#Sweet&Sassy – LadyEm ~ Under Mary's Mantle

Hi all,

So you guys remember when you first hear about a crafting thing and you think it’s new, only everyone else knew about it and had been using it for, a bazillion years or so? Oh, it’s just me… OK! haha

Anyway – When the new Occasions Catalog came out for SU, they got me all excited about Brusho Crystals. Fun enough, most of my crafting friends already knew about them. You see, that’s what happens when you fall off the crafting face of the earth.

So, naturally when it was my turn to host Card Group, I was all excited to play with the brush crystals and design a couple cards with new stamps I have. AND showcase the cool things I learned from watching YouTube Videos.

First, I want to tell you that I had paint all over me, my office, my clothing, I was like a BAD Kindergarten movie. HA But I had so much fun.

First, I created these two card-fronts (no I haven’t made them into cards yet). I used the Dahlia Background Stamp, Versamark WaterMark Stamp Pad, and embossing powders. They are fun, but I was looking for something different for the group.

So, I pulled out the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps Hope Anchors Single and decided I was going to use green, yellow and blue Brusho Crystals.

In addition to your stamp, ink, embossing powder, Brusho Crystals and other card parts, what you will need is:

1) Watercolor Paper. You can order it from StampinUp, Amazon.com and about a zillion other places. I have to be honest with you, I ran out of SU’s Watercolor Paper, and happened to have a WaterColor Sketch Pad handy (we’re art people) and cut that accordingly. PERFECTO! So, use what you have. Watercolor paper is thicker and more absorbent than regular paper. Google the difference if you like, it’s kinda interesting.
2) Non-Stick Plastic Sheeting. I use THIS ONE from Amazon (not an affiliate link).
3) Paint Brushes and Aqua Painters (can buy at any craft store).
4) Paper Towels
5) Heating Tool (to blow the excess water around)
6) Spray Bottle or Spritzer

Basically what you do is first, emboss your image onto your paper. After heating the embossing powder, you are ready to add the Brusho. VERY very lightly (very little goes a long way) sprinkle the crystals on your paper and add water… then you can move the paper around to let the color move OR you can blow it around with your heating tool.
After I got the center blue, I did yellow around the edges. I love it. it looks so artsy fartsy! ❤

Towards the end of the drying, I flicked Spectrum Noir Sparkle Marker, Crystal Clear, onto the image and it created some more water marks. Here is a close up of the image, where you can see a little more detail.

After the card dried, I added black ribbon! I love this card.

Here is the StampinUP Brusho YouTube Video I watched. Once you watch it, you can spend hours watching others, FOR SURE! haha But start SIMPLE! Trust me (I have a bin of rubbish that I tossed because I tried to do something difficult – fun, but messy!). StampinUp only has a set of six colors, and y’all there are tons more out there. Better priced too!

The second card I designed for the group to make was this one:

I wanted to keep in the watercoloring theme, and used a set called WaterFront. I grew up around water, living around various Naval Bases. And I have to say, I miss it daily. But playing with stamp sets like this make me smile. ❤

I used the same stamp image for the sky and the sea. And in the sea, I added a variety of color. The cute little house could be any color you like, but I had the Berry Burst Ink and Ribbon handy, so I went with that. The palm trees I stamped a first in Wild Wasabi, and then the stamped slightly off in Lemon Lime Twist. One of my favorite colors. I used a Stampability Die, and some scrap Design paper and tossed the card together. The ladies loved make it. ❤

Here is the stamp set I used. I’m looking forward to seeing what else I can create with this set.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and checking out what I’m up to. I hope to be here more often. Pray for me! I’m praying for you to.

Until then…

Lady Em

Happy Wednesday All,

How’ve you been this past year? 12 years ago when I started my original craft blog and was so active on Design Teams, or as a guest designer for folks, it never occurred to me that it would be a year between blog posts. SIGH!

A lot has happened in the last year. Ready? Put your hands in the air, it’s quite the ride:

Fall of 2016, my father passed. It was quite a blow.
Late January 2017 I had Gastric Sleeve Surgery.
Late June 2017, I had surgery on my right foot (big toe joint replacement) and we tossed in the repair and clean out of my left ankle. Apparently I’d fractured it without knowing and there were pieces floating about and bone spurs and arthritis… And I was just walking around on it with no clue.
But wait… less than a week after surgery we got an offer on our home AND they wanted a less-than 30 days move in. Me + surgical boots + packing a home. I nearly lost my mind. OK – I lost it and found it later. But still.
We moved from a 3000 sf home to a 1500 sf rental. I don’t mind the size, but never rent from American Home 4 Rent. Abhorrent service and care for their homes. You can message me if you need more detail on that.
In December, just as my sanity was coming back, my husband had reconstruction on his ankle.

All of the above, PLUS homeschooling, volunteering and everything else I do… and I didn’t blog. I’m so sorry. I have made a lot of things and colored things… and so, I’m gonna blog more this year. It’s HAPPENING!

Don’t you love it when you go through a ton and God brings you to the other side? I do.

Soooo…

About three years ago, I started a Catholic Women’s Bible Journaling Group (yes, we let other faiths in). One of my favorite stamp companies, SweetnSassy Stamps, in addition to being Christian Owned and Christian in Nature as a company, they have a whole line of Creative Worship (Bible Journal) stamps. These make beautiful cards and scrapbook pages too. Check out their blog: Creative Worship. I dare you not to be inspired. ❤

I recently challenged myself to Journal at least once in each book of the Bible this year. In this page, I used the My Creator Stamp Set to make this.

Additionally, I used:

This is an older Catholic Women’s Devotional Bible. AND the My Creator Stamp Set.

First I chose the page. Then I put sheets made out of THESE MATS between the pages. I cut these down to fit better in the Bible. I put white Gesso over the part of the page I wanted to use. In fact, because I’d never used water-coloring in the Bible, I used the Gesso on both sides of the page.

I then dried the Gesso with heating tool. Once it was all the way dry, I inked up the large image with Versamark and put on the white embossing powder. Then I heated it with the heat embossing tool. And this is what it looked like.

Please watch the videos on Brusho Watercolor Crystals. And you will know what I mean that I sprinkled the page with Brusho Crystals. Here, I used green, yellow and orange. I dried it with the heating tool and dabbed it with Kleenex.

Then I used some blue and did the same.

Here is a lovely shot of my desk. LOL Messy Bessy!

And this is my final page. I used a few of the other stamps after it was all dry and went through the embossing process (Versamark, embossing powder, and heat). Now, let me be honest. If you look at the word Universe, you can see it wasn’t totally dry (dangit)… sooooo that is where the Washi Tape idea came from. That, my dears is covering up a huge blob. But hey, it’s a pretty way to Bible Journal and I learned a lot.