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2016-01-11

Happy New Year BLESSINGS to you!

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2015-02-05

Non-Traditional Colors - Valentine's Cards

Today, I have a few valentines day cards for you in non-traditional colors, see what you think:
Yellow-gold
I used memory box dies: botanical stem, grape vine, tilda swirl, leafy sprig,  spellbinders frame.



Purple-lilac color is more vibrant IRL..
I used memory box dies: grape vine, leafy sprig.,


Coral

I used memory box dies: grape vine, tall bamboo, brisol snowflake, botanical stem.

Click on picture for larger and better view.  Thanks for dropping by.  May you have a most wonderful and blessed day!!

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2015-01-26

Valentines "Surprise in a Box" Cards

Hello bloggers!  Here are some of my "Surprise in a Box" Cards from my new Valentine's collection.  I used Penny Black stamp set. The background paper on some of these are my own gelli arts prints.  I think the card with the black and red heart on the  last photo is one of my original prints.  I am having so much fun experimenting with the gelli arts print plate.  Will share what we made in last weekend's class later....we all had so much fun....also made some kraft and gesso floral tags....love 'em!




These will be added to my Etsy online shop.  Thanks for stopping by.  Any questions, let me know.  Have a great & blessed day!


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2015-01-06

Gesso,gelli prints and

Greetings and a Happy 2015 to you, Friends!  I've started the new artistic year using lots of gesso on my work, tried some die cuts I hadn't used yet and am having loads of fun with printmaking!  Here are some samples:




God's best to you in the New Year!  Thanks for visiting.

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2014-09-07

Celebrate Life art journal page

Hello blogger friends!  Wanted to share this Art Journal page that we will be working on at our next Paper Blessings papercrafting class (see schedule top left).  We'll incorporate tissue paper, shimmery spray mists, stenciling, watercolor markers, CTMH stamps...it's a quick one but when finished we'll see so much dimension.  I will post when completed.  Thanks for dropping in!  Stay blessed.



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2014-08-23

Peace on a grassy hill

Hello Blog Friends!  This card should've gone in my prior post - simple boy cards, so I wanted to include it for you.   On this card, I did some masking  to make the sun and the grassy hill.  Used Spellbinders "Labels One" s4-161  nestabilities to make a frame and then pop-dotted it to front of card.  Stamp set is from Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps. Colored in with copics.  I hand wrote " peace" on the actual frame.....reminds me of that wonderful song that says "peace, peace, wonderful peace coming down from the the Father above...."   

Hope you enjoy!  Tomorrow is Monday.  May it be the beginning of a wonderful and blessed week for all of you!


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2014-08-17

Boy Cards and Dry Wall Tape

Hello Papercrafters!  Here are a few "simple style" cards for you.  I used the Close to My Heart "Windy Day" stamp set....I love this set - includes a boy and a girl flying kites and has some great sentiments with it. Later on  I will post an art journal page I made with this same stamp set.   

Here's how I made the card:
- I stamped the images on cardfront (excluding the clouds).
- colored in images with copic markers


- after coloring in, I took some dry wall tape and used it as a background stencil - used Cashmere inkpad and lightly sponged the color randonly on the cardfront.


 - I stamped the clouds on another piece of cartstock.  Cut it out.  Then used Crystal Blue inkpad to sponge color over dry wall tape on clouds.


Dry wall tape looks like this, I know, some of us didn't know that. lol.  It has adhesive on one side so it's great for stencilling:


- the sentiment was stamped on another piece of cardstock, cut out to form a banner and pop-dotted  to bottom  left side.


Here's another "boy" card. I used Crafty Secrets "Little Boy" stamp set - what a cutie, right?  I colored in with copic markers.  After coloring in, I used a blending tool and sponged Broken Glass distress ink around the image.  I pop-dotted the "curious cat"  die from Poppystamps, Inc. on left-bottom of frame.



Well, time for you to go out and use some of that dry wall tape you may have sitting around your garage!  Thanks for dropping by.  Have a glorious weekend!



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2014-08-12

Snowman, Poinsettia and Frostyville Border Equals What?

A card-in-a-box, of course!  Hello Papercrafters!  Today I played with "left overs" from last Holiday season.  I know, is it too soon to be making cute snowmen?  I think not. And since I had pieces/parts of  snowflakes, poinsettias, stars, a Frostyville Border, scrap patterned paper, red and green cardstock,etc.,  I decided to made this card-in-a-box using the following items:

-snowman: Joys of the Season cricut cartridge, cut at 4", colored in with Copics
-poinsettia: last years K & Co left over embellishment
-frostyville border die: Memory Box at StarlitStudio, #98146
-glitter glue: Glitter Glitz from CTMH, Z1313
-card in a box: digital file from Cutting Cafe or you can make your own which is fun to do

Here's a closeup of the focal point of the box:

Here's what the total card in a box looks like:

 And here is a close up of the border die so you can see the fine details of this steel die, love it!:

Any questions, please ask.  Would love to hear from you.  Please take the time to enjoy your day!



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2014-08-08

Art Journal Pages

Happy Friday to you!  As I mentioned before, I wanted to try art journaling for awhile now but never took the time to experience it with my own little hands! hehe.   While on vacation at Hilton Head last year, I decided to research the subject, get my mixed media supplies together and try my hand at it. I didn't take any classes but  I  did find a most wonderful & informative blog  (Vicky's) that really inspired me...I love her style....clean, artistic, not too messy nor dark.  So I played with the supplies I took with me (of course, I also went to a local Michael's to get a few items) and I loved it!  Here is a very simple page I did:



All I used was one of our new stamp sets from Close to My Heart, entitled "A Budding Friendship", a T. Holtz stencil ("Rays"), some distress inks and added some CTMH Liquid Glass to the flowers for lots of 3-d  glossy dimension.  You can find the CTMH items here at my online store.


 I love the wording included in this stamp set, "You Are My Favorite Memory!"  I think a special photo of someone could be added to this journal page and included in a scrapbook layout.



Here's a closeup of the Liquid Glass on the flowers.

Thanks again for visiting!  Check out Vicky's Blog.  Thank you Vicky for your wonderful inspiration!!  You'll really get blessed!  Any questions, please let me know.

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2014-08-06

Memory Box and Poppystamps Cutting Dies

Hello Stampers!  I wanted to post these cards made from Memory Box/PoppyStamps steel dies....I came across this company right before the Holiday Season last year (I know, where have I been, right?)  and I just love them!  Starlitstudios.net is where I purchased them.  Cindy was/is a huge help and I am certain she appreciated my enthusiasm for these steel dies! Please take a look and see if you enjoy these dies as much as I did. (Click on pictures for a closer look.)

Frostyville Border (98146) (don't you just love its name?)



Donnington Tendril (98764)
Lunette Butterfly (98745)

I used this beautiful flourish on one of our first Art Journal classes. I will show you more of this class later. 

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Viva Tree Die (901)


Venita Flourish Die (98772)
Fresh Foliage Die (98502)

Thanks for stopping by.  May you enjoy all the blessings of the day!

SUPPLIES:


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2014-08-04

White Embossing

Hello Friends!  I never get tired of white embossing on my stamped cards...it's an oldie but a goodie, right?  In the brown card, I stamped all the  images in Versamark first, added white embossing powder and heat embossed it with my heating tool.  I then went back and stamped the same images, offsetting them just a bit to the right of the white embossing, in brown ink.  I completed the card by inking the edges in Frayed Burlap and Gathering Twigs Distress inks.   Please click on picture for close-up details.


For this pink one I used Distress Paints (peacock feathers, ripe raspberry and mustard seed) for the background.  I just rubbed the paint colors in with my fingers (loved the messiness of it! hehe.  Silly, I know.)  Love the vibrancy of these paints!  After it was dried, I  did the same white embossing technique on this one.  They look so much prettier IRL.

Thanks for taking time to visit me.  Believing you will be inspired to stamp your own "white embossing" artwork!  Stayed blessed.


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2014-03-07

Happy New Year! Er, I mean Happy Spring!

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Ok, I know  I'm way behind!  So sorry for that.  Wanted to say hello to my blogger friends and believing with you for a great SPRING time in another week.  With snow on the ground, it's hard to visualize  that but hey we just keep believing, right?  Here are a few items from my "Paper Blessings" papercrafting classes to inspire you:




Have a tremendously blessed day!


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You may purchase my cards and artwork

at my "Paper Blessings" ETSY Shoppe.

Copyright

All content, including text and pictures is ©Mary Leeson and is intended to be used for personal inspiration only and may not be copied for publication or contest submission. Thank you so much for visiting us!