February Pinkfresh Studio Challenge!

Hey, hi, hello there and welcome back! Today, I'm sharing a card I made for the current challenge over on the Pinkfresh Studio Challenge Blog.

I received some brand new items from their January release and was dying to have a play with them! Speaking of a new release, they are releasing a bunch of gorgeous background stamps today! They have some very unique designs and I may just have to "take a look" aka "add to cart".

Okay, let's have a look at the card I made! It's very clean and simple but I've added a few, subtle details to step it up a notch.

I just had to use the new Curvy Floral Vine Stamp Set. This is a simple layering set that is just beautiful. TIP: I die cut first, then stamped. I don't usually do it this way but I was having some issues having the die fit properly after I stamped the image. **This is NOT a flaw with the products! Photopolymer stamps are flexible so sometimes while placing it on your block or in your MISTI, it can shift slightly. And while it's easy to manipulate the stamps to line up, if you're off just by a little, the die will not line up.**

I used the smaller banner shape from the Essentials: Ornate Banner Die Set on a piece of white cardstock. I have a homemade stencil that easily lets me ink blend a heart shape. I used a light yellow ink.  To add a bit more detail to the banner, I flipped it over and using my scoring board, added score lines every 1/4 inch.

To add a bit more detail to flowers and leaves, I took a slightly darker shade of pencil crayon and added some simple flicks. This made quite a difference!  I used the Curvy Floral Vine die and cut it from white cardstock 3 more times. I adhered all those layers together including the stamped image. This created some nice dimension. For putting everything together, I stamped the sentiment in the middle of the heart using a dark, grey ink.  This sentiment comes from the new Leafy Decor Set. This stamp set is packed with awesome sentiments!!

I adhered the florals to encircle the heart. I foam mounted the focal banner onto an ivory card base that measures 3.75 X 5.25 inches.  I added a few pink jewels from my stash to add a bit of sparkle.

And that's it!  I hope you enjoyed my little process today!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Laurie

Create A Smile Stamps Mood Board!

Welcome to another Create A Smile Stamps challenge!  This time around we have a beautiful mood board for inspiration.  Mood boards can be tricky but just go with the flow and see where it takes you!

My inspiration came from the colours and also the shape of a circle. 

I used the Huge Polka Dot Stencil with some Hickory Smoke Distress Ink for the background.  My focal panel is a circle cut from one of the Postage Edge Circles.  I thought it would be fun to have a bright red radio so I coloured up this vintage looking radio from the Radio Rock Stamp Set. This mini stamp set is so much fun! Before foam mounting the radio onto the circle, I stamped a few of the music notes around it.

The fun sentiments come from the Small Sentiments Stamp Set and were stamped onto small speech bubbles from the Speech Bubbles Cool Cuts Die Set.  These were also foam mounted.  I added the circle panel with foam tape onto the card base, which is 4X4 inches, by the way. I added some sparkle pen and Nuvo Crystal Glaze to the radio to give a shiny, retro look!

And that's my project for you today! I hope you enjoyed and will play along with us!

Remember, you have a chance to win a €25 gift certificate to the CAS shop!  Link up your creations on the CAS Challenge Blog. We LOVE to see what you create!!

Thanks for stopping by! See you soon!

Laurie

Create A Smile Sketch Challenge!

Hello, hello!! Today, is the start of another fun challenge over on the Create A Smile Stamps Challenge Blog! We have a very cool sketch for you to work with this time around!

Remember, you don't have to follow this sketch exactly! Just go with where your creativity takes you!  I, myself, followed it almost to a tee :)

I started by stamping, colouring and fussy cutting a few images from the uber cute Best Bugs Stamp Set.   I created the partial oval scene panel by partial die cutting a rectangular piece of cardstock with a circle die. But, Create A Smile has a sweet die set that creates this shape perfectly! Check out the Stacked Pierced Ovals!

Before I adhered the scene to the card base, I used the Diagonal Grid Stencil along with Spun Sugar Distress Ink to add a bit texture.  Of course, a few white gel pen details add so much!

The sentiment is from the Best Bugs stamp set. I stamped the sentiment on a white cardstock strip. I decided to layer that onto a banner die that I inked with the same pink ink. This acted like the little flag portion of the sketch!

Thank you for dropping in today! I hope you'll play along with us! Up for grabs is a €25 gift certificate to the CAS online store!!

Please visit the Challenge Blog for more details and to link up your creation!!

See you soon!

Laurie

Create A Smile Challenge...Friendship!!

Hello and welcome back to another Create A Smile Stamps Challenge!!  This one is an easy one.  It's all about friendship. Friendship cards are a favourite of mine to make because you can use so many different styles of stamps. Critters, florals, graphic...anything goes!

For my card today, I combined an older CAS set along with a new release set.  I heat embossed one of the leaf images from the new Fine Ferns Stamp Set.  I used Silver Pearl embossing powder for this.  This is one of my most loved embossing powder!  Because I used watercolour paper, the images are a light shimmery colour without being stark white.

I used my Misti for the stamping as it's super easy to create a mirror image.  To colour, I chose 3 different greens from my set of Tombow Dual Brush Pens.  I swiped some colour inside each leaf and blended it out with water.

For the sentiment, I used the Alphabet Sticker Set in the colour of Deep Sea.  This was my first time using these stickers and I love them!!  I stuck them onto a piece of the same watercolour paper cut with a Cool Cuts Scalloped Rectangle Die.

The small "wonderful" word comes from the All About You Stamp Set. The stamp actually says "are wonderful", but I masked off the "are" before stamping.

I added some glitter and Nuvo Crystal Glaze to the letter stickers, adhered that panel with foam adhesive and added a few clear sequins.  The entire panel was glued onto a white card base.

I hope you enjoyed my project for today and I encourage you to play along!!  Create A Smile Stamps has wonderful products you are sure to love!!

All the details are on the Challenge Blog but here is what you're playing for:

Thank you for stopping by today!!  See you soon!!

Laurie

Made In Minutes with My Creative Time!!

Well, it's Monday...blah.  Let's try to cure those Monday blues with a card that literally took minutes to make. I made this super, clean and simple card using one of my favourite sets from My Creative Time.

The Home Sweet Home Stamp and Die Set was one of the first sets I ever purchased from Emma and continues to be one of my most used.  This set is on sale right now, so it's a great time to pick it up...just sayin' :)

I did some very simple ink blending onto a panel cut with one of the smaller Scalloped Stitched Rectangular Dies.  I used Peeled Paint and Salty Ocean Distress Inks.  I coloured up that adorable mushroom with my alcohol markers and added a few details with a white gel pen, a glitter pen and some Nuvo Crystal Glaze.

The sentiment comes from the same set and was stamped on a speech bubble which is from the Stitched Round Speech Bubbles Die Set.  I used foam adhesive to adhere the mushroom and sentiment as well as on the focal panel.

And I left it at that!!  It's hard for me to leave this much white space but I didn't want to add anymore time to the process!!

Thank you for stopping by! I appreciate your visits :)

Until next time...stay crafty!!

Laurie

Clean and Simple Style with Craftin Desert Divas

Hello Friends and welcome back! Design Team member, Laurie here, to share one of my favourite card making styles, clean and simple.

Clean and simple, to me, doesn't necessarily mean quick and easy.  It's clean lines, white space and one focal image.  The time it takes to create something like this varies as usually I want my focal image to be perfect!

I started by breaking out my Stabilo 68 pens.  These are wonderful to use as a watercolour medium!  I chose one of my favourite bird images from the Birds of a Feather stamp set and created a mask by using a full stick Post-It note. I stamped the bird first, placed the mask then stamped the branch. This makes it appear that it was one entire stamp! Ahhh, the magic of masking!

I've been using Mixed Media paper for all my water techniques lately as I find it is a brighter white.  It's not a super heavy weight card but I don't usually use a ton of water :).  My ink of choice when stamping for watercolour is Versafine Onyx Black.

I cut an extra panel of the mixed media paper using a die to create a light washed background for this beautiful bird.  When using these markers for a wash, I'll lay down colour onto a slick surface and pick it up with a wet brush.

This creates a beautiful light background. And because the ink is reactive to water, it makes the prettiest splash effect!

For the colouring of the bird, I lay the marker directly onto the images and blend with water.

Because this is a clean and simple card, the focus will be that bird, which is why I wanted the background panel to be very soft.  I fussy cut the image and foam mounted it onto the panel and

stamped the simple sentiment below.

When putting together a CAS card, you want to make sure that your focal image is is aligned perfectly! I find that if things aren't lined up, it can be a distraction.

I made sure that the die cut panel was centred on the card base.  I also chose to use a blue base as I thought it made that little birdie pop!!

As for the finishing details, I kept that simple as well.  Just a few dots of white gel pen and Glossy Accents to accentuate certain parts of the image!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you found some inspiration on clean and simple card making!!

Supplies Used:

(Affiliate links provided. This means if you make a purchase directly from one of these links, I will make a small commission, with no cost to you of course! Any purchases are greatly appreciated)

Birds of a Feather

Fancy Frames Dies

Verafine Black Onyx Ink