tropical Archives - Cricketleg Creative

Mahalo Floral Card

The latest card kit from Hero Arts is phenomenol! Lots of images and dies to play with. It’s been so cold and wet here lately in eastern North Carolina and having fun with some tropical whimsy is just what I need right now!

I wasn’t really sure where I was going with this when I started, but I like where I ended up! I stamped the flowers and leaves using masking, and colored them in with Copic markers. Then, I used Copic markers to make the water background.

In hindsight it would have been much easier to stamp, color, and die cut all those images out. But I do like that there’s no white border around them. So it’s fine; just hard to do the background around all that detail.

I used Glossy Accents from Ranger to make wavy lines over the blue ink background and let it dry. I stamped some other leaves from the Hero Arts set and placed those around the sentiment that I stamped. All those images are from that Hero set.

You Warm My Heart Card

The stamps that made this very sweet campfire card are from an Avery Elle stamp set. I’m a bit lacking in the cute critter stamp category, so I recently purchased this set. I love campfires so this one was a no brainer.

I stamped the images I wanted to use first, then colored them with Copic markers, being careful to add some yellow glow to the sides facing the fire. (That racoon gave me some trouble, but that’s in their nature I suppose.)

Once those were ready, I placed them on a notecard just to see where I might want my horizon line. I set them aside and masked off that horizon. For this card I used stamp pads and blending brushes for a softer, more subtle blend. I started in the center where I knew the campfire would be, with yellow. Then a light brown around that, and a darker brown on the outer edge. Same basic idea for the sky.

With a few trees stamped at the sides, I was ready to glue my critters in place. After that it was just a matter of adding starts and sentiment.

I have to say, I think my favorite element on this card is the splatterware mug! I couldn’t help myself there!

Both cards have a blended background. One uses Copic blending and the other uses stamp pads with blending brushes. Both are fun!

View my other challenge cards here.

So there you go! Y’all take care!

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

Here’s a close up of the sea foam:

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!

“Favorite Technique” Challenge