Saturday, January 30, 2016

Faux Mother of Pearl Technique Card


Hi There!
That subject line is a mouthful, isn't it? I follow a blog called Stamping With Loll. Loll shares a lot of wonderful techniques on her blog. Not long ago she shared a beautiful card with a gorgeous butterfly on it. I really liked the background behind the butterfly. She said she used a technique called Faux Mother of Pearl. She linked to a video she had made showing how to do the technique. I may have done this way back when, but I didn't remember using the paint she used. I couldn't find the Tsukineko brand paint, but I did find some Martha Stewart pearl paint at Joann's that seemed like it would do the trick. If you want directions on the technique Loll shares, check it out here.

And here is my attempt:

As I said I used Martha Stewart paint and Wilted Violet and Milled Lavendar distress inks. I really like the effect. Unfortunately, the camera absolutely does not pick up just how nice it looks in real life. You will have to believe me when I say it has a pearl like shine. The heart flower is a die from Memory box. I added Wink of Stella to give it a bit of sparkle.  Yeah, you can't see the sparkle either. 

I wanted to add a sentiment on the front, but didn't like how any looked so I took the easy road and left one off. 

I think I want to try this again with different color combinations. I sure wish I had that butterfly die she used in the card that inspired me. Might have to look it up. I liked all the variations Loll created with that one. :)

That's it from me today. 
Thanks so much for stopping by!
PhotobucketI hope you are having a great weekend so far

Thursday, January 28, 2016

A Couple of Birthday Cards

Hi There!

We are on the downward slide to the weekend now! Whoo hooo. Thanks for the lovely comments on my last post. So nice to know that people still visit even though I am so sporadic about posting anymore. I do have a couple of cards to share. I have to apologize as both needed to get sent and the only time I could take the pictures was when it was dark out, so the pictures are a bit dark even with lots of editing. Both are CASEs with my little tweaks. :) Of course!

Remember that card from my previous post where I was trying to get a certain look for the background of the card? Well this is the card. Here is the original card that struck my fancy. I really liked the watecolor background and think those cupcakes are so adorable. I first thought the watercolor was done with distress inks, but the colors I had didn't come out right, especially the purple. When I read the text again, I noted she used Artist Loft watercolors from Michaels. I had that set. Yay! The images are colored with pencils and I added those little hearts, die cutting them out of glitter cardstock. The shaker bottle has Stickles on it. This was a fun card to make.

This card is a CASE of my friend, Alanna's card here. I loved the rainbow of color! Alanna has been having fun with her distress inks and inspiring me to keep playing with them as well. You can see I went a different way for the sentiment using Lawn Fawn's Scripty Sayings. I decided to add the little sequin stars individually. Then I added the sequins. I'm pretty sure there was a smudge or something some where and I wanted to cover it up. Thanks for the inspiration, Alanna! Hope I did it justice. :)

That's it from me this time around. 
Thanks so much for stopping by.
Hope you are having a good week. 
Hugs,
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Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Wintery Thanks and Snowpeople, too!


 Hi there!

Oh golly, it's hard to believe we are at the end of January, 2016! Happy New Year just a tad bit late. I hope it's treating you well so far. Life hasn't slowed down much since our Winter Break ended. From time to time I've managed to get a card or two made, but my computer is giving me fits these days and getting them edited has been problematic. Sometimes just navigating the internet has been an issue as well. I had some time today and edited them all at one time. I hope I don't have any problems posting this. We've tried a couple of fixes, but the issue remains so obviously those weren't actually fixes. Sigh. Gotta love technology.

Anyway, onto the cards. They are copies of cards that I have seen in blogland and liked. I've added my own little tweaks.

Here's the card I copied. (sorry it's so dark, I tried my best to lighten it up)
My tweaks: colored with colored pencils and the pattern paper. I sent this is in the mail and could hear the beads shaking. Wasn't sure if the post office would get all worried at the noise, but it got to the recipient, so all is good. :)

Here's the card that inspired these two cards.

My tweak: I used glitter paper from DCWV. The snowflakes and thanks die-cut are sparkly even if you can't tell in the photos. I softened the stripes big time on the top card. The second one, I was playing around with the color combo for a different card, but I didn't like the end result for that card, so I used it here and felt it worked really well. 

The new year has been pretty good to us. I never mentioned it here on the blog, but my husband got laid off from his job way back in April of last year. Anyway, after all these months, he recently  accepted a job offer. Yay! While he hasn't started just yet, he should be back to work soon.  The girls are as busy as ever. Amy's Winterguard had an evaluation performance last weekend. They got positive and encouraging comments from the judges on their show so far. We also worked Bingo last weekend. Jessica has been busy with clubs and is going to a dinner theater tonight with one of them. This week has been filled with Girl Scout meetings as well. It's always something. This mom is doing her best to keep up! 
:)

That's a very brief update on us. I thank you very much for continuing to stop by from time to time. 
I so appreciate the visit! 

See you again soon!
Hugs.
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