Roses in October

My mom had a Peace Rose that bloomed in the summer and again in the fall. I love fall roses, they seem so special. This rose is lovely and large and has a slight scent.

Today I want to share some cards using a fabulous 3-D embossing folder with roses that I purchased from Sizzix. It's larger than a 4.25"x5.5" card, but I've trimmed it down to fit. It's also smaller than a 5"x7" card, so you can have a border if you use this size of card.

I used Lawn Fawn pearlescent vellum and only part of the image came out without a bunch of lines near it. The paper is super thin and I used a lot of pressure with the Gemini Jr, and I know that's what distorted the embossing. So I just trimmed a bit and added it to a pre-printed ombre card. The gold washi is Altenew. As with most vellum, you have to be judicious with your adhesive. I added a tiny glue dot behind the rose and leaf and then adhered the left edge with liquid glue. I then used the washi to cover it.

For this next card, I embossed on white heavy cardstock and then used Distress inks to lightly apply color to the raised area. Love all the dimension in this folder. I used some thin rose gold stickers for the edge.

For this card, I used white cardstock again but inked the edges in blue and some green. I wish I'd gotten better pictures, but I am loving how these are turning out. I mounted this trimmed panel on navy card and used some silver line stickers for the edge.

I'll be making more rose cards I know and I'll get some better shots—these are after editing too. This card would be nice for anyone with vision impairment since there is a lot of texture to feel.

Happy Fall Friday!

Chark

 

Clothing Tag Inspired Card

Have you ever been inspired to create a card by something you've seen, even though it wasn't a card? I bet you have...I admit, I've taken surreptitious photos of things like the shirt on the lady sitting in front of me in church so I could recreate it later on a card. For this one, there was a black tag on my son's jeans and it had clear embossed tire tracks on it. This was four years ago! I know because I posted that card here.

I was going through my saved scraps of techniques (watercolored panels, heat embossed sentiments, etc) I've made and found this black paper heat embossed with clear powder and a Hero Arts flourish stamp. I love this old stamp and need to employ it some more.I layered the saved scrap embossed piece with papers to make this card.

I added a strip of gold paper to match the gold embossed sentiment from Papertrey Ink. I really love the clear embossing on black paper...it's pretty classy looking. You can see this post where I first tried it out.

Gearing up for the Coffee Loving Papercrafters' Blog Hop upcoming on Friday...hope you get a chance to join in to try to win prizes! 

Happy Monday!

Chark

Hero Arts Large Hydrangea Lots of Ways

So, I recently got this Large Hydrangea stamp and I looove it! It's a wooden stamp, which is tricky for me—I'm not a great stamper and the clear stamps are easier to fix when they don't go well, but I had to have this. 

I love hydrangea flowers and have two shrubs which usually do beautifully for me. Which is impressive, because I am a terrible gardener. I wish I were better and I try every year, but unless you can thrive by yourself, you probably don't belong in my yard. 

I used this stamp for my posts over at a2z Scrapbooking here and here. 

And this is another incarnation of this stamp. This time, I embossed not in white but in gold and the paper is vellum instead of cardstock. I used my Prismacolor pencils to color, which is what I used on the red card. The purple hydrangea is done in Twinkling H2O watercolors.

I used shiny gold paper to cut an oval frame for this one, to match the embossing. I haven't made it into a card yet, but I want to! I don't often emboss on vellum, but it looks fab with this stamp.

Do you have any stamps that you use a ton? I think this one will be a favorite of mine. It's fun to color and so pretty.

If you're feeling you might need this stamp, you can hop over to the a2z Scrapbooking store and if you end up shopping more and get $25 or more in your cart, you can use my coupon code CHARK15 for 15% off your order just for reading my blog!

Happy Friday!

Chark

CAS and Not-So CAS

I'm up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today with a Clean And Simple card that goes along with our May challenge. I used multiple colors of embossing powder for my Forest Background stamp.

This next card isn't CAS at all, it has heat embossing and cream lace like the first, but I stamped the Antique Rose on text paper, watercolored the image with Distress Inks, and then took a patterned paper from Stampington and Company (you get free paper in each mag).

I inked the paper and stamped on some text, added green stamped paper, brown vintage lace and gold accents with puffy stickers from American Crafts and gold ribbon from my stash. Lots going on here.

I tore and curled the edges of the text paper and I'm really happy with how it turned out, it's prettier irl with the gold and pinks and brown.

Are you a Clean And Simple Crafter or a Vintage Pile-on-the-fun crafter?

Happy Monday!
Chark

It's So Pinteresting

I thought today I'd share some Pinterest pics that I really want to try today. And then, with luck, I'll be back later this week to share how they turned out!

This beauty of a card is by my former DT buddy, Betty, and I love the whole thing. What I really want to try is the stamping on vellum. I love the soft look of it, even though I'm wondering how my vellum will do with heat embossing. Only one way to find out!

I actually have this embossing folder and love the idea...no added bulk that will add postage, but a unique way to jazz up the envie for a birthday card. April is definitely the month for birthdays in this house, and I have some at the very end of the month, so this could be doable!

I love the colors in this one from Lydia at Altenew and the idea behind it, just a white pencil for shading and a great card color and you're good! I know I don't have this color of paper, but I'm betting I can find something close if I make a trip to the craft store...darn! now I have to go to the craft store. Well, if I have to, I have to. :)

What have you been pinning or planning to do soon?

Happy Monday, well, Tuesday!

Chark

Sneak Peek

Thought I'd give you a little sneak peek at the project I have over at a2z Scrapbooking this week. You can head over there to get a better look, but I do want to tell you how much I love gold embossing! I bought some Zing gold powder and used it on my butterflies from Hero Arts and it turned out beautifully. I ended up embossing lots of stamps in this gold just because!

I stamped on watercolor paper and painted the background and the butterflies.

Hope you'll emboss some of your Hero Arts products and join us this month in the February Challenge. You could win $25 to the store, where all the new Spring Release goodies from Hero Arts are available! And, don't forget, you can whisper my name to get a discount just for my readers. Ok, you actually type in CHARK15 to get 15% off, but it sounds more fun this way. All month we're highlighting embossing of all kinds to inspire you. My friend, Barb, has a beautiful heat embossed project up over there today—pop over for a visit! 

From the new Spring Release, I think I may need to get a monogram stamp like this to make some gifts for relatives.

 

And I already bought this fun set (there are congrats and thanks and hello sets too) and can't wait to get started. So versatile! Send the owner of a2z an email and ask for a product if it's already sold out. She can get more! And you can get your 15% discount! Love new stamp goodies!

Happy Wednesday!
Chark

It's A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

It's gorgeous and sunny and will get close to 60 degrees today, so I'm enjoying it all I can. I hear there's cold coming so today might have to be my garden clean-up day. In the meantime, I'm drinking tea and thinking about putting away my crafty stuff I had out over the weekend. 

Here's one of the cards I made this weekend, with this Hero Arts Butterfly Fancy Die. I used a felt applicator and Ranger alcohol inks on photo paper. Then I trimmed it to fit the die-cut butterfly. I attached the body to the inked paper with a glue strip and didn't adhere the wings. I like the bit of movement it gives to the butterfly. I used a white gel pen to add some dots to the wings.

The background is patterned paper with a piece of watercolor paper mounted on top. I used the Hero Arts Border Stencil that you can purchase here at a2z Scrapbooking Supplies. I used white embossing powder that is here in the store too. Then I used scribbled with Tombow markers on an acrylic block and used them as watercolor paints. Once dry, I used the Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle die.

The last addition is the Hello die cut from Papertrey Ink. I used silver foil paper (check Jo Ann Fabric) for the die. And that's it!

Happy Sunny Monday!
Chark
p.s. The blog title comes from Mr. Rogers. I loved Mr. Rogers' show as a kid...he always seemed so calm and trustworthy. I still love him as an adult and parent and admire him and his wisdom.

Happy Dance!

Just got an email acceptance from Papercrafts Magazine—my first ever. I did, in fact, do a little happy dance at the computer when I read the acceptance. Luckily the family understands me. So exciting! It's for the February issue, so I'll share that later.

So I entered three items this time and I never would've guessed they'd pick the one they did. Isn't that weird? Lesson #1—Sometimes simpler is better, because it was the easiest one I made. Lesson #2—Just go ahead and submit. I liked that project, obviously, and did my best, but I might not have sent that off by itself if that was all I had. But that was the right one for the right time. Lesson #3—If you're hesitating, don't! Send in your work and send it in more than once. I've entered lots of times over the years. 

I used different black and ivory papers from a pack from Canvas Corp for the background. And the watercolor triangle background is actually a die, but I embossed it instead by following this technique by Kelly Rasmussen.

I used Prismacolor pencils to color the Alice in Wonderland digi stamp from Hannah Lynn Design. How talented is Hannah Lynn? Her images are so fun to color. Then I used a white uniball to add dots. The black resin star was a gift from my Hero Arts pal, Barb, who gave me a whole package. Thanks, Barb! The black pearls are Doodlebug Design.

The die is from Hero Arts and I got mine at a2z Scrapbooking Supplies. If you want your own, you can use my discount code CHARK15 to receive 15% off your order of $25 or more in the store!

Wishing you a fun weekend,
Chark