My Cards and Tags: Live in Gratitude

Sometimes I don't know if I'm getting cooler or nerdier as I age, but my favorite Friday night activity has become crafting while the rest of the fam hangs out in my room and watches a good flick.  My hubby's the best-- he doesn't even mind when I interrupt the most action-packed moment in the movie to say, "Do you like this better with a smudge of yellow or green ink in this corner?"  He has the patience of Job.  He just smiles, hits the pause button and gives my project his full attention as if it is as riveting as that car chase scene that's now frozen on the screen.  Love that about him!

This is the card that emerged from last night's crafting session and it's made from some fabulous stamps from 100 Proof Press:

The colorful grid background was very therapeutic after a long week at work.  I started with this 15 Block Stamp, which I heat embossed with black powder onto white watercolor paper.

Here's where the therapeutic part came in!  I whipped out my watercolors and painted around the central images in each square.  Heat embossed images are great to watercolor with because your watercolors won't block out or blur your embossed lines. And there's always something soothing to me about getting back to my elementary school painting roots.

The final touch was to take Distress Inks (Squeezed Lemonade, Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers and Mustard Seed) and smudge them onto the areas that had corresponding watercolors.  This made the squares blend together better.  

I cut out the grid, made a border, attached some fabric scraps, made a pink curly-swirl with Prima's wire thread and topped it with a sentiment that I also heat embossed and cut up titled, Live in Gratitude.

This card was fun to make and I think the message is so important.  It's a good reminder to me to be grateful for the people, experiences and even the trials that shape us into who we are.

My Other Creations: Vintage Kid Collage

The theme this week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog is Inky Backgrounds.  I whipped out some of my favorite inks and went to work!  This is the result, which is also part of a project I was invited to make for Tim Holtz's 2015 CHA booth.  He's got some amazing new products on the horizon, including these "Elementary Flashcards" with everyday phrases.  Can't wait for them to officially hit the market!

One of my favorite inky background techniques is to smudge ink onto already-existing patterned paper to enhance the pattern's designs.  Here I did that with some Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass and Mustard Seed Distress ink.  Then I added the trellis piece, the components of which I also inked around.  I love, love, LOVE the versatility of Tim Holtz's Found Relatives set, too, and gave one girl a little bit of added oomph with some fabric scraps.

Here's a list of the fab supplies I used that you can buy from Simon Says Stamp...except for Tim's new flashcards, which we will just have to be patient for (patience is SO not my forte)!

Tim Holtz 12x12 Wallflower Paper Pack	Tim Holtz Trellis Frameworks Die	Idea-ology - Found Relatives	Tim Holtz Documentation Fabric Pack	Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Purely Random Stamp Set	Fiskars Acrylic Blocks	Sizzix Big Shot Machine
Tim Holtz Lost and Found 12 x 12 Paper Stack	Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements Labels Fabric	Fancy Pants Me-Ology 6x6 Paper	Walnut Stain - Distress Ink	Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink	Black soot - Distress ink	Mustard Seed - Distress Ink
Distress Ink Tumbled Glass	Spiced Marmalade - Distress Ink	Squeezed Lemonade - Distress Ink	Festive Berries - Distress Ink	Mixed Media Sponges Bars	Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad

I can't wait to see all the inky loveliness you create for the backgrounds of your projects.  Don't forget to upload your creations to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp store!

My Other Creations: Butterfly Bracelet

When I first heard this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge theme ("make new friends, but keep the old"), my mind was bombarded with that hard-to-get-out-of-your-head song from girl's camp that has those lyrics!  It's unfortunately still looping in my brain even as I write this.  That aside, I decided to go with some of my classic butterfly punches (old favorites) and make something new with them: a butterfly bracelet.

So I have to insert a huge disclaimer into the post at this point: the way I made this was totally disaster-filled and the end result is not what you'd call super-permanent.  This is made from a cheapy coil bracelet and paper.  One pool party and this little guy is toast.  Ditto if you get too near open flames!  Still, I will share my process, being the first to acknowledge its shortcomings.

I started with small pieces of patterned paper, which I smudged with ink here and there and then covered with clear packing tape for some shine and extra stability.  I punched out the shapes (either with hand punches or dies) from the paper I'd covered with tape.  I also used some butterfly stamps, which I stamped, then covered with tape, then fussy-cut out myself.  Next I coated the edges with embossing ink and sprinkled on some silver embossing powder.  Then I heat embossed them, so they ended up like this:

For those of you who are saying, "But wait!  It sounds like a bad idea to add heat to packing tape!" you are absolutely correct!  I ended up with several melted, fried and mutant-looking butterflies.  In fact, if you look closely at some of these butterflies' edges, you can see where the packing tape shrunk and pulled funny.  I had to go slow, hold the heat gun far away and pull the heat immediately after the silver emerged.  On a positive side note, the Stampendous Clip Tools are great for holding things that you want to emboss without burning your fingers off.

All I did after that was to attach the butterflies to my bracelet with some strong glue and jump rings.

Should you copy this technique?  Sure...if you're feeling brave and don't mind melting and shriveling about 50% of your work!  In retrospect, some alternatives that might work better would be to emboss patterned paper with silver edges and then add Glossy Accents on top for the same glossy look, or to add clear embossing powder to the whole paper surface and heat that up instead.  But my packing tape way was a fun experiment in laziness and it was definitely something that I'd never tried with butterflies before!

I love shopping at Simon Says Stamp, which is where I got the supplies for this project:

Kaiser Kaleidoscope Paper 6.5 x 6.5	Tim Holtz 12x12 French Industrial Paper Pack	KaiserCraft 6x6 Something Blue Paper Pad	Prima Epiphany 6x6 Paper	Bo Bunny Zip-A-Dee-Doodle 6x6 Paper	Martha Stewart Classic Butterfly 3 in 1 punch	Martha Stewart Classic Butterfly Punch
Martha Stewart Classic Butterfly- Punch All Over the Page	Decorative Strip - Butterfly Frenzy Die	Tim Holtz Butterflight On the Edge Die	Sizzix Big Shot Machine	Papillon Stamp Set	Impression Obsession Butterflies Clear Stamp Set	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Ink
Silver Embossing Powder Ranger	Heat Embossing Tool	Fiskars Acrylic Blocks	Stampendous Clip Tools	Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad	Colorbox Rain Forest Ink	Peacock Feathers - Distress Ink
Worn Lipstick Distress Ink Pad	Picked Raspberry - Distress Ink

I can't wait to see how YOU interpret this week's theme, so upload your bits of geniusness to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog so that we can start off 2015 with some great inspiration and so that you can be entered to win a $50 voucher to the fabulous Simon Says Stamp Store.