Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Guest Design

There's nothing better than the feeling of scrubbing off inky, messy hands after a good play session in the studio. 

I have the honor of being a guest designer this week over at Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge. I happen to love this challenge because it's always anything goes as long as it's a mixed media project. 

One of my friends asked for a special commissioned card for his wife on their anniversary. 

I started with a piece of white background and stamped it with a text background stamp and Walnut Stain Distress Oxide. I spritzed with water and then added two drops of Cosmic Shimmer Watercolour Ink. 

Next, I added another layer of stamping with Visible Images Fibrionaci stamp, embossed in Speckled Egg Distress Glaze. 

I decided on the different elements I wanted to bring into my card - a peach frame that I covered with blue and gold InkaGold to antique it, and a white butterfly that I sprayed with Distress Spray Stain and then added Speckled Egg Distress Glaze before heat setting it (and almost starting it on fire. :o ) 

I started layering my card with Prima flowers, my frame and the butterfly, and then added little bits of ivory frantage around the edges before dusting it with some Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Spray Stain. 

I added some romantic, gushy words to make it appropriately lovey-dovey for an anniversary and - I've got to say it turned out sooooo pretty. 

Thanks for popping by, and I hope you'll go get all inky and play along at Creative Artiste. 

Coffee Lover's Blog Hop: Fall/Winter 2020

 It's been a fair bit since I've hopped along in the Coffee Lover's Blog Hop, so I brushed off the old coffee stamps and got to work. 

Since I'm a lover of all things pun related, I pulled out the Caffeinated Christmas Big Grins by Becca Cruger STAMPlorations set (pssst: this set is on sale for $12 this week AND you can get an additional 20% off by using code STAMPGIRLBECCA)

I don't know about you, but when I make holiday cards, I love using the traditional red and green.

I paper pieced the cute little tea cup from the All You Need is Coffee set using some holiday patterns and added a sweet little holly to jazz it up. Because let's be honest, glitter is always called for. 

I liked this card so much, I made a second one in the same vein. 

Those sentiments just crack me up and these are the perfect quick and simple Christmas cards. 

I'm also linking up to:

Creative Craft Cottages - Christmas/Winter

Dragonfly Dreams - Christmas/Winter

STAMPlorations 7th Birthday Bash - Day 5

It's the very last day of our celebration over at STAMPlorations belated birthday bash and I've got the cuuuuuutest clean and simple thank you card EVER!

Just a reminder that you should go celebrate with us because there is over $150 prizes up for grabs! 

For this card, I used the new squares flexi templates. 

I began by taking my lightest shade of pink Distress Inks (Spun Sugar) and sponging through a medium sized square. 

Then I used the next size smaller template and sponged a medium tone pink Distress Ink (Victorian Velvet).

To complete the pink trifecta, I used and even SMALLER square and an even darker pink. (Picked Raspberry). 

And you know the drill. I couldn't leave things TOO clean, so I added a little bit of silver Distress Spray stain speckling. 

I finished off the design with a Bloomdala Bliss Felicity Die Cut and a sticker from the Just Thank You clear sticker set. 

Simple, clean but yet oh-so-impactful and pretty! I'm proud of myself. 

Now is the time for you to be proud of you! Come celebrate with us on the STAMPlorations blog and earn some prizes! 

STAMPlorations 7th Birthday Bash - Day 4

Celebrate good times, Come On! 

I hope you now have that song stuck in your head, too! 

We are carrying on in a wildly celebratory fashion over on the STAMPlorations blog, in honor of a 7th birthday bash! And you should join in because there is LOTS of inspiration and TONS of prizes! (Like over $150 in prizes). 

Today, I made a doozy of a card. I'm just dipping my toe into the water of the slimline card craze... I'm still not sure I'm in love with them, but would love to know your thoughts? Are you a fan? 

To make this long and luscious beauty, started by using a piece of patterned green paper and the Leaf Prints 4 ARTplorations Slimline Stencil. 

I rubbed some green Faber Castell gelatos through the stencil, removed the stencil, and then smudged the gelatos with my fingers to smooth out the color. 

Next, I stamped the In Bloom: Perfect Petunia stamp (I happen to love this stamp because it's makes such a big, bold statement on a card). I colored in the petunias using Indigo Ken Oliver Color Burst powders. I added some detailing using a white gel pen and then splattered the whole thing with Picket Fence Distress Spray Stains, because you all know how I feel about leaving anything too clean. 

So that's my card! I hope you liked it and I hope you'll play along in the STAMPlorations celebration. If you do want to pick up anything from the STAMPstore, make sure you use STAMPGIRLBECCA for a 20% discount. :) 

STAMPlorations 7th Birthday Bash - Day 3

Today is the 3rd day of the STAMPlorations Belated birthday blog bash and I am soooo excited to share this card. 

As part of the birthday celebrations, there's a whole bunch (pun intended) of new floral stamps  under the Bloomfully release that are absolutely beeee-you-teeee-ful! 

These are just three of them: 

I used the Bloomfully: Celebrate stamps and embossed the flower in white on a kraft base. Then I watercolored in the blooms using two different shades of pink Distress Oxide inks. 

I wanted my center to have a little sparkle, so I broke out my Perfect Pearls again and painted it up. 

I painted the leaves with a green Distress oxide and viola! A beautiful bloom. I love the pigmentation of Oxides on kraft paper! It creates such a magical variegated effect. 

Put it all together and what do you get? 

Make sure you go share in the birthday celebrations because there are over $150 in prizes up for grabs!! 

I'm going to play along in The Sisterhood of Crafters - Lots of Layers challenge! 

STAMPlorations 7th Birthday Bash - Day 2

It's day 2 of STAMPlorations Belated Birthday Bash and I'm popping in for a quick share! 

I'm always looking for quick and simple Christmas cards because it seems like you have to make a kajillion. This one is extra good, too because it's flat! (or mostly flat if you ignore the sequins, which your mailman will). 

I used the brand new Holly ARTplorations stencil by Sanna Lippert Designs and outlined everything using a white gel pen on black paper. Then I painted in the berries using red Perfect Pearls and added some little red embellies to some of them. I added a strip of washi tape for the sentiment and viola!

Make sure you go join in the fun this week up at the STAMPlorations blog! There are over $150 in prizes being given away!!! Also, if you buy anything from the stamp store, be sure to use code STAMPGIRLBECCA for 20% off your order! 

STAMPlorations 7th Birthday Bash - Day 1

 You guuuuuuuyyyyyysssss! It's time for a celebration!!!

My favorite stamp company turned 7 years old in July and we're having a very belated birthday celebration. We put things a little bit on hold due to the old corona impacting literally everything - including ship times. 

There are literally $160 worth of prizes available during the celebration so you're going to want to play along. Check out the three fun ways you can party along. 

ALSO!!! If you want to buy something in the STAMPstore during the celebration, not only can you cash in on some pretty sweet sales, but you can also get an additional 20% off using STAMPGIRLBECCA. 

And now, for the first of five cards I made to celebrate! 

When I was thinking about the type of image I wanted to use for my celebration card, I thought right away of a butterfly. I remember the first blog post I ever made and... boy oh boy... have things erupted from an ugly ol' cocoon. My photography skills, my cardmaking techniques, my crafty friendships... I'm so thankful for this online world. 

STAMPlorations has been a big part of my blogging journey. I fell in love with Shery Russ's designs right away. And then I fell in love with her as a generous, lovely human being. Little did I know that I'd wind up making cards featuring her products and eventually wind up designing a whole line of stamps for the company. 

I embossed the butterfly from the Blossom Like a Buttefly set in gold and watercolored it using my grandma's vintage watercolor paints. I bet these are probably 20 years old, but I sure love the way they shimmer. 

The background is beautifully textured with a brand new die released TODAY! It's the Wonky Stitched Grid Texture plate. I splattered some pink and gold Distress Inks in the background because it was a little too much white. I nested my butterfly in some gold fibers from an old gold rope (I'm not a hoarder, you're a hoarder). 

Thanks for popping by. Now GO JOIN THE PARTY!! Leave some comments or link up a card and be entered for some AMAZING crafty prizes! 

Oh! And I almost forgot to mention - if you do use my STAMPGIRLBECCA 20% discount code in the STAMPstore, you'll also get this not-even-yet-released Just Plaid stencil for FREE! Boom. That's pretty neat. 

As for this card, I'm going to play along with Creations in Pink Challenge: Anything Goes - mostly pink.

Beary Belated Birthday Card

 I am a terrible procrastinator when it comes to mailing out anything... which I know is very weird for a cardmaker. Is it just me? Or do you all have lots of fun making cards and then never can seem to pop them in the mail in a timely manner? 

This card was designed for my uber talented cardmaking friend, Kevin Bray. Seriously, go check out his blog, you'll be amazed by his creativity. He also has a rockin' Insta account. For the most part, I'd say Kevin and I have pretty opposite styles of cardmaking - he's an amazing colorist with a knack for getting cute, clean cards absolutely perfect. I'm a mixed media card artist who colors up a white spot with a single brush of a finger.

Anyhow, I wanted to send him a card for his birthday... which was in July I think... (I know, I already disclosed how terrible I am as a human being).

But I didn't want to design any ordinary card, I wanted to design an uber cute card and try to be as clean as I'm capable of. 

I pulled out all my sunny Faber Castell gelato colors and cut out a bunch of hexagons, because I was using this adorable little bear and bee stamp set, so I thought it fit the brief.

I die cut the hexes and smudged them with different color gelatos then layered them all together in the background of the card.

I created an even bigger hex for my focal panel and colored this adooooooorable bear from the Studio Katia Kobi the Birthday Bear stamp set. Then I stamped little bees all around and glittered up the wings (photos suck for glitter). 

In the end, it's probably not clean, but it IS super cute so *brushes shoulders*. I hope it made someone very happy three months after their birthday. 

I am so rude. 

 

I'm going to link this up to Cute Card Thursday's Dies and Punches challenge and NBUS challenge because this whole stamp set has never been used.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stenciled Backgrounds & Paper Pieced Flowers

Today, I'm up on the STAMPlorations Blog with a little tutorial on how to make this card.  

The tutorial has some super fun ways to use up leftovers by creating your own artsy patterned paper with stencils and Distress Oxide inks. 

Vibrant & fun! I would be remiss if I didn't mention where the inspiration from my card came from. The moment I laid eyes on the inspiration image for The Card Concept, I just knew I needed to dream up something. 

Thanks for popping by and go take a peek over at STAMPlorations! 

Making a Mess

Over at Shopping Our Stash they have a challenge going entitled “Make a Mess”. Basically I feel like that’s every single card I ever make. All I have to do is look sideways at a white space on a card and boom! an only smudge appears. It’s like being King Midas, but sadly nothing turns to gold- only to smudge. 

But this card upped the mess ante even for me! In my last blog post I shared a card using the dregs of a cleanup from a pretty horrendous spill of a brand spanking new bottle of Crackling Campfire Distress Oxide Spray Stain. I was going a splatter effect on a card so unscrewed the cap. Enter elbow and a giant spill. *facepalm*

What is a girl to do besides frantically mop up the mess? However, even if my card doesn’t win the competition, I’ve already won by creating some gorgeous backgrounds and a well-earned red stain on my craft table. 

But I didn’t want to rest on my accidental mess laurels for this challenge. Au contraire! I decided to pull out my messiest products and up the ante. 

For my  next act, I pulled out some Dreamweaver metallic gold embossing paste and slopped that through the STAMPlorations Dots All Over stencil. 

The texture! In case you’re wondering about the added colors, they are Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide and a gold shimmer by Heidi Swapp. 

Next up on the messy agenda, I scribbled some brown gelatos along the edges of the pieces I was going to use and smudged them to soften the lines with my fingers. 

Also, you can see I stamped an image over the background and used Distress Glaze. 

So let me talk about my focal bird. I’m ashamed to say I’ve probably had this Tim Holtz stamp set for close to 10 years and never used it. >insert head hanging here<  I knew I had to get messy with the bird, too, so he wouldn’t take a backseat to my background. We had a little messy experimental play together. 

I sprayed some Oxides and stains and dried them on a paper. Then I stamped a blue layer and brown layer of Distress Inks, and while the ink was still wet from stamping, I applied Distress Glaze over it. It gave it an antique glassy feel. 

I adore the way this card turned out and I think I’ve sufficiently risen to the Make a Mess challenge. To finish off my card, I mounted it to some Hambly patterned acetate. 

I’m also going link this up to the NBUS challenge, as I finally gave this 10-year-old bird some wings AND tried out Distress Glaze for the first time. 

This one is also going over to Creative Artiste’s Anything Mixed Media goes.