Four for Today

Some simple cards from the last several months that I haven't shared yet.

The image on this first one is from a puzzle box.  I almost threw it away - gasp!!!  But saved it in the nick of time and used the image, cut with a Spellbinders die, for a birthday card.  

A Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 Art Part with coordinating stamp make the fish on this card.  I think I used Distress Stains to color the fish starting with the white.  The background is kraft resist paper inked and then stamped with a couple different Stamp Zia seaweed images.

The drum set, stamped and embossed with black, is from I Brake For Stamps.  It's stamped on a piece "marbled" paper created with spray paint ages ago.  I did an online class with the technique and the link is HERE.   Be sure and click on each picture along the left side starting at the top and you will find directions with the pictures.  The black and white marbled piece on this card is also the same technique.  Bottom background piece is embossed in a folder and sponged with ink around the edges.

This card uses printed paper, a scripture stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs, and a strip of a butterfly border punch.  I used a Tombow marker inside the punched butterflies to help them stand out from the background.

MAC #45

Wow!!!  It's hard to believe that this is the 45th Making Art Challenge on the Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo Group!!!   Lori, our totally fabulous list mom, bases the challenges on projects from Wendy's books but keeps it simple so you don't actually have to own the book (but I have them all and recommend owning them).  This challenge is based on the project from Book 3 on Page 17 - which I have not looked at yet because I wait until I'm finished so as not to be influenced - and our actual challenge is to use the color blue and use green dots.  I chose to make an atc mainly because I have an in-person swap coming up in 2 weeks that I need to make atcs to take to.  I started with white cardstock and used Dylusions sprays... the 2 blues - vibrant turquoise sprayed and blotted, london blue picked up off a stencil.  (A note here... on my screen I could not get my color true... the blue background is much more turquoise that I'm showing)  I used a green paint dabber to dot around the edge - do half dots count as dots?, dried it and doodled with a white and then a black pen.  The flowers are Wendy's clicker cuts... way cool!!!!... these are 2 of the smallest flowers from the 8 Petal Flowers CFA White pack.... I colored the flowers with alcohol ink sunshine yellow and stamped Wendy's dot background (these definitely count as dots :-) on them with Archival Ink viridian.... heated and shaped the flowers.  The stems and leaves are cut freehand from printed paper... I added ink to darken the stems and used a white pen to highlight one edge.  Used Tim's foliage in the center of the flowers.  Along the bottom is a piece of 7 Gypsies adhesive backed metal scallop trim cut to size and dots added with green paint dabber using a small paint brush.  Bloom is hand written on white cardstock layered to a scrap of cardstock colored black with Archival ink (I could have used black paper but I had scraps and ink at my fingertips so went for it, lol)

Encourage Your Hopes

Lots of inspiration lead to this card.  First I was inspired by THIS post on Lin's blog, Yours Artfully... but I didn't have the paints and crackle glaze that she used... so I thought I'd try using Distress Crackle Paint and it worked great!!!  I used antique linen onto a piece of muslin... as it dried it kind of rolled and curled but a little pulling and it layed flat... I used watered down espresso paint dabber after the crackle was dry and wiped off the excess... before I brain kicked in I already had paint on the muslin edge and wished I hadn't done that... I did spray extra water along the edge and blot it but it still tinted the fabric but all in all it looks great.  I stamped the Studio 490 flower right on the crackle using Archival Ink jet black... the flower has dots in it (they don't stamp) and I highlighted them with a white pen and also some edging.  I decided I wanted to use the piece on a card that would work for both the Frilly and Funky Challenge, Let's See Some Texture and you must include fabric... and the Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge - Spritz, Spray, or Stencil.  My background used Dylusion sprays... the brown, red, yellow, and black... working in layers... the dots are a Studio 490 background stamp stamped with Archival Ink jet black and then randomly with Adirondack snow cap Pigment ink.  The letter on the bottom half are a Dylusions stencil and I sponged Distress ink vintage photo through it.  This is all done on Ranger's manilla cardstock.  The edges are distressed using the Distrezz-it-all.  I've added a piece of light colored burlap for more texture...  I've had burlap for a long time but hadn't used it much and dug it out some time back (I used some on the atc in this post) after I started watching Lynne's blog, the next best thing by lynne... and seeing her use burlap and lots of textures and layers in her projects.  The words on the Ideaology piece have white paint dabber in them and it's tied on with jute.  I took the burlap strings I had pulls out of the piece of burlap, tied a knot in the middle, trimmed the ends and tied it on with the ends of the jute.  I also use a burlap string in the button that I glued to the middle of the flower.

Every Possibility

A card I made for our daughter's birthday last month.  The background uses sprays, stencils, stamping... lots of fun... I didn't write anything down and don't remember exactly what I used.  The edges are distressed using the Distrezz-it-all.  The quote is a Tim stamp.  The vine is a Sizzix die.  The flower is a Studio 490 Art Part.  The butterfly is a punch.