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!

 

Stamp of Approval Happy Holidays Card with Color Bursts

Do you ever come up with a card design that you are just so happy with that you have to make it again? That’s a rare occasion for me, but I was so happy with this card design that I had to make it again. I will be adding a video of making this card when I have time to edit it.

The dies and stamps I used to make this card were included in the Holiday Magic Stamp of Approval box by Catherine Pooler. These are curated boxes that are released every 3 months. They are $97.00 and contain products from smaller companies such as CAS-ual Fridays, Winne & Walter, and Neat & Tangled. The boxes only have stamps and dies, which I LOVE. I considered some of the other subscription boxes, but didn’t like some of the filler products. I love supporting small companies and exploring new products. These boxes sell out QUICK, so make sure to get on the notification list here. I paid for this box with my own money, but like I said, I like supporting small businesses and I wanted to spread the word!

Onto the card!

I used the snowflake stamps from the CAS-ual Fridays sets that were included in the box. Placing them randomly and then inking with Versamark and embossing with embossing powder will allow you to create a resist when working with the Ken Oliver Color Bursts. I finally caved in and bought 3 Color Bursts and I’m in love with these! In fact, we’ll be carrying them in the store soon! I used Ultramarine Blue and Pthalo Green for the first card.  I cut out the “happy holidays” using a die by Neat & Tangled which you can purchase here. I added a die cut snowflake to tie in the shimmery background paper. Then glue all of that down to some vellum and secured it with some green brads to accent the green in the background.

Below is the card my Mom made:
I made up this card design while I was crafting with my Mom and she played along with me. She used her own stamps and a paper punch along with the Color Bursts and the Happy Holidays Die. So, if you want to make this card and didn’t get the Stamp of Approval box, you certainly could! I love how her card came out and it’s always fun to make her move out of her normal style of card making and try new techniques she probably wouldn’t have on her own. It makes me laugh when she gets inky because she’s used to pretty clean crafting LOL.

Below you will see my second rendition of this card: This time I decided to use the Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue Color Bursts. I also used black brads to match the color of the sentiment. I threw on a couple sequins and used Glossy Accents all over the happy holidays die cut. That really made it pop! Since I added the Glossy Accents after I already adhered the die cut, it actually started to warp the vellum and I had to tuck a few glue dots in strategic places to get it to stay down a little better. I decided to use glitter cardstock this time instead of shimmer cardstock too. 

Here they are side by side. I LOVE how these came out and I’m proud of my design, which happens rarely!

Do you like this design? Do you own Color Bursts? What do you think about the Stamp of Approval Box?

Thanks for stopping by!

Lawn Fawn Thanksgiving Card

Last night I made my first Thanksgiving card for the year. I have to admit, I usually skip right over Thanksgiving and move on to making my Christmas cards. It’s not that I don’t think Thanksgiving is important, it’s just so hard to squeeze everything in with how close all of the holidays are together. I just couldn’t resist using this adorable scarecrow for something though!

The sentiment, scarecrow and crows are from the Happy Harvest Stamp Set by Lawn Fawn . The Tree is from the Sweater Weather Stamp Set by Lawn Fawn. That little spot of grass under the scarecrow is from the Critters in the Jungle Stamp Set by Lawn Fawn.

For coloring the scarecrow and crows, I used Ergosoft Colored Pencils and blended using Gamsol with blending sticks. Just lightly color and blend for a nice effect.

I decided that I wanted the outline of the stamps to be grey instead of the typical black and I used Memento London Fog Ink. The other inks that were used are Distress Inks. I used Ripe Persimmon on the sentiment, a mixture of Wild Honey and Fired Brick on the leaves and Walnut Stain for the tree trunk.

Those cute polka dot papers are by Lawn Fawn and they’re called Let’s Polka, Mon Amie . To paper piece and make the dots line up when using multiple papers, just cut the paper small and make sure you stamp the scarecrow at about the same spot. I don’t have the dies for this set, so everything was fussy cut (a.k.a. cut by hand with scissors).

I hope you enjoyed seeing my card. I did use a few Amazon affiliate links in this post. If you end up purchasing any other products, I get a very small commission. Intoxicating Arts also sells some of these products and those have been linked too. Thanks for stopping by!

Masculine Birthday Card Tips!

I think I finally did it! I made a masculine Birthday card that is actually masculine looking! It seemed impossible, but I think this one qualifies. Most of us struggle with masculine cards because it goes against our femininity, but I think I found something that works. It’s a pretty simple formula and I’ll make sure to use it next time I need a masculine card. Here’s the formula:

1. Find a card sketch online. Any sketch will do, just make sure it’s somewhat geometric, not too busy, and obviously you don’t want flowers drawn in the sketch (well, actually you could just substitute flowers for cogs or gears if that’s the sketch you want)!

2. Pick a simple theme consisting of 3 main ideas and 2 colors, and STICK TO IT! I picked metal, gears, and stenciling. My two colors were silver and black with a white card base. You must keep this simple! It will help you to not over embellish or make the card too busy looking. Feminine cards look great with tons of layers. Just give men one main thing to be impressed with. My card design had a focal image which I decided would be the gears. That is enough.

3. Follow your card sketch. If you finish your card and you think it looks too plain or it needs “this there” or “that over there”, walk away from the card! When you come back in an hour or the next day, if you still think it doesn’t look good, add one thing to fix the problem spot. Not all card sketches are perfect, so you may be right and it needs something extra.

4. You can incorporate multiple techniques, just make sure they work together. I had to use embossing powder to make all of my gears the same color, so I used the same embossing powder on my stenciling. I decided to brush black ink on the edges of the card in a motion that matched the brushed metal on my tape.

5. Use more plain and simple sentiments. I mean both the style of the sentiment and the actual saying itself. If you have anything else you want to say, write it inside the card. The sentiments I used on this card were designed by me and I laser cut stencils so I could use them. I don’t know if I will post these for sale, but if you’re interested, just let me know and I will sell them.

I think those 5 tips should be pretty helpful the next time you need to make a masculine card. If I think of anymore, I will come back here and post them.

Here’s the card that I made:

I hope you found those tips helpful! Thank you for stopping by!

New Easter Laser Cuts!

We have new Laser Cuts to celebrate Easter! The 5 new laser cuts that we have are all egg themed. This got me wondering, Where do eggs tie in to Easter anyways? From what I could find, there are actually multiple reasons. For Christians, it is supposed to represent Jesus’ emergence from the tomb and resurrection. Christian Tradition also states that Mary Magdalene visited Emperor Tiberias and gave him a red egg as a symbol of the Resurrection. The egg is a symbol of new life and has been used in festivals before Jesus’ time. It is also said that it’s inherited from the symbols of the Norse Goddess Ostara who’s symbols are the egg and the hare. Both of which represent fertility.

I think that’s enough of a history lesson for now! Below you will find pictures and pricing for the new laser cuts. I you want to purchase any of them, just click on the picture!

Easter Eggs Set 2″ Tall $3.19 (also available in 1″ tall for $1.49!)

Woven Basket with Eggs $0.99

Woven Basket $0.99

Happy Easter Egg Sentiment $1.59

I hope you saw something you like! I also hope to have enough time to release a few more before it gets too close to Easter! Thank you for stopping by!

Everything is S’MORE fun with you!

I wish I had noticed that this picture was blurry, but I was in a rush! I always seem to wait until the last minute to make cards. OOPS! For this card, I decided to use a few of the products that we sell in the store. The paper is the new “Adventure” collection from Authentique (which still needs to be posted for sale). I just love that tent! The sentiment and the cute little s’more is from Lawn Fawn’s “Love you S’more” set (Click the photo to purchase in my E-Bay store for the discounted rate of $13.50!). It has so many adorable stamps. I was using a demo set, so I just used the ones that came in that set. This was a quick and easy card to put together and it still let my Dad feel special for Father’s Day. I thought it pertained well to him since he used to take us camping a lot when we were little. Thanks for stopping by!

You light up my life Card

Hi everyone!  I just made this card so fast! Probably the fastest I’ve ever made a card. It’s such a quick way to let someone know how much they mean to you and it takes barely any effort, but it’s still handmade.  All you need is two stencils and some of the alpha stamps from the Michaels dollar bin!  The two stencils I used are a new Intoxicating Arts release that I just put up for sale today.  These durable clear laser cut mylar stencils are also super affordable!  The love light bulb stencil is only $0.89 and “Tunnel vision”, which I used to show light, is only $1.29! These prices make it easy to buy trendy stencils without feeling guilty :-). Available for sale now under the stencil section at shop.intoxicatingarts.com . Check it out!

Mother’s Day Card 2013

Used Prima paper and some dollar store stickers. Also, used my new Sizzix dies. I love that shape! It felt nice to craft after not doing so in a while. 🙂