And You Think You Look Different?

Hi all!  It's Nan with a stamp fellow I have felt a kindred spirit with from day one I say him!  In a cookie cutter world, he is like me an odd duck and I love that!  He has an official name "Face with Tongue" at Lost Coast Designs but I have always called him Tongue Guy and he likes that name, too!  So by the colors I used you can tell what I am in the mood for and getting all ready for.....orange, black, mystery....Halloween, anyone?

Still lots of time to get in on our "Anything Goes" Challenge at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity; these are the greatest cause anything goes :)  And keep in touch with the Portal for all the fabulous upcoming events we have around the corner!  I wouldn't miss it for the world and you shouldn't either!  Share the fun I say so come see us and find out all the ways to win goodies from our stores!

 Lost Coast Portal to Creativity

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Carmen's Veranda

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It's Hip 2 B Square When You Are a Medieval Rabbit/Bunny/Hare/Leporid

Greetings you artsy people! (And yes, you just read the word "leporid" for the first and possibly last time today.) 

Today I have a medievalish make for you to help get your creative juices flowing for the Hip 2 B Square challenge (you still have time to enter your square-y projects through September 4!).

I always like to discuss the creative process with artists, so I thought I would tell you a little more about the thinking behind my featured piece--"Le Lièvre" (The Hare)--and how it was made. The FULL details-- including which famous medieval works inspired me in the design of this piece—are over on my blog here with more juicy photos and historical eye candy to get you in the mood. :)  Click and read!

But in front of you at this moment is the Cliff Notes version.

For the "square" theme, I chose this Rabbit Square stamp from Carmen's Veranda. I stamped the Rabbit Square on heavy ivory watercolor paper, and embossed it with detail gold so it would be WICKED SHINY. (Yes, I’m from Boston. Don’t judge.)

Then I painted it with water-soluble oil pastels in shades of green, blue, and gray, keeping the bunny buff-brown and "white."

To up the medievalish gambit, I stamped Lost Coast Designs’ most awesome and utterly ravishing Antique Text Border, and embossed and painted it too, then cut it out and mitered the corners around the center image.

The finished result looked like this:

BUT because the gold isn't really shiny enough for my liking in the photo above, here's another where you can really see it catch the light. AHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh...wicked shiny, yeah.

Remember to check out the Muse of Mixed Media blog for deets on the famous medieval tapestries and manuscripts and such that formed the creative bedrock from which my little Lievre was sprung.  ;)

Leave me some love in the comments (here or over there) and I will love you back! xo

Still Time to Play with Watercolor Backgrounds for Challenge #27

Our monthly challenge is still running so grab some watercolors and join in the fun!  You can find all the details on all our fantastic happenings at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity.  Today I have a simple note card with a wonderful pear stamp from Carmen's Veranda, Pear Square, and I love the pear stamps that are available there and at Lost Coast Designs.

I stamped on a piece of paper that had been under a project that I had used Nuance Powders on and even though a little drippy I loved the effect with the Spectrum Noir markers in citrus colors.  Some designer paper and ribbon and a neat note card in no time!

That's it from me, Nan, today!  Have a great day and thanks for stopping by :)

 Lost Coast Portal to Creativity

Lost Coast Designs

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Come Play ATC's with Us!

Still lots of time to join in the fun at the  Lost Coast Portal to Creativity Challenge,  where the theme is "ATC's" and we know we all love to play with those!  Here is my offering of the Zentangle  Checkered Crow from Lost Coast Designs with some tulle and ribbon to fancy him up on some Holtz's paper.

We look forward to seeing your entries so we can visit your blogs and have a cup of tea and a nice chat!

 Lost Coast Portal to Creativity

Lost Coast Designs

Carmen's Veranda

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Cracked Wisdom

Hello, Nan here to share today!  I hope you enjoyed our Cracked Critters Event at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity!  There's still time to get in your entries for the chance to win that $10 gift certificate to spend at Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda, deadline is midnight PST on May 7th!

I have a wise Cracked Owl from the Mini Cracked Critters Set One from Lost Coast Designs and he is the star of my card :)  Forgive the pun!

An A2 kraft card with star cut out and red paper behind with the owl stamped.  I stamped the owl again on white paper and colored with watercolor pencils before gluing on the stamped red paper.  A flower embellie to serve as a closure for the twine to wrap around and he is ready to give out his words of wisdom.

As always check out the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity for the rest of the teams makes and all the info about upcoming events and the new challenge will be starting soon for May!

 Lost Coast Portal to Creativity

Lost Coast Designs

Carmen's Veranda

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Come Play with Us "Anything Goes"

Hi all, it's Nan here getting a bit grungy!   Anything Goes?  Yes, not much easier than that, right?  And you still have until the 25th to get those makes in for a chance at some shopping fun at Lost Coast Designs, so get up ...right after you take a peek at this...and head for the linky HERE :)

I am in love with something else.  These little mini grunge fold up books.  They measure 2 x 2 and seem impossible to do what they do but they work with very little effort.  I used Distress Inks and crumpled and wet and inked, then repeated.  The covers are cardboard :) squares covered with the paper then stamped to make sure the image is in the right place but I waited until I had put it all together to stamp my front so it fits the grunge title very well!

Stamped with Winged Skeleton from Carmen's Veranda 

Picado Skull, White Nose Sugar Skull, and Day of the Dead Headdress Lady from Lost Coast Designs

Cracked Tree and Crows Border from Lost Coast Designs 

Hope you give one of these a try!  They are super fun and you can look on Youtube under "mini grunge book" and it will tell you how to do it :)

Check out all the fun at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity and JOIN the challenge this month, please?  You know you want to :) 

 Lost Coast Portal to Creativity

Lost Coast Designs

Carmen's Veranda

   Like our Facebook pages

here

and 

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                                         AND our brand new Fan Page LIKE us and join us in the fun!

Use a Coaster!

Hi, it's Nan again with a time old adage.  What all moms used to say "Use a Coaster!".  So with some cork coaster blanks and some fabulous stamps from Lost Coast Designs, I was off to the task at hand!  I love the new released "ATC Hands" including the "Pictograph Hand" and having four coasters and three hands...hmmmm?  The awesome Dictionary Words set with "Mystery, Hope, Eternity, and Goddess" was perfect for all those markings on the hands were a mystery to me :) 

To finish the set I made a holder out of a leftover cardboard (of course!) roll from some packing and wrapped with some freebie paper from Somerset Studios magazine with "MYSTERY" from the Misc. Words set stamped on the front.

Now I am all set for no watermarks on the table!  Come join us at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity for all the news and info on events and chances to win some money to spend at the stores!  All of our linkys are below and I hope to see you there!  

 Lost Coast Portal to Creativity

Lost Coast Designs

Carmen's Veranda

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Brand New Fun! Join us and like us!

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At the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity come play!

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)!
 

 

New Goodies at Lost Coast Designs!

Hi all! Nanette here with some fun, fun new stamps! You have to go check out Lost Coast Designs new stamps!  I am in love!  Of course each stamp I get becomes my favorite but they are fabulous.  This little canvas is called "Big Deal, You Can Sit in a Tree" because little mini "Lizard Dog" is fairly put out with all the friends with wings and even the cat...the CAT! can sit in a tree!  You might remember a sneak peak at "Party Cat"?  These all come in the "Mini Cracked Critters Set One" stamp and are so much fun to color up and put them anywhere you can imagine.  I also used the "Grunge Tree" for my background doing a log of manipulation of the stamp to get what I wanted.  And that is a wonderful thing about rubber stamps, you can manipulate them to work on your projects.

I used Promarkers for coloring, I love the bright colors and Inktense blocks and Distress inks for the sky and grass.  I stamped the birds on the background then stamped on white cardstock to color and fussy cut and attached.  I did outline with a Pitt Big Brush marker to give them some pop and lots of white gel pen doodles.

Hope you do have a look at these and the other new releases..you won't be disappointed!  And always check out the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity for our monthly challenges, special events, and our Design Team inspirations.  Also keep our Facebook pages in mind as new challenges that you can enter are posted there!  All this means cash to spend at the store!

Lost Coast Designs

Carmen's Veranda

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Only Three Days Left Until Santa Arrives!

I am as excited as a kid!  It is so close I can't wait :)  Nanette here wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year! So here to wave in the big event is the old guy himself! "Waving Santa" is from Carmen's Veranda and I, too, wonder why Mrs. Clause has not altered those pants!  Could be he loves showing some other color than red and white?  Those blue shocking socks are my newest love...the Nuance Powders now available at Lost Coast Designs with some awesome videos to show their wonderful uses!  I sprinkled the tiniest bit on my mat and used as watercolor for this jolly fellow with some white watercolors to make him all clean and sparkly!  The background is actually "Grunge Tree" in gold Gelatos where I stamped the excess off after using on a project!  Never waste any of the goodies, I say.

Hope you are ready for the big day as I will probably be out last minute frantically shopping but I sure hope I am ready!  Thanks for stopping by to take a peek!

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http://www.lost-coast-designs.com/nuance.html

Thankful

 

Hi There & Happy Monday!!  It's me Shari and I'm here today with my very first official posting for Lost Coast Designs!!  I'm so honored to be here as a part of the Lost Coast Designs/Carmen's Veranda DT and am so Thankful to have been given this opportunity.  Thus, today's creation of Thanks--

 

 This is Annie and she can be found in our Nostalgic Children category of stamps and I've framed her using one of our ATC Borders stamps.  Let me show you a little bit of what I did to create this card...

I've gathered up my pieces of stock that I'm going to use for stamping and layering.  I'm using a piece of an Autumn inspired master board for the background, that I made back in September. 

 This is what the master board looked like before I cut it into pieces for backgrounds.  It's a gelli print I made using a combination of Dylusions acrylics and Distress Paints.  I randomly scattered Tattered Leaves die cuts onto the gelli plate before pressing the paper down to make the print. 

 

I've got my background panel distressed and cut down to size and I'm using a piece of Kraft Core to mount the gelli print background panel onto.  I gave the piece of kraft core some interest and ran it through the old Big Shot with an embossing folder. 

I stamped the ATC Border image onto a piece of coffee stained mixed-media paper and heat embossed with black embossing powder.  I then added a little gilding to the frame by lightly running my glue stick over the raised, embossed texture then pressed onto a piece of gold foil. 

Annie was stamped twice onto coffee stained mixed-media paper with Jet Black archival ink and fussy cut.  She's layered here on the card and I popped one of her images up through the frame with foam squares. 

I separately stamped, heat embossed & fussy cut her little feathered friend here, too. 

I mounted Chit Chat stickers onto kraft crepe paper and glued to the background panel then finished with machine stitching. 

Before Annie and her frame were adhered into place, I ran both panels through my sewing machine to add the stitched border, then everything got glued down with matte Decou-Page and foam dots/squares.  Annie and her feathered friend aren't going anywhere. 

Thanks so much for joining me here for my Very First blog posting for Lost Coast Designs & Carmen's Veranda.  I'm so looking forward to a fun and creative future here at the Lost Coaster's Review and hope you'll join me here from time to time!! 



Still Time to Enter the Mail Art Challenge!

Nanette here again with some Christmas mail art!  Our Lost Coast Designs Challenge is still open for a few days, we close on the 27th so get those stamps and get messy with an envelope!  I finally got my Derwent Inktense blocks last week...squeee!  I gently tore an envelope from Betty Jo from a swap to use as my template.  Then loads of watercolor blocks and stamping with the wrong ink that smeared horribly so covered with a coat of light green paint and left it!  Came back and started over and added some stencils and embossed the inked images :)

 I used the wonderful "Elf With Star" from Carmen's Veranda and the "Christmas Lights" from there too.

Had to add "Merry Christmas" from Party Words comes from Lost Coast Designs and it has a ton of sentiments on it so well worth having in your stash!

That's it for me today!  Come play with us we have events coming up that you can keep up with on the amazing Lost Coast Portal to Creativity ...just look at the side bars and click on the things we have going on and it will take you right there...magic!

Dia de los Muertos

At the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity this month, we had a Day of the Dead event, or Dia de los Muertos. This means it's All Soul's Day, celebrated in early November in various European and Latin American countries, especially Mexico. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family who has passed, and help support their spiritual journey.

I made some Dia de los Muertos ATCs, and I really liked the monochromatic look, with a splash of color : 

Here is my make, 3 ATC's featuring the Skull Flourish from Lost Coast Designs :

For these ATC's I wanted a very textured background. I used molding paste and colored it with grey acrylic paint. Then I applied it to the ATC base with a pallet knife and stamped into it with the skull flourish while the now grey paste was still wet :

 I then left the molding paste to dry and went to clean my stamp. I just used an old toothbrush and bar of soap. Its important to wash the stamp before the paste dries on it :

I sprayed the ATC background with black and white dylusions and let it blend and drip. Then I left it to dry. When it was dry I tore the edges, and sponged lightly with grey ink.

I stamped the skull flourish in black ink onto La Blanche card stock, and added a little embossing powder while the ink was still wet and heat set it. I fussy cut it and glued it onto my textured background. I used a C3 copics to go over some of the shading on the skull to add dimension.

See the texture : 

I typed the words on my typewriter and added the flowers and embellishment.

Finally I matted the textured ATC front onto grey card stock that I had edged in grey ink and stamped the mini skulls. It is very faint, but if you look closely you can see them along the edges. 

Here are individual pics of the three ATC's :

Don't forget that we have our monthly challenge on the Lost Coast Postal to Creativity. 

This month we are asking you to make Mail Art. I love mail art, there is nothing nicer than receiving a wonderfully decorated envelope in the mail, stamped and addressed to you.

Here is my creation, using one of the mini flying ladies, circle frame, Old Typewriter Alphabet SOPA from Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda background stamp, Postcard background.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you found some inspiration here, Nikki x