Beachy Gelato Tag

Hi, Friends.....

I am here with a tag I made for the Mark's Finest Papers January Blog Hop Tutorial Challenge.  There were two tutorials to choose from:  Finger Painting Book Mark and Water Background.  I hope to squeak in with another project for the other tutorial, but my first one follows the Finger Painting instructions using Gelatos.  I don't really do bookmarks, though, so I made a tag instead.    

I was glad to have an excuse to use my poor neglected Gelatos.  I loved playing with them!  First I scribbled them in place, and then moistened my fingertip with water and blended them. I masked off the sky/sea boundary with washi. My image and sentiment are from Mark's Finest Papers - Silly Shells stamp set. I colored my boat and mast with watercolor pencils so the Gelato background wouldn't show....as much. :) 

This is the first time I have tried doing a reflection in the ocean with Gelatos.  I am not dissatisfied with my first attempt, but I do see things I could do differently.  All in all, though, I like the tag.

I'd like to make special mention of the pretty crinkle ribbon. It's from Diana Larson and is the Pink Hue Tail from The Mermaids Tail - First Edition collection. Yummy. (Thanks, Diana!!!) Little Peach was fascinated that this ribbon was the color of a mermaid's tail!! :)

Okay....I am making this super-short so I can get it posted and linked up. Thank you for stopping by!! See you soon.

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this in the following challenges:
1. Mark's Finest Papers January Tutorial Challenge
2. DRS Designs Challenge #213 - Hot or Cold
3. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - One Layer
4. A Colorful Journey Let's Play February Challenge - Use Some Neglected Art Supplies (I used my neglected Gelatos and tried a new technique.)
5. Country View Challenges February - Make Your Own Background
6. DL.Art February Linky Party Challenge - Anything Goes

Valentine with Glitter Edging

So what does this say about someone who has cat hair AND real glitter all over????  Ha!

Hi, Friends.....

I am here with a sparkly valentine to share with you. Do you recognize this background as very similar one to what I used for my Mixed Media Valentine??? This one also has hearts punched from scraps and dry embossing with the Darice - Ranunculus folder, and sponged with Distress Ink in Fired Brick.

This time, instead of using heat embossing, I was inspired by this fun idea I saw on a YouTube from Unity about making a glittery edge. I laid down a border of Glossy Accents and sprinkled the Bronze Glass Glitter from the Stampendous Encrusted Jewels Frantage Kit - Bronze over it. (I don't use my poor neglected Frantage kits nearly often enough. I really love them, but seem to use other things.) Next, I added a few more dots of GA here and there and sprinkled on some thrift store black heart confetti. I love the gorgeous sparkle under the hearts!!!
I used more of my delicious black velvet ribbon and......I just noticed....I am really liking diagonals lately!  Hmmm....not sure what got me started on those.  lol....  

I added another focal piece "thing" that came with the red "thing" in my last project.  I don't know what you call these things!!!  Ha.  I don't think I have any of these things left....so I probably will discover their real name now!

I layered up some Prima flowers and attached a Quick Quotes brad in their antique color.  (Thanks, QQ!!!)  Then I matted the panel with black cardstock and mounted everything on a shimmery charcoal card base.  

Hope you like my card.  Thank you for stopping by!!!

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. A Colorful Journey February Challenge - Show Some Neglected Art Supplies Some Love
2. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Have a Heart
3. Eclectic Ellapu - Love Actually
4. Craftin' Desert Divas Linky Party - Hearts
5. Country View Challenges February - Make Your Own Background
6. 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #284 - Love
7. Amusing Challenge - Hearts
8. Dragonfly Journeys Challenge #43 - Queen of Hearts
9. Word Art Wednesday Challenge #219 - Anything Goes Family Friendly
10. Ribbon Girls February Challenge - Any Card
11. Cards in Envy - From the Heart
12. Double D Challenges - Pretty Pink Hearts
13. DL.Art Thankful Thursday Challenge #173 - Anything Valentine
14. Mod Squad Challenge - Hearts and/or Flowers
15. Little Scrap Pieces Show it Off Saturday Linky Party

Mixed Media Valentine with Lots of Metal

Hi, Friends......

I am here with a mixed media valentine today.  I had this background leftover from last year along with some miscellaneous broken jewelry pieces from a thrift store grab bag.  I never was quite satisfied with any design ideas I had for it, so it all sat in a zippy sandwich bag awaiting another Valentine's Day and perhaps a zap of inspiration to strike my brain!  :)

The background was a piece of rose colored cardstock with punched hearts from scraps glued on. Then it was dry embossed with my Darice - Ranunculus folder. 

I totally adore how this folder makes a rose-like impression. I sponged it with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo to bring out the texture.

The glue attaching the old salvaged jewelry pieces is still wet here and looks white.

Next I glued on these old pieces of cheap broken jewelry. Much of the finish was worn off and they were rather ugly, but I knew how to fix that! :)

I went wild smooshing Versamark over the entire thing and heat embossed with some fine detail gold powder....so as not to obscure the fine textures of the chain.  Oh, yesssssss!!!  LOVE!!

Not only did the heat embossing shine up the chain and mismatched hoop earring, but it gave a nice gilded look to the rest of the paper, too.

Next I glued on an adorable pair of owls.  My daughter (who makes and sells jewelry) gave me this broken charm, thinking I might be able to use it.  Why, yes, I certainly can!  Thank you!  :)  

I glued the broken pieces back together on the card and heat embossed again with gold powder to cement them on.  I love that heat embossing can be used as glue!  The owls and the chain are very firmly attached to the card now.

I misted over the entire thing with Clearsnap Smooch Spritz in Pomegranate to give a "rose gold" look and wiped off the excess with a baby wipe. I don't know if you can tell from the photos that this one is a bit redder than the one before. I also dabbed on some Faber-Castell Glass Bead Glitter Gel here and there. It looks blue-green in the photo.

Next I prepared a diagonal area for adhering a ribbon across this very lumpy, bumpy, uneven surface.  I put marks on the edge where my ribbon borders would be and used a ruler to keep my adhesive foam squares inside the boundary lines.  By using the tiny foam squares, I could place them strategically around the chains and embossed ridges.

Next I attached a scrap of brown cardstock over the foam squares.  As you can see, this still isn't completely level, but it gives my ribbon a solid platform on which to lie down.  Otherwise it would be very wavy.

And here is my finished card.......

I have the light angled on this so you can see the bright shiny gold.  Yum!!

I put a shimmery gold Serendipity - Love die cut over the black velvet ribbon. I'm not sure what you call the red thing. (I don't have the package anymore, but it came with the flat-backed gem I used for the body of my spider in my Halloween project.) I mounted it all on a black card base. Do you like it????  I love how it turned out.

I really had a great time playing and experimenting around with all these techniques and supplies.  One of my crafty goals this year is to make more mixed media pieces.  I think I will ask my wonderful local thrift store to save me any broken jewelry that they would otherwise discard because this project was way fun to make!!!

Thank you for stopping by.  Your visits and your kind comments mean so much to me!!!  

<3

Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Design Memory Craft Take the Challenge with Mou February - Hearts 
2. Serendipity Stamps Challenge #52 - Anything Goes
3. A Colorful Journey February Challenge - Show Some Neglected Art Supplies Some Love
4. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Have a Heart
5. Eclectic Ellapu - Love Actually
6. Southern Ridge Trading Company February Challenge - Anything Love
7. Country View Challenges February - Make Your Own Background
8. 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge #284 - Love
9. Pixie's Snippets Playground Week 215 - Use Snippets

10. Amusing Challenge - Anything Goes

11. Moving Along With The Times Challenge #13 - Things with Wings

Welcome, Little One!!!

Hi, Friends.....

I am here with a shaker card I made for a new little grand-nephew.  I made the card in a froggy theme to go with the simple quilt I also made for him.  I just love how cute the card turned out.

It's fairly self-explanatory, so I will just give you a brief description. The green DCWV sparkling holographic paper is a leftover scrap, along with all the other paper I used. The froggy in the shaker is a sticker from a JoAnn clearance pack. Both sentiment stamps were in thrift store grab bags, as were the satiny puffy stars. I used my Sizzix - Circles, Scallop , Paper Smooches - Gift Tags Dies, and Lawn Fawn - Into the Woods die set. The sparkly green circle is some glitter foam from the dollar store. Fun!!!

I hesitate even to post a photo of the very simple quilt that I made for the new baby because I live in an extremely tiny community that happens to have numerous highly-skilled quilters and a very nice quilt retreat center. My little pieced and tied quilts are made with love (and with lots of leftover fabric scraps!), and are nothing like the totally amazing quilts my neighbors make. Wow. Wow. Wow.

I purchased the cute little froggy fabric and used it as the theme of the quilt.

Hope you enjoyed my little froggy shaker card.  It was so much fun to make!!!  Thanks always for your visits and kind comments.

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card (and quilt) in the following challenges:
1.  The Male Room Challenge #27 - Babies and Little Boys
2.  Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #214 - Use Snippets
3.  Little Scrap Pieces Show it Off Saturday Linky Party
4.  Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #156 - Punches and/or Dies
5.  Speedy Fox & Friends Challenge #5 - Anything Goes
6.  Word Art Wednesday Challenge #218 - Anything Goes Family Friendly
7.  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
8.  Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Ray of Sunshine   (Awww...Babies are a ray of sunshine!!)
9.  Critters and Creatures February Linky Party #1 - Animal as Focal Point
10. Amusing Challenge #26 - Anything Goes
11. DRS Designs Challenge #211 - Sparkle & Shine
12. One Crazy Stamper February Challenge - Anything Goes

Wintertime Masculine Birthday Card

How a kitty catches snowflakes on his tongue.  :)  Such sweet, fat wintertime kitties!!

Hi, Friends.....

I am back with my second card of the day.  This time I have a wintery masculine birthday card that I made while I still had my snowy backgrounds handy. This one uses a dry embossed background, but I have it reversed so the "debossed" side of the Darice - Snowflakes and Flourishes on blue cardstock shows. I also used the snowflake folder from my Darice - Seasonal Border 3-pack on a scrap of vellum and then double embossed it by brayering with Versamark and heat embossing with white powder. I folded the vellum around the background and secured it on the back of that panel.

I covered one edge of the vellum with a narrow strip of metallic silver foiled cardstock from my DCWV - Foiled stack for a bit of masculine gleam. The sentiment is from my Mark's Finest Papers - Silly Shells stamp set. I stamped it with Versafine ink in Smokey Gray and heat embossed with clear powder on a scrap of white cardstock. I finished off the card by mounting it on a white card base with metallic silver photo corners. The light is reflecting in some strange ways on all the metallic parts, but they really are silver-toned. :)

Hope you like this card! Thank you for the wonderful comments you always leave when you visit. They make my day!!!

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. DRS Designs Challenge #211 - Sparkle and Shine
2. MAWTT Challenge #12 - Embossing (Wet or Dry)
3. Little Red Wagon Challenge #326 - They Say It's Your Birthday
4. Double D Challenge - Brrrrr!!! Photo Inspiration  (I was inspired by the falling snow!)

5. Going Grey with Scrap-Creations - Snow/Snowmen
6. House of Cards January Challenge - Embossing or Color Challenge
7. Addicted to Stamps Challenge #118 - Masculine
8. Twofers Challenge #12 - Metal Heavy or Not
9. One Stitch at a Time Challenge - Tic Tac Toe  (I chose lots of blue, own background, and metal)

10. Amusing Challenge - Shades of Blue
11. Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #213 - Use Snippets

One Last Ornament Christmas Card

Eeek....I forgot to include a cat pic on my last post.....so here are two:

Stray mama cat gives birth in bird nest!  Story here.  Two sizes too small is just the right size, apparently!

And now for a different kind of cat in a different kind of nest.....

Bobcat in Squirrel's Nest.  That would be cool to see!!

Hi, Friends......

Here's one last Christmas card (didn't I say that already a couple of weeks ago??) before I get all my Christmas things tucked away.  I made some others of this design, inspired by Jennifer Grace's Frosty Festivities, but I wanted to try one in red, too.

As with my blue snowflake ones, I used my Spellbinders - Carnival Dream die set with some Echo Park double-sided paper. This fun die set has a fold and tuck design so your reverse pattern shows. Instead of a snowflake, this red one reminds me of a stylized poinsettia.  What do you think?

I die-cut a shimmery pre-made card base with my Sizzix - Circles, Scallop die set and used repositionable adhesive to attach the "poinsettia" on the front so the ornament can be removed and hung on the tree, if desired. The scalloped edge of the die cut allows the card to stand up nicely.  And....since the card base was an A2 size, this flat ornament card will fit in a standard sized envelope.
The addition of some sparkling rhinestones and silver ribbon trim was all that was needed to finish this card.  

Well, that's all for right now.  Thanks for stopping by.  Hope your weather is better than ours!  It is rainy and chilly here in Idaho today.  Most of the snow has melted and it is very muddy.  

The cats are all lying around the house in dark, quiet nests waiting out the weather. Little Judith was gone again for a few days, but showed up this morning.  Jetta, the kitty who showed up again on Christmas Day after being gone for over a year, amazingly has pretty much stuck around since then.  Perhaps she is finally getting too old to be traipsing back over to the old house!  So glad to have her cheery and chipper little "rah-ROW!" greeting me on the back porch!!  So sweet!

Hope you are having a good week....and getting ready for an awesome weekend.  Thank you for visiting and for your wonderful comments!!!

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Scraps of Life January Rudolph Days - Anything Goes Christmas
2. DRS Designs Challenge #211 - Sparkle and Shine
3. Fab 'n' Funky Challenge #289 - Christmas
4. Fun Cuts Alphabet Challenge - J is for Jewels
5. Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #158 - Punches and/or Dies
6. Craftin' Desert Divas Linky - Shaped Cards
7. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
8. DL.Art January Linky Challenge - Anything Goes

Altered Treat Jar with Butterfly

Hi, Friends.....

I am here with a decorated jar I upcycled to use as a treat jar for a girlfriend.  Oh, yum!!!

The star of the show today is a lovely Serendipity - Floral Butterfly that I die-cut from some orange Add a Little Dazzle - craft metal. (A few months ago, I bought a grab bag of odd-sized scratch and dent scraps when Monica was having a huge clearance sale in preparation for going out of business. I was hoping the grab bag would contain some different colors of the metal sheets that I didn't already have. Yay!! I got a bunch of new colors!! And best of all, they have decided to continue selling their craft metal, but with a more limited inventory.) This wonderful product is perfect for intricate die-cuts that might fall apart with a less substantial material....(like this did when I tried it with some vellum!!! EEEK!!) I am entering this in Mrs. A's "Butterfly + I is for Inks" Challenge.

Is there anyone else besides me who uses baby wipes, paper towels, or tissues for paint and ink clean-up....and then SAVES those colorful sheets for future projects???? Well that is what I used to cover this upcycled jar. I had some scraps of pretty orange ink-stained tissues that I Mod Podged on for a background and let dry overnight. This is for some of the "I is for Inks" part of the Butterfly Challenge.

Next, I dusted several colors of Perfect Pearls onto it...Sour Apple, Mandarin, and Biscotti....and misted it gently with water to set the powder. After the misting was dry, I took a fluffy brush and whisked the excess away and blended the rest of it together for a shimmery look. I love how the texture of the tissue shows with this fun technique.

I had some pretty floral wired ribbon from Terri at Terri's Making Cards. She sent this to me some time ago and I had not yet found just the right place for it. She also gave me the gorgeous dangling pearl trim. Both of these were just what I was needing for this project!!  (THANKS, Terri!!!)  

Can you see the pretty Memory Box - Gwyneth Flourish behind the butterfly? I cut it from watercolor paper that was dyed with my inky marker water refill experiment. :) This also counts for the I is for Inks.  

I prepared the lid by covering it with several coats of gesso and then rubbing with some Tangerine and Gold Gelatos and a bit of Mod Podge for sealing. I die cut some scraps with my Sizzix - Circles, Scallop and Paper Smooches - Gift Tags Dies and finished it with a bow made of crinkly ribbon.

Hope you like my altered jar.  I will fill it with candy as part of a little birthday gift for one of the gals.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a lovely week!!

<3
Janis

Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Mrs. A's Butterfly Plus I for Ink Challenge.

2. Pixie's Snippets Playground Week #213 - Use Snippets

3. Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers #51 - T is for Technique (I tried out a new technique for me with Mod Podge and Perfect Pearls)

4. Altered Eclectics December Challenge - Anything Goes (I think) Altered Art or Mixed Media

5. Little Scrap Pieces Show-it-Off Saturday Linky Party

6. Crafty Boots challenges - Ribbon or Lace
7. Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #158 - Punches and/or Dies