Dream big

Hi there!  Life sure has been crazy as of late.  End of school year, stepson's graduation, daughter's graduation (Saturday!) and my son getting his wisdom teeth removed.  Whew.  I'm ready for things to settle down!  Anywho, I recently ran across an artist with a product that I was really excited to try and I finally got my hands on them.  She goes by Kristie Taylor Creations and she has created her own line of shimmering alcohol inks!  The regular colors are called Sprakle Spirits and the metallics are called Royal Spirits.   You guys, these are amazing!  The big point for me is that the metallics are not thick like the Ranger mixatives.  These move just like regular alcohol inks, no blending solution required to thin them out!

The day that I got them I had to sit down and play so take a peek at the photo below.  I did my best to try and capture all of that shimmer.  It's FABULOUS!

This is my leftover piece and was created with Eris Green and Yasmin Gold.  Now, let's take a look at the two cards I made.

Here are some of the places you can find Kristie.  She will be opening an online store soon but you can purchase them from her directly like I did.  As of right now, she has 24 colors available.  Check her out!

YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/scrapperscrubkristie

Blog http://kristietaylor.blogspot.com/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kristiejtaylor/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/KristieTaylorDesigns/

See you real soon!

~Kristina

For the Graduate

Hi guys! It's my day over on the Dies R Us blog today. I've got a graduation themed pop-up box to share. Come on over and check it out! Dies R Us blog

Hope to see you there! 

~Kristina 

Orange blossom

It's Tuesday and I've got a floral card to brighten your day!  I'm using digital stamps from Polka Dot Orchard.  You can find the links below to the sets I used.  They are Good Morning Spring and Flowers in Bloom.

I actually painted this flower awhile ago but finally found time to turn it into a card!  The orange flower is from the Good Morning Spring digital stamp set.  I lightened the lines to gray and printed it out onto watercolor cardstock.  Then I used several shades of orange and red from the Kuretake Gansai watercolor paint set on flower.  I added a bit of greens to the leaves and a few shades of browns for the center.  Once it was dry, I fussy cut it out with scissors.

The card itself is pretty simple.  The card base is Neenah Solar White cardstock.  I cut two pieces of patterened paper from Doodlebug's Sweet Summer paper pad.  I sponged around the edges of both pieces with a dark green ink.  I glued them down.  For the little orange strip I used a Stitched Scalloped border die from Lawn Fawn.  I glued it over the seam of the two pieces of paper.  

It's hard to see but I did add some splatters of copper paint and gold paint.  I used foam tape on the back of the orange flower and attached it to the card.  The sentiment comes from the Flowers in Bloom digital stamp set.  I printed it out onto white cardstock and trimmed it down.  I sponged around the edges with orange ink and glued it to the card.

For the final step I added Orange Soda glitter Nuvo drops.  That's all there is to it!

I hope to see you soon!

~Kristina

Supplies Used:

Neenah Solar White Shop at: SBC | EH	Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: SBC | EH	Zig 2-way glue pen Shop at: SBC | EH	Therm O Web Foam Tape Shop at: SBC | EH
Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors Shop at: SBC | EH	Orange Soda Glitter Nuvo drops Shop at: SBC | EH	Sweet Summer Doodlebug paper pad Shop at: SBC	Good Morning Spring Polka Dot Orchard digi Shop at: PDO
Flowers in Bloom Polka Dot Orchard digi Shop at: PDO

Floral fun

Hi guys!  I just wanted to hop on with a short and sweet blog post.  I have to share something that I have simply gone ga-ga over.  Cut files/SVGs created by Effie over at The Ton Stamps!  She has just started creating them and let me tell you...they are STUNNING!  No, I'm not in anyway affiliated with The Ton Stamps.  I'm just a huge fan!  Effie has created some gorgeous cover plate files.  Seriously, you have got to check them out.

I finally got a little bit of time to create a quick project with one of the files.  This card uses the Floral Bud Layering Coverplate and the Bold Alpha (Upper Caps) cut files.  They are super affordable and easy to use.

This card was SO easy to put together!  I cut the floral layers and the letters out of 80lb cardstock.  I glued the two floral layers together and added a bit of detail with colored pencils.  For the Hi, I just added foam tape to the back to pop them up and some white dots from a gel pen.  Throw on a few sequins and ta-da!

You can check out all of The Ton Stamps digital files HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Kristina

Cup of coffee

Hey there everyone!  I was able to sneak away to my craft room to come up with another coffee themed project for the Coffee Lovers blog hop.  I also got to use more gorgeous digital stamps from Polka Dot Orchard!

I love all things coffee and my entire kitchen is coffee themed so I wanted to create a mini home decor project.  There was a digi sentiment that caught my eye in the Flowers in Bloom set and I knew I wanted to use it in my project.  The coffee cup element I chose comes from the Way of Beauty set.
Let me show you what I came up with, then I'll walk you through my process.

I used Adobe Illustrator to create my project but I have seen lots of videos where you can do the same thing using Microsoft word...or any of your other favorite editing programs!

I created a rectangle outline in my program measuring 5" x 7".  This is the size of the picture frame I am using so this helps me get everything sized correctly.  Next I brought in the sentiment and then the coffee cup.  I just played around with the sizing of both of them until I was happy with the layout.  I did reduce the transparency of the cup image so it would fade a bit more into the background.  Then I printed it out onto Cryogen White cardstock.  This is a Copic friendly cardstock that has a faint metallic sparkle to it.  I will also mention that it is not a true white but I still love it.  

I went ahead and cut it down to the 5x7 rectangle so that I would have a smaller piece of paper to work with when coloring.  I picked some vibrant oranges so they would really stand out.  I colored the flowers with R08 (the deepest shade), Y16, Y14 and Y12.  The flower centers and stamen were colored with T9, T7 and T5.  I let it sit for just a few minutes to make sure the Copics were completely dry before I added some extra details.  

There are some tiny dots that print with the image.  I played these up by adding dots of the oranges and dots made with a white gel pen.  I also added gray dots and white dots to the centers.  Here is a close up of the details.

I popped it into an inexpensive frame from Wal-Mart and my home decor project was done.  I hope you like it.  It really was a quick and easy project to complete.  Can't wait to put it in my kitchen!

Just a reminder that you too can create a coffee/tea project and link up HERE to participate in the Coffee Lovers blog hop. Don't forget to use #springsummer2019clh

And you can purchase the great digital stamps I used from Polka Dot Orchards right HERE!

~Kristina

Tea Pot

I can hardly believe it but I have managed to make a fourth card for the Coffee Lovers blog hop!  This time I went with a tea theme.  I really LOVE coffee but I also enjoy tea so I wanted to show it some love.

First thing I did was to create the main card panel.  I cut a piece of natural ivory cardstock down to 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  Then I used an embossing folder from Stampin Up! in the center of the card.  Next I lightly sponged Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide ink over the embossed area and around the top edge of the panel.

I picked out a piece of patterned paper from the Echo Park Coffee Collection paper pad.  I used one of the Hero Arts tea cup dies to cut the patterned paper.  I felt it needed some shading to give it more life.  I used Copic markers BG75, BG72 and BG70.  I just freehanded some lines and blended them out until I was happy.  I gave this a spritz with a gold glimmer spray and set it aside.

Now for those lovely flowers!  I used the Flower Silhouettes stamps and dies from My Favorite Things for all of them.  I pulled out my Altenew mini ink cubes to find inks that would coordinate with the patterned paper.  The colors I picked were Blush, Coral Bliss and Heart Beat for the pinks/reds.  Forest Glades and Evergreen for the greens.  I stamped out several of the flowers and leaves in various color combinations.  Then I cut them all out with the coordinating dies.  I started to play around with the layout on the card.  I would lay the tea pot over the flowers and moved the pieces around until I was happy with it.

I removed the tea pot carefully and used a piece of Glad Press n Seal to hold all of the flowers together.  I turned the whole thing over and used a combination of the Zig 2-way glue and Tombow mono multi glue to adhere them together.  Then I added glue to the whole piece and layed it down on the card.  I layed a stamp block on top and let it sit for just a few minutes.  While it was drying, I added foam tape to the back of the tea pot.  I peeled off the Press and Seal and splattered gold Finetec paint over the entire card panel BEFORE adhering the tea pot over the flowers.  Some of the flowers and part of the tea pot were hanging over the edge of the panel.  I simply cut them off with a pair of scissors.

The very last step was to add it to a card base made out of 110lb Neenah Solar white cardstock and this bad boy was done!

You can check out the details and the link for the Coffee Lovers blog hop HERE.  Don't forget to use #springsummer2019clh!

Bye for now!
~Kristina

Neenah Solar White Shop at: SBC | EH	Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: SBC | EH	Tonic Studios-Retractable Craft Pick Shop at: SBC | EH	Zig 2-way glue pen Shop at: SBC | EH
Therm O Web Foam Tape Shop at: SBC | EH	White Gelly Roll pen Shop at: SBC	Shop at: SBC | EH	Copic Marker BG75 Shop at: EH
Copic Marker BG72 Shop at: EH	Copic Marker BG70 Shop at: EH	Altenew Green Fields ink cubes Shop at: Altenew | EH	Altenew Tea Party ink cubes Shop at: Altenew | EH
Altenew Red Sunset ink cubes Shop at: Altenew | EH	Flower Silhouettes stamps, My Favorite Things Shop at: EH	Flower Silhouettes dies, My Favorite Things Shop at: EH	Echo Park Coffee Collection paper Shop at: SBC
Frayed Burlap Distress Oxide ink Shop at: SBC | EH

Coffee and a sketch

Somehow I managed to find myself with a bit of free time last night so I decided to make another coffee themed card!  To make it even quicker, I used the current sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.

Here is the sketch:

And here's my card:

I think the color in the picture doesn't quite compare to real life.  It is more of a vibrant grape purple.  Anywho, I had to use purples since they are my favorite!

Here is a close up of the Hero Arts White Satin Pearl embossing detail.  I just love how it takes on the tones of the paper behind it.

I'm off to link this up for the Coffee Lovers blog hop HERE. Don't forget to use #springsummer2019clh to share your own coffee creations!

I'm also linking up to Freshly Made Sketches challenge HERE. #fms386

I will be back tomorrow with another new project!

~Kristina

Supplies used:

Neenah Solar White Shop at: SBC | EH	Tombow Mono Multi Liquid glue Shop at: SBC | EH	Mini Ink Blending Tool Shop at: SBC | EH	Therm O Web Foam Tape Shop at: SBC | EH
Mini MISTI Shop at: SBC | EH	Altenew Shades of Purple ink cubes Shop at: Altenew | EH	Altenew Coffee Love stamps Shop at: Altenew | SBC	Unicorn White ink pad Hero Arts Shop at: EH
Pearl Strings stamp Hero Arts Shop at: SBC	White Satin Pearl embossing powder Hero Arts Shop at: SBC | EH	White embossing powder Ranger Shop at: SBC | EH	Honey Bee Stamps Perfect Blend Shop at: SBC | EH