Believe

Happy Friday!  I wanted to mix things up for you a bit, so I inked this Primative Beginnings set that I bought over a year ago.  It was so new, I had to cut the stamps apart.

I cut the white background paper to 5″ x 5″ and stamped out the image with Versafine.  Next, I sponged colour onto the paper and coloured the house with Prismacolor pencil crayons.  The surrounding decorative paper is a sheet of watercolour paper that I cut to 6″ x 6″ and did the distress ink technique.  Finally, I painted a star chipboard and adhered it to my card with a pop dot and added the sentiment.

On the renovation front, my granite counter tops are being installed as I write this.  Again, I got a “These are live colours.”  He added, “These colours were painted where ever I went in Jamaica.”  Guess I won’t need to spend the money to go on vacation then–I can kick back with a pina colada right here in my own livingroom!  Hmmm, I wonder if I can find a bathing suit in these Jamaican colours.

Apple Pie in the Spring

I was talking to my mom this evening, and she tells me that spring is around the corner in Atlanta.   Not here in Sarnia.  I’m one hour away from Detroit, and three hours south of Toronto, and we’re still feeling the pains of winter with freshly falling snow.  When I told my mom I was working on a card and trying hard to come up with the embellishments, she said that my card colours sound like spring.  Hence, my title, “Apple Pie in the Spring.”

This week’s challenge at Magnolia vs Stampavie is to create a card using the sketch below.  It looked easy, but I really struggled with it because I chose to create a card that opens with the image being the part that swings open.  By doing this, the red paper on the right cannot have embellishments, or the image would cover up those embellishments.   The card is a little more simple than I would have liked but that happens sometimes.  On a positive note, I passed the challenge I gave myself and that was to use colours other than Tempting Turquoise or Pixie Pink.  When my girlfriends begin to notice that I use the same colours over and over, it’s time to change things up a bit.

This image is available for purchase through my store Sunflowers-Dragonflies Creative Designs.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tutorial Tuesday: Readable Text on a Coaster

Gel transfers are pretty popular these days, so I thought I would do a new tutorial for you.  Today you will learn how to make your word(s) print backwards, so your finished product is readable.

Select your photo or picture for printing and put it into a Word document on your computer.  On the top left of your computer screen you will see the option of going into “File.”  Click on File.  Next, click on Print.  This portion is straight forward because most of us are already familiar with printing in this fashion.  Next, you will see a tab on the upper right that says, “Properties.”  Click on that.  Next, you will see a series of file folder tabs along the top.  Click on “Layout.”  Under the area called Orientation you will see a box beside the words, “Mirror Image.”  Click on the box.  Next, click OK and your print job will be processed.

These are the steps I took you through

• File
• Print
• Properties
• Layout
• Mirror Image

Supplies:  Coaster, Golden Gel Medium, Sponge, Image

With a sponge, paint Golden Gel Medium onto the image.  Let dry completely.

When the first layer of gel medium is dry, paint on another layer.  Repeat for a total of 4 to 6 layers.  Smaller images need 4 coats.  Larger areas should have 5 to 6 coats.  The reason that larger images need more gel medium is because the gel medium goes on clear and it is hard to see what areas have been painted.  Some areas will be left bare and will not receive a nice full coat.  It is better to have more layers of gel, than not enough.

Dry all layers thoroughly.  Personally, I let my image dry 7 hours.  Many times, I leave it to dry overnight.

Flip your image over once all the layers are dry.

Dip your finger into water and gently rub the paper backing off the gel skin.  Repeat until the area is completely free of paper.

This is what your gel skin will look like at this point.

Coat the top and sides of your coaster with gel medium.  If you trimmed your image to rest on the top only, then paint gel medium only on the top.  This step acts as the glue to adhere the image to the coaster.

Paint one or two layers of Gel Medium over finished image.  Spray with protective sealer, or paint a protective sealer once the gel medium is completely dry.

For a complete list of tutorials, click on the page link on the top of the page.

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Shabby Chic Moose

Good morning.  Today I have a shabby chic moose for you.  He is one of the moose stamps I designed.  Why a moose?  Well, I am designing stamps with a Canadian theme in mind, and since there are lots of moose in Canada, I thought I would do a series of them. This fellow is called Happy Moose.

This cute fellow was coloured with Prismacolor pencil crayons and painted with Twinkling H2O’s.  The clouds were painted with H2O’s.  Prima flowers were placed for accent.  Stitching around the designer paper was done by machine and the torn edges were hand stitched.

On the renovation side of things, my appliances were delivered yesterday, and my counter top was measured.  Tonight when I get home from work, I’m going to finish painting the crown molding in the livingroom and ceiling in the hallway.  My girlfriend was over yesterday and loved the colours I painted.  She recognized the Tempting Turquoise (Stamp’n Up) walls in the livingroom and even knew I paired Pixie Pink (Stamp’n up) with TT on so many of my cards.  I am thinking of accenting in Pixie Pink , but Donnie says that’s where he draws the line.  My burly man says no pink, but we’ll see

Have a nice weekend, and thanks for stopping by.

Stamp:  Sunflowers and Dragonflies Creative Designs; Designer Paper, Gretel by Cosmo Cricket; Cardstock, black and burnt orange; Embellishments, Prima flowers, eyelits, mesh, ribbon, leaf punch

Sorry I’m Late

It certainly feels like I’m living in a circus with my house turned upside down for five weeks now.   I tried to put some order back into my life by spending three hours sorting cards for the mail, and placing card tops onto card bases.  I always make card fronts, but never get around to putting them onto a full card base, so they just stack up until the mess is uncontrollable.  Do you do that too?

Have a nice weekend.

Stamps:  Odd Bird Planet

Have you seen my new store yet?  http://sunflowers-dragonflies.ca