Thursday, December 17, 2015

Guest Designer for Stamps and Stencils

Hello everyone!  Today I have the honor of being Guest Designerfor Stamps and Stencils for their current challenge Grungy Christmas. I was so excited when I received Sue's e-mail inviting me to join the Design Team for this challenge, because I love a vintage grungy Christmas card! I hope you'll join us in this challenge!


You can see my step by step tutorial on how I made the textured gold base layer and my festive plaid layer at Stamps and Stencils, but here are a couple of close up shots. I won't go into detail on that process here, because my post would be much too long!



I will share with you how I made my textured Ornate frame (Tim Holtz), although I have no step by step photos of that. I die cut the frame from Grunge paper and layered on some golden Crackle paste--I love this stuff; it's as light as a feather and makes great cracks (normally--it didn't for this frame, of course!). Once dry, I painted it with Tarnished Brass Distress paint, and when the paint dried, swiped on some metallic rub on wax. I filled my frame with a stamped Tim Holtz image from his Holiday Collections in Sepia Archival ink. (Sorry for the poor photo quality--it's sepia, NOT red in real life!)



I made my poinsettias using Tim Holtz Tattered Poinsettia die and white card.  After die cutting, I swiped the flowers through Twisted Citron Distress paint spritzed with water on my craft sheet. When nearly dry, I ran them through my Tim Holtz poinsettia Texture Fade for a crisp embossing. I added Distress inks in Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn,Vintage Photo, and Worn Lipstick. I  randomly adhered some Rock Candy Distress Glitter using Multi Matte medium.  I added Stickles to the centers.





For my sentiment, I chose a Tim Holtz Handwritten Holiday Thinlit, cut from brown card. I dabbed on some Embossing Dabber and heat embossed with Tea Dye Distress Powder. I love the grungy look!





I would like to enter my card in the following inspiring challenges:
A Vintage Journey Vintage Christmas Tim influence in his techniques: November 12 Tags of 2015, Paint Marbling. His products. His vintage grunge style.
Country View Challenge #34 December-Create a Scene My scene is a of a wall with framed art on it!
Thank you for stopping by today and for all your lovely comments!
Hugs and Christmas Blessings!
Sara Emily

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Wednesday, December 16, 2015

12 Tags of Christmas-Funkie Junkie Style -Week 12 Finito!!!

Hello everyone! Oh, happy day! I've finished my last card for Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas challenge today, and now I can get my (New Years) cards in the mail!  Ha! Ha!


I've never made a gate fold card before, at least not that I can remember! But Linda's tag shown below inspired me to give it a try.   Not only was I inspired by her folded tag, but look at that plaid! I fell in love with that and that sweet bundle of embellishments, and that's just the front of the tag! You should pop over to her blog, and see the surprise inside.


Probably the hardest thing about this card for me was to think ahead,so it would come out the way I wanted it to in the end. I had to have that tree centered! Probably not hard for most of you, but I don't roll that way! My creativity flows...it's rarely planned, so throw in some ciphering, and I'm toast! But that bee was still in my bonnet, and I wanted to get'er done!  I love this one...my favorite...it's like a little gift you open.



First, you slide off the paper twine with the little Tim Holtz Christmas Ephemera tag written out to "YOU ALL" from "ALL OF US". Then the rustic belly band  (festooned with a tiny silver reindeer from Linda's shop and the little snippet of ribbon that held the bag of reindeer closed all held on with a tiny antiqued silver safety pin) slides off to be used again, when the greeting is put away, and hopefully treasured for years to come.




Inside, a Christmas greeting is embossed, then heat embossed with gold powder.




The tree was fussy cut from the edge of my card after I embossed it.   I did this by using the negative from a die cut Woodlands tree as a stencil. Afterwards, I masked it off and used the plaid embossing folder to "stamp" the background in two colors, and then stamped with the music image. Lastly I applied Frantage to the tree and the background for "snow". After adhering the embossed paper to the interior, I had to fussy cut the tree a second time. I'm now legally blind!

If you are thinking of joining in with Linda's challenge, she has graciously extended the deadline to December 27th, so there's still plenty of time!  The Funkie Junkie Boutique is sponsoring this challenge: Linda has three generous gift vouchers to her shop for three lucky winners, and everyone who participates and follows the rules will get a 15 % off coupon to use for a January order! Wow!  If I can do it in 7 days, you can do it in eleven!

Products used (some of them fresh out of the box from my last order from The Funkie Junkie Boutique):  Exterior: Darice embossing folder;  Distress inks in Barn Door, Mowed Lawn, Vintage Photo; Christmas music stamp: Hero Arts; Archival ink in Watering Can;  Frantage; Die: Tim Holtz Woodlands; Embossing Powder: Distress in Peeled Paint and other greens from my stash.  Interior: Tim Holtz Merriment Paper Stash;  Tim Holtz Fancy Christmas Texture Fade, gold embossing powder/Versamark ink; Vintage Photo Distress ink. Embellishments: Recollections burlap ribbon, silver charm/dyed ribbon from Linda's shop; pin, paper twine from stash; Tim Holtz Christmas Ephemera.

I would like thank Linda for her TREMENDOUS energy, inspiration, and  for hosting and sponsoring this challenge (The Funkie Junkie Boutique).

I would like to enter this card into the following inspiring challenges:
The Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas-Funkie Junkie Style-Week 12
A Vintage Journey Vintage Christmas Tim influence:  his vintage style, his spritz and flick technique used on the exterior of my card, his  Distress and Christmas products.
Inspiration Journal/Inspiration Emporium 'Tis the Season
Emerald Creek Dares Festive Challenge Bringing Bits of Cheer
The Artistic Stamper December Creative Challenge -Christmas
Scrapy Land Challenge #32 Holidays I used a Sizzix die (used the negative space of Tim Holtz Woodlands die as a stencil.)
Country View Challenges #34 December Create a Scene
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Just a Pinch I used a pinch of Frantage.
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Die Crazy I used Woodlands die by Tim Holtz/Sizzix.
Card and Scrap Challenge #108 Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday Challenge #14 Anything Goes
Fussy and Fancy challenge # 154 Happy Holidays

Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comments!  I hope you all have a joyful and Blessed Christmas! I appreciate each one of you who cheered me on as I worked my way quickly through the 12 Tags of Christmas!  You all are awesome! Big hugs!
Sara Emily
PS I will be back tomorrow and Friday with three Guest Designer projects.  I hope you'll join me for those posts!
UPDATE: I promised a photo of my Closet when I got all my 12 "tags" done...don't judge me!  I've been very busy! This actually looks much better than it has this week! How can anybody work like this????


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Tuesday, December 15, 2015

12 Tags of Christmas-Funkie Junkie Style-Week 11!!!!!

Hello everyone!  I'm so happy to announce I am officially caught up with Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas challenge, and sadly, there's only one more!


Below is Linda's 11th tag--isn't it beautiful???!  I just fell in love with that blue and gold textured background, those Alpha Parts snowflakes and her layered silver greeting. Linda's blog is chock full of inspiration and her challenge is open until the 20th of December.  She has generously sponsored this challenge with her shop The Funkie Junkie Boutique with THREE gift vouchers to three very lucky winners.  Everyone who participates in the 12 challenges and follows the rules will receive a coupon for 15% off their order in January!  It's a win, WIN situation! For me, it's win, win, win,because I'm getting my cards done, too!

 

Obviously, I drew my inspiration from her textured background, her silver greeting with the shadow, and her snowflakes, but I didn't have the Alpha Parts (kicking myself) or the Snowflakes Thinlits (kicking with the other leg now!). Because I'm the type to just do my own thing, I tried something different with my background texture and changed my color palette to silver. Still the general idea, and almost a copy, so please give credit to Linda.

I started making my background by laying Crackle Texture paste on my card, but that was a miserable fail, and it's in the trash now.  So...plan B! I mixed regular, flexible texture paste with Broken China Distress paint, and slathered (Linda's word) it on my chipboard.  I embedded 3 plastic snowflakes from my stash. It dried quite nicely, but needed something.  I added Rock Candy Crackle Paint and while it was still wet sprinkled on rock Candy Distress glitter. But wait a minute!  I gave it a good shot with my heat tool first, and it bubbled, much to my delight! It didn't crack much; you can catch a tiny glimpse of the crackle next to my snowflake, but the only major crackle is behind the flake! (Of course!!) To bring out the texture a bit, I swiped some silver metallic rub on wax with my finger over the raised areas.  It looked a little too much like 2 week old snow, so I added some white acrylic paint over that. 


My snowflake is Tim's Snowflake Duo  (one of my more recent purchases from Linda's shop), painted with Brushed Pewter Distress paint and embossed with the accompanying Texture Fade. I swiped the raised areas of the flake with Versamark embossing ink and heat embossed with Ranger silver Tinsel embossing powder. I was cleaning up a little in my craft room the other day and came upon a box of crafty stuff I picked up at a yard sale earlier this fall that I hadn't found a home for yet.  Guess what I found???? A snowflake punch! Perfect to layer with, I punched one out of black card, and then layered with a white plastic snowflake from my stash.  I patted that with Sailboat Blue alcohol ink  and gave it a dot of silver Stickles. I backed the layered up snowflake with another Snowflake from the Duo in black, shifting it slightly to make a shadow. Funny how different that Broken China can look with different lighting!


"Wishes" is Tim Holtz Handwritten Holidays Thinlit in 2 layers, shifted with a shadow, as Linda did on her tag.  I heat embossed with silver embossing powder. Each of the plastic snowflakes were given a dot of Stickles, and I also used the Stickles to dot my "I". I added a little white acrylic paint to each of the plastic snowflakes to give them more of a snowy look.


I would like to enter this card in the following inspiring challenges:
The Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas-Funkie Junkie Style- Week11 Linda, I just realized I may have give the wrong name to this link, so will go back and redo all my links :( sadface!
A Vintage Journey Vintage Christmas My Tim influence is in his products and his vintage grungy style.

Thank you for stopping in today and for all your wonderful comments! I appreciate them all!
Hugs and Christmas Blessings!
Sara Emily



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Monday, December 14, 2015

12 Tags of Christmas-Funkie Junkie Style-Week 10

Hello again!  I have just finished my version of Linda's 10th tag of her 12 Tags of Christmas challenge!  Just two more to go! Linda's 10th tag is my favorite--I love the delicate snowflake and her gold and white palette. I pretty much just copied her tag, but gave it a few of my own touches.



Below is Linda's gorgeous tag. Please pop over to her blog and give her some love and see ALL the fabulous inspiration!  Her challenge is open 'til Dec. 20th and is sponsored by her wonderful shop The Funkie Junkie Boutique where you can find mostly anything you need to craft, and the service is outstanding!  Every order is shipped immediately, and when it arrives you will be surprised with a little gift she includes.  For this challenge, she is generously offering THREE gift vouchers to three very lucky winners, and everyone who participates and follows the easy rules receives a generous 15 % off their order in January!  What could be better than that?!

It's pretty obvious I was inspired by Linda's gold and white palette and her background of gesso and texture paste for that dreamy white snow. And of course her delicate snowflake and wispy cheese cloth. To me, this tag is a little slice of Heaven.  





I gave my background a light blending of Vintage Photo Distress ink.  I used the Layering Snowflake and accompanying Texture Fade like Linda did, but I swiped on ranger Embossing Dabber and heat embossed with gold powder and a sprinkle of Frantage.  I used Festive Greenery die by Tim Holtz for my sprigs in gold card, and added DecoArt Snow Writer and Glamour Dust to the foliage as well as along the top of my card.  I brushed my cheesecloth with Ranger Multi Matte Medium and sprinkled on Glamour Dust.  Difficult to capture that shimmer with Mr. I phone, but it's there!  The sentiment is Tim Holtz Handwritten Holidays Thinlit,  heat embossed in gold. I thought about putting a little bling in the center of my snowflake like Linda did, but decided the Frantage gave it just enough glamour! I hope you agree!


That's it for today! Hopefully I'll have Week 11 ready for you tomorrow. 

I would like to enter my card into the following inspiring challenges:
A Vintage Journey Vintage Christmas My Tim inspiration comes from using his dies.
Simon Says Stamp Just a Pinch I used just a pinch of Frantage powders on my snowflake.

Thank you for your visit today and for your lovely comments!
Hugs and Christmas Blessings!
Sara Emily
Woo Hoo!
Have you been in our top 5?
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Sunday, December 13, 2015

12 Tags of Christmas-Funkie Junkie Style-Week 5

Hello everyone! Today I want to share with you my version of Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas Week 5. Again, it's a card, because I'm really behind on my Christmas cards.  Thanks so much, Linda, for the inspiration!


Here is Linda's tag, from which I drew my inspiration.  Specifically, I was inspired by her Evergreen Bough background and her gold sparkly trees and stars on her festive tag. I also loved the background stamping in those scribbly trees, but I don't have them.


Now even though I love that Evergreen Bough colored background, I deepened mine a bit. I blended  my card with Evergreen Bough Distress ink, then spritzed with Dylusions White Linen and dried.I sprayed with Evergreen Bough Distress spray and then with water. I dried then blended with Pine Needles randomly, then did the spritz and flick routine.  I edged in Ground Expresso and splattered with  watered down white acrylic paint. I stamped with snowflakes from Tim Holtz Merry Christmas with Watering Can Archival ink.


I used the Woodlands die for my tree, using both the die cut and the negative.  I  used the negative space to make the background by taping it onto card, and painting through the open space with Glossy Accents. Then gave it a good coat of Distress Glitter Dust.  I love this stuff, but it really should come with a warning from the Surgeon General  on the label.  I almost went blind fussy cutting my tree--the shine is so brilliant, it's like staring at the sun! I shifted the die cut, so a little of the glitter would peek out behind the branches and adhered it to the fussy cut backing. As you know, glitter can be very difficult to capture with the camera, so you will have to use your imagination on how much sparkle this gives off.


My sentiment is Tim's Handwritten Holidays and the foliage from Festive Greenery. The star is a stamp from Tim's Grunge Cirque set, embossed using the Glitter Dust. That's it for today! Only three more to go! Linda's shop The Funkie Junkie Boutique is generously sponsoring this challenge with THREE gift vouchers to three lucky winners and everyone who participates and follows the rules will receive a 15 % off coupon for a January order!  How wonderful is that?! (I almost forgot to follow the rules!)

 I hope you are finding time to find some joy in this busy season! My family got to enjoy my daughter's lovely Christmas Choral Concert at a beautiful church downtown this evening.  She is in a choir called the Voyagers, and they played and sang for one and a half  beautiful hours. In a piece called Stars written by Eriks Esenvalds, they played wine glasses filled with water as they sang, and stars were projected onto the beautiful church walls and ceiling!  It truly was a treat to see and hear, and wish I could share it with you, but no recordings or photography was permitted. I did take this photo of the huge stain glass widow before the concert. the choir assembled directly below it. It was even more beautiful when they turned down the lights and the "stars" came out!


I would like to enter my card into the following inspiring challenges:

Thank you for stopping by and for all your inspiring comments!
Hugs and Christmas Blessings!
Sara Emily




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12 Tags of Christmas-Funkie Junkie Style-Week 9

Hello friends! Thank you for all your amazing comments on my blog!  I have been reading them when I break from my hibernation in the Closet (thanks, Nancy; I think that came from your comment in reference to the bear--I'm petrified of bears! Long story!) and between running all sorts of errands and rides in the car at night to view Christmas lights. Wow! Did we ever get treated to a show last night! We are a town of car dealerships (fun, right?), and one of them has a light show as I've never seen before! According to my daughter, there is an accompanying radio broadcast. I think we'll need to go back for that. It's really a shame it's on the busiest road in town, and you HAVE to pull into the car lot to appreciate it. Hmmm..... We might just have a new car next time you hear from me! Ha! Ha!

Anyway, here is my latest card for Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas challenge. Between Linda's inspiration and your encouraging comments, I am very motivated to finish all 12 by the 20th of December!  I finished this yesterday  afternoon and evening in between raking the leaves (it was a balmy 76 degrees here yesterday!), making dinner, (partially) decorating the tree, going BACK to the home improvement store, and light peeping.


Here is Linda's  tag that inspired me.  (Some of your comments lead me to believe you are thinking I made her lovely tags as well as a card. NOT!) Please visit her blog  The Funkie Junkie, take in the great inspiration, and leave her a lovely comment.


I was so inspired by her beautiful background, I just had to try and duplicate it! Her bold green holly leaves also caught my eye , so I wanted to incorporate them, too.

Gotta love these traditional Christmas colors! Kathy, please come and help me tie bows! I added a few extra holly leaves to fill out my wreath.  I fussy cut around my sentiment. Wreath and sentiment popped up with Ranger Adhesive Foam tape.





 Products used: BACKGROUND: Distress  stains: Mowed Lawn and Barn Door;  Stencil: Tim Holtz Christmas; Metallic rub on wax from my stash--no name; Distress ink: Ground Expresso   SENTIMENT:  Stamp: Flonz Craft; Embossing Powder: Ranger Gold;    WREATH: Dies: Festive Greenery and Holiday Wreath (first time using it; had it for a year!); Distress paints: Mowed Lawn, Evergreen Bough and Peeled Paint; Distress ink: Ground Expresso;  ribbon from my stash      OTHER: Ranger Black Adhesive Foam tape. Most of these products can be found at Linda's shop The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

I want to thank Linda for her amazing inspiration!  I don't know where she finds the time to do these weekly tags, and then share them and her tutorials with us, but I'm sure glad she does! She is also generously sponsoring this challenge by awarding three lucky winners whopping gift vouchers to her shop The Funkie Junkie Boutique, and everyone who participates and follows the rules will receive a 15% off coupon for a January shopping spree!  WIN, WIN, WIN!!!

I would like to enter this card into the following inspiring challenges:
A Vintage Journey Vintage Christmas My Tim influence is in his Distress and die products, his Grungy vintage style, and his Blended Stains and Paint Marbling techniques.
Country View Challenges #34 December Create a Scene Humor me here...I was inspired by the wreathes on doors as I took a walk through my neighborhood. This is supposed to be a decorated door.

Thank you for stopping by and for all your encouraging comments!
Hugs and Christmas Blessings!
Sara Emily

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