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

Mother's Day

I wish I had more time to create more Mother's Day cards, but unfortunately, I can only squeeze in enough to create one for my mom and one for my aunt and another good friend whom I consider like a mom.

I used The Crafter's Workshop Daisy Cluster stencil to make the first card. I used a mix of Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Squeezed Lemonade, Shabby Shutters, Tattered Rose and Dried Marigold. I then added some gem and pearl embellishments and stamped the sentiment using Close to My Heart's Mother's Day stamp set. I love how the mix of colors turned out!

This second card uses Taylored Expressions Rose Bouquet. I colored it using my Spectrum Noir markers. I used JG1 and JG2 for the leaves, BT2 for the baby's breaths and a mix of CR5 and CR6 for the roses I think. The vase was colored using LY1 and LY2. I did this couple of days ago and now I'm not so sure. I sponged the outside of the oval shape die cut to give it an orangey halo effect. I used Tim Holtz Dried Marigold if i'm not mistaken. The sentiment was stamped using one of CTMH's Holiday Tags.

You Drive Me Wild

I was going through my stamps collection and saw a couple of Lawn Fawn stamps I 'hoarded' during the Scrapbook Expo that I haven't even gotten around to using. So today I made this card using Lawn Fawn Happy Trails Stamp Set and it coordinating die cut set, the Lawn Cuts Happy Trails.

The trees were colored using Spectrum Noir markers, in 3 shades of Green. 1 shade using Jade Green, another using Light Green and another using Green Turquoise. The car was colored using Dark Red. The sun and clouds, I used TCW (The Crafter's Workshop) stencil. Not sure what the name is but it's the one with the cityscape too. I added 2 Queen & Co. red epoxy bubbles to the sentiment to further accentuate the red car. As I adhered it to the brown card base, I used White gel pen to add the stitch border.

Hope you'll like it!

Happy Birthday Wishes

As I've promised, I did use my Heidi Swapp materials and dabbled in stencils over the weekend. There are many techniques to using stencils and so far my favorite one is sponging.

Below are the 2 versions I did. The first one is just sponging over inks. I used Hero Arts Shadow Ink mid-tones in Bubble Gum Pink, Soft Cantaloupe and Grape Juice. I used Heidi Swapp Make Me Happy Polka Dots stencil. After sponging the ink, the background looked so bright and colorful that I decided against adding any more embellishments. I then stamped the sentiment from Close To My Heart's Banner Wishes.

The second technique I used is called layering. It usually goes with masking but I had too much fun with this I decided to just finish it off using layers. This is is another birthday card which I'm giving my aunt. Her birthday's coming up and I thought this might cheer her up. I used the scallop shape from Heidi Swapp's Butterfly Stencil Set. I sponged over the colors using Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Soft Cantaloupe, then the 2nd layer with Close to My Heart's Sorbet Ink and lastly I used Close to My Heart's Buttercup Ink. Sunshine theme I think is what I had in mind when I did this. After the stencil I stamped a flower from Close to My Heart's Rustic Flowers stamp set. It's a retired set which I was able to acquire from another consultant. I stamped it several times using Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Bubble Gum Pink. I then cut them out and layered them, and adhered a circle brad which I got from Michaels. I stamped the sentiment from Close to My Heart's You Are My Happy stamp set. The card base is also from Recollections, Butterfly Wings collection. I love this collection of papers. Nothing says Spring more than the colors in this set.

Thanks for looking!

Heidi Swapp Stencils

Stencils seem to be the craze now, or maybe I'm just catching up. Since Michael's is having a Heidi Swapp 40% off collection this week, I decided to have a go at it. I own a couple of stencils before but never got to using them, and I do buy some sprays when it's on clearance, but today I decided to splurge and stock up for my weekend of stencil fun. Can't wait to try my hand at stencil! TGIF tomorrow!!