It’s Bloody Scary Out There!

Tags

Alcohol Marker, Black Soot, Close To My Heart, Distress Inks, Distress Stains, Doodlebug Designs, Ripe Persimmon, Stampin' UP!, Tim Holtz

Yikes!  It is almost Halloween and if you are like me you have a lot of little details to catch up on.  I had a party I attended over the weekend and I brought homemade Salted Caramel Cupcakes with cutesy Halloween picks in them and of course a hostess gift.  I chose a Bloody Mary mix 😉 one with a scary name to boot!

Halloween details

The Bloody Mary bottle tag was first stenciled with Fired Brick Distress Stain and Tim Holtz Speckles stencil that was gifted to me by one of my scrappy friends.  🙂  Thanks T!  Next I sponged a small area in the center with Ripe Persimmons Distress Ink so the Martini glass would pop.  The Bring On The Boos stamp is from the Holiday Spirits stamp set by Stampin’ UP!  I masked it off and stamped the sentiment directly on the “spattered” background and stamped the martini (with the eyeball olive) separately, colored it with alcohol markers and fussy cut it out, adhering it with foam tape.

The cupcake picks were stamped using Close To My Heart Frightfully Fun stamp set.  As you can see, I go for cutesy over scary…but I could not resist a little gore for the hostess gift.  The circles for the back base of the picks were punched out using Doodlebug’s latest Halloween collection October 31st.  Now how is that for cute?!

Bloody Mary Mix Bottle Tag

Cupcake Picks close up

I had SO MUCH fun coloring these adorable little characters.  I used my alcohol markers and distressed the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink.

I hope I have inspired some frightfully fun projects for you to try.  Please follow our blog by clicking on the Follow Us link and like us on Facebook so you don’t miss a trick…or treat.  Bwahaha!

Happy Scrappin’!

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Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Tags

Distress Inks, Distress Stains, Road Trip, Stampers Anonymous, Tea Dye, Tim Holtz, Vintage

Howdy-do, today I have a couple of projects featuring automobiles.  My husband and future son-in-law both love old cars, they both enjoy restoring and showing off their vehicles, so for my husband’s birthday I created a mini album for my husband to be able to tell the story of one of his restoration projects.  He takes pictures of the entire process so it will be fun to see this filled with pictures and journaling.

 

Fold Out Flap Mini Album

I created the design for this and a friend of mine wrote up the instructions, I will probably have the instruction for sale for a nominal price soon.  If you are interested in purchasing the instructions, please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment below.

The second project was for my future son-in-law’s birthday card.  I used Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Road Trip stamp set and created the following card.

Birthday card using TH Stampers Anonymous Road Trip stamp set

I stained the watercolor paper with various shades of Distress Stain that I rubbed onto a craft mat and then spritzed with water and smeared my paper in it until it was covered the way I liked it.  Then I stamped the vintage vehicle and the Route 66 sign in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, I created a mask for both images and then I stamped the tire track by first stamping it off and then applying it to the card, to create a lighter image.  I topped the tire track with the Road Trip stamp and then added the Journey sentiment over and below the Route 66 mask.  I trimmed the edges with my deckle edge blade and distressed it in Tea Dye in.  Then added it to a black mat and finally added that to a scrap of that fabulous automobile paper I had left from the mini album.  Voila!   I was happy with how these turned out since I struggle with masculine designs.

I hope you enjoyed todays projects.  Please click on the “Follow Me” link to the left and like us on Facebook so you don’t miss a thing.

Happy Scrappin’!

Friends Feast Together Wreath

Tags

Distress Stains, Fired Brick, Sunsational Stamps

Greeting fellow paper crafters.  I needed a Thanksgiving wreath for my front door, I have never had one and I have had 30 Thanksgivings as a married lady….I guess you could say this was loooonnng overdue!

Friends Feast Together Wreath

I printed the Pilgrim and Indian images, from Sunsational Stamps Friends That Feast Together set, at 3 inches.  I used a wooden embroidery hoop as the “wreath” and stained it with Distress Fired Brick stain.  I love using distress stains on wooden items, the stain takes real well on any item I applied it to.

I then “stretched” the burlap and ribbon into the hoop and decided to use the indented side as the front, that way I could place all my elements inside it.  In the upper portion I put the little Pilgrim pie lady with the message that I mounted on a Tea Dye Distressed base.  I made a loopy bow with wire ribbon and attached that at the bottom right corner.  Then I hot glued some silk autumn leaves to the frame and burlap in the bottom right.  I nestled the little images amongst the leaves and called it done.  It was a real quick project and I now have something festive for my door to greet my Thanksgiving guests.

Close up of Friends Feast Together Wreath

Close up of Friends Feast Together Wreath

Please stop on by http://sunsationalstamps.com and take a look at all the adorable stamps and images.  We would love it if you would follow our blog by clicking on the “Follow Me” button and Like us on Facebook, so you don’t miss a thing!

Happy scrappin’!

Cry. Laugh. Remember.

Tags

Close To My Heart, Color Shine, Distress Inks, Distress Stains, Heidi Swapp, Memento Inks, Milled Lavender, Squeezed Lemonade, Tim Holtz, Weathered Wood

Greetings friends.  Today’s post is a bit more serious.  I have had to make quite a few sympathy cards lately, and I am sure I am not the only one that feels these are by far the most difficult to create.  Never-the-less it must be done.  I have a go-to set of items  for just this occasion, and those are; a Tim Holtz stamp set (Stampers Anonymous – Nature’s Moments), Close To My Heart – Big Hug and Distress stains or markers.

Ingredients for the sympathy cards.

I applied the stain a little differently this time.  I took the Squeezed Lemonade and rolled it directly onto the watercolor paper.  I randomly covered about 75% of the paper.  Next I applied the Milled Lavender to the paper, covering about half randomly, some overlapping the yellow, some on bare paper.  The last stain I added was Weathered Wood and I randomly added this to half the paper, filling in any bare spots and overlapping both the yellow and the lavender in a few spots.  Finally I took a small paint brush and dipped it into my Heidi Swapp Chartreuse Color Shine (it has some metallic properties to it that give it a bit of a shimmer).  I flicked the paint brush to create a random splatter of tiny drops.  I have to confess, all my Color Shines are clogged and won’t spritz directly from the container anymore 😦 so my next project is to research how to get these babies working again!

Once the stain and paints dry I added the seeding dandelion stamp using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and stamping it twice per inking to get the faded plants that look like they are in the background.

Sympathy Cards

Cry. Laugh. Remember.

Peace in your memories

Finally, I mounted them on black card stock, added a length of twine and topped them off with the mounted sentiment that is embossed and popped up with foam squares.  Unfortunately, the embossing doesn’t show up in the pictures.

These are simple and this style can be adapted to any occasion, just by switching up the colors and stamps.

Thank you for stopping by and please click the button on the left to follow our blog and Like us on Facebook, so you don’t miss a thing.

Happy Scrapping!

Proof Positive That Albert Einstein Was No Crafter!

Tags

Close To My Heart, CTMH, Distress Inks, Distress Stains, Salty Ocean, Spun Sugar, Squeezed Lemonade, Tim Holtz, Vintage

Hi Tweety!  Today’s project is a card I made recently for someone who was somewhat forced into retirement and I thought the sentiment was sweet and appropriate.  It is Nature’s Moments by Tim Holtz-Stampers Anonymous.

Stampers Anonymous – Nature’s Moments

The background was created on watercolor paper with Distress Stains.  I used Spun Sugar, Salty Ocean and Squeezed Lemonade.  For this technique I use a small piece of plexiglass as my “palette” and I roll the stains in a haphazard pattern onto the plexiglass.  I then spritz with a bit of water and press the watercolor paper down onto the pooled water.  I have used this technique in a previous post, but that one had a more antique look.

Play around with various colors and you will see the different effects each combination has.  One of the other great things about this technique is every outcome is different. Which dispels Einstein’s popular and funny theory, “Insanity:  Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”  He may have been a mathematical genius but he was no crafter!  HA!

This stamp set is so versatile, I have used it for many different cards and the stained watercolor technique can be used in endless ways.  I hope you try this technique soon!

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Happy Scrappin’ 🙂

 

 

 

Water Babes!

Tags

Distress Stains, Doodlebug Designs, K&Co., mister Huey's

Now that Summer is in full swing I thought it would be appropriate to pull out some pool pics.  I found one of my favorites with my daughter and niece, two of the most beautiful girls in the world.  With that being said, the title was obvious….WATER BABES I began with sketch #118 from Sketchabilities website, then I picked out my papers which included two patterns, yellow vellum, a plain light blue base sheet and an 8-1/2×11 sheet of white.  I took out my Mister Huey’s Bubbles mask, Tim Holtz Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and Mister Huey’s Color Mist in Splash.  I held the mask down with a couple of tiny pieces of Washi tape so it didn’t move around on me and I sponged the Distress Ink randomly in a diagonal pattern.  Once I lifted up the mask I spritzed the paper with the Color Mist.  I set that aside while I trimmed up my papers and rounded the corners.  The paper with the pool gear pattern was cut to give me 2 – 6×6 squares, the other pattern piece was cut in a 4×4 as well as the vellum and the photo.  The photo mat was cut with a contrasting background 1/4 inch larger all around.  I found a tag from K&Co that had a blue and aqua watery looking background with lobsters and it was the orange-red of the lobster that I matched both the photo mat and the Thickers “BABES” to. The letters that make up the word WATER are called Curly White by Glitz & Glitter.  I made a small banner for the bottom left corner for their names.  I added a tab to the photo mat with the year and I punched various sizes of circles to keep with the “bubble” motif.  I added some wood veneers, one of which I rubbed with the Distress Ink and stamped a swirl in the center.  Finally adding a brad with a “Hello Sunshine” flag and rubbed the remaining veneers with Doodlebug inks to pull out more of the orange and yellow in the layout. Below are a few pictures of the steps and the final layout.  Oh, I almost forgot….I am super picky about my letters in titles, so I included a picture of how I use a magnetic ruler and wax paper to line them up prior to placing them on the page.  A little trick I learned along the way. Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful week!

Water Babes

What I used to create the background

Materials used to decorate one of the wood veneers

Trick I use to layout letters