Sin City Scraps Design Team Application

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog.  Once again, I am throwing my hat in the ring and trying out for the Sin City Scraps Design Team.  I am so excited to be trying out for such a wonderful company because I truly love their stamps and all of their other products. Did you know that some of their stamps are designed to coordinate with select Lifestyle Crafts (aka Quickutz) dies?  Did you also know that Sin City stamps are designed, pressed, and packaged in-house, enabling them to charge less than their competitors.  Isn't that fantastic!  

So, without further adieu, here is the project I made, and how I made it.  It is one of my favorite forms of altered art, a Triptych.

Cut two strips of Tyvek from a postal envelope approximately 2" x 4-1/2" and glue between the three chipboard pennants, forming a hinge.

Leave a gap between the chipboard pennants to allow for hinge movement.

Paint all edges, including the hinges, with black and brown acrylic paint.

Cover each chipboard base with a 4" x 6" piece of the Prima printed paper.

Front side of Triptych

Reverse side of Triptych

Triptych Panel 1

Die cut chipboard dress form, paint with brown and black acrylic paint, then dry brush metallic olive paint over that.  Stamp mannequin onto manilla card stock, color with colored pencils.  Add 3D crystal lacquer to grass and butterfly images.  Let dry.  Attach stamped image to chipboard dress form.  Trim excess chipboard.  Add charms, as shown.

Dust a red velour metal flower with Red Pearl Mixer.  

Glue to Panel 1 over wing charms.  Add Prima Junkyard Findings zipper pull, as shown.

Stamp "Treasure" onto a piece of linen burlap trim.  Attach snap and charm, adhere to panel, as shown.

Triptych Panel 2

Paint a wooden doll house window with brown and black acrylic paint.  Adhere black plastic gutter guard to back of window.  Glue to center panel 2.  

Adhere Prima flower vine and metal bird nest charm, as shown above.

Stamp two bird images onto Specialty Stamping paper using black archival ink.  Add color using both distress inks and colored pencils.  

Cut out each bird and glue to window, as shown.  

Triptych Panel 3

Color wooden flourish with distress inks and glue to panel, as shown above.  Attach metal gear and flower charms to the flourish, as shown.  Mix a tiny amount of 3D crystal lacquer with a smidgen of Red Pearl Mixer to make a paint and apply to edges of metal flower.

Stamp small clock image onto manilla card stock.  Color with distress inks.  Coat with Crackle Accents and let dry.  Adhere to panel, as shown.

Stamp into Creative Paperclay that has been rolled out to approximately 1/4".  Trim around the image with a craft knife, and smooth edges with fingers, if needed.

Poke a hole in the center of the Paperclay, and apply Red Pearl Mixer (powder) to the Paperclay.  Allow the Paperclay to dry. You can use your heat tool, carefully, to speed up the process a bit.   However, the paperclay will probably take 24 hours or more to dry thoroughly.  Apply a coat of Luminarte Metallic Olive Green paint to the Paperclay, and wipe off excess paint with a wet wipe or wet paper towel.  Continue adding and removing paint until you like it. 

Stamp image again onto a piece of specialty stamping paper using black archival ink, dry ink with heat tool.  Add distress ink colors to the image and fussy cut the woman and tiny balloon images.

  

Adhere to the same areas in the Paperclay.  Insert a brad through the Prima clock hands and through the hole you made earlier in the center of the Paperclay.

Whew!  You're done.  In case you forgot what the finished piece looks like, here it is again.  

Finished triptych laying flat

Products Used:

Sin City Scraps sc5 - Mannequin Tags 2

Sin City Scraps sc3 - Clocks and Birds

Paper Accents Arched Chipboard Pennant

Wooden doll house window

Prima Romance Novel papers

Prima Flowers-Pixie Vine-Almanac

Prima Junkyard Findings 

Maya Road Linen Burlap Trim

Creative Paperclay

Terri Sproul Mixers (Red Pearl)

Sakura 3D Crystal Lacquer

Kaisercraft wooden flourishes

Ranger Crackle Accents

Luminart Metallic Olive Green Paint

Ranger Manilla card stock

Ranger Specialty Stamping Paper

Black Archival Ink

Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations die - Sewing Room

Bead Landing Beads and Charms

Black plastic gutter guard

Black and brown acrylic paints

Distress Inks (various colors)

Lyra colored pencils

Tyvek postal envelope

I sure hope you enjoyed my project today.  I had an awful lot of fun making it, and I am very pleased how it turned out.  I absolutely love my stamps from Sin City Scraps, and I encourage you to check out their online store to see for yourself.  Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope you will visit often.  

CHA Anaheim 2013 Product Favorites

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog.  I'm so glad to have had the opportunity to go to CHA this year with my good travel buddy, Candice Windham, and Joyce Shaver, who met us there.  So,  I just wanted to share  some of the new products I fell in love with.

First up would be Graphic 45's two new collections, Secret Garden and French Country.  For your convenience, I have linked to each so you can see the entire collection.

Secret Garden Collection

French Country Collection

Next would be the new Prima Marketing paper collections.  I fell in love with these four, but my wallet is already moaning because I want them all.

Engraver

Lyric

Life Time

Finnabair

Anna Dabrowski has a new line of metal embellishments that are absolutely to die for.  I cannot wait to get my  hands on these.  Here is a picture of the beautiful headband I made with Anna using her metal embellishments. 

Of course, Tim Holtz had quite a few new and wonderful products to show.  I fell in love with his new Sizzix dies collection and Distress paints, which are very much like milk paint, a bit translucent and chalk-like.  Here is a make-n-take card I made at the Ranger booth using Tim's new Eiffel Tower die, crinkle ribbon, stencil clips, ring fasteners, and mini wishbones.  The card base is one of his new cabinet card frames.

Sizzix is also introducing Thinlits, and I absolutely love Eileen Hull's newest collection, From the Heart, which is wonderful for Valentine's Day.  She also has another collection called Picket Fence, which I am told will not be available until June.  This line is so "me" because it is very botanical, and contains birds and bird houses, fences, a watering can, and anything you might find in your garden.

Spellbinders has also done it again with their new line, Media Mixage.  They have teamed up with Susan Lennart Kazmer and made dies to match her bezels for easing cutting.  If you are a mixed media "nut" like me, you are going to love this new line.  They have also come up with the most beautiful dies they call "Imperial Gold", and these dies not only cut with a laser cut quality, but also emboss, deboss (like letter pressing), and stencil.  They use them with a scratch paper product made by Royal & Langnickel, similar to the black-coated paper board in their engraving kits.   After you run this paper through the machine, it embosses and cuts the paper, and then you gently sand away the black coating to reveal the most beautiful gold metal color.  Oooooh, so pretty.  Here is a make-n-take card I made at their booth.

Spellbinders card using Imperial Gold Die

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my first installment of what I saw at the CHA convention in Anaheim.  BlueMoonScrapbooking made several you tube videos that you can also check out by clicking here.  As I think of more, I will post and let you know what I think was really super.  So please check back when you have some time to see what other fun products await you.  

As always, thanks for stopping by, and happy crafting to you all!

Barbara

Floating Butterfly and Flowers Card

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog.  It has been a very busy few weeks since my last post.  I attended The Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show in Anaheim, California, and had the opportunity to meet some wonderful designers, made new friends, and got to see new products coming out in the near future.

And speaking of new products, The Robin's Nest (TRN) has put together some fantastic card kits and tag kits, and best of all, they are on sale the entire month of January.   Just use the code:  cardkitpromo for a 20% savings. We are also teaming up with Heartfelt Creations this month.  So, I used their Tattered Blossoms pre-cut stamp set and matching dies, in addition to the card and tag kits from TRN, to make this beautiful card.

Robin's Nest Products Used:

Baby Boy Card Kit which includes the following:
     Irredescent Blue Glitter Blue Swirl on Blue cardstock
     Rubber Duckies Glitter Cardstock
     Dew Drops
     Envelopes
     Embossed Panel cards
Awning Glitter Cardstock
Winter Tag Kit (Chipboard Shapes)
Glitter Teal Journaling

Other Products used:
Heartfelt Creations Tattered Blossoms stamp set and matching die set
Spellbinders label die
Distress inks (Scattered Straw, Stormy Sky, Peeled Paint, Evergreen Bough, Brushed Corduroy)
Leaf punch

Cut a piece of Awning Glitter Cardstock slightly smaller than card base, round the corners and distress the edges with a bit of brown ink.  I used a grey card stock for my base card. 

Card Layers

Die cut a label shape from the  Rubber Duckies Glitter Cardstock and adhere the reverse side to the first layer.  Distress ink these edges, too.

Stamp  Heartfelt Creations Tattered Blossoms in different sizes onto the reverse side of Irredescent Blue Glitter Blue Swirl on Blue cardstock and distress with various colors of Distress Inks.  Cut each blossom out using the matching Heartfelt Creations die cut set.

Emboss each petal using a bone folder or large tip embossing tool.  Pictured here, I am using a piece of foam beneath my flower petals, but a magazine or even a mouse pad could be used.

Stack each flower with three consecutively smaller petals, offsetting each petal for fullness. For added dimension, I used foam dots between some of the layers.  Of course, I used dew drops for the flower centers.  No flower is complete with dew drops.  

Here you can see the fullness and dimension achieved by using the foam dots.  I also punched some leaves to add to the flowers.  

Now, to make the floating butterfly, you will need to punch three symmetrical butterfly shapes.  I used a Martha Stewart punch to punch out the prettiest glittery parts of the Awning Glitter Cardstock.  Fold each butterfly in half, and glue the wings of each together, as shown. In other words, both of the center butterfly's wings are glued to the corresponding right or left wing of the butterfly on either side.    See picture below.

Now simply glue the two bottom wings to your card, and the remaining wings "float".  Here is a closeup of it on the card.  

I borrowed Terri Sproul's idea to use the dew drops for a flight path that the butterfly is taking on the card as it travels through this flower garden.  Isn't that a neat idea?

Now, here are a couple of tips I've learned over the years.  One:  don't forget to decorate the envelope a bit, and two:  carry on with your images to the inside of your card.  Here, I am using the Glitter Teal Journaling card to place my stamped sentiment and write my well wishes onto.  I covered an oval shape tag from the kit with the reverse side of Irredescent Blue Glitter Blue Swirl on Blue cardstock, stamped "For You" on it, and added some dew drops.  Distress the edges with a bit of ink, add some more leaves, and you have added one more wow factor to your card. Trust me, your friends (recipients) will be "wowed" and amazed when they open the card and get that extra surprise.  This is also a good way to use up those scraps instead of throwing them away.  

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my card project, and will give this floating butterfly a try.  It is easy and fun, and it just does not get much better than that.  I also want to remind you to visit the Robin's Nest blog to see what the other Design Team members are cooking up with their stamps and kits this month, as well as playing along with the newly revamped monthly challenges for a chance to win $20 to use in The Robin's Nest online store.  

As always, thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you will come back soon. 

Happy crafting in 2013!

Barbara

Winter Blue Snowflakes Card

Happy New Year everyone, and welcome back to another wonderful year full of creative inspiration with The Robin's Nest.  I hope your holiday was absolutely fabulous, and I trust that life is slowing down a bit for you after the hustle and bustle of the holidays.

Now, for some exciting news.  The Robin's Nest has put together some fantastic card kits and tag kits, and they are on sale the entire month of January.   Just use the code:  cardkitpromo for a 20% savings.  We are also teaming up with Heartfelt Creations this month.  So, my first card for this year is a beautiful wintery blue card made using products from both the Baby Boy card kit and the Winter tag kit.  I  also made some really pretty snowflakes using the the Tattered Blossoms Pre-Cut stamp set and matching dies from Heartfelt Creations.

Robin's Nest Products Used:

Baby Boy Card Kit which includes the following:
     Irredescent Blue Glitter Blue Swirl on Blue cardstock
     Rubber Duckies Glitter Cardstock
     Dew Drops
     Envelopes
     Embossed Panel cards
Winter Tag Kit
Jean Cardstock
Fairy Dust Dew Drops
Glitter Blue Journaling

Other Products used:
Heartfelt Creations Tattered Blossoms die
Spellbinders lacy rectangular die
Distress inks (Seedless Preserves & Stormy Sky)
White Detail embossing powder
White pigment ink

I am always looking for different, and sometimes unconventional, ways to make cards.  This is a single panel card (i.e., not folded in half) that has been inserted into the envelope.  The envelope is an integral part of the card, and not just something used to mail it.   I love dimension, and this card has it.

First, fold the envelope flap to the inside and glue down.

  

Cover the envelope, front and back, as shown, using the Irredescent Blue Glitter Blue Swirl on Blue cardstock from the card kit.  I inked the paper with Seedless Preserves distress ink, which made the glittery flourishes pop.  The excess triangle piece was used on the flap.

Ink the edges of one of the embossed panel cards from the kit using Seedless Preserves and a bit of Stormy Sky distress ink.  Stamp the smallest Heartfelt Creations Tattered Blossom stamp around the edges using Seedless Preserves.

Use a Spellbinders lacy rectangular die to cut the Jean Cardstock, ink edges with white pigment ink, and emboss with white embossing powder.  I allowed some of the blue to show through for a more shabby chic (or frosty) look.  Adhere to center of embossed panel.

Adhere "Winter" sticker to matching chipboard shape, ink edges with white pigment ink, and emboss with white embossing powder.  Glue to center of Jean Cardstock piece.

Panel card insert

Attach oval "snowflakes" sticker to matching chipboard shape, ink edges with white pigment ink, and emboss with white embossing powder.  Punch holes on opposite sides of sticker and thread snowflake ribbon around envelope holder, gluing sticker off center.

Envelope front without card inserted

Using the the three smallest sizes of the Heartfelt Creations Tattered Blossoms dies, cut one of each, and one extra of the smallest from the Rubber Duckies Glitter Cardstock.

I wanted to use these for snowflakes, and no one likes yellow snow, so I inked each one with white pigment ink and embossed with white embossing powder.  (NOTE:  Any color cardstock could be used for this part).  I added a bit of Seedless Preserves distress ink to each one and re-heated, which gave a bit of a purple look to the snowflakes.  The two smaller snowflakes were attached to the card, as shown, and the other two were attached to the envelope holder.  Silver dew drops from the Fairy Dust Dew Drops collection were glued to the centers.

Reverse side of envelope

As I said, this card does not fold in half.  It is a single panel, and the sentiment would be added to the reverse side.  This is where the Robin's Nest glittered journal cards come in handy.  As you can see, I used the journal card on the reverse of my card to add either my handwritten or stamped sentiment.   I prefer to leave the sentiment off of my cards until I am ready to send.  That way, I can use it for whatever occasion arises.   If you wanted to mail this, it would have to be put into a larger envelope.  However, this is a wonderful card for presenting in person.  It is quite substantial feeling, and is sure to please any recipient.

Fussy-cut journal card and attach to reverse of panel card

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my project today and will stop by The Robin's Nest online store to see all of the new products and kits they have added, and check out their new line of card and tag kits on sale this month.  What a great opportunity to stock up on those most-wanted papers and embellishments.  Also, check their blog regularly to see what the new design team creates for you.  I also encourage you to visit  Heartfelt Creations to view their products, as well.  

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful New Year!

Barbara

Altered Christmas Ornament

Hello everyone, and welcome back.  I know it is almost Christmas, but I have a really quick and easy last-minute project for you using some wonderful products from The Robin's Nest.  Honestly, it took me longer to come up with the idea than it did to make it.  But I sure do like how it turned out.  I am a big-time animal lover, and birds are definitely at the top of my list.  So, I am very pleased to show you this really cute ornament to either hang on your tree, or give to a friend.  It could even be attached to a gift with some pretty ribbon.

Supplies used:

Olive Fleur card stock
White Glitter Swirl on White card stock
Mocha Trail Dew Drops
Chocolate Cherry Dew Drops
Velvet Ribbon
Fall Ribbon
Circular dies
Paper corrugator
Holly Leaf punch
Plastic snowflakes
Cardinal with pinecones
Moss

As you can see, I started out with an empty tuna fish can.  

I used some circular die cuts that happened to fit rather nicely inside the can, and adhered the Robin's Nest papers Olive Fleur card stock and White Glitter Swirl on White card stock to pieces of chipboard to help cover those ugly ridges in the bottom of the can.  

 

After adhering the paper/chipboard pieces together, I then glued the entire circular piece to the inside bottom of the can. 

I cut two strips of  White Glitter Swirl on White card stock 12" long by 1-1/4" wide, and ran each through my paper corrugator.  One strip was glued to the inside of the can.  I love how it gave a bit of dimension, texture, and interest.  

Before gluing the second corrugated strip to the outside of the can, I used a bit of gold gilder's paste to color the top and bottom edges of the can.  This will make your life easier because you do not have to try to cover every square inch of the can.  I think it 

makes it quite beautiful, don't you?

Gold gilder's paste applied to top and bottom edges

Now, you can glue the second strip to the outside, and because the ornament  will be seen from both sides, you want to make sure you finish the bottom of the can.  This picture depicts the finished bottom and sides, again using that gorgeous White Glitter Swirl on White card stock.  

Bottom (or back) of ornament

I added the Velvet Ribbon, layered with the Fall Ribbon, around the sides of the can.  I punched a hole in the top of the can and thread a piece of wire through to hold a hanging ribbon.  Then, I punched a few holly leaves from the Olive Fleur card stock, placing them around the wire with some Chocolate Cherry Dew Drops to hide the wire.  After adhering a few Mocha Trail Dew Drops and snowflakes to the inside back, I glued some moss and the Cardinal to the inside bottom.

Side  of can

And here is the ornament shown hanging from my little Christmas tree.  How festive is that?

I hope you have enjoyed my project this week, and thanks so much for stopping by.  I trust you have been inspired by the beautiful products from The Robin's Nest, and I encourage you to visit their online store to see all of their new products, as well as gain lots of creative inspiration from all of the talented designers on The Robin's Nest  blog. 

I will be back again next year creating cards to share and inspire you.  In the meantime, I want to wish each and every one a very merry Christmas and a wonderful, peaceful, and prosperous New Year.   

Barbara

The New Robin's Nest Design Team

I am so very excited to announce that I was selected to serve another term as a member of the Robin's Nest design team for the next six months.  We have changed things up a bit here at RN, so now there are four different teams:  

Altered Art Sunday Team
International Monday Team
Cards Tuesday and Thursday Team
Layout Wednesday and Saturday Team

I will be designing cards for the next six months.  I cannot express how honored I am to be chosen and to be able to share my card art with you, along with the other talented artists on the various teams.  

The Robin's Nest carries beautiful papers, Dew Drops, kits, and many other fabulous embellishments that I know you will just have to have, so visit the Robin's Nest online store for all of your paper crafting needs.  I encourage you to check back here regularly, as well as The Chattering Robins blog, to visit the design team's monthly submissions for some great ideas.  

I hope to inspire your creativity over the next six months, and I thank you, with all my heart, for stopping by.

Have a most wonderful and joyous holiday!

Barbara