Category Archives: Challenges

DIY Thank You Card With Sunset Silhouette Design

Guest designer Laura Jane is hosting an Inspiration Challenge over at the Altenew blog. I have been excited about the challenge since the day she posted it, because it features one of my favorite design themes — a sunset! Check this out:

Inspiration Challenge Sunset Image by Laura Jane for Altenew

That’s the Inspiration Challenge Image Laura Jane posted. She also posted a bunch of amazing purple-ish, pink-ish cards featuring dark silhouetted elements. I loved them so much!

I looked through my paper stash to see what I could find. I have a bunch of Altenew papers, but none of them are quite the right colors for this — so I ended up using papers that I colored using various dyes and inks, including some Altenew inks and others.

Years ago, I used to teach textile design classes to fashion design majors at California Design College. We did a lot of fabric dyeing in those classes. At the end of class, I’d usually have leftover dyes. Instead of just pouring the extra dyes down the drain, I used to use them to create paintings and designs on paper.

I used most of those hand-dyed papers long ago, but I still do have a few of them left in my craft supplies stash waiting for just the right projects to use them in.

Hand Dyed & Ink Blended Papers

This was one of those just right projects. I chose one of these striking hand-dyed papers to use for my darker silhouetted images; the paper has striated shades of deep purple and dusky pink that are reminiscent of the colors you see outdoors at twilight.

And I used another one of these papers to start me off with the background, but I added some spritzes of Altenew ink colors diluted with water — Ruby Red, Coral Berry, and Frosty Pink. I also used some of Tim Holtz’s Dusty Concord Distress Oxide ink to give my card background a more purplish appearance.

Here’s how my card turned out:

DIY Thank You Card in Sunset Colors With Craft Supplies by Altenew

Craft Supplies You’ll Need for Making a Similar DIY Thank You Card

Papers: You could use ink blended or hand dyed papers like I did, or you could use patterned papers for this. You’ll also need some white or colored cardstock to make your card base.
Inks: I used Altenew’s Coral Berry, Ruby Red and Frosty Pink dye inks plus Tim Holtz’s Dusty Concord Distress Oxide ink — but you can use any inks you like.
Dies: “Sweet Blooms” Die Set by Altenew — This set is so pretty and so versatile; I highly recommend it.
Sentiment Stamps: I used the sentiments from Altenew’s “Painted Rose” stamp set, which appears to have been discontinued. I really love this one, but if you missed out on getting it, there are many other possible sentiment stamps you could use.
Scalloped Circle Die or Scalloped Scissors: You’ll need to cut out your stamped sentiment in some manner. If you have a scalloped circle that’s the right size, that would be ideal. I happen to have stencils and old-fashioned decorative scissors that I like using for this — so I used scalloped scissors by EK Success to fussy cut around my stamped sentiment.

So there you have it: That’s my inspiration challenge entry. I hope you enjoyed taking a look at it. Thank you so much for dropping by! I appreciate your interest in my project.

Posted by: Amy Solovay

“Love You” Valentine’s Day Card Featuring Heart Motif and Flowers

Crazy Little Thing Called Love: Love You Valentine’s Day Card With Hearts and Flowers Featuring Stamps by Hero Arts

Love You Valentine Card With Hearts and Flowers Featuring Stamps by Hero Arts

The lovely people at Hero Arts are having a challenge with the theme of “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. Pictured above, you can see my entry for this challenge. It’s a Valentine’s Day card featuring stamped images I created using a couple of different Hero Arts stamp sets.

Craft Supplies You’ll Need for Making a Similar Valentine Card:

The “Togetherness” Stamp Set by Hero Arts — This stamp set features a gorgeous floral bouquet stamp and 7 lovely sentiment stamps.
The Hero Greetings Christmas Messages Stamp Set by Hero Arts — No, this isn’t a Christmas card (although you could make it a Christmas card if you want to; simply change out the pinks for greens, and voila, it’s a Christmas card). The “Hero Greetings Christmas Messages” stamp set includes mostly Christmas-themed sentiments, but it also has other sentiments like “love you,” “you warm my heart,” “stay cozy” and “let’s party”. So you can use it for many occasions besides just Christmas. I think the “love you” stamp is just perfect for using on Valentine cards, birthday cards and everyday cards.
Pink Cardstock
White Cardstock
Kitsch Flamingo Distress Oxide Ink Pad by Tim Holtz for Ranger Industries
Love Letter Memento Ink Pad
Washi Tapes: I used 3 different washi tape designs to create this card. The one on the top is a glittery, sparkly white washi tape by Graphic 45. The one in the middle is a red floral design by Recollections. The one on the bottom is a lovely design from the Papillon collection by The Happy Planner / Me & My Big Ideas.
A Heart Die or Heart Stencil
Scalloped Scissors — I used Fiskars Paper Edgers in the Mini Scallop design to cut around my “love you” sentiment.
Pens & Markers — You’ll want to personalize your card on the inside, and you might also want to make some touch-ups to the embellishments on your card. I used a Tombow brush marker, color #847 to color in the scalloped edge around the “Love You” stamped image. I also used a Sakura Gelly Roll pen and a Marvy Uchida highlighter to personalize the inside of my card. No need to get these pens and markers specifically; you can use other coordinating pens and markers from your stash to do your personalizing. If you don’t have any pens that will work for this, I definitely recommend the Gelly Rolls; they are affordable and super pretty. I love the results I get from using them, and I think you will, too.
Scoring Board or Other Scoring Tool

Thanks so much for taking a look at my Valentine Card. I really appreciate your interest.

Check Out More DIY Valentine’s Day Cards

Find More Project Ideas Featuring Stamps and Supplies by Hero Arts

Posted By: Amy Solovay

Digital Scrapbooking Layout Featuring Elwood Beach, California Palm Tree

Digital Scrapbooking Layout Featuring Elwood Beach Palm Tree

From 2006 to 2009, my husband, Mike, and I lived in Goleta, California. Elwood Beach was basically our backyard; we could walk out our door, down a dirt path through the Eucalyptus trees and be at the beach within moments.

Here you can see one of my favorite views of the beach. I have variations of this same tree photographed, like, dozens of different times.

At the time, Mike and I both had amazing jobs working in Santa Barbara. Mike was working as the sales and marketing manager for a local AV company, and I had a freelance gig helping Big Dogs Sportswear put their summer print line together. I only worked with them during the summer months.

In my downtime during the fall and winter months, I messed around with scrapbooking, making and selling art, building websites, freelance writing and hanging around the beach. Life was just about as perfect as it could be.

Then along came the great financial crisis. Mike and I both lost our jobs at about the same time. We didn’t want to leave Santa Barbara, but we knew we couldn’t stay in the place where we had been living.

We met this guy who told us it was possible to live rent-free in Santa Barbara. He was selling a 1960s Chris Craft in need of restoration. He told us he was anchoring it in Fool’s Anchorage, and he suggested buying it and living aboard.

Well, of course, living rent-free in Santa Barbara was an appealing idea, so we took a look at his boat. However, we knew immediately that buying it would be a bad idea. Even if someone had been willing to invest the time and elbow grease getting that thing looking awesome again, it would take a billionaire to keep its fuel tanks full.

And we realized that staying in Fool’s Anchorage was also a terribly, horribly bad idea. Glad we had enough sense to dodge that bullet.

Later, after we’d bought a different boat, we met a guy, David. David is an experienced seaman who has been sailing since his childhood 60-some odd years ago. We got to talking with him about anchorages in the area. His comment about Fool’s Anchorage: “No self-respecting captain would anchor a boat there.”

Our other friend, Jim, used to live in Fool’s Anchorage. In the wintertime, when the winds would kick up hard, we’d get worried about him. We’d call him and ask how he was doing. He’d respond, “I’m rocking and rolling with the best of ‘em”. He used to drop, like, 200+ feet of chain and a massive anchor for his 34-foot sailboat, and the dude didn’t even have a windlass. Even with all that ground tackle, washing up on the beach was a constant threat.

And that doesn’t even begin, really, to describe the insanity that is Fool’s Anchorage. Jim told us horror stories that I won’t get into here and now.

So I said to Mike, “Forget the Chris Craft. Let’s get a sailboat. And definitely forget Fool’s Anchorage. Let’s actually go cruising.”

Mike occasionally goes along with my wild ideas. The rest is history.

Credits:

The lovely people over at Katie Pertiet’s website are having a blending challenge that inspired this digital scrapbooking layout. I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to blending, so this really was a challenge for me – but I’m planning to keep messing around with it until I get proficient.

I used Gimp and digital scrapbooking supplies from Katie’s website to create this image. The title font is Cream Cake.

I’m new at Gimp, and so far, it would be incredibly generous to describe my skills in the program as being mediocre. But they’re getting a little better with each project I attempt, and they took a pretty big leap forward with this project (although it occurs to me that is probably not evident just from looking at this piece, which is more of a mess than I’d like it to be…)

Messy or not, I liked it enough to declare this digital scrapbooking layout finished. Thanks for checking it out! I appreciate your interest.

One Photo, One Word Digital Scrapbooking Challenge at the Katie Pertiet Designs Blog

Supplies You Need for Creating a Similar Digital Scrapbooking Layout

All the supplies I used for this layout are available at Katie Pertiet’s website. I plan to post a list of them shortly, so please check back if this would be of interest to you.

Over to You:

Did you enter any of the challenges at Katie’s website this month? If so, how did your project(s) turn out? You’re invited to make use of the comments area below.

Happy Fall Card Making Idea With Cute Bears by Lawn Fawn

Happy Fall Card With Cute Bears — Craft Supplies by Lawn Fawn

The lovely people over at the Lawnfawnatics Blog are hosting a challenge with the theme of “Awesome Autumn”! Pictured here, you can see one of my entries for this challenge; I made a card featuring cute bears, autumn trees and an expansive turquoise chevron-patterned sky. Hey, why not, right?

Supplies You Will Need for Creating a Similar Happy Fall Card:

“Den Sweet Den” stamp set by Lawn Fawn
Lawn Fawn Simple Stitched Trees Border Die Set
12″x12″ Patterned Paper From the “Into the Woods Remix” Collection by Lawn Fawn
Milo’s ABCs Stamp Set for stamping the “Happy Fall” sentiment
Several scraps of Kraft cardstock for stamping the sentiment and the bears
There are different ways you could cut out the “Happy Fall” sentiment to make it look like the example pictured here. You could use a scalloped circle die to do the job. Or you could use a circle template plus scalloped scissors. I opted for the circle template plus paper edgers, but you’d likely get a more even shape if you went for the die instead.
Walnut Stain Distress Ink for stamping the bears
Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxide Ink for stamping the “Happy Fall” sentiment, and also for inking around the outer edges of the card
Distress Oxide Black Soot for stamping the bear’s knitting needles and ball of yarn
Light Aqua Marker for coloring the bear’s knitting needles and ball of yarn
Brown Marker: You might or might not need this, depending on how you use your dies. The hillside and the tree trunks can be cut in one piece; if you use bright green cardstock to do this, you’ll end up with a lovely green hillside (which you want) with vibrant, eye-catching green tree trunks (which you probably don’t want). That’s where the brown marker comes in; you can simply color over the green tree trunks to make them brown. Another option would be to use an ink blending tool and ink to color over the tree trunks.
Dark Green Marker or Other Coloring Tool: I used a random green brush marker to color the scalloped edge around my sentiment, but there are a lot of possibilities for this; you could use a Copic marker, a colored pencil or really, any coloring media for this.

I love how this card turned out!