clair087

Some days are just so happy and fun! Given the upcoming festivities of the long weekend and Canada Day, I was inspired by fireworks, sprinkles and all things celebratory! I wanted this card to reflect all of these things, and  have whomever open it, feel like a million sprinkles and confetti is tossed and showered over them on their special day!  To start, I embossed a little piece of white cardstock with a color wash technique. Most of you have likely played around with this type of embossing, but for those who haven't here's a quick run-down: 1. Start with your fave embossing folder (I used Kaisercraft's Streamers folder), running some waterbased dye ink (if you use alcohol based it may stain your folder) over the raised side of the folder.  2. Secure your paper in position and close the folder - be careful not to move the paper once you've done this step. To help, I use a piece of washi tape to keep the folder closed snugly while transferring to my Big Shot. I am su...

Morning friends! Today I'm sharing another set of cards created on-the-go. Recently, we ventured out East, spent a few lovely days in GTA and the beautiful Niagara Falls, and a couple of those days we encountered some not so friendly strolling weather. Of course, this meant I had just enough down time to sneak in a little bit of work and also to get these little numbers whipped up. I packed with me, a pad of paper, a few stamp sets ( Super Succulents from PTI, Live, Love, Grow stamp set from SU, and Southwestern Style stamp from PTI), a small selection of inks, and of course, my trusty scissors and adhesive.  I wanted to fill this card with lush, green succulents, but still leave lots of empty space and since I didn't have much on hand to do that with, I thought a succulent wreath would be perfect!  I stamped and fussy cut the various shapes and formed them into a wreath that I adhered to a basic card back. If you look closely, I actually fussy cut around the bottom portion ...

Today is the last day of gift tags, and I have another bright tag to share with you all.  The colors of this particular tag make me so happy! I've always loved the combination of this beautiful red with a mixture of purples, oranges, and teals..Something so tropical and refreshing about such a combo, don't you think? To start, I once again used a few more tags from a little tag pouch I bought a while back at Target...I believe it was part of this past Spring's collection.  To decorate the little tags, I decided to emboss the same happy word heart as I did on a previous tag, only backed with red cardstock this time. I am such a sucker for bold white embossing powder on a brightly colored cardstock. It's totally my jam. I also love this stamp set beyond words. It's just so happy and pretty and joyous, and it pretty much works for any occasion. Total win! At the top of the tag, I mixed up a couple of scrunched ribbons, in red and in orange. I'll be adding both of t...

I love the month of June. It's still technically Spring, but around here, it usually feels much more like the start of Summertime. Sure, we have days like today, with a little break from the heat and some cool showers...But I love that June is officially the month when our wardrobes are switched over, all our plants have found their homes in our garden, and we wake each morning to our resident robins, who build their nests in our garden, soon to welcome their little offspring. This tag is dedicated to all those lovely things. Creating this tag, I had some help from a beautiful little tag set that I found at Target a while back (Tag Day One features these tags as well). After making this little tag, I found myself wishing I had stocked up on a few more packets. Isn't that the way it goes? I  really didn't want to overwhelm the beautiful background, so I only added a stamped flower and some sequins to this tag.  After stamping the flower, I used Zig markers to watercolor and...

Hi Friends! Day two of tags is here and I'm back with a little bohemian number. I'm loving all the fringe, embroidery and tassels floating about textile, stationary and home goods shops. It's such a fun mix of textures to play with, whether in the home, in apparel or even in paper form. So I'm featuring a few of these trends on this little tag today. I started this little number with  Papertrey Ink's Tag Sale #1 die , I watercolored the bottom portion with a pretty fuchsia color from Zig - Dark Pink and Light Carmine. Atop that, I stamped and fussy cut a few Stampin Up florals in black, an used my Zig Clean Color Markers to color in the various layers. I think these florals look just like all the embroidery I've been seeing (and loving! )   all over the place, and I love that the embossed vellum adds a bit of soft + wispy texture to all the layers. I recently found the most adorable jeans with fringed denim at the bottom, but opted to pass, since I know my cl...

Hi everyone! Today I'm kicking off Gift Tag Days! Join me back here to check out a new tag each day. It's been a little lonely in our gift wrapping pile, and I think these tags will brighten up our stash nicely. Today's tag is inspired by wanderlust and everything I love about Summertime...Last week, we traveled out East to Toronto and Niagara Falls. Despite the gloomy forecast, we loved all the little shops we visited and the welcome change of scenery that travelling brings about. It's what I love the most about travel - getting away from the everyday and experiencing new colors, tastes, sights, and people.  So today, I'm sharing a bright little number, inspired by all the pretty things I saw, and especially the lovely Summery fabrics that I've been seeing everywhere, which remind me of endless Summer - something I've always longed for.  To start, I used a little watercolored tag (I believe this was a Target find), and layered a few more pretty petals from ...

Usually, if I know I'll have some downtime during my travels, I'll pack an essentials tote with a few stamp sets, a bundle of inks, and some pre-cut cards, so I can spend some time crafting on-the-go. It works like a charm, saving packing space and at the end of it all, I usually have a set of matching cards made up in a jiffy. Sometimes I'll decorate a box to match, and it can make for a pretty cute gift, if I say so myself :) Here are a few on-the-go cards I created recently. For the first card in the set, I used  Concord and 9th Flourish stamp , Papertrey Ink Big Hugs die , and Pale Peony, Stormy Sea and Pinefeather inks from Papertrey. I stamped the hugs die with various floral stamps to create the pattern.  Really loving this adorable set from Concord. It's so modern and also really classic, at the same time. It's also super versatile - allowing for plenty of mixing and matching - as you'll see on the cards below. For this next card, I used some of the smal...

Hi folks! Thanks for stopping by today. I'm sharing a fun card today that is full of fun techniques I'd like to share with you. First up, the background on this card is a technique I've wanted to try for some time. I wanted to see if using a stencil + textured embossing paste would hold a fine mesh in place. And it does! I really love using this  polka dot Tim Holtz stencil, but I find it's a bit plain on white cardstock alone, so this technique gives it a bit more texture, and I love it! A few tips if you plan on trying this: 1. I like to pre-cut my mesh to the card size so that I don't have to wiggle it all later. It is a delicate hold, and this could damage it. 2. I lay the cardstock/mesh combo down on a craft mat, and tape the stencil overtop so that I am not having to tape the mesh and accidentally pull it off when disassembling. 3. Once I have applied the texture paste (I used a colored paste here, for a tutorial check out this post ), I leave it to dry a bi...