Hydrangea Birthday Card

March 31st is my daughter's 22nd birthday. What better way to celebrate it than to use a new stamp and die set to create her birthday card?

Not only did I use a new stamp and die but I chose to use a new technique–Distress Ink Lifting. Jennifer McGuire has a great video tutorial for this on her blog.

I chose to use the Mondo Hydrangea stamp set by Julie Ebersole and its matching die set, just like Jennifer used in her tutorial.

Because Jennifer said that this technique worked best on card stock, not watercolor paper, I chose a piece of the Thick Whisper White card stock. Using my MISTI, I stamped the hydrangea and leaf using Versamark Ink. On another piece of the paper, I stamped again and also stamped the two blossom images that could be die cut. The stamped images were heat embossed using White Stampin' Emboss Powder.

The next step was to take a distress ink, in my case Picked Raspberry–I wanted to create hydrangeas that were pink with a hint of green–and rub it entirely over the image. I did this for my first set of the stamped images. (For the second set of images, I knew I would be die cutting them so I concentrated on inking only the images and a thin halo around them. I did these images after totally completing the water part of the technique as I didn't want the ink to dry out.)

I love the vibrancy of this ink!

Immediately after inking the matte and images, I took a small paintbrush and dropped water into each section of the images, causing the ink to be lifted away, revealing a paler version of the ink. The ridges of the embossing work to corral the water in each section.

After completing this step, I took some Bundled Sage distress ink, smeared some on my craft mat and then took my wet paintbrush to it. I took this green and added it to the edges of the blossoms, the leaf, and the stem.

I repeated this entire process with the second set of images that I had stamped and then used my heat tool to dry them all thoroughly.

My main stamped panel was trimmed down and I stamped the sentiment from the Rose Wonder stamp set using Basic Black Archival Ink. The stamped matte was then mounted onto a piece of white, self-stick fun foam to help even out the surface. It was then mounted on a very thin matte of Thick Whisper White card stock and onto the front of a Mint Macaron card base.

The other stamped images were die cut and adhered onto the previously stamped image using Dimensionals.

This looked pretty enough but I knew how to pump it up a notch–Wink of Stella! The glimmer from that made it even more beautiful, especially against the Picked Raspberry background. The distress ink dried so well blended that it looked like it was card stock!

I added a bow made from the Minted Macaron 1" Dotted Lace Trim and some rhinestones to complete the card front.

For the inside of the card, I used Picked Raspberry to stamp portions of the hydrangea on a matte of the now retired Naturals White card stock. I inked the edges in both Picked Raspberry and Bundled Sage and adhered the matte with Fast Fuse to complete the card.

I am very pleased with how this card turned out! I liked using the Distress Ink Lifting technique and will definitely use it again.

I'd love it if you'd take the time to leave me a comment below! See you next time.

Flower Pot For Global Design Project

You can't imagine my delight when I saw the color challenge for the Global Design Project #29! The colors were definitely my kind of colors! In fact, I had used these colors previously (minus one) in my post, Shake It Off.

It didn't take long for me to plan my design.

I cut an Early Espresso card base for a 4.75 x 6" card and a matte from an Early Espresso text paper from the Neutrals Backgrounds DSP Stack. After inking the edges with Early Espresso, I adhered the matte to the card base and proceeded to punch flowers from Bermuda Bay using the Pansy Punch as well as flowers from Tangelo Twist using the Petite Petals Punch.

Tangelo Twist polka dot paper from the Brights Backgrounds DSP Stack was used for a flower pot and separate piece for the trim on the pot.

Using a sponge dauber, I inked each flower and used a sponge to ink the flower pot pieces in Early Espresso, applying a bit more shading to the shadow side of the pot.

I assembled the flowers using Multi Medium Matte, adding a Bermuda Bay Candy Dot from the Brights set to each flower.

The trim was adhered to the flower pot using Dimensionals and then a Tangelo Twist Ribbon was tied around the pot. The pot was adhered to the card front using Dimensionals. The flowers were also adhered with Dimensionals.

Using a sentiment from the Gift From The Garden, I stamped with Early Espresso onto a strip of Bermuda Bay. I used the Banner Triple Punch to flag one end. I cut a piece of the Tangelo Twist polka-dotted paper for another banner. It was adhered to the card front with Fast Fuse and the sentiment banner was popped up over it with Dimensionals.

For the inside of the card, I used a matte of the now retired Naturals White card stock. I used one of the stamps from the Petite Petals stamp set to stamp flowers in both Bermuda Bay and Tangelo Twist around three edges of the matte, stamping more than once before reinking for some of the flowers. I adhered a strip of the Early Espresso text DSP to the right side of the matte, after inking the edges, and then inked the remaining edges of the matte. I adhered the matte with Fast Fuse to complete the card.

I chose not to make a shaped flower pot card for this challenge, as I preferred to have the flower pot mounted onto the Early Espresso text DSP. I like the way the card came together!

What do you think? Do you like this color combo? Drop me a comment below!

Spring Butterfly

I absolutely adore the papers in the Birthday Bouquet DSP! Such lovely colors and patterns to play with–what's not to like? These papers were the inspiration for my card today.

Die cutting a butterfly from the Birthday Bouquet DSP using the large die in the Bold Butterfly Framelits was my first step, as it was to be my focal point. I used the small die to cut a butterfly from Watermelon Wonder card stock.

Next, I used my Fun Flower Punch to punch one flower from Watermelon Wonder and another from Blushing Bride. I used the Blossom Bunch Punch as well as a punch from the now retired Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack to punch flower centres and one smaller flower using Pool Party, Mint Macaron and Watermelon Wonder card stock. The Bird Builder Punch was used to punch two leaves, one Old Olive and one Mossy Meadow.

My card base was cut from Watermelon Wonder in my new favorite 4.75 x 6" size and a matte was cut from the Perfectly Artistic DSP. Using stamps from the Timeless Textures, I stamped using Pool Party and then taped a piece of Pool Party Glitter Ribbon around the bottom of the matte. It was then adhered to the card front using Fast Fuse Adhesive.

Using a Tea Lace Paper Doily as a base, I designed my flower arrangement and snapped a photo. I then inked the edges of all the flowers parts, leaves and smallest butterfly with matching inks and brushed each piece with Wink of Stella. I also inked the the large butterfly with Soft Suede. Once the pieces were dry, I shaped them using both my Bone Folder and my McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit. The flowers and butterfly were then adhered together using Multi Medium Matte.

The doily , leaves and large butterfly were adhered with a couple of drops of Multi Medium Matte and then the flowers were adhered with Dimensionals. I added pearls to both the flowers and butterfly.
The sentiment from the Rose Garden stamp set was stamped in Watermelon Wonder on Thick Whisper White and die cut with a die from the Rose Garden Thinlits. It was popped up over the flowers with Dimensionals.

For the inside matte, I used some of the now retired Naturals White card stock. I stamped a flower from the Beautiful Bunch in Blushing Bride and inked the edges using Pool Party. I die cut a butterfly from a piece of the Birthday Bouquet DSP using the smallest butterfly from the Butterflies Thinlits Dies and inked its edges in Soft Suede. It was adhered with Multi Medium Matte. It and the solid part of the flower stamp were coated with Wink of Stella and the matte was adhered with Fast Fuse to complete the card.

I am loving the color combination on this card–it is so airy and Spring-like! Feel free to copy it if you are inspired by these colors.

If you use these colors in a card, drop me a link below. I'd love to take a look!

Mini Treat Baskets For Easter

The other day, a customer came through my till at Walmart with a miniature Daffodil plant. Why is it that whenever you see something in miniature it is so much cuter than the full size version? I love Daffodils as they are such a real sign of Spring but miniature ones . . . oh my!

Allison Okamitsu recently showcased a miniature Easter Basket in a blog hop and I knew that I would have to CASE it for some of my colleagues at Walmart!

I started by cutting 3.5" squares of Elegant Eggplant. I also cut 5.5 x .25" strips. I scored the squares at 1" and 2.5" and then rotated the square by 90° and repeated the scoring. I folded on all the score lines.

Leaving one flap folded, I used my Word Window Punch to punch two holes about 1/4" from the edge of the folded flap and up as far as the punch would reach. I then rotated 180° and repeated the punch. I then flipped to the other side, folded the edge and repeated the punching. This created the tiny openings in the side and bottoms of the baskets.

With the punched openings running horizontal, I cut up the vertical scoring to the horizontal score line and then cut in from the corner at an angle to the horizontal score line. I repeated this on the other end and then rotated 180 ° and repeated. this left triangles at each corner.

I placed Fast Fuse on each corner and adhered to create a box. I pulled each strip between my fingers to give it a slight curve and then placed Fast Fuse Adhesive at each end. I adhered the ends inside the box on the solid sides to provide a box handle.

I cut a piece of Cucumber Crush Cotton Paper 4 x 12" and folded it in half lengthwise. My Fringe Scissors were used to cut strips which were then crumpled and placed in the miniature baskets.
I nestled three chocolate carrots, found at Dollarama, in the crumpled grass. I formed miniature bows from 1/8" Crushed Curry Ribbon and adhered them to each basket handle using a glue dot.

After posting this, I decided that the little baskets weren't quite cute enough so I went back and added little basket liners to each one! I used a sheet of the now retired Regals Designer Series Paper Stacks because I needed the tiny polka dot Crushed Curry paper to make these.

I cut 1" squares and scored them on the diagonal. I then used glue dots to adhere them to two sides of each basket.

How cute are these? These were so much fun to create! Be sure to check out Allison's version and video tutorial for clearer directions on how to make these sweet little baskets.

Have you made any treat baskets, boxes, or bags for Easter? Let me know in the comments below!

Watercolor Markers, Distress Inks, and Easter

For my card today, I incorporated Stampin Up as well as some of my many other crafting supplies! My card actually started as an entry for a "yellow" color challenge but became something else entirely!

I started by creating an ombré effect using my yellow toned distress inks on Watercolor paper. I used squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, scattered straw, fossilized amber, and wild honey but in the end, I had to rework my ombré so the final lineup was mustard seed, fossilized amber, wild honey, rusty hinge, spiced marmalade and ripe persimmon. To give some definition to the edges, I added walnut stain.

Next, I decided to use my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to color a focal image. I chose to use the Hyacinth from the Helping Me Grow stamp set and stamped it in Basic Black Archival ink on watercolor paper using my MISTI. It is often difficult to get an image stamped perfectly on watercolor paper in one go; the rougher texture of the paper seems to either absorb or deter ink. MISTI to the rescue!

I zapped the image with my heat tool to be sure it was dry before beginning my coloring. I used the following: Lilac, Light Violet, Purple, Mid Green and Olive Green. I just LOVE coloring with these markers because it seems so effortless!

The Big Shot along with a die from the Circles Collection Framelits was used to die cut the colored image as well as a die cut a matte from Old Olive card stock. I used a sponge dauber with Walnut Stain distress ink to give some definition to the edges of both. The colored image was then adhered to the matte with Dimensionals.

I used the Fluttering Embossing Folder to emboss the ombré matte (the only one that would fit since I was making a non-standard card size). I adhered the embossed background to a very thin Elegant Eggplant matte and then attached both to an Old Olive card base. The focal image was adhered to the matte with Dimensionals.

I chose a piece of Whisper White Seam Binding to color with distress inks to match my project. On my craft mat I dabbed wilted violet, dusty concord and seedless preserves. I spritzed them and my ribbon with water and then proceeded to dab my ribbon into the colors until I was satisfied with the results. I kept crinkling the ribbon into a ball in my hands (I wore disposable gloves so my hands would still look like hands when I finished!) and then dried it with my heat tool.

Cutting a small piece off one end of the ribbon, I wrapped the rest around three fingers. I tied it in the middle with the piece I had cut off to form my crinkly bow. I adhered the bow to my card front using Glue Dots.

I stamped my sentiment from the Crazy About You stamp set onto a strip of Basic Black card stock using Versamark and then heat embossed it using White Stampin' Emboss Powder. I used the Banner Triple Punch to flag one end. The sentiment was adhered to the card front with Fast Fuse Adhesive.

To complete my card, I used (for the first time!) some Rainstones that I had purchased from Papertrey Ink some time ago after watching a video tutorial that showed them being used on a card. I thought they looked gorgeous! I adhered some to my card front using a combination of Multi Medium Matte (for the small ones) and Zots Clear Adhesive Dots-Bling Tiny for the larger ones. I got my Zots at Michaels for $7.99 for 325. They work really great! I think I may try them for sequins or other tiny embellishments in the future.

I did not embellish the inside of my card but may do so before giving it out for Easter. Thanks for checking out my post today!

You're Amazing

My card today evolved totally from a color combination that I had brainstormed while working at Walmart one day.

If you have followed my blog for very long, you know that I love bold, in-your-face colors on my cards and today's colors are no exception!

As I often do, I turned to my Silhouette Cameo design software to plan out my card. I find that it is easier for me to plan out my matte sizes and be sure that my embellishments are in proper proportion on the card.

I started with a Cajun Craze card base of 6 x 4.75". I also cut a smaller matte for the very front of the card. Before deciding on any further mattes, I chose to die cut my flowers and leaves and plan my arrangement for the card front.

The Botanical Builder Framelits Dies were used to cut three flowers from Tempting Turquoise and three from a Tempting Turquoise flowered paper from the Brights Backgrounds DSP Stack. From Cajun Craze I cut some flower centres using the dies but also chose to use the Blossom Bunch Punch. I used the Rose Garden Thinlits to cut three stems of leaves from Chocolate Chip card stock.

I fussed with the flowers and leaves until I had my design planned out, and snapped a photo before removing all the die cuts to shape them with my McGill Paper Blossom Tool Kit. After shaping, I inked the edges with their matching color of ink. I then glued all parts of the flowers together using Multi Medium Matte, using the Brights Candy Dots in Turquoise for the centres.

While planning my flower cluster, I was sure to leave adequate room for my sentiment. I used my MISTI to stamp the sentiment from the Watercolor Wishes Card Kit, in both Tempting Turquoise and then Versamark. I heat embossed it with the now retired Tempting Turquoise Stampin, Emboss Powder.

To coordinate with the leaves, I chose to use a very thin Chocolate Chip matte directly under the front Cajun Craze matte. I adhered these two mattes together with Fast Fuse Adhesive. I chose to use the same flowered Turquoise paper as a matte adhered directly on the card base. For added support for my top mattes, I cut a smaller piece of brown, self adhesive Fun Foam which I adhered to my top mattes and then adhered to the card base using Fast Fuse Adhesive.

I used Multi Medium Matte and Dimensionals to adhere my flowers and leaves to the card front, giving the flower centres a little Wink of Stella for good measure! I placed a few rhinestones around the card front for added sparkle.

For the inside, I used a matte of the now retired Naturals White card stock. I used the leaf stamp from the Rose Wonder stamp set and tiny flowers from the Botanical Blooms stamp set. The matte was adhered with Fast Fuse to complete the card.

I hope you like my card today. I love how these colors work together (though I'm sorry that the flowers look more like Marina Mist than Tempting Turquoise; no amount of camera fiddling allowed me to get a truer color for them!).

Helping Me Grow Thank You For Global Design Project

No creating on Monday. My granddaughter, Raine, was sick so she spent the day with me. She didn't want to do anything but lay on the couch so we immersed ourselves in Barney and Curious George. Luckily, whatever she had didn't last long and the next day she was back to her usual self and off to daycare.

Today I designed two simple thank you cards using the Helping Me Grow stamp set.

I started by cutting standard card bases from Basic Black card stock and mattes from Kraft. Using my MISTI to help me with alignment, I positioned my daisy stamp and then decided to insert the thank you sentiment into the actual stamped area so I used my Post-It Label Roll to mask over a section on the bottom right of the card. Using Jet Black Stazon ink, I stamped the daisy.

After removing the masking, I changed to the thank you sentiment stamp from the Endless Thanks stamp set. I stamped it in the place where the masking had created a space in the flower stems. After the ink was dry, I adhered the stamped matte to the card front using Dimensionals.

I threaded a black 4-holed button onto two separate pieces of Linen Thread and then placed glue dots on the back of the button. Positioning the button next to the sentiment, I tied the threads inside the card. To complete the card while keeping it simple, I used the Curvy Corner Trio Punch to punch the corners of a Naturals Ivory card stock matte and then adhered it with Fast Fuse Adhesive.

The second card was also stamped with Jet Black Stazon ink but this time the Hyacinths (at least I think that's what they are!) were stamped on the Kraft matte and the thank you sentiment was stamped at the top. A length of Basic Black 3/8" Stitched Ribbon was taped around the bottom of the matte and then a separate piece was knotted in the front. The matte was then adhered to the card front using Dimensionals. A sprinkling of black sequins completed the card front.

The inside was kept simple but elegant by using the Curvy Corner Trio Punch again on Naturals Ivory card stock.

I've entered this card in the Global Design Project #027. The theme this time is Thank You cards.

Why not click on the image above and come and play?