Hey everybody! Happy Monday and I hope your week is getting off to a great start. Hopefully I can make it a little bit better by offering you an exclusive discount to Trinity Stamps! Today the crew from My Crafty Friends is hopping and featuring Trinity Stamps and the owner, Taniesa, was so generous as to give a us a discount code for 20% Off of the entire store with the exclusion of the April 2020 Release. All you need to do to receive the discount is to shop at Trinity Stamps on April 20-21 and use the code: CRAFTYFRIENDS20
Next, I watercolored the image with my Daniel Smith Watercolors.
To add some extra shading I used my Polychromos pencils in the background.
The last thing I did was to use my blender brushes to add some Distress Oxide ink to the background to give the appearance that the top right was light and the bottom left was dark.
I cut my card front out using dies from Honeybee Stamps and adhered it to a black card base. I added some sequins as a final touch.
Thank you so much for stopping by today! To see more inspiration using products from Trinity Stamps please head on over to my friend Becky's Blog!
If you'd like to shop this awesome discount that Taniesa has so kindly offered to all of us just click HERE to enjoy your 20% off with code: CRAFTYFRIENDS20
Hi Everybody! I hope you all are having a great day so far. I am because today I get to share some of Picket Fence Studio's newest release with you. I decided to pick one gorgeous stamp set called, Face the Sun and create three different cards with it using the same layout.
My first card features the large, gorgeous sunflower from this set. I used my copic markers to color this.
After coloring with my copics I added some extra details as well as shadows and highlights to my card.
The final touch was to add color to the background with my Distress Crayons. I smeared the color around with my finger until I had the look that I wanted. I love the sentiment on this card, "Turn your face towards the sun and the shadows will fall behind you."
For my next card I decided to do some watercoloring with my Arteza brush pens. I started with a sheet of Arches watercolor paper and heat embossed my image in white.
Then, I watercolored using a paintbrush to pick up the ink off my media mat ( I scribbled it on with my brush pens).
The last things I did were to add a fantastic sentiment and some embellishements. I think that this is a little advice that we can all take to heart right now as our days are so drastically different from a month ago.
For my third card I decided to watercolor again but this time I used my Daniel Smith paints. Again I heat embossed the image in white onto Arches Coldpressed Watercolor paper.
Then selected a rainbow of colors from my Daniel Smith watercolor palette and washed the colors over the image allowing the colors to blend. After that I dried I cut the image out with my scissors.
I used a black card base and created a shimmering, spattered background using a shimmer spray and Hero Arts white metallic paint. Then, I popped the flower up on foam adhesive to give the card some dimension and added some sequins.
Here is a quick look at what all three of my cards look like side by side...
I hope you guys liked my cards today. This stamp from Picket Fence Studios is so beautiful and I had so much fun playing with it. Remember that this is not the only goodness PFS has to share today-they have an entire release launching today and it is incredible! If you'd like to check out the products that I used for today's cards I'm adding links for you below.
Have an awesome day you guys! See you back here soon,
Hi Everybody! Guess what day it is?! It's the first Monday of the month and that means it's time for the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero kit release! If this is your first time hearing about the MMH kit you can CLICK HERE for more information. This month's kit is all about Australia. It wasn't long ago that Australia suffered a devastating amount of damage from relentless fires. Among the damage was great loss of life to much of Australia's wildlife. This month's kit is a tribute to Australia and it is truly beautiful! For my card I made an ocean scene (video tutorial below)...
...but the kit is full of images of a variety of wildlife as well as trees, terrain and other items to help you build scenes (check out that stencil!).
Here's a link to my video if you'd like to check it out:
I love the stencil included in this month's kit and I decided to use it to create an ocean scene with a fiery sky!
I started off by heat embossing the sharks in black. Next, I masked off the top portion of the stencil so that I could focus on the lower half of the card. I ink blended the ocean using Hero Arts reactive inks in blues and blue greens. Then I used a sponge dauber to add some embossing ink. I sprinkled that Sparkling Sea embossing powder to give the water a salty, shimmering texture. I used an embossing pen on top of that and heat embossed some puffy white embossing powder to give the look of sea foam.
Next, I cleaned off my stencil and masked off the bottom portion. I ink blended the sky in Hero Arts Reactive Inks in yellows, corals and bright pink. Then, I used a yellow Copic marker to fill in the white space so that it looked like it was glowing.
To finish my card off I mounted it onto a top-folding black card base and added a heat embossed sentiment from the kit. I love how striking those black sharks look against the bright ink colors.
This kit is so much fun! I hope to have time to create more with it soon because I had so many ideas for it. Interestingly enough while the world seems to be standing still I am busier than ever. I have just closed my business (so I'm cleaning out a huge commercial space) and we are also moving house. Soon things will settle down over here and I will have more time to craft. In the mean time, I cannot wait to see what you all will create with this kit!
Before i go here is some important information:
GIVEAWAY:
Hero Arts will be giving away a $50 gift certificate to one lucky winner! To enter just leave a comment here on my blog.
SHIPPING:
Shipping is estimated to begin on April 20th. Aaron (owner of Hero Arts) and his family will be shipping the kits themselves. Please be patient as there are just three of them and thousands of kits to be sent. Thank you Aaron, Laura and son for your dedication!
RUBBER STAMP AVAILABILITY:
Did you know that Hero Arts employees hand cut the rubber stamps?! They also hand mount the rubber stamps onto wood blocks for wood stamps. The amount of care that goes into Hero Arts products is truly amazing. Due to the Shelter In Place that is currently in effect in California there are no employees in the warehouse to cut and mount these stamps for us. For now, they will be unavailable.
WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!
Now, more than ever, it is so important to remember that we are all in this together. Hero Arts has created this beautiful pin as a reminder to us all. 100% of net profits from the sale of this pin will be donated to support COVID-19 disaster relief.
Ok, you guys! That's it for today. Head on over to Seeka's blog and see what beautiful things she has created to share with us today!
Hi everybody! I'm just popping in today to share a card I made using the Simon Says Stamp Botanical Heart set. This set is so gorgeous!
I colored the image using my Arteza brush tip markers and a paint brush.
Then, I added some shadowing and extra details using my Copic Markers and a sharpie.
I watercolored the background using my Nuvo Aqua Flow pens from Tonic Studios.
To finish the card off I added an "I Love You" die and sequins in Moonshine-both are from Simon Says Stamp.
Now, I have 't had time to play in a challenge for a really long time. I'm happy to join in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which has inspiration from their Spring Mood Board. Click HERE to check out the challenge.
Ok, I'm outta here. Have an awesome day you guys!
Maria
Hey everybody! How are you all doing? I'm betting that most of you can use a little distraction right now? I feel like today's Save the Crafty YouTuber video hop could not have come at a better time for all of us crafters who are at home and looking for a little bit of inspiration. This is a huge group of talented YouTubers who are hopping together and each of us has a give-a-way! My video focuses on a fun and easy stained glass technique using Tonic Studio's Nuvo Shimmer Powders.
The Give-a-way for my YouTube channel was sponsored by Tonic Studios USA and is to be won by some lucky winner in the continental United States. Head on over to my channel to see what the amazing prize is. All you need to do to enter is to leave a comment on my video by April 5th. You do not need to leave a comment on every video in the hop to be entered to win (only my channel).
Here's a quick link to my video. I hope you enjoy it!
After checking out my video and leaving a comment I hope you'll visit all of the other YouTube channels that are joining in the hop. All you need to do to continue on the hop is to click the link to the next video that I have provided in the description box of my video.
That's all for today you guys. I hope you have a little time to kick back and enjoy all of the amazing videos!
Have an awesome day everybody!
Take care of yourselves,
Hey you guys! How are you all doing out there in this crazy world? I'm in California, USA and my family is healthy, safe and on lockdown at home. I'd love to hear how you are all doing so please let me know in the comments below! Since I'm sure many of you are stir crazy I'm happy to say that today is the 20th of the month when I hop my Crafty Friends and we bring you a 20% discount to our featured company! Woohoo! There is no better time for a discount than when you are on lockdown and actually have time to spend getting crafty. I am happy to let you know that this month we are featuring Pinkfresh Studios and they are generously offering all of you a 20% discount to their shop! Details are at the bottom of my post.
For my first card I used the Heart and Soul stamp set and it is such a stunner. It's got one large floral image shaped like a half wreath and quite a few wonderful sentiments.
I started off by watercoloring my image with Pinkfresh liquid watercolors. Then I added some Nuvo drops to give it some dimension and shine. When it was dry I fussy cut it out.
I taped off the edges of a piece of watercolor paper with some purple tape. Then I ink blended the background using Distress Oxide ink Peacock Feathers. To finish the background I spritzed it with shimmer spray and splattered it with silver metallic paint from Hero Arts.
Finally I added a sentiment on yellow cardstock and then some chunky rhinestones to finish it off.
For my next projects I made two cards from one background that I cut from the Diagonal Stripes with Window die. I ink blended my background with Distress Oxide inks in Squeezed Lemon, Picked Raspberry and Abandoned Coral. Then, I cut it out with the die. I used the positive part of the die cut for my first card.
These colors really pop when paired with some black cardstock so I used foam adhesive to pop the die up. Then I splattered the whole thing with Sparkle from a Tonic Studios Nuvo Shimmer Pen in Glitter Gloss.
The super fun sentiment is cut using Pinkfresh's Classic Word Dies Set. I love that this set provides both the thinner sentiment as well as the "halo" background piece. The final touch for this card was to add enamel dots from Hero Arts and a bunch of random sequins, pearls, rhinestones and confetti stars. I really love how this card came out (it's super sparkly).
For my second card with this die I used the negative pieces. I used positive piece of the die to help me line up all of the thin stripes and popped them up on foam adhesive.
I decided to flip the center piece over before adhering it because I liked the way the contrast looked. I added my sentiment and this time I only used the thin letters so that my colored background would pop.
To finish the card off I some black ink splatter and a few enamel dots from Hero Arts.
These cards are bright and happy and totally remind me of the 80's!
Ok, that's it for today you guys so let me tell you about this discount before I go. Pinkfresh is offering you a discount of 20% of everything in the store except for new release, sale, and marked down items (ex: bundles). All you have to do to get this discount is use the code CRAFTYFRIENDS20 when you check out from the Pinkfresh Studios site. Happy Shopping!
Have an awesome day you guys! Stay healthy and craft hard!
Hey everybody! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're having a great day. Today I've got a pretty watercolored card for you using a stamp set from the Gray Muse. I got this stamp set forever ago, started watercoloring it a little after that and finally came back and finished it recently. Do any of you have limited time to craft and have to keep returning to projects to get them finished? It feels like my MO these days.
Anyhow, I stamped this gorgeous image onto Arches cold press watercolor paper using Hero Arts INTENS-ified black ink which works well with both watercolor and copics. I used my new (hahaha, I got them in November but haven't had a chance to use them) Karin watercolor markers and a paintbrush to watercolor this. I love the bright, vibrant ink colors.
I wanted the "hugs" sentiment to really pop so I used my Sparkle Spray from Tonic Studios as watercolor to color it in. In real life it sparkles and has a little dimension since I painted it on thick. The sentiment strip is from another Gray Muse stamp set and is heat embossed in white on black cardstock.
Ok guys, I'm supposed to be studying for a final exam in my advanced anatomy class (it's tomorrow-yikes) so I had better scoot on out of here. I hope you all have the best day and I'll catch you back here soon!
Maria
PS: I just realized that Simon Says Stamp has an Anything Goes Wednesday challenge going on! It's been forever since I've been able to play along and I'm excited to join their challenge this week! Check out their fun challenge by clicking HERE!
Hey everybody! It's the first Monday of the month and that means it is time for a new My Monthly Hero Kit release from Hero Arts! I also want to make sure you know that there is a generous giveaway from Hero Arts and the details will be at the bottom of my post.
I decided to go for a bit more of a mixed media look with this kit. I ink blended the background using My Hero Hues Reactive inks. Then I sprayed the background with my shimmer mist and spattered it with my White Glimmer Metallic Ink.
I wanted to add some gold gilding flakes so I stamped my tree trunk using a liquid glue. Once that dried to the right tackiness I covered it with gilding flakes and used a dry paint brush to remove the excess. I also painted some extra adhesive onto the background and adding gilding flakes to that too.
I wanted the tree to really sparkle and have dimension so after stamping it I added gilding flakes and then a ton of glittering leaves (dragons scales from a past MMH kit). It really catches the light in real life. Oh! I almost forgot to tell you about the sentiment. I used a sentiment from the kit but I did a little bit of stamp surgery on it. Originally it said, "live life in full bloom." I cut the "bloom" off to get the sentiment that I used.
For my second card I wanted to do something a little bit different. I used the swirl stamp to create a background. The super cool thing about this stamp is that if you stamp it once then give it a 180 degree flip... the stamp will exactly together with the first stamped image. I used this method to stamp from left to right across the page. If making the stamp fit perfectly together as described weren't enough, it also fits together from top to bottom making it incredibly easy to put many rows of this image on top of each other to create a cool background. This is what I did using rainbow colors.
I used the Wood Frame Infinity Dies to cut a black frame and popped it up on the background. I cut the tree trunk from silver foil. The tree leaves are cut from vellum, heat embossed in Black Sparkle embossing powder and colored from behind with pink copic markers. The final touch was to add sequins followed by Nuvo Dream Drops.
Ok, guys, that is it from me for today. Thanks so much for stopping by! Before you go please remember that Hero Arts is generously gifting a $50 gift certificate to one lucky winner. To enter yourself just leave me a comment below (by March 8 at 11:59 pm and you will be automatically entered. The winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.
The last thing that I want to make sure you know is that due to production delays, kits will begin shipping on March 16th this month.
