CDD Floral Mood Board Inspiration

Hello, crafty friends! I made a card inspired by the May mood board from Craftin Desert Divas! You still have a couple of days left to challenge yourself with this mood board! If you want to enter all you have to do is create a card inspired by the board using Craftin Desert Divas products! Click on the photo below to take you to the Facebook event where you can add a photo of your project!

I was inspired by all the floral images, so I used the new (and one of my new favorites!) stamp set Hello Beautiful.

I created an alcohol ink background with some blue, pink and brown inks and added some gold foil where the ink stayed sticky. I white heat embossed some florals and a sentiment from the Hello Beautiful stamp set. I die cut a frame from the Inside Scalloped Rectangle dies and I was going to leave it at that...but as I was adding my frame I thought this would make a great shaker card! I used CDD sequins in Shimmer, Mermaid Lagoon, and Citrus Bliss! I love how it turned out!

A Manatee-rific Anniversary Card

Hello! Today is my 6th wedding anniversary! My husband and I love manatees - okay....I love manatees! Haha! My husband just goes along with it! They seem to be all the rage this summer, so of course I need to collect them all! My Lawn Fawn manatees got here just in time to make my husband a maniversary card! Haha!

I used Copic markers to color all of my images and cut them out with coordinating dies. I added a see-through shaker element and some pretty patterned papers! The sentiment just makes me giggle!

Soy Grateful For You

Hi!! I have a super cute card to share with you today! I used the Roll With Me stamps from Beth Duff Designs. I have to be honest - I don't like seafood...and I've never eaten sushi...so I had to look up how to color these guys! I love the little wasabi that's sitting on top of the sushi roll! He's the cutest! 

I watercolored my images with Staedtler markers as I love to do and cut them out and added them with foam tape. I pulled my sentiment together from the Roll With Me stamp set and the Ranger Letter It Thank You stamp set.

SSS May 2018 Card Kit Hummingbird Cards

Hey everyone! I have a couple of cards to share with you using products from the Simon Says Stamp May 2018 card kit! I'm in love with this kit! The mini hummingbird stamp set stole my heart! I made two quick and easy cards right away! 

I hope you've enjoyed these cards!

Craftin Desert Divas Throwback

Hello! I have a clean and simple card using a throwback stamp set - Ladybug Garden! It's one of my favorite older CDD stamp sets! So many super cute images! This card is also inspired by our May mood board! Check out the mood board photo below and click on the image to take you to our Facebook challenge page! There are prizes to be won and all you have to do is create a project using CDD products inspired by the mood board!

So let's start today's tutorial! It involves one of my favorite techniques - ink blending!

You could use any ink for this project, but I wanted the colors to show through each other and blend to create depth, so I chose Distress Ink in the colors Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, and Abandoned Coral!

This card relies heavily on masking - another favorite technique! My idea was to mask off parts of the card in rectangles and squares and build a whole background. I used some paper medical tape to mask off the first portion of my card in the shape of a square.

I started with Spun Sugar - my lightest color and filled in the large square and continued masking off different areas of my card and blending ink over the tape.

My second color was Worn Lipstick. You can see here that I tore my cardstock while I pulled off my tape. I got a little too rambunctious and peeled too quickly! You better believe I'm not scrapping this piece, though! I will find a way to cover it up!

I finished up my panel with a few areas of Abandoned Coral!

I stamped my sentiment from the Wishful Thoughts stamp set with black glitter embossing powder. Looking back, I wish I had used a plain black ink.

I positioned my image from the Ladybug Garden stamp set to cover up my torn cardstock. Originally I had planned to place my image more toward the center, but when things happen you just have to roll with it! I had my card ready to go...and at the last minute I decided to cut out my panel with a scallop rectangle from the Fancy Frames die set and pop it up on my card base! And that finishes my card! Thanks for joining me!

CDD Mermaid Tail and Seahorse Dies

Hello, everyone! It's release week for Craftin Desert Divas and their May release is AMAZING! I'm going to be sharing projects all week, but I want to start with my FAVORITE from this release...the dies! They are phenomenal! 

For this card I used the smaller die from the Mermaid Tail die set and cut out a whole bunch of the fish scales to create the illusion of a background die. I watercolored a background piece using some Nuvo Shimmer Powders and added the white die cuts on top. My sentiment is from the new Waving Hello stamp set. It fits perfectly!

I used the same idea for this card, but I used the new Seahorse die instead! I watercolored a panel with Nuvo Shimmer Powders and repeatedly die cut the seahorse shape. I love square cards and I honestly don't make them often enough! I added all of my seahorses to the card and again used a sentiment from the Waving Hello stamp set!

There you have it! Two clean and simple cards focusing on the AMAZING die cuts!

Pattern Happy Suntiments

The sun is finally starting to shine!! I'm a winter girl at heart, but I do love spring - when the sun shines without it being scorching hot! The Pattern Happy Sunitments stamp set just screams sun shiny goodness! 

I stamped my own background using the main sun image, the little add on dots, and some little hearts! I added my banner sentiment and this cutie card is done!

Craftin Desert Divas May Release Sneak Peek Day 4

Hi! I'm here to share another stamp set from the May Craftin Desert Divas release! It's called Away We Go and will be available TOMORROW at 3 pm EST!! This stamp set is perfect for summer vacations! Or even moving! I love when a stamp set can be used for multiple themes! 

Thanks for joining me for sneak week! Head to the Craftin Desert Divas shop tomorrow to shop the new release!

Craftin Desert Divas May Release Sneak Peek Day 2

 Hello! Today I'm sharing a little sneak peek using the new Mermaid Tail Die! This is such an awesome die! It doesn't actually cut out the tail, so it's perfect for making a shaker card! But it's also so easy to just fussy cut around the outside so you have the outline of the die for your card! I did that and also lined up the inner pieces of the die so I got 2 cards from one die cut!

I created a watercolor panel using Nuvo Shimmer Powders and then die cut my mermaid tail, added some sentiments from the new Waving Hello stamp set, and boom! Two cute summer cards! The whole release will be available in the Craftin Desert Divas store Friday at 3pm EST!

Craftin Desert Divas May Release Sneak Peek Day 1

Hello, everyone! Can you believe it's already time for another Craftin Desert Divas  release?! I say it every month...but really this one is fantastic! It's a great way to enter summer! There's so many truly AWESOME stamps, dies, and a stencil!

Today I will show you two cards I made using the Waving Hello stamps and Beach Scene stencil!

See what I mean!? You're going to need this release! It will hit the Craftin Desert Divas shop on Friday at 3pm EST!

Die Cut Spotlighting Technique

Hello! I'm sharing a die cutting spotlighting technique with you today! I used pinks in my cards inspired by the May Mood Board! Click the photo below to take you to our Facebook group so you can join in the fun! Just create a card using CDD products inspired by the mood board and upload it to the challenge group.

On to my cards!

I created the blue one first with pops of pink, but the blue turned out much brighter than I expected and I thought the pink got lost...so I created another one so you can't miss the pink!

I took a scallop frame die from the Fancy Frames Die Set and put it in my MISTI so I would know where I would be diecutting. You could also die cut first and then tape the pieces together on the back. I just wanted to make sure I had stamping overlapping both pieces.

Then I lined up my sentiment and all my stamps and started stamping them with Versafine Onyx Black ink.

Whenever I stamp I stamp at least 2 pieces (especially in the MISTI since it's so easy)! I'm pretty accident prone and I"m glad I stamped 2 this time! I did one on white for my colored pencils. I'm so new with pencils I didn't know how it would turn out...so I stamped one on watercolor cardstock as well (watercolor is my tried and true coloring technique!).

I die cut my scallop frame from the center and I'll color in just the center portion!

I started with the pops of pink and used Prismacolor pencils in the colors pink and peach...

The robots were colored with silver and a bit of black for shading...

And then what I thought was a teal color for the background. It turned out to be super blue and I didn't like it as much. I went over everything with gamsol to blend the color and make it smooth.

In the end I had to break out my Staedtler markers and do some watercoloring. I just wasn't happy with the pencils! Haha!

I added fun foam to the back of the scallop rectangles and popped them back in to place. The little bit of dimension adds some fun shadows and really highlights the spotlighting technique! Thanks for joining me!