ICAD DAY #14

Keep On Smiling

I have been having to skip every other day for the last few days this past week.  My full time job has been a little more stressful lately.  I had really started to feel it and this challenge was just adding to the stress, so something had to give.  I decided that giving myself a break every other day would be helpful and was better than just quiting all together.  Giving myself that little bit of a break has made a world of difference.  I feel more focused and better on the days that I do create a card, instead of feeling overwhelmed.    

I thought this sentiment was just perfect to remind me that it is okay to fumble from time to time.  Instead of focusing on what didn't go right or as planned, just focus on moving forward. It is okay to adjust your goals from time to time, in order to make them.  I will complete 61 cards, just in August instead of July.  

Here are the supplies that I used on this card:

• Distrss Ink: Black Soot
• Unity Stamp Co -- Stamp of the Week --- Smile and Move Foward
• Woodless Color Pencils by Hardtmuth: Pink
• Woodless Color Pencils by Hardtmuth: Dark Yellow
• Faber-Casell Color Pencil: 132 

Happy Crafting!

Please leave me a comment below.  I would love to hear from you.  

ICAD DAY #13

Stained

I wanted to created this ICAD with one ink color.  I first blended some color onto the card.  I didn't try to make it smooth.  Then I used a stencil to create the drips and water mark.  I then stamped the cups and the sentiment.  I actually love the water mark ring!

Here are the supplies I used today:

• Unity Stamp Co --- Stamp of the Week --- Always Today
• Stampin' Up Ink --- Soft Suede
• Tim Holtz Stencil --- Splatter

ICAD DAY #12

Hello Friend

I had to take a day off from the challenge. Sometimes the rest of life just get's in our way of crafting, but I am back, renewed and ready to carry on. I really enjoy making greeting cards.  They are a functional piece of art that you get to share with friends and love ones. I decided to go with a greeting cards style today.  I love this little bunny, she is so cute.

We have had a bunch of bunnies in our yard this month.  They have been enjoying the fresh grass.  I love to watch them hop through the grass. munching as they go.  I think it does us and the Earth good when we can learn to live with nature.  That was my inspiration to color this sweet little bunny.

I did put the marker directly on the water color paper on her dress and bow.  Then used a water brush to smooth it out. When I colored the bunny, I decided not to put the marker right on the paper, but pick it up from an acrylic block with the water brush.  I needed a slightly smaller brush though for some areas.  I did some shading on the dress and the bunny, but I am still practicing on where to put my shading. 

The flowers were so small, I just filled them in with yellow marker.  The finishing touch, a little bling in on her bow.  I think it just gives her a little pop.  

Here is a list of the supplies I used for he card:

• Craft paper
• Pebbles Garden Party 6x6 pack
• Water color paper by Strathmore 
• Unity Stamp Co Stamp of the Week: Hello Bunny 
• Memento Luxe Rich Cocoa
• Tombow's Dual Tip Marker #452 (Blue)
• Tombow's Dual Tip Marker #743 (Hot Pink)
• Tombow's Dual Tip Marker #055 (Yellow)
• Tombow's Dual Tip Marker#947 (Brown)

Happy Crafting!

Leave me a comment if you like the supplies I used in list form or intermingled in the description.

ICAD DAY #11

Tangley 

Today felt like a good day to just unwind with a tangle or two.  I used Micron pens in 05 and 01 to fill my card with tangle goodness.  I did mark out some areas with a scrap piece cut of paper cut in a circle.  

I decided not to outline all of the circle areas to give the overall feel a softness.  I like the overall composition of the card, but am not crazy about how the lower left corner turned out.  It is a bit heavier than the rest of the card, yet I don't feel that it is completely distracting.  I am leaving it instead of starting over, because this challenge is about doing, not having a perfect end piece every time.  I came, I tangled, I am ICADian.

Happy Crafting!

ICAD DAY #10

Feather Light

My gosh it is day 10!  I just wanted to make an easy card.  I used the Unity Stamp Co Stamp of the Week stamp Her Own Hero, with Stamp it Rainbow ink pad. This is the first stamp pad that I bought.  I think the feathers are so pretty in this ink.  

I punched the flowers with my Fisker's flower punch out of craft paper and then added a little bling.  

Happy Crafting!

ICAD DAY #9

Serenity

I watched a video by Ang and Whit of Unity Stamp Co.  They were creating ombre backgrounds with water color.  I was very inspired to create one myself.  I use Distress Markers: Dusty Concord and milled lavender.  I just put some color on a acrylic block and then picked up the color with my water brush and swiped back and forth on the card.  

I liked the striped look I was getting, so I would let the card dry some and then add a bit more color in spots.  As long as your brush is not to wet it will add more color over top of the color you already have down. 

The stamp is from Unity Stamp Co Stamp of the Week called Butterfly of Peace.  I really love this butterfly and the sentiment, but this was the first time I had stamped with it.  I used my Memento Luxe Rich Cocoa ink, because I wanted a pigment ink.  Plus I only have this color and black in pigment inks right now.  I have more colors in water base ink, because I do love water base inks.  I thought black would be to stark on this back ground.  I love how this color just seems to blend with the color.  

I also like how this stamp has open spaces in the wings.  You can see the color of the background through the flowers as if it was lace.  It is very pretty.  I can see turning this into a greeting card.

Happy Crafting!

ICAD DAY #8

Sweetie Bird

I love this Unity Stamp Co Stamp of the Week Owl.  He is so serious in his quest for love.  I had the map paper in my scraps that I just thought was perfect.  I first colored the map with Distress Tea Dye Stain,  Then I added a little Distress Walnut ink to the corners. 

I colored the owl with Distress Markers: Vintage Photo, Worn Lipstick and Tea Dye stain that was left on my work map.  I popped him up with some foam tape.  I stamped the sentiment with Memento Luxe Rich Cocoa.  The sentiment is part of the stamp set.

Happy Crafting!

ICAD DAY #7

Bowl of Cherries

I just went with an simple card today.  I wanted the image to really be the focus.  I love those bowls teetering around.  I used Distress Markers with my homemade Perfect Pearls Spray to color the background and the image.  The bowl of cherries is the Stamp of the Week for Unity Stamp Co. called Out on a Limb stamped with Memento Luxe Rich Cocoa.  It did come with a sentiment but I really just wanted it to be all about the cherries.  I used a fan brush to make the rays coming away from the cherries.

There is so much shine and glitter I just love it.  I used Wink of Stella Clear on the cherries.


All the colors of Distress Markers I used:

• Broken China
• Chipped Sapphire
• Tumbled Glass
• Mermaid Lagoon
• Barn Door
• Faded Jeans
• Abandoned Coral
• Twisted Citron

Leave me a comment, I would love to hear what you think about my cards.

Happy Crafting!

ICAD DAY # 6

Butterfly Garden

I just wanted to do something with butterflies today.  I love butterflies, so you will see more.  I drew the flowers on the card.  Then colored the with Hardmuth Woodless Color Pencils. I used my Martha Stewart punch to create lots of little butterflies form craft paper.  Lastly I used my Gold Wink of Stella pen to create sparkly golden butterflies.  I just love how they sparkle. 

Oh my, I just realized I forgot to add a stamping element.  Oops!  I just love it to much to worry about not meeting that part of my personal challenge today.  Wouldn't this just brighten up your day if you received this on a greeting card?   

Happy Crafting!

ICAD DAY #5

I just had to make something with mason jars,  I made some blueberry jam yesterday, and here is a card inspired by that cooking.

Aren't these lighting bugs just two cute with their Wink of Stella lights?  I used water color paper with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I colored the jam and the lighting bugs with Stampin' Up Blackberry Bliss. Watermelon Wonder and Hello Honey.  The tops were stamped with Lost Lagoon and Cucumber Crush.

Happy Crafting!

ICAD DAY # 4

Today's stamp was a digi-stamp by the Greeting Farm: Mermaid Anya.  I have all types of stamps, including digital ones.  I love digital stamps, because you can re-size them to whatever size you need or flip them the other way.  I had colored her a while ago with Tombow Dual Tip Markers just to practice shading.  I love how vibrant the colors are on her tail.  Both her and the donuts from yesterday are the full strength of the marker, I didn't use any water.  You can really get a nice bold bright happy colors from them or you can make them a little more tame by water coloring with them.  

This week has been totally about those Tombow markers.  I am going to use Distress Markers next week.  I love the Distress markers as well, because they are not so neon and bright even at full strength.  One of the reasons I bought the Tombow markers was to have a set of markers that are very bold saturated colors. It just gives me so many options when I am coloring my stamps. 

I just love all the techniques and versatility you have with water based markers. 

I added some glitter water bubbles behind Anya with some Tulip Beads in the Bottle.  I just fussy cut flowers out of some designer paper that I thought also kind of look like sea shells.  I did pop Anya up with foam tape.

I just wanted to use her in a project for a long time and think was the perfect one.  

Happy Crafting!

ICAD DAY #3

Happy Donut Day!

Can you guess my inspiration today?  I wanted to celebrate National Donut Day, but I can't eat donuts.  I made some paper ones with a one inch stamp and quarter inch punch. I colored them with a bunch of bright colorful frosting.  

Here are a few more close ups.  

I stamped the polka dots in Stampin' Up Blushing Bride. The smile stamp is from Unity Stamp Co. Stamp of the Week Smile in Your Heart. 

Happy Crafting!

ICAD 2016 DAY #2

Here is my ICAD day two card, I love it!  I think it is very pretty and bright.  I am in a bright mood this week. I used a Fisker's stamp set.  It is one of there larger stamp sets that has a full background stamp along with images you can use to build cards.  I actually used two stamps one that is a paisley stamp and the large flower stamp.

Here is a close up of the flower.

I created the colorful background first with Tombow markers and Perfect Pearls in a water bottle. I put some of the marker color on the packaging for my Stampin' Up Block size E.  The back of the box is larger than 3x5, which is perfect.  I sprayed my Perfect Pearls on the markers.  Then I swooshed and swirled the index card through the colors.  I did try to get the pink on one side, the teal in the middle and the purple on the other side.  This creates a nice colorful pearly shimmering background.  I then stamped the paisleys all over the background with Distress Ink Black Soot. 

I decided to really heavily stamp the paisleys close to each other, because I new I was going to cover a lot of the card.  I wanted the paisley image to still come through as paisley, plus it helped to cover any white spaces.  

Fun Fact: The Tombow Dual Point markers are watercolor markers.  They do not move around the same though as water color will when spritzed.  If you don't swoosh or drag your card through the markers it will not give you a smooth color, but the color will be more dotty.  Once I have a smooth mixed color, I will sometimes try to pick up some of those dots to add texture to the background.

I then stamped the flower onto watercolor paper with Memento Luxe Rich Cocoa. I love love this ink. It is a pigment ink that is designed to be used with Mixed Media.  I just think it is a wonderful brown that is a touch deeper than Sepia but still gives you a vintage feel.  You do need to let this ink dry for a few minutes, but then you can watercolor over it and it will not smear or move.  I then colored the flowers with Tombow markers.    

Tip:  If you have a large stamp that has small detail inside the middle of the stamp, I actually still put the stamp on a block but I then sit the block facing up on the table.  Then I put the watercolor paper down on top.  You can then rub your hand across the paper to get a really nice full detailed impression.

I know that some of the full petals didn't fill in all the way, but I actually liked that look.  I feel that it looks distressed.  I cut out the flowers leaving a border as if they were die cut.  I did this to help the flowers pop out from the background.  I used Stampin' Up min-glue dots for the flowers, but popped the middle one up with a Stampin' Up Dimensional.  

Lastly, I added some bling with sequins. I adhered all of the sequins with Stampin' UP mini-glue dots. The ones on the flower I have the sequins facing up like little cups.  The others I actually turned down, so they look a little more like enamel dots with sparkle.  

Here is a full list of supplies:

• Perfect Pearls
• Tombow Dual Tip Marker 373 (Teal)
• Tombow Dual Tip Marker  676 (Purple)
• Tombow Dual Tip Marker 985 (Yellow)
• Tombow Dual Tip Marker 725 (Hot Pink)
• Distress Ink -- Black Soot
• Memento Luxe -- Rich Cocoa
• Fisker's Stamp
• Stampin' Up Min Glue Dots
• Stampin' Up Dimensionals 
• Stampin' Up Clear Blocks in C and E

Happy Crafting!

ICAD 2016 DAY #1

Here is my first ICAD for the 2016 Challenge.  It came out very pretty and cheery!  I was feeling inspired by summer.  I love the bold colors.  The flamingo looks just right with it's glittery body. 

Here is a close look at the flamingo.  I wanted some of the background to come through the beautiful bright pink color.

Here is close up of the other side.

I love the over all look. I didn't want to get to fussy, so I only did a few techniques.  I think you really feel the good summer vibes with this one that makes me want to just sit on the beach and enjoy a nice summer day. 

Here are the supplies I used:

• Tombow Dual Point Tip Maker Number 873 (Pink)
• Tombow Dual Point Tip Maker Number 985 (Yellow)
• Tombow Dual Point Tip Maker Number 905 (Orange)
• Tombow Dual Point Tip Maker Number 725 (Hot Pink)
• Unity Stamp Co. Stamp of the Week Summer Citrus 
• Stampin' Up stamp set from Paper Pumpkin
• Stampin' Up Soft Suede Ink
• Lawn Fawn Gnome Sweet Home Stamp Set 
• Perfect Pearls (mixed in water in a spray bottle)
• Wink of Stella - Clear

That was easy,  Can't wait for day 2!

Happy Crafting!