Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day everyone! This is a card I created for my mom and for a technique challenge at Paper Wishes. The technique itself I saw this month in Creating Keepsakes magazine. You use a doily as a pattern for piercing your paper, and then stitch it!  I will definitely use this technique again!

Just a quickie note - I had a great surprise yesterday morning - I won a contest on the Paper Wishes site - it was a Designer's Challenge to use a certain set of papers and their new design tool templates. I created this gatefold card and I won! $15 of Paper Wishes supplies - I'm going to get their new Ebony Color Me papers - they are resist papers with beautiful black filigree designs!

Mosaic Moments Design Team Assignment - April - Treasures from Mom's Jewelry Box

In April, our last challenge was to use this wonderful pink grid paper and to use Page Pattern #10. This was perfect for showing some of the treasures we found when clearing mom's house back at the end of March. There are several pieces of mom's jewelry that are very special to me - I wanted to be sure I recorded the stories about each piece. They aren't particularly expensive pieces, but they are priceless to me because of the memories.

Technique Challenge for April

Well, I'm a little late getting this posted to my blog, but better late than never!  I promised to post the step by step instructions to the technique challenge for this month on Paper Wishes. We're chalking on white pigment ink!

First stamp an image using white pigment ink and allow it to dry completely. It's best if you use a stamp that has a good amount of solid area to color. I also like this technique on a dark background, although it will work on any color.

Next, using chalk, or colored pencils, color in the white areas. You may wish to leave some of the colors white for contrast.

That's all there is to it! Simple, huh?  But so effective! Below are two cards I finished up using this technique.

I tried spraying the bottom one with Smooch Spritz. I should have just sprayed the bottom layer and not the top piece - it looked a little too messy for me. Anyway - it's all about playing with your tools and learning what works and what doesn't - BE BRAVE!!



Happy Easter

Our first April challenge at Mosaic Moments was to take pictures in early morning light. It was a real challenge for me to get up early enough to take pictures to capture long shadows and sunrise!  I settled on this one photo and decided to make my layout with an Easter theme.

Happy Easter everyone!

C'mon Spring!

I needed to put together a tutorial for Paper Wishes today, and since I'm REALLY in the mood for Spring to hurry up and get here, I decided to try some Easter eggs.

I tried coloring one with Copic markers - did okay, but you could see the brush strokes. 

I then tried one using Distress Inks and the Ranger Foam applicator. I got the best results with this technique.

I also tried the Distress inks using a reinker and a sponge but never could get it to dry! I even tried heat setting it - I finally had to wipe it off!

I then applied some Dazzles, flowers and rhinestones.

Coloring the Dazzles with Copic markers gave a really pretty effect!

I also found that using four corners at the top of the egg worked well too.

And one last tip - it seems like the Scrapbook Dazzles must have a different kind of adhesive - I had a very hard time getting them to stick to the eggs, and had to use glue.  I don't know what is different but there must be something!

What will you create! Show me your creations!

Iris Folding

I joined in on a color challenge on the Paper Wishes Message Board and combined it with using an iris folding pattern one of the folks had posted. It's a little different from my usual cards, but I thought it turned out kind of nice - could even be used for a masculine card: