It's The Little Things

Caged Beauty

I had ordered this little bird cage thinking it was a LOT Smaller than this!

As it turned out, I had just the right little items to put inside, a little tiny bouquet of red roses, and some odd little peacock feathers our beautiful bird left for me to find!  The height of this delicate little metal cage is only about six inches high. The bottom of the cage slides out, so making the arrangement to fit inside was pretty easy.  Since Simon Says Stamp is hosting a "No Rules" challenge this week, I think this would be the perfect choice.

As always, thank you for stopping to take a look!  Happy crafting :-)

Heather

Reality Check Please

Once in while (OK, a lot!) I have too much fun making a creation.  When Simon Says Stamp! put a challenge out to create something with my favorite technique, I did!  I started out with my favorite background-technique using the Gelli Arts printing plate to create a monoprint using acrylic paints.  I love this process because it can produce a primary print and then a second generation print that has beautiful results. This is a second generation print.  It's also really messy, which is half of the fun!!!!

Next came the really fun part.  Using chipboard, I painted the two hearts with

bright-red acrylic paint.  Once this dried, I used the Ranger Perfect Medium embossing pad on the pieces and sprinkled with a very fine, light sprinkle of red glitter, covered with UTEE and heated.  I then repeated the Perfect medium, glitter and UTEE two more times.  This gave beautiful depth.  The glasses are from Studio 490, Wendy Vecchi's collection (don't you just love her style?). The glasses were filled with a thick layer of Glossy accents, painted white with acrylic paint and topped off with Stickles, Crystal color.  Before this dried, I set google eyes into the mix.  I couldn't help but giggle the whole time this was drying.

The metal flowers on the bottom are from Momenta.  They are producing some wonderful metal embellishments, of course called---Metal.  I love the detail on the stamped images and they even have a frosted appearance.  The flowers and the little metal crown were painted using Vintaj Patina.  Great paint to work with.  The lovely peacock feather was "donated" by one of our fabulous peacocks here on Little Bear Ranch. (We raise mostly chipmunks)  Thanks for stopping by!!!



Too Much FUN!!



Girlie Girl

I really had to reach outside of my comfort zone on this posting.  The topic is for the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge "Hey Girl"  I am not really what most would call a "girlie" girl.  What did inspire me was thinking of my gal pals and how we stay in touch, which is usually by phone since we all live fairly far apart.  So our "hot lines"really are our phones!  I have this little chipboard phone I have been dying to use, and this was the perfect chance!

The background is a pretty aqua mulberry paper which was embossed with one Tim Holtz's creative embossing folders.  The folder was stained with Frayed Burlap Distress Stain first. 

The little chipboard phone is actually a three piece phone.  The phone itself was stained with Black Soot  Distress Stain, and then heat embossed with black embossing powder.  The two inner rings were heat embossed with a mixture of Ultra Thick Embossing Powder and Perfect Pearls gold and pewter.  That's a fun technique and produces really nice results.

To finish this little card off I made some tissue tape flowers from Recollections craft tape and colored one of them with Worn Lipstick, Distress Ink.  They each have a brad placed in the middle and some pretty, hot-pink frilly yarn around.  To balance this out I applied some matching buttons on the side.  The XOXOX is applied using a clear epoxy sticker with a Perfect Pearls misted stamp, done in archival ink.  The Epoxy helps magnify the pearl effects nicely. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my Girlie Phone!

Heather

Prima Delight!

Well, this is double fun!  There is HUGE Prima give-away at http://www.ingvildbolme.com/ to highlight a new blog design for Ingvild Bolme.  This is a beautiful site to visit, a real treat for the eyes :-) Ingvild does a fantastic job of layering in her work, everything is well balanced and easy on the eyes.  She has great tutorials and wonderful pictures of her work.  I love this site!  Not only did I find this incredible opportunity to add to my Prima collection, but I also found a new and incredible site to follow! 

Thanks for looking!
Heather

Dew Drop By!

 This has been such a hot, dry summer here in colorado, I decided to make some of my own rain!

  A few well-placed drops of Glossy Accents, and--POOF!  Instant rain :-)

Bigger Paper Please!

We need bigger paper!  I finally bought myself an art journal.  Tags are tons of fun, but sometimes there just isn't enought room to fit my ideas in!  I used one of my favorite mulberry papers for this and embossed it using a Cuttlebug embossing plate.  I then mounted it on the journal page that had been Distressed inked with Dried Marigold and Frayed Burlap. 

This was also a great chance to try out my new Xyron tool.  The "flowers" are simple chipboard with Xyron adhesive and a pretty little vellum papers over the chipboard.  The edges were trimmed, sanded and stained.  Butterscotch, alcohol inks were then used to distress the paper and each piece was the further distressed with a different color of Distress inks.  A little bling was added at the bottom to dress ithis up a little.  Lots of fun !  I will be posting this to Simon Says Stamp's "No Rules" challenge.  See you there :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Heather

Sunny Side Up!

I made this card for the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week "layered".  I am really into chipboard right now and just got a new bunch that I was anxious to try.    The card was colored with Distress stains and inks.  Because the flowers are so "busy", I was a little nervous about adding too much to the background as far as stamps, but I think it all balanced out just right! A blend of Tim Holtz and Prima stamps were used.  I really liked the vibrant colors and look forward to doing more pieces in the brighter tones.  Maybe some Dylusions sprays next?!

Ranger's Distress, Clear Rock Candy was applied to the chipboard.  The pieces were then stained with Distress Stains and topped off with Claudine Hellmuth's Multi Medium, gloss.  I find that the crackle holds up a little better and takes on more depth with that final layer. As the card was constructed, the flowers were set at different heights with foam adhesive mini circles by Recollections.

To Finish off the card, clear, acrylic gems were added to the center of the flowers.  I apologize for the super sunny picture, but I just had to show off the depth of the gems.  Great ideas for future cards are forming.........

Thank you for stopping by!!

Heather