LOA From TRS

 Hello my friends and followers.  Yet again my health is interfering with my card-making and I must slow down and let my body try to heal.  I felt I should share this as you won't find any recent card posts.  I'm hopeful to be able to return to Three Room Studio’s Design Team, I just don't know when.  So please check back every couple months.  I'm guessing I won't be back until sometime after the new year.  

Stay well and healthy, and have a wonderful holiday season!!

Jill

#TRSSKETCHCHALLENGE07 - Just a Note

Well hello my "sketchy" friends!  I'm sharing my Three Room Studio Stamps Sketch Challenge card with you.  I'm sorry I posted my blog a couple days late, life happens, right?!!  For me it seems my health keeps getting in the way.  Be patient and hang with me!

The sketch challenge was actually last week at TRS.  I posted my card before the week was out, but am just now getting to my blog.  Here's a picture of the sketch we used to make our cards. 

As I contemplated my card design within these parameters, I was drawn to one of my favorite stamp sets, It's a Ponderful Life.  I just love the little frog stamp, so that's what I used for the centerpiece of my card.  Not just one frog, three frogs- because more is better, right?!  Here's a picture of my card and most of the items I used to color it. 

 First I die cut the panels that I would be using with my MFTs stitched rectangles dies.  I used #80 NSW for both the background and smaller frog panel.  The card base is #110 NSW, as is the "Just a Note" paper piece I cut by hand and colored with the Copic YR21 to match the card perfectly.

The background is made by ink blending Distress Oxide inks, beginning at the bottom with Evergreen Bough, then Broken China, and finally Salty Ocean at the top.  Leave plenty of room to overlap your colors for a smooth transition.  I then used my anti-static bag along where the horizontal line would be so that I would have a crisp embossing line once my panel was completely dry.  I generously used a small ink pad of Versamark directly to the paper while I held a sheet of copy paper in place for my line.  I then used Distress Embossing Glaze in Broken China to create a shiny, but darker side to the background panel (plus I just like to find ways to use the Distress Glaze, I love it!).  I then spattered lightly some Pearl Mica Spray by Wendy Vecchi.  

Next I went about coloring my three frogs that I stamped with my MISTI for perfect alignment.  I chose YR21, YG17 and BV04 as my mid-tone colors for the frogs, then used some lighter and darker tones of each to achieve some semblance of dimension.  I had a big Copic accident well into my coloring.  A big blob of green dropped onto the belly of my green frog.  So as you can see, that frog has spots!!  Luckily I was able to salvage the accident, though truly that frog looked better without the large spots.  I adhered my background panel to my white card base then used some foam tape to adhere my froggy panel.  I then stamped the sentiment on my prepared sentiment strip using the stamp set Simple Sentiments.  I used some snail adhesive on the back of the strip and a narrow strip of adhesive backed fun foam along the outside half of the sentiment strip so that it layed flat when placed along the edge of the frog panel.

That completes my card.  A pretty basic one this time.  In case you don't realize, these weekly challenges are not just for the Design Team, but for all fans of Three Room Studio.  So show off your stuff on Instagram using #trscardchallenge and on Facebook at Three Room Studio's Fourth Room.  We'd love to see your creations!  To see all my card creations, visit me on IG @jktaylor911.

Thank you for visiting my blog, I am truly grateful,

Jill ✂

Three Room Studio's 5th Birthday - Instagram Hop card

Hey there friends and crafters!  Happy you found your way here.  Believe it or not, due to some health reasons, I had not posted on my blog for a while and as I was attempting to create this blog entry in Chrome (my usual browser) my blogger account was just gone!  It gave me some weird error message that I was unable to work around.  Finally, I decided to check another browser, and voila!!  I could suddenly access my account and get this blog done.  I was freaking out!!  I'm a bit rushed to get this posted in time, so forgive me if this post is not up to my usual standards.😅 If you are following along on the IG Hop, then you've just come from Sandy Allnock's post/blog.  Just my luck to follow such a great artist and creator.  I'm quite a fan of hers, so yeah... no comparison's please!!😆😏

My card for the IG Hop is one I created with Sandy Boone (TRS owner/illustrator) in mind.  So it had to be a birthday card!  I've not made a slimline format card before, so I thought this was a good time.  For this card I used 3 stamp sets from Three Room Studio.  The main image is from the YAY! stamp set, as well as some of the sentiments, I used the grasses stamps from It's a Ponderful Life, and the small dragonflies and a sentiment from the Believe in Fairies stamp set.  I also used a Happy Birthday sentiment from Concord and 9th.

For this card, I first stamped the woman image in Copic friendly ink.  I then went about Copic coloring the background.  I added the dark grass stamp in the foreground last to add depth and dimension to my picture.  Then I colored this fun lady.  I added some black dots to her top for interest.  I then worked on the frame.  I used a MFTs rectangle die that I had to partial die cut twice in order to make the opening so long.  Fortunately it worked out on my first attempt!  I then decided to ink blend the frame as well, using the colors of my picture as inspiration.  I used Distress Oxide Inks (from the top first), Salty Ocean, Tumbled Glass, (then from the bottom) Mowed Lawn all the way up and Peeled Paint just at the bottom over top of Mowed Lawn.  Using my MISTI I positioned the sentiments and stamped them in Versa Fine Clair ink (dark blue and green).

After looking at it and thinking something was missing, I added some pale grass to the bottom of the frame and two little flying dragonflies.  I also colored over the word Hooray! with a green glitter pen (but you can't see it in my pictures).

For the final step in this card, I chose a fun holographic cardstock from Simon Says Stamp to fill the space between my picture and the frame.  It really looks cool!  I also used some dimensional foam tape to the back of the frame (it made that holographic paper show up even better).

A close-up of my card:

I hope you enjoyed my card and all the other one's on this special IG Hop.  I believe your next stop is with the fabulous Erica A-B, @erica_cacacraft  back on IG.  Have a great day and don't forget to check out the TRS fan site on Facebook, Three Room Studio's Fourth Room for all things TRS!

Stay crafty my friends,

Jill ✂

TRS Instagram Hop - Fairy Love card

Hello my crafty friends!  I'm finally getting around to posting on my blog - for good reason, too.  Three Room Studio is hosting their first Instagram Hop on Saturday, April 25th.  If you are following along the hop, I'm sort of in the middle of the pack, after Sam- @samvandesigns.  I hope you are as blown away as I am not only on the fabulous stamps with this release, but the sheer talent in our group.  There are so many GREAT cards!!  The images are so great to color, which if you know me is sorta my jam.  My card could be viewed as a 2 for 1 deal.  The inside panel is just as nice as the outside panel and could be used for a card front by itself as well!  I didn't really intend on that when I started, it just sorta worked out that way.  Here is the front view of my card:

As you can see, this is a window card, but the window is open, no acetate.  So when you open the card it's the cute frog scene and a sentiment. 

Let's dive into how I made this card.  I started out with a standard A2 folded card base in Neenah Solar White and covered it with Altenew's Washi tape in Watercolor Nebula then die cut a square window in the front, with the card in landscape position.  The 2 stamp sets I used from this TRS new release were Believe in Fairies and It's a Ponderful Life.  I knew I wanted the fairy on the outside and the frog inside the window.  I decided the fairy would be made from 40 lb. vellum.  I first fussy cut her out, then I colored her from the back side first with Copic markers, then used some Prismacolor pencils on the front.  I felt like she needed to sparkle, so I used some Ranger Stickles Glitter Gel in Nebula on her wings, which caused them to curl forward just a bit when they dried.  I actually love that 3-D dimensional look. Then I used some liquid shimmer on her dress- Shimmer Stix by Imagine, which has like double the shimmer power of Wink of Stella.  I finished her off with a white colored pencil for highlighting. 

Next I created a stencil with the same square cut out of it.  I positioned it in the same place as the window, then temporarily adhered it to the inside panel.  First I stamped the frog, then masked him using Post it Notes with full adhesive.  Then I stamped the lily pad he was sitting on and masked that as well.  Then I lightly marked the water line and then did some ink blending with Distress Oxide inks for the water and sky.  I then stamped the background grass from the frog stamp set, using MFTS Hybrid ink.  I added lighter and darker tones to the grass with my Copic markers so the grass had some depth to it.  I uncovered my frog and lily pad and Copic colored them.  Next I stamped the foreground grass in a very dark grey color, again to make it feel closer to you and give the scene depth and dimension.  Finally I removed my stencil and I just loved my little scene!  

Next I went back to the front of the card, used some vellum tape to secure my fairy along the left border of the window.  Next I used my Embossing Buddy to remove any static from my card front, then stamped the sentiments in my MISTI with SSS white Pigment ink, followed by some Ranger embossing powder in Silver Pearl.  Next I stamped the star clusters in the same ink but used Ranger's Iridescent embossing powder on them, for a little sparkle!  Last, I finished off the inside panel with some cattails, small dragonflies and a sentiment (all from the 2 TRS stamp sets)..

I hope you like my card and are enjoying our IG Hop!  In fact, just hop on over to Kevin's post @kevinbray10 and see what card design he came up with.  If you like what you see, don't forget to stop by the store - Three Room Studio, I believe the stamp sets are available for purchase.  We also have a Facebook page called, Three Room Studio's Fourth Room.  There you can catch all the DT cards, the weekly challenges, and even post your own creations (we love that) or just post to IG at #trscardchallenge.

Thanks again for stopping by- be safe, be well, and happy crafting (a safe activity, yay!),

Jill ✂

TRS Coffee "Full set Syndrome."

Welcome to the new week and all the Coronavirus madness!  I hope you all are taking full advantage of this social isolation by digging into your crafting!  What better way to stay safe, right??  Well, I decided I was not happy with my previous coffee cards and wanted to redeem myself.  So I think I hit a home run, or at least close to it.  I combined stamp sets Awesome Coffee with Retail Therapy and came up with this:

Using my MISTI, I centered then stamped the coffee cup in front.  I then created a 2-piece mask with Mask It.  I probably could have made a single mask, but I was considering a pattern on the mugs.  An idea I later scrapped.  I masked over the full cup first, then stamped the cups on either side, moved the mask over to the second position and stamped the right outside cup, then moved the mask to the second position on the left, and stamped the last cup on the left.  Easy peasy! Once that was done I began my Copic coloring.  I first colored with 3 color family markers for the shading for each of the five cups.  After I colored the lids, I felt the shading was a bit understated.  So I added C3 and C5 to the cup's shaded areas (depending on the cup color).  I added a little white colored pencil details to the lids as well.  I then stamped and masked the coffee bean rings onto the cups with some MFTs Hybrid ink in Hot Fudge, then stamped the main sentiment in MFTs Hybrid ink in Steel Grey.  I then die cut a banner from MFTs Blueprint Sketch and white heat-embossed the smaller sentiment on some shimmery, Black Pearl cardstock by Crafter's Companion.  I then trimmed my card panel to 4.25" x 5.0"and mounted my card panel to the same Black Pearl cardstock for my card base. 

  

I hope you enjoyed my card, poking a little fun at one our crafter's neuroses!  Stay safe and healthy.  Stay indoors and craft more during this difficult time.  God bless you and thank you for stopping by.  Don't forget to visit https://threeroomstudio.com to shop, or click on the blog for all things TRS.  We have a FB page called "Three Room Studio's Fourth Room" for the design team and TRS fans to post their creations.  We'd love to see what you make!

Jill✂