welcome sweet baby

Good morning! 

I needed a couple of baby cards and pulled out the Sweet 'n Sassy Little One stamp set.  I already had a baby boy card made with this same set but I also need a few for girls.  You can see the boy card I made previously here.

I also used the SNSS Majestic Monarchs dies to add a little accent to the main image.  It complements the tiny butterflies in the carriage nicely.  :)  The baby rattle was popped up with dimensionals.
 

Thanks for popping in and... happy stamping!
Diane

 

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!

Watercolor Bokeh Background Tutorial

Hello Sweet and Sassy friends, it's Ceal here to share how I made this beautiful background for my card.  

Here are the supplies you will need. Some type of watercolor paper (I used Tim Holtz), White pigment ink, a sponge dauber, three or four different colors of re-inkers (I ended up using only 3), Painters or Washi tape to use around your paper (this acts as a seal and keeps the colors on your paper), A stencil with circles (I made mine from circle diecuts)  a paintbrush and of course water.

This first step is to tape your paper to some sort of surface, could be a cart sheet, I use a cutting board. Next you will wet your entire paper with water. Place a drop of re-inker in a palette and pick up a little with your brush then  randomly with each color, dab it on your paper (this is the cool part) it immediately reacts with the water and creates little bursts of color, if it doesn't create a burst you do not have enough water on your paper. 

Now it will need to dry, you can speed up the process by using your heat gun.

After your paper is completely dry, take your stencil, place it over your paper and use the sponge dauber to sponge the white ink randomly all over it.

This is what it will look like after you have competled all the steps, remove the tape and you have a beautiful Bokeh background for your card. 

For my card I used the Majestic Monarch set, along with the Monarch

dies. I colored the butterfly with Copic markers and then decided it was just a little to bright for my background. I stamped another butterfly image in Versamark ink and embossed it in white to lay over the top of my colored image to make it more subtle. The greeting is from the set Keep In Touch, Too

This is really a fun technique, I hope you will give it a try.  

 

birthday cookie

Hello friends!  Today I have a little treat box to share.  I made a Mini Pizza Box to hold a birthday cookie.  (Because who doesn't love a chocolate chip cookie??)

After cutting and scoring the box, I added the patterned paper (which is very sparkly) to the top.  Then I die cut a window and added a die cut frame.  The inside of the window was lined with a piece of clear acetate.  Then the box was adhered together.  A half circle was punched on the front of the lid to ease in opening the box.

Finally, I used some Sweet 'n Sassy stamps to decorate my box.  The flower and matching die is from Long Stem Silhouettes, the butterflies and coordinating dies are from Majestic Monarchs, and the sentiment is from Birthday Word Art.  Some clear Wink Of Stella was applied to the butterflies and flowers for some added sparkle which unfortunately doesn't show up in the photo.

Here's a photo of the box open.

What a cute little way to wish someone a happy day, don't you think?

♥ Diane

Anniversary Elegance

Hi Everyone!

Hope your summer is going great!  I have been MIA a bit, having been on vacation to the beautiful Southwest with my son.  I am back and refreshed and ready to stamp!
Today I am sharing an elegant, though rather CAS card (at least for me) that will be for my parents anniversary.  While they are past their golden anniversary (3 cheers!), it still seemed an appropriate color choice for the card.

I cut a large oval in the card front and then backed it with a lattice die cut and framed the oval with gold cardstock.  I stamped the large butterfly from Majestic Monarchs onto vellum, embossed it with gold ep and die cut it out with its matching die.  This has to be my favorite butterfly ever.  I feel like I use it on every card.  I hope I am not boring you with it!  :)
Next, I die cut the tree branch from the Love Birds Matching Dies out of a craft metal sheet.  Tiny white flowers made with a punch adorn the foliage.  The sweet sentiment is from the Love Birds Stamp Set.

A pearl and bling flower centers are my finishing touches. As I said, this is pretty cas for me!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope I have inspired you!

Have a blessed week!

Lee Ann  :)

SWEET peek...

Hello! It's Monika here today, giving you couple of SWEET peeks of the soon-to-be (and when I say soon, I mean less then 24 hours!) released What's Up? and Birthday Word Art clear stamp sets. 

First up is BIRTHDAY WORD ART clear stamp set. Birthday is THE occasion I most likely to send out a card for... 

I went for an elegant look with this card. I heat embossed the greeting with white embossing powder. The butterfly is from MAJESTIC MONARCHS clear stamp set, and it was die cut with the coordinating MONARCH DIES. 

My second card is totally different, something fun and playful... a simple shaker card, using WHAT'S UP? clear stamp set along with the STAR DIE SET. 

This set is full of great words and arrows! I used 3 of the sentiments to build my greeting... 

I hope you will join us tomorrow for our RELEASE BLOG HOP, full of wonderful inspirations.

Thank you for stopping by,

Monika

Happiness

Hi there everyone and welcome to the weekend!  Today I'm sharing a card that I created back in January, when those of us in the northeast were freezing and anxious for warmer temps, pretty colors, and butterflies!  (PS - It's still too cold here and it's almost June! LOL!)

To create my card, I first made my card base out of a heavy white cardstock and then embossed a second piece of white cardstock to layer on top of the card cover.  Next I used a variety of Distress Paint to randomly paint a few scraps of cardstock.  Once the paint was dry, I die cut the butterflies using the Monarch Die set.  And, yes, you can to die cut before you stamp!  Next up was stamping each butterfly, using Archival Ink (Jet Black), which is the perfect ink for stamping on top of paint.  (Heck, I love it for stamping on everything!)  I used the coordinating stamp set, Majestic Monarch, to add the details to my die cut butterflies.  I then stamped and cut out the sentiment (in this case, I stamped first and then cut so that I would be sure the sentiment would fit on the die) before assembling my card.  I slightly bend each butterfly wing for a more realistic look and attach them with a tiny piece of foam tape.

I hope you enjoy today's card and the weekend!

Kim

Spring is in the Air!

Good Morning Everyone!

Spring is finally here!  Have you been stamping with spring images and colors?  I know I have!  The card I am sharing today is done in soft pastels and I think has a bit of a vintage look to it.  I used several sets for this card~

I am really enjoying layering and using doilies lately.  Only problem is, I only have one style of paper doily.  So today I cheated!  :)  I used one of the scalloped border images from the Borders and Background Set and curved it when adhering it to my acrylic block.  I stamped it in Versamark ink on the top half of my white card stock and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.

 Here is a close up of the doily effect.  I had a tough time with pictures this week, so I added close ups for you to see the detail. 
 I sponged Soft Sky ink around the edges of the embossing powder doily.  Next, I layered on another half doily, this time an actual paper doily.
On the bottom of the card, I stamped one of the background images from the Borders and Background Set, then added a banner strip across the middle of the card with a bit of lace trim along the bottom edge.

My butterfly, from the Majestic Monarchs Stamp Set, was stamped in Versamark on vellum,  heat embossed with Pool Party embossing powder, and die cut out with the matching  Monarch Dies.  I added a few die cut leaves and some pink scalloped buttons for my flowers.  The sentiment is from the New Beginnings Stamp Set.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a blessed week!

Lee Ann  :)  

Grow in Grace

 

Hi there and happy Saturday!  Here's to the weekend and hopefully more time for crafting!  Today I'm sharing a card I created for this week's sketch challenge at Splitcoaststampers, which gave me a geat opportunity to combine a whole lotta Sweet 'n Sassy stamps along with some beautiful paper from Graphic 45 (Botanical Tea).

I started by very lightly stamping the Friendship Script stamp in the background of my main image.  I then layered the frame, and words, from the Seed Packet stamp set onto the background and adding some aging with my Pumice Stone Distress Ink pad.  I then die cut and stamped the butterflies (don't you just when there's a die to coordinate with a stamp?  Swoon!) from the Majestic Monarchs stamp and die set.  I colored the butterflies using Distress Markers and a water brush.  I finished by using the darling circle "long distance hug" and heart from the Vintage Postcard set.

I hope you enjoyed today's card and check out all of the those great vintage sets...love 'em all!!

Praying for you...

Hello! It's Monika here today with a card bringing you more SWEET peeks from the March Release! 

It's going to be another fabulous release with something for everyone... A little bit of this and that, sweet and elegant... Oh, I am so excited! Today I used images from two of the new sets, along with some of the previous sets. You know me... I love mixing sets...

See that pretty border strip? It's one of the images from Borders & Backgrounds clear stamp set with the coordinating die! I stamped it on vellum and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. So, so pretty...

The greeting is from the new Flower Blocks 3. You will love the beautiful flowers in this set!

Can you tell the rest of the sets I used? OK... here they are: Majestic Monarchs and Music  Background! I also used the coordinating Monarch Dies. 

Make sure you come back tomorrow for the release celebration!

Thanks for stopping by,

Monika

Elaina name frame

Good morning! We are gearing up for another new release so be sure to check the store on Friday!  
Today, though, I have a project to share that I recently made for a baby shower gift.  I used lots of Sweet 'n Sassy products to create a fun name frame to match the baby's nursery décor.

This is one of those projects that looks much cuter in person!  It's so hard to photograph without getting a glare from the glass and it's difficult to see the dimension with embossing and foam dots.  I have a few close ups to see it better.

The nursery is decorated with owls, so I used the Owl Be Here stamp set.  I didn't have a die large enough for the size of branch I needed so I cut my own.  Then I embossed it with a woodgrain embossing folder and sponged it with ink.

The flowers were diecut with the SNSS Kindness dies and accented with the Small Leaves.  I also diecut the Clouds and Sun with SNSS dies and the sun was accented with one of the Stars Dies.  The butterfly is from the Majestic Monarchs dies and the banner flags are from the Pennants & More dies.  Lastly, I added a single heart from the Heart Dies.

One of my favorite parts is the embossed clouds!

Besides owls, the nursery has some paisley so I made sure to add a paisley cloud.  I couldn't help but to sneak in some tiny embossed hearts too!

I hope this inspires you to create some framed art of your own.  I sure had fun creating this one!  I almost changed my name so I could keep it.  ;)

Have a blessed week, friends!

♥ Diane

The Master

 Hi folks and welcome to today's blog post...It's Kim and I'm here to share a bit of a mixed media tag with you.  Nothing is more fun than marrying traditional card making supplies with paint, gesso, die cutting, and tags!

For today's project, I started by slapping gesso all over my Leafy Flourish background stamp and stamping it on to my tag.  (Clean gesso off of your stamps quickly!)  Next I used some Distress Stains to add color directly over the gesso.  The gesso acts as resist and you get that great ghosty (that's a technical term) image on the background.  Love it!

Next, I stamped the largest butterfly from the Majestic Monarchs stamp set onto some designer paper and use the coordinating dies to cut it out.  (Actually I die cut first and then stamped!)  Set that beautiful butterfly aside and stamp the giant swirl (I love it!) from the Leafy Flourish stamp set so that it fits with the butterfly image.  Attach the butterfly with foam tape and stamp the sentiment on a piece of cardstock.  I'm a big fan of cutting apart the words from larger sentiments and that's what I did for my tag so that it would all fit and fill in the space left beside my main image.

The last item I added some a fun lace die that I cut using the Doily Border Dies.

So there you go...stamps and mixed media products...all together in one place!!  Enjoy and go out there a be crafty!

same...but different

Hello!  Today I've used some of the same supplies (papers, gemstones, tracing wheel) to create 2 very different cards.  I had some more fun with this month's release.  The first card uses my Valentine Critters set.  I paper pieced (one of my favorite techniques) the elephant and balloons to make a very CAS card.

 

Then I used the same red card base but cut it a bit narrower so I could let a small banner hang off the edge.  The Majestic Monarchs die was cut 3 times from the pink layer, then I layered patterned paper behind it to create another CAS card.  The awesome sentiment is from the set called The Future.

 

Be sure to also check out the great SALE going on at Sweet 'n Sassy.  Get your favorites while they last!  Thanks for stopping by.  :)

♥ Diane

 

January Release Winners & God Is Bigger

Good Morning Sweet n' Sassy Friends!  So glad you could join me today!  Jacquie/Javablustamper here to share our January Release winners and my NEW go-to clear stamp set, God is Bigger!!  Let's start out with some winners, shall we?

JANUARY RELEASE WINNERS: FEATURE DAY HOPS

1. Natalie
2. Craftymom205
3. Cheryl S.
4. Nana Griffin
5. grandmato19

JANUARY RELEASE WINNERS: RELEASE CHALLENGES

1. estdas
2. allee's
3.  StampinAK

Congratulations to our winners and we thank you all SO much for joining us!  
 Please contact Jacquie at jacquie@sweetnsassystamps.com to claim your prize!

Ok, onto some sharing!  Have I mentioned that our NEWEST clear stamp set, God Is Bigger, is one of my faves?  This is such and AMAZING set!! So, many great ways to utilize this set!  The first card I mae, combines the Majestic Monarch's Clear Stamp Set, the new Monarch Dies, AND the God Is Bigger Clear Stamps Set!  I layered Bazzill Pear and GP White cardstock, added my Copic colored butterflies, then finished it off with some rhinestones and sentiments!!

My second card features the SNSS God Is Bigger Clear Stamp Set and SNSS Baby's Circus Clear Stamp Set!  Have to admit that animal sets are a favorite of mine too!!  The animals could create a masculine OR feminine card!!  When I created this one, I took some scraps of DSP I had and layered it onto some PTI Chocolate and PTI Blue cardstock.  I just cut my base pieces out in a square shape with  my paper cutter.  Then I stamped my cute lion with Tuxedo Memento ink, colored him in with my copics, and cut him out with my circle Spellbinders.  I stamped the Be Strong onto GP white and punched it out with  my SU label punches.  After all the sentiments were stamped with Chocolate Colorbox ink, completed my creation with some Hemp twine and brown rhinestones!

Hope you enjoyed my sharing and thanks for joining me today!  Stop back tomorrow, for there is LOTS more fun to be shared!!  I hope you all have an AMAZING Monday!!

Blessings,

Jacquie Peifer/Javablustamper
Enjoy Life!

  

Be Brave, Don't Give Up!

Good morning! Mary here with the newly released God is Bigger set. These words are perfect for those quick "pick me up" cards for friends and loved ones! I created this card in a very short time, I combined it with majestic monarchs and  matching die.

The words are stamped in versafine black ink and trimmed to create individual sentiments and adhered with dimensional tape. The monarchs are stamped directly on the diecuts and coloured by applying ink from inkpad. 

Have a great Weekend! 

Materials Used:

Stamps: Majestic Monarchs, God is Bigger

Inks: Versafine black, QQ powder puff ink

Paper: SU dsp, SU very vanilla

Accessories: pearls, SNSS Majestic Monarch dies