Stampotique Designers Challenge 16

This week the Stampotique Designers Challenge theme was Vintage. This challenge was a Stampotique only challenge where only Stampotique stamps can be used. My focal image is called Queen of Life. I used the wrinkle free distress technique from Tim Holtz behind her. The background paper was edged with Pumice Stone distress ink. The border is paper lace from my stash. I think she makes a beautiful vintage royalty.

Sunday Stamper Week 122

This week the Ink on My Fingers Sunday Challenge theme was Paint It Black. We had to use black in our art piece along with some stamping. I used the Adventure stamp sheet from Artistic Outpost for my focal image. Isn't he a beautiful puppy? This is the faux domino technique from the June/July 2010 Technique Junkies newsletter. The black background is embossed using a texture fade. The beautiful ribbon is from the Artistic Outpost Attic Finds.

Try That Technique--Glowing Oil Pastels

This week the Try That Technique Challenge was Glowing Oil Pastels from the April 2007 Technique Junkies newsletter. I had to try this technique. I have had a set of oil pastels for over two years still in the package. I'm really glad I tried this technique. I may get more use out of the pastels. It's easy and turns out beautiful. The stamp is from I Brake for Stamps. My background is an embossed piece of copper highlighted with black Stazon.

Play Date Cafe Challenge 48

This week at Play Date Cafe the challenge was dark blue or purple, green, and silver or gray.

I have to be honest. This week my card started with the Bigz Die from Tim Holtz's collection. I just received it in the mail yesterday and when I was looking at the challenge colors, they fell right into place with the die images. Using that die and the challenge colors, a masculine card seemed to emerge. On the blue background I used a texture fade. I'm not sure why it appealed to me with this card, but it did. I used the sanded core'dinations technique to bring out the detail. The stamps are from Club Scrap and the shield and banner were cut from grungeboard..

Oh Alice Challenge Chapter 32

This week the challenge at Oh Alice is Down the rabbit hole. We are to create a card with a hole or window on it. I needed a get well card for a colleague and I also needed a card with unusual folds. I saw this pattern in the Club Stamp Rap, the pamphlet that comes with the CS pizza box kit. It was the perfect fold to meet my needs and the get well card using the Alice stamps from the Artistic Outpost sheet Wonderland Collage worked so well. For coloring I used Creative Inspirations paints and distress inks. I had a lot of fun making the card. I hope my colleague enjoys receiving this card.

Color Throwdown Challenge 111

This week The Color Throwdown challenge is to use the colors melon mambo, pacific point, and river rock. The word challenge is well used this week. I had some difficult with the colors until I found this stamp. I decided that it was perfect since it made me laugh. It was a perfect stamp for a light-hearted card. Hope it gives you a smile too.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 15 and Simon says Stamp and Show

This week the Compendium of Curiosities challenge at Studio L3 was to use the Alcohol Ink Agate on Grunge technique from p. 53 of Tim's book. Coincidently the challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show was Grunge. I used grungeboard for my creation and all the stamps are from the Tim Holtz collection. I used lettuce, stonewashed, eggplant and gold as my alcohol ink colors. The only deviation I had to make was to use another pearized paint since I no longer have a pearl dabber. The background paper is from one of the paperstacks. The embellishments are from Tim's Idea-ology line.

Bloggers Challenge 170

This week the Bloggers Challenge is to reuse/recycle somewhere on our art piece. I couldn't wait for this challenge. My image panel is my reuse/recycle. It actually was the packaging from the children's chopsticks at a local restaurant. I took my grandson there for dinner and his chopsticks (actually more like small tongs) came in the package with this as the cover. I just loved it and kept the packaging until there was a recycle challenge. My background is a Shimmer Sheetz embossed with the bamboo embossing folder. I used cactus green Stazon ink on the bamboo.
I think maybe I liked this panel too because I was born in the Year of the Dog.

Oh Alice Challenge Chapter 31

This week the challenge at Oh Alice was to use CROWNS and/or MYTHICAL Creatures on your card or creation. My background paper, tag, and contrast all came from the Graphics 45 Halloween Alice pad. Alice was stamped three times and I used the level up technique from the latest Technique Junkies newsletter. The sentiment is one of the Alice in Wonderland Famous Quotes from TJ Designs Rubber Stamps.

Movie Night

One of my favorite movies, and probably the one I've watched the most number of times, is the Wizard of Oz. There is something magical about how the movie starts out in black and white,

And then after the tornado, when Dorothy has flown (and sung) "Over the Rainbow" the movie goes to color.

Well, there is something magical about how the Creative Inspirations paints add so much shimmer and life to an image. This week the design team at the Creative Inspirations Blog had the challenge to create art representing a favorite movie. And by coincidence that was the Ink on my Fingers Sunday Challenge. So using my Stampsmith image from the Wizard of Oz, I created a fun card.

My entire image is painted with the Creative Inspirations paints. It gives the picture such a shimmery and vivid appearance. In addition, I used a texture fade on the background.To add color to the background I used a water pen to apply the paint. This gives more of a colorwashed appearance. My sentiment and "emeralds" (Emerald City, get it. lol) are adhered to a piece of the filmstrip tape from the Tim Holtz collection.

Take a Sleigh Ride with Artistic Outpost Stamps New Release

Artistic Outpost is releasing a new set of stamps today -- SLEIGH RIDE. The stamps are available both as an unmounted sheet of red rubber measuring 8.5" x 5.5" or mounted on EZMount clingfoam, pre-trimmed, and stored on a printed cling card. Sleigh Ride features nostalgic images of children in their coats and finery, perfect for your winter or holiday projects. There is also a versatile background stamp of glistening pine trees and holiday sentiments and collage elements.

My card uses the background trees with the sledding children and the sentiment "Winter Wonderland". First I stamped the children. Then I placed a mask over them and stamped the trees in green. I just love how the trees look like they are covered with snow. The sky was stippled with blue ink and the sentiment was stamped over the trees and sky. The background paper is from a stack of beautiful vintage Christmas paper which was given to me by a dear friend.

To see more projects using these stamps, go to the Sleigh Ride gallery and visit the sites of the other design team members. You're in for a true winter wonderland!

*Lisa Somerville *Gerrie Johnnic *Lynn Stevens *Judy Hayes  *Connie Paxman *Stephanie Severin *Suzzane Czosek

Play Date Cafe Challenge 47

How do you combine true red, turquoise, leaf green and black and white into a piece of art. That was the challenge at Play Date Cafe this week. The answer came when I saw this piece of vintage Christmas DP in a stack of paper a dear friend shared with me. This paper and this wonderful stamp from the Artistic Outpost stamp sheet Snowy Woods became a beautiful vintage Christmas card and my submission for the Challenge.

Critter Sketch Challenge 31

This week the challenge at Critter Sketch is School, school, school. Here we have a piece of notebook paper with an equation. Sounds like school work to me. At least the paper got an A+. The equation and the sentiment are both Club Scrap stamps.

Color Throwdown Challenge 110

This week at Color Throwdown we were challenged to use the colors pink pirouette, basic gray, and rich razzleberry. Somehow this color combination had romance written all over it. I went to my Stampsmith collection of stamps and this seemed the perfect image. I stamped the image in black on white glossy paper. The result is a photo-like image.The background paper is from Tim Holtz's paper stack, Shabby Chic. The color seemed perfect. Recently I picked up a package of black, white, and grey paper lace trims. Funny, I expected to use the black and white, but probably not so much the grey. Well, I was wrong. The grey was perfect for this card.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 14 -- Masks Basics

This week the Compendium of Curiosities challenge was the Masks Basics technique from p. 58 of Tim's book. I had a blast working on this card. I decided to use Tim's spider web mask as the base of my card. From there I went wild. I think I've mentioned before that I am having so much fun playing with the Halloween images this year. I started with a piece of cardstock with music notes from one of Tim's paper stacks. I used the mask and distress inks--spiced marmalade, mustard seed, and dusty concord. The October calendar is torn from one of the paper stacks. The vampire boy is a doctored picture from the same paper stack. "Beware", "31", and the bat are from Oxford Impressions. The rest of the stamps are from Tim's collection. I think the Spills and Spatters stamp stamped in red added a great Halloween touch. The sprocket gears and fragment are from the Idea-ology line. I don't know if it's legal to have as much fun as I did making this card. Can't wait until the next challenge!

Created By Hand Challenge 09-13-10

This week the challenge theme at Created Byhand was Sapphire since sapphire is the September birthstone (as well as a color). I focused on both aspects of the theme. The blue (or sapphire colored) background is from one of Tim Holtz's paper stacks, my favorite Shabby Chic. I stamped the large hand (Stamp Zia) with Adirondack peach bellini pigment ink and embossed it. I then cut it out and adhered it to the background. The sapphire ring is one of the Michael Strong hexagon stamps which was painted blue and covered with glossy accents, and then adhered with a dimensional pop-dot to the ring finger. The sentiment, from Club Scrap, is a bit hard to read on the scan, but is visible on the card. It says "Adorn your life with joy and wonder.

Sunday Stamper Week 120

This week the Sunday Stamper Challenge at Ink on my Fingers was Ruby Blue -- blue, red or blue & red together. I chose to use the Artistic Outpost sheet Send in the Clowns for my image and sentiment. I love the image and thought it was perfect for a red/blue theme. The sentiment is stamped on a ticket from the Tim Holtz collection. The background was done using a texture fade folder with the Cuttlebug Smoosh technique from the October 2007 Technique Junkies newsletter. This was the Try That Technique challenge for last week. I didn't finish it in time for the challenge, but I had to try the technique anyway. I thought it was a great technique for this card.

Oh Alice Challenge Chapter 30

This week at Oh Alice the challenge was a nature theme challenge -- trees, flowers, and birds. I started with a Cuttlebug embossing folder with the tall grass and bird, added the Chesire Cat from Rubber Stamp Avenue, and Alice from Oxford Impressions. Then the flowers with Stickles centers were attached. My card has a tree branch, a bird and lots of flowers. Alice is in a nature wonderland.

Bloggers Challenge 169

Granddaughter Jayda Born 9-14

This is my first post in several days. If you look at the photo on the right, you'll see the excuse for my absence.
I did manage to finish my Bloggers Challenge for this week. It was a color theme of blue, green, and brown. I love those colors and I knew immediately that I wanted to use this image from the Artistic Outpost sheet Old Grist Mill which I love. I used my Creative Inspirations paints to color the image. I also love the sentiment, though I don't always adhere to it. The frame around the image is a piece of corrugated cardboard from an old box. I applied frayed burlap distress ink direct to the piece and then sprayed it with water. After it dried, I used a little white paint. The background paper is from one of the Tim Holtz paper stacks. I stamped the sentiment at the bottom, and stamped the words "Simplify, Simplify" over the entire sheet using a very light blue ink.
I can't wait to see what everyone else has done with these colors.

Play Date Cafe Challenge 46

This week the challenge at Play Date Cafe is a 'Color Splash' -- black and white with a splash of gold, copper, or pink. I chose this Japanese scene from About Art Accents. I stamped black on glossy white and used the copper to highlight the roofs. The black frame is done using the torn paper frames technique from the Dec 2008 issue of Technique Junkies. The white card base was dry embossed using one of the Asian Cuttlebug folders. The sentiment is from Club Scrap. It's really a striking card in person.

Color Throwdown Challenge 109 and SDC15

This week the challenge at Color Throwdown is to use the colors tempting turquoise, melon mambo, pear pizzazz, and daffodil delight, or similar colors. At Stampotique the challenge is to create a birthday card. The birthday theme works so well with this color challenge. The colors are so bright and cheery. This stamp is a Kodomo stamp and the colors are perfect for it. To color the image I used Creative Inspirations paints. The result is a very vivid and shimmery card. The birthday sentiment is from Club Scrap.

Simon Says Stamp and Show 9-08-10

This week at Simon Says Stamp and Show there was a bit of a twist. The challenge day was moved to Wednesday to celebrate the start of the Stamp-tember Blog Hop, a joint effort of their blog and the Simon Says Stamp site. The theme of the challenge was holidays. I chose Christmas since I just love this snowman stamp from the Tim Holtz collection. There are several things to note about this card. The top half was embossed on Core'dination paper using the Christmas village embossing folder from Cuttlebug and then sanded. The snow was enhanced with pearl drops from the Pearl Pen by Viva. On the bottom half, the raised embossed waves had glitter flocking adhered to them. I made the glitter flocking by mixing sparkly glitter and white flocking together. The snowman was stamped, embossed, and cut out. The ribbon around his neck is wired ribbon which was molded to look like it's flying in the wind. (Learned from Tim Holtz during his 12 Tags of Christmas last year.) The sentiment is a rub-on I had in my stash.

Oh Alice Challenge Chapter 29

"What makes you Shine or Sparkle?" is the theme this week for the Oh Alice challenge. Again, because scanners don't show glitz and shine, you have to imagine how sparkly this card is in person. The teapot is stamped on shiny silver paper and cut out. The flowers on the teapot are rhinestone flowers. The spider and web are sparkly black rhinestones. As for the rest of the card, the doormouse is actually a House Mouse. Don't hold it against me...lol. The background paper is from the Graphics 45 Halloween Alice collection. The doily I found at a flea market last week. I sure am having a lot of fun with Halloween cardmaking this year.

Bloggers Challenge 168 Created By Hand

I love it when everything comes together. This week the challenge theme at Bloggers Challenge is Autumn or Fall. The challenge at Created by Hand is Thanks. And, Kitchen Sink Stamps has started back with the monthly challenges with the theme Ushering In Fall.
To create this card I used the Pulled Glimmers technique from the June/July 2010 Technique Junkies newsletter for the background. I combined images from KSS sets: Trees, Big Leaves, and Harvest. I do love the colors of Fall.
Color recipes: All inks used are Adirondack
Tree -- 1 juniper, 2 sunshine yellow, 3 sunset orange, 4 rust
Leaf 1 -- 1 juniper, 2 sunshine yellow, 3 caranek
Leaf 2 -- 1 butterscotch, 2 sunshine yellow, 3 rust
Acorns -- 3 expresso, 2 caramel, 1 butterscotch

CCC Challenge 13 --Grungepaper Flowers and Sunday Stampers Week 119

Well, here's to another great challenge, or should I say two great challenges. The Compendium of Curiosities challenge was Grungepaper Flowers from p. 65 of Tim's book. Ink on my Fingers Sunday Stampers Challenge theme was USE EVERYTHING from your favorite stash. It would be almost impossible for me to creat a Tim Holtz inspired project without using my favorite things.
Let's start with the flowers. Grungepaper is one of my favorite mediums to work with and flowers are one of my favorite projects. These flowers follow Tim's instructions on p. 65 of the Compendium of Curiosities. If you don't have the book yet, what are you waiting for. It's chock full of techniques and ideas.
Now, as for my other favorite things. The background paper is from one of Tim's Paper Stacks. Love 'em. I used the Cuttlebug Highlights technique from the October 2008 Technique Junkies newsletter. TJ is another favorite. I embossed the background using the bricked texture fade. Love those embossing folders. All coloring was done with distress inks. Big favorite. The flower centers are large brads from my stash which were covered in Stickles...favorite. The flowers and flourish stem (grungeboard...favorite) were highlighted with rock candy Stickles. King of the Stickles favorites. The butterfly is an outline sticker. Must be a favorite, I have tons of them. The sentiment was stamped. My favorite stamps are the ones that fill the art need at the moment. The sentiment is covered by a round fragment. One more favorite. And the card base is from Club Scrap where I get most of my favorite paper.
Why do I feel the urge to sing "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ..."

Lady in Blue

Here is my Lady in Blue. The Creative Inspirations Design Team was challenged this week to create a piece of monochromatic art with 3D embellishments. I thought that this beautiful stamp from Stampland would be the perfect image. I just love how she is made up of mostly flowers. Except, if you look closely, you will find several faces among the flowers. To create my card, I used all of the blue shades of Creative Inspirations paint, leaving the face and a few outlines white. I used blue pearls to embellish some of the flowers. The large flower is made up of two white Prima flowers which I painted with the paints. This card really has a shimmer to it.

Critter Sketch Challenge 30 and Try That Technique -- Cuttlebug Highlights

This week the challenge at Critter Sketch was a sketch (see left). As is often the case, this weeks Try That Technique challenge worked right along. The challenge was Cuttlebug Highlights from the Oct. '08 Technique Junkies newsletter. The background is the Cuttlebug Highlights. I used the Cracked texture fade from Tim Holtz. For the color I used a rainbow pad and brayer. I thought the black and cracked background gave a little creepiness to the card. The skeleton, bats, and Happy Halloween images are from the Haunted Halloween stamp sheet from Artistic Outpost. The lightly stamped music behind the bats is from the Tim Holtz collection.

Play Date Cafe Challenge 45

This week the challenge at Play Date Cafe was a beautiful one. The picture at the right shows the theme and color combination of the challenge. The colors and the barrels reminded me of a winery and I chose to go that direction with my card. The background wine barrels are watermarks made versamark embossing ink and a stamp. The winery door is stamped with rust ink. The grapes are cut from designer paper and then highlight painted using Creative Inspirations paints. All of the stamps are from Club Stamp.

Stampotique Designers Challenge 14

The latest Stampotique Designers Challenge is to create a birthday card for a young lady who is turning 16, but who is not a typical girly girl. This challenge requires the use of Stampotique stamps. I have stamps on order, but they didn't arrive in time to make this card. My girl Stampotique stamps are limited. However, this stamp was an expression of happiness and joy, so I thought it would be appropriate. I tried to use non-girly colors and I thought the sentiment was great for a young person. So happy birthday to Kaz's niece.

Simon Says Stamp and Show 8-30-10

The challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp and Show was layers. I chose to create my card using images from the Artistic Outpost stampsheet Cracker Jack. All of the paper used is from Club Scrap. Hopefully you can find all of the layers. What you may not be able to see on the scan is that the ball player is popped and the baseball is double popped. The player's uniform was done using the Pieced-Zines technique from the Feb/Mar 2010 Technique Junkies newsletter. I thought that technique was perfect for a layers challenge. The card is based on sketch 32 from 50 Card Making Sketches by Jennifer Gormly available in digital format. I think that this piece makes a great masculine card.

Color Throwdown Challenge 108

This week the challenge at Color Throwdown was to use the colors kraft, so saffron, and chocolate chip (or something similar). I chose this little set of Southwestern stamps which I picked up at a stamp flea market on Saturday. Somehow the colors seemed to fit. The images are painted with Creative Inspirations paints. The background is a Shimmer Sheet which was embossed using a Tim Holtz texture fade and highlighted with mustard Stazon ink. I am so glad that they are making Shimmer Sheetz again. Using them in embossing folders is a favorite technique of mine.

Critter Sketch Challenge 29

This week the challenge at Critter Sketch was Fall. I decided to try something I had always wanted to do. I used an actual maple leaf from my tree to stamp the image. I used a fall colored rainbow ink pad direct to leaf on the veined side. I place the leaf inked side down on my cardstock and brayered over the leaf. The sentiment is from Stampscapes.

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 12 --Chipped Enamel

This week the Compendium of Curiosities challenge at Studio L3 was Chipped Enamel (p. 44 of Tim's book). This is another fantastic technique. It was so much fun, I didn't want to stop. However, I did limit myself to the flowers, leaves, numerals, and brads. The background is from one of the Paper Stacks, embossed with Tim's bingo texture fade, and edged with Victorian Velvet distress ink. Can I say that Victorian Velvet reminds me of a glass of vintage red wine? What a wonderful color! The sentiment is stamped with one of Tim's stamps on a piece of cardstock which was then distressed (Distrezz-It-All) and edged with Victorian Velvet. I'm really lovin' these challenges.

Bloggers Challenge 167

This week the challenge at Bloggers Challenge was a sketch. I really liked this sketch created by Lisa, our challenge mom; however, it was a challenge since I couldn't make up my mind just which way I wanted to go. Choosing the image was easy enough. This image of Wendy from one of Artistic Outposts new posts, Neverland, was perfect for the challenge. I finally decided on a more ornate background using gold and silver metallic background papers. I dry embossed the silver metallic with a Sizzix embossing folder. To stamp the image, I relied on on of Tim Holtz's techniques and made my own Custom stamp pad. I wanted the leaves around the frame to stamp green and the rest to stamp in black. Now I have a stamp pad prepared if I want to stamp her again with the green border. With the black inner stamping, I can use any colors to finish the image. Here I used my Creative Inspirations paints. With the shimmer from the paints and the metallic papers, the card turned out quite elegant.

Oh Alice Challenge Chapter 28

At Oh Alice this week our challenge is simply to make a card with a LITTLE GIRL theme.  Hurrah, this was a perfect opportunity to use this adorable little girl witch from the Artistic Outpost stamp sheet, Vintage Halloween. I think she is the cutest little girl. The background is one I had done some time ago. It's a faux marble done with spray webbing. The raven was die cut from grungepaper using the bird from the caged bird die set. Then he was covered with flocking. He's kind of a cuddly raven, don't you think.