Shadowed Birthday | ft. Distress Ink and Heat Embossing

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share a CAS birthday card featuring Distress Oxide Inks and heat embossing with some translucent embossing powder. I felt the contrast between the colours lent a striking yet delicate look to this birthday card.

As with all cards, if I were to redo it, there would be some things that I do differently, but as it stands I'm rather pleased with how the card turned out.

To begin, I cut down a piece of 110lb cardstock to just smaller than the standard A2 size, and smooshed the Worn Lipstick and Dried Marigold Distress Oxide pads directly to the paper. I used my heat tool to speed up the drying. I choose to use the Oxide inks as they are more opaque and in this technique will not blend so much as lay down on top of each other.

Once that was completely dry, I prepped the whole page with my powder tool and stamped the floral shadow image with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with some translucent teal powder by recollections. I repeated the process with the greeting from Recollections.

Generally if you use contrasting colours or complimentary colours (the teal and the orange) you will get a muddied brown. Contrasting colours look great next to each other but they aren't awesome for blending.

I was pleased to find that this didn't happen. I think that this would also be lovely in shades of green or blue with different embossed images.

I then used a piece of coordinating twine and wrapped it about the bottom of the panel and tied it off in a bow. I used foam tape to mount the panel to the front of my A2 size card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Another Super Fun Bokeh Card | ft. Lawn Fawn "Let's Bokeh" and Distress Oxide Ink

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Originally I wasn't going to post this one, because it is very similar to the card I posted recently. But I felt that it was different enough that it warranted its own post. Also I really like this one so I wanted to share it as well.

For this card, I created the Bokeh strip the same way I did for the other cards, just cut it down differently. I set that aside to dry and placed two strips of 1/8" Skor tape directly on the front of my standard A2 sized card base.

I used some silver Nuvo Gilding flakes to add some seriously shiny accent strips. I then stamped the greeting from Lawn Fawn using both the Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide ink and Memento Tuxedo Black.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Happy Wishes | ft. Simon Says Stamp "Beautiful Day"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I know I've been sporadic in my posts lately, and I apologize. I'm trying, I really am. But I've started a second job. This one is full time. So now, I'm working full time Monday to Friday as well as part time at my other job, every other weekend. So, needless to say, I'm a little tired. It's good though. The new job is very suited to who I am and the environment is fantastic. There's a lot of transit time involved, so all in all it works out to about an 11 hour day, provided I get out on time.

Anyway, today I have a birthday card featuring the Simon Says Stamp "Beautiful Day" stamp set which came with the May 2018 Card Kit.

To begin, I prepped a piece of 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock with my powder tool and heat embossed three of the smaller butterflies with detail gold embossing powder. I then coloured the images with Copic markers and fussy cut them out.

I used a piece of the pink patterned paper from Lawn Fawn's Rainbow paper pack and a narrow piece of gold glitter cardstock to create an accent strip down the left side of my standard A2 sized card base. I stamped the greeting from CTMH using Lawn Fawn's Wild Rose ink. To ensure I got a good impression I stamped it twice using the MISTI.

I then adhered my butterflies down and used a scattering of sparkling clear crystals from Studio Katia to add some embellishment and interest.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Interactive Father's Day Slider Card | ft. Lawn Fawn "Plane and Simple"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I have an interactive slider card, featuring Lawn Fawn "Plane and Simple" stamp set, along with their Slide on Over dies and a DIY stencil for the background.

I recommend watching in HD over on YouTube!

So I'm going to open with saying that this is not my favourite card. I don't hate it, and while I was making it everything was all great and wonderful. It was after, it just came out more plain (no pun intended) than I had wanted. 

That being said, it would work perfectly for the type of dad who is a simple kind of guy. The type of guy that just puts his head down and gets to work because it has to be done. My Dad was like that, he was a down to earth guy who did what needed to be done. He didn't like fanfare or fancy stuff. He was this amazing man who put everyone else before himself because that's just who he was, and I miss him so much.

Check out the video above to see how this card was made. I'll go through the creation process and you'll be able see how the slider is put together, the Copic markers I chose as well as how I finished off the inside of the card.

I hope you like today's card (and video) and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below. To see how I created the cloud stencils, please click here.

Floral Birthday | ft Simon Says Stamp "Flower Explosion"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I want to share a card using the Simon Says Stamp "Flower Explosion" stamp. This stamp is a huge 6x6 cling that came in the 2018 Mother's Day Card kit, and if you watched my unboxing video, you'll know that I had some pretty specific plans for this stamp.

To begin, I prepped a piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock with my powder tool and stamped the giant cling stamp with VersaMark ink, then heat embossed with white detail embossing powder.

Once that had cooled, I used the Tombow Dual Brush markers to add a bit of colour to the area where I wanted it the darkest and used a water-brush to pull the pigment out into the rest of the space. I wanted this background to be very soft, but still have a lot of pop and the Tombow markers did not fail me.

While the background was drying, I used a scalloped circle die from Spellbinders to cut a piece of vellum down, I then prepped that with my powder tool and heat embossed this greeting from Clearly Besotted in gold embossing powder.

I adhered my background to the front of a standard A2 sized card base using Skor tape. There is some warping that happens with heat embossing and adding water and I wanted to make sure the panel wouldn't lift. To adhere my vellum down, I used Ranger's Multi Media Matte behind the lettering and in a couple places where I knew I would be adding some crystals to hide the liquid glue.

To finish off the card, I used the same liquid glue to add a scattering of the iridescent crystals by Studio Katia. I could have used coordinating crystals, but I just love how these ones pick up the colour of what is under them.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Leafy Birthday | Ft. Lawn Fawn "Stitched Leaves Dies"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

My super awesome Aunt asked me to make some masculine birthday cards, and today I'm going to share one with you featuring Lawn Fawn's "Stitched Leaves Dies". These leaves are fantastic for both positive and negative space use, and I have several cards that use them both ways. Today I'm going to be using the positive portion of the die cut (so the piece you actually cut out).

To begin, I created my top fold A2 sized card base from a piece of 65lb Kraft cardstock from Recollections. This was originally intended to stand upright, but I decided on a greeting that worked better this way. Just gotta roll with it.

I then used the Stitched Leaves dies to cut these leaves and used Distress Ink to give them some fall colours.

For the accent strip I cut a piece of dark brown cardstock to just under an inch wide and adhered 9 lengths of neutral bakers twine with a piece of 1/2" Skor Tape. I then adhered down the leaves using Nuvo Deluxe Liquid glue - which has become one of my most reached for liquid adhesives. It's so fantastic and I don't have to worry that things are going to wiggle loose.

I stamped the greeting using CTMH Cocoa ink - I did this in the MISTI so I could stamp it twice to get a really good impression.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

For the Boys

Super Fun Bokeh Birthday | ft. Lawn Fawn "Let's Bokeh"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day!

Today I'm showing you two cards, created with Lawn Fawn's "Let's Bokeh" stamp set and some Distress Oxide ink. The Mermaid Lagoon and Squeezed Lemonade are my absolute favourite summer colours; they're so bright and happy and when they come together, they make the prettiest green ever.

I recommend watching in HD on YouTube!

Check out the video above to see how these cards came together, and the one little thing I would do differently if (*when) I make them again.

The crystals from Pretty Pink Posh coordinated so perfectly with the Distress Inks. I'm not gonna lie; I was pretty please with myself over this. 

I hope you like the cards (and video) for today and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Simon Says Stamp 2018 Mother's Day Card Kit

Hello everyone! Thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I have the unboxing video of the Simon Says Stamp 2018 Mother's Day Card Kit! Let me tell you guys, I am so excited for this! There are so many awesome things going on in this kit, I can't even wait to get crafty!

I recommend watching in HD over on YouTube!

Check out the video to see all the pretty things that came in this kit. The colours they picked for this year's kit are AH-MAZING!!!

*note, I mention in the video that I had to email SSS about this, but it wasn't this kit. It was an order I placed before placing this order LOL, and the wonderful people over at Simon Says let me know that the order I was inquiring about had shipped that day. So we'll be seeing that one soon!

I hope you like today's video and are inspired to get crafty. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Using Up the Scraps | ft. Lawn Fawn and My Favorite Things

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I have one final card for this installment of "Using Up the Scraps". The dish on my desk is finally down to a very respectable level, though I'm sure it will fill up fast enough again soon. LOL.

Between getting called in for work and doing the yearly municipal census, I just feel like I have no time to get crafty; on one hand that's great, I'm loving the extra hours. On the other hand, not so much. I miss being in the craft room and having all the creative juices flowing. But I've just been so tired!

All the images are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, then coloured with Copic markers.

I used my last little panda from MFT "Beary Special Birthday" as well as two of the bears from Lawn Fawn's "For You, Deer" set. I think I was originally planning to make bookmarks for my kids, but that didn't happen.

I adhered the black frame from MFT's "Die-namics Blueprints #27" to the front of my standard A2 sized card base, then tucked to two smaller bears in the upper windows. I stamped the greeting with Memento Ink in the larger window, directly on to the front of the card base.

The big panda I popped up with some foam tape, to give the card a bit of dimension. Finally, to finish it off, I used Glossy Accents by Ranger over the icing, because every card needs a bit of shine.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.