Indian

The Indian image is from a company called Ink Blocks.

I don't know if they even exist anymore.

There were a number of very interesting and 

stunning Indian images that were done for the

company by one artist.

This was stamped with a dark pigment ink

and embossed with a rust metallic powder.

It was cut in a circle with the indention on

one side done by hand with a scissors.

A wild turkey feather is showing through the indention.

This is then mounted on a dark brown circle.

The border is an EK Success border punch.

The parchment beige card base has

the edges sponged with dark brown ink.

A Little Western Flavor

Steps to create the longhorn skull medallion.

1. Use a crackle stamp cream colored leather with archival brown ink.

2. Stamp skull with black pigment ink, emboss with fine line black powder.

    The beads on the horns have been attache with beading thread.

3. Using a die cut or a coluzzle template, cut around the image.  Your die will

    probably not cut all the way through the leather if it is really thick like this

    leather was.  I had to finish the cut with a scissors.

4. Sponge and archival dark brown or sepia ink around the edges of the leather.

5. Attach the round leather image to a dark brown card stock, trim with a decorative scissors.

6. Tear out a circle from a piece of card board that has the corrugations exposes.

7. Heavily sponge with dark brown or sepia ink.

8. Attach skull layers to corrugated card board.

9. Attach end of a wild turkey feather under card board.

 

Steps to create snake skin.

1. Snake skin look is done by first splotching light and medium brown

    archival inks on a white or cream card stock.

2. Emboss with a snake skin embossing plate or folder.  This is a Fiskars embossing plate.

3. Lightly run a sponge over the paper to just catch the raised portion.  You want the

    snake skin look to stand out.  Heat dry to set ink.

4. Brush glossy water base varnish over the whole and let dry.

The dark brown border in the center of the snake skin is from an EK Success punch.

The outer border is a decorative scissors.

The card base is a light biege parchment paper that has all the edges sponged with dark

brown ink.

Keep It Simple

 Two versions of the same design.

The first is in cream and dark green,

while the second is in white and blue.

The embossing folder paper was first cut to

5.25 x 4 inches and then embossed.

Next it was layered over the plain colored paper.

(the dark green and the blue)

This plain paper was trimmed to a narrow

border with a layering ruler.

I used an EK border punch for the borders.

Usually I punch them out using a narrow piece of paper

that is twice the length of the DP border,

 then cut in half and attach to each side of the border.

Now attach this to you EF (embossing folder) and

colored paper piece.  I like to make by border piece slightly 

longer than required then trim them after they are attached.

The whole is now ready to glue

to the card base.

On the green version I punched

out an Anna Griffin butterfly.

Love those butterflies.

Crafty Kitten

 This is Baby. Baby was found in my flower bed in September as a tiny kitten

abandoned by it's mother.  Baby barely had his/her eyes

open and could hardly walk he/she was so young.

Baby came into the house and has not left since.  

A favorite perch is in my box of quarter sheet cut card stock.

I finally broke down and put a towel over the paper 

to protect it.

We make Baby spend time outside each day so he/she

will realize that he/she is a cat.  So far that has

not been a rousing success.  Baby thinks he/she

might be a dog, probably human, but NOT a cat.

We have cat toys strung all over the house.

There is a big card board box with holes cut here

and there that is a fascinating playground for

a lively kitten.

There are balls in both showers along with paper cups,

which make wonderful noises and wake up the

humans at night.

Baby loves to hid under the bed and ambush ankles

and will wake a sleeping dad with gentle and then not

so gentle face pats because attention is desired NOW.

Baby has tried ambushing the Scottish Terrier, MacDuff,

but MacDuff just doesn't get it.  He turns around and chases

Baby, so that game is done.

Watching the water spin round and round in

the toilet is fun, but the claw marks on the toilet seat

attest to the fact that this is something that

should only be looked at and not experienced.

Baby loves paper scraps that fall to the floor when mom is crafting,

so can usually be found lurking about.  When he/she gets

tired of playing he/she retires to this lovely hidey hole

atop mom's papers.

Dad is complaining

that some of those paper scraps have found their way 

into his side of the bed.

And Dad also says that a kitten under the covers at 

his feet disturbs his sleep.

Big Butterflies

 Both butterfly images are from Viva Las Vegas Stamps.

They have been stamped in a dark blue pigment ink

with a extra thick embossing crystals from 

Once Upon A Stamp as the embossing powder.

Since this was a chunky thick powder I heated from

the bottom.  That way the powder doesn't blow off.

You do have to be careful not to scorch the paper.

I believe the phrase is from Our Daily Bread.

It was stamped in the same dark blue pigment 

and a clear embossing powder was used.

The stamped image was cut to 4 x 5.25 inches,

mounted on navy card stock

which was trimmed to a narrow border using

layering rulers.

I border punch was used for the scalloped trim on the phrase.

I don't try to use one piece of paper for this type of work.

I punch out two trims, then attach one at a time 

to the phrase.  Much faster and easier.

Clean and Simple Designs

 The only difference in these cards is the stamped phrase.

I stamped a mosaic border stamp using Hunter Green Colorbox

pigment ink and a clear embossing powder.

The phrase was stamped with Colorbox chalk ink dark green.

This little border could be stamped, could be scrapbook paper,

could be an embossing folder, could be polished stone,

could be pearl ex and glue technique.

To me the secret here seems to be

that you use the same paper for the card base and for

the 5.25 x 4 inch rectangle that is under the border.

Also use the same accenting paper under the border and

under the rectangle. 

This paper has been cut to a narrow border 

using my perfect layers ruler.

Am I going to make some more of these type

of cards using my suggestions above, YUPPERS!

I think I need to use some more of my smaller phrases

to create birthday, thinking of you etc.

 

One trick I discovered in placement of the stamped

phrase was to stamp it before I attached the border.

I positioned the border, stamped and then attached the border,

otherwise I was getting the phrase too high on the card 

and it didn't look right.