New Home Card with Peg Stamps and Alcohol Inks

 Hello everyone!  This will be my first post for a blog challenge in AGES!  I mentally haven’t been able to keep up with all the challenges, but I am feeling a lot more organized in the past couple weeks and am ready to start creating for challenges again.  

I also needed to make a new home card for a stamping friend!  It was important to me that I use alcohol inks on this card, as she is a big fan of them and I know she will enjoy them.

I used NBUS items on this card.  The alcohol ink cardstock for the background is the brushed silver variety, and I had not tried that before.  That did give a fun look and it is kindof a matte finish, which is neat!  

I also used some old and some NBUS peg stamps.  

Rubber Stamp Tapestry Robin’s Nest

Rubber Stamp Tapestry Strawberry Delight (NBUS)

Close to My Heart Scandinavian Folk Art Greetings

I would love to enter the following challenges:

NBUS May 2022

Double D Challenge - Birds Nests Birdcages

SimonSaysStamp Wednesday Challenge - Feminine

THANK YOU FOR VISITING!  Please leave a comment so I know you were here!

Double Background Stamp Background

Hello!  In my stamping group, we were challenged to use the following technique to create a background with two background stamps.  I dug deep into my older stamps to find these two - they have to be at least 5 years old, if not 10.

I first stamped my Hero Arts tweed stamp with Versamark ink.  I then applied chalks all over this. Then, I inked up my Hero Arts Stitched Floral stamp with navy ink and stamped over top.  I thought this looked summery and girly.  

So I decided to simply finish it with a fun brushstroke sentiment from Power Poppy.  

I would love to enter WordArtWednesday - Anything Goes, Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes, SimonSaysStamp’s Monday Challenge - Create Your Own Background and RetroRubber Challenge - Summer.

I hope you are having a nice weekend. It is pretty hot and humid here.

Take care!

Heidi

Christmas Cards - Holiday Headstart

Yesterday, my craft group met virtually with zoom. That was a first!  I had just unpacked my bag from the last time we met, and I found some half-done projects in there, including these Christmas trees - all stamped out. 

So I just needed to die cut them and make them into cards. I did add some Nuvo Glitter drops for ornaments.  

I did also work on a few other projects that are now half done. I hope to finish them up soon and share them here.  

I’d love to enter Staying Crafty With Hero Arts Holiday Headstart challenge. 

Have you done any meetings virtually recently?  

Thanks for visiting!

—————————

Christmas Card Goal to Date 2020: 20
Christmas cards completed: 16

Floral Card with Perfect Pearls and Brusho Powders

Hello!  I have a very pretty card to share today, and I used an older medium, Perfect Pearls! I am convinced that they are making a comeback, and I think that this detailed stamp set is the perfect style for them.

I stamped my flower on the background with Versamark ink and then used Gold Perfect Pearls.  After brushing off the excess, I spritzed the card with water to set the medium.  

For the focal point, I heat embossed the same flowers with gold embossing powder on watercolor cardstock. I wet the cardstock and then sprinkled Cobalt Brusho Powders over top.  I let this dry naturally so I would get variations in the colors.  

I left a spot in the upper left of the focal area for my sentiment. I wasn’t sure if I would use this for a birthday card or maybe even a Sympathy card, if a need arises.  I also did a bunch of Perfect Pearl backgrounds with the different flowers from this sheet so I have more cards to create in the future.

Supplies:

I Brake for Stamps Floral Half Sheet, Versamark Ink, Perfect Pearls Gold, Brusho Colbalt, Detail Embossing Powder Gold, Stardream Antique Gold cardstock, Spellbinders Fancy Rectangle Dies

(Save 10% on your order at I Brake for Stamps with my code SAVE10HEIDI)

I would love to enter Mod Squad’s Mica Powders challenge, SimonSaysStamp’s Monday Challenge Frame It, and WordArtWednesday’s Anything Goes Challenge.

Thanks for visiting!  What are you working on?

Coffee Cup Christmas Card set

It is the 25th of the month, so it is time for the Rudolph Days challenge!  I knew that I would need to make a card set this month in order to meet my monthly goal.  I also decided that I will keep a tally of total Christmas cards for the year at the bottom of each Christmas card post this year.  

I had a new stamp set I wanted to work with. I stamped the coffee cup in 5 different colors, added the cup outline in black, and then created a different card layout for each one.

The first card uses some cool patterned paper, a punched snowflake and gems.  

Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes!

I really love this red, white and black card.  I embossed the background with an old Martha Stewart folder, and used little coffee beans instead of berries by the holly, and used some Wink of Stella pen to make them sparkle!

Inskpirational - Glitz a Strip challenge

 This pink card is home for my green cup. The papers were from a magazine. Boy! They are thin and shiny and a bit hard to work with.  It is a good thing they are pretty.  I had to heat emboss the sentiment because the ink wouldn’t dry on this paper.

This was actually the first design I did.  I used Nuvo drops to create my own sparkly berries.  

This final design is classic Christmas!  I used a sketch here and decided to mat in green to add a more Christmassy feel.  I love how it turned out with the sparkle of some silver gems.

Tuesday Morning Sketches #538

There were plenty of sentiments in the set and I was able to stamp inside all the cards.  

Supplies: Joy Clair Christmas coffee stamp set, various inks, BoBunny Altitude 6x6 paper pad, Heidi Swapp Christmas paper, Gina Marie Wonky Stitched Ovals and Tag dies, EKSuccess Snowflake punch.

Thank you for visiting!  I hope you will have time to leave a comment to let me know you were here. Please consider following my blog, and I am happy to visit and follow you as well.  

Have a great weekend!

2020 Christmas Card Goal to Date: 5

2020 Christmas Cards finished: 6

Pumpkin Spice Coffee Card

Hello and Happy Saturday!  This card has been in my brain for a few weeks and this morning I finally had a chance to make it a reality.  

I used several different stamp companies to get this design.  The coffee cup was stamped on a Distress Oxide Antique Linen background.  I then stamped a tiny pumpkin over top and colored it.  The Pumpkin was stamped with orange ink on some yellow cardstock and then I added the sentiment over top.  

I had some scraps of gold and green cardstock in my box, so I die cut some leaves from it and then arranged it all over my stamped woodgrain background.  All the green cardstock was sponged with some gold ink.

I am really happy with this card and I hope the photo shows the pretty gold details. 

Supplies: Just for Fun Stamptangle pumpkin and coffee cup, Hero Arts Woodgrain Background Stamp, Penny Black Spice of Life stamp set, Inkadinkado Creepy Lane stamp set, Versafine Onyx Black ink, Gina K Dark Chocolate and Tangerine inks, Spellbinders Leaves dies, Sizzix Embossing folder, Brilliance Galaxy Gold ink. 

I would love to enter The Coffee Lover’s Blog Hop, SimonSaysStamp’s Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes, Word Art Wednesday Anything Goes and Dies R Us Trees and Leaves Challenges.

Thank you for visiting today!  If you are new, I sure hope you will leave a comment so I know you were here.  And please consider subscribing!  I always do my best to visit and see what you are making too.  Have a great weekend!

Halloween Card with Pop-up feature inside

Hello and I hope you are well. Today I am going to share my last Halloween cards of the year.  These both have similar card fronts, but for the blue card, I decided to use the W-Fold on the inside so I could add a lot more images!  (I shared a tutorial on how to do this HERE.)

Stampendous, Just for Fun and Hero Arts stamps.

I would love to enter this in the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday Anything Goes challenge and Lost Coast Portal To Creativity’s Halloween Challenge.

I am all ready with piles of candy to give out tomorrow night.  Unfortunately, we are supposed to get a lot of rain, so I hope I don’t have a lot leftover.  Handing out candy is something I look forward to every year.  We typically get LOTS of trick-or-treaters, as we have a very safe road, and I have found that most kids are very polite and trying their best, for their ages.  That being said, the tiny ones will probably always be my favorites!

Have a wonderful day!

Pinned It? Try It! Week 8: One-Sheet Wonder

Hello and Happy Tuesday!  I have missed the timing for some of my Pinned It? Try It! Series, but since it is a self-imposed challenge, I feel liberated in doing it on which day I can!

Lucky for me, in my online cardmaking group, one of the challenges was to use a particular 6x6 One Sheet Wonder layout.  This was one I have already pinned. This makes 4 cards, although for the challenge we only had to complete 3.  The basic layouts were easy, but figuring out the focal points took quite a while. I was happy to bring out some stamp sets I hadn’t used in a while.

My one sheet is the sweet brown foliage paper.  It is from an older Love Nicole 6x6 paper pad that I got a AC Moore a while back and really haven’t used as much as I should.  

I also added accents of this very pretty champagne/gold metallic cardstock that I got on clearance at Staples.  It really doesn’t show how pretty it is in the photos.  

Supplies: Gina K Designs Painted Autumn and Birthday Blessings Stamp/Die sets, Close to My Heart Just Treats stamp set, Gina Marie Wonky Stitched Ovals and Stitched tag dies, Love Nicole Autumn Splendor 6x6 paper pad, EK Success Postage edge punch, Astrobrights Gold Pearl Linen cardstock, other items from my stash.

I’d love to enter these in the Cupcake Inspirations Fall Challenge and the ModSquad’s Sentiment says it All challenge.

.

Thank you for stopping in today!  How have you been spending your crafty time lately?  

Crazy Cat Halloween Card

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend!  Our weather seems fall-like today!  I made this Halloween card earlier, but haven’t shared it here yet.

Supplies:  Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Crazy Cats, Stampendous Bring to Life stamp set, Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, Memento and Versafine Black inks, The Crafter’s Workshop stencil, Distress Oxide Black soot for stenciling, other items from my stash.

I’d like to enter this in the SimonSaysStamp’s Monday Challenge -Stamp It, and Crafting By Designs September Anything Goes.

Thanks for your visit today!  Are you crafting this weekend? I am really hoping to get some in, but we have a pretty busy schedule!

Rudolph Days - Christmas Card

Hello everyone! I have a busy day ahead, but wanted to get this card in for a few challenges today!  

I used a sketch, some simple coloring, and sponging with Distress inks.  This Christmas card is nice and flat for mailing!

Supplies: Stampers Anonymous Christmas 5 stamps set, Hero Arts CL887 Layering Tree stamp set (sentiment), Memento and Versafine Black ink, Spectrum Noir markers, Distress ink Seedless Preserves, Bo Bunny 6x6 Paper pad, MFT Die Namics Pierced Square die.

I would love to enter Freshly Made Sketches 400th sketch challenge, August Rudolph Days Challenge, And SimonSaysStamp’s Wednesday Anything Goes challenge.

Thank you for visiting!!!

Summer Floral Thank You

Hello!  I hope those of you in this heat wave can stay cool.  I tried to take a walk this morning before it was too hot, but honestly, I think there was no chance of it not being too hot!  I am cooled off now after lots of water.  Might as well spend the afternoon inside with my stamp supplies!

 I am sharing a pretty Thank You card made with some flowers from this great set called Florals Sheet.  I realize I should know what this flower is, but I can’t think of it.  Does anyone know?

I used the flowers as a two step stamp. I stamped the solid portion in pinks, and then used an old fashioned stamp positioner to get perfect placement of the outlines.  I added a couple accents using a marker and a white gel pen.  I trimmed these out and placed them over my die cut.  

I am entering this in the current Tuesday Morning Sketches Challenge.

I hope you have some time for stamping this summer!  

Heidi

Summertime Fruit Thank you card

Hello!  Yesterday, I had a lot of fun playing with this cute fruit stamp set.  We have been eating wonderful cherries and watermelons, so it seems like the perfect time of year for this card.  

I colored the Fun Fruits, set of 4, with alcohol markers.  I did want to mention how I choose colors.  I colored just the fruits first and kept the markers that I was using out on my desk.  

Then, when I went to color the rest of the frames, I tried to pick only markers I already had out.  This is the easiest way, for me, to keep my cards harmonious and not too busy.  I think I only used 8 markers total.

The sentiment is from Florals Sheet. (As always, you can save 10% on these stamps using my code SAVE10HEIDI)

I’d love to enter the 30 Day Coloring Challenge,  Pixie’s Crafty Workshop’s Snippets Challenge (the yellow card was from my scrap box) and Word Art Wednesday’s Anything Goes challenge.

Have a great day!

Christmas in July

Hello All!  Well, it is July now and I haven’t done my usual number of cards per month for the last (at least) 2 months.  So I am going to try to get in the spirit of “Christmas in July” to make up for it!

My first card is done as a CASE of a card at the ModSquad challenge.  I did was change the flowers into snowflakes, but otherwise it is really along the same lines.  The background is patterned paper (easy peasy) and the snowman was simply colored with markers with a little glitter pen added.

I’d also like to enter this in Cute Card Thursday’s Anything Goes challenge.

Supplies: Gina K Christmas Magic stamp and die set, Bo Bunny Altitude 6x6 patterned paper pad, Gina Marie X Stitched circle dies, Sentiment from Hero Arts CL887 Layering Tree stamp set, Memento and Versafine Black inks, Close to My Heart gems.

So wish me luck in making a dent in the Christmas cards this month!  I know some of you like to make them early, but plenty would prefer to wait till late fall.  

Thanks for your visit today!

By The Water - JFF’s July Challenge

Hello!  This month, I am the blog host for JFF’s July Challenge!  The theme I picked is “By the Water.”  July is a big vacation month; and a vacation, for me, is somewhere by the water.  My first choice would be a lake where I could do some boating (skiing, fishing) but your card could be at the beach, by a river, etc.  

My card was started as an alcohol ink background, which I did, this time, on yupo paper. I think I prefer yupo over glossy paper for AI techniques, but they both work wonderfully.   I stamped my fishing father and child stamp over top of the background.  I then stamped, colored and cut out the fish and applied it to the bottom as a title.  The black card scrap was cut to look like a Polaroid frame.  

Supplies: Just for Fun Rubber Stamps Father & Child Fishing stamp, Fishing title stamp, Ranger alcohol inks and Yupo paper, Sizzix swirl embossing folder, MFT DieNamics Pierced Square dies.

Please check out the JFF blog for the link up for this challenge, AND to see the artwork that the rest of the design team made for this challenge!  I really hope you will play along!  There will be a random drawing for a gift card.  

Thanks for your visit and kind comments!  They are such an encouragement to me!

Sweet Pea 70th Birthday Card

Hello everyone!  I hope you are doing well.  We had our first really muggy, summer day yesterday.  I have got to get used to that!  I have a lot of summer birthdays in my family and not enough birthday cards in my stash, so today I am sharing this one for a special aunt with one of the big birthdays!  

I colored the sweet pea image with a base layer of marker, and then added subtle shading with colored pencils.  The pencils also come in handy for those thin stems!  I cut this out with a die and then looked through my scrap box (it is really full right now) to find the other elements of the card.  I know my aunt is going to like this!

Supplies: I Brake for Stamps April Sweet Peas, Memento black ink,  Gina K Fresh Asparagus paper, Hero Arts Numbers Frame Cuts, Spellbinders circle dies, Spellbinders Fancy Edge Rectangle dies, other items from my stash.  

(Save 10% on this stamp and your entire order at the I Brake for Stamps store with my code SAVE10HEIDI )

I would love to enter Die Cut Diva’s Birthday Challenge, Pixie’s Crafty Workshop’s Snippets Challenge, The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring challenge, and WordArtWednesday’s Anything Goes Challenge.

I want to thank you for your kind comments and visits!  Have a crafty day!

Sailboat Father’s Day Card - Stamp Kissing Technique

Hello everyone! Today, I’d like to do a quick share.

I have a solid sailboat stamp that I inked up with light blue ink.  I then inked up a tweed background stamp with navy ink.  I kissed the sailboat onto the tweed background to pick up the navy ink, and then stamped it down onto my card panel.  I was really pleased with how this turned out!

Supplies: Just for Fun Rubber Stamps Sailboat Silhouette, Father’s Day, Hero Arts Tweed Background Stamps, Hero Arts Shadow inks in Cornflower and Navy, Versamark Embossing ink and White detail embossing powder, The Paper Studio embossing folder

I’d love to enter this into the ModSquad Challenge Nautical Masculine challenge and CASology’s CALM challenge.

Thanks for your visit!!

Ice Cream Cards - CTMH Balanced Diet stamp set

Hello!  I hope you are enjoying your weekend.  We have had really nice, mild summer weather!  I think it is supposed to start raining during the start of the week, but at this point, we probably need it.  

Today I would like to share another card I designed to make with friends who are beginners.  I thought the ice cream theme was fun, and suitable for all ages.  This card involves no coloring, and I went ahead and cut the card bases and did the die cutting of the circle element ahead.

The background was a lot of stamping for a beginner, and although I could do one in just a couple minutes, it took much longer than I thought for my friend.  The two-step stamping of the ice cream cone was a good lesson for a beginner, but the fussy cutting of the ice cream scoops is a bit time-consuming for someone not used to it!  

So, this card might have been just a touch too long for beginners, but it was doable.  I went with the matching sentiment for the inside (ombré stamping done with two inkpads, as I don’t have the multicolor ones), but my friend chose a simpler thank you sentiment in a single color.  

I did make a second card in pink and yellow!  This card was already given out to a little girl I know with a gift card to Dairy Queen enclosed.  

Supplies: Close to My Heart A Balanced Diet and Wordfetti stamp sets, Hero Arts Shadow inks and Gina K Designs inks in various colors, Versafine Onyx Black ink, Gina Marie X Stitched Circles dies, other items from my stash.

I would like to enter these projects into Crafting By Designs Anything Goes, Cute Card Thursday Anything Goes and WordArtWednesday Anything Goes. 

If you are on Instagram, you may be interested the SimonSaysStamp is now doing specific instagram challenges, and this month it is Summer Fun!  My instagram can be found here.

JFF’s June Challenge - Use a Stencil

Hello! I am happy to announce that Just for Fun’s Blog challenge this month is to incorporate a stencil into your stamped design.  I really enjoy using stencils, so I was happy to play along this month.

My background was created by applying ink directly to a stencil with Distress Oxide ink in Antique Linen.  Then I spritzed the stencil with water and pressed it to watercolor paper to make a monoprint.  I was tickled to see that the tan ink separated out into both tan and a light green.  Brown inks are always fun when they separate.  

Then, I used my stamping platform to stamp my fern in green oxide ink, and then I just added brown oxide ink to a few parts of the fern and stamped it again.  I liked the way it turned out.  My Father’s Day greeting was stamped directly to my ivory card base using a dye ink.  

Supplies:  Just for Fun Rubber Stamps Flora and Fauna sheet, Happy Father’s Day, Creative Expressions Autumn stencil, Distress oxide inks in Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint, watercolor paper, Hero Arts Shadow Ink Forever Green, Gina K Designs Dark Sage cardstock, Michaels 110 pound ivory card stock.

Hope you will join in the challenge this month!

Quick Share: Sunshine on a Rainy Day

Hello everyone!  Just a quick share of a card that I did for SplitCoast’s Free4All Challenge and Word Art Wednesday today!

Supplies: Gina K Warm Spring Wishes, Elizabeth Crafts CS061 Little Words that Mean A Lot, Hampton Arts IC0164 stamp set, Versafine Black ink, Mimosa and Daisy Avery Elle Pigment inks, Avery Elle Wonky Stitched Rectangles die, Bicycle die unknown.  Distress Oxide inks for background in Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans and Broken China, Sakura stardust gel pen for accent on sun.

Thanks for your visit today!!!