Coffee Lovers take 3

Woot!  I had a goal to get three cards made for this round of the Coffee Lovers blog hop.  I am happy to say that I did it! 

Go HERE to get details and link up!

My last two cards have been coffee colored so I wanted to try something a bit more vibrant.

To create the plaid background I busted out my brand new Sketched Stripes background stamp set from Concord & 9th.  It's so much fun!  I used Berry Burst and Lemon Lime Twist inks from Stampin Up!  I cut the word "coffee" out with the Stitched Alphabet dies from My Favorite things.  I set the plaid letters aside and cut them again out of the Berry Burst cardstock and white.  I glued the white and Berry Burst layers together.

I adhered the plaid piece on to a Lemon Lime Twist panel with a layer of foam tape.  This was then glued onto a white card base.  I put glue in the open letter areas and carefully added the letters in.  They are slightly recessed since the base is popped up on foam tape.  

I really wanted the card to say "Coffee Understands" but I searched through my coffee sets and a few others and couldn't find any with the word "understands".  So I went to the internet, found a new font that I thought went well and printed it directly onto another piece of the lime cardstock.  I cut it out and glued it directly onto the plaid piece.  Of course, I had to add sequins for a little sparkle and I called it done. #springsummer2018clh

Hope you like it!

~Kristina

Coffee Lovers take two!

Hidey ho crafty friends!  I am back with a second card for the Coffee Lovers blog hop!  Remember, you can find full details and the link up right HERE.

Today's post is another quickie!  So let's start with a picture of my completed card!

For this card I started with a piece of watercolor paper.  I embossed the coffee image with white embossing powder.  This cup is from the Altenew Coffee with a Splash set.  I've been trying to find a way to use this set and this was the perfect chance.  I then blended on three different colors of distress ink for an ombre look.  I used Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso.  I splattered on clean water, let it sit for a few moments and then blotted it up with a paper towel.

Once it was dry I added the sentiment from The Ton's Caffiene Crush set.  I used Versafine black ink and clear embossing powder.  I used my corner chomper to round two of the corners.  I added craft foam to the back and glued it to a white card base.  For the final little bit of shine, I added Ivory crystals from Pretty Pink Posh.  Ta da!

I am hopeful that I can get at least one more card made before the challenge is over.  Thanks for popping in!

~Kristina

Coffee Lovers Blog hop

Just a quickie post today to share the first card I have completed for the Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers blog hop!

You can find full details on how to participate and link up HERE.

And here is my card!

I'm so thrilled with how this card turned out!  It was an idea that popped in my brain and actually translated out to a card!  Yay me!

Background was created using alcohol inks and Yupo paper.  I used Latte, Hazelnut, Espresso and gold mixative.  After it was dry I glued on all those THIN coffee cup die cuts.  The die is quite lovely and is made by Poppy Stamps.  It is called Morning Cup.  The sentiment stamp is from SugarPea Designs and is called Perfect blend.  I believe the die I used to cut out the square is from My Favorite things.  And that's it!

Hope you all get a chance to play along.  I hope to be back with another card or maybe two! #springsummer2018clh

~Kristina

Color Throwdown #493

Howdy, howdy!  I can't believe it but I managed to complete a card for the second week in a row to play along with the Color Throwdown Challenge!  Here are this weeks colors.

I started off my card by pulling out two distress ink colors that I thought fit the color scheme--Peacock Feathers and Twisted Citron.  They happen to be two of my favorite distress ink colors.  They are just so darn bright and happy!

I cut a piece of watercolor paper down to A2 size.  I then went to town with ink smooshing.  I just tapped the ink pads directly onto my craft mat, spritzed with water (mixed with Perfect Pearls) and laid my paper on top.  I dried the paper and then went back for more color.  Once I was happy with it I pulled out one of my newest dies.  I am so happy to finally have it as I had to wait almost five weeks for it to arrive!  It is the Feathers in the Wind set from Stephanie Low and Spellbinders.

I cut the feather out using the piece of paper I had ink smooshed.  I also cut the shadow layer out of white and adhered together.  The sentiment is from a Simon Says Stamp set called Hand Lettered Encouragement.  I stamped it on white paper and sponged it with a little bit of each of the two distress ink colors.

I found a piece of cardstock in my collection that went really well with my smooshed piece but I felt it was too plain.  I found a lovely embossing folder in my collection and ran it through my Cuttlebug.  For even more interest it splattered it with the distress inks and a little bit of white.  This was then adhered to a white card base.

I played around until I was happy with the placement of the feather and the sentiment.  The sentiment was adhered directly to the aqua paper.  I used foam tape to pop up the feather.  And since I can't leave things alone, I added a few sequins for extra bling!

You can find full challenge details and the place where you can link up your creation right HERE.

Hope to see you all again soon!
~Kristina

Shine

Hello one and all!  Mother's Day is drawing to a close and I had an opportunity to go play in my craft room.  What a treat!  I decided this was the day I was going to create something to participate in the Color Throwdown Challenge.  I always want to join in every week but I forget about it until it's to late to enter.  Here are this weeks colors.

And here is my card!

I am delighted with the way it turned out.  Especially since I completed it in less than a half hour!  I stamped the floral images from MFT Stamps Sketched Blooms with a waterproof ink on to Bristol Smooth paper.  I then pulled out three zig clean color real brush markers in a shade of red, yellow and gray.  Some of the stamps I colored with the markers and spritzed with water before sramping.  Some of the others I colored directly on the paper and spread it out with a water brush.  I used gray for all of the leaves and stems.

To add a little more detail, I splattered on more color with the same three colors.  I cut it out with a stitched rectangle die from MFT Stamps and mounted it on a dark gray card base.  I cut the Shine sentiment out with a die from Winnie & Walter.  I did cut out two of them so that I could add a little extra dimension.  Before I glued it onto the card front I went over it with a Spectrum Noir glitter marker.  And I call it done!

You too can join in this weeks challenge or maybe another week.  Go HERE for details and this weeks link up. CTD#492 #colorthrowdown

Thanks for stopping by!

~Kristina

Tiddly Inks blog hop

I got an email the other day from Tiddly Inks announcing that they would be having a blog hop that anyone could participate in.  I have several of their digital stamps in my collection so I figured why not play along??

The image I am using is called Mama's Fuchsias.  Christy has a TON of gorgeous digital and clear stamps in her store.  If you aren't familiar with Tiddly Inks, I suggest you check out the store!

I printed the stamp out onto Bristol smooth paper.  I grabbed several colors of Zig Clean Color real brush markers, a waterbrush and got to coloring.  No extra fancy coloring here.  I layed down a little color and spread it out with the waterbrush.  If I felt I had too much color I would wipe my brush on a paper towel.  After the first layer was dry I did go back and add a little more color for a bit of shading.  Once the main image was dry, I went around all of the edges with the English Lavender Zig marker and spread out the color as far as I could.  I think it helps to pop the image off the page!

I set it aside and got to working on my background.  I have been slowly building up my collection of  Alcohol inks.  I just love to sit down and play around to see what I can get!  I chose three colors that coordinated with my colored flowers.  Raspberry, Amethyst and Botanical.  I just kept adding color and blending solution.  Used a straw to blow the colors around a bit.  Stared at it some more.  Added more color.  And so on until I was happy with the results.  Once it was pretty dry I laid a piece of gold foil on top and rubbed over it.  Pull it back slowly to see the little veins of gold!  

Isn't it gorgeous??!!    I almost hated to cut into it but it was too big for an A2 card.  I cut it with a die from Pretty Pink Posh and attached it to the card base.    The flowers I cut out with a die from Spellbinders and mounted it to the background with a layer of craft foam.  For the final bit, I heat embossed the sentiment in gold onto a scrap of black cardstock and glued it in place.  I did go over the sentiment with Wink of Stella to give it a little bit of sparkle!  Here is the finished card!

I can't wait to see what everyone creates!

~Kristina

Kitty hello

Hello my friends!  I've got another card to share with you that I made for the Love Your Pet blog hop.  I wanted to remind you still have until midnight on April 29th to link up a card for the blog hop.

You can link your card up and find full details on the JessicaLynnOriginal blog HERE.  There are prizes to be won AND donations are being made to Lucky Mutts Rescue for each card or project entered!

Now, for my card today.  I used the only other image I hadn't used yet in Celine's Kittens.  The two adorable kitties playing in the paper bag!  Since I have already made one card with Copic markers and one card with distress inks, I needed to pick a different medium.  Some times I have a hard time picking a medium.  So many awesome ones to choose from!  Colored pencils won out today.

I first stamped the image on a piece of teal patterned paper from the Basic Grey Spice Market pad.  Then I stamped the image on a piece of Stampin Up Naturals Ivory cardstock.  I went ahead and picked the rest of the patterned papers I wanted to use so I knew what colored pencils to pull out.  

All the colors I used are from Prismacolor.

Bag accents 920 & 1006

Ears 927 & 1092

Eyes 920 & 1006

Big cat 941, 1082 & 1083

Little cat 1052, 1054 & 1056

Here's what the pieces looked like after I finished up the coloring.

The two larger pieces of patterned paper I cut down to 4 1/2" x 5 3/4".  I stacked them together and cut them on the diagonal.  I wanted to make sure the pieces would fit together perfectly.  After I cut them, I glued them onto a piece of scrap copy paper.  I needed them to stay put while I used the MFT Stamps Wonky Stitched rectangle die to cut out the papers. 

I didn't have a piece of glitter cardstock quite large enough to span the diagonal across the card.  I remembered that I had some gold glitter tape from The Ton Stamps.  It was just the thing!  

I added it to the paper and trimmed off the edges.  I glued the patterned panel onto a teal piece of cardstock and then onto a white, A2 sized card base.  

I pulled out one more piece of patterned cardstock from the Basic Grey paper pad.  I cut it into a strip, used a mini scalloped and stitched edge die to add details to the top and bottom.  I wanted even more detail so I put the strip into a floral embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug.  Attached it to the card panel and cut off the edges.    

Back to the cat images.  I fussy cut the cats out of the ivory cardstock and went around all of the edges with a black marker.  Then I took some thin foam tape and adhered it to the back of the cat piece.  I carefully lined it up with the cats on the bag and attached it.  I did decide to use a fine tip black marker to go over the kitty whiskers.  Colored pencils can obscure some of the stamp lines so you may have to go back over some of them.

Now I was down to the home stretch, a sentiment.  I used a Hello die from MFT Stamps and cut it from the same natural ivory cardstock I used for the kitties.  I found that the Peacock Feathers distress ink matched really well with my card.  I sponged it on to the bottom portion of the sentiment and blended it for an ombre effect.  I sprinkled a little bit of water on it and dabbed off with a paper towel.  Once it was totally dry I added it to the card.  One final step.  I went over the sentiment with Shimmer Pico Embellisher to give it a little glitter and shine.  There you have it!

Have an amazing day!

~Kristina