Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day (one day early)!! I have a really soft, feminine card that I thought was perfect for Mother's Day...

To create this card, I used a purple card base (folds to 4.25x5.5). I then took a sheet of the Ultra Smooth White Cardstock from Crafter's Companion and stamped the floral image with Versafine-Onyx Black from the Stamp-It Australia Floral Fancies. I ran it off the card on the left side. I wanted the negative space for design purposes. It really draws your eye to the grouping of flowers, don't you think?

Now the coloring for this is simply INK! Yup, that's all. I LOVED the way this came out. 

For the flowers, I used Radiant Neon-Electric Purple. What I do is actually stamp ink onto my craft mat (from Ranger) and spritz with water and use a paintbrush to color in the image. It's really simple and so, so pretty! I then used Memento Luxe-Sweet Plum as well. As you can see, you CAN definitely use neon inks without them being super bright! I wanted to definitely point that out. 

For the leaves, I used a combination of Radiant Neon-Electric Green and Memento Luxe-Pistachio and Memento-Rich Cocoa for shadows. 

For the background, I used a very wide paintbrush and used my Memento-Nautical Blue in the same fashion just using varying amounts of water. You can see that by the varying shades of blue! I used a light hand around the actual flowers. I will definitely be using this technique again. I would recommend using actual watercolor paper if you're going to do this though. You can see little flecks in the blue area I painted on; that's actually the paper fibers picking off! But I actually like it. If you want to avoid that, use watercolor paper. I just picked up a pad in the kids section at Target!! SCORE.

The sentiment is from the Sentimentals-Imagine set and I stamped that with Delicata Silver Shimmer ink. I cut out around that and added a row of pearls to accent it. 

Happy Mother's Day to all you amazing moms out there!

Spring Butterfly

Here's a beautiful spring card I created using this large butterfly from the Sheena's A Little Bit Sketchy-True Colors. I colored it in with the Spectrum Noir Blendable Pencils (101, 086, 063, 069, 043, 045, 046, 017, 021, 022, 028, 030). As always, I stamped it on my Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock from Crafter's Companion. I used the Spectrum Noir Blending Solution and paper stumps to blend the colors together. I fussy cut it out and used the foam adhesive circles to pop it up off the background.

For the background, I used Stamp-It Australia Dreamer-Once in a Lifetime and got fun with some spray mists and then I sprayed all over the entire piece with the Sheer Shimmer Spritz in Sparkle.

The card base is actually a package of cards I purchased at Target on clearance for $0.88!! I couldn't pass that up. I love how bright and fun this card is; it can be used for any occasion.

Say Cheese

Here's a really quick card that can be used for a bunch of occasions. Great to have in your card stash to grab and go.

I used the camera image from the Stamp-It Australia Dreamer, Once in a Lifetime set. I didn't do anything other than stamp and fussy cut. For the sentiment, I used the saying from Stamp-It Australia Dreamer, Scattered Thoughts. I just cut it down to the size I wanted and rounded the bottom corners. I used my Radiant Neon, Electric Blue and Electric Green. I simply used a brush and swiped it on dry so you could see the brush strokes.

I picked a teal card stock for the card base to match the color that the two neon inks had made. I then picked a really pretty and busy floral patterned paper. Rounded the bottom corners of those two to mimic what I did with the sentiment block, and I used foam adhesive squares to pop up the camera and sentiment. I then took some spray mist I had and flicked it on (it's a metallic peach color that matches the flowers in the background). I tied a simple ivory bow for the top for added interest.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bright Flower Birthday

Probably one of my most favorite cards just because of the colors! I used the newest Sheena's A Little Bit Sketchy set, Bloomin' Beautiful and chose the one flower to use. I decided my card would have 2 flowers, so I stamped them onto my trusty Ultra Smooth Premium Cardstock from Crafter's Companion and started coloring away. I used my Spectrum Noir markers (TN1, TN2, TN3, BP1, BP2, BP4, BP6, Blender). For the leaves, I used LG2, LG4 and LG5 to color them in from the Sheena's A Little Bit Sketchy, A New Leaf. After coloring, I fussy cut them out and set them aside. 

For the background, I chose the Stamp-It Australia set, Scattered Thoughts using the birthday strip. I just stamped it on a rectangle of the Ultra Smooth Premium Cardstock one after another so it created a background of it's own! I took my Radiant Neon inks in Electric Purple, Electric Green, Electric Pink, and Electric Yellow and stamped onto my craft mat. I then used a watercolor pen (it has a brush tip that holds water in the barrel so you can watercolor with it; just touch the brush tip to the ink on the craft mat and go to town). 

In no particular order or anything, I started watercoloring away with all the colors. I let it dry and then cut it into strips between the rows. I glued them down however it fit and that was my background! 

I used foam adhesive to glue down my flowers and leaves for dimension. I'm definitely going to be using the watercolor technique more and more. It's so fun and every time, you'll get a different look! 

Try it with the inks from Crafter's Companion today!!

Sheena A Taste of India Blog Hop

It's release day for the Sheena A Taste of India! Here's a colorful card I made to send anyone just to say hello! I love the way this turned out.

I took the elephant from the Sheena A Taste of India Marching Elephants and stamped that onto the Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock. My go-to paper. It's a must have! I then took my Spectrum Noir markers ( IG2, IG4, IG5, IG6, TN7, GB1, EB2) and I added shadows and colored in the floral blanket and head piece of the elephant with the Spectrum Noir Blendable Colored Pencil (038, 039, 119, 046, 021, 113, 028, 033, 036, 066, 071, 065, 112, 003). 

I then fussy cut around the elephant and used foam adhesive squares to pop her up off the background. I chose a golden yellow patterned paper that I thought went well with the Indian theme. I snuck in the wooden hello bubble behind the elephant and there you go!

Please hop around to all the amazing designer's blogs for your chance to win these prizes:

• DT Blogs – 6 prizes will be given out to 6 different randomly selected blog comments from all of the designers blogs. We will award the sets when the winners are announced.  
• CC US blog - 2 sets from this release to 2 different randomly selected CC US blog comments, winner's choice.
• Participants may add comments to any of the blog hop posts from Thursday, April 17^th – Monday, April 21st until 11pm (ET)/8pm (PT).
• Winners will be selected on Tuesday and announced on the CC US Blog on Wednesday, April 22^nd.  
• Winners must send an email to claim their prize (information will be provided when the winners are announced)

Here's the hop list:

• Crafter’s Companion US Blog
• Kendra Wietstock 
• Allie Gower
• Chrissie Tobas
• Christiana Reuling
• Jenn Cochran
• Jennifer Ingle
• Laurel Beard
• Mary Dawn Quirindongo
• Tenia Nelson
• Trena Brannon
• Wendy Price
• Stephanie Severin 
• Annette Allen
• Giovana Smith
• Leah l'Orange
• Lori Barnett
• Roxanne O'Brien <<< YOU ARE HERE >>>
• Swarup Murthy

Sheena Taste of India Sneak Peek!

Welcome to my little sneak peek for the newest release from Sheena, Taste of India. I used the Mandala set which is FAB to color in.

I stamped the image onto the Ultra Smooth White Premium Cardstock and then I used the Spectrum Noir markers and pencils (COMING SOON!) for this project. I used my markers (OR1, CR7, CR10, GB4, GB5, DR6, DR3, DR5, LY2, LY3, PL1, PL2) and pencils for adding more depth/details (105, 016, 078, 080, 082).

For the background, I have a mask I used with the Spray & Sparkle in Iridescent (be warned this is SUPER sticky and messy!), let it dry, and then went over it with a craft sponge and my awesomely vibrant Tsukineko Radiant Neon ink in Electric Yellow. I LOVE how this turned out. It was pretty hard to photograph that aspect, but in real life, it's glittery and so vibrant. 

I hope you liked the sneak I showed you for the newest set Sheena, Taste of India! 

Colorful Butterfly

Good morning! I need some more bright and colorful birthday cards in my stash, so I grabbed the Sheena A Little Bit Sketchy The Butterfly Effect (LOVE), stamped on the Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock, and started coloring with my Spectrum Noirs (Blender, CG2, CG3, CG4, LG4, LG5, HB1, HB2, HB3, LV2, LV3, DG1, DG2, DG3, OR1, OR2, OR3, BT2, BT4, BT5, PL1, PL2, PL3, TB1, TB3, TB4, BT6, BT9, TN7, TN9, EB5, EB7, EB8, CR4, CR7, JG1, JG2, JG3). After I colored her, I cut her out and applied this glossy glaze type stuff to the wings only since butterfly wings appear rather shimmery in the sunlight. I love the way it came out. See the second photo where I tried to show you how shiny they are! It's hard to photograph.

I then just used a simple white base since my butterfly is very colorful and I embossed the white panel with the Birthday Text embossing folder from Crafter's Companion. I love how simple, yet striking the background is with these folders. They're an amazing product to have!! I used some foam adhesive circles behind the embossed panel, butterfly and little "happy" tag I had in my stash to give this card dimension.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Shimmer Dragonfly

I found a new product I just love. I can't get enough. I decided to make this beautiful dragonfly card using Twinkling H20s. LOVE them. They are perfect for the large dragonfly from the Sheena's A Little Bit Scenic-Flying Colors set. Her images BEG to be colored!

I stamped that dragonfly image onto some watercolor paper since I was planning to use the watercolors (Twinkling H20s are shimmery watercolors). After I painted my dragonfly, I set it aside to fully dry. Then I fussy cut him out and used some foam adhesive on the back to pop him off the card.

For the card, I cut my base out of simple white card stock, scored and folded it. I then took some of the Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock by Crafter's Companion. Seriously amazing stuff right there. I used a stencil I had and some more of the watercolors to create that background. It's imperfect yet perfect! After it dried, I then inked up the dragonfly wording from the Stamp-It Imagine-Dragonfly Delights set with Distress Ink-Tea Dye and stamped it over the background I created. I took some coordinating patterned papers in my stash to give my card some interest and focus on the dragonfly. I just love this!

You can always color the dragonfly with Copics or even use your Distress Inks as watercolors! That's a fun technique. Thanks for stopping by.

Get Well Soon!

We all should have certain cards on hand for when an occasion strikes, and get well soon cards are one of them! Here is a cute, one layer card (perfect for mailing) that would brighten up anyone's day getting this in the mail.

I used the Popcorn the Bear-Someone Special set for this card. What I did first was trim the piece to the exact size that would be on my card. I stamped him onto the Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I then colored this image in with my Spectrum Noir markers (Blender, CG1, CG2, LY2, GB4, GB5, EB1, EB2, EB3, OR1, OR2, CR9, CR11, IB1, DG2, DG3, GB1, GB3, LV2). I stamped the "Get Well Soon" sentiment along the bottom from the same set in Tuxedo Black as well. I then paired this image up with a pretty yellow patterned paper I had on hand.

Hope you enjoyed my card! Take some time out and plan to make cards like this to have on hand for when you need one in a hurry. :)

Maptastic Card

Here is a very simple encouraging card you can recreate! You'll be shocked with what I created the background with...heehee.

I have been seeing a trend in paper crafting for a while now that I LOVE - watercolor. I hadn't purchased "grown-up" watercolors yet, so I snagged my kids watercolors. I just used better brushes than what comes with the kids. I also "borrowed" my oldest's watercolor paper to do this.

Since I wanted to make a bunch of different color combos, I took a few pieces of the watercolor paper and went to town with different color combos. I loved the look of these blues, green, turquoises together. So I just painted as I wanted, no rhyme or reason. I then flicked on some darker brown paint to give it a little dimension and add interest.

Once dry, I then cut to fit onto my teal card base and rounded the bottom corners. I took my Stamp-It Australia, A Map stamp and inked it up with Memento Luxe, Grey Flannel. I wanted a softer look than black would have given me. This color worked perfectly. I snuck in an enamel dot in the center of the compass. I then tied some blue and white twine around the top of the card.

You'll notice I didn't glue the map/watercolor piece on perfectly. That's perfectly fine because most maps aren't perfect. I love the wrinkles in it and the little bit of irregularity at the top. I think the watercolor paper is perfect for this.

I did purchase some grown-up watercolors I'm anxious to create something with, but in the mean time, snag your kids art supplies and think outside the box! :)

Check out all the amazing products offered at Crafter's Companion.

Baby Blocks

I've got a sweet baby card today for you. These are always great to have on hand! I have been trying to make more cards to put in my card box so I have a variety to choose from for all occasions. It's a great way to give a handmade card all the time!

I chose the Bebunni Baby, Built with Love set for this card. For this card, I went with more boyish colors. I used my Spectrum Noir markers (IG1, IG3, IG8, FS6, IG6, HB1, HB2, IB1, IB3, FS1, BT1, BT2, VT3, IG8, TB1, TB2, LG1, LG2, LG4, Blender) to color this guy in. I always stamp my images on the Crafter's Companion Ultra Smooth Premium Cardstock. This paper is amazing to color on! It's a must have. 

I made this a simpler card using just one layer to color on. I cut the panel first and then stamped him on there placing the image right where I wanted it. I added in some teal enamel dots for interest around him. Totally simple but adorable for a baby shower or new arrival. Thanks for taking a pop by!