Creative Inking Blog Hop: Sneak Peek!

Welcome to the Creative Inking Blog Hop!

Today you are in for an adventure, as we bring you sneak peaks from the spring Occasions and Sale-a-Bration catalogs!

Now, I'll admit, I debated ALOT about what to show you today. Cause there is So SO SOOO much good stuff in these catalogs. I just couldn't decide between them all! But ultimately I came back to my 'first favorite'- my 'gotta have it' item. The Botanical Garden Bundle.

Unlike prior bundles, this one includes a stamps, framelits, and the matching DSP. What a deal :) And doesn't it just all come together for a beautiful finish:

You can see I stamped the veins on the leaves and then cut them out. And that flower- oh it just makes me swoon :)

Now, I have to say, the catalog just doesn't do this framelit set justice. I mean- yeah, you can tell that it matches the stamp set and that there are quite a few pieces there... but seriously. Look at this thing up close. This set is MASSIVE!

I love that it comes with all sorts of different sized items. They work great for layering together to make big flowers or they can stand on there own. So much versatility here!

This stamp set doesn't come with any sentiments, but don't fear. The Suite Sayings set (also from the Occasions catty) was created to coordinate with it perfectly. The modern fonts and lines make it a great match.

Hope you can see why this bundle ROCKS! and why it is my favorite of the new catalog. Don't forget- the catalog goes live on January 5th... so finish up your eggnog, party away 2015, and be ready to get your craft on soon after :)

Flutterby again soon!

Now hop this way

Or Back this way.

Creative Inking Blog Hop: Terrific Techniques

Welcome to another round of the Creative Inking Blog Hop!

This month we are bringing you some Terrific Techniques. So get ready to be amazed and inspired :)

My card features a beautiful watercolored background. I've been cooking up this idea for a sunset silhouette for quite some time now, and decided our technique hop was the perfect time to give it a try.

Isn't it pretty? And can you believe that I achieved this look using regular old markers- not any fancy painting technique? If you are amazed and want to know how, just read on...

I flipped the watercolor wash background stamp over so that the rubber was up towards me and then colored stripes of it with various colors in a sunset pattern. You don't have to do anything fancy with the colors, and the bands of color don't even need to be touching, just close (yay for no cross contamination). This is where the magic begins. Take a stampin spritz bottle and fill it up with some water. Then spritz away at the colored watercolor wash stamp to that the colors get drippy wet and start to run together. You may want to experiment with the number of spritzes to get it just right- but I found about 4 worked really well. And just a tip- I sprayed at an angle so that it 'pushed' the colors into one another.

Once the background stamp was drippy wet I quick flipped it over onto my white cardstock. And then while the paper was still wet I tore along the edges to give it a more shabby look. You can get some really cool tearing texture when the paper is wet- give it a try.

After everything dried I finished up my card by stamping the black tree silhouette over my sunset. I love this Sheltering Tree set. There is something just so peaceful about it. And my finished card reminds me so much of my grandma- who loves to sit and watch the sunset- so I'm 'thinking of her' and know just who to send this to.

All that was left was to embellish up the card. I added some bling with the metallic doilies and silver thread in the two corners. I also smeared some of the clear dazzling details on the tree and ground- as well as spotted it in the sky- to add some shimmer like a first frost. Love the sparkle it added :)

Hope you enjoyed this technique. If you give it a try be sure to let me know how it turns out!

Now hop on over Kristine's blog to see what she can teach us this month!

Or head back to BJ if you are doing the backwards hop :)

Flutterby again soon!

Fall Paper Pumpkin

In the words of Piglet "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" I'm so behind in sharing my Paper Pumpkin alternate projects! The October kits are already arriving and I still need to show you September! So hold on, here we go. Whee!

I always try to use elements from the kit with little else, that way you can achieve the same looks :) This month I added some Very Vanilla cardstock, and pulled in some ink spots from prior months, but that is it.

I found the easiest way to add the fringe to the card was to put adhesive on the back of the purple strip (cut from the label leftovers) and lay that down on the fringe. Then I cut the fringe to the length I wanted.

Hope you enjoy these extra ideas today! Now finish up last months kit so you can start on the beautiful pink boxes arriving in mailboxes this week :)

Flutterby again soon!

Creative Inking Blog Hop: Christmas Joy

I know, I know... It's not even Halloween yet and here we are talking about Christmas today! However, when you are a papercrafter who sends out oodles and oodles of handmade Christmas cards you've got to get an early start. So think of today as your creative inspiration before you begin making your Christmas cards :) Without further ado, I bring you this months Creative Inking Blog Hop!

I created this adorable card for a swap I was a part of last month. I've always loved the Santa style cards, so I created my own take on it. After I finished it I realized that although it has lots of punching and die cutting there isn't actually any stamping on it! LOL! But I love it anyway. I actually wanted to make the full saying 'Jolly Old Elf' by adding old elf under the die cut jolly using the alphabet rotary stamp... but we couldn't find the rotary stamp. So, if you have one you could add it to your case of this card ;)

You can see from this second view that the card isn't quite a standard fold. Santa's jacket actually folds closed by an inch from the right side as well. Gives it more of the feeling of a real jacket I think! And I love the overlapping opening layers it creates by leaving the belt and buckle hanging over that side.

One trick I have for making this card: since we no longer carry a scalloped border punch, I used the largest of the square framelit dies (which is scalloped itself) to create the wool for the edging of the jacket. It is the perfect size to create scallops for the narrow direction of a standard card :)

Hope you are enjoying today's hop. Now head on over to Kristine to see what Christmas-y ideas she has for us.

Or head back to BJ's blog and check out her project

Flutterby again soon!

WooHoo! Stamp Sale!

What a fun pick me up as the weather turns cold. This week you can get 15% off all stamps. Yippee!

Cleaning Up the Glitter

Here is my final glittered For All Things card.

Now I'm not usually a fussy-cutter, but I decided I could handle a little bit of cutting to get some 3-D ferns and acorns on this card. It gave it the pop that it needed to bring it to life. And, as long as you don't try to cut around every little leaf it isn't even to hard (and since I'm saying that you know it's got to be true!).

Once again I paired the Hello You thinlits with the sentiments from the For All Things stamp set. They both look like curvy flowing handwriting, and the size difference really makes the message jump out.

Now, if you haven't gotten your glitter out yet to try this technique- you've got to give it a go! Just grab an aqua painter, some Tombow glue, and gold/silver glitter; then SPLAT away! Forget how to get the splats- here's a review:
     *Fill aqua painter with water
     *Place a blob of glue in a small bowl (embellishment lids or paper plates work well)
     *Squeeze water out of the aqua painter and mix into the glue to get it runny
     *Pick up gluey substance with aqua painter and flick it onto your card
     *Sprinkle glitter onto the splatted surface, dump/tap card to get excess off
And with that you're done! Beautiful, messy, sparkled splats on your card.

Now- just incase you are thinking 'Ugh' about the glitter- I've got one more handy dandy tip for you. Wet wipes work GREAT for picking up glitter. I don't know why, and I only discovered it by accident (I was feeling to lazy to clean it up the normal way and there were wet wipes close by...) but man did it pick up all the glitter from the table in a flash. I'm used to finding glitter around for weeks after using it, but this picked it all up for me. **Insert shocked face**

Flutterby again soon!

More Fall Glitz

Hope you're not getting sick of all this glitz yet, cause I'm not quite done ;)

I absolutely love the elegance of this card. Even my darling girly thought this one was BEAUTIFUL and wanted to make one of her own. (Note to self: still need to fulfill that promise once more linen thread arrives- I used it all up!!)

The oak leaves in the For All Things stamp set are really great for multiple stampings. Ink once- and then stamp at least two or three times before reinking. That will give you the lovely depths of tone you see along the edge of this card. If you were to stamp them all at full strength it would just start to look like a big blob of ink seeping in from the fold :) Also, it leaves lighter spots where you can add in the acorns and splatters and they will show up with much more contrast and beauty.

I'm so "grateful for you" stopping by today. Flutterby again soon!