Quilted Canvas

I am totally in love with this project, and I hope you are too!



This week Lauren gave us all this graphic as our inspiration piece.



Although she pulled out the colours, it is not a requirement that you use these colours. The point is that you take some kind of inspiration from the image. It can be the pattern, texture, shape, colours, anything!

I decided to paint a canvas, inspired partly by the canvases Erika Martin has been promoting lately, that copied the photo as close as I could with the stamps I had on hand. Here's a side by side comparison.



I taped off the different sections and painted them with acrylic paint. I have *really* been loving my paints recently, but I also wanted to make sure I had good coverage on the canvas. All of the stamping was also done with paints.



The sections on the left used Shapes by Design from PTI, and the section on the right uses 3 step Hearts and Roses from Kitchen Sink Stamps. I *love* how easily it is to get roses that have interesting colours and shading with just stamps.

The pink paint is pearlecent, and has a nice shimmer to it. The green centre section has stickles around the circles, and the blue lines on the bottom section are covered in fun flock.



After the canvas was painted, and dried for a night I added the text. The "Sister" was cut out using the Sunset sizzlits alphabet. (it doesn't show up on the Sizzix website, so it may be discontinued)



The rest of the text was stamped with cheap dollar alphabet sets from Michael's and reads, "My Sister a special part of our family fabric"

I know that it is somewhat difficult to read the rest of the text, but I wanted to make sure the background was still really visible.



I will be giving this to my sister before she moves to New Zealand in September with her new husband. She has been living in England for the past year, and is coming back to Canada for a month, primarily to get married, then moving with her husband to set up a life in New Zealand. I want her to have this to know that even though she will be half a world away, we will be thinking of her, and she will know that we value her as a member of our family, and that doesn't change with distance.

I know that when she looks at this Heather will think of me, and our family and that makes me feel great.

Now that I have talked for WAY too long, I hope still have energy to visit the rest of the design team and see their take on the inspiration. The peeks below look AMAZING, and I can't wait to see how everyone else was inspired.





Lauren
Dawn
MacKenzie
Maria
Kendra
Kristin
Tracey
Pam
Jennifer
Odette
Lisa
Dana
Alicia

Saturday COLOUR Challenge!

You might be surprised that I am not doing a sketch challenge with Lauren this week, but that's because she changed up the sketch team, and the way we will be doing challenges. Read here for all the details.

So, this week we had a colour challenge using this fantastic bag from Clutterbags.



Instead of making one card using all of those colours, I chose to make one Project using all of the colours. (I substituted Real Red for Pure Poppy, Cool Caribean for Spring Rain, and Basic Grey for Smokey Shadow).




This is a mail sorter using Lauren's Filed with Flair template from PTI.

It does not stand for To Be Determined (although with mail that could be the case), but instead it is for Tamara, Bills (yuck), and Deron (my partner).

The front is somewhat plain, but I added more details to the sides.



The second layer on the sides was printed on cardstock weight velum and cut out. Then I inked my texture plates with the corresponding ink and ran them through my Big Shot.



I also added some ribbon and ric-rac, the ric-rac was MUCH easier to get around those corners, and finished off the top of my box with a couple of Prima flowers.

I wanted to keep it kind of plain so that if it gets ripped or something due to daily use with the mail I won't be too upset about it because I can easily make another folder to fit into the tray.

Please check out the rest of the COLOUR challenge team this week!

Lauren
Dawn
MacKenzie
Maria
Kendra

When uploading to any public galleries or forums, please use the code MTTC01 so we can find your AWESOME creations.

Birthday Blog Hop

The challenege issued this month for the blog hop was:

March Blog Hop

Background building sets have rapidly become one of Papertrey's signature traits. For this month's Blog Hop, we want to see all of your very best backgrounds. They can be multi-colored or monochromatic. Simple or elegantly detailed. They can be created with a set originated for that purpose or a reinvention of images that were not. Be sure to include a separate photo of your completed background BEFORE you add it to your project so we can see it in all its glory!

I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to make a card, but I *did* get something done.

Here is my paper.



I stamped the Thank You in versamark, and clear embossed it. Then the flowers were stamped in Guava, sky blue, and eggplant. The background is sponged with barely banana, then I took a paper towel and "buffed" the entire image to make the words pop off the page. It didn't work as I had imagined it, but it turned out okay.

Here is the card I made.



Here is a close up of the words.



I want to add something more to it, but I don't know what. Perhaps a focal image, or some more embellishments. I will re-visit this card tomorrow and see what I can do. I really like the background as the focus, but it is still missing something.

Also, be sure to stop by tomorrow for BLOG CANDY to celebrate my birthday. Today is actually my 30th birthday, and I want to share the love with everyone. Come back for your chance to win some stamps, paper and embellishments.

Thanks Sew Much

I missed out on Lauren's sketch challenge last week because I was in Quebec at national meetings. There were some amazing people that were really kind to me, and I wanted to send them some thank you cards, so I used this week's sketch to start those cards.





I used PTI's Quilter's Sampler, and it wasn't until I went to add the sentiment that I realized there wasn't a "thanks sew much" sentiment, so I had to write it in.

I am going to mass produce these for all of the super helpful people I met at the national meetings, but I don't know if I will colour in the other ones, or just use the stamped images. It was really easy since the quilt blocks fit perfectly within a 3/4 inch punch.

The background is stamped with the scissors and thread from the same set in versamark.

Make sure you check out all of the other participants in Lauren's sketch challenge, and we would love to have you join us!

Lauren Meader http://laurenmblogs.splitcoaststampers.com

Maria Levine http://riacreations.blogspot.com/

Dawn Easton http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/

Kirsten Dubosque www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com

Kristy Vernon http://www.kvernon.blogspot.com

Kim Gasper http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Alicia Weimen http://happystamp.blogspot.com/

Blog Hop!

It's Blog Hop Time!!!

I completely forgot that today was the 25th, until this morning. The theme today was Polka Dots, and although I don't have Polka Dot Basics, I do have Shapes by Design.

I was at a conference all day, so I knew I had to do something quick!

I instantly thought of Claire's Three Kings pattern. Claire is in love with PTI, and she is an AMAZING inspiration. I think that Claire and Lauren Meader are two of my favourite blogs to visit!

I was in such a rush today that I stamped the wrong side of the printed pattern.



I decided that instead of re-stamping the entire sheet, I would somehow cover up the lines.

This is what I came up with.



I went around all of the horizontal lines, and the points with Liquid Appliqué, then puffed it up. I wish I would have had more time to make a matching card, or add some embellishments, but over all, I am pleased with how this turned out.



I love the dimension of the LA on the tag that is also popped up on a pop dot.

Do yourself a favour, and visit Claire's blog to gain some amazing inspiration, and to try your own Three Kings gift box.

Have a Hoot!

I love Beate's sketches, and I am glad that I had the time to get one in today. A friend of mine is having a birthday party tonight, and he is a bird watcher, so I pulled out my Out on a Limb and Wise Owl stamps from PTI to create a birthday card.

Here is Beate's sketch,


but in order to use the branch more effectively, I turned the sketch 90 degrees so that it looks like this.


I stamped the branch in chocolate chip, then the owl, also in chocolate chip on kraft cardstock. I masked the owl, then stamped the leaves in Really Rust. I pulled the colours from the paper, and think that they work really well for a masculin card.



If you play along, be sure to include the keyword WSC57 so that it can be easily found in any online galleries.

Birthday Blues

Once again it's time for Lauren's sketch challenge. This time, I had to make a gift for a friend of mine who is just starting out as a teacher. I made the gift first, and then the card, so that is how I will show them here :)

Lauren is a big believer in gift sets, so she was part of my inspiration for this gift. I wanted something fairly quick to make, and not too "girlie" since the recipient isn't into bows or glitter so I focussed on using graphic elements and only one colour.



I took 10 sheets of regular printer paper and cut it in half to have 20 sheets of 5.5 * 8.5. I then stamped the circles from Shapes by Design in Brilliant blue along the long side. This is one of my favourite "go to" sets when I want a graphic element and not an image. I stamped the same image on the left side of 10 envelopes to coordinate them.

The pen is one I bought at the dollar store that fit well with the colour scheme. I also added some stamps and some envelope seals.



I wanted to use some small metal tins with clear covers, but the only ones I had were the wrong size, and there isn't a Lee Valley in Regina, so I went on a search at the dollar store to see if I could find a container that would work. I took my tape measure and it didn't matter what was in the container, as long as it was the right size. I ended up getting coloured staples in these containers.



There were five different colours for $1.00, so I got five containers, and used 4 of them. Two have regular domestic stamps, one has international stamps, and the fourth has non-traditional envelope seals in it.

The seals (see photo above) are cut to 1 * 1.75 from a printable sticky label that is a full sheet size, and stamped with the initials of the recipient, LF. To finish them off, I sponged them with Brilliant Blue Ink.

After making this gift, I wanted the card to also have some graphic elements and not be too busy so that it would coordinate.



This is Lauren's sketch, and here is my card.



The paper is from the Azure paper pack from Stampin' Up!, and the sentiment is stamped using Just Right stamps in Brilliant Blue onto Very Vanilla cardstock. I had originally tried the sentiment with white paper, but it was too stark on the card, and the vanilla blended in much better. The buttons were a last minute addition because the card looked too plain without them. As much as I wanted the card to be somewhat basic, and not too busy, I didn't want it to be boring ;)

All in all I think the card and gift set look good together and I am quite pleased with them.




Please check out other cards made by the other members of the sketch team.

Lauren Meader http://laurenmblogs.splitcoaststampers.com

Maria Levine http://riacreations.blogspot.com/

Dawn Easton http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/

Kirsten Dubosque www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com

Kristy Vernon http://www.kvernon.blogspot.com

Kim Gasper http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Alicia Weimen http://happystamp.blogspot.com/

Also, if you want to participate, we would love to see your card! Add a link in the comment section, and if you want to upload to SCS, visit Lauren's blog for the keyword so that we can find your great creations.

Better late than never...

I had all intentions of getting this post up on time, particularly since Lauren sent out this sketch with LOTS of time. But, as sometimes is the case, life got in the way.

My sister left for England on Thursday, and the week leading up to her departure was full of packing and organizing since she is going to be gone for a whole year.

The other factor in my late posting is that I forgot that white craft ink takes FOREVER to dry.

Here is the sketch we had to work with.



I just recently received my Father Knows Best stamps from PaperTrey, and I wanted to show them some ink. Also, I thought this sketch would be a perfect time to finally use some square buttons that I have had for months.



In addition to the tree from Father Knows Best, I also used the circles and sentiment from Shapes by Design.

The tree was stamped on Kraft cardstock with white craft ink, and then cut out with my coluzzle. The edges were inked as well, and that is what was taking soooo long to dry. The circles from Shapes by Design were stamped in VersaMark on the Kraft base, and covered with velum paper. I was able to hide the velum adhesive under the Chocolate Chip ribbon, the two buttons, and then I only needed small dabs of adhesive under the corners.

In this close up you can see that I stamped some of the extra circles and cut them out to add some depth and dimension. The paper is adhered to the back of the buttons with Crystal Effects, and the twine helps tie in with the Kraft paper.

Make sure you check out all of the other members of Lauren's sketch team.

Lauren Meader http://laurenmblogs.splitcoaststampers.com

Maria Levine http://riacreations.blogspot.com/

Dawn Easton http://www.TreasureOilerDesignz.blogspot.com/

Kirsten Dubosque www.kirstendubosque.blogspot.com

Kristy Vernon http://www.kvernon.blogspot.com

Kim Gasper http://stampinintherain.blogspot.com
MacKenzie Bruckler http://midnightscramper.blogspot.com/

Alicia Weimen http://happystamp.blogspot.com/

Velum! (PTI blog hop)

I have wanted to get in on the PTI blog hop since it first began, but I always forget what day it is, and I miss out. Today, I am ready with not only 1, but *2* velum projects to share. :)



This first velum project is the second card I needed to make for a board member that has decided to step down after years of service to the community association.

I stamped the leaf from Text Boxed in Thyme (SU, retired) ink. Then, I traced the image with a stylus and "popped" the image. The image is turned over, and attached to a piece of River Rock cardstock. Then I attached some Purely Pomegranate stitched ribbon, and stamped Thanks, also from Text Boxed below the image.



The card base is Thyme cardstock, and has the smaller leaf stamped off once with Thyme ink to create a subtle background.

This card is fairly simple, but I really like the cleanness of it.


My second project is a tea light candle holder for my sister's wedding. Her colours are chocolate brown and pink.



I took a sheet of velum cardstock, and cut it into 2 pieces (4.25 * 9) and stamped the circles from Shapes by Design in Chocolate on the velum. Then I scored both pieces at 2,4,6,8. I coloured the intersections, and the full circles on the opposite side of the velum using a Pixie Pink marker (SU). I did not colour anything on the small 1" section because that would be taped on the inside to close the box. There isn't actually a bottom to this, so it's easy to light the candle and place these over top.



It's hard to see, but I used stickles to put glitter on the full circles to add just a bit of *bling*.



This is what it looks like without a candle, still a nice decoration. :)

Gina K sketches

Last night was the Gina K release party in their member forum at SCS. I joined late, and only stayed for about 30 minutes, but the pages of comments were flying up. This morning I was able to get some time to look at the sketch challenges, and complete all three :)

My coluzzle got quite the workout with the first two sketches.


Sketch 1 by Julie Koerber (Out to Impress)




I really like how this turned out with the band of "thanks". The scallops are circles that are punched out and taped to the back of the circle. The thanks stamp is from Papertrey, and the flower pot is from Gina K.


Sketch 2 by Erika Martin (Stampin Mama)



When I saw Erica's sketch I immidiately thought that the round bum of the hippo would fit in with the oval card she had designed.


I curved the sentiment from the Just so Hippy set to make it fit along the oval. I would have like to have curved it a bit more, but it wouldn't stay.


I stamped a second hippo and cut out the hips and popped them up to add dimension. I couldn't find my white gel pen, so I used my liquid applique to colour the tooth and toenails.

Sketch 3 by Joanne B. (Stamped by Hand)



Joanne's sample was very masculine, and I not only used the sketch, but her sample as inspiration.


Stampers often say it is difficult to make masculine cards, but this one was easy-peasy. The image is stamped with brown ink on Kraft cardstock. No colouring needed, as it fits with the simple and two-toned card.


This is a view from the top to show that the card is like a book where the jumbo brads create the binding, and the card opens from inside the line of brads.