hello

I've got my last project for Summer of Creative Chemistry. 

This is the Week 8 challenge to use embossing powder and distress ink.

Spray ink and stencil for the background. Then a stencil used to emboss on white core paper and distressed.

I chose the airplane stamp for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge "Things with Wings".

The sentiment is heat embossed with a rust effect.

Fun card to make.

Thanks for stopping by!

nautical card

Today's card is for Simon Says Stamp's Monday challenge which is "Nautical/By the Sea".

I've been working through the Summer of Creative Chemistry class at Online Card Classes. This week's challenge was to make a project using alcohol inks. I used aqua, storm, and gold alcohol inks to make the background before stamping this shell. Here's a look at the gold shimmer:

So fun. 

I also used some texture paste, gold thread and beads to finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend.

robot birthday card

I'm back for my final guest designer spot this month for the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge! It has been so fun designing with those talented ladies this month!

The last challenge of the month is "We Can See Clearly" which means we're using acetate or vellum.

I decided to make a masculine shaker card for my son's birthday.

I started with a gray card base and applied translucent embossing paste through the Dot Fade stencil to give it some texture. I layered a couple papers from the Time Machine 6x6 paper pad. It's a really cool masculine pack with lots of clock parts and gears. I made sure to distress the edges too.

 I made a pocket using a page protector and the Fuse tool, stamped a robot from Robots Blueprints on it, stuffed it with mini gears, gold and silver sequins, and mini beads. I wanted the shaker portion to be used as a bookmark, so I added a metallic eyelet and ribbon to the top. And then to make it easy to remove from the card, I attached the shaker using clear photo corners. And finally, the sentiment is from Friendship Messages.

Thanks for stopping by and come link up your projects for a chance to win $50 to the Simon Says Stamp store!

Today is a Good Day canvas

It's week 3 of my month as a guest designer for the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge! 

The challenge this week is Food and/or Drink.

I decided to get a little messy and pull out some paints and a 6x6 wooden canvas.

I used teal and gray acrylic paints on the background. I like to apply the paint (both colors at a time) with an old gift card or piece of heavy cardstock instead of a brush. No brush strokes and lots of cool blending. Then I tinted embossing paste with Vintage Photo distress paint and applied it using the Moroccan stencil. 

After that was dry, I used Watering Can ink with the Dot Fade stencil and Orange Blossom ink with the Cargo stencil. Then I flicked and dripped black ink and Antique Bronze, Tarnished Brass, and Fossilized Amber spray stains. Black Licorice gelato is smudged along the edges. I stamped a Simon Says Stamp/Tim Holtz Stamptember exclusive coffee stamp, which is slightly smaller than this one, on watercolor paper. I colored it with a waterbrush and Tea Dye, Gathered Twigs, Peacock Feathers, and Fossilized Amber distress ink.  Then used foam tape to put it on the canvas.

Now the hard part is deciding whether to put this in my kitchen or leave it in my craft room!

Thanks for stopping by and come link up your projects for a chance to win $50 to the Simon Says Stamp store!

Out of this world tag

I'm back for week 2 as a guest designer this month for the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge! Woo-hoo!

.

Our challenge this week is Lucky Stars.

I went with the "stars" part of the challenge and created a galaxy background on this tag. I blended Faded Jeans, Seedless Preserves, and Black Soot distress inks on a #5 manila tag. Then I splattered a black spray ink and let it dry completely before adding Brushed Pewter, and Picket Fence spray stains, also drying those in between. I then pulled out Altenew's To The Moon stamp set to create the moon and the sentiment. The moon is a 2-step stamp, The first layer was stamped using Simon Says Stamp Smoke ink and then top with Slate. Then some crinkle ribbon and glitter tape finish it off.

I have 2 kids that are each having a space-themed birthday party this month. I'm thinking of putting these tags on the goody bags with a "Thanks for coming" note on the back. 

Come link up your projects for a chance to win $50 to the Simon Says Stamp store!

Do More of What Makes You Happy

Guess what. I'm the guest designer for the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge all this month! I'm SO excited!!

The first challenge of the month is to Make Your Own Background. They are also showcasing Darkroom Door products too. I made this card:

I started by blending blue, yellow and green Distress Crayons on white cardstock. Then I placed the Tim Holtz Rays stencil on top and rubbed a baby wipe thru the design removing the crayon so the rays showed. To give it a bit more definition, I outlined the rays with a gray distress crayon and blended it. Then I stamped the Darkroom Door Happy stamp with Stazon ink and inked the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink. For an embellishment, I strung small black beads on black twine and stapled it on with my tiny attacher. Then my panel was mounted on SSS cardstock.


Come link up a project to the challenge for your chance to win $50 to the Simon Says Stamp store!

Thanks for stopping by today and make sure to go do more of what makes you HAPPY!

being strong

My aunt is in the hospital so I wanted to make her something cheery and encouraging to hang on the wall. I saw this inspiration photo on the Unity Stamps facebook challenge:


And I loved all the flowers so I decided to make a floral wall hanging for her.
 I first stamped the sentiment in the center of my watercolor paper. Then using the masking technique, I stamped several flowers and leaves around the page.

Then using a waterbrush and gelatos, I colored in all the images. I finished it off by mounting on black cardstock.

Here are all the stamp sets I used:
strong is your only choice
Quiet Essence
Wildflowers & Wings
Devoted
Best Wishes & Blooms
Finally Fall
you+me =bliss (discontinued)


I'm also linking up to Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge which is ONE LAYER.

Thanks for stopping by.
Have a great day!

amber journal page

I found a new (to me) art journal prompt group called Embrace Your Art 2016: Journal About Me. There are weekly prompts and they are all to make a journal about yourself. So I am going to try to participate in as many as I can. She is making a round journal so I thought I would try that too. The first prompt of this year is to use your name.

The Monday challenge at Simon Says Stamp is to use something NEW (and try to use Tim Holtz products). It just so happens I shopped their great after Christmas sale and just received my box of goods. Which included Tim's Fossilized Amber distress ink!

Well, since my name is Amber, I thought this was just meant to be :)

Here is the page I created:

I don't have any cool meanings or history behind my name. I saw someone else in the group use the definition of their name so I decided to go that way too. And the background is supposed to look like a piece of amber.

I used Fossilized Amber, as well as several other yellow inks and gelatos, to create the background. The wheat stamp is from CTMH. Vintage Handwritten (script) and Insightful Meadows (flowers) are from Unity. Some black ink splatters and lots of distress ink blending were also used!

I have an old 4-inch round album laying around so I decided to use that size for this. I'm hoping the small size will make it less intimidating to finish a page every week.

I'm linking up to these challenges:

Embrace Your Art: Journal About Me

Unity Stamps weekly blog hop

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Something New

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

so very grateful

I've got a little 'Thanks' card that I made for a few challenges.

The Paper Girls Challenge - Grateful

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Make it Colorful
Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge - Complementary Colors

Sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp's Friendship Messages stamp set
Feather is from Crafter's Companion stamped in grey onto vellum

I used 2 sets of complementary colors (purple/yellow and orange/blue) for the flickr challenge.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day folks!

thanks a latte tag

I made a little tag for the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge.
The challenge theme is "coffee or tea".

 Now while they are both my two favorite refreshments, I was in the mood for coffee when I made this!

Stamps:
Unity's Vintage Handwritten (on background) and Thanks (from grab bag)
Crafter's Companion Journal Jottings 
Close to my Heart Treats of Friendship


Limking up to Simon Says Stamp's Work it Wednesday - Refreshments


Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

beautiful soul

I've been in the mood to paint so I pulled out this new-to-me Unity girl stamp and stamped it onto a 6"x6"-ish piece of wood. And then painted it with acrylic paints.

The sides are all painted a dark grey and the front edges are smudged with a gelato.

This was so fun that I've already started my second.

 piece!

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great weekend!

Linking up to:

Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes

Unity Stamps Friends with Flair hop

happy birthday

One of my favorite ways to use up the oodles of paper I have is making a layered card like this:

I watercolored a background panel and dropped some black ink.

I stamped, fussy cut and popped up a cupcake from this Simon Says Stamp birthday stamp set. I pulled some paper in the favorite colors of the recipient and layered everything on to my kraft card base. Yum. I just want to eat that little cupcake!

I'm linking up to:

Simon Says Stamp's Birthday Challenge

Virginia's View Layers and Dimension Challenge

Simon Says Stamp's Flickr Challenge #16 Watercoloring

Dragonfly birthday card

I have a friend who loves dragonflies so I ordered this cool Clearly Besotted dragonfly die just so I could make her a card! The die has 2 parts, a solid and an open intricate shape.

I cut the solid shape out of some paper I had put a watercolor wash on. The top layer was cut out of vellum. I layered the two pieces and connected them with 2 black brads.

The mat for the dragonfly was made using a piece of canvas, some stencils, and spray inks. Then I layered wax paper over it. Yep. Wax paper. From my kitchen. It was just more translucent than the vellum I had and I wanted to be able to see the stenciled work better.

My sentiment was stamped onto vellum and stapled on. And everything was layered with kraft woodgrain paper and aqua cardstock over a grey card base.

I'm linking up to:

 Simon Says Stamp's Things That Fly challenge

Virginia's View All Things Embossed Challenge

Jot Magazine March Mood Board

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!


Supplies:
Clearly Besotted Dragonfly die
Woodgrain embossing folder from Stampin' Up
Kaleidoscope and Moroccan Tiles, Ronda Palazzari stencils from The Crafter's Workshop

Shake it!

We are making shaker cards over at The Paper Girls Challenge blog. Since my Cricut stopped working I was limited to the dies I had on hand. I've discovered I "need" more dies :)  

I decided to use some circle dies and turn them into balloons. And I used this fun stamp set to make the balloon strings.

The balloons are filled with several kinds of pink and white fine and chunk glitters.

 For the sentiment I used two different pink inks to create an ombre look. 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you can share a shaker card of your own too.

Have a great day!

I'm linking up to Simon Says Stamp's Things That Fly Challenge.
Because technically these balloons would fly away if let go. ;) Right?!?

Supplies:

Handwritten Borders stamp set from Simon Says Stamp

Cupcake Party stamp set from Simon Says Stamp

Circle Dies from Crafter's Companion

Worn Lipstick Distress Ink

Rose Madder Ranger Archival Ink

Marsala

I am hosting the current Paper Girls Challenge and chose the Pantone color of the year, Marsala, as our theme.

Here's my card:

I used Unity's card sketch to get me started. I pulled out a few pieces of marsala paper and some other colors I thought would look good with it.

The butterflies are from Unity's Happy Everything set in Aged Mahagony distress ink. The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamps Friendship Messages (I am loving this set!).

I hope you will come link up with us for this challenge! I have a prize for a random participant!

I'm linking this up to:

Simon Says Stamp challenge - Anything Goes

Unity {be inspired} card sketch challenge

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

You Rock

I pulled out a brand new Unity stamp for this card.

I stamped it using Distress ink in Tea Dye and then colored her in with water colors. The water blends in the ink giving it a vintagey look.

I put a light wash of yellow water color in the background (not sure if it shows through in the photo) to give it a little pop.

Then I used some markers to give my wooden stars a little ombre look.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

I'm linking up to the Unity {be inspired} color challenge

Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge