Winter Sparkle

Here's a New Year card I made for another friend :) This one is pretty simple, but very sparkly! Without any more prelude, I will go on to the card.

Here it is!

*click on image to enlarge*

I love my Hero Arts "Create Your Own" set... I can make snowmen with different faces, hats, buttons, and add a scarf or a broom if I like. :D I actually ended up putting some lime green Stickles to highlight some of the top of the broom... But I forgot to retake the picture after I did that.

I used the cool highlights micro-fine glitter to make the snow-sparkly background.. Very easy to do with some wide double-sided tape and no need to buy any special blue glitter paper ;) Since the glitter is micro-fine, it doesn't rub off, and actually feels pretty smooth.

*click on image to enlarge*

On the inside, I added some vellum paper and more stamps from the same Hero Arts set. And some Stickles in the corners of the vellum. That's it! :)

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

• One Stitch at a Time #43 - anything goes
• Crafty Catz #63 - your choice (I chose #61 "Happy New Year")
• Paper Playtime #31 - New Years

Products I used:

• Stamps: Hero Arts - Create Your Own (Snowman)
• Inks: Distress - broken china, peeled paint, worn lipstick, vintage photo; Versa Color - royal blue; Memories - black
• Stickles glitter glue: turquoise
• Glitter: Jewel Glitter Ritz - cool highlights
• Embossing: Denami clear embossing powder
• PrismaColor pencils
• Vellum: Christmas trees

Christmas Fun!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful time this holiday season! :) I haven't made all the Christmas cards that I wanted to, yet... But my excuse would be that in Russia, my homeland, New Years is celebrated much more than Christmas is... And Orthodox Christmas itself is on January 7th, which gives me two more weeks ;)

Anyway, here is a Christmas card I made for a friend of mine. I love this card so much, I'd keep it for myself if I could! ;)

*click the image to enlarge*

Can you see all the glitter on the background?.. It's the snow that the lucky mouse is rolling through... :D Here's a close-up to see the snow..

*click the image to enlarge*

And here is the inside of the card, also all sparkly (not really visible in this picture =/)! Sprayed with Tattered Angels glimmer mist, marshmallow. 

*click the image to enlarge*

And that is all for now. :) But I will definitely be making more Christmas cards very soon.. :) Merry Christmas, everyone! :)

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

• House-Mouse & Friends #85 - aperture
• A Spoon Full of Sugar #133 - Christmas cards
• Crafts and Me #20 - anything goes

Products I used (not a complete list yet..):

• Stamps: House-Mouse - Light Fun
• Inks: Distress - barn red; Memories - black 
• Stickles glitter glue: burgundy, waterfall
• Jewel Glitter Ritz: highlights (white), sand

Winter break is here!

The finals week at UCSD has just ended (yay!), and the winter break has begun! :D Thus, I now have the time to post this card I made for my friend to wish good luck on these finals :) It's a mini-card, approximately 5 by 5 cm (2 by 2 inches), and I loved making it!

Also, I recently got the Glitter Ritz micro fine glitter.. So exciting! This is the first card I got to use it on, just a little bit though. It's awesome, so much finer than the glitter I usually use. And so shiny! I used it for the green "branches" (couldn't find a better word..) of the Christmas tree. 

I sprayed just the front of the card (by masking the inside) with the pashmina color of Tattered Angels glimmer mist spray, so it looks darker (and sparkly! but not in the photo) than the paper was originally. The square is regular white cardstock wrapped in the awesome Hanko paper (I am terrible at remembering specific paper and ribbon names :/ ).

Whoever is opening it undoes the ribbon, and tah-dah!...

You can see lots and lots and lots of Stickles and just glitter... :D Here are some close-ups:

The sign "Good Luck" Is a combination of white opal Liquid Pearls and the same white glitter that I used on the edges of the tree. :)

To make the tree outline look really snowy, I stamped it with white pigment ink, and then put white glitter on it. For the Christmas tree "ornaments" I just painted little circles with acrylic paints and then put stardust Stickles over them for the sparkle. :)

The heart on the pot is actually cut out separately and outlined with a ruby red Liquid Pearls. I also layered an extra piece of paper in between the heart and the pot so the heart pops a little more. :)

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

• Creative Card Crew - anything goes
• Creative Cowgirls Challenge #2 - anything goes
• Stamps R Us #11 - anything goes
• One Stitch at a Time - anything goes
• Sugar Sweet Paper Treats december - anything goes 

Products I used:

• Stamps: Printworks - Jolly Tree
• Inks: ColorBox - frost white 
• Stickles glitter glue: cinnamon, waterfall, turquoise, lime green, orange peel, stardust, purple
• Jewel Glitter Ritz: lime green
• Tattered Angels glimmer mist - pashmina
• Fiskars scissors - ripple
• Liquid pearls: white opal, ruby red

My Father's Birthday!

This card is a month late (thus the HouseMouse stamp with the tortoise!)... But I hope he enjoys it, still. :)

Recently, my friend told me her art teacher in high school forbid them from smudging colored pencils when coloring... And that apparently art professors (at least at Cal Poly) don't smudge it, either. Not even with special solutions for smudging pencil! I thought it was a little weird, because Prismacolor pencils, smudged with Turpenoid, give a nice result... So, for this card I actually challenged myself to not use Turpenoid! Here's how it came out... :)

Not bad, hm? :) I actually think that it looks a bit brighter than it would have if I did it my usual way... This is a HouseMouse stamp, and I cut it out, every little grass leaf, (took me forever, but totally worth it!) and used a tape roller to glue it on the baby blue paper. The brown paper was Cuttlebugged and then I mounted the baby blue paper onto it. The white dots are pearl-looking like beads, just glued.. :) And of course, ribbon; and some Stickles for the sentiment. :)

And this.. is the inside!

These images are also colored without Turpenoid intervention, even though I was so tempted to smudge the color on the little lion's face! :) The writing is in Russian.. It's glittery, but you cannot see that in this photo. And the dots are Stickles, just to fill up the background somehow. :)

On this close-up, you can see that both the lion and the bird are embossed. Makes them pop a bit on the flowery background. :) Finally, the edges were cut with some shaped craft scissors.

And... That is it! :) I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

• Paper Pretties - embossing
• Anything Goes - emboss it
• Fairy Tale Challenge - everything goes

Products I used:

• Stamps: HouseMouse - Slow Pokes; Autumn Leaves - Mindy's Zoo
• Inks: Vintage Photo Distress; Versa color - royal blue; Memories - black
• Embossing: D'Vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder
• Denami clear embossing powder
• Prismacolor pencils
• Stickles glitter glue: cinnamon, waterfall, golden rod, turquoise
• Fiskars scissors - ripple

A (Late) Halloween Card

This is the second time I enter a card into challenges! Very exciting for me! :) 

I absolutely love House Mouse images, so when I accidentally found specifically a House Mouse challenge blog... I knew I had to make a card, and a design idea popped into my head a second later, so I got on it. The challenge was to make a Halloween-themed (or -colored) card and use a House Mouse stamp. And.. Here's the result: 

I don't have any pumpkin stamps, so I freehanded and painted the pumpkin with acrylics. It is mounted on the vellum, and the mouse (such a cutie!) is actually mounted onto the pumpkin. Hope he doesn't wake any time soon, or it will give him a big fright... :) The mouse was colored with Prismacolor pencils. The bow is there just for a little embellishment.

I am going to give this card to a friend, so I will also decorate the inside, and will update this post later. (No time to decorate it before the the challenge closes for this week...)

I am entering this card in the following challenges:
House Mouse challenge #81
Crazy4Challenges - square card
Lexi-s Creations, #26 - anything goes

Birthday Cupcake

No more wood-burning (at least not for a long while..), and meanwhile.. back to cards! :)

This one I made for a friend of mine who loves food and especially cakes. Thus, practically all of the stamps I used were cakes... Mmm, yummy! :)

I cut the light lime paper out with craft shaped scissors, cuttlebugged it, and used Stickles for the border. It is mounted on the black-gold paper, so the card doesn't look too flat. :) The cupcake, I stamped, colored with my Prismacolor pencils and the stamped the top again (Stamp-a-ma-jig aligns it perfectly!) and embossed it. (Can't tell it's embossed form this picture though...)

I did the same procedure with the little cakes, also added some Stickles. The skeleton is embossed, too. :) The hardest part was writing... I do not own a white pen (yet!), so the best I could do was paint all of the words with acrylic white paint.... Which was not too fast. But it worked! :)

Products I used:

• Birds and Swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder
• Studio G clear stamps (the skeleton); Inkadinkado Birthday Cupcake clear stamps
• Denami clear embossing powder
• Inks: Colorit black pigment; Vintage Photo Distress; Versa color: orchid, orange, fresh green, baby blue, royal blue; Color Box frost white

BOO!

Just wanted to wish everyone a safe and HAPPY Halloweeeeen! :D 

This is my first ever carved pumpkin, I made it a week ago. Sadly, it didn't live until Halloween, but luckily I did take a picture of it before it molded. :) Hope you're having a fun weekend! :D

Wood-burning: Totoro

Here's another wood-burning project that I did in my last few days in Russia, and then colored when I was already back in the USA. It is a picture of Totoro (the cute main character from the Japanese "My Neighbor Totoro"). :) And it was a birthday present for one of my good friends. :)

I started out coloring it with watercolor paint, but it bled more than I expected it to, and I ended up buying some acrylic paints to use on this picture. This was my first time ever using acrylics, but I think they worked out well. :)

The back is pure wood-burning. And Russian is my nickname at college. :)

Wood-burning: 1915 Fashion

Please excuse that I have not posted in a while... Here is something that is actually different from my usual repertoire. Wood-burned pictures! :) I was unable to take any of my crafting stuff with me to Russia, but I found my mom's old wood-burning tool (~30 years old.. :D ) in the attic.. And thought I'd play around with it. I did a few little pictures at first to try it out, and then went on to burning and also coloring in the image... Here are the results.

These two ladies are from a book of postcards that my mom has. The postcards are of 1915 fashion from New York, copied from French fashion (probably of the same time). Their faces and hands look a bit awkward.. But that is how it was in those pictures. :) *I don't mean to plagiarize the pictures, these were done just for my personal practice in wood-burning.*

Coloring was done in watercolors. I don't know why the left lady did not bleed much (I mean the paint, of course :) ), but the one on the right did bleed alright... However, that was not much of a problem, because my mom (who I ended up gifting it to) said it added a cool effect to the picture and she liked it better that way. :)

Here they are a bit closer up:

Here you can see the bleeding. Not bad when it is around the picture, but it does not discriminate and when purple and blue bleed, for example, from her collar onto her face... It's not so great.

This concludes 1915 fashion show for tonight, ladies and gentlemen! :) However, I do have another wood-burning project that I will share with you in a day or two. :)

Vacation!

Hello :)

I am leaving to Moscow, Russia, in a few hours... So this blog, along with me, will be on vacation until late September... Because I cannot bring any crafting supplies with me... :( (Too much to bring! And.. what if the bag gets lost?...)

So... Yes. Vacation. And then straight back to school! Yayyyy! :)

Hope everyone has a good rest of summer,

Xushenka.

Mint Box

Here's another decorated Altoids tin that I have made this summer! This one, however, is a present for a friend. :)

Top:

This is another stamped collage, colored with Prismacolor pencils. I distressed the edges with "Vintage Photo" Distress ink and highlighted some parts with Stickles glitter glue. To make the coffee look liquid, I added Diamond Glaze over the brown in the cups. :) I couldn't get it to come out well in the photo, but you can kinda see its gloss in the cup that's on the right. :)

Bottom:

Just like with the previous box I've made, the bottom is just a stamped collage of flowers, colored with Prismacolor pencils and the edges were distressed with the same Distressed ink like on the collage for the top.

Here's a better photo of how the ribbon looks from the front of the box:

I spent two days looking for the bottom ribbon! For some unknown reason there were no brown and pink ribbons that would fit this size. :/ So, I ended up using two ribbons... A pink one with black polka dots and a gorgeous brown transparent one with swirls on it.. I think it came out well :) But hunting for ribbons is definitely a hard job.. lol

I meant this box to continue serving as an Altoids mint box, so I just stuck the original mints back in there, and the original paper, too. (I saved them in Ziplock baggies so they don't get damaged.) And since a mint box isn't something people usually keep safe on a shelf.. But rather something one would throw in a purse/ bag/ backpack.. I have also made a little purse for the box so it doesn't get damaged :)

(On the inside, it's baby blue velvet.)

As easy as this little bag looks, it still managed to give me a little trouble! lol My sewing machine is at a friend's house 2 hours of driving away, and I got lucky that I was going to visit them this past weekend, so I didn't have to hand-sew the little bag. Well, I could have, but the quality and speed are so much better with a sewing machine ;) But... I totally forgot the pedal from my machine stayed at home in LA!.. So I had to run the poor machine with my hand. Not sure if that's good for it.. But I really needed to get this done. :/ So... The machine and I struggled for a few hours, and this is result :D I like it, and it fits the box (yay!), so it was totally worth the time and effort. :)

Another Just For Fun Challenge

It is the color challenge #23 at Just For Fun Rubber Stamps' blog! And the colors are kraft, red, and white. I decided to do some shape other than just a rectangle/square and a heart is what jumps to mind with red and white being among the colors.. And that was pretty easy. :) So, here it is.. :)

This card can't really "stand up" on it's own.. so I had to use a candle to hold it up, lol :)

I drew/cut out the hearts without any stencils, and embossed the white one with the D'vine Swirl Cuttlebug embossing folder. The dog is from the Dog's Life by Inkadinkado clear stamp set, stamped in black ink, colored with Prismacolor pencils (and that's where the kraft color comes in), then stamped again in black ink, and embossed with clear embossing powder by Denami Design. :) Stickles glitter glue makes up the border for the dog picture. And.. That's it!

Altered Tin

Up until a few weeks ago, I have done only cards. But then.. I had this tin from Altoids mints lying around, and those little boxes are just so great, I can never make myself throw them out. At the same time I was looking for something original and useful that I could make as a souvenir for a friend.. And that's how I came to trying out altering an Altoids tin! :) I found out that it's actually a pretty popular tin to alter, and I enjoyed looking at a lot of different beautiful designs online...

And here is... the first Altoids box that I've ever altered! :D

I was not making it for anyone in particular, so the design is more for "prettiness" rather a message for a friend.

Top:

Both the top and the bottom are basically collages stamped on a white cardstock, colored with Prismacolor pencils, and then distressed with the "Vintage Photo" Distress ink.. With Stickles glitter glue to finish it up and add some highlights and happiness to the collage :)

Bottom:

The stamps I have used are from the following sets: Doodle flowers by Inkadinkado, Lucky ladybugs and Make a wish from the Sarah Phelps collection, Sparkle clear: Tea by Hero Arts, and Series 14 by Studio G.

I really love how this box came out, and it is a lot thanks to the ribbons... Here's a better view of how the ribbons look on the front:

Don't these two ribbons just go together perfectly? :) I think they do... And their sizes fit the box perfectly, too... It is so hard to find ribbons whose sizes fit this box, my friend Laura even joked about how I should ask the ribbon companies to make more pretty ribbons that fit Altoids tins :D

Anyway.. This was my first attempt, and I liked it a lot :)

B-day Elephant

I haven't been posting for a few days, but I have been working on something... I will post it as soon as I gift it to the person it's for :) Can't post before the future owner sees it to not spoil the surprise! ;)

For now, I have a card I made for the 21st Color Challenge on Just For Fun Rubber Stamps blog. The colors are blue, gray, and yellow. This is my first time ever making a card for a challenge! =)

The little vellum window is for a cupcake that's inside.. But I couldn't get the card to close and stay closed by itself.. =/ So I had to take another picture, holding it closed with my fingers. =)

The elephant is from the Small Elephant set by Hot Off the Press, colored with Prismacolor pencils; it is mounted on double-sided foam tape. The sentiment  I wrote freehand with Liquid Pearls... And I used Stickles glitter glue around the window =)

Here's the inside...

I haven't figured out who I'll give this card to yet, it'll be with me for now. But when I'll figure out who it's going to be, I will most likely decorate the inside a little more, and personalize it... And, of course, write something fitting =) Oh, and the cupcake is from the Birthday Cupcake set by Inkadinkado that I use so much lately.. :)

Laura's Graduation

Yesterday I have finally taken pictures of the card I had made for Laura when she was graduating from two years at Santa Monica City College =) And going on to UCLA! 

This is one of my favorite stamps, from House Mouse! It took forever to to cut these mice out.. And I do not own any graduation stamps, so I improvised with the hats =) The stars were drawn with Stickles glitter glue.

This happy hippo is from the Playful Animal set by Hero Arts. I thought it would be perfect, since it looks SO happy, just like a graduate should look =P

Good luck at UCLA, Laura! ;)

Alina's Birthday!

One of my old friends' birthday has just passed a few days ago.. Here's the card I made for her =)

I love this flower paper!.. :D It's a Japanese Yuzen Washi paper by Hanko Designs. I have just discovered them recently, and I cannot calmly walk by the stand with these papers. They're just so beautiful! :D They have a bit of a different texture (cloth/fiber finish) than regular cardstock, and they are also thinner, so I have to be extra careful just in case so as not to damage the paper when I'm cutting.

The sentiment is from Series 14 by Studio G and the cupcake is from the Birthday Cupcake set by Inkadinkado. The cupcake was stamped in black Memories ink, colored with Prismacolor pencils, then stamped again in black Colorit pigment ink (using Stamp-a-ma-jig for the perfect repositioning, it works wonders!) and embossed with clear embossing powder by Denami Design. I also put some Stickles glitter glue to add some volume and shininess. =)

The orange background gave me some trouble with figuring out the colors for the inside of the card.. It's barely visible (a little better in the next picture), but I have sprayed the paper with Marshmallow Glimer Mist spray by Tattered Angels so it won't be just plain orange. =) I then used my Cuttlebug (I love that machine!) for the flowery borders (from the With Love embossing folder set). To make the flowers look more fun, I colored them with different Stickles glitter glues.

The little images were all stamped on a piece of white cardstock, colored with Prismacolor pencils, stamped again over the image, and finally embossed, just like the cupcake on the front of the card. =) The stamps used are from Series 14 by Studio G (glass), Doodle flowers by Inkadinkado (flower), Make a Wish by Sarah Phelps (presents, hat, and the sentiment).

I added some glitter to the present image so it does not look too plain compared to the other colorful images. I have also added glitter to make the glass shine a bit and have more volume. =)
The writing, again, is in Russian :)

Father's Day

Yes, Father's Day 2010 was a while ago.. But since I have just started blogging, I decided to post the card I had made for my father anyway. Here it is:



Again, there is paper-weaving =) This card was my first time trying paper-weaving, and I really liked it!
I do not own any "masculine" stamps like airplanes or cars.. So I just drew the plane freehanded, colored it with Prismacolor pencils, and embossed with Liquid Glass embossing powder by Yvonne Albritton Designs to make it look glossy (same with the flower.. Except that one's a stamp, from Doodle Flowers by Inkadinkado).

The orange writing is in Russian.. And the stamps are from Birthday Cupcake set by Inkadinkado and Sparkle Clear: Coffee and Sparkle Clear: Tea by Hero Arts. All of the stamped images are embossed, mostly with clear embossing powder. The rest is Stickles glitter glues, my favorite glitter =)

Here is a closer view of the left side:

And.. That's the card =)

Dog & Bones

Here's another card I made this summer, when I just got a set of clear stamps called "Dog's Life" by Inkadinkado. This card was not for any special occasion, only to celebrate getting such cute stamps and to make one of my friends smile. :)

I don't know if dogs actually like to gnaw on bones as much as cartoons make it seem like they do... But hopefully this one isn't too disappointed! ;) 

7-in-1

For a whole year, I haven't made my friend Laura a card.. Once the school year was over, I had to work on that, because she was nagging me to make all the cards that I've skipped. And here's what it ended up looking like:

The butterfly, cupcake and the flowers are stamped with a a black Memories ink, colored with Prismacolor pencils and then embossed with an extra-thick clear embossing powder, to make them smooth and glossy. 
I decided to be lazy and combine all of the holidays into one card =) 

The tabs for each holiday are inbetween two cardstocks, and can be pulled out, one by one, by the pink ribbons. 

I just hope this upcoming school year i will have enough time to make Laura her cards on time. =)

Hello!

Just wanted to say welcome to my first blog! I am very excited about it and hope this page will be very much alive. =)