Guest Designing for Mo's Digital Pencil "Happy Birthday!" July Challenge

Greetings and a Happy 244th Birthday to the USA! I hope to be back later today or tomorrow to share a little something patriotic, but for right now I am sharing a card I have made as Guest Designer for Mo's Digital Pencil July Challenge, which has a "Happy Birthday" theme. I was blessed to win the May Challenge with this art journal page and received a digital image of my choice and this Guesting spot.

I love this old wizard's expression. And his toenails! Hahaha Mo really outdid herself when she created him! I love him, so I had to try him out. :-) Let's see, I colored him using ProMarkers, wax colored pencils and silver and gold Winks of Stella. I used a Verve Starry Die to cut all the stars out of white Springhill card stock and colored the silver ones with the Wink of Stella. I also added touches here and there with my Sakura metallic glitter gel pen. Other than that, though, I let the fab image and card design take center stage.

This is the image I used. It's called Wiz and is available HERE.

  

I used the current sketch at Tuesday Morning, resizing it to 6x6 in PSE. I adhered almost religiously to it because it's a darned good sketch!

I used a sheet of night sky/space paper from Fancy Pants Over the Moon 6x6 collection on the front, over a black Bazzill card stock mat. My card base is white Springhill card stock, which is the same paper I printed out the digi image and sentiment (both also matted with the black Bazzill)..

This was a card I made just to make with no specific recipient yet in mind other than it's for a man (I have 6 grown nephews, a son-in-law, 2 brothers-in-law, 1 brother and a husband, so I know it will get given to one of them). So I have not done anything to the inside yet. But I did decorate the back by stamping my own 6x6 paper using my new Hero Arts Star Light Star Bright background stamp, Versafine Clair Medieval Blue ink and my Tim stamping platform. Pretty nice ink coverage, eh? I was so impressed that I stamped up 3 more for future use!

That's all for now. I hope you liked my card. It was an honour to be Guest Designer at Mo's and thanks for dropping by. Have a great weekend and stay well and safe! XOX

MY CHALLENGE PLAYLIST:

1.   Tuesday Morning Sketches #561 -- sketch is shown above

2.   Creative Sketchy Girls #49: Man's Card

3.   NBUS Challenge #16 -- my NBUSes are my new Hero Arts background stamp (back of card) and the Mo's digital image on the front.  

4.   Colour Crazy Craft Challenge Week 26: AG with Colouring -- I used ProMarkers, wax colored pencils and Winks of Stella for colouring my image.

5.   Outlawz Saturdays Paper A la Mode 7/4-7/17: Birthday

6.   The Male Room #139: Use Die Cuts -- All of the white and silver stars are die cuts.  

7.   Scrapping4Fun #170: Birthday

8.   Passion for ProMarkers Week 549: Make Us Smile

Time for July's Love To Craft Challenge #48!

Happy July 1st, Blogging Friends! Hopefully, all of our Blogger blogs are still functioning (for all of you on other platforms, it's a bit of a cyber-2000 deja vu where Blogger is changing the default layout on all the blogs to white). I get it, less graphics space to have to host for free, but it's causing a huge amount of anxiety on top of everything else we have to be anxious about! I'm praying mine survives! It's time to share what I've made for the 48th Anything Goes monthly challenge over at Love to Craft!

My design team sample for this month is a hexagon-shaped card with a digital image colored with ProMarkers and a background scene created by inking a sky and ground, then layer-stenciling the hanging vines and rocky earth. Just a lovely summer day in the African wild, right? ;-)

Image: Whimsy Stamps freebie digital image Daddy Lion, computer-generated sentiment
Papers: Kaisercraft Into the Wild, Fancy Pants It's the Little Thins, SU & Springhill CS
Dies: Lifestlye/Quickutz Nested Hexagons, Spellbinders Labels 21
Stencils: A Colorful Life Suds Stream, CC Sara Signature Enchanted Forest Hanging Foliage
Inks: ProMarkers and Palette Hybrids

I knew I wanted to make a shaped card before I even began, but I also needed the inspiration of a sketch, so I went looking for one that would lend itself to an overall hexagon shape. When I saw this old Split Coast Stampers sketch, I saw that shape as well as the top sky, the bottom earth, the vine canopy, the lions, the sentiment, everything.

The Kaisercraft paper pad included some tags and borders so I used the Roar text border and cut some fringe with my Martha Stewart fringe scissors, then gave it a little curl.

I'll include a handwritten note but I lined the inside of the card with Fancy Pants paper and added a die mat and a little tag - the Fancy Pants papers also included tags and borders. :-)

For the back, I stamped my custon siggie on a larger label die, inked it a bit for color and then drew lines all around with my Sakura gold metallic glitter pen. Fancy Pants striped and flowered papers die cut with the Hexagons.

Up top I combined I combined more of the Kaiserkraft Roar border, cutting off the curl this time, with a Fancy Pants 100% Cute border.

A close-up of the gel-pen and heat-embossed shimmer and shine...

This card was made for a guy friend from way back in high school to congratulate him on his 3rd grandchild and 1st granddaughter. He's divorced so there's no wife and to tell you the truth, I almost did not make him a card. I'd never made a Welcome Baby card for a single guy! All my images were way too feminine, but then I spied this adorable Whimsy stamp and immediately thought it was purrrr-fect (heehee) for my purposes! My friend is even a Leo, to boot. I tried to keep it pretty masculine. What do you think, did I succeed?

Please check out the lovely designs my teamies have made for you over at LTCCB and join us if you can! Thanks as always for coming by to check me out and I hope we all have an upbeat, positive, healthy and safe week! XOXO

MY CHALLENGES PLAYLIST:
1.  Split Coast Stampers Sketch #462 -- Sketch is shown above
2.  The Male Room #139: Use Die Cuts -- mine are listed above in post  

3.  A Place to Start June Challenge: Create a Shaped Card
4.  The Sisterhood of Crafters Stenciling Challenge -- I've described my stenciling and the stencils used in my post.
5.  Try It On Tuesday: Create a Scene
6.  I Love ProMarkers #413: AG + Opt. Embellishment -- I coloured my scene with ProMarkers and I played the option with a fringed border and a bow.
7.  Scrapping 4 Fun #169: AG

8.  Catch the Bug June Color Challenge -- I used the grey, light blue and the browns.

9.  Outlaws Festive Fridays 6/26-7/9: Anything Goes theme
10. Use Your Stuff #401: Free Week
11. Crafty Cardmakers #260: Create Your Own Background -- I created an outdoor background scene.
12. Aud Sentiments #254: Summer + Sentiment
13. Cut It Up Challenge #203: Die Cut + Celebrate Summer Colors -- my card uses light turquoise sky, bright green vines, hot pink bow, and yellow beige cubs fur with reddish yellow top manes and honey yellow ground stenciling.
14. Creative Sketchy Girls #49: Man's Card - my card is a Welcome Baby card for a Grandpa friend.
15.  Colour Crazy Craft Challenge Week 24: AG with Colouring -- I coloured my focal image, base ground and sky with ProMarkers and used Palette Hybrid inks with my stencils.
16.  Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #134: AAG

Pastel Steampunk Birthday

Hello again! Today I'm sharing a 5x7 birthday card I made last night for someone very special. I played with Distress ink blending in pastel color/shades, stamping, heat-embossing, masking, coloring and stenciling. I was going for a bold pastel look for this Deep Red Stamps Steampunk Lady which I have owned for about a year but never before used until now -- NBUS!

Papers: Springhill and SU card stocks
Stamps: Deep Red Steampunk Lady, Lawn Fawn Beep Boop Birthday sentiment
Stencils: CC Sheena 7x7 Burst, A Colorful Life 6x9 Petal Overlay
Inks: Distress, Versafine Clair, Versamark
Miscellaneous: Daisy D's Reflection Rub-ons (corner embellishments), Zing! Opaque White embossing powder, Gold and Silver Wink of Stella glitter brush pens

   

I try to always read Julie Gearinger's blog and have been inspired by her goal to eventually use every Split Coast Stampers' sketch. I've been making an effort to use more of them, too, because there is no time deadline and sometimes that's very nice. Plus, there are some very good sketches in the archive and the SCS community is great for sharing (and learning!). I've eyed this sketch from last November for months now, so I was happy to be able to use it since I had a pair of very old black n white deco corner rub-ons I also wanted to use.

I had to Google the rub-ons to find out who made them, they are so old. Daisy D's scrapbooking rub-ons...and they are still moist and good. Plus, they held on beautifully while having ink blended over them. Go figure!

Here's what things looked like after first adhering the rub-ons, then stamping the Lady with VersaMark and heat-embossing with the Zing! powder. You can see part of the mask I stamped and fussy cut to protect the Lady while I inked the background. Those of you who use the Zing! brand, does your powder stink to high heaven like smelly cheese? Mine does. I would assume it's gone bad except...it hasn't. It performs perfectly and once melted does not smell at all. Just gotta wonder why it stinks so badly...

I then masked the Lady and went to blending inks for the background. Then, I colored her face, hair, hat and feathers with ProMarkers, and painted her feathered bodice with Silver Wink of Stella. I painted Gold Wink of Stella over the gears. Afterwards, I realized my mask was a tad hair off and it created a ghosting effect on her profile, but I liked the effect! (It takes a LOT of messing up for me to trash something, heehee).

I stamped the Lawn Fawn sentiment in Versafine Clair Nocturne, ink-distressed the edges and put the top card aside to work on the mat. Sorry, no progress photo, but what I did was stick down the Sheena Burst stencil on a larger piece of card stock and applied Versamark to the card through the stencil. Then I poured on the stinky Zing! ep and heat-embossed. Then I ink-blended in the rays and ink-distressed the edges. Only a half-inch shows all the way around, but I think it gives a very cool pastel look to complement the Lady.

Now for the back of the card. I ink blended and stenciled another piece of card stock, stamped and heat-embossed my custom siggie with some strips leftover from the card front.

This is my attempt at the Stencil Ghosting Technique, which I read about over on Stamplorations'  blog with Deepti posting. I thought, I can do this. Looks so simple. Well, my ghost is really faint! Guess I should have applied more layers of Distress ink, but not wanting to do that, I took the result and used it. Don't really know what I did wrong. Still looks cool! Using! lol

And a final look. I know her coloring's unrealistic and I meant it to be. White embossing isn't usual. I purposefully blended pinks for her face and neck and I love how soft and luminous it is. Also the light bright yellow hair. The stamp is an original so my thought was, why color her ordinary?

Thanks for dropping in to see what my condition my art condition is in! I'm hanging in and still creating! heehee Hope we all have a good week - stay safe and well! XOX

MY CHALLENGES PLAYLIST:
1.  Split Coast Stampers Sketch #776 -- Sketch is shown above
2.  Outlawz Saturday Paper A La Mode 6/20-7/3: Splash of Pink
3.  Rainbow Card Challenge #18: Pastel Rainbow

4.  Crafty Cardmakers #260: Create Your Own Background -- I created a blended ink background layer on top of a stenciled rays base mat.
5.  More Mixed Media June Challenge: AG + Opt. Purple -- I have played the purple option.
6.  Use Your Stuff #401: Free Week
7.  Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #134: AAG
8.  Colour Crazy Craft Challenge Week 24: AG with Colouring -- I used ProMarkers to color my heat-embossed focal image and Distress inks on the background layers.
9.  NBUS #15: AAG -- My NBUS item is the Steampunk Lady stamp
10. Sisterhood of Crafters Stenciling Challenge -- stencils used and process detailed in post

Here's to You Dad Tag

I am popping in tonight after spending a wonderful day with the father of my child aka Honey! Don't remember if I have ever mentioned this, but he sees me give it my all working hard on the cards and other art I make, so he will often insist on my not making him one on his special days. He knows that while I live for it and it's my passion, he also knows how much it wears me out (and stresses me out if I'm rushing). It's just one of the reasons I love him so. And I do manage to sneak some cards for him -- always anniversary and valentine cards -- but this Father's Day I made a gift tag to go with the present I bought him.

I found this fabulous digital image called King For The Day over at Mo's Digital Pencil, and I knew I had to have it because he reminds me of Honey so much that even Honey agrees! And that's exactly how Honey sits in his Man Cave recliner. (I often tease him about not getting up out of it for hours, that he is all settled in to ReclinerWorld - LOL).

I resized it in PSE (that's a 5-inch circle, I wanted it big), printed out on Springhill index stock and colored it up with my ProMarkers. The sentiment is an Avery Elle stamp. I didn't have any circle dies big enough, so I pulled out my trusty older-then-dirt Coluzzles for the circular "die cut".

Now, for some reason my brain farted and I failed to realize I should just cut another Coluzzle circle for the back (to give it stability and a separate stamping surface so as not to show through). Oh no, I thought the largest Spellbinders Cicle die would be just fine. So it looks a bit dorky but I plan to hang it in my art corner where only the front will show. And the littler circle did it's job fine. All three sentiments are Verve stamps.

Honey was impressed I used an image that at least "remotely" favors him -- HA! And I had fun making him a little something arty to go with his new weather station he has been wanting. Plus, I get a new tag for my art corner. Life is Good in ReclinerWorld! Hope you and yours had a great day too.

Thanks for dropping by and stay well and safe! XOX

MY CHALLENGES PLAYLIST:
1.  Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge #292: AG with Mo
2.  Try it on Tuesday: Make It Masculine
3.  I Love ProMarkers #412: AG + Opt. For a Boy -- I've played the option.
4.  Creative Fingers #188: AAG
5.  Crafty Cardmakers #259: Masculine
6.  Outlawz Twisted Thursdays 6/18-7/1: AG + Opt. For Him -- I've played the option.
7.  Paper Funday #18: AG + Opt. Masculine -- I've played the option
8.  Paper Girls #202: Circles
9.  Colour Crazy Craft Challenge Week 23: AG + Colouring -- I used ProMarkers to color my tag.
10. Classic Design #6: AAG

Boot-Scootin' Birthday!

Hello Again! I hope all are well and safe. One of my nephews has a birthday coming up. He lives way out in West Texas, so I decided to make him a card with a Frontier or Western Rustic theme. I have some My Favorite Things Die-Versions dies that I have never used -- ah, NBUS supplies! And cut in black, they make great silhouettes. Silhouettes are great for an ink-blended landscape background. And that's how the idea for this card began! :-)

I really had so much fun with these dies and with the ink blending. By the way, the dark blue of the sky is in reality more of a teal and there is no green at all at the bottom. Blues + greens in a camera = Sometimes yuck! My card base is textured Bazzill, as is the black shimmer card stock that all the dies were cut from. The black base mat is edge-distressed. I used my Spellbinders 6x6 Art Deco Fairmont square dies because I think they look a little western. For the ink-blending, I used my blending brushes and an assortment Distress inks, Palette inks and Versafine Clair inks.

  

The sketch I followed is the current one from The Male Room. I resized it in PSE to 6X6.

I used the desert landscape die to cut a mask out of some blue stencil film I have. I sprayed that with stencil adhesive and laid it on my white card stock, burnishing well. I then began applying and blending inks. I cut another desert landscape out of white card stock and used it on my piece to check for bald spots and fill them in before laying down the black die cut landscape.

I used Tim's Label stickers for the front sentiment. I am not showing the inside because my printer is not letting me print my inside message. But it's going to say "Have a Boot-Scootin' Birthday!" I'd wanted to put that on the front but couldn't get happy with my word spacing and it looked too crowded to me. It's great for the inside, so that's what it will be once I can print again.

Here's the back of the card and a close-up of the Paper Roses chunky barbed wire die cuts. Two Art Deco squares were cut, one in black, the other out of white card stock which I inked a bit.

And one final look - makes me wanna dance the Texas Two-Step, if I could only remember how or keep my balance long enough!

I hope you liked my kitschy rustic western style card. I think it has quite a lot of charm and makes a great guy card, too. Thanks for visiting - stay well and safe! XOXO

MY CHALLENGES PLAYLIST:
1.  The Male Room #138: Sketch -- Sketch is shown above.

2.  Paper Girls #201: Color Challenge -- I used these colors in my ink-blended background and card.  

3.  Hero Arts Stay Crafty Challenge #10: Build a Scene  

4.  NBUS Challenge #15: AAG with NBUS -- my NBUS items are the dancing couple, center landscape and barbed wire corners (on card back) dies

5.  A Vintage Journey June Challenge: Rustic Charm -- my card is rustic western/frontier in a mixed media vintage style - these images are generally thought of as kitschy western icons.

6.  Three Muses Challenge: Silhouette

7.  LTSCB #134: For the Boys

8.  Crafty Cardmakers #259: Masculine

9.  Paper Funday #18: AG + Opt. Masculine -- I've played the option

10. 613 Avenue Create #234: AG + Opt. Create a Blended BG -- I have played the option with an ink-blended landscape background

11. Outlawz Monday Greetings 6/8-6/21: Greeting + Masculine

12. Outlawz Twisted Thursday 6/18-7/1: For Him

13. Try It On Tuesday: Make It Masculine