Ahhhhh, Neutrals

I'm trying something a little different for me.  No paper crafting post this time.

I've always loved photography.  Most of my cousins probably remember me taking a lot of photos at family gatherings, over the years!  I've not taken any photography classes, although I would like too.  I saw the following link-up over at Apple Apricot.  It's a blog I've followed for a long time, because of the beautiful photos everyone links up.
This link up seemed like the perfect excuse for me to head outdoors to look for some photo opportunities!

The theme for the July party is - Simply Neutrals #46

Use the links I've provided to head over to the blog and see some amazing photos taken in Switzerland!

Below, is my neutral photo.  I took this a couple of days ago, in a local park, during a very early morning walk.  The weather was warm and humid, but the sunrise was beautiful as I made my way back home from the park.

I am such a morning person; always waking early.  So, on the weekends I head out the door at sunrise to enjoy all that nature has to offer.  The fresh air, sunshine and the sounds of many bird songs.  Beautiful!

Thank you for stopping by,

Distress Oxide Inks - I'm hooked!

I bought a few Ranger Distress Oxide Inks a few months ago, but hadn't experimented with them much.  Since I already enjoyed using distress inks, I KNEW I wanted to do more with the oxides.  So, I've been watching videos by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner to learn as many techniques as I can.  A few weeks ago, I attended the StampScrapArtTour.  The Ranger booth had so many more colors of oxides, than I can find locally.  I took advantage of the opportunity and picked up a WHOLE lot more of those inks.  I also bought the Tim Holtz glass craft mat.  After using my new inks and the glass mat all of yesterday afternoon....I'm hooked.   These inks blend like butter and look so soft, but yet rich.  Wow!

For three of the cards I'm sharing, I used techniques that I learned from videos by Jennifer McGuire.  HERE is a link to her YouTube channel.

I used ink blending over heat embossed images on this first card.  After blending the ink, I painted the leaves and flowers using just water.

For the next two cards, I blended several colors of distress oxide ink onto a card stock panel, then spritzed a stencil with water and placed it onto the inked panel.  I pressed and held it in place for a minute or two, to wait for the water to be absorbed into the ink.  The result is a "lifting" of color where the stencil was placed.  It's subtle, but very pretty.  You may have to click on the photos to get a larger view.  It's much prettier in real life.

This was such a fun technique and much easier than I thought it would be.  I looking forward to doing more of this!

My last card today is much different than the previous cards.  For this one I heat embossed my image using clear embossing powder.  Then, using a water brush, I colored the image with distress inks.  Just smoosh some onto a craft mat and pick up color with a wet brush.  I rarely color on black card stock, so this was quite an experiment for me.  It's something I might have to play around with a bit more, to see what else I can do.

Well, now you know how I spent my Saturday afternoon!  I had planned to host a crafting day at my home yesterday, but the snow storm that was forecast changed those plans.  Thankfully, we didn't get any snow.  That was a very NICE surprise!

Thanks for stopping by!

Crafting Time....Finally!

I know that it's been a very long time since I posted on my blog.  I've missed it so much!  I did make some Christmas cards this year.  But not nearly as many as usual.  Life has just been so full!

Anyway, during this break from work I've managed to carve out some time to spend at my craft table.  I'll share what I created this weekend...most of them I made today.

Here you go.  Be prepared for lots of photos.  You've been warned!

 All of these cards feature some of Stampin' Up's designer series papers.  The patterns are so varied and so pretty.  I think my favorite of these cards is the masculine one, using the Wood Textures dsp.  On two of the "wood" strips I layered two pieces of cardstock beneath the panel to add some dimension to the card.  That card was fun and SO easy to make.

The other papers are from Stampin Up's Painted Autumn DSP, as is all of the cardstock.  All of the sentiments are Papertrey Ink.

Thanks for taking a look!

Mini Album Baptism Gift

I recently needed a baptism gift a sweet little girl.  For several weeks I tried to decide what kind of gift to buy.  Something a little different; not wanting to give a duplicate of what someone else might have chosen.
Finally I had an idea.  A mini album.  It would be a personal and unique gift AND I love creating these little albums.  This is only the third one I've created and I learn something each time I've created one.  Little tweaks to help the process and, hopefully, improve the final product.
These are so much fun to create.  But if you decide to give it a try, be prepared to devote quite a few hours to the process.  It really can't be hurried and, personally, I wouldn't want to hurry it.  It's a labor of love and the entire process brings me so much joy.

A couple of years ago I came across a video tutorial by Wilna Furstenberg.  HERE is a link to her blog post, which includes the video.  I had never even thought about attempting to do scrapbooking, much less create a mini album....from scratch.  Her project originally caught my attention because it was coffee cup themed.  That's what hooked me.  Then I realized what a unique gift a mini album could be.  And, since this was a small album.....maybe I could attempt this.  One thing led to another and now I've made a total of three albums.  I've strayed far from the coffee theme, though!

Well, I got quite wordy.  Enough talk.  How about a few photos?  Actually, quite a few.
You've been warned.  :)

For the recipient's privacy, I've blurred the name on the album cover.  This album measures approximately 5" x 7" closed.  The first album I created was smaller.  Since I was new to mini albums, a smaller project wasn't quite so intimidating!
The lace I used on this cover, I also used on the baptism card I made.

The following photos are the pages.  I've included a couple of closeups of some of the smaller details or textures.  You can click on each photo to see a larger pic.

That adorable little girl is the recipient of this album.

That's K and her baby sister J. So sweet!

On most of the pages I used a combination of quotes (found on Pinterest and printed on photo paper), stamped images and die cuts.  A few pages have "gems" for a bit of bling, and one page a piece of lace and some pink tulle (tucked behind the top of a quote).  That page is one of K standing in front of a window in a pink tulle dress.  She's absolutely adorable.  I can't even describe what a blessing she is to her family and all of us around her.

If you stayed with me throughout this long blog post...thank you.  I hope you enjoyed taking a look at what I created.  Maybe you'll try your hand at creating a mini album?   I hope so.

If you have questions about any of the supplies I used, you can contact me through the Contact Me section in the sidebar of this blog.

Sending You Sunshine!

Hi!  I created a "just because" card to give to a friend of mine.  Just because...it's been a while since I gave her a card!
I hope it will brighten her Monday.  The weekends go SO fast, so it can be challenging to jump back into the work week.

I created the rays of sunshine in two steps.  First I blended Barely Banana ink onto the white cardstock to get a layer of soft yellow.  Then, using the edge of a piece of printer paper I layered on "rays" of Crushed Curry ink.  Just moving the paper over a bit each time and adding each ray until I covered the top half of the panel.

My sentiment is stamped onto a die cut cloud panel, to which I added a few yellow and clear sequins.

It's just a simple card and was easy to create.  But it's one of those cards that just makes me smile.  I hope it brings a smile to my friend's face, also!

A Gift of Handcrafted Paper

A few weeks ago, several of my crafty friends joined me for a day of stamping, talking and hanging out.  I love spending the day with them!  Sometimes we create a lot of cards/projects.  Other times, just a few.  It kind of depends on how much time we spend just talking.  Imagine that.

My friend Ellen brought along several pieces of some gorgeous paper that she created in a paper making class that she attended.  This paper is so very pretty.
I love the textures and the blend of colors.  I had been trying to decide just how to use this gift of hand crafted paper.  Last weekend I decided to add to my supply of sympathy cards and I knew (right away) that I wanted to use these papers.

I created 4 cards; 2 of each style.

Click on each photo to enlarge it.

I knew I wanted to keep these cards clean and simple, so that the hand crafted paper is the focal point.  I simply tore the edges of 2 sides of the piece, in keeping with the natural edges that already existed.  There is a piece of gold thread looped and placed behind each sentiment panel.
The only other addition is a bit of glossy accents over the flower on each of the first 2 cards.

These cards came together just as I planned, which doesn't often happen.  And I love the results!

Thank you to my friend Ellen for sharing some of this treasured paper.  Aren't crafting friends wonderful?

And....how about this?  Oh, yes.

Watercolor Smooshing

Recently...well, actually before Easter...I make several cards that I thought I'd share with you.  It was a fun technique using watercolors or (in this case) distress inks, water and watercolor paper.

This is what I created.

I learned the technique from a video by Betsy Veldman for Papertrey Ink.
This technique isn't difficult, but it did take a bit of trial and error to get the effect I wanted.  Since I love playing with color, it was lots of fun!  HERE is a link to the video.

For my cards I used Ranger Distress Inks.  But there are many options available.  Any color medium that will blend with water, I would think.

That's it for today.  Thank for taking a look!