Creative uses for stamps...

This week at the Scrapbook Expo blog, I have a little post on looking at your stamps in a different way. Can you guess what stamp I used to create these corners that I used to make a frame around the sentiment?

Stop over to the Weekly Scrapper to read more, and leave a link with stamps you've used in unconventional ways...I'd love to see what you're making also!

Thank You card:

STAMPS: Pedal Pusher, Paper Clippings: Thankful For You by PTI

INK: Lovely Lady, Simply Chartreuse, Pure Poppy, Bright Buttercup, True Black by PTI

PAPER: white, Green Parakeet + White Basics

DIES: Die-Namics Four Way Chevron Cover Up by My Favorite Things

OTHER: seam binding, paper clip, sequins.

Scored backgrounds...

Recently I was inspired by a gorgeous card by Laurie Willison, which you can see HERE, where she stamped and ink blended her background and then added some amazing dimension with score lines. I wanted to give this neat technique a try!

Inspired by the ink blending on Laurie's card, I used The Sweet Life stamp set to create the flowers and leaves, then brushed some Sweet Blush ink over the top of the flowers with an ink blending tool.

Stop by Scrapbook Expo's blog to read more about this process and see more how-to photos! Thank you to Laurie for letting me use her beautiful card for inspiration!

Vellum frames...

It's Tuesday, and that means I'm up again over at Scrapbook Expo's Weekly Scrapper blog! I have a couple of cards created with vellum frames that I made from a 12" x 12" preprinted vellum paper. Please stop by to read more about these HERE!

I've used a couple of Papertrey Ink dies to trim out the centers of the vellum, one is the Fabulous Frames die and one circle die. This creates a pretty focal point for a sentiment or a flower, anything you want to highlight on your card as a focal point!

If you like these cards and would like to learn more about the techniques I typically use to achieve layering and embellishing, you can access my online Craftsy course for half-price right now!

Cards With Dimension: Lovely Layers, Textures and Embellishments

Craftsy courses are online, self-paced, and you can rewind and watch again, ask questions, post pics of your projects, get feedback from instructors and so much more. In the class, I share over 70 cards with you and SO many ideas. Hope you will check it out, and stop over to the SBE blog to read more about these two cards.

Have a great day!

Danielle

Quilted...

I love the quilted look and am a quilter myself, so I thought it would be fun to bring this look to a card again for today's Scrapbook Expo cardmaking post! I grabbed the Quilted: Summer stamps and dies to make my card. It came together so quickly, just love this set!

First, I die cut the frame and stamped all of the fun triangles! I left some of them white to make it look like a pinwheel. You could also take the frame off and just use the pinwheel, with a stamped stem using the stripe in the stamp set! I die cut a flower and stamped it also.

Then I attached these pieces to a white card base, added the flower over the top. The larger pinwheel pieces are popped up with dimensional adhesive.

The Scripted stamps were used for a sentiment at the bottom.

Hop over to the Scrapbook Expo post to read more about this card. Happy "almost" summer!

4x4" Mini Cards...

Happy Tuesday! It's my turn up at the Scrapbook Expo blog again today, and I really love my job over there, because I get to create whatever I want. Fun! I couldn't help but to play with my Don't Forget to Write kit by Papertrey Ink again! I just love these products!! It looks like the kits are still available, if you want to grab one here!

So I made some little 4x4" note cards. I'm not sure I'll be able to give these away. Ha. Aren't they pretty? I tell ya, it's so easy to create with such beautiful products. Makes my job super easy! I wanted to try the square on the diagonal this time and create a diamond shape. I trimmed the card bases with the scalloped card die, then cut and stamped the frames and flowers. Next, I stamped "birthday cheer" in Pure Poppy ink.

The red looks pretty with the aqua watercolor striped paper in the kit. I did some ink blending with a sponge tool to get the gradient effect on the "sending" die cut.

Then of course, I wanted to make another one in different colors, so I made "Just a Note" with Aqua Mist, Tropical Teal and New Leaf inks with Summer Sunrise ink blended onto the sentiment die cut.

Stop over to the Weekly Scrapper blog at Scrapbook Expo later today to see the full tutorial! Have a happy day!

Vellum shakers...

Happy Friday! I'm so looking forward to the weekend, how about you? I wanted to share a quick card that I made for Scrapbook Expo this week that I forgot to post. It started with the butterfly background that I had leftover from cutting out the butterflies in my last post, and I thought I should put it to good use! I layered some leaves over the top, then a piece of vellum and a pretty chipboard floral bouquet. Love how the layers turned out!

To add even a bit more layering, I stamped a "hello" and some leaves over the vellum.

Stop by the Weekly Scrapper blog to read more about the details and process and to see the finished card. See you tomorrow with another post! 

Creative Cardmaker: Coloring pages for cardmakers...

Coloring pages for adults seem to be all the rage right now… I mean, really, who doesn’t like to color? It’s so relaxing and reminds me of my childhood love of art! I’ve recently discovered that now cardmakers get to color, too! Check out these neat card-sized paper packs with different designs you can color in with Copic Markers, colored pencils, etc., so much fun: this one is called Fancy Pants Sentiments Coloring Pages by Papertrey Ink. They have others, including a feather-themed pack, a butterfly pack and more. And when you are done coloring, you get to send your finished artwork to someone special in the form of a card!

I’ve chosen this particular sentiment, because I had these tulips all stamped and ready to go, and this “Miss You” coloring sheet has a nice open space in the lower left corner where I can add my tulips. So this one, it is! I’ve also grabbed some Copic markers from my collection that I thought would go well with the colors in the tulips.

What I learned is that I’m not the best colorer in the world, but I had a lot of fun with it, and it sort of turned out with an “artistic” look. I used the R39 Copic Marker to color in the “Miss You,” then shaded around the words with R20. The swirls were colored in with BG10, then shaded with two greens on the ends, YG11 and YG63.

What do you think? Will this be a trend you’ll try? See the Scrapbook Expo blog for the finished product!

Watercoloring stamped images...

Happy hump day! Spring break is over for us, thank goodness. Ha. I love my kids, but honestly being with them for 10 days was exhausting. lol This week is flying by! Catching up on cleaning the house (I like when it stays clean for more than an hour!), laundry and some assignments. Yesterday I had a post due for Scrapbook Expo's Weekly Scrapper blog, and I felt like painting with watercolors. I started with some flowers and branches...

Then I wanted to add a pretty bird, so I used the Spring Woods stamp set, stamped it with Aqua Mist and Tropical Teal (it is a 2-step stamp), then added a tiny bit of water over the top to blend it to make it look painted.

Would you have guessed that the bird was a stamp? So easy, right!

Swing by to see the full tutorial and finished card at the Weekly Scrapper blog! I'll be back with more projects either today or tomorrow! :)
Danielle

Cards With Dimension: Embellishments...

Happy Tuesday, and thank you for stopping in today! When I first began to create cards, I was more of a scrapbooker and hadn’t really dabbled in stamping all that much. This meant that I started to see my scrapbooking products in a whole new light…on cards! My style was very layered, and I loved to use embellishments! Embellishments were my absolute favorite thing. They added that touch of detail to my cards, a slight bit of dimension and extra interest that I didn’t feel a flat card could offer as well as an embellished card. My style is still very layered, and I love to use embellishments, but I like my cards to be clean looking as well, with a bit of white space.

Embellishments I love to use include, but aren’t limited to, chipboard elements, tags, rub-ons, sequins, ribbons, brads, rainstones, enamel dots, twine, etc.

For today’s card, I found a Heidi Swapp Washi Tape booklet in my stash that I hadn’t used yet, a Crate Paper tag and rub-ons, some Heidi Swapp chipboard pieces, enamel dots, and twine. I chose some of my favorite washi tapes from the booklet and attached them to a piece of white cardstock, then trimmed it down and rounded the corners. I added a “love you” rub-on to the tag. I stamped “Friend” on the card in Stormy Seas ink by Papertrey Ink from the Bitty Bouquets stamp set and “just thinking of you” with the Mat Stack 2 Collection stamps. I used a little hole punch to punch little notches for the twine. This way the twine will stay put while wrapped around the front piece.

When mixing embellishments, here are some tips: look for colors that complement each other (mix at least three for more interest!) and use different sizes of items – something small, something medium, and something larger in scale. Here the washi tapes add pattern and scale. The tag is the large item, the patterns are medium, and the enamel dots and text are small. It gives the eye so much detail to see! The black twine adds contrast to the lighter colors, which also keeps it interesting. Different shapes are good as well; see how the roundness of the enamel dots give the card softness from all of the hard edges?

Balancing the colors around the card in a triangle will also help you achieve success with embellishments. I have the aqua color spread around the card with the dots and washi tape. And I also have a triangle of black by using twine, tape, and sentiments in black.

If you are interested in learning more about my style of card making, I have an online class that I recently filmed here in Denver with Craftsy.com called Cards With Dimension: Lovely Layers, Textures and Embellishments. I have seven video chapters on adding dimension to cards, and working with embellishments is just one of the chapters, with three lessons in each chapter! Since March is National Craft Month, they are hosting a fun promotion for the next two weeks. Everyone who is new to purchasing a Craftsy class right now will be entered to win a $1,000 to donate to your favorite crafty charity. If you’ve been thinking of trying an online card class, now is a great time to give it a try! AND…as a special blog reader, I get to offer you 50% off! Click the link above!

If you'd like to try one of the other paper craft classes at a discount, you can view them HERE. Have a crafty, creative day!

Danielle

More stenciled cards...

Today I chose to just sit and play. I haven't done this in ages...just creating for fun, not for work, while listening to audios on things I've been wanting to learn about myself. Feels so good to take time for me and just let out my creativity. Does that make sense?

The Modern Stencils Collection by Papertrey Ink was used for the backgrounds with the same technique I shared in my post over at Scrapbook Expo. The stamps I've used are Bitty Bouquets and Big Birthday Wishes.

On this one, I used Aqua Mist ink in the background with Tropical Teal ink on the "Enjoy". The stencil looks great in a lighter color than your focal point, but in the same color family.

What are you doing today? I hope you have an opportunity to take time for you and get into your happy place! xo We all need that so much, and that's what cardmaking does for me.
Danielle

Stenciled backgrounds...

Recently I've started dabbling in ink blending on my cards! It's such a fun way to add color. You can ink blend directly onto the card or over a stencil like I did here today.  *Note: this card is inspired by Betsy's Sending Love card from her post on the 14th.

Over at the Scrapbook Expo blog, I show a few step-by-step photos with the supplies I used and talk about why I love this technique!

 I've used the Modern Stencil collection, the Bitty Bouquets stamps and dies and the Big Birthday Wishes stamps.

Swing by the Weekly Scrapper blog over at Scrapbook Expo to read more!

Creative Cardmaker: Drawing Inspiration from Scrapbooking Layouts...

Good morning! This week has FLOWN by, hasn't it? I can't believe it's almost the weekend again. Last weekend I had the chance to attend an amazing summit for Craftsy Instructors in Denver, CO! I really want the chance to tell you more about it, so I'll have to plan to write a little blog post about a few things I took away from it. It was so inspiring to be in the same room with hundreds of creative, like-minded people!! You can see a few pics from the 2016 Crafty Instructor Summit HERE on my Facebook page or HERE on my Instagram page.

Until then, I have a new card to share with you that I made for the Weekly Scrapper blog over at Scrapbook Expo. Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out where to get inspiration...especially when life takes over and seems to get in the way of creative time. Ever feel that way?

One of the biggest things that inspire me are scrapbooking layouts! I used to scrapbook before I was a card maker, so I always seem to find inspiration and creativity in scrapbooking...whether it's a color palette, or a cool technique, or an overall design, or even just a little section of layering that looks amazing! There are so many ways scrapbooking layouts can give you ideas for your cards!

Pop over to the Scrapbook Expo blog to read more about what inspired this card - which layout I loved and how I drew inspiration from it - and to get more info on the supplies I used. Thank you for swinging by and saying hello! I hope you're having a great week!!! Happy creating!

Watercolor pencils: a video tutorial...

Happy Wednesday! Will you get any crafting time in today? Perhaps some watercoloring? If so, hop over to Scrapbook Expo's Weekly Scrapper blog to watch a new video tutorial I filmed yesterday using the new Bold Blossoms Watercolor Sheets by Papertrey Ink and watercolor pencils. You can view the video HERE.

There is also a Bold Blossoms stamp set and some Bold Blossom coloring sheets available at Papertrey Ink, if you are more of a stamper or prefer to color with Copics and other coloring mediums. I hope you enjoy seeing the process with the watercolor pencils, and let me know if you have any questions! Have a great day!

Creative Cardmaker: holiday cards...

Are you getting a jump start on your holiday cards yet? I went to the Scrapbook Expo last Friday with my friends Claudia and Laura and picked up the super cute Claus & Co. line by Simple Stories. I couldn't wait to make some fun cards with it.

So today on the Scrapbook Expo blog, I have a tutorial up to show you how to make FIVE holiday cards! CLICK HERE for the tutorial link. I'm also going to be putting these five cards up for sale in a little card set soon. Be looking for these and more on the "shop" tab at the top of my blog.

Supplies: Simple Stories – Claus & Co. 31 Chipboard Stickers, Chipboard Frames, Wood Veneer, Washi Paper Tape, Interactive Elements. Other: Super Star Borders die by Papertrey Ink, Wet Paint Holiday stamps and dies by Papertrey Ink, twine by the Twinery, clear 6 MM sequins by Pretty Pink Posh and gray cardstock from the craft store. 

Thanks for swinging by! The next Papertrey Ink countdown will begin soon, and we have LOTS to show you, so stay tuned!

Creative Cardmaker: Adding unexpected dimension to cards...

Good morning! I'm up with another Creative Cardmaker post over at Scrapbook Expo's Weekly Scrapper blog. Today I'm talking about adding unexpected dimension to your stamped backgrounds, so break out your stamps and dies, and let's get started!

I've used Papertrey Ink's Quilted Summer stamp set for the flowers and stems, the Scripted stamp set for the sentiment, and the Life Is Beautiful dies to cut out the butterflies. For inks, I've used True Black, New Leaf, Pure Poppy and Aqua Mist.

Head over to the Weekly Scrapper to see the full tutorial!

Link me up if you give this a try. Would love to see how it inspired you. 

Have a great day!

Danielle