Perfect Preparation by Charmaine Canham

Hello friends!

I am so very excited to show you today's card.
 I am mixing old with new for a whimsy and fun project. 

I started with a gel print from a recent play with my five-year-old daughter. I just love how she used these colors with her little fingers, not knowing how it will look at the end. Sort of just like today's sentiment... we don't know how it will end, but we know God is preparing us. I white heat-embossed the flowers from the Happy Day stamp set and cut them out by hand.

Next, I silver heat embossed the branches from the new Botanical Branches on white vellum.

The beautiful sentiment comes from an older set, The Future.

This was stamped with a black detail ink and clear heat embossed. 

Now to arrange the blooms and branches. I used double-sided foam tape and regular double-sided tape. The vellum branches are placed right under the blooms with foam tape for movement.
Don't overthink it, just play.

I did add a sliver of black cardstock on the left to balance the sentiment on the other side. 

Isn't she just fun? I hope you liked today's card and mix your old and with new stamp sets!

Have a fabulous day!

Charmaine

Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for almost daily inspiration.

Hope in God by Charmaine Canham

Good Morning, Flowers!

I just received my (new to me) Jennifer Nilsson, Encouraging Peonies stamp set, and I had to ink it up. Sweet 'n Sassy also has a big Buy 2 get 1 Free deal on all of her stamps this week! Make sure to check it out! But let me tell you how I made this beauty!

I started applying the new Distress Oxide color, Salvaged Patina, to half of an  A2 cardstock base. 

 

Make sure this is dry or dried with a heat tool before moving to the next step. Stamp the smallest dots from the Textures Tiles 8 stamp set with Gina K Designs Soft Stone ink pad over the whole card.

I just love these leaves on this stamp set. I heat embossed them with silver powder from Hero Arts and Versamark watermark ink.

The Future stamp set has beautiful and inspiring sentiments. I stamped the sentiment with black Versafine ink, and clear heat embossed. I didn't want to take the chance of it smearing at this point.

I noticed that the leaves disappeared in the background in that beautiful patina color. I pulled out Salty Ocean Distress Oxide and painted the leaves with a small paintbrush. This gave it a soft watercolor look.

 I always want to doodle on my cards. I pulled out my white Posca and Micron pen and started stippling and adding highlights to the leaves. This is probably not recommended, but I pulled out my gray Copic markers and added shadowing under the leaves over the distress oxide. I finished by adding a hand-drawn border and white dots in the darker shadows.

This card transformed so much by adding shadows and highlights organically. I hope you liked my card today, and leave me a comment or a question if you have any.

Remember to check out this week's deal below!

I hope you have a great day!

Charmaine

Follow me for almost daily inspiration on Facebook and Instagram.

Whimsical Wishes by Charmaine Canham

 Good Morning!

Spring is here, and everything is starting to get back to life!
Today I have a fun and fluttery card that is sure to lift your spirits!

I am using the Garden Whimsy Stamp Set today with a few other mixed media elements.

I start with randomly water coloring a page using Ecoline watercolor, blue and pink, and dry. Next, I white heat emboss the butterfly onto the watercolor page. Cut out, and set aside.

In creating the background, I start with a cloud builder and Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide.
 Fill the whole page with clouds. 

I love playing with different mediums to create textures. That is why I love
The Crafter's Workshop's Light and Fluffy Modeling paste. 

You can smear it through a stencil, heat it for more dimension, and even watercolor it like I did here.
 I heat set it here before I painted it with watercolor and a green  Posca Pen. 

This month we released Everyday Greetings 2, and I used the Best Wishes sentiment for the top right. Make sure to rub the stamp with your fingers before you use it. That removes the film on all new stamps and will ensure that the stamp picks up enough ink. 

I heat embossed this WOW Gold Super Fine embossing powder. Place double-sided foam on the bottom of the body only; this will give the wings "motion" and freedom to move.

To give the card a more whimsical look, I used a Micron 0.1mm pen and added a
frame with doodles all around it.

I hope you liked today's card and enjoy a little whimsy today!!

Butterfly wishes, 

Charmaine

#charcards.charmaine.canham

A Mother's Love by Charmaine Canham

 I am so very excited to be on the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog for the very first time as a fellow design team member. I hope to share some of my love of creating with you on a more frequent basis. If you have any questions, leave me a comment and let me know how I can help!

 With Mother's Day fast approaching, this Sweet 'n Sassy Stamp, A Mother's Love, is just perfect for this card I envisioned. This stamp is versatile and can be used for birthdays, baby showers, or an "I love you, Mom" card.

I love silhouette-type images, and the mom and baby stamp just spoke to me. I created the card using a nested die set that I have had forever and white and black scraps of cardstock in my stash. If you don't have this specific nested die, use any other shape like an oval or stitched rectangles.

The main image was stamped with Altenew Obsidian Black ink and clear embossed with Ranger Clear embossing powder. Remember to use your embossing buddy before embossing anything.   Use the smallest die and cut the image. 

Cut a piece of white heavy cardstock with a larger die from the set. Since I know that I want the sentiment and some of the card to match, I "colored" this cardstock that will go right under the mom and baby. Use Versamark Watermark stamp pad or any clear "tacky" ink that will stay wet longer and stamp/apply to the cardstock. Heat emboss this piece with WOW Metallic Copper Super Fine embossing powder. Wait for it to cool down before placing double-sided foam tape above and under the cardstock. Adhere the mom and baby to the top.

The sentiment was heat embossed with the same WOW embossing powder and placed on a banner die from SSS, or was it MFT? Place this on double-sided foam tape as well. 

The black background was made by using a pierced cover plate with detailed stitching for a sophisticated look. Place all of this on a top folding A2-sized card and you are done. This card can easily be modified with a pink or blue hue instead of the classic white and black look. 

I hope you liked today's card and find more pretty stamps over at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.

See you soon!

Charmaine @ CharCards

Follow me over on Facebook and Instagram for almost daily inspiration.

                                      ***This post contains affiliated links at no cost to you ***

Floral Fun

 Happy Saturday Stampers!

This is Michelle here from East Bay Stamp Chick with another card share. The February release has been packed full of great stamp sets! Today I am featuring one of the smaller sets from the release, The Floral Background.

The Floral Background is the stamp of the month for February. It's free when you spend $60 or you can purchase it for $11.95.

To make my card, all you need to do is apply different colors of ink to a white card panel. You don't have to blend the colors just get the ink on the paper. Then I stamped on the card panel with an embossing ink. I used gold embossing powder and heat set it. To make the background around the flowers black, I colored it in with a black alcohol ink marker. I die cut a heart from vellum and embossed the sentiment, hello, from the True Beauty stamp set. I added a few sequins to finish the card.

I hope you have some time this weekend to get crafty! Don't forget to share with us what you make!

Traditional Christmas

  

Happy Monday!! Esther here with a Christmas card in traditional red and green! This was super simple and fun to create. I embossed my red card stock with a knitted folder and lightly rubbed white ink over top to make the embossing stand out. Add a sentiment, some pine die cuts and lots of paint splatters and wa-la a festive holiday card!

~~~This post contains affiliate links at no extra cost to you~~~

Supplies and Tools:

• Best Gift Ever (Sweet n Sassy Stamps)
• Pine Branch (Sizzix - Tim Holtz)
  
• Knitted Embossing Folder (Couture Creations)
  
• White Acrylic Paint
  
• Brilliance Moonlight White Ink (Tsukineko)
• Versamark Watermark Ink
• White Embossing Powder

Roses for Days!

Hello Everyone! 

Have you checked out July's release?  Yes, I did say July!  How can that be???  I happen to be in Florida right now, visiting my parents.  I feel like once I get home, I am going to blink and the summer will be over. 
Anyway, back to the new stamps.  True Beauty.  It IS a beauty!  So versatile! 

My first card was super fun to make.  I really did not even plan it out; I was crafting with a friend and it just happened, lol.  I may need to craft with her more often! 

This was so so simple; I did not even put the image on a stamp block!  I used the rose image in the bottom right hand corner.  I simply inked up the stamps with distress inks to create an ombre design. 

Once the background was done, I stamped a butterfly from the Made New Stamp Set with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it with Copics.
The butterfly was grounded with a sprig of leaves die cut from vellum, as well as a sentiment strip in black.  The sentiment is from the Sentimental Mash Up Set ( I love this set!) and is heat embossed in white embossing powder. 
This next card came out of that same crafting session~

This time I used the solid rose image and the outline rose image.  I stamped the outline first, and then, using my MISTI, I inked up the solid image, using two different colors of distress inks on each rose.  Then, using some very simple masking, I stamped the outlines of the leaves followed by stamping the solid leaves, again, using two different colors of green distress inks.  I die cut the rose panel with a scallop frame die and popped the frame up on dimensional adhesive.  The sentiment, from the Mason Jar Bouquet Stamp Set, was heat embossed with white embossing powder.

And lastly, a more typical card, at least for me- there is Copic coloring!

 
I did some no line coloring this time, using the outline rose image again.  The image was stamped with Antique Linen Distress Ink on Neenah Solar White cs and then colored with Copics markers. 
After fussy cutting the flower out, I went to work on the background panel. 
A stencil and some Coloringz spray is all that was used for the background.  And that sprig of leaves pops up again, this time die cut from white cardstock.  'Hello' is stamped in a yellowish green ink that looks more black here than irl. 
That's it for me!  I hope I have inspired you to just PLAY with this set!  I promise you, you will love it. 


Thanks for visiting!

Lee Ann 

Background Stamps Two Ways

Hey friends, Esther here sharing two cards with you featuring the new Psalm 23 Background stamp. On the first card I used it for it's intended purpose -- as a background. On the second card I created a scenic background and used it as the main feature!

To create my first card I  embossed the dandelion in white embossing powder on blue card stock, and then added some random leaves in a moonlight white ink. I distressed the edges and inked them in chipped sapphire distress ink. Since I love lace and doilies, I added a pretty strip of white lace to one side before adhering it over my Psalm 23 background. The dragonfly was embossed in blue, colored with real brush pens, and then made to sparkle with some Nuvo glitter drops.

~~~This post contains affiliate links at no extra cost to you~~~

Supplies and Tools:

• Blessings In Disguise (Sweet n Sassy Stamps)
• Psalm 23 Background (Sweet n Sassy Stamps)
• Dragonfly Dreams (Sweet n Sassy Stamps)
• Canson Mixed Media Paper
• Real Brush Pens (Arteza)
• Crochet Thinlits (Sizzix - Tim Holtz)
• Versamark Watermark Ink
• White Embossing Powder
• Lapis Embossing Powder (Stampendous)
• Brilliance Moonlight White Ink (Tsukineko) 
• Faded Jeans Distress Oxide (Ranger)
• Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink (Ranger)
• White Blizzard Glitter Drops (Nuvo)
• Foam Mounting Tape

For my second card I created a scene using three different scene silhouette stamp sets before embossing the new Psalm 23 Background stamp over top. I wanted to keep this card fairly simple so a paper crimped background and some elegant photo corners were all I added.

(You can purchase these three silhouette sets as a bundle and save money!!  CLICK HERE for the Woodland Bundle)

Supplies and Tools:

•  Psalm 23 Background (Sweet n Sassy Stamps)
• Scene Silhouettes: Tall Grass (Sweet n Sassy Stamps)
• Scene Silhouettes: Trees (Sweet n Sassy Stamps)
• Scene Silhouettes: Woodland (Sweet n Sassy Stamps)
• Album Tags and Accents Die (Heartfelt Creations)
• Fiskars Paper Crimper
• Versamark Watermark Ink
• Black Embossing Powder (Ranger)
• These colors of Distress Oxide (Ranger)
• Salty Ocean
• Broken China
• Faded Jeans
• Peeled Paint
• Pine Needles
• Vintage Photo