Splitcoast Tutorial: Skyline Stamping

Today's tutorial over on Splitcoast is called Skyline Stamping - our tutorial author has several beautiful samples using a Stampin' Up set, but I put my own spin on it, as usual, and hopefully this will give you some ideas as well! Here's my card:

The background I used was already prestamped on my desk - it's done using the stamp below with some misted ColorBox dye inks (one of my summer stamps).

I don't have the set used in the tutorial, so to stamp my buildings I used the back side of a clear sentiment stamp that had a sort of blocky shape.

To add windows to the buildings, I used this stamp, masking off a couple of the rows for the correct width.

Here's a closer look at the card - my gel pen wasn't working so I added highlights and reflections with a white Prismacolor pencil.

The sentiment and airplane are from the set below, also one of my designs.

Stamps I used: CAC Reverse Sunburst, Grunge Map clear set, Extra Fun clear set, Dot Border

Hope you'll give this a try! Thank you for visiting me - remember my silent auction that ends Saturday! (Above are just a few of the cards I have available!)

Mother's Day Sale!

Save 20% off your order at Ellen Hutson May 13-15 using code MOMSDAY18 - 

Happy Mother's Day!

Impression Obsession DT Challenge: Stamp a Background

The Impression Obsession team's challenge today is to create a project with a stamped background, no patterned paper. I've got a simple card for you!

For my background, I stamped a large floral image several times to fill the panel. I then misted the panel, and added in some loose watercolor painting in just 2 colors!

Stamps I used: Rose Bouquet, To Love

Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration -

Anna @ Sassy & Sweet Notes
Daniela @ For the First Time
Dina @ Dina Kowal Creative
Giovana @ Believe
Ilina @ Creativity Within
Jeanne @ Inky Paws
Jenny @ One Krafty Kat 
Karen @ Paper Lilies and Ink 
Kelli @ Stamping with a Dream 
Kittie @ Kittie Kraft
Laura @ Laura's Stamp Art Journal
Vicki @ Summerthyme Studio


Remember you can enter these challenges too, using your Impression Obsession stamps! See the I.O. blog for all the details - you might even win a $25 gift certificate!! We'd love to have you join us.

Stamps and cards for sale!

I've got a huge pile of cards, unmounted stamps, and other supplies that want to be used! I've set up a silent auction on my Facebook business page - please come and take a peek, and comment to bid!

Art show weekend!

Over the last 2 months I've been working on some of my own art between commissions - I've really enjoyed stretching my skills and working on some larger pieces! I had this past weekend as my deadline, so I could enter both pieces in a regional art show - 

I loved the process of this piece, and recreating the expression of joy on each face! Many of you know that we were missionaries overseas for 9 years... the two boys in the picture are my "little boys" who are now 12 and 14. The girls are the children of some of our students. This was the largest piece I've done to date (18"x24"), and it was wonderful to be able to work on a larger scale with a higher level of detail. I'm excited to be able to add larger family portraits to my commission offerings as well!

When I finished the first piece I had a little over a week until the show so I powered out one more... not sure I would recommend that pace, but I did finish and was able to enter it as well. This piece is 16" square, done mostly in colored pencil, with the underpainting and added details done in watercolor.

There were about 150 pieces total in the show, ranging from textile art to oil painting and all mediums in between. After the initial judging I was pleased to have 2 ribbons - one for artistic merit (honorable mention) on the succulent piece, and an artistic excellence ribbon on "Pure Joy". The final award of the weekend is the People's Choice award, which is by popular vote. It was a thrill to be the winner of that ribbon as well!

 Prints are available of both of these pieces in my store in your choice of size... I'm back to commissions this week with a secret memorial commission that I'll share in June. Below is my most recent commission, who's on her way to her mama in California with a custom glass pendant!

I hope you're having a great week!

Splitcoast Tutorial: Foam Faux Leather

Today's tutorial over on Splitcoast is called Foam Faux Leather - it's a fun and easy way to make a dimensional embellishment using stamps and simple craft foam!

I got my new summer clear sets this weekend so I had to use this sweet little puppy face - for the technique, you press an inked stamp into heated fun foam, and it leaves an impression. When you cut it out, you have a soft embellishment that looks like a leather piece! I used Copics and acrylic paint to add some color to my brown foam. The house die is from Impression Obsession and I used a Sizzix tag die to cut the door opening.

Impression Obsession products I used: House Die, Mini Peekers clear set, CAC Stone Wall, Miss You die set

I hope you're having a good week! I'm recovering from my weekend - I'll share about it in another post!

New IO Summer Release Hop - Day 3

The Impression Obsession team is showcasing new Summer images that are available NOW! You can visit the I.O. Blog all this week for links to the previews and ALL the challenge details. Leave a comment on our designers' posts throughout the week for a chance to win a $25 gift certificates from Impression Obsession! Today's the last day of our hop, but you can still comment on previous posts for more chances to win. If you just happened on the blog hop today because you're a regular reader of my blog, you can find a full list of participants at the end of my post. If you're already hopping and you arrived here from Daniela's blog you're doing just fine.

I have one more animal set to add to my collection! This set is called "Extra Fun", and it features an adorable baby elephant who will be able to hold a sign or the flag pole with a matching die set coming soon! The sentiments in the set are mix-and-match with some fun combinations. ("You are so extra!") For my card above I cut around the trunk with a craft knife, but the die set will do that work for you. 

IO products I used: Extra Fun clear set

Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration! You're not required to comment on every one, but the more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win! Thank you for visiting me! 

Anna @ Sassy & Sweet Notes
Daniela @ For the First Time
Dina @ Dina Kowal Creative <================ you're here!
Giovana @ Believe
Ilina @ Creativity Within
Jeanne @ Inky Paws
Karen @ Paper Lilies and Ink 
Laura @ Laura's Stamp Art Journal
Vicki @ Summerthyme Studio

New IO Summer Release Hop - Day 2

The Impression Obsession team is showcasing new Summer images that are available NOW! You can visit the I.O. Blog all this week for links to the previews and ALL the challenge details. Leave a comment on our designers' posts throughout the week for a chance to win $25 gift certificates from Impression Obsession! If you just happened on the blog hop because you're a regular reader of my blog, you can find a full list of participants at the end of my post. If you're already hopping and you arrived here from Daniela's blog you're doing just fine.

I have some more silhouette images to add to my stamp line - here's the girl grad, and there's a boy as well. For this card, I just stamped the image onto a piece of wood-grain paper, added a quick penciled shadow, and layered two die cuts over the top. So simple!

This next card is one of my favorites from this release's samples - I used Tara Caldwell's Sand Dune image lightly in the background, then masked with paper edges and sponged  to create the scene. I live in a lake area, and I think this would be a fun card to sell locally!

This third card was very simple to do with a stamp positioner - I did shoot a video of my process, but haven't had time to finish it yet, with preparing for an art show this weekend. I'll get it done and out to you soon! I used Zig markers to color the flag.

IO products I used: Grad Girl Silhouette, Congratulations die, Fishing Silhouette, Believe in Fishing,  Sand Dune, Flag Girl Silhouette, Celebrating You 

Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration! You're not required to comment on every one, but the more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win! Thank you for visiting me! 

Anna @ Sassy & Sweet Notes
Daniela @ For the First Time
Dina @ Dina Kowal Creative
Giovana @ Believe
Ilina @ Creativity Within
Jeanne @ Inky Paws
Karen @ Paper Lilies and Ink 
Kittie @ Kittie Kraft
Laura @ Laura's Stamp Art Journal

New IO Summer Release Hop - Day 1

The Impression Obsession team is showcasing new Summer images that are available NOW! You can visit the I.O. Blog all this week for links to the previews and ALL the challenge details. Leave a comment on our designers' posts throughout the week for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate from Impression Obsession. If you just happened on the blog hop because you're a regular reader of my blog, you can find a full list of participants at the end of my post. If you're already hopping and you arrived here from Anna's blog you're doing just fine.

If you're new to my blog, then you may not know that I'm not only on the Impression Obsession design team - I'm also one of their artists! It's always fun during these blog hops to be able to share my stamps, some thoughts behind them, and some fun ways to use them. I have 2 large cling sets in this release, a dog set and a cat set! Each one has separate paw stamps that can be popped up for some cute effects.

Here's a peek at the cat set - I didn't use the paws on this one, but I'll share a card and tutorial another day for a fun shaker idea using the paws!

Smaller versions of these images are also available in a clear set with the paws as part of the image, and some cute one-word sentiments just for fun - that's HERE! 

IO products I used: Peeking Puppy cling set, Peeking Kitty cling set, Grunge Building Borders clear set, Hey, Smell Cake

Be sure to check out these other designers' blogs for inspiration! You're not required to comment on every one, but the more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win! Thank you for visiting me - now go visit my friend Giovana!

Anna @ Sassy & Sweet Notes
Dina @ Dina Kowal Creative ---------------------- you're here!
Giovana @ Believe
Ilina @ Creativity Within
Jeanne @ Inky Paws
Karen @ Paper Lilies and Ink 
Vicki @ Summerthyme Studio

My Sweet Petunia and Visible Image!

I'm a guest of My Sweet Petunia on a beautiful blog hop today featuring stamps from Visible Image - I really enjoyed playing with these new and unique stamps, and I hope you'll enjoy my creations as well as the others in the hop! Keep reading for more info on how you can win your own Visible Image stamps, or a MISTI! If you've been hopping already and you've come from Elisa Ablett's blog, you're doing just fine.

I've had ColorBox Premium Dye Inks all over my desk this week so I've used them on all my cards here as well! For this card, I watercolored the jellyfish from the Dare to Swim with the inks, then laid the Fibres stencil over it to dry for a subtle pattern in the water.

I added a few circles from the Jazz It Up set after the panel was dry, and die cut some small circles into the panel so the sparkly base could show through. 

For my second card, I did some smooshing with the inks to create a background, then stamped the sentiment - using the MISTI allowed me to stamp it two or three times for a really intense black. 

The piano border was stamped twice end to end; using the MISTI I was able to line up the stamp perfectly so I could move the card down and extend the border image. I stamped right onto the background, then used gesso and colored pencil to fill in the white keys.

This card sort of evolved as I went - I knew I wanted the circles around the end of the trumpet, so I set up a little template in my MISTI with a 3" die cut square, marked the corners of the opening on my card panel, then stamped and rotated to fill the space.

From there, I filled up the background with brushed ink and lots of layers of stamping.  (Script stamp is from the Scripted Streets set.)

The musicians are stamped with Versafine ink (again, multiple impressions for a perfect image), and then embossed with clear powder so they stand out even more from the background.

Thanks to Visible Image and to My Sweet Petunia for letting me join along with you today! And nowwww for the good stuff: 

Two lucky commenters from the hop will win one of two prizes: a $50 shopping spree at My Sweet Petunia or a $50 shopping spree at Visible Image! 

Be sure to leave your comments no later than Monday, April 30th, at 11:59 PM Central time. Winners will be announced on Tuesday May 1st, on the Visible Image and My Sweet Petunia blogs! Good luck!

From here you'll be hopping to Heather Mitchell's blog - thank you for visiting me! If you get lost or want to start at the beginning, you can find the entire hop list below. Cheers!

Veerle Moreels

Ilina Crouse

Lisa Taggart

Jeanne Streiff

Sharon Traynor

Kia Gibson-Clapper

Becca Cruger

Ceal Pritchett

Pauline Butcher

Giovana Smith

Josefine Fouarge

Chris Dayton

Jane Tyrrell

Stephanie Severin

Tenia Nelson

Janine Tinklenberg

Elisa Ablett

Dina Kowal -------------------------- YOU'RE HERE!

Heather Mitchell

Kyra Sanders 

Lynn Good

Susan Wymer

Lanette Erickson

Joan Bardee

Aga Baraniak

Judy Rozema

Eileen Godwin

My Sweet Petunia