Sparkling Saturdays: Blessed Birthday

Welcome back to another Sparkling Saturday! Sorry I have been a bit MIA lately, but I am trying my best to post whenever I can but work has been super busy, leaving no energy to craft and blog. Today is a special post as I will be sharing cards on my blog that were given to me, and not made by me. Hope these will still inspire you as these cards were made by my sisters for my birthday recently.

The first card is a shaker card that that was made in the shape of an Easter egg. My sister used Funfoam for dimensions and filled the shaker up with assortments of glass beads and die cut shapes from Mama Elephant Confetti die cut. She also added some grass from Lawn Fawn grass border die using two different shades of green.

The second card was made to incorporate my love for Disney Tsum Tsums. If you know me well, you know I absolutely love all things Disney and currently have been obsessed with collecting tsums. This card was made with some of my favorite characters and each one was hand drawn and cut out. The bottom part of the cupcake was stamped using Mama Elephant Carnival Cupcake Set. The cupcakes were then adhered using foam tape for added dimension. For the greeting, my sister used Mama Elephant Make a Wish stamp set and went over it using the black Wink of Stella for some added sparkle.

I love these two cards so much, and I hope you enjoyed it as well! I will be back as soon I can.
Happy Crafting.

Messy Mondays: Colored Squares

Welcome to another Messy Monday! I've been seen a lot of cards lately using square backgrounds, so I thought I'd give it a try today and make a thank you card.

First, I used my T-square rule to lightly trace out a 3 by 3 grid of squares, roughly around 1". Next, I used the cute jellyfish and starfish from Lawn Fawn So Jelly set to stamp on the images in each square, masking off where necessary. After, I went in and roughly colored the background of each square using my Spectrum Noir and Copic alcohol markers.

To put the card together,  I selectively used the scallop rectangle frame from Mama Elephant Index Card creative cut die to cut out my image. Next, I adhered the piece on a bit of fun foam to give it extra dimension. For my sentiment, I stamped a greeting from a Mama Elephant set and foam taped it in the middle.

To finish off my card (because I just can't seem to keep it simple), I loosely outlined my "square" to bring more focus to the middle. I adhered it onto a greyish blue premade A2 card base, and loosely drew lines around the perimeter as well. I decided to use my corner chomper to round the corners on the right side of the card and called it finished.

Hope you enjoyed!
Happy Crafting.

Sparkling Saturdays: Gumball Birthday Shaker

Welcome to another Sparkling Saturday! Today I will be sharing with you a fun new product I recently bought to make a super easy shaker card. No foam tape, craft foam, or acetate paper is needed - it's an easy and non-messy alternative to other shaker cards. This product is from the Shape Shaker collection by Jillibean Soup and they make this process as simple as possible. They not only have the shape containers for the shaker portion, but also precut note cards, coordinating stamp and die sets, and packages sequins. Currently, the have 6 different shapes to choose from and for my card, I used the small circle shape shakers.

To start off my card, I used the largest rectangle from Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Rectangle set to die cut a piece of white cardstock. Although there are precut notecards that fit this shape shaker, I figured that I would have a circle die that would fit so not only could I save more money to buy coordinating stamp sets, but I would also be able to place my circle where I wanted it. The third smallest circle from MFT stitched circle die set fit perfectly, and I die cut it in the area where I wanted my gumball machine.

Now it's time to stamp my focal images! I bought two coordinating stamp sets for the small circle shapers, but you can totally use any stamp images you already own that have a circle shape. For this card, I used the Sweet Treat stamp set to stamp on my images and sentiment using Memento ink in Tuxedo Black, Ladybug, Lilac Posies, and Grape Jelly. I colored it in using some red Copic markers, and used my Copic liner to draw faces on the gumdrops and outline the gumball machine. Before I adhered the shape shaker, I used my mini blender to add some pink around the circle part.

For the shaker portion, I filled it up with different colored sequins and sea beads and then put the shape shaker through the die cut circle. The backs of these shake shakers come with adhesive so all you have to do is remove the liner carefully and stick you card base behind it. I chose a red polka dot card base for this card and I loved how it turned it!

To finish up this card, I adhered some matching colored sequins on the front and it was done. I found this product to be a great way to make some simple shaker cards. The only con is that it would be difficult to mail as it is quite bulky, but if you are planning to hand deliver this card, it would not be a problem.

Hope you enjoyed. This card is being entered in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Happy Birthday.

Happy crafting.

Messy Mondays: Move those Mountains

Welcome to another Messy Monday! Today I will be sharing a emboss resist technique that I love to do. Grab out your embossing powder, heat gun, and watercolors and let's get started.

Since I had all my materials out, I decided to mass produce some unique cards using my MISTI tool. To start off, I cut out some pieces of Canson XL watercolor paper and flipped it to the smoother side and dusted them with my anti-static tool. Next, I mounted the stamps I wanted to use from Wplus9 Encouraging Words set to my MISTI. Placing my paper in my MISTI, I inked up the images with VersaMark. The MISTI made it so easy for me to stamp multiple cards at once. Being a sticky ink, you won't have to worry about the ink drying on you while you stamp the other cards. After all the cards were stamped, I used Simon Says Stamp fine detail white embossing powder to heat set my images. This was done quickly as I did them all at once and my heat gun was nice and hot.

Now comes the fun part that makes each card unique. I used my Gansai Tambi watercolors to paint on top of my stamped images. The embossed images will resist the paint and any paint that remains after the panel is dried can be easily wiped off with a damp baby wipe. Have fun with different color combinations and mixture of soft/hard edges. Don't stress too much about it, as it will dry nicely. Promise.

After letting all the panels dried, I die cut each of them out using the largest rectangle from Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Rectangles set. Next I mounted them on a piece of colored cardstock before adhering them down to a premade colored side folding A2 card.

I hope you enjoyed this fun technique! I'll be entering this into Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Try to Resist.

Happy Crafting.

Sparkling Saturday: Watercoloring with Distress Pads

Welcome back to another Sparkling Saturday! I took a bit of a break off with Spring break and Easter, but will be back with regular posts now. Today I will be sharing a simple watercoloring piece that may look hard to do, but was actually quite simple.

I started out with a piece of Canson XL watercolor and used the bunny from The Greeting Farm Lucky Bunnies stamp with Rangers Archival Black ink. Picking out some colors from my distress inks, I smushed them onto an acrylic block and picked up the color using my paintbrush. I watercolored in the bunny using Tattered Rose, and the balloon using Mustard Seed. After that dried, I used Frayed Burlap and Salty Ocean as my background. I used more water with the blue color to give the edges a softer look. After the background completely dried, I used the same colors to splatter on some spots for added interest.

Using VersaFine Black Onyx ink, I stamped on a birthday greeting and let that dry. To finish up the card, I added a sprinkling of sequins and rounded each corner with my WRMK Corner Chomper and adhered it to a pale blue A2 card front.

Hope you enjoyed! I'll be entering this into SSS Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.
Happy Crafting.