Hi crafty friends! How is your week going? It's finally cooled off here in Sactown, and I could not be happier! I'm having a very creative week! Getting caught up on projects in the studio and feeling good about things. Waiting for my PTI design team box for July to arrive so I can get inky on it all (AWESOME things to come)! Before too much time goes by I want to tell you all about our event we went to last Saturday night. A few of you have asked me about it, and I really want to share it, too. My husband and I looooove watching the TV show Long Island Medium. We watch it together, always, and love seeing peoples' stories. So, my husband found out that Theresa Caputo was doing a live event near our house, and he surprised me by getting us tickets to see her! It was really a great evening! It was at an outdoor venue of about 5000 people and we sat pretty close to the stage! She is just as genuine and funny and adorable as you would think she is. Totally the real deal. Plus, she is absolutely hilarious!!! Kind of a smart alec with a big heart and she laughs a lot. I love people who laugh a lot!
Theresa came out and introduced herself and then played the national anthem while we all stood up. At the end of the anthem, after everyone else sat down, she had all the veterans in the crowd stand up and we all cheered for them. What a nice touch. She said that all of the money from her readings now goes straight to charity - she has the person write the check out directly to charity. And her fan club started making money, so she takes the profit and randomly sends people in the fan club gift cards! How refreshing in this day and age! She talked about her 'gift' and how she reconciles that with her strong Christian faith - which I found very interesting. After she spoke for a little while, she came down off the stage and walked around in the crowd and started reading people - just like on her show. One other interesting thing - she said absolutely no photos, cell phones or video and asked everyone to turn off their phones. And, guess what? People actually did it!!! When was the last time you went to an event where everyone wasn't holding their phone? That was really great, and made for a much more intimate experience. HERE is one photo from her Instagram from the evening. Her hair is high and she was wearing sparkly spike heels! She did readings for about 20 people I would say - and it seemed like she was able to give people some peace about certain things. There wasn't a time when she was off - every person agreed with what she said. It's quite amazing. The whole crowd was silent listening to her talk to the people. Wow. I'm so glad we got to do that!
Okay, so on to my cards for today!! At CHA in January I was able to see my friend Tammy Tutterow's new line of stamps, dies and embossing folders. Well, I loved it ALL. I wanted it ALL! Her style is pretty, artsy, happy, and a bit girly vintage! All of her stamps are cling mount on red rubber and they stamp like a dream. She is an artist for Spellbinders. A couple of weeks ago a giant box of goodness arrived on my doorstep courtesty of Tammy and Spellbinders - and I am so grateful to have been given such nice products to play with. Tammy's line of stamps is called Happy Grams!!! Isn't that the best? Can't help but smile! I couldn't wait to stamp 'em up! So this weekend I made two cards to share with you today! One is bright and bold and the other one is a bit more vintage! One I colored with Copics and the other one I water colored with Distress Inks. Let's look!
Oh, man, was this a fun card to make! Everything except the yellow flowers is one big stamp! Sized perfectly for the front of an A2 card! Brilliant! I made my card base out of kraft and added a layer of red to match the ladybug. I went to town coloring everything with Copic Markers (colors listed below). Even though this is a big stamp, the coloring went pretty quickly. I used happy and bright colors to make it pop. The writing is so beautiful...
The yellow flowers are from another, smaller stamp. I cut a few of them out to add to my card because I wanted another bright color and, I'm loving yellow right now. I stamped the main image onto a white paper layer. Then I stamped a second ladybug onto another piece of paper and cut the wings out. The second set of wings was attached with foam tape slightly off center from the bottom ones. I love the dimension from that! In this photo you can see that the ladybug heart dots are raised up. I did that with a Clear Glaze Pen and I really like the effect. I also added accents of white gel pen.
The yellow flowers were attached with foam tape. For the writing I used two shades of aqua Copic markers for an ombre look. You can see that I outlined the ladybug and parts of the letters in C1 Copic Marker to add depth. This is a super easy trick!
Now, the two hardest colors to color with Markers are red and black!! I hardly ever use jet black for black items - instead I used very deep cool greys. Your eye sees black, but it makes the project less heavy.
Here are my Copic choices for this card...
My next card for today is shabby chic vintage fun! I started with a Kraft A2 card base again and then layered some gingham paper for my bottom layer. All the flower images, the heart and the tag are all cut from cream cardstock instead of bright white. I used brown ink instead of black ink also. I water colored everything with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in some of my favorite colors using the mini ink pads and a water brush. This is one of my go to techniques! The flower stamp set has matching dies included in the package all together - I love that.
I stamped and die cut all the flowers, leaves and the flower pot. Next I colored them with a loose water color technique! I set them aside to dry while I prepared the tag and the heart pieces.
For the heart, I stamped the sentiment onto cream paper and die cut it out. I used Distress Inks to watercolor it and then edged it in more distress ink using a sponge dauber. I speckled water and brown ink onto it to make it look even more vintage. BTW Rusty Hinge Distress Ink is the perfect color for terra cotta pots!!
These beautiful tag dies!!!!! The tag set comes with the large tag (perfect size for cards or mini books), a circle for the reinforcer, and several border pieces for the bottom! Genius! I chose to use the small scallop border at the bottom of this tag. It was cut out of cream cardstock. Then I used the Dear Ruby giant background stamp and stamped the text onto it using Antique Linen Distress Ink. OOOH LA LA. This background stamp will easily cover an entire A2 card front! It's amazing. Then I speckled green and brown ink onto it, and edged it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a sponge. F-U-N!
Here is a close up of that pretty die cut border, and my inking!
So you knew some twine was gonna be on this card, right??? Of course!!! My favorite accents - twine and enamel dots - to finish off the card.
CUTEST stamp set EVER!! I'm kind of obsessed with these Tiny Sentiments stamps!! I'm going to keep them on my desk for stamping on envelopes! And they are the perfect size for cards. I hope Tammy makes more sets of these in her beautiful writing!!
AHHHHHHHHH.... One of the things in life that makes me super happy. Markers!!!
BIG GIANT thank you to Tammy and Spellbinders for the beautiful stamps and dies. XOXOXO Big thank you to everyone for stopping by today! Enjoy the rest of your week and I'll be back on Saturday with something new and cool to share.
SUPPLIES USED TODAY!
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I love how you used Tammy's new stamps. She's right, all your cards are amazing and jaw dropping. You're such an amazing talent and I honestly don't think you've ever created anything that doesn't put a smile on someone's face. Awesome!!
Cathie ♥
Posted by: Cathie C. | 07/07/2017 at 10:27 AM
PERFECT!!! Just gorgeous work as always!!! I hope Tammy makes more sentiment stamps also...especially a Christmas set!
Posted by: F Bond | 06/30/2017 at 05:33 PM
Wanda,
Tammy couldn't have picked a better person to bring her stamps to live!
As always, you are so creative!
Posted by: Carmen Hecox | 06/29/2017 at 08:27 PM
Adorable cards, Wanda! I LOVE the loose watercolor technique! SWEET!!!
Posted by: Natalie Houston | 06/28/2017 at 07:35 PM
LOVE what you did with Tammy's stamps! I just received the tiny sentiments today and can't WAIT to play with them!
Posted by: Lin Brandyberry | 06/28/2017 at 06:24 PM
Big fan of yours Wanda! Great tutorial!❤️
Posted by: Debi Adams | 06/28/2017 at 01:57 PM
Cute and cuter!!! Love these cards! You are on a roll!!
Thanks for sharing about Theresa. I always liked her but wondered about her being a Christian. Glad you had fun!! Julie L, GA
Posted by: Julie L | 06/28/2017 at 11:15 AM
Amazing talent! These cards just scream happiness.
Sounds like your date night was AWESOME!
Posted by: Chris Cowan | 06/28/2017 at 09:59 AM
Hi Wanda. I follow Tammy and do love her stuff. What a wonderful treat this was for you! Love both cards. That lady bug is too sweet. Love how you did her wings. Thanks for sharing and I'm glad it is cooler there. I have a cousin in Sacramento who just celebrated a birthday on 6/25. Your night with your favorite medium sounds very cool. Glad you enjoyed an evening out with your husband.
Posted by: Anne Sturgeon | 06/28/2017 at 09:22 AM
Both cards are great, but that ladybug just makes me happy looking at it! Thanks for the breakdown on how you made each one.
Posted by: Rosa M. Vasquez | 06/28/2017 at 08:22 AM
Wanda I think it is SO good that Theresa asked for privacy....so thoughtful of her!
Now days people think they can take the privacy of others without asking..share everything without asking...
So wished I could have been there too...
LOVE both cards..so gorgeous and Happy cards... such great stamps and dies too..Lucky you!!
Hugs Holly.
Posted by: Holly Saveur | 06/28/2017 at 01:46 AM