no ordinary paper…

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The challenge this week? “No ordinary paper”… so I colored watercolor paper. I also inked, stenciled (with glossy gel), and inked again some manila cardstock.

Manila cardstock is totally fantastic for stenciling, gel and paste mediums, and it takes distress ink so well. It doesn’t ball up as quick as plain average weight cardstock either.

Watercolor paper is so absorbent, and I always love playing with blending colors. In this case coral and mermaid were the only two colors used! Then I stamped onto it for more depth, and I sprayed with beloved perfect pearls. All of this and it never warped because I use the super heavy kind!

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As you can see from the results – these “not ordinary paper” papers really helped me create a fun tag!

Supplies Used:

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Simon is offering a generous $50 voucher that will be randomly drawn from the eligible entries each week. Join the fun by creating a project this week – and for your chance to win a $50 voucher you should hop on over and join in the challenge here.

coffee or tea?

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When I decided to make this week’s challenge “coffee or tea” I knew I’d be using this Tim Holtz teacup die. I love how this card turned out – it will be holding a gift card inside for a very special person!

I used distress inks to stamp with, then gently painted with water to do a very controlled watercolor look – loving the results! lots of other stamping including pearl flourish on the cup (dabber paint), my cool new Simon Says Stamp letters, and more! This teacup has been featured on my projects quite a few times – love it!

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I took our challenge this week and used “coffee or tea” as my sentiment. I really like how this one turned out too.

supplies used:


50dollar_voucher_600px

Simon is offering a generous $50 voucher that will be randomly drawn from the eligible entries each week. Join the fun by creating a project this week – and for your chance to win a $50 voucher you should hop on over and join in the challenge here.

Tim Holtz Distress DIY Ink (Custom Blend) by Ranger Ink

affiliate links used when possible in this post, at no additional cost to you – it just helps keep the blog running…

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I have been SO EXCITED for Distress DIY Ink from day 1. Why? More use for re-inkers, the ability to do a custom blend, and make my own colors a reality like… ready? “May’s Jam” a blend of raspberry + seedless preserves


link to YouTube

I can’t even with this color! It gives me all the heart emojis and oh my. I want to be a mad color scientist now! Oh but wait, you want more? I’ve got it! Let’s go back and look at my first attempt…

link to YouTube

The stripes are definitely cool, and my third attempt is one where I just dotted colors at random, using mostly light but adding several darker shades (seen far left below). I will be doing more videos and definitely thinking outside the stripe for ways to make awesome and useful ink pads out of these. Custom colors, shapes or designs… you can do anything you can think of and I love that!

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I am going to go get these three used & well loved on some upcoming inky goodness! Looking to get your own DIY blends going? Simon Says Stamp has everything you need including all the reinkers. Here is a link to the custom ink pad. More shopping options? Sure! Blue Moon Scrapbooking is also carrying the DIY pad (link), and many other shops (online and locally) will be getting it soon if they don’t already have it.

I’m going to have a hard time not making myself tons of these! For now I will do as I did with these three: experiment and think through the ideas and test with regular ink onto paper (for concepts) before actually committing to an ink pad design!

Celebrate: a birthday card

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Last week I posted the tutorial (here) for my daughter’s birthday party invitations. Thing is – I made more teacups than I needed. So… what to do? Make more cards, of course! Here’s how I used the trio of pre-painted/stamped cups on another card. Today is her birthday (and marks 10 years of me being a mom!) so seemed like a good day to share it.

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Ever After High inspired tea invitation

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I don’t often mass produce cards… but when my daughter requests party invitations that look like they are straight from the pages of an Ever After High book… well I can try to do that. MANY thanks to the amazing Tim Holtz who hooked me up with his new (and my current favorite!) die set so that I could make this happen!

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This card was super fun – and I had just way too much fun with it so I simply must share a video tutorial!


link to youtube video

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