Fusion Challenge Number 7

I ought to have been cleaning the house today — some people are coming in town soon for visits — but instead I made cards. Oh well…

I made a card for the Fusion Challenge number 7:

 

 

So far in my work for Fusion, I have combined the inspiration photo and the sketch — but this time I just used the photo; the sketch is too fussy for me.  Here’s my card:

 

 

The elements is used from the photo are, the script, the brick wall, a textile, and the color gold.

I used kraft paper for the base. I created the brick texture myself by scoring the card in a brick pattern, and then lightly tracing the lines with a white gel pen, to represent the mortar between the bricks.  (Believe me, if I had a brick-texture embossing folder, I would have used it!  But I don’t, and I realized I could do it myself.)

The script is the Impression Obsession “Script” Cover-a-Card background stamp.  The twine is hemp, from Lawn Fawn.  This is the first time I have ever used twine on a card.  The faux seal is made from gold hot glue — one of the very first techniques I learned, way back in the day from one of those old papercrafting books you can get at the library, like I told you. 🙂  And I stamped it with a fleur de lis, because I live in New Orleans.  My husband found that stamp for me.

I own neither a dress form stamp nor die, and I probably never will.  That girly, vintage kind of stuff generally doesn”t interest me.  However, the script on the dress form, and the twined scarf, made me think of an old-fashioned letter tied with string and sealed with wax, and that’s what I was trying to invoke here.

It’s too bad about the sketch, but it’s just too busy for me. I didn’t want to mess with it this time.

Here’s another shot of the card, an angle I’ve seen Gayatri Murali use a lot:

 

 

It looks better when Gayatri does it.  Her camera must have a macro setting.  Mine doesn’t.

I’d like to get a better digital camera so I can take better shots of my cards.  Mine is a Canon Powershot.  Any suggestions?

Anyway, my card looks nothing like the sketch, and not much like the picture, but I feel like it is a good interpretation of the challenge nonetheless.  I like it.

I have another Dazzles project to show you, but I don’t think I am going to be able to show you that tonight.  Maybe not for a couple days — I have a rough couple days coming up at work.

Until then, happy crafting everybody.

 

 

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Some More Stash-Crashy Links and Things

I’m still collecting websites and things that can help you crash your stash.  If you know of any, add them in the comments.  I will also add these new links to the original “Sites and Things to Visit” post.

 

Blogger Amy Andrade has a papercrafting blog called All Things Beautiful.  She has different themed posts for every day of the week. Thursday is “Using My Tools Thursday,” where she pulls old stuff from her stash and uses it.  It’s good to see someone else doing this. 🙂  Her posts can give us ideas of what to work with.  She also features other crafters on her blog, which is a nice gesture. Hopefully I’ll be featured someday.

 

The Sketch N Stash Challenge Blog is a “use your stash” challenge similar to Shopping Our Stash, but you also have to use the chosen sketch. It runs every two weeks, and has prizes, usually from digital stamp shops.  I think this blog comes out of the UK, and it features that particularly British style of cards with the layers and layers of patterned paper, a colored focal image, ribbons and lace and diecuts and bling.  You know what I mean. (They seem never to have heard of CAS over there.)  If you are a CAS cardmaker, you may not get far with this challenge, but if not, it’s another incentive to crash your stash.

 

And finally, Iron Craft.  Iron Craft is a series blogger Chaitali Narla runs on her blog Cuts, Crops and Creativity.  She invites a well-known cardmaker to visit on her blog, and they make a card using the same materials.  You know, like Iron Chef.  It isn’t a competition, it’s just for fun, but it’s interesting how different are the cards they come up with from the same materials.  Chaitali interviews the crafters by Google Hangout, and then they share their work. Iron Craft is not a stash-crashing kind of deal.  in fact it’s the opposite, as Chaitali and her guest use new materials chosen for the challenge, and sometimes donated by sponsors.  But I am including it anyway, because i think it is fun, and I look forward to each new episode.

 

So that’s what I’ve found in the last couple weeks. Again, if you know of any website or blog (or other thing) that discourages trend-chasing and encourages us to use what we have, add it in the comments — I’d love to know about it!

 

UPDATE: Here’s another stash challenge blog! The Clear It Out Challenge Blog.  You have to use the suggested theme (humor, food, colors, etc.) and the designated item from your stash (punches, DP, charms).  Challenges are posted bi-weekly and you have a week to enter.  Prizes are offered. Usually digi-stamps — this is a digi-stamp blog where the design team and the entrants seem to use a lot of digital “stamp” images.  (I have a problem with calling colored-in printed computer images “stamps,” but let’s not get into that now.) The challenge has the usual sorts of restrictions — new projects, no back-linking, link to the challenge in your post.  New challenges are loaded on Tuesdays.  I will add it to my blogroll.

Shopping Our Stash Challenge 144

I’ve missed the last couple SOS Challenges — a week goes by fast!  So I’ve made an effort to meet this one.

The challenge this time is to use your oldest tree stamp.  Well, I didn’t have to wonder, I knew exactly which one it was.  There are quite a variety of tree stamps in the design team’s submissions. My stamp is more stylized than some, but it’s definitely still a tree:

 

 

The stamp is by Hero Arts.  I heat-embossed it in copper, and mounted it on copper and black, with some green gems.

I decided to make the card this way, because when I first bought this stamp oh so long ago, I was researching it online, and another stamper in a review mentioned that they had used it this way — embossed in copper, with gems — and how nice it looked.  So I always wanted to try that, but never did, until now.

I have used the stamp before, so it is not NBUS, but it is definitely old, a longstanding part of my stash.  The black cardstock is Recollections, the copper is DCWV, and the gems are cheap-ass one-dollar gems from Michaels.  I liked the light green better than the dark Christmas green that I had.

Easter Card

I haven’t posted in a few days.  I suddenly felt like my obsession with my cards and blog was getting a little too intense, and I had to step away for a few days.

But not forever …

This is another card made using Tasnim Ahmed’s metallic gel pen tracing technique from the Online Card Class, this time in silver, and with pastel colors instead of bold ones.  I really like this technique — it’s fun to color, and fun to modify the design by tracing over the light ink with the gel pen. It does take a steady hand, though.

 

 

A coworker offered to buy the last card I made this way. I am going to make her a set.

This one uses the Hero Arts Lotus Background stamp that I won in my Simon Says Stamp haul, Distress Antique Linen ink, a silver Uni-Ball Signo gel pen, and Promarkers. I’m not sure what the cardstock is — it’s not a standard size, and I can’t remember now where I dragged it out of my stash.  It is just some ordinary base-weight white cardstock, I guess.

The sentiment is from Recollections. It is actually together one one line, but I just inked up one word at a time, and placed them to fill the negative space.

I think I will give this card to my mother for Easter.  (Don’t worry, she won’t see it, she barely knows the Internet exists.)  I will make another one for my mother-in-law.  I always give them the same card, so I can’t be accused of favoritism.

Simon Says Stamp Haul Video

So hey, check this out! I made a video!

I while ago I took a professional development class at work on shooting and editing videos.  I thought I should put it to use.  Recently I won a blog challenge giveaway from Simon says Stamp, so I made a haul video!

It’s pretty rough, but it is the first attempt I’ve even done at a video.  iMovie on my Mac had a “Scrapbbok” theme to use as a framing device, so I used that of course.

I don’t see myself doing a lot of these, but I thought it would be fun to try it out. Enjoy!

 

CAS 3 Coloring

This card was done with a technique demonstrated by Tasnim Ahmed in Clean and Simple 3. It involves stamping an elaborate stamp with light-colored ink , tracing the design with a metallic gel pen, and then coloring in the design.

 

 

 

This technique was fun to do, and looks great — but it was a lot harder than it looks!  You need a steady hand to trace all those lines carefully.  I practiced it a couple times on scrap paper first, and still made mistakes.

This stamp is from one of the first sets I ever bought, and it’s still one of my favorites — Inkadinkado’s Organic Fabric Flourishes.  It has this flourish, several flowers and a paisley swoop, all in this detailed kind of mehndi style.  I come back to it again and again.  I used a Uni-Ball gel pen, and colored the stamp with Promarkers.

The sentiment is a foam stamp I’ve had also, from the beginning — All Night Media, maybe?  I don’t remember.  Tasnim actually recommended using a plain, block text sentiment, so as not to compete with the flourish.  I wanted to try something more elaborate. I have to admit Tasnim was probably right, but what’s done is done, and it looks OK.

The card is a pre-scored card from Recollections, and the paper has little gold flecks in it. I thought that would go well with the gold outline.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Back to Dazzles: Coloring

I have three more Dazzles techniques I want to try, and then I think we will all be glad to move on.

Interestingly enough, the Spring 2014 issue of CardMaker magazine has a good article about working with these kinds of stickers — “Creating with Peel-Off Stickers” by Sharon M. Reinhart, on page 64.  It talks about the different brands, how to handle and work with the stickers, and several different techniques.  The article explains and demonstrates many cool techniques with Dazzles types stickers that I hadn’t even imagined, like using them as a template to apply glitter to a project and create a “burnished velvet” look, or applying them to acetate.

The technique I’ve tried here is coloring within the stickers once they are applied to your project, as so:

Here I just applied some Elizabeth Crafts dragonfly stickers to a plain card, and colored in the negative spaces of the stickers with Spica glitter pens, to imitate the iridescent quality of a dragonfly’s wings.  As always, the glittery quality doesn’t come across too well in the photograph.  Maybe under the Ott Light:

Even with all the glitter, though, the card still seemed kind of dark to me somehow, and needed something to lighten it up. So I added several gems.  The way they catch the light definitely brightens the card to me.  The sentiment is from Studio G, and is just stamped in VersaFine, as I didn’t want it to distract from the dragonflies.

I also used peel-off stickers to make some artist trading cards.  For this one, I colored in the sticker with Letraset metallic pigment markers.

The card is a pre-cut, resist varnished card from Creative Imaginations.  I swiped over it with Shaded Lilac Distress Stain to bring out the resist.  The sentiment is from Inkadinado and was stamped in black StazOn, to cover the resist varnish as needed.

For this next ATC, I colored in the dragonfly’s wings with Sakura Gold Shadow pens.  They are gel ink pens with a colored underlayer and a top layer of metallic gold.

The effect, if you are writing or drawing line drawings with them, is of a gold line with a colored halo.  Here, on this card, trapped in the negative spaces of the stickers, the gold ink all pooled on the top, and the different colors weren’t very visible. I was a little disappointed, but that is why I am working with different things, to learn how to use them.  So, to complete the card, I sponged around the dragonflies with some Martha Stewart metallic pigment inks.  Of course I got some of the ink on the stickers, and when wiping it off, I discovered that I could wipe off some of the Gold Shadow ink to reveal the color underneath!  As I hope you can see here:

It actually looks less messy and more interesting IRL.  Like I’ve said, the camera is unforgiving.  I consider this is a happy crafting accident. I really like the effect. I will have to experiment with this on a larger canvas!

And finally, I have this ATC, made with flower Dazzles.

The Dazzles have a sort of pebbly green pearlescent finish, with gold borders, as you can see here:

I colored the central flower in with Derwent metallic colored pencils.

I colored the background of this ATC a while ago, when I was experimenting with ATCs, and frankly I don’t remember what it is.  Next time I will pencil a little note on the back as to what the pigment is.  I’m pretty sure it’s either Distress Inks or Distress Stain — perhaps Evergreen Bough? But I can’t say with certainty.

 

Shades of Gray

I made this card for the Cas-ual Fridays Challenge, “Shades of Gray.”  You are supposed to use two or more shades of gray ink.  I used Staz-on Dove Gray on the background.  I was surprised at how soft and even it came out.  The sentiment is Weathered Wood Distress Ink, a really pretty blue-gray color.

I added a multi-colored gem to the sentiment.  This is to represent the recipient, who is the bright spot of color in the giver’s gray life.  This isn’t to say I have a gray life, by any means.  I actually have a pretty good life!  It’s just a concept.  I may not be the one who send this card — I may give it to someone else, to give to yet a third person.  You never know.

Other than that, I don’t feel like explaining this card much, all the tools I used. I just want to let it stand on its own.  If you really want to know, leave a comment and I’ll answer.

Triple Fusion!

In this card I am combining a technique we learned in the current Online Card Class, CAS 3 — masking borders — with both halves of the Fusion Challenge number 6:

I like the sketch and the green flowers, and the masking technique went pretty well with the sketch, so it all came together easily. Here’s the card:

As you can see I masked off the center of the card, and stamped the flowers over it.  I stamped the flowers with a Faber-Castell Stamper’s Big Brush pen, and colored them in with a combination of Big Brush pens and Promarkers.

Here are the colors I used:  Promarkers — Bright Green, Meadow Green, Lime Twist. Big Brush — May Green 170, Light Green 171, Chromium Green Opaque 174.

The sentiment is from Recollections, and i stamped it in Kelly Green pigment ink from Inkadinkado.  I thought I needed a really bright kelly green for that.

I’m not Irish — Scottish — but hey, the challenge was green, St. Patrick’s day is coming up, and I had that sentiment, so why not?

The card base is either Recollections or DCWV, I can’t remember.  I have really been liking square cards lately for some reason.

The flower stamps are Ditto/Studio G.  Yes, I like my cheap big-box stamps, but come on, they’re cute. They’re perfectly cute and they cost like three dollars.  And they are cling-mounted red rubber, so they are perfectly adequate stamps. They worked really well in this challenge I think.  Oh, and I have never used them before, and only used the Stamper’s Big Brush pens once, so this card is majorly NBUS and stash-crashing.  So I am quite happy with it.

Clean and Simple 3

A diecut inlay card for the Online Card Class Clean and Simple 3:

Like the hubster says, “Sometimes simple is good.”  The diecut is Impression Obsession; the stamp is Studio G.  The green paper is Hero Arts Foliage Layering Paper.