SugarPea Designs

Cuddly Cacti

January 14, 2019

Hi there! Today I’ve got a card to share using the cute Cuddly Cacti stamp set from SugarPea Designs. One of my goals this year is to participate in challenges on the various stamp company blogs, so I made this one for the SugarPea Designs Mix it Up Challenge #51 .

Here is the sketch and color combo from their blog:

 

This really was a challenge to try to use both and I love how it turned out!

 

 

I started by die-cutting a piece of white cardstock using an MFT die and taping off lines with 1/2″ wide drafting tape. I then inked the 3 lines using Distress inks in Weathered Wood, Pumice Stone and Tumbled Glass. As you can see, I didn’t follow the sketch precisely, but used it as a jumping off point.

I colored up the images with Copics and cut them with the coordinating dies. I found an old PTI patterned paper in my stash that really worked nicely to bring the color combo together. Love when that happens!

The sentiments from this set are really clever and this one was perfect for the “mood” of the color scheme.

Hope you enjoyed and if you don’t already participate in challenges, just do it! It’s really fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Clearly Besotted

Head Over Heels

January 7, 2019

Hi there! Hope your week is getting off to a great start! I spent a glorious weekend of crafty time and wanted to share a new card today with these hippos from Clearly Besotted that I’m absolutely in love with.

Head over heels in love with. lol.

I started out by die-cutting the top panel of cardstock with the Avery Elle 3 Hearts die and an MFT Stitched Rectangle die. To create a background that would be visible through the heart cut-outs, I die-cut a second piece of white cardstock with the stitched rectangle die and lightly traced around the 3 hearts die with pencil to give me a good idea of where to ink.

For the background,  I Copic airbrushed each heart area individually with YR01, R21 and E70 using a mini cloud stencil from MFT. I made sure to cover the other hearts as I airbrushed each one so I didn’t accidentally overspray them.

 

I colored these cuties with Copics and used the coordinating dies to cut them out and I stamped the sentiment from this set on a piece of Lawn Fawn watercolor paper die-cut with an MFT sentiments die.

At this point, I thought it was finished, but decided to add some teeny hearts to indicate a little motion. Never mind that one of them looks like he has a little case of heart gas!

Hope this makes you laugh today and I hope you have a great week!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Gerda Steiner Designs

XOXO

January 4, 2019

Happy Friday! Just a quick post today sharing a card I made for Gerda Steiner Designs using the new Lovely Pandas stamp set. I thought it would be cute to have the little bear peeking out from some candy hearts.

I started this one by die-cutting a piece of white cardstock for the bottom panel and inking it with Dried Marigold, Worn Lipstick, Abandoned Coral and Picked Raspberry distress inks. I then die-cut the top panel and used a Lawn Fawn stitched heart die on the bottom. I softly inked a little Spun Sugar distress ink on the top part of the cardstock.

I then die-cut a few hearts using a new Avery Elle die and inked them with the same distress inks as the bottom panel. The sentiments from this stamp set worked perfectly to make them candy hearts! I heat embossed those with a light pink embossing powder.

I colored the panda with Copics, fussy cut around him and tucked him in a little behind the hearts.

To finish it off, I stamped the Valentine’s sentiment on the bottom panel. This is from a soon to be released Gerda Steiner set that’s also super cute and you won’t want to miss it!

Hope you enjoyed and be sure to check out the GSD shop when it reopens this Monday.

Have a great weekend!

My Favorite Things

Feliz Navidog!

December 19, 2018

Hi again! I’m still scrambling to get a few more Christmas cards finished this week and I’m so happy I had a chance to work with these cute dogs from the MFT Deck the Howls stamp set.

Super simple design on this as I wanted the doggies to take center stage.

I started by stamping the dogs in MFT Cement Gray hybrid ink and masking them before Copic airbrushing the background with BG10, BG11 and BG 18. I taped off a straight line right above the dogs’ feet and airbrushed the bottom with N2, N1, and N0.

I placed the MFT Snowfall stencil towards the top of the cardstock and inked through each hole in the stencil with an embossing pen. I then heat embossed with Wow! detail white embossing powder.

 

I colored the dogs with Copics and added colored pencil details. I saw a great tutorial by Irina Blount (owner of LaLaLandCrafts) where she used a white gelly roll pen to add detail to a sweater, so I had to give it a try on this. Super easy and really cute!

Hope you enjoyed and I’ll be back again in a few days with one last Christmas card for Gerda Steiner Designs.

Thanks for stopping by!

My Favorite Things

Fleece Navidad!

December 17, 2018

Hi there! I’ve got a few more Christmas cards to share this week and these llamas were so much fun to work with! They’re from the MFT Happy Llamadays stamp set and they’re decorated and ready for Christmas. I just love this sentiment. Too cute!

I started by inking the background using Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire, Tumbled Glass and Squeezed Lemonade Distress inks. After I blended these colors, I went over the top of all of them with Old Paper distress ink to tone it down a bit. I splattered a little watered down gouache and then heat embossed the star in white embossing powder (that stamp is from an older CTMH stamp set).

 

 

Then, I die-cut a piece of white cardstock using the MFT Stitched Rectangle Stax die and die-cut the piece twice using the MFT Stitched Mountain Range die and the MFT Surf and Turf die. I inked the mountain range using Frayed Burlap and Hickory Smoke distress inks and for the ground, I used Old Paper and Vintage Photo. I heat embossed the sentiment from this set using white embossing powder.

I stamped the llamas using MFT Cement Gray hybrid ink and colored them with Copics and colored pencil for some of the details.

 

Since I chose a dark brown cardstock for the card base, I die-cut a piece of Neenah Desert Storm for an insert and added another cute llama inside.

Hope you enjoyed my card today and thanks for stopping by!

My Favorite Things

Warm Holiday Wishes!

December 14, 2018

Hi there! Can you tell I really really want to be somewhere warmer right now? Making a tropical Christmas card is about as close as I can get. I’ve used the MFT Festive Flamingos stamp set with some stamps from the retired MFT Tiki Party stamp set to create my tropical getaway.

For the background, I blended distress inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Fossilized Amber, Worn Lipstick and Abandoned Coral. The water is Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean and the sand is Old Paper and Vintage Photo. I used the MFT Beach Scene die-namics to cut the sand and the whole scene was die-cut using the MFT Inside and Out Stitched Oval Stax die-namics.

I’ve colored all of the images with Copics and added some colored pencil details.

Hope you have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

 

Clearly Besotted

Merry Christmoose!

December 10, 2018

Hi there! I’m back with another Christmas card featuring the cutest little moose stamps! These are from the Clearly Besotted Merry Christmoose stamp set and I’ve combined them with products from a few different companies to create this shaker card.

Warning: This was a labor of love. If you’ve ever tried using teeny tiny styrofoam snowballs in a shaker card, you might just know what I’m talking about. Lol.

I started by die-cutting a piece of gray cardstock with the Pretty Pink Posh Storybook 4 die. The windows on this die were perfect for the elements I wanted to add to this. Next, I cut a piece of acetate slightly larger than the die-cut window area of the cardstock and taped it to the back.

To make each little window a shaker box, I adhered thin strips of dimensional foam tape along each window and here’s where the trouble started…

I carefully poured out a small amount of those teeny tiny styrofoam snowballs into each window area and about half of them immediately jumped onto the adhesive. Nightmare. I managed to finally get them where they belonged and adhered the red background piece over the top of the windows on the dimensional tape.

The really cool part (the only cool part) about the snowballs is they’re full of static cling so they move around when you shake it, but they also can stay in place wherever they feel like. They look like they’re glued in place, but they’re not!

 

For the red back ground, I inked a piece of cardstock with Barn Door and Festive Berries distress inks and then dabbed some picket fence over the top with a natural sponge. I stamped the sentiment from this set in Versamark and heat embossed with Wow! detail white embossing powder.

I stamped all of the images in MFT Cement Gray hybrid ink and no-line colored with Copics. The trees are from the new MFT Ready, Set, Snow stamp set.

The pine sprigs are a new Pretty Pink Posh die and I inked them up using Crushed Olive distress ink and Northern Pine Memento ink.

To finish the card, I adhered dimensional foam tape to the outside edges of the gray cardstock and matted it on a piece of kraft.

This was fun (and a little frustrating) to make and I love how it turned out!

Hope you enjoyed and thanks for stopping by!

Pretty Pink Posh

A Tropical Escape

December 9, 2018

Hi there! I took a short break from Christmas cards and decided to make a tropical card for my Mom’s birthday yesterday. It’s been a really cold and rainy weekend here and I’m dreaming of somewhere warmer!

 

I’ve used the Hummingbird Thanks and Cherry Blossoms stamp sets from Pretty Pink Posh on this one. I started by die-cutting a piece of watercolor card with an MFT Stitched Rectangle Stax die and painting a light wash with Daniel Smith Duochrome Turquoise. After it was dry, I stamped the sentiment from MFT’s Handwritten Happiness stamp set.

 

I stamped the cherry blossoms using MFT Insulation Pink hybrid ink and the rest of the images in Cement Gray hybrid ink and used the no-line coloring technique with Copics.

My Mom really loves hummingbirds, so I hope this brightens her day!

Hope you enjoyed and thanks for stopping by!

Gerda Steiner Designs

Ho Ho Ho!

December 7, 2018

Happy Friday! Sharing a card today using the brand new Gerda Steiner Designs release “Balancing Mouse”. I have to admit, I’m not much of a fan of mice, but this guy is really cute!

My Christmas tree this year is decorated in reds and whites, so I went with that color scheme on this one. I started by inking a vignette on the background piece with MFT Cement Gray hybrid ink in the areas where I was going to adhere the die-cut “Ho Ho Ho”. I then stamped a few snowflakes from this stamp set in Versamark and heat embossed with Wow! detail white.

 

The Ho Ho Ho die is a newer MFT die and I cut it from a patterned paper in my stash. I love how the ornament from this set fit perfectly inside the O!

I stamped the mouse and ornament in MFT Cement Gray hybrid ink and no-line colored them with Copics. To make them stand out better on the red die-cut pieces, I fussy cut around both leaving a thin border of white.

To finish it off, I used a larger MFT Stitched Rectangle Stax die and cut another piece of patterned paper from this same paper collection (I think this is an older Recollections paper from Michaels).

Hope you enjoyed and check out the Gerda Steiner blog for more inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by!

My Favorite Things

Tweet Holidays!

December 4, 2018

Hi there! I’m back with another Christmas card using these super cute birdies from the MFT Tweet Holidays stamp set. I had an opportunity to visit the MFT boutique a few weeks ago on a little Orlando vacation and it was, well, AMAZING! I bought the birdbath die with this card in mind, so I’ll get to the details…

 

For the background piece, I die-cut a piece of Neenah solar white cardstock using an MFT Stitched Rectangle Stax die and airbrushed a soft green background with Copics (BG90, BG93). I then die-cut another piece of Neenah with the Rectangle Stax die and die-cut this piece twice using the MFT Surf and Turf dies for the snowdrifts.

I heat embossed the top edges of the snowdrifts with white embossing powder, stamped the sentiment in Memento Gray flannel ink and added some shadows with Copics before layering them on the bottom edge of the background piece.

 

I inked the birdbath using Old Paper and Pumice Stone Distress inks and Iced Spruce for the water. The snow on the birdbath is where it got a little crazy. I noticed that the new MFT Mountain High die-namics fit perfectly along the rim of the birdbath and looked like snow hanging off! Love it when I can get double-duty out of a die!

I heat embossed the snow on the birdbath also with white embossing powder along the edges. Then, I colored up the birds and holly using the no-line coloring technique and cut them out with the coordinating dies.

To finish the card, I die-cut a piece of patterned paper from my stash with the largest Stitched Rectangle Stax die and added some more shadows with N Copics to the snow on top of the birdbath and the snow around the bottom.

I really love how this turned out and I hope you enjoyed it!

Be back soon with a new card featuring a brand new release from Gerda Steiner Designs!

Thanks for stopping by!