Category Archives: Splitcoast Stuff

Golden Serenity

Posted on October 9, 2015 | Leave a comment

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Yesterday’s Hope You Can Cling To challenge was to bolster a piece of patterned paper. And, I had fun with it! This piece had been sitting in my ‘too pretty to cut’ pile for quite some time!

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I loved the beautiful floral pattern on the paper, but to add some extra depth and dimension, I worked with a stencil from MFT and embossing paste that I brushed into the negative recesses of the stencil, wipe flat with a palette knife and let dry. I left the stencil in place, and I think it took about 15-20 minutes to dry and set up.

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After the paste was dry and hard, I used a stipple brush and applied Viva Gold  over the textured areas. Keeping the stencil in place contains the gold and makes the application so easy. I love the shimmer and shine.

I stamped the Serenity Prayer sentiment from Verve Stamps’ Sparkly Dreams onto a watercolor paper tag that had been distressed with Ranger Distress Inks. The MISTI stamp positioner was invaluable to create this tag because the recesses of the watercolor paper required a few impressions of ink for complete coverage. With the MISTI, the text is stamped crisp and clean with no shaking or mis-stamped mistakes.

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I’m planning to continue stamping over the weekend. The challenges have been so fun and inspiring. I know the cancer patients and their families will be blessed to receive these cards to use while they are in treatment.

Hope You Can Cling To is a fun event with lots of chatter, inspiration and prizes, but it is significant because it sends a little handmade hug of encouragement and support to people in their time of greatest need. I hope you find time to join us this month! An inspiring new challenge is posted every morning.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a beautiful weekend!

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Posted in Hope You Can Cling To, Splitcoast Challenges, Splitcoast Stuff, Verve Stamps

Scatter Sunshine

Posted on October 3, 2015 | 2 comments

 

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I thought I’d pass along a small sampling of my Hope You Can Cling To cards that I’m making for the largest cancer awareness event on the world wide web. I love crafting for the cause… I just wish I was eligible for any of the of fabulous $5,000 in sponsor prizes! BUT, you are eligible… check out our challenges and play along!

Scatter Sunshine was made for the TRASH cancer challenge. This was a fun inspiration. I won’t tell you how many attempts I made at this card (for a variety of reasons!), but I loved the end result…. The stamp set is Simply Stamped Sunflowers from Taylored Expressions. You know how I love my Kansas sunflowers, and I adore the sentiments in this one! My elements are: Taylored Expressions (stamp set) • Rectangle • Acrylic paint to frame the edges of my card • Sunflowers & Sunshine • Hemp twine

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This was an entry this week for Teresa’s challenge called “Cancer Free“. This was a fun one, too. I pulled out a favorite stamp set called Mod Flowers from Inky Antics to complete this one. I paired it with a page from an old encyclopedia page on flowers and a monochromatic color scheme. Inks are black and Vintage Cream from Papertrey Ink.

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Finally today, this is a card that I created for Kathy’s I am a Warrior challenge.

I used a set I’ve had for a while, Fanciful Feathers from Wplus9, and my MISTI stamp positioner. I am loving the MISTI, and the crisp lines that I can achieve and the perfectly lined up image and sentiment placements. I was really struggling with both of those things a few months ago. You can find helpful info on how to use the MISTI and FAQ in their Splitcoast forum. I used Stampin’ Up! inks for this card: Pool Party, Cantelope and So Saffron.

I wish I could stamp all day today, but I’m headed to a meeting and then lunch with my hubby and then more meetings. In honor of our beautiful upcoming fall forecast here in the midwest, I’ll leave you with this….

“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.” ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne’s American Notebook (1842)

Have a beautiful Thursday!

 

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Posted in Hope You Can Cling To, Inky Antics, Splitcoast Challenges, Splitcoast Stuff, Taylored Expressions

Tomorrow is a New Day

Posted on October 2, 2015 | Leave a comment

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This is a card that I made for Dina’s Hope You Can Cling To challenge yesterday at Splitcoast. It’s a little outside my normal style…whatever that is. I’m usually not doing “messy”, but I like how this turned out. I used Distress Inks for the background, and then splattered water across the watercolor card stock for drips. The bird is from a $6 set called A New Day from Wplus9 Design. Yes, I said $6! It’s a stamping miracle.

It has been so fun to be in my office and crafting again this past week … I’m still trying to get motivated in the process of organizing my office. My efforts have been hampered by the quest for a perfect desk. So for now, I’m on a make shift table with little piles all around, and it’s working just fine…

Big plans for the American Royal BBQ event in Kansas City this weekend, so I’ll be back early next week with more Hope You Can Cling To challenge ideas.

Have a GREAT weekend!

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Posted in Hope You Can Cling To, Splitcoast Challenges, Splitcoast Stuff

Love You! Mean It!

Posted on October 1, 2015 | Leave a comment

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My favorite card making month is here! It’s time for our wonderful cancer support and awareness campaign at Splitcoaststampers: Hope You Can Cling To!

This is a card that I created for my challenge that I am hosting today. You can find the details on my challenge and how to share in the fun HERE. You will see links for a welcome message, how to participate and the Master Challenge List! Hope You Can Cling To is a full month long campaign with fun challenges each day, lots of inspiration, and thousands of dollars worth of  prizes from amazing sponsors up for grabs. I hope you’ll carve out some time to participate!

To create my card, I used a fun new set from Concord & 9th called Love You! Mean It!  Lots of fun elements to this sweet set! And, I **LOVED** getting my inks out and stamping! It feels like that hadn’t happened with colored inks in a long, long time!

Thankfully, I’ve carved out a lot of crafting time for this month. I hope you find a few minutes here and there to play along, as well!

Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow!

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Posted in Hope You Can Cling To, Splitcoast Challenges, Splitcoast Stuff

Share Your Sparkle

Posted on September 30, 2015 | Leave a comment

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My desk is full of sparkle because I’ve had some time to create in the last few days! This is a sample that I made for a Product Focus review ( <– you can read it, if you’d like) that we published at Splitcoaststampers today for my friends at the ever-innovative Scor-Pal! It’s a fun new product line for them called PocketPenPals! I even did a video tour…eeks! Does my hair look alright? 😉

For this card, I airbrushed a background of roses with Copic Marker and the Copic Airbrush System. I love using my airbrush. Notice how smooth and fluid the color is on the flowers and leaves, but the darker green is more of a splattered pattern? For the flowers and leaves, I used the chisel end of the marker in my airbrush grip, but for the depth on the leaves, I switched to a darker green and used the super brush tip in the airbrush system. The different ends of the pen will give you different patterns. Just a little tip to try!

If you are interested in more Copic info, I’m teaching one more class for Copic this year and the other instructors have a few locations left, too! I’ll be in Long Beach, CA the first weekend in November if you can join me! We’ll be covering my favorite workshop series of classes: Faces/Hair, Clothing & Accessories and Values & Monotones class! That one is always a hit that surprises a lot of participants. 🙂 You can find all of the Copic class info for the rest of 2015 HERE.

The sentiment comes from a set that I’ve been using a lot lately called Sparkly Dreams from Verve. I used my MISTI from My Sweet Petunia to stamp the sentiment. It is the best investment I’ve made in my hobby in quite some time. Notice how rich and crisp the stamped sentiment lines are? I have never been able to achieve that depth before. {love}

Hope You Can Cling To starts tomorrow at Splitcoast! I’ll be back often because I really do love crafting for a cause! I hope you’ll be able to join us!

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Posted in Copics, Splitcoast Stuff, Verve Stamps

Sunflowers Everywhere & a Save the Date

Posted on September 14, 2015 | 2 comments

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After my last share with the sunflower card, I made a trip to a beautiful sunflower farm in northeast Kansas near my parents’ home. Sixty-five acres of glorious Kansas gold.

As promised, I thought I’d share some photos of that glorious morning.

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My mom and I went early in the morning, and it was mesmerizing… pink clouds at the horizon, and we had to wait for a light fog to lift. This guy was busy as a … well, you know.

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I’d never really seen anything like this before, and I came home wanting to till up our entire yard and scatter seeds. <sigh>

In stamping news… the sunflowers have quickly faded, and our large cancer awareness campaign at Splitcoaststampers will be starting soon! Save the dates now to join us every day in October. So much fun, inspiration and prizes!
See you soon!

 

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Posted in Photography, Splitcoast Challenges, Splitcoast Stuff

New Year Winner and Copic News

Posted on January 7, 2015 | 1 comment

New Year Classes

Hoping that the New Year finds you staying warm with plenty of time for crafting!

I’m sorry that I’m late posting my Seasons Giving winner. I’ve had a few challenges over the holidays that have taken up some extra time. I’ve spent the last hour catching up reading through all of your comments! What a great group of ladies y’all are! Beautiful goals that help us grow while taking care of or reaching out to others. 2015 is going to be a wonderful year!

There’s no way I could pick a winner myself, so I used random generator. Congratulations to Louise W.m. I’ve sent you an email, and as soon as I receive your mailing address, I’ll get your prize sent off! Thank you!!

My office is all packed up right now so no new cards to share, but I have been grateful for a few chunks of time here and there to work on coloring new Copic class sample images. I’ll be looking forward to coloring these with my classes, starting with Houston in February!

I hope you’ll take a peek at all of the open classes and our 2015 Copic class schedule. Lots of opportunity to connect with other Copic enthusiasts and crafters in your area and to learn a LOT. We have great US and Canada locations set up!  I love teaching the Standard and the Intermediate Certifications, and we have excellent new workshops this year, as well. You can check them out HERE!

I’m off to CHA tomorrow. Looking forward to the short reprieve and to connecting with people who get my paper addiction.

Hugs! Stay warm!

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Posted in Copics, Splitcoast Stuff

Seasons Givings Blog Hop

Posted on January 1, 2015 | 175 comments

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It is the time when we reflect upon our blessings of the New Year! And while reflecting, I am very happy to be participating in Latisha’s Seasons Givings blog hop! If you arrived from my friend, Sharon’s blog, welcome!

I love paper crafting… the process of thinking about projects, the time to create, the fun tools AND the people! It has brought me so much joy over the years.

If you you are stopping by as part of the hop, my name is Lori Craig. I started scrapbooking in 1999, was immediately mesmerized with paper and cropping. When I found stamps and ink a year or so later… Heaven help!

For the past 10 years, I have been a part of Splitcoaststampers – it’s still my papercrafting home with chatter, tutorials and the largest papercrafting gallery anywhere. Working with both site visitors, members and marketing partners is very rewarding, and I’ve watched our community do amazing things… Like collect $10,000 for a member who had suffered a home tragedy back in 2005 or a Red Cross drive that raised a large amount of money for the Asian tsunami in 2004…and we are still doing amazing things! This past October when we collectively created over 4000 cards as part of our 5th annual cancer awareness campaign to share hope and encouragement with cancer patients and their families.

I am also a part of the Copic Marker teaching team, and I find great joy in meeting color lovers from around the world and teaching people how to color. Much about art, and I do consider paper crafting an art form, is intuition, but study and practice are necessary in any hobby to stretch and grow! I even learn something in every class I teach! You can find my team’s teaching schedule here. I bet we’ll be in a city near you with our new 2015 classes!

In in this new year, I encourage you to stretch and grow… Join a community of people who love the same things you enjoy to bond and fellowship, practice a twist on favorite techniques or take classes from artists, stores or companies you respect to learn something new! You’ll love your new year!

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I am in a transition with my office space…again….my giveaway needed to be something that would fit it my travel bag and require minimal shipping supplies. I’m offering 3 sets of Spellbinders dies that coordinate for many beautiful combinations.
Comment below and tell me how you plan to stretch yourself in the new year to insure that 2015 is one of the best ever! I will choose a winner on Sunday night, the 4th and post Monday!
From here, you are off to Nicole Nowosad’s blog for another give away! Thanks for stopping by and Happy New Year!

 

 

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Posted in Splitcoast Stuff

Christmas Blessings

Posted on October 21, 2014 | Leave a comment

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The end of the fussy cut… Love this 3D Christmas Tree die from Spellbinders. The the two seperate cutes of the tree will actually nest inside each other to create a stand up paper tree, or you can stack them (as I have here) for a beautiful dimensional card.

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Just a tad bit of stamping here on the tag (Bright Spirits – Verve) and a combination of Spellbinders dies make quick work of this more elegant Christmas card. The dies I used were 3D Christmas Tree, 5×7 Elegant Labels 4 and Elegant Ovals. 

So many pretty dies in the Spellbinders winter holiday collection. Last week, we published a review of these dies at Splitcoast. You can read the review here and you can see all of the paper pretties that the Product Focus team made here in the gallery.

I’m at the annual Copic teaching team meeting this week. Looking forward to finalizing the plans for 2015 and prepping for some amazing classes!

Have a great day!

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Posted in Spellbinders, Splitcoast Stuff

Good Tri

Posted on October 18, 2014 | Leave a comment

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What fun I had coloring this little guy for Kathy’s Hope You Can Cling To challenge. Paper Smooches Cuteasaurus stamp made working with her concept a snap!

We are about mid-way through the month of challenges at Splitcoast, and there are over $5,000 in prizes from incredible sponsors up for grabs… I hope you find time to join us in this awesome awareness campaign. I know the recipients of these cards are always touched!

I’m also getting ready for my last Copic coloring class of the 2014 year, next month in Indy. We have several locations left, so check out the schedule and see if you might be able to join us. We’d love to see you!

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Posted in Copics, Paper Smooches, Splitcoast Challenges, Splitcoast Stuff