Striped Birthday Card....and a Surprise!!

Hello! I'm here to share with you one of my favorite cards that I've made in a while. Maybe it's because it's so colorful and I've been feeling so under the weather lately. It just made me so happy to make it!

After I share the card with you I have a surprise! So make sure you keep reading to the very end!

I used a bunch of my new goodies - The April SSS card kit, my new-ish stitched rectangles from Simon, new hybrid ink cubes from Simon, and the plaid background builder stamp set from My Favorite Things! So much newness on one card!

Simon Says Stamp recently had a sale on their inks, so I purchased one of their 1 inch ink cube sets from the Plan on It release. This one is called Energy and comes with four ink colors - Cotton Candy, Coral Reef, Orange Peel, and Sunshine. This color combo is gorgeous!

I started by diecutting a piece of Neenah 110lb cardstock using the largest stitched rectangle from SSS. Then I taped the piece down onto my work surface so that I could keep the stitched lines clean. I didn't want any ink on the edges. MFT recently had a sale on their background stamps, so I picked up the Plaid Background Builder set and I am in love! I haven't used it so much for plaid as I have for stripes. Stripes are my new favorite thing right now!! I started in the middle and used the two solid lines - the skinny and the fat one - and just alternated my ink colors. I love the way it turned out!

I heat set my inks to make sure they were dry and then I stamped a sentiment from the April SSS card kit in Versamark ink and embossed it with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. This came in a card kit a couple months ago and I've been using it non stop! I might like it even better than white embossing powder! It's great!

I mounted my stamped piece onto a piece of Orange Peel cardstock from the kit - it matches the Orange Peel ink perfectly! I used a piece of fun foam behind the paper to give it some dimension and glued it down onto a Neenah card base.

To finish off the card I just used my Micro Glue Dots to stick down a few Doodlebug sequins and I'm done! It's pretty simple! I just think the colors are so fresh!

And now for the surprise!! I've recently surpassed 100 subscribers on YouTube and Instagram! I'm beyond thrilled! So excited! I thought I would do a small giveaway to celebrate! Perhaps a $25 giftcard to one of my favorite crafty companies - Simon Says Stamp! Stay tuned! I plan to kick off the giveaway next week! See you next time!

SSS April Card Kit Ampersand Card

Hi, all! Today I have another card and video to share with you using the April Simon Says Stamp card kit. I have to apologize for my voice in the video. I'm on day 15 of being under the weather. I started about two weeks ago with a stomach bug and now I have a cold that is making it quite difficult to breathe. On top of that, my voice goes all crackly at random times! I hope to have my normal voice back soon!

Okay, let's jump in! Here's today's card!

I started out with a piece of white Neenah cardstock that measures 3 1/2 inches wide by 5 3/8 inches tall. I trimmed out some of the colorful rubons that are included in the kit and used the popscicle stick to transfer the images onto my paper.

I've been really crushing on the new Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink from Tim Holtz, but I don't own the color. I'm on a strict crafty budget, so I have to wait for multiple things to be released so that I don't pay multiple shipping charges. I thought I'd try to recreate this color. Now obviously, it's not exact, but I'm happy with the results. I don't have a Distress Ink that's like this morphed color, so this is a technique I will be trying again in the future.

I started by using a mini round ink blending tool and sponging on some Peacock Feathers around my sentiments. Once I had that blended the way I liked, I went back over the blue ink with some Mustard Seed Distress Ink. The two colors blended together quite nicely and it left me with this minty green color!

I matted my statement piece with a piece of hot pink cardstock from the kit. The cardstock is the same height but slightly wider than the inked paper. I added a piece of the gold foiled paper to the right side of the card and mounted everything onto a Neenah top folding card.

I placed some colored enamel dots onto the front of the card and that is it! Here's the video:

I hope you enjoyed this card and video! I'll be back soon with another card!

Grow Your Dreams Like Flowers.

Hi, everyone! I'm back from a super long and unexpected hiatus! I've decided to work towards bettering myself and my career - after all, I don't want to be a waitress forever! So, I've started volunteering at a local Christian school. I tutor a few kids individually and it's been such a blessing! The only downside is that I am at the school all day on Tuesday, which used to be my crafting day. I work Thursday - Monday and then by the time I'm done at the school on Tuesday I'm too exhausted to craft! I come home and make dinner for my husband and I and then pass out! :) I've rearranged my schedule a bit so now I'm crafting on Wednesdays! I think I've finally found the balance I've been looking for!

Anyway, I was really excited to get my Simon Says Stamp April card kit in the mail. It's a birthday themed kit! For some reason, I have hardly any birthday stamps and never seem to have birthday cards. It's really awkward because everyone in my life knows I make cards, but I never seem to have one on hand when I need it! I've made a couple of birthday themed cards, and I turned on my camera for this one! Although it's not birthday themed, I think it came out super cute!

I just love the gold! It's really pretty! I started by diecutting a piece of vellum and a piece of the mint cardstock that came in the kit with my tag dies from Spellbinders. Then I selected two of the gold rubons from PinkFresh Studios. I arranged them so that the "rain" was growing the sentiment. I used the popscicle stick that came with the rubons and rubbed them onto my vellum piece.

I took a while to figure out which gold foil kraft cardstock I wanted to use, but once I picked it out I cut it down to fit onto my Neenah top folding card base.

I used some Recollections enamel dots to accent the sentiment piece. I used some Tombow Mono Multi glue behind the dots so that I could hide my adhesive when gluing the vellum piece to the cardstock piece. I used regular tape runner adhesive to glue the tag shape onto my card. I added some of the ombre washi tape from the kit onto the corners. I ended up squirting some more liquid glue behind the tape just to make sure it wasn't going anywhere :)

Here's the video:

I hope you guys enjoyed this card and video! I have more cards and at least one more video using this card kit, so be sure to stop back!!

I've also added my blog to bloglovin, so click that link to become a follower!