Winter Blues

Every month  the Paper Arts Club I belong to has a card swap. Our club is run by the fabulously talented Lyn Bernatovitch, of Lyn's Paper Petunia. We meet every month to make projects that Lyn has designed for us. Each club member also brings in a card she has made to swap. There is a different theme every month, and very appropriately the theme for January was 'Winter Blues'

I used paper from my all time favorite paper company for my 'Winter Blues' card - Graphic 45. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I love that company and use their products all the time. 

For this card I chose images and pattern papers from A Place in Time January Cut-Aparts. I distressed a kraft card piece with my Tim Holtz edge distressing tool  and then used Vintage Photo Distress Ink along the edges. The other papers were also distressed and then adhered to the kraft piece. The assembled piece was added to a blue card base. I added a twine bow to the tag cut-apart to embellish it.

I hope you enjoyed my January card on this last day of January 2014.

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting this weekend!

A Valentine for Daddy

Today I made a card with a Penny Black stamp that I got at CreativYou & Co, a fabulous LSS here in central New York, owned by Stacie Johnson, aka the amazing Sta-C J. I'm honored to say that I am on her design team. 

The image of this little girl hugging her daddy is adorable. 

I cased my card from a sample on the Penny Black blog. It's colored with Spectrum Noir markers. As you can see, I haven't had any training in using these markers correctly yet. I have to watch some YouTube videos, I guess. My sentiment and label stamp are from a Tim Holtz collection for Stampers Anonymous. I simply framed the colored panel in black card, then red card and mounted everything on a Neenah card base.

This sweet little girl makes me so happy. I hope you like her. 

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

Stenciled Online Card Class

The Stenciled Online Card Class is over. Wow, what an amazing class it was! The four days of videos covered everything from the basics of sponging and misting to making stencils, embossing pastes, dry stenciling, using gelli plates, and so much more. The instuctors for this class were Jennifer McGuire, Kristina Werner, Shari Carroll, Julie Ebersole, Debby Hughes and Laura Bassen and they are amazing. Taking future Online Card Classes is definitely a must for me now.
 I am sending a huge shout out to Jamie at Avery Elle for giving away a spot in class that I was lucky enough to win. Thank you, Jamie!

This was my card for Day 3 Homework. I added a sentiment and I do like it more now then when I first made it. 

I haven't had a chance to play and try the techniques from Day 4 yet. Hopefully, I will be able to this weekend. Funny how real life gets in the way of our crafting life. 

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

Stenciled: Homework Day 3

Day 3 of the Stenciled Online Card Class was all about using pastes: gesso, embossing and ferro. I was very intrigued by a card that Debbie made with embossing paste and tried casing it.  Sadly, mine isn't what I envisioned, but not too bad for my first attempt. 

I used a Balzer Designs stencil with Dreamweaver white embossing paste on part of the left side. Then I used a Sizzix leaf stem die to cut white glitter paper, and adhered that over the stenciled design. A Spellbinders butterfly was adhered over the leaf, and I added some pearls. The panel was trimmed and adhered to my card base with dimensional tape. I haven't added a sentiment yet.  Perhaps I will like this a bit more tomorrow and add thinking of you as the sentiment. 

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting! 

Stenciled Online Card Class: Homework Day 2 Part 2

I'm back with my second post today using another technique from the Stenciled Online Card Class. Stamping in a stencil was also taught by Kristina on Day 2. In her card, Kristina used a paint splatter stencil and different pattern stamps to stamp inside the splatters.

For my card, I made a stencil with the Memory Box Cupid Heart die, and then stamped a Great Impressions floral lace stamp inside. The sentiment is from an older Stampin Up script set. I merely mounted my panel onto red card stock, adhered that to a card base, and added a cascade of red pearls to embellish. I also rounded the bottom right corner for visual interest.

I love the simplicity of this card. It makes me happy.

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

Stenciled : Day 2 Homework

Day 2 of the Stenciled Online Card Class shared 4 more techniques using stencils. I cased a card by Kristina using the tracing technique for my homework.

For this technique, you use colored pencils to draw vertical lines inside your stencil. This creates fabulous  texture on your panel. I used the same Heidi Swapp stencil as yesterday, but I chose the stars to make a masculine birthday card today. First I stamped  my sentiment, then filled  in the inside of my stencil with colored pencils. I cut the panel down and mounted it on a border punched piece of black card stock.

Along with the Heidi Swapp stencil, I used Prisma colored pencils in 4 colors, a sentiment stamp  from My Favorite Things,  a dotted stitch stamp from Simon Says Stamp and an EK Success notebook edge border stamp. The panel and card base are made from Neenah card stock.

I can't say enough good things about this great class. I'm really enjoying it.

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

Stenciled Day 1 Homework

Today's post is my homework from Day 1 of the Stenciled Online Card Class. Debbie Hughes had a fabulous card that I cased. Debbie's video showed how to blend inks on a stencil, and then add an embossed vellum overlay. Here's my version -

I blended Spun Sugar and Worn Lipstick Distress Inks using a Heidi Swapp heart stencil. The vellum tag was made with the Sizzix Tags, Scallop Combo #2 die.The double heart stamp is from Inkadinkadoo and the sentiment is from W Plus 9's Bitty Buddy Valentine's set. I then added some Darice Baker's Twine to the tag to finish off my card.

I am really enjoying this class, and learning a lot from the fabulous instructors.

Thanks for stopping by!

My First Post & Stenciled Online Card Class

Thanks for visiting my very first blog post. We had a snow day today, so I spent the day making Valentine cards. Most of the products I used are from Simon Says Stamps: Falling Hearts Stencil, Expressions For You stamp & die, Dreamweaver embossing paste tinted with Dylusions Postbox Red Ink Spray, and Neenah card stock. I also used a scalloped heart punch from Fiskars  and Amuse polka dot sugar ribbon. Great way to spend my bonus day off! 

I'm also very excited about taking my first Online Card Class - Stenciled. It is fabulous. Today's videos were full of information and great tips from fabulous instructors.

Hopefully, I will have some time tomorrow to try some of the great techniques I learned about today in class. There's also another class tomorrow that I can't wait to take.

Thanks for visiting!