Category: Coloring

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

Ellen Hutson 12 Tags Of Christmas

Ho, ho, ho, my merry elves!

Today I’m guesting for the Ellen Hutson 12 Tags of Christmas event, and the Christmas carol that is designated for today is Christmas In A Coffee Shop. How perfect is that?? I mean, I am pretty much running on caffeine and sass, lol!

This event is a two-for-one, so one of the Ellen Hutson design team members are teamed up with a guest, and we each get a Christmas Carol to use as the inspiration for our tags. You can find Adelina’s blog post HERE, and also Ellen’s introductory blog post with her fabulously creative tag HERE!

Here is a photo of my tags, and I will tell you all about them a bit further down.

In all honesty, I haven’t started listening to Christmas music yet, as it’s still sunny and mild here on the Mediterranean coast of Valencia. In fact, only yesterday my Mamma and I spent a good chunk of the day at the beach basking in the sunshine!

However, colouring images is always fun and I do adore these bears from the Weather Weather In The Woods stamp set. I have done one as a polar bear and one as a brown bear, and matched up their sweaters to the rest of the tags.

The bears were cut out with the coordinating diecut and on the back, I added some foam squares, to add some height to the bears.

The polar bear got a nice blue sweater as well as a blue plaid tag, plus a galaxy blue-ish tag too. This is created by sprinkling Nuvo Shimmer Powder in Meteorite Shower on wet water colour paper. I didn’t mix it up a lot as I wanted the different colours to shine through.

I did a similar thing for the brown bear’s tag, only I used Golden Sparkler Nuvo Shimmer Powder. The colours in this fit better with his green sweater and green plaid tag. The tag die I have used for all of these pieces is actually a Combo Swatch die from Waffle Flower, it was the perfect size for my tags.

The finishing touches were a few little snowflake dies, cut out with the adorable Winter Tiny Tags diecut from Lawn Fawn. I also heat embossed ‘do not open until the 25th’ on them with Rich Gold embossing powder, this is from the coordinating Tiny Tag Sayings stamp set. While I had the tag die out, I also cut out one silver and one gold snowflake out of glitter card stock, to layer up with the heat embossed one.

A bit of ribbon and a pompom later and the tags were done!

Thank you so much for stopping by today, I hope you have enjoyed this post. Don’t forget to check out Adelina’s post and the rest of the Ellen Hutson 12 Tags Of Christmas event!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Almost all of the products I have used, or a suitable alternative, can be found in the Ellen Hutson shop. Affiliate links to products below, at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much if you chose to support me by using these links, I really appreciate it!

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

Re-cap of #TheDailyMarker30Day challenge.

Hi and welcome back to my little blog!

If you like colouring, you might have heard of The Daily Marker hosted by Kathy Racoosin. It’s a challenge where she challenges you to take 5 minutes per day to yourself and colour, with whatever medium of your choice. The challenge is running for the whole month of August, and I have been taking part every day.

This is a re-cap of my projects from the first eight days, as it started on a Sunday Aug 1st. My aim is to do a re-cap post every Sunday with the cards and colouring I have done for it.

For Day1 I picked this cute penguin stamp from Mama Elephant. I adore these guys. It’s coloured in with Copics and then I ink blended a background with Squeezed Lemonade, Salvaged Patina and Chipped Sapphire. It’s my current fave combo!

The background is splattered with some gold watercolour from the Starry Night palette from Kuretake. It’s my go-to for gold. The card is finished off with the word die that comes with the coordinating diecuts for the penguins.

You can find a reel for this card HERE.

On Day 2 and 3 I coloured in this fabulous Botan Peony from Picket Fence Studios, with Fuchsia and pink copics. This card is finished off with a word die from Neat & Tangled (they have sadly closed down) and a generous sprinkling of Clear Sparkling sequins.

There is a reel for this one too, and you can find that HERE.

Day4 I made a card as part of my WOW! Embossing design team commitments, with the Snowflake stencil and Midnight embossing powder from the Twilight Trio.

I also ink blended some Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot around the edges for some drama, added some gold strips on each side of the card and a sentiment in Rich Gold embossing powder. There is a reel for this one HERE.

This card was actually for Day5, but I forgot to post it on my Instagram that day, oops. I have recently joined the Crafty Meraki design team and will be making a couple of videos a month for them. I used the Elegance stamp set and coordinating diecut for my first video, which I coloured in with Ink On 3 Atelier re-inkers mixed with Liquid Pixie Dust to make shimmery watercolour. To get the no-line colouring effect I used the Fadeout ink, also from Ink On 3.

This is the finished card and and you can find the video on the Crafty Meraki YouTube channel.

Day 5 was also dedicated to doggie cards! The reason being that my sister has adopted a little shelter doggie called Otto, and we are all smitten!

These doggie stamps are from Colorado Craft Company, and are illustrated by Anita Jeram. The card above, with images from Wishing You Happines, is coloured in with Copics, and finished off with one of the sentiment from the stamp set, as well as Otto cut out with In Stitches Alpha Dienamics from MFT Stamps.

The one below is from Watch This! stamp set, and it´s done with water colours, as well as the same Dienamics to spell out Adoption. The reel for these two can be found HERE.

I am also going to make a little mini-album or something to send to my sister so she can keep a little mini-diary of her journey with Otto.

On Day6 I tried some new-to-me markers, Paint Pens, from Artistro and tried some rock painting! I had never done this before, so this was completely new to me. I did make a big rainbow and then a little heart rainbow on a smaller rock.

I have a reel for the big one HERE, and I think I will share the one I made for the little rock too. If you are interested in trying these, you can get 10% off by using the code ERICAANDERSSONB.

On Day8 I made another rainbow, only this time on paper and completely flat. This stamp set is Rainbows, it´s from Avery Elle and I just adore it. I used a ridiculous amount of Copics for the colouring, but that happens all the time. I always use so many markers to get depth and details.

I finished it with a sentiment from the stamp set, a friend diecut from Mama Elephant and lots of Crystal Clear Fusion sequins from Studio Katia. The reel for this card can be found HERE.

Well, that’s it for me for today, I hope you have enjoyed this little re-cap. I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, as well as some suitable alternatives in the links below, in case you want to snap up a little something-something for yourself. Shopping with these links do not cost you anything extra at all, the company it’s linked to will give me a small commission directly as a thank you for pointing you in their direction. Thank you so much if you use these links, I really appreciate the support!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica!
If you want to see more of my work, I have linked to my social media accounts below. I’d love it you’d give me a follow there!

My Blog
Instagram
My YouTube channel
CaCaCraft on Facebook

Exciting news and a bold floral card

Hi everyone!

I’m very excited to announce that I am joining the Crafty Meraki design team! The lovely Bindu asked me to join their 1st Merakiversary in May, and I loved it so I was thrilled when she asked for more videos. It’s always thrilling to be asked for more work, it’s such a confirmation that what I do is well-received. (picture me doing a crazy dizzy emu dance here)

I have used the exclusive Crafty Meraki stamp set called Elegance, and I’ve water coloured it with Inkon3 Atelier ink re-inkers mixed with Liquid Pixie Dust. I used my MISTI to stamp it with Fadeout Ink. The Atelier inks are available from the Crafty Meraki shop, but the re-inkers are not, at this time.

After colouring the image in, I have used the coordinating Para-dies to cut it out. I have also used the dies to cut out one of the sentiments that I had heat embossed in Rich Gold embossing powder from WOW! Embossing. The embossing ink I use is also the one from WOW!

The card base is cut out of Storm Cloud coloured card stock from Lawn Fawn, and I have also splattered this with white gold water colour. This is from the Kuretake Starry Night palette, and is one of my absolute go-to for gold and metallics.

The floral image and the sentiment have been propped up with foam tape, and I didn’t trim off the bits sticking out because I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I like the wild look of it.

There is a YouTube video on the Crafty Meraki YouTube channel for this card, and I’m mainly going to be doing videos for Crafty Meraki so make sure you subscribe to their channel if you want to see what I will be getting up to!

That’s it from me for today, but before I go I’ll just mention that I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post for your convenience. Shopping with affiliate links does not cost you anything extra ever, the company it’s affiliated to pays me a small commission directly, thank you so much if you chose to support me by shopping with these links! I really appreciate the support! 

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica!
If you want to see more of my work, I have linked to my social media accounts below. I’d love it you’d give me a follow there!

My Blog
Instagram
My YouTube channel
CaCaCraft on Facebook

Picket Fence Studios July Release is here!

Hello my lovelies!

It’s the 14th and that means a new release from Picket Fence Studios! This month we have something I am super excited about: Paper Glitz! Most of you know how much I love the Paper Glazes already. I’m a tad obsessed and not sorry at all about it.

The Paper Glitz is another obsession for me now. Gee, Nicole, give a girl a break, right?? 🤣 This stuff is totally amazing. The base is coloured mica so they cover an area completely, instead of just where the glitter end up. Which it’s also full of, and not just one shade. In each one there are between 4-7, which gives an amazing effect. It also doesn’t shed! Can you imagine?? OOooh, child, it’s like unicorn poop in colours!!

Like Paper Glaze, Paper Glitz colors can be used for the following techniques: die-cutting, making glitter paper, stenciling, adding texture, adding shine, layering color on precut dies, making a shiny mist, making a flicking medium, water coloring with watered down Paper Glitz, etc. I do love versatile mediums! It feels like you get way more bang for your buck, right?

They come in some fab colours too: Fall Gold, Autumn Persimmon, Lime Christmas Green, Snow Drifts, True Christmas Red and Traditional Christmas Green. Below you can see five of them, after they have dried.

The first thing I did was simply slap a little of almost all the colours on card stock, and swipe the across it. It created a gorgeous glitter paper, and I still had a little left on my scraper so I wiped that off on a card base. I didn’t know if it was going to warp the paper or how it was going to look, but it dried flat so I had to use that one for a card!

It was finished off very simply by adding a word topper that says ‘You are phenomenal’ cut out of black card stock, and layered up. The top of the words were decorated with a little Fall Gold Paper Glitz.

In this release there are a mix of Halloween and Christmas stamps, stencils and diecuts. I am not a fan of Halloween in real life, because I am a whimp and don’t like to be scared, BUT funnily enough I love making Halloween cards! I’m so weird… The Scarecrow Cover Die is so fun, and I have used it for two cards.

On a card base I blended Mustard Seed, Ripe Persimmon, Fired Brick and Black Soot with Life Changing Blender Brushes. On top of this I splattered some gold, becuse of course I cannot resist gold splatters. You can make your own by mixing some Golden Rose Paper Glaze with water.

I cut out the Scarecrow Cover Plate image out of black card stock a few times and layered these up, with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive. This is a liquid adhesive which I find VERY useful when layering up dies, as you have a few seconds to adjust your pieces if they don’t layer up perfect the first time.

The final thing was to stamp a sentiment from the Fancy Autumn Sentiments, in Black Hybrid Ink, on the panel and adhere it to a card base.

The second card I made with the Scarecrow Cover Plate die was done totally different! First I blended a ominus background with the Cloud Builder Stencil, and dark Oxide Inks.

Then I cut out the Scarecrow out of purple card stock and layered a couple of them up. This was then added to the background panel. Once I was sure this was completely dry, I popped this into a cellophane bag and filled it with sequins from the Trick or treaters Sequin Mix. The cellophane bag was then wrapped up and closed up on the back of the panel.

My friend Ilda Dias came up with this idea and Tonic Studios made her vision come to life! Make sure to check out Ilda’s blog and Instagram for more inspiration! I didn’t have time to wait for the actual bags to arrive, so I “MacGyvered” my own, but it was quite fiddly, I must admit. I can not wait to actually try the proper bags for this as shaker cards are NOT my forte. At all. Anyway, I did my best and with all that done, I then secured that whole shebang to a purple card base.

There is also a Reversed Leaf Stencil to compliment the Slim Line Leaf Stencil, which has got the veins of the leaf as the pattern. Here I used in on a ink blended background and then the new Ombre Paper Glaze trio called Pumpkin Spice. This card had to be finished off with the Happy Fall Y’all Word Topper die.

Well, I could go on and on about all these goodies, but this blog post would turn into a full-on essay. Why not hop on over to my YouTube channel and check out the video I made for this release instead?

If you don’t want to wait, and just want to shop, I have used compensated affiliate links in this post, at no extra cost to you. I know I keep harping on about this, but if you can use an affiliate link when you shop, that’s so encouraging and helpful. It helps pay for stuff like blog hosting, photo storage, import duties and upgrades so I can keep doing what I love to do, and share it with you, so THANK YOU if you shop with my links. I really appreciate the support!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

p.s. I also want you to know that the Card Maker Success Summit  is coming up. The mission of the summit is to help you get a game plan for your holiday card making project.  I’ll be speaking on Friday July 16th, at 1pm Eastern time, 6pm UK time and 19.00 Central European time about Adding Shimmer with Paper Glaze. Get all the details and grab your free ticket here! The classes will be available to watch for 24hrs after they go live so mark your calendars now!

There is the option of upgrading to the VIP All-Access Pass, which gives you the option of watching the classes whenever you want, as well as get over $2000 worth of extra content, including svg files, Digi stamps, card making classes, tips on how to up your ink blending game, mass producing cards and much more. It’s a total steal at $79! I have a class on Paper Glaze, how to mix your basic colours and I even made a swatch file that you can download! The peeps over at Picket Fence Studios also put together my Basic Must Have Colors in an easy bundle, so you can grab all of them, plus palette knives in one easy go! (please note that this bundle will be available from the 15th of July)

Tonic Studios Stamp Club June Release and Blog Hop: Sunflowers & Sunshine

Hi and welcome back to my blog!

Today’s post is one of the stops for the June release of Tonic Studios Stamp Club blog hop! This month it’s all about Sunflowers & Sunshine and the next stop is the fab Emily Midgett, and you might have come here from the gorgeous Maria Willis!

You can find the Sunflowers & Sunshine bundle both in the UK Tonic shop, as well as the US shop. If you are in the US and can not wait to grab this fab bundle, CLICK HERE.

If you haven’t heard of the Stamp Club before, it’s a monthly kit, but it’s not a subscription so you can pick and choose which ones you want. Don’t fancy this month’s kit? Just skip it and check out next month’s one. Easy peasy, and no pressure, no membership and no automatic payments going out.

There is a release the last Friday of every month, except for some where holidays might fall on the last Friday. There is also a release blog hop every month, where you can win an entire release as well as a gift voucher, either $50 or 50 quid depending on where you are! All you have to do is leave comments along the blog hop before June 30th, 11.59pm PST/7.59am GST July 1st.

If you have missed a kit, check out the available ones in the UK Tonic Shop here, and the ones available in the US Tonic Shop here. Once they are gone, that’s it, they won’t be restocked so if you fancy one or two, grab them as soon as you can.

As mentioned, this month’s kit is called Sunflowers & Sunshine. In it you will find gorgeous sunflower stamps, and lots of coordinating dies, as well as standalone dies so you can make flowers without colouring a single one! So cool, this is definitely a must have kit!

For my card, I did do some colouring. Unsurprisingly, lol. I started with the cluster of sunflowers and stamped them up on Copic friendly card stock.

I have used quite a few Copics to colour this image in, but I think it was worth it. Next time I might go a bit darker yellow though, for these I tried keeping quite a lot of light on them for those sunshine highlights.

Once the colouring was done, I used one of the diecuts to cut this out, and then I trimmed it down a little bit more with my paper trimmer. The image fits nicely on the horizontal, on an A2/5,5”x4.25” panel.

Before I adhered the flower cluster, with foam tape of course, I stamped up on of the sentiments from the stamp set with black ink, on a slim strip of card stock. This one was adhered directly to the card base, and then the flowers on top of this.

I very nearly left it like that, but the lure of those gorgeous sequins proved to be too much. Eh, what can you do? To not overwhelm the card, I tucked a few of them in under the flowers, so they just peek out a little. It brings in the eye and doesn’t take over the whole card.

With that, I’m done and it’s time to hop on! The full hop list can be found below:

Maria Willis
Erica (that’s me, you are here)
Emily Midgett
Marie Heidescheit
Daniel West
Natasha Vacca
Channin Pelletier
Sandi MacIver
Seeka
Jen Kray
Ilda Dias

For extra chances to win the giveaway, the more comments you leave along the hop, the better the odds of you snagging next month’s kit as well as that $50 or £50 gift card!

I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, at no extra cost to you. Tonic Studios UK and Tonic Studios US will pay me a small commission directly, and as mentioned, this doesn’t add a single penny/cent to your cost. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the running of this blog, my YouTube channel and Instagram. Thank you so much if you chose to support me by shopping with my affiliate links. I really, really appreciate it!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

You can see more of my work on various social media platforms, like
Instagram
YouTube
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.

Star Light Hop | The Rabbit Hole Design & Pear Blossom Press Collaboration | Light up cards

Hi and welcome back to another fun post! This one is definitely for you if you like interactive cards!

Today’s cards are a collaboration between The Rabbit Hole Designs and Pear Blossom Press. There is a sweet little bundle available that includes a stamp set called Bunny Moon, and it has a coordinating die, gorgeous patterned paper, EZ-Lights and more!

I made two cards, one off camera and one on-camera, for a video on YouTube. There is also a fun Instagram hop, where some crafty friends are showing off this fun bundle and amazing projects.

For my first card, I used the Halo Lights, along with the stamp, diecut and some pattern paper. I forgot to take photos of this one, but I did remember to take a photo of the second card, on which I used the EZ-Lights.

After securing the lights to the back of the card, with double-sided tape, I added LOTS of foam tape to prop up the card front. This is obviously showing the EZ-Lights, but I did it on the back of the card using the Halo Lights too. The reason for this is to make sure the button isn’t pressed in all the time, in order to save the battery.

The Halo Lights and EZ-Lights from Pear Blossom Press are so incredibly easy to use, even a technology-idiot like me can use them. I have had very little success with other light-up techniques as I’m just not very good with that stuff. It has to be easy, because otherwise I will simply not use it.

The first card was done with a Copic coloured Bunny Moon image, that I cut out with the coordinating die. Using one of the sheets of pattern paper, I cut out a stitched rectangle and a stitched circle. I matched the size of the circle to the Halo Lights, and adhered that to the back.

The sentiment is heat embossed in Rich Gold from WOW! Embossing on vellum, and I wrapped this around the card panel before it was adhered to a card base.

Under the circle, I added another piece of the Galaxy pattern paper but I’m thinking that I should have used the actual circle I cut out, to keep it the same.

The second card I did remembered to film, apart from the colouring part, which I did with Fadeout Ink from Inkon 3 and Copic markers.

On the front of this card I heatembossed a sentiment and two of the shooting stars images, in Opaque Bright White embossing powder. On the back of the card panel I lined up the EZ-Lights to be where the shooting stars were, as well as one right above the bunny. I also heat embossed the star that says ‘press here’ and cut it out with the coordinating die, before adhering it to the spot over the button.

With that I’m all done for today, but don’t forget to check out the Instagram hop and the YouTube video.

I have used compensated affiliate links, to both The Rabbit Hole Designs and Pear Blossom Press, in this blog post, for your convenience. If you shop using these links, it doesn’t cost you anything extra at all, the company will pay me a small commission directly. Thank you so much if you chose to support me by using these, I really appreciate the support and everything I earn go directly back into the running of my blog, YouTube channel and Instagram.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica