My youngest cringed when I came home with unicorn keychains for her class. The saga with valentine day cards continues. She is no longer at that stage where she dresses up as princesses, and play with dolls. Those days are bygone. Yet that mom in me still sees that little girl. Hence the princess card!
I used two pieces of Solar White Neenah paper for the word, LOVE. I colored one piece with Kitsch Flamingo with a blending brush. After gluing the pieces together, I added Spectrum Noir Clear Glitter and Glossy Accents to make the word ,’love’ look shiny.
There are small details that I like about this card. I like the shiny crown made with Nuvo Glitter Drops, Honey Gold. In addition, the wheel on the carriage has two small dots from Nuvo called Bubblegum Blush.
Affiliated links used at no cost to you. I do hope your fairy godmother had or has good taste. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Simon Says Stamp has a Big Book French Bulldog that is really, really cute. My youngest wanted to go to the store and buy cards for her class but in a cardmaker’s house?!!!!!I was deeply appalled. ‘NOOOOO’, I kept thinking. Are you kidding? My brain is configured to visual arts and an opportunity to make Valentine’s cards always makes more sense. I lead my youngest to the bin where all my Simon Says Stamp dies/stamps are organized by season. I pulled out several Valentine theme stand alone dies and Valentine theme stamps. My youngest decided on the French Bulldog and from there we designed this Valentine’s Day card together. Deciding to stayed within the brand of Simon Says Stamp, my youngest liked Hello, Beautiful stamp set. The sentiment, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’ for the font which we stamped with Tim Holtz New Kitsch Flamingo.
Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you.
Happy Monday! Today I am featuring Simon Says Stamp Love You Beary Much in the Box Card. S The kit is worth purchasing because it has a heart stencil, glossy accents, colored paper , an additional stamp called Sweet Truffles and envelopes. To see what is in the Valentine’s kit click here.
My goal was to utilize the valentine’s kit’s content. I have only one regret, I did not purchase the matching dies. I wish I had. Here is the list of supplies I used from Simon Says Stamp that were not included in the Valentine’s kit. I have also included the links to make it easier. These are not affiliate links, I am sharing what I enjoy doing and that’s making cards.
There are two sides to box so no matter what angle you are looking at the box, you can see an image. One side is a shaker heart filled with Pastel Hearts Speciality from Micheals. The other side is stamped with the words, ‘I love you’ from the Love You Beary Much stamp set. I used Waffle Flower Craft Tool Mini Media Mat to do a reverse image of the speech bubble. You might be asking yourself what does this mean? It means I stamped the image on the mat. When the image it wet I pressed paper onto it and that’s how I got a reverse image.
Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you. Happy Monday!
Lately, I have been thinking about how grateful I am for my family. How blessed I am to be apart of this world and the community that I live in. Lawn Fawn featured a special stamp set called, “Say What? Masked Critters”. My family is essential. People wearing masking are essential. I am hopeful that we will get past this pandemic together.
Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you. Happy Thursday!
Recently my middle sister asked what set of watercolors should she buy her daughter for Christmas. I have a couple of suggestions. Before I make a recommendation, I would like my niece to understand the science behind watercolor because it will make using them a lot easier. According to Britannica, watercolors are a combination of pigment and ground gum arabic. Gum arabic is used as a binding agent. If not enough binder is used your watercolor will be difficult to rewet and pick up color. Too much binder used they will be soft and delicate. Some watercolors are translucent while others are opaque.
When using watercolor, start with the light colors first, then use dark colors. The clerk at Blicks art supply store, likened watercolors to an onion, layers on layers of watercolors make a watercolor painting, like the layers of an onion make an onion. Waiting for your colors to dry is essential.
Depending on the project, most people start out with a basic set. I like Schmincke because the colors are rich. But as a student, I used anything from Crayola watercolors to Daniel Smith watercolors. The cardmaking industry promotes different brands depending on the card marker’s level of watercolor experience. One cardmaker likes Mission Gold Watercolors while another Cardmaker may use Kuretake. I have both sets , Mission and Kuretake, and use them for different reasons. Depending on the subject I will pick a brand. The card that I am show casing was made with a 12 colors set from Schmincke. Schmincke, is my favorite, and expensive. However in previous posts I have recommended handmade watercolor, like Hydra Colour or Case For Making. As you begin to work with watercolors sometimes you begin to look for certain hues that only handmade watercolors can give you. Artists that make handmade watercolors put along of time in creating a formula that gives watercolors certain hues. I like adding handmade watercolors to my Schmincke set.
I took a class with Alexa from Case For Making to further my understanding of watercolors. I also ordered from Kremer a watercolor set for producing watercolors paint to make my own watercolor. In the Kremer kit you had to ground the arbic gum well to mix with the pigment and water. Jane Davenport sells a watercolor kit too which you make half pans of watercolor. Jane adds distilled water and mixes the pigment. However, Jane suggests adding vegetable glycerin and clove essential oil mostly for rewetting reasons and mold reasons. Jane has dubbed her watercolor pigments, as ‘fairy dust’ which is illustrative of who Jane is and her brand. I enjoy using Jane Davenports brand because her line is geared toward the liking of women’s makeup.
There are artists who specialize in one medium. I have a general understanding for watercolor and can use it well. There are website you should look into to get more information regarding watercolors. I am writing this post mainly to help my middle sister out. If you have any questions, please feel free to write using the comment section below.
Happy Friday! Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you.
Simon Says Stamp has created a stamp kit in a limited edition for the holiday season. The kit includes two die cuts, one stencil, two brushes from Gina K Designs, stickers from Doodle Bug Design, card stock, envelops, and We Believe stamp. I have created two cards, three tags and one banner with it. My only regret was not ordering the die cut to go with the stamp, We Believe.
Once the images were stamped on the card, I masked the image with it with Post It Note . Be sure to cut right on the line. Reason being, once you color the the back ground its extremely difficult to go back and color close to the image. I find that cutting right on the line or slightly inside the line works best for masking. You can also use stamping mask paper from Inkadinkado. Unfortunately, I ran out of Inkadindado masking paper so I used a Post It Note instead. I also used Tombow Dot Adhesive to make the rest of the Post It Note stick. This was tricky because when I pulled off the Post It Note, I could see some of the adhesive dots. I have a rubber cement eraser and used that to remove the adhesive dot.
The background is a blend of several Distress Oxide colors, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans and Shabby Shutters. I used brushes from Taylor Expressions and blending brushes from Amazon. Taylor Expressions brushes are color coded while the brushes from Amazon are a generic black. Blending brushes from Amazon come in different sizes so I like to have a variety of sizes depending on the area I want to cover. To maintain my blending brushes, I wash them with soap and water after making a card to keep them clean.
Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you. With four projects to post I am doing the first two for now and will post the last two for tomorrow. Happy Wednesday!
Peace. Joy. Love. -A Shaker Card
My second card is made with Tim Holtz’s Fanciful Snowflakes and Simon Says Stamp Neighorhood Wafer. Its more of a mix media card, with texture, and jewels! I got a different look using the same kit. Even if the kit is sold out, Simon Says Stamp sells these products individually.
There are a couple of items that need to be mention, besides selling stamps, Honey Bee Stamps also sells embellishments. The colors in Spring Fling Mint Julep matched Rustic Wilderness Oxide and Shabby Shutters Oxide perfectly. You can get them here as I have linked it for you. These embellishments are not apart of the SSS Kit. Rather than color the neighborhood, I thought of what it is like inside each home. During the holidays you see merriment, and color. The embellishment has small white butterflies, and beautiful green seed beads. Its that spark that reminded me of joy.
In case you are wondering how I got the light green dots, I mixed Rustic Wilderness and modeling paste together. Using a pallet knife, and SSS Large Dots Stencil from the kit, smear the paste over the stencil. Remove the stencil as gently as possible and wash your stencil before the modeling paste hardens.
Affiliated links when possible at no cost to you. I will continue with the last two projects tomorrow. Happy Wednesday!
After five years of following the stamp industry you accumulate a lot of rubber stamps. This card features several rubber stamp sets from the same company, Lawn Fawn. I try to group the stamps from the same company because its easier to follow in case you might want to reproduce the card or do something similar. This is how I learned how to use alcohol markers, and card making techniques. I would purchase the same items that the artist was featuring and tried to reproduced the same card. I also took many online classes and watched YouTube videos. I feel compelled to list what I have used. Its almost like writing a school paper. Cite your sources! In case you are doing the same thing, trying to learn how to make a card, I have linked the items I could not find on Amazon. The link to Christmas Dreams stamp set by Lawn Fawn is linked here. The mountains and snow have dry glitter. I used multi medium matte to adhere Ranger’s Pour Style Antique Stickles dry clear glitter. You can find the dry glitter at Ranger’s website. I also linked it so it would be easier for you to find.
Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you. Happy Tuesday!
Gina K. Design Sparkle and Shine Card Kit is pretty impressive. It not only comes with paper, stencil, die cuts but three stamp sets. Sometimes, you get a kit and think, “oh no- what do I do with it”. But Gina’s kit was well designed, it flowed.
At Gina K. Design Blog, they have a monthly challenge. November’s theme is to use a tag and a card. The challenge is to use two colors red and white. This is my entry. Wish me luck.
I do not have a lot of products from Gina K. Design. Hence the need to use a border from a different company. To create a shaker card with an interesting border, I used the Lawn Fawn’s Outside In Stitched Scalloped Square Stackables, and Stitched Scalloped Square Frames. I liked the shape of the border.
One more thing, the snow flakes and dots in the shaker card are from Joann’s. But I am guessing, they were in my drawer and I have had them for years.
Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you. Have a great Tuesday!
This card was inspired by Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. The general theme of Wednesday challenge is Thanks/Thanksgiving. The challenge is to feature any of Pink Fresh Studio products. Today’s card features Unicorn Dreams . The link that is attached is to Pink Fresh Studio home page. Unicorn Dreams is from the year 2017, since then it has been discontinued. It is still my favorite stamp because there are endless possibilities of making cards. I did not feature the unicorn itself but the flowers instead to show how beautiful the flowers are drawn. Less is more when you are making a statement.
To stamp the flowers I used Tsukineko Inks. I got them from the website called Cute Things From Japan. One of these days I would like to visit Japan. In the meantime, my internet browser takes me there instead. 🙂
The word, ‘Thanks’ is from Simon Says Stamp called Big Thanks. The small sentiment is also from Simon Says Stamp called Big Thanks Words. I have three daughters and I am eternally grateful for all the teachers, coaches, family and friends that are apart of our lives. Needless to say this stamp set has been used again and again.
Last but not least, the watercolors used to splatter the card are from Hydra Color. Half pan watercolors handmade! I love how vibrant the colors are. Link is included.
This is my entry for Monday’s challenge on Simon Says Stamp. The theme ‘s challenge is Remembrance/Thinking of You. I had recently purchased a Stampers Anonymous stamp set called Dearly Departed. The flower portion of the stamp set caught my attention and I wanted to incorporate it into a card.
Affiliated links used when possible at no cost to you. Have a great Saturday!
