Inspire Me Wednesday with My Creative Time

Good morning and Happy Wednesday!  I'm here to hopefully give you some mid-week inspiration!

A great place for crafty inspiration is Pinterest. It's my go to place when I need a little kickstart:)  I was in the mood for florals today so that's what I searched for. And this showed up...

These are beautiful notebooks with looks like gold embossed letters.  Aren't they gorgeous on the coloured backgrounds?!  I love them all but was especially drawn towards the middle one.  

I started by die cutting a whole bunch of the flowers from the Stitched Pretty Flower and Leaves Die Set  out of some Mixed Media Paper. I was exactly sure what I was going to use on my card so I cut a couple of each!

To add colour to the die cuts, I chose to use Distress Oxide Inks. They blend so beautifully on the Mixed Media paper.  

I created a custom sentiment by using the Lowercase Fun Dies. I wanted to mimic the gold lettering on the notebooks so I swiped some Versamark Ink onto a piece of white cardstock and covered it with gold embossing powder. This created gold, shiny cardstock!

I thought at first I'd use a blue card base and adhere the sentiment and florals directly to it. I decided that I "needed" a bit of white on my project, so I ended up cutting a blue cardstock panel with the largest of the XOXO Border Dies and adhering that to a white card base.  To put the card together, I started by adhering the "hello" onto the blue panel.

Once that was on, it was just a matter of arranging the flowers.  I used a combination of liquid and foam adhesive to place the flowers.

As an after thought I decided to add a little gold heart that was die cut out of the same gold paper I created.

Although it's hard to see in the photos, I added a bit of sparkle with a Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle Pen.

I hope I gave you a little inspiration today!! Thank you so much for stopping by today. 

Enjoy the rest of your week!!!!

Until next time...

Laurie

On the Butterfly Reflections Ink Blog today!!

Hello crafty friends!  I wanted to quickly let you know I'm on the Butterfly Reflection Ink Blog today with this card!!

I hope you can swing by, say hello and check out all the details!

Thanks for stopping in!!

Laurie

Tag It Tuesday with My Creative Time!

Hello crafty friends and welcome back!!  Today I'm sharing a tag made using some fabulous products from My Creative Time.

This winter is feeling very long, we've had the coldest February in quite a few years!  I'm ready for it to just be over!!  To help out with my winter blues, I decided to use bright, cheerful colours for my project today.

I started by die cutting two pieces of pink cardstock with the largest tag from the brand new Chunky Stitched Tag Dies..love these! I apologize in advance if you see a lot of projects with these.  I cut two because the cardstock I used is quite flimsy so adhering them together gave a lot of stability.  I cut the second largest tag, which is also a stitched tag, out of white cardstock and layered them together with foam adhesive.

Because these dies do not have the ribbon hole in them, I was able to punch two holes at the top and make a flat knot. This is easy. Simply feed each end of the ribbon into the two holes on the FRONT of the tag and come up back through to the front!

I stamped one of the beautiful flowers from the Just Because Stamp and Die Set with Versamark Ink onto some Mixed Media paper.  I heat embossed with Silver embossing powder.  I used one shade of purple and green of my Tombow Dual Brush Pens to do some super simple watercolour.

For the sentiment, I chose the Big Hello Die and cut it four times out of grey cardstock.  I adhered both the flower and the sentiment with liquid glue. After looking at this tag for a couple of minutes, I decided it needed just a little something more.

I die cut one of the sweet butterflies from the Mini Butterfly Dies out of the same Mixed Media paper and used the same purple and a pink colour to make it pretty.

And of course a little sparkle was in order so I used my Spectrum Noir Clear Overlay pen on the big Hello and the butterfly.  Because the Tombow markers are reactive to water/liquid, they reacted in a very cool way on the butterfly. Almost looks tie dyed!!

Isn't that sparkle fabulous?!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I had so much fun making this sweet, happy tag. I hope you enjoyed and got to pick up a few goodies from the shop as well :)

Until next time...stay crafty!!

Laurie

My Creative Time 76th Edition Blog Hop & Sale!

Hello again, friends!! I hope you are having fun hopping along with us today as we show you the entire 76th Edition Release!! You should have arrived the wonderfully, talented Miss Kendra!! If you've gotten lost along the way, you can see the full line up HERE.

For my card today, I'm featuring the brand new Chunky Tag Dies! If you seen my sneak peek post from yesterday, you saw how I made a tag/gift card holder. Today, I'm using it not as a tag! I wanted to try and show you how versatile this set is. Let's have a look!

I used the second from the largest tag to create a "window" for my little scene. I absolutely love the shape of these tags and think they almost look like windows! I die cut a white panel using the largest die from the More Stitched Rectangular Dies , then used the tag die to cut the aperture. I masked off a portion of the front of the cardbase and blended some Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide Ink. I didn't do a great job with the blending but it actually gave some texture to the "sky".

Those cute bunnies are from the brand new I'll Never Let You Go stamp and die set which I coloured with shades of Warm Grey Copic markers. The hill was cut using one of the More Stitched Edges Dies and blended with Peeled Paint Distress Oxide. The cute flowers are from the Thank You Mom stamp and die set, also coloured with Distress Oxides.

I foam mounted the front panel to give it a little pop, then added all the die cut pieces with a combination of foam and liquid adhesive. That super cute cloud is from the Stitched Cartoon Cloud Die Set. After stamping the sentiment, which is from the I'll Never Let You Go set, I wanted to add a bit of details to the flowers, which is unfortunate because it did not turn out AT ALL!! The Gloss White Nuvo drops started to wick in the ink underneath resulting in these little beads of washed out colour! Oh well, live and learn:)

I hope you got a little inspiration from my card today! One of my favourite things to do is use my dies in ways other than their intended use!  Thank you for taking the time to visit today! Much appreciated :)

Up next on the hop is the fabulous Miss Liz!!!

Now, here is all the FUN information regarding the blog hop, giveaway and the freebie stamp set!

***FREEBIE***

Starting today, February 16, 2018 @ 8am PST we will be giving away this AWESOME new stamp set "Egg Decorations". This stamp set will be given to the FIRST 50 shoppers! If you are one of the 1st 50 shoppers it will automatically be added to your package at the time of packing/shipping. Once 50 shoppers come through, this stamp set will be available for purchase. So, if it's for sale in the store, you are not one of the 50. No exceptions will be made. This freebie is not part of the "bundle" and will be sold separately!

***BLOG HOP GIVEAWAY***

For our blog hop giveaway, Emma is giving away a $50 gift card to the "My Creative Time" store to ONE LUCKY winner! ALL you have to do is leave a comment on each of our blogs! You are NOT required to comment on EVERY SINGLE blog, but the more you comment on, the MORE chances you have for winning! VERY IMPORTANT, PLEASE leave a way for us to contact you w/your comment just in case "YOU" are the lucky winner!

***SALE ALERT***

ALSO, DON'T FORGET our sale starts RIGHT NOW here:http://shop.my-creative-time.com/Ne...! Use the code: FEB2018 to receive a discount off your entire purchase! This sale applies to "IN-STOCK" items ONLY. This sale will end on Friday, FEB 24, 2018 @midnight PST.

Stamping with Dies with Craftin Desert Divas

Good morning all!!  Today I have a bit of a tutorial style post for you.  It's all about get more use out of your dies by creating stamps with them!!  Isn't that awesome?  I mean think of the possibilities!

Craftin Desert Divas has some amazing die sets, especially scene building dies, which work excellent for this technique!  I'm using the Island Dies for my project today.

I started by cutting all the dies out of some inexpensive white fun foam.  I order mine from Amazon.

This stuff die cuts like a dream!  To make these pieces into "stamps", I simply applied some tape runner adhesive to the foam and attached to a clear block.

Note:  this will leave residue on your blocks but it cleans they clean up well with a bit of rubbing alcohol!!

I had a little scene planned out in my mind before I started so I knew I needed some masks.

I used stamping mask paper from Inkadinkadoo but in all honesty, these did not work!! I'll explain why later!

I used the Inside Scalloped Rectangle Dies for the backdrop of my scene...I LOVE this die set!!  Now, I should have used a watercolour paper or even a Bristol Smooth paper but I used regular white cardstock, which I never get great blending results on, you'll see that later and how I fixed my boo-boo!

Okay, let's see the stamping!!  I used a combination of dye ink and Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks.  they both worked great.  Something to keep in mind, I found I had to ink these a lot to get them saturated so they would stamp solidly.

This was inked up only once. It's pretty good but splotchy.  I found by adding ink with a sponge dauber, you could get great two toned effects.

After I had my stamping completed, I applied my masks.  I also cut two of the Stitched Scallop Border Dies out of masking paper.  One looks like waves, the other clouds! 

Now this is where I had trouble with those masks!! Because I used the Distress Oxides, which take longer to dry than dye inks, my masks would not stick!!! So instead of crisp lines, I got more of a smudgy look.  Oh well, live and learn and I think it turned out all right in the end :)

Remember when I said I should have used watercolour or Bristol?? This is why..

A big 'ol blob of ink, something that could not be blended out.  You may also notice that some of the stamping is not great. This is an easy fix.  Because the "stamps" are complete solid images, it is very easy to re-stamp, which is what I did.

I partially die cut a section from the Picture Frame Die to give me a small sentiment strip.  I found the perfect sentiment in the Tickled Pink stamp set.

And see? My ink blended boo-boo is gone!!

Because this was a very "flat" card, I gave it some dimension by cutting some of the seashells and coconuts from the die set out of white cardstock and blending some ink on them.  These, I added with some foam adhesive squares.

You can see I added a bit of detail with a white Gelly Roll pen and some clear Wink of Stella!

Now, I actually have a bonus card to share. Once I started this technique, it was hard to stop!  Here I used one of the Party Border Dies to create a background!

This was quick and easy!  I used the same die cut foam stamp for all the stamping.  Before switching colours, I simple wiped the stamp with a scrap piece of paper. I was really surprised that there was no ink transfer!!  I used the Happy Die and Happy Sentiments stamp set for the sentiment!

Thank you so much for reading this entire post!!  I hope you found some inspiration and will take a look through your stash to see what you can create a stamp with!!

Here's a list of all products used (please note that these are affiliate links, so if you happen to purchase anything from one of these links, I will receive a small commission! Thank you!!)

Island Dies

Stitched Scallop Borders

Inside Scalloped Rectangle Dies

Picture Frame

Tickled Pink

Happy Die

Happy Sentiments

Clear Wink of Stella

White Gelly Roll Pen

Shimmer Sequins

Broken China Distress Oxide

Peeled Paint Distress Oxide

Vintage Photo Distress Oxide

Antique Linen Distress Oxide

Abandoned Coral Distress Oxide

Foam Squares

My Creative Time 76th Edition Sneak Peek Day 3!

Okay everyone, today is the last day of our sneak peeks for this release!  I know you've seen some amazing inspiration so far, so let's keep it going!!

Today we are taking a look at the new Chunky Tag Dies!  A good set of tag dies is a must in every craft room. You may be thinking to yourself, "I already have a good set of tag dies", and you probably do, but...these are different, I promise.

First of all, these are an awesome size. Second, they layer. And third, which I think is a plus, is that they do not cut a hole for the ribbon.  This is a nice feature because you can use them just as shaped dies without the hole getting in the way!  I think everyone owns some sort of hole punch, so it's easy to place the hole wherever you'd like it.

I discovered that by cutting two of the largest "tags" in this set and adhering them together with 1/8" Scor-Tape, you can actually make a pocket that will fit a gift card!

Nice view, right? We'll get to the front in a minute :). I didn't actually have a gift card on hand but I cut a piece of cardstock down to the size of a credit card and it slid in and out without a problem!

For the front of my gift card pocket, I stamped the polka dots from the Egg Decorations set, which we showed you yesterday, in a light purple ink.  I took the next die to the largest one, which happens to be stitched and cut that from white cardstock as well. 

The sentiment comes from the Fun Vertical Greeting Stamp and Die set.  The hearts come from the I'll Never Let You Go set that we sneaked on Tuesday!  I did some basic ink blending on each heart and die cut them out.  I did used a hole punch on the stitched layer, as I wanted to add a bit of ribbon. I foam mounted that layer on and added some sequins as well!

This set has a lot of possibilities and I can't wait to show you more!!

***Sneak Peek giveaway!***

We will be giving away the sets we are showcasing each day to ONE lucky winner! For example, the set we are showcasing on Wednesday, Emma will announce the winner of that on Thursday & the sets we are showcasing on Thursday, Emma will announce that winner on Friday on my blog! ALL you have to do is leave a comment on each of our blogs! You are NOT required to comment on EVERY SINGLE blog, but the more you comment on, the more chances you have for winning! VERY IMPORTANT, PLEASE leave a way for us to contact you w/your comment just in case "YOU" are the lucky winner! For EXTRA entries, you can spread the word about this release on Facebook, tweet about it OR even instagram it! #mycreativetime! GOOD LUCK EVERYONE & let's start spreading the word!;)

Thank you for being here today! Remember, tomorrow is our big release Blog Hop so I hope you're ready for more inspiration!!!!

Laurie