90 minute Challenge card!

Hi ya everyone!

Today over on the Hero Arts Filckr page my freind Barb hosted a "90 minute card challenge". Her challenge was to use a non-traditional flower on a Christmas card- pretty much any flower but a poinsetta would work. Ooooh gosh......flowers- what to do? I'm not much of a flower addict but I do have a small stash thankfully.

I immediately thought of these litte Prima roses I picked up a few months ago but never got around to using. I also have a stack of some pretty Webster's Christmas pages papers so I thought I would pair these ones up and go for a bit of a shabby look.

Got out my trusty Tonic edge distresser and the distress inks in the colors brushed corduroy and antique linen. I even added a bit of ink to age the flowers too. I had this card made in about 15 minutes......it took just about as long to take a decent photo of it and upload it onto Flickr. I LOVE these 90 minute card challenge as it makes me rely on basic stamping and design skills and not to "over- think" a card which I tend to do way to often.

Stamps used are both from Hero Arts- "Joy to all" for the sentiment, and "Happy Winter" clear sparkle set for the tiny snowflakes on the center tag.

Thanks Barb for a wonderful challenge- it was a blast! I really am pleased with the way this turned out- only wish I had a huge stack of the paper now!

Inky hugs, Anne

Bright and cheery Ornaments

Happy day to all you bloggers! It's time for a new look on the blog.....and though it has not acutally snowed here yet it will be coming soon......trust me it will. Getting the winter boots ready- putting away the patio furniture-  and all those other things we northerners need to do to prepare for a long and cold winter. I really love my birds that hang out here in my little nook in the woods- it's one of my favorite things about living in the country. In fact I hung up the suet feeders last week and boy the birds been visting and chowing down already. It's so nice to see all the varieties that come to eat and visit on a regular basis....my favorite are the little chickadees followed by all types of woodpeckers.

Anyways, on to my card for today..........

I used the Hero Arts "Hanging Christmas Ornaments" stamp and this card is the last of the pairing up challenge between Pia and myself. I must admit I had one heck of a time getting this stamp to give me a nice impression. I kept getting inky blotches on the background when I would stamp it......so many attemps to get a good impression ended up in the trash.......but I finally got one good one (there are still a few tiny inky spots.....not perfect). Not sure if it is the inkpads I've been trying (you know how some are "softer" than others and then you get the ink on the BG of the rubber stamp) or what is going on...?

I used a Hero Hues "Sea" colored card base and kept it very simple. I colored the ornaments using various Copics and Bic markers and also used several of my Spica glitter markers to give some sparkle to many of the ornaments. Used my Stampin Up border punch and the greeting is from the Hero Arts set " Joy to All".

I'll keep trying to get good impressions as I've got some other ideas floating around in that little head of mine for this stamp.....really want to see this in gold or silver ink on a darker background paper someday.

 If anyone has any tips for these kinds of stamps by all means please tell me as I've been a bit frustrated with this stamp.

Hope you all have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by.

Inky Hugs, Anne

Halloween photo's!

Hi ya everyone!! Well another Halloween has gone by and I'm sad to have to start taking down the decorations and put them away until next year. We had a great time here in WI, weather was just perfect for trick or treating.

I just wanted to share some photo's quick.To start I'll show ya all 2 of my favorite Halloween decorations that I put up each year. Nothing to creepy- don't want to give the kid nightmares just yet!

Wreath by the front door- love the birds!                              Simple Prim looking witches on their broom-                                                                                                                           so cute!

Now onto the Grim Reaper and his friends!

 My little guy looked so creepy with his face painted like that. The neighbor girl went as "Crabby Girl" which I thought was pretty inventive......and the neighbor boy was an army soldier!

We came across this BIG scarey fella and just had to snap a picture- EEEK! The person underneath was wearing those stilts that people who do "drywall"  wear when they are taping/sanding up by the cieling!

CREEPY- huh?

I just LOVE this picture I got as my little Grim Reaper was walking away with some goodies! It's so creepy cool and I just love how his eyes look as though they are actually glowing!

Sorry......but I really  like the scarey stuff!

And the last picture to share is me as dressed up as a witch!!

MY mom borrowed me the hat.....and I had to find a wig to go with it! I found this one with long black hair with a few green stripes going through it. I decided to paint my face and neck green as well at the last minute.......gosh what was I thinking? It took me 3 times of scrubbing my skin nearly off to get all the color removed! I love the silly glasses too- aren't they funny! I carried around my cauldron of frogs all the time while trick or treating......it lights up and sings this silly song about a witch! I scared the cr*p out of some young little Trick or Treater.....I could see her cowering behind dad and pointing at me with that look like "Oh no Daddy- that's a scary icky witch.....I"m not going anywhere near her!"

I hope you all had a fun Halloween- we sure did! I ate soooo much chocolate it's not funny.......I think I gained at least 2 pounds over the weekend! I guess I better go start taking down the decorations and get some Thanksgiving decor up for now. I'll be counting down the days until next years Halloween!

See you next time with some actual card creations!

Anne

Christmas gift and treat bag tutorial!

Hi ya everone! Today I'm going to show you how to make a quick and easy box that you can turn into a fun gift or treat bag using the Stampin Up Top note die to decorate the front and back.

I made a bunch of these last year for a craft fair and thought I would make some more this year with a tutorial to go along with it. You just need one sheet of 81/2 X 11 cardstock and a Scorepal or Martha Stewart Scoreboard and some adhesive of your choice (I use doublesided Scotch tape for these).

To start you will need to cut your cardstock down to a 6" x 9" piece. Click on the pictures if you want to see them bigger!

Then you will score in from each outer edge 1 1/2 inches. ( I drew the black lines for you to see). This will be at 1 1/2" and 4 1/2 " if you are using the MS Scoreboard.

Rotate your paper a 1/4 turn and then you will score in from each edge 3 3/4 inches. (Follow the black lines on my paper).

Now you are going to cut your paper along the 4 short lines that I have highlighted pink on the paper. This way your box will be ready to fold up. (Click on the pic for a bigger view)

Now it's time to get out the adhesive and start taping the sides as your box comes together. I start taping down the small square tabs on the  inside of the box as it folds up.

Before I pull the other side up I like to add my ribbon handle here up at the top of the first side that is already standing up. This way it is hidden between the 2 sides and no one see's how you attached it. I just use double sided Scotch tape to get the ribbon to stick. If you are going to add a handle you want to do this now, otherwise you have to tape the ribbon to the inside of the box....and that doesn't look as nice.

I used this ribbon last year and I still have a bunch left over for this years boxes. I found it at Home Depot and it's simply just ribbon already tied to be used for ornament hangers. They are the perfect length to use for a handle on the little boxes.  I just cut one right in the middle and then taped each side onto my box- it's a super quick and easy handle and I don't have to take the time to tie each piece of ribbon.

Bring your other side of the box up and tape it down having the outer flap cover up the inner flap. And that is basically it!  It's pretty quick and easy once you make a few.....they go really quick.

I just use some pretty doublesided patterned paper to dress up the box or you can stamp something on the Top Note die- whatever you feel like doing.  I also cover the sides of the box with the same patterned paper . You can even just use a rectangular piece of paper to dress it up on the front and back- you don't need to use the Top Note die if you don't have one!

Of course this can be adapted for any other holiday or occassion just by changing your paper!

I hope these directions were easy enough to follow......if not someone please shout out and I will update this with more pictures or directions!

Thanks for stopping bye and hope you all have a Frightfully fun Halloween!

Anne

Stamping with paint expiraments!

Hi ya everyone! I sure had fun playing with paint this week- watching the "Thinking Inking" week 4 video really got me going. I've only got the one gold paint dabber but lots of other metallic and acrylic paints to play with.

I made the first card here using my gold paint and the Starburst Lace stamp from Hero Arts. I also used the Old letter Writing stamp from HA in the background. Used antique linen distress ink to warm it up and vintage photo around the edge.

Used a few paper poinsetta's from Hero Arts and even painted some clear gems with the gold paint. The gold paint gives it such a lovely shimmer and I was pleasantly surprised how well the detailed Starburst stamp came out.

The next expirament I used my favorite pearl white paint from Lumiere. I've got a whole set of these wonderful metallic paints- got them here at Dick Blick. They dry nice and quickly and I use these watered down in a mini mister instead of Perfect Pearls......and they work great!

I used my favorite big snowflake stamp from Stampin Up (the set Winter Post) all over some white cardstock. Let it dry and went direct to the paper using my Adirondack Stonewashed ink pad. I wanted a dark navy blue border but didn't have any paper that color so I used my Night of Navy ink pad to make the border. I added some pearls onto the center of each snowflake and did the border of the Nestie die cut to make it look a bit frosted too. 

Her are the ink colors and the paint I used. I simply shook up the jar of paint and used a round make up sponge to dab some paint right out of the cover.....then loaded it onto my stamp. Super easy and you don't have to have a paint dabber to stamp this way.

Now onto to more "somewhat" exciting news in my house.  My little guy lost his first tooth today......actually just about 2 hours ago! It's been loose and wiggly for the last few days and it was really bothering him when he got home from school. So being the former dental assistant and knowing all the "teeth" things I inspected the situation (the adult tooth was already poking up through the gums)  and with a bit of a tug and twist popped that tooth right out like nothing! I'm sterilizing the tooth in a Dixie cup with bleach and water.....this disinfects it and that's how they do it at the dentist office too- just FYI.

He's happy it didn't hurt and now I get to play the "Tooth Fairy" tonight- wohooo- can't wait!

Thanks everybody for stopping by and I hope you get to try stamping with paint- it's really pretty fun! Messy.......but fun!

I'm getting rather excited for Halloween night to come- it's so fun to go out with the kids and take them "Trick or Treating". I'm dressing up as a nice witch! I hope our weather is better Halloween night than it is today- 50 mph winds and icky cold rain.....yuck!

 

Inky Hugs, Anne