Mocha Me Happy!

Hi again!  I thought I was done making cards for the Fall Coffee Lovers Bloghop...But then I was out at Starbucks getting my favorite drink (Iced Salted Caramel White Chocolate Mocha...yum!) when inspiration hit!

You know how Starbucks has lots of giftcards out at the registers?  And that they seem to be coming out with all kinds for every season/holiday?  Well, this is what caught my eye.

It was literally screaming to be made into a card!  So I asked if I could have one without putting money on it and they kindly said yes!  I tucked this fantastic bit of inspiration into my purse.

I finally got a chance to sit down at my craft desk last night and then minor drama.  Where are all my gosh darn leaf sets?  Fall is my FAVORITE season!  Why don't I have any??  Apparently I know I love fall and everytime I see an awesome leaf set I don't buy it because I'm thinking I have ten at home already.  Well, I'm going to have to buy some.  I did just get an order in that had the MFT Stamps Geometric Greenery set in it.  So, I pulled it out and decided to just go with it.

I'm fairly certain the photo doesn't do the copper embossing powder justice.  All the images except for the sentiment were embossed with copper.  The sentiment was done in gold.  I dug out my Peerless watercolors to do the background and everything else was done with distress inks.  I let it dry overnight and got back at it this evening.  I attached it to this beautiful cardstock I found in my stash.  I believe it is Stampin up but it is a retired In Color from several years ago.  It was just perfect. Then I searched through my sequins.  None of them seemed just right.  So I tried the clear droplets from Pretty Pink Posh.  Voila!  They were just the thing!

Some days you just never know where you'll find inspiration!  Have a fantastic day!

~Kristina

You're Awesome

Hi everyone!  I'm back with another card using the adorable Donut & Coffee bear from Craftin Desert Divas.  He is just so cute I *had* to make another card.  Not to mention I wanted to get another entry into the Fall 2016 Coffee Lovers Bloghop!

I hope you like him!

This guy was also colored with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers on bristol paper.  Before I cut out the scribbled circles, I colored my watercolor paper using some of the same Zig colors so they would match my bear perfectly.  I also incorporated a LOT of different dies.  And did you know you could get your hands on this fantastic digital stamp from Craftin Desert Divas for free???  Yes, for free!!  All you have to do is head to Craftin Desert Divas and use the code: coffeehop.  Thank you to Craftin Desert Divas for the awesome freebie and for being a super sponsor of the hop!

Here is a list of the supplies I used: Coffee & donut bear, Simply Said, Flag banner dies, Greeting word dies, Scribbled Circle dies, Banner Dies, Fancy Frames dies, Couture sequins, Moonlit Kisses sequins.  Whew!  

Thanks for taking a look!

~Kristina

Coffee Love!

Hi everyone!  I'm so excited!!  This is my first time participating in the Coffee Lovers Bloghop.  It combines two of my favorite things, coffee and cardmaking. So it's a win-win for me!

When I saw the super adorable Coffee & Donut Bear digital stamp that Craftin Desert Divas just released I knew I had to have him.  MUST. HAVE!!  I'm so ready for fall and he looks like he's all set for cool weather with his sweater, scarf and hot coffee.

The products I used are Coffee & Donut Bear, Doodlebug Happy Camper, Doodlebug Puppy love, Stitched Circles dies, Pupply love sprinkles and Bon bon sprinkles.

I colored him using my Zig Clean Color real brush markers on bristol paper.  I've been making lots of fall projects lately and I'm beginning to have some real fall favorite combinations.

Thanks for taking a look!

~Kristina

Get Well wishes

Good evening everyone!

I must admit that I had a ton of fun making this card!  I ended up getting inky and making a mess but sometimes that's the most fun!  I have been finding myself in need of Get Well cards lately and Craftin Desert Divas has released several Get Well digital stamps recently.  I had a hard time deciding which one to use!!

I printed Get Well Cat onto Bristol paper.  I find this is the best type of paper to used if I want to color my images with the Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.  They just seem to glide and blend together like butter!!  I selected an assortment of Zig markers and went to town.  I always seem to get the best blending when I use a dark, a light and blend the rest of the way out with my waterbrush. Sometimes I go back in and add a little more shadows and highlights but it doesn't take a lot of work. When I first got them I wasn't sure I really liked them.  I have just kept practicing until I felt fairly comfortable with how they work.  So don't get discouraged if you are just starting out!

After it was all dry, I used my handy Scan & Cut 2 to cut out the image.  I'm not sure how I ever lived without it!  I couldn't decided on a background so I got out watercolor paper and distress inks that coordinated with the Zig markers I had used.  I've been playing around with the Smooshing technique using a small piece of acetate to dab the watered down distress inks onto the paper.  I tend to use my heat gun to mostly dry it between colors.  Nobody wants icky brown mud!  Unless you need a mud background!  I dabbed and dried, dabbed and dried until I liked what I had.  Since my background is already pretty busy, I didn't plan to use sequins but I wanted some sparkle!  So I grabbed my mini spray bottle that has a mix of water and pearl ex.  I sprayed the paper generously and let it dry.  I don't think I caught the true amount of sparkle in my picture but I promise you it's gorgeous!

After that was all dry, I cut it out using the largest die from Fancy frames.  Hand cut a charcoal layer to go behind it and used Wink of Stella on it to make it just as sparkly!  Then I adhered it to the white card base.  I used foam tape on the cat so she would stand out from the background.  Then I was left with the sentiment dilemma.  Does anyone else have this problem when using a large image??  I found "Get Well Wishes" in the Simply Said set and it fit perfectly on one of the smaller dies in the Fancy Frames set.  Then I stamped "Sending" from the same set onto thick vellum and heat embossed in black.  I very carefully trimmed it out with scissors and mounted it with the clear Kooltak foam tape.  Ta da!  A happy Get Well Card I'm fairly certain would bring a smile to someones face!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

~Kristina

Supplies used:

Get Well Cat

Simply Said

Fancy Frames

Fly away with me

Hello again my friends!  Summer sure has been flying by.  My daughter (a Sophomore this year!) started on August 3rd and my son (8th grade) started on August 22nd.  While I am somewhat sad that summer is coming to and end, I must say that autumn is my most favorite season.  And not just because my birthday is this month!  The fall colors, the crisp scents in the air, apples in plenty, new coffee flavors at Starbucks...just SO many things to look forward to!  Not to mention I'm a sucker for fall themed stamps!  BUT...it's not fall yet so I have a bright, summer type card for you.

My Zig Clean Color markers have been feeling so much love lately that I thought I better bring out my Copics for awhile.  Let's just say I had to do some practicing as the techniques are quite a bit different with the different mediums.  They both look awesome!  After I colored the bunny, I went in with my colorless blender and added a bunch of dots.  I wanted to give her a little bit of a texture and loved how it looked!  For the balloon I used three different shades of blue and went over it a few times until I got the blend I liked.  After it dried I went over it with my Wink of Stella.  I sure do love sparkle!  I added a few white dots to the bird, some highlights on the bunny and the white dots on the balloon.  For the clouds I went around the inside with a very thin line of blue and blended it out with the colorless blender.  I colored the entire background with BG11 and BG10.

Then I was left with trying to figure out how to get a sentiment on the card!  I hate to cover anything up!  So I dug around and found the cloud die in the Skys the Limit die set.  I cut it out using vellum and lightly went around the edge with a blue copic.  I heat embossed the sentiment from Say it Big using platinum embossing powder.  We all know how hard it is to adhere vellum without it showing but I remembered I had some of that Kooltak clear foam tape.  I am in love!  I strategically placed it behind some of the bigger letters and it worked perfect!  You might be seeing a lot more vellum in the future!

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies used:

Bunny Heart Balloon

Say It Big

Sky Is The Limit Dies

Watercolor Linky Party

Hi everyone!  Today I'm joining in the Craftin Desert Divas Linky Party on the CDD blog!

The theme for this Linky Party at Craftin Desert Divas is "Watercolor"! We sure would love to see your projects that fit this theme! So go ahead and craft it and link it up on the Craftin Desert Diva's Blog.

Every other Monday will mark the beginning of a new semi-weekly Linky Party over 

at the CDD blog. We hope you will share your projects with us! And don't forget 

about  the prizes! Every Linky Party will have a winner and a Top 3! 

Our Sponsors for this Linky Party are:

One 4 x 6 Stamp set

One digi stamp of choice

With no further delay...here is my project!

I simply adore this birthday dragon!  I chose to use my Inktense pencils for my watercolor medium. They are perfect to use when I'm looking for a little more control, especially in in smaller areas.  I adore how vibrant the colors are and how easy they are to use!  After he was dry, I went back in and added a little detail to his hat and in some of the shadow areas with a white pen.  

For the background I grabbed one of my many stencils and went to town with distress inks.  I pulled out the ones that went with the coloring on the dragon.  I used Salty Ocean, Twisted Citron and squeezed lemonade.  I spritz it lightly with water to add a little bit of texture.  I just have so much fun with distress ink, don't you?  I cut the dragon piece out with the largest die from Fancy frames and hand cut the black layer.  The green patterned piece is from the Hip Hip Hooray pad.

I didn't want my banner pieces to be white so I shaded it with the Salty Ocean and twistes citron. Then I ran it through my die cut machine.  I wanted a sentiment of some kind but the flags are pretty small and I didn't want to cover up the dragon.  I found "Wish Big" in the Simply Said stamp set.  With a bit of masking, I was able to stamp the letters individually from the "wish" portion of the stamp.  It was a perfect fit!  Sometimes you've got to be extra creative to work with what you have!  And would my card be complete without sequins?  Heck no!!  I found the Skyfall sequins were the perfect color!  

I hope you like him and are inspired to link up with the linky party!

Supplies used:

Birthday Dragon digital stamp

Party Dies

Simply Said

Fancy Frame dies

Skyfall sequins

Hip Hip Hooray paper pad

Delightful Daisy

Hello one and all!  I'm back with another Digi DT project for Craftin Desert Divas!   I'll admit, I'm a huge fan of watercolor.  When I found out the CDD FB group challenge was going to be to use watercolor of some sort I practically jumped for joy!

I have to share a secret.  This project actually came about from a printer mishap.  I was printing my images on watercolor paper and my printer decided to misbehave.  The images got all streaky and gross.  I almost threw it away!  Then I had a thought, what if I traced it using a light color watercolor pencil?  I taped it to the nearest sunny window and...kablam!  An image ready to try no line watercoloring!

You probably all know by know that I love my Zig Real brush markers by now.  So this time I decided I should use my Mission gold watercolors.  I kinda love these guys too!  I first colored the flower and the stem and let it dry.  Then went back to add a little more color and contrast.  After it was fully dry, I went around the whole thing with a very pal gray.  I blotted it off a bit with a paper towel because I didn't want it to be super dark.  As an extra side-effect, I got this really cool pattern that was left behind from the paper towel!  BONUS!!!  While it was drying, I cut a solid green layer and the larger patterned paper (Doodlebug Hip Hip Hooray).  I adhered them all to the card base.  I stamped and embossed the sentiment on the yellow banner piece and popped it up with foam tape. And yes, I had to add some lovely sequins!

I hope you like it!  Don't forget to check out the August digi Challenge on the Craftin Desert Divas Facebook group page.  Free digital stamp just for playing along!!

Supplies used

Delightful Daisy

Flag Banner dies

Wishful Thoughts

Wishful Thoughts dies

Citrus Bliss

Couture

Hip Hip Hooray