You Know I Like The Glitter

I recently went to a virtual Stampin' Up party and found the best glitter paper. It's rainbow ombre and it's actually a dull kind of glitter, as if it's encased in glue instead of on top of the paper. If you've tried the Distress Stickles, it's the same look. I had to make a bunch of cards with it and I also used it to photograph another card. I only have two 12x12 sheets, so you know I'll hoard even the scraps :)

On this card, I smooshed Distress Oxide on a panel and stamped a little bunny from Waffle Flower (Hoppy). I only used a strip of the glitter paper I had left over from trimming it down for another card. But wait, it gets better.

For this card, after I stamped and colored the flower stamp from Waffle Flower (Hoppy), I used the glitter paper for the background of the photo. Getting prettier, right?

This card uses the purple/blue/green portion and I only added the sentiment and a strip of black cardstock on the side. The sentiment is also Waffle Flower.

This one has to be my favorite, though of course, it's as simple as can be. The paper is the star here and I didn't even round the corners. 

See how stunning it is in the close up? I just love it.

If you're ever invited to a Stampin' Up party, I highly suggest this purchase. The glitter doesn't fall off and it's such a lovely ombre with the subtle glitter, I think you could use it on any card. Off to get my second vaccine—wish me luck!

Happy Friday!

Chark

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

Guess Who's Guesting at a2z Scrapbooking?

Surprise! It's me! I was invited to join in the monthly challenge at a2z Scrapbooking, Sparkle and Shine, which is right up my alley, so of course I said yes!

For this project, I used alcohol inks and the lift off ink pad to make two panels with the Hero Arts Flowers for Coloring Cling Stamp. I learned this technique from Jennifer McGuire.

You can head over to a2z Scrapbooking to see more details on how I made this and to find out how to enter the monthly challenge or buy some of the supplies I used!

Happy Thursday!
Chark

Ornaments Infinity Dies Card

I've been hooked on die cutting on my Big Shot a lot lately and the Hero Arts Ornaments Infinity Dies are so festive I've been cutting all kinds of ornaments. Today I have a card to share. I used some foil cardstock in gold, and die cut three ornaments. Then I put flat glitter (not chunky) behind them and covered with a piece of packaging acetate. It's not a shaker card per se, but the glitter moves a bit. I wanted it to more or less stay in place and it does.

The two colorful ornaments are made from alcohol inks dripped onto shrinky dink plastic and then die cut. But I didn't shrink them, I just left them full-size and then popped them up with tape. The plastic takes the color nicely. The strings are stickers and gold Stickles. I added a strip of striped gold and kraft paper at the bottom. And that's it!

Happy Friday!
Chark

Glittered Butterflies Are The Best

I got this acetate butterfly in a class about a year ago and I ended up not using it on the project we made. So, he's just been sitting around, waiting. I needed an easy card and had a Lawn Fawn Spruce wood grain card with the LF word 'hugs" die cut from it. I thought the butterfly would be a great focal piece, so I glittered him up with Peacock Stickles—my favorite form of glitter—and adhered him to the front. 

That was fast and easy and fun. I love the look of glitter behind acetate. I searched high and low and found the butterfly printed acetate if you want to try your hand at coloring or glittering this beauty and here's the link.

I think a couple sequins or pearls or something might be okay to add to finish it off...and I actually like the text page behind it that I used for photographing purposes, so the next one I might add text paper or washi.

Interesting how I can see the flaws in a card in a photograph vs real life :) It's actually helpful, but I might want to do it before uploading so I have time to tweak the card for the blog. Or not!

If you like the idea of glittering acetate, you could check out this post on shading with glitter on the ArtGlitter Blog...it's pretty cool.

Or if you're feeling saucy, check out the Martha Stewart video on glitter painting...I may get brave and break out the real glitters instead of the Stickles! :)

Happy Wednesday,
Chark

Transparency Card

Today I'm sharing a simple birthday card I made for my nephew who's a bit artsy. I thought he might like this landscape image framed in gold paper. The transparency is printed with the image and I added Diamond Stickles behind the image, trimmed and then adhered to white paper. I mounted it to some gold paper so it looks like a framed picture.

Since it's a printed piece of acetate on shiny gold paper, this one was tricky to photograph, but if you look closely, you'll see the glitter behind the scene.

I had a class that used these printed transparencies with glitter paper behind it and thought it was beautiful. You can buy the transparencies here at my favorite art magazine site. They have a store too! Here's another post with the printed acetate.

I love how quickly this came together and I think he'll appreciate that part too as I am (as usual) late with my birthday cards...oops! Actually that's something I plan to change this year, to be on time with birthday cards, so wish me luck!

Happy Wednesday!
Chark

Make A Gift Day

I kinda can't believe it's Friday already, some weeks seem to fly by, don't they? I think I need some crafty time to get myself back on track, but I'm so behind on phone calls and paperwork that I'm going to have to spend all day doing that before I get to the craft room (and I mean my kitchen table when I say craft room).

But, luckily, tomorrow is National Make a Gift Day, so I have an excuse to craft! What kind of crafty gifts have you made for people? I've made jewelry with Mod Podge jewelry resin and book quotes to fit the bezel, little stuffed animals made from felt, earrings from clay, and scrapbooks.

Not sure what I'm making this year, but since my niece/goddaughter always comes up with cool things she's made (earrings, candles), I at least need to make something cool for her too.

Here are some great ideas from Pinterest for gift giving. I've actually made these comic book coasters. I made horror comics coasters for my sister, Julie, who introduced me to horror comics as  a kid, and basically warped me.

This would be so easy to make! I love how alcohol inks make glass look like stained glass. 

I haven't made any of these ideas yet, just enjoying them on Pinterest. But here's a great gift to make if you're giving a Nerf gun for the holidays—it's a spinning target. We used to set up little action figures and stuffed animals to try to knock over when Nerf guns were big in our house. This would've been better!

I love this idea, though I'd probably ask for help for cutting them out, since I am so bad at cutting! Seriously, I can't always get a straight cut with a paper trimmer, let alone a craft knife. But it's a very cool craft.

And I can't leave without a glittery gift you can give...or make and keep for yourself, glittery wine glasses.

Let me know if you are making anything crafty this year or your favorite gift you've received that someone made...my sisters gave me a picture frame full of pics of the three of us for my wedding gift and I love it so much, it's still up in my house, 26 years later. They also left some blank spots for future pics of us, isn't that the coolest?!

Also, I'm up on the a2z Scrapbooking Blog today, with this project, and there's a new December Challenge of Anything But A Card, so I hope you'll break our your Hero Arts goodies and join in.

Happy Friday!
Chark

I Like Cake

I admit, I'm a cake person, specifically a cupcake person. Because the ratio of icing to cake is so much better in a cupcake version, am I right? I found this adorable cake digi stamp at A Day For Daisies, and when I won their contest, I got to choose some things from the store. This was one of the stamps I picked. Who doesn't like fairies and cake? No one, that's who!

Here are two versions I colored. The girl on the left has Stickles applied and I used no glitter on the girl on the right. I like the ombre cake well enough, but the pink glitter cake is my fave. 

I think I'll give her a floor to stand on too. Here are the close-ups and you can see the glitter on the pink cake a little better. You can't tell, but I Stickled her wings and the lights too. This image is $4.00, so if you use it just twice on cards, you're already saving money compared to buying them at the store! And if you enter their contest here, with the free image provided, you might just win too and get your own stamps!

Happy Monday!

Chark

Happy Glitter

I recently got a new die and stamp set from Hero Arts and can't stop using it! Love the Happy die, and here it is in glitter paper. 

I also used a rub-on from my Pinkfresh Studio January kit that I won on the blog...it came with stamps, fabric tags, rub-ons, gold flair and more. Love!

The pink paper is made with vellum and Hero Arts ink daubers. You can get them at a2z Scrapbooking Supplies if you're interested. The color is bright and happy on the vellum. I used a strip of silver paper (though it looks black in the pic) that was embossed in white and leftover from another project. 

Happy Monday!
Chark

Bring On The Glitter

I've been glittering butterflies like crazy over here (see here), using my best friend, Stickles glitter glue. I try to stay away from regular glitter, as I make such a huge mess with it, but with Stickles, I can get my sparkle and containment all in one handy product. Try Some Stickles Today! ok, end of my commercial...but I do prefer it over glitter :)

Here it is up close and personal. I used the Gold Stickles on this after inking it with Distress Inks and letting it dry. I stamped with Sta-On Black so it wouldn't smear and used Hero Arts Antique Engraving stamp set found here at a2z Scrapbooking Supplies. I love this set, it's so realistic and easy and fun to color. If you do a lot of flower stamping, the different-sized butterflies look fab with flowers. I used the Leafy Vines Hero Arts stamp for my background. The gems are also at a2z.

Now, remember, folks, if you love glitter but hate the mess, try the brand Stickles today! 

Oh, and just so you know, it is still possible to make a glitter mess with Stickles...if you smoosh it in a stencil, for example, your hands and the stencil will need lots of deglittering. Don't ask me how I know that. 

Happy Monday!
Chark

p.s. the content of this post does not mean the author has stock in Stickles and will profit if you buy it...but if she worked for Stickles, she'd be a very happy woman.

Can You Say Obsessed?

It's my latest obsession—the Triangle Background Die from Hero Arts that I got from a2z Scrapbooking Supplies. I just keep making triangle backgrounds! Here's the lastest. I used the die cut with my Big Shot with a bright blue cardstock and then mounted it on silver glitter paper. I added some red glitter triangles for fun and a sentiment from this Hero Arts stamp set that I won from Tone at Small T Creations.

 

Thanks, Tone! I also used the feather set here from Hero Arts, using their White Unicorn Ink on vellum. The sentiment is stamped with Staz On ink on vellum. p.s. I cannot get a clear picture when glitter is involved. Must figure this out, as my glitter usage is legen...wait for it...dary.

Happiest of Wednesdays to you,

Chark