Gorgeous Stamped Sympathy Cards

I FINALLY have a weekend all to myself - no obligations, no projects, just me and my craft room. Unfortunately, my craft table was littered with the remnants of past cards. So on Saturday I slogged through some heavy-duty cleaning and organizing and today I was able to have a nice clean crafty space to mess up all over again. 

Which ALSO meant that I actually have time do work on something other that design team commitments. BRING ON THE CHALLENGES! :) 

The oh-so-fantastic Darnell is hosting her NBUS challenge again and I went rummaging around to see what stamp sets I had in my stash that hadn't been inked up.

Whoa... looks like I have my work cut out for me! 

I decided to start with a brand new Verve stamp set, Forever in Our Hearts. 

I ordered this set because I was blown away by the beeeeeautiful sentiments, especially the one on this card. 

  

I've seen many a sympathy stamp set, but I haven't found one that takes on the anniversary of a sad thing. I never know quite what to say on these occasions, but this sentiment encapsulates it perfectly.

I'm going to link this design up to Sisterhood of Crafters "Ribbons" challenge.  

Both of my cards were inspired by the Viva La Verve sketch:

I was so engrossed in the lovely sentiments (and so short on sympathy cards in my stash) that I decided to make another design, too!

This one is more pastelly in tone and I love how the palette takes over the somber sentiment. 

I'm going to link this card up to Allsorts - Use at least 2 dies

I am feeling SO much better now that I got a little crafty time under my belt... but I also just realized I only knocked out one of my NBUS sets. Whew! 

Black and White and oh-so-right Stamped Card

Hello my friends! Welcome to FriYAY!

Today, I'm sharing a chic black & white number I created for the latest STAMPlorations challenge:

Here's how STAMPlorations challenges work:

> Use either the sketch OR the theme OR both

> Use any product/stamp/paper you like - STAMPlorations products NOT required

This particular challenge is open until the end of the month, so get crafting already!

For my card, I used both the theme and the sketch. 

Ok.... well I'm technically saying I used markers... event though I think it might be a "pen". 

I took the Foiled Again ARTplorations stencil and randomly outlined areas using a Faber Castell Pitt Artist...erm... marker? fiiiine pen. I filled in some of the outlined areas, and left others blank.




And then I stamped some flowers from my Buttercups and Butterflies set and layered on a bunch of other black and white stuffs. 

Why all the black and white, you ask? Well check out this fabby mood board from City Crafter Challenge:




That's why. 

Before I go, I have to show you guys my cool new 'do. I cut off ALL the inches and went with a daring, chic style. 

oooooo! Yeah, I kind of love it. What do you think?

 

My New Stamp Release - STAMPlorations Buttercups & Butterflies

Heyyyy you guuuuuuuys! Guess What?! (Well, ok I've already told you in the title, and you clicked through, so presumably you don't have to guess at all because you already know, but now I've already typed the question and so am committed to answer it.)

 My new stamp set gets released today and there's a GIVEAWAY!  Or I should say GIVEAWAYS because there is one right here, and one on the STAMPlorations blog.

*******GIVEAWAY ALERT*******

What am I giving away, you ask? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Check out the latest stamp set designed by yours truly:

Introducing Buttercups & Butterflies

********GIVEAWAY INSTRUCTIONS********

 I'm giving away both the stamp set AND the coordinating die. 

All you have to do to win is leave a comment here AND on the STAMPlorations blog. 

And now - for some examples of how the set can be used, I've made some cards using differing styles.

Shabby Chic

Made using the sketch from Tuesday Morning Sketches. 

Clean and Layered

Made using the colors from House of Cards current challenge

Clean and Simple

Made for Hiding in My Craft Room Pastels challenge. 

I hope you like the new stamp set! And if you do, it's available in the shop for 10% off until August 15! Make sure you go swing by the STAMPlorations blog to see all of the new sets being released this week.

Blackout Poetry Card

I've been playing around with making blackout poetry (I've got a few samples of my work posted to Instagram) and had a custom request to put one of my designs onto a card. So I'm just popping in quickly to share the result with you since I think it's pretty neat. 

If you're not familiar with blackout poetry, it's made by taking a page of a book and finding a "poem" or phrase within the page by blacking out the rest of the letters. 

This poem reads:
"She no longer grappled with the lessons set before her and she yielded to none"

I blacked out the woman's silhouette using a sharpie and the shimmery blue background was made with InkaGold. 

I'm going to link my card up to:
613 Avenue Create - Anything Goes
We Love 2 Create - Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

Butterfly Grunge Stamped Card with Distress Inks

Ooooooo have I ever got a good card to share with you today!! This is one of those designs that made my heart happy when I was all done being inky.

Just look at that sketchedy butterfly and those bright colors 

and TRY not to smile. 

This little number was inspired by the brand new challenge over at STAMPlorations. 

Here's how STAMPlorations challenges work:

> Use either the sketch OR the theme OR both

> Use any product/stamp/paper you like - STAMPlorations products NOT required

Now here's a full look at what I created, using the sketch. 

I did a whole lotta faux-stitching with gel pens, and then I stenciled on the background using ARTplorations Brackets Stencil. The butterfly is from the Blossom Like a Butterfly set and I muddied up the edges a bit using the Mixed Media Grunge set. Last, but not least, I added a die cut (brand new!) called CUTplorations Celebrate Word Die. 

I'm loving all the grunginess going on here! 

I'm also going to send my flutterby over to flit in the following challenges:
Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes
Crafty Gals Corner - Birthdays/Celebrations 

Thanks for popping by!

Winners! Winners! Chicken Dinners!!

I'm going to start this post by thanking allllllll of the people who took time to join in on my 30th birthday bash. It made me feel SO special to see a whopping 42 cards linked up in just under 2 weeks.

Have I told you lately how AMAZING you are?! Seriously. <3 you all! 

Last night I did a live stream on Periscope to draw names for the prize packages. You can view the whole thing HERE if you so choose. For those of you who tuned in, I looooved getting to chat with you! For those of you who didn't - you should totally come find me on Periscope so when I do crafty chats and tutorials in the future we can get to know each other even more!

Prize 1 & 2 - STAMPlorations Gift Cards

I'm giving away 2 gift cards to STAMPlorations for $20 each (a big thanks to Shery for donating the second card - what a sweetie!!)

And - BONUS - I decided last night that I was ALSO going to give these two winners my brand-new not-even-released yet stamp set Buttercups & Butterflies. Shhhhh! I'm probably not supposed to show it off yet, but I'm kind of excited. This will be hitting the STAMPlorations store 

The winners of these two prize packages are:

CAT CRAIG

JULIE BEECH

Prize 3 - A complete Fossilized Amber Set

The winner of this prize package is: 

VINITA JAIN

 

Prize 4 - 2 packs of Copic Caio Markers

The winner of this prize package is: 

KAROLA

Prize 5 - A Bundle of Fun

The winner of this prize package is: 
LISA B.

Congrats to all the winners!! If you've won, please be sure to email me with your address at bexcruger AT gmail.COM
Again, thank you ALL for helping to make my birthday even better! <3 <3 

Stay tuned for in the next couple of weeks because I maaaaaay be doing another giveaway of my Buttercups & Butterflies set sometime soon. :)

Drawing Winners of My 30th Birthday Bash

Hello Crafty Friends! I was so overwhelmed by all the amazing designs you created to help celebrate my 30th birthday!! I'll be drawing winners tonight at 8 p.m. Central Time via Periscope. So if you wanna come hang out with me LIVE (that's right, you get unfiltered Becca!!!) for a little while whilst I draw the winners, you can find me at 

periscope.tv/damselofdistressed (if you're on a computer) 

or just look me up from a mobile phone by my handle @damselofdistressed 

 I guess this is also a good time to say that I also have a kick-butt Instagram account (@damselofdistressed) and I'm always Pinning new, cool stuff on Pinterest, too (pinterest.com/damselofdis)! 

Anywho - that's the plug! Hope to see you tonight!

Watercolors & Rainbow - Oh My! Mixed Media Card

It's a new month! And that means rainbows! And glitter!! Right?!

Well, ok, not necessarily, I guess... but for my purposes we're going to pretend that a new month means rainbows and glitter because that's exactly what I've got to show you today.  

This card was inspired by the new challenge over at The Mixed Media Card Challenge, which happens to be - you guessed it - RAINBOWS! 

With the option of Dragonflies.But since I don't have any dragonfly stamps you get to see a boat instead. Taaa daaaaa!

This card began when I pulled this piece of watercolor paper that I had created an ombre rainbow on and then didn't know what to do with it. I stared at and decided to go all happy and nautical. 

I stamped and cut out some images from the Simon Says Stamp Sailing stamp set. I colored the boat with Spectrum Noir Markers and then I used some stripedy paper and sponged it with Distress Inks. To finish it all out, I added some sequin stars for additional shimmer and Wink of Stellad my clouds. 


All done! 

I'm also sending this cute little guy sailing to play in:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - ATG 
Mixed Media World - Under the Sea
The Paper Players - (I chose beach, patterned paper, red) 
Time Out Challenges - I was inspired by the drippy rainbow print