Art Impressions and Crafter's Companion Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers

This cute stamped image is from Art Impressions. It is colored with Crafter's Companion Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. I love all the colors they have and they are all refillable! Very affordable vs other alcohol markers.

I did very simple shading. It is easy with alcohol markers to get a smooth shade.

The bottom is decorated with Tim Holtz's Trick or Treat Shadow die. It has many Halloween elements on it, I only used a few. I also added some glitter pen from Spectrum Noir on the owl as well as google eyes on the owl and bats. I like that it adds a bit of whimsy to the card. It was a fun and easy card to put together. You don't have to have the same elements as I do, just use the card sketch and see what you can come up with!

3D Flower Card

 

Today's card is a 3D flower card. Any 3D flowers can be used to make this card. If you don't have any 3D flower dies you can always use store bought ones. I just added some washi tape for the background and to add some dimension to the background I used a Sizzix die.  Dimensional foam was used behind the green border to pop it up a big. I added the sentiment from the Celebrate set by Sizzix. To avoid needing a larger envelope, I cut some of the card front down then added a decorative strip of pink loops cut from the same Sizzix border set. The dots at the top are Perler beads melted down. (I love the glitter looks so I also added some Wink of Stella to my flowers.)

 

 

This washi background is great for any kind of card base. Just add a die cut or Stamped image and you are good to go!





Gingerbread Easel Card

Making an easel card is fun and easy! I used the adorable gingerbread people from the All Baked Out set over at Paper Crafting World. There are a lot of cute files included in this collection. I used the single man and woman. You can easily use the other designs such as the border people or the title on the base of this card.

Let's make a card!!

I used a die for the base of my card. It is from Sizzix. You can use any stand up bases you like. Silhouette has many in the design store and you can always cut one by hand too. Once you have your base cut from red card stock, decorate it with some patterned paper. I use Christmas papers from Recollections Sugar Plum pad. It was sold by Michael's a few years back but any papers will do.

Cut a white piece of card stock and stamp a greeting. I used a stamp from my stash. I used Stazon black ink and then antiqued the edges of the cut shape with some tea dye Distress Ink.

Cut the cute gingerbread people out your die cut machine. I used my Silhouette Cameo. I inked all the pieces with Distress Inks that matched my papers. I used all solid papers for these cuties. Assemble the folks. Decorate them if you would like with 3D elements to add interest. I added buttons made from melted Perler beads.

I cut the candies out from red and white card stock. I used a red permanent marker to add some extra lines to match my candy paper, this is optional. Add some Glossy Accents to the candy die cuts to add dimension. Let them dry before you attach them. I also added a dot of white acrylic paint with a tooth pick to their cheeks to finish off their faces.

As for the bottom "joyful" embellishment. I used a die from Sizzix. I cut it out three times and glued them together for dimension.

Glue on all your embellishments and you are done!! This card can be folded flat to mail and propped up to display!!

 

Getting Ready

Getting Ready is another great stamp by Lili of the Valley. This was colored on watercolor paper using Tim Holtz distress ink markers. You can't see it in the picture but I used wink of stella on the dress. It adds a lot of sparkle but it isn't distracting like glitter. When I am tight on time, I like to make simple cards like this one. I precolor the images to speed things up even more. 

Lili of the Valley

This stamped image from lili of the valley is adorable. Actually, all their stamps are adorable! I chose, Feathered Friends, to watercolor. I used my new distress markers to watercolor this image. It is very easy to do and I love the results. I was in a water coloring mood one day so I sat down and painted a bunch of images. I like to have them ready so my card making sessions aren't so long doing the painting and card making at the same time. I do like to pull some papers to match my inks and then store the colored images and the papers in a plastic folder. Then when I am ready to make cards, I have the time consuming part done already.

Here are some great tutorials on watercoloring with distress markers.

Birthday Girl

This card was made from another Lili of the Valley stamp. For this card I chose to use distress inks to watercolor the image on watercolor paper. The solid papers are from my Michael's Recollections paper pack, the yellow stripe paper is from my stash and the pink, orange and yellow stripe paper is from Paper Adventures called Matchmakers by Jill. I made the bow out of some organza ribbon I had and I added some sparkle with my clear wink of stella pen. The mini "happy b-day" word stamp is from my stamp stash to add some texture I poked holes with a T pin.

These cards are great basic card sketches. Try making one with your own stamped images and papers!