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

Bookmarks Worth Reading For!

Hi again friends! 

Kindred Stamps hosted a make and take table at the Simon Says Create Event that happened March 15th & 16th (it was sold out, woah!) I was able to assist Audra in planning out our table's projects. We decided to use the especially popular, Little Town Life stamp set to make bookmarks.

I started by using the princess and stamping her out with Tuxedo Black Memento ink. Next, I stamped her little friends using Gray Flannel Memento ink, I wanted them a little angled rather than stamped straight on. I then stamped the sentiment "choose your own adventure" in Catherine Pooler Tiara ink.

Then it was time to color! For her skin, I used Copic E13, E11, and E00. The dress is Y19, Y13, and Y11, the overlay, I used just Y11 and added a layer of Clear Wink of Stella for some sparkle. Her hair is E79, E57, and E23. I finished her with RV29 for the rose petals and YG67 for the leaf!  

I chose a pink ribbon that matched the rose to finish my bookmark. Now you've got the chance to make your own bookmark! Go grab Little Town Life and have some fun! I am excited to see your take on this project... want a bonus?

I decided to make one more bookmark, this one using the beastly prince from this set! I didn't keep track of the colors because I didn't have to pass them along for the project. For his fur, I varied several shades from the earth tone collection so it didn't all blend together. 

I began by stamping him with black Memento, then chose to use Catherine Pooler inks that fit with the character for the little friends. The feather duster was stamped in the same gray Memento from the first book mark. The sentiment "you're my favorite guy" was stamped in red VersaFine. The bookmark was finished off with a red ribbon with dots on it.

I hope that you've enjoyed my bookmarks, I have a special home for them in mind. I really hope you try to make some for yourself or someone you love.

Thank you,

R. Winn

Designer Cupcake #WSCARDCHALLENGE

I told you I would be back!

I'm sharing the Witt & Sass Designer Cupcake stamp set again! This is one of my favorite sets, because who doesn't like a cupcake??

 

Today's card works for the #WSCARDCHALLENGE of Pink & Orange, Squares, and Buttons! Again, I started with coloring the cupcake using Ink On 3's Fade Out ink, and then did the pretty shell using Catherine Pooler's Ink. 

I wanted to used lots of layers and patterned papers, the papers here are from Doodlebug and Sunny Studios paper packs with a touch of glitter paper from American Crafts. I used several stitched dies to create these layers. The sentiment in a square felt perfect to me and I stamped the seashell below it in Catherine Pooler ink, then used VersaFine to ink the Sentiment. 

For the final touch, I needed to add the buttons, I don't have a ton of buttons, because they're just not something I reach for but they fit so perfectly on this card. My friend Kelli taught me to never leave a button naked so I used orange and white twine to thread them!

I hope you've enjoyed this card, and don't forget to share YOUR Witt and Sass creations and take a stab at our Card Challenges!

~R. Winn

Quick Fun Makes With Manatee Love!

So, one of the adorable sets that Beth Duff Designs released this Spring, is our Get Kids Crafty Exclusive, Manatee Love.  I NEEDED it, the second I saw it!


As you know, I've been obsessed with No-Line Coloring lately. I used my InkOn3 Fade-Out Ink and stamped out the manatees to color. I used a combination of Copic Markers and Brutus Monroe StyleFile Markers to color the cuties. I wasn't sure what I was going to with them, but they begged to be colored.

For this little heart hugging guy, I decided on a bookmark. My sister sent me a link to some bookmarks on Amazon, and I decided to give them a go!  This project probably took me 10-15 minutes total, INCLUDING the No Line Coloring.

I used my new Altenew Ink Cubes that I got from Crafty Doodle Chick (that link will get you 5% off your first purchase, and I will get points too!). I used various green and pink shades and stamped out the seaweed and clam shells. For the "Hi there", I stuck with my favorite sentiment ink, Versafine in black.

Next, I put my fussycut manatee on a piece of navy cardstock, and added some Nuvo drops around the outside to make it glossy, like water!

To finish it off, I took this fun rainbow ribbon from Fun Stamper's Journey (that's my friend Alex's link, she's pretty amazing and SO SO helpful. I bought it to use with all of my unicorn stamps, but I love the burst of color from the top of the bookmark. My family is full of readers, so I'm sure one of them will get to enjoy this cutie!


Next, I had to used this hilarious sentiment. I just love it. Well, it doesn't really fit on a bookmark does it?  I have a TON of pre-made card bases, so I snagged this aqua striped base from my stack.  I love the idea of this happy little guy brightening someone's rough day.

I used Kat Scrappiness's (my referral link!) Double Stitched Rectangle Die with Stampin' Up Brown Sugar Cardstock for the sentiment, which was stamped in Versafine.  Underneath, I layered a piece of gold cardstock that was pre-embossed with scales.

The left side of the card felt really empty to me, so I took my Kindred Stamps (you get 10% off your first purchase, and I get points!) Mermaid Princess Shaker Pack and some Tombow glue and built a shiny little something in the top left corner. I added a blue shell to the bottom right of the sentiment too. To finish the card off, I used my Kat Scrappiness Clear Droplet Sampler Pack for some air bubbles!

This card probably took me about 20 minutes, that may have been in part because I had too much fun building my shiny something. HEHE!

I hope you enjoyed my projects, and that they have inspired you too look around and find those quick projects that you can sneak between the duties of life! And that you aren't TOO annoyed by all my links, after all, a referral is the biggest complement you can give, and I only shop from the best. Good customer service, a friendly attitude, and a willingness to go the extra mile in the craft industry is SO important. I LOVE shopping from these small business and getting to know the people behind my craft addiction!

Until next time,

~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

A Little Vitamin Sea

Is everyone enjoying Summer? Honestly? I've been melting. No A.C. at work, only one room cooled at home? I could happily live in my car if it meant I wasn't overheating!

I'll tell you what I do love though, the bright colors, the animals out and about, my silly puppy deciding to sunbathe, and the inspiration that all of that leads to anything artistic!

Typically, I make cards to share but the stamp set I am sharing today from Kindred Stamps is Vitamin Sea!

It SCREAMS fun in the sun, with a hint of snarky personality thrown in! These little summer images are the perfect size to decorate my planner with! I use a Webster's Pages A2 size, so it's a little smaller than a lot of planners. My life isn't terribly exciting so I didn't have a ton going on to write down, but man does it look pretty!

I used the blank sticker sheets from Sweet Stamp Shop to stamp out my images, and I just picked the ones that looked fun to me. No rhyme or reason. The sticker sheets held both the Copic and Chameleon Marker inks perfectly.

Once I had my items colored up I went ahead and fussy cut them out. I chose random places to put them and added a few sentiments I felt were appropriate for the days (see the end of the work week .) It was a fun little layout and I loved doing it!!

A few days later, I decided I wanted to make a tag with this set... I don't typically make tags! I broke out a few Stampin' Up punches I hadn't used before, but they had been sitting on my shelf waiting!

I went ahead and used some DSP from Stampin' Up that I hadn't used yet and reminded me of pool water for the bottom layer. I wanted to use the BRIGHT colors of summer, and I didn't want to color because... I do that a lot! Instead, I broke out three fun Versafine colors and kept it simple but fun.

I placed images at random and used some washi tape that I received as a gift from the UK! because flamingos and neon colors totally fit my theme! The sentiment I made stand apart by sticking to solid black, again I used Versafine since it works SO well for detailed stamps and dries fairly quickly so I didn't stress about smudging it!

Last I added a little yarn from my SU stash and tadaaa! My first original tag! It's fun and a bit raw as far as "talent" goes but I love it!

Now it's your turn! Run over to Kindred Stamps, pick up your own set of these stamps and use my coupon code "RWINN10" for 10% off your purchase!!

I would LOVE to know which is your favorite image, and you can guess which is mine!

~R Winn.