Monday, August 22, 2011

Free Digi Sketch: Dandelion in the Wind

Good morning friends! It's Monday and I have another Digi Sketch to share with you today!
This sketch is a dandelion with its seeds blowing in the wind (gardeners rejoice...haha).

File is in .jpg format

You are welcome to use these sketches for your projects, but all I ask is that
1) You do not try to pass off my artwork as your own and
2) Please link back to me on your posts or projects. Images are still copyright to me, Kathryn Ritter. 3) I would love to see your projects as well; please come back and link them up so that we can all see YOUR work! :)

Also, when you are telling others about my free sketches, please use the watermarked image below for display and provide a link back to the main Digi Sketch page--THANK YOU!

As I add more sketches to the collection, you'll be able to find them using the tab at the top of the page. I hope you will keep checking back or follow so you won't miss any new sketches as I make them available. My goal is to share with my fellow crafters so the more the merrier! :)
Have a great day!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Free Digi Sketch: Lacewing Butterfly

Good morning friends!  I apologize for the lateness of your free Monday digi sketch / stamp!
Here it is... a day late, but at least not a dollar short :)
This sketch is a lacewing butterfly.  I've done him in profile so that you can easily add a flower or leaf underneath if you choose.

File is in .jpg format

You are welcome to use these sketches for your projects, but all I ask is that
1) You do not try to pass off my artwork as your own and
2) Please link back to me on your posts or projects. Images are still copyright to me, Kathryn Ritter. 3) I would love to see your projects as well; please come back and link them up so that we can all see YOUR work! :)

Also, when you are telling others about my free sketches, please use the watermarked image below for display and provide a link back to the main Digi Sketch page--THANK YOU!


As I add more sketches to the collection, you'll be able to find them using the tab at the top of the page. I hope you will keep checking back or follow so you won't miss any new sketches as I make them available. My goal is to share with my fellow crafters so the more the merrier! :)
Have a great day!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Woodland Anemones and A Quiet Life

Here is my third entry for the Moxie Fab World "Fanatical about Botanical" challenge.  I don't usually wait until the last minute on things like this, but both our boys are going through brain growth spurts and are figuring out how to positively run me ragged in new and creative ways every day.  I finally photographed all my entries for the MFW and other challenges and Etsy orders today during naptime.
I love the botanical images from 100 proof press.  I was in a huge toss up over whether to use their
Carnations image for this challenge or the
Anemones.  As you can see, the Anemones finally won out:
 
 The quote is from William Drummond: "What sweet delights a quiet life affords."
While I made this card I thought about the tranquility of a woodland anemone growing in the forest, perhaps passed every so often by a chipmunk or a little red fox.  I wondered if her neighbor might be a birch tree, or a blackberry vine. 
And then I thought of what I would do with a "quiet life" (sigh!) for just a day or so.... and I daydreamed of how lovely it would be to sit and READ again--to get so very deeply buried in a book that nothing could stir you until you were through.  As a young Mom I have to drop any and every activity at least once before it's finished.... so reading is one of those pleasures that has to wait for now.  As I was thinking about it though, it just seemed so natural to use some vintage book paper and a dictionary backgrounder stamp... 
Words.... such a sweet delight.
 
Also one other challenge in mind:


Materials Used on this Card:
Cardstock {Papertrey Ink}
Stamps {100 Proof Press, Flourishes, Hampton Art}
Ink {Ranger, Tsukineko}
Vintage book paper
Circle punches {EK Success}
Scalloped circle Nestabilities die {Spellbinders}
Gold metallic pen {Hybrid Gel Grip DX}
Butcher's twine
Sewing machine
 
Thank you for your visit and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Botanical Dictionary Poppy

This is my second entry for the Moxie Fab World "Fanatical about Botanical" challenge.

I have always loved images that look like they came from a botanical illustration text or an old book of Redoute paintings.  Maybe it's because as I grew up my mom and I would take our flower identification books with us on hikes through the woods.




Materials Used on this Card:
Cardstock {Papertrey Ink}
Stamps {Anna Griffin, Hampton Art}
Ink {Ranger}
Apron lace edge punch {Fiskars}
Butcher's twine

Thank you for your visit and I hope you have a wonderful start to your week.

Scherenschnitte Stamping: Botanical Papercut

Hello all!  They say that true confession is good for the soul, so... I confess.....
I have been up to my old papercutting tricks again,
 all in preparation for the opening of Crafty Crafty, a craft boutique and atelier opening soon in our area and where I hope to sell some of my work and where I will be teaching cardmaking workshops.

I'd like to share one of my most recent projects today that might even tempt you to try the hi-contrast art form or papercutting.  It is also one of my entries in the current Moxie Fab World challenge, Fanatical about Botanicals.
With a botanist mother who also loved scherenschnitte, you just knew I couldn't pass up at least one entry with her in mind, right?



Are you interested in learning yourself?  Well that's wonderful, because I aim to do just that! Combining one's love of papercraft and stamping with scherenschnitte and papercutting is remarkably easy.  It mostly has to do with choosing the right stamps, being able to plan for all the lines to connect properly, knowing just how much detail you are able to deal with (don't worry, this will probably increase with practice at handling the knife blade) and a little bit of patience!  (OK, honestly in some cases, a LOT... :)

The Queen Anne's lace stamp I used for this design came from the Sugar Shoppe SeeD's botanical set 50215 silhouettes.

As you can see, the flowers were stamped and I drew in the long leaves, ground, roots and ant myself:

You don't have to cut out exactly around the stamped image, especially when it's a blossom like this one.  Remember that every flower is different in real life; so it's OK for them to be different in your papercut too!  The stamped image is more for reference than anything else.

I have cut this design from black origami paper.  It is remarkably strong and has a white back to draw on so that you can see your cutting lines easily.  You can see how strong it is:

This papercut has some very fine, long stems that hold up the flower heads.  But even when I wave it in the air... not even close to tearing.  Only a few things will tear your origami paper... 1) You have a dull cutting blade  2) You are going too fast  3) You accidentally rest one finger on the papercut while trying to turn it with the other... 4) Your toddler gets a hold of it.

But for the record... at least one of my papercuts HAS survived for about 3 seconds in my toddler's hands.  Impressive, yes?

Yes, indeed.

Next, the mounting.  I usually use a ZIG glue pen because it is easy to make thick or thin lines, it dries quickly but only once you turn it over onto the mounting paper.  For my mounting stock, I prefer Papertrey Ink's Rustic White 110 lb cardstock.  It is so sturdyand has a very professional look.  As you glue the papercut you can go gradually, glueing down portions at a time.  This also helps to prevent the design from bunching up on itself or portions glueing down accidentally in the wrong place.  If anything, you should go more slowly at this stage than you did while cutting.



And then................
You have a beautiful mounted papercut!


Now a nice frame (even places like Walmart carry some nice frames that you can take the cheesy art out of and Voila!

Welcome to scherenschnitte stamping, my friend! :)
If you decide to give this technique a try, I'd love to see your project and show others as well, so please leave your link!

Have a wonderful day,


Monday, August 1, 2011

Free Digi Sketch: Connie's Seagull

Good morning friends! It's Monday and I have another Digi Sketch to share with you today!

This sketch is rather a special one, because it was done for a blog friend, Nana Connie, for a guest designer project she was doing for the Operation Write Home project.  If you click on either of the links you can see her lovely project! The theme was water, and Connie loves gulls. So here is what I came up with for her.  The first version has a frame, the second does not.
 
(Click on images to enlarge)
 
 
 
And without the frame:

 


Files are in .jpg format


You are welcome to use these sketches for your projects, but all I ask is that

1) You do not try to pass off my artwork as your own and

2) Please link back to me on your posts or projects. Images are still copyright to me, Kathryn Ritter.
3) I would love to see your projects as well; please come back and link them up so that we can all see YOUR work! :)


Also, when you are telling others about my free sketches, please use the watermarked image below for display and provide a link back to the main Digi Sketch page--THANK YOU!

 

As I add more sketches to the collection, you'll be able to find them using the tab at the top of the page. I hope you will keep checking back or follow so you won't miss any new sketches as I make them available. My goal is to share with my fellow crafters so the more the merrier! :)

Have a great day!

Congratulations Banner

I made this banner last night due to a mixup. I thought my FIL's retirement party was coming up very soon; but I was confusing THAT event with a different one.... the one coming up this weekend is the GRAND OPENING of CRAFTY CRAFTY! I will be teaching workshops there and I am so excited! If you happen to be in the SC area, this is really exciting because up until the opening, if we wanted to go to a brick-and-mortar scrapbook store, the closest one is all the way in Landrum! The owner contacted me via my Etsy shop, and we've been talking ever since! I will post pictures and more info as it's available, but it'as you can tell I'm quite jazzed. :)

Still, the mixup DID get this banner done well in time, so I guess all's well that ends well.

Here it is:



Somehow I didn't realize what a LONG word "Congratulations" is until I made a banner tile for each letter! LOL...


I got my inspiration from the PPC color combo this week. I thought it was a wonderful masculine combination; one of my favorites.




 

Materials Used:

Cardstock {Papertrey Ink, Making Memories}
Silhouette SD Electronic Cutter {Font: Georgia}
Circle punches {EK Success}
White Grosgrain Ribbon {Offray}
Butcher's twine
3d and regular Zots {Thermo-Web}
 
 

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