Take Joy

I did some serious cleaning up in my stamp room over the last few days, so I decided to reward myself last night and played with some more of the new Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 products I bought this weekend.  I used a Kraft tag here, embossing paste, and Red Geranium ink to put this dimensional flower on the tag using the 2 Fancy Flowers stencil.  It is SOOOO fun to use the embossing paste to make that flower just pop off the tag!  Check it out below…

There’s a big variety of other products I used here included a few more of the flowers just sponged onto the tag with Cornflower Blue and Pale Ochre inks.  I sponged a striped border on the bottom of the tag with Potting Soil ink and the Dots & Stripes Borders stencil.  The leaves were made using Fern Green ink and the From the Garden stencil.  On the top right and bottom left corners I sponged some Broken China ink with the Honeycomb stencil, and stamped over everything with the grid stamp in Tea Dye ink.  The sentiment is from Verses Rubber Stamps, and I embellished with some enamel dots (they match better in real life!), a flower button, twine and some hand-dyed seam binding.  I also spattered some Worn Lipstick ink onto the tag using my aqua painter brush.

Can ya’ tell I’m having some fun with these new things?  :) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Color Throwdown #263

Hello my stamping friends, are you ready for another Color Throwdown challenge?  This week, my BFF Barbara Anders is our hostess with the spooky, scary photo for inspiration!  LOL  Some great colors for Halloween, but you can create anything you want with them.  Be sure to stop over at the CTD blog and check out the challenge details!

I had the honor this past Saturday of getting to meet the fabulous Wendy Vecchi from Studio 490, and got to watch her demonstrate her great products!  She was so super nice and is a terrific instructor… I learned so many new ideas in the short time I spent watching her demonstrations.  And she sweetly agreed to a photo with me, so here we are…



So for my CTD card today I just had to pull out some new product she *forced* me into buying, and created this…



This Layered Tree is one of Wendy’s new stencils, and I used her new signature Archival Inks to color it in… Potting Soil for the tree and Orange Blossom for the leaves.  I sponged in the moon with some Archival Pale Ochre, but it was too pale so I added some Ranger Wild Honey distress ink, then added Pumice Stone distress ink all around the background.  The sentiment is from Flourishes “Life Lines” stamp set.  I added some random spots of water to the background, and some distressing on the edges just to *shab* it up a bit, and otherwise kept the design pretty simple but I really love how it turned out.

So, be sure to stop over at the Color Throwdown blog so you can get all the challenge details, and also check out my Throwdown sisters for more inspiration…

Wanda Cullen
Vickie Zimmer
Melody Rupple (taking the week off)
Lori Tecler
Joan Ervin
Broni Holcombe
Barbara Anders
Sankari Wegman, October Guest Designer

Thanks so much for stopping by today… happy stamping!

Make Art Blog Hop Featuring Studio 490

Hi everyone and welcome to our Make Art blog hop featuring art from the eclectic Paperie eTeam and special guest, Wendy Vecchi! We're delighted to have Wendy joining us today, to not only share her products but also to share in her unique artistic style and to be inspired by each of the hop participants.

During the hop the team is going to be sharing the projects that they created with Studio 490 products but maybe more importantly we'll be sharing our experience of working with the products, how we created our projects, and what inspired us to create our piece.

The eTeam is a wonderful group of talented women, each with their own style. Some of us are clean and simple card makers, others love scrapbooking, and still others are drawn to altered art and mixed media projects. The goal of our hop is bring each of these designers and their favorite mediums together and to share how we've used these products to express our own individual styles through our work.
But...that's not all...eclectic Paperie is also offering a few specials during our hop.

• This week only save 25% on all Studio 490 products, this includes Wendy's stamps, stencils, Art Parts, Book, and Blossom Bucket embellishments. Use code WENDY25 when checking out.
• During the hop, comment on each blog and you'll be entered into a drawing for a prize package worth $50! Your package will include a collection of Studio 490 products as well as paper and embellishments from the store.

Wait...there's more!

• We want to hear about what inspires you! Share your thoughts about why you create, what styles you're drawn to, even share a favorite project on our Facebook page. Next week we'll randomly select a winner from those who have commented on our Make Art Facebook posts and give away a $25 gift certificate to eP! Now...are you ready for some crafty goodness? Let's get hopping!

eclectic Paperie - The beginning of the hop
Wendy Vecchi
Barbara Anders
Broni Holcombe
Julie Masse
Kim Schofield
Kim Teasdale
Mary-Ann Maldonado
Michelle Hill
Micki Harper
Sherry Cheever
Tammy Hersberger **you are here!** 
Tenia Nelson
Starla Nelson

Thank you so much for joining us and make some time this week to create art and craft your story...

Now, here’s a snippet of my project with a little bit about how it came together!



I started out with Wendy’s Studio 490 Art Parts “Florals”, but I decided I wanted a nice vibrant color on mine so I prepped by coating the pieces with some Snow Cap White Adirondack Acrylic Paint so they’d have a white base.  See…


Then, using some blending foam, I colored my flowers with Wild Honey, Peeled Paint and Walnut Stain distress ink.  I sprinkled the center of each flower with some glitter for a little bling and dimension.



This white frame was in my stash of alterables, and I used an Idea-ology Sanding Block to distress the white finish, then painted on some Sail Boat Blue Adirondack Paint from the dabber, let it dry a little bit, wiped most of it off with some paper towels then swiped on some Tea Dye ink for instant aging.  Then I moved on to my focal image, this great sentiment from an old Tim Holtz Stampers’ Anonymous stamp set… as soon as I saw what this says, I knew it had to be a part of my project for today because I was SO stumped as to what I was going to do!  (This particular set isn’t in the eP store, but if you like it you can always drop an email to Kim to see about getting it… this one is called Urban Tapestry.)  The flourish stamped on the upper left corner is from another Stampers’ Anonymous set called Nature’s Discovery.  I sponged some Antique Linen ink around the edges of my focal piece, and used a Mini Basket Weave template from The Crafter’s Workshop on the lower left corner with some Tea Dye ink for added interest.  To finish up my piece, I used some papers from the new Farmhouse Paper Company “Market Square” paper pad, some crocheted lace, and a few Maya Road Vintage Leaf stick pins.

If you can’t clearly read the sentiment, it says… “The creative is the place where no one else has ever been.  You have to leave the city of your comfort and venture into the wilderness of your intuition.  You can’t get there any other way, only by taking risks and by not quite knowing what you’re doing… what you’ll discover will be wonderful, what you’ll discover will be yourself.”  I thought that was REALLY appropriate since I was having a lot of trouble getting started on this project!  :)

Hope you enjoy this hop today!  Thanks for stopping by, and happy stamping!

3-D Tuesday - File Folder Journal

Hey everyone, Happy Tuesday! I am hosting the 3-D Tuesday challenge today over at Paper Craft Planet and I want you all to play along! This is a fun and EASY project! Once you make one, you'll have to make 10 more!

Since it's 2:00 a.m. as I'm typing this blog post, I'm taking the easy route and copying my instructions directly from the Paper Craft Planet forum.

My sweet friend Anita gave me one of these for Christmas, and I knew it'd be a great 3-D Tuesday project. (Believe it or not, Anita made 80 of these for Christmas gifts!) I would prefer to have printed file folders for this, like the ones SU! sells. I'm told you can also buy pretty file folders at office supply stores, but I forgot to go looking for them this past weekend. I ended up covering an old folder with some Basic Grey Lemonade paper and it worked just fine. Just make sure that the paper you're using isn't too heavy-weight since there's a lot of scoring and folding to do. A heavier paper will crack when you fold it.

Anita found great instructions here from Patty Bennett. However, Anita found her instructions to be slightly confusing at times, so she re-wrote them slightly and used a Scor-Pal instead. If you have an old file folder, you might want to try this out with it first.

1. Open the file folder and put the tab that juts out on the right side of your cutting board and cut it off.

2. Keeping the folder open, place the right side flush on the right end (12" side) of your Scor-Pal and score at 9 1/2" and 10".

3. Turn the folder 90 degrees so what was on the bottom is now on the right and score at 9" as far as you can, then turn it 180 degrees and finish scoring it on the 3" side to complete the score along the entire bottom.

4. Open file folder and put the indented tab section (which is on the left) turned to the right side and chop off 2". (Keep that 2" piece and use it to cover the top of the notepad.)

5. Find the center score that's already there and make another score 1/2" to the left of it. Depending on what kind of folders you buy, it's already there, you just need to make it deeper.

6. Now see Patty's directions where she shows to cut the bottom right corner out - you cut up to the score that goes across the bottom and over to the 9 1/2" score.

7. Follow Patty's directions to complete the folder. You can choose to use a corner rounder on the corners of the flap, too!See! Super fun and easy! Give it a try, and link back here if you do so I can see your creation!

Any questions, just email me!