Wishing and Missing! PiP Challenge Inspiration # 1840

Ever missed someone special?  That little empty spot in our hearts as we go about our days, weeks, months.  We can still be happy & the missing doesn't ruin the beauty of what we have now but, still....  our heart aches for that little missing piece.                                                                                                                                                                     

That's what's inspired this weeks PIP Challenge card. Just the wish, wish, wishing for time with someone special.  Polkadoodles sponsored this cute, pre-colored image, Earlie Hedgehog Dandelion which I altered a little bit; making the colors more towards the hughes of Autumn.

In the background I stamped & embossed the Unity image "Wish" repeatedly in different colors. I used copper, cocoa, clear & clear metallic over Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink. I then stamped 2 puff seed heads and mimicked the colors in the digi image, adding dimensional dots from Nuvo. 

 I dimensionally layered the cute image on a shape that reminded me of a seed puff & added a banner with the words "wish you were here" also from Unity Stamp Co (Wish With Your Heart set)

Remember, PIP Challenges are always Anything Goes! and each week our sponsor awards the winner with a prize from their store!  Polkadoodles is offering up 3 digis of your choice!!  So don't delay!!  You can download up to 3 projects ~ no backlinking please!!

 

October is...

PASTOR APPRECIATION MONTH!!

***

Just thought I would share a card for Pastors this month.  You know, the guys who tirelessly shepherd, minister and lead... the guys who celebrate a wedding, listen to the thoughts and concerns of a dying friend, comfort the widow & share punny jokes with youth group - sometimes all on the same day.   Theirs is often an "expected" job & though we love them, we can forget to appreciate them.  Hooray!! There is not only a day for this (October 1st) but a whole month!! So if it slipped your mind you still have time -- to bake some goodies, give a gift certificate for a favored pastime or..... send a card!!!!!

Hope this inspires you to reach out 

& show him & his family your gratitude

 

 inside~

Card info: Stamps can be found at Unity Stamp Co

Images were layered on sparkle & mirror cardstock in gold

Inks are all from Tim Holtz Distress Ink line

Stay well friends and God Bless You Always :) 

Night Shadow - Digital Coloring & Fussy Cut Layers

This beautiful image, Night Shadow, is compliments of Ching-Chou Kuik Digis ~ the sponsor for this weeks PIP Challenge 1838!  I am really excited to share with you the amazing ease of coloring these beautiful images available in grayscale!  I so enjoyed coloring this image I printed it in several color schemes and left the one pictured above mostly colorless. For a little "pop" I used yellow chalk on the eyes. 

To accomplish the 3D effect, I printed this image 3 times and fussy cut portions out of 2 of them.  I then put 1 layer of dimensional adhesive below the lower cut and the owl and 2 layers of dimension under the center portion.  The icy cold and 3D combination really makes this image intriguing.  I matted it with a water colored background using blue since I changed the tint of the gray scale toward blue. It almost looks like it is made of porcelain the way the light plays off of its dimensions!!
                                                                                                 
                           






Don't forget to go to the PIP Challenge Blog website to download your creation!  Anything goes, so you have no excuse not to enter!!!  Ching-Chou Kuik is sponsoring the this weeks prize of ANY 2 DIGIS from their Etsy Store!!!!
In addition to changing the tint I decided to actually change the colors in each area.  This took a lot of time with the program I have, selecting and then adjusting the color scale individually for each area. Here are the original results:

               
Once this was accomplished I used the color slide to adjust the colors overall at the same time.  So within seconds I could go from my original color scheme to something more tropical or clear down to Autumn browns and golds!  
 

There is so much to love about the detail in this stamp that I preferred to print it fairly large at about 5.5 inches, then matting it up. It's a great image for the cover of a photo album because of this!                                  

Summer is Colapsing into Fall!

I love every day!  I think the fog is amazing and beautiful.  I love the lightning & thunder.  Fresh mown grass on a sunny day - wonderful!  But my favorite time of all is Autumn.  I look forward to it every year!  The slanted light all day long, the refreshingly crisp air following a long, hot & stifling summer...  I plan for all the leaves I will press & drink in the colors like fragrant wine!  Oh I love it. 

So in anticipation of the coming Autumn days, here is a card I made with a few stamps from Unity Stamp Co. KOM August 2014 & KOM September 2016. Both are SO full of Fall!!!

I like to make sure the person receiving my cards can always regift them (the thought of the trash can is devastating to me!!!) so I figure out fun ways to add my note without compromising the card!!  On this one I cut a corner slot and stamped my favorite Autumn leaves stamp on a separate note card!! It's a fun & easy look and the note card can be switched out :)

If you have any questions about the products I've used please just leave an inquiry in the notes   

Addicted to Linear / Border Stamps!!

Ahhh! Today I am sharing some creations using my favorite background technique!! Oxide stripes with linear stamp accents. They work with just about any theme or image in the foreground and what is the most fun for me is coming up with new color combinations!!

As luck would have it - it is also PIP Challenge week # 1836 ~ Anything Goes! So don't hold back!! Give a new technique a try, post your project at the PIP Challenge Blog and you could win a $12 discount code at Di's Digi Stamps!!  You can use it on any of hundreds of great digital images!
 

CLICK PICTURES TO SEE MORE DETAIL

This time I branched out a little bit, experimenting with new colors and some new embossing powders.  The powders are from Lindy's Stamp Gang and WoW!! do they ever have a great variety of beautiful, bright, 2 tone colors!!! They're addictively fun!! They also become a nice smooth gloss which is what I prefer in an embossing powder!

Additionally the butterflies are a wonderful arena of creative excitement for me so I will be sharing a tutorial on them soon.  Follow my blog & I will come back in & create a link when I get that tutorial posted :)

Meanwhile, here are some of the Autumn Colored stripes I tried for the first time.  I am so excited to use them with leaves, owls and sunflowers. I will again link them HERE when I get them put together!!        
 




                             









For your convenience below are quick links to the oxide stripes tutorial, PIP Challenge Blog and Di's Digital Stamp shop -- have fun!

To see a quick tutorial CLICK HERE!
To Link up your creation CLICK HERE!
To shop Di's Digis CLICK HERE!! 

   

Summer Treats with Newton's Nook!

Good Morning! Today I am feeling excited because my favorite PIP Challenge sponsor, NEWTON'S NOOK DESIGNS is providing the prize for one lucky winner this week!! A $15 gift code is up for grabs and the challenge, #1834 is anything goes :)

Newton's Summer Treats < LINK

I am also excited to share this weeks blog because I have made a thank you reflecting our recent 4H trip to Washington DC!  This card is going to one of the Oregon Senate Staffers there who really went the extra mile making sure our tour of the capitol was AMAZING!!  & got us into a visit of the White House!!

I hunted down a free capitol bldg. clip art and printed it behind Newton, enjoying his enormous stack of ice creams!!  I put a light dusting of chalk in the background to help the image pop and still keep it Clean & Simple.

 

  Oooo, these new Newton sets are the cats meow!!  Look at all the fun that can be had with them!!  Check out the NND Blog here ~ they have some great designers!

Fair Week Follow Up!!

  I love small town USA!! You might remember my post from last August.  Here are some highlights from last year as I look forward to the festivities for this year!!





Hope you are having a great Summer 

                                                                                                                                                    

Oregon's only 4~H Court / 2015

Today, a celebration of youth !! Our family enjoys the 4H program, volunteering and learning. 4H has so much to offer in ANY subject area.  If you can find someone willing to lead and kids interested in the subject, you've got a club!!
Our Wallowa County hosts the only 4H Court in Oregon and in 2014/2015 my daughter Georgia earned her place on it.  What a busy and exciting year it was. So I finally put together the cover page layout for the book the girls made.  I thought I would share a few of the fun things I did with it.

I started with a pale blue paper and made a 4 leaf clover stencil using heart shapes; carefully pounced green, turquoise and blue ink within the clover shapes ~ 2 sizes randomly scattered. 

When I was satisfied with the results I carefully splashed water over them and let it thoroughly dry (in the oven on super low ~ I was in a hurry!!) I also rubbed the page edges with the blue ink to give them some extra depth.  I decided this was not enough so I took my white NUVO Crystal Drops and and put dozens of dots as randomly as possible.  I wanted it to have a spattered look but I wanted the spatter to be super white ~ I think it worked !!

I had the idea of a belt buckle on the page since each girl received one to commemorate her year.  I used a buckle shaped die, dry embossed it, rubbed the high spots with watermark ink and heat embossed that with silver.  You can guess how I made the 4 leaf clover(?) that in the end decided not to use!! Its enameled with clear heat embossing.

My favorite part was figuring out how to include the 4 pictures I wanted to use without crowding the page and also introducing the girls individually. I came up with the idea of flaps, hinged with gross grain ribbon.  I asked each for a quote and found some great alphabet stickers to add in their names. 

I reflected the layered ribbon shapes from the first page to make the lift flaps adding their name to the flap to be lifted to see their individual photos with each quote!

Originally the papers were plain, it was a very dull look ~ adding background stamps in a monochromatic color & accenting with "stitching" perked up the page a bunch without making it too busy.

🗱Click on the photos to browse close up

Here are some close ups just for fun!  All of the silver pieces were cut & embossed from silver papers - high spots were heat embossed with silver powder. It is a great effect in person, gold is also stunning this way :) 

Another detail that is hard to see is the curve of the belt buckle.  Using the same technique as with the Jar Labels I curved the "buckle" then while attaching it, added 2 layers of dimensional tape to the central vertical axis and glued the ends down tight to the page.  Even with this heavy book closed, it will retain its dimension.

 some open space was for journaling depending on what the girls decided, but I also think it looks great without anything.