Wish We Were There

Not your average postcard(s)!  Week 4 of the Summer of Creative Chemistry was my inspiration for these next postcards - and yes, I'm on a Postcard kick, but these could very easily be cards, or added to journals or scrapbook pages, cut into tags, and more.  It really is a great substrate to work with for a one-layer card - and postage is so much less to send out.  AND as a bonus, you just might inspire a postal worker with your creativity.

If you don't want to buy the watercolor postcards I mentioned in an earlier post, you can make your own, as I did with these cards, with heavy cardstock (or in my case, glossy cardstock).  You can draw lines on the back with a ruler for the address and simply add a postcard stamp to mail.  There are also a variety of stamp sets available for purchase to create postcards as well.  You can simply go onto Amazon and type in the search engine "Postcard Stamp" in Arts & Crafts and several come up for purchase.

I used Tim Holtz' Alcohol Ink Agate technique for these postcards. We have friends that live in Australia and we've been very blessed to be able to visit - so of course, I'll have to send this card to them.  For the Sydney Australia skyline I used TH Cityscape stamp set.  I used Meadow, Lettuce, Pesto, Stream, Cloudy Blue, Snow Cap, & Silver alcohol inks, and hand wrote the message with a sharpie.  Looks like I picked up bits of pink ink as well from my craft sheet when I created the other postcard.

I stamped a second generation stamping upside down below the skyline, and smudged it a bit for effect.  However that ended up smudging the Sydney Harbour Bridge before it was dry.  But I still liked the effect, and I don't like to waste anything - so I'm okay with the imperfections.  And I do know the skyline doesn't match up, but I still think it's cool.

For my last postcard I used Shell Pink, Butterscotch, and Wild Plum alcohol inks, as well as the following Tim Holtz stamp sets:  Birds and Baubles, Crazy Talk, and Shabby French (one of my most favorite stamp sets!).  In hindsight, I wish I would've stamped the smaller chandelier from the Shabby French stamp set and offset it a bit to the left - but I'm okay with it.  Oh - almost forgot, I used a second generation stamping to get the script background to be lighter.  And I used the script stamp from the Tim Holtz "Letter to Santa" stamp set.  I love that stamp with the delicate script.

Well, that's all for today.  You might want to consider making your own postcard and mailing it to someone special - you will really make their day!

Perfectly Fun

Week 3 into the Summer of Creative Chemistry and I'm working with one of my most favorite products ever -- Perfect Pearls!  I used the Perfect Distress Mist technique and then the Perfect Splatter Distress technique with my "leftovers".    I normally don't worry about mixing colors where they will look like mud - I just try what I like and have fun playing.  I usually try to work with whatever comes out.  To learn more about these techniques, check out Online Card Classes with Tim Holtz.  He's going through his Creative Chemistry classes 101, 102, and soon to start is 103 in August.  You can sign up and join in the fun anytime with lifetime accessible content, PDFs with step by steps, and more!

The stamp set I used for the Perfect Distress Mist technique is one of Wendy Vecchi's, "Tools for Art".

And the stamp sets I used for the Perfect Splatter Distress technique are Tim Holtz' "Words for Thought", "Sketch", "Bird Crazy", and "Crazy Things".

I used the Watercolor Postcards again for these techniques - and I'm looking forward to sending these out at the end of the Summer.  How fun is that?!

Today is a good day to have some fun!

Bon Voyage Postcard

It's so nice to be back to playing in my craft room.  Today I created another postcard for Summer of Creative Chemistry Week 2.

I created a random background all with Distress Stains using:  Peeled Paint, Weathered Wood, Broken China, and Wild Honey (and Picket Fence).  I guess I liked the look of the Wild Honey stain as a sort of sunset, because I pulled out my Tim Holtz Artful Voyage stamp set and went to town using the Stamping with Stains technique.

I ghosted the ship before stamping with Archival Jet Black and followed up with Distress Black Soot ink so I could smudge with with the Picket Fence; I love the end result of the mottled ship. I used Pumice Stone ink to smudge the edges and set it aside to dry before I over-did it.

I'm loving the watercolor postcards - so easy to use and less stress to work on because it's a one layer card, essentially.  I'm using the Fabriano Watercolor Postcards today.  Since there's a bit more texture, any stamping will look a bit more sketchy, which I liked for this card.  I think these will be so fun to mail out later.

Thanks for dropping by -- Craft on!

Riding Out the Storm

It's hard sometimes to let go of the busyness of our daily lives. Whether stress from work, major events, or just daily living in moments, we are all trying to make things work so we can, at some point, relax!  I I love this quote on this postcard because in all the chaos around us, God has a plan to take care of us!

I've been trying to get back to my love of creating, and just got the next kickstart I needed through Tim Holtz Summer of Creative Chemistry over at Online Card Classes .  I created this Technique Postcard for the weekly challenge and I'm excited to be creating again.

The Distress Ink colors I used for the background are Broken China, Mermaid Lagoon, Stormy Sky, Iced Spruce.  I edged it with Hickory Smoke and used Tim Holtz Birds, and Hot Air Balloon stamps in Hickory Smoke & Peeled Paint Distress Ink. Finally, the sentiment was stamped in Archival black ink (sentiment stamp by Our Daily Bread "Anchor" stamp set).

Class is in session - check it out!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lisa