Monday, December 29, 2014

Oldie Moldie Monday


Oldie Moldie Monday - time to show some love for old supplies.  This is a card for Operation Write Home.  First one I have made in a long time.  Hopefully I will get back in the swing again.  I do need to use up some of my supplies.

Enjoy what remains of your Monday.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas Santa


Merry Christmas.  Santa is colored with distress paints.  Sentiment stamped on vellum.

Monday, December 22, 2014

Oldie Moldie Monday



Some Holiday Cheer for Oldie Moldie Monday.  I have never inked this cute moose.  He is a Hero Arts stamp.  The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.  The paper is from Bo Bunny.  I made two of these cards for a couple special young men in my life.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Weiner Dog Christmas


Who doesn't love a Merry Christmas Weiner Dog.  This is a card for my student worker.  I thought I should let you know I am trying to create.  I have two more of these cards ready to be assembled.


Monday, December 8, 2014

A Little Distressing on Oldie Moldie Monday

Monday - time to show some love for your old supplies.  Once again I had this idea swirling around in my head and I had to get it out.  I took a break from cleaning to do a little creating.  I needed to get this idea out of my head.  It is a combination of old and new.  It is an old stamp.  The flourish is an old die cut  with old gold Stickles on it.  The Merry Christmas ribbon is old.  The doily is old and so is the fabric I used for the accent and the bow.  The Authentique paper is new but the other print is old.


This is a six inch canvas.  We recently got a new Panera in town and their take out bags have great paper.  The canvas is wrapped in paper from Panera.  The dark brown that Santa is mounted on is from the bag along with the pleated brown paper on the side.  I distressed the edges of the stamped image and the matting around it.  I also inked the edges of the canvas.

I am going to enter this into two different challenges.
   
     Virginia View's Challenge - Distressed

     Wednesday - Simon Says - which is Christmas/Holidays

This canvas will be for a special friend who will appreciate the work I put into it.  I think I will make another one for my oldest daughter.



Thursday, December 4, 2014

Holiday Ornament

I have had this ornament design rolling around in my head for awhile so it feels good to get it done.  I really do like how it turned out.  I do wish I could get a better photograph of it.

The challenge on the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge Blog is anything goes.  Yeah - my ornament came to life.




The clear glass ornaments that you can buy at the holidays are wonderful to create with.  They are a blank canvas.  I put a coat of clear gesso on the front of the ornament.  I painted some dictionary pages with gesso and when it was ready I stamped Mr. Snowman.  I colored the few things that you need to color on a snowman.  I used my Faber Castell Big Brush pens.  I put the snowman on the front of the ornament with gel medium.  I then used some embossing paste for my snowbank.  The sky was painted with distress paints.  I used a stencil to add the white dots in the sky (snow).  I brushed Glass Bead Glitter Gel over the snowbank and snowman.  I added some snowflake stickers to the sky.



I am also going to enter this ornament in the monthly challenge on the Faber Castell blog.  The challenge this month is to make a gift for someone using your mixed media supplies.

I am also sharing this ornament on the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge Blog which is Christmas/Holiday.

Next week I will do a tutorial on the different steps for making this ornament on the Mixed Media Mojo blog.

You too can have your own Paper Smooches stamps by shopping here.

Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking Magazine Special Thanks! Blog Hop


I hope you are enjoying this wonderful blog hop.  A hop to celebrate all that Paper Crafts has done for the world of card making and scrapbooking.  Hopefully you came from Nina Yang's blog.

How thrilled I was when I got my first e mail and Paper Crafts wanted to publish one of my projects. What excitement and what a honor.  Luckily I had this wonderful feeling several times and I know many of the bloggers shared this wonderful giddy excitement when that e mail arrived from Paper Crafts.

Since it is now winter in Wisconsin, I decided I needed to make a snowman card.  The stamp I used is a Wisconsin company also - Whipper Snapper Stamps.  It is colored with Copics and the paper is from Bo Bunny.


Paper Crafts Thanks Snow Much.  Good luck to all of you in this next chapter in your life.

Now hop on over to Clare Prezzia' blog and see the beautiful card she has to share.

Monday, December 1, 2014

Mixed Media Mojo December Challenge

The monthly challenge for Mixed Media Mojo December is Winter-Winter Holiday - Twist Ornament.  

Yes it is the time of the year when we are anxiously trying to get things done for the holidays.  Some ornaments made for gifts, handmade cards, buy gifts, cook, ant eat too much.

I made an ornament for the challenge.  I had an idea and looked on Pinterest for some creative help.  This is what I came up with.  It does need some refinement but I think it will look good on my snowman tree.


The shape was cut with my Silhouette.  It consists of two layers of recycled card stock and a layer of  a book page.  The blue color is a combination of gelatos, distress paint and ink.  The snowman was made with embossing paste.  I did color the paste for the nose with orange before I put it on the snowman.  The eyes are a couple of buttons embedded in the embossing paste.  The mouth and eye brows were drawn with a sharpie.  Some snowflakes and the word Peace were rub ons.  The other snowflakes were stamped on the blue.  I used a metallic silver paint around the edge of the heart.  Floral wire made the hanger.

Please join us on the Mixed Media Mojo blog and make an ornament for the holidays.

Thanks for stopping by.


Monday, November 24, 2014

Oldie Moldie Monday

Monday - time to show some love to your old moldie supplies.  This is paper from a 6 x 6 pad - it is actually Easter paper and an old but favorite stamp from Stampendous.


A co-worker had shoulder surgery so this is a card from the office.  Lined both sides of the inside of the card so there is enough room for signatures.

Enjoy your Monday - 3 day work week for me.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Mixed Media Birthday Canvas

My sweet little Ganny Baby (I am her Ganny Barb) is turning four years old.  How time flies.  She is living in North Carolina so I won't be seeing her until next summer.  I wanted to make her something other than a card - so decided a little canvas would be perfect.  I decided to use some of my Paper Smooches stamps.  The challenge on the Paper Smooches Spark Challenge blog this week is Anything Goes.  Yeah!!



I prepped a 5 x 5 canvas with Gesso.  I then painted a loose landscape scene of the canvas.  Sky and grass - very loose landscape.  I stamped the sentiment, sun and unicorn on watercolor paper.  They were colored with a variety of gelatos, distress paint and distress ink.  The hearts were stamped on an old magazine page, colored and cut out.  I stamped the clouds on the canvas and then put a layer of Gesso on the inside.  I added Whipped Texture Medium on top of the design and swirled it around so it has great dimension.  After it was a little dry, I took a glass bead/glitter gel medium and put on top of the clouds.  I also used the glitter gel medium on top of the sentiment.  All the stamped/colored images were adhered to the canvas with gel medium.  I put gel medium over the top of everything to seal it.  Of course, being for a little girl, after using her favorite colors of purple and pink, I had to add glitter.  All the purple on the unicorn has purple Stickles on it.  I finished the side of the canvas with some patterned paper.


If you would like to buy your own Paper Smooches stamps, you can find their online store at this link.

I am also entering this in the monthly challenge at Mixed Media Monthly Challenge where the challenge this month is to use stamps.  


Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is Oldie Moldie Monday - time to show some love to your old supplies.  I dug out a 6 x 6 pad of paper from Bo Bunny - one of my 5000 6 x 6 pads.  I have an addiction to 6 x 6 pads.  The stamp is one I have had for awhile and have not used too often - if ever.  It is from Inkadinkado.  I added texture to the image by heat embossing it with brown embossing powder.


The sentiment is a sticker from SRM Stickers.  I don't know who makes the pearls I used.  They are removed from their envelope.  I have even finished the inside of the card.  I also stamped the tree image on my envelope so it would not be naked.  It gives the recipient a hint of what is waiting for them inside.

I am linking this to the challenge at Just Add Ink which is to add texture.

Remember to show some love to those old supplies.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Playing With My Paper Smooches

Trying to get back into the swing of card making and planning ahead of what I need.  I have some birthdays coming up so wanted to get a head start on those December birthdays.  I thought I would play along with the weekly challenge on the Paper Smooches Sparks challenge.



This week it is a picture picture challenge.  I loved the picture this month.


I love the colors, the heart and the wood.  I used those as my inspiration for my birthday card.


Isn't this owl just the coolest - he is the largest owl in the set.  It has coordinating dies also to make your card making easier.  I took out some of my tension by distressing the edges of my paper.  If you would like to buy your own Paper Smooches stamps, you can pop over here.

I am also entering it in the weekly challenge at Addicted to Stamps - Anything Goes.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

How to Make a Sunflower!!

At the beginning of the month I posted this project.


If you want to learn how I made the sunflower.


Pop over to the Mixed Media Mojo blog to find out how I did it.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Mixed Media Holiday Card


The "monthly Take the Challenge with Mou" on the Faber Castell Design Memory Blog is to make a gift for someone you are thankful for.  This is a card but to many of my friends - my cards made especially for them - is a gift they cherish.  I have several friends that bring them out each year for the holiday. I am so thankful for my friends - they have gotten me through some rough times and helped celebrate the good times.

This is approximately 5.5 inches square.  The design was done on heavy watercolor paper.  The paper has a layer of Gesso on it.  I then took a Gelato and created the blue color for the sky.  I used a darker color to add some shadows in the blue.  I took a stencil and made white dots on the blue with the white Big Pen.  It adds a very subtle depth to the blue.  I stamped some snowflakes in a gray ink or was it grey ink.  The snowman and sentiment are from Cosmo Cricket.  The sentiment was colored with green acrylic paint which was watered down.  The hills of snow started as fabric.  I was lucky enough to find the Glass Bead Glitter Gel and brushed a coating of that on top of my hills.  There is also a light layer on the snowman.  It sparkles.  It is beautiful.  I added some shadows to the hill edges with a grey or gray Gelato.  I had some rub ons and added them randomly to the background and to the snowman. I also splattered some metallic silver paint on the background.

To finish the card, I pop dotted the snowman and sentiment.  I tied a red gingham bow to add balance to the card.  Three small red pearls were added to the snowflakes to add another touch of red to the card.

I am also entering the card in the Mixed Media Card Challenge.  The challenge is a Christmas card.


  Well it was fun getting messy and I have one more Christmas card made.

Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Oldie Moldie Monday



Oldie Moldie Monday - time to show some love to your old supplies.  Those supplies still make great cards.  I have not made a card for Operation Write Home for awhile.  The number of troops overseas has decreased so has the need for cards.  These cards are for the monthly ODBD Challenge which is hearts.  ODBD stands for Our Daily Bread Designs - they generously will pay for up to two boxes of cards to be shipped overseas.  We just need to post 25 cards for each box.  I see that my card will be working toward the 2nd box.

The cute little stamp is from Whipper Snapper Designs.  The paper is from My Mind's Eye.  The paper has some very pretty colors in it.

Thanks for stopping by and remember to show some love to your old supplies.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Oldie Moldie Monday


I have a great 6 x 6 pad from Authentique with beautiful fall colors in it.  I have had this paper for awhile.  I did not look for the year on it.  I cut the leaves with my Silhouette and also the thankful phrase.

I used some old background stamps to add texture to my leaves.  I believe one is from Penny Black and the other from Hero Arts.  I always have a supply of doilies in my doily drawer.  I used some tea to stain them a brownish tint.  The embellishments have been hanging out in my box for quite awhile also.  A little inking around the edges of the leaves and the sentiment plus I used the Tim Holtz distresser on the edges of the layers.

Thankful - so many things to be thankful for - family is one of the biggest ones, health and our friends.

Enjoy your Monday.  Spending the day with a friend.  We are going to shop till we drop today.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Sunflower - Thinking of You

Friends of mine have lost both of their Moms within the last month.  I wanted to send them a card to let them know that I am thinking of them.


One week end I had been playing with this sunflower stamp from Penny Black and experimenting with my coloring.  The coloring is done with watercolor pencils, distress inks and distress paints.  I learned lots from my coloring but at least I had one image I could use - actually two.  I used another image for the inside of the card.


The sentiment and banner are from Simon Says.

I am going to enter this card in three challenges.

Wednesday - Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes

Sunday - AAA Cards - Watercolor


Monthly - Penny Black and More November  Anything Goes

Have a wonderful Sunday - I hope you find some time to create.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Time for Another Mixed Media Mojo Challenge

Thanks, Thankful, Give Thanks, Thank You - words we need to say more often especially the Thanks and Thank You.  Thankful is such a wonderful word.  Our challenge in the lovely monthly of November at Mixed Media Mojo is Thanks, Thankful, Give Thanks, Thank You.  You can make some wonderful mixed media projects with those words as your inspiration.

Here is my project.


This is a canvas.  I painted several layers of paint on the canvas which you can see the colors peeking through.  To get the great texture I spread acrylic paint on a piece of burlap and kept pressing it across the canvas.  I love how that worked.

The sunflower is very dimensional and if you come back later in the month on the Mixed Media Mojo site I will be giving details on how you can make this flower yourself.  It is really so easy.


I added a border of paper around the canvas.  At this point I did not know if I liked my canvas but I had bought a fat quarter of fabric and one of the dots matches the color of the plaid paper perfectly.  I added torn strips of the fabric on top of the paper.  The sentiment was found on Pinterest - just do a search for thankful quotes and all kinds of great projects show up.  I created the quote on my computer and then cut it out.  I distressed the words with ink and then added the little border around the edges.   Another piece of fabric was used for the stem and leaves.  I added a couple buttons and my project was finished.

What are you thankful for - take a moment and reflect upon it.  Right now in my life I am so thankful for my family.  I have two wonderful daughters but right now my thoughts are very much with my mother and my aunt.  Both facing battles with health.  Both wonderful women and I am so thankful I have had them as wonderful examples of how to live and love.

Go get your stuff out and create a project based on those wonderful inspirational words.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Let's Chill - It is Getting Chilly

Cooler weather is coming to Wisconsin - I guess we should not complain because it has been nice for quite awhile.  Last week end - it was in the 60's.  But reality returns.

The Operation Write Home monthly Our Daily Bread Design challenge is snowflakes - non holiday card.  I love the Paper Smooches snowmen.  This one looks like me - a little short and little round - ok - maybe a lot round.

It is also going to be entered into the weekly Paper Smooches Spark Challenge.  It is a sketch challenge this week.


Here is the sketch.

This time my creation was pretty true to the sketch.  Being true to the sketch does not happen too often for me.



If you wish to buy your own Paper Smooches stamps - just stop by their store.  I keep hoping for some new snowmen yet this year.

Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, October 27, 2014

I Made It - Oldie Moldie Monday


Whew - I did not think I would be able to get an oldie moldie Monday card posted, but I made it.  The week end was too busy and I was too tired (raking leaves does that to you).  Tonight I found a little mojo and made this card to send to my Mom.  Old Halloween paper and an old stamp - one of $1 ones from Michael's.

I am going to enter this into the challenge on Addicted to Stamps - the challenge is Holiday.

Almost time to go to bed.  Must find something to wear to work.

Have a good evening.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Oldie Moldie Monday

Who would have thunk that from the Basic Grey paper Collection "Little Black Dress" you could make a masculine card.


I wanted to make a masculine card and I saw this neglected paper pad so grabbed it and wondered was there something I could use because I wanted to stamp my trusty rusty truck stamp in black and use some kraft paper.  I started looking through the pad and found a great plaid and some wonderful stripes.  Plus there was some solid paper to do the stamping on.  Thus the masculine card was born.


This card is going to a fellow cardmaker's son.  His mom makes fantastic cards so hopefully he likes this one.

Thanks for stopping by.  Remember to show some love for some old supplies.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Sweet Halloween


Isn't this the sweetest little witch.  She is designed by Julie Nutting for Prima.  I had the pleasure of meeting Julie this last week end.  I will post my projects from the class later in the week.

I used an assortment of different Halloween papers for my card.  Her entire outfit is paper pieced.

Once again I used that fat quarter of black fabric for my bow on my card.  If you go back through all my recent Halloween projects, you will see this fabric in bows in all of my projects.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Oldie Moldie Monday

It is time to make a birthday card for my Mom.  I used some pretty colors for her card.


Everyone wants cake for their birthday.  I made her a cupcake card.  This is a stamp from Whipper Snapper Stamps.  I got it on clearance but you know you can never have enough cupcake stamps.  The image was colored with Copics.  I made polka dots in the cupcake liner by using the color remover.  I then added clear Stickles.  The cherry has glossy accents on it.

The sentiment is from SRM Stickers.

Enjoy your Monday.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Halloween Mixed Media Frog

It is the part of the month where Mou posts a challenge on the Faber Castell blog.  The challenge is to create any project for Halloween or Day of the Dead.  I try to make a few Halloween cards each year.

This was a fun card to make.  I got out my texture paste, gelatos, Big Pens and started to play.  The background is a piece of Basic Grey paper which I applied texture paste to through a stencil.  I colored the texture paste with gelatos.  I wish I would have gotten a brighter orange.  The frog (a stamp from Whipper Snapper Stamps) was stamped and colored with gelatos, Big Pen and some distress ink.  I wanted a stormy looking sky so I put a layer of distress paint and then used purple, grey and dark blue gelatos to make it look stormy.  The weird looking circle is a moon - a very funky colored moon.  The brown earth is the Big Brush pen smeared with my fingers.  I added a little green in the brown.

I matted the image with several colors of cardstock.  Patterned paper was carded to the front.  I added stickers from SRM Stickers for my sentiment and the spider.  The stitches are also stickers.  A spider web was cut with my Silhouette.  I added a bow of fabric.

Eventually I will link this up on the SRM Challenge blog.

I am also entering it into the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge - where the challenge is to use fiber, ribbon or twine.

Happy Halloween.  I do so love getting messy.  (Shhh - inside is a big spider hanging down)  The person who this card is for - hates spiders.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Unity Monthly Challenge


I am slow at getting to the monthly challenges.  Here I am skidding in under the wire.  Yesterday and today.  Here is the challenge for the month at Unity Stamps.


I decided to do the card sketch for today's post.  I enjoy how they say "loosely follow the sketch".  I am pretty loosey goosey sometimes with following sketches.

I have been trying to get some Christmas cards made (I even finished the inside of this one).  I also know who I am sending it too.  The snowman is an itty bitty.  The sentiment came in a grab bag from Unity.  The paper is the new winter collection from Doodlebug.  I am a sucker for teal and purple.  Favorite colors in my design palate.

Monday, October 6, 2014

Oldie Moldie Monday, Unity Stamps and SRM Stickers

Boom - they all collide and out of the dust comes a little fall canvas.  It is a very whimsical canvas because there are no leaves - just dots of paper to give the allusion of leaves.  That is why I say it is whimsical.

It is oldie moldie because the canvas is a $1 canvas that had an image on it for kids to paint.  I always picked them up because hey - it was a cheap 5 x 5 canvas.  I have had the stamp for awhile.  The SRM Sticker has been hanging out in my crafting area for a couple years.  You get so many stickers on a sheet it is hard to use them all up.

I covered the canvas with a page from a dictionary.  I used gel medium to adhere it to the canvas.  I then applied a layer of gesso.  I stamped the tree with VersaMark and used brown embossing powder.  The background was painted with distress paints.  The sentiment strip was painted with three colors of distress ink.


I am going to enter this into the monthly challenge at Unity Stamps.  You have a choice:  a picture to inspire your color selection or a sketch.  I chose the colors. I used different pieces of paper to coordinate with the colors in the inspiration picture.  I get so much use out of my little hand punch.


I am also entering it into the SRM Monthly challenge.  This time my project is inspired by the picture in the challenge.  The colors and the leaves.  (I used whimsical leaves.)


I am also going to enter this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which is "falling love with...".  I really am falling in love with mixed media.  I guess I just like to get my hands all goopy but I sure am having lots of fun.

It was kinda fun for me to be able to actually have my oldie moldie Monday creation work itself into a couple challenges.

Enjoy your Monday.  One day closer to the week end.

Saturday, October 4, 2014

World Card Making Day

Today is World Card Making Day.  A holiday for card makers.  I do hope all my card making friends get to spend the day indulging their fun craft.  I will be on the road visiting my Mom but I will be excited when I get home to check everything out.



For today, I made a mixed media Halloween card to go along with the current challenge on Mixed Media Mojo.  Make sure you pop over there to check out the other fun cards.  You should really come play along with us too.


I had so much fun making this card.  This is almost 6 x 6 card so I will have to pay extra postage to mail this card and it will have to go in a bubble envelope.  Hard to tell but it is a black card base.  There is then a layer of purple card stock where I wet the card stock and then tore and curled the edges.  There is then a layer of wonderful plaid paper which you can't hardly see.  Dang.  There is also a strip of the same paper as the paper pieced bosom of Witchy Poo.

This stamp is from Whipper Snapper.  Whipper Snapper is a Wisconsin based stamp company.  Lots of great wonderful stamps.  It is a special treat to go to the store in Brookfield.  The only drawback is at the store you can only buy wood mounted stamps.  But back to the card.  She is stamped on a couple pages of a dictionary that were glued together with gel medium and then a layer of gesso was put down.  She was colored with different mediums:  gelatos, distress paint, distress ink, Big Pen.  After she was done the background was done with distress paint and then two different colors of gelatos to get a stormy sky look.  I mixed embossing paste with gelatos to get purple paste and put it through a stencil around the edges.  Glossy Accents was added to the eyes of everything and to the pumpkin which is a sticker.  SRM Stickers - sentiment and stitches finished off the background.

She was matted with more purple and an orange patterned paper.  I added a fabric strip to the stripe across the card and made a bow from the fabric also.  The matted image was pop dotted onto the front of the card.

Because I used the SRM Stickers on my card and part of their October challenge is Halloween, I am entering my card in that challenge.  I love what the stitch stickers add to the card.


Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy your World Card Making Holiday.  Please stop by and visit us at Mixed Media Mojo and make a mixed media project with a little fabric in it.