January 2021 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop and Background Dies!

Happy New Year and welcome back to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop! If you've just joined me from the beautifully artistic Joyce Houck's blog,  thank you for continuing on to join me here!

After recovering from the holidays, I wanted to focus on something that didn't require a lot of thought in the design planning but wanted to to make something colorful.  With winter being a bit gloomy and wanting to send a pick me up to a friend or two, using our background dies with Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend Markers and Distress Oxide inks are just the tickets.  Its amazing how easy it can be to put cards together with just some simple tools.

This first card was made using Layered Floral Background Thin Cuts.  There are three thin cuts in the pack, which when bundled together, make a beautiful full-size A2 card.  However, for this card, I only used the layer that makes the largest flowers in this set.  To make this card, I used a soft embossing pad under a piece of White Daisy Cardstock and embossed with the plate without cutting.  This gave me an embossed image on the cardstock which showed me where the images were.  Using my Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend Markers, I colored the images, being sure to go outside the lines.  Although this was messy looking in the end, I knew it would be covered and needed to ensure that none of the white would peek through.

Next, I used the same plate to die cut the image on a piece of Black Cardstock.  I adhered this over the embossed and colored piece and adhered the whole thing onto a White Daisy cardbase.  The sentiment from the retired October 2020 stamp set, With All My Love, was stamped onto a scrap piece of Lemonade Cardstock using Black Pigment ink and embossed with Ranger Clear Superfine Embossing Powder.

Candied Apple, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, and Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide inks were blended in rainbow order onto White Daisy Cardstock for this next card.  I then spattered some water and Clear Shimmer Brush (although hard to see in the photo) over the colored base.  I then simply used the Hearts Background Thin Cuts die to cut the hearts stitched background from a piece of Black Cardstock.  

The sentiment again was used from the retired October 2020 stamp set, With All My Love, and stamped onto a scrap piece of White Daisy Cardstock using Black Pigment ink and embossed with Ranger Clear Superfine Embossing Powder.  By switching the sentiment, it can also make a pretty Valentine's Day card!

Now please head over to the artistically talented Marie's blog and enjoy the rest of the hop!

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December 2020 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop and December Stamp of the Month - Happiness Never Grows Old!

Welcome back to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop! If you've just joined me from the beautifully artistic Krista's blog,  thank you for continuing on to join me here!

December is a hot time for birthdays for people I know and love.  As my mom's birthday is the first week of the month, I wanted to share the card that I made for her here.  Since she loves watercolor, my immediate thought was to use the December Stamp of the Month, Happiness Never Grows Old, as the basis for creating her card.  This stamp set has a number of beautiful images that you can use for different techniques, and watercolor is no exception.

I stamped one of the floral images from the Happiness Never Grows Old set using VersaMark ink onto Distress Watercolor Cardstock.  I then embossed it using Ranger Princess Gold Detail Embossing Powder.  Next, I used watercolors to watercolor the embossed image.  Using Gold Shimmer Brush, I spattered over the whole piece.  I then adhered a piece of Black cardstock to a White Daisy card base, then attached the watercolored piece to the card.

To finish the card, I stamped the "Happiness Never Grows Old" sentiment from the same stamp set onto a scrap of Black cardstock using VersaMark ink and embossed with the Ranger Princess Gold Detail Embossing Powder.  I adhered the sentiment to the card.  Finally, to complete the card, I attached a few Gold Sequins.

Now please head over to the wonderfully talented Marie's blog to see what beautiful work she has done!

 

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November 2020 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop & Easy Stitching with Stitched Lattice Thin Cut

Welcome back to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop! If you've just joined me from the beautifully artistic Krista's blog,  thank you for continuing on to join me here!

The 2020 CTMH Idea Book has been a treasure trove of goodness for the kind of card making I like to do.  In addition to my beloved Distress Oxide inks, the background thin cuts have a favorite of mine, where many times I have used both of these product lines hand in hand.  This month, I stretched the use of one of those background thin cuts, i.e., the Stitched Lattice Background Thin Cut.

 

While quickly glancing at my messy workspace, I had my embellishing thread sitting close to the thin cut and had a vision pop into my head.  With the holes in the thin cut, I thought surely I could do something fun with it and the embellishing thread!

This first card was made by cutting the Stitched Lattice Background Die Cut on a piece of White Daisy cardstock.  I taped a length of Gold Embellishing Thread to the back of the die cut panel and threaded it through a needle.  Using the diamond pattern shown in the photo above, I brought the thread through the larger holes to complete the pattern, taping the end to the back when finished.  This took a little over two yards of the thread.  I adhered this panel to a White Daisy card base.

Next I used a red Sharpie marker to color some Clear Sparkles.  I adhered these to the large holes of the panel.

The "LOVE" sentiment was die cut out of Gold Foil Paper using the Simple Serif Uppercase Thin Cuts.  These letters were adhered to a piece of Scarlet Glitter Paper, which was die cut with the Stitched Brackets Thin Cuts.  Using 3-D Foam Tape, this was adhered to the card.

The second card was made very much like the previous card, but I used the negative Gold Foil Paper that was left from the first card.

This negative piece of Gold Foil Paper was adhered to a square of Scarlet Glitter Paper, which was then attached with 3-D Foam Tape to the card.

 

The final card was made much like the first two.  Instead, I used a blue Sharpie marker to color the Clear Sparkles and Sapphire Glitter Paper as the base for the "THANKS" sentiment, which was cut as a banner and attached with 3-D Foam Tape.

Now please head over to the wonderfully talented Marie's blog to see what the beautiful work she has done!

 

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Easy Distress Oxide Halloween Cards

Although I am getting this post out late on Halloween, I am getting it out so am calling this a win.  😊  I made these cards a month ago, and since they were pretty easy to make, I thought they might inspire you.

To make this card, I first created a stencil out of Grafix Stencil Paper, using the spider web image from the Cricut Artbooking collection.  I then used Black Soot Distress Oxide ink to blend over the stencil onto a piece of White Daisy cardstock.  A bit of spritzed water over the panel finished up the background.

The Got Candy? special includes sequins with spiders, so they were perfect to add to this card. I used Silver Embellishing Thread to thread through the holes in the spider sequins, adhered them to the card panel, then attached the thread over the top of the panel to the back with scotch tape.  The panel was adhered to a card size panel of Black cardstock then attached to a White Daisy card base.

 

 

To complete the card, I stamped the sentiment from the retired Say It All stamp set (C1632) using Black Pigment Ink on a scrap of White Daisy cardstock, then heat emboss using Ranger Clear Super Fine Embossing Powder.  I attached it to the card using 3-D Foam Tape.

 

 

To make this second card, I spritzed the uncleaned stencil I used from the first card and pressed it onto a piece of White Daisy cardstock to pick up the remaining Black Soot Distress Oxide ink.  The remainder of the card was completed exactly the same way, with the exception of the sentiment, which was stamped with Versamark ink onto a scrap of Black cardstock and heat embossed with Ranger White Super Fine Embossing Powder.

 

 

I love the organic look of the spider web on this second card!  My son, who is my most honest critic, loved these cards.  For this second one he made the comment that it looks like a spider web you see when looking out through a frosted window.  😊

Thank you for looking and I hope you have a Happy Halloween!

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October 2020 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop & Distress Oxide Watercolor Celebration Card

Welcome back to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop! If you've just joined me from our wonderfully talented Krista's blog,  thank you for continuing on to join me here!

Recently I did a class for some fellow consultants on Distress Oxide inks and differences between those inks, the inks CTMH has in its product line, and regular Distress Inks.  As such I demoed some different techniques as well as showed some samples to illustrate the nuances of this special ink.  I love experimenting, especially with different types of inks, and seem to have inherited the moniker of "Bill Nye, the Science Guy" 😀

 

One of my favorite techniques to do with Distress Oxide inks is to watercolor.  I am a huge Kelly Latevola Taylor fan, so first and foremost, I want to say this card was wholly inspired by her.  Note that I made this card using the retired Party Balloons stamp set [Z4067], but I wanted to share the technique as you can readily substitute another stamp set to make a similar card.  To make this card, I first embossed the white balloons using Versamark ink and Ranger White Detail Embossing Powder on Ranger Watercolor Paper.  Next I used the "wet on wet" technique, by painting water heavily from corner to corner over the embossed balloons, then dropping Distress Oxide inks (Picked Raspberry, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire, and Seedless Preserves), blending with the next color to provide a rainbow effect.  A heat tool was then used to dry the watercolored panel.  To finish the panel, I spritzed a bit of water over the watercolor, spattered additional Distress Oxide ink, then stamped "Celebrate" from the stamp set in Black dye ink.

 

To create the additional balloons, I blended the same Distress Oxide inks in the same order onto White Daisy cardstock.  I then spritzed water onto the blended ink, dried it with a heat tool, then cut the balloons out of the cardstock with the associated thin cuts from the stamp set.  After adhering 3-D Foam Tape to the backs of the die cut balloons, I strategically placed the balloons onto the watercolored panel.  The bows were cut using the Cricut and out of Black cardstock.  Finally, I spattered Clear Shimmer Brush over the card, although it is hard to see in the photo.

Now please head over to the wonderfully talented Marie's blog to see what the beautiful work she has done!

 

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September 2020 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop & Reverse Stencil Technique

Welcome back to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop! If you've just joined me from our wonderfully talented Krista's blog,  thank you for continuing on to join me here!

I'm excited to debut something from our new Close to My Heart Core Idea Book!  I've never been so excited about a new book, but this one has everything you could ask for to use for your paper crafting purposes throughout the year.  From beautiful papers, to exciting new colors, to cute stamp sets, and to the artsy mixed media, this book has it all!  In particular, inks and how they are formulated have always appealed to the science soul in me.  

As such I decided to start this hop with the beautiful new Ranger Distress Oxide inks.  I was lucky enough to already own all the Distress Oxides introduced to CTMH, so it was a no brainer to start with a much loved technique of mine: reverse stenciling.

 

I created this card a few weeks ago when I received the new Stencil Collections from the new Idea Book.  I thought it was perfect for the reverse stencil technique.  This technique is done by blending inks onto a piece of cardstock, then using a stencil to apply black ink on top of the blended colors.  The Mandala stencil was perfect for this technique over some rainbow colors.

 

Here are the supplies I used to make this card:

• Distress Oxide Inks:  Candied Apple, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Peacock Feathers
• Black Dye Ink
• White Daisy Cardstock
• Black Cardstock
• Sentiments by Melissa Esplin stamp set
  
• Ranger White Super Fine Embossing Powder
• Gold Sequins
• Clear Shimmer Brush
• Mini Ink Blending Tools
  
• Mini Ink Blending Foams 
• Stencil Pack 1
  

Now please head over to the wonderfully talented Marie's blog to see what the beautiful work she has done!

 

 

 

 

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August 2020 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop & Retiring Colors

Welcome back to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop! If you've just joined me from our wonderfully talented Marie's blog,  thank you for continuing on to join me here!

This month I wanted to pay homage to our retiring colors.  Although I always feel a sense of sadness to say goodbye them, there are always I few for which I will miss more than others.  Here are the colors that are going away so please get your ink pads, re-inkers, and cardstock while you can!

The two I will particularly miss are Ruby and Sweet Leaf.  So for that reason, I created a card to highlight the two colors I will miss most.

For this card, I chose one of my favorite new stamps, Treasured Memories.  I wanted a water colored look with my flowers, so I swiped both my Ruby and Sweet Leaf ink pads on my craft mat, rubbed my stamps into the ink and stamped onto White Daisy cardstock.  Pieces of a zip strip from the Timber Paper Pack were adhered above and below the images.  A piece of the wood B&T paper from the pack was adhered to a White Daisy card base, and the previously assemble piece adhere on top.  The sentiment from the Winged Wishes stamp set was stamped in VersaMark ink onto a scrap of Black cardstock and embossed in Ranger White Super Fine Embossing Powder.  I finished the card with a few Bitty Sparkles on the centers of the flowers.  Although a simple card, I hope it will brighten the day of a friend.

Thanks for visiting!  Now for some awesome artwork, please continue with the hop over to the very talented Krista!

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