Clearly Besotted "Pretty Pansies" | A Floral Thoughts Birthday Card

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

So y'know the other day when I said I had so much more time to myself and I was looking forward to getting more posts and videos done? Well as it turns out, I've just been making cards; it hadn't even occurred to me until late last night as I was dozing off to sleep that I should probably be blogging as well. LOL, I guess I have been so excited about this uninterrupted time that I've just been making and finishing off half done cards like a crazy lady.

So today, when I sat down and logged into my computer for other reasons, it struck me that "While I'm here.....", so today, I wanted to share this lovely birthday card I created for my sister-in-law back in January, featuring Clearly Besotted's "Pretty Pansies" stamp set.

To create this card I cut down a piece of 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and put it in my MISTI, I stamped the larger image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink then turned the paper and stamped again.

I coloured all the images with Copic markers, you'll notice the bottom image has a darker blue halo than the one on the top. As it turns out my B000 and BG0000 both decided to dry right up after finishing the top image, so I had no choice but to go darker for the bottom. Because of this, I opted to have the greeting heat embossed on a piece of vellum to place over the lower image. I felt this would tone it down and make it less noticeable.

I then adhered the panel to a piece of coordinating cardstock and then mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. To finish off the card, I added some crystals from Pretty Pink Posh in both blue and purple because I gotta have me some shine.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Clearly Besotted "Go Wild Again" | Snappy Birthday

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

So, while I'm waiting for the rest of my Lawn Fawn stuff to come in, I thought I would share a super cute card using the "Go Wild Again" stamp set by Clearly Besotted.

When I first came into the stamps from Clearly Besotted, it was mainly for their beautiful floral sets. I absolutely adore how elegant their flowers are, they make for some of the most wonderful cards for "grown ups". Not really, but you know what I'm saying. But they also have some super amazing cute stamps that can be for grown ups and for those of us that are kids at heart.

To begin, I stamped this super sweet little gator with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and masked him off. I then stamped the plant and the water. I removed the masks and coloured all the images with Copic markers.

I then remasked everything and used Bundled Sage and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks to create more of the background.

Once that was completely dry, I used clear Wink of Stella over the gator and the water to make sure they had some serious sparkle. I used my MISTI to stamp the greeting, the black with Memento and the green with a couple of Lawn Fawn inks.

I adhered the panel to a piece of green cardstock then mounted the entire piece to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

To finish off the card, I covered the water with Glossy Accents by Ranger.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Clearly Besotted "Some Birdie Loves You" | You're so Tweet

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share a card that I had created before Valentine's Day but it never made it up on time. I had considered not posing this, but then I figured it could also be used as a thank you card or a card just to let someone know you care.

I stamped the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and coloured them with Copic markers. I masked off the images and sponged Distress Ink to create a sunset background. I picked the sunset colours to compliment the blue of the bird. I was going for the black mask love bird look, and while it isn't perfect, I think it came pretty close.

I used Lawn Fawn's Stitched Note Card die to cut down my panel and adhered it to a piece of blue cardstock. It was afterwards that I decided the blue was too plain, so I used Fish Tank ink to stamp the music notes as a soft tone on tone background. The colour dried back more than I had intended, but I was too far along to start again, you know how it is.

I used my clear gelly roll glitter pen over the lines of the cage to give them a shiny metallic look. To add a touch more detail, I used a black gel pen over the eyes and a white gel pen to give it some highlight.

I then mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Clearly Besotted | Masculine Birthday ft. "Hip Hip Hooray"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I want to share a masculine birthday card I created using the Clearly Besotted "Hip Hip Hooray" stamp set. When I first saw this set, I couldn't wait to use it; and now, all this time later, I still turn to this one when I'm looking for inspiration in masculine cards.

I started by stamping the little viking man with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I then masked him off and stamped the mountains across the background along with the greeting, then I masked the mountains off.

I used Distress inks in Stormy Sky to create my sky and a very light hand of Gathered Twigs to create the ground. Once that was dry, I removed the masks and coloured my images with Copic markers.

I used the stitched note card die to cut down my panel and adhered it to a piece of subtly patterned paper. I then mounted the entire piece to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

To finish off the card, I used clear Wink of Stella over the metal parts of the image and black Nuvo drops to create some interest and dimension.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! For those of you that follow me on Google+, please subscribe directly to the blog so you don't miss out on any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Clearly Besotted | "Some Birdie Loves You" Happy Heart Day 2019

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you are having a good day.

Today I thought I would share a card I created using the "Some Birdie Loves You" stamp set by Clearly Besotted two ways. The card itself is the same, but I've changed the colour palette to get two different looks.

To begin, I stamped the toucan on right and masked it off, I then stamped the toucan on the left, masked it and stamped the branch from Mama Elephant so that they would have something to sit on. I didn't want to create a mask for the branch because I'm super lazy, so I very carefully sponged Distress Inks around the birds and the foliage, trying to get as little ink as possible in the branch itself. 

I removed the masks and stamped the hearts at the top and the greeting using Memento Tuxedo black ink, then coloured all the images with Copic markers.

To finish off the panels, I used clear Wink of Stella over the beaks and the hearts and put Glossy Accents over the hearts as well. As a finishing touch, I used my white gel pen to add some highlights to the birds, leaves and some dots in the centre of each of the flowers. I adhered each panel to a piece of coordinating cardstock then mounted the lot the the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card(s) and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Floral Thoughts Series If Friends Were Flowers | ft. Clearly Besotted "Pretty Pansies"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

If you aren't having a great day, then I hope you are at the very least having a better day than I am. We've talked a lot about how my schedule has been crazy; full time job, three kids, just life etc. But I'm trying to post more often, I'm trying to be in the craft room more often, and it's a challenge.

Lemme tell y'all there are days where I get home and I just want to go to bed. I don't have an overly physically demanding job, but it is mentally (and emotionally) exhausting. So today being more challenging than most, especially after taking a few days off to do mom stuff, today I just wanted to through up my hands in the air and be done with it all. I cried. Actually cried at my desk. Now, I'm not one to typically let other people see me cry, but it couldn't be helped. So when my husband asked me what I wanted for dinner, I told him a bottle of wine and a jar of Nutella. No joke.

He declined. Which I think is rather unsupportive. Not really, he's probably right. And we didn't have wine or Nutella for dinner.

The plan when we got home was to sit and watch a show, but I felt that in an effort to bring myself a bit of joy today, I was going to blog first. So now you all know where I'm at. I don't blame you at all if you've just skipped over the last couple paragraphs.

Anyway, for today's card I wanted to share a beautiful new (to me) stamp set from Clearly Besotted. I gotta say that when it comes to floral images, Clearly Besotted is the place to go. Their images are so detailed, and yet leave you enough space to colour using any medium your heart desires.

To begin, I stamped the larger floral image from the Pretty Pansies stamp set, using Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, then masked that off and stamped it a second time along with the greeting.

I masked off the second image and used some Lawn Fawn "Butter" ink to add a bit of colour to the background around the flowers. I removed the masks and coloured all the images in with Copic markers. Interestingly, I know what a pansy looks like, but I had to Google it to actually get my colours. In retrospect, that seems silly, because I could have coloured this any old way I pleased.

I used some cool grey markers to add a small drop shadow, which isn't even really noticeable, but you would probably notice it if it weren't there.

I adhered the panel to the a piece of coordinating purple cardstock from my stash and then mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. To finish off the card, I covered the blossoms with clear Wink of Stella, then added crystals from Pretty Pink Posh.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Floral Birthday | ft Simon Says Stamp "Flower Explosion"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I want to share a card using the Simon Says Stamp "Flower Explosion" stamp. This stamp is a huge 6x6 cling that came in the 2018 Mother's Day Card kit, and if you watched my unboxing video, you'll know that I had some pretty specific plans for this stamp.

To begin, I prepped a piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock with my powder tool and stamped the giant cling stamp with VersaMark ink, then heat embossed with white detail embossing powder.

Once that had cooled, I used the Tombow Dual Brush markers to add a bit of colour to the area where I wanted it the darkest and used a water-brush to pull the pigment out into the rest of the space. I wanted this background to be very soft, but still have a lot of pop and the Tombow markers did not fail me.

While the background was drying, I used a scalloped circle die from Spellbinders to cut a piece of vellum down, I then prepped that with my powder tool and heat embossed this greeting from Clearly Besotted in gold embossing powder.

I adhered my background to the front of a standard A2 sized card base using Skor tape. There is some warping that happens with heat embossing and adding water and I wanted to make sure the panel wouldn't lift. To adhere my vellum down, I used Ranger's Multi Media Matte behind the lettering and in a couple places where I knew I would be adding some crystals to hide the liquid glue.

To finish off the card, I used the same liquid glue to add a scattering of the iridescent crystals by Studio Katia. I could have used coordinating crystals, but I just love how these ones pick up the colour of what is under them.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Watercolour Wishes | ft. Clearly Besotted "Merci Beaucoup"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I know that many of us started making cards as a way of expression. We don't always have the words, whether the right ones or enough of them to convey what we feel, and while we could easily pick up another form of art; painting or drawing, we're drawn to cards because of the emotion an image can send.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words and maybe that's true. A handmade card is like that. We channel our emotions into colouring or painting, stamping or paper piecing and the recipient knows the time and effort that was put in. They know the love and thought behind the little card they hold in their hands when they open the envelope.

For some people, a card is a card; but for others they can feel the difference between something that was lovingly (and often painstakingly) put together instead of one that was grabbed off the shelf while getting a jug of milk.

To begin, I stamped the rose from Clearly Besotted "Merci Beaucoup" set with Antique Linen Distress Ink on Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper using the MISTI. I used the MISTI for this because the ink is so light it takes a couple stamps to get an impression that you can see clearly while colouring.

I then used a mix of my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and Distress inks to watercolour the image.

Once that was completely dry, I returned the panel to my MISTI and stamped the greeting from CTMH "Cursive Birthday" with CTMH Cranberry pigment ink. I then adhered the panel to a piece of coordinating cardstock cut just a bit larger, and mounted the whole lot to a standard A2 size card base.

To finish off the card I added a few clear droplets from Pretty Pink Posh to look like drops of dew. These droplets have a bit more dimension to them than I would like, but the final result is always amazing.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar, over on Facebook and now on YouTube! Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Happy Heart Day Series | Stamping Mash Up ft. Clearly Besotted and Lawn Fawn

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I've found the more I create cards, the bigger my stash gets, the more videos I watch and the more blogs I follow, that I tend to try to stay within one brand for my cards. Each card, from start to finish is either all Lawn Fawn, or all MFT or all Clearly Besotted etc. And that's all well and good, and maybe if I'm lucky enough to be a guest designer or (dare I dream) on one of the design teams that habit will serve me well.

As of right now, though, I'm not. I remember way back when I first started it didn't even occur to me to stay in the same brand for a whole card. First off, I didn't know that was a thing, and second I certainly didn't have the supplies to do that. LOL We've all been there, right?

Today's card is a mash up of two of my favourite companies; Lawn Fawn and Clearly Besotted.

To begin, I stamped the rose from Clearly Besotted's "Merci Beaucoup" set with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I then stamped the top of the dome from Lawn Fawn's "Ready, Set, Snow" set, masking the bottom. I repeated the process, stamping the bottom of the dome and used a Copic-safe liner and a straight edge to pull the lines together.

I coloured the rose and the base of the dome with Copic markers. I then used some of the little snowflakes from the Lawn Fawn set with Delicata silver ink to add the sparkles around the flower. Once that was dry, I prepped the base of the dome with my powder tool and stamped the "Valentine" with VersaMark ink and heat embossed with silver detail embossing powder.

To make the dome look a little more like glass and a little less flat, I took my lightest blue Copic marker (B000) and drew a few streaks to create the illusion of reflection. This is a relatively new technique for me and I definitely need some practice, but I think it turned out well for a first try.

Finally, to finish off the panel and because I just can't really help myself, I used the Spectrum Noir clear glitter brush pen over the petals. This time I was very careful not to add too many layers (like we saw here, I guess I learned from that mistake!).

I had to trim down the left edge of the panel as my images weren't centered, I adhered my panel to a piece of red glitter paper then mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Muse Challenge #253

Inspired by Tracey

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

It Must Be Love

Floral Thoughts Series | Watercolour Birthday ft. Clearly Besotted "Fresh Flowers" and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today, I wanted to share a birthday card that I had created for my Grandmother. She loves florals, so I had no option but to choose Clearly Besotted. Their floral collection is like nothing I have ever seen before. The detailed designs lend a sense of realism, while still giving us all the space we need to colour using any medium we like.

She also loves watercolour, so I opted to use the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers as my medium for today.

To begin, I stamped this floral image from Clearly Besotted's "Fresh Flowers" with Antique Linen Distress Ink on Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper. I chose to use Antique Linen for my stamping because I wanted to do a "no line" watercolour. Distress Inks will react with water and the lines will fade away when you apply the watercolour to an area. I suggest using the MISTI or another stamping tool because of the texture of the paper, you'll want to get a good impression.

I then used my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, applying the colour only where I wanted the darkest areas to be then using clean water to pull the colour out towards the edges of each petal. It's important not to work in areas that are right next to each other so they don't bleed together.

Once the image was completely dry, I used my white gel pen to add highlights to the ends of the little stems (?) in the centre of each flower.

My greeting, from CTMH "Cursive Birthday" set is stamped with CTMH Gypsy pigment ink. I added a scattering of coordinating sequins across the panel and adhered the watercolour piece to a slightly larger piece of purple cardstock. Then I mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Mixing Mediums | Happy Birthday ft. Clearly Besotted "Sunshine & Smiles"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

By now, it should be no surprise that I love to colour. I have a bunch of different mediums over on my Product Review page and I would encourage you to try as many as possible. Having options means you can do whatever you're in the mood for; and that's a wonderful feeling.

To begin, I stamped this flower (I'm not sure what it is) from Clearly Besotted's "Sunshine & Smiles" set with Antique Linen Distress Ink on Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper. I chose to use this Distress ink because I absolutely love the look of no-line watercolouring, and the Antique Linen is perfect for that.

I then used a mix of Distress inks and my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers to colour the image in. With both mediums I used a small #2 round watercolour paint brush with clean water to get the colours moving. You can certainly use a water brush, but I prefer the control I get with a regular paint brush.

Once the panel was completely dry, I stamped the greeting from CTMH "Cursive Birthday" set with Goldenrod Pigment ink by CTMH. Because of the texture of the paper and the finicky nature of pigment ink, I stamped this with the MISTI.

I then adhered a panel to a piece of coordinating cardstock that I had in my stash and mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

To finish off the card, I adhered a scattering of yellow sequins across the panel. Typically, I would have used my glitter pens over the petals, but I didn't want the ink to reactivate with the moisture.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Happy Heart Day Series | Hello Cupcake ft Clearly Besotted "Sweet Treats"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today's card is a quick and easy design that can be duplicated if the need arises. My 5 year old daughter actually came up with the basics for this design when she asked me to stamp some images for her to colour.

She likes to pick out the stamps and then tells me where to stamp them with all the seriousness of a structural architect; "no a little bit that way", "can you make the side ones come down so it looks like a rainbow", "Mommy, those aren't even" and so on. She's definitely my little artist and has a great eye for colour and layout. I think it will serve her well in the future.

To begin, I stamped the greeting and the three little hamsters from Clearly Besotted "Sweet Treats" with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock, then coloured them with Copic markers.

I trimmed the top and bottom of the panel and adhered that to a piece of patterned paper by Lawn Fawn. I then mounted that to the front of my standard A2 sized card base.

To finish off the card I used some Nuvo Crystal Drops to create coordinating enamel dots and used Glossy Accents by Ranger on the sprinkles of the doughnut.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Muse Challenge #250

Inspired by Kim

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge

Add a Sentiment

The Card Concept

Sweet Inspiration

Floral Thoughts Series | In My Thoughts ft. Clearly Besotted "Thinking of You"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

"Thinking of you" cards are pretty versatile, depending on what you write on the inside, they can be used for almost any occasion. Sympathy, Birthday, Anniversary - it all depends on what you want to say. Sometimes people are just in your thoughts because they popped into your head for no reason at all, and it's always nice to know someone is thinking of you.

For this reason, I tend to leave the inside blank so I, or someone else can write a more personalized message.

To begin, I stamped the orchid image from Clearly Besotted "Thinking of You" stamp set with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I coloured the image with Copic markers and then masked it off.

I used Spun Sugar Distress Ink with a damask stencil to add a light pattern to the background. Once that was completely dry, I removed the mask and used a light warm gray marker to create a shadow to the right of the flowers.

I stamped the greeting from the same set with Memento Ink and mounted the panel to a piece of coordinating pink cardstock. To add a bit of interest and to ground the image I added a length of dark pink bakers twine.

Finally I adhered the whole piece to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Sincere Thanks and a Little Lesson About Glitter Pens

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I had considered not posting this. I didn't really look at the picture before I gave the card away, so I didn't have the option of taking a second one. I suppose I could have redone the card, but then I thought I'd keep the post and share a little something I learned about glitter pens.

To begin, I stamped the rose image and the greeting from Clearly Besotted "Merci Beaucoup" with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I coloured the image with Copic markers.

To add some interest, I rounded the corners at the bottom of both the panel and the 4 bar card base. Finally I added a few mini diamonds from CTMH.

Here's where I went wrong. I wanted the flower to sparkle. And not just a little bit. So I went over it when my clear Wink of Stella glitter brush pen. But because I'm me, and I can't stop myself - I waited until it was dry, then went over it again. Then again. And very possibly a fourth time; who's counting?

Looking at the picture, you're all probably thinking "uh not your best colouring, Trina" - but no, that's just glitter. Lots and lots of glitter. So a couple things I learned from this: first, check the picture before giving away the card and second, maybe four or five layers of glitter is just a bit too much.

So it sparkled. Like a whole lot and in real life it doesn't look this incredibly weird. Let's be honest as pictures go - this one makes up for every other one that I have ever posted where I said "the camera just doesn't pick up the shine".

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Hello Baby Girl | ft. Clearly Besotted "Wild Thing"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

I was going through old files just cleaning out old stuff that will never make it here, and came across this one. I had made an entire set of these a couple years back and somehow it never ended up being posted. So today I'm going to share this super sweet baby card - also the closest I have have ever come to "mixed media".

To begin, I stamped the giraffe from Clearly Besotted's "Wild Thing" with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and coloured her in with Copic markers. I fussy cut her out and popped her up on some foam tape and set her aside.

To create the background, I mixed some Victorian Velvet Distress ink with some homemade embossing paste (DIY post coming soon), using a palette knife to work the paste through a dotted stencil on the left side of my panel.

Once that was completely dry, I adhered the scripty hello from Lawn Fawn and stamped the "baby" from Lawn Fawn's "Critters Down Under" set with Memento Ink.

I had some leafy die cuts from another project and arranged them over the dry embossing paste. Finally I mounted my giraffe over top.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Pet Sympathy | ft. Clearly Besotted "Thinking of You"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

A little while ago, a friend of mine lost her dog and like any other loss it was not awesome. Loss is a terrible thing, whether a pet or a loved one passes away, or someone incredibly important in your life decides that they need to get a new perspective. Grief is still grief, and it is cutting and it is hard and there are no words than anyone can ever say that will make it better.

All another person can do is sit and listen when you cry and rant and vent and throw things. But that's the most important thing; having a safe space where you can feel all those things without fear of judgement or reprimand. Just letting the other person know that you are there can make all the difference in the world.

To begin, I stamped the lilies from Clearly Besotted's "Thinking of You" set with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I then coloured the image with Copic markers and masked it off.

I used Hickory Smoke and Black Soot Distress ink to create a dark halo around the flowers fading out towards the edges.

While that was drying, I prepped a piece of vellum with my powder tool and heat embossed these dog prints with detail black embossing powder, then fussy cut them out. I ran them through my sticker maker and adhered them to the panel.

I mounted the panel to a piece of charcoal cardstock then adhered the whole piece to a standard A2 sized card base. To finish it off I went over the petals with my clear Wink of Stella glitter brush pen.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Muse Challenge #248

Inspired by Anita Bowden

Golden Birthday | ft. Clearly Besotted "Friends Forever"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I wanted to share a card that I was asked to create as part of a box set. She wanted two masculine and two feminine birthday cards - but "nice". Personally, I think all my cards are nice, that's why I continue to make them. But I know that isn't what she meant. She simply meant she didn't want the cutesy stuff that I love doing.

Something more elegant was required. Luckily, I love doing those as well.

To begin, I stamped the tulip image from Clearly Besotted's "Friends Forever" stamp set with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I then masked off the image and sponged around the outside of the panel with Dried Marigold Distress Ink.

Once that was dry, I removed the mask and coloured the flower with Copic markers. I prepped the lower half of the panel with my powder tool and stamped the greeting from CTMH "Cursive Birthday" with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder.

I adhered the panel to a piece of shimmering yellow cardstock then mounted the whole lot to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

To finish off the card I adhered a scatting of Sparkling Clear Sequins by Pretty Pink Posh across the front.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Sweet Birthday | ft. Clearly Besotted's "Sweet Treats"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

It's funny where people draw their inspiration. Not like looking at a card and seeing the things that you would change and then doing it but, where the emotional artsy side comes from. My friend draws her inspiration through doing things for other people. In the 12 years we have been paper crafting together, I don't think she has done more than a couple projects for herself. It's always cards and tags for teachers or baby albums for friends or gifts.

I'm not that like that. While I do give away or sell the vast majority of my work, my inspirations are very emotional. The strongest of which seems to be sadness. Apparently the more sad I am the better my creativity. Maybe it's the process and the focus that it requires.

Anyway, that being said I have gotten more cards designed and finished in the last few days than I have in the past couple weeks. Does that count as a win?

To begin, I cut down a piece of 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock and stamped the greeting these three adorable hamsters from Clearly Besotted's "Sweet Treats" with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.

I coloured all the images with Copic markers then added Glossy Accents by Ranger to the sprinkles on the doughnut and the cherries.

Once the panel was completely dry, I adhered it to a piece of striped pattern paper from My Mind's Eye and then mounted the whole panel to the front of a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

Floral Thoughts Series | Cheer Up ft Clearly Besotted "Sunshine & Smiles"

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Now that Christmas is over, and we've had our white winter wonderland, I'm pretty done with winter. I'm done with the snow and the cold and the biting wind. If you look outside it doesn't look that bad, it looks crisp and clean - then you open the door and you're blasted with sub-zero temperatures that just make you want to curl up in bed with hot tea and a book.

In the hopes of spreading some warmth, today I have a bright card that I'm hoping will cheer us all up as we trudge through yet another week of temperatures in the -25C (-13F) range and snow halfway to our knees.

To begin, I prepped a piece of Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper with my powder tool and stamped the sunflower (or maybe a daisy) image from Clearly Besotted's "Sunshine & Smiles" set with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with detail white embossing powder.

I used the Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers to add colour to the image; starting where I wanted my darkest shadows to be, then using my water brush to pull the colour out towards the ends of the petals and the leaves.

Working in relatively large sections, I wet the paper around the image then dropped in colour, pulling it to the edges of the paper to create a soft blue background.

Once the panel was completely dry, I stamped the greeting from the same set using CTMH Archival ink. I chose archival ink as it is waterproof and won't run if the paper is still a bit damp. If I were a patient person, I probably would have done the greeting in a mid-grey or even an ochre. But I don't have those in archival ink.

I used super strong two-way tape to adhered the panel to the front of a standard A2 sized card base. Then, to finish off the card, I added a scattering of yellow sequins across the piece.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. Drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Anything Goes

Product Review Series | Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and a Completed Card

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

This past week on my Facebook page, I ran a poll to see what you were interested in for this week's review. Well the votes are in and 65% of voters wanted to see the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.

In April of last year, I did a post about these Zig markers and about the gauntlet I went through to get my hands on them. It didn't occur to me until just recently that I never actually did a review of them! Whoops!!

So here it is, as always this review will be long and full of pictures, so grab a coffee and enjoy! And don't forget there is a card at the end!!

My current storage system has them broken into three groups; neutrals, cools and warms. This isn't ideal, I'll be honest. I would love to find another way to store them but frankly I haven't gotten to it yet. I like the three mini mason jars as they just sit on my desk but when I come up with something new, I'll be sure to share it.

So a couple of things:

• These are super vibrant. A little goes a long way - and that's good because they are pricey.
• They blend super well. Don't feel like you need to buy the whole lot to get a good range of colour, any colours you may not have can very easily be created with a little practice.
• Can be used with or without water (I'll have examples below)
• They will reactivate after drying if new moisture is applied. Very handy for those times you may slip out of the lines.
• They have an actual brush tip. It doesn't just look like a brush, it is a brush, so in a lot of ways it's like painting.
• These come in open stock as well as packs of 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 and finally 80 (If you checked out my other post - linked above - you'll see why I got the 60 pack instead of the smaller one that I had originally wanted)

Here I just wanted to show you a close up of the brush tip. It is amazing. Like any other brush don't apply a lot of pressure - more pressure means a wider stroke and that's okay just be careful not to damage the tip.

There are about a million printable swatch cards online for these guys and that's fantastic. However my printer doesn't take watercolour paper, or Bristol paper or any paper that it doesn't like the look of depending on the day, so I made my own. This way I could keep them in basic colour groups, I could arrange them the way I wanted and I could omit any markers that I didn't actually own. 

Swatching is good for a couple of reasons (and I have a post coming up all about it), firstly it gives you a basic idea of what the marker feels like when you use it. How fast the pigment comes out and how much pressure to apply. It will also show you the true colour. I know they try and try to put the colour on the bottom of the marker or the pen but really they don't always match up - and that's frustrating to find out in the middle of a project.

There are two ways that I personally use the Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers.

The first is with Bristol Smooth paper. I use Strathmore 100lb Bristol Smooth - it's white but almost has a creamy colour to it. It's incredibly smooth and mostly useless for coloured pencil but it works like a dream with these markers.

In the picture above, I have stamped this floral image from Clearly Besotted with CTMH Archival ink. Using Archival ink is incredibly important as it is waterproof, and these are water-based markers, so you see where I'm going with this.

I work in small areas, adding the darkest colour where I want the deepest shadow to be, then add the lighter colour and blend the two together. The smooth surface of the Bristol paper keeps the marker from drying as quickly as it would on regular cardstock, allowing you to blend. Don't wait too long though as it will dry. 

I keep a paper towel handy to wipe clean my lighter colour. While the brush will pick up the darker colour it will not seep up into the brush nor will it ruin the tip so feel free to blend away.

For this second example I am still working on Bristol Smooth paper because I love the smooth texture, but this can be done on watercolour paper as well.

I prepped this piece with my powder tool and stamped the rose image from Clearly Besotted with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder.

For each petal I added a fine line of my blue and then pulled it out using the clear Wink of Stella glitter brush pen. You can also do this with water, but I wanted my flower to sparkle. I repeated this process with each petal, wiping off the glitter pen whenever it was picking up too much colour.

I did the exact same process with a green for the leaves and stem. I wanted to show this close up as it is also the completed card for today. There are only two markers used for the colouring of this entire flower. One blue and one green. 

Overall I'm incredibly happy with these markers. You can use them the way I have described above, or you can scribble them on a palette and pick them up with a brush. These have all the best things about watercolours and all the best things about markers - rolled into one!

For this completed card, I coloured the flower from Clearly Besotted as I described above, I then masked it off and lay down a stencil and spritzed a light blue mist through it. Because this is Bristol Smooth paper, the areas where the liquid pools in the corners of the stencil will be more intense than if it were pulled into the paper.

Once that was dry I heat embossed the greeting in the same silver.

I hope you enjoyed today's review and card. If you have any questions about this product or a suggestion for a future review, please drop me a line in the comments section below and let me know. If you haven't already, please follow me on the right side bar or over on Facebook, so you don't miss any future posts. 

*disclaimer: I am not sent products to review, nor am I paid to review them. I review the products that I find interesting, that I use and that I have purchased. All reviews are based on my experience with them and are my opinions only. I am not given reward, incentive or payment to write a review.

This card is for:

Muse Challenge 

Challenge #245

 Thank you for voting for this card!