Oh ... Flock

I apologize in advance for the route my brain took with this card. I started out innocently enough with two challenges, but then, sigh. First, the current Color Throwdown challenge:

and the current (I KNOW, both current!) CAS(E) this Sketch! challenge:

and this is what came out:

Yeah, not what I expected, either, but man was it fun to make. I might have giggled the whole time.

In theory, my bird stamp is the flower part of the sketch. I said in theory. Hey, it's a simple/single image with a sentiment, right? Hmph.

I colored the wings in orange and yellow, and their beaks in grey. I knew immediately the bodies would need to be blue, and not just any blue, but blue flocking! I covered the bods in liquid glue, one at a time, covered the glue with the flocking, pressed it into the glue, and moved on to the next bird. After all the birds were done, I squeed.  Look at this:

It's so ... touchable.

Now about that sentiment ... ahem. As I was coloring and flocking I was thinking about which sentiment I'd use. I have a "Herd the news" stamp, but this is a flock, not a herd. Flock, you say? And I'm using flocking, too? It was too good to pass up, so I decided on Oh ... Flock. I really wanted Oh, Flock (with a comma), but I couldn't find the comma on my Dymo Labeler, so I had to resort to the ellipses, which at least one of my beloved readers will appreciate.

One tip about flocking: it can be re-positioned as long as the glue is still wet. Use your tools. I used this:

If you have the Silhouette Pick-Me-Up (I use the sticky end for picking up tiny things like sequins or mini clouds), pull out that tool in the back of it and use the flat end to push the flocking back inside the line. I also used the pointy end to clean up the tiniest bird's eye.

I'm going to go see what else I can cook up in there.

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used:
Stamps: Stampotique Stack of Birds
Ink: Memento Black
Card stock: Neenah Solar White, SU Sahara Sand (lightest grey I own)
Everything else: Dymo Labeler, Stampendous Fun Flock - Blue Suede, Copics (Y19, YR04, C2 and 0), Zig Two Way Glue Pen, Silhouette PickMeUp tool, Multiline Black .1, Corner Chomper

Polka Dot Birthday

The current challenge at The Friday Mash-Up is:

And the Mash-up Challenge is:

1. Create a project with Polka Dots.
2. Create a project using the word Happy.
3. Or Mash it Up and create a project with Polka Dots & the word Happy on it.

I, of course, had to do both. When I saw the car, I knew immediately I needed to use the car image from an old (but still available) There She Goes stamp set to make this:

Believe it or not, I couldn't find any pink polka dot paper (!) so I had to make my own. I stamped the car onto a piece of pink paper from the Basic Grey Fiction 12x12 pack (I will never run out) and fussy-cut it, including the windshield. 

The photo frame is a Lil' Inker die. I took out the rectangle and colored it with Distress Tumbled Glass before I stuck on the car, then I stuck them both down to another piece of (gah) pink paper from the same pack. (and now that piece of pink is gone).

The Retro sentiment is from the GinaK So Groovy stamp set, and I would have stopped there, but the challenge said to use the word "happy", so I added that to the bottom right corner. To fill in the empty from the angled photo frame, I added a few paper flowers from my stash. 

When I was all done, I went back with my white gel pen and added the dots to the car. I like to live dangerously.

One note: When you stamp an image onto (gah) pink paper, the whole thing comes out pink, including the parts you don't want pink. In this case, I'm talking about the windshield, tires and the headlights. I cut out the windshield with a craft knife, and I declared the tires to be dark enough -- didn't want to lose their nice texture by coloring over them and probably messing it up. 

That left me with the headlights:

I took a cotton swab, dipped it into some Memories Unicorn pigment ink, and dabbed it onto the lights. I think it colored them just enough. You can see where I, um, "slipped", on the left one. For my last trick I went around the lights with a silver gel pen.

This was fun! I'm going back in to see what else I can cook up today.

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used: There She Goes ROFL Taglines, GinaK So Groovy, Basic Grey Fiction 12x12 paper, misc white card stock, SU brad, misc paper flowers, a cotton swab, an Oxford comma, and the following:

InLinkz.com

ABNH August Sketch

Hello! I'm over at A Blog Named Hero today* with the August sketch. Here's one of the four (yes four) cards I made:

Why not stop over and see what else I've cooked up? :)

*oops, come back at 5 pm ET.

Thinking Of You

The current challenge over at A Blog Named Hero is Recycle, Reuse. How did they know I had spent some time last weekend re-packaging some stamp sets, and I'd saved a piece of cool scalloped packaging to use on a card? HOW DID THEY KNOW? Well, as I checked out the DT projects, I kinda got an idea from Linda's card and I knew what had to be done, and it didn't involve the scalloped packaging. However, I did recycle stuff, so let's take a look at that card, shall we?

I'm a little bit proud of how this turned out. :) When I saw the window on Linda's card, I thought it would be great to use with the new mini cloud dies I have. I cut a bunch of the Small Madison Windows from scrap white card stock and that's where the recycling comes in. Look at the other side of the white scraps:

Several years ago I bought a calendar kit, and I rediscovered it in one of my cleaning fits reorganizing moments. It was still in the original packaging ... so sad. Since we all know there are two sides to every piece of card stock, they became windows. (The blue dots are liquid glue.)

I knew I wanted to sandwich a piece of acetate between two of the windows, because I didn't want the acetate to be the bottom layer ... gotta have room for the tiny clouds! I started with five windows, but by the time I was done I had more like ten. It was out of control. Check it out:

The last layer on top was because I managed to smear black ink onto the finished window. Easy fix! Peel off the cat and add another window - no problem!

The sky/sunset was made by swiping my still-out (duh) Memento Luxe inks over a piece of white card stock, and I wasn't even careful about it, because the sky isn't perfect. I stuck the clouds down, then stuck the colored piece to the back of the window stack. In case you're wondering, I did split the middle cloud so the window piece would lie flat. That took about 20 minutes of my life to get the pieces lined up correctly with the window. Seriously.

I stamped the sentiment (from Hero Arts) in Versafine ink and clear-embossed it.

After the whole thing was assembled, and pre-schmear, I decided the window needed a cat, so I broke out my never-opened Poppy Stamps die and used it here. He's three die-cuts thick because that window needed to be thicker. I had to put a piece of 1/8" Sookwang tape under his bottom and a piece of Kool Tak between his tummy and the acetate to make him stay in place. In truth, he also distracts the eye from a piece of fluff I managed to trap between the acetate and the sunset piece. Hey, I don't do windows, okay?

One of the by-products from die-cutting all those windows is a pile of about 40 perfect rectangles from the window panes. I sense another recycle/reuse project coming this weekend. Maybe I'll even incorporate that packaging I saved to use on a card. Could happen.

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used: VLVS clear embossing powder and the following:

InLinkz.com

Hello

If you've read more than one of my blog posts (THANK YOU!), you know I'm easily enabled. It will come to you as no surprise then that I started adding the new Memento Luxe pigment inks to my various online wish lists, just waiting for the right moment to cave in and buy a few. That moment came when two things happened in rapid succession. First, Jennifer McGuire posted her Ink Comparison video. She is very enabling, but it comes with some great analysis to help you form your own opinion about what would be best for you and your own style and budget.

Second, my Ellen Hutson email came through with a 20% off your entire order coupon. Inks ... sale ... SOLD! I caved. And tonight they arrived Chez Crooked, so I got to work.

When I ordered the inks (and no, I did not get them all), I had a project in mind from maybe two Online Card Classes ago where Jennifer used a leaf stamp to make a flower with nice bright colors. That's what I did tonight. Here she is:

I bought mostly the brighter colors of Luxe inks for this ... um, is it a technique? It only took me three or four tries to get it mostly even, too. That leaf is from the Avery Elle Modern Leaves stamp set that I needed to do this ... technique. Also, it's a very cool stamp set. Just sayin'.

The sentiment is from the same set, and it's stamped in Hero Hues black. I put three dots of Enamel Accents next to it because it needed something, and sequins didn't look right, and the Enamel Accents bottle was still on my desk. I do think proximity is 80% responsible for what I do at that desk.

I trimmed the top layer down to where it didn't fit nicely on an A2 card front, so I got creative. The front you see here is only 4" wide, but the back of the card is 4 1/4". I had to lay it down to take the photo:

I cut a strip from a sheet of washi tape and put it on the inside edge of the back. I like the sheets because you can mix up how you choose to cut the paper and it gives you lots of alternatives pattern-wise. I think the stripes give this card a little je ne sai quoi, and cuts all that white.

I kinda like how this turned out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Products used:
Inks: Memento Luxe Ink in Rose Bud, Morocco, Dandelion, Pear Tart and Bahama Blue; Hero Hues black
Stamps: Avery Elle Modern Leaves stamp set.
Card stock: Neenah Solar White, SU Basic Black.
Other: Enamel Accents, Corner Chomper, Fiskars paper trimmer, Teflon bone folder, MS mini score board, Recollections button, Lifestyle Crafts Shape 'N Tape - black, SU twine.