Sandy’s Craft Bag

For  The House That Stamps Built - Theme Challenge M1221 ~ Sew Special , I thought of doing a quilt design. The good old log cabin quilt is one of my favorites, so that’s what I went with. I began with 3/4” strips cut from 5 coordinating papers and a 4.375”x6.125” piece of white cardstock. I cut one square to begin and put it in the center of the mat. From there I used a tape runner around it then pieced on 4 more strips and trimmed them with a craft knife. I continued around with longer strips and then started making them shorter again until it was complete.  Next I used a Ranger black embossing pen to add the “stitches” and embossed them using Ranger navy e.p. so they would be dimensional. I did this in several sections to make it easier & prevent drying or smudges. After trimming around the edge of the mat, I added some blue striped butcher’s twine and buttons, and a sentiment strip. I attached it to a light blue A6 card base to finish it off. I’ll enter this in the Si...

I’ve used this technique once before and was pretty happy with the results, but at the time thought that the Altenew painted flowers stamps would work better. When I saw the Altenew inspiration challenge it all came together. The floating parasols reminded me of the floating flowers, & the colors would work beautifully.  I used Catherine Pooler inks in Melon Ice & Garden Party, Bellini & Orange Peel, It’s a Boy & Stone Blue, and Coral Cabana & Samba to stamp the layered flowers then cut them with the coordinating dies. I arranged them on a light blue mat to get a good layout, then used Glad Press & Seal to hold them together while I cut them with a rectangular die.  After separating the 2 sections, I added pieces of foam tape to the back of the flowers & leaves and mounted each on a light blue mat. After removing the Press & Seal I added dots with Nuvo drops. I wasn’t happy with the placement of the center section, so I trimmed around it and ad...

This is a card I started a couple of weeks ago & finally put together. The geranium is a digistamp from Power Poppy . I just love their designs and the price point can’t be beat! I printed it out, sprayed it with a fixative, and colored it with Copic markers. After matting it in black and putting on a green card blank, I added some black rhinestones.  This Wednesday’s Simon Says Challenge is Anything Goe s, so I’ll enter it in that, and in the  Stamping Sensations - Beautiful Blooms challenge. Thanks for stopping by! Sandy

When I was planning out my Memorial Day cards, I came across 2 items that inspired me. The first was a card on Bobbi’s Treasure blog . I love the look of the different embossing patterns. It’s subtle but distinctive.  I used my Cricut to cut apart navy mats of 4-1/4”x6” with room for the red to show through.  My second inspiration was a Memorial Day poem I came across.  We cherish too, the poppy red That grows in fields where valor led,  It seems to signal to the skies That blood of hero’s never dies — Maina Michael So, poppies! Out came my Stampin’ Up Peaceful Poppies dies. I have gotten so much use out of this set!  I die cut the poppies in 2 shades of red, and the leaves in 2 shades of green. I glued everything together and added the verse to the inside.  I’ll be entering this in the  Simon Says: Use Dies and/or Punches challenge and the Stamping Sensations Beautiful Blooms challenge. Thanks for stopping by! Sandy

I’ve been working on this card on & off for a couple of weeks now, not sure how to finish it off. I was looking for a beach or ocean theme for the  Lindy’s Gang May Seaside Challenge and found this seahorse design on Etsy that I thought was really cool.  After downloading the svg, I pulled it into Cricut Design Space, sized it for an A6 card, and printed it out. Next I sprayed it with fixative, colored it with Copic markers, and fussy cut it. For the background I used a Lavinia Coral stencil, modeling paste, and 3 colors of Lindy’s Magicals from the Industrial Chic set: time travel teal, rusty lantern lime, and shabby turbine teal.  I taped the stencil and cardstock down, squirted some modeling paste in several spots, and dusted the Magicals over the top. When I used a palette knife to spread the paste, the colors were activated and spread around too. After removing the stencil and letting it dry overnight, I trimmed it to 4” x 5.75”.  I cut some coral, seawee...

For the  Simon Says: Things With Wings challenge, I really only have butterflies right now, so I wanted to think of a different way to use them. I settled on one large butterfly stamp that I’d use with the Jacob’s Coat technique. I began by cutting 2 mats of Bo Bunny twin dots paper in navy, one 6” x 4.25” and one 3.75” square, and 2 in white, one 5.75” x 4” and one 3.5” square. On the white square I blended Distress Oxide inks in Tumbled Glass, Twisted Citron, Spun Sugar, and Milled Lavender. I set it with a heat gun and then stamped over the top with Versamark ink using the butterfly stamp and embossed it with clear embossing powder. Once cool, I blended over the top with Chipped Sapphire then Black Soot and buffed off the stamped portion. After attaching all the mats to a white A6 card blank, I cut another small rectangle of the Bo Bunny paper and embossed the sentiment in white. I attached it and kept the rest of the card clean. Thanks for stopping by! Sandy

For the  MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge - Sketch 540 I decided to use this card I saw for inspiration. I like how the embossed vellum looks over the ink blending and the color choices. Here’s the sketch: I decided to split the blended section into 4 parts, pop them up using white cardstock, and put the vellum over the top. First I took a half sheet of cardstock and over part of it blended Distress Oxide inks in Aged Mahogany, Barn Door, and Crackling campfire.   Next I cut it into 4 pieces each 3.5”x1.125” with a quarter inch in-between. I stacked them each on 3 pieces of white and attatched them to a burgundy mat.  After cutting a piece of vellum 3.5”x5.25”, I ran it through my Cuttlebug in a Cricut Anna Griffin Aviary embossing folder. I decided to try a technique I saw recently for adhering vellum using a sheet of double-sided adhesive. Since it covers the entire surface you don’t seethe adhesive like you normally would if you just used pieces.  Well, I got the a...