Traveling With Van Gogh

 

On Sunday I was dutifully drinking my coffee and looking up crafty stuff on the interwebs when I found a really beautiful card.   Like out-of-this-world beautiful (said card can be found here).  I was super blown away and wanted to make it immediately, but I don't have that stamp.  I started thinking about how nice it would look as a water scene...  maybe a sunsent...  ooh!  A boat on the ocean with a huge moon!  That's it!  Feeling rather pleased with myself with this stroke of genius, I plastered a smarmy grin on my face thinking about how impressive my card would be, I kept scrolling through her blog.  Hmph.  Seems she had the same genius idea that I did.  So, with some of the wind blown out of my sails (insert groan at corny joke here if you please), I finished looking and got to work.

 

As much as I was bummed that this ended up not being entirely my own idea, I was thankful to have seen hers since I wouldn't have thought to do the reflection in this way.  The card isn't perfect, and I'll need a few more shots to get it exactly how I want it, but it's still pretty awesome.

For anyone interested, I sponged the background to get it to reflect the colours I wanted; moon was So Saffron, Daffodil Delight, and Hello Honey; sky is Soft Sky, Marina Mist, Night of Navy; sea is Pool Party and Lost Lagoon.  For the squiggles reminiscent of Van Gogh I used the same markers but threw More Mustard into the mix on the moon.  Though the whole process didn't take as long as I thought it would, looking back at the card I was inspired by, I could have made my squiggles waaaaay bigger than I did.  I might try it again and see which size I like better.

Super excited for my hostess club ladies to see this!  I was thinking about surprising them at club with it, but it's too good not to share and I can't possibly hold off on it for another three weeks.

Happy Stamping!

Deconstructed Sketch Challenge 161

Woah, I better pace myself.  This is post number three in the same day.  It's raining so I am alternating between binge watching Call the Midwife, and making cards. 

I've never made a card for this challenge but but was in love with the sketch as soon as I saw it.  Tape It is a new set I haven't used yet and this seemed the perfect chance to put it to work.  My hubs is back from a long stretch away at work next week so I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to make him a card.

Not-so-Freshly Made Sketches #67

 I woke up this morning with the crafty vibe.  I made a nice big pot of coffee and headed online for some inspiration.  Freshly Made Sketches had a lovely layout this morning, so into the crafty room I went with the sketch on my head.  I've got a bunch of this paper left over from the last annual catalogue so I decided on a manly card.  I never seem to make those just for the heck of it.  Must plan to do that more.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself after completing this one, however it then dawned on me which challenge it was for.  FMS is a "clean" challenge, and apparently I forgot that as I distressed away.  Whoops!  I'm sure the girls over there won't mind terribly  - sorry ladies!  They're quite a lovely bunch so hopefully this will just slide on by under their noses.....

Still loving Clockworks.  I think I might try and bust out a few cards with this set today.  Tomorrow is the last day of holidays before I go back to work and it will be my only day alone for the past 2 weeks.  Looking forward to putting my head down and getting inky!

Punch Art

Next week I've got my monthly workshop and I decided to focus on punches.  I love to show all the different ways you can use products, and the versatility of punches especially.  This one was really fun to make, and super simple to make.  I find that I'm always struggling for a design for manly cards, but this certainly fits the bill!

Mosaic Stamping

A while back I posted this entry about mosaic stamping.  After I made that card I went in a little binge doing a bunch of cards with emboss reveal and the mosaic.  I love the effect it gives you.  This weekend, my dear cousin Amber came down and we had a little craft-o-rama on the afternoon.  One of the techniques I showed her was how to make this mosaic stamp.  It's a great way to use all that left over rubber.  If you don't have one of these made already, I suggest you do so.  You'll love it!

 

After a nice jog with a friend this morning followed by a few cups of coffee, I headed out to the room to see what I could come up with.  There were bits of rubber all over the place, so I decided to make myself another mosaic stamp.  Then of course I had to play with it, so here's what I did.  I took my Old Olive, More Mustard, and Pool Party re-inkers and blotted them directly onto the rubber.  Then I spritzed my stamp with some Stampin' Mist to make the colours run a bit and to get the ink to space out a bit.  I stamped the ink off once on a window sheet so I could squish the stamp down to get the ink to fully cover all of the blocks.  Then I misted it again and stamped it onto some Very Vanilla cardstock.

I then decided I wanted some texture, so I ran it through with the Chevron EF before matting.  At first I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with it, but then I had a moment of inspiration and pulled out Daring Adventure.  I love the effect it gives since the ink doesn't completely get into the depressed part of the paper.  Finally topped it off with a sentiment and voila!

Life Gets in the Way

Holy moly.  My life has been one big whirlwind for the last month.  Between soccer tournaments, starting my masters, work stuff, and a social life, I don't seem to have any downtime recently.  After a couple of hours reading up on the brain and its crazy abilities, I made an appearance in my craftroom.

At the beginning of the month I received several new sets that I've had my eye on for some time, and I pulled one of them out today.  I knew that I wanted to have a masculine themed workshop next month but hadn't really thought about the cards for it much.  Extreme Elements was one of the sets that I hadn't played with yet, so that was a match.  Then for colour scheme.  I have a bunch of More Mustard Scallop Dots ribbon that's been sitting there for months that I decided needed to be used.  I love Not Quite Navy with More Mustard, and Always Artichoke rounded things out nicely.

Now, I must admit that my Stampin' Wheel has been sitting in a basket unused for more than a year.  It's just too fussy for me and I don't want to buy 40 uninked cartridges and refills.  However, I recently purchased the Speckles wheel and LOVE it.  It makes a really nice understated background.  I can see myself using it on lots of things in the future.

Apparently I was in the mood for grunge since I roughed up and distressed all of my layers on this one.  The ribbon even got a bit of ink smeared on it.  I don't usually use ribbon on masculine cards, but I like the effect of having the ends showing.  I think it makes it less girly.  I wanted to add some brads as well, but I couldn't find the container.

Inside I used the footprints from the set, as well as the Father's Day sentiment from Delightful Dozen.  My stamp shifted on my block before I stamped the image, but I actually like the crookedness for this card so I left it.

Freshly Made Sketches 27

I am attempting to do three challenges a week.  This means that I needed to find challenges for each day of the week, and today Freshly Made Sketches came out with this one.

I like distressing.  Change that - love distressing.  This week I decided to change things up and try a "clean"challenge.  I'm not sure if it really cuts the mustard when it comes to being "clean", but here's my attempt!

Tool Shed is a great masculine set.  I've only got two other sets that are manly, but one has a ship on it (not every man is a sailor) and the other one has a plane (less specific, but still...), so I find that I run out of masculine cards to make.  This was a good sketch for this set, using it in a different way than I usually do.

I love this combination of colours, and I'd be lying if I said I haven't used it on quite a few man cards.

Hand Stamped Sentiments #108

I seem to have a penchant for reading really, really sad books.  I just finished Those Who Save Us this morning (by Jenna Blum), and it certainly fell under this genre.  It jumps back and forth between a woman forced to endure WWII in Germany, and her daughter in the present.  Very well written.  Very sad.  Worth reading.  However, after finishing it I needed something to cheer me up.

I surfed around for a while and then came to the Hand Stamped Sentiments page.  Theirs is a colour challenge this week featuring Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede, and Crumb Cake.  Sounds good to me!  I played around for a bit and ended up making a nice little masculine card.  I never seem to have a man card on hand when I need one, so this should do quite nicely.

Man Cards!

I finally got my man stamps today.  I'll work on building this part of my collection, but for now these guys will have to do.  I'm not really crazy about nautical stuff, but this set is not toooooo shippy (though there is a ship stamp).  I have an awesome idea for a colour combo that I could use for this set, but already had Not Quite Navy and Cajun Craze cut and just sitting there, waiting to be used, so I answered their cries. This isn't the layout that I wanted, but I made a total rookie mistake and glued my background on UPSIDE DOWN!  Der.....  I still like how it turned out though.

I absolutely adore Tool Shed (the big background stamp).  I think it will look pretty cool clear embossed too.  Maybe I'll try that out once I'm finished this post....  This is a pretty simple card, but I think that's what's great about it.  The stamp really stands alone, so why fix a good thing?

Stamps:  Uncharted Territory, Tool Shed
Ink:  Not Quite Navy, Cajun Craze, Night of Navy
Paper:  Not Quite Navy, Cajun Craze, Night of Navy, Sahara Sand
Extras:  Hemp Twine, Modern Label Punch, Word Window punch

Why is it so hard to make a masculine card?

 

In the glorious summer months, I don't have to work.  (I went to school for six years for this, and will be repaying that debt FOREVER mind you).  Instead, I fill my days with reading, lounging around with no purpose, digging in my garden, and immersing myself in my craftroom.  On Fridays, however a friend and I head out at 7:30 to set up for the Farmer's Market.  Yes, I know this is an old lady thing to do, but I'm fine with that.  Just like birdwatching and quilting, I am fully comfortable knowing that my hobbies are that of retired ladies, and nursing home dwellers.  I don't care.

Throughout the year I make a few cards here and there when my workload isn't too crazy.  Basically this means fall, winter, and spring break, and near the end when we're wrapping things up.  I can come up with unlimited cards to make which utilize all of the fabulous toys and products that fill every free space of the room my husband only dares to enter.  However, I find that the majority of my cards are not exactly manly.  It was a colleague's birthday yesterday, and I looked in my giant stash of cards to pull one out for him, and realized that I have no testosterone-appropriate birthday cards.  What to do!  Luckily I thought of Plane and Simple and put something together for him quickly whilst downing coffee (and burning my esophagus) and putting on mascara (and poking myself in the eye).  

I have now pledged to spend my next full day in the craftroom making many cards.  I'm trying to think of the sets that I have that could be manly, and there aren't a lot.  I'm starting to think that even though I don't personally love the sets with trucks and wolves and ships, maybe I should purchase a few.  But for now, Nature Walk and Plane and Simple will have to do.  I figure that green and brown are manyly enough, even of there is a bird.

Stamps:  Nature Walk

Ink:  Early Espresso, Old Olive

Paper:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Botanical Gazette