Shameless Self Promotion

I have a fun project on the Crafts ‘n things blog site today — cute favor boxes made using Lifestyle Crafts dies.

Check it out at http://blog.craftsnthings.com/?p=8698

Thanks for indulging me! (And feel free to leave some love there … Grin.)

Fabulous Finds Friday — New Inks

New inks (from Clearsnap and Ranger) were introduced at the recent Craft and Hobby Show, and I love them both!
Today, I’ll play with a new palette of Archival Inks created by Wendy Vecchi for Ranger. The vintage-y colors coordinate beautifully with Ranger’s Distress Inks. These inks are permanent, which means they won’t react with water. Yay! You’ll see why that’s a good thing.

The Buzzing Bee image (from Close To My Heart) was stamped first in Ranger’s Archival Fern Green. I heated the image with my heat tool, then applied Ranger Distress Inks (crushed olive, broken china, fired brick) with a foam applicator. (When rubbing on inks, start off the paper to get a softer look. You can see how imperfect I am at this … I have one semi-harsh line on this sample.)

Now here’s the fun part: Using a dot stencil (The Crafter’s Workshop), I sponged water over the Distress Inks. Because Distress inks are water-reactive, I could take away color, leaving the cool ghostly imprint. Sponge over the stencil, blot with a paper towel, and there ya go. I also flicked a bit of water on it to get some ghostly spatters.

The panel was mounted on paper from Close To My Heart’s new Laughing Lola collection. The fun embellishing “dots” are also from CTMH.
I love the modern color combos!

Here’s a card that uses the same archival ink in a more traditional way:

The papers and embellishment are also new, from Close To My Heart’s Sarita collection.

Stay tuned for Clearsnap’s SurfaceZ inks, coming up!

Celebrate an Easy Card

Oh, how I love a quick and easy card!

You can’t get much easier than this:

When making a quick card, color is often the key. Here I stamped the flags from Hero Arts/Studio Calico set ST510 using the bright colors in Stephanie Barnard’s signature ColorBox line (Tangerine, Banana, Spearmint, Grape, Bubblegum and Sky. Yum.)

These were stamped on a white panel. The baker’s twine (Close to My Heart) is held down with a dab of Ranger’s Glossy Accents. Celebrate (Hero Arts) was stamped in black, and a few Dew Drops from The Robin’s Nest were added, held down with Glossy Accents. The panel was mounted on a piece of WorldWin card stock.
Bam! Done!

Thanks for stopping by!

Bling It Up Friday … Simply

I’ve already raved about the sheets of bling from the Buckle Boutique (here), but I couldn’t resist sharing three more simple cards, all jazzed up:

I ran a piece of white cardstock through my Cuttlebug Damask embossing folder then added a strip of Buckle Boutique’s gold bling and a flower (Imaginisce, Bazzill Basics collection), embellished with a pearl brad from K&Company.

A detailed view:

Same technique, different card:

The rosette was made from a Tim Holtz/Sizzix die and affixed using Glue Arts’ 3D Raisens; the rainbow bling is also from the Buckle Boutique. The embossing folder is a Cuttlebug folder. The cardstock is from Stampin’ Up!

One more:

Embossing folder is Tim Holtz/Sizzix; Stampin’ Up cardstock and image; Eyelet Outlet strip of pearls.

Thanks for coming by!

Hot Hobby Trends

Wondering what’s hot and trendy? Want to get a look at the nifty craft items already making their way to stores, or still to come? My exhaustive report from the Craft and Hobby Association’s summer trade show can be found on the Crafts ‘n things magazine blog. Simply go to the site, hit the blog tab and then scroll down until you find the CHA Hot List report. It is posted in two parts, as a Great Finds Friday feature: Aug. 16 and Aug. 30.

Here are some snaps that didn’t make it into the story: (please note, there are sneaky advertising links inserted here NOT by my doing. I am trying to figure out how to remove them. In the meantime, be aware of links that have double lines underneath — I have NOT inserted those!!!)

I have already admitted that I am loving all the dies available today. So it’s no surprise that I’m wild about this Christmas tree die set from Elizabeth Crafts. Is this fun or what? What other ways could you use the dies? I may have to put this one on my personal wish list.

And Dreamweaver, one of the first companies to offer great stencils, now has stencils and dies…oh my! Check these out:

These sticky notes from Little B are just the start of the cute items they have, from labels to decorative tapes.

Stay tuned for more!

Fabulous Finds Friday: Chevron Punch

Chevrons are still oh-so-trendy, so imagine my delight with this new *chevron punch from Stampin’ Up!

Check out this quick card that highlights the punch design:

(The sentiment is from Stampin’ Up!‘s Wonderful Words set and the darling bird is part of Besty’s Blossoms. The bird was embossed using American Crafts’ Zing lavender. The pretty branch is a die from Penny Black, and it was the perfect fit here.)

There’s an added bonus with this punch — the punched out pieces create another chevron!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend.

*See disclaimer.

Two Bright Cards

Here are two fun, bright cards (also fast and easy!):

Isn’t she sassy? She’s from Loralei Designs. The words are from Hero Arts. The bright paper is an old one from Paper Source.

The bird and sentiment are also from Hero Arts. Both images colored using watercolor pencils, one of my favorite mediums.

Have a great week!

Fabulous Finds Friday — To Die For

I am now addicted to dies. I love dies that are so delicate I could never cut them myself, I love dies that match stamps, I love dies that let me cut multiples of something…I love dies!

Here’s a pretty one from Penny Black stamps:

The daisy die is called Bashful. The sentiment is also from Penny Black. The background paper is an old one from The Robins Nest (I distressed the edges then added yellow ink) and the daisy chain ribbon is from Making Memories.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Quick Card

You know I am so impatient to play with new toys … so when I got this Tim Holtz/Sizzix Townscape die, I grabbed the first piece of cardstock on my messy desk and cut.

Here’s a quick card, just playing around:

I had already cut the arch (Spellbinders Arched Windows One) into an A2-sized card, but never did anything with it. The glossy paper had already been dragged through some Distress Inks. That was the first thing I glued down, which is kind of dumb … working backwards! Then I hunted for an image to fit behind the window (Tim/Stampers Anonymous Life’s Possibilities). The front looked too plain, so I stippled with various inks in blues (Distress) and a touch of grey (Marvy Matchabel) and edged the window in brown ink (using a Tsukineko dauber, which I love.)

And there ya go… a quick — not great — card.
Thanks for coming by!

Fabulous Finds Friday … At the Craft & Hobby Show

I survived the Create-n-Connect trade show put on by the Craft & Hobby Association, but I’m sure by now you have seen lots of other videos and reports directly from the show floor. My report will be coming soon on the Crafts ‘n things Web site (Aug. 9 and Aug. 12).

Needless to say, there are fabulous new stamps and dies and tools to be seen and lusted after! I’ll be spotlighting many of them within the next few weeks.

In the meantime, here’s a fun card made using an M-BossibilitiesTM embossing folder from Spellbinders:

The pretty shiny paper is from Core’dinations Gemstone pack that I ran through the embossing folder, then distressed the edges. The punch is from EK Success. I ran it through my Xyron Sticker Maker to get a nice, even adhesive with no muss.

Here’s a detail shot:

The bird is from Hampton Arts, the sentiment from Hero Arts, and the tiny metallic hot-fix embellishments are from Imaginisce.

Thanks for stopping by!