Happy Birthday Daisies

 

Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this card as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

LIST: Colours (coral, white, blue, olive), Techniques (die cutting, stamping, embossing), Elements (flowers, scalloped circle mat, lots of layers, embossed background, ribbon, stamped sentiment on rectangle strip

INCLUDE: flowers, coral, white, stamping, die cutting

MODIFY: masked flowers, freshened the blue and olive to aqua and lime, created 'texture' on my background by doubling up the flower mask with a stencil, flowers are white, colours in the background, sentiment is stamped on rectangle with negative frame

EXCLUDE: scalloped circles, embossing, layers, ribbon

I reversed my inspiration by having white flowers on a coloured background. I reduced layers a lot by masking my flowers and then stenciling the 'texture' in my background. I simplified my sentiment by cutting a framed rectangle out of my panel, and then leaving the frame out when I popped everything up. 

PERFECT level of crafty inventory

 

Today, I've got two things going on.

First,  I've got 6 questions to ask ourselves when we're trying to optimize our crafty inventory levels. Whatever the 'perfect' level is for you - these questions can help!

Second, while I was chatting about all that, I made my own temporary layering stencils for simple shapes! I created a fun pattern with an Altenew tulip stamp. I stamped it again on 3 post it notes, and then used them to create temporary stencils for ink blending!

Amazing Daisies

Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this card as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

LIST: Colours (green, pink, orange, purple, blue, white), Techniques (stamping, fussy cutting), Elements (lots of white space, coloured sentiments, coloured stamping)

INCLUDE: green, pink, purple, white, stamping, white space

MODIFY: orientation of floral, stamped in black and coloured, left some uncoloured to keep a light feeling, black reverse sentiment (fussy cutting to create mask!), popped up whole circle panel

EXCLUDE:

SPIN: circle panel on square card

I loved the airiness of the inspiration cards. And I just got a super-pretty floral stamp set. This is a type of card I really haven't made in quite a while - stamped and coloured with copics. I wanted to try combining two of the stamps in the border set so I stamped the daisy border on my panel, then stamped it again on some 2 inch post-it tape, to create a mask. 

I then stamped a leaf-only stamp from the same set twice, once extending above, and once below the daisies. 

I coloured just the image from the first stamp, leaving the leaves from the second stamp white (and I realized my Copics need a spa day to be cleaned up and refilled!)

I trimmed the panel down with a circle die, to get rid of a smudge, and then added a reverse sentiment and popped up the panel before adding crystal glaze to the flower centres.

Old Favourites, New Ideas!

 

Recently I completely re-organized my stamps, dies, stencils and embossing folders, both physically and electronically, and while I was doing that, I came across some old items that I've been holding onto but not using. I decided to challenge myself to use a few  of them, in a new way to decide whether it was time for them to go to a new home.

If you want to know more about my reorganization as well as why (and how!) I changed from Evernote to Air Table, join us at the FREE Paper Crafters Get Organized Summit next weekend!

Illusion Love You

Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this card as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

LIST: Colours (pink, white, gold), Techniques (die cutting), Elements (mosaic background, darker frame, 3 glitter hearts, valentine's theme, pink cardbase)

INCLUDE: pink, white, gold, die cut glitter hearts

MODIFY: valentine to 'love you', used masking and stencilling for background, one big white heart, 5 small gold hearts, added black and yellow/orange

EXCLUDE: 

SPIN:

Darlene's inspiration card is full of energy and love. I masked a large heart on my panel and then I blended pinks and one orangey-yellow ink through my illusion Rippled Squares stencil from A Colorful Life Designs. I trimmed it down to follow the ripples and stamped a bold black sentiment before putting it on a black rectangle mat. I added 5 little gold glitter heart die cuts as my embellishments. 

Craft Room Splurges

Today I'm talking about some of the splurges or investments I've made in my craft room. 

Recently, I made a BIG change to the pocket system I was using to store my stamps and dies, and that's the topic of my presentation at the upcoming Paper Crafters Get Organized summit, happening April 19-21. Not only will I show you my old and new system, but I'll be sharing 5 steps for how you can find YOUR perfect storage solution. You can register for a free ticket HERE.

Dahlia Thinking of You

Welcome to this week's LIMES inspiration post!

I chose this card as my inspiration from the gallery of this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper!

LIST: Colours (orange, pink blue, beige), Techniques (copic colouring), Elements (big 'flower burst' in background, ballerina)

INCLUDE: orange, pink, blue, big flower burst 

MODIFY: stenciled instead of coloured, added die cut sentiment and sparkle

EXCLUDE: Ballerina

 I loved the drama on the inspiration card - the energy from the background really caught my eye. I stencilled some pink and yellow/orange ink through a dahlia stencil, blended blue ink around the edges and then added some gold watercolor splatter.

Instead of a ballerina, I die cut a sentiment from white cardstock and added some gems for sparkle