Good Friends Are Like (Glittery) Stars

We are still approaching Valentine's day and if you – like me – don't really like the traditional love cards or currently don't have anyone to give such a card to, maybe this will inspire you. Why not create valentine's cards for your friends and tell them how much you appreciate them? That's what I did with one of my favorite Avery Elle stamp sets, Written In the Stars.

The front panel was cut with a Mama Elephant die, and the circle with a Waffle Flower die – I just love the stitched effect around the circle, it makes it look so much more finished. Right behind that front panel, I mounted a sheet of vellum. On it, I created the sparkly starry heart with Elizabeth Craft Glitter. Carefully rub it with your finger to set it and voila – a super sparkly, stamped image:

I stamped a few stars on the card base behind the vellum with silver ink. You can not see the stars clearly, but that was okay because it works perfectly with the sentiment I had chosen.

I hope you enjoyed the card and will find new uses for some non-Valentine's themed stamp and die sets! Thanks for stopping by!

If any of the products I used for this project are not available in the store, I'm offering alternative products at the end the product listing below.

Exotic Copic Color Combinations & Embossing with Dies

Hello crafty friends! This week was coloring week here at Make the Day Special and the Design Team has shared many awesome tips with you on how to get more out of your markers.

Today it's my turn and my card features the super cute stamp set "Carnival Cupcakes" by Mama Elephant which is finally back in stock! I've combined a number of different techniques on this card and instead of explaining everything to you, here's a video showing you how I did it:

As you can see, I used the emboss-with-dies technique to create some "fake" dimension on my card since it's entirely one layer. You've seen me using this technique for the very first time - not live, but on camera :) - and it fits great with the current challenge we have at the Make the Day Special challenge blog: try something new or resurrect a technique not used for ages. For the embossing, I used the "Basic Creative Cuts" by Mama Elephant and the "Label Layers 1" by Wplus9 (alternatively, reach for Label Layers 3 or even go for Paper Smooches' Frame 1).

My Copic "trick", to come back to the current topic, is to blend colors that usually don't go together. Normally, you would only blend colors in the same families or those close to each other (oranges with yellows; yellow greens with greens etc). But with some patience you can blend colors that are not related at all, like I did.

On the cupcake topping, I combined BG11 with RV02

You can either feather the two colors into each other or use one of these two techniques: tip-to-tip blending where you touch the tip of one marker to the other to pick up its color, or acetate palette blending, where you scribble one color onto a piece of acetate or plastic and the pick it up with the other marker.

Check out this beautiful embossing on the outer frame and the inner label

For the "background" on this card I used the beautiful star background from a company that's not present in the store, but if you're shopping with Make The Day Special, you can alternatively reach for Lawn Fawn's "Starry Backdrops" or Avery Elle's "Written in the Stars". For a light ink that doesn't overload the background, I suggest Hero Arts Soft Granite or Wet Cement.

I hope you got inspired to try your makers in some different ways! Thanks for stopping by!

Supply List

• Carnival Cupcakes by Mama Elephant
• Make a Wish by Mama Elephant
• Basic Set Creative Cuts by Mama Elephant
• Label Layers 1 by Wplus9 - alternatively reach for Label Layers 3 or Paper Smooches Frame 1
• For a light ink reach for Hero Arts Soft Granite or Wet Cement
• For a starry background reach for Lawn Fawn Starry Backdrops or Avery Elle Written in the Stars
• Copic Markers
• Sequins

I hope you had the chance to stop by the blog to read about our coloring tips (I learned LOTS!). If not, here are the links to this week's coloring posts:

• Shading flesh tones
• Coloring Christmas cards
• Coloring Basics
• Coloring a unicorn Step-by-Step
• Coloring a Halloween themed card
• Coloring Bright Blooms

Painting Circles

Sorry I'm a little late with my post today I've been waiting for the light to take my photos as my cards have a watercolour background and it's been tricky to get them to show up.  You may find a bit of a watercolour theme going on here for a while as half the DT and I are taking the current Online Card Class as I'm sure many of you are too.

On both my cards I was having a play with a technique from the class that features watercolour washes with stencils - I won't go into detail of how to do it, as that wouldn't be fair on those of us who've paid to take the class but here is my first attempt.

Once I'd completed by piece I die cut it and stamped and embossed the gorgeous sentiment from Mama Elephant's Make a Wish set and I added a few of the stars for good measure too.   My husband pointed out that the background looked like a zodiac so I immediately had another go and made this:

I used LuminArte shimmer paints this time for a cosmological feel but it really doesn't photograph well.  Once I'd done the background I left it to dry whilst I coloured and cut out all the signs of the zodiac from Mama Elephant's Cosmic Stars set and added a sentiments and some stars from the co-ordinating Starry Night set.   The characters are coloured with distress markers to keep with the watercolouring theme.   This was my first Mama Elephant purchase I love these sets and the characters can be used in a completely non-astrological way too.

Enjoy what's left of your weekend.

Tara