Mixed Media Frame

Hello! It's Monika here today with a mixed media project. I have always loved mixed media, but usually I don't have enough time to work on complex projects... while this project started out as a quick 'mixed media' card, I decided I shouldn't rush it... so I made it step-by-step, day-by-day, letting everything air dry...
 

 

 

It started out with a regular 5-1/2" x 4-1/4" piece of heavy cardstock. First I adhered some torn book pages to the cardstock, then I painted it over with white Gesso. Next I adhered some art stones, lace and dry wall tape to the background, using Gesso... it's a great adhesive...

 

Next came the messy part... coloring the background:

I used red mist from Maya Road and yellow mist from Michael's... I had to add yellow mica powder to the yellow to make it brighter...
While it didn't look great at first, after adding the embellishments, it all came together.

 

The greeting is from Be Encouraged clear stamp set, my go to stamp set these days... I love the inspirational words!
The embellishments were so much fun to put together... you can get really creative and use odd items, recycled materials... really, anything that you can put your hands on... I mostly used my Hot Glue Gun to adhere the embellishments... along with Soft Gloss Gel which is another great adhesive especially when you are looking for flexibility or applying glitter...
As I love butterflies, I added some pretty ones. The images are from Majestic Monarchs clear stamp set... while I used the now retired coordinating dies, the images are easy enough to hand cut. They are backed with black cardstock to add a nice contrast to the yellow...

Thanks for stopping by,

Monika

 

 

 

smile.

Hello Sweet Friends! It's Monika here today with a simple but elegant card. I love using vellum. It adds an elegant and soft touch to your project.

 

 

 

The butterfly (Majestic Monarchs clear stamp set) is heat embossed with white embossing powder on vellum, then fussy cut. If you happen to have the coordinating die (retired), it's even easier and faster to make this pretty number.

 

 

The background is stamped with the floral image from Floral Greetings clear stamp set. It adds a nice backdrop to the vellum image. I also spritzed the background lightly using my Spritzer Tool and a black marker. The simple greeting is from Keep in Touch, Too clear stamp set. I used washi tape, gold thread and gold rhinestones to embellish my 'simple' card. What more does a girl need? Right?

 

I hope I inspired you to create something today!

 

Thank you for stopping by,

Monika

 

 

 

Inspirational Word Art 2 Shaker

Hello! It's Monika here today with a shaker card. I used  one of the images from the newly released Inspirational Word Art 2 clear stamp set as my focal point.

 

 

I sponged the background with yellow and orange distress inks using a stencil to add a touch of color. It was the perfect backdrop for the bold word art stamp.

The shaker is filled with pretty sequins and micro beads.

 

 

The outside is decorated with flowers from Scribble Flowers clear stamp set. The images were stamped on water color paper, then colored with distress inks. While I did not use it, there is a coordinating die set available. 
I also used some pretty butterflies from Majestic Monarch clear stamp sets. They were stamped on vellum with VersaMark, heat embossed with white embossing powder, then die-cut with the coordinating Monarch die set.
To add a touch of sparkle, I die-cut a circle frame out of glitter paper... I also added gold rhinestones.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

Monika

 

 

 

 

Using Watercolor Powders with Handmade Stencils

Hi everyone! Kim here today to share a fun photo tutorial with you, demonstrating Color Burst watercolor powders. I'll also show you how you can quickly and easily make your own handmade stencils using dies. Let's get started!

I'm starting with four Color Burst colors. Color Burst powders are highly pigmented, watercolor powders that react with water. Wait until you see the results!

To create my stencil I grabbed the Monarch dies set and positioned five of the dies on a manila tag. Then I ran the tag through my die cut machine. I then re-positioned a few of the butterfly dies to cut out more shapes.

Here's my finished stencil! And check out all of the pre-cut butterflies I can now add to my stash!

Next, I gently tapped out the Color Burst powders through my stencil and on to a piece of heavy watercolor paper. These powders pack a punch so you don't need much. I used a tiny bit of all four colors on my butterflies...and then I spritzed the entire stencil with water.

Wow! Check out that intense color! It's amazing! 

At this point, the paper is very wet and I don't want the color to run underneath my stencil so I blotted the excess color with a paper towel.

And the left over stencil isn't too bad looking either...think that's going to find a home in an art journal.

Here's my card after removing the stencil...isn't it so pretty! I love the look of the colors all running together in that beautiful watercolor effect. (Note - Color Burst powders will react with water, even after they're dry so be careful.)

I then decided to use the Majestic Monarch stamp set to add detail to my butterflies. I'm giddy over the look of the color running beyond the stamped image...so cool. I also cut off the extra cardstock, where I had a little splashing from the powders, on the right hand side of the card. All that was left to do was finish my card!

Since the butterflies were so colorful, I wanted to keep the rest of the card simple so I added an embossed piece of cardstock, and used lace to hide the seam. Then I die cut a small tag, stamped a brushstroke image, from the Grunge Elements stamp set on to the tag (I stamped off first so that the brushstroke wouldn't be too dark), and added the sentiment. 

I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial and you'll try creating your own stencils with dies!

Baby Wipe Stamping

Hello Sweet 'n Sassy friends, it Ceal here to share a tutorial with you. Today we are making our own ink pads using baby wipes, yep they can be used for other things other than wiping a babies booty.

This is a simple technique and you can make any color you want. All you need is a baby wipe, some re-inkers and the stamp of your choice.

Here are the steps on how to use this technique on your creations

First you will need at least two re-inkers but you can use as many as you choose. I used distress but you can use any type of re-inker, it doesn't have to be any certain brand.

Starting with the darkest color add drops to your baby wipe, I totally forgot to take a picture of this step, sorry

Next you ink your stamp in this makeshift pad and stamp onto your card stock. Easy peasy and you get a different image each time because of the colors running together.

For my card after I stamped the images, I added a watercolor wash to the background and spritzed it with gold spritz. and added some glitter paper to the side to match.

This is the set I used 

Majestic Monarchs

July 2015 Happenings

Hello sweet friends!  Can you believe it's July already?  That means the summer is almost half over!  Thank you so much for your sweet comments, your friendship, and your overwhelming support of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.   During the month of July, you can look forward to the talented Design Divas focusing on stamp sets currently in our store…and as always...few special surprises!

Here's the scoop for July…

Friday Features

Fridays are special at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps!  On the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog, the Design Divas will share different ways to S-T-R-E-T-C-H your stamps using featured stamp sets.   

That's not all…the featured stamp set will be available for purchase at a 10% discount during the week the set is being featured and that mean they sell out quickly which is what has happened to this week's featured stamp set.  Don't worry…we will have another fabulous stamp set featured this Friday!

Design Diva Demos

Be sure to join us each Monday on the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog as the Design Divas continue to present tutorials showing step by step instructions for creating fabulous projects using Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.  You will LOVE the inspiring demos full of tips and techniques that can easily be incorporated into your own paper crafting projects.  You can look forward to seeing tutorials by Ceal, Diane, Jane, and Kim this month!  

If you did not see Kim's video tutorial from this past Monday, you will want to check it out HERE!

*********************************************************************************

Finally, here is a card made with some of our favorite products currently available at the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Store:

An Anna Griffin Poppy Embossing Folder matches the wonderful Mini Flower Blocks 3 poppy image perfectly.  Colored with Copics, the poppies look fabulous against the clean white background.  Every flower garden needs a few fluttering butterflies…this Majestic Monarch was easily cut with the coordinating Monarch Die.  The sentiment from the Keep In Touch stamp set was stamped on just the edge of one of the Decorative Plaques Dies.  The design of this card was taken from the Splitcoaststampers Sketch for this week.

These Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps products were used to make this card:

That's a wrap for July…thanks so much for stopping by.  Blessings to you and have a wonderful first day of July!

Tutorial Monday - 3-D Dies and Stamping

Hi folks! Kim here today to share a photo tutorial with you...showing you how to create an amazing 3-D image with dies! (I found this idea on Splitcoaststampers) 

 

I started by using the largest butterfly from the Monarch Dies set to cut out six butterflies. I used chipboard to cut out the images. Then I cut the wings off of the bodies. (Save one body!)

Using Matte Medium, I glued all six of the wings together. Making a big 'ol stack of chipboard wings.

I then used more Matte Medium and vintage text paper to cover the wings. Once the glue was completely dry, I used the coordinating butterfly image from the Majestic Monarchs stamp set to add the details to the wings. (Be sure to use Archival Ink when stamping!)

Some simple watercoloring added beautiful color to each wing. I also used Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and a blending tool to add ink around the edges of each wing.

Next...get started on the background. I used various pieces of designer paper to cover a white chipboard coaster. (I used Matte Medium as the glue). Once the glue was dried I used Typewriter Text to add just a hint of design on the background.

My last step was to create a landing place for my butterfly. I first used the Decorative Plaques die set to die cut the shape out of chipboard. I mixed Distress Paint with Wendy Vecchi Crackle Paste and then applied the colored paste to the chipboard. Once the paste was dry, I added more Gathered Twigs ink to the entire piece so you could see all those fabulous cracks! Now...assembly!

I stamped and inked one of the butterfly bodies and attached it to the plaque. Once that was dry, I created little hinges to hold up the wings, attached them to the back of the wings, and then attached the other side to the plaque. (And as I'm writing this I realized I should have taken a photo on the hings! Just a little "L" shape made out of paper...) Then the place was attached to the circle with foam tape. The sentiment at the bottom (love acrylic stamps because I can bend them!) is from another stamp set. (How do you like my Kiwi Crate canvas stand? Isn't it cute! I "borrowed" it from my kiddos...perfect for my art! *giggle*)

This is a small 4" round project that I'm probably going to make into a wall hanging (just thread a ribbon through the top) or maybe I'll add it to a larger canvas...humm...decisions, decisions. I had a great time with this technique...think of all of the fun 3-D images you can great with dies!

I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial!!

Majestic Monarch

Hello! It's Monika here today, bringing you a birthday card. I've been missing my sweet butterflies (especially after seeing Cathy's beautiful card from yesterday), so I decided to use one on today's card. 

What a different look from Cathy's colorful card, don't you think? 

I started out with making the water color background. I swiped my ink pad on my craft sheet, spritzed it with water, and placed a piece of water color card stock over it, then lifted the card stock up immediately. To speed up the drying time, I used my Heat Tool. Next I die-cut a butterfly out of the background so the black base would show through. 

The sweet butterfly was stamped with VersaMark ink from Majestic Monarchs clear stamp set on Vellum, heat embossed with white embossing powder, then die-cut with the coordinating die from Monarch die set. 

The sketch came from Freshly Made Sketches #186.

I hope I inspired you to make something today. 

Thanks for stopping by,

Monika