Hero Arts Large Hydrangea Lots of Ways

So, I recently got this Large Hydrangea stamp and I looove it! It's a wooden stamp, which is tricky for me—I'm not a great stamper and the clear stamps are easier to fix when they don't go well, but I had to have this. 

I love hydrangea flowers and have two shrubs which usually do beautifully for me. Which is impressive, because I am a terrible gardener. I wish I were better and I try every year, but unless you can thrive by yourself, you probably don't belong in my yard. 

I used this stamp for my posts over at a2z Scrapbooking here and here. 

And this is another incarnation of this stamp. This time, I embossed not in white but in gold and the paper is vellum instead of cardstock. I used my Prismacolor pencils to color, which is what I used on the red card. The purple hydrangea is done in Twinkling H2O watercolors.

I used shiny gold paper to cut an oval frame for this one, to match the embossing. I haven't made it into a card yet, but I want to! I don't often emboss on vellum, but it looks fab with this stamp.

Do you have any stamps that you use a ton? I think this one will be a favorite of mine. It's fun to color and so pretty.

If you're feeling you might need this stamp, you can hop over to the a2z Scrapbooking store and if you end up shopping more and get $25 or more in your cart, you can use my coupon code CHARK15 for 15% off your order just for reading my blog!

Happy Friday!

Chark

CAS and Not-So CAS

I'm up on the a2z Scrapbooking blog today with a Clean And Simple card that goes along with our May challenge. I used multiple colors of embossing powder for my Forest Background stamp.

This next card isn't CAS at all, it has heat embossing and cream lace like the first, but I stamped the Antique Rose on text paper, watercolored the image with Distress Inks, and then took a patterned paper from Stampington and Company (you get free paper in each mag).

I inked the paper and stamped on some text, added green stamped paper, brown vintage lace and gold accents with puffy stickers from American Crafts and gold ribbon from my stash. Lots going on here.

I tore and curled the edges of the text paper and I'm really happy with how it turned out, it's prettier irl with the gold and pinks and brown.

Are you a Clean And Simple Crafter or a Vintage Pile-on-the-fun crafter?

Happy Monday!
Chark

World Card Making Day 2014!

So excited to join with card makers all over to celebrate our craft! 

Apparently the average household in America buys 30 cards a year, and 7 out of 10 card buyers surveyed consider greeting cards “absolutely” or “almost” essential to them (source here.) That's a pretty cool stat for those of us who make them—most people consider them essential. Now, all we need to do is figure out how to get some of those buyers to buy our cards instead of Hallmark's! 

Today over at a2z Scrapbooking Supplies, you'll find my card and some other cards for inspiration for the challenges today. Hop on over and join in the fun and see this card in full! 


See my post yesterday to see some more places offering fun challenges and prizes.
Happy WCMD!!
Chark

This One's For the Chicks

It's National Chicken Month in September, and I don't know if that means, "yay for fried chicken" or "yay for animals" so I'll celebrate by posting this picture of the sweetest little felted chicks ever. It came from this etsy shop if you're looking for more cuteness.

(Shhh! Don't tell them I like fried chicken too!)

Here's a quick birthday card for my Aunt Katie, who actually belongs to my husband, but since I've known her since I was 16, I get to claim her now too. She loves purple, so I added some lavender printed paper behind the coolest die cut I found. I added the flowers and the silver embellies and ta da! Fini! I'm so international.

Can you guess what the flower is made from? Take a peek at a close-up.

It's paper towel with spray inks. I noticed that the colors looked fabulous on the paper towel I was using during a project, so I added some more spray, let it sit til almost completely dry and then hand cut different-sized flowers. The towel stays flexible enough that you can crinkle and fluff them up to resemble a flower.

It came out soft and floofy. (yep, that's a word I got from the kids) I love when discoveries happen in the midst of creating, don't you?!

Happy Chicken Month!

Chark