Arctic Fox Shaker Card and BONUS

Hi gang, 

I really love my Arctic Fox Shaker Card: It is simple, masculine, and the fact that it is a shaker-card makes it very dynamic.

First, I blended a 4.25in x 5.5in piece of Strathmore Bristol 300 series paper with a few unusual colors. Many of the cards online are bright and while I still love bright colors, I wanted something to convey a muted, masculine snow-scene. The fox looks a bit more white in real life and pops out, but what can ya do lol. I really like Weathered Wood Distress Ink as it is a nice shade of blue-gray, so I went to town with that on the bottom of the paper. Above that I used Simon Says Stamp's Cloudy Ink and Simon Says Stamp's Lake Shores. For the sky, I used my very first Distress Oxide Ink: Broken China. Yeah, that's right, my FIRST Oxide Ink.. it was pretty awesome.

I also got my metal dies ready and did a test on some craft foam. By taping a piece of purple low-tact tape to the dies, I was able to lift them all up at the same time and keep them together. I used this technique to cut the paper in the same exact configuration as the foam. (note: I don't have the sticky adhesive sheets, so I really had to get crafty)

I really wanted an arctic fox, but red and orange are some of my other favorite colors, so I figured I might as well make a twin card!

I cut the paper and put the nice side face down on the table. I used some sticky adhesive to adhere Acetate to the back; I just needed enough to cover the cut-outs. Then, I adhered the foam for “walls” and filled the cut-outs with all kinds of fun bits. I used Orange Prills, glitter, tiny beads from Recollections and Little Things’ sequins. You want to leave some room so the pieces can move about. Then, I glued the foam and placed a black 4.25in x 5.5in piece of cardstock on the back. This seals it up! The beads are trapped by the foam walls, black paper, and the acetate. 

The final step is adhering the whole thing to your card base. 

Hope you enjoy my two cards! 

Which do you like more? Red or Blue? 

Tip: You don’t have to buy acetate, you could use a cut up sandwich bag or some wrapping from something you buy. Acetate is a bit stronger and therefore less wrinkled. Keep it in a bin so it doesn’t get too dusty, or clean it before using it on a project. If you have any teacher friends, see if they will bring you some transparency-sheets, I believe that works too.

Please come back again!

-John 

Challenges: 

A Blog Named Hero - Sparkle and Shine

Simon Says Stamp - Wed Challenge

Mod Squad Challenge

Dim Sum Christmas Tree

I decided to try and enter some challenges. I went for a fun, clean, Christmas card with minimal embellishments.

I feel like I made a winner because who doesn't like Dim Sum?

First of all, I love dumplings. I live near China Town and frequently hit up a few different Dim Sum places. They are all so, so, so, so good. I don't really have a favorite, and it feels like I just roll around from place to place some weekends. The concept of this card was that some people order chinese food on Christmas and I have always wanted to do that- not that I don't like my mom's Christmas ham, I just really like chinese food too. 

I also like using my small stamps to make larger images. 

The little dumplings from this Mama Elephant stamp are perfect, and the sentiments were funny- I had to use it to make my Christmas Tree.

I took three pieces of tape and removed some of the stickiness by putting it on the table and pulling it off. Some people might use their arm, but since I have hair there, I found the table works just fine for me. Art should be a fun experience right? I don't want to start my project with my eyes welling up.

Anyway, I took the 3 strips of tape and made a triangle on a piece of paper, forming my tree. I stamped the food images using the Mama Elephant Dim Sum Fun set all over. I also used some fortune cookies from Mama Elephant's Lunar Extras stamp set to fill in some of the gaps. I thought about masking some images, but I tried to follow the clean and simple challenge directions. 

The sentiment: "Dim Somebody Say It's Christmas?" is from two sentiments that I pieced together.

I colored the images using a few Copic Markers. I removed the tape and the green marker bled underneath a bit. It actually didn't look horrible and I thought about keeping it because it resembled the jagged edge of a real pine tree, but I thought it would look better if I trimmed it down into a perfect triangle. I also cut out my "star": a tasty little rice ball, and glued it on top. 

I stamped the wooden tray and colored with brown copic markers to make it look like an authentic bamboo steamer. I think it makes the perfect trunk for my Christmas Tree. 

Thanks for checking out my idea!

Challenges:

Clean and Simple Christmas Challenge
Happy Little Stampers Christmas Challenge
Pammies Inkypinkies Challenges
Crafting with an Attitude
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge
the Merry Christmas Challenge
Christmas at Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog
Craft Rocket Challenges
Incy Wincy Designs
12 Months of Christmas - add some greenery
Crimbo-Crackers
C Inspirations
Merry Little Christmas Challenge
My Time to Craft Challenge
Creativfusion
Creative Craft Cottage
the House that Stamps Built
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends
Paper Babe Stamps
Scrapping4Fun
Patties Creations Challenge
Not Just Cards
Creative Crafters
A Bit More Time to Craft
Daisychain
Dianamlarson
Simon Says Stamp

Tropical Birthday Card

Hi, I decided to make my sister a birthday card. She just got married in Florida, so I knew she would like this tropical stamp from WPlus9. I worked through some art problems and was able to pull it together- just in time!

First, I did the background. I blended Wild Honey and Carved Pumpkin Distress Inks on Strathmore Bristol 300 series paper. I then splashed some water and blotted it off with a paper towel, causing this cool effect.

  I stamped the image using Hero Arts Intense Black Ink because it is Copic-Marker-Friendly. The markers I used were V04, V06, V09, and a bit of BV08 for the purple flowers. I used YG13, G07, G17 and G29 for the leaves. I used R08, YR07, PR09, and YR14 for the main flower. I plan to add a few more colors to my collection, but was happy with how it turned out.

Disaster! I had some major leakage while I was coloring and I learned that it could be from uneven pressure in the copic marker. So I took off both caps at the same time to equalize the pressure. I didn't have issues after that. I decided to cut as close as I could to the stamp to hide some of the errors. This took a while but was worth it. I used a colorless blender and then a White Uni Ball Signo Broad Pen to color in some of the dots of the leaves. 

To match the background, I used Y11 to color in the spots that were just too tiny to cut. 

I coated the edges of the bouquet with a black Tombow pen to give it a finished look. 

I used a stitched rectangle die from Simon Says Stamps to cut my background down a bit. I will save the outside border for another piece in the future. 

            

I took a lot of time to cut up the Simon Says Stamp foam tape because I am all about that pop-up life. The 3-D effect adds a lot and I wanted to make sure the flowers didn't get crushed in the mail. I would be lost without my EKTools Tweezers because I always struggle to get the backing off of the foam tape.

I used an anti static tool on my green sentiment strip to prep it. I then stamped the sentiments with VersaMark Ink, used Fine White Embossing Powder to coat, heat-set the words until they were shiny and popped them up on the card.

                            

I used some awesome Washi Tape on the bottom of the inside of the card. It is one of my favorites. I used a Wink of Stella Pen on the hibiscus flower to add some shine. 

                            

Think I pulled it together in the end? 

Thanks for stopping by!

-John

I submitted this to a challenge:

Crafting with an Attitude

Pammies Inky Pinkies Challenge

ATCsmitherz Anything Goes

Seize the Birthday

Blob of Clay----> Pure Awesomeness

Welcome to my page and thank you for your support!
I hope to make you smile and say, "that is some cool paper art!"
This blog is my own personal big ol' lump of clay... I plan to keep chipping at it and make something AWESOME. 

I've always enjoyed art; when I was a kid, playing with paper was cheap and fun. I would spend hours on my origami projects and make all kinds of homemade cards and gifts. My fingers are a little bigger and a little less nimble now.... While I still enjoy origami, I have thrown myself into other styles of paper-art, especially card-making. I created this blog to keep track of my work and share some tips along the way. 

While artists always respect and appreciate each other's work, the card-making community is especially kind. The paper-crafting field has really grown by leaps and bounds and I'm happy to be a part of it.

I also love animals, movies, theme parks, nerdy board games, even nerdier video games, and weirdly enough, marathons. Feel free to comment on anything and I'll likely go off on a fun tangent.

Thanks again for stopping by!

-John 

INSTAGRAM: @CoolPaperArt