{Share} Card Watermark

Hi crafty friends! I had the best intentions of sharing this a while back, but, you know, life got in the way.

I sell my cards through Etsy, and have a couple of very nice customers who order regularly outside of Etsy. I've never been satisfied with the way I identify my projects as mine once they get out into the "real world". Sometimes I would sign my name, other times I would write "Killam Creative".

Last November-ish Whimsy Stamps was have a sale on their custom stamps and I worked with designer Ann Vento to come up with a beautiful solution for me to watermark the backs of my cards. I'm tickled with it!

Here's the final mock-up:

Here's the watermark in action:

I use Versamark ink which will create the watermark on any colored paper. (One of my goals is to get that website up and running properly... now that it's on a stamp I shouldn't daudle, eh?)

So, that's all! If you are interested in viewing all the awesome custom choices, check out Whimsy Stamps HERE.

Cheers,
Susan

TBS DT: I Adore You

Hello dear friends! I hope you had a great weekend. We had arctic temperatures here on the Eastern Shore. Brr! I'm feeling *really* lucky to have the new furnace. (Yep - the old one died and we were able to replace it right before our HVAC guy went on a Caribbean cruise.)

As you know we're smack in the middle of our current Beary Sweet Challenge - "Love or Friendship". While you're working on your fabulous entries the design team is adding a little bam! to our "love or friendship" projects in the form of a heart shape. 

My card is made almost entirely of My Mind's Eye's Union Square paper and embellishments. Oh how I love this whole MME Lost and Found Collection! Besides Union Square, there are three more lines I haven't even touched yet. I can't wait!

The background paper is "Birds of a Feather" dry embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, and the Love layer is simply cut from the 12x12 Love Glitter Paper. The rosette, banner (also dry embossed with a Cuttlebug folder) and pearly brads are from Union Square accessory packs.

On the inside is a Spellbinders-cut panel edged in red Stickles. The top flap with the red banner is just the top left corner of the same 12x12 paper from which I cut the "Love". The "I Adore You" die cut panel and mini pearly brads are also from Union Square accessory packs.

Challenges, Please

• Order of the Opus Gluei #87 (1/29) - Key to your heart
• Bunny Zoe's #8 (2/13) - Love is in the air

Card Recipe

• Paper - My Mind's Eye/Lost & Found/Union Square; Bazzill Basics in Mud Pie
• Medium - Distress Ink in Walnut Stain; Stickles in Red
• Embellishments - Union Square assorted accessory packs - die cuts, 3D, brads; Pearl pins, lace doily, lace scraps and heart bauble from stash
• Adhesive - Glue Dots - 1/2" Pop Up; Scor-Tape; other from stash
• Tools - Scor-Pal; Spellbinders Nestabilities; Cuttlebug embossing folders

Thanks so much for visiting us today! Tomorrow Gini will have more inspiration, and we all hope you can join us for our Beary Sweet Challenge #18: Friendship or Love. It's open until January 31st and you could win a $20 gift voucher from The Beary Scrap!

Cheers,

Susan

I'm positively vibrating with excitement for my DT sister!

Big huge monster congratulations to my Beary Scrap design team sister Gini Cagle Williams on her win of the Spellbinders "To Die For" grand prize. Gini is so talented and makes wondrous art with Spellbinders and Heartfelt Creations dies that I couldn't think of a better winner. Congratulations sweetie!

Also, dear Gini has made it to the Cosmo Cricket Top 10 and needs your vote! One of those lucky ladies will be chosen as a new Cosmo Cricket DT, and since she's "family" I'm asking you to reach out and give her your vote. Check out the Cosmo Cricket blog and you'll see the poll on the right sidebar. Click on Gini Cagle and I'd be ever so grateful!

Cheers,
Susan

TBS DT: Tag, You're It

Hello friends! I hope you had a swell weekend. I'm not really sure what we did... oh, right... took down the Christmas trees and decorations and stored 'em away for another year. Post Christmas shopping found a great ornament organizer that now hold scads of glass ornaments without a single piece of tissue wrap. Yay! Besides carrying the bins from the attic to the first floor, the "job" we hated the most was unwrapping (and rewrapping) all those darn keepsakes. Now we can decorate directly from the trays and have more time for eggnog. *wink*

This week the Beary Scrap design team will show you new interpretations of our BSC #17 Sketch Challenge. We're also adding a "new" element to our projects:

Sketch Plus Something New 

Everyone who comes to see my newest colored Magnolias will think I've fallen off my rocker this week. I'm OK, really! I've always been a fan of collage style and especially like what Tim Holtz has to offer our crafty community. I'm hugely inspired by vintage - be it ephemera or textiles, new or reproduction, I'm all over it. You might have seen oversized tags on blogs throughout the internet over the Christmas season - mostly inspired by the very same Tim Holtz. With this project I've dipped my toe in the water. My "new" is a tag shape made with a new Tim Holtz die!

Kinda cool, no? All of the papers are My Mind's Eye Union Square, from the beautiful and brilliant "Lost and Found" series.The "Home is a Little Slice of Heaven" die cut is from the Union Square accessory sheet. The pointing hand brad is from the same line (although the brad pack is currently sold out - sorry!).

I have to share a happy accident. The tag was assembled with Frosted Lace Stickles on the top flourish. I decided it needed to be a little flashier and added a layer of Platinum Stickles and used a heat gun to dry it. Little did I know that the heat gun was also doing interesting things to the Bazzill tulle! It curled edges and made much of the tulle wavy - luckily I caught it before it burned the edges brown. I like the tattered effect!

This was a really simple project to conceive, and agonizing to finish. I'm still thinking I need to balance the glitter swirl on the top with a touch of the same on the bottom. What do you think? I'm open to suggestions!

Challenges, Please

• Flourishes Bring Back Beautiful #6 (1/31): The Beauty of Vintage (Tatting lace is vintage)
• Die Cut Dreams (1/16): Quotes

Card Recipe

• Paper - My Mind's Eye Lost and Found, Union Square line: "Home Sweet Home" tag paper; "Favorite"- red circle layer and embossed layer under the "home" die cut
• Medium - Distress Ink in Walnut; Stickles; Glimmer Mist in Suede - spritzed the red and ivory corner tulle bits to "dirty them up"
• Embellishments - MME Lost and Found, Union Square line: Glittered Accessory Sheet; Bazzill Basics Tulle (in stock but not on the site - email Kimm for more info if you would like to get some in your hot little hands); metal bits from my stash; vintage tatting lace from my much-coveted stash
• Adhesive - Scor-Tape; 1/2" Glue Dots; Fabri-Tac

That's it for me! Please come back throughout the week to see new samples for our sketch challenge by all the fabulous design team. You can get all the details and enter your own creation by clicking on the sketch below. You could win a $20 gift voucher from the Beary Scrap! 

Cheers,

Susan

TBS DT: Santa Edwin is Checking His List

Hello hello! Wow, it's already January 3rd - what's up with that? Time, she is a-flying'! I hope you had a happy New Year weekend. Husband and I had a quiet one - just like we like it!

We started a new Beary Sweet challenge on Saturday, and since it's the 1st of the month, you know what that means: 

It's Beary Sweet Sketch Time!

I have one last Christmas card to share with you. I know, I know, you're probably all Christmas'd out and well on your way to Valentines, Mardi Gras and Easter. I made this card back in mid-December for a customer using our January sketch. Time saver!

Isn't Edwin the cutest? I love him, and admit that the Magnolia chair with letters to Santa was difficult. How does one color white envelopes? I used a combination of french grays with a little yellow-ish. I used Distress paint in Rock Candy for a subtle texture... not fabulous, but effective. 

What *is* fabulous is the Echo Park papers. Once again those EP folks have hit it out of the park - I can only ask/plead/beg them to print 6x6 versions of their papers in the future. They've done it on some of the collections and I look forward to more for my smaller canvases!

Of course it's an easel card. I really like this style to show off the details. This Naughty or Nice list includes the actual recipient of this card - dear young Wesly. I purposely left the space next to his name blank, as if Santa Edwin hasn't decided about Wesly yet. What a fun little surprise for a 5 year old!

Card Recipe

• Stamp - Magnolia Santa Edwin and Christmas chair
• Paper - Bazzill Basics in Mud Pie, French Vanilla; Echo Park  "Merry Christmas" in Holly Berry (both sides) and Winter Wonderland
• Medium - Copic skin tones; Prismacolor pencils with OMS; Stickles in Star Dust, Diamond and Crystal;  Glossy Accents on the envelope seals; Distress Crackle Paint in Rock Candy; ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink in Chestnut Roan
• Embellishments - lace, tinsel, gems from stash
• Adhesives/Tools - Scor-Tape; Cuttlebug script embossing folder

Here's the challenge sketch - don't ya wanna play? *grin* You could win a $20 gift voucher from The Beary Scrap!

Thanks so much for visiting today!

Cheers,
Susan

My TBS 2010 Favorites

Hello dear friends! Happy Christmas and New Year to you all! I'm "snowed in" at the in-laws in North Carolina and hoping desperately that someone will shovel the foot of snow off my driveway before I get home to Maryland later.

(Ok, so I arranged for that to be done, but it was much more dramatic to add the "desperate" part....) *ahem*

Throughout the course of this year we all have made new projects day after day, week after week. Every time I see a new one I'm thrilled by everyone's talents and "ooh-n-ahh". Then the next day or week there's another one, and then another one. It's easy to forget all the awesomeness that has happened in our crafty community.

This week at The Beary Scrap Design Team and Challenge blog we are celebrating our DT favorites. Each of us had the difficult task of picking one favorite made by our team mates, and one of our own. Oh my, what a fabulous walk down memory lane!

I've posted my favorites HERE. Please take a few minutes to walk with me. From the bottom of my heart I thank you *so* much for a delightful year. I have met so many warm and wonderful people and am amazed at what you all can do with scissors, paper and glue. I look forward to so much from our crafty community in 2011.

Cheers,
Susan

TBS DT: Tilda's Swirls of Gems

Well hello, there! It's Monday and the last Monday before Christmas. Er, not significant in general, but it just means I've been running around like a crazy person trying to find the "perfect gift" for my husband. We replaced a couple of kitchen appliances last month and that was going to be our Christmas. Of course, neither of us can go without presents under the tree. :) So, I'm scouring the antique stores for the perfect gift. No luck yet! *sigh*

So this week the Beary Scrap design team girls are showing examples of our current challenge theme - use pearls or gems. Here's my sample:

The paper is Echo Park's "Wintertime" line. EP is doing cool things with paper - they've reduced some of their designs to fit 4 different ones on a 12 x 12 sheet. The background paper here is actually a mini version of the "Flurry" design. The full size "Flurry" is used on the envelope box (see below). Check out the Wintertime line at TBS to see what I'm on about. This mini "Flurry" can be found on the back side of 12x12 "Damask". The middle panel is full-size "Snow", and the top layer - right behind Tilda - is on of the journaling cards enhanced with Stickles. All of the blue layers are "Blizzard Blue".

Darling Tilda is made up of a couple of layers, with loads of Stickles to accent. Her lantern is includes Glossy Accents in the "glass" panels, and her mittens and socks are covered in fuzzy white flock.

I edged the plain white flower with Distress Ink in Weathered Wood and Star Dust Stickles. All the flowers were spritzed with Pearl Glimmer Mist and dotted with the same Stickles.

Here's a view of the inside panel - I enhanced the swirl and snowflake design in the paper with Stickles... I can't stop with the sparkle!

And here's the whole kit and kaboodle. I used another journaling card for the name plate on the front, with a little Stickles on these snowflakes also.

Card Recipe

• Stamp - Magnolia
• Paper - Echo Park Wintertime; Bazzill Basics
• Medium - Memento Tuxedo Black ink for the Magnolia stamp; Copic for skin tone; Prismacolor pencils w/OMS; Glimmer Mist in Pearl; Stickles in Star Dust; Distress Ink in Weathered Wood; Colorbox Fluid Chalk in Chestnut Roan; Glossy Accents on the lantern; flock on socks and mittens
• Embellishments - Mulberry paper flowers; Prima rhinestone swirls
• Adhesive - Glue Dots; Scor-Tape

Thanks for visiting us today! There's still TONS of time to enter our current Beary Sweet Challenge #16 - Pearls or Gems. It doesn't close until 12/31, so I hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Susan