Flutter by Thoughts

Hi there.  Another week has whooshed by.

I hope you have a fun weekend planned.

A few weeks ago we had a stamp show in Raleigh and I let myself be
talked into buying some shimmery sprays.

The sprays are really pretty, but the sprayer has a love/hate relationship with sprays!

I did a make and take at the show and used the sprays and it went okay.

Maybe we were using magic spray bottles there?

The ones I bought don't work as well or maybe I'm just afraid of them.

But I pulled out a stencil, sprayed some Pixie spray on the back (which worked out
really well), put it all in my spray box and sprayed away.

The sticky back of the stencil really helped to keep it in place so the color
didn't run underneath, but I can't say I got a very even spray job.

I think I need to keep trying.

Anyway, I cut a piece out of the stenciling and put it on a card for
this month's CAS Stencil Challenge which is hosted by Robyn

The Design Team have outdone themselves and make me want to perfect this technique.

Maybe I'll get a chance for a redo.

And maybe I'll be really glad I only bought two bottles of shimmer spray.

The base of the butterfly was die cut with a piece of paper towel used to mop up Brushos.
I die cut a snippet of card stock to glue it to then popped the white top layer on.

The butterfly was inspired by Chrissie's butterfly here. (Scroll down a bit for the butterfly.)

 I'll add it to the gallery at CAS Mix Up

and at CAS Watercolour

I'm hoping that snippet for the butterfly is enough to get me into
Pixie's Snippet Playground.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Thoughtful Messages (Stampendous)

Ink:   Versafine Onyx Black

Paper:   Mixed Media, Bermuda Bay, Neenah

Other:  Moonlight Butterfly, Kaleidoscope Butterfly Dies (MB), Miami Vice, Chestnut Mare Shimmering Bliss Spray (Technique Junkies), Triangle Blast Stencil (SSS), Subtle EF (SU), Paper Towel Mop Up

Sprinkles and Smiles with Sprays

There's a few days left to join in the challenge at

CAS Mix Up

We've been having so much fun using sprays this month.

I love trying new things and becoming a bit more comfortable 

with techniques I'm not sure of.

We've had some amazing entries in the gallery.
So much inspiration!

To make this card, I used a technique that Joanna (Jo-Jo's Spot) shared with us.
Thanks, Joanna!

I used embossing paste through a stencil then sprayed with the stencil in place.
I used a homemade spray of diluted Daffodil Delight re-inker and
another of diluted Calypso Coral. When it was dry, I went over it with Wink of Stella.
It really sparkles!

I taped over the stem before adding the paste and spraying.  After the
paste was dry, I replaced the stencil and sponged the stem.
While the ink was still wet, I brushed on some Spring Green Pearl Ex Powder.

So I used Stamping, Stenciling, Spraying, and Sponging.

I think this is my favorite card that I've made.

Amazing considering that at the beginning of the month I was
not enjoying using sprays.

Now I'm so glad I gave them a good chance.

And I found that the homemade work very well.  No need to buy.



Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Sprinkles and Smiles (PB)

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Shabby Shutters

Paper:  Solar White (Neena 110 lb.)

Other:  Lovely Large Flower Stencil (Stampers Anonymous), Embossing Paste (Wendy Vecchi), Water Spritzers (SU), Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral Re-inkers (SU), Spring Green Pearl Ex Powder, Wink of Stella, Glass beads (SSS) 

More Spraying for CAS Mix Up

When we went to the stamp show last month, we did a make and take 

at the Technique Junkies booth.

We fell in love with this stamp, which is a background stamp and 

pooled our money to buy it.  I got first custody and this is what I did with it.

I used StazOn ink and the MISTI to stamp. You can see that the second stamping was a

little off as it's ghosted.  I went with it anyway.

I sprayed with some Art Anthology spray that I'd bought that day and

mixed a bit of Bermuda Bay re-inker in water for a 3rd color.

I wanted a little extra dimension and found a butterfly in my stamp collection 

that was an almost perfect fit.  I stamped it with Archival ink and colored it with a marker.

For a little added shine to the butterfly and another texture, I smacked it with 

VersaMark ink and heat set with some clear embossing powder.

I die cut a section with the butterfly for the first card then cut the rest 

highlighting the dragonfly for 2 more cards.

The dragonfly wings are die cut from a piece of Faux Mother of Pearl.

You can see Loll's video of this technique here.

I pounced the Frost White Paint on white cardstock and didn't do any sponging over it.

I love the iridescent sheen!

The placement of the panels was not my original plan.

I recently got some of the Irresistible Pico Embellisher. 

I got a little trigger happy with it and ended up with some pretty big dots.

I found out it doesn't splatter well!

There's still time to enter at 

CAS Mix Up

I used Stamping, Sprays, Die Cuts, Heat Embossing, Stenciling with Paste, and Dry Embossing

If you don't have any sprays, it's so easy to mix some re-inker or paint in a misting bottle and spray away.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe (card 1)

Stamps: Dragonfly Collage (Technique Junkies), Backyard Basics (retired SU)

Ink:  Jet Black StazOn, VersaMark

Paper:  Heavy Weight Whisper White, Bermuda Bay, Snippet of Whisper White and Basic Black (SU)

Other: MISTI, Spray Ink (Timeless, Salmon-Art Anthology), Bermuda Bay Re-inker, Mister Bottle, (SU), Clear EP (SU), Backyard Basics Framelits (retired SU), Texture Mesh Stencil (MB), Embossing Paste (Wendy Vecchi)

Card 2 and 3 also

Meadow Dragonfly Die (MB), Frost White Paint (Tsukineko), Tuxedo Black Iresistible Pico Embellisher (Imagine Crafts)

Spraying Brushos for CAS Mix Up

We're halfway though the month already.

Is it just me or are they going faster?

We're still doing sprays at
CAS Mix Up

Here's a little inspiration in case you need some.

Using Brushos sprayed with water on stencil (this is the monoprint piece), Dry Embossing, Stamping, Heat Embossing, Loll's Heated Copper.

The vine background was done when I laid this Climbing Vine stencil (a birthday gift)

over mixed media paper, sprinkled with Brusho crystals and sprayed with water.

I immediately lifted the stencil and blotted with a paper towel.

You can see Loll's tutorial of how to do this here.

I pressed the inked up stencil on a clean piece of mixed media paper

and this card shows the result of that action.

I liked it better than the actual stenciling.  That's why I'm showing it first.

The beautiful butterfly is made from copper that's been heated.  

It's from my sweet friend Loll among other beautiful copper die cuts.

You'll be seeing more or those in the future.

The next card uses a piece that was sprinkled and sprayed over the stencil.

I actually did this one first.

Using Stamping, Brusho sprayed with water, Stencil, Dry Embossing, Shaped Die Cuts

I think I do better spraying with water!

Check over at CAS Mix Up for some more

awesome designs from the Design Team,

our Guest Designer, Joanna and all

the fantastic gallery entrants.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

1st Card

Stamps:  Script Sentiments #1 (Inky Antics)

Ink:  VersaMark

Paper:  Solar White (Neena 110 lb.), Whisper White (SU), Taken with Teal (retired SU), Mixed Media (Strathmore)

Other: Mini Climbing Vine Stencil (The Crafters Workshop), Brushos (Olive), Moonlight Butterfly (MB), Linen Impression Plate (PTI)

2nd card

Stamps:  Beautiful Butterflies Sentiment (PTI)

Ink:  Taken with Teal, Handsome Hunter stamped one over the other (retired SU), Fresh Foliage Die (MB), Linen Impression Plate (PTI)

Sprayed Butterfly

While trying to dilute the Colorwash sprays, I tested on a piece of Mixed Media paper.

It's not pretty, but works pretty well for die cuts.  Especially one like this

Concord & 9th delicate butterfly.

I added some shimmer spray to it too.  It shimmers prettily when the light hits it.

I'd like to add that I have a wonderful cutting plate for my Big Shot.

Nancy Stislow sent it to  me and it makes those delicate dies cut like butter!

It is saving me a lot on cutting plates too.  I was having to replace them frequently.

Between cutting sets for classes and the class participants themselves, my Big Shot gets 

a lot of heavy use.  If you're interested, I'll be glad to connect you with Nancy.

Less is More is having a two week challenge.

It's a RECIPE CHALLENGE: USE SOMETHING TACTILE

I have embossing paste, a die cut and sequins.

The challenge this month at CAS Mix Up is

I have stamping, Spraying, Die Cut, and Stenciling with Texture Paste

(This stencil doesn't seem to be available anymore.  I've looked and looked for it.

It's my favorite so I just have to use it occasionally.)

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Script Sentiments #1 (Inky Antics)

Ink:  Rich Razzleberry (SU)

Paper:  Solar White (Neena 110 lb.), Rich Razzleberry (SU)

Other:  Floral and Flutter Die (C&9), Tim Holts Colorwash Spray, Vanilla Shimmer Spray (?), Scraped Paint Stencil (retired Memory Box), Moonshine Sequins (SSS)

By Your Side for CAS Mix Up

It's time for a new challenge at

CAS Mix Up!

Our challenge this month is

Let me tell you a tale of spraying.

I had 6 bottles of Distress Spray Wash that a friend had given me.

I tried it several months ago and found it to be very intense color.

So I decided that I would dilute it and see if I liked it better.

When I got to the color STREAM (my favorite of the lot), I could see that it

had separated and the spray was clogged.  I worked and worked to clean out the sprayer

to no avail.  So I dumped a color that I didn't like. (It's non-toxic so I hope it was OK to dump it down the drain.) I washed and washed and washed the bottle and sprayer

and finally had it clean enough to put the diluted STREAM into it.

I excitedly pulled out some paper and began to spray.  Evidently the bottle can read and it decided to STREAM instead of spray!  Believe me there was a STREAM of choice words floating around!  Fortunately there was some splatter and excess spray from the STREAM on the pieces I had laying off to the side.  I cut these birds out of that renegade splatter

and threw the STREAM and rest of the washes away!

I'm still cleaning up the splatter and spray left over from that!!!

Lesson to self.  When you spray get a big box to contain it and go outside to do the deed.

At least I got some pretty birds out of it.

I put them over a UFO of Brusho.  I thought they looked quite content sitting in the sun.

I hope to see what you can do with sprays.

I hope your experience is better than mine.

My Design Teammates and our Guest Designer (Joanna)

have some fantastic inspiration pieces to show you.

Check it out at 

CAS Mix Up.

Thanks for the visit and special thanks for your comments.

Enjoy!

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Special Wishes (PB)

Ink:  Chocolate Chip (SU)

Paper:  Strathmore (140 lb. cold press), Snippet of Real Wood Paper 

Other: By Your Side Dies (C9), Color Wash Spray (Tim Holtz), Brusho Crystals

You've Got This

I finally got some time to play and tried a new technique.

I tried the Ghosting Technique by Dyan Reaveley

It's one of the techniques that Loll linked to at the

Happy Little Stampers CAS June Challenge

I mixed some re-inker with water in some Stampin' Spritzers

(Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral) and sprayed on a piece of

140 lb. cold press watercolor paper.

When is was dry, I placed a NBUS stencil on top and spritzed with water 

I immediately lifted up the stencil and let the water work for about 15 seconds.

I blotted it with a paper towel and presto, a lovely, subtle, ghosted image!

All that was left was to stamp an image and dress it up and it was done.

The Misti came in really handy for stamping.

I had to stamp several times to get a good image.

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

is  USE YOUR FAVORITE TECHNIQUE AND/OR PRODUCT

Right now I'm enjoying spraying/misting techniques.

My favorite product and technique is Stamping.

I love the variety I can get with stamps and ink.

I'm glad you could stop by.

Enjoy!

    **********

Card Recipe

Stamps: You've Got This (SU), Kind Words (Verve)

Ink: Jet Black Archival (Ranger), Crushed Curry SU Marker (for center of flower)

Paper:  Solar White (Neena), 140 lb. Cold Press Watercolor (Arches), Basic Black (SU)

Other:  SU Re-inker (Daffodil  Delight, Calypso Coral), Stampin' Spritzers, Flourish Stencil (Tim Holtz), Sequins (stash)

A Feather for Happy Little Stampers

I'm a little late with this announcement.

Somehow the days got away from me.

So maybe it's not news to you.

But I'm excited to announce that

I am now on the

Happy Little Stampers Design Team

I'll be designing for the CAS team

and I couldn't be more excited!

If you haven't been to the

Happy Little Stampers

site, do go take a look.

There are 2 challenges each month (sketch and CAS).  

Next month a Christmas Card Challenge will be added.

The challenges last a month so there's lots of time to participate.

There are also lots of wonderful tutorials and a forum to discuss topics of interest at this site.

It's a free site with lots of information and inspiration.

This month's CAS challenge is

A friend recently gave me some Color Wash Sprays.

This challenge gave me the excuse to pull them out.

I've got to admit, I was a bit hesitant.

They are kind of messy, but not too bad.

I sprayed a scrap piece of watercolor paper.

(I didn't want to waste some good stuff if it didn't work out.)

I had this wonderful feather stamp that was a recent gift from a dear friend.

Thanks again, MH!

It seemed that it was a perfect fit for this sprayed paper.

What do you think?

 

Lots going on this week so I've gotta run.

Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!

    **********

Card Recipe

Stamps:  Enjoy (PB)

Ink:  Adirondack Color Wash (Stream, Lettuce), Island Indigo

Paper:  Solar White (Neena), Island Indigo, Whisper White

Other:  Feather Die (Tattered Lace), Glitter (retired), Stitched Mats Rectangles

All supplies are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted