Do you have a friend who creates beautiful things and makes you want to have what she has?! Well, Theresa is that friend of mine and she’s a fabulous card maker! I love her style of cards and she recently made a bunch using Tim Holtz’ Snowflake Bigz die! So, you know…I had to have it, found it on ebay and bought it! Thanks a lot, friend!! 😀 It’s not a thin metal die, but a big chunky one which meant I had to adjust the “sandwich” in my Cuttlebug! But it’s easy to use and comes with an embossing folder which makes all the snowflake-y lines! For this first card, I cut the snowflake twice, once from snowflake patterned paper and a second one from vellum and then ran them through the Cuttlebug with the embossing folder. Setting those aside, I used the flip-side of that same patterned paper for my card background. It has a beautiful snowy scene with trees and I thought it’d look great with the flake! I adhered that to a base card of blue and heat-embossed the sentiment in silver directly to the panel. Next, I added some glitter glue to the snowflake for some sparkle and attached a pretty gem in the center. When that was dry, I glued it onto my card! Easy as pie! My second card is all a glow with my snowflake cut from gold foil card stock! Again, I embossed the lines onto it then attached it to a panel of gold and cream patterned paper. That went over a layer of more gold foil and onto a cream base card. I heat-embossed the sentiment in gold onto a scrap then layered it onto a scrap of gold. A cream and gold pearl brad completed my gilded snowflake card! I love how the light shines on the gold! For my third card, I die-cut the snowflake from a piece of rose-colored glitter card stock and set it aside. I found patterned paper to coordinate and heat-embossed Tim Holtz’ Mini Swirly Snowflakes in silver onto a panel I’d cut to fit my card front. I also sponged Aged Mahogany distress ink around the edges of the paper AND the snowflake! My sentiment is from Stampendous’ Create A Pointsettia and I also embossed that in silver onto a scrap of white card stock, then sponged more Aged Mahogany around it’s edges! I adhered the snowflake to the card front then added the sentiment with a bit of foam tape for lift. My final snowflake card is much more subdued and yet is just as beautiful! Again, patterned paper sets the tone and I just love this one! I cut the snowflake from a piece of retired Stampin Up paper (no idea of the name!) then sponged Walnut distress ink around the edges. My background paper also got Walnut around the edges. I attached it to a white card base then added the snowflake. Instead of a jewel, I thought this sentiment would go beautifully so stamped it with Peacock Feathers distress oxide ink and clear-embossed over it. I trimmed it down to a little banner and sponged Walnut ink around the edges. I really love the rich colors here and think that this is actually my favorite of all the cards! Which one is yours?! Thanks for visiting!
It’s a fabulously snowy day here in Vermont today and I was thrilled to get the day off! The falling flakes are huge and glorious and remind me of the ones I added to these colorful cards last week! Pinterest is brimming with snowflake cards but this one caught my eye and I just had to copy! The funny thing is, I meant to use my white pigment ink, and mistakenly grabbed my black instead! But I LOVE how the flakes look in black, don’t you?! And I just love this retired set from Stampin Up called Snowflakes! So I began with a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock and laid it onto the distress oxide ink I’d tapped onto my craft mat and spritzed with water. I started with Fossilized Amber first, then Candied Apple, added Faded Jeans and finally some Wilted Lilac, drying my panel between each addition of color. I then dusted my panel with my powder pad (so that the embossing ink wouldn’t stick to anything but my stamped images) and then heat-embossed the snowflakes in black! They’re so striking against that glorious background! Lastly, I heat-embossed the sentiment in white onto black scraps and mounted them onto the background with a little foam tape. A layer of white then the black card base completed my card! This is the second card I made using the same techniques. I used Fossilized Amber, Faded Jeans, and Evergreen Bough and heat-embossed the sentiment in black directly onto my panel! A black base card finished it off. I never get tired of feasting my eyes on distress oxide backgrounds!! Tim Holtz, you’re a freaking GENIUS!!! 😀 My final card is just as gorgeous as the first two! For this one I used Candied Apple, Fired Brick, Worn Lipstick and Black Soot oxide inks. Snowflakes in white and sentiment embossed in black onto the card itself. How about that border of black on the white base card??!! LOVE!! I leave you with this final view of my card and send Warm Winter Wishes to you! I’m deeply grateful for each one of you who follow me here, comment on my work and continue to support and encourage me! You make my heart happy!
It’s Ugly Sweater season again! And just in time Stampendous offers this adorable Cool Penguin Clear Stamps & Cutting Dies set! In fact, Stampendous will give away 3 Cool Penguin sets randomly drawn from the comments on all blog posts featuring this set from November 25th-December 8th! Check out the Stampendous blog HERE. Now, onto my card! I like a little bling as much as the next penguin, but this little chick is rockin’ her sequin-loaded ugly sweater!! To create my card, I began by stamping the penguin, sweater and hat onto a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock and colored them in with Zig markers. I forgot that the dies came with the set and fussy-cut out the images. GAH!! Don’t do that!I have a stash of plain old craft sequins so dug through and found the red, yellow and green ones to bling out the sweater and hat, gluing them over the colored images. I added a dot of glitter glue to each one as well and a bigger blob to the pompom on the hat! I then glued the sweater and hat onto the penguin.Setting that aside, I started on my background! On another piece of Bristol Smooth I stamped and embossed the snowflakes with white powder, then sponged Lemonade and Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide inks over it. Using my border dies, I cut the snowy landscape from Brutus Monroe’s Fallen Snow Glitterstock, and adhered them to the pretty background, then added a little line of glitter glue beneath my penguin. I heat-embossed the sentiment onto a scrap of green card stock, cut it down and attached that as well.Let’s take one last look at this Ugly Sweater before moving on to my next card!I confess that I don’t LIKE ugly sweaters so had to make a beautiful one too! Again, I stamped my images onto Bristol Smooth card stock and colored with Zig markers. Again, I forgot to use my dies and fussy-cut the pieces and then pressed each one onto my Versamark pad to coat with clear ink, then used clear embossing powder to create a glossy glaze! I glued them onto the penguin and set it aside.I decided to make a beautiful night sky behind my little girl, so on another piece of Bristol Smooth card stock, I sponged Wilted Violet, Fossilized Amber and Broken China Distress Oxide inks randomly over the paper, then sponged a layer of Blueprint Sketch to cover the colors and finally a layer of Black Soot, letting some of the colors show through. A spattering of water created “stars” and a spattering of white paint added more!
I cut the snowy landscape from Brutus Monroe’s Fallen Snow Glitterstock, and attached it to the sponged panel. Using a sentiment from Stampendous’ Merry Words, I heat embossed Believe in white directly onto my background layer, then the smaller sentiment onto a strip of black card stock which I adhered with adhesive. A base card of white completed my card. I actually love both cards and will bring them to my upcoming craft show to sell! Thanks for visiting!!
I don’t really consider myself an “artist” per se and I can’t draw to save my life so creating beautiful art with rubber stamps is what I do instead! I found these little 4 X 6 canvases at the Dollar Tree and bought a bunch to play with! They’re the perfect size for my favorite Jumbo Poinsettia stamp by Stampendous! Sadly, it’s long retired, so you have to hunt it down on ebay or etsy. I’ve created a series of these to sell at the holiday craft fairs this season! I especially love the lavender and yellow background of this one! I coated the canvas with a layer of white craft paint which made a smoother surface to work on, and heat-embossed the image in black. I used my Gansai Tambi watercolor paints to do all of these.I actually painted this one first and I forgot to cover the surface with white craft paint first but it still worked! I do rather like the texture! Of course, I had to add black and white paint spatters!I love the dark background on this canvas and how it makes the red blossom really stand out! I used a white Posca paint pen to add highlights.Another gorgeous red poinsettia, this time on a soft golden background.
This was the last canvas I painted for the craft show; I decided to try painting a white blossom which of course, is more than just white! In hind sight, perhaps it’d be more true to life if I’d had a photograph in front of me to copy! I’m happy with it anyway and will be interested to see if these sell at the craft show! Thank you so much for visiting!
I’ve created this tutorial to help show you how I created this beautiful canvas. Be warned! I am super comfortable in the world of stamping, but this is only my second Video Creation, so please be patient with me!
Do you love birds? Do you love to stamp and color birds? Then you’ll love this set! It’s called Holiday Birds Cling Stamps & Dies by Stampendous and it’s just beautiful! I’m always drawn to realistic images and these were a joy to color and create with! I began by inking up the fabulous Pointsettia Collage stamp (by Stampendous too!) with Forest Moss distress oxide ink, spritzed the stamp with a mist of water then stamped it onto a panel of Bristol Smooth card stock. I set it aside to dry and stamped out both bird images onto another piece of Bristol Smooth and heat-embossed them in gold. I loved coloring them with my Zig markers, using a water brush to move and blend the ink. After coloring the image, I cut them out with the convenient dies! To construct this card, I wrapped a length of gold ribbon around the watercolored background panel and taped it down on the back. I sponged more Forest Moss oxide ink around the edges then attached it to my base card of olive green. On a scrap of olive card stock, I heat-embossed the sentiment (from Stampendous Merry Words Clear stamps) and then die-cut the glittery pine needles from a Gina Marie Designs die. I tucked the pine needles behind the bird then attached it to the ribbon with a couple pieces of foam tape. The sentiment was adhered just below the Merry Christmas sentiment which is part of the background stamp! This card was done exactly the same way except I used the little wren instead of the cardinal. I think they’re both very festive and may tuck these away for personal use! Thank you so much for visiting! 🙂
I know! I know! MORE pointsettia’s, you say?! Who wouldn’t want to create beautiful cards all day with the amazing Stampendous images?! I fussed around a bit more to make this card and think it’s just beautiful! Here’s what I did! As usual, I began with a panel of Bristol Smooth card stock and embossed the Stampendous Pointsettia Collage using Brutus Monroe’s November Embossing Powder of the Month called Golden Gourd; it’s not gold, but a pretty light coppery color! I embossed the image again onto an extra piece of Bristol Smooth so I could paint it and cut it out.Before doing that though, I created my background by smooshing some Fossilized Amber and Cracked Pistachio distress oxide inks onto my craft mat, then spritzed with water and tapped my panel into the ink, shifting the card stock to place the color where I wanted it. Isn’t it so pretty?!I painted my blossoms with Gansai Tambi watercolor paints, adding dark red and dark pink, drying between layers for depth of color. When they were dry, I fussy-cut them out and attached them to my background panel with a little glue. The final touch was to add some micro-beads to the flower centers then place a few sequins around the background for accent.To finish my card, I cut the background down using Stitched Rectangle dies, then attached it to a layer of textured gold card stock, then to a white card base. I stamped the envelope using the pointsettia from Tim Holtz’ Mini Holidays stamp set and Greetings is from Penny Black’s Believe set which is all Christmas sentiments. I have so many other holiday stamps so I guess I should set aside my pointsettia’s till next year! Thank you for your visit; I so appreciate you!
CopyCatCards 