Card Concept - Pastel Baby Card

Baby cards. I don't know why, but I never have ANY onhand when I need them. In terms of the difficulty of thinking through creative designs, baby cards are only second to masculine cards. Every time I try to envision one in my head, my brain stares blankly back at me and says "does not compute". 

But thanks to The Card Concept this week, I now have a set of cute baby cards. When I saw the inspiration image of their latest challenge, I couldn't help BUT to make a baby card. 

I was immediately drawn to that colorblocked dresser, and decided to try to duplicate it for my card's background. 

I cut a bunch of pastel cardstocks into different sizes and then started patchworking them together. 

I used the cute elephant from the STAMPlorations Tweet Love set and added in some ombre lettering by repeating the stamp without re-inking. 

Taaadaaa! Now I have baby cards. You could, too, if you head on over and play along with The Card Concept!

Growing in Unity + Card Concept + Prizes

Today, I'm combining both my Growing in Unity post PLUS announcing the return of The Card Concept Challenge! So ya'll get a double huzzah!!

My card today is brought to you by the new inspiration image up at The Card Concept challenge, which is back from its summer hiatus. 

Look at all that lovely texture, woodgrain, and pretty florals - there are so many different things you could be inspired by and we would LOVE to have you come play along. 

I guess this week I have been unintentionally exploring different watercoloring mediums. 

Yesterday, I showed you how to use traditional watercolors to make a splashy card and on Day 1 of my Growing in Unity posts, I showed you how to watercolor with Distress Inks. 

Today, I'm going to talk about my latest watercolor effect medium obsession: Dina Wakely Scribble Sticks.

People. People. 

If you want to talk about the easiest way to watercolor EVER,
These. Are. It.

Like their name implies, you just scribble around with them. Originally I thought these would be like gelatos or Tim Holtz Distress Crayons but they are far from it. The scribble stick is hardened and if I was going to compare it to anything, it would be a watercolor pencil (although these are MUCH more vibrant). 

Once you have a little bit of scribbled color down, take a damp brush and just pull out from the center of the color. Easy peasy gradient that looks oh-so-lovely! 

If you're wondering where that big ol' beautiful flower came from, it's a design by Donna Downey for Unity Stamp Company called Wild & Free. This set is PERFECT for dramatic cards and is large enough for mixed media canvases or art journaling, too! 

Once I had my poppy all watercolored, I added a teeny bit of texture to the center with some white acrylic paint. 

I wanted to incorporate the burlappy (that's a word if I say it is) texture from the inspiration photo, so I used some burlap cardstock from DCWV. I embossed a lovely sentiment from the same kit and viola! 

This card is also going to go play along at Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge and Artistic Inspirations Anything Goes Challenge. 

PSSSTTT... check out my followers section in my right sidebar. Do you see that I am only >>SIX<< bloggy friends away from hitting 300!? Can you help a girl out and help me hit that milestone? I'd be ever so obliged! I love making new bloggy friends!

Elegant Wedding Card

Ooooo! There's a doozy of a new challenge just posted today at The Card Concept. It's filled with glamor and pops of red and feathers!

Since I love all of these things, I was excited to take on the inspiration image!

I reeeallllllly wanted to incorporate feathers, but alas! - my black chicken finally gave up the goat (yes, that was a barnyard pun) and so I was all out of stock of black feathers.



Instead, I decided to play with the bold red blooms and work in that black and white damask wrap.

I stamped a big ol' flowy poppy from the Penny Black XYZ stamp set and colored a portion of it in with Dina Wakely Scribble Sticks.

Let's pause for a second to let me exclaim my LOVE for these scribble sticks. Initially I bought them thinking that they would be just like Distress Crayons or Gelatos, but they are not even close. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that these are my new all-time favorite coloring medium of all time.

The scribble sticks act as like a cocaine-fueled watercolor crayon. Meaning they are super dope. They can write on canvas on TOP of acrylic paint, too! I'd highly recommend and if you're interested in trying them out for yourself, Amazon has them on sale for $20.99. *affiliate link

Once you scribble on a marginal amount of color, just use a waterbrush to pull out the color. Insta-shading and fewer harsh lines or coloring required than watercolor pencils. 

I added a sentiment from the Unity Love is Grand sentiment set because wedding season is upon us and I need to do some serious stocking up on some lovey dovey designs. 

Some glittery black damask paper, a lacy die cut from Spellbinders and some crinkle ribbon from Verve later - voila! 

I hope you'll all go and play along with The Card Concept's latest challenge because I can't wait to see what you'll make!

I'm also going to play along with some awesome challenges:
Addicted to Stamps - Flowers 
Penny Black & More - Anything Goes
The Ribbon Girl - Anything Goes + Ribbons

Thanks for popping by!

Chic Pink Birthday Card

There's a brand new challenge up at The Card Concept this week and it's a real beaut.

It's filled with black, white, and cream patterns, a pop of bright pink, and some metallic accents.

See??

As soon as I saw this image, I knew I just had to use this black and cream paper stack from American Crafts that I've been hoarding. 

I plopped down a blob of hot pink acrylic paint and sccchmmmeeeared it with my fingers. Then I added some white and black Distress Spray Stain splatters to messy it up a little bit more. 

I embossed these lovely poppies from the Verve Stamps Poppy Birthday set and colored them in with Distress Markers and a watery paintbrush. 

I added a feather, some small gemstones and stamped sentiment (from the Poppy Birthday stamp set) to complete the look.

I hope you'll all go play over at The Card Concept, where we welcome card styles of ALL types! :) 

Rainy Day Card - Card Concept Challenge

I don't know about you, but this neck of the woods has seen a strong drizzle and cloudy skies over the last week. What's a girl to do other than to hole up in her crafty room in pure happiness? :)

Luckily, The Card Concept gave me the perfect way to channel my inner creative superstar into a card that could brighten up any rainy day! 

The new challenge has this fantastic inspiration image: 

I adore the mix of bright colors and patterns. I decided to pull out my Rain or Shine stamp set from Verve and paper pieced a polka-dotty umbrella. 

I created a background using a combo of Distress Inks and Distress Oxides. 

For more on how to create this background you can see my technique tutorial on Distress Ink Double Dipping.

I added some fun colors pulled from the inspiration image, and used a the Mojo Monday sketch:

to create my sunny rainy day card. 

Thanks for popping by my blog. I hope you pop over to The Card Concept where our brand new designers are being welcomed in their first challenge! 


______________________________

On a second note, I'm up at the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog with a whole tutorial on how to make this watercolored simple and chic design!

I made this card because of some awesome inspiration from the City Crafter Challenge. I cased this monochrome beauty designed by the oh-so-talented Marina. 

I'd love for you to pop over to CLC to check out my tutorial and let me know what you think!

Butterfly, Love, and Card Concept

HHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaapppy Wednesday! I hope you all are having a fantastic hump day so far! If not - don't worry! You've got plenty of time to change that and do something for yourself that is gonna make your attitude shift. 

As for me, I'm in the mood to share another Mother's Day Card. 

This little lovely was inspired by the new The Card Concept challenge, which is up on the blog TODAY! It's so springy and pretty and... well... just LOOK at it! 

I incorporated the color scheme and the butterflies into my design. 

My background was made using kraft paper and Distress Oxides, using the dipping technique. I added 3D stickers from Bo Bunny and a sentiment from Winnie & Walter. 

Viola! 

We're welcoming some brand spankin' new designers to The Card Concept team this challenge and boy are they a wealth of talent! Wowzas. Seriously - you need to go check it out and then play along with us! 

Pssssst... I'm also up on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog today with a really cool tutorial on how to make this bold and graphic coffee card. 

Hope you'll pop on over and check it out! 

Card Concept - Purple Fusion

It's Wednesday! Hump day! Anybody looking forward to this weekend?

*Raises own hand. Waves it violently*

But here's something to put you all in a better mood. Who doesn't love PURPLE? And lots of it.  

Over at The Card Concept, we've got a brand new challenge and I was instantly drawn to the variations of all the purple bottles. 

I loved the glassy and chalky finish to it, so I busted out my Ken Oliver Color Burst Crystals and a paintbrush and went to town on the big ol' hydrangea stamp from Winnie and Walter's  In Bloom: Addie's Garden stamp set.

I painted a matching row of stripes on my side panel and gave my other panel a little funky curvature using the STAMPlorations Sttched Snow Hills die cuts. Who says they have to be snow hills? I finished off the look by adding some opalescent sequins. 

I was inspired by the challenge going on at City Crafter. They want to see flowers on your projects.  Happy to oblige!

I hope you'll go check out The Card Concept and play along! 

By the by - I'm up on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog today sharing a hippity hoppity Eastery design. 

 

Pop over and check it out!

Distress Oxides! My First Play Session

Hello Friends! 
I am popping in to share a card I designed for The Card Concept's new challenge. 

I jumped up and down and up and down when I got my Distress Oxides in the mail and I had a first initial play around with them. I'm planning to do a detailed tutorial sometime within the next week of all the various techniques and give a full review - so stay tuned!

I started by doing a sponging and spritzing Distress technique using Tumbled glass Distress Inks and Cracked Pistatchio Distress Oxide Inks. 

I should probably have started by saying my colors were pulled from the inspiration image for The Card Concept's new challenge. Isn't it puuuurty?

I also loved the style lines in that image, so I wanted to do a curved blue in the background of my card. 

Next, I created a mixture of greens and amber and used a die cut to create teeny daisies. I stamped and watercolored a jar using the STAMPlorations VIGNETTE: Eclectic Florals set and then I glued and put things together. 

The sentiment is from my Strong Women stamp set. As you can see, I also used a die cut from Stampin' Up to create a die cut in the background, too. 

I'm going to link this up to:

Little Red Wagon - March Birthstone Aquamarine
Happy Little Stampers - Watercolor Challenge with Smooshing

Thanks for stopping by. 

By the way - if you're looking for some more inspiration, I'm up on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog today showing off how to stamp on coffee mugs! Go check it out!

Vintage Chic Card - Valentine

I know... I know... it's the day after Valentine's Day and I should stop already, but I just can't! I've whipped up SO many valentines this season and I've still got a few more to showcase. 

Case in point? This one that I designed for the latest The Card Concept challenge, which hit the internet TODAY. 

Isn't that inspiration image a beaut? I love all the vintagey goodness going on and was super inspired by the scrawly script and leather heart. 

So I decided to make some paper leather. 

Check that out! This was made with a combination of Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, and Tea Dye Distress Inks - using the Distress Ink Double Dipping technique. 

Next, I brought out a lovely little cardboard heart and did some alterations to give it texture and life. 

I started by using Vintage Photo Distress Paint over the surface of the cardboard and, while it was still wet, sprinkled some Rust Embossing Powder over the top. I heat set it with my embossing gun and edged the heart with a coppery InkaGold. 

To bring in the scrawly script, I used a big background stamp and added a layer of Distress Crayon and Distress Spray Stain splatters, edging the whole panel in InkaGold to tie it in. 

Put it all together and what do you get? Taaaa daaaa! 

I hope you'll go check out the other awesome inspiration on The Card Concept blog and then play along! 

I'm going to enter my card at the following challenges:
Mixed Media World - Anything Mixed Media Goes
Try it on Tuesday - Let's Get Messy with Paints/inks

Love & Romance - Shabby Chic Card

I am in my favorite zone right now - all things red, pink, and heart-shaped!! That's right, Valentine's are in the house and I'm having a blast.

I have a big thank you to give out to The Card Concept challenge this week because they are feeding my V-day addiction with their new inspiration image.

Seeing that vintage paper in the background made me want to go all shabby chic with my designs, so that's exactly what I did.

I incorporated the vintage paper, the notes of green, pink and beige, and brought some beautiful paper flowers (by Recollections) into the mix.

The sentiment is from a set I designed for STAMPlorations called Strong Women. I love how mushy gushy it makes me feel. 

But listen, friends, Valentine's day isn't all about being mushy. If you've visited my blog a time or two, you know by now that I LOVE humor. 

Enter: 

This sentiment from my A Funny Kind of Love stamp set. That set is FULL of fun sentiments for lovey-dovey occasions.

So there you go - two similar cards, one sweet, one snarky.

By the way - for my bloggy followers, you can get 20% off these stamp sets in the STAMPlorations shop by using my personal code: STAMPGIRLBECCA at checkout.

I'm going to enter my cards into the following challenges:
Frilly & Funkie - Shabby Chic Valentine
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Color of Love
Try it on Tuesday - Hearts and Flowers

 Now get your beautiful behinds over to Card Concept and check out all the inspiration from designers who have super diverse card-making styles!