Thanksgiving Wishes

My wonderfully sweet SO's mom shared this with us this morning and after I sobbed my way through it, i decided it would be a fitting post for Thanksgiving Day. Thank you to all Dad's, Mom's, Grandparents, Military, First Responders, Teachers, Caregivers & Volunteers. 

If the boy walking to his Military Dad for the first time doesn't get you, the look on the little girl's face at 1:22 will.

To all my friends & family, I'm grateful today and everyday for your support, encouragement & friendship. 

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget

that the highest appreciation is not to utter words,

but to live by them. 

- John Fitzgerald Kennedy - 

Holiday Card Workshop - Day 6 Part 2

Stained Glass Coloring:

In today's lesson, the super amazing Shari Carroll shared her technique for coloring stamped images to look like stained glass. Unfortunately i didn't have a stamp similar to what she used so i had to improvise.

The bell shape was cut on my Silhouette and then stamped/white embossed with a rhombus stamp from an old Club Scrap kit from 2006 called Retro. I tried using the distress ink markers, but i felt the pinks/purples all looked too muddy and similar, so I turned to some bic mark-its and sharpies and some old Tombow markers. Since most of these are permanent markers, i wasn't able to get that blended look by spritzing like you can with distress. I'm just ok with the final results after many epic fails.

Holiday Card Workshop - Day 6

Masking and ghost stamping:

Well, i honestly didn't do either masking or "ghost stamping" on this project, but i was inspired by Jennifer McGuire's card which i can't show you since it's part of the class materials. I'll describe it instead :). It was a white snowy hills landscape with a gorgeous star filled sky that was done with distress inks and stamps. It reminded me of this card that I pinned recently so I went to work on my interpretation. I felt this endeavor was better suited for an art piece than a card (although one could argue that Jennifer's cards are art pieces in and of themselves!).

This Cincinnati skyline was created in Silhouette Studio software by my wonderful sister and it's taken from a photo she took while visiting for use on this scrapbook page. I'm not sure if that link will work. Anyhoo, I cut one from black paper and one from a grey to create the illusion of the buildings reflecting on the Ohio river. I inked the base piece with Worn Lipstick and Dusty Concord Distress inks and i flicked watered down Metallic Pearl paint to create stars...the cutout stars are backed with silver paper from Club Scrap's culinary kit and i spritzed the entire background w/Perfect Pearls & water.

For the transparency overlay, I just created that on my computer and printed it to fit. I think it will look quite nice hanging somewhere in my house for the holidays. I couldn't get rid of the glare for the photo :(.

Holiday Card Workshop- Day 5

Perfect Pearl Resist & die cutting:

For the die cutting, I scanned a frame stamp that i have and created a cut for it in my Silhouette studio software. I then cut that shape a couple times from some Club Scrap paper in red, after which i stamped and embossed the frame and a greeting that conveniently fit inside it with Whispers Pearl embossing powder. I used perfect pearls (mixed with water) in copper and bronze to paint over the resist. The snowflake background stamp is an unmarked cling mount stamp in my stash and the paper behind the frame is from a yummy mat stack called Old World Winter by The Paper Studio.
Sorry about the photos...that perfect pearls is positively shiny!!!

I'm editing my post because i just made another card. I couldn't stop painting with perfect pearls so i made several. This one is my fave. I'm learning that i don't like predominantly brown cards...for me kraft is ok for a background, but i guess i like more color. I love the journey that creating takes me on! This little beauty is painted with Forever Green perfect pearls and water over black paper. The background panel is another lovely piece from The Paper Studio's Old World Winter card stack.

Holiday Card Workshop - Day 4 part 2

In love with this stamp (Vintage Santa by Stampabilities). Used it at a card swap and had to go buy it the very next day. The word Believe is from the dollar bin at Mike's. I colored Santa with colored pencils and added some shimmer to his beard and the star with pearlescent watercolors. Gem from my stash. Sparkly red and black paper from Club Scrap.

Holiday Card Workshop - Day 4

Outline stamps:  LOVED all of Jennifer McGuire's shared techniques for coloring today (except the copic air thing...no thank you). I opted to use my shimmery watercolors on this cute bird from Outlines Stamp Company (i think)...which is no longer in business i hear.

Holiday Card Workshop - Day 3

Trying to keep up with this card class, but i'm losing the battle so my descriptions/posts will be brief :).

Embossing with Scoring board: Really like this technique...simple but turns ordinary paper into something special. Ornament stamp is Hero Arts cling stamp i think. Sentiment might be Club Scrap...not sure. Colored the ornaments with colored pencils and then applied glossy accents over them for some shine.

Faux Fresco: Not sure i understand this technique and I'm not delighted with the way i executed it, but at least now i know that i don't really want to try it again :). Not sure where the leaf paper came from. The copper is from Club Scrap and i used a really old leaf punch from my stash..

Holiday Card Workshop - Day 2 part 2

I don't have much to say about these cards. I don't love them, but maybe I can pretty them up some.

Holiday Card Workshop - Day 2

As my dear friend Farley said...this card is complicated, any way you look at it :). So many things went wrong that i'm not going to bore you with the details. Anyway, the idea is that this ornament shape should be a window to the inside of the card. Mine is not. I just raised the panel on foam dots. Also, the snowflake is supposed to "float" over the opening but you can't really tell that it does on mine. COMPLICATED...probably won't make more of these, but that's the wonderful thing about this class. You can try new things and decide where your strengths and favorites are...this one won't go on either of those lists.

I haven't gotten around the the 2nd card for Day 2 yet...sit tight, i'll get er done.

Holiday Card Workshop - Day 1

Oh my...The Holiday Card Workshop from Online Card Classes started on Monday, but I had school commitments M & T, then Halloween on W, so I finally got to play on Thursday evening and I can't say i'm always thrilled with the results, but i'll keep trying.

These 2 cards were made with a wonderful stamp set from Penny Black called Foliage Fancy  The sentiment on the left is from that same set and i'm not sure where the sentiment on the right is from. Anyhoo...I colored the leaves with colored pencils and tried my darndest to blend red and orange and i did ok i guess. the background paper is from Graphic 45 "on the Boardwalk". The leaf panels were inked with Wild Honey & Vintage Photo distress inks.

The next bunch of 3 looked great in my head but didn't translate to paper quite as well. I think they just look FLAT and that could be because they are. I'm thinking i will cut these cards down and use as a panel on another card so there is some depth. For what it's worth, here they are:

Birthday greetings for a squirrely girl

Now that my sweet friend Nancy has received her birthday card, I can post it. What is ironic is that it uses 2 elements covered in the first couple days of the Holiday Card Workshop i'm enrolled in online; coloring and window cards. My coloring skills are seriously lacking though...anyway, i pinned this card some time ago to copy and so here's my take. I think the squirrel is TPC Studio, but i can't be sure...i gave the stamp set to the Squirrely birthday girl!