Quick and Easy Bee Card

Popping in quickly to show you a card I made for my upline's color challenge this week: Charcoal.

I cut the hexagons from retired Hawthorne paper, but you could use any patterned paper cut into hexagons using a Cricut or punch. I glued them to some white cardstock then cut it out with Rectangular Stitched Thin Cuts. I used those all the time!!

I stamped the bee in Charcoal ink, colored his body and wings lightly with colored pencils--one in saffron for the body and one in julep for the edges of the wings--then added Clear Shimmer Pen to the wings. After cutting the bee using the medium size Stitched Bracket Thin Cuts, I added the sentiment from Say It In Style, also in Charcoal ink. To touch up the wings, I outlined parts of them with the Pewter Journaling Pen. I placed the bee where I wanted him (without glueing) then used Liquid Glass to adhere a few Julep Sequins, added Burlap Ribbon attached with Mini Staples, then foam mounted the background panel to my card base. I used more foam tape to adhere the bee over the ribbon and DONE!

Busy day so gotta run.

Until next time,
Becca

Coloring Class with Altenew Beautiful Day

Because today was a holiday, I decided to mark the occasion by taking an Online Card Class about coloring. I burned through the whole class and then sat down to make this for my niece who recently got engaged.

I used a combination of products, some long retired, from a variety of stamp companies. My main image is from Altenew called Beautiful Day. I love this stamp set!! And it was really fun to color using the techniques I learned today combining alcohol markers and colored pencils.

The background is from Stampin' Up! which I white embossed over Linen cardstock from Close To My Heart (CTMH). I sponged the edges in CTMH ink Toffee and Mink. The sentiment is also CTMH embossed on Cocoa cardstock. I cut it with a word bubble die from MFT but then snipped off the part that made it a word bubble. I followed the instructions from the first day of class taking three colors which weren't necessarily from the same color family and combining them. I used Copics in the brown, red, and red violet families with shading in the blue violet family. I then added depth and shade with colored pencils. I decided to make one flower a deeper shade than the other and placed it on the bottom.

I was quite happy with the way the flowers looked after coloring with the markers, so I almost stopped. But the point of the class was to take things up a notch much coloring in the nooks and crannies. Um...yeah! It really did make a difference by the time I was done. Not gonna lie, it was a lot of work, but I hope you agree that the result was worth the effort.

One of the things the teacher talked about was to consider "the trash factor" before spending hours coloring. Because my niece is very artistic, I think she will appreciate the effort that went into this.

Until next time,
Becca

New Product Blog Hop - January/February 2020 Catalog

Welcome to the New Products Blog Hop! You should have come from Gina's blog. The hop is a circle, so no matter where you start, keep going until you get all the way through. If you get lost along the way, hop over to Melinda's blog for a full list of participants.

In addition to featuring some of the new stamp sets, I wanted to show you a fun technique with the Shimmer Brushes. Now...to be honest...I figured I could gerryrig my own shimmer with paint and a waterbrush. And you can. But it's not the same. I mean, it's REALLY not the same. I'm now sold on these little gems and am adding to my collection with each order. The Jan-Feb catalog introduced two more colors, which I'm featuring on the last card.

For now, here's an example of what can be done with just the Clear Shimmer Brush:

I sponged the background in Lagoon ink, adding more color in the center and fading out as I got to the edges. I then squeezed the Clear Shimmer pen until I got a small drop of product on my All-purpose Mat (which is AWESOME for this technique because the coating doesn't absorb the shimmer before you can pick it up again). Using the shimmer brush, I dipped it back in the little puddle of shimmer then tapped the brush with my finger to splat product all over. The small circles under and to the top right of the bird were done by touching the pen to the background for larger circles.

I also stamped some snowflakes and little white dots (which are in the Spruced Up - Cardmaking stamp set shown) in White Daisy ink.  When the background was dry, I ran it through my Stitched Rectangle Thin Cuts and mounted it to a card base. I stamped, colored, and die cut my focal images. I added a bit more of the snowflakes and white dot images in White Daisy, then (after letting the pigment ink dry for a long time) glued and foam mounted them over my base. The sentiment is from Say It In Style, which is featured in the Core Catalog that lasts all year.

This background was done the same way except I used Lemonade ink for the sponging and splattered Mint and Ballerina Shimmer. I made my own Ballerina shimmer by swiping Ballerina ink on my All-purpose Mat (that thing is PRICELESS!), squeezing my Clear Shimmer Brush until a dollop of shimmer dropped into the ink, and using a separated small paint brush to pick up the colored shimmer before flicking it onto the card base. The stamp set is Your'e Not Old, which is my absolute favorite set of the entire Jan-Feb Catalog! Isn't she just fabulous!

I colored her with Copic markers (which are the same as the Tri-Blend markers, I just purchased Copics before CTMH came out with the Tri-Blend ones). I also added some white accents with a White Gel pen I got from Hobby Lobby.

This last one uses Mint, Raspberry, and Sapphire Shimmer pens over the entire card after it was assembled. I used the middle-size Stitched Bracket Thin Cuts to create my little band behind the sentiment (also from You're Not Old). I cut two pieces from the Celebrate Today paper, folded one over the left side of the card and tucked the other under the circle cut with the Shaker Thin Cuts. I could have filled the inside with confetti and/or sequins, which is how that thin cut is designed to work, but I wanted to let my shimmer brushes be the star of this card instead of sequins. Before adhering the two bracket cuts of paper, I punched two small holes and weaved a long piece of Sapphire Crochet Thread through the holes. Getting the thread through before gluing down was critical. Tying the bow after the paper was glued down was essential.

If you can only get one shimmer brush at this time, I highly recommend the Clear one...and then get the All-purpose Mat so you can create your own colors as described in the second card. The mat is an investment, but I'm tellin' ya...SO worth it!

Now you're off to Krista's blog. Again, be sure to hop all the way around to see oodles of inspiration. As always, please shop with your personal consultant. If you don't have one, I'd be honored to be yours.

Until next time,
Becca