Party Animal!

I just love this Avery Elle stamp set.  I've loved it but never bought it until I saw it at Impress when my family was up there to take Sandy Allnock's class.  I knew I just had to have it when I saw it in person and perfect timing too because I need a lot of birthday cards coming up. 

For this card, I was playing with the background,  I'm really enjoying sponging on Distress Ink with the round blending tool.  It's so much easier to use.  I then used a new chevron stencil from Memory Box to add some embossing paste for more texture and then dripped water onto the Distress Ink for a little more texture. 

Then I stamped out the cute little balloon animal from the Avery Elle Party Animal set in some Simon Says Stamp Sunshine ink and then sentiment from the Lawn Fawn Chit Chat set using Slate ink from Simon Says Stamp. I cut them both out, added some Wink of Stella and then Glossy Accents.  Once they were dry, I added them to the card with some pop dots and finished it off with some Pretty Pink Posh sequins. 

A Lawn Fawn Birthday Inspired by Stretch Your Stamps 2

I signed up for the Onlinecardclasses.com Stretch Your Stamps 2 class and I love it, but it's pretty bad timing because life is just crazy busy right now so I haven't had as much time to play as I would like.  I was trying to clean my craft room when this card just sort of materialized out of things I had on my desk. I'm a crazy messy crafter so it seems like I'm always cleaning my room, but at the same time, the mix of crazy stuff all together brings up some of my best mojo.  Today's card started when I stamped the Impression Obsession Circle Fusion stamp and heat embossed it.  Then I just added some Distress Ink that were on my desk and yet seemed to go together well.  Then I decided to cut it down using the Avery Elle Dotted die.  I found this navy colored card base in my stash of pre-made card bases as I was putting it away.  I wasn't quite sure where it was going until I found the Into the Woods set from Lawn Fawn.  I just had to color and cut the cute fawn, but, for the sentiment, I needed a different set.  I picked the Chit Chat set, also from Lawn Fawn.  I looked at a few ink colors but finally settled on Audrey Blue from Simon Says Stamp.  I really love that color.  To finish it off, I added some crystal clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh that I picked up at Impress during my trip to Seattle last week. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday so it's only fitting that I post a birthday card.  Now this is not the card I'm giving her, but it is a birthday card.  I had this idea for the card and it didn't really turn out the way I had pictured in my head.  I loved the background technique that I saw on the Onlinecardclasses class Stretch Your Stamps 2 where Kristina Werner made the most amazing background with a heat embossed background and some watercolors.  It was so amazing and my version, well, it's not.  I used the cutest background stamp from Impression Obsession called Sketchy Flowers with some Versamark and clear embossing powder.  I then used some Distress Ink markers to watercolor in the flowers and the background.  I'm just not in love with it, but often these cards grow on me after time.  So I used my Simon Says Stamp Postage Stamp dies to cut a white background with the largest and then the next size down on my background stamp panel.  I layered them on an orange card base.  For the sentiment, I pulled out the Lawn Fawn Chit Chat stamp set and stamped the cute birds in Momento ink then colored with copics.  I stamped out the Happy Birthday set with some Orange Peel Simon Says Stamp ink and then added them all to the card with some pop dots.