SNSS – New Mercies

Today I pulled out my mini art journal and played with the new set called Good Morning. I think this set can be used for a lot of occasions – I can’t wait to play with it some more.

I inked my background with Distress Oxides, then added texture with Texture Tiles 1 (my go to!!) I used the clock from Good Morning to add a little more texture. I used a the Landscape Silhouettes (seriously versatile set!) to create my farm. I colored the rooster with Copics then used my Polychromos pencil to add some shading. I used Distress inks for the sun. I inked up the words I wanted for my sentiment and cut them out individually. I really love how it turned out!

This mini journal has been so much fun – one because it is small and perfect to create in and two because the page sizes are card sized meaning any of the pages could easily translate into a great mixed media card.

I hope you were inspired today! Thanks for stopping by!

Lyn

SNSS and Coffee Loving Cardmakers Team up for a Blog Hop

How about a collaboration? Yes Please!!

Welcome to the Coffee Loving Cardmakers + Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps Collaboration Blog Hop! We’re so excited to be teaming up with the Coffee Loving Cardmakers design team to bring you some caffeine inspired fun… Oh yeah and there is a PRIZE (ding, ding, ding!!) Leave some love at each stop as you hop about for a chance to win a $25 gift code to the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps shop.

OK – Let’s make sure you are in the right place (what? I sometimes need someone to keep me in line 🙂 ) You should have gotten here from Esther’s blog. If you already started but got a little lost, you can always head to the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog for the complete hop list. IF not, start at the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps Blog to make sure you don’t miss anything!! (btw – you won’t want to miss anything).

I have a couple of projects to share today. The first one is an art journal page – this is in my mini watercolor paper journal (4″X5.25″). I used Distress Inks in shades of green and blues to create a forest scene. I spritzed it a little and when it dried, I added some trees from the Thrill of Hope set and texture from Texture Tiles 1. After a few white paint splashes, the background was complete. I Copic colored my coffee drinking gnome from Winter Gnomes and added a Hi-larious (and oh, so true) sentiment from Coffee Talk 2 on strips of cardstock to finish it off. This one makes me smile out loud!

My next project is also a journal page but this one is not a true journal. I accidently purchased my yearly calendar only to find out it started last July (ughh!) I started cutting out the un-needed months and then decided that I would use all those extra pages for fun journal projects instead. If the calendar info shows through, it is only added texture – woo hoo! Lemons into lemonade – amiright?

I added a light layer of gesso, then added distress oxides for my base colors. I added a layer of stenciling over it then added texture using the new Texture Tiles 9 (did I mention that I loved this one?) I Copic colored the girl from Walk Humbly then several of the cups from Coffee Talk (decorated with some of the little images in the Walk Humbly set.) I added the sentiment (from Coffee Talk) directly to the page but fussy cut the girl and the cups. I glued the girl down, then cut slits into the coffee part of the cups so I could “stack” them up and place them into her hand – Woo, it’s a 3-cup day? Must be Monday, or Tuesday, or….

I hope you are having fun and were super inspired here! All that coffee definitely leads to creative fun in my house! Now for more inspiration, head on over to Lee Ann’s blog and you will not be disappointed .

Thanks for stopping by!
Hugs,
Lyn

SNSS Begin Again

This weekend, I took my inspiration from my desk 🙂 Meaning, there was versa mark, embossing powders and “watercolors” and the Sweet N Sassy stamp set Begin Again. These butterflies are so beautiful and have so many possibilities!

Here is what I came up with…

First – a set of cards. using  the big butterfly, a rainbow of Brusho colors (one at a time) and gold embossing powders. My mom is going to love these! She is always asking me for greeting cards and these should be perfect for any occasion.

My second project is a mixed media look. I used Distress inks, the smaller butterflies, clear embossing powder, and Psalm 23 to add to the background.

My final project is a Bible Journal card using a card I had previously done and the small butterfly and sentiment in silver – I love this simple card!

I hope you were inspired to play – embossing powder can be super fun and add a lot to your projects!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lyn

SNSS – Getting Digi With It!!

So I am absolutely loving this months’s new clear stamps at Sweet N Sassy Stamps. They are truly beautiful!  But…Have you seen all of the fabulous new digital stamps in the shop? They are so much fun to create with! Last Friday night I printed up a couple pages of them to just sit and color over the weekend. I didn’t quite get them all colored but I did enjoy the relaxing process of just coloring for the fun of it. Today’s projects are what I came up with for the completed coloring.

I shared on the VIP FaceBook page my coloring pages (here they are for reference.) I got all of the top page (a background page) colored (with pencils) and the bear doctor (with Copics). I got most of the fairy colored too but not all so she will have to come out another day.

I decided to create some thank you cards for some healthcare workers who are so tirelessly working through the current pandemic. Adding the background page using the medical “stuff” from the Healthcare Bears digi and sentiments from the Healthcare Bears digi set and the Nurse Bear digi set (she is FREE) made some simple but awesome cards. I just chopped the page into four pieces and that was that… Fun right??I had a great geli-plate mixed media page sitting in my stash that I thought would go with my doctor bear from Healthcare Bears so I fussy cut him and made a mixed media card…I also colored up the new GG (stands for God’s Girl) with pencils. This one is called Love the Word and she would NOT be denied! This project makes me smile OUT LOUD! After I colored her, I wasn’t sure what sentiment to add, whether she should be a card front or a journal card and I finally decided I wanted her in my Bible. It is a much bigger Journal card than I usually make but that is totally OK! I added a sentiment from God is For You because I thought that it was perfect for both my image and the times we are in.

Matthew 28:19-20

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is such an awesome reminder that we are to not only to witness to the non believers but to grow in our own faith as well; and in doing so we are rewarded with the knowledge that God is with us ALWAYS until the END! What a comfort in the face of the fears we are now experiencing…Do not fear! God is with you ALWAYS! Not just in the good times…ALWAYS!!

I hope you are inspired today to try dome new digital stamps. They mix great with clear stamps and are lots of fun!!

Have a great day!

Lyn

Sweet N Sassy Stamps May Blog Hop – Take me to church!

Welcome to the Sweet N Sassy Stamps MAY 2020 Release Blog Hop! 

You should have arrived here from Lee Ann‘s page. If not, jump back there so you don’t miss anything. Hop along to all of the blogs (listed below just in case something goes wrong along the way 🙂 ) for even more inspiration with the May stamps. Leave a little comment love on each stop along the way by Tuesday May 19th at 10:00 pm for a chance to win a $10 gift voucher to the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps shop. One lucky comment from all the comments along the hop will win a $10 gift voucher to the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps shop. Winner will be announced on the SNSS blog, on Wednesday, May 20th

Hop Order:

Sweet ‘n Sassy Blog
Julee Tilman
Ceal Pritchett
Diane Zechman
Esther Asbury
Jane Bosi
Karen Decknick
Lee Ann Barrett
Lyn Tomlin – THAT’s ME!
Sheri Gilson

 

This month I am featuring My Father’s House. I love this set. It has 3 churches and words to build a sentiment. I really wanted to show how this set could be used for multiple projects. Not just Bible journaling (though I did do a journal card for my Loved Bible). I created 3 projects all simple and vintage-y in feel but all for very different reasons!

For my first card, I created a simple Bible journal card. I stamped the image on watercolor paper in Gina K Amalgam Ink then colored it with Copics. I used Distress Inks for the background and Hand wrote a sentiment from Hebrews 10:24-25.

²⁴ And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

I LOVE this reminder to encourage one another and not give up on our faith!

For my second card, I decided to do a little masking… I used watercolor paper then stamped the wedding couple from Happy Couple. Then I masked them off and stamped the church from  My Father’s House. Since the distress inks were on my desk, I decided to watercolor my image… creating a little scene. Now I have a wedding card for my stash!

For My final card I went for a Christmas card – yep – Christmas in May! My stash is getting built today!! I did some more masking on this one. I stamped the wreath from Home For the Holidays and the tree from Winter Wonderland then my church. I used my copics to color a wintery scene (It wasn’t quite what I was hoping for but I am still liking it. I used the sentiment from Born This Day.

So there you have it Three cards featuring the same stamp but in very different ways! I love that I could use so many out of season stamps on this one. It is always fun to stretch my stamps sets as much as I can – I hope you are inspired to do so as well!

NOW head over to see what Sheri has created for you!!

If if you get the opportunity to craft with some of these great stamps (or any other SNSS stamp) we would love to see what you create on our SNSS VIP Group Facebook Page; Or tag your creations with #snss or #sweetnsassystamps on Instagram.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Lyn

SNSS – Praise the Lord!

“Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!”[Psalm 150:1-6]

I am trying very hard to (and I encourage you to as well) find something to Praise God for everyday! We are so blessed even in dark times! I have a picture a friend made me that says what if tomorrow we only had the things we thanked God for today… In those terms my list of praises is really long! How about yours?

Today I a get the opportunity to provide the challenge for the Creative Worship Facebook Group for the next two weeks. My challenge is to create an insert. I have a fun video HERE showing how to create a “watercolor look” using alcohol inks and vellum. I created a whole page insert but for this challenge you can create any kind of insert you want. A tip in, a journal card that you tape in with washi, just have fun!

NOTE: I mentioned that I create a word file and turn the box white so it won’t show up on my print out – this only works when I am printing on white (sorry!) I would actually click “no outline” for this!

I would love you to try the vellum technique I shared, but I don’t want you to have to get any new supplies so work with what you have and just insert it into your Bible. I hope this will be fun for those who still aren’t as sure about coloring directly into their Bibles as well as those brave enough to just jump right in 🙂

The supplies I used are:

• Strathmore Inkjet Vellum
• Alcohol Inks (I used my Copic refills but any alcohol ink should work) AND Alcohol blend (I started out with copic blender solution, but switched to a spray bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol)
• I colored my image with Polychromos color pencils
• Digital stamp – Melody of Love
• Clear Stamp – Women of Praise
• NOTE: Ink – I used Versafine, but after letting it sit to dry it spread a bit so I recommend you use Versafine  ONLY if you want to heat emboss it. Otherwise use Archival ink or something similar.

I hope you are inspired to try this technique. head over to the Creative Worship Facebook page and join if you are not already a member. They are a super encouraging and wonderfully caring group of believers!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lyn

SNSS – Soooo Blessed!

WOW!!! I had the best weekend at Sweet N Sassy’s Creative Worship retreat! There was much learning and loving and a whole lot of Jesus! I still haven’t finished all my projects, but here are a few…

Friday I worked and then lead a demo on embossing. I showed lots of techniques and then went back over the weekend and made something out of each (even the one that was a “mess up” 🙂 .) If you didn’t get a chance to join in, the lives were all saved as were the music lists, etc in Unit 2. If you aren’t a member of the group – I really think you would love the love and encouragement you fin there… It is the Creative Worship Bible Journaling Group

Here is a quick look at the “collection”. I used Cheerful Hexies, Psalm 23 BG, Sweet as Honey, and Faith Wordfetti for the demo.The first faithdex card showed HEAT embossing on pigment ink, Distress Oxides, and Versa mark. It also showed that Distress oxides could be used through a stencil and embossed for extra texture and that embossing a outline stamp creates “walls” for your watercoloring. I added some interest with the Psalm 23 BG stamp in random places and added splatters of black and white acrylic paint and finished it with some sentiments from the Faith Wordfetti set.

This one was so busy with techniques, but in the end, it really worked and is a favorite!

Here is the close up of the bee that I inked up a second time and cut out and glued (just the body) on top of the original. Then I pulled the wings up a bit for dimension.I added my verse on the back so I could reference.

The second one showed that you could layer your embossing and stamp into the final layer for a wax seal look. I added some embossed patterned hexies and splatters with DOx inks I used and picked a simple sentiment. This will go in my Bible and I will journal on the back.

The third one is another faithdex card. I inked a hexie and then decided to do another direction so I started over with project two. But when it was time to show dry embossing, I grabbed this one back and ran it through my Cuttlebug with an embossing folder. It was a mess, but I didn’t want to chunk it so I smooshed some inks all over it, added a layer of gesso to calm the inks (especially the original hexie I was trying to hide) added some spots of “texture” with the Psalm 23 BG stamp and some stenciled hexies. Then I found a BG I had created using the same ink colors I had pulled out for this one but in Distress Inks vs. Oxides – so they were bolder! I stamped the Psalm 23 BG on top, then stamped and embossed an outline hexie (two sizes). I fussy cut them and added them and a Faith Wordfetti sentiment and I was so please that it came together in the end!

The forth and fifth project showed a way to stretch that embossing folder; essentially using it as a stamp.

For this one, I inked up the back side (where the crosses stood out) with Distress Oxide, and closed the folder with my faithdex card lined up inside. I added a few patches of the Psalm 23 BG words randomly. I really liked it, but it was so simple – what to do? I grabbed a digi stamp called Old Rugged Cross sized it to the size I wanted and printed it and colored it with my copics. Then I fussy cut it and glued it to my card. I used my Bitty Minnie Alphas to stamp out part of Isaiah 53:5 and added a sentiment from Faith Wordfetti to my tab – This became my favorite!

The last one, I inked it up again with a couple colors, misted it, and closed my journal card inside it. It was so fun, I decided to finish it by adding a Cocoa Mouse digi image (colored with Copics) some washi, a sentiment from Faith Wordfetti and a sewn on ribbon (I had to dust off my sewing machine haha!) This card will be my first entry in my Loved Bible I am starting – so excited!

I am still working on finishing up the last few projects but here are a few other projects from the retreat.

A faithdex card taught by Amanda Ginn. I used Bitty Minnie Alphas and Chunky Alphas, and Faith Wordfetti and  The Good News (for the sun)

A vellum insert using a printable from Pile of Ashes and Lots of Alphas (just mix em up) – led by Amanda Hargrove

Clips and a tassel bookmark taught by Elizabeth Chu.

Watercoloring and stamping in Hymnals by Stephanie (IG Faith.and.creativity) I used Landscape Silhouettes, Scene Silhouette:Trees, Thrill of Hope (NOT just for Christmas :)) and Chunky Alphas

What a blessing this weekend was! I hope you are inspired by this projects as I was by the weekend! Now I need to go finish coloring and cutting flowers (Gail Bond at Patio Ponderings) and working on my gel prints (Colleen at Stir the Soul)

Thanks for stopping by!

Lyn

 

SNSS – Grace So AMAZING!!

Today I have some AMAZING projects for you using the new GRACE SO AMAZING set.

My first project is a clean and simple watercolor/stenciled background using Distress Oxides and a music stencil. This was actually created after I created one of the 2nd project cards. There was leftover ink on the stencil so I spritzed it with water and pressed it onto some watercolor paper. When it was dry, I used the same ink to stamp my sentiment – lyrics from Amazing Grace. It seemed perfect with that background. I die cut with a rounded die, then added some clear drops.

My second project is a set of Faith-dex cards I created for a Faith-dex swap on the SNSS Creative Worship Facebook page.

I used the music stencil and Distress Oxide (Tumbled Glass) to create the base.Then I stamped in a repeat pattern the word Grace in Distress Oxide a shade darker (Broken China) and “is sufficient” in black Archival Ink – both from the Choose Faith set. I added a sentiment to the tab and the back from the GRACE SO AMAZING set. Then I added ink splatters with Dina Wakley Ocean Acrylic paint and Dylusions Acrylic paint (this is what was on my desk:)) and set it aside to dry while I created the focal pieces.

I printed out the sheet music to Amazing grace on some cardstock and punched it out with a heart punch. I inked the edges of the heart with black Archival and added a little Antique Lined Distress Oxides on top (My card was cut from watercolor paper so I wanted to make sure the colors were similar)

I stamped “Grace so Amazing” from the Faith Wordfetti set on a strip of scrap watercolor paper and then I was ready to put the my Faith-dex card together…

I used some Grace themed washi tape and stuck to the card, then I added some coiled black twine to the side of it. I glued the hear on top of the twine then added the sentiment strip on top of the heart. Then I put blocks on top of all that dimension while it dried. Once it was all dry, I outlined to heart and sentiment strip using a black Stabilo All pencil which a blended with a damp brush.

This card turned out great and it really speaks to me – I hope it does the same for the other people who receive it. If you haven’t tried these before, I recommend it – it’s truly fun!!)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you were inspired!

Lyn

P.S. and by the way:

SNSS – Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas sweet friends! I thought it would be fun to create a project that wasn’t green and red so this is what i got 🙂

I used In the Morning and landscape silhouettes and the library card from the Library Ephemera set given on SNSS Creative Worship set.

I hope you have a very blessed day!

Lyn

Adore Him!

I am not sure about you guys but Christmas stuff is popping up everywhere around me – It is 93 degrees here in Georgia so it is a little hard to get into the Christmas spirit, but this new set from Sweet N Sassy surely has done it! It is called Adore Him. It is so precious. It has so many different elements in the Christmas Story that I have lots of ideas running through my mind.

Today’s images were colored with Polychromos pencils. They take a little while to build up the color, but the end result is great!

My first card uses Distress Oxides to create a night time sky.  I used Wood Backgrounds to create “wood pieces” for the “manger” and the colored the baby , fussy cut it, and popped it up on fun foam. I used the sentiment from an older set called Peace on Earth (retired) And that is all there is too this one – clean and simple but not really, right?

My second card uses The Three Wise Men. This one is very  clean and simple. I colored them, fussy cut them, and glued them onto a white card. I rounded the corners for a little added interest. For this one, I used a sentiment from We Three Kings – I love this sentiment!

These were so much fun! I hope you are inspired to get your Christmas cards started. It will actually be here before you know it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lyn