Online Card Class

Last week Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner, along with other instructors, taught another Online Card Class.  This was Clean and Simple Cards 4.  As always, the content of this class was awesome....so many ideas and techniques.  For a change, I have managed to do some homework and not just watch the videos which is what I usually end up doing.

Am afraid that I was not disciplined in my creations and ended up making ones from the latter part of the week rather than the first few days.  It seems that even with all of my craft items, I couldn't come up with what was used for the first part of the week or even find substitutions.  Maybe I will re-visit those videos and try again, now that I have established a little bit of momentum?  Some of the other class participants are very clever in this respect.

Jennifer Rzasa demonstrated a technique called Ink Patterns.  Since I love using Distress Inks, this was right up my alley.  Thus, I made two cards.   On the first one, I made a free hand shadow for the tree and am not sure if I like that element.  Jennifer's stamp set included a shadow.  For the second card I didn't include the shadow, but felt like the scene needed something else to complete it so I added the ribbon.

On Day 6, Julie Ebersole showed us how to make a tri-fold card.  I love this very simple, yet effective look and think it would be a great card for a guy!  

On Day 6 there was also a technique taught by Tasnim, which she called Masked Stripe.  This was another fun getting inky process.  For the main element of my card, I used a Penny Black die, which I also inked with Distress Inks.

So, I am very pleased with myself to do homework AND do a blog post!  Perhaps there is hope for me yet???  Now I just need to get the cards in the homework gallery.....

January Cards

Where does the time go these days?  It looks as though I just cannot get into posting my cards here, even though I really do have the best of intentions.  I think the last time I posted was before going out of town again (did a lot of traveling in 2014) and then it was Thanksgiving already.  The holidays have come and gone with all of the hustle and bustle of getting ready for them, and then getting over them.   During this time, I managed to make holiday cards, but the majority were made from a painting which I did in an art class. It did make for easier cards in that I just cropped, matted and stamped a greeting on the inside.

This month I have concentrated on making thank you cards and these were very simple designs.

The first ones were made with stamps from a company called Rubber Necker Stamps.  I fell in love with these stamps at the stamping convention back in October but didn't have time to play with them until recently.  I used Distress Inks and markers on the flat stamps and then spritzed with a mini mister before stamping on cardstock.  The outline stamp was inked with Versafine Black Onyx ink and then stamped over the colored image and it is not meant to be exactly lined up.

The next set of cards was made with Impression Obsession stamps (CL505 Botanical Collection 1) which I picked up at the annual sale at Impression Obsession in Williamsburg.  That was also held back in the fall, but I had not used the stamps until the last few weeks.  The technique I used was one which I saw somewhere online, but cannot remember now where I found it.  Again I used Distress Inks (is there a trend going on here???) and masked a rectangular area on white cardstock with post it notes.  I applied various colors of the Distress Ink with a blending tool.  Then I stamped the floral image with Black Onyx Versafine ink after removing the masks.  Adding the sentiment was the last step for this supper easy card.

I also needed a birthday card for a good friend and wanted something besides what I had on hand so used the Penny Black hydrangea from the Flower Festival clear set.

Hopefully, I will be more attentive to my much neglected blog in the coming year.
 

Online Copic Coloring Class

Guess my other preoccupations have kept me away from blogging for quite awhile again! Seems like that is the case each time I get around to trying to post?  The last few weeks I have been enjoying another Online Card Class, which was all about using Copic markers.  I have learned so much from the awesome instructors, including Jennifer McGuire, Kristina Werner and Sandy Allnock and their guest artists.  Even though I have used these markers for several years now, everyday was a new revelation of morsels which only enhanced what I have loved about using these markers.  And I am happy to have unlimited time to go back and review the videos in the future as there was so much information included that one could be overwhelmed with it all!

The card below is one featuring (and CASING very closely her card) a technique by Jennifer McGuire, which I fell in love with AND my order with the stamps from Ellen Hutson showed up just before class is to end.  

The white embossing creates such a clean, crisp look with the copic colored leaves!  And I can see this stamp set by Julie Ebersole being used much this fall.

The second card I am sharing is one of several sympathy cards which I have made recently.  I also employed some tips from class when I made this card especially when I did the fussy cutting of the hydrangea.

Hydrangeas are always a challenge to color for me, but I love the flower and attempt to color them often.  This image is a Hero Arts wood stamp and has been used a lot since I acquired it.  

Speaking of fall, we are supposed to have some cooler weather after some rain and storms come through tomorrow.  It is getting about that time of year to enjoy relief from heat and humidity.

Thanks for stopping by....

Sketch Challenge at The Outlawz

My preoccupations seem to take me away from blogging despite my good intentions.  Another week 's challenge has posted at The Outlawz, based on our new sketch which is:

 

 

 For the month of August the Design Team has been using wonderful images from our sponsor, Oak Pond Creations.  The image I used is called Georgia's Daisies and I wanted my card to be in colors for fall, rather than having a more summery feel. It was sort of fun to color the flowers with shades of reddish browns....something I don't usually do.  And for a change, I let the design paper come first, rather than coloring an image and then trying to find the perfect paper for it. This is what I came up with:

Hope you will come on over and check out what the rest of the DT members were inspired to do with this sketch.  Lots of beautiful inspiration!

On a different note, here are two cards which I have recently made using the Hero Arts Tall Flowers cling stamp.  The first was made for Lisa's Scramble earlier in the month and the challenge was to be use shades of teal plus one other accent color and to be a card of encouragement.  Seems like I need a lot of this type of card these days, so I ended up making a second card with this pretty HA stamp.  

 The cards were created very differently, just embossing on the first which made for a quick card.  The second one was a little more involved.....distress inked background on water color paper and the image then stamped and white embossed.  I then took a wet paint brush and "painted" the flowers and leaves with water.  While the sections were wet, I "lifted" or removed the color with a paper towel.  After the petals and leaves were light enough to show up, I splattered water drops on the panel as well as stamped random spots in the same colors of distress inks.

I am entering both cards in the August monthly challenge at a site which is new to me...a2z scrapbooking and the challenge is to create cards of encouragement.  

Hope everyone is enjoying the last bit of summer.  Where did the summer go?

Sketch Challenge at The Outlawz Challenges

After being on a leave of absence from The Outlawz for the last two months, I am excited to be back again.  We have a new sponsor for the month of May as well as a new sketch for the week:

Our sponsor this month is:

artbymiran  The prize will be 3 digis

My card features a Penny Black image from a set called Flower Festival which is colored with copic markers.  I made the background with Distress Inks applied to cardstock and then spritzed with water which had some Perfect Pearls added to it.  Not sure if you can tell that the shimmer is there?  In person, I love the affect this gives.

Hope that you will stop by The Outlawz and see the creations which my sister DT members have made and perhaps give this sketch a try yourself.

 

Deborah's Card Challenge

Last month I participated in Deborah Nolan's April Card Chain Challenge. Each month Deborah allows cardmakers to sign up to exchange cards and we can choose from the parameters given as to how to put the card together.  Participants are from all of the world.  How neat is that to send a card to a sister cardmaker and to receive one as well?  My card went to England and here is what I made for the lovely Jo in Birmingham:

And I was fortunate enough to receive a gorgeous card from my online friend, Lisa.  This surely makes one day to get a hand made card in the mail, especially when we are usually the ones who do the sending of our cards!

Watercoloring and Travel

My goodness, it has been such a long time since I have posted anything to my neglected blog!  Perhaps, blogging is just not my thing, but here I go again!  Trying once more to get into a routine of posting.  

I am excited to be enrolled in the new online class taught by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner, which starts next week and is all about watercoloring.  To get ready for the class, we have already been given some "homework" and I have been working on that as I have time.  So, I have been dusting off the various water color products which I have accumulated over the years and playing with those a little.

This card is one I made before starting my practice pieces.  It was inspired by Jacqueline who makes the most beautiful grid cards which are posted on the Hero Arts blog.  I did mask off the areas with painter's tape to make my grid and then I went back and stamped each block.  It was a lot of fun to make, even though time consuming.

 

Most of the stamps which I used were by Hero Arts and were from various sets.

The next items are the charts which I made as instructed in the pre-class videos.   There are many products which I have accumulated over the years so I still have some more items which I have not brought out yet.  But after viewing the video which Kristina made, and I found the Koi set at AC Moore's, I just had to have it.  I must admit that the colors are much creamier to work with than the cheap sets which I have used.  Have not tried coloring an image yet, but the swatches seemed to make up with little effort.

Another assignment for class is to make up a background using watercolors.  Mine turned out pretty vibrant with the new set, but trying to find the right amount of water to mix with the creamier paint is going to take some practice.

 
Last, but not least, here are a couple of the photos from my trip to Southern France.  I have always wanted to take a river cruise after hearing from friends how amazing it is to travel in this fashion.  So March 29 of this year I realized this dream by going to France with several friends.  We were on a brand new ship, the Viking Hermod, and were pampered royally.

Here is a picture of our ship:

We flew into Marseilles, France, and then were bused to the ship in Avignon.  On Sunday afternoon, we could take a walking tour into town.  On our return to the ship we had a great view of The Pont d' Avignon.  This bridge was completed in 1185 but swept away by floods on the Rhone.  It was made famous by a French folk song, Sur le Pont d'Avignon (on the Bridge of Avignon which describes boys and girls dancing on the bridge, but it was more likely that they danced under the arches of the bridge).

Hoping to get into a groove of posting so the posts will not be so long to try to catch up on everything.

Wednesday Sketch Challenge - July 24, 2013

The sketch for today over at The Outlawz is one which I thought would be great for an image from this month's sponsor....DS4J.  It is called Potted Orchid and I knew that I wanted to try my hand at coloring it after seeing orchids at a friend's house.  I actually used a photo which my friend sent me as my guide, only I did not have the right copics to achieve the brilliant fuschia of her plant.  Looks like I need to do some more shopping....LOL!

Here is the sketch:

 

And now for my card:

Hope that you will come on over, see what my sister DTeamies have created and perhaps play along with us.
 

Summer Camp 2

The last three weeks I have been attending Summer Camp.   This is an online class taught by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner as well as many awesome guest instructors.   I have taken several of their classes before and have really enjoyed them, plus learned much from each class.  Before class began, we had a challenge to create a card with colors which I don't normally choose when I make my cards.  It was surely a stretch for me to try these, but ended up liking the color combination in the end. 

The colors in these really are not showing up as they look in real life.....white, light grey, dark grey, aqua and peach.

Here are some of the cards which I have made for our homework assignments.  The first one is simple, but effective.

 

The next card is a circular one, so different and fun!

I enjoyed making this little owl card as well.  It was

 created with the color combination suggested for the second week of class--cream, light blue, green and brown.  I stamped the owl on water color paper which I applied Distress Inks and water to before stamping.

Finally, my last card is the first Christmas card I have made this year.  Yep, actually a card for the holidays in July....that may be a first for me!  Since many of the cards in the class feature dies and I don't have many of those, I went with a punch which is from Stampin' Up.  These colors are totally out of my comfort zone, but again was pleased with the card once finished.  It is not very traditional for the holidays as well, but went together easily, so I may make some more of these.

I wish that I had more time to devote to my "homework" as there are so many ideas and techniques given that I want to try.  I hate that the class will be soon over as the videos each day are addictive.  And, seeing what others who take the class create is inspiring in itself.  So many amazing cardmakers out there, and we can learn from their take on class, too!

Wednesday Sketch Challenge at The Outlawz Challenges

I am beginning to think that the name of my blog should be the "Negligent" Blogger as my getting around to posting seems to be so hit and miss.  Am not sure where the spring went to?   I can't blame it all on travel, but I did take a big trip in May  (a dream trip to Austria and Germany) and then a family related trip in June.  Getting ready for a trip and recuperating once I am home seems to take much of my time....LOL!
 

Once again Wednesday is here and a new sketch for The Outlawz Challenges is going on.  My "Sister" teammates have created gorgeous cards using the sketch below:

I must confess that I really struggled with this design.  It was not the layout as much as it was my lack of planning for the space to fit all of the elements in after I made them two separate times.  I did learn to do this in a more efficient manner if I ever use this type of layout again.  My game plan was to make little panels of flowers on water color paper which I masked off, colored with Distress Markers and inks.  I liked the results of the masking, but I just made them too large to fit on even a large standard size card.  Finally, I decided that this should just be a little art piece and let it reside on an easel or put it in a shadow box.  So, here is my mini art piece:

Hope you will come on over to The Outlawz and join in this week's fun!



 

Wednesday Sketch Challenge

This week's  Sketch Challenge at The Outlawz is a fun one to work with and my DT Sisters created some awesome inspiration with the sketch below:

For my card, I used a Penny Black stamp which I have had for awhile but was a little intimidated about coloring.  I must say that after I stamped it on Xpress It paper, I noticed that on the back of the packaging, there was an example in color.  Why had I not noticed before that  PB took my angst right away in how to color this gorgeous flower?  The glitz in the flowers is from Hero Arts, which I also had not used before.

 
I also have two cards to share which I created for the Hero Arts Scramble last Friday.  This Scramble was to create a one layer sympathy card.  For the first card, I attached the layer to a mat and it actually looks like there are two layers because of the way I masked the area where I sponged Distress Inks.  So, for the second card, I actually did the sponging on the card itself.  This was a real stretch for me to create two cards plus post them in 90 minutes....perhaps if I keep trying the Scrambles, I will be able to be quicker in my card making???  Well, I can only hope.....  The cards created for the challenge were wonderful and it amazes me that such beauties can be made in such a short time.

My last card is one which I created for a special SIL, who shares my love of tea and things tea related.  Here's to you, June, and may we go enjoy "teatime" very soon!

So, it has been a fun week of making cards, even if it took a week to get them posted!

Wednesday Sketch Challenge - March 27, 2013

As it is Wednesday, it is time for another Sketch Challenge at The Outlawz.  Here is today's sketch:

 

 

And now here is my card which I made for a special niece who is about to have her first baby.

 Hope you will come on over to The Outlawz and play along with us.

Pattern Play Day 1

Today is the first day of a new online class called Pattern Play taught by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner.  As the case has been with their other online classes, there has been much inspiration already!  Combining various patterns is not something which comes easy to me, so I am hoping to get more confident with the tips presented in class.  Below is my attempt, and I must say, that it seemed to take longer trying to decide what papers to put together than just coloring an image and putting a card together. 

 
I had wanted to use this HA image called Love Birds to make a card for a special couple who just got engaged on the dance floor where we go to dance.  It was a very romantic proposal in front of all of us so this image of love birds seemed perfect.  Even though I love the image, I have never quite known what to do with it.  One of the ladies (Jacqueline, I think?) at the Hero Arts blog inspired me to use only a portion of the stamp, so I had several muses to assist me in putting this card together.

February 27 Challenge at The Outlawz

Oh my goodness, I can't believe how long it has been since I have posted here.  No good excuse, except I just can seem to get around to it!  At least I have still been creating cards, even though I haven't shared them here.  The latest Wednesday challenge at The Outlawz is this sketch:

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For my card, I used a cute image by Diane Caruba.  It was a freebie over at Through the Craft Room Door for the latest issue.  You can't beat the magazine for all of the inspiration and then subscribers have these wonderful digital images with each issue. 

Thanks for stopping by.

MIA

My goodness, I cannot believe how long it has been since I have posted.  I have continued to create cards but just don't seem to find time to keep up with them here.  So, I will try to do better, or I am just going to completely forget how to blog!  Here are a couple of holiday cards which I just completed:

Wednesday Sketch Challenge - August 8

Is it just me or does the time seem to be flying by?  Summer is almost over and another Wednesday has come and gone!  The Sketch Challenge for The Outlawz for August 8 is below:

And here is what I came up with after struggling with this a bit.  I made my background by applying several colors of Distress Inks with blender foam on an applicator to glossy card stock (a Tim Holtz technique).  Then I flicked water on the background and dabbed some of the excess up with a paper towel.  The flower is a Penny Black stamp from 2003 and one which I have used numerous times.  The Corner Flourishes #2 are from Sizzlit.  Finally, the corner punch is by EK Success and computer generated the sentiment,

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope that you will join us at The Outlawz and play along in our challenges.

Pat