World Card Making Day 2019

Happy World Card Marking Day 2019! Here is a round-up of the cards I made to celebrate the creative day...

I created this card for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, Think Pink. I heat embossed the floral image (SSS Sketched Flowers) in black onto watercolor paper. I then painted the image using a variety of Distress Inks in shades of pinks and reds. I also used my Peerless Watercolors for the brighter pinks and greens. Next I chopped the image in half and stamped the sentiment in the middle (SSS Stained Glass Love).

Supplies for this card:

SSS Stained Glass Love

SSS Sketched Flowers

Strathmore Watercolor Paper

Hero Arts Black Sparkle Embossing Powder

Heat Gun

Water Brush

Distress Inks: Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar, Tattered Rose, Abandoned Coral, Tumbled Glass

Peerless Watercolors

Wink of Stella Glitter Brush Clear

Versafine Onyx Black ink pad

Versamark Watermark ink pad

I created this thank you card for the Scrapbook and Cards Today Rainbow challenge. First I die cut the 'thanks' from white card stock, then neatly arranged all of the letters lined up perfectly using my MISTI tool. Using the MISTI allowed me to double/triple stamp the letters so I got the bold color I wanted. Next I cut strips of white papers and colored the strips with the same ink pad I used to stamp the letters. This keeps consistency in colors and is also much quicker than coloring with markers!

Supplies for Rainbow Thanks card:

Concord and 9th "Big Thanks Stamp"

Concord and 9th "Big Thanks Die"

MISTI Stamping Tool

Sizzix Big Shot Die Cutting Machine

Hero Arts Inks: Pale Tomato, Orange Soda, Butter Bar, Lime Green, Mint Julep

Simon Says Stamp Inks: Audrey Blue, Hot Mama

Black Cardstock

White Cardstock - Neenah Solar White

This Christmas card came together in 15 minutes! I am entering it in a few challenges: Simon Says Stamp IG Challenge: Favorite Technique, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Christmas, and Scrapbook and Cards Today: Clean and Simple Challenge.

I haven't made a clean and simple card in way too long, and it used to be my go-to card making style. First I die cut the postage stamp square to give my images a base. Then I heat embossed 'o Christmas tree' in gold embossing powder. Next, I stamped the three trees using a mix of colored ink pads. Done!

Supplies for O Christmas Tree:

Concord and 9th "O Christmas Tree"

Neenah Solar White Cardstock

My Favorite Things Stitched Pinking Edge Square

Hero Arts Gold Embossing Powder

Versamark Watermark ink pad

Heat Gun

Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine

Hero Arts Ink: Green Hills, Field Greens, Charcoal, Lime Green, Butter Bar

Finally, I have a winter card using some sweet stamps by Unity Stamp Co. I've had these stamps for months and just finally got around to inking them up. The main images are colored with a variety of Copic Markers, then I fussy-cut the boy and girl to add to a tag. Since all of the detail is in the images, I kept the rest of the card very simple.

Supplies for Merry and Bright:

Unity Stamp Co "Winter Boy and Girl"

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Distress Ink Tumbled Glass

MISTI Stamping Tool

Cutter Bee Detail Scissors

Wink of Stella glitter pen Clear

Copic Markers (I've clustered the families of Copics used): 

BG10, BG11, BG23, BG13, BG18

B34, B45, B39

V01, V12, V15, V17

E57, E47, E79

E42, E43, E44

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you had a creative World Card Making Day weekend as well!

Autumn Card Sets

Happy autumn! I am so happy to have snagged some of these gorgeous stamps and dies from The Greetery. I created a set of 4 autumn themed cards using three different stamp sets: Budding Beauties, Bottled Up, and Bountiful Wreath.

It's important with these beautiful layering stamps to use a stamping tool to help you position everything perfectly. I LOVE using my MISTI and can't imagine stamping without it!

All of these stamp sets require a lot of layer building, so they aren't exactly what you'd call "quick and easy" cards. However, the impact of the final stamp is gorgeous and definitely worthwhile! 

This first card uses brighter bottles with more traditionally colored autumn flowers. All of these images use a large variety of Hero Arts Shadow Inks, which in my opinion are simply the best inks for layering images! 

Pink bottle and berries stamped using Hero Arts inks in pink.

Yellow bottle and yellow berries stamped using Hero Arts inks in yellow.

Leaves stamped using Hero Arts inks in greens.

All images die cut using my Sizzix Big Shot machine

All images stamped using my MISTI... the MISTI is a must-have when stamping layered images!

This card incorporates some simple watercoloring in the background. I also used an old brick patterned embossing folder to add details. For the watercolor I used a mix of Distress Ink in Wild Honey and Spiced Marmalade. 

I really love how the bright green bottle pops against the black cardstock, so I kept the background very simple. I splattered Color Shine White in the background, then grounded the bottle by swiping my Liquitex White paint pen on the bottom. The berries on these flowers use Hero Arts Ink in light blues and purples.

Saving my favorite for last! I really love the blue tones and the simple background.

Thanks for stopping by and have a beautiful autumn season!

You'll Float Too

We all know about the amazing things that come along with the autumn season... crisp air, perfect weather, falling leaves, boot and scarf season, my birthday, pumpkin spice (if you're into that)... but to me the autumn season means NEW SCARY MOVIES! I recently saw "It: Chapter Two" and it goes without saying it was as creepy and nightmare inducing as the first chapter, and of course as the original. 

When you see a movie like "It" it consumes your mind. It consumed me when I watched it in my grandmother's TV den in rural Iowa in 1990 (why she let me watch it, I still don't know), haunted my childhood, and now I'm lucky enough to be haunted by the remake.

"They all float down here. When you're here with us, you'll float too!" - Pennywise

So of course I had to make an "It" themed Halloween card.

I even gave the owl Deadlights in his eyes. Poor sweet owl soul. He'll be haunted forever. Or at least another 27 years 😉

I was encouraged to make this card for the brand new Hello Bluebird instagram challenge. The theme was "spooky night" and the only rule is that you can only use Hello Bluebird stamps/dies.

The stamps used are Hello Bluebird "Fall Friends" and "Moose and Friends". I also used the matching dies, which I cut with my Sizzix Big Shot. All of the stamped images were colored with Copic Markers, especially in the E, YR, an R color sets.

The background of the sky was created with Distress Inks Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, Worn Lipstick, and Dusty Concord which I blended with an ink blending tool. The ground was colored with Distress Inks Scattered Straw, Frayed Burlap, and Brushed Corduroy. I tried to recreate the vibe of Deadlights by splattering water on top of the Distress Inks.

The sentiment was created with stickers I found in the Target One Spot about three years ago. Yay for hoarding craft supplies and yay for Target!

Welcome Baby Card

It's spring which means it's baby season! There are a lot of new adorable babies being born where I work, so it's important to stock up on those baby cards.

My favorite (and really, the only) stamp set I use for baby cards is "New Family" by Mama Elephant. The images and sentiments are so sweet and also very easy to color and cut. I thought a baby bunny would only be fitting for a baby born near Easter 😄

I did a quick color with Copic Markers. The bunnies are colored with Warm Grey (W) and I used the lightest pink shades (RV) for the blocks and rattle. I added clear Wink of Stella glitter to anything colored pink to give it a touch of shimmer.

The patterned papers are from a wonderful DCWV paper stack called "Little Miss". I've had it for many years but still go back to it again and again... it's a perfect stack for baby mini albums and scrapbook pages! With the yellow paper I die cut the rectangle using My Favorite Things "Pierced Rectangle Frames" and the green paper is die cut with Lawn Fawn "Hillside Borders".

Lastly, I added the very simple cloud stenciling using Simon Says Stamp "Clouds for Days" stencil with Distress Ink "Tumbled Glass" and a very light hand!

I'll be entering this card into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Spring Mood Board". Thanks for the inspiration!

MATERIALS:

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Mama Elephant - New Family

DCWV - Little Miss

My Favorite Things - Stitched Rectangle Frame

Lawn Fawn - Hillside Border Die

Simon Says Stamp - Clouds for Days stencil

Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass

Copic Markers - Warm Greys, Light Pinks

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Versafine Black Onyx ink

EK Success Cutter Bee detail scissors

Tombow Mono Multi Glue

Sizzix Big Shot

Neenah Solar White cardstock

Wink of Stella - clear

She is not fragile like a flower

Working with the most basic colors has proven to be a challenge for me. I'm pushing myself to explore black and white in paint and I'm loving the outcome, even with a very basic page. I hope to begin incorporating a lot more texture on my monochrome pages, but I know that will take time and practice as well.

I actually created this spread over a month ago but forgot about it! At least I already pictures taken on my phone :)

I used a variety of black, white, and grey acrylic paints. I didn't allow drying time between the colors so the paints would mix more easily. I also incorporated a lot of water to mix the darkest colors together.

Black paint: Golden Carbon Black Acrylics

White Paint: Liquitex Basics, Golden Titanium White, Dina Wakley Buff

Grey Paint: Dina Wakley Elephant, Distress Paint Hickory Smoke

She is not fragile like a flower...

I stamped a Unity number stamp (Stenciled and Reconstructed) using white paint and also dabbed white paint through a simple grate stencil.

... She is fragile like a bomb.

I added some paint splatters with Dina Wakley Turquoise paint... I only did this because some very old turquoise paint rubbed off from the stencil and hey, I went with it.

Springtime Cheers!

Fluttering by to say... CHEERS!

I played along with the Lawnfawnatics "Fun with Food" challenge to create a fun spring coffee-themed card...

The challenge for me was my serious lack of food-related Lawn Fawn stamps! So I got creative and used two of the tiny coffee stamps from a Christmas set called Holiday Helpers. By using the coffee mugs to stamp the background, they easily become part of the main story of the card. 

How cute are these animals from the new Butterfly Kisses set?! I colored all of the images with Copic markers and fussy cut them with my detail Cutter Bee scissors. Once the coloring was finished, the rest of the card came together fairly quickly. 

I just love the idea of a happy little bear and bunny sharing a cup of cocoa on a spring day! Maybe the butterflies will find some coffee, too :)

MATERIALS:

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Lawn Fawn - Butterfly Kisses

Lawn Fawn - Holiday Helpers

Lawn Fawn Grassy Border Die

Nested Circle Dies

Copic Markers

Hero Arts Soft Brown Shadow Ink

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Versafine Onyx Black Ink

Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Cutter Beer scissors

Sizzix Big Shot Machine

To the Point - Tips and Tricks +10 Card Ideas

Every now and then a stamp comes along that I just can't say no to... and then once I receive it I just can't put it down! For 3 straight days I worked exclusively with the new Concord and 9th "To the Point" turnabout stamp set, along with the coordinating cactus die. I'm excited to share my favorite 10 cards today using this cool stamp!

This is a stamp set that takes time to use. Each background probably took me about 30 minutes. The turnabout stamp is set up in a way where you use two different colors per stamping (one color for the pots, one color for the cacti) each time you turn. Turning the stamp 4 times total means I used 8 different ink colors for each background! The result is definitely worth it, and it's also a fun way to play around with different ink combinations to achieve a unique look every time.

The "To the Point Dies" are worth getting even without the stamp set. The cactus and the "howdy" sentiment can stand out completely on their own. In the card above, I paired the cactus die with just a strip of the background stamp.

I mixed and matched some sentiments from older stamp sets, too. Here I use a "thanks so much" stamp from Simon Says Stamp "Beautiful Flowers" set. I always get requests for thank you cards, so changing the sentiment worked better for me.  

Adding dimension to the die cut is easy and adds a big impact! I just inked the edges of each piece with a similar Distress Ink color. For example, I inked the teal pot die cut with Distress Ink "Peacock Feathers" and inked the cactus with Distress Ink "Peeled Paint". 

I think the most important tool when using this stamp set is the type of inks you use. All of these cards use a combination of Hero Arts Shadow Inks and Simon Says Stamp Hybrid Inks, which both have very similar properties and inking results. I had to stamp each image 2-3 times to achieve the coverage I wanted, but I always ended up with a crisp looking image with defined edges. Also important! When using these inks you MUST thoroughly clean the stamp in between every single color! Each time I changed colors I cleaned the entire stamp with Ranger Ink Cleaner and a damp Stamp Shammy. This is partially why each background took me about 30 minutes... if you don't clean the stamp between colors then your inks will contaminate and give you a less than desirable outcome in your stamped image.

Stamping result with Hero Arts Shadow Ink and SSS Hybrid Ink

It may be tempting to use all those gorgeous Distress Inks for your stamping here, but the end result is blurry and sloppy. I highly recommend using your shadow inks or hybrid inks. Below is the result using Distress Inks...

Stamping result with Distress Inks... I threw this card in the garbage

Don't get me wrong... I LOVE my Distress Inks and have two full drawers of them, but this is just not the time for those babies :)

You'll also notice I used a lot of vellum on these cards. Vellum is the perfect bridge between your sentiment or center piece without completely covering that gorgeous background.

I think that's enough tips for now! So here are some more card ideas (and close ups) I created using this "To the Point" stamp set...

Thanks for joining me! I hope some of these tips were useful for you. Have fun with this gorgeous cactus themed stamp! And of course I want you to know that some links posted are affiliate links, which help keep my blog and youtube channel running. Nothing in this post was sponsored and I paid for every one of these products with my own money.

If you know one thing about me... it's that I love me a good cactus!

Main Materials Used:

Concord and 9th "To the Point" Stamp

Concord and 9th "To the Point" Dies

Sizzix Big Shot Die Cutter

MISTI Platform Stamping Tool

Hero Arts Shadow Ink (variety of colors)

Simon Says Stamp Hybrid Ink (variety of colors)

Neenah Solar White Cardstock

Ranger Stamp Cleaner

Lawn Fawn Stamp Shammy

Tombow Mono tape adhesive

Tombow Mono Multi Glue

Fiskars Rotary Paper Trimmer

Vellum Paper