I Brake for Mardi Gras!

It's Mardi Gras! Let the good times roll!

Here's my card with Masquerade, a Rick St. Dennis digital stamp available at I Brake for Stamps.

Masquerade was resized in PhotoElements, printed out onto Copic-friendly cardstock with my laser printer, then colored with my Copic markers. The image was die-cut with a shape die.

Ancient patterned paper was die-cut with a flag die, edged with Dusty Concord Distress ink, then layered onto a flag die-cut from solid cardstock.

Another sheet from the same patterned paper collection was cut to size and edged with Dusty Concord Distress ink. The matted fishtail die-cut was adhered over the patterned paper, then the image panel was added.

The sentiment was added to the patterned paper circle with rub-ons, die-cut with a circle die, then edged with Distress ink.The circle was matted with a slightly larger circle die-cut from solid cardstock, then added to the card front. A butterfly and a mask die-cuts were adhered to the sentiment circle to finish the card.

I  Brake for Stamps has a great collection of digital stamps plus a huge and varied collection of rubber stamps that you ought to check out right now. Click on my badge below to be whisked over to I Brake for Stamps to check out all of the goodies! 

Thanks for visiting today!

Kathi

I Brake for Upside Down Bunnies!

Hello and happy Saturday!

Today I'm sharing an Easter card with you.

My card features BUNNY TAIL END.

This cute little guy is from I Brake For Stamps.

They have so many great EASTER stamps at IBFS.

I Brake for a Tourist ..

Hello IBFS fans !!

It's Crystal here and today's card was made using Tourist Charlie you can buy him as a single stamp or on IBFS100 Senior half sheet , I got the half sheet because I must collect them all ..lol .. that's how I roll, I must adopt all their friends .

sometime when I look at a stamp the card just pops in my head and this is how my card came about for this one, I embraced the whole travel theme he had going on went to my dies and started pull them out and the card started to come alive. I pulled my papers from the World Traveler 6x6 paper pad by Teresa Collins and oldie but a goodie and copic colored my image . at the end I'll list all the dies I used to get this look ..

inside my card I kept the theme going and added a die cut sentiment

the Die list: Tim Holtz thinlits Celebrate set , My Favorite Things Mini film strip , Amy Tangerine Camera/ picture frame set , In'spire Around the world die set , Darice Travel Theme die set , I challenge you to go thru your dies and put them to work , I am a die collector too..haha can you see a pattern here , oh well we all have our vices and mine is I love to make cards and IBFS has really awesome images to do just that, go check them out , the online store make it real easy to shop .

I hope I have inspired you to get inky in your craft room today and make a card to put a smile on a friends face, this World Traveler Birthday card  is sure to do just that don't you think ?

I Brake For....Curiosities!

Hello friends!  Nancy here and I have something a little outside my comfort zone today.  In going through my inventory of stamps I've found that I don't really have any "cute" or "funny" stamps.  Until today, that is!  Just look at the cute face on the monster stamp used on this card.

The stamp and sentiment are part of the Carmen Medlin line at the IBFS store and I have to tell you when I first saw them I thought they were just so cute.  

This particular stamp and sentiment combination can be found here called Monster Chill Set,  but it is also available as a set with four other cute monsters and sentiments found here, called Curiosities Set 1.

As soon as I saw this little guy I knew he should be purple.  Don't know why, it just seemed like it fit.  But I wanted him to be a bit more colorful so I added orange to his palette.  I used the following copic markers:  V01, V12, V15, V17, YR01, YR14 and YR15.  I have him sitting in a field of grass contemplating the meaning of life!.  The grass was created using an EK punch and some patterned paper. Green and purple cardstock and purple grosgrain ribbon finish it off.

I hope you will check out the Curiosities line and all the other stamps at IBFS.  

 Thanks so much for stopping by today!

I Brake for Tea!

It's time for tea with this fabulous rubber stamp sheet (MS78) from Merry Stamper, available at I Brake for Stamps! The tea set has four tea gorgeous tea pots with four matching tea cups, two sentiments, and a tiny little tea pot, which will be perfect for making backgrounds!

The sun, moon, and stars tea pot and the matching tea cup were stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink (Imagine Crafts), colored with Copic markers, fussy-cut, and edged with a black marker. The stamped, colored images were then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. This process was repeated a second time to make the images a bit more shiny and dimensional.

Two pieces of polka-dotted cardstock were layered, then edged with Wild Honey Distress ink (Ranger). A ray stencil was placed over the patterned paper, then Wild Honey Distress ink was sponged over it. Rusty Hinge Distress ink was used to edge the patterned paper. 

The embossed tea pot and tea cup were adhered to to the card front, which was then adhered to a card front.

I Brake for Stamps has a huge and varied collection of rubber stamps that you ought to check out right now. Click on my badge below to be whisked over to I Brake for Stamps to check out all of the goodies! 

Thanks for visiting today!

Kathi

I Brake For Strawberry Love

Hi stamping friends, Jamie Martin here with you today sharing a sparkly, fruity, love card. To make my card, I colored the strawberry from the I Brake For Stamps Fruit and Flowers Sheet set, with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Pens and stamped it on a white die cut panel. It was then colored with Prisma pencils.  The panel was sponged with Tea Dye ink and layered onto brown and blue papers. This was then glued to a tan card that was randomly stamped with Love and a small strawberry, from the same set using Tea Dye Ink. Tea Dye Ink was sponged around the card and blue glitter washi tape was added to the side. To add a bit more interest, gold Dot Sparkler stickers were added to the stamped panel.

Thank you for stopping by today and I hope I have inspired you to Stamp This!

I Brake for Bunnies!

Hello and happy Saturday!

The image I'm sharing from I Brake for Stamps today is SPRING BUNNIES.

Now that Valentine's Day is over our next major holiday is Easter.

IBFS has a wonderful selection of Easter stamps if you're looking for some cute new images and verses to add to your collection.

I love these sweet rabbits.  I have one that lives under my deck and I love watching her hop around...as long as she leaves my garden alone. (which she has so far...and hopefully will this coming summer)

On the inside I used 

Egg-Stra Special Easter TXT

I Brake for Gnomes ...

Hello IBFS fans !!

It's Crystal here and for today's card I am using a couple of the images from the MS 123 Gnomes sheet  .

this is a peek-a-boo card , the front is heat embossed with white embossing powder on black cardstock to give a chalk board look , I die cut a circle on the edge to create a window to show my image inside . I die cut the Hello and added some bakers twine.

inside I stamped my image and copic colored and chalked some background clouds around my image and added some sequins .

That's it for today's card , thx for stopping by ,for the MS 123 Gnomes sheet and many more images be sure to visit the

 I Brake for Stamps on-line store ,Happy shopping my creative friends …

I Brake For...Sunflowers!

Hello my creative friends.  Today I have a card and little gift box with a sunflower theme to show you - first the card.

I have several sunflower stamps - just can't seem to get enough of them!  I suppose it reminds me of the place I grew up - down the street our neighbors had a small patch of sunflowers in their front yard. They looked enormous to me, probably because I was just a little thing. I've always love the big bold blooms.  This sunflower  image from IBFS can be found HERE.

Usually when I do a sunflower card I use darker colors - mustard yellows and browns.  This time I wanted to go a little brighter and found some digital paper in my computer files that worked well.  It has yellow and browns but cooled down with blue.  Love it!  I stamped the image on copic x-press it cardstock in memento tuxedo black ink.  The stitched design on the panel (hard to see in the photo) was created using my silhouette. Copic markers were used for coloring.  The vellum panel with the word "sunflower" was computer generated. It originated as a silhouette cut file but I could not get my machine to cut the intricate design in a small enough scale to fit on the card.

Tell me about your coloring process.  I've evolved over the years - I've been stamping since the late 1990's.  In using copics I've found that it helps me to have a practice piece to work out the right mix of colors.  I usually take a small piece of cardstock and stamp the image - it doesn't have to be the full image - and test my colors.  It's what I did with the sunflowers in this card.  I worked out a few different shades in the copic color Y and YR ranges on my practice piece first and was able to color the final version quickly.  It may seem like an extra step but it helps me get the right blend of colors.

Now for the little box.  I had enough of the digital paper left over and decided to put it to use by making a small coordinating gift box.

The box was created using an easy origami fold and two pieces of paper.  To top it off I cut a circle with a spellbinders die and stamped one of the sunflower blooms .  The box is about 2.5 inches.

I have a short video on how I created the box.  I hope you find it useful.

I'm so glad you stopped by today.  Hop on over to the IBFS store - I know you will find something there to love!

I Brake for Owls on Valentine's Day!

Here's a Steampunky Valentine's Day card using Wise Owl, from the Wise Owl rubber stamp set, one of the stamp sets from the Mech-Animals stamp collection. It also uses Steampunk Heart, but not the wings, from the Large Steampunk Heart with Wings set, which is part of the the New Montage II set. Both the Wise Owl and the Steampunk Heart sets are by Carmen Medlin Designs and are available at I Brake for Stamps.

The Wise Owl and the Steampunk Heart were stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink (ImagineCrafts), colored with Copic markers, fussy-cut, and edged with a black marker. Wise Owl's beak, talons, armor grommets, and compass were coated with several layers of Clear Gelly Glaze pen (Sakura) as were the screws on the Steampunk Heart.

Blue cardstock took a ride inside an embossing folder. The raised bits were brushed with silver and brassy gold metallic wax then buffed with a cloth to give a lustrous metallic shine.

Bronze and silver metallic cardstock were die-cut with a lot of steampunky dies, then layered. The Steampunk Heart was adhered with two addition gear die-cuts to hold it. Wise Owl was perched upon the Steampunk Heart, the card front was adhered to a matching blue card, and I called it done.

I contemplated adding "Whoooo Loves Ya?" as a sentiment, but decided against it since my husband is away from home for Valentine's Day. However, he is a very smart man and my Valentine's Day flowers arrived on Monday!

I Brake for Stamps has a huge and varied collection of rubber stamps that you ought to check out right now. Click on my badge below to be whisked over to I Brake for Stamps to check out all of the goodies! 

Thanks for visiting today!

Kathi

I Brake For Ombre Birthday Cards

Happy Sunday, Jamie Martin here with you today sharing an ombre birthday card using the resist technique.  I made this using the Large Fritillaria and Dot Letter Happy Birthday stamps. The ombre look is really popular right now and I can see why, it's a beautiful look! 

To make this card-

1.  I repeatedly stamped Large Fritillaria on a white panel with VersaMark ink and embossed it with clear.  

2.  Then I started off by sponging Tumbled Glass ink, from the top working my way down.  When I sponge, I used the round foam sponges and cut them into quarters.  I have the sponging tools but if find that I'm always reaching for the sponges.

3.  Next Salty Ocean was sponged to about the middle of the panel.  

4.  Lastly Faded Jeans was sponged at the top. When done I rubbed the embossed areas with a paper towel to remove any remaining ink.

5.  Dot Letter Happy Birthday was stamped on a black strip of paper with VersaMark Ink and embossed with white embossing powder.  This was then glued onto the ombre panel with Zip Dry Glue.

6.  Dot stickers were added to the panel and it was then glued to a larger black panel to make the colors popand mounted onto  a white card.

I hope I have inspired you to Stamp This!

I Brake for Cuddles and Kisses!

Hello and happy Saturday!

My friend at work just found out recently that I make cards and asked me to make a baby card for a new baby arriving soon.

I love all the baby stamps over at I Brake for Stamps.

For my card today I used LITTLE GIRLS.

I love how sweet this verse is.

My friend loved the card so much that she said she hopes the recipient puts it in a shadow box or at least saves it.

With Sympathy ...

Hello IBFS fans !!!

It's Crystal here and today's card was made using Half Sheet Poppies and With Sympathy sentiment

I really love how this card turned out , the poppies were copic colored and water color specks were splattered on the finished colored look , I added my die cut sentiment "With Sympathy " is an Impression Obsession die , I cut two and stacked them to create a thicker stand out sentiment.I added brown glitter stickles dots to the centers of the poppies . 

Inside my card I used colored inks to stamp the poppy outlines and the added the With Sympathy  sentiment in black versafine ink .

For the Half Sheet Poppies and the With Sympathy and many other great rubber stamp images go to the I Brake for Stamps on-line store ,Happy shopping my creative friends …

Garden Still Life

Hello crafty friends! Nancy here and I am the newest member of the IBFS Design Team! I'm very happy and proud to be a part of a great team and company.     Here is my card:

I used the cute Garden Still Life stamp (you can find it HERE).  Stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black on copic x-press it card stock and colored it with copics.  I paired it with some pretty Memory Box papers that I have been hoarding holding for just the right project.  The garden theme of the stamp works well with the spring colors of green and purple.  I drew in some grassy clumps to fill in the ground and on the pots added little white dots.  Some ribbons and pearls finish it off.  The pearls were white so I colored them with a copic marker to coordinate with the purple of the cardstock.

So.. are you ready to do some planting?  Many of you are still in the middle of winter but here in Florida I am in the planning stages of what type of annuals to put in the front yard.  We'll start in March and I can't wait to get some color in my yard.
Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you will hop on over to the store - have fun!

I Brake for Air Mail!

Here's the parakeet from the Special Delivery rubber stamp set, one of the stamps in the Mech-Animals stamp collection, by Carmen Medlin Designs, available at I Brake for Stamps.

The parakeet from the Special Delivery set was stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink (Imagine Crafts, colored with Copic markers, fussy-cut, and edged with black marker.

Kraft cardstock was die-cut with a postage stamp frame die. The die-cut was sponged with Pumice Stone and Black Soot Distress ink (Ranger). The rest of the kraft cardstock was used to make a card base.

Map patterned paper was cut to be used for the card front. Its edges were sponged with Pumice Stone Distress ink.

The map paper was adhered to the card, then the Postage Frame die-cut was adhered. A rub-on was used to add the sentiment to the frame and the parakeet from the Special Delivery set was adhered as shown.

I Brake for Stamps has a huge and varied collection of rubber stamps that you ought to check out right now. Click on my badge below to be whisked over to I Brake for Stamps to check out all of the goodies! 

Thanks for visiting today!

Kathi