Homestead Blog Hop

Welcome to the October 2014 Club Scrap blog hop featuring the Homestead collection!

If you got here from Tiare's blog, you are on the right path. To start at the beginning (and to see the list of bloggers), head over to the new Club Scrap blog. 

I created one little card for this month's hop. It's the only thing I've created with the gorgeous and down-to-earth Homestead collection, but I've got lots of ideas for more cards and projects. 

For inspiration for a card to make, I checked out the amazing "please inspire me!" site, Pinterest, and searched for "ribbon" and "cards." I created a board with my favorite uses of ribbons on cards. And here is the card I created:

I started with one of my favorite Spellbinders dies (I'll use the die cut on another project). 

And on the reverse of the card panel, I started attaching ribbon strips. I found it best to add adhesive around the shape plus use tape to secure the ends.

 Here's the back side of the panel with all the ribbon secured.

And this is what the front looks like.

Again, here's my finished card. I will definitely be doing this technique again with other dies and my extensive stash of ribbon!

Thanks for taking a look at my blog today. The next stop on the hop is Marya's blog. If you want to see the list of bloggers, return to the Club Scrap blog.  Until next time, Happy Fall, Y'all!!

March CS Blog Hop--Trees

Welcome to my stop on the Club Scrap Creates Trees blog hop! If you got here from Tiare's blog, then you are on the right track. If you want to start at the beginning or see a list of all the bloggers contributing this month, click HERE. 

This month all the bloggers are featuring projects using the March 2014 kit, Trees. Here's a pic of some of the kit elements. You can find more kit items HERE.

Ever have a bad case of crafter's block? Well, that's what I had this month. I often have at least a small idea of what I want to create with the new kit when I first open it. This time, though, nothing was coming to me. I'd looked at the kit, seen projects other CS folks have made with the products, even created a mood board in Pinterest featuring trees and the many beautiful colors in the kit. Still, nothing came to mind when the deadline was approaching for this blog post. Absolutely nothing.

So, with the deadline right around the corner, I pulled out the kit elements and spread them out on the floor. Hmmm . . . nothing.

I opened my stamp binder and found two really cute leaf stamps on the Trees Art Nouveau unmounted stamp sheet. I felt a glimmer of hope when I saw those stamps!

They have text on them, which reminded me of some stamps in the Up, Up & Away! collection from February 2013, so I pulled those out and some of the plain Trees papers and CS inks and started stamping.

Using the leaf trio stamp, I created a background panel using Leaf, Moss, and Earth Club Scrap hybrid inks. 

I then used the dictionary page stamp from Up, Up & Away! to create another background on the dark green paper.

Still not knowing just what I was going to do with these stamped papers, I used Sandstone ink and another UU&A stamp and Moss ink with the Trees row of leaves stamp.

Here are the three stamped papers I created. It was getting late, so I went downstairs to read a few pages in my human resources management text book. This serves several purposes: It checks off another thing on my to-do list for the day, and it puts me to sleep (please don't tell my professor!). But most of all, it enables me to take a break from my creative venture, since at this point, I still wasn't sure what my final project was going to be. I had a start, but I what path I was taking was still a mystery.

A new day brings a refreshed mind (isn't that great?!), and I could finally see what I was going to do for this project. The leaves and the light green paper both reminded me of pears--that's right--pears. And I just so happen to have a pear die! (From Spellbinders' Orchard Harvest Tags and Accents die set.) With a new-found direction, I used the dictionary page dark green paper to die cut two pears. (I didn't use the leaf die, though it's pictured.) I also stamped the leaf trio a few time and cut out a couple leaves to add to the pear die cuts.

And here (finally) is my completed card. The sentiment strip was made using the UU&A stamp and Sandstone ink. I made the row of leaves lighter by stamping first onto scratch paper. The "thank you" stamp used on the top and bottom is from the Milestones kit, and the "thank you" in brackets came from Pure & Simple. (These are both extinct wood-mounted stamps.) The sentiment strip and the pear/leaf on the left are raised with foam adhesive. The fiber is from the Trees embellishment pack. 

There you have it. Sometimes when creativity is blocked it helps to just get out some paper, stamps, and ink and stamp away. Then, get a good night's sleep, and in the morning you'll find your mojo has returned. Mine just happened to be in the form of pears!

Thanks for making it to the end of my blog post. Your next stop on the hop is Marya's blog: A Notebook Novel. I can't wait to see what she has in store for us!

Until next time,

Lisa

It's a BIG DEAL!

Welcome to my stop on this month's Club Scrap blog hop featuring the February 2014 kit Big Deal. (See elements of the kit HERE.)

If you got here from Tiare's blog, then you are hopping right along. If you get lost along the way, or you want to start back at the beginning, go to the Club Scrap Creates blog.  There's a list of all of this month's participants there. 

When my kit arrived, I immediately noticed the gorgeous colors and unique textures of the papers. Photos can never do justice to paper textures, but you can see the beautiful colors in this picture.

For the blog hop, I opted to do another canvas art project. You can see the one I made in December for the Gnome for the Holidays blog hop HERE. Below is my Big Deal canvas art--perfect for Valentine's Day or year-round!

I started with a white 6x6 canvas. To distress the parts that would be visible, I first inked with Club Scrap's Sandstone hybrid ink, then I added Earth ink on top. I like the two-tone, aged effect this gives.

For my base paper, I chose the Tan Plain from the kit, cut to 5.5x5.5". It has a raised "Swiss Dot" pattern on it that is ideal for inking! After distressing the edges with my Tonic paper distressing tool, I ran the Earth ink pad over the surface and edges of the paper. 

The focal image was made with two stamps. The card background stamp is from the Borders & Backgrounds sheet. To keep it light, I inked with Sandstone ink.

The verse is found on the Collection sheet of rubber. I inked with Club Scrap's India Black ink and sprinkled Hematite embossing powder (found in the Tribal kit) over the words. I love the look of heat-embossing--and it adds even more texture to my project. :-)

Another stamped and embossed element--the scroll image, also found on the Borders & Backgrounds unmounted rubber sheet.

After cutting out the scrolls, I glued them on with CS Bookbinding Glue.  Ribbon (from the Big Deal embellishment pack) and some brads from my stash layer on even more texture.

To add to the love theme, I stamped hearts from the Collection stamps onto the Red Pearl paper and added red brads from my stash. This canvas makes a festive home decor element for the month of February, though I might just leave it out year-round.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today. I hope you enjoyed seeing my creation and are inspired by the textures in this kit. The next stop on the blog hop is Marya's blog HERE. 

Until next time,

Lisa

Aspen Blog Hop

Welcome to the Aspen blog hop! If you are following along, you got here from Tiare's BLOG.  If you have stumbled upon my blog or got here from Facebook, you can start back at the beginning to see ALL the amazing creativity from the bloggers this month HERE at Club Scrap Creates.

With this being Christmas week when the creative juices sometimes flow more slowly, I opted for a simple project this month. (This is mainly because I created this project the day after Christmas, when my energy level was low from all the festivities! I'm a natural procrastinator, though I've been trying to change that for years. I'm afraid it's too late.)

Here's the card I created with my Aspen kit. I call the technique "layering with ink" because there are no paper layers. In fact, the only paper used is a 5.5x8.5 piece of Almond paper.

Ink Layer 1 uses the 5.5x8.5 Almond paper folded in half, Club Scrap Hybrid Ink (Moss), and the leaf border stamp from the Aspen Borders and Backgrounds UM sheet.

For Ink Layer 2, tear off 3/4 inch from the front of the card and ink with Club Scrap Hybrid ink (Earth).

3rd Ink Layering Technique uses the group of trees stamp (also on the Aspen Borders & Backgrounds sheet), the same Moss ink, and a brown marker. I stamped once, then again (without reinking the stamp) a little higher and to the right to create more trees in the distance. I wanted more trees behind those on the left, so I inked the stamp again and stamped onto a scrap paper, then stamped some background trees on the left side of the first image.

For the greeting, I used a 4th ink layering technique with Moss and Earth CS inks, Post-It notes, an ink applicator, and the Happy Birthday stamp from the Aspen Greeting unmounted sheet.

For this technique, I ripped a little bit off the sticky ends off two Post-It notes, covered the area where I stamped the greeting, and lightly sponged ink over the tree trunks. Repositioning the Post-It notes, I inked under the greeting.

And that is how I used inks to create layering on my Aspen card. I have to admit that I was very tempted to add ribbon or other embellishing, but I held back and let inks take center stage.

Bonus project: For Christmas, my oldest daughter gave me a framed picture of her and her fiance from their engagement photo shoot. I'll have to ask her for another picture for the frame, because I just had to create a page! The papers, green ribbon, and buttons are from Aspen, while the words and alpha stickers are from Bridges (February 2006). Leaves are from my stash.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you have been inspired to create something with your Aspen kit. If you don't have a kit, you can get one HERE. 

The next stop on the hop is Marya's blog. Click HERE.

OWH WCMD Blog Hop!

 

Isn't the modern world full of acronyms? You often have to be "in the know" to understand what they mean, right? Here's what my title means:

OWH=Operation Write Home

WCMD=World Card Making Day

 And you probably know what a "blog hop" is! 

I am so excited to be part of the 2013 OWH WCMD Blog Hop--I can't wait to see the amazing creations for this year! Our task was to use an OWH sketch to create a thank you card.  I chose Sketch #8. I like the two-tone background and circular focal image.

And here is my completed card. All the papers are from Club Scrap's Random Doorways collection (January 2013). For the stamps, I used CS's Tribal (August 2013) circular images unmounted stamps and the greeting wood-mounted stamp from Milestones (December 2008). The perfect circles were cut with Spellbinders Nestabilities dies--love those things!

Here's a close-up of the greeting--a bit blurry (I think my camera focused on the ric rac--also from Random Doorways). 

 

Thanks for taking a look at my blog. Enjoy the rest of the hop, and I hope you are inspired to make some cards for the troops!

Take Wing Blog Hop!

 Welcome to my blog and thank you for following the September 2013 Club Scrap Blog Hop featuring the Take Wing collection! The starting point of the hop is Club Scrap Creates. There you will find the list of participating bloggers who are all creating with this cheerful kit!

My creation is a card featuring the collage image from the Borders & Backgrounds unmounted (UM) stamps. The technique came from the creative team at Technique Junkies and is found in their August/September 2013 newsletter. Their newsletters are full of fun and creative techniques, and they have CDs with tutorials, too! You can visit the TJ blog at http://techniquejunkies.blogspot.nl/.

This technique is called the Blocked Backgrounds Tutorial.

The supplies you need to create this card are:
5.5x8.5 White cardstock (folded in half for the card base)
5.25x4 Red Translucent 
5x3.75 White cardstock panel
Printed cardstock for the bird 
Black paper/cardstock (not shown)
White paper/cardstock for the sentiment
Green bird brad

Tools needed:
UM collage stamp and mounting block
Post-It notepad
Club Scrap India Black ink
Clear ruler (I love the Club Scrap 2x8 ruler for this technique!)
Black Sharpie marker (not shown)
Take Wing stencil
Paper piercer 
Scissors
Sentiment stamp

 

Step 1: Use Post-It notes to block off the top left quadrant of the White panel. Ink the collage stamp well with India Black ink, and stamp onto the quadrant. (You want to stamp off the edges of the panel, so be sure to have scratch paper underneath.)

 

Steps 2 & 3: Repeat the same technique in the upper right quadrant, being sure to leave a space between the stamped images. You want an intersection of white, like crossing streets along city blocks. Add a third stamped image in the bottom left quadrant, again leaving a space. (I added a piece of red foam under the panel to make the panel more noticeable in the pictures.)

Step 4: Again, repeat the stamping, this time in the lower right quadrant. Notice that I used the same two Post-It notes in each step. I'm a frugal crafter!

 Here is the stamped panel. I did not measure my spaces between the stamped images. I might try using pieces of low-tack tape (like Washi tape) to separate the quadrants next time. That would ensure even spacing, though my perfectionist tendencies have dissipated as I've gotten older. :-) 

 

Step 5: Using a Sharpie pen and clear ruler, draw lines around each block, like curbs around city blocks. My corners are not perfect (see the previous paragraph). I knew I was covering the intersection with a cut-out, so I wasn't too worried about it. The "Blocked Backgrounds" panel is complete. Not shown: Edge the panel using a black stamp pad.

To add a focal image to the card, I chose the bird from the Take Wing collection stencil. I moved the stencil around on the printed paper (below). Since I was using the Red Translucent paper behind the stamped panel, I chose the section with the red "branches."

Hmmm . . . I didn't want to trace the bird onto the front of the paper, because I wanted a nice, clean image. I discovered that if I used a paper piercer to place a tiny indent at the beak and the tail (not shown), I could flip the paper over, find the raised marks, and line up the reversed stencil the way I wanted it. I traced with a pencil and cut out the bird with scissors. (I left off the bird's feet, as cute as they are.)

The printed bird blended in too much with the background. Adhering it to black paper not only added contrast but also made her just a bit bigger. And adding dimensional tape raised her off the panel. Below: A simple white panel for the greeting doesn't detract from the artwork.

I'm so glad you visited my blog today, and I hope you give this fun background technique a try! Your next stop on the hop is Marya's blog.  Continue hopping along to see more creativity with Take Wing!