Tulip Egg Spring Card

Barb in my group ATC International posted this blog:  http://www.valitasfreshfolds.blogspot.com/ , and said this site really said "Spring" to her.  I totally agree.  I went there and this woman is fantastic.  She has some free tutorials as well as some downloads you can purchase.  I went right to my stamp room and tried the Tulip Eggs I call them.  I added a sky, grass and varied the height of the tulips a bit.  Well....I don't want to copy exactly!  Definitely visit this site and see what I mean.

While I was working on this I thought.....Corn Stalks!!  Well I guess I will have to try to make them. I don't know if anyone has thought of that before but sounds like an idea to try

New Cards

These are for my recycled calendar swap.  I did a packing tape transfer of the flower photos in the calendar then put them over a sheet of music paper.  Roni on Ink Stains was doing this with her Arch tutorial and I thought....I haven't done that in a while.  She used a spray bottle but I just soak mine in a sink.  The heavier paper calendars did not work.  They did not become transparent.  I originally put them on a black card but then I thought it my not be "spring-like" enough so I switched to the green.

This is on the black background.   All the backgrounds turned out so different.

New Tim Holtz Stamps on Shrink Plastic

I saw this on "Yours Artfully" a great blog for ideas.  Very talented woman.  Well I had to see what the stamps looked like on shrink plastic so I stamped a few.  This is my experimental group.  I think the holes in the plastic need to be bigger and I haven't colored them yet. 

 

Embellishment ATC

This month for ATC International the theme was embellishments.  I hadn't tried my watercolor crayons for quite a while so I used them on the ATC.  I found out the real trick is not to over due the water.  Just enough water to moisten the crayon on the stamp. 

The background is SU ink champagne daubed on the paper with plastic wrap.

Earrings and Patina jewelry findings

These are acrylic beads I found at Big Lots a couple of years ago.  I added the bead cap and a silver triangle at the bottom.  I think they are a pretty fun look for spring or summer.

A view from the top of the bead cap.

These beads are a beautiful blue.  I wish I had saved the tag so I knew what type of stone they are.

These diamond shapes are the same material as the previous blue stone (I cut off the pic. at the bottom, ooppsss)

These dangles are for me.  I have a lot of red that I wear.  The beads are acrylic with a crystal between.

OK....I know I said the previous group of earrings was my last...however....I guess when the muse strikes you go with it!  I couldn't sleep a couple of nights ago so my brain was wandering and thinking of all these ideas (none of which I wrote down BTW), so last night I was geared up to try a few more earrings.  I also saw an idea to patina jewelry findings so I remembered the patina I purchased several decades ago.  Lo and behold it was still good.  I think these have a very vintage feel.

I thought I might add a bit of bling to this with some small crystals.

I used less patina on these.  Every item turns out very unique.

These are copper.  I bought a great assortment of stuff on ebay and these were in there.  Only problem is they both face the same way, not good for earrings.  I am going to add them to a pendant or something.

Another Stampin Up Workshop Today

I am not sure what SU set the saying is from. 

I think this set is in the mini catalog that end in April. 

Boy....My friend Sunny has been a busy bee.  Working..vacations...relative visits and she still finds time to make cool card layouts for workshops.  I was a fun day and I got to talk with some of the local women in my 2000 stampers Internet group.  I changed up the cards abit.  On the chocolate one I changed the direction of the card and added some glitter (my nickname should be sparkle girl).  On the second card I added some bling, an extra bit of ribbon I had left over (waste not want not) and a scallop behind the saying.  Love the pink ribbon technique of pulling a string at the end to scrunch the ribbon up...very easy and it really adds to the vintage feel.

New Earrings...last group

The pink is slightly washed out despite editing the pic.  Need to figure out a better way to photograph the lighter colors.



Just love this stone.  All the different colors of red, white and black.  These are a puffed square that have the hole on the diagonal so you end up with a diamond shape.



This is the last of the earrings for today.  Tomorrow on to something new I think.

Earrings and Tags combined

I posted the tags and earrings separately.  Here they are together!

New Earrings

These are more of a true patina.  It is a glaze that you add to the metal findings.

Another picture of the blue patina

This is green acrylic paint with green pearls and crystals

I sealed the acrylic paint so it would not come off.  Still lots of techniques to try!

I was playing around with some patina and acrylic paints on white metal findings.  This is what I came up with. 

Faux Tile Card

I saw a new way to do a faux tile card on Splitcoast Stampers.  The author of the tutorial used a scoreboard to score the paper then stamped the image on the paper on the valley side of the scores.  I worked for quiet a bit trying to get this to work and finally came up with this.  I wasn't able to follow the direction of using a light gray marker in the score lines.   It made my card look odd.  Hers on the tutorial looked great.  I finally used a white marker and liked it better for this card.  The thank-you is a Penguin Pants design and it fit perfect in a double-punch of the fancy label that I saw on "Stampin Pretty".  I couldn't resist doing a layer of clear embossing over the finished card.

C is for Country



Country Quilt by Gretchen

Me



Sunny

Jerri

By Deb, "French Country"

This is the C is for Country rolodex swap.  I am going to have the coolest rolodex ever (except of course the other 4 people in the swap) LOL

Another Great SU night at Sunny's House



I would never have picked these colors to go together.  Quite a pleasant surprise I think. 

Have always loved this flower from SU.  I have seen it all over the blog-a-sphere.

 



My favorite of the evening.  The small buttons are a cute die from SU.  Had to finally get the tulip embossing frame.

Great fun tonight and a wonderful mix of card styles.  My favorite is the quilt card.  Love the way the ribbon winds its way through the buttons and saying.

Tags, tags, and more tags.

This is the tag I received with Sunny's earrings on it.  I had a button hole punch that worked great for even holes.  I suppose you could stagger the holes as well.

 These are my tags.  The first three I stayed with Jen's original format.  I used Distress Ink and Ranger ink.  Some of the tags that used the distress ink I sprayed with water for a great effect.  The tags are on coated cardstock.

Not being a person who throws away much (when it comes to crafting anyway), I received this great tag from the Charm Swap from Jen.  I held on to it after I put the charm on my charm pin.  Today it hit me....jewelry tag.  I made these earrings for my friend Sunny.  Well the earrings fit so well on them I went crazy and made more tags.  The only reason I only made 6 is I have to go to work in the morning.  Thanks Jen for the GREAT TAG!!

Mojo Monday MOJO181

MOJO 181

This is my first try at a card sketch at Mojo Monday.  This site has quite a few ideas for different layouts.  I don't know why I haven't ever tried one before.  Was very fun to work out the details.  I tried to stay true to the sketch without copying it exactly.  Of course the motif is my favorite "vintage".  The image is from a 1900 Sears Catalog that I purchased in an antique store and the hat pin advertisement was in a K and Company ephemera collection.  I had the feathers however it took me a bit of searching to find them....that is what happens when I organize!!!

Charm Swap from Ink Stains

This is the safety pin charm hanger with Roni's great pen nib charm.

This charm is from Diane K.  Great wire work on this one.

This charm is from Connie B.  What a great vintage feel to this charm

This charm was made by Jen P.  The presentation was so awesome that I photographed the whole thing.

Close up of the charm.  I just love the wire bird nest.  I need to figure out how to make one.

This charm is by Gail.  The flower is sandwiched between 2 glass or plastic rounds with small beads on the circumference.

Just received my charm swap from Roni at ink stains.  She is a delight and always has such great ideas.  For our participation she sent us a chart pin to hang our charms from.  Very generous I would say.  My very first post was the charm I made for the swap.  It was a Robin on a bottle top with a handing bead embellishment.  I got back a great variety!!

One more Card

Always Card

Close up of the medallion

One last card with the scored paper medallion.  I added some ribbon on the bottom layer.  Love this set from SU. 

New Cards

SU Bliss set. Ranger inks cranberry and lettuce

Inside detail.  Penguin Pants Sentiment, SU Bliss

Inkadinkadoo clear stamp, Sizzix embossing folder

SU Bliss set

Embellishment detail

Spent a very fun day in my craft room!  These are a few cards I came up with.  I had never done the folded paper embellishment before and I really like it.  Not practical for mailing but ever so pretty.