Creative Chemistry Week 2

Hello again!

Here are the tags for Creative Chemistry Week 2.  I used Paper Wings Productions stamp sets for all of the tags below.  This was such a great project for me because it felt like playing and I don't think I play with my supplies enough.  It seems like the only time I'm "creating" is when I have something I need to work on, versus just making art for the joy of it.  I'm definitely going to do this more often.

Day 6: Distress Markers - I had to use my Stampin' Up! markers because I haven't gotten my distress markers yet - I still liked most of my results. Can't wait to see the comparison.

a. Stamping with Markers - Butterfly Panel
b. Watercolor with Markers - Birds of a Feather, Texas
c. Blending with Markers - Frida por Vida


Day 7: Embossing

a. Distress Powder Resist - San Antonio Missions, Flourish Fun 1
b. Rusted Enamel - Melange Women 2
c. Nostalgic Batik - Life Framers, Mexican Folk Art, Muertos


Day 8: Paint Primer

a. Crackle Paint Resist - Framers Snapshot, Framers Details, Butterfly Panel

b. Shattered Stains Technique - Flourish Fun 1

c. Dabber Resist Technique - Melange Women, Flourish Fun 2



Day 9: Perfect Pearls

a. Perfect Distress (hard to see, but trust me it's there) - Let's Eat Cake
b. Perfect Distress Mist - Geishas, Melange 3 & 4
c. Perfect Splatter Distress - Melange 3, Melange 4 & 5 Architecture


Day 10: Dimensional Mediums

a. Rock Candy Distress Stickles (pretty sparkle, can see some when photo enlarged) - Melange Women 2 and Melange 4 Architecture.

That is a lot of tags!  These will serve as a great resource for future projects.  I'm so glad I was able to take this class.  If you haven't tried Online Card Classes, they offer some great choices, great tutorials and great prices.

Have you played with your art supplies lately? If not, make a date for yourself this week and have some fun!

see ya later!

Julie

Creative Chemistry Week 1

Hi everybody! 

Hope you all had a great weekend.  I had a nice one.  Few extra days off from work, went to Carrie's Paper Wings Productions Workshop at Stamp Antonio and worked on finishing some projects at home, like the PWP Flight Plan challenge at the Aviary, and the items in this post for the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry class that I just finished.  Wow - I learned so much about Distress products and techniques that have some amazing results.  In this post you will find the sample tags I created from the first week of class. And of course, I used PWP stamps (listed below the samples) and it was so much fun. Hope you enjoy!

Day 1: Discovery

Day 2: Distress Ink

a. Blended Spritz and Flick - Vintage Technology
b. Brushless Watercolor - Bird Panel

c. and d. Wrinkle-Free Distress - Happy Day


Day 3: Archival Ink

a. Archival Resist - Melange Women 1 & 2, Melange 5 Architecture, Butterfly Panel [no archival inks except black, so used VersaMagic inks - some before and some after]
b. Reflections Stamping - Day Framer
c. Alcohol Ink Agates - Melange 5 Architecture, Flourish Fun 1


Day 4: Re-inkers

a. Layered Misting - Play With Your Coffee

b. Watercoloring with Re-inkers - Butterfly Panel

c. Custom Stamp Pad - Muertos

Day 5: Spray Inks and Stains

a. Stained Kraft Resist - Melange 2 [no kraft resist at home, so used other paper with resist]

b. Stamping with Stains - San Antonio, Lone Star State

c. Marbled Stains - Geishas

In my next post I will share my week 2 tags.
Happy Stamping!

Fabulous Flourishes

Hi there!

Ahhhh....Fabulous Flourishes - try saying that 3 times fast !  Ha Ha!  Flourishes are AWESOME! I really love using them and a few years back I became a wee bit obsessed with them.  I remember taking classes at Stamp Antonio where the teachers were demonstrating their potential and I literally was falling in love with them. 

So, fast forward to December 2010 where I was trying to decide on my word for the One Little Word project (by Ali Edwards) I was starting in January and I looked up the word Flourish - some of the meanings include to be strong and healthy, to be at the height of excellence, to be successful, and to make dramatic sweeping gestures.  Then I checked out the thesaurus and found more interesting meanings like delight, amplify, arrive, develop, and accomplish. I loved how these meanings made me feel about what I wanted to acheieve during the next year so I decided to make Flourish my One Little Word for 2011.  As the year progressed, I was working on designs for Paper Wings Productions and I thought I'd draw my own set of flourishes, some inspired by other flourishes I had seen and others cames from doodling.  I hope you like flourishes as much as I do, and if you haven't used them before, take a look at these samples I made using both Flourish Fun 1 and Flourish Fun 2 sets from Paper Wings Productions.

This Celebrate You card uses three different flourishes: part of one flourish becomes the antennae, another flourish to decorate the wing and a third to show a trail behind the butterfly. The celebrate sentiment comes from the Banner set by Handmade by Lissie Girl, and I added the "you" with silver glitter sticker letters.

The trail and butterfly decoration are both embossed in silver.  The butterfly is die cut with a Stampin' Up! die from book paper sprayed with glimmer mists and adorned with 3 black gemstones. I used glue dots to add the butterfly to the card and lifted the wings for more dimension.





This time, I'm using the flourishes embossed in white on red paper, and then punched and applied with foam adhesive.  The birthday letters are from American Crafts rub ons and wishes is handwritten.  I cut the front of the card a little shorter to add the punched edge and cut a thin strip of black paper to accent it. the punch is glued to the card from the inside so I could line the scalloped edge with teh back of the card. 

 

This technique is so simple and could be used in a variety of ways.  Think about other shaped punches you could use this with.  Lots of possibilities!

I love pink, and I love this lime peel green, but I really like them together! I had this wonderful satin ribbon from Stampin' Up! in my stash and I love it on this card. 

I really had fun making this image.  I used pieces from the Flourish Fun 2 set to create this flower. One flourish in light green to create a flower stem and leaves look.  Then, I used the extra dotted flourishes from the set in a darker green for a little more dimension.  This set also includes two flower shapes, (one shown here in dark pink), the "small petal" shape (shown in the lighter pink), and several different dot clusters (shown here as pink buds or berries and the yellow stamen on the flower - accented with stickles of course) .  The sentiment is another rub on from American Crafts.

I really liked making this tag.  I had this idea that the swirls should be behind the stars for emphasis and of course I had to frame the tag with them too.  I've used two different color inks for the flourishes to give them more depth. The quote is from Vincent Van Gogh - "For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream."  Love that!



These stars are die cut from a Stampin' Up! die, inked with Distress ink pads, and then outlined and filled in with Ranger Glossy Accents.  I left this overnight to dry and they really shine!  I used the flourishes again with versamark ink and heat and stick powder to add the Dazzling Diamonds (SU!) glitter for some extra shine and sparkle. This would be a great tag to add to a birthday or graduation gift! 

I hope these samples inspire you and possibly give you new ideas of how to use flourishes.  Come back soon to see my tags I created during the Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry class. 

Have a great weekend!

Whimsical Alphabet Playtime

Hey there!


I just want to take a minute to share a little about last weekend's Paper Wings Productions launch party.  Wow Wow Wow!  What a great time that was!  It was fun seeing my stamping friends that I've known for a few years, and I loved getting to share the enthusiasm over the new stamp line with all of the guests who joined us Saturday.  Carrie, Shay and I were busy busy with demos and make and takes that day and everyone seemed to enjoy trying out the new images.  The ladies at Stamp Antonio made us feel at home and put out an amazing spread of goodies.  That was such a nice day!


It was such an emotional moment seeing my mom walk in and see the stamps on the wall, and I think she was a little emotional too. I really appreciate her making the trip - and thanks to Liz and Penny for bringing her along to be there for the party.  It meant a lot to me. Liz also helped us with make and takes and brought some cute samples too! Thanks Liz!! I also met some new friends - Andrea and Todd - who came in from Houston to check out the stamps, and to top it off, she was one of the door prize winners - AWESOME!


I have some more PWP samples to share with you today.  These showcase the Whimsical Pattern Alphabet set.  This set is one of those you will use over and over.  These letters would be great for sentiments, personalizing cards or scrapbooking pages, and can even be used for creating backgrounds.  Take a look at these samples.

Many of the elements of this card use punches.  The border and the candles are Stampin' Up! and the flames are first punched with a flower punch and then cut in a flame shape.  The oval and scallop oval are from Spellbinders. 

I thought these playful letters needed would look great in bright colors and found the pallette in the patterned papers among my scraps.  All colors here are from Colorbox Chalk inks, and then wrote the word "wish" with a Pitt Pen. Cute and Colorful! Great for kids!!

I also wanted to try my hand at using the letters for a background.  I went with a baby shower themed card here, but could be great for an alphabet sampler or school related projects.

This time the letters are stamped in a very dark blue chalk ink on both the background and for the sentiment.  Then I used colored pencils to coordinate with the pattern paper.  How great is this that the paper is stripes and dots and so are the letters.  The "welcome" is also handwritten in Stampin' Up marker.

I came across a beautiful card from this post by Anabelle O'Malley and was suddenly inspired.  I usually hoard all of my goodies, but this time, I was ready to pull out anything and everything.  Lace doilies, bird and heart punches, spellbinders, sticker strips, ribbon and red heart buttons.  This card makes me happy!!!

This time, I left the letters stamped in black and repeated the dots throughout the card with the papers, stickers and even the ribbon.  Looks like Valentine's Day, but would love to send or receive this anytime of year.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you found some inspiration today.  

Happy Stamping!

Julie

Supplies: note - all projects are made with the Whimsical Pattern Alphabet stamp set from Paper Wings Productions.

Wish Big - card

ink: Colorbox Chalk Ink - Lime Peel, Tangerine, Rouge

paper: Whisper White cs from SU! and other papers from stash

other: Spellbinders oval/scallop dies, Border Punch and shape punch from SU!, Pitt Pen

Welcome Baby- card

stamps: Flourish Fun 2 from Paper Wings Productions

ink: Colorbox Chalk Ink - Azurite

paper: October Afternoon "Hometown" journaling card, Pacific Point and Whisper White cs from SU!

other: Whisper White embossing powder, and Bermuda Bay marker from SU! and Prisma Color pencils, yellow rick rack, white button and duck sticker.

Love You- card

ink: Memories Black

paper: Basic Grey (bird), K&Co (heart), other from paper stash

other: Black Pitt Pen, black polkadot ribbon, lace doily, Marvy heart punch, Martha Stewart bird punch, sticker strips by Kimberly Poloson and Basic Grey, red heart button.

How do you take your coffee?

How do you take your coffee? I like it creamy and sweet, cold or hot!  I also like it stamped, colored, paper pieced, embossed, and more!  Here are a few samples of cards and atc's I've made recently using my new coffee stamps designed for Paper Wings Productions.  The sets are called "Play With Your Coffee" and "Frothy Concoctions".  For a detailed view at these stamps, check out this post by Shay at the Aviary blog! 

If you saw this post, you will recognize the card's focal image was used to create a background here.  I used white embossing powder on dark brown cardstock.

I wanted to make a standard travel cup but knew this card could use some fun colors. I added strips of cardstock and pattern papers in fun sherbet shades, and colored the heart in a matching pink/coral hue.

This is my take on a simple gift card holder.  I love to give (and receive) coffee gift cards, and thought this would be a great way to personalize the gift.  I stamped the cup, scalloped label, marshmallows and flourishes from Flourish Fun 2 on watercolor paper, and used watercolor crayons to color the scallops, cup and shadow. Quick and easy!

On this "romantic" coffee card, both the mug and the cup are paperpieced and leaning in toward each other.  The coffee beans make a perfect border along with the scallop oval looking a little "coffee stained" with the sentiment I've bean missing you.

Using book paper as my background, I wanted the steam to still stand out, so I stamped and embossed the steam stamps on vellum, and adhered to the cups with vellum dots.  Since the cups are mounted with foam tape, the steam is set off against the background. 

I bet you are wondering about the difference in the orange cup here and the pink cup above. They are actually the same cup, but with the addition of the "pedastal" stamp added here. I think it gives the cup a more "feminine" look.

I really love frappe style coffee drinks, and the one on this card looks good enough to drink.  The lid is stamped on vellum again to allow a look at the whipped cream - yum!!!  Flourishes on the cup are from Flourish Fun 1 and background flourish from Flourish Fun 2.

Don't really like coffee?  No problem!  This atc features a sweet milkshake, and even includes a cherry on top. The cup would also be cute cut from silver paper for a diner/malt shop look - Fun!

One more atc  - this one reminds me of a cappucino when the coffee and foam start to mix.  I also used the mmm and beans to add a playful border.  The background is a mixture of three different color sprays.

Now I really want a coffee - maybe on the way to work tomorrow.  I hope you enjoyed the samples, and make sure to head over to Paper Wings Productions for these and many more cute stamps!

Thanks for looking - and happy crafting!

Supplies: note - all projects are made with Play With Your Coffee and Frothy Concoctions stamp sets from Paper Wings Productions.

Let's Meet for Coffee - card

ink: Chalk ink - Chestnut Roan, Versamark,

paper: Chocolate Chip SU!, and other scraps from stash

other: Pitt Pen, Close to Cocoa SU! marker, white embossing powder SU!

Sending You Warm Thoughts - gift card holder

stamps: Flourish Fun 2

ink: Chalk ink - Warm Violet, Archival -black

paper: Stampin' Up! cardstock, watercolor paper

other: Caran d'Ache Neocolor II

I've Bean Missing You - card

ink: Chalk ink - Chestnut Roan, Versamark, Archival - black

paper: paper scraps from my stash, book paper, vellum

other: white embossing powder SU!

Have a Frap-a-licious Day - card

stamps: Flourish Fun 1 and 2

ink: Chalk ink - Lipstick Red and Creamy Brown, Archival - black

paper: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla - SU!, vellum, other scraps from stash. 

other: Close to Cocoa SU! marker, Tim Holtz tissue tape

You are Sweet! - atc

ink: Archival - black

paper: pink cardstock, pattern paper - Basic Grey

other: Pitt Pen, scallop edge punch - SU!

Coffee Makes Everything Better - atc

ink: Chalk ink - Dark Brown, Distress Ink - Tea Dye

paper: Basic Grey

other: Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists in English Ivy and Electric Blue, Moon Shadow Mist Buccaneer Bay