tropical 60th birthday

... times two.

There's a couple in town who are both turning 60 and celebrating together. So of course I had to make them a "120" birthday card, right?

 Kesi Art Hibiscus die

Little B Blockout die

MFT High Rise Numbers die (inside)

I absolutely love this photo and let it inspire my card. This is what the inside looks like. They are dancers ;)

The paper is from a Paper Studio pack I picked up at Hobby Lobby. Loving tropical lately. You too?

I'm playing at:
Simon Says Stamp - Work it Wednesday May
Daring Cardmakers - Anything but White
Watercooler Wednesday - All about Occasions
Happy Little Stampers - June AG with Dies

watercolor background meets simon says die

My leftovers from this rainbow watercoloring session are dwindling, but when I was making these cards I remembered the piece and pulled it out.

And then I pulled out this fun die and made a twofer. First I die cut the image. Pulled out the kids' watercolors I'd used (back in 2015!). Painted some stripes onto my cardbase roughly where the color areas of the die cut would line up, adding orange and yellow too. Cuz rainbow! Splattered some gold paint (from same watercolor set - not pretty) and adhered the die cut. Voila!

Simon Says Stamp Happy Birthday Circle die

watercolors

And cuz I couldn't bear to throw away all the negative pieces with all their watercolored goodness, I made this card too.

Simon Says Stamp Happy Birthday Circle die

watercolors

PP, Nuvo drops

Funny story. The negative pieces were trapped in the die after I'd carefully removed the positive (the first card). It's a closed one. I thought it might look cool if I put them onto a B/W PP circle. So I took a coloring book page, die cut a circle, put adhesive on all those little pieces stuck in the die, pressed the circle onto them and after they'd dried a bit carefully pulled the whole thing up. Great way to get the pieces out intact, but the first time to see what it looked like on the crazy B/W pattern. Imagine just those watercolored negative pieces on a wild and crazy B/W pattern, will you? Not pretty. That's when the positive die cut, cut from black and adhered slightly offset, came to my rescue. Whew. I think this works now.

And in case you're wondering how I got adhesive onto all those little pieces. Multiple times.

Check out Koren W.'s post.

What's your favorite method for getting adhesive onto intricate die cuts?

I'm playing at:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Frame it (I love the black frame around the watercolored bits on card #2)
Cuttlebug Mania - Frame it (same reason as above!)
Happy Little Stampers - June Watercolor (no twist)

Happy Little Stampers - June AG with Dies

experimenting with stencils

Hey! You may have seen this card I made for the June release week at Neat and Tangled...

To achieve that background I put the stencil down, applied some yellow ink through it, randomly changed the position of the stencil and inked with orange and then randomly positioned the stencil again and inked once more with pink ink. The resulting background adds interest without being too "graphically stenciled."

Today's card was actually the forefunner to that card. As in, graphically stenciled ;) But the idea for changing the position of the stencil originated here.

Neat and Tangled Magnolia stamp and dies

Neat and Tangled Receding Blocks stencil

Mustard Seed, Carved Pumpkin and Picked Raspberry distress inks

embossing paste

Stampendous Moonstone embossing powder

For this card I inked the entire panel with yellow through the stencil which was placed square on the panel. Then I rotated the stencil 90 degrees and inked with orange. Then I shifted the stencil slightly (half a square) and inked with pink. Then for the icing on the cake I shifted the stencil a little again and added some pearlescent embossing paste onto random areas. The paste absorbs a bit of the pigment from the Distress Ink. Talk about an experiment! And mixed media fun!

I heat embossed the blooms onto vellum and then loosely adhered them to white die cuts so they wouldn't get lost on the background. The sentiment is heat embossed onto a black cardstock snippet.

As the sentiment says "beauty is everywhere". Try experimenting with your stencils to create beautiful, unexpected backgrounds. And have fun doing it! Thanks for looking.

I'm joining:
SSS Work it Wednesday - Summer
That's Crafty - A Summer's Day
The Flower Challenge - Use a Previous Challenge (vellum/acetate)

everything's coming up CAS and rainbows

Having some fun for a couple challenges. How could I not participate when the themes are:
AAA Card Challenge - Geometrics

 Addicted to CAS - Rainbow

Here's what I made.

Aha Arts Geometric Borders stamp

Paper Smooches Quote Tag die

Altenew inks

Had this die cut square (geometric) laying around. So I pulled out some geometric stamps and rainbowed them with eight Altenew ink colors in rainbow fashion. Added a Paper Smooches sentiment in bold black. CAS pure.

And then flipping through my Paper Smooches dies looking for that "hello" above, I ran across this cutie that may well be NBUS. Not any more. 13 Copic markers later this rainbowed die cut was adhered to a 4" circle (geometric) card. Fits perfectly into a normal envie. Voila!

 Paper Smooches Cute Cluster die

STAMPlorations Trendy Spring Blooms stamp

Copics

I'm joining these challenges too:

Pinspirational - #217 (card #1)

 CAS Colors and Sketches - #276 (card #1)

spellbinders heart like a wildflower - patterned paper play

Back with more creations using Spellbinders Heart like a Wildflower etched die from the Stephanie Low collection. I just love nature themed dies so I'm very grateful I received this die to play with. Today I actually used them as they are intended ;)

I wanted to try out the intricate + shadow look using black and gold. Here's the first one with the leaf in black on a gold shadow.

Spellbinders Heart like a Wildflower Etched die

STAMPlorations Trendy Spring Blooms stamp
PP
circle punch
gold embossing powder

I chose a PP pack (an Aldi special!) and the rest was pretty easy. Mixed a couple PPs, added another black circle punched from CS with my sentiment and the leaf branch. Cool, no?

Then I used a recent sketch and more PP with the other die cut.

 Spellbinders Heart like a Wildflower Etched die

Hero Arts All Occasion Messages stamp
PP
gold embossing powder

.

Thank you so much Team Spellbinders. I've truly enjoyed playing with these lovely dies. I'm playing at

Crafty Hazelnut's PP Challenge - June
Happy Little Stampers - June AG with Dies

The Flower Challenge - #21 Use Previous Challenge (using #2 Occasion and entering card #2)

Crafter's Cafe - Tic Tac Toe (I've used white, PP and embossing)

and a new to me challenge The Library - Breakfast at Tiffany's (I think these cards exude a "little black dress" vibe worthy of Audrey)

spellbinders heart like a wildflower - DIY stamp

Back with more creations using Spellbinders Heart like a Wildflower etched die from the Stephanie Low collection. Hope you're enjoying this series as much as I'm enjoying playing with these beauties.

I revisited a technique we all know but rarely do - make a DIY stamp from a die using craft foam.

For my first card I used the lower right die. Cut it from black foam, adhered it to an acrylic block with temporary adhesive and stamped using Distress Inks. Foam stamps don't give the best coverage when you use dye ink. I spritzed the CS before stamping to help the ink soften/spread. Love the look.

 Spellbinders Heart like a Wildflower Etched die

Hero Arts All Occasion Messages stamp
gold gilding flakes/glue
gold embossing powder

I added splatters with watered down ink then dragged a paintbrush with some glue across the bottom and on a couple splatters and applied gilding flakes for a fabulous midas touch. Added a tiny heat embossed sentiment too.

You can also use pigment inks on foam stamps if you don't like the artsy look of the spritzed dye inks. I used Amuse pigment inks in Heather, Burano and Watermelon on this card.

 Spellbinders Heart like a Wildflower Etched die

Hero Arts All Occasion Messages stamp
gold embossing powder
washi

Hope you're enjoying this series. I'll be back with a great little floral die tomorrow. Thanks again to Team Spellbinders for Heart like a Wildflower to create with. I'm joining in at:

The Flower Challenge - #21 Use Previous Challenge (using #11 BG stamping and entering card #1)

Watercooler Wednesday - Feminine Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Wedding/Anniversary

spellbinders heart like a wildflower - positive negative

I was lucky to get the Spellbinders Heart like a Wildflower etched die from the Stephanie Low collection to play with and today I have two more card ideas for you that showcase the fun you can have with die cut positives and negatives. Seems like so often I find myself more inspired by the negatives!

Here is the die. For today's cards I used only the die on the bottom left! 

In this post I mentioned that when test driving the intricate dies, the first thing I noticed was the cool negative space they make. (Those two dies on the top are to create "shadows" for the intricate dies and though I will have examples of that too, I'm still just playing with the positive and negatives of the intricate leaf and wildflower branches.) So I cut the leaf branch from a black rectangle.

Because I needed another sympathy card, I used the same design idea and made this with the positive die cut.

  Spellbinders Heart like a Wildflower Etched die

Kartenkunst Trauer stamp
Distress Oxides

Then I die cut a few more and used the negatives...

Spellbinders Heart like a Wildflower Etched die

Hero Arts All Occasion Messages stamp
PP
gold embossing powder

washi

I added a tropical PP to my cardbase and foam mounted the negatives. I added a heat embossed sentiment on a strip of washi and voila! I love the mix of B/W graphic with the natural elements, don't you?

Thank you to Team Spellbinders for this lovely die to create with. I'm joining in at:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge - Anniversary/Wedding

Daring Cardmakers - Tropical
Crafty Hazelnut's PP Challenge - June
Happy Little Stampers - June AG with Dies

Crafter's Cafe - Tic Tac Toe (I've used white, PP and embossing)

2 Sisters on the blog - #16