Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge Guest Design

There's nothing better than the feeling of scrubbing off inky, messy hands after a good play session in the studio. 

I have the honor of being a guest designer this week over at Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge. I happen to love this challenge because it's always anything goes as long as it's a mixed media project. 

One of my friends asked for a special commissioned card for his wife on their anniversary. 

I started with a piece of white background and stamped it with a text background stamp and Walnut Stain Distress Oxide. I spritzed with water and then added two drops of Cosmic Shimmer Watercolour Ink. 

Next, I added another layer of stamping with Visible Images Fibrionaci stamp, embossed in Speckled Egg Distress Glaze. 

I decided on the different elements I wanted to bring into my card - a peach frame that I covered with blue and gold InkaGold to antique it, and a white butterfly that I sprayed with Distress Spray Stain and then added Speckled Egg Distress Glaze before heat setting it (and almost starting it on fire. :o ) 

I started layering my card with Prima flowers, my frame and the butterfly, and then added little bits of ivory frantage around the edges before dusting it with some Speckled Egg Distress Oxide Spray Stain. 

I added some romantic, gushy words to make it appropriately lovey-dovey for an anniversary and - I've got to say it turned out sooooo pretty. 

Thanks for popping by, and I hope you'll go get all inky and play along at Creative Artiste. 

Handmade Card for the Most Beautiful Person in the World

 Do you ever have that one friend who is basically the best? Who shows up for you? Who lends you all of her vast array of tools because you don't have a handy bone in your body? Who won't cry with you because she's too busy grabbing the tissues and a bottle of wine? 

Now. Do you have have a friend like that who ALSO has an amazing husband who commissions a birthday card for said friend? 

It's at that point you KNOW you have to pull out all the stops. I'll apologize in advance because I got completely swept up in the crafty process and did not stop to take photos along the way, but I'll explain what I've done. 

BACKGROUND: 
Created with the new Tim Holtz Cracked Campfire Distress Oxides. Process? Spill it all over your desk and then frantically mop it up (more about that in a blog post to come) This was the dregs of the dregs of the dregs of the cleanup process. Next, I stamped the flowers from STAMPlorations Dee's Artsy Impressions Wooded stamp set in the corners using the Tea Dye Distress Ink. I painted the flowers in with gesso to give them an antiqued feel and then painted around the edges of the flowers with Tea Dye for a shadowed effect.

FOCAL PANEL: 
Die cut the panel using the Spellbinders Labels 41 die set. Then I stamped the flowers using Tea Dye Distress Ink and watercolored them by smooshing some Cracked Campfire (blossoms) and Peeled Paint (Leaves) onto a pad then picking it up with a wet brush. The centers of the flowers have Antique Bronze Perfect Pearls, as well as seed beeds. I cut some of them out for dimension. The sentiment is from the STAMPlorations Big Grins by Becca Cruger Strong Women stamp set. 

P.S. - STAMPlorations clear stamps are all 25% off right now so... beeline for the store if you want to snag either of these sets. 

I love this sentiment. A) because I love books (even though I think Fitzgerald is the worst - fight me.) and B) because it's just the epitome of everything I wanted my friend to know, and I'm sure that her amazing husband feels about her. She truly is beautiful, so I'm chuffed with how this card came out. 

I'm linking this up to the following challenges:

Little Red Wagon: Nature, flora or fauna

Crafty Gals Corner: Fall Colors

Aud Sentiments: Anything Goes + a Sentiment

Sailing Away

Hello lovelies! 

Week four of social distancing. I'm doing far better than I was two weeks ago. No shower crying and TONS of house projects being done. 

I've loved seeing how all of my artist friends and cardmaking friends are chugging along in creative land and using this time to create beautiful things in the midst of chaos. 

And I love how all the crafting companies are coming together to build community. One such company is Paper Anthology. They're giving four challenge prompts per day and hosting nightly zoom calls! You can participate in some or all of their challenges. 

 

One of the challenges today especially caught my eye. Can you tell why? I dusted off my Distress Inks and even threw in a Distress Oxide and used the smooshing technique to create a watery background full of inky depth. 

After everything dried, I added in a little bit of Picket Fence Distress Spray Stain (don't mind the terribly messy bottle - inky fingers are a real thing). 

I stamped a ship from the STAMPlorations True North set in Blueprint Sketch. 

 One of the reasons I like Distress Inks so much is because you can use them in so many ways - like watercoloring! I just wet my brush and pulled in the blue stamped edges to add some shading. 

 Then I smooshed some Vintage Photo Distress Ink onto a craft mat and picked it up with my paintbrush to color in the woody part of the ship.

I made some waves using the STAMPlorations A Ton of Fun stamp set and then added sentiment to finish it all up.  

I'm hoping to join in one of the Zoom calls on Sunday so maybe I'll see some of your smiling faces there!

Mixed Media Graduation Card

It's graduation season, and this year it seems like LOTS of my friends are graduating with their college degrees. Tomorrow I have >count them< THREE back-to-back grad parties. Which, of course means I need cards!

So I decided to take this month's Theme and Sketch challenge over at STAMPlorations and make some fancy dancy grad cards. 

If you're wondering how to play along in the STAMPlorations challenge, just use either the sketch OR the theme OR use both. You can make a card using any brand of stamps (although it's extra nice when you use STAMPlorations). 

For my design, I spritzed the back with a green Distress Spray Stain, flicked it with black Spray Stain to give it a little messier of a feel, and then stamped over that with some stamps from the Mixed Media Grunge set. 

The focal images aren't cupcakes (as you probably could tell by now). They're graduation caps from the Snarky Cap & Gown set. I'm always looking for good graduation sets and this one is awesome! It's designed by yours truly and if you order it you can get 20% off by using code STAMPGIRLBECCA at checkout. 

Last but not least, I die cut a big congrats twice and stacked them for a little bit of dimension. 

Thanks for popping by! I hope you'll come play along with us! 

Wooded and Healing Herbs

There are two brand new stamp sets on the block and they are BEEEAUUUUUTIFUL!!! 

Over at STAMPlorations we're releasing Wooded and Healing Herbs, designed by Deepti! 

 

These stamp sets are so versatile and you can build your own little scene with them. I got to play around with Wooded and couldn't wait to make these two cards. 

For my first design, I used these dainty little flower sprays and paired them with branches. I "watercolored" with Distress Markers and, since I stamped the branches with Distress Inks, I just applied a little bit of water over the top to make them less of a perfect impression and let the colors bleed onto my paper. Teeny little pearls finished off this pretty, girly design. 

I'm going to add this card to the Watercooler Wednesday - Feminine challenge and Creative Inspirations Spring Greens challenge.

For my next design, I went with something a little more clean and simple because I wanted to play along in the Cardz 4 Guys Challenge. This design is a whole lot of versatile and perfectly masculine and earthy.  

I repeat stamped the wood circle rings with Distress Oxde inks, then spritzed liberally with water so it would bleed. I splattered it with some white Distress Spray stains and added some fussy cut leaves.


Make sure to go check out this special release and leave a comment on the STAMPlorations blog because you could win a $20 gift code to the STAMPlorations store!

STAMPlorations Challenges are BACK!

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

You may have noticed over the summer that I took a little hiatus from regular blogging. That's because I was crazy busy with some of the art shows I'd signed up for, plus doing some community work. Stay tuned early next week and I'll share some of my summer hijinks with you. 

But for now, I'm here to tell you that STAMPlorations challenges are back, too! They also went on a little summer break. But now we've got a whole new crop of fresh challenges and great prizes. 

The sketch this month is:

And the theme this month is: 

You can play along with either the sketch or the them OR both! Options!

For my design, I decided to work with the theme. Believe it or not, we had our first snowfall last night and so I'm already wistful for Autumn. *sigh*

The first thing I did was to add a layer of prettiness to a sheet of mixed media paper. 

I used these Ken Oliver Color Burst Crystals and Liquid Metals to create a flowy, vibrant background. 

Over the top of that, I added a layer of Faber Castel Glitter Bead gel through the Botanical Lush stencil. Because let's be real here, everyone loves glitter. 

Once that dried, I speckled the background with green & red Distress Spray Stains. 

I double stamped a leaf from the Trendy Leaves stamp set, using Fired Brick Distress Ink and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxide. 

Added a sentiment from the Buttercups & Butterflies stamp set, some ribbons, a little glue and BAM! One gorgeous Fall card. 

Pop on over to play along in the STAMPlorations theme & sketch challenge and to see all the other crafty inspiration. 

PSSStttt - if you're looking to add to your stamp collection, you can get 20% off anything in the STAMPstore using code STAMPGIRLBECCA

Fun Stampers Journey + Coffee Loving Papercrafters Blog Hop

Today the Coffee Loving Cardmakers team is pairing up with Fun Stampers Journey for a super fun and inspirational blog hop. You should have come here from Lori Turner's blog.

I absolutely love, love, love the quality of FSJ products. Their stamps are sooooo fleepin' cute and I can't wait to show you what I made with thier die cuts, too!

I inked up the Coffee Helps stamp set using some Walnut Stain Distress Inks. 

 

I painted in the plate using some gold Distress Paint to give it a pop o' elegance and then I splashed the same gold paint on a Hello Word Bubble wooden embellishment. 

A little stamping in the background with the coffee stain stamp, and then some more gold paint and viola! I a clean and simple mixed media card with a whole lotta personality. 

Since clean and simple cards are the complete opposite of my normal style, I had to go back to layering it up and my next card is a shabby chic creation. 

Layers and layers and burlap and twine and lace and die cuts - oh my!!! 

I used the Coffee Helps die set and some pretty paper from Bo Bunny to create my coffee mug.

Fun Stampers Journey is giving away a $25 gift card to a lucky hopper! So hop along, comment on all the blogs, and get some inspiration! Comments close on July 27.

Next up is Dana Gong's blog. 

Happy Hopping!

Sunshine on a Rainy Day Stamped Card

March in North Dakota usually means blustery snow and cold. But this week, right before we got walloped by a blizzard, there was a thunderstorm and tons of rain! Mother nature acted a little bipolar. 

In honor of our rainstorm, I busted out the Sparkle in the Rain stamp set by Visible Image and let my inner optimist shine with this card design.

I began by embossing the umbrella girl in black and then scribbled over her with shades of yellow gelatos. 

I blended the gelatos with my fingers and then used a damp paper towel to wipe off the excess gelato from the embossed image. 

I masked over my image and most of the yellow portions of my card and then stamped some raindrops using blue Distress Inks. 

I thought the card paired perfectly with this big ol' happy sentiment from the Express Yourself set. 

I embossed it on black paper and then painted in the sunshine with a bit of yellow Distress Oxides, followed by a healthy does of Spectrum Noir sparkle markers - because who doesn't love all things GLITTER!?

A little background of patterned paper and viola! My design was complete!

I'm going to play along in a few challenges: 
Just Add Ink - Just Add Water
Aud Sentiments - Anything Goes plus a sentiment
TIME OUT Challenges - Bold (I used lots of bold colors)

Thanks for popping by, my friends and be sure to head over to the Visible Image blog to check out some awesome inspiration!
 

Zodiac Birthday Card - Cancer Style

Friends. If you haven't been to Visible's blog yet, you are missing out. They just released an amazing array of new designs, and my heart is swooning at each of them! 

Among the newly released beauties is a whole set called "Written In the Stars" which has all of the signs of the zodiac and each of their attributes. 

I don't necessarily follow my stars or anything like that, but every once in awhile I have fun reading my horoscope. I'm a Cancer myself, and when I got my hands on the set, the attributes were pretty spot on "sensitive, caring, intuitive, sentimental, and emotional". 

Originally I thought about paper piecing my crab and pulled out a bunch of red patterned papers, but as I was pulling out my scraps, I came across this piece I'd made by sopping up the leftover inks on my craft mat after a project. (Waste not, want not.)

Since Cancer is a water element sign, the leftover paper totally spoke to me and I scrapped the scraps. 

Continuing with the water theme, I pulled out my Kuretake Gansai watercolors and added some various shades of red, with hints of blue.

I cut down the background, using mostly reds and orange hues. As I was chopping my paper to size, I spotted these old wax sealer things that I've never used and had a thought. I used my embossing tool to heat the wax, and pressed it into the background. 

I'm definitely going to use this technique again in the future because it resulted in "wet" spots, even though the wax is perfectly dry! 

I used some Weathered Wood Distress Ink and repeatedly stamped the Cancer phrase over and over again. 

Some additional stamping, fussy cutting, and blue fibers later and my card was complete! 

Head on over to the Visible Image shop to see all the new releases! Thanks for popping by!