Just a Peek...

...of a project I have posted today on the Quietfire Creations blog!! 

                              I hope you'll go check it out!!!!

Be Yourself ATC

Quietfire Design has a brand new stamp set just released this week called The Woods Would Be Very Silent that I Love!!!! It includes 5 stamps and I've used 2 of them on this atc, the cute little bird and Be Yourself.  The beginning of the background was done some time ago when I was playing a bit with the technique where you ink an acrylic block with dye ink, spritz with a little water and stamp onto your paper.  I had some that I'd cut into atc sizes and this is one of them.  I stamped the leaves (a very old stamp) with Distress Ink mowed lawn.  Be Yourself is stamped with jet black Archival.  The bird was stamped on a scrap with Distress Ink dusty concord, embossed with clear powder and colored with Tombow markers... I went over some of the coloring with a waterbrush and blotted a bit to get a more mottled look.  Quietfire's checkerboard corner image was lightly and partially stamped here and there in the background with Distress Ink tumbled glass. The edges colored with Distress Ink peacock feathers.  Finished with some black pen stitching.  

Welcome Little One

Again I'm using new stamps from Quietfire Design - 2 of the images from the Welcome Little One set.  

I started with a mop up piece that was laying on my counter.  I'm pretty sure I had mopped up Distress Paint.  On this background I stamped the oval Welcome Little One image with jet black Archival Ink, embossed it with detail clear powder, used a white Sharpie paint pen to color the moons and stars white and add dots around the edge, and sponged Distress Ink salty ocean around the edge.  For the center piece I put Distress paint on my craft sheet and then pulled a scrap of cardstock through it, dried it, stamped the sentiment with jet black Archival, embossed it with detail clear, cut it out with a Spellbinders oval die, again used the Sharpie marker to make dots and color in the heart, distressed the edge and sponged it with Distress Ink.  For the border I cut 2 pieces from white cardstock using the Spellbinders Ironwork Motifs set, painted them white which gave their look a bit more oomph, glued one to the center and then pieced in the ends from the other cutout and finished up with some gems.  

The close up below makes me laugh because there is a reflection of my hand and camera in the large gem.  

Simple, Sweet Thank You

This is a very fast card using stamps from one of Quietfire Design's newest sets, Floral Thank You.  I've used Ranger's Specialty Stamping paper for both the folded card and the layered piece.  I love how crisp the stamping is on this paper!!!  On the layered piece I've stamped the images using Archival Ink sepia, sponged Distress Ink picked raspberry, heavier around the edges and lighter as you move in, added color to the flower with a water brush and Distress Ink picked raspberry and mowed lawn and created highlights in the flower with a white gel pen.  Finished off with a piece of bakers twine.  

The Color Blue and a Little Metal

I like to cut the pockets off of old jeans ready to be thrown away and use them to make hangings.  I did some Christmas ones a couple years ago (and gave them away) and now I've done a summer one.  You could put flowers in it and hang it up or use them to give little gifts to people or.... whatever idea you come up with.  

The Everything Wendy Vecchi Yahoo group has switched to month long challenges giving people more of a chance to enter what with lives being so crazy busy.  The challenge for June is the color blue and metal and, of course, the standing requirement, to use at least one Studio 490 stamp.  The blue pocket made a perfect starting point for the challenge and actually with the metal rivets I've got that cover too, lol.  All the stamps and stencils I've used are Studio 490.  I first put the stripes along the bottom using the Studio 490 embossing paste, let it dry, put the stencil back on and added green Distress Paint.  Next I stenciled the flowers but I remembered how Wendy talked on her blog about coloring the paste using Distress Reinker, so that's what I did and it worked Great!!!!  I added dots on the flowers with a Sharpie paint marker. Stamped some little dots in the background with Distress white paint and then stenciled the circles with Distress Paint salty ocean.  I had a paper towel that was used to soak up extra Dylusions spray, glued some of it to a scrap of cardstock, let it dry, ran a Distress Paint dabber over it lightly to calm the color just a bit as it seemed to bright for the project and then stamped the saying with Archival jet black, cut it out and glued it on.  The butterfly is a Blossom Bucket piece.  Punched two holes with my Crop-a-dile, added the wire hanger, dyed a piece of ribbon and tied it on.  Then I thought I'd make a simple tag to put inside.  Started with a #8 manila, sprayed on some Dylusions, put some Distress Stain on my craft sheet and dipped, sponged Distress Ink around the edges, stenciled on the dots with Distress Paint, and stamped on the distressed stripes with Distress Paint. For the flower I put on the flower stencil, sponged embossing ink just through the flower, removed the stencil, poured on Distress Embossing Powder (mustard seed), heated it, put the stencil back on, inked the flower again with the embossing pad, removed the stencil and did another layer of embossing powder.  For the stem I just stenciled Archival Ink.  Added black lines around the flower.  Stamped the saying with jet black.  Added black and white doodling around the edge.  Doodled around some of the dots to make flowers.  Tied on left over colored ribbon from the pocket with wire and made a wire spiral for the center of the flower.  

Life the life.............

A birthday card for our Grandson. The panther is from The Stampin' Place.  

From Plain to Beautiful

This started as a plain wood $1 frame from Michaels.  Isn't it wonderful how our stamping supplies can be used to transform it into something beautiful!!  It was given to a beautiful young woman as a graduation gift. 

The bird, flowers and scripture are all from Our Daily Bread Designs, the set is called Sing to the Lord.  The line at the bottom is computer generated and part of a song called 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) by Matt Redman.  It's a fabulous song and if you'd like to check it out, HERE it is on YouTube. 

Frame - Gesso whole frame and let dry... Wendy Vecchi's white embossing paste through the Americana stencil Jacobean Floral and let dry (I do this in sections so I don't mess up wet paste trying to move the stencil and adding paste again)... gesso whole frame including embossing paste and let dry... paint with Distress Paints chipped sapphire and seedless preserves adding water as needed to help the colors blend smoothly where they come together and let dry... Inka Gold rose and platinum rubbed on to bring out the texture and design and also added through the Crafter's Workshop stencil Mini Circle Explosion... Music Collage (Stampabilities) stamped onto the sides of the frame with Archival Ink deep purple.  

Center Piece - Ranger's Specialty stamping paper colored using Adirondack pink sherbet (ink rubbed onto craft sheet, spritzed with water and paper pressed in), music image (Me & Carrie Lou) stamped with Distress Ink old paper.  Bird, flowers and scripture are stamped with Archival Ink jet black.  An extra bird and extra flowers stamped onto scraps of Specialty Stamping Paper for cutting out and layering over images for dimension.  Coloring done with ink and a water brush.  Tiny holeless gold beads added tot he centers of the flowers.   

Distress Paint used on the back of the frame and also Inka Gold platinum.  Center is Specialty Stamping Paper colored with Dylusions spray.  Scripture and flowers (Our Daily Bread Designs) stamped with Archival Ink jet black.  

Linking up to Artists in Blogland Show & Tell Saturday. 

Mixed Media Journal Spread

This was fun!!!!!!!!!  I've seen in several places on the web lately a technique where you glue things down, gesso over all of it and then add color giving lots of texture to whatever you are doing.  I love texture and just had to give it a try.  I hadn't done any pages in my scripture journal lately and thought I needed to do something.  I began by gluing mostly scraps from my work area onto the pages, although I did pull a bit of lace out of a drawer.  Let it all dry and gessoed over everything.  Some of the ribbon scraps and one of the burlap scraps had been colored with Distress and therefore the color bled through the gesso but that was fine.  I let the gesso dry, sprayed on various colors of Dylusions sprays, and let it dry.  Then, because Dylusions easily rubs off of gesso, I added Golden fluid matte medium over all of it.  I dabbed it on with a paintbrush or used small brush strokes so the colors wouldn't just all mix together.  It really deepened all the colors and looks awesome!!!  Next I rubbed old gold Inka gold around the edges heavily and over some of the other texture lightly giving great highlights.  The butterflies (a Quietfire Design stamp) were left from previous projects.  The flowers were scraps - I added the color, doodling and stamping.  I cut the stems and leaves from green corrugated lightly adding Distress paint mowed lawn so it just painted the top of the ridges and then adding further highlights with Inka Gold platinum and a white gel pen.  

"Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future" was the main point in a sermon Pastor Chuck gave about a month ago and the scripture was also part of that sermon.  

I had a couple of  turquoise dried paint drops laying on my craft sheet and glued those on and also add a few more drops.  Finished up by adding some white paint doodles and dots. 

O my soul

A Ranger #10 manila tag.  Glued a piece of Tim's music tissue wrap on the front. Put Distress Paint on a craft sheet and swirled the tag through it.  Added Viva Ferro in old gold through A Crafter's Workshop stencil mini rustic paint.  Stamped leaves (Dylusions) across top with Archival ink.  Stenciled A Crafter's Workshop mini burst at the bottom with acrylic paint.  Stamped piano keyboard image (Leavenworth Jackson) and embossed in black, roughly colored in keys with gel pen.  Stamped flourish (Stampabilities) along left side with Archival Ink. Rubbed, using my finger, Viva Inka Gold in old gold over the rustic paint stenciled areas and around the edges of the tag.  Computer generated some of the lyrics from the song 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) by Matt Redman, cut them out, and glued them on... added shading with an All Stabilo pencil.  Tied on gold cording.  Colored some ribbon with Distress Paint, stamped it with music and tied it on.  Finished it off with a Prima music note clip.  

Courage

First, my heart goes out to all those effected by the recent storms.  You are in my prayers!!!

And now on to this card.  It's been in my drafts for quite some time and finally I can share it.  The quote is a stamp from Quietfire Design, you can find it HERE.  

I took a "mop-up" piece of cardstock... translation - a piece of paper used to pick up extra color from a craft sheet while working on a project.  This piece picked up excess from more than one project. 

I decided on an area for my quote and stamped it with Archival Ink jet black.  

Next I placed a Spellbinder's die over the paper, used a marked ruler to be sure the quote was straight and evenly spaced within the die, taped the die in place with removable tape and ran it through my Vagabond.

I tied a Distress Ink colored 4mm silk ribbon around the piece.  My layers are cut from Core'dinations Adirondack cardstock and distressed with a sanding block.  Four black, sticky-backed gems.  

I Couldn't Stand It

I blogged this house last week (the post is HERE if you didn't see it), and I said I used the large flourished heart but when it was finished I wished I had used the small one.  

Well it's been sitting on my counter and I would cringe every time I saw it because the heart was just too big, so I ripped the heart off as best I could, put new paste on and added the smaller heart and now it looks like this.  Much better!!!

Distress Paint and Adirondack Blending Solution

So when I got done with the 6 x 8 canvas I had 3 flowers left over I hadn't used and thought I should.  

I also had 3 tags laying in my work area that I had been trying something out on and decided to use one of those.  These are the 3 tags.  The coloring is done with Distress Paints and Adirondack blending solution.  For the first tag I sprayed the tag with well with water, added salty ocean and wild honey DP, blended it a bit with my finger, dripped on blending solution (more like shook it from the bottle so it fell in drips), and dried the tag. *the paint needs to be wet when you drip on the blending solution and not too thick which is why the tag is sprayed with water*  For the second tag (and it's the one I decided to use) I painted the tag with weathered wood DP, let it dry completely, sprayed it with water, added chipped sapphire DP, and shook on the blending solution.  For the 3rd tag, I had used picked raspberry, let it dry, added salty ocean and wild honey, dripped on the blending solution and went, "duh, I forgot the water", tried to add water, didn't really work at that point, dried it, then sprayed with water, added weathered wood DP and dripped on the blending solution.   

To finish the tag, I stamped some Wendy Vecchi images.  The flourish is embossed with white powder that isn't a bright white.  The honeycomb is stamped with Adirondack pigment snow cap.  The edges of the tag are distressed using Tim's paper distresser.  "create" is embossed into Ten Second Studio metal using one of their molds and I used a wheel around the edge... sanded the raised areas, lightly brushed on chipped sapphire DP paint over the word keeping the paint mostly inside of the "wheeled area", dried it, sanded it again.  I used weathered wood and chipped sapphire paint on each of the flowers, heated and shaped each flower, stacked them together, made hole and put a small brad through them all, glued it to the tag and finally added a Blossom Bucket piece to the center.  Oh, I almost forgot.. I stamped Wendy's flower border image along the bottom right with snow cap ink before adding the metal piece - it kind of blends in but adds a nice extra detail. 

6" x 8" Mixed Media Canvas

Another canvas swap with a small group of friends, this one was sent to Lori.  I totally loved this canvas when I was done with it - so much that I might have to make one for myself.  I also find that I really enjoy making canvases.

I began by stenciling leaves (Wendy Vecchi Studio 490) on the canvas with white embossing paste (Wendy Vecchi)... I stenciled one or two leaf stems, let them dry, did another one or two, let them dry, etc. until I had it covered.  Then I gessoed the whole canvas.  Next I sprayed it with water and then started adding Distress paint.... I either sprayed more water or blotted some off as I went whatever was needed to allow the colors to blend but not blend too much.  Let the paint air dry and it was beautiful but I wanted the colors to be a bit darker so I sprayed with water and added paint again just like the first time and let it dry.  Next I stenciled little circles (A Crafter's Workshop stencil - mini circle explosion) in between the leaves and on the sides of the canvas with a heavy bodies acrylic paint and let it dry.  Randomly stamped Wendy's text image with Archival Ink.  Used my finger to add Viva Inka Gold in old gold to the edges and over the leaves catching some of the high spots but also getting some on some of the low spots.  The flowers --  I used Glue 'n Seal to glue pages from an old Gregg Shorthand book to Wendy's Clearly For Art, enough to cut Tim's tattered floral's die 3 times.  Then I used Distress Paint to color the flowers and Archival Ink to stamp Wendy's small weed image along the edges of the petals.  Cut, heated, and formed the flowers. I added small holeless gold beads to the centers of the little flowers.  The leaves -- Another Wendy stamp.  I stamped 3 of them onto grungepaper, cut them out, painted them with Distress paint on both sides, stamped various Wendy backgrounds onto the leaves with Archival Ink, drew the black lines with a Pitt pen.  The words -- Wendy stamps again.  I painted manila cardstock with Distress Paint, stamped with Archival Ink and cut them out.  The butterfly -- Yes, another Wendy stamp.  I cut a piece of grungepaper large enough to stamp the butterfly on, painted it with Distress Paints, let them dry, stamped the butterfly with Archival Ink, and cut it out.  I also painted the back  

Below is the wonderful canvas I received from Trent!!!!  It's 8" x 10".