My Cards and Tags: Dina Wakley's Collaged Hearts

"Love is in the air" is our heart-happy theme over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog and we're also featuring the fab products of Carabelle Studio.  I made two matchbook cards to celebrate all things love:

I started by cutting the matchbook shapes out of Strathmore Mixed Media paper and Tim Holtz's Matchbook die set.  Next, I heat-embossed some Carabelle Studio stamp images with white embossing powder.  The circle images are from an "art texture printing plate," but I use them as stamps all the time.  The only consideration is that your images will be backwards (notice my backwards number 2, for example), but that doesn't bother me much.

Confession time!  I've had Jane Davenport's Mermaid Markers for several months but was too dang chicken to give them a try.  I hope I'm not the only one who gets excited then intimidated by cool crafting products!  Anyway, I finally gave them a whirl and they are fantastic!  A little color goes a long way, so I touched around the images with the Mermaid Markers then blended the colors together with a paintbrush and some water.  Once the covers were drying, I decided to make some pages out of paper bags, which I cut to size and sewed down the center.

The next step was to sew the pages into my matchbooks, which you can see here:

The last step was to add a little more decor to the fronts of the matchbooks.  I glued on some Washi Tape and made tabs (cause I love me some tabs).  I added a heart and then stamped some Dina Wakley sentiments onto tissue paper, which I glued on top of everything else.

I got out the trusty Sharpie and sketched around the edges for some faux stitching to finish these off.

One thing is for sure: since our theme was love, I have to say I LOVE Mermaid Markers once I finally played with them.

Here are the supplies I used, which you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

Carabelle Studio Ronds Art Printing Texture Plate	Carabelle Studio Frise Nuage Edge Cling Stamp	Ranger Embossing Powder SUPER FINE WHITE EPJ36678	Ranger HEAT IT CRAFT TOOL	Ranger Non Stick Craft Sheet
Jane Davenport Mermaid Markers	Jane Davenport Shimmering Sky Mermaid Markers	Dina Wakley Collaged Hearts Stamp Set	Tim Holtz Sizzix MATCHBOOK SET Dies	Sizzix Big Shot
Strathmore Mixed Media Paper	Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad

How will you show some love this week?  Be sure 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: Mini Notebook Trio

I don't know about other crafty artsy people, but I totally go in phases.  My current phase is mini notebooks!!  I love re-doing the covers on mini notebooks and here are three I had fun creating over the weekend.  I used some of my own stamps to decorate them and I decided to make some extras for my Etsy shop, so you can get one there if you're interested.

My Other Creations: Rubber Cement Resist with Watercolors

This week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is "Resist It."  I decided to try my hand at a resist technique using Rubber Cement and watercolors to make the background of my notebook cover.

I started with a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media paper which I drizzled Rubber Cement on in a random pattern.

I let that dry (though it remained tacky even after a whole day of drying) and watercolored in between each of the sections-- kind of like stained glass.

Using just your finger or an eraser, you can rub the Rubber Cement off once the watercolor dries.  The picture will remain white wherever the Rubber Cement was.  Once I rubbed off the Rubber Cement, I added some drips of watercolor and also added some Brusho crystals which I spritzed with water.  I threw on some ink smudges and this is the end result:

With my background done, I cut out the girl image (from Jane Davenport's collage images) and adhered her to a square of text paper.  I made a crown for her and colored her in with inks and Sharpies and stamped some splatters here and there.  I added the sentiment to the bottom of her (which I LOVE- from Impression Obsession) and then I sewed the collage to a notebook cover.  I painted around the edges with black and blue paint and distressed it a bit further with some brown Distress Ink.

Here are the supplies I used, which you can find at Simon Says Stamp:

Strathmore Mixed Media Paper	Loew Cornell WATERCOLOR CAKES 24 Paints	Jane Davenport Mixed Media 2 Collage Papers	Brusho Crystal Watercolors	My Favorite Things Distressed Patterns Stamp Set
She Was Tired stamp by Impression Obsession	Hero Arts Neon Pink Ink Pad	Hero Arts Neon Chartreuse Ink Pad	Hero Arts Neon Green Ink Pad	Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink Pad
Tim Holtz Peacock Feathers Distress Ink	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad GROUND ESPRESSO Ranger	Dina Wakley Black Heavy Body Acrylic Paint	Dylusions Paint - London Blue	Ranger Non Stick Craft Sheet

What are you going to do to "resist it" this week?  Be sure 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.