Gina K Designs July 2021 Release: Absolutely Autumn!

Happy Monday everybody! It is release day for Gina K Designs and I've got a colorful "thank you" card to share with you today. I've combined the brand new Absolutely Autumn stamp set with a sentiment from the Beautiful Butterflies 2 stamp set. 

I started out by making some watercolor washes on watercolor paper. I used a combination of my Hero Arts Liquid Watercolors and Nuvo Shimmer Powders from Tonic Studios. When that was dry I stamped a whole bunch of the images from the Absolutely Autumn set in black ink right on top of my shimmery watercolored cardstock. I cut all of the images out by hand because I don't have the coordinating dies. It took a little while but was totally worth it so I could play around with the images and have some fun with them.

Next, I inkblended a white card panel with a little bit of Splash Reactive ink. Then I glued on a circle frame die cut in gold glimmer paper. I heat embossed a sentiment from the Beautiful Butterflies 2 set into the center of the circle. Then, I used the left side of the circle as a guide to place my leaves.

After that all I had to do was splatter the background with my Glitter Gloss pen and then add some Nuvo drops in Mustard Gold.

And, just like that, this card was done... I hope you all enjoy the new release from Gina K Designs! Have an amazing week and I'll catch you back here soon!

Maria

PRODUCT SUPPLY LIST (affiliate links may be used at no extra cost to you):

Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Release, Blog Hop and Giveaway!

Hi everybody and happy Hero Arts release day! The July My Monthly Hero Kit is here and it is such a magical kit! 

If you aren't familiar with the My Monthly Hero kit, it's a kit that is released by Hero Arts on the first Monday of every month. It always has a fun, themed collection of stamps, dies and other goodies. The cost is just $34.99/month and the value is always much greater! This month's kit is valued at $72!

You have the option to subscribe (subscribing now means your first kit will be the August release), or, to buy your favorite kits as a one-off purchases. Be aware that once these kits sell out they are gone for good. If you see a kit you like make sure to snatch it up quickly! There are also always a ton of fantastic add-on products offered. You can choose to buy your favorites or buy them all at a discounted rate.

We also have an awesome GIVEAWAY and a BLOG HOP with tons of inspiration going on so please make sure to check the info for those at the bottom of my post!

Ok, on to my first card! This kit is full of small images that are really great for scene building. The second I saw the little gnome in a hammock I knew I wanted to stick him on a tropical beach somewhere. I stamped him onto white cardstock with copic friendly black ink.

Then I used my copic markers to color him in, added sand below, and an ocean (or maybe the Caribbean Sea) behind him. I inkblended the background using my reactive inks and then heat embossed my sentiment. 

The final touch was to add a black mat and pop the whole thing up on a kraft card base. 

My next card was made using three of this month's add-ons. The add-ons this month are so awesome and I had a lot of fun making this card. I started out by creating a colorful galaxy background using my Nuvo Shimmer Powders and applying them to watercolor paper. 

Next, I used the Starry Clouds Infinity Dies (the second largest die) to cut a gorgeous frame for my card out of Pitch Black Cardstock. I splattered this with Midas Touch Shimmer Pen for some subtle but gorgeous shimmer.

I heat embossed the fairies from the Meadow HeroScape set in gold onto black and added those in with foam tape. Finally, I added a sentiment from the Magical Forest set and embellished with some gems.

In case you missed it the other day, here's another look at the card I made for the Countdown to today's launch. You can learn more about how I put this card together by clicking here to head my original blog post.

Before I go I want to give you a look at what's included in this month's kit. Check out this picture to see everything you'll receive when this July My Monthly Hero kit lands on your doorstep...

Ok, you guys, that's all I've got for today! Please make sure to check out the GIVEAWAY info below and continue on with the blog hop to see some amazing creativity and tons of inspiration with this release!

Have an awesome day!

Maria

GIVEAWAY:

Hero Arts will give away one $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, July 11th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

BLOG HOP LIST:

Hero Arts
Channin Pelletier
Dana Joy
Daniel West
Debi Adams
Ilina Crouse
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis: YOU ARE HERE.
Michelle Short: NEXT.
Mindy Eggen
Seeka
Jennifer Kotas
Jennier McGuire
Meg Brooks
Nichol Spohr
Rebecca Keppel

PRODUCT SUPPLY LIST (Includes affiliate links which may be used at no extra cost to you):

Encouragement Card Blog Hop

Hey you guys! How are you? I hope you're having a fantastic day and enjoying your summer (if you're in my hemisphere anyway). Today I'm taking part in a special blog hop that is showcasing cardmakers in a variety of different ways. Some cardmakers mailed their cards in, some are participating via blog (like me) and others are participating via youtube video. So, I hope you will  join us for this fun and unique hop! You will find yourself jumping back and forth between blogs and youtube videos which should provide for some great entertainment and inspiring ideas.

I decided to make a card for a friend who could use a little pick me up. She's a really lovely person and life has been a bit tough on her. I want her to know that she is loved... 

I decided to use bright, happy colors for this card so I busted out my Tonic Nuvo Shimmer Powders and watercolored a rainbow background. 

This big You Are Loved Die sentiment from Altenew was just perfect for this card. I die cut it three times then glued the layers together. After that I used my Nuvo Crystal Glaze to cover the whole die cut sentiment in a thick, glossy sheen. 

After I adhered the sentiment I decided this card needed a rainbow of sequins, rhinestones and other fun embellishments. I dug out shiny things from lots of different companies. Then, glued them down until I had what looked like a rainbow jewel encrusted card. It might be hard to see in the picture but this card catches the light like something else and flashes all kinds of shimmery, glittery goodness back at you. I hope it will bring a smile to my friend's face.

If you're curious about the Nuvo Shimmer Powders here's a video I made a while back showcasing ten different ways to use them. I hope you might find it helpful. 

If you are interested in checking out any of the products that I've used today I've linked them all at the bottom of this post. 

Thanks so much for joining me today! I hope you have an amazing day and enjoy the rest of the hop!

Next, you are off to visit Jessica Shier on Youtube! 

CLICK HERE to visit her channel.

Have an awesome day you all!

Maria

PS: For some added fun I'm entering this card into this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge:  Bright and Cheerful! 

PRODUCT SUPPLY LIST

Watercoloring with Nuvo Shimmer Powders on Black Cardstock

Hey Everybody! It's Maria (Cardbomb) here today with a fun way to use your Nuvo Shimmer Powders. I love using my Shimmer Powders to watercolor and wanted to share how I used them to watercolor on black cardstock. They look so metallic and vibrant against the black that you can achieve quite a different look than you do on white cardstock. I've made a video tutorial sharing how to do this so be sure to check that out if you are interested (the video is at the bottom of the post).

I started out by heat embossing the sentiment from Little Something for Harry in white, then masking the sentiment off using a post it note that I cut out with my rectangle dies. Then, using my stamping platform and this gorgeous floral stamp from the Dainty Daisies set I repeatedly stamped the flower in Clear Mark ink and heat embossed the images in Clear Embossing Powder. After that I put little puffs of Shimmer Powder onto the surface of my work space. I added drops of rubbing alcohol/surgical spirits to the powder and mixed until it was a consistency that I could paint with. I started out using a brush with a thicker tip and quickly decided to switch to a number 2 round brush so that I could easily stay within the lines.

After I finished watercoloring the floral images I used a white gel pen to outline the rectangle defining the sentiment. In hindsight I realize that it would've been much easier to stamp the sentiment onto a rectangle die cut and pop it up as it would've allowed me to be a bit less careful when I embossed the images. Anyhow, that's something for me to try next time. Then I used some white acrylic paint, and the leftover shimmer powders to splatter the background. I added Nuvo Crystal Drops in Neptune Turquoise to finish it off and mounted the card front onto some gorgeous Pearlescent Card from the Craft Perfect line (Fresh Mint). This cardstock is textured and shimmery and was the perfect compliment to the card front. After that I mounted the whole thing onto a black card base using foam adhesive to give the card a bit of dimension.

Here's that video I promised you...

Well, that's it for today you guys! It's late and I am wicked tired so I'm heading off to bed. I'm adding product links below in case you are interested in checking out anything that I've used for today's project. There are links to both the UK and USA Tonic stores (just scroll until you find your preferred shop). Thank you!

Have an amazing day!

Maria

SUPPLY LIST: TONIC UK

SUPPLY LIST: TONIC USA & OTHER SHOPS

Watercoloring with Nuvo Shimmer Powder

Hello Everyone! It's Maria (Cardbomb) here today and I am so happy to be joining you for a little watercolor fun. For today's card I decided to use the Ellie Goes Nuts stamp set and some of my Nuvo Shimmer Powders. 

I used every elephant in the set and used my Stamp Platform and some basic masking to stack the elephants on top of each other. Then I used Nuvo Shimmer Powders (Cherry Bomb, Solar Flare, Falling Leaves and Blue Blitz) and a paint brush to watercolor them. To do this I puffed a little shimmer powder out onto my media mat and added a little bit of water to each color. Adding water to the shimmer powder turns it into a watercolor medium that is vibrant and full of shimmer.

After watercoloring the elephants I cut them out and watercolored my background. I wanted the elephants to be the star of the show so on the background I used my Nuvo Aquaflow pens in Clear Water and Indigo Dawn so that the background wouldn't shimmer like the elephants do. I adhered my background onto black cardstock, then, I used foam adhesive to adhere the elephants onto the card base.

After adding the elephants I heat embossed the sentiment and popped that up on foam adhesive as well. As an after thought, I decided that I wanted the background to have a little shimmer too. So, I covered the elephants with masks, and splattered some Solar Flare and Blue Blitz onto the background. You can see how magical it looks where it landed on the black cardstock. To finish my card off I added some Dream Drops in Indigo Eclipse.

I hope today's card will inspire you to watercolor with Shimmer Powders. It's such an easy and fun way to use the powders to get a magical effect. That's it for today you all. Thanks so much for joining me and we will see you back here tomorrow with another fantastic project from Design Team member Zinia.

Have a wonderful day!
Maria



PRODUCT LIST: TONIC STUDIOS UK



PRODUCT LIST: TONIC STUDIOS USA

Raised Rectangle Cards for Tonic Studios

Hi everybody! I hope you're having a great day today. Today I'm up on the Tonic Studios Blog sharing a post and a video tutorial and I wanted to make sure that I shared it here with all of you as well...

Have you ever started a project and been really happy with how it's going and then you do something to it that ruins it? Well, that's how today's projects came about. I had just gotten the Nuvo alcohol markers and wanted to try them out. So I stamped a card front full of floral images (left card in image below) from the Dainty Daisies set and went to town coloring. These alcohol markers are awesome!

After coloring with the markers I got out some colored pencils to add drop shadows. Then I used a Sharpie and a white gel pen to add shadows and highlights. Black Nuvo drops on the stamens and Dream Drops on the background finished the card off along with a "Thank You" sentiment from the Little Something For Harry set. Dun, dun, dun (total drama) and then I cut my card so that I could frame part of it in black and it looked terrible! I was so bummed that I had cut it, but, once you cut a background there is no going back so I had to figure out a solution.

I tried putting the rectangular piece back inside the frame but it looked like a tragic accident. I decided to pop it up on four pieces of black cardstock... and, voila! Today's technique was born.  

You can just see a thin layer of black that frames out the raised piece but it's subtle enough that it still allows the background to be the star of the show.

I decided to make a video to share how easy this technique is. You can do it with a fully colored background like I did in my first card. You can also use your images to frame the raised portion of the card as I did in the video. Of course, you are not limited to using rectangles. This technique would be amazing with any other shape as well. Here's the video...

For the second card I used watercolor paper, the emboss resist technique and four of my Nuvo shimmer powders including the new Falling Leaf which is my new favorite green.

I used my stamp positioner and a post-it mask to stamp the flowers and leaves multiple times in versamark ink. Then I used the Nuvo Fine Detail Crystal Clear Embossing Powder and heat embossed my images. I added a little water to my shimmer powder turning them into a paintable medium and I painted the whole card.

Next, I used my rectangle die to cut my card face. I also cut four rectangles out of white cardstock. I glued the white rectangles together and then adhered the image piece on top. After adhering the frame to the card base I glued the thick rectangle piece into the center of the frame.

Some paint (shimmer powder) splatters, Dream Drops and Silver Rain sequins finished the card off nicely. If you'd like to see this technique in action I hope you'll enjoy the video I shared. That's all for today folks. Thank you so much for joining me and I look forward to being back here next week.

Have an amazing day!

Maria

PRODUCT LIST: TONIC STUDIOS UK


PRODUCT LIST: TONIC STUDIOS USA

Moon Men Galaxy Background with Nuvo Shimmer Powder

Hey you guys!! I've had the most amazing time last weekend at Creativation and I'm trying to get back into the swing of things here but of course I've gotten sick. No matter, I'll get through it but I wanted to pop in today to say hi and share a card I made quite some time ago and never shared. I love this Moon Men set from Reverse Confetti and the Tonic Nuvo shimmer powders make an amazing galaxy background to go with it. For this card I've used the shimmer powders in Storm Cloud (black) and Solar Flare (yellow/gold).

I used my shimmer powders to create the background and to paint shimmery details onto the moon. My galaxy background was created on the top part of my watercolor paper where I ripped it out of the spirals rings. I know it's an unconventional look but I like it and it allowed me not to waste even a scrap of my paper.

The Moon Men are colored with my Copic Markers as is the moon (the craters are painted with shimmer powder).

I heat embossed the star and constellation stamps randomly across the background in gold. The sentiment is heat embossed in white and popped up on foam adhesive. I added some gold foil on the right side of the background and then some circle and star embellishments in gold and called it good!

Have you tried out the Nuvo Shimmer Powders yet? If you're curious to learn a little more about them here's a video I made. You can watch me created the background that I used for this card as well as learn quite a few different ways to use these fun powders.

All right folks, that's it for today. I'm off to get some rest and start feeling better. If you're interested in trying out any of the Tonic Nuvo Shimmer Powders that I've used today I'm adding some links for you below. They are affiliate links and that means that when you use them I get a small commission that helps me keep my blog running (so thank you so much for supporting my blog!).

Have an awesome day you all!

Maria

LINKS TO TONIC NUVO SHIMMER POWDER:

Moon Men! Love You to the Moon & Back!

Hi! I hope you all are having an amazing day. I'm just popping in to share another shimmery, sparkly card that I made with Tonic Nuvo Shimmer Powder and the adorable Moon Men stamp set from Reverse Confetti. 

I started by making the background using the black Nuvo Shimmer Powder (the color is called Storm Cloud). Then I used the yellow/gold powder (Solar Flare) to splatter the background so that it looked like outer space. I also splattered it with clean water and then blotted it with a paper towel so that I had some lighter spots that gave the background a little bit more depth. I cut the background out with a frame from Lawn Fawn so that it would have stitched detail on the edges.

I colored my moon man with my Copic markers and then heat embossed my sentiment in white onto black cardstock. I added both of those to the card front with foam adhesive so that they would pop off of the card. 

I also colored the moon with Copics and adhered it to the card using foam tape. If you look closely at the moon you can see that the craters sparkle and shine. That's because I blinged them out by watercoloring some Solar Flare shimmer powder onto them. It looks really cool in real life. 

I also added some clear epoxy embellishments to the background. I think they added to the galaxy look without being too over the top. 

If you aren't familiar with how to use the Tonic Nuvo Shimmer Powders and want to see some fun ways to use them-check out this video below. 

Over at the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge this week they've got a Bling It On themed challenge and I'm adding this card to the mix. If you want to check out all of the cool inspiration from the Simon Says Stamp design team just click HERE to head over there. 

If you're interested in checking out the products that I've used today please feel free to check out the links below. If you decide to do any shopping through the links below I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you (so thanks for shopping with me!).

Ok! It's dinner time... so I'd better go make dinner now. Have a great one and I'll be back soon!

Maria

mariawillis@hotmail.com

PRODUCT SUPPLY LIST:

Nuvo Shimmer Powders on Glossy Cardstock

Hey! So, if you follow my blog you might have a YouTube video I posted the other day featuring Ten Different Ways to use Tonic Nuvo Shimmer Powders. If you didn't catch it, never fear, I've added it to the bottom of this post so that it's easy to find. Anyhow, let me start with explaining what the Nuvo Shimmer Powders are. They are pigment powders mixed with a good amount of mica. They come in bottles with fine tips so that you can tap out just a little bit of powder (because you really only need a little). Once your powder is on your cardstock you can activate with water or alcohol. The powder will turn into vibrant color that shimmers and is absolutely beautiful. On this card I used the Shimmer Powder on Glossy Cardstock. This is one of my favorite ways to use the powder because since the glossy surface of the paper doesn't absorb the product as easily as other types of paper do, all of the color and mica sit on the surface for a truly stunning look. 

On this card I used three different colors of shimmer powder (listed at bottom of post) on glossy cardstock and then I spritzed lightly with water to activate the powder. After it dried I used this fancy die that was an add-on from the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Kit in June. I just couldn't throw away any of the cardstock so I decided to make two cards using both the positive and negative pieces of the die.

On this first card I used the positive portion of the die and used my distress oxide inks and the birds from the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Kit (June) to create an ocean scene for the background. I love the way the die cut piece frames the scene.

It's really hard to see it in these pictures but this card is so sparkly and shiny! In addition to the front piece being glimmery, I also flicked Clear Wink of Stella all over the background.

For the second card I made I used the negative pieces from the die cut glossy cardstock. I will tell you  that this was SO tedious! Check out all of those tiny little pieces that I had to first find and then glue into the appropriate spaces. It took me quite a while but in the end it was worth it.

I heat embossed the sentiment in white on black and used foam tape to pop up both the background and the sentiment piece. 

I finished the card off by adding sequins in a few different iridescent colors.

If you'd like to check see ten ways to use these shimmer powders please check out this video. I  do demonstrate how to use them on glossy cardstock if you are curious about that. 

Thanks for stopping by today! As promised I will have a list of the Nuvo Shimmer Powders that I used on these two cards below. I will also provide a link to Tonic Studios who makes the Nuvo line of products as that is where I like to purchase my powders from. I'll also link you up to Ranger Ink and Hero Arts in case you're interested in the Distress Oxide inks or the die that I've used today.

Happy Crafting!

Maria

mariawillis@hotmail.com

Nuvo Shimmer Powders

-Blue Blitz

-Solar Flare

-Atlantis Burst

-Distress Oxide Inks

-D1524 Beach Frame Fancy Die

-June My Monthly Hero Kit (Sold Out)

-