Simple Elegance

posted by: Janette

Hi everyone! I am sad to say that this is my last post for you here on the DRS blog. I am so thankful to have had the chance to work with some awesome stamps and with the talented ladies on the design team. I can tell you that it won't be the last time using the stamps though.

Well, 2 weeks ago I showed you some some very sparkly, shimmery cards with lots of layers and embellishments. Today, I would like to show that I can also do simple and elegant. Really, I can LOL.

I am also glad that I had these cards done a few weeks ago because I badly sprained my ankle last week and have not really done much stamping at all since my craft area is in the basement- bummer! The first card uses the newly released butterfly stamp which is so pretty and elegant that it can stand alone. Take a peek:



I stamped the butterfly twice- once on the card and once on another piece of paper. The second butterfly I painted with lilac shimmerz, cut out and attached to the card over the other butterfly with pop dots. I also added rhinestones to the antennae. I pierced a trail for the butterfly and also punched a border on the bottom which was also accented with rhinestones before attached to the plum card base and finishing with ribbon.

stamp used- D226

My second card uses a newly released snowman silhouette stamp:



I stamped the snowman twice just like the butterfly card above. Once I stamped it with blue pearlescent ink and the second time I only stamped the top and embossed it with black. I cut out the embossed hat and attached it with pop dots over the blue snowman which I accented with stickles. I used some black grosgrain ribbon to make a scarf for him and then accented my card with black brads on each side. I finished the card by stamping the sentiment at the bottom.

stamps- DRS K247, F229

There is also a terrific coordinating snowflake bg stamp that would go nicely with the snowman stamp- H015

Hope to see many of you participating in the challenge that was posted yesterday. I would love to see what you all come up with since I was not able to participate in this one.

Have a wonderful day and happy stamping!

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Sparkle, shimmer and shine!

posted by: Janette

Hello everyone, I hope that you are all doing well. Today I have a couple of sparkly, shimmery cards to show you featuring some of the newly released stamps from DRS designs.



I stamped the main heart image and then painted it with rustic red shimmerz. It was then popped up and accented using the heart circle border stamp. I created my own patterned paper by stamping 2 different little hearts repeatedly and then painted the solid ones with shimmerz. My blush strip was run through my cb and then layered on top of my heart border strip. I also painted all the red borders with shimmerz.

Stamps- DRS designs D213, L273, F298



I stamped my star bg with black ink on white CS then spritzed my paper with glimmer mist. I stamped the main sentiment image with black ink, colored the stars with my pink marker then paper pierced around it to accent it. I added stars and ribbon as my embellishments. The black borders and stars were painted with shimmerz.

stamps- DRS designs H819, G323

Thanks for visiting today- I hope you have enjoyed seeing my cards. I will be back in two weeks and the cards I have to show you then are almost opposite of the two today. So stay tuned and have a great day!

Oh yes- don't forget about the challenge that was posted yesterday on the post beneath this one and about the sketch challenge that DRS is sponsoring this week on the CPS blog. Both challenges have blog candy associated with them for a random participant drawn from the entries of the challenges. Now- how cool is that?!

Blessings,

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Whooo's special...you're special!

Posted by: Janette

Hi there. I hope that you all had an enjoyable Christmas. I have a couple of cards to share with you today that use some new stamps from the December release.



I stamped my owl and colored it with a combination of aquapainter and inkpads and coffee shimmerz for a little sparkle. I then sponged the edges of my image. I sewed my grey layer onto my card base, added brads to the corners, and added my sentiment to the corner. My sentiment was stamped onto my circle which I then layered on top of my oval. I also accented the corner of my image with a ribbon knot.

Stamps- DRS designs H132, B142



I stamped my kitty image, colored it with copics, and then sponged around with my image still inside the rectangle nestability using it as a stencil. I used some crystal effects on the kitty's nose. I paper pierced a "frame" around my image. I stamped my pink section with my bg stamp tone on tone and accented each corner with a brad. I stamped my sentiment and punched it out with my word window punch and matted it with a second window punch. My sentiment was done by omitting part of my stamp and coloring with markers the words that I wanted to feature. This is a great way to get more out of your stamps and be able to customize them.

Stamps- DRS Designs D116, G088, H698

Thank you all for stopping by today. I wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!!!!

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Peace on Earth

Posted by: Janette

Here is one of the Christmas cards that I made. It was actually fairly quick and easy but I think that the end result is quite elegant. See what you think:



I started by spritzing my green layer with bright gold metallic memories mist so that it would have some time to dry while I assembled the rest of the card. Now be aware that when you use any of these mists (glimmer mist, memories mist, pearl ex w/hairspray etc.) that your paper is going to curl on you but it will flatten as it dries. I then stamped my image onto white shimmer paper with versamark ink and embossed it with detail gold embossing powder. I cut the image into a rectangle and matted it with gold metallic paper. The green layer was now ready and I matted it with gold and attached to the card base. I used vintage dies from cuttlebug for the photo corners. Each corner was accented with a gold pearl. Ribbon was tied around the middle and the image was attached over it. The finishing touch was the rhinestone I added to the star of the image.

See simple and pretty and not too hard to reproduce if you need several of them like me.

Stamp- DRS designs L673

Thank you for visiting today and I hope you like my simple and elegant card!

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

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A starry holiday

posted by: Janette.

Hi everyone! I hope all my American friends had a nice Thanksgiving. Were you out shopping on black Friday or perhaps you took advantage of some online sales?

Well, Christmas is going to be here really soon and today I have 2 star themed Christmas cards to show you.




I created the bg by sponging ink onto to glossy paper and then spritzing it with window cleaner to create a speckled look. My star wreath was stamped and each star was painted with gold glimmer blinz shimmerz and gold stickles was added to the center. Before I added the stickles I used a versamark dazzle inkpad directly on top of the image to give it some sparkle.

Here is the second card:



The star bg was embossed with silver and the star punches all have a star rhinestone in the center of them. The pretty bow ribbon slider was embossed with silver before threading the silver edged ribbon through it.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you all have a star-filled day and happy creating :).

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One last card for autumn

posted by: Janette

I like many of you have been busy making Christmas cards. Well, I thought I would make just one last card for autumn before I put away my awesome DRS designs fall stamps. They are some of my favorites so I created a nice simple design for you today. I love doing cards with lots of layers but sometimes a nice clean design is what I am in the mood for. Take a peek:



The card is pretty straight forward. I stamped my image with memento black ink and colored it with copic markers. My white layer was run through my cuttlebug and voila a great looking simple card.

Stamps- DRS Designs D704, G1102

So, don't put away those autumn stamps just yet- why not make some Thanksgiving card for your family and friends?

Well, have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by today!

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Butterfly Butterfly

posted by Janette

I have this song in my head and it won't go away. My daughter enjoys Barney and there is a song that starts off butterfly butterfly fly fly away. Anyway, I was originally planning on posting a different card today but since I have felt cruddy with a cold the past few days it is just not quite done so I will post it next time. Besides I have a card that I have been really excited to show you!

A few weeks ago the DT members were given a challenge should we choose to accept it. We were given this great butterfly stamp and the only thing we had to do was make a card with it- pretty simple right? Well for me it was because I really like the stamp. The only difficulty was deciding what colors I wanted to use. I hope that it is ok to be posting this but I did see it added to the site so I am assuming it is but if this post suddenly disappears and there is a new one you will know why LOL.



I really liked how this card turned and could not wait to be able to share it with everyone. I stamped my main butterfly image with versamark ink, sponged it with chalks and then added stickles. I also stamped my butterfly image in blue to make some bg paper. I stamped it 4 times in the corners and voila bg paper- pretty cool huh? I stitched the first layer onto my card base then added my next 2 square layers before tying my ribbon around the middle and adding brads to the corners. I finished the card by adding my main image with pop dots.

Supplies:
stamps- DRS designs H056
CS- SU bashful blue, lavender lace, white
ink- versamark, bashful blue
accessories- square nestabilities, paper piercer, stampin pastels, stardust stickles, sewing machine, ribbon, square parts shimmer brads

Have a wonderful Tuesday and thanks for stopping by today!

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A cup full of warmth

Good morning everyone I am so glad that you stopped by. Before I start my project I just want to wish the design team's Heather a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! I hope it is a good one filled with many blessings.

Whether it is a birthday or a holiday, I think I have a nice little gift idea that can be given for any occasion. I know that I will be creating more of these for the girls' bus drivers and teachers for church clubs. I created a mug card that you can fill with soup, coffee or in my case hot cocoa. Here is the TEMPLATE that I used for my card. I changed it a bit though using a straight bottom rather than rounded.



I wanted a straight bottom because I knew that I wanted to sew my card and it would be easier not to have to sew a rounded edge. I have a hard enough time trying to sew a straight line so I did not need anything more complicated LOL. Besides here is a tip for you if you decide to try these yourself- line the template up to the bottom and side of your paper and then you save time cutting too. The template is larger than a half sheet of cardstock (8.5" X 11'') so you will need the better part of a whole sheet. After I cut out my mug I stamped my marshmallow bg stamp in white ink on both the front of the mug and the inside of the mug. So, you will need to stamp on both sides of your paper. After I stamped the marshmallows I folded my card in half sideways and stitched it around 3 sides to create a pocket. You do not have to sew you can use adhesive but if you do I recommend an aggressive one like red line tape so that it will not come open easily.



I then stamped my cocoa cup with chocolate ink and colored the marshmallows with my clear spica glitter pen and part of the cup with my blue prismamarker. I used my circle nestabilities to cut it out and matte it onto a scalloped blue circle. You can sort of see the sparkle in the photo. I then added a scalloped border at the top which was made with my corner rounder punch and accented the scallops with dots using my chocolate marker. I finished off the card by adding a bow attached with a glue dot to the handle. Thanks to my friend Michelle who sent me the ribbon that matches so well with this card. Then add a packet of hot cocoa and you are done! What cute, simple and thoughtful gifts these make. Here is the finished project:



So the awesome stamps I used to complete this card are DRS designs H281 (marshmallows) and H223 (cup). I know that you are going to want to make some of your own so the stamps can be found by clicking this LINK. We have some other adorable marshmallow stamps too so be sure to check them out.

Thanks for visiting today. I hope you enjoyed my project and are inspired to make your own. If you do, I would LOVE to see it so post a comment under this post so I can check it out. Have a wonderful day!!

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An apple a day...

Hi everyone- I hope you are doing well today. I am going to be visiting my best friend soon and I would like to take her a gift to thank her for her hospitality. What better than a hand stamped card and gift right? A couple of weeks ago I bought a couple bushels of apples which let me tell ya is an awful lot of apples! I really did not realize how many I actually bought till I got them home and started making apple everything- you name it LOL. Well, one of the things I made was apple butter. I thought that it might make great gifts for people for the holidays or as a thank you gift like for my friend or also for the new neighbors that are going to be moving in a few houses from me. I could not very well give them a plain old mason jar now could I? Here is where my projects come in.

You will need:
piece of cotton muslin fabric
a circle template (I used the top of a cookie tin which was 6 1/2 inches in diameter, but a small plate would work)
stamps
ink
fabric scissors
ribbon
rubber band

First, draw a circle onto your fabric using your template


Next, start stamping your images onto the fabric. I just used regular dye ink because I was not intending on washing these. If you need it to be washable then you will want to use an ink like palette which can be washed. Make sure that you stamp some of your images over the circle line.


Continue stamping until you fill the circle the way that you desire. Here is a picture of the finished circle:


Then lay your fabric over your jar filled with goodies (cookies or brownies in a jar, soup, jam, or in my case apple butter) and secure with a rubber band. Don't worry the rubber band won't show once you tie your ribbon around it. Stamp your sentiment and punch out with a circle and layer it onto a scalloped circle. Set an eyelet into your circle and tie the ribbon around the jar attaching your circle.





Stamps used- DRS designs C1063, A1074, C691

I have had some people requesting the recipe for the apple butter so HERE it is. I did cut the sugar down to like 1 -1 1/2C though and I did use applesauce rather than the apples. However, this was homemade applesauce that I made. I first made lots of applesauce then I decided to turn some of that applesauce into apple butter. To make applesauce I just cut and cored my apples and put them in a pot with some water and cooked them down. After it was mushy, I put it through my food mill- simple as can be. Just make sure you keep stirring the apples while they are cooking because they will stick if not- trust me, wonder how I know that LOL?

Here are a couple variations that you can use for Christmas or for anytime during the year. The first one is for my sister in law whose birthday is on the 10th- hope she likes it.





I intended to fill this with kisses but oops- I ate them LOL!
Stamps used- DRS designs H361, P219

This fabric I added stickles to the center of the snowflakes and sponged the edge of the fabric:




Stamps- H187, D932

The nice thing about creating your own printed fabric is that you can coordinate your gift to a card- cool huh?

Thanks for visiting us today. I hope that you have enjoyed the projects and are inspired to try some of your own. Have a terrific day!

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background bonanza

This post today is inspired by my grandmother who asked me to make some card sets for her to give to her friends for Christmas. I have the start of 2 sets to show you today. When I started designing for DRS one of the things that attracted me most was the background stamps and the variety of them that we offer. I like many of you out there have TONS of designer paper but can you believe that even in my stash sometimes I don't have the right color or pattern suitable for the project I am creating. Well, there is a pretty simple solution to that problem- make your own and let DRS designs help you do it!

I am highlighting 2 background stamps today. I truly find our bg stamps a breeze to work with and have had no overlapping or any difficulties when creating my paper. The 2 stamps today I find to be among the easiest. The first 3 cards all use H813.



stamps: H813, K662, P219



stamps: H813, K662, E177




stamps: H813, K662, G476

For all 3 of my cards I stamped my bg stamp and colored the centers of the flowers with my marker and added stickles on top of that. Another thing I did was get more mileage out of my sentiment stamps by inking up only part of the sentiment. For example, the second card which says "thinking of you" the stamp also has "at Thanksgiving" as part of it. Pretty clever huh LOL? All 3 cards use the same basic stamps but just change the color, layout and sentiment. I plan on adding a thank you and either just a note or hello to this set to complete it.

The second set I am making for grandma uses the H827 bg stamp. I again stamped the bg with black ink and colored it in with my markers. I also accented the dragonflies and flowers with stickles. Since, I am making sets I was looking for a simple but pretty layout. You get different looks by changing the colors and changing the shape that you stamp the sentiment in.



stamps: H827, A070



stamps: H827, P219

I used shimmerz angel wings paint on the dragonflies and stardust stickles on the flower centers for the second card.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you will consider making some card gift sets for your friends and family this upcoming holiday season. Have a wonderful day!!

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Everything is better when it Shimmerz!

One of the things I enjoy most about creating projects for the winter/holidays is that I can use lots of glitter and bling because it lends itself well to snow and Christmas. Well, just this week I discovered a new product to me- Shimmerz. Let me just say that I LOVE this stuff. It is a very thin shimmery paint that dries pretty quickly. If you would like to see more info about shimmerz and check out the colors available you can find that at

http://shimmerzpaints.blogspot.com

I have a couple of cards to show you using this cool product.

The first card also uses the polished stone technique. To do this technique you will need:
cotton ball
dye reinker in 1 or 2 colors
metallic reinker
glossy cardstock
rubbing alcohol

First, start by placing about 7 or 8 dabs of metallic reinker directly onto your glossy cardstock. Then wet your cotton ball with the alcohol and place 4 drops of dye reinker onto it (if using 2 colors you would use 2 of each). Here I used gold metallic reinker and wild wasabi dye reinker.



Next, just randomly dab your wet cotton ball with reinker all over your glossy cardstock until the paper is completely covered and you achieve the desired look that you want. If you want more cracking you can go over the paper more than once.





After creating my background I embossed my tree image (which is one of the new releases) with gold embossing powder. I then painted all the shamrocks with olive shimmerz paint and accented with a small gold pearl in each one- this does not show well in my picture at all. There are a couple of extra tips I would like to share with you regarding this technique. The metallic reinker is what causes your paper to marble or get cracks in it. If you try this technique without the metallic it will just have a softer non marbled look to it. Another important thing is the amount of metallic reinker to use. If you use too much, your paper will look "muddy", not enough you won't get the cracking. Be aware that the metallic will rub off on your hands so you need to either "buff" it off a bit with a clean dry cotton ball or spray it with some hair spray. Buffing it with a cotton ball will also help soften it if you find that you used too much metallic reinker. The bow ribbon slide was embossed with gold and painted with angel wings shimmerz. I threaded gold trimmed organdy ribbon over white satin ribbon so I used 2 different ribbons on this card.

stamps- DRS designs L1007, D959

The second card also uses shimmerz paint on my image:


I stamped my snowman image with palette noir and painted it with angel wings shimmerz paint. One tip when using shimmerz- paint your image first then attach it. I noticed that the paper can curl a little so when I painted after matting my image I got a bubble so adhering after painting eliminated getting a bubble in my paper. I then colored both the hat and the scarf parts of the image with my markers, stamped them and cut them out. I attached them to the snowman using pop dots foam adhesive for some dimension. The plaid background was created to coordinate with the plaid in the hat and scarf. I created it using the DRS open plaid stamp which I love because you can customize it using whatever colors you like, using it to make horizontal, vertical or diagonal stripes or a plaid pattern like I did here. I stamped my sentiment and painted over it with shimmerz paint and let dry which only takes a few minutes. After it was dry I punched it out with the circle punch and ran it through my cuttlebug tiny bubbles folder upside down so it would look like a golf ball.





stamps- DRS designs K448, P631, A277

Thanks for sticking with me through the long post. I hope you like the projects and will give the techniques a try. If you do I would love to see what you come up with so be sure to post a comment here with a link to your project so I can check it out. Have a great day!

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A little diSTRESSED

Hi everyone! Today's card is feeling a little distressed kinda like the creator of it LOL. Take a look:


I stamped my image and colored it with my prismacolor pencils and gamsol. This is not a new technique and there are many tutorials out there for it however there is a tip that I use that I have not read about and I kinda found out by accident. To help me with shading my image I use an eraser. Sometimes I want want my light areas to be a little lighter and to do that I gently rub my eraser on those spots to remove a bit of color. I also use a couple shades of a color together before I blend with the gamsol. Anyway, once my image was colored I distressed my edges with a ruler and then sponged ink over them. I also distressed the edge of my pumpkin layer before sewing it onto the chocolate matte. I stamped my background olive layer with one of our fabulous bg stamps that make creating your own custom patterned paper a breeze. I sponged ink around this layer and stitched around the edges. I stamped my sentiment onto a punched circle and sponged ink around this too. I then started assembling after I tied some twill around the olive. I finished off my card by adding some brads and using pop dots to attach my sentiment.
Here is a closeup of the colored image:


Supplies:
stamps- DRS designs A020, K097, H166
ink- palette noir, old olive, ruby red, choc chip
CS- old olive, pumpkin pie, choc chip, GP white
accessories- ruler, sewing machine, sponge, brads, twill, primacolor pencils and gamsol

I really hope that you enjoyed my project today. Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by,

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Lovely little ladybugs

Hi everyone! Today is my turn to share some projects with you. Before I get started however, I want to wish my oldest daughter Rachel a very happy birthday! Today my baby girl is 12 years old. She is so excited because she is 12 on the 12th LOL. So that is the inspiration behind 2 of my cards today.

I have 3 cards to show you for today and I chose a ladybug theme. If you have not seen them in our catalog yet, be sure to check them out because they are absolutely adorable! The ladybug stamps I used are F578 and G695 and you can see them by searching our store website. All of my cards use the annivervsary sketches from Julee Tillman. I just love her sketches and they worked really well for the cards I am about to show you.

The first card is a birthday card in honor of Rachel...check it out:



I colored my ladybug with my prismacolor markers and then used my spica glitter pen on the black spots. I used my paper piercer to highlight the corners of the image and along the edge of my black strip. I stamped the background and used the ticket corner punch.

Supplies:
stamps- DRS designs H628, B250, F578
CS- real red, black, white from SU
accessories- striped grosgrain, brads, paper piercer, cuttlebug, spica glitter pen

My next 2 cards use the stamp stamp but in different ways. This one uses the stamp in the traditional way.


I colored my image with my prismacolor markers and used crystal effects on the black ladybug spots.

Supplies:
stamps- DRS designs G695, 070
CS- bazzill bling, black, real red SU
accessories- CM circle punches, shimmer brad, black brads, square punch CM

The last card is the one I made for our inchie challenge. I used the same stamp as in the last card but I used a black marker to color only one of the ladybugs in the stamp and stamped my image. I also used crystal effects on the ladybugs for this card. I highlighted the word red with my red marker in my sentiment stamp and used my marvy corner punch to highlight the corners and added rhinestones to them. Take a peek:



Supplies:
stamps- DRS designs G576, G695
CS- black, real red, white SU
accessories- Martha Stewart border punch, marvy corner punch, clear rhinestones, prismamarkers, crystal effects, striped grosgrain

I hope you have enjoyed my projects and have a wonderful day!

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