Welcome to Susana's Custom Art and Card Design Blog Hop! Today's blog hop features an amazing collection of designs from Victoria Case, "Hearts and Hugs Summer Collection." Each and every one of these designs is adorable, they are fun to color, and they can be used to make beautiful cards and just about any paper craft project you can think of! And they are all in deeply etched rubber which makes it oh so easy to get a GREAT stamped impression!
You will be able to order the stamps today (Friday), here is the link where they will be available, and if you order the set you will get two bonus images (the bonus images cannot be purchased separately)
After you are finished checking out my project make sure to head over to Marti's blog for another image from the "Hearts and Hugs Summer Collection." The blog hop starts on Kim's blog, make sure you hop to all the blogs because you are going to love these images! And keep reading all the way down to see how you can win some blog candy I am giving away.
Here is the card I made with the "Lazy Days" stamp:
Isn't she adorable? I colored her with distress inks on water color paper, the image is stamped in Black Versa Mark and then I used clear embossing powder to set the ink. I used the Viva Decor Hologram Glitter Liner to add some bling to "friends," the flourishes, the leaves and some of the flowers. The band across the card was created using a Martha Stewart edge punch, and I also added a few pearls (top left corner) using the Ice White Viva Decor Pearl Pen.
Here is a close up of the image:
Isn't she adorable? I also used my nesties to get the oval shape and the scalloped oval behind the image, and then used a bit of my glitter pen to outline the oval.
Here is a close up of the flowers (all of them were white and I used the distress ink to color them). I put the swag together by layering the flowers and twisting the wires together, then the flowers were glued down as one piece.
One more thing: I still haven't heard back from the person who won the blog candy I offered last time: Lauretta See. Lauretta PLEASE email me so I can get your blog candy shipped off to you (Jacquie at afterhoursstamper.com).
And yes, what is a blog hop without some blog candy? Leave a comment by next Saturday, June 4th and I will be sending some Viva Decor Pearl or Glitter Pens your way.
Hi again, we did not have internet until last night...and my family took me out to dinner for my birthday yesterday...needless to say I did not get around to posting, but here I am, finally. Our internet is actually not fully working, it was our wireless router that went out, so my computer is the only one hooked up to the internet, this weekend we need to get a new router, which we will get done.
Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers, things, sadly have gone from bad to worse, and I pray each day for our family member who is struggling right now, your continued thoughts and prayers are most appreciated.
I was surprised by my sister in law who sent these beautiful flowers to me at work today:
Now how about some blog candy details? Go here by Thursday, 10 pm, leave a comment answering this question, "What was the last thing that put a smile on your face?" Susana is giving away all sorts of GREAT things, so hurry by to leave a comment. Susana's Custom Art and Card Design is a fantastic store, and Susana is an amazing lady, not only is her store stocked with great products, she makes sure your order is sent as soon as she gets it!
And the Blog Hop will be on Friday (my post will be up at 4:00 am, est), and ladies....the stamps are simply amazing! This is a new release by Victoria Case called "Hearts and Hugs," and you are going to LOVE these stamps! All of them are "keepers," and on deeply etched red rubber (I have to admit that I am prefer rubber to the clear cling stamps). The stamps will be available for purchase on Friday, check this link for purchase information.
And since I have to wait until Friday to share the new stamps with you, here is a card I did using one of the new Tilda stamps:
Copic Storage: I love these very affordable storage towers for Copics, will have to figure out how I can rearrange my area to incorporate these into my work space.
Water Based Marker Tutorial: If you do not have Copics or distress ink check out this tutorial (heck, even if you HAVE the other things, check out this tutorial) to see how to get some amazing results with water based markers!
Paper/Craft Storage: This is a GREAT ebay seller who makes wonderful paper storage (I need to buy one of his towers, my plastic cubes are the leaning tower or pisa). All sorts of paper storage, ink storage and more, prices are reasonable, he will customize some items if you ask him, the only downside is that shipping is a bit expensive, but truthfully worth every penny. I am saving up for one of these!
Building a design with bracket stamps: Love how this person uses the bracket stamps to make all sorts of new designs (and who doesn't want to be able to have multiple uses for stamps?).
Cala Lilly Grunge Flower: Wow, these look real! The tutorial is very easy to follow, can't wait to try this (and yes, I did finally get some grunge paper!)
Ok, that is it for now, sorry that I had to post this so late this week. Now, don't forget that the blog hop is this Friday and if you want to be entered to win the blog candy you need to leave a comment on the SCACD blog by Thursday, 10 pm.
Have a great day everyone, see you again real soon, and thank you for your prayers and thoughts.
Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend and are ready to take on the coming week with energy, happiness and joy : )
Last Monday I went to my local Michaels armed with a gift certificate and a coupon for 20 percent off my entire purchase, including sale items. While I was walking through one of the aisles two ladies stopped me and asked if I knew anything about scrapbooking. They were shopping for a daughter/grand daughter and did not have any idea of what was needed. An hour later I had helped them pick out a "starter" packet of goodies for the lucky young lady, and I warned them both that scrapbooking was very addictive and that they should watch out because the next time they end up at Michaels it could well be for themselves! (We all know how easy it is to get pulled into the world of papercrafting.)
While I don't do much scrapbooking, I do a whole lot of stamping/card making. Stamping, to me anyway, is a sort of therapy. I can go into my corner (yes, going to your corner can be a good thing sometimes), take out some paper, stamps, ink, embellishments and forget about everything except the card in front of me. This weekend I managed to play some more with the distress inks, and I have to say the more I use them the more I absolutely LOVE the way they bring the stamped images to life.
Here are the three cards I worked on this weekend:
And here are a few more tips for using the distress inks as paint:
1.) Use a heavy watercolor paper, at least 120, I bought some 140 lb cold press this weekend that was on sale at Aaron Brothers, 15 9 x 12 sheet pads for $4.49. I still can't find any "hot press" paper in my area, but I will keep looking and may order some online.
90 lb paper is not heavy enough in my opinion, the paper starts to pill and warp as you add layers of color.
2.) Experiment with the effect that you want: putting water on the paper before you add color will give you a softer, more muted effect, applying the paint directly to dry paper gives you a brighter color, but you have to work to feather out the color so you don't get a harsh line.
3.) Make sure you have an assortment of paint brushes, I use a round 5,4,2,1 and 0 for my coloring. The larger brushes I use to put down a light base of color, the smaller brushes for adding deeper amounts of color and soot black to areas for shadow.
While I have lots of copic markers, colored pencils, chalks and other coloring mediums, I am becoming ever so partial to the distress inks, especially since I am still experimenting with the technique.
How about some links and a video this week? Lots of wonderful things are going on in the stamping world, and here are just a few things you might find fun and interesting:
More flowers: Easy, easy, easy, and ohhhhhh so cute! I loved this project, and thought the flowers were amazing! Nothing special is needed beyond a scallop circle punch and your imagination.
Flourish stamp set: Good price on these stamps, and a great set to add to your collection. Flourish styled stamps are so versatile, no stamp collection is complete without a few of these stamps. And check out this link on how you can use these stamps to make other images.
Paper Reference Deck: While I do not have a large amount of SU paper, I do have all sorts of other solid paper that this reference deck would work well with. Having your solid colored card stock in a reference deck is a great help when trying to match designer paper.
And yet MORE homemade flowers: These are quick, easy, cute and inexpensive to make. Buying flowers can add $$$ to your budget, so why not make as many of them as you can, adding fewer store bought and more homemade flowers to your projects.
Crafting the Web: Wow! Amazing cards, lots and lots of copic step by step coloring and an overall great blog to bookmark and visit often. You are going to love the cards that Theresa Momber creates.
Make the Cut: I thought this looked interesting, and given that I do not own a Cricut am not in the market for this product, however I thought some of you with Cricuts would find this product useful. If anyone has this product already please post a comment and let us know what you think. And here is one review I found with a number of comments about this product.
DoCraft TV: Lots of great videos from this fun UK website.
Video, video and more video! Yes, lots and lots for you to view here, over 1,300 stamping/crafting videos. Many of these videos are basic in nature, so make sure to save the link for anyone you know who is just getting started with stamping.
And here is yet another Jennifer McGuire video (she does the absolute BEST videos!). This time she is showing all sorts of ways to use alcohol inks with glass and transparencies (I have to try some of these techniques):
Thank you for stopping by! And thank you for all of your nice comments, I love hearing from you.
Before I get going with the post tonight I want to say a very special thank you to Valerie, you made my day today with your lovely card! Is there anything more special then reaching into your mailbox to find an unexpected, beautiful card?
I had the good fortune tonight to be with Michelle Zindorf ( Freedom in Creating) who is one of the most talented stampers out there. She was in town for four workshops on her brayer technique, and a very special thank you to Lisa Itatani for making the workshop happen. Lisa has a great blog called Flat Fish Paper Arts, and amazing energy. I was more then impressed by all the prep she did for the class and how smoothly everything went. (Lisa I think you missed your calling as an event planner in additional to fantastic artist).
If you have the chance to take a workshop don't pass up the opportunity, you wil meet amazing people, come home energized, and the techniques you learn will make your stamping all the more fun, trust me! I will post the cards next week sometime, just have too much to do right now to even pull out the camera.
Ok, on to some links tonight. I am really starting to use the alcohol inks as well as the distressed ink pads a whole lot, and I thought it would be a good idea to link to some techniques and ideas for these products. If you have these items and don't use them, take them out and just start to play with them, I promise that you will get the knack of it and will love all that they can do!
Here we go with some links to techniques/how tos for alcohol inks and distress ink pads:
Scrapperlicious: How to make leaves out of transparencies and alcohol inks. These are simply beautiful and very easy to create, try this and try to use other images as well. Cool technique.
Blade Rubber Stamps: A whole list of ways to use the distressed inks (which by the way are a must have, as soon as you start to use them you can't put them down!). I have been playing with them a bit more lately and love them, especially their "wet" quality which allows for some really cool embossing!
Painting with Distressed Inks: Wow! WOW! You are going to LOVE the way your images come out when you use distressed ink pads to do the coloring, I can't wait to try this technique.
Video: How to watercolor images you stamp with distress ink. From what I have read (haven't discovered this for myself yet) the distress ink allows you to stamp an image, then you can use water to pull some of the color without losing the detail of your stamped image. This video shows you how to do this technique.
I am exhausted, time to hit the sack folks. Thank you all for the nice notes and emails, it means more then I can say to see your kind words in the comments, my email inbox and in my snail mail.
Have a great night ladies, and see ya tomorrow : )
