Moments in the Garden

Welcome back!  Hope you are having a great summer!

Weekly I volunteer at our University's Botanical Gardens. It is only a 13 week assignment since our summers are so short.  But they are glorious weeks as I watch the maturing of each plant in my 2 assigned raised beds. This results in gardening being one of my favorite themes in my creative work.

With this post I am playing in a challenge named after Tim Holtz's Compendium of Curiosities Volume III.   Every 2 weeks a new challenge is selected from the products and techniques shared in the book. Out of respect for Tim each player must use there own copy of the book. Anyone found sharing information will be disqualified. So that is the basics of this challenge. You will find Linda Ledbetter, the challenge coordinator with more details at the link above.

Please let me share how I created my card-

For my background I started with cool peri,wild plum and purple twilight alcohol inks and used Tim's dot fade and burlap stencils. As I look out over the vast botanical gardens the colors blend together so beautifully and that is what I tried to develop here.  Of course I work through many trials until I finally achieved results that matched the picture I had in mind.

I used stamps from Tim Holtz's Stamper's Anonymous collection for the plants, bird and sentiment and stamped with archival ink.  Highlights on the flowers were added with jelly roll pens and a Signo white pen.  I pulled apart a loosely woven ribbon to give the bird a place to rest and to add some subtle texture.

For the base foreground, I upcycled a piece of metal, painted with acrylic paint, embossed with a Tim Holtz embossing folder, added Inka Gold and cut the shape needed.

Thanks to the Curiosities Crew for this week's wonderful inspiration! And another special thanks to Inspiration Emporium and The Funkie Junkie Boutique for sponsoring these challenges!

This is also a reminder "summer" is the theme for this month's challenge over at Mixed Media Card Challenge  until August 25, 11:55 p.m. PDT (GMT -700).

Thanks for stopping in!  Have fun getting your fingers inky!
...Jan

Mixed Media card with Rock n Roll technique

Hi everyone!

Today I had lots of fun playing in a challenge at 2 Peas in a Bucket and created a Mixed Media card.  The stamping forum had a Stamp N Dash challenge to use the Rock n Roll technique. Here is my completed card:

For this old faithful technique one inks a stamp in one color and  rolls the edges in another color to accent the edges. I fancy cut 3 blooms and added a touch of sparkle with a stardust gel pen.

As I thought about how to use the colorful blooms on a card I quickly moved to some thoughts for some Mixed Media fun. I started by blending distress ink across portions of a burlap stencil onto watercolor paper.

For the next layer I colored some embossing paste with a drop of distress reinker and stenciled the leaf fonds into place.  Inkintense pencils were use to add shading to the leaflets.  Finally I filled the corners with the freshness of a little watercolor. The addition of color droplets and a stamped flourish add the layer I wanted. Final touches included adding the flowers, circular sequins and sentiment. The panel's edges were distressed with an edger and accented with Viva's Pearl Pen

Stencils: Tim Holtz burlap; Garden Fonds by Memory Box
Stamp: Judikins Mod Mum; Stampendous flourish
Coloring products: distress ink and re-inkers, inktense pencils, distress stains, Gelly roll stardust pen, Viva's pearl pen
Texture-embossing paste, dimensional squares, distressing edger 

NEWS:  A new Monthly Challenge for Mixed Media for Card Makers begins July 1.  I provided a link so you can check out all the details!   A call for design team members is open until June 20...the details are available with the same link.  You might want to consider throwing your card into the ring...I am.  But either way it is gonna be great fun to make some new friends who enjoy making cards with mixed media!!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy getting inky today!...Jan

Challenge at: Simon Says Stamp & Show

Hello!

It has been the longest time since I added anything to my blog so thank you for stopping in! The good news is my home remodel is complete! Yes, that 4 week project turned into a year, really it could be written into a full season soap opera but for now I want to stamp!

My new exciting plans include retiring August 1 after working for 43 years! I am thrilled to think of all the creative crafting I will be able to do.  So I thought I would warm-up my stamping skills will a challenge.  Simon Says Stamp & Show is a wonderful weekly challenge so I thought it would be a grand place to start especially since that is also where I stopped my blog posting.  My inspiration is a thank you card I want to make for special teammate as I say good-bye.  I sprayed the Tim Holtz clock mask and accented with distress inks.  I also used his fabric stamp on the top portion of the card and the card base inked with Tsukineko’s Delicata-Golden Glitz…I have added this to my favorite pigment ink list.  The other stamps are from Tim Holtz and 7 Gypsies.

Please leave me a note of where I can find you so I can get hooked back in with my stamping friends!  Thanks!