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Hey everybody! Can you believe it's exactly one month until Christmas?! It's approaching quickly and I still have a heap of cards and oodles of ideas to share with you before then!  Today I'm sharing a little CAS duo - and a card that was inspired by  PTI's November Blog Hop . I've been working a lot on paring down the layers over the years. And while I'm not quite ready to give up the intricate cards just yet, I am trying to challenge myself to step outside the box a little. So far so good :)  For today's challenge, I wanted to focus on a single layer background. Plain cardstock seemed a little too vanilla, so I decided to make a dotted and festive one instead! I find this to be such a fun and relaxing technique. And the tools are so simple: just a stencil, an ink blender and some ink. I love the satisfaction I get when I peel back that stencil and reveal whats hiding beneath. It makes me smile every time! For this background, I used a polka dot stencil ( h...

Helloooo Friends! I've got a  winter-wonderland-of-a-card to share with you all! I was inspired by the beautiful flakes outside and wanted to create something just as soft and delicate. I've also been itching to use this little deer cutie and I'm so happy to finally share him with you :) To start this card, I adhered some aqua and white polka dot paper onto a card base.  I then used various snowflake stamps to stamp my background with Versamark ink , and white embossing powder to emboss all the flakes. A background stamp like this one would work wonders here! After embossing, I added iridescent rhinestones and Nuvo drops to create a twinkling effect. I used white cardstock to back the vellum. I found that the snowflakes were competing with the aqua background a little too much for my liking. I then added a frame of greenery and adhered these layers onto my card base. Lastly, I stamped and die cut this sweet little deer, using Altenew's Modern Deer stamp and die set.  *...

Hello everyone! I hope your weekend has been delightful. I promised I would share a little bit about my upcoming plans for this blog, so let's get to that first. So much change is in store, but I'm going to try and break it down a little :) INSTAGRAM Guys, the day is finally here...I'm sooo excited to announce that I have finally joined Instagram! I plan to share all the latest updates from this blog, crafty/life moments, and whatever other random whims come along. I am probably the least social media savvy person you will meet, so it might be a rough ride to start, but I hope you'll join me anyway!  You can find me at @ivana.creates Also, huge spoiler alert in regards to my upcoming name change -  I'm launching #letsmakesomethinglovely  and hope you'll join in! It's where you'll be able to find all of my posts, but I hope you'll join me there too! I'm super excited to see you all in insta-land! Let's be friends, okay? NEW BLOG DESIGN A brand...

Hi Friends! Welcome to the Pinkfresh Christmas blog hop. I'm delighted to be joining along, and we are hopping for not one, but TWO full days! We're so excited to be sharing a heap of inspiration with you.  And as always,  many fabulous prizes are up for grabs!  Before you hop along, a few important bits of info first.  If you are just joining us, head over to the Pinkfresh Blog to start your hop! If you are hopping along, you should have arrived here from lovely Heather Hoffman's Blog . I've linked your next stop at the end of the post, as well as the full hopping list for today :) PRODUCTS Here are just some of my favorite Pinkfresh Holiday designs that you will see featured on this hop and that I have been loving personally. Or you can see all of them here . I've also included a few handy text links below with all the remaining products used on my cards today. GIVEAWAY The Pinkfresh Studio Blog will be giving away two holiday stamp bundles and all you need to do...

Helooo everyone! Have you been having a good week so far?  I hope all is well wherever you may be!  Over the course of this past year, I've dabbled a bit in different techniques and card styles.  And I've started to realize that some of my cards fall into the traditional style you've all come to know from me, while some have started to morph into a more simple and clean category. And then there is also a third, completely new look for me.  I decided that a fitting title would be "Painted Cards" because they require a tad more artistry, a few more mixed mediums, and at times, a bit of painting. Today's post is all about how to achieve this look.  But do not fret - even if you are not a painter or an artist, these types of cards are so doable.  I'd love to share just a few of my go-to tips here with you today! ______________________________________________________________________ TIP: USING 'PAINTED' PRODUCTS When selecting stamps, in particular, it ...

I've been loving making my own patterns lately. It's such an easy thing to reach for - a pad, some watercolors, maybe a stamp...Late at night when my creativity is not particularly thriving, or if I'm having one of those days, I can still whip up something fun, with little to no effort. And it's wonderful to be able to use these bits later in my cards. Today I'm sharing three cards created with the stamped and colored paper I made recently (shown below). This little card made the journey to a faraway place recently, and I hope it brought lots of sunshine and happy vibes to our dear friends, who bring so much of that to our lives. To start this card, I watercolored a soft aqua center, followed by stamped triangles from PTI's Southwestern Style stamps in  Green Parakeet ink . I used PTI's Scene It: Celebration die to cut out the circle banner frame. Of course, I kept the negatives, which made for a couple more fun cards (below). To the top of the card, I adde...

Good morning everyone! Today, I'm sharing a quick little tutorial on my favorite ways to add color to cards. Here we go! This little number sort of marries all the fun ways I like to infuse color into cards, so I'll share my handy list along with how I made the card. STAMPING Of course, my favorite, and such an easy way to incorporate different patterns, colors, and even textures (with embossing powders and other mediums). For this card, I added stamped details in the form of thread spool labels, in a rainbow of colors! I used shades of Pure Poppy, Hibiscus Burst, Summer Sunrise, Orange Zest, Bright Buttercup, Green Parakeet, New Leaf, Hawaiian Shores, and Berry Sorbet. DIY RIBBON I love making DIY embellies, and ribbon is at the top of my list! It's so easy to grab any old white ribbon you have laying around, and add a spritz of color with a mister , or add stripes of watercolor, or marker strokes, like I did here. I used my Spectrum Noir markers for this delicious color ...

Hi Friends!  Today, I'm sharing a sneak peek into my next Monday Favorites feature. I'll be showcasing a few of my recent favorite stamps, including the beautiful Floral Frame stamp set from Aletenew. It's stolen my heart. Big time!  To start this card, I used the sweet rose clusters from the stamp set to make an oval frame. It took only a stamp on each corner to get it to look this intricate! Love it when stamps make it easy like that.  I stamped the images with PTI's Soft Stone ink so that I could do a little bit of no-line watercoloring.   To color the flowers, I used a variety of watercolors, starting with one of my favorite inexpensive palettes , followed by a bit of intense color added with my Zig markers . I really like the mix of these two types of colors - it gives the image such a nice depth.  At the center of my card, I added a gold puffy sticker wreath, with a few dashes of white paint and some silver rhinestones.  At the center I stamped...