VIDEO Scene Stamping with Stencils + Big Sale

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I don't want to jinx anything, but it's been a crazy mild summer here - it's weird. We've had relatively low temps, lots of rain - just bizarre. Fun to garden in, but bizarre. 

Before I get to today's video - I wanted to tell you about a few kitchen finds. As you know - I don't have anything in my kitchen anymore that's made in China - which is a real challenge, but can be done. One of the biggest challenges is cast iron - as Lodge and many others are now made in China. But a few years ago my mom found this amazing company that makes these SMOOTH cast iron pans in the US that also are about half the weight of a regular cast iron and bought us all one - I love it. It's perfect for frying eggs - I have the teeniest one that's great for two fried eggs. If you struggle with how heavy your vintage cast iron is, you will love these and love not having to season them. Anyway, I got an email from them and they are having a 30% off sale, so I thought I'd share. The sale is on factory seconds and is only good while supplies last - some are already sold out. You don't need a coupon or anything.

Today's video is about a fun new way to use layering stencils like this one. I made this fun, Japanese style scene a year or so ago and just never shared the video until now.

Here's the video - enjoy!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.

OLO MARKER

10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10

Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

Watercolor Leaves & A Crafty Trend Question

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I had a crafty session last weekend that was very relaxing - it's been far too long since I just did simple watercolor, and it was nice. A few podcast episodes (I recommend Ransom!) and I had these beautiful leaves finished. 

I have the Rosemary & Co teeny tiny brushes, but I'm not happy with the way they (don't) hold water, so if anyone has a suggestion for a better detailed brush, I'm all ears!

I actually stamped the full image of this gorgeous stamp, painted it all and then cut it in half so I can have a second card later. It's sized so perfectly even half of the full image.

I just kept it simple. 

I also played around with a few embossing folders - I love this big peacock one! I just ink blended a panel, embossed it, and then brayered on gold paint. The sentiment is this die.

Since I had the brayer out, I added white paint to a black panel embossed with this gorgeous fall/winter folder. The sentiments are from this set, and I just punched out some pink glitter paper accents.

Do you still use punches? I don't see many punch focused projects these days and was wondering if it was just me.

Hope you have a great 4th! 

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.

OLO MARKER

10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10

Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

Away to the Ocean + $50 Giveaway

*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*

I am DYING over the new map transfer sheets today with the kit release! Y'all have no idea how badly I wanted to hoard them, but that's how much I love y'all - I'm not only using one - I'm using my favorite section with the little Nessie on it!! I paired it up with this gorgeous little mermaid - singing her song to smash some boats against the rocks - muahahahah!

The kit itself has a stunning Heroscape style beach in it which you saw in my sneak! LOOK AT THE TENTACLES. omg. The kit stamps have a sort of classic, retro feel. I cannot WAIT to watercolor those rocks.

For my peek card, I did on stamp ink blending for the water and clouds in the MISTI. I hand ink blended the beach around the water - I didn't even mask off the water. I also ink blended the sky. For the sand I used my flat stencil brush with a darker ink and just pounced it. My fave part of this scene is the footprints stamps - they are so perfect and easy to use!

I also had fun with the little layering fishy stencil - the little jellies and octopi crack me up. I deliberately omitted the center bottom portion of the stencil to leave room for my sentiment, which is from this set. I stamped the little starfish and added a few sequins. 

Here are what all the extras look like this month!

Whoe Studio Kit [ HA ] Mermaids [ HA ] Layering Fish Stencil [ HA ] Tropical Fish [ HA ] Da Vinci Artist Bristle Brush -... [ BLIC ] Hero Blog Hop & Giveaway! [ HA ]

Want a chance to win a $50 gift card - leave me & the others a comment!

Hero Arts

Hero Arts Creative Team:

Channin Pelletier

Charlene Madrid

Heather Ruwe

Ilina Crouse

Jeannie Lieu

Jennifer Kotas

Kailash Naidoo

Karen Brown

💙💙💙 Lydia Fiedler 💙💙💙

Michelle Short

Natasha Polite

Natasha Vacca

Rachel Kleinman

Rosie Lopez

Seeka

Special Guests:

Jenn Shurkus

Nichol Spohr

Emily Midgett

Kelly Taylor

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.

OLO MARKER

10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10

Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

Bandana Patterned Backgrounds

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This weekend, I realized it's estivation season for my squirrels - it's HOT. I was wondering why I hadn't seen Monkey in a bit and then I just happened to go outside right at dawn and there she was! 

And y'all - the weeding tool is MAGICCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC. I am so mad I've been using my scissor style snips on the oak shoots - this thing lays waste to all weeds. Apparently Japan is hoarding all the good gardening tools. I'm going to open an international investigation into what else they've been hiding from me!

What I'm not hiding from YOU today is a new bandana stencil that is freaking adorable. I save my cute squirrels for my most special backgrounds, so you're getting Tailette and her bold birthday greeting today. I used Cornflower and Indigo ink here. Do you see how I modified her? I close cut her out and trimmed off the little log, and glued her little paws on the sentiment. I just gave her two pink cheeks. 

I also tried it in Christmas colors, lime green and red which I think is adorable. 

The sentiment is from the same set and dies.

I had to try it in pink and black too and it's so fun - this is always a fun combo for a two layer stencil. This time I used the acorn Tailette and again just gave her two pink cheeks. Same sentiment set.

There's an inspiration hop for this today! The links aren't working for me today so you can see the full list here: 

The Rabbit Hole Designs

Bandana Stencil [ THR ] Tailette Logs [ THR ] Tailette log dies [ THR ] Tailette Acorn [ THR ] Tailette acorn dies [ THR ] Sentiment stamps [ THR ] Sentiment Dies [ THR ] Indigo [ HA ] Cornflower [ HA ] Key Lime [ GNK ] Red Hot [ GNK ] Hot Pink [ GNK ]

I'll be back at noon with another post today, just FYI!

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.

OLO MARKER

10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10

Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

VIDEO: Eagles, Eagles Everywhere!

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Happy early 4th! I have a fun, patriotic video for you today with some insider scoop from my childhood! The 70s were wild, y'all.

On the card in the video - I will tell you - you can see it better in the video the distressing I did - because metallic things are so elusive to photograph so please see the video for a better representation of the background!

I used this eagle die, the patriotic sentiment set, the star embossing folder and Versamark with gold pan pastel. If you love these Lovely Layers dies like I do - a Crystal Katana is a MUST - I used that for the murder mittens on the eagle and the eye. 

Eagle Dies [ HNB ] Star 3D Embossing Folder [ HNB ] Sentiment Stamps [ HNB ] Sentiment Dies [ HNB ] Crystal Katana [ HNB ] Versamark [ HNB ] Pan Pastel Gold [ BLIC ]

Enjoy the video and a little traveling back in time!

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.

OLO MARKER

10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10

Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

Sneaky Peeky at the BEACH! + Kit Giveaway

*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*

WOW June was short. I guess that one day off the end makes a bigger difference than you think, I'd guess!

Last year I remember it was an unseasonably cool 4th, but there's no danger of that this year. I bought this fun new Japanese weeding tool that I've been dying to try out, but even right at dawn, it's already hot enough to make me lose my will. I really need to though - I have a very pernicious grass from the neighbor's yard invading my flowerbed. The roots are just awful so I love the angle and the super sharp blade. I'll let you know how it goes. 

This month's Hero Studio Card Kit has this fun mashup feel of beachy and sort of retro imagery. The little details in the kit are incredible - such as the little footprints!

Today is the sneak peek day and you are going to see some really fun peeks, but I can't really tell you too much more about what's in there!

You can win the kit by leaving comments this weekend though! You can see the list of all the peeks here and be entered to win.

I'll give you the deets on this card on Monday! I have some fun tricks for sand and whatnot.

What are your plans for the 4th? I just realized I need to get some food! LOL. I've been doing the summer eating plan - reheating in the microwave only - my freezer full of earlier cooked food is my friend right now. I'm happy winter Lydia made some lasagne. 😂

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.

OLO MARKER

10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10

Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE

Gardening and Beachy Days

*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*

My core temperature is HIGH as I write this. I spent the morning repotting some of my outdoor plants - using up three bags of potting soil in the process so I am whooped. I only got hit in the face by one cicada, and I didn't realize how very rootbound my garlic chives were. I moved them to a container that isn't deeper, but much wider so hopefully they will spread out. My creeping thyme was also very root bound so I moved that to one of my Earth Box containers too. 

It was HOT out though - so you can't stay out for too long. 

So today I'm all about the cool, beachy vibes and one gardening vibe, which I'll start with. This is a really fun combo - a die and a 3D embossing folderreally fun combo - a die and a 3D embossing folder that you run through together to get these beautiful shaped, embossed panels/tags. I used distress inks and oxides to blend and splatter it, highlighted some with my finger and white paint, and added gold leaf around the edges. I filled in the mushroom spots with white gel pen. It's so pretty! I just love it and it speaks to my inner gardener.

The beachy vibes are starting with this little watermelon and his watermelon popsicle! Try not to think too hard about why he's a cannibal, okay? He's just enjoying his summer, and it's none of our business. The background is just ink blending on this embossing folder. The sentiment is from this set. The watermelons legs are the little swinging element - I'll put a video in my IG story!

The next one is designed by my friend Dawn! The CUTEST little seagull die! I used the layering scene stencil, but used the back side for a different orientation - I wanted him facing the sentiment - so that's a fun trick you can do with any layering stencil.

Speaking of stencils - how cute is this beachball stencil? So classic - but I've never seen a stencil like this. I added this condo key and this sentiment.

Last but not least, there'sthe cutest hippo with two different floaties - a turtle and a duck. I left off his legs, but they swing too! The background is a stunning 3D embossing folder. 

I hope it's cool where you are - there's no chance of that here for a while!

I'll be back tomorrow with a new video on how to make the aged map I showed the other day!

Loveyameanitbye.

CURRENT COUPON CODES

10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE

20% off anything at Glassboard Studio  - UNDERSTANDBLUE.

OLO MARKER

10% off the whole store at A Colorful Life Designs - LydiaFan10

Arkon Mounts -  - 20% off sitewide with code UNDERSTANDBLUE