Playing with new supplies

New supplies are always fun!

I recently ordered Stencil Builders from Gina K. Designs. Shown here the Teardrop Stencil Builder and the Dotted Swirl Stencil Builder.  I also ordered three ink pads from a new-to-me company, Lisa Horton Crafts. The inks are labeled dye/pigment blend called Interference. Cloud 9 is part of the name too, but not all Cloud 9 ink pads are Interference. 

This Jennifer McGuire Video is where I first heard of this ink. The video will show you so much more, I'm just giving you a few still photos of what I played with today. The magic of this line of ink is that it looks completely different on white paper versus black. On either paper, you will see a shimmer that is much nicer in person than what I could capture in a photo.

Here is the color Fruit Salad on white paper. The color evened out more after I took the photo. My goal today wasn't to make anything, it was to learn how to use both the stencil and ink. 

In this photo, I'm trying to capture the shimmer

The purple shade here is Crushed Velvet. The north and south teardrops overlaying the Fruit Salad color are the smaller teardrops in that stencil set. 

Here are the same inks used on black paper, same orientation.

I used the Dotted Swirl Stencil Builder in the color Mermaid Lagoon on both. It looks teal on the white version and purple on the black!

The shimmer is truly amazing in person. 

These samples may become backgrounds on cards. This was fun to do on a rainy morning. 

SCT Crop & Create Cardmaking March 2022

The online card-making event on March 25-27 from Scrapbook & Cards Today was absolutely wonderful. Of the online events I've been part of, theirs has offered the most per event and been the most organized, even when unexpected things occurred behind the scenes. 

The first day featured what would have been "Make & Take" projects in a live event. This first card features a stamp, die, and stencil from Photoplay.

This card is a stitched Hi die from Spellbinders.  I made a second card without the stitching to use a few days after the weekend. 

These are from a company that I didn't know about, and is right here in Michigan, LDRS.

This is from American Crafts.

These are from Honey Bee

There were a few more that I either haven't finished yet. All of these kits and instructors were bonuses in that they weren't announced when we registered for classes. I knew there would be some, but the quantity and quality of product and instruction were great. 

The first scheduled class was Gina Krupsky and Gina K Designs in a class called Floral Frenzy. 

Next was Amy Yingling with products from The Stamp Market. I changed the second card to be a gift tag because I thought it was too bulky to mail. There was one more card that I chose to skip. This class was called Say It With Color. 

The third session was Libby Hickson, stamps from Hero Arts, class called Fun Folds.

The last class on Saturday was Birthday Celebration taught by Jenn Shurkus using Lawn Fawn supplies.

Sunday morning began with Cathy Zielske and Concord & 9th. The second image shows what is inside the card above it. There is a third card that I missed photographing. The class was Clean & Simple Stencils & More!

Next is Tayor Vanbruggen with a 4-piece stencil set, Create in Quads, from Taylored Expressions. Inking each layer with one color per stencil onto an 8" x 10.5" piece of cardstock gave us these four card fronts when cut apart. I haven't decided on sentiments for the first three cards yet. 

The seventh class, Spring Is In The Air,  was taught by Laura Bassen for Pinkfresh Studios. 

Last, but certainly not least was Make & Shake by Mari, by Mari Clarke for Honey Bee Stamps. She also taught the other Honey Bee projects on Friday. 

Lunar New Year, Sympathy, and other card components

January didn't produce as much as I had hoped, craft-wise, but if I look at the experimenting that I did with paper arts and the continued knitting, I haven't done badly. 

Sympathy cards are always difficult if you are making them when you need them. Not only do you feel a time crunch, but you are also emotionally involved which can delay or derail your creativity. I made this one using Gina K's Friendly Silhouettes which were from an online class where she was a guest instructor. There are other tree stamps that are similar. 

Playing with products produced this tree, a new purchase because it was on sale and I liked the layers of the Sizzix die set called Layered Christmas Tree, number 664712. I used white glitter paper for the snow and Stickles for the ornaments. 

A Jennifer McGuire video inspired me to apply ink to a stencil and run the stencil and paper through a die cutting machine as if you were embossing the paper. The embossing effort didn't go well due to user error while I become familiar with how my new machine works. This stencil, Bold Layering Stencils by Gina K would normally produce colored flowers on white paper or a colored paper of your choice which might limit the colors of ink you could use for the flowers. Yellow ink, for instance, over blue card stock would probably give you a green flower that was not your intention. Here is the link to Jennifer McGuire's Stencil Ink Press Technique

February 1st was the start of the Lunar New Year. I made this card for my neighbor, welcoming the Year of the Tiger. I used gold ink on red cardstock and a stencil called Lunar Lanterns by Clearly Besotted. The playful tiger images were prints that I cut and adhered inside and out. 

Butterfly Card and (unrelated) a Baby Sweater

I've been making things but summer has flown and I don't seem to post much. I keep trying to get into using Instagram but it isn't "my thing", probably because I do much more on the PC than on a mobile device. 

This became a sympathy card for a neighbor whose mother had died. The inspiration was Jennifer McGuire's "Lined-Up Window Card" and her tutorial is HERE.

The stamps (Beautiful Butterflies stamp and die, sentiment is from Natural Silhouettes) and cardstock are from Gina K, the coloring was done with Prismacolor pencils

This sweater will be going to my son's coworker. It is a 12-month size pullover, pattern name is Cable Rings 5336 by Hayfield. This was knit with Snuggly DK weight yarn by Sirdar. The color isn't splotchy, it was drying when I photographed this.