Beyond the Blue #77 - New Year, New Stuff

Good morning!  Today's challenge over on the Beyond the Blue blog is to use something new.  We all have new crafty supplies in our stash that we haven't used yet, don't we?  And I'm pretty sure some of us got something new for Christmas, right?  Bust 'em out and play!

I just got some new Memorydex dies from Scrappy Boy (new item #1) and this was my chance to give them a try.  I used one of the stitched memorydex dies to cut some kraft cardstock.  Then I pulled out this cute squirrel die from Elizabeth Craft Designs that's been in my stash for a few months and I still hadn't taken out of the package yet (new thing #2).  I got to wondering if this would also make a cute little skunk so what do you think?  Squirrels and skunks?  The squirrel is holding an acorn or a nut of some kind, but I thought it would be fun to see if I could do a strawberry.

For the sentiment, I pulled out this Crafty Love stamp set from Ink Blot Shop.  I adore this "create JOY" sentiment, and I had not used it yet, so there's my third new thing.  I used the new MISTI (new thing #4) that my mom gave me for Christmas to stamp this onto my kraft memorydex card.  Then I glued the skunk and the strawberry onto the card and placed this into my pink Memorydex holder.

I managed to use four new things for my project today.  Yay!  I'm off to a good start for 2023!  Come play along with us and show us your new goodies!  Check out the Beyond the Blue challenge HERE to see what my fellow designers created and enter the challenge.  Happy Friday!

 

Fall is in the Air - BTB #69

Good morning!  If you've been stamping as long as I have, you might remember these little shimmery pots of goodness called Twinkling H2O's.  This week's Beyond the Blue challenge #69 is to use a retro tool or embellishment, so I pulled out my neglected stash of Twinks and a really old die.  I used an old leafy die from Taylored Expressions (it's so old it has those anchor holes on the sides to mark your spot) and cut out a bunch of leafy branches from watercolor paper.

After I dropped some water into these pots of Twinks, I randomly brushed the colors onto my die cut leaves.  While I waited for these to dry, I stamped and cut the sentiment (Honey Bee Stamps) and cut my card base from kraft cardstock.  I glued down the dry leafy branches and then splattered some of the dark brown Twinkling H2O color over the card before I adhered the sentiment.

Honestly, this was so much fun!  I used two very old stamping supplies from my stash (the leafy die and the Twinks), and now I wanna pull out the rest of my Twinkling H2O's and play with them again.  Take a look through your supplies and play along with our challenge.  We'd love to see what your retro supply is!  

 

Hey There Friend - Beyond the Blue #68

This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is to used mixed sentiments on your card or project.  What does "mixed sentiments" mean?  It simply means any sentiment with different fonts, different sizes, or even different colors for the words.

On my card, I mixed a straight type all-caps "HEY THERE" with a larger, scripty, lowercase "friend."  The background was created by placing the Medallions stencil from A Colorful Life Designs onto some white cardstock and then spraying over that with some Dylusions sprays.

Check out what the other Blue gals created for this challenge and play along with us by clicking HERE.  If you'd like to save some money on stencils, use code HollyFan10 when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs.  You'll save 10% off your entire order, so you can pick up this gorgeous Medallions stencil as well as any of the other stencils that catch your eye.  Have a great weekend!

 

 

Blingy Holidays - BTB#67

This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is all about the bling, specifically both glitter and sequins.  I was inspired by this awesome video by Marion Emberson where she used glue and chunky glitter and sequins in the center of her card.  I have a ton of Stickles, so I decided to try that for the glitter base.  I spread a thick layer of Silver Ice Stickles in the middle and then used the nozzle to drag some of the wet medium out from the center.  I love those glittery streaks on the top and bottom.  While the glitter glue was still wet, I added sequins, pearls, some clear snowflakes, iridescent gems, and some clear diamonds.  

While that was drying, I embossed the sentiment with silver embossing powder and trimmed it down.  After the base was dry, I very lightly brushed some brown ink around the edges of the watercolor paper and then affixed the sentiment with foam tape.  I love the look of this card!

Come play along with us over on the Beyond the Blue blog.  We'd love to see what you create!

BTB64 - Just Two Colors

Good morning!  This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is to use just two colors on your project.  I took that very literally and I only used pink and black for my inks and my cardstocks.  

I stamped the gorgeous Magnolia Branch Border from Technique Junkies with a soft pink ink onto the same soft pink cardstock.  Then I stamped the sentiment (from the In Full Bloom set at Technique Junkies) with black ink right on top of the stamped magnolia branch.  I added a few black pearls to accent the sentiment and then I adhered this pink panel to a black card base.  

Check out the Beyond the Blue challenge HERE and see what my fellow DT ladies have created.  I hope this inspires you to play along with us!

If you'd like to shop at Technique Junkies, please use this code, TJ10Holly, to save 10% off your order.  You can grab these two stamps as well as tons of other beautiful stamps and save some money.  Have a great weekend!

 

Shabby Chic Dots - Beyond the Blue #63

Good morning!  This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is to use Flowers, so I pulled out my flower stash and had some fun playing.  I started by pulling out an older stencil from A Colorful Life Designs called Dots and I spread some pink distress stickles over that stencil onto some pale pink cardstock.  While that was drying, I cut out the sentiment, picked out some flowers, and cut down some burlap.  

I glued the burlap piece onto a vintage cream card base and then I glued my stenciled panel so that some of the burlap would show through.  Then I glued down the sentiment and flowers and added some pearls to the centers of the three smaller flowers.  I love this shabby chic look!!

Please feel free to use this code, HollyFan10, when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs.  You'll save 10% off your order, so grab this classic Dots stencil and check out all the great new releases.  Have a great Saturday!

 

Beyond the Blue #38 - Autumn Leaves

Happy Friday!  Today's Beyond the Blue challenge is all about autumn leaves.  I pulled out some stamps and dies from The Greetery and stamped the various leaves with Distress Oxide inks.  I tried to choose colors that were different from the regular yellow, orange, and red fall colors.  The oxide colors I used are Fossilized Amber, Bundled Sage, Crackling Campfire, Dusty Concord, Aged Mahogany, and Gathered Twigs.  After I cut these out, I arranged them onto my white card base and glued them down.  

Check out today's Beyond the Blue challenge and share your creations with us.  I hope you're enjoying some wonderful fall weather today!

 

Beyond the Blue #36 - Alcohol Ink and Vellum Fall

Good morning!  It's Friday and the weekend is almost here!  Do you have plans for a fun fall weekend?  It's actually going to be in the 90's here so we'll probably be staying inside with air conditioning.  LOL 

This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is a little bit different.  We are using alcohol inks and vellum, so I went for a grunge-y fall look.  I picked out four really dark Copic markers (BG07, R59, YR27, YG99) and scribbled them onto some vellum.  Then I filled a mini mister with some rubbing alcohol and lightly sprayed the vellum, allowing the marker colors to blend and run.  After my vellum panels dried, I used one to cut a bunch of leaves and I glued the other one to a white card base.  On the leaves, some of them were left alone and some were put on some white cardstock.  You can see the variations in the colors on the leaves - some are transparent and some have that white backing.  It's so fun to see the different colors.

I hope you pull out your alcohol inks and your vellum and play around with them.  Share your creations with us over on the Beyond the Blue blog.  Have a great weekend!

 

Beyond the Blue #35 - Layered Merry Christmas

This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is to show off your layered die cuts.  This is a fun and easy technique.  Just cut your sentiment or shape from several different colors of paper and then glue them slightly off center so you can see each color underneath each layer.  You can see on my card above how I have a white layer on top, and then you see the red and green layers peeking out below.  The sentiment die and the holly leaves die are from Hero Arts and the subtle holly leaves embossing folder on my black cardstock is from Taylored Expressions.

This is a fun and easy way to make a bunch of cards.  This will come in very handy for holiday cards and birthday cards.  Give it a try and share your creations with us over on the Beyond the Blue blog.  Have a great week!

 

 

Beyond the Blue #34 - Pink Autumn

Happy Friday!  I'm popping in with a couple of cards that I made for today's Beyond the Blue challenge.  This week we are celebrating Pink Autumn.  What does autumn mean to you?  Pumpkins, leaves, pretty cups filled with hot chocolate?  To me, autumn is the season for all things pumpkin.  So I pulled out some pumpkin dies from Honey Bee Stamps and I had a blast creating these pink autumn pumpkin cards. I went glittery for the first card and vintage/distressed for my second card.  

Come play along with the Beyond the Blue challenge and show us your Pink Autumn creations.  It's time to celebrate the the changing leaves and the arrival of pumpkins everywhere and the first crisp cool day after a long hot summer.  Have a great weekend!

 

Beyond the Blue #32 - Let it Shimmer

Today's Beyond the Blue challenge is to make your card or project shimmery.  You know I couldn't pass up that challenge!  I love all things glittery and shimmery.  Imagine my surprise when I found out there is a new (to me, anyway) product that I had not heard of.  Creative Expressions makes a Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Sparkles powder that has shimmer in it.  You sprinkle it on your project, mist it with water, and you'll see a fabulous explosion of color and shimmer.  Can you see the shimmer and sparkle on my card above?  It's just gorgeous.  I am in love with this Pixie Sparkle product, and I know what I'm asking Santa for this year!!!  LOL

Come play along with us on the Beyond the Blue blog.  Share your shimmery creation in the linky tool so we can all see it.  :-)

Products used:

Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Sparkles - Beyond Blue color (Creative Expressions)

snowflake embossing folder - Taylored Expressions

teeeeeny little snow flakes die - Taylored Expressions

Happy Holidays sentiment die - Hero Arts

 

 

Beyond the Blue #31 - Sunflower on Suede

Good morning, friends!  Today's Beyond the Blue challenge is to color on colored cardstock.  That means no white or cream papers.  In the past, I've colored on kraft cardstock, but this time I wanted to really challenge myself.  I stamped a sunflower on a darker brown cardstock (Soft Suede from Stampin Up).  Because this brown is much darker, I could not just watercolor or use my Copic markers on this.  So I pulled out some alternatives just to see what would happen.

I started by squeezing a little bit of the yellow Nuvo drops onto my craft mat, and I added a little water to that.  I used this thinned out mixture to color in the yellow sunflower petals.  The center of the sunflower was colored in with the chocolate mica gloss liquid.  For the leaves, I mixed some of the aqua mica gloss with the Hunter Chroma Mist spray (Brutus Monroe).  After the sunflower was completely dry, I added some Golden Sunset Nuvo Drops to the center of the flower.

I thought this was a fun and interesting experiment.  I colored using mediums I've never thought about coloring with before.  Think about the stamps you have and what you could color them with.  What colored paper would you color on?  Give it a try and share your results with us over on the Beyond the Blue blog.  Have a great weekend!

 

Golden Orange Sunset - Beyond the Blue #30

Today's Beyond the Blue challenge #30 is to show off your watercoloring.  You can watercolor anything - a background, a stamped image, freeform, die cuts, ribbon, canvas, whatever.  I taped some watercolor paper to the back of a clipboard and did some loose watercoloring with some yellow and orange and red watercolor paints that were leftover in my paint palette.  After that was completely dry, I used a rectangle die to cut out a piece of this gorgeous sunset background.  I stamped over this with a Penny Black stamp called Peaceful Moment.

Confession time - despite 5 attempts at inking and stamping this image with my MISTI, the rough nature of my watercolor paper left the image all mottled and blotchy.  So I took a Sharpie marker and filled in all the black silhouette areas.  I couldn't just toss this gorgeous sunset background into the trash, so I'm really glad I was able to salvage this piece!  :-)

Pull out your watercolors and share your creations with us on the Beyond the Blue blog.  Don't have watercolors?  Don't stress.  Use your ink pads by smooshing then onto an acrylic block and pick up color with a wet brush.  If you have color sprays, use a few drops of that in your palette.  If you have some acrylic paint, simply thin it down with some water and paint away.  Just have fun!

 

Beyond the Blue #29 - Black and White Gingham Note

This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is to create a card or project that is ONLY black and white.  No other colors are used - just black and white.  So I pulled out some stamps from Ink Blot Shop and created this fun little card.  I used the Micro Gingham Background with black ink and cut a circle out of that.  Then I added the black scallop circle behind the gingham and adhered it to the side of the card, cutting off the excess.  The sweet little sentiment is from the Solid Sayings set and I added the teeny heart (from the same stamp set) on the right side.  

Give this fun challenge a try!  You might be surprised to find out how much you like creating black and white cards!  Enter your creation in the linky tool on the Beyond the Blue blog HERE.  Have a great weekend!

 

Beyond the Blue #28 - Happy Fall Y'all

Good morning, friends!  This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is to use those ribbons, twines, and fibers that we all have in our craft stash.  I used some ribbon as well as a little bit of twine (it's on the top of the acorn) on my card today.

Here's how this particular card came about.  My mom has been cleaning out her craft room and she's been giving me all her old stamping stuff.  I was going through a small box of dies that she gave me, and one of them was this adorable acorn die from Lil Inker Designs.  I really wanted to play with it, so I designed this whole card around that acorn.  I used my Thankful Leaves Turnabout stamp from Concord and 9th as well as the Fall stamps and dies from Honey Bee Stamps.  

The colors were chosen simply because they were sitting on my stamping table.  I used Baked Brown Sugar, Cucumber Crush, Bermuda Bay, and Razzleberry inks (Stampin Up) with some kraft, cream, and Razzleberry papers.  I die cut the acorn from kraft cardstock and then pressed the bottom piece into the Razzleberry ink and the top piece into the Baked Brown Sugar ink.  They almost look like velvet, don't they?  I tied the tiny little leaf to the acorn with the twine and I added the strip of Razzleberry ribbon behind the sentiment.

Come play along with us and use up some of that ribbon and twine.  You can share your creations by adding your link to the linky tool on the Beyond the Blue blog.  Happy Friday!

 

Beyond the Blue #27 - Gesso Resist Birthday

 Good morning, friends!  There is a fun new challenge up on the Beyond the Blue blog today and this is the card that I created for it.  The challenge for this week is any kind of resist technique.  I decided to try something new - gesso resist.  

I placed the Tic Tac Toe Mask stencil from A Colorful Life Designs down on my white cardstock and brushed some white gesso over it.  After the gesso dried, I sponged on some blue, teal, and green inks.  The gesso squares don't really give off that bright white like you see with emboss resist.  It's a softer, grungier kind of resist.  It's perfect for a masculine card like this one.  Now I have a fun and easy way to make some quick cards for the men in my life!

If you'd like to get this Tic Tac Toe Mask stencil, please feel free to use this code, HollyFan10, so you can save 10% when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs.  You can also pick up the new scenic stencils that I've been sharing with y'all this week.  :-)

The balloon die that I used is from Frantic Stamper and the Birthday Dies are from Concord and 9th.  Wanna play along with our resist technique challenge?  Head on over to the Beyond the Blue blog and share your creations in the linky widget.  Have a great weekend!

Beyond the Blue #25 - Joy Shaker Ornament

 Hi friends!  This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is Anything But a Card.  So for my Beyond the Blue #25 project today, I made a shaker ornament.  See those sequins in the center of the ornament?  When you "shake" the ornament, those sequins get shaken up.  It's a fun interactive ornament.

So look around and find some inspiration to make a tag, an ornament, a bag, a box, a mixed media canvas, whatever you want, except a card.  We'd love to see what you're creating!  Head on over to the Beyond the Blue blog to enter your creations and see what the Design Team is sharing today.

Beyond the Blue #22 - Let's Glaze

 

Happy Friday!  This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is to use glaze on your card or project.  There's all kinds of glazes out there, some with glitter, some with transparent colors, and some with ombre colors like I've done here.  I used the brand new Fan Party stencil from A Colorful Life Designs with some purple ombre paper glaze to make this clean and simple card.  I love the progression from light purple to dark purple.  

The Fan Party stencil that I used is a 6x9 size stencil.  This means that you can make slimline cards with any of the 6x9 stencils from A Colorful Life Designs.  I've done just that with the card below and the same purple ombre paper glaze.

If you'd like to go stock up on stencils, please feel free to use this code, HollyFan10, when you shop at A Colorful Life Designs.  You'll get 10% off your entire order and some awesome stencils!

Ready to play along with our Beyond the Blue challenge?  Check out the blog here and show us what you've created!  Have a wonderful weekend!!

 

Beyond the Blue #17 - Glittery Geode Backgrounds

 This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is all about creating your own glittery geode backgrounds.  I have collected geodes for years.  There's just something about those gorgeous jewel colors and the shine and sparkle of these wondrous pieces of earth.  I also collect glittery craft supplies such as glitter paste.  I had some that was starting to get hard and dried out, so I was trying to think of a way to use it up before it was tossed in the trash.

I created this fun little tutorial for the Beyond the Blue blog, and I'd love to see what you create!  Pull out those old glitter pastes, glitter glues, gels, paints, whatever you have.  Enjoy the process and share your creations with us on the Beyond the Blue blog.  :-)

Glittery Geode Background Tutorial

by Holly Brown

 

Supplies:

glitter glaze/glitter paste - any colors, any brand

cardstock - any color

palette knife, optional

ink pad to match glitter glaze/paste and sponge, optional

 

Step 1 (optional):

Ink up sponge and drag across cardstock.  This step is optional - doing this will deepen the color of your glitter glaze. 

 

Step 2:

Using finger or palette knife, dip into glitter glaze and dab over cardstock (on top of your inked areas from Step 1). 

Step 3:

Using clean finger or clean palette knife, dip into second color of glitter glaze and dab it next to the first glitter glaze.  Gently blend colors together, adding more glitter glaze if needed.   Repeat this step with a third color of glitter glaze if desired.

  

Step 4:

Set cardstock aside to dry for at least 4 hours.  It may need additional time to dry, depending on how thickly the layers of glitter glaze are applied.

In this picture above, the first sample on the left was done with turquoise ink (Step 1).  This one has a darker turquoise color than the two blue samples in the middle.  The two blue samples in the middle were done without ink - I skipped Step 1 on these.  I also skipped Step 1 on the black and pink sample on the right, and I used three glitter glazes.

 

Step 5:

Finish as desired with stamps, dies, and embellishments.

 

Beyond the Blue #16 - Striped Hugs

This week's Beyond the Blue challenge is a little bit different.  The video that we're referencing today has several techniques built into it, so you have a choice of making a shaker card or creating some die cut words using strips of cardstock.  As you can see, I decided to try the strips of cardstock today.

My mother has been giving me tons of her old stamping supplies, and one day she handed me a huge box of cardstock.  There were all kinds of colors, some full sheets, some scraps.  I've been going through that stash and there were some beautiful blue colors that worked great for an ombre style card.  So I pulled out those little bits of blues and cut teeeeeny little strips from these, glued them down onto some scrap cardstock, and then die cut the "hugs."  The background die was cut from kraft cardstock to provide some contrast to the striped sentiment.

To add a bit of interest to the background behind the sentiment, I pulled out the Shimmering Rays stencil from A Colorful Life Designs (use code HollyFan10 to save 10%) and very softly brushed some ink onto the medium blue cardstock.  I glued that to the darkest blue cardstock and then added those teeeny little strips of kraft cardstock on the sides.  The card base is the pale blue cardstock.  I know it looks white, but it's actually the palest blue color from the striped sentiment.

Check out the artwork on the Beyond the Blue blog and play along in this challenge.  If you are really adventurous, do both - make a shaker card with a die cut sentiment made from strips of cardstock.  That would be a fun challenge!!  :-)