Magnolia Gatefold

Happy Thursday!  Whew, it is going to be a hot, hot day here today.  I may have to take a dip in the pool...oh yeah, I don't have a pool.....the dogs have a little pool though and maybe they will let me cool my toes off in their pool.  :)

Today at the Outlawz challenge group the Twisted Thursday challenge was to create a gatefold card. A gatefold card is one that opens in the middle instead of on one side.

 I had originally wanted to make this a black/white card with a touch of color, but somehow I just couldn't stop with just a bit of color on the flower.  I added some pretty purple print paper from Memory Box and some lavender cardstock from American Crafts. The image is a large magnolia flower stamp from Stampendous and I just used the center portion of the flower for my panel.  The die cut squares are Fleur de lis Squares from Spellbinders.  

We would love to have you play along with us this week and you could have a chance to win some awesome prizes.  Check out the challenge HERE.

OWH Memorial Day Blog Hop

Happy Saturday Y'all

Today I am sharing a card I made for the Operation Write Home Sketch Blog Hop.

You can find a PDF listing of the past OWH Sketches HERE. I chose to use sketch #41 for my layout.

There are a ton of blogs for you to check out on this hop, so I am going to skip on the details and send you back to the Operation Write Home main page where you will find a complete list of all of the participating blogs. Just click on the banner below and you will be taken to the hops home page.

I can't thank our amazing men and women serving in the Armed Forces for all they do to protect our freedom.

Dreams

Good Morning!  This week the Tombow Design Team has been sharing you some amazing creations using products from Canvas Corp.  I can tell you, I did not know where to start.  The folks at Canvas Corp were so generous I am sure I will be sharing more projects using the rest of the goodies that were in my DT pack.  

First, I chose the 4 x 6 Natural Canvas and tinted the edges by scribbling some Tombow Dual Brush pens onto a craft sheet and then lightly spritzing with water.  You want just enough water to allow the ink to pool up on the craft sheet.

  Drag the canvas through the ink repeating the process until you get the desired color.  I used #925 Scarlet, #933 Orange, #946 Gold Ochre and a bit of #947 Burnt Sienna.

 After the canvas was dry I added some print paper from my stash to create the base of my canvas piece. I used Tombow Mono Multi to adhere the paper to the canvas. 

 I used some Tombow Mono Aqua adhesive on the back of the vine die cuts.  This adhesive dries very quickly and nice and clear which makes it the perfect adhesive for these fine die cuts.

 In our DT pack was a package of canvas trim which I used to create the flower.  

To create the flower, I created a running stitch down one edge of the canvas trim and gently gathered it to create the rolled flower.  I dyed the flower in the same manner as the edges of the canvas. (see above for instructions).  I added a Tombow Power Tab to the middle of the flower to attach the button/twine embellishment and also on the bottom of the flower to secure it to the canvas.  

Watercolor Butterfly

Hello!  Wow, that is all I can say about the beautiful weather we have been having here in Cental CA.  I just want to be outside all of the time!  

A couple of weeks ago, I attended The Great Yosemite Stamp Escape and one of the things that we do every year is to trade ATC's.  ATCs (Artist Trading Cards) are 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" little pieces of artwork.  I normally make between 80-100 each year.  This year I chose to do a simple ATC.  I decided to use one of my all time favorite Penny Black stamps and Tombow Dual Brush pens to create these little works of art.

I chose three Tombow Dual Brush pens (Pink #723, Rhodamine Red #725 and Purple #665) and colored directly onto the stamp and spritzed lightly with some homemade pearl shimmer spray and stamped onto some Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock.  After you apply the stamp to the paper, count to three as this allows the ink to soak into the paper a bit and your image will have a bit more definition.  

Once the butterflies were all dry, I stamped the sentiment from the Hero Arts Clear Design Friends set in Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto the lower left corner.  I then rounded the upper right corner of my image panel and my Orchid/Black layering panels with the We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.  Love that tool!

Next, I used some Tombow Mono Dots Roller to mat the image panel to some Orchid and Black American Crafts panels.  The black panel is 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", the orchid is 2 3/8" x 3 3/8" and the white panel is 2 1/4" x 3 1/4".  

Here is what they looked like once they were all assembled.  The Dual Brush Pens react so nicely with the shimmer spray and the butterflies just glisten!

Spring Rain

Hi there!  Wow, I can't believe it is Thursday already.  This week the challenge for the Outlawz Twisted Thursday group is to create a card/project with a "rainy" theme. 

I chose to use this adorable Puddle Jumper digi called Ella's Umbrella from By Lori Designs.

 My color inspiration was taken from the beautiful new My Mind's Eye Saffron paper collection. I printed the image on 80# Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock and colored her in with Copic markers.  The pink panel and image panel are popped up with Tombow Foam Tabs.  The crochet trim and button are also from the Saffron collection.

 We would love to have you play along with the Outlawz Twisted Thursday challenge this week.  Remember, there are prizes to win each and every week.

OCL Inspired by Challenge 117

Happy Monday Y'all! I hope your weekend was everything you hoped for and for all of the Mom's out there, I hope your Mom's Day was the best ever!

This week on the Our Craft Lounge Blog we were challenged "Pin It" which means we were to create a card that was inspired by something from Pinterest.  If you don't know what Pinterest is, it is a virtual cork board that you can pin things to while you are surfing the net.  If you haven't signed up yet and need an invite, let me know and I will send you one.  You will be hooked!

(click to enlarge)

My card was inspired by the card shown below.  I fell in love with the layout of this card as soon as I saw it and knew it would be perfect for this challenge as it is a layout I could use over and over and create a different look each time.    I added a few more flags, used butterflies in place of the buttons and twine instead of the stitching .  I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment from the Our Craft Lounge Big Birthday Wishes set.   

  You can find Lynn's original post HERE.

Play along with us this week and be entered to WIN a $20 gift certificate from  Our Craft Lounge. You have until 11:59pm Thursday, May 17th to enter.   Participate as many times as you like!   A random winner will be selected and posted here on the OCL blog at the beginning of next month. Here are the rules: use any stamps that you wish – get BONUS POINTS when you use OCL stamps!  Link to your card/project using the link tool at the bottom of THIS post. – **be sure to link DIRECTLY to your challenge card – not a general blog or gallery link & add the appropriate photo.  Use the challenge as your basis – do whatever inspires you, but please base it on the challenge. If you upload to SCS, please use the Keyword OCL117.  We can’t wait to see what you CREATE!

Tea Time

Hello, I think things are finally slowing down a bit and I had a chance to get in the studio and get inky.   Today I am sharing a fun little Tea Bag Book that I made.  

Isn't it adorable?  I was lucky enough to recently win a fab supply of goodies from My Mind's Eye's new Indie Chic Saffron line.  I love, love the colors in this line.  At first, I wondered if the colors would be a bit to fallish, but nope, they are perfect for right now.  

I started with a piece of brown cardstock that measures 4 1/4" x 8 1/2" and scored it at 4" and 4 1/2" to create the little book.  Next, I stamped this sweeeeeet teapot from the Our Craft Lounge Tea Time set in brown ink onto a print piece of the MME/Saffron paper and colored it in with my Tombow Dual Brush pens and blended out the color a bit with the Tombow Dual Brush Blender pen.  Trimmed it out and popped it up with some Foam Tabs onto the front of the book that had been layered with some of the Saffron prints and some pink cardstock from American Crafts. The pink crochet trim is also from the Saffron collection.

For the inside of the book, I stamped a sentiment from the OCL Tea Time set and layered it to more of the Saffron and solid carstocks.  For the little tea bag pocket, I cut a piece of cardstock 2" x 3 1/2" and scored it at 1/4"  and 1/2" and then removed the corner pieces (cutting on the score lines) and folding on the score lines to create the pocket.  I added some Tombow Mono Multi to the back of the pocket to hold it nice and snug to the right side of the book.  I stamped the tea cup and decorated the same as the teapot.  

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and take time to share a cup of tea with a friend.

Thank You Bingo

Hi there, today I am sharing a card I made last weekend at The Great Yosemite Stamp Escape at The Pines Resort at Bass Lake, CA.  This was the 11th year for the retreat and we had a great time.  Now, I am a little bias as it was hosted by The Cat's Meow, which is where I work and teach.  One of the four AMAZING instructors this year was Alma de la Rosa from The Cat's Pajamas and this is one of the five cards that we created.  I love the bright colors on this one. I think it was my favorite. :o) 

Since today is Thursday it is time for another Outlawz Twisted Thursday challenge.  This week we have a BINGO twist (bingo card below) and I was so happy because this card works for 3 ways on the bingo card.

We would love to have you play along with the Outlawz Twisted Thursday challenge this week.  Remember, there are prizes to win each and every week.

Pretty in Purple

TGIF!

Today I am sharing a fun gatefold card with you.  The black gatefold card base is a pre-scored card from American Crafts, they come in a pack of 12 which makes it easy to quickly reproduce your cards.

I stamped the Magnolia image from Stampendous in Tuxedo Black Memento ink and then colored it in with my Tombow Irojiten Colored Pencils and added some Stardust Stickles

I added some Tombow Mono Dots Roller to one side of the die cut panel and adhered it to the left side of the gate fold.

Then I added some of the small Tombow Foam Tabs to the back of the image panel and popped it up onto the larger die cut panel.

For my final touch to this card, I tied a bow with some white satin ribbon and use a Tombow Power Tab to hold it in place.  I know I always say how much I love these power tabs, but they are so versatile and can be used virtually anywhere.  

As always, I hope you have a fantastic weekend.  The weather here in Central CA is supposed to be perfect this weekend and I am looking forward to it.