The Happy Room

Hello Friends!

Thank you for stopping by today for the Michael Strong Stamps Blog Hop. If you've arrived here without seeing the other artwork by our fabulous participants, please go back to Hetty's blog HERE and start at the beginning.

My Christmas tag features the Cloisonne Christmas Trees. I stamped them onto maroon card stock and embossed them with PSX Brass Embossing Powder. I loved being able to cut them out in seconds with the coordinating Christmas Tree Metal Dies. Last, I added some glitz with Stickles Gold.

I embossed the green and gold cardstock in a Cuttlebug folder and added some gold metallic rub-ons over the swirls. The "snow" is white Flower Soft. At the top of the tag, please notice the Strong Stamps Triangle stamp from the Cloisonne Accents stamp set. When I had it securely in place, I used a Crop-A-Dile to set a brass eyelet to thread the fibers through. The last elements are a bit of gold cord and a brass snowflake from a pile of Christmas doo-dads in my stash.

The next stop on the hop will take you to Michelle Williamson's Blog. Click HERE to see what Michelle has in store for you.

And don't forget to take the following letter along with you for the scavenger hunt: H Collect all of the letters and put them together to spell the secret phrase. If you think you know it, send your guess to Hetty Sanders at her email address: buzzy4you@hotmail.com

Thanks for stopping by today!

Kathie

What is Faux Encaustic Wax? It's my version of melting cheap crayons instead of using "real" encaustic wax! I bought a new little iron at WalMart (craft section of the store, 10.00) and decided to try my hand at wax. With a tutorial from a stamping friend and a few YouTube videos, and I was well on my way to creating some backgrounds.

I had so much fun melting crayons and "painting" with my iron and old, broken crayons. This background uses regular white cardstock. The patterns are unpredictable (unless there's some experience which was not the case with me) and can be shaped and melted and re-done at the artist's discretion.

Since this piece looked "ocean-y" to me, I paired it up with a Michael Strong Cloisonne Fish image and backed the fish with some English Ivy Fantasty Fiber from Art Institute Glitter. The fish is colored with a Technique Junkies technique called "Pencil Over Marker" and I added some Stickles Glitter and a gem to his eye to complete the image. The corners are Cuttlebug die cuts and the stick-on gems are from JoAnn Etc.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a fin-tastic weekend!!

Kathie

I made the background for this card with a Cuttlebug folder. I learned the technique from a fabulous Technique Junkies CD called Emboss or Die (tee-hee). Kinda cute name for a CD with some incredible embossing and die cutting ideas. LOVE IT!

I stamped the butterfly--from The Rubber Cafe--with two Distress ink colors onto glossy card stock. Then, I added some coral color ink to the wings with a sponge. The fabulous half-pearls are also from The Rubber Cafe!

It was a quick and easy card that I really enjoyed making. I hope you'enjoyed seeing it.

Until next time, happy stamping!!

~Kathie

I think I'm hooked on the Background Whimsy technique that I just learned at Technique Junkies! Some of my oldest, never used stamps are coming out of the drawers and finally seeing the light of day!

The background image is from Stampin'Up! and the sentiment is from I Brake For Stamps. I thought this was the perfect pair! I framed the sentiment with a new Cuttlebug folder and die set that I found for 2.00 at my local Big Lots store. What a deal! My little gauzy butterfly came from a local mill ends fabric store. It was a real find at 10 of them for 1.25.

I LOVE the brads so much!! They were a find over at Scrappindealsnsteals, the home of some amazing products and daily deals. I can't stay away from there. I signed up for a free daily email which shows the deal of the day. If I'm interested, I can snag the deal before it's gone or if not, I just hit my friendly delete key. I love easy stuff! And the white corner pieces are from a Cuttlebug die that I use so much I finally had to buy another one. The first one was completely worn out.

I hope you've enjoyed the card and thanks for stopping by today!

Kathie

Here is a little Happy Birthday card for my dear friend, Hetty Sanders in The Netherlands. I had so much fun making this card, because I thought about Hetty the whole time that I was making it and remembered our long time friendship.

The dragonfly image is from Michael Strong Stamps. It was stamped with VersaMark ink onto black cardstock and embossed with gold embossing powder. I hand cut the image and then stamped it a second time, cut it out and layered it on top of the first image. That allowed me to gently shape and curl the wings to give it a 3-D effect.

The top layer of the card is just basic white cardstock which was Cuttlebugged and layered onto more basic black. Here is where the fun begins on this card. The gold layer is obviously Cuttlebugged, but do you know what it really is??? It's foil from a coffee bag!! Now if you know my friend, Michael Strong, you will know that he is the "Original Recycler". I'm a short step behind him, because as one of my friends always says "Kathie was 'Green' before it was cool!" So how could I throw something away that was so recycle-worthy??? I'm happy with the results!

The inside of the card (white layer) was cut with the Stampin' Up! Top Note die. I added a little dragonfly image and utilized a fun little technique called "Pierced Patterns" learned over at the Technique Junkies group. It made a nice little flight trail to show you how happy this little dragonfly really is!

Best of all, my dragonfly flew out of Arizona last Monday and landed on a leaf in Hetty's yard today (Saturday). Just in time to deliver my Happy Birthday wishes to my dear friend. Love ya Hetty!!

Thanks for stopping by~

~Kathie