PT Tricks'n'Treats (Digis & embossable papers)

Happy Owl'oween! (to those who celebrate it...)

..May you have a safe and frightfully fun one!

(This "Hootie Pie" image is one of Pink Cat Studios new digis...)
You can see the details of this (and another card too) here at Paper Temptress
Just click the photos, if you'd like to fly on over there. ;o)

Happy Boo! :o)=

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Random links & Stuff :o)=

A project peek:

(Well to be honest, it's more of a "when-will-the-sun-come-out?-I-burned-myself-all-badly-on-a-lamp -taking-photos-on-this-dark-day-Had-a-sucky-baby-moment-Gave-up-and-posted-this-close-up-photo" peek. ROFLaughing at my clumsy self.)

Wanna win stuff?
Patricia and the Gang have lots of Anniversary surprises
over at Paper Temptress!

Cathy's having a bling challenge at Paper Garden Projects.

...and Uh Oh Enabler Alert:
Purple Onion's overstock sale has LOTs of goodies!
You can read about the sale here & see all the goodies on sale here
(And their new stamps are here! With an introductory special.)

Linkage of Crafting Genius:

(random things that are SO clever!)

• mod podge image transfer by Katie & her video here
• Genius way to use alpha stamps by Mitsy
• & her Scratch off lotto tickets (COOL!)
• Painting with gel pens by Beth WAY too brilliant! (You can emboss with them too: just doodle, sprinkle on clear embossing powder, & heat)
• Fabric embellishments by Holly. Needs me fabric scraps now. Oh no another thing to get addicted to! teehee
  
• Textured foam letters with Impressabilities by Karen (Clevah!)
• Out of the box technique with Nesties by Kelly
  
• Mounting your unmounted stamps (& getting the image on them) by Jennifer. I needed to see this to figure it out. How ingenious!
• Hand cut titles by April
• Trick for Big Shot dies or Nesties--rectangle any size by Gretchen
• Printing onto a a card blank by Liz (SO smart!)
• Decorative tape turned embellishment (WOW!) by my fellow 'Vark Lauren
• Card basics: the size by Katie (notes on how to avoid waste)

Happy Halloween weekend! If you celebrate Halloween, I hope you have some delightful frightful fun!

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MFT Cuttlebug Challenge & SCS too :o)

You won't believe it. None of my usual blither blather blabbin!

(well a teensy bit, hehehe)

This is for the latest Cuttlebug Challenge: MFT ! It was the first time I'd ever
used My Favorite Things stamps (well, used their digis that is.) Love em.

Hope you can play!

Be Inspired Wednesday#55: MFT

The roundness was inspired by another challenge: the latest Splitcoaststampers fan club interactive challenge--round inspiration. (I noticed I needed to renew my SCS membership, & lo and behold, they had a rockin' challenge!) :o)

The digital MFT image is printed & embossed on paper
that had matte medium wiped on it with a paper towel-fast!
It makes the sky really easy to blend with Copics.
&
The dresses are paper pieced on black & white paper that's
been coloured with Copic markers.



The flowers were punched & then I glued beads on 'em.

...and that's all she wrote...

...BUT...I also want to thank you for being so danged kind! Just when I'm feeling like a card is meh, or I've mangled my mojo--you perfectly fab peeps say some too-lovely things and make me all happy inside! Thank You from the very very bottom of my happy lil' heart!

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Go ask Alice when she's 10 feet tall! (Caardvarks Challenge)

"I'm late! I'm late, for a very important date!"

Two more days to participate in the Caardvarks Challenge: "A tall order!"

When I heard that this challenge was a tall card challenge, the song lyric "Go ask Alice when she's ten feet tall" jumped into my head and stayed there. This loverly image of Alice is from Mo's Digital Pencil & it's aptly named Alice in pencil because it's such a nice soft rendering:

Can that Mo can draw or what?!

Sorry for the convoluted "tutorial"--(if you can even call it a tutorial!) :-D I changed my mind about the 'style' during the messing about process...

1...the Caardvarks Challenge
2...embellishing Alice (with stamping & stitching)
3...digital freebies (Photoshop brush link & background elements)
& a sheer crackle background

Clickable pic (for close-up):

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Tall card challenge

Sponsored by Niki Sivils, Scrapbooker
Niki & her team have some amazing work on her blog!

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...embellish a digital image
(with stamping/embossing resist & stitching)

• Alice in Pencil (rendered by Maurie Manning-Mo's Digital Pencil)
• printed on Neenah white cardstock
• Alice in Wonderland/miscellaneous background stamps
• Versamark, Clear embossing powder, & heat gun
• Water colour crayons, water, & paintbrush
• Sandpaper/sanding block
• Copic markers
• Paper piercer, thread, & needle
  

Step 1} Print 'Alice in Pencil' & heat set her with a heat gun (helps prevent smudging of printer ink.)



Step 2} Emboss over Alice in clear ink & embossing powder. (These are a bunch of Alice in Wonderland stamps I had, but in the end they just add subtle texture, so you could use any old stamp you like!)



Step 3} Trim away paper (not necessarily with cuts that match the edge of your paper, but with cuts that match your stamping (if there are lines in your stamp like there were in mine--keeps you from having to stamp straight--I still find that so tricky!)

Hopefully, this picture will give you an idea of the texture you can get with the clear embossing over the digital image:

click the pic if you're wondering what I'm ranting about ;o)


The texture shows up more vividly when you add colour...



Step 5} Colour Alice--I coloured the background with watercolour crayons & a damp brush:

but as you can see by the finished card, I wasn't happy with my colour choices, so I just cut Alice out.

Before cutting Alice out...



Step 6} Sand the embossing (if you'd like a more matte look.) Leave it if you want it shiny, of course.



Step 7} Add some deep bold colours with Copic markers, if you like. They'll also let you tint the clear embossing a little.



Step 8} Pierce & stitch areas of the image. I did a cross stitch on her hem & white faux french knots on her apron:



At first (until I decided it was sm'ugly) I was stitching the background...

Before I hacked it all up, I pierced & stitched a horizon line both sides in brown stitch, but then I cut the side stitching off (with it still intact on the cardstock) and used it as an embellishment on the left side of the card:

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Backgrounds (sized to fit a tall card for a
#10 envelope 4-1/8" x 9-1/2")

Wonderland King & Queen (mirrored) PDF
Wonderland King & Queen (mirrored) JPG

To get the mirror effect (so it was sufficiently tall), I just flipped the image & used the brush a second time more translucently)

Then, to get this weird (very distressed & sheer) cracked glass effect,
I did this schtuff:

A) Printed the image on neenah white cardstock & heat set it
B) Distressed the edges with ink & Covered the printed image in Versamark
C) Applied clear embossing powder over the wet Versamark (any clear e.p. should work--a nice thick coat)
D) Heat set the embossing powder with a heat gun
E) Repeat the process to get a thick layer of clear embossing
F) Ran the image under water to get the paper wet (to rub it off the back & make the image sheet)
G) When rubbing the paper off the back, the embossing powder layer cracked & tore a little
H) To remedy that, I just stuck it all down with strong glue & set it under a stack of books to dry flat (in clear plastic to prevent it sticking to the books

Can you tell there was no method to my madness? Don't you love messing about?

If you'd like tall turquoise text paper,
just print this on white cardstock:

Carroll's handwriting PDF
Carroll's handwriting JPG

It's a paragraph from the first page of the book in Carroll's handwriting--
from Wikimedia commons here (turned into a Photoshop brush)

More Alice Resources:

The king & queen background is made with these Fantastic (free) Photoshop brushes by olliesan --Direct link here) Don't use photoshop or gimp? Here are the illustrations in jpg: click galleries in list at bottom for Tenniel images

Thank You so much for dropping
down the rabbit hole to visit!

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PGP: Nesties 'TRICKs' & Halloween digi 'TREATs'

Are you doing any last minute Halloween crafting? :o)=

Cathy (of Paper Garden Projects fame) made a gorgeous fall sketch into a digital freebie--it looks gorgeous with her fab Copic marker skills. Her creation gave me the idea to make a couple of PGP freebies too. This card uses the first digital Halloween image that I doodled. It's a little sketchy, but I hope you like it. I've also got a card with the "apothescary jars" in the works...

1... digital freebie for Paper Garden Projects
2...swaddling some mummy babies
3...making GIANT templates from your Nestabilities
4...embellish-y stuff (the card background)
5...baby gem spider (+speedy way to embellish inside cards)
6...digi: apotheSCARY jars

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Mummy Twins freebie
for Paper Garden Projects

(I used the small ones here)

SMALL mummy baby PDF
SMALL mummy baby JPG
&
LARGE mummy baby PDF
LARGE mummy baby JPG

My BFF Kim has twins (and coincidentally so does Cathy!)
Kim's become another victim of the flu--poor Darlin'--
so I hoped this might give her a giggle. Love you Kimmy!

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...swaddle mummy babies

• Nestabilities Label 9
• Neenah white cardstock
• Black Prismatic cardstock
• Copic Multiliner
• BasicGrey Ambrosia 6x6 pack
• Needle, thread, Paper piercer
• Tim Holtz Design ruler
• Scor-tape, Tombow monomulti
• Black Rhinestones
• The "I want it white" Collection
• Cheesecloth

Step 1A} Print the mummy twins & their spare heads for layering (how ghoulish, hey?)
Step 1B} Cut them out.

Alternatively, you could print just one baby with one or two heads, ROFL. (The picture above shows the size I used & the large size so you can compare) :o)



Step 2} Colour & the extra heads and cut them out. I lost one of the baby's heads & couldn't stop singing "Mommy had a baby & her head popped off...!" (Ever play that with dandelions when you were a kid?) Good ol' wholesome, morbid fun!



Step 3} Cut strips of mummy gauze from cheesecloth

Of course, if you don't have cheesecloth, you could swaddle your babies in ribbon. :o)



Step 4} Wrap each baby, stick on their heads, & adhere them to a card. :-D

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Make BIG shape templates
(from your Nestabilities)

Giant template shapes to match your Nestabilities.

I love the labels 9 but I wanted it to be enormous for large 5.5 inch/6 inch cards...
so I did this stuff:

1. Die cut the largest size of the Nestabilities label
2. Traced it onto white paper
3. Scanned it & saved it as a jpg
4. Enlarged the image & printed it out as a template
5. Traced it onto cardstock & cut it out

Seems like a lot of steps, but once you get your basic shape you can match your Nestabilities perfectly and all quickly too. ;o)

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...do some embellish-y stuff
(the background of the card)

Step 1} Trace the big Nestabilities template onto cardstock & cut out. Add a strip of patterned paper & embellish it (I pierced & stitched this BasicGrey Ambrosia paper.



Step 2} Cut out the sentiment & adhere it.



Step 3} Layer ribbons. These are two ribbons from the "I want it white" collection at Paper Garden Projects. (A gingham ribbon under the sheer dotted one...just to be weird.) ;o)



Step 4} Make a shaped mat for the babies:

A} Die cut the Nestabilities label (2 patterned papers)
B} Distress the edges
C} Add black rhinestones
D} Pierce & stitch around the inside
E} Faux stitch around the outside

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...jazz up the inside of black cards
(+ baby gem spider)

A lot of people don't like to have to write on the inside of black cards, but I am SO crazy for black, so here's one solution--a curvy folded white piece inside the card:



to make it...



Step A} Fold a piece of cardstock to the desired size.
Step B} Lay the big Nestabilities template over it.
Step C} Trace it & cut through both layers of cardstock (with a bit off of the top of the folded edge so it will make a shaped card)
Step D} Embellish the edges (I added silver metallic dots to match the card front)

I also added a wee spider:



A) Stick a black self-adhesive rhinestone on the card
B) Draw a silver line for his wee web
C) Add teensy eensy spider leggies (I used a Copic multiliner)

In hindsight (if you want perfect legs) you could draw them first & add the rhinestone after.



and th-thuh-thuh-thuh-that's all folks!

Clickable thumbnail

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apotheSCARY jars

Apothescary jars PDF
Apothescary jars JPG
&
Apothescary digital paper JPG
Apothescary digital paper PDF

Here are the jars (embossed but uncoloured) straight out of the printer
(on paper that I painted with matte medium):


(click the pic for a close-up look)

The neat-o thing about digital...is that you can draw your images, scan them & then touch them up so that they have layers of various shades. I used a Photoshop brush with different transparencies to make the webs & things in the jars lighter in places, like they were seen through smokey glass. I'm no pro by any means, but it sure was FUN! A quick sprinkle of clear embossing powder makes em all textured. :o)=

On a personal (oink oink) note: Thank you sooooooh much for your kind thoughts while we piggies had the flu. It was certainly scary with the whole lung damage thing, (but though we're both still way tired--and my chronic lung jazz etc will still take hard work to repair) we are now well on the mend from H1N1. Hope you are all healthy and so very happy! oxo

P.S. Copic markers & embellishments are on sale:

(And all kinds of other great stuff too; plus shipping deals)

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