Category: CAS

All About Rainbows! Joining Pinkfresh Studio’s June Challenge!

Hi everyone!

Today I’m popping in with a couple of cards that I made for the June Pinkfresh Studio Challenge. The theme for this month couldn’t be a better fit for me: it’s Rainbows!!

How gorgeous is that graphic? And not just because that lower right card is mine!! We are not going to be talking about that one though, we are going to be talking about these two:

I have used the ever-so-lovely Garden Roses stamp set, and the coordinating layering stencils and the diecut for the main focal. I have also used some newer goodies, including the Modern Script Hot Foil sentiments, plus coordinating dies, and the Nested Hexagons Hot Foil with their coordinating dies.

As I was going to heat emboss the images, I started out by using the Cottontail Embossing Tool from The Rabbit Hole Design, all over my card stock. With the help of my Mini MISTI, I stamped up two images to ink blend on. Both of these are heat embossed with Opaque Bright White Super Fine embossing powder from WOW! Embossing, and I also used the WOW! Embossing ink pad.

With the Garden Rose layering stencils, a big bunch of blender brushes (one for each colour, to avoid colour contamination) and inks from the inspiration graphic: Candy Apple, Clementine, Sunshine, Key Lime, Aquamarine and Lavender, I went to town!

This one is mostly done with the leftover inks from the super bright one. Pretty amazing, right? It does help to get more definition and depth if you go slightly lighter than you think you might need to, on the first layer.

The key to the rainbow layering is to ink blend the same colour over the same parts of the stencils, on each and every layer.

With more of the leftover ink, I created the soft background on another panel I had also heat embossed with the Garden Rose image. This one was a bit of a mishap, as I actually forgot to ink up the image before pouring on the embossing powder, so it was only the tiniest bit of embossing ink on the paper.. that’s what happens sometimes when you are engrossed in a true crime podcast and forget where you were in the card making process.

The card with the white background is also heat embossed with the same Garden Rose stamp, with the help of a big MISTI, so I could get the whole piece covered. This one I left white though.

With the floral images and backgrounds ready, I simply puzzled the cards together with the Hexagon Hot Foiled pieces and the Modern Script sentiments, that were all already made.

OK, OK, I did use some bling on each one of the cards too… those Metallic Matte Gold Pearls were the perfect finishing touch as the foil used on that Hexagon, was the Matte Gold Foil.

The Jewels I used on the white card are the Glacier ones, and they are probably my faves out of the entire Essentials Jewels Mix.

Well, that’s it from me for today, but I hope you enjoyed this post and will consider entering the Pinkfresh Monthly Challenge yourself. Just by entering you are in with the chance to win a $50 gift card to the Pinkfresh Studio shop!! Winners are drawn by random so you really have nothing to lose by entering.

I have used compensated affiliate links all throughout this post, for your convenience and they will not cost you a penny extra if you use them to shop. Thank you so much if you chose to support me by using these links, I really appreciate it!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

You can find me on various social media platforms, by clicking the links below.
My blog
Instagram
My YouTube channel
CaCaCraft on Facebook

Peony Layering diecuts bonanza!

Hi guys!

I’m back on the blog today with some LDRS Creative inspiration! I have been having some fuuuuuuuun with the amazing addition to the flower layering dies: Peony Layering Dies. Oh boy, it’s such a stunner and peonies also happen to be one of my favorite flowers so I went to town!

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I have a big stash of this lovely linen textured coloured card stock and I got cutting, and cutting, and cutting and eventually ended up with enough bits and pieces for seven or eight peonies. Yeah, I was on a roll. Get it? LOL. I do love a good pun too!

After assembling the flowers and the buds with the leaves, it was time to actually make a card! For a nice little touch I like using the A2 Diagonal Stitched Layered Card Topper die set, it cuts out the A2 front and adds some lovely stitched detail in one go.

Puzzling the flower pieces took some time, and I ended up trimming a few of the buds and leaves to fit behind the two peonies I wanted to use. When I was happy with the layout, I used some Press’n’Seal to pick up the pieces in exactly the same spot as there were on the card base. This is such a neat and handy trick, but if you can not get ahold of Press’n’Seal you can use very low-tack wide washi to get the same result.

erica_@erica_cacacraft_peony layering dies_blogpost march 2nd.1.jpg

On the back, I used both Nuvo Deluxe liquid glue and foam tape, to add dimension and to adhered the whole shebang to the card base.

I also had a load of ready made sentiments done, as I had stamped and cut up the You’re Simply The Best wave stack sentiments.This set is so clever in that you stamp it up once and get all the sentiments done, and it has a coordinating diecut that cuts out all in one go. One stamp session + one turn through the diecutting machine = TWELVE sentiment banners done! How cool is that??

I picked out the one that says You are truly wonderful in every way, and adhered that to the card. Now, I could have stopped there, but did I? Of course not.. I’m not an over-blinger by name only, oh no.

I added a VERY generous smattering of these Iridescent Bubble Drops embellishments from Studio Katia. Sort of like big water droplets after rain, you know?  Finally, after adding at least eight too many, I stopped and stepped back. I have the embellishment wand from Studio Katia too, and it’s fab, as are the Triangle Trays to keep your embellishments tidy while you pick out which ones to use.

I, personally, love the bling, but if you don’t, you can leave them out. Or go less. That’s always an option for some. Not me, apparently but oh well, what can you do?

Thank you so much for stopping by today, I really hope you enjoyed this post and will try these gorgeous Peony Layering dies for yourself. With the code ERICAC15 you can also take 15% off your order until April 11th!!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Pinkfresh Studio February 2022 Stamp, Die, Stencil, and Hot Foil Release

Hello, hello, and welcome to one of the stops on the Pinkfresh February release blog hop! If you have come here from the amazing Emily Mydlowski, you are in the right spot, and the next stop on the hop is the awesome Heather Hoffman!

I have been really sick with shingles, for the second time in two years!!, for most of February so I haven’t had the energy to make a boat load of cards, like I usually do. However, the cards I have made I really like, and I hope you will too. I did manage a YouTube video too, but just a heads-up, I do look rather sickly still.

Now, let’s get to it! Clean and Simple, or CAS cards, are not something that comes easy to me. I love the look, but yeah, I usually end up over embellishing them to make up for the white space. It was, surprisingly, the look that I ended up with, for both of my first two cards though. Maybe the shingles took pity on my frazzled brain, and I didn’t over-think it even half as much like I normally do. Or maybe I just ran out of steam? Either way, TWO CAS cards coming up!

I started out by heat embossing the lovely Spark Of Goodness Floral Frame stamp on two card panels, one with Opaque Bright White powder from WOW! Embossing powder.

The second one was done with Rich Gold powder, also from WOW! Embossing. The gold definitely stood out more, for obvious reason.

The white embossing one I coloured in with green and fuchsia coloured Copics, and then used the coordinating diecut to cut out the middle. On the back I built it up with spare card stock to create some dimension.

For a bit of extra interest and texture, I used the Color Block Diagonal Stripes diecut on white card stock, and added the pieces to a card base. Probably as zero surprise to anyone, I also added some bling in the form of clear crystals, as well as a straight to the point sentiment.

The second card was also coloured in with Copics, but in peachy/orange tones, and greens. This was also cut out with the coordinating diecut and I did a similar thing to add texture and interest to the background. On this one I used the new Heart and Stars Coverplate, and it’s so sweet!

This one was finished off with a Fancy Script Hot Foil sentiments, that was foiled with gold foil, and then cut out with the coordinating diecut. I naturally cut out another two to layer them up so they would stand out a bit more. Oh, and Matte Gold pearls were added too.

I also have a little sneaky peek of one of the cards I will be sharing for tomorrow’s Instagram hop, with the absolutely stunning Chrysanthemum Slimline stamp, coordinating diecut and coordinating layering stencils set!

Now for the fun stuff!!

Pinkfresh is giving away the entire release on their blog post and their YouTube post, so don’t forget to comment there! There are also TEN $25 gift vouchers up for grabs along the blog hop, all you have to do is leave a comment to be in with a chance to win, so the more you comment, the bigger chance to win!

InLinkz lineup can be found via THIS LINK

Winners will be announced on March 8th, 2022 on the Pinkfresh GIVEAWAY PAGE. Remember that you must check that page and claim your prize within two weeks.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Lots of love and happy crafting!

You can find me on various social media platforms, by clicking the links below.
My blog (that’s here)
Instagram
My YouTube channel
CaCaCraft on Facebook


Stamp of Goodness rubber stamp

Stamp Of Goodness coordinating die

Coordinating Layering Stencil

Hearts And Stars Coverplate

Fancy Script Word Hot Foil

Fancy Script Word coordinating diecuts

Matte Gold Pearls

Chrysanthemum Slimline stamp

Chrysanthemum coordinating diecut

Chrysanthemum coordinating layering stencils

Easy, Breezy Holiday Cards with Pinkfresh Goodies!

Hi guys!

I’m back with some more Pinkfresh flowery cards today. For these cards I have used the colour scheme from the December challenge but mixed it with the Blooming Branch set. I’m slightly in denial about Christmas being so close so any excuse to use flowers and blooms, I’m in.

First of, I heat embossed the Blooming Branch stamp set with Opaque Bright White embossing powder on one panel, and with Rich Gold embossing powder on a second. Both of these are from WOW! Embossing.

First off I used the Cottontail Embossing Tool from The Rabbit Hole Design, all over my card stock. Then I stamped the Blooming Branch outline stamp with WOW! Embossing ink, with the help of my Mini MISTI.

The idea was to get a softer look on the white and more vivid on the gold. The opacity of the ink blending is actually about the same, but it does make the colours pop or soften up, with the different colours. My fave is the Rich Gold.

To add colour I have used the Blooming Branch layering stencils and the inks I used are Sparkling Rose, Berrylicious (the colour in the graphic is closer to Candy Apple, but I went slightly lighter) Sunshine, Meadow and Aquamarine.

All of these have been ink blended with blending brushes, because that is the blending tool that works best for me to get a smooth blend.

I wanted a bit of a rainbow look still (surprise, surprise, I know… ) so I started with the Sunshine in the middle, and then went pink and red towards the top and the teal and turquoise towards the bottom.

You don’t actually need that many colours to get a rainbow look, as by blending the colours together you get more than the actual numbers of inks you use. For example, yellow and red/pink, will make orange and yellow and blue makes green, and so forth.

To get this look, you add the colours in the same areas on each layer of stencil. Think in terms of lines across your stencil, if you will. You just keep building it up as you go through your stencils, and eventually you end up with this fun rainbow look.

With the colours all added, I cut them both out with the coordinating diecut and on the back of these, I added foam tape to raise them up on the card. However, I had to make my backgrounds first and the sentiments too, of course.

I’m totally obsessed with the Abstract Triangle hot foil plate, so I used it on two panels with my Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil system. One with Matte Gold and one with Opal, which I at first thought I might have actually hot foiled the plate with instead of the paper…

Luckily for me, it was foiled to the paper, but the Opal hot foil is very subtle. It looks more like an embossing folder, than hot foiling. Which is another use for your hot foil plates! You can actually use them to add dry embossing, and add pattern to your card stock as well as use them for hot foiling.

While I had the Glimmer Hot Foil system out and hot, I decided to use the Thrill Of Hope hot foil plate for the sentiment. On these I used gold foil, and then I cut these out with the coordinating diecut. I also cut out an extra piece to layering up the hot foiled piece to make them slightly sturdier.

The background pieces were trimmed down a little and then directly adhered to a card base each. On top of these I added the Blooming Branch pieces, the sentiments and then I just had to add some Jewels to add even more pizzazz! I can’t help myself, I love these Jewels and they are such a perfect finishing touch.

The colours I have used are from top to bottom: Ballet Slipper, Sunshine and Ocean Breeze. If you like jewels like these, you might as well grab the Essentials Jewels Mix, which has 12 different colours in it.

That’s it from me for today, but I hope you found some inspiration here and don’t forget that you can still take part in the December challenge. You can win a $50 gift card to the Pinkfresh Studio shop just by taking part, so what are you waiting for? Go on, have some fun and play along. The deadline is December 28th, so plenty to of time and you can enter 5 projects!

Right, I will stop jibber-jabbering now and let you go. Thank you so much for stopping by, lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

You can find me on various social media platforms, by clicking the links below.
My blog
Instagram
My YouTube channel
CaCaCraft on Facebook

Colourful news, collaborations and lots of shenanigans!

Hi guys, how are you today? All good, I hope. I’ve got lots to cover today, so let’s dive right in!

First of all, let’s talk about a fun collaboration between Picket Fence Studios and MFT Stamps! As part of this collaboration MFT Stamps generously sent me some inks to play with, and I mixed these with some fun Picket Fence goodies for a couple of colourful cards.

My first card is super simple to make, I used a small tree stamp from the Joyeux Noel set and on a white card base I stamped this repeatedly using six of the inks: Lemon Chiffon, Limelight, Summer Splash, Cotton Candy, Grape Jelly and Cement Gray.

I did this in three rows and then on top of this I stamped up ‘May your holiday be full of CHEER’ in Black Hybrid ink from Picket Fence.

Naturally, I couldn’t leave it simple, so I practically bedazzled the cards with gems from several gem mixes. Colour coordinated, of course.

For my second card, I used one of my fave stencils from Picket Fence: the Soar Butterfly stencil! I incidentally used the exact colours as on the first card, only this time I ink blended them using Life Changing Blender Brushes.

On the first card you can see how vibrant the colours are, and on the second you can see how easily they blend, for a soft look.

To make the butterfly stand out better, I cut out a mask and ink blended Cement Gray around this. The mask is done by tracing the outline of the stencil on paper, and fussy cutting this out. It was done on cheap copy paper, rather than masking paper. Once cut out, you place the stencil back over the colourful ink blending, making sure it’s in the right spot, then place the mask on top of this and ink blend around.

I have used a white gel pen to add in the antennas, because they did not stay in place. This panel was then trimmed down to 4″x5.25″ and adhered to a white card base with the help of foam tape. On top of this I have splattered some gold water colour, which you can get by mixing a small amount of Golden Rose paper glaze with water until you have a very liquid consistency.

No card is complete without a sentiment, and I used the ‘Friends make the world beautiful’ from the Fancy Friendship Sentiments set. To keep the card looking cohesive, I used Summer Splash ink and then used the coordinating diecut to cut it, as well as another two pieces out. These are layered up and adhered to the card, using Nuvo Deluxe adhesive.

The final touch, because it wasn’t shimmery enough *cough, cough, I have an embellishment problem* I added some gems from the Sands Of Time mix. I love this one!

In other news, it’s also Day 2 of Feature Day for LDRS! The theme is Fall Favorites but as I don’t have much stuff from LDRS yet, I winged it a bit and made a floral card and then plonked ‘Happy Fall’ on it to make it autumn-esque. Typically, I have a package coming next week with the new October Release stuff!! I can’t wait to try out the Perfect Petals layering dies!

In fairness to me, I’m still having summer vibes in my neck of the woods. It’s regularly +25C and glorious sunshine here, and lots of flowers are still blooming so it’s hard to get into ‘fall mode’. Plus I’m a summer gal through and through…

I used the Layered Poinsettia diecut and cut out LOADS of bits, in Bristol Vellum paper as I planned on doing lots of ink blending, with a splash of water colouring/ink smooshing. I wanted to try an idea to add colour to the bits, and that was to basically smoosh the pieces into the ink pads to get them covered with colour. It worked much better than ink smooshing actually, and left the colour much more vivid.

For the leaves I have used a mix of Key Lime Pie, Olive Branch and Evergreen. The little middle pieces for the flowers were done with Dan-D-Lion.

For the poinsettia leaves I did use Life Changing Blender Brushes, and I used Lipstick Jungle and Tickled Pink. I mixed and matched though, so that the layered pieces didn’t have the same colour on them. Hence why I cut out so many.

All the pieces were then layered up together using Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive.

While my flowers and leaves were drying, I cut out a panel of white card stock using the Diagonal Stitched Postage Frame Slimline dies, and this is my base for the card.

To finish it off I stamped up ‘Happy’ using Olive Branch ink on this panel, and I also cut out the word ‘fall’ using the Chloe Lowercase Alpha dies from a piece of card stock I dabbed Dan-D-Lion ink on.

So yeah…. it’s got Spanish autumn vibes, but I did have to use lots to creative discretion here to get it to work with the theme. Maybe it was a bit of a cop-out but hey, it sure made a pretty card!

For Feature Day 1 I made another floral card, only this time I used the Potted Poinsettia stamp set and coloured it in with Copics.

Thankfully this stamp set has a coordinating diecut too, so I used that to cut the image out and on the back of this I used LOTS of foam squares to pop it up.

The background is done by heat embossing the new Luxurious Chocolate embossing powder from WOW! Embossing on strips of Superior Smooth card stock. This is WOW! Embossings own white card stock and it is, as the name says, ultra smooth and crisp white. It’s really great for heat embossing!

On the pre-cut strips I dabbed my Embossing ink really well to make sure they were coated, then I sprinkled the Luxurious Chocolate embossing powder over them, tapped off the excess and then used the heat tool to set them.

These were then adhered to a trimmed down piece of card stock, with the help of my grid mat to make sure the spacing was even. This piece was then adhered to an actual card base, and then the Poinsettias were added on top.

The final touch was to stamp up Happy Holidays, from the Potted Poinsettias stamp set, in black ink on a skinny white banner. This was trimmed down to be even smaller than the background piece and then adhered on top of the flowers.

The last thing I’ve got to share today is a fab promotion from Pinkfresh Studio!

From today until the 4th of Nov you can take 15% off standalone slimline stencils using the code SLIMST15. It’s only valid on in-stock products, while supplies last. Don’t forget to use the code at checkout.

You can see how I have used some of the stencils in the photo below, stencils really are one of my favorite things to work with. They are versatile, great value for money and so much fun to play with!

Well, I think that’s it for today. What do you think? Is this format preferred over separate blog post showing each card on it’s own? I’d love to hear what you think and what you want to see from me so I can provide content that you will enjoy.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

LDRS Garden Grandeur cards, two ways and DIY mini-slimline.

Hi guys!

Today I’m back with a couple of cards, with the same products, just different colours.

As a summer loving gal, I’m all about the florals and sunshine. Even with it being October. Luckily for me I live in a sunny and warm place, and lots of flowers are still blooming here. 
 
With these fun layering stencils I had an idea of doing a cascading rainbow for one, and more natural looking colours on the other one. Purely for research purposes of course, lol. 
Before I did anything else though, I swatched the inks I have. I like my swatches as it’s not always easy to tell what the inks will look like on paper, from what they look like as an ink pad.
 
Another little quirk I have is that I like to keep brands together, so I used one of the pieces from the Diagonal Stitched Postage Frames Slimline dies to cut out the swatch pieces. On these I then dragged the ink pads to get lots of colour on it, marked it with a label and then punched a hole in it. 
So my first card is done with the more natural colours, and I went for Soft Kisses for the bigger flowers, Dan-D-Lion for the smaller and Olive Branch for both layers for the layers. I have only used the layering stencils for these, not the outline stamp. 
For the rainbow one, I used, from top to bottom: Dan-D-Lion, Soft Kisses, La La Lavender, Marina Madness and Tropical Sea. I aimed to do the same colours in the same spots on all the different layers, but it wasn’t 100% spot on. Still turned out lovely though! 
As I wanted to go more mini slimline for these cards, rather than full-size slimline I did some creative diecutting using the Diagonal Stitched Postage Frames Slimline dies as I wanted some pattern around the edges. 
 
On the back of the flowers, once I had used the coordinating diecut on them, I covered them with foam tape to prop them up and create dimension. Dimension and layers are life, if you ask me. 
The last thing needed was sentiments, and I have used the same one from the Garden Grandeur stamp set, stamped up with Raven ink on white card stock. Both of these are trimmed down in different ways, and then adhered to the cards. 
 
Ok, so I might have said the last thing was sentiments, but I did go a bit big on the bling on the rainbow flowers but hey, I had the perfect gems to do it so I had to. HAD to. I couldn’t not do it. 
The pink flowers were kept bling free to show that I can go clean and simple too. Occasionally. Mostly with my Inner Crafty Drama Queen kicking and screaming, but still.
 
I did make a video for these cards too. You can find that over on my YouTube channel, if you want to see more of the process, but if not, thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed these cards and the summer vibes coming through your screen. 
Until next time, lots of love and happy crafting from Erica 
 

Crafty Meraki #MerakiCraftober Release and Video!

Hi guys!

Today’s post is a ‘whatcha wanna do, blog or video?’ post as all the action is over on YouTube, where I’m hopping along with the crafty peeps with the Crafty Meraki team to celebrate the October release! If you want to skip straight to the YouTube hop, CLICK HERE.

If you want to skip straight to seeing all the new goodies, CLICK HERE, but if you want to keep reading, keep scrolling down.

We have more mini slimline diecuts, both actual diecuts and cover plates and I do love me some cover plates. It’s such a fun way to add some interest to a background, I love, love, love doing that as I’m not that great with plain white space. Somehow it doesn’t feel quite as naked when it has texture, you know what I mean?

This is the Parisienne Mini Slimline, it also comes in full-size slimline, but I do prefer the mini-slimline myself. For sure. Here I used the Parisienne Mini Slimline on a white card stock, after using it on a panel created with Distress Oxide sprays. You can see the colours in the pattern, which adds a really cool effect. If you don’t want this extra colour, just make sure to clean your cover plate between using it on ink blended or sprayed backgrounds.

This is the panel I used the Parisienne Mini Slimline plate on first, and that was just what this background needed. The colours I used are Squeezed Lemonade, Rusty Hinge, Kitsch Flamingo and Seedless Preserve. If you don’t have or want to use sprays, you can ink blend whatever colour you have/fave colour combo instead.

I love that subtle texture and pattern, over these colours. The Hello is the Hello Shadow Word die, and I filled in the hello itself with Rainbow Illusion gems. That part took ages, but it does look so cool!

Here is what it looked like before I added the gems.

Another pattern is the Pagoni Mania Mini Slimline, and it was just begging to be bedazzled. At least that’s what I heard. This is another background made with Distress Oxide sprays, I’m slightly obsessed with them at the moment and have added quite a few to my collection recently. Eh, what’s a girl to do when her ICDQ (Inner Crafty Drama Queen for those of you who don’t speak fluent cray-cray) is screaming she needs more??

Here I was going for a rich brocade fabric look, with blues, red, purples and gold, and then added Blue Illusion gems on the pattern in places where it was practically made for them. How perfect is that? It’s like this holder for gems, isn’t it?

This card was finished off super simple by heat embossing sentiments in Rich Gold embossing powder on vellum strips. These have been wrapped around the panel and secured on the back.

On the next card I have mixed and matched two new cover plates: The Dance With Me Mini Slimline panel was used on an ink blended background. This is done with Ocean Breeze, Aquamarine, Mermaid Cove and Tidal Pond ink from Pinkfresh Studio. The pattern is just lovely.

With the Olivia Mini Slimline plate I cut out one out of Peacock card stock from Lawn Fawn, and one out of Black Licorice. These two are layered up slightly off-centre to allow the Peacock colour to show a little.

A white banner with ‘thinking of you’ from the Special Delivery stamp set was added, along with some gorgeous amber-gold gems.

In the Special Delivery stamp set there is a flower bunch, which I have coloured using Copics.

As I have such a hard time with white space, I used the Parisienne Mini Slimline cover plate on the whole thing and it was just what the crafty doctor ordered.

A simple sentiment banner was the final thing for this card, and I’m quite proud of myself for not adding a single gem on this one! That’s hard for a self-confessed over-sequinizer/embellisher.

Not that the lack of embellishment lasted long mind you. I used a fair amount of them on my next card, also done with the Special Delivery stamp set. What can I say? You can only rein in the bling-monster so long.

For this card I stamped the floral image off to the side and coloured it in with a cool colour scheme of pink, grey and turquoise.

It’s finished off with the Hello Shadow word die again, and lots of Sparkle Golden Illusion gems. By cutting out the shadow part of the Hello, which has the stitching to add interest, it helped with the white space for me.

Well, with that I am all done for today. I hope you have found some inspiration here with me today. Maybe you struggle with white space too, and got some confirmation that you are not the only one, or got an idea on how to help your cards feel less “naked” with white space. If you have other ideas on how to help with that ‘my card feel naked and unfinished’ feeling, I’d love to hear them!

I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, for your convenience and at no extra cost to you whatsoever. If you shop using these links, I get a small commission directly from the company it’s linked to, as a thank you for directing you to them. It’s a win-win if you are shopping anyway, so thank you for supporting me by using mine. I really, really appreciate it a lot more than I could ever express in words.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Crafty Meraki #MerakiMini Release + Video!

Hi!

Today I am YouTube hopping with the Design Team and guests over at Crafty Meraki to celebrate the newest release and it’s all focusing on die cutting! We have loads of fun flower diecuts and mini slim line cover plates.

Of course there are prizes up for grabs too, it wouldn’t be a celebration without some. You can win $100 of Crafty Meraki products, and if you like slim line cards, you will have so many fun goodies to play with. Don’t forget to hop on over to YouTube to join the hop for your chance to win! As well as be inspired, of course.

I have used the lovely Rachel Para-die for some flower-power cards, as I’ve used both the outline and the bits inside. And some more bits… I will explain: I started out by cutting out the three flowers out of white card stock. I added a little bit of washi tape on the back and then coloured in the petals with Copics.

For this first time I wasn’t too careful at all and lots ended up on the frame part of the flower. When I popped the petals out to use on another diecut piece, I realised that the frame looked really pretty too!

With some greens and browns I filled in the rest of the flowers, and used them on a white card that I popped a white Bar None Slim Line diecut piece on. Super simple, and all it needed was a sentiment from the Elegance stamp set and it was done.

One of the flower diecut I had used the coloured petals on, I also added some greens and brown to, but kept the frame part white around the actual petals.

This flower I popped onto a bright card panel, made by adhering strips of coloured card stock to a base (If you want to see how I make this style of background you can CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO) . The final touch was adding the word ‘smile’ with Stitched Alphabet diecut letters in white card stock. I chose ‘smile’ as it keeps with the theme of the stamp set in this release.

For letter diecuts and bits that need to be put on straight, I use Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive or Lawn Fawn glue tube, as a liquid glue give you a little bit more time to make sure things go on straight.

I loved the look of this Rachel flower so much I made some more, but made some adjustments. This time I layered the flowers themselves up with two pieces, and then the coloured petals on top, to give some dimension. I left the frame pieces white this time.

These flowers I set aside while working on the background, which I made with the Wanderlust slim line die and a Copic coloured background. This isn’t fancy by any means, I basically drew three shades of green in what would be the pattern under the diecut. The aim was a look of rolling hills, sort of.

I poked out some of the pattern on the diecut piece, and left the middle ones intact, before glueing this down. The flowers themselves were layered up, and adhered with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive as well. I didn’t use foam tape for them, but I did use foam tape for the sentiment strip, to pop that up.

My final card is super simple, as I simply stamped the floral image from the Reasons To Smile set on an ink blended background panel. This set comes with coordinating Para-dies, but I haven’t used those here.

The colours I used were Squeezed Lemonade, Salvaged Patina and Chipped Sapphire. I use Life Changing Blender Brushes from Picket Fence Studios for almost all of my ink blending, I get such good results with these brushes.

I also splattered some white gold water colours on this panel, and once that was dry, I stamped the floral image in Blackout detail ink, with the help of my MISTI. The final thing to do was to stamp, and cut out, a sentiment from the Elegance stamp set, with the coordinating Para-dies. This was popped up with foam tape and that was it.

The Elegance stamp set has become a firm fave of mine, it’s so gorgeous with a big, bold flower and has some great sentiments in it too. Another plus is that there are coordinating Para-dies for this set. I’m not a fussy-cutter, no.

Well, that’s it from me for today, but don’t forget to check out the YouTube hop. If you shop the Crafty Meraki new release, I’d be so grateful if you use my affiliate links, that I have used all throughout this post. They do not cost you anything extra, but help me so much, so thank you for your support!

Below you will find links to Ellen Hutson, with some really great alternatives to the coloured card stock I used for my stripy backgrounds. I used Lawn Fawn, Concord & 9th and The Stamp Market for mine, but I’m loving the coloured card stock pads from Memory Box! SO many shades in each pack!! These have gone straight to the top on my coloured card stock wish list.

Thanks again for stopping by, lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

You can find me on various social media platforms, by clicking the links below.
My blog
Instagram
My YouTube channel
CaCaCraft on Facebook

Ink On 3 & Trinity Stamps Collaboration blog hop!

Hello, hello!

Today, we have a fun craft collaboration between Trinity Stamps and Ink on 3.

Design Team members from both companies are sharing inspiration using Trinity Stamps’ card kit called Summer Blooms featuring Inkon3 inks!

In this kit you will receive: 

  • 4×8 Summer Blooms Stamp Set
  • 4×8 Summer Blooms Coordinating Die Set
  • 4×8 Trinity Stamps Product Pocket for storage
  • 12 piece collection of double sided 6×9 papers – two sheets of 6 double-sided designs
  • Summer Sparkles – Kit Exclusive mix of rhinestones in Trinity Stamps Signature storage box
  • InkOn3 Mini Ink Cubes
    • Fadeout no-line coloring ink
    • Sweet Petunia Pink
    • Marigold Orange
    • Goddess Green

This exclusive kit is available only while supplies last. If purchased separately, these items total $72.50. That’s a savings of $32.50! The cost of the kit is $39.99. 

To be entered to win the giveaway, all you need to do is comment at each stop along the Blog Hop! Trinity Stamps and Inkon3 will be giving away a $25 gift card to their respective stores! Be sure to comment before 11:59 PM PST on August 26, 2021 to be entered to win!

Each company will post their random winner by September 1, 2021 at 10AM PST!  Make sure to check the Trinity Stamps blog and Inkon3 blog to see if you’re a winner! 

Now, with all that out of the way, let’s get to the card making! I decided to use one single, solid stamp from the stamp set in the Summer Blooms kit, and stamp it in a rainbow with the yummy inks from Ink On 3.

From left to right I’ve used My Jam Purple, Marilyn Red, Sweet Petunia Pink, Marigold Orange, Bee Sting Yellow, Goddess Green, Trinity Teal and Peacock Blue. All this was done with the help of the Mini MISTI, to make sure I got good solid stamped images each time.

The coloured ones were stamped a little bit willy-nilly, and overlapping each other. They also didn’t go all the way to the bottom of the card panel. The reason I did it this way was that I had planned on stamping up the same image in Paint It Black ink, cut them out with the coordinating diecut and layer them upon top. Well, not quite on top, but to cover the white bits at the bottom where the stamp didn’t reach.

As a chronic and serial over-sequinizer and over-blinger, I was THRILLED to see the Summer Sparkles Embellishment mix and went a bit… well… over… I might have redefined my own definition of over-blinger, let’s just put it that way, lol!

A little sentiment from the Here For You stamp, You’re Amazing, was stamped up with Blackout Detail ink and then I stepped away. Still, I’m pretty sure that this card can be see from outer space with all that gorgeous bling!

That’s it from me for today, I hope you enjoyed the card and the rest of the hop!

If you are wondering if you need a fancy camera to get the blurred effect in your photos, the answer is no. You will need to have some sort of function on your phone that adjusts the depth of field though. As I’m an iPhone user I switch to portrait mode for these. The key is to build up your flat lay, so that it still looks like a flat lay in the photo, but is definitely nowhere near flat in real life.

Now I really am done! Thank you so much for stopping by. The next stop on the hop is Jeannie! Until the next time, lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

You can find me on various social media platforms, by clicking the links below.
My blog
Instagram
My YouTube channel
CaCaCraft on Facebook

Alex Syberia Copic Coloured Slim Line Card with Gold Accents

Hi guys!

Today’s post is all about this slim line card, and lots and LOTS of copic colouring. The Fabulous Floral Slimline Panel from Alex Syberia Designs has become a bit of a fave with me, I love those big florals and think it’s just fab.

I’ve gone for a deep fuchsia/dark pink colour scheme this time. It’s quite dramatic and I’ve seen lots of colour combos used for this, just check out the rest of the design team for inspiration.

The Copics I’ve used are all lined up in the photo but just in case you can’t see it it’s, from darkest to lightest, RV69, RV66, RV19, RV17, RV55, R83 and R81.

I’ve gone in a flicking motion for most of the flowers, but did blend a bit to get those colours smooth. At the end, I did go in with more of the darkest colours to bring back more of a contrast in the middle.

When I had finished the colouring I fussy cut the flowers out, because I wanted to have a different background for the card, rather than a coloured one.

On a slim line card base, I added Gold String washi tape from Altenew and wrapped it around the edges to keep it clean looking. The washi tape wasn’t wide enough to go across the entire panel, so I had to use two pieces, however the gaps will be covered up by the flowers.

To finish off the card I heat embossed a sentiment from the Pure Magic stamp set from Ellen Hutson, in Rich Gold embossing powder from WOW! Embossing, on black card stock. I used my anti-static tool on the card stock first, to avoid stray powder getting where I didn’t want it, then stamped it up with WOW! Embossing ink. Once this was set with the heat tool, I trimmed it down and adhered it to the card. It needed a little something else so I also added a ‘love’ diecut and some matte gold sequins.

With that, I’m all done for today but I hope you like the card! I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, at no extra cost to you, as well as a link to the digi stamp used, for your convenience. If you shop using any of the links that are affiliate links, I get a small commission from the company directly, as a thank you for directing you to them. This does not cost you a penny extra at all, and any earnings I get from these go directly back into the running of my blog, YouTube channel and Instagram.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Below you can find affiliate links to Ellen Hutson, with some suitable alternatives to the items not found in her shop.