#TRSSKETCHCHALLENGE07 - Just a Note

Well hello my "sketchy" friends!  I'm sharing my Three Room Studio Stamps Sketch Challenge card with you.  I'm sorry I posted my blog a couple days late, life happens, right?!!  For me it seems my health keeps getting in the way.  Be patient and hang with me!

The sketch challenge was actually last week at TRS.  I posted my card before the week was out, but am just now getting to my blog.  Here's a picture of the sketch we used to make our cards. 

As I contemplated my card design within these parameters, I was drawn to one of my favorite stamp sets, It's a Ponderful Life.  I just love the little frog stamp, so that's what I used for the centerpiece of my card.  Not just one frog, three frogs- because more is better, right?!  Here's a picture of my card and most of the items I used to color it. 

 First I die cut the panels that I would be using with my MFTs stitched rectangles dies.  I used #80 NSW for both the background and smaller frog panel.  The card base is #110 NSW, as is the "Just a Note" paper piece I cut by hand and colored with the Copic YR21 to match the card perfectly.

The background is made by ink blending Distress Oxide inks, beginning at the bottom with Evergreen Bough, then Broken China, and finally Salty Ocean at the top.  Leave plenty of room to overlap your colors for a smooth transition.  I then used my anti-static bag along where the horizontal line would be so that I would have a crisp embossing line once my panel was completely dry.  I generously used a small ink pad of Versamark directly to the paper while I held a sheet of copy paper in place for my line.  I then used Distress Embossing Glaze in Broken China to create a shiny, but darker side to the background panel (plus I just like to find ways to use the Distress Glaze, I love it!).  I then spattered lightly some Pearl Mica Spray by Wendy Vecchi.  

Next I went about coloring my three frogs that I stamped with my MISTI for perfect alignment.  I chose YR21, YG17 and BV04 as my mid-tone colors for the frogs, then used some lighter and darker tones of each to achieve some semblance of dimension.  I had a big Copic accident well into my coloring.  A big blob of green dropped onto the belly of my green frog.  So as you can see, that frog has spots!!  Luckily I was able to salvage the accident, though truly that frog looked better without the large spots.  I adhered my background panel to my white card base then used some foam tape to adhere my froggy panel.  I then stamped the sentiment on my prepared sentiment strip using the stamp set Simple Sentiments.  I used some snail adhesive on the back of the strip and a narrow strip of adhesive backed fun foam along the outside half of the sentiment strip so that it layed flat when placed along the edge of the frog panel.

That completes my card.  A pretty basic one this time.  In case you don't realize, these weekly challenges are not just for the Design Team, but for all fans of Three Room Studio.  So show off your stuff on Instagram using #trscardchallenge and on Facebook at Three Room Studio's Fourth Room.  We'd love to see your creations!  To see all my card creations, visit me on IG @jktaylor911.

Thank you for visiting my blog, I am truly grateful,

Jill ✂

Spring at Last, Santoro Gorjuss Girl card as Guest Designer for 7 Kids Craft Supply Store

Welcome back to my blog friends and fellow crafters!!  We had a "sneak peak" of spring a couple weeks ago in Montana and it inspired me to make this card for The 7 Kids Craft Supply Store, as my second creation in February as a Guest Designer and entrance card in their current Rainbow challenge.  I know, you say where is the rainbow???   Well, she's looking at it!  I love doing this for Kelly, the owner, as she is so great to work with and she's brought so many fun products to the store to work with.

I was not familiar with Santoro Gorjuss Girls before I shopped at Kelly's store.  Boy was I missing out!  This is my first completed card using a Gorjuss girl as my main image.  I have since bought more because they are great stamps AND they have matching dies as well.  I don't have the dies yet, so I fussy cut my pretty girl!

Since she is laying on the ground in Springtime, presumably, I decided to make a shaker card with Distress Oxide inks on the background paper (in light yellow/greens and green with subtle DIY shimmer spatters) that matched the paper I was using on the frame of the card and my girl's dress.  I used a mixture of sequins, some of which were flower shaped to denote laying amongst the flowers.  My window sheet from Stampin' Up! has some flowers and vines on it, just perfect for my card as well!  As I was also making this birthday card for a friend, she has dogs and a new puppy, so I wanted a cute dog on my card as well.  I used a C.C. Designs Puppy Power image that I first die-cut out with the matching dies, but decided to fussy cut the white outline away since my girl figure didn't have any white around her.  That made all the difference. The stamped images were all colored with Copic markers.

The frames on this card are from 2 different sets.  The larger one from Mama Elephant and the scalloped one from Simon Says Stamp.  The single frame looked too plain, so I added the orange contrasting color with the second frame to balance out the colors in the card and create better visual interest.  The Happy Birthday Banner is from Brutus Monroe's Botanical Banners set.  I fussy cut that out.

After adhering all the top layers together I grabbed my Scotch 3M Foam Adhesive tape and created zones on the back of the card so that the shaker pieces wouldn't congregate in one area (see photo).  Once this was done, I added my shaker elements to all the zones (mental note, use your Anti-static Powder Tool along the sides of your adhesive strips so that the shaker elements don't end up sticking to them).  I forgot, and it was an annoyance but didn't cost me too much time.

With the front panel already flipped over, I adhered my Distress Oxide panel to a standard A2 side-folding card base of NSW 110# cardstock.  I then very carefully adhered that to the backside of my front panel.  Some finishing touches was using some clear Wink of Stella on the flowers on the girl's dress, the flowers in her purse, and the butterfly on her dress.
Project complete!!

I was really happy with how this card came out.  A bit different in style for me, but I really enjoyed making this card!  I hope you are inspired to try a shaker card, try out some Distress Oxides and/or Copic markers, or some of the other products I used from The 7 Kids Crafting Supply Store.  There is a products list at the end of this blog post for your convenience.  The majority of the products used were from the store.

If you'd like to see more creations from the other Design Team members or other customers using products from the store, go to Facebook on the
7 Kids Customers Create! page, visit Instagram  @7kidscraftingsupplystore or go to the store at http://7kidscraftstore.com.

If you'd like to see more of my work, visit me on Facebook or for the largest collection of my work, please visit my page on Instagram.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog, I wish you blessings and lots of crafting time!!



Jill ✂


Supplies List:


7 Kids Crafting Supply Store-
Santoro Gorjuss stamp - Spring at last (full size), C.C. Designs Puppy Power stamp/die, Brutus/Monroe Botanical Banners stamp, Mama Elephant Hug it Out die, Copic Markers, Ranger Distress Oxide Ink (Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio and Lucky Clover), Finnabair Art Ingredients- Mica Powder in Silver for DIY shimmer spray, Nuvo Glue Pen, and the MISTI stamping tool.

Other Supplies-
Flower Fantasy Painted Window Sheets from Stampin' Up!, Designer Series Patterned Paper and colored cardstock from Stampin' Up!,  Pistachio Pudding Classic Dye Ink from Stampin' Up!, Scalloped Frames die from Simon Says Stamp, Neenah Solar White cardstock in both 80# for coloring, and 110# for cardbase, Shaker elements from Pretty Pink Posh, Kennedy Grace Creations, and others(?), Scotch 3M Adhesive Foam tape, Tombow Dot Adhesive Stamp Runner, and Wink of Stella in clear, and the Sizzix Big Shot.