2 Cards from One Experiment

I recently discovered the Hero Arts Blog and their challenges, and decided that I wanted to play along.  The current challenge is to “put a flower on it”…perfect for making a Mother’s Day card for my Mom:

I wanted to do an old technique using sticky back canvas and Distress markers.  I had done it with stamps, but I was wondering if it would work with a stencil.   I pulled out my Hero Arts Large Flower stencil, placed it over a piece of card stock and ran my Emboss It Dabber over the stencil.  Once it was coated, I flipped the stencil over onto a piece of sticky back canvas and burnished it good.  I then used some Zing White embossing powder and heat set.  (I’ll get back to the piece of card stock I had under the stencil soon.) 

I colored in the embossed image with Squeezed Lemonade, Dried Marigold and Spun Sugar Distress Markers, then sprayed it generously with Iridescent Memories Mist and let it dry.  I finished off the card by cutting out three copies of the sentient with my Scan N Cut, stacking them together then covering them with about four layers of Lindy’s Stamp Gang’s Sunset Yellow Orange embossing powder.  I added some raffia ribbon (from my Club Scrap Kit “Serenity”) and some gems from my stash.

So, remember that piece of card stock that was under the stencil when I used the Emboss It Dabber? Here is what became of it:

I covered it with Scotch Broom Yellow and Hyacinth Blue Jade embossing powder from Lindy’s Stamp Gang.  Since it was on white card stock, I sponged on some Tumbled Glass Distress ink to fill in the gaps with some color.   I stamped the sentiment (from DRS Designs) with Blue Denim ink from Gina K. Designs and finished off the card with some upcycled ribbon altered with Y18 Copic marker.

All the paper for both cards came from Gina K. Designs and Club Scrap.

To see more of my creations, you can follow me on Instagram at #inkyscraps.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tropical Flower Power

Flowers seem to be the theme on everyone’s minds these days – it must be spring!  I jumped into the Simon Says Stamps Monday challenge with some hibiscus die cuts and made two cards:

Half of the background is Ranger alcohol inks on vellum (it is an art orphan so I don’t have the exact colors).  For the other half of the background I used an Emboss It Dabber through Tim Holtz’s “Rays” layering stencil, embossed it using Sticky powder, then covered it with Gilding Flakes.  I die cut the flowers using the two sizes of hibiscus dies from Tim Holtz’s “Tropical” set.  I used Abandoned Coral and Wild Honey Distress markers to add some interest.

Other supplies I used are:

**Paper from Gina K Designs and Club Scrap.

**The sentiment stamp “Today, fill your cup…” is an old one from Club Scrap’s Tilescapes kit. 
The “Hello Sunshine” stamp is from Gina K. Designs.   Both are stamped with VersaMark ink and embossed with Pumpkin Fiesta powder from Lindy’s Stamp Gang.

**The “Hello Sunshine” sentiment tag was cut out with a Die-Versions die (no longer available).

**The blue ribbon is from Ellen Hutson, the gold ribbon is from Club Scrap’s Scandinavia kit.

**The nailhead is from Mark Richards, the gems are Recollections altered with R24 Copic Marker.

Full disclosure: I got the inspiration for the layouts of these cards from THIS beautiful card I found on Splitcoaststampers.

To see more of my creations, you can follow me on Instagram at #inkyscraps.

Thanks for stopping by!

Another Day in Paradise

Mother Nature is still acting bi-polar in most of the country, so maybe Simon Says Stamp’s Wednesday Challenge “Sparkle and Shine” can help lift all of our spirits.  I went with more shine than the sparkle on my card:

The background was done with Pthalo Green, Turquoise and Ultramarine Blue Color Bursts.   The honu is from the Crafters Workshop’s “Mini Sea Turtles” stencil.  I first inked the body parts with Mowed Lawn Distress ink mixed with a little bit of Pearl Mica Spray.  For the shell I used Cosmic Brown Nuvo Embellishment Mousse.  I fussy cut it, and used dimensional tape just under the shell.  

Other supplies I used are:

**Paper from Gina K Designs and Club Scrap.

**The sentiment stamp is from Rubbernecker Stamps, stamped with VersaMark ink and embossed with Midnight Teal powder from Lindy’s Stamp Gang.

**The sentiment tag was cut out with a Spellbinder die (no longer available).  I used the Mousse along the edges to add some interest.

**The ribbon is from the “Random Doorways” kit from Club Scrap, altered with Color Burst Liquid Metal Copper to add some shimmer.

**The nailheads are Mark Richards, altered with YG17 Copic Marker.

This was my first time using the Nuvo Mousse…but it won’t be my last!

To see more of my creations, you can follow me on Instagram at #inkyscraps.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tropical Birthday

To help celebrate Simon Says Stamps birthday, this week’s SSS Wednesday Challenge is to make a birthday card.  I know a lot of the country is not getting the spring weather they have been waiting for, so I went a little tropical with my card to help warm things up:

The background started out with Turquoise, Pthalo Green and Ultramarine Blue Color Burst.  I added some texture using an old Simon Says Stamps stencil (no longer available), Dreamweaver Translucent embossing paste and Lindy’s Stamp Gang Midnight Teal embossing powder.

The hibiscus is a stamp from Stampendous (which doesn’t seem to be available anymore).  I colored the stamp using Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade, Ripe Persimmon and Pine Needles Distress Markers.  After “huffing” on it to add moisture, I stamped it down onto yellow cardstock.  Oh, I should mention that I used my MISTI which made it easy to repeat the process a few times until I got the desired effect.  I then stamped it one last time using VersaMark ink and embossed it with WOW Clear Gloss powder.  I colored in the flower using the same Distress Marker colors mixed with some Pearl Mica Spray and fussy cut it.

The “happy birthday” die is from Simon Says Stamps.   I cut it out twice then stacked the pieces together.  It is embossed with a few layers of Midnight Teal powder from Lindy’s Stamp Gang, then glued onto a scrap of velum colored with Y15 Copic Marker.

Other supplies I used are:

**Paper from Gina K Designs and Club Scrap.

**The ribbon is form the “Sweet Tooth” kit from Club Scrap.

**The “gems” are from my stash, altered with BG99 Copic Marker.

Happy 9th Birthday to Simon Says Stamps!  Thank you for enabling supplying us with all of our crafty needs!

To see more of my creations, you can follow me on Instagram at #inkyscraps. https://www.instagram.com/inkyscraps/

Thanks for stopping by!

A Trio of...Starfish

Yesterday I was playing around with a new (to me) technique that Jennifer McGuire calls Faux Metallic Stamping.  My first attempt didn’t turn out quite the way I had hoped.  But, I couldn’t just throw it away so I got creative with the other elements of the card to hide the “crummy” parts.  Since this week’s Simon Says Stamps’ Monday Challenge is asking for a trio of something I also added three starfish dies and ended up with this:

I stamped the background with three different images (from Gina K. Designs “Gifts from the Sea” set) using Distress Embossing Ink, then embossed it using Clear powder from Gina K. Designs.  I then colored in each design using a VersaMarker and dusted them with Biscotti Perfect Pearls.  Please check out Jennifer’s video for full details on how to do this technique (she explains it so much better!)

Other supplies I used are:

**Paper from Gina K Designs and Club Scrap.

**The sentiment stamp is also from the Gina K. Designs “Gifts from the Sea” set.  It was stamped with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink then embossed with Clear powder from Gina K. Designs.  The tag is from Spellbinders. 

**The starfish die is from Cherry Lynn Designs.  I cut them out of the blue paper, colored them with Tarnished Brass Distress Crayon then sprinkled Gina K. Designs’ Gold embossing powder over the crayon, brushing some off before adding heat. 

**Both of the ribbons came with Club Scrap Kits – the blue is from What a Ride, the natural is from Vintage Botany.

**The nail head “stickers” are from Marc Richards.

This card will be included in the next box I send to Card Care Connection.

I did try the technique again with better results:

 
To see more of my creations, you can follow me on Instagram at #inkyscraps. https://www.instagram.com/inkyscraps/

Thanks for stopping by!