Please Respect My Work...

All of the cards, layouts, handmade items and art work displayed on this website are copyright to me, Lynne Mizera. Of course I hope to inspire and encourage you and would be morethan happy for you to use any of my work to that end; however, please respect me and my work and do not directly copy any of my projects without crediting me or enter any of my work into any magazines or competitions without my express written permission. All my cards, layouts, projects and art work are not to be used by any commercial enterprise for any financial, marketing or commercial gain.

Friday, July 28, 2017

Crafty Catz Guest Designer

Hello and Happy Day everyone! Today I am sharing my last post as the Guest Designer for the month of July over at Crafty Catz Weekly Challenges, where it's always Anything Goes with an optional twist.  This week for Challenge #381 the optional twist is "Not a Card" and I decided to share with you some "Mail Art", something that is taking North America by storm these days. 
In today's world it is such a treat to receive something by old fashioned mail so why not create even more of a gift by decorating the envelope that houses that mail.  When the recipient pulls it out of the mail box it is ALREADY a Gift and now they get to go home and open it!
This particular envelope will be housing these two Artist's Trading Cards (ATC's) I am swapping with another artist from the United States so I wanted to create something deliciously eye-catching and I think I did!  Since I always seem to be rushing to get something into the mail, I have developed a method of creating Mail Art that takes only a few minutes and I am going to share it with you now.  
 
First I select one background stamps, one "feature" stamp and one sentiment stamp to use.  I lay down some washi tape to mask off the area where the address is to go - remember the post office may not deliver your letter if they cannot easily read the address.
I use my Kaleidoscope Ink pad (this one is called Melon Melody) and a brayer to quickly add some color to the envelope, front and back and then I stamp the background stamp all over the front and back in either a light colored ink or my favorite sepia brown as I did here.  I always use  Archival ink because it is waterproof, that way if the envelope gets wet the ink will not run.
 
I added some stamped butterflies to the front and back for a focal point and to make this envelope feel extra Summer-y.  And don't forget the back - I usually add some sort of sentiment to the back for a little extra something. (Note: stamping words on the front of your envelope is not a good idea as they may confuse the post office.) And I always add some washi tape to the back of envelope to make sure it does not come open before delivery and because it looks pretty.
 
That's it!  This particular envelope was ready to go in under 10 minutes and well worth the little bit of extra time.   

So please do consider joining us and linking up your creation over at Crafty Catz for this week's Challenge #381 - Anything Goes with an optional twist of Not A Card.  You have until Noon on Thursday, August 3rd and there is always a Winner and the design teams top three picks.

As always, Thank You for poping in today to see what I am up to and I hope you enjoyed my little mail art tutorial today and all the other projects I created for Crafty Catz this month.  And please do leave me a comment if you like what you are seeing!  
Lynne Mizera, Mixed Media Artist
Guest Designer for Crafty Catz Challenges

 
 



Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Graciellie Designs and Digital Stamps - A Brand New Adventure Beings...

Hello from Studio to all my wonderful Blog Followers, Smile.  Today I would like to announce that I have accepted a position on the Graciellie Design Team!  Graciellie Design specializes in digital stamps and all the stamps available in the Graciellie Design Etsy Shop are the artwork of Honduras artist Gracie Chavez.   I applied for this position not because I need to be on another design team (smile) but because Gracie's artwork is so beautiful and the stamps she creates are so different that I just wanted to play with them.
Graciellie Design Esty Shop
I am looking forward to sharing with you all the reasons why I LOVE digital stamps and to demonstrate all the unique and fun ways that they can be used.  So I hope you will join me in my brand new adventure and that I can inspire you to try some digital stamping play of your own this year.

Lynne Mizera, Mixed Media Artist
for the Graciellie Design Team