Hello everyone,

welcome to our very first Skipping Stones Design Tip/Technique Hop. Today each DT member will share a technique, tip or suggestion for creating or organizing. You should have arrived from Tanja, she's one of our guest designers this month. We hope you'll find lots of inspiration while hopping along (see the complete link list is at the bottom of this post). For your chance to be a random winner of a Skipping Stones Design stamp set simply leave a comment at each stop of the hop. You'll have time until Wednesday September 16 at 5:00 pm EST to comment.

Before the summer finally ends I wanted to create a card with the Tropical Birthday stamp set.

I used two fun techniques on this card: Masking and Ink Blending. I stamped the palm tree and the sweet hula girl in Memento «Rich Cocoa» (it's a dark brown, although it looks almost black in the photo) to make my little summer scene. Then I took a matching marker to extend the line of the sand bank.

I stamped the images a second time on «Stamping Mask Paper» from Inkadinkado and fussy cut them. I applied the masks over my stamped scene before I started the Ink Blending for my warm sky background. Therefore I used the Mini Ink Blending Tools from Ranger and Simon Says Stamp Dye Inks. This gorgeous color combo was totally inspired by Laura Bassen aka as the «Queen of Ink Blending» ;-)

Tip: You will have to use a very light hand and circular motions while blending the inks to avoid ugly strokes. To get rid of too much ink on the foam, tab the ink blending tool lightly on a piece of scratch paper first before bringing it to your cardstock. It requires some patience but you will end up with a beautiful smooth result.

The coloring was done with Copics and I added some Glossy Accents to the coconuts. I white heat embossed the funny sentiment at the top and stamped the «Happy Birthday» at the bottom of my card. Finally I rounded all the corners using my We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.

If you get lost along the way here is the line-up of all the hop participants:

Skipping Stones Design Blog
Lee Ann

Tanja (Guest Designer)

Anja —> that's me

Ilina 

Giovana

Martha Lucia

Coralynn

Teresa

Make sure you leave a comment below and now hop over to see what Ilina created!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!

DT Make it Crafty CAS Inspiration | Bright Side of Life

Hi everyone,

today I'm over at the Make it Crafty Store Blog to share another Clean & Simple inspiration card with you.

Once again I used one of the fabulous Chipboard Quote Blocks. This time I've chosen Bright Side of Life – I really love this text from a Monty Python movie song ;-)

Of course I had to make a happy and bright card (there is no stamping involved at all):

I already had a left-over watercolored piece of cardstock on my desk which was created by blending three Distress Inks («Picked Raspberry», «Peacock Feathers» and «Cracked Pistachio») together. It was just perfect to put it behind the chipboard quote block which I left as is. I also adhered a bit of yellow cardstock behind the sun – with my Copics I added some shading.

To mimic some sunshine and clouds, I used a Lifestyle Crafts sunburst embossing folder and a Mama Elephant stitched cloud border die. I also sponged some inks on the sunrays and clouds to give them dimension.

For more shine I added some fine sparkle to the sunrays using a ZIG Wink of Stella Glitter Brush Pen in Clear. You can see it a bit better on this photo:

I popped up the chipboard and the front cloud with foam tape and adhered everything to a Kraft card base.

Hope you liked my bright little card. Thank you so much for stopping by!

DT bastel-traum.ch Challenge July

Good morning peeps,

the new theme over at the bastel-traum.ch Challenge is «Summer».

 

The challenge will run until August 15th, 8:55 am CET.

I created a little nautical scene with the retired Studio Calico «Message in a Bottle» stamps. It's the same stamp set that I used for this card a couple of weeks ago.

I really love the color combo of Aqua, Red, Navy and Neutrals. The sentiment is heat embossed with «Liquid Platinum» embossing powder by Ranger. The stitched frame is a Simon Says Stamp die and I stamped my own striped background with the «Diagonal Stripes» stamp in «Fog» ink which are also from SSS. The polka dot paper is from Simple Stories. I embellished my card with My Mind's Eye enamel dots and May Arts Natural Jute String.

Thank you so much for stopping by! See you tomorrow!

DT-Card Stempelgarten Challenge Juli

Guten Morgen zusammen,

die Zeit vergeht wie im Fluge und heute startet die neue Stempelgarten Challenge.

Passend für den Sommermonat Juli lautet das Thema «Sonne, Strand und Meer».

Für meine sommerliche Karte habe ich diesen süßen Kerl von C.C. Designs/Pollycraft ausgewählt (das Moti heißt «Nipper»). Coloriert habe ich wieder mit meinen Copics und der kleine Sandhügel ist durch viele kleine Punkte entstanden. Leider kann man es auf den Fotos nicht wirklich sehen, aber den kleinen Krebs (oder ist es eine Krabbe?) habe ich mit Ranger Glossy Accents überzogen.

Das bunt gestreifte Designpapier stammt aus dem schönen «I Heart Summer» Paper Pad von Simple Stories. Die Sonne und die Wolke habe ich mit den «Spring Showers» Dies von Lawn Fawn ausgestanzt. Auf die Sonne habe ich den feinen Glitter des allseits beliebten «Wink of Stella Clear Brush Markers» von ZIG aufgetragen. Von My Mind's Eye stammen die Enamel Dots. Der Textstempel ist von Simon Says Stamp (aus dem Set «Birthday Ballons»).

Ihr habt bis zum 31. Juli Zeit, an unserer Challenge teilzunehmen und diesen Preis gibt es zu gewinnen:

Schön, oder?! Dann würde ich mich freuen, wenn Ihr mitmacht und schaut doch auch auf den Blogs meiner lieben Teamkolleginnen vorbei – da gibt es weitere sommerliche Inspirationen.

Habt ein schönes und hoffentlich sonniges Wochenende!