Sweet Friends

Happy Friday!!  It's me Shari with a bittersweet posting today, as this will be my last blog posting as a member of the LCDesigners.  I've more than enjoyed my tenure on the Lost Coast Designs/Carmen's Veranda DT and will miss coming to you with monthly shares and special event creations.

 

For my farewell project, I created two simple cards using images from our Nostalgic Children category-Annie and Georges & Louis, along with words found in our Misc. Words stamp and pieces of our Cat Quotes and 2" Grunge Border. 

 

 

Both of these cards were really easy to make and I love the clean, yet grungy look of them.  Let me show you  a little bit of what I did to create these simple cards with big "Ooomph"--

 

 

 I smooshed Distress Ink Minis directly onto an acrylic block, spritzed with water, then pressed onto mixed-media paper.  These are colors from the #1, #2 & #3 DI mini sets--Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed and Vintage Photo. 

 

 

I just LOVE this earthy monoprint of color and those deeper spots of saturated color--Perfect!  Just what I was hoping for--this is going to be a great background!

 

 



 I made another Distress Ink water color background, this time using a round acrylic stamp base and all of the inks in DI Mini set #4--

 

 

The softer color palette for this background is so pretty and I'm sorry that the photo does not do it justice-I hate that!  The way that these lighter colors of lilac, yellow and pink melded together-with that darker splotch of green--Love It!!

 

 

I ran the panel through my sewing machine to add the stitched border, then I splattered the card with Shaded Lilac DI using a round water color brush and heat set.  I used our Cat Quotes stamp, un-mounted, with Jet Black Archival to stamp the random pieces of script onto the background then I spritzed Black Soot DI onto the areas of the script with my air art tool. 

 

 

I stamped our Annie image onto mixed-media paper with Jet Black Archival and fussy cut.  I adhered her onto the panel with matte Decou-Page then outlined with Black Soot DI and my water brush.  She just didn't pop enough for me, so I gave her an additional outlining with white gel pen. 

 

 

I masked off our Misc Words stamp and inked up the word 'Sweet' with Jet Black Archival and stamped onto mixed-media paper.  I fussy cut into a word band, mounted onto black card stock and attached to the panel with matte Decou-Page.  A couple of enamel dots finish this panel off.

 

 

I made this card in the same manner, except I'm using our darling Georges & Louis image along with our 2" Grunge Border and I stamped everything using Potting Soil Archival. 

 

 

Before I adhered G&L into place, I splattered Mowed Lawn DI over the surface of the panel with a round water color brush and heat set.  I used our 2" Grunge Border, un-mounted, and stamped random pieces of it onto the panel, then spritzed Ground Espresso DM onto the surface with my air art tool.   

 

 

Our Misc. Words stamp is a true must-have for the, what seems like, endless word band possibilities!  I adhered G&L and the word band onto the panel with matte Decou-Page and finished with a couple of enamel dots. 

 

 

Thanks so much for coming by today for my last Lost Coaster's Review Blog posting.  I've appreciated and relished the chance of being able to create, and hopefully inspire you, with Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda images. 

 

 I'd like to take this time to give our Fearless LCD/CV DT Leader, Leigh, a Great Big Thank You for having me on The Team and a Huge Thank you to Linda, LCD/CV Company Owner, for allowing me the opportunity to represent your brand! 

 

Thanks for the memories!! 

 

Party Cat Pendant

 

Hi There & Happy Saturday!!  It's me Shari here with you at the Lost Coaster's Review Blog today--Thanks for stopping by!  I've got a little jewelry project to share with you that I created using one of our Party Cats images and our Doodle Circles stamp.  It's a mostly experimental piece, made with questions like "what will happen if I do this?" and "what will happen if I do that?"   Well, this is what happened--

 

 

I've just started to learn soldering, in an attempt to make my own soldered glass jewelry pieces, and this pendant is one of my first experiments.  Let me show you a little bit of what I did to create this--

 

 

I started by stamping this darling Party Cat image onto shrink plastic with Jet Black Archival and let air dry. 

 

 

I fussy cut the image and you can see it's almost 4" tall--before the heat meets the shrink...

 

 

Here's Party Cat all shrunk down to a wee 1 1/2" stature. 

 

 

I stamped a piece of mixed-media paper with our Doodle Circles image with Jet Black Archival and cut down to fit the size of the pendant glass-1 1/2" x 2".  I adhered Party Cat in the center with a little dab of matte Decou-Page and added a couple of black enamel pearls, then I applied a layer of Diamond Glaze over the top-I'm glazing this to create a flat surface for the glass to sit flush with. 

 

 

Glaze dry, there is still a bit of a raised surface with Party Cat, but, since I'm experimenting, and don't know how well any of this is going to solder once it's all assembled anyway, I'm going for it!

 

 

I've sandwiched the stamped and glazed tile between two pieces of flat glass, wrapped foil tape around the perimeter and burnished all of the edges.  The whole tape-wrapping thing--I'm not very good at it and you can see that here, but I'm still going for it!!

 

 

My soldering is far from perfect and there are some chunky spots, but overall, I think this is pretty neat!  OH--OK, something that happens during soldering--the piece heats up and in this case, it made the diamond glaze 'melt' around the inside perimeter.  Even though that's a boo-boo, I'm totally OK with the hazy aura that was mistakenly created. 

 

 

I was so concerned with what was going on with the front of this piece and all of my soldering mistakes, I almost forgot about the reverse side!  Easy Peasy--a few chit chat stickers to create a quote and there you go! 

 

 

I created the beaded dangles and attached around the soldered jump ring and this pendant is finished!  Even with its imperfections, it's still pretty cute, if I don't say so myself!

 

Well, Gosh--This pendant fits perfectly with this month's Team Inspire challenge theme of Anything Goes!!  There are 2 days left until the challenge link closes at 11:55pm PDT on the 25th, so bring your stamped creations over for a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to spend at Lost Coast Designs/Carmen's Veranda! 

 

Thanks Again for joining me here today!!  See you next time!!

 



Too Soon for Swimsuit Girl?

 

Hi There!!  It's me Shari with you here at the Lost Coaster's Review Blog today-Thanks for joining me! 

 

I've got a quirky set of cards to share with you that I made using Lost Coast Designs' images-Swimsuit Girl and one of our newer images called Doodle Circles.

 

 

These cards were so fun to put together and quick, too.  So quick, that I didn't even take any photos while I was busy crafting away making them--Sorry about that!  But, I can show you each finished card close up and tell you what I did :)

 

 

There's a total of 4 cards and I made them all the same, except for the colors of the backgrounds.  I started each background panel with stamping our Doodle Circles with white pigment ink onto mixed-media paper.  I covered with white embossing powder and heat set. 

 

 

To create the ombre background, I used my set of Simply Art water colors and a #10 round water color paint brush.  Starting at one end of the panel, I concentrated color heavily and heat set.  Then, using just water, I gently brushed the color down the rest of the panel to create the ombre effect. 

 

 

I splattered each panel with a heavy concentration of the same water color paint I used to create the backgrounds with.  I heat set, then ran through my sewing machine to add the stitched elements, and finished each panel with a spritz of Shimmer Mist. 

 

 

Swimsuit Girl was stamped onto mixed-media paper 4 times with Jet Black Archival and fussy cut.  The quote sits really closely to Swimsuit Girl on the stamp, so for the quote word bands, I masked off Swimsuit Girl, inked up the quote and stamped 4 times, and fussy cut. 

 

 

All of the fussy cut Swimsuit Girls and the word bands were mounted onto the finished Doodle Circles background panels with matte Decou-Page and then mounted onto their color-coordinated card bases.  I added a shadow around everything with Pumice Stone DI and my water brush then outlined again with white gel pen. 

 

Swimsuit Girl could be on her way to a beach party--A perfect fit for Team Dream's Let's Party Challenge!  There's one more day left at The Portal to enter your party themed stamped creation, so come on over and join the celebration! 

 

Thanks again for joining me today!  I hope you enjoyed your visit as much as I enjoyed making and sharing these cards with you!!  See you next time!!

 



Doodle Flowers Notecards

Hi There & Happy Monday!!  It's me, Shari with you today, sharing a fun and simple set of note cards that I made with one of our New Lost Coast Design's images - Doodle Flowers. 

 

 

I also used our new Misc. Words stamp to make the little words bands for each card.  These were so quick and easy to make--Let me show you a little bit of what I did.

 

 

I stamped the Doodle Flowers onto mixed-media paper with Jet Black Archival, but I didn't press down hard, so I'd get a lighter print.  I brought out my set of water colors and splattered different colors onto the background panels, then brushed the same colors onto a few more pieces of mixed-media paper. 

 

 

I stamped the largest Doodle Flower onto the water colored panels with black pigment ink and heat embossed with clear ep.  I then ran the background panels through my sewing machine to add a stitched border. 

 

 

I fussy cut the Doodle Flowers and adhered them to their respective color coordinated, paint splattered, background panels. 

 

 

 

Before mounting the background panels onto their card bases, I spritzed each one with Sheer Shimmer Mist to give them a nice little sparkle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I created the word bands using our Misc. Words stamp (I can't say it enough-A Must Have!).  I heat embossed, and mounted onto black card stock.  I adhered to the panel with matte Decou-Page and added little enamel dots. 

Thanks so much for joining me here today!  This was such a fun set of note cards to create and really, so easy to make-especially with images like these from Lost Coast Designs (insert nudge nudge, wink wink here)!
 

 

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

Hi There & Happy Saturday!! It's me, Shari with you today-So glad that you stopped by.  I have two quickie ATCs to share with you today that I made using a couple of our new images at Lost Coast Designs--Happy Cat and Misc. Words stamps.

 

....Wait for it....

 

 

I sooo love the expression on this Happy Cat's face-All I see is Happy Happy, Joy Joy.  Let me show you how I put these little ATCs of sunshine together!

 

 

I enjoy making master boards and have a few of them made up in advance.  The brightness of the colors of this one was perfectly suited for today's ATCs.  I used the ATC Bigz Die to die cut a total of 4 ATCs that I adhered together for a front side and back side.

 

 

I roughed up the edges with a paper distresser and ran through my sewing machine to add the stitched border.  I inked the edges with Black Soot DI and added Black Soot DP lines to both sides, with an old gift card.  I used our Misc. Words stamp to create the word bands. 

 

 

I stamped Happy Cat onto mixed-media paper with black pigment ink and heat embossed with clear EP.  I fussy cut and adhered to the ATCs with matte Decou-Page.  I outlined with Black Soot DI and my water brush then outlined again with white gel pen. 

 

 

I'll just leave you with a close-up of this Happy Cat.  Happy Happy, Joy Joy, indeed! 

Thanks so much for stopping in today!  Don't forget to visit us at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity on February 1st for the beginning of a new challenge--Hope to see you there! 

 

Angel Kitty

Happy New Year's Eve from the United States!  It's me Shari, in the snowy mountains of Northern Idaho, and I can't very well open my post today without saying HAPPY NEW YEAR to our international friends, too!!  It's already 2016 in other parts of the world and I'm feeling very honored to be here today at the Lost Coaster's Review to close out and start a new creative year with you!! 

   Now, if you can just bear with me as I share one more Christmasy holiday card before our clock strikes midnight here...

 

 

This is such a sweet kitty image, I LOVE it!!  This is Carmen's Veranda Angel Cat stamp and the stars are the limit with this darling image. 

 

I'm using kraft stock for my card base and background.  This is the Stars stencil from Dylusions and I'm using Picket Fence Distress Paint to create a starry background.  I'm also using DP because I want it to resist the next thing I'm going to do to it. 

 

 

 I heat set the stenciled stars then ran this background panel through Broken China Distress Stain, which I didn't take a picture of (sorry, I do that sometimes!), then I roughed up the edges of this panel with my paper distresser and ran through my sewing machine and added a messy, stitched border. 

 

Angel Cat was stamped a couple of times onto coffee stained mixed-media paper with Coffee & Jet Black Archival inks.  Before stamping the image with Coffee Archival, I wiped away the ink on the stars and colored with my Broken China Distress Marker. 

 

 I gave Angel Cat's bow a little sparkle with frosted film.  I stamped Angel Cat onto blue card stock, then put a small piece of frosted film over the bow, then fussy cut the bow out.

 

 

I added a few seasonal Chit Chat stickers and outlined with Hickory Smoke Distress Marker and my water brush. 

 

 

I adhered my layered fussy cut Angel Cat and a few mirrored stars onto the background with matte Decou-Page then attached the finished panel to the kraft card base, which I had also added a stitched border to. 

 

Thank you so much for joining me here today!!  Don't forget--You can still join in on our 2nd FB Challenge--

 

 

Cheers to a Happy & Healthy 2016!!