Mixed Media Mayhem!

Good morning, crafty friends.

I had to jump on board the Distress Oxide ink band-wagon after seeing several people's demonstration of their potential and:

• ordered a half dozen colours to try out;
• discovered a bottle of Frisket, the masking fluid, probably purchased sometime in 2016 and never opened, under a pile of patterned paper on the craft table;
• needed a new "miss you" card for my hubby's suitcase...

All the right ingredients for an experiment!

Here's my card:

I bought this stamp set from Close to My Heart last year---my DH was a chemistry student when we met, so the sentiment is perfect!

I started by stamping the beakers onto the card base with archival black ink. I used a paper mask to give the illusion of one beaker being behind the other.

Then I covered them both, and the sentiment with the Frisket liquid. It's pretty easy to use, and dries translucent so you can see what is underneath.

Then I went to town with three colours of Distress Oxide ink: spiced marmalade, broken china and cracked pistachio. I smooshed the ink onto a craft mat, spritzed with water and then dragged the card base through the ink. Dried it off and began again; added some splatters... Very satisfying and completely random. 

Once it looked like a small explosion, I rubbed off the Frisket and coloured the beakers with alcohol markers. Added some bubbles from the stamp set with Oxide inks. And coated the beakers with Liquid Glass so they'd look glassy.

I just love the result!

 Let me know what you think, or tell me about your experiments with Distress Oxides.

Have a creative day!

Caroline

P.S.: getting in, better late than never,  to Kathy Racoosin's 30 Day Colouring Challenge, on Day 30!

Also linking up to Simon Says Stamp's National Craft Month post HERE

Merry...Wednesday :)

Happy hump-day, crafty peeps!

Just three more sleeps until World Card-Making Day!

Which is also the launch of this year's Caring Hearts Card Drive.  More details on that on Saturday.

In the meantime, I'm adding to the Christmas card stash, playing along with this week's Merry Monday challenge:

using the non-traditional colours of dark & light pink and grey or silver.

I used a cut-away card design I say on Stamp Nation's latest blog hop, by  Ingrid Blackburn.

A portion of the card is cut-away, and the top and bottom parts are connected by some silvery snowflakes.  The pink watercolour dot paper is from the new Close to My Heart Whimsy Fundamentals paper pack. I thought it looked like softly falling pink snow! The card base is Raspberry cardstock. Snow flake dies by My Favorite Things.

Inside message appropriately sparkly, from Winter Greetings stamp set by Lil'Inker Designs.

Still lots of time to link up with the Merry Monday Challenge #215! 

See you there,

Caroline

Playing with Atlantic Hearts

Good morning crafty peeps!

Missing in action again for MONTHS, but happily, I received an invitation from Michelle Stewart to join with other alumni of the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

So I am posting for Sketch #156 .

I used the  paperpack Regatta and stamp set with coordinating Thin-cut dies, all from Close to My Heart, to make a sweet nautical-themed card. I heat-embossed the anchor die-cut with metallic silver.

The message inside says, "you are my anchor". Another quick card for hubby's suitcase when he travels to Vancouver later this week.
Short and sweet; I hope to get to some more paper-crafting this weekend.

In the meantime, swing on over to Atlantic Hearts and see the other entries. Then try your hand at this week's sketch!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Happy & Fabulous in 2016

Big smooches to you, my fabulous crafty friends!

My first posting of the New Year. It's been a busy month so far. My job as a speech-language pathologist ended just before Christmas, but this semester, I'm teaching a course on stuttering. I was a last-minute replacement, so I've been scrambling to get the materials ready.

But I couldn't resist this week's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

Cindy's original design was for a gate-fold card, so I decided to go with that to create invitations to my neighbours and sisters for a ladies' pampering evening later this month.

Here's my version:

And here's what the card looks like as it opens up.

I used an older Stampin' Up set with FABULOUS images to create the right-side design, repeatedly stamping the lipstick image in subtle CTMH Slate ink,

I coloured one of the images for the inside, using Copic markers.

The smooch is a Lil'Inker Designs stamp, inked in CTMH Pomegranate, and embossed with clear shiny powder for some shine. The sentiment stamps are LID, as well.

Hope your New Year is off to a FABULOUS start.

Stay crafty,

Caroline

Merry and Bright--Caring Hearts post #3

Good evening crafty friends!

I hope you all had a productive weekend.

Mine was full! Card workshop with the artful Heather Telford, haunted Halloween fun with family, errands and more visiting today.

Last weekend, I saved this inspiration  photo from Weekly Christmas Card Challenges

but didn't look carefully enough at the cut-off date, so I missed it. Happily, the challenge this week is "anything goes" so I'll go ahead and enter my card anyway.

 Here's the card:

I've been intrigued by Northern Lights backgrounds I've seen here and there on others' blogs.

I figured since the North Pole is directly above Canada, that Santa needed an aurora borealis background.  The night sky was created by layering distress inks, without too much blending. Some harsh edges look good, too, as this image of the northern lights illustrates.

An update on the Caring Hearts Card Drive:

 I've received 60 cards to date, for distribution here in Canada, just three weeks into the drive.

Some of the card-makers at Heather's class are going to participate. Stayed tuned for more news on how those cards will be delivered to nursing homes this year.

Keep on crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Distress inks, Ranger: fossilized amber, twisted citron, seedless preserves, blueprint sketch, chipped sapphire and black soot.

Canson watercolour paper

Essentials by Ellen Hutson: merry & bright die

Close to My Heart: Santa and reindeer stamp (retired)

Uni-ball Signo: white gel pen

Thanks for the support!

Thank you, QueenB!

I found a new blog to follow while hopping through Pretty Pink Posh's latest blog hop.

Barbara, aka QueenB at The Buzz is also participating in Kathy Racoosin's 30-day Coloring challenge.

Anyway, these cards are direct CASEs of ones Barbara created HERE. Same stamp set, same technique, same card design. Why improve on perfection?

So I made up a big 8x10 sheet of watercolor paper with the black-line emboss-resist image and used watercolor pencils on the flowers and leaves (Inktense) and then a wash of Distress Ink marker (Tumbled Glass) for the sky. I love that you can scribble with a marker on the watercolor paper, and still wash it out. It flows, rather than sinking in.

Then I cut up my panel and created half a dozen 4-bar cards. Cream card base, black stitched mat (Lil'Inker Designs), white-embossed sentiment, done!

I made a couple more cards with the left-over watercolor pieces:

These cards are intended for all the kind folks who sponsored me in the recent 10km race I ran here during the Ottawa Marathon weekend. I was raising funds for stuttering treatment.

My friend Erika and I wearing our team shirts on race day.

Thank YOU for reading!

Happy crafting, 

Caroline

Caring Hearts...♥

Happy Saturday, crafty friends!

Collection for the Caring Hearts Card Drive 2014 ended yesterday.

Want to know the total number of cards I received, here in Eastern Canada?

936

Wowsers, eh?

Many of the contributors commented on how much they enjoyed making cards for such a good cause, and that they look forward to doing it again next year (yes!). Several mentioned that they held card-making "bees" with their friends. Some asked how to make sure nursing homes in their area receive cards next year. This thing just keeps on growing!

 

As a "depot" I got to admire & enjoy the beautiful designs and top-notch craftsmanship of the cards that arrived. We had contributions from across Canada (British Columbia to Nova Scotia) as well as a few from overseas (France and Australia). Amazing!

I'm going to wait to announce the winner of the prize I mentioned in THIS blog post; Vera will take another week to finish collating all the results and drawing for prizes.

Next week I'll be able to tell you about a special project we have going in Ottawa to deliver the cards to nursing homes... It has an awesome name.

Finally got a little time to craft today, and was inspired by this advertisement:

I used the stripes from the shopping bag, and a new stamp set from Close to My Heart.

Took my trusty Paper Smooches bookmark die, and some platinum embossing powder and voilà.

I love those bright colours sandwiched between the traditional red & green.

This card is being entered in this week's Card Concept challenge: use a tag.

Stay tuned for more Caring Hearts news...

Happy crafting, 

Caroline

Missing you... for Newton's Nook Inky Paws Challenge #10

Playing along with Newton's Nook Inky Paws challenge!

This cute little guy is Winston (which happens to be one of my son's nick-name--its a long story!). He is drawn to be able to hold several little stamps that come in this set:

I made a "missing you" card and used the "grin and BEAR it" sentiment for the inside.

Using DIstress inks, I stamped some leaf images using onto a large wood veneer leaf shape to make it look like a tree. Then I layered the corresponding vein on top, having coloured that, too, to create a tree trunk.

Winston is stamped onto brown suede paper, and shaded with Copic markers. He's really soft to the touch!

He's holding onto an S-O-S/I-love-you balloon, floating above the forest. With a craft knife, I cut slits around his paw, and used the baker's twine that Jennifer Jackson sent with the stamp set, to anchor the balloon.

This challenge runs for another week--break out your Newton's Nook stamps and give it a try!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Winston's birthday stamp set (Newton's Nook)

Memento Rich Cocoa Ink

Copic Markers

Distress Markers

Paper SMooches Border Dies 1 (contour)

My Favorite Things grass die

Avery Elle's Alpha Dies

Paper Wishes: balloon die & suede paper

My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pack

Card-stock (CTMH)

Wood veneer shapes (Close to My Heart-retired)

Missing--sentiment stamp (CTMH-retired)

Signo-Uniball white pen

Sweet baby...

Hello crafty friends!

Here’s a cute idea found on Papertrey Ink’s blog:  defining a heat-embossed image with repeated “confetti” or cluster stamping.
PTI's samples used circle or star images for “thanks” and “celebrate” cards.  I needed to make a  “welcome baby” card for my husband’s colleague, and thought hearts would be a sweet alternative.
The word “baby” was stamped in Versamark ink with an alpha stamp set from Close to My Heart, then heat-embossed in white.  A selection of  heart images were stamped in cascading arcs, in different coloured inks, over the card panel. They were clustered over the word BABY so that it “appears” in the midst of the hearts.  I wiped a tissue over the word to clean off any stray ink.  A patterned paper mat, wrapping of baker’s twine and little tag completed the card. 
My husband’s admin assistant says he always tries to take credit for making the cards as our initials (added to the back of the card, with the date of creation) are the same...check for inky fingers, I say!

Happy stamping,

Caroline

One of a Kind...Dynamic Duos #100

Grab your paint-brushes, crafty friends! And your tissues.

It's Triple-Threat week at the Dynamic Duos--THREE colours to play with.

BUT

You may also have noticed the auspicious number of this challenge: #100.

Lesley Croghan and Anne-Marie Hile have decided to close the challenge blog, and this will be our last post :(

Anticipating that sad event may be why I had a little trouble getting geared up for my project this week... I didn't have any cardstock or paper close to Pool Party/aqua in my stash, so I had to improvise. I've signed up for the next Online Card Class: Watercolour for Card Makers. The pre-class homework includes getting in some practice dabbling with different media. So I tried some watered-down dye-ink, colouring in a stamped and heat-embossed image.

 and came up with this card.

Wasn't totally satisfied, so I tried again, this time CASEing a design by Laurie Schmidlin.

 I stamped the dress-form three times, in Archival ink, then swabbed some diluted dye ink over top, in the three challenge colours.

Laurie had given each of her dresses a cute accessory. I decided to go all out with just one of them, adding a gathered tulle skirt, resin flower and of course, PEARLS. That led naturally to the sentiment...

Please go leave some love for each of my fellow DT team-mates. They'll need the virtual hugs...

Anne Marie Hile

Annette Elliott

Angel Johns

Caroline Bredeson

Cindy Brumbaugh

Holly Endress

JoAnn Burnham

Julie Gearinger

Michelle Bala

Sarah Fleming 

Tenia Nelson

 AND we really hope all our Dynamic Duos fans will join us for our final challenge! I double-dog-dare you to link up your project!

Finally, a HUGE thank-you to Anne-Marie and Lesley for believing in me and my teamies. We've had an inspiring six months!  

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Tim Holtz water-colour paper

Cardstock in Black, Juniper, Slate, and White Daisy

Ink: Juniper, Honey, Slate, Archival Black (all CTMH); Versamark; silver embossing powder

Ribbon and bling from the stash (all items CTMH) 

Stamp sets: Taylor-made, Home (retired CTMH); sentiment set, The Stamps of Life

Dies: Lil'Inker stitched rectangles die; Spellbinders Labels #2.

Paint-brush and water

 

Lecker! Something delicious for KIS! #36

It's been a while since I played with Keep It Simple!

The current challenge is "Lecker!" which translates to "delicious."

My sister, who lives in Amsterdam, uses that word, too, and it DOES sound delicious when spoken. There are already cards submitted with fruit, cake, coffee and so on, so I thought I'd go the CHOCOLATE route.

This card features a Stamp of the Month from Close to my Heart. I heat-embossed the brownie with Cocoa powder (yum!), and traced the frosting with a white gel pen.  The lacy border is a Paper Wishes die and the ribbon was a Verve purchase. Everything is mounted on a Chocolate card base with some pink enamel dots thrown in for good measure.

Are you thinking of your favorite treat?

Why not head over to the Keep It Simple blog and link up your creation. The challenge runs through Wednesday, April 3rd.

Happy crafting,

(AND cooking and munching!)

Caroline

Supplies:

Cardstock in Chocolate, Cocoa and White Daisy

Ink: Versamark + Cocoa embossing powder and White Detail embossing powder

Stamp sets: both retired Close to My Heart; A Chocolate Affair & Mad About You

Distress Markers and Copics; Wink of Stella

Ribbon: Verve Stamps

Dies: Paper Wishes "2 Lacy Borders;"Spellbinders' circles and scalloped circles

Enamel dots: Flamingo, CTMH

Card for a Crafty Friend...Dynamic Duos #95

Hey there, crafty friends.

Guess what its doing outside, this fine Spring morning in Ontario?

Snowing fit to beat the band. 

PERFECT day to stay inside and CRAFT.

And we have the perfect recipe for you, here at the Dynamic Duos:

Yep, its Triple Threat week! THREE delicious colours to play with.

This week, I wanted to experiment with some water-colouring effects. LOTS of that out and about on the internet. Did I mention my penance this year for Lent? NO purchasing of craft supplies for the whole 40 days... So, making use of what I have on hand, I first heat-embossed this great subway-art design from Fresh-Squeezed Stamps:

Then I played around with some distress markers and water-colour pencils. 

As I didn't have anything close, my SU friend Hayley gave me some Rich Razzleberry cardstock (WHAT a delicious colour!). It seemed to deserve centre-stage on this card. So I rummaged through my button and bling collection to come up with this final product:

 Further note the cross-stitching along the bottom (more, sadly retired Fresh-squeezed stamps) and the über-cute scissors charm! (Close to my Heart jewelry supplies).

I just love how this turned out, and some crafty friend will be the lucky recipient!

Check out the awesome creations by the Dynamic Duos design team:

 Annette Elliott

Angel Johns

Cindy Brumbaugh

Holly Endress

JoAnn Burnham

Julie Gearinger

Michelle Bala

Sarah Fleming 

Tenia Nelson

Now get your craft on, and meet us at the Dynamic Duos blog-link.We love to see what you create!

Happy crafting,

Caroline

Supplies:

Card-stock: Rich Razzleberry (SU); white Daisy (CTMH); watercolour paper (Ranger)

Ink: Versamark, and Clear Detail embossing powder (SU)

Stamps: Fresh-Squeezed Stamps--Crafty Friend and Friendly Folk

Colour: Ranger Distress markers in Picked Preserves, Evergreen Bough and Victorian Velvet; water-brush

Buttons and bling: Close to my Heart green and pink button collections (retired); purple gems; Craft Queen charms.

Ribbon from the stash