Our Home Card & Corroded Metal Technique

This week's theme at Card A Day Blog is "New Home".  I've had the Cloud 9 Design "Home" stamp set in the stash for a while and thought this the perfect time to finally bust it out.  I am LOVING the color scheme on this card.  Coral, soft spring green, and a dash of grey tones...sweet!

A Few Details:

• I stamped the house onto beige patterned paper with brown StazOn and then highlighted it with markers for color.  To make the window look like glass, I used a white Glaze gel pen to draw some diagonal lines like reflections.  The door knob is a teeny tiny dot of Liquid Pearls.  I think these few touches really make the house image "pop".

• The top border was punched and meant to be reminiscent of the top of a wrought iron gate...yet softer.  Thus the spring green patterned paper and accents of Liquid Pearls.  

• That vintage-y key is actually chipboard that I made look like corroded metal in a few easy steps:

1. Color chip board completely with Bundled Sage Distress Stain, then add a few touches of Brushed Corduroy stain.
2. Blot lightly with gold metallic pigment ink
3. Cover with Versamark ink
4. Cover with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE) and heat until UTEE is melted.  Only do one coat of UTEE...the uneven, bumpy surface is what makes it look corroded.
5. Apply one drop of Silver Mixative, two drops of Copper Mixative, and four drops of Alcohol Ink blending solution to a felt blending pad and dab the entire surface of the key.  This knocks the shine off the UTEE and adds just a touch of metallic shimmer.

And finally, a "lessons learned" tip...always, ALWAYS test a new stamp on a scrap piece of paper before going full-bore onto your beautiful patterned paper!  Ugh.  Yep, the "Our Home" stamp did not stamp well and I had to fill in 80% of it with a brown pen.  Now here's the question...if I hadn't fessed up, would you have known about that boo-boo?  :-)

Challenges:
Simon Says Stamp & Show:  No Rules!

Supplies:
Cardstock:	Papertrey Ink ‘Kraft’
Patterned Paper:	My Mind’s Eye Lost & Found Two ‘Rosy’ 6x6
Stamps:	Cloud 9 Design ‘Home’
Inks:	StazOn ‘Timber Brown’; Le Pen ‘Brown’; Martha Stewart craft markers; Glaze pen ‘White’; VersaMark; Encore Ultimate Metallic ‘Gold’; Distress Stain ‘Bundled Sage’, ‘Brushed Corduroy’; Alcohol Ink ‘Copper Mixative’, ‘Silver Mixative’, ‘Blending Solution’
Embellishments:	Tim Holtz safety pin; Hug Snug Seam Binding ‘Ivory’; PTI rustic button twine; Liquid Pearls ‘Platinum Pearl’; Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE); Bazzill chipboard ‘Keys’
Tools:	Heat gun; EK Success edge punch ‘Graceful Heart’; Zig 2-way glue pen; 3M foam tape

Red, White, & Blue: USA Banner

Independence day may be over, but we're still celebrating the good ol' Red, White, & Blue with Scrapalicious USA blog's latest 2-week challenge.  While I went straight-up patriotic, your submission doesn't have to be...it just has to use the color palette. Join in the fun and you could win a $10 gift certificate to the Scrapalicious USA store!  (And $10 goes a long way at Scrapalicious prices.)  Also, be sure to sign up for the newsletter so you can receive sale and giveaway information.

July 19th Update:  

Sadly, Scrapalicious USA has closed, this challenge is no longer valid.  :-(

Some Details:

• I used coasters as the base for my letters, covering each in a vintage book page.  Yep, I finally purchased a book with the sole intention of destroying it...gulp...those first few pages were tough.  I was taught to respect and care for books; it seems such sacriledge, but boy does it look nice!  :-)  To fade the print a bit, I used Old Paper Distress Ink and Stain and Picket Fence Distress Stain.  

• Each letter is layered on top of a bit of burlap.  K & Co. Americana diecuts are layered up and accented with Stickles and Distress Stickles.
• The center coaster has an extra dangling ornament...a diecut "The Land I Love" circle that's hung with a couple jump rings and a trinket pin.

• I punched a hole in the top corners of each coaster and asterisk element to attach jump rings.  A long strand of baker's twine was strung through the jump rings and short lengths were used to tie the rings to the long strand, holding each element in place along the strand.

Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp and Show: Challenged - Layered

Creative Belli Blog: Belli Challenge #147 - Stars

Inspiration Emporium:  July Monthly Challenge - For the Love of Red, White, and Blue

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Patterned Paper:	Vintage book pages
Inks:	Distress Stain ‘Old Paper’, ‘Picket Fence’; Adirondack paint dabber ‘Snow Cap’; Perfect Pearls Mist ‘Heirloom Gold’
Embellishments:	K&Co diecuts ‘Americana’; burlap; Distress Stickles ‘Old Paper’, ‘Frayed Burlap’; Papertrey Ink baker’s twine; Tim Holtz jump rings; Memory Makers pin;
Tools:	Zots; hole punch
Misc:	PTI coasters

Wind It Up!

This week's theme at Card A Day Blog is "Just for Men".  I made this state-fair-inspired masculine birthday card to celebrate my dear Dad's 77th year.

A Couple Details:

• I love this ticket paper from My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline "Dilly Dally" collection.  It's so whimsical and works perfectly with the collage of ticket stubs, ferris wheel image, and Tim Holtz clock / game spinner. 
• My dad has this...well, let's call it a party trick...where he takes a ruler and says that each inch equals a decade.  The maximum life expectancy of a man is 100 years, or 10 inches, and he'll mark that with one thumbnail....looks like a long time.  He then marks his current age with the other thumbnail.  Hmm...not so long anymore...  It's a sobering way to think of your age!  How many "inches" do you have left?  I starred my dad's approximate age on the tape measure in red pen.

Challenges:

Top Tip Tuesday: Challenge #80 - One for the Men

Cheerful Stamp Pad: Challenge #46 - Numbers

Cutie Pie Challenge: #21 - One for the Boys

Supplies:
Cardstock:	Papertrey Ink ‘Kraft’
Patterned Paper:	My Mind’s Eye Miss Caroline ‘Dilly Dally’ 6x6
Image:	Ferris Wheel - unknown; Tape Measure - Free Vintage Digital Stamps
Stamps:	Cloud 9 Design
Inks:	StazOn ‘Timber Brown’; Stampin’ Up! Writer ‘Real Red’
Embellishments:	Tim Holtz clock face, game spinner, salvage stickers ‘Lost & Found’
Tools:	Zots; Glue Dots; Zig 2-way glue pen; TH paper distresser

July 4th, 1776

Happy Independence Day 

to my fellow Americans!

Sorry for the extended time between posts lately, but summer has sung her siren's song and I find myself drawn to the sun and warmth and away from the basement craft room.  I do sneak down now and then and have some projects to share, they just won't come as often as usual until the weather turns.  :-)

To celebrate America's birthday, I'm sharing a little wall art piece I made using layers of cardboard and lots of K&Co. elements.

The Details:

• The base is two sheets of cardboard glued together with spray adhesive and covered with blue decorative paper.  To create a frame, I used metallic border stickers and Tim Holtz metal corners.  The border stickers were bright gold...TOO bright.  To color them more to my liking, I stuck the strips to my craft mat and pounced on several caramel and metallic colors of alcohol ink.  I pounced the same colors onto the metal corners so that everything coordinated.  The edges were heavily distressed and accented with Frayed Burlap Distress Ink.

• The inset section is also two sheets of cardboard covered with linen star paper.  The edges were lightly distressed and accented with Old Paper DI.  To this base, I layered a flag from K&Co's "Americana" diecuts and Uncle Sam poster.  I didn't want the U.S. Army portion of the poster to show, so I ran a strip of glittered ribbon across those words, then added a piece of vintage lace trim below that and layered up more "Americana" diecut elements. 

• I got the red glitter letters on clearance because several of them had fallen off the backing and were clumped up at the bottom of the package.  (I'm a thrifty squirrel!)  Given their poor performance in their own packaging, I gave these a good coat of glue to make sure they stay put!  TIP:  tweezers are your friend when positioning letter stickers and small embellishments of any kind...if you don't have craft tweezers in your toolbox, trust me, you need them!
• The metal label holder was a dull silver color, so I whipped out the same AI's and made it match the rest of my metal elements.

Challenges:
Unique Crafters Challenge Blog: July - Patriotic
Going Grey with Scrap-Creations: 4th of July
Party Time Tuesdays: PTT#75 - Be Patriotic...Show Your Country's Colors (USA)
My Craft Spot: Monday Challenge #62 - 4th of July & Canada Day
Inspiration Emporium:  July Monthly Challenge - For the Love of Red, White, and Blue

Supplies:
Cardstock:	Stampin’ Up! ‘Ultrasmooth Vanilla’
Patterned Paper:	K&Co. ‘American Flag Gold Star’
Inks:	Distress Ink ‘Frayed Burlap’, ‘Old Paper’; Alcohol Ink ‘Copper Mixative’, ‘Gold Mixative’, ‘Silver Mixative’, ‘Ginger’, ‘Mushroom’, ‘Latte’
Embellishments:	K&Co. diecuts ‘Americana’, Clearly Yours ‘Patriotic Sayings’; vintage lace; Starform stickers ‘Outline’; Distress Stickles ‘Old Paper’; Stickles ‘Xmas Red’; SU! label plate, brads; Tim Holtz corners; Bo-Bunny combo stickers ‘Et Cetera’; Paper Studio chipboard letter stickers; ribbon
Tools:	TH paper distresser; Glue dots ‘Pop Up’; 3M spray adhesive; Making Memories ribbon glue; Tombow Mono Aqua Glue
Misc:	cardboard