Friday Fun!

Hello Everybody!

Happy Friday!  Katy here, and I am excited to show you this Thank You card.

I used the following stamps:  Distressed Background K94, Romantic Collage H147, Tags G483, Simple Elegance H185.

For the collage I stamped it and used black embossing powder.  Then I brushed on various inks.  For the stamp with the lady I restamped the image with just black ink.  I inked the stamp and then turned it into an "epoxy sticker."  I used pop dots underneath it.  

The simple elegance swirl and background are on the middle panel.  I love both of these stamps so much!  Lastly, I stamped the thank you part of the Tags stamp and cut out the words.  I used a pen to draw a square around each word.  Then I adhered the words to the clear tag.

For more details on how I made this card you can check out my blog here.

Our challenge is still going on!  The challenge this month is Animals.  Go here to link up!  

And remember that you can check out our Facebook Page and Pinterest Boards for even more inspiration!

Friday Fun

Hello Friends!

Katy here and there are so many exciting things going on today!  First let me wish all of our U.S. fans a Happy July 4th!

Second, we are changing how we do the tutorials.  There will be a new tutorial at the beginning of each month from a different Design Team Member.

So today it is my turn to show you a tutorial-how to make dryer sheet flowers.  First let me show you my card using Great Impressions Stamps:

I used the following stamps:  C270  Butterfly Trio, G483 Tags, H185 Simple Elegance, J106 The Rose.

The butterfly stamp that I used has three butterflies so I fussy cut the one I wanted and glued down his body.  This left the wings to kind of bend upwards to make him look like he's fluttering.

The sentiment is from the Tags stamp which I also cut out.  I used a tooth pick that I added some extra brown ink for the flag.

The Simple Elegance stamp is the red embossed swirls on the paper with the text.  This is one of my favorite stamps!

The Rose stamp is the text in the background.  I embossed the stamp image with clear embossing powder and heat set it.  Then I used distress inks to bring out the text.

Now it's time to make the flower!  

Supplies:  2 or more used dryer sheets

                Flower Die Cut (I don't know if the framelets will cut through the dryer sheet)

                Color mist-I used Dylusions and Heidi Swapp

                Brad 

                Button for middle

                Crop-a-dile

The flower is made out of a couple of used dryer sheets and this die cut.  Finally, laundry is fun!  OK maybe not! ;)  If you don't have a die cut machine you can cut and layer circles for a different looking flower.

After your flowers are cut, mist them.  I used a blue and a red.  Let the mist dry.  

I have a spray box that I use, but I always put tissue paper, cardstock, or wax paper underneath so it catches the overflow.  Then you have cool misted paper for another project.

Then I stack the flower on top of each other until I like my flower.  I used a Crop-a-dile to make the hole through all of the layers and put on the brad.  This way I could move my flower around to figure out where I like it.  Then I realized I didn't like the brad so I glued a button on top of the brad.  The brad can be optional.  

Here's a close up of my card.  

Thank you for stopping by!  And remember for more cool tutorials check us out on Pinterest and for more daily inspiration check out our Facebook Page!

Best Of | Part 2

Good morning! Erin here. For my final Great Impressions Stamps post, I have five more cards that use some of my favorite Great Impressions Stamps. And like last week, I will link to the original blog post and stamp set(s) used.

The first card combines so many of my favorite elements: Kraft, buttons, pink, gems, hexagons, a fun swirly stamp... into one very colorful birthday card! The stamp I used was Simple Elegance, and here is the original blog post.

Butterflies are another favorite of mine (I own too many butterfly stamps to count!), and the GI Tiger Swallowtail stamp is just lovely. Here is a link to the original post.  

This watering can of flowers was one of the first stamps I picked out from Great Impressions. The various blooms in the sweet little can make for a lovely sympathy card. Here is the stamp and you can find the original post here.

Autumn is my favorite season, and I couldn't resist this beautiful fall themed stamp. You can find the stamp here, and the original post here.

The final card I have to share features this lovely Flower Bouquet stamp. The red and black color combo really pops on kraft cardstock. You can find the stamp here and the original post here.

That wraps up my final post for Great Impressions Stamps. I am going to miss the wonderful women I have had the pleasure of working with this past year. Thanks for everything! 

xoxo,
Erin.

Swirly Thanks

Happy Monday, friends!! This week's card uses a beautiful swirl stamp (that I've used before) that I layered with a doily, buttons, and a felt flower & leaves to create an elegant thank you card.  I stamped the swirl with Scarlet Jewel ink onto Sweet Blush cardstock... a lovely combination:

 (Supplies - Stamp: (Great Impressions) Simple Elegance. Ink: (PTI) Scarlet Jewel. Cardstock: (PTI) Sweet Blush, Autumn Rose. Patterned Paper: Dear Lizzy. Dies: (PTI) Headline Alphabet. Other: Doily, felt flower, buttons, twine, gems.)

I used this gorgeous patterned paper to set the color combo for my card: Aqua Mist, Autumn Rose, Scarlet Jewel, Hawaiian Shores, and Simply Chartreuse. Sometimes a pretty piece of paper is all it takes to jump start creativity. 

That's it for me! I am off to get Evan ready for school... his starts his last full week of school today. Only 10 more days until summer vacation starts! 

Have a great week!

A Happy Valentine's Day Owl

Good morning! I have a fun post for you guys today. One of the trends I have been seeing a lot of is the Chalkboard Technique. It's all over Pinterest and now taking cardmaking by storm! Betsy Veldman did a fantastic tutorial on it a few months ago, and of course I had to try it. I took photos of my process along the way and added notes to each of the photos. Enjoy! 

(Supplies - Stamps: (Great Impressions Stamps) Love Struck Owl, Simple Elegance. Ink: VersaMark. Cardstock: (PTI) True Black, Pure Poppy, Sweet Blush. Patterned Paper: BasicGrey. Dies: (PTI) Limitless Layers Hearts, Small Scalloped Border. Gems: Hero Arts. Other: Baker's Twine, white embossing powder, white colored pencil, typewriter.)

As an added bonus you got to peek at my craft desk. Which is usually a mess while I am in the middle of a project! :-)

Isn't it a fun technique? And the Love Struck Owl makes the cutest Valentine's Day cards. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comments section. Have a great week and I'll be back next Wednesday with another card for Great Impressions Stamps!

Moments

Happy Last Thursday of 2012!

I hope that everyone made Santa's 'nice' list...did you receive any Great Impressions stamps? :)

My most recent order included a few stamps I've had on my wish list and, of course, I had to ink up some of my new rubber and show them off on a project!

I've been thinking of the highs and lows of my year, of the goals I accomplished and the ones I've yet to set. I can't believe how fast this year has passed! Already it's time for my last post as a member of the Great Impressions Stamps Design Team. It has been wonderful to work with a GREAT company with such fabulous products & service, not to mention the talented team!

 With those thoughts on my mind, Life is Not Measured... (F252) is the perfect sentiment for my New Year's card. I used Simple Elegance (H185) along the bottom edge of my sentiment panel. The flourish is embossed with clear embossing powder and glitter. Embossing with powders is another easy way to add texture and interest to a simple card.

(There is foil, embossing and glitter on this card. Hard to see, I know - they're not so easy to photograph!)

The tiny tag is handwritten with a Glaze pen - goes on wet and looks like the writing was embossed when dry. These pens are great for adding personal touches to patterned papers.

I hope that you have enjoyed your visit today and your 2012 has had more ups than downs! Thank you for your support, comments & participation (you still have a couple of days to link up to the december challenge!) and may 2013 be your best year, yet!

Inky hugs,

Angi

Happy Valentine's Day!

Good morning! I know we are still a week away from Christmas, but I received some new Valentine's Day Great Impressions stamps this week and I just had to make a card using them. And I used a lot of glitter. And gems. And the combination of pink/purple/aqua, gems, and glitter makes me giddy. :-)

I used three Great Impressions stamps today: Simple Elegance (probably my favorite Great Impressions stamp, well, ever),  Happy Valentine's Day, and Jar of Candy Hearts. The cardstock is Papertrey Ink's Sweet Blush, Aqua Mist, Plum Pudding, and Stamper's Select White. I found a big bin of ribbon that had been hiding behind some buttons, and the striped ribbon was perfect for my card. I don't know where I got it, but I love the soft pastel colors & horizontal stripes.

Aren't the glittered hearts fun? I used heart dies by PTI and covered them in Tombow liquid glue before dumping some Martha Stewart crystal fine glitter on top. I tried using Stickles first, but the paper was too warped to work with, and Stickles take a while to dry. The Tombow glue dries quickly and the glitter really sticks to it. I also used Tombow glue and Martha Stewart glitter on the candy hearts in the jar to add some sparkle. 

Have a wonderful week and thanks for stopping by!  

xoxo,
Erin.

Fancy Flourishes

Hey everyone! I hope you guys are enjoying the Echo Park + Great Impressions Stamps blog hop! I have loved looking at all the projects... amazing inspiration! 

Today I have a card to share with a fantastic flourish stamp. I stamped it with Enchanted Evening ink onto kraft cardstock and layered it behind a doily die cut:

 (Supplies - Stamp: (Great Impressions Stamps) Simple Elegance. Ink: (PTI) Enchanted Evening. Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye, LillyBee. Cardstock: (PTI) Kraft, Sweet Blush. Die: (PTI) Parisian Doily Die. Other: Ribbon, buttons, gems.)

I didn't realize the sentiment is partially covered by the bow in this picture, but it says "Happy Birthday to you!". 

Thanks for stopping by!