I am ready to put some photo's on.

It is not perfect but it will do.  They are in the  catalogue of Close to my Heart under Craft with heart Cardmaking.

This Jayla card, my granddaughter, who has a birthday at May 6th.

This card for my son who has a birthday on May 7th

Something happened to me

I had a stroke which shows in my cards.  I can not speak either. but my brain works perfect. too bad but I can do in blogging. it is slow but I can do it.  My cards I can post later once I them have them done.

A quick update!

Just doing a quick update on my latest card and ATC.  I did make other cards but I will update these later.

I have been doing some work with Alcohol Inks and really enjoying playing around.  

For this card I used glossy card stock, alcohol inks with a touch of silver.  I stamped with Stays-On ink and cut the stamped image apart and glued it on black card stock.  Did the same for the HB saying.  I also stamped the envelope with stays-on ink.

Products used:  Glossy card stock, Stays-on Ink black and mustard.  Stamp: Hero -Blooming Meadow, Alcohol Inks: wild plum, cranberry and silver.  Blending solution. HB stamp - unknown.  Envelope: Stamp: Kicostamps - daisy.

Next I made an ATC with the left over piece of card stock.  I wanted to use a silver coloured dragonfly sticker but did not have one so I decided to add some gold colour alcohol ink so I could use the gold dragonfly.  The text is printed on a clear label, cut to size and put on top of the ATC.

Products used:  Stamp: Kicostamps - Flowers and Animals Place 46.  Dragonfly sticker. Alcohol inks:  wild plum, cranberry, silver, gold, terra cotta, butterscotch and stream.

I really like working with alcohol inks hope you enjoy the card and ATC.

Old art backgrounds renewed!

During my daily blogging I came across a blog which suggested using old art backgrounds as part of focal point on a card.  I made this background when I was still living in Calgary so it is an old background alright.

I was able to find a green card stock to match the green in the background piece so after matting on black and the green I really liked the results.  

This is a close up of the focal point matted.

Here another look at the card where you can see the embossing I did and I cut the Happy Birthday with my Ecutter.  

Really like the idea of using old art backgrounds I have made over time.

Supplies used:

SU brown, black and green cardstock.  Ecutter for text and shadow text. Sizzix TH embossing folder.

Yes I did finish my coffee ATCs finally

I talked about the coffee background card and ATC earlier and I decided to make my ATCs in a set and actually it will be series as well.  This set is called Spring and as you can guess my next set will be Summer but not for a while and I will also be using a different technique.

I am really pleased with these so I am glad I did some more.

 

Up to my next set of cards or will it be ATCs again.  They are addicting.

Here an explanation on what ATCs are.  

Easter is coming . . .

I know Easter is a couple of weeks away yet but two of our grand kids are coming this weekend to visit and we won't see them before Easter so I had to get their Easter card ready early.

It is the same style box I made in February for Valentine's Day but with the Easter theme of course.  I have learned a few things making these boxes.  First of all you either use paper which has colour or a pattern on one side only or paste a piece of white (cream) paper on the 'card' part before you stamp, colour and decorate.  Coloured paper just does not show up as well and it does not do any justice to your work.  It does not photograph very well either.

I am sure you can tell that one is for a boy and one for a girl.  A fun card/box to make.

Using instant coffee to make a background!!!

Yes you are reading it right.  Instant coffee to make your background for a card, ATC or scrap page.  Sprinkle some instant coffee on some card stock (not too much), spritz it with water and let dry.  That is all you have to do.
I used plain card stock the first time I tried it but used too much coffee and was not happy with the result.   But I did make an ATC with it just to try it out.  My first ATC, they say they become addicting so who knows.

Liked the idea but did not like my handwriting and also the clock stamp.  It was a busy background already and it did not need more.

The cup is a Michael Strong stamp which I embossed en coloured in with distress ink.















Next is an ATC for which a used watercolour paper as the background.  Again I used coffee, just a little, spritzed it and let it dry.  Very important to let it air dry to remove any extra coffee after.  This time I did a bit of a theme and called it my Spring series.  Will have to show the rest later.

I used Perfect Pearls on the butterflies to give the card some 'bling'.  The Spring text was cut out with my Ecraft en the cattails stamp is from Our Daily Bread and the birds from De Stempelwinkel.
















And now for my card.  Again watercolour paper background with the coffee.  Stamped flowers with  Antique Linen distress ink.  A ribbon and a saying and this all mounted on a chocolate coloured background card.

close up of the coffee 'stain' and the background stamping.

Stamps used are from Stampendous - Agapanthus Thank You, saying - Hero Arts.  Ribbon and brown paper???

Hope you enjoyed this coffee technique.  It was a challenge from Kicostamps - http://kicostamps.blogspot.nl/