The Inking Spot of Crain Creations

4CC: #429 Snowflakes

It is time for another 4 Crafty Chicks challenge and this week's "Twist" theme is Snowflakes!  I got some new Snowflake goodies just in time for this challenge!  The pictures kinda stink, we've had overcast skies all week.

I used a new Reverse Confetti set called SNOWFLAKE MAGIC and the coordinating dies for this card.  For the base I played around with some alcohol & Water colors, I saw the idea on Jennifer's blog, here.  I used some Cosmic Shimmer watercolors, just some pretty blue with a little bit of like a blue green and lots lotsa lotsa water (on watercolor paper, fyi)!  Then I just flicked some rubbing alcohol from a paintbrush.  When I liked the look, I used the heat gun to dry it a little, then flicked some more.  I did this about 3 or 4 times.

It's kind of hard to see, but I used both of the large snowflake dies and a smaller die on this panel.  I have a white cs panel cut the same size and adhered it to the watercolor panel, this let me stamp those snowflakes in Navy Blue on the white.  I stamped the sentiment in silver and then using it's coord die, cut it out and popped it up in the center of the top flake.

To fill in a little more space I took one of the snowflake stamps and stamped some silver flakes in a few places.  In the bottom corner I die cut another snowflake but this time with silver foil cs and then popped it up and added a blue button with silver twine in the center.  OH and matted behind the watercolor layer is a silver layer of cs... it looked much better than gray!

That's it for me, be sure to check out what the rest of the Chicks have been up to, 

Leanne, Lori, Nance & Amy

And don't forget to link up your creation at the Hen House!

TCC: #102, Homestyle Christmas

Happy Wednesday, it's time for another Card Concept challenge!  I just love the coziness of this photo.  As much I as I like playing with "non-traditional" Christmas colors sometimes, the colors above are still my fave!

For my Clean and Layered card this week I used some goodies from SugarPea Designs.  I used the CARD FRONT BUILDER dies for my scalloped panel and that swirvie part between the plaid and trees (I just LOVE these die sets!!).  

I colored up the cute lil Moose & trees from the MERRY CHRISTMOOSE stamp set and used the coordinating dies (I love coordinating dies!!).  The sentiment in the lower left is from the stamp set too.

I hope you will play along with us, and don't forget to swing by the TCC blog to see what the rest of the team has created!

4CC: #428, Holiday Treats

Happy Thursday!  It's time for another 4 Crafty Chicks challenge, and this week's hostess, Nance, has given us a great "twist"... HOLIDAY TREATS!  I decided to go the "gift route", I LOVE making giftie goodies like this.  I used some Reverse Confetti goodies and made a goodie package for Hot Cocoa!

Earlier this year I was gifted the SWEET HOLIDAY stamp set, isn't it just so stinking cute?!?  It has coordinating dies, which I do not have, but ordered last night, lol! 

I colored my little Gingerbread House with Copics and added some liquid pearls on the roof and door frame.  The trees are also colored with Copics and I added teeny rhinestones for the ornaments...those are stinking heavy trees! lol

The sentiment is also from the set and absolutely perfect for gift giving!  I paired up that cute set with the BAGS & TAGS CREATOR dies.

So here's the package minus the contents... it's a little easier to see the details.  I used the "bag" dies and cut 2 of my patterned paper.  On the front piece I also used the stitched square window die...gives you a little peak of the hot cocoa packets.  Since I didn't have the coordinating dies for the stamp set, I just hand cut them, then added them with pop dots.  Now I wanted a good size bag so I could fit in all of the goodies, so instead of attaching those 2 pieces, I cut out a rectangle of my paper and used that as the bottom... scoring it where needed and then adhering it to each die cut bag piece.

See how much space I have?  Everything fit perfectly inside!  The marshmallows I added in this package were the super ginormous ones, had I used normal size bag dies alone would have been great for the package (meaning I wouldn't have needed to cut the extra rectangle).  I used some ribbon and threaded it through 4 holes to hold the bag together and tied a bow in the front.  Then I just hung the tag from that bow.

Here's the backside, nearly as pretty as the front!  The contents were a couple of packets of one of our favorite "non-homeade" cocoa's, a couple of jumbo marshmallow's, and a couple of Pirouette's to stir.

That's it for me, be sure to check out what the rest of the Chicks have been up to, 

Leanne, Lori, Nance & Amy

And don't forget to link up your creation at the Hen House!

 

4CC: #427, Christmas

Happy Friday-eve!  Hope you are all having a great week!  Oh!!!  and happy first day of November.  It's time for another 4 Crafty Chicks challenge and this week's hostess is Miss Leanne, and her challenge "twist" is Christmas.

For my card I used a retired set from Reverse Confetti called TINSEL & TRIM... this is just one of my favorite little Christmas sents, lol.  The base paper is a cream color with Gold foil stamped snowflakes.  I added a few "waves" using my DOIN' THE WAVE dies (from Reverse Confetti).  The tree is an older die from Verve stamps.  Super quick and easy peasy!  Thanks to Cas(e) This Sketch for the layout inspiration!

That's it for me, be sure to check out what the rest of the Chicks have been up to, 

Leanne, Lori, Nance & Amy

And don't forget to link up your creation at the Hen House!

TCC: #101. Rustic Fall

Hello, hello!!  Happy "Candy has zero calories" day!!!  It's Wednesday and it's time for another The Card Concept challenge (scroll to the bottom to see the Rustic Fall inspiration!).

This card was so quick to put together!  The base piece (the plaid orange with pumpkins, etc. on it) is actually a very pretty piece of patterned paper from a SugarPea Designs pad called Countryside Charm.  I just LOVE sheets like this, they are super cute just as they are or I can add just a little something to them.

In this case I decorated a simple tag and added it with some pop-dots.  The tag is called Dashed Line Tag (from Reverse Confetti), I paired it up with some Kraft cs.  I stamped the heart and "just" from the Just Because stamp set (from Concord & 9th) and then used the "because" die from the coordinating set and some Espresso cs.  I also used a couple of the sprig dies and attached those to the right side of the tag.  The frayed jute at the top of the tag were leftovers from a project my son is making.  And that, my friends, is my Clean and Layered project for this week's Rustic Fall challenge!  I hope you will play along with us, and don't forget to swing by the TCC blog to see what the rest of the team has created!

CLC: A shot of Coffee & a boost of Mojo!

Happy Friday!!!  I am so excited to be a fill-in Guest today on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog!!  I've whipped up a quick little somethin' to share with you using goodies from Reverse Confetti.  I was HUGELY inspired by a Mojo sketch that Julee shared this week... 

and let's just say that I flipped it upside down.  I used the CAFFEINATED CUPS stamps & dies along with FIGURE OF SPEECH stamps & dies (all from Reverse Confetti).  I was trying to keep with a more Fall color palette, so I grabbed the EVERY LITTLE BIT paper pad (also from RC) because the colors are deep and rich and just yummy... but then I went a little crazy with the pink, lol. 

For the "coffee" here, I stamped the "swirly" using WOW Embossing Pad along with some super pretty Nuvo Copper Blush Super Fine ep.  

This really was a "quickie" card, the dies doing most of the work here.  Sometimes a girl just needs something super cute, super quick!  The fluffy pink bow on the top and a few rhinestones on the side for some dimension & texture... voila!!!  Thanks for popping by and visiting, hope you have a wonderful weekend!

4CC: Black, White + 1 Color and a Friendship Stock Your Stash!

Happy Friday-eve!  It's time for another 4 Crafty Chicks challenge.  This week's Hostess is Miss Lori and her "twist" is BLACK & WHITE + 1 other color.  I chose teal.

I'm still recovering from my "drama" last week so "quick and easy" was the name of the game this week!  This certainly fit the bill.  I am so in LOVE with Cover Panels, Jen at Reverse Confetti has several fantastic ones, this one is "new to me".  It's called BIG CHEVIES, and it was perfect for this patterned paper!  I placed a piece of black cs behind it and gave my card a white base.  I love the splatter of black on the side!  The paper is from Illustrated Faith (SO in LOVE with their stuff!!!!).

I stamped a sentiment from the THE MOST BEAUTY set (I won't tell you for the 5 millionth time that this is one of my FAVE sentiment sets! lol) on the larger heart from HEART TO HEART, while I was at it I die cut the smallest heart too.  The DASHED LINE TAG (how fun are those dashed lines?!?) makes for an awesome background behind those hearts!  The waterbrushed teal paper is double sided, that solid teal for the tag is just the back side!  I added a few rhinestones, a button and some ribbons and I was not only done, but happy as a clam with this Clean and Simple card (which I almost never like my own C&S cards, lol.)

That's it for me, be sure to check out what the rest of the Chicks have been up to, 

Leanne, Lori, Nance & Amy

And don't forget to link up your creation at the Hen House!

4CC: FInish off the inside!

Happy Thursday!!  Time for another 4 Crafty Chicks challenge, this week's twist is to FINISH THE INSIDE!!!  I have to admit, I cheated this week.  I know, bad bad but I kind of have a good reason... over the weekend I tore one of my hip flexors (holy owies batman!!!) and I've been kind of down flat :-(  So I took my card from yesterday and finished the inside for today!

So this is the outside from yesterday, in case you didn't see it.

and here's the inside!  I love doing the insides, because you can use up some leftover scraps!  Both of the circles in here are the leftovers from the cover, and I just stamped a sentiment on the top one.  The sentiment is from MY TRIBE (Reverse Confetti).  I found 2 arrow stamps in the CRUSHIN' set (Reverse Confetti, now retired) and they go perfectly with the arrows on the DP!  I stamped them in Gold with clear EP to match!  Voila!!!  Easy peasy and still some room inside to write a <3 note! 

That's it for me, be sure to check out what the rest of the Chicks have been up to, 

Leanne, Lori, Nance & Amy

And don't forget to link up your creation at the Hen House!

TCC: #100, Elegant Fall inspiration & Celebrating 100 Challenges!

Hello!  Such an exciting day for us at The Card Concept as this marks our 100th Challenge!!!  We have a gorgeous inspiration photo for you (scroll down to see that), and to help us celebrate each of us on the Challenge Team has invited a Guest to play along!  My guest is the ever inspiring and ever enabling Amy Tsuruta of Tsuruta Designs <3  Be sure to pop over and say, "hey", her card is fantastic!!!!!

For my card, I went with a Classy & Elegant look.  I used the brand new PAINTING PUMPKINS from Power Poppy (I also used their current sketch challenge for more inspiration).

So I didn't really "paint" my pumpkins so much as I slathered them in Gold Foil!! hehe

See?!?  I told ya!  So I printed out the image in the size that I wanted, then I just placed a piece of Gold Foil over the whole image and ran it through the Laminator on HEAT.  I went back and colored in my pumpkins with Copics and added just a few brown touches to the image.  

I didn't "edit" this photo, I wanted to show you the foiling.  In real life it's fairly subtle, the whole card has a "softness" to it.  I love the muted colors of the pink & green!  I also added a few Gold rhinestones just for a little more "pop".  Well that's it for me, thanks for popping by!  Be sure to swing by the TCC Blog to see what the rest of the team and their guests have created and don't forget to link up your creation!  We LOVE seeing what you create <3

4CC: Pink is the new Orange!

Happy Thursday y'all!  It's time for another 4 Crafty Chicks challenge and this week's Hostess is Nance and her "twist" is PINK IS THE NEW ORANGE!!  For my card I've used a newer image from Graciellie Designs called STAY COZY.  I've also used the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch #292 for inspiration!

I had lots of fun with this!!!!!  First off I decided for some reason that this card needed some serious "shimmer" to go with all of that pink.  So I started off with making my own background paper.  The digital set comes with a tea bag image so I made it different sizes, mirrored it and rotated until my background paper.  But wait, there's more!!  lol  I printed this with our Laser printer, then ran it through my Laminator (on heat setting) with some Gold Foil.  I ran it through 3 times.  Just look at how perfect that detailing is!  And the shimmer is perfect!!!  This was so much fun and way easy! (these next 2 pics aren't very pretty because I took them at night on my work table).

So next up, I colored my mug all up with some Copics, and filled in that heart with some Gold Gilding Flakes. I'm in LOVE!  I didn't actually have Gold, so I just picked out some gold flakes from another container of mixed colors I had.  EEEKKKKK!!!  While I love the look of the gold foil, I love this different look with a little texture!

For the sentiment, I also printed it on the Laser Printer and then ran it through just like I did the tea bags.  This piece I only ran through twice (I did this piece first, and after seeing this one I decided to run the background piece a third time).  You can't really read it in this picture, but you can see that great shimmer!!

And here's the background in "action"...

The last bit 'o fun that I had was adding some Glossy Accents to the Coffee...

I am so in LOVE with the way this turned out!  Since this is a digi set, I am thinking of making something similar to this for my loft! 

That's it for me, be sure to check out what the rest of the Chicks have been up to, 

Leanne, Lori, Nance & Amy

And don't forget to link up your creation at the Hen House!

TCC99: Sunflower Serenade

Happy Wednesday!  It's time for another Card Concept challenge and this is one of my faves!!!  The theme is SUNFLOWER SERENADE (scroll down for the inspiration photo).  I absolutely LOVE sunflowers, I love the shape and the colors and just every little thing about them... they're like a burst of sunshine!

This was really a quick and easy card, and very CAS!  The image is a digital image from Power Poppy called Sunflower Power. The coloring was quick... I used Copics and  really quickly inked it up (I am NOT a quick color-er so that's sayin' something!) then cut out the flower.  I pretty much let some dies do the rest of the work.  The Postage Stamp die (SugarPea Designs) is a great panel for me... it adds a little something extra instead of it just being a regular cut rectangle panel.  This really helps me when making more simple layouts.  The blue script patterned paper is die cut with Stitched Squares (Reverse Confetti), I popped the sunflower up with some pop dots for a little dimension.  The sentiment is from one of my fave sentiment sets, The Most Beauty (Reverse Confetti)... I stamped it in Dark Roast ink and added a few enamel dots.  Voila!  Easy peasy!  I just love this color palette too.  Thanks for popping by, be sure to swing by the Card Concept Challenge blog to see what the rest of the team has for you and we hope you'll play along!

4CC: Happy Fall Y'all!

Happy Fall!!  It's time for another 4 Crafty Chicks challenge, and this week's Hostess is Lori and her "twist" is FALL!

I grabbed one of my favorite sets from Reverse Confetti and paired it up with this week's Freshly Made Sketches.  The stamp set is called JUST BREW IT, and it has a coordinating die which I also used.  I stamped the middle mug in DARK ROAST ink, cause...duh! lol  The other 2 mugs I just die cut using a couple of papers from the EVERY LITTLE BIT paper pad.  The sentiment is from BEAUTIFUL BANNERS set (which I think may be retired) and I used the coordinating die (which is still available).

That's it for me, be sure to check out what the rest of the Chicks have been up to, 

Leanne, Lori, Nance & Amy

And don't forget to link up your creation at the Hen House!

4CC: Tic-Tac-Toe, Hello Gorgeous!

Hey yall, happy Friday-eve!  It's time for another 4 Craft Chicks challenge.  This week's hostess is Amy and her twist for us is a Tic-Tac-Toe (scroll down to see it).  I used the middle column for my card... circles, a flower and ribbon.

I adore Concord & 9th stamps, and their Turn-Abouts are simply gorgeous!  And intimidating as all heck!!!!  Well not really, as it turns out.  I decided today was the day to pull up my big girl panties and give this gorgeous Dahlia Turnabout set a try!

Holy snickerdoodles was this EASY!!!!  So first off, they have a video to walk you through the whole prep and 4 step turning process.  It also includes options & how to use the coordinating die!!!  Easy Peasy!!  Ok, so first off I grabbed some white cs and ran it through with this STITCHED SQUARES die (Reverse Confetti).  This is my base for the Dahlia.  I'm not even going to get in to the process for the stamping because honestly their video is just perfect!  I will say that I stamped mine 3 times, with Lime, Coral & Bellini inks (Reverse Confetti), then die cut the 4th.  I have some peach/pinky paper behind the white and those fun polka dots kind show through the open cuts.  I liked the look but it was a little too pink still and I wanted more gold so I ran the die through with some gold foil and just glued a few down in random spots.  Perfect!!!

I stamped the "hello" (also from the set) in Lead ink (I really like the look of Gray sentiments as opposed to black sometimes).  The "gorgeous" was stamped in WOW Embossing Ink and Princess Gold ep (Ranger).  Pretty sure this is the most perfect Gold ep EVER!!!!!  It truly looks like melted metal!  I topped it off with that yellow ribbon... look closely it has gold stitching on the sides.  A few rose & gold sequins here & there and some rhinestones in the middles!  Voila!!  While this card is clearly a project for this challenge, I made it with a specific someone in mind... I hope it brings her a smile! 

That's it for me, be sure to check out what the rest of the Chicks have been up to, 

Leanne, Lori, Nance & Amy

And don't forget to link up your creation at the Hen House!

TCC98: Pastel Party

Happy Wednesday!  This has been a rough week, but stamping always makes things better, eh?  It's time for another Card Challenge Inspiration photo challenge and this one is just fabulous (scroll down to see the inspiration photo).

I just loved the background, that black & white kind of "zig-zag-y" thing, I knew I just had to use this BLOCKED OUT SQUARE PANEL (Reverse Confetti).  I also really loved the colors, though pastels really aren't my thing I used more Sherbet type colors.  So this pink w/hearts paper was perfect for my sentiment!!  The sentiment is from the MY TRIBE stamp set (Reverse Confetti), and I topped it off with one of the TOP O' the TAG dies (Reverse Confetti)... I feel like it just really finishes off the tag. 

I grabbed a couple of coordinating papers from my FOREVER MY LOVE paper pack for those "fluttery" hearts (XOXO HEARTS, Reverse Confetti).  I also ran my Blocked out Square die through again with one of those coordinating papers... then I grabbed the left over tabs and filled in a few of the "blocks" just so there wasn't so much white, lol.

That's about it for me, please be sure to head over the TCC Blog to check out what the rest of the crew has come up with!  We hope you'll play along with us and link up your creation, we always love seeing what you come up with!

 

4CC: Alcohol Inks Twist & a Pumpkin Spice Witch debut

Happy Thursday!  It's time for another 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge, and this week's Hostess is Nance and her "twist" is Alcohol Inks!  I used Copic Markers (alcohol ink) to color my PSL Witch!

This adorable Pumpkin Spice Witch is a brand new digital image from Annie Rodrigue (Moonlight Whispers).  I absolutely adore this wicked cutey!!!  

While my card for this challenge was done a few days ago, once I saw that Annie had released this I just NEEDED to quickly whip this up for today.  She's colored in Copics and die cut with a Tag die.  There was still too much "white space" for me so I used some of the Copics I used in coloring to add some speckles around her.  The Halloween paper is something from last year, I think by Doodlebug.

That's it for me, be sure to check out what the rest of the Chicks have been up to, 

Leanne, Lori, Nance & Amy

And don't forget to link up your creation at the Hen House!