With Sympathy

Hi gang!  It's my turn over on the Dies R Us blog today.  Come on over and check out all the details.  Two for one sympathy cards.  You can find the post right HERE. 

Hope to see you over there.

~Kristina

Coffee for You - Dies R Us

I am up on the Dies R Us blog today to share an autumn, coffee themed card.  You can find all of the details on the Dies R Us blog right HERE.

I am also linking this card up to the current Coffee Lovers fall/winter blog hop!

Be sure to link up your coffee/cocoa/tea themed creations before the blog hop ends.  That link up can be found HERE.

#fallwinter2018clh

Have an awesome day!

~Kristina

Totally Tropical

Happy Sunday everyone!  Recently I received word that I had been accepted into the Altenew Educator Certification program.  I am so very JAZZED!  I have to say that I love all things Altenew and I am looking forward to learning lots of new things.  I find things that challenge me also make me a better crafter!

The very first class is called All About Layering 1.  As you can guess, it's sort of a beginning guide for using their layering stamps.  I did learn some trips and tricks during this class to line up the stamps better!  For each class we need to create a project at the end for submission and a little bit about what we learned during the course of the class.  Let me share my photo first.

The set that I used is called Totally Tropical and I think this is the first time I have actually inked it up.  I'm not sure why I waited so long!

I think the thing that jumped out at me most was the idea of layering your stamped images in three different levels.  Sure, I am used to doing two layers but for some reason I don't think of doing three.  Basically you stamp directly on the paper, stamp on another paper, cut it out and glue directly to the base paper and the third layer is popped up on foam tape.  Pretty darn cool!  

For this card, the majority of images were stamped directly on the card base.  The top leaf was colored on another piece of paper, cut out by hand and glued onto the base.  The top orange flower is popped up on foam tape.

For the leaves I used Aqualicious and Teal Cave inks.  For the popped up orange flower I used Autumn Blaze and Firebrick inks.  For the direct stamped orange flower I used Orange Cream and Autumn Blaze.  The little yellow flowers were stamped in Honey Drizzle.

I think it is hard to see in the photo but I did add some extra details.  I used a Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Glitter Gloss pen on the top teal leaf and and over the darker orange areas on the popped up flower.  Before I adhered the two layered pieces, I used my Score Buddy to add two horizontal embossed lines and two vertical embossed lines.  They were both spaced a 1/2 inch apart.  They intersect right about where the two flowers overlap in the middle.  

For the sentiment I first stamped it in black ink.  Then I shifted it just a little and stamped it with a gray ink to give it a shadow.  There you have it!  

I am definitely looking forward to starting the next class!

Ta ta for now!

~Kristina

Color Throwdown Challenge 505

Hi gang!  Nothing like creating a card with what you thought was this week's color scheme only to realize you have the wrong colors when you start typing up a blog post.  Yep.  That's me.  Back to creating I went!

All the details of how to play along in the Color Throwdown Challenge can be found HERE.  And here is the beautiful colors of the week! #ctd505

I'm just happy I caught it BEFORE I finished my post.  That's okay.  I really did want to play more in my craft room.

Here's my completed card.

Nothing overly complicated here at all.  I printed this lovely digital stamp from Gerda Steiner Designs.  It is called "Have a Beary Sweet Day" and can be found HERE.  I have loved her images for a long time.  I own several of her digital stamps and a few of her photopolymer sets.  If you haven't seen her work before you definitely need to check her out! #GSDDTCALL

Like I was saying, I printed the stamp out onto Bristol paper.   I picked out three Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers that matched closest to the challenge colors.  I would put on a little of the straight color and then spread it out with a water brush.  For the bear I used Dark Gray and pale pink for the snout area.  The sign is Pale Rose and the background is Persian Green.  Once it was dry, I went over the sign with a Nuvo glitter gloss marker.  I used a black marker and a ruler to trace around the background color to make it look more complete.  That's it.  Fairly quick and super simple.  Hope you like it!

~Kristina

Simply Watercolor day 1 - part 3

Hope you aren't sick of seeing new posts from me!  Second one in the same day is almost like a record for me!  I think this one is my favorite out of the three I have made.   

I used Misson Gold watercolors for this project as well.  I think I'm going to try and use them all the way through this particular class.  I added Nuvo drops in matching colors just for fun!

I think I'm going to save the bonus lessons until I make it all the way through the class since it's going to take me a while.  In fact, I was supposed to be working on some quilt strips today.  Guess That's what I'll be doing tomorrow.

Toodles!

~Kristina

Jessica Lynn Originals Pet blog hop

Hi gang!  I know haven't posted for a bit.  I think this whole Spring-but-it's-still-cold-and-snowy thing has had me in a funk.  I have got to make my own spring I guess!  But today I am participating in something extra special.  It's the Love Your Pet Blog hop hosted by JessicaLynnOriginal.  I'll post a link to the her blog where you can link up!   See the picture below for details.  We'd love for you to participate.

I am also thrilled because I get to take part as a guest designer this month!!  Woohoo!!!

As a cat lover, I chose to work with Celine's Kittens which you can find here: Celine's Kittens

This set is SO adorable.  Perfect for any cat lover.  If you happen to have dog lovers in your life then you need to check out Flynne's Puppies or any of the many pet sets they have!

Anyways, back to my card.  And here it is!

I randomly picked one of the main images and just got to crafting.  Sometimes I don't have any sort of a plan and I just see what happens.  I am very pleased with the end design!

I stamped the cat image onto Desert Storm Neenah cardstock using a copic friendly brown ink.  I did it as a second generation stamping so that the outline was pretty light.  To color the main portions of the cat I used E41, 43, 44 and 47.  The eyes were colored with YG05, the nose with R32 and the inner ears with E01.  The book cover was R32, 35 & 39, the pages were T0, 3 & 5 and the little fish was YR07.  I think I used B02 for the tiny bubbles on the page.  I did go over the whiskers with a very fine tip black marker because they got a bit lost.

At first I was going to just draw a little bit of a shadow under the book and cat to ground them but I think Sandy Allnock's YouTube videos told me I should try more.  So I created blue carpet with B85, 97 & 99 and the wallpaper with G00 & 07.  Eep.  I'm always scared to freehand things with Copics but I think it turned out alright.

I cut it out using a square detail die and dug through my collection of colored cardstock for a matching blue.  I came up with a retired color (Not Quite Navy) from Stampin Up!  I mounted the cat piece but cut off the far right side as I planned on butting it up to the very edge of the card for a little something different.

I took another piece of Desert Storm cardstock and inked it up using a chevron stencil and the matching Not Quite Navy ink.  I intentionally put it off center to so it looked like it was pointing right to the square with the cat!  

I flicked on some white splatters with white paint and let it dry.  While it was drying I went to work on the sentiment.  I colored on the back of a piece of heavy vellum with B97.  On the front I stamped my sentiment with Versamark ink and added white embossing powder.  I then cut a banner edge.  It didn't stand out quite enough so I cut a Night of Navy banner and a white banner.  The white banner I went over it with Wink of Stella to add a little shimmer.  I played around until I like they way they were layered and adhered them to the card.  The cat image I popped up using foam tape.

For the final step I added Nuvo drops in white and navy.  I did learn a little lesson.  The large white dot was over an inked portion of the background.  It sucked up some of the blue ink and is now a blue-ish white.  Oopsie!  I still think it looks fine but I will try to remember that in the future!

Now, for full details on the Love Your Pet blog hop and to link up a card please click HERE.  There are prizes to be won AND they are making a donation for every card linked up!

I'll be back again in a few days with another card or two for more inspiration!

Toodles!

~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