umbrellas and birds...

You know the expression "When it rains, it pours"?   Well, I'm kinda wishing I could find an umbrella right about now. To say this has been a stressful, crazy, and roller coaster of a week would be a good start. LOL! 

 I had good intention to blog more this week.  I have had photos in a folder just waiting to be blogged.  I was going to try to be so good... Sigh. 

Life happens, and we do what we can and move on. So, I will share a few cards I've had in my "blog" folder and maybe next week will be a little calmer. 

First:

 Paper: white cardstock

Stamps: Prima "Music", Heartfelt Creations

Ink: Archival, Distress, VersaMark, Mark-it

Creative Inspirations paint: Rustic Red

Other: ribbon, Perfect Pearls, embossing powder

this one is all about layering the inks. No fancy papers or embellies... The background was stamped, then I used distress ink to fill in the color, building up darker layers towards the edges. I heat embossed the image, and added a touch of CI paint to the bird for that extra little shimmer and pop of color. 

Second:

 Paper: white cardstock, tissue paper

Stamps: Prima "Music", Sassafrass "Collage Trim", Kaisercraft "Grid", Great Impressions "Dove of Peace"

Ink" Archival, Distress

Other: ribbon, rhinesotne

This one was also a lot of ink layering. However, the red borders were stamped onto tissue paper and cut out. I then carefully glued them on. they are semi-transparent once glued on, giving it a nice collage-y feel.

Third:

Paper: white cardstock

Stamps: Heartfelt Creations

Ink: Versmark, Distress, Mark-it

Creative Inspirations Paint: Winter Frost

Other: embossing powder

This one was stamped and heat embossed. I then began coloring the image in with various shades of Distress ink. I dabbed on "snow" with CI's Winter Frost on the pinecone (thought you can't tell from this picture, it has a great frosty shimmer IRL). The background was really a mistake that I made work for me. I was trying to do something with the paper, but it was too wet from all the ink, so it started to pill. It wasn't in a place that I could easily hide with a ribbon or other embellishment. I was about ready to toss it, and start again, when I decided I would try purposely pilling the paper in random areas to distress it. (by pilling I mean rubbing off the top layer or so of the paper. This is easy to do with regular cardstock that is wet.) I then added a little more Distress ink over it so it wasn't so stark. It gave it an interesting texture and look, and I ended up being glad that I didn't trash this one. You never know what great things you can come up  with when you make a "mistake"... or perhaps the better word would be "happy accident".

~Kassi