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Cricketleg Creative

  • Cards for Ukraine

    Cards for Ukraine–a movement in the papercrafting world to show support for the Ukraine. As we watch the horror that is happening in the Ukraine, we all feel heartbroken. And helpless to change anything. Many in the cardmaking world have spoken of Ukrainian cardmaking friends who are either in Ukraine or have family there. Personally,… read more

    Cards for Ukraine
  • Simple One-Layer Cards

    You can make really sweet and simple one-layer cards with very few stamps. I love a really juicy intricate card. They usually take a while, but when you look at the final product you’re super satisfied with the results. Here’s the thing though….you can actually make a beautiful, sweet card with a simple design. It… read more

    Simple One-Layer Cards
  • Using Airtable to Inventory Your Stamps

    Using AirTable can help you keep track and inventory all your stamps, dies, stencils, and more! And I have a BONUS idea at the end. Hey there! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve blogged. Where’ve I been? I took some time off (from blogging, not paper crafting) to rest, think, improve my skills, etc.… read more

    Using Airtable to Inventory Your Stamps
  • Catching Up

    After a break, I’m catching up on family event cards this week! Well, hi! Unfortunately, it’s been about a month and a half since I’ve posted to the blog. Wow, had no idea it was that long! I’ve been busy. Jumping rope, going on an amazing anniversary trip (30 years, woohoo!), starting a new business,… read more

    Catching Up
  • “Beautiful Blossoms” Challenge

    Look what’s blooming in the latest Simon Says Stamp challenge with “Beautiful Blossoms”! Well, hi! Spring is just around the corner (thank, goodness) so I’m grateful for some bright, floral fun with this “Beautiful Blossoms” card challenge. I used some new and some old to make three very different cards to enter the challenge. Let’s… read more

    “Beautiful Blossoms” Challenge

“Let It Snow” Challenge

December 14, 2020 Challenge Cards, Handcrafted Cards, Holiday Cards

Just two entries this time for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge with the “Let It Snow” theme.

Today I have two great entries into the Simon Says Stamp “Let It Snow” challenge. I love them both. ‘Cuz I love snow. Each card entry has snow but using two different media.

Snowy Greenery

If this card looks familiar, it’s because I also used it in the Monday challenge. This is the one I almost gave up on; so glad I didn’t. I really love the final result. Snowy and beautiful!

Christmas greenery stamp is from Simon Says Stamp. The sentiment is printed from my computer (and is crooked, dangit…oh well).

The snow for this card was made using watered down goache (opaque white watercolor). I used a paintbrush to splatter it on over the top of my ink blending and “failed” resist spray.

let it snow challenge

New House

My daughter and her husband closed last week on a new home. I thought it would be fun to create a housewarming card with some seasonal charm. But I also wanted to make it look like I had a stamp of their house!

pic to line drawing conversion
(Having more than one image was helpful so I could test colors and techniques)

This tutorial helped me to turn a photograph of their new home into a line drawing in Photoshop. Printed out in grayscale, it has the look of a line drawing or possibly a very detailed stamp. I colored it in with Copic markers (the front doors have wreaths drawn in but it’s hard to see) and then I went to town with the white gel pen!

And I’m so happy with my recent purchase of the Boxun white gel pens. So far they are working out great! Easy flow and I love them. I’ll have to report back on how they do over time.

Anyway, I spent way too long (but it was fun) adding in hundreds of tiny snow dots as well as some larger snow blobs for depth. Once that was done, I die cut a “frame” from dark brown paper and added gold accents with a gold metallic gel pen.

Mounted onto plaid paper and with a cozy “Home Sweet Home” sentiment, this card is complete and I love it! It was so satisfying to work on. I love learning new things! I may use this photo-to-line-drawing technique in the fugure. Combining tech and art has always been fun for me!

Here’s a close up:

You may be thinking, “Lady, the grass and trees are green….how can it be snowing?” Hmmm. I guess you’d have to live in eastern North Carolina to understand the dichotomy. It happens, folks.

Y’all take care!

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Favorite Technique Challenge

December 11, 2020 Challenge Cards, Handcrafted Cards, Holiday Cards

This week’s Monday challenge from Simon Says Stamp is to make entries using your favorite technique.

favorite technique challenge

Well, hi!

Okay, this one was quite a, um, challenge. Not necessarily making the cards. Just trying to pick a favorite technique! I really had to think about this one.

What is my favorite technique?

In all fairness, I believe that this is something that will change with time and with new stamps, products, etc. So FOR NOW my favorite technique is ink blending. Especially for creating skies.

So here are my entries into the challenge, from least to most favorite. My most favorite really surprised me and reinforced a lesson I have learned this fall. More on that at the end.

Nutcrackers

Yes, I do love making skies but I figured if I made five entries with five skies that could get redundant. So I thought I would just use my favorite blending brushes to create a monochromatic background for my nutcrackers.

So first, I had to stamp the nutcrackers and mask them. Then I used a red, a cherry, and a dark green stamp pad to create the red background. Yes, green. Adding green just around the edges, and adding it gently, really deepened the shading.

After that, I added some metallic accents to the nutcrackers with a gold gel pen. I chose muted pastels to color each one in. An embossed Merry Christmas sentiment finishes the card, as well as embossed edges.

nutcrackers

Snowy Trees Sunrise

Sunrise or sunset? It could be either!

Recently I purchased a set of winter tree stamps from Inkadinkadoo so I used a few of them on this card. I did mask some of the snowy evergreens before doing the ink blending with the brushes.

When I make skies I try to reference a real photo, so the Google comes in handy for that. Helps me figure out how to order the colors.

I wanted this to look like a snowy morning and since the light is behind the trees, I used gray blue Copic markers to put most of the snow clumps in shadow.

A sentiment from the most recent Simon Says Stamp card kit (which just came today!) finishes the card.

Tropical Sunset

Next year is my 30th wedding anniversary! Husband and I are planning a trip (crossing fingers for no Covid complications) to the U.S. Virgin Islands. And right now, I’m loving any reminder of that upcoming trip!

In a recent challenge, I used this same palm tree stamp for my scene. I just love the look of palm trees in silhouette. But this time I added some clouds using stamps and dies from a Hero Arts set. I used the cloud dies to create masked areas that I could ink blend over. Then, once the ink blending was done, I used the cloud shadow stamps to create dimension. Adding in some Copic marker shading helps the clouds look like they are reflecting some of the sunset colors.

tropical sunset

Forest Sunrise

Or sunset. Again, who knows?

To create this slimline card I used stamps from the set that came with my alcohol inks kit. I was excited to use these as I’m always on the lookout for tree stamps!

alcohol inks

Unfortunately, the quality of these stamps appears to be less than great. When inked up, the tree line (which I love!) does not stamp well and leaves a big “ink hole” where it would not stamp no matter how hard I pressed! The “And So The Adventure Begins” sentiment stamp is crooked. I had to yank them off the plastic and they don’t stick well to acrylic blocks.

So, I had to fill in the ink hole with a Sharpie. That worked since I stamped in black for a silhouette effect. But what if I wanted to stamp in green? Sigh. Oh well.

Once I filled in all the holes (I stamped it three times across the bottom of the slimline card) I did my ink blending. Okay, that’s a lie, I did do a sun shape first. I die cut a small circle from a Post-It note and used that as a stencil to color in the sun with Copic markers. Then I ink blended from the sun outward.

Luckily, the other sentiment stamp in the set stamped fairly well. Still, disappointed in this stamp set.

forest sunrise

Snowy Greenery

This one almost did not make the cut. Seriously. It almost went in the trash.

Here’s the 411…

I started by stamping the beautiful greenery stamp in this month’s Simon Says Stamp card kit. Such a great kit this month! I colored it in with Copics and then decided that for this background I would do some Copic blending! (FYI…I don’t know what that pom-pom like plant is in the stamp but this Southern girl thinks it looks like cotton….so it’s cotton. I mean, why not?)

Silly me, most of my markers are Ohuhu which are great for the price, but many are already too dry for blending (I haven’t had them very long!). I knew I wanted a kind of teal blend and once I started I just had to keep going even though a couple of my teal family markers were dying.

Hmmm. The blend was sucking pretty bad. So I thought I’d try a new product that I *thought* was for after inking. Um, no. It’s for before. So after I sprayed and it dried (and did nothing but add shiny blobs all over) I just about quit.

But, as I have learned in the last few months, you can often make lemonade out of lemons when it comes to card “fails” so I soldiered on. I tried ink blending white pigment ink over the blogs. Nope. That looked weird.

Well, I can always add snow splatter and see what happens.

And that did it. I watered down some white goache and splattered it liberally over the entire card surface. Sure enough, it covered my many sins and I think it looks great!

A computer printed sentiment mounted onto red cardstock finishes the card.

snowy greenery

And that’s a wrap!

Just a heads up, Mr. Snowy Greenery Card will be doing double duty by appearing in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge theme, Let It Snow. He’s so beautiful how can I not use him twice?!

Y’all take care!

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Clean and Simple Christmas Cards

December 9, 2020 Handcrafted Cards, Holiday Cards, Quick Tips

This week’s video shows an easy way to create cute but clean and simple Christmas cards.

clean and simple Christmas cards

Well, hi!

Welcome to this week’s video post. I’m just barely getting this one in under the wire for my normal Wednesday video posts. I’ve been trying to get the voiceover and final edits done but between my alcohol inks adventure, lack of sleep, and a cold that keeps attempting to take me out, I’m only just getting this finished TOday.

But, hey, it’s done and it’s cute.

Have you heard of CAS cards? It just means Clean And Simple. They are usually pretty easy to crank out and are also usually fast. The Christmas cards in this video came together pretty quickly.

Products used in this video? Patterned paper, baker’s twine, embossing folders (on some of them), gift shaped dies (square and rectangle), a bow die (on some of them), and a few embellishments on some like metallic or glitter tape.

CAS cards are a good way to get into cardmaking. They usually don’t require many materials and, like I said, they come together quickly.

I still prefer a more complex design myself because I enjoy the process. But it’s nice to know that if you need a card in a hurry or if you need to make cards en masse, CAS cards can be a good go-to.

Watch the video below to see my clean and simple Christmas cards. And please visit my channel and subscribe. You can click on the little bell there to be notified when I upload new videos (currently on Wednesdays).

I hope you’re having a merry Christmas season so far!

Y’all take care!

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“Fun with Dies” Challenge

December 8, 2020 Challenge Cards, Handcrafted Cards

Hey, this “Fun with Dies” Challenge is the part 2 from the “Alcohol Inks” Challenge, basically. Two birds, one stone.

We last left our heroine (me) with lightheadedness and some kind of ugly first tries at alcohol inks. But now you get….the rest of the story!

If you read that last post, you’ll know that I decided to die cut my rather unsightly first alcohol ink attempts hoping that this would make them usable.

And it did!

fun with dies challenge

I much prefer the look of the one color plus gold mixative, but the others aren’t too bad. Artsy fartsy and all that. So after die cutting them, I chose background papers and built then cards based on the mood and colors in the die cuts.

Here are my double-duty entries into both the “Alcohol Inks” Challenge and the “Fun with Dies” Challenge. And since ’tis the season, I made them all Christmas themed.

Merry & Bright Wreath

This is my least favorite of the five. I love the die itself, but it’s larger than a standard A2 size so I don’t use it very often. I allowed it to be trimmed short on one side and just positioned it flush with the card top fold as if I had always intended it to be that way.

Hey, work with what you got!

The colors on this one ran together so much that it made for a rather busy color combo so I kept the background papers simple and solid. I did, however, use trim the red cardstock with some scraps from the experiment. I also used those scraps to back the sentiment.

merry and bright wreath

The Ornament

Using a die from a recent Hero Arts kit, I made one of the alcohol inked cards into an ornament shape. This was pretty busy too, but looked kind of high end and glam so I paired it with a gold and white patterned paper and a simple gold trimmed sentiment.

ornament card

Merry Christmas Wreath

This wreath die cut, unlike its cousin in the first example, actually does fit the A2 card size! Huzzah! I thought this one looked nice on some cardstock from a recent Simon Says Stamp kit that I then trimmed with gold metallic tape.

merry christmas wreath

Joy

This card turned out just lovely. I used one simple leaf die to cut the cardstock at random places that had a lot of color variation in the teal ink. I arranged them into a wreath shape onto gold metallic cardstock.

Using an alphabet die set, I cut out the letters for the word “joy” from the leftover scraps. The overall effect is so much prettier and more elegant in person. Hard to photograph the metallic papers for me.

joy wreath

Peace

My favorite one. It’s not what I would normally design. But the overall look of this card….yeah, I just really love it.

I paired this orange-red and metallic gold alcohol ink experiment with some patterned paper from a Simon Says Stamp card kit. Die cuts were used to create the branches and the word “peace.” And I used some gold scrap from the Joy card to trim the edge by the word “peace.”

And that’s it, y’all. I flirted with death (why am I so dramatic about the fumes?), lived to stamp another day, and now have five entries into both the “Alcohol Inks” and “Fun with Dies” challenges.

Now, I’m off to write my memoirs about my near-death experience. Pretty sure I’ll be on a TED talk soon, so be on the lookout for that.

Y’all take care!

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“Alcohol Inks” Challenge

December 4, 2020 Challenge Cards, Handcrafted Cards

Simon Says Stamp challenge for this past Monday is for using Alcohol Inks! (And this will be kind of a part one, so stay tuned for next Tuesday’s post to see how it ended!)

Each Monday and Wednesday I look forward to the announcements for new themes. I’ve really come to appreciate the creative challenge it offers me.

However, this past Monday I was disappointed. Alcohol inks? Yes, they are cool. Yes, I want to try them. No, I did not have any.

So I decided I wouldn’t participate. It’s fine. I can try alcohol inks another time I guess.

Psych!

Well, I really did think that but when I was buying paper supplies for a church youth activity, I spied this little alcohol inks starter kit from Ranger at my Hobby Lobby.

alcohol inks

Hmmm. With the 40% off coupon I figured it was worth a shot. It comes with all that you see in the picture (regular price was $24.99). All I really needed were some colors, the blending solution, and appropriate paper. So the rest was bonus. This would give me a chance to play! Maybe I could enter the challenge after all!

A Word of Warning

Um, they don’t say to work in a “well ventilated area” for nothing, folks. I made myself sick.

The kit comes with 5 notecards to use. So I figured I’d quickly play with the five notecards and I was in my craft studio which I thought was a fine place to work.

Nope.

After three cards (and mind you, I worked quickly) I was feeling dizzy and, um, just weird. I stepped outside for a few minutes and breathed some cool autumn air. Then stepped back inside to quickly finish the other two cards. (Note to self: in absence of blower thingy, don’t use a drinking straw and then huff and puff your way through faking having a blower thingy.)

Then I spent three hours resting in bed till I felt normal again.

Yep. Be careful. Next time I will likely work outside. I don’t know if I’m super sensitive or what but I do NOT want to feel like that again!

I do, however, want to keep practicing with alcohol inks!

How It Went Otherwise

The basic technique is very fun. Lay down some blending solution, some ink, more solution, move it around, play, add the mixative, play some more. Not super complicated.

I can’t say that I loved my results. I don’t have one of those little blowers that effortlessly moves the color around so my end products are less “ethereal” than I would have liked. But hey, it’s my first time.

Three of the cards have all three colors plus the mixative (the metallic gold). Two cards have just one color plus mixative. Meh.

The cards, I thought, were a loss. A worthy experiment, yes. But for a card? Ick.

Then I thought that maybe I could just die cut some shapes out of them. Maybe they’d be prettier then?

alcohol inks challenge

Lo and behold, the next challenge was announced and it was “Fun with Die Cuts.” Well, there you go. That’s my answer.

So for the first time since starting the Simon Says Stamp challenges (see my very first “batch” entry here), I decided that I would enter the same 5 cards for both the Alcohol Inks Challenge and the Fun with Dies Challenge.

What did they look like? You’ll have to wait for my next post on Tuesday of next week!

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Z-Fold Spinner Card with Digi Paper

December 2, 2020 Handcrafted Cards, Quick Tips

I was surprised and delighted with how quickly this Z-fold Spinner Card came together with Digi (digital) paper!

z-fold spinner card with digi paper

Well, hi!

Cards for the men in my life have been a bit of a challenge. I know exactly what I want a card to look like, but when I have mostly stamp images that are NOT their style…well…it’s a challenge!

For my dad’s 87th birthday, I wanted to do a sports card. He loves basketball and baseball. Number of sports sets I own: ONE. Number of coordinating stencils/background stamps/papers for sports: ZERO.

I could see exactly what I wanted for my card, but I didn’t have the supplies to complete it. Do you ever have that experience? I remembered that I did have some wood grain digital papers….hey maybe I could mimic the floor of a basketball court.

Nope. They were all distressed wood.

So I head over to Etsy and order this set of basketball themed paper. This particular color set was just about perfect for a Tarheels card! So I unzipped it, placed it in Word, and printed it out on both sides of my cardstock in my printer.

Using digi paper really helped this card come together FAST. I also printed out the sentiment strip from Word, as I wanted a Varsity type font style and wanted to customize it to say “Have a Ball” since my spinner is a ball.

I love how this turned out and I think I will definitely be using digital papers in the future to pull together quick cards! I’ve already been able to experiment a bit with digital stamps, but this is faster!

So check out my Z-Fold Spinner Card with Digi Paper video below to see how it came together. And comment below if you’ve ever made a spinner card. You can check out other interactive cards of mine here and here.

There it is folks…another video post in the books. See you in the next blog post!

Y’all take care!

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“Anything Goes” Challenge

December 1, 2020 Challenge Cards, Handcrafted Cards

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge this time is no rules–just anything goes!

anything goes challenge

As much as I love freedom, you’d think I’d cheer with an “Anything Goes” challenge theme. But what I’ve found is that I actually enjoy some light parameters within which to work. Still, I do love me a challenge, parameters or no.

So, without further ado, here are my five entries into this “Anything Goes” challenge.

Camellia Thanks

Well, I don’t really know if it’s a camellia, but it looks like one to me! I stamped it on cardstock, colored it in with Copic markers, fussy cut it out, and mounted it onto patterned paper.

You can’t tell it from the picture but there’s also super fine glitter on the center parts of the flower.

Simple card, but the camellia is the star of the show!

Birthday Wishes

I have really come to love ink blending. That’s the technique I used to make this rainbow starburst card. Post It notes were used to section off the “rays” and I ink blended between them.

The lines were not as crisp as I’d like so I used different colors of metallic tape to cover them. I love that look!

A simple white-embossed sentiment finishes off the card.

birthday wishes

Busy Bees

The star of this card, in my opinion, is the inked and embossed background. It was touch-and-go for a while there as I got the hang of which colors seemed to work best, as well as which embossing folders worked best.

Simply put, you ink up one side of an embossing folder, carefully lay a notecard down on that inked side, close it, and run it through your die cut machine.

Sometimes it comes out looking like a fail, but once the ink dries, the color usually evens out.

anything goes challenge

Discomfort

This may seem like a strange quote to put on the front of a card, but I sent this specifically to the author of the quote, Brooke Castillo. She’s a life coach, trains other life coaches, and is the host of my favorite podcast (The Life Coach School Podcast).

I just wanted to send her a note of thanks for all the good she puts into the world! And I thought that using this letterboard die set from Sugar Pea Designs was a perfect way to highlight her contributions.

brooke castillo card

Happy Thanksgiving

Look how versatile that letterboard die set is! I get to use it on another card!

The possibilities are somewhat endless for this set as it can be used for any season, any (short) saying, any mood. I love it!

And I think we all know that the vibe of this particular card is especially true. I don’t know about y’all but those Thanksgiving leftovers…..phew. They ’bout did me in.

Embellishments are from a recent Simon Says Stamp card kit of the month (items from that kit also used on this card).

thanksgiving card

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“Food and/or Drink” Challenge

November 27, 2020 Challenge Cards, Handcrafted Cards

The most recent Monday challenge from Simon Says Stamp has the Food and/or Drink theme.

Food and or Drink challenge

Well, hi!

Hey, it’s a non-holiday challenge this time. Whaaaaat??

And, it’s one that I had to stretch a little for. Don’t have a ton of food related stamps. Luckily, I pulled it off! Five entries for the Food and/or Drink Challenge await you below!

Burger and Fries

I like this simple card. I think sometimes I overcomplicate a card, or maybe it’s just that I like to do more complicated techniques. But a clean and simple card (CAS) is pretty satisfying when it’s done well.

And I think this one is.

I used stamps from this Sunny Studio set (the same one I used to make this card). To make the plate, I used circle dies. Some patterned paper and a stamped sentiment, and we done, y’all!

food and or drink challenge

You’re The Zest

While perusing Pinterest the other day, I saw a similar card and thought I would recreate it using what I happen to have on hand.

The orange stamp is from a Stampin’ Up! set from way back. You’ll see most of the set in a card further down in this post. I stamped it in a warm gray color but stamped it once in black and colored that in with Copic markers. I used a blue marker to color in the negative space. There’s no gradation in that blue background. It’s just the weird lighting!

I made a sentiment on Canva and printed it out onto cardstock.

you're the zest

Breakfast

This card features another Sunny Studio stamp set that I used to make this card as well. It comes with lots of fun sentiments that can be mixed and matched, but because of the size of this slimline card, I made my own sentiment on Canva and printed it out onto cardstock.

The foods are stamped in black, colored in with Copics, and fussy cut out. I mounted them onto patterned paper and mounted the sentiment above.

And whoever I give this to better believe that sentiment….if I say this to you, I freakin’ love you cuz I love me some breakfast foods!

breakfast

Fruits

Here’s that old Stampin’ Up! fruit stamp set I mentioned above. There are a couple more stamps in that set than what you see in this card, but these are the big ones!

Just stamped in black, colored with Copics, and filled in the negative space with Copics as well. I did some very subtle shading around the outside edge of each fruit. But it’s still blue on blue. Loving this…I mean, it almost looks like it’s just patterned paper and it came this way!

The scripture is printed out using Canva.

fruits

Cookie Sheet

I think this one is my favorite because I had fun making the cookie sheet. I tried to make it look like my cookie sheets….kinda hammered and discolored. But I don’t know that the look translates well on camera.

I cut out some metallic paper and made a score line near the top edge to simulate the slanted edge of a cookie sheet. Using a mini hole punch, I made the hole (I’ve never used that hole on a cookie sheet IRL!). Using brown, rust, and golden stamp pads and sponge daubers I tried to layer some color to give the look of age to the paper.

Now, I don’t have any suitable sized gingerbread men or cookie stamps so I bought some digital stamps on Etsy. I bought a couple of sets….this one and this one. Digital stamps are kind of fun because they can be resized or tweaked before you print them out. I colored them and fussy cut them out and then glued them to the cookie sheet.

Leftover cookies got glued to the, yes, Canva-made sentiment. All items then were adhered to patterned paper on the card front.

cookie sheet
cookie sheet close up

You can kind of see the “aging” coloring on the edges in this pic. My cookie sheets are way more, um, aged than this one.

So. The Food and/or Drink Challenge entries are done! What is your favorite one? And if you can’t answer that….what’s your favorite food and/or drink? 😉

Y’all take care!

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Explosion Card Tutorial

November 25, 2020 Handcrafted Cards, Quick Tips

Learn an easy paper folding technique to make fun explosion card inserts in this tutorial.

explosion card tutorial

Don’t be fooled by the calm exterior. The inside of this card has a lot going on! (The lovely fall floral paper and deer image are from the most recent Simon Says Stamp monthly kit.)

I don’t remember when I learned this paper folding technique to make explosion cards. I just know that once I learned it, I never forgot it. It’s quite simple after you’ve done it a few times. And it can be sized up or down depending on what card size you are making.

For the A2 size card (closed measurements of 4 1/4″ by 5 1/2″), you can use an 8 3/8″ or 8 1/4″ square piece of paper.

Make sure it’s paper, not cardstock. If you can find a glossy paper, that’s fun to work with too.

I usually prefer to decorate my paper before folding as the folds often prevent stamps from leaving a clean image.

Check out the tutorial below.

Have you ever made an explosion card? Do you know another cool folding insert for cards? Leave me a comment below and let me know.

If you liked this explosion card tutorial and you’re in the mood for another tutorial type card, check this post out.

That’s it for now. Y’all take care!

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“Christmas” Challenge

November 24, 2020 Challenge Cards, Handcrafted Cards, Holiday Cards

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge entries for the “Christmas” theme

christmas challenge

Well, hi!

Another Wednesday happens, another Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge! Y’all I don’t know what I’m gonna do once the holidays are over because making Christmas cards is my literal favorite. And the challenges have been lining up pretty well with that lately!

But enough about the holiday obsession, let’s get on with this challenge’s entries, shall we?

Popcorn Strings

I used a popcorn stamp, stamped it with white pigment ink, and also used white embossing powder. Then I used what I think is probably a blueberry stamp for the cranberry! I added some shading around the edges.

The sentiment is an old Printworks (now defunct) stamp. I trimmed the cut-out sentiment with metallic red tape. The whole thing is mounted onto kraft cardstock.

Christmas challenge

Winter Stencil

Recently I purchased this Carta Bella Winter stencil and have been itching to use it. Initially I figured I would use red, green, or blue ink onto white cardstock but at the last second I opted for white pigment ink on red cardstock. Oh what fun!! I love it. And it kind of has a pinkish hue.

On top of that background I mounted three layers of a Merry Christmas Wreath die cut from Sissix. I have to admit that it looks better in person; looks a little busy in the photo.

winter stencil

Christmas Bell

When I saw this stamp set in action I was amazed at how realistic the bell stamps! I mean, it totally looks metallic! This is due to stamp layering. This bell is stamped using three layering stamps and three ink colors. The results are so much fun!

This is a simple card; I really wanted the bell to be the focus. All the images you see are from this stamp set by Sunny Studios.

christmas challenge bell

Forest Snowman

This card features another stencil that I recently acquired, but this one is from Crafters Workshop. I’ve been in search of an inexpensive Aspen tree stencil or stamp or die to use. I see so many amazing cards that have these beautiful trees and I just wanted to make that look a reality in my cards.

So I used a pink, a purple, and a blue ink pad along with these amazing blending brushes to create a lovely winter sky behind the trees. Then I stamped this Stampin’ Up! snowman (from 1997, y’all!), colored him with Copic markers, and fussy cut him out. He’s mounted just in front of the trees, which I also die cut using a Waffle Flower stitched rectangle die.

The sentiment was made using my computer!

forest snowman

Christmas Beach

Can I go here for Christmas? I mean, we don’t get white Christmases here anyway so I might as well just go to a tropical island right?

Okay, well, anyway….this is my favorite of my Christmas Challenge entries. The water and Hello! stamps are from a Hero Arts stamp set (the water is made using three layering stamps in three different colors) and the palm trees are from some random stamp I bought many moons ago.

I used a white pen to add the foam to the water and sand. The sky was made using ink blending. The Christmas lights? Well, those took a little more thinking. There are no string lights in my stamp collection, sadly. So I drew a string line between the palm trees with a black felt tip pen and used a super fine brush to apply little dabs of acrylic craft paint for the bulbs.

Gosh, I love a good tropical Christmas scene!

christmas beach

Here’s a close up of the sea foam:

beach

So, there they are…all my Christmas Challenge entries! I hope that one of these will win the random drawing or the a designer spotlight! Did I tell you that I won one of the random drawings the other day? Yep. And I love me some free merch!

Y’all take care!

Leave a Comment Categories: Challenge Cards, Handcrafted Cards, Holiday Cards
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