Most stampers and card makers know that the term “CASE” means “copy and share everything” and I DO like to copy!! I’m continually impressed and inspired by other’s work and today’s card is no exception! Lauren Lovato is a designer for Brutus Monroe and she recently shared THIS card which I fell in love with! I’m always drawn to watercolored, spatter-y backgrounds and leaves and sprigs are some of my favorite design elements! Her card combined both so I had to CASE! (Technically, I made this card prior to seeing Lauren’s aforementioned card!) This was made specifically for my daughter’s birthday; Sara is an amazing poet and going to grad school this fall for Writing and Publishing. I’m so proud of her for pursuing her goals and “following her bliss”! The very first thing I did was to heat-emboss in black this encouraging sentiment from Stamplorations into the center of a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock. I then pulled out an old Stampin Up set called Remarkable You which I recently found on ebay and heat-embossed the leaves image using Versamark ink and then clear embossing powder. Next, I tapped out Fossilized Amber distress oxide ink onto my craft mat, spritzed with water and laid my card stock into it, then repeated that process with Mowed Lawn distress ink, and Forest Moss distress oxide ink, drying in between layers with a heat tool. As a nod to the written word, I had to add the Dictionary background stamp by Stampin Up in black over the whole card front. I rubbed off the excess inks with a paper towel to reveal the crisp white leaf outlines. Lastly, I sponged Black Soot distress oxide ink around the edges then mounted the panel to a white card base. I really, really love this card and Sara did too! I think it’s quite ironic that I had just created the Follow Your Bliss card for Sara, and then saw Lauren’s card online! Here’s my CASE of hers! Again, I used Stampin Up’s Remarkable You leaves image and embossed them in black onto a panel of Bristol Smooth. Using Zig markers, I began by scribbling a little Deep Blue into the crannies between the stems of the leaves, then moved and blended the ink outward with a water brush. I did a section at a time, letting it dry in one area then going back in to add another layer of color and water. When the dark blue background was filled in, I used Dark Pink on the leaves and again, a waterbrush to move the ink. Persian Green was then added to the leaves and blended with more water. I like that the Pink and Green colors bled into the Deep Blue background! I happily spattered on all three Zig colors and a little extra black then die-cut the circle of vellum, embossed the sentiment with black powder and attached it to my watercolored panel. A few little jewels added extra pizzazz and a black card base finished my card! Thanks to Lauren for her inspiration! I hope you will take the time to view her creations on her Instagram page or blog!
Welcome, card-loving friends! I haven’t posted in a little while and decided to look through my photo files to see what I have that may be of interest! I came across these cards which I made recently using a retired Stampin Up set called Remarkable You. I’ve admired cards made with this set for a long time but resisted buying it from ebay because it was more money than I wanted to spend. But at last I gave in and I’m glad I did! The large images allow for lots of color and texture and I love the bold lines! Unfortunately, I took the photos at night so the lighting isn’t great. On a piece of watercolor paper I heat-embossed the lotus blossom twice in black and then the leaves around them. Using a large paintbrush, I spread water generously all around the images then dropped in yellow paint from my Gansai Tambi watercolor set to create a bright and cheerful background. I painted the blossoms several times with shades of red, drying in between layers and then did a quick wash of green on the leaves. A spattering of black and white craft paint add a little more visual interest and the bold letters of the sentiment seemed to perfectly complement the overall design. I die-cut the panel with Stitched Rectangle dies then mounted it to a base card of vanilla card stock. I’m really happy with how this turned out!This is my second card made with Remarkable You and it’s a very different vibe with it’s cool, velvety tones of blue and warm shades of brown. The blossoms were stamped and embossed with Brutus Monroe’s Coffee Grounds embossing powder onto a panel of watercolor paper, then with a dark brown Zig marker, I scribbled on some color. I used a waterbrush to soften and blend the ink for a loose watercolor look. To create the background I painted a generous wash of water all over the paper and around the flower images. I tapped out Broken China, Evergreen Bough and Cracked Pistachio distress oxide inks onto my craft mat and spritzed with water, then picked up the color with a damp paintbrush and filled in the color in layers, drying between applications. I spattered more of the inks onto the background as well. When the panel was dry, I used the same Dark Brown Zig marker to write out the words then spritzed it with more water to soften and break down the ink. I wish now that I’d used a softer, more subtle shade of brown or even an aqua marker but all in all, I like how the style of the writing mimics the lines of the flowers. I cut this panel down with Stitched Rectangle dies, sponged Walnut Distress ink around the edges then mounted it to a card base of vanilla. I can’t decide which card I like the best; can you?! Thank you, as always, 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!
I was poking around just now in my CopyCatCard photo files and stumbled upon these fabulous backgrounds!!! How did I not share them with you??!! 😀 Anyone who knows me, knows that I absolutely love floral stamps, and floral cards and FLOWERS! I’ve had this gorgeous background stamp called Roses All Over (made by My Favorite Things) for a couple years and earlier this summer I got it out to play with. The image on the left was made by heat-embossing in white onto a piece of Bristol Smooth card stock and watercolored with my Zig markers. Basically, I scribbled randomly over the roses then used a sloppy wet paintbrush to move the color. Isn’t it BEAUTIFUL?! The one on the right was embossed in gold and I smooshed distress oxide inks onto my craft mat and then just tapped my card stock in it, moving it around to distribute and layer the color. Equally gorgeous!Here’s what I made with the distress oxide background! I used Lawn Fawn’s Stitched Hillside Border dies to cut out the center and mounted it onto a white base card and embossed my sentiment in the opening. Notice the lovely roses on the left; they’re from Stampendous’ Rose Garden, gold-embossed as well and painted with more oxide ink then die-cut. Oh! I used Gina Marie Designs Stitched Rectangle dies for the outside edge. How do you like my photo setting? I stuck my card in a pot of begonias to photograph it!This little lovely is made with my Zig-watercolored background which I die-cut using Gina Marie Designs Stitched Ovals set. My base card was embossed with one of my favorite folders, Manhattan Flower by Stampin Up. I mounted the oval onto another oval cut from fun foam and die-cut Hero Arts Happy out of white fun foam! I adhered that to a strip of bright pink card stock and used a little tape to attach it. I then embossed “Anniversary” (from Stampendous Big Word Happy) onto another strip but lifted it with a little foam tape. I just love how bright and cheery this card is and so happy that I found these images to share with you! I love hearing from you so keep commenting! 🙂 XO
It’s been wickedly hot here in Vermont the last few days and will continue to be so for the rest of the week! We don’t own a pool so I’m keeping cool in my stamp room! Sometimes I have no idea which direction my creativity will take me and today was like that. I sat at my desk wondering what on earth to work on, so began searching through my stamps for something I haven’t used much. I came across this wonderful striped background stamp called Cabana Stripes by Echo Park Paper Co. One of my favorite design combos is stripes with florals so that’s what I decided to do!Upon further searching around, I came across one 12X12 sheet of this beautiful soft rose cardstock and it inspired my color choices for this card! Rose and gold!! So feminine and so elegant! This called for Altenew‘s Beautiful Day set! I began by heat-embossing the outline images in gold onto Bristol Smooth card stock, and chose Zig colors of soft pink, peach, flesh and ochre. (I’ve been using my Copic markers so much lately, that I forgot how much I love Zigs!) When I finished coloring, I used Beautiful Day dies to cut them out.Anyway, setting the blossoms aside, I inked up Cabana Stripes with Versamark and stamped it onto another piece of Bristol Smooth paper, then added gold embossing powder. I LOVE that the stamp didn’t adhere 100% so it left these wonderful “distressed” looking spots with no color! I just bought Tim Holtz’ Tattered Rose distress oxide ink, so tapped some onto my craft mat, spritzed with water then tapped my panel into the ink. After drying it, I trimmed the panel down with Gina Marie Designs Stitched Rectangle dies and adhered it to my base card upon which I’d used Stampin Up’s Manhattan Flower embossing folder. I think that nicely compliments the blossoms and adds even more texture! Next I arranged my die-cut pieces and mounted them with layers of foam tape. Lastly, I gold-embossed the simple yet sweet sentiment from Brutus Monroe‘s Super Sentimental set onto a strip of the rose card stock and tucked it in along the left side. Voila! A combination of stamps from a variety of companies to create one gorgeous card! Now…who’s birthday is coming up…?! 😀
Sometimes it’s hard to come up with great “man cards” and I certainly am known for making tons of florals! But over the years I’ve created some masculine cards which I really love and want to share with you today! My first one is made using a very old, retired Stampin Up set called Fly Fishing. I’ve had it for many years and will never get rid of it! I used Stampin Up’s retired Old World Map and Crackle background stamps, Crumb Cake ink, and the images from Fly Fishing. Sponging ink around the edges and roughing them up gives this card a great distressed look! How about that lifted corner with a fishing fly stamped behind it?! 🙂 This card was also made with Stampin Up’s retired Old World Map and a very cool texture stamp which I’ve had for years. The ship image is one I bought from a Facebook stamping group, and I don’t know who made it. I think the little knotted twine gives this an added nautical feel! Okay, so a beer card!!! I made this for my husband and he loved it! I used Unity Stamp’s Keep Calm- Have A Beer set and embossed it in black then colored the beer with Zig markers. I added Crystal Effects clear glue as a glaze to depict the glass…just wish I’d thought to add beer foam somehow! The sentiment is also from awesome Unity Stamps! What guy doesn’t love a card with a vintage car?! I found and printed off this map of Vermont, sizing it down to fit my card and used images from Tim Holtz’ set Road Trip. The Chevelle stamp is made by Deep Red Stamps company. A fun baseball themed card using Stampin Up’s Take Me Out To The Ballgame and assorted texture stamps. The base card was embossed and sponged with ink to make the stars stand out. I love this card! This card was made especially for my husband who was taking guitar lessons at the time. The sentiment was perfect and the brown metal thingie is something I’d had in my stash for ages! I think it all came together beautifully! Isn’t this so serenely beautiful?! The main image is from Northwoods Rubber Stamps and I just love it! The base card was embossed with a pine branch embossing folder. I used Stampin Up’s Woodgrain background stamp on the sentiment strip. Here’s another ship card using the wonderful set Getting There by Tim Holtz! Distress oxide inks make this background so GORGEOUS!! 😀 Note: more aging/distressing/tearing and roughing up! I can’t stop looking at this card!! Lastly, I’ll end with this cool train card which I copied from one I found on Pinterest! Tim Holtz Getting There train and tickets…I hope you enjoyed my array of masculine cards and are inspired to create some of your own!
CopyCatCards 