I have an opportunity to share a tutorial at Splitcoaststampers this week for our annual Falliday Fest of tutorial ideas and challenges. I created this Gingerbread Garland from a template that you can download and accent with white doodling and stamps from various sets.
See my full tutorial with the easy template download HERE.
This is a great activity to share with your kids and cousins over the holidays! Anything goes and super fun!
We kicked off another fun year of Falliday Fest challenges and tutorials at Splitcoaststampers this morning! So fun! I hope you’ll join us for great gift tutorials and challenges designed to help you get your holiday crafting out of the way!
This is my card for the challenge I am hosting! I used the Leaves in Fall foliage dies from Papertrey Ink. Love these big leaves – each one like a mini canvas!
My leaves are painted with Daniel Smith watercolor, spattered and dazzled. They are accented with clear drops from Taylored Expressions. Serene birthday wishes!
Join us all week for creative challenges and project ideas designed to help you knock the holiday crafting off of your to-do list early!
It’s my favorite week of the card making year! From the Splitcoaststampers team and our fabulous design team alumna from 16 years of creative inspiration, we host Dare to Get Dirty! I’ve been a part of the Splitcoaststampers community since 2004, and the community is the reason I am still stamping today! The people have become wonderful friends.
Splitcoast is the largest single source of card making inspiration on the web with galleries organized by company name/brand, the largest tutorial library on the web with step-by-step and how-to videos, immeasurable information on tools, style, design, industry, company chatter, and more. It’s basically the Library of Congress for stamping and papercraft.
Every August we host Dare to Get Dirty to celebrate the Fan Club members who support Splitcoaststampers. 99% of the Splitcoast content is free, but we roll out special content monthly for Fan Club members – with lots of challenges, chatter and prizes. You can find information about our Fan Club and how to join HERE.
Fan Club members can join our Dare to Get Dirty challenges in our Challenge Forum.
My card for the challenge I am hosting was created with my new Sketchbook Florals and background from the Field Notes Kit (currently sold out!) from Taylored Expressions. I’ve embossed the flowers in gold and colored with Polychromos colored pencils. The larger single blooms on these cards allow for detail, but still a clean and simple card design.
This is my card for Mary’s challenge from yesterday! I watercolored a wreath with Daniel Smith Watercolors – from Lydia’s Daniel Smith Split Group (Facebook) on Arches Cold Press. The sentiment is from a very old Stampin’ Up set in my archive bin – the ones I’ll never part with! Love seeing all of the different takes on the challenge ideas!
Let’s end my post with adorable cuteness from Waffle Flower – the Be a Unicorn die for Lori McAree’s challenge! LOVED this one! The sentiment was created with Be Bright Building Blocks Stamp and Die from Taylored Expressions. So cute. All of the samples for this challenge can be seen HERE.
Lots of inspirational ideas to be found! LOTS OF PRIZES to give away! I hope you find time to join us. Forty-one challenges are open between now and September 4th. 🙂 See you there!
WOW! It seems like everyone else loved the Taylored Expressions Blender Brushes as much as I did yesterday! SOLD OUT OF THE FIRST RUN in 12 hours! No one will be disappointed! Promise!
Today I am sharing one of my last few cards for the SCS Falliday Fest! This was for Lydia’s challenge to create Melted Snow – watercolor and salt background! Also showing you a fun new product from Copic, the Lavender Multiliner. How fun!
We have had a Salted Backgroung tutorial in the Splitcoaststampers library for years, and trying the technique was an assignment for me in a recent watercolor class that I participated in, as well. Way past time that I tried it! It was easy, and I love how it turned out!
I used Winsor Newton Cotman Watercolors – Purple Lake and Manganese Blue. I painted both on watercolor cardstock, leaving a bit of excess water on the surface and then sprinkled liberally with coarse sea salt. Allow the cardstock to dry and the salt will absorb and shift the color around on your paper. You can use a heat tool to speed this process up, but I’m a fan of allowing for natural dry time when I can!
I had been so wrapped up in the technique, I decided to follow Lydia’s inspiration and go the Christmas ornament route. I cut my bulbs from a retired die set from Taylored Expressions.
I “hung” my ornaments with string I drew in with a new Lavender Copic Multiliner. They arrived a few weeks ago, and I love the rich purple color. As you would expect with a Multiliner, the ink from these pens will hold tight with Copic and water when they are dry on the paper.
Here, I’ve just dropped a few lines of string in to hold my ornaments. You could totally free-hand the lines of the ornaments, but here, I wanted crisp, straight lines for the string, so I’ve used a small clear ruler from Aristo. I keep two of these in my stash. Love that I can tuck them into a pencil pouch and that they are clear to see my work underneath. 
The Lavender Multiliners for drawing, sketching and coloring over are available in four tip sizes: 0.03, 0.05, 0.1, 0.3, & 0.5mm. Pen sizes are embossed on the caps for durability. Available as single pen purchases and in this set of four.
I wanted texture to my white layer, and I also did not want to add a sentiment tag. So, the Deck the Halls sentiment (retired MFT) was stamped in Grape Jelly ink (Taylored Expressions) and then my panel as run through the Big Shot between the Dotted Lattice folder. I love how it embossed right over the top of the sentiment without distorting the words.
I added the bulbs with XPress It Foam Tape to my white panel.The glittery frame (glitter paper from Stampin’ Up! – a gift from Lydia!) is from the Taylored Expressions die set – Frame in Frame 2.
I appreciate you stopping by… I know it’s Halloween, but it will be time to Deck the Halls before you know it! Have a great day!
This might be my favorite challenge of the Falliday Fest at Splitcoaststampers from our Artist in Residence, Dina Kowal. The challenge was to make a gingerbread themed card using kraft cardstock and white embossing!
This stamp set is called Sweet Christmas – Sunny Day Doodle line from MFT. I’m sure it’s retired, and I can’t part with it, though I can’t remember using it before. I love how this turned out! Easily duplicatable with a MISTI for mass production. Well — thinking about it, I did fussy cut the gingerbread man. Hire a child for that part!
These tags were for Jacqueline’s Falliday Fest challenge – Monogram It! A snowflake stamp and the Flourished Tag Die set from Verve paired up with Sophisticated Script from Concord & 9th made quick work of that challenge! The doily background die is retired from MFT. (I can’t find the packaging and don’t know the name – it is in a set of 4 small doily dies.) I’m going to have the girls help me mass produce these for our family Christmas. Red for the guys and green for girls!
Still a few days left to join the Falliday Fun and play some of the challenges. We do have lots of great prizes up for grabs from our sponsors. We tried something fun and functional this fall and put together our first ever Holiday Gift Guide at Splitcoast – it’s full of special offers and great ideas for holiday shopping for everyone on your list – especially YOU! Take a peek:
I’m off to the final marching band competition of the fall season today! My girl sure loves being on the Color Guard, but I’m looking forward to a few Saturdays at home before the busyness of the holidays hits!
Have a beautiful Saturday!
I put together a short palette blending tutorial and video for the Splitcoaststampers newsletter this week! Such a great technique for extending color range where you may be missing some colors or for blending two complimentary colors together!
My image is from the Power Poppy set called Prairie Cheer… It a gorgeous set with beautiful flowers and WHEAT! Swoon. You can see the step-by-step coloring process in my tutorial video.
And, if you like great tutorials, we publish a new tutorial every Wednesday at Splitcoastampers. Use this link and sign up in the upper right hand corner box, I promise we’ll never spam or sell you! 🙂
I’m painting today…and not the fun watercolor kind… touching up trim and walls. Good times…said no one ever. But, I will be so happy when it’s done!
Thanks for stopping by! Have a colorful day!
I am hosting my second Falliday Fest challenge today at Splitcoast! It’s called Hard Candy Christmas! You can find the details and the backstory here in the forum!
My card was made by stamping the snowflakes with clear embossing ink and clear embossing powder. Next I embossed the sentiment (retired CHF sentiment set) with Ranger Princess Gold (I LOVE THIS EMBOSSING POWDER!) Then I sponged cantelope and strawberry colored inks over the white cardstock for a resist on the snowflakes. The scalloped notecard is a diecut from Papertrey Ink.
There is still a week left to make and share cards in the Splitcoast gallery for the Falliday Fest. We have thousands of dollars of amazing prizes up for grabs, so I hope you find a few minutes to check it out! Have a beautiful Saturday! Get crafty!
I wanted to share two cards I’ve made for the Falliday Fest at Splitcoaststampers! We’ve partnered with some amazing sponsors for a fun event for October! Still plenty of month left to join us for challenges and inspiration, wonderful card-drive opportunities and prizes!
This was a card that I made for Dina Kowal’s Masquerade challenge. This was a new idea to me, and it was so fun…and easy. I’m definitely going to be trying this technique again! My sentiment came from the Autumn Splendor set from Verve, and the feathers are a die-cut from MFT.
This fun card was for Lydia’s challenge, Start Spreading the News! I used the Give Thanks stamp and die set from Concord and 9th for this one. Love the clean look here. I tied to keep it clean and simple. That is something about Lydia’s style that I really admire: clean and classy! The woodgrain is an embossing folder from Taylored Expressions.
I’m off to a marching band competition this weekend, but plenty of cards to share in the next few days! Hope you squeeze some crafty into your weekend! Thanks for stopping by!
I am just home from an amazing crafty weekend where I had the opportunity to create a LOT of cards for the Falliday Fest at Splitcoast! I’ll be sharing over the next few days, but I couldn’t wait to share this one for Teresa Kline’s AWESOME challenge for today.
I hope you find time to join us for Falliday Fest – we have some amazing sponsors and great gifts up for grabs! Still plenty of time to create and win this month!
This was created with Merry & Bright bulbs from Reverse Confetti. I *LOVE* their style of these word/image stamps. (I see several in my near future!) I paired it with this awesome sentiment from Avery Elle called Comfort & Joy. The sentiment and the bulb metal are embossed with Princess Gold Embossing Powder from Ranger. The ink colors are Mint, Crumb Cake and Blushing Bride from Stampin’ Up. Paper is Curious Iridescent Shimmery White and Kraft. Scalloped Layer die is from Mama Elephant.
I hope you find time to
Happy Sunday!
