Friday, April 24, 2015

Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge #26 - Smudge Stamping

Oh boy am I skating in under the wire for this one! ;-) Once again we are rocking along on the stupendous challenges put forth by the fabulous Linda over at Studio L3. This time the challenge is Smudge Stamping as found on page 42 of Tim Holtz's book, A Compendium of Curiosities Vol. 3. I can't share the technique, you should get the book because it's jam-packed with great techniques! I have some upcoming needs for thank you cards so I'm killing two birds with one stone. (No, I'm not really killing birds but they sure make a great card subject! ha ha)


We are always grateful for the sponsors of the challenges and their generous prizes they donate. This time the sponsor is The Funkie Junkie Boutique, thank you! Be sure to head on over to the Studio L3 blog and check out all the inspiring artwork shared by the Curiosity Crew and other entrants. Oodles of eye candy await you!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I've inspired you to go get creative. The supplies I used for these cards can be found at Inspiration Emporium. Follow the links below and use my code JUICE at Inspiration Emporium to save 10% if you go shopping there. I will also point out that US shipping is always $5 and international shipping is just $10 at IE. ;-)


Friday, April 17, 2015

Faux Fossil ATCs with Deco Art Media

I have been playing with DecoArt Media products and boy are they fun! I wanted to experiment with faux effects and this idea fit the bill:


I started out with a layer of Texture Sand Paste on matboard. When it was dry, I used Black Modeling Paste through the Mini Trilobites stencil to form the "fossil". Afterwards, I used washes of the Fluid Acrylic Paints (I LOVE these paints!!) to achieve the mottled color of stone. I'm really happy with the performance of these products and look forward to making many more artistic creations with them!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I've inspired you to go get creative. The supplies I used for this project can be found at Inspiration Emporium and Amazon. Follow the links below and use my code JUICE at Inspiration Emporium to save 10% if you go shopping there. I will also point out that US shipping is always $5 and international shipping is just $10 at IE. ;-)


Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Karen Burniston April Challenge - Accordions With Friends!

Hello! I am so honored to be a part of the Karen Burniston challenge this month. Shelly Hickox is a member of her design team and for April, each member got to choose a blogger friend to join in as well. Thanks Shelly for picking me! You can see her completely awesome card on her blog here.

Last year Shelly made the most amazing tunnel cards using Karen's accordion dies. When I saw them on her blog I just knew I wanted to make one too! Check out the wonderful tutorial on her blog so you can see how it really is easy to do using Karen's accordion dies. I went with an ocean theme for mine, using the Accordion Rectangle die:

Lisa Hoel – the Karen Burniston April challenge – Accordions with Friends!

They look complicated but trust me, they really aren't! I don't know how to do nifty videos like Shelly to show how dimensional this really is but I did take lots of photos. ;-)


I pulled out every sea-themed stamp I own when I was choosing what to use. Some are from deep within my stash and have been around for years. Ones that you can still get are down in my supplies list at the bottom of the post.


I love all the layering you can do in these cards. To make my fish "swim" I cut tabs of thin clear plastic and glued the fish to them. They float quite nicely I think!


The great thing about these tunnel cards is that they fold flat so you can actually put them in an envelope and mail them off:


If you're trying to wrap your head around how this goes together, Shelly's tutorial really does a good job of explaining everything. I will give you a peek at my two sections before I put them together. You do need to do all your stamping, coloring etc. before you put them together. I found it helpful to make a mockup out of scrap cardstock and pencil in where the main features on the edges would be. Then I took the mockup back apart and was able to ink, stamp and stencil in the proper spots.


The very back of the card is a panel of clear packaging plastic that I glued a white coffee filter to. When the glue was dry I used Distress Stain to color it and then stamped on it. I like how it's semi-opaque and the light streams in like it would underwater.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope I've inspired you to go get creative. Many of the supplies I used for this card can be found at Inspiration Emporium. Follow the links below and use my code JUICE there to save 10% if you go shopping. I will also point out that US shipping is always $5 and international shipping is just $10. ;-)