Guest Designer - Marsha Drain

It's time for some guest designer inspiration, and today we're sharing the work of Marsha Drain of Gramma's Room. Marsha not only made an adorable birthday card, but she also included directions and a template for creating a step card! I love the bright, happy colors of her card, and especially like her fun design.

Here's what Marsha says about putting this cheerful card together:

"Most of the time I do my cutting with a guillotine type cutter but in order to make this side step card, I pulled out my smaller cutter .  I started with a 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 piece of orange cardstock.  After cutting the two lines as per the template, I moved the card to my Scor pal and scored all the lines.  After making the base and adhering the dotted patterned paper with Tombow Adhesive tape, the really run part began - stamping the cake, the cluster of balloons and coloring them.  Both the cake and the balloons are cut out with coordinating dies.  The large balloons were cut from cardstock that matched the Copic colors I used on the small balloons.  The sentiment piece is cut with a Spellbinder circle die and backed with a Spellbinder scalloped circle die. After coloring the cake, I added liquid pearls to the dots on the cake

All the balloons and sentiment are adhered to the steps with Scor Tape.  The last step was to pop the cake up with dimension foam tape."

 

Products used:

Paper Sweeties stamps and dies

Stamploration balloon dies

Spellbinder circle and scallop circle dies

Scor pal

Scor pal tape

Tombow mono adhesive

Fiskars  trimmer cutting blade

Copics

 

 

I'd love to see what you've been creating, so stop by the current link party and showoff any creation that includes a product or two from one of the companies carried in the Cropstop store. 

November Link Party - # 45

Hello crafty friends! It's time for another link party here on the Cropstop blog. Today I'm sharing an autumn window card I created with a floral embellishment. For a mini tutorial on creating the sunflower visit this post from several weeks ago. (This card uses one each of the two smallest sizes.)

To create the background I scored a piece of kraft cardstock every 3/4 of an inch and swiped my walnut stain distress oxide across it. I die cut and distressed the window using the same ink. I also sponged all of the leaves with coordinating colors to add more depth and interest to them.

Supplies and Tools:

• Scoring Board
• Sunflower Stamp Set (Heartfelt Creations)
• Meadowbird Branch Die Set (Memory Box)
• Window Two Die (Spellbinders)
• Fall Folliage (Tim Holtz)
• Frond Punch (Martha Stewart)
• Burlap String
• Sponge Daubers
• Instant Coffee
• Distress Ink in these colors
• Gathered Twigs 
• Mustard Seed
• Fossilized Amber
• Spiced Marmalade
• Mowed Lawn
• Distress Oxide (Ranger) in these colors
• Walnut Stain
• Peeled Paint
• Squeezed Lemonade
• Wild Honey
• Cuttlebug
• ATG gun

 Now it’s your turn to share the projects you’ve been working on! As always our link party is "Anything Goes" with these few simple rules

1. Create ANY new project using a product or two from one of the companies CropStop carries in the store. (It’s ok if you didn’t buy it from us, and also fine if it’s a product we don’t currently have it in stock as long as it’s from one of the companies we carry!)
2. Please, no back-linking old projects
3. Limit 5 entries per challenge
4. Link your project here, link back to this post, and mention the CropStop Challenge in your post.

We’ll choose one random Winner who will receive a prize from the CropStop Store! (100 or more links = two winners and two prizes!) Thanks so much for linking up with us, we look forward to seeing all your great entries this month. Grab our badge and help us spread the word that CropStop is a great place to play along!

Optional Twist for November:

Create a project that includes fall leaves and I'll enter your name twice in the random draw.

Guest Designer - Heather Mills

We're back with another project from a talented guest designer. Today we're sharing the work of Heather Mills of Wire Wrapture. Heather created a beautiful summer themed card featuring sunflowers with fun sparkly centers! I love how she paired her image with the wood grain embossing folder - perfect combo!

Here's what Heather says about putting this lovely card together:

"I started out with some white co'ordinations card stock (which of course, I cut using my Fiskars paper trimmer!) for my base and scored it with my scor-pal as a top folding card.  For my next layer, I used the Darice Woodgrain embossing folder to emboss another piece of co'ordinations card.  Then I used my Ranger mini ink blending tool to ink the edges of the embossed panel with Tim Holtz Antique Linen Distress ink.  I use Spectrum Noir markers to color my image twice, so I could cut out the two larger sunflowers and pop them up with some foam tape.  Then I used Ranger Cinnamon Stickles to dot the center of the flowers.  I love the sparkle it adds.  I matted the image panel with some My Favorite Things brown card stock and then layered that on some My Favorite Things patterned paper.  I heat embossed my sentiment with white embossing powder on a scrap of the same MFT card stock and added 3 tiny rhinestones.  For adhering things together, I use my Tombow permanent adhesive runner for most things.  I used it to adhere the image panel and the mats together.  But whenever I adhere embossed panels, I like to use scor-tape as I feel it gives a stronger hold.  In the picture below, you can see more of the sparkle from the stickles."

Now it's YOUR turn! Stop by our current link party and showoff any project that includes a product or two from one of the companies Cropstop carries in the store. 

July Link Party - #41

Hello friends! Today I'm sharing my updated tutorial for creating a weathered wood background. I originally posted this on the Wordpress blog, but since we are no longer using that site I thought I'd post it over here as well.

Step One: Gather your supplies - White Glue, Paint, Stiff Cardboard, Sandpaper
Step Two: Cut your cardboard to size and using a Scoring Board, create boards every 1/4 inch
Step Three: Cover your entire piece of cardboard with white school glue and let dry till tacky

Step Four: Paint over your tacky glue with your choice of paint (I used Blueprint Sketch Distress Paint ---- NOTE: do not apply using applicator, remove lid and use a paintbrush!)
Step Five: Dry using a heat gun (if you did it correctly, cracks will appear)
Step Six: Add a coordinating color of paint  and heat set (I added Hickory Smoke Distress Paint)

Step Seven: Apply a little bit of Picket Fence Distress Stain and rub in with your finger (heat set)
Step Eight: Re-score your lines
Step Nine: Sand edges and center to create a rough, worn look

Here's how I finished creating my card:

• I added a piece of blue Petaloo lace across the bottom of my wood background
• I die cut a bird cage using the Gilded Birds die (Memory Box - Poppystamps) from dictionary page
• In the bottom corner I added greenery and branches cut from the Fall Foliage Thinlits (Tim Hotlz)
• I created crinkle ribbon using seam binding and Wild Honey - Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide (Ranger)
• I created three flowers by layering punched dictionary pages and adding a tiny pearl to the center
• I tucked a pretty little bird from Mitrushova Art into my ribbon
• The top of the cage features one of the dictionary page flowers glued over a Burlap String bow
• Underneath is a tiny die cut tag (Cuttlebug) stamped with a sentiment from Dina Wakley's Little Birdies and inked withe Walnut Stain Distress Oxide

 Now it’s your turn to share the projects you’ve been working on! As always our link party is "Anything Goes" with these few simple rules:

1. Create ANY new project using a product or two from one of the companies CropStop carries in the store. (It’s ok if you didn’t buy it from us, and also fine if it’s a product we don’t currently have it in stock as long as it’s from one of the companies we carry!)
2. Please, no back-linking old projects
3. Limit 5 entries per challenge
4. Link your project here, link back to this post, and mention the CropStop Challenge in your post.

We’ll choose one random Winner who will receive a prize from the CropStop Store! (100 or more links = two winners and two prizes!) Thanks so much for linking up with us, we look forward to seeing all your great entries this month. Grab our badge and help us spread the word that CropStop is a great place to play along!

Optional Twist for July:

Create a project that features a handmade wood background of any kind and I'll enter your name twice in the random draw (for each project linked)!

Happy 4th

Since Independence Day is just over a week away, I decided to create a fun  patriotic card to share with you today. When I received the Poppystamps balloon dies in the mail, I knew I wanted to do something "different" with them. So instead of using them to create a birthday themed card, I used them on this bold and bright July 4th card!

To create my card I:

• tapped out some Ken Oliver color bursts (Ultramarine Blue and Alizarin Crimson) on two separate sheets of watercolor paper
• spritzed my colors with water and heat set 
• cut a complete set of blue and red Happy Balloons (Poppystamps - Memory Box)
• added the red letters to the blue balloons and the blue letters to the red balloons
• embossed the top part of a piece of card stock with the Stars embossing folder from Darice
• scored a line under the stars and stamped a patriotic sentiment from America Collection (Amy Design) in Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink
• popped up my balloons with mounting tape, added a few tiny punched stars, and matted it on coordinating blue card stock

Since you have to cut two sets of balloons to get the letters to coordinate, you may as well make two cards! Now it's your turn to share what you've been creating! Stop by our CURRENT LINK PARTY and showoff any project that includes a product or two from one of the companies Cropstop carries in the store. Happy Crafting!