Romantic Rose

Hello!

Last week was a busy one as I worked on projects for future blog posts and finally today was able to work on something "just because."  I'm going to lose several days this week to an upcoming exciting trip to Houston for a Gecko Galz crafting retreat and was so anxious to get something made and posted, so here 'tis, my latest art journal pread.

The background was colored with various shades and tints of Neocolors which alone right there is a whole bucket of fun.  I do love spreading the colors around with a wet paintbrush.  

There is stamping with black archival ink, decoupage (butterflies from my favorite paper guest towel  which I've been using a lot lately), and some 3-D copper metallic molding paste put through a stencil.  There's even a bit of doodling around the edges, though it's clear that there's work to be done there.  I'm such a beginner...

Isn't she pretty?  I can see I'm going to be using this stamp set (Stamper's Anonymous "Classic Favorites") quite a bit as the images are all so wonderfully romantic.  I first stamped her onto gift wrap tissue paper then decoupaged her onto the page.  The tissue paper disappears and all that's left is the image.  It's the foolproof way to stamp on paper that isn't perfectly smooth, and I'm giving all the credit for this technique to my mother who recently shared it with me.  There is no risk anymore of smudging stamps onto these journal pages!  Her swirly "hair" was stamped directly onto the page as were the stars.

The butterfly is a bit of the top layer of a fancy paper guest towel.

This rose was torn from the box that contained my favorite hand cream, Tokyo Milk.  The image was just too pretty to discard.  Actually, the whole box is gorgeous and you will no doubt be seeing other parts of it in upcoming projects.

The butterfly is another from the paper guest towel.

A little more stamping.  Not sure why it appears a bit blurry, but the sentiment is crystal clear on the actual page.  That's because I stamped it onto tissue paper and decoupaged it to the page, just like the face image.  No chance for smudging!  The light pink swirls are archival ink put through a stencil.

You can see the bottom edge of the metallic molding paste that I applied through a stencil.

And that's it for today's project.  Thanks so much for joining me and I wish you a day full of beauty and lovely moments, big or small.

Happy crafting!

Celebrate World Card Making Day with the StampNation Design Team

This is today's second post.  To see Day Four of Inspired By Stamping's Birthday Bash sneak peeks, please go here.  (Or scroll down.)

Hello!

Did you know that today is World Card Making Day?  Did you even know there WAS such a day?  Well it's today, and I'd like to ask you to join me on a blog hop around the globe with the lovely and talented StampNation Design Team!

We are traveling to each of the 16 countries we have represented in our StampNation and learning a bit about each culture and how they celebrate holidays. Then we are inspired by a photo inspiration that represents each culture.

Fun, right?!

That is where the Blog Hop comes in. We want to share this journey with YOU too!

Each DT member picked her favorite photo inspiration and card to post on her blog.  I chose to make a card representing a certain country (more on that in a bit) and used this photo as my inspiration:

Now I can honestly confess that in the nearly 3 years I lived in that country back in the '80's, I never knew that they colored eggs for certain festivals, but they're gorgeous and I love all the colors and patterns, so I chose to do a card with lots of color and pattern.

I used Gelatos on dampened watercolor paper as my medium and then heat embossed the pattern with gold embossing powder, having first applied the Versamark through a swirly stencil.

The bow is made of seam binding with some gold thread ribbon and a tiny rhinestone added for good measure. The tiny tag has been heat embossed around the edges with gold embossing powder. 

 
So now the fun continues because we are asking you to guess the country the photo comes from, then to leave a comment telling what country you think I've chosen.

One lucky commenter from each blog will win a 3-month subscription to StampNation.

Then, one Grand Prize Winner will win a 3-month subscription as well as all of the cards Catherine made for the event as well as some from the Design Team!

Remember to hop along to each DT member leaving comments along the way to increase your chance of winning!!!

Catherine Pooler

Maureen Merritt

Kristie Goulet

Heather North

Shea Marshall - (you are here!)

Monica Weaver (Guest Designer)

Thank you for joining me, and we'll see you around the hop!



Happy crafting!

*Please Note: To be eligible to win the Grand Prize, you must comment on all Design Team blogs. You do not have to answer the question correctly to be eligible to win. Comments will close on Thursday, October 10th at 11:59 pm Eastern Time. Design Team will announce winners on StampNation and their personal blogs on Friday, October 11th.

Snowflake Bear at A Gem of a Challenge

Hello!

It's time for another challenge over at A Gem of a Challenge, and this week (Challenge #91) the theme is "Pearls", which can include anything pearlescent, be it paints, papers, embellishments, etc. This challenge will run from 8:00 AM August 3, to 6:00 PM August 9, and the prize for the winner will be 2 individual digi images (NOT SETS) from Pink Gem Designs. So do head on over and see what the rest of the lovely Design Team have created, then join us, won't you? We'd love to see you!

For this card I used the adorable PGD stamp "Baby Polar Bear."  Isn't she just the sweetest thing?  For the white base layer I sponged two colors of blue ink through a snowflake stencil.  OK, I'll confess - I used the wrong color of blue ink and redid it with the correct color thus giving a slightly two-toned appearance.  I like it.

I colored her with Copics then masked her while I airbrushed the background, also with Copics.  Some clear glitter on the littls stars and snow, and some gold glitter on the big star added a nice note of sparkle.  I splattered some thinned white acrylic paint to mimic falling snow, once again masking the image.

The diecut snowflakes have been glittered up, and I hand wrote the word "JOY" on the tiny banner and added a couple of pearls.  Pearls also decorate the little bear's winter scarf.

A different angle to try to show the sparkle and dimension.

I also stenciled the inside a little bit.

Thank you so much for joining me today and I wish you a lovely Saturday doing the things YOU want to do, be it crafting, spending time with the family, or both!  And don't forget to visit us at A Gem of a Challenge and play along!

Happy crafting!

Challenges entered:

Simon Says...Anything Goes
Divas By Design - Favorite Color Combination (red and navy)
Pile It On - Anything Goes

Stamp Nation - Sketch