Yellow Flocked Cat You're Purrrfect Card

*This post was set up in advance because I am away this week and next.*

How many of you have pets? I have 2 cats that are turning 3 in August. :) This week we are celebrating our furry friends near and far at Tuesday Alchemy. Sponsors for this week are Latte Dah Designs  & Bee Happy Kit/Di's Digital Downloads, so play for prizes! 

The cat was stamped and is applied with some flocking powder (a.k.a. crushed velvet). Sentiment was chalked with multiple types of oranges and reds. This is an old Cat stamp set by Inkadinkado. I took a picture of it zoomed in, so maybe you can see the fibers. 

I leave you today with my daily cat visitor. I took a picture of her through the railing. 

Entered in: MIM #95 with Cupcake Cards & Craft, PTT#74-Anything Goes

Fish You a Happy Birthday Quilled Goldfish and Underwater Floral Decor

If you're here to see if you're a winner for the Tuesday Alchemy blog hop please see the post before this one.

It's a new week at Tuesday Alchemy and we'd love for you to join in on our color challenge! Create anything using this color palette! 

This is what I have quilled:

Goldfish=orange; floral decorations=lime + plum. Seashells once again--sorry, I have a lot! lol The sand was cut out of the July/Aug issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray mag. I hope that's legal. :X

Wave is stamped with white ink.

This week's sponsor is MayzyArt! Enter for your chance to win digital stamps!

Also entered in:-Crafty Sentiments Bright Colours-Deep Ocean Challenge #28 Welcome Summer-Party Time Tuesday #73 Color Challenge-Make It Monday #94 Anything Goes-ATCs with Attitude 16 Anything Goes-Sweet Stampin' Challenges Summer Fun-Friends Forever Challenges #38 Animals

Blog Hop Winner!!! June 2012

Hello everyone! I am back on today to announce the winner of the prize from the Tips & Tutorial Blog Hop that ended yesterday! The blog hop was a lot of fun and I would like to thank everyone who took out the time to participate! 

Without further ado, I would like to congratulate Have A Scrap Happy Day who commented onJune 17, 2012 3:38 AM! Please e-mail me your mailing address within a week, so I can get you your prize! You can contact me at loveinenvelope at gmail dot com with the subject "Blog Hop Winner, " so I can easily spot it in my inbox!

A huge thanks to Corrinne for organizing the first ever blog hop at Tuesday Alchemy!

Nurse Bear Digital Stamp Carrying Bandaid Teal Get Well Soon Card

Today I'm a guest blogger at Pin and Tack's Vegan Barbecue Bonanza event! It's a huge leap for me from my usual crafting entries because I wrote up one of my favorite drink recipes! It's quick, healthy, refreshing, and easy to make!

I would highly suggest heading over there throughout the week as there are other interesting guest bloggers (you can also enter for your chance to win prizes)! :)

Ok, turning back to crafting I have decided to use a digi stamp for the second time in my life. lol I don't know what got into me--maybe it was the cute free digital stamp from Bugaboo this week that inspired me--but I just wanted to do it. 

They have a nurse bear carrying a bandage which I colored in with both colored pencils and markers. The heart I filled with red glitter. The plaid paper is actually laser printed. You can get your free digital copy from the hybrid chick. 3 blue eyelets run parallel to the side of it. "Get Well Soon" was stamped with black ink. Bear nose was colored with Smooch ink.

This card will be entered in:

-The Bug Blog Sketch 113

-Made Especially for You 3 Eyelets
-Make It Monday #94 Anything Goes
-Cupcake Craft #197 Something in the Eyelet
-Paper Playtime #77 Say It With Sentiments Anything Goes
- Robyn's Fetish Challenge Blog #112 Anything Goes

Greatest Dad Wooden Star Card Father's Day

There are 17 hrs left to enter and play along for prizes. Click here for the blog hop and challenge details!

How did father's day go this year? Midnight is closing in quickly and I wanted to get in one last card that I made last night. 

This Dad card features a wooden star that I painted and then covered in Mod Podge Dimensional Magic. Do you see the way it shines? It also gives it more strength...as if I needed more for a piece of wood on a card. lol

This is "Wishing you a Happy Father's Day!" in Chinese. Did you know that you read this from right to left, top to bottom? It's the complete opposite of English sentence layouts. We open a book by flipping pages to the left, but Chinese books are opened from left to right (in other words, the cover is where the back normally is for American books). I am told that Hebrew follows the same rules for opening a book, is this correct? 

Also, please check out Karen's blog for information on how you can win:

Another week coming up! 

Entered in:
- Dream Valley Challenges 34 For That Special Guy
- Robyn's Fetish Challenge Blog #112 Anything Goes

You Tie Us Together Teal Tie -- Happy Father's Day

If you're here for the blog hop and giveaway, please click here!

This is a quick card I made for Father's Day this weekend. Tie was cut out and painted with teal acrylic paint. "You Tie Us Together" was laser printed. It'll be entered in 365 Cards Day # 105 All Tied Up, CRAFT #159 Father's Day, DYSU #76 Boys/Men, and Charisma Cardz #23 Male Cards.

Do you have any special plans for daddy? My dad lives in another borough of NYC, Brooklyn, so we are driving to see him and will go "yum cha." This is a Cantonese term that literally translates to drink tea, but you actually go to a Chinese restaurant and sit down for breakfast/brunch to, yes, drink tea and eat what we call "dim sum." Dim sum, translated as "touch heart," refers to the appetizer-type dishes that are served. Usually they push a cart and you pick out what you like. It's a very common thing to do for Chinese families and my generation of ABC (American born Chinese) now gets together with friends to go. My bf loves it even though he was only introduced to it around college. Wikipedia elaborates in a lot more detail if you're interested in learning more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dim_sum.

Have a lovely weekend as always! :)

Giveaways + Blog Hop + Anything Goes Challenge--Watercolor Snowflakes Card Tutorial

Blog Hop + Tuesday Alchemy Anything Goes Challenge

Today's a very exciting day as I am doing many, many firsts in the blog world--blog hop, giveaway, and a picture tutorial. I hope to be doing more of these things in the future! Anyway...there's a lot to cover in this post, so let's get started!

Tuesday Alchemy and it's team would like to invite you to join in on the fun this week! You may choose to do just the weekly challenge, just the blog hop, or both! You will have the opportunity to win a prize either way! It's that great! :)

Before we get to the fun part, I want to make sure you understand what we're looking for in choosing our prize winners at the end (blog hop and challenge run together and will end together).

Rules

This week the Tuesday Alchemy challenge blog is hosting a Tip &; Tutorials Blog Hop with design team members as well as the regular weekly challenge. In order to qualify for the regular weekly challenge prizes there are 4 things you must do:

• Participate in the "Anything Goes" challenge as many times as you'd like.
• Share this project on your blog AND include a link back to Tuesday Alchemy.
• Post a direct link to your project on your blog (NOT your general blog) using Inlinkz.
• Create a new project. No back links. *If you offer a tip or tutorial in your blog post, please add TIP next to your name in your entry, so you get an EXTRA entry into prizes!

To participate in the blog hop:

• Comment on all of the participating DT's blogs (you can find a list of blog hop members at the end of this post)
• Be a follower of Tuesday Alchemy &; the DT's blogs *if you're already a follower of everyone's blog, fantastic! All you need to do is comment then! :)*

About the Prizes

There are many chances to win this week!!! You can choose to participate only in the weekly challenge, blog hop, or BOTH!


This week's challenge prize *if you only enter a project and don't join the blog hop*:
Tuesday Alchemy's sponsor 
- 1 Digital Paper Pack - Karen's Scraps And Graphics

Blog Hop prizes 
Tuesday Alchemy has two sponsors: 

-A Creative Need (prize: 3 digi stamps); 
-Stitchy Bear Stamps (prize: $10 store voucher)


The winner of the challenge will be announced by Friday, June 22th and win BOTH prizes. 

My blog prize: 

• A copy of I Spy DIY Style: Find Fashion You Love and Do It Yourself by Jenni Radosevich 
• 2 greeting cards: one letterpressed by Reich Paper, one textured by Astro Converters
• 5 humorous postcards, all letterpressed by Gilah Press + Design
• 3 of my handmade chipboard butterfly tags

All packed and ready to go!

Total estimated prize value for my blog: US$45.00!

Winner of my blog's giveaway will be announced on Tuesday, June 19th's blog post. :)


Teammate Prizes:

$10 Gift Certificate - Corrinne

Stamps, Rub-Ons, Doiles, Butterflies, Flowers &; Surprises - Laine

Felt Sheets, Cards, Tags, White Pen, Stickers, Embellishments - Kelli

5 Cards, Prima Flowers, Plaster Hearts, Lace &; Tickets - Maria
Emboss sheets of cardstock, Die Cuts, Outline stickers Katya

Please check individual blogs for more information!

Tutorial

This week I want to show you how to make this card for Tuesday Alchemy's challenge. This is a crash course combining watercolor paint and wet embossing. :) I know, I know...it's weird that I'm in the winter holiday spirit in June, but I know that I will procrastinate 'til the end if I don't take advantage of the little spark of motivation here and there.

Gather these materials to begin. You can use the discount kids watercolor paint set as I did. If you use another type of ink for wet embossing that is fine too. I would recommend using either watercolor paper or heavy cardstock (I used French Paper Company's Pop-Tone Whip Cream 100 lb. cover stock) for this project as it will be absorbing a lot of liquid and will cause less stress and distortion to the final card. 

The first step is to center the 3x3 inch scrap paper as best you can on the top part of your card and tape a border around the scrap paper. Don't push down too hard on the scotch tape otherwise it will make it hard to remove later. Scotch tape is a light adhesive, so you can still remove it if only light pressure is applied. Then remove the scrap paper when you have all of the tape down around the perimeter. 

Paint inside of this box any way you like! I used the 2 blues and added some white to a few areas! This will be your background. Then let it dry for a bit. Remember to clean you brush with water every once in a while, so the colors don't bleed and mix too much if you're using other colors. 

Peel off the fence of tape gently.

This is what it looks like when the parts underneath the tape are exposed--clean edges!

Now you're ready to stamp when the background is dry. Rub your dryer sheet (or embossing buddy found in craft stores) to remove as much static as possible from the part of card where you will stamp--the blue painted background. This will help the embossing powder come off easier from the parts where it is not wanted. Stick acrylic stamps (I used BoBunny snowflakes stamps) of your choice on an acrylic block and apply Versamark Ink. I used the Dazzle version but it is not necessary here because I am not using clear embossing powder, so it won't show through.

Position stamp around the center of the background and push down with even pressure to stamp (make sure your surface is flat underneath before!!!). 

Apply embossing powder to area where you just stamped (mix a little glitter to a small batch if you want glitter in it!). You may want to consider buying the detailed embossing powder (or super fine) if you are stamping images that have many details and thin lines. Sorry for the poor quality picture. My boyfriend helped me take pictures and we didn't realize it was not in focus until I uploaded it to my computer. 

This is what the card looks like after I poured off the white embossing powder.

Tap off excess. Wipe some parts carefully if necessary.

Stamp sentiment. This is a little "season's greetings" stamp from Inkadinkado. 

Turn on heat gun and run over the powder gliding back and forth so as to not burn the paper. You'll know the embossing powder is melted as you see it's transformation from grainy to glossy! You can touch it as soon as you bring it away from the heat! It will feel raised and full of texture! With this last step I want to congratulate you because you're done! :)


Tip: Run the card through the Cuttlebug or any other cold press die cutting machine to flatten out any unflattering bends.

Where to Go From Here

Continue on! Leave comments, learn something new/refresh your memory of techniques, follow new friends, play along in this week's challenge! There is much more to be explored!

Eileen - You Are Here

Corrinne - Your Next Stop

Maria

Laine

Kelli

Katya

Tuesday Alchemy

Happy crafting and exploring!

P.S. If you have an online shop you'd like to promote on my page, you can add your link under my "Link Up" tab. :)


This card was also entered in:
-Craft Your Passion Challenges 114 Anything Goes
-Make It Monday 93 Anything Goes
-CRAFT Challenge 158, Male Card

Cheering You On Cheerleader Quilled Pom Poms Card

Having a nice Saturday night? We're laying low and stayed in most of the day except to go to brunch this afternoon because it's hot out. 

This is an encouragement card in which I played with silhouettes and shadows. Pom poms were quilled by rolling white and pink fringed paper strips. I cut out the letters and 2 cheerleaders. You can get this free cheerleader clipart from Sports Clipart. The pink layers were painted with acrylic paint. Offset the top cheerleader image in pink a little and adhere using pop up foam dots. The 2 strips of paper going across are quilling paper strips. Cardstock is actually silver but it was hard to capture by camera. 

This card will be entered in:

-365 Cards Day # 101 Imagine This 

-ATCs and Cards with Attitude Challenge 15 Anything Goes/Fathers Day 

-Joyful Stamper Inspire Me Fridays #62 Anything Goes

-Petals to Picots I <3 Fridays Link Party 6/8

Simple Paper Ornament for Christmas

I wanted to try to make an ornament to decorate the house last year. Neither my boyfriend or I were raised to be festive, so we don't even have a tree. My parents are Chinese immigrants so not only were they working hard to make a buck, it was even harder to assimilate and learn American customs. Anything "American" was always brought home from whatever my brother and I picked up from school. My boyfriend immigrated to America when he was 12 from Belarus, so these doings are even more foreign to him. He was born Jewish by heritage, but never practiced the lifestyles of one due to antisemitism in Belarus. I am 26 now, closing in on 30 in a blink of an eye, and it got me thinking about how I would raise my children being that their parents are coming from completely different backgrounds. What do we integrate, what do we not integrate? I decided that it would be healthy to introduce everything to them, so they are well-rounded. This step in minimal decorating of the house was a small branch stemming from that original tree of thought.

So what I did was scour the net for interesting, simple ornaments that I can make from paper. I came across a Modern Paper Ornament from Chrisjob. You can follow the link to follow the instructions on how to make it.

You can see how it measures up next to me and next to one of my cats. Instead of bright colors, I opted for more subtle ones--we have a lot of dark and modern styled furniture. The silver ornament was also originally cut using white cardstock. I proceeded to paint it with silver acrylic paint and sprinkled on a generous amount of fine silver glitter. It is dangled with floral wire because I had it and I knew it wouldn't draw too much attention from a previous project I worked on with my friend, Jenny, for her wedding decorations.

Now I'm wondering if this winter will be as mild as the last one since I keep posting about last winter's holidays. lol