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

The Penguin’s Waddle, Mama Elephant Clear Stamps

The Penguin’s Waddle, Mama Elephant Creative Cuts (Retiring)

Solar White – 25 pk, Neenah Classic Crest Cardstock

Solar White – 250 Sheet Ream, Neenah Classic Crest Cardstock

Blackout Hybrid Detail, Ink On 3 Ink Pads

Blackout Hybrid Detail, Ink On 3 Reinkers

Watch This! by Anita Jeram, Colorado Craft Company Clear Stamps

Watch This! by Anita Jeram, Colorado Craft Company Dies

Wishing You Happiness by Anita Jeram, Colorado Craft Company Clear Stamps

All the Letters, Concord & 9th Dies

Oliver’s Stitched ABCs, Lawn Cuts Dies

Stitched Alphabetters, Heffy Doodle Dies

Marzipan Alphabet, Poppystamps Dies

Squeezed Lemonade, Ranger Distress Oxide Ink Pad

Salvaged Patina, Ranger Distress Oxide Ink Pad

Chipped Sapphire, Ranger Distress Oxide Ink Pad

Love You, Hero Arts Clear Stamp & Cut

Starry Colors – 6 Color Set, Gansai Tambi

Sparkling Clear Mix (4mm, 6mm, 8mm &10mm ), Pretty Pink Posh Sequins

Tonic Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive

5K Subscribers Together | Rainbow Hop |video hop winner announcements!

Hi *waves sheepishly*

Back in June my friend Maria Willis, AKA CardBomb, and I hosted a YouTube video hop together, celebrating (a bit early) reaching 2.5K subscribers each. At the time of the hop, neither one of us had actually made it there, and we are still a bit short. We are also very late with the winner announcements. Apologies about that, life happened at a rapid pace for both of us and we couldn’t get it done in time.

If you want to skip straight to the VIDEO CLICK HERE.

If you missed the Rainbow themed video, and the entire hop, you should definitely check it out as we roped in some of our fabulous crafty friends to hop along with us!

For that video I only managed one card, but of course it was a sparkly-licious rainbow card! It was so fun to make and I love that extra pop of the sparkle on the rainbow. If you want to read all about it, you can find that BLOG POST HERE.

I used an array of the companies that sponsored the hop, including Pinkfresh, Picket Fence Studios, Concord&9th, Hero Arts and WOW! Embossing.

For this video I decided to use another mix of sponsors, to highlight them a bit too. They so generously offered prizes and the hop would definitely not have been the same without them.

The first card I made with a gorgeous stencil from Gina K Designs, called Mandala Burst. Stencils are one of my fave items to work with, they are so versatile and affordable! After spraying the stencils with Pixie Spray, I set those aside to cure for a few minutes (this is a critical step, do not skip this!) while I got out the rest of the stuff I wanted to use.

First off I inkblended some Atelier Inks, from Ink On 3, through the Mandala Burst stencil with my Life Changing Blender Brushes, from left to right Peacock Blue, Goddess Green, Bee Sting Yellow, Marigold Orange and Sweet Petunia Pink.

Over this I stamped the Love Is Love Bold Print from Hero Arts, in black ink with the help of my MISTI. Thanks to having just re-inked my Black Hybrid ink pad I only needed to stamp once but better safe than sorry, right??

With the background panel done, I trimmed it down with a stitched rectangle die from Lawn Fawn. While I had my Diecutting machine out I cut out three ‘thinking of you’ out of white card stock and one out of black card stock. These I layered up with Nuvo Deluxe adhesive, and then on the top (black) layer I heat embossed Clear Gloss embossing powder to give it a nice shiny look. I did two layers of it, for that puffy sticker look. I love that, and it’s one of my fave ways to elevate word dies.

A sentiment from the Thinking Of You stamp set, the coordinating stamps to the word die, was stamped up in black ink on white card stock and trimmed down. This was addhed to the card, and the word die right underneath it. With that, the first card was done. Without a single sequin on it too!! Whaaaaa??

The second card was done with a rainbow stencil from Erin Lee Creative. This one was part of a kit, and isn’t available now, BUT she has a load of other super fun rainbow stencils and rainbow dies. You defintely want to check out her shop and support a small business!

Instead of ink blending, I used my beloved Paper Glazes from Picket Fence Studios. I absolutely LOVE these, not only are they fun to play with but they look fan-freaking-amazeballs-tastic too. That shimmer and shine is enough to mesmerize me, every time!

From left to right, I’ve used Agapatha Purple, Peony Pink, Daffodil Yellow, Lime Zinnia, Ocean Poppy and Cornflower Blue. I actually did this right after I had done the ink blending for the first card, and while the Paper Glaze was drying I worked on all the other bits and pieces for the first card. Multi tasking and all that, right?

I used the same stitched rectangle die on this panel and then it was simply finished off with a sweet sentiment in black ink. The one I chose is from a Gina K Design stamp set, called Watercolor Flowers. Super simple, but with a pop of colour and a sweet sentiment, you don’t need much else sometimes.

That’s it from me for today, but don’t forget to check out the WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT VIDEO to see if you are one of the many winners!! Also, Maria wrote a blog post on her blog and made a video for her YouTube channel, so make sure to check out those as well.

Some compensated affiliate links have been used in this post, for your convenience, at no extra cost to you. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the running of my blog, Instagram and YouTube channel so thank you so much if you chose to support me by shopping with these links. I really appreicate it!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Alex Syberia March Release! Copic coloring on vellum.

Hi guys!

Today is release day for Alex Syberia’s March release of digital stamps, and as always, she has some amazing designs for us!

I started out with the Fabulous Floral slim line flowers and printed it on vellum. The upside with having a laser printer is that I can foil the images, which always looks fab! This one I foiled with white Minc foil, using my Minc machine.

To add some colour, I turned it over and used Copics, on the back. When using this technique, you do have to add quite a lot of colours, or strong ones, in order for it to show through the vellum.

When the colouring was done, I gently wrapped the vellum piece over a white slim line card base, and glued down the sides to the back so it wouldn’t show.

To finish this off, I used a discontinued, but loved, word die from Neat & Tangled that says ‘love you’ in a gorgeous font. The paper I used is homemade shimmer paper! You can make your own by smearing Paper Glaze from Picket Fence Studios on card stock, let it dry and voilá!

I cut out another two layers and added these together with liquid glue, before adhering the whole thing to the card. Layering word dies up is such a simple but effective way of taking your card designs up a notch, with little effort. This word die is sold out in a LOT of places, and the only shop I found it actually in stock is Foiled Fox, so if you want it, GRAB IT FAST!!

To celebrate the release the design team are doing an instagram hop, where you can see some fantastic inspiration and hop along for a chance to win a gift voucher to the Alex Syberia shop! I have seen some of the cards, and they are AH-mazing! You are not going to want to miss it.

You can of course use skip straight to Alex’s shop if you already know you are going to want to get some of these for yourself.

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed this post and will enjoy some of these new stamps for yourself.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Picket Fence Studios Slim Line Card Bonanza part2!

Hi Slim Line card lovers! Ok, that sounded a bit creepy, let’s just stick to ‘hi’.

So, building on from yesterdays Picket Fence Studios release post, which you can find HERE, if you missed it, today’s post is all about finishing off the backgrounds. Rather than do every single one in this post, I thought I’d focus on two of my faves and two of my least faves, to kind of challenge myself. Funnily enough, all four of these are done with the Slim Line Radial Stencil.

I did actually make a video for this too, you can find that over on my YouTube channel. If you want to skip directly to the video, click HERE.

So let’s start with the two I like the most, these are made with the Slim Line Radial Stencil with two different techniques. This first card is ink blended with Squeezed Lemonade, Wild Honey, Carved Pumpkin, Abandoned Coral and Barn Door. I did use a Life Changing Blender Brush for each colour.

I recently got ahold of the brand new Distress color from Tim Holtz, Crackling Campfire, and I used it with a sentiment from I Freaking Love you. To get a really intense look, I stamped it twice with the help of a MISTI. I also splattered it with gold and the final touch was some bling from the Screwdriver sequin mix.

On the next card I used the same sentiment, only in an ombré look, using the same ink colours as on the background. This is what I call ‘ink smoosh printing’. You basically ink blend as usual, but rather than cleaning off your stencil, you mist it with water to activate the ink, and then place a bit of water colour card on top and press down. Ta-da! Two in one!

Right, so this one I did horizontally, rather than vertically. With the help of my MISTI, I stamped up the same I Freaking Love You sentiment, and added ‘I’m obsessed with your awesomeness’ below from Favorite Notifications.

This one I kept simple, no bling-bling at all. Because of the way the colours lighter in the middle, I feel like the ombré sentient is drawing the eye in. Also, The Man keeps saying how I “over-sequinizing” on a regular basis *blows raspberries* so I do try to surprise him every now and again, by NOT adding a single one.

The next couple of cards are also done with the Slim Line Radial Stencil, and these were the two that I was the least happy with, as they were.

So, the darkest one, I kept really moody by adding a super snarky sentiment in Black Hybrid Ink. To keep with the moody vibe, I also sprayed a little bit of Nuvo Sparkle Spray in Morning Fog.

On the lighter one I used the Pain In My Ass stamp set, and stamped the sister silhouette image and one of the funny sentiments in Black Hybrid ink.

The sister silhouette I stamped quite a few times with the help of my Mini MISTI and the Black Hybrid ink. Then, on top of that, I stamped it again with VersaMark and heat embossed that with clear embossing powder to make it pop.

The fact that after finishing the cards, especially with the backgrounds that I didn’t really like, and making the backgrounds fit with the sentiment/mood, I actually ended up with cards that are actually send-worthy.

Well, that’s it from me for today. I hope you found some inspiration here and will take this post as some hope that you CAN rescue backgrounds that you don’t like, or use them in a different way. Don’t give up!

I have used compensated affiliate links in this post, for your convenience. These links do not cost you anything extra at all, but if you shop through these, I get a small commission from the company directly. Anything I earn from these links go direly back into the running of my blog, Youtube and Instagram so thank you so much if you choose to support me by using these links.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

You can find me on various social media platforms if you want to see more of my work

My blog (that’s right here)

Instagram

My YouTube channel

CaCaCraft on Facebook

Concord & 9th Feature Friday: Color Focus!

Hi guys!

Today’s post is another Concord & 9th Feature Friday, and this week we all had to pick two colours each to focus on. My two picks were Ballet Slipper and Cranberry. Which might come as a surprise given how much I’ve been loving my teal and aqua colour combos recently, but I really do love these two colours.

The Ballet Slipper pink is such a soft, romantic colour and for my project for it, I decided to go for a CAS look. Lots of white space and some gold splatters were the perfect accompaniment to keep the actual pink in focus. I used the Lace Leaf stamp and coordinating diecut and started out by stamping the shadowy bit with Ballet Slipper directly onto a white card base.

Slightly off-centre from this, I stamped the Lace Leaf. First with Ballet Slipper, and then on top of that, once more with the Embossing Pad from WOW! Embossing. I used Clear Gloss embossing powder to make the Leaf image stand out a little bit more but still keep the pink in focus.

I used the ‘Grateful’ word die, that is part of the Lace Leaf coordinating diecuts, and cut it out of white card stock four times. The top layer is cut out of a piece that had the shadowy bit of the stamp stamped up with Ballet Slipper on it. This is a fun way to make your word die a little more interesting.

To finish off the sentiment, I also heat embossed ‘for you’, from the stamp set in the bottom right corner. This is done in gold embossing powder. One last finishing touch was to splatter some water colour gold all over the background, and with that the card is done!

For my Cranberry project I have used both ink pad and cardstock, as well as my beloved Tall Type Alphabet dies and Coffee Blend Turnabout stamp.

First, I stamped up the Coffee Blend Turnabout stamp on a panel of Cranberry card stock, with Cranberry Ink! It looks so freaking fabulous with that perfect tone-on-tone colour. The MISTI and the Turnabout Jig makes turning so easy.

Using more Cranberry cardstock, I cut out the letters needed to spell out ‘I love you’ with the Tall Type Alphabet dies.

I also cut them out three times out of white card stock and layered these up with Lawn Fawn liquid glue adhesive. The O in the middle of ‘love’ is the heart from the die set.

The letters I placed on the card, using more liquid glue but it needed a little something else. It wasn’t quite right. The solution was to make the sentiment say ‘I love you more than coffee’, so I stamped up the ‘more than coffee’ from the Coffee Blend Turnabout stamp, on white card stock with Cranberry ink. Trimmed that down a little and adhered it to the ‘you’ part.

It still needed a little something else. At least I felt like it did. I mean, I am the queen of over-doing it so maybe not? However, I did add Glossy Accents to the coffee beans on the background and also to the heart diecut on the card.

Well, that’s it from me for today but don’t forget to check out all the other guest designers to see what colours they chose and what they came up with! As always, I have used compensated affiliate links in this blog post, most are to Concord & 9th. If you shop using these links, I get a small commission directly from the company, at no extra cost to you whatsoever. Thank you if you support me by shopping with these links. I really appreciate it!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Picket Fence Studios January 2020 Release!!

Happy New Year and Happy Release Day from Picket Fence Studios! I’m currently in Phoenix, AZ, at Creativation and this month’s release is a little bit later than usual for this reason. The release is being introduced at Creativation so if you are here, come by the Picket Fence booth and say hi. I will also be doing the Make And Take in the Stamping Village, if you miss me in the Picket Fence or Ink On 3 booths.

This first release of 2020 is ginormous, as in GINORMOUS!! Over on my YouTube channel I will be showing off all the stuff and then make a couple of cards. As you do.

The cards I made for today’s post are made with the Barberton Daisy and A Bride’s Bouquet. Both are water coloured, but with different mediums, and came out total opposite.

The A Bride’s Bouquet card is heat embossed in Metallic Gold Rich from WOW! Embossing. First the Canson XL water colour card was treated with an anti-static tool (I like the bag kind) and then I stamped the image with the WOW! Embossing Pad with the help of my MISTI.

Once that was set with the heat gun, it was then coloured in using InkOn3 Atelier Ink re-inkers and one ink pad. I don’t have the Twiggy Brown re-inker yet so I used the ink pad to get the brown needed for the string around the bouquet and for the cotton buds to get some shape. The main colours are Bee Sting Yellow, Goddess Green and Peacock Blue. The green and blue I added together to get more depth and detail to the greenery.

I tried going for a soft, elegant look but, in true Erica-style, managed to mess it up at the last minute by adding too much Marilyn Red and Marigold Orange to some of the flowers. I tried dabbing it off but it’s still a bit too colourful for what I had in mind. Oh well, I will just have to try again!

To soften the look and add a spring-time feel, I have also added a soft green shadow around the bouquet. The final bit of ‘colouring’ was to add a touch of Liquid Pixie Dust on the cotton buds. It’s a wedding bouquet after all, the name A Bride’s Bouquet makes any guessing work totally redundant, lol.

The second card, with the Barberton Daisy stamp, is wild and colourful! The idea was to make something that definitely doesn’t exist in nature and I’d say I’ve achieved it, lol!

I stamped up the Barberton Daisy with Black Hybrid Ink on Canson XL water colour paper. I used the MISTI to make sure I got a good solid imprint and then coloured in the image using Daniel Smith water colours.

When the Daisy was colourful enough, I decided to splatter it with dark grey paint. Just to really drive home the abstract look I was after for this one. It’s one of those creations I’m not sure about if I’m totally honest. The finished result is actually wilder than I pictured it! Crazy, right?

To finish off the card I picked a sentiment from Seriously, Literally, Always.

I heat embossed the sentiment ‘You are an absolutely positively amazing human being’ in Opaque Bright White embossing powder from WOW! Embossing on black Licorice card stock from Lawn Fawn. I trimmed the strip down and glued it down flat with the glue tube, also from Lawn Fawn. I love that stuff!

Well, that’s it from me for today but I will be back tomorrow with more cards from this release!

If you want to check out the full release and perhaps pick up a thing or seven for yourself, THIS LINK will take you directly to Picket Fence Studios. I have used compensated affable links in this post, which means I get a small commission from the company associated with that affiliate link, if you shop using these. Affiliate links never add any cost to you, ever, but the revenue they bring me helps run my blog and YouTube channel. You also help me strengthen my collaboration with the companies the affiliate links are associated with, and that’s really great for me. Thank you so much in advance if you use mine when shopping!

I also have a video up on my YouTube channel, in case you missed that. CLICK HERE to go there.

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

You can find me on various social media platforms if you want to see more of my work

My blog (that’s right here)

Instagram

My YouTube channel

CaCaCraft on Facebook

 

Mondo Peony Anniversary Card

Hi everyone!

Today’s card is especially made for a 20th wedding anniversary. It was requested to incorporate purple as the recipient loves it, as well as other bright colours. Yay for me as I like bright colours too!

I immediately decided to make a huge card for this as it’s a very special occasion. The card base is 8.5″x5.5″, basically a whole sheet of card stock just folded in half. Go big or go home, right?

The stamps I picked out are the Mondo Peony Stamp set from Ellen Hutson, and it’s quickly become a bit of a fave, I’m not going to lie.

To begin with, I stamped up two of the big flowers with Blackout Hybrid ink, from Ink On 3, and then once more with VersaMark. I had my trusted MISTI on hand for this, of course. After the VersaMark ink, I sprinkled Clear Embossing Powder all over them and shook off the excess. Then I set it with my heat gun. PSA: ALWAYS use your anti-static tool liberally all over your panel to avoid stray embossing powder sticking where you don’t want it.

This is a technique I love using when water colouring and for these flowers I have used the 36 pack of Gansai Tambi water colours. The paper is Ranger Ink water colour card stock.

On the first flower I went quite dark and intense, with lots of highlights and lowlights. The second flower got a much softer look. The basic colour I used on both was no139 in the Gansai Tambi pack. I took my time colouring these as I wanted to have fun, as well as make them as lovely as I could.

I also stamped up the rest of the flowers, as well as loads of leaves, with the same ink and clear embossing powder. The leaves I used green no53 and a little bit of yellow no40 to give as natural a look as possible.

On the smaller peony, as well as the round one and the bud, I used a mix of no34, no35, no 36 and no37. I have a short little time-lapse video on my Instagram, showing part of the colouring I did on these flowers. It’s not showing the entire colouring though, I added lots more colouring after the video finished. In all honestly, it was a loud call of nature that could not be ignored, that stopped the filming. TMI, I know, sorry!

While all the images were drying, I got some Distress Oxide inks out: Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn. These two I blended on the card base, using the Life Changing Blender Brushes from Picket Fence Studios, towards the top and kept the bottom quite white. Over the green, I splattered gold water colours from the Starry Colors palette.

That gold peeking out from behind the flowers and leaves just adds a little bit of decadence. It’s not so much that it takes away from the overall effect, but it’s one of my fave ways of adding a little something extra.

When everything was dry and cut out using the coordinating diecuts, I used the card base as a guide where everything was going to go. Then using Post-It tape, I covered the flowers and leaves to keep everything in place. Once secured, I turned it over and covered the whole thing in foam tape. I do love that stuff!

With a bit of help from Altenew, I used a ‘happy‘ diecut and cut it out of Honey Gold matte satin mirror card stock. This fabulous card stock is from Tonic Studios and I’m a big fan. I also cut one out of black card stock and layered these up using the liquid gluetube from Lawn Fawn.

To finish off the sentiment I heat embossed the word ‘anniversary‘ in Antique Gold embossing powder on a banner cut out of black card stock. This is Black Licorice from Lawn Fawn. The banner diecut is Essential Fishtail Sentiment Strips from MFT Stamps. This is a staple for me, I used these all the time.

For the ’20th’ I used a mix of Lawn Fawn number diecuts, Louie’s 123, and the Bottlecap Letter dienamics from MFT Stamps. I did the same thing I did with the ‘happy‘ diecut, I layered the cutouts with black card stock to make them pop a bit more and everything is glued together with the gluetube liquid glue from Lawn Fawn.

With that, the card was done! Happy 20th wedding anniversary to Sissy and Giorgios!

I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, at no extra cost to you, and the rest are just for your convenience if you want to pick up any of the supplies I have used for this card.

Thanks for stopping by today! Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

 

 

Just Because I Love You, Neat & Tangled

Hello, hello, everyone!

Today I’m popping in with a couple of super-soppy, lovey-dovey cards. You’d think I would have stopped making these cards with Valentine’s Day well and truly over with, but no. I just adore making them. Can’t help it. My muse, The Man, has my love-card mojo going strong all the time. As sickly sweet as that sounds, it is true.

Anyway, before anyone falls into a sugar-sweetness-induced coma, I’m going to get on with the cards.

So, I recently got my greedy little mitts on some of the Neat & Tangled January release, which you can get in a bundle (once it’s back in stock). Yeah, I know.. late but there was some re-routing that took place and international shipping and etc etc… but it’s finally here and yay!! It’s adorable.

I *had* to use the Just Because stamp and Love You diecut, with a little bit of help from the Heart Duo stencil. I’ve used different techniques to show off how versatile they are. There is a little bit of die cutting, stamping, heat embossing, Copic colouring, ink blending, water colour smooshing and splattering. I pretty much threw it all on these cards, lol!

For the first card I started by heat embossing the ‘Love You’ from the Just Because stamp set, in white on Ranger water colour card stock. I used the smooth side to get a better coverage with the embossing powder. The textured side is lovely but stamping is trickier due to the uneven surface. Even with the MISTI. Which I definitely used. And my anti-static tool too of course.

When it was all set and cooled down, I dabbed some Opera Pink water colour on a piece of acetate and then dipped the panel in it. To speed up the drying I used the heat gun on the panel and kept dabbing it in the colour and repeating to get a deeper result. By doing this (and holding it up to let when wet) I got a lovely ombré effect. And I do love me some ombré. While I had my water colours out, I also splattered some gold on it.

In between the adding the pink and the gold, I used a slightly damp piece of kitchen roll on the heat embossed bits, to clear off the colour I had managed to get on the image. This can be a little bit of a labour of love but it’s worth doing, in my opinion.

Using the coordinating die cut I cut out the panel and also one in foam sheet. These I layered up and then the whole shebang was adhered to a card base. I didn’t add any embellishments to this card (try not to faint from shock) as I thought the gold details were enough.

The second card started out with a different idea in mind but as usually happens in my craft room, it took on a life of its own and came out this way instead.

On an A2 sized (5.5″x4.25″) panel, cut out of Neenah Classic Crest 110lbs card stock, I drew thick lines with pink Copics to create my own patterned paper. The markers I used are RV34, R85, R83, R81, RV52 and RV10. When the whole panel was covered, I taped the Heart Duo stencil down with PostIt tape and blended Iced Spruce Distress Oxide ink over it with a Life Changing Blending Brush from Picket Fence Studio.

To finish off the card I used the Love You diecuts with vellum, for the ‘shadow’ part, and some textured silver card stock, for the word parts. I layered these together with the Glue Tube adhesive from Lawn Fawn. This I adhered to the card and on a banner, cut out with MFT Stamps dienamics Fishtail Essential Sentiment Strips, I stamped ‘Just because‘ in Platinum embossing powder from Altenew. This was added to the card with foam tape for a final flourish.

I have used compensated affiliate links in this post. What does that mean you ask? If you click on one of these links and end up buying something for yourself, I get a small commission from the company directly, at absolutely no extra cost to you. This is a way for us crafters to help pay for the running of our blogs and social media, buy supplies and create content for you to enjoy. I highly encourage you to use affiliate links to help support your favourite crafters. And if that just happens to be me, thank you so much! I really do appreciate the support.

Ok, well, that’s enough jibber-jabbering from me for today. Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you like these Neat & Tangled cards.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

 

A quick card doesn’t have to be boring!

Hi guys!

Today I’m popping in to show you a super quick card I made for the Creations In Pink August challenge. As the name implies, this is a challenge blog that focuses on pink creations, perfect for my pink, frilly inner Crafting Drama Queen!

Now, this card is so simple but I think it is rather lovely myself. A dramatic background sometimes doesn’t need much more than a statement sentiment and there are so many to choose from out there. I am a big fan of the ones from Altenew, and I have used one for this card. I’m not usually the ‘let’s leave it as it is’ card making kind of gal so this is a bit of a surprise to me as well, I must admit.

A while back I was playing with ink smooshing and made the background by using this technique. The pink is Distress Oxide ink in Picked Raspberry and a tiny bit of Worn Lipstick and the card stock is Canson XL. I also added some shimmer by mixing more Picked Raspberry ink with Light Gold Gansai Tambi water colour and splattering this on the panel with a small Distress Collage Brush.

For the sentiment I wanted to use this lovely diecut from Altenew that says ‘You are loved‘ in a lovely font. I cut it out of the panel, right in the middle and then another four of them in black card stock. I like Lawn Fawn card stock, and used Black Licorice for this.

On a white card base I glued down the background using Sizzix Adhesive Sheets and then added the black pieces on top of each other, using a Nuvo glue pen, until all four were adhered. The piece I had cut out of the background I added to the whole shebang slightly off-centre to create a shadow around the words to make them stand out a bit more.

And with that, the card was done! I did toy with the idea of adding some clear sparkly sequins but didn’t, as lo and behold, I didn’t think it needed it! Say whaaat? Erica saying no to sequins? What’s going on, right?? Lol, well, whaddaya know? Sometimes even I can rein myself in.

I have used compensated affiliate links for this post as usual, at no extra cost to you so if you fancy this Altenew diecut or something else I have used (all can be found at Altenew and Scrapbook.com), please do try to use these links. The small commission I get from each purchase made using the links help me along on my crafting journey and I really appreciate the support!

Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting from Erica

Don’t forget to link up your own pink projects to the Creations In Pink Challenge Blog. Can’t wait to see what you will create!

One last Hurrah for Butterfly Reflections Ink blog with a couple of pop-up cards

Hi guys!

Today is the last day for my term on the Butterfly Reflections Ink design team and I have made a pop-up box card for my final blog post. I made a few mistakes along the way and decided to make another one, with the mistakes in mind, to try and improve on the design. 

Before I get to that one, let’s have a quick look at the first one: I went with a blue colour scheme, for no other reason than that I love blue.

To take out all the guess work out of dimension for the box card itself, I used the Scalloped Pop-up Box card Lawn Cut. I’m rubbish with numbers and calculations so this is a life-saver for me. Two quick cuts and you have your standard box! Easy peasy! I decided to use patterned paper to make it a bit festive, and got out Hearts & Stripes from MFT Stamps. I added four dividers in the box, but this might have been a bit ambitious in hindsight. I also cut out rectangles in the same colour card stock as the outside of the box, to add to the inside flaps of it. I was in a very coordinating mood, lol! The patterned paper packs give you so much choice when it comes to colours and patterns, you can pick and choose to suit the occasion or the recipient favourite colour.

To keep the colours cohesive and to match the patterned paper, I decided to use some of the many balloons I had already coloured up from the Simply Celebrate stamp set, which were all done in blues with some grey added to a few. This was a set I wanted from the moment I first laid eyes on it! All the balloons are cut out with the coordinating diecut too.

In order to keep the balloons stable, I cut out lots of the ‘sticks’ from the box diecut and layered them two and two. These I adhered to the dividers and stacked the balloons to make them all show.

Sentiment-wise I have used a combination of Happy Happy Happy stamp set plus coordinating diecut as well as another Lawn Fawn stamp set called Home Sweet Home I stamped up the banner from the Home Sweet Home set and added ‘Birthday’ to it from the Happy Happy Happy set. The Happy bit is coloured in with Copics.

To add sparkle, I cut out lots of stars and glued these onto “paper sticks” which I then added to the box. A couple of them also got added to the banner to frame the ‘birthday’.

As I had gone a bit mad with the dividers inside the box I actually ended up with an empty one as the balloons in the back are adhered to the box itself. To cover this front divider up, I stamped up the candles from the Simply Celebrate stamp set and coloured them in with Copics too. I had to trim off two candles to make it fit inside the box and not cover up the ‘Happy’ bit and I did this by fussy cutting before glueing it down.

 

Well, all in all, it’s not too shabby but you know when you just know it’s not perfect and it bugs you? Yeah, that’s how I feel about this one… So, to combat that, I decided to make another one and hopefully learn from my mistakes on this one.

For the second box I decided to go for rainbow colours! Another MFT Stamps patterned paper stack came out: Party Patterns. At the time of writing this blog post, it’s sold out everywhere (no wonder actually as it’s gorgeous!) However, if you can’t wait to get something similar, MFT Stamps has a fabulous selection of patterned paper packs. As does Scrapbook.com, their selection of patterned paper deserves a ‘wow’, there is a dizzying amount of choice there, Doodlebug Designs amongst others. I have a bit of a patterned paper hoarding problem myself but I know for a fact I’m not alone with this “problem”, lol!

Right, I kind of lost the red thread there for a moment, ogling all the pretty papers. The Lawn Fawn Scalloped Box Card cut came out again and two times through my BigShot later, I had my box pieces.

The paper I picked out for the second box is a lovey bright, rainbow striped pattern. Just gorgeous. If I could get a pack with just these stripes, I’d probably get like 5 packs right away. I love it!

So the box itself came together quite quickly and I added four dividers to this one too, which you might think was a bit mad seeing how I thought it was too many for the first one. Well, there is an explanation for sure: I wanted to make it almost identical, just fix my mistakes from the first one i.e. better placing of the balloons and sentiments.

I stamped up another three sets of balloons, as well as the candles, from the Simply Celebrate stamp set and got my Copic markers out again. These I coloured in with rainbow colours too and then cut them out using the coordinating Lawn Cut. The ‘Happy’ image from the Happy Happy Happy set was also coloured in with a rainbow colour scheme and cut out with its coordinating Lawn cut.

Assembly isn’t that time consuming when you already know where most of the images are going to go and you have all your bits and pieces done. After cutting out gold glitter stars for this one (with one of the little dies that comes with the Box die), and making my ‘paper sticks’ as well as cutting out the ones meant to lift up the balloons it was just glue-add-glue-add job and it should have been done. You’d think anyway… well, it is I, Erica the Crafting Drama Queen, lover of a good crafty twist so no. That is not how it went *facepalm*

After deciding in which order the balloons were going to go, I added the balloons in the back to the first divider rather than the back of the box. OH! Twist no1!

Twist no2 came when it was time to place the candles in the box. Instead of trimming these down and tucking them in, I added it in full-size and covered up the “holding sticks” with gold glitter stars.


Twist no3 came soon after that. The ‘Happy‘ bit was adhered to the back of the candles rather than behind them, as on the first card.
I’m not sure that adding loads more gold glitter stars will qualify as a twist as I’m not known for holding back on the bling? Nah, let’s just say that I added… a fair few… more to this box than the first one. Eh, what can I say?


Anyway, with that, I’m done for the day but I would like to wish my dear friend Pernille a very happy birthday! We used to go for a birthday brunch in between her birthday, today, and mine, on the 11th of May, whilst I lived in Denmark but sadly that’s not going to happen this year. Next year, I might need to plan ahead and make it happen.

I have used compensated affiliate links where possible in this post, to Scrapbook.com where there is a huge selection of Lawn Fawn and MFT Stamps amongst others, thank you in advance if you use these to purchase anything. I get a small commission from the company directly if you do this, at NO extra cost to you whatsoever. Every time you use someone’s affiliate links, you help them along on their crafting journey so please do make sure you use them when you can. It really means the world to us all!

I’m going to submit both these cards to the current Lawn Fantatics Challenge #27 as it’s 3D cards.


Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica