Celebrate Your Birthday Card - Retro Style

I love working with retro things, vintage embellishments and fun patterns so the monthly challenge at STAMPlorations is sah-weet for my cardmaking inspiration. 

I wanted to have some fun with the colors and patterns of the late 60s and early 70s so I broke out some of my vintagey papers. 

I chose this rich gold-brown and used a white pigment ink to stamp a subtle pattern using balloons from A Snarky Birthday to You.

I layered on funky patterned papers, adding some texture with with CUTplorations Art Edges for a little bit of visual interest. 

I used the CUTplorations Celebrate Word Die and double layered it for dimension, stamped a sentiment using SENTIMENT BUILDERS: Celebrate, scribbled on some x's using a white gel pen, and splashed the whole thing with some Picket Fence Distress Spray Stains. 

PURPLE! Mixed Media Card with Tutorial

Anyone else out there excited about all the purple cards beautifying the interwebs as of late? I know I am. Thank you SO much for all who have participated in the Hop to Stop this month. I've sent mental high fives to ALL of you!

This post also is going to serve as a reminder to go get your STAMPlorations on and join in on the latest challenge. We've got both a sketch AND a theme so there are plenty of options for you to choose from. Just do it already!

I was in my craft room last weekend and decided I wanted to get really messy. I had a leftover sheet that I'd sprayed with shades of purple Distress Inks for THIS CARD and I stared at it all googly eyed before I decided to just start playing.

I took out my Picked Raspberry Distress Paint and made some random circles (a la the STAMPlorations sketch) and then I ringed the pink with Picket Fence Distress Paint. I used my finger to swirl around the paint and blend it together. Since the Distress Spray background hadn't reacted yet with water, some of the purple color seeped into my wet paint and created a lovely blend of colors.

Next, I used the Folk Flowers set designed by Shirley B for STAMPlorations. I took what was supposed to be the stem of the flowers and bent them in the shape of my circles to create an outline. And then I embossed with white.

I also took my Picket Fence Distress Ink and added some small white circles to my big pink circles.

The last step of the background was to use my Dots All Over stencil and sponge Wilted Violet distress ink to create another layer of circles.

I stamped some of the Folk Flowers onto a piece of scrap paper and colored and shaded with my Distress Crayons.

Then I cut them out and pieced them together. Aren't they so funky and adorable!?! There's a million random flowers you could create from this set. (Believe me. I did the mathematical calculations) (don't really believe me - I have a degree in English, not math you sillies).

I stamped a big ol' sentiment from the Big Greetings sentiment kit and colored it in with purple Faber Castell Big Brush pen.

I also added some little sequins to the background and to one of my flowers.

Then I put it all together and said Taaaaa Daaaaa really loudly. :)
This card was so much fun to make and so much fun to stare at. Fun all around!

Make sure you head on over to STAMPlorations and check out the rest of the design team's handiwork!

I'm going to link this up to Seize the Birthday's lots of leaves challenge and Little Red Wagon's Let's Party - Happy Birthday challenge.

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Now - Just a reminder that the Hop to Stop is in full Hopping mode. Last year we had 238 linkups and I'm SO hoping to beat that. 

If you're wondering what the Hop is - it's a blog hop designed to raise awareness for victim's of domestic violence during National Domestic Violence awareness month. 

One in three women will experience domestic violence over the course of their lives. One in three. 

Please consider making a purple card and to help build awareness for such an important issue. <3 

As a bonus, the hop has over $700 worth of prizes that will be given away by extremely generous sponsors.

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! 

Glitter and Feathers and Gems - Oh My! Mixed Media Card Challenge

We are getting alllllll sorts of sparkly up at The Mixed Media Card Challenge this month and boy do I every have some sparkly goodness to flash your way!

You may have already guessed that our theme for the month is Sparkle along with the option of including Gems.

I was in the mood to make some mixed media backgrounds earlier this week and this card showcases a quick and easy, but classy and fab-o mixed media background that anyone can achieve. 

I started by sponging Fired Brick Distress Inks onto a piece of cardstock, putting a heavier coat on around the edges to create a little vignette action. 

Once I was satisfied with my sponging, I used a Polka Dot stencil and a wet paper towel and lifted some of the ink off the paper to create layers of visual interest. 

Then I stamped another circular-shaped grungy stamp randomly across the background. 

Lastly, I added some gold texture paste over through a smaller polka dot stencil and then let it air dry. 

These are some examples using the exact same techniques but it different colors and stencil variations. 

When creating a cohesive mixed media design, I really like to use one shape (in this case a circle) repetitively throughout the design in various shapes and sizes. 

Since I used polka dotted stencils and circular stamps, I carried the circle shapes into the foreground by dry embossing part of my sentiment panel with a polka dotted embossing folder and then gluing glitter on the raised areas. 

 

Since the theme was sparkle, I added glitter to some gold feathers, and then added gold gemstones, too. I put some burgundy raffia behind my feathers to give some contrast to the design. So pretty! 

I'm going to send my sparkly beauty over to play along in the following challenges:
Craft Stamper - Take It Make It - Take a Stamp
Just Add Ink - Just Add S (for Sparkle, Sponging, Stamping)
Creative Artiste Challenge - Anything Mixed Media Goes

Baseball Father's Day Card

Father's Day is quickly approaching and I've been getting some orders from clients that have definitely made me stretch my creative muscles with "man cards". 

One of my clients asked for a baseball themed card. Since I didn't have any baseball stamps in my stash, it was time to get crafty. 

I want to warn you, this card is HIGHLY technical and may not be able to be accomplished by the average card maker. 

Step one: Use a paper plate and a pen to trace a curved line

Can you hear me giggling now? hehe HIGHLY technical. 

Once I had the perfect curvature traced, I cut it out with some scissors. 

Next, I used some little sketchy chevron shapes from the STAMPlorations Mixed Media Gruge set to emboss the read threading on my "baseball" 

I completed the look with a sentiment from the BOLD SENTIMENTS: Hashtag Authentic set and stamped DAD with the Sketchy Alphabet set.

Taaaadaaaa! I'm quite pleased with it. 

This is a good time to tell you that we're midway through the month at the STAMPlorations Theme and Sketch challenge and you should go play. You can use either the sketch, or the theme, OR both! So many options! 

 

I'm also going to play along in some of the other fun challenges going on in the blogosphere including:

 

CASology - Masculine theme

 The Male Room - Father's Day

What if you Fly Stamped Card with Stenciling

It's reminder time. So here I am. Reminding you.

Go play in the STAMPlorations theme & sketch challenge already! Really - this month is an anything goes theme, so why not? You can use any stamps/products you want to AND you can win cool prizes. Win win win.

For my card this go-round, I didn't want to use the sketch, so I just used the anything goes theme and had a little mixed media play.

It all started after I stared at this background:

Soooooooooooooo pretty, right?!
Just kidding - you don't have to humor me, I know it's gaggingly gross.

This background was made while I was experimenting with Distress Crayons. Let's just say that this particular experiment did NOT impress me - haha.

BUT, much like with all my "ICK" creations, I decided to try gesso on it before I pitched it in the trash bin. 

 

I used the Foiled Again ARTplorations stencil and painted some gesso through it. 

Folks, I'm convinced that gesso was created by the great magicians of lore because it can fix ANYTHING.  All of the sudden, this background that gave my eyeballs a good coating of bile suddenly looked a teensy bit appealing!

I still wasn't super happy with it though, so I took a Distress Marker and started outlining some of the shapes.  The outlines seemed a little bit to harsh and clean, so I used a wet paint brush to pull some of the color into the centers of the shape and muddy down the edges a bit. 

Once the background was dry, I stamped over it using a script from the Mixed Media Elements stamp set and sponged the edges with Black Soot Distress Ink.

I then embossed feathers from the Trendy Feathers 2 set and used the same Distress Marker to add spot color. I stamped a sentiment from the Strong Women stamp set and used a Spellbinders die cut with some faux hand-drawn stitching as a focal panel. 

I tied the look (literally) together with some teal twine and a vintage gemstone from an old earring. 

If a starting off point helps, use our sketch to give you some inspiration. Otherwise link up ANYTHING this month for you chance to win at STAMPlorations. 

So the next time you're making something and just don't quite like it - GESSO to the rescue! 

I'm also going to link this creation up to:
Craft Stamper Magazine - Anything Goes 
The colors of my creation were inspired by ColourQ
Try it on Tuesday - Spots Dots & Dashes
 

Thanks for flying by! Hope you liked my creation today! 

Card Concept Guestie - It's Me! Sunshine Mixed Media Card

I'm so so so excited because the amazing Lesley asked me to be a guestie for the Card Concept!! >>insert happy dance here<< Their design team is SO talented and filled with top-notch cardmakers from ALL aesthetic backgrounds. CAS, shabby chic, mixed media - you name it!

I was thrilled when I saw the inspiration image because I'd just purchased the Rise Above set from Verve stamps and knew exactly how to put the adorable little sun to use.

I started by creating some faux grungy polka dots on a group of tags. 

 First, I sprayed my tags with a trio of yellow Distress Spray Stains - Scattered Straw, Squeezed Lemonade and Fossilized Amber. Then I ran them through a polka dotted embossing folder and used the Vintage Photo Distress Crayon to highlight the raised areas. 

Next, I made a background using Distress Spray Stain (Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Scattered Straw), gesso, texture paste and heated embossing powder. 

I die cut the sun from my Rise Above set and embossed a sentiment from the same set. I outlined my sun and the tags with a bronze metallic Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen and added some cork letters. 

I backed the image with some DCWV printed burlap and put the whole thing together. It's so bright and fun and textural. I definitely loved playing and trying new techniques to create this little lovely. 

I'll be a guestie with the Card Concept for the whole month of May so you'll have to stay tuned to see what else I've created. In the meantime make sure you head over to see what the rest of the incredible design team produced!

I'm also going to send this over to the Anything But Cute Challenge, who are having a Anything Goes Challenge Mixed Media Challenge . 

 

Thanks for popping by! I hope you'll leave me a comment or follow my blog so I can return the favor!