Slim Line Rainbow Cards with WOW! Embossing Changers

Hello, hello!

Today’s cards are another couple of slim line cards. It seems I can’t stop, and won’t stop, with these for a while. Oh well, things could be worse, right?

To make these I started out by cutting panels of white card stock with the Slim Line Diecutting System from Picket Fence Studios. On the smaller rectangles, I adhered strips of coloured cardstock to create rainbows. The card stock I’ve used for these is from Lawn Fawn, and you can get it in a handy Rainbow Pack if you don’t want to invest in 10 sheets of each colour.

On the right one I’ve used, from left to right, Raspberry, Chili Pepper, Canned Pumpkin, Fake Tan, Sunflower, Cilantro, Peacock, Blue Jay and Sugarplun.

On the left one, I used Raspberry, Chili Pepper, Canned Pumpkin, Fake Tan, Sunflower, Cilantro, Peacock and Mermaid. It gives a more pastely look than the top one with the blue and the purple.

I’ve used a few different diecuts to make the sentiments, and the big Hi Die and Friend Die, are from The Stamp Market. The Happy Birthday is from MFT Stamps. Both the Friend and the Happy Birthday have been cut out of white card stock a few times and layered up.

The Happy Birthday one was then heat embossed with Glisten Changer to make it sparkly. This particular one has been retired, but HERE you can find a really good alternative.

The Friend one I heat embossed with Clear Gloss to create that puffy sticker look. I love doing my word diecuts like this, it just adds something extra!

For the clouds I have used some Stitched Cloud Dienamics from MFT Stamps, on white card stock. For a little while longer you can find the EXACT ONES at Ellen Hutson!

These I have jazzed up by heat embossing them with the WOW! Changers Texture and Glisten. The way these powders work is that you can change your embossing powder to either be sheen, glittery or texture. All you have to do is mix your choice of powder with whatever effect you want.

I haven’t used the Texture one before so I decided to use it for one of the cards! For the second one I used Glisten, which I am obsessed with. Both powders are mixed with Clear Gloss and the pieces were dabbed with the Embossing Pad, covered in the powder mix and then set with the Heat Tool.

With these cloud bits done, I glued them to the rainbow panels. I did have to use both tape runner and Lawn Fawn glue because of the heat embossing, and I also left them under flat weights to make sure they dried flat.

On the first one I glued down the Happy Birthday with Glossy Accents, as I ran out of my Lawn Fawn Glue Tubes!! SEND MORE STAT!!!!

The second card was finished with the big Hi and the Friend diecuts. The Hi I layered up with fun foam, cut with the diecut, to add height. The Friend I added on top of the Hi and with that, the card was done.

I actually managed to make a bonus card with the outline from the Hi die too. It seemed a shame to waste it, when I had a load of rainbow card bases done already.

Using a Nuvo fine tip glue pen, I adhered the outline Hi to a card base and ta-da! Another card done!!

On my YouTube channel you can also find a video of the making of the slim line cards, if you fancy seeing the Changer powders in action.

I’ve used compensated affiliate links in this post. What that means is these links goes to shops I’m affiliated with, and as a thank you for sending you to them, I will get a small commission directly from them if you buy something. This doesn’t cost you anything extra at all, but it really makes a difference to me if you do use these links. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the running of my blog, YouTube channel and keeping my Instagram fresh, fun and inspiring for you, so thank you if you choose to support me like this. I really appreciate the support!

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

Below you can find affiliate links to Ellen Hutson. Here I have added some good alternatives, when the exact product used was not available.

E

Solar White Heavyweight 110 lb – 25 pk, Neenah Classic Crest Cardstock

Solar White – 250 Sheet Ream, Neenah Classic Crest Cardstock

Stitched Cloud Edges, My Favorite Things Die-namics (Retiring)

Shimmer Cardstock – Tropical, Lawn Fawn Cardstock

Shimmer Cardstock – Pastel, Lawn Fawn Cardstock

Shimmer Cardstock – Gemstone, Lawn Fawn Cardstock

Hand-Lettered Happy Birthday, My Favorite Things Die-Namics

Happy Birthday Word, Waffle Flower Dies

Scripty Birthday, Trinity Stamps Dies

Large Slimline with Sliders, Lawn Cuts Dies

Glue Tube, Lawn Fawn

Mini Glossy Accents, Ranger Accents

Glossy Accents, Ranger Accents

WOW Embossing Pad, Ultra Slow Drying – Clear

Lightening Effects Kit, WOW! Changers

Glisten, WOW! Changers

Texture, WOW! Changers

Little Hello, My Favorite Things Die-Namics

Friend, Honey Cuts Dies

Hello Friend Script, Pretty Pink Posh Dies

Papercrafters Unite Against Racism Blog Hop | BFF My Tribe

Hi everyone!

Today I’m participating in a very special blog, YouTube and Instagram hop, organised by the fabulous Justine Hovey, you can find more information on her blog. The goal of this hop is to come together to stand in union with our black and brown friends to show solidarity and stamp out racism. Not just for crafters, but for everyone who’s experienced racism. The fight to end racism and bring equality to every aspect of life is so important and we can not stop until it is reality!

I have used the BFF My Tribe stamp, from Picket Fence Studios, for my card and I think it’s so perfect as you can basically go a rainbow of skin tones. A different one for each arm, to make sure all your friends are included. I have a YouTube video too.

To begin with, I stamped it up with Black Hybrid Ink and my Hero Arts MISTI on Copic friendly paper. I kept the image at the bottom of the card panel to keep the top free for the sentiment.

I used sooooo many Copics to colour in the image, to make sure I covered as many skin tones as possible. I’m not very good at skin tones with Copics, I definitely need to practice a lot more with that. Time to crack open the Human Rainbow colouring chart from Sandy Allnock and get it down.

The top part of the card I had kept free for a sentiment and I wanted to diecut letters in skin tones and pastels to spell out ‘Better Together’. I used my long-term fave Stitched Alphabet Die-Namics from MFT Stamps. I use these so often and have loved them from the start! I used a pastel card stock from a DCVW paper pack as well as coloured card stock from Lawn Fawn. The ones from Lawn Fawn are Vanilla Malt, Paper Bag, Chocolate Bar and Ground Coffee.

To line up the letters straight, I used the grids on my work mat, a ruler and PostIt Tape, or use purple tape or even washi. I also have a magnetic work mat that comes in handy for this sort of thing. Then I glued them down with the glue tube from Lawn Fawn. I also added some gold details with a gold gel pen, to things like brackets and rings.

I almost left it like that but then I had a last-minute idea! I added a black heart with BLM, for Black Lives Matter, heat embossed in white, on top of the hands. Sort of like an extra strong message of unity.

Now it’s time to hop along, and the next stop is Angie! The full list of the hop can be found on Justine’s blog RIGHT HERE.

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed this post and the rest of the hop. I have linked most of the products used for this card with compensated affiliate links for your convenience. If you shop using these links, I get a small commission from the company directly, at no extra cost to you.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Bright, Sparkly Birthday Cards with New To Me Products!

Hi guys! Today’s post is showing off some dies from a brand new company called Everyday Crafting Co. You can find the shop on Etsy and there are four different dies to choose from or grab a discounted bundle.

In order to be totally transparent, I was sent these dies free of charge and have been paid for this blog post. However, I want to reassure everyone that I only ever use products that inspire me. If I try creating with things I feel ‘meh’ about, my mojo packs up and goes on vacation.

I am running low on birthday cards so I decided to use the Happy Birthday dies. First I tried the diecuts on different paper a few times, to get a feel for them, and see what kind of spacing I wanted. The ‘Happy’ and ‘Birthday’ are separate so you can use them however you like!

After playing around for a bit, this was the spacing that I was happiest with. I like that it leaves enough room for a sentiment banner or stamp set to finish off the Happy Birthday.

These I adhered to a couple of my rainbow backgrounds, that I made out of strips of Lawn Fawn coloured card stock. This is a fun way to add colour to a background without having to colour, ink blend or do anything but stick strips of card stock down. So easy and so fun, great to do while binge watching something!

I was a bit worried that the black one would be too harsh but I think it makes the background, and the letters, really pop! On this one I added lots of Colour Wheels (no longer available) and Candy Lane Canes embellishments from Trinity Stamps.

On another black one, I added Wink Of Stella to the background part. It didn’t look overly sparkly when I did it so I was a bit disappointed. At the time, it didn’t feel like it was worth the time invested in doing it. Which was at least a Modern Family episode, lol!

I needed have worried. Once that was totally dry and I took it out into the sunshine, I was nearly blinded!! It looks super cool!

The final card had the white diecut piece added to a rainbow background panel too, but this one is angled. I’m not sure which way I prefer, to be honest. Maybe the vertical ones… This white one also got a HUGE amount of sequins added to it, it felt like it needed it and it’s a birthday card after all.

That space between the diecut words was perfect size for an Everyday Essential Banner with ‘From All Of Us’ stamped up on it. These are from Lawn Fawn, and I use that banner die set all the time! The stamp set is called Simply Sentiments

One of the black Happy Birthday frame cards got the colourful one added to it. I achieved the look by layering the stamp with Atelier Inks from Ink On 3. From left to right I used Bee Sting Yellow, Marigold Orange, Marilyn Red, My Jam Purple, Peacock Blue and Goddess Green. It was easy to get this look with the help of a Mini MISTI and some PostIt tape. For the white card, I decided to layer up two black banners and add a white one on top. This helps create the illusion of a shadow, and brings the eye in.

Well, with that, I’m all done for today! I hope you have found some inspiration here today, and will check out the Everyday Crafting Co shop for the rest of the diecuts available.

Some links are compensated affiliate links, at no extra cost to you whatsoever. The rest are purely for your convenience!

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

Ink On 3 + Trinity Stamps = Rainbow Shimmer!

Hi guys!

Today I’m popping in with a quick card and video on my YouTube channel of a card that took me less than twenty minutes to make!

I used a new-to-me stamp from Trinity Stamps, called Folded Hugs. It has a sweet message and gorgeous font.

Perfect for quick cards to send to your friends in these weird times. Plus Trinity Stamps is a small, family owned business so we definitely want to support them during this pandemic, where every little sale counts.

After prepping some Bristol Vellum paper with an anti-static tool, with the black Mini MISTI and the Embossing pad, I got a good stamp done. I sprinkled Opaque Bright White Super Fine embossing powder over this and then set that with my WOW! Heat tool.

To add bright, happy colours I have used re-inkers from Ink On 3 to do some quick water colouring. In a plastic tray, I dripped a few drops of each colour into the wells and then added Liquid Pixie Dust to them. This adds gorgeous colour AND shimmer in one fell swoop! The colours I used are Bee Sting Yellow, Marigold Orange, Marilyn Red, My Jam Purple, Peacock Blue and Goddess Green.

Once I had done a bright rainbow wash over the heat embossed image, I helped the drying process by using my heat tool on it. Both the front and the back.

With this done, it was time for my usual card-putting-together-faffing process. I toyed with several different colours of card stock, cut out in different sizes of Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies and some of my ready-made rainbow backgrounds. These are done with Lawn Fawn card stock, cut into slim strips and adhered to 5.5″x4.25″ panels. I have quite a few of these already made!

Once I settled on the layout, I put the whole thing together and that was it! So easy and so fast.

I have used compensated affiliate links in this post, so if you use any of these to treat yourself to a little something-something, I get a small commission directly from the company the link is affiliated to. The links to Trinity are not affiliate though, I’m just a fan and know Taniesa in real life.

Well, that’s it from me for today. I hope you will get a chance to stop by my YouTube channel and check out the video.

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

 

 

Guest Designing for Inspired By All The Little Things challenge #86!

Hello, hello! Today I’m back with another card and post as the May Guest Designer  for Inspired By All The Little Things challenge blog. This is Challenge #86! The inspiration photo for this challenge is very different from Challenge #85, with vivid colours and textures. Isn’t it just lovely? I could so picture some of those glass feathers hanging in my window, catching the sunshine and the colourful prisms bouncing off the walls. Actually, hang on a minute….. *Makes mental note for future craft room*

My first idea was to basically stamp up feathers on a card and the colour them in with the same colours as in the photo. Sounds cool, doesn’t it? Only problem was I realised I don’t have a feather stamp in my stash…! What? How..? Once I got over the shock of not having exactly the right stamp to work with, my mind was very set on a specific one of course and anything else simply wouldn’t do. Oh no. Impossible! (My inner crafty drama queen was having a full-on temper tantrum!)

Right, plan B: Alcohol ink background with similar colours as in the inspiration photo and stencilled texture paste over it. Using Ranger Ink Alcohol inks on Yupo paper, I played around this way and that, until I had a very colourful and vivid piece to work with. The colours I used are Caramel, Sailboat Blue, Indigo, Pistachio, Coral, Cranberry, Honeycomb and Rose Gold mixative. In the photo you can see how they look once dried on the Yupo paper. For this piece I used Translucent Yupo, rather than my usual Yupo.

I use a little air blower to puff the colours around as it gives me a headache to blow on them and breathe in the fumes. Even when I have the window open! This pump is very cheap but so helpful. If you want something similar, I got this one from Amazon but you can also check out local photography shops.

To bring in the feather element to the card, I used a stencil from Hero Arts called Peacock Feathers and Ranger Ink texture paste. The one I used is a Opaque Matte (I really like it but it doesn’t seem to be able as a single tub anymore) and I spread a very thin layer on the alcohol ink piece using a spatula.

Once it was all dry, I cut out a panel using a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectable stackable lawncuts and added foam tape to the back of it. This I adhered to a white A2 card base, made out of Neenah Classic Crest 110# card stock, and set aside for the time being.

To finish it off I got out some MFT Stamps goodies: a really lovely and useful stamp and dienamic set called Because You. It comes with a ‘because’ word diecut and some sweet stamp sentiments you can mix’n’match for all sorts of occasions and recipients. The ‘because’ I cut out of card stock with my BigShot and dabbed on my VersaMark ink pad before dusting it very generously with Altenew Platinum embossing powder and melting it with my heatgun. I’m a big fan of the embossing powders from Altenew, they are gorgeous!

I also cut out a frame in platinum coloured linen textured card stock, using a mix of two different MFT Stamps dienamic sets, Stitched Rectangle Frames and Stitched Mini Scallop Rectangles, as I didn’t have one that was just what I wanted and the right size. I like calling this ‘Crafting MacGyvering’, from the 90’s tv-show MacGyver. Makes me feel very clever indeed, lol!

The sentiment was finished off with ‘You know just what to say to make me feel better’ which is stamped on white card stock in two blue Altenew inks to create a mottled effect. The two I used are called Tide Blue and Starlight. These you can get separate or as a 4-pack called Deep Blue Seas, both in the big oval pads and mini cubes.

To put the card together I used both foam tape and my fine tip glue pen. First the frame went on, then the ‘because’ and finally the sentiment stripe with foam tape. I toyed with the idea of adding some sequins but surprisingly decided against it. I know, I’m shocked myself…

Well, with that, I’m finished and I hope you like it and will get inspired to join us yourself! Check back to the main blog for more inspiration from the DT and for the linkup for your own project. Thank you so much for having had me, guys, I really enjoyed myself and hope you liked my projects! To see my card for Challenge #85, click HERE.

As always, I have used compensated affiliate links, where possible, to various companies and shops for your convenience. What that means is that I will get a small commission from the company directly, if you purchase something using these links, at no extra cost to you. Some of the shops and companies linked to are Scrapbook.com, Altenew, MFT Stamps and Ranger Ink.

I’d like to take this opportunity to urge you to use these links and those of other crafters, when you do purchase new crafty goodies. By doing this, you help support our crafting journeys as well as absolutely make our days! Thank you so much in advance.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Flickr for more crafting adventures and shenanigans!

 

 

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

The dog-craze continues!

 

I’ve been going a bit nuts with colouring doggies from MFT Stamps recently, both the You Make My Tail Wag (and coordinating dienamics) and Lucky Dog (and coordinating dienamics) sets. They are so adorable! Well, as you can see, I had loads of ready coloured in images so I thought I’d put together a card or two using these. 

In this post, I have used lots of compensated affiliate links, both for your easy shopping experience and for my own benefit. You see, if you click on one of these links and end up buying something, I get a small commission from the company directly. At absolutely ZERO cost to you so it’s a win-win really. Thank you in advance if you choose to support my blog and I this way.

Right, back to my rascally little doggies! One of them made it onto a card which I blogged about over on the Butterfly Reflections Ink blog earlier in the week. Click HERE to check out that post.

 

For my first card I decided to go quite ‘Clean and Simple’, which is a huge challenge for me. I don’t know when to stop usually and I will add more and more stuff until all of a sudden, it is not ok to call it a CAS card anymore. Eh, we all have our issues, right? Not to brag though, but I think I pulled it off for this one! Not that the lure of adding sequins wasn’t there, it was a struggle to say no. 

I started out with an A2 sized piece of white card stock(I like using 110lb Neenah Classic Crest Solar White as it’s nice and thick, which makes a great card base) and then I used a diecut from Studio Katia called Stitched Loops, in the middle of it. I also cut out another 2 pieces to layer on top of each other as I was planning on using foam tape to adhere the panel to the card base. To make it easy to see where it was going to go, when it came time to adhere it to the card base, I traced the inside of the cut with a pencil.

I decided to heat emboss the sentiment ‘I am a lucky dog to have you’ in Altenew Crisp Platinum embossing powder above the diecut so I dusted the panel with my anti-static tool(I prefer the little “cushion” as I find it covers the paper better), then I stamped it with VersaMark ink using my MiniMISTI (I’d be lost without this genius little thing!!) and added the embossing powder. A quick swish with my heat gun later, it was done.  

The foam tape was added to the back of the panel and added to the card base, I then puzzled the doggies and the loop together so that it looks like the doggies are peeking out of them and added that to the card too. In the middle loop I diecut a small stitched heart (from the Tiny Gift Box Lawn cuts) and stamped a paw print from the stamp set in Candied Apple red Distress Oxide Ink. I added this to the hole with a bit of foam tape too. A few drops of Glossy Accents on the eyes and noses later and card No1 was done!

Card no2 was a bit more elaborate and has all sorts of things going on: Ink blending using a stencil, alcohol ink, die cutting, Copic colouring, white gel pen and stamping.

The background is made using the MFT Mini Cloud stencil and Distress Oxide inks in Salty Ocean and Faded Jeans. I blended these using Mini Ink Blending Tools on Bristol Vellum water colour card stock, this is my current preferred card stock when it comes to ink blending. It’s so smooth and lovely to work with.

On some Yupo paper I made a fine mess with Citrus and Willow alcohol inks and then used an Alcohol Ink applicator tool with a pad soaked in blending solution, in a dotting manner all over the piece to give it some texture. Quick and easy! Once it was dry, I ran it through my BigShot with the Landscape Die from Lawn Fawn.

I decided to use the little Scottie dog, the dog house, a water bowl and a bone. Because every dog needs a treat, right? All the images are adhered to the card using foam tape of different thicknesses to add some fun details and lots of dimension.

On a slim strip of card stock I stamped the sentiment ‘Woofing You A Happy Birthday’ using Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink and adhered that to the card with foam tape too.

As this came out quite masculine, I decided against both sequins and enamel dots, and it was a surprisingly easy decision to make. Usually I’m all about those sequins! The only embellishments, if you can call them that, are the white gel pen details added to the dog and his little house. Ta-da! I love how the alcohol ink pieces look, it’s so organic and adds so much interest to the card. In my humble opinion anyway.

Right, well, that’s it from me today. I have to go be a crazy dog lady in real life now and take my little Cheeky Chicas out for walkies. Spring decided to FINALLY show up here in Poland this last week and things are starting to look green and lush again. I’m soaking up the sunrays as much as I can and the girls are loving it too. Especially as they don’t need showers after every single walk these days, as was the case for months on end…!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this post! Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

 

 

Lawn Fawn Challenge 22 -two cards with You Octopi My Heart

Hi guys!
I’m popping in with a couple of cards I made for the Lawn Fawnatics Challenge 22-Inky Fingers

My take on this challenge was to stamp up my little Octopi My Heart stamp a couple of times in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colour him/her in with Copic markers and then create the backgrounds using inks, stamps and Lawn cuts. These cards came out quite ‘Valentine’s Day-ish’ but can be used for anniversaries, birthdays or generally soppy moments. Or change the colour scheme and the sentiment to make it a boy-ish birthday card.

For the backgrounds I’ve gone in different directions, technique-wise, for each card to make them individual, yet matchy. The design is very simple yet each element help make the card pop in it’s own way. For example, a) I used the same Distress Oxide ink colours Candied Apple, Fired Brick and Iced Spruce and b) the only stamp set is the Octopi My Heart yet and c) the Lawn Cuts are the same however, the finished cards do not look too similar.

OK, that sounded a lot less complicated and less contradicting in my head… I think I’ll skip out on trying to explain it any further and will just show you instead.

To create my own patterned paper I got some Strathmore Bristol Vellum card stock out and the inks I had chosen for these cards. On a piece big enough to cut out the biggest of the Lacy Heart Stackable Lawn Cuts I blended Fired Brick and Candied Apple together for a rich red. Using a natural sponge I had dipped in water and wrung out, I dabbed this in a random pattern all over it to activate the oxidation of the ink. For my second piece of patterned paper I dabbed my mini inkblending tools on the ink pads and simply dabbed these to create circles on my card stock. I should have taken better photos of these before I cut them up but oh well.. Hopefully it will give you an idea of what I meant.

After I had cut out the hearts I wanted using the Outside In Stitched Heart Stackables I decided to frame them using the Lacy Heart Stackables. I cut out a red one out of Chili Peper card stock, for the ink blended heart and one gray, out of Storm Cloud card stock, as well as one white for the circle heart. The gray one I stacked slightly off to let the white one be seen through the gaps. It created a lovely contrast to the red card base. This picture is with just the dark gray card stock.

On the card bases, one was white (Neenah Classic Crest Solar white 110#) and one was red (Lawn Fawn card stock in Chili Pepper) I decided to add some fun interest by dabbing some Candied Apple Distress Oxide ink with the same natural sponge I used to oxidise the ink on the ink blending piece, on my white card base. On my Red one I stamped a pattern using the little bubbles that comes in the stamp set using Iced Spruce.

I used the same sentiment for both cards, ‘You octopi my heart’, both stamped in Candied Apple red, one on a strip of white card stock and the other one directly onto the heart, with the dabbed ink circles.

The hearts themselves I added to the card bases using foam tape and the octopi were both added with foam tape too, because what else? *Foam tape addict* One of the cards only got the sentiment strip and a few Sparkling Clear sequins added to it after that. It didn’t need anything else actually. Which is unexpected coming from me, I know, lol!

The second card got five extra hearts, which I cut out of the red inkbleneded piece as well as clear drops in different sizes added. The hearts are added with foam tape but I think I went with one too thick for these actually. Best remember that for next time. Oh and some Glossy Accents on the octopi’s eyes to make them stand out a little bit.

Well, with that, I’m all done and will be submitting these to the challenge as there is a $25 gift voucher up for grabs for the randomly drawn winner!

OK, just one last picture before I go! I hope you like these cards and will feel inspired to try any of the techniques I’ve used here.

Happy crafting from Erica

Out of This World, two ways!

Hi guys!

This is just a quick sneak peek of this weeks blog post over at Butterfly Reflections Ink blog, using the Lawn Fawn set called Out of This World. It’s got a cute little astronaut, planets, a rocket ship and some sweet sentiments.

I made two cards, one bright and vivid for a boy and one in pinks, black and gold for a girl. The girl card is a birthday card but the boy one can be for a special occasion like a graduation or something as it’s not ‘birthday’ specified.

To find out how I made them and to see more photos, pop over to my blog post using this direct link.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica