Collage Valentine's Day Card

Today I'm up on the STAMPlorations blog with a whole feature tutorial on how to create this collagey Valentine wonder! 

I talk all about creating a colorful decoupaged background.

Creating a grungy background using the Artsy Border Maker stamp set. 

And the perfect non-mushy sentiment and focal image using the Funny Kinda Love stamp set.

Go check out my tutorial on the STAMPlorations blog and also feel free to use my code STAMPGIRLBECCA for 20% off anything in the STAMPlorations store. :) 

I also would be remiss if I didn't mention where I got all my lovely collage papers. My friend Lauren Bergold of all the GOOD blog names were taken gave me these awesome papers as a gift and I, of course, am in love with them. She finds the perfect old books, dictionaries, and encyclopedias and creates amazing packages of collage paper in her Etsy store.

Stenciled Backgrounds & Paper Pieced Flowers

Today, I'm up on the STAMPlorations Blog with a little tutorial on how to make this card.  

The tutorial has some super fun ways to use up leftovers by creating your own artsy patterned paper with stencils and Distress Oxide inks. 

Vibrant & fun! I would be remiss if I didn't mention where the inspiration from my card came from. The moment I laid eyes on the inspiration image for The Card Concept, I just knew I needed to dream up something. 

Thanks for popping by and go take a peek over at STAMPlorations! 

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

Babies and Patterns!

Do you ever design a card and then think, I need to make 19 more just like it? Well that's exactly what happened to me with these adorable baby cards. 

I decided to take on the challenge from Sketch Saturday. Their linkup party has ended now because I procrastinated, but credit where credit is due! 

Little did I realize it had ONE BILLION layers to it. (ok, ok, I'm being dramatic, it's only 13... haha - ONLY 13). 

But it did give me the chance to flex my pattern mixing muscles. 

I'm linking the boy card up to the Alphabet Challenge B is for Boy Cards. 

Coincidentally, I have about 13 pregnant friends right now (ok, ok, I'm being dramatic but I do have at least 5 that I can think of off the top of my head). And the sad part about it is, most of my friends who are preggers are sharing about how they can't have their partners attend ultrasounds, or host the baby showers they were planning. It would be really tough and scary to be pregnant right now.

But the minute I laid eyes on the finished design, I squeeed with delight and then had to make up more. They're so happy and every time I stamped a little onesie (STAMPlorations Bee's Knees BabyBump set) it felt like "buying clothes". 

I liked it so much I made a girl one: 

And I made a gender-neutral one: 

This color scheme was inspired by the TGIF challenge:

I've been hoarding all these 6x6 coordinating paper packs, and these proved to be the easiest way to pair patterns. All in all, I made 12 different designs because I had so much fun! 

I'm also going to link this up to the STAMPlorations never-ending anything goes challenge. 

Thanks for popping by! 

Rainbows!!

Rainbows are a sign of hope and a signal of all things happy. So sometimes, if I'm feeling blue, I paint a little rainbow or two. 

I got the STAMPlorations Art Marks 2 set in the mail this week and fell in insta-love with it. I looked at the scribbly little stamps and immediately was drawn to one that looked like a rainbow. 

I know they are just a bunch of innocuous little marks, but all I see are possibilities!

So I stamped this one, and masked it, then started a stack of rainbows. Please don't mind the messy stamp block - that's my real life. ;) 

I used my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors on these because I wanted a nice vibrant color. I looooooove how saturated these watercolors are!

After I finished my rainbows, I stamped an equally graphic retro sentiment (STAMPlorations Big Greetings).

I'm linking this up to STAMPlorations Anything Goes CAS challenge with the optional twist of Lemon Yellow. 

I also had this piece of rainbow watercolor paper I'd created earlier, and couldn't resist throwing together this scrappy, bright card with the xxxx stamps!

Paper Shelter has a Happy Colours challenge going on and I definitely think this applies!

Lotsa Layers Spring Card

Do you ever just sit at the craft table, find a pile o' scraps, wave a wand and magically have a card appear? 

... yeah... me either. 

But! By some force of wizardry, that's exactly what happened yesterday! 

As I've mentioned, I've been playing along with some of the challenges released by Paper Anthology's Creation Staycation. One of 'em caught my eye last night - Black, White and Tan. 

Why did it catch my eye? Because I had a big pile of black, white and tan scraps from my last cardmaking class sitting right in front of me. I always love mixing and matching patterns together - especially if they SHOULDN'T belong. But tell me something doesn't belong and I will prove you wrong! 

I grabbed a few scraps and put them on top of each other and literally designed this card in 30 minutes. That NEVER happens to me. Usually I spend 2 hours or more agonizing over a design our swip swapping paper and second guessing every decision. 

I stamped flowers from the Trendy Spring Blooms STAMPlorations set using a tan light tan color. (I know it's out of stock right now. Sad face.) Amazingly - that's the only stamping I did on this little number. I added a little bit of glitz and glitter using a Wink of Stella pen, and finished it but adding some ivory embellies to the center of my flowers. 

I'm so happy with how this one came out, and LOVE that I even got to use the binding scraps from watercolor paper! Reduce, reuse, recycle, rebuy every kind of paper you can find. ooops.... that last one is true, though. #guilty. 

Also linking this up to the Never-Ending Anything Goes Challenge at STAMPlorations. 

Thanks for popping by! It's been fun to be back in the bloggy world. 

Quarantine Schmorantine

Hellooooooo my bloggy friends. Ope. Hold on one sec. 
..
....
......
Ok I'm back. Sorry. I had to shake the rust off my blog. 

As you may have realized, I definitely have taken a hiatus from the bloggy world of cardmaking to focus on my mixed media canvas art business (you can see what I've been up to on my Instagram @damselofdistressed). 

But the thing is - the world is changing. And right now this Extrovert with a capital "E" is holed up practicing some social distancing and canceling all my plans and meetings. My two little nieces, who live in my house with me and their mama, just came back from a trip to Florida so they are quarantining for 14 days and I packed one rolly suitcase of crafty supplies and headed to stay at my boyfriend's apartment until they're cleared. 

So what's a girl to do with all her unexpected free time besides turn back to her first love of cardmaking and blogging. Can't wait to check in on some of you and see what you've been up to. 

For my card today, I decided to break out my STAMPloration stamps and do some watercoloring. I have limited supplies, so CAS is what's in in my world right now. Luckily STAMPlorations has an Anything Goes Clean and Simple card challenge every month with an optional theme of using light blue. 

I didn't choose the optional color twist, but I DID choose some fresh Springy colors that made me feel especially happy. The flowers are all one stamp from STAMPlorations - the In Bloom: Floral Bliss Trio - so no tedious masking required. I embossed them in gold. 

Once I had watercolored everything (which honestly took soooooooo much longer than I remember. God bless the watercolor cardmakers of the world.) I sprinkled it with a little white Distress Spray Stain and then embossed an uplifting sentiment from the Buttercups and Butterflies set. 

Honestly, it felt so good to make a pretty card and get lost in a design for a couple of hours. Thanks for stopping by!

How are you all surviving this current global nightmare? 

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!

Glittery Snowflake Holiday Card

Is anyone else busy huffing glitter in their craft rooms this time of year? There's something about the holiday cardmaking season that brings out my innate love of glitter and intensifies it to an all-time high. 

...

Sorry, I got distract by glitter for a second and had to stare at the photo above before I could continue.

Luckily, whether you are a glitter fan or not, STAMPlorations has you covered. Our Theme and Sketch Challenge has two great options for you to craft your heart out AND win some pretty sah-weet prizes. 

This month's theme is:

And this month's sketch is: 

You can choose to play along with either the theme or the sketch, or mash 'em together and play along with both! 

I made this sparkly background using Ken Oliver Color Burst crystals and covered it with a layer of Faber Castell Glass Bead Glitter Gel, smooshed through the Old Rose Prints mini stencil. 

I added some chipboard snowflakes, plus glittery snowflake embellishments and embossed a big ol' sentiment (Merry & Bright - Typografia Christmas) to complete this holiday card. 

All-in-all if you're looking for quick and stunning cards to send out this Holiday season, totally pin this design because it packs a big bold punch while being pretty simple to put together.

Pssssttt right now if you use code DECEMBER2018 you can get 30% off your order of stamps in the STAMPshop. Plus if you use code STAMPGIRLBECCA you get an extra 10% off. So treat yourself or some of your fave crafters to a snazzy and low-cost Christmas present! 

Stenciling Techniques - Sanna Lippert New Release

It's a paaaaaarty! A new release party that is! Sanna Lipper, one of the fab-o designers at STAMPlorations has released a whole new line of stencils. And we got to have a crafty play. They are all so gorgeous and perfect for mixed media play.

Today I'm going to be showing you a cool stenciling technique using Distress Oxides. 

This technique is actually the reverse of stenciling because you're taking OFF the color with a stencil, instead of applying it. 

Step 1: Sponge on a healthy layer of Distress Oxide onto a dark piece of cardstock. Because oxides are highly pigmented, they are designed to sit on top of the dark color. I used Broken China Oxides over a navy blue paper. 

Step 2: Bust out your stencil and tape it down so it won't move. Dampen a piece of paper towel, using a small amount of water (you don't want it too wet or your cardstock will pill). Wipe wipe wipe wipe wipe. The color will start to lift right off.

Step 3: Remove stencil and oooh and aaaah... I love the pattern of this Cornflower stencil.

I also splattered it all over with Picket Fence Distress Spray Stains.

Next, I made a correlating embellishment - also with my stencil.

Check out all that texture! Basically I swiped a layer of texture paste through my stencil, then added a layer of blue embossing powder before heat setting.

I fussy cut it and BEHOLD!

Isn't it pretty? 

I also played around with Sanna's new Lupinus stencil, too.

This one is so pretty and would be perfect for either mixed media OR clean and simple cards. 

Pssst in honor of this new release, all ARTplorations stencils are 15% off. and you get a FREE stencil with every order. Plus you can use my code STAMPGIRLBECCA for an extra 20% off your order. :)

Now go get hopping and then get shopping.