Thank you - 03.22.10

Hello All -

Things are getting a bit hectic over here as we get ready for the baby. My OB said last week that she could come at anytime now, hopefully she'll wait until after our baby shower. I just packed my hospital bag today and put the car set in my car so I guess we are getting pretty close to ready. With all of that, I did manage to sneak in a card today. :-)

This card is for my dad who helped me move one of my horses to a new barn and came with me to check-out a horse trailer. Being almost nine months pregnant makes some of this stuff a little challenging.

I began with a 4"x 5 1/4" piece of white cardstock. I had cut out my own mask using acetate and my Silhouette machine. The shape is one that you can purchase from the online store. It took several passes to get the acetate cut but I am pretty happy with the results. I laid the mask on my cardstock and sprayed the paper with my Tim Holtz mini-Mister filled with Vintage Photo reinker and Perfect Pearls in Gold.

I removed my mask and dried the paper using my heat gun. Once it was dry I reapplied my mask and sprayed my cardstock with Tea Dye reinker in my mini-mister.

Once I dried my paper, I applied Pumice Stone Distress Ink over the flourish.

Then I applied Stormy Sky Distress Ink.

Then I added Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink over the flourish and Black Soot on the edges.

Next, I cut out a label using Spellbinders Labels 1. I stamped the horse image from Creative Impressions with Black Soot Distress Ink. I then applied Antique Linen ink.

I then applied Frayed Burlap and Black Soot on the edges of the shape.

Using the next size up of die I cut out a label in brown cardstock. I then distressed the label using my Tonic Distresser.

Next, I stamped "Thank You" from the Papertrey Ink stamp set Giga Guide Lines using embossing ink and then heat embossed with Gold embossing powder from Zing!

I added a brown ribbon and rick-rack ribbon to the card, the rick-rack is from American Crafts.

I added the horse label using EK Success pop dots. I painted two gold brads using Adirondack paint dabbers in Stream i added these to my labels before I mounted it to my card. Later I added Distress Stickels in Faded Jeans to the brads. I mounted the whole thing to a piece of Charcoal cardstock by The Paper Company.

Have a wonderful week!

St. Patrick's Day Card

I love St. Patrick's Day! When I was in college, my mom and I took a trip to Ireland and we spent St. Patrick's Day in Limerick. We had such a great trip! It is fun to remember it every year. In honor of one of my fav holidays I made this little card.

I started with a 4"x 5 1/4" piece of white cardstock. I stamped the image using Bundled Sage Distress Ink, the stamp is Dreamy Leaves from Stampendous.

I then applied Antique Linen Distress Ink over the whole image.

Then added Bundled Sage around the edges.

Lastly, I added Vintage Photo Distress Ink without covering the Sage.

Next, I went to my trusty Silhouette machine and cut out the shape below. It is called Artsy Flourish. Once I cut it out I added Vintage Photo all over the shape.

I then did a colorwash over the Vintage Photo with Suede Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist. I followed that with a very light mist of Gold Glimmer Mist.

I then cut out a shamrock, again using the Silhouette and white cardstock. I applied Antique Linen all over the shamrock.

Next, I added the Bundled Sage Distress Ink. This is a new color from Tim Holtz and Ranger and I am loving it!

I added Vintage Photo on the very edge. I also went back over the edges with Bundled Sage just to darken them up.

I cut a piece of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" Old Olive cardstock from Stampin' Up.

I then edged the cardstock with Vintage Photo.

I mounted the white cardstock to the Old Olive and added a distressed piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock and added a light green organza ribbon.

I then glued the flourish to my shamrock. I also cut out two small hearts, one using a Marvy Uchida punch and the larger was a miscellaneous heart punch. The larger heart was aged with Antique Linen and the smaller with Bundled Sage. I added Distress Stickles in Rock Candy to the green heart and once that was dry I applied Diamond Glaze. It is a little hard to see in the photo but it almost looks like a stone.

I mounted the shamrock to the card. I discovered some old photo corners in my drawer and painted them with Lettuce and Espresso Adirondack Paint Dabbers and completed the card with green gems from Mark Richards.

A close up.

I really like the way this card turned out. Have a great rest of your week.

Another Heart Card

I don't know if it is just because Valentine's Day was just a few weeks ago but I have been feeling hearts. Just to prove it, here is another one. :-)

I started with my basic white heart cut-out using my Silhouette Digital Cutter. I have made up my own ink spritz colors using the Distress ReInkers and Perfect Pearls. I misted the heart with spray made with Fired Brick Ink and Gold Perfect Pearls and the I misted a little Vintage Photo with Bronze Perfect Pearls.

Sometimes I have a happy accident, which is what happened on this next step. I rubbed Versamark Ink all over my heart and then poured Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel on my heart. At the time I didn't realize that my Versamark was drying out so when I hit the heart with my heat gun it blew off a lot of the UTEE. I thought that I'd just see what it looked like and voila! I loved it. I felt like this gave a really distressed metal look. I then inked over the edges with Walnut Stain Ink.

Next, I cut-out the Damask Fleur shape from Silhouette. I cut it apart and painted it using an Adirondack Paint Dabber in Gold.

Next, I cut out the Diamond Grunge Lg from Silhouette in white cardstock and then sprayed it with Tea Dye Distress Ink (no Perfect Pearls).

I then applied Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Inks over the Tea Dye base.

I then took a plain piece of white cardstock and did a colorwash using Old Paper, Antique Linen and Tea Dye Distress Inks. Since the colors are pretty light I did the wash about three times, drying with my heat gun between applications.

I mounted my colorwashed cardstock to a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock.

Then added the grunge diamonds on top of that.

I cut two small pieces of cardstock one in Basic Black and the other a matallic from Bazzill. I used my Paper Distresser on both pieces, I loved that the metallic paper had a really different color on the inside.

I then stamped a flourish from the Flourishes set by Bo Bunny using Embossing Ink from Ranger and then embossed with Black Soot Distress Embossing Powder.

I assembled all of my background pieces and added vintage eyelets from Making Memories.

I added my damask wings to my heart.

I added a little reinforcement to the "wings" to be sure that they wouldn't fall off.

I stamped the sentiment from Penny Black on the inside of the card using Black Soot Distress Ink.

I used a ton of foam dots to adhere my heart and damask to the card.

Here is the final product. Perhaps next week I'll make something without a heart on it, maybe not.