The Pioneer Woman.

I'll admit, I've apparently been under a rock about some things. More specifically, I've been under a rock about the awesome-sauce-ness of The Pioneer Woman's gooooorgeous line of kitchen accoutrements at Wal Mart. (Possibly because I loathe Wal Mart, but that's for a different blog post.) Ahem, anyway, I recently purchased a few of the mugs in the line, and I am so infatuated with them that I was inspired to create a card set. I wish I had enough room to have everything in the line, but my dishes from my wedding are still utterly lovely, and I would be loathe to part from them. So, I got a few of the mugs, and here is what they inspired:

For this first card, I stamped a random pattern of Aqua Mist dots using the largest dot from the Background Basics: Polka Dot onto the white panels cut with the Sentiment Splits set. I then stamped the flowers from the new Floral Sketches set using various inks from various companies... I'm trying to mix it up a bit, as I seem to be in an ink rut, and I have too many to not use them more often. The reds and yellows were from my never-before-used Altenew inks, greens and aquas were from PTI. I die cut all of the flowers using the coordinating dies. 

After placing my polka dotted panels on my card base, I white heat embossed my sentiment directly on the card base, then popped up with white panels with dimensional adhesive. After adhering my flowers to the card, I added some black Wink of Stella shimmer to the centers of the red flowers and some gold Wink of Stella to the yellow flowers. 

The next card was inspired by a different mug from The Pioneer Woman's line. I really like that the patterns are all so different, but still coordinate so beautifully. I stamped a doily image from an ooooold Market Street Stamps set in Aqua Mist onto a panel of 4x5 1/4 inch white card stock. I stamped the flowers in the corner, masking off the large center flower to make the leaves look like they were behind the flower, and stamping those same yellow flowers. 

The sentiment is from the Don't Forget To Write Make It Market kit. I die cut the "Note" from Enchanted Evening once and white card stock twice to create a little stack, then stamped the rest of the greeting using Enchanted Evening again. (The font on those word dies included in the DFTW kit are absolutely swoon-worthy. Wow!) Again, I added some shimmer with my black and gold Wink of Stella pens.

That's all for me today! I hope you're all having a Happy Memorial Day! I have no patriotic stamps, so this color scheme is about as close as I can come to a patriotic card. My lack of patriotic stamps does not diminish my respect for our soldiers, however, and I am deeply grateful for the sacrifice that so many have given to ensure that our country remains free. I have relatives in the Armed Forces, and I could not be prouder or more grateful for their service. I hope you all have a happy day with your families, barbecuing and enjoying the weather, but while also remembering why we are celebrating this day. I can only hope that, one day, we come to a time when there is no more need for our soldiers to make such a sacrifice, but instead live in peace with each other. 

Inky Fingers

Hi, friends! I have another card set for you, this time using a one die cut and some ink blending. I have marveled previously at the way color choices make such a huge difference in the tone of the card, and these cards show exactly that! I love color. I dream about color combinations. When I come up with a new, unexpected (at least in my repertoire) way of adding color to my projects, it makes me so darn happy.... it's a little embarrassing. These cards add color in a few different ways.

To start, all three of my cards began with two simple things: a white card base and a white die cut sentiment (from PTI's Paper Clippings series) These sentiments are so very detailed that you don't have to add hardly anything to them. My first card is an homage to pink and purple. I used PTI's Raspberry Fizz and Hibiscus Burst inks to blend a sort of ombre halo. I started by blending the lighter shade (Hibiscus Burst) all over the card, then concentrating the darker shade (Raspberry Fizz) towards the outer edges. After that, it was simply a matter of adding some Copic coloring to the die cuts. Easy peasy.

The second card is what I call my "sunrise" color combination. I blended PTI's Summer Sunrise all over the card base, then added Orange Zest around the outer edges, leaving the halo of paler color in the center. I added oranges and Limeade Ice greens in Copics to the flowers and birds. 

The last card is a favorite color combination of mine. I love deep, rich fuchsia, and I think the combination of Raspberry Fizz and Amethyst Allure (both from PTI) creates a gorgeous shade that is really quite unique. 

The last little touch was to add some clear Wink of Stella shimmer to the flowers and birds. 

I love that you can take some white card stock and, by using your color judiciously, create so much interest. Definitely worth all of the ink all over my fingers! (I hate being covered in ink... but sometimes you gotta take one for the team, ha!)

Have a great day, friends!

PTI's May Blog Hop

 Hi there! Today's the PTI May Blog Hop, and I feel like it's been forever since I participated in the blog hop. This photo, though, was super inspiring, one that immediately summoned an idea to my brain! (Sometimes it's just too hard to come up with a project, and I'm lazy a busy lady!)

Here's the inspiration photo:

As you can see, my rendition is pretty literal. I even attempted to copy the approximate color combinations and silvery gray sentiment. Because popsicles are what I would consider dessert (okay, maybe not, but they're sweet) my brain translated it to cupcakes. I used most of the images from Baker's Dozen, which is seriously one of my all-time favorite stamp sets (and for some reason, one that I always forget about, but when I think about it, I utterly love it and want to make 923 cards with it). I stamped them with Versamark and heat embossed them with Hero Arts White Satin Pearl embossing powder. 

The darling little confections were colored using my trusty Zig markers and a wet paintbrush, as well as adding some sparkle and shimmer here and there with a silver Wink of Stella pen. 

The sentiment was created using stamps and dies from the Don't Forget To Write Make It Market kit, and let me tell you- are THOSE bad boys going to get a work out at my desk. The dies, the stamps, the flowers.... it's all phenomenal. I die cut the "sending" first from silver glitter card stock, then decided to give it a little more height by cutting two more of them from watercolor card stock. This is actually the first time I've successfully layered intricate card stock sentiments, and I think it's due to the fact that I used the watercolor card stock. It was just sturdy enough that it held it's original shape really well. Plus, I only had to cut two of them to make a nice thick sentiment. The "birthday cheer" was heat embossed in silver using a stitched banner die cut from vellum. I wrapped it around the stitched rectangle (a die cut from The Ton's Double Stitched Rectangles) and adhered it, then helped it to stay down even more firmly by strategically placing the "s" and "g" in the "sending" die cut over top of the vellum. Vellum is tricky, but I really like the subtle effect it has. 

I hope you enjoyed my version of the inspiration photo! I can't wait to see what everybody else does! Happy Hopping! :) 

I can't stop making cards in multiples...

Hi friends! This is a long, photo-heavy post, so I won't chatter too much. I have decided that, when I make anything, I must make it in multiples. The last several cards I've made have all been card sets, and the cards on today's post are some of my favorites. I put to use the new Don't Forget to Write Make It Market kit from Papertrey Ink, and I have to say.... boy, oh boy, am I in looooooovvvveeee..... 

There aren't really any special techniques for these cards. I noticed that my baby card section of my mom's box o'cards was sadly lacking, so I set out to remedy that immediately. I used the beautiful frames and floral sprays in the DFTW kit in blues and pinks, then combined them with the sweet little fawn image and sentiment from the Wee Folk mini kit. 

My first set is obviously boy-centric. I am utterly in love with these floral sprays... so effortless, but so perfectly spaced and proportioned. Swoon! I used all of the PTI blues: Spring Rain, Blueberry Sky, and Enchanted Evening, then used Limeade Ice for the greenery. 

I stamped one each of the circle frame and the square frame (using my MISTI made it ridiculously easy to mass produce all of these semi-fussy bits and pieces). After arranging the frames and die cuts the way I wanted, I stamped the greeting in Blueberry Sky and Enchanted Evening, then used dimensional adhesive to pop up the die cuts on a crisp white card base. I'm really loving clean and simple right now. White space is no longer my enemy!!

I wanted that sweet little fawn to look like he was just peeking out from behind some foliage in the forest. So darling! I added some silver Wink of Stella shimmer to the centers of the flowers. 

The pink set was created in precisely the same way, but using pink PTI ink: Lovely Lady, Hibiscus Burst, and Raspberry Fizz, with Aqua Mist foliage.

The greeting was stamped with Scarlet Jewel and Raspberry Fizz. 

The last step was to add some gold Wink of Stella to the centers of the flowers. 

I think this may one of my favorite card sets.... ever... SO glad that I was able to get my hands on this kit! That beautiful frame and floral spray is going to become a staple at my desk, for sure! I'm thinking I need to do another set of these in yellow and purple, what do you think?

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great weekend!

Monogram stationery is my bread and butter....

So, backstory. My card making journey started the summer I got married (seven years ago next month. GASP!) I was a young, picky bride who wanted something very specific for my thank you notes. For the life of me, I can't remember what they looked like, except that I bought practically my weight in stamps and shades of blue ink from Hobby Lobby. But monogram stationery was where my love of papercrafting began. Creating something unique and beautiful that had every bride's favorite new thing... her new monogram... just made me so happy. And now you know where the obsession began...

Since then, whenever friends of ours have gotten married, I have taken it upon myself to gift them some handmade monogram stationery. A few of my friends received some of my first attempts, and boy, let me tell ya, were they aaaaawwwfffuuuullllll..... Oh my. Words can't describe. But my friends loved them anyway, bless their sweet hearts. At least they made me feel as though my sad attempts were so appreciated. Love them. One of our last friends to get married got married a few weeks ago, and we weren't able to attend the wedding, so I knew I wanted to make them some lovely stationery to go along with their gift. Using my handy dandy MISTI, I was able to make six of these multi layered cards in just one naptime and one evening of stamping. Love it!

I started by creating a template to use with my MISTI. I stamped my flowers from Wplus9's Freehand Florals using just a regular acrylic block (to save time since it didn't need to be perfect) and then used that as my guide in my MISTI to create an assembly line of floral wreaths. I used a variety of inks, and to be honest I can't really tell you what inks I used, but they sure are pretty! 

The next step was to add that fabulous monogram. I used Concord and 9th's Sophisticated Script (the lower case version, and they now have a version of that gorgeous calligraphy in all capitals!!! Squeal!) and Delicata Gold ink. 

After gluing all of the panels to white linen card bases, I created a box using some patterned Anna Griffin paper from a 12x12 stack I found at Hobby Lobby. I put the pattern on the inside and made a coordinating belly band. I matched some mint green envelopes to them and snuggled everything inside the box. It fits perfectly. 

I hope the bride and groom love their stationery with their monogram on it! I am in love with this card set! Puts me in mind of Rifle Paper Co. Made such quick work of it with my MISTI. That thing is worth it's weight in gold!

Thanks for dropping by! 

Life is better with sprinkles...

Hello! Wow, has it been a long time since I posted on here... I didn't realize it had been almost a month. I didn't mean to neglect my poor blog for so long. You would think that making the card would be the lengthy portion of the blogging process, but for me it's the photography, editing, watermarking, then actually WRITING the blog post that takes the most time. I've been crafting in spurts, between my jewelry making (www.vjosephine.etsy.com) and, as always, entertaining the kiddos, but I just haven't had a ton of time to actually sit down and write about the projects I've been making.

My mom is a peach and takes a box of my cards with her to work every now and then, and as I was filling up a box for her to take on her last visit, I realized that I have lots of neat cards that have unusual sentiments, and not a lot of basic "occasion" cards, like birthday, anniversary, baby, etc. So my plan is to create multiples of those and hopefully fill that box right up!

Today's quartet is using a fairly new Papertrey Ink set: Just Desserts and the accompanying mini Just Desserts Sentiments. I really love the clean and simple looks that you can get with these fabulous cake stamps. Let's get started! This first card is a cake over which I would certainly drool were I to run across it... chocolate cake with pink frosting. Cake is always amazing, but chocolate cake.... mmmm.... With some yummy marshmallow buttercream... I'm making myself hungry. I stamped the naked cake in Dark Chocolate PTI ink, then the frosting in the new Lovely Lady (love that pretty pink!). I stamped the pretty flowers and candles in Raspberry Fizz and Limeade Ice. The simple but lovely sentiment was done in Smokey Shadow. The whole panel was popped up using dimensional adhesive. Super clean, super simple, super crisp, but I am really loving that right now. 

 The next card is a pink version of those lovely sprinkles cakes you see all over Pinterest. I stamped the three layers using Lovely Lady, Hibiscus Burst, and Raspberry Fizz. Such a pretty combo! The sentiment from the mini companion set was stamped in Smokey Shadow. A nice alternative to a stark black sentiment. 

The next two cards are the masculine counterparts to the supremely feminine versions above. I used Limeade Ice, Enchanted Evening, and Tropical Teal for this sprinkle cake....

and Tropical Teal for this cake's frosting. The cake itself was done with The Ton's Vanilla Buttercream and PTI's Classic Kraft inks, using a makeup sponge to add the shadows around the edge. I love the super classy font used for this Happy Birthday sentiment. 

The last finishing touch to all of the cakes was to add some gold Wink of Stella to the fire of the candles. Just enough shimmer to add a little something "extra" to the cards. 

Here they are all together. Thank goodness I don't have that much real cake in my life, because I would certainly eat it all and need to go shopping for new clothes ASAP... 

Thanks so much for dropping by after my unintentional hiatus! I promise I have a few more posts up my sleeve. If you don't already, follow along with my crafty adventures on Instagram. I'm @eamidgett. Happy Monday, friends!! :)