Perfect Pearls GAL-entine's Day Card

I love the GAL-entine's Day and GAL-oween trends; they're the perfect excuse to celebrate our closest friends! I also love Ranger's Perfect Pearls, because they are indeed the PERFECT way to add color and shimmer to light or dark cardstock. I'm on the Ranger Project Tutorials Page today with the step-by-step process for using them both wet (like watercolors) or dry (by stamping or stenciling over Perfect Medium) to make a GAL-entine's card that really shines.

Ranger New Year Card

A New Year's toast to all the makers: May 2025 be our most creative year yet! Follow along as I kick off January with a super-sparkly card tutorial thanks to Stickles Glitter Glue, Stickles Glitter Gel and Tinsel Embossing Powder. It's on the Ranger Project Page, where there is literally always something new and wonderful to inspire YOU! ♥

Five Faves of 2024: Ranger Edition

I'm proud to have enough favorites from my posts for the Ranger Tutorials Page to make it difficult to choose! Having said that... it WAS difficult, lol! Click the bold text under each photo to get to the full tutorial on the Ranger Blog.

Liquid Pearls and Stickles Thank You Card

...much of the time I use Liquid Pearls dimensionally and Stickles more or less flat; but as a matter of fact, you can PAINT with LP's and make ridges with Stickles. 

(Also there's always just the right shade of Archival Ink to coordinate!)

Trading Hearts Layered Embossing Cards

...apart from the fact that I'm in love with the bears from Simon Hurley's Winter Woodland stamp set, my favorite thing about this project was the realization that I could emboss sequentially on each of the three layers of Simon's Dazzling Diamonds Layered Stencil Set. 

Archival Ink Mother's Day Card

...I had a plan going in but it morphed into something completely different and much, much, cooler...  which is always exciting. Dina's Pocket Circle Stamp Set was the pivot; Letter It's Family and Loves sets were crucial.

Stickles Glitter Gels Greeting Card

...here's a shocking true confession: this was my first time using Stickles Glitter Gels; I hadn't realized how much more dense the colors are, that they look fab on dark cardstock, or that each shade has a different combo of chunky glitter shapes. Needless to say I was immediately HOOKED!

Glossy Accents Shower Cards

...in this case the occasion (baby or bridal shower) and featured product (Glossy Accents) were suggested by Patti Behan, I love getting a "headstart" that way. Letter It's Shower Clear Stamp Set made it work.

BONUS PROJECT

(I did say it was hard to choose lol)

Liquid Pearls Celebration Cards

...have serious amounts of stenciling and use the fab Liquid Pearls in several different ways!

Holiday Sampler

Nothing says, "Warm Holiday Wishes" quite as well as Simon Hurley's Nordic Knit stamped in red, green and neutral Archival Inks from Ranger, then studded with LOTS of beautiful holiday-themed Eyelet Outlet Brads! This card has thirty-seven (37!) brads from eight different brad styles... can you spot them all? Scroll down for a hint!

Working from top to bottom: 1/16" Round Brads (Brown Mix); Poinsettia Brads; more 1/16" Round Brads (Brown Mix) as reindeer eyes; Heart Brads; Pine Cone Brads; 1/16" Round Brads (Red Mix); Cardinal, Cardinal Profile and Female Cardinal Brads; Snowy Trees and finally 1/16" Round Brads (White). And in case you're wondering, "Did you really pierce a hole, place the brad, and secure the prongs for every single one?" Check out the photo below, which shows the back of the design panel.

Check out the Eyelet Outlet Store for all the holiday embellishments you could possibly need!

Dylusions Dyamond Board Ornaments

Just in time for the holidays, Dyan Reaveley has designed Dylusions Dyamond Boards in festive shapes like baubles, stars and trees; available in two sizes for extra variety. Perfect for making garlands, place settings, gift tags and more. Follow along on the Ranger Project Tutorials Page as I decorate them with Letter It stamps and stencils, Ranger Archival Inks and Stickles Glitter Gels to create super-colorful multi-layer Christmas tree ornaments...

...which also make awesome package decorations or name tags!

I cannot tell a lie: I really LOVE this project; I hope you'll check it out! ♥

JB2424: Banner Holiday

It's hard to believe we're heading into the last official 2024* Jingle Belles challenge; hasn't this year flown past?! We're wrapping up the year with an inspiration challenge; we'd like to see new holiday cards based on any aspect of the 2024 Jingle Belles Blog Header that inspires you. Maybe it's the glittery letters and frame; the red poinsettias and candy canes; the jingle belles (or jingle bells, lol) ...just make sure you include what inspired you in your post.

And here's my Banner-Inspired card:

For my inspiration I chose the poinsettias, the foliage, and the red + green + gold color palette. I used Wendy Vecchi's Build-a-Plaid Layered Stencils and the Christmas Add-On Stamp and Die Set (both from her 2024 Spellbinders' NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection) to make the background and focal point, respectively. For the plaid I used Wendy's Archival Inks in Carnation, Red Geranium, Fern Green and Sunflower, with a little extra sparkle from a glittery gold pen.

Here's how I used the triple holly leaf die to build the diecut poinsettias, if you'd like more detail:

Step 1: Diecut five deep red holly leaves, five medium red holly leaves and one golden cluster of berries. (By using a double layer of cardstock you'll get SIX leaves in one pass, so it's very quick!)

Step 2: Punch a small circle of sticker paper or scrap cardstock that has edge-to-edge adhesive. Peel the release paper and place the circle on your worktop with the ADHESIVE UP. Add the five dark red holly leaves to the circle, so that their points meet at the center.

Step 3: Add the five medium red holly leaves in between the dark red ones. I like to use slivers of foam tape for this round, so the flowers have some dimension, but you can put them on flat if you prefer.

Step 4: Adhere the golden berry cluster to the center of the flower, and gently curve the petals a bit for a more realistic look.

TA-DA you've got a poinsettia in exactly the right shade to match your project! ♥

Head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's beautiful card and a photo of the prize that one lucky random cardmaker will snag, just by linking up with us this fortnight. JB2424: Banner Holiday runs until the evening of Wednesday, December 4th.

*Just to be clear, this is only the end of the 2024 season; Jingle Belles will be back for a brand new year of holiday cardmaking, starting January 1, 2025! ♥

Give Thanks

It's a week before Thanksgiving, but there's still time to send out some quick, easy cards! This super-simple CAS design features Eyelet Outlet Leaf and Mini Leaf Brads layered over stenciled leaves in fall colors. The background and diecut sentiment are made from beautifully neutral Nature Washi Tape. Change up the sentiment and this design could be used for literally ANY autumnal occasion.

Speaking of stencils: Did you know that you can easily make your own custom stencils using ANY simple craft dies you love? In this case, I've taken the three sizes of leaves from the Essential Envelope Die Set in Wendy Vecchi's NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection from Spellbinders and blended my favorite fall shades of Wendy's Archival colors from Ranger through them before adding the Leaf Brads and a simple sentiment. Job done! I made my stencils from glossy cardstock which is pretty sturdy; but to make them last forever cut the shapes out of stencil plastic. Don't forget to leave a bit of distance around each shape so that you have room to blend without accidentally getting stray ink on other areas of your project.

 

Visit the Eyelet Outlet Store today for brads and tapes that'll work perfectly for EVERY season of your cardmaking year; and check out all of Wendy Vecchi's awesome designs from Spellbinders.

Embossing on Textured Cardstock

I love the crisp perfection of using Ranger Embossing Powders on smooth cardstock, but recently I've been experimenting with using them on on Ranger's Woodgrain and Cracked Leather textured cardstocks; and even on Dina's Stickyback Canvas Tape! I love the result... a beautifully soft, slightly worn effect, similar to vintage linens. Head on over to the Ranger Project Tutorials Page where I'll walk you through the process step by step using Ranger Embossing Inks and Powders, I think you'll enjoy trying this yourself!

Happy Halloween

Couldn't resist making just one more PURR-fectly adorable Halloween Card using the sweet kitty mascot in Wendy Vecchi's Halloween Add-On Stamp and Die set (from her latest Spellbinders' release: NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection!)

I diecut the cat from some very cool sticky-back wool felt sheets (<-- that's a link to them; they come in lots of other colors too!) which Wendy was kind enough to share with me, so IRL, he's just the tiniest bit furry, which is obviously even more awesome. 

I used the Essential Envelope die to make a pocket which holds a pull-out card created with the Pinking Edge Birthday Add-On; adorned with more candy corn, spider web and spider diecuts from the Halloween Add-On and the "Happy Halloween" sentiment, as well. I used the "Boo" sentiment to stamp some cotton ribbon which works as a pull for the tucked-in greeting.

All the sets are very generous, and each has a lot of extra "accessories" that can be combined in many different ways to make your projects unique. Because Wendy really is a crafter as well as a designer, she's thought of the details we need: like making a separate solid base for the cat and the candy corn... making it easy to add the details to a surface rather than trying to just assemble them all on a finished card. BTW, if you're not catching the Tip Tuesday series via Wendy Vecchi's Instagram Feed or the awesomely inclusive Make Art with Wendy Vecchi Facebook Group, you're really missing out on great info, inspo and ideas!  

The Build-a-Plaid Layered Stencil Set remains one of my FAVORITE elements, especially when used with Wendy's Designer Series Archival Inks from Ranger. In this case, Pink Peony, Peachy Keen, Sunflower and Goldenrod.

I'm linking this up with the super-creative ladies at the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers for their "H is for Halloween" challenge (#255); where PINK is optional (but a nice touch since October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month). The SNARK is also optional, by the way (sorry guys mine has none unless you find the cat's expression humorous, which I do, lol!); you can find outstanding examples of both by checking out the fabulous DT cards at SoSS!

PS: Happy Halloween!

Wishing you a day that's all treats and no tricks!!!

You're Not the (EM-)Boss of Me!

Flashing back to Wendy Vecchi's first collection for Spellbinders (The Garden Collection) and specifically playing with the Flowers and Foliage 3D Embossing Folder with a selection of Wendy's Archival Inks from Ranger. I've used a bunch of different techniques that Wendy has shown off in various Tip Tuesday posts, such as inking and spritzing the emboss- or deboss-side before embossing; painting the flowers with diluted Archival Reinkers from the back or front; applying ink directly from the Archival Ink Pad (on the emboss- or deboss-side); and inking, stenciling, stamping (with some older Studio 490 stamps) and/or doodling on top. I love how you can get so many completely different variations with the same embossing folder, but they're all equally beautiful!

Halloween Treat Bags

Halloween is just around the corner and what could be more seasonally appropriate than some "boo-tiful" little treat bags. There's a complete step by step tutorial showing how I made some on the Ranger Project Page, using Ranger Archival Inks, Transparent Gloss Texture Paste and Liquid Pearls; I'd love for you to pop over and take a look!

Pink Christmas!

It's that time again at Jingle Belles, our favorite prompt of the year: PINK CHRISTMAS! In which you make and link new holiday cards that are predominantly PINK and we (Stephanie and Lauren) donate $2 (apiece!) per card to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation! Yes, you can link as many cards as you'd like to and no, your cards don't need to be entirely PINK but we'd like the pink to be the main color. Options regarding size, shape, themes and additional colors added in with the PINK are up to you! 

Sound good? Then without further ado, here's my card:

You know how it is when you have NEW crafty goodies: you just cannot wait to use them, then you can't stop, right? I am currently obsessed with Wendy Vecchi's NOT Your Ordinary Card Collection from Spellbinders, so for this card I broke out the Christmas Add-On Stamp and Die Set and used the triple holly leaf die to very quickly cut lots of layers from textured pink cardstock; which I then inked and stacked, in two five-petal layers for each flower, into poinsettias, finishing off with the three berry cluster at the center, and finally a few tiny stick-on pearls plus a few cuts of the beautiful, delicate greenery die. I used the sentiment stamps from the set and a Build-a-Plaid background made with the second smallest stencil and Pink Peony Archival. A little bit of lace, some darker pink mats and a bit of machine stitching and I was good to go! There's a little more detail about the making of the poinsettias and the use of the Build-a-Plaid Stencils on my blog.!

The poinsettia-making process is made much easier by starting out with a 3/4" circle of adhesive cardstock, upon which you stack your first layer of five poinsettia petals; then you add five more petals... (staggered between each pair on the first round) ...and make them immobile with a second 3/4" circle of adhesive cardstock on the back.

Speaking of EASY: of course you can use the Build-a-Plaid Layering Stencils without any special equipment but... IF you happen to have the MAKE ART Stay-tion, not only do you never have to worry about securing the stencil edges with any sort of adhesive, you can also do things like an evenly spaced diagonal plaid background with NO measuring or worrying about keeping the stripes parallel. I do like to place a small tape loop behind my paper before I begin, so that it doesn't shift as I change stencil directions, but other than that the four super-strong, never-pinchy magnets that come with the Stay-tion are more than adequate to the task of holding the stencils no matter how many times you re-arrange them.

I do hope you'll head on over to Jingle Belles to see Stephanie's gorgeous PINK CHRISTMAS creation and then start planning what you'll link up with us this time. This challenge (#JB2421) runs until 6pm (Eastern) on Wednesday, October 23rd.

Scaredy Cat?

There's no need to fear! Fun and fabulous Halloween cards are easy as (pumpkin) pie with Eyelet Outlet Small Eye Brads, Spider Brads, Spider Washi and Glitter Black Tape paired with the sweet kitty, spider webs and sentiment from the Halloween Add-On to Wendy Vecchi's Not Your Ordinary Card Collection from Spellbinders.

And YES, the Build-a-Plaid Layering Stencil Set continues to be very addictive (in a GOOD way!); this time I've used Cactus Flower, Petunia, Violet, Orange Blossom, Tea Rose, Fern Green and Prickly Pear Archival Inks from Wendy's Designer Series Line at Ranger. I love that they are translucent so that you get different tones in the places they overlap!

Happy PURR-thday!

The Halloween Add-On Stamp and Die Set from Wendy Vecchi's latest Spellbinders release, Not Your Ordinary Card Collection is indeed outstanding for Halloween but... it's not JUST for that holiday.* Case in point:

A little bit of a warning: when you start paper-piecing the adorable kitties, you should probably allow a little bit of extra time and cardstock because once you start, you will likely not be able to stop at just ONE cat! For that matter, the Build-a-Plaid Layered Stencil Set is also quite addictive. This time I chose to go with some of the softer shades from Wendy's Ranger Archival Inks, so I used Leaf Green, Sky Blue and Pink Peony. Of course it's entirely possible to work with any stencil set without the MAKE ART Stay-tion, but it's so incredibly helpful that I'd hate to be without it at this point. I used a few of the dies from the Pinking Edge Birthday Add-On to make the main portion of the sentiment; and some of the accessories are from the Christmas Add-On set.

I had been planning to use the cool pocket and some of the dies in the Essential Envelope Set, but by the time I was up to three cats I couldn't just choose ONE so I made a larger (not quite A7) card they could all inhabit!

*I do actually have some fab Halloween ideas for the set, as well, and they'll be coming along in a future post!

Customized Notebook

I'm happy to be up on the Ranger Project Page with a very fun and funky composition book I altered using some of my favorite products: Ranger Archival Inks, Liquid Pearls, Stickles and more! I'd love for you to CLICK THIS LINK and visit the step-by-step tutorial! ♥

It's In the Bag

I needed a fast giftbag for a birthday dude, so of course I couldn't resist using Wendy Vecchi's "Not Your Ordinary Card Collection" dies from Spellbinders. This time I chose a more masculine palette of Archival Inks to use with the Build-a-Plaid Layering Stencils (English Ivy, Tiger Lily, Peat Moss and Monarch Orange) with which I adorned an Essential Envelope pocket and also a small kraft gift bag from the big box store. 

I used the Pinking Edge Birthday Add-On to make a card to tuck into the pocket, which, as it turns out, was also just big enough to hold a medium-sized candy bar. I added a few strips of Wendy's Washi Tape Assortment 1 and a bit of ribbon and twine and called it good.

Visit Spellbinders to see the entire "Not Your Ordinary Card Collection" as well as Wendy's previous Garden Collection! And you should definitely check out the Facebook Group, Make Art with Wendy Vecchi where you can see lots of Wendy's makes and videos, as well as checking out what other crafters are doing AND you can post your own Vecchi-centric creations, too!

Not Your Ordinary Card Collection

I'm thrilled to get my hands on Wendy Vecchi's new collection from Spellbinders, which is called “Not Your Ordinary Card Collection” and I assure you, it totally lives up to its name. I couldn't wait to dive into the Essential Envelope Die Set, which has TWENTY dies, including this cool style of open envelope, which is a bit like a library pocket, so of course I was onboard as soon as I heard that, lol! I've also used all of the flowers, most of the leaves and the sentiment from the set, and for my first project I just diecut colored cardstock to which I added very minimal shading with Wendy's Archival Inks from Ranger.

The Build a Plaid Layering Stencil Set is also outstanding; it features five 6x6" stencils, each with a different size of parallel stripes, so you can (as the name implies, lol) literally build a different plaid pattern every time. I chose to make a very loose, multi-color design featuring some of my favorite Archival shades including Rosy Posey, Pink Peony, Leaf Green and Sunflower.

For the interior card I used the medium sized frame die from the Pinking Edge Birthday Add-On set, which has three different pinked panels and some cool birthday accessories like a multi-layer cake, as well as the perfect "Happy Birthday" sentiment that you can cut with or without a shadow. 

I'm excited to play with more of the birthday accessories later; oh and there's a very cool Halloween Add-On with stamps and dies (and the cutest cat everrrrrr!) as well as a Christmas Add-On... all of which I will be digging into SOON, so stay tuned! Meanwhile all of these items are available separately or as a bundle on the Spellbinders website as well as fine papercrafting stores everywhere!  

SOS529: Just Because

Did you know that August 27th is National Just Because Day? If so, you've probably already guessed that we're looking for all-occasion, no-particular-reason cards this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash! Which means we can get right to my card, perhaps the most flat-but-layered thing I've ever made?

I raided my big box of unused backgrounds for the bluey-green panel (composed of blended Oxide Inks, lots of over-stamping and Taylored Expressions' Rosy Posey Embossing Folder) added a torn strip of bright white sheet music onto which I applied LOTS of 49 and Market Kaleidoscope Rub-on Transfers; a cluster of diecuts (also 49 and Market) and I even lucked into a pre-colored Wendy Vecchi Studio 490 flower sprig in exactly the right shades (Night Sky, Garden Patinga and Leaf Green Archival Inks). I finished off with a whole bunch of distressed edges and a bit of machine stitching; whereupon this A6 card was complete.

Be sure to venture over to SOS to see what the rest of the Crew have made and start planning your own "Just Because" card. This challenge runs until the evening of Monday, September 9th.

Liquid Pearls + Archival Inks + Stencils = Colorful Joy

Ranger's Liquid Pearls are super-versatile and add extra shimmer and dimension to any project and (as my title implies) they work really well in conjunction with stencils... a bunch of which I've used to make a trio of colorful encouragement cards. Follow along, via my step-by-step tutorial, on the Ranger Project Page.

Ranger Fluttering Stickles

Summer is the perfect time for cards with bright colors and LOTS of sparkle! Head over to the Ranger Project Page and follow along as I use rainbow shades of Ranger Archival Inks and Stickles Glitter Glue to make a card that's almost literally over the rainbow!