Hello my crafty friends. I hope you're having a great day. I'm back with an art journal page. I looked through my stash of things, and found a few products that I wanted to use and then picked the ones that would go together on the page.

I started with a piece of watercolor paper trimmed down to 5.5 x 8 inches. It was from a pad I bought form Michaels, but any paper that is heavy enough to hold up to a little wet mediums will be fine. 

I added a layer of white gesso over the paper first.

 

Once that was dry I added some stamping with archival ink in the color potting soil with some stamps from this stamp set from Hero Arts.

You can find it here:

https://tinyurl.com/5cy6sczu

Then I added a little archival ink in the color sepia around the edges with an ink blending sponge. Then I sprayed the ink on my work surface with some alcohol and smooshed it onto the background as well. Just one way to use up all the ink, right. lol.

After the ink blending and smooshing, I added some burnt umber acrylic paint through this stencil from Finnabair. 

You can find it here:

https://tinyurl.com/pvrebnf5

But that wasn't good enough for me, so I added some 3D matte gel to the paint and using a pallet knife I added that through the stencil as well.

When that was all heat set and dry I added the rub on transfer from 49 and Market.

You can find that here:

https://tinyurl.com/2wwymrdr

Now it was time to add the die cuts that I had chosen. 

I used some form a Stamperia set, I think was designed by Vicki Papaioannou.

I bought them here:

https://tinyurl.com/yfrnjb3t

The last part of my images was the fairy from the washi tape roll I bought from The Washi Tape Shop. I added the fairy and some of the butterflies. 

I didn't see this exact tape on their website, but I'll link the store so you can check them out here:

https://thewashitapeshop.com/

Before I finished the focal images, I added a piece of pattern paper from my stash to the back. I do this to keep the back of the page looking nice and because I have a ton of paper that needs to be used. 

Then I added the final piece, a die cut that says "home". 

I covered all the dies and washi tape with fluid matte medium to keep them stuck down and get rid of the shine. Then I punched holes so that I can add the page to my A5 binder that I use as an art journal.

I signed and dated the page and it was all finished. 

You can watch the video here:

https://youtu.be/6iFu4MiOjrU

Thanks for stopping by. 

Sympathy Card with Waffle Flower Stencils and Dies

 Hello there. I'm back with another card created by products selected with my spread sheet and a random number selector. 

The choices were:

Brand: Waffle Flower

Product: Stencil

Technique: Ink Blending

Color Pallet: Sarah Renea Clark Color Cube #1

Theme: Sympathy

Extra: Twine

This was an opportunity to use the Waffle Flower Postal Die Collection. I picked up the Snow Winter Stencils. I thought they would work for a sympathy card because they have cardinals included in the images. 

You can buy them here:

https://waffleflower.com/collections/postage-collage

I chose the colors from card 180 from the Sarah Renea Clark Color Cube box 1.

You can buy the color cubes here:

https://sarahrenaeclark.com/colorcube/

I did trade the greys in this color combination for purples. Grey would have worked, but I had my heart set on purple mountains. 

The set has three layers, and each stencil and opening has  "light, medium, or dark" etched into it so you know which color to use. These are the colors I used. They're from Simon Says Stamp.

I used a combination of small blending brushes in my stash. I wiped the section with a micro fiber cloth after each color to keep colors from spreading and creating icky colors. 

Once the ink blending was complete, I die cut the whole image with the coordinating postage die. 

I selected a mid tone brown for the card base. I am using the image to create a landscape style card that measures 5 1/3 inches wide by 4 1/4 inches tall. The die cut panel is about       5 1/4 inches x 4 inches. 

I add some old brown and white twine around the bottom third of the panel. Then add foam tape on the back. But I have cut the foam tape into pieces so it doesn't show through the cut out detail. 

I used a stamp from Mint Owl Designs stamp set. I'm not sure if they still make stamps, but a quick google search leads me to think no. I stamped the sympathy sentiment in brown ink on the same white paper and then struggled where to place it. I ended up going with the lower right corner. Now that it's all put together, I would choose a smaller sentiment, and heat embossed it in white on the same brown cardstock as the card base. I still could I guess. 

After I have the sentiment adhered, I added a bow with the twine. And that's the completed card.

You can watch the video here:

https://youtu.be/Z5nyhMIB9XA

Thanks for stopping by. 

Crime and Coloring Season 2, Episode 45: The Cumberland Mountain Axe Murders

Hello my true crime friends. Our journey today takes us to the state of Tennessee. Fun fact, my two oldest children were born in TN. Not fun fact, our true crime story today is listed as one of the states most gruesome crimes. This crime did involve the death of children, so if that is too much for you, and I totally understand that, please just read the coloring stuff.

The stamp set I choose for the card today is a Gerda Steiner stamp called Lovely Pandas and can be bought here:

https://gsd-stamps.com

I also used the Spellbinders layering Labels 8 to trim down the card panel. You can get them here:

https://tinyurl.com/bdewu44s

This card required a little thinking before I began stamping. I wanted to stamp the sitting panda on top of the pile of hearts and add some grass with an old Stampin Up set to the background.

I stamped the panda first and them stamped and cut out a mask. I used Inkadinkado masking paper for that.

Then I stamped the pile of hearts and their mask and added it on top of the bear.

When all the masking was complete I stamped the grass on top of the whole bottom 2/3rds of the card panel. There will be a gap between the masks and the grass, but I will fill that in with my coloring. 

After I got the grass all stamped, I ink blended the sky blue with a large blending brush and some Simon Says cloudy sky ink. The magic in masking is when you finish the top stamping or inking and remove the masks.

My copic colors were very few this card.

 Greens: YG 17, YG 25, YG67

Reds:R24,R46, R59, R89

Tan: E31, E33, E51, 0

Black/gray: W9, 7, 5, 3, 1, 00

After I completed all of the coloring, I ran the panel through my Empress die cutting machine with the 2nd largest of the label 8 dies.

 

The card assembly was pretty simple for this card. I just added the panel with some double sided adhesive with my ATG runner. It's my favorite tape runner. You get a little time to fix things if they're not just right, but after it's stuck, it holds really well. And the roll has a ton of adhesive. 

You can get it here:

https://tinyurl.com/3u25kbau

And here is the finished card.

Now on to the crime. The Cumberland Mountain Axe Murders as this event has been dubbed, occurred in 1846.  Edward O'Neal and his wife Sarah and 5 of their 6 children were killed by being bludgeoned with an axe and placed in the cellar of their one room log cabin. Then the cabin was burned to the ground.

Their oldest daughter was the only survivor, and soon became the main suspect. Well, her and two young married men, William and Nicolas, who lived in the area.

It's a crime where most of the records are lost, with the exception the apelet opinion of one of the state supreme court justices. So the details are sparse, the crime was gruesome, and the story can be listen to here:

https://youtu.be/xBCI-zrxflo

Thanks for stopping by.