It’s Graduation Time!!

Here are some graduation cards I’ve made in recent days.  I helped some friends to make some too, but I forgot to take pictures!

 First off is for a young man – masculine card

His school colors are purple and gold, but he also went to a magnet school with blue so ci added them to the sentiment.  The circle stamps are Tim Holtz, and the 2016 are Unity Stamps.  I also added some gold sequins.

I also a Unity Stamp for the inside quote.

This one is for a girl.  Her school colors are red and blue.  I cut the balloons out with my circle dies added some yarn and the black cap with the a red tassel.

I got my inspiration for this card from a card I saw at  My Creative Time blog hop.  I  used a torn piece of paper in the shape of clouds and using a sponge, I colored them with Broken China distress ink.  I then added the embellishments on the base.  The Celebrate stamp is an older Stamp’n Up stamp.  I also added yarn for the balloons’ strings.  I also stamped inside the balloons.

On the inside I stamped this new stamp by Unity Stamps.  I received the set just in time to make my cards!

This one is for a young lady who is graduating from college.

I used a Julie Nuttig doll stamp and a brand new face stamp to fit these girls from Peachy Keen.  It firs perfectly!  I used watercolor paper I then colored the face with watercolor pencils, and pieced together her dress  and shoes to match the background.  Her aunt said she likes purple, so I made purple the accent color.  I then added a small ribbon around the waist and a graduation cap.

Close up of the graduate.

The face

the sentiment along with her diploma.

Last, but not least, the card I made for my grandson.  It had to be special!

I used black and gold because those were the colors on his Graduation Announcement and the invitations.  The stamp on the left is a Unity stamp.  I didn’t have anymore graduation paper so I stamped the diploma, caps, words, and stars on white cardstock with gray ink.

I got this quote from Scapbooks.com and added it to the inside of the card.

As a gag gift, I enclosed a small envelope with some graduation embellishments  I found at JoAnn’s.  It had a small driver’s license and a set of keys in heavy cardstock.  I glued them on a piece of cardstock and glued a miniaturized graduation picture of him.

Then I put it inside another small envelope with gold chipboard sentiments and stars.

I’m waiting to see how he reacts to it.  I also added on the back of the small envelope under the flap:  “Patience is a virtue.”  Just saying!

Looks like I’m caught up with all my graduation cards!!

Thanks for coming by and until next time,

happy crafting!

Carmen

Unity Stamps Challenges

Hello again friends!!

Last week I entered two challenges at Unity Stamps.

The Color Challenge April 14 – 21

 

Using teal and green combination, I made this card for baby. Earlier in the day I made a card for my sister who was going to a baby shower but I didn’t take a picture of it.  So I made this one using a Sizzix die I found on sale at Hobby Lobby, by Stephanie Barnard,  Triple Circle Flip-its.  I couldn’t find teal cardtock so I took white cardstock and my acrylic paints and made some!  Easy peasy!

When  you open it, it reveals another sentiment.

These cards are hard to photograph, but I did the best I could.  I used the Hello Little One kit.  I first stamped the animals on gray cardstock using black ink, I cut them out and added the small hearts in red.   I added the black, gray, and white cord for added texture.

The second card is very similar, but instead of using the die, I just made an old fashion 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 card using coordinating papers from a 6×6 stack.

I just happened to have some googly eyes in my stash small enough for these elephants.  Aren’t they cute!!  I also added three hearts in three different sizes.

Here’s a close up of the elephants.

Anything Goes Challenge – April 21 – 28

This time, I didn’t have to spend time making a card, because I created a card for my cousin’s daughter when she got married in Phoenix two weeks ago.

I used the Cherished Moments kit by Angie Blom.  You can see more on this card in one of my previous post here: 

Lastly, Angela Magnuson, the owner of Unity Stamps made a video on the Face Book  Unity Stamps Show and Tell group  and challenged us to “RE-CREATE a card like Angela made (using any UNITY stamp) and post it in the comments below for your chance to win a grab bag of {100 stamps/sentiments!!!}”

Wow! I want to win 100 stamps!!

So this quick card was created in less than five minutes!

I used a feather from the  Beautiful is Never Perfect kit by Angie Blom.  I so love the detail!!

Angela stamped her feathers one on top of the other one, but I just randomly stamped mine so the details could be seen.  I used three different colors of distressed inks, and “wallah!”

I also used one of the sentiments that comes with it inside double stamping it for a shadow effect.

So much fun playing in my craft room!

I just finished reorganizing my craft room and I found so many things I don’t use any more.  I will be posting what I have for sale here and my FB page.  There will be stamps, stamps, and more stamps, as well as a “never used – new” Making Memories Slice machine with design cards and accessories, Cricut cartridges, embossing folders,  a gypsy, two Jukeboxes that hold six Cricut cartridges each for designing or combaning your own images, and lots more!

Until next time, you have yourselves a great week and keep on creating!!

Carmen

 

Unity Stamps Photo Challenge April 7 – 14.

Since I didn’t have to make a project for this week’s Life Book 2016, I spent my time making cards for a couple of challenges.   I hope you read my previous post about the projects I created for Club Scrap.

This week’s photo is open to interpretation as you can see by the image.  I’ve seen a few of the cards people have made for this challenge and many involve rain drops.

I chose to concentrate on the colors instead of the raindrops.

I went to Hobby Lobby and found a Spellbinders Stained Glass die cut on clearance.  I think this was an excellent purchase and will make great use of it.

I used the You do This stamp which has several words you can insert in the banner.  I chose “amaze.”  I then cut out the letters and the banner individually so the “stained glass” wouldn’t be obscured.  I used silver cardstock and ran it through the Big Shot.

I die cut another piece using white cardstock and used it as a mask, then used inks, colored pencils, and markers to add the colors on the photo.

Here’s a close-up

I really enjoyed making this card although had to take my time to color each segment of the “stained glass” and fuzzy-cut each letter.

I hope you enjoyed your visit here, and until next time,

make some art!

Carmen

Unity Stamps Anything Goes Challenge

This week’s challenge over at the Unity Show and Tell Facebook page is to use any Unity girl stamps to create a card, scrapbook page, mixed media project or anything else, using Unity Stamps only.

I love mixed media so I took the opportunity to play with Donna Downey’s stamp Kit, Calliope.  The girl’s image is 5×7.

This is an 8×11 canvas board that I primed with clear gesso so I could work on the face.  I first worked on the background and left a space for the image.  I used several Unity Stamps after laying down three different colors of Deco Art media fluid acrylics in Pthalo Blue, Hansa Yellow Light, and Liquitex heavy body acrylic in Payne’s Gray.

After the acrylic colors dried, I started stamping randomly using Unity Stamps Numbers, Etc.; the script from the Let it GO & Focus set; Donna Downey’s Peony and She; and Layers of Life kit Paper Hearts.

 I also added some doodles with my white Signo pen.

Then I went to work on the girl’s face and body.  I first stamped her on Rice paper so I could get a good impression then glued her with matt medium.  Some of the colors I used on the face were Americana acrylic in Fresh Tone, Golden Brown, Natural Buff, White and Liquitex Basics in Light Portrait Pink. For the lips, and cheeks, I used  the Tombow Art markers.

While that was drying, I used Donna’s stencil and applied gold and green Art (C) molding paste I found on clearance at Michael’s.  Great stuff, by the way!  It came in three small containers with three different colors – enough to try out!

I used one of Heidi Swapp’s stencils and her glittery silk screen molding paste here…

…and here.  It was the first time I used it and was very impressed with the creaminess and the shine – just like her glimmer mists!

after everything was dried, I stamped the She stamp on regular printing paper so it would have a good impression, cut it out, and glued it on the canvas with matt medium.

Then I worked on her hair, glasses, and dress. I used three different colors of Tombow pencils and ArtDeco Interference to make it shine.  I also added shading to her face and body using Pitt Markers.

I added glossy accents on the glasses and a few white lines to make it appear as the glare on the glass.

Thanks for stopping by to see my project and leave me some love in the comments.

Happy creating you all!

Carmen

Unity Stamps Color Challenge

Coincidently, this week I made two cards for some friends and they matched the colors of the challenge at Unity Stamps, yay!

I was actually going to make them for the picture challenge, but I ran out of time.  When I went to the challenge page, the information for the next challenge was already up so I went with what I already had!

I made a banner and added some butterflies and a flower group.  I used the Wish With Your Heart Sentiment Kit which just happens to be on sale this week!  I stamped the wish sticks on a doily also and the round circle in orange and black.

This one is for a friend who is a little under the weather. I used the same stamp kit, but stamped the wish sticks in black only.

This week I’m working on a baby mixed media project and I’ll post that one soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

Carmen

And It Begins: Life Book 2016

Hello again, crafty friends!

I put together my projects for Life Book 2015, but there were so many pages, I had to make two albums.

I made the covers out of hard white mat board and covered them with the designer paper.  I didn’t want to make holes in my pages, so instead, I made some corners where the pages would be inserted, and glued them to the 11×17 paper I found at JoAnns.

This is when I found out I couldn’t put any more pages in the album even though I used three inch rings.

As you can see, I made a lot of art last year!

Life Book 2016 – Week One

Now, I start on Life Book 2016.  I’ve been working on my projects as fast as I  can so I don’t fall behind.  This year I want to conscientiously make all the projects because I’m still learning and I’m finding what I like.  I don’t want to get into a rot, so I feel that if I try all the different classes, I can learn new styles and more techniques.

The Warm Up

Tamara Laport, the genius behind Life Book has been conducting this series since 2012.  This will be my second year, and I enjoy going to my craft room and playing with all my crafty stuff.  I’ve also been able to take out different tools, paints, and stencils I haven’t used before.

Tam, is a very gentle, gracious, and giving person.  You can tell by her lessons and the details in each that se really enjoys teaching others what she knows.

The first week she did a warm up lesson about our word for the year.  I am struggling with overworking my art and so I figured that imperfection is better than getting frustrated.

A closeup of the lotus:

I used a variety of stamps to make it imperfect.

I stamped the word beautiful and the lotus with a Unity Stamp kit.

These two are also part of the kit.

Main Lesson, Happy Traveler.

I chose a lamb and an eagle to be my traveling companions.  I gave the eagle a little bit of attitude!

A closeup of my little lamb.  Yes, she’s blue, but she’s happy.

A closeup of the eagle leaning on the tree.

A closeup of the the traveler’s face.  Notice the doodling I did on her hair to add some dimension.

I also did some doodling on the bottom left corner with a white marker and other doodles with the black one.

And used a stencil on her cape and on the upper right hand corner.

Tam added a pouch to her traveling companing, but I didn’t add one to mine because I fuzzed too much over my lamb and I just wanted to finish.

I’ve been working today on Week two, and will post the homework tomorrow.

Until then, happy crafting!

Carmen

Online Watercolor Class for Card Makers – Day 3 (continued)

Gelatos and Watercolor Crayons with Shari Carroll

Although this is the last day of class, we will probably have a bonus day, so you’ll have to put up with me and my cards one more day!

I made two cards with the techniques she showed us.

I made my first ever shaker card using the watercolor paper and Gelatos that was sprayed with water and a stencil.    I didn’t get a chance to take a picture of the before that shows all the nice texture.

I used a heart die and also cut out “love you” out of gold shimmer paper.

 

You can see a bit of the texture on the top:

The second technique, she only made the card base, bit I made a card using Gelatos because I didn’t have watercolor crayons.

I made it into a celebratory card.  I stamped a single stamp with stars and stripes, embossed it with silver embossing powder, cut out some starts with a Martha Stewart punch, and added silver stickles to the stars on the stamp.  The sentiment is from Unity Stamps.  I used a spellbinders die.

Well, friends, that is all the samples I have for this class.  I hope we do have a bonus and I can make more watercolor cards!

Thanks for stopping by,

Carmen

Road Trip to Mount Rushmore – June 2015

One of my husband’s life long dreams was to see Mount Rushmore!

My daughter and my grandson joined us and it turned out to be one of the best vacations ever!!

We started out going to Santa Fe and spending a couple of days.  We’ve been to Santa Fe, but didn’t have the time to look around.  This time, we spent the whole day enjoying the city.  Here are a few pictures:

My husband has heard so much about the Loretto Chapel where the mysterious spiral staircase is located that we made our first stop here:

We also  did the tourist thing of shopping for bargains:

haa haa, I don’t know what I was demonstrating,

We couldn’t leave Santa Fe without going to the Georgia O’Keeffe museum.  So inspiring!

We checked this place out because it had smoothies,

I ended up having a virgin red chile bloody mary, yumm!

Having a great dinner!

Now on to Colorado to stay at our time share near Vail.  This is the scenery on our way there.

The closer we got, the more snow we started seeing on the road.

We finally arrived at our destination and were glad we left the snow behind!

We had nice weather all around and got to enjoy long walks to the lake,

and the creek,

The water was perfect for white water rafting!

The lake was peaceful, though.

 enjoying nature,

Tulips

A bee searching for honey in a lavender bush.

 

and pretending we were kids again!

 We sat at this cozy garden and watched people go by.

We also visited Eagle, down the road and admired the bronze art on the sidewalk.

Midweek we went to Denver to pick up our grandson and went through the one mile long Eisenhower tunnel.

After picking up Sage from the airport, we went to visit our old neighborhood in Aurora, Colorado.  We hadn’t been there since 1983 so we couldn’t find our previous homes. After some searching and googling, we found our house on Olathe St. in the Mission Viejo neighborhood and the Berry home in Smokey Hill.

We couldn’t leave Denver without visiting Casa Bonita.

This restaurant used to be a Safeway store and was remodeled and converted into an old Mexican villa, complete with caves, waterfall, and a gorilla.

My daughter was reminiscing how she and her brother would love to go there not for the food, but for the entertainment.  The menu hasn’t changed a bit; it’s still not very good, but eatable.

When you get to your table, they present you with a flag you can raise when it’s time for a refill or some of their famous sopaipillas.

We headed back to Avon Colorado and began the fun part for Zonia and Sage.  They went hiking, biking, and water rafting!

Biking near Vail Valley

At the end of the week they went white water rafting on the Eagle River, but I haven’t been able to find their pictures online.

When we lived in Colorado, we used to visit the towns in the rockies – our favorite town was Estess Park.

This is a picture of the famous Stanley Hotel.

We drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming and went to an Hispanic event.  It was their first so it was held at a small park.  Adjacent to the park is a railroad museum and this is where we took this picture.  I’m too short for this!!

The next day we started on our trip to North Dakota.  There was so much rain and flooding we had to be rerouted and it took two more hours to get to Keystone.  This is where both Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial are.

Since it was still early enough in the afternoon, we decided to go to the Crazy Horse memorial because it was on the way to Keystone.

Can you believe this is as far as they’ve gotten on the monument?   Everyone’s question is “When will it be finished” the answer from the guide is always “When we get enough funding.”

This is a replica of how it will look when it’s completely done!

You can pick a rock from the left over rocks to take home.  No, Sage, you can’t take that on the plane!!

Are you kidding me?  You want to take that big rock home, honey?

Finally made it to Mount Rushmore.  The monument is a lot smaller than the Crazy Horse Monument.  It fits in the head of the warrior.

The family in front of the monument..

.

…and this is a closeup after walking up 252 steps!!

We were all so happy to be there finally!

We just had to stop at Sturgis where they hold the biggest motorcycle rally in the world!!

But the biggest highlight of my summer was when my sister and I attended the Imitate Jesus Regional Convention of Jehovah’s Witnesses.  Best convention to date!!

Next post, I’ll be downloading the projects I’ve completed for Life Book 2015.  Until next time, happy crafting!!

Unity Stamps Be Inspired Challenge

Today is the last day to post our cards for the Be Inspired challenge at Unity Stamps.  I made this card Saturday, but hadn’t had time to post until today.  Almost missed it!!

I started out by creating a mixed media background using a piece of manila folder and blending Distress Inks in Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed, Ripe Persimmon, and Picked Raspberries.   I then cut it to 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 to make the base of the card; then I used three different stencils to add some accents.

I added a piece of vellum to soften the colors and for the “Hello Darling” sentiment I used my new stamp set, Butterfly Endearment.  I used Shabby Shutters and immediately added clear embossing powder.  I just love that I don’t have to use different colors of embossing powder because the distress inks stay wet.

Then I used the left over piece of the manila folder and stamped the everything wonderful circle stamp using Mowed Lawn.  For the collaged butterfly I used the same colors and also embossed it with clear embossing powder.

Finally, I added some green raffia and green confetti hearts.

I really enjoyed making this card and I’m hoping it gets chosen!

See you soon,

Carmen