Tweet! Tweet! (Create A Smile Stamps)

 Hello and welcome! Today I've got a fun card to share with you featuring some masking, colouring and stencilling!

This card features three of the adorable bird images from the From My Nest Stamp Set. I started by stamping the little bird, masking him off, then stamping the larger two birds beside him. After removing the mask, I appears that the little guy is standing in front! Oh, the magic of masks:)

I coloured the image with Copic markers. The birds turned out a little darker than I wanted but I just went with it.

To create the small background, I used the largest oval in the Basic Ovals Stencil. I positioned it onto a white card panel that was trimmed slightly smaller than an A2 card base. 

I used a light blue ink to add the "sky". I made sure to use heavier pressure on the outer edges and lightening things up towards the centre. With the oval stencil still in place, I added a snowfall stencil that I had in my stash and applied embossing paste over top.

When both stencils are removed, you have a perfectly ink blended, snowfall oval!!  I had some die cut leaves in branches in my "unused die cut container" so I decided to add them here for a bit of interest.

I stamped the sentiment (from the same set), foam mounted the birdies and then foam mounted the panel onto a white card base. I was going to add details like shimmer and white gel pen, but for some reason decided against it.

Thank you so much for stopping by! See you soon!

Laurie

Anything Goes with Stencils with Craftin Desert Divas!

Hello crafty friends and welcome back!! I'm here to share a couple of projects featuring two ways to use a stencil and embossing paste.  This was the first time I tried either of these techniques and it was so easy and super fun!!

I started by die cutting two panels using the largest scalloped die in the Fancy Frames Die Set out of Strathmore Mixed Media paper.  This paper has become one of my favourites for all ink blending and watercolour techniques.  It isn't quite as heavy weight as your typical watercolour paper but it is bright white, stands up to water well and inks blend beautifully on it.

I chose the new Star Galaxy stencil and three Distress Oxide Inks in the colours Picked Raspberry, Peacock Feathers and Wilted Violet.  For my first technique, I decided to colour my white Texture Paste with the inks.

Basically, just smoosh some ink onto a slick surface, drop a blob of texture/embossing paste into and mix with a spatula. A plastic knife or old credit card would work as well!  I laid the stencil over the die cut panel and added the paste.  I mixed up all three colours and overlapped them on the stencil.

Looks pretty awful, doesn't it??  When the stencil is pulled off, the result is fantastic!

I did have a couple of areas that I pressed too hard with the spatula which resulted in a couple of "smoothy" areas but I was okay with this :)

For my next background, I decided to add colour to the panel first.  I used the same colours and wasn't too worried about getting a smooth blend.  I added a lot of water splatters to give a bit more interest.

I placed the stencil over top and applied the white texture/embossing paste.  

As you can see, these are two completely different looks!

I noticed that because the inks were still wet when I applied the embossing paste to the ink blended background, the white areas started to wick some of the colour. If you think this might bother you, I would recommend waiting for the inks to dry!

I chose the Magical Unicorn set for my images because I thought they work work perfectly with these backgrounds.  I stamped a few images, coloured them with my alcohol markers and fussy cut them out.

I ended up only using the two unicorns but I love that rainbow image!!  I used the unicorn on a cloud image for the coloured embossing paste background.  I embossed the "Make a Wish" sentiment from the same stamp set onto black cardstock using white embossing powder.

I used foam adhesive to adhere both the sentiment and the focal image.

To finish the card off, I used some Clear Wink of Stella on the mane, Glossy Accents on the horn and picked a few of the tiny hearts out of the Lady Bug Sequins pack.

The other background was finished in a similar manner. 

I used a combination of liquid glue and foam adhesive to adhere the images and sentiment.

I also used the small cloud die (which was a free with purchase die) to create a puffy place for the unicorn to sit. A bit of glitter pen, Glossy Accents and a few silver sequins complete this card!

Thanks for hanging around to the end of this long and "photo heavy" post!  I appreciate you stopping by today and hope you got inspired to try these easy techniques!!

Here's a list of CDD supplies used:

Wilted Violet Distress Oxide Ink

Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide Ink

Peacock Feathers Distress Oxide Ink

Star Galaxy Stencil

Fancy Frames Dies

Magical Unicorns

3D Foam Squares

Ladybug Sequins

Clear Wink of Stella

Glossy Accents

Thank You Card

Hello everyone, and welcome back!! I have a sweet and simple thank you card to share with you for Studio Katia!!

I always start by gathering up all the stamps and dies I think I will use:

I knew I wanted to use the Stitched Notebook Set, that you can see already die cut on the bottom right.  And I also knew I wanted to use the Teacher's Apple stamp set, especially for the pencil image!!

For the sentiment, I chose to use the super sweet Mini Thank You set.  FYI: this is a free with purchase stamp right now but will be available for sale in March!!

I used my Winsor and Newton Promarkers to colour the pencil.  In this case, I wanted it to look more like a pen so I coloured the "eraser" portion the same as the body.  Because I am using a light blue base, I added a bit of colour to the strip across the top.

Now here is where I got fancy!!  Embossing paste!! What??!!  I never use this stuff, and I'm not sure why!  I used a diagonal stripe stencil and applied the paste over top, in a messy way.  And because the layer was thin, it dried super fast!!

To finish things off, I added a ink blob just below the thank you using the awesome Brush Strokes stamp set.  I tied a very thin piece of thread around the top of the notebook die and adhered the "pen" so it looked like it wrote the sentiment.  I also added some sequins from the Crystal Clear Sequin Fusion mix.

Thank you for visiting today!!  Have a great week!!

Laurie