What does Easter mean to you?

I love cute little bunnies, chicks and butterflies, everything that says "spring" and celebrates new life.  But I have to share with you that we never did the "Easter Bunny" thing with our kids.  Actually we never did any of the make believe icons like the tooth fairy or Santa Claus either.  However we did let your children know that other families did like to play these make believe games with their children and did teach them they should have respect and not spoil that for other children, if that's what their family chose to do.  We don't judge others for making that decision.  I think sometimes people are just raised a certain way and generation to generation pass down the traditions without even considering there may be another option. 

So today I'm sharing with you, not because I judge you or how you choose to raise your children, but becuase I want you to know there are other options.  When I have shared this with other's over the years, I know some of them didn't get that.  But I grew up in a home that did have Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy.  And never once did my mother share with me the real reason these holidays are celebrated.  After I was saved, I actually regretted that she had not.  She grew up in a Christian home, so she knew.  And as an adult, I can't acutally remember a time when I really believed in any of them.  So was it really worth it??  My husband and I decided it was not.  We celebrated the holidays, but we chose to tell our children the real reason we did so.  We did fun acivities as well, so they had just as much fun as the other kids.  My children don't feel like they missed out on anything. 

Easter is a holiday that we celebrate because our Lord and Savior, Jesus died on the cross, that we might be saved, reconcilled with God, so that we can spend eternity with Him.  So as Easter approaches, I am so thankful for a holiday that reminds us that we have so much to be thankful for, but nothing greater than this.

Have a very blessed day!!

Melisa

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Project Details

Stamps : discontinued set by Mark's Finest Papers,  but there are lots of floral options that would work.  Robyn's Fetish has a Lily digital stamp that would work great and is marked down HERE. 

 And here is a link to some of her other Easter digi's HERE.  The bible with the Lily is very pretty. 

Here is my card using that image

For the Lily's on the top card, I highlighted area's with a yellow Copic, I think Y11, and they added adhesive using by 2-Way glue pen and sprinkled with clear glitter.

Lace : Hobby Lobby

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Challenges

Cardabilities (sunday) - sketch (card #1)

Paper Sundaes (sunday) - spring flowers

Sentimental Sundays - Easter

Craft Your Passion (monday) - monochromatic

The Pink Elephant (monday) - butterflies (card #1)

You can check out my huge list of daily challenges by clicking on the "Challenges" tab at the top of my blog. Let me know if I have missed any!

Artist Trading Card / Mark's Finest Papers

Artist Trading Card 2 1/2" x 3 1/2"

I finally got my Feb / Mar issue of Stamper's Sampler in the mail and as soon as I seen the cover I new what my next Mark's Finest Papers project would be.  "Don't fence me in!" was a perfect sentiment for the "Chicken Scratch" stamp set.  This set was still in the store until recently, but now I don't see it.  Maybe because they just had a new release with the cutest chickens HERE.  And you can get the chicken wire in this set HERE. 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Melisa

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Project Details

I googled rosters to try and get an idea of how to color this little guy ... hey I'm a city girl, I've never seen a rooster in real life.  I used R27, Y11, E15, E09, and E33.

Trim watercolor paper 2 1/4" x 2 1/2".  Stamp chicken wire image with VersaMark and heat emboss with black embossing powder.  Color edges with yellow watercolor crayon (Lyra).  Carefully pull color to center so that it is lighter toward the center.  Ink edges with black ink and doodle around edges.  Adhere black lace (Hobby Lobby) across top and bottom of panel.  Adhere to pattern paper covered ATC (2 1/2" x 3 1/2").  Ink edges of ATC and doodle around edges.  Stamp rooster, color with markers (Copic), and trim.  Adhere.  Type words on computer, trim, ink edges, doodle around edges and adhere.  Embellish with plastic black sequin flowers (Queen and Co.  - really old from my stash).  Tye yellow thread into a know and pull through hole in center of flower before adhering.

You can view all of my ATC's HERE

Artist Trading Card / Faith Art

Artist Trading Card 2.5" x 3.5"

Good morning Paper Crafters!  Today I am sharing an Artist Trading Card (2.5" x 3.5") designed for the "Word Art Wednesday" challenge HERE.  Word Art Wednesday is a weekly challenge where Cass provides a free "word / phrase" art for your use in a project.   I used Impression Obsession clear stamp set "Home Sweet Nest".  Have you seen Impressions Obsession's new online store??  so much better than their old one! 

I created the background a while back ( I have a pile of them ready to go for ATC's).  But I think I used a spray ink and then lightly pounced on brown ink using a stencil brush.  Then distressed the edges with brown ink as well.  I stamped the nest directly on the background and then layered Copic colors (E23, E25, E59, and then E49).  I colored the eggs with watered down blue acrylic paint.  I stamped the bird on watercolor paper and colored with NeoColor Watercolor Crayons (brown #59 and blue #180).  I printed the word art and used chalk around the words, then inked the edges with brown ink.  I adhered both the word art and ATC to blue cardstock and trimed around the edges with deckled scissors.

Have a great day!

Melisa

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Challenges

Word Art Wednesday - word art

Sunday Stamper - birds

Splitcoast Stampers - color challenge

Annabelle Stamps - twine

Stampin' for the Weekend - anything goes

If you would like to play along with challenges, you can check out my list of links by clicking on the "Challenges" button along the top of my blog.

You can view all of my ATC's HERE

You can view more of my Faith Art HERE.

The Craft's Meow - Happiness is ...

Good Morning!  Today I'm sharing a card using another one of Nina Bracket's sets.  I just love those bee's!  You can get this set at The Craft's Meow. 

I hope you have a great week!!  Melisa

You can view more projects using The Craft's Meow HERE.
You can view more projects using bee images HERE.

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Project Details

Stamps : The Crafts Meow "Happiness is"

Copic Markers : Y0000, Y11, E23, YG61, G82, YG67

Border Punch : Martha Stewart

Mask off bottom 1.5" of white card.  Stamp rose on card front and on Eclipse Masking TApe.  Trim rose from masking tape and cover rose pm card front.  Stamp leasves around rose image.  Remove mask from rose and long bottom border.   Stamp bee's and sentiment.  Color images.  Trim yellow cardstock 1" x 5.5" and create decorative border using border punch.  Adhere to card front.  Wrap ribbon and tie knot.

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Challenges

Papertake Weekly - Bingo!  Ribbon, free space, punch
Tuesday Throwdown : use something from your stash - my gingham ribbon is really old.
Creative Belli - Clean and Simple
Cute Card Thuresday - anything goes
Lily Pad - flowers
SCS - 3 or more
Stampin wih the Dragon - things with wings

Impression Obsession Egg Shaped Card

Today I have an EGG-stra special card to share with you, teehee.  I thought it would be fun to create an egg shaped card for Easter.  I used a foam egg shaped I purchased at Hobby Lobby as a template ...  but I'm sure you could google "egg shape coloring page" and you would get lots of options for creating your own egg shaped card.  You can see the fold on the left side.  I used this fun image by Impression Obssession on this one.  Impression Obsession is another one of my favorites.  Especially image by Alesa Baker.  Check them out HERE.  I got some new ones a few months ago that I still haven't found time to use.  But hopefully soon.  Another thing I like about Impression Obsession is that you have a choice between wood mounted or saving 30% off for cling mount.  And since I end up removing all my stamps from the blocks and converting them, this is definitely a deal for me.  You can get some of the image in clear sets as well if that's what you prefer. 

Today's project features "Large Bunny in Watering Can".  I used a border puch and some ribbon to try and make it look like an easter egg.  The border punch is one of those large ones, I think by Martha Stewart.  And you can't really tell, but I used white fun flock on the bunny.  That alone is a reason to by a bunny stamp of some kind in my opinion, teehee. 

Have an egg-stra special day!

Melisa

You can view more of my projects :

using Impression Obsession HERE.

shaped cards HERE.

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Challenges

Creative Inspirations - Anything goes

Dutch Dare - cute and cuddly (my bunny)

Impression Obsession - spring is in the air

Stampendous - shaped card

Paper Play Challenges - spring colors

Raise the Bar - in the garden

The Crop Stop - shaped cards til March 31

MIXED MEDIA / ART JOURNAL PROJECT

When I started the "Art of Wild Endangerment" class, I told myself I was going to just stick to sketching in a sketch book right now, because I seriously have sooooooo many other things I need to be doing.   But ....... the more I watched Junelle add her art to her altered book  .... I had to take the time to get my own started.  So I selected an old book, tore / cut out pages about every 4 page and started adding gesso.  I used gesso to adhere 4 page together at a time so my pages would be sturdy.  After I removed pages and adhere some together, I started adding gesso to all the pages and outside of the book.  Then I added my first sketch / art journal project!  I haven't journaled yet, but left space so I could add that later.  I'm addicted!  I have to work the next 2 days, so I really do need to get some house work done, teehee.  But I just want to work on my journal!  This is what my daughter would refer to as a "first world problem".

So I decided to take the time to share my step by step process, just in case someone is interested in giving it a try.  Below you can find my VERY long, and very boring explanation!  Other wise that's it for the day!  thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a joyful day creating!

hugs, Melisa

See all my MIXED MEDIA TUTORIALS HERE

See all my MIXED MEDIA / COLLAGE PROJECTS HERE

See all my ART JOURNAL PROJECTS HERE

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Project Details 

I started out creating a blue background using water color paint and a "mop" paint brush.  I would put a little on and then use a paper towel to dab some off til I got the look I wanted.  I didn't wand a solid background on this one.  Not sure you can tell on the photo, but some of the white gesso is showing through. 

I had a old flourish stamp that had the cool deco leaves on it, so I used that as my inspiration and started by sketching (with a mechanical 07 pencil) flourish's.  Then I sketched the "deco leaves".  At this point you could just paint them in, but I decided I wanted to paper piece these.  Sooooo ...  I used tracing paper to trace each one, then positioned the traced deco leaf over the patterned paper.  After I was happy with where it was positioned over the patterned paper, I slid some carbon paper under the tracing paper and lightly penciled over the design, transferring onto the patterned paper.  Now you just trim and adhere.  I had to decide how I wanted to adhere the paper.  I could use Mod Podge, but that gets a little messy and usually ends smearing from underneath whatever I gluing down, leaving a shiney area.  Or I could use my Aleene's Tachy Glue.  When I took Christy Tomlison's "She Art" class, she Mod Podged everything.  I think because she liked how she could continue to smear her Neocolors or other mediums over it.  She also applied the Pitt pens over the Mod Podge as well and then was able to smear it to add shadow / distressing.  So I decided to go with Mod Podge.  But at this point, I didn't cover the whole page, just used it to adhere my paper pieces.   The smaller leaves were much easier.  I did't bother sketching them, because that's such and easy shape to cut.  So I cut a bunch of them from differnet patterned papers, positioned them on the page, and adhere.  Next I used a green water color pencil add added paint over all my sketched stems / vines.  I didn't put the color directly on the page.  I wet my brush, wipe the end of the brush over the end of the pencil to pick up the paint and then apply it to the page.

Next I trimmed patterned paper to create the bird house and a few of the banner flags (green).  I didn't have the right color patterned paper for the other colors, so I applied watercolor paint to some watercolor paper and cut them.  I used a font stencil for the letters on the banner.  Punch little holes in the corners (Fiskar's 1/16" ?? I think) and ran jute through them.  Adhered those pieces on with Mod Podge as well.

I sketched my birds on watercolor paper, add watercolor paints, and trimmed.  Adhered with Mod Podge.  This was my first time sketching birds.  I used a couple of my stamps (the ones on the project I posted monday) to inspire me.

Junelle likes to add little splatters of color to her art.  She makes it look so easy.  Hers look way better than mine.  Basically I just soak a brush wtih watercolor paint and then lightly tap it over the project. 

Next I tried to do some doodling.  I had some new pens from Prismacolor and started with those.  Basically I was trying to outline / sketch the lines in now with a black pen / marker.  But it wasn't working out over the Mod Podged area's or watercolored area's (stems / vines).  I think I ruined my pens trying it, because they stopped writing  : (  and I haven't been able to get them going again.  I also tried my Micron Pens, same problem.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe I just needed to let it sit a little longer.  I thought the watercolored area's were dry.  I used the Prismacolor 03 pen and my sharpie on Monday's project over the watercolored background and they worked fine ???  I was very frustrated, because the heart of Christy and Junelle's art is their sketching / doodling with the pen.  The project just isn't finished without it.  So at this point I decided to Mod Podge the whole thing and try a pen Christy recommends.  Here's the problem with her pen ... you can only by it at her shop (seriously ... the company discontinued them and she had them specialed ordered) and they have a wider tip, which I'm not crazy about.  I prefer an 03.  But this pen will write on anything.  After I dried the Mod Podge, I decided to give one more pen a try,  a fine tip sharpie.  I had issue with that one as well : ( .  So I finally went with Christy's pen.  You can find it HERE. 

Next I used acrylic paint and punchanella to add the circles you see here and there.  I started wtih the brighter colors and then went over them with white paint to tone it down.

The set from the photo above is HERE.

Scarlett Lime actually has some Punchanella in a "texture" kit HERE.  Christy showed us how to use these pieces in her She Art class to add interest to our backgrounds. 

All that's left to do is add some journaling.

If you are new to mixed media and are interested in online classes.  Check out THIS post for a list of online classes (some of them FREE) I am aware of.

MIXED MEDIA / ART JOURNAL

I'm so excited!  Last week I started a new online class through Scarlett Lime called "The Art of Wild Endangerment".  I'm loving it so far.  It's actually an art journal class taught primarily by Junelle Jacobsen.  Christy post video's on wednesdays with her version of whatever Junelle teaches us and adds lots of tips and inspiration from her point of view as well.   I'm not so much into journaling so I almost passed it up.  But I'm glad I didn't.  Junelle is so much fun and I love her whimsical/fun sketching and doodling.  Junelle sketches things that surround her (like the sheep that she adores on their farm) or that are meaningful to her in some way, into a sketch book as she is inspired.  And then she uses thoses sketches to create mixed media art in an altered book. 

I was so inspired last week that I picked up a mixed media journal and decided to give it a try.  So while my daughter was shopping and trying on clothes, I was searching around the clothing stores for inspiration to sketch.  It was a lot of fun!  Probably because I am not much of a shopper, teehee.  So I found several idea's that inspired me.  We went in one clothing store and they had a huge bird cage (flat) hanging on the wall with photo's clipped onto it.  So above is my first page.  It's no Van Gogh mind you, but the process was sooooo much fun.  And Junelle is right.  There is inspiration all around us!  I don't have an altered book to put my art in yet and honestly, I may just stick with this little mixed media journal for a while.  Just sketching it and adding some watercolor was a joyful process for me.   Plus I'm in the middle of learning to oil paint, and I have 3 mixed media canvas started already to match my spring bird houses.  I'm stuck though.  I haven't decided on the journaling on them yet.  There will definitely be butterfly's though!  I took step by step photo's of the background process though and will share whenever they are finished. 

Aren't those little clothes pins cute!  The are from my Pink Persimmon "Baby Clothesline".  I stamped the 2 little birds as well.  My mixed media journal is Strathmore's "Visual Journal".  I picked mine up at Michaels.  So if you have ever been interested in giving mixed media a try, then you might enjoy this class or one of the other Scarlett Lime Classes HERE.

Another great source for mixed media video's is Donna Downey.  She post free weekly video's on her blog as well as some classes you can take. 

Cloth, Paper, Scissors offers a few free video's HERE.  They have video classes available for purchase as well HERE.

Shabby Cottage Studio has online classes HERE.  

If you know where to find more mixed media / collage e-courses, I'd love to know.

Hope you are enjoying your monday!

Melisa

See all my MIXED MEDIA / COLLAGE PROJECTS HERE

See all my ART JOURNAL PROJECTS HERE

Win a free stamp set !!!

Good Morning paper crafters!  Today I'm sharing a clean and simple card designed for Saturday's challenge over on the Mark's Finest Papers blog and today's challenge over at SpeedyTV.  The challenge at the MFP blog this week is to create a clean and simple card. Over at SpeedyTV we want to see you use a border punch.  I used "Spring Flowers" by Mark's Finest Papers.  I colored the image with watercolor paints. 

We would love to have you join our challenges over at SpeedyTV every monday.  And I'm excited to announce that they are giving away a

FREE STAMP SET each week now!! 

So please hop over and join us HERE.  Move your mouse over the "FSOTV CHALLENGE" button along the top of the page - do not click on it - and then select FSOTV Challenge #12.

MFP would also love for you to play along with their weekly challenges over on the blog as well HERE. 

Check out the latest new releases HERE.  I LOVE that bunny in the "Blessings" set!

Thanks for stopping by!

Melisa

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Challenges

SpeedyTV - border punch

Mark's Finest Papers - clean and simple

Allsorts - 3 of something



GinaK Designs "Springtime Silhouettes"

I have received several fun GinaK sets the last few months and just didn't have time to play with them. So that is my goal this month.  The cards I'm sharing today are designed using a set called "Springtime Silhouettes".  It's a fun set that includes images and sentiments for lots of occasions.  I love that the stamps are solid.  So you can whip up cards really quick.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Melisa

You can view all of my GinaK Designs projects HERE.

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Project Details

Card #1

Stamps : GinaK Designs "Springtime Silhouettes"

Ink : Tsukineko Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate

Die : Cheery Lynn Designs "Mega Fanciful Flourish"

Scissors : Fiskars Deckled

Adhere card to a larger piece of brown cardstock and trim around edgs with deckled scissors.  Trim patterned paper, ink edges, and adhere.  Cut 2 brown vines.  Cut 1 apart and use to add an extra swirl and leaves to the first one.  Stamp images with brown ink on cream cardstock, trim, and adhere.  Stamp sentiment.

Card #2

Stamps : GinaK Designs "Springtime Silhouettes"

Ink : Tsukineko Brilliance Pearlescent Chocolate and Pixie Dust

Stencil : Crafter's Workshop

Border Punch : Fiskars

Stick Pin : Making Memories

Embossing Folder Cuttlebug

Trim brown cardstock and adhere to card front.  Trim cream cardstock, emboss, ink edges, and adhere to card front.  Trim cream cardstock, emboss, ink edges, and adhere to card front.  Trim cream cardstock 3 1/4" x 4".  Apply pink ink over polka dot stencil, then ink edges with brown ink.  Tie a knot and wrap ends of brown ribbon around edges of panel.  Mat on pink cardstock.  Cut brown strip at least 3 1/2" wide and punch scalloped border on 1 end.  Adhere other panel and then trim 3 edges with deckled scissors.  Stamp sentiment with brown ink.  Stamp image with brown ink on cream cardstock, trim, and adhere.  Embellish with stick pin. 



Here comes peter cottontail ...

Good Morning.  Hope you are all having a great week.  I certainly am.  I'm on vacation and my daughter is here from Florida visiting.  This morning I"m off to my oil painting lesson.  It's oly lesson #2 and I'm still working on leaves, but I'm hoping to get promoted to fruit today.  I already have an idea for my first canvas.  I want to do 2 birds with yellow on them sitting on some dogwood branches. 

I'm also taking a new online class right now, "The Art of Wild Abandonment" - HERE.  It's an art journaling class.  I'm not so great with words and journaling, but there are some sketching lessons as well, so I know I will learm from it.  I signed up for the class on Christy Tomlison's blog, but the teacher so far is Junelle Jacobson.  Christy will be teaching part of it as well.  Junelle is so funny.  She is cute and fun like Christy.  So if you like Christy, you will love Junelle.

Today's card would be really quick to create because it's designed using a digital stamp by Angels Landing.  If you like cute critters ...  then you might want to check out this site.  Fabulous images!  This set is called "Bunny and Violets".  One of the things I liked about the set is that it came with a lot of different options.  While you are there check out the "Penguin Chicks".  I also found that they have some tutorials that might be helpful if you are new to working with digi stamps HERE.   AND on the BLOG, the artist gives some very specific coloring guides for using your copics with the images.  Just scroll through and look at the ones with Coloring Guide in the post title.  I really loved this tutorial on creating these mini-roses HERE on the Angel's Landing blog as well.

So hop on over and check them out and let me know what you think!

 

Have a "Fairy" Nice Day!

Good morning paper crafters!  Today I'm sharing a card I created using one of the Layers of Color stamp sets "Fairy Wishes", designed by the very talented Nina Brackett.  You can find more of NIna's images at "The Craft's Meow" HERE.  This one was really easy to create because the fairy is solid.  I just stamped her on a piece of patterned paper.

Some of you may know, but for those of you who don't, Layers of Color closed up shop in January.  However, all of us Layers of Color fans are patiently waiting to here where stamp/product designer, Laura Kirste Campbell, will be designing next.  It's still top secret, but we do know that Laura will be designing with a "major craft industry company"!!  It's possible that we will be able to get some of the past Layers of Color stamp images from the new company.   As soon as I know, I certainly will be sharing.

The last couple of months I have been checking out a blog called "Paper Issues".  Lots of great idea's for lots of different types of paper crafting.  There is also a monthly challenge.  So if you are looking for great idea's, you may want to consider this one!

Have a great week!
Melisa

Artist Trading Card / Mark's Finest Papers

Artist Trading Card 2.5" x 3.5"

Ok, I have to admit, I'm not crazy about this one.  Not sure why.  I tried collaging different elements made by different companies.  The butterfly is by K&Company (from one of their emphemera packs) and the torn ticket across the bottom is really old by Daisy D.  The brown florals are a piece of patterned paper.   I really am in awe of people who do collage so well.  I do not claim to be one of them, teehee.    This one was designed using an image from "Black Eyed Susan's for Encouragement" by Mark's Finest Papers.  Mark's Finest Paper's host challenges every week on their company blog HERE and at StampTV every monday, HERE.  You can locate the challenges at StampTV if you check out the buttons along the top of the page.  Toggle the mouse over "FOSTV Challenges" to see the drop down menu of challenges.  I hope you will get a chance to join in sometime!

hugs,

Melisa

You can view all of my ATC's HERE

Vintage Easter Greetings from TX

  Aren't vintage images so wonderful!  I love old postcards.  I found a great site that has free vintage images / postcards you can download for a variety of holidays.  Check out Hub Pages HERE.

That is a link to the page where you can find the image I used on this card.  HERE is another link which will help you find vintage images for other holidays.  There is a search box as well.  Just type free vintage images and the holiday.   Hope you find something you like.  If you create something using a vintage image/postcard, I would love to see it.  Just leave me a link in the comments section!

That rose tree is so pretty.  When we lived at the rental there was a rose tree right outside my studio window.  That thing was still blooming in December!!  I love TX.  I would love to have one here at the house, but I don't know anything about roses.  I guess I need to make a trip to my local garden center.

I hope your day brought you something beautiful like that beautiful rose tree on the card!

Melisa

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Project Details

Stamps : Crafty Secrets (sentiment)

Patterned paper - really old Melissa Frances.  I pleated and inked paper to embellish. 

Spellbinders Labels Ten

Mixed Media Tutorial / Artist Trading Card / Pink Persimmon

Artist Trading Card 2.5" x 3'5"

My weekend begins tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. I was able to get off tomorrow and will be going to the community "Scrapsisters" get together tomorrow, and then 3 of my very good friends, Deb, Robin, and Melayne are joining me to stamp away the morning Saturday. And then, to top it all off, my sweet girl is flying in from Florida!!! I know we will be sharing some crafty time together as well!    I hope all of you are blessed to be surrounded by crafty friends as well!

 I am also excited about Pink Persimmon's newest release!  I enjoy creating ATC's and this set is PERFECT for those.  And of course they can be used for other projects as well.  So today I want to share an ATC that I created using background stamps from 2 of the sets, "Fairy Tale Patterns" and "Spring Time Patterns" and the girl from "Hello Vintage Girl".  

I don't participate in gossip, but I couldn't resist the phrase, "No! She didn't".  I imagined her on the phone with one of her crafty friends, and the friend is telling her something VERY important, like, "You will never believe what Susan did the other night at the crop.  She used  a hammer instead of a Crop-a-dile", teehee.   Women can be so funny! 

I also have a card to share using another set, "School Uniform".   I am also sharing a step by step tutorial on how to create the background and the paper pieced girl.  

For beginners, let me explain that Artist Trading Cards are little 2.5" x 3" pieces of art that you can swap with friends or collect for yourself.  If you are not familiar with Artist Trading Cards then you may want to take a moment to check out this post HERE.

Are you ready to get messy???  I hope you didn't just get your nails done.   Let's get started!

1.  Begin with a piece of watercolor paper.  I used Canson 140lb.  Trim to 2.5" x 3.5".  Spray with Glimmer Mist Black Cherry.   Dry with your heat gun.  I'm hoping this step will help to heat set the spray ink, so it doesn't bleed so much later.

2. After it is dried, stamp with the polka dot pattern from "Spring Time Patterns" and VersaMark Ink. Sprinkle with clear embossing powder and heat emboss.

3. Coat with white acrylic paint. I used a soft bodied paint by Liquitex. It's thicker than cheaper paint. But by all means use the cheaper brands. You just may have to apply several coats. After dry, use a lightly damp paper towel and begin wiping it across the card. Most of the paint should come off of the polka dots because the embossing powder resist the paint. Some of the paint on the background may come off as well. All to dry and repeat process as many times as needed to get the distressed look below (I did it twice).

4. Use the script background from "Fairy Tale Patterns" with black Staz-on ink. Staz-on is an ink that adhere's to non-pourous surfaces like the embossed polka dots. It may be possible to use another type ink.  I didn't experiment. You are going for a distressed look, so practice on a piece of paper first to figure out where you want to apply pressure so that the whole image does not get stamped.

All the mess is over with.  Now we are going to paper piece our "Hello Vintage Girl image" .  It's time to get out those cuticle scissors or some other type percission scissors that allow you to cut details.

5. Stamp your Vintage Girl 3 times as shown below.

6. Color the area's shown below. Notice I didn't worry about being super neat because I knew I was going to cut her out.

7. Trim all the pieces as shown below. 

8. Stamp Vintage Girl on the card front with Staz-on ink. This serves as a template for where to put your pieces as well as add the area's you are not piecing, the phone cord.

9. Adhere her blouse and skirt as shown below. I use Aleene's Tacky Glue ($1.47 at Walmart). This is my favorite adhesive and I use it 95% of the time. I like the control I have and that I'm able to fully adhere my pieces. Here's a tip : It's thick so I like it ready to go. I store it upside down in a peanut butter jar that has a little dimple in the bottom. It's a wet glue, so it can warp your paper if you use too much and if the paper is supper thin.  A dab will do.

10. Adhere the rest of the peices as shown below.

11.  Trim the card down a little so that it will still be 2.5" x 3.5" after you add the deckled background (3/16").  Adhere to black cardstock and trim with deckled scissors.  Create words on computer, trim and adhere.

I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial!

big hugs,

Melisa

Check out Pink Persimmon stamps HERE.

You can view all of my ATC's HERE

See all my MIXED MEDIA TUTORIALS HERE

See all my MIXED MEDIA / COLLAGE PROJECTS HERE

See all my ART JOURNAL PROJECTS HERE

This card uses "Scottie Dogs",  "Vintage Greetings", one of the backgrounds from the "School Uniform".  The background die is by Spellbinders, "Labels 21"

Copic Marker Chart

Hello!  Today I'm posting another card I created using an image from "Black Eyed Susans for Encoragement" by Mark's Finest Papers.

One of the things I've been working on recently is a "blending chart".   It's a resource I can take with me shopping to pick out matching patterned paper or cardstock.  My local scrapbook stores are 50 minutes away, so I'm also working on matching the Copic Colors up to cardstock I can purchase at Micheals or Hobby Lobby.  They are only 10 minutes away.  So from now on, I'm going to try and list the cardstock, when applicable, color and where I bought it.

I designed the chart using Microsoft Excel.  If you have Excel and would like a copy of a blank chart, email me at luv_2_stamp@yahoo.com, and I will send you a copy.

Have a blessed day!

Melisa

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Project Details

Stamp Sets : Mark's Finest Papers

Copics : R22, R24, R27, G21, G24, YG17, Y11, E23

Cardstock : Bazzill Basics Berrylicious from Michaels

Deckled Scissors & Border Punch : Fiskars

Patterned Paper : Clover Dot - BoBunny