Butterfly Layered Card

Butterflies are just stunning creatures. They're delicate and so full of color with such a soft presence. I could photograph them all day long. So I decided to create a card using the butterfly from The Butterfly Effect by Sheena stamp set for this card along with the sentiment, If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. How true is that? Such beautiful and true words right there.

I colored in the butterfly using my Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers (listed below) and then fussy cut out the butterfly. I pulled in papers that coordinated with the butterfly and used foam adhesive and ribbon with twine for some fun texture and interest on the layout. I honestly love how this card came together! All the color is just a breath of fresh air that you can send to someone to brighten up their day. Sometimes a friend may just need a little handmade gem of encouragement if they're going through something in their life, or if they need a bit of a pat on the back for making a change in their life. Nothing is better than support of a friend and loved one. I love having these types of cards on hand for those such occasions. Be a bright spot in someone's day.

Check out all the other gorgeous butterfly sets available at Crafter's Companion and be inspired by the beautiful samples shown on the website!






PRODUCTS USED:

• Sheena's A Little Bit Sketchy EZMount Stamp Set, The Butterfly Effect
• Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers: Blender, EB4, EB7, GB1, GB6, GB10, CR8, CR10, GT2, GT3, GT1, BT6, OR1, CR3, FS4, FS9, CR1, CR4, PL1, PL4, JG1, JG5, TN2, TN4, TN9, EB5, EB8, EB1
• Embossaliscious Embossing Folder, Roses
• Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock 

Day of the Dead Eternal Love Decorative Hanging Art

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE with all heart anything and everything skull or Day of the Dead related. I'm just in love with the colors, patterns, skull designs and the entire meaning behind the Day of the Dead/Dia de Los Muertos holiday. Such a beautiful way to celebrate life of those loved ones that have passed on. It's something I want to even learn more about and to teach my children about. The artwork just speaks to me.

So, when I saw these new and AMAZING sets that are being realeased TODAY with Day of the Dead images, I fell head over heels for! I mean, it's just ME!!!

I used the Eternal Love set by Sheena Douglass. I'm telling you, her sets blow me away! But I loved the male and female images. I had a lot of fun coloring this image and really giving it life. Sounds funny giving life to skull images, right?! ;)

I made the flowers from some tissue paper I had on hand and found some simple instructions online. I used some skull pewter pieces inside of the smaller flowers. I just cut out the image of the sugar skulls and glued that to black cardstock to make it pop, added some twine to hang it and used glue dots on the back of the flowers. I love how this came out, and I will definitely enjoy using this as a decorative piece this October and November.

I hope you enjoyed my project for this amazing release. You can be sure that I will be making many more projects using these sets from the Day of the Dead line by Sheena in future blog posts. Check out all the sets in this release on the website for Crafter's Companion.

PRODUCTS USED:

• Sheena Douglass Perfect Partners Day of the Dead, Eternal Love Stamp Set
• Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock 
• Spectrum Noir Blendable Colored Pencils: 043, 045, 078, 029, 065, 067, 011, 009, 108, 110, 120, 077, 026, 033, 068, 071, 087, 105, 106, 114, 034, 036, 050, 004, 007, 008, 019, 022, 024, 029, 032, 058, 060, 038, 082, 061, 063, 113, 015, 016, 013
• Spectrum Noir Blending Solution
• Spectrum Noir Paper Stumps

Have A Wonderful Day!

I love the title alone of this blog post - Have A Wonderful Day! It is just such a positive outlook on life really. Something simple like sending someone a card that is just to wish them a wonderful day can really set the tone for someone. All it takes is a simple kind gesture to make someone smile and be happy :)

I used the Wonderful Day stamp set by Sheena Douglass. Her designs are amazing and so much fun to bring to life by coloring them in. One of my favorite parts of creating any of these projects you see on my blog is being able to color. Ever since I was a little girl, I've LOVED to color. And it's truly relaxing to me to sit down and color in an image and bring it to life.

I kept with a more fall-ish color tone for this since our main focal image is a scarecrow after all! I kept the layout simple since the sentiment for this set is quite large. It really screams at you to have a wonderful day, don't you think?

I've listed all the products below with links to purchase from Crafter's Companion. Also be sure to check out around the website for more inspiring projects and an amazing array of items to craft with for all occasions. Enjoy your day!

PRODUCTS USED:

• Sheena Douglass Perfect Partners, Wonderful Day
• Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock 
• Spectrum Noir Blendable Colored Pencils: 065, 064
• Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers: True Black, Blender, OR1, OR2, DG1, DG3, GB7, GB10, TN4, TN9, TN2, EB3, FS1, GB1, EB5, EB7, GB6

Birthday Bebunni & Sequins

Hi there! I have a fun birthday card up today. These simple cards are perfect for giving to kiddos you know and love. They love bright colors and knowing that YOU colored it just for them makes it extra special. And who can resist sequins?! 

I used the Bebunni Hip Hip Hooray set. I stamped it onto Ultra Smooth Premium White Yardstick and colored in everything but the letters (BIRTHDAY) with my Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers. The BIRTHDAY letters I colored in using the Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens. All colors are listed at the end of the post. 

I love the Sparkle Pens because on an angle, they're super sparkly and perfect for birthday cards! 

I created a little window to put the Bebunni image into and then glued sequins all over to give it some more sparkle and interest.

I hope you enjoyed my bright and cheery birthday card today. Check out Crafter's Companion site for more inspiration and amazing products for all your crafting needs.

PRODUCTS USED:

• Bebunni Hip Hip Hooray EZMount Stamp Set
• Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock
• Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers: FS2, CR5, EB1, IG2, IG3, IG5, BG1, BG10, TN1, TN2, TN5, GT2, GT3, BT3, and Blender
• Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens: Cosmos, Aquamarine, Holly Leaf, Solar Red, Moonlight, Harvest Moon, Amethyst, Pink Champagne

Lawnscaping Challenges #128 Sponsored by Lawn Fawn

We are sponsored by the always amazing Lawn Fawn! They are sponsoring this challenge with a free stamp set of the winner's choice!

I love using sketches every now and then. It really helps me to think about a card design/layout because I normally just wing it when I craft. And this is another of my favorite cards I've created in a while. It was a very spring-like day when I made this card, so that's my inspiration for the color palette! 

I knew I wanted to create my own background of sorts here and I did that by using the umbrella stamp only from the Hello Baby set and I stamped it with Distress Ink in Old Paper onto watercolor cardstock. I wanted this card to have a soft feel to it, not super feminine, but a neutral and light color palette. I have a bridal shower to attend for my brother in law and future sister in law, so I wanted it to be able to be given to either of them. I chose a palette of olive green, tan, very light mauve and peach. I simply used my Spectrum Aqua markers to color in the umbrellas and I used the fine tip of those markers to dot in the sections of umbrella like the stamp has. It's very subtle but I love how this came out. 

I then took two strips of patterned paper that coordinated and cut them to glue on the diagonal just like the sketch above. 

For the rectangle in the sketch, this is where I wanted to place my sentiment/main focal point. I cut out the shape with a die in my supplies and stamped the sentiment in Memento, Tuxedo Black at the top center of the shape. I then stamped the butterfly from the Flutter By set in Distress Ink, Old Paper below that. For more dimension and texture, I stamped the same butterfly onto watercolor cardstock in the same Distress Ink and colored in with the Spectrum Aqua Markers. After fussy cutting that out, I adhered it right over the butterfly image I stamped onto the diecut shape with some foam adhesive. 

Very simple, yet colorful card! We'd love for you to participate and create a project based on the sketch above and enter over at the Lawnscaping Challenges blog. There you will find all the rules and instructions for uploading your project to enter to win the fab prize from Lawn Fawn. Happy crafting!  


PRODUCTS USED:

• Lawn Fawn Flutter By
• Lawn Fawn Hello Baby
• Spectrum Aqua Watercolor Cardstock
• Crafter's Companion Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock
• Distress Ink, Old Paper
• Memento, Tuxedo Black
• 6x6 Teresa Collins, Blessed
• Stampin' Up Framelits, Chalk Talk Dies
• Spectrum Aqua Markers: Marigold, Olive, Jasmine, Leaf Green, Topaz, Fawn, Begonia, Yellow, Peach, Spice, Desert, Gold, Moss, Sunset and Chestnut   

Lawnscaping Challenges #127 Sponsored by Ellen Hutson LLC

The wonderful, fabulous Ellen Hutson! is sponsoring this challenge!!! Certainly you are familiar with her and her store, but if not, a little bit about the store in her own words:

Ellen Hutson, LLC began their adventure in November 2006 as an online web store committed to bringing you the finest paper crafting products and related product education. They are always looking to provide their customers with quality products, excellent customer service, and education and inspiration for the products they carry. You can shop with Ellen by clicking HERE. As well please join them to be inspired and learn some fun techniques in the CLASSroom, or stay up-to-date on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and/orPinterest.

Ellen Hutson is offering up a $25 gift certificate to the online store! WOOHOO!

I LOVED this challenge! I found my inspiration on Pinterest this time and I saw this beautiful card that is very similar to the technique I used and I just love how it turned out. Whenever I need a little boost of creative juice, I hop on to Pinterest and take a look around to see what inspires me.

Ah! Isn't this fun?! I adore the Flutter By set, so I love using it and this was a different technique for me! I'll explain the process below for you and all products are listed at the end of the blog post. Lots of pictures on this one, and a quick how-to.

1. Cut cardstock card base and score/fold to 4.25x5.5. I used just a simple white cardstock.

2. Cut patterened paper to 4x5.5 and adhere to the card base shifting the paper to line up with the right edge. This leaves you with a small 1/4" white "border" on the left side.

3. Stamp 6 large flowers from the Flutter By set onto watercolor cardstock with Versamark ink. Apply white embossing powder and heat emboss.

4. I used my Spectrum Aqua Markers to watercolor the embossing flowers in shades of pink and orange/peach using a water brush pen, acrylic block (this is where I color my markers on to pick up color with my water brush pen) and started coloring in my flowers. Let dry.

5. Once the flowers are dry, I trimmed around them leaving a slight border. You can always use your coordinating Lawn Cuts for the Flutter By set if you have them!

6. I diecut the congrats from the Scripty Congrats die out of watercolor cardstock. Apply foam adhesive to the back side and adhere to the card where you'd like.

7. Using foam adhesive, I snuck in the flowers behind the sentiment, congrats, on the card.

8. For a little extra pizazz, I used some hot pink sequins on the card.

And there you go! I hope you try this technique because it's really pretty and I'll definitely be doing this again and again.

Check out the other amazing inspiration from the ladies I'm proud to be on a design team with over at the Lawnscaping blog. Enter your project there and good luck! Happy crafting.


PRODUCTS:

• Lawn Fawn Flutter By
• Lawn Fawn Scripty Congrats
• Lawn Fawn Sequins
• Versamark
• Spectrum Aqua Watercolor Cardstock
• Spectrum Aqua Markers
• White Embossing Powder
• ZIG Watercolor Brush
• Teresa Collins 6x6 Blessed Paper Pad