Published in Paper Crafts Magazine

Bleach Painting

      Paper Crafts magazine just published one of my cards in their May/June 2012 issue. If you have never been on the Paper Crafts website or seen their magazine you are missing out. I get so much inspiration from them. Check them out here: www.papercraftsmag.com/ .

    

     I am so excited to share this card and my bleach painting technique with you!

     To begin with, I made a 5x7 card out of light gray cardstock. On a separate sheet of gray cardstock, I heat embossed the image of the birch trees. Heat embossing forms a kind of dam for the bleach-paint keeping the bleach from bleeding outside the lines.

     To paint the trees, I first mixed one part bleach to two parts water in a small bowl. I dipped a Q-tip in the bleach solution and painted the tree trunks with it. It may take a bit to see the complete transformation of the cardstock so be patient and don't overwet your image. You may want to paint a second coat if you want to go even lighter. Let the paint dry completely.

     Next, I trimmed the image and added black and burnt orange panels.

     The stamp for these trees belongs to a friend who is currently at her cabin in the remote areas of Alaska far away from phones (even cell phones) so I was not able to ask her who made this stamp. But, Northwoods Rubber Stamps has a stamp that would work even better with this technique. The stamp is Three Snowy Pines in Woods. Their website is www.northwoodsrubberstamps.com/

     Designer Tips

     This painting works great on a lot of different stamps. I find that it works great too to add highlights to heat embossed, stamped flowers.

     This technique does not work on coated papers. Regular, smooth cardstock works best.

     I would love to see the cards you make using this method. Send me a link to your card and I might just highlight it here on my blog. Thanks so much for your time and patience. Hope you have a wonderful day!

    

Paper Scraps Challenge

     Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I want to share with you this card I've created for the

Paper Scraps Challenge in the Moxi Fab World.

     Scraps!?! What a great challenge for me! I think I save every scrap of paper left over after every project. The papers are so gorgeous, how does anyone ever bring themselves to through away any of it.

     For this challenge, I dug through my box of scraps and found all these long, narrow strips. I put them in place just as they were. I kept digging to find coordinating and/or matching scraps big enough from which to punch flowers and fronds.

     Next, I heat-embossed the sentiment from TPC Studio's Travel Collage collection. I love this quote from Emerson. That's the way I've lived my life. I also heat-embossed the edges of the small panel to make it pop.

     This card was so quick and easy; I think I will make more. Maybe all round scraps.

     Do you have a big collection of scraps? You can enter your own card here: http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2012/03/practical-solutions-for-paper-crafters.html

    

5 Cards for $5 Challenge

I made these five different cards for the

5 for $5 Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.



     Card making can be expensive, but it does not have  be. I created this five-card ensemble, including rubber stamps and envelopes for less than $5. It really helps that I rarely buy cardstock, patterned paper or pre-cut card bases if I do not have a coupon or if they are not on sale. 

    I started with six pre-cut, white card bases (5" x 6.5") from the Paper Studio. I used the sixth card to stamp my sentiments so that my cards and tags would match perfectly. (I'm a big time perfectionist. I hate that part about myself sometimes. But, I do end up with very neat and matching projects. lol) I cut one sheet of patterned paper into various shapes and mounted them on a sheet of solid-pink paper. I ran out of that pink so had to use a third sheet of patterned paper to mount my sentiments.

     My fingers were itching to do more to the cards, but the challenge was not to spend over $5. I think I will make more of these sets to give as gifts. Can't you just see them tied up in a pretty pink ribbon!?!

     Here's my shopping list:

                $0.60 --- 6 precut card bases - the Paper Studio

                  0.30 --- 3 sheets patterned paper - the Paper Studio

                  3.00 --- 3 rubber stamp sets - Studio G

                  0.44 --- ribbon - Spool O' Ribbon

    Total    $4.34

 

    Think you can make 5 for $5. You can join in on the fun here:

http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2012/03/practical-solutions-for-paper-crafters_23.html



DIY Embellishment Challenge

I created this Get-Well card for the

DIY Embellishments Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.

     I almost always make my own embellishments for my cards. I find that to be the funnest part of creating a card. I made the flower on this card using five different flower punches varying in size and type.  I normally use 3-5 different colors to make flowers like this, but I found this wonderful watercolor cardstock in DCWV's Painted Petal Stack. Because there was such color variation on each sheet, I used only aqua and boysenberry colors. I punched each layer of my flower from a different part of each sheet which gave me a wide variety of color. I put all the layers together with a aqua brad. I used the same aqua cardstock for the tag, heat-embossing the sentiment (Studio G) in boysenberry pigment by Color Box. The boysenberry is a limited edition color. I suggest getting a pad before they are retired. It is a beautiful color.

Do you make your own embellishments? You can respond to the challenge here:

http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2012/03/practical-solutions-week-diy.html

Hero Arts Giveaway

~~~~Hooray for Hero Arts~~~~

Hero Arts just reached 10,000 'Likes' on Facebook and to celebrate they are having a big giveaway. And, they always have great giveaways. I encourage you to enter the drawing. Check them out here www.heroarts.com/ .

Once there you can click on the Blog tab and scroll down until you find it - reading all the posts as you go of course. They do have some of the best stamps available. And, they do have some fun giveaways. You may also connect with them by clicking on their blinkie in the left-hand column of my blog.

Good luck to everyone!