Always be a Unicorn | ft. The Greeting Farm Stamps

Hello, everyone. Thank you for stopping by. I hope you're having a great day.

Today I have a new card for the Monochrome Monday series, even though it's a little early. I was late on the last one, so I think this makes up for it!

The Greeting Farm stamps are relatively new to me. I don't have many of them but the ones I do have I'm very happy with. I'm in this encouragement card phase right now, and I'm not sure why. Generally my cards reflect my frame of mind, so maybe I need some encouragement in my life, or maybe one of you out there need some encouragement, either way - I gotta do what's going on in my head.

I recommend watching in HD over on YouTube!

I hope you like today's card (and video) 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!

Here's a little lesson about glitter pens!

Gilded Butterfly Encouragement Card | ft. Urban Stamps, Nuvo Gilding Flakes and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers

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

A while back I created a gilded butterfly card (which you can see here), I loved the card so much that I decided to create a tutorial video to go along with it.

The card today is a little different, as it is a 9"x 4" card. It fits nicely in a legal size envelope so it won't require additional postage; and that is always a good thing!

Or you can watch in HD over on YouTube!

The images are stamped with VersaMark ink on Bristol Smooth paper, then embossed with Ranger's Sticky Embossing Powder. The gilding flakes I used are the Radiant Gold Gilding Flakes by Nuvo. Please watch the video above for the full tutorial on how I created this card. And see just how crazy these flakes are. I'll be cleaning up these flakes for days. LOL they are everywhere!

In real life, the butterflies are super shimmery, unfortunately it doesn't really pick it up all that well on camera.

I don't often finish the insides of my cards, or if I do they are an after thought depending on who I am giving them to. But here is a shot of the inside that has been embossed with gold embossing powder. 

I hope you like today's card (and video!) 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.

Floral Encouragement

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

I'm going to be pretty honest with you guys for a minute. Not that I'm not honest all the rest of the time, but you know what I mean. This week (*cough month) has been pretty terrible for me. A year ago my Father passed away very suddenly and the anniversary of that is coming up right quick. The entire year has been a struggle; for me, for my Mom and sister, for my own family. Every day is a challenge.

This week, however, has been so utterly beyond trying. Maybe because it is the first anniversary of his passing, maybe because it is the spring and that was his favourite time of the year, or because while everyone else seems to think I should be "past" this, I'm still grieving (albeit privately) as much as I was when it happened. I don't know.

So for those of you who are regular readers (and I love you all dearly, you mean so very much to me), you will have noticed that this week has had a lot more inspiration and encouragement cards, than usual. Perhaps I have been trying to pick myself up by creating these cards.

So this challenge really moved me. You never know when the last time you see someone will really be the last time. Make it count.

To create this card, I began by stamping the flowers from Lawn Fawn using Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colouring them with Copics. I then added the greeting (which makes me teary every time I read it) with Lawn Fawn Black Licorice ink, because it is wonderfully crisp.

I used some warm grey markers (W1 and W0) to create a shadow on the lower side of the image. I trimmed the panel and extra 1/4" so I could add the glittery strip. All of this was adhered to a standard A2 sized card base.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own.

This card is for:

Muse Challenge #162

Inspired by Tracey McNeely's card

Watercolour Butterflies

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

I've been sitting here, looking at this post for the last 10 minutes and I have no idea what I want to say. The colours that I used for this card (purples, blues and greens) are some of the most peaceful colours I know. None of them are my favourite (that's oranges and corals) but ... peaceful. I don't know of any other way to describe these colours. They make me breathe slowly and smile on the inside.

Sounds silly, right? But, there it is. And here is today's card.

To create this card, I began by stamping the butterfly image from Lawn Fawn in VersaMark ink. I also stamped them on two inch post it tape to create masks. I heat embossed the images with clear embossing powder and masked them off. I then sponged the background using three shades of Distress ink, I used clean water to create the splatter effect.

I used shades of blue to watercolour the butterflies.

I heat embossed a strip of vellum with silver embossing powder to create the greeting banner, because I want to hide the adhesive, I wrapped the ends behind the panel and taped them in place. I then adhered the panel down to an A2 sized card base using super strong sticky tape.

For a bit of added interest and to finish off the card, I added dots of glossy accents. I have found that when I put glossy accents directly over Distress ink, the dots seem to take on that colour because they are wet and will reactivate the ink. However, if I put them on my nonstick craft mat and let them dry, I can add them with a liquid adhesive and they stay shiny without taking on the colour of the ink.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp - Monday Challenge

Butterfly Beauty

Hang in There

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

When I got the Happy Harvest stamp set from Lawn Fawn I had so many fall and Halloween ideas, but now that it is spring, I really didn't want to put the set away. I thought that he would make a super cute encouragement card, but was unsure on how I wanted to do it.

I love using my copic markers to colour in images, but not so much for backgrounds. I knew I wanted a one layer card, so I decided to go with watercolour for the whole thing.

To create today's card, I stamped the scare crow and flowers from Lawn Fawn's Happy Harvest set using a water resistant ink. I then covered them with a liquid mask. Once that was completely dry, I was able to start on the background.

I wanted really intense colours for the sky and the foreground, so I wet the paper and used Distress re-inkers with very little water and dropped the colour in. I did this for both the sky and the grass area. I could have used my heat gun to speed up the process, but I really prefer the way it looks when it air dries. Because of the amount of water, this card actually took two days to make.

Once the background was completely dry, I removed the masking and watercoloured the images, using Distress markers and mini Distress ink pads.

The greeting was stamped using the same black ink with an etched alphabet stamp set from CTMH.

I hope you like today's card and are inspired to create something of your own.

This card is for:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes