Guest DT for 7 Kids Craft Supply Shop - Cow Hugs card

Welcome back friends and hello to crafters new to my blog.  It's February and love is in the air!!  I have the honor of being a guest designer for the 7 Kids Craft Supply Store this month.  This is the first of two cards, the second one will post on the 27th, I believe.  
With all the wonderful sales going on, I placed several orders from the store.  This card features:  Cow Hugs from High Hopes Rubber Stamps, Falling Hearts from Neat & Tangled, Snow Village from C.C. Designs, Peak A Frame from Mama Elephant Creative Cuts, and Festive and Frosty Designer Paper Pad from Penny Black.

To create this card, I stamped then masked off the cow images in order to stamp and color the background.  For the hills, since I didn't have the Stampingbella  Backdrop that I needed, I improvised.  I used the Beach Backdrop upside down and didn't ink the ocean line at the bottom of the flipped stamp.  Pretty nice hills, right?  I then stamped the 3 tree image from C.C. Designs Snow Village and masked them as well.  I masked my hills so that I could airbrush the sky with my Copic markers.  I used a small cloud die cut in my stash to create the cloud while airbrushing the sky.

I removed the masking on all but the cows and used my Copic markers to color the trees and the grassy hills/ground.  I then Copic colored the cute cows and flowers from the same stamp.  I added a few white gel pen accents to the cows eyes, hoofs, and flowers and some clear Wink of Stella to the cow bell and bow, and flowers.  Next I stamped the Falling Hearts with Versamark and heat embossed it with Ranger Wendy Vecchi Cactus Flower Embossing Powder.  

As this panel was only 3.25" x 5.5", I needed to add some additional layers to achieve a standard A2 size card.  My card base was craft cardstock and I wanted to accent the yellow/green color of the grass and the pink in the embossed hearts.  I decided on some pink Adhesive Glitter Tape from The Ton on either side of my panel and then a strip of paper from the Festive and Frosty paper pad from Penny Black.  Lastly I needed a sentiment and more hearts to heat emboss to tie the card together.  Before stamping and adhering the layers, I did use the Mama Elephant die from the set that was a large stitched rectangle.  Then the sentiment I used was from a Stampin' Up! set called Love you to the Moon.  That I stamped in The Ton's Found Topaz Dye ink.  I found 2 small hearts from an unknown Stampin' Up! set and stamped them in Versamark and the same Ranger Cactus Flower embossing powder as the other hearts on the card.  I adhered all layers together with a tape runner, and I was done!

I hope you enjoyed my card.  Blessings to you all,

Jill

**Be sure to visit the 7 Kids Customer Create Facebook page for this card and many others from  their talented Design Team, as well as customers posting their creations featuring products from the 7 Kids Craft Supply Store.**

Splendid Birthday Roses (for Kennedy Grace Creations) February Mood Board

Welcoming you back to my blog with a card I made for Kennedy Grace Creations February Mood Board.  This month's board is gorgeous, with some of my favorite colors (see below).  My card, of course inspired by it, uses the stamp sets Splendid Roses for the main image and Beautiful Blooms - Sweet Rose for the sentiment.  I used 2 KGCs sequin mixes on my card, Cotton Candy and Enchanted Evening. 

This month, as soon as I saw the mood board I knew what I wanted to do.  I recently received the Splendid Roses stamp set from Kennedy Grace Creations, and was itching to use it.  I also recently bought an Avery Elle cover die called Horizontal Stripes.  It has a lovely circle cut out in the middle of the stripes (perfect for my roses!).  The two in my mind were meant to be together.

February Mood Board

I first stamped the roses image onto a NSW 80# cardstock (superior for blending Copics) with Hero Arts Intense Black Ink.  I colored the images with my Copics (colors listed below) then lightly colored YR20 around the center background area, blending it softly out from the middle. Wanting a bit of sheen to my flowers, I decided to use a product fairly new to me, Ken Oliver Crafts Liquid Metal.  It comes out dropper style, so I used a paint brush and applied Metallic Rose to the roses and Metallic Jade to the leaves.  These did intensify the colors a bit and I wanted even more sheen, so after drying, I applied the Platinum color to the roses only.  This is pure sheen and beautiful!

With my cover die cut in hand (NSW 110# cardstock) I wanted my roses to spill over the sides of the die cut circle a bit, so I lightly traced a circle larger than the cover die circle around my image and decided which areas were going to go beyond the circle.  Those areas I fussy cut out.

Next I placed some liquid adhesive on the back side of the cover die's circle to adhere my roses in the proper place.  Once adequately dry, I flipped the entire piece over and applied lots of 3M Scotch foam adhesive tape so that the cover die had some dimension and sturdiness over my white cardstock base.

Once adhered to the cardbase, I white heat-embossed the Happy Birthday sentiment from Beautiful Blooms- Sweet Rose using WOW! Super Fine, Opaque Bright White Embossing Powder on some black cardstock and cut it to size.  Wanting some sparkle on the card, I cut 2 strips of white prism glitter paper from my stash and placed one under the black sentiment banner and one along the bottom edge of my top folding card.  Lastly, I used some gorgeous sequins from Kennedy Grace Creations in pink and green tones from the Cotton Candy mix and the Enchanted Evening mix.

I really enjoyed making this card, and I hope you enjoyed it too!  I hope it inspires you in your next floral card adventure.


**I've linked all Kennedy Grace Creations products in the body of the blog to the store for your convenience.  If you like my card and want to see more, please visit me on Instagram for the most comprehensive collection of my cards and projects (jktaylor911).

Happy crafting my friends,
Jill

Products used:

Kennedy Grace Creations Products:  Splendid Rose and Beautiful Blooms- Sweet Rose stamps, Sequin Mixes Cotton Candy and Enchanted Evening.
Neenah Solar White cardstock 80#/110#
Hero Arts Intense Black Ink
Copic Sketch Markers RV00, RV02, RV04, RV06, R22, YG23, YG25, YG97 and YR20
Ken Oliver Crafts Liquid Metals in Metallic Rose, Metallic Jade, and Platinum
3M Scotch Foam Adhesive Tape
Versamark Ink
WOW! Embossing Powder in Opaque Bright White, Super Fine
White Prism Glitter paper
Black cardstock
Ranger Multi Medium Matte Liquid Adhesive

Please be sure to follow the Kennedy Grace Creations blog, facebook, twitter, instagram and pinterest. Our Design Team has great projects to inspire you with our great stamp sets.

January KGC Designer's Choice card - Grace's Flowers

Hello 2018!  I'm back here finally on my blog from a little medical LOA and excited to be able to craft again!  My card for Kennedy Grace Creations this month uses some lovely flower images from KGCs Grace's Little Note stamp set.  As I've enjoyed a little sunshine these last few days, I felt like creating something somewhat simple with light, happy colors. 

I first stamped the 3 floral images onto some smooth Bristol cardstock with my MISTI so I could get the spacing right.  I then used 2 different border dies by MFTs to create the multiple-bordered look. 

I inlaid the central flower panel into its matching border die cut, then used some fun Gold Foil cardstock by DCWV on the outside die cut frame.  Since I was going to use some Nuvo Jewel Drops on my flower images, I decided to adhere all the layers first before coloring, as the drying time can take as much as 24 hours.  I chose a light pink watercolor Designer Series Paper from Stampin' Up! as my base layer to coordinate with one of the flower colors and make a nice frame of color around all the white going on in the card.

Finally I get to the coloring, my favorite part!  I decided to use some markers that I'd not used in a while, the Tombow Dual Brush Pens.  I chose 2 greens for the leaves and 3 soft pastel colors in yellow, orange, and pink.  After my coloring was done, I picked out coordinating colors of Nuvo Jewel Drops (Limoncello, Orange Marmalade, and Rosewater).  I applied the drops somewhat generously, as I wanted dimension.  Then I set my project aside to dry.  I returned the next morning and adhered the panel to a standard A2 side folding card base.  Project complete!

I hope you enjoyed my card idea.  I've linked the Kennedy Grace Creations products to the store for your convenience.  To see more of my cards, the most comprehensive collection of my cards can be found on Instagram as jktaylor911.

Enjoy the new year my friends!

Jill

Supplies Used:

• Essentials by Ellen Smooth Bristol Cardstock
• DCWV Gold Foil Cardstock Stack 6x6
• Stampin' Up! DSP Watercolor
• Kennedy Grace Creations stamp - Grace's Little Note
• My Favorite Things Die-namics (Rectangle Frames/In &Out Diagonal Stitched Rect.)
• Tombow Dual Brush Pens
• Nuvo Jewel Drops
• Hero Arts Intense Black Dye Ink

Please be sure to follow the Kennedy Grace Creations blog, facebook, twitter, instagram and pinterest. Our Design Team has great projects to inspire you with our great stamp sets.

2018 Blog Re-design

Hi there friends and fellow crafters!!  2018 is here and I felt like a change was needed to my Blog.  So I worked on it a bit, but it still needs some tweaking.  Let me know what you think, offer suggestions, etc.  I am hardly very tech savvy, so your advice would be so appreciated!  After all, I want my site to be easy for you to use, helpful, and visually pleasing.  I've been MIA for about a month recovering from hip surgery.  But I have a card post lined up for January 24th!!  I'll continue my 2 posts a month for Kennedy Grace Creations but I also will have some Guest Designer posts for 7 Kids Crafting Supply Store in February and April.  I believe besides my blog post and IG post, it will also post on the 7 Kids Customer Create FB page.  If that changes I will let you know.  But check it out, they have some great posts on their site and I love their store.  I've become acquainted with some new product lines (to me) and Kelly the owner is just fabulous!  Really fast shipping, too.

Yours Truly,

Jill

Believe in the Magic of Christmas

Hello my fellow crafters!  I've created this card for the Kennedy Grace Creations December Blog.  As December winds to a close, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas with family and/or friends.  Although Christmas is now past, I made this card last month before I realized my post would be after Christmas!

To me however, Christmas is not just one day, but the beginning of forever (if you believe).  And as many crafters do, they make Christmas cards all year 'round.  So this is especially for those of you who never get tired of seeing or making Christmas cards.

You may recognize the wreath element in my card and the background technique I used on this card.  I used an Antique Linen  Distress Oxide pad and dragged it down the length of the cardstock several times to create a wooden door or panel look.  Then, I wanted to show how you can totally change the look of your card/wreath simply by changing up your ink colors (see my November Mood Board card for comparison, above).

To make the wreath element, I used the exact same technique as the prior card:  I traced a circle lightly the size I wanted the wreath, then used the 2 small leafy branches from the Kennedy Grace Creations stamp You Inspire Me.  I used 3 green colors from Hero Arts, (Green Hills, Field Greens and Moss).  I stamped 1 color at a time, spacing the branches out and changing the angle of the branches with each new color as I stamped around the circle.  This allowed me to get a fairly even dispersion of the colors, without any distracting clumping up of the colors.  I then used a Hero Arts Red (mini cube from My Monthly Hero Kit, unlabeled) for the berries, that I stamped using the 3 small dots on the You Inspire Me stamp set.  I used the berries to fill in any gaps that may have been present.

Next, I die cut the center of the wreath out.  At first I was going to make a shaker card, but not finding the exact color shaker elements I was looking for, I expanded my search to other things.  I looked into my stash of older Christmas stamps and I found this very cute wood block stamp from Stampendous! called Manger Kisses.  It fit perfectly in the window!  I quickly Copic colored the image, added a little clear Wink of Stella and set it aside.  Next I placed a mask over my wreath and stamped the sentiment from Sunny Studio's Holiday Style three times for an ombre-type look, once above and twice below in Ranger Distress Oxide Inks/DOIs (Worn Lipstick, Candied apple, and Fired Brick), then used some clear embossing powder over them.  I stamped the ink layered bow from the same Sunny Studio stamp set in Frayed Burlap DOI, Delicata Gold and Walnut Stain DOI and clear embossed that as well, then foam mounted it to the wreath.  I repeated the stamping of the small leafy branches and a berry next to the sentiments on the bottom.  

To finish assembling my card, I adhered some clear acetate to the back side of the wreath panel, then cut some Fun Foam slightly smaller than my panel.  I traced the circle from inside my wreath onto the Fun Foam then die cut out a circle slightly larger.  I cut down my card panel to 4 inches in width, then adhered the Fun Foam to the back side of my card panel.  Next I used some #110 NSW cardstock for a top folding A2 cardbase.  I placed some narrow strips of red glitter paper from Stampin' Up! along the edges, then adhered the little manger scene onto it so it was centered in the wreath window.  Before I adhered my card panel to the base, I sponged on some Brushed Burlap Distress Oxide ink along the inside of the wreath, giving it a "wooden edge" or distressed feel.  Then I adhered my card panel onto the prepared cardbase.

As I often do, I add one final detail that in my mind finally completes my card.  You can't really see them in the picture, but in real life you see them quite easily and they just add a wonderful element.  They are small gold adhesive dots (in varying sizes) from Starform.  The dots were small details from a larger adhesive image, but they were perfect for my project!  I scattered them about the wreath and declared my card done.

I hope you enjoyed my card and the versatility of the You Inspire Me stamp set.  Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2018!

Jill



To see more of my card creations, please visit me on Instagram as jktaylor911 for the largest collection of my cards and Facebook as Jill Taylor.

For your convenience I linked the Kennedy Grace Creations products to the store.

Please be sure to follow the Kennedy Grace Creations blog, facebook, twitter, instagram and pinterest. Our Design Team has great projects to inspire you with our great stamp sets.