Welcome Baby

Hello and happy Friday! Today's card was created for a co-worker's baby shower and I thought I would enter it into the latest Watercooler Wednesday "all about occasions" card challenge. To create my card I started by ink smooshing some Tim Holtz distress inks onto some Canson watercolor paper and then inking over it using a handmade stencil I created with some plastic packaging and a wave shaped die. I spritzed the panel with my mini Mister and then sprinkled some clear water droplets onto it as well as some Distress Spray Stain in picket fence. Once it was dry I stamped the sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Baby stamp set onto the panel using Versafine onyx black ink. I die cut the panel using a Gina Marie Design stitched edge rectangle die and popped it up off of my white A2 card base using fun foam from Hobby Lobby . I then stamped the whales from The Alley Way Stamps Little Fellas and Something's Fishy stamp sets onto white Copic-friendly cardstock. I colored them using my alcohol markers, fussy cut them out, edged them using my dual tip Memento marker, and popped them up off of the card using Scrapbook Adhesives foam squares. My co-worker loved the card and I hope you do too. Thank you for visiting my blog and if you enjoyed my card be sure to leave a comment below. I appreciate them all!

Hope Your Halloween Is Frightfully Sweet!

Hello! I can't believe it's almost the end of October. It seems like summer was just here last week. Honestly, this year is just slipping away from me. I just had to create a fun little card for my granddaughter Journey for Halloween. She (and her mom) love Halloween. They had a fun pumpkin carving party last night and my daughter has been planning their costumes for the past month. To create this fun little card I started by distressing a piece of plain white cardstock using my Tim Holtz distress inks. I created the moon by die cutting a circle out of a piece of masking paper. Using the negative of the die cut I inked the moon using squeezed lemonade ink. After the ink dried I masked the moon itself and then inked the sky using salty ocean, faded jeans, and black soot. Using my MiniMister I sprayed a light spritz of water onto the panel for a nice distressed look and then flicked on some droplets of white using Tim Holtz distress spray stain in picket fence. I then inked a separate strip of white cardstock using mowed lawn and then die cut it using a Paper Smooches lawn die. I adhered the grass onto the panel and then stamped the sentiment from the Darcie's Heart & Home Bootiful Halloween stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink and my Misti tool. I then stamped the bat from an old Stampin' UP stamp set. I adhered the panel onto my white card base. I then stamped the trick or treaters onto some Copic-friendly cardstock, colored them using my alcohol markers, fussy cut them leaving a nice white border, and adhered them onto the card using Scrapbook Adhesive foam squares. To finish my card I added some clear Wink of Stella to the kids and the bat. I know Journey is going to love it! Thank  you for visiting my blog today and if you like my card be sure to leave a comment!

Happy Wishes

My last card today was created for the latest Lawnscaping Challenge. I have never been very good at painting, especially watercoloring. I've watched plenty of YouTube videos on a variety of techniques but I've never really been able to master the whole art form. Given that in mind, I chose to participate in this challenge and use some very simple shapes that I didn't think I could do much damage to, so to speak. LOL. I started with a piece of Strathmore cold press watercolor paper. I prepared the paper using my powder tool because I planned on embossing my images to help keep the paint from mixing around too much. I stamped out the adorable lanterns from the Lawn Fawn Lunar Lights stamp set as well as one of the sentiments using Versamark ink and then heat embossed all of them using some black detail embossing powder by Recollections. Using my Simply Art watercolor palette I colored the images in using reds, dark pinks, blues, and greens. I masked the images and the sentiment using some Inkadinkado masking paper and splattered on some Ranger Distress Spray Stain in black soot. I heat the whole thing with my heat tool to dry it and then popped the whole panel up onto a white card base using some 3M foam tape. I then added a few dots here and there using a gold gel pen by Forever In Time. I hope you like it!

You Fog My Spectacles

 My third card today was created for The Paper Players clean & simple Valentine card challenge. I started with some black cardstock from Hobby Lobby and then layered my focal panel on top using some 3M foam tape for a bit of dimension. To create my focal panel I started with some plain 110 lb white cardstock from Staples and used ink smooshing technique. Using a clear acetate sheet, an acrylic block, and Tim Holtz Distress Inks in spun sugar, worn lipstick, and fired brick I created the awesome ombre background. Once this was dry I splattered on some Distress Spray Stain in black soot and then hit the whole thing with my heat gun. I added a small strip of the same black cardstock and then die cut my glasses using black and white cardstocks, vellum, and the matching die from the Paper Smooches Incognito stamp set. I punched two hearts from the leftover smooshed paper in a light pink using Stampin' UP's owl builder punch and adhered those to the center of my glasses and popped the whole thing onto my card using more foam tape. I added a few rhinestones in various sizes around the sentiment and on the glasses and this card was done! 

Have A Boo-Tiful Halloween

I knew as soon as I saw the challenge over at The Paper Players today that I would have to create a Halloween card. I love everything about fall...the pumpkins, the foliage, the cool, crisp air, and I especially loved trick or treating as a kid. As soon as the cool air would hit I knew I had to start thinking about a costume. Well, the characters in the Darcie's Bootiful Halloween stamp set have the most adorable costumes and decided to stamp all three of them to create a sweet little nighttime scene. I stamped each character out using Memento tuxedo black ink, colored them using Copic markers, fussy cut them out and edged them all with a black Memento dual tip marker so they would have nice clean edges. I stamped the trick or treat bag as well and adhered that onto one of the characters. I stamped the smallest pumpkin from Lawn Fawn's So Thankful stamp set, colored it with Copics, and fussy cut it as well. I die cut the trees from both of the tree dies from Paper Smooches in Stampin' UP black cardstock, and die cut the grass from a Paper Smooches die and colored it using Copic markers as well. I cut a white cardstock panel 1/4" smaller than my card base and used distress inks in black soot, faded jeans, and concord and then sprayed the whole thing with a mini mister to add some distressing. Once it dried I splattered some white ink on using Distress spray stain in picket fence. I die cut the moon from a Nestibilities round die, Copic colored it, and then stamped one of the adorable sentiments from the Darcie's stamp set. It turned out so cute!

Witching You A Wicked Birthday

My card today was designed specifically for my best friend Alana's birthday but thought it would be perfect for the Casology Cue Card challenge. My bestie absolutely loves Halloween and all things witch-related. I knew immediately when I found this fantastic witch image on Pinterest that I would have to color her and create a fun birthday card worthy of my friend. I started with a white card base and then created the background by stamping the Altenew Moon stamp in Colorbox grey chalk ink and then the solid moon image over it using VersaMark ink and heat embossed in with clear embossing powder. Love how that allowed the grey to slightly show through to make the moon look like it had craters and dark spots on it. The night sky was created with some Tim Holtz distress inks and a smooshing technique. I spritzed some water over it and then dropped a bit of white distress paint onto an acrylic block and used a wet watercolor brush to flick light splatter over it add a nice mottled look. After I colored the witch with Copic markers I fussy cut her out and mounted her onto some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals and added her to the card. A bit of clear Wink of Stella on her hat, bodice, and stockings added a bit of glimmer, printed the sentiment on my Windows word program using a free font I'd found online and I called this card done. My bestie loved it and I hope you will too!