Alpaca friend

Hiya gang!  Today I'm bringing you a project featuring the Adventurous Alpaca digital stamp.  This guy made an appearance on my blog a while ago but I just had to bring him back!

I colored him up with Copic markers.  I attempted to give him some texture in his fur by adding extra curls.  He is a such a happy guy!  I was also going for a more masculine feel and think it worked pretty well.  The background was sponged with three different distress inks using a new Hero Arts stencil  I love it!

He's standing on a hill I cut out of vellum.  I sponged ink onto the vellum and splattered it with water to get some more texture.  He needed something else to ground him so I colored on the back of the vellum to give him a bit of a shadow.

The word is cut out from black cardstock.  I went over it with a Spectrum Noir glitter pen.  Gotta love that sparkle!  I forgot to mention that I started out with kraft colored cardstock for both the stenciled layer and the Alpaca.  I attached them all to a gray cardstock layer and onto a white card base.  All done! 

I do hope you head over to Jess's Etsy store and check out her goodies.

See you soon!
~Kristina

Craftin it old school

Hi everyone!  I'm back to share another Jess Crafts Digital project with you.  The release of this stamp is perfect timing if you are planning on participating in the Spring Coffee Lovers Blog hop!

I titled my project "old school" because I went back to some oldie but goodie techniques.  You know what I'm talking about.  The hobby of stamping has come a really long way but many of the techniques are just tried and true!  I really wanted the digital stamp to take front and center on my card so I kept it simple.  I grabbed a couple different coffee stamps and random stamped on the blue cardstock with blue and brown inks.  I did go over the beans with my Wink of Stella marker for some shimmer.  With the same blue ink I stamped the stripes.  I then ran it through with a coffee bean embossing folder.  I think I bought this folder after the last Coffee Lovers blog hop because I saw so many people using it!  I attached that strip to a piece of brown cardstock.  I then mounted those two pieces onto a white card base.

I colored this adorable Caffeinated Raccoon with Copic markers in tones similiar to the cardstock and inks I had already used.  I mounted it on a tan piece of cardstock, added some foam tape to the back and just eyeballed the center of the card.  Voila!  This cutie is available right now in Jess's Etsy store: Caffeinated Raccoon.

See you real soon!

~Kristina

Zooming by

Hi gang!  I'm back with another project.  This time I'm sharing the newest release from Jess Crafts Digitals!  Jess has been coming out with some of the cutest digi sets lately.  Seriously, check out her Etsy page here.

Today Jess is releasing Space Invaders-Alien and Astronaut!  It includes four really fun sentiments too!   I knew that these digi stamps needed to have a galaxy background of their very own.  How I love to make them with distress inks!  I get to make a mess that turns into something wonderful.  Not to mention adding all of those splatters.  Makes my crafting soul happy!  I used Wilted Violet, Picked Raspberry, Blueprint Sketch, Mermaid Lagoon and of course, Black Soot.  I created the first set of splatters with water mixed with Perfect Pearls.  The shimmer really makes me think of stars!  And the second set of splatters was made with diluted white paint.

While I set that aside to dry, I got to work on coloring the stamps.  I brought out my trusty Zig Clean Color real brush markers again.  I just love how easy they are to work with on Bristol paper.  The first time I actually colored them with Copics but just couldn't get the look I wanted.  I'm pretty sure it was user error though, not the Copics.  My Zigs never seem to disappoint.

I used the some of the same markers to color strips of paper to match and hand cut the little banners to go behind the sentiment.  I thought they definitely needed to be flying over a planet or a moon so I just created my own!  It was also colored with the Zig Clean Color markers.  I added Spectrum Noir Glitter marker to the craters in the moon, the alien, the astronauts mask and the rockets.  I did use foam tape to pop up the alien and the astronaut.  And there you have it!

Head over to Jess Crafts Digitals Etsy page to snag this awesome set for $1.  It's a special price for a limited time only.

Happy crafting!

~Kristina

Turtley awesome dude!

Oh boy, I can hardly believe that February is just about over.  I won't say I'm sad because I am SO looking forward to spring!  Today I am bringing you my second project of the month for Jess Crafts Digitals.  I sure hope you have been over to Jess's Etsy store to check out her adorable stamps.  I know you will love them as much as I do!

My card features the turtle from her Terrific Turtle digital stamp set.  This turtle really is awesome!  I like the version with the sunglasses but I really love the version with regular glasses.  Both of my kids wear glasses and it just seemed appropriate.

I have lovingly colored this little guy in with my Copic markers.  I added a touch of glossy accents to the eyes.  I (of course) added some sparkle to the light green on the shell with a Spectrum Noir Glitter marker.  I will tell you that I use the Spectrum Noir glitter marker and the Wink of Stella marker interchangeably.  It's pretty much whichever one happens to be closest to me at the time I'm making my card.  I love sparkle.  Doesn't matter what kind!  The Awesome word I cut out four layers to give it dimension.  I did the ombre look with Copics to match the turtle... and sparkle.

I used a bunch of supplies from a lot of different vendors.  Sprinkles and plaid paper are from Doodlebug. Stitched label is from Pretty Pink Posh.  Awesome die is from Craftin Desert Divas. Stamped sentiment is from Paper Smooches. Teal paper was cut with a die from MFT Stamps as well as the scalloped frame.  Oh and some Nuvo drops too!  

Go check out the Terrific Turtle digital stamp set from Jess Crafts Digitals right here: Terrific Turtle.

Have a totally awesome day dudes!

~Kristina

Alpaca Herd

Hi gang!  When Jess told me what digital stamp I was going to have for this month, I got so excited! Then once I saw it the ideas just started streaming through my head!!  I'm going to share with you my Jess Crafts Digitals DT project featuring the newest digi....Alpaca!!  Yes, Alpaca.  And it is SO darn cute!  I'm just going to jump right in and show you my project.

I'm squealing even now!  These guys are the cutest ever!  I don't know about you but I frequently need to have birthday cards available.  A lot of times they are from us as a family so I really wanted something from "us" instead of "I".  So I looked online to see what a group of Alpacas was called.  A herd.  Well, the puns just started flowing but this was the very first one I had and I went with it.  

The new digi comes with two different versions of the Alpaca.  One with presents and one without.  I had to brush up on my editing skills a bit but I was able to make a few different sized Alpacas.  As well as flipping a couple and getting them all grouped how I wanted.  I printed the grouping out onto 80lb Neenah Solar White as I knew I was going to be using my Copics to color them in.

I had played around on another piece of paper to decide what colors I wanted to use.  The really awesome thing about Alpacas?  They come in so many different colors!  I chose three different color groupings and got busy.  Then I moved on to the saddles and presents.  I just used a few colors across the saddles and presents so it didn't get too overwhemling.  

Now they needed something to stand on.  At first I thought about just putting some shading underneath of them.  I wasn't overly pleased with that so I grabbed a bunch of green Copics and laid down some base color.  A little hill here, a little hill there and throw in lots of grass in various shades. Here's where I got a little stuck.  I didn't know if I should leave the rest of the background white or if it needed color.  And if it needed color, then which?  I decided I wasn't thrilled with the white so leaving it plain was out.  Then I had a vision in my head of a sunny (yellow) sky blending down into blue sky.  I started at the top with very pale yellows and brought in some very pale blues.  I knew I wasn't going to get a seamless blend so i streaked the yellow down into the blue.  Envisioning (at least in my head) that they were streaks of sunlight.  I blended the blue all the way down into the grass.  I'm not sure how realistic the sky is but I am happy!

I cut it out with a scalloped rectangle die and mounted it onto a dark gray card base.  I love the sentiments Jess has with this set but I need something using "we" so I made my own sentiment.  I even played around and figured out how to add a "stitched" frame around it.  Yay me!  I took it one step further by running it through my mini Minc with some lovely green foil.  Put it on a gray piece of cardstock and adhered with foam tape.  Voila!

I really had a lot of fun creating my project to share and I hope you like it too!  You can find Jess's shop on etsy right HERE.  Remember, she has a price break on her new releases!  You certainly can't beat the price!!

Hope to see you again soon!

~Kristina

Monstrously Awesome!

Happy Monday everyone!  I'm trying to start the week off on a super positive note.  It certainly helps that I got to spend some time playing in my craft room this weekend!  I hope you had a chance to craft a little bit too.

I am back to share another project for the Jess Crafts Digitals Design Team.  I am having a lot of fun coloring up Jess's super adorable stamps.  Have you had a chance to take a look at her Etsy shop? You can find it here: Jess Crafts Shop.  The stamp I am using today is from Monster Mash.

Isn't this monster just so adorable???  And with the variety of sentiments that Jess includes with the set, he can be used for many different occasions.  He happens to coordinate very nicely with the monsters on my paper.  The paper is from Doodlebug and is part of the Monster Mania collection. I'm not sure if it's still available but I have been hording it in my stash.  I'm so happy I finally found the perfect image to use with it!

I colored my little one-eyed cutie using my copic markers.  I used BG02, BG05 and BG07.  I simply *had* to add glossy accents to the eye.  I hand cut him out and went around the edges with a black marker.  I used foam tape to pop him up on the white layer.  The white layer is cut out using a die from MFT Stamps.  I sponged around the edges with a little teal ink and adhered it to the gray layer.  I also inked around the edges of the gray piece.  The green polka dot piece comes from a petite prints pad also from Doodlebug.  Patterned pieces were glued on to a teal piece.  I went around the edges with a little sandpaper to give it some texture.  This was all adhered to piece of gray cardstock and finally onto a white card base.

The final step I was really excited about was that I used my Minc to apply a pretty teal foil to my sentiment!  Yes, I may have even been a little giddy about how pretty it was when I pulled off the cover sheet!

Delightful Dinos

Hi guys!  Have you seen the newest badge on my blog???  I was selected to be a member of the first design team for Jess Crafts Digitals!!!

I've admired Jess's digital stamps on Etsy for a while now. When I saw her Design Team call in December I just knew I had to apply.  I'm so thrilled that I was chosen to be a DT member!  Jess is working so very hard to design a new digital stamp for her store every Friday.  See her blog post here: Jess Crafts Digitals.

Without further ado, here is my very FIRST project for the Jess Crafts Digitals DT!

These super adorable dinosaurs come from her newest release Delightful Dinos Bronty and Bronty with hearts.  There are also four great sentiments to choose from.  I love that she has included sentiments to use because let's face it, sometimes I just can't come up with a sentiment that fits the image!  Jess has eliminated that difficulty!  Thank you Jess!

I printed the digi's out onto Bristol paper which is my favorite to use when I want to color digis with my Zig Clean Color real brush markers.  I wanted them to look like the were cuddling so I made sure to flip the Delightful Dino Bronty the opposite direction before printing.  I popped the Bronty with hearts up with foam tape.  After I had printed the sentiment out on white paper I decided I didn't like the white with the other patterned paper.  So I grabbed a Copic marker and colored it to match the cream of the heart paper.  Problem solved!

I used a black Sakura glaze pen to make the eyes stand out more.  I used a Spectrum Noir sparkle marker on the little red cardstock hearts I scattered around the background.  I also added it to the hearts on the girl bronty.  On top of the grey hearts I added glossy accents for that something extra.

I do hope you will check out Jess's shop here: Jess Crafts Shop.  And if you hurry over today you can take advantage of a special price!  It's only good on release day!!  Be sure to pay a visit to her blog to check out what all the other DT members are posting!  Jess Crafts Digitals

I can't wait to share my next project with you!

~Kristina