Taylored Expressions 9th Birthday!

Today I am celebrating with Taylored Expressions on their 9th birthday with a Birthday Sketch Challenge.

I took the sketch from above and made a "thank you" card using their Hippo Birdy stamp set. The sketch is fun and can be used in a variety of ways. I plan on making a few other cards so check back often!

Happy Crafting!
Jen


This is another one I made for the challenge!
 

Food Fun with Crafter's Companion

This quick little card was colored with my  Spectrum ColourBlend colored pencils and Gamsol blended. These wonderful pencils are from Crafter's Companion. The images were stamped on Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock colored with the highly pigmented pencils and blended smooth with the Gamsol solution for the smooth blended look. I added some Glossy Accents over some of the images for a shinny, wet look. I arranged them in the circles that I cut with a stitched die and added a strip of craft cardstock over the holes to make the images show up better. Lastly, I stamped a sentiment, added some faux enamel dots (to balance out the sentiment) and I'm done!

Happy Crafting!
Jen

Paper Smooches and Crafter's Companion with Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers

This adorable grad card is quick when you use Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers to color the Paper Smooches, Smarty Pants image. Stamp the images with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Spectrum Noir Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock. Color the images with markers. (EB5, EB3, JG3, JG6, True Black, GG4, JG2, CT4, CT1, GY5, TB1, IG3, FS3, FS5, TB2, TB5, OR1, OR2, DR1, DR5, and Blender) Cut around images leaving 1/16 inch of white around them. Set aside.

Cut out a frame border with either wood grain paper or stamp wood grain stamp onto brown paper and cut out. Add black cardstock inside the frame as the faux chalkboard. Stamp your sentiment with versa mark and add white embossing powder and heat. (I used an Embossing Buddy to keep the embossing powder from sticking to places other then my sentiments but kept the dust on the paper. It serves as old chalk dust to add more interest to the piece.) I also used a white Signo pen on the chalkboard and to the pointer in the professor's hand for the look of faux chalk. Tape to your card front.

Now add some foam squares to pop up the professor and the books then add it to your card. I added some shading under the professor and books to anchor them to the floor instead of having them floating in the card. You can be done at this time but to add a little more fun, use some Glossy Accents to the glasses to look more realistic.

Finished!
I am sure your favorite Grad will love it!
Happy Crafting!
Jen



Crafter's Companion Illustrator Alcohol Markers

This card is a fun one to create and really fast. Take any image. I used a retired image from Crafter's Companion. Stamp it on your favorite cardstock and color it with your favorite medium. I used Crafter's Companion's Illustrator Alcohol Markers for my design. I cut the circle with my favorite stitched circle die and mounted it off set on my card. I cut off the part sticking off the paper for a different look. I mounted 2 different colored pattern papers for my base. I used scrap papers from my paper stash. Added a bow and I was done! It is a clean and simple card with a lot of POP!

Happy Crafting!!

Jen

Check out Addicted to CAS for some more Clean and Simple card ideas! I have entered this in the CAS code word "SUMMER" challenge.

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!

Paper Piecing Fun

This cute little guy is a stamp from Penny Black named "Snowy". There are so many ways to decorate this guy, I am having fun doing some of them. This one is paper pieced. You can color with markers, watercolor with paints, or color with colored pencils. What ever the medium you like to work in, this little guy is fun to do!

I used Doodle Bug paper for the background, scarf and hat paper piecing as well as the gingham paper strip. I did some simple coloring on the body, face and hat with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers from Crafter's Companion. (The markers will be available on HSN Tuesday, May 9, 2017 with a whole bunch of other goodies from Crafter's Companion! Mark your calendars! It will be 24 hours of crafts and crafting items. Be sure to check out the "Today's Special" of wonderful card making dies from Crafter's Companion.)  I also used a Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle for the main image which I popped up on foam adhesive. I added the faux enamel dots, which I made, for my embellishment. For the sentiment I used a Lawn Fawn set called Winter Scripty Sayings.

I hope this gives you some inspiration (if not, you can check out this Pinterest page for more ideas) to get some card making of your own done. (It is never too early to start those Christmas cards!) Be sure to follow to my Pinterest page while you are there! Also subscribe to my blog on the right hand side of  this post to receive updates of my blog in your email!

Thank you and Happy Crafting!

Bebunni and Spectrum Noir Markers

I made this sweet Bebunni birthday card with Crafter's Companion's stamp set called Yum, Yum, Yum. I colored him with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. They are fun to color with and easy to get professional blends and textures.

Here is a close up of the bunny's fur texture. I colored the bunny with grey markers and then used the colorless blender to get the texture. I used a small piece of terry cloth towel, then added the colorless blender to the cloth and just tapped the image where I wanted the texture. I colored the bunny then did the texture technique before I colored any other part of the image. That way I didn't have to worry about accidentally getting blender on other parts of my design.

Check out Crafter's Companion on Facebook or Pinterest for more ideas and projects!

Crafter's Companion Bebunni

A quick hello and fun card for you today. I colored the bunny with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. (Bunny: GG1, GG3 Envelope: AB1, AB3 Tag: MB1, Blender  Ears of bunny: AP1, AP2, PP2 Cheeks and Nose: PP2) To add texture to the bunny, I used some blender on a towel, blotted it on the colored bunny and let it dry.

I watercolored the background with Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens. (Blue Topaz and Emerald Green)
The Bebunni stamp set is also from Crafter's Companion. The set is called, "Sent With Love".
I hope you try watercoloring with the Sparkle Pens. (The sparkle remains but is subtle.)  The result is amazing!

Crafter's Companion Coloring Ambassador!

 

Check out the new Crafter's Companion Design Team and the Coloring Ambassadors! I will give you a hint......I MADE THE COLORING AMBASSADOR TEAM!!!!  There are also great ideas at the Crafter's Companion Facebook page where you can also get the links to their Pinterest page, Instagram and blog.

Stay tuned, there will be some exciting projects coming up made with products from Crafter's Companion. Until then you can do some shopping at their store crafterscompanion.com.



Spooky Spectrum Noir Card

This card is highlighting the Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. 

This is a simple card when you take it step by step.

Stamp a Halloween image on paper. Color image with Spectrum Noir markers. For the background, use makers to make tiny dots, then use blender pen over dots to make dots spread. Make a A2 standard card base out of DCWV the jewel colors pack. I used purple. The paper pack I used was from Michael's Midnight Magic 6x6 pack.

 I used a sheet for the background paper and inside the Magic Scrap slide. Wrap twine around the slide and then attach a bow. Cut a strip of DCWV paper and attach over background paper.  Punch out tiny bats with Studio G punch (Michael's) and attach to inside of slide.

 I also use Wink of Stella pen to add a bit of sparkle to mini bats. I used the Sizzix bat die to cut out a medium size bat, added glue then black glitter (Michael's dollar bin) to add some sparkle. I made a banner out of some scrap paper leftover from making card base. I stamped the word "spooky" from a stamp set purchased at Michael's. I do not have the package so I do not know the exact name of the set. Use any word stamp you have or write your own words with a sharpie marker.  I added a little more embellishment to the banner to finish off the card. The flowers were from Recollections Floral Embellishments. They have been discontinued but use any flowers you may have. Bling was added to the centers and the card front was complete. 

Dustin Pike Reindeer Lights Card

I love making Christmas cards! I try each year to come up with new designs that I can mass produce. I want the card to be cute but I don't want to spend a lot of time on them since I have so many to make. This is an easy layout; it doesn't have a lot of elements but what is on the card makes it fun. The die cut bulbs were cut with various colors of paper but I added some sparkle with glitter glue. The main image came from Dustin Pike; it was colored with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.

I printed out a page of images on Spectrum Noir white cardstock and colored them all at the same time. Next I cut out all my patterned paper at the same time, as well as my border papers, then assembled them. The bow was added as a final touch. This layout is great for any Christmas stamp you may have; it does not have to be the same one I used.