“….. you’re not gonna want to miss the view!”

Welcome back, friends! Any idea where my quote is from?? Just having some galactic fun!

Staying with the theme of my new blog background this month, I’m off to create another galaxy-inspired card. Watercolor you say? Umm…..NO! I like watercolor and 💖💖💖 the Youtube watercolor artists. But that is not my jam. However, the inspiration for this card does come from watercolor art. Instead of watercolor, I used a host of Distress Inks, along with a little masking. Stay cool!

Supplies:

• Papers: Arteza Watercolor Paper, Shimmer Blue Card Stock
• Inks: Distress Spray Stain (Candied Apple, Black Soot, Uncharted Mariner, Prize Ribbon, Picket Fence) Distress Oxide Stamp pads (Black Soot)
• Stencils: Moon masl
• Sizzix dies: Rupert – colorize
• Masking fluid: Winsor & Newton
• Tim Holtz Deckle Trimmer

Directions:

Cut the watercolor card stock down to 5.75 x 4.5. Tape your watercolor paper onto a board using low-tack tape. For your planet or moon, use the smallest moon mask and trace the outline; mask your planet using masking fluid. Once the fluid is dry, use a combination of inks and water on your paper applying in layers until you are happy with your sky. Allow drying. Remove your masking fluid and paint your planet/moon. I used a combination of Uncharted Mariner with Prize Ribbon to obtain the color I wanted. I then used the second moon mask to create some dimension for my planet. It was then embellished and smudged with more layers until happy. I added a little spaceship for fun that I drew and cut with my Cricut. I tried the watercolor paper down to 5.25 x 4.0 and mounted it on the shimmer blue card stock.

Enjoy! Stay creative!!

Challenges entered: SSS Monday Challenge, The Fairy and Unicorn Challenge, The Cupcake Inspiration Challenge

Hello friends! Its July! May the 4th be with you! Are you excited about a long weekend? Have any time set aside for making? I know, I do!

It’s a new month. So, of course, there is a new challenge over at the Colorful Options Challenge! I think you will like this one: RED, WHITE, BLUE. As always, if you don’t like these colors, a rainbow of colors is always welcome. My contribution this month for the rainbow option can be found in my post-Rainbow Friends.

I did use all three colors of the month; but, the emphasis is clearly on red and blue. Remember, you can use neutrals with your entry, mine is clearly black. Have fun, and be creative! This set was inspired by Kindred Stamps. I love Star Wars and couldn’t wait to start a set of cards with a villains theme! So, here they are!!

I love making inky backgrounds. This one was fast and easy! I generally use watercolor paper for inky backgrounds. My go-to paper is Arteza 140lb watercolor paper. Once it is cut to size, I spritzed it with a resist spray for background stars. Then I sprayed with Candied Apple Red, Prize Ribbon Distress Spray, and water until I was happy with the result. Once dry, I sponged Black Soot Distress Oxide onto the edges and randomly throughout as desired. A finished the background with a splattering of white gauche.

Vader is stamped with Memento black and ink and colored with simple Copic Coloring (100,C3,C5,C7,C9,R29).

The lovely ladies over at the Colorful Options Challenge are generously giving away a FABULOUS set of Tim Holtz’s Festive Berries Distress Oxide Ink and Distress Spray Stain. All you have to do is take out your crafty supplies, make something following this month’s challenge options, and add a link in the Inlinkz at the bottom of this post! You can join an unlimited amount of times so you could have many chances to win! How AWESOME is that!! All winners are chosen randomly, so everyone has an equal chance to win! Woo Hoo!! Good Luck to everyone! The Design Team is looking forward to seeing your crafty makes and will pop around to visit you ASAP!

Hello again! It is the beginning of a new month on the Colorful Options Challenge. Thank you for playing along with us last month in the purple challenge. We hope you will join us again this month too.

This month’s colors of the month are: red, white and blue. Play along with one of the colors or any combination of them you choose. My contribution for the color of the month can be found in my “The Dark Side” post. This is my rainbow-inspired contribution this month. Here is the list of supplies.

Supplies:

• Papers: Arteza Watercolor Paper,Black Black 110lb cardstock, 110lb Nina Solar White cardstock
• Inks: Distress Spray Stain (Candied Apple, Prize Ribbon, Squeezed Lemonaid)Distress Oxide Stamp pads (Spun Sugar, Tumbled Glass, Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold, Milled Lavender,Bundled Sage), Distress Spray Stain (Villanous Potion, Black Soot)
• StampersAnonymous sets: Runway, Tiny Text, Funny Farm
• Distress Oxide Crayons: Mowed Lawn, Candied Apple, Carved Pumpkin, Mustard Seed, Shaded Lilac, Tumbled Glass, Crackling Campfire, Prize Ribbon, Cracked Pistachio Wilted Violet
• Inks: Versafine Onyx Black Ink, Versamark Emboss Ink Pad
• Embossing Powder: Ranger White
• Alphabet dies from stash

I’m working on a video for these… I hope to have it up soon and will add the link once it is complete. Until then, here is how I made the three backgrounds.

Backgrounds:

Card on the left: Was completed with the Distress Oxide Stamp pads and a blending foam. After blended, spray with water and allow inks to blend to be more seamless and allow to dry or dry with a heating tool.

Center card: Was completed with the Distress Spray Stains and water. Spray and allow inks to blend to create the desired result. Mine was done with many layers of spraying and drying to get the result I wanted.

Card on the right: Was completed with Distress Oxide Crayons. I scribbled the crayons on my glass mat. With the use of water, I “finger-painted” the colors onto the watercolor paper. Need a fun and easy craft for the kids this summer? Try this background. I paired it with a Funny Farm set at both the background and stamp look more child-created.

The lovely ladies over at the Colorful Options Challenge are generously giving away a FABULOUS set of Tim Holtz’s Festive Berries Distress Oxide Ink and Distress Spray Stain. All you have to do is take out your crafty supplies, make something following this month’s challenge options, and add a link in the Inlinkz at the bottom of this post! You can join an unlimited amount of times so you could have many chances to win! How AWESOME is that!! All winners are chosen randomly, so everyone has an equal chance to win! Woo Hoo!! Good Luck to everyone! The Design Team is looking forward to seeing your crafty makes and will pop around to visit you ASAP!

Happy July, crafters! As you know, I love to crochet and craft. My berry cheesecake serves as a color of the month contribution for July’s Colorful Options challenge. This dessert was crafted with a “craft-your-stash” amount of supplies. The patterns used for this came from Crochet Cafe: Recipes for Amigurumi Crochet Patterns by Lauren Espy.

The techniques you should be able to do for this pattern include magic circle, single crochet, the ability to increase and decrease, and the ability to change colors.

Materials:

• Worsted weight/4-ply yarn: cream, golden brown, blue, red, green
• Size F/3.75mm crochet hook
• Fiberfill
• Yarn needle
• Scissors
• Stitch marker

The lovely ladies over at the Colorful Options Challenge are generously giving away a FABULOUS set of Tim Holtz’s Festive Berries Distress Oxide Ink and Distress Spray Stain. All you have to do is take out your crafty supplies, make something following this month’s challenge options, and add a link in the Inlinkz at the bottom of this post! You can join an unlimited amount of times so you could have many chances to win! How AWESOME is that!! All winners are chosen randomly, so everyone has an equal chance to win! Woo Hoo!! Good Luck to everyone! The Design Team is looking forward to seeing your crafty makes and will pop around to visit you ASAP!

Happy July, crafters! My friends, Toil and Trouble, started brewing their Halloween potions early this year. They are such a clever pair!

It is the beginning of a new month, and as such, there is a new challenge at the Colorful Options Challenge. Toil and Trouble serve as my rainbow-inspired contribution this month.

This is a great card layout when you are short on time and need to make a card in an hour. Lawn Fawn’s cats, trees, and cauldron are stamped with Versamark embossing ink and embossed with Ranger black embossing powder. The cauldron’s bubbles and sentiment are embossed with Ranger’s silver embossing powder. Then, make a palate of perfect pearls on a glass mat and color in your potion as you desire. Mount it on a silver and black card base.

The lovely ladies over at the Colorful Options Challenge are generously giving away a FABULOUS set of Tim Holtz’s Festive Berries Distress Oxide Ink and Distress Spray Stain. All you have to do is take out your crafty supplies, make something following this month’s challenge options, and add a link in the Inlinkz at the bottom of this post! You can join an unlimited amount of times so you could have many chances to win! How AWESOME is that!! All winners are chosen randomly, so everyone has an equal chance to win! Woo Hoo!! Good Luck to everyone! The Design Team is looking forward to seeing your crafty makes and will pop around to visit you ASAP!

Happy July, Friends! I am playing along with SSS Monday challenge. My card is inspired by the movie Coraline. I love the strange and dreamy visuals that correspond with it’s eerie storyline. I used a combination of Distress Ink Pads, Lawn Fawn Stamps, and Copic markers to put my scene together. I hope like it!

Have a fabulous 4th weekend!

Challenges entered: SSS Monday Challenge

Good evening, friends! I am here to share a card based on the classic movie “Bringing Up Baby.” I just love Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. Put them together, and it’s magic! This movie was shot in black and white. So, I tried to recreate that feel on my card.

Supplies:

• Papers: Arteza Watercolor Paper, Silver and Black cardstock from my stash, white tissue paper
• Dies: Tim Holtz Sizzix Crazy Dogs, Alphanumeric Classic Lower
• StampersAnonymous: Tim Holtz Crazy Dogs
• Cricut files: “old boot”
• Stencils: Tim Holtz Layering Stencil Digits
• Inks: Distress Oxide Spray (Pumice Stone, Black Soot) Distress Spray Stain (Black Soot); Distress Oxide Ink Pad (Black Soot)
• Gesso: white and clear
• Distress Crayon: Black Soot and Walnut Stain
• Texture Paste: Ranger Matte Crackle
• Embellishments: Ideology Film Strip Ribbon, Washi Tape from stash, Metallic Lustre – Silver Spark
• Deckle Trimmer
• Typewriter (1920 vintage)
• Alphabet dies from stash

Directions:

Cut the watercolor card stock down to 4.0″ to 5.25″. Draw the “old boots” using the cricut and a 0.4″ black pen on white tissue paper. Tear the tissue paper and glue with Collage medium onto watercolor cardstock. Add washi tape sporadically. Apply white and clear gesso over the entire surface of the cardstock. Allow to dry. Add crackle paste using the stencil to the upper right and lower left. Allow to dry, again. Using the sprays, add color to your card until you are happy. Allow to dry or dry with a heating tool. Apply metallic Lustre to the numbers as desired. Stamp the dog on coordinating watercolor paper and color his collar with crayon in Walnut Stain. Using the Distress Ink in Black Soot, apply to the edges of the dog and your sentiments. Cut “classic” and “a boot” using die sets. Glue everything together. Mat with silver cardstock applied to a black card blank.

I hope you enjoy! Have a great weekend! Stay safe and happy!

Challenges entered: SSS Monday Challenge, Critter Crazy Challenge, Alphabet Challenge Blog

Thank you, ladies! This made my day! I’ll prowl by a bit later!

To see how this one was made, check out my post, “Hello There.”

Happy Weekend, Friends! I hope everyone is well and is able to spend some time relaxing this weekend! This card was inspired by Cheiron’s cards for the Uncharted Mariner release. Although this would not necessarily be considered a CAS card; this is about as CAS as I get. If you are need a card in a hurry, this layout is a quick and easy one.

Supplies:

• Papers: Nina Solar White Card Stock, Black Black Card Stock
• Stamps: Tim Holtz Stampersanonymous : Brush Strokes, Crazy Cats, Noteworthy, and a butterfly from a TH Hobby Lobby set (I can’t find it’s name)
• Distress Glaze: Picked Raspberry, Kitsch Flamingo, Twisted Citron, Wilted Violet, Broken China
• Inks: Archival Ink – Distress Ink in Black Soot, VersaMark Embossing Ink.
• Embossing Powder: Ranger White
• Embellishment: Silver & Clear Wink of Stella
• Tim Holtz stamping platform

Directions:

Cut the white card stock down to 4.0″ to 5.25″. Place it in your stamping platform. Use two of the brush strokes stamps alternating. Stamp with Versamark Ink and apply embossing glaze. Do ALL of your stamping and glaze placement first. Then, heat emboss all five brush strokes at the same time. I find that this helps minimize the warping of the paper from the heat. Stamp the Crazy cat on a separate sheet of white cardstock using Archival ink; align the butterfly on the cat’s tail and stamp with Archival ink. Fuzzy cut the cat and butterfly. Use Black Black cardstock for your card base. Retain a scrap piece for your sentiment. Stamp the sentiment with Versamark embossing ink and use Ranger white embossing powder. Simply mount the background and elements to your card. Mix clear and silver Wink of Stella on a glass mat, this gives a softer silver, and apply to the butterfly’s wings.

Have a great weekend! Stay safe and happy!

Challenges entered: Show Us Your Pussycats Challenge, Crazy Critter Challenge, SSS Monday Challenge,

Ahh. There you are! Just in time for some Halloween crafting! Welcome, foolish crafters to haunted inky goodness. Our little witch is here from Tim Holtz, she would love to cast a spell on you. Ohhhh. I mean, for you. If you insist on knowing the details, kindly look below.

Supplies:

• Papers: Arteza Watercolor Paper, Stonehenge Aqua Coldpress Black 140lb, Purple card stock, Black card stock
• Dies: Tim Holtz Sizzix Toil and Trouble #665561; circle die from stash
• Stencils: Tim Holtz Moon Stencil, MFT rain and hill stencil
• Inks: Distress Oxide Spray (Villaneous Potion, Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Black Soot), Distress Mica Stain (Hocus Pocus, Crooked Broomstick) Distress Oxide Stamp pads (Stormy Sky, Wilted Violet, Antique Linen, Villanous Potion, Hickory Smoke, Picket Fence), Distress Spray Stain (Villanous Potion, Black Soot)
• Pan pastels: Violet (470.5), Black Fine (013 Pearl Medium), Ultramarine Blue Tint(520.8)
• Acrylic Paint: Folk Art Dragonfly Glaze (Violet,blue,green shift), Violet Pansy
• Texture Paste: Ranger Translucent Matte, Distress Grit Paste Grit-Crypt
• Deckle Trimmer
• Typewriter (1920 vintage)
• Alphabet dies from stash

Directions:

Cut the black watercolor paper down to slimline card size. Spray Distress Oxides in Villainous Potion, Frayed Burlap, Antique Linen, and Hocus Pocus until happy with the result. Allow to dry. Cut the witch, cauldron, and mouse out of scraps from the black watercolor paper. Spray the witch with Crooked Broomstick; if she is too light, color with Distress spray stain in villanous potion to darken. Color the mouse with Hickory Smoke. Mix Black Soot and Crypt paste and apply to the cauldron. Once the background is dry. Decide where the cauldron will sit and position the rain stencil (upside down) to allow the drops to look like they are bubbling out of the cauldron. Tape the stencil in palce. Mix the translucent paste with the two acrylic paints and apply through the stencil; allow to dry. Cut the moon out of Arteza watercolor paper. Apply Stormy Sky, Milled Lavendar and Villainous Potion and spray with water to achieve desired look. Then use the moon stencil along with Antique Linen, Hickory Smoke and Milled Lavender spraying as needed. Apply Picket Fence to moon to lighten result as needed. Apply Villainous Potion to the edges and smudge with Picket Fency. Glaze the left side with the Acylic Glaze. Allow to dry. Punch out your sentiment in black card stock and glue to the moon. The remaining sentiment, type on card stock and cut the card stock down with the deckle trimmer; grunge the edges with Villainous Potion and smudge as needed with Hickory Smoke and Picket Fence. Using the MFT hill stencil and black pan pastel, draw in a hill. Use purple pan pastel to create a “smoke” from the cauldron. Glue all the pieces to the background. Cut the right side of the moon off to be even with the card. Use the ultramarine pan pastel around the edges of the moon to give it a glow. If needed, use Villanous Potion mixed with Wilted Violet and water and apply to the edges of the black sentiment on the moon for dimension. Use purple and black cardstock for a base.

Hurry back! Hurry back! No death certificate, to join us. We’re dying to have you!