FS144 Christmas Birdhouse

Boy, I really wanted to case the pics of today's Featured Stampers's craft room by organizing mine but didn’t think I could get that done today! So, I choose this card to case. I kept all the blue and the birdhouse but changed out the sketch for the OCCC sketch this week, I changed this to a whole winter scene and I added some red. Since I used this older stamp set, I can also enter this in the All That Scraps Wednesday challenge.

This card has been finished for hours....but I really struggled to get a good pic. I finally just made myself go with this one!

Stamps: CC Designs Sugarplums Spooky Scenery, CC Designs Sugarplums Olivia’s Birdies, CC Designs AmyR Christmas Sentiments
Paper: Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Stampin’ Up DP, GP 110
Ink: Blue Bayou, Whisper White, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, Round tab punch, liquid appliqué, Winter Wonderland embossing powder, fine black marker, SU ribbon

Enjoy!

Michelle B.

“Queen of the Scene”

Technique Trout

The current Artful Inkables challenge is to try a technique you hadn’t tried before. I don’t think I’ve ever used by Nesties to emboss a shape into a card like this before so I thought I’d give it a whirl. I love this fish half in and half out of the water. The embossed frame around him kinda gives him a fish tank feel! Ha!

I embossed the shape and kept the Nestie in place to mask the edge. Then I stamped my image into place using my stamp-a-majig for guidance. I colored the fish. I stamped the image again on some Eclipse tape and added and removed portions of the mask to sponge in the sky and water (hmmmm….I feel another Tuesday Tip coming on about how I did this water….). A little smear of ink dictated the ribbon placement (ha!). The finishing touch was the little “hi!” in the corner.

Stamps: Aftful Inkables Pond Friends
Paper: Papertrey White
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Pacific Point, Baja Breeze
Accessories: Copics, Nesties, Eclipse Tape, Stamp-a-majig, ribbon from Pink Hedgehog

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
"Queen of the Scene”

My First Vintage

The OCCC challenge for this week was to do a card in Vintage style. I’ve never tried vintage before. I even had to do a bit of research to figure out the common elements of Vintage style. In the end, I was surprised to find out that I LOVED this style!

I thought this vintage style would be a good match for my new Shepard Snow Family set from FireCracker Designs by Pamela. Don't you love those snowmen! I used the sketch from Mojo111 (upside down).

Stamps: Shepard Snow Family by FireCracker Designs by Pamela
Paper: Very Vanilla, Riding Hood Red, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Basic Grey Wassail DP
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel
Accessories: Copics, Martha Stewart snowflake punch, ¼” circle punch, Martha Stewart Scallop dot punch (for the small circles), Textile Texure embossing folder

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

SC253 Do you like my grass?

Do you like my grass? I have been wanting a grass punch for a while but couldn’t find one. Then I got to looking at my icicle punch and…..yep, it looked like grass to me! Don’t throw away the small parts that are punched out either. I trimmed those and placed them in the foreground for more texture.

Ooh, I love the sketch for today’s sketch challenge! I’ll definitely be using this again! I was so glad it was a simple sketch because I was up way to late last night! Ha! No sponging, inking, airbrushing or anything for me here....this entire scene was made with dp & cardstock.

Stamps: CC Designs Swiss Pixies Birgitta
Paper: GP 110, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, So Safron, American Crafts DP (clouds), Cosmo Cricket DP (plaid)
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, Martha Stewart Icicle Punch (grass)

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

TTTT # 18 - Faux Brads

Time for another Tips & Tricks (and Tutorials) Tuesday! I haven't done any of these in a while and I have a few ideas brewing in my brain again so here we go. Today I'll show you how I make faux brads. These ideas were gathered from combining a number of other resources I saw on the web. I really feel like I need to jot down every thing I see so I don't forget where I saw them.

I like faux brads because I always have the color/quantity I need and they do not add any bulk when mailing. I also seem to be able to get this into position a little better.

STEP 1 - Punch circles out of cardstock using your 1/4" circle punch. (Yes, I know there are 4 holes punched from the paper but only 3 on the table....one went flying and I couldn't find it! Ha!)

Step 2 - Color the left side of the circle in a coordinating Copic color. You may want it to be just a hair darker than your cardstock. The perfect shape that you are color is that of a crescent. In my pic below, the "brad" in the lower right is the best.

Next, I take a white Prismacolor pencil and color in a little curved line close to the right edge of the circle.

Here is a closeup of the "brad".

And here are some "brads" in use on a project.

(more details for this project can be found here)

Enjoy!

Michelle B.

FS143 Bright Snowman

Congrats Boo on being the FS today! Hooray!

I need to make some Christmas cards so I appreciated Boo’s gallery have a section just for those. I found this brightly colored snowman for inspiration. I used a snowman image my friend Leslie recently sent to me (Thanks Leslie!) and I colored him brightly to match the DP (not colors I normally use on snowmen!). I knew I needed a CAS sketch as those are Boo’s fav so I went to Fall To Layout #66 for my sketch.

Stamps: Whipper Snapper Latern Snowman, CC Designs AmyR Christmas Sentiments
Paper: GP 110, Real Red, Garden Green, Cosmo Cricket Jolly By Golly DP
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Soft Sky
Accessories: Copics

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene” but keepin' it CAS today

Halloween Craftin' with DS

Happy Halloween! At my kid's school, they pair up a 1st grader with an 8th grade buddy that helps them through out the school year. At Halloween they exchange little gifts. My son gave his "big brother" a bag of candy but I wanted to add something special.....but hmmmm, what could we do? And then Karyn posted these fabulous bag toppers and I knew exactly what to do. (Thanks Karyn!)

DS did all the spraying of the airbrush and the stamping of the bats. My son makes all the birthday cards for his buddies and his favorite technique is airbrushing. I did the cutting and the larger stamps. He was so proud to take this into his big brother!

Stamps: Gina K. Spooky Silhouettes
Paper: GP 110, Pumpkin Pie
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Nesties, Copics, Airbrush System, Ribbon from Pink Hedgehog

Enjoy!

Michelle B.

"Queen of the Scene"