I'm back once again with another peek at my ever-evolving storage solutions. This time, we're talking ink. Specifically - Distress Ink.

I don't have a lot of regular ink pads - maybe a dozen or so. But I have every color of the Distress Inks in the mini size. And as you can tell from my many posts about them, I love them!

When I first starting buying the minis, I was able to keep them easily filed in rainbow order in one or two of the storage tins that are made for this particular product. However, as my collection grew, so did the need to keep them more organized and more easily accessible.

I decided to split the tins into color families. My first order of business was to sort out all the minis to see how many of each color I had. I decided that as long as the color family was together, it could share a tin with another family - if they were both small enough. So pink and red share, as do yellow and orange. Purple and black/grey also share as they are both very small families.

As you can see, there are spaces left in the tins - enough that I could get rid of a whole tin, but I want the colors grouped together, so I decided a few dollars for another tin was worth it. Plus, I've got room to grow now, if Ranger ever decides to come out with more colors!

Since I store the tins stacked on a shelf, I used my label maker to label the sides of the tins with the colors inside. I made sure that each color had it's own label, in case I ever have to re-arrange the minis into different tins.

All-in-all, this is a pretty simple solution. After all, I'm using the tins that are meant to store these mini ink pads. It's not like I came up with a whole new system, I just spread out the inks over multiple tins. But it works for me, and that's all that matters when you organize craft supplies. Do what works for you!

Happy Crafting (and Organizing)!

I've been trying new techniques with my distress inks again! Which means it's time for another edition of:

This time around, I used the mini blending tool to apply the ink to the paper instead of putting the paper directly into the ink. For this first card, I used alphabet stencils and rainbow colors to make a thank you card.

I added some water droplets after I was done, which adds nice texture, but several of them are very large, which I think distracts from the overall message of the card. The letters are hard enough to read without having big splotches on them as well.

On the other card, I applied the same rainbow colors to the entire background, then put a chevron stencil over the top and applied some black ink to make the stripes.

I like how this one turned out - it's pretty muted and soft for having so many bright colors and such a bold pattern.

I like the look of blended distress inks, but it's quite time consuming, so I'm not sure I'll be using this technique that often. But I'm glad I've tried it and I'm happy with how these cards turned out.

Happy Crafting!

Every year after Thanksgiving, I bring my cards into work to sell in the break room. I always sell a few, and it gets my name and work out there. This year, I was approached by a fellow teacher asking for some custom cards for a gift. She wanted some music themed cards. Easy!

I used this stamp on ivory paper to make the background paper, along with some distress ink to make it look older. That paper was then adhered to a black card base.

For the sentiment, I used this stamp on more ivory paper distressed with ink. I mounted it on black paper, cut a banner edge, and mounted it on the card with foam tape to give some dimension. I also added some die cut leaves behind the sentiment banner.

I really like how these cards came out. I made 4 for the special order (which she used for a holiday party gift game) and 4 extra which sold at work in just days! I think I'll have to make some more!

Happy Crafting!

Wedding season may be several months away, but I have been playing with the "&" stamp that I used on the wedding cards I made last summer.

I heat-embossed the stamped image with white embossing powder, then used distress inks (we all know how much I love those!) to make a colorful watercolor-like background. Some simple matting, and voila! Cards ready for any wedding!

What I really like about this design is that I can make it in any color combination I want - making it really easy to customize the card to the wedding! I made a blue, a lavender/pale pink, and a bright pink to begin with. I think those are pretty generic wedding colors, right?

I stamped the inside with a 'Congratulations' in a matching color of ink.

I have these listed on Etsy right now, but if you'd like one in a different color combination, just let me know and I can make one just for your special occasion!

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Crafting!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I had a great time relaxing, hanging out with family and friends, and getting caught up around the house.

And I got my Christmas cards done!

These cards are the most complicated cards I ever made multiples of. There were a bunch of steps and techniques, but I love them! And I loved making them!
First, I used distress inks to watercolor full sheets of paper using the smooshing technique that I've shared before, then I heat-embossed poinsettias on them.

Then, because the stamp didn't have a matching die, I had to fussy-cut them all.

I added foam tape to the backs of all the poinsettias to make them pop off the background.

The background of the card was a green water-colored paper, colored with distress inks, just like the poinsettias. I matted the green paper with black cardstock and adhered the whole thing to a gold card base.

The last part of the card was the sentiment. Gold heat-embossed stamping on black cardstock and matted on gold cardstock.

And voila! All done!

I made 45 cards and I loved making every single one of them! I know these cards were way fussier than I usually make. I know they took me a lot of time and effort to make, but I made them because I may not have a lot of time to make crazy Christmas cards for a while.
And I slipped a little something into each card:

That's right! That's my announcement! We're going to have a baby! I'm due in May and we're so excited! This is why I may not be able to do any fancy Christmas cards for a while - I'll be a little busy!

So, my holiday season was great, how was yours?

I've been making a lot of sympathy cards lately. That makes me sad. A lot of friends have been going through tough times lately and though I can't do anything to fix their problems or make them feel physically better, I can give them a card to let them know I'm thinking of them. So that's what I do.

I had to make another one a couple weeks ago and since I knew I'd likely need more eventually, I made several.

I made these cards using the same products. I stamped a dandelion stamp twice and embossed them using white embossing powder. I did the same with the Thinking of You stamp.

I used Distress Ink with both cards but I applied it in different ways. On the first card, I used an ink blender to apply the ink to the paper first, then I spritzed the whole thing with water to let the colors blend together. 

For the second card, I used the smooshing technique that I've used many times before. I started out with a pink, a blue, and a purple, but as the inks smooshed together, the pink and blue blended into purple, so it ended up very, very purple. Which still looks nice, but not exactly what I was going for.

I matted both watercolor pieces with foam tape onto white cardstock, then used foam tape to adhere that onto a white card base.

I'm hoping that I can stop making sympathy cards soon. I'm looking forward to getting started on my Christmas cards!!!

What kinds of cards have you been making lately?
Anyone started on Christmas cards yet?

Happy Crafting!

Have you ever had a vision of how something would turn out and you got so excited you couldn't wait to get started and you worked really hard on it and then it didn't turn out anything like what you have envisioned?

If you said no, you're a liar.  ^_^

It happens to me all the time. And most of the time, I scrap it or start over or just walk away. But this time I couldn't. This time I had an out of town wedding that we were leaving for the next day and I had no more time to make another card. So I stuck with it.

The color I had envisioned kept alluding me. I could not get my distress inks to do what I wanted! But I kept adding more layers. I kept trying more colors. I pushed through till I got the result I had set out to get.

And you know what? It felt really, really good when the color finally showed up.

When I finally got what I wanted, I was too tired to come up with an all new design, so I stuck with the one I made for a previous wedding card and took out some vellum and matching paper to finish up this card.

I really love this card. It matches the invitations perfectly (which I made - post coming soon!) and there's nothing quite like the triumph of working through crafting adversity. (How's that for dramatic!)

What do you do when a project doesn't turn out the way you envisioned it? Do you scrap it? Start over? Keep going? Throw it out the window and eat some chocolate?  ^_^

Happy Crafting!

Thanks for visiting again, I've got another card to share with you today.

Unfortunately, someone close to my family passed away recently and we do not live nearby, so I felt it was important to send a card to the person most affected.

I used Versamark ink and black embossing powder to create the sentiment and floral detail on the card first. Then I used distress ink to make a watercolor background.

Here's a closeup of the embossed flowers.

I trimmed down the background, added it to a black card base with some foam adhesive for dimension, and the card was done.

The hardest part of this card was to figure out what to say on the inside. I always have trouble writing in cards. Sometimes, I feel like nothing I say will be the right thing to say. I have to remind myself that it doesn't matter what I say, as long as I mean it.

Does anyone else have trouble writing on the inside of a card? Or do you have any go-to phrases that I can learn from? Please share!

Happy Crafting!

August 2015 will forever be known in our house as "The August of Insanity!" Of the 5 weekends (technically) in August, 1 was full of birthday celebrations for my mom and sister and 3 were full of weddings. Yes 3. And one hasn't even happened yet! At least I had one August weekend off. Though I used that weekend for dress shopping for the weddings...

With so many events coming up, I knew I would have to make some cards. Here is the first on I made: a wedding card for the first wedding.

I know it doesn't look like a traditional wedding card, but the couple that were married are very outdoors-y, so I thought I should go with a lightly 'camo' look. I white heat embossed the large ampersand, then used distress inks and my favorite 'smooshing' technique to create the center piece. The piece behind it is dry embossed vellum. I love how it turned out! All the softness of vellum, but with a unique texture.

I mounted both layers with foam tape onto a top-folding kraft cardstock base. A quick "Congratulations" stamp on the inside, and the card was complete!

I really like how it turned out, I think I'm going to use this design for some more wedding cards! It's super customizable, so I can use the wedding colors for each couple.

Happy Crafting!

In keeping with my goal of sending a card to friends who have gone through an illness or a surgery, I made another card for a friend who had knee surgery this summer.

I stepped out of my comfort color zone and used pastels for this card. I usually lean toward bright, bold colors, but I wanted to try something new for this card. I really like how it turned out! It's soft and colorful without being overwhelming. The white embossing matches nicely without popping off the page like it does with brighter colors.

I used the Sprigs stamp set from Penny Black and the Sincere Sentiments set from Stampin' Up. The background was made with Distress Inks using my smooshing technique.

Although I like making and sending cards to my friends, I'm hoping that I don't have to make any more "Thinking of You" cards - I hope everyone stays healthy and strong! I do get to make some wedding cards soon, so I will share those when I can.

Happy Crafting!