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!