August 23, 2018

Autumn Coffee Card

I just got my August Hero Arts card kit so I was excited to use it. When I make card, I often start out without knowing exactly where I’m going with it. But when I have a sketch to work with, it makes it so much easier!

coffee shaker

Today we have a sketch for you at Crazy 4 Challenges. The large center shape made me think shaker! I don’t think I could ever get sick of making and shaking them! I forgot that even Distress glitter sticks to the acetate sheet. I’ve done this before and it does finally settle so I wasn’t too worried but I was bummed that it didn’t make for a better photo! The cups are both stamped on patterned paper and coloured with Copics. The curvy cup reminded me of me and the other of my husband so I added appropriate sentiments. I hate coffee so switching them wouldn’t have worked. The background paper was from the Hero Arts kit, so unique. It’s thin though so I added a background layer of cardstock before die cutting it. The leaves were cut with Spellbinders dies, coloured with either Copics or Distress sponging then splattered them with first brown watercolour then gold watercolour. I did the same with the background.

I hope you can come by the C4C blog and join us this week!

Enjoy, Rebecca

August 14, 2018

Revisiting Old Card Kits

If you buy card kits, do you ever use them up before the next one arrives? Leave me a comment and let me know! I have to admit, I NEVER finish a card kit right away! in fact, I have ones going back to 2014! I think only 2 in that time are all used. So sometimes when I have some time, I pull out an older kit and try to make at least 3 cards with it. I don’t always manage three but I try even if I have to make a simpler card or CASE* one of the cards shown on the insert. 

balloon celebrate card

*CASE stands for Copy and Stamp Everything, basically using someone else’s design as inspiration but changing it up to make it your own. As long as you don’t pass the card off as your own or try to sell it, you can even copy it exactly!

I was in a gold mood when I made these cards. Do you ever get in a mood to use a certain colour, a specific technique or product and use it over and over for a short while? I work in spurts like that. Then I move on to a new one for the next while. This card comes from a Simon Says Stamp kit all the way back from September 2015! I created a ‘background stamp’ using some of the small bows, triangles, circles and half-circles included in the Birthday Bits stamp set. I needed some more bits so I trimmed a couple of tiny shapes off of the small borders. I don’t prefer to cut my stamps apart but these are wonky borders anyway so realigning them perfectly isn’t important. I found a matching ink to the cardstock in the kit and stamped the grouping of stamps I put together on entire card front. Sometimes when I find a grouping I really like, I stamp an example and keep it with the stamp set.

balloon celebrate card2

I gold embossed some balloons on two of the papers by Pinkfresh Studio from the kit and on some scrap cardstock. I added some dots on the cardstock balloon. The strings are made of stretch gold cord which is my preference over plain gold string. The stretch means that you don’t have to be as precise when tying the strings together to make sure they all stay straight. I glued the knot to the card with glossy accents using a clothespin to keep it in place while it dried. The sentiment from Celebration Sentiments by Honey Bee Stamps is embossed with gold sparkle powder by WOW. I used banner dies by PTI but I trimmed the points so they weren’t so long.

gold foil balloon celebrate

In keeping with the gold theme, I made this card using the October 2015 Simon Says Stamp kit. The center panel is one of the journaling cards included in the kit. The cards and the patterned papers are by My Mind’s Eye, one of my favourite paper companies. The panel underneath has a gold-leafed I applied over Scor-Tape, then I rounded the edges to match the journaling card. I hand cut the balloons because the dies I have are too large. I added the same gold cord but this time decided to allow the strings to hang to the side whimsically. It’s hard to tell from this photo but the ‘Let’s Celebrate’ sentiment is gold foiled. A few gold confetti bits from Studio Katia finished off this card.

gold foil balloon celebrate2

Thanks for joining me for these fun cards. I’d love to hear how you use your card kits. Do you subscribe or just buy a few here and there? Do you buy more than one? If you get any other than the MFT, SSS or Hero Arts ones, let me know which ones and how you like them! I’m dying to sub to the Spellbinders ones but I only have so many $$$!

Enjoy, Rebecca

August 07, 2018

A Duo of Hero Arts Beach Themed Cards

The June Hero Arts kit, which was super popular, was called Sea and Sky. I ADORE everything beach so I sat down right away and made a couple of cards. I posted them on Instagram then promptly forgot to share them with you. It’s a funny thing, once I’ve shared a project in one place, I forget to post it in the other place. So today you get two cards!

beach chairs shaker

You will have to forgive me, I have a terrible memory for somethings due to my disability. Strange though, I can remember a wide variety of useless info! Anyway, back to the card. I painted the ombre background starting with blue and slowly transitioning to turquoise. I love painting my own backgrounds. It works so well for this type of card and I feel like I can justify the purchase of professional paints! {WINK} Can you say ‘Girl Math’?

beach chairs shaker2

The kit came with some sand-look embossing powder. It seems to have two sizes of copper powder, very larger chunks and normal sized bits and tan powder as well. I cut a Polaroid frame then embossed the bottom part so it would appear to have sand under the chairs. For the window, I used some heat-resistant acetate so I could stamp and emboss a white sentiment. I added lots of ocean colours of sequins and star confetti as well as some small shell stamped and die cut pieces to the shaker. Before adhering it to the background, I added a small boat and a dolphin to the background. That way I had two stable images and 3 floating ones inside the shaker. A few Nuvo drops finished this card without adding too crazy much bling.

kraft beach fancy frame card

For this card, I used an add-on to the kit, a fancy beach frame die. I coloured the frame with Copics adding leaves to the palm trees, some shading to the sides and colour to the details on the beach. The background was stamped with the ocean detail stamps from the main kit. There are three stamps total, one solid stamp, one shading stamp and one detail stamp. I stamped the first two normally but altered the way the top layer was to be used. It has a solid layer at the top meant to be used along the horizon and some small lines mean to show the waves. I moved the stamp down to near the shore. I stamped it in versamark omitting the top line then I embossed it in white. This makes the small lines look like froth on top of the waves! I love it when a stamp can be used in another unique way. It’s a shame so much of it ultimately ended up behind the frame.

kraft beach fancy frame card2

Stamping on kraft muted the colours of the stamping which I really liked in this case. It also made the cloud stand out really well. I used several layers of Hero Arts unicorn white for the base layer and white embossed the shading layer. A few sea birds completed the sky. I stamped tiny sandy dots with several colours of tans and browns on the sand area to give it more texture. A few sequins and pearls finished this card.

Do you love to make beach cards in the summer? I have more coming up for you in the next couple of weeks. I’m working on a mixed media piece too. Hopefully I’ll have it done in a few days. If you want to see it as soon as I’m done, follow me on Instagram. There is a link at the top of the blog on my side bar.

Enjoy, Rebecca

Mountain Landscape Sympathy

I’ve been getting into more and more watercolouring lately. I took some classes about 20 years ago but I was never very good. ;) But with it getting so popular and now that we have YouTube, it’s easier than ever to learn how to watercolour!

c4c 18 mountains

So I won’t pretend that this is a masterpiece but since I have no mountain stamps or dies and this week’s challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges was to make a card with a mountain on it, I had to figure something out! I followed a tutorial, step by step, until I had a decent panel. It’s my first try so I’m pretty happy with it. I used my new Silver Brush Company Silver Velvet brush and I can’t even describe how much I love it! It’s a size 8 but the tip is about the same as a size 1! Amazing right? It means that you don’t have to change brushes for some details. It also holds a TON of water! I had no idea how much easier it would be to paint with a brush that holds so much water! If you’ve been hesitating to buy one (or more!!), GO. NOW!!

Have some mountains? Come on over and play with our challenge at C4C!

Enjoy, Rebecca