Catching Up with Weeks 7 and 12 of Altered Playing Cards

Why weeks 7 and 12?  Because they've been partially done for months, sitting on my work table. Time to finish them up!

Altered playing cards 11 and 12 at Claudine's Art Corner for Week 9 You can see her cards HERE
Distress ink, die cuts, masking technique, enbossing folder.

CARD 11

I followed the basics--Ranger distress ink on my gesso-based card.  The pattern showed through which I liked for an undersea effect.  I used the packaging to make my bubbles with an embossing folder.  To adhere it to the card, I put red line tape on the four sides of the card.  I used the tattered pincone leaf die (punced with Ranger Distress Ink iced spruce and a German scrap fish (rather than seahorse).  I used Wendy Vecchi's Archival Ink Forget Me Not to stamp a Red Lead Paperworks ticket. If this was not flat for shuffling, I would have stapled the ticket onto the card and added an actual cute fish hook.

CARD 12

This involved masking off an area so there would be white space.  I was thrilled to finally use my Huck Finn stamp set from Artistic Outpost.  I did my own version of the white space idea.  Instead of masking, I pulled away the color from a portion of the stamp.  I didn't use a bleaching technique, but rather used water to pull away the color since I had used distress inks.

Altered playing cards 21 and 22 at Claudine's Art Corner for Week 12 which was back around Thanksgiving, 2014.   Claudine kept it simple by covering cards with patterned paper, adding a few die cuts, and then writing on them. You can see her cards HERE.

Since I'm behind on the challenges, I seem to be doing a lot more of "my own thing" to catch up.

CARD 21 Grungy

This card was a mess.  I used some of the new Ranger Almost Coral distress paint.  I trying stamping directly onto the card and didn't like it.  I painted over it.  I tried gluing on some leaf patterned vellum.  It wouldn't stick.  Now I have a sticky card with nothing on it.  I decided to stamp onto an autumn themed napkin.  There was some crackle and leaves in the pattern.  I "stuck" it onto the card. Tissue sticks really well!  YAY! I had empty space at the top and bottom but no pens would adhere to the surface for a little doodling.  I decided to use Ranger Distress Walnut Stain embossing powder. YAY!  Perfect because the distress had some of the coral show through.  I think the finished product looks good.

Theme is what I like about myself.  Yes Claudine, it's difficult to talk about myself.  I went with this Hampton Art rubber stamp that describes many of my qualities and fits with the playing card theme.


CARD 22 Clean and Simple

Background was painted.  Instead of covering the card with patterned paper, I simple fussy cut some paper from My Artistic Adventures digital images.  It seemed a bit plain, so I used sequin scrap as a stencil and added some circles with my new Faber-Castell PITT artist brush in cobalt blue.

Theme is what I'm thankful for.  Instead of making a list (family, health, safe travels, etc.) I went a bit whimsy.  We have a family reunion every Thanksgiving and everyone is looking for the pumpkin pie.

Coffee and Chocolate Doughnuts

My personal favorite-- chocolate doughnuts:  Little Debbie chocolate gems or, from a bakery, the chocolate frosted krueller (AKA pinwheel).

My chocolate frosting for the paper doughnuts: I mixed some Wendy Vecchi embossing paste with chocolate brown acrylic craft paint.  I didn't think it was a dark enough contrast for my dough, so I added some USArtQuest Burnt Umber Perfect Pigment. 

You've seen these doughnuts before.  I made a bunch to use as needed.  Stamp is from STAMPlorations Sugar Rush stamp set.

I used a sketch from Tuesday Morning sketches for my card design.

Materials:  

At the recent Spring Coffee Loving Papercrafters blog hop, I learned about so many stamps and related products.  

I acquired the Prima Coffee Break 6x6 paper pad. I used the many patterns to create my card mats as well as piecing together the coffee cup from the Stampin' Up Perfect Blend stamp set.  I added the peach plaid from Heidi Grace.

Stampin' Up early expresso ink and card stock, gumball green and crumb cake card stock, pennant die, chocolate chip marker

Sissix Circle dies

Now let me tell you about that sentiment, I love chocolate (yes I do!).  The stamps are from the It's All About Chocolate stamp set from Two Paper Divas.  I was thrilled to win their door prize in the recent Coffee Loving Papercrafters blog hop.  Not only did they send me two stamp sets, they also sent some beautiful makes--and a Starbucks gift card tucked into that gift card holder.  I'm still reeling from my good fortune!  Thank you Melissa and Gayla! Here's a picture of my prize:






I'm entering these challenges:

Chocolate, Coffee and Cards Challenge #87 Something Yummy to Eat or Drink x
A site I came upon.  By now you know I'm all about coffee, chocolate, and wine.  This challenge site was calling my name.

Cupcake Inspirations challenge #303 my stripe is yellow and the half pearls are the dots:  I'm DT Jennifer's Pick



Sister Act Card Challenge 99:  Anything Goes x


Open Minded Crafting Challenge #33 Food Related


Unruly Paper Arts Face Book group's  March 2015 Art Share for the prompt March is Caffeine Awareness Month.  Let's here it for the benefits of dark chocolate and coffee!

Spring Flowers

YAY!  It's Spring and I AM READY!  I'm so sick of cold and snow.  I want some spring flowers blooming! But we may see snow flurries on Friday!  Boo!

Have you joined the Unruly PaperArts Facebook Page?  Here's one reason to join.  We're having a March 2015 Share Your Art challenge for National Craft Month.  This is a closed group but you are welcome to join and share your art. The FaceBook link is HERE.  Currently we have 614members. (FYI, I'm a creative contributor to Unruly PaperArts blogozine.)  

To enter you must create a piece of art inspired by one of the following upcoming National Holidays.
March 12 - Plant a Flower Day
March 13 - Learn about Butterflies Day
March 19 - Let's Laugh Day
March 21 - National Quilting Day
March 30 - National Pencil Day
It's also Caffeine Awareness Month so you can use this as a prompt also.

You can enter as many times as you like, but you must indicate which prompt you have used to inspire your art and place a photo of your work in our March 2015 Share Your Art for National Craft Month Folder. We will do a random prize draw at the end of March for a Mystery Prize (full of crafty goodness) for one lucky winner.

I thought I'd work on that Plant a Flower national holiday in order to meet a few challenges.

I'm behind on my altered playing cards deck, so I thought I'd dig up Week 18 and make some flowers.  The APC challenge is at Claudine's Art Corner blog and prompts for Week 18 are HERE. Claudine asked us to focus on beauty and quotes.

Our gesso covered playing cards are getting a coat of paint this week.  She placed different colors of paint onto the mat and then dabbed the card into the paint rather than swiping.  hmmm....this means I must strategically place my paint colors for optimum effect.

Claudine then stamped flowers onto white, colored with copics, and fussy cut them.

Thank you to Rubber Dance Stamps Design Team for selecting me as their February DT Pick!

Their March colour challenge has a pastel color scheme with the optional theme SPRING.  The link up is HERE  This challenge drove my color selections for my cards.



I used my brand new Tim Holtz distress paints in cracked pistachio and abandoned coral.  I swiped the paints onto the craft sheet, spritzed with water and then blotted the card.  Not happy, I ran the card through for more color.  Still not happy because the gesso acts as a resist, I used the dabber to put paint directly onto the card in some places.  This helped with coverage since I had applied the gesso with a brush and had grooves to work with.


Card One

Rubber Dance Stamps - flower (Antique Botannicals) and sentiment (Something Wonderful)
I stamped onto white card with Archival jet black ink.   I colored in the flower petals with a lighter yellow for that pop of color.  This again was trial by error.  Is it possible for Copic markers to lose color and just exude alcohol?  That seemed to be what was happening to mine.  I've had them for several years and never refilled them.  So I switched to watercolor paints--with a pearlescent sheen!!!



Card Two

Rubber Dance Stamps - weeds on card (Weed Love), yellow flowers on word strip (Bold and Beautiful) and sentiment (Sarcastic Superpower)
I stamped directly onto the card the botannicals with Archival jet black ink.  I stamped the flowers with Memento dandelion ink onto white card.  I overdstamped the sentiment with black ink .  Then I cut this into word strips.

This card appears sarcastic but there's some truth to this. I'm allergic to grasses and tree pollen.  The fuzzy fly-abouts (look like whispy cottonballs) from the cottonwood trees make me sneeze.  I've had allergy tests to confirm this, hence the sentiment!  This card is a reminder to laugh to get me through spring!

I'll post these on Claudine's Altered Playing Cards Facebook page.
I'm also entering these challenges:

both cards:  Rubber Dance Stamps March color challenge
card 1:  UPA March 2015 Share Your Art on the UPA FaceBook page:  Plant a Flower
card 2:  UPA March 2015 Share Your Art on the UPA FaceBook page:  Let's Laugh Day

Flapper

It's been awhile since I entered a challenge at LunaGirl Moonbeams.  I saw that the current theme is Flappers so I dug into the LunaGirl digital files on my computer and put together this digital composition.




All images are LunaGirl:

Shine On Harvest Moon-Ziegfeld Follies of 1918
Twenties Portraits
freebie postcard
flowers cropped from Shabby Green collage sheet
key

 I converted them to sepia tone and used some shadowing in my PSE software.

Lunagirl Flapper challenge is HERE until April 2.x  Lunagril images are HERE.

                                                - - - - - - - - - - -

Have you joined the Unruly PaperArts Facebook Page?  Here's one reason to join.  We're having a March 2015 Share Your Art challenge for National Craft Month.  This is a closed group but you are welcome to join and share your art. The FaceBook link is HERE.  Currently we have 610 members. (FYI, I'm a creative contributor to Unruly PaperArts blogozine.)  

To enter you must create a piece of art inspired by one of the March National Holidays.
I'm entering
March 12 - Plant a Flower Day

Build a Snowman?

Spring is officially here, yet there are many challenges out there getting us prepared ahead of time for next Christmas.  Right now the Disney movie Frozen still has a strong hold on my granddaughter so I thought I'd "build a snowman".  I'm sure for her vacation get-away she'd love to go to Arendelle.

Rather than risk license infringement downloading from the internet, I purchased the Disney stickers so I could use Anna and Olaf.  I used a glue pen to add snow glitter to the tree branches and along the bottom of the scene.

Materials:
Black textured card
DCWV self-adhesive mat
Gingerloft Winter Trees digital image from Stitchy Bears Stamps
SanyLion Disney Frozen stickers
computer generated sentiment
Stampin' Up label frame stamp and punch
Liquid glue pen and Crystal Snow glitter
ribbon from stash

Entering these challenges:
ABC Christmas Challenge:  F is for Frosty  end of March x
12 Months of Christmas:  March --Optional Theme Let It Snow (put FT by name for following theme)--x
Open Minded Crafting:  Winter Vacation Get-Away winner posted April 4-I'm DT Susan's Pick
Crafty Hazelnut Christmas Challenge #220:  Use Black  closes today--winner of random draw for digital images from Eureka Stamps!!!!
Time Out Challenge 27:  Clean and Simple with optional Twist Black and White with one color end of  March x
CASE-ing Christmas Challenge #12 Odd Team Inspiration -- I was inspired by the snowflake, turning it into a snowy scene and by the little critter which became Olaf. x

New Home Card

I couldn't wait to get my STAMPlorations Bees Knees Houses stamps and the cloud stencil so that I could make a card for my daughter and her husband who have just moved into their new home.

I'm entering this card in the STAMPlorations™ March 2015 Challenge: STAMPS and STENCIL HERE
as well as the March STAMPlorations™ Inspiration CASE Playground HERE
and the STAMPlorations Never Ending Anything Goes Challenge HERE

I CASEd Debra's card which featured 3 stamped houses and shutter stenciling behind it.  You can see her card HERE.  I used the cloud stencil and one stamped house.  Instead of her scallop trim to anchor the houses, I used torn patterned paper.  I colored with Copic markers.  I used Ranger Distress Ink in tumbled glass to stencil the clouds, using Monika's technique as spotlighted HERE in her video. I used pop dots on the top half of the house to give dimension to sitting on the hill.

A Little Irish

It's time for another challenge at My Artistic Adventures Challenge Blog.  Heather Hudson has chosen "Anything Goes" for our #6 theme.  Be sure to visit the blog site for inspiration from the rest of the design team, the challenge rules, and to link up your creation.  You can see all of that HERE.

With St. Patrick's Day around the corner, I chose to do a 6x6 scrapbook page for my design team inspiration piece.  Most of the composition is digital.

I layered many components from various digital collage sheets found in the My Artistic Adventures Etsy shop.  Then, I printed out my composition and added some embellishments. (I actually have this printed a second time with my grandson' photo in place of the girl on the green card.) I thought this needed a bit of "Irish lace" (Stampin' Up crochet trim).  I finally used some hoarded stash--half pearls, ribbon trim, felt flower, and tiny rose.

I used the following products from Heather's MAA shop found HERE.

Tickets

Postage stamps

Irish Blend

Vintage Card Fronts

Shamrock Papers

Lucky Irish BINGO

I can't wait to see what you make!  Be sure to link up HERE.
Please remember you can use other images to play along and win the "Top three badge" but in order to win the Random Draw (a free collage sheet) and Designer's Choice (chance to Guest Design and receive free images) you must use one of Heather's images. 

Go Green

There are a lot of green challenges out there.  Hard to resist when you look forward to St. Patrick's Day and spring!  March came in like a lion so I'm hoping it goes out like a lamb!!!!

Here is another 6x6 scrappy page for my grandkids' album.  The companion (facing) page will hold their Easter photos.

I used the freebie March paper from Crafty Secrets along with a lamb image from their freebie file.
Note: Tired of the gray background from neutral paper,  I photographed my page on pink.

Entering the following challenge:

Crafty Secrets Go Green March Linky Party HERE due March 15 x
Cupcake Inspirations: Challenge 301 x

Spooning

For Unruly PaperArts Blogozine's March edition, Trash 2 Treasure, I contributed an article on altered spoons.

I purchased a set of silver flatware at a church rummage sale for the purpose of creating some altered art.

Photos of the individual spoons and crafting details are in my UPA article.  A complete list of materials is there, but I'd like to point out that I used 2 word strips and that great looking vintage couple available from our UPA sponsor, Rubber Dance Stamps.

I hope you'll visit Unruly Paper Arts to read my article.   And I'd be over the moon if you left me a comment there!

My Blog Candy Winner Announced

Time to announce my blog candy winner from the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop.

Thanks to all the crafters who took time to leave comments on my entries.

I asked Random.org for assistance and it selected #1 as the winner of Heather Hudson's digital collage sheet from her Etsy shop, My Artistic Adventures.



CONGRATULATIONS Nancy Carroll said...
YES, this is stunning. YES, the colors are exceptional... YES....I'd love to win. I really adore Celtic/Irish, when I saw this I started to drool...

March 2, 2015 at 9:27 AM 

Nancy, please email me at 2amscrapper@gmail.com to collect your prize.  When I hear back from you, I'll be forwarding your email to Heather.  She will email you the digital sheet directly.

Thanks again to Heather for providing my blog candy!  I'm on her design team.  I encourage you to enter her challenges for more opportunities to win her collage sheets.  Details are HERE.

HAVING CAFFEINE WITHDRAWALS?  I know I am now that the Coffee Lovers blog hop is over!  If you'd like to continue to share your cards and projects, please consider joining the Unruly PaperArts Facebook page where we are sharing our art for National Craft Month with a special challenge.    (The Facebook page is a companion to our Unruly Paper Arts Blogozine where I am a creative contributor.)

We are a closed group so please ask to join.  After you get access to the Facebook page, you'll see that we have a special folder set up for this month's special challenge.

The following is, in part, what our leader Dani May posted on March 7 on our Facebook Page:

To enter you must create a piece of art inspired by one of the following upcoming National Holidays.

(see Facebook Page for complete list)

It's also Caffeine Awareness Month so you can use this as a prompt also.

You can enter as many times as you like, but you must indicate which prompt you have used to inspire your art and place a photo of your work in our March 2015 Share Your Art for National Craft Month Folder. We will do a random prize draw at the end of March for a Mystery Prize (full of crafty goodness) for one lucky winner.

Back to me now, I'll be placing something in the folder and hope to see you there as well!

Morning Coffee

I won some Bugaboo Digi Stamps and kept the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop in mind when I made my selections.

Here is an image and sentiments from Bugaboo paired with digital papers I found on the Papercraft Inspirations on-line site.  I combined all of them into a digital composition which I then printed out. I placed it on a blank white greeting card and hand colored the image.

This is my fifth entry for the Spring Coffee Lovers blog hop.

Also Entering:

Digitally Sweet Challenge #129:  Anything Goes (2nd entry)
Mema's Crafts:  March Anything Goes

March Tea and Blog Candy

Happy March!  It came in as a lion here.  Snow and ice.  So let's hope we're lucky and it will go out as a lamb, leaving us a warm and green spring!

I'm switching from coffee to tea today.  It's not just any tea, it's a sweet Irish blend.  I'm showcasing it with a bit o' green, not only for the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog Hop HERE, (I'm #245 with this, my 4th entry) but also as my design team sample for the latest My Artistic Adventures challenge #5 Bits of Green HERE.  Please go to MAA for more design team samples, the challenge details, and to link up your Bits of Green make.

And Heather Hudson, owner of My Artistic Adventures Etsy shop, is providing my blog candy giveaway.  Thank you Heather!

Here is my tag:

I used many of the elements on the Vintage St. Patrick's Day Irish Tea With Friends digital collage sheet from My Artistic Adventures Etsy shop HERE


If you would like a chance to win this digital sheet, please leave a comment below and add the word YES in your comment.  I'll have random.org choose a winner from the comments that have the word YES. I'll post the winner's name here when the SPRING BLOG HOP is over.  I'll also post it on our Coffee Loving Papercrafters facebook page. Winner will contact me with your email addy and Heather will email you directly the the digital sheet from My Artistic Adventures Etsy Shop.  This prize is an instant digital download to your computer (not a tangible item received in the mail).  

After printing the digital sheet, I fussy cut the images, edged them with Ranger Distress Markers in various complementary colors, and then assembled with embellishments from my stash.  I used 3 shades of pink Ranger Distress Inks on the Wilton doily.  Butterflies are glued only in the center so the wings can be dimensional.

The sentiment says, "May you spend your day with a Special friend, reminiscing and sharing your favorite blend."  That would be lucky, indeed!


I'm also entering it in the following challenges.

Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge:  Lucky
Open Minded Crafting Challenge #31 Lucky
Digitally Sweet Challenge #129 Anything Goes
Pile It On: #58 Use Adhesive  Embellishments:  Sticky Back Jewels (small green pearls) from Eyelet Outlet, green Tiffany flower with sticky back, big green pearl halves with adhesive back
Country View Crafts:  Anything Goes

And I'd like to mention that Unruly PaperArts blogozine has a month long Reader Art Quest for March. I'm one of the creative contributors so I can't enter the challenge. Our March Prize is a $30 Voucher to spend with our March Sponsor Rubber Dance Stamps compliments of none other than Rubber Dance Stamps.  Winner is by random draw.  If you'd like to see some inspiration from the UPA team and link up your own creation, please go HERE.  All types of projects are welcomed.  Just follow the theme "I should be so Lucky!" and then take inspiration from the photo and/or colors shown.