A Unique Take on Paper Piecing

Good Morning and Happy Wednesday to You!

It is spring break here in St Louis and we finely have a wonderful sunshiny day after two days of dreariness.  I cannot wait to hit the trail this afternoon.  I was able to stamp some yesterday, being stuck inside due to the yuck weather.  I received a new toy in the mail- have been wanting a small brayer to try a simple multi colored brayered tedchnique.
That lead to me trying Distress Oxides on Craft and that lead to rainbow colors.

Well, that lead to this adorable bird image stamped over my rainbow stripes.  This has to be one of my favorite bird images- it is from Unity.
Not sure what lead me to paper piecing the birds in their color based on their position on the background, but that is where this went.  Instead of neutral birds, I have neutral, paper pieced flowers and instead of colorful flowers I have colorful, patterned birds.
So this morning I turned this into a simple card on a black card base.  I added a sentiment from SugarPea Designs. 
I love how this turned out, in all of its quirkiness.
I am linking up to several challenges~

The Sisterhood of Crafters- Birds
Double 'D' Challenges- Just Wing It
The Paper Players- CAS Rainbow
Sweet Stampin' Challenge- Use Your Scraps

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed week!

Lee Ann 

Sunny Stork

I just love this stork stamp, Bringing Baby, from Stampin' Up.  I think it is just the cutest baby stamp going!  Today's featured stamper over at Splitcoast has an amazing gallery and I chose an adorable card to CASE.  This is the result:

Have I mentioned that I think this is just an adorable stamp??  To make this card, I used Lucky Limeade CS for the base and used Twitterpated dsp for my mat.  I brayered So Saffron and Barely Banana onto my Whisper White circle.  I cut 2 blossoms with my blossom punch and then cut the blossom petals apart, laid them out around the circle and then gently lifted the circle, added adhesive around the edges and laid it back down on the petals.  I water colored stork and baby and fussy cut them out.  They are on dimensionals.  The tags are made with the jewelry tag punch and stamped with words from Tiny Tags. 
Thanks so much for stopping by and, as always, comments are very much appreciated!
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Well, after having lost my MOJO for most of this weekend, I seem to have found at least some of it this evening.  The sketch challenge this week over at OWH is a fun one.  It is not something I would have normally done, but I really like the results.

 I also discovered a wonderful site that gives you color palette suggestions.  It is where I found this palette.  I would never have even thought to put these colors together, but here they are!  I really like them.  The site is caller Design Seeds.  Check it out if you have lost your color mojo.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by my blog and thank you for your comments.
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 I was totally inspired by the color combo above, so decided to make another card.  I was disappointed in the card I made for the Stampin' Queen's Sketch Challenge this week (it looked better in my head) so I decided to give this difficult sketch another try. 

This is what I ended up with- 
not perfect, but far better than the first attempt.  I used Stampin' Up's Fresh Vintage set and handcut the floral components.  I used a 1 inch square punch on the stamps. The Pink Passion panel is scored with the Simply Scored tool from Stampin' Up.  Paper used is River Rock, Pink Passion, Whisper White,  and Patterns dsp. Ink used is Pink Passion, River Rock, Concord Grape and Tempting Turquoise.  The tag is stamped with a stamp from Tiny Tags and punched with the jewelry tag punch.
Thanks so much for looking!  I hope the sketch challenge is not quite so tough next week!

Sunrise Chickadee

Our Daily Bread Designs challenge this week is to make a "scene" on our card.  I do enjoy doing this and have been practicing with the brayer.  I am far from having it perfect-can't seem to get those pesky roller lines out of the scene- but I do like the colors for this week's ODBDSLC97 card. I am also entering this in the Word Art Wednesday challenge, which is to use scripture or encouraging words on the card. 

Certainly Celery and Old Olive ink are brayered for the grass and some So Saffron is sponged at the horizon.  Pretty in Pink, So Saffron and Vintage Violet make up the sky.  The sun was masked.
One of my all time favorite stamps is the sweet chickadee from ODBD (You are My Refuge).  I stamped him with Memento Tuxedo black and colored him in with Copics, then hand cut the image out and adhered it to the background on dimensionals. 
I hope you like the finished product.  Thanks for visiting my blog.  Comments are greatly appreciated!

Edit 2/25/12- This card was a winner for the ODBDSLC on 2/18/12.

Another go at the Brayer!

Well, now I have to keep trying to perfect the elusive brayer!  I am loving working with it and am trying to achieve the "perfect" background.  This one got a little dark, so instead of a sunset, it is more like dusk.

I have used Stampin' Up's Lovely as a Tree; I masked the snowy ground and brayered the sky in  Marigold Morning, Apricot Appeal, Calypso Coral, Vintage Violet and Night of Navy.  The image is mounted on Wisteria Wonder.  Both tree images are stamped in black and have clear glitter on them.  The sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and is punched out with the Word Window punch.  An organza bow in white finishes off this card.

Brayered Seascape for OWH

I almost titled this blog "Help!"  This is my very first brayered card.  If it weren't for the fact that there are some incredibly nifty looks one can achieve from brayering, this might be my last!  Please, please, please-anyone out there good at the brayering technique?  I could certainly use some suggestions.  I can't seem to get rid of the "lines" of the different color inks and the colors are just too linear.  Also, can you tell that the big black blob in the sky is the silhouette of a bird, or does it look like a big black blob?

This card is for the "sand and sea" or "blue and tan" challenge over at OWH.  Cardstock is Whisper White and Bashful Blue (Stampin' Up).  Inks are Crumb Cake, Soft Sky, Buckaroo Blue and Night of Navy (brayered inks).  The grasses and sentiment are Chocolate Chip.  The big black blob... or bird, well, is black. 
Anyone with thought or constructive criticisms, your ideas are greatly appreciated here!!