Posted on Sunday, January 10, 2016

Springtime Wishes: Best Wishes

Still no snow, only flurries and lots of rain until today. This year we have a very mild Winter for sure. A Winter season with Spring temperature.

But today I am sharing a clean and simple card with Spring theme using my new favorite stamp set and dies, and papers. My card is inspired by the sketch from The Challenge #55 that I twist around 🙂

First I on a Watercolor paper, I stamped the flowers, leaves and springs from Springtime Wishes with Black Archival Ink Pad, heat set them with my Craft Heater, added the matching Thin Cuts on them and then run them through my Evolution Advanced die cutting machine. And after that I watercolor them using Watercolor Pencils using Pentel Aquash watercolor medium brush. When they half dry, I splash some water on them straight from the pencil using the same brush. It was fun. Honestly that was a trial but it worked 😀

While waiting for them to dry, I prepared the card base using Charlotte Papers papers. I added some gold glitter tape on it. And then after every piece well dried, I added them on the card using glue dots and 3D foam tape. I stamped the sentiment from the Springtime Wishes using Black Exclusive Ink Pad. Then I thought those flowers need some bling, so I added some clear gems on them. My card is done and ready to send out.

How about your Winter this year? I hope you have a great day to start your week and Thank You so much for stopping by today!

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Also I link up my card at these challenges:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #217

Simon Says: Something New

January Theme and Sketch Challenge

January CAS Card Challenge

Posted on Saturday, January 9, 2016

Springtime Wishes: Happy Birthday

Today I would like to share you a new stamp set and matching dies that I use on my project and I absolutely love it! This project I created for a blog hop and 2 challenges.

Welcome to the first Joyful Stars Blog Hop in 2016! Every month I join a group of Close To My Heart consultants sharing a project we make using new/current products. I hope you’ll find the projects we share inspire you to create.

This is a monthly blog hop hosted by Joyce Houck’s blog. If you arrived from her blog, the you are on the right track 🙂 But if you are here first, you can either continue blog-hopping to make a loop or you can go back to Joyce’s blog post to see the rest of the list of participants.

Kicking off this blog hop this year, I created a card using one of the new stamp sets and thin cuts. YES you read it correctly. Close To My Heart released new products this month and one of them are 4 new stamp sets with matching thin cuts as in thin dies. They are compatible with all diecutting machines that can cut metal thin dies. For this projects, I used my WRMK Evolution Advanced to cut the pieces.

I used Springtime Wishes stamp set and Springtime Wishes Thin Cuts on both of my card. Here’s my first card:

For this card, I picked the color combo from the new Charlotte Paper Packet: Black, Slate, Whisper, Champagne and Sorbet.

I wet a piece of Watercolor Paper with clean water and added some watercolor paint to create the background. Then I dried it with Craft Heater for speedy drying, but you also can let it sit to dry.

On a piece of White Daisy cardstock, I stamped the flowers and leaves using Slate Exclusive Ink Pad, then I added the matching dies on them and run it through my diecutting machine.

I added them on the cards using glue dots and 3D foam tape for some dimensions. Then on a strip of Black cardstock, I heat embossed the sentiment from Joyful Birthday stamp set using VersaMark ink pad, Ranger Gold Embossing powder and Craft Heater. Then added on the card using 3D foam tape and finished it with some clear gems.

I hope you like my card today 🙂 Your next stop is Nancy Brown’s blog to see what she has created for you!

Have one fabulous day!

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Today’s challenges:

Word Art Wednesday Challenge #217

Simon Says: Something New

Posted on Sunday, January 3, 2016

Stamping With Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolor

We went for “after New Year” shopping yesterday because usually we can find great deals and using coupons. We went to couple stores and we made a stop at Hobby Lobby for couple things I needed for craft projects.

While searching for painting/mixed media supplies, I found the Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolor set of 24 colors. And I could use the 40% discount coupon on it! Super happy! It’s been on my crafting wish list for a while.

This afternoon, I finally had a chance to try it. Oh… I love my extra space on the table because my awesome hubby got me that cool iPad holder/clam as Christmas present. See that? The iPad is up there now and it is adjustable! And no more worries of spilling coffee or water on it, too! 😄😄😄

I found several YouTube videos to find some ideas and tips how to use this Japanese solid watercolor paint. I watched some painting videos, handlettering videos and of course cardmaking videos, too. One of the cardmaking videos showed how to stamp directly using watercolor paint (video source). I did this technique using on rubber stamps. Today I tried use it with clear acrylic stamps.

And here is my first card:

On my card, I stamped the image and sentiment from CTMH January 2016 SOTM – Beloved Bouquet directly on CTMH Watercolor paper using the watercolor paint. I used Pentel Aquash brush medium size for quick and easy way. You can use round regular watercolor brush with water for sure. I did not wat my paper like in this video, but it worked just fine.

For the sentiment, I stamped over again with CTMH Black Exclusive Ink Pad when the paint was completely dry. Then I added some splatter for fun. I finised my card with some clear gems I have in stash.

I am super impressed with the vibrant colors this paints have. They are just gorgeous and easy to create shades of colors. Worth every penny.

Thanks for visiting today and I hope you like my card 😊 Have a fantastic week!

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Today I link up at:

Posted on Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Favorites Projects In 2015

End of th year is tomorrow. For me, personally, I am so thankful for this year. When I am looking back to see how God has been incredibly blessing us! One of the my blessings is my crafting life. And today I am sharing my 2015 Best of Nine of Cards, Bible Journaling and DIY projects.

First, I would love to thank to all lf you, my readers and crafty friends, who have been supporting, inspiring and encouraging me here on my blog and social media platfroms (Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Twitter).

And here they are:

2015 Best of Nine CTMH Cards

2015 Best of Nine All-Occasion Cards

2015 Best of Nine Bible Journaling

2015 Best of Nine DIY & Papercrafts

THANK YOU ALL for your love and comments! I hope in 2016 we all be blessed abundantly to be blessings for others through our words and the work of crafty hands ❤️ See you in 2016!

Posted on Monday, December 28, 2015

Christmas Card Recycling Project Ideas

We got many Christmas cards every year and they are too beautiful to throw them away. Ours are just sitting in a box where I keep them every year. So, instead of just keeping them in the box or throwing them away, why don’t we recycle them into something pretty that we can share with others and/or we can use them as home decor?

Searching through Pinterest world, I found these beautiful inspiration for us to recycle the Christmas cards. You also can do these projects together with your children for fun Winter/Christmas activity.

Here are the project ideas (click on the image or link to go to the original posts):

Crafty Sy: Christmas Cards Wreath

~ S.C.R.A.P ~ Scraps: Canning Jar Toppers

The Frugal Girls: Bookmarks from Christmas Cards

Stacy Makes Cents: Make Tags & Ornaments using Cookie Cutters

Maker Mama: Ornament Balls

A Spoonful of Sugar Designs: Gift Tags

Better Homes and Gardens: Decorative Ways to Recycle Christmas Cards

Better Homes and Gardens: Decorative Ways to Recycle Christmas Cards

Here’s my recycled card I made couple weeks ago (original post here):

If you make cards out of your old Christmas cards, you can send your recycled cards to St. Jude Ranch, all year round. They need need not Christmas cards, but also all-occasions greeting cards, such as Birthday cards, Thank You cards, Holiday themes, etc. Please go here to read more detail of this program and how you dan donate your cards.

I hope you’ll also be inspired to create something new and pretty from your Christmas cards!

Have wonderful week and be blessed!

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Link Up at:

Inspire Me Monday – Week 208