Two completely different cards.

These two cards are so very different from each other that I thought it would be fun to post 'em together.

"Sea of Love" uses minimal stamping and no coloring at all! It features just one justjohanna stamp with die cuts that were die embossed, a diecut bottle with my personal "Grapes of Kath" wine label *giggle*, and a bunch of punched hearts. I hope that you can see the hearts embossed on the waves.

"Have a Yummy Day" uses two justjohanna stamps (Strawberry Cupcake & the sentiment), but I colored the cupcake with chalks, shimmery chalks, and ink, then layered papers, added ribbon, and diecuts, etc.

Thanks for visiting today!

Back to my box -- Literally!

I'm back to my box! Specifically, a "tool box"!

I altered a plain black Target pencil box to hold all the tools that I use most frequently while paper crafting.

I used Basic Grey's Oh Baby Girl line for the papers and stamped a border onto the striped paper using justjohanna's flower garland narrow. I colored the blooms using my Prismacolor markers.

Then I used justjohanna stamps and created a little scene for each of the four sides of the cube. I used aloha priscilla, the bird bath, sylvie right & left, claire, sleeper right & left, heart branch, spring tree, and owlberta. I used my Prismacolors with the Orange thinner and paper stumps to color the images. All skies are chalked. I do love my palette chalk.

I love having this on my desktop and have three more of these pencil boxes to alter that'll hold pens, chalk pencils, and more Prismacolors!

Yahoo!

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Out of my box -- part 2

Strange forces must have been blowing through my craft room this weekend as I created another card that is out of my box style-wise.

This card is for the 4x4 Friday "Time" theme and uses the new Timeless papers from Imaginisce. I did the CHA Make & Take, but decided to take apart the M&T and use the papers for this card instead, since they were so perfect for the theme. I can't wait to find and buy more of this line. It's gorgeous.

Anyways, Timeless papers, a justjohanna owl stamp, VersaFine Sepia, Distress ink, Twinklin H20s, Sepia Accents, Doodlebug rub-ons, and a bit of lacy trim from a rak comprise this card.

I'm a night owl, so this card is very me! Random song lyrics about "my time is the night time" reverberated in my head while I made the card.

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Out of my box -- part 1

Hmm. This card is out of my box style wise and I'm not sure if I like it. It's my first Gothic Arch challenge.

The moon image (Stampin' Up) and Owlfred by justjohanna were stamped on the arch, masked, and the background was inked with VersaMagic and two Brilliance colors. I then stamped Michelle's Big Scroll by justjohanna in silver Brilliance. I unmasked the images and colored them with Twinklin H20s, which isn't showing ell on the scan. I hand stitched the swing, then added plain Twinkle stickers for the swing's seat, and star-shaped Twinkle stickers randomly around. I added "moonbeam swinging" using epoxy stickers, but am not thrilled that they're so yellow. Cuttlebugged some silver vellum, mounted it, and called it done.

But, it's done and done is good. It'll make a cute card for someone some time.

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Challenges are fun!

I've discovered that blog challenges are such fun! They make you try new stuff, which can distract one from the irritation and agita caused by a procrastinating, know-it-all, snarky, attitudinal, stressed-out teenager. And that, my friends, is a very, very good thing.

Wednesday Stamper's challenge this week is to use handmade or mulberry paper. I happen to have a ton of handmade textured paper in my stash, so this was a great challenge for me!

100% of the paper for both cards are handmade papers that I've had forever and a day.

I stamped on the reverse of white loosely patterned floral textured handmade paper using VersaFine ink. I tried coloring with Prismacolor markers. They ran. I tried using Twinklin' H20s, which sometimes ran and sometimes were okay according to the thickness of the paint. Colored pencils tore the paper and didn't go on smoothly. So, I reverted to my tried and true Chalk pencils to color the main images. I then used a cotton swab to blend the color and smooth out pencil lines. I added background (floor/sky) using a cotton ball and pallette chalk.

Handmade papers are difficult to cut, especially when you layer them, so I'm not totally thrilled with the sharpness of the card edges. Oh well.

All stamped images are from justjohanna. They are: aloha priscilla, hearts branch, sleeper left, sleeper right. The sleepers are from the newest release. Aren't they lovely?

I added Prima's mulberry flowers to continue with the theme and added some jewels/jeweled brads for "bling".

Thanks for visiting today!

Coolin' off.

We've been enjoying wonderful weather this past week. It's cooled off sufficiently so that I can open my windows, which is wonderful for a variety of reasons. The house can air out. We're saving on the electric bill. The cats can enjoy sultry breezes and interesting scents. Lastly, I can use alcohol inks and other volatile or smelly substances and not asphyxiate myself.

I've got asthma and allergies, plus I'm married to a chemist, so Gamsol frightened me somewhat. A while back, I purchased Eco House's Citrus Cleaner #115, which contains mostly orange oils with a tiny bit of mineral spirits. However, it is rather overpoweringly orange-y which was a bit much in my poorly ventilated craft room, especially since I tend to color with my face rather close to my work surface (which will be remedied soon after a visit to the eye doctor).

So I was delighted to pull out my Prismacolor pencils and the Citrus Cleaner and have at it. It was my second time using the Citrus Cleaner and stumps to blend the pencils and whereas it's not staggeringly wonderful, I'm fairly happy with the card I made.

4x4 Friday's challenge this week was to create bird themed card. So I did! I think this was my first 4x4 and I must say that I love this size!

All stamps are justjohanna's. The birds are Sylvie left & Sylvie right (I do love that she does mirror image stamps) and the hearts branch. I've used this paper a lot, but I bought a pack of it at a warehouse sale a while back. While I was looking for something, I found a stash of epoxies that I had also purchased at that sale and put "someplace safe".

I sure nattered on about one measley card today. Didn't I? *chortle*

Thanks for visiting!

The Cool Chick's Fashion Statement

This is what happens when you stamp after drinking a fair amount of wine and are in a weird mood.

All stamps are by justjohanna. The images were colored with Prismacolor markers, which I still haven't mastered. The little bird cages were stamped with Brilliance ink. The papers are by SEI and are shimmery/metallic, but of course, the shimmer was obliterated by my scanner. *sigh*

It was a nice change work with bright colors in out-of-my-box combinations.

Thanks for stopping by to visit!