Thank You Heart Card

I'm posting today on the Dies R Us Inspiration blog.  I love it when I have a chance to create with dies as the focus.  It gives me a chance to stretch my creative wings a bit. 

Do you ever take advantage of the pre-orders and specials offered through the Dies R Us Store?  There are some awesome things to take advantage of!  I recently discovered Birch Press Designs during one of these pre-order events.  These dies are awesome!  Be watching for them!

I used all 3 layers of the Birch Press Designs Amour Arch to create this:

I used 3 different shades of pink -- a light pink, mauve, and eggplant to create the layered arch.  I was concerned it might be difficult to line up, but I lined up the 2 small hearts on the outside, and that lined up the whole thing.  It was really easy!  I glued all the layers together using Scraperfect Best Glue Ever and the medium No Clog Writing Cap.

The sentiment I used is by Crafter's Companion, but is similar to this one, by Poppy Stamps.  I like the look of sentiments that are die cut, then have a shadow layer behind them.  I used Stick It Adhesive Sheets on the sentiment and the layer behind it. 

I added some Liquid Pearls to the card for a little more Bling.  Dies R Us carries many great colors of Liquid Pearls.  The ones on this care are White Opal.

Here's a picture of all the supplies I used.  You can see what the package of the Birch Press Amour Arch dies look like.

Here's all the die cuts once they are cut out, but not yet assembled:

Supplies used on this card from the Dies R Us Store:

Poppy Stamps Spectacular Thank You

Scraperfect Best Glue Ever

Scraperfect No Clog Writing Cap

White Opal Liquid Pearls

Stick It Adhesive Sheets

I will leave you with one more picture of the finished card:

Have you heard about the Design Team call for the Dies R Us Inspiration team?  This is a wonderful team to be on!  You can find all the details here. 

click below for:

STORE 
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I'd like to enter this in the following challenges:

Outlawz Saturday Paper ala Mode -- Kindness

The Sisterhood of Crafters -- use dies as the focus
D.L. Art -- August Linky Party
Crafty Calendar Challenge -- ATG

Happy Fall, Y'all! A Bugaboo Stamps Tutorial (Tutor-y'all?)

Hello, fellow stamp lovers!  As part of my duties as a guest designer for Bugaboo Stamps, I have the honor of making a monthly tutorial.  This month, being in full Fall mode (it is officially Fall now, right?!?), I'm sharing a technique I like to use for embellishing leaves I use on cards and 3D projects.

First, I'll show you the finished card, then, I'll take you step-by-step through the process of embellishing the leaves.

This card uses the digi, Pumpkin Crow (only $1 in the shop!!!!):

Now, for my secret in creating this (hopefully) realistic looking leaves.

I make a bunch of these at a time because it is a bit time consuming.

Cut your leaves out however you prefer -- electronic cutter, with dies, whatever your preferred method is.  I happen to have a Sizzix die that cuts a bunch for me at once.  I ran it through twice to get all of them that I painted for this demo.  It's probably enough to get me through all Fall.  You'll also need watercolors of your choice  -- this can be watercolor pencils, crayons, actual watercolors, it doesn't matter.  I used watercolor crayons here.  

Here's a picture of my supplies:

You can see my pile of leaves and twigs that I'm going to paint.  I just cut them out of white card stock.  They are so small that they don't really warp, so I save my watercolor paper for larger projects. There's my watercolor crayons (I prefer Caran D'ache Neocolor II) in the colors I used on the leaves, a couple of brushes, a glass of water, and some liquid pearls to add some sheen to my leaves.  There's also a piece of glass on the bottom of it all.  That's my palette.

Now, let's get painting.  Here's my palette, and my first leaves, ready to paint:

I really like using this piece of glass for a palette.  I can scribble my crayon colors on it, and have my liquid pearls there ready to apply.  When I run short of a color, I scribble some more down.  When I'm ready to switch to another color palette, it cleans up quickly with a sanitary wipe.  

This can all be done with a water brush, but I prefer paint brushes because I keep my bush fairly dry.  I either pinch it dry with my fingers, or keep a towel in my lap, and dry it with that.  

OK!  First leaves -- painted.  After I apply the color, I put a THIN coat of Liquid Pearls on the top with water and a paint brush to give the leaves a nice sheen.  You can used this same technique with glitter glues like Stickles.  It looks really nice on snowflakes!

I start out with my lightest colors first so I don't need to change my water.  I work in the basement with no sink, so I don't want to have to keep running up and down the stairs.  Starting light and working to dark saves me steps.  

Here's all my painted and pearled foliage: 

Unfortunately, it's hard to see the pretty pearl sheen on the leaves in the pictures, but when you see the card in real life, it adds a very pretty touch.

Here's the card once more, then a few details about the card itself:

I colored the Pumpkin Crow with Lyra Rembrandt colored pencils.  It had been awhile since I broke out of the Copic mold, so I figured it was time! 

Papers and sentiment on this card are from We Are 3 Digital Shop. The sentiment is from the Itty Bitty Fall Sentiment set.   Papers are from the Thankful paper collection (pumpkins) and Birthday Bouquet.

I hope you visit the Catch the Bug blog often.  There is soooo much going on there!  Challenges, Oldies but Goodies, Humor Me Wednesday, New Releases, and of course, Freebie Friday! 

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges:
Always Fun Challenges -- ATG
Crafty Cardmakers -- Autumn Colors
Cutie Pie Challenge -- Shades of Autumn
MMM Challenge -- Fall Colors
D.L. Art -- September Linky party

Thankful -- for Whoopsi Daisy

It's Monday, and time for a new challenge at Whoopsi Daisy Challenge blog. This week, our theme is 'Lots of Embellishments'.  I don't usually over embellish things, so this was truly a 'challenge' for me.  Here's what I did:

I used Linnie Bloom's sheet 414 for on this card. I colored her with Copic markers, then sponged the edges while it was still in the Spellbinder die with a couple colors of Tim Holtz distress inks (Spun Sugar and Dusty Rose).

I used lots of layers on this card - layers of paper, then chipboard flowers with layers of color on them.

The chipboard flowers are from UmWow Studio and they are covered with Liquid Pearls.  The sentiment was cut off the edge of a 12x12 piece of paper -- it's from Bella Blvd (all the designer paper is for this card).

Come join the 'Lots of Embellishments' challenge at Whoopsi Daisy Challenge blog.