a family project!

Here's pages 2 and 3. I had to use the paper in different ways to cover up the 'U-Haul' logos on the pieces I'd cut.  Anyone have any good ideas for getting clean cuts on corrugated cardboard? My rotary cutter didn't cut deep enough and the guillotine cutter smushed it too much.  I finally wound up using a straight edge and an Exacto knife.

I thought those guys at the Rusty Pickle had some great ideas. How come I never thought of making a little flap like this? They used a safety pin but I didn't have one so I improvised with a paper clip and a brad.

The little flap lifted up so I could show another picture of Zachary along with journaling.  I love it!

Garrett hanging with Juliet in the boat.

I think I have this figured out, the picture and comment thing...I love the little tag on the O-ring! Garrett is jumping of this big rock, I took pictures of him using the burst mode.  Jandi was the best boat driver...

We boated over to this cove one afternoon , it looked like it was going to rain but it didn't. Amanda is such a dork.  I couldn't get a straight picture of that girl EVER!

The end.  The Snorkel paper was perfect.