Card Challenge from the Campbellford Crew + 1 (me!)

Every month, five of us work from a card design and March's challenge was this:   You can see what the other ladies created here.  We always have fun doing these.

My inspiration came from this lovely lady and her amazing art.

I used the same inks as I did for the one below but used Versamark ink and clear embossed the grasses (Stampin Up) before I inked the background.  I masked off the bottom with post-it notes and clear embossed the bottom to make the snow bank.  I made the little pearls from a glue gun and used a very subtle grey ribbon to finish.  Can you tell I love this style?

 This is a quick little card I made for a friend's birthday.  The flourish stamp was stamped twice with black ink and clear embossed - just turned around the second time.  I took a tiny heart stamp and stamped it on the ends of the flourishes and coloured them with a red embossing marker and clear embossed.  Easy peasy.  And she loved it (this is a spare....)

The final card one was I made just to see if I could use this lonely butterfly I glittered.  I know its pretty rough, but I had sprained my wrist and was in a sling so the whole card was done with my left hand.  I belonged to a card kit program and inside the kit was this 12 inch strip of black felt vine.  Because right hand scissors don't work with a left hand (boy do I sympathize with lefties trying to function in a basic right hand world..:)), I had to size it into small enough pieces to stick on the cardstock.  I wielded an exactor knife very carefully and sliced it into three single pieces without amputating my good hand.  That particular day, I wanted to make cards, despite the wounded wing.  Someone once told me when I began this addictive craft that there was no such thing as a mistake.

In hindsight, looking at this card I made a mistake.  I probably should have skipped cardmaking and read a book....*sigh*.

More Simplicity Challenge Cards.....

I am considering treatment....I think I am obsessed with Simplicity's challenges.

I had an idea to build a One Layer Scene and repeat a component of it.  I tried this technique from this wonderful artist, Michelle Zindorf.  I love her stuff and she is so brilliant and generous to share with us all the tutorials on how to do it.  However, I continue to ruin sheet after sheet of paper trying to imitate her skill.  I keep checking on her site to see if she has scheduled classes in Ontario - I would travel anywhere to take her class!
I used black pigment ink and embossed it with clear powder.  The bullrush stamp is from Stampin Up.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.  It really wasn't that hard and I really like the look of it.  I think I need to make more of these in different colours (daylight, dusk, dawn) with the four other sayings in the set.
 
Having to repeat the pattern got me to thinking about these adorable Rosie Roadhouse ducks.  Each of them have names and these ones are Riley and Richard.

I used Marvy markers in two shades of yellow to colour them (I have copics but wanted to try the same thing wtih marvys and they worked pretty well).  The sentiment is from a set I bought at a garage sale and didn't have the original packaging...sorry!)  Tried to match the ducks bills with the ribbon.  I thought the card was....well just this side of tastefully "cheeky".

Then I used Rupert and Mabel and added several Richards in this card; making them appear as if they were gossiping about him.

The sentiment is from My Favourite Things called Twisted Sentiments.  There are some pretty cheeky sentiments in that set so be warned.  I have all the sets :)).

OLW 7 Simplicity's New Challenge...

Simplicity threw us a new challenge; one layer with bling or small embellishments as long as it works. 

Here are my two cards today....I used Frogs Whiskers little daisy here..

Scor-Pal made the double lines, repeated the little daisy stamp, smudged the centres with distress inks Shabby Shutters and Orange Marmalade, then cut out around the daisies at the bottom of the card.  I used dollar store ribbon (actually, they are from a hair bungee that had these little ribbons tied to the bungee.  I untied them and they are the perfect length and work fabulously!  Very cheap too  :))  I think the sentiment is from My Favourite Things.

I used yellow and green bling on this one for the centre of the green card, and orange and green bling for the orange one. 

I love this tiny little daisy stamp...so I was inspired to make this one too....

There is a fine line of scoring under and above each row of daisies.  On the one with black ribbon, I coloured the centre with a black sharpie and added crystal effects over it to make it bubble.  Way cool.  And on the other one I just added a little glue pen dot and sprinkled glitter dust over the centers. 

Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate your comments soooooo much!!!

Our Campbellford Crew Challenge...

We are four creative ladies (and 2 young girls!) who challenge ourselves to make cards.  The month of May was my month so I got to pick the card pattern....this is what I chose....  My only stipulation was that it had to be tone-on-tone - so the same colours but different shades of colours.

I thought it only fair since I posted a hard challenge (a specific pattern and a colour palette, that I should go the extra mile.  I made two different cards.

The first one that came to mind practically made itself.  I knew exactly what I wanted; browns.  I love this feather stamp set from Hero Arts and I did each feather in a different shade; Brushed Corduroy, Vintage Photo and Frayed Burlap and stamped them on Kraft cardstock.  The little feather I stamped on a scrap of kraft cardstock, cut it out and punched it up.  I used Walnut Stain around the edge of the cards and the oval which was punched out with a Fiskars punch.  Very easy and I love how it looks!

  The second card was a lot harder!  The instructions take up a full page and I can email them to anyone who wants them!

It's white on white and in real life, it is very shimmery!!!!  Basically, I used all white but different white cardstock from different companies to give the butterflies "shades" of white.   I used Shimmer Mist Lace on the cardstock before I even started the card and had to wait for several hours for it to dry before I could start the actual card!  I also used 2 different background stamps from Hero Arts and one from Stampin Up, 8 cuttlebug folders and 3 different butterfly punches.  I dabbled Opalite Pearl and White Stickles (which are very hard to see) on the butterflies.  No two butterflies are the same and I made about 100 of them so I have lots in stock now for other projects when I need them.  And because they are white, I can colour them, stain them or paint them for other cards.  Nestabilities for the white vellum tag and I don't know where the sentiment is from, sorry.  

These cards took forever to do!!!  I reminded the ladies that they better not to expect this level of creativity every time because they drained me.  I had an idea to do the butterflies swooping upwards and once I got started, the idea kind of snowballed.  I know you all have had that happen a time or two in your own creative endeavours.... : )

Here's a closeup of some of the butterflies.....

 Liz will be posting all the other ladies' cards over at Frogs Whiskers this week....I hope (poke, poke :)

Not my usual style....

Ok, those that know me will say there is nothing "cutesie" about me.  I can be brash, abrasive and loud.  Friends suggested that no one would come to a cardmaking site if it was called "The Brash Stamper" or the "The Abrasive Cardmaker", hence the name I finally settled on for my blog.

But I found these great little stamps from a company called "Cookie Crumbles".  This version is "Tilly" and she is really sweet.  The sayings are pretty cute...there, I've said it.  Cute.  This card is a result of Tilly's "cuteness".

Used Versafine Black ink and inked Tilly and coloured her with distress ink black and a waterbrush; coloured her horn, hooves and udder with a Y003 copic.  Flowers and grass tufts coloured with Marvy markers.  Fence posts were made from a die that makes a whole long line of picket fence which I just snipped off two pieces and pressed over a woodgrain stamp that I inked with distress ink Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy.  Then I took 28 gauge wire and wrapped it around the posts to make the barbwire.  I stamped the cow and the big flower again on scrap cardstock and coloured them separately, then cut them both out so I could pop them up - just because.  Actually, in my brain, I thought it would look like her little head was hanging over the fence if I popped it up and the flower might appear that it was poking through the wire but it didn't work out that way.  (I admit it, I just like popping stuff up!)

Here's an up close and personal look at the saying.  Pretty cute huh?  Ok, I'll stop it now.

This is a very cute Goose.  She's from Penny Black's set of the 12 days of Christmas. I just used the "7 Geese A'Laying| image.  Then I paired it with a sentiment that I found somewhere - sorry, don't know who made it, but it came with a few other cheeky sayings.  The background stamp is Chicken Wire from Frogs Whiskers and stamped with Antique Linen.  I distressed the edges of the image cardstock and the pumpkin cardstock and inked them with Brushed Corduroy.  I used a brown marvy pen and dotted the ground under the goose and coloured her egss with a white gel pen.  The awning is pumpkin cardstock, edged with the scallop die from Papertrey Ink and inked with Snow Ink from Papertrey Ink and the the small polka dot stamp from same.  White embossing powder makes the dots pop.  I also have a small little stamp that has duck feet which I stamped all over the big pumpkin cardstock in |Antique Linen for the background.  Skinny black ribbon over the awning.  Again, I used a brown Marvy marker to make the dirt dots under her feet and added tufts of grass with a green Marvy marker.  I took my inspiration from a chicken card Anna made but I can't find it on her blog..she's an amazing artist.   Also, an animal lover and I love her blog posts!

This last one was because I was exhausted from dreaming up and putting these two other cards together and it appealed to my sense of humour.  Both images are in the Cookie Crumbles "Tilly" set too.  Used Scattered Straw Distress Ink for the hay bale and then coloured it with a waterbrush from the Scattered Straw and Antique Linen ink pads.  Quick and Dirty.  (I wound up cutting it down to a smaller card as there was way too much white above it.  The card measures 4x4).

Sorry it is so blurry....I changed the settings on the camera and now can't get anything in focus.  Fed up.  Will tackle it tomorrow when I post more cards.  Thank you so much for stopping by and I'd love to hear what you think....?

Random cards....

In an effort to make up for not displaying cards this week (working 12 hour days downtown can be a drag...however, allows me the financial freedom to buy, buy, buy!  Sorry Captain T....), I am posting some cards I made...thanks for stopping by!

Frogs Whiskers is a great little store in Campbellford, Ontario.  They sell online so you can contact them here...but they have such a neat little stamp called barnboard.  It is so realistic!!  See it here...and I have used it quite a bit; here is another card I made using it....It doesn't really look like much as a stamp but once you use it, I can't believe the detail.  Rose-Marie is very good at designing detailed stamps.  She will even custom-make a stamp for you very reasonably so if you have an idea in mind and would like to see it in a stamp, contact her.  She's a lovely lady and her staff is amazingly helpful and fun to deal with.

For this, I stamped the barnboard in Distress Ink Brushed Courdaroy on kraft paper and while it was still wet, drizzled clear embossing powder randomly in lines horizontally, careful not to cover the entire area.  This is so that some spots showed up glossy, and others were just flat ink.  Wood has such a patina, I was striving for a natural look.

Next, I cut it into strips and took antique linen and ran it over each edge of the strips so that the embossed areas resisted the ink and the non-embossed areas soaked it up to create more patina.  I then staggered the strips to appear like barn boards and used brads as nails.

The butterfly is a digital Hero Arts image, coloured with two shades of blue copics.  I took a black sharpie marker and darkened the black areas and added crystal effects on top of that to darken it.  Popped it up on pop-up dots, took some 25 guage black wire and twisted it on a toothpick and taped to the back.  Sentiment is Inkadinkadoo, nestablilities and stamped with the barnboard stamps while still in the frame.  Black ribbon and brown cardstock and we're done.


Here is a peach version but instead of stamping the barnboard on kraft cardstock first, I used a soft pink coloured cardstock.  Hard to see but it really gives it a softer look.....sentiment is from Frogs Whiskers and the ribbon is actually two ribbons, brown on the bottom with a peachy thin ribbon taped over top.  I used Papertrey Ink's scallop die to make the trim under the ribbon out of kraft cardstock. 

This is white cardstock as a base under the barnboard....just another version.  I didn't use brads here, just a black sharpie pen to make the nails.  Cool eh?  Don't forget to leave a small space between the strips to show the cardstock underneath as it looks like the shadow between the real boards on a wall.

Cas-Tastic Wednesday Challenge CWC 005

Found this great little site that features another card challenge that I can actually do.  Sometimes I find these really cool challenges but the submissions are so elaborate and so detailed that I feel inferior!  I checked out some of the cards on this site and they are so beautiful, that it makes me want to step up!

Designer Paper = Bo Bunny

Scallop Punch out of white cardstock and then run through the Swiss Dots Folder and Cuttlebugged

Pink ribbon taped to the top and bottom edge of the backside of the swiss dotted piece

Nestabilities for tag, swiss dotted and inked with Pink ink

Inkadinkadoo sentiment

Martha Stewart butterfly punch using scrap Bo Bunny DP

Glue pen used on select parts of the DP paper and butterfly and then sprinkled glitter over those spots (hard to see in the photo)

2 Pink Pearls on butterfly and sentiment