Sassy Cupcake Birthday Card

It's been a while since I've pulled out my stamps to create a greeting card - so it was almost refreshing to work on and complete this fun Birthday greeting. Let it be know, making a card isn't always as easy as 'slapping' some things together. There are a lot of layers that come into play - and with these layers, come a lot of different materials. This usually leaves one's work area a disaster for only one little card. 

I used a bunch of different Unity Stamp Co. stamps from a variety of kits. Hopefully, I don't forget any: Cuppy Cakes, Sassy Pants Sentiments, SMAK Kit (4/13), and SMAK Kit (6/13). I used Letraset Aquamarkers to colour in the cupcake and candle, and embossing powder on all my stamping. 

I always think a card is going to be a disaster, and then I piece it all together, and it really comes together. My favourite part would have to be the black, glittered embossing powder I used. It just adds so much fun to this card!

Art Journal: Soar Everyday

Today I'm sharing a spread in my art journal. One of my goals this year, was to work in my art journal on a weekly basis. With all the snow I've been super creative...I even have some watercolour paintings to share with you either this or next week! Gotta love being snowed in!

My inspiration for this art journal page was the Unity Stamp Co. {Be Inspired} Challenge. I used the colour scheme provided, and the pots of flowers made me think of spring, and spring made me think of butterflies! I used the Unity stamps, "I. Kat Love", "Live What You Love" and the lace stamp from the 4/13 SMAK kit.

It's not a typically, super bright and colourful 'spring journal spread'. I really wanted to use the neutral greys provided in the challenge, as I don't very often, and those toned it down a lot.

Materials used: Clear gesso, Pan Pastels, Gel Medium, Gelli Plate, Stencils, Acrylic Paint, Spray Inks, Scrapbooking paper, Coffee filters, stamps, ink, word / letter stickers.

Sail Boat Thank You Greeting

Today I'm sharing with you a sail boat themed thank-you greeting card that I made for this month's Unity Be Inspired Challenge. 

I based my design on the card sketch provided for the challenge. The circular element had be a little worried, as I only have one size of circle punch, so any other circles would look 'wonky'...but then I thought, Why not just make them all 'wonky?!'  It took awhile for me to finally piece everything together in a way that I quite liked, I feel that it turned out very well. 

I really like how it ended up looking like the boat was sailing with the sun behind it. The Unity stamp sets that I used were: June Epic Moments SMAK kit, Sail Away kit and the Imagine, Create and Inspire Stamp Set. I also used paper from Glitz's Uncharted Waters (Love all the designs in this collection!), some white embossing powder and some alphabet washi tape. 

I used little 'bump-up' stickers to give this card crazy and beautiful dimension, and really make everything, literally 'pop' :)

Dancing Shoes

Just a quick 'Hello' before the weekend! I wanted to share with you this little tag I made for a celebration with friends. The 'legs' are from a full-sized girl stamp, but since she is far from fitting on a tag, I just used the part that went best with the sentiment "Put Your Dancing Shoes On"

I embossed the sentiment, and then used red glitter for the heels - since red heels are just too much fun! I think I might just be sporting hot pink ones this weekend...still thinking of outfit choices, hehe. :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Unity stamps used: Fashionista stamp (Claire), SMAK kit (April 2013) and Sassy Pants Sentiments. 

Inglis Falls Scrappy Page

I finished this scrapbook layout the other day. It's just a tiny one - 6x6", but it's the first "true" scrapbook layout that I have ever done! It documents James and my adventure to Inglis Falls this past late winter / early spring. I used random snippets of materials - form different kits I subscribe to. And then I stamped with Unity SMAK kit stamps :)

There's lots of dimension to it, and I even embossed a bit to add more interest / textures.

I love these little vintage polaroid frames that I was able to place my pictures in.

It's the perfect size to fit into one of the sleeves in my Project Life :D Now I just need to make 3 more layouts for this particular sleeve :)

I've entered this in the Unity Inspired Challenge, and used their sketch above for the basic layout (with some small 'creative' changes to make my layout work :)

Be Free Mixed Media Painting on Canvas

"Be Free" - 8x16" Mixed Media Painting on Canvas. Available for sale.

I finally feel that this mixed media piece is complete. I have titled it "Be Free" after the quote in the piece. The idea of the quote is following the thought, "Be free like the butterflies" Here are some juicy detailed images for you. I don't have too much to say about this piece, as I shared the progress of it in earlier posts.

This mixed media painting is available for sale :)

Painted Mailbox and May SMAK kit

It's been busy in the art studio working on commissions this past week (and into this week!). I finished up a large custom wedding invite order - and now I'm working on this mailbox (for the same wedding - for cards). I haven't ever really painted a mailbox before, but so far so good. The curve at the top throws for for a loop sometimes, but I have found that working on the floor with it makes it easier.  Also on the go - I tend to jump back and forth between projects as they are drying - are a couple watercolor painting commissions. I finished two up two watercolor paintings last night, and might share with you later this week if their owners are okay with it :) I'm also working on a pig 'lawn ornament' that I'm painting - except I will not be sharing on my blog, as per request...but it is fun and different to work on!

I also got May's SMAK kit in the mail from Unity Stamps. I love how big and wonderful they are! I am always just jumping to get my hands on them when they arrive. I still cannot believe how many stamps they jam-pack onto that 8.5x11" sheet of red rubber - literally no waste of materials - which is always a plus :)

I am always eager to tear them from the sheet - I almost always do it right away after opening the package. It's just so much fun! I really don't have a very organized system for these stamps yet, I basically just store them in their respective plastic ziploc bag, and keep them all in a box - it works for me. And the simple storage solution, means I'm more likely to keep it going :)

With all the custom work going on, I didn't have time to get into them a lot. But I knew I wanted to stamp this one in my journal, and so I did - using inks to create a pink to orange ombre effect. It stamped so pretty! I'm using this particular impression for a "grateful" list for the week. 

All Smiles

I got my April SMAK kit this week from Unity Stamp Co - so I went right to work to create this simple, cute everyday card. I also used the 'All Smiles' stamp set. I love that lace texture stamp that I stamped in green - it's so pretty and adds a vintage and classy feel to the card. I stamped the butterfly on patterned paper and collaged it onto the card, and I also 'popped up' the title banner :)

For this birthday card, I used the 'Written in the Clouds' background stamp, the 'Cuppy Cakes' stamp set and a sentiment from the 'Sassy Pants' kit. I coloured in the cupcake with Aquamarkers and added some rounded pieces of patterned paper and yellow ribbon to bring it all together. I ended up using white embossing on the sentiment to help it stand out.

I 'popped up' the cupcake to bring it more into focus. Now that I've actually got 'pop-up' foam adhesive pieces, and I'm no longer fighting witha  glue gun, things are so much easier, and look so much more finished :)

A Spring Greeting

I got some new Unity Stamps in the mail last week (and my second batch last night - eeeee!) and so I've set to work creating some lovely greeting creationg

 

I used some of my homemade spray mists for the background, and added in some red misting around the heart as well. And then I layered all the little components.

I really like how this card came out, and those little people are just too cute! I cannot wait to create more with them! I mixed and matched a couple of the different stamp sets that I recieved.

A Peek Inside my Sketchbook

I've been stamping up a storm in my sketchbooks, playing with my new stamps. Mostly learning how they respond in different instances, such as inked with an ink pad vs. with a faber-castell marker vs. aquamarkers. As well, as just playing with different stamping combinations. 

I love this finger pointing stamp, especially in front of the layered arrow / chevron stamp.

I think this particular sketchbook will be my 'stamping sketchbook' for now one...I was never really fond of the paper in this particular one for drawing, but it takes to stamps wonderfully! I'm so glad it can now be filled up with goodness :)

March Unity Inspired Challenge

This week I got my March Unity SMAK kit in the mail! I was super excited to try it out, and immediately started inking up the stamps and playing around with everything! I have never been a huge stamper, so this is completely new domain for me. After playing around, I decided to make a card for their Unity Inspired Challange, and above is what I came up with :) I stamped the background, and used some paper accents from the Soho Garden paper pad from American Crafts (the newspaper-flower bit), which I then coloured in with my Letraset Aquamarkers. I used Aquamarine ink for the blue background stamping, and my faber-castell artist big brush pens for the pink - they are wonderful for colouring on stamps, and give great impressions!

Here are some closer looks at this months SMAK kit:

These stamps are huge - perfect for my canvases! I put a quarter in the middle of them all, so you can see how big they really are. This set came with over 40 stamp pieces - so excellent value! This particular kit is based on 'Chalk Board Elements'....so there is a lot of words for this particular kit. But looking at other kits, there are so many texture stamps. I just cannot wait to see what I get next month!

Just a wonderful close up picture to show the quality of these stamps. Now, I know in the beginning I admitted that I'm not much of a stamper - so maybe my opinion on quality is not very relevant. But, so many artists talk about how wonderful these stamps are, and how the red rubber holds up to mixed media goodness so, so well!

I've already stamped a few onto a couple canvases in progress as well. Just love playing with these!