21st Century Pillow Book

Greetings! So, Valentine's Day was 9 days ago at the time of this post, but I never had a chance to share the cards I made for my family. I am not a fan of V-Day, and I usually wait until the last minute to make cards for it. Besides the chocolate, it's just not my thing. And really, I prefer the day after Valentine's Day when the chocolate is on sale. ;)  Anyway, I made a card for my husband, and each of my children. Here's the card for my hubs.  I used the amazing and funny " As You Wish " stamp set from Ink Road Stamps for his card. Did you know I named this set? I started off with a monoprint that I made ages ago with a Electric Pink Radiant Neon and Golden Glitz Delicata reinkers from Imagine . As I was designing this card, I thought that the monoprint needed a little something more, so I used a Tim Holtz stencil with Barn Door Distress Oxide, to give it a bit of a sun ray effect.  Then I stamped the Princess and Robin with VersaFine Clair ink on...

Greetings! Do you have a fear of spiders? I know several people that do. I happen to not be the biggest fan of how spiders look , but I really appreciate what they do for the environment. I was inspired by the very cool web in the Spider Fear stamp set from Stampendous . I started off by creating my background with glossy photo paper and Ranger Alcohol Inks . There are many options for types of paper that can be used with alcohol inks, but I like how inexpensive photo paper is, and I can get great results. For this background, I used Stonewashed, Eggplant, and Stream. I also used Ranger's Blending Solution to help move the color around. After I was satisfied with my background, and it was totally dry, I inked up the spider web with StazOn ink in Jet Black . I like to let the stamp sit on the background for a little longer than a regular ink just to be sure that the StazOn transfers well. Next I applied my spider and sentiment using the same ink. I mounted the backgroun...

Greetings everyone! Today I have a new shaker card featuring the Intergalactic Sparkle Blend from Doodles Paper Playground . In my never-ending attempt to make shaker cards in different ways, this time I used letter dies from Quik Kutz. Are they even a company any more? Anyway, I had this cool, outer-space looking alcohol ink background that I had made a while back on glossy photo paper, and I thought it would go really well with the Intergalactic Sparkle Blend. This blend has lots of stars and bold, bright colors plus black and silver. It is a gorgeous mix of shapes and sizes and it's become a favorite of mine. I tried to highlight the letters a bit with a white Molotow pen, but the nib on the pen is shot, so it was't working right. I scraped away some of the white but I couldn't get it all up. The jury is still out on whether or not I like the white the way it is. I probably should have just left it alone. But look at those pretty sparklies!!! I felt as though...

Hello! This week, the Stampendous team is sharing projects featuring some of the new Parisian themed stamps and dies. Before I get to my card, I wanted to let you know that I am participating in the very first Doodles Paper Playground Blog Hop , and i would love it if you could check out my other post HERE . I promise, it's worth it! On to Stampendous... For my project, I decided to work with the Fleur de Lis die that is in the Paris Bonjour die set. There is no accompanying stamp for it, so I decided to use alcohol inks to create interesting patterns for my die cuts. Also, I really wanted to use the new "hello" stamp, and have it look as though it had been die cut. I simply traced the full stamp on to my piece of vellum and fussy cut it out. Now it looks like it has been die cut! My full instructions are below. Supplies: Stampendous : DCS5105: Paris Bonjour Die Cut Set SSC1283: Big Words Thanks DCP1006: Fitted Frames Set B Other : My Colors Cardstock: Sky B...

Hello there! I am very happy to announce that I will be staying on as a Doodles Paper Playground Designing Diva. I had so much fun last month as a guest, so I was thrilled when the team was asked to become a bit more of a permanent fixture. There is no new release this month, so the other Divas and I will be sharing projects using the pre-released selection of Sparkle Blends. Which, is not a bad thing, because there are so many beautiful colors and objects in each of the blends, you're sure to see something new each time you check out a project! Today, I am featuring the Unicorn Sparkle Blend, which may very well be my favorite of them all. There are so many amazing colors, including lots of opalescent sequins and gems, plus a ton of totally adorable and impossibly small Fimo pieces. Today I saw a bow, smiley faces, pizza, and an adorable purple cat when I poured the blend out to work with it. Next time I am sure I'll find something else! Check it out! Not a single stamp w...

Greetings! Today, I am sharing a new project as a Guest Designer for Doodles Paper Playground . Doodles Paper Playground offers beautiful Sparkle Blends....amazing mixes of sequins, micro beads, teeny fimo pieces, and itty bitty jewels, and you can only get them at White Rose Crafts LLC . My card today features one of the new February blends, called Test Your Luck . I used the adorable Magical Dragons stamp set from My Favorite Things and color coordinated them with the Test Your Luck Sparkle Blends. These dragons are just the sweetest! And if you have been a follower of my blog, you know how much I love dragons and the fantasy realm. Here's a closer look at what's inside of the Test Your Luck Sparkle Blends. See the fimo flowers? And there's a smiley face peeking through! I adhered the dragons to make it appear as though they were actually looking into the shaker window. As though they were captivated by what was inside, moving around. My background was created...

Hello! Today, I wanted to share the Valentine's Day cards that I made for my kids. Like many crafters, I've been playing with alcohol inks again lately, and I had a bunch of backgrounds that were ready to get used. I pulled one that had Cranberry, Eggplant, and Raisin and got to work. I used an older Sizzix Thinlits die of a heart, and cut out 8. I ran my paper through my Big Shot machine twice with each heart because I used photo paper to create my backgrounds and it doesn't always cut cleanly the first time. Then I used gold foil cardstock from Recollections and die cut 2 different arrows, also from Sizzix. I knew I wanted a sentiment strip across the middle of the card, so I pulled out the Hero Arts You Are Loved Messages . There are so many beautiful sentiments in that set. I stamped the You Are Loved with VersaMark and then embossed with Detail Gold Embossing Powder from Stampendous. My background needed a little more of something....so I went with an older And...