Month: April 2021

You’re Sweet Card

One of my favorite things to do when I get a new stamp set is look at all of the elements and think about what I could do with the images DIFFERENTLY than what they were originally intended. The Pretty Little Things set from Scrappy Boy Stamps has so many fun elements…….like the cute little teddy bear, the toy train set and the rocking horse.

I decided to challenge myself and make a card using only one element from this stamp set, the teddy bear. This teddy bear can be used in so many ways, like as kid’s best friend, in my first SBS card post, safely tucked into his dresser drawer or like one of my all time favorite crafting candies, gummy bears!

When you have smaller elements from a set that you would like to feature on a card, I have found one of my favorite ways to do this is by using a stamp positioner and a wreath-builder stencil like one from Gina K Designs.

  • Place the stencil in your favorite stamp positioner.

I started by cutting a piece of white Sweet Sentiment Paper 4 inches by 4 inches square. I placed the wreath-builder stencil securely in the corner of the stamp positioner, then placed the 4×4 square piece of paper in the stencil opening and lined up my bear stamp on the paper and picked up the stamp with the positioner. I inked up the bear with Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Ink and stamped the bear in my Tim Holtz Stamp Positioning Tool. I then rotated my 4 x 4 inches square piece of paper, continuing to re-ink and stamp my image until I had stamped the bear in a complete circle to form a wreath. I wanted to make an all occasion card and came across one in my craft supply arsenal that said, “You’re Sweet” and used my stamp positioner to carefully center the sentiment in the middle of the gummy bear wreath. This sentiment is from an older Paper Smooches set called “Giddy Gumdrop.”

Then, I colored up my images using rainbow colors from my Copic collection as follows:

  • Dark Pink: RV02, RV09, RV14
  • Light Pink: R85, R81, R83
  • Orange: YR02, YR16, YR18
  • Yellow: Y02Y08, Y19
  • Light Green: G00, G14, G24, G43
  • Dark Green: G07, G14, G24
  • Blue: B00, B60, BG05
  • Violet:BV00, B63,V000, V15

When I colored the bears, I tried to leave the nose/snout part of the bear lighter, so that it gave more dimension. I thought that the dimensional bear would have their nose sticking out some and catching the light reflecting off of it, so that part of the bear was lighter, as well as the center of his tummy. I then wanted to give my bears a little sparkle and use a Wink of Stella Clear Pen to apply a little glittery shimmer to them. I finished the bears by applying Hero Arts Lacquer Pen to apply the crystal clear glaze over the bears and allowed to dry completely.

To complete my card, I double-matted my colored 4×4 piece with the bears using some white glitter cardstock, some FSJ/Spellbinders lemongrass cardstock. I then created the main card base out of the same lemongrass cardstock forming a 7.5 in x 7.5 in square base. I then cut another piece of FSJ/Spellbinders watermelon fusion cardstock 7.25 x 7.25 inches square. I then rummaged through my massive collection of patterned paper to select a plaid pattern that coordinated with the colors of my bears. This was cut down to 7×7 inches square and assembled all the various layers to finally form my finished card.

I did go back and forth wondering if I should add some spatter or some sequins, but I loved these bears so much and wanted them to leave it simple and clean…..and let them stand out on their very own. Do any of you struggle with knowing when to stop or letting your image stand out on their own by “embracing the white space?” Leave your response below…I’d love to know!

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to get crafty!

Scrappy Boy Stamps April Release: Pretty Little Things

I am so excited to be a new Design Team Member for Scrappy Boy Stamps, a new and very whimsical line by my friend Sean Covert. The newest release from April 2021 is entitled, ” Pretty Little Things.” This stamp set gets its inspiration from the ballet, The Nutcracker Suite. While this ballet may be typically associated with more of a Christmas Theme, the different elements Sean has included in his set lend themselves to a variety of different occasions.

I chose to use the ballerina and some of the smaller toy images in this set to create this little girl’s bedroom dresser scene for a birthday card. I also utilized one of the background stamps from Keep it Simple’s Hello Adventure Bundle, the 4×6 woodgrain background stamp, which Sean presented in the fall on the Stamp and Scrapbook Expo channel.

To make this modified slimline card, I stamped the ballerina, music box, teddy bear, rocking horse and train on Hammermill 100 lb. cover cardstock with Ink on 3 fadeout ink and used Copic markers to do some no-line coloring. In the future, I am going to make sure I keep track of all the colors I use and will include them in future posts; however, you can use any combination of colors that suits your fancy. This set is amazing and I can’t wait to see everyone’s creations.

The dresser is a simple 3×3 inch square that I cut out of kraft-colored cardstock and stamped with the woodgrain background stamp from Keep it Simple. I then cut two smaller rectangles to form the drawers and popped them up with dimensional foam tape after ink blending the edges to give extra dimension. I then used some of my enamel dots in a coordinating color to serve as “knobs” on the drawers. To make the bottom of the dresser look a little fancy and give the furniture a nice set of legs, I used a label punch that I centered in the middle and cropped out some of the cardstock forming the bottom of the dresser.

To make the mirror above the dresser, I used an oval die and scallop oval die from my stash. The oval was cut out of mirror card and the scallop oval was out of coordinating cardstock to tie everything together. If you don’t have oval dies, you can simply cut out a rectangle, too. Use what you have and get creative.

For the sentiment, I used another sentiment strip banner die from my stash after embossing using Versafine pigment ink and clear embossing powder for a finished look. With smaller sentiments, I love the clarity that Versafine ink provides.

Thank you for stopping by and don’t forget to get crafty!!!