Tutorial - Faux Stained Glass & A Bonus

Are you recovered from the Blog Hop yet? I’m not quite sure I am! LOL! I keep going back to various blogs and enjoying the art. I’ve got to work up something for the Sketch coming up on Tuesday still today but in the meantime I have been dying to share this with you….

A lot of people commented on how the butterfly on my card looked like stained glass. Thank you! That’s exactly what I wanted it to look like and so I am glad that it actually came across as I intended. The butterfly on that card was just stamped with StazOn Jet Black ink and then colored in. But, you know how sometimes you get this whizbangger of an idea in your head but can’t always get it out how you’re imagining it? Well, my first several attempts at doing “Faux Stained Glass” did not do my imagination any justice…. {I tried using Liquid Glass and pouring it out over a handn sketched design, then I tried embossing powder on my Silpat mat and nearly melted the mat……} and then this fabulous butterfly stamp from the Healing Wings Set came into my hands and it actually worked how I wanted it to!

Today I’d like to show you some real “Faux Stained Glass”. This project is a little different than the butterfly on my card. I was laying in bed thinking about stained glass (cuz I have this new fascination with actual stained glass now) and this is what I came up with.

Ok now, gather up your supplies. You are going to need the following:

* A Heat Tool
* Transparency Paper
* Mirror Platinum Embossing Powder
(I used CTMH)
* Bic Sharpie Markers
* Versamark Stamp Pad
* An “outline” style stamp with spaces
that resemble * stained glass
* Sharp scissors
* An “Anti static pad” {not shown}


{STEP 1}
* Lay your transparency paper down on your work surface. I am using a white sheet of paper under mine for filming purposes. Otherwise you can’t see it all that well.

*Rub down the sheet section you will be stamping on. Rub all the way to the edge of the transparency sheet.



{STEP 2}
* Lay your stamp face up and thoroughly ink with Versamark ink. (I lay mine face up because it helps limit the amount of excess ink that may get on your block. Those Versamark pads are awfully squoooshy.

{Step 3}
* Carefully stamp your image onto the transparency sheet. Be careful not to wiggle or slide the stamp. The transparency is slick and it’s easy to slide. Press down all parts of the stamp to make sure you get a good amount of ink on the transparency.

* The photo on the right shows a nice clean Versamark stamped image. It’s very hard to photograph clear paper. LOL!

{Step 4}
* Pull out a piece of scrap paper and put it under your image. Pour your embossing powder over the stamped image. You might have to pour it over a couple of times for a good thick layer. If some excess powder sticks where you don’t want it you can take a moment to gently scrape it off or brush it away before heating.

* The picture on the right shows a nice thick layer of embossing powder on the Versamark image.

Ok… now we’re going to melt this bad babeeeee… well, actually we’re only melting the powder. We really don’t want our transparency paper to melt so let’s take a precaution and HEAT UP that heat gun.

{Step 5}
* Preheat your heat gun for about 15-20 seconds. You’re going to want that air nice and hot so that you don’t have to have the heat on the transparency sheet for any longer than you need to.

{Step 6}
* Don’t leave your transparency sitting on your work mat. Hold it up in the air to prevent melting or warping of your cute pink Fiskars work mat. See left photo. Ergh.

* Taking care to keep your fingers away from the heat, gently wave the heat gun in front of the stamped image on the transparency. Keep the heat moving so that you don’t overheat one spot and melt a hole through the transparency. You will notice the powder turn shimmery and look like molten metal. Looooooverly schtuff that molten metal is!

*It’s hard to photograph with both hands being busy… LOL… sorry for the blurrrrrrr….

{Step 7}
* Now you can cut out the section of butterfly. Just roughly cut it out, don’t trim closely just yet.

* Here you can see the embosses image of the butterfly. Doesn’t it look splendid? Like pure molten metal or flux and solder like real stained glass. I love that the mirrored platinum gives such a nice patina’d effect. Don’t worry, it’s actually platinum, not so greenish. It’s difficult to photograph this at midnight.. LOL!

{Step 8}
* Now flip that bad babeee over we’re ready to color. You will want to color on the backside. I am sure you could color on the frontside, but who wants to risk coloring that beautiful embossing with Bic Sharpie marker? Not me. Flip it. Just flip it.

{Step 9}
* Begin by coloring focal points or areas you want to stand out. Then fill in the areas with contrasting colors. You can also blend for a graduated color merging.

* See that stray stringy looking thing on the right side of the image? It's a bit of embossing powder that got heated. It’s not on the stamp… weird.. Not sure how that got there, but I like it. It looks like cracked stained glass. Even more fun!

* Keep on coloring until you get the desired effect. Tip: You can go back over some of the colors with a different color if you don’t like how it turned out… be careful what you mix or it may end up looking muddy.

* See the scribbles on the transparency? That’s me trying out colors before I color in the butterfly and why I don’t trim out my image just yet. It’s also nice to have an extra spot to put your fingers to hold your image. The ink is a bit sticky and your fingers can leave finger prints and lift the ink if you’re not careful.

{Step 10}
* Now you can trim it out close to the image. I left a little tab of transparency attached to my butterfly so I could attach it to my project. (Posting soon… once I snap the photos in daylight.)

Here’s what I ended up with (left pic = backside of image, right pic = front side of image):

{BONUS TECHNIQUE}
And here’s a bonus for ya! Remember back in the 80’s when those holographic style foil/shimmery backed pictures were all the rage? {Ok, maybe some of you youngins might not… but I do…LOL!} I looked all over the web for an example, but the closest I found was this cool version of Starry Night by VanGogh. Click HERE to view it. (A separate window will open.)

So while I was playing around with this butterfly I decided to try another “technique”… Faux Foiled Images.

Take your beautimous butterfly and flip that bad baby over so that the back is facing up.

Pull out your handy dandy Sakura Clear Star Gelly Roll glitter pen (it’s #38450 from Sakura) and lightly roll it around the back of the butterfly until you see the glitter covering the color. Don’t rub too hard or the tip of the pen will scrape off the Bic marker color.

Wait a few minutes for it to dry… watch your fingers, you’ll have glitter everywhere…. then flip it back over so the embossed side is facing up and VOILA!

You have a beautiful Faux Stained Glass Foiled image. :) {Click on the image – which is a totally different butterfly than the one we made in the tutorial - to see the sparkle better.} I bet you could probably experiment with different glitter pens for different effects, too. I imagine that a gold glitter pen over gold/dark yellow marker might look like gold leafing… hrmm…. I might have to try that out!

~Inky Smiles & Happy Stained Glass making and Foiling!

PS… if you do have Copic Markers you CAN use those as well. I only own 5 Copics at the moment, 2 brown, 1 skin tone, 1 blender & 1 gray. Not exactly the best for coloring a butterfly but I did try the markers out on a transparency. Both types of marker colors change a bit so try it out on scraps of transparency before you begin coloring.

ANNOUNCEMENT – Erin’s Sketch Contest Winner

Thank you girls for playing along with us with the sketches on my Cupcake Cutie giveaway!

The following girls played along with cards and posted their links in the comments:

1) Amaryllis B  (she did a card & a layout)

2) Stacey F.

3) Sammye Jo (twice!!)

4) Jeff*Nichole*Hudson (which is Nichole)

5) Amanda D.

I decided the easiest way to choose was to number them and then use the random number generator again.

The Prize is

          

And our lovely winner of these delicious goodies is……

#3 – Sammye Jo!!!

Congratulations Sammye Jo!  Please send me an email by clicking on the word email with your information and I will get these out to you.  I’ve left a comment on your blog as well.  Please contact me by Jan 23rd or I will pick a new winner.

~Inky Smiles!

ANNOUNCEMENT - Skipping Stones Design Blog Hop Winner

First of all I want give you all a big fat

THANK YOU

for participating in our blog hop!  What an amazing turn out and how fun it was to see all the beautiful art along the way.   I had a blast hopping along and finding new blogs to read and follow!

I also want to say THANK YOU to Heather of Skipping Stones Design who invited each of us to participate and gave us all these fabulous stamps to give to YOU!

We dialed up a random integer generator on Random.org and Brent counted out the names for me.

The winner of these fabulous, and likely SOLD OUT again, Bra stamps

IS…. drum roll please…… da da da daaaaaaaaaaa….

NUMBER 78

Kay – thank you for playing along!  Please email me by clicking the word email and I will get these stamps in the mail to you.    I’ve left a comment at your blog as well.  If I don’t hear from you by Jan 22 I will draw a new winner :)

~Inky Smiles & Happy Crafting this weekend!

Skipping Stones BLOG HOP & Sketch SSD06

Welcome to the first blog hop of 2010 from Skipping Stones Design!! I am so glad you’ve made it to my blog! If you've just happened upon my blog, you can CLICK HERE to start from the beginning at Skipping Stones Design.

You should have arrived here from KIM TEASDALE’S blog.

Along the way, the Skipping Stones Design Team (aka the Stamp Tramps) will have blog candy for you to enter.

As an added bonus, there will also be at several new & unreleased stamp sets hidden along the hop, but we’re not telling you where so be sure to leave some love as you hop!!!

Make sure you leave comments on every post so you have a greater chance to win!! The winners will be announced on Friday January 8th at Skipping Stones Design.

****************************************************

And because Heather from Skipping Stones Design is SO DANG AWESOME you can save 25% off your ENTIRE purchase Jan 5 & 6th at Skipping Stones Design.
Use code 25off at checkout.

So if (yah right if, you KNOW you will) fall in LUUUUUUUURVE with one of Heather’s SUPER COOL STAMP sets, scurry on back to Skipping Stones Design {at the end of your hopping, of course} and satisfy your inner stamp tramp who’s aching for some new stamps!

****************************************************

And now back to our regularly scheduled HOP…..

We have a fabulous sketch artist for January, Amy Scheffer, of Picked Paper Designs and today we will be using her sketch SSD06.

Here’s the sketch:

I had two little devils (or angels) sitting on my shoulders arguing with me over the merits of starting the new year fresh and actually obeying some rules.

This time I pretty much followed the rules. However, after several moments of debate, an “a-ha” moment, and manipulation of my card pieces I decided to do this:

And then my sentiment didn’t fit so I made a minor adjustment…. you’ll see in a moment… keep on reading.

I used the stamp set, Healing Wings, from Skipping Stones Design.

Have I mentioned how much I {HEART} this set? It is fabulous and fantastic and I just LURVE it. LURVE, LURVE, LURVE…. and LURVE some more. {I did something with the side view butterfly on another project I will post later this month, too!}

It’s an amazing set.

Ok, Ok… here’s the card. I’m giddy about it… It was such a FUN, FUN card to make and totally out of my usual box.

There’s a little bit o’ everything on this card. (Except rhinestones or other bling… How did I let that happen??) Distressing, stitching, crocheting, ink, luuuuurve. Other than rotate the sketch, the only little thing I did differently was to also rotate the front image/sentiment so that it would fit better with the rest of the design. The little angels on my shoulders came to an agreement and the naughty one wasn’t so naughty this time. hehe!

I even pulled out Bernie (my fabulous Bernina Activa 240) and did some good old fashioned stitching on it. Note to self: when stitching on a card, don’t use quilting thread, though it be pretty it doesn’t work so well in the machine. It’s meant for hand stitching. Poor Bernie.

The butterfly is made with a transparency and Bic Sharpie markers. I love how the sun shines through the wings and glows on the card. (See first picture.) The adorable little crocheted flowers were a gift from the fabulous and lovely Jeanne Tomshack. I seriously need to commission and beg her to make some more for me. I’m running out!

The border was cut with a Martha Stewart border punch and the circle was cut with a scalloped circle Nestabilities die.

There is some serious layering going on with this card. I had to use (had to.. hahaha… LOVED to do it) some American Crafts foam tabs to pop out the horizontal strip of paper because there was so much underneath it and with the added bulk of stitching, nothing was laying quite flat. Darn. I {heart} AC foam tabs. :) The butterfly is popped out on a piece of “accordian’d” transparency sheet so it appears to be floating over the flowers.

The card is pretty heavy. It’s a good thing that I had some Gina K base weight cardstock on hand. Love the stuff! It’s good and heavy cardstock. :)

{For another card using this set click HERE.}

THANK YOU for hopping by. I hope you enjoyed your stop here at my little ol’ blog. Be sure to stop by again this FRIDAY (January 8th) to find out if I have some candy to award to someone. *grin*

Your next hop is the lovely Bev Rousch’s blog - http://bevithia.blogspot.com

~Inky Smiles!

The Good Schtuff:
Stamps - Skipping Stones Design’s Healing Wings
Papers – Basic Grey Lemonade
Inks – CTMH Chocolate, StazOn Jet Black
Miscellaneous – Fabulous flowers by Jeanne Tomshack, transparency paper, Nestabilities dies, Martha Stewart border punch, quilting thread, Bernie the Bernina, AC Foam squares.

BLOG HOP COMING! Read about it here!

Skipping Stones Design is GEARING UP for their first BLOG HOP and BELIEVE ME you are NOT going to want to miss this! 

Along the way, the Skipping Stones Design Team (aka the Stamp Tramps) will have blog candy for you to enter.  As an added bonus, there will also be 4 stamp sets (new stamp sets not yet released) will be hidden along the hop, but we’re not telling you where so be sure to leave some love as you hop!!!

Make sure you leave comments on EVERY post so you have a chance to win!!

The winners will be announced on Friday January 8th at  Skipping Stones Design.

See YOU Tuesday!

PS… deadline for entering my Cupcake Cutie stamp giveaway is tomorrow at midnight… which I guess is Tueday @ midnight. LOL!

Starting off With Some Enabling!

Good morning friends!

I hope you had a fantastic New Year Celebration!  Brent and I hung out and played games again.  We’ve had this RISK board game for YEARS now but it had never left it’s shrink wrap wrapper until last night when we peeled it off and learned how to play.

I got my hiney whooped several times.

Let’s face it, I don’t do strategy games all that well. It must be ADD… at least that is what I will blame it on.

Oh, but one thing I do so enjoy is CRAFTS… and I like to think I have the advantage over Brent with paper crafting.  I could whoop his hiney any ol’ day. Yeah. Woot.

So I have to enable you this morning. Something fabulous popped up in my little inbox this morning from Amazon.

If you’ve been debating on the Cricut machine or the My Story bookbinding machine, wait no longer… check this out.  Amazon is offering them in a BUNDLE for over 50% off the retail price.    If I didn’t have  a whopper of a bill to pay for an upcoming retreat in WA I’d  probably jump on this right away.

But since I do, and have to buy a plane ticket and schtuff…

I thought I’d share this anyway :P

The sale is  TODAY, Jan 1, 2010, ONLY!

~Inky Smiles!

Thoughts for Thursday: Good Riddance

Thoughts for Thursday – back?  Well sorta.  I don’t really want to commit to an every Thursday TFT episode cuz frankly I don’t know that I can really, and well it is Thursday and I am having a deep thought… so here we go…  Starting today I will post a TFT when and if the thought strikes me on Thursdays.  *grin*

Since we don’t have television service at our house (almost 2 years now!) I was reading the news today and read this awesome article about a Good Riddance event at Times Square in NYC “during the third annual Good Riddance Day -- the unofficial holiday on which luck-strapped individuals are encouraged to rid themselves of the ending year's setbacks and prepare for the future.”

Click here for some inspiring photos.

People are starting fresh with hope.  The basic idea was that each person got a piece of paper with the words “Good Riddance Day.  I want to say good riddance to:” They wrote whatever it was that they wanted to put out of their life on that paper and threw it away into a giant shredder to be shredded into bits and pieces, but away from them forever.   Emotional dejunking at it’s easiest.

This really got me thinking.

What am I holding on to that I can let go and start fresh?

Oh friends, I came up with a huge list.  But I am not going to bore you with my huge list. 

Instead, here’s a few from my short list:

* I want to say good riddance to my silly self doubts and fears.

* I want to say good riddance to my extra hamburger and hello to Curves again.

* I want to say good riddance to the feeling of helplessness that comes from infertility and other health issues so I can move on. *whew* and *yay*.

* I want to say good riddance to procrastination.

* I WANT to say good riddance to junk food. LOL!

So, I’m going to say good riddance to these things today and move on to a fresh new start in 2010.  No crazy resolutions that will likely get broken, no obscenely difficult goals to obtain, just good sensible goals that I am sure I can and will attain sometime during the next year.  I am excited about finding this and think that it’s a great way to start a new year fresh!

I am sure we all have our “things” that we want to say good riddance to.  I thought I’d make a Good Riddance form to share with whoever is interested, to fill out for yourself, to write down what you want to get rid of, and shred to a bajazillllion pieces so you can start the new year fresh.  Just click on the photo for a full printable size sheet.  You don’t have to share with us… just say good riddance :)

~Inky Smiles & Inky New Year’s Eve!

Best Friends – Digi LO

We are snowed in here in Utah today.  I still feel a little under the weather and ooogy, but I am going to try to make it up to work today after the weather stops dumping slippery stuff on the highway.  I’ve been listening to the news today and there are literally hundreds of accidents up and down I-15. ARgh.

I decided to make some good use of my time and tried a project that isn’t really working out so great and also played around with my digi supplies and created a digi layout.

I love this photo of me and my sweet Sadie.   My friend, Lisa, took this photo of me and my girl up Payson Canyon at Camp Maple Dell (scout camp) this fall. 

I also love this photo…

  
Look at that tongue lopping out.  Isn’t she the cutest thing? It looks like she’s grinning and smiling.  I just love her.  She’s like velvet. 

Excuse me while I go get my puppy fix and snuggle her for a minute.

Here’s the layout I created this morning. 

I think I might rework it a little and do more tweaking.  I was mostly just playing around this morning with this.  Love, love, love all the colors but I am not sure I like how cluttered it feels.  Oh and I need to work on doing corners with the pinking sheared paper behind the photo. (That was not a template original.. just me playing around and learning a new skill.)

The base layout is a template. For the life of me I can not remember who it is from or where it is on my computer.  I know Jeanne will know cuz it was on her site that I first saw the template.  Originally there was a butterfly to the top left of the photo area.  I deleted it on my layout.   I added all the papers and textures to the clipping masks on the template and added a big bracket at the back of the pile of goodies under the photo.

Digi Credits:
I am not sure where the big bright orange distressed background paper or the brown bag paper came from.  I am such a terrible credit giver with digi scrapping.  Honestly, it’s kind of a pain to keep track of everything and keep a running list going as I am always changing my mind as I go along, too.

Here’s the paper pack (Vintage Dreams by Lori Barnhurst and Michelle Coleman of Little Dreamer Designs) I used for most of the papers and the embellishments I used to create centers for the small flowers.  

~Inky Smiles!

Skipping Stones Design SSD05 – Earth Has No Sorrow

I’m sorry that I’m posting this a bit late.  I like to have my posts scheduled to go at least the day prior to when they’re due.  I’ve been sick with a nasty bug since last Wednesday.  I finally found my voice again and now my stomach is having issues.  ARGH. LOL!  What craziness, eh?  So I did find some time to play over the Christmas holiday and played with some more of my Skipping Stones Design stamps.  Heather sent me a set to be used for a tutorial, which I will post here soon, and I liked the little birdie stamp from it.  It coordinated nicely with my Basic Grey Urban Prairie paper.

Kim Teasdale has been keeping us on our toes with her fabulous sketches this month and sadly this is our last sketch from her.  This was a fun sketch for me.  Again, it took me out of my box and made me do something a little different, incorporating both vertical AND horizontal lines on the same art piece. 

For the sentiment I used Healing Wings.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this set and can see loads of projects to make with it.

Here’s SSD05:

And me, with my crazy train brain, rotated it just a bit…. like this:

And then something happened and my scissors went crazy and lopped off the ends of the horizontal pieces… and THEN the earth shook cuz I was breaking the rules again and the stars fell from the skies and landed a little closer to the oval and I ended up with this….

It’s overcast and dreary and snowing today and we have really lousy lighting, so I snapped the best pics that I could… please forgive the cruddy lighting.

I promise, in real life the scalloped oval does not blend in with the darker vertical strip. Argh!

I had LOADS of fun with this card.  I ran the yellow background paper thru my Cuttlebug machine and embossed it for texture.  All of the paper is Basic Grey’s Urban Prairie, which is pretty much my favorite BG paper of all time!  I used CTMH inks to stamp the image and the sentiment and used a COPIC MARKER (*gasp*… I think I’m joining the bandwagon… LURVE, LURVE, LURVE them…) to shadow the little birdie.  I really like the effect of the shadowing.

Speaking of shadowing… I popped up the oval focal piece up off the card with LOADS of foam tabs from American Crafts.  I love their foam tabs because they are thin enough to layer and get the exact effect that you want.  The big vertical dark dp was elevated slightly off the yellow bg because of the embossing, so I wanted to make sure that my oval piece layed out nicely.  I loaded it up with foam tabs on the back, 2 layers on the right side, and 3 layers on the left side.

 

 

~ Inky Smiles!

PS.  Don’t forget about the blog candy giveaway… it’s coming up soon.. just make sure to link back to the original post so we can see your creations!

Supplies:
Stamps – SSD’s Healing Wings, Garden Stamp Kiss Set
Inks – CTMH Hollyhock & Black
Papers – Basic Grey Urban Prairie
Miscellaneous – ribbon, adhesive, Kaisercraft Rhinestones, Nestabilities scalloped oval and classic oval dies, Cuttlebug & embossing folder (name escapes me).

Blog Candy Contest Reminder

Hey friends!

Just a reminder about the blog candy contest!!  I’m giving away a Skipping Stones Design Cupcake Cutie stamp set!  Please note the date change….

Here’s a reminder on the rules:

Here’s the deal… and you must follow these rules to qualify:

* Create any card or piece of artwork that is based on any ONE of these 4 sketches.
PLEASE NOTE: You do not need to use SSD stamps, but if you have them, we’d love to see you using them!  You DO have to use an SSD sketch to qualify.

* Post your card on your blog or other forum.

* Copy the URL and post it in a comment on THIS post. (Click on THIS to get to the correct post.)

* Link back to this post when you post your card.

I will draw a winner using a random number generator or will have Brent pick a name out of a hat on WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30th MONDAY, JANUARY 4th, 2010.

**  Please note the date change.

~ Inky Smiles!

Merry Christmas!

I think one of my favorite phrases is “better late than never”.  It seems to be my life’s motto lately.  This has been a fabulous Christmas season this year despite crazy jobs and crazy sicknesses and all the other bits of life that seem to “take over” your life.   I’ve really enjoyed this Christmas season even though some of my best laid plans did not come to fruition.  (Sometimes you just have to let go of things that aren’t really necessary and enjoy simplicity.)  I told Martha Stewart, “no thanks”, this year and we put our tree up a little late and didn’t put out all the normal fru-fru that I traditionally stress over.   We got the lights up on most of our house (skipped the garage) because the big snow storm hit later that night. I skipped handmade Christmas cards and opted for some digitally designed (sorta handmade, right?) cards, half of which went out late, but they actually made it OUT this year WITH a Reader’s Digest condensed version of our normal Christmas letter.  YAY!

Brent and I have been focusing on spending time together as a family… me, him, and our Sweet Sadie.   We’ve attended some fun Christmas parties with friends, family, and coworkers and have had some awesome date nights with Christmas concerts and symphonies.  But most importantly we have spent countless hours together this past month playing games, watching movies, talking, laughing, teasing, and just enjoying the company of one another.   We spent Christmas day doing our own thing for part of the day.  

Our Christmas morning tradition is to sleep in until one or both of us decides it’s time to get up and get going for the day.. lol… and then we start up the oven and prepare Jimmy Dean’s Sausage Cheese Balls for breakfast with some orange juice or other beverage.   Then we head to the living room with Sadie and pile on the couch. We take turns each year reading the Christmas Story from the Bible in Luke 2 and then one of us offers a prayer to thank our Heavenly Father for the gift of his Son and our many blessings.   We usually end up letting Sadie open her presents, which generally consist of a variety of treats in her stocking and a stuffed animal or two for her to shred, first.  This mostly keeps her entertained while we open our stockings and presents.  We take turns opening presents and sometimes it takes half the morning. Then we find something yummy for lunch and hang out together and play with our new “toys”.   This year we spent a good part of the afternoon making desserts to take to his brother’s house for the Grotegut family Christmas dinner. :)

I love my sweetheart.  I am glad to have been able to spend Christmas with him again this year.  It’s our 11th Christmas together.   I also am grateful for all my friends and family members that I have also been blessed with.

Merry {Late} Christmas & Inky Christmas Smiles!

Erin

PS.  Don’t forget about the blog candy contest!

A Place To Bark

Many of you know that I have a soft spot in my heart for furry creatures, especially dogs. Our sweet Sadie is a rescue puppy. Today I came across a GREAT opportunity to help out some of these special little friends.

A Place To Bark is a non profit shelter founded by artist Bernie Berlin (how cool is her name??? Brent and my sister call me Bernie as a nickname - variation of Ernie, long story - sometimes and Berlin is my most favorite place that I have lived on this planet) that rehabilitates and cares for dogs so that they can be adopted to permanent families. Recently they were given the opportunity to take part in a grant. The donor of the grant will match whatever funds they raise up to $23,000 which is enough to help them finish their shelter.

Anyway, let's help them get their shelter finished! Visit their website, A PLACE TO BARK, to donate. Every little bit helps & all donations are tax deductible.

Merry Woofmas!
Erin

Sketch Contest & Some Delightful Candy!

So far this month we’ve had 4 sketches from Skipping Stones Design.  I’ve had loads of fun using them as a springboard to jumpstart my mojo/creativity.  I’ve even jumped off the highdive a couple of times and left the comfort of my own little cozy box.

Here’s a recap of the sketches and the cards that I’ve created with them thus far.  You can click on any of the photos to view larger.

   

  



  

Now I want to see what YOU have done with any of the sketches. 

 

And I have something fabulous to give away!  How does a brand spankin new set of stamps from Skipping Stones Design sound?  I have here in my possession a shiny new set of Cupcake Cutie stamps just all sorts of excited to find a new home.  I might also have a few other goodies to help you add some bling (hint hint) to your creations that I will add to the package. :)

Check out my Cupcake posts during the month of August for some fun inspiration using this delicious set of stamps!

 

Here’s the deal… and you must follow these rules to qualify:

* Create any card or piece of artwork that is based on any ONE of these 4 sketches.
PLEASE NOTE: You do not need to use SSD stamps, but if you have them, we’d love to see you using them!  You DO have to use an SSD sketch to qualify.

* Post your card on your blog or other forum.

* Copy the URL and post it in a comment on THIS post.

* Link back to this post when you post your card.

I will draw a winner using a random number generator or will have Brent pick a name out of a hat on WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30th.

That’s it, kids!  Happy creating and I hope to see you post something here!

~Inky Smiles!

Skipping Stones Design Sketch SSD04: Fishing You…

I’ve been a busy girl this past week. I have a lot of schtuff to upload to share, but the days are getting away from me with all this Christmas prep going on. Can u say CRAZY days?

This weekend I played around with my Skipping Stones Design stamps again and created this fun little card with the Tropical Birthday stamp set. I really like this set! I tried a few different things with the images, but ultimately I decided on using the fishies.

Here’s this week’s sketch SSD04:

Once I started playing with designs I decided that the current position was not working for me, so I flipped the sketch and made it look like this:

And then I decided to elongate the card to a full sized 4.25 x 5.5” card. Really, the sketches are “just guidelines anyway” meant for you to use as a jumping off point in your creative adventure to creating your masterpiece, right?

Here’s the Tropical Birthday stamp set again:

And here’s my card:

I have wanted to do a “gel” card for a long time now, but not being a fan of “messy/gloppy” card projects I’ve avoided doing it. However, those little crafty angels that sit on your shoulders were sitting on mine having a heated discussion about whether or not I should do a “messy/gloppy” project. Ultimately the little red angel won and I set out to do my gel card. I rooted under the sink for Brent’s bottle of Dep Sport Endurance Styling Gel – Marathon Hold and went to work. I squirted some of the gel in a little cellophane baggie that I taped up really well with clear packing tape. In the meantime Mr Mess and Ms Glop came to visit because I failed to realize that the baggie I used had a couple of tiny holes on one of the edges, as if the edge hadn’t sealed properly. Yes, the Dep Sport Endurance Styling Gel – Marathon Hold was now all over the section of the workspace in front of me. So for the duration of the project I got to enjoy the wonderful scent of Dep Sport Endurance Styling Gel – Marathon Hold…. gaaagggg. I think if I do this again I will use aloe vera gel or something else... lol!

Gloppy Mess behind us… moving on….

I used a circle Nestabilities die to cut through each layer of the card and embossed the top green layer for added texture/interest. The fishies are actually stamped on the white card base. I traced a circle on the white card base and then random stamped the fishies in Ocean ink from CTMH. Originally I tried coloring them with a clear glitter pen, but they just looked kind of muddy. Each layer of the card is stacked up and carefully lined up the holes so that you can’t see the other layers beneath. I love the bubbles in the Messy Gloppy layer. They’re fun to squoosh.

The card looked kind of nekkid once I had the focal point and sentiment adhered to the card so I pulled out my ribbon scrap jar and fished (haha, pardon the pun) out that fun raffia-like ribbon that I used on the last card I made with the Tropical Birthday set. I tied the ribbon around the edge and moved the sentiment up over the top to neatly tie everything together.

Skipping Stones is having another sale today! Perfect timing for the holidays... Today you can get 25% off your order PLUS free shipping again. WAHOO! Just head on over to Skipping Stones Design and start shopping. Be sure to enter 25off to get your discount!

Stay tuned for some upcoming blog candy… oh, like say, maybe tomorrow… OR later TODAY... cuz I just typed it up and it's a ready to post!!! *grin*

Fishing you… a Merry Christmas!

Inky Smiles!

Supplies:
Stamps – Skipping Stones Design’s Tropical Birthday
Inks – Ocean (CTMH)
Papers – Cosmo Cricket, Gina K
Miscellaneous - Dep Sport Endurance Styling Gel – Marathon Hold (Schwarzkoph & Henckel), Misc ribbon, adhesive, Nestabilities Classic Circles,