Die Cutting For The Win

Lately I've been all about the dies. I've always liked them for sentiments and panels, but now I'm eyeing the floral layered dies. Altenew has them, Sizzix has a few and more companies seem to be coming out with them. I haven't yet decided which I can't live without, so today I'll just show you the fabulous sentiment die I've put on a variety of cards.

For this card, I chose a background I made awhile back with alcohol inks. I die cut it with a scallop die and then added the sentiment die cut from Waffle Flower. I only used the sentiment in white and then one of the many outlines in a metallic blue. 

In the close-up, you can see some of the metallic rainbow foil I rubbed onto the still-sticky ink.

This one uses the outline in white and the letters from a watercolored version I made. I added the watercolor after die cutting the whole die set. The unicorn is stamped on watercolor paper and it's a Greeting Farm stamp.

I was really happy with this last card. I used the Pinkfresh Studio Lush Vines Stamp and heat embossed in black on kraft paper. Then I added some of the sentiment layers, in white and black and red metallic paper. I think this might be a good card for one of my adult nephews.

This last card shows you all the layers of the die and lives up to its name of Rainbow Birthday.

Stay tuned for more cards featuring this sentiment die set, because I cut a ton of them!

Happy Friday!

Chark

Hedgehogs Are The Cutest

I love the mini Hedgehugs stamp and die from Lawn Fawn because it's adorable. And I would get a hedgehog for a pet for the same reason—they are so stinkin' cute! However, in my house of allergic people, I'm almost certain one of us would find a way to be allergic to hedgehogs. So I'll stick to stamping these little guys.

I created this scene with Lawn Fawn sun, clouds, and stitched tree and hill dies and added a sentiment die from LF too. All the papers are LF as well. The butterfly die is from a girl in a butterfly dress from Gina Marie Designs.

I'm entering this card in the Pet Love Challenge at Lawn Fawnatics and you can join in by Sunday too!

My favorite pet when I was a kid was my cat, Mikhail Baryshnikov...Mickey for short. Can you tell I was a fan? Loved the movie with Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines from the 80s, White Nights, and saw it multiple times at the theater and then got the VHS. Those were the days! Had the soundtrack cassette tape too :)

Happy Saturday!
Chark

Hero Arts Dragonfly Fancy Die

You guys! I've been making all kinds of dragonflies at my house with my new Dragonfly Fancy die. I've used vellum, cardstock, metallic paper and more. Here's a pile of them.

And here are a couple of my faves. This one uses green metallic painted paper (using Twinkle H2O paints) and vellum wings with Stickles glitter on the vellum.

This one uses white cardstock with Diamond Stickles for the body and blue metallic paper for the body. 

And I've made a couple cards with these guys too. I'll be sharing those on the a2z Scrapbooking blog on the 21st, so hop over to see my very favorite dragonflies on their cards. 

If you want to make your own lovely dragonflies, you can get the new die over at a2z Scrapbooking for just $11.95! If you fill your cart with items to total $25, you can apply my blog readers' code DLT15 to get 15% off your cart. Just a little extra for my crafty friends.

Happy Monday!

Chark

Hero Arts Infinity Ornament Dies

Hi, friends, just got some new dies from Hero Arts and I've been die cutting all over the place! Well, just one place literally--the kitchen table--but I've been die cutting plain paper, watercolor paper, painted paper, patterned paper and whatever I can think of. 

I put my first card up at the a2z Scrapbooking blog here ...if you want to see how it's made.

Here's another take on it, with a die cut heart with some Nuvo Copper Gilded Flakes behind it. When you use the flakes, you need an adhesive that stays sticky like this glue pen here. I gilded the ornament top too. The front of the ornament is pink pearlized paint over the Hero Arts Asian Flower Stencil. I looovvee these watercolors, they're so shiny!

Expect to see more ornaments in the future! Oh and if you need any of these supplies and go over to a2z Scrapbooking, you can fill your cart with $25 in goodies and then add CHARK15 in the coupon area to get 15% off everything, including sale items!

Happy Friday!
Chark

Hero Arts Shopping Bag Die in Pink

Hi, friends, I have a card up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today where we're announcing the new August Challenge, Bright and Beautiful, with lots of inspiration. For this challenge, I added sequins and Stickles glitter glue in Diamond and a gold foil heart sticker.

I used the Hero Arts 3-D Shopping Bag die with some Doodlebug Designs Cream and Sugar paper. I inked some Woodgrain Vellum with pink ink and inserted it into the dimensional bag.You can add money or a gift card too, to this adorable bag. The background has an oval cut into another sheet of the Cream and Sugar paper, outlined in Stickles. Behind the oval I added more of the Woodgrain Vellum paper but left it white. 

Hop over and say hi or hop over to the a2z Scrapbooking store and get your own 3-D Shopping Bag die. If you have $25 or more in your cart, you can apply a 15% off code when you check out, just type in CHARK15. It even applies to the sales and clearance items (and there's a lot since it's clearing out time!)

Happy Tuesday!
Chark

Watercoloring Like Mad

I spent the better part of the day on Monday just playing with watercoloring (with Tombow markers, I love their vibrancy). And I actually made a few into cards too. My daughter needed some thank you cards for her graduation gifts, so I took out the Heidi Swapp thank you die I got on sale and put it to work.

I snipped it apart here and added star sequins.

For this one, I die cut from one watercolor panel and attached it to another. I added Diamond Stickles to the words.  

For these, I used the die cut and the negative space to make two cards. Don't you love how bright the Tombow markers are? I colored on the card itself and then added water.

This last one is just cut from a rainbow (ROYGBIV) piece of watercolor. It looks trickier than it was.

And that's all I have for today, but aren't you impressed I actually made cards and didn't just color or paint? I am! Next I ought to use my digi stamps that I color to make actual projects...wish me luck on that!

Happy Wednesday!

Chark

It's A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

It's gorgeous and sunny and will get close to 60 degrees today, so I'm enjoying it all I can. I hear there's cold coming so today might have to be my garden clean-up day. In the meantime, I'm drinking tea and thinking about putting away my crafty stuff I had out over the weekend. 

Here's one of the cards I made this weekend, with this Hero Arts Butterfly Fancy Die. I used a felt applicator and Ranger alcohol inks on photo paper. Then I trimmed it to fit the die-cut butterfly. I attached the body to the inked paper with a glue strip and didn't adhere the wings. I like the bit of movement it gives to the butterfly. I used a white gel pen to add some dots to the wings.

The background is patterned paper with a piece of watercolor paper mounted on top. I used the Hero Arts Border Stencil that you can purchase here at a2z Scrapbooking Supplies. I used white embossing powder that is here in the store too. Then I used scribbled with Tombow markers on an acrylic block and used them as watercolor paints. Once dry, I used the Lawn Fawn stitched rectangle die.

The last addition is the Hello die cut from Papertrey Ink. I used silver foil paper (check Jo Ann Fabric) for the die. And that's it!

Happy Sunny Monday!
Chark
p.s. The blog title comes from Mr. Rogers. I loved Mr. Rogers' show as a kid...he always seemed so calm and trustworthy. I still love him as an adult and parent and admire him and his wisdom.