Recycle and Alcohol Inks

So I've been checking out Jennifer McGuire's Thinking Inking classes over at Two Peas, and love them all. She showed how to use the alcohol inks by Ranger - and I've never used them before. So my husband was looking over my shoulder as I was watching the video, and the next day he came home with three packs of inks! So off to play I did.

So she said right away that the inks only work on non porous surfaces...hmmmm...I needed a soda can! But I don't drink soda. So once again, my soda drinking husband came to my rescue.

I don't know if you can see in these pics, but the effect is really dramatic. It is really quite beautiful.

You add a few drops of a few colors, blend, use the blending solution, and voila. I cut my can open really carefully, cleaned it, added my inks which dry really fast, then cut the shapes with punches. A can really isn't as hard to punch as you would think, or as sharp...so the card is not a cutting hazard.

I am really enjoying the Ranger line (no I do not work for Ranger in any way at all). What do you think?

I forgot to mention this is FTL50 over at Clean and Simple Stamping.

Target $1 Bins

You never know what you will find in those $1 bins. I usually look for little things for my girl and most times they have scrapbook items that don't really interest me too much. Over a month ago, my husband picked up some stamps and said, "these are cool, you could make something for Bean or she can have them instead of using your stamps." Good idea to me.
What he found were cheap Curious George rubber stamps. Well, looking at the stamps, I noticed a really cute duck and adorable bear. They actually stamp quite well.

When I saw card sketch SC238 over at Splitcoaststampers, I knew immediately what I wanted to do. So this is my take on that sketch.

The ducks are stamped on 1" white squares, colored with my Bics (they are similar to Copics), glazed, and popped up from the teal squares. The Welcome Little One stamp is from the Michaels $1 bin, paper is from my unknown stack, and cardbase from Papertrey Ink (I LOVE their CS).

Thanks for stopping by! And feel free to leave a comment.

It's a Zoo

I found these little cuties on sale at Hobby Lobby this weekend. Using Zots, patterned papers, solid CS, and white inserts, I was able to make quite a few cards for different occasions.

I like Zots because they are super sticky...no one wants their card falling apart!
I made one like this a while back, but I think this background is much brighter. The inside reads: Happy Belated Birthday.

Well, they say an elephant never forgets, right? All DP's are from the unknown stack. Thanks for stopping by!

Stacked Presents

So my husband made this for me:

A stacked planter that inspired this card:

I used the stacked presents cut at 4 1/4" from the Celebrations cart. Once on shadow in black, and twice on DP (one orange and one purple) so I could have different color presents. I cut the "shift" for the orange strips, cut off the very top bow with my scissors and added a real ribbon bow instead.

Of course I used pop-dots, and added rhinestones at the tops of all the packages. The stamp is Stampin' Up using Ranger marmalade ink. The circle is George cut at 4 1/4" and zigzag stitched onto the orange background.

Can you believe we are already at the end of July? Don't be surprised if I start posting Christmas cards soon...yes, I'm already working on some now.

Flowers of Friendship

Made this card over the weekend. I used the Celebrations cart for the vase and flowers. First in blue on blackout feature - so the flowers would have blue centers, then shift in pink for just the flowers (without the vase). I used my chalk inks to shade the vase and flowers, then added glaze to the flowers for shine.

I don't remember the name of this paper pack, but it's really bright with lots of pinks, blues, browns, and greens. The card base is from the Stampin' Up "in colors" papers - I won it as a door prize at the last card class I went to. Woo-hoo, second time I've won!

I added a little ribbon (from the $1 bin at Michaels), the friendship stamp is Fiskars, and pop-dots of course!

Thanks for taking a peek.

Happy Birthday Owl Sketch

I got this cute Hero Arts stamp a while back at Michaels and have been dying to use it.

I stamped the background cardstock, added a piece of DP that looks like notebook paper, and the sentiment is computer generated. For the owl, first I used green Ranger Ink (it actually has a cooler name than "green") on plain white CS, then stamped the owl in black. I then stamped the owl once again on white, cut him out, and used marmalade Ranger Ink to color him in. Pop-dots are my favorite, so I used plenty of them. The center strip uses the same color Ranger Inks on white CS so they coordinate.

This card is for card sketch SC237 over at Splitcoaststampers. So I'm currently catching up on sketches at Clean and Simple AND at Splitcoaststampers. I'm having fun! What other cool sketch sites are there out there? If you got something you think I'd be interested in, please share.

Got Shrooms?

So I really like the Clean and Simple blog. They put up "Fall To Layouts" (FTL) that should enable one to make a card easily and sometimes within 10 minutes. I thought I'd go through their FTL's and start at number 1.

Here is the link to FTL 1, and here is my card:

I used the mushroom cut from the Tinkerbell cart - love that cart but haven't used it much. I punched out the scalloped squares, pop dotted them, put on the mushrooms (also with pop-dots - so there's extra dimension), and couldn't think of a good sentiment...so I came up with "got shrooms?" And not a drug dealer in site to give this to ;)

The mushroom cut included flowers, but with these being cut at 1", the flowers didn't look good so I used my scissors to get rid of them. I used red glitter glue (stickles) on the mushroom dots, shaded with light brown, and added glaze. Oh, I also used Ranger firebrick red ink on the DP.

Off to check out FTL2.

Note: Watched Harry Potter this weekend at the theater (my ma watched the baby) and it was great! I can't wait to see how it's all going to resolve.

You Are My Sunshine

So I tried something a little different...a little bright. Along my card making journey, I've really found my own style, and sometimes I think I get stuck on a certain look. So I was going for something bright and cheery with this one.

I used a doodlebat from Scrapnfonts to create the dots on the background paper. I made a font box in word, aligned my dots (it didn't take long at all), changed the font color to yellow, added the sentiment in another font box and printed it on yellow cardstock.

The sun is from the Hello Kitty cart, and I used glaze on the yellow portions. As the glaze dried, it gave it even more dimension. The inspiration for this card came from this card at Clean & Simple Stamping. Thanks for stopping by and of course, comments are welcome!

Birds of a Feather

I really like the way this turned out. I used a free digi stamp from Dustin Pike. I really like his creations.

I colored in the image using copics (still new at it, but I'm giving it a go), the leaves are cut at 1" using Doodlecharms cart in white and inked using Ranger Inks, machine sewing, inked the edges, and computer generated circle sentiment using fonts from Scrapnfonts. I hope you enjoy!

Stampin' Up Creations

I went to a stamp class on Saturday, and Ruth (my demonstrator) was using all new stamps and the "in colors." I think it's so funny how everything, from ink color, to patterned paper, to punches all coordinate. It does make simple cards even easier since you don't have to go through your stack of DP to find just the right shade of pink.

These birds are too cute. They are stamped on velum, the ribbon is adorable but I have problems tying pretty bows, and I love the window word punch (got to get that)!

So this pretty stamp is done by coloring with markers, then breathing on the stamp to moisten what you've colored, then stamp. See what I mean about coordinating? The stamp ink colors match the paper perfectly. Oh, and this card features a darling pearl button on the flower.

Note: Dust in the Wind by Kansas just came on the Radio. It always reminds me of Highlander, when Tessa died.

Win $1000 at theCuttlebugSpot.com

I have just discovered that The Cuttlebug Spot is having a contest - "The Journey to 1,000"! They are trying to reach 1,000 followers by the end of July and need your help. To enter all you have to do is go to their site, sign up as follower and complete a few easy steps and you could win a $1,000 gift certificate to Custom Crops.

Paper Posies

I've had this card on my mind for a while and finally made it come true.

First, I created the background paper using a Doodlebat from Scrapnfonts. It was cut to fit a 4.25" by 5.5" card - well, cut just a bit smaller. I added a small strip of pink cardstock that I ran through my Fiskars "wavy paper maker" (in other words, I don't know what it's really called).

I used Accent Essentials (Cricut) for the scallop, made the posies out of an old dictionary, and hand stitched the black stems with DMC floss. The sentiment is computer generated and hand cut. Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment.

Mojo Monday 94 - Antique Butterfly

I recently discovered Mojo Monday, where the sketches are challenging and the entries are plenty! I've been wanting to give one of these sketches a try for a couple weeks now, but just haven't had time. Well, I MADE the time for this one:

This card uses papers from the Armadillo pack and stamps from Stampin' Up. I've included both zig-zag and straight stitching, bright pink ribbon, flower, and pop-dots. Pink cardbase is from my new shipment from Papertrey Ink. Also, I used Ranger inks for the butterfly and distressing, and the Accent Essentials cart (Cricut) to cut the nifty little shape on which the butterfly is stamped.

Belated Birthday Turtle

Turtles are great. They remind me of a not-too-bright creation, but deep down they are probably working out some physics problem in their head.
I found this little wooden guy at Michaels. The papers I already had on hand and the stamp set is Inkadinkado. I used those super adhesive glue dots on the turtle to make sure he doesn't go anywhere.


Whatcha think?

Dictionary Owl 2

I really like this doodlebat from Scrapnfonts. Once again printed on a "vintage" dictionary page. I used my Nestabilities and a stamp from Inkadinkado.

I also really like this paper pack from K&Co.