Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog of card crafts. I am happy that you stopped by for a visit. I hope you can visit often. Have a wonderful and blessed day! "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and my soul knows right well." Psalm 139:14

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Glue Drizzle

Hi Everyone! I hope you are having a good day. I want to share a technique that I had so much fun playing with. On a stamping board a fellow stamper shared this with us and I just had to try it. Here is the card I made using the glue drizzle "flowers."




All you do is fill a container with cold water and drizzle the glue from a glue gun onto the water. It dries instantly and makes neat designs. I was talking on the phone when I was doing this, not paying too much attention to my designs when I noticed one looked like a flower, so after the call I intentionally made some more "flowers." Here is a picture of the drizzles I made.




        I colored these flowers on the card using a gold paint pen. TIP -- you need to use a paint pen, sponge on Staz On ink or use a permanent marker to color the flowers because otherwise the color will come off because it is a slick surface.




Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!


Challenges entered:


Party Time Tuesdays:  Anything Goes
Simon Says Monday Challenge:  Anything Goes
Top Tip Tuesday:  Duo ( 2 flowers )

Sunday, April 26, 2015

The Earth Laughs In Flowers

Hi and welcome to my blog. I hope you are having a good day. I want to share a card I made using a Hero Arts stamp that I really like but I have not used much. Since it is Spring this is the perfect time to use it. I stamped it with green chalk ink and added this wonderful saying from Emerson. I have really enjoyed seeing all the flowers blooming in my area when I take a walk.




I used Cheery Lynn dies -- French Lattice and Exotic Butterfly. I got the inspiration for my card from this picture at Shabby Tea Room.





Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a blessed day!


Challenges entered:

Cheery Lynn:  Anything Goes
Penny's Paper Crafty: Spooled Items (cord)
Scrapy Land:  Add Pearls and/or Lace
Shabby Tea Room: Welcome Spring - photo inspiration



Saturday, April 25, 2015

Distress Embossing

Hi Everyone! Welcome to my blog. I have had so much fun playing with techniques these last few months. I still have more to show, old and new! Here is a new one I tried recently that I saw online. I am calling it Distress Embossing. I also got to use my new bird stamp from Ranger on this card too!



Here are supplies you will need:

colored card stock
embossing folder
embossing powder -- I used gold on this
Versa Mark ink pad
heat tool
sanding block


I used a die and cut from green card stock. You do not have to do this. You can use a whole front of a card if you want. Take the Versa Mark ink pad and pat is all over the card stock.



Now add the embossing powder all over the card stock and shake off excess.




The card stock will look like this.




Apply heat with the heat tool to melt the embossing powder and it will look shiny like this.




Run this through an embossing folder.




Now take the sanding block and rub it over the raised areas on the card stock. The colored card stock will show through and give it a distressed look.




Here are some more I made using silver and white embossing powders and colored card stock. There are many combinations. I hope you have fun playing! Have a great day!









Tuesday, April 21, 2015

April Showers

Hi Everyone! It was certainly April Showers while I was making this card. We had several storms blow by with buckets of rain and some hail! So this was an appropriate card to make today. Over the image I patted Versa Mark ink and added clear embossing powder with glitter in it to make it shine. I added a butterfly charm to the bow and silk flowers to the bottom of the card. Don't you just love these little mousies? There is always a fun one in the crowd!




Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you are having a good day, even if it is raining!

Challenges entered:

Cute Card Thursday:  Charmed
House Mouse and Friends:  April Showers


Monday, April 20, 2015

Hello Friend

Hi Everyone! I hope you are having a good day. I want to show you a tag I made. I hardly ever use any word dies so it was fun to use one on this tag. The blue background was made by spritzing the white card stock with water and spraying a light blue spray over it. After it dried I splattered some Faded Jeans Distress ink over it. The flowers are water colored using Distress markers and a water pen.  I faux stitched around the blue piece using a dark brown marker. I stamped using a script stamp on the kraft paper tag.



I added a metal butterfly charm and tore the bottom of the blue piece to give interest. I then sponged around the edges using Faded Jeans Distress ink.






Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a blessed day!


Challenges entered:

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Make Your Own Background
Tim Holtz -- 12 Tags of 1215 -- April

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Oldies Technique #7 -- Shave Cream Background

Hi Everyone, welcome to my blog.  I have another Oldies technique to share with you today. I am showing how to make a marbled background by using shave cream. You never know how the design will turn out, so it is fun to play with!


Here are the supplies you will need:

shave cream -- foam NOT the gel
white or cream matte or glossy card stock - I used white matte for brighter color
old credit card or gift card for scraping
toothpick or small pointed tool
several colors reinkers - I used 3 colors of Adirondak reinkers
craft mat for the mess
flat container for the shave cream -- I used a shallow metal pan
cloth for blotting 


Spray some shave cream in the pan and flatten it out a little by pushing a scrap piece of card stock down on it. Then add several drops of each color of reinkers on the shave cream.


Take the pointed tool -- I used a score tool -- and swirl it around and back and forth to move the reinkers. This will make a pattern.


Now take you card stock and lay it on top of this and press down some.



This is how it looks when you lift off the card stock.



Now take the gift card and scrape off the shave cream. The pretty pattern will be left on the card stock! You may need to blot off some excess shave cream with a cloth after scraping.


I thought this background, even though lovely, was a little too bright for my card, so I pressed another piece of card stock in the same shave cream without stirring it and this is how it looked. I used this piece for my background on my card. You can keep using the same shave cream over and over to get lighter backgrounds.



Here are 2 other pieces using different colors of inks.


Here is one done using glossy card stock. On the glossy, the colors are lighter because the card stock is not as porous. 


I hope you liked the technique today and I hope you will have some time to play with this. Your cards will smell nice for awhile too! LOL!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day.


Challenges entered:

Simon Says Monday Challenge:  In the Middle ( this humming bird is in the middle of the flowers)
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Make Your Own Background
Shabby Tea Room:  Rainbow of Colors






Friday, April 10, 2015

Distressed Acrylics

Hi Everyone and welcome to my blog. I have been posting a lot of OLDIES techniques this year , but I have stumbled on some NEW ones and I just had to try them. Here is one I saw on line by Jan Hobbins. I really loved the look and I want to show you how I made the background to this card. She did not give a name to this technique so I am calling it distressed acrylics since you use acrylic paints and it looks old. The stamp I used is by Inkadinkado and the die is Spellbinders Decorative Labels 8.




I started off by applying several bright colors of acrylic paint to my craft sheet and spritzing it with water a few times. I took a heavy matte black card stock piece and drug it through the paint and this is how it looked. Let it dry. You can use a heat tool to help it dry faster.


I stamped some butterflies randomly over this using Versa Mark ink and then applied clear embossing powder over the images and heat set it. Here is what it looks like when you have applied the embossing powder. When it is heated the images will be clear.



I used a flesh color acrylic paint and put a blob of it on my craft sheet. I wet a paper towel with my spritzer, picked up some of the acrylic paint on the wet paper towel and wiped it over the embossed card stock. I kept doing this until the piece was covered.





To make the images stand out a little more, I wet a clean paper towel and rubbed it over each image to wipe off any paint that was left on them.



I then swiped 2 light colors of Distress inks over the whole piece to give some warmth to it. I wiped a cloth over this to soften it some.



Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you will try this technique to see what fun backgrounds you can make. Have a great day!



Challenges entered:

Scrapy Land: Anything Goes
Simon Says Monday Challenge:  A is For ( acrylic paint )
Stamp and Create:  Anything Goes





Monday, April 6, 2015

Happy Birthday

Hi and welcome to my blog. I hope you are having a good day. I want to share a birthday card I made with a House Mouse stamp. I used embossing powder with glitter in it for the cake "frosting." I fussy cut the party hat out of patterned paper and pop dotted it on the mouse's head. The balloons at the top are dies from The Spiral Circle Pull Card die by Elizabeth Craft. I also added some Diamond Glaze to the plate to make it shine.



   I made this swing card using the Sizzix  Fancy Labels die.




   Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful day!


    Challenges entered:

    House Mouse:  Birthdays
    Scrapy Land:  Anything Goes
    Simon Says:  Happy Birthday


Thursday, April 2, 2015

Oldies Technique #6 -- Thumping

Hi Everyone! First I want to wish all of you a wonderful and blessed Easter. I am so thankful Jesus is alive and that he has given me a new life in Him! What a joyous thought!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       You know the saying, "April Showers bring May flowers", well I will be focusing on the flowers today. I want to share with you an Oldies technique called thumping. It is easy and gives a unique look to your stamping.




Supplies needed:

3 to 4 colors of markers ( I used Tombow markers )
solid or bold lined stamp
white or cream card stock

I started with my lightest marker first and then kept using the next darker color so that my markers would not get dirty. Start thumping on your stamp by holding the marker loosely and pouncing it up and down on the stamp using the side of the brush nib of the marker. As I do this I am also turning my stamp around in circles. This is what the stamp looks like when you are finished. As you can see I have used this stamp a lot! LOL! You will need to breathe hard on your stamp a few times before you stamp it on the card stock.


You will not cover the stamp completely with color. You will see a little white here and there when you stamp it on your card stock.


I found that rubber stamps are better for this technique than the acrylic. The color stays juicier on the acrylic and does not have quite the definition when stamped. Here is an example of one I did on an acrylic stamp. But it still looks pretty neat.



Here is another one I did using a leaf rubber stamp.



Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you will have fun trying this. Have a great day!




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