Tropically Beautiful Day | ft. Altenew "Totally Tropical" and Tombow Dual Brush Markers

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

Today I wanted to share a card with you that is a little out of my comfort box. If you've been reading or following on YouTube for any amount of time, you know that I love me some stamps to colour. I love making little scenes and doing all the cute little things that brought me to this community.

Today's card is a little different. Today, I'm working with a layering set by Altenew. I love their stamps, especially the floral ones, what I don't love is the price here in Canada. The exchange is just craziness! But I couldn't stop myself with this one!

To begin, I cut down a piece of Strathmore 140lb cold press watercolour paper and put it in my MISTI. I selected two shades for each flower, a lighter for the solid and a darker for the more detailed layer.

I positioned the solid stamp where I wanted it and closed the door to the MISTI, I then coloured directly on the stamp with the Tombow Dual Brush marker, gave it a little spritz with my Distress Sprayer and closed the lid.

At first I wasn't thrilled. But I've said, time and again, that if you keep going, you'll probably like it when it's done. I repeated this process for each of the flowers. I gave the panel a bit of time to dry, not completely, just so it wasn't really wet anymore, then positioned the more detailed stamp over top of the original solid image.

I coloured directly on with the darker shade, spritzed again and closed the lid. I then repeated the process for the other two flowers.

Once the panel was dry, I scribbled each of the darker shades on to my acrylic block, added a bit of water and used a paintbrush to splatter the colour over the panel.

I allowed the panel to dry again, then prepped it with my powder tool and stamped the greeting from Simon Says Stamp "Beautiful Day" stamp set with VersaMark ink, and heat embossed with detail black embossing powder.

I then mounted the panel to the front of a top folding standard A2 sized card base. The colours I used are: Blue - 452 and 443, Purple - 603 and 636, Pink - 743 and 755.

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.

Layered in Blue | ft. Altenew "Totally Tropical"

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

I gotta say, this particular Muse had me stumped; but what really drew me in were Kim's colours. The purple of the bird over those beautifully layered flowers is just beautiful. With every challenge, I like to put my own spin on things, but I didn't know what I was going to do for this one. I sat and I thought and I thought and then I remember!

I have the most amazing layering set from Altenew that I have been dying to play with and I felt that this was the most perfect opportunity!

I've mentioned before that I'm extremely new to layering stamps and to be perfectly honest they frighten me. I'm always so surprised by how they turn out.

To begin, I stamped the solid stamp in CTMH Sky ink, then the detail stamp in Gypsy. These stamps have holes in the centre - maybe so you can line them up, I don't know. So I took the outline stamp and sponged on Pacifica ink to the middle and put that over top.

For the leaves I used Sweet Leaf and then Pear inks, also from Close to my Heart. The greeting is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black.

The middle flower on the right side got lost between the other two, so I lined up the outline stamp again, and stamped the whole thing with Pacifica. In retrospect, I think I should have stamped it off once and used a second generation stamping for the outline, but... hindsight, am I right?

Finally I matted the panel on to a medium blue piece of cardstock then adhered it to a standard A2 sized card base. Then of course, me being me, and I just can't leave well enough alone, I used some Pico Embellisher - the Wedding Dress irRESISTibles in the middle of each flower. My idea was for this to remain white, but it picked up the colour of the ink and I'm glad it did. This looks nicer.

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, you can also follow me over on Facebook. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Muse Challenge #234

Inspired by Kim Heggins

 Thank you all so much for your votes and support!

Layered Floral Birthday | ft. CTMH " Beloved Bouquet"

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

First off, I just want to thank you all so much for the support. The responses to the Distress Showdown I posted yesterday have been overwhelming. I cannot tell you how much each click and like and view mean to me. You guys are awesome.

Today I thought I would do something a little different. It's a relatively new (to me) technique that has been gaining popularity in the crafting circles. Layered stamping. I'm always surprised at how lovely these turn out, which is silly because they work exactly the way they are designed to.

To begin, using the MISTI, I stamped the solid flower from Close to my Heart's "Beloved Bouquet" Tulip ink. To get full coverage, I stamped this a couple times. This is where the MISTI becomes invaluable. I can't line up a clear stamp to save my life, so the MISTI has become one of my most used tools in the craft room.

Next I stamped the detailed flower over top in CTMH Barn Red ink. Then I masked the flower. I stamped the solid leaves using Pear ink, then stamped the detailed leaves using New England Ivy. Once everything was dry, I removed the mask.

I stamped the Birthday greeting from Stampendous "Happy Messages" using Golden Glitz Delicata ink and again let everything dry.

Then I drew a frame using an ultra-fine Sharpie. For the dots I used Opal White Liquid Pearls by Ranger. As you can see, I need some more practice with these. I found them to be thick and they kind of had a mind of their own. They didn't really want to do what I wanted to do, but I was very happy with the card thus far, so I went with it.

Once the panel was completely dry, I adhered it directly to a standard A2 sized card base.

On a side note, I cannot stress enough the importance of letting this dry between each step. Use your heat tool if you have to, but you don't want to add a layer of water-based ink on top of a layer of water-based ink that has not dried. It will run and it will wick out, and if that is the look you are going for - fantastic. It wasn't the look I was going for, and I had to learn that lesson the hard way.

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. You can also follow me over on Facebook. Toss me a line in the comments section below and let me know what you think.

This card is for:

Crafting from the Heart

Challenge #174 Anything Goes

Crafting with an Attitude

Challenge #31