Fall ATC

 I live in a constant state of half finished projects & I have learned to embrace the mess of it all. One of my favorite ways to completely ignore all the mess & go full procrastination mode is by creating ATC cards. 

These little miniature pieces of art are a great way for me to use up scrap pieces of paper from my desk or scrap bin. They also allow me to try out techniques or ideas without sacrificing a large sheet of paper or lots of ink/paint. I have found lots of new ideas/techniques that I later use on bigger projects by just experimenting on these 2.5x3.5 pieces first. Plus, ATCs give me a quick creative burst when I need just a few minutes to escape and create.

I often go into ATC creating with a question... Today's question was, "How can I create depth on this piece of painted cardstock."

I started with a scrap piece of kraft cardstock that I had used to wipe off excess Ripe Persimmon Distress Paint. I purposely chose to drag my brush from one end repeatedly, leaving the other end free of paint. Most Distress mediums are water reactive, even once dry, but Distress Paint is NOT reactive with water once it dries completely. 

Knowing this, I used my ink blending tool and Walnut Stain Distress Ink to cover the entire piece. The cardstock free of paint took the ink well, whereas the painted portion allowed the ink to sit on top a bit longer before completely drying. I added a few spritzes of water & used a tea towel to blot away some of the ink before drying it completely. I then added a little more water to the background & sprinkled on Perfect Pearls in Perfect Gold. I heated the Perfect Pearls until completely dry and set.

Once I was completely happy with the inky/painted/pearled background, I began to add elements. The Autumn word stamp (from an old Ali Edwards and Technique Tuesday collaboration) was stamped in Ground Espresso Distress Oxide. 

I die cut the oak leaf die from the Ornate Leaves die set from Simon Says Stamp three times and stacked them together. The top piece was cut from scrap cardstock that had been splattered with Gold Perfect Pearls before die-cutting. I added a piece of jute twine to the top of the leaf & finished the ATC with a few gold gems from my stash.

  

Layered Die Shaker Card- Themed Friday #23

 My card today is for the Themed Friday card hop on Instagram. The theme for our card today is a New to You Technique.

I have made a number of shaker cards in the past, but I don’t believe I have made one using a word die and shadow. 

I used Antique Linen, Aged Mahogany, & Chipped Sapphire Distress Inks to ink blend and ink smoosh the background before die cutting. I also used Gold Perfect Pearls to add shimmer. The layered die set I chose to use is the Love die set from Simon Says Stamp.  

After die cutting the Love shadow three times, I stamped and embossed sentiments from the coordinating Love stamp set from Simon. I then added acetate to the back of the card panel and used foam tape to build three individual wells around each die cut shadow. I then poured in sequins to each well and attached a cream colored background. 

I matted the card panel on a black cardstock mat & then attached it to my card base. I added the die cut words to the shadows. I used the Tim Holtz Heart stencil, texture paste, & Mica Stains to add texture to the card front before I added additional sequins and crystals to finish the card. 

Stash Busters 2024

 

Welcome to Stash Busters 2024. This is a bi-weekly hop on Instagram where members share 3-6 cards &/or projects created using supplies already in their stash. This week’s theme is: “If I were a card, what would I look like?”

All the card stock, vellum, and watercolor cardstock for my cards today came from pieces that had already been cut down. I even had a few stamped images that I had not used on other projects that I was able to use on these cards. The “Birthday Wishes” sticker is an older one from my stash & I also pulled out a die cut piece from my stash and added a sentiment to it. 

I created three different cards that are very much my style.

Lots of greens and blues, Distress Inks, big, scripty greetings, natural (plant) images, splatters & sparkles. 

For this A2 card, I watercolored the two previously embossed, stamped branches from the “Be Kind” stamp set from Simon Says Stamp using Crushed Olive and Shabby Shutters. Before setting it aside to dry, I took dry Perfect Pearls in Perfect Gold and dropped it onto the wet pieces. Perfect Pearls is water reactive, so I was interested to see what would happen when I just haphazardly dropped it into the watercolor. I set it aside to dry & when I came back I was excited to see that the gold color gave a nice touch to the pieces. Similar to a splatter, but a little different. I plan to try this technique again sometime soon. I then took Peeled Paint Distress Ink and ink blended it onto the the leaves closest to the stem. I fussy cut both pieces and added foam tape to the back of the leaves before attaching it to my white card base. I used an olive green piece of cardstock between the card base and the design. I used that same green as a mat for my sentiment sticker. I added sequins to finish the card. 

I created this slimline card using smaller green pieces of patterned paper & cardstock from my scraps bin. I die cut the small pieces using the Tim Holtz Mini Holiday Greens, a favorite greenery die set that I use throughout the year. I added Distress Ink and Perfect Pearl Perfect Gold splatters to each of the die cut pieces and set them aside to dry. I found the cream colored die cut piece in my stash and heat embossed the gold “Sending Big Hugs” sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp “Big Scripty Greetings” stamp set onto it. The navy shimmer cardstock was given to me and I wish I had more of it. I used the die cut piece to trace the area for my greens, added adhesive to that area and them began to put down the greenery. Once satisfied with the arrangement, I popped the sentiment up on top with foam tape. I was just going to add Gold Stickles to the berries, but I didn’t like the result when I tried it. As I was wiping it away it smeared onto the Navy cardstock. I liked the look, so I continued smearing it around the design.  I then added pearls & crystals to the berries. I like the elegance of the finished card.

I loved creating this one! I took a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock from my stash & die cut hearts from the entire piece. I then used Crushed Olive, Evergreen Bough, & Faded Jeans Distress Ink to ink smoosh color onto the hearts. I added depth, by smooshing, then drying. I repeated that technique until I was happy with the results on each heart. Midway through each heart I added a coordinating Mica Spray to add a little shimmer to each. Once dry, I popped each heart up onto a piece of white cardstock & added a lot of sequins, crystals, and pearls. The sentiment, from the “Sending Happy Thoughts” stamp set from Simon Says Stamp,  was stamped in black & embossed with clear embossing ink on a piece of die cut vellum & then I added a few more sequins, crystals, and pearls. 

These cards are very much my style & I am so pleased with how they turned out. Take time to dig through your stash and find hidden treasures that you can create with. 

Spring Time Friendship Card

Today I'm sharing a Spring card. I love Limelight Hydrangeas and so I wanted to create something similar on this card. I die-cut a design into the card panel and added a Distress Ink background to create a shaker element. I added little sprigs of yellow for interest and to break up some of the green. I love the color scheme from this week's Color Throwdown. It is always fun to play along and create fun cards based on their weekly challenges. 

 

Coloring Tips

 This week as I began working on my card for Color Throwdown #738, I considered just using the colors given without any highlights. I started watercoloring the flower petals on the background with Mustard Seed Distress Ink. As I got the flowers done, they felt flat. Even though they are more whimsical instead of realistic, I just did not like the flat feel. 

I went back with Fossilized Amber Distress Ink and added shading on the petals and then finished the card background with Shabby Shutters and Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink. Even though they were not lifelike flowers the additional shading brought depth to the images. 

The Sentiment and the flowers were all stamped with Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxide and clear embossed. I added shading to the fussy cut sentiment with Shabby Shutters Distress Ink. I finished the card with sequins and pearls from Lucy's Cards. 

Next time you feel like your card is feeling flat, go back and add shading and highlights. This is possible with watercoloring, using colored pencils, and even by adding a darker color beneath die-cuts. Just a little bit of extra shading & depth adds so much to your  card and keeps it from falling flat.

Color Throwdown Guest Stamper

 I am honored to be the Guest Stamper for the Color Throwdown #736. For this challenge I created a birthday card using yellow, gray, and sage. 

The background uses the Simon Says Stamp Solar Burst Stencil (SSS121424) which I inked blended over with Pumice Stone Distress Ink. I also mixed Perfect Pearls with water and splattered the stenciled image before adding the flower pieces and sentiment. 

The floral pieces were created using a number of different stamp sets and embossed with white or gold embossing powder. The big floral image is an older one from Hero Arts called Stencil Flower (CG194 circa 2010). I watercolored it after embossing with Fossilized Amber and Scattered Straw Distress Ink & added Star Dust Stickles to the center of the flower. The leaf images are from the Simon Says Stamp Be Kind stamp set (SSS202099) and watercolored with Bundled Sage Distress Ink. The final floral images are the small gold embossed pieces that are from the Simon Says Stamp Thanks and Leaves stamp set (SSS101894). Before adhering the stamped floral images I splattered them with Perfect Pearls. 

To finish the card I stamped the sentiment, from the Simon Says Stamp Sending & Wishing stamp set (SSS101475) in black ink and then added a mix of sequins from my stash.

Masculine card

 I don't make a lot of masculine cards, even though I live in a household with all guys. Today's card uses blue, rust, and brown and is inspired by this week's Color Throwdown #735.

For this card, I stamped Hero Arts Alphabet Background (ST501) stamp onto a piece of cold press watercolor cardstock using Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide Ink. Since cold press watercolor cardstock has a slightly bumpy texture I repeatedly stamped the stamp using my Misti stamp press until I was happy with the result. I then ink blended Stormy Sky Distress Ink over the entire background. To add rust and brown to this card, I smooshed Rusty Hinge and Walnut Stain Distress Ink onto my craft mat and then used water and a small paintbrush to add color to the background. When I added the Distress watercolor it moved and picked up the blue, leaving behind the brown and rust. I love how it turned out and I want to try it with other background stamps and color schemes. I matted the blue background onto a piece of brown cardstock & then I added brown brads, both are from my stash.

For my sentiment, I used Ground Espresso Oxide Ink to stamp the Simon Says Stamp You (SSS101211) sentiment & then I used Walnut Stain and Antique Linen Distress Ink to blend over the sentiment. The die-cut sentiment was splattered with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls and added to the card using foam adhesive. I also added cream colored thread, sandwiching it between the background piece and sentiment piece so I didn't need any more adhesive. I finished the card with a few iridescent sequin stars from Lucy's Cards Ocean Adventure Sparkly Shaker mix.

Excited to put this card in one of my boys' hands soon. I tell them all the time how proud I am of them and how much I love them, but sometimes having something tangible in your hands makes you feel even more special. Thanks for stopping by!

Favorite Color Distress Ink and Watercolored Card

 Today, I am part of an Instagram card hop with a few of my crafty friends. The theme for our hop today is our favorite color.

Green happens to be my favorite color, especially lime-y, peridot shades of green. For the background of this card, I chose two yellow-green Distress Inks to ink blend over a gold embossed image. At the top is Twisted Citron Distress Ink, which is blended into Crushed Olive Distress Ink on the bottom. The gold embossed image is an older background cling from Hero Arts called Leaf & Floral Background (CG405 circa 2012). The gold embossing powder is Princess Gold from Ranger Ink. Before adding my florals and sentiment, I flicked water onto the background and then added a few splatters of old pearlized paint mixed with water that I have in my stash.

I originally considered making a fully green card but then decided to add florals for interest, so I added my next favorite color, which happens to be shades of aqua & blue-greens.  Using a floral image from Altnew's Beautiful Day Stamp and Die set and additional flower and leaves images from Simon Says Stamp Delicate Flowers (SSS201900) I gold embossed and Distress ink watercolored the images. 

The flowers were first washed with Salvaged Patina Distress Ink and while still wet I brushed darker Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink into the crevices where a natural flower would be darker. Using my paintbrush and a paper towel I was able to delicately move and manipulate color to where I wanted it. I used the same technique with the leaves using Twisted Citron and Crushed Olive ink. I left more ink on the leaves because I wanted them to blend in more so that the flowers would stand out. The floral images & leaves were then splattered with Perfect Pearls Perfect Gold powder that I mixed with water. I fussy cut or die-cut the images after coloring and popped them up on the card base using foam adhesive squares. 

To complete the card I added a die cut You from the Simon Says Stamp You Are My Sunshine Die (SSSD111834) and a gold embossed sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp You stamp set (SSS101211). The pearls and sequins are from Lucy's Cards and are from her Ocean Adventure and Fresh Grass Sparkly Shaker Selections. 

 Anything that is still available for purchase I linked in the description above. If you have any questions about techniques or products, please leave a comment and I will get back to you. Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Nature Inspired Cards

 Today's cards started with The Color Throwdown #734 color inspiration.

Shades of green, brown, and cream are some of my favorites in nature and also in my creative life. I went looking for an older Hero Arts woodblock stamp as my jumping-off point for my cards this week and in the process of digging through my woodblock stamp drawer, I found a number of other woodblock stamps I love and had forgotten about. I love when I find "new" things in my stash!!

 

For my first card, I used the Hero Arts Heart Winged Butterfly woodblock stamp (F5158 circa 2009) stamped in Distress Oxide Ground Espresso Oxide and heated embossed with clear embossing powder. The inside of the butterfly was watercolored with LuminArte Twinkling H2O's in Lemongrass and Fern. The butterfly's body is a little green metal piece that I used Ultra Thick embossing powder on to give it a glossy raised finish. The brads I used are the same color. Both came from an old Making Memories metal attachment collection.  The background of this card was from a box of scrap pieces and I believe it is actually the back of a wedding invitation that I saved because I liked the subtle cream leaf design. The sentiment is stamped in Ground Espresso Distress Oxide. I matted the card on khaki-colored cardstock and added a few Crystal Stickle drops to finish it. 

This get-well card was created on a ledger background from Scenic Route papers. The gold mulberry paper was die-cut into a frame for the fern and the sentiment. The fern stamp is also an older one from Hero Arts called Silhouette Fern (K5314 circa 2010). It is stamped in Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxide ink. The sentiment is stamped in Versamark clear embossing ink and then heat embossed with Ranger Ink's Princess Gold embossing powder. 

My final card uses two older Hero Arts woodblock stamps- Three Ferns (S5154 circa 2009) and Old Letter Writing (S4878 circa 2007). I started with a scrap of watercolor cardstock & a wash/splatter of Antique Linen Distress Oxide all over it. I then stamped the Old Letter Writing in Versamark ink randomly over the background and added Princess Gold embossing powder. Before embossing I brushed away sections of the embossing powder to give the background a more weathered/antique look. The fern stamp was stamped in Rustic Wilderness and Peeled Paint Distress Oxide then sprayed with water before stamping onto watercolor cardstock, then dried with a heat gun and fussy cut. I splattered the background and the fern-stamped pieces with Gold Perfect Pearls & water.  The sentiment was embossed and edged with Princess Gold embossing powder. Both the fern piece and the sentiment were popped up with foam squares. I finished the card with sequins and clear pearls from Lucy's Cards.

All three cards use sentiments from the Simon Says Stamp Handlettered Encouragement stamp set (SSS101705). 

I love the color scheme and the natural feel of all three of these cards and I especially like that I was able to dig into my stash and use things I already had. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Spring Leaves Card

 Using this week's Color Throwdown #685 color scheme, I created an A2-sized card. 

I had a piece of leftover Neenah Desert Storm cardstock that I had cut down using Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle Dies. The piece also had a piece of fun foam that was cut to the same size that I used to pop it up.

For the leaf sprig, I stamped and embossed a leaf image from the Simon Says Stamp Be Kind stamp set. I dropped water into each of the leaves using a small paintbrush. I then smooshed Distress Ink in Rustic Wilderness & Crushed Olive onto my craft mat and misted them with water. Using the same small paintbrush I dropped Distress Ink onto the already wet leaves and let the colors move and dry completely. I then went back and added a little darker and lighter colors to the leaves with the Rustic Wilderness and Crushed Olive Inks.  I also used the remaining ink left on my craft mat to splatter onto the leaves and also added splatters of Perfect Pearls in Sunflower Sparkle to the leaves and Desert Storm cardstock. 

After all the pieces were completely dry, I fussy cut the leaf sprig and attached it to the Desert Storm piece. I stretched a piece of orange ribbon from my stash to the center of the card, attaching it to the other side. I mounted the Desert Storm piece onto a matching orange piece of cardstock & attached that piece on top of the card base. I also used the same color orange cardstock to cover the interior side of the card to cover where the pieces of the ribbon were attached. 

The sentiment is from an older Ideology/Tim Holtz sticker set. I popped it up on foam tape and then added sequins & crystals from Lucy's Cards.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Fussy Cut Flowers

 Today I played along with The Color Throwdown #684. This challenge had an interesting color combination of yellow, tan, grey, and black. I wasn't sure what I could create with these colors that spoke to my creativity, but I decided to push myself a little & just see what I could come up with. 

"When skies are grey" kept popping up into my brain as I looked at the color scheme and I knew I had an older stamp from Cocoa Daisy that said "You make me happy when skies are grey", so that phrase became my jumping-off point for this card.

The background was created using Distress Ink blending in Hickory Smoke and Speckled Egg using an extremely old cloud stencil from my stash. I stamped the sentiment in black and then splattered the entire background with Perfect Pearls & matted it on black cardstock & mounted that piece onto a Neenah Desert Storm A2 card base. 

The flowers are from a small Tim Holtz stamp set I picked up at Michaels years ago. This is a similar Tim Holtz stamp set with the same images I used.  I stamped the images in black and embossed them with clear embossing powder. The flowers were watercolored with Distress Inks in Fossilized Amber and the flower centers were watercolored with Ground Espresso and Tea Dye Distress Inks. The stems were watercolored with Walnut Stain and a little Peeled Paint distress inks. 

I then carefully fussy cut all the images, adhered the stems to the background and popped up the flower heads with foam tape. Even though fussy cutting is tedious, most of the time I prefer it to die-cutting because it does not leave a white edge around the image. My biggest tip for successfully fussy cutting images is first to be patient and go slow & most importantly to hold the scissors still and move the image. 

I finished the card with clear sequins from my stash.

I  hope you enjoy my card and that you will give fussy cutting a chance. I am always pleased with how it looks on a completed project. 

Another Non-Traditional Christmas Card Color Scheme

 I used the current Color Throwdown #664 color scheme to create another Christmas card. Love pushing myself to create without adhering to a traditional Christmas color scheme.

I got frustrated while making this one & I still see mistakes that kind of bug me, but after putting it down and walking away, I was able to come back to it and finish. Sometimes walking away for 24 hours helps. 

I had never created a card with a floating element before and I actually like how that turned out. The woodgrain background stamp is an older one that I always gravitate to when I need a woodgrain. The eucalyptus leaves & the snowflake are dies from Simon Says Stamp & the sentiment is from there as well. I do love adding sequins to most of my cards, this time it was actually a necessity to cover some splatters that actually ended up on the white background. I also added a few small pearls to help disguise some of the splatters that had run amok. 

Happy with how this one turned out and I learned a lot in the process. Definitely things I would do a little differently design-wise and time-wise, but I'm proud of myself for powering through and not scrapping the whole thing. 

Fall Card

 Made a card today that is larger than my normal A2 size. This one is 5x7 and is landscape. Years ago I bought a large Memory Box wood-mounted pumpkin stamp and matching die. I have used it for all kinds of projects. Today I used it along with The Color Throwdown #662 color scheme of purple, orange, green, and kraft to create a fall card.

I used Carved Pumpkin, Tea Dye, Crushed Olive, Dusty Concord, Victorian Velvet, Seedless Preserves, Peeled Paint, & Rustic Wilderness Distress Inks to blend and watercolor my stamped images. 

I covered a piece of scrap cardstock with pieces of old dictionary paper, inked over it, and then die cut it using the matching die. After stamping, watercoloring, and fussy cutting the images from the Simon Says Stamp Delicate Flowers stamp set, I adhered them & popped them up on top of the pumpkin. I finished the card with a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Thanks and Leaves stamp set, some splatters of Perfect Pearls Mist in Heirloom Gold, and a few iridescent sequins.

Christmas Cards 2021

I handmake around 50 Christmas cards each year with our boy's pictures on them to send out to friends and family. Besides those cards, I always end up needing additional Christmas cards to send, so I am trying to get a head start on those. Today I used Freshly Made Sketches #505 sketch to create my first Christmas card of the 2021 holiday season.

For my card, I wanted to go with a less traditional color scheme and ended up with Distress Inks in Evergreen Bough, Speckled Egg, and Iced Spruce. I used water on a large flat paintbrush to wet the entire piece of watercolor cardstock, then I brushed and dabbed each Distress Ink on using a round paintbrush. I made sure to blend the colors where they met. 

Once dry, I edged the watercolor piece with the same Distress Inks & then mounted it on a dark grey sparkly cardstock. The greeting is from a set I picked up at Michael's a few years ago. The large snowflakes were die cut from white cardstock and vellum. There are additional smaller snowflakes that were die cut from vellum as well. It felt a little flat and I wanted to add a little bit of color, so I added a little more texture with Tim Holtz Greens Mini pieces.

I finished the card with some Perfect Pearls mist, Stickles, and a few sequins.

Because I tend to reach for the more traditional reds, greens, and golds when it comes to Christmas cards, it was a lot of fun to step out of that mindset and try something different. I'm going to challenge myself to find other non-traditional color schemes and make cards with those as well.

Christmas Card

 Today, I played along with the  Color Throwdown #617. 

This color scheme felt Christmas-y, so that is what I went with, especially since I am still in need of a couple of Christmas cards. This card was a little bit of a test run for our family Christmas card minus the family photo. Still, a few things to figure out, but I'm definitely closer to my final design.

The kraft piece is embossed with a swiss dot design and the edges are embossed with gold embossing powder. I also sprinkled a little embossing powder on the piece and heated it. I like the rough gold edges and the sprinkles of gold on the base. I adhered the kraft piece flat onto a deep red card base. The green piece was created on Tim Holtz watercolor cardstock and Distress Ink blending with Twisted Citron, Shabby Shutters, and Pine Needles inks. The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamps Inside Christmas Greetings stamp set. I splattered it with Perfect Pearls and added embossing powder like I did on the kraft piece. Then, the piece was die cut and adhered with foam tape. The Eucalyptus dies were created much like the sentiment piece, except that more Pine Needles Distress Ink was used and I added Tim Holtz dry glitter with Multi-Matte Medium. I finished the card with some bakers twine from my stash.

More Embossed Watercoloring

 I decided to play along with The Color Throwdown this week. The color scheme was a good one and could definitely be a fall or Christmas scheme and I decided to go with Christmas because I need a few cards outside our annual family Christmas card. 

For my card, I used Neenah Desert Storm cardstock as my card base & I die cut the Tim Holtz Holiday Green Thinlit Die with it as well.  I used a scrap piece of cranberry cardstock as the mat for my watercolor cardstock. It wasn't quite big enough, so I used gold striped washi tape to finish the mat and add interest. I love the look of gold embossing and kraft together, which is why all of my embossing is done in gold embossing powder. The doily background stamp is from an old Cocoa Daisy kit. The cranberry watercolored images were created using Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks and the stamp I used is from the Simon Says Stamp Delicate Flowers stamp set. The pointy leaves are also from the Delicate Flowers set and were stamped and embossed onto vellum.  I used a little Antique Linen Distress Ink to add a little khaki color to them. The card was finished with a greeting from a Christmas stamp set I picked up at Michaels, then I added Perfect Pearl Splatters in Heirloom Gold and sequins and gems from my stash.

I love how this one turned out! I'd like to try this color scheme again with a Poinsettia stamp, so I guess I need to find a good one and get it ordered quickly!

Watercoloring & Embossing on Vellum

In my last post, I mentioned playing with older supplies. I enjoyed playing with my Twinkling H2O's so much that I wanted to continue using them. I am amazed at how much I have used them through the years and how much of them are still left. I'm not sure they are still be made, so I'm glad they don't get used up quickly.

I was excited this week to see Freshly Made Sketches #446. I have been intrigued by slimline cards here lately as I have begun to see more and more of them being made and shared on social media. I thought this was the perfect week to try one.

I pulled my inspiration from a decorative piece I made a few years ago that hangs on one of my inspiration boards. 

Using the same color scheme and vellum I created a slimline card with a similar feel.

Heat embossing on vellum can be really tricky. The best advice I can give is to go slow and hold the embossing gun as far back as possible from the vellum while you are embossing. That way it will reduce the warping or burning of the vellum. 

The stamped leaves came from an older Cocoa Daisy stamp set and are no longer available. They are stamped with Versamark ink & embossed with white embossing powder. My favorite white embossing powder is Hero Arts White Embossing Powder because it is a crisp, clean white. The leaves are watercolored with Twinkling H2O watercolors. Once dry, I buffed the images to remove any watercolor that bled onto the white embossing. 

The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Thanks and Leaves stamp set and is also embossed in white embossing powder.

I used foam tape behind all the bigger leaves to adhere the vellum piece to the white card base. I finished the card with a sprinkling of sequins from my stash. 

This card made me question why I don't play with the vellum in my stash more often. It was a fun card to make and makes me yearn for the cooler temperatures of fall. 

Sunshine Card

This week I spent some time playing with brighter colors that have a summery feel. One of the cards I created using the Freshly Made Sketches #436. This is such a versatile & fun sketch, that I have more cards planned using it.

Here is what I came up with:

The card also has a matching envelope design, which was created using the same Tim Holtz Rays stencil along with Distress Ink in Mustard Seed and Carved Pumpkin. The blue background patterned paper is from an older 6x6 paper pad and it is layered on top of a Neenah 80lb card base. The shaker is filled with a mix of iridescent & Simon Says Stamp Summer Gold sequins. The sentiment is from an older Simon Says Stamp set & is stamped in Archival Jet Black ink. 

I love the summery feel of this card and it will soon be headed to a close friend who always makes me feel better when I'm feeling down.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are getting a chance to feel warm, sunny days in your part of the world.  

Embossed White Backgrounds

Today's cards were made using a sketch from Freshly Made Sketches (#435)

Both of these cards were created using embossing folders to create a simple white embossed background. The embossed background adds another element to the cards without adding another color or distraction.

I created this first card using an older stamp set from Simon Says Stamp. The background is embossed using an embossing folder I picked up at Michael's a year or so ago. All the stamped images are watercolored with Distress Inks. The patterned paper pieces are remnants left over from a Simon Says Stamp Card Kit. Sequins are from my stash. I love how this one turned out with the little popsicle images as the diagonal piece.

This card is created much the same. The paper pieces are remnants from older kits or from my stash. The embossed background is from Michael's, I picked it up when I bought the ice cream embossing folder. I have a hard time passing up "summery" products. The stamped sentiment is from an older Simon Says Stamp set. The sequins & rhinestones are from my stash, I think the rhinestones are actually from Hero Arts, from their first line of rhinestones they put out ages ago.

Each card has a matching envelope.

I love digging through older stamps/supplies and using up my stash of stuff. It's a really big stash & I feel very accomplished when I use things up. 

Thanks for stopping by!

First & Second Generation Distress Inking

Today I made a couple of cards inspired by Color Throwdown #593

I stuck to a pink, yellow, and blue color scheme, but decided to use brighter colors (especially the pink) than the ones in the inspiration piece. 

This first card was created using a Crafter's Workshop stencil ink blended with Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry, and Peacock Feathers Distress Inks. I also sprayed the ink-covered stencil with Perfect Pearls pearlized water and used it as a stamp on the background. Then using an older stamp set from Simon Says Stamp, I stamped the two bikini's repeatedly across the background in black ink & coated them with Glossy Accents. The sentiment is from the same stamp set and is stamped in Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide Ink. I finished the card with sequins from Lucy's Cards. 

 The second card I created using the ink residue from the first card. I stamped the still slightly inky stencil onto watercolor cardstock and lightly inked over it using the same Distress Ink colors (residue on ink blending tools) I used on the first card. I used another older stamp set from Simon Says Stamp to create the ice cream images and the stamped sentiment. The stamped images are watercolored with Distress Inks. Sequins are from Lucy's Cards.

Both cards have matching stamped envelopes.

I enjoyed creating each of these and love how summery and fun they feel. 

Thanks for stopping by!