Dragonflies Are Cool

I've always loved watching dragonflies buzz around, flitting about and darting here and there. The first time I saw one I was in middle school and outside looking for bugs for a science project with my buddy, Rodney (who is still my good buddy). We were outside his neighborhood where presumably there was some water and bang! there it was right in front of me. I still enjoy seeing them and right after my mom passed away, a pair of them visited my front yard and window every day for a week. That seemed like a good sign, if you're the kind of person that looks for signs.

Today I'm sharing one of my favorite dragonfly dies, from Hero Arts. 

On this card, I used Hero Arts liquid watercolors on a panel of textured watercolor paper for the background. For the dragonfly wings, I used alcohol inks dripped onto glossy paper. The word dies are from Pinkfresh.

Here's a close-up of the alcohol ink wings.

For this background, I used the same textured watercolor paper, Distress Inks in blues and greens and the black. I added drips in acrylic paint and some Nuvo Drops too. I feel like a sentiment might be too busy, but if I used a large black die cut sentiment, it might be ok. I just don't know when to stop sometimes. I err on stopping too early usually.

The dragonfly is cut from double-sided adhesive with green and gold glitter applied and the attached wings are vellum.

I love that depending on the paper you use, the dragonfly die can give you a ton of different looks. If you search my blog for dragonfly, I'm sure different varieties will show up.

It's definitely not dragonfly weather here in southern Ohio right now, as it is currently snowing, but I love spring, so I'll just look forward to that.

Happy Friday!

Chark

Dragonflies Make Me Happy

I have a fabulous cover die from Stamplorations that I can't get enough of...I have a stack of these die cut from different papers just waiting to be used and I thought I'd share a couple here.

This first one (my entry for the Stamplorations Spring Fling Linky Hop) is in white cardstock and the background is watercolor on Bristol paper. The body is done in Stickles and the eyes are dimensional clear and glittery from Stickles and Tonic Crystal Glaze. I edged the card in silver washi tape and used a little white gel pen on the wings.

This one uses a piece of Bristol cardstock that I watercolored with ink smooshing and Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean, Squeezed Lemonade and Peacock Feathers. I backed it with text paper from an old book and actually Did Not Use any glitter products...wha?! I felt like the die was colorful enough as is. I entered this project through IG in the Linky Hop.

I love large cover plate dies that take up the front of a card, especially cool ones like this that need very few additions. I could've added a sentiment but I just didn't want to cover any of it up.

I'm planning to enter project #1 from here in the Spring Fling Stamplorations hop...you have until May 31 to join in to win prizes.

Happy Friday!

Chark

Die-Cutting All the Livelong Day

When I drag out the Big Shot and the dies and plates and all that goes with it, I like to get a lot out of it, so I spend a few days die-cutting things here and there. I think if I had a permanent set-up, I wouldn't feel the need to pile up the die cuts. I do like having some things to choose from at any given time, though, so who knows?

Here's a card using the Stamplorations Dragonfly cover plate. I love this so much! I cut it from all sorts of colors and papers so I could play around with cards. For this one, I die cut the panel from a piece of coated paper (similar to the properties of Yupo) that I had used Distress Oxides on. They came out very light, but kinda perfect for Spring. I mounted it with liquid glue onto a piece of watered silk from a vintage book flyleaf. The Happy Birthday is die cut from Lawn Fawn plaid paper.

You can see the fabric in the close-up, but not the subtle sheen or pattern. It's lovely irl.

For this card, I used another Stamplorations die, this butterfly, and impressed it into cardstock instead of cutting it. I mounted it on rainbow paper and added some bling and called it a day.

I keep my die cuts in stackable plastic bins that come in different depths. I have one for words, one for circles and rectangles, one for fancy dies, etc. The containers are flat, so it works well for sorting through. Do you die cut a bunch at a time and then just store the die cuts? Just wondering.

Happy Friday!

Chark

Die Cuts are Challenging

So, I got this fabulous dragonfly cover die from Stamplorations and love it. I sat down and cut like 10 of these from different colored cardstocks and papers. I had to use different shims, and cut face-up for this to cut best, and the 80 lb. paper I had worked very well. If you have some challenging dies, don't be afraid to ask the seller for help. The folks at Stamplorations had great tips. I love the classic black, especially with this watercolored background (I used my Arteza markers as paints).

I put the die cut down on the card after it dried and did a little more focused watercoloring for the dragonfly, just by swiping the marker in each open spot. I removed the die cut and spread the color around in the wings and body.

Then I glued the dragonfly cover die on top and added Stickles to the wings and a silver paper Hello die from Paper Smooches. 

You can see the shimmer a little better here.

I'm entering this card into the Cutplorations February Challenge...I was inspired by the colors in this.

You have until February 28th to join in here!

Happy Friday, 

Chark

New Challenge at a2z Scrapbooking Supplies

If it's the first of the month, it's time for a new challenge at a2z Scrapbooking! We're going with "Make Something Ugly" this time around. It's a really difficult challenge for talented people like us. Here's my card.

APRIL FOOL'S! 

(It's really a card on Etsy that you can buy, but ew, Jabba is just so ugly!)

Yep, it's April first and that means you can prank anyone you can and they can't complain :)

Actually, I'm really bad at April Fool's Day jokes and the only one that ever worked was a Grilled Cheese made out of cake that the kids and I gave my hubby like this one. You use pound cake and toast in a skillet and then add frosting in just the right yellow so it looks like American cheese. You can watch this video to see exactly how they made their "soup" and "sandwich."

The REAL April Challenge at a2z is "Flower Power" and you're challenged to use flowers in some way. Any company's products will work to enter to win a digital stamp but if you use your Hero Arts, you can win an extra gift code to the store, plus the free digi of your choice

Here's my flowery card. I used alcohol inks to make a panel and then cut the panel with the Dragonfly Fancy die. I made the wings from vellum and Diamond Stickles. The Branch Wreath die doesn't come with flowers, but I found the digital flowers Pretty Blossoms from Hero Arts worked great. I printed them small and colored with colored pencils.

Click here to see more inspiration from the Design Team.

Happy April!

Chark

Hero Arts Dragonfly Die

I shared some of the dragonflies I made the other day here at Glitter in my Kitchen and today I'm up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog post with two cards I made with the dragonflies.

Here's a close-up of that first dragonfly. I really liked how the wings turned out. I used alcohol inks on acetate packaging and then trimmed them to fit the die. That Nuvo Glitter Paste is so fabulous too! You can stop by a2z to see all the links to the products and more about how I made these.

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

Hero Arts Dragonfly Fancy Die

You guys! I've been making all kinds of dragonflies at my house with my new Dragonfly Fancy die. I've used vellum, cardstock, metallic paper and more. Here's a pile of them.

And here are a couple of my faves. This one uses green metallic painted paper (using Twinkle H2O paints) and vellum wings with Stickles glitter on the vellum.

This one uses white cardstock with Diamond Stickles for the body and blue metallic paper for the body. 

And I've made a couple cards with these guys too. I'll be sharing those on the a2z Scrapbooking blog on the 21st, so hop over to see my very favorite dragonflies on their cards. 

If you want to make your own lovely dragonflies, you can get the new die over at a2z Scrapbooking for just $11.95! If you fill your cart with items to total $25, you can apply my blog readers' code DLT15 to get 15% off your cart. Just a little extra for my crafty friends.

Happy Monday!

Chark

Hold Your Cards, We Have A Bingo

Ok, we don't have a Bingo, but we do have a winner! I promised a commenter a $15 gift card to Pretty Little Studios during the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop and the random generator picked MICHELE HENDERSON! Congrats, Michele! Send me your email (see my profile for my email) and I'll have PLS send that code out to you by the end of the week. Enjoy shopping—I know you'll get a lot of goodies for that $15.

Here's the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop link for all the winners from the hop, just in case you're interested. That was a fun one and I want to say THANKS to all who commented and followed me during the hop...the comments are the real fun and the inspiration is always amazing!

Today's card was one I made at the Fort Wayne Rubber Stamp and Scrapbook Getaway this weekend. We received the dragonfly acetate and could use glitter and stickers to decorate the shaker card. I love the little pearls inside the shaker because they are different colors and sizes in one jar. 

I bought some of the gold line stickers because I think they are so cool looking and really finish the card. Ok, I bought six packets of these stickers, including Merry Christmas in red, copper frames and gold lines. Love! If you're anywhere near Ft. Wayne, I highly recommend the show and maybe an extra class or two. I took this class from Mary at Stamp On It. Here's their online store link. I haven't ordered from them, but they have the beautiful acetates I've not seen elsewhere.

Here's the acetate sheet like the one we used. This one is winter, but there are tons of them. They look best on white or backed with white so you can see the lovely colors.

That's it for me today, and thanks again for your comments!

Happy Monday,
Chark