Gold Hexagons

Have you been drooling over the stamps at Art Neko?  Every time I visit their website, I find more and more stamps that I want to play with.  One such stamp was this one, called Hexagons and Flowers.  

I really wanted to see how they would look with some shimmer paints called Silks.  I pulled out some greens and pinks and a pale blue paint and colored them with a paintbrush.  I used some Emperor's Gold Silks paint for the hexagons in the stamp and then I used the same gold paint on my hexagon background die cut.

For the blue background on my card base, I sprayed it with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Spray Stain, and then I decided it needed some shimmer.  I sprayed it again with some Patina Glimmer Mist, and then with some Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist.  I love the shimmer on this card!

To help tone things down, I added some simple white butterflies with some hot pink rhinestones.  There is so much shimmer and gold going on, I didn't want the butterflies to overwhelm the card with yet more color and shimmer.  :-)

Stamp: Hexagons and Flowers from Art Neko

Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento

CS: White

Paint: pink, blue, and green Silks paints, Emperor's Gold Silks paint

Other: Mermaid Lagoon Distress Spray Stain, Patina Glimmer Mist, Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist, hexagon background die, butterfly punch, hot pink rhinestones

CAS387 Shimmery Mistletoe

Happy Monday! The CAS challenge over on SCS this week (CAS387) is Christmas in July. I love making Christmas cards. When I saw this challenge, I knew the time had come for me to try something with my newest Christmas dies. 

I pulled out this winter foliage frame from PTI and cut it from white cardstock. Let me tell you - it was a PAIN! The first two were abject failures. I tried again with lots and lots of shims and finally got something that was almost decent. There were a couple of fussy pine branches that did not cut through completely, so you know what? I cut those babies off. LOL If you have this die and you're wondering why mine looks so different, there ya go. LOL!

Sooooo after a little water break, I decided to spray my frame with some green Mistletoe Glimmer Mist. I love Glimmer Mist! I set this aside to dry and set about cutting out the sentiment. These sentiment dies from Penny Black cut like buttah - noooooo problems! Whew! I cut it from white cardstock, and then I decided to color it with a dark red Copic marker for that traditional red and green Christmas combo.

Instead of adhering these to a white card base, I jazzed things up by using some shimmery Poison Ivory cardstock for my base. It feels like a real extravagance when I use shimmery cardstocks for my bases. :-)

Escape the heat dome and come play along in our CAS387 challenge this week. We'd love to see what your Christmas cards look like!  

Poppy Bookmark

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to read.  I have hundreds of books scattered around my house, and I am always in need of bookmarks.  Art Neko came out with a gorgeous sheet of stamps dedicated to creating bookmarks which you can see here.  I love them!!!  

I used the "So Many Books, So Little Time" bookmark stamp for my project today.  I colored the bookmark with Copic markers and then I covered the little clock face with some clear glaze and set it aside to dry.  To age my bookmark a little bit, I sponged some Gathered Twigs distress ink over the whole piece.  I cut out the stamped image and adhered it to a larger black cardstock piece and then put it inside a bookmark sleeve.  I adorned the bookmark with a red tassel to coordinate with my flowers.  

There are a bunch of gorgeous colors of tassels at Art Neko.  Just type in "tassel" in the search box and see all the selections - gold, black, blue, green, pink, white, chocolate, purple and burgundy are just a few of the colors there.  You can buy the bundle which includes the bookmark stamps, the bookmark sleeves, and the tassels by clicking on THIS link.  This is a great bargain!

If you want to just buy a few of the bookmark stamps, you can type in "bookmark" in the search box and you'll see all the bookmark stamps as well as the tassels and sleeves and other assorted stamps.  If you are like me, you'll start drooling over all the gorgeous stamps.  :-)


Here is a handy list of links to click on:

Bookmark stamps, sleeves, and tassels bundle - http://artneko.com/displayItem/A382-SET1
Bookmarks and sentiments stamps - http://artneko.com/displayItem/A382-FSHT
Assorted bookmark stamps - http://artneko.com/search.php?searchTerm=bookmark
Tassels - http://artneko.com/search.php?searchTerm=tassel
Bookmark sleeves - http://artneko.com/search.php?searchTerm=bookmark+sleeves

You're How Old?!

Hahahaha!  These crazy birds from Tim Holtz crack me up.  I made this card for my brother's birthday.

I bought some Strathmore Bright White cardstock from Paper Temptress, and I was curious to see if it would stand up to a heavy spray and some watercoloring.  So I sprayed a piece of this white cardstock with different colors of Distress Spray Stains and it took the color beautifully.  It dried almost completely flat - which is awesome!  Normally when I spray any kind of cardstock, it warps like crazy but not this Strathmore Bright White.  I'm impressed!

Next, I watercolored the stamped bird with distress inks.  The bird was stamped with a waterproof black ink onto the Strathmore Bright White cardstock and I hit it with a heat gun to make sure it dried completely.  Then I pulled out some distress inks and watercolored the bird, going over some areas several times until I got the hues "just right."  This paper did not pill or tear or resist the ink.  I'm really happy with this paper!

My last test was running this Strathmore Bright White cardstock through my printer.  The sentiment was typed up on the computer and I printed it on a laser printer.  The printing is crisp and bold and did not flake off nor rub off.  I'm completely sold on this white cardstock.  I can use colored pencils on it, I can spray it, I can watercolor on it, and I can print on it.  How cool is that??

Stamp: Bird Crazy from Stampers Anonymous
Die: Bird Crazy from Stampers Anonymous
Ink: Basic Black Archival from Stampin Up, Pumpkin Pie from Stampin Up
Distress Ink: Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire
Distress Spray Stain: Lucky Clover, Mermaid Lagoon, Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Picket Fence
Cardstock: black, Strathmore Bright White from Paper Temptress

Antiqued Plum Blossom Print

I was playing with this beautiful Plum Blossom Branch from Art Neko, and I came upon an interesting discovery.  Look closely at the picture below.  Look at the writing on the right side.  See how it looks like there is a pink-ish halo around the letters?  You can see this same pink halo emanating from the branches as well.

How did that happen?  It was a complete accident.  LOL  I stamped this Plum Blossom Branch with Tuxedo Black Memento ink onto white cardstock.  I then colored the flowers with pink Copic markers.  I decided I need a pale blue background, so I mixed up my own custom color by filling a mister bottle with some Pearl colored Perfect Pearls powder, some water, and a little bit of Tumbled Glass Distress Spray Stain.  

After I shook up the mister bottle, I sprayed the plum blossom piece several times.  My finger smudged a couple of edges, so I sprayed some more, and some more, and some more.  LOL  My paper was completely soaking wet, so I left it alone for several hours to dry.  When I came back to look at it, I gasped!  I thought I ruined it when I saw the pink-ish color running out from the black stamped areas.  And because the paper had been so heavily sprayed, it created a few creases in the paper as well.

But you know what?  The more I looked at this, the more I loved it.  It looks like a piece of faux silk with the creases and the distressed, antiqued image.  I love how this turned out, even though this was not the result I had in mind.  Always look for the beauty in every thing you do.  :-)

Stamp: Plum Blossom Branch from Art Neko

Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento

Paper: white, black, Hibiscus (pink)

Other: Copic markers, mister bottle with Tumbled Glass Distress Spray Stain, water, and Pearl Perfect Pearls powder

Love You to the Moon and Back in white

Hi everyone!  Today I'm sharing a card I made for Verses Rubber Stamps.  I used white cardstock for everything on this card and I stamped the Moon and Back sentiment in black ink.  It fits beautifully inside the embossed oval and I accented it with some die cut leaves and a flower.

You can find this Moon and Back sentiment in the Romance category on the Verses Rubber Stamps website.  There are a lot of gorgeous sentiments in there - I want them all!!  :-)

Dragonflies in Moonlight

Good morning, everyone!  I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July!  I have some exciting news to share with you today.  As you know, I've been designing for Art Neko on a freelance basis for a couple of years now, and I'm so happy to tell you that Art Neko now has a brand new Design Team.  I've been asked to head up the Design Team as the Coordinator, and we have some wonderful artwork to share with you.  You can see the Artists on the Art Neko Design Team by looking in my sidebar here (you may have to scroll down depending on your monitor).

Art Neko will soon have a brand new website that will be more user friendly, and there will be a blog and a gallery to go with the new website.  It's going to be so exciting!

To kick off our exciting news, I'm sharing this Dragonfly in Moonlight card with you this morning.  I embossed the Dragonfly in Moonlight stamp with gold embossing powder, and then I watercolored the image with my new Gansai Tambi watercolors.  I used the same powder to emboss the Flurry of Dragonflies and the Kanji stamps onto some dark blue cardstock.  I then created a layer of gold embossed cardstock as a mat for my moonlight scene and adhered that to my card base with foam tape.

Please have a look at the work that the Design Team Artists have created by going to their blogs listed in my sidebar.  We will be posting to our blogs every week, so there will be lots of gorgeous eye candy to drool over.  :-)