Vintage Romance and a Christmas card

 Hello, Hello!  

I hope you all had a very blessed Thanksgiving, despite the fact that some of our gatherings may not have looked like they did in past years.  I have learned to be grateful for and enjoy the quiet, no frills holidays as I have no family in town.  That means more turkey for me!   

Jenn Nilsson knocked it out of the park with her newest stamp set in the December release, Vintage Romance.  Have you checked out the whole release yet?  If not you really should go see all of the pretties this month.  

There are no references to Valentines Day in this set, so it is really quite versatile- I'm thinking anniversaries and birthdays in addition to Valentine's Day.  

My first card is done in red with a touch of blue, perfect for a Valentine card for your sweetie~ 

 The locket was colored with Copics and fussy cut out.  I paired it with a bit of a background panel I had in my stash; it was made by inking up bubble wrap and stamping with it!  A bit of red patterned paper and a kraft colored mat are all that was needed to finish the card.  The sentiment is separate from the blue panel as I wanted to pop it up on dimensional tape.  

The next card using the Vintage Romance set is a lovely bit of mixed media and no red to be found anywhere on the card!  

This beauty was colored with Copics and fussy cut out- I searched 'perfume' bottle on the web and found a perfume bottle of green glass.  That was my inspiration.  

The background was done with a stencil and embossing paste.  To get the gold specks, I dropped in course ep while the embossing paste was still wet.  When the paste was partially dry, I hit the ep with the embossing gun.  Once the paste was dry, I used some distress inks as watercolors and painted the background in.  

This set- it is a must have!  I love, love, love the images~

And how could I not share a Christmas card with it being December 1st??

The background is basic ink blending with Distress inks.  I used Picked Raspberry,  Seedless Preserves, and Chipped Sapphire inks.  Using my MISTI, I stamped the trees on the left with Versafine Onyx Black Ink, then stamped the tree on the right, and then stamped the deer.  I filled in the ground with a black Sharpie.  The moon was stamped on white cs and fussy cut out.  All of these images as well as the sentiment are from the Thrill of Hope Stamp Set.  I used watered down acrylic ink for the snow.  

That's all for me!  I hope I have inspired you to get creative- not an easy thing to do during the busy Christmas season!  Thanks for stopping by, 

Lee Ann  

Snarky is My Superpower!

 Hello Hello!

It is so good to be back after a month long break.  We are celebrating Sweet n Sassy Stamps' 13th birthday this month!  I can still remember the first stamp set I bought from SnSS- cutest snowman ever!  We have so many fun stamp sets to share with you this month; many of them are birthday themed.    

One of my favorite sets is the A Little Snarky Stamp Set-oh how we have needed this set!  LOL!  

I colored the snarky lady with Copics and fussy cut her out.  My card background was done using a stencil and sponging on color in ombre fashion.  I have finished it off with my favorite sentiment, Sarcasm is My Superpower (and it is, lol).  

Next up.  Make a Wish Stamp Set~

This is such a versatile set!  Love, love, love it.  The piece of cake was colored with Copics and then fussy cut out.  I stamped and masked a single candle multiple times to get a grouping of candles.  These were colored with Copics as well and fussy cut out.  I picked out another stencil, this one scattered numbers, perfect for a birthday card.  I sponged the background, then stamped the sentiment from the Humorous Birthday Innies Stamp Set.  I grounded the cake and candles with a black circle and added black sequins to finish off the card.  

Lastly, I had a little bit of fun with the Make a Wish Stamp Set!  Is it bad that this is the first thing I 'saw' when I saw this icing???  

I kept the card CAS, stenciled a background and popped up the 'emoji' on dimensional tape.  I added a sentiment from the A Little Snarky Stamp Set.  

Head over to Sweet n Sassy Stamps to check out all of the November release stamps.  Buy the bundle and save some money!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a blessed week all!

Lee Ann  

Mixed Media and Garden Flowers

Hello Friends!

Today's post is all about using background panels and scrap pieces of panels that I have had in my stash.  I paired these panels with various different images from the Flower Garden Stamp Set.  As you will see, you may not even recognize that the same stamp set was used in each card.

First up, nothing says summer like a beachy/sea themed card!  I love this mermaid from the Mer-Mazing Stamp Set.  She was stamped on Neenah Solar white cs and colored with Copics, then fussy cut out. And that crab!  I love this crab!  He is the cutest!  Colored and fussy cut as well.
I used a water color panel that was done with water color paper and Ken Oliver Color Burst Powders.  I used the water colored panel as my base and then built upon that.
For the image panel, I sponged some Salty Ocean Distress Ink onto the panel and followed that up by using a circle stencil and sponging Mermaid Lagoon ink.  Finally, the seaweed.  It is actually from the Flower Garden Stamp Set; as soon as I saw this image I knew I wanted to use it for an underwater scene.  The seaweed was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and quickly colored with Copics.  The sentiment was stamped using my MISTI, in Versamark Onyx Black Ink.
I popped up the top half of the mermaid and the crab on dimensional adhesive, added some sparkle to her and added Glossy Accents to his eyes.  A few sequins finish it off.

Next up, a simple card with NO coloring.

No flowers here; this time I stamped the bitty butterflies from the Flower Garden Stamp Set and fussy cut them out.  They were grounded with a black cs circle and a white cs strip.  The sentiment is from The Future Stamp Set and is heat embossed in white ep.
The background panel is one I created with when crafting with a friend; I had just received some new Distress goodies in the mail and went to town spritzing and spraying.  I love how this panel turned out.  It was the perfect panel for this card.   Sequins added to the butterfly bodies finish the card.

Lastly, a pretty straight forward, floral card~

These whimsical flowers screamed for bright colors!  I pulled out a coloring medium I had not used in a long, long time.  I stamped the image on water color paper and colored them with Inktense Water Color Pencils.  They really popped on a background panel that was done with Distress Sprays.  I fussy cut the flowers out and popped them up on dimensional adhesive.  I added some strips of white cs (per the CASE This Sketch sketch) and added my sentiment, which is from the Mason Jar Bouquet Stamp Set.
That's it for me!  3 background panels used, same Flower Garden Stamp Set used, resulting in 3 very different cards!
I hope I have inspired you; thanks for stopping by!

Lee Ann 

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 

Mixed Media, 3 Different Ways

Hello Friends! 

Today seemed like a good day to try something a bit different.  There were lots of bits and pieces on my desk- colored images, monoprints, and various other backgrounds.  I thought it would be fun to put some of these items to use and create mixed media cards.
 I think a lot of us have a certain idea of what mixed media is in our heads- lots of texture, layers, and lots and lots of products- sprays, pastes, metal items, tissue paper, pencils, crayons, gel mediums to name a few.  However, in the card making world, many consider a mixed media card to be two or more mediums on a card. 
So, here we go.  I have 3 different cards, varying in complexity and using different mediums. 
The first is super CAS!

The two mediums are watercolor and acrylic paint. 
Here is the how to~
The background panels are from a single monoprint using acrylic paint and a stencil.  If you are not familiar with monoprinting, it involves using a gel plate like the ones here.  Acrylic paint was dropped on and rolled out with a Printing Brayer.  The leaf panel is two stamps- the leaf is from the Autumn Splendor Stamp Set and the doodled square is from the Just Be Stamp Set. I stamped and masked the leaf onto water color paper, then stamped the square.  The image was then watercolored with Ken Oliver Color Bursts and fussy cut out. I doodled lines around my background panels using a Sakura Pigma Micron Pen.  Some acrylic paint splatters finish off the leaf image. 
The next card has a bit more going on~

The flower, which is from the Mason Jar Bouquet Stamp Set, was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black Ink on water color paper, painted with Ken Oliver Color Bursts and fussy cut out.  The background is stamped multiple times with the floral branch from the Birds and Blooms Stamp Set and colored with Prismacolor pencils.  I added dies cuts from a new die I was trying out and heat embossed a sentiment from the Singing Praises Stamp Set.   
This third card is what you may consider to be a more traditional mixed media project.  It was inspired by our own Julee Tilman! 

I had another flower laying around, wanting to be used on a card.  It was stamped on watercolor paper with Versafine Onyx Black Ink , water colored with Ken Oliver Color Bursts and then fussy cut out.  My mixed media panel was one I made when trying to replicate something that Julee had made.  Well, mine fell really short!  I was going to toss it, but, when placed next to the color orange, it suddenly came to life.  I also had a piece of patterned paper that had been spritzed with a couple of different shimmery sprays; the colors worked perfectly with the orange rose and the teal panel.  The sentiment is from the new, Sentimental Mash Up Stamp Set.  This card uses water colors, sprays, embossing paste and distress oxides. 

There you have it, 3 mixed media cards, all with very different looks.  Which do you like best? 
I hope I have inspired you to get messy today!

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed week! 
Lee Ann 

Stamped & Stenciled One Layer Cards with Mason Jar Bouquet

It's Gracie from Graciellie Design with a new cardmaking idea to share. I'm saying good-bye to Summer with a set of colorful stamped and stenciled cards. I had lots of fun making these so I'm happy to be sharing them with you today!

I started out by picking my color palette. I wanted to go for a bright and unique color combo and that is how my first card came to life in yellow and green. I stenciled the backgrounds with a Distressed Details stencil using mostly ink. I did stencil a few patterns with heavy body acrylic paint in yellow and silver metallic.

I stamped and colored the flowers with Spectrum Noir markers and then added a stamped banner with the sentiment. This is a one layered card. I didn't add card panels at all and that is why I love these designs so much. If you use a nice cardstock you are able to add lots of ink and paint layers, but of course make sure to use as little medum as possible.

Mason Jar Bouquet Clear Stamp Set

My second card came about as a consequence of the first one. I thought I should make another card using also yellow and so I combined it with hot pink. I tried to follow the same stencil design I had added to the first one, which is not precisely simple, but I was able to achieve the same look with a similiar stenciling.

Making these cards lifted my spirit on a very hard day, so I hope I they can also cheer you up and inspire you to create something pretty today! Until next time.