Masculine Winter Birthday Card | Honey Bee Stamps

Hello and happy Thursday my friends!  I hope your holidays have been full of lots of fun so far!  I have to say that I love making Christmas cards so much that I'm always a bit sad when it's time to move on.  However, this masculine winter birthday card I've made sure helps the transition!  I needed a birthday card for my  nephew and Winter Bouquet Honey Cuts was perfect to use for his card!



To begin, I die cut the pinecones and several of the leafy branches from the Winter Bouquet Honey Cuts.  I used green card stock from my stash for the branches and some brown card stock for the pinecones.  I used the Detail Blender Brushes to add some shading on the die cut pieces.  The little brushes are perfect for this!  I used Mowed Lawn and Lucky Clover Distress Ink on the greenery.  For the pinecones, I used Walnut Stain and Ground Espresso.



I used tools from the Heartfelt Creations Flower Shaping Essentials Kit to add dimension to the pinecones and branches.  If you want them to really hold the shape, very lightly spritz the back of the piece with a water mister before you shape them.  For a snowy effect, I diluted some white gouache with water and added splatters on them all with a paint brush.  Then I added some gloss white NUVO Crystal Drops to the pinecones and set them aside to dry.

For the card layers, I added a piece of Tim Holtz Distress Woodgrain Cardstock to a 5-½" x 4-¼" top-folding A2 card base.  I cut a strip of patterned paper from the Home Essentials pack to 5-¼" x 1-½" and adhered it towards the bottom of the woodgrain cardstock.  I cut a thin strip of the brown cardstock and adhered at the top of the patterned paper.

Next I arranged the pinecones and branches and adhered them with liquid glue and foam squares.  The sentiments are from the Thanks A Bunch set.  I stamped happy birthday with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  I used the coordinating "happy" Honey Cut to cut it out and trimmed the "birthday" sentiment with my paper trimmer.



I hope you've enjoyed this masculine birthday card and that it has given you some inspiration today.  As always, thank you so much for your kindness and for taking a look.  I wish you all the best in the coming new year and and lots of fun crafty times!  See you next year!

Supplies:
Honey Bee Stamps Winter Bouquet Honey Cuts
Honey Bee Stamps Thanks a Bunch stamps and Honey Cuts
Honey Bee Stamps Detail Blender Brushes
Heartfelt Creations Flower Shaping Essentials Kit 
Home Essentials 6x6 Specialty paper pack
Tim Holtz Distress Woodgrain Cardstock
NUVO gloss white Crystal Drops

Art Impressions | My Top Ten of 2019

Hello my friends!  I can't believe it's almost Christmas and that 2019 is just about done!  I'm so thankful and honored to be on this fabulous and talented design team.  All of the people at Art Impressions are just so kind and make up a wonderful company!  Before the Art Impressions team takes a break for the holidays, we like to share our picks for our Top Ten cards for the year.  It's kind of a challenge to decide, kind of like picking your favorite child!  LOL!

I finally got it narrowed down and have listed these in no particular order.  You can click the photo to go to my original blog post if you'd like more details.  (I hope I got it set up to do that--LOL!)

1.) A sweet Easter card using the Basket of Blessings set and the Window die.

  

2.) I just love this card for a best friend!  This uses the Under My Umbrella set that is now retired from Ai's shop, but still available at Scrapbook.com.

I definitely have to include this sweet card.  Bonnie was on HSN and this was one of the cards on display--on HSN!!!  Also, Scrapbook.com listed this card in their group of The 19 Best Cards of 2019!  I was so honored and happy about all of this!  The Holiday Mansion set and HM Garden set is so versatile for any occasion you need.

I love the WC Bicycle set for a friend card.

I think this gal from the Never Too Old Laugh Lines set is so funny!

Yes, another Holiday Mansion card, this time with the HM Accessory set.

What's not to love about the adorable Gingerbread Cubbies set?

Evidently, I REALLY enjoy using the Holiday Mansion and HM Accessories sets!  Haha!

The WC Winter Kids set is so sweet!

This last one is probably my top favorite!  These penguins in the Penguin Cheer set are so fun!

Well, I hope I've chosen some of your favorites too, and I so appreciate your taking a few minutes to take a look.  However you celebrate the upcoming holidays, may you have many smiles and blessings with friends and family.  See you in 2020!  Carol

New Crazy Antics Set | Art Impressions

Hello friends!  We are taking a tiny break from the holiday card-making frenzy to feature a new set by Art Impressions.  It's called Crazy Antics Set and has three different anteaters, an ant, a cake, hat and present along with several sentiments for different occasions.

I stamped the images in Copic safe ink and colored them with Copic markers (colors listed below.)  I stamped the ants onto a strip of white card stock and adhered it to the black and white striped paper.  I adhered that to the bottom of the panel with the images.  I then used a Rounded Rectangle Double Stitched die to cut it all out.  I used a pencil and traced around the outside edge of the die on some blue card stock.  I trimmed it along the pencil lines so I would have a layer for the main panel.

I stamped the sentiment using my MISTI and some Versafine Onyx black ink.  I adhered it to a top-folding A2 card base.  I used a clear glitter pen to add sparkle to the white parts of the present and hat.  I added a few Caribbean Ocean NUVO Crystal Drops for a bit more shine.

I hope you got a grin out of this funny little anteater!  Back to making Christmas cards--I only need a few more!  Thank you for stopping by!

Copic markers:

BG11, BG13, BG18, E70, E71, E74, E77, E79,

C00, C1, CC3, N0, N2

Supplies:

Art Impressions Crazy Antics Set

Art Impressions Rounded Rectangle Double Stitched dies

Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock

My Favorite Things Black & White Stripes 6x6 paper pad

My Favorite Things Summer Splash Prestige Card Stock

Ink on 3 Blackout Detail ink

Versafine Onyx Black ink

NUVO Crystal Drops--Caribbean Ocean

Wink of Stella clear

Merriest of Christmases | Art Impressions

Happy Monday Ai Friends!  I'm over on the blog at Art Impressions today!  Have you seen the beautiful new Art Impressions Exclusive Poinsettia Set?  It's only available at Scrapbook.com and is a must-have for your floral cards, I think!  There are four main floral images in the set with several sentiments to choose from.

I stamped this image with Versamark ink onto some 80# Neenah Solar White.  I heat embossed it with some gold embossing powder.  Then I used my Prismacolor Premier pencils to color it.  (I've listed the colors below.)  Next I stamped it again onto some masking paper and fussy cut it out.  I didn't cut around the fern images as these are embossed and will resist the ink.

Next I used a background blender brush and inked on some Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink.  Be sure to use a clean, dry towel to buff the Oxide Ink off of the embossed areas, then remove the mask.  I stamped the sentiment with some Versafine Onyx Black ink.   I die cut it out with a Rectangle Double Stitched die.

I added this piece to a gold layer I created by embossing the edges with the same gold embossing powder.  These were adhered and added to a pink cardstock layer and all layers are adhered to an A2 top-folding card base.  My last step was to add some NUVO Bright Gold Crystal Drops here and there for an extra bit of shine.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I hope you're not too busy with holiday happenings to get in some crafty time this week!

Prismacolor pencils:

Pomegranate, Tuscan Red, Magenta, Process Red, Pink, Blush Pink, Deco Pink,

Dark Green, Grass Green, Prussian Green, True Green, Apple Green

Spring Green, True Green, Black, White

Supplies:

Scrapbook.com exclusive Art Impressions Poinsettia Set

Art Impressions Rectangle Double Stitched dies

Versamark Clear embossing ink

Versafine Onyx Black ink

WOW! Metallic Gold Rich embossing powder

Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide ink

Honey Bee Stamps Background Blender Brushes

NUVO Bright Gold Crystal Drops

Honey Bee Stamps 12 Days of Christmas

Hello my friends!  It's Day 3 of designers on the Honey Bee Stamps blog for 12 days of Christmas inspiration!

It's no secret that I love all things sparkly, especially for the holidays, and I had so much fun making this Winter card with the Snowfall Background Stencil!

To begin, I sprayed the back of the stencil with some Pixie Spray.  If you are a fan of using stencils, this spray is a must have, I think.  It's a light, tacky adhesive that holds even the most delicate stencil in place and allows for easy removal when you are done.  I put my stencil onto a 4" x 5-¼" white cardstock layer and I used the Background Blender Brushes to ink an ombre background in Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, and Stormy Sky Distress Oxides.

An important thing I learned is to make sure the Oxide Inks have dried thoroughly before applying any paste or gel.  The moisture will lift the colors and tint your medium (ask me how I know!)  I applied some Gina K. Designs white Glitz Glitter Gel through the stencil and set it aside to dry.

While that was drying, I worked on the sentiment.  Using the Winter Honey Cuts, I die cut three of the top layer from some Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock.  I adhered those layers with liquid glue.  For the middle layer, I took a scrap piece of cardstock and inked the same Distress Oxides in the ombre pattern with the Blender Brushes.  While I had these out, I also inked around the edges of the front of my A2 card base.  Using the inked scrap piece, I die cut the middle layer of the Winter Honey Cuts.  The pierced bottom layer is die cut from vellum.  I adhered all the layers together with Ranger Multi Medium Matte Collage and put them under a large stamp block to weight it down while it dried.  I used more of the blue inked scrap piece and stamped the other sentiment from the Winter Stamp set with Versamark ink.  I added white embossing powder and heat set it.  I used my paper trimmer to cut them in strips and added some thin foam tape behind them.  I added all of the other elements to the card base with liquid glue.  

I love how easy this card was to make and I wish you could see how sparkly this is in real life!  Thank you so much for stopping by today!  Be sure to check back at the Honey Bee Stamps' blog each day as there will be awesome inspiration from some super talented designers for you to see!  Until next time, have a wonderful, crafty week!

Supplies:

Snowfall Background Stencil

Winter Honey Cuts and Stamps

Background Blender Brushes

Pixie Spray

Distress Oxides:  Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Stormy Sky

Gina K. Designs white Glitz Glitter Gel

Ranger Multi Matte Medium Collage

Vellum

Versamark ink

WOW! White embossing powder