Scrapping for Less ~ May 2020 Flavor of the Month Card Kit ~ Let's Encourage One Another

Easy

Nice

Caring

Opportunity

Unite

Refreshing

Applaud

Giving

Exhilarate

Motivation

Excite

Nurture

Thoughtful

Hello Cardmakers! I hope you are doing well this morning. This month’s theme is all about encouragement. How about taking one of the words in the acronym above and making it your word for the coming month? My word is going to be motivation! Motivation to send out at least 3 cards a week to encourage someone. The design team and guest designers this month have created some absolutely fabulous designs with the card kit contents. Hop on through and take a look. One person I know who encourages people each and every day is Courtney Kreeber, she has helped design components of this month’s kit. Her group Handmade Happiness over on Facebook is all about encouraging each other. Who have you encouraged today? Check out this wonderful card kit centered around encouragement over on the Scrapping for Less website. Also check out the SFL blog post and make sure to enter the Rafflecopter. ~ Teresa, {SFL Owner}

If you are just starting hopping, we're so glad to have you join us! 

The hop starts on the Scrapping for Less blog or you can start hopping right here.

Here's a quick look at the May 2020 Let's Encourage One Another card kit...

Double Dip Subscription...

Banana Split Subscription...

Such a darling kit!! I had so much fun creating cards to share with you today... 

let's get to the cards!

Collection One: Love Big

How cute is that Big Foot Benny?! I love him! I stamped him with black ink and colored him up with Copic markers. I trimmed the striped paper and adhered it to a card front of Sour Apple card stock measuring 4-1/4 x 5-1/2". I die cut the polka dot paper with my largest circle die (approx. 3-3/4" in diameter) and adhered it to the card. To create the background, I blended some light green and blue inks over the cloud stencils included in the Banana Split subscription. I added the chalk heart sticker to the background and popped up the sentiment from the Benny the Bigfoot stamp set by SFL. I also popped up Benny using foam squares. To finish off this card, I added one of the Jolee's flowers over top of the little flower in the stamped Bigfoot image.

Supplies used (not found in the kit):

Copic markers ~ W00, W1, W3, E000, E00, R00, R14, YG11, YG23

Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink

Mowed Lawn Distress Oxide ink

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Memento Tuxedo Black marker

Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares

Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue

My Favorite Things Stitched Rectangle STAX

Collection Two: Easy Peasy

As I mentioned yesterday in my Sneak Peek post, this collection is my absolute favorite!! The colors are gorgeous and that lemon, as well as the blossom, are so beautiful... not to mention the fabulous sentiments!! I can't get enough of this one!! Anywho... I just wanted to showcase the beautiful lemon for this card. I layered the pretty lemon slices with the strips of polka dot papers onto a 5 x 5" square white card base. I die cut the Lemon Drop and white card stocks with a couple of square dies from my stash. I adhered them together and then adhered them to the card. I then blended a bit of Evergreen Bough Distress Oxide ink (it's much lighter in person... not sure why it's so dark in the photo) in the top center portion of the white card stock. I colored the lemon with Copic markers, fussy cut it, and cleaned up the edges with a Memento Tuxedo black marker. I popped it up on the card with foam squares and then added a few of the enamel dots and tied a sweet bow with the yellow twine included in the collection. I love how this card turned out!

Supplies used (not found in the kit):

Copic markers ~ Y000, Y11, Y13, YG0000, YG11

Evergreen Bough Distress Oxide ink

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Memento Tuxedo Black marker

Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares

Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue

Newton's Nook Square dies

Collection Three: Weather Together

The third collection in the card kit has a fun scene building stamp set that I can't wait to play with more! For my card today, I just focused on the pretty papers included in the collection and kept this design CAS. I did have fun stamping and coloring the sun stamp. I stamped it with a mix of yellow inks and then I colored the center with Copic markers. I adhered the die cut sun to the edge of the patterned paper and then popped up the whole piece with foam squares. I stamped the sentiment and die cut it with a banner die. I trimmed it and adhered it to the card. To finish off this card, I added the the three enamel dots to the side.

Supplies used (not found in the kit):

Copic markers ~ Y000, Y11, Y13

Mustard Seed Distress Oxide ink

Scattered Straw Distress Oxide ink

Memento Tuxedo Black ink

Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares

Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue

Stampin' Up Round Corner punch

Newton's Nook Square dies (stitched circle die)

Lawn Fawn Everday Sentiment Banners dies

Collection Four: Little Lady

This card came together so fast!! I used four of the fabulous Little Lady Ephemera pieces to create this adorable and super quick card! And there are a whole bunch more pieces (as you can see in the background of my photo) to create a whole bunch more cards!! You may also recognize this card design from the current challenge in the Scrapping for Less: Show & Share Facebook group. I'm so happy to see it included in this month's sketches to download... check out the downloads here ---> May 2020 Sketch Sheet!

Supplies used (not found in the kit):

Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares

Tombow Mono Multi Liquid Glue

My Favorite Things Oval STAX Set 1

That's it for me this time! Your next stop on the hop is... Christine

Be sure to head back over to the Scrapping for Less blog to enter the Rafflecopter once you've finished hopping!

Thank you friends for checking out my blog post!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ May 2020 Flavor of the Month Card Kit ~ Sneak Peek!

Hello there crafty friend!

Today, I'm sharing one last sneak peek of the May 2020 Let's Encourage One Another Card Kit from Scrapping for Less before the big reveal and hop tonight at Midnight EST!! Who's excited for this kit?! I am! I am!! 

And the collection that I'm using for today's sneak is my absolute favorite from the kit! Aren't those papers absolutely stunning! I love the colors! Gorgeous!

The stamps are just as amazing and the sentiments are so sweet! Perfectly paired with all the fun products in this collection... and really, the entire kit!

I used the following Copic markers to color these stamped images:

Lemon ~ Y000, Y06, Y11, Y15

Leaves ~ YG0000, YG03, YG11, YG67

Lemon Blossom ~ C00, C1, C3, Y000, Y06, Y11, Y15, R0000, R83, R85

Last month's card kit sold out pretty quick... be sure to sign up for this month's awesome kit before it sells out too!! And then come back tonight for the reveal and hop... the design team and guests have some amazing creations to share with you!! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Unity Stamp Company ~ December 2018 Layers of Life Revive ~ Spring | Summer Coffee Lovers Hop

Hello there crafty friend!

Today, I'm sharing another card for the fabulous Spring | Summer 2020 Coffee Lovers Hop using one of my favorite kits from Unity Stamp Company called Revive... this is a Layers of Life kit from December 2018 and it is ABSOLUTELY amazing to use in a mixed media style card so, that's exactly what I did!!

I started by blending Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink over the right side of a 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" piece of Kraft card stock. I then blended some Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink over the left side and into the middle. I blended with big wispy circles kind of giving a smoky feel to the blends. I then blended some Ground Espresso on the right side leaving some of the Vintage Photo. And to add a bit more contrast to the colors I added a tiny bit of Black Soot to the very edge on the left side.

I stamped the Revive stamp onto the dried background that I rubbed with my anti-static pouch with Ground Espresso Distress Oxide ink and heat embossed a fine clear embossing powder. I then stamped another background stamp from the Vibes kit this time, but again with the Ground Espresso. I stamped that twice down the left side of the card. It gets lost in the darker portion of the card on the left side, but you can see some of the text in the center on the Vintage Photo blends. It needed more of something so I started looking through my stencils. I decided first to use the grid-like stencil from the Tim Holtz Mini Stencil Set 22. I used it on the upper right side and blended some Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink... it goes about two-thirds down the card. I then blended some Ground Espresso Distress Oxide ink over the same stencil in the bottom right corner.

I set that stencil aside and started rummaging through my stencils again... that's when I found my coffee splatter stencil and knew I HAD to use it! This stencil is from the Tim Holtz Mini Stencil Set 3. I blended some Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink over the stencil on the left side of the card. It really pops on the darker blends on that side. Now I decided the coffee cup was getting lost in this background so I stamped it again but this time I used VersaFine Onyx Black ink and I heat embossed it with the fine clear embossing powder, as well. And then to color the coffee cup all I did was blend some of the Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink making sure to keep it light near the top of the cup. To ground the cup on the background, I blended some Ground Espresso Distress Oxide ink just back and forth... I love how the stencil pops through the darker ink! I did a bit of water splatter and dabbed it up with a paper towel and then I added some black acrylic paint splatters. I fussy cut the cup and popped it up on the background. Now this fabulous sentiment which sums up my addiction to the wonderful caffeinated beverage that this whole hop is about is from another fantastic kit called Whit's Words. I blended a tiny bit of Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink on a scrap piece of white card stock and then stamped the Obsessed sentiment with Gina K.'s Black Amalgam ink. 

To mat my background, I blended some Antique Linen Distress Oxide ink around the edges of a white card front trimmed down to 4-1/8 x 5-3/8". I trimmed down my background to 4 x 5-1/4" and adhered it to the mat. I then adhered the entire panel to a black card front measuring 4-1/4 x 5-1/2" and adhered that to a kraft top-fold A2 card base.

Well... this was not a short post but I think I covered all the details of this card. If you have any questions on how I created this card, feel free to ask in the comments. Be sure to check out the Spring | Summer 2020 Coffee Lovers Hop... it's winding down tomorrow. I sure have had a blast creating and sharing during this hop... I hope to sit back and check out more of the creations soon!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Polka Dot Orchard ~ Gnome Talkie Before Coffee ~ Spring | Summer Coffee Lovers Hop

Hello there crafty friend!

Today, I'm sharing a quick card for the fabulous Spring | Summer Coffee Lovers Hop using the sweet Gnome Talkie Before Coffee digi set from Super Sponsor Polka Dot Orchard!! 

Spring | Summer Coffee Lovers Hop

Love this sweet gnome!

This color palette is not one that I would normally do... which is why I just HAD to give it a try using the color combo keyword: ctd594 from the Color Throwdown blog!! AND I thought it would also be fun to play along with the amazing sketch #436 over at Freshly Made Sketches!!

I colored up this image with the following Copic markers:

Gnome ~ E000, E00, N0, N2, N4, N6, C00, C1

Cup ~ Y06, Y11, Y13, E23, E27, E51

For my ink smooshed background, I scribbled on my acrylic block with the Stampin' Up! Basic Grey marker and spritzed it a couple times with my mini water bottle. I then 'stamped' with the inky block onto my card stock. I did that a couple of times and then I smooshed my Black Soot Distress Oxide ink onto my Mixed Media Glass Mat. I spritzed the smooshed ink a bit. Then I grabbed my coffee cup (carefully, because it was still half full of coffee... lol), dabbed it in the ink and stamped right on the paper! Easy peasy! I die cut the Scalloped Stitched Rectangles Frame by Gina Marie Designs from white card stock two times. I adhered those layers together and then adhered it to my ink smooshed background. I trimmed off the excess card stock around the edges and then adhered it to my white card base. I adhered my fussy cut gnome and then added a few grey enamel dots from my stash. I love how this turned out!! 

It was fun using colors that I normally wouldn't use. I love when challenges take me out of my comfort zone!

Be sure to check out the fun Spring | Summer Coffee Lovers Hop!! And go check out the fabulous digi stamps over at Polka Dot Orchard!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ Glitter Lace Butterflies and More!!

Hello there crafty friend!

Today, I'm sharing a couple of cards using products from the A La Carte section of the Scrapping for Less shop! Anyone else obsessed with butterflies?! I love them! Today I'm sharing the Lace Butterfly die by Gina Marie Designs that is available in the shop here ---> Lace Butterfly die.

I die cut the beautiful butterfly several times from the DCWV Single-Sided Glitter card stock in all the colors of the rainbow!! I decided for this card to use the turquoise glitter butterfly... it looks so lovely over the Insulation Pink card stock.

I applied some beautiful Glitter Glaze from Brutus Monroe over the Coffee Dot stencil by Echo Park. I think the Nuvo Frostbite Glacier Paste would give a similar look and it's in the shop here ---> Nuvo Frostbite Glacier Paste. So much glittery goodness!! I wish the pictures did it justice!

I trimmed the Insulation Pink card stock to 4-1/8 x 5-3/8" and adhered a Scalloped Stitched Rectangle frame by Gina Marie Designs that I die cut from white card stock. If you don't have a scalloped stitched rectangle frame in your stash, there's one in the shop here that is just slightly smaller than the one I used ---> Sunny Studio Frilly Frames Hexagon Stitched Scalloped Rectangle die... and it has that cool hexagon too! I stamped the 'Live Your Best Life!' sentiment from the Your Best Life Collection in the April 2020 City Streets and Country Roads card kit with Memento Tuxedo black ink and die cut it with a banner die. I trimmed it down and popped it up on the card.

To finish off the card, I added three cute flower sequins to the body of the glitter butterfly... it is so enchanting in person!!! Truly beautiful combined with the glitter butterfly!

Now, remember I die cut a whole bunch of these glitter butterflies... let me tell you there was glitter everywhere!!! But a handy tip for cleaning that up is using Swiffer Sweeper dry cloths. I was able to clean up everything with just one cloth... they are super sturdy and hold a lot of glitter!

For my second card, I wanted to make a slimline card that looked like the butterflies were flying in the clouds. I made a little video showing the ink blending and assembly of the card. You can check that out here...

I hope that you've enjoyed the cards I shared today! Be sure to check out all the fabulous items available in the A La Carte section of the shop! You can restock those consumables you've used up in the kit or find some other must have goodies to help enhance your card kit creations!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Unity Stamp Company ~ May 2020 Whit Kit Have Courage ~ Enjoy the Little Things!

Hello there crafty friend!!

Today, I'm excited to share a couple of beautiful cards that I created using the stunning May 2020 Whit Kit called Have Courage!! Such a gorgeous kit!! It has fabulous watercolor papers, and glitter embossing powder AND these gorgeous flowers!!

Both of my cards are very similar in design, I just used different colors for the papers and for watercoloring the flowers.

How fun is this card design overlapping the patterned papers?! I just may use this design again and again... I love the contrast it gives to the card!

And those stunning flowers!! They were amazing to watercolor! 

And my second card using purples... I even added a touch of pink to the tips of the flowers! Love how they turned out!

A little bummed that I messed up the placement for my sentiment, but sometimes you just gotta go with it... LOL!

Here's a closeup of these stunning flowers!

Now, if you are interested I made a video for these cards showing my process in making these cards but I'll warn you... there's a bit of a glare from my OTT light overhead. I almost deleted the video completely when I realized I goofed, but I thought someone might like to see it anyways so I'm still sharing it...

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Unity Stamp Company ~ Giveaway Winner!!

Hello there crafty friend!!

First, I have to say a huge THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!! for all those that subscribed to my YouTube Channel and followed my blog and Instagram... and even those of you who found my Facebook page and followed me there, too!!! I appreciate each and every one of you following me on my crafty journey! And now it's time to announce the winner of my celebration giveaway and that is... 

@karenladd510 on Instagram!! Woohoo!!

Karen, please email me at crystalominkler@gmail.com so I can send you your prize!!

Now, it just wouldn't be right for me to announce the winner and not share at least one card so I wanted to share a card I created for the latest release over at Unity Stamp Company!! It's Whit's birthday and they are celebrating with a Flash Sale. I believe it's still going so head on over there and check out all the fabulous deals!! 

But before you go... here's my card using the new Take Me Home kit designed by Graciellie Designs and available at Unity!! Love this sweet house!! I had so much fun coloring this beauty up!

Well, that's it for me today! 

Thanks again for being awesome and I'll see ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ April 2020 City Streets and Country Roads Card Kit ~ Layered Stencils for CAS Cards

Hey there crafty friend!

Today, I'm sharing a couple sweet CAS cards using the fabulous City Streets and Country Roads card kit and stencils!! I layered a shape stencil with the city skyline portion of the stencil included in the Banana Split subscription to create these fun cards.

My first card was created using the Scalloped Circle Masquerade stencil from Heffy Doodle. I started by blending Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink over the top portion of the scalloped circle. I then blended some Hickory Smoke Distress Oxide ink on the bottom portion. Then I placed the city skyline stencil over top of the scalloped circle stencil and secured it with some purple tape. I also covered the words underneath the skyline on the stencil with some purple tape. I then blended some Black Soot Distress Oxide ink lightly over the stencil for my base color and using a post it note I added some dimension to the buildings blending from the bottom right edge and up. 

I stamped the sentiment from the Your Best Life stamp set from Collection Two of the card kit with Memento Tuxedo black ink. And then I stamped the girl from the same stamp set onto a scrap of white card stock. If you remember my card from the reveal a couple of weeks ago, I've used a very similar color combo on this girl. And I'll have a video of my coloring to share with you tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a list of the Copic markers that I used to color this image:

Skin ~ E000, E00, E11, R00, R20

Eyes ~ B02, B16, C1

Hair ~ E50, E51, E53, E55

Clothes ~ R05, R08, R22, C00, C1, C3, B0000, B02, B16

Scooter ~ R000, R01, R14, R21, R30, N0, N2, N4, N6, C00, C1, C3, Y11, Y13

And I did the same layered stencils technique to make my second card. This time I used the super girl stamp from the Super Host stamp set in Collection One along with a star stencil that I created myself by die cutting a piece of card stock with a star die.

I used the following Copic markers to color up this sweet super girl:

Skin ~ E000, E00, E11

Hair ~ E50, E51, E53, E55

Clothes ~ Y11, Y13, Y15, R000, R14, R24, R27, B0000, B00, B02, B05

Here's a video showing the Layered Stencils technique I used for these adorable CAS cards!

I sure hope you've enjoyed the cards I've shared today! The April 2020 card kit is sold out but you can subscribe now so you don't miss out on the May 2020 card kit... and let me just tell you, you DO NOT want to miss this next kit!!! It's SO adorable... just saying!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky hugs,

Crystal

Unity Stamp Company ~ May 2020 Kit of the Month ~ Such an Amazing Mom

Hello there crafty friend!

Today we are celebrating!!! If you haven't already heard, I've started my very own YouTube channel to share some of my coloring, cardmaking, techniques... basically all kinds of crafty good stuff!! I am also celebrating being Oh So Close to having 1K followers on my Instagram! I would love if you would help me reach and even exceed that goal... eeeep! I'm so excited!! So... first of all, I have a card to share with you and there's a little video to go along with it.

A rather simple card with just one layer on a black mat and some pretty coloring... I do love how these tulips turned out! There's just something about the two-toned flowers. So beautiful!

I added a couple of strips of black card stock to give the sentiment a little focus on the card. And I finished it off with a few black nuvo drops. Now, you can check out the video for some of the coloring down below. 

To enter my giveaway go ahead and follow my blog, follow me on Instagram, and subscribe to my YouTube channel.... and then comment on any of those letting me know that you followed and subscribed!! It's that easy!! And all my links are at the top of my blog... under my blog heading! You have until May 17th 11:59pm EST!!

Here's a look at the giveaway...

But I just found some more goodies to add to it... so it'll have even more crafty goodness!!

Winner will be announced here and on Instagram May 19th!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal

Scrapping for Less ~ City Streets and Country Roads Card Kit ~ Flowery Camera Die

Hello there crafty friend!

Today I'm sharing another sweet card using the fabulous Flowery Camera die by Scrapping for Less from the City Streets and Country Roads card kit!! I just adore this die... I colored the die cuts for my sneak peek card before the reveal of the kit. That was so much fun!! You can check that card out here ---> my Sneak Peek card!

This time I wanted to piece the die back together using different papers... just like a puzzle! I don't know about you, but I love puzzles and piecing these die pieces back together was so much fun! And I have all kinds of pieces leftover to make more cards with!! I started by die cutting Chocolate card stock for my die base. I adhered that to a piece of copy paper and then fussy cut it out.

Then I die cut the Flowery Camera from three different papers in the Country Roads paper pack and adhered all of those pieces to my Chocolate camera. Isn't it just so pretty?! I love how it turned out! Now if you didn't snatch up one of these fabulous card kits while you had the chance, be sure to check out the A La Carte section of the website... you can still purchase the gorgeous papers and some of the other products in the kit!!

Did you see the little extra glittery goodness I added to my card? These gorgeous glittery papers by DCWV are available in the A La Carte section of the shop AND they make such a great addition to the card kit!! I really loved the Mojo Monday sketch that the design team used for our hop and reveal so I decided to use it again for this card. You can check out the sketches that the DT used here ---> April 2020 Sketch Sheet. I trimmed all of my paper layers and adhered them to a Chocolate card stock card front measuring 4-1/4 x 5-1/2". I wrapped a piece of Natural Twine from the Country Roads Collection around those paper layers and tied off a knot. I then adhered the panel to a white card base from my stash. I popped up the stitched arch that I die cut from the text papers and then adhered the die cut Flowery Camera directly to it.

I think it turned out lovely!! I decided not to add a sentiment at this point because I'm just not sure what occasion I'm going to use it for. Do you ever do that with your cards?

I hope I've inspired you to pull out your City Streets and Country Roads card kit and get some inky time in... or maybe some paper piecing time since I didn't actually get inky with this card! Lol!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

See ya next time.

Inky Hugs,

Crystal