It's critter chaos Christmas! It's also kit release day so I'm going to show you two of my faves.
First - this adorable fox tag! This little guy is the perfect size for the tag stamps in the kit so I put him on a circle die cut that I ink blended with Key Lime. I blended the back side as well. I colored the fox with OLO markers and added some twine!
I actually did partial die cutting on it so the back of the tag is one piece but I forgot to take a picture.
I LOVE this next card! I feel so proud of myself hahah.
I created a "room" by using my classic floor/corner technique, and then I took a really sticky piece of tape on top of it to lift the top layer of the cardstock, so I could peel it down like it was wallpaper for my chaotic kitty!
Hello friends! I don't know if you're aware of this, but cats don't know anything about time changes, so I'm yawning while typing this. I think it's harder for those of us that already get up insanely early - I'm just conditioned to wake up between 4 & 5, so backing that up an hour by a confused cat or two is rough.
You know how much I love mixed media embossing, so today I have part 1 of 2 of a texture video where I'll show you the pieces below with a 3D brick and 3D wood embossing folder.
I am THRILLED that there's a Feliz Navidad die! Great news for us Texans - it's one of many holiday sentiments in the die set.
The turquoise piece was so fun and so pretty - wait till you see how I made it!! I didn't want to cover too much up so I used glitter paper and this Merry & Bright die.
The video I will break into two parts, but the techniques are similar for all!
I wanted to show you the full sheets before cutting one down into this adorable chimney. Sorry you can't see it but the snow and layers on the sentiment are glitter paper.
Look closely at the background paper - it looks like embroidered stars! So pretty.
The bricks actually have a rough texture like brick! So fun!
You will be able to see the video a week from today and there will be prizes!
Loveyameanitbye.
CURRENT COUPON CODES
10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE
I'm coming to you today with one of my absolute favorite types of holiday posts - the CASE Me a Christmas Card series with Michelle Lupton.
If you haven't seen this before, what she does is invite a series of guests to do a mutual CASE - I pick a card of hers, and she picks a card of mine and we use those as our inspiration.
This year, something caught my eye as a theme in her account - and that is that she is a master of using analogous color. As I tend to gravitate towards complementary color combos, this intrigued me - because her cards have this really beautiful harmony!
So I selected one of her combos that she uses frequently for holiday cards - and that's blue and green - an analogous color combo I don't use that often - so that's a fun challenge for me!
I chose the fun two piece tree tag die and ink blended them separately with reactive inks - blue, purple, green and a blue green. I lengthened the tag as well with a die cutting trick you will see in my video. I used glitter paper and an alcohol marker to finish the scene.
When you look at this with a little collage I made of the inspiration pieces - I think you'll see how skilled she is in this part of the color wheel in every conceivable medium.
Here is a list of her inspiration cards included in the collage:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxYBfDigqy3/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrOKbsDH-Qg/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcaZFkmAhkZ/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIDvHUZASr2/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHxp9zwALOu/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BF3MAUBkvOY/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6PMEJQJLgr/
You can click here to see Michelle's CASE - we will be seeing this together! You can watch my video here at 3 PM Central!:
Enjoy - loveyameanitbye!
CURRENT COUPON CODES
10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE
Happy kit day friends!! Even though I'm in my spooky season, the crafting world has some holidaying to do, so this month's kit is all about Christmas!
I wanted to do a bright and happy card to start today off with - whatever the opposite of two hurricanes is - I want that.
So I grabbed this fun Mondrian style Christmas stencil and just three colors of ink, and I taped off stripes and ink blended - letting the overlapping areas create the rainbow effect.
Here's what the full kit looks like - and LOOK at that die cut washi! That's what was in my sneak peek Saturday - it's so beautiful and looks so pretty on kraft cardstock.
Speaking of kraft cardstock - I wanted to use the background cling from the kit in a tone on tone here for the tag images from the kit - and I used primary colors in the background of these as well.
Stay tuned tomorrow when I will have a video using the kit for my collab with Michelle Lupton on her CASE Me a Christmas Card Series. You can sign up for the video premiere here:
You can also see the full release there! Enjoy!!!
Loveyameanitbye.
CURRENT COUPON CODES
10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE
Anyhow - I'm happy to see October and of COURSE the Card Kit!!! I have a bunch of cards and a video this month, so be sure and come back here on Monday - but today I'm giving you a little sneak of one of the extras - a stunning scripty sentiment and die set.
But don't sleep on the STUNNING washi die cuts you are going to see! I put mine on kraft because it's such a warm image and I wanted to keep that warmth. I also added the new clay peppermints around the sentiment. Tip - to align these - put your card lined up on your sticky mat grid. Then line up a ruler along one of the grid lines and pop the mints on! Even round shapes are easy this way! I thought this cabin looked like a gingerbread house!
Want to see more inspiration? Head HERE to see the other team cards - and then come back on Monday!
LYMIB
CURRENT COUPON CODES
10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE
I have a super fun spooky card for you today on this super soft and silky black cardstock that behaves really differently from the kraft cardstock and the pastel paper I normally use - and it was really fun. It ends up almost looking painted.
I used my normal colored pencils on my scarecrow, and I cut him out with the matching dies, and framed him against this spooky tree so the black edges of the die cut really don't show against the tree at all - such a fun effect.
The sentiment is from the same set and I just die cut a circle. What did we do before simple shape dies?
Here's the video!
Tuesday we get to start the REAL Halloween countdown! Can't wait.
Loveyameanitbye.
CURRENT COUPON CODES
10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE
I started with these nesting postage dies, and I cut three stamps. I carefully masked the edges of these with Post-It tape around the edges and across the middle to create a horizon line. I used pink, orange and purple ink to create sky and ground. Then I used pieces of the haunted house stencil to create the little marks on the ground that match my inspiration piece below. I used this punch I found recently - that has a deep reach when you are punching farther into cardstock - and I punched a hole in masking paper to use for the moon.
Next, I cut apart the stamps from the little mariachi grouping, and stamped them on each colored scene. I mounted these three stamps onto black cardstock.
Here's my inspiration from the USPS:
Aren't those beautiful?
I hope you've enjoyed this - don't be afraid of stamp surgery - it helps you get a whole lot more out of your stamps!
Loveyameanitbye
CURRENT COUPON CODES
10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE
*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*
I come to you today with a sad tale. I have a video for the first half of this card, but not the second. Streamyard freaked out on me and went black halfway through my coloring of these gorgeous pumpkins for Stamptember. ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
So maybe I'll color them again. We will see.
But anyway - here they are with the tree embossing folder that I have the video for.
Isn't that a fun combo with black? So dramatic.
This stamp set has oodles of other beautiful pumpkin images, and I'm sure it will sell out fast, so grab it if you want it!
Happy to report a serious drop in temperature today - I guess it really is fall!
Loveyameanitbye.
CURRENT COUPON CODES
10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE
*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*
I sat down to make some FUN spooky stuff over the long weekend - wait for a very fun video that's coming - and I realized I have Halloween color combos that I almost never vary from, so I knew RIGHT where to go for inspiration for today's card - and that was Kristina Werner's combos. I picked this out right away with reactive Key Lime Fizz, Licorice and Purple Galaxy. I picked reactive because I wanted it to interact with the heavy body gloss gel I used - and you can see that best on the purple, where it almost turned pink.
I used this awesome stencil with the clear paste - I love these spooky words - and the contrast of the shiny letters and the matte ink is SO pretty.
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So you know I've been working on luring some crow friends this year - and I've been successful - they come every day - a mated pair - and I love them so much.
So imagine my surprise when the Halloween lineup this year included this dark lovely!
One thing I've noticed about my crows is EVERYTHING is shiny - their feathers, their beaks, their feet - they are so shiny and pretty everywhere. So I have a video coming for you on Monday on how I made this bird shimmer and shine, because a photo doesn't do it justice at all.
You can see the feather texture a bit better here. But the sparkle you'll have to wait for the video for. I used this sentiment stamp, which cracks me up!
Are you ready for spooky season? I've been ready since November 1, 2023!!!
I've got my black cat, 2 crows, three owls - I'M READY!!!
Loveyameanitbye.
CURRENT COUPON CODES
10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE
*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*
Me - it's me. I'm ready. I've been ready for a month! So today I'm bringing you some sweet spookiness with my favorite colored pencils on pastel paper. I love this combo because it makes the pencils just glow.
I started with this grey toned paper - it has a rougher surface that grabs the soft pencil well - it's sort of like cold press watercolor paper.
I started with white pencil as I almost always do to color the cauldron and witch - that's what makes even black pencil glow on dark paper. I chose a magenta pencil that matched my cardstock - it's easier if you just start that way, rather than trying to match paper to an already colored image.
What are you doing for spooky season? I wish my yard was big enough for one of those giant skeletons! I'd totally do that! My neighbors always go all out.
Have a great rest of your week!
CURRENT COUPON CODES
10% off stamps, stencils and dies at TRHD here with UNDERSTANDBLUE
*Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you. No posts here are sponsored or paid.*
Hey friends - I hope you had a good weekend! We actually got a little rain, which was a nice surprise - I'm hoping it knocks this Saharan dust out of the air - it's killing me.
It seems fitting that my first card has an African vibe, but is completely dust-free!
I used this multi-scene stencil that is so gorgeous! It has a combo of little vignetted scenes and patterns that can be rotated for overlapping designs.
But when I saw it, and the way that the silhouettes were the masking portion of the stencil, and the background was the stencil portion, I KNEW it had to be black and gold. I took this gold paint and a mini ink blender and carefully patted on a thin layer after taping off the scene I wanted. My tip here is less is more. If you get too much paint on the blending tool, it will get goopy and paint will go underneath the stencil. So keep the paint sparse and try to pounce straight up and down.
When I was done, I cut out the images and mounted them on gold foil cardstock and put them on a black card base. The sentiment is from this set. The cardstock is Pitch Black.
This month's Studio kit has such a fun, tropical vibe - look at that sticker paper! And the stencil in the kit has fun edges - see how they are the positive and negative of the opposite side? I love it. And I LOVE the little beetle die - wait until you see the samples with that on the giveaway hop!
I used the Press 'n Seal trick after arranging them on my card to pick them all up. I added glue to the little fronds with my Precision Glue Press and then was able to transfer the whole scene to the card. I trimmed off anything that went past the edge, and used the sentiment from the kit.
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