Sweet Suprise Birthday

I’m thrilled to join the Skipping Stones DT today for our monthly Stamp and Share Challenge! Make sure to visit the SSD Blog to see what the rest of the team created and share your cards at the link up.

We’re doing an “Anything Goes” challenge so anything you create is welcome and we’d love to see your cards and projects! 

For my card today I pulled out the Birthday Donuts stamp set. I have been obsessed with my new Zig watercolor markers so of course I had to use them to color this sweet birthday card.

I started off by stamping the donut in black Momento Ink onto watercolor paper, and colored in the donut and sprinkles along with adding gray shadow underneath with the watercolor markers. The sentiment was stamped in Coastal Cabana ink and the watercolor paper was mounted onto a Coastal Cabana cardstock base.

I added Dazzling Details (like Stickles) to the top of the donut for added texture, shine and fun. Glittery donuts are the best - right?! ;) I topped off the card with Coastal Cabana twine for a sweet and simple card.

Come join us for fun and show us your “Anything Goes” cards on the SSD Blog!

 

Heart Song Butterfly

Over the weekend I was able to spend several hours in my crafty studio and one of the cards I made was inspired by a few challenges.

I love Heart Song and the butterfly images in the set are so fun to play with!

I embossed the butterfly with black embossing power and tried a new to me techinque. Yes, it’s one that has been around for awhile but I finally gave it a go and will now be playing with this technique quite a bit I’m sure! Still loving my new Zig watercolor markers and used a clear acetate sheet to smoosh the colors onto a sheet of watercolor paper. I scribbled four colors on the clear sheet, spritzed it with water, and then smooshed onto the watercolor paper. 

Once the watercolor was dry I stamped the sentiment and added a few sequins. The panel was then mounted to a Basic Gray card base. Such a simple card but I love soft and subtle watercolor. Kinda soothing!

 

Linking up to the following challenges!

MFT Color Challenge

CAS(E) this Sketch 

Friday Mashup (music inspiration)

CASology (CLEAR acetate sheet to create background)

You & Me

You & Me

Such a simple phrase on a card that evokes one of my favorite songs. Did you ever watch The 4400? This song was in the episode where Tom meets  Alana and they romantically fall in love thanks to her ability to create an alternate reality in which they were together for 8 years in the span of a few minutes and the moment they leave the alternate reality Tom rushes to find her and they dramatically kiss at the end when they are reunited…after less than 10 minutes with not knowing each other previously. Yes, I’m a Sci-Fi geek and a romantic at heart.  So naturally, anytime I hear this song I think of that episode. Of course. ;)

 

Anyway, onto my card. My husband would be rolling his eyes at The 4400 reference but I think he could appreciate a super sweet and simple Valentine’s card. I watercolored the pink background with my Zig watercolor markers, and then heat embossed the two stamps in gold from So Much Love (MFT). Thanks to my MISTI it was super easy to line them up and get pretty accurate placement. (And thanks to my friend Susan for letting me use this when we were crafting last Saturday!)

I mounted the watercolored and embossed panel onto a Pool Party cardstock base and love the contrast of colors here. Very simple but super fun and easy.

I’m linking up to the Paper Players Clean and Simple Valentine’s Challenge.

So, do you have any cheesy rememberances for songs in movies or tv shows like I do?! ;)

You’re Hot

After what felt like a creative dry spell, I was super inspired after spending time with my friends Beth and Susan making cards all day long this past Saturday.

We crafted, drank a lot of Cosmos, made lots of new memories and laughed for hours upon end. It was basically the best recharge for my creative batteries and I have several new cards to share! 

To start off, one of my favorite cards began with wanting to use my new ink blending tool and distress inks, and the circle grid stencil from MFT (thanks Susan and Beth for sharing all your supplies!).  I made the background for practice and fun and set it aside. Later on in the night I made the tag (because hello cute and sassy sentiment that I HAD to use) and then saw the two together in my work area and it clicked that they were MFEO = Made For Each Other! ;)

I’m still getting the hang of the blending tool but used Berry Sorbet (PTI) and Ripe Raspberry (MFT) inks along with the Picked Raspberry (Tim Holtz) Distress Ink to create an ombre background with the circle stencil. The panel was then layered onto a Real Red card base and the tag was made with a Ripe Raspberry sentiment and coffee cup watercolored with my (also new) Zig Clean Color watercolor markers and then die cut. A little ribbon treatment finished off the tag before being popped up on dimensionals onto the card base. 

I seriously may need to get the All Heart (MFT) stamp set because the images and sentiments are ridiculously cute and full of puns.

I’m linking this up to the Simon Says Stamps Ombre challenge for the ombre background.

I’ll share more of my completed projects including my absolute favorite card soon! Let’s just say it has a little ink blending and a little bit of Game of Thrones reference, which I’m entirely too obsessed over for my own good. ;)

SSD Tip/Technique Hop

Hello and Happy Saturday!

I’m so excited to be back with the Skipping Stones Design DT and can’t wait to share my first post with you for the January Tip/Technique Hop!

I received several amazing crafty products for Christmas (thanks Mom and Dad!) and I couldn’t wait to use my new Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens for my card today. Actually make that cards plural as that’s part of my tip for you!

Often when I’m making scrapbook pages for my kiddos scrapbooks, I make two of the same page for each child sometimes only changing colors or small details. Taking that idea I wanted to use the same card layout with slight variations to create two cards from one concept in one sitting. (My second tip/technique is below  my second card.)

With all your supplies out it’s super easy to generate another card but have it look completely different!

My first card is a softer look at Funny Coffee Vol #1 and making the cup into more of a tea cup with the Get Well Soon sentiment from Heart Song 2.

I started with a Calypso Coral card base and layered on a piece of patterned paper that was notched in the corners and then layered on a doily.

The tea/coffee cup was heat embossed in gold embossing power onto watercolor paper and then colored with the Light Carmine watercolor marker. I’m still a beginner with my new markers, but love how fun they are to play with! Still practicing and learning but having fun along the way!

I wanted to show this angle for the gorgeous gold embossing – look at that shine and a close up below!

The cup panel was adhered with dimensionals for a lift off the card front, and the sentiment was stamped, cut and layered over the main image also with dimensionals. A few gold sequins were added for accent.

Now that I had my first card done I switched gears copying the same layout and mapped out my variations.

I still used Funny Coffee but pulled out the coffee to-go cup and the Thank You sentiment from Heart Song 2.

Keeping  with the same layout, I used Real Red cardstock, a patterned paper piece and doily for the base. And yes, I totally played on the Starbucks Red Cup Controversy, but thought this was fun to use as a holiday thank you with a Starbucks gift card tucked inside. ;)

The image had the same treatment – heat embossed on watercolor paper and then colored in with the Geranium Red marker, and sentiment and sequins were mimicked from the first card with one change of cutting off the edge of the doily.

One more fun tip I have for you today is to pull out your old crimper! Didn’t we all have those back in the day?!

I stamped the cup onto Crumb Cake cardstock, cut out around the sleeve and ran the piece through my crimper. I then went back to cut around closer to the edges and secured the finished piece to the colored image with a dimensional giving it a boost to add to the texture and dimension of the cup.

Be sure to visit everyone along the hop and leave some love as there could be a stamp set or store prize for a lucky winner! Check out the SSD Stamp Store to make your wish list!

The order of the hop:

The Skipping Stones Design Blog

Coralynn

Ilina

Jen

Kandi

Larissa (Head here next!)

Martha Lucia

Stephanie

Tanja

Teresa

 

I’m playing along with the following challenges!

Simon Says - Something New (new markers)

The Card Concept #46 - Warm Heart (coffee cup and color inspo on Thank You card – Clean and Layered Style)