Create Shimmery Greetings From Outer Space

by Jennifer Vanderbeek

How about a little out-of-this-world fun while playing with the color of the month: Pebble Grey. While deciding what to do for this prompt I was reminded of the aliens known as Greys, so created this sky scene with shades of grey and silver and drew up some simple saucers to decorate the skies. In the video, you’ll also see how I fixed a goof and rescued the card front from a galactic disaster!

Skill: Advanced
Time: 1 hour

Directions

Supplies

Imagine
Other
  • Watercolor Paper
  • Cardstock – Pale Green
  • Paintbrushes
  • Staedtler – Combo Circle Template
  • Pickett – Isometric Ellipse Inking Template
  • Pencil
  • White Eraser
  • Acrylic Block
  • Studio Calico – Make a Wish stamp set
  • Uniball – Signo White Gel Pen
  • Fiskars – Paper Trimmer, Scissors
  • Wooden spoon
  • Post-It Tape

Create a Vibrant Night Sky for Halloween Card

by Melissa Andrew

Create a Vibrant Night Sky for Halloween Card

Blended faded backgrounds on cards are beautiful and in this video, I show you how I create a night sky using a stencil and VersaFine Clair inks. These inks are blendable and have such bright vibrant colors and are perfect for making your night sky pop!

Skill: Intermediate
Time: 30 minutes

Directions

 

Supplies

Imagine
Other
  • Clarity Stencil – Birch Tree
  • Suzy Stamps – Bats Flying By, Bats in Belfry, Ghost Vamp, Pumpkin Smiling
  • Paper Trimmer
  • Heat Tool
  • White Card – Bristol Smooth
  • Black Card
  • Vellum

Use Natural Elements to Color a Greeting Card

by Iris Rodriguez

Use Natural Elements to Color a Greeting Card

Got tea? I do and I like to make art with the left-over tea bag paper. After the tea bags dry, you can take out the dried leaves you are left with an awesome substrate. Tea bags are versatile, translucent, luminous, and have an awesome vintage look and feel. I made a card using tea bags and Walnut Inks Cornflower and Willow; both awesome inks look great on tea bags. Not only are you making cool cards, but you are upcycling your tea bags.

Skill: Beginner
Time: 1 day for drying tea bags, 30 mins for the card, 5 mins to take apart and clean one tea bag

Directions


Step 1

Begin by allowing your tea bags to dry. I place my tea bags on a ceramic plate with a paper towel and allowed them to dry for several days. The color of your tea bag will be determined by the type of tea use. On this project, I started with a light color tea bag because it is Ginger tea.


Step 2

The tea bags are very delicate so a soft touch will be required to take them apart. Remove the tag by pulling it off. Remove the tiny staple with your nails. Rip open the seams. Take out the dried leaves by sloughing it off. Tear off the seams, otherwise, you’ll see it in your art. Do so, by tearing off the edges on the long side of the rectangle.


Step 3

Lay the tea bag on a nonstick surface; such an as craft mat, or wax paper. Spray a small amount of the Cornflower Walnut Ink on your craft mat and mix with water. Brush on the ink. Allow the bag to dry or use a heat tool.


Step 4

Repeat the same process in step 3, using the Willow Walnut Ink.


Step 5

Stamp or stencil images over a piece of scrap paper. The ink will go through the tea bag and stain your paper; it’s best not to stamp on your main card. The Willow Walnut inked tea bag was used to layer an image over the main substrate tea bag. Heat set.


Step 6

To adhere the stamped tea bag to the watercolor paper or main card, brush on a very thin layer of GlazOn Clear Layer Protectant to the back of the stamped tea bag. Finish the card by adhering it to the main card. I hope you enjoyed this project and will give it a try.

Supplies

Imagine
Other
  • Used tea bags
  • Watercolor paper – 140 lbs
  • Joy Clair – Butterfly Kisses stamp set
  • Key Stamp
  • Crafter’s Workshop – Bird On Branches, Moving Vines – (6 x 6 inches)
  • Hero Arts Stamp – Old French Writing

Prepare for Thanksgiving with a Cardmaking Tutorial

by Steph Ackerman

Prepare for Thanksgiving with a Cardmaking Tutorial

It’s October but before you know it you will be packing away the costumes and preparing for Thanksgiving. Why not be ready by delving into the colors, signs, and beauty of the season. Selecting 4 – 5 colors of Fireworks Shimmery Craft Sprays you can easily achieve amazing color combinations that set the stage for your projects. See how quickly and easily these Fall cards go together using backgrounds created with Fireworks Sprays.

Skill: Intermediate
Time: 1 hour

Directions


Step 1

Spritz assorted colors of Fireworks! Shimmery Craft Spray on the craft mat. Be sure not to mix the colors – spritz them about the mat.


Step 2

Drag white cardstock across the craft mat. Spritz additional Fireworks on craft mat if necessary until the cardstock is covered.


Step 3

Allow the cardstock to dry, then spritz with Dandelion Fireworks adding color to the white spaces.


Step 4

Cut cardstock into 2 panels, each 4″ x 5″. Stamp leaf flourishes on both panels with VersaFine Clair in Pinecone. Add clear embossing powder and heat set.


Step 5

Ink the edges of the panels with Brilliance Pearl Beige Ink, then mat with brown cardstock. Add the panels to the cards. Add color to some of the leaves using Memento Markers.


Step 6

Stamp Happy Thanksgiving on leftover strips of the cardstock with VersaFine Pinecone Ink. Add Clear Embossing Powder and heat set. Mat with cardstock.


Step 7

Adhere Happy Thanksgiving to the vertical card with foam adhesives. Cut apart Happy Thanksgiving for the horizontal card and adhere with foam adhesives.

 

Supplies

Imagine
Other
  • Stamps – So Suzy/Crackerbox Stamps
  • Cardstock – brown, white
  • Foam adhesives

Create a Reversible Naughty or Nice Christmas Stocking

by Jennifer Vanderbeek

Create a Reversible Naughty or Nice Christmas Stocking

Getting a head start on the holiday crafting rush, I decided to sew up a quick stocking and decorate the linen cuff with Fabrico markers, All-Purpose Ink, and some heat-embossed accents. While deciding just how I wanted to do the embossing I tried out a lot of products: VersaMark, Delicata, and Creative Medium to name the top three contenders, but I decided that the fine details that On Point Glue afforded made it the best choice for this project. Because of the heat embossing, you want to make sure that the area you’re decorating is a fabric that won’t melt when you hit it with the heat tool. Linen, cotton, canvas, or wool (the natural, sheepy stuff, not the polyester kind) should all work just fine, but you might want to test a small piece before getting too far into decorating your stocking.

Skill: Advanced
Time: 1 hour + dry time

Directions

Supplies

Imagine
Other
  • Stocking blank (or materials to make your own)
  • Pencil
  • Watercolor paper
  • Darice – Heat tool

Create a “Be Happy, Be Kind” Scrapbook Layout

by Jowilna Nolte

Create a "Be Happy, Be Kind" Scrapbook Layout

For this super fun scrapbook layout, I wanted to create a background using some of my favorite craft sprays—Fireworks! These amazing sprays create a color splash and shimmer which has a nice effect with a colorful “Be Happy, Be Kind” scrapbook layout like this one. As I created my background something truly magical happened with the ink and I really loved the end result. Scroll through the steps below to find out what it is!

Skill: Advanced
Time: 1 hour or more

Directions


Step 1

Gather at least 3 colors of Fireworks! Sprays to use on your background. I selected Lady Bug, Lilac Posies and Bahama Blue.


Step 2

First, I sprayed a patch of Bahama Blue in the middle of my layout and left it to dry for a few seconds. Then I added splats with all 3 of my colors. If you’d like colors to layer make sure you allow them to dry fully before using another color.


Step 3

Once the Fireworks splatter layer was dry, I added stamping texture with a mixed media feel using VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink.


Step 4

Add texture with a circle stencil and Creative Medium and let dry. I wanted to add more deliberate splats to create a layered effect. Drop large drops of Fireworks onto the background in Lady Bug.


Step 5

Then use Bahama Blue and drop some of the ink directly onto the red drop and let it pool for a few seconds.


Step 6

Then I added more drops of Lilac Posies on top of the blue and let the ink colors blend. Since Fireworks is a dye-based ink the blending will happen if all the inks are still wet.


Step 7

The ink created the most amazing puddles of shimmer once dry. I totally love the unpredictably of the effect these inks layered on top of each other have.


Step 8

I used the same color to spray some flowers that would perfectly match my layout background.


Step 9

Once I was happy with my background I assembled my layout with photo, cut out flower layers, inked flowers and other embellishments. You don’t always have to have tons of crafting inks to be creative – all you need is a plan and a few amazing inks.

 

Supplies

Imagine
Other
  • Cardstock – White
  • Short Cuts Craft – Stencil
  • Mixed Media Stamps
  • Scrapbook Flower pieces
  • Acrylic block
  • Photo
  • Scissors
  • Sentiment – Be Happy, Be Kind
  • Scrapbook page 12 x 12