The Creative Life

Christmas [Cards] in July!

In The Studio

We all have that friend, you know the one, who starts posting __ weeks ’til Christmas posts on their Facebook wall starting in, oh, February? Or maybe you are that friend? Either way, for those of us not preternaturally tuned to the Christmas countdown, such posts strike a frisson of fear down deep in our bones.

Or maybe just me.

But this year, I’m ready. I’m ready because last year I ordered both the regular Simon Says Stamp monthly card kit AND the additional, deluxe, Simon Says Stamp kit.

And did absolutely nothing with them.

Okay, that’s not 100% true, I opened them up and oohed and aahed over the cute stamps and the pretty papers. That counts, right?

But I didn’t make the cards.

And not only did I not make the cards, I ended up going to the store at the last minute and purchasing assorted pre-printed cards to send out to our nearest and dearest.

Crafter fail.

This year, though, I get to redeem myself because, hey, there will always be another Christmas, and so now those kits have been dragged out and put to good use.

With the addition of some card bases (purchased in a multi-pack from Tuesday Morning), a few spools and/or bottles of adhesive, and a couple additional ink pads, the cards came together over a couple of weekends.

To see how the different cards came together (there are only a handful of the 33! that are actual duplicates), watch the video of me putting them together:

It’s at ludicrous speed, but still helpful. (I had to do something to squeeze 6 hours of footage–and that didn’t include all the coloring–into a theatrical release!)

Imagine That: Make a Splash with Summer Cards

In The Studio

For my final Imagine project for July we were challenged to create something with the theme “wet” and I just had to use my Little Mermaid monkey stamps from Waffle Flower. I played up the wet aspect with a generous helping of Shimmer Goosebumps spray and a three-dimensional splash curling around the die cut circle.

Make sure to head over to the Imagine blog to see how this card came together and watch this space, I’ve got a massive card video coming soon!

 

Strut Your Stuff with Stencil Girl and Imagine

In The Studio

It’s Blog-Hop time! This month Imagine teamed up with Stencil Girl for a product/design team collab as well as a giveaway (more details below–make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom!).

I had a lot of fun working with my new tools from Stencil Girl and used them to put together a mixed-media canvas. It started with an acrylic paint base and then–why I don’t I show you, instead.

Strut Your Stuff Process Video

As you can probably guess, I took my biggest inspiration from the peacock feather stencil and chose colors that worked with that idea. I was more amused than I necessarily should be that I turned the dancing figure into a fan dancer, but it worked (I think?).

Once I had all the basic layers in place, I ended up leaving it on my work table for almost a week, trying to decide how to finish it. The overall look was really bright, which is not my usual goal, and I wanted to add a stamped phrase but I wasn’t sure of the best way to do that at first.

I ended up adding a couple layers of ink buffed over the creative medium bits to highlight the textures and then stamped the message onto vellum, applied it with the Shimmer Artist’s Medium, and called it done!

Here’s the full product list for this project
(any amazon links are affiliate links, thank you for supporting this blog!)

Imagine Products:

Stencil Girl Products:

Other Products:

One lucky winner will receive both a $25 Gift Certificate to StencilGirl Products AND a $25 Gift Certificate to Imagine Crafts! Visit the fabulous designers from both teams and comment for your chance to win! The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to WIN! (One comment per blog please.) You have until Sunday, July 23rd at 11:59PM Central Time to leave your comments. Winner will be announced on
StencilGirl’s Facebook page and Imagine Crafts’s Facebook page
on Monday, July 24th.

July 19th

July 20

July 21

 

Imagine That: The Most Hospitable Fruit

In The Studio

Pineapple, that is!

So the story goes, back in the European voyaging days pineapples were very popular with the men and women at court, as were most things deemed exotic from faraway lands. It filtered down to the colonies, but with no refrigeration and the long shipping time between picking and destination, access to a whole, fresh pineapple was a rare and expensive treat. First a symbol of privilege, the pineapple ultimately become a symbol of hospitality as, if you served a whole pineapple to your guests, they knew they were highly favored and being treated like royalty.

Even though pineapples are far easier to come by in any form these days, they’re still a popular choice for guest room decor, newel posts, door knockers, and other home items.

Today’s projects are far less high brow, but very fun!

First, over on the Imagine blog, I’ve come up with a pineapple-inspired wine bottle wrap that would work equally well for a hostess gift or table decor. In fact, I’m sad I didn’t come up with this last year for Todd’s luau party.

Then, using the same ink-shading technique and the cast-off edge from the first project, I make a pineapple-adorned card that would be perfect for welcoming a new neighbor or summer baby.

Pineapple Welcome Card on YouTube

Here’s everything that went into the pineapple card (amazon links may be affiliate links, thanks for supporting my blog!):

Imagine Products:
Fireworks! Spray – Cantaloupe
Brilliance – Coffee Bean
Memento – Desert Sand
Memento Luxe – Dandelion
Sponge Daubers
Memento Markers – Rich Cocoa, Dandelion, Bamboo Leaves
Tear It! Tape

Other Products:
Cardstock – white, dark green (similar)
Patterned Paper – DCWV
Spellbinders – Classic Petal border die
Dienamics – Pierced Oval Stax Dies (similar)
Tape Runner
Helmar Zap Dots (similar)
Paper Trimmer
Scissors

Don’t forget to check out the Imagine blog to see the video of making the pineapple wine wrap!

Imagine That: Coffee or Cocktails

In The Studio

Today I have a two-fer to share with you–one project here and another, using the same stamp set and theme, over on the Image blog.

Waffle Flower was kind enough to share some products with the Imagine Artists in Residence this month and you know how much I love Waffle Flower for their cute monkey stamps, right? For these projects, though, I used the Currently Drinking mini stamps that are part of their planner series.

For Imagine I used the wine and cocktail-themed stamps in the set to create a scattered, embossed background for a fun card perfect for a bachelorette bar crawl or a girl’s night out.

Not to be left out, the coffee and tea images also in the set were perfect for a bracelet when used with shrink plastic and a few jewelry tools. Check out the video, below, of just how easy this bracelet came together.

Here’s what I used to create this bracelet (amazon links, below, are affiliate links–thank you for supporting this blog!)

Imagine Supplies

Waffle Flower Supplies

Other Supplies