A Latte Love

Oh, hello!  So, have you seen the August My Monthly Hero kit?  Dude!  It's all about coffee!  I used to be quite the coffee drinker . . . all day, every day.  Not so much anymore, but I do love a good coffee stamp set.  And this one has it all.

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For this card, I stamped the coffee cup using Rich Cocoa Memento ink onto the tea-dyed paper that came with the kit.  I thought it would be a perfect pattern for that cup.  I colored the coffee using E25 and E27 Copic Markers and added the highlights using a White Gel Pen.  Then, I fussy cut the image with scissors.

Now then, that tea-dyed paper is pretty fragile, so to beef it up a bit, I used the coordinating coffee cup die and cut it twice from Neenah Solar White card stock.  I adhered the stamped image to the die cut coffee cups and viola! Nice and sturdy.

I stamped the steam using Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink on a scrap of Neenah Natural White card stock, used the coordinating die to cut it out and adhered it to the back of the cup.

I used my Standard Circle Nestabilities to cut a circle, also from Neenah Natural White card stock. I adhered that to a scalloped circle cut from Kraft card stock and used foam tape to adhere the coffee cup and steam.

The patterned paper panel is from a stack that has been living in my studio for quite some time.  But seriously, you guys, it's perfect with all the coffee stains on it . . . or, I suppose they could be tea stains.

I added ribbon, which also came with the kit by the way, to cover up where the two patterned pieces meet.  I mounted that onto a piece of 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" Kraft card stock, and added that to the card base, which is also Natural white, because Solar White was just too stark for this card.

Finally, I adhered the circles with the coffee cup to the card with foam tape (because one can never use too much of that stuff) and then stamped the sentiment using Jumbo Java VersaMagic ink.

And there ya have it!

Thanks so much for visiting today!

A Wedding Suite

Hello!  I'm so excited that I finally get to post this!

My friend asked me to help her with her wedding invitations, and of course, I said YES!

She found a design she really liked from The Daydream Creative on Etsy and ordered the digital file. Then it was time for me to research the best place to get card stock so I could print them out for her.

And, lemme tell ya. . . I found the perfect place.  Not only can you order card stock in a variety of colors, textures, and weights, they'll even cut it down to the sizes you need!  Talk about a time saver when it comes to printing out 150 invitations!  Needless to say, I ordered everything needed for her invitation suite from www.CutCardstock.com. They also have incredibly fast shipping and great prices, too.

So, for the invitation, I ordered the A7 Flat Invitations in 110# Natural White.  For the RSVP cards, I ordered the A1 Flat Response Cards in 80# Natural White.  And, of course the matching envelopes as well.

This card stock went through my printer without any problems, and we don't have a super fancy printer either.  Just your basic, run of the mill ink-jet type.

After I had them all printed up, we stamped the borders and flourishes in Iced Spruce Distress Oxide Ink just to add a little bit of color.

The little Details card was printed from card stock that has been in my stash forever.  What a happy surprise it was that it matched the Oxide Ink perfectly.

So, if you're looking for card stock for a special occasion, check them out.  I bet you'll find exactly what you need.

I also wanted to share some of the other types of card stock I have ordered from them and what I use them for.

• Neenah Classic Crest in Solar White 80# - I love this for stamping and coloring with Copics. It's also really good for heat embossing.
• Neenah Classic Crest in Solar White 110# - I love this for card bases and it's perfect for shaker cards.
• Cougar White Super Smooth 80# - I love this for blending the original Distress Inks.  I've always had issues blending them until I found this stuff.  It's also good with Copics.
• Basis Premium White 80# - I love this for colored pencils.  It has just the right amount of tooth so it makes blending a breeze!

And there ya have it. . .and invitation suite and a few of my favorite card stocks.

Thanks so much for visiting today!

One Layer Wonders - Day 4

Seriously you guys . . . this is a fantastic class!  Especially if you're looking to stretch those creative muscles and try something new.

This class was about using neutral markers for shading multiple colors on an image. . . and a bunch of other good stuff too.

I learned that this particular technique is something that I definitely need to practice.  I think it is an amazing look, but I totally over-blended the colors.  However, with that being said, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out since this was my very first attempt with this technique.

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Obviously, there was a whole lot of masking going on, which is something that I used to do way back when and then it kinda just went by the wayside.  I had forgotten how much I really like the look of masked images.

To create this bouquet, I used the Abundant Petals set by Power Poppy and the Beautiful Day set by Altenew.

I stamped all of the images in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink.  The sentiment was stamped in Onyx Black Versafine Ink.  For this card, I didn't use Neenah Classic Crest like I usually do.  I decided to use a different card stock because of the ink blending up in that top left hand corner.

Oh, HELLO!  The ink blended like butter on this stuff!  So, if you have a hard time blending dye based inks, including the Original Distress Inks, run! Don't walk . . .RUN and go get yourself some Cougar White Super Smooth Cardstock.  It's also really good for Copics.

Anyway. . .  to do that blending in the upper left corner, I used Frosty Pink Altenew Crisp Ink with a Mini-Ink Blending tool.  To get that sparkle, I splattered a bit of Perfect Pearls a la Kelly Latevola.

So glad you stopped by today!

My (Not Quite) One Layer Wonder Card

It's no secret that I struggle with creating one layer cards.  I love lots and lots of layers and using different patterned papers.

So, I decided to take the One Layer Wonders online class through Altenew Academy.

Kelly Latevola is the instructor and she creates Ah-mazing one layer cards that have so much dimension.  I also love the fact that it's self-paced and I can complete the lessons at my leisure.

Here's my card from Lesson One:

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Copics Used: Flowers - Y11, Y13; Leaves - YG03, BG57
Border - BG49, C1, C3, C5

Um. . . it's not exactly one layer.  I had a brilliant idea to stamp the word Happy from the Half-Tone Happy set in a bright yellow ink and it would've worked perfectly except that . . . ahem . . . I didn't clean my stamp very well from the last time I used it so,  yeah. . . that didn't work out so well.

But, I refused to scrap the whole thing and start over, so I compromised and added a white strip to cover my mistake.  And it worked out just fine.

Here are the products I used:

Beautiful Day stamp set by Altenew
Half-Tone Happy stamp & die bundle by Altenew
Teal Zeal Memento Ink
Neenah Solar White 80 lb. Cardstock

Thanks for stopping by today!

The Perfect Card Stock and Purple Peonies

Can we talk about card stock?  Because I'm really picky.  For my card bases, I really want good quality 80# card stock . . . especially since I love lots of layers. . . after all, there is nothing more disappointing then when a card slowly starts to collapse because the base isn't sturdy enough, am I right?

When I had my little stamp store, I searched high and low for the perfect card stock.  And I found it.  But when I closed my store and then moved to Texas, I started having a hard time finding really good quality card stock to use for card bases.  The Big Box stores just didn't have what I was looking for.

And then . . . a friend of mine got engaged and she asked if I could help her with her invitations.  Of course!!  So, the search began . . . because there was no way I was going to use sub-par card stock for her invitations. No sir!

So, I consulted with the Google and found the perfect card stock.  And then I found the perfect supplier!  You see, my friend wanted a 4" x 6" off-white invitation . . .and the site I found actually had card stock cut to that size. I ordered a sample of the stock and it turned out to be the perfect color and the perfect weight.

And since it was such a great quality . . . I ordered some 8.5" x 11" for me:

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Compensated affiliate links may be used at no additional cost to you.
Thank you for your support!} 

Now, I must clarify . . . it's not that this card stock is "new" . . . as a matter of fact the card stock we used for her invitations is 80# Neenah Classic Crest in Natural White.  The stock I ordered for my stash is 80# Neenah Classic Crest in Natural White and Solar White, Basis White, and Royal Sundance White Felt.

I got the Neenah to use with my Copics, the Basis to use with colored pencils, and the Felt to use as a watercolor cardstock.  And all of them are perfect to use as a card base . . . nice and sturdy.

I ordered from www.CutCardStock.com . . . they have incredibly fast shipping, great pricing and a huge selection of paper and envelopes.  If you're picky about your card stock, I encourage you to check them out!

Now . . . on to the Purple Peonies . . .

For the card base and the card front, I used Basis White Cardstock. The Peonies (Altenew) were stamped in VersaMagic Chalk ink and the leaves were stamped in Memento ink.  The sentiment (Hero Arts) was also stamped in Memento ink.

I can't even tell you how happy I am with this cardstock . . . even with all those layers, the card didn't slump at all!

Thanks for stopping by today!