Scrappy Sweet Creations: WPlus9

Showing posts with label WPlus9. Show all posts

Hello!!
Happy Thursday!

Today I want to share a little bit of info on how to really make your stamped images pop!
It's a technique that I've played around with a bit in the past, but it's also easy to forget how much of an impact it really makes on your cards.

For this project, I am using the Feathers and Florals stamp set from WPlus9.

These images are so gorgeous, but unless you have really stellar inks, it may be hard to get a good crisp stamped image. To help fix the splotchy stamping, I used pencils!

I know a lot of people will use their copic markers first and then add all the detail with pencils. I just don't have any copics, and I have much more control using pencils anyhow that it was easy for me to skip the marker coloring all together.

To start, you need to stamp your images. I like to stamp the image off on scratch paper a few times and then do my official stamping. This seems to help prime my stamp, even after it's been used a few times. Since most of my ink is super old Stampin Up pads, it takes a few tries to be sure the stamp is fully covered, and then I get pretty decent stamped images.

After stamping everything out, I die cut them all with the coordinating dies. I probably could have waited until I was done coloring, but I was just excited that I actually have the coordinating dies for this set, and let the joy of playing around mess up the process. But it still worked! The images were just a little more tricky to hold on to :)

To add the detail and depth, I pulled out my new Prismacolor pencils! These pencils are amazing! So soft and creamy...easy to break! But learning how to handle them gently just takes practice!

I selected 3 pencils in each color family that I stamped to work on my images with. The lightest should match the color used to stamp your image so that you get a nice solid even blend. Once you have them selected, start coloring the way you normally would! I usually start with my darkest first, so I colored in the "shadows" of the flowers in the centers and around the edges of each "petal." Then blended that softly with my medium color, and finally smoothed it all out with my lightest.

To help pull out a highlight, you can use a white pencil and just do simple little flicks in the highlight area to brighten it up! And voila! Gorgeousness!
Here is a comparison of the large flower with and without the pencil detailing:

As I said before, they are gorgeous left as is when stamped...but to add that little bit of punch, try doing some shading! It will add a whole new level to your card!

To finish off the card, I used a stencil to emboss the background and then layered that onto a woodgrain stamped panel. I used a few stamps from HoneyBee Stamps Beautiful Life stamp set and did a multi colored embossed sentiment onto a strip of vellum.

Just realizing now that I've done 2 "Beautiful Day" cards in a row...whoops! Must be a good sentiment right now :)

For the red border frame, I took the darkest red pencil that I used for the shadows and colored the edge of my panel. Then blended it out smooth with some Gamsol. Simple and now it matches perfectly to my card!

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope this will help you to look at your solid stamps a little differently, and see how much you can change those images with a little extra added detail! <3

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crafting When We Can #135-Anything Goes
Fusion Card Challenge-3rd Anniversary

Hi everyone, welcome to a new challenge this week at Tuesday Throwdown where we want to see you use watercolors on your project.

I almost didn't get the chance to create something for this challenge, but after the events of this weekend, I couldn't resist and pulled something together. But the whole process of putting this card together and reflecting on what is going on in this country just drove my crazy.

The tragedy that happened in Florida this past weekend is heartbreaking...

Whether you or I agree with any of the lifestyles of the LGBT community has no place in this right now. What does matter is that there is so much hate in this country. And I keep asking myself WHY? Why can't we agree to disagree? Why can't we support everyone in what they choose to do with their lives? Why do we need to turn to violence when we disagree? Why? Just Why??....

I am terrified of the direction that the hearts of so many in this country are going. I don't believe it's a gun issue..or a terror issue...those are all just scapegoats for the real problem. It's a LOVE issue...
I'm not talking that sappy romantic type of love...this is a different kind. One that has not limits or rules. It's open to everyone and we should all feel it for the people in our lives and the people of this beautiful country.

It made my heart swell to see so much support pop up so quickly for the victims of this tragedy. To know that, while the news may show us so much of the bad that happens, there are always good people around too.

Hold onto that good...hold onto the love. Feel it in your soul and live it in your lives.

And just choose love!

"All Life is Precious" - TWD

If you want to help the people of Florida in some way, here are a few links I've found:

This is a straight up GoFundMe page for the victims: Pulse Victims Fund

Here is a great article that highlights so many options to help out: How To Help

As I said before, whether you agree with the lifestyles of these victims or not, this isn't the time to judge. Our country has been under attack by haters for so long now, and this is just the most recent one....sadly they will keep happening until we can fill the country with love and outshine the blackness in so many hearts...

I leave you with my card, dedicated to everyone in Florida dealing with this horrible situation..

Materials: Watercolor paint for the background.   WPlus9 Sending Hoping Wishing stamp set. Freckled Fawn Long Classic Arrow

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    AAA Cards #66-Watercolor
    A Gem of a Challenge #171-Love and Romance (this more highlights on the love side.)
    Artistic Inspirations #158-Anything Goes
    Simon Says Stamp-Guy Card
    Word Art Wednesday #234-Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting <3

Hey everyone!
We have a new challenge starting today at Tuesday Throwdown - Monochromatic!
This can be a super fun style if you can get the color scheme right. Some colors done in monochromatic style, I feel, don't look good. But if you can get all the shades right, it can be gorgeous!

Our awesome sponsor this week is MHK Designs and she has provided some awesome images for our team to use!

I decided to go with reds for my card because I wanted to use these gorgeous roses from the Stencil in the Roses set. I started by trimming down a piece of SchoolHouse Red cardstock from Simon Says Stamp and using a chevron stencil over top. Through the stencil I applied Unicorn White Pigment Ink from Hero Arts. This helped keep the monochromatic theme going by just lightening up that red a little bit.

For the roses, I printed them off at a super light setting so that I could just barely see the shapes. Then took a few Inktense pencils and watercolored them in. But instead of using just water, I used the new Spectrum Noir Sparkle brush in clear! Holy smokes! So much sparkle! I LOVE it!

I cut out the roses in a stitched circle with my Silhouette and them framed it with a scallop cut piece of vellum. I used a sentiment from WPlus9's Fresh Cut Florals.

To finish it off, I added just a few dots of glossy accents around the card for some extra detail and shine.

I hope you will join us this week for this fun challenge!

Thanks so much for stopping by! <3

Hello everyone!!
Today is a huge day for me. Today I released my very first line of greeting cards! This may not seem huge to some people, but this is something I have been working on for months.

The purpose of this was I wanted to have a line of cards that would stick around in my shop. Something that I could replicate relatively easily and always have it available for purchase. I love doing one of a kind cards, but those aren't always as appealing as a set of cards at a lower cost.

The details of this release (which can be found on Etsy):
~There are 10 new designs!!
     ~5 of these designs are available as packs of 6
     ~5 of these designs are special occasion cards available for single card purchase, but can be
          purchased in multiples if desired

~Each design has multiple color options for you to choose from!
     ~I tried to keep all the colors close to the same from card to card so there wasn't a huge difference
       in each one

~You have 6 basic sentiments to choose from!!! This is perfect for your grab and go, or need a card
   quick type of situation
     ~Sentiments available:
           ~Congrats!
           ~Get Well
           ~Happy Birthday
           ~Hello!
           ~Thank You
           ~Thinking of You

~All the cards are blank inside unless you want a custom sentiment added. I do this so that you can write whatever you want without being limited on space

~Envelopes are always included

~The card packs are shipped in clear boxes within the shipping box to ensure they are protected while in transit, and you have something to keep them stored in until use.

This release was really spurred by one huge event for me though....
My application was accepted by Amazon Handmade!!! I am still working on getting that shop set up, but in the next few days you will be able to purchase everything I just released on Amazon! How cool is that!?

And because of Amazon, Scrappy Sweet Creations is now an official business!! I can't believe the huge steps forward this has taken, from just being something to keep me busy to my actual business! I love my job! :)

This whole process of getting the business running to putting together the card line has been a huge undertaking for me. It's something I've never really done before and it's been a lot of hard work figuring out the designs I wanted to release, making sure they had some sort of flow to them, and then putting physical products together so I knew what production time would be like and had something to photograph and post....it's been a good 3 months of working on this, but I'm so glad it all came together.

And I'm thankful to you...each and every one of you...for sticking by my side, showing your support and giving me the little boosts I needed to keep pushing forward. I love you all!!

So, after all that are you ready to see the release?? I'm only going to show you a few cards...you have to go to my Etsy shop (or Amazon when that is set up) to see the full release!

I'm so excited! And I hope with this greeting card release, you will see something you really want to have. That's what I'm here for, to provide you with handmade greeting cards that are perfect for every situation. Everyone loves to receive handmade cards and I hope that you will think of me when you need one :)

Thank you so much!!! <3 read more →

Happy Tuesday!
I hope everyone is rested up from their busy holiday weekend! I spent yesterday on the couch sick...once again. Matthew and I can't seem to shake this silly bug that is cycling between us. We are feeling a bit better now, so hopefully it is gone...we'll see :)

We have a fun new challenge at Tuesday Throwdown for you - Cute and Cuddly. Our fabulous sponsor - MyGrafico - has provided some adorable little images for our team to use.

I don't use a lot of patterned paper on my cards anymore...I find it much more fun to come up with my own backgrounds. But once in awhile, a paper catches my eye and screams to be used. That was the case with a Recollections Christmas paper pack at Michaels called Be Merry. I had seen it on my last shopping trip there and walked around the store with it, only to decide to put it back. But when we went there again on Black Friday, and I still wanted it, I decided to pick it up. It has the most beautiful pastel sparkly patterns...I'm excited to use it :)

So I grabbed a piece that worked for today's card and set to making all the details. I started by stamping snowflakes onto an inked up banner and embossing them. Then I inked up and die cut a little tag and used the Mini Scenery: Peppermint Zone stamp from Winnie & Walter to get a fun swirl in the background. I achieved that by misting the stamp with some white shimmer spray and stamping it down on my blue inked tag. It's subtle, but so cute! Then used my Fuse tool to create a cute little shaker with it! It took me a few tries...I'm not sure if the plastic that I'm using is too thin, or if I just need more practice, but I keep melting it too much so I have all these little holes everywhere and have to start over...oh well. I got it on the third try for this tag :)

I printed off and colored up one of the cute penguins from the Penguin Digital Set from MyGrafico and cut it all out. I white heat embossed the sentiment onto some vellum and then added a cute little present in the penguins hands. After getting it all assembled, I decided it needed a little more detail, so I white heat embossed and then fussy cut out some snowflakes from the WPlus9 Folk Art Flurries set, and adhered them around the card. This helped to really finish it all off.

I hope you'll join us this week!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
    Artistic Inspirations #146-Anything Goes/Christmas
    Crafting When We Can #108-Don't Forget the Animals
    Fab n Funky #283-Christmas
    Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
    The Paper Shelter #229-A Christmas Card

Thanks so much for visiting! <3

Hi!!!
I hope everyone has had a wonderful week so far! We were able to go out Monday night and see The Struts at The Crocodile in downtown Seattle. It was so incredibly awesome! A word of advice though, don't wear 5 inch heels unless you're prepared to be in them for 10 hours...holy ouch! But it was worth it...without the heels I might not have been able to see the stage...and I didn't want to miss anything! Such a fun night!

Tonight Matthew has a soccer game down in Redmond, but I was able to get a little crafting in before I need to head out to get him. I was super excited to get back to my work desk because I actually placed an order for some new stamps! That doesn't happen nearly as often as I want and there are always so many new releases coming out that I get farther and farther behind on the stamps I want to get. But I finally ordered a few, they came this week and I was dying to ink them up!

I chose to use the Folk Art Flurries stamp set from WPlus9 for my card today. I adore these sweet little snowflakes! They are so unique and elegant...I just love them! The colors I chose are based off of the photo inspiration at the Sparkle & Shine challenge. I've been wanting to play along with that image for awhile now but kept getting distracted and pulled away from any projects I was working on. But I finally got it done today!

To start, I chose several Stampin Up inks that matched the image and inked up a bunch of different sized circles with those colors. Then chose the snowflakes I wanted and stamped those in VersaMark and heat embossed them with white powder. I love the crispness of the white snowflakes on the dark backgrounds!!

Once everything was inked and embossed, I worked on the card base. I did some die cutting to get the stitches around the edge. I don't have a full stitched rectangle die cut so I used the Stitched Borders die from Lawn Fawn. It looked a little plain with just the white, so I decided to use some silver glitter paper and added just a little stripe along the inside curve and the outside border. It added just the perfect bit of shimmer and finishing touch.

Got all my snowflakes arranged in an order that worked really well and stuck them all down. I die cut out the merry word die from the Hero Arts Merry set and then used the coordinating stamp on the die. It took me a few tries, but I finally managed to get it all lined up together! I coated them in some clear embossing powder and heat set that so the whole thing had a nice glossy finish.

I added the Christmas to an inked up banner and stuck that under the word die. Then finished off the whole card with what might just be my new favorite embellishment. Have you purchased any Pretty Pink Posh sequins yet? Let me tell you...do it! These Sparkling Clear sequins are gorgeous! They add the perfect touch of sparkle to the whole card! Love it!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Crafty Catz #300-Winter
Fab n Funky #281-Clean and Simple
Inkspirational #95-Anything Goes with Silver
Sparkle and Shine #17
WPlus9 Sketch #4

Thanks so much for stopping by!! <3

Hi Everyone! Happy Wednesday!
Wet and rainy here in Washington! After such a gorgeous week it's hard to see the rain...but it wouldn't be the Pacific Northwest without it :)

As you know, I love watercolors. My brain automatically goes to them whenever I start to think of a card idea. It's just natural...I'm addicted. But sometimes I want it to be quick and simple without too much fuss. That's hard for me because I want to control it all and have it look exactly the way I want, but that's also the beauty of watercolor. You can keep it simple and quick, or mess with it till it's perfect. It just takes the willpower to leave it alone!

So I tested myself with this card, and let it be simple. It was tough! I wanted to fuss with it! But I controlled myself this time instead of the watercolor.

The very first thing I did with this card was add a super light wash of blue and purple to the background. I didn't want the flowers to be on stark white so the super light colors were perfect. Once that was completely dry, I started stamping the outlines of my flowers and leaves from the Pretty Little Peonies set from WPlus9. Those are heat set with clear embossing powder.

Embossing images that you plan to watercolor can be a great way to keep the water contained so it doesn't spill out of your image. For this particular technique, it worked really well and was almost a necessity to keep everything within my flower lines.

To get the color into my flowers, I took the sold images from the same stamp set for each of my flowers and colored in little bits of detail with my Distress Markers. I didn't color the whole flower, just around the centers. Then I spritzed it with some water and stamped it down onto the embossed flower, rocking it a little to push the color into all the petals. Once I lifted the stamp up, the color would move just a little bit within each petal giving the flowers nice variation.

Since I only colored in the centers of the flowers, the outsides faded off nicely leaving the centers bold. I did the exact same thing for the leaves.

After everything was stamped, I felt I needed a little filler between the peonies. So I grabbed the Fresh Cut Containers set from WPlus9 and used a cute little flower cluster and leaf set to fill in the gaps. I did the same thing, colored the stamps with my markers, misted, and stamped. Since these don't have an outline, they were just solid stamps and didn't have much variation in color, but misting them softened them up and gave them a watercolor type look to match the rest of the peonies.

For my sentiment, I created and cut out the large Happily word with my Silhouette a couple times and layered the pieces together. Before adhering it down, I swirled some silver thread behind it for an elegant touch. Once the word die was stuck down, I covered it in Wink of Stella clear glitter and glossy accents so it would shine. After that dried, I added my little white embossed vellum strip and a few pearl dots to finish it all off.

I am in love with this card! And this fun technique! It was quick and simple and made a gorgeous card!

I'd love to enter this card into the following challenges:
    AAA Cards #49-Word Play
    Cas(e) This Sketch #143

Craft Your Passion #282-Anything Goes
Penny's Paper Crafty #248-Anything Goes
Word Art Wednesday #204-Anything Goes

Thanks so much for stopping by! <3

Hey everyone!
Stopping in real quick to share a gorgeous card I was able to put together today using the Sparkle and Shine Challenge sketch.

This card came together incredibly quick. I really didn't expect it to go so well, but everything just sort of flowed and I had it done in no time! I love that!

A few months ago I purchased a few stamp sets from WPlus9 - Pretty Little Peonies and Fresh Cut Florals. I loved the little wisteria looking stamp in the Fresh Cut Florals. Wisteria is one of my all time favorite flowers so I loved that I finally had a stamp for it. But I never got around to using it the way I wanted to. When I saw the Sparkle and Shine sketch, the idea just clicked.

I started by lightly sketching in a grid on my paper to sort of represent a lattice (I know I just did a lattice card last week, but it's spring time where lattice and flowers go hand in hand :) ). I cut out a little square mask and used that to block off little sections so I could create that really cool hard edged shading with the grey. I love how it turned out!

I then figured out where I wanted my oval die cut to be, marked that off and started stamping my wisteria and the leaves to go around it. Cut out my oval panel and then added some tinted embossing paste to a stripes stencil. While that dried, I worked on the sentiment banner. I was going to make this a birthday card, but it was so elegant that I felt the Mother's Day sentiment the My Favorite Things Sweet Roses stamp set fit better. I also added a scallop cut piece of vellum behind my oval die cut to help separate it a little, but still keep it tied in with the rest of the stamping.

A few thin stripes of silver glitter paper, and a couple of Simon Says Stamp Moonshine sequins and the card is done! Love love love it!!

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp-Anything Goes
Sparkle & Shine #2-Sketch