CAS Honey Bee Stamps Cards

Hi there! I hope everyone’s week is going well. I wanted to stop in today with a concept in card design that is very foreign to my brain…CAS – Clean and Simple – cards. These typically have a lot of white space, not a ton of dimension and would be great for mass producing if you needed to. My brain does NOT work this way.

Don’t get me wrong, I see them on Instagram or Pinterest and immediately fall in love with them all the time. I’ve even tried to copy the design a few times and was so uncomfortable with all the white space that the design gets totally changed and I fill it in one way or another.

Honey Bee Stamps has a Facebook page dedicated to their challenges. They hold two a month – 1-15 of the month and 16-end of the month. I hadn’t really been interested in them until lately when all these different challenges were starting to get my wheels turning. For the second half of May, the Honey Bee Stamps challenge is CAS cards with any Honey Bee Stamps you have.

After a car ride with my family Saturday morning and some serious brain storming, I came home to the craft room and set out with one mission…be okay with white space. LOL!!! And…here’s what I came up with.

For this first one, I stamped and colored my bees and flower with copic markers and die cut everything. Then, I stamped the flower stem, leaves, buzzing trails and HELLO directly on the background. Next, I took a stitched rectangle and cut it out from the middle. At this point I thought a little burst of color would be great behind the flower so I took out my distress ink in cracked pistachio and blended an area a little bigger than the flower itself. I added two additional rectangles underneath the original to pop the middle up just a bit and glued it all to the card front. I adhered the flower and bees with foam squares and finished it all off with some lavender Nuvo Crystal Drops. I really do love it!

While I was working on the first one, I wanted to see what the same concept would look like in landscape format instead.

This time I trimmed the panel down to 4×5.25 inches, and used wild honey distress ink in the corner. I stamped my flower, leaves and bee and colored them all with copic markers. I die cut everything and started to assemble. I popped up the flower and bee with foam squares and then alternated popping up and gluing leaves to the panel itself. I stamped the sentiment and buzzing trail directly to the panel. Next, I glued the panel directly to the card front and added some clear Crystal Nuvo Drops for a finishing touch.

I love both of these cards so much! It has inspired me to be okay with white space a little at a time and to think outside the box in uses for some of my other stamps. Have you created CAS cards? Do you like them? Leave a comment below and let me know.

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Lawn Fawn Beam Me Up Galaxy Card

Happy Sunday! I’ve had so much fun in the craft room lately. Busy trying new ideas. The other night I decided to get messy again, in a new way. This time I cut a bunch of cardstock to A2 size (4.25X5.5 inches) for backgrounds and got out my distress inks and blending tools. I almost always make a bunch of these at a time when I’m doing them just like the ink smooshing idea. After I had done a couple that were just simple ink blending across the paper I decided to try out a galaxy idea.

To do this, I used the four colors on the right and covered the background. The colors are Abandoned Coral, Mermaid Lagoon, Blueprint Sketch, Mustard Seed and *not pictured, oops* Dusty Concord. After I covered the whole background randomly with each color, I took my Black Soot and went over the whole piece with a light hand. After I did it once, I went around the edge a second time to add another layer of color. Then I spritzed it with a water sprayer and dabbed up the water drops with a paper towel. Once I liked how much distressing I had with the water, I got out my silver watercolor and flicked it all over the paper. This is the key to a really cool galaxy background. It’s amazing how much dimension the metallic watercolor gives the whole thing. Stars everywhere!

While that was drying I got out my Lawn Fawn Stiched Puffy Cloud Borders and cut two different layers of those out of white cardstock. I also reached for my Lawn Fawn Beam Me Up stamp set to figure out what characters I was going to use. I stamped the aliens and space ships out on Copic XPress cardstock and colored them with copic markers. I stamped and heat embossed the “beam” from the spaceship on velum with white embossing powder and then die cut everything.

I adhered the galaxy background to a black card base and then the bottom layer of clouds directly onto the background. I stamped my sentiment on the second layer of clouds and popped it up with foam tape. The big spaceship, alien and beam are also popped up so they meet the level of the clouds the red alien is standing on. The large alien and small spaceship are glued directly to the card front.

And just like that, this super cute encouragement card is all finished and ready to be mailed. I love these aliens. They are sure to make the recipient smile.

I hope you enjoyed today’s card and will give the galaxy background a try. They always come out different and are so fun to make over and over again.

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Mama Elephant Little Monkey Agenda Card

Hello everyone! It’s been a little bit since I’ve been on here but it’s not due to lack of crafting. I’ve been making cards like crazy. For Mother’s Day my amazing little family gave me an extraordinary Mama Elephant haul which was delivered on Monday. I am over the moon for these monkeys so I stamped them all and started coloring immediately! Here is the first card I made with them. I still have enough monkeys left over for 2 more cards that I have sketched out!

Here is my finished card. If you notice, the background is the one of the ink smooshing backgrounds I posted about last week. I colored the monkeys with copic markers and die cut them out.

Then, I die cut the Mama Elephant Grid Window from white cardstock and also craft foam and layered them together. Then glued it to the card base and started laying out my monkeys. I attached the monkeys with foam squares for added dimension and then stamped a sentiment from the Avery Elle Peek-a-Boo Pals stamp set on white cardstock and layered it on a slightly bigger piece of black cardstock to help it pop.

I opted to leave the inside of the card empty until I’m ready to use it so it’s perfect for ANY occasion that pops up! I’m so in love with these monkeys. Be prepared to see a lot of them in the future!

Thank you so much for stopping by today. As always…

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Ellen Hutson Plush Bear Hugs

Hello there! I’m so excited to be back today sharing these ADORABLE plush bears using wool felt and Essentials by Ellen Bear Hugs dies. They are so stinking cute and so versatile! Like many crafters I don’t just make cards. I love all things creative from crocheting and sewing to woodworking and painting. I watched a video by Nichol Spohr (click here to see it) and instantly fell in love with these guys. I had to have them. They are simple and so fun to put together.

In case you’re curious, I’ll run through how I put them together but if you’re more of a process person, I highly suggest watching Nichol’s video (and subscribing to her channel, she’s amazing!).

We’re starting off with a photo of the dies that come in the Bear Hugs set and the basics to create a bear cut out and ready to go. This time I didn’t use the die cut for the eyes and, instead, opted to make french knots. You could also use gems or pearls too! So many options!

As you can see, I’ve glued the nose on with fabric glue, stitched on a mouth and eyes and am ready to start stitching the bear together. To measure my embroidery floss I loosely wrap the string around the bear twice making sure that there is enough extra to tie it off at the end. I like to start at the bottom of the left arm and go up and around from there.

I stop right about here to stuff him lightly so he has good dimension but not so much that it’s bursting out the sides. Once he’s stuffed I just continue around a second time and then tie it off, hiding the tie in-between the layers of felt.

Here are two of these cuties all done and ready for some embellishing. From the photo of the dies in the set, you can see that there is a larger heart and a square to make a present for the bear to hold. I thought I’d make both to show you what they look like. The heart is always my favorite but I’m really excited to make a set of these with Christmas themed gifts in their hands. Imagine getting a package with one of these guys tied to it. I’d melt!

All done and ready to make someone smile. I also used a needle to thread a string through the top stitching so they can be tied to a gift bag or package.

One last little detail I got from Nichol was a mini heart on his bum because…it’s adorable! Who needs more of a reason?!?

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. Do you have creative outlets other than card making or stamping? I’d love to know in the comments below.

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Lawn Fawn Fairy Friends Thinking of You Cards

Yesterday I shared the process of making these awesome faux watercolor/ink smooshing backgrounds and today I wanted to share two of the final products that came out of them.

The mini story behind this project was my lack of creative motivation and my daughter’s desire to help me out of the slump. She chose the stamp sets and the color palettes and told me to go! It was great fun and lots of giggles in the craft room.

I actually started by taking a half sheet of copic xpress paper and filling it with all of the images from the Lawn Fawn Fairy Friends and Gleeful Gardens stamp sets. Then I colored them with copic markers that matched the color palettes I used for the backgrounds. I die cut everything out and sorted it by color family. Then I used my largest Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle frame to cut the backgrounds down to A2 size and started laying out my cards.

Here is the first one with the pink/orange/yellow color palette. I just love the whimsy of these fairies paired with the background. To finish it off I added a stamped, heat embossed sentiment from Avery Elle and some clay hearts from Honey Bee Stamps.

Next I moved on to the blue/purple background and set of images. It’s close to the same layout with a few variations. These fairies never get old for me and I love the snails with them.

Adding the snails to this card made the bottom feel heavy. I needed to counter this with a substantial sentiment which came from the same Avery Elle stamp set.

This time instead of the hearts, I used Nuvo crystal drops in caribbean blue randomly throughout the background. I love the texture these give.

I added white gel pen accents to everything in both cards and also Wink of Stella clear glitter pen to all the fairy wings.

I love how these cards turned out and am excited to see what comes of the other two backgrounds I still have waiting to play with.

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Ink Smooshing Technique with Tombow Dual Brush Markers

I absolutely LOVE this technique and thought it would be fun to share how it’s achieved for those who haven’t discovered it yet. I’m also sharing a few tips and tricks to keep in mind to help you be more successful.

First, you want to start with good quality paper. Something that can withstand the water you’re going to put on it like an actual watercolor paper or, if you want smooth paper, I suggest Strathmore Bristol Smooth cardstock. I used to try using cheap paper for everything and, trust me, all paper is not created equal. Next you’ll need Tombow Dual Brush Markers in whatever color palette suits you. I try to use no more than four colors. It can end up a muddy mess if you get too much going on. Last, you’ll need a smooth surface like a craft mat or extra large clear block and a spray bottle.

Let’s get started!

Cut your paper down to a manageable size. I usually buy 9×12 Bristol Smooth paper pads so I trim it to 4.5×6 which gives me room on all sides to trim for the final product. Choose the markers you’re going to use and get your clear block out.

At this point you literally just scribble on your clear block with the markers in whatever order or pattern you like. Sometimes I do stripes and other times I do blotches of color all over. Today I’m going to show wide stripes.

See, it’s nothing special and my color isn’t even touching…although it’s okay if yours does.

Next spray it with the spray bottle a few times over the whole block.

Then you lay your paper, face down, on the ink and smoosh it around with your fingers. Once you think it’s covered sufficiently, pick it up. There will be ink/water that will move around. Feel free to tilt your paper around or, better yet, use a heat tool to push it around for cool texture on your awesome custom background. Here is a background at the point of being smooshed and dried with a heat tool one time.

See how there is still inky water on the color block? Now that my paper is dry, I’m going to smoosh it back on the block a second time to layer another set of color and texture on top. After I do that, I’ll heat dry it again. You can do this multiple times until your background looks how you want it to.

Another thing to keep in mind is that these are addicting to make! I always plan to make at least 4 at a time because I get ideas to try as I’m playing around. It’s fun and then I have backgrounds ready to go when I feel like making a card. Sometimes I use them immediately and other times they sit there for weeks before inspiration strikes me. In the end they have almost always been my favorite cards once they are finished.

Here are the four backgrounds I created during this session.

I made these one evening and then turned two of them into cards the next night. I’ll be sharing those with you tomorrow. So for now, I hope you take time to play and give this technique a try. I had so much fun making these and I know you will too.

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Rabbit Hole Designs Card Trio

I am over-the-moon excited to share with you these three cards featuring The Rabbit Hole Designs caffeinated critters stamps and sentiments.

This past Monday, April 29, was a new release day for them! They added 5 new stamps to their collection – 3 new critters and 2 sentiment sets. So obviously, I needed to order some of these hilarious, coffee deprived critters. And I did just that. Then, I (im)patiently waited until Thursday when the mail came with my new toys. By then I knew exactly what I wanted to try with each of them first.

Let’s start off with this too-funny bee desperately in need of some honey-infused coffee. I knew two things: I wanted to stencil the background and I wanted to make it a shaker card.

So, I started by using mustard seed distress ink and some Honey Bee Stamps layered hexagon stencils to make this cool hive background. Then I copic colored my bee using the following colors: T5, T7, Y11, Y13, Y15, R24, R27, R29 and BG000. I fussy cut him out, then stamped and heat embossed this hilarious sentiment on a vellum strip.

Next, I began to build my shaker. Since I don’t have frame dies, I took two nested rectangles and just cut the smaller one out of the bigger one leaving me with a perfect frame! I attached the frame to a sheet of acetate and then used my anti-static powder bag on the inside and the distressed background. I added foam tape around the edge and filled it with some shaker bits that I had in clear, gold and black. Then I layered the backing onto the frame, sealing the shaker. Next, I added my bee and sentiment to the front and attached the entire thing to a card base. Voila! Honey-infused, caffeinated fun to mail to a friend!

On to this amazing shark! For this card I knew that I wanted to try using the molecular compound stamp as a background and what better way than to make it the sunshine in the sky.

I stamped and colored my sleep deprived shark with copic markers using the following colors: C1 is a base for the entire shark, B32, B34, B37, YG05, YG07 and YG09. I fussy cut him out as well and then began die cutting some waves using the Lawn Fawn stitched wave borders. I also used the speech bubble die from Lawn fawn and stamped the sentiment on that. Then I layered it all together, hiding my shark in the waves like he’s just bobbing there waiting for a refill.

Once, I adhered my panel to my card base I thought it was missing something. With an Aha! moment, I grabbed some kraft cardstock and used a Lawn Fawn stitched hillside border, stamped the hashtag on it from the shark stamp set and glued it to the bottom for an ocean floor. I think it rounded out the card perfectly. Because, let’s be real…this shark is #jawsome!

Finally, I moved on to the T-Rex. Honestly, he’s my favorite! I have a serious thing for dinosaurs.

I started this card by stamping my cup rings and splatters on the kraft cardstock background. Then I colored my T-Rex with the following copic colors: YG93, YG95, YG61, YG63, YG67, E00, V12, V15 and V17 and fussy cut him out. I added a floor with some patterned paper and adhered it to the card base with the dino on top of it. Then I stamped my sentiments at the top left and this simple, funny card was done.

These cards were an absolute blast to make. The critters are so fun and expressive! I can’t wait to make more funny cards with these guys and all of the great sayings.

Check out The Rabbit Hole Designs. To celebrate their new release they have deals going on until May 10. Go ahead, treat yourself!

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

Concord & 9th and Lawn Fawn Thank You Fairy Much Card

I’m so excited to share this adorable, bright fairy thank you card with you today. I recently placed a fun order with Scrapbookpal.com, including some things I wouldn’t typically choose. I love this site and they have recently added some new, big names to the companies they carry including Concord and 9th, The Stamp Market and Gina K Designs to name a few.

In this order I was sure to add this amazing Concord and 9th Big Thanks die as soon as I saw it. I immediately had so many ideas for it and couldn’t wait for it to arrive so I could start playing. Today’s card showcases this die with Lawn Fawn Fairy Friends stamps and coordinating dies.

I started by blending distress inks on smooth white cardstock and then spritzing them with water for that great oxidized look. The colors used here are, from the top down, twisted citron, cracked pistachio, mermaid lagoon and blueprint sketch.

Then I laid out my card before stamping the images, just to make sure I knew everything was going to fit okay on the card front.

I also want to mention that this is my first time using Lawn Fawn’s Jet Black ink pad which is copic friendly. I was excited since I haven’t been happy with the other stamp pad I’ve been using for copics. I’m elated to report that it worked amazing and I’m instantly in love!

When I colored the fairies, I planned their outfit colors to match the area of the distress ink they were in the most.

After I colored and die cut the fairies, I also die cut the big thanks die four times from white cardstock and stacked them together for some fun dimension. I attached the die cut word first with liquid glue and then added foam to the back of the fairies.

I used my Wink of Stella clear glitter brush to add shimmer to the fairies’ wings and the entire thanks die cut. Then I added these great bubbles from Honey Bee Stamps around the card and finished off the front with some white gel pen accents.

The very last thing I did was stamp the sentiment “Thank you fairy much!” on the inside with Bermuda Bay Stampin’ Up ink.

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day!

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

I love creating and I love sharing what I create with those around me. I go through phases of spamming my Facebook and Instagram accounts with my creative process and end result projects. In doing so lately I thought, maybe I should focus my audience to people who actually want to see these things instead of my unassuming and innocent friends and family.

Since you’ve made it this far, I assume you’re interested in seeing fun paper creations and maybe even find some inspiration. I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to leave me comments and let me know what you like and what you don’t. Constructive criticism is fabulous and appreciated as I find my way along this journey.

I’d like to start by sharing some cards I’ve made in the past that stuck out to me as a favorite or specific success.

Here I’ve used the Lawn Fawn peek-a-boo backdrop die on both cards which gives you four fun windows to play with. For the top card I used distress inks to blend a water background and spritzed it with water give the cool distressed look. Then I added critters, a diver and the submarine from the Lawn Fawn You Are Sublime stamp set. It turned out so cute, I loved it! The bottom card showcases Lawn Fawn’s Really Rainbow paper and an Avery Elle stamp set called Peek-a-Boo Pals. I colored all of the stamped images in these two card with copic markers.

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Next I am really excited to share a shadow box card features a spattering of Lawn Fawn dies. The only stamping on this card is the sentiment. I was so excited how it turned out. I love it so much!

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Here is the front giving the recipient a little clue about the fun in-store when they open it. I love this little crab and palm tree. But once they open it…

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there is this amazing shadow box filled with a whole ocean/beach scene! Love from the crabs all around and a little whale peeking in to say hello too! This card was so much fun to make.

This last card is my latest pièce de résistance. It was a card for my grandma’s birthday. I spent over a week planning it out in my head and most of a day stamping, coloring and assembling it.

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It features Honey Bee Stamps Busy Bees stamp set and dies, along with the Lawn Fawn Fancy Wavy Banners stamps and dies for the sentiment and finally some Nuvo Crystal Drops in Morning Dew. This is a shadow box card that squishes flat to fit in an envelope and then pops open when you pull it out. If you look carefully, two of the bees inside are mounted on clear acetate strips and move from side-to-side when you pull on the tabs of the card. It looks like they are buzzing around the flowers. I love the dimension of this card and how well the colors came together.

This is just a small sample of some cards I have made in the past few months and was excited to share. I can’t wait to share more with you and have some fun themes planned over the next few months. I hope you come back to see what I’m up to.

I appreciate you sharing your time with me. Have a fabulous day.