Faux Water Colored Sunflowers -TTC#6

Welcome back to my blog! Poor thing awakes when I have a new challenge post to make!
Diwali was a hectic affair and hence there was such a dearth of mojo post Diwali. If I had no Challenge card, I would probably not have crafted at all!

So lets get into the card!!
The theme this month at The Twisted Challenge Blog is Color palette and as a twist, you have to use an element/image in multiples of 3!

For this challenge, I have a Faux Water Color card!
My flowers are in groups of 3.. 
So what does a faux Water Color card mean? Read on below:

I took my favorite Sunflower stamp from Papertrey Ink, and dye inks. Even Distress inks would work amazing in this!

Take Watercolor paper..most important to use. 
I stamped the bigger sunflower with Altenew ink, Warm sunshine
took the smaller flower, and stamped over it with Ruby red ink.
The leaves were stamped with Forest Glades.
Once stamped, I sprayed the life out of that paper with water mister..
Let it dry.
I felt the leaves lost all the color, so I over stamped the leaves back with Forest glades, and didn't bother lining up. It gave a more dreamy look to the card!

The shape die cut is from Spellbinders and Grateful die cut and stamped sentiment are from MFT!

Do drop by our challenge blog and take part in it! We have a fun goody bag sponsored by Me and Saumya for our winner!

Trio of PTI -The Sweet Life cards

I love my PTI - Sweet Life stamp set... The day I got it, I think I fell in love. My love for Altenew's Vintage flowers is diminishing by the day, because these are so so easy to line up...and the dies are so reasonable. PTI is 11$ vs Altenew's 26$ (so it does have 14 pieces but still !!!!!!!!)
Altnew is somehow making me more frustrated by the day, because I need them to line up perfectly, which does not happen even with a Misti (or I am loosing my vision! )

Anyhow, back to this trio of cards... I got inspired by one of Brandy's videos. And I took my measurements from her card. Except I just replaced the flower with one of my own. And instead of crimping my cardstock, I just stamped it! I love her channel...especially the old videos. These are so quick to mass produce.

I love the black and white with a pop of color...I am going to make a ton of these combinations soon! :)

Hope you like them...here is the supply list for those interested.


Background stamps - PinStripes and woodgrain background from MFT
Rose stamp - Papertrey ink - The Sweet Life and Die
Sentiment - Polka dot parade #12 - Papertrey ink
Inks - Memento Rose bud, Rhubarb Stalk, Angel Pink.
          PTI Simply chartruse, Memento Pear tart, Cottage ivy

Quick card share

Just thought I'd pop in here to share the card I made with the experiments of my Flower stamping spree last weekend. If you haven't checked out my post on Multi-layered flower stamping, please stop by and have a read. I'm sure you will find some tips that are useful to you...

So here' is my card made with flowers I stamped with the Papertrey Ink stamps, The sweet life..and cut with it's co-ordinating die.

It was a quick card to assemble.

Thanks for the heads up for the SSS challenge Suman.

Linking this to the Simon Say's Wednesday Challenge - Going Dotty! 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Supplies
Hero arts Polka dot stamps
Papertrey ink The sweet life stamp Plus Die
Damask Design - papertrey ink (sentiment)

Inks - Tuxedo black, Versafine onyx black.
For the flower - Angel pink, rose bud and rhubarb stalk - all Memento
Leaves - Cottage Ivy (memento) and Ripe Avocado (PTI)

Stamping With Multi-Step stamps!

 Hello and here's the post that I promised yesterday!! So Multi-step stamps are the next big thing in Stamping world, along with the watercoloring trend. So I decided to jump on the bandwagon and ordered myself the Altenew Vintage flowers. (There are two sets, The Vintage Roses has only roses, whilst, the Vintage flowers has a mix of roses, cherry blossoms and some more tiny flowers.  11 sets of flowers)

And so I took out all my inkpads, sat with my ink swatch book (if you haven't checked out my swatch book post, do check it out) to try to figure out combinations and then start to stamp!! And of course my MISTI. Little did I know how frustrated I was going to be. Lining up the stamps was not easy...could have been for others, but I needed it to be perfect as the pictures on the stamp set showed. So I started testing papers, inks and what not!! Here are my imperfect results.

 This is on Brustro Sketch paper, the one I normally use for stamping. I couldn't get the stamps to line up..if they lined up, the combination of inks was wrong.

 This is the only one on Day 1 that seemed to look okay..and then I saw..it hadn't stamped perfectly!! So I just walked away from the set. Started checking if there were any tips to line them up.

 Day 2. I changed my papers, and tried some other inks.  Paper was Neenah Solar White.
 I tried pearlescent inks, pigment inks, ranger dye inks (these are the worst  for layered stamping. They overshadow every other ink above or below them!!)

 

 

 Then after some more random stamping on scratch paper, I finally got some decent color combinations and better lining up! Sadly this paper has a linen texture to it, and solid stamps don't like texture paper. I love this for coloring with distress and prismacolors, but you can see on the purple flower below, the white shows through the purple.

Since I was using my MISTI, I was able to overstamp and cover the white in other two stamps. 

Just in case you want the colors I used, 

Pink - bottom to top layer - Angel Pink Memento Dye, Rose Bud Memento Dye, Rhubarb Stalk Memento Dye

Orange - (bottom to top order)  Dandelion memento dye, Tangelo memento dye (double stamped) , Cheese puff Ranger Dye

Purple - Lulu Lavender Memento dye, Grape soda Ranger dye, Grape jelly memento dye (double stamped)

 Then I took out my Papertrey ink's The Sweet Life stamp!! And oh my gosh!! This is how a 3-step stamp should be. Effortless. The lining up was super super easy on this compared to the above stamp set.
If you like roses, I would suggest, spend 3$ more and get this set. Its so worth it!!
Again, the linen texture shows through in the bottom left rose. On right I have used a smooth Campap paper which is really smooth and absorbs dye ink superbly!! This is my favorite stamping paper, for my silhouette and I can't find a decent seller. And I won't buy from snapdeal ( I hate their services)

 So the end of all this drama is this.

Here are my tips and tricks. If you are a beginner, avoid this set for now...it will only make you frustrated with stamping. If you already have this set, or are going to buy..

1. Print this chart from their website and glue it on to your stamp set. That way you always have your lining guide.

2. Take a permanent marker and line your sets so you know what flower belongs to what set. Zoom on the picture below and mark your sets. I've have also numbered them. Because apparently, there are 7 stamping guides and 11 flower sets.. Which is when I realized, 4 sets of flowers are in two sizes. Go figure. They should print all this info or let you know!! Could have saved me hours of frustration. Anyhow. number them, so you know which guide to look for when stamping!

 3. Make an ink swatch book...so you know what colors you have and can form a better idea of what colors in the same family will go together. Its like using a trio of copics. One lightest color, one medium and one dark.  Altenew has released color family sets, but that's again a big investment.
Also do save this link...a lot of amazing color combinations if you have all the inks. HERE

4. Lastly my version of the rose chart. The points marked with arrows is what I use to line them up and it works pretty well. The top most flower is slightly hard to layer and especially if your clear stamps are stained with inks. But not impossible!!

So here were my small tips and tricks. Do try if you have the stamp and share with me what you make!! Will love to have a peek and if there are any more tips and tricks that you know, please do share! 

Kraft and Colors

Thinking of a title name for the post is as challenging as making a card!! And boy oh boy!! Looks like my give-away will come sooner than I anticipated...My blog is already at 74,900 views...just a hundred more and I have a party!!! So what do you want in the give-away? I've given away vouchers, stamps, inks in my previous give-aways....so do drop in your options!!

So coming on to the card..I had brought a pack of Kraft card stock a long time back and never got around to using it....and then I saw Julie's card on Pinterest...and I had to do it. Don't know if flowers qualify on a card for a guy, but this did go to a guy. And I'm hoping he didn't think it was too girly.

 

I white heat embossed my stamps, colored with my Bic markers and a little bit of glitter and the card was done. But there were a lot of failed experiments to get this one card...

 Firstly, not having my heat gun made things a bit weird. I was heat embossing on my dosa pan. Works, just gotta be careful!  

TIP- Try out the colors you plan to use on a scrap kraft CS. Colors don't show up  very well on Kraft CS...the light colors just fade in...so if you're doing watercolors, play around on a scrap first. 

TIP 2 - Bic markers will stain on the white embossing. So be very careful, or use a Copic colorless blender pen to remove colors. I could remove the red with the blender pen, but blue didn't come off easily. 

The glitter pen I used doesn't show well in the pic, but IRL its very subtle shine. !!  I also went around the edge of the flowers with a light grey marker..just to show a bit of shadow...

This is the inside of the card. 
 Here I white heat embossed the border, and added vintage photo for a contrast. And then the words were glued down on the inside

Supplies
Stamps - Papertrey ink- Friends til the end, Signature greetings
Inks - Versamark, Vintage photo distress ink.
Paper - Kraft from Creativita Store,  Fabriano white CS.
Other - Zing opaque white embossing powder, Sakura stardust pens, Bic Markers, Copic Colorless Blender pen, Pro-marker light grey pen.

A scene inspired card

Ever since I had been following Michele Zindorf's cards..I wanted to create scenes...and never got the motivation...now I did!!
After seeing Isha's card on "Do more with Less" I was determined to make one...just to take part in her challenge!!
I love her cards and this was my way to say, Thanks for all the inspiration! (Sorry Isha for not finding time to stop by your blog for soo long!)

And also linking this card to Anne Gaal's 4th Blogoversary Celebrations! 

This is simple blending with distress inks...and some masking with a circle post it...Those birds are hand drawn!

Inks used, Mustard seed, Wild honey, spiced marmalade, dried marigold, and fired brick. Memento Black.
Sentiment Papertrey ink.Hero arts- garden bouquet, Antique engravings.

Will be back to post the other cards soon...Had to share this card first, coz else I would have missed out on the deadline! :)

Happy Mother's Day!!

Today is Mother's Day..and I am so glad my cards reached my two moms...Well one is my mom, and the other is my neighbor..who practically wished I was her girl...and has always been there for me....

There's not much to post today....just wanted to show the cards that I had made for them....

The Blue one for my Chetna mom (She loves  Aqua blue...)

This one for my mom...

Its all Hero arts and papertrey ink ..The Butterflies, flourish background is HA and sentiment is Papertrey ink.

This is how my butterflies float in air...used a paint brush to curl the wings...

Sending these cards to Crafty JC's challenge - For A Special Lady

Lawnscaping Challenges - CAS cards

For the love of Crafting- Recipe Challenge-Bow, stamping, and sentiment

I wanted to show that I used Rock Candy Distress stickles (Brought again from Khyati..) on this card..which is not at all visible...and the best way to show this..is a teensy tiny video...or watch it on youtube


Hope you love it as much as I do...Have a great mother's day...and have a great week ahead!!

hugs, Tee

You make me Smile...

Thank you everyone for you warm support and unquestioning understanding of my previous post. Most of you on Facebook have already got previews of this card...but I had to post it here!!
First of all wishing you all a very Happy Valentine's day!! hope this day brings love, happiness and much more, all year through!!
Now for my card...
This card is for Kavitha's Challenge - Blooming Gorgeousness where I'm the Guest Designer for winning her 1st challenge...

 I decided to use my Papertrey ink Sunflower set and turn it into Dahlia/Gerbera daisy's. I just stamped the flowers using Rose bud memento ink and worn lipstick distress inks...
The center is stamped with Dandelion ink and sentiment is from Signature greetings, again a PTI favorite set and embossed in white.

I do doubt that you can see the glitter on the yellow centers of the flowers...I did use my new Rock candy distress stickles!  Butterflies...I am gonna show you how to use your Pie lane stickers better!!!

All of these flowers and leaves have dimension...I have used an embossing stylus on the reverse of each flower to give each petal definition...its hard to see in the photo, but every flower is curved!!

Lots of dimension to the butterfly and the flowers!! Thanks Kavitha for such a fabulous theme!! I had fun making it!!

p.s. did you see my new digi siggy? I loved making them and am willing to make custom digi signs/watermarks for you if you are interested. Email me for price and samples.

Another CAS card...

Yes yes, yes...its another butterfly card...run away right now..Don't say I didn't warn you! (teeheehee!!)
Since I was on a CAS making spree before I left for my vacation, I had  a few to share, this being the last of the lot...Next post will have to wait for a while longer I guess!! or maybe I'll share some sneak peeks of my album...

This card is for another princess who arrived last  month!!  When she grows up, the cards will get more girly..right now, this would have to do!!! ( Do I use too many exclamation marks?, I guess I do!!!!!!)
Its a simple Die cut butterfly window and then I stamped inside of the die cut...
The stamp and die is from Paper trey ink...

Twine from The twinery and Charm from Artystree store..
Entering this card for Young Crafter's Unite where the theme is CAS,

for Crafty JC's - Something New and for Moxie Fab- Die Cutting Challenge..

That's all for now...Do write in if you have any questions!!

Christmas is here!!!

Hello peeps!!!! 3 posts from me in 3 days!! wowza..Surely am going to go off the grid soon!! As long as I'm here, here's my post for today!! Please check out my previous post if you want to feel jealous about all the inks that I've accumulated in the last 4 years!!

So here is my project.. for Kavitha's Challenge - Hanging out 

Its an ornament for my Christmas tree!! Yes its all bling...I love bling I can't help it. And I was very very please with how it came out...just oodles of bling and in a yellow light..it just shimmers away like mad!!

In case you want to make one for yourself, here's the template...its from Birds Cards blog. Just open the pdf file, print it and cut it up!!
The copper paper is local buy..embossed with Fiskar's texture plates...The toe, heel and the cuff of this sock is cut from Itsy bitsy glitter papers..all 3 pieces are distress with a bit of vintage photo.

Just a hint of Doily lace distress with Vintage photo..and the felt flower is from hobby ideas..I ripped out the original flower that had 3 layers..distress it with VP (vintage photo) and applied glitter glue generously. The tiny heart is a cut out from the ornament below. Some cappuccino bakers twine for the ornaments.

I fell in love with this die when I'd seen it..Thanks Ujjwal for making it possible to get it to me. Its a Papertrey ink die..9 tiny tags..simply gorgeous! And of course some brown bling stones for the heel and toe of the sock!

And on another fabulous news, Pie Lane has its very own challenge now....one whole month of inspirations and a fabulous goody bag of Pie Lane products to a random participant...Head on over..check it out!!! 

I've gone Dotty!!!!

Yeah..I've literally gone dotty!!! The prospect of searching for a house and being thoroughly disappointed with the prices (way too high) and the spaces I saw got me really low!!! To stop myself from going crazy with worrying (those who know me well, I will worry for things that haven't happened...I'm the Don't worry chachu's female version...hmmm maybe they stole the idea from me)ummm...back to the topic..to stop me from worrying, I sat down to do what I love the most....stamping...and took out my newest set...PTI Dots and spots (thanks Shobhana...you'll see how much fun I had with it)
I ended up making 7 cards in one go....not one hour...it took me 4-5 hours..interspersed with some house work, cooking etc....

Without more ramblings...coz I'm all for rambling these days!! here are the cards...all are one layer cards...

 The original design of this card was from Lea's card... and then as usual I had to add butterflies!! Stamps are PTI Butterfly dreams, Signature greetings and Dots and spots. Ink is Memento tuxedo black and Rose bud. Center butterfly is die cut with the PTI butterfly die  and the other two small butterflies are hand cut.

Ink used here is Memento tuxedo black, lulu lavender and grape jelly.

Inks are Versamagic Chalk ink Sea breeze and memento Tuxedo black and bahama blue. 

For this card..I basically went wild...just stamping like a kid would...random...with no sense of any design or direction...still pleased with this card!!

The bigger medallion in the set...still need to get it to stamp properly!!

And all of the butterflies are adequately coated with glitter.....either with glitter glue, or pie lane pixie dust or Sakura diamond dust pen.....need proof.....

That is pie lane pixie dust glitter...Ain't glitter an awesome thing?

Since I felt so relaxed and at peace...I plan to make loads more....coz worrying will never cease...but to channel that energy into something pretty...that makes me happy!!!
See you around with the next dose of cards!!!

Since stamping, butterflies and bling are my most favorite things....I feel its only right that I link it to Patricia's My favorite things at Colors Dekor.

Thank you Card

               I love learning new techniques and for that one reason alone, I took the Inspiration showcase class...Loved it so much that I've got all the techniques printed out and bound in a book...and that book is my bedside companion...love it...

There was a fun technique shown there in- Faux letterpress..(here's a beautiful video by Kristina Werner demonstrating this technique) It was such a beautiful one..And then Erin's Faux letterpress challenge on Yvonne's blog was the perfect kick in the back to make that card....so without further gabbing...here's the card...Definitely not my style...but what's the fun in life if you don't try something new???

  

Supplies - Brustro 200 gsm for card base, same for the card front, gingham ribbon from stash, 

MFT Heart Die-namics, Daisy punch, PTI - sentiment, Vintage photo distress ink, Versamagic Chalk inks, Tumbled glass distress ink, hobby ideas-ice shimmer glitter

I love the softness that versamagic chalk inks give to this card... I've used Sea breeze and Aloe Vera chalk inks to create the faux letterpress effect. And rubbed the raised (embossed area) with some ice shimmer glitter..

I die cut a heart out of some glossy paper and added Tumbled glass distress ink- first straight to paper (so that the raised areas-embossed parts are darker) and then with blending tool...
Punched flowers and added peeled paint distress ink, added a generous dose of ice shimmer glitter..topped with self adhesive pearls from Itsy Bitsy..

 I stamped the sentiment with Memento black (proof that this ink will react with water- the ink bleeds with water) and then distressed with with vintage photo and lastly gave a small spritz of water for the blotchy effect..Next time I should remember to use staz-on or Graphite black if I'm going for the wet splotchy look!!
Just added a touch of vintage photo to the card edges for finishing the look...

Since I loved this card so much, thought of sharing the step by step with you...See you soon...
I'd be happy to answer any queries if you have....

And on a gleeful note, Birthday cards have started arriving...yipeee!!!! Swathi, Sudha...thank you so much...will be posting your cards and showing them off when I come back from my vacation...Thank you so much for the thrill of anticipating lovely cards in the mail....

Pink, White Black and Butterflies!

Before I jump into explaining my long title...let me first share that my first ever easel card with the cutsie Owl was one of the Top 4 at Lily pad Cards....YAY!! Its a fabulous feeling! Thanks Miss Boo for letting me know!!!
And now to today's post...
As the title says, Its gotta be a pink, white and black card...and this is the first challenge on Gopi Patel's Create Me Pink Blog..

Since I was in the previous card mode...I whipped up a similar card using the colors of this challenge...BUT, I used the Heart wings butterfly!!! Thank you Manasa for sending this to me on loan...I love it....Thanks girlie...

The Magical Background is embossed in black and then applied Worn lipstick to the front and just a touch of Fired brick Distress inks to the edges. The Butterflies are stamped and embossed on Vellum with white embossing powder and sentiment is from Papertrey ink..heat embossed in black.
And if you can see a not-so-subtle shimmer on the butterfly hearts, its from the Sakura Diamond Dust glaze pen...

Also for CMP's First challenge, there was Pink Pick..to use one other embellishment...I've used rhinestones on the butterfly body.

 Couldn't decide between the white and black background, so showing you both!!

Also picked up a small trick from Jennifer Mcguire's inspiration Showcase class of propping the wings up...they won't ever fold down...just pop a small bit of foam adhesive under the wing...

The wings will be popped up even after mailing!! Isn't that gorgeous??
So that's it from me now..in case you want me to post details about the same blue card...let me know..I'll make a post for that too...

A special birthday hop!!

 Hey crafters!.. Welcome to a very special Birthday Blog Hop for Shalini! I would love if you could hop along and see and comment on all the cards and land at Shalini's blog and leave her a sweet wish!!

Wishing you a  a very very Happy Birthday Girlie!.. We wish you LOADS and LOADS of craftiness ahead!

Now for the rules:

This blog hop is to celebrate our dear crafter Shalini's { www.craftcurry.com} birthday. She has a unique style of crafting with amazing intricate detailed work on her projects. And if you know her, she is the most amazing person, with a loving heart and generous soul....and a love for pink...Darn!! I should have make something pink for you!! Never mind...you better like what I made for you!! :)

Will post the details on another post...for now Just wishing Shalini a very very happy birthday!!! You're one of my firstest friend in the blog world...and you continue to inspire me with your cards...just pull out your darned collections and make something !!!! 

So, all you have to do is HOP ALONG! :

Here's the Blog Hop Order:

Spardha

Asha

Chhavi

Karuna

Khushboo

Tejal <--------- That's me...you're here!!

Ujjwal 

Yvonne

Leave a comment on each blog and hop on to wish Shalini { www.craftcurry.com } for a chance to win FAB prize(Prizes will be revealed later!!) Hope that does not deter  you from leaving love all long the hop!! 

Happy Hopping!!

Celebrating a tiny milestone!!

 This card goes for the Wee memories- Masculine challenge. And on a super Celebratory note, I was one of the Honorable Hoots for my Create a Scene card at Wee memories along with Ujjwal...YIPEEEEE...Way to go...and along with us, were Erum, and ETA: Isha (how did I miss your name?)- the top HOO-LA-LA's!! You rock girls!!!!! now back to boy business

My nephew's birthday was coming up, and I'd promised his mom, that I would make something for him..so this was it...

The engine, the funnel, the bogies..all handcut...I was never good at math in school..not good at it even today..but ask me to measure all this stuff and cut..I somehow can!! Go figure!!!


Every piece of paper is from Echo park, Little boy. The dino die-cuts are from Cuttlebug kids cartridge gifted from my friend Jan. (Thanks Jan) and the balloon and party hat die cuts are loads of RAKs from Jaya.

 

The wheels are die cuts from PTI - the button die cut set. I added yellow embroidery floss through the holes and added faux stitching to mimic Pie lane buttons! The steam and cloud are PTI cloud dies.

There was a lot I wanted to do to this card..embellish it..but I was planning on putting big photos of the kiddos on the last 3 panels..it might cover up the dinos, and the bogies, but it will make a great photo frame..That I'm leaving totally on to my sis....

I had so much fun making this ..