Crafty Catz Guest Designer

Hello and Happy Day everyone! Today I am sharing my last post as the Guest Designer for the month of July over at Crafty Catz Weekly Challenges, where it's always Anything Goes with an optional twist.  This week for Challenge #381 the optional twist is "Not a Card" and I decided to share with you some "Mail Art", something that is taking North America by storm these days. 

In today's world it is such a treat to receive something by old fashioned mail so why not create even more of a gift by decorating the envelope that houses that mail.  When the recipient pulls it out of the mail box it is ALREADY a Gift and now they get to go home and open it!

This particular envelope will be housing these two Artist's Trading Cards (ATC's) I am swapping with another artist from the United States so I wanted to create something deliciously eye-catching and I think I did!  Since I always seem to be rushing to get something into the mail, I have developed a method of creating Mail Art that takes only a few minutes and I am going to share it with you now.  

 

First I select one background stamps, one "feature" stamp and one sentiment stamp to use.  I lay down some washi tape to mask off the area where the address is to go - remember the post office may not deliver your letter if they cannot easily read the address.

I use my Kaleidoscope Ink pad (this one is called Melon Melody) and a brayer to quickly add some color to the envelope, front and back and then I stamp the background stamp all over the front and back in either a light colored ink or my favorite sepia brown as I did here.  I always use  Archival ink because it is waterproof, that way if the envelope gets wet the ink will not run.

 

I added some stamped butterflies to the front and back for a focal point and to make this envelope feel extra Summer-y.  And don't forget the back - I usually add some sort of sentiment to the back for a little extra something. (Note: stamping words on the front of your envelope is not a good idea as they may confuse the post office.) And I always add some washi tape to the back of envelope to make sure it does not come open before delivery and because it looks pretty.

 

That's it!  This particular envelope was ready to go in under 10 minutes and well worth the little bit of extra time.   

So please do consider joining us and linking up your creation over at Crafty Catz for this week's Challenge #381 - Anything Goes with an optional twist of Not A Card.  You have until Noon on Thursday, August 3rd and there is always a Winner and the design teams top three picks.

As always, Thank You for poping in today to see what I am up to and I hope you enjoyed my little mail art tutorial today and all the other projects I created for Crafty Catz this month.  And please do leave me a comment if you like what you are seeing!  

Lynne Mizera, Mixed Media Artist

Guest Designer for Crafty Catz Challenges

 

 

It's PARTY TIME Over at Crafty Catz!

Hello everyone... I am honored to have been selected to be the  Guest Designer over at Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge Blog for the month of July and today for my third challenge, Challenge #380, I am  sharing this Super Cute shaker card where I am using pre-colored images from Melon Headz, (our sponsor for this challenge).

When I saw the party group image I knew immediately that I wanted to use it in a shaker card.

I really enjoyed playing with these pre-colored images because all I had to do was print them off, cut them out and assemble them in a pleasing way. 

There were so many of these cute little ones to choose from I also added one to the inside of the card.

So please join us for this week's challenge over at Crafty Catz where the winner will get to choose one bundle of images of their choice from Melon Headz.  This week's Challenge #380 is Anything Goes with the optional twist of a Party theme and you have until Thursday, July 27th to link up over at the Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge blog.

As always, thank you for popping in to see what I am up to today, and please do leave me a comment if you like what you see!

Lynne Mizera

for Crafty Catz Weekly Challenges
 

 

Coffee And Cards With Deb And Celeste...

Well I am absolutely honoured to have been asked to be the first guest for "Coffee And Cards with Deb and Celeste".  Deb (of Meticulocity) and Celeste (of Crafting Junky) came up with the idea of having a Blog-style coffee date every Sunday in October to share a card they created with each other... and they invited all of us over to share.  This weekly event was so well received that they have decided to continue "meeting for coffee and cards" once a month and to invite a different Guest every month who will select the theme and play along and this month it's ME!  I am Over-The-Moon excited to be a part of this and I have chosen the theme:  SNOW:

To share with you today I created this village full of snowmen populating two snowy hills on this oversized manilla tag (because they all just would not fit on a card).  Besides, why make one snowman when you can make an entire village? And in my cup I have some true East Indian-style chai tea, sweet and milky and cooked in a pot on top of the stove, which I am sipping from my favorite oversized mug that I bought in Hawaii while on a wonderful scrapbooking vacation I took in 2012.  So many happy memories every time I drink from it - Happy Sigh.

To create my tag I used my Susan Weckesser Snow Way stamp set from Unity stamps, colored with my Zig Clean Color brush tip markers and decorated with lots and lots of Rangers Stickles and Liquid Glass. 

I covered my tag in white gesso and drew in two simple hill shapes. Then I squeezed in as many snowmen as I could fit, layering them using foam pop dots and adding some snowflake rub ons and a snowy sentiment to the background.  (And using up some items that have been in my stash for years!)

I just love the way my snowpeople glitter and shine and how each has a wonderful personality all of its own... dont' you?  So that's my share!  Don't forget to pop over to Debra's post over at Meticulosity and Celeste's post over at Crafting Junky  to find out what wonderful cards and steamy drink they are sharing with us today... and THANK YOU Ladies for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful event!

Happy Sunday from Lynne Mizera in the Rocky Mountains of Creston, British Columbia, Canada.

 

PS... if you are not already a follower please consider joining me and my tribe... we share a lot of wonderful stuff over here! 

Guest Designer for Quirky Crafts... whoo hooo!

Today I am taking a little trip "over the pond" to Britain and joining the awesome Design Team at Quirky Crafts.  The Challenge this week is called Autumn Leaves  and you have two weeks to create something Autumn themed and link it up.  This challenge is being sponsored by "Stitchy Bear's Digital Stamps"  And there will be first, second and third place winners... 

Here is the Tag I created for this challenge using the Acorn Girl Digital Stamp.

I love using digital stamps because I size them to my project and print as many as I need.

I actually printed two of this image so I could cut out and "pop" elements off the tag to create some dimension.

I painted both images using my Silks, an acrylic glaze that shimmers, and then cut out and adheared key elements to the base using foam pop dots.  Then I added a layer of Ranger Stickles and CTMH Liquid Glass for that final bit of sparkle.

A bit of fiber for texture, two colors of mats and a bit of poetry about Autumn finished off this lovely little lady.
  So pop on by the Quirky Crafts Blog to see what the rest of the Design Team came up with and why not link up one of your creations?  You have until October 11th to play!

Thanks for stopping by to see what I am  up to, and please DO leave me a comment if you like what you are seeing! 

Cheers, Scrapbook Lynne

Chromatic Craze... I'm the Guest Designer this month!

I am super...UBER excited to be able to share this really cool new challenge site called CHROMATIC CRAZE with all of you since I am their GUEST DESIGNER for this month's challenge.  Last fall I entered one of the very first Chromatic Craze challenges and was honoured to have been chosen as their favorite entry for that month (you can see that blog post HERE) and now I get to be a guest designer for one entire month.

I love this challenge site because it involves color and ONLY color... you can make whatever you want using what ever supplies you have as long as you include the color pallette for that challenge. Plus the challenge lasts an entire month.  So I actually have time to read about it, think about it, make something and get it posted, because let's face it - Procratinators are US! (grin) so without further ado.... here Challenge #8 - Jewel Tones! 

and here is my take on it... I made a tag with another of my Prima Doll Stamps...

For this lovely lady I used my inka gold paints to paint her hair and skin, but I made her dress by stamping onto some fabric that I had adhered to a product called Phoomph (see more about it HERE) ... a double-sided fabric bonding foam that is less than an eighth of an inch thick, which I then cut out and stuck on to my lady... no need for pop dots when I use this stuff - cool huh? (grin)

My background colors were created using my gelatos on 120lbs watercolor paper... I just colored big circles all over my paper and then sprayed it with water and used a brush to blend each colored circle separately.  After it was dry I applied a thin layer of modelling paste through my Tim Holtz stencil to give it some texture.

Some prima bark butterflies that I painted with my Dylusion sprays, a stamped sentiment from one of my Dyan Reaveley stamp sets, and some jeweled bling finish it all off... I don't even need any stickles!

So here is my take on the Chromatic Craze Challenge #8... come and see what everyone else at Chromatic Craze created and maybe start thinking about what YOU would make if you wanted to join in (wink,wink) Grin Oh yeah, and did I mention that there are PRIZES!

Thanks for stopping by to share with me today....and PLEASE.... come again! Smile (and leave a comment if you like what you see)
Scrapbook Lynne Mizera