Birthday card for a boy with Balloon Adventures

Okay, for me it is sometimes hard to create cards for boys, trying to keep them simple and not too frilly.

So the way I approach them is trying not to use ribbons and keeping the colour scheme simple.

So this card was inspired by Nacelle Farrugia, 

I just kept it a bit more simple. 

I stamped the balloons from the Balloon Adventures stamp set on a piece of designer series paper from Cupcake & Carouselles Designer Series Paper pack (Occasions 2017 catalogue). 

The colours on this card are Bermuda Bay, Basic Gray and Whisper White. I used the same designer series paper to cut two strips and the 'circle' at the back ground (the circle is actually a punched balloon using the balloons punch. The Balloon Adventures stamp set coordinates with this punch.

I stamped the balloon cords on the background Whisper White card stock, but hand-drew the part on the Whisper White circle layered just under the balloons (you can stamp them on the circle, but I figured it worked out this way just fine.

Sale-A-Bration Second release!!!

Stampin'Up! has released their 2nd release for 

Sale-a-bration items!

These will be available as of today until the end of March 2017.

Sale-A-Bration Second Release

Tarnished Foil Technique

I saw some cards online using this tarnished foil technique, and wanted to give it a try.

The layout of the card is inspired by Melissa Kerman. 

I started with a silver foil paper and used the new Hexagons Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (whew... that is a mouthful...). It is a bit different from the other embossing folders. It makes a much deeper impression. The folder itself is much thicker, and you actually use it with just ONE cutting plate! They recommend that you sprits your card stock with water before embossing, so that you avoid any wrinkles in your paper. 

So here is what I did:

Sprits the back of your foil paper with water lightly (you can also use gold or copper foil).

Place the foil in the embossing folder. You want to emboss in reverse, so that the impression is SINKING IN rather than raised! This way the design stands out more - this is specially important if you use folders like Falling Petals and similar.

Then I randomly swiped the embossed image with VersaMark ink pad, then applied Copper Embossing powder and heated it. I tried to just heat it enough to set it, so that it still is 'granular' rather than smooth.

Next, I took a StazOn ink pad and rubbed it on the copper embossing. This adds the tarnished look. Then I heat set the ink. 

Then you build your colours by using other embossing powders. So in this case I inked the foil again with VersaMark, and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder. 

I went a bit crazy, as after this you barely saw any copper embossing, so I rubbed it again with Black StazOn ink, and re-did the copper embossing. 

The background paper is from the Urban Underground specialty Designer Series Paper.

Love is in the air

Okay, Valentine's Day is in the past, but here is my design for this years card

The card was inspired by Kim Williams. She used a different heart and stamp for the sentiment, but the layout is similar.

The stamp I used is from Love Sparkles stamp set, which is one of the Occasions catalogue stamps. I stamped it with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. The heart die cut is from Sunshine Wishes thinlits set. The background card stock was embossed with Happy Heart embossing folder.

MOJO Monday 481

Here is the template for this weeks design. I had hard time figuring out what would I use for the semi-circle on the left edge. I was playing with different shapes, but nothing really worked for me. And I didn't have large enough circle die to do that in one piece.

So I cut out one circle using the Stitched Shapes Framelits. Then I cut it in half and glued them together, to form a large circle. I just positioned the top layers and the burlap ribbon to hide the seam.

The stamp set used is Hey, Chick from the Sale-a-bration catalogue. The colours are: Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Smokey Slate, Basic Grey, Bermuda Bay and Whisper White.

The pattern papers are both from the Occasions Catalogue: Cupcakes & Carousels Designer Series Paper Stack (the circle) and Falling in Love Designer Series Paper (Gray with dots).

I coloured the chick with the Watercolour Pencils. The background stamp is from Butterfly Basics stamp set.

MOJO Monday 479

Finally back at the MOJO MONDAY challenge!

well... this is actually a challenge from 2 weeks ago, which I never got to post on their blog, but I will post it on my blog anyways.

This was my first design, using Lift Me Up stamp set

The colours are Bermuda Bay, Soft Sky, Whisper White and So Saffron. I used the Cupcakes & Carousels Designer Series Paper Stack from the Occasions Catalogue at the bottom of the card and coloured the hot air balloons using the new Watercolour Pencils (which by the way are running low at the Stampin'Up! warehouse.... get them now, or you might have to wait until mid February to get them!!)

I'm not super happy about the colouring of the popped up largest balloon, the paper started to peel apart. Next time I will try using the Shimmery White card stock, I heard that is the best paper after watercolour paper to use with the Watercolour Pencils!

Since the colours on this card were very 'sweet', I wanted to make a more monochromatic version using the same layout.

This one is using the Oh So Succulent stamp set and the colours are Sweet Sugarplum and Whisper White.

The designer series paper is Falling in Love from the Occasions Catalogue. And the image is coloured with Watercolour Pencils. The pot is actually hand drawn, not a stamp! I also curved the sentiment to follow the shape of the stamped image.

I also used three different thinlits/framelits on this: Flourish Thinlits, Swirly Scribbles Thinlits, Stitched Shapes Framelits

Water colouring with new pencils

Oh So Succulent (Occasions 2017)

I cannot say how happy I am that Stampin'Up! brought back their watercolour pencils!!!

They used to have all kinds of colouring tools: pencils, crayons, chalks... then they all disappeared and we got the alcohol markers (blendabilities), which had some manufacturing issues and they were cancelled. Since then, we were stuck with ink pads, markers and blender pens and aqua painters. 

And although they are nice, I never got the subtle effects with them right.

So YAY for the watercolour pencils!

In this post there are several images that have been coloured with the watercolour pencils. Still need to work these images into cards (the colouring was supposed to be my Christmas holiday crafting, which didn't happen - LOL)

Tasty Trucks (sale-a-bration set)

I just love these little chicks!!! 

Hey, Chick (sale-a-bration set)