Ombre inking!

Howdy friends! This week at Oriental stamp Art there was a sketch challenge. The challenge was to make a card with strips of cardstock in various shades of the same color. I hit my scrap bin but could not come up with the colors I wanted so I did what any self-respecting crafter does (no, I did not go the the store) I figured out another way!

I love the look. All you need is ink, masking tape (I used painter’s tape because it is less sticky) and a stipple brush (I used a color duster by Judikins but any hog bristle brush will work). Watch the video to see how I made this card!

In the video I mentioned 2 companies i have loved for years. I find Asian paper and embellishments hard to come by and when I find some I like I am afraid to waste it. I was looking around at Lettering Delights yesterday and found beautiful Asian papers, clip art and svg die cuts. They have a nice feature on their site called the “Try Me Now” tool and you can see all of the items in a set up close and if you purchase the set you can easily print them right from the site. You should download anything you purchase just in case but you can print your stuff with a click of a button! No opening software and knowing how to use it just click on the image, paper or what have you, type the size you want and click print, easy as pie! and in the case of paper you save a lot of room on your hard drive! Did I mention easy? If you have purchased anything from lettering delights in the past you can log in at the site and it is all there! You can even type out titles and just print that, it is amazing I tell you! You can go play with the try me tool even if you have never bought anything, be sure to checkout the monthly freebies while you are there and sign up for the newsletter because thy have coupons sometimes! They are have a dollar sale on some of their stuff right now too.

The other company I love is About Art Accents, I love their Asian stamps from the delicate nature stamps to their bold paper-cut stamps they offer a great stamp for whatever theme Asian card I want to make!

If you have any questions on the techniques I shared today just leave a comment! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Stamping with Acrylic Blocks!

Let’s get a little more use out of out supplies today and use something we already have in a new way. If you use clear or unmounted stamps you have acrylic blocks around (if not look around for a scrap of plexiglass or a plastic block to use) and while they get a lot of use as stamp mounts you can use them on their own to stamp too! Look at the squares on this card, they were stamped with distress ink and stamp mounts. The dragonfly stamps are from About Art Accents.

This is a fun and easy technique. Experiment with different papers to see what you like best! Watch the video for the how-to and more ideas!

I stamped my samples on glossy photo paper then I stamped a postcard background on green paper and glued it to the back of my stamped photo paper.  Post cards are fun and I don’t send them nearly enough!

The other sample was done on watercolor paper, a different look, try different paper for different results! Let me know if you have any questions and til next time happy crafting!

a “Diamond” in the rough!

I tried a diamond fold card for the first time today, I’m not sure if this is something I’ll do again or not, it was easy enough and it is lovely but I’m not so sure it is my cup of tea:)

Stamps: About Art Accents, PP on card: Nicecrane designs, PP on envelope: K&co, Basic Grey, Dies Cuttlebug

I made the envelope with my scor-pal (see yesterdays post for a tutorial) and when you make these envelopes you have strips of paper left over, I scored some at 1/2″ intervals and accordion folded it to make the ruffled flowers next to the envelope in the above pic, you can find a tutorial here.

Pattern paper: Nicecrane Designs, Stamps: About Art Accents

For the beautiful poppy I stamped the image (About Art Accents) twice on white cardstock and colored it with copics (3 coral shades) and trimmed them closely. I crumpled the first one and glued it to the card then I cut slits between the petals on the second flower and gently bent then to add dimension before adhering it over the first poppy with foam tape.

T he beautiful Asian papers on the card is from the Washi Texture collage sheet and the Spring Flowers collage sheets from Nicecrane Designs. These patterns are so pretty and easy to work with, I just print and create!

Thanks for stopping by, til next time happy crafting!

Feeling a bit Challenged today…

…but in a good way! I had a chance to play in my studio this morning with my new pile of “rubbah” from About Art Accents (I so needed to get inky) and I got 2 challenges done! The first is this weeks sketch over at 2s4u:

Stamps: About Art Accents, Sketch: 2 sketches 4 you

I know the simple sketch would showcase the beauty of these stamps. Isn’t the bamboo lovely? The rectangle with the blossoms on it is from this plate of lovelies. The bamboo and sentiment is from this plate. You will notice that I cut the english word and bar apart from the calligraphy, that is the cool thing about unmounted stamps (or clear for that matter) you can cut them apart to suit your needs. I will write the meanings of the caligraphy on the back of the stamp (and the orientation) so I don’t forget! All About Art Accents stamps are REAL RED RUBBER so they take ink really well for a perfect impression every time, try them you won’t be disappointed;) They are a good deal too 🙂

Stamps: About Art Accents, Tool: Cricut Die Cutter/SCAL software, Cart: Storybook, Font: DB Asian Serenity

Over at Oriental Stamp Art they challenged us this week to use a panda in out artwork. Can you believe I don’t have a panda stamp? (I probably just need to look harder LOL!) so instead I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) software to cut this panda dingbat from the font DB Asian Serenity. I sized the panda to 3″ and cut it in normal mode from black, then cut it from white with the shadow blackout mode on and pieced it together. I love how I can cut the fonts and dingbats on my computer with SCAL, it is perfect when I just need a little something for a card!

The mat is from the Storybook cart, it is a sneaky peeky shape, press the key that says “from” and make sure the accent shadow button is lit up and there it is, I thought it looked Asian 😉 This is my first time using this cart as I just bought it on sale for $24 last week, yay me!

All the stamps on tha panda card are from About Art Accents as well. thanks for stopping by and till next time happy crafting!