Working with Swapped Stamp Images

Happy Wednesday, Blog Friends!

Social media such as blogging and Facebook allow us to make acquaintance -- and indeed, long distance friendships -- with crafters across the world. It's a pleasure getting to know these friends, and to share crafting techniques and a part of our lives.

One group in which I participate is on Facebook and is called "Karle's Passion."  (Hi, Karle, you little monkey!!)  Through this group, we swap cut/embellished items monthly, and also have started swapping stamped images. In fact, this month I am the host of the stamped images swap.

Today, I started coloring and creating cards using the stamped images I received last month.  A lovely woman named JoGenna Lynn sent along two images: one of a cross, and one of a Bible. Here is the card I created using one of these images:

The stamped images come on 4x4" cardstock stamped in black ink. I colored the cross using Copic markers (first), Prisma premier pencils with Gamsol, and then added Stickles. The lattice frame was cut with a die by Cheery Lynn Designs, and the embellishment for the tag is a Spellbinders die. The sentiment is an old wooden (unmarked) stamp in my stash, as is the ribbon.

Unfortunately, as I age, I can never have enough sympathy cards and they are the hardest to make, I think. This will go in my stash for an appropriate occasion.  Thank you, JoGenna, for the stamped image of the cross!



DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,

Lemonade Blog Hop Today: Refreshing!

Mmmm..... a cool drink of lemonade is sometimes all we need to quench our thirst on a hot summer day. Even thinking about lemonade can bring relief, as I found when I made this project for the  Lemonade Blog Hop on what's been the hottest day of the year so far!

Here is my project .. a cute banner for the lemonade stand at The Sheffield Place!  The Sheffield Place is a shelter for single moms and their kids, and it is the beneficiary of cards and banners in the monthly "I Feel The Love" Project sponsored by Madison Womack at www.funkycards.blogspot.com. 

I wanted this banner just so ... and as a result, yes, I spent much more time on it than I originally planned. First, I designed ten different and complementing papers to print in lemonade color, pink lemonade, and limeade.  To do this, I used Adobe Illustrator and printed on my home computer on standard white cardstock.  Here is a close-up of some of the pennants. Making your own paper is fun and easy, especially when your stash doesn't include what's in your mind's eye for your project. 

I cut the pennants using Cricut's Art Philosophy cartridge. The pennants are scallop-edged, and are cut at 8.25".  

Mmm.. topped with frozen watermelon!

I topped each of the pennants with a border of lemons that I found in Silhouette America's online shop, and cut with my Cameo. I alternated the lemons in pink and yellow, as pink lemonade is my favorite variety of the summer drink!  I wrapped the border in leaf flourishes also from the Silhouette online shop. I'm sure lemons don't grow on vines, so allow some artistic creativity here, will you?! 

Another cute idea

I also cut the letters using the Cameo in Cooper Black font. I altered the font, dragging it to make it the perfect size for my banner (4.5"h x 3"w), so you may not recognize it.   I cut the lemon slices using the Cameo too. 

Art Philosophy cuts the pennants with or without holes to string the banners -- I picked with holes, thank you!  I strung the banner together using white tulle for an added refreshing look of summer (LOL, and mosquito netting!!).

BLOG CANDY FOR EVERYBODY!  

Here are some adorable Lemonade Stickers made just for YOU by World Label. You can download them free by clicking HERE, and printing them out for use at your next lemonade stand!

I hope you like my project and that you'll join with me in supporting the "I Feel The Love" July project benefiting Sheffield  House. 



Now hop on to your next stop: AMANDA

In case you get lost along the way, here is the complete Lemonade Blog Hop line-up:

Erica ~ http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/
Haidee ~ http://created2bunique.blogspot.com/
Cely ~ http://hawaiipaperparty.blogspot.com/
Ellen ~ http://cardmonkeyspaperjungle.com/
Amanda ~ http://a-prata-design.blogspot.com/
Maria ~ http://joyfulstamper.blogspot.com/
Dena ~ http://missdjones.blogspot.com/
Cicily ~ http://pinkdalmationscrapper.blogspot.com/
Esther ~ http://forthejoyofcreating.blogspot.com/
Tammy ~ http://tampatha.wordpress.com/

 

DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,

Card Kitchen Kits - I love them!

Have I told you how much I enjoy making cards from The Card Kitchen's kit by Jillibean Soup?  I'm a subscriber, which means that during the first week of each month, I receive a stack of paper, embellishments and better yet, ideas, that stretch me out of my comfort zone ... and also relax that stress of thinking.

Here's one card that I made from this month's Card Kitchen kit. It's close to the plan ... I added a few of my own touches (like the faux white gel pen stitching).

Stop back tomorrow for the Lemonade Blog Hop!




DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,

Triple Time Stamping ... and a Winner!

Greetings, CardMonkey Fans:

First for the WINNER news from July 10th's Enjoy the Moments Blog Hop. I have a new pack of Megan Elizabeth's Paper Layerz on order from Above Rubies Studio. It's winging it's way to me ... as soon as I receive it, I'll be sending it to .... (drumroll please) .... The commenter selected at random by Random.Org .... (more drumroll)....

CHERIE

DJ's Sundries

www.djussundries.blogspot.com

Cherie, please be in touch with me at your earliest convenience, to provide me with your mailing address. I can be reached privately through my e-mail at cardmonkey@comcast.net.

Now, I'm still rehabbing my foot here in Pennsylvania, which does give me time to find new techniques (gotta love that Pinterest!) and try them out to share with you.  Here are two cards I made using this new technique:

The technique I'm trying here has been called "Triple Time Stamping."  Basically, what you do is cut three layers on a card, temporarily adhere them together, stamp randomly. Then, disassemble your cuts, mount them on a background solid, embellish and affix to your card. 

Here is an excellent video that's been posted on Facebook (by "dostamping") that better explains the technique:

DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,

"Enjoy the Moments" Blog Hop featuring Above Rubies Studios products - July 10

It is my great pleasure to participate in the first "Enjoy the Moments" Blog Hop, held to introduce you to the unique and special products of Above Rubies Studio (ARS).

ARS, owned and operated by the sweetest Megan Elizabeth, first came to my attention for its instructional DVDs. At about the same time I got my first ARS DVD ("Cricut A-to-Z"), I signed up for the site, and now I receive weekly Tuesday Tutorials, and Tips and Tricks on Thursdays. 

I have quite the collection of ENJOYED MOMENTS to share with you here today... Grab a cuppa'Joe, kick back and have fun. And don't miss the BLOG CANDY I'm offering to those who follow/comment (see far below!).

PROJECT # 1

I have to tell you -- I had so much fun working on this challenge that I couldn't stop myself!  Megan Elizabeth at Above Rubies Studio has so many great products that I wanted to try it all ...

First up.... my ZENTANGLED SVG CUT...

I got re-hooked on ARS when Megan started selling SVGs -- she also sponsors Freebie Fridays! I've collected a few of these freebies in my ARS Library. One of the SVGs available now for sale at ARS is the beautiful butterfly I used for this project. (The SVG is just the outline of the butterfly.)

Using my Silhouette Cameo, I cut the SVG using plain ivory cardstock.  Then, I went crazy with a black pen and a technique called Zentangling, which is a meditative form of doodling. Zentangles are typically in black and white (says Certified Zentanglers -- who knew?!), but I love coloring mine with Copic markers.

So that's my first project for today, Enjoying the Moments, with a cool beverage through a straw made beautiful with an SVG from Above Rubies Studio and enhanced by me ...  What do you think?

PROJECT #2: The Single PAPER LAYERZ sheet challenge!

Truth be told, after I finished my SVG project for this post, I received my order of PAPER LAYERZ from Megan Elizabeth. I wasn't really sure about Paper Layerz, as I'm a pretty good paper piecer. But this unique paper makes piecing fun, simple and less time-consuming.

The concept for PAPER LAYERZ is nifty -- 9 coordinated colors have been expertly selected and appear in 4" blocks together on one page. The sheet is double-sided, with a single complementing color on the reverse of the 9 color blocks.  Let me show you....

Select your paper from the stack ... lay it on your mat ... decide what layers you want to cut from where. To cut (I used ProvoCraft Cricut's "Create A Critter" cartridge), I used the blade arrows on my Cricut Expression  to move my blade housing to go each "start corner" and cut each image from the appropriate color block. This saved a lot of mat load, cut, unload, reload time!  In image #1 (far left), you see the whole stack; in image #2 is the paper I chose, affixed to my Cricut mat. Image #3 (center) shows the remaining paper after I cut the images I wanted and lifted the off-cuts from the mat. Image #4 shows the cuts left on the mat, and also shows that my first try here wasn't 100% successful ... my larger alligator's tail ran off the color block (I later paper-pieced it to fix), and two of my reindeer I accidentally cut too small.  In Image #5 (far right), you'll see my finished cuts, pieced and ready to use!

I think one of the very clear advantages to using Megan Elizabeth's PAPER LAYERZ is that you can keep all of your paper pieces together on the mat while working on assembly. With other papers, you have to remove your cuts from the mat to switch to the next color. Thus, you risk losing those itty-bitty little pieces of a cut, e.g., the reindeer's nose.  With PAPER LAYERZ, I kept the first layer (base, shown in Image #1 (far left, here) on the mat and applied my glue directly onto the cut while it was on the mat.  Then I layered the second cut (Image #2) and the third (brown) layer (not shown). Next -- and again, my initial Layer #1 has never left the mat -- I adhered the itty-bitty nose and scarf. At far right (Image #5), you see the reindeer cut used on my Christmas card.  Can you say Caaaa-ute?! 

Now, if you're anything like me, you HATE the notion of wasting even the smallest amount of designer paper!  For instance, it unnerved me that I didn't think of something to cut with that left'/center salmon color paper.  Here's a question for you -- What's the smallest bit of paper you'll save for reuse?  For me, I must say, I use practically all of it.  I trimmed down the leftover scraps into squares and rectangles and then I punched (circles, snowflakes, flowers) the smaller pieces. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with these scraps until I decided to challenge myself to only use ONE piece of Megan Elizabeth PAPER LAYERZ for as many projects as I could muster.  By the time I was said and done, the scraps (Image #2) had been used up to the point that the leftovers (Image #3 here) were the tiniest amount for the recycling can. And even still, I'm thinking about retrieving those colorful scraps from the trash can and mulching them up in my paper shredder to use as padding in things I mail ... am I completely nuts!

The first card (Image #1, left) I made incorporated the square-and-rectangle cuts that were the largest. I arranged them in a mosaic pattern. Again, from scraps, I punched leaves and built a tree branch for the birdie to sit upon. This bluebird has a little movement, courtesy of the Action Wobble on which she sits.    The second card used the smaller bits that had been punched into circles  For the third card (Image #3, right), I punched Snowflakes and "snow flowers" out of the smallest bits of paper I hoarded. The sentiments here on all three cards are computer-generated and printed. Which is your favorite card and why?

 Here are each of the cards, close-up:

 

Believe it or not, I made all three cards (including their embellishments) with just one sheet of designer MEGAN ELIZABETH PAPER LAYERZ(12x12"), 3 blank cards, and one sheet of plain white cardstock for the sentiments.


I hope you'll try Paper Layerz and that you find it just as easy and FUN to work with.  AND HERE'S YOUR OPPORTUNITY:

BLOG CANDY!!!  Just for YOU, I bought an extra pack of 24 sheets of Paper Layerz from Megan Elizabeth, and I'm offering it up for grabs to a randomly chosen person who follows these three steps:

1. Follow my CardMonkey blog (you're here!) by any method, and just let me know which way you do...

2. Leave me a comment on this post (yup, you're still here!) that includes a way to contact you, AND answers...

3. ...one of the three red/bolded questions in the photo captions above. No need to answer all three (but you can if you want!), just pick one...

Thank you for sticking with me on this long post ...

Once you're done here, hop on over to your next blog stop at the fabulous JEN.  When you're all said and done hopping, BE SURE to go over to see all the fabulousness that Megan Elizabeth has in store for you at Above Rubies Studio!

Here is the entire blog line-up:

Shawn: http://craftychicsblog.blogspot.com/
Ellen:   http://www.cardmonkeyspaperjungle.com/
Jen:     http://www.javajencreations.blogspot.com/
Cheri:  http://www.djssundries.blogspot.com/
Paulette: http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/
Court:  http://www.courtscraftcorner.com/
Cara:   http://caramiller.com/
Britten: http://www.twoatatimedesign.com/
... and finish off by going to see all the new wonderful crafty stuff at Above Rubies Studio @
Megan Elizabeth: http://aboverubiesstudio.com/
 

Wait ... before you buy ... did you see that I'm now an Above Rubies Studio Affiliate?  Click on the ARS link at my sidebar to be taken to shop. When you do, I'll get a small commission for the referral, and it will keep me in paper for another day, YAY!

DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,

Copic versus Touch Markers - A comparative video

Here's rudimentary math:
             Take one CardMonkey
         -   Subtract work responsibilities while out on            
             disability (foot, ugh)
         +  Add must-sit, keep foot up requirements
         +  Add boredom from inactivity
          -  Subtract work-related (commuting, meals, 
             laundry)  expenses

Thank you, Warminster PA ShopRite!

...and what does that equal?  Online shopping! I've even found a local grocery store where I can shop completely online and they have a list of every product in their store, you choose a pick-up time and your things will be picked from the shelves, bagged and kept waiting for you (in refrigerator or freezer, as appropriate) until you drive up to the door and it's loaded into your trunk!!  Man, who knew!?  Yes, there's a fee ($10), but what a time saver for those weekly shopping trips!!!

Groceries ... and craft items, oh and things for the grandbaby (YAY! Swing Set!!), that's all I buy these days.

This led to my newest video, posted below: a comparison between Copic Markers and the cheaper alternative, Touch Twin markers by ShinHan Art Materials. 

You're going to have to watch the video for the complete deets but (spoiler alert!), here's the bottom line: Touch Twin ... two monkey thumbs up and a new addition to my Top Bananas list! Recommendation on a buy from Jerry's Artarama, where Touch Twin markers are now just $1.89 each!

Credit:   Digi-Stamp from Just Some Lines
Copic Markers - Top Banana recommendation to buy from Stamps Alive! (Terri Olsen)
Touch Twin - Top Banana recommendation to buy from Jerry's Artarama



DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,

Serving up Cupcakes - Summer Fun Blog Hop, Day #2

Hi again, summer blog hoppers. Welcome back to Day #2 of the Summer Fun Blog Hop, hosted by my friend Lissa Marie of "So Many Crafts" and the Krazy Creative Crew. 

Isn't it tiring ... over and over ... when people ask, "Is it hot enough for you?"  Does it boil your shorts when you complain about the heat and someone reminds you of the past wicked winter?  Well, let me tell you: YES, it is MORE than hot enough for me, and no, our winter was mild and our summer came early. Ok, enough whining! On to crafting!!

In case you missed it yesterday, let me remind you of my thought process in coming up with today's summer-related projects. I thought back to my young'un days when the circus came to town, and we held neighborhood carnivals in our backyard. How I loved them!!  

My theme, then, is Summer Circus Fun. Yesterday, I described how I made the "Oh Happy Day" card shown below, at right. 

Today, I'll detail the cute Circus Tent Cupcake box: 

What a fun and easy box this is to make, with my Silhouette Cameo. Everything comes (cut) with the folds scored, and the tabs for gluing ready to go. A few zips with the glue gun and it's done!

Now what's a blog hop without a bit of blog candy?!  For this Summer Fun Blog Hop, we have two very special sponsors: the Scrapbook Stamp Society and "Anita and Bugs". Please be sure to check out the entry requirements at our Hostess's stop (the beginning), by clicking HERE.  

YOUR NEXT STOP is the  

lovely Jamie Lindstrom.

This Blog Hop has been brought to you by the Krazy Crafting Crew, which brings you monthly inspiration, all year long! 

In case you get lost along the way, here is the full hop line up:

Lissa - So Many Crafts, So Little Time

Anita -  Anita and Bugs

Zenita - Scrappin' with Z

ME: CardMonkey's Paper Jungle

NEXT: Jamie - Jamie Lindstrom Designs

Liz -Tryin' to Craft  

Robin - Scrap and Chat  

Jearise - Lorby's World

Lisa -Hand Made with Love by Lisa

Janet R.- Janet's Creative World

Cicily -Pink Dalmation Scrapper  

Katina-  Loving Life's Little Blessings

Jessi - My Life in Arts and Crafts  

Pam L - MzLavr2

Thank you again for dropping by!

DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,