Monday, July 29, 2013

Rev Up Mojo 304

This is for the Mojo Monday 304 sketch challenge.   I've been wanting to use some of these die cuts I've had sitting around at my desk that I cut using a 12 inch Sizzlet die.   They make the perfect chevrons that are so hot right now.  I combined those strips with one of the cars from  Bombshell's Speed Shop stamp set.


A bit of an angle.


Inside of the card.


Mojo Monday sketch (mojo304)


Supplies:
Stamps: Speed Shop (Bombshell Stamps)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Coloring: alcohol markers (Copics)
Printed Paper: Amy Tangerine (American Crafts)
Cardstock: white (Neenah); yellow, pink, teal, black, and lavendar (Creative Memories); black card base (Stampin' Up); white bases (Hammermill)
Accessories: ribbon (Stampin' Up)

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Vacation......ahhhh

I'm on vacation with my family this week and part of next.  What a much needed break.  It's a round robin road trip of visiting family and squeezing in beaches and water activities.    Last Friday, the kids got to stop by our old neighborhood.   This was my daughter's first home and my son's second.  We moved a lot.  


Next stop was Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, NC.   The kids loved the beach and the battleship.  


The kids had a great time with innertubes that we purchased at the local surf shop.


Watch out.  This little beauty just might be the next Hollywood star or swimsuit model with her looks at the beach.   Love her smile the most.   


While in Wilmington, we had to visit the USS NC.   What an incredibly impressive ship.   It's a floating city.   Simply amazing.

Last night we arrived in St. Augustine Beach.   Gorgeous!  We're staying on the beach and the kids are in heaven.   Last night we already spent time swimming both at the beach and at the pool.   The hotel put the guest laundry in the pool house.  How smart.  We were able to swim, have fun, and get laundry done at the same time.   

Today we're off to.... well I don't know what yet.  That's the beauty of vacation.  Ahhhhh......





Friday, July 12, 2013

Tutorial: Trimming it Out of the Square

This tutorial is also posted on the Bombshell Stamps Blog.
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Ever stamp an image and want it small, but you don't feel like doing a lot of fussy cutting or maybe the image is too detailed to get into the fussy cutting?   I was working on a sketch one day and determined to use one of the Bombshell Stamps motorcycle images.   I needed it small but didn't want to fussy cut such a detailed image.   So I trimmed down the square or box around the image.  And that's how this little technique entered my card making world.

Follow me step by step to see how I made this car come out of the box.  This card uses the mojo300 sketch.


1. Stamp and color your image then trim your piece.  I like to trim in quarter inch increments.  My starting size for this project is 2" x 3 1/4"
Tip:  The reason I like to color first is that it gives me a larger piece of paper to hang onto while coloring.  


2. Decide how large of a square or rectangle you want left.   Figure out how much to trim off.   Trimming a 1/4 of an inch on each side is a great place to start.   Align a clear ruler with a cutting edge along your project.   Use an Exacto knife to trim off the square.   Cut up to the stamped image carefully.  Lift off.  And continue cutting on the other side of the stamped image.   


3.  Turn your image and repeat the same process as in step 2 above. You can continue this for all four sides. 


Variation:  I wanted the front end of this car to really come out of the box.  So instead of trimming only 1/4 of an inch, I trimmed 3/4 of an inch.  


4.  After cutting the square or rectangle with your Exacto knife, use a pair of needle point scissors to trim the pieces outside of the square/rectangle.  


5.  Here's a picture of the car all trimmed and I went back and colored the background of the rectangle that I have left.  My finished size of the square is 1 3/8 " x 2 1/4.   I took a bit more than a 1/4 inch from the top of the car as well. 


6.  Add some matting.   Since you have the finished dimension of the remaining rectangle, you can cut one or more matting layers to make the image pop further.  Adhere and use on your project.  



Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.   Here are a couple more samples that use this technique.  It really does work well for the motorcycles as they have so many intricate parts to cut out.  This technique lets me get an interesting effect that's almost 3D without a lot of fussy cutting.   

Here's the finished card again.


And here are some more cards using this same trimming it out of the square technique.   Some of these may look familiar from earlier posts I've done here.   












Friday, July 5, 2013

Bombshell Glam


This is for the July Bombshell Sketch challenge.   I tried repeating the same scalloped circle, but it just didn't do it for me, so I used an alternate shape for the center image.   



 The rose ribbon trim is dusted with a bit of Ranger Distress ink using an artist sponge. 
Her dress is cut using MTC and my KNK Zing.  I cut one of the dresses from Bombshell Stamp's Bombshell Clothing file. 



When I saw the sketch, I saw it as a perfect opportunity to do a bit of a fancy fold



And here's the inside of the card.


Supplies:
Stamps: Bombshell Stamps (Bombshell Angel)
Ink: Memento (Rich Cocoa), Ranger Distress Ink
Coloring: Copic, Spica
Printed Paper: Stampin' Up (Pocketful of Posies)
Cardstock: Stampin' Up (Night of Navy), Core'dinations Pearls (Silver Shimmer)
Tools: Spellbinders, Martha Stewart (border punch), Make the Cut software, KNK Zing e-cutter
Accents: Stampin' Up (flower trim), Rhinestones







Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Patriotic Muscle Car

Bombshell Stamps' Miss July, Michelle Giraud issued a challenge to get patriotic with red white and blue.  I combined that challenge with this week's Mojo Monday sketch (mojo300).   Here's the end result featuring the Vintage Raceway set from Bombshell Stamps.


I used a couple of star punches to add a tone on tone 3D effect on the background layer.   The below angled shot shows this a bit better. 


Love SU dimensionals.  They're so easy to use.  I also love that they are half as thick as some of the pop dots at the big box stores.   Because they're thinner I can add two layers to a card. The circle is mounted with dimensionals and so is the car.   The car has single layer dimensionals on the front which is mounted on top of the raised circle.  The back has two layers of dimensionls to raise the piece to an even level.   


Lastly, the inside of the car.  I just added some strips of paper turned into banners.   Great use for scraps. 



Here's the Mojo Monday sketch for this week - mojo300


Supplies: 
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Coloring: markers (Copic)
Printed Paper: On the Bright Side (My Mind's Eye)
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red, Crumb Cake, Whisper White (Stampin' Up); white (Neenah)
Tools: star punches (Creative Memories and Marvy); border punch (EK Success)
Accessories: Star bling (unknown - purchased at Michael's)