Baby Pink Card - Two Ways

I'm a card designer who likes to explore different styles. My favorite style by far is mixed media, followed closely by shabby chic because both seem to come naturally to me. It's like my brain thinks in layers. 

And while I admire clean and simple cards, the style is as elusive to me as liking exercise. I swear to goodness, I just LOOK at some white space and BAM! an inky thumbprint appears. 

So since there are a bevy of challenges I wanted to play along in this week, I decided to try my hand at creating both shabby chic AND clean and simple cards. 

My shabby chic card is inspired by the swath of pink flowers in the inspiration image at Inkspirational and the sketch challenge at Beccy's place. 

 

I wanted to create an uplifting card and I bought a brand new kit from Unity Stamp Company that's perfect for anyone worrying in this time of uncertainty. 

I'm in loooove with all the texture in this design and also with that big scrawly sentiment. 

My next card was inspired by three different challenges: STAMPlorations CAS card challenge's current theme is anything goes with the option of baby pink. I'm also using the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches. 

 

And there's a really cool technique challenge at the CAS Mixed Media Challenge that I've never tried before: gesso resist. 

I've done resist with a lot of things, but I've never tried it with gesso. 

I painted a stamp I had from the STAMPlorations Trendy Butterflies stamp set with a thin layer of gesso and then stamped it into the center of my paper. I apparently hadn't cleaned my stamp from the inking before and so it turned out a little gray - which I actually didn't hate. 

Gesso resist definitely isn't as foolproof as embossing resit. I found that I couldn't quite wipe away all of the color, but nonetheless it was pretty. 

I sponged it with some Distress Inks, splashed with a little bit of water, and then used some Pink Distress Oxide Spray Stain to add a little bit of darker splatter. I finished it with a simple sentiment.

It was a fun challenge to try such different styles! Which one do you like best?

Distress Oxides - Take 2! Sponging on Kraft

As you may have known (by the large earthquakes stemming from North Dakota) I have been jumping up and down in my excitement to finally have time to break out my brand new Distress Oxides and play. 

I'm planning on having tons of time this weekend to explore some of the other things, but I really wanted to give these babies a whirl on kraft paper.

Guys. Guys. Mind = Blown.

I cannot believe how pretty they look when sponged over kraft paper.
If you're new to the Distress Oxides, what rock have you been under? Haha - just kidding. If you're new to Distress Oxides, they are a pigment + dye based ink fusion. What that means is that the pigment portion of the ink sits on top of the paper. Which means that you can use it on kraft & black cardstock. 

But before I get tooooooo far, I also want to say that this card was made for the brand new challenge at STAMPlorations. 

 

The theme & sketch challenge is exactly what it sounds like. Choose the theme or the sketch OR use both! There's prizes for the winners and you can use ANY brand of stamp you want! So, what I'm saying is... YOU should go play! 

I chose to use the theme: Spring and picked out these pretty little daisies from the Pocket Blooms stamp set. I embossed them in white and then began sponging. 

See how well that color shows up? You'd never be able to get that with a dye based ink, and pigment based inks leave an oily little residue that doesn't dry for...like... ever. Distress Inks dry within a minute! 

Like all Distress products, Oxides react uniquely with water, too! I sprinkled some water over the ink and dabbed it up. That's when the magic "oxidization" happens. 

Yeah.... I love this technique with Distress Oxides. Definitely going to be using this one again. 

I added the Thanks Word Die cut to the center panel.

I used Worn Lipstick and Fossilized Amber Distress Oxides for these two cards. 

Blam! Two super pretty and relatively easy cards to make! 

If you are thinking about buying any of the stamps/dies used here, just know that my bloggy subscribers get 20% off ALL the things in the STAMPlorations store by using the code STAMPGIRLBECCA. 

I'm also going to link up to:
Addicted to Stamps and More: Anything Goes
Paperminutes: Spring

Thanks for popping by!

Deepti's Popped Hop!

Many of you might know the lovely and oh-so-kind Deepti Malik of Dee's Art Utopia. Well good news! She's had a precious little boy - her very first child! The girls at STAMPlorations decided to have a surprise card "shower" for her. 

Since Dee is a watercolor wizard, I decided to go with that! 

I actually got this stamp set when I was 14 years old. It was my very first stamp I ever owned. I walked into a scrapbooking store with my grandma, and for some reason I fell in love with this big ol' sentiment. My grandma, who lived on a fixed income, saw how much I loved it and bought it for me. I was soooo happy when she gave it to me. Such good memories and I'm glad they are being put into a card for Deepti. 

Very clean and simple, but I think impactful and pretty! 

I'm going to link it up to:

AAA Cards - Love me like you do (I know this isn't the typical valentine that they will get, but I think it fits the theme just perfectly)

If you want to join in the celebration, you can link up your baby card for Dee over on the STAMPlorations blog! 

BS Sessions - Gesso and Gel Medium Tutorial

Hello Friendly Friends and welcome to another monthly installment of the BS Sessions! 

What are the BS Sessions? Well Samantha knows how to work a marker like nobody's business and Becca loves to get messy with mixed media. We both wanted to learn the other person's crafty secrets so we're going to ask one another a question on the last Thursday of the month. Becca will provide you with some amazing Mixed Media techniques and Samantha will show you some tips and tricks about coloring! We'll both provide our followers with a little tutorial, because if we have these questions - our followers might too!

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Which brings me to this month's question, asked by Sammy:

What is the difference between gesso and gel medium?

What a great question, huh?

I know I did a canvas a while back and explained some of the differences then, but there is definitely more to add, so I thought I'd give it a go by breaking it down into a nice Pinnable (wink* wink) graphic for you! 

These are just some of the uses, and please bear in mind that I use these things primarily for cardmaking/art journaling and not canvas artwork (usually). So the uses I'll be discussing today will geared toward cardmakers and papercrafters.

Since I covered some of these things in an EARLIER TUTORIAL with pictures, I'll dedicate this post to some of the techniques that I didn't delve into.

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Now, I want to also point out some things when it comes to the products I'm talking about. I don't care what brand of gesso or gel medium you use (I usually use whatever is on sale). You're gonna get the same results. 

But there IS a breakdown in what TYPE of gesso or gel medium you use. For instance, gesso comes in different varieties. I'll be using white gesso, but black gesso is also commonly found. OR if you want a different color gesso, you can color it by using Distress Stains, gelato shavings, and any other tinting medium. (but that's for another day).

Gel mediums are usually clear (but can also be tinted) at they come in glossy (shiny) and matte (not shiny). There is also a breakdown in what TYPE of gel medium you use:

Soft gel - doesn't create much texture, smooth clear

Medium gel - thicker texture, can be used as adhesive

Heavy gel - thickest texture, used to adhere objects (like chipboard)

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Ok. Now that those bases are covered, here's two techniques you can try. One with gesso, one with gel medium. 

Gesso Technique: Stamping

For this technique, you'll need a paintbrush a stamp that's doesn't have a ton of details, and some wet wipes. 

Start by painting a thin layer of gesso over your stamp. 

Working quickly to keep the gesso from drying on your stamp, press firmly into the paper, making sure not to wiggle the stamp. (please excuse my messy acrylic block - I'm a real crafter). 

IMMEDIATELY after stamping, make certain to go wipe off your stamp. If the gesso dries, it could gum up the details of your stamp and ruin it. 

Gel Medium Technique: Sponging Resist

For this technique you will need gel medium, your favorite stencil, baby wipes, a palette knife, sponges, and inks. 

Start by using a palette knife to scrape a thin layer of gel medium through your stencil. I am using medium weight gel medium. 

 

After the gel medium is dry, use your favorite inks 

to sponge softly over the stenciled pattern. 

Lastly, use a baby wipe to wipe off excess ink that remains

 on top of the gel medium. 

Ooooo pretty! Stay tuned later to see this pretty background made into a card! But for now, make sure you head on over to Sammy's blog, where she is showing you all about how to color fur onto stamped images of animals! 

Thanks for tuning in! 

Dreaming of a Pink Christmas

I don't know if you all know this - what with the million challenges out there relating to the subject - but October is breast cancer awareness month. One challenge you ALL should participate in is the Jingle Belle's Challenge. For every entry they receive to their Pink Christmas challenge they are donating $2 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. There's no limit to how many entries. So this challenge is getting a BIG call out here.

CLICK AND SUBMIT! Just go do it! You can be creative AND do good!

So, with the premise Pink Christmas, I knew I wanted to create something sparkly and pink. I broke out my snowflakes and stamped them into some embossing ink. I spread some holographic embossing powder over them to give them a real shimmer. Next, thanks to the Ombre challenge over at Just Us Girls, I used my distress inks to create shades of pink and really make the snowflakes shine. 

 

I used the following pinks: Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick, Picked Raspberries. 

To create a tag for my card, I used a bunch of wintery sentiment stamps and arranged them all together in a pattern. I squished some inks on a craft mat and spritzed with water then stamped my image into the watery ink, before stamping onto the tag. It gives a really blurry watercolor feel. 

I think the end result is just stunning! I never would have thought to create a pink Christmas card, so thanks Jingle Belles!!

I used this sketch from the Retro Sketches competition for my card layout:

I'm also going to enter this into:
Simon Says Stamp's Use Watercolor challenge
STAMPlorations's Stamps and Embossing challenge
Penny Black's Get Ahead for Christmas challenge

To those of you who leave me a comment: Bless your little hearts. They make my day. 

Waterdrop Technique

It's a boy! My cousin gave birth to a beautiful baby boy tonight and right after work I set about making her a congratulatory card to celebrate the little peanut.

Do you ever have emotional relationships to stamps, or am I the only weird one? When I was 14, I saw this beautiful stamp in a crafting store and my grandma saw me staring longingly at it. She, being the amazingly generous person that she is, surprised me with it. I have TRIED over and over and over again to use this stinkin' stamp but I always wind up hating the end result because the stamp is so big. Which makes it the perfect entry for Simon Says Stamp's Boldly go into STAMPtember challenge!

I finally conquered the stamp! I saw this technique where people emboss resisted the background images, and I thought - hey! Why not try it with a sentiment? I embossed the saying using white embossing powder and brushed over it with a heavy coat of shades of blue Distress Inks. Next, I dropped large droplets of water on to the paper, and let it sit. 

It creates this gorgeous result that, I think, compliments the saying perfectly. 

After the droplets formed, I dabbed it with a paper towel and used my heat tool to dry it. In addition to the big stamp, I think this card is bold because I took on two somewhat dated crafting materials: vellum and mulberry paper. I remember using these things back in the day, but haven't seen them used very recently - especially not the mulberry paper. 

I positioned mulberry paper behind the stamped image and distressed the edges using Faded Jeans Distress Ink. To tackle the vellum, I busted out my Cricket Basic Shapes cutter and made some flowers. I used blue vellum, dabbed it in Faded Jeans and painted over it with Perfect Pearls Blue Patina before drying it with a heat tool. Boy were my hands messy!!

The flowers turned out with this grungy, textured, shimmery feel and I finished them with some blue embellishments. Finally, I used some tiny sequins sent to me by my friend, LaVon Hall. 

The finished card looks like the perfect thing to send to my cousin in honor of her little bundle of joy!

MATERIALS:

• Distress Inks: Stormy Sky, Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans
• Perfect Pearls: Blue Patina
• River City Rubber Works, "Oh, but I Won't Know" stamp by Kay Foly
• Cricut Basic Shapes cartridge
• Blue embellishments
• Dark blue and white cardstock\
• Tiny sequins
• Light blue vellum
• White mulberry paper