"Summer Wishes" A Third Coast project plus Check out the Anything Goes Challenge at our Third Coast Creative Challenge Blog!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you're all having a fabulous week and enjoying your summer vacations!!

As Challenge Coordinator I'm hosting a new challenge over at Third Coast Rubber Stamps brand new blog and you're all invited to come and play with me ;0)  TCCC#2 starts August 1st and its a fan favourite, an Anything Goes challenge!  Which means the theme is open to whatever your heart desires...however, I did throw in a twist ;0)  You must use the colour Yellow in some way, whether it be incorporated into your coloured images or you use yellow cardstock or flowers or ribbon...you get the idea!

 I was inspired by all the glorious warm weather we are having...aahhhh...to create this sun drenched, summer party time card to get you all in the mood for creating with YELLOW!

I used Summer Pixie LS-007-R by Third Coast Rubber Stamps on my very Yellow influenced square card!  Isn't she adorably quirky and just screams SUMMER with that enormous watermelon decorating her carnival hat!

Stamp her on Neenah Solar White cardstock with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and colour with the following Copic markers: Hair:  Y15, 17 and 38, Face:  R00 and R22, Eyes:  YG00, 03 and 06, Watermelon, Clothes and Hat:  R32, 35, 46,  YG00, 03, 06, 09, BV000, 02 and 04.  Colour all the stars with a metallic gold gel pen and add white highlights with a white gel pen or Marvy Le Plume Opaque White marker.  Die cut out the image with an octagonal Spellbinders die and a slightly larger mat from lavender cardstock.  Apply Dandelion and Cantaloupe Memento ink to the panel with a foam ink applicator tool and finish off with a touch of Dried Marigold Distress Ink concentrated around the outer edges.  Adhere the stamped panel to the mat with double sided tape and apply yellow Stickles glitter glue to the design and to the edge of the die cut for lots of summery sparkle.  Put aside to dry.

Make a square top fold card from white cardstock.  Stamp the entire front of the card with Third Coast Rubber Stamps' Summer Wishes (WS-197-G) sentiment in Cantaloupe Memento ink.  Apply Dandelion, Cantaloupe and Dried Marigold inks to the outer edges of the card just like the stamped panel.

I recycled this wonderful silk braided trim from the handles of a gift bag I threw out.  Cut the braided trim to size and apply craft glue to the ends to stop it from fraying (or melt it carefully with a flame).   Adhere the braided trim to the card with craft glue.  Apply yellow Stickles glitter glue to the edges and put aside to dry.

Adhere the stamped panel to the card with pop dots thick enough to accommodate the thickness of the braided trim and embellish the top left corner with amber coloured self-adhesive jewels.

Make a bow from purple ribbon that has lime green stitched detail along the edges and adhere it to the card with a glue dot.

Stamp the inside of the card with the "Summer Wishes" sentiment and fill in the spaces in the font with a metallic copper gel pen.  Complete the look with even more yellow Stickles glitter glue so that the card sparkles on the inside too!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today and I hope to see your Yellow inspired creations over at the Third Coast Challenge blog for the TCCC#2 challenge starting August 1!  There's a great prize up for grabs plus you just might win a surprise giveaway prize during the challenge too ;0)

I've entered this card in the following challenges!
Totally Paper Crafts - #127 Orange and Yellow
The Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #196 - Bright and Cheerful
Crafty Calender Challenge - Fun In The Sun
Robyn's Fetish Challenge #118 - Summer Fun
Inspire Me Fridays - #69 Anything Goes

Happy Stamping!

 THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents

"Memory Fragments of A Lovely Day" Artistic Outpost projects Part 2!

Hi Everyone!
I'm having fun with Artistic Outpost stamps this week and yesterday I shared my "Touch of British" vintage grunge card and I'm back today with my 2nd project titled "Memory Fragments of A Lovely Day".

I love the feeling of the warm glow of summer filled with wonderful memories invoked by the colours of the card!  I had to show you the side view first coz that one shows the richness of the 'true' colours, especially the pearlized pale yellow cardstock I used on the left hand side of the card.  You can see in the front view below that my camera just wouldn't capture the yellow colour properly at that angle and makes it look more peach!  I tried but just couldn't get the colours to show up properly, darn it :0(

I used the Windmill, Tulips and the sentiment images from the same stamp set called A Lovely Day.  Artistic Outpost rubber stamps are now available in the Blockheads Paper Arts store so go check them out!

Stamp all the images onto Neenah Solar White cardstock with Tuxedo Black Memento ink.  Colour the images with Distress Markers.  I used Peeled Paint for all the greenery, Dried Marigold and Fired Brick on all the Tulips and Old Paper on the Windmill.  Lightly colour the sky and the background of the Tulip and sentiment with a Turquoise Green watercolour pencil and blend with a Dove Blender Pen.  Cut everything out loosely following the outline of the images and then distress all the edges with Tim's Distress tool so that they look like torn fragments.

Apply Tea Dye Distress Ink to all roughened edges and age the images a bit too with a foam ink applicator tool.  Create a mat for the image fragments from a piece of paper torn from an old book...a rescued book that is, one specifically kept for altering purposes so I'm giving new life to an unwanted book ;0)

 
Distress the edges with Tim's Distress tool and apply Dried Marigold Distress Ink lightly to the whole piece of paper and heavier along the roughened edges.  Stamp one of Blockheads' Tulip images from the Flowers full sheet set all over the mat also with Dried Marigold Distress Ink.

Make a square top folded card from white cardstock and cut a panel from pale yellow pearlized cardstock and a panel from corrugated brown cardstock and adhere the panels to the folded card then the Tulips panel at an angle with craft glue.  Adhere the sentiment to a scrap of the pearlized yellow cardstock and distress the edges.  Attach it to one of Tim's brass/gold coloured Idea-ology Memo Pins and poke it through the Windmill fragment.  Adhere the Windmill fragment to the card with glue dots.  Then adhere the Tulips panel with pop dots for extra dimension.

Make a bow from wide orange/gold silk ribbon and trim the ends into dovetails.  Adhere 2 scrap pieces of the ribbon to the card and gather the ends and adhere the bow with a glue dot.

Decorate the card with self-adhesive black pearls in 3 sizes and finish off the card by adding peach coloured Glitter Glue to the flowers, along the edges of the Tulip mat and all around the edges of the square card for lots of sparkly sunshine ;0)

Thanks for visiting with me today!  I hope you've enjoyed my Artistic Outpost cards!  I do have a third in the works using a different set of stamps so keep a look out for it ;0)

Now for some fun challenges!
Tuesday Alchemy #24 - Very Vintage or Looks Vintage
 Make It Monday #99 - Anything Goes
Everybody Art Challenge #201 - Summer
Creative Craft Challenges 2 - Summertime
LEJ Designs #13 - Bling Bling

Happy Stamping!

 THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents

"Touch of British" Grunge card featuring Artistic Outpost Stamps!

Hello Everyone!
Well I had planned to make a Diamond Jubilee card in June while all the festivities were underway but I just didn't get around to it but now we've got the Olympic Games going on in the UK so here's a Diamond Jubilee slash British inspired card with a touch of vintage grunge!

Update:  Woohoo!  "Touch of British" made Top 5 at Try it on Tuesday :0)

Today I'm featuring Artistic Outpost stamps!  If you love the old world grunge style then you're going to want to check out these fab vintage stamps over in the Blockheads Paper Arts store!  This is the first of a few Artistic Outpost projects so check back again tomorrow to see what else I've been up to ;0)

I used the Girl with Crown collage image from the A Lovely Day set.

I've been in the mood for square cards this week so I started off by making a top fold card from white cardstock.

Use painter's tape to mask out the white areas of the Union Jack.  Apply Weathered Wood Distress Ink to all the triangular spaces with a foam ink applicator tool.

I specifically made my folded card from uncoated cardstock so that when I peeled off the painter's tape it would tear the surface for a really nice authentic distressed effect.  Leave some of the line edges crisp and let other sections tear for a more ragged look.

Mask off the white areas with large post-it notes and apply Fired Brick Distress Ink to form the cross.  You can see the awesome effect of the roughened surface once the ink is applied!

Mask and apply Fired Brick Distress Ink to create the diagonal lines.

Create the dirty grunge effect by distressing the edges of the card with Tea Dye Distress Ink.

Stamp the Girl with Crown collage with Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto Neenah Solar White cardstock.  Colour the image with Distress Markers.  I used Weathered Wood Distress marker on the background to outline the images and applied Weathered Wood ink with a Q-Tip to the background areas for more of a distressed faded look.  I then used Dried Marigold Distress marker on the girl's clothes and on the flowers and added touches of Fired Brick to give the flowers more detail.  I also used Fired Brick on the crown and Tea Dye on the girl's hair.  Cut out the image leaving a narrow white border and distress the edges with Tim's Distress Tool.  Apply Tea Dye Distress Ink to the roughened edges.

Cut a mat from dark red cardstock and distress the edges in the same way.  Adhere the mat to the folded card with craft glue and wrap a length of red/white butcher's twine a few times around the card front and tie in a bow on the right hand side.  Tie knots at the ends of the twine and trim leaving a little bit extra and fray the ends.  Adhere the stamped panel to the mat with pop dots for a bit of dimension.

Don't forget it's supposed to be Diamond Jubilee inspired so of course I had to embellish the right hand side of the card with self-adhesive clear diamond jewels in three sizes!

That really was a fun card to make!  I hope you enjoyed seeing how it all came together and I've got another Artistic Outpost card to share with you tomorrow so stay tuned!  You'll also notice that there's an inlinkz collection below...that's where you'll see all the Artistic Outpost projects created by my fellow design team mates.  Just click on the thumbnails to visit their projects too!

Now for some fun challenges!
 Tuesday Taggers - So Very British
 Tuesday Alchemy #24 - Very Vintage or Looks Vintage
Make It Monday #99 - Always Anything Goes

Happy Stamping!

 THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents

Vintage Shabby Chic Christmas Tags - A Blockheads Fabric Technique Project!

Hello Everyone!
Only 160 more sleeps to Christmas, Woohoo ;0) 

I'm still enjoying Christmas in July and have two vintage shabby chic Christmas tags to show you today!  Imagine finding some crumpled up vintage tags hidden in a forgotten attic that were lovingly hand made with found items when times were hard....that was my thought process when designing and making these!

 

I incorporated more fabric stamping into these too....just a quickie reminder that Blockheads Paper Arts' Fabric Stamping Technique Challenge closes on Saturday July 21st, so hurry in those entries for the chance to win some fab prizes!
 

I used the large stocking and the stockings border from Blockheads' Christmas Morning set.
 

Stamp the images onto scraps of raw canvas with Midnight Black VersaMagic ink and colour them with Stained by Sharpie Fabric markers.  Colour the white areas and add highlights with a White Marvy Le Plume pen.

Age the canvas and the stamped image with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

Crumple and tear the bottom edges of two white shipping tags and age both with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

Age them even more with Walnut Ink.  I love the mottled stained effect.

Embellish both tags with authentic vintage white lace scraps that has yellowed in places and adhere the lace to the tags along the top edge only with Scrapabilities adhesive lace borders.

Adhere the fabric panels to the tags with a touch of glue just in the middle to keep it in place.  Sew the fabric to the tags with red/white butcher's twine.  Tie the twine in a double bow at the top left corners.  Add an antique jeweled piece to the center of the bows.  The jewels are actually brads and attached by poking holes through the fabric and the tags.

Finish off both tags with light bronze organza ribbon and embellishing with self-adhesive dimensional vintage holly by K&Company.

I've entered some fab challenges!
 ABC Christmas Challenges - N for Not a Card
 Wish Craft Cards Waste Not Wednesdays week27 - I used old canvas scraps and vintage lace
 Little Red Wagon Challenge #141 - Christmas in July
Crafty Bloggers Network Monday Challenge 1 - Anything Goes
 Divas by Design #44 - Anything Goes
Crafty Creations Challenge #179 - Tags

Happy Stamping!

 THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents

"Ice Nymph" Third Coast Creative Coterie card

Happy Saturday Everyone!
First I want to say welcome to all my new followers, I'm so pleased you guys enjoy my art :0)

added note:  Ice Nymph made Top 3 at Divas by Design..Woohoo!

Here's my 2nd Christmas card project for the week and this one was made as inspiration for the Third Coast Creative Challenge Blog I'm coordinating on behalf of Third Coast Rubber Stamps!

Do you remember the birthday card I made for my sister a few weeks ago using one of Third Coast's newest images called Spring's Muse?

 My sister absolutely loved her card and I love this rubber stamp so much I had to use it again but this time I transformed Spring into an Ice Nymph ;0)  There is a Winter's Muse stamp available but I don't have that one...yet ;0)...so I decided to winterize the same image just by using a wintery colour scheme and embellishments!  I LOVE how it turned out and I think you just might see some more of my favourite Muse in a rainbow of colours in the
future ;0)  You can check out my post for the card above here!

Here's a close up of Spring's Muse (LS-010-V) in disguise as an Ice Nymph!

Stamp her with Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto Neenah Solar White cardstock and colour with a range of Blue-Green and Blue-Violet Copic markers and add highlights with a white gel pen.

For the card cut a mat from lavender floral paper and adhere the stamped panel to it with craft glue.  Then cut a mat from white cardstock and emboss it with a Cuttlebug Paper Lace 2 embossing folder and distress the edges with Tim's Distress tool.  Cut a piece of decorative Christmas ribbon and adhere it to the left side of the embossed mat with the ends wrapped over the edges and taped to the back.
Cut another mat from the same lavender floral paper and layer and adhere everything to a top folded card made from ice blue cardstock with craft glue.  Add Star Dust Stickles Glitter glue to areas of the stamped image and edge every single layer including the folded card so the whole card sparkles with icy glints from every angle.  Embellish with snowflake buttons in various sizes for the finishing touch.

Don't forget to stop by the new Third Coast Creative Challenge Blog and join our launch party!

In celebration we are throwing a month long Christmas in July contest with one grand prize up for grabs, a $50 gift certificate to Third Coast Rubber Stamps, Woohoo, and some surprise prizes to be had along the way too!

The theme for the contest is "Deck our Blog with Boughs of Holly" so we're looking for Christmas and Winter themed entries!  All forms of art and styles are welcome!  We would love to see paper projects, altered art, jewelry and even scrapbook layouts!

So get stamping, enter the contest and become a follower coz you just never know...you might win a surprise giveaway prize!

I've entered Ice Nymph into the following challenges:

 Crafty Creations Challenge #178 - Free for All
Divas by Design Challenge #43 - Christmas in July
 Little Red Wagon Challenge #141 - Christmas in July
Crafty Sentiments - Christmas in July
Crafty Bloggers Network Monday Challenge 1 - Anything Goes

Happy Stamping!

 THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents

Collapsible Diorama Christmas Card plus Fabric Stamping for Blockheads Paper Arts!

Hi Everyone!

Can you believe there's only 166 days until Christmas!?  It's my favourite time of year so personally I can't wait LOL!  So you can imagine I'm having a ball with Christmas in July and I've got two cards I made this week to share ;0)  Today I'm excited to show you the diorama Christmas card that I designed for Blockheads Paper Arts!  It is collapsible so it will lie completely flat in an envelope so you can get the WOW factor and mailing convenience all in one great card!

added note:  This one made Top 3 at Twisted Tuesday Woohoo ;0)

Here's two views of the cool diorama card from above, I love how it turned out!

 I also combined Blockheads' current Technique Challenge, Fabric Stamping, into my card!  So before we get started I want to tell you about Blockheads Fabric Stamping Technique Challenge!

We've made a little change to the challenge set up that will make it easier for you guys to participate!  Before you were required to include the html blog hop code into your post, now you don't have to if you don't want to.  Enter the Blog Hop Challenge for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate or submit your project to Blockheads Facebook group if you don't have a blog for a chance to win your choice of a 4" x 5" cling mounted stamp set!  Visit Blockheads Fabric Stamping Technique page on their website and check out Karen's wonderful tutorial on how to go about stamping on fabric.  Everything you need to know about entering the challenge is on that page.  Then enter the challenge on the Blockheads Blog.

But before you dash off please take a look at my diorama Christmas card first, there's lots to see ;0)

I used two of Blockheads' fabulous Christmas stamp sets to create my diorama.  The Fireplace is from Christmas Morning, the Snowman, Candle, Holly and Snowflake dots are from An Illustrated Christmas and the large Flourish design is from Feeling Regal.

Let me show you the Fabric Stamping part of my project first.

Stamp the Snowman onto a piece of white cotton fabric with Midnight Black VersaMagic ink and start painting with washes of Tsukineko All-Purpose Inks to create a watercolour effect. 

Dilute the ink with water and apply Mint Green to the background area around the Snowman with a paint brush.  Add some Mint Green to the Snowman too.

Add touches of Sky Mist to the whole Snowman and Ash Rose for rosy cheeks and tummy.  Continue building up the Snowman with washes of Mint Green, Sky Mist with touches of Midnight to create a sense of depth.

 Use Cool Gray and Burgundy on his hat and Spring Green and Poppy Red on his scarf.  I decided to use Copic markers to colour in two areas and used E15 to colour the twig arms and YR09 to colour his carrot nose.  At this point you'll notice that the Snowman isn't white anymore so you could just leave more white areas while doing the washes or you can add highlights like I did instead.  I don't have any White All Purpose ink so I could have used some acrylic paint but I had my bottle of Snow Cap Adirondack Mixative Alcohol Ink on my desk so I decided to try it and I was happy with the result!  I used Snow Cap to paint white highlights on the entire Snowman including his hat, scarf, nose and arms as well as the snow.

Puddle a diluted amount of Sky Mist onto the palette and ink up the Snowflake Dots stamp and randomly stamp falling snow all around the Snowman.  Run a piece of heavy weight white cardstock through a Xyron to add permanent adhesive and adhere the fabric to it so that the Snowman has some nice weight to him and isn't all floppy!  Add touches of Diamond Stickles Glitter glue for a wonderful magical sparkle and put aside to dry.

Stamp the Fireplace and Candle with Tuxedo Black Memento Ink on Neenah Solar White cardstock and colour with Copic markers.  I also decided I needed a hearth rug to complete my indoor scene so cut the shape out of a scrap of Neenah cardstock and stamped the Holly and coloured it so it looks like the warm glow from the Fireplace is reflecting on it.

Once all the key elements of the card were done I knew what size to cut my white cardstock for the card panels.  Cut a front and back panel and depending on how wide you want the diorama to be score two lines with a scoreboard into both pieces at the same time.  Then just flip the back panel around so that the scored lines are on the opposite side.  I've marked the score lines with little red arrows in the pic above.  Cut a window into the front panel with either a die cut or a knife.  The window is slightly smaller than the 3 window pane you see in the photo below.  You'll see why in a minute.

Die cut out a window pane with a Quickutz die.  If you don't have a 3 window die then just use a single rectangle Spellbinders die for example to make the 3 cuts.  Colour the window pane with a range of Earth Copics so that it looks like wood.  Create a sense of perspective on the bottom edge by drawing in the angled lines and also leave some areas white for snow.

I created the front panel of my card by drawing in the bricks for the house and added snow on the window ledge and snow on the ground with a black Copic Multiliner (Blockheads currently has the Multiliner set on sale)!  All the bricks, snow and shadows where painted with washes of the All Purpose Inks.  Stamp the Snowflake dots randomly all over the card front with Sky Mist API.  Add white highlights to some of the Snow dots with a White Marvy Le Plume pen or a white gel pen.

Colour the edges of the window cut out with a brown Copic and adhere the window pane to the card front with craft glue.  Don't line it up exactly, have a portion of the window peeking out along the bottom edge and one side behind the window pane.  This gives the impression that there's a wall and windowsill inside the house!  But before you glue it down put the Candle between the two so it looks like the Candle is sitting on the windowsill.  Embellish the snow, falling snow and the candle with touches of Diamond Stickles glitter glue and put aside to dry.

Sponge a wash of Burgundy API all over the second panel making sure it's the 'inside' of the house and the score lines are down the right hand side (or whatever side you decide to go with).  Create a wallpaper effect on the wall inside the house by stamping the large Flourish from Feeling Regal multiple times with Warm Red ColorBox Fluid Chalk ink.  Fold all the scored lines on both panels and fold the panels together to determine the correct placement of the Fireplace.  Adhere the Fireplace and rug with craft glue and add shadows with Copic markers.  Embellish the wallpaper Flourishes and the Stockings with Diamond Glitter glue and put aside to dry.

Run a sheet of decorative Christmas paper through a Xyron to add permanent adhesive, adhere the wallpaper panel to the back of it and trim away any excess.  I plan to add a decorative label to the back of the card made with Spellbinders label dies for my stamped Christmas sentiment.

Trim the fabric Snowman and adhere him to the front of the card with my new favourite product, transparent double sided foam tape!  I LOVE this stuff!  I love using pop dots to create dimension but hate the sight of the white foam when the project is viewed from the side.  With the transparent foam you can't see the tape anymore coz it's CLEAR, yippie ;0)  Blockheads now stocks the foam tape and the thinner square dots too for when you want to adhere a transparent embellishment to your project but just want a little bit of dimension!  Embellish the Snowman with more Diamond Glitter glue and you're done!  I actually do plan to add some embellishments to the card front to jazz it up a bit and the sentiment label for the back of the card too before it heads off to the UK for Christmas this year ;0)

In the photo above you can see there's two ways to fold the diorama flat for mailing!  Either with the scored sections folded in to fit a smaller envelope or unfolded for longer envelopes.

A closer look at the fabric Snowman.

A closer look at the welcoming Candle in the window.

And finally a closer look at the Christmasy Fireplace scene inside the house!

Thanks for visiting with me today, I hope you enjoyed checking out my Christmas Diorama card and come back again over the weekend to see my Third Coast Rubber Stamps Christmas card too!

I've entered some fab challenges!
 Crafty Creations Challenge #178 - Free for All
Divas by Design Challenge #43 - Christmas in July
 Little Red Wagon Challenge #141 - Christmas in July
Crafty Sentiments - Christmas in July
Twisted Tuesday 2tc14 - Holiday Pick Two
Crafty Bloggers Network Monday Challenge 1 - Anything Goes

Happy Stamping!

 THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents