Penguin Palace Red Snowflake Background

Hey, there! Sometimes I like to mix things up and use unexpected colors for my backgrounds. Who says snowflakes can't be red?

I used a piece of watercolor cardstock and added some Hickory Smoke Distress ink around the edges and then used the Crystal Snowflakes stencil from Penguin Palace to add some red snowflakes to my background. I cut out a hill shape from a second piece of cardstock and added some gray ink to the top of the snow bank for some dimension.

I stamped out some images from the Rabbit Cafe stamp set and colored them with red accents to match my background. I cut them out with the coordinating Rabbit Cafe dies and added them onto the snow bank with foam squares. I stamped a sentiment from the Rabbit Cafe stamp set in the same red ink I used for my snowflakes in the background.

I added a bunch of white gems to the background for some sparkle! See you again soon!

LDRS Creative Cherry Blossoms Outline Watercolor

Hi! I have a fun and easy wet on wet watercolor technique to share with you today using the Cherry Blossoms stamp set from LDRS Creative!

This technique is so quick and easy that I decided to make three cards! I just couldn't choose one color - so why not do all of my favorites!

I stamped out the large flower stem from the Cherry Blossom stamp set three times onto watercolor cardstock. I find that this any watercolor technique is made easier with clear embossing! It helps to hold in the watercolor - or in this case hold out the watercolor! - because it creates a little barrier. I stamped the images with a pigment ink and heat embossed them with LDRS Creative Clear Embossing Powder.

I wanted to have soft watercolor, so I decided to do a wet on wet technique. I used a watercolor brush and painted clean water all around the stamped image. I got close to the stamped outline, but left a little white border. You don't have to do this - you could definitely color right up against the image, but I really love the look of the white border! Now the fun part! I wet my watercolor paint and picked up some color with my brush and dropped it into the wet water I added to my panel. I kept dabbing in color and clean water to keep the outline soft.

I love this technique because you can use any color under the sun! I even mixed some different shades of purple, blue, and in the last I mixed some pink and yellow to get the gorgeous coral orange color! Once the backgrounds were dry I added spatters of black paint onto each card. I stamped a sentiment form the Cherry Blossoms stamp set with the Watermark Emboss ink pad and heat embossed it with White Embossing Powder. I trimmed out the strips with banner edges and added a bunch of white gems to the backgrounds.

I hope you love this little trio of cards! I'd love to know which color is your favorite! The last one with the coral color is definitely my favorite! See you soon!

Little Red Truck Gate Fold Card

Hey, there! I made another gate fold card to share with you today! I just love this easy fold. It's a nice way to step up a card and make it a bit more interesting without a lot of extra work! I used the Christmas card kit from Pink & Main along with some other products from their shop. Remember that the Christmas card kit is limited edition and once it's sold out it's gone! And trust me ... you need the stamp set in this kit! The little truck is adorable!! 

I started this card with a piece of cardstock 8 1/2 inches long by 5 1/2 inches tall. Instead of scoring the cardstock once and folding it in half I scored it at 2 1/8 inches from each end and folded the flaps towards the middle to create the gate fold card. Seriously it's so so easy to create this fun fold and I love how it's a surprise for the recipient!

I stamped and colored the truck from the Be Merry stamp set included in the Christmas card kit and fussy cut it out. I love little red trucks for Christmas! I think they're so classic! I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of cardstock and cut the end with scalloped scissors for a little bit of interest. I wanted to have a little something sparkly on my card so I die cut the two largest snowflakes from the Bold Snowflakes die set from a Silver Sparkle Sheet.

All that's left is to adhere everything to the card! Usually I adhere the focus element onto the left side of the card, but I wanted the snowflake to peek out from the right side of the truck to balance the image and so I decided to adhere the elements to the right flap of the card. It's very important when you're assembling elements onto a gate fold card to only adhere them to ONE side of the card - otherwise you'll glue your card closed. Since I was adding the truck and the smaller snowflake onto the right side of the card I only added glue to the right side of the images. I decided to have another fun surprise as you open the first flap of the card, so I glued another snowflake to the left flap of the card hiding behind the truck. Again - make sure to only add glue to the left side of the snowflake.

And that's all! This card is so simple to make that you could easily mass produce it for Christmas! In fact - that's just what I did! I made 25 of these cards in practically no time at all! Thanks for joining me!

Penguin Palace Crystal Snowflakes Shaker Card

Hi, there! I'm using the Crystal Snowflakes stencil from Penguin Palace to make an easy full shaker that fills the whole front of my card!

I just love to make shaker cards! I started with the Crystal Snowflakes stencil and pressed Versamark ink through the stencil and heat embossed it with white powder. Check out my video above to see how I used Pixie Spray to create a little extra "flurry" in my background! I used Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet, and Shaded Lilac Distress Oxide Inks to blend over the embossing and give color to my background. Then I sprayed my background with Silver Glitter Dust for extra sparkle.

I filled up an A2 shaker pouch with some of my favorite silver, gold, and white sequins and beads. I love the way these sequins look against the purple background! To finish off the card I added a "Merry" word die cut from glitter cardstock to the top of the shaker pouch.

I just love the way that Crystal Snowflakes stencil looks behind all of those shaker bits! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Simple Masked Ink Blending

Hello! The Kindred Stamps Classic Love stamp set inspired me to go back to my roots and create a classic ink blended card!

I worked on a standard A2 sized card and used Purple Tape to mask off a rectangle near the top left of my card. I used the character from the Classic Love stamp set to make sure I got the width correct. Once everything was masked off I started blending on some Distress Oxide inks.

I used Fossilized Amber, Wild Honey, and Candied Apple Oxide inks and blended them together making sure the colors overlapped for a seamless look. For a little more texture I decided to add some spatters of black watercolor. I stamped, colored, and cut out the character from the Classic Love stamp set and added her to the ink blended portion of my card with foam tape.

I stamped a sentiment with black ink and added some clear bubble gems here and there over the ink blending to finish off the card! I hope you enjoyed this project! See you soon! 

Simon Hurley Create. Poinsettia and Plaid Christmas Card

It's no secret - I LOVE LOVE LOVE to make Christmas cards! And I like to look at stamps that aren't necessarily Holiday themed and turn them into Christmas things! I'm using Simon Hurley Create. products today and turning the Flower Garden Background Stamp into poinsettias!

I think when most people think of flowers they think of spring and summer, but when I saw the flower in the Flower Garden Background stamp I immediately saw a poinsettia! When I was younger they were my favorite flower! I stamped the Flower Garden Background stamp onto Stark White Cardstock with Bee Sting dye ink and used a sponge dauber to add some shading to the center of the flowers with Grrr! ink. And can I just say how much I love the names of Simon's inks?! They make me giggle when I create with them! I stamped the Flower Garden Background again with Later Gator ink and added some shading with Remember Me ink. I love the way the two toned stamping turned out! Once everything was stamped i used my scissors to cut out the individual images so that I had pieces to add to my card instead of using the background stamp as a background. So cool, right? I even cut out some of the flower petals that I stamped in green to use as leaves!

I wanted a classic background to go with my classic Christmas flower, so I stamped the Classic Flannel Background stamp onto Stark White Cardstock with Woof! dye ink. Plaid backgrounds are my favorite and I super love this background stamp because of the mixtures of thick, thin, and striped lines! It's fabulous! I adhered my flowers to the left of the card and stamped a sentiment from the Caroling Squad stamp set with Versafine Onyx Black Ink. I finished the card with some gems at the center of the flowers and around the sentiment.

And that's how you use a regular floral stamp set for a Holiday card! I hope you love it! 

ThermOWeb and Reverse Confetti Collaboration

Hey, everyone! I'm so excited that ThermOWeb and Reverse Confetti are collaborating this week! I'm making a set of three cards with the new release from Reverse Confetti and some Deco Foil and Deco Foil Flock Transfer Sheets! Enjoy the video!

I love using cover panel dies because I can often puzzle the die cut pieces back together to create more than one card. And in this case I was even able to squeeze out a third card! 

The On the Curve Cover Panel die from Reverse Confetti is the perfect die for creating two cards at once. I started by covering two sheets of cardstock with iCraft 6x6 Adhesive Sheets. I used pieces of cardstock that were slightly larger than the A2 sized cover panel die so that I wouldn't have to worry about lining it up exactly - and in the end I'm glad I did because that's how I got the pieces for my bonus card! I covered one piece of adhesive covered cardstock with a piece of Teal Waters Deco Foil Flock. I peeled away the release paper from the adhesive and added the Deco Foil Flock pretty side down into the adhesive. Then I ran the cardstock through my die cutting machine to use the pressure to completely transfer the Deco Foil Flock to the cardstock. When I removed the flock from the cardstock I had a piece of cardstock covered in the fuzzy Teal Waters Flock Transfer Sheet. Then I die cut the flocked piece with the Reverse Confetti On the Curve Cover Panel die. 

I repeated the process on the second piece of cardstock with the Silver Stars Deco Foil Transfer Sheets. I removed the backing from the adhesive and covered it with the Silver Stars Deco Foil - but with foil you want to add it to the adhesive pretty side up. I normally adhere foil into my adhesive by rubbing it with my fingers and peeling it away slowly, but I always have tiny areas that don't transfer completely. I'm afraid of putting it through my die cutting machine for fear that the scratches from my cutting plates will transfer into the foil - but I have a trick for you! I folded a piece of typing paper in half and used it as a carrier sheet to put my foiled cardstock through my die cutting machine to press it into the adhesive. It worked PERFECTLY! And I didn't have a single bit of foil left on the release paper! Hooray! I also die cut the Silver Star Deco Foil piece with the On the Curve Cover Panel die. 

You could totally skip this next step if you wanted - but it made my life a lot easier! I used the same piece of computer paper that I used as my carrier sheet and cut it in half and added a piece of iCraft 6x6 Double Sided Adhesive to each piece and used it as a backing piece to puzzle piece my die cuts together. I added the Silver Stars Deco Foil frame to one of the adhesive covered sheets and the Teal Waters Deco Foil Flock frame to the other. Then I puzzle pieced in the opposite center pieces to each frame. I didn't have to fuss with adhesive since I already had a piece of paper fully covered in the double sided adhesive behind my die cuts. I just love the mix of textures!

I colored a bunch of images from some new stamp sets from Reverse Confetti. I used The Best Days, Huggable, and Beautiful Memories. I used alcohol markers to color each image and then I cut them out and adhered them to my cards with iCraft Ultra Bond Liquid Adhesive. If you've watched my videos then you know this is my absolute favorite liquid adhesive! And make sure you watch my video to see a quick tip on adding multiple images with Purple Tape! It's a life saver for me!

Remember that I mentioned I die cut the On The Curve Cover Panel die from panels larger than the size of the die? I had strips of cardstock covered in the Silver Stars Deco Foil and Teal Waters Deco Foil Flock left over. I just glued them onto a card with iCraft Ultra Bond Liquid Adhesive and added a bouquet and sentiment from The Best Days stamp set from Reverse Confetti. And just like that I have three cards from one technique!