Tag: Sequins

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

You Say Witch Like It’s A Bad Thing! | STAMPtember 2019

Hi guys!

Today’s card is made with one of the Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember set from last year, If The Hat Fits, combined with their Spider Web Background stamp. I’m not much into Halloween and scary stuff, that’s just not my jam at all. Making Halloween cards, however, I for some reason, love making!

I started out by stamping up two of the hats on Neenah card stock with Black Hybrid ink from Picket Fence Studios, as this is Copic friendly.

I used quite a few of the Cool Grey Copics to colour in the hat, but still getting some highlights and contrast to it. Both hats were done in the same colours and the accessories were done in “witchy” colours.

Thankfully for me, as I’m not a fan of fussy cutting, there are coordinating diecuts for this set too, and I used them to cut out the hats.

The background is the Spider Web Background stamp, heatembossed in Opaque Bright White on Eggplant card stock from Concord & 9th. For some reason, despite using an anti-static tool on the card stock first, there was a lot of stray powder all over it and it felt too fiddly to try cleaning that up. The effect was sort of a dusty spiderweb, which actually worked out pretty cool.

To make it look a bit spookier, and also to draw the eye in, I ink blended some Black Soot with a Life Changing Blender Brush around the edges. Doing this works really well with coloured card stock, if you want to add a more dimensional look to your background.

That little piece of acetate with the PostIt tape is a clever little tool I use to keep my fingers off my project, both to avoid finger prints on my ink blending and smudging the ink. It’s super inexpensive and works a treat. After doing the ink blending, I splattered some gold water colour on it and set that aside to dry.

I also heat embossed one of the funny sentiments, from If The Hat Fits, in white on black card stock. This piece I cut out with the Stitched Circle dies, and did another one in white card stock, in the next size up.

To finish off the card I adhered all these bits and pieces to the background with Lawn Fawn glue tube. For an extra pop, I added some Glossy Accents to the green ribbon hat and to the buckle and the moon, on the other hat.

The last finishing touch were some matte black and iridescent black sequins, which I adhered with more Glossy Accents.

With that, I’m all done! I hope you found some inspiration where with me today. If you did, I’d be ever so grateful if you would use the compensated affiliate links provided in this blog post. Using these do not cost you anything extra at all, the company the links are affiliate to, pay me a small commission directly as a thank you for directing you to them. These earnings, however small, help keep my little blog, YouTube channel and Instagram feed fun and fresh for you, so thank you if you use them! It means a lot to me.

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

Celebrating YouTube Milestones with Friends!

Welcome to a video hop celebrating 3 of our friends – Ardyth, Kathya, and Jenny. They all recently reached 5k subscribers on YouTube, so they are co-hosting a hop full of happy cards to celebrate and I was lucky enough to get invited to the celebrations! This is the blog post for my video.

There is a link to my YouTube video HERE and you can also find the whole hop list of participants is on Ardyth, Kathya and Jenny’s blogs.

Ok, now I’m quickly show off my cards and I actually love them both!

We also have a number of fabulous sponsors and prizes that will be awarded randomly throughout the hop to commenters, so the more you hop and comment, the better your chance of winning a prize! Deadline for comments is June 5 and prizes will be announced on Ardyth, Jenny and Kathya’s blogs on June 6. Prizes must be claimed by June 30.

I have used the GOOOOORGEOUS Botan Peony stamp from Picket Fence Studios directly onto the card base. With the help of my MISTI and Copic friendly Blackout Detail Ink from Ink On 3, I stamped up the flower in one corner, turned it around and then stamped it in exactly the same spot on the other side.

I coloured the first one with Copics with a flicking technique, leaving lots of white space. The markers used are RV69, RV09, RV04, RV52, Y17, Y13 and Y11.

To stick to the celebration theme of this hop, I have used the Celebrate word diecut from MFT Stamps. Many, many times in fact. I cut it out of white card stock first, and then once out of black card stock. These I layered up with my beloved liquid glue from Lawn Fawn. Sadly, this fan-tabulous die-namic is retired! Waaaaah!!

I did two while I was on a roll, one is finished with the black card stock and one with the white. Both have been doubly heat-embossed with clear embossing powder to create a nice, shiny puffy sticker look.

I finished the card off with a generous helping of Pretty Pink Posh sequins, adhered with Glossy Accents. The ones I have used are from their Sparkling Clear Mix and I love them. The Man thinks I over-sequinise (which is totally a word now, even though he’s wrong).

With this card done, I decided I loved it so much that I made another one! With a bit of a twist, of course. As I had the Peony stamp in my MISTI still, it was quick work stamping up another card panel. On this one I added more colour to the petals and also filled in the space behind the flowers with Cool Grays.

This feels a lot more dramatic than the white one! I did add some white details with a white Posca pen to bring more white into the panel, as I felt it was perhaps a little bit too colourful.

To add even more white, I used the white Celebrate word die and that was just the thing for it. This one also has clear embossing powder on it, two layers, to create that shiny look. Which has not been captured very well in the photos, sadly.

This one got sequins added too. In almost the same spots as the same white one.

Next to each other they look quite different, despite having the exact same layout. Isn’t it amazing to see how things can change just by adding dark spaces or keeping white ones? I absolutely love this dreamy Botan Peony stamp and have gotten so much use out of it. If you like big flowers (and you can not lie) this one is definitely one to add to your stash.

Well, that’s it from me for today but don’t forget to check out the video I made for these cards as well as the rest of the video hop! There are so many incredibly talented card makers lined up, you will be absolutely spoilt rotten with inspiration and gorgeous projects. Oh and prizes from these sponsors!

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

Affiliate links below to Ellen Hutson shop, at no extra cost to you. The other links in the blog post are to various other shops. None of the links will cost you anything extra at all, but if you shop using these, I will get a small commission directly from the company it goes to. More importantly though, it will help strengthen my relationship with them so thank you if you choose to support me like this.

Ardyth’s 3k YouTube hop!

Hi guys!

Today I’m taking part in a YouTube hop to celebrate my crafty friend Ardyth reaching 3000 subscribers! Congratulations, it’s so well-deserved! If you don’t subscriber to her channel yet, you are missing out. She’s amazing! Check out her video and channel HERE.

There are prizes from some fabulous sponsors too and there are about 20 odd stops on the hop so you have lot of chances to win! All you have to do is leave a comment by the 18th of October.

If you want to skip right to the YouTube hop, go to Ardyth’s blog for the full list of participants, prizes and rules.

For my card, I have used a stamp set from Ellen Hutson called Mondo Peony. I love this big, bold flower! It’s just lovely. It’s stamped up with Inkon3’s copic friendly ink, Blackout Detail Ink on Neenah #110 Solar White card stock. I went dark pink for the colouring and you can see some of it in a time-lapse video in my video over on my YouTube channel.

The background is easy and fun to create. With the help of my MISTI, I stamped up the two leaves from the Mondo Peony set towards the top the panel. Which is Bristol Vellum paper and it’s done with Inkon3’s Embossing ink. Before I did that, I used my anti-static tool very generously all over the paper. After stamping up the first two leaves, I swapped the panel around and stamped them again on the other side. I sprinkled WOW! Embossing powder in Opaque White all over these and set them with the heat gun. After checking the placement of the leaves in relation to my flower, which I should have done before stamping them really, I realised they would not show very well. So I stamped up another two and heat embossed them in white too.

Armed with my Life Changing Blender Brushes from Picket Fence Studios and some green Distress Oxide inks, I chose Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio and Mowed Lawn, I went to town with ink blending. I covered both the background panel and the two extra leaves. Once all done, I cut the leaves out using the coordinating diecuts.

These were a bit too big for the background though so I cut the leaves apart and with the flower as a guide, I placed them on the background where they would fill in the gaps. I have finally gotten ahold of Press’n’Seal and used this for the first time to pick up the flower and leaves! With that whole shebang turned over, I adhered a flower sized piece of foam sheet that I had cut out using the coordinating diecut. Once that was secured in place it was easy peasy to adhered that to the background. Which I had also fixed to a card base at this point.

Sentiment wise I used one of my staple stamp sets: Birdie Brown’s Greetings Galore from MFT Stamps. I heat embossed it in Metallic Rich Gold from WOW! On black card stock and cut it out using a small banner die from the Blueprint Dienamic set. This was quickly adhered with more Glue Tube adhesive. If you can’t find that particulate BluePrint dienamic set, I can recommend the Everyday Sentiment Banners from Lawn Fawn instead. They are another staple of mine and I use them all the time.

I could have stopped here but of course I didn’t. I added a very generous sprinkling of Sparkling Clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh with the help of the Glue Tube from Lawn Fawn. I actually toyed with the idea of adding Glossy Accents to the card too but finally managed to rein in myself and step away, lol!

That’s it from me for today. Thank you for stopping by and enjoy the hop!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Studio Katia Blog Hop Giveaway Winner and Birthday Cards + video!

Hi everyone!!

Oh my goodness, I’m so excited! I have so much fun stuff to share today: the winner of the recent Studio Katia Blog Hop giveaway, two fun and colourful cards AND another video to my brand new YouTube channel!

If you missed the blog hop post, CLICK HERE to check it out. It’s obviously too late to enter the giveaway but it’s there in case you want to check out the card I made for the hop.

Now, without further ado, the winner of the $25 gift certificate is Mary-Anne V! Congratulations!! Email studiokatiagiveaway@gmail.com with the subject Erica Blog Hop Winner to claim your prize!

Now for the two cards I have done for this post. I used the It’s Your Birthday stamp (at the time of writing it’s unsurprisingly out of stock, but make sure to sign up for in-stock notifications) from Studio Katia.

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The two cards are basically the same, except for the colour of the embossing powder and some of the sizing. One is white and the other is gold. I can’t really pick a fave myself, I keep switching back and forth between them.

If you aren’t a blog reading kind of crafter, CLICK HERE to go to the YouTube video showing how I made these. I’d love it if you’d subscribe to my channel and like my video while you are there!

Ok, back to the written word! The backgrounds are done with the fun Radiating Star Stencil from Neat & Tangled, and an assortment of Catherine Pooler inks. Clockwise from 12 o’clock we have Bellini, Coral Cabana, Party Dress, Flirty Fuchsia, Something Borrowed, Aquatini, Lime Rickey and Limoncello.

To help keep the stencil in place and get clean, crisp lines, I used Pixie Spray (seriously a life saver when it comes to stencils with fine details!) on the stencil a few minutes before I placed it on the card stock. Which is Strathmore Bristol Vellum by the way. I also added some PostIt tape along the edges to get that white frame around it and for extra stay-in-place power. That’s totally a saying now.

Each section was blocked off with sheets of paper and held in place with PostIt tape. Then, with the help of my Life Changing Blender Brushes from Picket Fence Studios, I blended each colour, one by one. You might notice that the centre bit is darker and then the colour goes lighter towards the edges. I think it helps draw the eye in and create some dimension, in an otherwise rather flat design.

The white embossing powder is from Wow! Embossing Powder and the other one is done with Antique Gold from Altenew. Before doing any heat embossing I use my pillow like anti-static tool very generously over the panels. Then, with the help of my Mini MISTI, I stamped the big sentiment ‘Happy Birthday To You’ from It’s Your Birthday, in the middle with VersaMark ink. A generous sprinkling of embossing powder later, a tap-tap to get the excess off and then it was go-time with the heat gun.

I didn’t wait long enough between the ink blending and the stamping with the gold one though and ended up having to clean it up a little with a small paint brush before heating up the embossing powder. I’d like to be able to say that’s the last time that will happen but it’s very, very likely it will happen again and again. Eh, whatcha gonna do?

With both of the panels ink blended and heat embossed, they got trimmed down a little bit to leave a white frame on the card base. Then, with the help of foam sheets cut to size, I adhered them to their card bases. Aaaaaand almost *ALMOST* left them as they were. But, I couldn’t resist adding some fabulous sequins from Studio Katia. These are called Crystal Clear Fusion and I used them all the time, they are amongst my all-time favourite embellishments.

Well, my friends, that’s it! Except to mention that I have used affiliate links in this post for everything I have used in case I have inspired you to pick up a thing or tw… elve (no judgement) for yourself. Using Affiliate links cost you absolutely NOTHING extra but I get a small commission from the companies directly if/when you do. I use anything I make towards the running of my blog and now my YouTube channel so thank you from the bottom of my heart if you use mine. I do not take it for granted and every little helps!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

 

The first in my new series ’12 Weekends of Christmas’ with Neat & Tangled

Hello, hello!

Today I’m unveiling a new series that I’m calling ’12 Weekends of Christmas’. The idea behind this series is to help me get ahead of Christmas crafting, and do a little bit each month rather than stress like a lunatic for a couple of months to get everything ready. If all goes to plan, I will have a new blog post in this series, the first weekend of the month for the rest of the year. We will have to wait and see how it all pans out but here we go!

Ideally this first post would have been about some cards that are easily mass-produced but are still lovingly handmade. If you don’t mind making the same design over and over, decide on one early and then make the bits for them when you have time. Then you can easily put the cards together step by step at a later date.

For today I have made three cards using some Neat & Tangled goodies. The main stamp set I have used is Beary Merry, along with its coordinating diecut. All three cards feature the bear, which I have coloured with Copics. One is with Warm Gray, one with Cool Gray and one with Neutral Gray. To give them all some personality their scarves are all done in different colours and different ways. I do love the stripy blue one the most, but then I’m obsessed with blues of all shades.

It’s nice to see the difference in the appearance of the colours next to each other like this, on the same image. To me, it’s a lot clearer that there are differences when you look at them like this, rather than on the colour chart. It might have something to do with the fact it’s on an image, rather than little boxes?

The first card I put together was this one. I knew I had to possess that Fa La La cover plate as soon as I saw it. My love affair with cover plates from Neat & Tangled is going nowhere fast and I don’t think it will ever fade to be honest. I’m also totally ok with that, lol!

As I had given the bear a teal/turquoise scarf I thought I’d use some nice metallic, textured card stock in a mint green colour for the Fa La La background. I have a metal shim pad from Lawn Fawn I use in my BigShot to get a good cut but if you don’t have one, you can simply add a sheet of paper between the plates to add more pressure and run in through your machine twice.

For this first card I also coloured in a penguin, a snowman and the cup from the Beary Merry stamp set and cut these out with the coordinating diecuts too. The bear also got a foam sheet layer cut out, to raise him up and add dimension to the card. On the bear itself I have doodled with a Colourless Blender marker to create a fur-like texture.

I have used one of the sentiments from the Beary Merry stamp set ‘Wishing you Holiday Happiness’ here and it’s heat embossed in Platinum embossing powder from Altenew. The speech bubble is also from Altenew, it’s from a diecut set called ‘Speech Bubbles’ and it has a fun coordinating stamp set too (which I don’t have).

When it came time to put the card together, the Fa La La background piece was first of all adhered to a white card base. I used my Nuvo glue pen for this to get glue in all the small spaces. When that was done, I placed the snowman and the penguin so that they would peek out from behind the bear and then glued them down using the same Nuvo glue pen. The cup was adhered in the same way, in the bear’s paws. As the foam sheet I use is double-sided it was a quick job of peeling that off the back of the bear and adhering him to the card.

The speech bubble was also adhered with foam, squares from Stix2 Anything and the final flourish for this card was a good sprinkling of Crystal Clear Sequins, from Studio Katia, in various sizes. I always use Glossy Accents when adhering sequins, for me that works best.

Card no2 is done the opposite way and is so CAS/Clean And Simple I nearly threw myself a parade! CAS is NOT my forte, no ma’am! I love the look but oh my goodness, when I attempt it myself I take the highway express right into Overthinking-ville.

This one was no exception. The only thing I knew for sure I wanted to do was do a negative diecutting thing where the surrounding area of the card is raised up and the Beary Merry bear is lower. I cant’ remember what this technique is called but do you get my drift? Well, so far so good. And then it all came to a screeching halt.

I toyed with the idea of doing some ink blending on the background but seriously had such a hard time to decide on what to do and not to do, I set it aside and coloured another bear instead.

Which lead me to card no3. I had only planned on two to begin with but things don’t always (read: ‘hardly ever’) go to plan in my craft room. I’m a very…. what’s the word I’m looking for here? Messy? Impulsive? Somewhat impatient? It’s a good trail mix of all three actually.

My third bear got more texture thanks to lots of dotting with a Colourless Blender marker, all three are finished off in different ways to make them a bit more individual. His scarf is also the only one that’s done with stamps (the snowflake from Snow Fun , another Neat & Tangled stamp set) and the colours I have used are the same ones I ended up using for the background. They are both Distress Oxide inks and the colours are Faded Jeans and Tumbled Glass. I do love my blues!

For the background I blended the aforementioned colours using my Picket Fence Studios Life Changing Blender Brushes and the Landscape Duo Stencil stencil from Neat & Tangled. The ink blending is done directly onto a white card base and I’ve overlapped the colours a little to create a fun pattern.

In the top left corner I stamped ‘Have a very Merry Christmas‘ in black ink. In hindsight, I should have heat embossed clear embossing powder on top of this to make it pop a bit more. I did add some Glossy Accents to his eyes and nose though.

This bear also got a blue present to hold on to and with a final splattering of clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh, the card was done.

That leaves us with the CAS card… I decided to stop over-thinking it and quickly cut out a banner (from Lawn Fawn, the stamp and diecut set is Home Sweet Home) and stamped ‘Merry Christmas’ in black in on it. This from MFT Stamps and the stamp set is called Greetings Galore, it’s a really versatile one with lots of great sentiments for all sorts of occasions.

Years ago, when I was on the Studio Katia Design Team, I got a bag of these snowflake embellishments and I have been hoarding them as they are no longer available. But I pulled my big girl panties up, took a deep breath and dove into the bag. I added quite a few but I still think it looks quite CAS.

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With that I’m all done for this time, however I need to mention that I have used compensated affiliate links in this post. What that means is I get a small commission from the company directly, at no extra cost to you whatsoever, if you click on one of these and end up buying a little something-something. Using affiliate links is a great way to support your favourite crafters while shopping, without it costing you a single thing. How is that for a win-win situation? I’d also like to say a big thank you in advance if you choose to use mine when you shop, I really do appreciate it so much and it always gives me a huge thrill to see that someone loved my project enough to buy the products I used for it.

Thank you so much for stopping by today and I hope you enjoyed these cards as much as I enjoyed making them. Yes, even that CAS one in the end, lol!

Happy crafting and lots of love from Erica

Continue reading The first in my new series ’12 Weekends of Christmas’ with Neat & Tangled

Welcome 2019! A NYE card with Trinity Stamps.

Hello and Happy New Year to you all!

Did everyone have a nice New Years Eve? Lots of parties and fun times? Whatever it was you did, I hope you had a great time and are ready to start the new year with gusto. I really can’t believe how quickly the last couple of months have just whooshed past…! It doesn’t feel like I got much done in December but looking back, I sort of did. Here are some of my fave makes.

On actual New Years Eve, I was in bed just after midnight myself. Both because of a cold I’ve been battling for close to a week and to comfort my sweet little doggies. They are not fans of fireworks and turn into quivering little bundles of nerves when the booming start. Poor babies. Oh well, perfect excuse to stay home and avoid places that will be far too peopley, lol.

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After this confession, you might be a bit surprised to see that today’s card is a New Years card. It even says ‘Celebrate’ on it, which probably seems like a bit of a juxtaposition, given my thoughts on NYE. However, despite almost always having some form of post-Christmas blues, I do look forward to the new year. Lighter and longer days, warmer temperatures, less cold and rain. What’s not to love? Not to mention that we have some big, exciting changes happening in our lives later this year. Our long-time dream of moving to the sun is getting so close! It’s very exciting and we are so looking forward to it.

Now, I’m not usually one for New Year’s resolutions but perhaps I ought to think about rambling less? And definitely blog more regularly. Perhaps even rip off the band-aid that is my fear of YouTube and video tutorials and get that going. *Squeals in frights and hides in the corner*

However first of all, it’s finally time to get to the card for today? One of the things I’d like to do more of is make one-layer cards. They are not my forte at all, so I’m going to work on that this year too. It seems appropriate that this card is one though. Start off the year as I mean to go on and all that.

I have used some of the small images from the Rhino Bird Day stamp set, from Trinity Stamps, to create a patterned paper looking background. As it’s a NYE card, I used the balloon, the party hat and the tooting-horn-thingy (what are those called?!) and stuck to a Gatsby colour scheme. Gold, silver, white and black. It’s both classic AND classy.

With a small acrylic block I stamped the images onto a card base. I am working on making more one layer cards and this one was perfect to practice. The stamping is not too perfect, it’s a party after all. To fill in the images I used a black Copic pen, a gold gel pen, and some silver and gold metallic markers. I also added some string to the balloons with a black gel pen.

To finish off the card I used a dienamic from MFT Stamps that says ‘Celebrate’ and stitched numbers. The ‘Celebrate’ I cut out of both dark grey card stock and black glitter card stock. With a fine tipped glue pen, I adhered these two together. With the number dienamics I cut out 2019 out of the same dark grey card stock.

The ‘Celebrate’ I adhered to the front of the card at a slight angle but the 2019 I wanted straight. It’s less forgiving if these are wonky. To make sure all four of the numbers were lined up straight, I used a ruler. Once they were adhered, the card was done!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…erm… perhaps I spoke too soon.

….you know…. the card COULD have been done… but it IS Erica here, so naturally I could not leave it as it was. I know, I know! *insert all the face slapping ‘duh’ groaning emojis here*

As I mentioned earlier, white, gold, silver and black is such a classic colour combo for NYE and Trinity Stamps just happen to have a sequin mix in just those colours, called Pop The Cork. Coincidence? I think not! Arming myself with Glossy Accents and my craft tweezers I added a fairly generous amount of embellishments.

Once they were all adhered, the card really was finished. Promise, no more twists and turns.

Thanks for stopping by today. Day 1 of the year 2019. Who else is excited to see what adventures await us this year??

Happy crafting and lots of love from Erica

Playing with the Layered Tree diecut from Pretty Pink Posh!

Hello everyone!

Today I’m sharing a few cards I made with one of my newest obsessions: the Layered Tree diecut from Pretty Pink Posh. As soon as I saw this fun diecut I knew I needed it in my life. The Design Team at PPP have teased my creativity and I have seen so many super fun projects with it. I couldn’t wait to get mine and get to work in the craft room.

The first card I made with it came together so quickly and I love how it looks! It’s inspired by a card Laura Bassen made, but I put my own spin on it by changing a few things. Quite a few things in the end but her card was the inspiration behind this one.

I was in the zone while making it and didn’t take any progress photos at all but for the next three I made sure to stop and do just that. The sequins I used for the baubles are from Studio Katia and are called Crystal Rainbow Fusion.

While I had the diecut out, I cut out enough pieces to make another four trees. I had lots of colour ideas for these and got to work right away!

Naturally I had to make a pink tree. Although I would probably never get an actual pink Christmas tree, it is so fun to try different colour combos for these. All the inks I used are Distress Oxides. On this one I have used only Picked Raspberry, doing a bit of an ombré look on each bit.

I used my Pink Fresh Studio Life Changing Blender brushes for all the ink blending. These brushes have changed how I do ink blending and I adore how they feel as well as the fact it is really easy to get a soft, light blend. I’m a convert for sure!

The next colour combo was pink (Picked Raspberry) and purple (Wilted Violet)

Sadly I completely messed this one up when I went to heat emboss some Gold Tinsel embossing powder on it. I tried dabbing on VersaMark ink from the re-inker bottle to make it very juicy so it would pick up lots of embossing powder. It turned into a lava-like concoction that wouldn’t set…! Oh well, you live and learn.

The third colour combination is the same as the first card: Twisted Citron and Mowed Lawn for a nice green tree.

On these pieces I heat embossed Puff Powder from WOW! Embossing Powders to make it look like it was covered in snow.

While I was on a roll with the WOW! Embossing powder and had my heat gun out, I also did a background using Christmas Background from MFT Stamps. My anti static tool was first dusted all over the panel of course. Then with the help of my MISTI I stamped the background, sprinkled Metallic Gold Rich on it and set it.

The panel was trimmed down a little bit and adhered to a card base made out of Evergreen card stock. This is from Lawn Fawn and they have a fabulous selection of coloured card stock. I use these a lot for card bases that need to have a colour as the card stock is nice and sturdy.

To finish off the card, I heat embossed ‘Merry Christmas’ on a banner from the Birdie Brown Greetings Galore stamp set. Both the banner and the stamp set are from MFT Stamps and the heat embossing is done in the same Metallic Gold Rich as the background.

The tree and the banner are both adhered to the card with foam tape to raise them up a little and add some fun dimension. The tree trunk piece is done with Gathered Twigs Distress Oxide ink.

After this one was done, I went back to my pink tree and decided to use it with a muted background colour scheme to make the pink pop.

On a panel of Kraft card stock, I embossed the Stitched Wood Grain cover up die from Lil’Inker. It adds such a lovely texture to the card stock. The trunk is cut out of gold glitter card stock for an extra jazzy tree!

On the back, I again used foam tape. As these trees are angular and with bits poking out, I have puzzled together different pieces to avoid wasting it. Once it’s stuck to the card, nobody will know that there are like 52 pieces on the back of it, rather than one big one, lol!

On a card base I adhered the wood grain embossed panel, which had been trimmed down a little bit, and then added my tree to it. Another banner with ‘Merry Christmas‘ was added under it and lots of Nuvo Drops, from Tonic Studios, in White Blizzard to the tree itself.

The last tree was done in four different colours, one for each layer. From top to bottom: Old Paper, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn and Evergreen Bough.

The tree trunk for this tree is cut out of patterned paper with a wood grain look. Perfect or what?

For this background I wanted something different from the others so I got some more Distress Oxide inks out, this time in Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean. These two I blended onto a panel, with the lighter in the middle and darker around the edges. Sort of like a lit up spot or halo effect.

At the bottom I wanted a snowy hill for my tree to sit on so I cut out a hill shape out of some paper and used this as a stencil to dab on VersaMark ink. This I covered very generously in Puff Powder and set with the heat gun. Then I did the same thing again to really build some texture! It came out great! I wish you could feel it.

Naturally, I couldn’t leave it alone here so I got the Starry Color palette out and splattered White Gold water colour all over the panel.

Aaaaaand while I was on a roll to make this one different in more than one way, I decided to make a garland with some seeded beads and silver thread. This was quite fiddly work but so worth the time! I did have to secure a few of them with Glossy Accents to make sure they hang properly.

At the time of writing I haven’t decided if I am going to add a sentiment to this or not. What do you think? Yay or nay on adding a sentiment?

Bravo to you if you have managed to make to here, this turned into a bit of an essay. Or maybe it just feels like it because of all the pictures. I’d love some feedback on this, what do you like to see in blog posts? Progress photos with step by step instructions or just the finished card and condensed instructions and why? Many, many thanks if you take the time to answer some of these questions for me, I really appreciate it.

I also need to tell you I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post. This means that I will get a small commission directly from the company if you use these links to buy something for yourself (and why shouldn’t you?) at absolutely zero cost to you. All other links are provided for your convenience if you want to snap up some of these products for yourself (and again, why wouldn’t you?? Sorry for the enabling, I can’t help myself)

Thanks for stopping by today and see you all again soon! Don’t forget to subscribe or follow my blog for notifications when new contents get added. If you want to see more of my work and daily crafty shenanigans, head on over to my Instagram page and follow me there.

Thanks again, lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Bright birthday card for MFT Stamps Wednesday Sketch Challenge #️⃣406

Hello, hello!

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Today I’m popping in with my take of MFT Stamps Wednesday Sketch Challenge , this is challenge #406, which looks like this:

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The card I came up with is actually my second one, the first one I made I felt was a bit too loosely interpreted. It worked better in my mind than on paper, but oh well. There you go, not every card translates perfectly from idea into reality.

As I went back to the drawing board or square one, I was a bit stumped at first. Then, slowly, an idea came to me to make a pile of presents to represent the squares on the sketch. They all had to be different colours of course! Step one was to select a die-namic that would fit six times on the card and after rummaging through my MFT Stamps stash I came across the Stitched Mini Scallop Square STAX. The second smallest one would fit, just about and with some overlapping.

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On some Strathmore Bristol Vellum card stock I quickly did some ink blending using Distress Oxide inks: Squeezed Lemonade for yellow, Picked Raspberry for pink, Cracked Pistachio for green, Dusty Concord for purple, Salty Ocean and some Blueprint Sketch for dark blue and Mermaid Lagoon for light blue.

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I splattered water on all of these to give them some more interest and dabbed that off with a craft towel. While these were drying, I picked out some metallic thread that I wrapped around each box to make it look like string on presents.

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As the boxes would cover up almost the entire card base, I decided to keep it quite simple. A piece of Neenah Desert Storm card stock was embossed with a pattern to mimic Kraft wrapping paper, trimmed down to 5.5″x4.25″ size and adhered to a card base.

With the help of different thickness foam tape, I added the boxes in a big “pile”. On small banners, cut out using Essential Fishtail Sentiment Strips, I stamped ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘for you!’ using sentiments from Bitty Bears. Each box got paired up with a sentiment so that all of them are mix’n’matched. These were then added using more foam tape.

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Each box also got decorated with three Pretty Pink Post clear sparkling sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. A birthday card can’t be too sparkly and bright, right?

That’s it from me for today but don’t forget that the new release from MFT Stamps is available now! If you decided you want something from it, I’d be very grateful if you would consider using my affiliate links when you purchase. I get a small commission from MFT Stamps directly, at no extra cost to you, if you do. Thank you so much in advance for the support, I really appreciate it! Click HERE to see the whole new release. It’s full of adorable stamps and fabulous die-namics!

Oh, and don’t forget to participate in the challenge! There is a $50 gift certificate up for grabs for the randomly drawn winner, so link up your project on the MFT Stamps blog!

Good luck and happy crafting from Erica

Altenew Color Therapy Blog Hop giveaway winner!

Hello!

Today I am popping in quickly to announce the winner of the Altenew Color Therapy Blog Hop giveaway as well as show a quick card made with the Artist Markers.

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Without further ado, the winner of the $20 gift voucher to Altenew is:

Kelsey Thomas
Kelsey Thomas
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These are both awesome projects!

 

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Please email Altenew at winner@altenew.com with the subject ‘Color Therapy Blog Hop winner from Erica’s blog’ to claim your prize!

On a card base made out of Neenah Classic Crest 110lbs card stock, I used Artist Markers from Set A, Set B and Set C to make a colourful background.

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I simply drew the markers back and forth to create a rainbow like look, not worrying too much about blending the colours together or making it too perfect. The main aim was to add lots of colour!

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On black card stock I stamped several of the sentiments from the aptly named stamp set Crafty Friends, with VersaMark and heat embossed them with white embossing powder. I trimmed down each strip and added them to the card with foam tape.

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A sprinkling of clear sparkling sequins finished off the card and that’s it for today! Yep. No essay today, lol. I have used a few compensated affiliate links in this post, which means I get a small commission from the company directly, in this case Altenew, if you buy something after clicking on one of these links. Thank you so much in advance if you choose to support me like this, it really does mean the world and every little helps!

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Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting!

Lots of love from Erica