Paint Distressed Card Stock

I made this card so long ago and finally decided to use it. I was playing with acrylic craft paints on paper several years ago, trying some of the techniques I've used on craft projects on card stock. I made several different pieces using different techniques. This background is one of those. 

This particular piece uses dry brushing and fly specking of acrylic craft paints onto Ruby Red card stock from Stampin' Up!

This is how you achieve this particular distressed look:

*Just barely dip the tips of bristles on a toothbrush into acrylic craft piant, then lightly drag it across the card stock to create the dry brushed lines. You may want to dab it onto a scrap piece of paper towel first to make sure it isn't too wet with paint. You can use as many colors as you'd like, I used two.

*Once you are happy with the dry brushing of the streaks on your paper, rinse and dry the toothbrush.

*Once again barely dip the bristles into acrylic craft paint, but this time run your thumb across the bristles to flick the paint onto the card stock to create a "fly specked" (paint splattered) look.

The apple image was stamped with Basic Black ink onto a piece of one of the old Naturals card stocks. I water colored with Classic ink pads from Stampin' Up! and an aquapainter. I also used a marker in a spritzer tool to "airbrush" on fine splatters of ink. 

The apple piece is mounted onto Garden Green card stock that I crumpled then ever so lightly rubbed paint over the ripples of the crumpled card stock. The top of it is rolled around a sliver of a real twig while the bottom has been torn by hand.

I also stamped and water colored the same apple image from the stamp set inside the card and on the envelope.

Thanks for looking =)

I Brake for Yard Sales

You may have seen the bumper stickers on cars or heard the jokes about women and yard sales. Although that does not describe me, I did make a U-turn for a church parking lot sale recently and glad I did !

(read about a trip I made to a yard sale earlier this year here if you are a Stampin' Up! stamp set lover)

On my way in to town to do some errands, I drove by a parking lot sale at a local church. I decided I'd turn around and go back to see what they had since it wasn't too hot out yet and early in the morning. If I stopped on my way back by, I'd have a car full of groceries that would get hot but more importantly,  there might have been some bargains I missed ! Despite it being several individuals selling there stuff (lots of old junk to me, but you know the saying how one man's junk is another man's treasure....) out of their cars, I'm happy I decided to make that Uturn. I bought all 180 (that's right, one hundred and eighty!) pieces of retired Stampin' Up! colors of card stock from a lady for 5 cents a sheet ! I thought it was a great deal even if they were retired and not necessarily colors I use often. She told me that she really didn't want to take anything back home, they were leftovers from a yard sale she had a couple of weeks ago. She also had a couple dozen stamp sets priced very reasonably, but I resisted. Honestly, had they been older stamp sets I wished I would have bought years ago, I would not have hesitated to buy them, but most were the free sets from SaleABration. I really had to use my will power to pass some of them up though.

"I don't need more, I don't need more..... I don't use what I already have nearly enough not to mention I still have sets I haven't used yet. I don't need more even if they are almost half price!" Now if only I can channel that willpower towards my Dove chocolate urges, grin !

Anyhow, she was glad to be rid of it. I think all of the greens will come in handy to make holiday cards for heroes this year =) 

Glitter Paper for My Digital Studio - home made

See yesterday's post for a project with the digital Dazzling Diamonds glitter paper and details on how I made it.




I decided to give it another try, this time making digital red glitter paper and here is a quickie project made using it with My Digital Studio. Inspired by simple ornaments I made several years ago, reusing old glass ornaments. I have made a version of this card using decorative scraps and embellishments in the past. I decided it might make a pretty easy card project to show off the glitter / glimmer / shimmer papers I made. It looks pretty decent on my computer monitor, but I don't think it would look nearly as nice printed out.



Supplies used in My Digital Studio:

Whisper White, More Mustard card stock and my glitter papers

Circle, rounded corner square, oval and snowflake punches

Cherry Cobbler satin ribbon

Rhinestones

Real Red glimmer brad

Vintage Overlays for the faux dry embossed edge ("stamp" in Whisper White, center the drop shadow and play with the blur /opacity to get the effect you want)

Happy Holidays "stamped" in Cherry Cobbler





I made the red glitter paper differently, it was an experiment. I used my original Dazzling Diamonds digital file and opened it in Photoshop Elements 10. I played around with it until I figured out how to change the color (I really don't know what I am doing!). My "Aha!" moment: I opened a new adjustment layer and filled it with a solid color ( a shade of red) then reduced the opacity a bit. It isn't "shimmery" like the original file, as expected. I ought to try to make it the way I made the Dazzling Diamonds digital paper file: dump red glitter out on a piece of paper and take a photo of it.



Thanks for looking =)

Scrapbook Page with My Digital Studio -Glitter!

I came across this photo while looking for one to submit to a pet calendar fundraising contest. One of my favorites of our beloved dog Cassie who passed away last year.  Not that I need yet another project featuring one of my pets, but I couldn't resist making this scrapbook page with My Digital Studio using the papers I recently spent hours (and hours and hours!) digitizing. I used my Canoscan to scan in retired designer papers that are not available digitally for use with MDS. It was a good project to work on during the record breaking heat we've had this summer. Love these papers, but I wanted a little something more for this project ......... glitter ! 

The layout is based on a sketch at the Create With Connie and Mary web site this week that I saw a reference to elsewhere.  I did change it a tiny bit ;)    CCMC213  < Click the link to see dozens of  fantastic submissions !

My Digital Glitter Paper Closeup

                       ** click the image above to enlarge so you can see the digital glitter paper on the snowflake better!**

This is a close up of my digital glitter paper (also thread for the button and digitized papers I made as well ). It was a bit tricky to make the digital glitter paper, and I know it can be better, but it isn't bad. It looks pretty good, for a digital image, on smaller items such as this snowflake punch.

This is how I made my digital glitter/glimmer/shimmer paper:
~I sprinkled Dazzling Diamonds glitter onto white pape then took a photo of it.
~I opened that digital photo file on my computer and increased the exposure with Photoshop Elements 10 to make it white since it came out gray (I could also use it as a silver metallic digital glitter paper!).
~I cropped out the best looking area and saved it as my glitter paper file to use in My Digital Studio.
~I saved the custom made paper file in a folder I created and named Custom under My Computer / Program Files / My Digital Studio / Components / Backgrounds / Designer Series Papers. 

In order to make the glitter paper look better on the snowflake punch in My Digital Studio, I layered two snowflake punches on top of each other. The base punch is Whisper White, the top one is my glitter paper that I reduced in opacity a bit . I had to do this because I thought the digital glitter paper still had a gray tint to it. I also changed the size of the punch in relation to the original digital glitter paper file I filled it with by clicking on it a couple of times. By doing this, the flakes got smaller, more fine (the punch was zooming out on the paper fill screen). Look at tomorrows post to see the glitter a bit "chunkier" by not reducing the size of the original file in the punch. 

No, I've not had my digitized papers printed out to know how they look in ink on paper vs my computer screen.

SUPPLIES:
*My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up!, original version
*All decorative papers are made by me by digitizing Ski Slope designer papers and glitter.
*Old Olive textured card stock and scalloped square punch for the scalloped edge photo mat
*Chocolate Chip around the edge of the photo (photo mat)
*Square punches stretched to make rectangles then filled with decorative paper
*Scalloped Square punch filled with matching paper and hidden behind the brown rectangle to get the scalloped edge on the end (easier than trying to use the scallped edge punch then covering up a portion of it with a square punch filled with the blue snowflake designer paper, believe me I tried that first)
*Snowflake punch filled with my glitter paper
*Scalloped circle and circle punchs
*Baja Breeze button (Subtles buttons)
* the thread I created to fill the button holes
I made the digital thread some time ago basically the same way although I don't remember all of the exact steps. I saved it into a custom folder I made in the Embellishments folder.



There are likely glitter digital papers already shared somewhere on the web, but I don't do much internet surfing (and no downloads unless I pack the old laptop off to get free wifi somewhere, and even then it doesn't always work !) due to slow internet connection.

Check back tomorrow for another My Digital Studio glitter paper project - with red glitter.

Thanks for looking =) 

My Digital Studio - testing a crazy idea

My Digital Studio Holiday Card - playing around, testing an idea


I've had this crazy, time consuming idea ever since I bought My Digital Studio a couple of years ago and never attempted: make new digital papers from old designer papers I already own and that are not available digitally.

What better way to stay inside out of the heat than to try out this idea now that my Honor Flight card project was complete and in the mail !

I'm so proud of myself for muddling through, determined to make it work - and having no real idea of how to go about it. Of course, I made it far more difficult than it needed to be, but I'm glad I took the extra time (hours and hours and hours!) to do it the way I did. In the end after lots of trial and error I think I have decent digital images of my actual papers. They are not as perfect as the true digital image would be if they were purchased from Stampin' Up!, but since these designs are not available, I did the best I could. As I go through them and use them I may find more little glitches that I will need to try to repair.

The testing project above uses the Ski Slope designer papers and some embellishments. I used a circle punch, varied in size, and filled with each of the twelve designs of the designer paper.


My Digital Studio Supplies:
Circle Punch
Polka dot scalloped edge ribbon
Old Olive glimmer brad
Neutrals buttons
Old Olive Satin ribbon knot
Chocolate Chip brads
Corduroy Buttons, Chocolate Chip
Seam binding, Baja Breeze
Vintage Brad
Stamp brush, Chocolate Chip ink- I don't remember which set it came from!
5x7 card size



Note the thread in the buttons on the upper left. I made that image quite some time ago. Once again, it was a time consuming learning process (that I have no idea now how I did it!) to create. I disliked that there were no knots or loops of thread to run through the button holes so I made my own. They are tricky to use though since they need to be teeny tiny, but it sure finishes off the button holes.


Thanks for looking =)

Honor Flight Cards Part 5

I miss Stampin' Up! making stamp sets with coordinating brass templates.

The star card in front is made with one such set. 

Stamp the star image then pierce around it with the matching template.

The flag on the front card was stamped on copy weight paper,

colored then cut out and adhered to the front along the pole.

Slight bending of the paper gives it the impression that it is

waving in the wind.

The star cards are two step stamp sets with two colors of ink.

The flag is one stamp image that I colored with water based markers. 

These are the last of the cards made from scraps and premade note cards that I altered (see first post in the series, August 1st). I made 95 of them, three of each design that I've shared in the past several posts, to donate to an Honor Flight.

Retired Stampin' Up! rubber stamp sets used on these cards:

Love It and coordinating brass template

God Bless America

Americana Collection

Scribbles

Stars and Swirls

Background Basics

Happy Fourth

Swirly Stars Jumbo Wheel

Real Red and Brilliant Blue ink pads and markers

small star paper punch

paper piercer

Thanks for looking =) 

Honor Flight Cards Part 4

Cards made from scraps and premade note cards that I altered (see the first post in this series, August 1st). I made 95 of them, three of each design that I've shared in the past several posts, to donate to an Honor Flight.

Assorted punches, embossing folders, brass template, card stock scraps were used to embellish the plain white note cards. 

Thanks for looking =) 

Honor Flight Cards Part 3

More of the 95 cards I made and donated to an Honor Flight.

Assorted card stock scraps, punches, die, embossing folder, brass templates, Scor Pal and paper piercer were used to decorate note cards already printed with Thank You.

Thanks for looking =)

Honor Flight Cards Part 2

The dry embossed lines on the white card bases are

created with a Scor Pal and stylus.

Paper Crimper adds a fun look to the card stock strips.

Assorted cards I made to donate to an Honor Flight.

I made three of each design, 

there are 95 in all I donated.

Assorted card stock scraps
Assorted punches
Paper Crimper
Scor Pal
Embossing Folder
Paper Piercer


Thanks for looking =)

Honor Flight - Cards For Veterans

I received an email from an old high school acquaintance two weeks ago letting fellow classmates know that his father was going on an Honor Flight. He asked that we send a note of thanks to his father and if we wanted to, any other veteran on the flight.

I was already contemplating what my next big project would be when I received this email, so I wrote back telling him I would for sure send a card to his father and asking if he knew how many Veterans may be on the flight. He replied 95 ! WOW! I had no idea that many went at one time ! I thought if it was a couple dozen or so I'd make a card for each, that way every Veteran on the flight would receive at least one card.

After thinking about it a little bit and looking through my supplies, I decided what better way to stay out of the extreme heat and humidity we are still having here in the Midwest: I'll make 95 Thank You cards, one for each Veteran on this particular Honor Flight. Honor Flights alone are a special, moving experience for our Veterans, but I think receiving cards and notes would make it more so.

Because of the number had to make in such a short amount of time, they are pretty simple.

I started off by altering two and a half boxes of adorable eyelet edged Thank You cards made by Martha Stewart Crafts. I found them at a discount store for $2 a box a couple of years ago and couldn't pass them up. It was worth if for the heavyweight, white invitation sized envelopes alone !

I trimmed the eyelet edge off as well as the same amount from the back. I will reuse the eyelet edge on another project at some point. I did use a couple of eyelet edged cards last year to make "Love" cards for Operation Write Home. If you click here, you can see one of the cards made with the extra eyelet edges cut off and reused.

After removing the eyelet edge, I then trimmed 1/8" off of each side. The finished card size is 5.25" long by 3" wide.

Because the cards were so much smaller once altered, I made envelopes to fit them by cutting down some old 5.5" x7.5"  sized envelopes I received many years ago.  This way I can use the nice invitation sized envelopes for other cards another time while finally using up some old items I had stashed.

I used lots of card stock scraps, dies and punches, paper crimper, embossing folders, ScorPal, some ink and some stamps to make these cards of thanks for the Veterans. There were 95 in all: 3 copied of 31 designs then 2 copies of a 32nd design. I'll be sharing them over the next several posts.


Thanks for looking =)