Die-ing For Spring

Welcome to the Quietfire Design Die-ing for Spring Blog Hop

My card features the Hello die and I've cut it from colored cardstock (the deepest teal color in the Roy G. Biv Assortment) and white cardstock layering them together to create a shadow and allowing the ends of the flourishes to flip - that is the color moves to being on top of the white instead of under.  It wasn't planned but just happened and I thought it looked nice so made sure they all did that.

For the background I've used Specialty Stamping Paper, a 3" x 4" acrylic block, Distress Stains (tumbled glass, pine needles, mustard seed), and water from a spray bottle.  I dabbed the stain colors onto the acrylic block, sprayed on a little water, carefully turned it over, and pressed it to the paper.  The Specialty stamping paper has a matte coating so it takes a little work to lift the block back off without it sliding around or dripping excess stain but it can be done.  If you were to do this technique on a more absorbent paper, the results would be different.  I dried the piece and then added some splatters of tumbled glass by putting some stain on my craft sheet, dipping a paint brush in it and flicking it onto the paper.  Friend is stamped with jet black Archival Ink.  I used a white gel pen in the little hearts to make them pop more.  The butterfly is stamped on a scrap of Specialty Stamping paper with broken china Distress Ink, dried and cut out.  It is glued on just under the body area so the wings can pop up and there are white pearls glued on top the body area.  The edges of the piece are distressed and it is layered to a piece of cardstock the same color as the cut Hello.  The edges are distressed on this panel also and everything layered to a folded white card.

Here is our Blog Hop Schedule and the dates each designer will be posting (Click on each person's name to go to their blog):

March 30 - Kathy Jo and Yogi
March 31 - Wanda
April 1 - Diana and Teresa
April 2 - Sherry and Suzanne
April 3 - Yvonne and Robyn

For a chance to win a Quietfire rubber stamp or die (Don’t be shy!) leave a comment below before midnight Sunday April 5th, 2015. A winner will be randomly chosen from my list of comments and the winner's name will be posted on Quietfire Creations shortly afterwards. If you haven't done so already, go back and leave comments on all the designers Die-ing for Spring blog posts, there will be a winner drawn from each blog!

Cougar Birthday

I do like how this card came out!!!  I've used Fresco Finish paint for the background.  I took an acrylic block and put small drops of honey dew, haystack, and yellow submarine all over it, sprayed it with water, used my palette knife to help the colors blend by pressing it up and down across the block, pressed it onto a piece of cardstock and lifted it off.  That part is a little tricky as it doesn't want to let go easily.  There was still quite a bit of paint left on the block so I sprayed on a bit more water and stamped it again on another piece of cardstock.  The second printing is what I used for this card and I'll use the first on another day.  The cougar is an old Embossing Arts stamp.  I stamped it with Archival Ink jet black, trimmed the top and sides of the panel and tore the bottom.  I stamped happy birthday (PaperArtsy Jofy image from the JOFY14 set) with jet black also.  I distressed the straight edges of the panel and attached it to a brown panel, tore the bottom and added some black soot Distress ink to the other 3 edges.  Used an embossing folder on a piece of white cardstock, and attached everything together as shown.

Mixed Media Thanks

Hello!!!  I hope your day is wonderful!!!  I'm entering this card in The Mixed Media Card Challenge.

The March theme is Spring with the optional element of using a bird.

I started with a piece of manila cardstock cut to 4 1/2" x 5 3/4".  I added white embossing paste (Wendy Vecchi) through TCW stencil mini burst and while the paste was still wet sprayed the piece with Distress Stain Sprays mustard seed, peacock feathers, just a bit of picket fence, and then some brushed pewter.  Once dry I stamped a script images (Studio 490) here and there across the background with Archival Ink Forget Me Not.  I cut grungeboard with the Sizzix Tim Holtz die Bird Branch.  The branch is colored with Distress Inks brushed corduroy and walnut stain.  The bird was inked first with Snow Cap pigment ink, dried, and then inked over with Distress Ink salty ocean, a bit of faded jeans, and some spiced marmalade in the belly area.  I attached a piece of washi tape to the background, glued on the bird branch, and added flower soft so it looks like a flowering branch in the Springtime.  I used the new Quietfire Design Thanks die and cut it from white cardstock.  

Altered Grunge Paste

Happy Tuesday!!!  I hope your week is going great!!!  I am over on the PaperArtsy blog today with a post for their theme Altered Grunge Paste.  I do hope you'll pop on over and take a look at the complete project.  The beginning post with video for this theme along with the link up is HERE if you'd like to check it out (I encourage you to) and maybe play along for your chance to win some PaperArtsy goodies.  You don't have grunge paste?  No problem.  You can use any kind or brand of texture products including gels and crackle pastes for the challenge.

Sprout Grow Bloom!

I love how this tag came out... the pink and yellowy orange just looks so good!!  It was just play and wanting to get my fingers painty.  I started with a #8 manila tag and used my fingers to paint on Fresco Finish paint bougainvillea and tangerine twist, 2 of the colors in the newest Lin Brown Limited Edition paint set.  I stamped the large flowers and grasses with Archival Ink jet black.  They are both from the PaperArtsy Darcy stamp set EDY09.  I painted in the flowers with snowflake paint and on the larger petals added a sceond heavy layer of snowflake in the center area.  I added some stamping in the background (I know I should have done this first, oh well) with bougainvillea and snowflake using a couple of PaperArtsy Sara Naumann stamps from set ESN11.  I stamped the small flower from the same set as the others with Archival Ink saffron.  The words are from the Darcy set EDY05 and are stamped with jet black.  I used my finger to rub the snowflake paint around the edges.  I've used crinkle ribbon at the top colored with watered down tangerine twist.  A couple of sticky back gems for the center of the flowers.  

Hello Steampunk (sort of) Tag

Hello Again on this wonderful Wednesday!!!  I am linking this tag to Tag It Tuesday.  My friend, Felicia shared a tag Here and it motivated me to make this tag.  It's been in the back of my mind for awhile to make something very textural with lots of "stuff", kind of like we did in the Finnabair classes I took last year, but I kept putting it off until this morning when I saw Felicia's gorgeous tag and I decided today was the day.  The March theme for Tag It Tuesday is steampunk/grunge/industrial and mine might not totally fit but it does have metal stuff and gears on it, lol, I went to reach for a manila tag and decided to grab a black one instead.  I added Wendy's black embossing paste through the Tim Holtz clockwork stencil and dried it.  I pulled out a bunch of Finnabair bellies and some Tim Holtz gears, decided on what to use and painted the pieces with black gesso.  I had bought a few jars of Silks acrylic glazes last year when I was at the Finnabair classes (I like the shimmer of them) but hadn't touched them since and then when I was at Memory Bound for the Paula Cheney classes they had a bunch on clearance for 50% off (score) and I couldn't resist adding to my collection.  This is what I've used to add color to my tag.  I dry brushed honey amber over the background and then glued on the embellishments.  Once the glue was dry enough that the pieces didn't want to move every time I touched them I began adding color to them.  I used ginger flower, fern, and yellow rose.  The ginger flower paint is more pink from the bottle and even on white paper but over the black took on a more purple look.  After the paint was dry I added a few more metal pieces including the gears in the center of the flowers but I left these with no gesso or paint.  I had cut the word Hello (one of the new fabulous Quietfire Design dies) before I started the tag and the color no longer worked with what I had done and instead of cutting a new one I just painted what I had.  I painted it with the ginger flower but it didn't match (this is how I know it looks different over black) so I painted over it again with black gesso and then with ginger flower again.  I glued it to the tag and didn't think it "popped" enough so added some white with a Posca pen at which point I remembered that I was going to splatter some white over the tag but had meant to do it before gluing the word on... no worries I just wadded up a baby wipe and laid it over the word while spattering.  Finally I added white dots around the edge with the Posca pen.  This was fun and very interesting to work with the Silks over black.  

Thanks on Quietfire Creations

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!  I am over on the Quietfire Creations blog today with a card using a brand new die and a brand new stamp!!!

Thanks!!!

Yesterday was a great mail day.  I received Quietfire Design's brand new dies and their newest stamps!!!  Woo-hoo!!!  The dies cut fabulously!!!!!!!  I have a Vagabond and I'm using the Sizzix magnetic platform and a pair of cutting plates to do my cutting.  Just like the QF stamps, the dies are created from Suzanne's hand lettered work, NOT fonts.  Her calligraphy is so beautiful!!!

This is a simple tag.  I first cut the word thanks from a Tim Holtz Idea-ology mask sheet.  I took a Ranger #8 manila tag and went over it lightly with Distress Ink - broken china, faded jeans, and pine needles.  I dried it well and stuck on the mask.  I then went back over it with the same colors to darken things up, proceeded to add some stenciling (Dylusions) and  random stamping (Studio 490) with either Distress ink or Archival ink.... Flicked it with water and blotted it....  Stamped another image (PaperArtsy) with Ranger's white pigment ink....  Removed the mask.... and stamped "for all you do" with Archival Ink jet black.  I decided to add some shadow to thanks with a weathered wood Distress marker and then opted to go completely around the letters.  If I had known I was going to do that I would have left the mask on but I managed to not get off too much, lol.  Finished it off with a piece of ribbon from my stash. 

Now I'm going to go cut the other new dies!!!

Classes with Paula Cheney

This past weekend I was blessed to be able to take all 3 classes taught by Paula Cheney at Memory Bound in Ankeny, IA.  Paula is super sweet and a really good teacher.

Me and Paula

This is a 6 x 9" burlap canvas.

This is a 9 x 12" canvas.

This is a large portfolio.  I'm not close to finished with the inside so all you get to see is the outside :)

I had a fabulous time!!!!!!!  Thanks to Paula and Memory Bound!!  Oh, and I even won a prize in two different classes!!  How awesome is that!!!

Live Work Create

I've been working on a project that I can't share yet but in the midst of it, while things were drying, I had a little play and made this tag.  I began with all four colors in the newest PaperArtsy Lin Brown limited edition set of paints (banana, tangerine twist, Caribbean sea, and bougainvillea).  I added a few small drops of each color to my craft sheet, sprayed it well with water, moved the paint around a bit with a palette knife and dragged the tag through.. re-dipping the tag in a couple spots and dried it.  It did start to muddy a little but overall looks good, especially after working on top.  I stamped the large image from the PaperArtsy Hot Picks set HP1301EZ with Archival Ink jet black.  It's a collage image that includes the butterfly.  The top left corner of the image has some flowers and I stamped more of those around the top of the tag.  I used a white Posca marker to color in the flowers and once dry a Pitt pen to bring back in some black details.  Over the bottom area and up the right side just a bit I stamped the small dotted circle image from the PA Lin Brown set ELB15 using snowflake paint.  Live Work Create (in the same set as the collage image) is stamped with snowflake paint.  It slid just a bit when I was stamping it but came out alright.  To work it up a bit I added white dots with the Posca pen and then painted with banana.... at which point it didn't look like there was enough yellow in the background so I added some banana around the butterfly and down by the left bottom corner.  I painted a scrap of smoothy cardstock with bougainvillea and snowflake paint, stamped the image to get another butterfly, cut it out and glued it over the butterfly stamped on the tag.  To finish up I added twine around the bottom and also up in the hole and glued a Finnabair mechanical piece to the center of the butterfly.  The bead hanging down was very black and # added just a bit of yellow diamond Treasure Gold onto it.  

Eyes Wide Open

Happy Tuesday to you!!!!!!!!!  I hope your week is off to a good start.  Isn't this a fun card?  Well, I think so.

Let's start with the background.  I pulled a piece I'd done with my new Brushos shortly after Christmas.  I trimmed it down to 4 3/8" x 5 7/8".   I stamped the music with Archival Ink jet black.  I sponged on some white paint in the area I wanted to stamp the quote which lightened that area up.  Since Brushos react with anything wet the color bled through but I wanted it to and everything blended together wonderfully.  The quote, Dream with your eyes wide open, (now available mounted on cling) is stamped with Archival Ink jet black and embossed with clear powder. I stamped the medium sized dotted harlequin border along the top with Archival Ink jet black.  There are 2 pieces of washi tape where I knew the bird was going and I stamped the smallest dotted harlequin border (found in the mini images set).  Around the edges is sponged Archival Ink emerald green and jet black.  I also sponged some emerald green in places through a piece of sequin waste.  

The bird is the Quietfire Design Cut File, Chickadee, available in the Silhouette Design Store. **News Flash - There is a big sale going on in the Silhouette Design Store - Everything 50% off thru March 17th**  I cut it from black cardstock and white cardstock (because I wasn't really sure what color I wanted) and then I cut just a silhouette of the bird from a piece of background paper located in "the box".  Over the silhouette I stamped a text image with white paint.  I layered on the black bird and then also used the white bird to create a highlight.  The bird is attached to the card with foam mounting tape.