Sponged Embossing

In cardmaking, new products and techniques abound.  When I first saw a Cricut demonstrated on TV years ago, I admit, I scoffed at the very idea.  I'm not laughing now

Four years ago, I tried to talk myself out of wanting a Cuttlebug.  I eventually gave in.  Now I use both that and a Sizzix Big Shot and can't imagine doing without them.  

I do my share of die-cutting these days, but I was first looking for a good embossed image for sponging.  Recently I played with sponging again.  It takes on a new look on kraft paper.

Here I embossed a piece with the Poppy Fields folder from Darice.

I trimmed this and sponging it with Rich Cocoa dye ink.

With pastel pencils, I added color to the poppies and a few of the tall flowers and leaves...

...smoothing and filling it in with a cotton swab.

I used:

Cardstock:  kraft (Hobby Lobby, Inc.), Watercolor Paper stack (Making Memories)

Embossing folder:  Poppy Field (Darice)

Stamps:  Hot Air Balloon Framelits w/stamps set #660690 (Sizzix)

Dye Ink:  Rich Cocoa Memento Dew Drop (Tsukineko/Imagine Crafts)

Dies:  Puffy Cloud Borders (Lawn Fawn)

Chalk Pastel Pencils:  light blue, sap green, orange (General’s)

Sponge dauber (Tsukineko/Imagine Crafts)

Die-cutting/embossing machine (Sizzix)

Brads:  4 copper (Hobby Lobby, Inc.)

Glue dots

Cotton swab

Anything Goes?

First of all, I want to shout out a Happy 49th Birthday to my big brother, John.

Love you, John!

I've been saving this gorgeous paper from the DIY pad by Cratepaper.  

I love the watercolor look--perfect for a background.

I chose a spot with mainly pinks and yellows and cut it for my background, and then created a simple card with my Bluebells stamp from Serendipity Stamps and a bird die from Momenta.

Well,...I wanted simple, yes, but not blah.  And this looked downright blech!

After a bit of musing, I cut my card front in half.

With these two pieces, I created two cards.

For the first one, I framed and cut piece with a bit of blue from my scrap drawer.  I die cut another bird from a scrap of brown.  The sentiment is from my new stamp/die set from Sizzix, Hot Air Balloon.  When stamping the bluebells, I used blue and green markers, and then added a bit more color with a light blue chalk pencil.

I used the same supplies for this second card, using more of my brown paper scrap for the frame.  I almost think I like this one best of all.  I'm going to enter it in the latest Serendipity Stamps challenge:  

Thanks for stopping by!

Let me know what you think!

CardMaker Hop with Ellison/Sizzix

Hello, and welcome to your next stop on the CardMaker and Sizzix Blog Hop!

I hope you've been following along.   The CardMaker  and Sizzix blog teams have joined up for more than a week of cardmaking fun.   Sizzix is hosting an incredible giveaway on their blog, so you won't want to miss a stop along the way. 

I couldn't believe it when this huge box of goodies from Ellison/Sizzix arrived at my door.  Thank you, thank you!!!  I've been saying those words every day as I use my new Big Shot.   And I LOVE that Extended Mulitpurpose Platform.  No more hunting around for something to add a little extra thickness to my "sandwich."   Everything glides though so easily, I think there's no way it could have cut, but there it is--all the perfect little pieces I need, trimmed beautifully.  

We were given our choice of Stephanie Barnard designs to work with.  I picked Triplits Spring Birds.

http://www.ellison.com/product/660136/sizzix-triplits-die-set-15pk-spring-birds

Dusty Pink Card Duo

I made these two cards with basically the same supplies, just switching out the base card color, using a different branch (cut at the same time!) from the Spring Greenery set, etc.

Supplies:  brown cardstock from Little Yellow Bicycle; white cardstock from Bazzil Basics; Botanical stack from Prima Marketing Inc.; pink patterned paper from My Mind's Eye; Single Iris stamp from Penny Black; Chestnut Roan chalk ink from Clearsnap: Quickie glue pen from Sakura; calligraphy pen, fine nib and brown ink from Sheaffer: deckle scissors from Fiskars; Nestabilities classic large ovals and scalloped ovals from Spellbinders; Triplits Spring Birds die set #660136 (die 1) and Jim Holtz Spring Greenery die set from Sizzix

Hello, Birdie
When I opened up this set of dies, first thing I pictured was somehow making a tree with my bird.  I tried several different methods, but none of them pleased me.  Then suddenly this came to me.  I covered the whole card front with the brown patterned paper from my favorite Tattered and Worn stack, and then I cut this Apron Dots paper slightly smaller with an angle on the left side.  Pairing it with a die cut branch from the same patterned brown, it looks like the tree I wanted!

Supplies:  cardstock from Little Yellow Bicycle; Paper Studio patterned paper from Hobby Lobby; Apron Dots patterned paper from My Mind's Eye; Triplits Spring Birds die set #660136 (die 2) and Jim Holtz Spring Greenery die set from Sizzix; chocolate Zig pen from Kuretake

Barn Door Bouquet
You know me.  I can't resist doing one of these with my watercolor pencils.

Supplies:  cardstock from Little Yellow Bicycle; Paper studio patterned paper and brads from Hobby Lobby; agapanthus cluster stamp from Stampendous;  yellow, orange, red and olive green watercolor pencils from Derwent; watercolor paper from Strathmore; Triplits Spring Birds die set #660136 (die 2) and Jim Holtz Spring Greenery die set from Sizzix

Tweet, Tweet!

I woke up yesterday morning with this idea in my head.  I love polka dots!  

Supplies: Paper Studio white cardstock and foam adhesive squares from Hobby Lobby;  polka dot cardstock and white grosgrain ribbon from American Crafts;  Triplits Springs Birds die set #660136  (dies 2,12 and 13) from Sizzix;  Stitched Banner duo die set from Pretty Pink Posh

June 7th, hop on over to Aida Haron's blog.  Her designs are absolutely mouth-watering!

Thank you so much for stopping by!