Steampunk Magic

Happy Day Friends!

Today I have a bit of Steampunk Magic for you...

the magic of flight!

I just love detailed schematics of various steampunk designs and this is one of my favorites. An airship in the shape of a bird.  If it flew I'm sure it truly was magical to watch. The background is made using Bronze Creative Medium which was applied to the cardstock using a faux wood grain tool. It's amazing how realistic it looks IRL.

Lost Coast Designs is sponsoring the current challenge at Allsorts of Challenges blog - Tags! where you will also find a nifty little coupon if you would like to order.

The current challenge at Lost Coast Stamps Creative Portal is Anything Goes!

Doesn't get much easier than that huh?  Just stamp any card and you're set to go!!

Be sure to enter both challenges for your chance to win :)

Good Luck Friends!

Supplies:

Lost Coast Designs - Steampunk Plane, Words

Imagine - Creative Medium, VersaFine Clair

Tag

Cardstock

Faux Wood Grain Tool

Raffia

Brads

Steampunk Inspiration

Time is running short on the "No Body Here" challenge at Lost Coast Designs.  You have just today and tomorrow to enter your creation.

I made this card/tag with the challenge in mind. I love the steampunk stamps available at Lost Coast and this mechanical horse is one of my favorites. I smudged up the tag for a bit of a vintage feel.  The background was created by tearing bits of Rinea foiled paper and layering them onto a piece of cardstock. Once the cardstock was covered I ran it through in a gear embossing folder.

I love how it turned out and can't wait to send it on it's way!

Be sure to stop by and add your creation to the challenge -

No Body Here.

Supplies:

Lost Coast Designs - Steampunk Mechanical Horse; Words
Rinea Copper/Gold Glossy; Mocha/Gold Glossy; Silver/Gold Glossy; Ebony/Gold Glossy Foiled Papers
Imagine - VersaFine Clair; Sponge Daubers
Tag
Fibers
Sizzix - Embossing Folder

Not My Monkey....

The current challenge on the Lost Coast Designs blog is
"No Body Here"
translated...no humans allowed!

I am so excited to share this card with you...

I have been bursting with excitement ever since I made it! 

I stamped the monkey face onto a piece of white cardstock and he was masked over.  I then wrote over and over "That moment you realize this is your circus and these are your monkies." on the background.  I stamped the "Not My Circus" sentiment several times over the writing then removed the mask.  

I then set about coloring him with Prismacolor colored pencils and I extended his hair a bit with the colored pencils just to give him a bit of a frazzled look...how I feel sometimes  - LOL!!  

I have to say I am so pleased with how cool he turned out! 

That look on his face is priceless!  

I hope you'll join us for the
No Body Here Challenge!

B is for Butterfly!

Hello Friends - I have been playing with my Marabu Art Crayons again experimenting with backgrounds. Today I wanted to share the card I made using one of those experiments...  I also made this card for the current challenge over on the Lost Coast Designs/Carmen's Veranda which is... #56 I Spy...Things That Start With "B".

Stamps: Lost Coast Designs - Butterfly Set, Art Wings Sentiment

Since I knew I wanted to make a butterfly card I wanted a background that would mimic the light and shadows you see where butterflies play...in among the foliage in the garden. Here's what I did...

I started off with a piece of white cardstock that was a bit larger than the actual size of the card panel I wanted to use.  

I started off by scribbling Sunshine Yellow in scattered areas over the panel. 

Next I came in with Kiwi then Apple (both greens) and finally just a hint of Turquoise.  

As I mentioned I was experimenting so initially I tried to blend it all together with first a sponge dauber then a baby wipe but it just didn't give me the look I was going for - it ended up being just a big green blob.  Into the ??? pile.

So then I started over layering the colors in the same fashion but then I blended the colors gently with my finger tip and it looked pretty good.  

Next I took a crazy net looking stencil and placed it over one corner for a test to see if I could pick up some of the color to give lighter and darker areas.  It worked perfectly so I continued to pick up color in just small areas to create a random pattern rather than the exact stencil image. I was able to pull up some of the greens leaving the lighter green and yellows behind to give the exact look I wanted.

I am so happy with how it turned out...that's what I love about experimenting.  I also have several other "experiments" that I can use on other projects or maybe even a few Artist Trading Coins!

Hope this inspires you to pull out your watercolor crayon medium and give it a go.  And if you're so inclined it would be awesome if you would join in the fun over on the Creative Portal and share your "B" inspired card!

Challenge #56 - I Spy Things That Start with "B"

Supplies:

Lost Coast Designs - Butterfly Set, Art Wings to Fly

Imagine - VersaFine Clair Nocturne

Marabu - Art Crayons

Stencil
Double Stick Foam Adhesive
Green Card Blank

Things That Start with "B"

Happy July Y'all!!  

I hope you're all enjoying full blown Summer now!  

It's the first and you know what that means...a new challenge on the 

Lost Coast Designs/Carmen's Veranda Creative Portal!  

Today's challenge is ~ #56 "Things That Start with "B"".

Hmmmmm - get it ;)  If we're honest with each other, we all feel like this from time to time.  I figured this was the perfect sentiment for this image/challenge - LOL!!

The image was stamped on cardstock using Nocturne VersaFine Clair ink then colored using Prismacolor colored pencils. It is mounted on a bit of Turquoise/Turquoise Starstruck Foiled Paper which was mounted onto a yellow card base.  The card was then wrapped with ribbon, sentiment stamped, matted & mounted on the card using double stick foam tape and I finished it all off with some sparklie sequins.

Now...who to send this to?!?!?!  LOL!!

Wanna join in the fun?

Hop on over to the Lost Coast Design/Carmen's Veranda Creative Portal 

to find out how to play.

Supplies

Lost Coast Designs - Tea Party, Inner Bitch

Imagine - VersaFine Clair Nocturne

Prismacolor Colored Pencils

Rinea Turquoise/Turquoise Starstruck Foiled Paper

Circles Circles Circles!

Welcome, welcome! I am so excited to share my circle card with you today.  The newest challenge over on the Lost Coast Portal is Round and Round.  I thought this circle stamp was PERFECT for the challenge!

I was so excited because I was able to use my new to me Marabu Art Crayons to color it.  I'm sure you've heard me talk about them but I just have to say they are so much fun to play with!

Anyway, to see how easy this card was to create, hop on over the LCD blog and check it out....

Lost In Circles?

Challenge #55 - Round and Round

And be sure to join in on the fun and enter your own card into the Round and Round Challenge for your chance to win $'s to the Lost Coast Design / Carmen's Veranda Rubber Stamps! You can't win if you don't enter!

A Bit of ATC Fun...

You all know how much fun I have making ATC's - they are perfect for the current challenge on the Lost Coast Design Portal - #54 - Mini Me...bitty pieces of art.

I decided to pull out my new Marabu Art Crayons and have a bit of fun.  

For complete instructions on how I made these ATC's 

please see my post over on the Lost Coast Design Portal... 

Courage, Wisdom & Promise ATC's.

Have you made any ATC's lately?

They are so much fun when you can only find a small amount of time to play.

Challenge #54 - Mini Me

June 1st- 14th

Lost Coast Portal to Creativity

You have until June 14th to link up your entries

Please read over out RULES to be sure your entries qualify you to win!

ALL rubber stamp companies are welcome. 

Linky closes Thursday, June 14th at 5 to Midnight PST.  

All entries must be entered in our link up but your don't need a blog to win.  See our RULES page for more info.

Lost Coast Designs Stamps:
Misc. Words
Flaming Heart
Phrenology Heads
ATC Hands Set

Other Supplies:
Marabu Art Crayons
Watercolor Paper
Imagine - VersaFine Clair - Morning Mist, Nocturne
Black Cardstock

Not My Circus....

Hello Friends!  

June 1st already!?!?!  

Where has the time gone? 

It's already time for another challenge on the Lost Coast Designs/Carmen's Veranda Creative Portal, and that challenge is #54 - "Mini Me" - think ATC, Moo Cards, Book Marks, Tags, Inchies, Twinchies, etc....  Anything other than a card in miniature.

So I decided to create this little matchbook using the Sock Monkey 2 stamp and the awesome sentiment - Not My Monkeys.  I know it's fairly simple but inside what do you find....

A pair of shrink film Sock Monkey earrings!!!

I had so much fun with these - they are just so stinkin' cute IRL.

I started off by stamping them with StazOn Ink then coloring the red in with an alcohol marker.

A bit of fussy cutting and a hole in his hat, a bit of heat and....

He went from a 3" tall sock monkey to a perfect little charm!  I'm thinkin' I'll make a matching bracelet to go with the earrings - what do you think?

Be sure to pop on over to the LCD/CV Creative Portal to see all of the fun Mini Me projects to start off this fun challenge!

Altered Trading Coins!

Have you heard about a fun new twist on Altered Trading Cards???  Turn them into a 2.5" circle and you have an Altered Trading Coin!!

Recently a friend posted a video she found on YouTube by Craftyhodges sharing her new Altered Trading Coin creations and it's pretty cool! It looked like so much fun I decided to give it a go.

Now I have to admit I keep all sorts of scraps, mistakes, experiments and other bits of paper because they might come in handy someday.  I am so glad I did because I've started putting them to use by making these coins.

These are cut from the DecoArt Acrylic Pouring Medium experiments that I either poured, swiped or dripped onto 110lb cardstock.

These are failed experiments or cards I wasn't satisfied with.

And these are just "clean up" tags or cardstock pieces that I either stamp off my stamps, pick up medium off of my craft mat, or use up extra medium from stencils and other projects. 

They were all cut into 2.5" circles and this is what I made....

My friends....

(Stamps - Lost Coast Designs)

He's a brave soul...the background is an experiment for a faux leather that I layered on a few different stamps, added the steampunk guy and stamped word.

(Stamps - Lost Coast Designs)

This background is a piece of cardstock that I poured using DecoArt Pouring Medium & Acrylic Paints. I added some sparkles with a bit of glitter.  Mona is stamped directly on the coin using VersaFine Clair ink.

(Stamps - Lost Coast Designs)

This background was pounced into a puddle of "run off" from an acrylic pouring session recently. The steampunk biker was stamped directly onto the panel then colored using a bit of alcohol markers and white gel pen.

Aren't these guys darling?  I won them from the Crafty Nomad's recently week long blog celebration. They are from Crafty Individuals and they are just so sweet. I love them and couldn't wait to use them.

(Stamps - Bunny - Crafty Individual; 

"Dream" - Lost Coast Designs)

The Dream ATC was made on a piece of cardstock that I used DecoArt Acrylic Pouring Medium and Paint which was swiped onto cardstock using a baby wipe. The bunny was stamped using VersaFine Clair then water colored using new paints from Kuretake.  Of course I added a bit of sparkle on his little crown. 

(Stamps - Background - Joy Clair; Bunny - Crafty Individuals

"Wisdom" - Lost Coast Designs)

And finally this background was a piece of cardstock I used to stamp off extra ink from a recent project. That's why there are several different images and lots of colors. It was just a mish-mash but it looks pretty good I think.  The bunny was water colored using the new Kuretake paints.

So, what do you think?  

Pretty cool huh? 

I'm thinkin' these little gems are a swap waiting to happen - LOL!!

Little Birdie Hello!

Happy Day Friends!  

I hope you're all having a smashing week!  

Today I wanted to share my little bird card with you....

I created this for the Challenge #53 - Tweet This.  I am just so tickled with how this card turned out...the background was so much fun to make.  To see how I did it, hop on over to the LCD blog....

Tweet Tweet, Hello Little Birdies!

And there is still time to enter the challenge...

Hope you join in on the fun!  

You might just win $'s for your own LCD & CV stamps!!

Tweet This

It's the 15th, that means that there is a new challenge over on the 

Lost Coast Designs / Carmen's Veranda blog!!

And that challenge is... Tweet This!

We want to see your bird creations!!

Be sure to post a link to your new bird themed card on the blog to be entered to win!!

Good Luck Everyone!

Spotlight Rose

Good Morning All! 

I hope you're having a lovely day of it.  I want to share a lovely vintage looking rose from Lost Coast Designs that I stamped using the Spotlight technique.

It was created for the current Yellow and Orange Challenge over at Lost Coast Designs & Carmen's Veranda.  

Please hop on over to the blog to check out how this card was created....

Spotlight Rose

I would also like to enter this in Double D's challenge - May Flowers

Yellow & Orange Challenge!

Happy May Day Everyone! 

Today I wanted to share the new challenge on the Lost Coast Designs & Carmen's Veranda - Yellow and Orange!  Yes, you must use yellow and orange somewhere on your creation and do I have a card for you....

a Weinermobile!!!!

I absolutely love this image...it brought back so many memories. My family and I actually got to see a real Weinermobile when we visited The Henry Ford Museum when the boys were young.  I even got a Weinee Whistle (and I still have it).  

So on to the card... I started off by trimming a cover from a vintage atlas down to size. It was spitzed with water and then sprinkled with yellow Nuance pigment powder. After it had dried I rubbed a bit of orange and yellow VFC ink through a circle stencil.  I then smeared a bit of Radiant Neon Amplify! through a second stencil as well. I removed the stencil and heated the Amplify! to puff it up. This panel was affixed to a white card base and I added a few hand drawn lines around the outer edge.

I stamped the Weinermobile twice on white cardstock.  The first was sprinkled with orange Nuance and the second I watercolored the car with yellow Nuance.  Once they were both dry I trimmed the  orange weiner and added it to the yellow car body.  It was then affixed to the card using double stick foam tape.

I die-cut the sentiment and added a few sequins to finish it off.

Now it's your turn!!

Be sure to check out the other cool Yellow and Orange creations

and 

enter your own piece to win fun stamps from 

Lost Coast Designs & Carmen's Veranda!!

I would also like to enter this into the Verve Challenge - YELLOW!!



as well as Country View Challenge - Be Humorous.

Supplies:

Lost Coast Designs & Carmen's Veranda - Weinermobile

Imagine - VersaFine Clair Nocturne, Radiant Neon Amplify! - Neon Yellow

Nuance Pigment Powders

Die-Cut, Vintage Map Page, Sequins, Cardstock

Bottle Cap Art Doll

I have another inspiring creation for the Lost Coast Design & Carmen's Veranda challenge - Stamped Backgrounds!

Isn't she great?

Hope on over to the LCD/CV Blog to check out how she was made...

Bottle Cap ART Doll

Don't forget, today is the last day to enter the Stamped Background challenge!!

You don't want to miss out on your chance for free stamps.

Lost Coast Designs & Carmen's Veranda - Stamped Background Challenge!

Hello my ink stained friends!  I have some exciting new to share with you today...I have been chosen to be on the design team for Lost Coast Designs & Carmen's Veranda!!  I am very excited about this - I have admired these stamps for a very long time, they are very artsy and work well not only on cards but in mixed media arts and collage too!  I can't wait to share my creations with you, I have been having lots of fun with them.

Every 2 weeks LCD/CV hosts a new challenge...my first piece I get to share with you was inspired by their new challenge - Stamped Backgrounds.

I started off by stamping the Pencils Background onto a piece of white cardstock using VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink. Each pencil was colored using a variety of watercolor and colored pencils. This was mounted on a blue card blank.

The next layer is a piece of self adhesive vellum that was colored with Nuance pigment powder. 

Georges and Lewis was stamped once in VF Clair Nocturne and a second time with Paradise blue VFC ink.  The shirt was trimmed from the second image and affixed to the first.  I stamped an extra pencil with green, brown, grey and pink ink which was trimmed and pieced back together to create the pencil which I tucked under his arm.  He was affixed to the card panel using double stick foam tape.

Finally I die-cut the sentiment and inked it with a bit of the Paradise ink.

I hope you hop on over to the blog to check out the other inspiring creations and possibly enter one of your own for your chance to win $$$ to acquire your own Lost Coast Designs & Carmen's Veranda stamps!

Supplies:

LCD/CV - Pencils Background; Georges & Lewis

Imagine - VersaFine Clair - Nocturne, Paradise, Rain Forest, Morning Mist, Acorn, Charming Pink, Sponge Dauber

Die-Cut, Vellum, Cardstock

Lost Coast Designs - Check it Out...

So excited to say that I am now a part of the awesome design team for

Lost Coast Designs

& 

Carmen's Veranda Stamps!!

I have been wanting to get back to the more artsy side of stamping and this is the perfect way to do so...these stamps are so cool and look great alone or mashed together in a collage. I can't wait till you see what I've been up to!

Pretty as a Picture Challenge

Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda's second challenge for the month is Pretty as a Picture (see the inspiration photo at the bottom)!  I decided to play along and this is what I created...

I was inspired initially by the birds nest but then as I looked at it again I was also struck by the colors...vintage barn red, the blue from the eggs and the stark white of the freshly painted trim.  How could I resist.

I started off by cutting a piece of cardstock 4.25 x 5.5" and ran it through a wood grain embossing folder.  I colored the panel using 3 different Nuance reds plus a bit of grey/black.  I then swiped a white ink pad over the raised areas and immediately smudged it around just to give it a weathered feel. I sponged Acorn and Fallen Leaves VersaFine Clair ink around the edges.

I stamped one of birds from the Three Birds stamp set on white cardstock using Paradise blue VFC which was then fussy cut.  I twisted twine into a loopy birds next and stapled it onto the panel. Finally I die-cut a few branches which were sponged with brown ink added them to the card and finished it off with a few white flowers.

My rendition of Pretty as a Picture!

Lost Coast Designs/Carmen's Veranda Pretty as a Picture Challenge

Supplies:

Lost Coast Designs - Three Birds

Imagine - VersaFine Clair - Paradise, Acorn, Fallen Leaves; irRESISTible Pico Embellisher - Electric Blue; Memento Luxe - White; Sponge Dauber

Nuance Pigment Powders

Sizzix Die/Embossing Folder

Princess of Everything!

Just playin' around with one of my stamps I haven't used in a while...Princess of Everything!  Isn't she great? 

Lost Coast Designs - Princess of Everything

The card is assembled using an old bingo card that I swished around some watercolor paint, the white piece in the lower right corner was made by sprinkling on a bit of Nuance powdered pigments on watercolor.   After I stuck them down to the card I flicked on a bit of blue watercolor paint.  

The little princess was stamped with VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink and then colored with Prismacolor colored pencils.   I fussy cut her then pop dotted her onto the card.  The sentiment which is actually below the image when stamped was cut, glued then outlined.

I added the sparklie washi tape to the side just for an extra bit of bling.  You can't see it in this photo very well but her pinafore has a bit of micro fine glitter along the edges as well.

This card fits into the challenge over on Lost Coast Portal to Creativity's challenge: Say What??

Supplies:

Lost Coast Designs - Princess of Everything

Imagine - VersaFine Clair - Nocturne; On Point Glue; Tear It Tape

Nuance Pigment Powders

Prima - Watercolor Paints

Prismacolor Colored Pencils

Washi Tape 

Vintage Bingo Card