"stART With A Photo" ART Challenge #4

Hello! If you are like me, you probably aren't a huge fan of Mondays! However, if you play along with us every Monday, you can stART your week with a challenge. Art makes everything better, even Mondays!

stART with a Photo Challenge #4

This picture was taken by me while our family was serving at a camp for families with disabilities. We were all praying and holding hands. It reminds me of the love of friends. So, I have this special birthday card as my project for this week's challenge.

Enjoy yourself. Be creative. Share your link in the comments. Please visit some of the other participant's blogs and leave them some love too!

Thanks for playing along!

Until Next Time-

~Shari

Same Paper - Different Cards

Hello and thanks for stopping by! I am still hard at work making Christmas cards, so I thought I would show you a few more. I had lots of scraps and a few larger pieces of an old CTMH Christmas paper pack left, and decided to use the rest of it.

Here are the cards I made using the remnants-

This last one is my favorite, but had to toss in a few other colors to cover the whole card.

Don't forget to check out our weekly art challenge. There is still time to share your projects! 

Until Next Time-

~Shari

Impatient Alcohol Background

Alright, I admit it. I am impatient. So, when I saw the new Mix-Ability Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers, I wanted to try the alcohol background technique right away. The trouble is, I don't own any alcohol inks, so I made up a different way to do it.

I poured a little rubbing alcohol in a shallow styrofoam tray.

Then dripped in some Distress Inks. They sank straight to the bottom of the tray. Hmmmm

Doing this technique the right way, keep the alcohol ink on top of the water in the dish. You lay the paper on top and pick up the ink. Since that wasn't going to work, I dipped the paper in and pressed down to get it to the ink on the bottom. I smooshed it a few seconds and brought it up. I used one sheet of water color paper (the larger piece). I used a few scraps of white cardstock too, before the alcohol go "muddy" from the ink.

Here are the two cards I made once the paper dried-

Until Next Time
~Shari

The Challenges Continue!

I have been having fun playing along with the Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge Blog. Some times it is helpful to get a little inspiration from a creative prompt!

I decided to try some clear embossing powder with a water color background, using the colors from challenge #265, but didn't like the way it looked. I tossed the background in the recycling bin, and started over.

This time I tried silver embossing powder and colored pencils instead. Here is my card for Color My Heart Color Dare Challenge #265-

When I finished that card for the challenge, I realized that the now dried first background didn't look horrible, so I made that into a second card!

I also made a card for Color Dare #266, since I was working with similar colors already.

Here is what I came up with for this challenge-

Don't forget to check out our weekly challenge! You don't want to miss it! :)

Until Next Time-

~Shari

"stART With A Photo" ART Challenge #3

Hello! Welcome to our weekly art challenge. Hope you had a restful weekend and are ready to get back in your craft room and make something!

Every Monday, you can stop by the blog for a little creative prompt, so you can stART your week with a challenge.

So, without further ado, here is this week's-

stART with a Photo Challenge #3

This week's challenge is inspired by the remaining blooms in my garden. You may have guessed by now, that purple is my favorite color, so these caught my eye. I hope this inspires you to create!

This week I was inspired to try something new. I have never made a collage before, and I had some Citra-Solv papers that I made a while ago.

To make these, you just need an old Nat Geo magazine, gloves, a brush, and Citra-Solv.  Apply it liberally, close the magazine and leave it for a while to soak. Then lay the pages out and let them finish drying. More details are available on their website. This was the first time I tried it and got some great results, but the pages have been laying on a shelf for a long time waiting to be used. 

I decided to try a collage this week. I have never done one before, and thought it could be fun, which is the #1 rule for this challenge, so I knew I was on to something!

I cut the pages into various size strips, and glued them down with the Mod Podge.

This dried very fast with the window opened. I used coarse paste with a rubber spatula and brick stencil to add texture.

I let the paste dry for a few minutes, and then sprayed it with the Glimmer Mist, and set the whole thing aside.

Next, I tore some pieces of the Citra-Solv papers to make flowers and stems, and glued them to scrap paper for a firm backing.

I glued those to the background, and set it in front of the window again to dry. I grabbed my floral wire, and of course, made a flower with it! I used some new sheets of my Citra-Solv papers to make a background for the wire flower.

I used the tacky glue to attach the wire flower to the chipboard, and held it down with books for several hours to let it thoroughly dry. I used the sharpies to "doodle" an outline around all the flowers to give them some definition. I used the hot glue gun to make dots in the center of the flowers, because I wanted to see how it would look, and this was a fun project with lots of new techniques to try, so why not? Lastly, I glued some torn book pages to the top of the collage and finished it off with the reminder to "Bloom where He has planted you." Some times it is easy for me to feel isolated and think that I have nothing to offer. I need to remember that even if I can't do the things I used to, I can still be useful right where God has planted me. Sometimes that looks much different than I would have hoped for, or chosen, but it is right where I need to BLOOM and grow.

Here is my finished project for this week's challenge-

Enjoy yourself. Be creative. Share your link in the comments. Please visit some of the other participant's blogs and leave them some love too!

Thanks for playing along!

Until Next Time-

~Shari

When Life Hands You Ugly paper...

My usual style would be to use neutral and/or dark colors. I like distressed and torn edges. I usually avoid pastels, busy patterns, and bright colors. However, last January, I found a few 6 x 6" Christmas patterned paper pads in the bargain bins at Target, so I bought a couple. Since I am neck deep in making Christmas cards right now, I have a desk full of Christmas paper trying to come up with card ideas. Now that I am actually looking through the paper in those pads, I realize I am not a huge fan of the bright patterned ones! What a dilemma. What's a girl to do with a stack of paper she doesn't like?? Well, for some reason ugly Christmas sweaters came to mind. Of course, I headed straight to my ol' buddy Google and searched for "ugly sweater Christmas card ideas."

I found a few I liked, and combined a couple of those sketches to make these cards.

To be honest, these are some of my favorite cards so far! That paper I didn't care for too much actually makes pretty ugly sweaters. I would actually wear one! :)

I typed and printed the sentiment on card stock. I used a sweater SVG cut file, and glued the layers together. All the paper was from my scrap pile, except for the patterned paper that lead me in this direction to begin with! Super easy and fun design.

Hope you had some time to get into your craft room this week. I would love to see what you are working on! Don't forget, there is always inspiration to get you started on our Monday challenge posts!

Until Next Time-

~Shari

Pastel Christmas

My use of non-traditional Christmas card colors continues! Not sure how I got going in this direction, but kind of like stepping out of my comfort zone! I found a challenge with some bright colors, and decided to use those for my background.

I started by cutting the birch tree die, using a black pen to add small dots, while pushing it out of the die.

 Then I edged it with Distress Ink Pumice Stone and Walnut Stain.

 I grabbed some background colors (Dried Marigold, Crushed Olive, Stormy Sky, Tumbled Glass, Milled Lavender) to represent land and sky behind the trees, and used them on watercolor paper with a brush and water.

I typed up a sentiment that seemed to go with the "bright" colors, and assembled the cards. 

So for the Mixed Media Challenge #41, here is the finished project! Not exactly all the colors, but the closest that I had available. Definitely not my normal style :)

Until Next Time-

~Shari