Hey you guys! I feel like I haven't posted in for-ev-er! It's been just over a week since I've posted and although I made this card quite some time ago I haven't gotten my act together to write this post. I am still loving this Chihuahua set from Hero Arts. The sentiments absolutely kill me! Bow Chicka-huahua! And, get a load of this guys eye wink-it cracks me up every time I look at it!
For this card I started out with a Hero Arts background stamp called Sunburst Bold Prints (CG732). I inked it up with some Distress Oxide ink. Before stamping it onto my paper I gave it a quick spritz of water to activate the ink.
The charming little chihuahua is from Hero Art's It's Fiesta Time (CG252) stamp set. I stamped him with black Memento ink and colored him with Copic Markers. I cut him out with the coordinating dies (DI494) and used foam adhesive to pop him up over the sentiment piece.
I finished the card off by adding a black mat and putting that on a card base of Island Indigo cardstock. The final touch was adding some black sequins in multiple sizes.
Hey you guys! So this week Simon Says Stamp has a killer challenge going on over at their Monday Challenge: Stencil It! The crazy-cool thing is that they've got the exact same challenge going on over at their SSS Wednesday Challenge! So, I'll be entering both of their challenges with this card.
I started out by watercoloring my background (watercolor paper) with Distress Ink and made sure I had some good layers on there. Then I grabbed my Tim Holtz stencils, my Distress Oxide Inks and blending tools and went to town. I also randomly stamped a musical background stamp (Stampin' Up!) in Black Archival ink all over the background.
The bottom of the card has a bit of a cobblestoned look to it. First, I sponged some Distress Oxide ink (Faded Burlap) using a Tim Holtz stencil. Then, I used the same stencil with the Antiqued Brass Distress Crayon add a layer of metallic goodness to the left sides of the "cobblestones." I wish you could see how it looks in person because it's way cooler in real life than in this pic. If you look closely you can see that I've also used a white glaze pen to add detail to the background of the card (cobblestones and edges of sponged details).
This party animal dog from Hero Arts was so much to fun to color with my Copic markers. I also used part of the "It's fiesta time" sentiment to stamp "fiesta" repeatedly onto the background. I used a black glaze pen to darken up one of the "fiestas" as well as some of the music notes. I heat embossed my sentiment in white on black cardstock and popped that and the dog up on foam adhesive.
This is really my first time getting crazy with stencils and it was so much fun! I've used them before for texture paste but that's about it. I was really glad to have a fun selection of Tim Holtz mini stencils to choose from to make this project.
Ok, like I said at the beginning of this post I am excited to playing along with both of this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenges. Here are links to both of them. The SSS design teams are amazing so if you need a little inspiration go check them out!
Ok, guys, I'd better be heading off to bed now but thanks so much for stopping by! I'm linking to the products that I've used down below. If you're interested in picking anything up for your crafty stash I'd be so grateful to have you shop through my affiliate links below at no extra cost to you.
Have an awesome day and I'll be back here soon with another fun chihuahua card from this Hero Arts stamp set.
Hi Everybody! I'm here with some pretty big news today. If you've followed my blog at all over the last few years then you know that I have been a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator pretty much since I discovered stamping. Stampin' Up! is an amazing company and I'm so happy to have started my stamping journey with them.
Lately, I have been branching out with my creativity and have been enjoying playing around with different inks and different brands of products. I have become really excited about some of these products and want to use, share and promote them. For this reason I have made the decision to resign from Stampin' Up! I will still be sharing my projects here on the blog, as well as on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube. The difference is that going forward I will be using products from a wide variety of companies and brands. I believe that this will allow me to take my creativity to the next level and I am so jazzed to get started on this new journey.
You will see me start using different inks and different media over the next couple of months and I hope you will like what you see. If you're curious about what products I am using, and where I am getting them, please head on over to my "Shop" page to see the companies that I am now affiliated with. I will do my best to share product links at the bottom of my posts as well.
I'll kick this news off by a sharing a card I made featuring some Hero Arts products. Hero Arts is an amazing company based in Northern California and it's located only a couple of hours away from me. I was able to visit their factory in March and it was pretty amazing! For this card I've used the Mermaid Kisses (CM160) stamp set and matching Frame Cuts (D1456).
I used my Copic Markers to color in the mermaid and the fish. These markers are alcohol based and are amazing for getting a seamless blend in your coloring. I added a pearl to the mermaid's hand because it looked like she should be holding something.
Have you noticed all of those fantastic little sea creatures delicately cut out to frame the background? That amazing die is called the D1385 Reef Border and Frame Fancy Dies (E). It really has incredible detail and was so easy to cut out (no paper tearing and it easily releases from the die).
My background piece was made using the Hero Arts SA110 Mermaid Sea Waves Stencil on Shimmery White Cardstock. This stencil has such fun detail and I sponged over it using my Pool Party ink (Stampin' Up!) and sponge daubers and then spritzed over the whole thing with a light mist of Island Indigo ink. I popped each layer up on foam adhesive to give it some dimension and then splattered the whole thing with clear Wink of Stella to give it some sparkle.
That's it for today you guys. I hope all of you Moms out there have an amazing Mother's Day!
See you back here soon!
Hey everybody! I'm back today with the OSAT blog hop crew and that means that you are in for a real treat! Our theme this month is on the "Red Carpet." The idea for this hop was for us to roll out some new products to get you all excited.
Unfortunately, my preorder has not arrived yet I'm going with the Red Carpet them and glamming it up! This card is pretty blinded out and certainly has enough personality for a red carpet (it's a bit crazy). I cut the MOM out of gold foil and backed it a slightly off-set layer of black to give it a shadow and make it pop off of the card. Right behind the letters my stamp is heat embossed in clear on water color paper and watercolored in Blackberry Bliss (which is a new/returning color).
The background of my card was heat embossed in gold and I added a few pink glitter embellishments to finish it off.
Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you'll keep on hopping along with me as I visit the rest of the OSAT design team. There's a full list of bloggers below so that you can hop along at your convenience.
Have an amazing day and I'll see you back here soon!
Hey Guys! Happy middle of the week! I'm back with another card using this gorgeous mum from Hero Arts and with another entry into the A Blog Named Hero: Put a Flower On It challenge. This flower has got so much detail in the petals and is really fun to watercolor. I used only two colors (Melon Mambo and Pacific Point) but they blended easily into many different shades of prettiness.
I used Distress Oxide Inks to blend the background (Peacock Feathers, Lucky Clover, Crushed Pistachio and Twisted Citron) and then spritzed water over it to create the droplets. I also flicked some black ink over the top of that.
I popped the mum and heat embossed sentiment up on foam adhesive to give them some dimension. Then I added sequins and put it all on a Night of Navy card base.
I'm entering this card into the Put a Flower On It challenge over at A Blog Named Hero. If you're looking for some awesome flower themed inspiration using Hero Arts products I hope you'll go check out what their design team has created because it's all amazing! Just click HERE to head over to their blog.
Thanks for stopping by today! I'll be back tomorrow with the crew from One Stamp At a Time for a big blog hop. See you soon!
Hi Everybody! It's great to have you back here and happy Sunday (unless you're on the opposite side of the world from me... then happy day!)! Today I'm pretty excited about my post because I've been invited by the crew over at Paper-Garden to participate in a Mother's Day card challenge that they are holding. They've got some really great prizes for the winners so I'm hoping you might head over there and vote for me if you like my card. CLICK HERE to check out all of the participants and their submissions. My card is number 11 which happens to be my lucky number!
For my card I used a Simon Says Stamp stamp set called Mom's Clematis. The flower in this set is so gorgeous I couldn't resist buying it. I used my Copic markers to color in the flower on shimmer paper. You can't see the shimmer in the photos but in real life this flower really sparkles.
I heat embossed the "Mom" in white on black cardstock. I love how bold that beautiful font is. The background piece is Soft Sky from Stampin' Up! and is stamped repeatedly in Smoky Slate for a grungy effect with a stamp from the Timeless Textures set.
My mat was created by splattering some watered down Fresh Fig ink onto Very Vanilla cardstock. Then I used sparkly embossing paste with a touch of Pink Pirouette ink added in to emboss the background using a Tim Holtz mini stencil. I finished the card off with some sequins and I am excited to give this card to my Mom for Mother's Day!
Funny side story... My husband saw this card and told me he wanted it for his mom. I said, "Sorry babe but it's for my Mom." He said he had to give this card to his mom. I offered to make a duplicate (instead of a different design) for her... he said it absolutely had to be this very card. He's pretty funny. My Mother-in-Law is an amazing woman so she will absolutely get a gorgeous card from us.
That's it for today folks! Thanks so much for stopping by and please head on over to the Paper-Garden site and vote for your favorite card. While you are there I recommend checking out their amazing paper selection. They recently sent me a sample pack of paper and it is so gorgeous! They've get metallic paper that is double sided and is really unlike any paper I've used before. I am planning to do a video to review it and share how awesome it is in the next couple of weeks so keep your eye out for that.
Have an amazing day you guys! I'll see you back here soon!
Hey Everybody! Happy weekend to you! I'm here today with a quick post so that I can play along with this month's A Blog Named Hero challenge: Put a Flower On It. I was so excited when I saw this Mum stamp come out in Hero Art's recent spring release. They've got some other mum stamps that I love that are wood block... I'm a cling/photomolyer lover so you can imagine how happy I was to see this stamp released in photopolymer as part of their Hero Florals line (DC235).
I started by heat embossing the flower image in gold on watercolor paper. Then I watercolored using pink and yellow which blended together to give me some fun orange and peach tones.
I watercolored the background piece in blue and then splattered it with ink. I used sparkly embossing paste and a Tim Holtz stencil (THMS106) to create a subtle but fun, textured background.
My sentiment comes from Simon Says Stamps Mom's Clematis set and is heat embossed in silver on vellum (isn't that font gorgeous?!). Finally, I finished the card off by adding clear embellishments that I colored blue with an alcohol marker and some some sequins.
You can check out this challenge or play along by heading over to the A Blog Named Hero Challenge Blog by clicking HERE or on the graphic below. There is some great inspiration from the design team so I hope you'll head over there.
Ok, that's all for now! I hope you all have an amazing weekend and I'll be back tomorrow with some Mother's Day fun.
Hey Everybody! I am sneaking in with a last minute post for the TGIF Challenge Design Team! This is usually my off week for the challenge but, Guess What?! May is TGIF's birthday month and this particular challenge marks the team's third birthday! This week is a really fun week for you to play along with us because not only do we have a great color challenge but we've got prizes (all you have to do for a chance to win is to comment on our blogs)! The ultimate prize... The winner of this week's challenge will get the chance to be a guest designer on the TGIF Challenge team! Pretty darn cool so don't miss out.
Our color challenge for the week is Basic Black, Berry Burst and LemonLime Twist. I decided to go dark and a bit grungy with a pop of color.
I started out by watercoloring a piece of watercolor paper in Berry Burst. Then I used a stamp from the Timeless textures set to heat emboss some flourishes in black. I also spattered black ink on the butterfly and added clear embellishments for the body.
I layered the butterfly over a background of stamping (craft white grid pattern), ribbon, DSP, washi tape and die cuts. I didn't have much time to pull this card together so I was happy that it came together fairly easily.
Well, it's midnight and time for this blog to go live so I'm off to bed now. Please join in the fun this week by commenting on our blogs and submitting your own creation to the TGIF Challenge Blog! I can't wait to see what you make! Here's the graphic for the challenge...
Alright guys. I am outta here. A hot cup of tea and my bed are calling me. Have an amazing day and I'll see you back here soon!
Maria
mariawillis@hotmail.com
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Hi everybody! I hope you are having an amazing day! I'm here today with the monthly Creating Kindness Design Team blog and Video hop! Yep, we've got a video hop for you too. Our theme this month is "techniques" and I can' wait to see what the rest of the crew has dreamed up to share with us today.
My card proved to be quite an adventure (ahem, NIGHTMARE!)... My game plan was to use my Stamparatus to stamp and mask off the flowers from the Flower Shop stamp set. Then I planned to watercolor them and finally to add some shading and extra color with my Stampin' Blends alcohol markers. My master plan was derailed very early on and I had to "go with the flow" in order to save my card.
I started out by using my Stamparatus to stamp the flowers multiple times on a piece of watercolor paper. I used some post-it tape and the coordinating Pansy Punch to easily mask off my flowers (you can see the masking process in the video below). This made it easy to stamp each flower multiple times to get a crisp, dark image. I used Memento ink as I wanted to make sure that in the final phase of my projects the alcohol markers wouldn't smear the ink and ruin my project.
Well, it turns out the Memento ink was absolutely the wrong call! I always use Archival ink for watercoloring and was horrified when I added water to my project to begin watercoloring... and my project instantly turned into a black puddle of Memento ink. Total nightmare after I had taken all that time to stamp and mask. Anyhow, I decided to roll with it and was able to save my card, thank goodness!
After watercoloring I used the light shade of Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends to add some shading to the flowers. I also used a thin black sharpie to add back some of the detail I had lost when I ruined my stamped images with water. Then I used a white gel pen to add some fun accents. The last touch to make the flowers stand out was to add liquid adhesive from my Fine Tip Glue pen to give the flowers both gloss and dimensions.
I spattered the background with a black Stampin' Write marker and added some embellishments. This sentiment was really the perfect final touch for this card because in the end it did make me smile but along the way it was a little bit of everything else... If you'd like to check out the process of making this card here's a video for you. Feel free to shake your head in horror or laugh at my distress, whatever strikes your fancy. Either way, enjoy!
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! It's always such a pleasure to have you join me. I hope you'll keep on hopping along with me as I visit all of my friends on the Creating Kindness Hop-Remember, there are blogs and videos galore so don't miss anything!
Now we're off to visit the lovely Paula Dobson in New Zealand! She is incredibly talented and I cannot wait to see what she has made. As always, if you have questions, comments or need some help please shoot me an email or leave comment below.
Hey everybody! I'm stopping by for a quick hello, a birthday brew and a sad farewell...
Today I am taking part in blog hop featuring retiring Stampin' Up! products. My buddy had a birthday this past weekend and he loves a good beer! The soon to be retired stamp set "Mixed Drinks" was the perfect set for me to make him a card with. I stamped the mug of beer (could double as a root beer float too!) in Black Archival ink and watercolored it using So Saffron and Smoky Slate inks.
After the mug dried I added some texture paste to the "foam" and dabbed some So Saffron ink on it to color it in a bit. I used a current set called Bubble Over (carrying over into the next catalog-yeah!) to add the punched sentiment and to stamp the background.
The image piece needed a little extra something so I used a fine tip black Sharpie to add to some little "fizzles" into the air over the beer. I also frayed the top of the watercolor paper with my fingernail and then sponged it with Sahara Sand ink.
This set is such a great one and instead of being sad to see it go... I will keep it and use it forever more because I know lots of people who enjoy a good birthday brew! Is there a retiring set that you will be keeping forever because you hate to see it go?
I'm so glad you've stopped by today! If you'd like to continue on this hop and see more amazing "last chance," retiring products then please the person after me on the Blog Roll below. Enjoy! As always, feel free to contact with questions either by comment below or via email. If you're interested in purchasing this stamp set before it's gone for good please click the product link below the blog roll.
Thanks and have an awesome day!
Maria Willis
mariawillis@hotmail.com
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