Bellarific Friday - Photo Challenge

Happy Weekend Crafters! My card today is for this week's Bellarific Friday challenge based on the gorgeous photo below. I used one of the new Stamping Bella stamps called TINY TOWNIE GARDEN GIRL LILAC. Isn't she precious??

For this card, I choose Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers as my coloring medium. I find I get the best results with these markers when I use Bristol Smooth White cardstock. I also don't apply the markers directly to the paper. I color the marker onto a piece of laminated white card stock and use a paintbrush with a tiny bit of water to apply the color to the image. This helps me control the vividness since Zigs are highly saturated. Once completed, I fussy cut the image, added a little bit of stickles to the center of the flowers and Spectrum Noir clear sparkle pen to the leaves. 

Next up I focused on the background. I drew inspiration from the photo and wanted to create a tone on tone brick wall. To do this I grabbed some translucent embossing paste and a stencil. To create a smooth surface for the frame, I cut a piece of masking tape the size I needed and put that down before covering the card base with embossing paste. The trickiest part was peeling up the mask. You have to do it before it dries or it will be stuck permanently. I used a pair of craft tweezers to help me with this task.

Once the embossing paste was dry, I die cut the frame from a piece of gold foil and adhered it into place. I then used some dimensional foam tape to pop up the Tiny Townie. I needed a small sentiment, so I pick this one from another Stamping Bella set called BUDDING CHICK RUBBER STAMP. The finishing touch was tying a bit of pink ribbon around the bottom. 

Here's a close up of some of the details and textures:

Be sure to check out the Stamping Bella blog to see what the rest of the BellaBabes created using inspiration from the photo. Also, if you would like to participate in Bellariffic Fridays for a chance to be entered into a monthly drawing to win some Bella Bucks click on the link below for more details.

Next week's Bellariffic Friday challenge is ANYTHING GOES. I hope you join along and create something with us! Have a wonderful day and I'll be back soon! 

Muse Challenge #68

Happy Thursday crafters! It's been such a busy few weeks for me at work and I'm looking forward to a little break with the long holiday weekend. My family is coming up on Friday and my Mom and I are going to go visit the My Favorite Things Boutique. I recently realized it is in Eustis, Florida which is like 25 minutes from here. We are so excited that we both have our little wish lists! Can't wait to share some new creations from our haul soon!

So for today's post, I was inspired by this card created by Marion Vagg over at The Muse Challenge:

I love chevrons and wanted to try out another technique with my recently purchased embossing paste. Flowers were a large part of the Muse design, so I took that inspiration and thought about what brings the flowers, spring showers!

For the background, I used the Raindrop stencil from My Favorite Things with Wendy Vechii translucent embossing paste. While it was still wet, I sprinkled on some Martha Stewart iridescent blue glitter to add some shine. I waited for it to dry completely and then heat set it. The only thing I'm not a fan of is that even when dry, the glitter is still flaking off. I took a soft brush and tried to knock off all the loose glitter, but it's a losing battle. I'm going to have to invest in some embossing glitter so that it stay on, lol!

The little couple and sentiment are from Unity Stamps. It's an itty bitty set called "Rain or Shine." I stamped the image on white and patterned card stock. On the white paper, I colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I then fussy cut the umbrella from the patterned paper and attached it on the other image with pop dots to give it more dimension. I finished it off with some Crystal Effects on her rain boots and a silver brad sticker on the center of the umbrella.

I die cut a few cheverons borders from a scrap piece of silver paper I found in my stash. I adhered those to the card and added my little couple. I felt it needed a sentiment but wasn't sure how to incorporate it without intruding on the background. I have been working with clear acetate sheets a lot lately and had a little scrap piece on my desk. I grabbed my StazOn ink and tried it out. It was a perfect way to have the sentiment without breaking up the layout of the card. To attach it, I used Crystal Effects so it remained clear.

I really like the overall look of the card and was pleased with the embossing paste background. This stuff is so much fun and I would definetly recommend it if you are looking for a new way to make custom background with a little dimension.

Be sure to head over to The Muse Challenge to see all of the other fantastic entries. They are really inspiring and I can't wait to see what the next challenge will be!

Thank you for checking out my blog. Until next time!

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge - Anything Goes

Hello Crafters! I've been intrigued by this embossing paste trend that keeps popping up on some of my favorite blogs. It seems like there are so many different things you can do with it. So I decided to order a couple of stencils and some embossing paste and give it a whirl! Here's my first attempt:

I could not believe how easy it was! I thought for sure that when I pulled off the stencil the paste would have bled through and smudged, but it came out so crisp. I wanted to keep the clouds fluffy so I didn't smooth out the paste very much on the stencil. I also applied my heat gun right away so that the clouds puffed up more.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with this cloud background at first. I tried several different things, but I kept coming back to the Sunny Side Up set by Paper Smooches. I stamped the kite onto red paper and two different patterned papers. I then fussy cut the patterned pieces and adhered them to the red piece. When I cut out the final kite, I left just a little hit of the red card stock as a border. I grabbed some red and white twine and taped it to the back of the kite. Using pop dots, I attached the kite and played around with the best placement for the twine. Once I was happy with that I added a couple of little stamped bows.

This little squirrel from Paper Smooches is one of my favorites. He's so versatile and I love to figure out what scenes I can place him in. I stamped him on kraft card stock and used some brown Prismacolor pencils to enhance his fur. I also stamped him on white card stock so that I could cut out his eyes. Once I glued them in place, I applied Crystal Effects to make them a bit shiny. After I fussy cut the little critter, I placed him on the card making sure his hands were attached to the twine.

Originally, I forgot to leave a place for a sentiment. I didn't want to add a banner or more paper so I decided to see if I could remove a cloud. Amazingly, it scraped right off. I used my adhesive eraser to remove any remaining residue. Super easy!

Here's a close up of some of the details:

I wish you could feel the card. The little clouds are fluffy and really add a unique dimension to the card. I can't wait to play with this technique some more!

I'm entering this card in the Paper Smooches SPARKS Anything Goes Challenge. Check out all of the other fantastic entries at the link below.

Thank you for stopping by today! Until next time!

Supplies: Paper Smooches Stamps - Sunny Side Up and Hang Ups; Recollections - Home Basics patterned paper stack; Memory Box - Cloud Cover stencil; Dreamweaver Stencils - white embossing paste; Paper Smooches - Peppermint twine; Stickles - Red and Diamond; Stampin' Up - Crystal Effects

 

Posted with Blogsy