Feeling Like Fall

I LOVE Fall!  Maybe because I'm a Wisconsinite and the fall weather is the most perfect for us!  So today as I sit down to make some fall cards, I thought I would also show you some of my other fall cards.

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My Linnie Shapes are very well suited for cardmakers!  Here I used my house and some pendants.  The house was colored with a Faber-Castell Gelato and a little water.  The pendants with some Folk Arts Buttercup acrylic paint (love "buttercup")!

This card was super-duper simple!  I cut my designer paper and folded it like a matchbook.  Then I die-cut my Linnie Blank with Die-namics leaf die and simply adhered it to the cardstock with the pretty design peeking through.  The edges were highlighted with Ranger Distress Stain in Antique Linen.  Like I said, 'super-duper' simple!

This last card features one of the new Linnie Shapes coming out in my next release, later this month -- trees.  For these I colored them with Faber-Castell Gelatos and highlighted the edges with my favorite brown Faber-Castell Big Brush Stampers Marker.  The words peeking out from the curled top left corner is a piece of tissue paper from Brave Girls Club, which I simply glued down to my cardstock.  If you ever order anything from the Brave Girls online shop, you will receive your goods wrapped in this yummy tissue paper!  You can also order the tissue on their website!  Reuse-Repurpose-Recycle people!!

I hope you enjoyed my cards on this beautiful fall day!  Enjoy it!

Linda

Friends, flowers, and a canvas blank

I'm continuing my love affair with Linnie Blooms canvas shapes, and this time I am playing with a "long canvas blank". It is a layer of cotton batting between a blank cotton canvas and a printed cotton layer on the back, size 12"x5".

Just like the other smaller Linnie Blooms shapes that I've played with before, I love the way this texture absorbs any medium I throw at it. Today---acrylic paint! I used some Scotch blue painters tape and created a chevron pattern. I did not measure---just laid down the tape in what looked like straight chevrons to my eyes. I like the way it looked when I aligned them off center. Make sure you push down hard to adhere the tape to the blank so that you don't get any seepage.

I spread the acrylic paint directly on the canvas with a foam brush using a light gray and canary yellow. As you can see, there is no need to be neat about it!

I ripped the tape off (I didn't even wait for the paint to dry) to see how it turned out and was so impressed that the lines were so sharp.

To create the jar, I traced a clip art jar shape onto some velum paper and cut it out. I inked the edges and then highlighted the thread and reflection lines with some Rock Candy Stickles. I attached the jar to the canvas by sewing on a few stitches (can't have any adhesive showing)! It's difficult to see in the photo but there are wire stems wrapped with twine that I hot glued to the back of the felt flowers--they run down into the jar so the flowers don't look like they are just free-floating.

Yes, those are Linnie Blooms leaf shapes in between my felt flowers (a Sizzix die). I swiped some Distress Stain on those leaves to add a splash of color. Then, I plucked some random buttons from my stash and slid a few seed beads onto the threads as I attached the felt flowers to the canvas.

Lastly, I printed the sentiment on some cute pink/khaki gingham paper. I dried the ink with a heat gun to make sure it was really dry before painting a layer of Modge Podge over it to add some texture.

I loved this project SO much, that I've decided that this was the first in a series of seasonal blanks. Coming soon---fall! I better hurry, it's already September!

~Kelly

Meet the Designers - Kelly Starsky

Being a mom to 4, wife to 1, dog-mom to 2, pediatric physical therapist, jewelry/bead artist, pathological picture-taker, Girl Scout troop leader, un-paid chauffeur, painter, chocolate chip cookie monster, Sunday school teacher, and one crafty chick means I am busy or crazy, (or maybe a little of both). Scrapbooking (and all of my artsy passions) let me bring all of these layers of my life together.  And then, I have a reason to escape to my craft dungeon too.

I describe my style as “a little bit of everything”.  Sometimes it might look flowery, sometimes vintage, sometimes shabby, sometimes full of layers, and sometimes clean and simple.  It often includes LOTS of photos.  Oh, and I have a passion for purple (ever since I was 7 and I had a purple shag rug and posters of Shaun Cassidy and the Fonz on my wall).

You can see my artsy escapades at my blog, She’s the Crafty Neighbor, www.kellystarsallthingscrafty.blogspot.com

The Linnie Shape Flower is colored with Distressed Stains.  The Linnie Shapes Butterfly is colored with Distressed Stains and outlined with Copic marker.