Big Thank Yous and the Winners

I am so overwhelmed by the wonderful comments you all left me this weekend. Thank you so much! I can't believe how many followers I gained. :)

I hope that you all like what you see and will come back and visit often. I know I'll be spending sometime visiting you all, I just love seeing everyones creations!

This was such a fun hop to be involved. Huge thanks to Jennifer for putting it all together.

Now on to the winners :)

 

The winner of the I {Heart} Papers $20.00 gift certificate is

 

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 26

 

Anna!

 

Anna said...

WOW now that is just breathtaking Just beautiful and so much details. WOW :O
Thanks for the chance to win.

Congratulations! I'm sure you'll enjoy your shopping trip Anna, Kate at I {Hearts) Papers is fabulous!

The winner of the Valentine candy pack is

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 47

Josie0602!

Josie0602 said...

Wow...your card was awesome!! Thanks for the tutorial!!

Congratulations I'm sure you'll put these candies to good use!

Ladies please contact me by Friday December 3rd to claim your goodies!

Thanks again to all those who participated in the hop!! :)

OWH Christmas Card Hop

Good morning all! I am so excited to be a part of Operation Write Home's Christmas blog hop! If you came from Jessica's blog Kinder Stampo you are in the right place, if you just stopped by to visit and would like to join us, start at the beginning Crafty Card Gallery

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone it's time to get to Christmas. If you're like me you have been working on your Christmas cards for quite some time now but new inspiration is always welcome!

Today I have another tutorial for you. :) This time we are looking at "stamp lighting" using a stampamajig.
Here is the card I made for those of you who aren't interested in the tutorial (but if you make it to the end there might be some goodies in it for you ;)wink)

If you want to skip all the extras below you can head over to the next stop and see Sandy at It's a Colorful World, I know she has something fantastic for you!!

Now on to the tutorial!!

So if you have seen any of my other cards you know I really dig the masking. I used Hero Arts Sending

Holiday Cheer set for this card. To start stamp the house twice on inkadinkado's masking paper and cut them out. Then stamp the house 4 times on white card stock. In order to make sure they are straight I use a ruler to draw a line and erase it after I'm done.

Put your masks over your stamped houses. Rip a scrap piece of card stock or post it note and lay it down to mask for your snow line.

rub on black soot distress ink to color your sky. Since I didn't want a black sky I just used the ink that was left on my sponge from previous uses. If you don't have ink left over you can dab your foam on the pad once or twice and then blot off some of the color on a scrap.

Stamp the tree three times in between the houses.

remove the mask for the horizon line. Use the mask to create little hills by putting it down on an angle and sponging on the very edge. I did this twice just to create some interest in all that white space.

Remove the rest of your masks. Set them aside you'll need at least one house again.This is what we have so far.  (now is a good time to erase the pencil mark if you made one :)

 For my stamp lighting I wanted a circle but none of my dies or stencils had the right size, but you know what did?

that's right. :) another reason why Dunkin Donuts is awesome!! So I traced my coffee cup and cut out my circle. Obviously if you have a punch it's okay to go ahead and use that ;)
Now it's time for the stampamajig. Stamp the house on the clear plastic. Make sure you get right into the corner with your block.

take the plastic and line it up with the house on the background.

without moving the stampamajig, move the plastic and lay down your circle. In order to get the placement right I rock my stampamajig up a little that way it's position doesn't change and I can move my circle around. You also have to make sure your background doesn't move while your adjusting. It's a little tricky the first or second time but you figure it out lol. I put my plastic back down to double check the placement.

move plastic and stamp the house onto the circle. again making sure to get the block right in the corner.

now that your house is stamped mask it again. I try to make sure I use the same one I did the first time. This way it is easier to match up my trees. Stamp the tree on the plastic and line it up just like you did the house. Make sure you remove the background this time.

Stamp a tree on each side using peeled paint and forest moss. Remove mask and color in your house. I colored with distress inks: brushed corduroy, walnut stain, barn door, and tumbled glass.

put your mask back on (yes I could of done this step before I colored but I was too excited to color he he) and line up your snow line mask.

rub on faded jeans distress ink, remove mask

add liquid pearls to the snowy parts of the house. Normally I would use glitter but that's a big no-no for OWH. We don't want to endanger our soldiers! Add some glossy accents to the windows and bow

while that is drying we go back to the background panel and stamp our sentiment.

mount the panel to a black card base

Don't forget if you use a dark card base to line the inside with white. Sometimes our heroes only have a pencil to write with and it doesn't show up well on dark card stock. (If I was mailing this card to OWH I would also put a white liner on the top. It gives the heroes more room to write and if they don't use it it still looks pretty :)

Once your circle is dry, line it up with the background and adhere with foam tape. Here are some close ups. first is the dimension ( I try to keep mine pretty flat so that way extra shipping costs aren't incurred by our heroes.)

and the shine

here is the final card again

So if you made it this far here are the goodies First: the winner for my last OWH blog hop candy didn't claim it so I'm giving it away again. It's a $20 gift card to I {Heart} Papers

Second is a little stash of goodies to help you make those Valentine cards for our Heroes! The deadline is January 7th

The winner of this gets:

1 Amore and More Stamp set by Scrappy Cat

4 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 panels of K&Company Sweet Talk Pattern Hearts

2 of each color 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 Bazzill card stock in Slipper, Rip Tide, and Berry Pretty

2 4 X 5 1/4 white panels embossed with D'vine swirls

2 4 X 5 1/4 white panels embossed with Swiss dots

1 of each image from Inkadinkado's Animal hearts stamped in black archival ink on a 4 X 5 1/4 panels

2 of each image from cuttlebugs animals embossed on white 2 1/2 X 2 1/4 panels

4 postage stamp die cuts embossed with the valentines stamp from the cuttlebug set celebrations



6 yards of 3/8" burgundy ribbon
10 yards of 1/8" red ribbon
10 yards of 1/8" white ribbon
1 67piece rhinestone set in alexandrite by Darice
1 35 piece wedding rhinestone set in clear by K&Company

okay now to win :) Just leave a comment on this post. I'll leave it open until Midnight Sunday November 28. I'll post the winner on Monday. Please check back I'd hate for someone to miss out on the win like last time! Also the gift card is open to any winner but I will only ship the bundle of goodies within the US. While you are here, if you like what you see I'd love if you become a follower although it's not required, I do love new followers!!

Now you are finally ( I know this was crazy long) off to Sandy at It's a Colorful World for some more wonderful inspiration! Have a Blessed day and thanks so much for visiting :)





Wee Memories Giveaway

Hello all!

I have been working like crazy so please excuse my absence. I'll be back by Tuesday at the very latest. I'm posting bright and early to tell you about a wonderful giveaway at Wee Memories. The very generous Jenny is giving away some fantastic blog candy as a celebration of reaching 700 followers.

You can check it out by following the link in this blog post or clicing on the picture in the sidebar!

Prince Charming, Play Date Cafe, and Get Sketchy

Good evening all, tonight I'm here with a card I made for 3 challenges! I love combining sketch and color challenges because then the process is super easy. The hard part of this card was the Simon Says Challenge Prince Charming, make a card for a guy with a charm on it. When Simon Says challenge, Simon means challenge! I am so not good at guy cards, and I have a limited number of charms in my stash. So,I decided to go with another Valentine card for OWH.

The colors came from The Play Date Cafe  such a fun color combo this week.  Here is the inspiration photo

The sketch came from Get Sketchy they always have such great sketches. Here is the original sketch

Here is my card

Here's the rundown:

I don't usually do pattern paper with my cards so this one was a long process trying to decide what to use. I found the argyle in a generic paper pack someone bought me from LTD so sorry there is no name to give :( 

The plaid I created with a red card base and the Hero Arts Stripe cling background. I inked it up with fired brick and stamped vertically then inked and stamped in the same color horizontally.

The image is from Studio 112 and so is the sentiment. The inside reads " I could wag my tail" which I thought was super cute! I colored in the pup with black soot and a H20 pen. After he was colored I added glossy accents to his spots, patch, eyes, and nose for some extra shine.

The charm I created myself using a charm from 7 gypsies photo turns kit in antique silver. I smeared some fired brick on white card stock and bunched the heart out. In order to get the right size circle for the charm I inked up the charm and stamped it. Because the charm has raised edges it stamps a perfect sized circle for the whole charm, I just cut out along the inside edge and it fit great. I glued the pink circle to the charm using glossy accents and adhered the punched heart the same way. I covered the heart in glossy accents so it looked like a sticker.

I adhered my argyle piece to the bottom of my stamped background, then added a strip of light blue on top of the argyle. I bought this embroidery floss from Janlynn quite awhile ago but when I was looking for a bright blue it was perfect! I wrapped it around the panel twice and tied the charm on with a simple knot.

I adhered the panel to a black card base. I cut out the pup and sentiment a 2 x 2 1/2 and rounded the edges. To mat it I cut the black at 2 1/4 x 2 3/4 and rounded those corners as well. I glued the two together with a dot adhesive and added it to my card on foam.

Thanks for coming by to visit, I hope you found something to inspire you!

Giveaway Winner

Good evening or morning not sure which since it's 1am :) Just wanted to post the winner of the gift card giveaway real quick. 

First I wanted to say thank you for all the sweet comments and I gained a few followers too :) You guys really are the best! Someone made a comment on the OWH blog that they have never been more proud of people they don't know. I couldn't agree more. Now on to the winner  . . .

The True Random Number Generator was used to select

Min: Max: Result: 12

 

The winner is Cleota :) Please contact me by Friday 11/ 19 to claim your prize!

I'm off to play with some new Penny Black and Hero Arts goodies I got in the mail today, Yay!!

Some more goodies

Angela over at Angelwoods crafting corner is doing a fabulous giveaway for her blog birthday! You can check it out here or click on the candy picture in the sidebar

Blog candy

Want to win all sorts of Tim Holtz goodies. Stacy at Scrap with Stacy is having an awesome giveaway over at her blog! Go check it out here or click on the candy picture at the sidebar.

Happy Day!!

Operation Write Home Be my Valentine

Good Morning everyone! I am so excited to be part of the Operation Write Home Be my Valentine Blog Hop! This is such a wonderful cause! They send handmade cards over seas to our troops :) You can either send blank cards for soldiers to fill out and send to loved ones or you can send cards of encouragement for the soldiers themselves. Check out Operation Write Home for all the info if you would like to donate some cards to this fantastic cause.
A few things to note:

• The Christmas deadline has passed. They are now collecting Valentines day cards
• The deadline to get your Valentine's day cards in is January 7th
• Joann's is giving $50,000 to the charity with the most votes. If you can spare a moment please go vote for Operation Write Home. You can Vote Here
• Archway has offered to match cards for cookies. If we can meet the goal of 4000 cards they will send that amount of cookies to our soldiers :) You can go Here for more info

Now on to the card  . . . .a tutorial and a giveaway :)

I used Hero Arts Whoo Loves You stamp set for this card.

To start I stamped my images on inkadinkado's masking paper.

Even though I know I'm going to need two tree stumps I only stamped one. I'm a big fan of less work so I use my Zig two-way glue pen to make the backing sticky. This way I don't have to cut out two masks. I cut them out and set them aside.
Next you'll need to rip a piece of card stock in two. Keep both pieces you'll need them. I've used this particular piece on a few other projects.

I cut a panel of white card stock at 5 1/4 x 4. I lay my ripped card stock next to the panel to get an idea where I want my bird to be. When building a scene you have to stamp first what you want in the forefront. Sometimes (like in this case) it means doing it with just a general idea of where your other elements are going to fit in. I stamped the bird. All my images are stamped in jet black archival ink by ranger. This way I don't have to worry about them mingling with my distress inks.

and then added the squirrel (he is sooo cute)

mask them off

I inked up the tree stump with walnut stain distress ink and stamped them so that the previous images would be sitting on them.

mask off the trunks. (see the backing mask)

Since I just used cards stock to mask for my horizon I make the edge sticky with the two way glue. Just pack sure it is really dry otherwise you can risk permanently adhering it to your project

I wanted to add clouds but I don't own a cloud stamp. What I did have on hand was a talk bubble from another Hero Arts set. Don't be afraid to turn your stamps into something else. Get the most for your money ;)
I mask off the little bubbles when I inked.

then when you remove it there is no ink where you didn't want it and you can stamp freely :)

stamp cute little clouds

I had cloud masks from a previous project so I just reused them. If you are gentle with your masks you can use them a couple of times before having to create new. Mask clouds

I rubbed on faded jeans distress ink. These masks are sometimes tricky if you noticed them pulling up when you rub a certain direction switch so your movement forces it down instead of up.

remove cloud and horizon masks. We have a sky!

You'll need your second piece of ripped card stock to mask the sky and color your ground. (sorry for the terrible photo I took this picture like 20 times and they were all bad )

I rubbed on crushed olive distress ink first and then added peeled paint to the bottom and edges.
remove horizon mask.

I stamped the tree twice with archival ink at the very edges.

unmask your images.

you can see on my squirrel my masked pulled up a bit. It's no big deal I'll be covering it with a darker color. For the sentiment I wanted to put it in a cloud. However my clouds were too small. So I laid down the mask on white card stock and drew around it with a pencil. For  those of you who can freehand you probably don't need the mask, unfortunately for me I can't draw to save my life :)

I removed the mask and stamped my sentiment inside. Then I used a black gel pen to trace around my pencil mark and cut it out.

Here is my favorite part . . . .the coloring!! I used distress inks and my H20 pen

For the bird: barn door and fired brick
For the squirrel: vintage photo and worn lipstick
For the tree stump: walnut stain.
For the tree trunks: walnut stain

I added some shading to the tree and tree stump bases with peeled paint. I then adhered the panel to a Kraft card base.

I popped the sentiment up on foam and adhered it over the previous stamped cloud

Now normally I would reach for my stickles but since glitter that comes off can be dangerous to our soldiers I opted for liquid pearls and glossy accents. If you really must use glitter (some projects do call for it) I use the stickles wait for them to dry and encapsulate them in glossy accents. This way there is no chance of it flaking off. If you don't like the extra shine provided my glossy accents they also have a matte.
Here are some close ups

first is the glossy accents

 dimension on the sentiment

and shine from the liquid pearls

Here is the finished card again, I did move my sentiment up a little. I felt like it was consuming my wee little squirrel. :)

Moving on to the giveaway

I had a wonderful experience shopping at I Heart Papers last month. Kate is so sweet and very professional.

So in order to reward you hoppers and spread the word about a great store I am giving away a $20.00 gift certificate to one random commenter. Leave a comment by midnight on Sunday, November 14.

You don't need to be a follower to win. I want you to follow because you want to not because I made you :) however I would love if you did want to follow. Also I do hope you'll go check out the store I would never recommend something to you that I personally didn't think was excellent.

So on to the next blog with you and God Bless!!

I know Melissa at What do you (th)Ink? has super cute creations in store for you!