CYCI151 - You Are Loved!

We have a sketch for you this week at CYCI! I definitely had fun with this one. I started out with a whole different card... the pieces are still sitting on my desk. This sketch had a mind of its own. :)

The focal point on this card is the beautiful jar of poppies from Unity's Jar of Hope kit. I watercolored it on kraft card stock using my ZIG clean color real brush markers directly on the card stock. I blended the color out just a bit and loved the way it turned out! The background was made using the same stamp. I stamped it multiple times in VersaMark ink and then heat embossed white detail embossing powder. The sentiment is another kit from Unity called Bitty Regards. I inked the sentiment up using Bermuda Bay and Real Red markers.

Here's a close-up of the pretty poppies!

I can't wait to see what you create using this sketch as your inspiration!! Be sure to join our new Facebook group so that you can enter the challenge... Can You Case It? Challenge Group and go check out all the creations by the CYCI design team!

Here are the products I used for this card:

Stamps: Jar of Hope, Bitty Regards (Unity)

Card Stock: White, Kraft (PTI), Cool Caribbean (retired SU!)

Inks: VersaMark; Bermuda Bay, Real Red markers (SU!); Kuretake ZIGS (Amazon)

Adhesives: Stampin' Dimensionals, Tombow Mono Multipurpose, Mini glue dots (SU!)

Tools: Heat Tool (SU!), Pierced Traditional Tags Stax (MFT), Mini Stapler, Scallop edge punch (retired SU!)

Miscellaneous: White detail embossing powder (retired SU!), Cherry Cobbler baker's twine, 

Bermuda Bay baker's twine (SU!), Fresh Snow Topnotch Twill Tape (PTI)

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

CYCI150 - Have Faith in Yourself!

We have a wonderful color combo for this week's CYCI Color Challenge by Kevin... Mint, Navy, Copper, and White! 

I inked up Unity's Floral Soul stamp directly with my Mint Macaron and Night of Navy markers and then I spritzed it with a bit of water and stamped right on a piece of white card stock. I made sure to not saturate the stamp too much since I was just using regular card stock. I cut that piece out using the little rectangle die in the WPlus9 Love Showers Layers die. I then cut out the tag shape in Mint Macaron card stock and stenciled some white lines using Echo Park's Festive Stripe Stencil. 

While the white ink dried, I stamped the butterfly and sentiment in VersaMark ink on vellum card stock and then heat embossed copper embossing powder. I ran the sentiment through my sticker maker and adhered that to the top of the flower background. I fussy cut the butterfly and gently bent it to give it some dimension on the card. I popped up the little background piece using stamping dimensionals and adhered it to the tag. All the tag needed now was a bit of ribbon so I used the pretty Mint Macaron dotted lace trim and tied it off with some copper cord. I added a few skinny strips of copper foil to my white card base and then adhered the tag to the card.

Here's a close up picture of the shimmer and shine from all the copper goodness!! I even added a bit of copper shimmer to the white sequins. Just a little spritz and I sprayed it with hairspray to set.

I can't wait to see what you create using this color combo as your inspiration!! Be sure to join our new Facebook group so that you can enter the challenge... Can You Case It? Challenge Group and go check out all the creations by the CYCI design team!

Here are the products I used for this card:

Stamps: Floral Soul, Keep Going Anyway (Unity)

Card Stock: white (PTI), Mint Macaron, Copper Foil, Vellum (SU!)

Inks: Fresh Snow (PTI), VersaMark; Mint Macaron, Night of Navy markers (SU!)

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

Tools: Love Showers Layers (SSS), Heat Tool (SU!), Xyron Sticker Machine (Amazon), 

Festive Stripe Stencil (SSS)

Miscellaneous: Copper embossing powder (SU!), Mint Macaron Dotted Lace Trim, Copper cord (retired SU!), Copper Shimmer Spritz, White sequins

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Here's a quick card for St. Patrick's Day! I used some retired papers, my favorite 'go to' Celtic Knot embossing folder, and a heart punch to put this pretty simple card together.

Hope you have a fun St. Paddy's Day!!

Here are the products I used for this card:

Stamps: Keep It Simple: St. Patrick's Day Mini (PTI)

Card Stock: white (PTI), Wild Wasabi (SU!), Afternoon Tea DSP (retired SU!)

Inks: Wild Wasabi (SU!)

Distress Inks: Mowed Lawn

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

Tools: Martha Stewart small heart punch, Curvy Corner Trio punch (retired SU!), 

Stitched Sentiment Strips (MFT)

Miscellaneous: Celtic Knot embossing folder (Cuttlebug)

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

CYCI149 - Yay... a Sketch!

Yay! It's time for a CYCI Sketch Challenge... I've missed them! Don't get me wrong... I've loved the color challenges, but there's a whole different challenge to a sketch challenge. We have a fun sketch from Rose this week! Let's get to it... 

I had mentioned before that I'm sending a card to my Mom each week. I realized this week that my stash was gone so I needed to make a card asap to send to her and I thought this sketch was perfect. I was reorganizing some of my stamps and found this stamp from Papertrey Ink called Botanical Blocks that was ideal for this sketch. I inked up the rose and the sunflower from this set, but decided to go with the rose for this card. I pulled out my watercolors and had some fun coloring this. I used some white gel pen on the flower that I softened up with my water pen. I had never tried that before but I like the soft white effect that it made. I also added some clear Wink of Stella here and there on the flower. I cut out the framed piece and started looking for a paper that coordinated well with it... that took a few minutes, but I ended up finding a piece that would work from a retired pack of Raspberry Tart Designer Series Paper. I used some crocheted 'ribbon' and a bauble from the retired Artisan Embellishment kit. I stamped the sentiment using Memento Tuxedo black ink. For a final touch, I added some broken black lines to kind of frame the whole card.

Here's a close up picture of the flower. You can see the softened white from the gel pen. It almost has a chalk like look to it. You can also see the shimmer from the Wink of Stella. It's really much prettier in person. :)

I can't wait to see what you create using this sketch as your inspiration!! Be sure to join our new Facebook group so that you can enter the challenge... Can You Case It? Challenge Group and go check out all the creations by the CYCI design team!

Here are the products I used for this card:

Stamps: Botanical Blocks (PTI)

Card Stock: white (PTI), Distress Watercolor (SSS), Raspberry Tart (retired SU!)

Inks: Memento Tuxedo Black (SU!), Ranger Archival Jet Black (SSS)

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

Miscellaneous: Clear Wink of Stella (SU!), Artisan Embellishment kit (retired SU!), Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust, Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors (Amazon)

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

SIP Challenge 89 ~ Happy Birthday To You!

I'd love to say that this was a quick card... but it wasn't. I started this one with a whole other design, but it just was not working how I envisioned it. Then I remembered a wonderful sketch design posted for the Stamp Ink Paper Challenge and BAM... a plan started to form in the brain! :)

I stamped Brystl Girl in Ranger Archival Jet Black Ink and dried it with my heat tool to make sure it was dried completely before watercoloring. I used distress inks to watercolor the image. On a separate piece of white card stock I clear embossed the coffee cups and then blended a couple of distress inks. I tried to find a patterned paper that matched the pink in my watercolored piece, but I just couldn't find one so... I got a scrap piece of white card stock and used the pink distress inks to make my own paper. I heat embossed the coffee cups in white and stamped the coffee beans using a brown distress ink. I cut the coffee cup sleeves out of the scrap paper and paper pieced them to my blue distress piece. I cut the watercolored piece using my favorite Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside borders die and adhered it over the blue distress piece. I adhered that panel to a Basic Gray mat and then added a strip of Basic Gray and White card stock. I tied on some white twine and popped the whole panel up on a white card base. For the sentiment, I heat embossed white on a 1" circle of Basic Gray that I stamped using the Endless Wishes set. I'm loving the way it turned out and am very thankful for the SIP sketch that inspired it.

Here are the products I used for this card:

Stamps: Brystl Girl (Unity), Latte Love (STAMPlorations), Endless Wishes (SU!)

Card Stock: white (PTI), Basic Gray (SU!), Distress Watercolor (SSS)

Inks: Ranger Archival Jet Black, VersaMark (SSS)

Distress Inks: Peacock Feathers, Mermaid Lagoon, Hickory Smoke, Picked Raspberry, Spun Sugar, Gathered Twigs, Faded Jeans

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

Tools: Heat Tool, 1" circle punch (SU!), Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside borders (SSS)

Miscellaneous: Hero Arts Ultra Fine Clear ep (SSS), White Detailed ep (retired SU!), 

white twine (SU!)

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Savvy 7 ~ March Blog Hop ~ Luck!

It's time for another blog hop with the Savvy 7 & Friends!! The theme this month is... Luck! I've always enjoyed the fun of St. Patrick's Day... parades, leprechauns, rainbows, shamrocks, etc. I decided to go with a St. Paddy's Day card for this hop.

I was at a loss, though, on what stamp set to use for this card. I knew for sure that I wanted to use my Celtic Knot embossing folder so I went ahead and embossed just a plain white piece of card stock.

Then I remembered I had this sweet little owl! Isn't he the cutest?! I just love his hat... and that bow tie! I stamped him on a piece of white card stock with Memento Tuxedo black ink and then I colored him using a bunch of Copic markers that I'll list in the details at the end of my post. Once I finished coloring him, I decided he needed something... I had just received an order with a fun new die called Love Showers Layers and it has this cute little stitched umbrella!! Isn't that just perfect! I cut out two umbrellas - one in white and the other in black. I colored the top of the umbrella with the same Copic markers I used on the hat and the bow tie and then cut off the tip and the handle. I then adhered the colored umbrella over the black die cut umbrella and adhered it to the owl. Doesn't it just add that little something?! I love it!

I layered all the white pieces on different green card stocks... the owl and sentiment are on Cucumber Crush mats and the Celtic Knot piece is on a Garden Green mat. I was surprised to discover that I don't have many rich green shades in my collection of ribbons, but I did find this New Leaf Satin ribbon that I recently bought from Papertrey Ink and I think it worked just fine! I layered all the pieces with some liquid glue and then layered the entire panel on a white card base.

Here's a close up picture of the little owl! I love him!

Here are the products I used for this card:

Stamps: Owl, I Do Say (Unity)

Card Stock: white, True Black (PTI), Garden Green, Cucumber Crush (SU!)

Inks: Memento Tuxedo black (SU!)

Copics: E0000, 31, 33, 34, 37, 41, 42; C00, 3, 5, 7; G03, 09, 17; Y13, 17; YR15, 24

Adhesives: Tombow Mono Multi (SSS)

Tools: Celtic Knots embossing folder (Darice)

Miscellaneous: New Leaf Satin Solid ribbon (PTI)

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Be sure to check out the rest of the fabulous creations on the hop!

CYCI148 - Happy Camper!

Is time flying by or what?! It's time for another CYCI color challenge. I had fun with this color combo by Elizabeth - Gray, Yellow, Turquoise, and White!

Those of you who know me, know that I LOVE turquoise! So, let just say... it's the focus on my card for this challenge. I'm sure you could tell that though. I stamped this adorable image and sentiment from a recent Stamp of the Week that I received from Unity called Camper Bliss using StazOn Jet Black ink. I had fun this time using different shades of one ink color to color it in. For this image I decided to use my neglected Papertrey Ink reinkers. I put a drop of the ink on an acrylic block and used my smallest watercolor pen to color this image. I used Hawaiian Shore ink to color the outline of the camper; a darker shade of the same ink to color the tree; and a very watered down version of the same color to color the sky. Loved that I could use one color for so many elements of the picture! I added some Smokey Shadow to parts of the camper, little touches in the windows, and the clouds. I added some Lemon Tart to the camper flowers and the flowers. Then I used some Classic Kraft for the tree trunk and the ground. All of this was done on the smooth side of a piece of Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Cardstock.

I added a layer of Hawaiian Shores polka dot paper to the white card base and then decided that I wanted to break up the color using the same patterned paper in Smokey Shadow. Since I love me some turquoise... I added some Hawaiian Shores topnotch twill tape. I cut out the watercolor panel using a Taylored Expressions Stitched Rectangle stacklet die, popped the panel up using stampin' dimensionals, and BAM!

I can't wait to see what you create with these colors!! Be sure that you've joined our new Facebook group so that you can enter the challenge... Can You Case It? Challenge Group. Be sure to go check out all the other lovelies created by the CYCI design team!

Here are the products I used for this card:

Stamps: Camper Bliss (Unity)

Card Stock: white (PTI), Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor (SSS)

Paper: Hawaiian Shore Pattern Pack, Smokey Shadow Pattern Pack (PTI)

Inks: Hawaiian Shores, Smokey Shadow, Lemon Tart, Classic Kraft (PTI), StazOn jet black (SU!)

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

Tools: Stitched Rectangle Stacklet (TE)

Miscellaneous: Hawaiian Shores Topnotch Twill tape (PTI)

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal