Layered Cricut Christmas Card

For this Christmas card featuring kraft paper (my new fave!) I cut two card options of a Christmas tree image from Joys of the Season Cricut cartridge, both at 5 1/2".  One of the papers was a red dot printed kraft paper and the other a green solid.  I cut the tree only out of the green solid.  By the way, when you cut cleanly and smoothly you are then left with a window card you can use for another project.  I then layered the green tree on top of the centered tree in the window of the kraft card and glued it down.  I added 1/4" punched kraft dots to the tree for "ornaments" which I then colored with Smooch paint.  I cut two primitive stars from another Cricut cartridge at 1 1/4" each and added one to the top of the tree on the front of the card and painted it with Smooch.  I then opened the card and attached the other star to the backside of the star on the front.  This gives a finished look to the inside of the card.  The sentiment is from a Hobby Lobby specialty clear stamp set, stamped and then colored with Smooch.  The layered labels are also from the Joys of the Season cartridge, cut consecutively in 1/4" increments.
     I like the primitive look the kraft paper gives this design.  The shine of the Smooch lends an unexpected touch of elegance to a rather simple presentation.  That's me--ordinary with a bit of sparkle!

Quilled flowers

Many of you know I have fallen in love with quilling.  Here is a project I did from the Quilled Flowers book: the cherry blossom.  These were very fun to make, and I found the perfect stick to put them on.  However, I can't really see my stick on a card, as the book depicts.  Instead, I will probably put this project in a small display shadow box I will hang on my wall.  I have quilled leaves, flowers, cupcakes, snowflakes, and even bats!  My thank you to all the quilling patterns and help out there on the internet and in printed books.  I will definitely be making some of these projects.  Quilling is relaxing and fun, even if two don't come out the exact same size!  I have found that if the project directions specify to make three of a particular shape, I am better off making five and choosing the best three!  Oh, well!  To err is human!  Or so they say!

Spooky Frankenstein

Such a simple, colorful Halloween card!  Best of all--very inexpensive.  Hobby Lobby stamp set is only about $6.00 and is 40% off this week.  And don't you love that splat!  Inks used:  Colorbox Archival in Grasshopper and Deep Grape, Tsukineko Memento in Tangelo.  Frankenstein is colored with Copics.

Color My World Neon!

I've had my new Hero Arts neon inks for a little while now and I wanted to share some ideas for them.  If anyone has an idea about how to present the neon colors on the computer, please share those with me, because these scans definitely do not look neon!  But the cards do (in reality, rather than virtuality).  The first card, above, is a copy of one that Lisa Spangler presented on her blog Sideoats and Scribbles.  You can see her original post here:  http://sideoatsandscribbles.wumple.com/2012/06/28/dazzling-neon/

I used a stamp from Penny Black instead for the sentiment.  

Below is another take-off on one of Lisa's ideas.  You can see her original card here:   http://sideoatsandscribbles.wumple.com/2012/07/12/heidi-swapp-swap/

I didn't have a lot of embossed paper, so I made my own with heat embossing and white ink and powder for the pink and orange strips below.   Also, the moon is heat embossed in white and then covered with yellow neon ink.  The die shape is from Spellbinder's.  All stamps from Hero Arts.  

This last card features a Hero Arts witch from an older clear set.  I stamped her in black and then colored her with neon inks with my Fantastix blending sticks.  Also the bats' eyes!  You can see that I colored the ghosts eyes in the card above the same way.  

I love my neon inks!  I got all the colors:  yellow, green, orange, pink, blue, and purple.  And I am so glad I have them in time for Halloween.  They are the perfect colors for the season.  I am now looking for all things neon--papers, markers, embellishments.  I think they are my new fave!  Happy October!

Inchie Art

Since I have an Inchie class coming up Saturday, I thought I'd share some Inchie projects I have done in the past.  What is an Inchie?  It's a tiny 1" square work of art, either created on it's own or punched from a larger piece of art.  It can be part of a grouping to help build a card or scrapbook page, or just be a clever stand-alone piece of art.
This first piece is a thank you card made from a clear set of stamps from American Craft.  Very purple!  I like the dimension I built into the card using pop dots.  I also like how I made the THANKS greeting into two inchies with a punch stroke!  Some of the inch squares are stamped, some are run through an embossing folder, to give variety.

The next card uses some kitchen paper and a set of clear stamps from Amuse with a kitchen theme.  I thought of a kitchen cabinet so I encased my inchies into a "cabinet" I made with narrow strips of foam.  Again, I liked using pop dots to raise some elements of the squares up for dimension.  Lots of delicate cutting on this piece!  Another unique feature of this piece is how I cut up bits and pieces of a discarded dictionary to add text elements.

This last card uses the foam strips and the text elements used above but this time makes a dress shop "window".  The stamp is a row of cute little girl dresses, each stamped on inked and distressed paper.  

Inchies are one of my favorite art forms.  I love arranging those little squares into mosaic style cards and scrapbook pages.  I read on a Flickr Inchie site on the web that you can keep your Inchies in coin collection plastic pages--the size for quarters.  Inchie supplies can be bought from Ellen Hutson LLC, who stocks items from Inchie Arts and Lockhart stamps.  Inkadinkado makes a lot of Inchie clear stamp sets--the easy way to approach Inchie Art!  Good things come in small packages!

Crown Jewels ATC's

The theme for this month's ATC trade was "Crown Jewels".  I made all sorts of glittery goodness, as you can see in the photo above.  I used 2" sized chipboard squares and heat embossed them with Clearsnap Copper pigment ink and a combination of Ranger UTEE, gold and copper embossing powders.  While the layers of embossing powder were still hot I impressed a crown stamp (Postmodern Design) into the molten mess.   I then used red and ginger alcohol inks to add to the color.  This is a very fun technique--making deep thermal embossed tiles.  The fun part is sprinkling in all sorts of different powders for a unique look.   To further embellish the tiles once they were on the inked, stamped, and be-ribboned cards, I added tiny gold beads with Glossy Accents as an adhesive.  They really look like treasure!  Lastly, I composed a bit of prose to add some text to my creation.  I had fun at the trade.  All the cards were imaginative and the company fun to be with.  ATC's--a way to share your art with others.

Halloween Shadowbox: Thank you Memory Box!

I have wanted to make this Halloween shadowbox ever since I saw it on the Memory Box Blog.  Last year I even ordered most of the stamps to make it.  I worked on it yesterday at Karen's fun craft room and finished up today.  It has lots of Halloween gleam and glitter.  You can see the original at this link:  Memory Box Spooky Printer's Tray    I used a printer's tray from Hobby Lobby instead of the 7 Gypsies one used in the original project.  The basic papers I used were from the Memory Box Nightfall collection.  I added stamps from Hero Arts, Inkadinkado, and Amuse in addition to the ones from Memory Box.  I did not have any Halloween Design Adhesives, so I used strips of green glitter paper for sparkle.  I also wanted some text, so in addition to some stamped words, I used a Cricut cartridge called "Word Collage".  The Halloween selection was perfect!  I cut some text in black and some in orange glitter paper.   All background papers were adhered with Perfect Paper Adhesive Matte from USArtquest.  I used a foam brush to apply the adhesive directly to the shadowbox.    Here are some closeups of various sections:

In the section above, I worked at the "Spooky Collage" technique, which is shown on the Memory Box blog.  It was a lot of fun!  Karen and I made three spooky collages and used one of them in the Shadowbox.  It is basically a technique where you make a "waxy buildup" of clear embossing powder, stamp on top of it in black ink, and then embellish with alcohol ink.  You can check out the technique specifics here:  http://davebrethauer.typepad.com/stampcolorcreate/2010/08/the-spooky-collage.html  Karen and I found that the collage stamp worked better if you used pigment ink and then heat embossed it also in clear ink before adding the alcohol ink.  We just had to be careful not to let the built up pool of clear melted powder melt any further!  This way we didn't have to wait for the ink to dry before adding the alcohol ink.

In the section above, you can see the very cool "cat in the spotlight" technique, which is described in the original Memory Box project here.  I used Tim Holtz Black Soot (a freshly re-inked pad) and a foam applicator to make the shadow.  I masked the spotlight with Eclipse Tape.   Can you find the following:

• hanging ghosts from Penny Black embossed in white?
• an orange glitter moon behind an Inkadinkado haunted mansion?
• some owls displayed in front of some shiny orbs painted with Smooch paint?

In the section above you can find some spooky Inkadinkado spiderwebs heat embossed with Mystic Fire embossing powder from B & J Art Stamps.   You can also see a golden Hero Arts chandelier with some colorful Stickles accents.

Lots of fun!  I really enjoy making these.  I had intended it for use initially to house my Hallmark Merry Miniatures Halloween collection, but they just didn't look right and some were a little large for the printer's tray.  So my next idea is I will use it to house Halloween costume jewelry I have collected over the years.  That will make it very sparkly!  If I adhere the jewelry pieces (pins, earrings, etc) with hot glue I don't think it will get damaged if I ever decide to wear any of it again!  I prefer to look at my jewels rather than wear them on my person any day!  This project will be a great backdrop for my pretties!