A Cute Little 4 X 4 Canvas

I have another artist canvas project for you today.  I created this one to coordinate and display with the 8 X 8 canvas I shared here.  Remember, we'll be making the 8 X 8 canvas at our October 9 Scraps and Prayers class.  I love how the two projects look when displayed together.

I fussy cut all the leaves and flowers from the Whole Lot of Lovely DSP.  They are attached using clear, matte Gesso.

Texture and dimension are added by sponging the edges of the canvas.  I loved creating this project.

Remaining classes / events for 2017:
October Classes:
October 9 -- Scraps and Prayers
     5:30-7:30 / $15.00 / Home Decor Project on Canvas
October 21 -- Saturday Stampers
     1:00-4:00 / $20.00 / 5-6 Cards -Fall AND Christmas

November Classes / Events:
November 5 -- Open House Christmas Party / 2:00-5:00
November 13 -- Scraps and Prayers
     5:30-7:30 / $15.00 / Home Decor Project for Christmas
November 18 -- Christmas Retreat
     10:00-3:00 / $45.00 / 18 Cards: 6 Designs - 3 Cards Each
     Fee includes materials, light lunch, and a ton of fun. 

December 11 Scraps and Prayers Class:
     5:30-7:30 / $15.00 / Christmas Cards and Tags
This will be my only event for December.

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world.

- Come back often for more creative inspiration.

- Let's create something beautiful today.

Crafting Forever, Card 2

Here's my second Crafting Forever card.  As you can see, I used some more of our Pick a Pattern DSP.  Such cute patterns!!! 

I added watercoloring again, using my Aqua Painter. 

I love the little strip of DSP on the inside of the card.  I added Basic Black CS behind the main pieces on the card.  It adds a lot to the design.

I covered the flap of the envelope with the same DSP, to coordinate.

I stamped some color over the text on the front of the card, using a stamp from our Work of Art stamp set.

I enjoyed creating this card and love how it turned out.  Now... What's next?

Don't forget:
I posted the winners from our party in my previous post.  If you haven't looked, be sure to check them out.  The prizes will be in your bags when you pick up your orders.  They're already on their way here from Utah!  Yay!!!  I'll let you know when they're here, sorted, prizes and surprises added, and ready for pick up.

NEWS FLASH:
At this point, it looks like I can hold all my classes before a surgery I'm having later in July.  My other surgery will be in August.  I will be able to have the August Scraps and Prayers class, but have to cancel the Saturday Stampers (for August 19).  I'm planning on teaching both classes in September and will keep you posted if I need more time to recover.  Be sure to keep checking my blog to get all the up to date news.
MORE GOOD NEWS:
By popular demand, I'm changing our August Scraps and Prayers project to sharing with you how to make my book box.  That was a huge hit at the party.  I look forward to sharing this!
More good news --- Several of the cards that people especially likes were the tri-shutter, the 'hugs' card and the front step card.  These will all be included in our July Saturday Stampers class!!!

BE SURE TO SIGN UP EARLY BECAUSE CLASS SIZES ARE LIMITED AND ARE FILLING UP FAST!!!

July Classes:
July 10 -- Scraps and Prayers
     5:30-7:30 / $15.00 -- fun notepad project. 
July 15 -- Saturday Stampers
     1:00-4:00 / $20.00 -- fun techniques to create 6 cards.

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT JULY SPECIALS BY CLICKING ON THE IMAGES ON THE LEFT. 

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world.

- Come back often for more creative inspiration. 

Playing With Polka Dots and a Big and Happy Welcome to my Newest Recruit, Nola

Before I share my fun card for today, I want to shout out a big welcome to my newest recruit, Nola.  Welcome, Nola!  I'm so glad to have you as part of my Inkin' in the Land of Lincoln Team.  Even though she no longer lives in Illinois, she did when I first met her and I've enjoyed staying in touch with her.   One of the very nicest things about creating art to share is that so many of my customers become dearly loved friends.  What a joy!
Give me some dots and speckles, in assorted sizes, and I can come up with a bunch of fun projects.  The new Berry Burst and Lemon Lime Twist look so beautiful together, that this just shouts out to be a fun and cheerful card.

I grabbed a sponge applicator to apply the largest polka dots, stamping off to get lighter shades of color.  The Berry Burst smaller polka dot is from our Work of Art stamp set, along with the text.

I needed the tiny speckles to really make it all come together, so I reached for one of my 'go to' stamp sets --- Awesomely Artistic.  I love and adore this stamp set.

I love this card!  It is so bright and cheerful, mainly due to how very well our Lemon Lime Twist and Berry Burst colors play together.  Adding the leaf sprig and flower (both die cuts) make a nice focal piece for my card.

This could be used for a note to say hello, a thank you, a birthday ...

Time is now running out for me to choose my favorite new stamp set, favorite new In Color, and favorite new accessory.  My guests at my Open House will be trying to guess.  The winners will be announced the day after my party.  These are tough decisions this year because I love all our In Colors and I love tons of our new stamp sets and accessories.  I might have to have some help.  Toby Joe, Buster Bo Jangles, Lilly Belle --- help me decide!!!
Maybe Joey can help me.  He seems to be quite into helping me keep my studio organized and functioning.  I did have to tell him that I did NOT buy my cute little Raskog cart so he could remove my carefully organized new art accessories and start putting his toys in it.  He is a busy boy and I love him to pieces!

Before you go...
I'm working ever so hard to get ready for my big Open House/New Catalog Party (Sunday, June 25).  I hope you've put it on your calendar, if you live in the area.  My goal is to have the absolute best party ever.  Get ready for some creative fun.  Let's party!!!  RSVP by June 23.  If you can't come, you may order online through my website, using this HOSTESS CODE:

YAGNA44P

YOUR ONLINE ORDER, USING THIS HOSTESS CODE THROUGH MY WEBSITE, WILL BE SHIPPED DIRECTLY TO YOUR HOME.

Remaining June Events:
June 23 + 24 / GARAGE SALE / 8:00-5:00

June 25 / Open House New Catalog Party / 2:00-5:00

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world.

- Come back often for more creative inspiration. 

Crazy Fun Flirty Flamingo Work of Art Card

I used some odds and ends of old products from my 'stash' to add to all my SU goodies and created this super fun card.  This card features all the new In Colors --- on my artist palette.  I added Crystal Effects over each of the paint palette colors to give them dimension and some shiny goodness.

The text and the background speckles are embossed with gold EP.

I offset the top layer, just to give it some added interest and added a ribbon between the card layers.  In the close-up, you can see that I added ink and Crystal Effects to the tip of the brush to make it look liked it had been dipped into some of the paints.  I colored in the part of the brush between the handle and the bristles with a silver metallic marker.

This was super fun!

I still have two openings for Saturday's class:

- Thanks for stopping by my corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top to see my class schedules. 

- Look on the left for sneak peeks and registration policies. 

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- Come  back often for more creative inspiration. 

Hello Honey Spring Card

Hey, Spring, meet Hello Honey... a beautiful color to coax Spring to come ahead and get here.  I'm trying everything I can think of to get Spring to arrive.  Today's card features a beautiful background.

The background is layers of colors on watercolor paper.  I've spritzed water on images to mute them, then stamped over them with contrasting images.  The lined image is actually embossed with silver EP.  The butterfly is a double layer of vellum over Lost Lagoon CS.  The card base is Hello Honey.  These are my 2 favorites from our newest In Colors. 

The envelope has embossed images in silver EP.

 - Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world.

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Table Decor for Every Month of the Year, Part 4

Today, I'll be wrapping up this little series by sharing what I made for October, November and December.

For October, I used our wonderful little Curvy Keepsake Box Thinlits Dies.  They are in our current Holiday Catalog.  I love them!!!  I'll be sharing more ideas for using these in some of my future posts.  They have been super popular and I am constantly amazed and what people come up with using them.

I die cut the leaves, crumpled them, sponged them, added bits of VersaMark ink and sprinkled on a bit of gold EP and heat embossed them.  I then went over them again with the same ink and Iridescent Ice EP.  They are really pretty!
 

For December, I used our retired die to make the doves.  I actually cut 2 layers for each piece of Shimmery White CS and adhered them together, to make the dove more likely to hold up for future use.  I embossed the wings.  I love them!

I hope I've given you some good ideas to use for your own decor.  Any of these centerpieces can be adapted to make use of what you have in your own stash.  Enjoy!

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Wooden Leaves Fall Card

Happy World Card Making Day.  What a great day to stamp.  Yesterday, Jennifer and I did something we haven't done in well over a year.  We stamped together!  It was so much fun.  She created several gorgeous Fall cards and I worked on my upcoming cards for my October 25 Christmas Retreat.  I must say that I got into the groove so much that I started stamping again after dinner and the next thing I knew, it was 2:00 in the morning!  I 'd already finished all the projects for the Retreat (as well as the projects for my November 22 Retreat) and I now have EVERYTHING finished for my October Retreat.  Woo hoo!  What a great feeling!  I'll share some sneak peeks soon.  I have to get it all photographed, watermarked and uploaded.

SPECIAL NEWS:
If you live in my area and place an order (before tax and shipping) of $35. or more from now through October 15, you will earn $10. off the October 25 Retreat!!!  I think you'll like what I have planned for you.  We'll be making 3 projects using our gorgeous All is Calm DSP.  Each project has a special surprise inside it!  We'll enjoy a light lunch together and then we'll make 12 cards for Christmas --- 3 each of 4 designs.  They'll be using our wonderful Festival of Tress stamp set and coordinating punch.  By using the same papers on the projects and the same stamp set on the cards, it will save us time and we should be able to complete everything by the end of the class.  
I am holding the enrollment for the Retreat to 6 max!
               Register early to save your spot!!!

So... let's get back to Fall for a while.  We had a real chill settle in to our area yesterday.  It is no longer sitting on the deck weather, so we might as well stay indoors and stamp.

It is so much fun to play with our little wooden elements.  Here's a card using them, along with some gold highlights.  

Look super closely and you can see that the large leaf in the background is stamped in gold ink.

I left the wooden outline leaf natural and sponged over the solid wooden leaf in Mossy Meadow.

Now go stamp something and enjoy World Card Making Day!

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Work of Art with Watercolor

Today's card is the result of playing around in my studio... with watercolor paper and our Work of Art and Gorgeous Grunge stamp sets.  I love the results.

I was just trying to create a beautiful background. 
I liked it so much that I kept the card as is and all the text will be on the inside of the card.   

To create this look, you basically start playing around with your stamps and watercolor paper.  I started with slightly damp paper and spritzed more after stamping, where desired.  Once it was all dry, I stamped some more with a couple of Gorgeous Grunge stamps, using VersaMark Ink and then embossed with Silver EP.  Love it!  Now, get out your stamps and your watercolor paper and start playing.  See what you can create!
 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Coloring Techniques, Part 3

We had a great Scraps and Prayers class last night.  I'll post our project soon.  Now I'm ready to get on with some more coloring!  Today's technique is so easy and fun to do that you're going to start looking for more ways to use this technique.  It works well with an outline stamp, such as our Kind Koala stamp.

Using one of the stamps from Work of Art, I 'colored in' the koala.  Using a second stamp, I 'colored in' the flower.  This technique gives a whimsical look to your projects and it's really quick to do... so, when you're in a hurry and don't want to sacrifice cute ... try this!
Tip:
Stamp off to get a lighter color for your 'colored in' background.

Remember one of my projects from my Summer Stamping Party?

 ...  and here's another version of the card ...

For this one, I changed the color of the layer behind the Whisper White and then added a punched flower, using our Petite Petals punch.  I added a candy dot to the center of the flower.

I made an envelope for each of my cards, using one of our Tag A Bag gift bags.  If you haven't tried it yet, here's how I marked mine. 

In my next post, we'll look at creating a shadow with your stamped image.  Be sure to head on back here soon. 

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.

Coloring Techniques, Part 1

Are you ready to take some time to work on coloring techniques?  Then you're in the right place.  I'm going to share my entire Coloring Techniques Album with you, along with several cards made using these techniques.  Before we get started, I have to say what a great day I had yesterday... having lunch and visiting with my sweet MIL and then spending the evening stamping with great friends... wonderful day, wonderful class... life is good.  Then, I got up and weighed in today at a new loss of 22 pounds.  Yay!  So, back to stamping:)

I've divided my album into 3 sections...
- inks
- markers
- special techniques
These are all wonderful ways to add color to a project.

I've divided my technique journal into 3 sections:
- inks
- markers
- special techniques
Today, let's get started with section 1, INKS.

The first way I've shown to add color is by stamping onto a contrasting color of card stock that is slightly lighter than your ink.

Here's the coordinating card made using this technique.

We made this card last night at my class.  It was a big hit!

Keep checking back for more techniques.  I have 14 more to go!

- Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the blogging world. 

- Click on the tab at the top of the page to see my class schedules and registration policies or click on the left for sneak peeks. 

- Come back soon and come back often for more creative inspiration.