Spring 2024 | Breath of Spring

Today I’m sharing the steps I followed to create this lovely Springtime tag that I display in my studio to celebrate the arrival of the season.

I used Ranger/Tim Holtz #8 Distress Tags and applied Ranger/Tim Holtz Salvaged Patina Distress Oxide Spray to make the tag base and background coloring.  I set it aside to dry before moving forward.

For the stamping, I used Hero Arts’ “Breath of Spring Heroscape”.  I started with the lighter colored grass and used the Simon Says Stamp’s Pawsitively Saturated Ink in the color Fairway.  For the second/darker colored grass, I used Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Ink in the color Pine.  For the flower layers, I used Tim Holtz’s Mustard Seed Distress Oxide ink, and the centers were stamped using Walnut Stain Distress Oxide ink.  For the cloud stamping layer, I decided to use StazOn Cotton White since I was going to be battling the oxide from the Savaged Patina background.  Before all the StazOn had time to dry, I thought it might be fun to add a sprinkling of Stampendous! White Puff 3D Embossing Powder to the clouds for a little texture.

There was one more stamp I wanted to use from this Hero Arts stamp set and it was the silhouette of three dragonflies.  I stamped them onto my tag using Tim Holtz Distress Archival Ink in Black Soot.

The finishing touches were completed by adding a couple words from the Tim Holtz Idea-ology “Big Chat” sticker book, I used a clear Sakura Glaze pen on the dragonflies and added a little dot of bronze Sakura Metallic Gelly Roll to all the centers of the flowers.  The only other additional was to add a new hole reinforcer to the top of the tag since I had to remove the original one to allow me to stamp the clouds.  To do this, I used the hole reinforcer die from the Sizzix/Tim Holtz “Framed Tags” die set and I cut it from Altenew’s “Sparkling Water” glitter cardstock from the Shimmering Shore collection.  I did have to use a hole punch to make the existing hole a little bit larger so that it would be a seamless finish once I glued the new hole reinforcer to the tag front.

That wraps up this fun tag project and it couldn’t be cuter!  Thanks so much for stopping by… I appreciate you doing so!

Happy Making!

Spring 2024 | Happy Easter

The inspiration for this card came from a YouTube video by Jennifer McGuire that I watched several weeks ago during which she used a technique that I just had to borrow to make an Easter card this year. If you're a fan of Jennifer like I am, you may just recognize the technique!

I started this Easter card by ink blending onto a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media paper using the Simon Says Stamp "Layered Flowers" stencil set and Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Inks in the colors: Guava, Cherry, Aspen, and Field. After the ink blending was completed, I die cut the stenciled panel to using the largest die from My Favorite Things' "Wonky Stitched Rectangle Stax" dies. I also cut a piece of Spellbinders' "Fern" green cardstock that was in my scrap bin to 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" to serve as the mat for my stenciled panel.

Using the Simon Says Stamp's "Fancy Happy Easter" die set, I used the shadow die to cut a hole in the center of both the fern green cardstock and my stenciled card front. After die cutting, I adhered the two cardstock panel together with liquid adhesive making sure to line up the die cut holes. I cut a Happy Easter toner sheet from the Simon Says Stamp "Fancy Happy Easter" Foil Transfer Cards and used my Minc machine to foil the sentiment with Deco Foil's "Pink Melon" hot foil. I die cut the sentiment using the shadow die I used to cut the card front panel so when it came to assembling the card all the layers would line up.

For my card base, I took a full sheet of Spellbinders' "Fern" cardstock and cut it in half to make a top folding, 5-1/2" x 4-1/4" card. (I must note here... I would have had to do this next step if I had planned this card properly! I decided to make the card base out of Fern cardstock at the last minute versus white which made me have to use the sentiment shadow die to cut yet another hole, this time in the front side of the card base.). Using the shadow die from above - again - I lined up the card front panels to the card base and used the Fancy Happy Easter shadow die to cut a hole in the front side of the card base. I then adhered the card front to the card base using liquid glue and placed to heavy blocks on top until the glue dried. After the glue dried, I placed the foiled sentiment into the hole made into the card front to ensure the alignment would be perfect when the card is closed and flipped the open card face down onto my glass mat and applied adhesive onto the back of the sentiment and then folded the back side of the card onto the front to adhere the foiled sentiment to the inside of the card.

My final touch for the card was to add pink gems to all the random pink dots scattered throughout the background and also to the flower centers.

I hope you enjoyed the card and possibly found some inspiration for a card you are making.

Until next time... Happy Making!

Birthday Nasturtiums

For this nasturtiums themed birthday card, I used Spellbinders' "Nasturtium and Galvanized Wash Bucket" die set and some Distress Inks to create a one-of-a-kind bucket of goodness. The flower and leaf shaping was done by the help of watching Susan Tierney Cockburn's Youtube video - she's an excellent instructor - and this is the link to her video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGyk1JEABjI

First, I used Ranger's Distress Inks in the colors Squeezed Lemonade and Kitsch Flamingo to ink smoosh to separate pieces of watercolor cardstock. I put Squeezed Lemonade ink on my mixed media mat, misted it with a bit of water, swirled it around with my finger tips, then dipped the watercolor cardstock into the ink several times, dried the panel, and continued until I had the look I desired. After that, I did the same thing with the Kitsch Flamingo ink and watercolor cardstock. When both panels were inked and dried, I used the petal dies from the die set and proceeded to cut as many pieces as I could of both the petal dies from the inky panels.

For the leaves, I cut nine sets from a piece of My Favorite Things' "Limelight" cardstock, then ink blended Distress Inks (Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, and Rustic Wilderness) across the die cuts until I had what appeared to be a decent leaf blend. After the Distress Ink dried, I used a Moonlight Gellyroll pen #427 to draw the veins on the leaves then followed Susan's instructions in the video listed above to form the leaves.

For the flower petals, I decided to ink the backs of each petal die cut with the coordinating color of Distress Ink to add color so they wouldn't be white when/if the backs are seen. After that, I used Diarylide Yellow Shade PanPastel and a foam applicator to apply shading to the centers of all the petals - both the pinks and yellows. I continued following the instructions in Susan's Youtube tutorial on the shaping and assembly of the flowers and stamin die cuts. I cut about 20 or so of the flower stamens and once they were assembled (following Susan's instruction video), I dipped them all in glue and then dipped the tops into Woodland Scenics "Yellow Paper Flower Pollen" that I purchased from Spellbinders and set those aside to dry.

I cut the planting container out of a scrap of grey cardstock and applied a generous coating of embossing ink across the entire die cut using the Distress Embossing Dabber. Next, I applied a sporadic layer of Ranger Ink's Antiquities Verdigris embossing powder and Potting Soil embossing powder until the entire die cut was coated. I let the excess fall onto a flattened coffee filter, then melted the embossing powder on the die cut with the heat gun. While the melted embossing powder was still hot, I dabbed portions of the die cut back into the powder on the coffee filter and melted the added embossing powder - I repeated this process until I was happy with the results.

To create my card front panel / background, I used a 5" x 5" piece of dark blue cardstock from my stash and 3D embossed it using Altenew's "Wicker Texture" 3D embossing folder. I put foam adhesive behind the plant container die cut and adhered it to the embossed panel and then began gluing the flowers and leaves on and around the opening of the container onto the card front. After the flowers were adhered, I began adding glue to the flower centers and glued the stamens in place.

My card base was created using a piece of Cardstock Warehouse "Stardream Gold" cardstock cut to 5-1/4" x 10-1/2" that I scored at the 5-1/4" mark. I put Simon Says Stamp's Big Momma foam tape on the back of the embossed panel and adhered it to the card base. My sentiment was created using a scrap piece of brown cardstock and using Spellbinders' "You Are Everything Sentiments" Betterpress plate along with a piece of gold foil that I ran through my Glimmer Foil System. After I die cut the sentiments, I selected the one I wanted to use and adhered it to the card front using thin foam squares.

I hope you enjoyed my Through the Arbor Garden themed card using Susan Tierney-Cockburn's die release.

Until next time... thank you and Happy Making!