Watercolors and Rub-Ons

I've definitely re-fallen in love with rub-on transfers; the Dina Wakley MEdia ones from Ranger are, imo, especially beautiful AND they rub-on perfectly; I will continue to acquire every new set she releases. On the other hand, I still have quite a few old school rub-ons, some of which work better than others, so I've devised a few ways to use them... even when you don't know beforehand what condition they're in. One way is to add them almost randomly to a collage or a mixed media piece that has a bit of a grunge or vintage feel. Because, if they work well: Excellent, they look like they did in the package! If they don't work well: Excellent, they add to the grunge/imperfection vibe!

Another way is to use them with watercolors, as a resist. You add white rub-ons to white watercolor paper, then paint over top of them. That's what I did this time. I stuck a fun horoscope sticker at the top of my watercolor panel, drew the basic mandala outlines around it with a Letter It Fineliner, then used a bunch of different leftover rubs, which I cut into fragments, and added randomly to the background and to some of the petals. Then I painted blues and purples which coordinated with the sticker, let the whole ting dry, touched up the original lines where necessary and sewed it to a mat and then my A6 card. 

And just like that... other Mandala Monday is in the bag! ♥

PINK Christmas

It's time for one of my favorite Jingle Belles events: Pink Christmas! This is the fortnight where Stephanie and I donate $2 each per linked-up card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, so if you're only going to join us at Jingle Belles for ONE challenge, let it be this one!

Does your card have to be ALL PINK? Nope; but it should be kind of predominant.. Can you add in other colors, too? Yep. Can you link up more than one card? Yes, please! Does each card have to be in a separate post? No, we'll make sure to count however many cards you've made, whether you post them all at once or one at a time.

Here's my card:

I found this Oxide Ink-Blended panel, the large pink dotty circle, AND the "Let it Snow" flag in my leftovers box, which seems like too much serendipity to ignore. I generally position an ombre panel so that the darkest shade is on the bottom, but this time I decided to go vertical and I think it looks pretty cool. The trees and stars are from an absolutely ancient sheet of Pebbles stickers that I found when we did the sticker challenge a few weeks ago and I added tiny Doodlebug enamel hearts plus some Eyelet Outlet Snowflake Brads. Skinny white mats and YES, a PINK cardbase complete my A6 design.

JB2621: We're Dreaming of a PINK Christmas runs until the evening of Wednesday, October 21st. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's card and link as many newly made PINK holiday cards as you possibly can!

You're Vintage!

Eyelet Outlet Classic Car Brads are always a good choice, especially when paired with a fun sentiment, funky map, coordinating patterned paper, plus EO Round Brads and Classic Eyelets. This card is all revved up and ready to hit the road to celebrate a special birthday!

Check out all the goodies in the Eyelet Outlet Store today!

SOS584: Black Cats

The new challenge at Shopping Our Stash is Halloween-themed and called, "Black Cats" so yes, one option is to include a black cat on your card; OR you could feature any other BLACK Halloween icon: bats, spiders, a witch... you get the picture, right? I focused on the cat, but there are a couple of spiders, too, as a bonus.

As soon as you say, "Black Cat" I immediately think of the adorable version in Wendy Vecchi's Halloween Add-On Stamp and Die Set from Spellbinders (btw, it's on sale!); and yes, I realize he could be any color, but my favorite way to piece him is with black sticky-back felt, as I've done here. The background is a pink spiderweb paper from Prima's Luna Collection of a few years ago; the spiders are part of Wendy's die set; the ghost is cut from a different Prima paper; and the sentiment stamp is so old I have no idea whence it came. I did a bit of machine-stitching on some of the web, as well as around the perimeter, which is very difficult to see in the photo, but pretty cool IRL.

Hop over to SOS to see the fab and funky Crew Cards, then start planning what you'll link up with us this fortnight. SOS584: Black Cats runs until the evening of Monday, October 19th.

The Other Side

A few weeks ago I used my Simon Hurley Stellar Inks to paint a very bold mandala in my Dina Wakley Watercolor Journal. Since I used isopropyl alcohol instead of water, it did not warp or pill the page at all, but... as sometimes serendipitously happens, a bit of the color seeped through to the reverse side of the paper. Which meant that I could basically just outline it, add additional color, et voila... two for the effort of one!

Just in case you were wondering what the first mandala looked like, here it is:

Wishing you a wonderful first week of October, filled with LOTS of color; plus maybe a time-saving shortcut or two? ♥

Cupcakes, Anyone?

Here's a shocking true confession: I don't cook. At all. Having been lucky enough to marry a man who is, in addition to his many other fine qualities, an *awesome* cook; in 41 years, I've probably made dinner eight or nine times, and I'd estimate that six of those consisted of microwaving the leftovers of something he made in the first place. But... I do love to make CUPCAKES... out of yarn, obviously. 

This adorable Amigurumi Cupcake Pattern is one of the first I ever downloaded, probably fifteen years ago, and I was delighted to see that it's still available for free on Nimoe's Blog.* I used Lion Brand Yarn's Vanna's Choice, which is my favorite yarn for amigurumi. The difference in the sizes of these cupcakes is just a variation of hook size; and, for the record, the blue one is not super-crookedy irl, I'm not sure why it looks odd, lol.

I grabbed some inexpensive cupcake boxes from the confectionary section of my crafty big box store, which I think really adds to the presentation. Plus, it made the cupcakes a lot easier to wrap! 

*Where there's also an outstanding Neko Cat Pattern that I enjoyed making, as well!

Sticking with Stockings

It's the second week of our Stocking-centric fun at Jingle Belles, so we're still making cards which showcase that beloved holiday gift-giving tradition.

This week I got to use my Simon Hurley Mantel Decorations die set from Spellbinders for the first time, and I had a lot of fun. I embossed a brick background using an ancient embossing folder, cut a scrap of woodgrain paper into a mantle-shaped chunk and got down to adding dies from the set: the banners, the stockings, the large deer and greenery. Then, for some additional texture and interest to this little scene, I attached Eyelet Outlet Deer, Poinsettia, Nutcracker and Gift Brads; plus a few red Round Brads to hold the stockings and the banner.

JB2620: The Stockings Were Hung runs until next Wednesday evening, October 7th. Hop over to Jingle Belles to see what Stephanie has made this time, then link your own Stocking-centric cards, ASAP.