Shadow Butterflies | ft. Forever In Time "Butterfly Fancy"

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

A little while ago, I posted a card using a new (to me) stamp company and I really liked the results. Recently, I've been able to get my hands on some other sets and while the stamps themselves definitely need some "prepping" to be ink-ready, I'm enjoying the new designs.

To begin, I cut down a piece of Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock and used Salty Ocean and Broken China Distress Oxide inks to create the background. Once that was relatively dry, I used the Distress sprayer to spritz clean water and give the distressed look we all love.

I hit that with my heat tool - because I learned from the last piece that sometimes they take forever to dry. I then used a bunch of the butterflies from Forever In Time's "Butterfly Fancy" and Daisy White pigment ink from CTMH to stamp them randomly over the panel. I used first and second generation stamping to create a swarm.

While the lighting was pretty good, the camera didn't seem to want to really pick up the different layers of depth that was on the card. So in real life these butterflies are more bold than you can see here.

Once the white was dry, I stamped the greeting from CTMH "Cursive Birthday" using Pacifica pigment ink. I generally have pretty good luck stamping larger solid images with pigment ink, but less luck stamping the greetings - perhaps because the lines are finer - I seem to get these "trenches" in the ink. So I did this part of the stamping using my MISTI.

I mounted the piece to a coordinating piece of blue cardstock then 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.

Technique Tip | Silhouette Stamping with CTMH Inks

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

I thought I would try something that is a little different for me. We all know how much I love stamping the images and colouring them in, but the solid stamps in my sets generally don't get as much love as they should.

Today, I decided to give some silhouette stamping a try. This is a fun technique, that I think looks best of a non-white cardstock, where you stamp the image with a light colour, then stamp again, but offset, with a darker colour.

To begin, I cut down a piece of 65lb kraft cardstock by Recollections, and used a square die to cut a window from the middle. I then cut down a piece of 65lb black cardstock to layer underneath the kraft with a smaller window cut out, so that everything would look nicely framed up.

I adhered the black piece directly to the front of my standard A2 sized card base and set that aside.

I used CTMH White Daisy ink for the first round of stamping, using greenery from Verve Stamps "Great Friend" and the flower from Forever In Time Stamps "Sunshine Daisies" randomly around the kraft panel.

Once the white was dry (it takes longer because it is a pigment ink), I used CTMH Pear and Topiary inks for the greens and Smoothie for the flowers, stamping again slightly offset of the first layer.

I then used the "Thank You" stamp from Verve Stamps "Autumn Splendor" to stamp the greeting inside the window.

Finally, I adhered the kraft panel over the black panel to complete the card.

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.

Hippie Hello | ft. Forever In Time "Sunshine Daisies"

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

You know how your Mom or you Grandmother would have different decorations for each season? Different framed pictures on the walls, different throw pillows and colour schemes depending on the time of the year? Just to keep things fresh. Well, I've decided that it's time for that to be me.

I recently had my first Dollar Tree experience, I couldn't believe I had never been there before. I got an entire set of Autumn dishes (large plates and bowls) for like $20!!! For eight place settings!

Last week, my Mother and I were back at Dollar Tree looking for a set of Winter dishes (because why wouldn't I buy another set?) and I came across a set of clear stamps by Forever In Time. I had used their embellishment products before because they are super inexpensive but I had no idea that they made stamps. So I figured why not? At $1.25 for the set what did I really have to lose?

I started by stamping out the largest daisy with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on 110lb Copic-friendly cardstock. I then did the medium size, then the smallest. My intent was to create a patterned paper for a background.

It wasn't until they were all stamped out and coloured with Copic markers that it struck me as a very "Hippie" background. I then did something, that I had never even considered before.

I coloured the background with Copic markers. I know that seems pretty common, but I'm kinda cheap and the idea of using a Copic (not cheap) to fill in such a large area was somehow terrifying to me. But I am sooo glad that I did.

Once the entire panel was coloured I remembered I needed a greeting. So I prepped the whole piece with my powder tool and stamped the "hello friend" from Stampendous in VersaMark ink and heat embossed it in white. Now typically, that's where I would leave it, but even with the contrast between the white and the colours the text seemed to get lost. To solve this, I took my 0.3 Staedtler pigment liner and carefully traces around the embossing to make the letters really pop.

I created a splatter looking using a bit of watered down Copic Opaque white and a clean brush. On the front of my standard A2 sized card base, I sponged on some Broken China Distress Oxide ink just around the edges and then adhered my hippie panel to the front.

I wasn't really expecting much from this stamp set, I expected a low quality that didn't hold the ink very well that I would probably end up tossing. But I can honestly say that I have paid more for other "more popular brands" that frustrated me to no end. These worked better than I had ever thought. They certainly aren't perfect, but considering I paid $1.25 for a set of 10 stamps, I'll definitely purchase any others that I happen to come across.

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.