Toasty Greetings

Hello and happy Friday!  Toasty greetings is right!  It's freakin' cold out there today and I'm pretty sure we're going to see snow any moment now here in Mass!  I hope you have fun things planned for what's looking to be a very chilly weekend ahead.  My mom and dear friend Donna arrived on Wednesday night from Maine and California, respectively, and we are heading to a craft retreat in Connecticut with a few other friends for the long weekend.  Be sure to follow along on my Instastories for some behind-the-scenes fun!

Today I am sharing two cards that I threw together in very little time because, 1) I had already pre-made the alcohol ink backgrounds, and, 2) I had done all the coloring on a previous retreat!  I mention this because coloring is exactly what I'm going to be doing on this craft weekend as well.  Yes, for three whole days, I will do nothing but color (and eat and sleep, of course)!  I choose to do this because coloring takes up a LOT of time, something that I can never find enough of when I am at home.  It also means I don't have to pack a lot of bags for the weekend.  I can fit everything I need into one bag versus the multiple bags I used to bring filled with stamps, inks, paper and all the other things. 

Card details:

The base of these A2 sized cards was made from either Gorgeous Grape or Call Me Clover cardstock.  I lined the base of the card with pre-made alcohol ink backgrounds (more below).  Using the Heffy Doodle Slopey Joe Landscape dies, I die cut two snowbanks from Neenah Solar White Smooth cardstock. I lined the edges of the snowbank with Lawn Fawn Chunky Glitter.  I stamped the sentiment in the lower right corner of each card in either Gorgeous Grape ink or Call Me Clover ink.  I die cut the trees using the Lawn Fawn Birch Tree Lawn Cuts and adhered them over the alcohol ink background and tucked them behind the snowbanks.  I stamped all of the images from the MFT "Toasty Greetings" stamp set in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Neenah Solar White smooth cardstock and die cut them using the coordinating dies.  I colored each image with Copic markers and added highlights to the images using a Uniball white gel pen.  I adhered all of the images to the card using 3M foam adhesive. 

Because I am not currently creating video content and tutorials on my website, I highly recommend checking out this Easy Alcohol Ink Background Tutorial by Jennifer McGuire.  She has created a very simple introduction to working with alcohol inks to create some basic backgrounds.  This was the first video I watched after purchasing my alcohol inks and then I just spent time playing around with them!  The great thing is there is no right or wrong when it comes to art.  You just have fun (and usually make a mess) with it!  *My only tip would be that you don't need to spend your money purchasing polysynthetic Yupo Paper at nearly $1.00 per sheet.  You can use the reverse side of any high quality photo paper (like this one by Kirkland) and achieve the same results!

Here is the "Toasty Greetings" stamp set from My Favorite Things that I used to create today's cards:

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There is a lot going on with both of these cards between the alcohol ink backgrounds and the coloring, but when you break it up, it seems less overwhelming.  Some simple advice that I can offer, from my own experience, is to dedicate some time for each part of crafting.  Pick a day and color.  Pick another day and create alcohol ink backgrounds.  Pick yet another day for die cutting all the pieces.  Make extras of each and set them aside.  Then when you want to put a card together, half of the work is already done!

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful weekend!

XO, Crystal