Happy Day // Avery Elle

I'm over on the MarkerPOP! blog today, sharing a cute baby card, using the adorable Avery Elle Woodland Wonders stamp set...

Check out the blog for more deets!

Birthday Band // Avery Elle

I'm over on the MarkerPOP blog today with a fun party night scene...

Check out the blog for all the deets!

Macho Man // Avery Elle

I'm over at the MarkerPOP blog today with a fun card that was totally inspired by one of my favorite crafters, Melania Deasy.

Drop by the blog for the details!

Happy Wishes // Avery Elle

I'm over on the MarkerPOP blog today with a cute card using the absolutely irresistible Woodland Wonders by Avery Elle.

Pop on over to the blog for more details!

Die Cut Border Card Set // Avery Elle

I have a fun card set to share with you today, the result of trying to make one unblemished card.

This first card is actually the last card I made, the one look that I was going for.

However, I didn't want my cutting and embossing on the previous cards to go to waste, so with some creative layering (i.e. vellum clouds, sequins), I was able to finish the first three.

I took the clouds from the Weather It stamp set coordinating dies, and embossed them into the card base using a Spellbinders tan mat. I then cut around the clouds, getting a sort of window card? Hm, not exactly sure what you'd call this kind of card...;)

I was inspired by the look of the clouds in THIS pin. Embossing with your dies is a great way to get some more use out of dies. 

Of course, THIS little goose was just dying to use THIS umbrella.

They all have such different looks, despite having the same layout. Which one is your favorite? I think I might like the last one best.
This was such a fun way to use up some more patterned paper - I can't even believe how little I use it these days!
This is for the AEI{heart}U Friendship challenge (click on the badge to go to the challenge)

For a chance to win a $30 Altenew gift card, please visit THIS post.
Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Michaels
Patterned paper: American Crafts Crate Paper and Dear Lizzy
Stamps: Avery Elle Storybook and Weather It
Ink: Versafine, Tim Holtz
Other: enamel dots (My Minds Eye), sequins (Avery Elle), vellum

Tools: Cuttlebug, Avery Elle Weather It and Storybook dies

Flying Dog // My Favorite Things

Today I'm popping in with a fun shaker card for the MFT Color Challenge #38 and the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge (Ray of Sunshine).

To start off, I blended a background for the two pink colors in the challenge, using some Distress Inks. I made it a shaker using some Martha Stewart star confetti, and Darice sequins.
Making shaker cards with My Favorite Things stamps has definitely become a thing for me recently. I'm not exactly sure why, but I'm totally blaming Melania Deasy. ;)

The rest of the card finished simply off with an adorable colored pup, a bunch of balloons (created from the one balloon in THIS cute stamp set), string, an embossed sentiment and vellum clouds.

I colored the dog with my Zig's, and for the balloons, I only had a rather bright shade of yellow. To tone it down and get a gradient look, I used my Wink of Stella pen to blend it out, which had the added bonus of adding some nice shimmer. The Zig's actually blend really well with the Michael's brand cardstock (which is also nice and heavy, at 110 lb) - at least, their newer cardstock.

I found some cardstock I bought this past summer noticeably different from cardstock I bought in December. The older, summer cardstock was a little creamier in tone (which I prefer), but was kinda horrible when it came to coloring. The more recent cardstock is dreamy with Zig's, and more pasty white.
I'm playing along with the fun 30 Day Coloring Challenge.

Thanks so much for stopping in today and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Michaels
Stamps: My Favorite Things Top Dog and Birthday Bears
Ink: Distress Ink, Versafine
Other: sequins (Darice), confetti (Martha Stewart), vellum and string (stash), Zig Clean Color brushes

Tools: Cuttlebug, My Favorite Things Top Dog die, Avery Elle Double Pierced Rectangles die, Paper Smooches Quote Tag die

Neon Embossing // Hero Arts + WPlus9

It feels like I haven't played along with a non-design team challenge in forever, so I'm here today with a pretty vibrant and funky card.

I wanted to play with my el cheapo embossing powders in a funky way, so I pulled out some bright cardstock scraps and went to town. The powers are from Hampton Arts - I like their gold, white and clear embossing powders, but their colored embossing powders aren't very crisp (luckily that's okay for this card). They also smell kinda funny, like chalk.

To make sure that the sentiment could be distinguishable from the distracting background, I stamped the sentiment on vellum and framed it with a black cardstock die cut circle. I had the "for everything" banner already stamped from a previous project, but I didn't like how it turned out for that project. However, since this was just a quicky project, I decided to use it - I really love to use up my scraps, imperfect as they are.

This card is for the WPlus9 Get Sketchy #4 challenge, the Simon Says Stamp thanks challenge, and the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge (neon).

Thanks for stopping in today and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Canson, Bazzill
Stamps: Hero Arts Designer Woodgrain, WPlus9 Hand Lettered Thanks
Ink: Versamark, Stazon
Other: embossing powders (Hampton Arts), sequins (Avery Elle), vellum

Tools: Cuttlebug, Lifestyle Crafts circle dies

Custom Stamped Background // Avery Elle

Hi all, I'm stopping in today with a card for two challenges, that focuses on making your own custom stamped background.

I started with the Storybook stamp set (I know, I know, I'm obsessed!) from Avery Elle, and instead of using the images as focal points, I used them to create a soft focal background (not sure if that's an oxymoron or not...) piece.

I covered my watercolor panel with some anti-static powder (corn starch is a good substitute) then began stamping all the images from the set. I would stamp one or two images, then cover them with white glitter embossing powder, then resume stamping, repeating the process. Once everything was stamped, I heat embossed everything and went in with some soft watercolor.

I topped the card off with a bold but simple heat embossed sentiment from the Ellie stamp set (which I'm also obsessed with) and a few sequins.

I placed my finished panel on a piece of kraft cardstock that I had already embossed from a previous project.

That finishes up the card, made for the AEI{heart}U Embossing challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge.
Thanks so much for the kind words and have a lovely day!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink, Canson
Stamps: Avery Elle "Storybook" and "Ellie"
Ink: Versamark, Tim Holtz
Other: sequins, embossing powder (Hampton Art, Hero Arts)

Tools: Cuttlebug, heat gun, water, paintbrush

Stamped Background Focus // Avery Elle

Hello, I'm here today with a card background made using two small image stamps.
This card is for the AEI{heart}U Embossing challenge, with the entire embossed background created using the two small branch images from the adorable Storybook stamp set.
Seriously, can't stop using it.

I topped off the little fawn with an embossed bow, and added some embossed butterflies to give the fawn something to look at. Once I had heat embossed the butterflies, I flipped them over and colored their wings using a Distress Ink marker. After coloring, I zapped the butterflies once more with the heat gun, so that the marker coloring didn't smear.

I did some simple coloring on the fawn with a Memento Marker in Desert Sand. This is the best it gets from someone coloring impaired (i.e. me). ;)

I doubled up the white part of the frame, just to give a little dimension to the project. 

And guess what? I made a video!

That's it for me today! Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Bazzill

Stamps: Avery Elle "Storybook", Lawn Fawn "Beep Boop Birthday"

Ink: Versamark, Versafine, Distress Ink, Memento

Other: embossing powder (Hero Arts)

Tools: Cuttlebug, Papertrey Ink Simply Jane die, Avery Elle Storybook die, Lawn Fawn Beep Boop Birthday die, heat gun

Embossed Scene // Avery Elle

I'm enjoying a nice Saturday with friends - I hope you are enjoying your Saturday as well!

I'm just dropping in real quick to share a scenic card for AEI{heart}U Sparkle challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Monday Anything Goes challenge. 

I have to admit, I was inspired after spotting Nicole's I Wheelie Like You card on Instagram a couple weeks back. The idea of the hamster shadows just really stuck with me, and was the basis for this card.
I stamped the stars and sentiment from Storybook using white glitter embossing powder, and some subtle sparkles using clear glitter embossing powder. The moon was die cut from glitter cardstock - I don't think it's full enough to provide enough light to cast such a striking shadow off the bunny, but a full moon didn't really jive with the design, you know what I mean? ;)
Also, please forgive the bunny's coloring - I usually don't color, and when I do, it's typically with watercolors. However, I already had this critter stamped and die cut from kraft, which doesn't work well with watercolor. I tried to use my three random brown markers to color him, but my shading (if you can even call it that) doesn't do Nicole's original card justice.

That's it for me today! Enjoy your weekend!

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Cardstock: Papertrey Ink, Bazzill, American Crafts
Stamps: Avery Elle "Storybook"
Ink: Versamark, Versafine, Memento, Tim Holtz
Other: embossing powder (Hampton Art)

Tools: heat gun, WRMemory Keepers circle dies, Avery Elle Storybook dies

Tricky Shooting // Avery Elle

It's been a struggle, peeps.
First off, the cards I'm sharing with you today gave me and the camera the darndest time. They simply would not make themselves decent for the camera. Or maybe it was the camera's problem. Either way, I struggled with both camera and cards for a couple days, and I don't have much to show for it.

Secondly, the girl who loathes math and has not taken any math courses in over five years is starting a summer calculus class tomorrow.

The struggle is real.
Anyways, enough complaining from me, and on to the cards, inspired by THIS pin.

This card was made for the Avery Elle Sparkle challenge and the Virginia's View 100% Stamping challenge.
Sometimes, when you use glitter embossing powder (especially the cheapy stuff I have), the embossing won't quite cover the entire image/sentiment and you'll have some odd spots in the embossing.
To avoid this, I inked my stamp with Versamark first (for extra stickiness), then Brilliance gold ink, and topped it off with the glitter embossing powder.

The second card was actually the forerunner of the second one - I just remembered that it was more shiny than sparkly, so that's how the second card came to be.

Usually my cardstock warps when I do heat embossing, but this Bazzill cardstock stood up well. I think embossing the entire front (with stamps from Oh Happy Day) also helped.
The tips of the arrows were filled in gold embossing powder, and the feathers were colored using some Tim Holtz markers.

Thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Cardstock: Bazzill
Stamps: Avery Elle "Oh Happy Day"
Ink: Versamark, Brilliance, Tim Holtz
Other: embossing powder (Hampton Art)

Tools: heat gun

Glitter Shaker Card // Avery Elle

Long time, no see, eh?

Don't worry, I'll make it up with a slew of posts in the next couple days. ;)

I've been working on those blog redesigns for my portfolio, and I'm super excited - the ladies I'm working with are the most generous and kindhearted! Hopefully you'll be able to see the first reveal later today or tomorrow.

For now, I've got some cards for the Avery Elle AEI{heart}U Rainbow challenge - I had so much fun with this challenge, that I couldn't seem to stop!

First up is a shaker card using some chunky glitter I found in the home craft stash (love those random finds), inspired by THIS pin.

I had to curve the trunk of this adorable Ellie to make the rainbow flow backward, instead of forward, so I put a couple strips of adhesive on the clear block. It doesn't hold for long, so quick stamping is a much, but at least it's easy to clean up. 

I didn't have pearls the correct size in blue and yellow, so I simply covered some white ones with nail polish, let them dry, and oila! Custom colored pearls! I may or may not have a stash of nail polish solely for this purpose....

To create the rainbow, I basically die cut a bunch of circles, then used smaller circle dies to cut into the circle, creating the streak. It's a great way to use up scraps!

The rainbow was bottomed by a sentiment from Weather It.

Now for a pastel rainbow card...

I embossed the front of the card, then quickly sketched in the colors - usually being messy with watercolors is a good thing, but I'm not sure if I pulled that off with this card. 

To give the balloons a little more "oomph!", I added a thick coat of Glossy Accents. 

I won't bore you with any more now, especially since I'll be popping in tomorrow with some more rainbow inspired cards (I told you, I couldn't stop!)

Thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Watercolored Roses // Altenew

Popping in with a simple card for Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (friends), Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge (plants) and Altenew's From Places Abroad: Tunisia challenge. As with last month's challenge, I was mostly driven by the striking colors - navy, teal, and orange/gold.

I was really just playing around on this card. For the flowers, I sometimes lightly misted them with water before stamping, and sometimes I stamped them directly and went back in with water and a paintbrush to soften things.
I don't know about you, but I am a huge fan of the watercolor trend - messiness is not only encouraged, but required! ;)

Oh, and isn't that sentiment so fun? I know many friends who this would be perfect to send to.

Thanks so much for stopping in and have a blessed weekend!

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Cardstock: Canson
Sentiment stamp: Papertrey Ink
Colored inks: Studio Calico

Dry Embossed Smooshing // Avery Elle

Six days away from the blog, and I feel like I've fallen off blogland earth.

Not cardmaking world though, as I've been celebrating the beginning of summer break by making a few cards.
Today's card is for the AEI{heart}U challenge (spring) and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (sentimental)

I finally got the hang of the oh-so popular smooching technique, and used it to make a burst of spring colors to set the stage for the fawn. Spring is like that - bursts out of nowhere! I am SO happy to see green trees again!
But, I digress.
I wanted to do a little something extra with the smooching though, so I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder to partially emboss the front. This triangle embossing folder by Cuttlebug is a great embossing folder staple - trust me, I only have two!

I topped off the card with a ever-so-slightly colored fawn from Storybook, die cut washi butterfly, an embossed sentiment from the Ellie stamp set, and a strip of washi.

That's all for me today - thank for stopping in and God bless!

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Supplies not shown:
Cardstock: Canson (white), Papertrey Ink (kraft), Bazzill (black)
Other: washi tape (Target), purple ink (Papertrey Ink), pink ink (Studio Calico), embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Shaker card // Lawn Fawn

Things were getting a little too girly around here again, so here I am with no-frills card to shake things up! (sorry, that was awful ;))
This card is for this weeks Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (anything goes) and for the SSS Monday challenge (anything goes) as well.

This is one of the first shaker cards I've ever done - if I could change anything, I'd do something about those clouds hidden behind the vellum pocket, but for a simple little baby card, I left it as is.

I finished my last class of the semester today, and I am officially a senior! Wohoo! If you know of any cardmaking/papercrafting/craft companies that have some kind of summer internship, let me know, because I'm looking high and low for a cool place to put my design skills to work!

Thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Supplies not shown
Cardstock: Canson
Other: vellum

Quilling // Lawn Fawn

I decided the blog was getting overwhelmed with girly cards again, so here's a masculine/gender neutral card to spice things up a bit.

This card was published in one of the last issues of Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking...*sigh* I miss that magazine.

No joke, I pulled this quilled frog from my scraps basket, and I made it at least, oh, six years ago! I had a little thing for quilling for a while when someone gifted me a Klutz quilling how-to book, but I eventually found it too time intensive for my style of cardmaking.
I can spend hours playing around with the arrangement of items on my cards, but I don't care to spend too much time on individual items, thus I don't involve myself with Copics or fancy coloring shtuff.

Quilling this frog was pretty simple though. I don't know all the technical terms, but the frog's head is just a tight circle, and the other pieces of his body are loose circles pinched in simple, various ways. Add a little smile with a marker, then attach some googley eyes, and there's you have your frog!

Thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Supplies not shown
Quilling tools/design/paper: Klutz
Other: googley eyes (stash), vellum (Joann Fabrics)

Layering cards // Avery Elle

I'm a guest over at Virginia's View challenge!

This month's challenge is layers and dimensions, and for me, layering cards are a bit like piecing together a puzzle.
I love pulling random elements lying around on my desk (pros of being a messy crafter!) and making them all work on one 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch canvas.
Sometimes I'll begin by pulling those random pieces together, and sometimes I like to make a focal point, and arrange everything around it.
For this card, I knew I wanted to use the sweet little fawn from Avery Elle's Storybook stamp set, so I first stamped that, die cut it, and began to arrange everything around it.

Before I pulled all the elements of the focal point together, I found a piece of patterned paper that worked well with the fawn. The striped paper from the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm 6x6 paper pad worked very well, because when I do layered cards, I usually try to make sure the largest piece of paper that is exposed on the card is a basic, lighter feel.

If you use a very busy pattern as the main paper, then it tends to distract from your focal point, so for the busier patterns, I use smaller pieces of and tend to concentrate them in one spot. Using papers from one company or paper pad usually makes it easier to make sure the layered papers flow together well.

Once I had my patterns picked out, I looked for textures.
On the focal point, I started with a piece of fabric that was a tag on a pair of pants in its previous life. Then I slipped a light piece of doily underneath the smaller, layered busy patterns, to lighten them up.
I used a wood veneer frame to set the stage for the fawn, and once the fawn was placed, I added some orange butterflies and pearls to add a pop of color to the card.

To make sure the card didn't get too heavy, I embossed the sentiment on vellum and cut it out for an airy feel.

Thanks so much for sticking through this long post, and thanks to Virginia for inviting me! Head over to the challenge blog to see all the amazing entries, and play along for a chance to win a Simon Says Stamp $25 gift card!

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Watercolor Wreath // Avery Elle

Christ is risen! Alleluia! I hope you all had a beautiful Easter!
I'm just popping in today with a quick card for the AEI{heart}U challenge...

This was a pretty quick and easy card - I simply stamped the sentiment and smaller images from the Storybook stamp set in a wreath shape, then brushed over it all with some green Tattered Angels mist. I stamped and die cut the fawn and butterfly, colored then, and popped them up on the card base behind a black circle die cut.

Thanks for stopping in and have a wonderful day!

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Not shown: PTI "Rustic Wreath" 

Avery Elle // Oh Happy Day

You guys are all really nice.
And for that, I...

A simple die cut and stamped card, topped off with some pearls. The "thank" was cut using my Silhouette Cameo using the Varsity (I think?) font, and then I added the "you" with the Oh Happy Day stamp set from Avery Elle.
I just love that Dear Lizzy paper - I've said it before, but seriously, Lucky Charm is one of my all time favorite paper lines!

Thanks so much for stopping and being so sweet! God bless and have a lovely weekend!

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Avery Elle // Weather It

Popping in with a card for AEiheartU challenge #22...

...and my take below.

On my first FOUR attempts of this card, I tried using watercolor and masking to create the stripes, but even with drying in between, the colors would somehow manage to run into each other at random spots. I was getting pretty frustrated, thinking "how ELSE am I supposed to get these colors without resorting to cardstock?!" when I immediately thought of Laura Bassen and all her fabulous blending cards. 

That did the trick, and I pulled out some of my new mini Tim Holtz inks - guys, blending is SO FUN. I think I'm obsessed - I'm trying to find more ways to use it. Before, I was limited by my ink color options and preference for watercoloring, but I've seen the light! Dang, I love this technique. 

I tried misting the raindrop image from the Avery Elle Weather It set, and stamping on the stripes for some resist, but it just didn't work with the technique or cardstock. Not sure which. Either way, it made things a little blotchy, but I was too lazy busy to patch up.

Thanks so much for stopping in today and God bless!

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