I Brake For...Turtles!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Hannah here, from Fanciful Spaces! I'm on the blog today with yet ANOTHER awesome stamp from fellow Design Team designer Renee! Last week I shared a card I made with her adorable crab and today I'm sharing sea turtle from the same set! If you aren't familiar with Renee's stamp sets I wrote the following last week:

The "Animals Complete Set" contains 22 stamps, a cow, a tiger, a hippo with a bird, a sheep, and a dog. All of them have associated sentiments and each one is cuter than the other. The dog set has several additional stamps to accent it. The "Sea Critters Complete Set" comes with 14 stamps, a crab, a whale, a turtle, and an otter. All of these critters come with several sentiments to accent the figures.

You can buy each complete set and get EVERYTHING that comes with it, or if you prefer, you can order the animals a 'la carte. Each individually purchased animal comes with their related sentiments. Either way, you purchase you can't go wrong with these super cute sets.

Her stamps are SUPER adorable and so easy to color with Copic Markers! I did color the cute little turtle with a variety of green Copic Markers, he was SO fun! I stamped him out twice actually because I wanted to make my card a bobble head card! First I painted his entire body, for the second bit I only painted his head, fussy cut it out, and then made sure to run my black Copic Multiliner around the white edge of the paper. This last bit is SUCH an important step!

Using Tim Holtz Watercolor paper, I stamped out a wave stamp I had on hand twice, with VersaFine Ink. Then I colored the various waves with my Zig Clean Color Brush Markers. When this was dry I cut them out with a coordinating die, though you could also have fussy cut this. Because I wanted my waves to have a shiny appearance I covered both wave sections with Judikins Diamond Glaze. I let these dry over night.

I used a cloud stencil on the background, but if you don't have a cloud stencil you can just as easily die cut a cloud and use the paper as a stencil, or just fussy cut paper in a cloud like shape! Because I didn't have blue cardstock in a coordinating color I used my ink brush to dust on some matching Distress Ink. The paper I did this on I cut a tag out of, stamped and embossed my sentiment, and then took a silver Gelli Roll pen to create a stitched line around the outside edge.

Once the waves were dry I adhered the background set to my card base using Scor-Tape. The second set of waves I lined with mounting tape, once I figured out where my turtle was going to sit. The turtle was adhered to the background wave section using more Scor-Tape. I took an Action Wobble spring set and cut both sides down so that they would fit nicely on my turtle's head. All of this was carefully lined up and adhered.

Really, this card wouldn't have taken much time at all, except for letting that diamond glaze to dry fully! The result is, I hope, a really fun card that anyone would love to receive!

I hope you hop on over to the I Brake for Stamps website and snag your own set, these creatures are SO adorable. I sincerely hope that I get to see the creations YOU make with them! 

I Brake for...Crabs!

Hello, Sunday Readers!

I am SO excited today!!! Our very own Design Team Member, Renee, designed a line of stamps for I Brake For Stamps and today is the first day I get to share one of my cards using her designs! Renee actually designed two different sets.

The "Animals Complete Set" contains 22 stamps, a cow, a tiger, a hippo with a bird, a sheep, and a dog. All of them have associated sentiments and each one is cuter than the other. The dog set has several additional stamps to accent it. The "Sea Critters Complete Set" comes with 14 stamps, a crab, a whale, a turtle, and an otter. All of these critters come with several sentiments to accent the figures.

You can buy each complete set and get EVERYTHING that comes with it, or if you prefer, you can order the animals a 'la carte. Each individually purchased animal comes with their related sentiments. Either way, you purchase you can't go wrong with these super cute sets.

I have the Sea Critters set and have created today's card with it, next week I will be sharing another card I made with the turtle in the set. I can not wait to get the Animals set!

One of the great aspects of Renee's sets is the line weights, she used thick and heavy lines. Thick lines are especially great for people who are first learning to use alcohol based markers, like Copics, and to help further this effort her animals have large areas in them which REALLY makes them friendly for learning to blend markers. While they are VERY friendly for those first learning, they are also an incredible amount of fun for those who are more experienced.

As you can see in the image of the rubber stamp, part of the background of the sand is included, I extended those lines to the edge of my card panel with a Copic Multiliner. Again, the thick line weight made this task a dream as I didn't have to worry overly much on keeping a clean looking thin line.

I finished this card off with embossing the sentiment in copper embossing powder. Here is a more clear picture of it:

Amazing additions, like Renee's recent release, is just one of the many aspects of I Brake For Stamps amazing service. They have SO many fabulous stamps to choose from, they also offer a quick turn around and very reasonable flat rate shipping!

I Brake For.....Luncheon Meat!

Lunchoen Meat???  Hi everyone it's Wednesday and time to show you what I did with the cute and funny stamp  from I Brake For Stamps called Luncheon Meat.  First let me show you what the stamp looks like:

Cute, right?  I love the look on the faces of the fish and the helpless worm!  I wanted to go in a different direction with this stamp though.  Here is my card:

To get the most use of my stamps I try to think of various ways to use them.  My card is an exercise in masking and using a stamp positioning tool (I used the stamp-a-ma-jig).  Once everything was stamped I pulled out my copic markers,  set up a rainbow palette and went to work.   My inspiration for the card was this t-shirt:

Once the fish were all colored I worked on the background.  The watercolored look of the background was created using copic colorless blender in an aqua brush.  I then scribbled some very rich blue color (B69) on a craft sheet,  picked it up with the aqua brush and simply brushed on the color.

Now, if you don't have copic colorless blender you can use rubbing alcohol but the color many not be the same.  

The sentiment on the bottom of the card is computer generated.

The Luncheon Meat stamp can be found on the IBFS store here.

Then I did a second card.  Have you ever cut your stamps apart?  This is one of those stamps that can be cut apart and used in a variety of ways.  In the next card I used the worm an two of the fish. 

 I can see using those fish individually for so many different cards. The worm and fish were colored, cut out and popped up.  And it was a bit tricky cutting that little worm!!  

The waves were created using a couple of curved border dies and I don't know if you can see it well from the picture but the bottom of the card is embossed with a design that looks like waves.

I hope you have enjoyed these cards.  Please take a look at the IBFS store to find all sorts of fish stamps! 

Thanks for stopping by!

I Brake For...Some Days

Ever have one of those days where nothing seems to go right?  Hopefully it does not happen often but there are times when it's just not your day.  And this stamp and sentiment from I Brake For Stamps says it all..

The stamps are from the Carmen Medlin Curiosities line at IBFS.  This set of the monster and the sentiment is called Some Days Set and can be found here.  It is also available in the Curiosities Set 2 which includes 5 other cute monsters and sentiments.  That set can be found here.

I stamped the image with memento tuxedo black ink and colored it with copics.  The grass is an EK Success punch.  The polaroid frame is a silhouette file.

The patterned paper has stitch lines in the design and I wanted to carry that onto the card so I cut the paper and some white cardstock with a curved lines stitch die - here is a close up.

 have to say that I just love these little monster stamps and especially like that they are paired with funny sentiments.  Be sure to stop by the IBFS store to check them out.  

Thanks for stopping by today!

I Brake For Asian Flowers....

{jane bosi}
Happy Monday, Brakers!  Today I have a floral card to share.  For some reason, I was busy thinking about my niece, Lily, over the weekend.  She was born in China and this wonderful set, Asian Full Sheet, always makes me think of her! 

Not a flower girl, I don't even know what to call these beautiful floral images, but I sure do like them!

I added the flowers to a background technique called Aged Text Boards to create an interesting focal image piece.  After coloring all of the florals with copic markers, I added a few sequins for some shimmer and called it a day!

It's an easy card to make....why not give it a go?

TTFN & Don't forget the awesome!
Jane

Dreams

It is no secret, that when it comes to Myths and Legends, Miss Erika is a huge fan. Ever since I was young, I thought being a mermaid would be the perfect way to live. Free in the ocean, talking to the animals of the water.I still dream about that once in a while and wanted to share with you today an absolutely beautiful stamp available at I Brake for Stamps.

This is probably to most stunning mermaid stamp I've come across and the image is perfect when you stamp it. For this card, I decided to do a little Copic coloring and some "very fussy cutting" with the Moonlight Mermaid image. I stamped her 3 different times so I could get the splashes and the tail. Adding a splash of glitter to make that water come alive and we've got ourselves a winner I think. Here is the finished card for you. To get a closer look, just click on the photos themselves.

Here is a close up of the Moonlight Mermaid herself.

There are so many wonderful fantasy inspired stamps at the I Brake for Stamps store. So if you like the mythical, the beautiful or the unique, please hop on over and take a peek.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope the rest of your day is simply magical

Toodles
Erika Taylor

Haida Art

When I first saw this stamp in the I Brake for Stamps store, I knew that I had to have it. I've always love Haida art. Ever since that first trip to Vancouver, seeing those amazing totem poles. So when I received this stamp in my design team package, I had an idea immediately.

Hi Everyone, Erika Taylor here today sharing with you a very different card suitable for either masculine or feminine occasions. First of I stamped the image using Versamark, and embossed with black embossing powder. Then out came my gel pens and Copic markers to give this mask some Haida flair!!!

Once completely dry, I added some crackle paint to the top, to really give it even more character. The final project you ask??? Here it is. I hope you really enjoy it.

It certainly makes me smile. How about you? Here is a close up of the image so you can really see it in all its GLORY!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and taking a look at my Haida inspired card. Take a chance at something different today. Stop by the I Brake for Stamps store and see all the wonderful images they have to offer.

Until next time
Toodles
Erika Taylor