Christmas Card Set!

Hey crafty friends! Karla here today to share a set of 6 Christmas Cards! I watercoloured the stamped images using Distress and Tombow markers and then used some embossing powder to glitter up the edges and added some pretty embossed snowflakes. I finished them up with some sequins and stamped images and now I'm 6 cards ahead of the game!

Inside:

Sometimes it just makes sense to do a bunch at once while you have all your supplies out! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a happy, crafty week!

Distress Marker Sticker Smooshing!

Morning Crafty Peeps! Karla here today, and I hope you're enjoying a wonderful week so far. Today, I'm sharing a technique I've named Distress Marker Sticker Smooshing ;) I had some cute, but plain stickers in my stash and just thought they needed some oomph. Of course, what do you do when anything needs oomph? Distress It! I used some bright colours of markers and rubbed them on an acrylic stamp block, one at a time, before spritzing the block with water. Then I simply turned the block over and smooshed it onto my sticker paper, repeating as desired!

To bring it up a notch I then stamped over top with Archival Ink. Now it's ready to add to a card or put into some Happy Mail for a friend!

For these pretty round stickers I chose a few different colours of Distress Markers and sentiment stamps.

I love the watercolour look this technique gives - even on sticker paper!

A few more narrow sentiment stamps and a few different marker colours work perfectly for this sheet.

I can see these working for a scrapbook page too!

Thanks so much for joining me today! I'd love to hear what you think adding a little Distress love to would make it better!

Art Alchemy Painted Tag!

Karla here today, and I hope everyone enjoyed a lovely Mother's Day on Sunday! Any day spent with my girls is a blessing, and of course my husband and girls spoiled me. I even had time to work on this pretty tag! Recently my friend, Laura, let me borrow her Art Alchemy Metallique Acrylic Paints by Finnabair! Good friend, hey! Well, I love them.... I tried them on chipboard, metal and thought I'd give them a swipe on this manilla tag.

They have such a lovely metal sheen, and wonderful coverage! After layering on my paint I used Distress Inks to sponge on some colour on the remaining unpainted areas of the tag. I love how the paints just pop and look like they're actually added on top of the Distress Inks! After that I stamped an image with Ranger Archival Black Ink.

Next, I used a Dina Wakley stencil to add some Texture Paste to my project and added one of the metal pieces I painted with those fun Finnabair Paints. I heated it with a heat gun, so it actually bubbled a bit, and I think if I'd let it air dry it would have been smoother. But hey, sometimes a girl just can't wait, right?! I cut a Tim Holtz Sticker from the Chit Chat book in half and added it behind my metal frame.

 Here's a look at my finished tag - 

The little wooden butterfly and dragonfly easily coloured up with Distress Markers and the sequins add an extra bit of shimmer and shine around the page.

You can see how nicely the chipboard with the heart cutout covered using the Art Alchemy paints. This was just one coat! I layered on a left over Heartfelt Creations flower from Holly's Make 'n Take last week, adding some Stickles, and tied on my seam binding ribbon that I coloured with Distress Stains.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you'll pull out some paints and use them on something you haven't tried before!

Mini Distress Ink Watercolour Technique!

The kids are back to school and our routines are back to normal, though we all enjoyed Christmas holidays very much! I finally got a little time to sit down and play and try out a new watercolouring technique that I saw in a magazine.

I started by cutting my watercolour paper to 4 x 5.25" to fit on an A2 card with a bit of a border. Then I got out my Distress Mini Ink pads. I don't have a lot of the minis - I just started buying them last year with the new colour releases each month. I must say I really love them though. They're great to take along to a class and I just love the little tin holder. I chose 3 colours that I wanted to use together- Crushed Olive, Twisted Citron and Blueprint Sketch, and lightly pressed them onto the watercolour paper. After I finished putting my ink down I went back with a water brush and coloured over each individual block of colour to give the watercoloured appearance.  I used some grey Archival ink to lightly stamp some Dylusions flowers over top of the background and then stamped a Dylusions border stamp around the edge- lightly adding some colour by scribbling on an acrylic block with a coordinating blue Distress Marker. 

For my tag, I stamped a Prima Doll by Julie Nutting and the Eiffel Tower on watercolour paper and watercoloured the images in with Distress Markers. I added some hand drawn lines around the edge and layered the tag on a piece of blue cardstock. A bit of Stickles adds some shimmer. 

Inside, I used the Bonjour sentiment in this Prima set to stamp my greeting and added some watercolouring with the markers again. 

Thanks so much for joining me today! I hope you're enjoying your new year so far!

Krafty Christmas Tags!

Hi there! Karla here sharing some tags that I made recently using kraft cardstock. I always seem to forget how much I love to stamp on kraft and colour with coloured pencils! I'm doing a tag exchange with some friends and wanted some cute tags that weren't too bulky to send in the mail. I love how these turned out!

For these tags I combined a couple Christmas stamp sets I had on hand- I love combining stamp sets and getting the most out of them. I used Memento Lux Wedding Dress White Ink to stamp the snowflakes on the kraft tag. I really love the way this white ink stamps! For the snow I used a white Distress Marker to colour in a circular motion and add some bright white contrast. I even used some masking to add a cute penguin to a fun sled!

On the back of my tags I used a To and From stamp that I found in my stash! I'll be sure to keep these out for all my tags.

Thanks so much for joining me today! I hope this inspires you to grab a few different stamp sets and see what works together. It's never too early to get started on some Christmas tags!

Watercolour Technique with Wink Of Stella Pen!

Karla here today, sharing some of the fun techniques I've been working on in the latest Online Card Classes - Watercolor For Cardmakers class. Jennifer McGuire showcased a beautiful gold embossed flower on Day 1 and I wanted to try it with this bird and flower image I have.

I coloured in parts of my image with Distress and Tombow markers and blended them, using my Wink Of Stella pen. My pen was actually empty and I refilled it with water, which mixed with the shimmer still in the pen and it works perfectly! I layered my watercoloured piece on some papers from the Basic Grey Highline Collection on top of a purple card folded to 5 1/2" square.

This wasn't the greatest watercolor paper I had around, so I think it would have blended nicer with a different paper, but I love the gold embossed image!

Thanks so much for joining me today!! I hope you're enjoying your week so far! 

Farmers Market BoBunny Scrapbook Layout!

Karla here today sharing a fall page using the September kit from the Scrapendipity Truck. I just love these BoBunny papers and had to find some fall pics to scrap right away!

When the leaves start turning here in Alberta, you have to get out quick to get a few photos. They might only last on the trees a couple weeks until we get a few windy days - and then they're gone! I don't seem to have an abundance of fall photos, so I have to get the ones I do have scrapped. We have a nice farmers market close to us that we like to go to and happened to go at a time when the trees in the background were just changing colour.

This leafy BoBunny background paper is one of my favourites - I think I'm going to have to pick up more of this! I layered my pics on and then used the cut-apart sheets to layer on my page as a title and journaling card. I stamped the Tim Holtz leaf blueprint stamps onto some watercolour paper and let my girls watercolour the images with Distress Markers. I spritzed the leaves with Perfect Pearls mist to add some pretty shimmer!

I used some white Ranger texture paste and a Heidi Swapp stencil on the top right and lower left areas of my page. After it dried I popped my leaves up with foam dots to give them dimension. I wanted to give the clear gems some colour before I added them to the right side of the border strips, so I coloured them with an orange Prismacolor alcohol marker - perfect!

There are lots of lovely paper diecuts that come in the coordinating BoBunny ephemera pack - I used the 'remember this' diecut layered on one of the cut-aparts. I love how the texture paste is thin enough to show the details of the paper through it!

Thanks so much for joining me today! Fall is my favourite season - putting on a cozy sweater, baking pumpkin muffins, and not feeling guilty for staying inside to scrapbook ;)! Here's wishing you have a lovely week full of what makes you happy!