BENDY COFFEE!

Hi there, 

It's been a while since I last blogged.  I've been busy with College Spring Break for Gillian which ended up as a very fun and impromptu mother-daughter trip to New Orleans for five days! A funeral of a very dear friend in Washington D.C. last week and now Calum's Spring Break this week and so trying to get a few things taken care of before we head back to D.C. and Virginia this week. Today I'm sharing another coffee themed creation, from the March Reveal sets. I used two of the new sets on my card:  Coffee Shoppe Set 695 and Coffee Talks Set 700.

I decided to give the Bendy Card another try. I stamped the Coffee Shoppe on watercolor cardstock in black StazOn and used watercolor crayons and an aquabrush to color the scene. The girls at the table were stamped twice on watercolor paper and also colored with crayons and the waterbrush. 

One version was cut to just above the stools to become the left side of the bendy card. The girls and the table were fussy cut from the 2nd stamped image and were attached on top of the stools. The sentiment was stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Black Detail.

Hope you've enjoyed your visit today. 

Stop by again on Wednesday, when we will be revealing our new April sets.

Hope to see you then!

Shona

BRIGHT BRUSHO WISHES!

If you are here for the Sparkle N Sprinkle March 1st Reveal, click here!

Hi there,

Oh my gosh! What fun! These Brusho Crystal Colors are to "dye" for!!

If you've stopped by before, then you know I rarely make a card without my own background!  Many different techniques get experimented with. Last month it was mostly Embossing Pastes and Stencils, this month I think it may be Brusho Crystals and "more". So be prepared there are probably more to come!

All I did was take a piece of watercolor cardstock and spritzed it heavily with water. Three Brusho colors (Orange, Lemon and Brilliant Red) were sprinkled on top - then you just watch it make a pattern right before your eyes! I also "puffed" at the paint with my Color Spritzer (which I may add doesn't like my Copics) so I'm glad I've finally found another use for it! After the background was dried, (it's apparently best to let it air dry for more vivid coloring - but just for the record I used my heat gun), I then applied Versamark all over and heat embossed with Clear Detail. What a bright and shiny effect it achieved.

The two dies were recent purchases from Scrapy Land, the Die-Namites Daisy Bunch, and Fall Breeze. I cut them out from black cardstock and gave them two coatings of Black Detail Embossing powder.

The sentiment (from Stamp Set 520: Flourishes 2) was applied to glossy white cardstock and heat embossed again with Black Detail. The sentiment was then cut and embossed with Spellbinders Ribbon Banners and was sponged with Memento Dandelion ink before the die was removed. The Fall Breeze was cut so that there were two pieces between which the Daisy Bunch was placed behind the sentiment banner. It was attached to the card front with Dimensional Dots.

Layered to black, then yellow and finally to a black card base, to finish off a rather CAS card!

I'd like to enter this card in the Scrapy Land Challenge # 12: SPLAT! 

Hope you've enjoyed my quick share - will be back soon - probably with more Brushos!

Hugs,

Shona

PANDA ANNIVERSARY

Thanks for visiting my little part of the world.  Hope things are well wherever you are.  We've just survived another "blizzard", which really wasn't a blizzard, I'm glad to say, but I'm typing this softly so as to not tempt fate! Feeling so bad for those in the New England area.

So, now with Valentine's Day behind us, what's next? Spring? Well, my share today has a little bit of both - some love and some fresh greens!

I've been having a lot of fun with various stencils and Sparkle N Sprinkle embossing powders this month. I love the effect of the TWC Mini Bamboo Stencil along with the cute Sparkle N Sprinkle Panda's Birthday Set 465. I sponged white cardstock with Memento inks, New Sprout and Bamboo Leaves and left it to dry. I found it best to treat the inked surface with the anti-static bag before putting the paste through the stencil - less stray embossing powder that way! 

After the embossing paste was spread over the stencil, I applied some Moss Star and then some Bullfrog embossing powders.

After being left overnight to dry, it was then heat embossed - so pretty:

The pandas were stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with Black Detail. They were then colored with Copics: N0, N2, 0, G07, YG09 and R02. I sponged some Pear Tart ink around the image before fussy cutting.

The leaves of the bamboo in the image were highlighted with Green Iris Glitter.

The banner (Sizzix Banners Framelits) was cut from a scrap of Super Adhesive Sheet, after being applied to piece of white cardstock. The protective backing was removed and the Spellbinder's Inspire Dies was cut out from black cardstock and then placed on top of the sticky surface:

Luau Green Velvet Glitter was then applied to the remainder of the banner - great way to use up strips of left-over Super Adhesive Sheets!

I heat embossed the little heart brads with Moss Star, Pear Star and Bullfrog which were then added to the card front along with the image and sentiment which were attached with Dimensional Dots before being layered to black and then to the white card base.

I hope you've enjoyed my share for today.

I'd like to enter this card in the Craft Stamper Challenge: Take a Technique - Stencilling

Thanks for stopping by,

Hugs,

Shona

PANDAS IN THE SNOW!!

Hi all, and welcome to ANOTHER snow day in Martinsville, New Jersey!

This is what I woke up to this morning!  That's my stamping room over THERE! So after shoveling enough room for my neighbor's little 20 year old dog to go potty, I ice-picked my way back up our drive-way! I made a skinny little path to the garage door so that I could go up and put the heat on (there was no way I was getting to it from the side door!) I let it heat up and then ....

after an hour I went back out the side door of the house to this:

Wait a minute, I thought I said I'd already shoveled a path an hour ago?  Oh yes, I did - it's still coming down!! 

So up to the stamping room I went, where I have been experimenting over the last couple of days with some flocked backgrounds. I played for four hours!

I'm not going to share all the samples with you today.  There will be a full tutorial done over at Sparkle N Sprinkle at some point, but I was so excited,  I just had to make one card so that I could show off at least one of these backgrounds for now!

I was in snow mode - OBVIOUSLY! Who wouldn't be after the "fun" winter we've been having? So Panda's came to mind!!!! ... so what better background than bamboo?

What do you think? So easy, with lots of texture. A Super Adhesive Sheet, an embossing folder, some flocking and a dye ink pad and that's all there is to it!

Here is what you do. Take the Super Adhesive Sheet and cut it to 5 1/4" x 4", remove the protective backing and add it to cream cardstock. Cut off the edges of the cardstock, that's easier than trying to fit the SAS onto the specific cut piece of cardstock. 

Remove the protective backing and add Palm Leaf flocking to the entire piece. Ink the inside of the Darice embossing folder with Memento Rich Cocoa Ink pad:

Close the inked side over the flocked side and run it through an embossing machine:

So much texture! OK, then I got totally carried away and made seven other backgrounds, before I ran out of Super Adhesive Sheets!  But THERE'S MORE - you can do the same thing with Sparkle N Sprinkle's Sticker Paper! However, Sticker Paper is not double-sided, so one thing that you cannot do is stick it down to a colored card base, before flocking. I mean, you can do it, but the color won't show under the flocking. 

Confused? (I know I am!) Here are a couple of examples:

The one on the left is done with Super Adhesive Sheet on yellow cardstock, with Sun Dazzle Flocking and Memento Lady Bug ink. The one on the left is done with Sticker Paper, taped down to white cardstock, but with the same flocking and ink:

The left hand side is much more vivid, but actually in this instance - I happened to like the right hand side (the Sticker Paper) version, because of the side of the embossing folder inked!  Did you notice that they are positive and negative? Yep, by changing the side of the folder you ink on - changes the outcome!! See the endless possibilities with this technique?

OK? .... and now back to pandas! 

I used Sparkle N Sprinkle Sets 465: Panda's Birthday to compliment my bamboo background.

I wanted to let the background really be the focus of this card, so tried to keep everything else minimal. Just stamped the pandas with Memento black ink and colored the bamboo with Copics, adding a little Green Iris glitter to the bamboo. The handmade ribbon tag was stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with Black Detail embossing powder. A little Memento Bamboo Leaves ink was added to the edges of the tag. The image and tag were both attached to the background with dimensionals and then layered to a black card base. 

So where are the pandas in the snow? Funny you should ask! 

Till next time, keep warm,

Hugs,

Shona

FANCY FEATHERED PEACOCK

Hi there! today I'd like to share with you, a card I made using the Dreamweaver Peacock stencil and one of the Pocket Full of Paper line that Sparkle N Sprinkle is now carrying. These papers are exclusive to Sparkle N Sprinkle and they are all gorgeous. 

I thought that the peacock stencil went really well with this particular paper - Feather Fancy. If you are a regular to my blog, you'll also see that I've included some of my "old neighbor's ribbon stash"!  I would love to find more of that, if anyone has any idea, please share info!

I temporarily attached the stencil to the paper and applied embossing paste over the stencil.  Remove the stencil and wash it. When the paste is dry, (I leave it overnight to be safe) put the stencil back over the dry paste and apply Versamark, remove stencil and heat emboss with Black Detail. The base of embossing paste really makes the "image" pop!

I ran 1/4" Tear-ific Tape along the sides of the card and attached the ribbon, then ran 1/2" Tear-ific Tape over the edge of the card (on top of the edge of the ribbon) and applied Black Suede Velvet Glitter to the exposed tape. These tapes, in various widths are the best for sticking down glitters or flockings. No need to wait on glues drying and using the 2 1/2" or Super Adhesive Sheets you can make your own instant glittery or flocked shapes! Check out how, right here!

I embossed the sentiment with Belgian Cream, this is my favorite white embossing powder to use on dark cardstock. It is an opaque embossing powder and gives great coverage, even with a detailed stamp.

Well that's all for today, hope I've inspired you to look out some stencils and start playing. I bet, you can't stop at one card though!

Now I'm going to leave you with a sneak preview of what my next blog share will be. Using the same Feather Fancy paper, and one of the new sets that were revealed this month, Set 525: Dress Up, I paper pieced one of the dresses:

Loving these papers! See you soon,

Shona