Holiday Beverage Sleeve and matching Gift Card Holder for Feline Lovers - A Third Coast Creative Coterie Creation!

Howzit Stampers!

Winter definitely arrived over the weekend down here in San Diego with lots of rain...bbbrrr!

The inspiration for this Holiday Beverage Sleeve and matching Gift Card Holder came to me while savoring my first Eggnog latte of the season, oh yeah!

My kitty winter themed combo creation would be perfect as gifts for feline loving co-works, friends and family!  I used the quirky little cat image called Mini Me (ES-200-I) by Third Coast Rubber Stamps as the star of the show and a Snowflake Cuttlebug Embossing Folder for the rest.

Stamp the Mini Me kitty twice onto white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  Trim one by closely following the outline of the image and die cut out the second with a small Spellbinders Label 8 die.   Emboss both kitties with the Snowflake design and paint the debossed areas with Distress Stain Stormy Sky and the little kitty with Distress Stain Bundled Sage.  

Apply more Stormy Sky to the background of the 2nd image to make it darker.  Drybrush over the embossed snowflakes on both kitties with white acrylic paint to highlight them.  Draw over the stamped lines where needed with a black Sharpie to make the image stand out again.  Add a magical and wintery sparkle to both with a light misting of Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz.  Edge the die cut one with a black Sharpie marker.

Adhere the cut out kitty to a blueish-sage piece of paper with a glue stick and trim.  For the second kitty die cut a slightly larger mat from the blue-sage paper and adhere it to the paper mat.  

Die cut two slightly larger Spellbinders Label 8 mats from metallic blue cardstock and distress the edges on both with white acrylic paint.  

To make the Belly Band for the Gift Card holder sandwich a length of "Let It Snow" silk ribbon (Michaels) between the kitty panel and the metallic mat as shown.  Adhere the mats together with the ribbon in place with Crafter's Pick The Ultimate glue.  Trim the ends of the ribbon into dove tail points.

Use a beverage sleeve as a template and cut a piece of white cardstock slightly larger.  Run the piece through a Xyron to add permanent adhesive and adhere it to a sheet of the same blue-sage paper.  Emboss the snowflake design into the panel.  Apply Stormy Sky Distress Stain directly to the cardstock in a random fashion so that some areas are more saturated than others.  Apply a small amount of Distress Stain Bundled Sage for a variegated effect and allow to dry.  Run the cardstock through a Xyron again and adhere it to the original cardboard beverage sleeve. Trim away the excess cardstock and drybrush over the embossed snowflakes and the edges of the sleeve with white acrylic paint.  Spritz the sleeve with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz.  

Adhere another piece of the "Let It Snow" ribbon around the center of the sleeve with a glue stick.  Overlap the ends of the sleeve and adhere together with The Ultimate glue.  To complete the Beverage Sleeve adhere the kitty panel to the front with TU glue.

Now for the Gift Card Holder.

I made a template based on a standard gift card and traced the shape onto a piece of white cardstock. Run it through a Xyron to add permanent adhesive.  

Adhere the panel to the same blue-sage paper and and score and crease two folds to form the flaps.  Cut 4 notches into the center section with an Xacto knife - this is where the gift card will sit.  

Emboss the panel with the snowflake design and cut out the Gift Card Holder.  Apply the same colour treatment to the Holder as I described above for the Beverage Sleeve.  

Complete the Gift Card Holder by inserting the gift card inside and securing the holder closed with the Kitty Belly Band and finish with a bow tied at the back.

I really had lots of fun creating this little combo gift set and now I'm ready for another Eggnog 

latte...hhmmm yummy ;0)

I'm entering my creations in the following Challenges:
Fall/Winter Challenge over at Mark's Finest Papers
Wee Memories Challenge #75 WMC75

Happy Stamping!

THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents

Zentangle'Ween Art Cards - A Blockheads Design Team Project!

 Happy Thursday Everyone!

Have you been swept up by the Zentangle phenomenon?  I sure have and I love it!
It was super cool to finally give the 'doodles' I've been doing my entire life a name and I was amazed too that a lot of my doodles were actual tangle patterns!  Of course it goes without saying that stampers have taken Zentangles further by doing them inside rubber stamped images and digi stamps.  I had a little medical procedure done last week and in my down time I got some Zentangles done, I hope you like them ;0)

Today I'm sharing two Zentangle cards and a jumbo Tag I've made using Blockheads Paper Arts new line of Digi Stamps!  I re-sized and combined images in Photoshop and printed them all out on white cardstock.

Beware the Eve of the Harlequin Moon

I used the Scary Cat digi stamp for my jumbo tag and the following Tangles:

Knightsbridge on the moon and Hollibaugh on the cat.   I love that the Hollibaugh tangle makes the cat look like a mummy-zombie breaking free of its bandages ;0)  

For my Zentangles I use the recommended Micron 01 pen for the fine details, a fine point Sharpie marker for the larger areas and a pencil for shading.  I realized once my jumbo tag was finished that I would have preferred the cat coloured black instead of the moon so I will do that next time!  So this kitty is a ghost-mummy-zombie so be triple beware of this kitty crossing your path ;0)  I cut out the panel and used a corner rounder punch on the corners then grunged up the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink and an Ink Applicator tool and then matted it on black cardstock.  I added self-adhesive black pearls to 3 corners.

I made the jumbo tag from black cardstock and cut a smaller panel from decorative Halloween pumpkin paper I found in Target's $1 section and punched a hole at the top with a standard hole punch.   I created a really cool half-punched design along the bottom of the tag with a Martha Stewart Lattice punch.  A while ago I discovered by happy accident that combined cardstock and paper mats are too thick for the punch to handle which results in the half-punched diamond pattern which I love so I used it here and then tore the bottom for a ragged edge!  I then applied Black Soot Distress Ink to grunge it up.   

I embellished the left side of the tag with an iron-on fabric applique spiderweb trim from Joann's.  It ironed on to the jumbo tag nicely and then I embellished the right hand side with Tim Holtz' Hobgoblin tissue tape.  

I finished off my jumbo tag with the warning message made with a Dymo Buddy label maker and added two kinds of flag fancy fiber (one is glittery and the other is matte). 

Haunted House Card

For this card I combined two of Blockheads digi stamps:  the 'Mansion' and the 'Boo!' sentiment.  I used quite a few Tangles on this one:  Hollibaugh, Printemps, Tagh, Web, Flukes, Keeko, Swirls, Cubine, one that looks like a Chevron, Squares and a few of my own thrown in for good measure.  I cut, punched, distressed and matted the Zentangle panel the same as the tag and then mounted it onto a decorative mat from the Martha Stewart Crafts Elegant Witch Mat Pad.  I actually used the design on the back of the mat coz it matched my monochromatic colour scheme but the lime green spider design on the other side was too good to waste so I cut a peek-a-boo window into the folded card I made from black cardstock.  Now the design can be appreciated when the card is opened ;0)  I completed my card with a glittery bat cut from a self-adhesive border trim by Martha Stewart Crafts.

Here's a few close-ups of the Zentangles!

Happy Halloween Pumpkin Card

On the last card I also combined two Blockheads digi stamps:  the 'Happy Halloween' sentiment and the 'Pumpkin'.  I used the Hollibaugh, Growth and Keeko Tangles on the Pumpkin with my own patterns on the leaves.  On the sentiment image I used Knightsbridge for the background and I don't have a name for the pattern I used on the border, anyone know?

I cut, punched and matted the Zentangle panel the same as I did on the tag and Haunted House card and then mounted it onto a decorative mat from the Martha Stewart Crafts Elegant Witch Mat Pad.  Again I used the design on the back of the mat but decided not to do a peek-a-boo window for this one.  I embellished the matted panel with white and black self-adhesive pearls and sheer black ribbon and also used a white mat on this card before adhering it to the folded card I made from black cardstock.

I hope you enjoyed checking out my Zentangle'Ween creations!  I've got a few more up my sleeve with a Thanksgiving theme so stay tuned for those!

Happy Stamping!

THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents

"Miss Purple Poison" - A Blockheads Design Team Card!

 Howzit Stampers!

There's a new permanent marker in town worthy of being a rival for Copics and guess what, they're more affordable and just as awesome and they're now available at Blockheads Paper Arts!

 Let me introduce you to the new Marvy Le Plume Permanent markers!  141 colours are available including a Blender Pen and Stacey and I have been very busy putting together some perfect blending sets to get you started as well as a 46 marker set consisting of what we consider the most versatile colours to have in your collection!  They are permanent, alcohol based markers with soft bullet shaped brush nibs and I've been having a blast experimenting with them.

Today I'm sharing a Halloween themed card I made using the new Le Plume Permanents and I will be sharing a step-by-step blending tutorial demonstrating how I went about colouring the image featured on my card as well as a product review over on the Blockheads Blog!  So keep an eye out for my announcements for those!

Purple is one of my all time favourite colours so I've got some serious 'passion for purple' action going on for this one, LOL ;0)  I've featured the Goth Girl stamp again...see, I told you she's quite a versatile image to have in your Halloween arsenal!  So far she's been a vampy Goth, a spooky Bride of Usher and now a witch known in scary circles as Miss Purple Poison.  It's rumored it's best to stay on her good side coz of her scary collection of toxic potions ;0)

SUPPLIES

Blockheads Paper Arts rubber stamps:

Goth Girl

Flourishes (partial of the Bird Cage stamp) from Victorian Eccentricities

Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad

Marvy Le Plume Permanent markers:  BV733, 736, 738, 739 and OP920 White

White Gelly Roll pen

Prismacolor pencils:  Cream, Blush Pink, Parma Violet, Red Violet and Black

Neenah Solar White cardstock

Three shades of purple cardstock

Black cardstock

Recollections Paper Border Toxic Labels

Decorative silk ribbon

Spellbinders Dies:  Fleur De Lis and Deckle Rectangle dies

Tim Holtz Alterations Raven and Scardy Cat die

Fleur De Lis Corner Punch (brand unknown)

Clear rhinestones

Black self-adhesive pearls

Glue Dots and Small Pop Dots

Double-sided tape, Permanent Adhesive Tape

Quickie Glue Pen

Paper Trimmer

Scoreboard

Scissors

Stamp the image onto a sheet of Neenah Solar White cardstock and colour with Marvy Le Plume Permanent markers.  I used 4 blending colours from the Blue Violet range.  I will be sharing a Blending Tutorial soon demonstrating exactly how I went about colouring in this image so keep a look out for it!  I used Prismacolor pencils to colour the Goth Girl's skin and facial features.  I went with the Cream coloured pencil instead of leaving her skin white coz I wanted to pick up on the cream backgrounds on the Toxic Labels.  I added a touch of background colour by creating a sense of a shadow being cast with a Prismacolor Red Violet coloured pencil.  I also used the same colour to distress the deckle edge and then darkened the distressing with a Prismacolor Black coloured pencil.  I completed the image with some white highlights.  I used the opaque White Marvy Le Plume marker on her eyes which is part of the new range but it's a pigment pen instead of permanent and is water-based and the Gel pen for the rest.  There's also a Gold and Silver water-based marker in the collection too.

I used a Deckle Spellbinders die to cut out the panel and layered it onto a dark purple Fleur De Lis die cut.  From a lighter shade of purple cardstock I cut a square panel and then I made a black folded card just slightly larger.  Before assembling all the elements together I cut a length of decorative silk ribbon, trimmed the right hand edge into a dove tail point and slipped it between the white panel and the Fleur De Lis panel and adhered it in place with permanent adhesive tape.  I then adhered all the mats together with double-sided tape.

The purple edged Toxic Labels came attached on a border strip and couldn't have been more perfect for my project.  I cut off 4 of the labels and I then cut 3 small pieces of ribbon, trimmed with matching dove tails and adhered them to the Toxic Labels with permanent adhesive tape and then adhered all the labels to the card with glue dots.

From the lightest purple cardstock I die cut the Scardy Cat and decorated it with stamped Memento Tuxedo Black flourishes which is actually a portion of the flourishes from the right hand side of the Bird Cage image!  I then darkened the edges of the Scardy Cat die cut with a Prismacolor Black pencil to make it stand out a bit better from the background.

I then punched out 3 mini Fleur De Lis from the lightest purple cardstock and 3 from the darkest purple cardstock and adhered clear rhinestones to them with a Quickie Glue Pen.  When I laid them out onto my card I realized I wasn't happy with the balance of the design and felt that the left side seemed empty to me so I did some magic masking aka post-it notes ;0) and masked off the Fleur De Lis panel and stamped more of the flourishes down the left hand side of the square purple panel.  I used my Copic Multi-liner (any black extra-fine point pen will work too) to fill in some areas that didn't stamp and I was happy with the result.  I then adhered all the mini Fleur De Lis with the Quickie Glue pen.  I embellished the white panel with self-adhesive black pearls and gave the Scardy Cat die cut a black pearl eye.  I finished off by adhering the Scardy Cat to my card with small glue dots for a bit of dimension.

Thanks for visiting with me today and don't forget to keep an eye out for the Blending Tutorial if you'd like to see how I coloured my little Miss Purple Poison witch!  Don't forget to also check out Karen's blog for more Blockheads inspiration!

Happy Stamping!

THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts, Third Coast Rubber Stamps and About Art Accent

The Tale of the Naughty Witch Who Cast A Spell - A Third Coast Creative Coterie project!

Hello Everyone!

Let me tell you a little story about how this card came about!

This is the Tale of the Naughty Witch who cast a Spell...for Personal Gain....gasp!

Tired of paying for parking every where she went she decided to conjure up a special tree where she could park her broomstick for free and invited all her friends to use it!  But...oh no...how could this spell go horribly wrong you are wondering coz everyone knows when a good witch casts a spell for personal gain it always backfires on her!

What happened you ask?  Well let me tell you...the tree picked up it's roots and stalked off with all her friends broomsticks and she ended up having to replace them all...oh the horror of it!
Giggle, I couldn't resist a bit of silliness ;0)

The cute little Witch and Tree are available from Third Coast Rubber Stamps:
Witchy Sprite VB-038-I
Free Parking AP-479-P

Supplies

Best Witches sentiment - Inkadinkado

Peach, Purple, Metallic Blue cardstocks
Neenah Solar White Cardstock
Recollections Flourish Paper Border

Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad

Copic Sketch markers:
Witch:  BG07, YR02, BV13, 110 and E19
Sky:  C3 and 5, Blender Pen
Grass:  G21, 24 and 28
Tree and Brooms:  E02, 09, 11, 15, 18, 41 and 49
Copic Black Multi-liner and White Gelly Roll Pen, metallic silver paint pen

Prismacolor pencils: Cream, Aquamarine, Pink, Scarlet Lake
Glitter Glue, Judikins Diamond Glaze
Purple Silk Ribbon
Spellbinders dies:  Deckle Rectangles, Circle, Lace Circle
Martha Stewart Deep Edge Lattice punch
Paper Trimmer and Scoreboard
Pop Dots and Glue Dots, Permanent Adhesive Tape, Xyron permanent adhesive

I started off by stamping all the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Neenah solar white cardstock that's suitable for Copic markers.  I used a Copic Multi-liner to draw in the same landscape details found in the Free Parking stamp behind the Witch and continued the little magic star-bursts from the Witch image across to the Tree panel so that there is no doubt that the tree is magical.

I die cut the two main panels with Spellbinders Deckle Rectangles - a large standard rectangle for the Witch and a Mega large rectangle for the Tree and a Circle die for the sentiment.  I coloured everything with Copic markers but used Prismacolor pencils to colour the Witch's face, neck and hands.  I added white highlights with a Jelly Roll pen and applied a coat of Judikins Diamond Glaze to the tree and broomsticks for dimension and to make it look all sparkly and new.  I added even more sparkle to all the star-bursts and edged all the panels with glitter glue.
 

 I then die cut a slightly larger circle die mat for the sentiment and larger Deckle mats for the two main panels out of the gorgeous metallic blue cardstock and a Lace Circle mat out of purple cardstock.  I also punched the Lattice trim with a Martha Stewart Deep Edge Punch out of the purple cardstock and applied glitter glue to the Lace loops on both the trim and the Lace Circle mat. 
I used permanent adhesive tape to layer all the mats and panels and ran the Lattice Trim through my Xyron to add permanent adhesive and adhered all the pieces including the grey Flourish Border and purple satin ribbon to a folded card made from peach cardstock.  I completed my magical Halloween card with a purple satin ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today and checking out my 3CCC project!  For more Third Coast inspiration pop on over to the 3CCC Blog where my fellow Creative Coterie Design Team members are sharing their Halloween themed cards too!

I'm also hosting a spooktacular 31 Days of Halloween event over on my DominoART blog!  Hop onto your broomsticks and go and check out all the Halloween eye-candy we'll be sharing all month long!

Happy Halloween Stamping!

THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts, Third Coast Rubber Stamps and About Art Accent

Part 3 of my WOW Series aka White on White Embossed and Die Cut Layered Art Cards! A Blockheads Design Team Series of Tutorials!

Hi Everyone!

I intended to post my latest tutorial yesterday and was in the middle of it when I lost power for 6 and half hours in a massive power outage!   Not fun at all!  So I'm trying again today and hopefully without further delay here's Part 3 of my creative adventures into exploring White on White Embossed and Die Cut Layering ;0)  I love that the acronym for White on White is WOW coz these truly are WOW... LOL ;0)

I've been playing with creating dramatic effects by layering different shades of embossed and die cut white cardstock.  I absolutely love how the combined textures and play with shadows creates some pretty spectacular art cards!   Check out Part 1 and Part 2 if you missed them!
 

This is a Blockheads Design Team series of tutorials and I'm featuring sentiment/sayings/words from their exclusive stamp line.  All of the sayings and words I'm using are on the Verses Full Sheet which is available unmounted or on cling cushion.  This time I used the saying,  

A Real Friend

Is One Who Walks In When The Rest Of The World Walks Out,

as well as my favourite Tim Holtz Alterations and Cuttlebug embossing folders:  Bingo/Patchwork Texture Fades and the awesome Domino embossing folder.  You know I love my dominoes and other game related goodies so these were a serious must have for me ;0)   

Blockheads Paper Arts carries a lot of Tim Holtz/Sizzix and Cuttlebug goodies as well as Spellbinders dies which I also used on this card.

So for this card I started out with a 5" x 5" white folded card blank and embossed the front with the Domino Cuttlebug embossing folder.   I love these 5" x 7" embossing folders coz you can emboss a much larger area with them!

I then embossed a sheet of white cardstock that is a different shade of white when compared to the folded card with the T!m Holtz Bingo and Queen of Hearts Texture Fades.

I also embossed and die cut a sheet of white cardstock that matches the folded card with a set of Spellbinders leaves.

I decided to only use a section of the numbers from the Bingo piece and cut out the Bingo and Playing card pieces and adhered them to the card front with pop dots.
 

I then adhered some of the leaves with a combination of double-sided sticky tape and pop dots to create the varied levels of dimension.  I cut off the two bottom leaves from the main piece and used them for the top middle part of my design.  I also had a little swirl left over from the previous cards which I tucked in behind the two leaves.

I masked the rubber stamp with a post-it note so I could just stamp the first part of the saying, 'A Real Friend', in Versafine Onyx Black ink onto a piece of white cardstock the same shade as the folded card.  I then embossed and die cut the label with a Spellbinders die.

Next I cut a length of off-white sheer ribbon, that looks more silver-gray when compared to the white cardstocks I've used, and adhered it across the front of the card with permanent adhesive tape.  I then attached the label off center with pop dots and embellished the bottom left corner with white paper flowers and a tiny domino bead.  I used glue dots to attach all the embellishments.

I also cut out a single number square from the left over Bingo piece and adhered that to the right side with small pop dots.  I finished off the front of my card with a resin travel domino which I adhered to the top right corner with glue dots.

Now for the inside of the card!  I stamped the rest of the saying onto a piece of white cardstock (a different shade to the folded card) with the Versafine Onxy Black ink and cut it out with a rectangle Spellbinders die.  I then embossed the panel with the Domino embossing folder and adhered it to the inside of the card with double-sided tape.

I also decided to make a matching envelope for this card too and embossed the entire envelope with the Domino design.   I then decorated one corner of the front with pieces from the Bingo and Domino designs and a single leaf.  I wouldn't recommend trying to send this card and envelope through the mail but if you need to then I suggest putting it inside a padded mailer!

I hope you're enjoying this series of art cards so far!  I've got one more WOW card to share and then I'm excited to show you the Christening card I made for my precious nephew and Godson that uses elements from my WOW series but with some colour included too!  So stay tuned for those!

If you're not a Blockheads Fan already you soon will be when you see their full range of exclusive rubber stamps as well as the other popular stamp lines they carry on top of all the stamp and scrapbook related products they have to offer.  Their website also has a ton of eye candy so don't forget to check out their Gallery which also has my design team projects AND my winning contest entries from 2010 which you can find in the Asian Gallery ;0)

Don't forget to also stop by my fellow design teamster's blog and see what Karen is up to for even more Blockheads inspiration!  Blockheads Paper Arts also has a blog and is on Facebook too!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Happy Stamping!

THE SHARPIE DOMINO QUEEN

I design for Blockheads Paper Arts * Third Coast Rubber Stamps * About Art Accents