simple dreams

Lucky Valentine

Today I took the opportunity to head down to work and create a valentine for my DH. There are so many fabulous new goodies to pick from, being I have never had the opportunity to work with the Jenni Bowlin products I decided to pick a Bingo card that spoke to me. Lucky - it is how I feel about having J.J. in my life.

To create this piece I used a chipboard piece from Maya Road (I believe we will have our new Maya Road in this coming week, along with restocking all the items that are currently out) that will be included in some special orders soon :D Be certain to read our newsletter this month!

I painted a set of wings. Recently I discovered something fabulous about the Studio line of paints. Notice the dull appearance when the paint is dry in the picture above.

Do you see the difference?!? This piece looks like it has been buffed with Carnauba wax! All that you need to do is simply wait for the paint to dry and then take a paper towel and buff it. The beautiful sheen that appears is absolutely gorgeous! These wings were just too pink for my card and so I thought I would share yet another fun technique with you.

To create a crackle appearance you do not need to use a specialty crackle paint. All you need is the Studio Line of paints and some white glue and you can create this fabulous effect.

Using plain white glue - in this case I just used my Flower Soft glue. Paint a thick layer on to the wings.

I mixed a coordinating cream color prior to painting on the glue. To keep your paint from getting a skin on it as it awaits you, simply mist with water as needed. Paint a thin layer of paint over top the glue as shown above.

Using your Heat It tool dry this layer. As it dries you will see gorgeous little cracks appear. You will find that the glue will bubble up as you heat it. Once it cracks and dries I then press evenly over the entire surface while it is still warm removing any bubbles and readhering the surface.

To create my sentiment I typed my own verse using Office Word and then printed it on Neenah Classic Cream cardstock. 

A little Grungeboard heart painted pink and buffed, with a few pewter pearls added, helps bring the wings center stage. These wings are intended to represent how life can take us places we may not invision, but no matter where they take us I still feel lucky to have J.J. beside me.  

Wishing each of you a very special day today --- happy Valentine's day!

Upcoming DVD and Sweet Thing Valentine

Marianne has let the "cat out of the bag," so to speak. It is with a slight bit of apprehension and a great deal of excitement that I will be visiting the Copic booth #4147 at CHA this next week. It appears that they will have a preview of an upcoming video on display at their booth and guess who it features? Yes, you guessed it - it's me. I feel so privileged to have been invited by Copic to share my passion for their product and for airbrushing! Please be gentle on your reviews - LOL! This is the first time I have filmed anything and needless to say I am definitely not an expert in making "movies," but I am passionate about this product and about teaching and so I sincerely hope that you will learn something new and helpful from this upcoming DVD. The video crew from PushPlayPro were fabulous to work with and helped me feel comfortable with the whole "process." My understanding is that this video should be released in the last half of 2009 and that this is a preview only. 

What could be sweeter than "sweets" for Valentines? This little treasure of an image is SO easy to work with - it is from this year's Memory Box Valentine collection and is called Cake Stand. Not only does it work for Valentines, but it would also make a cute Bridal Shower or Wedding image.

 

As with many of my projects I decided to do a little experimenting to figure out what new look I could achieve. I began by inking the cake stand first with Dazzle Champagne. Having recently received the reinkers for these pads I have reinked my stamp pad and I am pleased to tell you that the result is much better than it was after using my pad a number of times. I had noticed that the bling had subsided greatly and so I am extremely pleased to see that using the reinker on the pad brought it back to life again. This is not where my experiment ends though. In the past I have used dye ink pads to emboss simply by first inking my stamp with VersaMark and then inking it with the dye ink. So I decided to try it by combining VersaMark Dazzle Champagne together with Memento Chocolate Chip - YUM!!! I topped this off with clear embossing powder and then heat set it.

If you try this technique I would like to make certain that you only lightly tap your "dazzled" stamp on to your Memento pad being you do not want to transfer all that bling to your otherwise pristine pad. If you do happen to get some transfer I typically will just use a clean paper towel to remove it and then add a little reinker to my pad following the clean-up. It's amazing what a "beating" my pads can take and still work as intended, but I always work quickly to clean up afterwards - not letting it sit and settle in for too long. The pad shown above has not been cleaned, so you can see that a little "bling" does transfer, but most is left on the stamp image as shown on the right.

 

I then added color to the flowers and leaves, as well as a little to the cake itself using Copic Markers. I whitened the cake a little with my Prismacolor white color pencil. Next I felt that my notecard needed just a hint of distressing being the papers I was working with had that feel. So I used my blending tool together with Adirondack Watermelon to distress the Cotton Candy notecard.

 

I'm not certain that you can see the bling in the cake stand, but being I know what I am looking for I can see the mica flecks from the Dazzle pad. The cake was begging for a lovely coating and so I applied glue using my 2-way glue pen and added Diamond Dust for a finishing touch.

 

I thought I would once again share my "tweezer tip" for tying ribbon. I am ALL thumbs and until my friend Taresa showed me this I would always struggle - now I can even tie bows Ü

Using some of the new Bittersweet paper, together with the new Memory Box Sugardrop, to add layers and scalloped pieces to accent the base of the cake stand pulling it all together.

 

Finally to complete this little card I inked my heart and kissed it with Paisley to remove some of the ink. I find that this technique works best when using a Pigment or Chalk based ink to stamp your main solid image, dye inks haven't given me as crisp a definition as the pigment inks.

 

I stamped this beautiful heart print on the interior, along with the sentiment, "hope your valentines is sweet! So get your sweet treats ready, Valentines is right around the corner.

You Light up my Life

I am going to date myself today - LOL! I don't know why, but Debbie Boone's song has been playing through my mind today as I made this card. "You light up my life, you give me hope, to carry on..." OK, now I'm chuckling to myself because if you are my age you are going to have that song playing through your head now for hours.

 

Simple elegance - it is a look I love! When I saw this new Memory Box image, Crystal Chandelier I knew I just had to bling it up!

 

I wanted to share one of the reasons for having the Circle and Square Gemstones. They work great as circles and squares, BUT... they also are fantastic for twisting and reshaping in to other desired shapes. As you can see in the photo above the gemstones are attached with a line of adhesive. I simply use my craft knife and cut them apart, using the tip of the knife to lift them off the surface. I then apply them to the surface as you can see below.

The variety of sizes really works wonderfully on this chandelier.  To add to the effect of the crystals I added Clear Glaze to each.

 

I then made a "frame" in the Basic Grey Ambrosia paper by cutting and embossing a small rectangle die. I placed the finished chandelier in behind this paper to allow it to be set back in this "window."

Next I added my sentiment along with a little more bling. Hindsight is always such a good thing. If I had planned the final layout of my card I would have spaced the Ambrosia paper just a little differently. I wanted the sentiment to stand out from the pattern and so I placed it on one of the gray spaces. So my suggestion for you is to plan your layout before you begin cutting your paper, don't fly by the seat of your pants like I do - LOL! Preplanning helps you to get the spacing correct the first time Ü

Scrapbook Builder

I hope that you enjoy the diversity between posts. I was laughing with the girls in the office here today being I find it impossible to define my "style." Chickens, chandeliers, tickets, flowers - I'm all over the place lately - LOL! Be certain to stop by the CLASSroom for another card I created. Thanks for stopping by again today.