Blast from the Past - September 2011

Welcome to the Taylored Expressions Blast from the Past Blog hop for the month of September. I'm fairly new to Taylored Expressions, but boy have I fallen in love! This month's theme is birth and birthday both to celebrate Taylored Expressions 3rd birthday and the beautiful new addition to the Taylored Expressions family, Madelyn Grace. Happy Belated Birthday Madelyn!

I chose to make a birthday card that also included butterflies. To me, butterflies have always been a symbol of new life , so in that way I was able to combine the birth and the birthday themes.  I used my Memento markers to "thump" the ink on the stamp.  I like the thumping because it gives a bit of a watercolor look without making the paper all wet :-)  I used the same technique, with a little more blending to stamp the butterflies.  I cut out the butterflies adhered them and added some twinkles.  After adding the sentiment, I added a little rhinestone sparkle with some additional twinkles and that was all she wrote on this card.  :-)  As an aside... make sure that you are holding on to the container really well when you are moving from one twinkle color to another... if you don't... well... you might be on the floor with a magnifying glass and your embellie gellie trying to pick them all up ;-)  A CAS card, but this would be a good fit for someone who enjoys the beauty of nature or who wants to "Discover their Wings".  Please continue on to visit all the amazing blogs and see those gorgeous projects that are waiting for you!! Sarabeth is next on the list!





Thanks for stopping by!



Recipe:
Stamps: Discover Your Wings
Paper: Pure Luxury White, Fresh Asparagus
Ink: memento markers
Accessories: Twinkles

VSN Technique - Faux Leather

Happy Monday!!  Today I'm showing a VSN card.  For the last VSN, the challenge I hosted required the use of the Faux Leather technique. There were a number of different ways to actually accomplish this.  I chose to use the masking tape technique that Beate created a tutorial for on SCS.  I have to say this was a lot of fun!!  I used a Taylored Expressions stamp set.  I made my faux leather using a scrap piece of cardstock I had on my table.  I ripped up the masking tape in little pieces and placed them on the cardstock randomly but making sure to cover the whole piece.  Then I covered the masking tape with color by using direct to paper with several different inks. I stamped the cover of the wagon on the scrap paper and cut it out.  Then I punched the star out of the same scrap.  I adhered the wagon cover onto another stamped image of the wagon (paper pieced).  I really love the way it turned out.

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Recipe:
Stamps: Wild West (TE)
Paper: Pure Luxury Lipstick Red, Kraft, Green Apple

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Autumn Leaves Kaleidecolor, cantaloupe, desert sand,
Accessories: twine, clear emboss powder, masking tape, copics
Techniques: Faux leather with masking tape

A Beautiful Winter

Howdy! Another WRAK card to send to Operation Write Home. This challenge was to make a winter card and to use our dies or punches. I have been itching to use this new Northwoods stamp that I recently acquired (sounds better than bought doesn't it ;-) ). I also broke out my Labels 18 and Standard Circle Nestability Dies. I fell back on one my favorite things to do.. which is cut out portions of the image and layer them on top of each other... The middle and top images are popped up with pop dots.

A winter card, for me.. isn't a card until it has something to represent snow. This time I opted for Icicle stickles, which I put on the tree limbs. In deference to OWH regulations... I only used the stickles on the small top level of the image... less glitter to worry about :-) In retrospect, I probably should have sponged the background.. but a lesson for next time. The sentiment comes from the Gina K winter Stamp TV kit, Winter Wonderland. The inside of the card has the whole sentiment: "Winter waves a magic wand over this world and behold, everthing is softer and more beautiful. "

Thanks for stopping by today!!!



Recipe:
Stamps: Northwoods; Winter Wonderland
Paper: Pure Luxury Silver, White, In the Navy, Little boy blue
Ink: Versamark, Memento Rich Cocoa, Paris Dusk
Accessories: Nestabilities, rhinestones, Copics, stickles, white gel pen

Pumpkin Time

I didn't mean nighttime.. I mean it's time for all things Pumpkin... pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin bread.... I love pumpkin!! Today's card serves a dual... well triple purpose. This card uses my take on the CPS sketch for this week. The sketch is below and you can see how I used the base of the sketch but then kind of went off on a tangent :-)



This card is also for the WRAK challenges at Splitcoast. One of the Falling Leaves Challenges was to create a Thanksgiving card that includes an image of a pumpkin. The third purpose also coincides with the second. The WRAK challenges are posted as inspiration for us to make cards that will then be donated to Operation Write Home. OWH sends boxes of cards to different military groups so our troops can have the ability to send a nice homemade card to their loved ones. OWH's mission is:

Supporting our nation's armed forces by sending blank handmade greeting cards to write home on, as well as cards of gratitude to encourage them.

As far as the card is concerned... it's fairly simple. The curry background has leaves stamped with versamark. The image is colored with... SHOCK... Copics. I am obviously stuck in a raffia kind of mood. For some reason, this year, I just feel the need to use raffia..everywhere it seems :-) I changed the circles on the sketch to an apple, which I also associate with fall. The DP is my newest favorite Bo Bunny Forever Fall. That paper pack is simply DELISH!!

Thanks for stopping by today.



Recipe:
Stamps: Autumn Splendor (Gina K)
Paper: SU Pumpkin Pie, Crushed Curry, Crumb Cake; Bo Bunny Forever Fall DP
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Versamark
Accessories: Apple Nestabilites, Lattice Rectangle nesties, Ribbon, raffia, corner rounder punch

BLOG CANDY WINNER!!!

So sorry this is late.  Life got in the way, just a bit :-)    My DD picked the winner out of a jar for me and so without further ado............


the winner is:

Gail!! 

Gail said...



Great card, and the blue works!


My favorite fall treat has to be the Halloween candy that's out already!

Gail, please let me know your e-mail addy and I will get your gift certificate to you!  Congratulations... and by the way, the new release at Paper and Such in on Friday... so you'll have even more choices :-)

The Christmas Season....

is near! I really enjoyed working with this week's Sweet Stop Sketch.. but as I think I mentioned I was bit ambivalent about my card.. so I decided to try another one. I like this one much better. Lucky for me I had a Christmas image around... now I can officially say that I've started working on my Christmas cards :-) This card used the Season of Love set by Sweet n Sassy Stamps. I love silhouette images... I mean y'all know I love to color, but there is something so cool about silhouettes! I inked the image with Versamark and then inked over it with Memento Potters Clay. Once stamped, I covered it with clear embossing powder and VOILA.. Potters Clay embossing without a special color powder! I also added some raffia at the bottom becuase it made me think of hay in the manger. I am submitting this card for the Ribbon Carousel challenge this week as well  (RCC19). The challenge this week is anything goes :-) That is one of my favorite types of challenges. After I added the raffia, I wasn't sure if that counted as something that comes on a spool so I added a dab of gold and white wired ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by!!



Recipe:
Stamps: A Season of Love
Paper: Pure Luxury Ivory, Pumpkin Spice, MME DP (Christmas 2010)
Ink: Memento Potters Clay, Versamark
Accessories: Nestabilities, embossing powder, nailheads, raffia, ribbon, corner rounder punch

Sweet Butterfly

Hi there and Happy Wednesday!! Today's card is the first card I've ever made for the Sweet Stop Sketch challenge. I just got this stamp set last week. It's the New Creature stamp set by Sweet and Sassy Stamps.. I tried some practice flicking with my copics on this, The coloring looks more cohesive than other times that I have tried this technique, but I still feel that more practice is required :-) Thanks for stopping by today!! Oh, and right below is the sketch that I was using....






Recipe:
Stamps: A New Creature -(Sweet n Sassy)
Paper: Pure Luxury Ivory, Sweet Mango, Dark Chocolate; Echo Park DP (A walk in the park)
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa, Rhubarb Stalk, Bahama Blue
Accessories: Nestabilities; Copics, chocolate Spica, rhinestones

A Little Summer with a little Fall

Given the Fall Blog Hop.. I was still in an Autumn mode. So, I combined two challenges for this card, CPS and Ribbon Carousel.

The sketch for this week really intrigued me..



I really wasn't sure how I was going to tackle this one... and then... I got a package from Gina K. The cone flowers spoke to me as a great image for this card. The flowers are actually pieced on the main panel and they are colored with Copics. I added some Sakura stardust clear and some crystal stickles to add a little bling on the card. In that same package, I received a pad of Echo Park DP. I Love the colors in that pack, so you'll see one of those sheets used here. The half circles are cut with Big Scallop nesties. In the spirit of this week's Ribbon Carousel challenge I added a bit of brown bakers twine to the burlap ribbon and on the panel behind it. The sentiment comes from an older Gina K set, Friendship Blooms.

Thanks for stopping by today!





Recipe:
Stamps: Heartfelt, Friendship Blooms - (Gina K)
Paper: Pure Luxury Wild Dandelion, Sweet Mango, Dark Chocolate, Kraft; A Walk in the Park (Echo Park DP)
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa
Accessories: Pewter Pearls, Stickles, Sakura glaze pen, Nestabilities, Copics, Burlap Ribbon, twine

Fall Fun Blog Hop

A Labor Day Blog Hop -- How fun!!!

Welcome to the Fall Fun Blog Hop! A group of online friends, led by the fabby Ms Lydia, decided this would be a GREAT time to get inky together, and so we've put together a fall themed blog hop to inspire you as the autumn approaches. As you meet our stampy bloggers today, you may discover that some have goodies for you, so be sure and visit everyone on the list. We have hoppers from all over the globe today, and they are amazing artists. Thanks for visiting us - grab yourself a nice fall beverage and enjoy! Here is the full list of our blog hoppers today:

Lydia Fiedler

Libby Hickson

Kim Williams

Michelle Single

Lee Murphy

Sara Henton

Yapha Mason

Lisa Adametz

Jimmi Mayo

Jeanne Streiff

Bev Gerard  

Dana Keith

Joan Ervin

Maren Benedict

Teresa Kline:ME

Hannah Clark

Dina Kowal

Wanda Cullen

Korin Sutherland

Taylor Usry

Monika Davis

Harriet Skelly

Kim Schofield

Cathy McCauley

Mary Marsh

Julia Aston

Bridget Finlay

Alison Habetler

Leslie Hanna

Sue Farrant

Michelle Hanway

Misti Oblander

Judy Rozema

Jenna Barber

Tammy Hershberger

Eva Dobilas

Kerri Michaud

Cheryl Navarrete

Neva McMullen

Marianne Baugher

Samantha

Cindy Wallach

Now on to a little inspiration....  Today, I decided to go with, what I consider, a non-traditional Fall color scheme. I usually reserve blues for winter, but I saw this gorgeous DCWV paper and was inspired!! I combined this with a new to me fold that I found on Splitcoaststampers. It is called the Joy Fold. This was a lot of fun - so thanks for the tutorial Beate! 

The little bit of brown paper peeking out is actually some divine SEI Velvet paper... The stamping is actually direct to rubber using my Copics (B95, B99).  I colored directly onto the stamp and then spritzed a little rubbing alcohol on the stamp... I kind of like the result.  It looks distressed.   You can see in the close-ups that I stamped a leaf on the leaf die cut and sunflowers under the sentiment.

I also added some of the sunflowers on the inside of the second flap. They are in the lower right corner.. so there is still room for a handwritten message.   

Speaking of autumn/fall... I am soooo happy that Pumpkin Spice is back at Starbucks :-)  I always feel that life is just a bit better with a Venti 2 1/2 pumps Pumpkin Xtra Hot Chai Latte..  I know say that 3 times fast....  so what are your favorite fall treats?  Leave me a comment on this post, by 8pm Mountain Time on Wednesday Sept 7th, with your favorite fall treat and you will be entered to win a $10 gift certificate to one of my favorite stores... Paper and Such!  I will do a random drawing and announce the winner on Thursday morning!

Thanks so much for stopping by and make sure that you continue on to the great projects that await you on Leslie's blog! 

Howdy

This is another DTGD card.. I decided to a little funky country with this card. The decorative panel was made using square nesties to cut out the material... then it was hand stitched together and put on batting to resemble a country quilt... I hope. the rooster, well what's the country without a rooster....The oval around the rooster is paper pierced.

DISCLAIMER: Please do not blame my mother or my grandmother for my less than adequate sewing technique... they did try :-) Thanks for stopping by!!




Recipe:
Stamps: Bucky (Paper and Such)
Paper: Pure Luxury Lipstick Red, Ivory
Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa
Accessories: Paper Piercer, Nesties, Material, Batting, needle and thread

To Follow a Dream

Hi there!! Happy Thursday! This is another of DTGD cards I made for this year. This was a 4 challenge card. I just love this image and imagine that this would be a great card for a graduation or for anyone embarking on an adventure.

The blue panel, or what you can see of it, was distressed by spritzing with water, wrinkling the paper and going over it with some Tim Holtz distress ink. In retrospect, I should have shown a bit more of that blue panel... live and learn :-) One of the other challenges was to use a map on our project. I had this great paper that I had used for the pirate VSN. In other words, don't look too closely at any of the print or you will think it doesn't really match the sentiment or the image :-). The image was stamped with Memento ink and colored with.... wait for it..... Copics. I also sponged the sky in an effort to make a Theresa Momber like scene! My last little touch was to add some twine, which I think just goes with a boat image. I restamped the image and a little dragonfly on the envelope to add a little whimsy. I always forget about decorating envelopes, but it's so easy and makes a statement even before the recipient sees the card.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to Follow your dreams!


 

 Recipe:
Stamps: Follow Your Dreams (Gina K)

Paper: Pure Luxury Kraft, Ocean Mist; DCWV DP
Ink: Memento rich cocoa, tuxedo black, summer sky, Tim Holtz distress ink.\
Accessories: Nesties, copics, jute