March Stamp of the Month: Rain or Shine

The March stamp of the month, Precious Memories, is absolutely, well, precious!

How cute is this little koala?  We are expecting rain tomorrow, so I felt it was time to share.  The Grape background is from the Life's a Hoot collection.  The aqua is scraps that I had leftover from playing around with distress oxide inks.  To create this card, I stamped the koala on the aqua panel and on scrap white cardstock.  I colored him on the white cardstock, fussy cut, and then added to the aqua panel.  The shimmer trim on the puddle and raindrops didn't photograph well.

No matter what your weather is like, know that you've got a friend, rain or shine!

H2H Challenges: Sponging

Heart2Heart Challenges is offering up a technique challenge, sponging!  My first card uses a wedge cut from our round sponge and Glacier ink.

This card features the May stamp of the month, Flowers for You, with cardstock and stamping with New England Ivy, a piece of Hillside Cottage patterned paper, and sponging with Glacier ink.  I colored in my stamped image with TriBlend Spectrum Noir markers.  The sentiment was stamped with Flamingo and New England Ivy.

I've also been have a LOT of fun sponging with distress oxide inks:

Thanks for letting me share.  Now it's your turn to give sponging a try and join us at Heart2Heart Challenges!

May Technique Blog Hop: Just Distress Oxide It!

The May 2021 Technique Blog Hop is featuring distress oxide inks.  They are so much fun to play!  They have a really creamy texture and react to water (hence the oxide in the name).  You are going to love all of the techniques you will learn on this hop.  (If you're already hopping, then you've probably arrive from Michelle Loncar's blog.  From here, you'll click on her name to visit Darlys Recker's Craft Happy blog next.)

I wanted to create a Mother's Day card featuring pink (or coral), yellow, and green.  Using my mini ink blending tool, I began by sponging Tattered Rose distress oxide ink in the top middle of my White Daisy card panel.  I added Mustard Seed below and then overlapped a little Tattered Rose.  I sponged Mowed Lawn on the bottom and Abandoned Coral on the top, blending the colors together across the cardstock and overlapping each color as best I could.  (While I have seen tutorials recommending a circular sponging application, I think mine looked better brushing ink across the cardstock.)  Here's a peek at the first step:

After sponging the ink on my card front panel, I misted water with a squirt bottle and then dripped random splotches onto the front with water dripping from my fingers.

To finish the background, I flicked Peach, Gold, and Candy Apple shimmer brushes onto the card front panel.

For my focal image, after stamping in Black ink, I used my Spectrum Noir Tri-Blend markers to color in the floral images and foliage.  I rimmed the edge of my circle with my black marker.  The Happy Mother's Day circle is from a retired stamp set (stamped in Black and Smoothie), and the Canary gingham circle was cut from the Lovely collection.

Here's a similar card that I've already featured on my blog that uses the same basic techniques.  (You can learn more HERE.)

Here's a peek at a new card I just made also using the same techniques but with Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, and Sapphire distress oxide inks.

Thanks for letting me share some different versions of the same distress oxide technique.  Please leave a comment before you hop to Darlys's Craft Happy blog next!

Happy Mother's Day

 Now that Mother's Day has passed, I wanted to share the cards that I made.  Today's card was for my mom and features the Layered Butterflies Thin Cuts, which are part of the current You Are Enough special.  It didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned, but I think she appreciated it.

I really wanted to use these huge butterfly Thin Cuts on her card.  The background was one in my stash from experimenting with distress oxide inks.  (I call it distress oxide "smooshing" because you press your inks on your all-purpose mat, spritz with water, and then smoosh you cardstock into the mess.  This was probably the last or next to last pull of color. You can get several backgrounds from one inky mess, and no two are alike.)  I think I used Mustard Seed, Peeled Paint, and Mowed Lawn.  I flicked various yellow, green, and gold shimmer brushes onto the panel also.

For the butterfly, I cut the base from a pale Flamingo piece of patterned paper from the new Hillside Cottage collection and then layered both light and actual Lagoon on top.  For the top layer, I also painted Lagoon shimmer brush onto the butterfly.  I added a trail of bitty sparkles to mimic flight.

Even though it didn't turn out like I had envisioned, I still think it's a pretty card.  We were blessed to all get to celebrate together yesterday, so here's a picture of my amazing mom with my siblings and me.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms, the angel mothers in heaven, and the special "aunts" who have nurtured a child of any age!