Monthly magazine feature – April edition

Hello crafty friends,


This is take 3 on my monthly feature where I create a card (or more) from the included stamp sets or other goodies the company has added.  

This set is very much a Spring theme that can extend beyond Easter.  Do you know a gardener?  This set has the cutest stamps to create a garden scene.  If you are into scene building, this is the type of set you would love.  Creating scenes are not my typical “thing” but I wanted to do at least one card like that.



This involved a “lot” of masking so it requires some patience, but the result is so worth it.  I considered lots of possible ways I could have colored it and decided to watercolor with the new Distress Oxide inks to get a shabby chic look and feel.  I am posting some pictures of the process of masking since I did not create a video for this post.

You have to plan out the order to stamp in so that the images appear in front of or behind the desired object correctly.  You have to stamp the item that will be in front first, then mask it before stamping the image that will be "behind" it.

I messed up on the hydrangea but fixed it by stamping it again on a separate sheet of paper, then fussy cutting it out to place on top of the pot.  The first picture shows all my prepared masks.  I stamped with Hero Arts charcoal ink so the outlines were not stark black.



Before coloring the stamped images, I put the masks on all of them so I could add the background color.  For the sky I used a piece of cardstock torn unevenly (shown in the picture below) and applied blue china ink with an ink applicator tool, moving the cardstock periodically to leave some white spaces for clouds.


For the grass I applied the Distress Oxide Peeled Paint ink with an applicator tool, then stamped with the grass stamp over it to add the grass blade detail. 




Here's the extra hydrangea I had to create to fix my earlier mistake in stamping


Now here is the photo with most of the coloring done except for the hydrangea.  The wheelbarrow and flower pot were colored with the Barn Door Distress Oxide and the watering can in a combination of the Iced Spruce Distress Oxide and the Charcoal Hero Arts ink.  I also used the charcoal color to color the wheel of the wheelbarrow and the handles.





I stamped the sentiment in the same dark gray ink.

Next I die cut two fence pieces to layer on top of this panel.  I added foam adhesive tape to pop them up.




Instead of layering the card on top of another piece of cardstock I decided to take the card base in a mellow peachy orange color and die cut a rectangle out so it would frame the watercolor panel.  Once I glued the panel on the inside of the frame, I added another piece of white cardstock behind it to hide the watercolor bleed through.  I used the Misti to help me determine placement before running through the Big Shot.









Card #2 – The spinner card
Anyone who has seen the majority of my work will know I truly love interactive cards…..like a LOT.  So the first card in this post will be the redheaded stepchild to me, but I try to love all my cards equally.



One of the first things I noticed about this set was the bunny stamps – they included the front and back view so of course I thought it would make a great spinner.

I kept the rest of the card simple.  To create the window I die cut a circle from my oh so favorite Die-namics circle STAX set from the card base (a white A2 sized base from 110# white cardstock).  Next I cut a panel from a pretty pastel paper with teapots on it a ½ smaller than the base and die cut a circle from it to line up over the card front.

Spinner piece:

I stamped the bunnies with black ink, then added a little bit of color with a light gray SN marker around the edge and some pink to the inside of the ears.  I fussy cut the images and before gluing together, put glue on the back of one, laid white thread across it, then pressed the other bunny image on top. 

To attach this to the card base I added two strips of double sided Be Creative tape at the top and bottom of the opening on the inside of the card base.  I laid the thread and bunny piece across the window so the thread would be glued to the trips of tape on the inside.  To cover up the strings on the inside front panel, I had another white panel ready with the circle die cut out. 

Inside of card:

I added a circle die cut of a coordinating paper so that it would be visible “through” the die cut window.

I added the die cut fence pieces onto the bottom part of the patterned paper to finish off the card as well as some lilac colored Nuvo drops.

If you haven't checked out my Instagram account you might wish to so you can see the bunny doing it's spinning action.  It's really cute!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Please consider leaving a comment to let me know what you think about these cards.  I always love reading your feedback.

Hugs,

Teresa



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Fun with Dylusions Spray Inks for Color Throwdown challenge #439

Hello crafty friends,

Today I am playing along with the Color Throwdown Challenge with a fun color scheme of red, orange, yellow and purple.  I'll admit that the likelihood I would have chosen these on my own is low,  which is why challenges are so fun to do!

Another new thing to me is Dylusions spray inks.  Although they have been around for years, for some reason I didn't try them out.  All that has changed now ha ha!!




The first card is the birthday card:



I started with a piece of Strathmore 400 series watercolor paper in the 5.5" x 8.5" sheets, cut in half to make two 4.25" x 5.5" panels.  I sprayed the one for the card above in roughly 1" strips (two colors at the top and two at the bottom) and dried one color with a heat tool before masking and spraying another stripe.  I left an uncolored area in the center.

After this, I sprayed some water with the Ranger spray bottle lightly over the color, waited 15 seconds or so, then blotted the top with a paper towel to pick up the water, leaving a more textured look since the inks react with water.

I die cut a white panel for the top as well as a thin craft foam piece from Queen & Company's waves cover panel die to create room for the mini-shaker section I created later in the center.  I glued down the foam over the watercolor panel with Tombow multi glue.  Next I added yellow, orange, purple and red sequins to just the center cut out area.  I used a small piece of vellum to cover the shaker area, then glued on the top white panel to finish the panel.  I added a few sequins on top to finish it off.

One thing I would do differently if I make this again (or you re-create it) is to make the base color panel larger so more of it shows around the edges.

On to card #2:

For the second card, the Dylusions inks were sprayed on in random places onto the watercolor paper, then I dried with the heat tool, sprayed on a little water, waited a few seconds, and again blotted with a paper towel.

For the vellum overlay, I first used a rubber stamp with a multi-dot pattern to stamp versa mark ink, then added Ranger glitter embossing powder and heat set.

TOP PANEL:
I die cut the dragonfly from the center of the vellum panel, then used the negative.  I used spray adhesive on the back since I wanted it pressed flat against the colored panel and with all that color behind plus the embossing, I could not detect any show through from the adhesive.  Instead of trimming the vellum I wrapped it around the edges of the panel so that it would not have a chance of lifting up off the colored panel.



I try to be conscientious about not wasting paper and re-use scraps, and today I took it further by using the cardboard packaging from the Dylusions inks as part of my design.  Yesterday was Earth Day and I support causes that are for conservation.  Anyhoo - I practiced spraying on the back side of the packaging, which ended up creating my base layer under this card as well as the second one.  Before using it as the base layer, however, I die cut the sentiments "hello" and "happy birthday" from my practice panels, which coordinated perfectly with the color scheme and being cardboard, added nice dimension.

Once the panels are glued to your card base, it's not noticeable that packaging was used.  I think I would have made Lindsay, The frugal crafter proud :)  - I have learned a lot from that lady.  If you don't know who she is, leave me a comment and I'll share her social media links.

To finish the card, I glued it to a white 110# card base and glued the sentiment at a 45 degree angle to the dragonfly.


Dylusions colors used:

  • Pure Sunshine (this is the orange color)
  • Crushed Grape
  • Cherry Pie


Distress ink color used:

  • Squeezed Lemonade (since I did not have the right shade of Dylusions to get the yellow I wanted)


Thanks for stopping by today.  I've left some of the links below if you want to try out any of these products.  These are not affiliate links and I only use these products because I like them personally and recommend.

Happy crafting,

Teresa



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So Suzy Sessions Mother's Day Blog Hop

Hello crafty friends, 

  I'm so excited you are here today! I am part of a group of 6 talented ladies and organized this blog hop in honor of Mother's Day. We were all in a So Suzy Sessions class together.  We are so excited to have the teacher herself, Suzanne Moore as part of this celebration. We are bringing you a collection of gorgeous Mother's Day Cards.   


Even better - there is a very nice prize package to be won. These are sponsored individually as well as donations from well known and loved stamp companies. One lucky randomly chosen winner will be winning the following: 

 TOTAL PRIZE PACKAGE: $ 200+ for all of the following 

  • $25 gift certificate donated by Winnie & Walter
  • Mary Kay's giveaway is a $42 value, consisting of Gina K Heavyweight Ivory Cardstock, Mini Misti case from Simply Charming Everyday and GinaKDesigns coffee theme stamp set
  • $25 gift certificate donated by Gina K Designs
  • Sarah's giveaway - $40 value for three Lawn Fawn items - LF Shammy, LF Manatee Ink Pad, and a LF cardstock pack “rainbow” 
  • Marcia's giveaway -  Fossilized Amber and Fired Brick Distress Oxide Inkpads, Nuvo Glacier White Embossing Powder
  • Victoria's giveaway - $20 value- Set of 8 Nuvo drops
  • Felicita's giveaway - $31 value - Hero Arts Coloring Layering Koi Stamp Set + Ellen Hutson Autumn Acorns Stamp Set 
  • Suzanne's giveaway - $28 value -new release stamps designed by Olesya Kharkova for So Suzy Stamps


IMPORTANT DETAILS FOR THE DRAWING:
 To be entered into the drawing to WIN, you meet all the following criteria: - Visit every person's blog and leave a comment by 9 pm Central on 4/28/2017.  Comments posted after 4/28/2017 at 9 pm Central will not be counted for the drawing.  There will be one winner of the entire package drawn at random.

Prize winner will be announced on 5/1/17 on my blog.

Now on to the card I created for this hop!!!!
This card was created using the following techniques.  I will divide it up by each element in the card.


Card Base:
10” x 7” – 110# white cardstock, folded to 5” x 7” (A6 card size)

Base layer:
Light green & white patterned paper cut to 4.5” x 6.5”
Heidi Swapp stencil used with Iced Spruce Distress Oxide ink.  I inked up some of the words at the bottom right, then flipped the stencil 90 degrees to stencil the word "understanding" at the left hand side

Square layer:
die cut with MFT Die-namics 3.5” square stitched die
embossed with Paisley patterned Spellbinders folder
lightly inked the raised areas with Iced Spruce Distress Oxide ink

Flower picture in a polaroid style frame -

Construction and steps: top to bottom

Frame:  cut frame from white cardstock to 4” x 3.5” and die cut a square from the center towards the top, leaving a ¾” border at the bottom.



Flower panel:
stamped 3 flowers from Winnie & Walter’s Addie’s Garden stamp set (Daffodil 1st, zinnia 2nd and Daisy 3rd).  I stamped in 3 steps since I needed to mask the flowers as I stamped and then heat embossed.  I created masks of each flower before starting this step using Inkadinkadoo masking paper.

Stamped the Daffodil in Versamark,
Heat embossed with a 50/50 mixture of gold and pink embossing powder (I was trying to get a rose gold look – it still looked gold to me)
Put a mask over the Daffodil then stamped the next flower (Zinnia), then heat embossed.  Repeated process for Daisy after masking the Zinnia.  Did the same for the two sets of leaves (all flowers were masked before stamping the leaves)

After this I colored the flowers, leaves and background area with Spectrum Noir Illustrator markers except where noted.  (see colors below per flower/area)

Daffodil (CT1, CT2, GB5) – I made a second Daffodil and fussy cut to add to the frame
Zinnia (FS1, PP5, R14 – the R14 is a Copic marker)
Daisy (LV1, PL2, HB2)         
Leaves (LG2, DG2)
Background around the flowers (IB7, TB1)

Next, I glued the frame on top of flower panel, then coated the entire piece with a product called Galaxy Glue to give the shiny finish you typically see on a polaroid picture.  You could get a similar result from Mod Podge glossy finish or even glossy accents.  I found that Glossy Accents tends to run off a surface like this easily unless applied very thinly.   The Galaxy glue has a brush applicator, which made it the most convenient choice for me.  

I allowed this panel to dry overnight.  In the meantime, I worked on the sentiment.  I used Cricut Design Space to create the word “Mom” using the “Elegant Cakes” font.   I used a shimmery copper cardstock and cut out the word 3 times, then glued them stacked on top of each other.  I sized the word at about 2.5” wide.

If you have a word die, that is an easier way to do something similar – I use my Cricut quite a bit for creating die cut words like this.  The beauty of paper crafting is there are often several ways to accomplish the same look.

To finish off the sentiment, I also used my Cricut’s writing feature to add the “hope your day is picture perfect” to fit in with the theme.  I used a copper colored marker.

Finishing Touches:

After adhering the flower picture panel on top of the embossed square with Foam adhesive tape, I added Nuvo Ivory Seashell crystal drops in random spots around the frames.  I used two Fiskars small flower punches to punch out tiny flowers in both the copper and the green & white patterned paper, then added Nuvo drop centers to add to the top left and bottom right corner of the picture frame. 

Before attaching the second Daffodil with foam adhesive tape, I coiled a small length of copper metallic thread and attached to the tape before pressing it down at the bottom left corner of the picture frame.

The end result is a multi-layered card that I think would please many moms.
  
After leaving your comment below to be part of our prize drawing, please visit the talented Mary Kay's blog to see the next fabulous card in the hop.  You must comment on everyone’s blog to be considered for a random drawing for the prize package.  Good luck!!!
 
Here is the line up of talent and their blog links:

 Teresa >>>>> YOU ARE HERE 
Mary Kay (next up)
Victoria
Sarah
Felicita
Marcia
Suzanne



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