Seaside, Fresh Air

Greetings! It is once again time for a new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge!  This time, our theme is "Can You Resist?"  Now I must admit, I had several false starts with this one.  I do not do a lot of techniques well that involve resist.  After viewing several You Tube Videos and having less success than I wanted, I totally started over when my eyes came across a Ranger Resist Ink pad.  Several collage stamp images by Red Lead Stamps were inked with the Resist Ink and stamped onto Specialty Paper. Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn and Vintage Photo Distress Ink were sponged over the paper until the beautiful collaged starfish, and shells appeared.  Sentiments from Paper Artsy were stamped in Timber Brown StazOn Ink.  A light house from PA was stamped onto Specialty Paper, trimmed and mounted to the card panel.  Cheese cloth was added to the left lower corner and shells, a starfish and baby sand dollar were adhered.  The prepared panel was matted with brown card stock, wrapped with burlap string and added to a card base.  You will surely be inspired by all the beautiful inspiration pieces of the Design Team.  As always, our generous sponsor is FlonzCraft and one lucky winner will win a $20 gift voucher.  I hope you will join us. Best wishes, Yvonne

Hope is the Thing with Feathers

There's a new challenge over at Tuesday Alchemy.  The random word selector has chosen three words:  Bath, Duct Tape and Sparrow to work from.  Although I generally attempt to create a card with all three words, I elected to just go with the sparrow this time.  I chose stamps by TPC Studio for my card, inked them with Black StazOn ink and stamped them onto Specialty Paper before trimming them and lightly water coloring them with Pumice Stone and Brick Red Distress Markers.  Simple embellishments include a scrap of lace, a vintage button, red burlap string, vintage page scraps, torn scrap of handmade paper, cheesecloth, and an embossed photo corner.  Thanks for dropping by.  I hope you are having a great day.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Apothecary

Well, here we are again, with another new challenge over at Fashionable Stamping Challenge!  A very timely theme of Halloween, using Halloween Colors for the next two weeks.  For my inspirational piece, I decided to create a background using a variety of Distress Inks in Halloween colors.  Images from Halloween Treats and Apothecary plates by Artistic Outpost were stamped on Specialty Paper.  Some of the images were water colored with Distress Markers and all of the images were distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Markers.  Embellishments include burlap string from The Funkie Junkie Boutique, Copper Liquid Pearls and Spider Stickers from Martha Stewart.  I hope you will check out the other inspiration pieces by the rest of the Design Team and I hope you will consider making a project of your own for a possible prize.  Full details can be found over at FSC! Thanks for dropping by.  Best wishes, Yvonne

Joyeux Noel

Today, I am posting my final card for my application for Mynnette's new Challenge Blog called Inkspirational.  For the last challenge, we are to create a card inspired by the photo below.  I LOVE this photo.  Probably no other color combination speaks to me like, gray, black, red and white.  

I immediately knew I wanted to use this stamp by Penny Black.  It is inked with London Fog Memento Ink and stamped onto Specialty Paper.  The bird was inked a second time with Distress Markers, trimmed and pop dotted over the first image.  White glitter glue was used to add ice to some of the branches and red glitter glue was added to a number of the berries for dimension. The image was matted numerous times and layered over a snowy/berry background paper by Martha Stewart.  The snowflakes were punched with a Martha Stewart punch and glittered with white glitter glue.  The tartan plaid ribbon from my stash and a metal bird charm by Idea-ology complete my card.  There is still lots of time to apply if you are interested yourself in joining Mynnette's new Design Team.  Thanks for dropping by.  Best, Yvonne

A Makeover!

There's an interesting new challenge over at Our Creative Corner.  It is called "What Not to Stamp." Why not check it out?! The challenge is to select a card you made early on that you really don't care too much for but that includes something about it that is endearing and then make a new card that includes what you like but in your current style.  Wow! It took me a while to sort through some old cards, and the one I selected below was created before I began my blog.  It's funny, I don't normally care for cute stamps (that' putting it mildly) but when I saw this stamp by Hero Arts, years ago, something about it struck me.  When I created my card with it, I followed the color suggestion on the face of the stamp using Copic markers.  What  don't I like? I don't like the heaviness of the colors and the poor blending, nor do I like the plain background.  The rickrack seams to narrow, too.  I never sent this card, so I guess I knew all along it was a dud!

Since I do like the stamp, I decided to try using it again.  Six years later, it really is a different world isn't it?  Distress Ink, Distress Markers, Specialty Paper, vintage seam binding, ChitChat Stickers, how did we ever live without all these wonderful products?  With a more vintage feel, softer colors, and grounded embellishments, I think this is a card I would feel good about sending out.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Best wishes, Yvonne

A Handsome Gent

Hello!  I am sharing a post today for the current Bloggers Challenge with a theme of Masculine Cards.  I felt like creating a clean and simple card in black and white with touches of red.  The images are by Artistic Outpost and were stamped with Black StazOn ink onto Ranger Specialty Paper. Embellishments include red and white ribbon, red photo corners and repurposed buttons.  Thanks for dropping by! Yvonne   

Nature: Discover Your World!

Greetings!  It is hard to believe another fortnight has rolled around, and here we are with a new challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenge.  This time around, our challenge is to make a project with a theme around "Nature."  Now you could go one of many directions:  Butterflies, flowers, trees, mushrooms and on and on!  I chose birds, on of my absolute favorites.  I began by layering a background panel to my card base.  The panel was monoprinted using a GelliArts plate.  The fern-like stamps on the panel are from Hero Arts.  The rest of the images are from Artistic Outpost and were stamped with Black StazOn ink onto Ranger Specialty Paper.  This was the first time I ever used the Specialty Paper and I was very happy with the results.  The images are very crisp and detailed.  The images were colored with Distress Markers and the edges were distressed with Old Paper Distress Ink.  The vintage button and liquid pearls were from my stash.  The white jute and black burlap string are from the Funkie Junkie Boutique.  My Design Team Sisters have once again come up with spectacular inspiration pieces for your enjoyment.  I hope you will pop on over and take a look, leave them so love and then submit an inspiring piece of your own! Please remember that Digis are not permitted, as we are a stamping challenge.  Thanks so much for dropping by!  Best wishes, Yvonne