CASEplorations April at STAMPlorations Blog

Was vacation really last week? I am ready for another!!

Today I am sharing a card that I created for a challenge on STAMPlorations. It was to use this card by Kimberly Wiener as your inspiration.

Since I am an ORANGE freak, I decided to attempt an orange background. I did more of an ombre effect on my background then Kimberly did. I used Ranger Distress Inks in Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade, Wild Honey and Ripe Persimmon, which I then spritzed with water.

I then layered a die cut frame, banner and sentiment over the background. Each of these was from the mess on my desk, as was the cup cake that I adhered using foam adhesive.

I then literally sprinkled sequins onto the card and then adhered them down where they landed. My last touch was to use a clear Wink of Stella pen and Stickles in "Cool Mint" and "Orange Slice" on the cup cake. Easiest card I have created in a long time!! I just adore orange too!!

Again, I am entering this into STAMPlorations CASEplorations challenge.

Thank you for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!!

Supplies:
Ink-Ranger Distress Inks-"Dried Marigold," "Spiced Marmalade," "Wild Honey," "Ripe Persimmon," Momento Ink-Tuxedo Black
Paper-Stampers Select White Paper from Paper Trey Ink, Scraps
Dies-Paper Trey Ink, My Favorite Things (banner)
Other-Big Shot, Sequins, "Cool Mint" and "Orange Slice" Stickles, Multi Matte Medium, Copic Markers, Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Pen
Stamps-Paper Trey Ink-"Baker's Dozen"

A Creative Sort of Mood

Hello, hello, hello!! I hope you are all having a wonderful day.

It was back to the old grind after having a FABULOUS week off last week. We didn't go anywhere but sometimes those are the best vacations. I spent time reading, doing laundry, cleaning, getting a pedicure and then shopping a bit with my daughter-it was just wonderful. I so needed it and am looking forward to being off for the summer. I just have to make it through nine more weeks.

Today I am sharing some of my "experiments" that I did using Altenew's "Vintage Roses" stamp set. 

If you browse through Pinterest, there are some STUNNING cards using this set. However, I had a really tough time with it. I even watched several videos on how to layer them and I still had a difficult time. I am not a novice at stamping by any means but sometimes stamps need to be played with a bit to get comfortable and I think this is one of them. 

The first technique I attempted was to use three colors of distress ink and a watercolor brush to create my flowers.

As you can see, this did not go very well. The flowers are very impressionistic. I do not usually stamp with distress inks and I think this is one of the problems with using them with these stamps. I do like the red, though.

I then tried using different colors of melon ink to the layered roses.

Again, I did not like the look. I did not get the stamping "perfect" and it bugged me.

My last try was to use the same ink but in first, second and third generation stamping.

First I stamped the lightest color. I inked up the stamp and then stamped off twice to get the lighter pink. Next I stamped the medium color, only stamping off once. The detail stamping was inking and stamping. I did not love this technique that well either. I also messed up on the top rose, not placing it where it went at all. This was my last attempt and I was VERY frustrated by then.

I just bought a MISTI last week and think that I need to play with this set using this tool. Then at least the layers will be straight. I also need to test inks together to see if they "go" with each other. All in all, I am so disappointed by my results because I wanted these stamp set so bad and I know it is user error.

If anyone has any great advice about using this particular stamp set, I would love to hear it. Thank you for stopping by.

Computer Withdrawal

Happy Sunday everyone!! I have not been around AT ALL as of late. The graphics card on my Mac decided to die on Easter and I have not had any computer for TWO WEEKS!! No browsing fun blogs, or posting on my favorite web board, Scrapjazz.com and defiantly no blogging. I was able to use my phone for some things but I cannot comment on stuff when I am on my phone. I am literally all thumbs and auto correct + me = disaster. Yesterday I finally picked up my computer from the store so I am back and raring to go!

No computer has left me a lot of time to do a little bit of crafting AND a lot of cleaning. I also did some "experimenting" with some of the stamps that have never seen ink. I gave myself permission to have fun and to not be all about the "end result" but more about the process. I will talk about that later this week, though.

The card I am going to show you today was part of my "clean up" of my desk, otherwise known as "what is on my desk" challenge." (I think I am going to have to rethink that name so I can make an acronym out of it. Maybe the Clean Up Challenge or CUP for short?) I have a TON of WPlus9  "Fresh Cut Florals" on my desk that I have stamped and die cut. I decided to layer some of them together to create a simple Mother's Day card.

First I used a stencil and Spun Sugar Distress Ink to created the pink polka dot background on a die cut piece of stamper's select white card stock from Paper Trey Ink. Next I stamped a few leaves using Hero Art's soft green and green hills ink directly on the background.

I then layered my die cuts over the leaves and added some Stickles. My last step was to add a few pink sequins. My card is not as bright in real life as this but you get the gist. I edited these photos BEFORE my graphics card went and I am too lazy to do them over.

I thank you for stopping by and apologize for being MIA. I have missed all of you!!

Supplies:
Paper-Paper Trey Ink
Stamps-WPlus9-"Fresh Cut Florals"
Dies-Winnie and Walter-"Essentials-Katharine Cutaway," WPlus9-"Fresh Cut Florals," My Favorite Things hearts
Ink-Paper Trey Ink-"Blueberry Sky," "Enchanted Evening," "Hibiscus Burst," Ranger Distress Ink-"Spun Sugar," Hero Arts-"Green Hills" and "Soft Green," Momenta-"Tuxedo Black"
Other-Big Shot, Sequins, Ranger Multi Matte Medium, Diamond and Blue Bayou Stickles, Foam Adhesive

Happy Tuesday!!

I hope everyone is having a great week. Three more days until Good Friday. I love having Friday's off!!

This weekend I watched a really cool documentary on Showtime that has really gotten me thinking. "Finding Vivian Maier" is about this man's search to find this woman who took these negatives that he bought at an auction. He had bought them for a book he was writing but found out they were not right for this publication. He took them out later and what he found was amazing.

These photographs were snapshots of a time gone by. This mystery woman was a brilliant photographer who caught the essence of people, the little moments, good and the bad, the detritus of the time. The movie is this man's journey to find out who this woman was. I am not going to say anymore but I HIGHLY recommend it. I think her photos are so intriguing.

It makes me want to practice my photography skills. I am so impatient, though, and would never dare to do what this woman did to get the shot. Taking photos of the inside of garbage cans, random people, self portraits. I do not have a natural eye for photography, though I wish I did. However, I think that it is something that I will practice when the weather gets nice.

Today I am sharing a card I created using sketch #116 from "CASE This Sketch" blog. I used an elephant from WPlus9's "Unforgettable" stamp set as my main image.

I colored the elephant in using purple Copic markers and stamping hearts over the top using Paper Trey Ink's "Enchanted Evening" dye ink.

It is funny because I have never been a purple person before. All of the sudden I am obsessed with it and cannot get enough!!

I created a totally "fake" shaker card out of this. I basically layered multicolored sequins between two pieces of paper and a piece of acetate. The sequins do move but it is a relatively flat card.

I adhered the elephant onto the card using foam adhesive and added some Wink of Stella over the "baby" die cut to give it a little bit of shine without over powering the card.

This card made me step outside of my comfort zone and it was so much fun!!

I am entering this into CASE this Sketch #116 and Simon Says Stamp "Anything Goes" Wednesday Challenge.

 

I thank you for taking the time to stop by. Please check out more photographs by Vivian Maier here.
Have a fabulous day!!

Supplies:
Stamps: WPlus9-"Unforgettable"
Paper: Paper Trey Ink-Lemon Tart, Bazzill-Purple and Lilac, Basic Grey-Striped
Dies: WPlus9-"Unforgettable", Paper Trey Ink-Baby and Frame, My Favorite Things-Square
Ink: Enchanted Evening-PTI
Other-Sequins, Big Shot, Foam Adhesive, Copic Markers, Acetate

Freshly Made Sketches #179, a Robotics Competition and ANOTHER what is on your Desk Challenge

Happy Sunday!! Today I am sharing a card I created for Freshly Made Sketches #179. I challenged myself to use what was on my desk too. Here is what my desk looked like this morning.

I have been busy with my coloring this month but did not use anything. I have watercolored, used colored pencils, and colored in images with Copics. It has been fun!!

Here is the card I created with one of my WPlus9 elephants. I LOVE these fun sets!! In fact, I am obsessed with elephants now.

I used the elephant on this card as inspiration for the coloring on my elephant. I love how mine came out!!

I cut a piece of post it in a cloud pattern and then used ink to make the background sky. I just sponged on two types of green at the bottom. I then stamped the sentiment in a dark purple ink.

Next, I layered the inked panel over a card that I embossed with an embossing folder. I die cut a purple strip and adhered that on the card. I adhered the elephant using foam adhesive over the strip.

My last step was to adhere a die cut purple heart and a few sparkles.

I have to admit that the card that I had in my head is not how this card turned out. I actually made a completely different background but had to throw it out due to a mess up with stamping. Don't you hate that?

I am entering my card into Freshly Made Sketches #179 and Simon Says Stamp "Anything Goes" Wednesday challenge.

 

Supplies:

Stamps: WPlus9 "Bubble Talk"

Ink: My Favorite Things-Green Apple, Limeade, Sweet Tooth, Paper Trey Ink-Enchanted Evening, Memento-Tuxedo Black

Paper: Bazzill (green and purple), Paper Trey Ink (white)

Dies: WPlus9-"Bubble Talk," Winnie and Walter-"Essentials-Katharine Cutaway," Simon Says Stamp-heart, Paper Trey Ink

Other: Copic Markers, Big Shot, Sequins, Foam Adhesive, Sequins and pearl, Tim Holtz Embossing Folder

On a different note, yesterday I went to my first robotics competition. My daughter is a member of the high school robotics team. She does not program but is on the business side. She makes buttons, has to scout the robots of other teams, makes flyers for the fund raisers and other fun things. My husband also mentors the kids on the programming side of it. It has been a pretty big commitment for both of them.

I had never been to one of these things and I have to say, it was quite interesting. At the kick off event, they are given instructions on what their robot needs to accomplish, which effects how the team physically builds the robot, as well as creating the code to program it. Here is what the kids created:

I know it does not look like much but the job the robot has to do is pick up garbage cans AND stack crates. Here is the robot in action. I apologize for these horrible photos but was too lazy yesterday to put the zoom lens on for the photo below.

I circled the robot stacking bringing the stack of crates to the spot it needed to put the on in order to get points. Kind of weird to see such a packed gym for a robot competition isn' t it?

And my daughter and her friend cheering for their robot.

They wound up placing 4th out of 40 teams and entered into an alliance with two other's for the todays competition. I did not go today, though. Yesterday was long enough!!

I thank you for looking. Have a great week!!