What a fun day full of fun traditions – my little one was VERY excited about this day (she was really hoping she would see a Leprechaun!) I captured this picture of her this morning and printed it off right away- the day inspired my creativity and I was anxious to get out some green and gold and get crafting!
I used our heart thin cuts to create my shamrocks and a mixture of gold shimmer brush and green re-inker to create my fun splatter effect! Check out the video to learn more about these techniques!
Well it has been ages since I posted frequently in my blog and for that I apologize. Life just got in the way (and more to the point- country internet became a real issue…but I still love my home!)
So! Here we are back again and I want to give you something good today. How about a video tutorial on watercolour smooth?! Yes, that is a thing! Here is a picture of a completed card I made using this technique.
It is super simple and I think very cute (I know, I am biased LOL). To create this card I used the following items that can be found in my SHOP.
Picture My Life Overlay cards
Gold and white ribbon
Card base (from Value pack of Cards and envelopes)
Watercolour paint and paint brush
(and although not in the card, the all purpose mat you will see in the video is a MUST for messy things!)
Here is the video:
I would LOVE to see some of your creations with this technique! I really would!
Either post in the comments or visit my Facebook fan page and post there!
The only thing better than crafting is learning new techniques while you do it! For this ‘Technique Tuesday’ I am going to share a trio of cards using a variety of techniques!
Card #1: Be Happy
This card using embossing as well as the use of alcohol markers. To emboss you will need an embossing machine (any of them that will take a 5×7 folder will do) and one of our amazing embossing folders! If you have not seen all our designs yet then check out this link!
You place your paper in the folder, put it through your embossing machine and voila! For the above card I used the woodgrain embossing folder.
The flowers are coloured in with our alcohol markers- I stamped the outline image in black ink and then coloured. I love how our makers blend and look so bright and beautiful!
Card #2: Have a Beautiful Day
For this card I did a mix of dry embossing (with the embossing folder like card #1 but this time I used the honeycomb one) AND heat embossing. The feathers in the background and the arrow under the sentiment are both heat embossed. For this technique I used Versamark ink to stamp my image and then sprinkled embossing powder over the image. (click on embossing powder to see the colours we offer). I then heat set the powder and it becomes dry and glossy (and so pretty!). After I just coloured in the areas of the feathers left exposed with alcohol markers.
Card #3: Lovely
This card uses more dry embossing (this time the whole front of the card was embossed in the floral folder) and more marker work. If you look at the ‘Lovely’ sentiment you will see I blended my markers to create an ombre look. You can achieve this by using a darker version of the colour on the top and slowly colouring to meet the lighter colour on bottom OR you can use any one marker and just add multiple layers of that colour where you want a darker shade. It will blend beautifully because you are using alcohol markers!
Here is a list of things used in the technique trio:
Embossing folders (woodgrain, honeycomb and floral)
Embossing powders (silver)
Heat gun
Versamark ink pad
Shin Han Touch Markers
Happy Birds stamp set
Seaside paper packet
Black journaling Pen (for the lines around the images)
and YES all of these things are available on my SHOP!
This month my team blog hop is going ‘Back to School!’
We will be sharing with you videos and tutorials that will teach you things- I hope you enjoy and feel inspired! Just follow along our posts and click on the link at the bottom to go to the next blog (if you get lost you can come back here to the full list of hoppers).
Learn to Dry Emboss with Ink!
Now hop on over to Michelle and see what she has to teach us!
2. Michelle Stewart -resist embossing – http://mycreationswithmichelle.blogspot.com/2014/09/brae-ers-team-blog-hop-resist-embossing.html
3. Chris Robertson- reinker bubbles (if it doesn’t work I will do something else) <a>http://chriscreativelife.blogspot.com/2014/09/brae-er-team-blog-hop.html</a>
8. Darcel Kirvan – Hip Pic/Artbooking album https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8738109316605568301#editor/target=post;postID=5318142755174492721;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname
9. Heather Dawson – stamping background to make pattern paper http://pagesbyheatherd.blogspot.com/2014/09/back-to-school-blog-hop.html
You see the look all over Pinterest and in stores – the chalkboard look is totally IN!
Did you know that you can also achieve that look on your card (and fairly simply I might add).
What you will need:
Stamp
White Pigment Ink
Tissue
Black cardstock
Take your piece of black cardstock (should be cut to preferred size already) and rub the tissue (dipped in your white pigment ink) in the corners and around the cardstock- you want to give the paper the look of the chalkboards at school when they had seen a lot of use.
Next stamp your images onto the cardstock with the same white pigment ink. Now give the ink time to dry- pigment is wet and will need a few minutes but it is worth it!
I LOVE how this turned out!
Now you may be able to tell (or may not) but I added some colour to the chalk stamping (I mean really, who didn’t play with the coloured chalk in school every chance they got!?). I added some purple to the star burst and some blue to outline the ‘Great Job’ sentiment. I coloured over the white pigment ink with my ShinHan Touch Twin markers – and it worked AWESOME!! I then finished this guy up with some Chalk It Up Assortment stickers, some bitty sparkles and some new washi tape!
Technique Tuesday is back and today we are going to focus on using stamps but not just any stamps… background stamps. We have sold a variety of these over the years and currently have a few to chose from- they are great and are VERY versatile!! Obviously you can use them to create your own background pattern – that is what I did in this layout but I inked my stamp with a sponge so that I could get the look I was seeking.
You also may notice I did not use CTMH paper for this one- it is pretty rare that I find something else like as much as what we carry but his time I did find one. It was perfect in this layout (and I still used my CTMH white enamel marquee shapes and the Artbooking cartridge to really bring my layout together).
Happy Technique Tuesday- I know that these have been a bit AWOL lately but things got REALLY busy in my business (it really is a good problem to have LOL). But, we are back on track and since summer is right around the corner (and a whole new catalogue August 1st) then you should see lots of great posts on a variety of topics!
I want to share with you- in face I want to give you permission- to use products NOT intended for your layouts ON your layouts. I don’t mean things that may not be safe or that could be harmful to your photos in future but things that you may have purchased for other paper crafts- in my layout below I use things purchased to go with one of our Crush albums (similar to Smash books). I know it may seem silly and maybe you were already using these things on your layouts but often I find that people don’t do it- they haven’t even really thought about it. Then you try it on ONE project and that is it…. ADDICTION!! Throughout the month of June you will see a theme of my projects using either the Crush assortments or our Picture my life projects within more traditional layouts and projects- seriously I just LOVE the results and cannot stop!
Check out some of the fun I had below:
You can see better in this close up a variety of fun images- tags, tickets, word bubbles and fun envelopes- all of these came from one of the Crush assortments (and these assortments are inexpensive and FULL Of good stuff!).
Of course I also added some other fun details- my title came off the CTMH cricut Artbooking – I wasn’t sure if I would like the white on white but in the end it was the perfect accent. I added some accessories- our skylark assortment, sparkle assortment and white marquee enamel shapes and a stamp (that is the ONLY stamp that I own that is not CTMH but I fell in love with it recently at a show I was at).
A quote from Cinderella herself pulls it all together for me- I just love how this all turned out in the end!
Welcome to my Brae-er Team Blog Hop- since May is National Scrapbooking Month we decided to feature some really fun and useful techniques for scrapbooking! On this hop you will find tutorials and maybe even some videos! Just follow along with the links at the bottom of my post and if you get lost come back here where I have the full list posted.
For my technique I decided to focus on Kissing! I love this technique as it really adds versatility to your stamp collection!
To ‘kiss; your stamps gather together one that is more of a solid image (like my fab in the picture below) and one that has a pattern that you would like to transfer onto the solid stamp. Ink up your solid image and then ‘kiss’ it with the pattern. (I like to make a little kiss-y noise when I do this – silly but fun).
This is what you get:
Here are a few images I did- I used the April stamp of the month because it went so well with my pictures of my friends and I at our annual Swiss Chalet Festive Special Dinner.
and here is the final product! I used the Free to be Me paper (get it for only $5 with a $50 order this month) and some of our teal shimmer trim.
NOW- I am missing ONE thing! A title…. what title would you give this layout??
Now hop on over to Chris’s Blog to see what amazing creation she has for you!
Here is the full list:
1. Brae Montgomery- www.brae-er.com
2. Chris Robertson- http://chriscreativelife.blogspot.com/2014/05/national-scrapbook-month-blog-hop.html
3. Michelle Stewart – www.mycreationswithmichelle.blogspot.ca
4. Kimberly Clark – http://leokc34.blogspot.com/2014/05/ctmh-brae-er-group-hop.html
Welcome back to Technique Tuesday- I apologize that I have missed a few weeks but we are in the process of selling our home and a messy craft room is just not allowed. Add that to all the time spent out of my home and my artwork creation has gone down- hopefully we sell soon and I can get back on track!
This tuesday I would like to show you how to use an edge distresser- this is a very simple tool to use and super cheap- ours is only $2.50 and will last you a LONG time!
To use just pick it up and start by gently rubbing one of the blades along the edge of your paper. If you want more of a distressed look then keep going and add some pressure- you can always add more but you can never take it away once there. I LOVE this look – our paper contains a white core and this really helps to frame an image and add some interest.
Here is a close up on the sides of a card I was working on using this technique.
And here is the finished card! I used one of our Picture my Life cards from out pocket scrapbooking for the main image AND another one I cut up for the butterfly.
This week our technique will be on resist ink- and it will be a little different in that I won’t be sharing a picture of the finished project until Friday so be sure to come back and visit!
To create the resist you can use a few different things- our paper fundamentals line is perfect for this as it already has a glossy image (like you can see here). You can also use heat embossing to create your own image for resist.
The resist piece works when you add ink- in the case of my sample I used our white daisy pigment but any ink will do. I rubbed the ink on with a sponge and wherever the glossy image is will RESIST the ink- hence the name of the technique!
Here is a close up on the resist area on my finished project- your sneak peek until friday….
