Tag: Ink blending

Garden Roses cards, three ways!

Hi guys! 

It’s another Pinkfresh Studio blog post today, with some cards using the Garden Roses set from the newest release. Have you seen it yet? Oh, my gosh, so many gorgeous florals.

I haven’t even used all of the new layering stencils yet, I got kind of wrapped up with the Lush Peonies set. I love how easy it is to add pops of colour using the layering stencils, and also how user friendly they are. For those who are not confident with colouring, this is a great solution!

Oh, and the Blooming Branch set. It’s so lovely and delicate. This I had a lot of fun with, and I’m definitely not done with it.

But I digress. So far I’ve made 12 cards with the new release, and that isn’t even with all the products released. It was time to use the Garden Roses set!

I absolutely love florals, and flowers in general. *good job on stating the obvious, Erica*

One thing that I find really great about these florals is that they cover an A2 card, so you can keep them the focal point and just add your own spin to backgrounds and other details. Oh, and changing up the colour scheme of course. So many colours. Why pick just one, when you can use them all?? Or different from what would be found in nature, because why not? Let your imagination run wild and see what happens?

For these cards I have gone quite natural with pinks and reds. No crazy combos, just yet, but I totally haven’t ruled it out yet! That’s the fun thing about crafting, you don’t have to make it realistic, go nuts with colours that make your creativity go ‘oh yes, let’s do that!’ 

My first card is done by using only the Garden Roses Layering Stencils and ink blending pinks, Sparkling Rose, Bubble Gum and Raspberry Bliss, for the roses and Grassy Knoll for the leaves. I used the same green on both layers, but on the first one I used what was left on my Grassy Knoll blender brush. I’ve recently gone a bit extra and bought enough blender brushes so I could have one for each one of my Pinkfresh inks… it’s a bit nuts, but what can I say? I got a great deal on them, and was on the ‘organising zone’. Stay away from that zone if you don’t want to get swept up in organising purchases that might be hard to explain. Just FYI. 

With the coordinating diecut I cut the floral image out, and I also cut out another two pieces out of white card stock. These I layered up with liquid adhesive, and then I set that aside while I worked on the background. 

This is done by stamping the Garden Roses image twice, directly onto a card base, and then heat embossing that in white. I’ve used Opaque Bright White Superfine embossing powder and the WOW! Embossing ink pad, but first I used my anti static tool all over the panel. It gives a little bit of interest and texture to the background without taking away any of the attention of the star of the show: The ink blended Garden Roses image. 

On a slim banner I stamped up ‘It’s been too long‘ in Black ink and after adhering the floral image to the card base, I adhered that too. I nearly stopped here but could my bling-loving heart agree with me? Nope. So I got a few… a good sprinkling… ok, ok, a GENEROUS sprinkling of Ballet Slipper jewels out and dotted them around the image and then I could finally stop. 

I do like how it turned out though, but I understand that not everyone loves bling to the level I do. 

The next Garden Roses image was also ink blended but this time with Coral Reef,  Passion Fruit and Berrylicious for the flowers, and Key Lime and Olive for the leaves. I used the coordinating diecut on this image as well, and then loaded it up with foam squares on the back to create height and dimension. It’s nice to try different ways of add dimension, and see what works best for you and what you prefer.

The background for this card is done with matte gold foil and the Diagonal Hot Foil plate. Oh, gold and white is such a classic combo, isn’t it?? I trimmed this panel down a little and adhered that to a card base.

I will say that it took me a long time to get to grips with hot foiling, but despite swearing like a sailor at times because it wasn’t working, I’m glad I stuck with it. I have the Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil system, for those of you wondering.

The floral image was adhered to this and only then did I start thinking of sentiments.. oy! Sometimes you get a bit carried away and have to work around what you have already committed to ie glued down! This happens to me more often than not… not going to lie.

I grabbed a friend word diecut that I already had cut out, and stamped up ‘you are amazing’ in Black Ink on another slim banner. This is from the Lush Peonies stamp set. These were then layered up on top of the roses and a Stargazer jewel was used as the dot over the ‘I’ as I had lost that. 

The final card was done by heat embossing the outline stamp from the Garden Floral set on heavy weight vellum. Then I flipped this over and grabbed the stencils too. These I turned over, and used the ‘wrong’ way to add colour to the back of the vellum for a super soft look. 

The white heat embossing stayed crisp and bright white this way, and I loved how it turned out. This was adhered to a piece of white card stock to make sure the colours were forced to shine through.

I did trim this down a bit too much, which I covered up by adding a strip of black foiled background, with the Diagonal hot foil plate, before adding this whole thing to a card base. 

Keeping the sentiment simple again, to let the roses take centre stage, I used the You word die that I had made with Licorice (black card stock) and white card stock. The sentiment is finished off with ‘are the best’ on another slim banner, this is from the Blooming Branch stamp set, so the full sentiment says ‘you are the best’.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and these cards. Which one is your favourite? I’d love to hear what else has grabbed you from this release.

Are you one of the many winners from the Release Blog Hop and the Instagram Hop? Don’t forget to check out the Winner Announcement page over at Pinkfresh, it’s up to you to email Lea and claim your prize. You have two weeks to do so, so don’t dilly-dally!

I have used compensated affiliate links in this post, for your convenience, at no extra cost to you whatsoever. If you shop with these links, remember that it doesn’t ever cost you a single penny/cent/ruble/krona extra. The company these links are affiliated with pay me a small commission directly, as a thank you for directing you their way. These earnings help keep my blog, YouTube and Instagram shenanigans going, and keep the content fun and fresh for you. Thank you so much for the support, encouragement and continued love you guys give me. I really appreciate it, more than I can ever express in words.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

You can find me on various social media platforms, by clicking the links below.
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Fun collaboration with fun companies and fun products!

Hi everyone!

I’m back, again! This time it’s a two in one, rather than two separate posts. Today I’m taking part in two Instagram hops:

Click on the graphic to go to the post for the Picket Fence hop.

One is Waffle Flower with Picket Fence Studios, you can find my Instagram HERE. If you only want to hop along with one company, keep an eye out for the graphics and check the logo at the top to identify the post you want.

Click on the graphic to go to the post for Pinkfresh Studio

The second is Waffle Flower with Pinkfresh Studios. Both of the PFS teams are collaborating with Waffle Flower in celebrating their new stencilling mat and accessories, now available from Waffle Flower shop.

I got to play with the Stencil Mat, and I was a bit sceptical to be honest. Is this something I would have spent money on myself? Probably not as I already have the Water Media Mat. At least that was my opinion until I tried the Stencil Mat… I am a typical Taurus, and by that I don’t mean The Man’s definition of me as stubborn and bull-headed, both figuratively and literal. He calls my little curly crazies horns, and thinks he’s soooooo funny *insert rolling eyes here* but I digress. My point is that I’m wary of change and I’m sometimes slow to warm up to things.

Turns out it’s actually rather clever… (I also don’t like admitting I’m wrong, which thankfully I don’t have to do very often with The Man, lol) thanks to the silicone it’s sticking down onto your desk and isn’t flopping around, and it also helps keep my card stock in place. Huh. Interesting, right? I usually use lots of washi tape to hold my stencils in place because getting ahold of Pixie Spray in Europe is like finding ice in the Sahara (I’m being a tad dramatic here because I’m all out and I love that stuff) so I think that is a tick in the box for ‘good stuff’.

The Stencil Mat also easy to clean off, which is another tick for good, BUT it needs to be said that it does stain very easily. Not that it hinders the use of it, not in the slightest, but if that’s something that will bug you and you know it, this might not be for you. Be honest with yourself about this before investing in either of the mats.

Accessories wise you can get the stencilling mat in a Mini Stencil Mat size too, as well as Duo Brush Holders, a brush stand and Waffle Flower blender brushes. I also received the Duo Brush Holders and the Brush Stand that I use with my Life Changing Blender Brushes (in rainbow order, of course) from Picket Fence Studios. A clever thing about the Duo Brush holders is that they have big “feet” that slot into the square holes in the Water Media Mat, that I also have and did purchase myself.

Ok, so first off, I made a few cards with the Pinkfresh Studios Holiday Botanical Background Stencils and autumnal colours. I’m a summer gal through and through, but I do love autumn colours. So much so I made two cards, using slightly similar colour palettes.

One is fiery reds and oranges, with a sprinkling of purples. On this one I didn’t use the final stencil, which is the berries, as I felt the autumn vibe didn’t really need it. On this one I added quite a few sequins in a muted rose gold colour. These I got from a haberdashery so I have no idea what they are called, but pretty they are for sure!

The sentiment does say ‘Seasons Greetings‘ and I did foil it in Rose Gold glimmer foil with the hot foil plate. It’s also stacked with two more diecut layers to give it some dimension. As the background was trimmed down a little, I adhered this whole thing to a card base of Sunflower card stock from Lawn Fawn.

The second card is also done with the Holiday Botanical Background stencils, and purples. Here I have also used the browns; Doe, Gathered Twigs and Espresso, as well as Persimmon for the berries.

The berries are also heat embossed with Clear Gloss embossing powder from WOW! Embossing Powder to make them pop a little bit more.

Around the edges I ink blended whatever was left on the brush I had used with Persimmon and Doe, to give it a vintage feel. Having the card stock on the stencilling mat made it very easy to ink blend to do this.

The middle is left completely white to make the sentiment, Happy Holidays from Happy Holiday Circle Frame set, really stand out. This I heat embossed with Rose Gold, used the coordinating diecut on and layered up with another three pieces to give it lots of dimension.

So, that’s it for the Waffle Flower and Pinkfresh Studio collaboration part.

For the Waffle Flower and Picket Fence Studios collaboration, I used the Details Of A Wing stencil, lots of Life Changing Blender Brushes and from top left to bottom right corner inks: Lavender, Summer Shower, Fresh Pear, Lemon Whip, Apricot, Bubble Gum and Berrylicious. I tapped off a lot of the ink on the lids of the ink pads and on the Stencil Mat, then blended with a VERY light hand.

I think this would look so cool with a thin layer of Sparkle Paper Glitz on top, but that could be for another card. *saves idea in head and hopes it will pop up again at a later date*

I also coloured the Capricorn Girl with Copics, and then used the coordinating diecut on it. I coloured her with very dramatic colouring, from the teal ombrè hair, Kim K contoured makeup and coloured contacts, she pops!

While I had my die cutting machine I also cut out the Happy Birthday Word Topper twice out of white card stock and layered these up, with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive. On top of this I stamped up ‘I hope you have a fantastic day’, from the Word Topper Subtitles stamp set, with Black Hybrid Ink.

These bits were then adhered to the ink blended background, and the card was finished! I’m still toying with the idea of adding some bling to this but I’m trying to resist the urge.

Right, so that’s it for now. I hope you have enjoyed these cards, and get a chance to hop along with us. There is bound to be lots of amazing inspiration along the way because the card makers along the stop are totally amazeballs!

As always, I have used compensated affiliate links in this post and, for transparency, Waffle Flower sent me the Stencil Mat, Duo Brush Holder and the Brush Stand to take part in this hop. Thank you to Waffle Flower for that!

Don’t forget to check out my blog post from yesterday too, about the Picket Fence Studios September Release. If you want to shop the new release, you can hop on over to the Picket Fence Studios shop by clicking HERE. Please be patient though, and see the notice from Picket Fence Studios below:

If you have been eyeing the new Paper Glitz, you can get those in AN ALL-IN BUNDLE, with all of the colours available. This stuff is amazing, I’m already so obsessed with Paper Glaze, and then Paper Glitz came along… and oooooh. I love making my own metallic and glitter card stock, as this is (to me) better value for money AND you can colour match to your project, which is fab.

Ok, I will let you get going now. Thanks again for stopping by, and if you shop with my compensated affiliate links, thank you so much for supporting me this way! Remember that shopping with affiliate links never cost you anything extra at all, but I do have to declare that I use them.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Magical Wintry Forest stencilling cards | Pops of colour, without colouring!

Hi guys!!

Today’s post is all about ink blending extravaganza, using the lovely and totally dreamy Wintry Forest layering stencils and yummy inks from Pinkfresh Studio!

I absolutely love stencils because they are so versatile and affordable. Stencils that can cover several occasions also add to their allure. At first glance you might think that this Wintry Forest stencil isn’t going to be meant for anything but holiday cards, buuuuuut I’m hoping I will make you see that it’s actually rather versatile.

Ok, full disclosure, I DID end up using foiled sentiments from the Perfect Sentiments Holiday set, because I have finally cracked foiling after it eluded me for ages. It took watching many videos by Yana Smakula and Channin Pelletier to get to grips with it, so if you are struggling like I was, know that there is a knack to it and don’t give up!

Currently the Perfect Sentiments Holiday set is sold out, but the Perfect Sentiments set is in stock. If you definitely want the Perfect Sentiments Holiday set, make sure to sign up for back into stock notifications.

Having said that, these backgrounds would work for all sorts of occasions, like thinking of you, sympathy, retirement, masculine birthday and nature lovers birthdays.

Instead of going for the expected look with greens for the Wintry Forest stencils, I went purple, blue and then fiery with yellows, oranges, red and fuchsias. I also added a generous splattering of gold on all three, because I love that as a finishing touch.

For the first card I used all the purples, from light to dark, Soft Lilac, Lavender ,Candy Violet  and Regal Kiss. The last layer is LOTS of Regal Kiss for that deep, dark purple colour.

Because I love blues I also used the Morning Sky blues: Sky Blue, Summer Shower, Seaside and Storm. These are just dreamy. On this one I used Sky Blue for the first two layers, very soft on the first and a bit more saturated for the second layer.

For the last card I used Lemon Whip and Sunshine, Apricot and Persimmon, Coral Reef and Berrylicious, and finally Bubble Gum and Raspberry Bliss. I used the lighter colour first, and then added a little bit of depth and intensity with the darker colour after. On this one, I didn’t line up the stencils according to the markings either, to leave a little bit more white towards the bottom so you could still see that there were different layers.

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When I had finished the ink blending, I popped them, one by one, into a box and splattered some gold watercolour on them. After these had dried, I trimmed the blue and the purple down a little and adhered them to white card bases.

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The sentiments I picked out are done with both rose gold and gold foil, using the Perfect Sentiments Holiday set. I also cut out some extra pieces using the coordinating diecut, and layered the sentiments up for a little bit of dimension.

The purple card got a rose gold foiled Merriest Christmas. This one is layered up with two more pieces to pop it up a little.

The blue one got a Warmest Wishes in gold foil. This one is also popped up with two pieces.

The fiery forest got a rose gold foiled Merry & Bright. This one has three pieces for more depth and dimension. This one isn’t trimmed down, but I probably should have done that. However, I had adhered the sentiment already, so I couldn’t trim it. Oops.

Ok, that’s it from me for today, I hope you enjoyed this post too, and will try an unexpected colour combination yourself with your stencils. You never know how it will turn out until you give it a go!

As always, I have used compensated affiliate links in this post at no extra cost to you. Shopping with affiliate links does not cost you anything extra at all, the company it’s linked to will pay me a small commission as a thank you for directing you to them. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the running of this blog, my YouTube channel and Instagram. A little bit will be put aside to renovations of my forever craft room as well, as we are in the process of buying our forever home, which is so exciting! Thank you so much if you chose to support me by shopping with these links, I really do appreciate it so much! 

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

You can find me on various social media platforms, by clicking the links below.
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Trinity Stamps Autumn Impressions release | Guest Designing and YouTube hop!

Hi guys!

It’s a busy day on the blog today, this is one of two, and this one is all about the newest release from Trinity Stamps! I was delighted to be asked to guest for this release, as I was on the design team when Trinity first started and I am friends with several of the design team members in real life.

In fact, last year after Creativation, Tanesia, Katie and I got together at Room To Craft in Bothwell, Washington, for an afternoon of crafting, chatting and general catching up! It was so much fun and went by way too fast.

Ok, enough reminiscing before I get all emotional about how hard it’s been since Covid hit. So, the new release is amazing and I have some fun things to show off, as well as a couple of cards.

The first thing that grabbed me, which should surprise nobody at all, is the Rainbow Layering Stencils! Ok, these are rather genius and so easy to use! There is also a coordinating stamp set AND diecut set for these, but they work really well on their own as well.

I made two backgrounds with these fun stencils, using inks from Concord & 9th, in Buttercup, Sprout, Oceanside, Midnight, Eggplant, Honeysuckle and Marmalade. With a small army of Life Changing Blender Brushes, pre cut card bases and some washi tape, I got to work.

My first attempt I might have been a little bit too gung-ho on, and I didn’t line up the bottom of the rainbow arches perfectly, but eh, it still turned out fab.

This one I made really dark and rich, and finished if off with a diecut banner stamped with the sentiment ‘Just wanted to say you always make me smile‘. I did use a Mini MISTI to make sure I got the sentiment on relatively evenly spaced out and properly stamped.

The banner itself is propped up with some foam tape and that was that. No bling, if you can believe it!

On the second panel, I went in with a very light hand for a more pastel look. I also added some clouds before, which I didn’t do on the first one. When I was happy with this one, I stamped the Awesome Human stamp in the middle of it, with black ink.

All around it I used the Summer Sparkles embeltiments that comes in the Summer Blooms kit, which is still available in the shop!

There is also a YouTube hop today, celebrating the new release, so hop on over to THE VIDEO HERE, if you want to check out some more fun inspiration and the rest of the goodies I got. You can also win a $25 gift voucher to Trinity Stamps shop if you enter the giveaway over there, all the info can be found in the description box under the video.

For the YouTube video, click on, or look for, this thumbnail. If you are not into videos, you can hop along on Instagram where we are doing a hop as well. You will be totally spoilt with inspiration and amazing projects, so make sure not to miss it! You can find my Instagram page here.

Right, that’s it for this post. I will be back later today with another blog hop. Please don’t be mad, sometimes it can’t be avoided that there are lots of posts on the same day.

If you shop the new release using the compensated affiliate links I have sprinkled all throughout this post, I will get a small commission from the companies directly, at no extra cost to you. All earnings from these links go directly back into the running of my blog, YouTube channel and instagram, and now also towards the ‘future crafting shenanigans forever craft room’ as hopefully we will buy a house in the next few months! Keep your fingers crossed for us as we have put in an offer on one and are waiting to hear back, so it’s a super exciting/anxious time.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Ink Blending Extravaganza + Paper Glaze + Diecuts = Fun, colourful cards with NO colouring!

Hello, my colour-loving friends!

As much as I love colouring (she says whilst the inner child is jumping around with joy) sometimes I just don’t have the time or the energy to colour, but I still want colour on my cards. What a conundrum, right? This is where ink blending comes to the rescue and oh, how I love that technique too! It’s one of my go-to for a blast of colour FAST!

It’s fun, fresh, and you can mix and match colours to suit occasions, themes and preferences of the recipient of the card. What’s not to love?

Dab your panel with Embossing Ink and sprinkle a bit of Halo embossing glitter on top and you have homemade glitter card stock too!

If you don’t want glitter card stock, you can add Clear Gloss on top for shiny card stock. Super simple and high impact! Plus it’s quick and easy to make more when you run out. Win-Win!

Other ways of adding interest to an ink blended background is to splatter some water, coloured or gold water colour, shimmer sprays, white paint or something like Distress sprays. I’m particularly loving gold splatters myself. It’s such a simple, yet wow-factor way of adding a little something extra.

These cards in this post are done with Distress Oxide inks, blended with my go-to blending tools: the Life Changing Blender Brushes from Picket Fence Studios. I can not stress enough how important it is to have a tool for ink blending that works for you. The brushes might not be for you, you might prefer the Tim Holtz ink blending tool, or the domed version from Scrapbook.com, or maybe the hexagon brush from Honey Bee Stamps. Whatever works for you is what you should stick to, no matter the opinions of someone else, me included. I’m merely saying that for me, the Life Changing Blender Brushes really live up to their name, and they have helped elevate my ink blending game to a whole new level!

Now, let’s get to some of the cards: On a piece of cardstock I blended Mustard Seed, Ripe Persimmon, Fired Brick, Wilted Violet and Black Soot with Life Changing Blender Brushes. On top of this I splattered some gold using the Kuretake Starry Color palette, becuse of course I cannot resist gold splatters. You can make your own by mixing some Golden Rose Paper Glaze with water. This is a second panel done, with the addition of Wild Honey, without Wilted Violet, and taken before gold splatters were added.

As the idea was to have the Scarecrow Cover Plate Die from Picket Fence Studios on top of this, I have gone from light to dark, almost as if there is a fire behind it, or candles in the Jack-o-lanterns.

The scarecrow herself couldn’t be plain, nope. I wanted a little wow-factor for that too, so I made some shimmer card stock by spreading some Black Pansy and Golden Rose Paper Glaze, one of my top three fave products EVER from Picket Fence Studios, on black card stock. On top of this I also added a tiny bit of Fall Gold Paper Glitz.

I didn’t get a photo of that before I cut it up, but here is the second piece I made with Autumn Persimmon Paper Glitz.

When this was dry, I cut out the Scarecrow using my diecutting machine. Depending on your machine and how much Paper Glaze you use, you might need to run it through twice to get clean, sharp lines.

This was adhered directly to the background, with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive and then a sentiment from the So Franken Cute stamp set was stamped with Black Hybrid ink on it, with the help of the Mini MISTI. When you stamp your sentiment last thing, it’s better to be safe than sorry, to avoid hiccups, hence the Mini MISTI.

The second card was done in a similar fashion, with the same colours on the background, including the gold splatters. This is the one I used that second shimmer card stock for, and I used the Scarecrow diecut again. I also cut out the word BOO with the Seeing Double Alpha dies.

The sentiment on this one is from A Spooky Day, and it’s stamped up with Black Hybrid ink with the help of the Mini MISTI. The BOO was adhered with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive, as was the Scarecrow.

Seeing them next to each other is fun, because you can see the similarity and where they have their own little unique touches.

The next two cards are pretty much the same, only different colours. Naturally, it’s still ink blended but the colours used are Squeezed Lemonade, Salvaged Patina, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire, Wilted Violet and Black Soot. I’m LOVING this blend! So much so, I made two of these as well.

Instead of gold splatters on the first one, I opted for black and yellow by using Distress Oxide sprays in Mustard Yellow and Black soot. I tried to not overdo it, but I think a few more wouldn’t have been amiss.

Similarly, the shimmer card stock was done with black card stock, and some Ocean Poppy and Lime Zinnia Paper Glaze. These colours are kind of glow-in-the-dark-esque on the black card stock, which looks really quite cool.

Once that was dry, I cut out the scarecrows and again, adhered it straight to the background with the Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive. For the second card, I also cut out the word BOO with the Seeing Double Alpha dies from the shimmer card stock made with the Paper Glaze.

Sentiment wise I used one from the So Franken Cute for the card on the right, but this one was heat embossed in Opaque Bright White on black card stock. It was also adhered on an angle, with more Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive, rather than straight across. The second card was done with the BOO glued down and the same sentiment from A Spooky Day with Black Hybrid ink.

With four cards in total done, all that was left to do was adhered them both to a card base and that’s it. What do you think? Not a bad pop of colour for no-colouring cards, right?

I am working on a YouTube video for these as well, it’s very long at the moment so I’m thinking of doing one full-length version and one more condensed, so you can chose which one you want to watch. Keep an eye out on my YouTube channel and click that notification button so you don’t miss any uploads!

Lots of the goodies for these cards are from Picket Fence Studios, and the rest are from various online shops. I have used compensated affiliate links in this post, for your convenience, at no extra cost to you. Any earnings I get from these go towards paying for things like blog hosting, technology faff-stuff, import duties and new stuff to keep things fresh, fun and free for you! Thank you so much for supporting me while shopping using these links, I really appreciate it!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

p.s. I’m speaking at the Card Maker Success Summit tomorrow about ‘Adding Shimmer With Paper Glaze’. You’re invited! Get all the details and grab your free ticket here!

You can find me on various social media platforms if you want to see more of my work, click the links below and click follow or subscribe to come along on more crafty shenanigans adventures!
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Below you can find affiliate links to Ellen Hutson, as well as some suitable alternatives to the products used for these cards.

Results of a craftermath: Pinkfresh Butterflies Card!

Hi everyone and happy Monday!


Today is no ordinary day, it’s my first official blog post for Pinkfresh Studio and I’m popping in here too, because why not?

In case you haven’t seen it yet, the challenge graphic for the month of July is lovely and the theme is Butterflies. If you make a card for this challenge, make sure to link it up on the Pinkfresh monthly challenge blog post as you can win a $50 gift card!

I grabbed the Butterflies stamp set, layering stencils, coordinating dies and a few *cough, cough* other little bits and bobs. Ok, quite a few other little bits and bobs, but I was excited. Can you blame me?? No, I didn’t think so, lol.

With the ink colours from the graphic, Ocean Breeze, Passion Fruit, Coral Reef, Sweet Mustard and Tidal Pond, I got to ink blending with the slim line stencils I had grabbed: Leafy Squares and Inverted Diamonds. Over the Leafy Squares one I used all the colours, blending them with my Life Changing Blender Brushes.

On the Inverted Diamond stencil, I used only Sweet Mustard, Ocean Breeze and Tidal Pond. Before I blended anything though, I taped down the pattern with some skinny PostIt tape as I’m all out of Pixie Spray...!! *Gasps of shock inserted here* Yes, it’s true. I’m all out and it’s really hard to get ahold of here! Waaaahh!!

The PostIt tape actually added to the pattern on this stencil though, so it worked but I’m still scouring the web for more of that stuff. It’s a total must have.

When it came to the butterflies, I couldn’t stop at just one or two. It seemed kinda crazy to not play while I had all my stuff out.

And did I play or what? I seem totally incapable of making just ONE card or ONE thing when I’m crafting. Things have a tendency of spiralling out of control more often than not. The result is always a total and utter craftermath… and sometimes a couple of cards and LOTS of spare bits and bobs.

In this case, a small army of butterflies!

All are inkblended with the help of the layering stencils, using various of the colours from the challenge graphic, and all are cut out using the coordinating diecut. Some are heat embossed with Gold Rich from WOW! Embossing, and my two favourites were the big Butterflies with the gold and the single colour, the yellow one is obviously Sweet Mustard and the other one is Coral Reef. That was a bit surprising to me, but that’s what one of the fun things with playtime and trying things out. You never know what you are going to end up with!

Putting the card together didn’t take long once I decided on the two big Butterflies and the Inverted Diamond background. A quick sentiment from the Butterflies stamp set was stamped right in the middle with black ink and then it was quick work of glueing down the butterflies with Deluxe Adhesive from Tonic Studios.

That’s the card done, and now it’s your turn! Make a card with the challenge graphic as inspiration and link up your project on the Pinkfresh Studio blog for your chance to win a $50 gift card!

As always, I have used some compensated affiliate link in this post, at no extra cost to you whatsoever! If you shop using these links I get a small commission from the company directly, and bonus, it doesn’t cost you anything extra at all. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the crafting shenanigans over here at CaCaCraft by Erica. Including the boring stuff like paying for blog hosting, upgrades, themes and all that stuff that unfortunately cost a lot of money. I couldn’t do it without your help so thank you so much for the support, I really appreciate it a lot more than I could ever express with words.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

You can find me on various social media platforms, including
YouTube
Instagram
Facebook

p.s. I also want you to know that the Card Maker Success Summit is coming up, and Pinkfresh Studio is one of the sponsors of the event. 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 the 16th of July about using Paper Glaze to add fun and unique shimmer to your cards. Get all the details and grab your free ticket here!

The event is free, all you have to do is SIGN UP and mark your calendar. The summit is on for FOUR days! There are 25+ classes and some of my crafty friends are taking part as well, such as
-Verity Biddlecomb
-Natasha Davies
-Jo Herbert
-Justine Hovey
-Laurel Beard

You can also sign up for the VIP All-Access Pass at the early bird price of $59, until the 14th, and with that you can start watching the classes right away! You also get over $2000 worth of extra content, including classes, svg cut files and digi stamps amongst other! It’s such good value for money, and you can watch the classes over and over and over!

Fluttering by for the Pinkfresh Studio July Challenge

Hi everyone, and welcome back to my blog!

As some of you might have already seen, or heard about, I’ve joined the Pinkfresh Studio design team for the rest of the year! I’m SUPER EXCITED about this as I’m such a huge fan of Pinkfresh Studio!

Just look at this collection of amazing crafters, and then spot little ole me in there too! It’s such a dream come true!

Pinkfresh Studio run monthly challenges, both for the scrapbooking side of things and the card making side of things, so no matter what your preferred way of crafting and creating is, you can join in!

For the month of July the theme is ‘Butterflies’, and you can interpret that however you like. Below you can see the challenge graphic, maybe glean some inspiration from that or just let your creativity loose and see what happens!

For my card, I decided to first make a flowery background, something for the butterflies to be attracted to, so to say.

I absolutely adore the Miss Your Smile stamp and coordinating layering stencils set, so I really wanted to use them. My first impluse was to make yellow flowers, with turquoise/teal leaves.

The colours of ink used are Lemon Whip, Sunshine and Sweet Mustard for the blooms. On the leaves it’s Ocean Breeze and Aquamarine. At the top of the card I used a little bit of Sky Blue to soften all that white space, and give a summery sky look to the card.

I toyed with the idea of using Black Ink for the outline stamp, but in the end I heat embossed it with Gold Rich from WOW! Embossing. I’m really glad I went this route, as it gives the petals and stems more definition, without being too harsh.

For the butterfly part, I used, no surprise, the biggest from the Butterflies stamp set. I heatembossed it on vellum, again with Gold Rich embossing powder. After using the coordinating diecut, I adhered it to the card with a bit of foam tape to create the illusion of it hovering above the flower.

To keep the card cohesive, I used a heat embossed sentiment from the Perfect Sentiments set. I made a ton of these as the stamp set is so clever, and you get the whole bunch in one go. The coordiating diecut for these is equally brilliant!

That’s my card for the challenge, and over on my Instagram you can find a reel for this card too. Or, well, you would have, if I hadn’t managed to delete it, like a total IDIOT!!!

Now it’s your turn! Hop on over to the Pinkfresh Studio blog and enter your card in the July challenge for a chance to win a $50 gift voucher to the shop!

I have used compensated affiliate links throughout this post, for your convenience, at no extra cost to you. If you shop using these links, I get a small commission from the company it’s linkted to, and it doesn’t cost you a single penny/cent/öre/ruble extra. Any earnings I get from these links go directly towards the running of my blog, YouTube channel and Instagram. If you are shopping anyway, I’d be so grateful if you’d chose to support me by using mine.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

PS There is still time to sign up for the Card Maker Success Summit! You can attend it completely free, and watch all the presentations for 24hrs after they have gone live. If you want to get a whole load of extra content, I’d highly suggest you sign up for the VIP All-Access Pass! Currently the total value of the VIP All-Access Pass surpasses $2000, and there is more content being added all the way up until the summit kicks off on July 14th! It’s yours for $59, or if you sign up within 15 minutes of clicking the link it’s only $39!!

It’s four days of Christmas In July EXTRAVAGANZA, you are not going to want to miss it! Sign up now by clicking HERE!

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

Inkon3 & My Sweet Petunia/MISTI collaboration

Hello, hello!

Today’s post is for a collaboration between Inkon3 and My Sweet Petunia, the company behind the MISTI. If you know me, you know I’m useless without my MISTI, I’m a forever fan, that’s for sure.

For my card today, I decided to use the new My Sweet Petunia stamp set, with the coordinating layering stencils! So cool. I love these.

I have used the luscious Atelier inks for the inkblending, with an array of Life Changing Blender Brushes from Picket Fence Studios. For the flowers I used Sweet Petunia Pink (duh, lol!) and Bee Sting Yellow. I did plan on using some My Jam Purple for depth, but just layered up more of the pink and yellow.

For the stems and leaves I used Goddess Green with a touch of Trinity Teal and Bee Sting Yellow. I’m not 100% happy with the result though, I should have just used the green and teal I think.

After letting this dry a little, I used an anti-static tool all over the panel before popping it into my MISTI. As I wanted to heat emboss the My Sweet Petunia stamp over it, I am so glad I had the MISTI on hand. NO waaaaaay I would have been able to get it right with a stamping block.

I reached for my fave WOW! embossing powder, Rich Gold, and after stamping the image with the Embossing Pad, I sprinkled it all over, tapped off the excess and set it with my heat tool.

That gold goes so well with the colours, but then it does work with everything in my opinion. I love this gold, it’s so classy and elegant. Apparently there wasn’t enough gold on it already though, so I splattered some gold water colours, from the Gansai Tambi Starry Colors palette, all over it as well.

Sentiments wise I didn’t want to take away too much from the flowers, so I kept it simple with a sentiment from the Here For You set, stamped up in Sweet Petunia Pink, on a slim banner.

I have a video on my YouTube channel too, as well as a reel for almost the same card, but with different colour ratios (and no yellow on the stems) as well as Platinum embossing powder, on my Instagram, if you want to see snippets on how the card was made.

Well, that’s it from me for today but I hope you enjoyed this and if you wanted to get a few of these yummy goodies for yourself, I have used compensated affiliate links in this post. If you shop using these links, I will get a small commission directly from the company at ZERO extra cost to you! Yes, that’s right. It’s basically a win-win! Any and all earnings I get from these links go directly back into the running of my blog, YouTube channel and Instagram, so THANK YOU if you chose to support me by using these links. I really appreciate it so much!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

5K Together YouTube Subscribers Hop!

Hi everyone!

Today’s post is a little celebration for myself and a dear crafting friend, Maria Willis, for sort of reaching a milestone of 5000 subscriber combined. I didn’t quite make it to the 2.5K subscribers as I had hoped, as I haven’t been so active recently due to a stressful family situation. If you haven’t heard anything about it, my FIL is not doing well and will have a very risky operation on Monday, after over a month in hospital. The Man flew out this morning and it was quite stressful and hectic to get it all sorted and organised. Hecking pandemic, eh??

If you want to skip right to the hop, start over at Maria’s YouTube video, and go from there. I am the last stop on the loop, but if you want to go to my video, you can click on THIS LINK to get there.

Life is tough at times and I think it’s important to celebrate and cherish the happy times as you never know when the tide will turn. Hence this little hop! Maria and I roped in some of our crafty friends to make the hop bigger than just two stops, and you are not going to want to miss their projects! The full hop list can be found below, and we also have some super generous companies sponsoring prizes for a massive giveaway to celebrate us.

I have a couple little projects to share today, and as the theme for the hop is ‘Rainbow’ I’ll start with that one:

Out of Neenah Solar White #110 card stock, I cut out two rainbows using the Color Block Rainbow die from Pinkfresh Studio. I did two because I wanted to layer up the pieces for some dimension on the card.

Each ‘ray’ of the rainbow got colour added in a slight ombré effect, with Life Changing Blender Brushes from Picket Fence Studios (my go-to blending tools!) and ink colours from Concord & 9th, and also a dab of Ballet Slipper from Pinkfresh. I don’t know why I didn’t use the pink from Concord & 9th. Who knows what goes on in this head of mine at times??

Once they were all colourful and pretty, I glued them down with the Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive onto the second, intact, rainbow, and this in turn was adhered to another piece of card stock for sturdiness. The excess was trimmed off with scissors. I needed it very sturdy as I wanted to heat emboss Halo Glitter Powder from WOW! Embossing on top for shimmer.

This process is very simple: dab your embossing ink pad all over the rainbow, make sure it’s nice and juicy first though. Then sprinkle the Halo Glitter on top and set that with your heat tool. The simmer is insane and I love it!

Sentiment wise I used ‘Believe in yourself, like I believe in you’ from the Hero Arts and Honey Bee Stamps collaboration set Stronger Together. This is stamped directly onto the card base, with Hybrid Black Ink, with the help of the MISTI and the rainbow as a guide where to place the sentiment. I also added lots of hearts from the set, these are also stamped up with black ink.

Unfortunately I made a boo-boo with the hearts, so I HAD TO bring out the sequins to cover that up. Had to. There was simply no other option. I added a few… -ish… to the card, these are Sparkling Clear from Pretty Pink Posh, and they are adhered with Nuvo Deluxe adhesive. It’s become my new staple in liquid adhesives arsenal.

So that’s the rainbow card. The next card is done with one of the new sets from Ellen Hutson, it’s release day today! It’s called Pressing Thoughts and it’s illustrated by Brandi Kincaid. It has a coordinating diecut too! YAY!

It’s coloured very simply with some copics in yellows and greens, and a tiny bit of purple on the stamens. The coordinating diecut was used to cut it out, as well as another two layers. These three pieces were adhered together with more of that Nuvo Deluxe adhesive. This is such a clever way to add some interest to clean and simple cards!

It was trimmed down to a mini-slimline size, this one is just a tad bigger than 3”x6” and the scalloped black card base was cut out using the Scallop Frame Slimline Diecutting System from Picket Fence Studios. I customised the size by running the diecut and the card stock through my diecutting machine twice to get the scalloped frame and the correct size.

The sentiment is from the Pressing Thoughts stamp set, and the ‘thanks’ was stamped directly onto the background and the ‘for everything’ was done on a slim strip of card stock. This was adhered with a little bit of foam tape to make sure it didn’t sag on the sides. And that was it!

Well, that’s it from me for today but I really hope you enjoyed this post and will get a chance to hop along with us over on YouTube! That’s where you need to leave your comments to be in with a chance to win one of the fab prizes. We can not thank the sponsors of this hop enough!

I have also used some compensated affiliate links in this blog post, for your convenience and at no extra cost to you, in case you want to shop! If you shop using my links I get commission directly from the company, and as I mentioned, it doesn’t cost you anything at all. This is a great way to show support for your favorite content creators.

Thank you so much for stopping by, and if you want to get hopping, the full hop list is down below. I’m 100% sure it will blow your mind so don’t miss it!!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Maria Willis

Marie Heiderscheit

Kari

Ardyth

Channin

Jessica

Jen Kray

Carly

Erica (that’s me)