Stamp A Faire 2017--Carissa's Challenge: 10th Anniversary, Tin & Aluminum

Well, I've come to my final project, #21, of the weekend!  What a great event!  Even though I missed hanging out with my crafting buddy, Kristie, I'm glad I played along and took a few extra days off from work so I could fully participate in Stamp A Faire.

Carissa showcased gilding flakes for her 10th anniversary project.  While I have purchased the Nuvo gilding flakes, I actually stumbled across an old package of gilding sheets in my stash and opted to use that instead. 

I went with a wedding themed card for this one, and pulled out Propose a Toast for the glasses, bubbles and sentiment.  The "bubbles" at the top of the champagne flutes are supposed to be hearts, but my gilding flakes made a bit of a mess of them.  The flakes left behind some residual sparkle dust that didn't seem to want to come off, and I liked that look so I decided to just let it be, rather than start over.  I adhered a die cut black heart from Enclosed: Heart on top of the pearlized white panel and then layered the die cuts, sentiment and bubbles on top.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Stamp A Faire 2017--Laurie's Challenge: 10th Anniversary, Tin & Aluminum

We are at the final anniversary year, 10!  I've mentioned throughout my various posts about this last weekend that I've had several favorites, but I have to say, I think this may be my most favorite card of the bunch.

Halloween crafting will always have a special place in my heart because it's the holiday that introduced me to stamping.  I still remember my mom coming home from the local art store one fall weekend in 1992 with several Halloween stamps and sitting down with me, my sister and Grandma and we all created cards together.  Back then we used printer weight colored paper that we folded into fourths to make a card, stamped our image directly onto the card front, and used Crayola color pencils to color our images.  I think we had two ink colors at that point--black and orange.  One-layer cards is what we made.  If we added any embellishments, it was either a sticker or some glitter, that was applied with Elmer's glue.  Man, the crafting industry has sure advanced and the different types of tools at our disposal now are amazing!  My love of crafting began back in 8th grade and it still excites me just as much today as it did then!

If you're still reading this post, thanks for hanging in there with me while I reminisced!  Back to my card...Laurie showcased a unique technique for creating a tarnished foil project.  I decided to make a Halloween card as I was anxious to try the new Wicked Elixir stamp set and dies.  I found the small skull embossing folder (from Tim Holtz--another Tuesday Morning score!) in my stash and embossed the creepy image onto my tarnished foil paper, then started to die cut and stamp the labels for my bottles.  I didn't have a specific plan, but my card ended up turning into what I see as a witch's pantry!  All of her potion bottles lined up on a shelf, which have provided a nice resting point for the gleaming red-eyed spider!  Feel free to click on the photo for a closer look.

The black background paper is a scrap from a decorative envelope that was junk mail I salvaged from the recycle pile!  So glad I saved it as it provides a cool wallpaper look for the witch's pantry!

Stamp A Faire 2017--Nichole's Challenge: 9th Anniversary, Pottery

I will admit, this challenge to create a dough tag didn't excite me at first.  Seemed like an awful lot of work, but I did end up enjoying the creative process.  I'm certain that my tags didn't turn out as nice or as professional looking as Nichole's but it was still fun to try the technique!

I used the Wet Paint Holiday stamp set to stamp the word "Peace" into my dough ornament before I baked it.  Then I used the Peace Be Still stamp set to stamp my snowflake images onto tissue paper.  I noticed that the fixative spray actually made my images bleed a bit, so I'm not sure what happened there.  And while I had a brand new bottle of Mod Podge to use, it seemed like the tissue paper didn't stick very well to edges of the ornament, even though I covered them pretty well.  Still, it was fun to try, and if I had littles in my life, I think this would be a good project to try with them.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Lexi's Challenge: 9th Anniversary, Pottery

Lexi challenged us to create a pottery-inspired, clay/paper clay embellishment for the 9th anniversary.  I still had half a package of Creative Paper Clay in my stash from the baking theme Stamp A Faire a few years ago and pulled that out.  It seemed pretty dry and I thought I was going to have to toss it, but I added a little bit of water to it and that revitalized it to the point I could work it again.  So if you're in the same boat, try adding a bit of water to it before you throw it away!

I opted to do another fall project and used a small leaf image from Autumn Pumpkins to stamp all over the rolled out paper clay in Terracotta Tile and Orange Zest inks.  I vaguely recall seeing the cover of a Martha Stewart magazine several years go where leaves had been carved into a pumpkin and I thought it looked so pretty, so that was my inspiration.  Then I used the coordinating dies to trace and carve out paper clay pumpkins.  I noticed as the paper clay dried, the ink seemed to really fade out, so I went back after the clay had mostly dried and re-stamped the leaf images to bring the color back. I also stamped the green pumpkin stems at that point.

I die cut a vellum square and the pinked edge leaf patterned paper square from Limitless Layers 2.5" dies and a couple of vines from Winterberry dies and layered my clay pumpkins on top. I thought the vellum softened the patterned paper a bit and brought a little more attention back to the clay embellishments so they wouldn't get lost against the busy background.  I also used a couple of patterns from the Leaf Prints patterned paper collection for the background panel and the sentiment layer.  The sentiment is from Autumn Pumpkins.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Jessica's Challenge: 8th Anniversary, Bronze

Jessica inspired us to create another project using bronze metallics for her 8th anniversary challenge.  Since I didn't have copper embossing powder in my stash, I couldn't even make my own bronze powder by combining it with gold, so I opted to make another project with the Perfect Pearls since they were still sitting on my desk.  I liked Jessica's theme of grouping multiples of the same item together and drew that as my inspiration for the butterflies I created.  Since I made each one a bit different, I wanted to make sure the details of each butterfly didn't get covered up and laid them out in a square grid.

Unfortunately the lighting wasn't great when I took the photo above and a lot of the shimmer is missed here.  I took another picture from a different angle, but had to hold down the corner of the card with my finger to see the shimmer, so pardon my non manicured hand!  ;-)

I used the Beautiful Butterflies dies and the Beautiful Butterflies Layers stamps and dies for this card.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Kimberly's Challenge: 8th Anniversary, Bronze

For the 8th anniversary of bronze, Kimberly challenged us to create a project using Perfect Pearls or another metallic pigment powder.  It's been ages since I used Perfect Pearls, and I ended up using them on multiple projects this weekend.  I should keep them in a more accessible location in my craft room because for something so simple, they sure pack a big "wow" punch!  The only downfall is that they are messy and get everywhere...

I used the Leaf Prints stamp set (that got a lot of use this weekend!) and stamped the leaf image in Versamark ink on a brown die cut from the Limitless Layers Oval 2.5" collection and then applied bronze Perfect Pearls to the leaf.  I adhered the oval onto a scalloped oval die cut from the same collection.  This was added on top of the Autumn Abundance patterned paper panel.  Then I stamped the sentiment from Infinity Frames Sentiments on the small banner die cut from Tag Sale #10 (perfect size for really small sentiments!) and added some foam adhesive to apply it over the focal image.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Debbie's Challenge: 7th Anniversary, Wool

Oh. My. Goodness.  Felt cookies?!  Debbie's 7th anniversary project was so clever and I loved how she went into detail showing how to create the different types of cookies.  Zero calorie, guilt free cookies in whatever type you can dream up!  I had so much fun with this challenge and took a break from my autumn inspired projects to think ahead a bit to Christmas.  I pulled out my Shaker Shapes die sets of trees and stars and thought these would work nicely for creating holiday sugar cookies. (Sure wish there had been a candy cane one, too!)  The cookies got me thinking about my friend Carla, who for several years hosted cookie exchanges in her lovely home.  I thought the felt cookies could be a cute way to invite someone over for a cookie exchange party, and that's where I got the idea to insert a "cookie" into the glassine bag and then attach the invitation to the outside with a small decorated clothes pin.

This was another one of my favorite projects from the whole weekend!  I used Debbie's idea of taking the small, half moon like pieces from the Damask Snowflakes dies to create the sugar cookie sprinkles.  I chose to just glue everything together for this project and abandoned the notion of sewing since I figured it would take me too long!  The clothes pin is embellished with a small Holly Jolly die cut, and I used the Monthly Moments Journal Card 1 to make the invitation panel, which is stamped with cookie images from Sweet Holiday Wishes.  The "cookie exchange party" is from the Holiday Button Bits stamp set, and the invitation text is from the By Invitation stamp set.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Heather's Challenge: 7th Anniversary, Wool

Getting closer to the end!  Heather inspired us to create a stitched layered embellishment for her 7th anniversary project.  I wish I was a more adept sewer.  I have a small sewing machine that I purchased just for crafting and I've used it only once.  One of these days I will have to get either my mom or my boyfriend's mom, both who are accomplished seamstresses, to give me a lesson!  In the meantime, I can vaguely remember the basics of hand sewing from my Brownie Girl Scout days and can fumble my way through simple stitches, which is what I did on the leaf veins of this felt die cut using Enclosed Leaf dies.

I attached my felt die cut embellishment to a panel of Autumn Abundance patterned paper and added a simple paper die cut from a Fancy Pants pack of embellishments and called it good!

Stamp A Faire 2017--Yana's Challenge: 6th Anniversary, Iron

Yana inspired us to create a metallic embossed die cut for her 6th anniversary challenge.  I had really liked the look of the aged spice embossing enamel on this card, and thought it would create an interesting effect if I added multiple layers to a die cut word, so I gave it a go.  This stuff is really thick to begin with, thicker than standard embossing powder, so it took a long time to melt with my heat tool.  I ended up adding three layers of the embossing enamel and it definitely looks like a metal word embellishment!

Feel free to click on the picture for a closer look.  I added my die cut word to a Shape Up pumpkin die cut and stamped the remainder of my sentiment onto the Leaf Print patterned paper die cut pumpkin segments.  Simple, but elegant card.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Betsy's Challenge: 6th Anniversary, Iron

I loved watching Betsy's video for the 6th anniversary challenge, iron.  What a cool technique!  Who would have known how relatively easy it is to get a metal look with paper, texture paste, ink and some metallic pigment powder?

For my project, I pulled out a new to me set, You're a Masterpiece from the Make It Market kit, which I managed to snag when it was offered a second time during PTI's February anniversary festivities.  I love the frame in that set and thought I could use it to make my own version of a "metal" frame.

My biggest challenge was finding a suitable alternative to the texture paste and an empty bottle with a small enough nozzle to dispense the watered down paste.  I really didn't want to go hunt for it at the craft store this weekend.  Once again, my boyfriend Rob came to the rescue!  His hobby includes tools and tinkering with cars.  His craft room is the garage, and like me, he usually has multiple versions of various supplies!  When I showed him Betsy's video, he thought maybe I could use some watered down paint spackle in an empty Elmer's glue bottle and he was kind enough to go prepare some for me and empty out a partially use glue bottle he had on his work bench.  It worked!  He's a genius.  :-)

My first attempt was thwarted as I forgot to cut out the center square from the frame before I applied the paste, ink blending and perfect pearls, and when I went to run the square die through my machine, I discovered the paste hadn't fully dried (even though I'd blasted it for a long time with my heat tool) and it pulled off onto my die cutting plate.  Argh!  Do over.  So here is my second attempt, and I made sure to die cut the middle out of the frame before I even started to apply the paste, ink or perfect pearls pigment!

A sentiment and leaf from Autumn Pumpkins and a die cut cart and pumpkins from the Market Street Make It Market kit layered on some Leaf Prints patterned paper finished off my card.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Natasha's Challenge: 5th Anniversary, Wood

Natasha inspired us to create a project using an inked impression plate for her 5th anniversary challenge.  In keeping with the wood theme, I also used the Woodgrain impression plate for my card.  I pulled out another well loved older set in my collection for this project, Meadow Greens.  I often use the set for sympathy cards and use a green palette for the leaves, but went in a different direction for a change.

I found some interesting embossing enamel called Aged Spice from Stampendous in my embossing powder stash and thought it would give the ferns a really unique look.  I used a frame from the Pretty Peonies stamp and die set to surround my sentiment from Meadow Greens.  A couple of terracotta enamel dots finished off the frame.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Lizzie's Challenge: 5th Anniversary, Wood

Lizzie had us create a project using a woodgrain inlay technique for the 5th anniversary wood challenge.  I had fall on my mind when I pulled out my wood paper sheets from my stash and thought this technique might pair nicely with Dawn's Enclosed: Leaf die set.

I had already prepared the leaf background paper while playing around with a new 8 x 8 background stamp from Stampendous and my Nuvo Embellishment mousse pots a few weeks ago and was saving it for the perfect project.  What's nice is that I was able to get two card panels and a few scraps large enough to create two tags from that one background stamp!  Score!  I decided to use the two leaves I die cut for Lizzie's technique and create a pair of cards, changing the sentiment for each one.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Anna's Challenge: 4th Anniversary, Linen

Anna challenged us to create a die cut frame backed with stamped linen for her 4th anniversary project.  For this year's event, I tried to pull out older stamp and die sets in my collection, along with my hoard of patterned papers and give them some attention.  As I went through my sets looking for an interesting frame, I found the Simply Jane set.  This is an "oldie but goodie" set!

I stamped the silhouette cameo from Simply Jane on a scrap of linen fabric in Dark Chocolate ink and embellished it with a die cut flower from the same collection.  I added a "string of pearls" around the lady's neck using Bisque Liquid Pearls.  I then inserted the stamped linen scrap between two of the ornate frame die cuts and added this focal panel to several layers of patterned paper and a Spring Moss die cut oval.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Amy's Challenge: 4th Anniversary, Linen

I'm back to share more of my Stamp A Faire projects with you today!  I'm up to the 4th anniversary, which is linen.  This was my favorite project of the two I made using linen.  Amy challenged us to stamp some fabric to wrap a special gift.  I had so much fun stamping the beautiful maple leaf from Leaf Prints on the fabric.  I picked up a bar of wonderful smelling soap from Tuesday Morning recently called Golden Sugar Maple (have you discovered Tuesday Morning yet? OH, that's a dangerous place...and they sell craft supplies, among all sorts of fantastic goods!), which inspired the theme for my linen wrap.

I added a stamped paper die cut Leaf Print embellishment to top off my wrap and secured the two ends of the fabric with Terracotta Tile grosgrain ribbon.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Nichole's Challenge: 3rd Anniversary, Leather

For the second project for the 3rd anniversary, Nichole challenged us to come up with faux embossed leather.  I thought the In the Woods cover plate would be a good die to use for this, but my first attempt was not successful.  I tried again, and nearly abandoned the project, but it wasn't until I added ink over the top of the tissue paper did my design finally come to life.  I'm so glad I persisted and I think the end result is really unique!  My August release order came at the end of last week, so I pulled out the Beautiful Berries: Autumn set to add a few berry sprays and the sentiment to finish off the card.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Ashley's Challenge: 3rd Anniversary, Leather

I really enjoyed making my own faux leather as part of Ashley's third anniversary challenge.  This was a cool technique and perfect for masculine or vintage inspired projects!  I kept thinking of an old leather suitcase when I saw this technique and that made me think of travel, so I used that as my inspiration for my card.  I pulled out Destination and We Go Together (I believe both of these sets are retired now) and the Mix and Mat Postal die to complete the focal image of my card, the background map is from Hero Arts and I topped the card off with a few wood arrow embellishments.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Michelle's Challenge: 2nd Anniversary, Cotton

The second challenge for the 2nd anniversary had us get the needle and thread out for some stitching!  I'm so glad I was able to find some crinoline at JoAnn's last weekend.  This was one of my favorite projects for the entire event, but please don't look too closely at my stitches, as they aren't very even! (My boyfriend's mom is a seamstress, I think she would be horrified at my stitching!)  I think these sachets would make a wonderful little gift, or as a stocking stuffer for the holidays.

I used Michelle's second method for dying the crinoline with Copic markers.  It was a quick and easy way to get the colors I wanted for my flowers. I used the Friendly Flower dies and some Royal Velvet buttons, and the latest Mix and Mat Pinked Edge die to make my sachet.

Stamp A Faire 2017--Stephanie's Challenge: 2nd Anniversary, Cotton

I will admit, I had a hard time coming up with something for this 2nd Anniversary challenge.  Stephanie's cotton candy card was unique and so cute, but I didn't want to recreate it.  As I was pacing my craft room Friday evening trying to come up with an idea, my boyfriend walked by and asked me what I was up to.  I told him I was trying to come up with an idea to execute for this dyed cotton challenge.  Without missing a beat, Rob suggested, "how about a bunny tail?"  And voila, here is my card, thanks to Rob's brilliant suggestion!

Stamp A Faire 2017--Laura's Challenge: 1st Anniversary, Paper

We have the opportunity to make two projects for each anniversary year as part of this year's Stamp A Faire event.  I'm back to share my second project for year one, in which Laura Bassen challenged us to use our paper scraps and add a vellum overlay.  Oh, if only I could actually make a dent in my paper scrap drawers (which are segregated by color)!  At least this challenge made me glad that I hadn't dumped my scraps of Melon Berry polka dot paper!  I used the Mighty Oak die, a leaf die from the Leaf Prints die collection and the Scripted stamp set and dies for this card.

You'll see I ended up making a lot of fall themed projects for Stamp A Faire.  I'm ready for autumn, it's my favorite season!

Stamp A Faire 2017--Rebecca's Challenge: 1st Anniversary, Paper

Papertrey Ink is celebrating its 10 year anniversary this year, so the theme of this year's Stamp A Faire follows the traditional wedding anniversary traditions for each year.  Up first is paper!

Rebecca Luminarias challenged us to make a handmade paper embellishment.  I was intrigued with her paper tassels and managed to find a package of small tassel caps at my local craft store, so decided to give those a try.  They were surprisingly easy and a lot of fun to make!  I used mine to decorate a gable box that I received as gift packaging from a store.  A Limitless Layers: Square die cut topped with a few stamped die cuts from Still Life: Summer helped me cover up the store's label on the side.

Stamp A Faire 2017: Take Ten Warm Up Challenge

Brace yourself because I have a lot of projects to share!  Over the last four days I participated in the 2017 Papertrey Ink Stamp A Faire event.  There were a total of 21 challenges and I completed all of them!  It was a crafting marathon weekend!

On Friday, the event kicked off with a warm up challenge where we could pick one of ten inspiration photos/color schemes and use that to jump start creativity.  I picked the first photo, which included several tropical images in an Aqua Mist, Vintage Jadeite, and Bright Buttercup color palette.

I'll be back shortly with more projects to share!

PTI August Create Along with Us: Potent Potions

I'm back to share a couple of cards I made for this month's "Create Along with Us" challenge at Papertrey Ink.  This month's release focused on autumn and Halloween products, which thrilled me to no end since that's my favorite time of the year.  I can't wait to get my hands on the new Wicked Elixirs set and dies.  While I wait for my order to arrive next week, I drew inspiration from the "potent potions" theme and created my own version using the Love Potion stamp set and dies, along with some creepy images from the Tiny Treats: Halloween set.

My apologies for the terrible shadows on the photos.  The sun is beating into my craft room right now.  Great natural light, but the shadows are tricky for photo editing!

Thanks for stopping by!