Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #123

Welcome back to another Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge!  I am in the mood for Fall.  I'm not sure if it is because the school buses are back on the road, or the brisk New England air.... Who am I kidding!  It's hot and humid here in New England!  

The leaves were made using distress inks and watercolor paper and die cut from the leaf Lawn Fawn die set.

Get your craft on!  To view and enter the challenge, please visit the Atlantic Hearts blog page!  Entries are due on Sunday, Sept. 6th.

4CC Challenge #261 - Funky Hair

This certainly was a tough challenge for me!  Funky hair!?  Since I don't own one stamp that has a 'person', I didn't know what I was going to do about hair!  Then, I came up with an idea!  Why not an unusually colored animal with the catch phrase, 'there is one in every crowd.'  Well, this is what became of my idea!

The die is from Penny Black 'feline.'  I absolutely love it.  I used my spectrum noir. Rakers to color one of the cats and added some polka dots with a white gel pen.  The sentiment was printed on my laser printer (lobster two font) and then I used my laminator and some Heidi Swapp foil to make it shine!

Get your craft on!  Come visit us at 4 Crafty Chicks Blog and submit your entry by noon on September 1st!

4CC Challenge #260 - Distressed

Welcome Back!  It's time for another 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge!  This week is all about distressing!  I don't know about you, but being in the studio is my 'distressing'!

This Autumn Greetings card is all about distress.  I started with white catdstock and painted it with black distress paint dauber so (acrylic paint).  I then embossed some flourishes and script with clear embossing powder.  Then I painted over the entire page with a raspberry paint dauber.  When it was almost dry, I wet a cloth and wiped the paint off the the embossed images.

The leaves were made from th Lawn Fawn stitched leaf die from watercolor paper.  I used some distress inks to blend some oranges, yellows, and reds together.  The sentiment is embossed in gold and I added some bakers twine and a button to finish it off!

Get your craft on!  Come visit us at 4 Crafty Chicks Blog and submit your entry by noon on August 25th.

It's Technique Tuesday! Have a lot of scrap paper? Turn it into a quick card!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  If you are like me, you have a ton of scrap paper lying around!  There are many techniques for using it up... And here's the first!  I'll be showing my techniques in the coming weeks.  Get your craft on!

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #121

Welcome back to another Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge!  This one was actually harder than I thought it would be!  I just acquired this Tim Holtz clock stamp and have been leaning towards nautical paper lately.  So, I decided to blend the two together.  Get your craft on!  To view and enter the challenge, please visit the Atlantic Hearts blog page!  Entries are due on Sunday, August 30th.

   

The Daily Marker Pop Up Challenge!

I'm so excited to be participating in The Daily Marker's first Pop Up Challenge!  This challenge is all about lines.  I decided to create a retiform background and add 'white' eyelashes.  I stamped in each stress with gray ink.  The die cuts are from Memory Box.

To learn more about retiform, visit my Technique Tuesday video tutorial!

4CC Challenge #259 - Nautical

Ahoy Matey!  Back again with another 4 Crafty Chick Card Challenge!  This week's challenge is to create something with a 'Nautical' theme!

Since shaker cards are all the rage right now, I decided it was high 'tide' to make a tall ship shaker card.  Come and Play!

The tall ship is a sticker from Elizabeth Crafts.  I placed the sticker on double sided tape, burnished some warm white glitter, and then colored in the ship with my spectrum noir markers.  This was a premade shaker window and I added some brads to the porthole to keep the edges clean!  It was also certainly fun trying to learn how to tie a sailor not!  Thank goodness for YouTube.  I finished the card off with the simple statement 'Life is Good,' because it certainly is! Ships Ahoy... I hope you are enjoying your summer!

To enter the 4 Crafty Chick's Nautical Challenge, please visit their blog and use the InLinkz button found at the bottom of the page.  The challenge will end August 18th at noon MST.

CASE-ing Christmas Challenge #28

Since this may be my last chance to enter a CASE-ing Christmas Challenge for a while, since I have joined the design team, I took the opprotunity to create a submission for the #28 Challenge!

The background was heavily inked in distress ink.  I clear embossed some poinsettias and swirls.  Then I took a waterbrush and dipped it in bleach and colored in each of the flowers and the leaves!  The effect is awesome!  I layered a snowflake border from Memory Box and added some ribbon! 

I can't believe Christmas is under 5 months away!!!

It's Technique Tuesday! Using one sheet of paper to make 6 cards!

Do you need a quick set of thank you notes?  Pick one sheet of paper you really like and lets get crafting!  I did select a sheet of paper with larger stripes so I could use the lines for embossing, but any sheet of paper can be used for this technique!  Click on the video link below to see how these cards were made!  Get your craft on!

4CC Challenge #258 - Back to School Card Challenge

It's Back to School Time!  Welcome to this week's 4 Crafty Chick card challenge!  I was asked to be a guest designer for this great group and will be creating four cards for the month of August!  I hope you all decide to play along!  They have some fun stuff planned... and so do I!

If you were ever trying to think of an additional way to use up your old scraps, turn them into book bindings!  This card is 6"x6" and the books are 4.5" long.  I used a corner rounder to make the spin and a circle punch to make the 'interior' of the book.

The apple!  Well the apple is made by layering 10 3" circles on top of each other.  They are glued to each other in the middle and I used a bone folder to fold each one individually.  As I was stacking the circles, I cut the bottom of the circle to flatten the bottom and cut into the top of the circle (like you were going to make a heart) to get the top of the apple.  The edges were inked with green ink and I added a leave and stem.

Everything was adhered to a piece of embossed cardstock for the perfect 'good luck' as you go back to school!

To enter the 4 Crafty Chick's Back to School Challenge, please visit their blog and use the InLinkz button found at the bottom of the page.  The challenge will end August 11th at noon MST.

Happy 10th Blogiversary Jenn Shurkus!

Happy Blogiversary Jenn!  And also, a very happy 7 year anniversary with Mister Harley!  I am in absolute hysterics over here at my results to your blogiversary card challenge.

The first card I had selected was from Jenn's October 4th, 2014 Happy World Card Making Day blogpost.  I loved the simplicity of the card but was disappointed with my results.  I think my issue is that I didn't have solid flowers to use for the card.  I decided to finish it and look for another card for inspiration.

It didn't take me long until I bumped into Jenn and Harley's 2009 Christmas Card.  It was perfect!  I changed the Christmas theme to an Anniversary theme to coincide with Jenn's blogiversary.  This card just keeps making me laugh!  Luna wanted to participate... I just didn't know what that would look like in the end till I found your Christmas card!

All the best Jenn!  Here is to ten more years of happiness and success!  I can't wait for another Artist Loft Retreat!  xoxo - Lisa & Luna

Two cards Two Techniques! Watercoloring and Embossing Paste

This week I use two techniques to create two different cards.  It's a two step process, but yields great results.  I saw this done by a woman in Switzerland, and just loved it.  So get out your watercolors and your embossing paste and let's get to it!

This card was submitted to the Simon Says Tie It Up Challenge!

Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes! Penny Black!

Hi everyone!  When I saw that the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge was an 'anything goes' challenge featuring Penny Black, I was so excited!  I created the backgrounds for both cards with three distress inks and watercolor paper.  I stamped some swirly images in Memento Ink and them used the Penny Black Dandelion stamp and the Technique Tuesday Dandelion stamp and embossed them in gold.  One card I embossed the sentiment in gold and the other I die cut 'thank you' from a Memory Box die.  I just love how these cards look in person.  Sometimes, capturing the true essence of a card in a photo can be so difficult!  Thanks for stopping by.... now, go get your craft on!

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #119

Welcome to my first week as a designer for the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge Blog!  I do hope you will join in all the fun!  This weeks sketch, designed by Michelle Stewart, is sketch #119.  Below is my take on Michelle's design.  I used three distress inks and watercolor paper to create the background.  I then embossed the Technique Tuesday dandelion in gold embossing power as well as my sentiment.  I matted the background on gold paper and added the misty gray banners and a few sequins.  Super fun challenge!  I hope you decide to play along! Submissions are due Sunday night!