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. 

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!

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. 

Simple Ink Blended Valentine

I'm trying to jump back into taking the time to be creative. I just haven't had a ton of creative mojo since Christmas break, so I decided to spend some time on Saturday rearranging and reorganizing my craft space. My goal was to clean up and pull out a few supplies to use and then walk away so that I could come back on Sunday and create. My plan worked well, yesterday, I was able to finish a card and complete the tags for my 1st grader's Valentines.

I used The Color Throwdown color scheme to make a simple ink blended Valentine card for my husband.

Here is what I came up with:

I first created an ink blended strip using Chipped Sapphire, Tumbled Glass, and Tattered Rose Distress Inks, which I then covered with Perfect Pearl drops that I flicked on haphazardly with a small paintbrush. I then die cut the blended strip using an older Simon Says Stamp heart confetti die. I used the negative die cut space to help me place my pieces back together correctly on the front of the card base (I plan to create another card using the leftover negative space). On scrap watercolor paper I ink blended Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and flicked Perfect Pearls on top. I cut out the word love three times (twice using scrap white cardstock and once out of the sapphire piece) using the SSS Love Shadow Wafer Die,  then I layered them together and placed them over the hearts. I finished my card with sentiments from a SSS love stamp set that matches the die. Both are from an earlier SSS collection called: Hey Love. I also added a few sequins from my stash.

The completed card base was popped up on shimmery navy blue cardstock and then glued onto a white card base. A coordinating envelope was stamped as well. 

I am pleased with the results and that even though this is a card intended as a Valentine for my husband, it does not scream Valentine reds and pinks. It's more masculine look will definitely appeal to my husband, 

(CAS)e This Sketch #335

A new (CAS)e This Sketch is up for the week.

Here is my take:

I remembered that I had bought this Simon Says Stamp Dot Scallop die a few months ago and I knew it would work well to create the wavy lines from the sketch. I have a board on Pinterest that is specifically for color and text inspiration, so I went there to find a color scheme. 

I love, love, love the jewel tones of this color scheme and wanted to represent it in my design. I chose Distress Inks in Fired Brick, Wild Honey, Crushed Olive, Tumbled Glass, and Chipped Sapphire. I ink blended each color onto watercolor cardstock, sprayed each piece with Perfect Pearls mist, & let them dry completely before die cutting them. I used DMC embroidery floss in coordinating colors to stitch the holes of each piece. I layered them on white cardstock and added a die-cut piece on the top and bottom of the cardstock to complete the design. 

The sentiment is from an older Cocoa Daisy stamp set. Using my Misti, I stamped the "Colorful" part first using  Distress Markers, then went back and added black ink to stamp the remaining portion of the sentiment. 

I added matching sequins from my stash to finish the card.