Sylvia's Stamping Corner

COLOURQ CHALLENGE #186....IT'S ALL ABOUT STAMPING!

A very wonderful Tuesday to all! I am so happy to show you this week's challenge card for the colors over on the ColourQ. Arielle is back again this week with this fabulous color combination, one of my favorite. The last few weeks have been warm then cool with rain, such a nice Spring. I have been using two of the colors and adding a third. Arielle chose Lucky Limeade, "Melon Mambo and Pumpkin Pie", kraft and white. Hope you will join us again this week. Be sure and check out the other designers projects, I know you will be inspired. I am also linking this card to the Wonder of Watercolor Challenge over on Moxie Fab World Blog.

This week's card has a kraft card base and is matted with Whisper white cs. There is a die cut dress form in kraft and one in white. I have been working on water color sheets the last few cards. I cut my card stock in 4 pieces and work with a stamp pad, a 3/4" wash glaze brush a bare amount of water. For the dress form, I simply stamped leaves in LL all over half a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece, then ran it through the Big Shot. I made sure my brush was damp, then ran it across my classic stamp pad, back and forth, picking up ink. I am using my old pads to do this, haven't tried the new ones with this technique yet. I always try the brush out first on a scrap to see if I picked up enough ink, then re-ink. What is enough, that depends on how much color you want on your white piece. In this case I wanted dark and lights so it would appear that I had actually water colored each flower.  The great thing about this technique is that you just start stamping leaves on the LL, flowers on the MM and PP. Look at the contrast I got. I then fussy cut all the pieces out and there you have it, a wonderful water color piece. I did arrange each piece so that the light was in the face of the light direction and the dark in the shadow side. I stamped and cut the sentiment, the birds and wrapped a piece of LL baker's twine around the two dress form pieces before gluing them down.

So what do you think, are you ready to water color, stamp and fussy cut? There is no chance for a mistake and having to start over water coloring this way. Believe it or not, the stamping was random and nothing planned other than where the brush went with the ink. See the example below!

Once cut out, these flowers are just gorgeous, with a lot less work. Try different ways of applying ink such as the finger dauber, a sponge, use your imagination! You can make a real work of art. Thanks for stopping by. I will be making more cards using this technique. I have a lot of flowers left over, so you will be seeing them again! Have a wonderful Tuesday!

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Second Look at Colourq #185...a Water Color Butterfly!

Butterflies and Tangerine...the New Color for Spring!

PAPERCRAFT STAR CHALLENGE #109...A VACATION JOURNAL!

Wednesday is here again, and I am the featured designer this week over on the Papercraft Star Challenge Blog. The challenge this week is"Vacation" or "Travel" which covers a lot of fun things to craft! Check out the other designers projects, you won't be disappointed. Our sponsor as always is the House Across the Bay, providing us with beautiful digital collage sheets to work with.

My project starts with five white envelopes, 6"x9". Each envelope is covered with printed digtal papers from tHAtB, each envelope is made to hold your journal tags, your tickets, postcards and what ever else you you find on your journey. Each has multiple layers of digital images in various forms. There is stamping and things in the pockets, tags and frames you can use for pictures. It can be filled with things from your vacation in Europe, I guess that would be a dream vacation for me, especially if I were younger. This will be short on what I did as there are so many pictures. I used so many beautiful digital pages and added trinkets where I could. Hope you enjoy the journey!

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I also used the following digital collage sheets from tHAtB, Foreign Currency 009, Frames 028, Victorian Grunge 049, Postcards 070, French Hot Air Balloons 106, and Victorian Ads 169.

Here is the cover for the Travel Journal...

The inside of this Travel journal are below, but in small picture size because of the quantity. Look for the Travel Journal in an Album in the side bar for good pictures at a later date!

Inside Page 1 Page 2 below

Page 3 Above Page 4 Below

Above Page 5 and Below Page 6

Above Page 7 Below Page 8

Above Journal Back and Below Journal Tags

See what can be done with some really good digital collages and random stamping. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

all digital images the House Across the Bay(c)...stamped images Stampin'Up!(c)

A COLORFUL FALL POCKET....FOR YOU!

We are halfway through August and although our temperatures are hot, we are having those wonderful "fall is coming" breezes. I have started thinking about the fall pockets I want to make, to the point of distraction. so this evening I worked on this one. It is not full of goodies yet, just tissue!

I used 12"x12" word paper, cut my pocket and gave it a decorative edge. As soon as I knew what I wanted to do, I straight and zig zagged stitched the edges, no glue! I added stamped, embossed, fussy cut leaves and acorns and even a little birdie and some faux stitching. This is the first of many that I wish to make. I will see how many I can get finished tomorrow and what I can find to make to fill them.

Hope you have a wonderful Thursday and find some quiet time to craft!

COLOURQ CHALLENGE # 142..."UP IN THE AIR OVER YOU"...2!

It is time for another challenge over on the ColourQ Challenge Blog. this week Arielle has chosen another fabulous group of colors for us to play with, Soft Sky, Island Indigo, Crushed Curry, Cameo Coral and Vanilla. So how about you, are you having a good summer and do these beautiful summer colors speak to you? There were so many beautiful entries last week, I hope to see your project among those this week!

Soft Sky is one of the few retired colors that I did not save my ink and pads, but I do have cs, so I used it as my card base. This card evolved as I just kept trying things and changing what I did until I finished with this. I used two white die cuts for clouds, stamping the sentiment on one. Did you notice the die cut cloud resembles the shape of the purse? I stamped three balloons in the other three colors, added some dsp "winner ribbons", some Island Indigo baker's twine and some heart buttons back with Cameo Coral cs. This was a hard card for me to photograph so it is not as bright as in person. I used this stamp set two weeks ago, sorry the colors just seemed to call for this set. I really did use the colors above, I just can't get the blues to come out right in the photo. I played again in photoshop and this picture is clearer, but the colors are still off, so you will just have to pretend!

I love this dsp, how about you? Have a wonderful Tuesday, I will be out is the garden, how about you?

CITY CRAFTER CHALLENGE #105....LIFE AS A BUTTERFLY!

This week at the City Crafter Challenge Blog, Linda brought us the challenge"Just a Hint of Pink". You may use black, gray and white, with just a hint of pink, use one, two or all the colors in your project. This was a hard one for me, because pink is not one of my stronger colors when it comes to designing. I got mine finished and you still have time to play, I hope to see you there!

I knew I wanted my card to use butterflies, as they are elusive and easy to do in gray and black. My card base is Going Gray with a black mat. I added a white mat with a die cut window and twice embossed, once with a texture plate and then with an embossing folder. I also added some hand embossing to fill in the holes. I started with the background, stenciling leaves that I made with my punch. I added some script using a pear and script stamp, butterflies, and a few flower backgrounds in Blushing Bride. I cut two butterflies, one in vellum the other in Blushing Bride cs. I rubbed the back of the vellum with Blushing Bride, then stamped the front with the Pear and script in black. I glued these two together and added pearls. I left the sentiment off until I decide if I want one or just want to use it as a notecard. this photo really doe not do this card justice!

Hope you are having a good weekend, our weather has been perfect. I really have wanted to just stay outside. Have a wonderful Sunday!

FLASHBACK FRIDAY 22.0.... MY FIRST TWO DIE CUT PROJECTS!

Welcome back for  Flashback Friday 22.0, I just love this challenge. If you haven't heard about it, the theme changes every month, you have from today until April 20th at 11:59 Pacific time to play and all you have to do is find your first ?(depending on the challenge) repost it and link up. All winners are random, it is fun to look back and the prizes so fabulous. Speaking of prizes, I am the sponsor for this challenge. There is a blog hop and of course, I know you love those. If you have arrived from The Flashback Friday Blog, you are in the right place, if not go there for all the details that I may have missed!

The winner of Flashback Friday 21.0 was Miriam, she chose the theme for this challenge, find your project using a die cut, write the post with the link to your project and link back to the Flashback Friday Blog, for all the details check out the Flashback Friday Blog. Now for the prize:

Sylvia's Corner

 

Description of prize:

 

The prize is composed of a Stampin'Up! Sale-A-Bration package I put together. There is an Everyday Enchantment Tote, a 12"x12" package of Everyday Enchantment Designer Paper(12pieces), 10 card bases, two of each of these colors, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, and Wisteria Wonder, 20" of Baja Breeze satin pleated ribbon, 2yds each Everyday Enchantment Organdy Ribbon Lucky Limeade and Calypso Coral, 10 Everyday Enchantment brads and 10 shaped clear buttons, and the Sale-A-Bration Fresh Vintage stamp set(wood mount, unmounted). This collection is sponsored by Sylvia's Corner Etsy shop, where I sell my handmade cards, banners, gift bags and albums. (Stampin'Up! is not involved with this prize, other than it's products are being given away, therefore not responsible for the content posted here.)

Now for my first two die cut projects, I first got my Big Shot in 2008 right after a Stampin'Up! convention. I had Sizzix dies, but when SU started selling there products, I went die crazy, I love them. My granddaughter was born Saturday, the last day of the convention. I was in Salt Lake City when I got the call so I headed home, skipping the last two days. Home was in southern Colorado, I was driving so I had to overnight. By the time I got home Kate had been born in Oklahoma, so I dediced to wait until Monday to travel. After all this I started two projects, one for a friend and one for the baby,both were done at the same time so I will link you to both. Here is the first which just uses letters and a lot of fussy cutting. My friend was opening a new hair salon and spa at a new location in our small town and wanted this for her door. I was honored when she ask me to do it.

It's all paper, very simple, but it was so beautiful hanging on that door! The post can be seen Here, along with the outside of the photo mini album I made for my granddaughter.

Find the inside Here.  I am sorry, I lost a lot of photo's, deleted in my Kodak folder so these are all I have. The other side has almost the same except it had a place for the picture to go. So go have some fun looking back for your first project using a die cut, that you posted to your blog. these were made August, 2008, right after I started my blog. Be on your way now and continue the hop over at Miriam's Blog and good luck! Be sure and give Amy Tsuruta a big shout out and thank you for doing this, it is a lot of work to put together. Have a wonderful Friday, my friends!

PAPERCRAFT STAR CHALLENGE # 89...IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS!

It's Wednesday and I hope you are here to see the new Papercraft Star Challenge. this week it is all about Spring. Look at this lovely photo, I can almost smell the flowers. Anitra is the featured artist this week for our Spring challenge. I hope you will play with us this week, our sponsor is the House Across the Bay, and the prize is two digital image sheets. This lovely Etsy shop has some wonderful digital collage shops, so come play with us and enjoy this week of fun!

I chose a kraft card base, which I scored using the Simply Score tool (SU). Notice the top is scored like shingles and the bottom like the siding on the house in the photo. I thought it made an interesting background. I cute a window(frame lits die), then cut a slightly larger one by hand to frame it. I stamped a piece of natural white cs with wild flowers(Nature Walk SU) and my sentiment (You're a Gem SU). I then stamped my flowers (Abundant Hope SU retired) on a piece of Green Vibrant Grunge Square (THATB 128) leftover from my frog project. Yes I know I am wearing that digital out! I also stamped the flowers on white card stock twice, once for a piecing base and the other for the flowers. I used black Stazon. I cut and paper pieced the leaves and stems to one of my white images, then water colored with SU inks and a blender pen. I like to use a blender pen as it doesn't drop water on my cs and I have more control than a water color brush. I cut and glued the flowers over the leaves, then cut around all of it and added it to my card using bits of dimensionals. Last were my butterflies, these two cuties were left from another project.  Spring has arrived with this project.

Hope to see your projects this week, I enjoy viewing them! Have a fabulous Wednesday!

BEGINNING STAGES OF A NEW TAG BOOK!

Today was another beautiful day, with lows in the high 60"s and the highs in the high 70's. I spent a bit of time outside pulling weeds and planting more plants that have been waiting on me. The cats get a little impatient when I don't want to go out right away. My sleeping habits are still not settled and I never know when I am going to be really awake.

I started this last night, using 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" pieces of cs. I water colored, stamped sponged, and masked the background I did all this before cutting them with the die. I haven't for sure locked in on which of the first two pictures shown are the cover or page one. I have four pages , 3 shown here, in various stages. Know that none of these are finished, I will see new things every time I look at them, but I wanted you to see what I have done so far. I got all the chipboard and mats cut tonight, although I  ruined the third one and ended up cutting the daffodils out and placing on another mat.

This may be the cover or page 1. The stamped image you see may be covered up with a photo as I left an opening in the frame.

Here is page one or the cover. I will probably decide when I get all the bits and charms put on.

Either way, this is page 3 and this one goes with either of the first two. This is a sunny and warm project, it reflects my mood about this year's spring! Hope you had a wonderful day and that Thursday is a good day wherever you are!

THANKS FRIENDS....AND....HAPPY MAIL!

I am going to start with the Happy mail that I received today. Linda Robinson sent me some really fabulous mail. First of all she even stamped and painted the front of the mailer. She made a sweet and fun card and just look at the package wrapping with the beautiful tag.

Now here is what was inside, the beautiful painted miniature canvas along with the wood easel. I focused on the butterfly painted collage, it is so fabulous. Linda knows that my favorite color is yellow, also, but I can't believe she parted with this. Some day when she is a famous artist, I can say I got one of her first canvas's. Thanks you so much, Linda, both for sharing of yourself with all of each and for the gifts. They made for such a nice day!

Now for my card. I was inspired by Linda's butterfly and this is what I came up with. It is probably not something I usually do, but this is where I was at tonight. I worked with Soft Suede, Pacific Point, Cherry Cobbler, and So Saffron. From the stamping to the dry embossing, I just followed what my brain told me. The ribbon is cs that I wet and pleated, other than that I think you can follow what I did.

I had a hard time photographing this card as the card base was Soft Suede. Hope you have a wonderful Sunday.

"THE FANTICAL ABOUT BOTANICAL"....MOXIE FAB WORLD CHALLENGE!

The "Fanatical About Botanical" challenge is almost over at the Moxie Fab World Blog. There have been almost three weeks worth of entries, but there is still time for you to play. I always procrastinate when doing one of these challenges and wait to the last minute because I am always so unsure! However, this time I at least knew what stamp I wanted to use for my card.

I used a kraft card base, covered with a piece of Glitz Design cs. This mat was over stamped with a Rubbernecker chicken wire stamp in Early Expresso. My sentiment, stamped in black is from Amuse Studio(won by commenting on Paper Crafts website). The sunflower stamp is Inkadinkado, it is stamped in black Stazon ink. I water colored the sunflower using a blender pen and these colors, Daffodil Delight, So Saffron, More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Chocolate Chip and Early Expresso Stampin'Up! inks. I added white dots to the center of the flowers with a white gel pen, Early Expresso dots with a stampin writer. The leaves and stems are colored with Kiwi Kiss, Lucky Limeade, and Old Olive(SU) inks. I matted this with cs by PinkPaislee. I am very pleased with the outcome of this card. Nature as a subject is probably my favorite to water color.

 
I hope you have had a good day and your Sunday is filled with wonderful memories!