This Little Card of Mine

Rainbow Dandelions!

Ok, I do realize that in real life there are no rainbow dandelions.  But don't you wish there were?

The Picket Fence Studios Dandelion Stencil has such a fun graphic feel that I thought it would be perfect to do in rainbow colors.

To create the stencil background, on white cardstock tape off the stencil so only one stripe was showing. Use a life changing brush to apply Distress ink color to the row. Then move the tape to expose the next row and use the next color. Repeat until the whole card is covered.

Mat the inked panel with a very thin mat of black cardstock and then adhere to an A2 sized top folding card base.

I used the Because Stamp set and stamped a greeting on white cardstock using black ink. I fussy cut around the greeting and then popped it up with some foam tape and added it to the card front.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

 

The Perfect Embossing Powder

I love embossing powders -- so fun to work with. The new trio of colors by WOW for Honey Bee Stamps are so beautiful. And the Bee Sweet one is just perfect for honeycomb (and many other things of course).

To start this card I used the Hexi Pattern Stencil and applied Versamark to white cardstock. Then I sprinkled it with Bee Sweet embossing powder and heat set it. What's so perfect about this is that it isn't a solid gold. It also has flecks of brown in it which I love.

I used the stitched frames die to create the front panel and set it aside.

To create the sentiment I used the Thinking of You honey cuts dies, using black and white cardstock. The words were adhered to the background using Gina K Connect Glue. 

I used the Paper Piecing bees to create the bee on this card. So easy to make with black cardstock and a scrap of gold cardstock. 

To assemble the card I adhered a piece of black cardstock that is just a bit thinner than a top folding A2 white card. The embossed panel was adhered using strips of foam tape. I also used foam tape behind the words and bee. The final touch as adding a little clear Wink of Stella glitter pen to the bee. 

Thank you for stopping by today!

 

 

New Honey Bee Stamps Exclusive Embossing Powders!

[Links to products used are at the bottom of this post]

I am so excited about these exclusive embossing powders from Honey Bee Stamps. They are perfectly matched to colors in Honey Bee Stamps' Bee’s Knees patterned paper and they are amazing.

You might be thinking how amazing could they be?  Well, two of them are sparkly, but not TOO sparkly. Just enough to not make a glittery mess. And the golden color has flecks of brown in it and is so perfect for bee-like things!  (I will be featuring a card soon using just that powder.)

For this card I used all three:

I used the three embossing powder colors with the Bitty Patterns stamp set and you can see that the paper that I used for the card front matches perfectly.  After I stamped and embossed the gingham pattern I trimmed them down to squares.

To create the card front I used the Honey Bee Stamps double stitched square dies – using the largest one with the patterned paper and the next largest with Neenah white cardstock. I adhered these to the front of a 5.5 x 5.5 inch card base.

I adhered the embossed squares across the center of the card, popping the middle one off of the card front using foam tape for some dimension.

I wanted a bold greeting so I used the Honey Bee Stamps Hello Honey Cuts dies, using some cardstock scraps that match the patterned paper. I added it to the card front using foam circles and then colored over the white hello with Wink of Stella clear glitter pen.

For the final touch I wanted a ‘sub-greeting’ on the card and I used the Honey Bee Stamps Missing You stamp set using Gina K Designs Jet Black Amalgam ink with another cardstock scrap. I adhered it with the Altenew adhesive.

I wish I could do justice to the embossing powder. Try it!  And thank you for stopping by today.

Picket Fence Studios June release day!

[Links to product used are at the bottom of this post]

So many fun new products - as usual. And you know me -- Kitties!  So I had to use the adorable new Litter of Cats stamp set.

Sets like this can be daunting -- you thank, man, this is going to take me all day to color. I colored this in about 5 minutes. I have fallen in love with what I have heard referred to as illustrative style -- like kids' books. Just grab a few Copic markers and messily (is that a word?) color just around the edges. And done!  I added a bit of blue Copic coloring around the outsides to make the image stand out and I was done.

The rest of the cards is simple too. I cut a piece of striped paper to 5.75 inches square and then mounted the focal piece on a very slim mat of light blue cardstock. Then I stamped the greeting using Altenew's new Obsidian ink (LOVE), die cut it and popped it up with foam tape.  DONE!

Thanks for stopping by. 

Honey Bee Stamps and Kitties!

And in the case of this card - THREE kitties. Honey Bee's Oh My Whiskers stamp set is so adorable. 

To create this card I used the new Honey Bee Stamps Bee's Knees paper pack and their deckle circle dies and created concentric rings of paper to form the background. They fit together imperfectly because of the deckle and I like that!

Before adhering them to the card I used a Life Changing Brush and some Simon Says Stamp Sea Glass ink to fill in the open background on a piece of white cardstock.

Then I stamped the kitties and two butterflies using Gina K Amalgam ink. My Copic coloring was minimal on this -- I'm into that illustrator look these days.

I used the Purrrfect Sentiments stamp set to stamp the greeting and then hand cut the banner. I adhered it with foam tape and did the same with the colored images. 

A little Wink of Stella clear gel pen on the bucket and then I added the card front to a top folding white card base.

Honey Bee Stamps Ramblin' Man Release Instahop

Today there is an Instahop happening (on Instagram) with the Honey Bee Stamps design team today. Head on over to my Instagram at @janamillen to enter for a giveaway!

I made a card for my dad for Father's Day. He loves music and it was so easy to find something to use for that in this release.

I started with the card front using a piece of Neenah cardstock cut to 4 inches x 5.25 inches. I usually don't pay too much attention to exactly where the paper and stencil are positioned on my media mat but for this card I did -- I wanted to be able to have the square with the sentiment, stamped in a different color, exactly match the pattern behind it.

I taped the paper and stencil down on my media mat and used the gridlines on it to precisely place it. Then I used the Life Changing Brushes and 3 Gina K ink colors (linked below) to add color randomly through the Sheet Music stencil. Then I took another piece of white cardstock and did the same thing with Simon Says Stamp Fog ink, being sure that they are in the same place.

I used a square stitched die to cut the sentiment piece exactly where I wanted it on the main card front. Then I matted it with Turquoise Sea cardstock from Gina K. You can see that I adhered it with foam tape to match the image underneath. 

From here finishing the card went quickly. I cut a piece of Turquoise Sea cardstock to A2 size and adhered it to a top folding card base. Then the card front was adhered using Be Creative Tape. 

I added a few Honey Bee Stamps enamel dots and this card is done!  Thanks for stopping by today.

 

 

Rest and Refresh release - from Simon Says Stamp

[Links to the products I used are at the bottom of this post.}

Rest and Refresh sounds wonderful doesn't it?  And so is this new release from Simon Says Stamp. I LOVE the Your Light Stamp set I used on this card.

So easy to create beautiful scenes. For this card I stamped three sailboats on watercolor paper using Versafine Ink and then embossed it with Clear embossing powder. These images were very thoughtfully designed. These sailboat images come from one stamp that, when stamped side by side creates a continues water line. How cool is that?

From there I just did some messy, light watercolor using a wet brush and Altenew pan watercolors. I love the clear colors in this set and they aren't too saturated so you can easily get a light wash - the look I was going for here.

I stamped the Greeting using black in using my MISTI -- that last thing I wanted to do is mess up at this point!

I adhered the watercolor to a piece of black cardstock with foam tape and adhered to a white card base.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Enjoy shopping the new release!

Here are links to the products I used: 

 

In love with Distress Micro Glaze - and Gina K!

[ Links to products I used are at the bottom of this post]

Sometimes I buy specialty products and never use them - or I take a long time to use them. All it took was watching some YouTube videos and I am hooked on one of those products. Distress Glaze is so easy to use and it brings out the layers and vibrancy of colors when used with Distress Oxide Inks.

 

For this card I used Distress Oxides -- Weathered Wood, Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans. I applied ink on to my media mat putting the colors close to each other (just pushed it down to wiggled around and get some ink on the mat). Then I sprayed a little water on them to get the colors to move a bit. Using a piece of Alcohol Ink Cardstock (NOT Yupo paper) I turned it shiny side down. Then I smooshed it down on the ink -moving it around a bit to get color on it. I blotted off any drippy water on the edges with a paper towel and then dried it with a heat gun. You want to be sure that it is dry before doing the next layer. You just keep repeating the process, turning the paper to get colors where you want them. I found that once I got to the 3rd or 4th layer I needed to add a little more ink or water to the mat.

The wonderful thing about Oxides is that because they are more opaque than other inks they don't give you a muddy color as you add more. Once the final layer was to my liking I dried it and it had a very chalky finish (a property of Distress Oxides). But....

The magic happens when you apply the Distress Glaze. The little pot it comes in is just the right size for the round ink applicator to fit down in there.  I thought it was going to be firm and it wasn't. So don't do what I did and push down hard into it!  You get a mess.  All you have to do is touch the ink foam on it and swirl it a bit and make sure the glaze is on there. Then...

Just apply it to the cardstock using circular motions. You really are sealing the surface. But also?  You will see the layers come to life and become more vibrant. What was beautiful about this color combo is that somehow it brought lavender tones out. I found myself just grabbing ink colors and doing this over and over!  I wanted to see what the glaze did to the colors. It is such a fun technique.

I used a wonderful stamp set by Gina K (Wild Blossoms - FAVE) for the images. I used Archival Ink and it's slippery on this surface. So use a stamp positioning tool. I used my MISTI to stamp both the greeting and vine image from the set.

I cut the piece down to 4 inches x 5.25 inches. Then I added a super thin mat of black cardstock around it, using Be Creative Tape to adhere it to the card front. I attached it to a top folding white card base using Foam Tape. 

I thought the card needed a little sparkle so I added Honey Bee Stamps Gems to the vine.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you will try this technique.

Picket Fence Studios with embossing on vellum

Hi everyone! This card is also on the Picket Fence Studios blog today!

I used the Picket Fence Studios Poppy Blossoms stamp set- so beautiful. There are so many ways to use it (check out Judy's card yesterday on the blog) and today I used it to create a soft and feminine card with vellum and embossing powder. [Links to products used on this card are at the bottom of this post.]

I started with the vellum card front by rubbing it with the anti-static powder bag to avoid getting embossing powder where you don't want it. I stamped the poppy image with Versamark and added embossing powder. To avoid warping heat up the heat gun for a bit to get it good and hot. I started from the back to keep the powder from blowing around then embossed from the front, moving the gun around constantly.

I cut a piece of Cashmere cards to 4 inches by 5.25 inches.  The vellum piece is the width of the right side of the card (up to the stripes). I added stripes of the two cardstock colors to the left side of the vellum using Connect Glue. To adhere it I added a bunch of tiny dots of Connect Glue behind the embossing and put some behind the stripes. Then I adhered them to the Cashmere card front.

I used the same embossing powder to add the greeting from the Ways to Say Get Well stamp set on the left of the card.

Even if it's very thin, like it is on this card, I like to add a thin line of darker, contrasting cardstock to help the image to have a defined end. Then I used some foam tape to add the card front to a top folding white card base. The final touch is Hero Arts pearls in the center of the flowers.