Scrapping For Less ~ April FOTM blog hop ~ Colors of Spring

 Hello to all our wonderful Flavor of the Month fans! We are back this month with some wonderful products in our kit! Echo Park, Stampendous, Sunny Studio, and Stamping Bella to name a few! As always we are so very happy to design this and all kits for you and so this month we bring you "The Colors of Spring!" We have our wonderful Design Team and several guest designers joining us again this month so you will definitely want to find inspiration from these amazingly talented ladies.

So make sure to check out the Flavor of the Month page to purchase your kit and also make sure that you enter using the Rafflecopter for a chance at some past Flavor of the Month products. 

Hello! Check out that fabulous Banana Split card kit!! Isn't that just a fantastic card kit ^^^! I had so much fun creating my cards for this kit. I hope you like what I have to share with you today.

For my first card I used Sketch #4 with Collection One. 

I just adore these Spring Market papers... the pink rubber boots are so sweet! I knew I just had to use the rubber boot image along with this adorable little frog. I stamped both images using Memento tuxedo black ink and colored them with copic markers {Umbrella/boots - E55, E57, R43, R81, R85; Frog/Grass - Y06, Y11, Y35, YG17, YG23, YG67; Puddle/eyes - B00, B02, B05}. I fussy cut my images out and set them aside. I cut a piece of white card stock to create my background. I used a cloud stencil and used Tumbled Glass distress ink. Once that was done, I colored the bottom portion using copic markers to create my grass. I adhered the background piece to a green mat and then adhered the frog image. I then cut the pretty papers and wrapped twine that I took from Collection Three around the piece. I popped up the piece using foam tape onto a Grout Grey card base. I adhered the cute little doily and the frog image to the card base. I popped up the rubber boots. All that was left was the sentiment. I stamped it using memento tuxedo black ink and colored the word rain in using copic B00... but it's really hard to see that in the picture. I fussy cut it and adhered it to the card.

For my second card I used Sketch #2 with Collection Two. 

I took another direction with this card... I set aside the adorable Spring Greetings set in this collection and inked up the Spring Bloom set in the Banana Split subscription. I stamped this gorgeous daisy and the sentiment using versafine ink on some watercolor paper and heat set it. I added a couple 

drops of the Celery Green watercolor by Avery Elle (also in the Banana Split subscription) to my acrylic block and using a water pen, I colored the flower and I also colored the watercolor panel that

 I had trimmed and die cut the bottom edge. I adhered my layers to a white card base... popping up the last watercolor paper layer. I adhered a few sequins and then decided I had to add a butterfly. I 

colored the butterfly a bit using my white gel pen. I wanted to stick with the green and white colors 

that I had used throughout the card... a monochromatic card is always fun!

For my third card I used Sketch #3 with Collection Three. 

I decided to challenge myself to give the No Line Coloring another try... and I really like how this one turned out. I stamped the image using a very light brown ink and then just colored away. I used the following copic markers - YG11, YG23, YG63, Y06, Y11 Y26 Y35, E08, E49, E55, E74, E79, RV10, E000, E21, E51. Once the image was colored I used a stitched oval die to cut it out. I wanted the image to be the focal point for the card so I kept the design simple. I adhered the diagonally cut foil dotted cardfront panel to the Jellybean Green card base. I popped up the main image. I stamped the sentiment from the Spring Bloom stamp set, trimmed it, and then adhered it to the card.

Here's a close-up of the colored image. I added a bit of white prismacolor pencil in some spots. Otherwise, it's all colored with copic markers.

For my fourth card I used Sketch #1 with Collection Four. 

I cut and adhered all of my layers to a Sno Cone card base. I then stamped this sweet image using Memento tuxedo black ink and colored... yes, with copic markers {Mouse - E00, E11, N0, N2, N4; Flower/grass - RV10, R43, R85, YG03, YG11, YG17, YG63, YG67; Rain/sky - B0000, B00, B02, B05}. I die cut the image using a stitched arch die and then popped it up on the card. I stamped the sentiment on a scrap piece of Sno Cone card stock and then die cut it using a banner die. I trimmed the banner in half and then layered it. I popped it up on the card and called this last card - done!

That's it for me for this month's blog hop. 

Let's go take a look at what the rest of the design team has created! 

~ Blog Hop List ~

Scrapping for Less

Crystal O. Minkler <--- you're here

up next ---> Stacy Tiedemann

Luci Manos

LeeAnn McKinney 

Tina Smith

Courtney Kreeber

Desiree Kuemmerle

Katie Williams

Jessica Wilson

Tanya Hahn

Gloria Lee

*Guest Designer* Alicia

*Guest Designer* Rosie

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ The Greeting Farm ~ You're Awesome!

Hello! Today, I'm sharing a super fun card using The Greeting Farm's Mini-Remix Boys. How cute is this stamp set?! I am loving it! I think it's the perfect stamp set for me to use for my three boys!

I was thinking I'd make a card to help encourage my second oldest to keep up the good work on his school work to finish up the year. I started by die cutting the sidewalk. I used a stitched border on either side to cut it out. I then masked it in sections and blended a bit of  Pumice Stone distress ink. I then cut a piece of green card stock from my leftovers from past card kits to fit the lower portion of the card. I adhered the sidewalk piece to the green card stock and trimmed the entire piece. I then die cut the houses from leftover black card stock and set them aside. I trimmed the houses and adhered them to the back of the green card stock. I cut a 4 x 5-1/4" piece of white card stock and blended some clouds using a stencil and Tumbled Glass distress ink. I adhered the white cloud background to a black piece of card stock that measures 4-1/8 x 5-3/8". I adhered the whole grass/sidewalk piece to the bottom of the white card stock. I then adhered the whole piece to a white card base.

Now to stamp this cute little boy stamp... I stamped him, the skateboard and the soccer ball using Memento Tuxedo black ink and colored it in using Copic markers {Skin - E50, E51, E53; Hair - E79, E77, E74; Shirts - N0, N1, R29, R89; Jeans - B97, B99; Shoes - R29, N0; Skateboard - Y06, YR68, R29; Soccer ball - N0}. I fussy cut all the pieces and then went around the edge with a Memento tuxedo black marker to cover the white edges. I set those aside and then die cut the 'you're' portion of the Lawn Fawn sentiment die from the Banana Split subscription of the March 2018 Flavor of the Month card kit. I stamped the 'awesome' sentiment on black card stock using VersaMark ink and heat embossed some ultra fine white embossing powder. I trimmed the 'you're' sentiment and adhered it to the card using Ranger Multi Medium Matte. I fussy cut the 'awesome' sentiment into a banner and adhered it to the card using mono multipurpose liquid glue. Once I had those where I wanted them, I adhered the little boy and his accessories. There you have it... how sweet is this card?! I think my son will get a kick out of it!

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ March 2018 FOTM ~ You're Sweet!

Hello! Today, I'm sharing another look at the March 2018 Flavor of the Month card kit. Today, I wanted to share an easy card design that can be duplicated rather quickly.

I started by die cutting the Lawn Fawn 'you're sweet' sentiment out of each of the four glitter papers - both included in the Banana Split subscription. I set those aside and looked through my leftover card stock from the last few card kits and I found a 5-1/2 x 4-1/4 sheet of each color to coordinate. 

 I cut up the candle paper from collection four and adhered a piece to each card front. I ran each card front through the Big Shot with a wonky rectangle die and then adhered them to a white card base.

I adhered the 'you're sweet' sentiment to each of the cards and then set them aside. I pulled out the Flavor of the Month 1 Year Sentiment stamp set and stamped the ice cream sundae four times with Memento tuxedo black ink. I then colored the sundaes with Copic markers that were similar to the candles in the paper {R14, YR68, Y35, Y06, R81, BG01, E41}.

I die cut each of the sundaes with a wonky circle die. To finish off the cards I popped up the sundaes using foam tape. These were pretty quick cards to make, but I will say the glitter got absolutely everywhere. If you know a trick on how to clean up the endless glitter, please let me know in the comments. I'm still finding glitter on my desk in different hiding places. ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Stamp Ink Paper Challenge 145 ~ Ombre ~ You Are Sweet Like Honey!

Hello! Today, I'm sharing a card that I made for the Stamp Ink Paper Challenge #145 ~ Ombre! How could I not play along... an ombre background is such a fun technique! And really, it's been a long time since I've played along with a challenge at Stamp Ink Paper.

I blended Squeezed Lemonade, Fossilized Amber, Hickory Smoke, and Black Soot distress oxide inks on a piece of white card stock from Papertrey Ink. Once I had the background blended like I wanted I splattered some water on it and then splattered yellow and black acrylic paints, as well. I stamped the honeycomb stamp from Unity Stamp Company's April 2018 Kit of the Month called Eyes of the Beholder using Black Soot distress oxide ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I the stamped the bee using the same ink and embossing powder on a scrap piece of card stock. I blended some Squeezed Lemonade and Wild Honey distress oxide inks over the bee and then die cut it out. I ran the ombre background piece and a piece of True Black card stock through the big shot with dies from My Favorite Things' Blueprints 20 Die-namics. I adhered the ombre piece to the black card stock and then splattered some gold silk.

I then adhered the panel to a white card base and set it aside. I stamped the sentiment on white card stock and cut out each word. I sponged a bit of Black Soot distress ink around each word. I popped up the die cut bee and then adhered the words along the left side of the card.

Since I was having so much fun making the first card, I decided to make another one - this time with the ombre going from top to bottom. All of the other steps for this card were the very same.

I had so much fun making this card! If you want to play along with the challenge, head 

on over here ---> SIP Challenge 145.

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Unity Inspiration Challenge ~ April 2018

Hello! Today I want to share with you a card that I made for the Inspiration challenge over at Unity Show & Tell. I don’t normally blog about my entries for the challenges in the group but for some reason this particular card has a special place in my heart so I wanted to share how it came together. 

My first piece of inspiration for this card hit me out of the blue when I was actually working on another project. It kind of drives me nuts when that happens because I want to drop everything and start on that idea ASAP and I couldn’t. Anywho, I tucked it in that little corner of my brain {hoping that it wouldn’t get lost} and went about my day. 

Fast forward a few days and I finally had a few minutes to start working on my idea. Now my whole premise for this card was an unfinished piece of art... how to convey that in a card and still have it look complete? That was my problem.

I started by blending the brick background using Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke, and Black Soot distress inks over the Tim Holtz Bricked Layering Stencil leaving white space at the bottom left corner. I then stamped the bicycle from the April 2017 KOM {Be My Bird} masking it so that it wasn't complete. I colored in parts of the bicycle using the following Copic markers {BG01, BG11, E13, E53, E55, N1, N3} and then I ran the whole piece through the Big Shot with a stitched rectangle die and set it aside.

I stamped the jar of brushes from the March 2018 KOM {Stay Classy} on a scrap piece of white card stock and then colored it in using the following Copic markers {B0000, B00, N0, N1, N3, N4, N5, N7, E08, E09, E13, E53, E57}. I fussy cut it out and set it aside. I then ran a piece of Smokey Shadow card stock through the Big Shot with the Tim Holtz Bricked Embossing Folder. I blended some Antique Linen, Hickory Smoke, and Black Soot distress oxide inks lightly over the embossed bricks to help it pop a bit. I cut down the embossed brick piece and adhered it to a Soft Stone card base. I then adhered the bicycle/brick piece to the card. I tore the edge of a strip of patterned paper and adhered it to the left side of the card. Now, it was time to hunt for the perfect sentiment... this took a while. I wanted something to really bring meaning to the whole piece... and I found it! I think the sentiment from the Let Adventure kit is the reason this card became so personal for me. "Art is the life energy of the soul." I've been on my own personal art journey and this sentiment spoke to me!

At this point, I shared the card with my two amigos ~ enablers, friends, support team, my go-to crafty gals ~ you know who you are! Whilst going back and forth about this and that... the missing piece of this card hits me. I said it was a Brain Blast {Did your kids watch Jimmy Neutron?} and said I'd be back later to share. Well, I inked up the jar of brushes again coloring just one brush and then fussy cut it out. I added a few tiny 'drips' of Nuvo drops as if they were paint... adding some to the tip of the brush and bam! There it was... my vision in a card!

I know this is just a card, I really do. But something about the journey I took while creating this one has made it my most favorite and most special of all the ones I have made so it's staying on my desk for me to look at. Ha! Well, thanks so much for hanging out to the end here. I hope you've been inspired to make something pretty.

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.
~ Crystal

~ Friends of Unity April Blog Hop ~

Hello! I'm really excited today... it's time for the April Friends of Unity blog hop!! I love love love this month's inspiration... Showers! I've mentioned before that I love rain. I'm kind of obsessed with stamps that include anything related to rain... umbrellas, rubber boots, puddles, duckies, rain drops, and so on and so forth. :)

With that being said, I actually had a hard time deciding which stamps to use for this hop because well, I was overwhelmed by my collection... yeah, it's a collection. Lol! I went back and forth on so many kits and then my fellow hoppers claimed this one and that one. That was actually a help... it narrowed down which stamp to use. But really... when it came down to it, I had to use Weather Any Storm. Not only does it have an umbrella to work with the inspiration cue for this hop, but it also has owls! So, it was a must!

Now can I admit something here... I don't like making shaker cards. I know. I know. They are so cute and fun, but they are A LOT of work. I'm a CAS kinda gal... Clean and Simple appeals to me because well, I'm a busy homeschooling mama that steals any second I can snatch to work on my cards and other crafty projects, so quick and easy is the way to go. BUT for this card, I had this crazy vision for a shaker card using a Glazed Oxide background that I had made last week. It was like it was just challenging me to use it in a fun way. So, with all that being said here it is! 

Like I said, I had made the Glazed Oxide background last week. I die cut the piece using the Scallop Circles dies from Pretty Pink Posh. I stamped the owls on the die cut piece using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink and heat set it. I then stamped the image on white card stock with Memento tuxedo black ink and colored it in using the following Copic markers {Umbrella/Apron - RV06, RV10, RV11; Owls - YR24, YR27, Y06, Y35; Flowers - V01, V06, YG09, YG13}. I fussy cut the image and adhered it to the background. 

Now since I wanted the focus for this card to be on the main image with the shaker element, I decided to go simple with the front. I pulled out a 5-1/2 x 4-1/4 piece of Soft Stone card stock from Papertrey Ink. I blended some Tumbled Glass and Broken China distress inks on the card stock using a new Tim Holtz Blending Brush and a Mini Raindrops stencil from The Crafters Workshop. I just received this new blending brush in a card kit and I have to say... I love it!! It gave me a nice soft blend that I just wouldn't have been able to achieve with the blending tool. I then stamped the sentiment using Faded Jeans Distress Oxide ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. 

Once I had that done, it was time to build the shaker card. This was painful, I'll be honest, I had to make sure that everything would line up just so... which took a lot of time and patience. Anywho, I managed to get it done and then I adhered the whole thing to an Enchanted Evening card base. I may not like making shaker cards, BUT... I think this one turned out pretty nice and every once in a while it doesn't hurt to take on a crafty challenge! ;)

I have some business to take care of now, before we move on to the hopping. Last month I had a giveaway and I need to share who the lucky winner is... drum roll please... hmmm... anyone else hear that?! Okay, let's just pretend we did... the lucky winner of the Unity Stamp Grab Bag filled with 25 fun and exciting stamps is...

KAREN DECKNICK!!!! Yay! 

Karen please email me at crystalominkler@gmail.com with your mailing address to claim your prize. Prize must be claimed within two weeks.

Thank you to all those that hopped with us last month and of course, this month!

Now let's get hopping!

Amber Trubiak

Crystal O. Minkler <--- you're here

up next ---> Jeanie Hays

Eileen Mathys

Wynne C. Grob

Dawn Fields

Robyn Jordan

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal

Scrapping For Less ~ Pink and Main ~ Wishes Come True!

Hey there! Today, I have a sweet card using Pink and Main’s Genie Girl stamp set. I’ve been a little obsessed with the Glazed Oxide technique and so I thought it was only natural to use it for this card too! Haha!

I started by creating my background using Wilted Violet and Picked Raspberry distress oxide inks. I smooshed my background alternating the colors and drying in between so I would get fun layers. I really wanted it to look like the genie was coming out of the bottle. I applied the distress glaze over the smooshed inks and the colors became so vibrant... I love it! I die cut the background and set it aside. I stamped the genie image and colored her using copic markers {Skin - E0000, E21, E51; Hair - E37, E55, E57; Clothes/Accessories - V04, V17, RV06, RV11}. I ran a piece of purple card stock through the big shot with an embossing folder. I mat it on a piece of black card stock and then adhered it on a pink card base. 

I added a piece of leftover gold mesh from the February 2018 Castles and Dreams card kit and then I popped up the die cut piece. I stamped the sentiment on pink card stock with VersaMark and heat embossed white ultra fine embossing powder. I fussy cut the sentiment into a banner and then mat it on black card stock fussy cutting that, as well. I adhered the sentiment to the card and then adhered the fussy cut genie. I just love how this turned out! This sweet genie stamp set is available in the shop right here —-> Pink and Main Genie Girl. 

Thanks for stopping by!

See ya next time.

~ Crystal