Feel Beautiful Today

Hey there, thanks for coming!

I have been practicing my water coloring these days. I struggle, but I love it, so I keep pressing on. I tend to wanna control things and you can't with water. Well, maybe a little, but not much! I used my Colorburst powders to paint this. VERY potent stuff, lol. I put them into empty watercolor pots, like the old "paint by number" we used to get as kids. Then just enough water to make it a liquid.

I stamped and embossed with white embossing powder. This makes it easier for me, as the embossing holds the water in its own section. I add clean water to the image, drop in some of the color, and use another clean brush to pull it out. I did the entire image this way. Then I went back and did it again, using more color and less water, to get it more intense towards the petal centers. I kept at it till I was happy with how it looked. I let them dry thoroughly and then cut out with coordinating dies. 

I used a full cover die plate from my stash but instead of cutting it, I dry embossed it. I applied the entire piece to the front of an A2 sized card base. I then laid out where I wanted the flowers to be. I used foam tape under the flowers to adhere. I tucked in the leaves and added the same way.

I grabbed to different Martha Stewart butterfly punches I have and punched them from gold foil cardstock. I curled the wings a tiny bit and added tiny pearls to the bodies. Used strong liquid adhesive to glue down.

I stamped the sentiment using Juicy ink from Ink On 3 and embossed with Raven embossing powder from Brutus Monroe. I backed it with the same gold foil cardstock and mounted in place.

Finally, I added only three little black crystals from Studio Katia.

I am really happy with how this one turned out! The white embossing powder really pops with the bright orange! And the green leaves, the same. And the tiny bits of black crystals and the sentiment really stand out nicely. 

Here's the products I used on this card.

Peony Bouquet Stamp and Die Set

(Altenew)

Onyx Crystals

(Studio Katia)

Raven Embossing Powder

(Brutus Monroe)

Colorburst

Canson Watercolor Paper

Butterfly Punch

Butterfly Punch

I'm sure you can find these punches other places or just use what you may already have. It doesn't have to be these. I'm just linking to what I used. I got mine at Michael's. Not sure if they are still available or not. 

Hope you got some inspiration today. Have fun crafting!

Heartfelt Hello

Thanks for stopping by! 

Playing with some new Altenew products today. I love the new mega word dies! Huge!!! Lol, but it's fun to be able to use something this big and not have to think a lot about what to do. Makes for some quick card making.

So...I have two pads of super fun glitter paper. The kind where the glitter doesn't come off at all! Almost like it's in some sort of a plastic coating or something. I'm sure you've see it, it's everywhere now. I think I got mine at Hobby Lobby. One pad is all silver, blacks, and golds. Gorgeous! The other pad is super bright jewel tones. And fun patterns, I might add.

 I picked out a stripe of silver and light gray. A nice basic pattern for the background. I cut it with a stitched rectangle die. Then I chose another pattern in much darker gray and a bolder print. I cut the mega hello from both pieces. Remove the word from each. Then I took the stripe piece and glued to the front of an A2 card base. I nestled the die cut into the striped piece. Fits in like a puzzle!

I then stamped the sub sentiment onto dark gray cardstock and embossed with silver embossing powder. I added a piece of foam tape on the right edge and glued the left edge right down on the card front. It needed a pop of color, so I went through my crystals...I'm addicted to these...and chose a bright torquoise color and glued them down. 

Here's a list of the products I used.

Altenew

Mega Greetings Stamp Set

Mega Hello Die

Dienamic Stitched Sentiment Strip Dies 

(MFT)

Ocean Wave Crystals Mix

(Studio Katia)

Check out these suppliers for great products, or pull out what you already have.

Find some time in your crafty place and create something!

Happy Crafting

Hip Hip Hooray...

Hi guys!
I have another card using products for the newest InkOn3 release, April 2018. Two super cute and fun stamp sets and coordinating dies for each! Yay for dies!!! And...they are cut apart for you and come on a magnetic sheet. How great is that?

So, for today, I used the Platy-rific Pondies stamp set and the alpha dies from the past release. Let's see what I came up with.

So, here's the thing...I have two grand babies graduating from K this year!!! How can this be happening already? Time goes so fast! Anyway, I did this one for Aleida. I die cut the letters and colored them with bright pink Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. As I did with the duck and the balloons. I brushed over them with my glitter brush from Nuvo. So sparkly and pretty!

I started by taking the small images in the stamp set, arranged them on an acrylic block and stamped them using Juicy ink. I embossed with white embossing powder. I did this until I filled the entire background piece. It's an A2 size card.

I pulled out some dies from Spellbinders and layered a piece of white over the bright pink scalloped circle. I then set about to arrange the duck and the balloons. I used foam tape to adhere. I taped some twine to the backs of the balloons first and tie a bow to group them together, added a dot of liquid glue to hold in place.

I cut a tiny slit under the ducks wing to tuck in the diploma. Added the cap with foam tape as well. 

I then took all the die cut letters and arranged around the circle and glued down with liquid glue. 

Picked out some pretty pink crystals and glued them around two sides. Pulled out a white gel pen and added a few dots here and there. And that finished up this card. 

I hope you like it and got some inspiration! Head over to InkOn3.com and check out this release and all the other cool things in the store.

InkOn3

Platy-rific Pondies

Juicy Ink

Phat Alphanumeric Dies

Bundle 

(as of April 2018)

Thanks for coming by. Get to crafting and make something pretty!

Critter Pile Up

Hi Crafters!

I have a card for you today using one of the new stamp sets and a couple of older ones. Hang with me, this could be a bit lengthy but I need to explain the process.

If you've never done and stamp masking, you can learn something new here. I love the look but I hate cutting masks, so I don't do it much. However, I have a Brother Scan n Cut machine and use it all the time to cut my stamped images. But it would always tear up my masking paper. I had to find a better way. So I did! I buy the full sticky back PostIt Notes. I pulled off two, stamped my images on them, and then stuck them onto heavy weight cardstock. A scrap big enough would be fine. I then put that onto the cutting mat. Scanned them and cut with my machine. It worked perfect! Cut through the two PostIt Notes but not the heavy cardstock. It just scored into it a bit. This way you have two of each, ready to use. And you could pull off three, maybe, and it still cut through all. Or you'd have to adjust blade depth. With two and the cardstock, I didn't have to adjust my settings at all.

Here's the stamp sets I used.

Now, when stamping and masking images, you need to stamp what you want in front, first! Apply your mask, and stamp the next. And so forth. You'll understand better from seeing my photo as I explain.

So, I started at the top and worked down. I stamped the baby bear first, applied the mask, and aligned the beaver so the top of his head barely went over the image above. But just a little bit! And stamped it, then applied his mask, and aligned the baby seal and penguin, and stamped. Didn't stamp over them, so no mask needed. Apply the mask to the beaver and line up the larger bear just barely over the bottom of the beaver, and stamp. Apply the mask to the bear, align the duck, and stamp. 

Before removing any masks, stamp the bits of grass.

The moment of truth....pull off your masks and see what you have! It's the best part!!! Now, I did have a couple with not such great placement. But it is so worth it to stamp again until you get the look you want. The payoff is huge! I love it, so fun!!!

If you search YouTube for masking stamped images, you'll find many tutorials. It's not difficult, you just need to understand the process of stamping front to back and masking to get the look of an image in front of another.

I stamped a couple heart balloons and used a straight edge to draw in the strings to the ducks wing. 

I pulled out my Prismacolor colored pencils and colored in the critters. I used Gamsol, odorless mineral spirits, and blending stumps to blend out the pencil. To add a bit of "texture" to the animals, I pulled a couple alcohol markers and made tiny dots on the darker areas of the coloring. I like the interest it adds. 

I also added a bit of white gel pen dots for a cuteness factor and brushed on some glitter brush over the balloons and the bow tie. I got out my google eyes and picked sizes that looked best and stuck down. Who doesn't love google eyes?!?!?!

I stamped the sentiment and trimmed it out. I rubbed some brown ink over the edges and used a tiny bit of foam tape, positioned in place, and stuck down. It didn't show up good enough until I rubbed the edges with the brown ink since it is the same craft paper. I used Neenah Desert Storm. 

Beautiful Day...

Hey guys,
 it's time for the new release from InkOn3! So excited about these sets. One is brand new and one is a remake and now has coordinating dies! Actually, they both have dies. How exciting is that! And...no more cutting them apart!!! And...they come on a magnetic sheet. It's the best of everything, right?

So, let's get to the card I made for today. 

This pansy stamp set has always been one of my favorites! So many images to color and play with and I adore the sentiments and the fonts Fleurette used. I love it! So, let's see how I used them.

I started out by stamping with Juicy ink and embossing with platinum embossing powder. I then picked out some Distress Inks and watercolored in all the flowers and the leaves. I then cut them out using the dies. 

I had a die from Simon Says Stamp that cuts this beautiful frame of stems and leaves. I used a pale violet paper from a Lawn Fawn pad. It matched the flowers perfectly! I then chose a soft blue from the same pad for the sky background. I attached it with fun foam to the front of an A2 size card base. 

I then set about to arrange the flowers into and onto the front. Some with liquid glue and some on foam squares. I stamped and embossed the sentiment using the same power and positioned on on the card front. I went through my stash of bling and found a nice purple-ish color that looked nice with the flowers. I believe these are from Studio Katia. 

I hope you like this card and got a bit of inspiration today. Head over to InkOn3.com and check out this release and all the other great stuff! And be sure to follow on Instagram and Facebook to see more things from the design team. 

InkOn3

Juicy Ink

Pansies Stamp Set

Platy-rific Pondies Stamp Set

Bundle Price 

( as of April 14, 2018)

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Get out your craft supplies and make something pretty!

Happy crafting!