Give the Lord Glory

Hi friends! It's Kim, back with the Sweet 'n Sassy design team! WooHoo! I couldn't be happier! For those who don't know, our family moved to CT in December, 2015. At that time, due to the craziness of moving, I stepped down from the team. Well...we're now back in NH! Insane, moving twice in six months, but now that life has settled back down into a normal routine, I was anxious to get back to crafting. I'm so thankful that Korin has taken me back because the SNSS team is the BEST! Well, enough of the personal stuff, let's get to today's project!

I love hanging family photos in my house and my hallway contains a collage of them! While hanging the photos in our new home I had the thought that I'd like to break up the photos with small decorative items, such as some of those metal letters that are so popular now. While I found a few pieces at my local craft store, I needed one more item, but didn't really feel like going out to the store again so...I started looking through my bins of stuff and I found a tiny frame!

Here's how the frame started out...high gloss black. I covered the glass with masking tape and applied a few coats of heavy gesso. I didn't sand the frame first and I'll explain why shortly.

Here's the frame after gesso...

Since I'm currently obsessed with the color gray, I applied two coats of Dina Wakley Elephant paint. Add a little black or white to this paint to create a wide variety of gray paints...be still my heart! I set the frame aside and got to work with the inside image.

I stamped one of the flowers from the Flower Blocks 1 Stamp Set on a pre-cut piece of watercolor paper. I stamped the image using Antique Linen Distress Ink, which allowed me to create a line free image...looks like I water colored the flower by hand! I then used Distress Markers/Inks to do my water coloring. (Just scribble ink on a non-stick craft sheet and pick up the color with a wet brush)

Once the water coloring was completely dry, I used the Words of Life stamp set to create the sentiment, which was stamped over the flower using black archival ink. The image was then mounted to a piece of teal designer paper, after all what's better with gray than teal! And now I'll explain why I didn't sand down that glossy frame. Easy antiquing! I used a nail file to gently file some of the paint off of the frame's edges..love the final look! This was a great addition to my photo collage! Here's a look at both of the stamp sets that I used to create my project. 

Happy Crafting!

Words of Life I                        Flower Blocks 1

Blessings to You

Hi everyone!  Kim here to share a card with you today!  Today's post features the stunning Flower Blocks 1 stamp set.  A set with big 'ol flowers?  That's right up my alley!  As you can tell from my card, these are large stamps and are perfect for all kinds of projects..not just cards!  There are also not one, not two, but three Flower Blocks sets; I used 1 on my today's card, but you can also find Flower Blocks 2 in the store here and Flower Blocks 3 here.

 For today's card, I stamped the tulip image on watercolor paper, using Jet Black Archival Ink (my ink pad of choice!).  I heat set the ink so that it would be permanent.  I then used Peerless watercolors to fill in the background and flower.  While this was drying, I stamped the flower a second time and colored the second flower with watercolors. 

 I then fussy cut two of the flower petals and attached them to the front of my first flower, only using glue on the outside edges so that I could gently bend the inside edges out just a bit.  It gives the flower some realistic dimension...swoon...  All that was left to do was assemble my card!  

I used paper from October Afternoon and stamped the sentiment on cream cardstock.  I hand cut the paper banner and added some faux stitching.  The banner is attached with a bit of a curve (just use two glue dots and only attach the banner to the card where it curves in) and a wooden button covers up the unfinished edge.  And of course all of my edges were inked with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink...'cause I can't live without inked edges!

I hope you enjoyed today's card!  Head on over to the store and check out all of the Flower Blocks sets!

Friday Feature & Challenge: Big Blooms

Hello Sweet 'n Sassy friends and welcome to this week's 
Friday Feature & Challenge!

Players will be entered to win a $10 Gift Certificate to the 
Sweet 'n Sassy Store so grab your stamps and inks and play along with us this week!

Before we get started, we have a big announcement to make!
Gloria Stengel, the newest illustrator for Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and designer of the popular new Birthday Word Art stamp set, will also be joining Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps as our newest Design Team Diva.  Here's Gloria and a little bit about her in her own words:

My name is Gloria Stengel and I am an eastern USA transplant now living in Oceanside, CA. I’ve been a CA resident since March 2005, after living in five other states. My husband Matt and I have three children, Nathan (22), Laura (18), and Jonah (13). I am a homeschool mom, however my oldest son and my daughter have both graduated and now attend college full-time. I can see the light at the end of the homeschooling tunnel!

I have been hooked on paper crafts all of my life. I have always loved to color, play with paper dolls, and create "projects"! In 1990, I discovered rubber stamping and in 1996, I stumbled across "modern" scrapbooking. (Oh, yes, I am old enough to have been at it this long! Which means I have DECADES of hoarded products!) I love all aspects of paper crafting: card making, scrapbooking, mini albums, altered art, up-cycling, you name it! I am happiest when I am making a mess! It's the cleaning up part that I don't care for!

I have been on a number of design teams over the past few years, including three terms with Graphic 45 and one term with Spellbinders. I also accept various guest design spots and work with online stores from time to time. The design teams I have worked with are very diverse, which is an amazing thing for me considering that I love all sorts of art mediums. 

I have  been published in several magazines. Plus I have a blog, a Facebook Fan Page, and a YouTubechannel in order to share my creative work. 

Welcome to the team, Gloria!!
  

We also want to thank all of our commenters and challenge players from last Friday's Release Day!  WOW!  What beautiful creations you made!  

Our random commenter and winner of our $10 gift Code is:

Shani Thomas from Gloria's Blog who said ~
"Bravo Gloria!!!  Gorgeous stamps and your stunning sample cards want to make us all rush right out and buy them."

The random winner from our "Anything Goes" challenge and 
winner of the $20 Gift Code is #29:
Sue D.
Here is her beautiful sympathy card:

Shani and Sue, please send an email to jacquie@sweetnsassystamps.com to claim your Gift Codes!

This week we're featuring
Flower Blocks 1 

 This gorgeous set of large flower block images is a dream to color.  You'll love adorning your all occasion cards with these 
lovely images and sentiments.

Save $4 today through Thursday, July 10th when you can snatch up this set for just $22!!

No Coupon Needed!

Our challenge theme this week is Big Blooms!
Create a card or project with a large flower as the focal point.

Here are some gorgeous samples made by the design team 
using our featured set:

Just a few guidelines to remember as you play:

            

- You don't have to use a Sweet 'n Sassy image to enter (although we sure love when you do!)
 - You'll have until Thursday, July 10 at midnight EST to enter
- We'll draw 1 winner from this week's challenge to receive a $10 credit to Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps!
- Please use code SNSFFC18 when uploading to Splitcoaststampers or other galleries 

To enter simply share a link to your creation below.

Thanks for joining us today!  Be sure to come back again on Friday, July 11 to see if you won and to check out our Christmas in July Release!

For a dear friend.

Hello friends! Giovana here today bringing you a Spring color card! I think we all had enough of snow, cold and crazy winter weather and although Spring is here, some places are still having winter like weather.

Anyway, this is the card I have for you today, I stamped the pretty flower from the new Flower Blocks 3 set in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored it with Spectrum Noir makers, then added Star dust Stickles to give it a little bit of the glittery effect.
The background was stamped using Grunge Elements in Orange Zest and the sentiment from Flower Blocks 1 in Cactus Green StazOn inks.

(NOTE: StazOn inks will stain your stamps, it doesn't bother me much to have stained stamps, but if you don't like that, use dye inks like Memento)

Hope you like it!
Have a great day!

Landscape Silhouettes ~

HI Everyone! Mary here to share this fun silhouette card with you. Recently, at the Heirloom Show in Allentown, my sister Diva Cathy taught us how to create these amazing sponged cards. She's an amazing teacher and me, the willing student. It was so much fun!

I chose three colours of the ranger distressed inks and sponged the oval I cut out with my first colour. Next, I created a mask for my sun and sponged directly over the top the remaining colours. I took the amazing landscape silhouettes stamp and stamped in black. Voila! There was my most beautiful sunset. The sentiment is taken from flower blocks 1 and stamped directly onto the base. This card excites me, it looks like an authentic Nakuru, Kenyan sunset with the animals on the horizon.

Materials Used:

Stamps: Landscape silhouettes, Flower Blocks 1

Inks: Ranger distressed inks mustard seed, spiced  marmalade, fired brick, Versafine black, 

Paper: SU

Accessories: Spellbinder ovals die, CTMH brads

Thank you for stopping by!

Dear Friend ~

Good morning Everyone! Mary here with some spring sunshine using the newly released Flower Blocks 1. I love the bold statement of this daffodil and added one of the sentiments from this set. I sorely needed a spring in my inspiration so my card is based on a sketch from SCS,  be sure to check out more sketches for your inspiration.

My card is stamped using memento ink black and coloured using copics. I pulled papers from MME and coordinated the look beautifully. I love when a card comes together.

Thanks for stopping by and Have a beautiful day.

Blessings to You

  Today I have a floral card to share that I made using Flower Blocks 1. This set is gorgeous and has the sweetest sentiments (and must add...LOVE the font of them!) I stamped the image twice using Versafine Oynx Black ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I have become a HUGE fan of Dylusions sprays and since I am not the best color-er...I chose to spray my ink ;)  I used Dylusions Lemon Zest and Bubblegum Pink spray ink, fussy cut the flower, and paper pieced it.  Then simply added some scoring to the card base and layered on a die cut. Easy peasy...

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day! 

Blessings,