They Do Exist!

This is my entry for the Friday Copic/Promarker challenge over at The Outlawz.

 

This is a digi image I found on the internet. I thought it looked like the fish ran into this mermaid and found out that they do exist and she looks just like him...lol. I cannot remember where I got this digi. It is colored with various colors of Copic markers and Copic Spica markers. The picture doesn't show off the glittery look of the card, but it is there. I also used glossy accents on the bubbles and water lines to add a little texture and dimension.

Christmas 2012

This is the card I made for all the people on my Christmas card list this year.

 

First, thank you Penny for taking this gorgeous picture for me. I forgot to snap a picture of the card before I sent them all out. What a great friend she is.

All of the stamps and card stock are from Stampin' Up. The base is white, then basic gray, then white distressed with basic gray, then cherry cobbler. I stamped the sentiment with cherry cobbler as well and scored lines and put sticker bling between them. The ornament is chipboard. I painted it with white gesso and then pearl white paint. I then stamped the snowflake from Stampin' Up and added stickles glitter glue around the ornament and then topped it with a red crystal.

Happy 50th Birthday and Just Because

These are my entries for the Saturday Paper Ala Mode challenge over at The Outlawz. This challenge was for silver, gold or sparkly. I decided to enter two cards into this challenge.

 

This first card is for my dearest cousin's 50th birthday next month. This was created using Spellbinder's cut, tuck and fold die. I used Not Quite Navy card stock from Stampin' Up on top of Very Vanilla card stock. I cut strips of the same card stock and pieced them into a mini weave. The happy birthday stamp is also from Stampin' Up. I then used little sparkly stickers for all of the bling on the die. I used bling sticker strips in between the strips. The 50 is silver metal numerals.

 

This second card was created on my Silhouette Cameo. The cut is actually a card itself, but I wanted to use it as a frame instead, so I cut the other piece off and then mounted it on a deeper purple card stock. There is a lot of bling on this card, but the picture doesn't do it justice. The flowers have purple glitter on them and purple crystals and lavender pearls. The card has lavender pearls, purple pearls and clear crystals.

Rest and Relax

This is my entry for the Twisted Thursday challenge over at The Outlawz. This challenge was anything goes with the twist of Relaxing after Christmas. I don't know about you, but this is my favorite way to relax...lol.

 

I just love this card. This was a great challenge. Once I decided to use the sleeping mouse from Gina K. Design's stamp set Under the Weather, I had to place him on this bed. I want to give a HUGE shout out to my dear friend Penny Odell for making this bed for me. She cut the bed using her Cricut and one of the Paper Dolls cartridges. But then she went on to make the design and outlines on the bed. Didn't she do a GREAT job? She's so talented. Anyway, I've been holding onto this bed for a while and it was perfect for this challenge. I added the sentiment from Gina K. Design's stamp set Basket Additions 2 by Melanie Muenchenger. The mouse and pillow were colored with Copic markers. I then mounted it on light blue card stock and then dark brown card stock. Both were distressed. Thanks for looking.

Believe in Yourself

This is my entry for Wednesday's Sketch challenge for The Outlawz.

 

For this card, I used ivory card stock and then placed red card stock on the upper half. I used sage card stock for a border across the middle. The flowers are 4 sizes of daisies stacked on top of each other using patterned paper and a crystal on top. The sentiment is a rub-on from Making Memories. I cut an oval using Spellbinder's classic ovals and placed a chipboard bird that I painted black on top of that and then added a crystal for his eye.

Follow Your Heart

This is my entry for Tuesday's Color Challenge for The Outlawz. This color challenge was Red, Gray and Black. The twist was to use a die cut.

 

For this card, I used the negative from a cut file on my Silhouette Cameo. This heart flourish was purchased from Silhouette's online store. The cut was made on brushed silver card stock and I mounted it on silver glitter card stock. I added a black heart cut from same file so you can see a little outline of the silver glitter paper behind it. The red heart on top of that is actually a punch that I have, that was almost a perfect match for the cut file. In the space from the flourishes, I added a rub-on sentiment from Stampin' Up. Another rub-on was added at the bottom. Then I glued little black crystals along the outline of the flourish and under the bottom sentiment. I colored crystal heart's black using Copic markers and then added a little red crystal on top. The silver was layered on top of black glitter card stock and then on shimmery ivory card stock.

Comfort and Peace

This is my entry for Monday's Greeting Card challenge for The Outlawz.

 

This card was created on my Silhouette Cameo with an image purchased from Silhouette's online store. There are a couple of extra flourishes that were on this cut file, but I removed them so that my card wasn't too outrageously large. I matted the cut on ivory card stock and stamped and embossed the greeting from Gina K. Design's Comfort and Peace stamp set on the insert that would normally be removed. There were two more layers, and I removed those so you would see the border of the ivory card stock.  I then added ivory pearls and mounted on a bit of black and then brown.

100% Sweet

I am entering this card in The Outlawz's Sunday CAS Challenge. The twist for this one is a ribbon with a bow.

 

This card was created with a tag from Paper Wishes Color Me Sample Pack. This is one of the tags from the pack. They are embossed white on white and you just need to use your inks or sprays to color them. I used 3 colors from Stampin' Up. I cut the tag, mounted it on green card stock and then mounted it on the white card stock. I added an orange and yellow polka dot grosgrain ribbon that I tied used the Bow Easy. I then added orange crystal bling along the sides.

What's Brewing? STVOLDIES9 Challenge Winner!

I made this card for the Oldies but Goodies challenge over at Stamp TV. And WOW...did I have fun making this card. I used my Silhouette Cameo and Melanie Muenchinger's Create a Cauldron cut and print file (which can be purchased at Stamp TV's online store). I printed the cauldron and all the pieces on white card stock and then cut them out. Then, I removed the print files from the cut file and using other colors, cut the items again. I did make the cut a little bigger for the sentiment so I could frame it. I used Copic markers to color the cauldron and the boiling eyeball sludge...lol (then cut it by hand around the image). I found this awesome multi-colored ribbon at Michael's for $1.00 and couldn't wait to use it. The skeleton arm and skull spoon are from Jolee's Boutique. I added the googly eyes for a bit of whimsy...eye of newt. Thanks for looking.

Metal Molding and Scratching

I purchased these molds from Dick Blick's online store and wanted to see what I could do with them. Some are easier to work with than others, but it was so much fun. For all of the pieces, you take your piece of metal and cut it to one inch bigger than the mold on all sides. Cut the corners of the metal off and then bend the metal around the mold. Using different tools, I started by first molding the metal to mold. You have to use several different tools, preferably plastic or something that will not scratch the metal. You need different sizes of tips to get into all the crevices and make sure you uncover every detail of the mold. After you're satisfied with the molding, each piece can then be detailed according to what you want it to look like.  I will show the picture and explain what was done to each one.

Leo the Lion:

 

This was created with brown metal with a silver core. After molding, I used a sanding block to remove the brown metal. I then used green rubbing cream on the grass and gold rubbing cream on the lion. Because the rubbing cream will never dry on the metal, I set it using a matte setting spray. The metal will usually have rough edges, so to hide them, I created a frame with the brushed gold card stock. Layered that on brushed brown card stock and then brushed green card stock. The card is a 5.5" x 5.5" square.

Silver Elephant:

This one took a while because he went through several changes. He was molded the same way with silver metal. One thing to remember is silver is that color all the way through, so you won't see the same details. I sanded the elephant and then used a gunmetal and green rubbing cream and set it with matte spray. I matted the elephant with a brushed gunmetal card stock, then black and then brushed silver. I really wasn't liking the way it looked...so, I then scraped off all the gunmetal rubbing cream to expose the silver again. I sprayed the background with a sparkle spray and then added a metal Happy Birthday charm. I'm still not as happy with it as I could be, but I would definitely use a different color metal next time so there is a better contrast on the background.

Lady Liberty:

This was done using red metal. She also went through a couple of phases. I would not do all the scrapping on the burst around her next time. The mold had burst lines and I added blue Copic marker to that and then started scrapping in between them. I scrapped the stars and then added blue Copic to that. Lady Liberty was scrapped and then sprayed with matte spray to seal it. I added a matte silver card stock as the frame, then red card stock, then matte silver again and then dark blue. You have to be very careful of how you mount the metal to your card stock. As you can see in the upper right corner, the metal is forming around the sticky dot and there's no way for me to get it off now. So, be careful your tape is flat.

Metal Ship:

 

I think this one is my favorite by far. The camera will not capture the teal color of this. It is looking more turquoise, but trust me, it looks amazing in real life. This was done with black metal with a silver core. I tried to sand this one, but found out really quickly that the contours of this would not allow that. So, this ship was entirely scrapped. I used a teal Bic marker on the water and then matched that with card stock for the base of the card. I used the matte silver card stock to frame the ship and then added a shiny black card stock (matte card stock did not look good at all). This card is going to my good friend's son because I thought about him the entire time I made this ship.

Thank you so much for looking!

I'm Gonna Dance the Night Away

This is my entry for the October 7- 20 Creative Free Challenge for The Outlawz:

 

 This is a digi stamp from The Outlawz. I printed the image at 3 1/2 inches tall. She was colored with Copic markers and Atyou Spica markers for a little glitter. The background paper is from DCWV, the Stardust pack. I printed the sentiment using Microsoft Word's Wordart. I used Spellbinders ribbon die to cut out the saying. To get the ribbon die matted, I traced the outside of the actual die and then hand-cut it out. I then layered and assembled the piece. The bling are these little brad covers that looked like the paper to me, and I added yellow crystals to the centers. Thank you for looking. 

Oldies But Goodies 7 Challenge Winner

Once again, I was thrilled beyond belief to discover I had won this challenge. Gina had changed some of the rules on her challenges, and the Livechats and Oldies but Goodies challenges were now going to be picked by Gina and the Design Team to win. You got to pick your choice of a stamp set valued at $19.95 and a pack of Gina's beautiful patterned papers. The news came in an email set to all members of Stamp TV from Gina and the winner of the challenge would also get to have their card placed on Stamp TV's Facebook page and Pinterest. I think I actually screamed when I scrolled down the email and saw my card. It's the most thrilling experience when something you created is recognized by such talented crafters. Here is the card I won with:

I used 7 layers, the card has 7 flowers and 7 crystals. I used Gina K's One in a Million set. I painted the flowers with liquid pearls (cantaloupe and pink). The stems and leaves were done with a dimensional green paint. The frame, which is my 7th layer, is a Cheery Lynn die called Enchanted Forest (a stacking set of 4 dies). Then I added a pink satin bow to finish it off.

September 2012 Release Challenge Winner

I was very lucky and surprised to find out that I was the winner of Gina's Wood you try something new Challenge. This challenge was creating a wood look using a technique Gina showed us on her website. You can just imagine how thrilled I was to find out I had won. I used different colors and a smaller panel for my technique, and when I was finished, it reminded me of a beach house, so I went with it.

I did not use the traditional wood colors, but went with blues. I used 3 colors of Distress Ink and I made my planks 1/4" apart. Instead of molding, I created a border using Life's a Beach (colored with Copics). I made the window from extra planks and sponged the sunset with Memento inks. Then stamped the ship from Enjoy the Sunshine. I sponged the "wall" with Memento ink. I cut a shell using my Cricut and stamped the sentiment from Under the Sea. The decorations on the wall are dolphin brads and the "picture" I made using a silver frame, UTEE and charms. The UTEE is a lot more blue in real life than it appears in the picture. Thank you for looking.