Color Swatches

I've been struggling with my mojo this week, and so to keep doing something crafty still, I decided to organize my ink stash. Organizing seem to help, be it to calm and de-stress me, or at least give me the sense that I'm still doing something craft related.

I re-organized my ink stash by color, and while at it decided to do swatches. Maybe it will help me use them more. But overall, swatches are a great tool. I use it for my Copics, why not for ink pads right?

So first up, Close to My Heart Inks. I honestly love these ink colors, and especially the card stock coordinates! I love how rich and unique the colors are!

Next up are my Distress Ink pads and markers. It was only through this exercise that I realized I had more pens than ink pads, and I'm lacking quite a bit.

And lastly, my Hero Arts inks. I love love love Hero Arts inks. The colors are so dark and vibrant and it always brings out a pop to whatever project you do! The first column are Shadow Ink colors, and the next 3 columns are the Mid-Tone Shadow Inks . And the very last column are the new Ombre ink pads. I realized I still miss a few ink pads. Maybe this labor day weekend sale somewhere can help me complete the colors.

Lastly, here's the Spectrum Aqua line. After doing this swatch I realized the colors are a bit disappointing. It looks like the ones you buy from Michael's, the Artist Loft brand of watercolors in pans. There's nothing special to the colors really. Or maybe it's just me? After all I'm not an artist. 

Anyways, I hope this helps you guys out there who are planning to buy or just want to have an idea of the colors. It certainly helped me. Especially on the markers, I sort of have an idea which colors blend well and don't, and which ones I have to lay lightly. 

Happy long weekend everyone!

Lotus Theme Happy Birthday

I picked up this Hero Arts Lotus Stencil from Ellen Hutson a while back and haven't had the chance to play with it. I love how bold the pattern is and thought it would make a great background.  So I tried it this weekend, not really sure what kind of card to make. I used 2 kinds of orange on the flowers, Hero Arts Cantaloupe and Orange Soda. I wanted to stay on the same color but a different in different shades. The green leaves I used Hero Arts Soft Olive. I drew a blank after stenciling, and thought I'd add die cut flowers for dimension. As I was searching the Silhouette store, I was surprised to find Hero Arts has its own set of svg files, and this lotus pattern was one of them! I of course purchased it at once, hoping to add it to my project. I used Bazzill cardstock, not sure what color, to complement the orange shade.

I smudged some of the colors, and I apologize for the mess. The one negative I found about this particular stencil is that the plastic is so flimsy. Maybe there are some tricks out there on how to control the sponging of ink but the one thing that irritated me was that the plastic kept getting caught with the sponge. Either it's a material issue or the design forces it to be that way.

Since the card already has a pretty bold and loud background,  I just stamped a simple Happy Birthday sentiment at the bottom.

Below is the stamp set I used for the sentient.

B1419 Joyful Birthday

PB & J Birthday

I've been so busy at work lately and crafting has taken a back seat the past week. I sit in my craft area every night thinking making a card will somehow take the stress away, but unfortunately being so drained and stressed from work somehow nipped my creativity pool as I couldn't come up with anything at all. Well it's the weekend and I'm glad I at least was able to make something. I'm using the morepb&j2stamp from The Stamps of Life and making another PB&J card.

I couldn't find a plug sign stamp so I just substituted with a heart instead. The jelly was stamped using Hero Arts Mid Tone Shadow Ink in Raspberry Jam, the blue label using Close To My Heart's Sky ink, the peanut butter cap was stamped using Hero Arts Red Royal Shadow Ink, body using CTMH Desert Sand, yellow bottle label using CTMH Buttercup. I love these ink colors!

Happy Birthday Gift Tower

Made a quickie birthday card for a co-worker of mine. Used scraps I have and a Hero Arts Birthday Gift stamp. Colored it using a mix of Memento Markers and Distress Markers. I just got my first set of Distress Inkers today and thought I'd try them out. I've heard so much about it but I have to say I was disappointed by it. The colors weren't that vibrant, and I found myself using the Memento Markers to color over it again. I will have to work on that again. Maybe I have to use watercolor paper? Not sure.

Anyways, here's my birthday card. I background pink paper I think was from one of the DCWV stack. It was leftover scrap for when I did my daughter's birthday party favors tags. I rounded the corners of the tag and embellished with a couple of gemstones hoping to make it pop.