Awesome

Hey there everyone.  I'm popping in with a super quick post for a card that I am entering in two different challenges.  I have been enjoying the challenges and I feel like they push me to create outside some of my comfort zones!

I am linking up for the Freshly Made Sketches 372 #fms372.  You can find the link up right HERE.

The second challenge I'm linking up to is Color Throwdown 527 #ctd527.  You can find that link up
HERE.

Here is the list of supplies I used:

Distress Oxide inks in Faded Jeans, Lucky Clover and Hickory Smoke
White acrylic paint
Awesome die by Paper Rose
Sizzix/Tim Holtz Funky Floral #3 dies
Paper from Amy Tangerine Better Together paper pad
Altenew Beveled Squares stencil
Stampin up Petail Pair embossing folder
Mama Elephant Basic Set dies
Hero Arts Unicorn White ink pad

Thanks for taking a peek!
~Kristina

Holiday Anya

Look at that!  I'm back again almost lickety-split with another coffee themed card to link up for the Coffee Lovers blog hop!  Did I mention how much fun I have making these coffee themed cards??

This card was also a labor of love.  During the recent 30 day coloring challenge hosted by Kathy Racoosin, I colored up this sweet Holiday Anya 6 from The Greeting Farm.  I did two versions.  One stamped with black and the other with Inkon3 fadeout ink.  I really wanted to do some no line coloring.  I'm not going lie, it's hard for me!  I am however pleased as punch with how she turned out!

Here are the Copic colors I used:

Hair-B02,23,24 & 28

Collar/Shirt tails-T1, 3, 5

Sweater-V04,06,09

Skirt-V01, 04

Mug-BG32, 34, 23

Marshmallow-E42 & colorless blender

Skin-E00, 11, 13, 21

Cheeks-R20

Dots on mug-white gel pen

After I was done coloring, I added Nuvo aqua shimmer in glitter gloss (love this stuff!).  As soon as it was dry I went ahead and cut her out with scissors.  I decided to leave a small white border all the way around.  For the little section between her feet I used a craft knife.  

I pulled out three patterned papers from the Doodlebug Frosty Friends paper pad.  I have been trying to actually use my patterned papers instead of hoarding them.  It's SO hard!!  I just want to admire the paper all day long.  LOL!  I cut the dotted aqua/green paper with an oval die from MFT Stamps.  The striped paper I cut out using a rectangle die from Mama Elephant.  The white paper is cut out with another rectangle die from the same Mama Elephant die set.

I dug through my colored cardstock collection and found a pretty purple that matched so I cut an A2 sized cardbase.  I glued each piece in place and added Holiday Anya on top.  I didn't use any foam tape for any of the layers.  Then I stamped the Mugs & Kisses sentiment that comes with Holiday Anya in a gray ink onto white paper.  I didn't have quite the right shade of blue so I took my B28 copic to a piece of white paper to make my own!  I layered it with the sentiment and this was popped up with foam tape.

I though some sequins would add some extra sparkle but I ran across these assorted snowflakes that I got as a freebie gift from Lawn Fawn.  I glued them around wherever I thought they looked right.  There you have it.  I am quite enamored with this card.  Hope you like it too!

Don't forget to make some fall/winter coffee/tea/cocoa themed cards and link it up right HERE! Be sure to use #fallwinter2018clh!

I'll be seeing you soon!
~Kristina

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is almost here!  Yikes.  I can hardly believe it.  That means Christmas is going to sneak up on me so fast!  Deep breath.  I wanted to squeeze in one more fall card before it becomes all Christmas all the time.  Seeing how tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I figured a Thanksgiving themed card was in order.

I started by printing out this little guy onto natural white Neenah cardstock.  I had already picked out the plaid paper to use so I grabbed my copic color chart and started picking markers.  Here are the colors I used:

Mouse: E81, 84 & 87
Ears, Nose & Cheeks: R00.  The ears also have a little bit of E81 to tone down the pink.
Pumpkin: YR12, 15, 18, 27
Stem, swirl & feet pads: BG96, YG63, 67
Yellow flower: Y11, 13, 18 Center: E87, 89
Rust flower: E15, 17, 18 Center: Y13, 15

Once I was all done with coloring I used my Scan n Cut to cut him out with a little border.  I went back to the plaid paper.  This is from Carta Bella's Fall Blessings paper pad.  I pulled out two other patterns that went well with the plaid.  An orange and a green.  I really wanted a non standard die shape for my layers so I went digging through my stash.  I found these beautiful Label 55 dies from Spellbinders.  I cut the green and the orange papers with different sizes of the same die set.  Then I cut the plaid paper with a scalloped rectangle die from Mama Elephant. 

I sponged the edges of the plaid paper with a mossy green.  I decided to cut my label dies so that they would be flat on the bottom and line up with the stitched edge of the plaid paper.  I sponged the edges of the orange paper but left the green one alone. I glued the mouse directly onto the green paper and glued the rest of the layers together.  These were then glued onto a Neenah natural white card base.

I stamped the Happy Thanksgiving sentiment onto another piece of the Neenah paper with the same mossy green ink I used to sponge the plaid paper edges.  I cut it down to a small rectangle and sponged those edges with the orange ink.  I used a piece of foam tape on the back to pop it up from the card.

I thought it needed just a little something more.  I didn't quite like the look of sequins but I did find these gorgeous gold gems from Pretty Pink Posh in my stash.  Just perfect.  And that's it!  I hope you like my little mouse card and that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

You can pick up the Pumpkin Mouse digital stamp right HERE in the 2 Cute Ink Etsy store.  Be sure to check out all of the great digital stamps Heidi has in her shop!  Come on over and check out her Facebook group too!  2 Cute Ink Digital Stamp Fans


I'll be back soon!
~Kristina

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

7 Kids Guest post

Hi there!  I'm really pumped to have been given a guest spot this month for the 7 Kids Craft store design team!  If you have never been there, I suggest you head on over and check out the goodies they have.  Head here to take a peek.  Kelly is having a large clearance sale right now so be quick!

I decided to try something totally out of my comfort zone.  No line coloring with my Copics in a monochromatic color scheme.  Yikes!!  So here is the end result.

I started with a large piece of X-Press Blending cardstock.  I stamped the Mama Elephant Botanic Thanks in a Copic safe light tan ink onto the X-press It cardstock.  I then pulled out my selection of Copic markers.  For all of the flowers I used markers in the E5 series.  All of them from E50 to E59.  I just varied which ones I used on a particular flower and how much I used.  I was worried the leaves would get lost so I used W markers to color all the large leaves.  

I must say that I am extremely pleased with the results!  It did take me a little longer to color than anticipated but I think that was due to determining where flowers and leaves began/ended.  Now, what to do with this lovely??  I wanted to keep it simple so the flowers would take the centerpiece.  I used a new edge die from Lawn Fawn.  Oh so pretty yet simple!  I backed the white piece with foam tape and mounted it on to the brown patterned paper and then on to a brown card base.  The finished dimensions of the card are 6" by 4 5/8".  Here is a side view.  I was hoping to show the sparkle!

For a few final finishing touches I colored over all of the gray leaves with some Wink of Stella.  I also added some Nuvo drops in Copper Penny and Dark Walnut.  Don't forget to check out the 7 Kids Craft store!

I hope you have enjoyed my project today! 

~Kristina

Feel better flower

I unexpectedly found myself in need of a Get Well card only to find I didn't have a single one in my stash!  What a sad state of affairs.  Apparently I need to go on a binge crafting session so I have some set aside for future need.  I've got lots of birthday cards though!

Anywho, I needed something I could throw together pretty quickly but I also wanted it to be a little bit elegant.  This is for my husband's great grandmother and I always try to send her something a bit snazzier.

I scrounged around in my stacks of sentiments and florals looking for just the right ones.  I really, REALLY need to get my organization done.  Maybe I'll have a time at Christmas to make a dent.  Ok, back on track.  Let me just go ahead and show you my finished card!

I didn't really have a plan when I sat down but that isn't unusual for me.  I heat embossed the main flower from Concord & 9th's You Are Enough stamp set in gold onto Bristol paper.  I then used the Deep Red Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker and a water brush to spread out the color.  After it was dry, I went back with one of the warmer gray Zig Clean Color markers and went all around the image.  I used the water brush to spread the color all the way out to the edges.  I used a circle die from MFT stamps to cut out the flower layer.

I used a Spellbinders scalloped circle die to cut out the gold glitter layers.  The patterned paper is from Basic Grey and was cut with one of my favorite dies from Craftin Desert Divas.  I then cut the pink layer from Stampin up Rose Romance cardstock using a scalloped die from Mama Elephant.  The sentiment comes from a MFT Stamps set and I embossed it in the same gold powder I used for the flower.  I then cut it out with a banner die from Craftin Desert Divas.  I cut a slightly longer banner with the same die from bristol paper.  I adhered all the layers to a white card base.

I do hope my husband's great grandmother likes it and brings her a little cheer!

~Toodles!

Kristina