I have a little butterfly action for you on today’s tutorial and also I’m giving this card away as blog candy.

All you need to do to enter for a chance to get this card is leave me a comment here on this post.  If you are getting this blog update by e-mail and you wish to comment, please click this link that will take you to my blog so you can comment for a chance to win this card:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/07/08/isc-flutterby-tutorial-blog-candy/

I’ll use a random number generator to pick a number on Thursday morning, July 10th.

The images used in today’s tutorial are by Innovative Stamp Creations from their “Flowers & Elements” & “About Me” Sheets.  Here is a link to their online store:

http://www.innovativestampcreations.com/ischomepage.html

Ready for some Emboss Resist, Resist?  Let’s get started on today’s Tutorial. 

Supplies:

Stamped Butterfly with Palette Noir Black ink on a 3.75″ x 5.25″ of Whisper White card stock.

Colored in the image with a Prismacolor Sky Blue Light marker.

Darkened the middle of the image with a Faber Castell Black marker.

Colored over the entire image with a Versamark marker, by coloring the light parts first and then going to the dark parts.

Heat embossed the image using clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Over Stamped butterfly image with the Flower image using Craft Going Gray ink.

Note:  if you don’t have craft ink you can load your stamp first with Versamark then your Classic ink before stamping.  The Versamark will let your embossing powder stick to your image.

Heat embossed the image with clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Colored in the flower using an Aqua Painter and Barely Banana ink. 

Note:  While your ink pad is closed you can squeeze the lid down on the pad to create a little pool of ink on the lid in which to water color with.

Added some Going Gray ink to the top half of the flower.

Colored the entire flower with Versamark marker.

Heat embossed it with clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Used the Barely Banana ink pad directly on the card stock, covering all of the it.

Sponged More Mustard ink on ramdomly, but leaving the lower left corner light.

Sponged on Really Rust ink.

Sponged on some Baroque Burgundy ink.

Sponged a little black ink to get really dark under the butterfly and at the top of the card stock.

Added a Going Gray marker shadow at the bottom of the flower.

Traced fine line around the bottom of the flower and butterfly to create some depth. 

Added some Faber Castell Yellow marker on top of the embossed flower to punch up the color a bit. 

Heated the embossing powder on the flower to melt the marker in a bit.

Assembled card and added ribbon, brads and punched photo corners.

Here the card is finished measuring 5″ x 6.5″.

Thanks for checking out the tutorial today.  Why don’t you give emboss resist, resist a try?

May your day be filled with dreamy sweet smelling flowers and butterflies.

Until my next post. . . . . . .

Michelle

Quick post this morning.  I purchased this large dried gourd at a flea market for 75 cents, about 2 years ago.  Yep that’s right, it’s been hanging around in my stamp room for 2 years, lol.  My husband put a not so perfect hole in the front of it and drilled some small holes in the bottom for drainage and small holes in the top of the neck so I can run some twine through to hang it. 

This gourd is very blemished, even after sanding it with Sandpaper, so I decided to make it very rustic looking.   

No tutorial today since this was pretty much straight stamping.  I used Black Stazon ink to stamp the images. 

The images are by Innovative Stamp Creations :

http://www.innovativestampcreations.com/ischomepage.html

Since I was using unmounted stamps, I could using them without any mount and wrap the rubber around the gourd to stamp it.  I held the stamp in my hand, inked it and then pressed it to the gourd.   Where the images didn’t stamp as dark as I would like I colored them using a Black Faber-Castell marker.  The flower was colored in with a Brown Faber-Castell marker.  These markers are nice.  They are Indian ink and very fade resistant.

After stamping and coloring I finished it by spraying Clear High Gloss Polyurethane on it for protection.  My husband woke up this morning, saying what is that smell, lol.  Don’t worry folks I took it out side to spray it, but brought it in the house to dry.

It’s not the fanciest birdhouse ever created, but I like it’s rustic charm.  :)  Hopefully some bird family will enjoy it too.

Hope your day is filled with peace and sunshine.

Until my next post. . . . . . . . .

Michelle

A few things this morning before I get on with the tutorial.

During this 4th of July weekend, please give a shout out to Chad who is on his FIFTH deployment  to the Middle East and to his Unit.  Here is a link to his mothers blog that the unit is reading, please leave a comment for them:  http://flatfishpaperarts.blogspot.com/2008/07/happy-4th-of-july-chad_04.html

Secondly, we have a Blog Candy winner!   Drum roll please. . . . . . . . . . .

It’s lucky number 80, Grace O’Neal who wrote the following comment:

I just started getting your newsletters this week and love your creations! Absolutely beautiful. I plan on trying a few for myself in the next few weeks - can’t wait! Very inspiring. … Thanks and have a great 4th!

Grace, please e-mail your address to mzindorf@aim.com and I will get those stamps mailed out to you.  Congratulations!

Everyone else who left a comment, thank you so very much!

Regarding the terrific stamp images used for the piece, they came from http://www.mypapermoon.com

OK, let’s get started on the tutorial!

Supplies:

Using a Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement, stamped 4 palm trees on a piece of 4.5″ x 4.5″ Whisper White card stock.  First one with Soft Sky ink, second with Bordering Blue ink, third one with Not Quite Navy ink and Fourth one with Basic Black ink.

Colored the trucks in with matching colored markers.

I don’t have a Soft Sky Marker so I used my Aqua brush and reinker to color the Soft Sky tree trunk in.

Using a circular motion, sponged Soft Sky ink at the top of the card stock and under the Soft Sky Tree.

Sponged Bordering Blue ink under the Bordering Blue Tree.

Sponged Not Quite Navy at the bottom of the card stock, up to the Not Quite Navy Tree.

Sponged Basic Black ink at the bottom of the card stock and lightly sponged in some in the blue area behind the trees.

Made Dash markers with a White Gel pen in the water area and along the left side of the tree trunks.   Also, added a bit in the leaves of the darker trees.

Traced the right side of the tree trunks with a black marker.

Stamped the bird with Basic Black ink.

Assembled the card and here it is finished measuring 5.25″ x 5.25″.

Hope your day is filled with Soft Balmy Breezes.

Until my next post. . . . . . . . .

Michelle

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!

This morning I decided to make my Granddaughter’s Birthday card.  She is a girlie, girl for sure.  Loves, loves, loves pink!   So what do you put on a Girlie Girl’s card, pink dresses, of course. 

These images are from Rupa Shevde’s set “Retro Boutique” that can be purchased from Gina K. Design’s online store found here:  http://www.ginakdesigns.com/

Let’s get started on the tutorial. 

Supplies:

Stamped the dresses on a 6″x 6″ piece of Whisper White Card stock with Palette Noir Black ink.

Stamped the four purses using Palette Noir Black ink.

Used my Curvy Cutter and cut it out into a 5″ circle.

Colored the dresses on at a time using these 3 colors of Prismacolor Markers in this order, Light Peach, Deco Peach, Blush Pink.  With solvent based markers, you want to work fast to try to avoid hard lines.  If you do get a hard line, try going over the hard line with the lightest color to blend it some.

I blended my hard lines between the Blush Pink & Deco Peach by going over it with Deco Peach again.

Colored the purses with Light Peach.

Added Blush pink to the purse flowers.

Colored the leaves on the purse with Light Olive Green.

Colored all the images with Versamark marker and heat embossed the using clear embossing powder and a heat gun.  I found it is easiest to work one image at a time, coloring with Versamark and then heat embossing before going to the next image.

Now that your images are heat embossed they will resist ink.

Sponged in a circular motion, Lettuce ink in the center of the card stock.

Sponged in a circular motion, Old Olive ink, not covering the Lettuce ink entirely. 

Sponged in a circular motion, Always Artichoke ink at the edge of the card stock.

Wanted the edge to be very dark, so I sponged Black ink at the edge.  Be careful when you are using black ink over embossed images, it will turn your light colors gray, yuck!  If you do get it on the light colors, wipe it off immediately.

Now my image looks flat and I want to give it some life.  Using the brush point of a Stampin’ Up Going Grey marker, I traced a thick line at both sides of the dresses and under the purses creating a shadow.

To bring the images forward more, I traced a line down the sides of the dresses and under the purses.  Now that added some more life.

Can’t forget the bling, assembled the card and added some Brenda Walton Adhesive olive colored Rhinestones that I got from GinaKDesigns.com.

Put dotes in the corners of the card with a white gel pen.

Here is the card all finished measuring 5.25″ x 5.25″

Hope you will try this emboss resist tutorial.

May your day be filled with fireworks and party dresses.

Until my next post. . . . . .

Michelle

Here it is Thursday already!  Wow, the older I get the faster time flies.  Am I the only one that feels this way?

Anyway, today I got back to nature with the Stampin’ Up’s Set “Touch of Nature”.  I love this little Chickadee.  Isn’t he the cutest little bird?  I have Chickadees all over my yard.  They are such happy little souls.  I can’t help but smile when I see and hear them.

Also, today I’m giving BLOG CANDY!  Anyone miss out on the Studio G Series 8 stamps?  I have 12 packs here just waiting for some lucky stamper.

Well here is your chance to get them.  All you need to do to enter is leave me a comment here on this post.  If you are getting this blog update by e-mail and you wish to comment, please click this link that will take you to my blog so you can comment for a chance to win these stamps:  http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/07/03/chickadee-in-the-woods-tutorial/

I’ll use a random number generator to pick a number on Saturday morning, July 5th.

Ready for the tutorial?  Let’s get started

Supplies:

Stamped the bird with Palette Noir Black ink on a piece of 3.5″ x 5″ Whisper White card stock.  I’m using the Palette ink because it doesn’t smear with the Solvent based Prismacolor markers.

Colored the bottom of the birds belly with a Buff marker.

Extended the limb to the edge of the card stock with a Fabe Castell black marker.

Colored the birds head, very bottom of the belly and back with a Cool Grey 30% marker.

Colored the dark parts of the leaves with a Light Olive Green marker.

Colored the Branch with a Buff colored marker.

Added some Cool Grey 80% colored marker to the dark parts of the birds head and back.

Added a bit more Buff marker to the birds belly.

Colored over the bird with a Versamark marker, being very careful to stay within the lines.

Heat embossed using clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Sponged Bordering Blue ink in a pouncing motion all over the card stock.  I want it to look splotchy.

Stamped leaves by first loading my stamp with Old Olive ink and then misting the stamp a tiny bit so it would look a bit out of focus when I stamp it.  Note:  I tried this out on scrap paper first to see how much misting to do for the effect I wanted.

Stamped some Bordering Blue Leaves, some I misted, some I didn’t.

Sponged Bordering Blue ink at the right side of the card stock using a circular motion for good coverage.

Stamped a few leaves using Blue Bayou ink at the right side of the card stock.

Sponged Blue Bayou ink at the right side of the card stock, not covering all of the Bordering Blue ink. 

Traced the underside of the Bird and the branch with a Black marker.

Added White Gel pen highlights to the leaves on the branch and a dot on the birds eye.

Assembled card and here it is finished measuring 5″ x 6.5″.

Don’t forget to comment to enter to win the blog candy for today. 

Hope your day is filled with the sights and sounds of birds singing their happy little tunes.

Until my next post. . . . . . .

Michelle

I love the western style stamp sets from Stampin’ Up and I have them all, but I don’t use them nearly enough.  Drug this one out today, dusted it off and got down to business.  Fussed around with this card to long to post it this morning before work, hence the late post. 

Ready for the tutorial?  Let’s get started. 

Supplies:

Stamps:  Stampin’ Up “Wanted”

Paper:  Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Basic Black & More Mustard

Ink:  Stampin’ Up More Mustard, Craft White, Basic Black, Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Apricot Appeal

Accessories:  Brads, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Black marker, Versamark marker, White Gel pen, Piercing Tools, 1 1/4 circle punch, post it note, Brayer, clear embossing powder & heat gun, sponges

Punched a circle from the sticky part of a post it note and put in on a piece of Whisper White Card stock as a mask for the sun.

Brayered Apricot Appeal ink over the entire card stock.

Removed sun mask.   Using my Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement, stamped the horse using Basic Black ink.

Colored the horse in with a black Faber Castell marker.

Be sure that your background ink is very dry before moving on to this step. :)  Otherwise the embossing powder will stick to the entire card stock.

Colored over the horse with a Versamark maker and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder and a heat gun.

Sponged More Mustard on ink, using a left to right motion, streaking the ink across the card stock.

Put a fresh post it note sun mask on.

Sponged on Really Rust ink using a streaking motion across the card stock.

Added some Chocolate Chip ink by sponging it on using the same streaking motion.

Covered the sky area with post it note masks.

Sponged Basic Black ink all over the un-masked area of the card stock.

Removed the masks and added some More Mustard streaks acoss the sun with a sponge.

Added some Really Rust ink streaks across the sun.

Sponged on just a little black ink around the horses legs in a pouncing motion to simulate dust being kicked up.

Assembled the card front and used my piercing tools to make holes for my brads so they would be in a straight line and well spaced.

Using a stamp-a-ma-jig for placement, stamped the “wanted” stamp with White Craft ink.

Added White dots behind the stamped “wanted” with a white gel pen.

Here you have it the completed card measuring 5″ x 6.5″.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  Take a few moments and create a dramatic sky with some warm colors of ink.

May your day end with a fabulous sunset!

Until my next post. . . . . . . . . . .

Michelle

I love to color.  It is so relaxing to me.  Last night I sat down to color and came up with this creation.  This is a variation on Karen Barber’s Black and White Magic technique that I did a post on last week.  The technique of coloring with Prismacolor Pencils and then outlining the image with a White gel pen apparently can be done on any color of card stock other than white with wonderful results.  It even showed up very well on SU River Rock card stock. 

I love making cards that look like tiles, they are so versatile you can use them for so many different occasions.

The images used in todays tutorial are from Innovative Stamp Creations “Artsy Victorian Sheet”.  Here is a link to their online store:  http://www.innovativestampcreations.com/ischomepage.html

Let’s get started on the tutorial. 

Supplies:

Stamped image on Basic Black card stock with White Craft ink.

Dried the ink with a heat gun.  You can also just wait for it to dry, but I’m not that patient.

When I color with Prismacolor Pencils, I dip my pencil point in Odorless Paint Thinner and then color.  The pencil melts like butter on the card stock and blends very nicely.

Started coloring with a Yellow Ochre pencil.

Then added Pumpkin Orange Pencil.

Colored part of the center of the image with a Warm Grey 30% pencil.

Then colored the rest of the center image with a True Blue pencil.

Colored around the center image with a Poppy Red pencil.

Used the True Blue pencil again on the outer frame of the design.

Here is where the magic happens.  Outlined the image with a white gel pen.  Wow!  That makes it come to life.

Trimmed the image down, leaving a bit of black card stock showing all the way around.

Stamped with Black ink part of the flourish image at each corner of a 4.5″ x 4.5″ piece of River Rock card stock using a Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement.

Colored the flourish with the Yellow Ochre and the True Blue pencils.

Outlined the images with the White Gel Pen.

Assembled card front and then felt the corners needed a bit more pop, so I added some of the Pumpkin Orange pencil to the center of the flowers.

Add some punched flowers to the center.

Added a copper colored brad to the center and used my piercing tools to add piercings in between the corner images.

And here you have it, the finished card measuring 5.25″ x 5.25″.

Hope your day if filled with warm rich colors!

Until my next post. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Michelle

We have had so very much rain all this month, not even once have I had to water the gardens.  This is my third year at this house and so it is the third year for this garden.  My Sister the Master Gardener told me, when I started putting in my perennial gardens, the first year your plants will sleep, second year they creep and the third year they leap.  Well they are all leaping this year for sure!

It was such a beautiful morning, not to hot or cold.  So I took a walk with my camera to take some photos to share with everyone.   Please don’t look at the dead-heading of plants that hasn’t been done or the weeds that haven’t been pulled.  I’ve been making card tutorials and have been a bit neglectful of late.  :)  The plants still seem to be so very happy this year.  They all seem to be two feet taller than they were last year this time.

Sweet Peas

Now here is my pal, Lucas behind the Day-lilies.  Note:  Lucas is over 100 lbs and he can almost hide behind them they have gotten so very huge.

There is definitely no rhyme or reason to the planting of my gardens.  Whatever I like gets shoved in somewhere.    I’m in the country for Pete’s sakes, so I have a country style garden.

I love Cone Flowers and so do the butterflies and Yellow Finches.  I’m sure to take some photos in the near future of all the butterflies, it’s to early in the morning for them just yet.

I still haven’t started digging my gardens that will go in front of this fence.  It’s an over whelming project that I just keep putting off.

Strawberry jar, yummmmm.

Come sit a while at one of our swings.. . . . . . .

A view from the swing this morning.  The corn fields are growing like made too.  Told you I was in the country.  There is no place like it.

I feed all the birds.  We have droves of Hummingbirds.

I have Lavender planted through out the gardens.  I love the smell as you walk by.

I’ll  leave you with the thoughts of the sweet, calming smell of Lavender, birds singing, corn stalks rustling in the breeze, morning sun on your face and the views from my swing. 

Have an absolutely lovely day!

Until my next post. . . . . . . . .

Michelle

I’m wrapping up leaf week here on my blog.  I hope you have been inspired this week to get out those leaf stamps and use them for projects other than Fall themed ones.  Now you know I had to wrap the week up with a brayered sky scene!

Let’s get started on the tutorial. 

Supplies:

Brayered Apricot Appeal on the bottom 2/3rds of a piece of Whisper White Card stock that measures 4.5″ x 4.5″.

Punched a 1 3/8″ circle from the sticky part of a post it note and used it as a mask for the sun.

Brayered More Mustard over the bottom 2/3rds of the card stock.

Brayered Really Rust ink at the bottom 1/2 of the card stock.

Brayered Soft Sky ink at the top of the card stock.

Decided I wanted some more interest to the sky so I sponged More Mustard ink in a “U” shape around the sun.

Sponged Really Rust ink just under the More Mustard sponging.

To add more interest, sponged black at the bottom, left top corner and then lightly through the center of the card stock.

Removed post it note mask and sponged Apricot Appeal ink at the bottom of the sun so it isn’t so stark looking.

Stamped leaves with Basic Black ink.

Highlighted the leaves by outlining just the side of the leaf that is facing the sun.

Assembled my card front and used my piercing tools and a White Gel pen to put in some faux stitching around the main panel edge.

Added some Soft Sky card stock photo corner punches and a brad to the bottom two corners.

Here is the finished card, measuring 5.25″ x 5.25″.

I hope your day today started with a fantastic sunrise and ends with a fantastic sunset!

Until my next post. .. . . . . . . . . . .

Michelle

My Dear and Talented Friend, Karen Barber taught me how to do this “Black & White Magic” technique a while back, but I hadn’t had a chance to use the technique for a project of my own until today.  So I am going to share her technique with you.  To see more “Black & White Magic” cards check out Karen Barber’s SCS Gallery, here is the link:  http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=138472

Ready?  Let’s get started. 

Supplies:

With a Coluzzle circle template, cut a 2.5″ circle from Black card stock.

Also, cut a 3 1/8 circle from Bashful Blue card stock.

Using a Stamp-a-ma-jig for placement, stamped two leaves on the black circle with White Craft ink.

Heat set the white ink with a heat gun.

Now it is time for some color.  Colored the leaves with Prismacolor pencils.  When coloring I first dip the end of my pencil in a little container that has Orderless paint thinner in it.  This makes the pencil melt like butter onto your card stock when coloring.

First colored with Sky Blue Light.

Next colored with True Blue.

Next colored with Peacock Blue.

Finished coloring with Lime peel.

Next, outlined the images with a White Gel pen.  Wow!  That makes them pop!

Cut a Piece of Black card stock 3 1/8″ x 5 1/8″.  Used my Circle Coluzzle template to round one end of the card stock.

Stamped the Flourish with White Craft ink on to the end of the card stock.

Heat set the White ink with a heat gun and then colored the flourishes the same way I colored the leaves.

Finished by outlining the flourishes with a white gel pen, assembled card and added Photo Corners.

Added Brads to the photo corners and here is the completed card measuring 5.25 x 5.25.

Ok, it’s time to announce the winner of the Leaf in Pond card,  drum roll, please. . . . . . . . . . . .

The random number generator picked a low number today, #12 and the winner is: 

Alison Snow, who left this comment:

Michelle, you have such a way of thinking outside the box with your creations…truly a talent and a gift.  Thanks for sharing and I would be so happy to be the recipient of this beautiful work of art!

Alison, congrats!  Please e-mail me your complete address and I will get that card in the mail to you.

Everyone else, thank you so much for playing along!

May your day be filled with cheerful colors and cheerful thoughts.

Until my next post. . . . . . .

Michelle