Baby giraffe card

Hello my crafting friends!  I have a super quick post to share the cutest baby card I have made to date.  Seriously.  I can't handle the cuteness!  However, I can't take full credit for it as it is an SVG cut file I purchased at My Scrap Chick. 

We are having a baby shower next week for a co-worker and I was in need of a card.  Her nursery is giraffe themed so I knew I needed to find something to match.  Here is my version!

Squeal!  This guy is just so dang adorable!  I cut all of the pieces uses my Brother Scan & Cut.  Before assembling it I sponged most of the edges with either mint or gray ink.  After I glued the layers together, I added wink of stella to the gray spots.  I drew on the eyebrows as they suggested.  That's it!  It wasn't hard to put together at all.  It just takes a little bit of time to do the sponging and adhering.  

You can purchase the SVG file HERE.  They even have an awesome sale going on right now.  Lots of great files to be purchased.  They have several other adorable animals as well.

Well, I'm off to customize an envelope so I'll talk at ya later!

~Kristina

Adorable Fall Fun

Hiya!  The weather is turning very fall like and it has been inspiring me to make fall projects!  Come check out my latest Dies R Us post over on the Dies R Us blog right HERE.

I promise it's adorable!

I also have a short YouTube video showing all of the goodies I purchased  from Dies R US for my first major haul.  Check it out! 

I'll be back again soon!
~Kristina

Check out the Dies R Us links below!

STORE CHALLENGE BLOG FACEBOOK INSPIRATION BLOG FRIENDS OF DIES R US PINTEREST PAGE

Dies R Us

I'm so excited to announce I've been asked to join the Design Team for Dies R Us.  Come on over to the blog and check out the details of my very first project.  Go HERE.

And here is a little peek of the project.

See you soon!
~Kristina

Check out the Dies R Us links below!

STORE CHALLENGE BLOG FACEBOOK INSPIRATION BLOG FRIENDS OF DIES R US PINTEREST PAGE

A happy hello

I sure do love an extra day in the weekend.  I hope you are doing something fun and relaxing today!  An extra day for me means more time to play in my craft room.  I finally felt like I was caught up on my chores etc. to take a little time to hide away.

Have you ever gone to the store and saw something that you thought would make a great card?  A pattern, clothing, rugs and so on?  Every time I wear a certain dress that I own I tell myself I'm going to make a card inspired by it.  Today was the day and I wasn't even wearing the dress.  I actually ended up taking a picture of the dress to use as inspiration whenever I had the chance.

Here is a picture of the skirt portion of the dress causing all this inspiration.

Look at that gorgeous dark green and navy flower!  Beautiful swirls on the background!  This is one of my favorite dresses for so many reasons!

I tried to think about which medium to use to recreate something similar to the design.  I think there are many different ones I can play with but I decided to go with alcohol inks.  I felt I could get some nice, bold color.  I played around with bottle green, denim blue and snow cap mixative.  I applied the colors to a felt dauber, squirted on some blending solution and swiped it diagonally across the Yupo paper.  I did it several times but never really got the stripe look I was going for.  In fact, my background ended up way more muted than I intended.  That aside, here is the finished card.

And I can't let you miss out on all the silver foil accents!

Oh that lovely shine!

Here are the supplies I used:

Tim Holtz Alcohol inks-Bottle, denim and snow cap.  Plus blending solution.

Silver deco foil applied while areas of the back ground were still slightly tacky in spots.

White splatters added using Copic Opaque white mixed with water.

The flower and leaves are from the Altenew set Beautiful day.

The flower and leaves were stamped on Bristol cardstock and colored with Zig Clean Color real brush markers. Deep green & Peacock blue for the flower, Natural gray for the leaves.  I added glitter marker to the leaves and some white gel pen accents to the flowers.

Leaves are adhered directly to the Yupo but I added foam behind the flower.

Yupo paper was cut out with one of my favorite dies from Mama Elephant All Prettied up set.

Hello sentiment is from MFT Stamps.  I cut it four times and layered them up.  The top layer I went over with a Spectrum Noir glitter marker.

I adhered the entire piece to a white, top fold cardstock base.  For the finishing touch I added Nuvo crystal drops in Liquid Mercury.

I do love how it turned out but I'm thinking I'm going to have another go at this down the road.  I really want those colors to be vivid and bright!  

Enjoy the day!

~Kristina

Dies and Distress Oxide

Hello one and all!  I recently signed up for the Spellbinders die club of the month.  I have seen lots of beautiful examples from past months online and this was the month I finally signed up!  I have had the dies laying on my desk just waiting for me to play with them.  We won't talk about how large my new supply stack is...or the fact that I should be getting my Lawn Fawn pre-ordered goodies any day.  Sigh.  Not enough time for my crafting.  Back to it.

I had absolutely no plan in mind when I started this card.  I had a purple Distress Oxide ink combo I wanted to use and the die.  I cut the die out of Bristol paper so I could make the oxide inks blend like butter.  I literally just kept playing around and building a card as I went!  I'll show you the picture and then give a few details.

And a closer card shot.

I cut the die from Bristol paper.  Then I blended Shaded Lilac, Wilted Violet and Dusty Concord oxide inks on until I was happy with the blend.  I sprinkled it lightly with water and blotted dry.  Then I sprayed with a shimmer mist and blotted again.  I set the die cut piece aside to dry.

For the backrgound I used a Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous mini stencil.  I don't have the name for this one but I think it came in a multi pack from last winter's release.  I used Pumice Stone in regular distress ink to sponge on the design.  I cut the edge of the panel with a die from MFT Stamps.  I adhered this panel with foam tape to a Sahara Sand (Stampin up!) card base.

I adhered the die cut piece directly to the stenciled piece.  I used the oval die that came with the large die to cut out a white piece.  I used the Thanks sentiment from an Altenew set called Enchanted Iris.  The ink is Sahara Sand.  I did sponge the edges of the oval a bit before using foam tape to adhere it to the die cut piece.

I then added sparkling clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.  For the final extra detail, I added a little dot of Mercury Glass Stickles to every other scallop.  Done!

I love how this came together even though I didn't have a plan.

Hope you have a great day!

~Kristina

Brusho tips and a video!

As the weekend draws to a close, I wanted to share with you my latest storage adventure.  Plus my very first YouTube video!!

I love Brusho pigment powders but I was unhappy with the containers themselves.  I had simply used a push pin in the middle of the lid to make a hole.  When I wanted to sprinkle some out, I removed the pin and then put it back.  The bottles aren't very pretty and they don't seem to store really well due to the odd shape of the lid and the push pins.

I recently purchased some of the lovely Nuvo Shimmer powders and it got me thinking.  They have a super cute bottle that dispenses cleanly.  Off I went to search for something similar I could transfer the Brusho powders into...and I found it!

I found these bottles on Amazon.  You can find them HERE.  I read through a lot of reviews and decided these were the ones I wanted to try and at less than $15 for 25 of them I felt it was worth it!

Here are what all the individual pieces look like.

There is a tab on the Brusho powder that you peel off in order to pop the top off.  

The top comes off nice and easy after that.  I used the little funnel that came with the bottles and slowly tapped the powder into the funnel.  When it started to clog up, I just gave the funnel a few taps with a dry brush (or whatever is handy) and it fell right through.  It doesn't take very long at all.

It fills the bottle a little over half way.

I wrote the colors on the bottle side and bottom with a sharpie.  I may go back and add a white address label but I haven't decided yet.  I also wanted to swatch the colors as I was working my way through transferring the powders.

Sandy Allnock has a wonderful and FREE pdf on her blog.  Which you can find right HERE. It is the BW Swatch Charts PDF.  It's awesome.  You ROCK Sandy!!

So I used the dies I had on hand which aren't the same shape as the chart but I don't mind.  I sprinkled powders on my octagon which is cut from watercolor paper.  Then I gently spritzed it with water and let it dry.  I made a small pile of the powder, added water and used a brush to paint it on to a scrap piece of watercolor paper.  Once dry, I used a regular hole punch.  I found that it is the perfect size for the top of the cap and all you need to adhere it is a glue dot!

Here is a picture of the caps with their dots attached.

Here is a picture of my swatches.

And that's it!  I am pleased with my results and think they will be much easier to store and use.

Now, I did mention a video.  I posted my very first video on YouTube so take a look if you are interested.  I have much to learn about making videos but it was fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Kristina

Hooray for Friday!

Right now I'm doing the happy dance.  It's Friday.  At last!  I can't wait for a little family time, a little crafting time and a little down time.  Hope you get to do something fun this weekend.  My idea of a good Friday night is playing in my craft room.  Yep.  Total introvert here.

Moving on!  I recently purchased some new to me products from Shimmerz Paints.  Today I am using one of the original product lines they released...Shimmerz!  Guys, these are GORGEOUS!  They are a liquid paint with a TON of shimmer.  Like, seriously!  I snagged one of their newest colors, Wisteria Lane, because I just love all things purple.  Here is the description of the color from their website.

"Wisteria Lane is a part of Shimmerz Paints new Fall 2018 color release. Wisteria Lane is a dusty cool lilac hue with silver shimmer added in. Wisteria Lane is available in a 1 oz jar and all our products are hand crafted by order."

I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to make but I wanted to give it a test drive.

I'm not sure I caputured the beautiful shimmer of this product but I am totally in love.  I *need* more colors.

This is how I created this cute square card:

I started with a piece of Canson watercolor paper.  I stamped one of the flower images from the Altenew Floral Shadow stamp set with Inkon3 embossing ink.  I sprinkled on clear embossing powder and melted it.  After it cooled, I stirred up the Shimmerz paint and started applying it to the watercolor paper.  I did add a little bit of water to get slight variations in the color but you could totally do it straight out of the jar.  So, SO pretty!  I let it dry for a bit.  I went back with a damp paper towel and carefully wiped off the excess paint from the embossed areas.

I cut out the watercolor paper with a square die called Inside Scalloped Squares from Craftin Desert Divas.  I glued the center piece in place.  I added foam tape to the scalloped border and adhered it to the base as well.  The sentiment is from the same Altenew set and is heat embossed in black on gray cardstock.  I went over it with a Wink of Stella glitter marker.  I popped it up with foam tape as well.  For the final touch, I added a few Sparkling Clear confetti sequins from Pretty Pink Posh.

Excuse me while I drool over the shimmer!!

See you soon...

~Kristina