SSS July 2016 Card Kit Card #2

Here’s my second birthday card that I made using mostly the items that were provided in the Simon Says Stamp July 2016 Card Kit.

I started this card off using a piece of 4.25 x 5.5″  120 lb white cardstock that was cut down from a 8.5 x 11″ piece that was included in the kit. These are a nice heavy weight cardstock and they take ink very nicely. They are also super smooth. I was again very impressed with the Simon Says Stamp paper.

I inked up the cardstock using Salty Ocean Distress Ink, Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and the included Hybrid Ink in Slate Grey. Ink it in this order too. Ending with the darkest color just on the edges of the paper. I used a Tim Holtz Ink Blending Tool to get this effect. Dry the cardstock completely with a heat tool or leave it to dry. You need the cardstock bone dry so the next step works the best.

Now you will ink up some of the solid image stamps from the Handwritten Floral Greetings Stamp Set using Versamark ink and stamp them to create a frame. Heat emboss them with white embossing powder. Don’t forget to use an anti-static powder tool before you do this!

Here’s where the magic happens! Now we will color over the white embossed images with alcohol markers. I used Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers to do this, but you can use Copics, BIC, Sharpie, or whatever alcohol based markers you have. This technique will not work with any other kind of medium since we’re essentially coloring on top of enamel. This creates these beautifully vibrant images on your card and it’s a really fun technique!

Lastly, I stamped using one of my all time favorite stamp sets (Seriously, I find myself reaching for this one over and over again!) Handwritten Notes by Avery Elle. The “Happy Birthday To You” stamp was all in one line but all I had to do was selectively ink what I wanted on each line. Looking at the card now I wish I was a little more particular and slid the “To You” over to the left a little bit, but it still came out nice.

I hope you give this technique a try and I’ll be back very soon with another Birthday Card using the July 2016 Simon Says Stamp Card Kit.

To subscribe to the card kit for $24.95 a month, just click the link below.

SSS July 2016 Card Kit Card #1

Today I’m sharing the first of 3 birthday cards that I have already made using this card kit. It tried to stick to mostly what was included in the kit and use only a little bit of my supplies I already had on hand.

Here’s the card: 

This was the quickest of all of the cards I made and I just made it up as I went along. I started with one of the beautiful patterned papers from the kit and ink blending the border and the flowers using a Judikins Color Duster. I used various yellow inks including the one hybrid ink that was in the kit along with some distress ink. 

The sentiments that came in the Handwritten Floral Greetings Stamp Set were all nice but I specifically needed Birthday Cards so I used my stamp from the Lawn Fawn Scripty Sayings stamp set. I embossed that on some black cardstock using versamark and white embossing powder. Don’t forget to run an anti static tool over the paper before embossing!

I layered that on top of some vellum and taped it down to the card front. I added some glass domes to the top left corner to finish it off. Glass domes are also sold by Pretty Pink Posh under the name Clear Droplets. Mine are just a little larger than theirs. I mounted the card front onto Simon Says Stamp Slate Cardstock that I turned into a card base by cutting it at 5.5″ and scoring it at 4.25″. If you haven’t used Simon Says Stamp Cardsstock before, I definitely recommend you give it a try. I was super happy with how heavy weight it was and it made me realize I’ve been making some very “light” card bases. It made it feel much nicer.

That’s it for today! I will be back really soon with another birthday card I made using this month’s Simon Says Stamp Card Kit. Thank you for stopping by!

 

Crazy About You Card – Foiling & Vellum

This card went in a completely different direction than I had sketched out. Originally it was going to have a foiled frame and some 3-D flowers. The frame ended up being too big and then I ended up making it a somewhat masculine card so I decided to not use the purple 3-D flowers I made.

Here’s a clickable list of Supplies I used:

Black Coredinations Cardstock

White Cardstock

Vellum

Salty Ocean Distress Ink

Dots Embossing Folder

Rose Gold Cord (This was in a 3 pack that I got from Michael’s)

Simply Said: Crazy Stamp Set by Avery Elle

Also currently available in our store for $6.00

Stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Rose Gold  MINC Foil

Applied using the Heidi Swapp MINC Mini Machine (Click picture for this bundle on Amazon)

Flower Embellishment that was foiled is from the Anna Griffin Minc Bundle. We were selling them and we sold out and won’t be getting any more. Here’s a link to that bundle:

There’s also some floral elements sold in this bundle if you already have the machine:

Here’s what the flower looks like at an angle so you can see the shine of the foil

I also added this little heart on the inside using an old Sizzix die to die cut some Toner Paper. The arrow was from the pieces that came in the Heidi Swapp Minc Mini Set. I didn’t have my heat on the machine turned up enough so I was left with some black spots.

That’s it for today! Make sure you subscribe to our Youtube channel so you can see the video of making this card when it goes live. Thank you for stopping by!

Coffee Lovers Bloghop for National Coffee Day!

Today is National Coffee Day and I had the PERFECT stamp set to celebrate with! Lawn Fawn’s Love you a Latte set.

Which looks like this,

Love you a Latte

I wanted to make it look like the coffee mugs were sitting on a granite counter top, so I tried making a counter top by marbling my Luster Mica Spray Mists. I used Hawaiian Shores and Black Sand Beach. To get them to marble all you need to do is spray them and then spray water while you are drying it with a heat tool. I use the heat tool and water simultaneously to move the Luster Spray Mist in the desired direction. I stamped the mugs using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored them with Spectrum Noire Alcohol Markers. I will warn you that I know nothing about alcohol ink coloring. I gave it my best shot, but I feel that I failed miserably. The faces I used are actually from another Lawn Fawn Set (possibly multiple other sets). The “+” is the cross from the little nurse bird in another Lawn Fawn Set as well. The “=” was just drawn in using a PITT pen. I used the steam that says “smile” on it, but I just wanted the steam and not the “smile”, so I masked that part off and stamped it twice. The gold embossed hearts are also from another Lawn Fawn Set. I used a ever so slightly larger one on the mug than with the sentiment. I ended up spritzing the black cardstock because I still do not own a embossing powder anti-static tool and I made a mess. I think the Luster Spray Mist hid my boo boo pretty well!

I’m playing along with the Coffee Lovers Bloghop because I LOVE coffee. I drink it 6 out of 7 days of the week and sometimes drink too much of it. HAHA. I hope you will play along too! To check it out, just click on the badge below and it will link you to the rules and the hop. Thanks for stopping by! 

Baby Shower Invitations

My best friend and I had a lot of fun making these Baby Shower invitations in a time crunch! We made 25 of them in just over 2 hours. The only thing we forget is to put where she is registered…oops! I think she figured out a way to incorporate that into the card though. Whew.

Here is a vague list of what we used:

Nested Owls Shapeabilities < Click to find them in my store!
Mini Labels Movers & Shapers
2 separate DCWV Mat Stacks (Can’t remember which ones, sorry!)
Fiskars and Recollections Baby themed stamp sets
White Embossing Powder, Versamark, and Heat Gun
Studio G Black Pigment Ink
Corner Chomper
Dot Runner from $1 Bin at Joann’s

Here are the pics:

We both seriously fell in love with the white owl on the black sparkly background. I know it’s not very baby-ish, but it is so cute! If you have any questions about how we did something, please feel free to comment.

Thank you for stopping by!

Looking for DCWV & Sizzix Deals?

Have you checked out www.DCWVdeals.com yet? If you haven’t you really should! It’s Die Cuts With a View’s super awesome deals page. Their little slogan is “You need the savings, we need the space!”. They are not kidding about these deals.

I just placed an order yesterday for a couple things and the shipping is very reasonable too. I’m most excited for my Bella Boutique 12 x 12 stack that I paid only $7.46 for. This stack was originally $19.99. I call that a super sweet deal! I almost bought two packs, but I restrained since I also bought a couple things from Amazon, Ebay, and Etsy yesterday. I wanted my money to stretch further instead of hoarding one paper stack.

Here’s what the front of the stack looks like:

Definitely check out www.DCWVdeals.com . They have a very limited amount of items on there, but it’s totally worth stopping by. Another place I go to on a semi-regular basis is the Outlet on www.sizzix.com . Just hover over “Clearance” in the upper right corner and you will see “Outlet” as an option. Click that and you will see only deeply discounted items. I have found some amazing deals on here before, but I normally only buy if I have at least a couple things I want because of the way their shipping costs are structured.

Hopefully I have helped you find a couple good deals out there! Thanks for checking out my blog.

Love Photo Frame for a Man

After my sweet man got me such a nice gift for V-Day, I felt like I should give him a little more than just a handmade card and a kiss. I couldn’t think of anything I could even buy him so I decided to dedicate most of my Sunday to designing and making this picture frame. I was kind of surprised how long it took me to make it, but as I was explaining the whole process to my boyfriend it came quite apparent that making something similar to this wouldn’t take nearly as long the second time around. My intention with this frame was to make it “fit for a man, but obvious that it was given to him by a woman”, as I explained it to my boyfriend.

Below is a finished shot and a before and after. I have a few more of the blanks, so I plan on making a few more. One is going to be for my BFF’s unborn child and the other 2 I plan to make to sell on Etsy (hopefully!)

Full blog post is super long and is an attachment. It is a tutorial of how I made this picture frame. I’m still getting the hang of this whole blogging thing! haha. Thanks for being patient with me while I figure it all out!

Here is the link…. Love Photo Frame for a Man

Vintage Distressed Valentine’s Card

  When I was making this card, I was thinking about giving it to my boyfriend for Valentine’s Day, but I was so excited about it that I showed it to him instead lol. So, now I have it for sale at my Etsy Shop.

I had alot of fun using distressing techniques and my imagination to make this card. I very rarely plan out my cards before I make them. Sometimes it means I waste paper and time, but other times I am very pleased with the outcome. I’ve never used feathers on my cards and I really like how it turned out with the angel wings.

I’ll let you in on a secret…the angel wings and the inside purple paper of the key hole are actually re-purposed paint chips! Yeah, those free ones that you get at the store when you’re deciding what color you want to paint your room! I like the matte look and feel of them. The only thing I would caution about is, the one with the angel wings started to smoke a little when I was embossing on it. I think I got the paint chip a little too hot. I don’t plan on using paint chips on my projects on a regular basis because then I would feel like I’m stealing them, but these ones happened to have the perfect colors I was looking for and I had them within arms reach.

Hope you like it. I will be selling some of the products used on this card in my shop when it opens. I am furiously working on it. I hope to have it opened this week.

Some products used:

•Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder
•Tim Holtz Distress Ink
•Tim Holtz Mini Mister
•Various Tim Holtz Stamps ( I think they’re from Regal Flourish, Urban Grunge, and Purely Random)<< LOVE how all his stamps work together!
•Purple Perfect Pearls
•White feathers from Wal-Mart
•Small Metal Key from Michael’s
•Small metal keyhole brad from Oriental Trading Co. (not really a fan of them, since this stuff is cheap quality, but they had these brads and I love them).