Easy Quick and easy makes for beautiful cards For me, part of the joy of paper crafting is the long, laborious task of the design. It is at least 2 hours to design a card but more like 3 hours. I love this time.
Stamping Scenes with stamps from Frog's Whiskers Our friends at Frog's Whiskers [https://www.ecstasycrafts.com/Frogs-Whiskers-Ink] practically spoon fed me a blog topic! I recieved an email from Frog's Whiskers this week with some lovely card samples attached. And it got me thinking, aside from the superior quality of their stamps, one
Summer Having Fun With Some Summer Dies! Had myself a bit of fun with some of the summer dies from Marianne and Joy (well mostly Marianne). Using my favorite "box card die" (CR1374), I went to town with the background sheet from Marianne ....
Stained Glass Stained Glass Revisited I blogged the other day about the Stained Glass Bonsai using PVA glue and having to improvise. I mentioned that I needed to look for fine-tipped plastic bottles to use for putting the metallic paints in the stained glass cut out. Well I was super delighted to see that we
Stained Glass Stained Glass Technique An entry from Sue Wilson's Particraft blog, using the Stained Glass Bonsai Tree, came up in my newsfeed and it caught my attention: So I thought I'd give it a try. As with many cards we are inspired by I had to improvise, I didn'
Easy One Crafty Cardmaker! Quick Cards with Decorer Papers One of our card designers is so quick to be able to come up with card ideas. Virginia whipped together these adorable cards in minutes ... all without the use of dies, emobssing folders, inks or any special equipment. We just received this awesome variety of paper packs in from Decorer
Mixed Media Mixed Media Structure Paste We've been playing with the structure paste and quite enjoying the varied uses in cardmaking. Here is a quick Did You Know about the Nellie Snellen Structure Paste [https://www.ecstasycrafts.com/MMSP001]. You can add any coloring agent to change the white color of the structure paste.
Watercolour sub·strate [səbˌstrāt/] noun A lesson to be learned Substrate: noun > a solid substance or medium to which another substance is applied and to which that second substance adheres. Case in point my latest watercolor technique. This blog wasn't going to be about paper and the significant role it plays in
Technique Creating Interesting Backgrounds It probably goes without saying at this point, that I enjoy creating backgrounds with which to build my card creations. The "salt technique" is used in canvas painting and I thought I'd adopt it into card making. You can use water color paper, but I'
Box Cards Technique: Watercolor Background Card Tutorial I had been aching to do two things and was able to combine the two techniques into one box card. I am a scene card maker so the Marianne Design Box Die (CR1374) [https://www.ecstasycrafts.com/CR1374] is so up my alley. I saw a watercolor background technique using
Product Review Product Review - Marianne Designs the Collection #52 With each collection, Marianne Designs will have samples on her blog as well as "the Collection" in a printed pictoria piece. These collection info pictorials are always available with each collection and are free.
Inspiration The Subtleties of Paper I'll admit, I am a self-confessed paper-aholic!! There may be a support group but I probably wouldn't attend meetings, I'd be busy making cards.
Did you know Did you know ... Cloud Inks It's always nice to get alternative uses for products you have in your craft room to help extend the usefulness of the products you have .... which of course will stretch your budget! I love the Cosmic Shimmer Cloud Inks [https://www.ecstasycrafts.com/CSCC00]. They are what I&
Product Review Clarity Stamp Brushes The company I work for has just been given the North American distribution rights to the Claritystamp products. This includes the Clarity Stencil Brushes [https://www.ecstasycrafts.com/ACCBR30006] that are considered the BEST ink application tool for craft stenciling. Here is a video from Barbara Gray, owner and CEO
Easy Cosmic Shimmer Misters Just want to fire off a quick blog on one of my favorite mixed media products. Cosmic Shimmer Mists and Vintage Mists. They are water-based spray using mica powders as the color base and, as the label says "creates amazing shimmering effects".
Insider Full Participation Required So I was making a card today. Of course using watercolor markers and stamps, my new favorite thing. Well it didn't start out as a card, I was just playing with the Position-It stamping tool [https://www.ecstasycrafts.com/ECP001] but then my stamp took shape so I
Insider An old technique, but worth the repeat. Gel-Water It's about time I introduce one of our card designers, Virginia Awender, Virginia is so creative in her designs and her use of paper in her card designs is inspired. You will be seeing them frequently on this blog and in our card classes at the EC Papercrafts
Insider Making the most of what you've got Virginia, who I introduced yesterday, made a card using the Joy!Crafts Lavender paper pack [https://www.ecstasycrafts.com/60110383]. A paper pack that I absolutely love but is not longer available. But ... I want to do this card as a class. Mostly because it uses a 3D basket from
Insider Fun with pigment powders I'm not entirely sure if Brusho is the exact same as the Cosmic Shimmer Pixie Powders [https://www.ecstasycrafts.com/CSPP] as I have not used the Brusho before. But in watching the videos, it seems they are the same type of thing. I mentioned in the blog
Insider The tools you need to get the job done So many lessons, so little time. To help speed up the learning process, I'll share with you some of the lessons I've learned along the way. Today on What I've Learned So Far: The tools you need to successfully get the job done. In
History Why Paper Greeting Cards Are Here to Stay It all started with the Sumerians about 3,000 BC when they first wrote communications on clay tablets
Crafting The Mighty Pen and the Lost Art of Penmanship Third grade was the year we learned to write in cursive and the year we were finally allowed to use pens instead of pencils. We felt grown up, older and much more mature than those baby first and second graders who still used pencils and sometimes crayons. My third grade
Thanksgiving Making Memories: Crafting For Thanksgiving When the bite of fall is in the air, our thoughts turn to crafts! Halloween is the sexy holiday for crafters; everyone loves to dress up and to find fun and funny ways to elicit both squeals of fright and delight from guests young and old.
Crafting Use Your Friends Wisely Let’s face it; some of us just don’t have a creative bone in our bodies. Making an idea come to life isn’t easy for many of us.
Budget Materials Not Included When you start to craft something it is because you see something in your mind and you want to make it come to life. We all have our various methods to achieve the final product we want and it can be a struggle for sure, but we love what we do and that is why we do it.
![sub·strate [səbˌstrāt/] noun](/content/images/size/w600/2018/01/final.jpg)
