Hello embossing!

Hello everyone!! Hope everyone had a great week and is looking forward to a lovely weekend! I know we are! Nice and hot here!!

Todays card has a couple of inspirations. First off this weeks Clean and Simple sketch that I design for as well as this wonderful video from non only that Jennifer McGuire. 

This card took  me a few attempts…I was moving colours around to see what worked..then on this last one I decided to grab which ever ink was closest and work my way out! Turned out not to bad I don't think ;) There was really no rhyme or reason to where I stamped or decided to over lay I just went for it!! After all the stamping of the triangles was done I wanted to matt this piece so instead of digging through my stash of paper I decided to use the purple ink I had used in the triangles. So I got out an ink blending tool and inked up the sides of the paper then adhered the top piece. In the clean and simple sketch there is a bow over top of the sentiment..I wasn't really sure that a bow would work with the geometric look I had going on, so I grabbed my white twine and started wrapping a left over piece I had. Then added a small bow…now onto the sentiment. My first attempt at the sentiment it was grey and I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, but once I had glued it onto the card it didn't pop again. And I used some pretty heavy duty adhesive so she wasn't coming off..so I took another die cut hello inked it black then did the same thing with the clear heat embossing and glued it on over. This card is also for the this weeks Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. But when it was all put together I looked it over and thought it needed some more embossing to it! So I took out the single triangle stamp from the set and picked a few random ones to clear emboss over! Its a very subtle detail but I love when it sparkles in the daylight.

I hope you enjoy todays card! Thanks so much for stopping by

Chera~

Supplies:

Stamps: wplus9 just geometrics

Ink: wplus9 appletini, blossomberry, lake house, sweet gelato, sweet nectar, black

Paper: white, smokey slate

Accessories: hand lettered hello die, clear embossing powder, white string

Happy Anniversary!

I've been working on some anniversary cards for an order. And I don't know what is it about them that I get all worked up about. Suppose it could be the fact that the majority of cards made are birthdays and thank yous, so this one seems ever so intimidating!

I decided I wanted to make my own background by stamping. I don't have a whole lot of options for this so I pulled out an oldie from Fresh Squeezed stamps (sadly they are no longer around). I really like the way this stamp gives the paper a textured look! after stamping the first stamp in the middle of the card front I then pulled out the anniversary stamp. I could have made stamping that much easier by cutting the words apart but I'm just not brave enough yet to do that!! So I covered the word I wasn't stamping with washi tape inked up and stamped er down. After both happy and anniversary were stamped I knew where to stamp the about background leaving the white space there. Once that part was done I die cut the flowers and leaves stamped on them, then adhered it to the card base. Looks like a lot more work then it really was!!

Hope you enjoy and thanks so much for stopping by!

Chera~

Supplies:

Paper: white, old olive

Ink: appletini, cranberry crush, silver lining, old gold, wild mango, bloomsberry Wplus9

Stamps: spring blooms, basic banners, background check

Accessories: spring blooms dies

Thinking of you

Here is some more stencil action for you!! Just got these two new ones from Stampin Up! And I got to say I love them! They are so big compared to any others that I've used, and a very good price point too!!

These cards were pretty easy to put together. I temporarily adhered the card front to my craft mat placed the stencil over it taped it down with some washi tape and took my ink blender over it with the colours I wanted. Once that part was done, removed the stencil and stamped the sentiment. Then added some sequins! I then took a card base added some dimensionals not the back of it and adhered it to my card base! Another pretty quick and easy card with so many colour options! 

Thats all for now and thanks so much for stopping by!

Chera

Supplies:

Paper: white

Ink: card #1 dusty concord and broken china card #2 picked raspberry and wild honey distress ink, black ink for sentiment

Stamps: SSS sending happy thoughts

Accessories: sequins

praying for you

so here is another sympathy card I made for an order I'm doing! I don't really make a ton of theses kind of cards so I had to go through all my stamps to see what I could find for sentiments. Thought this PTI one was perfect to give another options!! 

For this card there was a few steps involved. First off, I heat embossed the tree image onto scrap paper cut them out and set aside. I then took the square die and die cut the natural paper.  Next up for the blue mat around the window, I took two square dies that fit into each other (one of them being the same size as the window that is on the natural paper) , place it on the paper once I had it aligned evenly I ran it through my bigshot and was able to make this border for around the window I created.  After all the die cutting was done I took the natural paper added the the blue border around it then stamped on my sentiment. Once that was all together I took the tree image with adhesive on the back side of it places it in the window then aligned the front part of the card on the card base, placed the tree image down added some dimensionals to the the card front and there you have it! (hope that makes sense!! In my head it does) 

Hope you enjoy!! And thanks so much for stopping by!!
Chera~

Supplies:
Stamps: through the trees, cutting garden PTI
Paper: SU natural white, not quite navy
Ink: versa mark, not quite navy
Accessories: white embossing powder, dimensionals

Single layer congrats

Well, heres another single layer card for you!! Not to sure whats going on over here! Usually have to add something here bump sequin there…..but this card speaks loud just as is!

It all came together pretty quickly, would say under 10 minutes for sure!! I decided that I needed to pull out some Wplus9 goodies and use this weeks Clean and Simple sketch (make sure to swing on by and check out some of the other creations!!)

Hope you all had a great weekend!! 

Chera~

Supplies:

Stamps: wplus9 spring blooms, bigger blooms PTI

Ink: wplus9 bloomsberry, sweet glelato, appletini, sweet nectar, heidi swapp black

paper: white

with sympathy flowers

Heres another super easy clean and simple sympathy card I created!! 

Its a pretty self explanatory card so I will just list the supplies for you!
Thanks for stopping by!
Chera~

Supplies:
Stamp: botanical silhouettes PTI
Ink: black, cherry cobbler, always artichoke
Paper: cream 
Accessories: corner rounder punch

with sympathy feathers

I've been working on some sympathy cards. Not a usual card for me, so I pulled out some Clearly Besotted feathers for the job!

I pulled out the new Stampin Up! in colours for 2014-2015, thought they had a nice somber feel to them! And honestly I wanted to pull them out and give them a whirl!! I also want to tell everyone how awesome the Fiskers stamping press is, I often have a hard time lining up stamps on die cuts but this stamp press gives the flexibility to do it much easier!! Just my side tidbit for the day!!

Hope you are all having a great week!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Chera~

Supplies:

Stamps: fancy feathers clearly besotted, through the trees PTI

Paper: blackberry bliss, white shimmer paper

Ink: blackberry bliss, wild honey, lost lagoon, mossy meadow, soft sky, black

Accessories: fancy feathers die

Sending love

I receive my July Simon Says card kit this week and I couldn't wait to dig in and share with you what I made…This is the first card I finished for this weeks Clean and Simple sketch. I also have some other projects on my desk in my craft studio awaiting me!! So stay tuned!!

For the bottom half of the card I drew a line with pencil where I wanted to separate the paper,  and then versa marked the envelopes on used white embossing powder and heated it up. After I was done getting all the envelopes on there I masked off with some washi tape where I drew the line. I pulled out some distress ink sponged it on with my distress tool. Once that was done I went over it with some old Stampin Up! shimmer paint I found (the sun shifted on me so hard to see that in the pic) mixed with water and dabbed on over the distress ink. Once it was dry I removed the tape, added my sentiment some rhinestones and was done!

Thats all for today! Thanks so much for stopping by!!!

Chera~

stencil love

For the longest time I didn't understand the purpose of stencils in the card making world. I had no desire to ever own let alone use one…boy was I ever wrong!!

While I was perusing blogs the other day and came across this post on Jennifer McGuire's blog, I had a free moment (which seem to be a little sparse now that the kids are home from school) to try it out! Got to say I'm a fan!! What a fun and easy technique that gives so much depth to a project!! Make sure you head on over and watch the video!!

I now have a good collection of stencils piling up in my craft studio that I love!! They are so many wonderful uses for them! I strongly suggest getting one and giving it a try!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!
Chera~

Get well

A few weeks ago when I was away I got to craft with some friends. And as per my request I asked for the Fresh Cut Floral stamps and dies to be brought out so I could use them. Had a get well card in mind and thought they would be perfect for them. Now I NEED to get this set for myself! How could I not after making this pretty card! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Chera~

Hello

While I was away I bought this new Tim Holtz stencil…I use to find stencils a bit of a mystery and had no desire to ever own one!! However, my mind has been completely changed forever! 

I started off with 4 of the Wplus9 pure ink colours. One at a time I pressed the colour down on my craft matt and then added embossing paste to it, mixed it up and just added it randomly where ever on the stencil I repeated this till I had all 4 colours added. Then I evened out the embossing paste with my tool, removed the stencil and let it dry! Added the layered flower added the hello  adhered it the pink card stock and called it done! I just love the look of the embossing paste! Gives it good texture just adds to the card!

Supplies:

Ink: wplus9 blossomberry, lake house, silver lining, wild mango

Paper: white, blushing bride

Accessoires: chevron stencil, hand lettered hello die, beautiful blooms 2, hero arts rhinestone

butterfly collection

Have been home a few days now from another trip! When I returned my new Simon Says Stamp card kit for June was awaiting me!! So I pulled it out and created a couple of cards with it!! This first card here is actually my second attempt…I added a few more colours of ink to it and used one size of the rose instead of 2 like the bottom card!! I love how the colours flow into one another! 

This card is this week Clean and Simple card, you can see I did a softer pallet with less colours. At first I wasn't a fan but it grew on me so I went with it!!

For both the cards I heat embossed the rose patter on the water colour card stock. First card is just one size and the FTL card has both rose sizes on it. After I heat embossed it I rubbed distress ink onto my craft matt and sprayed it with water then added the card front to it. The first card I twisted it around a bit where as the second card I just laid it down and left it that way. Did both just to see what I liked better! They are both nice but for different reasons I guess! Once the paper was dry I took a scrap piece of paper and a hot iron to remove the embossed areas. First time for me using this technique…I enjoyed it seeing as I wasn't to sure how to stamp the sentiment directly onto to the card front instead of having it be a banner of some sort! 

These water colour techniques are so fun to do and give such a fun look to a card with very minimal effort!! 

Hope you enjoy! Thanks so much fro stopping by!

Chera~

more watercolour

Here is another one of my water colour cards I made for my dear friend Natasha who's now married!! I wanted to  make her a special card that was extra sparkly and eye catching!! I think I did ok on both those accounts…

I left this card oversized cause There wasn't actually any part of it I wanted to trim! It all blended so well together..didn't think that was going to happen! I did the same technique as my last card. Smooshing down distress ink on my craft mat then spritzing it with water…this one I did do a couple of touch ups with the paint brush as there was a couple areas that didn't have the coverage I wanted! I also did a bit of paint splatter, and some shimmer mist splatter as well as just some regular shimmer mist to give it some sparkle all over!  Other than waiting for the drying of the paper it was a pretty simple card with lots of detail that would leave you to think it wasn't!! 

Thats all for now! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Chera~

Supplies:
Paper: watercolour paper, cherry cobbler
Stamps: bigger blooms, spring blooms
Ink: wild honey, scattered straw and fire brick distress ink
Accessories: spring blooms die, sequins

back to reality!

After a week of kid free bliss enjoying the ocean waves, beautiful sunsets and margaritas, I'm back trying to get into the swing of things!!!

When I had a spare moment I finally got to finish watching the rest of the online watercolour for card makers videos! This card is one from the bonus day. I loved the technique and have tried a few different combos with the limited distress inks I have!!

For the background of this card I scored some random lines to give a plaid kind of look (loved that idea from the video) then I put down a few colours of distress ink on my mat spritzed it with water and placed the water colour paper on it moving it from side to side a little to get the colour everywhere. I didn't do any touch ups on it. just let it dried, stared at it for al one while not liking it, came back to it today and put this creation together! 

Hope you enjoy and thanks so much for stopping by!!

Chera~

Supplies:

Paper: water colour paper, melon mambo

Ink: worn lipstick, peeled paint, wild honey, scattered straw, and peacock feather distress ink

Stamps: strictly sentiments 4

Accessoires: spellbinders butterfly die, memory pippi butterfly, sequins, twine, PTI banner die

cutting room floor

This was "on the cutting room floor" if you want to call it that! I had put it together with some scrap paper I had inked on…and I just didn't feel it flowing so I put it aside. Today I picked it up again, looked at it and thought it would make a cute birthday card for my of my boys friends birthday he is attending today! 

I found some old Stampin Up! paper that had a good match to the purple ink on the card and thats when I knew I could finish it! In the background on the purple (might be hard to tell in the photo) I did a little shimmer misting with the hexagon stencil. Just needed a little touch to not be so bland but I didn't want to take away from all the detail on the front portion. For the front part I added embossing paste over top the inked paper, added the sentiment then the ribbon…and today after weeks of just sitting there I decided I didn't hate it anymore!!

I guess it was good I decided to keep this one laying around instead of just tossing it like I do with so many other  cards that I think don't work!!

Hope you all have a great Friday! Thanks for stopping by!
Chera~

Supplies:
Ink: wplus9 sweet nectar, sweet gelato, blooms berry
Paper: white and retired SU (some shade of purple)
Stamps: strictly sentiments 1
accessories: ribbon, hexagon stencil, embossing paste, shimmer mist