Birthday Card- Sketch Saturday

Hello! I have a new card to share today! I was inspired by this card sketch from Sketch Saturday:

The little squares in the top left corner made me think of windows, so I worked from there. I decided I wanted to have a little boy in the window holding a balloon. I was able to find a cut in Design Studio of a boy holding a flag, so I used that cut, cut off the flag and cut a balloon to add in its place. With the window theme, I cut the squares from blue vellum. Once the squares and the boy were adhered to the background, I decided one of the other squares needed something, so I cut out a cake. I added a "5" to the balloon because that is how old my nephew is turning (I also made 5 candles for the cake).

 Thanks for stopping by to check out my card!

Cards With Embossing

Hello! I have a couple of new cards to share today! I am entering these in the Use Your Stuff Embossing challenge. 

First up is a sympathy card. I made the background using alcohol inks and glossy cardstock. I used lots of blending solution to soften the colors. Once it was dry, I stamped and heat embossed the candle and sentiment. At that point, I decided the background needed a little more interest, so I splattered some blending solution. I also used some white pearlized ink to color the candle. I finished off the card front with some Liquid Pearl dots around the flowers.

Next is a Baptism card for my niece. I was looking through photos of past cards I've made and saw one where I had used a stencil to make dots on the backgrround and then used an embossing folder to make different sized dots that I sanded to make the core of the paper show through. I decided to try that technique again. I started with a script background stamp that I stamped in blue. I then used a swirl embossing folder. Once that was done, I sanded the swirls to make the pink show. I used my Cricut to cut the cross from rose gold cardstock and vellum. I love the dimension the vellum gives! I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment and wrapped the ends of the vellum around my card front.

 Thanks for stopping by to check out my cards!

February Calendar Page- Stick It Down

Hi all! I'm here today with my calendar page for February. I started with the double page sketch on Stick It Down this month:

I split a couple of the photo spots to fit more photo, but otherwise I stuck pretty close to the sketch. The photos on the left were swapped when I was gluing stuff down and I just left them. For the top and bottom strips, I used metallic watercolors and painted a sheet of floral paper from my "Just Add Water" stack. I love how watercoloring on these resist backgrounds is so forgiving! I did handwritten journaling. For my flower swag across the right page, I found a couple of flower cuts in Design Studio and cut them with my Cricut. I added a couple of other flowers there and around my page as embellishments. For the centers of my flowers, I used some gold Liquid Pearls and sequins. A couple of other stickers on my photos finished the layout off.

 

Recent Layouts- Paper Issues Sketches

Hello, I'm back today to share some layouts I've created in the last week or so. Paper Issues is posting a new sketch in their Facebook group every day this month and I have found them super inspiring so far! You can find them here. 

First up is this sketch:

When I saw this sketch I immediately thought I could replace the trees with scissors to go with these photos. I cut the scissors with my Cricut and rubbed silver Gelato over them to make the silver and shiny. I brushed some gesso over the background to give my photos a place to rest. I pulled the strips of patterned paper from my scraps and attached them to the patterned paper background. I found another orange paper and used it to mat my photos. I wanted my title to stand out, so I cut it from blue cardstock. I then found some matching spray ink and added splatters and arrow brads to accent the areas of my son's hair that was cut. To embellish the page, I used some epoxy flair, a puffy sticker (that had the perfect sentiment), a journaling spot, washi tape and some cork stars.

I had to use this sketch since it had so many spots for photos! 

I ended up reducing the number of photos- which I rarely do- to make it work with the photos I had. These photos were printed at 3x4s, but I was able to trim them to squares to make them work with the sketch. This was a good sketch to pull out scraps, so that's what I did. I cut the title, little super hero, and "Oh Boy" sentiment using my Cricut. I found some appropriate sentiments on stickers and cut apart pieces. I finished the layout off with some puffy stickers.

This was another sketch that had several photos spots so I had to use it! I started by scribbling pink and light green Gelatos on a piece of plastic (separately), spraying them with water and then mixing the color with the water to make a watercolor before smooshing it onto the background cardstock. Once that was dry, I attached the pink patterned paper. The photos were attached to a white snowflake patterned paper. One photo was a square, so I used the extra space for a punched border and journaling. I fussy cut the candy from patterned paper. I cut "Sweet" using my Cricut and created the word "house" with Thickers. Enamel dots completed the layout.

This sketch had space for just one photo, so of course, I made the space bigger and added more! The turquoise in this collection went so well with my daughter's jacket in these photos, I used it to mat my photos. I am really loving the beauty of this collection and I have enjoyed making it work with my style! I was able to mix in some stickers, brads, and chipboard from another collection to embellish the layout. The title is a combination of a sticker and word cut using my Cricut.

 Thanks for checking out my layouts!

Recent Cards

Hi all! I have been busy creating, but haven't posted much. I will share some of my creations over the next couple of days. First up are the cards I've made recently.

First is a birthday card based off the current card sketch from Stick it Down:

I stuck pretty close to the sketch, but I flipped it horizontally, mostly because that's how the scrap of polka dot paper worked best. All of the patterned papers on this layout are from my scrap bin. I cut the sentiment using my Cricut. To finish off the card, I used some silver Nuvo drops to frame my sentiment.

Next up are these butterfly cards. I cut the white panels from watercolor paper. I then took an ombre inkpad and pressed it on a stamping block. I misted the ink with water and then pressed the block onto the paper. You can see what a difference more or less water makes- the one on the left used less water and is more splotchy. I then stamped and heat embossed the butterflies. I cut them out and attached them to the cards. I used the same silver embossing powder for the sentiment. I finised off the cards with pink Nuvo drop trails behind the butterflies.

Last up is a card I made for my son. I used a mask and blending brush to create the background. I cut the soccer player using my Cricut. To add a festive touch and a sentiment, I used a banner stamp set and stamped and fussy cut the banners.

 Thanks for stopping by to check out what I've been up to!

Christmas Tag

Hi all! I have a new project to share, this time it is a tag! I don't do tags often, but I made these to go in packages that were sent to my godchildren.

For the background, I started by stamping the stars in white ink (the tags are manilla, so off white). I heat embossed the stars with sparkle embossing powder. Then I used a blending brush and Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink and covered the background. I took a towel and wiped off the stars once I was done inking (the embossing resists the ink). I then stamped and heat embossed the sentiment. Finally, I cut the angels using my Cricut. I misted the blue and white layers with Perfect Pearls mixed with water for some shimmer (which you can't see in the photo. 

 I wrote the "to" and "from" on the back. I am entering this in the Bitten By the Bug 2 Any Holiday challenge. Thanks for stopping by!

Snow Cards

Hello! I have two new cards to share today! I used alcohol inks and Lift Off ink and this was the result.

First up is the card with the alcohol inks. I used purple, blue and teal inks and played around with layering them on glossy cardstock until I was happy with the result. I then took some snowflake, clear cling stamps and arranged them on my MISTI. I inked them up with Alcohol Lift Off ink and stamped. I then put my second panel in the MISTI and stamped the ink off (see that panel on the card below). I ended up doing that two more times to make the effect more visible. I still felt the snowflakes were pretty faint, so I rotated my card and stamped them again  with white pigment ink for more interest. I added some vellum to the top and bottom and stamped my sentiment on a strip of cardstock. I punched a few snowflakes to layer on top as well. One of them I heat embossed with sparkle embossing powder. To finish things off, I added some clear rhinestones.

To add more texture to my second card, I used a snowflake embossing folder. I then cut the snowflake using my Cricut. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment on vellum and wrapped it around my card front. To finish off the card, I added Liquid Pearls around the large snowflake.

I am entering these in the Use Your Stuff- Snow or Winter challenge.