Technique Challenge Serenity Shells

 

Serenity Shells

I hve a fun technique for you today, the Splitcoaststampers Wednesday Tutorial – Distressed Watercolor Dry Embossing.   This card was made for the Apron Strings Pinterest Challenge #17.  Here is the challenge photo:

Pinterest Challenge #17

The colors reminded me of the beach, so I decided to use the Spellbinders Sea Beauty M-Bossabilities Folder because it gave me a good base for the Distressed Watercolor Dry Embossing Technique.  I used the PSX Serenity Prayer stamp and added the shell accents with Crystal Effects.

MATERIALS LIST

Stampin’ Up! Island Indigo Cardstock

Stampin’ Up! Pool Party Cardstock

Stampin’ Up! Whisper White Cardstock

Stampin’ Up! Island Indigo Ink

Stream Distress Ink

Sailboat Distress Ink

Mustard Yellow Distress Ink

Sea Beauty M-Bossabilities Folder

Stampin’ Up! Clear Emboss Powder

PSX Serenity Prayer stamp

Nestabilities Deckle Rectangle Dies

Stampin’Up! Crystal Effects

Shells

Christmas in July Sparkly Santa Hat

Sparkly Santa Hat

It’s July, time to start thinking about Christmas!  I usually don’t like to make a bunch of the same card, so I try to make Christmas cards all through the year.  I also like to make Christmas cards with nontraditional colors to spice things up a bit!  I made this card for today’s Splitcoaststampers Featured Stamper FS284 Cynthia aka StampinAK.  I chose her pretty Pink Winter card to case, I love her snowman image and the pink matting.  For my card, I used Raspberry Ripple for my card base and mats.  I stamped the PSX Santa Hat in Basic Black and added Dazzling Diamonds to the cuff and pom pom.  I used Raspberry Ripple and a water brush to color the hat and a Raspberry Ripple marker to add the accents.  I sprayed the image panel with homemade glimmer mist made with Stampin’ Up! Frost White Paint and matted it with a Nestabilities die cut.  I embossed the Whisper White background panel with an embossing folder, sprayed with the glimmer mist and mounted it on the Raspberry Ripple card base.  I stamped the sentiment first in VersaMark, then in Raspberry Ripple, clear embossed and mounted on the card.  This card went together quickly and I love the sparkle from the Dazzling diamonds and glimmer spray!

Inspiration Challenge Puppy Birthday Card

Inspired Puppy Birthday Card

Today’s Inspiration Challenge on Splitcoaststampers is IC345 ~ Sugar Chic Baby , an adorable little Etsy shop.  I chose these cute little Felt Hair Clips as my inspiration for my Puppy Birthday Card.  I was drawn to these hair clips because they reminded me of a blanket stitched jacket my daughter had when she was younger.  When she was in kindergarten, she fell in love with this cute little red polar fleece jacket with black blanket stitching around the edges and a plaid puppy applique with matching plaid buttons.  It was a darling little jacket, but $85, so there was no way I was going to buy it for her!  She begged for that jacket, even asked Santa for it, so I decided to copy it.  It was not hard to make, cost me about $15 and I finished it in one evening.  She wore that jacket for 4 winters!  It was a little long when I made it and I cuffed the sleeves, so as she grew, I just unrolled them.  Not a bad return on my investment!

For my card, I started with a Gable Green card base and added a patterned paper background from an old DCWV Summer Mat Stack.  I used the Stampin’ Up! Circle Punch in Whisper White and the Wide Oval Punch in Chocolate Chip to make the puppy.  I trimmed the shapes to match the inspiration puppy and used a Creamy Caramel Marker for the faux stitching.  I added a black brad for the nose and small googly eyes.  I stamped the PSX sentiment in Island Indigo and matted with a scrap of  blue cardstock cut with a Nestabilities Deckle Rectangle die.  I had to lengthen the die cut to fit my sentiment, which is pretty easy to do with the tan embossing mat.  On the first pass, I slid the embossing mat under one end of the die, between the die and the paper, and ran it through my Big Shot.  I removed the embossing pad and repositioned the die on the uncut end, adjusting for the needed length.  I then moved the embossing mat to the other end, again positioning it between the die and the paper so it did not cut off the end I just cut and ran it through the Big Shot again.  Easy Peasy to adjust the die cut to whatever length you need!

Wedding Cards

Case’d Rose Wedding Globe

Today I have two wedding cards done for Splitcoaststampers Challenges.  The first one was case’d from this lovely card Wedding Snow Globe by Angela Maine.  This card just does not photograph well, it is much prettier in real life.  It has the same shimmer as the second card and is mounted on a Stampin’ Up! Shimmer White card base, I guess it doesn’t show up well because of all the white.  For both cards, I stamped and embossed the PSX Gown stamp and then die cut with a Nestabilities Circle die.  I sponged the image with Blushing Bride and Certainly Celery and then sprayed with glimmer mist I made using Stampin’ Up! White Frost Paint.  When it was dry, I embossed the first card with Stampin’ Up! Manhattan Rose Embossing Folder and the second with a Cuttlebug embossing folder.  I lightly sponged over the rose embossing with Blushing Bride to add a little more definition.  For the base of the snow globe, I cut a piece of Stampin’ Up! Gold Cardstock with a Nestabilities die and embossed with a Stampin’ Up! embossing folder.  I sponged a bit of Encore Gold Ink on the base and mounted the snow globe on a Stampin’ Up! Shimmery White card base.  I used a Stampin’ Up! Embosslits to cut the butterflies and mounted them with Stampin’ Up! Dimensionals.

 

Fairy Tale Wedding Card

For the second card, I matted the sponged the image with Blushing Bride and Certainly Celery.  I used a piece of Blushing Bride Print Pack paper for the background, matted it in Blushing Bride and mounted on a Certainly Celery card base.  I tied a bow with a piece of off white ribbon and mounted it with glue dots.  I did not put the sentiment on the front because the stamp I want to use is on order.

Sleeping Sweet Child of Mine, just the way I like them!

Sweet Sleeping Baby

Today’s challenge on Splitcoaststampers is Ways to Use It WT381 – Sweet Child of Mine, make something for a child, inspired by a child or with a child on it.  I love this PSX baby image, so  the challenge was a good excuse to pull it out.  I stamped the image on vellum and embossed with black embossing powder.  I used Stampin’ Up! markers to color the image on the reverse side.  I cut the image and a Whisper white mat with Nestabilities Ovals and Scallop mat in Blushing Bride.  I used Blushing Bride Designer Series Paper for the background and created the large scallop border with a Stampin’ Up! Edgelit die.  I added a Blushing Bride and Whisper White Border and mounted on a Blushing Bride card base.  I stamped the sentiment from Stampin’ Up! Teeny Tiny Wishes in black on Whisper white and punched along with mats in Basic Black and Blushing Bride with Stampin’ Up! Ovals and Scallop Oval Punches.

Direct the Wind, Words of Encouragement

Direct the Wind

One of my favorite quotes is, “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”  This quote is appropriate for so many different situations and something we can all learn from.  When I saw the color combo for today’s  Color Challenge CC381 Whisper Island Party on Splitcoaststampers, I immediately thought of this PSX Yacht and quote and I thought it might work with this week’s sketch challenge #101 at The Paper Players.  I don’t have Island Indigo or Pool Party cardstock, so I used Not Quite Navy and a scrap fro my stash for Pool Party.  For the background panel, I stamped the Stampin’ Up! Canvas background stamp in Pool Party and the Stampin’ Up! Weathered background stamp in Island Indigo on Not Quite Navy.  I stamped the boat in Island Indigo on Whisper White and matted in Not Quite Navy cut with Nestabilities Circle dies.  I stamped half of the sentiment for the outside and stamped the other half on the inside of the card.  I matted the sentiment in Not Quite Navy, mounted all the pieces  on a Whisper White background panel and mounted on a Not Quite Navy Textured cardstock card base.

Cape Cod Highland Lighthouse, the creative process

I made this card for The Paper Players 100th challenge.  I am really enjoying the challenges over there and can’t wait to see what they come up with for the next 100 challenges.  I had the idea for this card in my head, but boy did I have a hard time getting it on paper!  It took five tries to get something close to what I had in mind.  I am not 100% satisfied with the results, but I do like it.  The Paper Players challenge I chose was a #90, a color challenge to use Not Quite Navy, Pool Party and Certainly Celery.  These colors are so pretty together!  I chose the PSX Cape Cod Highland Lighthouse for my image and wanted to water color  it.  I stamped the image in Night of Navy and heat set it with my heat gun, but when I started to color with the water brush, the color bled.  I decided to brayer the three colors on the background and then stamp the image, but I didn’t like it, the Night of Navy was too dark.  Then I decided to sponge the background and stamp the image in Night of Navy, but I still didn’t like it and decided not too use Night of Navy in the Background.  For number four, I sponged the background in Certainly Celery and Pool Party and stamped in Night of Navy.  I liked this one much better, but I still thought it needed something more.

For number five, I decided to emboss the image with VersaMark, Night of Navy and clear embossing powder and sponged the background with Certainly Celery and Pool Party.  I matted the image in Night of Navy and Certainly Celery cut with a Nestabilities die.  For the background, I used a textured cardstock from a DCWV Mat Stack that matches Pool Party.  I added a layer of Night of Navy Designer Series Paper matted in Night of Navy and mounted on a Night of Navy card base.  I cased the layout from Roberta, this week’s Stamping Queen on Splitcoaststampers.  Here is her lovely card, Vintage Spring.

PSX Christmas Door

Christmas Door

Today’s challenge on Splitcoaststampers is Ways to Use It Challenge Doors & Windows which I combined with yesterday’s Sketch Challenge for my card today.  I think this PSX Colonial Christmas stamp is the only door or window stamp I have, but I do love it.  I usually stamp it in Brown, but today I decided to emboss it in gold on Very Vanilla cardstock.  I used a water brush and Garden Green to color the wreath and a Real Red marker to color the bow and berries.  The background papers are scraps from a DCWV Christmas stack that I mounted on a Real Red card base.  I cut the banner in Real Red and layered it in top.  I stamped the sentiment from Stampin’ Up! Teeny Tiny Wishes in Real Red on Very Vanilla and punched with a Stampin’ Up! Word Window Punch. I cut the mat with the Memory Box Bistro Label Punch and a scrap piece of textured green cardstock.  I like this layout but I wish I had gold cardstock to layer under the banner and background panel.

Bathing Suit Inspired Congratulations

Bathing Suit Inspired Congratulationa

Monday’s Clean and Simple Challenge on Splitcoaststampers was an Inspiration Challenge using this bathing suit.  I used three layers of a Martha Stewart Scallop Border Punch at the top of the Basic Black card base and embossed the PSX sentiment in silver.  I used the Heated Ribbon technique for the flower, a video of the technique can be found in this post.   I used 15 inches of Stampin’ Up! White Satin Ribbon, attached with ATG tape and  added a Rhinestone Brad in the center.

PSX Bayou Boats Sympathy

Bayou Boats Sympathy

This is another card I did for this weekend’s VSN, JUN12VSNG– Journey of the Seas.  The challenge was to use the song “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” as inspiration for your card.  I chose to do a sympathy card in a single color, Stampin’ Up! Bayou Blue.  I started with a Bayou Blue card base and added Stampin’ Up! ribbon and Designer Series Paper.  I stamped the PSX Boats and Dock and Stampin’ Up! sentiment on Very Vanilla cardstock and used Nestabilities Ovals dies to cut the images and mats for another quick and easy card!