Friendship Spring Branch

I hope your summer is treating you right and you have been staying cool and out of the heat.  No better way to do that then by heading to your stamping space and getting creative.

Today, I am sharing a card I creating using my Tombow Dual Brush Pens and a spritzer to give my card a watercolor effect.

I started by die cutting three of the Hero Arts Spring Branch dies out of 140# Cold Press Watercolor paper and then coloring one of them completely using the following Tombow Dual Brush Pens: Avocado #098, Pink Rose #703, Pink #723 and Chocolate #969 (always need a little chocolate somewhere when crafting ;)

On the 2nd die cut, I colored only the leaves and the flowers and on the 3rd, only the flowers.  Give each of the die cuts a little spritz with water and watch the magic happen.

The Tombow Dual Brush pens will blend together and give you a beautiful watercolor look.  

Before you layer and add your Spring Branch to the card, add a few splatters of color using the markers, a non porous surface (ie:  an acrylic block or plastic plate), a paintbrush or toothbrush and some water. I scribbled the marker onto an acrylic block, spritz with water and then pick up color with the brushes and holding the brush over the cardstock, tap it with your finger.  Do this with each of the colors.  You will really be glad that you did!   I got the larger splatters by using a large soft paintbrush and smaller splatters by using the toothbrush.

When your card base is good and dry, stamp a sentiment in a coordinating ink on the lower right corner.  The sentiment I used is from the Penny Black, Special Wishes #30-229 stamp set.  

Next, you will want to adhere your completely colored die cut onto the card using some Tombow Mono Multi.  Next, you will want to snip the leaves and flowers off of the second die cut and layer them to the first die cut using Tombow Mono Multi.  Be sure to offset the leaves and petals a bit for a more realistic look.  Now, you will add the final set of flowers from the third die cut in the same manner as before.  Add a few pearls for a finishing touch and you are good to go!

This card was really quick and easy to make and would be perfect for when you need to mass produce some cards.

Sending you wishes for a wonderful weekend, thanks for stopping by!

Congratulations!

Hi there! 

I am back with the final card in my star series.

This card would be great for the graduate in your life.

I chose to use the colors of our local high school, but you could change it up to fit whatever school you needed it to be.  

I used the Hero Arts Stylish Stars die to cut the large star opening into some blue cardstock and then embossed it with a dots embossing folder.  Next, I used the Memory Box Starry Nights stencil and some Denim Adirondack ink on a white panel.  I cut the white panel a little smaller than the blue embossed panel and used some Tombow Xtreme Adhesive to adhere the panels together.  Tombow Xtreme is great for heavier items or textured papers as the hold is very, very strong. Have you tried it yet?  I added the star panels to a black layer and then to the white card base.  I created some banner flags in black, navy and white and the stamped the "congratulations" sentiment from the Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler set.  For a finishing touch, I added some Stardust pen to the stars and silver cording around the panels.

Faux Bookpage

Hey there!  Wow, I can't believe it has been so long since I last blogged.  I have some projects in the works and will be back to regular blogging again soon.

Today I am sharing a card that I created for Marie's challenge on the Tombow blog.  Marie challenged us to use the page from a book in our project.  

I don't own one book that I was willing to tear a page out of, so I went faux for the challenge.

I stamped some kraft cardstock with the Hero Arts Newspaper Background stamp in dark brown ink.  For the main image, I used an ATC sized Art Board from Inchie Arts.  I watercolored the art square with Distress Stains and then stamped the background with the Newspaper stamp and a lighter brown ink.  Then I stamped the flowers from Penny Black in the darker brown ink.  Because the art board is a heavier weight, I used Tombow Mono Multi to adhere the art board to the cardstock layer and then again to the card.  Believe me, this baby isn't coming off in anyway!

I added the ribbon trim using Tombow Mono Adhesive and the button was attached using Tombow Power Tabs.  

Be sure to play along with Marie's challenge for a chance to win a Tombow prize pack. 

You can find all of the details and the link up here.

you are my sunshine....

Oh how I love that song.  When my boys were little I used to sing that to them.  Sometimes I would  substitute other words for sunshine ...like chocolate...just to be funny and make the boys giggle.  I am happy that they are awesome, grown men now...but I sure do miss those silly days!

This card was created for the June challenge on the Challenge Chicks Facebook page.  The theme this month is: Here comes the Sun you are to use yellow, orange, white and a sun.

Go ahead and click on the chicks and head over to their FB page and maybe even play along with this month's challenge.

Got your attention didn't I?  This is one bright card!  I used the new Neon Daubers from Hero Arts to create the sun and the background layers so they would coordinate perfectly. The Thickers Stickers were a light yellow color and I daubbed (is that a word) some of the orange on them and set them aside to dry while I worked on the rest of the card.  I created the sun rays by inking up two brush stroke stamps from the Hero Arts Brush Strokes  Set with the Neon Yellow and Neon Orange Daubers and stamping them alternately in a sun pattern.  For the center of the sun and the yellow and orange layers, I daubbed (there is that word again) the edges of two white layers with the orange and yellow inks to create the illusion of perfect yellow and orange layered cardstocks.  

Here are a few more pics to show how I did this:

 Thanks for stopping by today.  It means the world to me :)

kissing, part two

Here is another KISS (keep it simply stamped) card for today...

On this card I used the new Neon Daubers from Hero Arts to create the background.  I dabbed some of the Pink, Orange and Yellow onto my craft mat and spritzed them with some shimmery water (water with a little Perfect Pearls mixed in) and then brushed them on in a swirly motion with a soft brush.  Next I swirled the Clear Wink of Stella Brush Pen around a few times to add a subtle shimmer.  The Reverse Confetti sentiment is from the Dream in Color set and was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and I dabbed a bit of Stardust Stickles into the word COLOR, for a bit more shimmer.  You know, you can never sparkle too much! A button and twine were added for a finishing touch.

Hop with Tombow and Kristina Werner

Happy Monday everyone!  

Today, I am joining with my Tombow teamies and our special Guest Designer, Kristina Werner for a fun hop.  Tombow will be giving away a fantastic prize package, so be sure to comment along the way for a chance to win.

You should have arrived at my blog from Debbie Fisher's blog, but if you didn't you can go back to the Tombow blog and start from the beginning.

My inspiration for this card came from the May color challenge at the Challenge Chicks Facebook page.

I started with a golden yellow cardstock and stamped the Hero Arts Woodgrain background in a deep yellow ink giving a tone on tone effect.  I found this fun little print paper in my stash and added it to a brown layer to created the base for my image. I stamped the kitty image in brown ink and colored it in with Irojiten Dictionery Color Pencils and odorless mineral spirits.  I went back in with some brown Tombow Dual Brush (#969-Chocolate) pen and went over the cute little freckles on the kitty's face.  I used Tombow Dual Brush (#873-Coral) for the little heart nose. I used Tombow Mono Adhesive Dots to adhere the image panel to the brown scallop panel and the print panel to the brown layer. Both of these layers were popped up using some Tombow Foam Tabs. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches and was stamped in brown ink.

Please be sure to hop along to each of the blogs and don't forget to comment along the way so that you have a chance to win this amazing prize pack.  The prize pack contains the following Tombow products:

Dual Brush Pens 6 set, Jewel

Mono Adhesive Removable

Mono Adhesive Permanent

3D Foam Tabs

Now, I will send you on your way to Jennie Garcia's awesome blog.

If you get lost along the way, here is a complete list of hoppers:

Tombow Blog

Debbie Fisher

Melissa Cash (me)

Jennie Garcia

Marie Browning

Kristina Werner-Guest Designer

The more you comment, the more chances you have to win!

The winner will be announced Friday May 17^th  at 3:30 Eastern Time.

hello TPE164

Good Morning!  We have had a busy few weeks with a mini kitchen remodel going on.  We are winding down and just have a few finishing touches and a tweak or two and then we are good to go.  

The card I am sharing today uses an adorable Lollipop Watermelon Smile digi image from By LORi Designs.  This week on The Pink Elephant Challenge blog, they have asked that we use PRINT PAPER, easy peasy challenge for me as I love me some print paper!  These pretty prints are from My Mind's Eye.  The layout is a past sketch from The Deconstructed Sketch (Sketch 61), I turned it on its side and it worked perfectly for this card. A few tied buttons finish off this card and readies it for the mail.  

Wishing you all a beautiful day!

Summer CHA Folder

Hi, I hope you all are surviving the heat.  Before you know it fall will be upon us.  I don't mind the heat but anything over 100 degrees is a bit much, even for me. :)

Today I am sharing a decorated CD/DVD folder that is quick and easy to make and a nice way to dress up CD/DVD's that you might give as gifts.  Below you will find a PDF with the  measurements/instructions to create one for yourself.

After cutting, scoring and folding the cardstock to create the folder, I cut an opening in the front flap of the folder with a decorative punch.  Any punch will work, be creative!

Once that part is done, you will want to run some strong adhesive onto the glue tabs and then fold in half to create the pocket.  I used Tombow Mono Adhesive Dots and it worked perfectly!  I also used the Tombow Mono Adhesive Dots to adhere the pretty print cardstock from Authentique to the front of the folder.  To hold the button firmly in place, I used Tombow Power Tabs.

Quick tip:

Remember to finish off your buttons with some floss, twine or ribbon to give your project a "finished" look.

Click HERE for a PDF file of the instructions.  If you create a folder (or two), come on back and leave me a link, I would love to see them. 

Hello Sunshine

Wow, what a busy week.  I have been trying to get back in the groove after being gone for a whole week.  I was talking to my hubby and wondering where my next trip would be as it seems like I have had one foot in the road this year.  

This week on the Tombow blog we are partnering with Epiphany Crafts and I have been having fun playing with the Shape Studio Tool Round 14, Shape Studio Bubble Caps 14 and Metal Charms Round 14.  

I inked up this adorable sun image from Our Craft Lounge's Summer Cheer set using Tombow Dual Brush pens in a combination of yellow and orange and stamping it several times onto some white cardstock. I stamped the letters to form the word "Hello" with Memento Olive Grove ink onto a scrap of Memory Box gingham cardstock and used the Epiphany tool and round tops to create the inserts for the charms.  I used Tombow Mono Adhesive Dots to attach the image panel to the yellow layer.  I popped the image panel up onto the white card using Tombow Foam Tabs.

Color My World

Happy Friday!  Whew, we made it through another week.  Yeah!  Now that Valentine's Day has come and gone for another year, I am starting to think about Spring.  I have to say, we really haven't had Winter here yet.  Although I am not a fan of cold, rain and snow.  We really need the water, so I say bring it on!  

This week on the Tombow Blog, the design team is focusing on working with some of the fine art pencils that Tombow carries.  I have created two cards using the Irojiten Color Dictionary Pencils.

For this card, I stamped the pretty outline flower/leaf from the Our Craft Lounge Pretty Petals set in Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto some Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock and then colored them in using some of the green, yellow and orange pencils in the Irojiten Seascape set.  I blended the pencils out with some odorless mineral sprits and then glitzed the flowers up a bit with some Diamond Stickles. I stamped Happy Birthday from the Our Craft Lounge Big Birthday Wishes set in black ink onto a scrap of blue print cardstock and layered it to the front of the card using Tombow Foam Tabs.  I used Tombow Mono Adhesive Dots, Roller to adhere all of the layers together and a Tombow Power Tab to fasten the button to the front of the card.  

Using the same Irojiten Seascape set for this card I stamped the Classic Fabric Background from Hero Arts in Alabaster Fluid Chalk ink onto some black cardstock and then colored over the white areas with the pencils.  After I was finished coloring, I spritzed the black panel with some pearl shimmer spray.  It is so pretty in person!  The aqua panel is raised up with some Tombow Foam Tabs and the rest of the card was secured together with Tombow Mono Adhesive Dots, Roller. 

Would you like to have one these cards?  I would love to send you one.  Just leave me a comment letting me know which one is your favorite and I will pick two winners, one for each card.  For an extra chance, I would love it if you "LIKE" my INKclinations Facebook page.  Just come back here and let me know you "LIKED" me.  :)

I will randomly pick the winners on Feb 22, 2012 and announce them here and on INKclinations Facebook on Feb 23rd.

Happy Birthday

Hi there, today I have joined up with the rest of the Outlawz Twisted Thursday team to bring you birthday themed cards.   

When I sat down to create this card, I had lots of scraps left over from this card on my desk so I decided to use them up.  The base card is Bubblegum Pink from American Crafts.  To create the main panel I stamped the Big Fabric Background from Hero Arts onto some Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock with Orchid Brilliance ink and then trimmed it down to the size I wanted.  The image panel was layered onto GKD PL Chocolate cardstock.  The sentiment (from GKD) was stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa ink and cut out with Spellbinders Fancy Tags die and layered to a Spellbinders Petite Oval Scallop die cut piece.

For the finish I tied some chocolate/cream striped grosgrain ribbon (May Arts) into a ginormous bow. 

This card came together very quickly and was easy peasy!

Be sure to pop over to the Outlawz Twisted Thursday challenge and check out what the rest of the team has created.  We would love to have you play along as well.  You could win some nice prizes too!

Hello Friend

Helloooo my dear friends!  Today on the Outlawz challenge group the Twisted Thursday challenge is to create a card/project with "Friendship" as the theme.  

I love the look of layered backgrounds so I pulled out a couple of my favorite Hero Arts background stamps and went to work.  First I inked up the Large Fabric Design with Orchid Brilliance ink and stamped into on some ivory cardstock and then I inked up the Friend Definition stamp with Rich Cocoa Memento ink and over stamped it.  I trimmed the panel down to the size I wanted and then layered it onto some GKD PL Chocolate cardstock.  I die cut another piece of Chocolate cardstock with the Cat's PJ's Pinking Cut Up die and added it to the print piece.  Next, I added some crochet ribbon from May Arts and created a rolled flower with some May Arts Striped Grosgrain ribbon.  For the flower, I folded a strip of ribbon in half and then cut it about 3/4 of the way down every 1/4" or so.  I then rolled it up and secured the bottom with a Tombow Power Tab.  I fluffed the flower a bit to give it a shabby look and then plopped a big pink brad from American Crafts right down in the middle and layered it onto a American Crafts Bubblegum pink cardstock. To finish off the card, I added a few Kaisercraft pearls and some leaves from the Poppystamps Meadowleaf die.  

Why don't you head on over to the Outlawz challenge group and play along with the challenge this week.  You could have a chance to win some fabby prizes.

Snow Princess

Happy Saturday!  Today is going to be a beautiful day in the Central Valley with temps in the low 80's.  I have a fun day planned as I am going to be taking a class this afternoon from the oh so talented Linda Duke.  Linda will be at The Cat's Meow teaching us to make her beautiful vintage style Christmas tags that she is so famous for.  I am taking her afternoon class, so that will give me time to meet some of my stamping pals for lunch before we head to class.  I can't wait!

The card I am sharing with you today is a sweet little Pure Innocence girl from the My Favorite Things Flurry of Love set.  I have wanted some of these PI stamps for a long time and finally scored a few.  Hooray!  When I saw that the Outlawz Friday Copic/Promarker challenge was to use pink, I new she would be perfect.  I colored her with a variety of Copic markers.  I cut the image panel and pink panel with the new Nesties Labels 23.  I really love the edge on this set.  The base card is white with a layer of aqua and kiwi double dot cardstocks.  The pretty stripe is a varnished paper from the Pebbles Happy Go Lucky line.  The snowflake is a combo of  the new Nesties Create a Flake Three and a MS snowflake punch.  The snowflake is topped off with a giant gem from Hero Arts.  I have added Diamond glitter glue to the snowflakes that are falling around the little pink Snow Princess.

This will be one of three cards that we will be creating in my Winter Kids class on Oct 29.  If you are in the Yosemite area and want to take a class e-mail us at:  catsmeow (at) sti (dot) net

See you soon,

Watercolor Butterflies

Happy Thursday! Today I have a quick post to share a card that I created for a class that I taught a few weeks ago.  

My card was inspired by the card to the left.  I don't know who made it,  but I knew I liked it and saved it in my inspiration file when I saw it.  If you know who might have made it,  please let me know so that I can give proper credit. This is another great reason to watermark your photos, ya never know when someone wants to give you a little shout out. :) 

 For my card, I used the Hero Arts Friend definition stamp for the background, it was embossed  in white and then the panel was edged with Tea Dye ink. The butterfly is Memory Box's Cocoa Bean butterfly.  I colored my butterflies with three different colors of Lyra Watercolor Crayons and then spritzed the stamp with some pearl shimmer spray and stamped onto 140# cold press watercolor paper. This stamp has a matching die, so I then cut them out and edged them with Tea Dye Distress ink.   Don'tcha love it when you don't have to spend extra time fussy cutting your images?  Well, I gotta run.  See you soon.

Hero Arts Preview Party at The Cat's Meow

Hi there!  Hero Arts has a sneak peek video out.........you can see it below.  The new catalog/stamps were due in by Friday and our shipment arrived at the store this afternoon (I have the catalog in my hot little hands) and will be working hard tomorrow and Friday to get it all ready for our Hero Arts Preview Party on Saturday afternoon.  If you are in the Oakhurst area and want to get your hands on some of these yummy stamps, be sure to stop by on Saturday.  We will have snacks and door prizes and lots of fun!  See you there!

White Space CAS

Hi there, I hope this finds you having a great day.  The weather here in Central CA is perfect today.  I wish we had this kind of weather year round.  So my pal Tosh shared several cards last week where she used mostly white.  Although leaving white space is hard for me, I was inspired to give it a go.  I stamped the Hero Arts Delphinium stamp with Versamark ink on a piece of Penny Black Foil Script paper and embossed it with clear EP.  The flowers were colored in with the following Ranger Distress Inks:  Shabby Shutters, Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Chipped Sapphire.  I layered the image panel to a piece of medium blue cardstock and then to a piece of gold glossy cardstock.  To finish it off, I tied a little gold cording around it.  Easy peasy!  Jennifer McGuire has a great tutorial for this technique, you can see it here.

Just a Note Times Two

Hi there! Today I have a couple of

fun sets of notecards that I recently made. The set on the right was my class project last Saturday. The box base is Prismatic Frosted Yellow cardstock. I used Prismatic Frosted Teal and a bit of Basic Grey print paper for the accents. All of the stamps used (except for "hello") are from the brand new Hero Arts release. The "hello" stamp is from Amuse. The notecards are a base of Prismatic Frosted Teal with a layer of Neenah CC Solar White. This set was embellished with butterflies and/or rhinestones and ribbon. You can find all of these goodies here.

The set shown on the left was created for the Anything But a Card challenge on StampTV a couple of weeks ago. All stamps used were from the Bold Flowers set. The "Just a Note" was computer generated using Whackadoo Font. The label was cute out using my nestabilities labels set. The box base is Prismatic Island Mist Light. I used PL Green Apple and some October Afternoon Farm Fresh for the accents. This set is embellished with ribbon, brads and some Diamond Stickles. Each week a name is drawn from all of that weeks participants and the winner gets to pick a free stamp set. Guess what, I was picked! I chose the new Purrr-fectly Delightful set as my prize. I can't wait to stamp with it.

You can find a tutorial for the box here or a pdf file here.

Have a happy day!

Two for Tuesday

Hi there! I thought I would share two cards that I created this summer. See, I told you I had a bunch of stuff I needed to clean out of my "to be blogged" folder. :) Both of these cards were created for the Dare to get Dirty challenges over on SCS back in July. This card covered two DTGD challenges. They were: DTGD09debdeb Moved by Music and DTGD09Toy Color My World

The color part was easy, I didn’t have the exact cardstock, so I used colors that I thought were pretty close. The Moved by Music part was TOUGH! I looked at my stamps and drew a blank. I saw this cute little surfboard stamp by Savvy sitting on my shelf and the song Surfin’ Safari by the Beach Boys came into my head. I finished it off with this cute little sentiment from Anna Wight/Whipper Snapper

This card covered three DTGD challenges. They were: DTGD09BevMom Sew Unexpected, DTGD09rainy Sketch Challenge and DTGD09PickleTree Born to be Wild

I pondered over this card for a couple of days, I knew I needed to combine these challenges in order to get them all completed and uploaded on time. I picked this great DP from Bo Bunny’s Abbey Road collection and added some chocolate cs from Prismatics as the base and accent pieces. I faux sewed down the sides of the center piece and added some bling. The cute little owl and the sentiment are from Hero Arts. The ribbon is from my stash.

hugs,

Snowman Gift Card Holder

Hi there! We were due to get our first snow of the year later today, so I thought I would create something with this cute little snowman from Inkadinkado. I surfed some of my favorite challenge blogs and decided to combine two challenges to create this little gift card holder. Over at Crazy 4 Challenges they asked us to create a gift card holder and on the Just Us Girls blog my pal Pam posted a great sketch for this week. I turned the sketch on its side for my project.

I started with a piece of Twilight Dark Prismatic cardstock cut into a 3 1/2" x 12" strip and then scored it at 5" and 10". I embossed the front panel and the bottom 2" with my Cuttlebug and folded the 2" piece up to create a pocket for my gift card (the white piece on the "inside" pic is my "faux gift card") I promise to get a real one before I give it away :) The snowman is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on white shimmer cardstock and colored with my Copics. The snowman and sentiment were cut out with my Classic Oval Nesties and layered to Nautical Blue Light scallop oval panels. The sentiment on the inside is from the Hero Arts Holiday Greetings set. I finished off with layered MS snowflake punches, ribbon and rhinestones.

I hope your Sunday was great and your Monday will be even better!

Sneaky Peeky for Green Tangerines

Today I have a sneak peek to share with you. I will be heading to Green Tangerines in Rocklin, CA next Saturday to teach a group of gals about Copic Markers. After a bit of time learning about the markers, they will complete one card using the Whoooo Owls from Stampendous and one using the Santa Gift stamp from Hero Arts.

For my local gals at The Cat's Meow, you will create these two, plus one more in my October 31st (I think) class. I have a boatload of classes (4) planned for October, so be sure to check with Sharon to sign up.

ETA: Have passport, will travel to teach........hello Ireland or Germany or Australia ..........I am waiting to here from you. :=)

Stamping hugs,