Look Ma...No Stamps! Sketch Week with Scrapbook Nerd

Hi friends!

It's sketch week over at Scrapbook Nerd and I was inspired to create three cards using nothing but dies. I love using stamps on my cards but trust me, you can achieve equally beautiful results with just dies. The dies I am featuring today are the lovely Fancy Hello Die and the Hibiscus Garden 3D Die Set by Altenew. 

Altenew has some of the most beautiful standalone dies I've ever worked with. Yes, dies typically come at a higher price point than most stamps, but I can't say enough about their quality and how very versatile they are. When investing in standalone dies, always choose ones that will give you the most bang for your buck. I can honestly say that the dies I used in my card projects today are ones that I have reached for over and over. 

Here is the May card sketch:

All the flowers on my cards were coloured using Copic markers. For this card, I used BG10, BG45, BG18, B39 and Y38. The card panel is an Altenew die called Pegboard Canvas Cover Die which I backed onto some teal blue cardstock. I wanted to control the amount of blue that peeked through so I chose not to poke all the holes out.  

Here's a close-up of the Fancy Hello Die. I die cut it 5 times from black cardstock and glued them together to create this dimensional look. I added Wink of Stella for some subtle shimmer.

The leaves were die cut from Bazzill textured cardstock. I sprayed Sheer Shimmer Spritz Spray in Frost onto all my flowers to give them some shimmery shine. As a finishing touch, I added Studio Katia Clear Drops.

My next card features pink hibiscus! My favourite floral colour! The Fancy Hello Die was die cut from grey Lawn Fawn Woodgrain Cardstock and black fun foam. I spritzed shimmer spray onto the fun foam and then once it was dry, I adhered the woodgrain die cut on top of the fun foam slightly offset so that some of that shimmer could peek through. 

The Copics I used to colour the flowers are RV69, RV17, RV04, RV02. The white panel is cut from Lawn Fawn Woodgrain Cardstock and mounted onto Lawn Fawn Fog cardstock. The Watermelon Jewels are from Pretty Pink Posh.

In this next close-up, you can see the black fun foam behind the grey woodgrain cardstock. I think fun foam is a great way to stack your sentiments. It's quicker than die cutting and gluing multiple cardstock pieces together and it's a cheap way to achieve beautiful dimension on your card. I buy all my fun foam at my local dollar store.

My final card for today features a card panel cut from an Altenew die called Dotted Scales Debossing Cover Die. This die is unique because instead of cutting the design, it debosses the pattern into your cardstock leaving behind this gorgeous subtle texture.

The Fancy Hello sentiment was die cut from cardstock and fun foam. I adhered the two together and applied Glossy Accents to create a clear glossy dimensional look.

The Copic markers I used were Y38, Y17, Y35 and Y32. I applied Bundled Sage Distress Ink using a sponge dauber to the leaves just to give them some texture and interest. The yellow card base is Wild Dandelion by Gina K Designs. I added Iridescent Bubbles by Studio Katia for the final touch.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope I've inspired you to try something new in your card or scrapbook projects. 

And great news!! Scrapbook Nerd is having a 10-20% off sale on all in-stock Altenew products until May 31st! Click here to check it out.

As always, if you have any questions, please leave me a comment down below. 

Thanks again and have a great day! :)

Botanical Frame Cards for Scrapbook Nerd

 Hello friends!

I'm back with another project for the Scrapbook Nerd Creative Team. This week I have a clean and simple card project to share with you as well as a shaker card. Both cards use the gorgeous Pinkfresh Studio Circle Frame with Botanicals die. I love the versatility of this die and how elegant it looks on a card. The beautiful scripty sentiments are from the Pinkfresh Studio Scripted Bold Sentiments 1 Stamp Set.

For my Best Wishes card, I did some simple watercolouring using Pinkfresh Studio Liquid Watercolours on Strathmore Cold Press Watercolour cardstock. Here is a step-by-step tutorial.

Secure a piece of watercolour cardstock to your work surface using removable tape.

Using a flat brush, apply water to the cardstock for this "wet-on-wet" technique.

Squeeze a droplet of liquid watercolour onto cardstock and watch it move. You can also help the colour to spread by using a paint brush and/or tilting the cardstock. Add other colours of your choice.

Remove tape and allow cardstock to dry. You can also use a heat tool. Once completely dry, die cut frame from cardstock.

To add dimension to the frame, die cut 3 more from regular cardstock and adhere them together using liquid glue. 

Position the frame on a 4" x 5.25" white cardstock panel to use as a guide for where you want to stamp your sentiment. Stamp and heat emboss the sentiment in black. Adhere the frame to the card.

Add foam tape to the back of the panel and adhere onto an A2 sized notecard (4.25" x 5.5"). Add sequins to embellish.

My next project is a shaker card. To create a well for the sequins, I die cut the frame about 6-8 times from white cardstock and adhered them together with liquid glue. I then adhered the frame onto a 4" x 5.25" Gina K Designs cardstock panel. On a piece of vellum, I stamped and heat embossed a sentiment. I cut the vellum into a circle to fit over the frame.

Next, I added Studio Katia Magic Mint Fusion Sequins into the center of the frame. I adhered the vellum over the frame using liquid glue. I then die cut another frame out of Lawn Fawn Pixie Dust Sparkle Cardstock and adhered that over the vellum. I stamped an additional sentiment on the bottom of the card and adhered the panel onto a white A2 sized note card. I added some silver embellishments to finish off the card.

I've been really loving the latest products that Pinkfresh Studio has been releasing. Don't forget to check out the Scrapbook Nerd shop for the latest and greatest PFS products including this beautiful botanical frame and sentiment stamps.

If you have any questions, please leave me a comment below or e-mail me.

Have a wonderful day!

Floral Theme Week Cards for Scrapbook Nerd

Hello friends!

I hope you had a good weekend and that you had some crafty time on National Scrapbooking Day! My crafty friends and I rented a cottage in Brighton, ON and enjoyed three wonderful days together chit-chatting and doing what we love. Isn't it cool that we have our own day of recognition? 😄

This week the Scrapbook Nerd Creative Team was asked to create projects with a flower/garden theme. The cards I am sharing today were created using the beautiful Hero Arts Color Layering Poppy stamp set.

This stamp set includes two beautiful poppies where each has four colouring layers. It also includes two different stems and several scripty sentiments.

For my first card, I used the following Lawn Fawn inks; Noble Fir for the stems, Ballet Slippers, Guava and Raspberry for the flowers. Starting with my lightest colour and the most solid stamp, I stamped each flower layer, allowing a minute for each layer to dry in between. Once my first flower was done, I created a mask by stamping the solid stamp onto Inkadinkado Masking Paper and cutting it out by hand. I masked the flower on the left so that the flower on the right would look like it was behind the first flower.

For the centers of the flowers, I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink. To add some sparkle to the center, I used a Lawn Fawn Embossing Ink Pen and heat embossed with Wow Clear Sparkle Embossing Glitter.

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment using Lawn Fawn Gold Embossing Powder. I then adhered the panel onto fun foam and glued it onto Lawn Fawn Raspberry cardstock. Finally, I added some metallic gold jewels from Pretty Pink Posh.

For my second card, I stamped the flowers using Altenew Golden Sunset inks. The stems were stamped with Lawn Fawn Cilantro ink. I white heat embossed a sentiment onto black cardstock and used foam tape to adhere it to the front of the card. I added Studio Katia Marmalade Sequins for the finishing touch.

I mounted the panel onto Gina K Sweet Mango cardstock with foam tape. I then adhered it to My Favorite Things Black & White Striped paper.

And those are my completed card projects for today. I hope you give layering stamps a try. Some layering stamps are tricky to line up, but I found these quite easy. And just look at the realistic results you get!

Remember to stop by the Scrapbook Nerd shop where you can find the Layering Poppy stamp set in stock right now along with most of the products I used to create these two cards.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have an amazing day! :)