I've been a little lost at sea...

(You can find the tutorial & freebies for this diorama project here)

Message in a bottle?

I'm so sorry, it has taken me too long to manage to write this....

Those of you who know me (and my fine-feathered friend mortal enemy the migraine beast), or those of you who have read this post, may not be all that surprised that I'm still struggling.

I'm joking about it (a matter of laugh or cry?) but the migraines have been daily for weeks & I haven't been able to work. I've gotten lost in blue waves, and for now, I'm not too sure when I'll be in blogland again.

I'm having to rethink the direction that I want to take crafting & trying to chart a route that will make it easier...

Thank You so much for your patience while I plot my course
& I hope you are well & oh so happy,

caardvarks Challenge cards (& some etsy digi shoppin')

A quick post, sorry. Charles & I have big bad colds.

"UGH" about sums it up. LOL ;o)

Today, a couple of colourful Caardvarks Core-dinations cards with
cute characters & SRM sentiment stickers.

(Say that five times fast.) hehehe

These critter kids are digital images that I purchased from
two different artists on etsy...

The Kitty Cats Digital image above is by Kimprints (her store is here on etsy)
I embossed her on white cardstock painted with Matte Medium.
The kitty was coloured to match Mouse:


(She's getting so big! Must be the super kitty vitamins we gave her to
try & counteract any deficiency from the worms...) :-)



Fur texture on the cartoon "Mouse" cat
was made by scratching the paper with a paper piercing tool.

To jazz up her kitty costume, I doodled on flowers & coloured her in Copic markers...
pierced holes around the face & hem & stitched it with gray embroidery thread.



The patterned paper is digital as well, from TADA (on etsy here.)

For textured-distressed digital paper,
I covered the printed paper in Mod Podge tissue paper:

1. Print the digital paper pattern & Heat set with a heat gun
2. Brayer the Mod Podge on (to minimize colour bleed.)
3. Then add white tissue paper over the wet Mod Podge.

(I also cut one of the flowers & some leaves out of the digital paper.)



Monkey Kid is drawn by HYCJ on etsy (the store is here.)

& this is more patterned digital paper from TADA (TracyAnnDigitalArt)

The card bases are made with Core-dinations cardstock
from their Ebony & Ivory collection pack.

The SRM sticker sentiments can be found here.

Hope your day is a colourful one!

Our Mothers ROCK! Happy Mother's Day Orchid Card

Happy Mother's Day! :-)

An Orchid digital image is something I've wanted ever since I first knew what digis were. This one by Ruth is perfection. Just like the two outrageously amazing Moms that Charles & I are blessed to have in our life! (I'm not telling which one this card is for though! Nanananabooboo, Moms! We love Youse, madly!) :oP

This has all kinds of odds 'n' ends: layers & stitching & lacy bits & even rocks....

...but layout-wise, I tried to keep it simple for the SplitCoastStampers'
CAS65 Clean And Simple Mother's Day/May Flowers Challenge here.
(I find simplicity so difficult!)

Here's the inside of the 5 and 1/2 inch card...

1... New & Nifty: Orchid digi image by Ruth
2... how to make this card

-1-

This Orchid used to be a sold-out clear stamp & is now a digi!

It's available here on Ruth's blog A Passion For Stamps in this post

Info on where to email her with any orders is here:

& you can see all of her blog entries & images as well.

-2-

...make this Orchid card

• Orchid digital image from A Passion for Stamps
• Illuminate text stamp from Above the Mark in Antique Linen Distress Ink
• Copic markers
• Vinnie Pearce Old Things Papers Paper #10 (digital from Two Peas)
• Little pierces of rock & Beacon's 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue
• Paper piercer, needle, embroidery floss & ivory thread
• SRM Sticker sentiment from the Love sheet # 51004 here
• French-English dictionary pages
• "Generations adhesive vellum" made by Cardinal Brands

Some chit chat about Blogger Viewing options:

All the photos below can be enlarged by clicking on them (to view in Blogger)
In Mozilla Firefox you can right click & choose open link in a new tab (to save your place in the tutorial) or click the back button in your browser toolbar...

...and You can hold the Control button while scrolling the wheel on your mouse forward or backward to enlarge or decrease the photo size... :o)



Step 1) Print the Orchid image & pieces to layer:

• Stamp the Illuminate text stamp in Antique Linen Distress ink.
  
• Heat set the ink to dry well before printing.
• Run it through the printer to print the Orchid, an extra flower, extra leaves, & a second pot--for layering.
  

Step 2) Colour it, adhere the layers, & add embellishments

This is coloured with there Copic markers: Flower & stem: B00 Frost Blue; BG10 Cool Shadow; YG91 Putty, E44 Clay. Leaves: YG23 New Leaf; YG67 Moss; G85 Verdigris; Pot: Photoshop brush text "Mother" brush (in beige) shaded with YG91 Putty, E44 Clay.

I glued on some bits of rock at the top of the pot, giggle giggle:



(and some distressed hand sewing around the edge of the image)



Step 3) Decorate the bottom of the image. This has dictionary text, paper ruffles, & crochet trim (Using: a French-English dictionary; adhered to 3 layers of cardstock cut in free hand wavy lines & distressed; & a crochet edge cut from a stained doily.)



Step 4) Make a curved mat & stitch it. This mat was made by:

• Printing the Vinnie Pearce Old Things paper (digital from Two Peas)
• Cutting it to measure 4.5" wide by 5.25" high
• Tracing a plastic lid to get a curve at the bottom & cutting it out
• Trimming off the bottom of the curve to make it flat
• Piercing holes around the edge & stitching with embroidery thread
• Adhering it to a piece of white cardstock, trimming around, & distressing

(Sometimes I trace any old round things at hand, because it's faster than getting out the circle cutter. LOL)



Step 5) Add a sentiment. (I'm so excited that there's another reason to obsess over SRM stickers: you can use them to do tape transfer sentiments!

Here's how this "[lots of love]" SRM sticker got its makeover (a collage layer under it & a softer look):

• Cut the sentiment sticker to the size I wanted & peeled it off the backing
• Adhered it over a page out of the French-English dictionary (cheap paper works wonders for this)
• Rubbed to stick it well int he areas where I wanted words & paper to stick
• Peeled it off of the book page
• Adhered it to a piece of white cardstock & trimmed it

• ....and to soften the contrast so that the image would remain the focal point (and to add a little texture) I stuck some self-adhesive vellum over the SRM sticker:

This sticky-backed vellum is called "Generations adhesive vellum" made by Cardinal Brands (I got it at staples office supply a couple of years ago.) If you like this look, but don't have any adhesive vellum, you could adhere any vellum, onion skin paper, tracing, or tissue paper...

Put it all together...

...and you have a card for Mom:

Thank You for visiting & may your Mother's Day be ultra lovely,
whether you are a Mom or were just made by one! ynuk ynuk

P.S. Oops! Sorry for the weird post that went out to Feedburner subscribers that said "Happy Mother" I started typing this & hit some wonky button & you get the posts the second they go live, so there's no 'undo-the-OOPs' button! ;o) LOL

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