A Glistening Birthday

I've been busy working on some more birthday cards and in between my stolen minutes to craft I noticed that the Cue Card at CASology is Glisten... so for this card, I pulled out my glitter gel pens and started coloring this flower. 

To keep it clean and simple, I went with the spotlight technique just coloring a portion of the image and popping it up.

Here's a close up of the flower that shows all the glistening goodness!

Here are the products I used for this card:

Stamps: Ornate Blossoms (CTMH)

Card Stock: white (PTI)

Inks: memento tuxedo black (SU!)

Adhesives: fast fuse, stampin' dimensionals (SU!)

Tools: 1-1/2" circle punch (SU!)

Miscellaneous: Reaeon 72 Coloring Gel Pens

Go check out the challenge over at CASology... there's still some time to play along!!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

CYCI145 ~ A Cuppy Cake Birthday!!

It's that time again... time for another CYCI challenge!! I'm excited! I'm always excited about these challenges... if you haven't already noticed! I am loving the colors that Eva put together for this color challenge... blue, purple, silver, and white! Aren't those fabulous?!

I started off with a piece of watercolor paper and used Violet and Ultramarine Blue Color Burst to make a beautiful watercolor piece. I also added some Silver silks splatter. I then cut out the scallop circle using Pretty Pink Posh's Scallop Circles dies. I went back and forth on how white I wanted to keep the card and finally decided I wanted a nice clean white card base and background. I'm always needing birthday cards, so I inked up this beautiful cupcake from Unity's Cuppy Cakes kit in stazon jet black ink on watercolor paper. I used the same color burst colors to color the cupcake sticking with just the four colors for the challenge. I even used silver silks to color in the leaf of the flower and some other accents on the cupcake, rather than a traditional green. I wanted the icing to be mostly white with a bit of color here and there and I really love the way this one turned out! I cut out the 'birthday' from the same watercolor piece and adhered it directly to the card base. I cut out the 'happy' from a scrap of brushed silver card stock. The cupcake was popped up using stampin' dimensionals. To finish this beauty off, I painted the back of a few glossy dots that I had made with Fun Stampers Journey's Journey Glaze with some Silver silks. I let those dry and adhered a few around the circle and one in the center of the flower. 

A close-up picture of the cupcake... doesn't it look yummy!

Now I couldn't just toss the cut out pieces from the first card! I made an alternate card using them... and I used some other pieces that I had made while working on the first card.

Here's a look at the color challenge. Be sure to click on it and you'll see all the wonderful creations from the CYCI Design Team! I sure hope you'll play along.

Here are the products I used for this card:

Stamps: Cuppy Cakes (Unity)

Card Stock: white (PTI), watercolor paper (SSS)

Inks: StazOn Jet Black (SSS)

Adhesives: Tombow Mono Multi (SSS), Stampin' Dimensionals (SU!)

Tools: Hello You thinlets dies (SU!), Birthday Trio die (PTI); Summer Greetings Wafer dies (SSS), Scallop Circles die (PrettyPinkPosh)

Miscellaneous: Violet color burst, Ultramarine Blue color burst (Blitsy), Silver silks (FSJ)

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

~ I often think of you ~

The latest CASology cue card is Forest. I've had this idea for a card in the back of my mind for a bit so this was the perfect time to ink it up! My original idea was to emboss and color it in... but for this challenge I wanted to focus on the white. It almost gives a feel of wintry snow. My favorite way to make white pop is to use it on kraft card stock. I love this look!

These lovely trees are from the Unity kit called Planted. The sentiment, also from Unity, is in the I Want You to Know sentiment kit. I stamped both on a 3-15/16" x 5-1/4"piece of kraft card stock with white craft ink and heat embossed with white detailed embossing powder. I adhered that to a white card base... that's it!

Here are the products I used for this card:

Stamps: Planted, I Want You to Know (Unity)

Card Stock: white, kraft (PTI)

Inks: white craft (SU!)

Adhesives: fast fuse (SU!)

Tools: heat tool (SU!)

Miscellaneous: white detailed embossing powder (retired SU!)

Go check out the challenge over at CASology... there's still some time to play along!!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

CYCI144 ~ A Color Challenge by Rose

It's time for a new CYCI challenge. This time it's a color challenge and check out these beautiful colors that Rose picked out. Aren't they gorgeous?!?!? Watermelon, Aqua, White, and Light Gray... I love it!!

I was blessed this Christmas with a set of ZIG Clean Color Real Brush markers and have had a chance to play around with them this last week. This image is my third attempt at coloring this beauty with the ZIGs. I need a lot more practice... but I sure did have fun coloring! On a side note, I didn't find a watermelon color in the ZIG assortment I have (or at least one that I liked), so I just used my Stampin' Up! Watermelon Wonder marker. I found the best way to keep the colors subtle was to scribble the ZIGs and the WW marker on an acrylic block and grab the ink with my water pen. To finish off the image I added a touch of Silver silks to her jewelry by adding a dab on my acrylic block and using a blender pen to color it in.

After coloring my main image, I wanted something with pretty flowers in the background so I pulled out a watercolor paper pad that I've been itching to use. I just love the way it turned out!! I cut that piece out with what I'm beginning to think is my favorite 'go to' die - the Scalloped Stitched Rectangle die by Gina Marie Designs. I cut out the main image and sentiment with stitched oval dies and cut the angles to fit in the rectangle. The last touch was a bit of organdy ribbon. The main image and the sentiment are popped up with stampin' dimensionals.

I hope that you will join us in this wonderful color challenge! I can't wait to see what you make. Be sure to check out the other Design Team members creations at canyoucaseit.com.

Here are the products I used for this card:

Stamps: Warm Inside (Unity)

Card Stock/Papers: White (PTI), Watercolor Paper (TH), Tales of You & Me Paintables (Prima)

Inks: Black craft (retired SU!), StazOn Jet Black (SU!), Watermelon Wonder marker (SU!)

Adhesives: Tombow Mono Multi, Stampin' Dimensionals (SU!)

Tools: heat tool (SU!), Small Stitched Oval Stackables (LF), Stitched Oval Stacklets (TE), Scalloped Stitched Nested Rectangle dies (GMD)

Miscellaneous: Black Detailed Embossing Powder, White organdy ribbon (retired SU!), 

Silver silks (FSJ), Blender pen (SU!), ZIGS (Kuretake)

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Savvy 7 ~ January Blog Hop ~ Snowflakes

I'm super excited to be a part of this amazingly creative group of paper crafting artists for a monthly blog hop. What a great way to start off this new year?!? We are... 

 Don't you just love that!!

Our first theme is Snowflakes... now, I know some of you are cringing, maybe even wailing, "No more Christmas cards!!" Well, this isn't a Christmas card. It's a wintry, snowflake Thank You card. It could be used for thanking your loved ones for a sweet Christmas gift, or for a lovely visit over the holidays. 

Now for the details... I started by heat embossing these beautiful snowflakes from Unity's Magical {Bliss and Wonder} kit using Versamark ink and Clear embossing powder on a piece of white card stock. Then I grabbed a few distress inks and started blending. I added the lacy background stamp, also from the Magical kit, and a sentiment from Stampin' Up!'s One Big Meaning set using Early Espresso ink. It needed something else... so, I grabbed some antique brass brads. I layered this on a piece of Early Espresso card stock and popped the whole panel up using stampin' dimensionals on a white card base.

Now when I had finished up the card, I just happened to look over on my desk and see this bookmark already cut out in white card stock and thought... hmmmm... wouldn't this be a fun idea for a bookmark!! I absolutely love it!! I did the same heat embossing and blending with distress inks. The only difference was the sentiment... I used the letters from Stampin' Up!'s Labeler Alphabet to spell out Winter in white craft ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder and then I stamped over those letters with the little block in the set using Early Espresso ink.

Here's another view of the bookmark... you can see the lovely satin ribbon tied off with some white twine. Isn't it beautiful!? I love it!

Here is a picture of my first two projects for our first Savvy 7 Blog Hop! I really hope that you liked them!

Here are the products I used for this card:
Stamps: Magical {Bliss and Wonder} (Unity), One Big Meaning, Labeler Alphabet (SU!)
Card Stock: White (PTI), Early Espresso,(SU!)
Inks: Early Espresso, White Craft, Versamark (SU!)

Adhesives: Tombow Mono Multi, Stampin' Dimensionals (SU!)

Tools: heat tool (SU!), Basic Bookmark 3 die (PTI)

Miscellaneous: Hero Arts Ultra Fine Clear EP (SSS), antique brads (retired SU!)

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.
~ Crystal