With Love on our Anniversary

Hi everyone.  Here's my anniversary card for my hubby that I made a while ago.  I wanted to experiment with more mixed media, and went opposite to my usual white CAS cards.  :)  I'm really happy how this turned out.

A script background is stamped randomly with silver ink, then stenciled over top with a quatrafoil design in black pearl paint mixed with heavy matte gel.  Again, the gel is randomly spread across the card front.  XOXO border was die-cut from red card stock four times, glued together to create a thick die-cut, then coated with glossy accents for some shine.  The sentiment banner is stamped in silver and popped up for added dimension.  I'm heading over to join the fun at Mixed Media Card Challenge where the challenge this month is red.  I'm squeaking in just under the wire. :)

Today is our 37th wedding anniversary so I gave the card to hubby this morning.  He really like it. :)

It's a beautiful day here on the West Coast of B.C., so we are heading out to Crescent Beach for a walk along the water and then picking up groceries on the way home.  We used to always go out for dinner on our anniversary, but started having them at home a couple of years ago because of health issues.  We found it so much more relaxing being at home to celebrate, that we're doing it again this year.  Hubby will be making his famous BBQ Cedar Plank Salmon --- yummy!  I'm one lucky girl! :)

Thanks for coming by for a visit.

Stamps:  En Francais (SU!); Thinking of You (Happy Little Stampers)
Paper:  Black,  Real Red (SU!)
Ink:  Silver Delicata (Tsukineko)
Accessories & Tools:  Quatrefoil stencil made with my Silhouette Cameo, heavy matte gel (Golden), Black Pearl Paint (Tsukineko), XOXO Border die (Simon Says), glossy accents

Challenges:
Mixed Media Card Challenge - Feb. 2016 - Red

With Heavy Heart

Christopher

May 14, 1962 - Feb. 22, 2016

With heavy heart I announce that Christopher, brother to my crafty friend Bozena (Art Card Box), lost his battle with lung cancer yesterday.  He fought hard and tried experimental therapies in order to survive, but it would not be so.

I first wrote about Christopher in this blog post, and then gave an update at the end of December in this post, when Christopher's health seemed to improve.

My deepest sympathies go to my dear friend Bozena and her family.  Thanks to all that supported Christopher through prayer and to those who provided financial support for the experimental treatments.  Our crafting community is very giving and generous.  Christopher was genuinely touched by the outpouring of love from so many people that didn't even know him.    Thank you.

Have a Lovely Day

Hi everyone.  Today I've made a card for the Just Us Girls Challenge #331 - Color Week (Teal, Aqua, Navy).  LOVE these colours!

I used teal and turquoise watercolour sprays on watercolour paper to create a panel to cut out my butterfly.  The body is cut from navy card stock.  The background is Inka Gold wax (jade green, turquoise, and platinum), spread onto a mat, spritzed with lots of water and then smooshed.

Click HERE to see my video tutorial on Inka Gold Smooshing.

I ended up with three backgrounds from just a tiny bit of each of the colours of Inka Gold.  Just kept adding more water in-between soaking up the colours with plain white card stock.  This wax paste goes a LONG way.  This is the second of my three smooshed backgrounds.  Inka Gold has a lovely shimmer that you can just see a little of above the butterfly.  It's really hard to capture how gorgeous this wax is in a photo.  I stamped the sentiment in navy ink and heat embossed in clear.  It looks almost black, but trust me, it's done with navy ink. :)

Another example of a CAS Mix Up card. :)  I used watercolour sprays, inka gold, along with smooshing, die-cutting and stamping to create this fun, easy and quick CAS mixed media card. :)

Also heading to the Playground.  I used snippets for my butterfly and butterfly body. :)

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In other news, I'm excited to be featured in another article in the Weekly Scrapper "Sunday with Lorraine" article.  Drop by and check out the article if you have a few minutes.  :)

And my tag Christmas card with berries got an Honourable mention at Merry Monday. :)  Great start to the day! :)

Stamps:  Be Happy (Amy R)
Paper:  White card base and front (Neenah); Watercolour paper butterfly (Arches 140 lb. cold press)
Ink:  Night of Navy (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Watercolour sprays made from liquid watercolour concentrate (Dick Blick), Moonlight Butterfly die (Memory Box), Inka Gold waxes (jade green, turquoise, platinum), water mister, clear embossing powder, heat tool

Challenges:
Just Us Girls #331 - Color Week
Snippets Playground - Week 217

Christmas Berries

Hi everyone.  Today I'm playing along with the Merry Monday Challenge #192 - Berries.  My good friend Bonnie (Stamping with Klass) is hosting this fun challenge. Great job picking the theme, Bonnie!! :)

I used my Twigs & Berries die from Memory box to make the card above.  The sand colour tag was heat embossed with white, using a Christmas word background.  The twig, leaves and berries were die-cut and sponged with the coordinating colour of ink to add depth.  The leaves where shaped with a stylus and mat, and the berries were coated in glossy accents.  Once everything was dry, snow texture was added all along the branch, leaves and berries.

While I was waiting for things to dry, I decided to make a second card with the same die-cuts. :)

The second card has an embossing folder stamped background and then the same twigs and berries over top.

Tip:  When I stamp with early espresso (dark brown ink) onto Neenah card stock, it ends up looking black.  So by accident, I found a great way to get brown.  Using complementary colours (opposites on the colour wheel), you can make your own brown ink.  I first stamped the sentiment below in red ink, then again in green and I ended up with a reddish brown sentiment.  A couple more stampings on top with green, and I ended up with this lovely shade of brown. :)  You need to use a Misti to get the stampings to be lined up perfectly, but I was really surprised that the inks would blend so nicely. :)

These two cards are both examples of  CAS Mix Up cards (stamping, heat embossing, die-cutting, embossing folder stamping).   First challenge starts on March 1st!

I'm also going to enter this into the Snippets Playground.  I used a lot of snippets for my branch, leaves and berries. :)

Thanks for coming by for a visit!  I always appreciate you stopping by. :)

Stamps: Tag card:  Christmas Story (Penny Black); Woodgrain card: Beautiful Season (SU!)
Paper:  White (Neenah)
Ink:  Versamark; Early Espresso, Real Red, Olive Green (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Stitched Tag Die (Lil' Inkers), white embossing powder, heat tool, Twigs & Berries Die (Memory Box), glossy accents, Sparkle Texture Effects (Martha Stewart), white-stitched red ribbon, thin red satin ribbon, Woodgrain embossing folder (Sizzix)

Challenges:
Merry Monday #192 - Berries
Snippets Playground - Week 216

Exciting Announcement

I have exciting news to share.  My friend Bonnie (Stamping with Klass) and I are starting our own card challenge.

We have just launched the CAS Mix Up Card Challenge blog.  Our first monthly challenge will begin on March 1st - YAY!

The challenge is CAS (clean and simple) designs with added mixed media products and techniques.    It's going to be a lot of fun.  :)

Here's a sample of a CAS Mixed Media card......

There will be three parts to every challenge:

1)  Stamping;
2)  Required element (product or technique); and
3)  Your Choice for a third element (product or technique)

You can add a little or a lot of all three elements, and you can add even more if you want as long as you keep a CAS design.

We have a list of techniques and products you can select from for the "Your Choice" option, or choose your own!

It's actually very easy, and it's a great way to add just a little mixed media to your CAS creations.  For my card above, I have more than three elements:  Stamped sentiment (also heat embossed), watercolour sprayed background, punched flowers which are sponged and shaped.

Bonnie and I hope you'll check out the CAS Mix Up Challenge blog to get more details on our new challenge, and we hope you'll come by again on March 1st to see the first challenge and play along.



Stamps:  Fun Birthday Sentiments (Happy Little Stampers)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah 110 lb.); Watercolour (Arches 140 lb. cold press); Regal Rose (SU!)
Ink:  Versamark; Regal Rose (SU!)
Accessories & Tools:  Watercolour sprays (orange and pink) made from Liquid Watercolor Concentrate (Dick Blick); white embossing powder, heat tool, Hydrangea punch (Martha Stewart), stylus and mat for shaping flowers, half pearls

Enjoy your Day!

Hi everyone.  Today I'm sharing a card I sent to my good friend Nancy.  She is recovering from a bad fall and I wanted to let her know I was thinking of her.  She has now received the card, so I'm sharing with you. :)

I started with a splash watercolour background (I LOVE making these and will hopefully have a video tutorial soon).  I used soft colours of distress inks (Antique Linen / Brushed Corduroy).  Once dry, I inked up my solitaire stamp from Penny Black using my distress markers, spritzed with a little water, and then stamped on top (Watercolour Spritz technique).  The colours flow when they hit the watercolour paper and it really does look hand painted. While it was still a bit wet, I moved some of the colours around with a waterbrush.  When it was completely dry, I stamped my sentiment on top and mounted the piece onto a card base.  So fun and easy to make!

I'm entering this into ATCAS challenge #81 - Bloom. :)

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I finally got my stamp order in the mail that I sent off a while ago.  It included the five sets that I'm giving away to celebrate my 5 Year Blog-aversary.  Thanks to everyone who left comments of support.  I appreciate it!

I wrote each name onto a piece of paper and hubby did the picking last night --- so exciting!  Here are the winners:

                      Karen Mead                      Linda Walmsley                      Jane Harrah

                                       Maria Fischer                    Nancy Littrell


Congrats everyone.  I'll be mailing them out to you within the next week! xx

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One more quick thing before I go.  I wanted to share a few pictures from our family gathering from last Sunday.  We were celebrating my Mom's 87th birthday. :)

Here's my Mom ... isn't she beautiful??!!

Here's the majority of our family.  We are missing six, but the rest were able to make it to the party.  Mom had a fun time. :)

Stamps:  Solitaire (Penny Black); Heartfelt (Penny Black)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah); Watercolour (Arches 140 lb. cold press)
Ink:  Distress Inks:  Antique Linen, Brushed Corduroy, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Ripe Persimmon, Picked Raspberry (Tim Holtz); Black (Memento)
Accessories & Tools:  water mister, waterbrush

Lots of Watercolouring

Hi everyone.  I hope you're not getting sick of seeing my watercoloured cards.  I made this after taking a Watercolor On-line Class - Intermediate.  I don't know if I actually used any of the techniques from the course, but it did inspire me to play around.  The only disappointment with this, my signature in black.  I should have used a much lighter colour ... what was I thinking??!! :)

Anyways, it was fun to make.  I started with a splash watercolour background (hope to share more about that in a couple of weeks).   I stamped the clay pot in ink just to get an outline, and then filled in with watercolours.  The flowers are all basically blobs of colour with a bit of shading.  :)  Nothing fancy, but still had fun.  I hope to be able to go back and learn more from the class (the lessons are available forever). The instructor (Dawn from WPlus9) is an amazing artist.  She made it look easy, but I know that it takes lots and lots of practice.  Hopefully I'll have some successes that I can share with you in the future. :)

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I'm also sharing some happy news.  I was featured again at the Weekly Scrapper in the "Sunday with Lorraine" article.  I'm very honoured.  I hope you'll check it out if you have a few minutes. :)

Stamps:  Pot (Rubber-Art Stamps); A Little Sentimental (Clearly Besotted)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah); Watercolour panel (Arches 140 lb. cold press)
Ink:  Distress inks for background:  Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint); Baked Brown sugar for pot outline
Accessories & Tools:  water mister, Opus Essentials Watercolours (hooker's green, aureolin); Winsor & Newton (alizarin crimson, phthalo turquoise), watercolour brushes (#4, #2)

Happy Birthday Mom

Hi everyone.  Today is my mom's 87th birthday! :)  Happy Birthday Mom!! Yesterday the family gathered at her place for a birthday celebration.  I think she had a great time seeing her grandchildren and spouses, plus three of her six great-grandchildren.  It was a lot of fun! :)

For Christmas, my sweet friend Hazel (My Card Attic) sent me a gorgeous stamp set from Altenew called Watercolor Wonder.  This is my first time inking it up.  I wanted something really special for my mom's birthday card, and these images are so pretty. Thanks again Hazel!! :)

I googled the stamp set just to see what other people had done with it.  It has many different flowers with layering stamps and I have never tried that before.  I found this gorgeous card by Tasnim.  I had to try CASEing it (copy and share everything). Mine didn't turn out as "watercoloured" looking as Tasnim's ... I tend to have a heavy had when adding colour. :)  But I'm happy with how it turned out.

I inked up the large flower with light pink distress ink, spritzed with water and stamped onto my watercolour paper.  I quickly inked up the next layer of petals, spritzed with water and stamped on top while the one underneath was still wet.  The colours blended so well.  I did the same for the leaves with two shades of green and once it was completely dry, I stamped the yellow center.

I used a NBUS sentiment set from Penny Black and stamped in black, then mounted the piece onto a black card base.

Thanks for coming by!

Stamps:  Watercolor Wonder (Altenew); Heartfelt (Penny Black)
Paper:  Black card base (SU!); Watercolour card front (Arches 140 lb. cold press)
Ink:  Distress Inks:  Worn Lipstick, Ripe Persimmon, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Mustard Seed (Tim Holtz);  Memento Black
Accessories & Tools:  Water spray, black permanent marker to add dots to the center.

With Love for Valentine's Day

Hi everyone.  I finally got a chance to make a Valentine's Day card for hubby. :)  I used the embossing folder technique to make my background.  I pressed a small amount of Festive Berries distress ink into the middle area of the inside (solid raised design) of my heart embossing folder.  Then I just added two little touches of Aged Mahogany as it's really a dark colour.  I spritzed with water and ended up with a mix of the red, pink and purple colours flowing over my card front.  LOVE IT! :)

The card stock tends to warp a little with this technique, which I embraced and enhanced by tearing all four sides to give it a bit of a grunge look. :)  I added double-sided tape in three small strips to the middle of the back of my card front and stuck it to the card base.  This leaves the sides loose creating dimension without using pop dots.

I didn't want to cover up very much of the background, so simply added two die-cut red sprayed hearts.   A simple stamped sentiment finishes the card. :)


Lots of love-themed challenges right now.  I'm entering this card into:

Time Out #49 - Inspired by Words ('Love is a flower you've got to let grow')

AAA Cards #57 - Love me like you do

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Have a Heart

Fusion - Paper Hearts

Inkspirational #101 - Photo Inkspiration

STAMPlorations February CAS Challenge - optional Red

Anything But Cute - Challenge #10 - Grungy Love

     

Stamps:  Rosebuds (The Bees Knees)
Paper:  White card base and front (Neenah); Watercolour hearts (Arches 140 lb. cold press)
Ink:  Distress inks:  Festive Berries, Aged Mahogany (Tim Holtz); Black (Memento)
Accessories & Tools:  Happy Heart embossing folder (Sizzix for SU!), water mister, Large Hearts dies (Simon Says)

Delight in the Little One

Hi everyone.  Today I'm sharing a baby card I made for my good friend, Deepti (Dee's Art Utophia).  I had the pleasure of working on three design teams with Deepti over the past three years.  She is a very talented artist and has her own line of stamps (dee's artsy impressions), which are sold through STAMPlorations.

This is the first child for Deepti and her husband Vikas.  Congrats to both of you on the exciting arrival of Siddharth on Jan. 29th!

The girls over at STAMPlorations are having a blog hop in Deepti's honour, so I'm joining in with this card, which is already in the mail to Deepti. :)

I used the acetate smooshing technique (click HERE for video tutorial by Laura Bassen).  This technique gives you a little more control than regular smooshing, as you can place your colour were you want.  I love this fun backdrop for the sweet mama and baby elephants. :)

The elephants are stamped onto soft gray cardstock, then paper pieced and popped up between layers to give them lots of dimension.  Glossy accents were added to the eyes for a bit of shine, along with some sequins in the background for a little sparkle.

I hope you'll come join in the fun at the blog hop and play along.

Thanks for coming by for a visit!

Stamps:  Lil' Hoot (Hero Arts); Fond Expressions 2 (STAMPlorations)
Paper:  White (Neenah); Smoky Slate (SU!)
Ink:  Black (Memento); Smoky Slate (SU!); Distress inks:  Tumbled Glass, Twisted Citron (Tim Holtz)
Accessories & Tools:  Piece of acetate, water mister, glossy accents, sequins

Challenges:
STAMPlorations - Deepti Popped.  A Mommy- Baby Blog Hop

Celebrating Five Years!

Hi everyone.  Today I'm celebrating five years of blogging. :)  And I'm launching a brand new look for my blog.

I decided to change completely, going from a black background to white.  There's a new Tab at the top with a link to Photo Galleries of my cards by category.  I thought this would be a better search feature than my previous labels.  I hope you'll find it useful.  And I've done some streamlining to create a CAS (clean and simple) look.

The best part of blogging is all the wonderful friends I have made.  Card makers are the most caring and generous group of people I know.  To show my appreciation, I'm having a give-away for my loyal friends and followers.  Please leave a comment on this post before Feb. 7 to be eligible to win.  Five comments will be chosen and each will receive a free stamp set.

For today's card I created a splattered background by flicking my watercolour paper into some diluted distress inks.  Once dry, the tulip stamp was inked with orange and pink distress markers, spritzed with water and stamped onto the background.  I moved the ink around a little with a brush while it was still wet.  Once dry, the leaves on the stamp were inked with distress markers, spritzed with water and stamped.  A small amount of diluted orange and pink inks were splattered over top. The Misti provided a good stamping of the sentiment onto the textured watercolour paper.

Thank you for joining me on my journey into card making.  It's been so much fun and I know there's lots more fun to come! :)

As always, I appreciate you coming by for a visit!

Stamps:  Promise Me (Penny Black); Heartfelt (Penny Black)
Paper:  White card base (Neenah); Watercolour (Arches 140 lb. cold press)
Ink:  Distress inks:  Antique Linen, Brushed Corduroy, Ripe Persimmon, Picked Raspberry, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint (Tim Holtz); Black (Memento)
Accessories & Tools:  water mister, brush, Misti