Plain Ol' stamping

Hey there! Today I am back with a quick..well relatively quick card using just stamps..no fancy watercoloring or shading using alcohol markers..just some stamps and ink pads. 

I have noticed that I am mostly using my zigs or my finecolor markers to make cards..and my ink pads were getting neglected..so for this anniversary card I decided to use my oldest stamp set..one which I had bought when I was just starting card making and had ignored it since then...But now no more :) .. I got out my stamps and my Kaisercraft pigments ink cubes and got stamping..

Since this was to be an aniversary card..I created a heart shaped outline using one of my heart dies and selected a few of the flower and leaf stamps and just went at it..

As mentioned, the card is pretty simple with major focus on stamping.. I just filled in the outline till I was happy. To finish it further, I added few dots using a gold gel pen.

I then stamped the sentiment using versamark ink and heat embossed using gold embossing powder. Since the card was so simple, I decided to dress up the card base a bit. Using some silver glitter washi tape I created a border along the two edges of  the card base. I then adhered the card panel using some foam tape. Few heart sequins finished the job. :)

Here is the finished card..

Like the simple look..hope the recipient likes it too! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Xx

Tej

Fall themed birthday card

I have done it again..been ignoring my blog again... *sigh* .. But it's so much more fun making cards than blogging about them, right 😜.. 

Anyways to get back to the card.. I recently got a leaf stamp set that someone was destashing and I immediately knew I wanted to watercolor the images.. Though its spring here in Melbourne, I wanted to try out some fall colors.. I stamped the leaves on a strip of White cardstock using some brown versa color ink. I am yet to buy some waterproof ink, but I was not too concerned of ink bleeding as I thought it would give a more realistic look, and it turned out better than I thought. I used my Zig clean color brush markers for watercoloring. I mainly used reds, yellows, oranges, greens and browns to stick with the fall theme. I also outlined the images with a light grey marker to make the images stand out better. This was how the panel looked before I adhered it to the card base.

As the panel was the main focus, I kept the card base simple. I dry embossed the base with dots embossing folder. I felt the panel was too simple, so I added a bit of silver glitter on the top and bottom edges. I adhered this to the card base using some foam tape to compensate for any warping due to watercoloring. Some sequins, a black twine tied in a bow and heat embossed sentiment finished the card..Here is the final look

This is also my entry for the YNS sketch & color challenge #48 where I chose the color scheme. Fingers crossed! 🙂

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,

Tej 

Playing with distress inks

Hi all! Today I am back with more birthday cards..you can never have enough! 😊

For a change, I did not make these with anyone specific in mind. I thought it would be great to have a few extra on hand.. I have tried to keep the design generic in the sense it can be given to any recipient..maybe the colors are not completely masculine, but hey..it's a birthday card..so bit of color is not bad huh? 😉

I am still playing with my distress inks..trying to get more used to the ink blending and all..so for the first card I took out all my distress inks and blended a smooth White cardstock in rainbow colors. This took a while, since I was using a smooth cardstock which is less forgiving for blending. So to avoid the color streaks, I had to go over the panel a few times to get a smooth look. After blending, I sprinkled some water and then dried it off with paper towel. Finally for more interest, I took some white pearl paint and splattered it on the panel and let the whole thing dry. 

I loved how cool the panel looked! 😊.. Now to convert that into a card, I cut a number of hexagons from the panel using a hexagon die. I then took a white card panel and splattered a bit of black pearl paint on it for added interest. I then adhered the hexagons onto the panel in a pattern using foam tape.

Finally I used a scripty Happy birthday stamp to stamp the sentiment. To tie in the card front with the card panel, I used a hexagonal stencil from Kaisercraft and some texture paste. 

Finally I adhered the whole panel onto the card front once it was dry.

A few gold sequins finished the card.. 

For my second card, I again went with distress inks. But this time I used an AveryElle balloon stamp set and did a fair bit of stamping. I wanted the distressed look to the balloons and so I chose some bright colorS that would look nice on a birthday card. I stamped few of the balloons using versamark clear ink and heat embossed them in dark gold embossing powder. This just created added interest on the otherwise simple panel. To tone down the look, I decided to cover the panel using a vellum sheet. I stamped my sentiment on vellum and heat embossed it using white embossing powder. I then adhered the vellum to the card panel and mounted the whole thing on a dark card base using some foam tape.

A few sequins to finish the job.. Love how colorful this card turned out..

Thanks for stopping by..

Cheers..

Tej

Father's Day cards and new desk

Hey all..fear not..I know I haven't been active for a while now..but was super busy and also was working on refurbishing my new desk! Yeah! I finally have a craft desk now..well it's the family desk but now I have a place to craft rather than the bed ! Super excited..

So now that I have my desk in place, it was so easy creating these couple of Father's Day cards..I broke out quite a few of my recently acquire goodies.. The stamp set I used is from LawnFawn called Monster Mash..it's so cute..and stamps so great! This was my first time using a photopolymer stamp and they are indeed superior..so happy I got them.. 

For the first card, I colored the monsters using Finecolor markers and fussy cut them out. For background I cut a scalloped circle using the dies I picked up a while back at a sale. I did some ink blending using distress inks and sprinkled some water for added texture. To make it stand out a bit more, I cut a scalloped frame from black paper and adhered both onto a patterned background. I adhered the monsters using foam tape for dimension. Finally I added a few embellishments in form of a balloon and a heart. Completed the card with a sentiment from the same stamp set and added some shimmer using wink of Stella clear pen. 

Glossy accents on the balloon and heart finished the card. 

For the second one I used different monsters and I wanted to use my zig clean color brush markers, so I heat embossed the images using some brown embossing powder. After watercoloring I fussy cut the images out. I wanted to keep this card simple, so for the background I did some ink smooshing using distress inks. After the panel dried, I tied a bow using some natural twine. For the card panel, I used some Kraft cardstock. It felt too bare, so I took some glitter washi tape and adhered it to the panel. Then I attached the watercolored panel using some foam tape. Finally I adhered the fussy cut images and stamped a sentiment from the same stamp set. For a fun look, I added some googley eyes to all the monsters..this also emphasised the sentiment 😊..

Here is the finished card..again could not resist using some wink of Stella 😊..

That was all for today..

Thanks for stopping by..

Cheers,

Tej

Xx

Two cards, same design

Hey people! Today I am back with a couple of birthday cards for twins. I generally do not make multiple cards with similar design. I love to try out new techniques and different products on every card I make, so generally I have cards of different make and model? Hehe..but since I wanted to make cards for twins I tried to use similar products and kept the design same. The cards are for a brother-sister pair, so other than colors, I have kept the design pretty much the same. 

Just like my previous card, I used another free digi stamp from Jessa's monster collection (https://uselesstrinkets.wordpress.com) as my focal point. This time it was Mutze, the bunny monster. Hehe, aren't the names she gives the monsters just sweet! 

I printed out two of them and used my Finecolor markers to color them. I used shades of blue for the boy card monster and shades of red for the girl card. The rest I colored the same, just to emphasise the fact that these were for twins. I then fussy cut both the images.

For my background, I wanted to use balloons that were shaped like no. 1 as these were for twins' first birthday. But since I did not have the exact stamp, I reused my numbers stamp from Kaisercraft (which by the way I got for a dollar at a flea market :) ). Again keeping in with the boy-girl color scheme, I used peacock feathers distress ink for one and picked raspberries for another and stamped out a bunch of number balloons, mainly towards the top of the card panel. To give them a water colored look, I used my water brush to just fill in the stamped space. As distress inks react with water, this was easy enough. Then I used the tail from another balloon stamp and stamped that below the numbers using memento tuxedo black ink to create the balloon effect. 

I felt the background was a little too bare to leave it as it,  so using a confetti stamp and a couple of color co-ordinating distress inks, I stamped the confetti image all over the background. Again I took care to stamp more of it on the top of the card and gradually reduced it towards the bottom. 

Finally I adhered my fussy cut images to the bottom right of the card using some foam tape to create dimension. I stamped the sentiment next to it. 

I wanted to personalise the cards bit more, so using Kaisercraft alphabet stamps, I stamped and fussy cut the twins' names and adhered the letters onto the card panel. 

For added interest, I added a bit of glitter using clear wink of Stella brush pen and finished with glossy accents and co-ordinating sequins.

Here are the final cards..

Love how they turned out! I am glad I thought of adding the names, gives it a nice personal touch that is possible only through handmade cards :) ..

That's all for today. Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers..

Birthday card using texture paste

Hey all! I am back today with another cute birthday card. This time for a boy! This will go out to my friend's son who will soon turn 3! Wow..how the time flies! They stay in Brisbane, so we get to see each other maybe once a year..sadly neither of us have been able to make it for the kids birthdays.. So planning on sending him best wishes via a handmade card! 

For this card, I used another digital stamp. This time it was from Jessa's cutie monster collection. She has a bunch of freebies over at https://uselesstrinkets.wordpress.com and they are oh so adorable! They make for good coloring practice as well :) ..

 I used Fluffy Gustav..love his name by the way.. I colored him using Finecolor markers. To make him sparkle, I use my white gel pen to add dots around the edges. I then fussy cut him out leaving a slight border to give him a sticker like feel. As this is a birthday card, I added a small cupcake for Gustav to hold onto. 

For the card panel, I wanted to do something different rather than watercoloring or stamping. So decided to add some texture using my embossing paste. I colored the paste using spiced marmalade distress ink to give it a light orange color and used Kaisercraft stencil to add the required design. Then adhered the fussy cut image using some foam tape onto the embossed section once it was dry. 

The rest was simple, just stamped the birthday sentiment using Memento Tuxedo black ink and scattered a few sequins. Finished the panel with a twine bow on the bottom. Finally attached the section onto some grey cardstock and my card was done! 

I am very happy the way this card turned out..got to try some different techniques and products. 

Isn't it such a happy card! Hope it makes Om happy! 

That was all for now..see you soon!

Cheers..

Welcoming a new baby

Hey All! I am back with a sweet card for a sweet little baby..one of my friends recently had a cute little baby boy and we were planning on visiting them soon. I did not have a baby card in my stash, so decide to create one fast. 

I wanted to keep the card simple, so decided to have an image as the focal point. I googled for some baby images and came up with this cute little teddy hanging by the balloons..and thought it would be perfect for my card.

I printed it out on a pre-cut card panel and decided to watercolor it to give a softer look. I used my Zig clean color brush markers and a water brush to color the image.

Since the card was for a baby boy, I mainly went with the blues and greens..but had to throw in an orange balloon for some splash of color :) .. Once the panel was dry, I tied a blue twine around the top part and foam mounted it on some pattern paper. Then attached the whole panel onto some white cardstock. For the sentiment I used some gold embossing powder and heat embossed it on a piece of vellum with banner ends. Finally can't have a card without sequins, so finished with some co-ordinating sequins scattered around the image.

Loved the way it turned out.. I am having a lot of fun with my watercolours..look out for more watercolored cards :) .. That's all for today! 

Thanks for checking in!

Cheers..

Anniversary card

Hi All! Today I am back with a sweet anniversary card..

My parents anniversary is coming up soon..so what better occasion than to create a card for them!

I also wanted to break open the new distress inks my sister got me for xmas.. I had a general idea about how I wanted the card to look, but again my small stash did not contain the exact image I wanted so off to google I went..I googled some images and found some really sweet ones and printed them out. 

Using my Finecolor markers, I coloured the two birds and the tree branch.  I fussy cut them out and then worked on my card panel. I wanted to color the whole panel except for a small area around the birdies, so I cut a circle mask from some scrap paper and using removable adhesive I placed it on my card panel at the required spot. Using some makeup sponges ( I yet have to invest in the foam blending tool) and the Spiced Marmalade and Mustard Seed distress inks I created a sunset kind on look on the background. Then to distress it more I splashed some water on the card, let it sit for a few seconds and then dabbed it off using a paper towel. This created a nice water splashed look.

Finally I cut the card panel using Lawn Fawn scallop dies. I removed the circle mask and then adhered the fussy cut image on it using some foam tape to give it more dimension. Finally I used some wink of Stella and glossy accents on the birds and the hearts & sprinkled some sequins to finish the card.

This is how it turns out..

Not bad, huh! Sentiment is heat embossed in gold. 

That's it for now..thanks for stopping by! 

Cheers,

Tej

Birthday card for a budding ballerina..

Hey all! Today I am back with a sweet birthday card for a little girl..she has just started with ballet classes and her mom says she loves them..her birthday is coming up soon..so what better than a ballerina card for her!

I did not have a stamp so as usual I googled for a ballerina picture and found a sweet image I thought would be perfect. I wanted to try out my new zig real brush markers and this was the perfect opportunity. I had tried out the zigs before on some watercolor paper I had, but could not get a good blend. So I got a new cotton blend paper from my local craft store to try it out. I printed the image on the paper and using my LawnFawn scallop dies I had gotten for xmas, cut it out with a nice scallop border. I wanted to keep the card nice and bright so I went for shades of yellow. 

I was very happy with the blend I got on the cotton blend paper..guess this will be my go to paper for zigs :) .. 

To get some more texture I decided to use the Jo Sonja's texture paste with the Kaisercraft stencil I had gotten a while back. I did not have a spatula to spread it out so cut up an unused credit card and used that to smear the paste instead. Finally finished the card with some glitter..wink of Stella clear glitter pen on the ballerina and sprinkled some gold glitter on the texture paste while it was still wet. 

Heat embossed the birthday sentiment on some vellum and this finished my card panel. I adhered this to a pattern paper using some foam tape and then adhered that to a card base. 

Here is the finished card..

Hope my little friend likes it :) ..

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers..

Tej

Watercolor card

Hi All.. I am back with a new card..yes even I cannot believe that I am posting so soon..but luckily got some free time during the kids nap time .. So decide to churn out some posts..

This is actually an old card..but I had forgotten to blog about it.. It came out better than I expected so today i am putting it up 😊.. 

I used the watercoloring and bokeh technique shown by Dawn from Wplus9 and created a simple Christmas card.. I used a standard size watercolor paper and just used cheap watercolours to create a rainbow background.. I let it dry and then gave it a second wash of color to make them stand out better..

Then using white pigment ink and circle stencil I sponged the ink onto the watercolor panel to create the bokeh effect. I also used some white pearl paint to create small defined dots for added interest. 

Then I adhered the panel onto some black pattern paper to make it stand out better..finally adhered the whole panel to a cream coloured cardstock. 

For the sentiment, I used Kaisercraft alphabet stamps and memento tuxedo black ink. 

Here is the finished card..

I was surprised by the result.. the cheap watercolors really came through! 😉🙂..

Thanks for stopping by..

Cheers,

Tej

Masculine card

Hey everyone..back with another card post..this time it's a masculine card.. 

Huh..why is it that when it comes to cards you have tons of ideas..but it's a real struggle (for me atleast) when creating masculine cards.. Maybe it's because mostly the stamps I own are kind of girly and I am used to embellishing my cards with sequins, glitter, etc.. And when it comes to masculine cards, you generally try to avoid such things.. 

Well this time I decided to create a simple card using the London fog memento ink my sister got for me over Christmas.. I hadn't really gotten a chance to try it out before and it seemed perfect for the card idea I was going with. I tried it out and found that it was a tad bit on the darker side than what I wanted, so I decided to use second generation stamping. Using my lower alphabet stamps, I repeatedly stamped the word 'happy' on a diagonal on a white panel. I wanted one of the words to stand out, so I used the embossing technique shown by Jennifer McGuire in one of her videos - stamping over the same image using versamark ink. So I did the same and heat embossed the word in gold embossing powder to make it stand out a bit.. Then I cut down the panel on a diagonal and adhered it to a pre-cut Kraft cardstock..the card seemed to plain for me..even for a masculine card..so using the same London fog ink I stamped a cake image on the bottom corner of the card. Heat embossed the birthday sentiment on some vellum and adhered it below  the heat embossed 'happy' sentiment. To finish..I could not resist using some sequins..I used black ones to keep it simple but also add a little something to the card.. 

Here is the finished card..

I do like the CAS look of this one..it's new for me..hope the recipient likes it too.. 😊

PS: I did add some white gel pen dots around the image as it was looking too forlorn on its own..and added a bit of self adhesive black ribbon just below the white panel to enhance the edge..

That's all for now..thanks for stopping by!

Cheers..

Tej

Color me pink

Hey all.. So the first month of the new year has already rolled past and now it's onto the love month..now we generally do not celebrate Valentine's Day in our family but seeing so much great inspirations on IG I decided to make a card as well..  

I will be entering this card on a couple of challenges. Firstly there is the tic-tac-toe hosted by StampingSmilesDesign.. For this card I choose the first row of 'love, add shimmer, hearts'. 

For the card I decided to use the cute bear digital stamp from CraftinDesertDivas. They had him free in the store a while back and I wanted to color him in since so long..and hey..Kathy Rac's 30 day coloring challenge was the perfect excuse..I printed him off on some White cardstock and used my finecolor markers to color him.

Isn't he the cutest! Now I wanted to make my coloring the focal point so I kept the rest of the card quiet simple. I choose 'XOXO' as my sentiment since at the time I was not sure whom I wanted to give this card to. I heat embossed the sentiment in gold embossing powder on the big heart. I used a square card base and to add a pop of color, used a cute hearts pattern paper from my large stash..I fussy cut the image and popped it on the card using some foam tape. A few sequins for bling..and wink of Stella on the big heart, bear's eyes and the tiny heart as my shimmer element. Finally finished it off with glossy accents on the same three elements for that added texture..all done :) 

I am also entering this card in the Lawnscaping challenge #123 'sending love'. So excited!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers..

Tej

Lots of cards but no post :(

Yes as the title suggests I did make quiet a few cards but did not get time to update my blog..so here it goes.. 

I so badly wanted to try out making some shaker cards, but could not find clear acetate sheets anywhere.. Well atleast none at my local craft shops..so improvised a bit :) I found a couple of iPhone screen covers that were just sitting in my cupboard, and since I no longer own an iPhone (sniff sniff) I thought why not used them to make my shaker card? They certainly served the purpose..and as my shaker window was not that big they were perfect for it!

So the first card I made was for my mum.. She was visiting us here in Australia over the holiday season and what luck we were also able to celebrate her birthday here.. I wanted to make it look like the card was from my boys..so I googled and found a couple of sweet boy images holding balloons online and they were perfect. I coloured them using my Finecolour markers and did a bit of fussy cutting. Then it was just matter of assembling the shaker. I cut out the balloons and added the acetate window there with some confetti bits and hey my shaker was done :) .. 

Here's a look at it.. 

Cute isn't it 😊..

And now onto my next shaker..my sister was celebrating her first anniversary and I wanted to make them a special card..and decided that a shaker card would be perfect.. 

Again I did not have the required stamps so I looked up for some digital images online and found a cute couple image..went perfect with my card idea.. I coloured the image with my Finecolour markers and then did a bit of ink blending for the background .. I wished I had a few distress inks as i have heard they blend beautifully, but decided to have a go with my Kaisercraft pigment inks..well they weren't so bad either! I wanted to have a twilight type background so I used lilac, berry, saffron, and bit of memento black ink.. Then for the shaker part I cut out a heart shape from the background using my craft knife and again used the screen cover and bits of confetti to build it.. One mistake I made was I adhered my panel before I stamped my sentiment and as it was on foam tape, stamping it later was a bit messy..maybe time to get me a Misti now? 😉.. 

Here is the finished card...

Well that was one long post..whew.. 

Well till next time...thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,

Tej

Happy new year!

Wishing everyone a very happy 2016!! Wow..how the time flies..2016 is here and today is the 7th day of the new year already! Where did 2015 go? 

I did start a bunch of new things in 2015..papercrafting, card making, blogging..hoping to continue the same in 2016.. I also made a bunch of new IG friends who are so supportive and gave me inspiration to start my own blog and put myself out there..not so easy for an introvert like me :) . A big thank you to all of them..

Well being the holiday season and all, I did not get much crafting done..have family visiting from US and India so taking a break for a while.. And boy is that tough..my sister got me a bunch of goodies from US and I had to pack them all up till I get some free time to craft. 

This is what she got for me 

Isn't she the best 😊.. 

Anyways..I thought I would share a card I had made for a friend for new year.. I used all my old supplies so it's not very fancy, but I got to try the coloring on Kraft technique I have seen so many crafters do. 

So I stamped the greeting first using versamark ink and heat embossed it using silver embossing powder. Then I stamped a bunch of flowers and leaves using the versa color white pigment ink. It shows up really well on the Kraft cardstock. Then it was a simple matter of coloring the images with my  Fabre Castell Classic color pencils. I did minimal shading as the images were not that big. A bit of fancy holiday ribbon on one edge finished up the card.. Simple yet elegant 😊

Thanks for stopping by..

Cheers,

Tej