Thank You Inspired by Jennifer McGuire

I was completely enthralled watching Jennifer McGuire use Distress Inks with embossing folders.  You can see her beautiful work and check out her video here.   I immediately knew I had to give it a try. 

For this background, I spread several colors of Distress Ink on the QuicKutz Zig Zag embossing folder, spritzed it with water and then ran it through my Big Kick.  While it dried, I stamped the banner from Lawn Fawn's Bannerific with some Simon Says Stamp Soft Navy ink then cut it out with the matching die.  I stamped the two cute little birdies from the set with some Grey Flannel Memento ink and colored them with my copic markers.  I had to fussy cut those but they are so cute on the card as if they are holding the banner.  I love how they look with some pop dots behind them.  I added a little Wink of Stella to the banner and some simple coloring to shade the banner.  I finished it off with some clear sequins because lately it seems like everything needs sequins. 

Denver - Coming Home

Yeah!  Today I come home from Denver and the hubster will get his last card for this trip.  This one is really outside of my comfort zone - it's messy!  I'm not a fan of splatter, but when I saw this card on Rita's Creations, I knew I just had to lift it so I could use the new stamp set I got from Fiskars called Latte Love. 

There's a fabulous stamp from Hero Arts that does the messy coffee stain circle, but I don't have that one, so I had to improvise with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink mixed with water.  I mixed the two on my craft sheet and used the stem of a candle holder as my "stamp" to simulate the coffee cup ring.  I sprayed the card with Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist (how appropriate is that name for this card?) and added a few extra larger drops.  I then stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black and cut out the banner.  After coloring the stamped coffee cup image with some Spectrum Noir markers, I fussy cut it out (the steam was not fun to cut) and added it to the card with some pop dots. 

Warning:  Those who are purists about their stamp sets should skip this paragraph.  I added a coffee bean border along the top and bottom of the card on this inside.  I wanted a sentiment that said "love you a latte" but the stamp set only comes with "thanks a latte" so I cut the thanks off (oh, the horror!) so I could team it with the "love you" sentiment from my Fiskars All Year Greetings set.   Too bad I also managed to get the feet of my Martha Stewart stamp press in the ink and ended up with some stray marks.  But hubby won't care. 

Denver Cards - Day Three

I found the inspiration for today's card all on my own.  I had this lovely card from Project Life Cinnamon Edition on my desk that I really loved and thought would make a great card.  But I knew it was going to need something else, but not too much else since I really prefer a very simple style.  A while back, Simon Says Stamp had a fabulous stamp sale and I bought the Happy Sentiments set with the happy die.  I decided to try a double cut of the happy using the coordinating card stock from Project Life with some pop dots (cut really, really small) to pop it on top of the happy in the Project Life card.  Instead of putting it in the middle, I decided to right justify it with a kraft card stock mat.  I used my Stampin' Up paper piercing guide to add a border of dots and finished it off with some Martha Stewart baker's twine.  Love this one!