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!

 

End of Year Sale on the ENTIRE Store!

That’s right! For 3 days ONLY we are offering an additional $5.00 off for every $20.00 you spend. This is an additional savings on top of the other sales and discounts we have going on right now.

This offer applies to all items in the store priced up to $40.00!

This is our best sale all year long and it’s the perfect time to load up on craft essentials and new Valentine’s products!

To see what’s for sale Click Here! 

Black Friday Sale!

No Coupon Codes Required! Just add at least $100 of product to your cart and you will get an EXTRA 10% off and Free Shipping. The best part is, you can still use your coupon codes to save even more. Seriously! 

JUST CLICK HERE TO GET TO THE STORE! 

The sale starts NOW and ends at midnight on November 30th!

Contemporary Christmas Tree Card

This is one of those cards that came out completely different than the way I pictured it in my head. Luckily, it came out looking different in a good way!

I started off by sprinkling some Color Burst in Pthalo Green and Alizarin Crimson on some thick watercolor paper. I spritz that with water and dry it and then repeat. Doing this step two times gives you completely different results than doing just one layer. (Just one more reason Color Bursts are so awesome! )

After my background was done, I buffed some Black Soot Distress Ink through my Angled Trees Stencil using a sponge dauber. This is where I messed up a little. I forgot to heat set the distress ink and it stayed wet and caught some of my sticky embossing powder. Oops!

The Angled Trees Stencil is a Two Step Stencil that you can stack to get extra effects. I stacked the dotted angled tree on top and then patted my Versamark Ink Pad all over it. (If you do this, please be aware that some of the distress ink will transfer to your Versamark ink pad.) You can also use an Emboss It Dabber, which I ended up doing for the star. Then sprinkle some Sticky Embossing Powder by Ranger all over. Now you can heat that until it gets shiny and quickly apply some Fab Foil or Ranger’s Foil Sheets. Make sure to burnish it well and wait for the Sticky Embossing Powder to cool. Then just rip the sheet off. If you are using Fab Foil, it will result in a distressed look like you see on my card. It’s not exactly what I had in mind, but I think it looks cool!

I just adhered my card front to a black card base and called it done. I am going to white emboss my sentiment on the inside of the card. I thought there was enough on the outside of the card that I didn’t want to make it look too busy.

Here’s what the new stencil looks like (It’s only $3.99!)

Here’s what the entire card looks like. The foil looks best from an angle. When you look at it head on, it can appear to be black. 

Thank you 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!

NEW LAWN FAWN IN STOCK – UP TO 15% OFF!

We have new Lawn Fawn products in stock and ready to ship tomorrow!

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL OF THE LAWN FAWN PRODUCTS WE HAVE LISTED! 

For a limited time, you can save up to 15% off new Lawn Fawn Products!

Get 10% off all Lawn Fawn items with an MSRP over $5.00, plus an extra 5% off your entire order when you spend $50.00 or more.

As always, you get $5.00 flat rate shipping on all orders over $40.00.

We have stamps, dies, inks, twine, and papers ready to ship tomorrow for the big release!

Don’t delay! Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas will be here before we know it. Get crafting now and be ready for the holidays!

To see all of the new Lawn Fawn products and to get inspired, visit the Lawn Fawn Blog. 

Here’s a look at some of the adorable projects the design team has made :

I hope you’re inspired and excited for the new Lawn Fawn Releases! I know I am!!

It’s My Birthday Sale!

Yes, that’s right! It’s my Birthday and I’m still young enough that it doesn’t sting to say that. Haha! In 2 years, I may have a break down for reaching the age of 30, but for now I am pretty content with being 28 years old. ( By the way, I am sure when I am 30, I’ll just decide to delay any break downs for 40 and so on.)

I have a great sale going on for just 8 hours! It ends at Midnight tonight. Get $5.00 off any order over $25.00. This is on top of our already discounted prices! Most of our products are 20-40% off already! I know, I am CRAZY! BUT…. I have some awesome new products coming in and I need more room for them!!

No special code is required. Just buy at least $25.00 worth of products and you will save an extra $5.00. PLUS you can still get $5.00 flat rate shipping on orders over $40.00. 

What are you waiting for?! Click the picture below to get to our products!

Happy Birthday to any other Leo’s out there. Leo’s rock! 🙂

What craft supplies do you buy the most?

I need your help. I am expanding our inventory further and I need to know what YOU want! I know that I personally tend to spend more on tools than disposable items such as charms and embellishments. I also buy a ton of inks and paints so I can have a large color palette to choose from. So, you tell me, what do you buy the most?

12 Tags of 2015- July Tag

I managed to do two tags in a row. Wahoo! Below is my tag for July.

As always, I was missing many of the items necessary to duplicate Tim’s tag. I always try to make do with what I already have in my craft room because most of the time I can substitute items and even techniques. I made a video of the making of this tag. It just needs to be edited and I will add it to this post when that is done. I really enjoy doing these tags! Here’s a link to Tim’s tag and the tutorial : http://timholtz.com/12-tags-of-2015-july/ 

Here’s a few things that I did differently because I was missing supplies:

1. I used a different stamp set that had mini blue prints in it. Since I didn’t have the USA blueprint I decided to stamp it with some letters from one of my Tim Holtz stamp sets and add my own blueprint looking lines and arrows.

2. While I do sell the Distress Microglaze, I try not to take items that I have limited inventory on out of stock. (Which I am glad I didn’t because I am down to one as of this morning!) I had some wax laying around because I’ve been meaning to get in to encaustic wax painting. I had made my own encaustic wax using Damar Resin and Beeswax. I grabbed a chunk of wax and rubbed it over my stamped and colored images. I proceeded to watercolor over it hoping the wax layer would be sufficient. Apparently, it was too sufficient because I had rubbed all around the image and I ended up with more white background than colored background. At least now I know that is an option!  I didn’t have much control over where the wax would be placed when I was rubbing with that solid block. I think that’s a good reason to get the Distress Microglaze as you will get more control with your placement. The microglaze is paste-like and you only need a tiny bit to cover and protect a space from water methods.

3. I do not own a sewing machine. I considered buying a small one for the craft room, but I am really trying to limit myself of larger tools that take up space. So, I just did faux stitching with a pen.

4. My embellishments are different. The number 4 is a grungeboard piece that I painted with a metallic distress paint. The little star is one that I had laying around, and I didn’t have any good charms to add to the top. I really wish I did because it looks a little empty up there.

5. For the spritzing, I had to make my own black marker. I applied some Black Soot ink onto an acrylic block and picked it up with my water brush. The water brush I have will not fit in the spritzer, so I had to hold it carefully and spritz. It ended up working well enough.

6. The crinkle ribbon technique had to be done differently too. I used some seam binding and ran the piece through an ink pad. It laid down the color just fine and it looks about the same in the end. I did have less control over the placement of the color though. If I had the Distress Markers, I would of had a more defined white space in the middle.

So, there’s the differences and how I overcome not having all of the supplies. I hope that might help some of you who are lacking supplies. Just try to think of another way to get it done with what you have. Thank you for stopping by!

P.S. One product I can not substitute is Distress Ink! If you need some, we have it in stock and at a great price!  JUST CLICK HERE!