Catherine Pooler Designs | Terrarium Birthday + Date Night Giveaway #2

I'm sharing one more card for Catherine Pooler's Date Night Ink Promo and Giveaway on Instagram. Please head over to my corresponding Instagram post for all the details and comment for your chance to win!

My order of the latest Club Sursee sets, Build-a-Terrarium and Lovely Birdies just so happened to arrive so I had to get them inky with the new Date Night Ink Collection! Like my previous card for the giveaway, I used Do-Si-Do, Catching Rays, In The Park, Cummerbund and Serenade, as well as Sand Castle and Midnight.

It took a while to wrap my head around how I was going to stamp and layer these with the outline of the terrarium hangers but I'm delighted with how much dimension I was able to get. I just love these adorable cacti in the pretty Date Night colours!

To finish, I added a sentiment from Lovely Birdies, applied Do-Si-Do direct-to-paper and heat embossed it with WOW! Halo embossing powder. I 'hung' the terrariums with silver cord and added Tinseltown sequins to finish the card.

Please head over to Instagram, be sure to follow me there and leave a comment for your chance to win! To increase your chances of winning, follow and comment on all posts with the hashtag #cpdatenightinks between January 25-29, 2021.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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VIDEO | IG Giveaway feat. Catherine Pooler Designs Date Night Ink Collection

Today's card and video are part of Catherine Pooler's Date Night Ink Promo and Giveaway on Instagram. Please head over to my corresponding Instagram post for all the details and comment for your chance to win!

My card features the Hearts-n-Tags Dies, Hey There Dumpling, Love Note Background and, of course, five of the eight new Date Night Inks. I started by using blender brushes to ink blend Do-Si-Do, Catching Rays, In The Park, Cummerbund and Serenade on a panel.

I die cut the heart circles from that ink blended panel and I especially love the ones that show two ink colours overlapping. I determined the arrangement before inking up the edges of the card base to match.

Using the Love Note Background [on sale through February 5, 2021], I created a torn mask to cover the centre of the panel, before inking up the background stamp with Do-Si-Do, Catching Rays, In The Park, Cummerbund and Serenade in the exact same order as the die cut circles and card base border.

After stamping the background and removing the mask, I used the small heart border from the Hearts-n-Tags Dies to create a stencil. Then I used Nuvo Glimmer Paste in Moonstone to add little hearts on an angle at the top left and bottom right corners of the stamped panel.

After the stencilled panel is completely dry, I pop up four of the die cuts with foam tape for some dimension. Then I double stamped the two tiny sentiments from Hey There Dumpling directly on the panel, as well as the die cut, so the sentiment can be read clearly.

Please head over to Instagram, be sure to follow me there and leave a comment for your chance to win! To increase your chances of winning, follow and comment on all posts with the hashtag #cpdatenightinks between January 25-29, 2021.

Thanks so much for watching!

Supplies: 

VIDEO | Taylored Expressions | Snarky Mini Slim Cards feat. Cap It Off Alpha

I'm excited to be sharing a new video for Taylored Expressions! Today is the new Mini Slim Essentials Release and I have a trio of cards featuring the new and totally awesome Cap It Off Alpha dies.

On each of the cards, I combined the Cap It Off Alpha dies with the Simple Strips - Snarky, Simple Strips - Asymmetrical Die and Cattitude clear stamp set.

The snarky strips inspired my cards and this first one was also inspired by the cat holding a martini. It was too funny to not use! The large sparkly sentiment looks a little like M-O-R-T-I-N-I but that also works and adds to the punny-ness of the card.

For all of these cards, I used the new Mini Slim Side-Fold Card Bases. Top-folding card bases are also available using the same link and, as noted in my previous video, you can't cut top-folding mini slim card bases with letter-sized cardstock so they are great to purchase in that format!

In the background, I used the Masking Stencils - Stars with Blender Brushes and Watermelon, Sweet Potato Pie and Lemon Meringue inks.

For my second card, the grumpy or grumbly cat from Cattitude works so well with the M-O-N-D-A-Y spelled out in black with the Cap It Off Alpha dies.

For this particular sentiment, the Set the Scene - Clouds Stencil Strips and Sea Salt, Earl Grey and Poppy Seed inks made the perfect backdrop.

Monday's snarky strip cracks me up and is probably my favourite of all the Simple Strips - Snarky. I'd love to hear what combinations you'd use for a card!

My final card is a colourful one and my son's favourite. This time, I used Peapod, Cookie Monster and Jelly Donut cardstock for the Cap It Off Alpha dies.

For the background, symbolizing fun, I used the Bokeh Layering Stencil and ink blended the three layers with Lime Zest, Sprinkles and Jelly Donut inks. I wasn't able to work in a cat into this design, mostly because of the busy background, but adding the fun little word Doh! worked well and panders to my son's love for The Simpsons.

I hope you enjoyed watching today's snarky video. Please visit the shop links below to shop the new Mini Slim Essentials Release and more!

Thanks so much for watching!

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Studio Katia | Valentine Hugs

Happy Monday, crafty friends! Today, I'm sharing the Valentine's Day card I made for my son. I combined the Cactus Hugs and Potted Plants stamp and die sets, with the Stitch Borders dies.

The four cacti and the sentiment are from the Cactus Hugs stamp set. The flowers at the top right and the little hearts are from the Potted Plants stamp set. 

I love customizing all of the little pots with the various faces. Since I created a grid on this card design, it was easy to heat emboss and watercolour them using the same distress inks.

I used the largest of the Stitch Borders dies to create the top panel and smooshed the same two colours I used to colour the pots - shabby shutters and evergreen bough - with shimmer spritz to make it ultra sparkly. Then I used the tool 'n' one to remove some of the holes and adhered it to cookie monster background.

I repeated the sentiment, leaving a space to pop up the tiny hearts from the Potted Plants stamp set. Then I added an assortment of Seafoam Pearls with liquid glue and an embellishment wand.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Minecraft Birthday Card by Damian

For the first time in a long time, my son voluntarily walked into my craft room and asked to make a card. It was for one of his best friends who also enjoys playing Minecraft. Damian knew exactly what he wanted to do and his exact words were, "You have a stencil that makes Minecraft blocks." LOL You can find another sample of mine using this Cube Builder Stencil [also available at SBC | SSS] in a previous post here. 

Damian used blender brushes with Ultramarine and Azurite inks on a silicone mat and full sheet of Neenah heavyweight cardstock so we could cut it down with the pattern centred.

Damian used the NameMC website to access images of the characters he and his friend use while playing Minecraft. He printed these images on Neenah heavyweight cardstock, then Damian used Prismacolor Pencils to add detail to the images before fussy cutting them.

We were trying to create a custom Minecraft sentiment and then I remembered the perfect sentiment from Studio Katia's Birthday Greetings that works really well for this Minecraft-themed card. I heat embossed the sentiment on vellum with WOW Black Twinkle embossing powder, then die cut it along with a Neenah heavyweight backer using A2 Circle STAX dies.

Damian assembled the card with large glue dots for a slight bit of dimension, then added Studio Katia Ripe Persimmon Pearls to symbolize birthday cake potion à la Minecraft.

I think Damian's friend will love his card. What do you think?

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Catherine Pooler Designs | I Love You Soy Bundle

Hello, friends! I'm back with another delicious card featuring the I Love You Soy Bundle from Catherine Pooler's Love-n-Hearts Release! I also used three of the new inks from the Date Night Collection and Do-Si-Do might be my favourite new colour. As I mentioned in my previous post, the I Love You Soy Patterned Paper pack is my favourite ever. They're just so inspiring and an easy way to jump start my cards!

I used the Cummerbund and white striped paper to create my shaker card. Then I stamped and die cut a ton of images from Hey There Dumpling in more colour combinations than you can imagine. I even masked off the inside of the soy bottle to get pure colours of Catching Rays and Cummerbund inks.

Before adhering the images to the card front, I used the Nested Oval Dies to create a window in the front of the patterned paper panel to create the shaker element. I also used the new Halo Embossing Glitter on the frame for a super shiny holographic finish.

I added the new Romance Sequin Mix before attaching the patterned paper panel to the card base. Then I assembled all of the images and attached them to the front of the card using a combination of liquid glue, glue dots and foam tape. For example, the fortune cookies are flat, except for the fortunes. It adds an extra element of interest to the card.

This card is definitely busier than my usual designs but it was so much fun to make. I'm looking forward to playing with this set again and coming up with new colour combinations with the new Date Night Collection.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

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VIDEO | Taylored Expressions | Happy Hex Monogram Card Kit

Taylored Expressions continues to knock it out of the park with their kits and the Happy Hex Monogram Card Kit is no exception! This kit was made to create a set of cards to give away as a gift but you can definitely - and you'll likely want to - keep it for yourself and make fun, beautiful cards for yourself using the ingredients in this kit.

You get six mini slimline card bases in sugar cube cardstock and they are top-folding which is ultra unique since you can't cut your own card bases in this manner unless you have legal-sized cardstock. You also get a rainbow assortment of mini slimline envelopes, which I absolutely love! This shape is so unique and elegant.

I started by stamping the Happy Hex Mini Slim Background with watermark ink and heat embossing it with diamond embossing powder. This background can be very bold or subtle, depending on what colour(s) you choose to stamp it with. Since mine is subtle to highlight the rainbow stencilling, I wanted to make it sparkly!

I used the Happy Hex Mini Slim Stencil, blender brushes and the following ink colours to stencil the ombre rainbow hexagons down the length of the slimline cards - Watermelon, Sweet Potato Pie, Lemon Meringue, Lime Zest, Sprinkles and Jelly Donut.

After the stencilling was completed, I used the Happy Hex Add-Ons Clear Stamp Set to stamp the patterns on one hexagon in each row, using the coordinating ink colour. I used the large hexagon from that stamp set to stamp the double outline for the sentiment using Oreo Ink. I chose three of the six sentiments in that stamp set, and stamped two of each in the centre of the hexagon.

I stamped the same three sentiments on the six envelope seals but since the seals are a slippery material, I used StazOn solvent ink.

To finish the gift set, I die cut the Belly Band Die from lemon meringue cardstock and adhered the two halves together with scor-tape. I stamped and heat embossed a monogram for the belly band using the Typewriter Alpha Clear Stamp Set on lime zest cardstock and trimmed it out with scissors, attaching it to the front of the belly band.

Thanks so much for watching!

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