Happy Birthday with Inspired by Stamping

Hello my dear crafty friends and welcome to my first August Inspired by Stamping post.
Lately I am deeply in Mixed Media cards and also those cards seam to be simple (one layer mostly). it takes quite a lot of time to make this kind of  a card.
 First I stamped the new Grapes image with clear embossing ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.
Then I colored the image with distress markers and made some shadow around to make it more " Mixed Media look".
Next I stamped all those circles with black pigmented ink using Polka Dots set  and heat embossed with clear powder.  I stamped the sentiment from my most favorite Watercolor sentiments set  the very same way on the bottom.
As my last touch I added some mists splashes around and glued a few rhinestones inside the circles.
I really hope you like my card and you sure adore those IBS new/almost new stamp sets.

You are the light tag with Two Paper Divas

Hello my dear crafty friends and welcome to my Christmas in August posts made for Two Paper Divas.

Actually it should have been Christmas in July, but with the shipping times  to us I got my stamps in the middle of the month and my July projects were already done with the previous release.

So for me this is Christmas in August posts  after all.

Just to say- I am Jewish and we don't celebrate Christmas. But as I was born in a  former USSR,  and as non religious as they were then, they celebrated the New Year with all Christmas characters, images, colors and whatever. So since my childhood I do love  Santa, presents, colors, songs  and everything Christmas connected and I   make  my art as the  art, not as a part of any religious ceremony. I really enjoy it and make good projects that are even print published in special Holidays editions. 

So this is a first of my Christmas projects- a gift tag made with a lot of gold.

Gold heat embossed  You are the light stamp; gold swirl of pearls; gold ribbon bow.Then I stopped with gold and moved to another traditional colors.

 I really love this stamp with the light in the window.  So if you need some new Christmas stamps- they are all in TPD shop and they are delicious!

Inks swatch tag book with Ann Butler's products

Hello my dear crafty friends and welcome to my monthly post made for Ann Butler's blog.

Today I am going to show you a kind of " organisation with a twist" project.
I already own all 12 of Ann Butler's  Crafter's inks from Clearsnap (waiting for much more to come in the future);and with 12 inks this is a right time to make a small swatch book  for a personal use, like all " big stars" make and I never  thought of.
So I found exactly 12 pre- made tags in the right size to fit Ann Butler's Faux Quilting 2'' Unity stamps on the corner. From here it was a lot of work and a lot of fun.
The full post  can be seen in Ann Butler's blog HERE!You all are invited to visit and to leave some love!

All about Fall actylic album cover with ARTplorations

Hello my dear crafty friends and welcome to my new Mixed Media tutorial.

This time I decided to make something old/something  new (no borrowed or blue... ).

So the acrylic album cover  and decoupage paper are totally old. I think I have them  for at least 5 years, since the days when those albums were trendy. My ARTplorations stencils are totally new as this is my second month on the team. So with some imagination and my own never used techniques I made a very textured fall album cover and I think it's what Mixed Media is about: you never know what you are getting when you finish your project. 

Step by step instructions:

1. Cover  your acrylic album cover with tissue/decoupage paper from the back side. Use decoupage medium of any kind  and let it totally dry. I used ESF medium as this is my very favorite one.

2.Cover the bare acrylic front  (that's the reason we glued tissue over the back) with a thin layer of Crackle medium and let it dry. Don't try to cover the entire surface; make some wide strokes and cover the corners mostly.Let the crackle medium dry.

3. Paint over the dry crackle with brown chalk paint and make a few wide strokes from the top to bottom. Don't try to cover the whole piece and do not paint over the first paint layer. You will see some crackles and we still can see a lot of background tissue.

4. Use your ARTplorations stencils with texture paste and make some brick background around the cover; add flowers in the middle and add a bird on the right side of the piece. 

5. Cover the wet texture paste with embossing powders of your favorite colors. As I thought about fall theme I used yellow, brown and a bit of green. Heat emboss the powders and don't afraid of hot acrylic cover. Those covers are totally durable and can be heat embossed.

6. Now play a  bit with more paints. mists and  powders: all of those are added from the front heat embossed side of the cover. Add letter stickers to make your album title and don't afraid to mist the letters too. Your Mixed Media cover is all done and you can add pages into your 8*8'' fall album.

ARTplorations stencils used for this piece:

Happy Flowers,Some birds, Gridlocked

Back to favorite books: with ARTplorations

Hello my dear crafty friends and welcome to my Memories zone.

I am over 50 and now I feel that I don't have any childhood memories , but those in my head. I was like 12 when we immigrated to Israel from Ukraine and we couldn't take books, notes, but some photos and that was all. So now I often try to connect myself to my childhood with some of my crafts and this is one of those projects.

I love the Wizard of Oz book a lot. I don't try to see the odd or the " non political correct" things in this book, but to remember it as a child, with no American movie around, but a book only.

So when as a part of my DT work on PHP paper company I got those Wizard of Oz Die cuts I knew that I am going to make an art project with them. And this is what I did with those paper cuts only and ARTplorations 4 stencils. OK- I used mediums and paints, but we always use them, don't we?

The canvas is pretty large: 12*8'' and first I covered it with a mix of green/blue and yellow acrylics. The second layer was made with Weathered wood stencil and black paint and only the small portions of the background are now seen. I also heat embossed the entire black " trees" with clear embossing powder.

The next I made this " Yellow brick road" using Gridlocked stencil and some papers as my mask (mask for mask sounds funny...)

I used texture paste and... you know, I heat emboss everything, so now it was my yellow powder turn.

The lower part-  under and around the " road" was stencilled with flowers from Bloom Silhouette stencil and misted into pink... and heat embossed. Guilty. I am addicted to heat embossing.

For the sky portion I used Bubbles stencil and ... no heat embossing this time, but using Gelatos around the dry circles to outline them.

When the background was done I just glued the die cut images and the Emerald city one on the top. 

Products used:
ARTplorations stencils
Bubbles, Weathered wood, Bloom Silhouettes, Gridlocked
I enter this MM piece to a few web challenges:
Canvas for The Mirror crack'd
 Mixed Media Mojo- Anything goes
Altered eclectics- Anything goes
That craft place- Anything goes MM

Inspired by Stamping Surprise blog hop

Four years ago I was a very new to the design team world and designed for a few challenge blogs and one chipboard company. Then I found this design team call for Inspired by Stamping and I gave it a try.
I made the team and I am on this team since. It will be full 4 years in December and I hope for much more.
I love Inspired by Stamping stamps , but I love the owner more!
Joanna Munster is this owner/stamp designer and she is the best company owner ever!
So this blog hop is for our dear Joanna!
And for those who are not familiar with Joanna- she is a real beauty inside and outside.

This post is  full of love from you design team! We are with you forever (as long as you want us to be there)!
 And this is my card made for you.

 It was made with Butterflies set,Watercolor sentiments set and Tulip Bouquet  set.
Look how perfect is this sentiment and how much it fits  Joanna's spirit!
And now  all of you are invited to IBS blog to see all our creations!
 And as always I enter this to some web challenges that I had in mind while making this piece:
Butterflies to Mixed Media card challenge

And to Buttterflies and Birds challenge for Let's craft and create
 Flowers for Paper Artsy

DV with SNS blog hop: Awarness campaign

Sparkle N Sprinkle and Die-Versions are partnering up for a very special joint blog hop, called the Awareness Campaign.  A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the newly released Die-Versions dies and the stamp sets revealed in the joint blog hop will go to help with cancer research.  

Almost every one has been touched by cancer is one way or another.  Either you or a family member has had cancer or you know someone who has had cancer.  The Designers from both teams are joining together to help the fight to eradicate all cancers by inspiring you.

Not only are we debuting NINE new Die-Versions low profile dies (July 2015 Reveal - scroll down to the end of the reveal), Sparkle N Sprinkle is also revealing THREE stamp sets for this Awareness Campaign.

The SNS sets are:

Pink Ribbon Background 408  (digi version DIGI408)

Survivor 713    (digi version DIGI713T)

Awareness 714   (digi version  DIGI714T)

A Grand Prize winner will be chosen from comments left on the Designers' blogs and will be announced on August 4th.  You won't know who the Mystery Designer is until after the Joint Blog hop, so remember to leave a comment with each of the Designers.  

The Winner will be announced on the Die-Versions Facebook page, the Sparkle N Sprinkle Facebook page, the DV Blog, and on the SNS Blog and will receive a $25 gift certificate from BOTH Die-Versions and Sparkle N Sprinkle.

Die-Versions 

Shona

Patti

Mary

 Marie

Lori

Lisa

Irit- you are HERE!!!

Jess

Eret

Emmy

Diane

Chris

Belinda

Ashley

Anne

Ani

Sparkle N Sprinkle

(*tip: click on the Designer's Home tab or the title of her blog if you have any issues with the link.)

Now a little bit about how I created my card……

I made the background with clear embossing ink and heat embossed with SNS White embossing powder. Then I added pink watercolor over the stamped background and left the edges bare white.
The inner die cut was glued over double sided glue sheet and then I added Bubblegum glitter inside. The second die cut was heat embossed with Pink embossing powder and I layered them one over another. Then I added the stamped sentiment (from the very same set) and a few small plastic butterflies.   

You should have come from Lisa's blog  ; if you get lost along the way, you can always head back to the Die-Versions Blog or the Sparkle N Sprinkle Blog for the complete list of participants.  Your next stop along the way is Jess!

We hope you enjoy the Awareness Joint Blog Hop as much as we have enjoyed creating new projects for it.  We also hope that we have inspired you as well.  Thanks for joining us and remember to comment on each of the Designers' blogs to be eligible for the Grand Prize.  (We love reading them too since your comments also inspire us.)