Bambino!!!

This month I am working with the Bambino line from Daisy D's for ScrapGenie. Here's a little sneak peek of my project which was posted today on the Scrap Dreamie Blog. You can see the entire project there.


And yes, those count for MATADFAM. I actually finished them up yesterday. Did you create today? Don't forget to link me up!

Masculine birthday card

I love making cards and usually they are flowery and frilly and pretty. It's like my inner girl comes out when I am in a card making mood. But sometimes I am forced to approach cards in a different way. A close friend of Lucas' recently celebrated his birthday, and of course I was expected to make him a card. The usual masculine motifs of hunting, fishing or cars wouldn't do - he doesn't hunt or fish , neither is he crazy about cars, and he would probably think I was weird if I gave him a card like that. So I pulled some masculine colours out of my stash and came up with this.

Granted there is a flower like shape on there but Olivier loved it! The stamped I used on the tag was hand carved by Lucas, I thought that was a nice touch :)

Four to Seven

My thing a day for the last few days. I actually managed two things yesterday. The notebook is going to be used to keep track on my projects this month. The instructions on how to make it will be next week's Tuesday To-Do. It's a single signature stitched book that you can make in less than half-hour.

Tuesday To-Do (on a Wednesday)

I've been under the weather the last few days (and so has hubby) so blogging fell by the way side. Here are the instructions to make this card which I posted last week

Supplies

Ranger

Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks and Metallic Mixers

* Cranberry

* Raisin

* Red Pepper

* Gold

* Bronze

Alcohol Ink Applicator

Tim Holtz Distress Inks

· Fired Brick

· Tattered Rose

Black archival ink

Clear Emboss It ink pad

Clear UTEE

Cut & Dry Foam

Other

Glossy paper

Red card form (or red cardstock measuring 8&12 x 5&1/2)

White and black cardstock

Medium or large love themed rubber stamp

Four small love themed image stamps

Sentiment stamp

2” Square punch

Felt heart accent

Instructions

1. Alcohol Ink background

Cut a piece of glossy paper about 8&1/2 x 5&1/2 in size

Load up your alcohol ink applicator with the three inks and the mixatives

Using a dabbing motion apply to glossy paper, twisting the applicator as you go. Make sure to cover at least 2/3 of the paper

Ink up the medium/large stamp with black archival ink and stamp over background

Cut a piece measuring 4&1/8 x 5&3/8 and set aside

2. Cracked Tiles

Using small pieces of Cut & Dry Foam apply Tattered Rose and Fired Brick inks to a piece of white cardstock

Stamp four small images and use punch to punch out the squares

Press the embossing pad onto the squares, covering completely with the ink. Cover with clear UTEE and heat to melt; adding more UTEE until you have 3-4 layers. Set aside to cool

Once cool, bend the pieces back in forth in different directions forming cracks in the UTEE

Stamp sentiment on a scrap piece of inked up white cardstock with Fired Brick ink. Assemble card as shown above.

card detail

Two & Three

My thing a day for Saturday and Sunday. It's been a slightly crazy weekend, so it's nice I already had these planned to create.



You can get more details here and here

February

Get ready for Francine's February Make-a-Thing a Day for a month! I arbitrarily decided this morning that I will create something everyday this month and follow in the footseps of people like AliE and Shimelle, both of whom have done this previously. It might be a scrapbook page, or a card, or something sewn in felt. I might even knit, crochet or sew. Some days it might just be a pretty photo I take because that might be all I can manage.

I think my success with keeping up with my Photo-a-Day project went to my head, but luckily I decided to do this during the shortest month of the year, so it seems achievable. And at the end of the month I'll have 29 lovelies to show for it.

Here's today's thing
The card I made to start off Wub Week at Scrapbook Takeout. I'll be hosting a card class every day for a week (so the first week of make a thing a day for a month, henceforth known as MATADFAM or FFMATADFAM is a done deal!)

Complete instructions to make this card can be found here

If you want to throw all caution to the wind and join in with MATADFAM leave a comment and a link to your blog so that I can drop by and nag, uh support you. :)

Inky Fingers

Here's another Valentine card.
This one uses a variety of inking and stamping techniques and was posted to the Ranger yahoo group for a monthly How-To (called an Inkling). I'll share the instructions here next week. The image stamps are from Alpha Stamps and the sentiment is from Purple Onion for Self-Addressed. Felt heart from the craft store. I do love playing with inking techniques from time to time!

Tuesday To-Do: Altered Clock

As soon as I saw this stamp at Alpha stamps I knew I had to have it! This is so me, I'm a horrible procrastinator. I'm hoping this project will help me get that under control!


Before


After
Supplies:

Clock (I got mine at the equivalent of a dollar store)
Patterned paper
Queen Rubber stamp
Decorative stamp
Butterfly wings grungeboard
Black ink
Stamping ink in a light and dark shade of the same colour ( I used a sand colour and a darker brown)
White gesso and black acylic paint
Sticker numbers
button

Instructions

1. Very carefully remove the hands from the clock and set aside



2. Find something approximately the same size as the clock face to use as a template, and draw and cut out a circle from the patterned paper (or you can measure the diameter of the clock and use a compass to do this)

3. Find the center of circle and use an anywhere hole punch to punch out a hole (to find the center I dabbed a bit of paint onto the bit sticking out of the clock and gently lay the patterned paper, right side up, over it to mark the back of the paper)

4. Depending on the size of the mechanics you might need to use a pair of small scissors to enlarge the hole

5. Paint face of clock with white gesso and when dry, black acrylic paint. The gesso helps prepare the surface for the paint.

6. While waiting for the paint to dry decorate the patterned paper circle

• Use black ink to ink the edges of the circle as well as the hole in the center
• Stamp main image in black to left of center
• Add number stickers in a jumble at bottom of circle
• 
• Use sand ink to ink up the wings
• Stamp decorative image on wings with brown ink
• 
• Finish off piece and add to clock using a strong glue.

This will now stay in my scrap space to help keep me on track!

Here's another project I made with this stamp.

It's very versatile, it would be great for a calendar and for ATCs, and maybe also to stamp on packages that are being sent out late!

Valentine's, goodies and flowers, oh my!

Yesterday one of my Valentine's cards was featured on Scrap Scene. They are currently running a Valentine Card a Day up until Feb 14th.
You can check them out to get the step by step instructions for my card, as well as to see all the other cards featured so far. Thank you Angie and Scrap Scene!

In other news, we have a winner of my little RAK. I got our cat Naala to help me out (is this a sign of old age or boredom?). It was harder than I thought, usually she can't leave anything alone, but the day I actually want her to play with something she sits there and ignores it. Subterfuge (in the form of a wine cork) was necessary.






Congrats Nicole! Please send me your address so I can get these goodies in the mail. Thanks to everyone who commented and said Hi or shared ideas!

And finally, look what will be part of the February Scrapbook Takeout Kit! I'm pretty excited that my partners thought my little flowers were worthy of the kit and included them.

I'm working on some new designs and hope to put them in an Etsy store later this week. What do you think, would you buy these for your projects? They are completely handmade from vintage French papers, paper doilies, felt, stitching and a bead center. I have some other fun ideas in mind and will keep you posted (Oh Nicole you will get one in your package!). So, Happy Monday everyone!

Love is in the air

I've started working on some Valentine's Day cards. I'm hoping to be better at sending them out than I was with my Christmas cards!

As well as making cards for my own amusement, I'll be teaching a card class from February 1st at Scrapbook Takeout. A card a day for a week! I'd love it if you'd join us!

Christmas Crafting III

Just a couple more cards for the moment. I was away all weekend with no chance to create anything sadly. I did these cards last week. I saw an idea from Martha Stewart, using leaf stamps to create a paper poinsettia, and just had to try it because poinsettias really mean Christmas to me. Back home everyone grows them in their gardens and when they start turning red you know Christmas is in the air.
On this one I stamped the leaf seven times and embossed with gold embossing powder, then cut them out and formed the flower. I punched a 1&1/2" circle and used that as a base to stick the "petals" on. I used a chip topper sticker from Bazzill for the center.

On the second card I used a smaller leaf and stamped with a glue pad, then dusted on red glitter, and cut out the shapes. I then layered a Prima flower and rhinestone brad in the center.

Since the Christmas tree was in the stand but not yet decorated I figured it would make the perfect backdrop for photographing the cards!

Christmas Crafting I

It's full steam ahead now! I plan to post one type of Christmas related craft or another leading up to the 25th. I'll also be doing a couple giveaways between now and the 15th (to ensure that goodies arrive in time) so stick around, it's gonna be fun! For today here is my latest batch of cards using collage sheets from Alpha Stamps and BasicGrey papers.

Making a start

I'm getting started early on Holiday projects this year. This may not be early for some people, but for me this is something of a record!


Image stamps and vellum image by Alpha Stamps