Purple Passion 07/31/13

This week, I decided to use a stamp that came out recently, from the Mark's Finest paper set called I Need A Vacation. I love the tropical feel and the images are gorgeous! I stamped an image of the tree in the set onto white cardstock with black Memento ink. Then I went to town with my Tim Holtz Distress Inks in shades of blue. I started with the lightest shade first and then worked my way out with darker shades. This is a technique I do often because I just love the effect.

Instead of going entirely blue with this card, I've matted the image in purple. Sometimes just the smallest little bit of purple is all that's needed to make a big impression! And of course, as we all know...purple rocks!!

Thanks so much for joining me today. When you have a chance, I would love for you to stop by my blog, Scrap This Save That. You're sure to find lots more purple inspiration there!

Happy Scrapping! ~Amy E

Basic Backgrounds 07/30/13

I very seldom use a brayer. Just can't make them work. But this is one of those technique you can't mess up even with a brayer. Here's what you'll need: Spray bottle with water, Perfect Pearls, paint brush, Glossy card stock, Rainbow pad and a brayer.

First thing we're going to do is take a small amount of metallic Perfect Pearls, just what you can pick up with the end of your paint brush, and mix it with a little bit of water to make a paint.

Next take a rainbow ink pad like a Kaleidacolor or a Big and Juicy and using the brayer add the ink to your Glossy card stock.

Spray the card stock with water. Now using the paint brush pick up the Perfect Pearls and flick them onto the inked card stock. Spray the card stock with water once again. Using the heat gun and a balled up piece of paper towels, heat and pounce with the paper towel at the same time. It will only take a minute to dry up all of the liquid.

Here are 3 backgrounds I did using different rainbow pads and different metallics.

Check back next week for another quick brayered background technique.

Pat

Letters From the Chief 07/29/13

Welcome back to Letters From the Chief. WOW what a week we had last week.

Lets start off by announcing our newest Featured Member. We love our members and as a gift we want to show them off. Every week on Mondays I will announce who our Featured Member is, so if you want to see if you are our new Featured Member check out my column every Monday. Our Featured Member will be focused here on MFP SpeedyTV and on the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co blog.

Our Featured Member this week is

Karen Shirey

You can learn more about her on her blog here.

Check out her page here.

Here is a sample of her work

Now for our weekly fun.

Mondays:

Join us every Monday for not only my column of Letters With the Chief, we have our first challenge of the week Friends of SpeedyTV.

This week on Friends of SpeedyTV Janine and her team are challenging us to create a CAS card.

Tuesdays:

Join Pat Garvin every Tuesday for her Basic Backgrounds column, where she teach you to create your own backgrounds as an alternative to designer paper.

Are you one like me who often has a brain fart as to what kind of card I want to make? Join us for our Sketch with a Twist Challenge where Angela Chamness and her team will have a sketch for you to follow but the fun part is she adds a twist to the sketch.

Wednesdays:

Join Amy England on Wednesdays for her Purple Passion column. She shows us how to use the color purple in different ways on our cards.

Every Wednesday we have a CAS challenge called Simple Salutations. The difference with our clean and simple challenge is that you have to use a sentiment on your card.

Thursdays:

Thursday is our most busy day of the week. We have a ton of things for you on Thursdays.

Are you a stamper on a budget? Do you want to do all the cool techniques but don't have the funds for the supplies? Join Thrifty Stamper for those Penny Pinching, money saving techniques by using things around the house.

Calling all you scrapbookers we have a challenge for you. Join Gemiel Matthews and her team for our Scrapbook Challenge. Show off you family and your layouts for a chance to win a stamp from Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

But that is not all, Check out our Inspirational Challenge with Shirley Quarry and her team. They will give you some inspirational photos to stir those creative juices.

Fridays:

TGIF, now that your work week is almost over we still have some fun in store for you.

Do you love the scenery that the Orient brings? Do you love to create Oriental Themes projects? Join Thrifty Stamper for her Themes from the Orient Column. She will amaze you with her beautiful creations and tutorials.

Don't forget about Tutorial Time on SpeedyTV. Do you love challenging yourself by learning new techniques? Join the ladies for a new tutorial every week.

Saturdays:

Do you need some extra Inspiration? Check out our Get Inspired Column with MariLynn DeGroot and Cathy Clouston as they bring us inspiration for our cards.

Let's not forget the challenge that started it all. Join Speedy Fox and Friends on the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co blog.

Sunday:

To finish off the week we have two great new columns.

First we have 101 Ways and Counting where Jane Chambers brings new ideas weekly to help you with your cards.

Are you a busy mom like me? Do you find it difficult to find time to create? Join An'Jenic Gibson and Angela Chamness with their time saving ideas for creating your cards when you have an impossible schedule.

I hope to see you around and joining in on the fun. Be sure to check back with me next Monday for the announcement of our next Featured Member. We are continually adding more fun and informative features to MFP SpeedyTV so stay tuned.

Thanks

Debbie Moran

Chief Administrator MFP SpeedyTV

The Crafty Moms 07/28/13

Happy Sunday!!
Welcome to another Crafty Moms Post.
It's An'Jenic HERE. Tweet Tweet!!!
I just had to say that LOL!

My creations are inspired by a walk me an my girls did on Saturday.
It was so nice out that the sun and cool breeze were in sync together. It was just the right amount of sun and cool breeze. The girls were so excited to see many birds out. And I must agree with them. We don't see many birds but crows. Every morning we hear the crows; but to see a beautiful bird is better. So in honored of our walk I made these cute little tags featuring stamp set Tweet That by Mark's Finest Papers. I really love this stamp set. The images are amazing.

These cute tag base were giving to me as a free gift. The first tag is clean and simple. I simply stamped, colored and add pearls. The second tag: I stamped, colored and popped up the cute little bird and house. And add pearls.These tags will be good on a card or a gift bag.

That's all I have for you.

I will see you all for my next TCM post Aug 11th.

Come back and see what Angela has created for you all next Sunday.

101 Ways and Counting 07/28/13

Welcome to my Sunday column. Glad to have you stop by...

I was inspired by a card I saw on Pinterest and I wanted to share it with you. It was easy to make and I liked the way it turned out.

I used my die and cut the 5 openings spaced evenly apart. I marked the bottom layer cardstock to make sure I placed the stamps in the openings. I stamped the Lotus flowers from the "Lotus Blossoms stamp set" and colored

them with Copics and topped it off with two strings of bakers twine. Couldn't be easier than that!

I hope you will try this.

Thanks for stopping by,

Jane

Get Inspired Surprise Lilies 07/27/13

The photo inspiration for my card is this photo of Surprise Lillies.
Surprise lilies start growing in Spring, but don't blossom. The plant even looks like it dies and then in August, it seems like overnight the lilies come up and bloom.This photo was taken in my yard a couple of years ago.
I used the lilies from Mark's Finest Papers set called BLESSINGS
The butterfly is from MFP set called DAFFODIL GREETINGS
and the sentiment is from MFP set called GLAD GLADS.
I stamped the lilies and water colored them. I fussy cut them out and added glitter to the centers. I glued a button to the backs of the flowers to give them dimension. Pearls, Pearl stick pins and brads finish off this card.

Oriental Lotus Blossoms - 07/26/13

Lotus Flowers

by Thrifty Stamper


Lotus flowers are a common influence in Oriental Art. Their sometimes striking colors hearty flowers and leaves jutting out of ponds bring beautiful thoughts of the orient to mind.
A lotus is not a water lily. Lotus flowers have a seed pod in the center of the flower. Water lilies float on the top of lily pads in the water. Lotus flowers rise up above the water. The flowers may come to rest upon the leaves, but out of the water.
Lotus flowers are native to the Asia Nations and Australia.
Here are a few photos I found on the internet:



Here is my card:

You can see how this card was made and colored in this full tutorial:
http://mfpspeedytv.ning.com/page/lotus-card-coloring

Meat Tray Pop Dots 07/25/13

Meat Tray Pop Dots
by Thrifty Stamper
Thrifty Stamper here with this week's penny pinching/money saving tutorial.
I like to add dimension to some of my cards. I sometimes choose one special image and pop that one. I have found that the cheapest way to pop and add dimension is to use cut up meat trays!
For this card you will need:
Stamp set- Relax a Bit
Ink-black
scissors
meat tray
markers
glue dots
Cardstock

Cut the side of the meat tray first. This was a semi deep one. It had ground turkey in it. I soaked the tray in bleach water for 5 minutes then washed it. I let it dry overnight.

Make sure you get a piece that is about the size you will need to pop up your image.

Stamp, color and cut out your image.
Use a glue dot to secure the meat tray piece to the back of the image.

Add a glue dot to the top of the meat tray piece.

Assemble card.
Secure the popped image.

View of popped image from side.

Finished project.

Purple Passion 07/24/13

This week, I decided to use a stamp that came out recently, from the Mark's Finest paper set called I Need A Vacation. I love the tropical feel and the images are gorgeous! I stamped an image of the tree in the set onto white cardstock with black Memento ink. Then I went to town with my Tim Holtz Distress Inks in shades of blue. I started with the lightest shade first and then worked my way out with darker shades. This is a technique I do often because I just love the effect.

Instead of going entirely blue with this card, I've matted the image in purple. Sometimes just the smallest little bit of purple is all that's needed to make a big impression! And of course, as we all know...purple rocks!!

Thanks so much for joining me today. When you have a chance, I would love for you to stop by my blog, Scrap This Save That. You're sure to find lots more purple inspiration there!

Happy Scrapping! ~Amy E

Basic Backgrounds 07/23/13

Hi welcome back. We're going to do some sponging this week and make stripes. You'll need dye ink pads, sponges and white card stock. I've used post it notes to mask off a 2" strip on a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2" piece of white card stock.

I've picked 4 colors and starting with the lightest one I sponge a 1/2" stripe.

Move the bottom post it notes up 1/2" and sponge the second color.

Keep moving the bottom post it notes up 1/2" and sponge with the 3rd and 4th color. Remove the post it notes.

Now you could fill the whole piece with stripes. I've chosen to just have color in the center.

Stamps - MFP a HC - Hello Butterflies, Birds & Trees

Next I'm going to show you what is known as the Pillow Top Technique. Take your card stock and line up two corners on the 6" of your measuring tool.

Take a piece of acetate longer than your card stock and starting with the two corners on the 6" start sponging off of the acetate just dusting the card stock. Keep moving the acetate 1/2 until you have filled the whole piece.

Now line up the opposite corners on the 6" and do the exact same thing.

 

And there's your finished piece. See you next week.

Pat

Letters From the Chief 07/22/13

Welcome back to Letters From the Chief. WOW what a week we had last week. We hope you enjoyed our blog hop and all the new stamp releases.

Lets start off by announcing our newest Featured Member. We love our members and as a gift we want to show them off. Every week on Mondays I will announce who our Featured Member is, so if you want to see if you are our new Featured Member check out my column every Monday. Our Featured Member will be focused here on MFP SpeedyTV and on the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co blog.

Our Featured Member this week is

Cheryl Gorka

You can learn more about her on her blog here.

Check out her page here.

Here is a sample of her work

Now for our weekly fun.

Mondays:

Join us every Monday for not only my column of Letters With the Chief, we have our first challenge of the week Friends of SpeedyTV.

This week on Friends of SpeedyTV Janine and her team are challenging us to create a card without using designer paper.

Tuesdays:

Join Pat Garvin every Tuesday for her Basic Backgrounds column, where she teach you to create your own backgrounds as an alternative to designer paper.

Are you one like me who often has a brain fart as to what kind of card I want to make? Join us for our Sketch with a Twist Challenge where Angela Chamness and her team will have a sketch for you to follow but the fun part is she adds a twist to the sketch.

Wednesdays:

Join Amy England on Wednesdays for her Purple Passion column. She shows us how to use the color purple in different ways on our cards.

Every Wednesday we have a CAS challenge called Simple Salutations. The difference with our clean and simple challenge is that you have to use a sentiment on your card.

Thursdays:

Thursday is our most busy day of the week. We have a ton of things for you on Thursdays.

Are you a stamper on a budget? Do you want to do all the cool techniques but don't have the funds for the supplies? Join Thrifty Stamper for those Penny Pinching, money saving techniques by using things around the house.

Calling all you scrapbookers we have a challenge for you. Join Gemiel Matthews and her team for our Scrapbook Challenge. Show off you family and your layouts for a chance to win a stamp from Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

But that is not all, Check out our Inspirational Challenge with Shirley Quarry and her team. They will give you some inspirational photos to stir those creative juices.

Fridays:

TGIF, now that your work week is almost over we still have some fun in store for you.

Do you love the scenery that the Orient brings? Do you love to create Oriental Themes projects? Join Thrifty Stamper for her Themes from the Orient Column. She will amaze you with her beautiful creations and tutorials.

Don't forget about Tutorial Time on SpeedyTV. Do you love challenging yourself by learning new techniques? Join the ladies for a new tutorial every week.

Saturdays:

Do you need some extra Inspiration? Check out our Get Inspired Column with MariLynn DeGroot and Cathy Clouston as they bring us inspiration for our cards.

Let's not forget the challenge that started it all. Join Speedy Fox and Friends on the Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co blog.

Sunday:

To finish off the week we have two great new columns.

First we have 101 Ways and Counting where Jane Chambers brings new ideas weekly to help you with your cards.

Are you a busy mom like me? Do you find it difficult to find time to create? Join An'Jenic Gibson and Angela Chamness with their time saving ideas for creating your cards when you have an impossible schedule.

I hope to see you around and joining in on the fun. Be sure to check back with me next Monday for the announcement of our next Featured Member. We are continually adding more fun and informative features to MFP SpeedyTV so stay tuned.

Thanks

Debbie Moran

Chief Administrator MFP SpeedyTV

101 Ways and Counting 07/21/13

Welcome to my Sunday column. Today I would like to show you how I made a bowl to hold these cute strawberries from "Celebrate Big" stamp set by Mark's Finest found HERE.

I created the bowl by cutting an oval shape and trimmed off both ends to make the shape of the bowl. I cut a triangle for the bottom and set the bowl on top to create a bottom. Next I cut a trim piece for the top and embossed this with a small scalloped embossing folder. For the handles I cut two small circles and adhered them to the sides. I stamped the strawberries, colored them with Copics, cut them out and placed them in the bowl. I added the heart and a small flower for some sweetness. Hope you like my card and will give this a try.

Thanks for stopping by this Sunday and I hope you will visit me again next week.

Hugs,

Jane

Crafty Moms 07/21/13

Hello Everyone!

It's Angela this week with some inspiration for you all!!

Well this has been a crazy week at my house. It started out good and I got alot of things done. I had couple of projects I was going to make for this week but only one got done. Then my daughter went down a slide at my friend's house on Wednesday and broke her leg. So after that my crafting got put on hold. She is doing much better and getting around pretty good.

The card I have for you today came from last weekends adventure my family had. The kids wanted to help raise money and walk for our Humane Society. So my card is a Thank you card for our friends who gave money to support them in the walk.

I used the Fantastic Dogs and Sayings Galore Stamp Set to make my little 4x4 Thank you cards.

Have a great week and be sure to stop back by next week to see what AJ has to share!
The Crafty Moms

Angela

Yellow Bicycle (Week 2) 07/20/13

Last week Cathy picked a photo of a yellow wall with a bicycle for the inspiration photo. She made a great bicycle card with little bike paper clips. I went a little different way.
I kept with the yellow and black color combo and the layout. I even embossed the brick wall as well, but I changed the image into a sunflower instead of a bike.
I used Mark's Finest Papers set called BRING ON THE SUN. I added dazzling diamonds to the bee's wings to add some shimmer.

Oriental Chops 07/19/13

Oriental Chops
by, Thrifty Stamper
If you follow my tutorials or columns you may have noticed that I often use the word "Chop". There was a comment on one of my blog posts this month questioning the use of the word.
A chop is a seal used in the orient. The first chops were created out of bone or wood. An artist would carve his/her name into the bone or wood to create a square that was then used an official "signature" instrument. The wood/bone was dipped in red cinnabar paste and pressed onto paper. The chops were used in the financial world as a signature. Today many chops are made out of plastic or metal.
Most traditional oriental art carries an artist's chop. The new stamp set called "Be Virtuous" has 4 chops.

I requested this set be made because I was drawing chops with a marker on my oriental cards. If you look closely you can see that these chops have oriental symbols instead of a name. They are left to right: Grace, Loyalty, Peace, Virtue. I think they are perfect for anyone who stamps oriental paper art!
Here is a card I made for this article. You can see that I featured the large Chop and then "signed" the card in the lower right corner with a small chop.

I made a full tutorial of this card. You can find it here:
http://mfpspeedytv.ning.com/page/tiger-chop-card