Winter Wonderland Challenge Week 5 - Christmas Crackers!

This one is coming in just under the wire LOL! The Week 5 challenge over at Winter Wonderland is Christmas Crackers. I don't know why, but I was totally indecisive about what to do (too many possibilities, I guess). So I finally just had to cut the scrap and do one :) This cracker uses a sheet of white crepe paper as its base. The image is from Inkadinkado, and the embellies are: poinsettias from Making Memories, rhinestones from Hero Arts, patterned papers from Basic Grey, and ribbon from A.C.Moore. Pretty simple, really. Don't know why it took so long to figure out! Well, that was sort of an odd post for Independence Day! Although maybe not too much of a stretch... firecrackers, Christmas crackers... *groan*! Have a happy 4th!

Cornish Heritage Farms Homestead

A card I made for the Cornish Heritage Farms Summer Stamp Star Design Challenge. This week's theme is "Color It!" You can see the details of the contest by following the link, but the most important one is.... if you participate for all 5 weeks, you get a coupon for 25% off CHF's shop! I wanted to make this stamp from "The Homestead" set look like one of the old stone farmhouses that are scattered across eastern and central Pennsylvania. They were made from the stones that were plowed up when the farmers were tilling their fields, and were often added on to throughout the years. Anyway, I used lots of Copic markers to try to get the effect. The patterned papers are from Basic Grey, the ribbon from JoAnne's, one button (green) from Papertrey Ink and one from my stash. The sentiment is from the same CHF set. Have a great day (and a belated Happy Canada Day to our northern friends)!

TMTA Green Woman ATC

Perhaps you've heard of the Green Man, a mythical leafy creature born of the foliage? Or perhaps not! It was the theme for our local ATC swap, and it was one of those that was "love it" or "hate it" amongst our members (tee hee). I was on the "love it" side, mainly because I tweaked it to be able to use one of my favorite portrait stamps.... Stampington's Botanical Countess by Sandra Evertson. This also fits in with Think Monday, Think ATC's challenge, which is 'look into a face'. To me, this delightful lady looks perplexed by the fact that foliage has sprung up out of her! LOL! What a face! I used a mix of alcohol inks on glossy cardstock, blotted and stamped with leaf stamps, then stamped the countess with StazOn. I added a tiny copper dragonfly, and, in order to tweak it to fit the club's theme, I added the words "Behind every green man is a green woman." Hope that counts :) TFL!

Secrets

Yesterday's Inspiration Challenge over at SCS was the amazing work of Sarah Collier. I chose as my inspiration this piece, entitled Frozen Custard. How amazing is her work?!?! I started by ripping out a page of old text (I liked that the chapter heading was "Secrets" - perhaps those shared by a boy and his dad) and painting it with ivory craft paint. While that dried, I stamped text with StazOn on a piece of acetate (stamps by Hero Arts and Limited Edition). I stamped the main image (Tin Can Mail) on the dry paint with ColorBox Chestnut Roan pigment ink. I stamped it another time on scrap paper and cut out just the sentiment. I then layered the image, the acetate, and the sentiment, and fixed them together with brads. I added a ticket (from Tim Holtz Idea-ology) to the top with a little paper fastener from 7 Gypsies. I then layered this whole thing onto a card base made with Basic Grey and K and Co. patterned papers. Fairly quick-n-easy.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend - thanks for stopping by!

Butterfly ATCs for Saturday Surprise, plus a little French Flavor ATC

A couple of little ATCs for the Saturday Surprise challenge, which is Butterflies.

This first one is actually a shaker card that I made a few months ago. The clipart butterfly and the stamped green foliage and text are on the back panel, and the blue floral image is stamped with StazOn on the acetate covering. Inside (as the things that actually move when shaken) are blue and green microbeads, blue butterfly confetti (which is sort of sparkling in the pic), and a punched butterfly with the word "dream" cut from an old book.

For this next one, I stamped the butterfly images first, then overlayed a K and Co. sticker. I penned in some additional text around the stamped butterfly, then mounted the panel onto text. I used inks, acrylic paints, and markers to distress and color, then added some picture fasteners.

One last ATC, a late addition for the Created Byhand challenge this week, which was "French." I used Ranger's distress embossing powder for the Eiffel Tower... this stuff is interesting, in that it gives a sandy finish, rather than a glossy one. The little plane is from Limited Edition.

Wow, thanks for sticking with me! I've got some family in town, so I'd better go socialize!! Have a great weekend!