Paper Smooches SPARKS

Happy Monday people!!

It has been a happy, productive weekend in my craftroom.  Yesterday I decided to break out two stamp sets from Paper Smooches and participate in the SPARKS  challenge this week!

This week's challenge was anything goes - yay!!!

In my last post (HERE) I talked about my new-found love for Spectrum Noir Alcohol Markers so I decided to do one card coloring using ONLY Spectrum Noir Markers and the other using ONLY my Copic Markers.  Let's see the results!

First up is the card using ONLY Spectrum Noir markers.  I took my Paper Smooches' "FOLKal Points" set and stamped out my house, chicken, chick, lamb, and sun on my Neenah Bright White 120lb cardstock and cut them out with my Silhouette Cameo, using my new PixScan mat (more on this later!).

I LOVE the way this card turned out!  I think the ink blending using the Spectrum Noir markers is awesome!  I created a background for my card using mini Distress ink and a blending tool and then I used Kristina Werner's technique of dropping water on the inked piece and blotting it with a towel to create texture.

(Here's a tip! Interested in creating a scene like the one above, but you don't have any of those fancy scene-creating dies?  I didn't either!  I used the largest die in some of my older Spellbinders' label dies and just layered them over each other to create hills for my scene!)

The second card for the SPARKS challenge is this sweet baby card that I made using the "Pip Squeeks" set and ONLY my Copic Markers.  Obviously, these markers also blend perfectly and I love them, but, because of the expense, I don't have as many of these markers and I often have a bit less variety in my color choices.  I DID use a good blending technique if you want REALLY soft blending, but don't have many of the pastel colors.  I lay down a layer of the colorless blender all over the whole image and then take my slightly darker color and use a flicking motion to blend the darker color out to white. You can go back in that flick the colorless blender back the opposite way to remove any unwanted color from the highlighted side. (Hopefully that wasn't TOO confusing!)

This set is GREAT for creating a background and it came together REALLY quickly.  I went ahead and stamped the focal images on the background - just so I would have plenty of room to add those images when I color and cut them out later.

Join in the SPARKS anything goes challenge with me this week!  If you do, good luck!

Later queenies!

Spectrum Noir Markers - First Projects!

Hello there!  I know, TWO posts in one week after being gone for so long!?   Who am I and what have I done with Britt!?

Well, I spent much of today playing with some new tools!  One of my favorites of these new things is my new set of Spectrum Noir Alcohol markers by Crafter's Companion.

I have purchased the small sets of markers that are available at Joann's (With coupons of course!) in the greens, browns, reds, purples, essentials, greys, and yellows.  I was really interested in filling in some of the color holes that I find I have in my Copic collection (I stopped buying them as much because they are SO expensive).

Guess what!? I LOVE these!  The results are amazing for the price and I KNOW I will need them all eventually!

I signed up for the email list on the Spectrum Noir website and found out that they have a monthly challenge, so I decided to enter a few cards to this month's challenge..which is EMBOSSING.  Let's get to the pretties, shall we?

Am I the only one who still has a few Tilda images?  Every once in a while I like to pull out one or more of my Magnolia stamps and ink them up!  Here I used one of my (NEW!) favorite color combos for orange. Spetrum Noir: OR1 and TN2....trust me, it is perfect.

I'm also in love with these Heidi Swapp word dies that I just got as well.  They aren't that new, but they have been a bit hard to come by until they were restocked at my Joann.  In the background I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder and inked it up to create a letterpress effect.

I have a new-found love for Paper Smooches stamps and so I couldn't wait to ink up this adorable set called "Market Fresh".  I used MANY of the Spectrum Noir markers on this card, but my favorite combo to come out of this card is that bottle green color. Spectrum Noir: DG2 and DG3.

I LOVE this Tim Holtz embossing folder!  I ran the folder through my Grand Calibur and then inked over it with some black ink. It came out better than I could have hoped!

Thanks so much for stopping by and check out the Spectrum Noir challenge for September!

Later queenies!

My Favorite Things Card Superstar!

Holy cow people! How have you all been!?  I have been amazing and, as you have probably noticed....I've been on a break.

I decided that I needed a little break from crafting and especially from designing and blogging.  So, I stepped down from all my DT commitments and spent the summer hanging with my family, relaxing, and making some memories.

I missed you all SO MUCH though, and I missed bringing you inspiration and participating in this crafty world that I love.  So, I thought it would be fun to enter the AMAZING contest going on over at the My Favorite Things blog this month!

Without much more ado, please take a look at my entries!

I love these My Favorite Things girls!  So many of them are super versatile.  I've used this one from the "Wild For You" stamp set and just masked off the safari hat the's in the original image (the original version of this image is used in one of my other entries).

I love a bit of simple design.  This card was made simply because I LOVE the tiny little cameras from this Die'namics dies set!  With some washi and a little Wink of Stella this came together...in a flash! Hahaha!!

This is the original girl image and sentiment from "Wild For You" and I love how this image looks with the little polka-dot details all over her.  I thought this one would be perfect as a shaker card.  The shaker element adds just enough movement for this ADVENTURE card!

For this card, I wanted to see how many ways I could use a single Die'namics die.  I took this floral swirl die and created an embossed background by running the die through my big shot using the embossing mat.  It created a beautiful texture.  I also added a version of this floral swirl die to add a swirl to the front of the card and I finished the design with a sentiment from the "Wild For You" stamp set.

Thanks so much for taking a look! Wish me and the other entrants luck!

Later queenies!