A Traveling We Go - Card with Masking

I'm up at the STAMPlorations blog showcasing a step-by-step tutorial for this masked, Distress Spray Stained card. I hope you'll pop over to the blog and check out the whole process!

This guy was made with a few different challenges in mind:

Anything But Cute - Earth Day Challenge
Sunny Days Crafting Challenge - Planes, Trains, Automobiles 

Mixed Media Card Challenge - Trees

It is officially the end of winter!! Welp, meteorological winter anyhow... I wish Mother Nature would get on board because yesterday it was -18 degrees here in North Dakota. Sigh*

But at least I can pretend everything is green and delightful, right?! If I can't grow trees and green things in my back yard, at least I can color them on a card! Wooo! 

That's because over at the Mixed Media Card Challenge our theme o' the month is TREES with the option of birds. 

I started out thinking I'd make this a bright, happy summery card... and you may have noticed that didn't work out so well for me. 

It's still bright and happy, mind you, but as soon as I scribbled on some Gelatos, I thought it looked more like night time than a summery day. And so, a plan was born! 

In addition to the Mixed Media Card Challenge, I wanted to play along with Ms. Darnell-the-Fantastic's NBUS (Never-Been-Used-Schtuff) challenge. 

I have used these adorable houses from Shirley Bampton's Bee's Knees - Houses stamp set before, but I'd purchased the accessory pack with cute trees and mailboxes and roads and they've just been sitting about unused for months! Thanks for the impetus, Darnell!

Once I'd blended the gelatos with my fingers, I used the Big Bang Sci-Fi Screening (stencil) from Winnie and Walter along with a baby wipe to pick up some of the gelatos.  

When I was satisfied, I repositioned the stencil and added some texture paste to give my night sky some texture. I also changed the house color to be more purpley because I wasn't totally in love with how the pink was meshing with my colors.

Then I added some finishing touches - graphic washi tape and a stripey chipboard sentiment - which makes it perfect for the Allsorts challenge of "Sentiment in Focus".

Et voila! This little number is going to go to a friend who is buying a house tomorrow. Awww! :) 

Golden Butterflies - Mixed Media Card Challenge + a WINNER

I am LOVING being a part of the Mixed Media Card Challenge design team. It gives me another reason to get wild and messy in the craft room (as if I needed one). When I'm creating mixed media cards, I feel sooooo much freer. I can try things, I can make a mess, I don't have to worry about getting a random fingerprint in an open white space (every time! when I'm doing CAS). 

This month's challenge over at MMCC is butterflies with the option to use gold. 

For some reason, I've always loved the black and gold color combo. It looks so striking! So I decided to whip out my brand spankin' new jar of gold embossing paste and slathered it through the STAMPlorations foiled stencil. 

When it goes on, it looks tan doesn't it? But when it dries is shiny and golden and lovely! I decided to add a little bit more gold by spraying some Bo Bunny gold mist spray and then added a line of black and white washi tape for a little contrast. 

To create the butterflies, I stamped some grungy butterflies from the STAMPlorations Trendy Butterflies set and sprinkled them with some gold glitter before they dried. 

After I had all of my elements in place, I used a gold foiled doily and embossed a big ol' thank you and then I just started placing things about and testing different layouts. 

I finally landed on this one: 

OOooooo shiny!

I'm also going to send my card flying over to the following fun challenges: 

Frilly and Funkie - Things with Wings

Mixed Media World - Stencils

Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes

House of Cards - Metallics

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Now for some more fun! This week I'll be announcing the winners of my birthday bash giveaway (so make sure you stay tuned!) 

First of all, I wanted to say that I am beyond grateful for all of you who played along. 52 linkups in two weeks?! Wow. Every morning I went to see who'd linked up and had the biggest grin on my face. THANK YOU for helping to make my birthday so special!

The first winner will get to have their very own 

Dee's Artsy Impressions Party Time Stamp set:

  

And the winner is..... Dolly B of Dolly B's Snippets of Life!

Dolly, please email me at bexcruger at gmail dot com with your address and I will get your giftie right out to you!

Mixed Media Card with Washi - STAMPlorations June Challenge

This may be my favorite card I've ever made. Yes. That is a big statement. 

The challenge going on over at STAMPlorations is Stamps and Washi Tape. 

For some reason, washi always makes me think messy mixed media... oh darn... I HATE that. *Snicker*

First, I applied a layer of gesso to a piece of deep red card stock, let it dry, and then sprayed it with a concentrated burst of Festive Berries and Black Soot Distress Inks. 

Once that was dry, I added some layers of black and white washi tape, and some grungy stamps from the Mixed Media Grunge set. 

I added a black doily, some more grunge around the edges and one of the birds from 

SmallBirds - The Bee's Knees. To give the bird a more charcoally effect, I used Faber Castell Artist Pens and smudged as I went along the lines.  I also drew some sketchy circles using the same pens. 

Yeah - pretty much in love. 

This card is going over to the following challenges: 

Mixed Media Card Challenge - Collage

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!) (I'm choosing birds of a feather)

Quoth the Raven - Picture Inspiration

Make sure to play along over at STAMPlorations!! You have until the end of the month and we've got great prizes, along with some awesome guest designers, including Rahmat Gouse and Carol Dunham!

Thanks for taking the time to pop by! 

I'm a Daring Diva! ~Birthday Card~

I scored a great deal the other day at an estate sale - a box full of washi tape for a measly ten bucks! Woop! Before this score, I only owned one roll of washi tape and now I have dozens to play around with. If you've never heard of washi tape, it's really a versatile product. You can incorporate it in strips in your design, layer it under card stock, or use it beneath embossing paste. It's also repositionable, so you don't have to worry about getting a perfect line the first time you press it down.

Seize the Birthday (a birthday card themed challenge) has a washi tape topping challenge going on and I wanted to use my tape in a not-so-conventional way. So, I created a pennant banner.

Making a washi tape banner is really simple (except for getting both ends of sticky tape to line up exactly!! Which may have led to me yelling at my roll of tape... which may have led to my boyfriend coming to check if I was ok...) It's the perfect colorful, customizable addition to a cute card. Simply choose a ribbon you like (it also looks really great with twine) and choose the types of washi tape you want to use. Fold a piece of tape over the ribbon, then line up the sides of tape (did I mention, exactly?!). Cut the ends to create pennants, and - voila!

Speaking of challenges that I adore, many of you have heard about my love for STAMPlorations and they have some amazing challenges that anyone can participate in, using any products! I love their stamp aesthetic and the owner, Shery Russ, and her design team are some of the nicest crafters I've encountered on the web. Check out their challenges!!

I'm using this sketch from STAMPloration's latest sketch challenge: 

I've been meaning to participate in the Diva Dare challenge over at Verve and almost missed it! It ends today at 8 p.m. MT so you still have any eensy bit of time. The lovely stamp sets that I won from a Verve blog hop came in the mail the other day, and I couldn't wait to ink them up! The stamps in this card are from the Verve Big Wish stamp set.

The Diva Dare challenge is all about raising awareness for breast cancer and I'm so happy to go PINK for a great cause!

My boss's birthday is tomorrow, and this little cutie will be sitting on her desk tomorrow morning.

Thank you for stopping by! Please do leave me a comment so I know you've been here and can visit you, too! Your comments make my day!

Washi Tape and Thank You Notes

One thing my collection always seems to be lacking are thank you cards. Whenever I'm feeling down, I make a thank you note and think about who I can mail it to. This accomplishes two things: 1) I get to have crafting therapy and 2) I get to reflect on all the good things that have happened so I can figure out who to send my card to. By the end of my taping and cutting frenzy, my smile has been restored. 

After being gone from the office for a conference for 3 days last week, today was particularly draining to play catch-up. Consequently TWO thank you notes will be mailed off tomorrow! Hooray!

The first will be going to the conference coordinator, who helped make my travel plans and took care of logistics - that job must be very stressful with all the little details to manage! Most likely much more stressful than mine.

These are the sketch challenges that gave me some much needed inspiration. The first is Mojo Monday and the second is Retro Sketches. 

I wanted to play along with the Mixed Media Card Challenge's theme  "Vintage". To me, there is a certain shade of pink that just screams vintage. Add a little pearl embellishment and you get the feeling of "Breakfast At Tiffany's" on a card. To create the polka dots near the sentiment, I sponged Distress Inks (Tattered Rose and Milled Lavender) through a stencil and then shaded the edges with Old Paper. I embossed the sentiment and flower in Pirate Gold.

This card is also going over to the following challenges:

Pile it On - "Cheerful/Uplifting Message"

Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge - "Anything Goes" 

The second card will be going to one of the foundations that helped to fund my presentation at the conference. For this card, I wanted to play along with Craft Hoarders Anonymous Challenge "Layer It". 

One thing I have been hoarding is washi tape - mostly because I just don't know how to use it very well. I was at an estate sale a couple months and scored an entire bag of it for $10 (which is a steal!) I haven't played around with it yet, and the Retro Sketches sketch inspired me to try to create a background with it. 

I began by splattering my card with shades of pink Distress Inks and then used a bunch of light and dark pink washi tape over that. I left the edges ragged because I liked the look of that best. For my next layer, I cut a couple of dies using my Cricut and then stamped over the center with a background stamp. I put the Thanks die over a piece of vellum, because otherwise it just faded into the background. Lastly, I added some enamel dots. 

I've only used a fraction of the washi tapes in my bag. Since they were purchased at an estate sale, I'm going to enter this into A Blog Named Hero's challenge - Recycle It.  Here are some of the pinks! I just can't wait to use more. 

And my smile is exactly where it should be.

If you'd like to give me another smile, leave a comment below! They make my day and then I can visit your blog, too!

A Frozen Hello!

I'm finally back from West Virginia and, after a 12-hour snooze and plenty of coffee, I couldn't wait to get back to my crafting room! I've missed having ink on my fingers! 

I had so many blogs to read through and challenges to catch up on, but the sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches caught my eye.

I recently won the Lawn Fawn stamp set "Critters in the Arctic" and it was waiting for me upon my arrival. One of my favorite things is a stamp set with puns and this one sure delivers. Plus the little creatures are just so adorable! 

"Make your Mark" just happens to be the weekly competition at Addicted to Stamps and More. I colored the walrus up with some Spectrum Noir Markers and fussy cut a winter hat to give him an extra flair. He just makes me smile! The strip of teal is actually washi tape with just a little bit of bling added to it. 

Behind that, I added some vellum. The background was created by layering the same dark teal vellum behind a piece of white polka-dotted vellum. It creates a simple snow-like effect. Since vellum is the theme over at Addicted to CAS and it's everywhere in this card, I think it will make the perfect entry to their competition. 

For those of you who have been following my blog, my presentation went well! I didn't faint and I met with a lot of lovely people, but I'm happy to be back home and back to blogging. 

Thank you for leaving your comments so I can come visit you, too!

Paint Splatter Distress Ink Technique

Do you ever have one of those days where you walk into your crafting room, inhale the fumes of magic, and create the perfect card in like 10 minutes? Almost never for me, but apparently tonight was the night! 

I guess that's what you get from having some great inspiration. I stopped by the Fusion challenge this week and was immediately inspired to play along with this:

I decided to use both sketch and the image because I just received the most amazing sunflower stamp from STAMPlorations Blooms and Sketches set and haven't gotten the chance to show it off yet. Since they are having a new "Anything Goes" challenge that's a never-ending chance to win great prizes, I'm so happy that Fusion gave me a chance to ink it up. 

Distress splatter painting makes any card feel graphic and interesting, and I chose to incorporate that technique in my background. To achieve the technique, first create a base. I started by rubbing a paper with some Old Paper Distress Ink and embossed a saying from Tim Holtz's "The Journey" set. 

To get the splatter effect, squish some Distress Inks onto a craft mat and spray generously with water. I used Bundled Sage and Wild Honey.  Take a paintbrush and dip in the water and then flick the brush above the paper. (Make sure you're prepared to get some paint outside the edges!!) In order to achieve a really nice splatter effect, flick your brush from different angles and sides of the paper. 

My paintbrush apparently had some blue perfect pearls on it, and so a happy accident was formed. The tones from the blue mixed with some of the wild honey and just added another color to love.

To finish the card, I used some burlap I won from Simon Says Stamp's October blog hop. WOOHOO! I really like the effect. They also sent me some washi tape, which I'd never used before but now am in love with. I always thought it was kind of silly to tape up your card, but it just creates an amazing texture. 

I colored the flower with Spectrum Noir Markers and added some tiny little wooden hearts. 

All in all, I completely love the way this card turned out. I did a little happy dance and forced my boyfriend to ooh and aaah over it. :)

I'm also going to enter Simon Says Stamps Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.

 

All your comments are very much appreciated and loved!