Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Digital Tuesday Challenge 'Fabulous Fibers'


Hello and welcome to another Digital Tuesday Challenge.  This week's challenge is Fabulous Fibers.  Simply make a card or project with fabric or fibers on it, and be sure to include at least one digital element.  Our sponsor this week is Digital Delights.

To make my card, I used the Digital Delights image 'Time for Tea Boo Boo'.  I printed the image three times.  I popped  the teddy bear up the first time, and then just the three flowers up the second time.  I had to dig deep in my stash to find my fibers.  It's been a long time since I used those!  I took three fibers and wound them together and tied them in a knot.  The sentiment is from Paper Trey Ink and the small tag punch is Martha Stewart.  My papers are October Afternoon.
If you'd like to play along with us this week, simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you directly to the Challenge Site with further instructions.

Have a great day! Amy

Friday, October 26, 2012

Childlike Wonder

Hello!  The temperatures really dropped in Wisconsin today, so I thought it would be a good day to post a Christmas Card since Christmas is not that far away!  My image and sentiment is from the Daydream Designs  Set "Stocking Stuffers".  My sketch is ISSC29.  I printed the image, cut it out and popped it up on dimensionals along with the sentiment.  The paper is last years DCWV Holiday Matstack.

Have a great day! Amy

Thursday, October 25, 2012

50th Birthday Card

Hello.  One of my dear old friends had her 50th birthday on Saturday and this was the card I made for her.  I actually bought this retired Stampin Up! set on Ebay several years ago, because I knew someday soon I would need it and there aren't a lot of 'red hat' stamps around!  The set is called 'Going Out in Style', and the sketch is from Mojo Monday (257).  This is actually the second time I used this sketch this month.  I just love it! You can't make a wrong card with it!.  I used a variety of red and purple patterned paper.  I stamped the image, then cut it out and popped it up on dimensionals.  I put Stickles on her necklace and ring. 

 I even decorated the inside of the card.
I haven't heard back if my friend liked her card or not.  I hope so.  I know its probably hard for her to be turning 50.  I know I'm not looking forward to it at all, but heh, growing old is better than the alternative!

Have a great day! Amy

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Digital Tuesday Challenge "Halloween/Spooky"

Hello and welcome to another Digital Tuesday Challenge.  This week's challenge is "Halloween/Spooky".  Simply make a card or project with a spooky theme and be sure to include at least one digital element.  Our sponsor this week is MyGrafico and they are giving away one digi stamp set and 20% off an in store purchase to one lucky randomly chosen winner.
Well, I don't really celebrate Halloween, so I tried to find a Halloween Alternative to this challenge.  I decided to make a generic spooky/fun card instead using the spider image from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff 'Halloween Doodles' which is sold at MyGrafico.

I printed the image twice and popped just the head up on dimensionals.  The yellow/black string was taped to the head of the image that was printed onto the card first, then I added the second head over the top of it.  The sentiment was cut out using my Cricut Expression, I used green glitter paper for the sentiment, and black glitter paper for the border.
 Here is a close up of this cute whimsical spider.  I think I could use this card anytime and not just for Halloween, just by adding a cute sentiment inside the card.
Have a great day! Amy

Friday, October 19, 2012

Cheery Delight!

Hello!  Today I have a cheerful card to show you that uses images and papers from Daydream Designs.

I started with a sketch by Mojo Monday (257).  OH do I LOVE this sketch!  This is actually the second time I used this sketch (a rare occurrence for me) because I love this sketch so much.  I just find it so interesting, yet versatile and easy to work with at the the same time!  The main cherry image is from the Daydream Designs digi set 'Cherry Delights'.  The sentiment is from 'Cherry Delight Sentiments', and the red gingham paper is digi paper is from 'Rustic Gingham Papers Pack'.  The Kraft panel behind the main image panel is embossed with more cherry images from a Cuttlebug Embossing Folder.  I wiped white ink over the raised portions to highlight it.  The hemp ric rac trim was purchased at JoAnn's Fabrics and Crafts as well as the cherry ribbon.  The leaves and sentiment tag are MFT dies.  I printed the image out and cut it out and popped it up on dimensionals.

Have a great day! Amy

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The Rainbow Room

Hello.  Today I have another Church Sunday School Story to share. In a previous post, I shared how I used Digital images to put images on a wall.  In this room, everything is freehand.  Now, I am not a sketch artist, but I am really good with paint, so other than the rainbow, nothing is drawn on with a pencil, I simply took a sponge and played with paint until I achieved the look I wanted.  But before I tell you how I did the room, first I want to explain some history of the room because that has a lot to do with why this design was chosen.

Many years ago, someone wanted to create a more 'edgy' look for the room since it was used for teenagers.  At that time 'dripped paint' was really in, so they created a 'dripped paint' border all along the top of the walls going around the perimeter of the room using purple paint.  That was it.  The top 1/3 of the walls was painted a solid color purple, then there was a distinct line and paint drips down the rest of the wall.  Sorry, I have no 'before' pictures.  Well, about a year ago we had a church visitor and they entered the room and said 'Ugh, this room is so creepy.  It looks like dripping blood'.  So then, everyone started to think of  the room as creepy or depressing and I was asked to redecorate it.  I asked the current Sunday School teacher to ask the kids (pre-teenagers) what theme they would like, and they came up 'A rainbow with Jesus coming back in the clouds'.  I said to the teacher 'Well, I could do the rainbow, but I certainly can't draw Jesus.  I'm not a artist' and he said 'Just do anything more cheerful and uplifting'.  So we started to repaint the walls....guess what?  No matter how many coats of primer we used, you could STILL see the paint drips!  So then our church handyman re textured the walls.  And, you could still see the paint drips! Everyone started to say that the room was cursed.  NOT something you want to hear about a room in your church! LOL! So, I have a big problem.  HOW do I cover up or disguise those paint drips?  My first idea was sponging.  So I painted the room a very light blue and started to sponge.  After I completed sponging the first wall, I just thought that it looked way too busy.  I just couldn't see doing all four walls like that,  but I couldn't leave one wall entirely sponged and not do it on the other walls.  So in order to blend the sponged wall with the other three un-sponged walls I painted over the bottom portion of the wall with the light blue and left just the top of the wall sponged.  I can't explain how I sponged.  I just used a medium and darker shade of the same blue I applied to the wall and dabbed till I got the look I wanted.  Then, so I didn't have a distinct line from the solid to the sponged part of the wall, I just sponged the lighter two shades.  In the picture below you can see the gradient sponging I described.

 Now, I want to do the 'second coming' theme the kids requested, without drawing Jesus and making it cheerful and uplifting at the same time.  I decided to use the lyrics of a song we sing at church as my theme.  I first sponged on clouds by just dabbing on white and grey paint in various shades till I got the look I wanted.  Then I drew the rainbow in with a pencil and tried my best to blend the rainbow together so there was no distinct lines  Finally I did the sun, again using a sponge and several different shades of yellow and orange.  And, none of this was in any particular order.  Although I did start with the clouds, I found I had to go back and forth a lot from painting clouds to rainbows, then touching up clouds over the rainbow, then painting the sun and going back to the clouds so that the clouds covered the sun, etc. etc. etc.  It was actually a very frustrating and difficult experience for me and many times I cried out to God 'PLEASE HELP ME, I'm not an artist!'And thankfully, HE did, because I could not have done this work without HIM.

After all the artwork was completed, I put the first part of the song on the main mural wall.  I did that by printing it on the computer in a font I liked and then projecting it onto the wall.
 Now, I had another problem.  What do I do with the rest of the room.  I felt the mural already was making the room a little busy, but the other walls left blank looked kinda odd.  So, I decided to just continue on with the words of the song on the two remaining walls that were windowless.

I found this memo board that had all the colors of the room in it at JoAnn's Fabrics and Crafts, so I put that on the wall.  I wish it was a little larger so it fit the scale of the room.  I could also buy another and just put them next to each other to increase the scale.
 There was already a cork strip and dry erase board on the wall that I had to work around, so that affected the placement of my lyrics.  I used the same colors that are in the rainbow for the quotes.
The entire room probably took about a month and half to complete working two 8 to 10 hour days a week.  Out of all the rooms I have done at the church, this one was the most difficult because of all the paint dripping issues and the free hand aspect, but it is certainly not 'depressing' anymore and is much uplifting and encouraging than it was.

Have a great day! Amy

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Digital Tuesday Challenge 'Warm and Fuzzy'

Hello and welcome to another Digital Tuesday Challenge.  This week's challenge is 'Warm and Fuzzy'.  Simply make a card or project with a warm and fuzzy element on it, and be sure to include at least digital element.  Our sponsor this week is Bugaboo Stamps.

To make my card, I used the Bugaboo Stamp Digital Image 'Lion Love'.  I thought the image itself evoked 'warm and fuzzy' feelings,  but I also added a felt flower for fuzzy texture and used warm colors as well.  The sketch is by MFT and the papers are DCWV.

If you'd like to play along with us this week, simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you directly to the challenge site with further instructions.

Have a great day! Amy

Friday, October 12, 2012

Thanksgiving Blessings

Hello!  Today I have another card to show you that uses images from the "Blessings of the Harvest" set by Daydream Designs.  The last time I made a card from this set (which you can see HERE), I used the Pilgrim Couple image, this time I chose to just use the female Pilgrim, and the squash images.  The sentiment is from "Thanksgiving Blessings Sentiments" and the brown gingham paper is digital paper from 'Rustic Gingham Paper'.

I popped the pilgrim and squash up on dimensionals, and just added some pretty white lace to the side and some adhesive crystals for embellishment.

Have a great day! Amy

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Quick Sympathy Card

Sympathy cards are something I know no papercrafter ever stocks up on.  We never want to make them, so we don't make them until we need them.  And then, if your like me, when you need to make one, you don't have the time.  That was the situation with the card pictured below.  I really wanted it to look like I cared enough (which I do) to put time and effort into it, yet, I didn't have the time.  So what did I do?  I relied on beautiful, textured designer paper to do most of the work for me.  As usual, this card is so much prettier in real life than it shows in the photograph.  It's because it has so much texture to it.  The paper is from DCWV's 'La Creme' stock.  The designer paper is so luxurious, and the flower and leaves are black flocking that look and feel like velvet in real life.  All I had to do was cut the paper to the desired size and add my sentiment. 
I used some fancy Spellbinders Nestabilities to frame my sentiment and I added a couple of shiny adhesive black crystals to the top and bottom of the sentiment border. 

Have a great day!

Amy

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Digital Tuesday Challenge 'Steampunk'


Hello and welcome to another Digital Tuesday Challenge.  This week's challenge is Steampunk.  Now, I've never heard of the term 'Steampunk' before, so I had to look it up.  HERE is a link for you if you want to read more about it.  It's basically Victorian inspired, and it has a lot to do with the technology of the time before electricity and the social rebellion of the era.  It's a very complicated genre, but for those of you who are familiar with Tim Holz's work...he is very Steampunk. Our sponsor this week is Spesch Designer Stamps, and they are giving away 3 digis to one lucky randomly chosen winner. To qualify for the prize, simply make a card or project with the Steampunk theme, and be sure to include at least one digital element.

Now, being a CAS designer, the Steampunk style is definitely not my style.  So I decided to make a Belated Birthday Card that is Steampunk inspired.  I chose to use 'The Rabbit' image because the story of Alice in Wonderland is from the Victorian period.  I used Victorian colors, two Tim Holz embossing folders (the top one is clocks and the bottom one is gears), and copper accents which also represent that the Steampunk style.  I printed my image and cut it out and let the pocket watch overhang the card base to further illustrate the 'lateness' of the event.  My sentiment is from the Disney Film 'Alice in Wonderland' and is computer generated.

 
If you'd like to play along with us this week, simply click on the Digital Tuesday Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you directly to the Challenge Site with further instructions.

Have a great day! Amy

Friday, October 5, 2012

Decorating a Room with Stamps or Digital Images


Hello!  Today I have special post to show you of what I do in my spare time, which I actually have very little of since I work full time.  About a year ago my Pastor's Wife asked me to redecorate all the Sunday School rooms (I'm in charge of decorating of church).  At first I was like 'WHAT??? I don't have time for that!!!' and I really didn't want to tackle that huge job.  The Sunday School rooms were in really bad shape about that time.  The room I'm showing you today I actually completed last winter, and this year I've finished another two rooms which I will show in later posts.  

This room is a pre-school room.  It already was painted blue and had clouds on it (sorry no 'before' pictures) and it had this little plastic fence stapled to the bottom of the wall all the way around the room with fake silk flowers stuck in them and a few of those fake butterflies you see in the floral dept of a craft store.  It had a good start, I could see the 'nature' element, but I felt the theme wasn't completely pulled off and the fake flowers and insects weren't working because the little kids were continually pulling them off.  So I decided to use their 'nature' element but take it to the next level, and this is what I came up with.

I started with a tree in the corner.  It's the first thing you see when you walk in the room.  The trunk and limbs are hand drawn, and the leaves are sponged in several shades of green.  From there I used Heather Ellis Digital Image "Pure Innocence O23" (you may recognize them from MFT as stamps from  the Pure Innocence line), and printed it on an overhead projector sheet. Using an overhead projector I projected the image onto the wall,  traced it with a pencil and simply colored it in with Acrylic Paints.  Now I used digital images, but you can also use stamps.  You simply stamp the image onto the overhead projector sheet with Stazon.  The sentiment was created on my computer, again printed on the projector sheet.  Now, obviously I could probably just 'sketch' these images/sentiments on the wall, but the reason I like to use a projector is this:  I GET TO SEE EXACTLY WHAT THE WALL WILL LOOK LIKE BEFORE I PAINT.  It helps me to get the scale right, because I can adjust the scale with the projector.  If you are a really good artist, you could probably even sketch a design onto a projector sheet and then shoot it on the wall.

 Here is a close up of "The Boy and the Dog 004".  I did not shade any of the characters because I wanted them to appear cartoon-like, but everything else in the room is shaded.  All the flowers were hand drawn by my friend JoAnne.
 JoAnne came up with a great idea of 'hiding' little insects in the flowers and grass.  The kids love searching the wall and 'finding' all the bugs.
 Here is a close up of the little girl on the swing.  I shaded the butterfly.
 JoAnne hand drew the birds.
 Sorry this picture is flipped.  I turned it right side up before I posted it but for some reason it flipped back again.  I just wanted to show you the tree that I shaded.  JoAnne and I make a great team, because she is a fabulous sketch artist but doesn't paint, whereas I am very skilled at blending paint.  So she sketches with a pencil, and I follow behind her and paint/shade.  I have to admit, I used all my coloring skills that I learned from making cards with Copic Markers to color/shade these walls.  It's the same concept...but with paint!
 Here is the other side of the room.  The girl is another Heather Ellis image 'Pure Innocence 009', and the bird and flowers are hand drawn.
 I chose to use this scripture with the image.
 Aren't those little ants so cute?

 The hummingbird is a digi called 'lil hummer' and it's from Doodle Pantry.  The rabbit image is from Angel's Landing.
 Here's a close up of the rabbit and pansy image.  Isn't that inch worm adorable?
 The birdhouse is on the fourth wall by the door.  It's from Meljen's Designs
 And my last image is a little squirrel from Digital Stamp Oasis.  He is sitting right under the tree.
Now I know most of you don't have to decorate  Church Sunday School Rooms, but you could use these same ideas to decorate any child's room.  Oh, and if your wondering how long it took me to do this, it took about a month and a half working on my two days off, probably around 8 hours per day.  So, yes, it was very labor intensive and I hope no one paints over it for a very long time!

Have a great day!

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Pilgrim Thanks


Hello!  Today I have a Thanksgiving Card to show you.  My image, paper, and sentiment are all from DayDreams Designs.  The image is from the set "Blessings of the Harvest".  I printed and cut out just the top half of the Pilgrims and popped them up on dimensionals.  The sentiment is from the set "Thanksgiving Blessings Sentiments"  and the gingham paper is from the digi paper set "Rustic Gingham Paper".
I kept the card simple....just like the Pilgrims really were!  I added only a simply grosgrain white ribbon for embellishment and I used a Stampin Up! Scalloped Border Punch for the white border accent.

Have a great day! Amy

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Digital Tuesday Challenge 'Text Me!'

Hello and welcome to another Digital Tuesday Challenge.  This week's challenge is 'Text Me!'.  Simply make a card or project that has some kind of 'text' on it and be sure to include at least one digital element.   Our sponsor this week is Crafty Sentiments and they are giving away three digis to only lucky randomly chosen winner.

To make my card, I used the Crafty Sentiments Digital Image 'Thinking of You'.  I used paper from DCWV 'All About Girls Stack' which has some cute girly text paper in it, then I added a phone image from retired Stampin Up! 'Girlfriend Accessories' to add more of the 'text' element to the card.  The circular panel, girl, and phone are all popped up on dimensionals.

If you'd like to play along with us this week, simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you directly to the Challenge Site with further instructions.

Have a great day! Amy