#617 – With Thanks

Hello! Made this card some time ago while trying out the fresh stash of products that Danielle had sent me.. I just love the curvy lines in the Topography stamp.. and it is so versatile! I can think of so many things to do with this stamp. And the dies in Flower Medallion Builder too..so pretty! Here’s what I came up with –

I first heat embossed the Topology background using silver pearl embossing powder, then colored each section using Zig brush pens. My idea was to try out the card with only coloring, and if I felt that didn’t look good, I could always add water and spread the colors to make it prettier.. as long as the colors didn’t clash, it would look great! And that’s what happened – the colors weren’t looking great just sitting there, so I heavily misted them with some pearl water (water + perfect pearls). I kept this aside to air dry.

I then die cut some watercolor paper using the Flower Medallion Builder dies. I used watercolor paper, since the technique would require some thick paper, and the watercolor paper is the thickest and sturdiest I’ve got. After determining the arrangement, I decided which parts required the embossing, then heat embossed the pieces with copper embossing powder three times, making the pieces look metallic (learned this from Jennifer McGuire!). This, paired with the off-white color of the other diecuts looked really pretty! 🙂

Finally, I trimmed the dried watercolored base, adhered it over the card base, then trimmed the excess from the sides. I then adhered the flowers and a pearl in between. As for the sentiment, I did the same 3-times copper embossing, and also foam mounted it on the card.

Although it is pretty hard to capture this on the image, the brilliant metallic shine of the copper embossing and the soft sheen of the pearl water in the background look pretty well matched.. I really liked this combination.. and the off-white die cuts provide a nice contrast against the two colorful and shiny surfaces.. all in all, I am happy with the results! 🙂

Submitting this card to the following challenges –

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #242: Make Your Mark

Happy Little Stampers: May Anything Goes with Dies Challenge

Seven Hills Crafts: May Color Challenge (the set of colors in the last image)

Simon Says Stamp: Wednesday Challenge: A Bit of Sparkle

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

#615 – Seize the Birthday – Creatures or Animals

Hello! And it time for yet another challenge at Seize the Birthday! The topping this time is to create use Creatures or Animals in your birthday project.

You still do have the choice of joining us with just a Birthday themed creation..

Here’ my inspiration card –

This is the card I actually made for my sister’s birthday last month.. It is a tri-fold, window, interactive Birthday card. I am actually pleased with the card, since it is the first time that I actually tried making any of those, and combining them all was really fun! 🙂

I used die inks for stamping and then used Prima watercolor pencils for coloring the bunnies. Here’s the supply list –

Mama Elephant Honey Bunny
Mama Elephant Calli Letters
My Favorite Things Pretty Posies
My Favorite Things Stitched Mini Scallop Rectangle dies
Reverse Confetti Edger’s Confetti Cuts (to create the tags)

I made the envelope using a pattern paper, stamping it using the same sentiment and critter stamps, and colored them again using Prisma watercolor pencils.

You can find more inspiration at the Seize the Birthday blog, created by the fantastic DT and also our Surprise Party Guest Cathy! Hope you’ll join the challenge with your own birthday themed creation.

Submitting this card to the following challenges –

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #241: Anything Goes

Bastel Traum Challenge #52: Mother’s Day, card/ project for women or girls (My card is for my sister’s birthday)

Simon Says Stamp: Work it Wednesday April Challenge: April showers bring May Flowers

Thank you for stopping by! 🙂

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#610 – Addicted to CAS – Guest Designer

Hello! I am really happy to day to be Guest Designing at the Addicted to CAS Challenge blog! Thank you so much for having me over! 🙂

The theme this time is “Grunge”.

Now, I am not someone who makes grunge cards, and the theme was pretty difficult for me.. but that’s what challenges are for – guest designing or not!! 😉 After pondering on it for a while, I came up with this card –

The stamp set Adore You from Altenew is just perfect for a variety of techniques – starting from just outlining in beautiful colors, or coloring.. so why not make some grunge?…I thought.. So I mixed it with My Favorite Things Abstract Art stamp set to make this card. Of course, I used MISTI for great and perfect stamping, since the flowers are cut outs, foam mounted on the base, mounted to give dimension.

Finally, the sentiment, black base with heat embossed sentiment, came from Mama Elephant In My Heart stamp set.

Submitting this card to the following challenges –

Stamplorations April CAS challenge: Any Pastel color

The Heart Desires Challenge #11 : I went with the colors and the flowers

Addicted to Stamps challenge #239: Clean and Simple

Simon Says Stamp: Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes

Hop over to the Addicted to CAS blog for more amazing (and proper) Grunge cards, and join the challenge! Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

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#605 – Sending Well Wishes

Hello! I find so many inspiring card makers out there in this kind hearted community, that it is practically impossible to not want to try out the unique techniques of a few talented ones. The one I am talking about this time, is Laurajane. If you haven’t checked out her blog, you are missing out big time!

I love this particular coloring technique Laurajane uses. She adds colors in layers, but doesn’t allow them to blend, instead keeping the strokes to add a lovely look to her creations. I had tried this technique in the beginning of the year in this card, and was quite happy with the results. And I thought of trying it again…

Of course, my card doesn’t entirely look like how Laurajane makes them.. its in my style, after all! 🙂

I used Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set, stamped the images in Antique Linen distress ink and then colored them using Zig brush pens. The sentiment comes from Paper Trey Ink Wet Paint 3 stamp set.

Submitting this card to the following challenges –

Color Throwdown Challenge #437

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #236: Anything Goes

Fusion Challenge: Easter (I picked the picture part, with the yellow and red flowers)

Simon Says Stamp March Work It Wednesday: Spring has Sprung

Inkspirational Challenge #132: Spring

Thank you so much for stopping by! 🙂

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#603 – Little Tangles April Challenge: Watercoloring

Hello! Time for the April challenge at Little Tangles. The theme this time is ‘Watercolor’.

And here’s what I made for some DT inspiration –

I chose to go with a card with different dimension. This one is 3 3/4″ by 7″. I wanted to try something with a long-ish card dimension for quite some time now, so I was pretty happy with this! 🙂

Now to the card – I first stamped the sentiment. Following this, I started with stamping a few of the flower centers and then watercoloring them, stamping a few more flowers/leaf centers, watercoloring some more..and so on. I also added more color to the already dried ones, wherever I felt it was needed. I only stamped and watercolored them in steps, since I wasn’t getting a sense of how much space would be needed to watercolro each flower/leaf, else I could have stamped them all, and watercolored them all at one go. 🙂 Anyway, I used MFT Hybrid ink, which is waterproof, for stamping and Gansai Tambi watercolors for, of course, watercoloring.

Submitting this card to the following challenges –

Simon Says Stamp: Work it Wednesday: Spring has Sprung –

Stempelgarten Challenge #60: Colorful Spring

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #236: Anything Goes

Happy Little Stampers: April Watercolor Challenge: Anything Goes

Paru’s Card Making Challenge: Anything Goes

Joy Clair April Challenge: Anything Goes

Hope you join us at the Little Tangles challenge! Thank you for stopping by!

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#597 – A Beautiful Day

PE: Winner at Addicted to Stamps & More challenge!!

Winner at The Flower Challenge!! Yay!

Happy Little Stampers Winner!!! Triple yay!!

Hello! I made this card to send to my crafty friend Helen Gullet quite some time ago, and now that she has received it, I thought of publishing the details in my blog! 🙂

I wanted a sort of messy, sort of vague look for this card. Since the Altenew Beautiful Day stamp set had a great combination of both solid and layer stamp (to give the suggestion of flowers), I used that. Of course, there are lots of other stamps like these, but this stamp set had the biggest flowers of them all in my stash. And I wanted to do lots of coloring too! 🙂

So, I started with stamping the flowers, first with distress ink, since I wanted a splotchy look, and then with Versamark Watermark ink and then heat embossed them clear. Same for leaves. I then watercolored them using Zig brush markers. Once dry, I added a few splatters using my Camel Drawing inks.

The sentiments are from Avery Elle Laurels and Altenew Beautiful Day. I used the same stamp sets for my handmade envelope too.

I am submitting this card to the following challenges –

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #232: Make Your Mark

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: For a Special Lady

Happy Little Stampers: March Watercolor Challenge: Anything Goes

Timeout Challenge: Love and/or Friendship

Timeout challenge is celebrating their third year of running! A BIG Congrats!! 🙂

The Flower Challenge #6: Anything Goes

Thank you for stopping by!  🙂

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#593 – Little Tangles March Challenge – Rainbow

Hello! Time for a new challenge at Little Tangles and the theme for this month is Rainbows.

Frankly, I am really really bad at cards with rainbow colors. There are so many colors and I just absolutely don’t get any idea as to what to do with them!! I could have just added an actual rainbow as an element and probably used a critter – Neat & Tangled has plenty of cute critter stamps – but unfortunately I don’t own any of those! 😦 So, I tried making something else.

I’ve made two cards – one CAS (also displayed in the Little Tangles blog) and the other with mixed media (see below).

CAS first.. I actually made this one last.. I chose a cardstock with a bit of texture on it, added the rainbow colors using Zig brush pens, and mingled the colors using water and a flat brush. Once dry, I stamped the sentiment from Neat & Tangled Scandinavian Prints and the images from Neat & Tangled Hand Stitched. I trimmed the panel and mounted it on a grey card base. Finally added a few drops of Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops.

I saved my favorite for the second – mixed media. Distress inks, heat embossing, acetate, wood veneers, clip, washi tape and of course, stamping! 🙂

Once I made the background using ink smooshing technique with distress inks, I used Neat & Tangled Punchinella stamp with Ranger Sea Foam embossing powder for the embossing the acetate. I had actually bought this ep thinking it would be nice and white, back when I had just started cardmaking and didn’t know dye ink from pigment ink, and had regretted the purchase. But it is just perfect for embossing on acetate, and with a stamp set like Punchinella. Doesn’t cover the entire surface to give it a clean look, but covers enough to give a shape and show off the acetate. I love this look! 🙂

Anyway, I didn’t want to use any adhesive on this, so the clip works just fine. After adding a couple of washi tapes, I added the sentiment from Neat & Tangled Everyday Labels, and a couple of heart wood veneers, which I covered with Nuvo White Blizzard Glitter Drops.

So, those are my two inspiration cards for the Rainbow challenge. Which one do you like better? I am submitting the first card to the following challenges –

AAA Cards Challenge #84: CAS : Watercolor

Addicted to Stamps Challenge #251: Anything Goes

Just Add Ink #349: Inspiration

…and the second card to Happy Little Stampers March Watercolor Challenge: Anything Goes, with smooshing as the optional technique –

Check out the Little Tangles blog for more fantastic inspiration from the rest of the DT. And also join the fun by making your own version of a rainbow. Don’t forget to use at least one product from Neat & Tangled.

Thank you for stopping by! 🙂

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