Hello friends!  Cheers to Wednesday, you've made it halfway through the week!  Today I am sharing over on the Butterfly Reflections Ink website.  Would you believe that I own ALL the Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks, but am too afraid to use them!?  It's true!  I see the beautiful backgrounds and unique watercolor designs that other artists create with these water reactive inks, but when I try to do it, the end result looks like I let an unattended 5-year-old loose in my craft room!  I struggle with uniform blending, too much/too little water and the root of all evil - comparison.  Theodore Roosevelt said, "Comparison is the thief of joy" and I remind myself of this every time I'm scrolling Instagram and Pinterest.  Today, I'm here to conquer one of my own creative fears and hopefully I can encourage you to do the same!

Today's card uses the new Fall Fox stamp set by Sugar Pea Designs.  This is a "slimline" card that measures 8 1/2" long by 3 1/2" inches high.  You've probably been seeing a lot of these similar style cards on social media and they are growing in popularity.  The great thing about these slimline cards is that they will fit into a #10 business sized envelope without having to pay additional postage.  

The base of my card is Cajun Craze cardstock.  I was asking all of my crafty friends what paper to use when I want to blend the Distress Oxide inks and the universal answer was Bristol Smooth!  So, I cut a sheet of Bristol Smooth paper to 8 1/4" by 3 1/4".  I grabbed my Picket Fences Blender Brushes and began to rub the ink along the paper in a circular motion.  The top color is Fossilized Amber, the middle color is Spiced Marmalade and the darkest (bottom) color is Aged Mahogony.   I kept rubbing the blender brush through the colors until the lines faded and the colors seemed to blend more seamlessly.  Honestly, this was a lot less scary than I though it would be!  I also die cut the grass from the same blended cardstock using the Tucked In Turf die and adhere it to the bottom of the scene.

Using the lightest piece of brown paper from the Lawn Fawn Knock on Wood paper pack, I die cut the birch trees using the  Lawn Fawn Birch Tree Lawn Cuts and adhered them to the blended background with my tape runner.  Then I added the background to the card base.   I stamped all of the images in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock.  I colored each image with my alcohol ink markers.  I added highlights to each colored image with a White Gelly Roll Pen.  Then I die cut the images out with the coordinating Sugar Pea Designs Fall Fox Sugar Cuts.  I stamped the sentiment at the top of the card in a medium brown ink.  I began to add the images to the card using foam adhesive for added dimension.

Woohoo!  I can now say that I have actually used the over $300 worth of Distress Oxide inks sitting in my craft room.  And, it wasn't nearly as scary as the image I had conjured up in my mind!  I hope today's post will encourage YOU to face your own creative fears, whatever they might be.  Go ahead and give it a try.  After all, it IS only paper!  : )
Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

 I have a really fun card to share with you today!  I borrowed this stamp set "Keepin' It Real" from my friend Margaret.  It is from the Your Next Stamp company which is a company I'm not very familiar with, but you know I'll be checking it out!  This stamp in particular is probably not a stamp set I would have purchased to keep in my own collection, but it was fun enough to borrow to make a great masculine themed card.  Here I combined it with Sunny Studios "Froggy Friends" and the Lawn Fawn Bayou Backdrop die.  I have been enjoying creating "scenes" with my stamps and I find that you can pair so many different brands together and they work seamlessly.

*Full supply list located at the end of this post.

The base of this A2 sized card is made from Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock.  Using the Lawn Fawn Bayou Backdrop die I cut the leafy background from Garden green cardstock.  I brushed Squeezed Lemonade and Walnut Stain Distress Oxide inks over the white background to create a marshy/sunset background.  Using the Lawn Fawn grass border cut, I cut a grass border out of Granny Apple Green cardstock.  I cut the pond using the Bayou Backdrop additional pieces and some blue scrap paper.  I stamped all images in Tuxedo Memento Black ink and colored them with Spectrum Noir Alcohol Ink markers.  I die cut all the images and began placing them as a scene using 3M foam adhesive onto the card.  Lastly I added a coat of Clear Wink of Stella to the images for added sparkle. 

Here are the two stamp sets I used to create this card:

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderfully creative day!

Then, as I was eating some sliced pineapple for breakfast, I knocked it over and pineapple juice went all over my desk and phone.  SO STICKY! 
Ugh.  And, it's only 7:08 am . . . This afternoon I have to take all three cats to the vet for their annual check-up and that's always a hissing, foaming at the mouth, yowling melodic cat-astrophe. . . Wish me luck!

Today I'm sharing a card that I made back in February at our annual craft retreat on Cape Cod.  I used the Pink & Main stamp set "Gullfriend" combined with a Lawn Fawn Landscape die and some Distress Oxide ink sponging to create this beachy scene.   There's a lot of detail in this card, but that's what I like about it.  I had the time to experiment with my Spectrum Noir alcohol ink markers to create a distress wood look on that old Wagoneer and beach shack.  It was also my first time using the Life Changing Blender Brushes from Picket Fence and these brushes are all that and more!  If you do a lot of work with oxide inks or sponging, trust me, you want these brushes!

The base of this A2 sized card is made from Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock.  Using the Lawnfawn Landscape die, I cut the background out of this same white cardstock.  I sponged Walnut Distress Oxide ink all over the back of this landscape die to create the look of sand.  I sponged the background in Broken China and Twisted Citron Distress Oxide inks and the Life Changing Brushes.  I stamped all of the images in Tuxedo Memento Black ink on white cardstock and die cut them using the coordinating die.  I colored in all of the images using Spectrum Noir alcohol ink markers and added additional detailing with a Uniball White Gel Pen.  I adhered all of the images to the card using 3M foam adhesive.  I stamped "hey gullfriend" in the upper left corner of the card using Staz On ink.  Lastly I added a coat of Clear Wink of Stella to all the images for added sparkle.

Here is the Gullfriend stamp set and coordinating dies from Pink & Main that I used to create this card:

I hope you have enjoyed today's card!  Thanks for visiting!