Saving My Sanity One Card at a Time

Sweet Kitchen Card
Originally uploaded by Kalyber
Between planning a party for my son's first communion and practices for said communion and classes and seminars and house guests and Easter travel and, and, and…I needed a quick craft fix and this was perfect.

This card was made with images that were in my prestamped/precut drawer. All I had to do was stamp the sentiment and assembled things I already had. I changed the string that came on the tag for baker's twine and called it good.The amount of stress that can be relieved in 10 minutes of crafting is amazing.

The flatware is from Stampabilities and the rest of the images are from Hero Arts. I love that bowl. If I am honest with myself that was probably the reason I bought the set because the stripes are just like the ones on a set my grandmother had. To get the mottled effect I cut a mask around the bowl and used the color spritzer tool from Stampin' Up!

When our schedule gets back to normal, whatever that is, maybe I'll show you. But I promised you a Silhouette tutorial first.

Using Copics with Embossing powders

Using Copics
Originally uploaded by Kalyber

I don't own Yellow embossing powder but I wanted some for this little note card. I used white embossing powder, which was quite striking, but it was not the color I wanted.

Enter my handy Copic Markers. I just colored the embossed surfaces with my yellow marker and viola — Yellow flowers.

I'm fairly sure this will work with any alcohol based marker but because I have Copics that's what I used.

Have you ever tried this? Would love to see a link to your finished projects.

Another Painted Mirror

While catching up on listening to the Paperclipping Roundtable on iTunes I painted this mirror as a gift for a friend's birthday. Don't tell her.

The topic was art journaling and the guests were Donna Downey and Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. I thought it was kind of ironic because I was painting something that felt a lot like a Julie page. They talked about making mistakes and being able to add stuff to make the project better, did that. They talked about making mistakes and still calling it good, did that too. The talked about experimenting and boy did I do that.

They talked about learning as you go. Learning about technique and learning about yourself. The main thing I learned is that I am really impatient. Maybe it is a result of years of tight deadlines or the sinus headache. I had a terrible time waiting for paint to dry. I even got out the hairdryer to try and move it along.

I reinforced my love of the paint pen. Yes, I do adore black and white paint pens. I like being able to add outlines and highlights after painting something.

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

Marbles

Tonight my son learned to play marbles at scouts. He got a bag full of assorted marbles and learned about mashers and how to shoot them and there were a few manners lessons thrown in for good measure.

I played with marbles, sort of, while making cards recently. I have had the Papertrey Ink Friendship Jars filled with marbles sitting on the desk for what seems like eons and this week I was determined to make something of the as many pre-stamped pieces as possible. Here are the marble cards I made.

The particulars

Paper: So Saffron from Stanpin' Up!, Woodgrain from K & Co Dies: Papertrey Ink Friendship Jars

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Friendship Jars Fillers

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

Welcome Baby

Last night I felt the urge to make a baby card. Maybe it was watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 with the kid in the evening. Maybe it was a response to spring. Dunno but I had fun making it.

I cut the shape out with the Silhouette using the method I shared in the Lazy Snipper tutorial. Actually I cut out 40 of them from 1 sheet of paper. I love the paper savings I get using the Silhouette. I had to use the stamp-a-majig to get the stamp lined up because I can't see through rubber and wood as well as I can through acrylic. I forgot to put an offset on the cut so it is exactly the size it needs to be and I like it.

I started with the onsie and kind of let it lead me to a final card. The patterned paper was just what I grabbed first out of the scrap paper drawer. The sentiment was a bit of an afterthought but I love it. The stamp-a-magic was a godsend here too.

The particulars

Paper: hearts pattern paper is from K & Co. Floral pattern is from Memory Makers  — both purchased at Tuesday Morning

Stamps: Onsie is from Hampton Arts - Katie & Co., "baby" and "welcome" are from long retired Stampin' Up!  sets.

Happy Crafting, 

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

Permanent Home for Wayward Images

     Here's a couple more cards I made during the hiatus — giving pre-stamped, pre-cut or pre-embossed items a permanent home.

 

Tim Holtz rays texture folder, a bit of distress ink. A chicken cut on the Silhouette and
a bit of chicken wire from a long retired Stampin' Up! background stamp.

     The chicken shape was one of the first things I purchased from the Silhouette Online Store. I used it to make a vinyl sticker for my chicken keeping sister's vehicle. Looking forward to going to her house for Easter to see the clucks and her newly decorated truck.

Hero Arts Cloud background. Nestabilities Pinked Circle and
regular circle (embossed) and Papertrey Ink's Fly Away stamp.

     This was a fun solution to what to do with a background with a poorly embossed plane. I cut out a large sun with my pinking circle Nestabilities and then ran it through again with a regular circle to emboss it. 

     The handmade banner has been in my stash for a long time. I was inspired by Mel McCarthy and her awesome gesso work. I used gesso on a page from an old paperback (I'm guessing it's an Ellery Queen Christmas murder mystery) then freehanded a banner. The lettering is my handwriting and the thing I like least about this card.

     The plane shape was cut out using the Silhouette and the lazy snipper tutorial I posted a while back.

 

Testing new ideas on the Silhouette for the next tutorial. So stay tuned.

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

Are you the focal point?

Testing tools and paints tonight

I got out the wood burning tool and a Malma mirror from Ikea and started tracing leaves and vines that I had drawn a while back. It took a bit of patience and the handle would get hot and I'd have to set the tool down for a bit. I finally put on an Ove Glove (sadly without the grippy things) and the handle heating up was not a problem. This is the only 'con' I've found with this tool so far.

Vellum on the mirror to avoid blinding you with the camera's image or flash.

I knew I wanted to paint the frame the Claudine Hellmuth's Studio paint in Classic Teal. Love this color and the paint rocks too. It goes on well, I love the wide mouth container. If you don't want to mix it with another color you don't make any mess. Of course I did want to mix it with a bit of yellow to make the green of the leaves and vines. I was really happy with how well it mixed with the Liquitex acrylic paint in my stash.

Finally I got out a couple of paint pens in black and white to add a pattern to the background. when I started I had no idea what I was going to do. The process was very free and organic. I wondered if Julie Fei-Fen Balzer would have made circles like these if she were making this mirror. Circle, circle, circle, dot, dot, dot.

I don't know if this project is done. Wondering if I need to add lines on the leaves. I also wanted to add some 3 dimensional flowers but didn't like what was in my stash and so it sits. Waiting for some inspiration. Some bright graphic item to jump out of the ephemera in my studioffice. If you have any ideas please, PLEASE, tell me. I'm thinking it needs a focal point OR is the focal point the beautiful face in the center.

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

The Blog is Back

HEL-LO.o.
My 17 day unplanned hiatus is over and now it's time to start sharing again. Over the last couple of weeks, while I was on hold with AT&T trying to get Internet service installed,  I made cards using images I stamped long ago. I like stamping and coloring but don't always want to make a card or what I've created doesn't really inspire a card at the time. I save those images. I worked hard on them, they may be useful someday, they may make a beautiful card or scrapbook embellishment some day.

I made too many cards to show in one shot so I will load up just a few today. If you want to see more you can go to my Flickr site.

Using the my new crumb cake ink. Stash image is the vellum butterfly.

The pear in front has been in my stash for what seems like years.
Grateful that cardstock has 2 sides because the cream bit has a lot
non-matching alpha rubons on the other side of it.

The balloon has been in the stash for over a year. I really enjoyed making this one.
Couldn't think of a sentiment but I don't think it needs it really, do you?

While on hiatus I also donated a lot of stamp sets and cards to Mooseheart School for their art therapy program. The first thought is that it gets this stuff out of my house which is a good thing but when I learned more about the program and how these kids use stamp and scrap supplies I felt a lot better about the donation. In the future I will be sending my stuff there.

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Happy Crafting,

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Click here to help my son pay his own way through scouts. Order Trail's End popcorn using code 79936evan674 and great tasting treats will be delivered to your door.

My apologies again.

Just an update on the internet situation. It still is not working/connected and they promise it will be up on Wednesday. I'll be shopping for an alternative until then. Hate to say goodbye to a company that has served me well for 25 years but 15 days and counting is too long to be without internet and phone service.

 

I hope to have something wonderful for you all to read be inspired by and learn from when I am back online. For now I am posting text only updates from the local library.

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Happy Crafting,

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