It’s been such a long time since I’ve posted here but the new year is a great time to start afresh! A friend recently asked me to make her bridesmaid-request cards and we had fun sharing inspirational ideas from Pinterest! She wanted each card to be personalized so I created the wording on the computer then printed each one out. I created three designs for her to choose from! The first card was made with the main image from Simon Says Stamp’s Beautiful Flowers. I inked up the stamp with Stampin Up’s Not Quite Navy and stamped it on the top and bottom of a panel of white card stock then created a watercolor effect with a damp paintbrush. A white card base kept the overall design sweet and simple!For her next option, I used a new set from Stampendous called Wild Rose Cling and it’s simple spray of blossoms was stamped with black ink onto two corners of my panel. I colored the wild roses with Copics, making the leaves two shades of blue and finally, added a dotted background with a gray Copic marker after outlining the overall design with the same gray marker. I mounted this to a base of navy card stock which made the white really pop!The third and last choice was created using Simon Says Stamp Beautiful Flowers again, but this time I created a border at the top and bottom of the card using permanent black ink, then colored with Copic markers, trying to feature reds, pinks and a hint of blue. I added a layer of navy behind the colored panel then mounted that to a white base card,This is the final card made for her matron of honor and three bridesmaids; I added more red and a hint of red/orange ink to the blossoms to deepen the colors and then outlined the images with a gray marker to ground the design.The two junior bridesmaids will receive this card in the mail, asking them to join the wedding party; I’m not sure how old the girls are but I think they’ll feel very special to be asked to participate and also to get their own personalized request card! I enjoyed spending time just coloring and creating in my stamp room to fill this order and hope to share more cards with you soon! Thanks for visiting!
I was thrilled to receive a box of goodies from Ranger Ink this week and hurried right into my stamp room to play! Just look at this assortment! First of all, how cute is this Flower Pot Stamp/Die/Stencil set by Wendy Vecchi?? I also received seven rolls of MAKE ART Washi Tape, six Wendy Vecchi MAKE ART dye ink pads in lovely colors and a pack each of Perfect Cardstock, in Perfect White Panels and Perfect Grey Panels! Time to get busy!! I knew that I’d be using the cute little cactus stamp along with one of the leafy plant stamps so began by stamping out the images individually onto a piece of Perfect White Cardstock (which was smooth as buttah!!) then coloring with Copic markers! I did use the dies to cut out the flower pots but they left more of a white border than I like, so I trimmed them down a tad more. Setting those aside, I began on my background panel. Using a makeup brush, I softly blended Leaf Green on the lower portion of a panel of Perfect White Cardstock, then brushed Forget-Me-Not at the top, joining them in the center with a little bit of Pink Peony. Next, I created a leafy green section at the bottom with several of the little stamps, again with Leaf Green Dye ink. This helped to ground my flower pots! It took me a few minutes to play around with an arrangement that I liked then attached two of the pots directly to the panel with adhesive and added foam tape to the center pot for lift. As a finishing touch, I added one of the Simple Strips sentiments by Taylored Expressions before mounting the finished panel to a white base card. Now, if only I had a new neighbor, I’d bring them a hot dish, a new plant and this card! I hope you’re inspired to take a peek at all the inspiring products and projects on the Ranger Ink website and blog! Thanks for stopping by!
Hi there! Thanks for stopping by! I want to share a couple cards I recently made after being inspired (once again!) by a glorious card I saw on Instagram! Kristina, of @lachristanel shared THIS beauty and I was immediately enchanted!! I love all the layers and her coloring and the spatters!! Of course, it made my fingers itch to get into my stamp room and try my hand at something like it!The first thing I did was to white-emboss the blossoms, leaves and sprigs from Beautiful Day by Altenew onto a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock and proceeded to color them using Kuretake Zig markers. I typically go bold with colors but wanted these to be light and soft which meant using a delicate hand with the ink. NOT my usual way! The colors I used are as follows: Light Pink, Dark Pink, Pale Pink, Flesh, Olive, Mid-Green, Yellow Green, Ochre, Light Gray and a teensy bit of Black for the flower centers. I used a generous amount of water to move and blend the ink and a spattering of water droplets created the lovely speckled effect! Setting these aside, I began on the background; on a panel of pale gray card stock, I stamped out the outline image of the flower and sprig with black ink, then added a geometric accent with a bit of grid stencil and Hickory Smoke distress oxide ink. The sentiment, from Simon Says Stamp’s Beautiful Flowers set was stamped directly onto the card stock with more black ink. I arranged the watercolored images in a pleasing arrangement, lifting a few with foam tape. I absolutely LOVE how this card came out! I doubled my fun by creating a second card using the leftover images I’d colored from Beautiful Day! But this time I used a completely different background made with DIY Gesso and Brutus Monroe’s Hit The Brick background stamp. I spread a thin layer of the gesso onto the stamp, then stamped it onto a panel of watercolor paper. I was so thrilled with the awesome texture and dimension! When the gesso was dry, I sponged a bit of Bundled Sage distress oxide ink over it then spattered on some of the Zigs inks as well. I taped down a swirl of silver cording as a pretty accent then arranged the stamped images over the cording and lifted the blossom with a bit of foam tape. To complete my card, I attached assorted colored half-beads and a few droplets of Crystal Effects onto the blossom. I found this sentiment in my stash and love how the black really stands out on the otherwise soft and delicate card! Of the two cards I made, this one is definitely my favorite! Which one is yours? I hope you’ve been inspired to get creative with your stamps and inks! Come again!
I’ve been a Pinterest junkie for many years and have pinned hundreds of cards to copy! Today I’d like to share some of my all-time favorite CopyCat Christmas cards from years past! My first card is a natural beauty; just look at the glow in the center!! I found THIS card on Pinterest a couple years ago, and ordered the Tim Holtz Great Outdoors set just so I could make it! And believe me, I have more cards using this set in my Pinterest board to copy! Karen Dunbrook is one of my favorite card artists and I’ve gotten to know her a little through social media lately, but when I found this card of hers a few years ago on Pinterest, I immediately saved it to copy! I changed it up a little with the addition of die-cut pine needles but I wish I could claim this simple yet striking beauty as my own design! You all know that I’m a huge fan of Stampendous stamps and this is one of the first ones I purchased after seeing THIS card on Pinterest! I’ve made a number of cards using Christmas Cottage but this is one of my favorites! Funny to see my old photography! How adorable is this?! This is Unity Stamp’s Owl Warm-hearted set and I just love how sweet these two are, perched on their little branch! I don’t often use patterned paper but I like it here! Is it any wonder that I love pointsettia stamps?! I first discovered Stampendous’ Jumbo Pointsettia via Pinterest with THIS image which grabbed me by the throat!! It’s a long-retired stamp but I hunted it down a number of years ago and found it on ebay. I cannot stop making cards with it!! Distress oxide inks are game-changers for me! I’ve always loved distress inks and the cool effects you get with them, but the oxides velvety finish make my artist heart sing! I used Stampin Up’s retired Snowflakes set on this card and a sentiment from Penny Black’s Believe set. Gold glitter card stock is also a favorite! Speaking of gold glitter stock, isn’t this ornate die-cut frame gorgeous?! I bought it at AC Moore and just love it, paired here with Tim Holtz’ Holiday Greens Mini Thinlets, some distress ink, another sentiment from that Penny Black Believe set and a few golden Nuvo Drops! This sweet image is one I found on Pinterest a couple years ago, resized it to A2 size and printed it out on my computer! I had recently gotten my first Prismacolor pencils and just loved coloring these adorable little mice! My final favorite CopyCatCard from Christmas’s past is this one featuring the AMAZING Snowy Postcard stamp by, of course, Stampendous!! I’ve always been drawn to vintage images that are rendered in a realistic manner and Pinterest is overflowing with unbelievable cards made with this stamp! Here’s one that I’ve saved to my board, and here’s another.
Hello friends! I just participated in my first craft show in a few years and at a larger venue (high school) than I’ve ever done before, and want to share with you my review of the day and observations! Here I am, set up the night before and happily excited about the show! This is an older banner with my non-married name! If you plan to do shows more than once or twice, having a banner with your name/logo/info is an important part of your display. I bought the one pictured above from Vistaprint about eight years ago and think I paid $35 for it. Here’s the one that I’ve updated and just ordered today using a Black Friday discount which will make it $23!
I researched craft show/display/table arrangements/sale items etc for a couple months via Pinterest and picked the brains of other stampers via my Facebook stamping groups, and one thing mentioned was to create height in your display. So I looked for and found the blue revolving rack on the left, the little wooden shelves in the center and a wire birdcage sort of thing, all at Goodwill! Interesting though that most people didn’t even look up at my painted canvases on the top shelf; they all were looking down at the table as they perused!We saw a wonderful setup using bi-fold doors which looked like this but hers was wider, had no gap in the center and created a fabulous back “wall” for her space. She had a table on either side of this, creating a U shape and it was very inviting. Tim and I both loved it so now will go search at Goodwill and reStore for bi-fold doors!Another thing is that many crafter’s said NOT to display every single item you have but to arrange them in a pleasing way and only add more as needed. I ended up removing a few of the post-it note holders from the bottom shelf and moving the items closer to the front. And none of the post-it note holders sold but all the calendars did! I bought my little calendars from Taylored Expressions! Today they’re $2.10 for a pack of TEN! :O I may create prettier packaging for my clothespin magnets, and add five to a package but still sell individual ones. Another stamper suggested using many different styles of paper on them, including holiday designs. I made these the day before the show but will invest more time in them!Here is my display of alcohol ink prints. I was disappointed not to sell more and wonder if I’d had them all standing and arranged nicely, if they’d be more visually appealing. I enjoyed talking about the inks and some people were quite interested. If we build the bi-fold doors display then these would go on that.Many experienced craft show vendors say to give your customers a deal or a freebie with your name/business info on them . I didn’t want to take the time to make little freebies so opted for the bowl of chocolate and little sticker dots on the bottom of some with $2 off! This was a hit and caused some people to find something to buy in order to use the “coupon”! And only a couple little boys dug around to find the dot! 😀 *BTW, the one alcohol ink print that sold was because the customer got a $2 off sticker and that made them go for it! Who knew that just $2 would make the difference!?This is a secondhand item I purchased for craft show display and yet I don’t love how it looked. I attached the ornaments with little clothespins but two of them dropped and shattered. We may just buy some really small S hooks to use instead and fill in some of the empty spaces with more clip-on pointsettias and little lights. At least for holiday shows! It also doesn’t revolve so perhaps a lazy susan beneath it would be more convenient.We displayed my cards in various vintage boxes, baskets and glass dishes and although they looked pretty, customers didn’t seem to spend much time rifling through the cards. It seems that spinning card racks are a more popular and effective way to display cards, so I’ll be on the hunt for one or two! I took the time to type out my price signs so that they were all consistent and easy to read. If I continue to do shows, I’ll probably laminate them so they’ll last longer.It was sad to realize that so many of my beautiful cards weren’t seen!My daughter loaned us a rug to “cozy” up our space; it also helped to define the space a little more and I’ll be searching for something prettier that matches my color scheme!I spent most of the day standing, walking around my area, greeting customers as they approached, engaging them in conversation and asking them if they know anything about rubber stamping. By about 2pm I had to sit down for a few minutes! Wear comfortable shoes, bring a chair and do take time to rest if you can! But be available for questions and to interact with people in a warm and welcoming manner! They may remember that the next time!I loved having my three girls help out at the show and in the preparation beforehand. Many hands make light work, so the break down, packing up and getting it all back home went quickly! We ordered Chinese and watched a movie afterward! The support of family and friends is such a blessing to this crafter!My husband, Tim, is my champion and right hand man! He is always 100% supportive and encouraging of my work, takes care of all the technical stuff for my blog, hauls my stuff around for me and does everything he can to be a help! He stayed all day at the craft show and that meant so much to me! I hope you got some tips and pointers from this post and that you’ll consider doing a craft show yourself! It’s a lot of work but can be so rewarding in ways that are not just monetary! Thanks for reading!
It’s been really fun to use Brutus Monroe‘s new Deco Foils in my cards the past week or so! It’s not something I typically add and I’m really happy to be expanding my supplies and techniques! I created this card to be featured on Brutus Monroe’s blog today, and want to share it with you here as well! Isn’t it almost magical?! This foil is called Tide Pool and it just shimmers with soft colors and pattern! Hence, my ocean theme!I used soft aqua and purple to bring out the colors in the foil. That beautifully textured embossing folder on the base card is called Waves by Spellbinders. Using Marble clear toner sheet, I adhered the Tide Pool foil with my laminator then die-cut a circle from it. A larger die-cut circle in dark purple gave it a nice frame which I adhered to the card base. On a piece of watercolor cardstock, I heat-embossed in silver the coral, fish and seashell from Stampin Up’s retired By The Tide set, then colored them with my Zig markers.
I arranged my pieces over the circles and attached them with glue and foam tape for dimension. The sentiment is from Stampendous’ Laurel Burch Imagine Butterflies set and I silver embossed that onto a strip of dark purple card stock, then added a couple faux water droplets for accent. I went a little crazy with my Crystal Effects by making more droplets all around the card, then to top it off, added sequins! Sometimes I just can’t stop and yet, I think all the elements work well together! I’m really happy with the overall design of this and think that the Tide Pool foil is the prettiest focal point!
CopyCatCards 