Winter Penguins Valentines Card ft. Craftin Desert Divas

Hey there! Today I'm sharing another winter themed card, but this time it's a Valentine's Day card as well. Isn't this image just adorable?! This is Love Letters & Hugs and it's one of the newer digi stamps from Craftin Desert Divas. The night sky/color scheme is inspired by CDD's monthly challenge mood board (shown below). 

I started by creating a scallop circle mask with the third largest die in Stitched in Circles set. Then I distressed my card front with Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord and Seedless Preserves distress inks. I've also splattered some water onto the distressed area so that the faded circles mimic falling snow. Can you tell that lately I'm a little addicted to drawing snowflakes with my white gel pen? I think they add a nice touch to cards and definitely pop  up against this dark background. 

I colored my penguins with Copics and all the colors I've used are listed below: 

Penguins: C1(face & belly) C3, C5, C7 (body) 

Y11, Y13, Y15 (beak & feet) R02 (blush) V09, Y13, G21 (flower)

 Letter: RV11, RV29

Ice: C3, B32

I added a piece of washi tape since it matched the color scheme perfectly and the pattern kind of resembles snowflakes. Then I added my sentiment strip and wrote the sentiment with a white gel pen. I applied some wink of stella to the penguins for some extra shine, and that finishes off the card!

Challenges Entered: 

My Favorite Things Sketch 316 / SSS Monday: Chill Out / My Creative Scoop

Marker Pop: Twinkle Twinkle

DIY Plaid Pattern with Washi Tape

EDIT: Top 10 from Virginia's View

Hi there! Today I'm sharing a card inspired by Virginia's Stripes and Plaid challenge. Virginia is, in my opinion, one of the most talented crafters on blogland and she certainly inspires me to challenge myself when I'm crafting. So this time, instead of creating a stripe/plaid background using stamps, I decided to go with washi tape. 

I picked some vibrant, neon colored washi tape and arranged them diagonally. 

Then I embossed the entire panel with a diamond pattern embossing folder. I decided to use the heart die from Memory Box to create a window for my sentiment. After stamping the sentiment from Simon Says Stamp's Big Scripty Greetings set, I felt like it needed some sort of border to help draw one's attention to the focal point. I didn't have a heart outline stamp, so I came up with the idea of tracing the inside of my die with a black gel pen. I gotta say, the thickness of the lines and dimensional look is just perfect!

I then lift up the die, which revealed an awkward, large gap of white space. To be honest, I panicked a little because I'm not sure if I can hand-trace along the lines to make the outlines even thicker. (gel pens are hard to control; if you exert too much pressure it's going to ooze out a lot of ink. And a blob of blackness is a big no-no) Thankfully I had an a-ha moment and decided to add stitched lines outside the borders. 

I've also written some words below the stamped sentiment to tie it to the colorful background. I like to customize my sentiments a lot of times to make them fit the card themes better. To finish off the card, I colored this little bird from Lawn Fawn's Snow Day set and adhered him to the upper right corner of the heart.

I hope you have enjoyed my creation, and are inspired to use your washi tape in different ways. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Challenges Entered:

Virginia's View #25: Stripes and Plaid / Memory Box: Giving Thanks / STAMPlorations: Giving Thanks

Creative with Stamps: Use a Bird Stamp / SSS Work it Wednesday: Use SSS Product