Sonoran Starfish Designs

Hello crafty friends, thanks for stopping by my blog. Today for our blog hop day, I have a fun interactive card to share with you, using two of the newer stamp sets from Brutus Monroe. To make this card, I followed a tutorial for the basic shape by Jennifer McGuire. You can find the video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swv8AquXd1E&t=418s I used Midnight cardstock for the base, which is a lovely dark blue shade, and Gilded glitterstock for the inner gold oval layer. To make the cloud background, I first heat embossed the "Spiral Cloud" background stamp with Gilded EP onto aqua pigment paper. I mixed Blue and Black aqua pigments together to make a dark blue shade and painted several layers onto the panel. The gold heat embossing acts as a resist for the aqua pigments. I trimmed that panel down after drying it and adhered it to the back panel of the Midnight cardstock. Then, I heat embossed two of the butterflies from the "Take Flight" stamp set

Hello crafty friends! Thanks for stopping by! I'm excited and proud to share this post with you...I am guest designing this month and next month for Scrapping For Less! This month the theme of their Flavor of the Month Card Kit is "Summer Camp".   Lots of folks love summer camping and kids love going to camp. Growing up I did a variety of day camps, and now as an adult I enjoy overnight camping with my husband's family. The  kit this month is all about camping and the outdoors! So grab your computer, a beverage, maybe go out on your back porch (so you are outdoors) and hop along and view the most wonderful inspiration from the Scrapping for Less Design Team and guest designers! You can purchase your kit from the  subscription page ...links for 1x purchases are in the paragraph to the left of the slider on that page. Make sure to enter the  rafflecopter  for a chance to win a past kit.  Hope you enjoy this month! Happy Camping!   Collection 1:  Th

Hello crafty friends! Thanks for stopping by. Today we have a really fun theme for you: TV/Movie inspired cards! I have been wanting to use this new stamp set for a couple weeks now, I love the whimsical windows and the little alley cats creeping around. I first embossed the image half-off the edges of a panel of aqua pigment paper, using Raven embossing powder. I hand-drew the lines for the sides of the building and then watercolored the buildings using color burst powders, and black and brown aqua pigments. I masked off the buildings and used the String Lights stamp set to put the lights between the two buildings, and painted the middle area. I used a black pen and marker to draw in the "Sharks" and "Jets" graffiti to show the two rival gang territories. I finished it off by die-cutting "Choose Love" with the Lowercase Alpha die set which is super low priced right now (7 dollars for the set!). I love the sentiment, and I'm a firm believer that

Hello crafty friends, thanks for stopping by! It's another blog hop Wednesday for the Brutus Monroe Inspiration Team, and we're showcasing the July subscription products today. I made this tag that has the stamp of the month, the stencil of the month, the glitter glaze of the month, and the embossing powder of the month. I started by doing a wash of Blue, Green and Red Violet aqua pigments on a panel of Aqua Pigment paper. I trimmed it down to a tag shape, and I used the stencil of the month along the bottom with the glitter glaze of the month, called Mermaid Scale. While that dried, I used some gesso on the top of a chipboard pineapple, and then embossed the Blueberry embossing powder over it. I cut the top of the pineapple off to use it on the edge, as an underwater plant.  I stamped the oyster image and the sentiment with Raven detail ink onto some Bristol paper so I could use my Zig markers to color it in, and then used a hexagon die to cut the image out. I trimmed

Hello crafty friends! Thanks for stopping by. This week for the Brutus Monroe Inspiration Team blog hop, the theme is “Fabulous Foliage”. I’m on vacation for a couple weeks, spending time with family on the east coast, so I had pre-stamped this amazing succulent frame stamp, and heat embossed it with Penny EP, and I brought my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers on our trip to color with.  I colored with a variety of greens, blues and yellows, and then filled in the background with some sandy browns. I blended a lot of the colors together with a Spectrum Noir shimmer pen, which is my favorite way to fade and blend my zigs! I wish it was easier to pick up the shimmer on camera. Have you tried any of the new border stamps from Brutus Monroe yet? Share your projects to social media, and be sure to use the hashtags #BrutusMonroe and #CreateYourOwnEnding so we can see what you make! Now keep hopping to see the cool foliage projects from my fellow team members. MARIE LUISANA

Hello crafty friends! Thanks for stopping by. It’s another Brutus Monroe blog hop Wednesday and we’re sharing some Artist Trading Cards (ATCs). These are small sets of cards, usually 4x3, that crafters and artists make and trade! I started by trimming down pieces of aqua pigment paper to 3x4. I dripped aqua pigments one drop at a time onto the paper, and I squeezed the air blower to push the droplets around the panels. I used Green and Rhubarb for the watermelon, Rhubarb and Yellow for the flamingo, and Yellow and Green for the pineapple. I prepped all of the chipboard pieces by brushing a layer of white gesso over the surface and allowing it to dry. For the flamingo, I painted it with the Rhubard and Yellow aqua pigments, and then used Raven glitter glaze on the beak, and raspberry glitter glaze for the wing and tail. For the pineapple, I spread Lime glitter glaze on the frond on the top and then I used yellow aqua pigment on the body of the fruit. For the watermelon, I paint