Happy Birthday Shirley Bee....it's your day!

Happy Birthday Shirley Bee!  Welcome to another stop along your virtual birthday party.  I am so glad that we enjoy time together on the Mixed Media Card Challenge Design Team.

Today is your day to kick-back and do what makes you happy all day long.  Hope you enjoy all of the very special attention. Thank you for sharing your wonderful art and talent with all of us! 

Here is my card that is on it's way to you...

 

Back story for this card:   The other day I wanted to create a special birthday card for you but was unsure of where I wanted to start.  That morning we had an earthquake. It was the area’s 3rd earthquake  that was over a 5.5 magnitude since late August. Not strong enough for severe damage but certainly leaves the insides of one's body shaking for a few days. Later in the day I stopped by the river that runs through our town.  There I observed the ravens gathering on the sandbar.  I was sure they were chatting away about the morning’s event (LOL).  I watched the pancake ice float safely downstream until it hit a log jam where I heard new sounds of…no, not  the usual "Nevermore" but rather "Shirley B,   Shirley B!"   When I arrived home I knew I wanted to use this stamp for my card.

Shirley, lots of good thoughts are showering on you this week.  As you begin your new adventure of illustrating and designing your own line of stamps, The Bee's Knees, I hope you recall the raven's message to find some quiet moments along the way. 

Happy Birthday Shirley!  May it be a most awesome year for you! 
...Jan

 

Card details:   This image is a single stamp by Inkadinkado. All white areas are created with the wax resist technique.  I cut notched marks into the side of the white crayon to create openings in the wax resist background.  The clouds are created freehand with a crayon tip. Stickles are added to the moon.

For the card base I color white paper with a layer of aged mahogany distress ink, then brayer a layer of Walnut Stain and a layer of brushed  corduroy  over the top of inside of the handwriting embossing folder; mist lightly before closing folder and ran through Cuttlebug.  In person the texture looks like material fibers.

If others would like to join in this virtual party please checkout Maria's blog for details....thanks Maria for hosting!

 

The Great Distressed Pumpkin

Hi! 
Hope you had a wonderful week!  I have been working to extend the feeling of  autumn here while I look outside and feel like I am living inside a snow globe. Several inches of snow cover everything outdoors and  the snow continues to fall. But now I want to enjoy sharing the details of my most recent card with you.

The light brown base of this distressed pumpkin is stamped with a typed background. The pieced pumpkin top is created with a mix of alcohol inks and stamped images. The edges are completed with hand-drawn doodles. The stem is embossed with a crimper and inked.

The based of the background is dry embossed, brayered with black and accented with white line doodles. 



Wonder Under-so very sheer

Wonder Under (WU) Embossing Technique

The top of the background is one of my long time favorite embossing techniques.WU is available in most fabric stores and is often located close to the cutting table.  Generally it is used to adhere 2 pieces of fabric together.


Heat embossed with multiple powders

For this embossing technique cardstock is cut to the size desired  and the WU is cut a little larger for it will shrink when melted (perhaps about 1/2" around each side). 

It only takes a heat gun a few seconds to melt the WU so be prepared to keep gun moving or the webbing will melt away.  A clip clothespin may assist in holding the WU on top of the cardstock to protecting fingers from the melting plastic.

It's time to heat the WU and just go for it!  The fun part is to see the unique web patterns that the heat creates.

Embossing powders can be poured directly on the desired areas and excess dumped off. Versamark ink is NOT needed. Heat again just until the EP melts.

Final Touches-I was happy to tie up this pumpkin card with a bit of twine.  And add the stamp sentiment "Celebrate" across the great pumpkin!

This week I found some challenge inspiration at several wonderful places:
            Splitcoaststampers Mixed challenge 88: asked for a distressed pumpkin
            STAMPlorations October Challenge: embossing and stamps
            Simon Says Stamp Monday's challenge: finishing touch


Stamps used: Stamporations-Mixed Media Backgrounds set for distressed pumpkin images; Sentiment Builders-Celebrate set

October Challenge-Mixed Media Card Challenge

Hi there!
Are you ready for a new month for challenges?  I hope you are ready to enjoy this month's challenge for Mixed Media Card Challenge!  This month's challenge topic is vintage with the optional element of keys. 

For my Design Team card I decided to ink up the Stampendous stamp "Deco Lady" which has sat in my "new stamp" box far too long.  Art Deco flourished from the 1920's to 1940s. The years between  WWI and WWII were filled with art and fashion representing luxury, glamour, exuberance.  Those are words I don't often think about when I create.  But I love that Mixed Media encourages us to try new media products and explore their potential...so the challenge begins!

 

 

I began my adventure to create a feeling of luxury, glamour and exuberance by marbleizing 1/2 sheet of manila cardstock with distress acrylic paints.  I mist the paints and offer encouragement for the paints to run and marbleize. I am still exploring these paints so I have no idea if my results will be something I can use. But no worries since one can always paint another layer until their smile reappears.  I loved the dried paint's smooth surface.  

 

While I found myself uncertain about the brightness of the colors I recognize that brightly colored backgrounds often look alot different once stamped with a black image.  So I focused on finding the area that would work best for Deco Lady's face. After stamping the image with archival black ink, I added highlights with gel pens, watercolor pencils, a stardust sparkle pen (sorry that doesn't show in the photo), a white pen and finally drops of Heidi Swapp Gold Lame mist.

 

Next for the mat I wanted to continue to achieve the same feel but in a different manner.  This lead me to crumble a piece of white tissue technique for texture, attach the paper to the base using PPA glue to and also use the glue's moisture to paint the paper with powdered metallic-Pearl EX and Perfect Pearls.  Once dry I added highlights with Inka Gold.

 

The Hero Arts sentiment was stamped onto acetate and adhered with a vellum tape runner.

The border was stamped with a stamp from Fiskars Henna stamp set.

 

Hope you enjoy some creative play while making a vintage card for the MMCC challenge! Thanks so much for taking a look at this month's card...and I greatly appreciate everyone's comments.

Thanks so much!...Jan