Bleached look with distress inks

I saw this video from Jennifer McGuire where she used distress oxide inks and created the bleached look by drawing away some color using a water brush. Since I didn’t have distress oxide inks, I thought why not try it with regular distress inks as they too react with water. I first embossed the images in gold and then sponged with distress inks. Using a water brush I then brushed all the insides of the images, absorbing the color using a paper towel. The sentiment is embossed in black.

Supplies: Altenew Peony Bouquet, Hero Arts Birthday cling stamp, Gold embossing powder, neenah solar white cardstock, versafine black onyx ink, versamark embossing ink, Distress inks – Spiced Marmalade, Pickled raspberry and Dusty concord.

More foiling and coloring

This is so addictive! Trust me you should try it out. Stamp an image, make a copy it on laser printer, foil it and then color it!

Wanted to try a more “mature” color combination after the bohemian colors I chose in the last one. Loved these colors too!

Supplies: Mini mic, Zig clean color brush markers, hero arts large petal background stamp, MSE sentiment stamp, gold foil, gold embossing powder.

Foiling and coloring

This is my favorite stamp! I keep searching for new ways to use it and looks like I found another one . Stamp the image, get a photocopy of it using a laser printer and then foil it using your foiling machine. I used my mini minc here. Then color it with your favorite markers – for me that zig clean color brush markers right now! Of course, you should not be making photo copies of stamps on a commercial basis. For personal use it’s ok.

Supplies: Mini minc, gold foil, zig clean color stamps, hero arts large petal background stamp, MSE sentiment, versafine black ink, neenah solar white cardstock.

Hello Kitty card

Made this card for my friend’s daughter who’s very fond of hello kitty these days/ I loved how it turned out! Downloaded an SVG for hello kitty from the interwebs and cut it out using my KNK Zing. All the cardstock for cutting out Hello Kitty is Recollection cardstock. The base of the card is Papertrey Ink. The stamp is from Hero Arts.

• Stamps: Hero Arts Birthday Cling stamp
• Papertrey Ink Soft stone cardstock, Recollections cardstock.

Shopping bag repurposed into a gift bag

When I get these shopping bags from different stores, it really hurts me to just throw them away. They are so well constructed that they deserve a second life. On those lines I thought that it would be nice if I could alter them into gift bags! This is not my first attempt. I’ve done some in the past too. This was a shopping bag from Gap, I hid the logo using this card panel. The card panel was created by stamping the basic grey’s background stamp and then coloring it with copics. The border was created using double sided tape and gold foil.

• Stamps: Hero Arts Basic Grey Large Petal Background stamp
• Copics, gold foil and double sided tape

Watercoloring - IV

I loved the the muted combination on this card! I realized how good a purchase this Hero Arts set is! So versatile!

• Stamps: Hero Arts Blossom Art
• Distress inks, White embossing powder, Niji Waterbrush.

Make every moment an occasion to smile

Masked and stamped gingham background in Peeled paint. Sponged around the edges. Colored the image in Spectrum noir markers. The little bird is a sticker. Cut a banner from white CS. Painted it with Inka gold platinum using fingers. Stamped the sentiment and then crumpled it.

• Stamps: Hero Arts Cuckoo, Impression obsession cover a card Gingham
• Paper: PTI, Crafter’s companion
• Inka Gold Platinum, sticker, spectrum noir markers

Cuckoo!

Can you believe this almost a one layer card?!?!? Sponged the upper half with tumbled glass and the bottom half with Dried marigold. A painter’s tape is very helpful in masking and keeping the card in place while you sponge!

Masked the bottom half and stamped polka dot background. Embossed the bottom half with swirls EF. Sponged lightly on it with spiced marmalade. For the strip, sponged the spiced marmalade directly onto white CS. Colored the image with spectrum noir markers.

• Stamps: Hero Arts Cuckoo
• Paper: PTI and CC
• Swirls EF, distress inks, rhinestone, spectrum noir markers.

Scrapbuster–happy birthday!

Another scrapbuster!

The brown die cut is a negative left after cutting some reindeer antlers. It’s time to celebrate was a single sentiment but I stamped it on different pieces of paper.

• Paper: PTI
• Stamps: Hero Arts Cuckoo, Hero Arts Birthday
• Memento black and walnut stain distress ink

Scrapbuster–it’s your birthday!

This card is perfect to use up your scraps!

The red die cut was actually a negative left after I cut a few red circles. I matted it on an aqua CS and stamped yee haw in versamark. The sentiment is also on a scrap that I’d. Pretty simple, isn’t it?!?!?

• Paper: PTI
• Stamps: WMS Wild West, Hero Arts Birthday
• Distress inks and memento black.

Happy Birthday the wild west way!

Stamped wood grain background in Walnut Stain distress ink on brown CS. Stamped the solid images in various distress inks on white CS squares. Sponged them with walnut stain DI. Same with the sentiment. Also distressed it using a ruler. I rubbed the sharp edge of the ruler against the edge of the CS.

• Paper: PTI
• Stamps: WMS Wild West, Cover-a-card Woodgrain, Hero Arts Birthday
• Supplies: Distress inks, brad.

Happy Birthday

This is the first card I'm posting where I've used Spectrum noir markers. They're alcohol markers like Copic but very reasonably priced! So far I've been having fun with them. I haven't used copies so I can't compare but I can tell you that I've no regrets buying these markers. I now own most of the 6 packs.

The flowers are colored using crafter's companion cardstock - I found it to be awesome for coloring. It was so easy to do blending. I was having a hard time blending on PTI CS.

Sending this card to the following challenges:

• Ellen Hutson LLC Hero Arts Clear Take 'n Make 
• Spectrum Noir Winter Blue Challenge

Supplies: Lifestyle crafts Sequence embossing folder, PTI and CC CS, spectrum noir markers, white embossing powder,HA Blossom arts stamps, flourishes flourished words stamps

Sending birthday wishes

Background created by embossing IO Damask cover-a-card in white on an eggplant CS. The sentiment stamps are from WMS Say It Loud. The flower was sponged using distress ink Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade. The center was colored using a red spectrum noir marker. Glittered with stickles.

Diwali bloghop–Day 1

Welcome to the Diwali bloghop! I’m so excited to be a part of the two day diwali bloghop! We’re going to be sharing a ton of ideas for Diwali – from greeting cards to home décor, etc.! If you haven’t yet started your Diwali crafting, this is sure to get your creative juices flowing! Let me not hold you up with my chit-chat and get down to the real stuff! Note – if you’ve SCAL then you would be glad to know that I’m sharing all my cut files and you can use them for free!

Today, day one of the bloghop, we’ll be sharing greetings cards for Diwali. Diwali is my the most favorite festival and I love to make things for this festival close to my heart! So when I started to make a card for Diwali, I just couldn’t stop at one!

My first card is a more traditional take on Diwali. After all what is Diwali without Lord Ganesha and I find Lord Ganesha can be expressed in as many artistic forms as there are stars in the sky!

For the card above, I cut the outline in red, the solid in yellow and the mat in green. Adhered the red outline to the yellow solid using a glue pen. I’ve found a glue pen to be most helpful in gluing such intricate designs. You can use a toothpick or a glue bottle with a thin nozzle for the same. Stamped the Kraft cardsock with WMS Text-it in Walnut Stain distress ink. Put a strip of 1/2” double sided tape on either side of the CS and sprinkled martha stewart green glitter on it. Then burnished the glitter with a bone folder. Finally sealed the glitter by rubbing some glossy accents all over it, so that the recipient doesn’t have glitter all over him/her when he/she opens the card! Making this card was a breeze! So if you’re looking for mass producing diwali cards, then this is a great design and doesn’t it look b-u-tiful! If you don’t have an electronic cutter, you can print out any of the coloring pages from here and cut them out!

A stark departure from the previous card, here’s a more modern take on Diwali!

I cut the string of lights using the Create-a-critter cartridge. Stamped “happy” from a bigger sentiment. Cut out “diwali” from a self-made patterned paper. Popped it up on dimensionals and to dot the “I” used the rhinestones. I’d created the patterned paper, quite sometime back and it was just perfect for this card; now I know that I should just create some PPs when I’ve time and stock them up. To make the PP, I stamped polka dot background in versamark on white CS, embossed in clear embossing powder and then sponged all over with Borken China, Barn door and peeled paint distress ink. Another simple and quick design!

My last card was inspired from this photo.

I sponged white CS with Faded Jeans in a circular motion so that the center was lighter than the boundary. Cut the lantern base in yellow and purple; and the embellishments in pink and orange. Used white tissue paper to make the fringe. Popped the lanterns on dimensionals. Embellished them with liquid pearls. With white gel pen, doodled some fireworks and used stickles Crystal to make some stars. I used “happy” from a bigger sentiment and cut out “Diwali” using SCAL and cricut.

I hope the above designs have you inspired; but wait there’s more! Here are links to blogs of all the other lovely ladies who’ve created beautiful projects:

• Chaitali
• Smriti (You are here!)
• Gayatri
• Pooja
• Piali
• Isha
• Sanketi

Links to SCAL Cut files:

• Ganesha
• Lanterns/Kandeel

Supplies:

• Ganesha card: PTI Kraft and new leaf CS, 65# yellow and red CS, WMS Text-it, Distress ink – walnut stain, Martha stewart green glitter, double sided tape, dimensionals, SCAL, Cricut.
• String of lights: PTI Soft stone and white CS, 65# black CS and other colors for the light bulbs, CHF Polka dot background stamp, versamark, clear embossing powder, Distress ink – Faded jeans, barn door, peeled paint; rhinestones, dimensionals, Create-a-critter cricut cartridge, Cricut.
• Lanterns/Kandeel: PTI white CS, Distress ink faded jeans, stickles crystal, white tissue paper, 65# various color papes, Hero Arts Birthday, White gel pen, SCAL, Cricut.

Hero Arts Sketch Challenge – a scrap buster!

I used the sketch here. I haven’t submitted it to the contest as I’m not sure if all stamps need to be from HA or not. This sketch is perfect to use up all your scraps! And I got to use the new stamp set that I bought! Eeeeeeeeeks! {insert happy dance here} I went it to this heavenly stamp store in Bellingham – Stamp-a-doodle! If you’re ever in the area, you.must.go.there! It’s such an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G store. Next only to heaven Maybe living here in Redmond, deprived of a good stamp store, I was ecstatic!

I stamped the polka dot background in various colors on the colored CS strips. Sprayed them with the glimmer mist that I made using Inka gold (again a purchase from stamp-a-doodle) and water. Just mix a small amount of inka gold and water in a mister and spray. Stamped the sentiment in black on the yellow strip – touched it up with a black marker and highlighted the “birthday” with glossy accents. Here’s a close-up.

…and the last lot of christmas cards

I hand drew the frame and the black strings and also tried a little rock-n-roll technique here. If you look closely at the green ornaments they’re shaded with dark green ink.

• Stamps: Hero Arts Swirl Christmas, PTI Holiday Blessings
• Paper: PTI White
• Others: Versacolor inks, rhinestone, black pen

The tree was cut using SCAL and Cricut. Then I stamped it in two colors; first stamping the bands with light color and then with dark color. Scored the frame using a scoring blade. Stamped the sentiment on a strip of red CS. The tree is covered all over with diamond stickles. Added colored rhinestones to the tree.

• Stamps: Hero Arts Swirl Christmas, PTI Holiday Blessings
• Paper: PTI white, poppy red
• Others: Versacolor inks, Memento black, rhinestones

…more christmas cards

All of these cards use Hero Arts Swirl Christmas.

I tried to create the outline for the images in SCAL but didn’t get really good results. Anyways, I cut the above images using SCAL and cricut and then stamped them with versamark. The black string is hand drawn. Background is stamped with swirl in versamark.

• Stamps: Hero Arts Swirl Christmas, PTI Holiday Blessings
• Paper: PTI Kraft, Poppy red and Bazzill green
• Others: Versamark, Memento black ink

The labels were cut using SCAL and Cricut. The stars and sentiment were stamped in versamark and embossed with gold embossing powder.

• Stamps: Hero Arts Swirl Christmas, PTI Holiday Blessings
• Paper: PTI Poppy red and pine feather
• Others: Versamark, gold embossing powder

Stamped the tree on Simply Chartreuse and cut the image. Hand drew the snow outline on a white CS and cut it out. Sponged the edges with Broken China distress ink.

• Stamps: Hero Arts Swirl Christmas, PTI Holiday Blessings
• Paper: PTI Blueberry sky, Simply Chartreuse, White
• Others: Versacolor green and cocoa ink, liquid pearls, Memento black, Diamond stickles

Simply Sketches #12

I really like the sketch for this week – it turned out to be so different! Here’s my sample:

I stamped the card base with Polka Dots stamp in black. Rounded two opposite corners of the card base. Cut a circle using nestabilities and stamped the sentiment on it. Stamped the flower twice each on Berry Sorbet and plum pudding. Colored them with Prismacolor pencils. Adhered the circle to the center of the card base and the flowers on top of the circle. Mounted two of the flowers on pop dots. Simple!

• Stamps: Hero Arts Blossom Arts, Hero Arts Framed messages, CHF Polka dots
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Lemon tart, Plum Pudding and Berry Sorbet
• Others: Prismacolor pencils, Brilliance Black ink, Corner Rounder.

Simply Sketches #6

This sketch came to me by total serendipity and my sample made me very happy!

To be honest I prepared the inner panel and was going to stick it parallel to the base. I simply laid the panel on top of the base diagonally while I prepared to glue them together and I realized that it looked better than in parallel!

I cut the burgundy CS 4.25 X 5.5 inches. Stamped the flowers in versamark. Embossed them with white embossing powder. Colored them with prismacolor pencils. Colored the centers with white gel pen. Adhered a pearl on the centers and embellised the petal with Stardust stickles. Put the burgundy CS on the base diagonally. Glued them and then cut off the burgundy CS that was sticking out.

• Stamps: Hero Arts Blossom Art
• Paper: Papertrey Orange, Burgundy
• Others: Prismacolor pencils, White gel pen, adhesive pearls, ribbon from Michaels, Starduct Stickles

Simply Sketches #4

I’m so glad that I started doing these sketches – it challenges me to think differently every time and come up with new layouts!

Here’s the new sketch – simple and sweet!

and my sample – it came out just like I’d envisioned, if not better! I love when that happens

I cut out 1.75 inches wide strips from Hawaiian Shores, Simply Chartreuse (unknowingly it turns out this is my go-to color!), Lemon tart and Summer Sunrise. Punched them using Doily lace punch. Glued them to the card base. Tied a ribbon on top of Hawaiian shores. Dotted the centers of the punched strips with liquid pearls. Stamped the sentiment in Brilliance black.

If you make a card using this sketch, I would love to see it! So please do leave me a comment with the link. Thank you!

• Stamps: Hero Arts Framed Messages
• Paper: PapetreyInk Hawaiian Shores, Simply Chartreuse, Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise, Smokey Shadow
• Others: ribbon from Michaels, Liquid Pearls, Brilliance black.