It's a Pinkfresh Challenge

I've been enamored with Pinkfresh Studios papers lately and I just got a new 6x6 paper pack from the My Favorite Story collection and a pack of ephemera from the Some Days collection. The first thing I do when I buy a pack of die cuts is spread them all out to look at. This pack has lemons and florals and beautiful colors. After admiring them, I had to start using them. That meant I spent an evening playing around with the design and layers.

In this card, I used Newton's Nook dies for slimline cards and added the die cuts to each circle. I added pearls and called it a day.

This next one features a lot of the flower die cuts, matte enamel dot centers and silver corner stickers. The sentiment is also Pinkfresh and the paper is from the 6x6 pad.

The last one also uses a sheet of the 6x6 pad and I glued the wreath flat and adhered the die cut flowers on top with foam tape. I added the letter stickers and strip of stripes and silver line stickers. 

 

I still have ideas to use these die cuts for, and luckily you get a ton in the pack. I love 6x6 paper for the smaller patterns and the less expensive price point. I've got a million of them. What do you buy even though you have enough?

Happy Friday!

Chark

Slimline Cards For The Win

Have you tried making the slimline card or mini slimline card size? I like the slimline size for a change and also I think they're a great way to disguise a birthday card that has money or a gift card in it, because you can put them in a regular business envelope. The size I use is 3.5"x8.5".

That way, if there's a bad guy looking to steal a birthday card, they'll flip past it. Now, I know you're thinking, "How often does that really happen, Char?" and I gotta tell you, I'm certain it happened to me and since I was stupid and used cash, $50 as a thank you to someone was gone. Now, I'm back to writing checks. So give it a shot to disguise your cards, plus, slimline design is fun to try!

This card uses die cuts and stickers from a card kit I got from Spellbinders on sale.  They will sometimes put their card kits on clearance and I feel like I got a steal when I pay under $30 for stickers, papers, dies, die cuts and stamps that all go together. For the May 2020 kit I bought, I also got sequins and tiny puffy stickers. Head here if you want to see what's available right now. Not an affiliate, just sharing info!

There's a lot of gold and glitter in this kit. You can see more in the close up. I made my own cloud stencil because I'm lazy and I didn't want to look for my real cloud stencil for one card. Sad but true 😅

This card uses the new Poppystamps HB Poe Script die, which I loooovvee. It's small but not dainty, so you're not tearing the die cut as you take it out of the die and it's a fun font. I just ripped some rainbow paper and layered it. I couldn't decide if I should fill up all the space with hearts, and in the end, I just went with three.

Thought I'd also share the photo that shows a tiny bit of the crafting tornado I always create. There's stencils, dies, paper, my trimmer, and a ton of stuff encroaching on my glass mat. I remember Jennifer McGuire saying since the mat was lifted off the table a bit, it kept her from getting her work surface messy. Turns out, I am capable of making my work area just as messy as if I were working on a flat surface. I just shoved it off to take a pic.

Happy Friday!

Chark

Take Time To Smell The Roses

If it's nearly June in Ohio, it's time for my climbing roses to bloom. They're called The Seven Sisters and I bought two little shrubs on sale at the end of the summer one year for just $5 each. This was when I was a mom to one (22or 23 years ago) and my mom and I would take my daughter and visit the area garden centers. We usually went at the beginning of the growing season to get flowers for each other for Mother's Day and then at the end of the season to get deals.

My husband and I must've chosen the perfect area because these little roses seem to love this spot and grow vigorously each year. Some years are better for blooms than others, but this year is a good one.

I based my coloring of the Beautiful Roses Slimline digi from Alex Syberia on the color of my roses. I picked pinks and added a little coral and a little red for them and chose grays for the leaves.

I like to color one rose at a time, so here's a little peek into how I layered the color on the last two roses.

At the end of the process, I add in black shadows and white highlights if needed.

For the final card, I fussy cut the flowers and leaves and added it to cream/black patterned paper on a slimline card (3.5"x8"). I think graphic shapes really set off florals, so I gave it a shot with this one. The sentiment strip is a stamp/die set from Taylored Expressions. 

So, go out there and smell those roses—or maybe just color some!

Happy Friday!

Chark

This Blog Post, Yoda Likes

Today is Talk Like Yoda Day and if that's not a fun and also annoying way to spend the day, I don't know what is. Or should I say...Fun and annoying it is!

Today I'm sharing a Yoda/Star Wars card I made for my adult nephew awhile back. He loved SW back in the day and then my son, who is 9 years younger, also jumped on the SW bandwagon. This card uses Star Wars scrapbook paper and a little hand drawn Yoda I added. The letters are silver reflective and I watercolored Yoda.

My son, Ben, grew out of his obsession somewhat, but in the meantime, I learned sooo much Star Wars. We watched the movies, the cartoons, read the books and character guides, bought the toys and had light saber duels. We also had to listen to John Williams CDs, buy all the Legos and then assemble them and make things from the cookbooks. Our fave recipe is the one for Wookiee Cookies and we still make them. It's a little different from chocolate chip cookies, but so tasty! Turns out Star Wars is everywhere.

Ben was a toddler when Episode II, Attack of the Clones, came out and his love of Star Wars started with Yoda fruit snacks. First place he ever saw any SW stuff and I have to commend their marketing. There was Yoda cereal too. And it all started an obsession. Oh, did I mention that at about age 9 Ben  wanted to make a little Star Wars film and I had to act in it with him, while his dad filmed it? Yep!

When The Mandalorian came out, Ben misspoke and said The Mandarin, at which point, his sister made fun of him and I requested a meme of it from him. This is what I got. It was perfect.

I haven't seen any of this show, but I do already love The Child...aka Baby Yoda. How can you not? If you need a t-shirt to celebrate Talk Like Yoda Day, you can head here for these cuties.

And if you need some scrapbook paper to make a Star Wars card or page, head here, you must. (I can do this all day.) Give Talk Like Yoda Day a try and see just how fun and annoying you can be too!

A Happy Friday, you must have!

Chark

Free Your Mind...Journaling with Julie 12

Today I'm posting the next lesson that my sister, in New Jersey, and I, in Ohio, each worked on from the Create Your Life Book art journaling book by Tamara LaPorte. While life took some twisty turns, we took a break from art journaling together/apart, but we're back, baby!

For this lesson, you were to write something in pencil that was bothering you about your art and then you bury it on the hill and move on. Julie chose the belief that her art wasn't good enough and then buried that thought under decoupage, paint and stamping. She used watercolor on her angel/girl face and a micron pen for the outlining. The collage pieces were acrylic, watercolored and alcohol ink painted papers. After that, Julie added scrapbook papers and a little waxed paper for texture.

After adding Tombow markers for the dress and tights, Julie added the Wonder stamp on the dress. Additionally, Julie added more stamping, stenciled the air swirls for movement and used dabs of acrylic paint with her fingers and a cotton swap. She added white acrylic paint to tie it all together and Micron pen doodles finished it up. I think the stamping and the swirls are the perfect touches. And I like the dark paint on the bottom, it really grounds that part and makes the air look lighter.

My girl took a bit of time too, though I did no stamping or stenciling. I wrote my belief to bury—that creating is essential to my well-being but feels more like selfishness—and collaged and painted the heck out of it.

I used pre-printed papers, music sheets and some text paper for mine and then added some gelato crayons over the papers. 

I used white thinned down acrylic paint over all the colors and papers to unify and then used a Pitt Artist Pen big brush marker in yellow for her dress.

After a ton of doodling with white and black pens, I also added the words I Matter to her dress. At first, I outlined the flowers on the hill but then decided it took too much attention from the angel girl, so I repainted them.

Now I can't decide which is better. But once I put a project away, I don't revisit it, so this is how it stays!

Hope you can bury the negative thoughts that get in the way of you making art...'cuz art is important!

Happy Friday!

Chark

But, Lo, It Is The Day Of Our Man, Shakespeare

Today is celebrated as Shakespeare Day in many countries. Why April 23? Because it's the recorded day of his baptism and his death, some 52 years later in 1616. Shakespeare is one of those writers you either get or you don't. I happen to like his plays and since I skim when I read a lot of the time, I find Shakespeare is easier to comprehend this way. If you read each word, you'll get bogged down, so I highly suggest just trying to read most of it and skip some of it when it doesn't make sense.

get this cute poster here

As an English major in college, I read me some Shakespeare. And I even performed a scene from As You Like It in class with a partner. This was in the 80s when we didn't exactly have instant access to everything. We didn't even have all that many VCRs. I had never seen Shakespeare performed, so I had to go to the listening library, get some honking headphones and listen to an audio tape of the scene I was performing to get the cadence down. It went pretty well and I got an A...just in case you were wondering. 😀

Shakespeare is credited with coining many words and phrases that we still use today, including bandit, unaware, critic and swagger—along with green-eyed monster and in a pickle. If you look here, you can find a lot of great ways Shakespeare had his characters insult each other. From As You Like It, you'll find, "I desire that we be better strangers." Almost doesn't sound like an insult, does it?

If you like the Bard, you can pick up these fun products and more here.

I've a fairy card to share today, in honor of A Midsummer Night's Dream and the fairy realm. I used Bristol paper and Distress Oxide Inks to create the background and the oval die cut is the Floral Border from Hero Arts. The mini fairies are dies from Poppy Stamps. The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions. I added Stickles to the wings, but the photo doesn't show it. 

I'll leave you with a few of my favorite Shakespeare quotes. "Though she be but little, she is fierce." "Something wicked this way comes." "If music be the food of love, play on." And from A Midsummer Night's Dream, "Lord, what fools these mortals be."

Happy Friday to thee!

Chark