LDRS Creative | Today's Heroes Slimline Card

Hello, everyone! I'm using a very special stamp set today - it's called Today's Heroes from LDRS Creative. But you won't find this stamp set for sale in the shop! Better than that - it's automatically added to every order while supplies last! Can you believe that?!

This stamp set is perfect for thanking and showing appreciation to everyone who has been front and center in the thick of things these past few months. I combined the Today's Heroes Stamp Set with some die sets both new and old to create a slimline card that would include all of the heroes from the stamp set.

I created my scene using the Up a Tree Die Set, Lil' Pink Houses Die, and the Here Comes the Sun Die along with the Slimline Scallop Die Set. I created a video to show you just how I built my scene, so be sure to watch! I have a nifty trick for you - the Up a Tree and Lil' Pink Houses Dies cut one piece of cardstock, so there are a couple easy ways to create green hills with different colored trees and houses. One way is to cut the dies from white cardstock, do a bit of masking, and ink blending. I've found a way that I think is a bit easier for us lazy crafters!

I chose a few colors of green cardstock - one dark and one light - for my hills and die cut both the Up a Tree and Lil' Pink Houses Dies from them. I also cut both dies from a piece of white cardstock. I made sure that each of the pieces of cardstock was cut so that it would be slightly larger than my slim line card to give me a bit of wiggle room. Both of the dies are not intended to be used with slimline cards, so I just used scissors to extend the cut lines making them wide enough for a slimline card. The stitched detail wont be continuous to the edges, but that's okay. It ends up getting covered anyway. I trimmed away the trees and houses from the green die cuts and used alcohol markers to color in the tree trunks and houses on the white cardstock pieces. All I had to do then was use a bit of liquid glue to adhere the green hills in front of the colored die cuts. Hooray for easy multicolored die cut scene pieces!

I cut and scored a base to be 3.25" x 8.25" and blended a light application of Marina Madness Hybrid Ink onto the top portion for my sky and assembled my Up a Tree and Lil' Pink Houses die cuts as well as a sun from the Here Comes the Sun Die Set. I cut a frame from the Slimline Scallop Die Set and adhered it over my scene for a cute little scallop border.

I stamped each and every hero from the Today's Heroes Stamp Set with Raven Hybrid Ink and colored them with alcohol markers. I can't say enough how much I love this stamp set. It's so inclusive of many different heroes. You can make thank you cards for each type of hero individually, but I decided to line them up and have them all represented on my card! I added them to the bottom of my slimline card with foam squares so that they would pop up from the rest of the card.

I hope you've enjoyed this card! Remember that the Today's Heroes Stamp Set will be automatically added to your purchase on the LDRS Creative website but only as long as supplies last. I can't wait to see what you create with this incredible stamp set!

LDRS Creative | May Feature Day 2 - Crazy for Daisies Messy Watercolor

Are you ready for more inspiration from LDRS Creative using floral stamps and dies?! Yes? Good! I did some easy messy watercoloring for today's card. I think this is one of the easiest watercoloring techniques!

I used the largest floral cluster in the Crazy for Daisies Stamp Set and lined it up so that it would hang off the top of a piece of watercolor cardstock. Since I was working on textured watercolor cardstock I used my MISTI for stamping so that I could easily stamp the image twice with Raven Hybrid Ink. I flipped my cardstock around 180 degrees so that I could stamp the bottom of my cardstock with the same portion of the Crazy for Daisies stamp to create a simple frame.

Raven Hybrid Ink dries almost instantly to the touch, but since it is a hybrid ink it will stay wet on the cardstock for a little while allowing me to add some Clear Embossing Powder over the top of the image. I like to use embossing powder when I do watercoloring because it helps keep the color contained in little "wells".

I used watercolors to add some messy color the the Crazy for Daisies image. This is so easy! You just quickly add some color. You don't even have to worry about getting all the way to the edge and coloring perfectly. I let the first layer dry on the flowers and then came back in with a slightly darker shade and added some easy shadows to the petals. When my coloring was done I added some flicks of black watercolor over the panel for texture.

I used the Miss You Die for my sentiment. It fits perfectly in the middle of my panel! I die cut it three times from black cardstock and stacked them up for dimension. Then I covered them with Glossy Accents for shine. Thanks for stopping by!

LDRS Creative | May Feature Day 1 - Country Flowers Slimline Card

One of my favorite times of the month is the LDRS Creative Features! This month the design team is showing off what we can do with flowers, stencils, and dies and my card today uses all three!

Doesn't this card just brighten your day?! I think it looks like little country windows. It reminds me of looking at the garden from the kitchen windows on a summer afternoon.

I die cut the stitched background using the largest die in the Slimline Scallop Die Set and temporarily adhered the Waffle Cone Stencil over the top. The Slimline Scallop Die Set cuts a card front larger than the Waffle Cone Stencil, so I did a bit of stencil shifting. I started on the left side of the panel and blended Soft Kisses Hybrid Ink over the Waffle Cone Stencil, shifted the stencil to the right side of the panel and continued blending Soft Kisses Hybrid Ink until the whole panel was covered in the pattern.

I stamped the large floral cluster from the Country Flowers Stamp Set three times with Raven Hybrid Ink. My idea was to use three small portions of the cluster on my card. I used the largest Stitched Square Die to cut the Country Flowers stamped image making sure that I die cut a different part of the image each time. I colored the images with Copic Markers using the same colors for each type of flower on each die cut.

I added a bit of foam behind each of the Stitched Square Die Cuts and added them across the center of of the stenciled card front and I stamped my sentiment from the Country Flowers Stamp Set with Raven Hybrid Ink. I LOVE how the sentiments are separate in the stamp set so that you can position the sentiment wherever you want!

I hope this card makes you smile! I'll be back tomorrow with more inspiration using LDRS Creative flower stamps and dies! See you then!

ThermOWeb | Happy Sunshine and Lemon Cards with Glitz Glitter Gel

It's getting warmer outside! And that makes me think of sunshine ... and that makes me think of lemons! Is that just me? Maybe it's because they're yellow. Maybe because they remind me of lemonade. Or maybe the sweet scent of the leaves! I made a set of four cards with Gina K Designs and Rina K Designs Glitz Glitter Gel and some fun lemons as the center piece!

I have lots of photos because I just can't get enough of this set of cards! The glitter from the Glitz Glitter Gel on the colored cardstock makes my heart so happy!

I used two different stencils for this set of cards - the Sunburst Stencil from Miss Ink Stamps and the Radiant Stencil from Honey Bee Stamps. I started with using each stencil on a piece of yellow cardstock, but I ended up using some dark pink cardstock as well. I wasn't sure how the Hello Yellow Glitz Glitter Gel would turn out on the yellow cardstock, but I ended up LOVING the tone on tone look! I wasn't going to waste the pink cardstock, so I made a set of two cards into a set of four!

I sprayed the back of the Miss Ink Stamps Sunburst Stencil with a coating of Pixie Spray and temporarily adhered the stencil onto a piece of cardstock. I started with the yellow cardstock and used a Stencil Pal to spread some Hello Yellow Rina K Designs Glitz Glitter Gel over the top.

I am just OBSESSED with the Hello Yellow Glitz Glitter Gel on top of the yellow cardstock! It is such a perfect background. It's slightly subtle but packs a punch with the glitter! Don't get me wrong - I like the Hello Yellow Glitz Glitter Gel on the pink cardstock as well, but the yellow just grabs me!

For a little bit of a different look I decided to throw some Gina K Designs Gold Glitz Glitter Gel into the mix. I sprayed the back of the Honey Bee Stamps Radiant Stencil with Pixie Spray and spread the Gold Glitz Glitter Gel over the stencil with a Stencil Pal onto a piece of yellow and pink cardstock.

All of the images for my cards are from the My Favorite Things Main Squeeze stamp set. I simply love lemons. Lemon planners, pens, leggings, real lemons haha! I've been hinting to my husband for so long that I want a lemon tree, but since I live in the northeast that probably wouldn't work too well.

I colored all of my images with the same Copic Markers. I did very simple blending so that I could quickly color all of the images I needed for my cards. I used Y15 and Y17 for the lighter portions of the lemons, Y35 and Y38 for the darker yellow, and YG17 and YG25 for the greenery.

Once I had all of my images cut and colored I arranged them at the center of each card. I didn't want to mess up the arrangements, so I used a piece of Purple Tape to pick up the arrangement all at once so that I could easily work with 5 or 6 die cut images as one piece. I used iCraft Ultra Bond Liquid Adhesive to adhere the leaves and Gina K Designs White Foam Squares to give the lemons a bit of dimension.

I hope these simple Glitz Glitter Gel cards remind you of sunshine and have you thinking warm thoughts! See you soon!

Pink & Main | Have a Cool Birthday

Ice cream is my favorite sweet treat! I brought together a bunch of sweet Pink & Main stamps and dies to make this cool birthday card!

I wanted to have a fun birthday card with unexpected ice cream colors. I started by stamping the Sprinkles Background Stamp onto white cardstock with Versamark Ink and embossing it with white powder. I used an Ergonomic Blending Brush to blend some light pink, dark pink, and purple inks over the embossed Sprinkles Background for an easy emboss resist background. This is the easiest way I've found to have white embossing with a colorful background. You could first blend and then emboss the background, but then you have to wait for the background to dry completely and I'm much too impatient for that!

The adorable ice cream truck image is from the So Cool stamp set. This stamp set is so adorable! Cute little penguins and ice cream images, but this ice cream truck grabbed my attention! I stamped it and colored it with colors that would coordinate well with the background and die cut the truck with the So Cool dies.

I wanted to have a big birthday sentiment and opted to use the Happy Birthday Dies since my background is heat embossed and I have a die cut image. Die cut sentiments are easy to layer and I love the way the Happy Birthday Dies stand out! This die set comes with a shadow die, but I liked the look of just the sentiment on top of the Sprinkles Background. And that finishes the card! See you soon!

InkOn3 | Atelier Re-Inker Watercolor Stripes

Rainbows just make me so happy! Especially when they're bright and vibrant and mixed with beautiful white flowers! I used Atelier Ink Re-Inkers from InkOn3 along with the Posies Stamp Set for today's card - and I have to say - I really like it!

I love using re-inkers to add rich, vibrant color and the Atelier Inks are gorgeously pigmented! I wanted to have some simple chunky stripes, so I decided to just free hand them! 

I added a few drops of Marilyn Red, Marigold Orange, Bee Sting Yellow, Goddess Green, Peacock Blue, and My Jam Purple Re-Inkers to my work surface and used a bit of water and a 1/2" flat watercolor brush to add stripes to a piece of watercolor cardstock. I tried to keep the stripes pretty even, but in the end I think the fact that they all look a little wonky is great! It gives the background character! Haha! I keep a bit of Liquid Pixie Dust in a Small Fine Tip Watercolor Brush and I brushed some over each stripe. If I had thought ahead properly I would have mixed a drop of Liquid Pixie Dust into each puddle of Atelier Re-Inker before I painted - but I didn't. Oh well! 

I stamped my image from the Posies Stamp Set with Blackout Hybrid Detail Ink by combining the vase, stem, and flower onto heavy weight white cardstock. I colored the image quickly with Copic Markers and trimmed it out. I snapped a photo of the Copics that I used or you can see the coloring in action in the video above! Of course I needed a bit more shimmer, so I covered the image with Liquid Pixie Dust. 

I finished the card by stamping a sentiment from the Posies Stamp Set with Blackout Hybrid Detail Ink and adding the image with foam tape. I hope you like it! There's just something so striking about a vibrant rainbow background with a simple white flower. See you soon!

i-crafter | Positive Thoughts Mini Terrarium Shaker

A little bit of stamping, a little bit of die cutting, and a fun little shaker window is all it takes to build a clean and simple terrarium shaker with i-crafter goodies!

I stamped a border at the bottom of my card using a stamp from the Comic Half Tone Dots Stamp Set and Majestic Lilac Hybrid Ink. The stamp wasn't long enough to stretch across the bottom of my card, so I stamped it once, shifted my card, and stamped again using the same ink.

Now let's create that cute little shaker! I die cut the backer and frame for my shaker from the Mini Succulent Terrarium Die Set. I also cut a few little pieces for the inside of the terrarium from the Mini Succulent Terrarium Die Set. I blended some yellow ink onto the backer piece and glued the succulents on top. The new Geometric Dimensional Domes make it SO easy to create little terrarium shakers! All you do is adhere the frame on top of the dome, fill the dome with some shaker bits, and adhere the backer to the dome! I added a bit of gold twine to make it look like it was hanging from the top of my card.

To finish the card I stamped a sentiment from the Scattered Thoughts Stamp Set with Hushed Darkness Hybrid Ink. Have fun building your own mini terrariums!