Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Queen Kat Designs Blog Hop!

Greetings All!

Welcome to another fabulous hopping week here at QKD!

You should have arrived here from my darling friend Alex's gorgeous blog and you just happened upon here please start at the beginning of this hop so that you get to see everyone's fabulous works!!

Our assignment was to create 2 ATC's or an altered art page.  I decided to go with a set of 2 ATC cards.  For those of you unfamilar with ATC's here is a description:

"Artist Trading Cards (or ATCs) are miniature works of art about the same size as modern baseball cards,[1] or 2 ½ X 3 ½ inches (63 mm X 89 mm),[2] small enough to fit inside standard card-collector pockets, sleeves or sheets.[3] The ATC movement developed out of the mail art movement and has its origins in Switzerland.[4] Cards are produced in various media, including dry media (pencils, pens, markers, etc.), wet media (watercolor, acrylic paints, etc.), paper media (in the form of collage, papercuts, found objects, etc.) or even metals. The cards are usually traded or exchanged rather than sold."

I created two different cards using 2 of my favorite QKD stamps, Bodice and Gothic Necklace.  Both ATC bases are PTI Vintage Cream cardstock followed by SU! Designer Paper. 

Both are stamped with Momento ink and colored with my Copics and Sparkly Sakura Gel pens.  My necklace ATC is coated with my Quickie Glue pen and covered with black Doodlebug sparkles.  It is trimmed out and popped up on 3-D foam adhesive.  I added a strip of metal pearls along the bottom. 

The Bodice ATC is colored, trimmed out, embellished with tiny rhinestones.  I then popped it up on 3-D foam adhesive and I gave it a tiny ribbon belt.  I used a scrapbook sticker that says Lucky Lady for the left hand side. 

I hope you have enjoyed my tiny works of art!!  Please continue hopping onto the WIS blog where you will get to see my darling Wynneth's amazing work with Maigan Lynn's stunning mermaids!!

Till next week!

XOXO
Meredith

Monday, August 30, 2010

Simply Betty Stamps

Hello Everyone!

I'm here with my second creation using Miller.  I made a jumbo gift tag today to attach to a gift bag.  My tag base is SU! Chocolate Chip followed by PTI white cardstock.

My background layers are royal blue and a strip of red stars from DP.  I ran a line of light blue stitching down the center for added visual interest. 

Miller is stamped in Momento Tuxedo Black ink on PTI vintage cream cardstock and mostly paper pieced.  I stamped his shirt, belt and pants on red, light blue and tan pattered DP all separately.  I then most carefully, trimmed them all out and using my Quickie Glue pen adhered them all down.  His head, hand, shoes and pet lizard are all colored in with my Copics. 

I backed Miller with light blue cardstock to make him pop and then ran light blue stitching around the edges to create a border. 

I stamped Cool Beans! from an older MFT sentiment set and lastly coated the front of his hair in Diamond Glaze.  Once dry, I adhered his panel to the tag, adding punched stars and metal embellishments down the left hand side. 

I used a SU! jumbo rivet at the top of my tag with blue grosgrain ribbon running through it.

I hope you enjoy!!!

XOXO
Meredith

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Blog Award - From My Dear Friend Wynneth

I want to thank my dear friend and fellow QKD team member Wynneth for sending me this awesome award!!

To qualify for the award I need to nominate 7 people to give it to and tell you 7 facts about me. So here we go :

1.  I am a shop-a-holic.
2.  I am obsessed with reading.
3.  I can't wait to get my second tattoo.
4.  I'm utterly and hopelessly addicted to art of all kinds.
5.  I'm growing my hair out really long.
6.  I am compulsively disorganized in a super organized fashion.
7.  I LOVE being a SAHM!!!

I'm nominating these 7 people to receive this award:
 

Thank you again Wynneth!!!

xoxo
Meredith

Friday, August 27, 2010

Cutsie Grunge

Good Morning everyone!!  It's been pouring here on the East Coast for days now and I'm loving it because it means that I can have quality time INDOORS with my kiddies and my crafts!!  When it's nice I am absolutely compelled to be outside!

Today I'm bringing you a simple yet cutsie and grungy creation!!  I've used one of my new QKD Studio 77 stamps - Skully.  I've inked it up in Charcoal chalk ink and stamped it directly onto my Sunshine cardstock from The Paper Source.

I traced some of the lines with a 30% grey Prismacolor marker and blinged up the wings.  I then stamped the image again onto Peacock cardstock, also from The Paper Source and trimmed out the skull, added bling for the eyes and popped it up on 3-D foam adhesive.

I hand wrote the word CHAOS in the banner on top.  I wish my penmanship was better!  I took my chalk ink pad and ran it on the outside of the card to grunge it up a bit.

As a lasting touch - here comes the "cutsie" part, I created a ruffly ribbon that I learned from my fabulous friend Joanne's most recent Splitcoast tutorial!  I also ran my chalk ink pad along the ruffles of the ribbon to have it match the vibe of my card.

I hope you enjoy!!! 

XOXO
Meredith

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

August Bombshell Hop! Some Like It Hot Hot Hot!!



Woo Hoo!!!  I'm SO excited to be hopping today with the delicious Bombshell Ladies!!!  Today's theme is as follows:

"August 25th Hop - Some Like it Hot, Hot, Hot....
This is going to be a combined hop with the Girls over at Gauche Alchemy. It should really help drive new people to both sites, so let’s promote the HECK out of it! Tweet it, Facebook it, etc..
With that title you have a lot of options..
Some include:
Any Bombshell ‘cause they are all Hot…(duh) _ BUT NOT NECESSARY to have a Bombshell image Gauche Girls !!!
Summer themes
Flames on the Hot Rod stamps
…and of course Summer colors
(if you have Gauche Alchemy kits...try Banana Hammock, Lady Marmalade or Scarlett Red Fever...)
I don’t know where you live, but it has been blazing here this summer, so hot is definitely on my brain.
There will be of course the chance for a great prize package."


I chose to use Persimmon cardstock from The Paper Source as my card base.  My striped background paper is Basic Grey - always a 'go-to' for me.

I trimmed the flames out freehand and edged them with craft glue and coated them in SU! red glitter.  I used my Girl's Ruin Bombshell set for this card.  My main image is stamped in Momento ink in Tuxedo Black.  She is colored in with my Copics with the edges sponged with SU! Real Red ink.

I matted her to PTI's Summer Sunrise cardstock to make her pop off of the page a bit more.  I then ran a straight stitch in black around the edge to frame her nicely.

I stamped my sentiment 'Girl's Ruin' also in the Momento ink and colored with my Copics.  I also backed it with the same PTI SS for symmetry with my main layer and trimmed them out.

As a final touch, I added red, self-adhesive, pearls to the bottom.

I hope you have enjoyed my HOT creation and please keep on hopping so that you'll be able to see all of the delicious hotness along this hop!!


Kas
Gauche Alchemy
Kelli
AnitaMarie
Maggi
Katie
Cheryl
Angel
Erika
Kathi
Pam
Meredith
Merdrey Chew
Yvonne
Steph
Carmen
Alaine
Alison



Don't forget!  Forum rules:


Hop or be hopped! Participate in the blog hop and receive an entry into this month's prize package drawing! You'll also receive 1 entry for each comment left on everyones blog!

HOP: Stop by the last Wednesday of each month and get ready to be inspired! Then click the first name on the list, and let the good times roll!

BE HOPPED: If you're interested in joining us for our upcoming blog hop, please post your request in the thread. Then, come back the Tuesday night before the hop to pick up HTML code for the list of hoppers to add to your post. It's as easy as that! See you there!


Thanks for stopping by and leaving some love!!

And I am beyond THRILLED and HONORED to announce that I've been asked to join the fabulous Bombshell Gals as a Guest on their Design Team for the month of September!!  Yep!  That's right, I'm going to be Ms. September!!!  I'm so excited!!  More news to come on that later!!!

Keep on hopping!!!

XOXO
Meredith

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Simply Betty - Challenge Blog DT Call Submission!!

Hey Y'all!!

I fell in LOVE with SBS when I first became acquainted with them via my work with Smeared Ink and the Smeared and Smuged forum.

Since then I've been coveting their stamps and cannot wait to add more to my collection!!

Here is a card I created using Miller.   It has a surprise change from the outside to the inside!


My card base is PTI chocolate cardstock, followed by SU! Summer Sun cardstock. I took the Summer Sun cardstock and wet the edges and just messed them up a bit with my fingers. I then took Tim Holtz's Broken China and Vintage Photo inks and rubbed them on the wet cardstock which then created a sort of tye dye effect which came out really cool.

My next layer is the green, science layer which I LOVE and must get more of...I *think* I got it at Michaels. As you can see, I've used it on the top 2/3rds of my card and then used the manila colored lined paper as the bottom half.

I left a "flap" door if you will on the top half because I stamped Miller twice. Once for the cover and once for the interior. On the exterior half of the flap I used the Chalk Board style DP which was meant to be distressed and I did..heavily!! =)



The flap is closed with a binder clip that has a piece of hearty twine tied to it for added grunginess.

Miller is colored with my Copics. On the outside cover he's got brown hair but when you open the flap up it reveals Miller's super rad punky green hair! So fun!! I had a BLAST creating the two different Millers!
 My external sentiment is U Rock stamped in Royal Blue craft ink and heat set. Punched out with my 1 1/2" SU! circle punch and adhered with 3-D foam adhesive. I added a jumbo safety pin around the foam.
 My internal sentiment says Just Be U. Which all teens need to know that they should always just be themselves!!! 


I'm so excited to submit my creation!!  Fingers crossed!!

XOXO
Meredith

Tiddly Inks Challenge #19 - Back To School

Hello!

I'm so excited for this week's TI challenge!  My darling daughter is headed to Kindergarten this year and I truly cannot believe it.  Everyone says the time flies and they are SO right!!

I was very inspired by this challenge as I am going to put this card in my DD lunchbox for the first day of school.  I cannot wait!!

In setting up for this creation I thought about my daughter.  She's eclectic, silly, mixy and matchy in her choice of art, clothing and decor, she is very motherly and very serious about school.  I love each and every quality that she possesses and I pulled from those my inspiration for this card.

She loves red, blue, and pink.  She loves rainbows and art.  So I pulled all of those things together to create.

My cardbase is SU! Real Red measuring 5.5 x 5.5.  My next layers are all trimmed down by 1/4" each and goes as follows pink, blue polkadots, rainbow paper...all from my scrap drawer.

I stitched the last 3 together using a wide zig zag stitch (her favorite) and added them to my cardbase. 

I had printed Super Stamper Avenger and School's Out ahead of time.  I had colored them with my Copics and sparkly Sakura gel pens.  Her shoes are glittered up and needed to dry and the window of the school is all glazed up so both had to be set aside ahead of time to dry.  Once they were dry and the rest of my card had been created, I carefully trimmed both images out and added them to my card with 3-D foam adhesive. 

I used a whimsical alphabet sticker set to write the word Kindergarten on the bottom.

I am SO thrilled and excited for my daughter!!  Off she goes!! 

Thanks so much for visiting today!!

XOXO
Meredith

QKD Weekly Blog Hop! Inspiration Week

Greetings Everyone!!  First and foremost you should have come here via Anita's fabulous blog however, if you have simply happened up on here you simply must start HERE so that you don't miss one fantastic creation!!! Welcome to another weekly edition of QKD's fabulous blog hop!!  I'm thrilled to be here with you bringing you a new creation with a new stamp using a great and summery picture for inspiration!!

All DP and cardstock (save the yellow) is from SU!  The base of my card is Green Galore and the background paper and birdies are front and back of the same slice.  The yellow is PTI Summer Sunrise.  I trimmed the heart border around the right edge to compliment the theme and colors. 

I used felt self-adhesive stickers to cover up the seam in between my two Designer Papers.   


The Grafitti LOVE stamp is from QKD's newest lines Studio 77 ,I trimmed it out and adhered it with 3-D foam dots.  Tagg Words II Stamp Set is so versatile that it can be used in a super bad ass card or super sweet like this Grafitti 'LOVE' birds card. 

I added the word 'BIRD' with black, glittery letter stickers. 

Now off you scoot to the WIS blog to see what gorgeousness is happening over there!!

Thanks for hopping by!

XOXO
Meredith

Monday, August 23, 2010

Altered Tin - Smeared Ink Monday!!!

Greetings Everyone!!!

With the school year coming up VERY rapidly, and my eldest heading to Kindergarten, I am making a seriously concerted effort to get my house, schedule and life organized!  I know, easier said than done but I'm trying one little bit at a time.

Today's bit is an altered Peet's Coffee Sampler tin that I received from my Aunt at Christmas last year.  It's the perfect tin for holding all incoming mail!! 

I'm going to find a similar size tin to compliment this one for outgoing mail, but that's for another day.

I started by rummaging through my scrap drawer pulling out tones of cream, red, grey, yellow, and amber.  I covered my tin, wrapping DP all around and gluing it with a super adhesive glue.  It's similar to hot glue only it's not hot but dries equally fast and holds really well.  Sometimes altering things can be tricky if you don't have good adheive.  As you can see, I sanded it a bit where the edges of the paper would stick down (that's usually where they start to peel off) to make sure the glue and paper had a good strong hold.

I did the same technique for the skinny black SU! ribbon around the top of the tin where the cover used to sit. 

Today I used 3 different SI sets to show you the immense versatility of them!  Together I combined Carnies, Lil' Grumpies, and Elementals.

I stamped my Fire Elemental with Momento Ink in Staz On and colored her with my Copics.  I trimmed her out and added Crystal Glaze on the fire and her lips and set her aside to dry.

I then used the sentiment 'Step Right Up' from the Carnies Set (stamped in Tim Holtz Wild Honey Ink) and 'Don't Forget' (stamped in Black Ink) from the Lil' Grumpies set.

I punched both sentiments out with my SU! 1 1/4" circle punch and then chose coordinating DP scraps to back them with my 1 1/2" SU! circle punch.  The sentiment is attached with 3-D foam adhesive and the 1 1/2" circles are attached to the tin with the same glue as above.

I then added some pieces of interest - two sugary looking flowers to the upper left hand corner, a panel of layered and sewn DP scraps under the sentiment dots, a yellow fabric zipper from my Great Grandmother's sewing basket. 

My main image was finally dry and able to add.  I cut a large piece of foam adhesive and attached it to the back and added it to my altered tin.

I then photographed it both in my studio AND in it's new home on my kitchen counter in the "office" nook.

I hope you have enjoyed and been inspired!!!

XOXO
Meredith