Tempting Turquoise

Open Me Already!

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

These two guys do nothing but make me grin!  I haven’t used them together before, but here they are in all their glory.  Also, I changed up the big monster by turning his closed eyes into eyebrows and giving him some google eyes as well.  Thought that was cute.

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This kit was a birthday card and I think this one could work for that as well.  But any type of celebration could enjoy a project like this.  The hexagon dynamic texture embossing folder got to work in a different way.  I used the debossed side, the normal version has the hexagons raised up instead of recessed.  To bring in a little color I lightly sponged over the top of the embossed paper and look what happened!  What a great effect.  Also, I couldn’t wait to get my chicken stamps back out and use this background like it was chicken wire.  What a fun find.

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The confetti image from the balloon adventures stamp set really got some work.  It was used on the sentiment tag, the card front as well as the inside.  Pretty darn fun if you ask me.  I have another one of these kits left, I think I will get that put together pretty quick.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Special Reason

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Opening new product is so much fun.  This is a stamp and framelit bundle I bought from the spring Stampin’Up! catalog, and I love it.  I had a tag sitting on my work station trying to inspire me, and I went to this set.  Fresh eyes are hard to come by sometimes.  The tag had some colors that I would not have put together myself, or I thought, because I had made that tag!  Silly me.

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Either way, this is what I came up with.  I stamped my background paper using the two floral images from the Special Reason set and then sponged with sweet sugarplum to fill in the spaces some.  The flowers were stamped off once before hitting the background to soften the colors.

I made a die cut from each of the ink colors in coordinating card stock to become the background for my sentiment.  How lovely.  Instead of wrapping ribbon around the card, which is what I love to do, I only made a sweet little bow from ruched ribbon and attached it with a glue dot.  I wanted the ribbon, but not the distraction it would have caused with too much of it.  A very nice balance.

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The inside got a little stamping, as always, to finish it off.  I like this project so much, I think it will become the second project for my class on Saturday.  The ladies love to make their own background paper.

Have a creative day!

Moana

Crazy Cake with Balloon Adventures

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Birthday cards are just the best!  This totally adorable stamp set builds one great cake, don’t you think?  And this card only shows about half of the stamps.  I love, love, love it!

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The three bottom layers were done with two stamps.  Good thing they are photopolymer, or totally clear, for super easy placement.  There is no way I would be this patient or exact without great stamps like that.  And yes, the top stamp is a set of three candles that I stamped a little flame for each one.  Normally I don’t go for all the extra work, but I loved it and it was so easy!  Easy enough that I included this project in the lineup for this weekends workshop.

The embossing folder is another new product from the spring catalog.  It is shown with a bunch of manly stuff, and it is manly of course, but I loved it here too.  My daughter thought I should be stamping bees because it reminded her of a honeycomb.  Cute idea!

The sentiment is from another great birthday stamp set called Balloon Adventures.  Also from the spring catalog, but it has a great trick of its own.  That will be for another blog project for sure.  I stamped on a strip of cardstock and put the triple banner punch to work. Of course I had to layer it as well.  What is with me and layers these days?  Oh well!

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I couldn’t resist.  I had to stamp all along the inside with those darn candles again.  And I didn’t even mind stamping all of the little flames.  I am telling you, it really was fun!

Have a creative day!

Moana

It’s Your Birthday!

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Shaker cards are so much fun, and they really are quite trendy in card making.  I finally broke down and had my card ladies make one for one of our workshop projects this last weekend.  They did great!

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Of course it helps when you have a great stamp set to work with.  This set has a few fun combinations that fit perfectly with this style.  Cutting out the window was made super easy with the layering squares framelits.  I don’t mind fussy cutting things out, but I would rather not.  It also kept the edges nice an clean.  Now we have a card that is neutral enough for anyone, yet fun for most ages.  Great project!

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Fiesta Like There’s No Manana

~ moanaj ~ 1 Comment

Here is one of the projects I made with my club ladies last Saturday.  Such a fun and interesting birthday card.  Plenty of color and who doesn’t just love an adorable llama?  Finally though, a project where I love the brightness of cucumber crush.  It is just one gregarious green there.

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Framelit cutting made pretty darn quick work of the elements for this project.  A little stamping before and after doing the cutting.  The llama was really fun, but I felt he was a little on the whimsy side to worry about painting and making him look too real.  Besides, his teeth really aren’t accurate, they come from the bottom not the top like a bunny.  Still totally adorable though.  The banners were stamped afterwards though.  Since you can see through the photopolymer stamps there is not a worry to be found.  Fun and easy to do.

Everything was put on tipped one way or the other to add to the silly look.  Nothing about this card says slow down, just have a bunch of fun!  And my club ladies sure did.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Layering Love

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Summer is here and it seems like love is everywhere.  How fun is that!  I wanted to capture some of that carefree spirit that summer can bring and had a fun time giving it a try.

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I must admit, I have been enjoying my water coloring quite a bit, but it is still my favorite medium right now.  I thought I might use a die cut on this image and layer it, but I forgot about that until I started typing.  I was wondering why I left the image off center like that.  I then remembered my original plan.  Well, I am okay with how it turned out.

It began with stamping the sentiment in versamark ink and then embossing with white embossing powder.  The next step was to create some kind of heart over and around the words.  When that was done I stared at it for a while trying to decide on a background color. My oldest daughter suggested tempting turquoise since it felt like summer.  That went with my plans, so I went for it.  I kept the color the strongest in the corners and painted towards the heart.  I was trying to create a lighter area around the heart to make it look like it was floating a bit.  That worked pretty good.  Wish I could make a more balanced heart, guess that is why I love die cuts and punches so much.  They correct my work some…

In the end I was happy with the result.  I went ahead and did a touch of blending along the edge of the heart and the blue background.  This provided a bit of a border and gave some cool layering effects.  I went back around the lettering with a wink of stella brush which gave a bit of shadow, but also made the image appear almost blurred.  Interesting, but I still went with it.  I left it a single layer on the card base of watermelon wonder and there you go.

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Have a creative day!

Moana

You Are My Everything

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There are days when I really don’t know what I want to make, but that isn’t today and it shows.  When I know who I am creating for it shines through.  The awesome extra free stamp set in this months paper pumpkin kit had the stamps I had to use.  How beautiful are they?  Well, I will be using them excessively I am sure.

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I knew I wanted to make a card for my husband with the two stamps  that share the phrase ‘You Are My Everything’.  It couldn’t be more perfect.  Once I knew that I knew the color pallet I needed and the medium as well.  Blues and water coloring are the perfect combination for him.

The technique of water coloring really doesn’t have a lot of guidelines.  I do start with a wet masked surface.  Then I begin to add and take away color, dry and wet again sprinkle and dab, and color all over again.  It is more of keep going til you get the results you want than a step by step process.  So much fun, really.

Then I stamped the large flower in bermuda bay, once stamped off first, here and there.  I added a fern stamp a few times, full strength not stamped off.  Then finished with the two stamps that make the sentiment.  I did a little echo stamping to coordinate the inside with the card front.  To complete the project I layered the art onto another piece of bermuda bay card stock and wrapped it several times in silver metallic thread.  Then up on dimensionals for a little extra style and sit back to enjoy the view.  I do love this card.  I think it looks like a beautiful batik fabric I would love to own and sew with.

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Have a creative day.

Moana

~ moanaj ~ Leave a comment

Birthdays should always be this exciting and colorful, don’t you think?  When I started this project I only had the base with the striped dsp setting on top.  I wasn’t sure at all what was going to come next.

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I didn’t know how I was going to tie these bold colors together, and I wasn’t even sure they went together.  But as always, I stuck with it.  I decided to do a simple water color background with the two ink colors.  Sounds simple enough, right?  I stamped in  versamark ink and then brushed my paper with plenty of clean water.  I started with melon mambo in one corner and added a bunch of tempting turquoise in the other.  As I went back and forth some fun things started to happen.  I liked some of the mixing, but decided it was enough.  I dripped some clean water here and there to push color around and give a different look and ended up with quite a bit of water pooling.

Instead of dabbing it off with some paper towels I let it stay.  I took the heat tool to it and began to heat set the color.  The extra water and color around the edges started to activate and mix the inks even more.  I chased the ink around the edges of the image until it had all soaked in or dried up.  I was left with a really fun look that I don’t know if I could duplicate it again if I tried.  I will have to try though, because I love the look of it!  How fun!

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Have a creative day!

Moana

Oh, Hello 2016

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It would appear I have taken a few days off, and I guess I did.  I worked ahead to be out of town and still blog, but didn’t have quite the time to get back to it when I got home.  Sometimes life just has to happen, and it was so much fun!

Oh, Hello 2016

This card is just cuteness overload!  I am absolutely in love with this little chick, aren’t you?  It comes from a free set that is only available during Sale-a-bration.  It is a free gift option when you buy $50 of product.  No problems here, I love free!

Oh, Hello 2016

I snatched a tiny stamp from December’s Paper Pumpkin kit that says 2016.  It works with the calendar kit, but is just what I needed for this card.  Kind of like the year 2016 was there before I realized it.  I do think this chick will find its way on everything I can think of.  I have tons of other new product to play with, but nothing this cute.  Oh how I do love cute!

Oh, Hello 2016

Have a creative day, what’s left of it.

Moana

@love

~ moanaj ~ 2 Comments

Not everyone shares the same view of love, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t beautiful to them.  Easy words to say, but not always easy to follow.  Sometimes we just need to look at it from a different perspective.

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This card is much larger than my normal projects.  It measures 7 1/4″ x 4 1/4″.  That will definitely require a custom envelope.  Won’t this one be fun to get in the mail though.

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I lined my wonderful huge alphabet stamps up on a long block and got to work.  I had planned on a clean background, but liked how my practice stamping looked as I stamped off ink.  There you go.  I added the @ symbol afterwards using silver Encore ink.  Thought it gave it the perfect touch and made it have a bit more meaning, to me at least.  Several strands wrapped around the bottom with my ever favorite metallic thread and this lovely card was all done.

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I almost forgot to mention, but I am sure you can see it, I echo stamped the entire phrase inside super light.  You can see it, but there will be no problem writing over it without confusing your message or the image.  Just right.

Have a creative day!

Moana

 

Cheerful Critters Party

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There are never enough birthday cards to be made, never.  Sometimes I just dip into my stash of designer paper, pick a sheet, and get working from there.

Cheerful Critters Party

That is exactly where these two came from.  Of course I love the Cheerful Critters stamp set.  I know I teased it at first, but I have fallen in love with it every time I use it.  Really, how cute are these guys!

Cheerful Critters Party

I absolutely love my inside stamping to coordinate with the my card front.  It makes me very happy.  To the point that I have a hard time leaving the inside blank.  Kind of like doing your hair.  Everyone can make the front look nice, but the back needs just as much attention, or so my brain says.

Cheerful Critters Party

I had a fun time using my stampin’ write markers on this guy.  I have such confidence issues with them and making it look smooth.  But I have to say, this one didn’t turn out too bad.  Maybe I can do it after all.

And let me just say one more time, the perpetual birthday calendar stamp set is so absolutely wonderful.  I use those little guys all of the time.  Since they are designed to accent different months of the year, they go with everything.  How perfect is that!

Have a creative day!

Moana