Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Mojo Monday and Heart2Heart Challenge Card

Wow! Today sure felt like Spring! Along with the strong winds, the ground should be thawing and drying out nicely. We will see. 


So, for today, I did a card using the Mojo Monday sketch and the Heart2Heart Challenge using 3 of our Spring Colors- Sunkiss Yellow, Sky, and Sweet Leaf. Since I didn't have Sky Cardstock, I cut the flower from Heavenly Blue stamping the design on it with the Sweet Leaf. 


Heres the Mojo Monday 231 Sketch.




I cut the scalloped circle, the inside circle, the tag, the inside of the tag, and the flower with the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge. I stamped on the flower with the stamp set in the Pemberley Workshop On The Go. I am really liking this stamp set for alot of projects. The blue circle is B&T from a retired Paper Pack that is the Crystal Blue color stamped with the March Stamp of the Month with Sky Stamp Pad ink. I stamped the background of the card with Bamboo Stamp Pad and the butterfly from the same stamp set from the Workshop on the Go.  


The swirl (also from the March SOTM) is stamped with white acrylic paint that I patted on my stamp with a sponge and then embossed with clear embossing powder. This was a technique taught by Tim Holtz except I used our stamp pads (sunkiss yellow, sky and sweet leaf) spritzing the ink with water and patting the sweet leaf cardstock into the three colors. It was really amazing how this worked. I found out that when he says do something quickly he means it. My paint started drying before I got the embossing powder on it but, it worked fine. It really did make a difference to keep drying and adding more of the stamp pad ink colors. This is my first attempt and I can't wait to try it again. I also want to direct you to another link called Studio L3 for more ideas using Tim Hotz's technique.


The leaves, vine, butterfly, and sentiment were also from the stamp set that came in the Pemberley Workshop on the Go. 


Click on the links above and check out the other great artwork and Tim Holtz's tutorial. Try them for yourself.  

Friday, March 2, 2012

Mojo Monday and Heart2Heart Challenges!

Another Mojo Monday! My card is made from the sketch above and the color combination is from the Heart2Heart Challenge. I used the back side of a B&T from an old Paper Pack for the blue background piece, Juniper Cardstock for the leaves and the scalloped piece and Desert Sand Cardstock for the flowers. The card itself, the scalloped piece, the flowers and the butterfly are all cut out of the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.


 Did I say how much I love this cartridge? 


The butterfly was cut from thin chipboard (cracker box) and covered with a piece of B&T from the Roxie Paper Pack. I cut a darker piece (free hand) for the body and filled it in with CTMH Liquid Glass to make it stand out. I also drew in the antennas free hand with a black marker. I stamped a design on the flowers, made cuts partway to the middle of the flowers, and  
layered 2 flowers each and added the pearls in the centers. Click on the links above and see more ideas for these 2 great inspirational pieces.






Heres the picture (above) that inspired the color combination for this card.




Thanks for looking.

March- 12 tags of 2012

This is my first attempt at one of Tim Holt's wonderful ideas. I don't have very many of his products so, I just dug into my Close To My Heart products and made this tag my own. First, a link to Tim's blog so you can read his tutorial and see his beautiful project.


Now, here is my interpretation of his mosaic tag for March. I hope to do Jan and Feb later.




First, I cut the tag from Close To My Heart's Desert Sand Cardstock using CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge. Also, the 2 butterflies were cut from lightweight chipboard (used from a cracker box) using this same Cricut Cartridge. I love this cartridge, it has tons of designs on it!


I distressed the sides of the tag with CTMH Chocolate Stamp Pad and stamped a design on the tag with a Stampin' Up background stamp I had in my stash. Its pretty light and hard to see the design. I used a sentiment from the CTMH D1453 Friendship stamp set and the hole at the top is actually a stamp from the CTMH B1298 Be Happy Stamp Set which I think is no longer available. I stamped the hole from Desert Sand, cut it out by hand and tapped it in and on a Cocoa Stamp Pad to darken it which in turn made it kinda wet but, I wadded it up to make it look old and it even looks like leather! So Kewl!!!!


I happened to have a Tim Holt's brand of embossing powder on hand called Distress Embossing Powder-Walnut Stain. I didn't have the Wonder Tape but, I had the Terrifically Tacky Tape from Hobby Lobby and used another participant's idea and just layered the pieces of 1/2" and 1/4" together and trimmed them off around the edges of the butterflies. I wasn't sure if it would work with the embossing and I still don't know for sure if its right.




It doesn't look or heat as shiny as normal embossing, it looks like crusty dirt or grout but, it doesn't come off. I guess that means it worked?
The papers I used for the mosaic look are from the CTMH Level 2 Paper Pack called Florentine. I used both sides in my different pieces on the butterflies. 






Finally, I used the March Stamp of the Month to add the swirl design at the bottom with the Chocolate Stamp Pad and a metal brad to give that little extra pizzazz. The ribbon is our new Color Ready Seam Binding ribbon that I sponged with Twilight Stamp Pad. Try this fun and decorative mosaic technique for yourself.