Sewn Tear Card

This was an interesting card to make.

The green marble looking paper is

the polished stone technique.

That is alcohol inks on glossy paper.

It can also be done with rubbing alcohol and

dye ink re-inkers.

Metallic gold, silver, bonze and copper are available

in Krylon Leafing Pens.

The Ranger Alcohol Inks with the accompanying

blender is by far the easiest product that I have

found to use.

Talc your polished stone before stamping. You will

have to use embossing powder if you have used metallics

in your polished stone as the they "float" over the inks.

When you are done heating the embossing powder

and it has had ample time to cool, lightly buff the paper

with a soft cloth to bring back

the lovely glossy polished stone look.

A fine metallic thread was used to sew the "tear".

When less is more

Sometimes less is more.

This sympathy card uses two stamps

and two embossing powders.

It is a very simple card to make,

but has a definite elegance.

The "With Sympathy" stamp is an unmounted stamp.

I have no clue who is the manufacturerer.

The leafy vine border is by Art Impression.

1. Talc the whole card to avoid strays of embossing powder.

2. Stamp the leafy vine border across the bottom and the right

side, apply green embossing powder

and cook it with the heat gun.

3. Stamp the sympathy phrase, apply gold embossing powder

and cook it with the heat gun.

This is a plain white card base.

To get the scanner to show the whole card I had to put

it on a colored background paper, so this explains

the goldy brown border.

Never knew I would be doing a blog when I scanned this. LOL

I scan or take pictures of all my cards and

when I get nine new ones I print them all

up on one sheet of inexpensive photo paper

as wallet sized pictures. This is big

enough for me to see exactly what I have done.

I no longer live in that fantasy land where

"I'll remember how I did that".

It has also helped me see how my stamping

has changed over the last 5 years.

Flourish Background

This card began on a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch piece

of white card stock.

The background flourishes have been stamped

with VersaMark and embossed

with clear embossing powder.

The next step was to lightly sponge several shades

of blue dye ink all over the whole thing until

the flourishes are a little easier to see.

Now lightly talc to avoid strays.

Flick paper to get off excess talc.

With a dark pigment ink, stamp a border

flouish and the a phrase.

I used dark blue embossing powder with this design.

The design is now ready to glue to your card base.

Basic Stamping Tip:

Talc is easiest to find in the baby section

of your local discount store.

Look for the cheapest brand they have.

The ingredients should say something like: talc, fragrance.

I keep mine in a little votive candle cup

and spread it with part of an old washcloth.

Use whatever is handy and is small enough to

leave in the votive cup.

I talc everything I use embossing powder on

EXCEPT the dark cardstocks.

Vintage photo card

It all began with an old vintage photo from the internet.

The couple looked so romantic.

I wanted to create a romantic vintage card to use

for weddings.

The card base is from DCWV's 12x12 Old World Stack

cut to 8.5x11 then cut in half to become an A2 card base.

(A2 = 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches)

The edges of the card are heavily distressed with

brown ink.

The image is printed on tracing paper.

I used temporary double sided tape to adhere

the tracing paper to a piece of light weight card stock

and ran it through the printer. If you try this make sure

that the leading edge of your papers are taped as

close as possible to the edge.

I did a little distressing of the tracing paper printed photo,

then mounted it on gold gift wrap, followed by dark

brown paper that was then cut with

a decorative scissors.

On medium tan cardstock a

piercing template was carefully positioned

at each corner to frame the picture.

It was carefully cut out and distressed.

The last touch was the button with the shank cut off.

If you use a lot of buttons with shanks in your crafting,

there are special shank cutting plyers that

can give you a very close smooth cut.

Vintage Christmas

Have you every gotten a card all done,

only to have the last thing you stamp be

a BIG mistake.

Well, here is my mistake.

The Noel in red embossing powder is dreadful.

I didn't toss it, but looked for a way to salvage the card.

Here is the fix!

The Noel by Artistic Impressions was stamped and embossed

in fine line black on another piece of

Vintage Flourishes paper that I had made.

Then it was torn out, the edges were distressed and

"burned" with Ranger's Distressed Inks.

This was layered on a piece of bronze

mirror paper that has the corners rounded.

I toned down mirror paper

by sponging some brown ink on the whole

and just a touch of black lightly around the outside edge.

The inks refused to dry on the mirror card stock

so I hit it with Krylon's Workable Fixatif,

then glued it to the card base

over the ugly and very out of place red Noel.

Magic!!! another mess up saved.

Basic Stamping Tip -

Krylon Workable Fixatif is wonderful to prevent

smearing of certain color treatments, such as

chalks, mica powders, PearlEx, etc.

Simply apply the color treatment to

your project, lightly spray with the Fixatif,

let dry and THEN it is possible to add more

layers of color treatment if desired.

This allows one to add layer after layer

of color for more depth and shading.

It also prevents accidental smearing of your

artistic endeavours by the recipient.

Spray Box

I have noticed when using all my wonderful spray mists

that the fine mist "travels". (a LOT)

Here is a simple inexpensive solution.

First cover the crafting area where you are going to be

spraying with newspaper.

I suggest that you cover your whole table and maybe

even part of the floor.

A large sturdy box is laid on it's side and

I even laid newspaper in it as I want to use

my box over and over.

Now lay your craft sheet or plastic over the newspaper

inside the box. The box with sides extended seems to contain the

spreading of the spray mists over large areas.

I didn't see any spray mist on my floor.

(and I even mopped it to be sure)

TaDah!!! you have a spray box.

Why the Craft Sheet or Plastic?

These will not absorb the spray mist, allowing

you to fully utiltize every possible drop of your product.

I use half or quarter sheets of card stock to

"smoosh" or wipe up the left over spray mist.

My friend Nancy S. had a wonderful idea.

She started using glossy cardstock.

It doesn't absorb nearly as much as the regular

cardstock, you have the glossy sheen

when you get done and your product goes much further.

Nancy and I had so much fun creating lovely colorful

backgrounds for our stamping projects.

Ten Minute card

Quick and easy. Yet it has a distinctive style.

On a piece of white card stock,

shadow stamp randomly in a light color.

Now stamp over that in a dark colored ink

with your phrase stamp. In this case

it is a stamp that I love to use by Stampendous.

Now tear around your phrase that is stamped over

the shadow stamps. You can see that

I didn't tear too close to the stamping,

this makes it easier to position the brads.

I used the same ink that I stamped the phrase with to sponge

the edges of the tear.

The strip of paper under the phrase is

actually PearlEx and glue technique.

(very glitzy, fun and messy)

The phrase is attached to the PearlEx and glue

strip wtih brads. A round paper clip

was attached to the upper left corner of the

phrase as well. Glue all of this to

a light coordinating paper. Trim to desired size

and then attach that to a darker card base.

Using a little bit of everything

This card was a lot of fun to make.

My materials came from everywhere.

You can see that the "thirds" basic design

is very effective and pleasing to the eye.

The card base is covered with scrapbook paper.

A Fiskars corner scissors was used to round the edges.

The "ribbon" is a Fiskar border punched text weight paper,

under cardstock, with real ribbon as the final layer.

A Spellbinder geometric circle die was used for

the metallic silver circle frame. Vellum was

talced, then stamped with Hero Arts phrase

and embossed with fine line black embossing powder.

THEN position the silver circle frame over the

vellum and glue in place. Trim excess vellum

and attached to card.

The next step - the silk flowers and leaves were placed,

with "jewels" glued to the center of the flowers.

BASIC DESIGN RULE - always use an odd number

This is evident in this card;

the paper ribbon is place 2/3 of the way down the card,

there are three flowers and five leaves

and the silver frame is 1/3 of the way from the left edge.

MacDuff meets a nasty critter

Late last night, when my husband Joe let the dogs out for their last "job" of the day, MacDuff met his first porcupine. YES!!!! he did get a nose full of quills. Luckily he is a cautious dog and none of them were terribly deep. There were only about a dozen and we pulled them immediately before they had a chance or work in further. Needless to say, MacDuff was not a happy doggie last night. He seems to be perfectly fine this morning.

The neighbors cows were mooing all night long. They had weaned the calves. The cows are now calling for their young. They will stay at the place where they saw them last for several days, leaving occasionally for grass and water. Then life goes on for both cow and calf, just in different pastures.

Wild, Wild West 2

Stamps by Queen's Dresser Drawer.

I love them, I love them, I love them.

The horseshoes are a Sizzix die cut. (love them too!)

The background is western gift wrap.

The easiest way to apply gift wrap to the whole

front of a card - one straight edge, line that up

with the top of the card,

turn card over and used remaining three

edges a guides, using a scissors to trim.

The images are stamped with VeraMark,

embossed with fineline black embossing powder

and trimmed to the desired size.

The edges are then distressed (a lot) and

sponged with black dye ink to give that burned look.

The paper rickrack was made with my Creat-A-Cut

paper cutter.

Wild, Wild West

Since I live on a ranch in western Nebraska

it is no big surprise that I have a special place

in my heart for western stamps and of course

western style cards.

The stamp on this card is by Sutter Enterprises. She

has some fantastic cowboy and cattle stamps.

A lot of the western cards that I make

are on a parchment cardbase. It just goes well

with the theme. The mottled looking

third layer from the top is actually wallpaper.

Wallpaper is a great resource for card makers.

Best Buds

Our boys, Diesel a standard Pomeranian

and MacDuff a Scottish Terrier, were intently

watching "dad" working in the yard.

I simply could not resist and took this very adorable

picture, which of course I had to make into

a card to send to our friends and family.

Scrapbook paper covers the card base.

The letters are die cut from a Cuttlebug alphabet

and the black dots are a large hand punch.

Morning Walk

MacDuff, one of the morning "walkers".

My husband and I usually take short walk in the mornings. Short = 1.5 miles.

This morning we walked an electric fence that needed to be checked.

Deer have a habit of knocking them down during the night, until they

get used to where the new fence is.

Electric fence is one wire with temporary light weight metal posts that is put up to allow cattle access to fields that they would not normally graze. In this case it is wheat stubble that has volunteer wheat growing in the stubble. This is extremely yummy cow candy. They and their calves get very fat and sleek from this type of feed.

It was a cold still morning of 28. The dogs just loved the walk. Since it was not the usual walk, there were lots of new smells and adventures. Be assured that every weed and dirt clod in the first 100 yards is well marked now. LOL

We have been noticing this year that there are not nearly as many hawks and eagles in evidence. We know it is from the ten year drought. There is just not enough prey available for them, so they have moved on.

Yesterday we heard the geese honkng their way south. My husband has seen a large group of Sandhills Cranes foraging in one of the neighbors harvested corn fields. We are still hearing a few bull elk bugle in the evenings and early morning. Ahhh, I love this land and the life we have.

Sunrises and Sunsets

The area where I live has some absolutely stunning

sunrises and sunsets.

I have taken pictures and when I print those pictures,

they don't look real.

Below are my very pathetic attempts

at catching the beauty of what God created for our pleasure.

Both cards started with plain white cardstock.

The colors were sponged in.

Then the entire card front was dusted with talc, image inked with

VersaMark and fineline black embossing powder applied.

Paper Quilting Tutorial

This quilting is done with scraps from

polished stone projects.

1. Glue polished stone scraps to cardstock.

2. Cut black frame using Spellbinders geometric die.

3. Glue frame to polished stone scrap paper quilting.

4. Using a straight edge and layering ruler,

cut around outside of frame.

5. Glue to black paper and cut with deckle

decorative scissors.

6. Stamp phrase on card.

7. Glue on paper quilited layers.

Fall Is In The Air

It's a bit nippy in the mornings now.

Time for all those fall chores AND fall cards.

While I am not a Halloween fan, I do

love fall with all its' soft subtle colors,

the change of the season

and a slower pace after the insanity of summer.

These cards are a combination of paper and stamps.

Most of the cards are in the "thirds" format.

1/3 color or pattern on the top or bottom

and 2/3 coordinating color or pattern on what remains.

A band of something is used to cover the seam.

Something is layers of paper, ribbon, etc - just

about anything that you can get to stick to

paper that will cover the seam between the 1/3 and 2/3.

This format of "thirds" can be applied in the landscape

or portrait positioning of the card.

The colored band on the above card

was made with Distressed Inks.

The edges are sponged in dark brown,

the band was then talced to avoid strays,

stamped with VersaMark, embossed

with fineline copper.

The papers are Debbie Mumm's

Harvest and Holiday 6.5x5 stack.

Made for Joann's by DCWV.

The colors and glitter are just so yummy.

The whole right side of the above card

is a background made with Distressed Inks.

AND there is a variation of the "thirds" format.

If you look closely you will see the

skeleton leaves embossed in gold on the

bottom 2/3 of the above card.

Playing Around With Paper

Charlene asked me to please put the results of my

card making on the blog. So here it is.

These papers are from DCWV, Debbie Mumm,

Noah's Ark made for Joann's.

It is adorable glittery paper and

I had an awful time with it. I am not

used to making cards for kids!!!!!

Great to get outside my box and struggle a little.

The papers laid out on my studio work table for several weeks.

Bits and pieces, partial cards, borders, stamps, chip board, argh!!!!!

laying there looking at me, laughing I am sure.

It was hard. So here are the results.

Gift Wrap?????

This card front is made from gift wrap.

While in the local farm and ranch supply store I spotted

this roll of gift wrap. It is Charles Russell sketches and comments.

It is far too lovely to be wrapped around a gift, then

torn and thrown away, so it became a perfect man's card.

The whole front of the card is covered in gift wrap.

The die cut corners are even a leather look gift wrap

that has been carefully postitioned in a Cuttlebug A2

embossing folder for a tooled leather look.

Gift wrap is an inexpensive paper source

for card making. I am always scanning the

gift wrap sections in stores for new colors and designs

to add to my already healthy stash.

Anniversary Card

I almost forgot.

Gasp!!!! You would think that after 38 of them

I would remember, but I didn't.

If my mother-in-law had not called I would have

likely never remembered.

Today is our 38th wedding anniversary.

Here is the card that I made for my hubby.

Scanner trick -

It seems that half of the time my scanner cuts off the edge of my cards.

Grrrrr - very frustrating.

How to solve this little irritation:

behind the item to be scanned, put a

piece of black paper larger than the item.

Be sure the black is in a upper right corner or

it might scan crooked.

This is my fourth scan of this card.

Finally remembered all my little tricks to get it right.

I just open the scan up in PSP, crop it to the size of the card,

reduce the pixels and put on my watermark.

Tutorial - Metal Stencils and Glimmer Mists

Any stencil, be it plastic or metal, will work

for the spray mist color and stencil technique.

Here is a card made using Glimmer Mists

and a silver stencil that says Lynell Harlow - LJ849.

This positive portion is used for this card design.

1. As this stencil is a perfect quarter sheet size it is

possible to get four card backgrounds from one sheet of

cardstock. Place the paper on a craft sheet, then layer the

stencil over the paper.

2. Mist evenly with color. Note the beading of the

mist on the stencil.

3. Gently place a second quarter sheet of card stock

over the misted stencil and paper.

Hold in place with one hand and rub over the

entire quarter sheet with the other hand.

4. The negative and positive results.

I have noticed that with this stencil the negative is

has a much sharper image than the positive.

5. Mist both again with the lighter color of spray mist color.

6. Let dry. I prefer air drying and when the paper is still

very slightly damp, layering between scrap paper and

placing under a heavy book. Leave it at least over night, so

you have a nice flat background to stamp on.