Guest Designing for A2Z Scrapbooking

Hello, everyone! I'm so excited to be a guest designer for the A2Z Scrapbooking Blog today! They host a new challenge each month and all you have to do is use at least one Hero Arts item as the main focal point on your project! This month's challenge is bright and beautiful and you have until the end of the day to upload a project! Here's the card I made! Be sure to head over to the A2Z blog to see all the details of my card!

See you soon!

OCC Rainbow Maker - Rainbow Stenciling

Hey! I have the last card I made for the Rainbow Maker Online Card Class! This time I used a stencil and embossing paste! Let's dive in! 

I started by blending on some colors to some watercolor cardstock. I once again used Distress Inks - Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Twisted Citron, Mermaid Lagoon, and Seedless Preserves. Once the inks were good and dry I grabbed a new (to me) stencil from Hero Arts called Glorious Petal Stencil. I used another new to me product - Glass Bead Glitter Gel from Faber Castell. I've seen a few cardmakers use this product, so I wanted to try! These pictures do not do justice to the amount of glitter this paste gives! Seriously gorgeous!

I wanted to add a simple sentiment, so I stamped the sentiment from the Script Sentiments from Right at Home and stamped it onto vellum and added clear embossing powder. I stamped a coordinating sentiment onto black paper and trimmed both of them out. I used Multi Matte Medium to stick them onto the super textured background.

Thank you for joining me for all of the cards I made during this class! It's so awesome to have a whole handful of super colorful cards!

OCC Rainbow Maker - More Rainbow Die Cutting

Hey! I'm still working through all of the cards I made during the Rainbow Maker Online Card Class. I still have one more post to show you! Seriously, if anyone is ever hesitant to sign up for one of these classes - you need to! I have 4 cards to share with you! Here they are! 

Here's the first card! I cut strips of colorful cardstock with my paper trimmer. I'm not sure of the colors, but they are all from my past Simon Says Stamp card kits. I rarely use colored cardstock, but I love how these cards turned out! I cut most strips to a 1/4 inch, but some are slightly smaller or slightly bigger. I covered a piece of computer paper with stick it adhesive and started putting down strips of cardstock at a diagonal. I used computer paper because I knew I was going to die cut the strips and I wanted to make sure the die would cut through all the layers. I used the layered thanks die from SSS and inlaid some vellum and the black thanks die. I glued on a scattering of Pretty Pink Posh sparkling clear confetti.

I love these die cutting techniques so much because you get 2 cards from one technique piece! I used the striped piece and cut another "thanks" from white cardstock and glued the two together. I added the same confetti pieces and made a super quick extra card!

I loved the rainbow cardstock strips so much that I made another card! I didn't even have to cut anymore pieces! I just used my leftovers! After I glued down all of the strips of cardstock I used my Hero Arts infiniti dies to cut out a circle. I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from an American Crafts Bible Journaling stamp set onto the inner circle.

And here's the bonus card I made using the leftovers from the previous card!

Stop back soon for one more card I made for this class!

OCC Rainbow Maker - Rainbow Watercolor

Hi, again! I'm still going strong with cards I made during the Rainbow Maker card class! Today I have two cards that feature another rainbow technique - watercolor! You all know I love watercolor! 

I used Distress Inks again for both of my cards. The colors I used were Festive Berries, Carved Pumpkin, Mustard Seed (left), Squeezed Lemonade (right),  Mowed Lawn, Mermaid Lagoon (left), Peacock Feathers (right), and Wilted Violet.

This card is pretty simple and straight to the point. I squished the inks down onto my craft mat and added some water and used a paint brush to paint horizontal stripes onto my watercolor cardstock. So easy, but I love how bright this card is! I never did many rainbow techniques before this class, but I'm falling head over heels in love with rainbows after this class!

I used a Neat & Tangled stamp set and some Gold Hero Arts embossing powder and boom! This card is done!

This card is super special - it's a sneak peek of a stamp set that Simon Says Stamp will be releasing for STAMPtember on September 1st! And it is AWESOME!

I used the ink smooshing technique to lay down some quick and easy watercolor onto my background. I dried each of the colors before adding a new one so there wouldn't be much blending of colors. I didn't want to end up with mud in the middle.

I grabbed the not yet released Amazing Messages stamp set from Simon Says Stamp and stamped out the sentiment. There's a little confetti image in the set and I thought I would stamp that rather than adding sequins. I embossed all of my stamping with clear embossing powder. I wanted a bit more glitz to the card, so I added Wink of Stella to the sentiment and to the empty confetti pieces and covered them in Glossy Accents. This card is SO SO SO shimmery in real life!

Thanks for dropping by! I have 3 more cards to share with you that I made during this class! And these 3 are ones that I made after the fact - so they will be completely new to all of you!

OCC Rainbow Maker - Rainbow Die Cutting

Hi!! I'm here again with more cards from the Rainbow Maker card class! Today I'm sharing my cards that I made for day 3 - rainbow die cutting. I love die cutting techniques because often times you can get at least two cards from one technique piece!

I made both of these cards from one piece of cardstock and with one pass through my Big Shot. That makes me so happy! Having a toddler keeps me on my toes and limits my crafty time. I love techniques that give me more bang for my buck in a manner of speaking!

This is the card I intended to make. I grabbed my Plaid Background Builder stamp set from My Favorite Things and a bunch of inks from Simon Says Stamp. My ink colors were Watermelon, Orange Slush, Sunshine, Key Lime, High Dive, and Wisteria. I used three stamps from the stamp set and alternated between my ink colors stamping on a diagonal.

I grabbed my alphabet dies from Tim Holtz and Sizzix and arranged my letter dies onto the cardstock piece and die cut them all at once. I adhered the rainbow stamped and die cut panel onto a white card base and that was it! I didn't add any sequins...I'm still on the fence. I may end up adding some when I send it out! Sometimes I like the white background of the letters, but sometimes I think about paper piecing in some black letters. What do you think?

This card is like "leftover night". We have leftovers at least once a week in my house. It usually happens when I'm lazy and don't want to cook and we have a fridge full of food that needs to get eaten. This card reminds me of that! After I cut out my sentiment from the previous card I had all of these wonderfully colored plaid letters! I stuck them on a gray colored card base and that was all! I think I actually like my "leftovers" card better!

Thanks for coming by! I still have 5 more cards to show you! Check back soon!

OCC Rainbow Maker - Rainbow Stamping

Hi, again! I'm sharing two more cards that I made during the Rainbow Maker Online Card Class. Day two was about rainbow stamping. I used the same technique for both cards - first and second generation stamping. 

I used the same products for both cards. My inks are from Studio Calico - Well Red, Orange County, Lemon Zest, Lime Light, Clear Blue, and Lavender Soda. The stamp set is called Killer Messages from Hero Arts.

This first card was actually my practice piece. I practiced what the inks would look like when I stamped them at full strength and then again without re-inking. It looked super cute and I didn't want to throw it away!

I love how these killer whales are swimming across the card in rainbow order! It makes my heart sing! I added a quick sentiment and some stamped some scattered hearts and turned this practice panel into a card!

Here is what I actually had in mind for the card. I wanted a rainbow of killer whales filling the whole card front. Some are stamped at full strength and then I would stamp again without re-inking. This makes it look like I have many more ink colors than I actually do. I finished off this card the same way as I did the first one.

I just love these two cards! They are one layer and super duper cute! I'll be back soon with some rainbow die cutting techniques!

OCC Rainbow Maker - Ink Blended Cards

Hey there, everyone! I've shared all of these cards on Instagram, but now I'm going to share closeups of the cards I made for the latest Online Card Class - Rainbow Maker. I started this class 5 days late....shame on me. I had time to make cards for most of the class, but not share them properly. I hope you're ready to see my creations! Today I'm sharing the cards I made for day 1 of the class. The focus was on ink blending. 

Here they are! I used my Distress inks for both of these. My rainbow of colors included Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Fossilized Amber, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, and Dusty Concord.

I used masking paper and die cut a heart and used the negative space to mask off most of my card front. I blended my Distress inks in rainbow order and added some flicks of water. I loved the result when I peeled off the masking paper!

I thought it needed a little something, so I used a black pen to freehand some doodle outlines. I added a thanks die cut from Simon Says Stamp and added some Wink of Stella glitter.

I tried another technique for my second card. I blended on the same Distress Inks from the top to the bottom of a piece of watercolor cardstock. I added a stencil and spritzed some water over the top. It didn't turn out how I wanted it, but I still like the texture! I trimmed down the panel and added some strips of black cardstock to the sides.

I used a sentiment from Neat & Tangled and some Sparkling Clear Pretty Pink Posh sequins.

That's all! Two quick and easy cards! And both of them are super flat for easy mailing! Thanks for stopping by!

Distress Ink Bleed

Hi, again! I have another card that I'm entering into the A2Z Scrapbooking Bright and Beautiful challenge! Click the photo link below to add your own creation! 

I used the Birthday Animal Silhouettes stamp set from Hero Arts and I stamped the giraffe image with a variety of Distress Inks - Fossilized Amber, Twisted Citron, and Peacock Feathers. The balloons are Fossilized Amber and Picked Raspberry. I added water with a spray bottle and let the ink colors bleed out from the original image. Then I stamped the image again (getting perfect placement with my MISTI) with Versafine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed it with sparkle embossing powder. The embossing powder is clear, but it gives the black ink a blue sheen - a happy accident!

 I added the balloon strings with a black pen and then I went to town with my Nuvo drops. I made this card super late at night and I didn't realize that my drops aren't perfect. Oh well. Everyone knows I hand make all of my cards. No one will care that the drops aren't perfect circles! I used 3 colors - Caribbean Ocean, Silver Moondust, and Dandelion Yellow.

That's all! This was simple to make, but I love the results!

Bright Birthday Animals

Hello, there! Today I'm sharing a card that I'm entering into the A2Z Scrapbooking Challenge for August - Bright and Beautiful. Click the image below to take you to the challenge! You just have to create a card that fits the challenge and uses Hero Arts products! This is also some homework for day 2 of the Rainbow Maker class at Online Card Classes! 

I used the Birthday Animal Silhouettes stamp set from Hero Arts in combination with my Distress Oxide Inks. I used Fossilized Amber, Worn Lipstick, Broken China, Wilted Violet, and Cracked Pistachio.

 I stamped all of my images randomly around my cardstock and then flicked on some water. I white heat embossed a sentiment from the same stamp set and foam mounted it on top of some gold glitter cardstock.

Super quick and easy! I'll be back soon with another card for this challenge! Thanks for stopping by!

Lawn Fawn Father's Day Card

Hey! I have another out-of-season card to share with you! This one is going into my county fair, too! I pretty much make Mother's and Father's Day cards only once a year, so I had to make this one special! 

I started by stamping frames from Lawn Fawn's Flirty Frames with Versafine ink and embossed them with clear embossing powder. I masked off the frames and stamped various images from Let's BBQ and a sentiment from Happy Everything inside of the frames and watercolored them with my Gansai Tambi watercolors.

I thought the backgrounds was too white, so I diluted my black watercolor to a very light gray and watercolored the whole background. Some black Nuvo drops and some Glossy Accents here and there and this card is done! Thanks for stopping by!