Spring card for The Ton's March Challenge

Well hello my fellow crafters, thank you for visiting my blog and I hope you enjoy my card.  I made this card specifically for The Ton's March Challenge.  The cue word for this challenge is:  SPRING.  I think we are all quite ready for spring to arrive!  I chose blooming magnolia flowers and a butterfly to express the theme of the month.  I love The Ton's new Buildable Woodgrain stamp, so I used that as my background, using The Ton's Inks (Warm Hazelnut, Found Topaz, and Aspen Cocoa).  Then I decided to create a round window and have the magnolia branch and blooms appear to grow through the window.

I stamped and embossed the Magnificent Magnolia branch and flowers using Versafine Onyx Black Ink and some clear embossing powder.  I then colored the image using my Prismacolor Colored Pencils.  I then die-cut out the image using the coordinating dies.  I wanted some "bling" to my card, so I decided to use The Ton's Adhesive Glitter Paper in blue behind the flowers (like the sky) and silver along each side of the base layer NSW 110# cardstock.  At first I was going to center the image, but decided that off-setting it allowed for the butterfly I wanted to include as well as the sentiment.  My initial card was 4.5" x 6".  Once I adhered my round frame (which was made by using the two largest circles in the Avery Elle double stitched circle die set) over the blue glitter paper and positioned my magnolia branch, I realized I could trim down the card to a standard A2 size card.  I trimmed the width of the top layer of the card so that I could use the silver glitter paper.  Once I knew I was using the silver glitter paper, I decided to silver emboss the butterfly, which was from the Beautiful Butterflies 3 stamp set.  I used Cali Blue and Azurite inks on the solid-fill stamp to color the butterfly.  I adhered my magnolia flowers with some dimensional adhesive inside the circle frame and used thicker dimensional adhesive for my butterfly.  Lastly I stamped the sentiment, which came from the Fresh Cut Sunflowers stamp set in Versafine Onyx Black ink and glued on a few sequins (because you can never have too much bling!!).

That completes my card.  I hope it inspires you to create something a little "Springy"!  We'll see how my card does in the Challenge.  I might just get lucky!  You never know.

To see more of my card creations, visit me on Instagram.

Thank you for visiting and have a blessed day!

Jill ✂

The Ton's August Challenge - My "Guest Designer" debut!

Hello again friends and crafters,

I have been working fervently the last couple of weeks designing my card for The Ton's August Challenge as a guest designer.  For August, the cue word is "SUMMER".

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As I began thinking on this challenge and looking at my stash (of growing) Ton stamps, I couldn't help but think of summer vacations in Maui with it's beautiful beaches and HUGE waves.  One of my recent acquisitions was their Wave stamp (it's amazing!).  I also recently got their Palm Tree stamp and I went to work designing a card using those two stamp sets. They are Layered stamps, so this card is not my typical kind of water-colored or Copic-colored card.  Needless to say, the stamps are amazing.  I did hand color the background of the card, but the card took longer to make than some of my fully hand colored cards.  I experimented with ink colors, material for the oval frame, etc.  This was the first card that I made a practice card first, again playing with color and layout.  So here it is, as my guest designer debut (drum roll, please!) - this is my first one, don't tell!

Products and Techniques:

The Ton Stamps:  Wave and Palm Tree

The Ton Adhesive Foil Paper in Royal Blue (used on oval frame)

The Ton Burnished Foil Tape in silver (on R side of base card-stock)

The Ton Inks:  Couture Color - Sky Blue Collection (Cali Blue, Azurite Dye, Deep Sapphire Dye), Lofty Mint Dye and Bright Emerald Dye.

Sequins from The Ton Couture Mixes: Winter Thaw and By the Moonlight

4.25" x 6" Strathmore Series 400 watercolor paper

4" x 5.75" Fun Foam layer

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White #110 card-base folded to 4.5" x 6"

For my card, I wanted cool color tones, so I started with the watercolor panel and applied the ink fairly randomly with a mini ink blending tool over some small palm trees that had been heat embossed first with some clear embossing powder. I varied the intensity of the ink to be lighter at the top compared to the bottom.  I then spattered some water onto the panel and blotted it away, however not much color was removed.  So I then decided to add some DIY shimmer to the panel by spraying some Perfect Pearls and water mixture onto the panel.  I then used my heat tool to dry it.  With my base layer done, I stamped the Palm Tree images on a separate piece of cardstock with the blues and greens listed above then die cut them out. Next, I stamped The Wave with the Blue Sky Collection, but I added the Bright Emerald Dye ink to the second layer of the stamp before using the Azurite Dye ink to that same layer.  That gave the wave a similar blue/green look that the trees had.  I die cut the wave out with an oval die, then stamped the sentiment in Versafine Black Onyx ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.  For the oval frame, I used 2 oval dies, one inside the other with an even reveal.  Previously I had adhered the Adhesive Foil Paper to a similar color blue card-stock, then die cut it with the 2 oval dies to give me a pretty foiled oval frame (without white edges) for my wave.  After deciding on the placement of the die cut images, I stamped the 2 trunks of the palm trees and the hammock, then the grassy mound (in green and blue). Next, I adhered the large palm tree to the upper right corner, overhanging it a bit, then adhered the oval wave piece, then the frame using Ranger Multi Medium Matte adhesive.  I then added some dimensional adhesive to the small Palm trees.  Next, I prepared my #110 NSW card base, laying a strip of the Burnished Foil Tape to the right side of the panel.  I cut some Fun Foam to layer between the base card-stock and the watercolor panel for added dimension.  Not yet satisfied, I finished the card by applying the darkest blue ink by hand to the palm trees to really make them POP and go better with the dark blue foiled frame.  I then added some sequins and other small elements from a couple of the Couture Mixes I had on hand.  Lastly, I stamped the small seagull near the wave. Now I was done!  I hope you enjoyed my card, and that it gave you some new inspiration when using the Wave and/or Palm Tree stamps.

Good luck and happy crafting,

Jill

Trending with The Ton (card recognitions)

Hello my friends and new visitors,

This is a well overdue post on a few of my cards that I made for The Ton's Challenges several months ago. For the first card, the key word was "Lucky." This first one, shown here uses the stamp set Retail Therapy and one of The Ton's background stamps.  It was featured on The Ton's blog in Trending with The Ton  in their March line-up. The card-front panel was something I had water-colored earlier, not knowing exactly how I would use it.  I do think it worked out wonderfully for this card. For the Sentiment I used their Scripty Alphas in both upper and lower case versions, stamped it in Versafine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

The second card was featured in February's Ton Challenge, key word was "Love.".  A very different style card for me, but I had fun making it!  I masked the 2 figures, then used a stars background stamp and heat embossed it with white embossing powder.  I then used 3 shades of distress ink to blend the colors into the two opposing corners.  I then Copic colored the 2 figures, then dried the panel with my heat tool.  I used an anti-static powder tool to the card, then stamped the "Love" sentiment in a hybrid ink and quickly applied some clear embossing powder to melt with my heat tool.  I was fortunate to find a cute sentiment from SSS that I stamped and die cut, then popped up with some dimensional adhesive.  I applied Glossy Accents to the red heart.  I rounded off the top right corner and added a black shimmer cardstock to the bottom of the card.

My Third card was also featured in the Trending category in February but not a part of their Challenge. This is really my bread and butter.  If you don't know, I love to color flowers.  Here I primarily used Brusho watercolor powders and a couple Ken Oliver Crafts Color Burst.  I heat embossed the images first in a glittery gold embossing powder (it really sparkles!)

This wraps up my cards that got some special attention.  I hope you enjoyed them.

Jill 

6/28/17 The Ton June Challenge card #2

The Ton June Challenge card #2

Got my new order from The Ton Stamps and just had to make a card for their June Color Palette Challenge (gorgeous colors)- see image below. My card used the Large Peony 5 stamp and dies, the Peony Cluster Mini Stamp/die, and their Geometric Lattice background die in a shimmery black card stock, and the sentiment banner die was from MFTs dies.  I water-colored with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers and heat-embossed all the images in black. Background watercolor paper from Stampin' Up!  3 Dew Drops finish off the card. On assembly, I decided the card needed a little shimmer, so I added a diluted layer of Ken Oliver Craft's Liquid Metal in Metallic Rose to the Peony mini clusters only.  Then I was satisfied.

Thanks for dropping by,

Jill

The Ton's Challenge Blog
Here is The Ton Challenge, Color Palette for June, from their Blog.

June 19, 2017 The Ton Peony card for their June Palette Challenge

 The Ton's June Color Palette Challenge

Blooming Peonies Card

My Sympathy Card Entry

With my peonies in full bloom, I thought I'd color some peonies with some of my favorite peony stamps from The Ton, and enter their June color palette challenge.  This card used all Ton stamps, from the peonies, to the background stamp, and the sentiment and embellishments. I heat embossed the image and sentiment in WOW super fine silver embossing powder, and used their black glint embossing powder on the background stamp. I water- colored the image with Brusho pigment powders, but the color was not quite right, so I touched up the color with some Zig Clean Color Brush Markers. I finally added some shimmer with Ken Oliver Craft's Liquid Metal to the flower petals.  I fussy cut the top portion of the flowers and mounted it on the black embossed light blue card stock, then foam mounted that onto some shimmery black card stock.  3 glass slippers from The Ton finish off my card.

Jill