ATC!!!

I got my ATCs from the OAK swap I participated in!!! Being the oblivious person that I am, I spent the entire walk back from the mailbox holding the envelope, trying to figure who from that location would have sent me something, without taking the 2 seconds to recognize my own handwriting on the 'to' section of the envelope! Anywho, the three ATCs I got in return are a lot of fun and very unique. The ducky one definitely inspires me to try and make more use out of my stickles (there is a lot of good highlighting sparkle that you can't see in the photo)! I'm pressed for time so I will show you the three little cuties I got in the mail! Next step: proper ATC storage must be acquired!

Sparkly inspiration

After watching Jennifer McGuire's Thinking Inking videos for Perfect Pearls, I was feeling pretty inspired to break out my Luminarte pigment powders. I knew I wanted to make my mom a set of cards for her birthday, but other than the stamp wasn't sure how I wanted them to look, so this was pretty good timing!

I tried a few different things, but wound up doing this:

1. Stamp damask image (Inkadinkado) on white paper with VersaMark ink and emboss with detail clear powder.
2. Make a paint with the pigment powders & Simple Solution #2.
3. Layer paints over whole image- wipe off embossed image with paper towel.

The emboss resist worked fairly well, although the image does not appear to be totally solid. I made 8 different panels- I'm not 100% sure what I will do with them next, but I'm looking forward to some hopefully really neat cards!

It's hard to capture the sparklyness on film, but it's pretty cool!

Well, I will have to get these done soon as I'm on a deadline!

Bargello

Yesterday Leslie posted an awesome card with the bargello technique used. since I have a vicous anal retentive streak, this technique is right up my ally! I tried my hand at it last night and am pretty please with the results. I was pretty tired at that point so it didn't come out as neatly as I would have liked, but I still think it's worthy to send off to mom for her birthday. Here is the front. I varied the size of the individual color strips as well as the cuts finished strips. I think it may be too much variance, but I lan to play around with it a bit more.

I decided to keep the cut portion and put it inside the card, I think it's a neat visual effect my mom will appreciate.

This was one of those projects that was extra exciting because I got to use up one of those random things I had sucking up space. My mom, the former art teacher, has this wealth of random art supplies, which she occasionally passes on to me (thanks mom!). This box of colored papers is one such item. At 4X6, I figured I could use it for matting or something.
See all the pretty colors? I knew I would find *some* use. I think these will produce many such cards.

Velvety thanks

Hello there! I was on vacation for the past week so no major crafting. I did get some cross stitch time in and am almost finished with the little alligator.

I made this thank you card for my stamping friend Leslie who sent me some really cute cross stitch kits she had collecting dust- thanks again Leslie! I hope she liked the card :)

Notice that layer under the sentiment layer? It's velvet! I used liquid Tombow mono-multi to attach the layer on top and then again to attach the whole thing to the card base, but only in the center of the layer, so the edges are a little loose. The bow was added to balance out the giant-ness of the layer the sentiment is stamped on- I had originally planned on cutting it in half, but I like having the whole shape there. I do not trust that I could cut it exactly strait down the middle anyway.

I clear embossed the background image, and used Tattered Rose distress ink around the edges. Aren't you impressed with the color match? I sure was! Sentiment is stamped in Chocolate pallette ink. Background stamp is Hero Arts, sentiment is Amuse. I think. I thought it needed a little something else so I added teeny tiny pearls to the corners.