I Believe in You

I Believe in You

Hello friends! 

I'm here to share the most recent card that I finished for the IG Crafty Crew July Challenge (I'm a bit early) to make a cheer up or encouragement card using sequins and/or jewels.

If you want to participate on IG, use the hashtag: #igcc180710e 

Here is the card:

To start, I took a piece of watercolor paper (no idea what brand) and began blending several colors of Distress Ink:  Festive Berries, Candied Apple, Squeezed Lemonade, Cracked Pistachio, Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet

Next, I sprinkled water droplets over top and then spritzed Perfect Pearls lightly over the paper. After heat setting, I die cut the paper and made a shaker card. That's it!

I never separated the die set and after playing with them all together, I don't think I will ever cut them apart. haha

Here are some more photos:

Simon Says Stamp sentiment: I See You (no longer available), heat embossed with Hero Arts White embossing powder on SSS Black card stock

SSS Die set: Dot Circles

Pretty Pink Posh sequins mixes: Sparkling Clear Confetti, Iridescent Mini Hearts, Gold Mini Hearts, Silver Mini Hearts

Thanks for stopping by and have a beautiful day!

Moody Cat Concert

Moody Cat Concert

Hello, friends! Today I'm here to share a card that I struggled with and ended up loving. Don't you love it when that happens? I used five stamp companies to finish this card but the animals and the sentiment are Mama Elephant.

Here is the card:

To start, I began with the cats on stage. The stamp set is Little Cat Agenda from Mama Elephant. First, I die cut the stage out of Neenah Solar White 80 lb with the larger die from the Pretty Pink Posh die set, Window Frames.

After stamping the cats with Simon Says Stamp (SSS), Intense Black ink, I put a piece of printer paper over the cats and drew a homemade spotlight stencil.

After masking the kitties, I taped the stencil onto the stage and began lightly blending Distress Inks over the cats. I used the colors Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean and Cracked Pistachio.

What happened next is why I was sure my little scene I created was done for. I was going for smokey, it ended up looking dirty and dark.

Instead of giving up on it, I took the advice of a friend and colored in the cats and under their feet. She said that once I finished the coloring it might make more sense to me. I'm glad that for once I didn't pitch a failed idea in the garbage. 

To achieve the spotlight of color around their little bodies, I tried to use Copics but it wasn't working. Instead, I fashioned another stencil out of printer paper and lightly blended the same Distress inks on the floor.

  

As you can see, the background isn't perfect but much improved. I decided after getting to this point that it worked for a moody atmosphere.

Next, I used the straight stitched die from the die set, Stitched Borders 2 from Pretty Pink Posh to add another layer of stitching below the stage with some spare cardstock scraps. I rubbed Nuvo Embellishment Mousse in the color Peony Pink over the cardstock and adhered it to the stage.

After that, I used the stitched rectangle die from the Mama Elephant dies, Femme Frames, to die cut a piece of Dark Chocolate cardstock from SSS. 

The fireworks are from the die set, Fireworks Bursts, from SSS, which I can no longer find on the website. I did some quick and simple coloring with my Prismacolor colored pencils. I also used one small stamp from the stamp set, Birthday Bits, from SSS, to add white and gold dots of color below the fireworks.

While I had my colored pencils out, I also added a bit more color to the instruments and I moved on.

I ended up taking the easier route for this card and went with die cut grass. There is the tall grass die from Lawn Fawn, Grassy Border, and the shorter grass die cut from My Favorite Things, Grassy Hills. All I did was lightly blend some of the stage colors onto the cardstock with the addition of Black Soot on the scalloped border of the MFT die cut. Incidentally, that scallop border is another PPP die from the die set, Stitched Borders 2.

The sentiment and the animals are from the stamp sets, Woodland Gifts and Blogging Buddies from Mama Elephant. 

For the sentiment, all I did was stamp the sentiment inside the laptop screen and fussy cut the screen to make it look like a fan sign. All that was left was to put the card together, brush on a lot of Wink of Stella over the fireworks and I was done!

Here are some more photos of the finished card:

My cat, being the extra helpful cat photographer.

Thank you for stopping by and have a beautiful day!

I Hope You're in Every One of My Nine Lives

I Hope You're in Every One of My Nine Lives

Hello friends! I'm here to share a card I made using two stamp sets from My Favorite Things, Cool Cat and I Knead You


Here is the card:

I made this card for my friend, Michelle (@michii00 on IG) that includes both of our cats. These stamp sets are adorable!

This card was spur of the moment. I wasn't sure how I was going to make this card with all four cats so I decided to wing it.

The ink I used to stamp the images is Simon Says Stamp, Intense Black ink because, Copics.

To start, I cut a piece of 80 lb Neenah Solar White in half the long way and worked from left to right. The only masking involved is the cat on the far left so I could have her sitting on the cushion and the cat  with the yarn so I could tuck the yarn under his paw. Unusual for me to have so little masking on a card. haha

I finally decided to give each cat their own little section so I would have more room to color our individual cats. Using a 0.5 Copic Multiliner, I drew a line to separate the first cat and began working on the next section. Using the MISTI stamping tool, I stamped the cat in the box and the sentiment at the same time, drew a line and moved on.

After I finished the Copic coloring, I covered different sections and lightly blended Tumbled Glass or Abandoned Coral Distress Ink into the corners. After brushing a bit of clear Wink of Stella on the fish and the bows on the cats, I was finished.


I've had some questions about which Copics I used so I will leave that information here:

Copic colors used:

E55,  E35,  E37,  E57  -  Cardboard Box

R21,  R22,  R14,  R27,  N0,  N2,  -  Cat bed

R20,  E50,  YR20,  E53  -  Cat on the left (Emma)

R00,  R20,  W1  -  Fish

B00,  B0000  -  Thought Bubble

N0,  N2,  N4,  R20  -  Cat in the Box (Mini)

E30,  YR20,  E53,  R20  -  Cat top right (Julius)

N4,  N6,  N8  -  Cat bottom right (Bentley)

C00,  C2,  C4  or  W1,  W3,  W5  -  Floor under cats



Here are some additional photos of the finished card:

Thanks for stopping by, have a beautiful day!

A Halloween Hello!

Hello and Happy Thursday!

Today I'm sharing a Halloween card using Witch Way is the Candy? from My Favorite Things. This is a stamp set I received last year and all I did was color the images. I thought since it's that time again I would make an actual card! 

To start, I wanted to create a background using the oh-so fun ink smooshing technique. Using my Gansai Tambi watercolors, I used a paintbrush to pick up the color and made a small watercolor puddle on my craft sheet. Next, I used a stamp envelope to pick up the color and place and smoosh it onto the watercolor cardstock. I repeated this until I liked my background. This sheet of cardstock was 5x7 so I cut it down to a quarter inch smaller than an A2 size. 

To prepare a shaker window, I used two Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle dies. I used Tombo Extreme Adhesive to adhere the acetate to the window and adhere the watercolor panel to the card base. 

For the sequins, I used Jack-o'-Lantern and Trick or Treat from Little Things from Lucy's Cards. I also added a couple of black cat sequins from the Spellbound sequin pack. These sequin packs have so much included that I wanted to dump the whole bag into the shaker area! haha

I chose the sentiment, A Halloween Hello. I die cut a banner and cut it down so it was small enough to fit in the corner. Then I heat embossed the sentiment using Versamark ink and Hero Arts White embossing powder. 

Next I die cut a few spiders out of black cardstock using the Scary Spiders from Memorybox. I am absolutely terrified of spiders so why I have this die in my possession is a mystery. I kept checking to make sure I had the paper spiders and I wasn't accidentally picking up a real spider! Oh, the joys of living in Colorado. 

The only thing left was to add the images I colored last year. I wanted to make it look like the frog and cat were just as worried about the spiders as I would be if such a thing was happening. They look sufficiently worried about the spiders and I am satisfied. Now to mail this out as soon as possible!

Thank you for stopping by and have a beautiful day!

Kristin

Seasons Greetings!

Hello and Happy Wednesday! 

I realize that it isn't October yet and I've posted a Christmas card on IG and now on my blog but I felt inspired. Even more so because it's an image I colored back in mid June for Kathy Racoosin's 30 Day Coloring Challenge!

In my quest for images to color for the challenge, I was perusing The East Wind on Etsy and found this beautiful image called, Aurora Reindeer. It was a joy to color and surprisingly didn't take me that long. I will happily admit I am a slow crafter. 

To start, I colored the image with Copic markers and added Clear Wink of Stella to the trees in the background and around the fuzzy parts of her coat. I also added white dots over the top of the image to look like snow using a Uniball Signo Broad White Gel Pen.

When I was finished coloring, I used a large circle die and set it aside for three months simply because I wanted to make this card when I wasn't rushed and I could make a card I like. 

When I sat down to finish this card, I wanted the image to stand out but wasn't quite sure how to proceed with the card. It's ok to step back and ask a friend their opinion once in a while. My sweet friend Giorgia makes such wonderful cards and I mentioned to her that I was almost intimidated to make a card with this image. Sometimes I am so pleased with my coloring that I put it aside until I have a good idea on how to make a card that won't ruin my coloring. She suggested that I keep the card simple. Only the image and a sentiment. After that, the ideas came easier. Clean and simple isn't exactly my style! haha

I started by creating a square card base which measures 5" x 5" With Neenah Solar White 110 lb cardstock. I decided on a sentiment from Simon Says Stamp that says, "Seasons Greetings," and comes from the stamp set, Be Joyful. 

I cut a 3 inch scrap piece of paper and heat embossed the sentiment using Versamark and Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. I finished the sentiment by using my scissors to cut both ends to make it look like a banner. 

For the background, I decided to use the Falling Snow Stencil from Simon Says Stamp and White Embossing Paste from Wendy Vecchi. 

To add a little more sparkle and define the circle against the background, I used a Sakura Stardust Glitter Pen and drew a thick line around the edge of the die cut circle. 

I added dimension by adding foam tape to the back of the circle and on the back of the sentiment and the card was finished.

Thank you for stopping by to see how I finished this card! I will be back on Friday with a card for the CDD Blog Hop!

Have a beautiful day!

Kristin

Flamingo Summer Days

Good Morning and Happy Monday!

Today I am sharing a simple card using the August 2015 card kit from Simon Says Stamp. I knew right away from seeing the mix of Martha Stewart Iridescent Hearts & Stars that I would be making a shaker card. 

To begin, I cut the storage pocket that came in the kit and poured a little of the mix inside and sealed the pocket. I'm not going to stop making regular shakers but I love how easy it was to make the shaker without the foam tape!

I cut a piece of the shimmer cardstock, Tropical Bay, to match the width of the storage pocket and adhered the shaker to the panel. As a result, I needed to make the card base longer. I wanted to trim down the patterned paper so it was the same length as the panel so I used a die from the Stitched Borders 3 die set from Pretty Pink Posh. I also thought it would be fun to use one of the Fireworks Bursts dies from Simon Says Stamp. 

After I put together the card, I wanted to add a splash of color so I pulled out the My Favorite Things flamingos dies. I die cut out one of the flamingos and colored it using various Copic Markers. I adhered the flamingo to the card using Multi Medium Matte and popped up the flamingos wing with foam tape.

The only thing left to do was add the adorable Pretty Pink Posh flower sequins and the card was done!

Thank you for visiting and have a beautiful day!

Kristin