Thursday, August 28, 2014

September Publication Share





Hey everyone!  I thought I would share one of the cards I have in the September issue of Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking.

I used Dreamweavers' Water Lilies Background stencil and applied paste to just a portion of the front pennant.  Then I carefully colored the paste with watercolors (I used Derwent Inktense pencils with a paintbrush).



The other layered pennants are vellum that was colored with Spectrum Noir markers, and the sentiment is from Verve.

Hope you are having a great week.  It's crazy town here with school starting next week and a Frozen birthday party for the girls Saturday morning......

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Jane's Doodles Spotlight Blog Hop, and Exciting News!

Hey everyone!  I'm really excited to share that I've joined the Jane's Doodles' design team.  I love Jane's sweet illustrations and I'm really excited to be working with her!  Today the DT is spotlighting the latest release, Wise Owl, Read All About It, and Doodle Flowers II.  Be sure to hop through because one lucky commenter is going to win all three new sets!



I had a great time working with the sets and have lots to share, so let me get right to it.

First up a Wise Owl card.  Of course I had to feature that great owl.  I clear embossed him on watercolor paper and then used Vintage Photo distress ink and Distress markers to color him in and add the ground line.



The sentiment was also clear embossed and emphasized with Vintage Photo.

Those Read All About It kids are so cute, I went pretty simple, creating two little cards that you could tuck into a lunchbox.  The images were stamped and colored with copics, I went back and stamped/colored some random stars as well.



Finally Doodle Flowers II.  The original Doodle Flowers is one of my all time favorite JD stamps, so I was really excited to see this new set.  I was in need of some end of year/summer gifts for Carina's teachers, so I put together.  



These were so easy to make.  I clear embossed the leaves stamp on watercolor paper and then added a wash with my Derwent watercolor pencils.  I went back and added a second and third wash with slightly different shades of color.  This was repeated with three other color combinations.  So quick and easy!  



I wanted to keep the cards nice and flat, so no foam adhesive.  I've shard this tip before, but for adhering watercolor paper to a card base I always use CTMH Bonding Memories Adhesive, it's a blue adhesive that you kind of pump and apply with a foam applicator.  This seems to really work even when your paper is slightly warped/wonky from watercoloring.

I won't list all the supplies used since this post is already plenty long, but please ask if you have any questions.  Your should have come from Marion Vagg's blog (she's also joining the DT) and your next stop is Aga.  I have the full list below for you.


Jane http://janeb-myblog.blogspot.com

Jennifer (Guest Designer) http://www.jennifermcguireink.com/
Marion (new DT member) http://mademarion.vagg.org/
Miriam (Me!) http://mprantner.blogspot.com/
Aga http://justmadefrompaper.blogspot.com/
Angeline http://thecreationofcreativity.blogspot.com/
Ange http://www.angeliquekelly.blogspot.com/
Evgenia http://evgeniapetzer.blogspot.com/
Mariana http://marianagrigsby.wordpress.com/
Jane's Doodles http://janesdoodles.blogspot.com

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Season's Greetings - Simon Says Stamp Stamptember Sneak



Hey everyone!  I was lucky enough to receive a free set from Simon Says Stamp last week as part of their Stamptember festivities.

It's a sentiment set, and has several of Kristina Werner's great scripty sentiments.  I really wanted to showcase this one.  I started by stamping the sentiment, and then I used a circle template to lightly sketch a circle around the sentiment in pencil.

The set has two small circular sentiments, one that says Joy and the other Love.  To create the wreath, I used the reverse side of those circles and backstamped the green circles in second generation.  I added a few of the small circles stamped in red also.  To add some extra interest, I went back and stamped the 'real' side of the circles inside a few of the circles.



It needed a little more pizazz, so I used some small Bo Bunny gems to add some sparkle to the wreath.  I was looking for red gems because I think it needs a little balance in the reds, but I wasn't able to locate them....if you could see my craft space this would not be surprising at all....  To finish it off, I added a shadow to the sentiment with a gold Wink of Stella pen.

That's all for today!  Come back tomorrow for some exciting news and a hop!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  CTMH - White Daisy Cardstock:  PTI - Harvest Gold Cardstock; Avery Elle - Cherry Cardstock
Stamps:  Simon Says Stamp - Peace on Earth
Ink:  Versafine; CTMH - Topiary and Cranberry ink
Other:  Tsukineko - Gold Wink of Stella Pen; Bo Bunny - Jewels; Tombow - Stamp Runner

Monday, August 25, 2014

Very Important Person



I really needed to do a layout this last week.  When I'm away from scrapbooking too long it makes me a little antsy.  With school starting up next week, I though I should really do one (of the many, many, many that need to be done) from last school year.

Each week in the first grade classes at our school one of the students is the VIP.  The parent(s) come in and give a little presentation about the kid and then they can either have lunch with them in the cafeteria or take them out for lunch.

It's a surprise to the kids who it is each week, and Ellie had been on my case just that day wanting to know when I was going to be coming in for her VIP as it was getting close to the end of the year.  I totally lied to her to preserve the surprise, which I felt kind of bad about, but she really was surprised.

Each of the kids fills out a little form and draws a picture saying what is special about the VIP for the day, so I knew I wanted to include that little book in the layout as well as her VIP ribbon.  I always find it a little tricky incorporating memorabilia, especially things like the book of papers that you would want to be able to pull out and look at.



I used this month's Scrapbook Circle kit to create my layout, and kept things pretty clean and simple.  There's a little bit of a distressed look to the red/orange paper, so I played that up a bit using some white Dylusions Spray Ink.  I painted on some accents on the corners of the photos on the right as well as where the alphas were going and added some splatter too.  I added some stitching on the alphas more to make sure they didn't go anywhere as well as for some texture.



I puzzled a little bit over the right side, since I was using a kit I didn't have two sheets of the red/orange paper.  I decided to play off of the blue ribbon and make it more of a contrasting/complementary page, so I chose that dark blue paper as the base.  Then I added some clear photo corners, these are very old items in my stash.  They are actually Creative Memories, but I really like them for holding in memorabilia, travel brochures, anything that you might want to slip out and look at.  They are holding both the packet of papers that the kids filled out as well as the presentation that I put together about Ellie.

Oh and if you're wondering where we went to lunch, I offered all sorts of nice restaurants, and what did Ellie pick?  McDonald's.  At least I was able to talk her into going to my favorite pastry shop for dessert.

Supplies Used
Scrapbook Circle - August 2014 Island Paradise Kit
Other:  Ranger - Dylusions White Linen Ink Spray; Tombow - Mono Adhesive; Creative Memories Corner Mounting Adhesives

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Thank You



Just a little thank you card today.

It's no secret that I love the quilted look, and the quickest way to make a quilted card happen, at least in my opinion, is a good old fashioned punch.

For this card I used a 3/4" punch and some MME papers.  When I first put this together it needed a little definition, so I inked the edges of the squares.  I ran all the squares through my Xyron sticker maker and adhered them to a scrap piece of cardstock.

I added a bit of burlap string and a button and adhered the quilted piece with foam adhesive over a mat of patterned paper that was adhered directly to the card base.



The sentiment is from Technique Tuesday and is embossed.

That's all for today, hope you are having a great week!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  MME - Record It Here is Happy 6x6 pad; PTI - Kraft cardstock
Stamps:  Technique Tuesday - So Very Thankful
Ink:  Versamark; CTMH - Chocolate
Other:  CTMH - White Embossing Powder; May Arts - Burlap String; Punky Sprouts - Button; AC - Dimensional Adhesive; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Monday, August 18, 2014

Creative Blog Hop

You have all probably seen these posts.  I'm not quite sure how it started, but the Creative Blog Hop is a never-ending blog hop that takes place on Mondays.  For lack of a better analogy, it's kind of like a chain letter.  Once you are nominated, you have to answer four questions and tags three others who post the following Monday.  it's a great way to learn about new blogs and find new inspiration.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I was nominated by my amazingly talented blog friend Alexandra for the hop, so now it's my turn to post, and here are my answers to the questions:

1.  What am I working on now?

I feel like there are always several irons in the fire (a major contributing factor to the general chaos in my craft area).  I'm working on cards for a new release blog hop, card sets as end of the year gifts for Carina's teachers as she will officially move to her new class next week, cards for the current PC&S call, birthday cards for Andrew's class this year, and I've been sketching some new stamp designs.  What I'm not working on which is driving me a little batty is my scrapbooking.  I've a whole list of things I want to scrap, but it always seems to take a back seat.  I'm hoping to carve out a bit of time once we get into September.

2.  How does my work differ from others in my genre?

This is a hard one.  I kind of feel like it's a cop out, but in many ways it's true.  My work is different because it is my point of view.  From a more practical perspective, though I really love experimenting, it makes me a bit of a technique geek.  I love learning new things and trying to put a different twist on a technique.  I'm also (somewhat sadly) into making things that take forever.  I'm generally a very impatient person, but somehow I'm quite happy to spend six hours stitching a pattern on a card.  

3.  Why do I create what I do?

Because it's fun!  It lets me use that other part of my brain that doesn't get exercised at my 'real' job or while wrangling the kids and housework.  The cards are where I get to practice techniques and try new things.  The layouts are a gift for my girls.  It really is so rewarding to see them pull out their albums just to look at the stories about themselves, or to share their photos with guests at the house.  To me that really makes my crafting worthwhile and meaningful, which is why when I am away from it for a while, I feel almost out of balance.


4.  How does my creative process work?


Now that is an excellent question.  I'm a very slow creator.  I envy folks who can just whip out a bunch of cards in an hour or two.  It often takes me a while to formulate a plan.  I'll often know the basic elements I want to include in a card, but then spend an hour or two fiddling with it, adding stuff here, taking stuff off there, restamping because I left a fingerprint somewhere or stamped the sentiment crooked, you get the picture.  At some point along the way, the vision crystallizes and then it's just a matter of finishing things up.  For scrapbooking it's a little bit different.  I take my cues (colors, papers, theme, etc.) from the photos.  For me layouts are about reflecting what I'm preserving.  I tend to be much less technique driven, it's not about trying new things, it's about preserving memories, so there are materials/techniques that I don't even use because they aren't archival/photo safe.  The more functional focus makes me less innovative.


OK, now the three crafters I am tagging:


Karin Akesdotter:




My name is Karin Ã…kesdotter and I live in Gothenburg Sweden with my husband and our 5-year-old son Ted. I teach needlework and language fulltime at a 7-9 grade school and I love my work and my students, but always wish I had more time for my hobbies; cardmaking and watercolor painting.  I started mblog Peppermint Patty’s Papercraft in 2010 and have loved every minute. I’ve made some wonderful new friends from all over the World and who inspire my creativity and crafting in so many ways - which Miriam is a great example of.  I am lucky to be on 5 design teams that I absolutely LOVE: Lawnscaping, Purple Onions Designs, Waltzing Mouse Stamps, Mama Elephant's challenge team and the Tag You're it challenge team.  I think I would describe my style as quite CAS and cute. 

I picked Karin because she is a true artist.  Her watercolor paintings are truly amazing, and I love to see how she uses those abilities on a small scale, in her cards and tags.  


Kelly Griglione



Hi! I'm Kelly, and like many of us, crafting has always been a large part of my life. I have such fond memories of time spent with my Grandma at her kitchen table learning every type of craft imaginable. What a great legacy to leave … I think of Gram every time I sit down to craft!  Rubber stamps appeared on my radar 15 years ago while attending a DOTS show (Dozens of Terrific Stamps). At the time I was mostly interested in scrapbooking and only made cards for Christmas. It wasn’t until I started a blog in 2012 that I got into stamping and card making. The frequent challenges, design team assignments, publication calls, and supportive community really pulled me in. I just love it all!  My passion for paper also extends beyond the crafting arena, as I collect 19th century valentines, postcards, scrapbooks, calendars, photo albums and whatever inspires me.

I picked Kelly because I love how innovative she is.  I once compared her examination of a technique to pulling a loose thread on a sweater and unraveling it until there was nothing left but a pile of yarn.  I am always inspired when I visit her blog.

May Park



Hello! My name is May Sukyong Park. I was born and raised in South Korea. I’ve been happily married to the most wonderful husband for 8 years, and we moved to California, USA in 2009. I had not enjoyed any arts and crafts until I was first introduced to stamping by my friend in 2010. Then I started scrapbooking, and slowly moved in to making cards. I love to create clean and simple cards based on creative ideas. Currently I design for Waffle Flower CraftsCASology, and Catered Crop. I absolutely love everything handmade and beautiful.  May's Blog

May is one of my GI14 buddies.  Her work reminds me of advertising.  She is able to tell a whole story with a single image.  It's witty, catchy, graphic, and clean.  


That's all for today!  I hope that if these ladies are new to you, you'll stop by and get to know them, it's well worth it!

Friday, August 15, 2014

Waffle Flower Crafts August/September Challenge



Hey everyone!  We're kicking off a new Waffle Flower Crafts Challenge today.  As a reminder, the challenge runs for two months.  There's a sketch challenge and a technique challenge.  You can play along with both or even combine them.  There will be a winner in both categories as well as random winner.

The technique challenge this go round is:



I chose to play along with the sketch challenge.  Here's the sketch:



And here's my card.





I used the moon outline from the Starry Night set to create the background.  I stamped it alternating between Salty Ocean and Iced Spruce.  Then I used a wet brush to add water to the center of each stamped moon and applied distress ink (from an ink pad that I pressed onto an acrylic block).

I really loved the patterned paper, but I wanted to soften it a little bit, so I added a bit of soft color in the spaces between the moons, and then some vellum over top.  A strip of soft gray cardstock was stitched on for some texture and to define the top and bottom pieces from the sketch.

For the tags, I cut the smaller tag from the Surface Tag Die Starter Kit twice, once from the soft gray and once from mixed media paper.  I added a bit of gray/blue color and then stamped the stars and sentiment.



The watercolored background panel was popped up with adhesive as were the tags. I added a bit of Lawn Fawn Lawn Trimmings and some clear sequins to finish it off.

I hope that you will play along with the challenges! Here are the nitty gritty details:
  • Use at least one of Waffle Flower Crafts products on each entry. List the product name in your blog post. If you use an online gallery (Flickr for example), list the name in the description. This is especially important when you used a product in a clever way that might not be obvious to people. Our team will be looking for them but please help make it easier for them.
  • Enter as many times as you want. If you have a blog, please include the graphic of the category you are entering in and link to the challenge post. This is to help your readers and crafty friends to find us and join the fun!
  • Combine up to 3 other challenges if you want. 
We look forward to seeing what wonderful projects you will create with your own unique formulas.Can't wait to see what you make!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: Avery Elle - Silver Fox cardstock; Staedtler - Mixed Media Paper; Recollections - Vellum
Stamps: Waffle Flower Crafts - Starry Night
Ink: Ranger - Salty Ocean and Iced Spruce Distress Ink
Other: Waffle Flower Crafts - Surface Tag Die Starter Kit; Lawn Fawn - Vivid Trip Pack Lawn Trimmings; Neat & Tangled - Clear Sequins; Recollections - Dimensional Adhesive; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Hey! Hey!



Hey!  Hey!

Sharing a fun card featuring one of the cute cats from Paper Smooches Feline Friends today.

I wanted to recreate the reflection you see on someone's sunglasses.  The cat was stamped in black on dark gray cardstock which was then trimmed down to fit behind the glasses.

The chipboard glasses are from Pink Paislee's Hey Kid collection.  Since I wanted it to look like real glasses, I left the chipboard on the acetate, carefully trimming around them.  They weren't black enough for my taste, so I colored them with a black Sharpie.  Then the stamped images were carefully adhered to the back of the glasses and the whole piece was adhered to the card.



The papers are from Crate's Boys Rule collection, and the sentiment was created with Lawn Fawn's Cole's Alphas which were cut and run through my Xyron.

I get a kick out of this card and hope you do too!

Hopefully your week is going well.....I'm taking advantage of the fact that the girls are gone to do some major purging.  I cannot tell you how many Kids Meal toys are in the trash.....

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Crate - Boys Rule 6x6 pad; MFT - Steel Grey Cardstock; Avery Elle - Cream Cardstock
Stamps:  Paper Smooches - Feline Friends
Ink:  Memento - Tuxedo Black
Other:  Pink Paislee - Hey Kid! Chipboard; Xyron - 1 1/2" Sticker Maker; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Monday, August 11, 2014

Celebrate this day



Hey everyone, super quick post as I'm in the throes of packing up the girls for a week at their grandparents.

This is another of my cards from last weekend's crafty binge at Tessa's.

I was so excited that she had an older Christy Tomlinson Pink Paislee stencil that I haven't been able to find.  I used that and the Copic airbrush to create a sun, and added a sentiment from Altenew.  The sentiment seemed a little too stark when I made the card so I used the Wink of Stella glitter pen to soften it a little.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again.  Trying out other peoples' stuff is fun!

Hoping that you have a great start to your week!


Saturday, August 9, 2014

Beach Girl Blog Hop


Hey everyone!  Today I'm happy to be part of a hop featuring a sweet little digi stamp designed by my friend Elena.

Digi stamps are not my forte, but this little beach girl is so cute I couldn't say no.

I knew I wanted to use watercolors, so I printed her on watercolor paper.  It took a few times, and because of the texture of the paper it doesn't print totally cleanly and crisply, but for my purposes I was OK with that.

She was painted with Kuretake watercolors, and I added a sentiment created from Waffle Flower Crafts' Bowtiful set.



She's really cute isn't she?  You can get her for free over at Elena's blog, and if you need any other incentive to go download her and use her, check out the projects from this very talented group of folks below.



Thursday, August 7, 2014

Cure for the Monday Blues - You Are Beautiful



I thought this week I would FINALLY throw my hat in the ring for my friend Taheerah's Cure for the Monday Blues challenge.

I love the colors in the inspiration photo, and this is what I came up with:




This was so easy to create.  I used a tag shaped journaling card from Maggie Holmes' Styleboard collection as the base, although I did trim it down at the bottom just a tad so the printed heart at the bottom was more centered vertically.

Lots of inlaid die cutting here.  The hearts and words are both Paper Smooches.  I cut the hearts out and replaced them with hearts cut from pale gray cardstock that I colored with a Spectrum Noir marker.  It turned out a little too dark, so I went over with the colorless blender to lighten it a bit.  The words were cut from gold foil cardstock and inlaid also.  



Some Twinery twine added a little extra sparkle and texture.

I'm also going to link up with the current Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge since it's Anything Goes week.



Thanks for coming by!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  Avery Elle - Silver Fox cardstock; Recollections - Gold Foil Cardstock
Other:  Crate - Styleboard Journaling Card; Paper Smooches - Hearts and Kudos Words Dies; The Twinery - Gold Sparkle Twine; Spectrum Noir markers; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Birthday Balloons




Some more cards from this weekend.  I thought I would take the opportunity to knock out some birthday cards.  For those of you who don't know, my husband is a high school teacher and last year he asked me to make birthday cards for all his kids.  That is a lot of cards people.  It nearly killed me towards the end of the year, so I'm trying to get a jump start this summer.

Believe it or not, until last weekend I had never tried SU inks.  I have to say I prefer dye to pigment inks, and these ones were really nice.  I picked four shades of blue/turquoise and just randomly stamped the balloons to create an ombre effect.  So quick and easy.  The balloon is from a Simon Says Stamp set (Birthday Balloons), and the sentiment is Avery Elle (Cake & Candles).

I figured I'd go ahead and try some of the other SU colors so I made a second card.



A thin strip of black cardstock at the bottom anchors the card.  These were so easy to make, definitely mass producible and you could make a really quick and easy gift set too.

I'm going to link this up over at Simon Says Stamp's Work it Wednesday July challenge since the balloon came from one of their sets and I used blue.

That's all for me today!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Big Hello!





I love this big Hello die from Simon Says Stamp and was so excited to take it for a test drive this weekend.

This is really a very easy card to put together.  I just die cut the speech bubble (also a Simon die cut), then die cut the hello both from colored cardstock as well as out of the speech bubble, and put it all back together as an inlaid die cut.




I wanted to pair it with that mint/white striped paper, but it seemed like it was getting a little lost, so I cut another speech bubble in black, adhered that to the patterned paper, and popped up the hello bubble slightly offset.

I'm going to link this up over at Simon Says Stamp since it's Anything Goes week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, August 4, 2014

Thanks! Playing with other people's stuff



This weekend I had the pleasure of getting together with a couple of my Gallery Idol buddies Tessa and JJ.  It's always so much fun to see one another and try out everyone's goodies.  I managed to get a bunch of cards done and I'll be sharing them over the course of the week.

This first card is the one I probably spent the most time on.  I used the Taylored Expressions Shade Tree cutting plate, and the background was created with a Copic Air Brush.  This was my first experiment with air brushing. It's pretty fun and slightly addicting.  I really enjoyed it, although I'm unlikely to go buy one owing to my cheapness, but still so fun to try it out.

The die cut was cut from white cardstock and colored with Copics and the sentiment is the Lawn Fawn scripty thanks die.

Since most of what I used this weekend was borrowed stuff, and much of the papers were scraps I won't have my official 'supplies used' list at the end of these posts, but I'll try and note the main items in the body of the post.

I'm going to link this up over at Simon Says Stamp for Anything Goes week.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Friday, August 1, 2014

Paper Sweeties 2nd Birthday Designer's Blog Hop



Hey everyone!  I'm so excited to be helping my friend Debbie celebrate the second birthday of her stamp company, Paper Sweeties.  These really are the cutest, sweetest stamps.  Debbie has poured her heart and soul into this endeavor, and it has been wonderful to see all her hard work paying off.

You should have gotten here from my friend Lysa's blog.  If not, I have the full hop list below for you.

I really wanted to celebrate Debbie's success in my card today, and thought a Congratulations card would be the perfect way to express that.




I stamped my little girl (Emma) as well as her outfit and shoes, colored them with Copics and then fussy cut them.

I kept this pretty clean and simple, I wanted Emma to be the star, so I added a bit of stitching, and some cute little flower sequins that Debbie also sells in her store.

I'm going to keep this short and sweet because this is a lengthy hop.  Your next stop is Jill, and I have the whole list below if you need it.   You'll want to make sure to head over to the Paper Sweeties blog.  Debbie is celebrating all month and there are lots of prizes up for grabs including a $100 gift certificate to the Paper Sweeties shop!

Have fun hopping and have a great weekend!

Paper Sweeties Design Team:


Special Guest Designers:


Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock:  MME - Record It Just Splendid 6x6 pad; Avery Elle - White Cardstock
Stamps:  Paper Sweeties - Emma, You are Special, So Proud of You
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black
Other:  Paper Sweeties - Flower Sequins; Copic Markers; CTMH - Liquid Glass; Tombow - Mono Adhesive