What's new at The Loft - Episode 24

Mother's Day

My wonderful family chose to surprise me for Mother's Day on the Friday before this year, and it couldn't have come at a better time.  I had been working very hard making my first quilt top and was so happy when I finished it and thought I had done a good job on it, only to find that the whole quilt top was off center.  And not just a little off, but VERY off center. Talk about a slam to my self esteem!    I was so upset over it that I left my Friday Night Crafters group and went home to sulk.  However I was greeted when I walked in the door by my girls who were happy to see me and a husband anxious to give me my Mother's Day present.  To my surprise my wonderful family presented me with a new iPad.  They gave it to me early so I would have the whole weekend free to play with it.  It is so awesome, and been having lots of fun getting familiar with it.  Of course the first app I had to download was Netflix.  Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love Netflix, especially the instant play option, so it's really cool that I can carry it with me and watch it anywhere...well anywhere with a WiFi connection that is.

On Sunday for Mother's Day we went out and had dinner with my Mom, and I gave her a card I made for her.  The paper was a Prima paintable paper which I painted with Neo II watercolor crayons, Liquitex "Basic" acrylic paint, Zig markers and a white Uniball pen.

ATC 3.6.5. Challenge

I cannot believe we are in May already, it's crazy to me how quick the year is going by.  The school year is almost over and pretty soonest my first born will be starting high school, and my baby will be starting second grade.  Of course on the flip side I can tell how far into the year we are because my ATC stack keeps growing.  But at least my posts are in the current month again.

5/1 - "Our Love Story" -  For a long time I have wanted to make a book type ATC, so when I remembered that I had these small grunge board hinges inspiration was born.  To do this I used 2 base cards and used a paper strip to create a hinge linking the two cards in book form.  Then I used a brown leather looking paper to cover the front.  Next I cut a small square from a parchment looking paper and used a small circle punch to use as a inverted corner rounder.  I inked the edges of with walnut distress ink an glued it to the front cover.  I cut the title out of some Theresa Collins paper, and inked the edges and glued down to the center of the title tag. I then turned my attention to the hinges which I embossed with rust colored embossing powder, but I wasn't happy with the results as the color was too close to the color of the cover and it didn't have the aged look I was going for.  So I went back and  lightly inked up the hinges with black Staz On ink and when they were dry I glued them on the left side of the front cover at the top and bottom, then distressed the edges with a distressing tool, lightly sanded the top, and smeared Tsukineko chalk ink in Gingerbread. and edged the cover in walnut distress ink.

For the inside I covered the cards with  paper that looked like tea stained lace.  I had planned on using a black and white image of my husband and I from our wedding day, and had it put to the side, but try as I did I couldn't find it, so I had to go with a photo taken from my Tweety Jill "Vintage Photographs" collage pack.  Lastly I cut all the text from the same Theresa Collins paper.

5/2 - "By The Shore" - My inspiration for today was from a product that I have had in my craft stash call Glazed Dimension from The Stencil Collection, the company that makes the pastel chalks I use all the time.  I have had these for a long time but have only used them a few times. Glazed Dimensions work like a pen writer release a colored gel type substance that creates a raised stained glass look.  I've used these on black and white photographs in the past with neat results so when looking through my Tweety Jill collage packs I thought the effect may work nicely on this beach picture I found in the "Fashion" collage pack.   I started first however by spreading a little Mudd Puddles "Malibu" textured sand at the bottom of the card.  Mudd Puddles in my opinion was a little messy to use, and I was upset to discover that even though I screwed the cap on tightly it still dried out on me, so what you see here is what I was able to chip out of the dried container.  I put some Tombow 2 way glue where I wanted the sand to go and pressed the card into the grains until I had decent coverage.  Next using a turquoise  Glazed  Dimension pen colored in the water, then added a white Uniball pen line, which was smeared with my finger to give an illusion of white caps.  I used the same turquoise Glazed Dimensions pen to make very thin lines to the blue in the sky for added dimension, highlighting certain areas with a white Uniball pen as well.

5/3 - "Parisian Lady" -  I was feeling very french today so my card was made by starting with a background cut from a french toille paper (sorry manufacturer unknown) which was then inked over with pink and purple Color Box "Cat's Eye" ink.  Next I used an imperfect stamp technique to stamp the image of the Eiffel Tower in the background (Stamp by Tim Holtz).  I then detail cut the image of the woman from my Tweety Jill's "Ladies in Hats" collage pack and adhered her to the card.  To make the flowers in her hair I I cut a thin strip of pink tissue paper, and then a slightly wider strip of white tissue paper and first wrapped and crinkled the pink paper, then did the same with the white, making sure the white paper made a larger "bloom".  I then glued the pink to the center of the white flower with some Tombow 2 way glue.

5/4 - "Rock and Roll "   The inspiration for this card was a found item, namely the red guitar that I found in my front yard. It appeared to be part of a broken keychain.  I wanted the guitar more realistic so I used some white thread and a small piece of toothpick I painted black to create the strings.  To start the card I stamped a flourish design in black ink and let it dry.  I then used a red Neo II watercolor crayon to color the background and once dried I heavily sanded the background to distress it.  I then stamped the bannered heart with black ink on top of the distressed watercolor.  I then used red barn Tsukineko chalk ink and imperfectly stamped the small area of sheet music at the top of the card and the bottom of the card.  I then added some musical notes in black ink on top of the sheet music.  Using Tombow metal glue I glued the guitar so that it was centered in the middle of the banner.  Lastly I used my small wooden alpha stamp set to add rock to the left side of the banner, and roll to the right side of the banner.

5/5 - "Adorable" The portrait of this woman from my Tweety Jill "Fashion" collage pack served as my inspiration today. I then teamed it with some pink paper from KC & Company that I cut for the background. I loved the sort of batiked flowers on the paper, but dressed it up further by adding some highlights with a white Uniball pen. The detail cut of the woman's image was added on top, to which I added some additional detail with the white Uniball pen to the feathers in her hair. From another page in the KC & Company paper pack, I closely cut the title and adhered it the card going up the side. How I love my white Uniball pen for I could not help myself and added some white dots to the A in the title.








Well this is all I have today, can't wait to share more with you for my creative juices have really been flowing lately and some cute cards have resulted. I hope you have liked what you have seen. Comments are always welcome so please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think. Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!