Get Your Twinkle On

Happy Wednesday!

Have you heard that we're retiring 29 sets! 29!! 

Lisa is here today using one of the sets that is on the retirement list.

Here's how she did it:

I have used the Star Dies and the Twinkle Set that is retiring. I wanted to go totally glam like the sentiment from the set implies so I used a mix of glittered papers. To keep the card interesting I used a "faux inlaid die cutting" technique. To get the look of overlapping cuts I first die cut the stars in silver, making sure the different sized stars overlapped at some point on the one before it. I then made sure to keep the small silver pieces that needed to go in between the cuts off to the side. Next I went ahead and cut the stars out of the red, white and blue glitter cardstocks, and layered them into the silver. Finally I added the small silver pieces back in and viola! It looks like I've created one flat surface without all of the work! I then stamped my sentiment in the upper right corner with Staz On Ink. The final touch to my card was going over the edges with my distress tool. Since I had cut everything out of glitter cardstock, I didn't feel the need to add any other embellishments. I hope to see you try this "faux inlaid die cutting technique" and make sure you tag us when you share it! 

Look at all that delicious sparkle! I love how this looks and that retiring sentiment is super awesome on this card! Be sure to grab Twinkle and any of its retiring friends while they are still available.

They are priced to go and some of the sets are already sold out. 

Click here to check out our retiring collection

I hope you find some time to get your ink on today :)

October 28

Happy Wednesday!

Wow, oh Wow!

Girl Friday Julia will knock your socks off with today's creation. 

I warned ya, so don't complain when your socks suddenly fly through the air!!

She created this spectacular wreath using our Stars and Casual Trees Fri-Dies 

to frame the sentiment from Twinkle.

(you have naked toes right now don't you?!)

I could just look at this all day!

She created a video to show you how she did this so you'll be able to do this too.

All the sets she used are available in the store.

Here is a close up 

Today is the day. 

I check in at the hospital at 11 for my 2:30 lumpectomy surgery. 

I'm so ready to do this!

If you are wondering what the heck I'm talking about, 

please visit the Calling All Sistahs tab at the top of the page to get caught up :)

I appreciate all your good thoughts, well wishes and prayers. 

It means so much to me to have you all in my corner :)

Our blog is all set with lots of inspiration for the next several days, 

and as I'm feeling up to it, I'll pop in to give you updates so you'll know how I'm doing. 

My 2 awesome boys are taking over the shipping duties for a bit 

so your orders will still ship out in a timely manner :)

I'll be back as soon as I can!

xoxo

July 24

Happy Friday!

Today Girl Friday Marcie 

has a great card 

and a fun tutorial to go with it.

I think the big glittery star and embossed sentiment from our Twinkle set

look fabulous against her hand inked background. 

She used a really fun and easy technique for her stars 

by creating her own stencil.

Here's how she did it:

Easy peasy!

Have fun playing with this technique. 

Just think of all the fun backgrounds you can create.

June 18

Happy Thursday!

Angie has created a fabulous tutorial for you today! 

I'm really excited about it, because it's a technique I totally want to learn how to do.

Check it out!

Here is a quick tutorial to explain how I achieved the “messy embossing aka happy accident” technique on my card from May 30:

Gather your materials, including some embossing powder and ink (I used Champagne Mist All Purpose Ink by Tsukineko). FYI, some of my pictures show gray cardstock and some show khaki cardstock, so you’re not losing your mind, it was me.

I painted the ink onto my cardstock base, starting in the middle and moving the brush outward, to give the feel of rays shooting outward from the star. (That sounds corny!)  

Next, I heated it with an embossing gun, originally because I was too impatient to wait for it to dry. That’s where the “happy accident” comes in. I didn’t heat it long enough (impatient, remember?), so the embossing powder stuck to it in some places, creating the “messy embossing” look. So, remember, don’t overheat! J

Next, the embossing, yay! After I die cut the Stars Fri-Dies piece out of my top layer, I laid it over the painted cardstock and stamped the star in the opening. Love how the stamps and dies work together so perfectly! I shook on the embossing powder, then used a dry paint brush to kind of feather it out and remove some to get the look I wanted. Now you’re ready to emboss it with the heat gun.

I did the same process with the smaller star in the center of the card as well as the

“banner streak”” on the front of the card.

Again, I used a dry paint brush to remove some of the embossing powder and create some streaks before I used the heat gun on it.

And that’s “messy embossing”…or maybe you can think of a better name for it! I hope you try it and link up here so I can check out your creations! J

I'm thinking this is pretty super cool!

I'm loving Angie's messy embossing technique 

and I don't know about you, but I'm running to my studio now to try this out! 

Let's leave Angie some love for this!

June 14

Happy Sunday!!

Do you remember when Jingle made that cool gold foil card 

and we all started chanting Tu-Tor-i-al???

well....*grin*...here it is!!!

Today I am sharing the Distressed Gold Foil technique I recently used on another card. A few of you asked for a tutorial, so I will be walking through the steps on how to achieve this look.

Supplies:

Stamps: CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Twinkle Stamp Set, CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Wait for it Stamp Set

Dies: CAS-ual Fridays Stamps Stars

Ink: Versamark (clear)

Gold Foil: WOW Fab Foil (gold) (trim a piece to size ahead of time)

Sticky Embossing Powder: WOW Bonding Powder

Burnisher: Teflon Bone Folder (or something similar)

Heat gun

Cardstock: red, black, white, gold

1. Stamp and heat emboss the stars on white cardstock. Working quickly, lay a sheet of gold foil, gold side up, over the warm embossing powder. Use a bone folder to burnish the foil over the embossing powder. As the foil sticks, you will see it the shape while you are working.

2. Keep in mind that this is a distressed foil method. Your foil will look DISTRESSED, not smooth like it does if you use the laminator or a foiling machine. Gently lift the foil sheet off of the image to reveal your foiled image. If needed, you can reheat an area and apply more foil. Die cut your stars.

3. Trim a black panel and die cut one star for the negative cut image (as seen in the completed project photo. Using the same foil technique, stamp, emboss, and foil the sentiment. Because this is a more solid image, you can really see the distressed look on it. I love it!

4. Assemble your card, adding a gold die cut star to the mix, as well. Use foam tape to pop up your stars. Mount the black panel on a red card base for a dramatic look.

Feel free to leave questions in the comments, but please be sure to provide an email address for a response. Thank you

Ok, that was fabulous!

I think we owe her a round of applause! 

*insert applause here*