Celebrate You

 This birthday card combines several different companies for a fun mash-up. The flowers are by Altenew and I die cut the background of the flowers out of velum and colored with Copic markers. Then the flower outline was adhered on top of the velum. 

The background paper is by Honey Bee Stamps and all of the sentiments are from Taylored Expressions.

Until next time,

For You

 

This card uses a technique that I haven't done in a while: adding ink directly to an embossing folder.

This is a 3D embossing folder from Altenew that I added ink directly to the folder before sending it through my machine. I love how it adds color to the debossed area and leaves the cardstock color in the embossed areas.

The layered flowers are also by Altenew (Zinnia Layered die set). I went with tone on tone, adding a bit of inking on the edges, and some sparkle in the centers. 

Unfortunately I don't know the name of the manufacturer of sentiment die, as it was given to me. I really like the font though. As you can see, I die cut it twice so that I could add a shadow layer.

Until next time, 

Just Because

 

It's been a while since I've posted on my blog. I have been adding some of my projects to my Facebook page and to Instagram.  I've been creating, just not posting 😊

I combined several different companies to create this card.  The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions, the fruit is a stamp and die set from LDRS (Little Darling Rubber Stamps) and the background is an embossing folder from Altenew.

I'll be back soon with more projects. Some are clean and simple and some are a bit more complex.

Until next time, 

Retro Birthday Pull-Apart Card

Supplies used:

Altenew - Mid Century Festivities die set; Mid Century Festivities layering stamp set; Mid Century Cover die

Honey Bee - Inside: Birthday (sentiment on front of card)

My Favorite Things - Potted Plants; Cat and Plant Perches

Hero Arts - Yay Birthday

Crafter's Companion - Happy Birthday (numbers)

I got the idea of creating an accordion card using the birthday candles as the bridge from my friend Bonnie. (She found the idea in one of her Facebook groups.)

Until next time,

Big BDAY Wishes {Fairy Stamper #1}

Welcome to our first Fairy Stamper Challenge! The challenges will be held in our Fairy Stamper Hugs Facebook group every other Thursday and the winner will receive a $15 gift code to go shopping at Fairy Stamper.  The designers will be showcasing products found on the Fairy Stamper website, specifically Fairy Hugs stamps.  

The theme for these challenges is to create anything Magical using any products you would like.

For my project, I created a slimline birthday card using the Fairy Hugs Starla stamp. The slimline die is by Tutti Designs (Slimline Stitched Scalloped Rectangles).  The word "magical" is by Pink and Main, "wishes" is part of a die from My Favorite Things (Birthday Wishes) and the big alphabet letters are by Altenew (Mega Alphabet).

I stamped Starla onto vellum with Fairy Hugs Raven Black ink and heat emobssed her with clear embossing powder. Once this was done, I fussy  cut her out and colored her wings with gel pens. I also added a bit of color to the flowers in her hair and trailing below her and to her magic wand.

This was a quick and easy card to put together. The only thing that really took any time at all was fussy cutting the flimsy vellum that I used.  It would have been easier to fussy cut if I used a thicker weight.

Come join our Fairy Stamper Hugs Facebook group to see what the rest of the design team has created for this first challenge.  Once there, you'll find lots of inspiration from the members, exchanges, tutorials, and mainly a great group of people who all love everything magical. Hope to see you there soon!

Until next time....

Mom's Fairy Wish {Lavinia World #29}

Hey everyone, it's time for a new Lavinia World Challenges #29.  This is definitely a Magical place! The theme is anything goes using any stamped image (no digis please).  The winner will receive a $15 gift certificate to Lavinia World.

I created this card for my mom for Mother's Day last month using the Fairy Wish stamp.

To start off, I created my background using Altenew inks (Frayed Leaf, Forest Glades, Sea Glass, Ocean Waves, Dusk, and Desert Night). Next came the stenciling with a Tonic Studio stencil (it was in one of their subscription kits). I used VersaFine Clair (Charming Pink) to create these cascading hearts.  I pressed firmly in several places so that the ink would actually go under the stencil to create more of a blurred look.

Then the Fairy Wish was stamped with VersaFine Clair Twilight ink and Nuvo Crystal Drops (Autumn Red) accents the berries.  A touch of glitter highlights the tiny wings of the little fairy.

My sentiment is a die cut from Die-Versions (Sweet Wordlet Happy and Sweet Wordlet Mother's Day).  I love the smaller size of these dies and think they are perfect for cards.  You can still find this company's dies here and there.

The final step was to dry emboss my card base with a Sue Wilson Designs embossing folder (Rambling Blossoms).  This is a larger embossing folder which allows me to only place the front of the card base into the folder.  That way the inside is still smooth for a personal message.

I have a trick I want to share with you on how to quickly place these smaller die cuts onto your card without any fuss.  First you line up your letters how you want them to look and then use removable tape to pick them up.  Add glue to the backside and then adhere to your card front.  Let it sit for a few seconds and then start peeling off the tape at a diagonal from one of the corners.  That way, if the glue hasn't completely set, it won't rip off the letter from your base.

Now it's your turn to join us.  You can either upload your current project to the Challenge Blog or you can join our Anything Lavinia Facebook group and upload your project there.  

If you upload into the Anything Lavinia album, your project must include something Lavinia (stamps, paper); if you upload to the Challenge Blog, anything goes as long as you have used a physical stamp on your project.  

You can share your projects with us on the Challenge Blog, Facebook, Instagram, and our Anything Lavinia Facebook group:

Anything Lavinia

 Store ** Challenge ** Facebook** Instagram ** YouTube

Play in our Anything Lavinia Facebook Group
and/or our Lavinia World Challenge Blog

 Don't forget to include #laviniaworldstore on your projects and tag us at @laviniaworldstore so we can be sure to see and comment on your Lavinia projects!

Sign up to receive our Lavinia World Challenges and all the amazing inspiration from our Designers sent directly to your emails.

Please note that although we carry the full Lavinia range, we are not part of any other entity or Facebook group that carries Lavinia stamps. ONLY the cards posted to Lavinia World Challenges will be entered into the drawing for the Lavinia World prize.  Also note that the gift certificates are ONLY valid at the Lavinia World website.

Did you hear that Lavinia World now has a new You Tube Channel and a new video team?  This wonderfully talented group will be bringing you how-to videos three times a week.  So be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single one! 

You have until Monday, June 29 to enter in either Lavinia World Challenges or Anything Lavinia.  Don't forget, the winner will receive a very generous $15 gift code to do some shopping at Lavinia World.

Until next time.....

With Sympathy

Hi there!  I have another for-fun (ie not for a team) card to share with you today.  I've had a chance to play in my craft area and have been having a blast.  Today's project uses the Altenew Build-A-Flower: Columbine layering stamp and die set and a fun glueless glitter technique using a stencil.

I started off by creating the background first with some new glitters I was trying out. It was so hard to capture in the photo, but there are actually four different (subtle) shades of glitter used, going from a white with yellow undertones to the three shades of blues.  Here is a closer look where I darkened the photo somewhat so you can see the variation a bit more.

The background was created using the Tim Holtz stencil (Woven Layering Stencil) and the glueless glitter technique.  This is such an easy technique to do.  Start off by temporarily taping down the stencil to your cardstock (I used white, but you can use any color), making sure you can place the stencil back in the exact same position.  Then cover the open areas with VersaMark ink and then heat set using Clear embossing powder.  For this stencil, I added tape to the top of the stencil and created a hinge so I could move the stencil out of the way when heat setting.

Next, lay the stencil back in the same place and cover with VersaMark ink again. (Do not heat set yet!)  Remove the stencil completely and add your glitters.  If using multiple colors, apply each color separately and shake off the excess glitter back into the container.  Keep applying the colors individually until the entire area is covered.  The final step is to heat set one more time.  You can see the glitter start to twinkle, indicating that it's melting into the embossing powder.  Once it's heat set the second time, the glitter stays in place.

Since my glittery background was in subtle shades of blue, I decided to stamp my flower in shades of blue as well.  I used VersaFine Clair inks for all the stamping on this project.  

Here's a trick I used to help me line up the stamps.  First I die cut the flower and the leaf shapes from a scrap of cardstock.  I then used this as a template to lay the stamps into. This helped me tremendously with the alignment issues I was having.  And as a bonus, it made the stamping go much faster.

I wanted a bit of dimension to the flower head, but not the stem.  To achieve the look I was going for, I added pop dots to the top petals and glued the base of the head and the stem directly on top of the background. When adhering the completed flower to the glittery background, be sure to use a good adhesive that sticks to glitter.  

The sentiment is part of the stamp set and I stamped onto vellum with VersaFine Clair and quickly heat set it with Clear embossing powder.  I wrapped this around the first two layers of my card and adhered everything onto my card base.

Until next time.....

Happy We Are Friends

Hey everyone, today I'm sharing a card I created using the new Altenew Craft-A-Flower: Lily die set.  I love these new layering dies and can't wait to get some more sets! 

I die cut everything from white cardstock and then used the Altenew mini dye ink cubes and blending brushes.  These inks go on a little splotchy at first and then smooth out as they dry. 

I was mailing this to a friend, so I didn't want a lot of extra dimension on the card.  I added my background directly onto the green card base using a TCW stencil (Mini Fern) and various shades of greens of Altenew ink.

Next, I stamped my sentiment from Reverse Confetti (Word Up) with VersaMark and heat set it using Alabaster White embossing powder from Brutus Monroe. Using one of the My Favorite Things Skinny Strips dies, I die cut the sentiment and adhered it to the bottom.

As a finishing touch, I added Glossy Accents here and there.

Until next time.....

For You {Scrapy Land #124}

Hey everyone, it's Wednesday and time for a brand new Scrapy Land Challenge.  The theme is always anything goes using any brand of die that Scrapy Land sells.  Since they carry a huge selection of brands, I'd bet you have at least one of the brands in your stash 😆.

For today's project, I used the following dies:

Sue Wilson Designs: Noble Dies-Ornate Pierced Rectangles (almost any of her dies would work)

Altenew: Envelope Liner Dies (one of the sentiments - any of these would work)

I die cut the frames from kraft cardstock and the background from handmade black paper.  Using white cardstock, I die cut the focal point, saving some of the negative pieces to inlay back into the main piece.

The main piece was embossed with Copper embossing powder and the negative pieces were colored with Spectrum Noir Sparkle markers.

I really wanted this to look like a stained glass piece, so instead of coloring on the front side of each piece, I colored the backs.  That way, when the negative piece was placed back into the main piece, it was inverted. This really makes the copper edges look soldered around the colored pieces.  This really does sparkle and shine in person - just like a stained glass piece would.

I die cut my sentiment and adhered it to the bottom edge of the focal point.  Any type of sentiment would work.  It also looked good just by itself 😀.

A bit of clear sparkle marker ink was randomly added around the edges of the outer frame.

Won't you join us for a chance to win a $15 gift certificate to Scrapy Land?  This Scrapy Land Challenge #124 goes until Nov 3.  Don't forget to check out the other design team members wonderful projects!


Until next time.....

Hummingbird {Scrapy Land #118}

Hey everyone, it's time for a new Scrapy Land Challenge!  The theme is always anything goes using any brand of die that Scrapy Land sells.  (It would be really helpful if you could let us know which brand of die you used .)

For today's project, I used the following products:

Sue Wilson Designs: Triple Layer Collection - Hummingbird

Sue Wilson Designs: Background Collection - Basketweave

Paper Rose: Stitched Square Frame (any of these would also work)

Paper Rose: Wheat and Grass Border die 

Altenew: Layered Daffodil die set (these would also work)

I used glitter paper to die cut the wheat and grass border and used lots of Spectrum Noir sparkle marker on the daffodil.  The hummingbird was die cut from pages recycled from a catalog I received.

Now it's your turn to play along.  You have until Aug 4 to upload your project to the Scrapy Land Challenge #118. There will be two winners chosen and each will receive a $10 gift certificate to go shopping at Scrapy Land.

We can't wait to see what you create with your dies!