Colour Block Backgrounds

Happy Spring Morning.

Today the sun has decided to make a rare appearance, giving me hope that the spring rainy season will come to a close in the near future. This is the perfect time to be doing a post showing some bright beautiful fun cards.

My phone has been suggesting more and more YouTube videos to me lately and admittedly I have watched a few. The Jennifer McGuire series have popped up a lot and I have been enjoying those immensely. So today I will be showing off what I made after watching her Color Blocking Techniques video (I'll put the link at the end of this post). I had a ton of fun and made some wonderful cards.

The supplies I picked to try out this technique, I had either not used in a long time or had never used before. I pulled out the 6 Vivid stamp pads that I have had since the beginning of my card making, back about 22 years ago. The tree stamp I have had for about 15 years and the cute girls under the umbrella and on the bike I bought a few years ago second hand and have never used. This was a great opportunity to bring them out and play.

This technique was fun and playful and the cards turned out nice and bright. I will try it again using some of the deeper colours in my collection to compare the finished results. The white embossing stands out beautifully against the vivid colours and it will be interesting to see how it looks on other colours.

Here's the link   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPRqVbCZ6OY&list=LLrPw3KR7TMCTKUPVvRy-_3g&index=7&t=0s

Hope you are having a lovely spring!

RedBear

Experimenting with Mandala Stamps

I recently purchased some mandala stamps by Kelly Creates and decided to experiment with them before putting them in my drawer.

I grabbed an Island Indigo Stampin'Up stamp pad and stamped a page of 8 1/2" x 11" piece of white cardstock using all three of the images. I cut the page up into four after the original stamping was complete and then did a few more touch up stamping with any blank areas edges to the pieces. Kind of a backward way of going about it but it made for four different random pieces of background paper.

I am not a fan of colouring, as it hurts my hand, so this time I experimented using my Stampin'Up sponge daubers and my oldest ink pad, ColorBox Pigment Ink Option Pad in various blues and a dusty rose. I like the effect and it was super quick and painless, so win-win!

Here are the cards I made from this background. The other two look pretty much the same, so I only included two snaps.

Dsitress Ink Monoprinting

Zoo sent me a link to a video from Jennifer McGuire Ink, on how to do a background using distress ink and heat embossing. It made two backgrounds for each inking, so of course I had to try it out.

Jennifer McGuire Ink

Distress Ink Monoprint (and 25+ Cards)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsySZEPT8HI&feature=youtu.be

Zoo had given me three of her old Tim Holtz distress ink pads, and as they are the only ones I have it was an easy colour choice to begin experimenting. The colours are: peacock feathers; vintage photo; and tea dye.

In the top two and the bottom left you may notice a faded area where I taped the two pieces of card stock together. I used some masking tape I had sitting beside me and it turned out too thick and affected the way the ink transferred. In the other three I removed the tape before spritzing with water and just made sure I held the pieces together without moving them.

I lost track of the video theme for a few minutes when I used copper embossing powder on some of the backgrounds. I like the effect but I think I would have liked it as a more mono colour style, as well.

I look forward to making new cards with these backgrounds. I will wait awhile though, as I have all but two of my cards for 2019 already made : )

Ugly Paper Contest - September 2016

The Challenge: Red Bear and I were each to make two cards.  One to mail to each other, and one to mail to Kidlet. We were allowed to choose our own base paper.

These are the papers we chose.

Papers

These are the results.

Zoo's Cards

Red Bear's on the Left; Zoo's on the right

Backstory
A long time ago, in another life, circa 2011, the Ugly Paper Contest was born.  Kidlet had purchased a big pad of truly ugly paper.  Red Bear and I were teasing her about it and wanted to know what on earth would she ever use such ugly paper for.  The Ugly Paper contest of course!

Of Course! How silly of us.

The first time, all three of us crafters made our attempts and The Farmer aka Himself aka Hubby, chose the winner. Quite often that is how the contests progressed and I still don't know if he ever knew who did what.  Kidlet and Red Bear most often won, I don't think I ever did.

He did have a farm to run however and wasn't always available.  One of us would choose the paper, make the "rules", and be the final judge.  Kidlet often chose the Worst colour combinations and came up with challenging rules.  Like the time "must use at least one alpha stamp but it must be part of the design, not part of a word".

Left: Red Bear
Center: Kidlet
Right: Zoo

Sometimes the background or base paper was part of the challenge, sometimes we could choose whatever we liked, or from within a colour family.  Sometimes the rules would change part-way through the challenge.

The best part was always seeing how different the results were from the same starting point. We also got to learn about each other.  Red Bear gravitates towards heart shapes and the colour red.  Zoo likes circles and either green and pink or green and peach. Kidlet was never pinned down except for the yellow/purple colour combo.

These are always a lot of fun, inspire creativity, and really take the pressure off.  We're starting with "ugly" so it's not our fault if the result is ugly!

Before Red Bear moved across the country, we took the ugly paper pad, divided it into approximately three equal piles, wrote identifying numbers on the back, and each of the three of us had our own stash in a 9 x 12 envelope.  Also included were some embellishments, stickers, "add-ons". That is how years later we can still have Ugly Paper Contests with the same papers.

Zoo

p.s. As I write this post, it is exactly two years later, Red Bear is airborne on her way here to visit.  Recently some WoW Friends, purring and Bearminimum, asked to see some of my artwork.  I was sad to realize that I have been a very bad craft blogger.  This is the beginning of an attempt to make up for that.  Thanks, Guys! You two are wonderful friends of Kidlet, babysitting Mom.

Paper Napkin Transfers

Happy New Year's Eve! 

Hello. Our plans fell through for the evening so I have a few minutes to do up a quick post about the fun I have had with paper napkin transfers. Admittedly, the first attempt was not fun but the experience improved significantly the second time around.

Zoo had sent out a link of a woman doing paper napkin transfers and I was intrigued. She made it look so nice and easy and relaxing. Here is her link.

In her video she used NoName plastic wrap like I have, a medium temperature iron and very little effort. When I tried it the napkins were getting ironed nice and flat but there was not much sticking involved, except with the paper I was ironing it all between and the excess plastic wrap. I then tried it on a hard book with a hotter iron and had a little more success but ended up pressing down sooo hard that I bent my ironing board, lol. At this point, I decided it was either a bust or I would buy some brand name stickier plastic wrap and try it one more time. 

I did shop today and bought some Glad Cling Wrap and tried again. It was sooo much better! I still had to put my iron on a little more than medium but I didn't have to press too hard and it stuck pretty good.

So the emoji napkin transfers were with the NoName wrap and most of them I can peel off if I wanted to so am worried about making things with them and then having them peel off. I may need to frame each one. Aren't they cute though? I was thinking of making kids cards with them.

These last two, below, I was fed up and so I matt mediumed the card stock and placed the napkins right on. I then flattened them using a piece of parchment paper so it wouldn't stick. They turned out fine. A bigger napkin  might not have attached to the page as flat as these smaller sections.

With the leaves napkin I used the much stickier Cling Wrap by Glad. When I started, I thought I was going to like the all colour side the best but in the end I love the leaves with the white. I have put a few napkins in the "Take to Zoo's" box, as I know she will want to play with them. I like hearts and she likes leaves.

In the shot below, you can see one of the corners didn't stick after I trimmed the edges. This amount of fixing will be easy with a tiny bit of matt medium or glue.

So there you have it... using paper napkins from the kitchen for use in the craft room. I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve and an awesome 2018!

Take care and have fun!

Red Bear : )

Hello again. I wasn't sure where to put the cards I made with the paper napkins... a new post or added to this one.  Obviously, I chose the latter of the two options. I had such fun with these silly little happy faces. I will end up using them for my valentines cards this year, I think. 

I made a few : )

I used embossing folders on the backgrounds, eyelets (cheaper to mail than brads), string, funky scissors and circles. Easy and adorable.

 I used the different yellow faces on the insides. I only showed the 'lmao' tear smiley face inner.

Have a wonderful January! 

Red Bear : )

Fabric Yo-Yo's

Good Evening. I hope you all are happy and healthy, have crisp December air to breathe and some snow if you're lucky. It seems like forever since I have done a blog post and as usual I have been busy creating in the craft room but not recording it here. Ironically I talked to Zoo on the phone today and we were both inspired to craft after talking of the blog and all it contained. I, of course, was surprised how many posts I have done. Not being a fan of using the computer for more than entertainment, I have added more than anticipated.

Today I would like to talk about making Yo-yo's. Zoo sent a few videos and web sites to explain what they were and then I had to give some a try. Hand needle work has gone onto the hurt the hands, only do in small measure list, but I must admit they turned out cute. I tried some in a variety of sizes and like the larger circle sizes the best. I tried my Sizzix Circles #2 Bigz Die first and used the largest of the four circles. I ended up mostly tracing a larger circle from a stencil I have onto the fabric and then cutting it out. I found this method and size worked the best for me.

The two sites I used from Zoo's sampling were as follows...

https://www.positivelysplendid.com/fabric-yo-yo-tutorial/

http://www.bhg.com/crafts/sewing/accessories/how-to-make-fabric-yo-yos1/

So I grabbed some fabric from my drawer and away I went. When showing Zoo my new creations on our next skype craft session, she was floored that I had made so many in random colours without a plan for each one. I will eventually use them all and so was happy to prove this recently when one of the yo-yo's was the perfect colour for a card I was making.

This card was stamped using the 'Kiss it and Make it Better by Connie Stewart' video and I will go into this further in my next post. I look forward to making cards or mixed media work with the remainder of my yo-yo's. 

Have a great night!

Red Bear : )

Corner Heart Punch

Good morning. I have had a little post it note with some information to make a post on the counter for a couple of weeks now and have finally sat down to do it. Funny how life gets in the way of the to-do list.

In any case... I had filled a little box of corner heart punches at Zoo's place before moving East, years ago. I have never used them and as the theme of this year is to use things I have had forever, it was high time to delve in. All the punches were on scrap pieces of paper of varying sizes and colours.

I first used the larger pieces that had a punch in each of the four corners. I used mainly Dollarama 6"x6" paper pads that I have had for years and not used. The two pads I used were the Rainbow Scrapbook and the Flower Scrapbook pads. I hope Zoo will add the name of the company who made the punch. I like how the hearts are not quite cut out and so I could add another layer of paper under the top of each heart to add dimension. The cards are bright and yet not too overpowering. I tend to not use patterned paper but this was a good use of the bolder patterns I had been avoiding. 

Having used up the larger pieces it was time to move onto the more narrow bits that only had two heart punched per piece. I used Zoo's Spellbinder's Curved Border's dies to make one edge more decorative. I was originally going to have a piece of the card slide in and out of the heart punch paper but then decided to just use a big flower instead. I added a coordinating colour under each corner punch to add interest and a small stamp in between. The big flowers are from using a friends dies and Big Shot years ago. I believe the biggest flower is from StampinUp and the smaller ones are from my McGill Petite Petals Punch and my Martha Stewart's Floral Anywhere Punch. A good use of paper I would not normally use

I have more punched corners remaining but ran out of time. I will get to them in the years to come.   Happy November!

Red Bear : )

SpellBinders Curved Border Dies

Hello again. I am waiting for my banana bread to finish baking and since I am stuck on this level of the house and am definitely not in the mood to vacuum, I thought I would do up another post. I recently stole (borrowed) Zoo's two sets of border die's from SpellBinders (Curved Borders One and Two - each with 6 dies) and fell in love with them. Oodles of fun playing with these dies and I can see making waaaaay too many cards with them.

I have done two sets of cards so far. Each time I sat down to play with them I chose a couple of colours of 8 1/2"x11"paper, cut them half then started cutting different borders from each end of the paper. In this way I ended up with an abundant amount of die cut pieces to mount on to a card. I mounted all the pieces onto the card bases and then decorated them at this point. Probably a backward way of doing things but that was how my brain was working at the time.

When it was time to decorate them I found it hard to cover them up, so only used bows (made with the aid of this awesome video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw6vUApUCrk&list=LLrPw3KR7TMCTKUPVvRy-_3g&index=70&t=969s), Dollarama bling, small die cut shapes and a couple of butterflies from a page Zoo gave me that she coloured and didn't know what to do with (She colours beautiful things and then they sit in her craft room where no one can see them. Such a crime. Thanks, Zoo, for letting me show these off !). Upon previewing the post I discovered that the two cards I made with the butterflies are not in the picture file. I gave them away before I took pictures. Typical me. I know Zoo has one so she may add a picture when she gets a chance.

Anyway... enough of me babbling. Here are the cards I have made so far.

The possibilities with these die sets are endless. I look forward to playing with them again in the future. I know Zoo will want them back when she sees the pretty cards but they have such a long distance to travel back out west that they may have to rest up at my house for a few more weeks : )