World Of Michael Trent

Happy Wednesday/Hump Day everyone!  So....I have some exciting news!!  A few weeks ago I got a Facebook message from Anthony Gilbert who owns Anthony's Paper Craft , a rubber stamp company in Cleveland, Ohio.  He told me that he loved my work and asked me if I would like to be part of his design team.  Um....YES!  I have to admit, not having to apply for a design team because the owner loves your work - completely made my month!   I am in the middle of making a bunch of cards for Christmas and Hanukkah and today's project is using the Round Ornament .  I fell in love with this stamp as soon as I saw it because it reminded me of my StenDoodle technique and I knew I would be able to use lots of color and make it 3D.    Let me show you how it's done.  I started by adhering a piece of decorative Christmas paper from my stash to my card front.  Then I cut a piece of white cardstock using a stitched rectangle di...

Hello everyone!!  While I was putting away the Halloween stamps last week I found a small stamp set of leaves that I had never inked up and figured they would have to wait until next year.  Then I saw this "fall leaves" challenge by the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog and had to go pull them out!!    I have to admit that it feels a little strange to be working on a fall card since it is Spring here but I am happy to be back playing with the amazing ladies for the current Retro Rubber Challenge 75- Fall Colors -   I started by stamping the leaves from Leaves (99489) (Inkadinkado) (circa 2009) onto a piece of a yellow post-it note to make a mask.  Then I grabbed 3 of my Ombré inks (Hero Arts) in autumn colors -   Light Ruby to Royal Red (AF319) , Butter Bar to Orange Soda (AF309) , and Ombré Autumn (AF366) . I started by stamping the largest leaf in the Light Ruby to Royal Red ink on a piece of white cardstock, 3 5/8" x 4n7/8"....

Hello everyone!!  I seriously need to find more hours in my day or maybe more days in my week.  But I have a feeling most of us feel this way.  So much to do and so little time to get it all done!  Anyway, as promised, I am back today with one more "batty" Halloween card.  I wasn't planning on making two cards with the bat stamps but, while I was making yesterday's card another Halloween card with bats popped up in my Facebook feed - it was THIS one from my friend Justin's blog.  He had embossed bats with black embossing powder on black cardstock.  I had never thought of doing that and had to give it a go too!   I started with an A2 top folding card base, adhered a piece of orange cardstock to the card front, and then distressed the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink. Next, I cut a piece of black cardstock with one of my stitched rectangle dies.  Then I stamped the bat image from my Halloween Wishes set several tim...

Hello everyone!  It's been a crazy couple of weeks and I am very excited to announce that I have come out with a small line of Halloween stamps here in Brasil.  Long story short....I was asked to give a charity class next weekend and they asked me for Halloween projects.  I knew I could never get stamps here in time so I finally took one of those ideas in my head and made it a reality.  My friend Francine here has a rubber stamp company called Scraplooving and I have always loved her images.  So I tossed the idea out to her of me designing some Halloween images that she could make for the class (and to sell).  She said let's run with this and before I knew it, I was sketching ideas, which is really not that easy for someone who is not an artist, and the next thing I knew....I had rubber stamps in my hands that I made!  Crazy!   Here are the designs I have come out with -  I wanted to share a card I made yesterday using ...

Hello everyone!  Thank you so much for all the love given to the " googly-eyed skulls " card that I made for the current challenge on the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog .  Remember, you have until September 22nd to add your own card to the "Anything Goes" challenge.   Today I have a super simple and special card - for a special lady.  A friend of mine asked me to make a card for her aunt Maria.  Maria loves to garden and is always telling people here "Onde uma flor cresce há esperança.", which basically translates to "where a flower grows there is hope".  When she told me this I immediately thought of this set by Gina K. Designs that has the same sentiment!!   Then I saw that the current challenge over on the Addicted to CAS Challenge Blog is all about "florals".  So that's where I am also entering this card. I started by placing a piece of white cardstock into my Misti.  Using black ink I stamped the two images ...

Hello all.  Well, Mother Nature is certainly pissed off at the world lately.  This has kept me up at night since I have friends and relatives in the Houston and Miami areas.  But everyone survived with minor damage.  I hope all my readers also got through this unscathed.   Today I am happy to announce that I am the guest designer with the amazing team over at the  Retro Rubber Challenge Blog  for their current Challenge No. 71 - Anything Goes . I had a hard time deciding which theme to go with - Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving...but I settled on Halloween.  I went through my stash and pulled out a few stamps to use - all over a year old.  Probably over 5 years old.  But hardly ever used.   I started by making a top folding A2 card base out of black cardstock.  I then cut 2 pieces of white cardstock using the large stitched rectangle die from the Bundle of Stitched Shapes set ( Simon Says Stamp ). ...

Hello everyone and Happy Thursday!  I hope everyone is well.  It's been a crazy week here.  Ruy and I had a photo exhibition last weekend at the Belle Epoque Cultural Center here in town, which we did as a benefit for a charity.  It was nicely received and was a great feeling to see everyone's reactions to our photos.  I will try to get a post done this weekend about the show.  Of course afterward, I got sick for a few days, but am finally back up and running.  Today is Brasil's Independence Day so everything is closed and I finally found some time to do a new blog post.   Yes, 2nd post about "back to school".  This time for the Retro Rubber Challenge Blog  -  I started with a piece of white cardstock.  Using some washi tape I taped down the "Numerals" stencil (TCW200S) by The Crafter's Workshop .  Next, using a mini blending tool (Ranger) with some inks from Reverse Confetti ( Piggy Bank, Salsa , an...