Bird In My Journal - Birthday Card

Hello my crafty friends!

I am back with a couple of birthday cards to share with you 

using a beautiful stamp from Carabelle Studio.

~~Here are the 2 completed cards~~

I used a pretty simple watercolor background for my stamp. 

Some Yellow Gold Liquid Metal (Ken Oliver) was added for a bit of shimmer.

I masked the oval on one of the cards when stamping the bird image (above) except

 for the tail portion.

These were pretty simple and fast cards to make. In total it took 30 minutes to complete both.

Products use:
(I use affiliate links that earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support)

Carabelle Studio:
Un Oiseau Sur Mon Journal

World Cardmaking Day 2017

Hello and welcome to my blog!

Today is World Cardmaking Day and I decided to participate.

I recently purchased this beautiful background stamp from Scrap Shotz.

 It's called Magnolia Fields and it's from The Ton Couture Cling Stamps

 I started by stamping my image on cold press water colour paper with Versamark Ink.

I embossed it with Pastel Lilac Embossing Powder from Emerald Creek Craft Supplies.

To  color my image I used Ken Oliver Color Bursts in Orchid, Lime Green and Ultramarine Blue.

I used my Tim Holtz/Sizzix Stitched Rectangle Die and cut out a portion of my stamped image. I adhered this to a piece of dark purple cardstock then attached this to my folded cardstock base.

My sentiment was stamped on a piece of scrap watercolor paper.

Products used:

The Ton Background Stamp - Magnolia Fields
Ken Oliver Color Burst: Orchid, Lime Green, Ultramarine Blue
Emerald Creek Craft Supplies Pastel Lilac Embossing Powders
Tim Holtz/Sizix Stitched Rectangles Die

Celebrate Hipster Dad

Hello & Welcome!

Fathers Day is just a couple days away and its always extra special because my dad's birthday is around the same weekend. It would be easy to make one card for both but I just can't so he gets 2 handmade cards. This year both cards are made with the Hipster stamp set from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous.

First up - A Hipster Fathers Day Card

Lots of Distress Oxides used with stamping, blending and watercolour techniques.

Next up - A Hipster Birthday Card

My Hipster Monkey doesn't look thrilled with his birthday hat - sort of how my dad would look too!

This year my Dad is turning 70 so we will have a "Legit Party".

Crafty Friends & Coffee Fairies

A few weeks ago I started getting together on Wednesdays with my very best

 crafty friend, Nicole Wright. We alternate between our houses - she has the mother of all Sizzix die collections and I have everything mixed media. It works out pretty well.

This project was one of the first ones we collaborated on without even realizing it. I was in a bit of funk and not feeling very inspired. Nicole was working on a tea & coffee inspired journal page and I decided to let her creation inspire me.

We ended up using the same dies & some Tim Holtz Paper Dolls & loved how different our journal pages turned out.
My background was created a few weeks before using Distress Oxides, stencils and the stencil monoprint technique. I repeated the technique on the tea cups too. I loved how it looks.

On the coffee side of the page I decided to make wings for my paper doll children. I first inked up some watercolor paper with Scattered Straw and Carved Pumpkin Distress Ink with my ink blending tool, a few spritzes of water and quick dry with my heat tool and I was ready to die cut.
I used the Butterfly Duo Bigz Die from Sizzix & Tim Holtz. I then used the coordinating embossing folder, inked with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide, to emboss my 'wings'.

The Paper Dolls & Quote Chips were perfect to finish of my page.

I really loved how this page turned out and dream of the day that I have my own little coffee fairie that will serve me the perfect cup when I wake up in the morning. It's always nice to dream.

Check out Nicole's coffee & tea themed journal page here.

We already have more projects planned to show how to use products in different ways in our own styles. Collaborating with crafty friends is so much fun!

Stencil Monoprint Technique

Hello my crafty friends!

I'm here to share a card I made using a pretty simple technique for the background - stencil monoprint. It's one of my favourite techniques and I use it for cards, scrapbook pages and in my art journal. Here is a close up of the background.

I started with a 6"x 6" piece of Superstock from Creative Scrapbooker Magazine. My friend, Nicole, insisted I give it a try since I love mixed media. I had my doubts since I have tried many smooth heavy cardsock before and wasn't thrilled with the results. This Superstock is amazing! It can take a lot of abuse from wet media and still look smooth. I'm definitely a Superstock convert.

I took a couple of my Distress Oxides ink pads - Fossilized Amber & Fired Brick, and swiped them diagonally across a Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Coundown, from Stampers Anonymous. I was careful not overlap the colours so as to not contaminate my ink pads.

After a few sprays of water over the ink I took a paper towel and wiped off the ink from the sides of the stencil. I didn't want to see any hard edges on my background.

Now its time for the magic - I flipped my stencil over on to the Superstock, and pressed it down lightly with a roll of papertowel. I let the stencil sit on the Superstock for about 20 seconds before removing it. I love how this background turned out. I took my spray bottle and gave the ink a quick spritz before drying with my heat tool.

My background is done and now it is time to work on my stamped images.

Thanks to my Misti & Versafine Onyx Black ink I get some beautifully crisp stamped images. I love my Misti. I stamped a Crazy Cat, a few balloons from the Crazy Accessories set and a Happy Birthday sentiment.  I used my Distress Ink and water brush to colour in my images. Then I diecut them out with the matching dies from Sizzix. 

I used dimensional foam to adhere them down to my background.

Here is my finished card. 

Distress Oxide + Perfect Pearls = Follow Your Heart Card

Hello & welcome to March!

It's time to start thinking about spring - gardening, listening to the birds,

 warm days. I can't wait!

I created this card while thinking warm spring thoughts...

I am really loving the new Distess Oxides from Ranger Ink and thought it would be fabulous to pair them up with Perfect Pearls. A little shimmer is always nice.

I started with a 4.25"x 5.5|" piece of cold-pressed watercolour paper.
I decided to use a small piece of acetate to apply my inks to the paper.
I pressed my stamp pad to the acetate then gave it a couple spritzes of water.

After applying the Spiced Marmalade I added the Fossilized Amber & Perfect Pearls.

The stamped image is from Carabelle Studio and to get a sharp stamped image I used my Misti. I think I stamped it 3 times in total. The words are from the Chit Chat stickers book from Tim Holtz Idea-ology. I added some Hickory Smoke Distress Marker around the words to add a bit of dimension.

Check out that fabulous shimmer. I will definitely be using my Perfect Pearls with the Distress Oxides again.

Northern Lights Card

Happy New Year, my crafty friends!

Resolutions. Love 'em? Hate 'em?

I'm kind of indifferent, I guess. 

However, I decided that to really ramp up my creative juices in 2017

that I need to make an effort to enter more challenges. 

So this blog is a project for  Creative Carte Blanche and their 

January Art Challenge - Baby, It's Cold Outside.

I decided to make a card using a 'new to me' technique - salt!
I wanted to create a wintery Northern Lights feel.

I started with a 6"x 4" piece of 140lb watercolour paper, Turquoise Color Burst,
large watercolor brush, a salt shaker and clean water.

First, I took my brush and brushed some clean water in a square on the
watercolor paper. I gave the water a few seconds to sit then I sprinkled the
Colorburst over the wet area.
I used the brush to push the color around the wet area.

After sprinkling on some salt I let the card dry. 

After the card dried I brushed away the salt. I loved the effect!

I used my Misti to stamp a tree line image over the ColorBurst. I love the Misti for stamping
on watercolor paper since I can stamp it multiple times and get a nice image.

While the ink was still wet I embossed the image with fine black embossing powder.

To add a snowy effect I stamped with the halftone stamp and clear emboss-it.

I sprinkled Soft Fallen Snow embossing powder from Emerald Creek & then heat set.

~Finished Card~

Challenge Submitted:

Creative Carte Blanche - Baby, It's Cold Outside