Acrylic block stamping

Hello everyone and Happy Memorial Day!  Today I would like to share some ideas with you on how to create some watercolored backgrounds using dye based ink and acrylic blocks.  You can use ink pads or markers on your blocks to create this look.  I am going to show you how I created the cards below.

Here are the supplies you need:

Start out by adding color directly to the block either by pressing an ink pad onto it or by coloring on it with your markers.  I am showing both ways below.

Next, spritz water onto your inked block.  How much will depend on the type of paper you use.  For the ink pads I used watercolor paper and on my marker example I used Stampin UP whisper white.  I generally spray it 3-4 times.  Below is how the block looked after I sprayed it with water.  See how the ink beads up.

Then stamp onto your paper with the block and let the ink absorb into your paper

This is a very easy technique to do and your results will vary each time you do it depending on the colors and paper you use.  You can combine using markers and ink pads which is what I did on my example below.

Here are the SNSS products that I used on my cards

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Friday Feature- Birthday Word Art

Every Friday, Sweet N Sassy Stamps features a stamp set and offers that particular set at a discounted price for the week. This week's featured set is a great set called Birthday Word Art. It is a wonderful set to have to create birthday cards for everyone on your list. Two of my daughters had multiple birthday parties last weekend to attend so I used our featured set to create cards for them to give to their friends. Here are 2 of the cards I created.

This first card is actually a gift card holder.  I created the cupcake template myself by drawing the cupcake and then tracing the outline on a 4.25 X 4 inch folded card.  The ivory strip along the bottom of the inside of the card was adhered only on the bottom and sides leaving the top open so that the gift card could be placed inside.  

The second card was created for a 12 year old boy.  That is a tough one for me.  It could not be too busy and I was not allowed to add any bling- gasp!  I spattered red ink on my bg panel and then stamped my sentiment in black.  I added a black strip of paper on the bottom to draw attention to the sentiment and added stars using the You're a Star stamp set and coordinating Star Dies as accents.

Here are the SNSS products used on my cards:

Be sure to stop by the Sweet N Sassy Stamps blog to see some more wonderful samples created by other members of the DT.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hello everyone!  Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.  I hope that you are enjoying your day and that you are being spoiled by your family.  I can tell you that we are being spoiled by the beautiful weather we are having in Buffalo this weekend.  This is probably the nicest mother's day weekend that I can remember.

So after all the April showers we all know comes May flowers.  I think my favorite stamps at Sweet N Sassy stamps are the floral silhouettes and we certainly have some great ones to choose from.  I choose to make a Mother's Day card using the Wildflowers set.  Take a look.

I colored the stamp with dye based markers and spritzed it water a couple times before stamping on 90lb. watercolor paper.  You can use regular cardstock which I tried also but I liked how the watercolor paper looked better.  I accented the flower centers with stickles and finished off my card by adding rhinestones and taffeta ribbon.  The sentiment is from Precious Poppies which I believe is out of stock right now but if it wasn't for my mom I would have used one of the sentiments from the Wildflowers set anyway.

Thank you so much for stopping in today, have a wonderful day!