Wearin' o' the Green

Wearin' o' the Green, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Super simple card today! Two stamps, one ink, two pieces of cardstock.

I stamped the shamrock on the green cardstock and the sentiment on the light green cardstock, which had been cut with pinking scissors.

The end. =D


Supplies:
Paper: The Paper Studio (kraft cardblank); Bazzill (green and light green cardstock)
Stamps: Hampton Arts (both stamps)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Forest Moss)
ETC: Fiskars Paper Edgers (Pinking); Glue Glider Pro



I've already mailed off the St Patrick's Day cards....without photographing several of them. Oops. ;-)



Thanks so much for stopping in today--I love it when you visit!!

~Cynthia

Starting Points Sketch

Starting Point Sketch, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Today I played along with Shimelle Lane on her Scrapbook Starting Points sketch challenge.

The black and white photo (yeah, it looks weirdly blue here, but in real life it's quite black and white!) was taken when a friend of mine took me to her dad's hunting club.

You know...one of those kinda scary places waaaaaaaay out in the backwoods. Heh heh.

My friend and I enjoy photography and I spent most of my time at "The Property" taking photos of the old house the hunters stay in during deer season. My friend's dad was plowing the land around the house to plant deer food and a garden for people food. ;-)


Supplies:
Paper: American Crafts (Chap collection: Cameron); Graphic 45 (Curtain Call: Tour de France for Eiffel Tower stamp; Botanicabella Collections: Botanicabella Tag--butterfly strip at top); Glitz Design (Olivia Roses--small flower top left); gcd studios (Artsy Urban Collection: Postcard Two for large black circle die cut); Shimelle Lane (Colourful Library Cards freebie); Wedding Style Guide (freebie Cordial download here); Explore tag (unknown freebie--it might have been from Two Peas in a Bucket)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Vintage Photo); Distress Stain (Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw for flower coloring)
ETC: Spellbinders (Nestabilities--Lacy Circles); K&Co (Tim Coffey Cottage Garden Warm Die Cut and Acetate pack--dragonfly); Making Memories (Tiny Alpha Stickers); Studios Blackbird (Ephemera pack--small numbered label); Prima (Calypso Tin--paper flowers); Tonic (Ticket/Tag Punch); Fiskars (1/8 inch punch); The Paper Studio (black brad)

Yeah and pretty much the kitchen sink to boot! ;-)

Putting this page together was kind of fun. Normally, I'm the instant gratification type and I stick to cards, but it wouldn't be a challenge if it wasn't challenging, right?? =D


Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

~Cynthia

St Patrick's Day

St Patrick's Day, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Saturday is St Pat's Day! I love being able to use those stamps that only see the light of day once a year. :-)

So here's the first card.

About a year ago I saw a crafter make these cool medallion shapes using a small square of cardstock and a Martha Stewart corner punch. They reminded me of a Family Coat of Arms.

And since St. Patrick's Day is all about the Irish in each of us, I decided to go the Irish Clan way with my cards! Yeah, even though my family is nowhere near Irish! ;-)

I cut a two-inch square piece of green cardstock and punched each corner. Smaller or larger squares give a different look. This size gives that chalice look on the sides, which I think is very cool and very Irish!

Then I stamped the clover on a piece of white cardstock and punched it out with a one-inch-square punch. I like that it didn't quite get all the stamped image--as if you're looking through a window.

Then I adhered both pieces and I was done!


Supplies:
Paper: Bazzill (green and white cardstock); Recollections (white cardblank)
Stamp: Hampton Arts/Studio g (Irish stamp)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Peeled Paint)
ETC: Martha Stewart (Iron Gate Corner Punch); Marvy-Uchida (one-inch punch)


Where I used to live, the city went all out on St Patrick's Day. Part of the city was closed to traffic and they had bands, games, parades, contests--green everywhere!! Do you have any plans for St Pat's??


~Cynthia

Starting Point

Starting Point, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Today's offering is a scrapbook page based on a challenge over on Shimelle's blog: Make a page with four quadrants and three ribbons.

I found three different papers with green tones and used one of them twice. That started a kind of "diagonal balance" theme with which I totally ran.

I've got flower-type pieces in opposite corners, lines of type in opposite quadrants. I punched out the little circle flowers and popped them up, then adhered them in opposite quadrants. I've got the little name plates for Destination and Travel in opposite quadrants too. And then the photo and main journaling die cut are kind of balanced as well.

The picture is from a trip I took in 2002 when I camped at Little Pee Dee State Park here in South Carolina. The journaling is about rising early to catch a shot of the lake before I continued my trip into North Carolina.

Some of the Supplies:
Paper: Bazzill (blue and green cardstock); WeR Memory Keepers (72 Degrees and Sunny: Flower Patch); Jenni Bowlin (Green Crosshatch); KaiserCraft (LaDiDa Collection: Sing); K&Co (Par Avion Adhesive Borders)
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Vintage Photo)
ETC: And a bunch of other stuff too. :-)


So a big welcome to my new followers!! I'm so glad you're here! =D And thanks for all the comments!!

Happy Crafting!



~Cynthia

PS:  I just saw that this is my 600th post!!!!  Gracious, I should get a party for that....or at least a cupcake, right???  ;-)

Weird Circles

Weird Circles, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

OK, sooooo waaaaaay back in February, Gina from Inkybitz posted a seriously cool card for the Less Is More challenge, which was about using aqua on the card. I loved Gina's layout and decided to go in that direction--without the aqua. ;-)

And that's pretty much where the weirdness set in. Check it out.

I punched circles out of a piece of scrap paper to use as a mask. I brushed color into each circle, then stamped a large crackle background stamp over each circle.

I removed the mask and stamped the wheat image several times.

Totally weird.

It didn't look happy enough for a birthday card so I stamped "With Sympathy" and called it a day.

I...just...don't...know...about this one yet. Some days it seems like it's growing on me and other days I just want to trash it.



Supplies:
Paper: Recollections (white cardblank)
Stamps: Endless Creations (sympathy stamp); Inkadinkado (wheat #97205); Rubber Stampede (Crackled Background)
Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Bundled Sage, Vintage Photo)
ETC: Marvy Uchida (circle punches)


Happy Wednesday! We're halfway to the weekend! =D


~Cynthia

Tim Tag #1

Tim Tag #1, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Still trying to catch up here. On tap today is Tim Holtz's Tag #1.

Tim made a super cool Valentine's Day tag for the month of February. Since I didn't get to the tag until March, I decided on a different theme.

That and I have a limited number of die cuts. ;-)

First I dry embossed the tag with a music themed embossing folder. I couldn't replicate Tim's exact method, but I tried to highlight the raised parts with Picket Fence Distress Stain. That didn't work out very well, so I went off on a tangent.

I mooshed various blue Distress Inks into the "unraised" parts, then distressed the edges and the raised parts with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I think that worked better than just the Picket Fence. Now you can see the music notes easily.

I die cut the star from Grungepaper, inked it with yellow inks, then covered it with Rock Candy Distress Stickles. I dyed a piece of seam binding with the same yellow inks. (I know it looks brown here, but it actually matches quite well in real life.) I did tone it down a bit with Walnut Stain Distress Ink.

I die cut the two borders from a snippet of faux leather I made for another project.

The letters are from Tim Holtz's Salvage Stickers.

For a final bit of crazy-cool bling, I ripped up some old costume jewelry a friend had given me some time ago. The pearl on the seam binding knot and the wire leaf used to be a clip-on earring.

When I first started this, I had no particular direction. Now the tag reminds me of "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star" and that's kind of cool. =D


Supplies:
Paper: Bazzill (kraft paper); manilla shipping tag; Tim Holtz (Grungepaper)
Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Walnut Stain, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Stormy Sky, Vintage Photo); Tim Holtz Distress Stain (Picket Fence)
ETC: Cuttlebug (Allegro Embossing Folder); Tim Holtz (Salvage Stickers); costume jewelry; seam binding; Scotch Quick-dry Adhesive; Ranger (Rock Candy Distress Stickles); MFT Die-namics (Faux Crochet Border, Little Open Scallop Strip)


So in the "I'm Still Playing Catch Up" department...Bonnie asked what Eclipse Paper was. It's paper that has a low-tac glue on it--like Post-It Notes, only a bit stronger. You can ink it, die cut it, print on it, and use it as a mask. It comes in sheets (8x12) and rolls. The coolest thing about Eclipse is that somehow or other, it flattens when you stamp on it. So when you're using it as a mask, you don't get that funny white space between the Eclipse and the paper being stamped on--which happens a lot to me when I'm using Post-It Notes as a mask. You can check it out here on the Stampland Chicago website.


Thanks for stopping by today! And CRAFT ON!! ;-)


~Cynthia

Tim Tag #2

Tim Tag #2, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

I was kinda bummed that Tim Holtz decided to quit doing his 12 Tags of Christmas and instead do one tag each month. I know that's a lot of work and stress for him right before Christmas, but still...I'll miss the craziness of trying to make a tag a day and upload it. It was fun.

*sigh*

So I decided to make a tag along with him anyway. Here's March's tag.

I used lots of inks to create the background, stamp the sentiment and distress the tag. When that was dry, I sprayed it with Smooch Spritz.

I die cut the leaves from grungeboard adhered to Scor-tape. Then I cut small pieces from 3 paper snippets. I pressed the snippets to the Scor-tape, giving the leaves a stained glass look.

I used embossing powder for the grout, then covered the paper bits with Glossy Accents to give them a glassy look.

I deconstructed the clip, adding a different bit of paper, then covered that with Glossy Accents too.

The seam binding was moistened, dabbed with Distress Stains, then dried.

Finally I added the claim check and adhered everything.



Supplies:
Stamps: Stampin Up (sentiment); Rubber Stampede (Crackled Background)
Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Walnut Stain, Vintge Photo, Antique Linen); Tim Holtz Distress Stain (Forest Moss, Walnut Stain); Ranger Archival Ink (Coffee)
ETC: Basic Grey (clip); Cuttlebug (Leaves die cut); Smooch Spritz (Gold Glow); packing tag; seam binding; Judikins (Diamond Sparkle Embossing Powder); Ranger (Glossy Accents); Glue Dots


Have a great weekend!

~Cynthia