We are Brave

 Today I am showing off a card that I created using Sassy & Crafty's Free & Brave Stamp Set.  I love these girl power images and the girl with the flag is absolutely amazing. I wanted to alter the flag to represent the Overcoming Disabilities flag since that's something that is really important to me.

I began by stamping onto watercolor paper with Ink On 3's Fade-Out ink. Next, I pulled out my watercolors and used Gansai Tambi Starry Colors paints for the gold on top and bronze on the bottom, the silver in the center is a combination of Spectrum Noir Sparkle Glitter Ink and a white watercolor from my stash. 

Next, I used Nuvo's Hair & Skin Tones Watercolor Pencils for her skin and hair. I struggled with her face and was not able to get the details of her features with the no-line technique so I tried to stamp just her face... unfortunately I did not have the paper lined up correctly and messed up her face and hair. So I restamped the face and hair with Fade Out ink then used a dauber to put VersaFine on just her facial features. In order to save the rest of my work, I just cut the new face out and glued it on to the already completed body. I used watercolor pencils for her shirt and the flag pole as well.

For the card front, I used black cardstock and Cosmic Shimmer Citrus Green Gilding Polish over the Sassy and Crafty Comic Book 2 Stencil. It took several layers of the Gilding Polish but the way it pops off the black was so worth it!

Next up, I used the buildable sentiments from Sassy Girls - Free & Brave to put together the sentiment "We are brave". I stamped it in my MISTI 2.0 using Hero Arts Unicorn White ink topped with a layer of green Opalite Ink to give it a green tint. Had I been more patient, I probably would have chosen to heat emboss the sentiment instead. I finished the card off with some little purple hearts from Queen & Co.

The colors purple and green, that I used on this card, are symbolic of the disabilities that I work hard to overcome each day. Purple represents Fibromyalgia, green represents mental health. There are so many people struggling with invisible disabilities and working to overcome them every day.

I hope that you enjoyed my card and be sure to check out Sassy and Crafty for all sorts of amazing stamps and stencils!

Until next time,

R. Winn

Lighting Up the Sky with Fairy Magic!

Welcome to the Scrappy Tails and Pear Blossom Press Collab Hop!

Today, we’re sharing lots of whimsical cards that will really brighten your day. They feature dreamy new stamps and dies from Scrappy Tails, and with a little help from Pear Blossom Press, they all light up! Be sure to hop along with us for lots of inspiration; our designers have come up with some stunning cards...

Now, for my card! I am so obsessed with this card you guys.

The entire June release from Scrappy Tails is really magical but I selected the Fairy Girl to begin my card with. I stamped her using my MISTI 2.0 onto watercolor paper. I used two different yellows on her hair (these were given to me and I'm not sure of the brand.). For her skin, I used Crayola Colors of the World Markers, I scribbled these on my palette then used them as watercolors. For her wings, I broke out these AMAZING watercolors from HydraColour on Etsy the blue of the wings is Scarab, with a bit of Poseidon over top in certain places, the purplish color is Fantasia. Her shirt is the Purple from HydraColour's Neon Pan Dot Card.

I mixed a few dark blue and dark purple watercolors together and did a quick wash of the color on a sheet of watercolor paper for the background. Next, I used Deco Foil Foam Adhesive and a White Latte Flock Sheet to create the cloud border with Scrappy Tails' Cloud Frame Cover Plate.

I came back to my watercolored indigo background and placed my Fairy Girl and Cloud Frame to see where I wanted my Crescent Moon die (which was an incentive die from the June release). I cut the moon out of the watercolored background, then used a gold cardstock scrap to die cut my moon. To create the holes in the background under the wings, I used a cloud die from the Scrappy Tails' Cloud Frame Cover Plate set that was the perfect size to create a hole that filled most of the center of the wings.

Next, I flipped the card over and backed the hole in vellum. I decided to use 2 EZ-Lights so that each hole had 2 LED lights since they were rather large spaces. I use glue dots to attach the top of the EZ-Light to the back of the card front, then used washi tape to wrangle the wires and position the LEDs. My next task was lining the back of my card front with Crystal Clear Double Thick Foam Tape before I could flip it back over to finish the front.

 

I used a few stars from the Scrappy Tails' Cloud Frame Cover Plate in the gold as the moon for embellishment. The largest star, I wrote "Push" on and placed in the "sweet spot" that if it's pushed on just right will activate both EZ-Lights.

 

Now, I very rarely put sentiments on the inside of my cards, but I just loved this sentiment from Scrappy Tails' Fairy Friends stamp set. I stamped it using Catherine Pooler's Juniper Mist Ink and my MISTI.

This card is honestly one of my new favorites and in the dark it's even more stunning, all lit up.

Here is a little video of it in action!

Be sure to visit are blog to get more inspiration and more entries into the giveaways!

Scrappy Tails

Carol Hintermeier

Jackie Pasko

Rachel Winn (You are here!)

Teresa Plunkett (Your next stop!)

Natasha Davies

Carrie Rhoades

Tanna LoHouse

Ilina Crouse

Pear Blossom Press (Su-Queen Teo)

We’d love to see what you would create with these lovely new products, so we’re giving some away! Scrappy Tails and Pear Blossom Press are each giving away a $25 store credit! Comment on this post by July 9, 2021 to be entered to win. Winners will be announced on July 12th.

Thank you for stopping bye and I will see you soon!

R. Winn

Blonde and Ambitious

Welcome back!

I am sharing two projects using the new Kindred Stamps stamp set, "Blonde and Ambitious." I love how sassy and smart this set is and just had to make a few things that really felt "RIGHT" for it. 

I started with a bookmark, I bought a big pack of plain white bookmarks on Amazon a while back, and used one as the base for this project. I used i-crafter's pink i-brush blending brush to dust Radiant Neon Electric Pink Ink around the edges of the bookmark. 

Next, I colored up my brilliant fashionista using Copic markers on X-Press It card stock. I fussy cut her out and set her aside. Next, I used scrap black and gray card stocks with Frantic Stamper's Stack of Books die and cut just the top book off of 3, the whole stack was a bit overwhelming for the bookmark. 

There are some really cute sentiments in the "Blonde and Ambition" set, but for the bookmark, I felt like "You're like really smart" was perfect for a bookmark though! I stamped that in i-crafter's Hushed Darkness Black ink using my Mini MISTI. I finished the project off by adding some fun pink ribbon to the top.

My next project, I wanted to do a gift card holder. I have a Sizzix Bigz die, and used it to cut out my base with some bold pink card stock, then a white inner piece for the gift card holder. 

Again, I stamped my expert shopper from "Blonde and Ambitious" out and colored her with Copic Markers, then fussy cut her. 

I used a Sweet Stamp Shop die to cut out a cityscape in gray, then a Sizzix die to cut out a film negative in black and layered these both over a white piece of cardstock. I tilted it and cut it down a bit, then glued it to the top of the box. 

I added the "Snaps to you!" sentiment from "Blonde and Ambitious" stamped on the same pink card stock as the box in a Circle die cut from The Stamp Doctor.

The last step for this gift card box, was stamping the sassy shopper from "Blonde and Ambitious" using Ink on 3's Fade Out ink for a second generation stamping look, and the "You're legally awesome" sentiment from "Blonde and Ambitious" in a bright pink Catherine Pooler ink.

"Blonde and Ambitious" and the entire Kindred Stamps May release will be available Friday, May 22 at 8am PST/11am EST. Be sure to subscribe to the Kindred Stamps blog to see a daily line up of sneak peeks from our amazing Design Team and see the full product release on Friday! Come join the Fan Club and release event to be part of the release fun, and you may just win some Kindred Stamps credit!!

I hope you enjoyed my projects, and will see you next time!

~R. Winn

Secret Agent

The new Kindred Stamps "Secret Agent" stamp set was so fun to work with! I made two cards to show off this set, I hope you enjoy!

I colored up the Secret Agent using Copics. I decided to color him different ways to show off how he fits well in different skin tones and colors, he stands out because he's handsome, but he blends in because he fits into any crowd. (Okay, I overthink things...) 

My first agent is colored as a blonde, who fair skinned, I really hope he wears sun block so he doesn't burn! For this card, I wanted to used the martini glass stamp that comes with the set, you could fairly easily mask the gun out of the agent's hand and put the martini glass there instead... but masking isn't my favorite thing, heat embossing is. So, I used Ink on 3's Juicy Clear Embossing Ink, and a green embossing powder from Lindy's Gang to heat emboss a patterned paper and created a side panel for the card. I finished the panel off by adding a small amount of Nuvo Claze to each glass, making them appear to be filled with liquid. 

I used a black cardstock for the base and added my panel, then layered my "Stay Classy" sentiment (LOVE that font!) which was stamped on some silver, mirrored paper that my grandma found at a garage sale. The silver paper is highly glossy, so I used my MISTI and stamped it out using Stazon Pigment ink in blue, to match his suit. I cut the sentiment down to a long strip using my My Sweet Petunia Cut Align and a Pen Blade to make sure it was nice and even. 

After placing my agent in the middle, I felt like I needed a few embellishments, so, I reached for my Silver Love From Lizi Peel Offs, and added 3 to the side that didn't have the panel to balance it out. Last, I added a couple gunmetal/silver embellishments that I got from CTMH years ago. To get a clear picture of the sentiment, the picture lost a lot of the luster and shine that the martini glasses have, but this was a really fun card to make.

Merry Whatever...

Season's Greetings!

I don't know about you, but I LOVE Christmas. It's a time where people are more thoughtful, kids behave better, and I get to shop... I like to shop! 😂 So, I've been excited about making some Christmas themed cards and have been having visions on a snow globe card for like 2 years. Well, I finally did it!

The new "Merry Whatever" set from Kindred Stamps felt like the perfect set to make my vision come to life. I began by watercoloring the images and fussy cutting them out. Next, I took watercolor paper and created a blue sky with lots of different blues and trial and error in blending them. After that dried, I took white watercolor paint and splattered it over the blue to create falling snow. 

I used the Jaded Blossom Snow Globe Die set to create my snow globe. After I cut out my sky using the die, I added a layer of snow to the bottom to create a ground for the images to stand on. After that dried, I added them with the dog positioned a bit in front to add some depth!

I built my snow globe then cut out the tag and background layer in a nice bright red cardstock. I took the "Merry Whatever" sentiment and cut the words apart to allow me to fit them on the tag, thankfully my MISTI makes positioning words onto a small tag a breeze. I added small black enamel dots to cover the holes on either side of the tag. 

I layered it all onto a nice mossy green card base to really give it a Christmas feel. I added some small iridescent snowflakes to the sky and some Honey Bee small clear sequins below their feet to really give that snow globe feel. 

My next card using "Merry Whatever" was super quick and easy! I did a "quick" watercolor on these two friends, not stressing so much about lines or adding depth, just laying down the color. I did add a little pink to the green fellow's cheeks to make it appear he was blushing. I also quick watercolored the heart stamp. 

The images I fussy cut with a bit of a border, I didn't want to stress so much about them being perfect and think they came out super cute honestly. I popped the heart onto the green fellow's chest with a foam adhesive square to complete the image.

I recently added the Kindred Stamps Medallion Stencil to my stash and wanted to play with it. I blended Catherine Pooler Rockin' Red Ink over the stencil, adding multiple thick layers. Next, I took Catherine Pooler Icing on The Cake ink and brushed it lightly over the edges of the paper. 

I put the two friends towards the center of the card, the green guy I glued down, the pup I used a foam square for. I stamped the "Holidays are Ruff" sentiment some green paper and just kept it a simple strip popped with foam adhesive.

The entire Kindred Stamps November release will be available Friday, November 29th at 8am PST/11am EST. Be sure to subscribe to the Kindred Stamps blog to see a daily line up of sneak peeks from our amazing Design Team and see the full product release on Friday! Come join the Fan Club and release event to be part of the release fun, and you may just win some Kindred Stamps credit!!

Hopefully, you enjoyed my cards, I would love to hear what kind of cards are your favorite to make? Simple and easy or more complex and time consuming? Leave me your answer and a good email address to be entered into my drawing for a $10 Kindred Stamps Gift Certificate! 

Thank you so much for visiting me, and I hope your holidays are absolutely magical and filled with love!

~R. Winn

Made in the 80's!

Hi all!

It's that time again, release week at Kindred Stamps! This week's release is all kinds of wonderful and I have two super cute projects I'm SO excited to share with you!

I was lucky enough to get to use the new set "80's Girls" to make my projects.  These little cuties were made in the 80's, and so was I!  I had to share this picture of little Rachel rocking the pink jumpsuit, with a character that looks suspiciously like one of these new babes!
*wink, wink*

So, now for the exciting new projects with this exciting new set!






My first project is a Caddy Bag! I used the Sizzix Scoreboard XL Die - Bag, Caddy to get the base of my project.

I knew I wanted the adorable little lady to shine, but I also had a few new "toys" I wanted to play with, so I colored her up using Copic markers and cut her out using my Brother Scan n Cut (we had a little fight about who was the boss that resulted in me tossing my worn out mat, so there is a small slice of the hat that is missing *tears!*).

Next, I grabbed my brand new Plaid Background stamp from Concord & 9th and decided a yellow base with red lines was the way I wanted to go (ps. I also learned that VersaFine Red ink smells like Oreos. I. Kind. You. Not.) Thank goodness for my MISTI because, I tried lining up my lines for the first attempt... Not pretty, MISTI allowed me to create clean, even lines with no guess work or missed spots!

Next, I heat embossed the adorable little strawberry that comes with "80's Girls" repeatedly over the base and front panel of my Caddy Bag. The Recollections Red Tinsel Embossing Powder gives a touch of sparkle, because clearly, everything needs to sparkle.

Next, I mounted my little strawberry gal on the front panel using Stampin' Up Dimensionals.  The sentiments on this set are buildable, so I built a "You're So Sweet" sentiment and stamped it using VersaFine Black, it's my favorite for getting clear words with a fine font. Last I used the Stampin' Up  Label Punch (retired)  to give it shape and mounted it with more Dimensionals.  Last, I had found these adorable little red ribbon bows in the Target "Dollar Spot" with the Christmas stuff, (looked like a good any time product to meeeeee!) and finished this project off with one!



My next project, was so fun to conceive and make!  I have all these diecuts I never use, including Sizzix 659722, a Gift Card Box, so I pulled it out and set to work making my first ever gift card box!

I kept my box fairly neutral using Stampin' Up Crumb Cake. Now, I didn't know at the time I wanted to stamp my sentiment around the box top's side edges, so I went ahead and glue the box together... but what I should have done was take my time to stamp the sentiments that ended up there. This time, I built my sentiment to say "You make my world bright"! I used VersaFine again, like I said, it's amazing for fine fonts, and getting crisp lines.


Next I colored my girl! I wanted her to be fun, and bright, and full of color! So again, I busted out my Copic markers, and my Stampin' Up Blendabilities to make her as bright as a rainbow! For the super fine details, I used my Copic Atyou Spica Glitter Pens, this also allowed me to squeeze some glitter into this project! After I finished coloring her, I gave her a little purple star on her cheek using the Lavender Glitter Pen.

Behind her, I built a background using plain white paper, the little star from "80's Girls", and a rainbow of bright colored embossing powders.

After the star colors were set with heat, I went back with Stampin Up Write n Stamp markers and did a quick color in of them.

The finished background, mounted it on to the box, then used Dimensionals to make my girl POP off the box!




I hope you've enjoyed these projects as much as I enjoyed creating them! If you haven't already hop on to Kindred Stamps website, using my link, you'll get 10% off your first purchase and start earning reward stars towards future discounts!

As always, we've got a fun blog hop for you to see what the other sets releasing are, and a chance to win a shop credit from Kindred Stamps (this means even if you're a planner girl who doesn't stamp you still want to enter!!)! Make sure you hop along and comment on each blog to be entered!  We want to know which is your favorite set of this release. Are you Old School, like our 80's Girl set? Are you Retro, with our Strange Friends set? Or are you Pop Culture with our Annoyed Boss set? What will you be snagging on Friday?

One lucky person will win a $10 credit to the shop! Will that be you?

All you have to do, in order to win, is to visit the following blogs and comment on the posts! Easy Peasy!

Kindred Stamps

R Winn Creates - You're Here!

The Frolicking Fairy

Kindred Stamps Guest Design Team Blog - Molly Dagg

Kindred Stamps Guest Design Team Blog - Amy Moser
Constantly Carding

Fanciful Spaces

Little Wings Creates

See ya later alligator!

~R. Winn

Everything is Awesome!

Hi lovelies!

I am SO excited about the new Kindred Stamps Building Block stamp set!!  If you're like our household, you enjoy using these wonderful little bricks to build iconic buildings, create scenes from your favorite movies, or even just play around!! Audra at Kindred Stamps, asked her creative team for ideas and somehow asked for something "Lego" inspired but still so unique!  

The first card I want to share is a classic couples card!  I built my own background paper using the side view bricks and top view of the flowers! They are colored with Copic markers, and I tried to use the basic brick colors in the build your own type buckets. I mounted it on a Brazill Basics burnt orange card stock, unfortunately, I was gifted it so I don't know the shade name!

Next, I built my couple, they were so fun! I loved picking which faces they got!! Thank goodness for my MISTI, none of this would've happened without it! I used my Chameleon Markers to color their clothes, I attempted some faded jeans, it was kinda fun. 

Last, my sentiment, I love the "You Complete Me" sentiment. I took some Real Red cardstock from Stampin' Up! (if you don't have a demo, check out my friend Kelli, she rocks!) and used the Layering Ovals Framelits from Stampin' Up! 

I completed the card with a few... LEGOS! I couldn't resist, I dug around in my bucket and pulled out some flat white 2x1s to add a little... embellishment! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

My second card, I really wanted to dedicate to friendship, because they really are the thing that keeps us standing and build us up when we are struggling!

I decided to try a little masking! This technique allows for you to tape or paper off a part of a stamp and layer the stamps. (The amazing Lydia at Understand Blue gave a good, simple video example here!) I figured the best thing to use for your first attempt at masking was Building Bricks... that you could stack. **HEHE**

Everything was colored up with Copic markers, I kept the girls simple but considered trying to mask some of the adorable flowers on to their shirts or pants (my BFF and I are a little obsessed with leggings so it would've been fitting!) 

The little brick hearts were begging to be used and added to the cutesy of the card.  I finished off with some of my FAVORITE embellishments, DoubleClick Skittles (you need them!) they give just the right amount of POP to any card and are soooo pretty! My card is layered with some retired Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper and ready for gifting!

I hope you all enjoyed my creations! I had so much fun making them and can't wait to get to play with my Building Blocks stamp set again!  For making it through this long post, if you want to place an order on www.KindredStamps.com you can use my coupon code "RWINN10" for 10% off your entire order!

Until next time!

R. Winn

Love is in the air... and so is a sale!

So today, I'm home sick, but I've had this box of of Stampin' Up products that have been staring at me for a little over a month.  I've had so many projects that had deadlines, so many gifts that I needed to make that taking the time to create something I wanted rather something I had to.  Today, I played with my new Stampin' Up products from the new Occasions catalog and the Sale-a-bration special products!  

Before I show up my creation for the day, I want to tell you about Sale-a-bration, for every $50 you spend, you get to pick a free gift from the cattie for FREE.  Twice a year, Stampin' Up puts out an Occasions cattie as well, it's a mini catalog that gives you a change to pick up some products geared towards the time of year it is (i.e. Spring and Valentine's day or Winter and Christmas). This Occasions mini ROCKS, so many fun products and the SAB gifts are absolutely wonderful! I'm absolutely thrilled with what we've got available.  Now through March 31st, you can get your own free gifts! Some are limited time, so don't wait!

With no further ado, my fun for today!

I used the Shine On DSP which has 12 different designs, each fun and unique... oh and about half of them sparkle!  The stamp set is the What I Love photopolymer set, which was one of my SAB gifts, I stamped it in Stanzon Black Ink using my MISTI, which you can purchase from So Suzy Stamps and using my referral link, http://r.sloyalty.com/r/udNBO8QQbUdY you will get 10% off your first order!  MISTI allows me to stamp the same image or sentiment repeatedly, crisp, clear, and exact.  It is brilliant!

For the beautiful flowers, I used the Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper, and the Red Glimmer Paper.  I used my Big Shot, Magnetic Platform and the Rose Garden Thinlit Dies to cut them from the Glimmer Paper, for the small pink flower, I used my Stampin Trimmer to make cut the edge of one off to make the smaller accents on the edges. 

I used Real Red Cardstock for the base, cut a one centimeter "frame" with the Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper and used our Multipurpose Liquid Glue to attach the two layers, then in the cut out portion of my cut frame, I used Dimensionals to attach the Shine On DSP to the card!

I think this may go to my husband for Valentine's Day!  I hope that you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed making it.  Feel free to let me know if you have any questions, or even better, give me some love!

~R. Winn
My Stampin' Up Website

What Happens When I'm Itching to be Creative but My Fibromyalgia Forces Me to Sit on the Couch!

Long ridiculous title, I know.  Today's card is a product of forced "relaxation," aka sitting on the couch because pain and fatigue have taken over your life, and an itch to actually use a few of my new stamps from So Suzy Stamps! 

Last week I missed a few days of work, dealing with a flare up of my fibromyalgia... not fun.  After so many hours watch Netflix I tend to get a bit stir crazy.  

My husband ordered me to turn on some music and color so I would relax.  Out came my Copics and Wink of Stella markers, and sitting in a bin unused looking at me with sad eyes was the So Suzy Stamps Seahorse that I had so desperately wanted (I may have even threatened a few friends to make sure I was first to order when Suzy restocked!... Good thing they love me!)  

I started coloring up Polo (the seahorse) first, but seeing as I had put on Fantasia (my version of turning on music!) He ended up a little psychedelic, but as adorable as I always knew he would be!!  He turned out to be a she... as did all my little critters, in fact, she ended up being a bit of a Rapunzel Disneybound! HEHE!

 


Next, I grabbed some little fishies.  This little ladies are tooooooo cute, I was suppose to add googly eyes, but I forgot, good thing they turned out perfect anyways!

I ended up with Tink, Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora.  All covered in glitter, as princess fishies should be.  Can you tell yet just how much time I had been sitting on the couch without any sort of creative outlet?

 

I also colored up a few more critters and my adorable coral.  Not everyone could fit on my small card so at least they can have a little moment to shine here!  Meet Ariel the Octopus, and Belle, the Sea Turtle

Today, I decided they needed a home and created a card using a few of my critters! Here, are Rapunzel, Cindy, and Snow by their sea castle on a "Happy Birthday" card.

I used the Fireworks available from So Suzy Stamps to create a fun blue violet water-colored background.  Then took her Castle stamp (another I NEEDED, but had not used!) and stamped it onto the background.  I used Stampin' Up Stamp 'n' Write markers to color in the castle and walkway. 

For the "Happy Birthday" I took a Close to My Heart Stamp I had on hand and used my MISTI and Wedding Dress White Memento Luxe ink.  I had to put down several layers to make the white stamp out from the water-colored background, the final result is pretty awesome! Using some dimensionals and adhesive I placed the critters on where I felt they fit best. I finished the card off with some DoubleClick Skittles as little air bubbles from the fish!

I double mounted the base I had created on some pretty seaweed green CS from my stock and the on top of that I used a water print from a designer paper that I got several years ago at JoAnn Fabric. 

Check out So Suzy Stamps August, Be The Sea Challenge on her blog!

As always, thank you for dropping by!

 ~R. Winn

Visit my Stampin' Up website if you need some supplies!