My Creative Journey

Hi there! Today I’m sharing two cards using the same stamp set and same basic design. It’s great to create two cards at once especially when all the supplies are out. In this case, I fell in love with the colors of the ink blending and just had to create two cards. So, let’s get started! To start, I inked up the STAMPtember Avery Elle Holiday Wishes Frame with some Versamark and stamped it in the center of the white panels. Next, I added some Brutus Monroe Alabaster embossing powder and then heat set with a heat gun. Now we are ready for the ink blending! I took Crackling Campfire, Picked Raspberry, and Seedless Preserve Distress Oxide inks and blended them on the panels. One panel is blended from top to bottom and the other is blended left to right to give me one portrait and one landscape panel. I really love to ink blend over white embossing because it is so fun to see the image pop against the colors! I wanted the two panels to be a little more different, so I misted the landscape ...

Hello there! Today I am sharing a simple mixed media tag that measures 4 ¾ inches tall by 2 ⅜ inches wide. I am not sure what kind of paper it is and think it might be a Dina Wakley mixed media tag. Either way, it has a smooth finish and is thick enough for paint and water!  I started off by adding some Dina Wakley paint, Night and Rosy, to my palette and a ton of water to my ¾ flat brush. Then the fun began!  I simply dipped the brush in the Night paint and used a zig-zag motion from top to bottom. Next I took the Dina Wakley stencil Branches and painted Rosy through the negative long steam branch.  Then, I selected some elements to create a focal point by rummaging through my box of die cuts and images that had not made it to a final project. I selected a fun Spellbinders rose die cut from some Tonic Studio specialty paper, another Spellbinders branch die cut from some pattern paper, and a colored fairy from a Hero Arts MMH kit. I took a few minutes deciding the best pl...

  Hello! I’m so glad you stopped by. Today I’m sharing a fun shaker card using a background created with alcohol inks.   I had purchased a ton of alcohol inks from Ranger Ink and decided it was time to experiment. I took one crafty afternoon and made a ton of backgrounds on different substrates.  I just love all the different color values from just one or two colors. The alcohol ink blending solution is a great way to achieve this look. I used so much of the blending solution that I had to go out and buy the bigger bottle. LoL  😂    Some of the different papers I used was classic Yupo, translucent Yupo, and sparkle Yupo. Each paper gave me different results from the same colors. The sparkle Yupo adds fun texture to the background. The translucent Yupo would be fun to illuminate with a battery operated candle or tiny lights. The card’s background was created on classic Yupo. I wanted to make sure this background would shine and decided on creating a shaker ...

Hello and welcome! Today I have another rainbow-inspired slimline card. The star of the show on this slimline card is the Fern Square die from Simon Says Stamp. I had so much fun creating the Leafy Rainbow slimline card that I searched my stash for another “sleeper die.” I found another square die from Simon Says Stamp called Fern Square. Since this was the same size as the other Leafy Square, I decided to cut them from Concord & 9th cardstock in rainbow colors and then nested them together. I also decided to turn the square on a corner so the fern looks like it is growing upwards. While the rainbow ferns were drying, I dressed up the inside of the card. I love seeing the inside of cards dressed up and I tend to forget this; but not this time! I used a leaf border stamp from the Leafy Frames set and a sentiment from Just Miss You set; both from Simon Says Stamp. The border leaf stamp does not stretch across a slimline so I started in the center then shifted the stamp to either sid...

Hello there! Today I am sharing a fun rainbow-inspired slimline card. This little Leafy Square die is such a fun little die. It is what I like to call a sleeper die; you kind of forget it is there but then it just shines the second you take you out! This idea actually came to me after playing around with a couple of the die cuts already cut from a previous project. I was trying to stack the leaves but they got stuck and then: IDEA! Why not purposely nest the leafy squares into each other and why not make it a rainbow?  So, I chose some color card stock from my Concord & 9th stash and cut out my leafy rainbow. Next, I began to nest the leafy squares together in rainbow order. I used a strong liquid glue along the overlapping sections of the leafy squares to keep them together while I got the card base ready.  To prepare the card base, I cut down a white piece of cardstock to 8.5 in tall by 7 in wide then I scored and folded it at 3.5 in. Then, I cut a stitched and scalloped...

Hello!! I’m so happy you have stopped by. Today I am sharing a fun Halloween-themed project featuring the Little Witch Agenda from Mama Elephant. I am entering this project in the #MamaElephant2021GDCall.  I started by creating the sky using the MFT cloud stencil with Distress ink Shaded Lilac and trimmed them down to fit inside the clear boxes. Then I stamped out the little witches and pumpkins with cats and colored them in with Copic markers. I kept the Copic coloring simple and used only 2-3 colors for shading some of the images. Finally, I used the matching die cuts to cut out the witches and pumpkins with cats. To create the hills and floor, I chose some pattern paper from my stash and used the hill border die from Lawn Fawn to cut them out. To give them some depth, I ink blended various Distress Ink colors on the cutouts. The last item I prepped was the letters to spell out BOO. I coated the letters with two coats of Black Soot Distress paint paying attention to the coat the ...

Hello!! I am so happy you stopped by to see how this card came together. It truly is a simple design using masking and Copic coloring. The scene for this card is inspired by the Mama Elephant me-challenge Discord prompt: “Summer Time!” Summer reminds me of lots of camping trips when I was little. So, I created a simple forest scene using three Mama Elephant sets: Winter Fox, Dandelion Wishes, and Sunday Sentiments. I first stamped the red panda and the foxes then masked them off to add some trees to complete the scene. I then masked the trees and used a stencil to ink blend a sunset sky and ground. After the ink blending, I used my Copic markers to color in all the images. I really love the blending of the colors for the foxes! I am still learning about to use my Copics and found the blend easily on Bristol Smooth card so, my go to is Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock. Lastly, I heat embossed the “Thank you” sentiment across the bottom, being sure to mask off the ends to keep the whi...