Online Card Classes- Clean and Simple Cards 4- Day 3

Day 3-Inked Backgrounds 

My favorite technique this day was Velveteen Stamping by Karolyn Loncon.  In this technique you use   white pigment ink with a large background stamp and use a dye ink or hybrid ink to stamp over it. To accent my cards I used Elizabeth Craft Designs glitter to accent colors used on the borders and add a bit of sparkle.

Online Card Classes- Clean & Simple Card Making 4- Day 1

Online Card Classes Clean & Simple Card Making 4 ~
Day 1~ Heat Embossing Techniques

No matter how many craft supplies I get it always seems like I'm missing items and I discover which ones they are when I take a class.  Clean & Simple Cards 4 was no exception.

Techniques on Day one focused on heat embossing.  Of all the techniques I felt most successful doing the Faux Ceramic Tile.  I didn't have the mat board- so I used card stock instead.  Next time around I will probably add a layer of fun foam to get the depth or get the mat board material.  For these cards, I had to emboss my die rather than die cut into a non-cuttable surface.  I was still able to do the multiple layers of super fine embossing powder.  I was limited on small 2x2 size dies- but I was able to use my Spellbinders Bird Sanctuary die. The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp/Mama Elephant Summer Garden "Thinking of You."

12 tags of 2015- January

January 2015 Tag- Taking inspiration from Tim Holtz and using his products in new ways.  This is my first completed project of the new year. The words I chose are from an intention journal entry at the beginning of the year.  I like to start the year with the symbol of a bird.  It reminds me of my dearest friend and soul sister Julie and represents hope and perspective.  My overall intention for the year is to Create and Be Renewed.  Being renewed is to hope, inspire, smile, laugh, have a soulful living heart, to discover and dream, creating my soul self and embracing magic.

I live in Maui so January doesn't really have winter--- I chose blues and greens that remind me of the island and bronze for its warmth. The colors ended up less vibrant than when I started but I thought Tim would love that aspect.  It felt good to improvise for some materials that I didn't have such as the printed tissue paper- I used one of my music stamps on blank tissue for my bottom layer.  I'm not ecstatic about the glitter on the letters-- but I think if I had the larger ones it would have created more impact.  I really like how using the glue in seal over the chit chat stickers allowed for shadowing with a distress marker around the words.  I also love the ribbon on the tag- it started out as white satin but after spritzing it with salty ocean and peeled paint distress stain viola.  I love the two tone effect.  I think that my favorite part of this project was the shadow effect on the chit chat words. All in all a fun endeavor.  

January Tag of 2015

Materials Used:
Distress Paint- Salty Ocean, Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage, Mowed Lawn and Picket Fence
Distress Stain- Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo
Distress Glitter-Tarnished Brass
Glue N'Seal
Glossy Accents
Idea-ology Adornments Nature-Bird
Idea-ology- Chit Chat Stickers
Idea-ology Alpha Parts Newsprint
Tissue Paper
Music Stamp
Distress Marker- black soot
Water Mini Mister
Co'ordinations Sander Block
Satin Ribbon

October Creations

In Defense of Clutter----Stacker not a Slacker

In further support of Seth Apter's Studio Table Reveals, I wanted to post this article In Defense of Clutter-- I had it on my fridge for probably 14-years.  It was given to me by a friend so I don't have the original source material to site- no copyright infringement is intended.  Celebrate our curiously cluttered tables and optimism of ideas laying around to be started or finished.

Seth Apter's Studio Table: The Reveal Challenge

I love Seth Apter's challenge.  It is so incredible to see people's creative spaces in the real world.  Magazines offer up pristine interior designer quality spaces- and though I wish I had some aspects of a space from a magazine this will do.  I was surprised how easily my inner critic came up after I took the photos of my space.  Initially I took them in the evening and found them to look too dim even with lights. It felt a bit sad.  This surprised me because I see my creative space as a happy space within my home.  I took more pictures in the morning when there was more natural light.  I try to keep everything within arms reach.  Before I start a project lots of bins are displaced to get materials needed and then laid not the floor or stacked nearby.  The table is usually full of something- one conner for upholstery project, one corner for bills/mail, one corner for mainstay supplies that are never put away and one corner for work surface.

My craft corner - outside looking in---  

The past 2-3 years I've been radically growing my crafting stash---embossing folders, spellbinder's dies, sentiment stamps, background stamps, distress everything, gelli plate printing, stencils, watercoloring, and SoulCollage® materials I must admit I love shopping for craft supplies and love all the things colorful and sparkly and have symbolic meaning. Its a bit of retail therapy coping with some life losses- but at least they get transformed  into creative inspirations for others.

Doubles as my computer station when not crafting.

Happy Stash- I love vertical storage-- I hope someday to have some more customizable built-ins that I can organize to my hearts content.

My craft station doubles a my computer station when not crafting.  

I must admit I love having stamps border the periphery of my work space.  As quickly as I index them and get them into containers- I relish being able to find more symbols of inspiration.  I have an article on my fridge called "In Defense of Clutter" and basically it is viewed as an optimistic outlook on life and creating possibilities.  I like that.  I love seeing peek-a-boo images  of my stamps as their cascading sizes decorate the edges of my craft sheet.  They remind me of all the projects yet to be made :)

Last night Halloween card draft.

Ongoing project- index and catalog all my stamps

My view across from my work table is a painting an artist friend did of me playing cello, souvenirs from my honeymoon trip to Italy, a wedding photo, paint swatches (I'm planning on painting an accent wall to warm the view and move from the neutral color palate zone).

View from my craft table

 One of the features of my creativity area is a mobile that hangs over the table.  Our place is a bit boxy so I like the bit of whimsy it adds to the space and I can change up cards and ideas that I hang from it.  I mix it up with cards received from other crafting friends and technique ideas I've tried or want to continue to experiment with.

Inspiration mobile overhead

For anyone else whose inner critic came out when sharing their space, I recalled a fb post of a woman who posted some pictures of her kitchen and had received tons of negative feedback and how she should do this or that.  I loved her response--- she went around the room and expressed gratitudes for all she did have.  Likewise, I am grateful to have a space prioritized for creating and to have time and resources with which to create. I'm grateful for the friends and family I make projects.  I'm thankful for all things sparkly- stickles, distress glitter, Elizabeth Craft microfine glitters, Twinklin' H2Os, shimmery acrylics and more. I'm thankful for the variety of storage solutions- so I can keep my resources organized and safe from the elements.  I love being able to be inspired by all the innovators and artists I've discovered not his journey.  Thanks for stopping by.

CASE Study 4th Anniversary Week #2

Happy Anniversary CASE!  Assignment was to take an inspiration from the blog hop and create our own piece.  I chose Tasnim Ahmed and Jennifer McGuire's inspiration pieces for mine.  I love the pearlization and monochromatic color palate. I used Ranger Liquid Platinum since I didn't have the Wow Pearlized Silver powered.  I thought it was a close second for a similar look.  The Magenta Stamped Image was colorized with Twinkling H2Os in sky blue, blue grass, and heavenly white.  I used WPlus9 Hand Lettered Hello for my sentiment.  The border on the bottom edge of my card was created using score-tape covered in the Ranger Liquid Platinum Powder and heat embossed.  Hope you like it.  Happy Anniversary CASE!