Guest Designer - Marsha Drain

It's time for some guest designer inspiration, and today we're sharing the work of Marsha Drain of Gramma's Room. Marsha not only made an adorable birthday card, but she also included directions and a template for creating a step card! I love the bright, happy colors of her card, and especially like her fun design.

Here's what Marsha says about putting this cheerful card together:

"Most of the time I do my cutting with a guillotine type cutter but in order to make this side step card, I pulled out my smaller cutter .  I started with a 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 piece of orange cardstock.  After cutting the two lines as per the template, I moved the card to my Scor pal and scored all the lines.  After making the base and adhering the dotted patterned paper with Tombow Adhesive tape, the really run part began - stamping the cake, the cluster of balloons and coloring them.  Both the cake and the balloons are cut out with coordinating dies.  The large balloons were cut from cardstock that matched the Copic colors I used on the small balloons.  The sentiment piece is cut with a Spellbinder circle die and backed with a Spellbinder scalloped circle die. After coloring the cake, I added liquid pearls to the dots on the cake

All the balloons and sentiment are adhered to the steps with Scor Tape.  The last step was to pop the cake up with dimension foam tape."

 

Products used:

Paper Sweeties stamps and dies

Stamploration balloon dies

Spellbinder circle and scallop circle dies

Scor pal

Scor pal tape

Tombow mono adhesive

Fiskars  trimmer cutting blade

Copics

 

 

I'd love to see what you've been creating, so stop by the current link party and showoff any creation that includes a product or two from one of the companies carried in the Cropstop store. 

October Plaid Links

Just in case you missed any of the "October Plaid" posts you can find them by clicking on the photos below:

Pumpkin Plaid

Have you been following our "October Plaid" posts all month? Each Monday I've shared a different version of plaid created with markers, a ruler, and some graph paper. Today I have a one-color plaid background to share with you.

To create this fun pumpkin plaid background I laid down a wide orange stripe followed by a thin orange stripe all the way across my card stock. I then turned the piece of paper 90 degrees and repeated the design.

Supplies used on this card include:

• Markers
• Kitchen Weave Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug)
• These colors of Distress Ink
• Walnut Stain
• Gathered Twigs
• Ground Espresso
• Teastained Red Flowers (Petaloo)
• Wide Lace (Petaloo)
• Burlap String
•  Fall Foliage Thinlits (Sizzix -- Tim Holtz)
• Sentiment (PSX)
• Versamark Watermark Ink
• Primary Bark Embossing Powder (Wow!)
• Crackle Embossing Folder (Darice)
• Ranger Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel  (UTEE)

Here's a free pumpkin template for you to use on your autumn themed projects

Now it's your turn....stop by the current link party and showoff any creation that includes a product or two from one of the companies carried in the Cropstop store.

October Link Party - # 44

What do plaids make you think of? For me, they evoke feelings of cool autumn nights, curled up with a good book, a warm (plaid) blanket, and a cup of something steamy in hand. That's why the entire month of October I plan to share easy, do-it-yourself, plaid backgrounds you can create using markers. There are also a couple fun ways to use your plaids, so you won't want to miss any of the Monday inspirational posts this month!

Supplies need to create your own plaid background:

• Markers
• Ruler
• Graph Paper (optional)
• I found that placing a piece of graph paper under my card front made it much easier to line up the ruler and create straight lines

Directions for my background:

1. Beginning with an orange marker - create wide stripes both vertically and horizontally
2. Next use a yellow marker and add wide stripes in between your orange ones
3. Add some thin brown stripes
4. Add some thin green stripes
5. Using a darker yellow marker -- trace over every other yellow stripe to darken it and add interest to your background
6. Using sponge daubers, ink around the edges with dark brown ink
 

Supplies used on this card:

• These colors of Distress Ink (Ranger)
• Vintage Photo
• Ground Espresso
• Rusty Hinge
• Fossilized Amber
• Pine Needles
• Mermaid Lagoon
• Sponge Daubers
• Sunflower Stamp Set (Heartfelt Creations)
• Spellbinders Nestabilities (Circle and Scallop Circle)
• Fall Foliage Dies (Sizzix - Tim Holtz Alterations) 
• Markers
• Ruler
• Instant Coffee
• Burlap Ribbon
• Rhinestones
• Glue

Note: For a mini tutorial for the flower on this card, visit the Tutorials Tab at the top of the blog and click on 3D Sunflower.

Now it’s your turn to share the projects you’ve been working on! As always our link party is "Anything Goes" with these few simple rules

1. Create ANY new project using a product or two from one of the companies CropStop carries in the store. (It’s ok if you didn’t buy it from us, and also fine if it’s a product we don’t currently have it in stock as long as it’s from one of the companies we carry!)
2. Please, no back-linking old projects
3. Limit 5 entries per challenge
4. Link your project here, link back to this post, and mention the CropStop Challenge in your post.

We’ll choose one random Winner who will receive a prize from the CropStop Store! (100 or more links = two winners and two prizes!) Thanks so much for linking up with us, we look forward to seeing all your great entries this month. Grab our badge and help us spread the word that CropStop is a great place to play along!

Optional Twist for October

Include a plaid element somewhere in your creation,

 and I'll enter your name twice in the random draw.

Distress Paper Mosaic

Today's post is all about fall and showcasing the Distress Paper Mosaic kit from Ranger! What a fun kit with so many different options for creating! I'm going to walk you through the steps I took to create this leaf card and also have a free template for you at the end of this post.  Let's get started....

Step One: trace and cut out the front of your card using the free template at the end of this post

Step Two: Add a layer of Distress Grout (from the kit) using a pallette knife - allow to dry (approx. 10 minutes)

Step Three: Cut some pieces of paper in random shapes

Step Four: Glue your paper pieces to your grouted leaf using Distress glue

Step Five: Apply a layer of glue over top of the entire leaf and allow to dry (approx 10 -15 minutes)

Step Six: Using the Distress Glaze, outline and fill in each mosaic shape - allow to dry (approx 1 hour)

Step Seven: Apply distress ink over the entire surface 

Step Eight: Finish decorating your card

Products used on my card include:

• Distress Paper Mosaic Kit
• Dina Wakley Pallette Knife
• Distress Ink in these colors:
• Vintage Photo
• Gathered Twigs
• Spiced Marmalade
• Fossilized Amber
• Sponge Daubers
• Funky Florals #1 Dies (Sizzix)
• Burlap String
• 3D Lumber Embossing Folder (Tim Holtz) 
• Studio G sentiment

As promised, here's a free template for creating your own leaf card! I'd love to see what you create with this, so stop by the current link party and showoff any creation that includes a product or two from one of the companies carried in the Cropstop store.