Snowflakes for Paper Players 324

Hi folks! Winter has (I think) officially arrived here in Ohio with some school closings! UGH! Not in my area, but not far from here…  so I thought it fitting to create this cute card for one of the Paper Player’s challenges: PP324 Snowflakes!

Here’s the inspiration pic:

How fun! Snowflakes! So, I immediately had a picture in mind…. So off to my snowflake stamps I went.. and then UGH! Many of my snowflake specific stamps are retired!! I wanted to keep it current for you folks, so a little digging I did.. and this is what I came up with:

Each snowflake came from a different set. 🙂 I think it turned out pretty cute, I like all the different flakes! And I love that it is in non-traditional colors.. I like using blues for snowflakes, because it can be used for *anything* during the winter, not necessarily Christmas!  Here I used Perfect Plum, Night of Navy and Marina Mist.  They are all stamped on the Shimmery White Cardstock, which is fantastic in real life… Here’s a closeup of the shimmer to get a better idea:

If you are wondering where all the snowflakes came from… here’s the list:
Perfect Plum – large – Tin of Tags
Night of Navy – medium – Stitched with Cheer
Marina Mist – small – Hang Your Stocking
‘Tis the Season sentiment – Oh, What Fun

How much fun is that? I love mixing and matching sets.. I do it all the time. 🙂
Don’t forget to check out the Year End Closeouts if you want any of these sets, as they won’t be around forever!
Click on the picture below to go right over to my online store:

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Last but not least, if you didn’t catch it on the calendar, this Sunday I’m having an informal Open House – Card Buffet Mashup. From 1-5, stop on by to use my non-consumable supplies (Big Shot, Stamps, Punches, etc) to finish your projects, OR pick some cards from my past classes to put together.
Don’t forget to bring your adhesive and RSVP by Saturday night!
I need to make sure I have enough work space setup for you!
Cost is only $5, and individual cards are $2 each if you want to make some additional to take home. I hope to see everyone there!

If there are any questions, let me know!
Mak

Vintage Leaves for PP251 and Zoie update

Hey folks…
Update on Zoie…She’s hanging in there! Not out of the woods yet, but I think we can see her coming home soon. YAY!
You can tell she doesn’t feel well because she willingly went to go sit on hubby’s lap. 🙂  That didn’t last long, and she was curled up on mine in no time.

For today’s card I accidentally skipped a season. 🙂  I jumped right to a fall card. Not on purpose, but when I decided to use the Vintage Leaves set (with matching framelits), I automatically went to fall colors. Heh. Here’s the card sketch from The Paper Players #PP251:

Along with the Vintage Leaves and matching framelits called Leaflets, I used the Woodgrain embossing folder. The leaf is sponged in multiple colors – right on the stamp – then I stamped it on White. Then I sponged more green right on the paper.  Colors included Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze, Old Olive and Garden Green. Here’s how it looks:

I added some splash of gold embossing powder and looped up some of the super thin new gold Metallic Thread behind the leaf.
Tip:  Do your heat embossing *before* you add the thread.. it starts to shrivel up with the heat gun.. oops!!
The sentiment is from The Sheltering Tree, and is Garden Green ink with Clear embosssing powder in Vellum. I also added a few loops of the Metallic Baker’s Twine around the card to act as another layer instead of paper.

I hope everyone likes it and enjoy your Friday!
Mak

The Open Sea with Northern Lights

So I discovered a new (to me) technique I saw online.. and decided I MUST try this for myself!  It goes by several names, but the one I saw was Northern Lights. It’s where you have a multicolored background with bright yellows and purples, and dark blue and black areas.. and then top it off with white stars. It’s definitely a Northern Lights in the sky kind of look.  So, I took this weeks theme challenge from The Paper Players #243: Transportation – and ran with it!

I thought.. what could I use to incorporate a huge sky, and NOT trees. 🙂  A BOAT! It’s even on the challenge picture! So, I pulled back out my Open Sea set – which I just used for my Globe card (click here if you missed it).

Here is my take on that technique:

I love the bright colors on this one. You have the ship sailing away in the shiny water, and the stars overhead. I will need to try this one again with trees next time, too! OOH the possibilities!!

For the background, I started with Whisper White paper. I used sponge daubers and just rubbed a bunch of colors on the paper, starting with Daffodil Delight. I then moved on to Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise, Rich Razzleberry, Night of Navy, then finally filled in a few areas with black.  I tore some scrap paper to mask the bottom, to keep the horizon clean where the water was going. After the sky was done, I just took a little Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise and Night of Navy to fill in the water area.  I used my white gel pen to dot the sky with stars, and added a few rhinestones.

To finish off the water, I covered it with Versamark, then embossed it with clear embossing powder. When the light hits it, it’s like it’s actually reflecting. 🙂
The ship is stamped in Night of Navy and also embossed with clear. I ran some of the Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry over it very lightly so it wasn’t completely white against the sky.

The sentiment is from The Project Life set Remember This, and is stamped on vellum, embossed, and colored on the back with a marker to get the additional color on the “bound”. It’s cut out then adhered to the water. This way, it feels more like it’s part of the scenery instead of the focus of the card. I wanted the focus to be the sky!

Enjoy!!
Mak

Never Too Much Happy Watercolor

Hello!  This is my second post, as I didn’t want my lovely card to get buried in all the news and updates I had to share!!  If you missed that post, click here to see it.

For today’s card, I am participating in The Paper Player’s Clean and Simple Challenge: Watercolor PP241.

I was pretty excited when I saw this, because I just discovered how to make a lovely watercolor background using the acrylic blocks and markers! My first try was for my gold Lovely as a Tree card over here.  I liked the sunset colors so much I thought I’d give it another try. Here’s what I came up with:

There are a few things going on with this one…
– Do you notice the vellum overlay with the ‘Labels’ Framelit cut out? That was a scrap from another card (here)!  I saved it thinking I could use it for something, and I did!
– The sentiment is from Yippee-Skippee and embossed using Versamark and Black embossing powder.
– The flowers are from the Hostess set “Bloom with Hope”. Those are also embossed then colored with Aqua Painters. I scribbled on one of my acrylic blocks with my markers and used the Aqua Painter to pick up the color. No ink pad needed for that technique! I cut them out and used dimensionals to stick them on top of the vellum, with their stems all the way to the edge of the card so they really stand out.
– The rainbow watercolor background is also made by scribbling markers on the acrylic block, but then mist the block with a water spritzer, lightly! Although I may have done it too lightly, as some spots were not so wet. 🙂  I like it though, it almost looks like crayon!
The marker colors used were Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Rose Red, and Rich Razzleberry. Last but not least…. rhinestones for sparkle.

Something to note on this card… most of the items are retiring!!  So, if you like them, act fast.. they will be gone soon. 😦

Bonus:  Today you get a special behind the scenes action shot. 🙂  When the sun is not out and bright and shining to give me that desired ‘natural lighting’ for taking pictures (and today was one of those days)… I make do with what I have. And sometimes that means 12×12 white card stock propped up on my laptop with my watch holding up the card. Next to my iced tea, with a seal-able lid of course. I’m not crazy, I have cats. Hmm. Moving on….

Enjoy!
Mak

Valentine Kitties for PP230

This week’s Theme Challenge from The Paper Players is a cute one, it’s all about a Valentine TO or FROM a FURRY friend!

What a cute idea that is!  Especially since I have two kitties, and have the stamps to use for it (You Little Furball)!  Here’s what I came up with:

There’s a lot going on here, but it was worth it!
I stuck with Real Red, Very Vanilla and Basic Black. The kitties are actually Basic Gray, as both my cats are grey.. but I think for future cards, Black cats may show up better on the card. Maybe I’ll just have to get more cats. (HA HA, just kidding, my household would be very unhappy with that. There is not enough room on my side of the bed for me and more than 2 cats!)

The Striped paper is the Typeset Designer Series Paper. I love the clean lines.
The ‘window’ area is on Vanilla, and I sponged some Sahara Sand starting at the bottom going up, so the kitties had a bit of a shadow behind them. That coordinates with the Sahara Sand Lace Trim from the Occasions Catalog.

I made some curtains from a few strips of it, and tied them back with the Linen Thread. I think it turned out quite pretty!
I added some rhinestones colored with the Blendabilities, the kitty collars, as well as the extra bling on the stripes. The sentiment is from Itty Bitty Banners with the coordinating Bitty Banners Framelits.
To finish it all off, I added the hearts from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack – and most everything is popped up on Dimensionals!

Edit:  Speaking of my kitties, I forgot to add them, too!  I guess I wasn’t unpacking fast enough after Leadership, because I turned around to see this. She was very unhappy she was discovered…

I hope today’s going well for everyone and enjoy your furry friends!
Mak