STUDIO KATIA

DESIGN BLOG

May Release Preview – Day 3 with Valentyna

/ CATEGORIES - Birthday Cards, Cards, New Release, News

Hello and welcome to our May Release week Preview. This release includes 5 new clear stamp sets, 2 new stand along die sets and introducing new coordinating die sets. Yay!

Valentyna here popping in to introduce to you Kobi the Birthday Bear! He’s the adorable bear that lives in Canadian Rockies. He loves to make new friends and eat cake!

I hope you have enjoyed this look at Kobi the Birthday Bear & Coordinating Dies. Tomorrow we have another new set to show you! And now, it’s GIVEAWAY time! Leave a comment bellow to win this set by May 26th, and we will randomly pick one winner for this set!

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for another great preview.
Thank You!

May Release Preview – Day 2 with Liliuska

/ CATEGORIES - Cards, New Release, News, Other, Sneak Peek

Hello and welcome to our May Release week Preview. This release includes 5 new clear stamp sets, 2 new stand along die sets and introducing new coordinating die sets. Yay!

I am very excited to join May Release Previews this week!

I am showcasing Happy Stamp Set today.

I love how versatile is this set. The handwritten word HAPPY looks beautiful on its own, you don’t even need to add anything, except for some fun background maybe. Which is what I did playing with this set.

First I made a background using alcohol markers. I scribbled on Yupo paper and added some alcohol. Next I put another panel of Yupo to the first one and got two beautiful blue background. I die cut a little smaller panel than my card base, stamped Sending Happy Thoughts and added few sequins. Stamping on Yupo is not an easy task, but I am happy with the result I got.

Next I made a background on photo paper using dry watercolour paints and water. Once it was dry I stamped Don’t Worry Be Happy, die cut it to a bit smaller size and added couple sequins.

Stamping on photo paper is also tricky, but it worked perfectly!

Next I decided to stamp word Happy using few different tones of the same colour and inked my card base with the same inks to match the stamped word. A frame from Darling Ribbon & Dotted Frames | Creative Dies made my card look even more elegant. To make the word Happy look even more fun I added some glitter embossing powder.

Next I made a shaker card using heavy weight vellum on which embossed Happy Birthday with gold embossing powder. I added lots of tiny 18K Gold Stars Confetti to my shaker and adhered few inside the golden frame. Since adhering vellum to a card base is always tricky I only added adhesive behind the frame, so nothing is visible.

Last two cards I made using two distress watercolour panels and some Distress Inks. I simply embossed sentiment on the panels and added a little wash of colour on top. I die cut both panels using Darling Ribbon & Dotted Frames | Creative Dies. Embossed flowers are also from the Happy Stamp Set. How cute are they!

This set looks perfect on every background! I enjoyed playing with it and am sure you will as well. You can make so many different greetings cards with it.

Have a wonderful day and come back tomorrow for more previews!

Liliuska

I hope you have enjoyed this look at Happy Clear Stamp set. Tomorrow we have another new set to show you! And now, it’s GIVEAWAY time! Leave a comment bellow to win this set by May 26th, and we will randomly pick one winner for this set!

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for another great preview.
Thank You!

Save

Save

May Release Preview – Day 1 with Laurie

/ CATEGORIES - Cards, New Release

Hello and welcome to our May Release week Preview. This release includes 5 new clear stamp sets, 2 new stand along die sets and introducing new coordinating die sets. Yay!

Laurie here to share one of the new stamp and die sets coming soon to Studio Katia!!  I’m so excited about this release and you should be too!  It’s incredible!  There are 5 new stamp sets and 2 die sets being released this month along with new embellishments, yay!

Today, I get to share with you something that you’ve likely seen before.  The Mini Thank You set was previously given out as a freebie with a qualifying order.  But this month, it is going to be a part of the shop and available to purchase.  Not only that, but it also has co-ordinating dies!!  This tiny set is actually one of my favorites.  It may be small, but its mighty.
I wanted to show you the versatility of this mini set, so I created a couple of very different cards.  The first one is what I would call…elegant.  Very subtle colour with die cutting as the focus.
I started by stamping the “thank you” repeatedly on a white panel in Fog Ink from Simon Says Stamp.  To fill in some of the spaces, I stamped the tiny heart that’s included in the Mini Thank You set.  I die cut the panel using a NEW DIE and adhered it directly onto a grey cardbase.  I die cut the thank you 3 times from the same grey cardstock and stacked them together.  To give the card a bit of a “lighter’ feel, I die cut the scalloped circle from the Dotted Balloons Creative Dies out of a piece of vellum.  This die cuts 2 pieces.  The skinny outline die is cut separately, and I just so happened to have that piece already cut from white cardstock.  I adhered the sentiment to the vellum before attaching it to the card so I could hide the adhesive, then glued down the thin frame.  To finish this card off, I used some of the fabulous Sparkling Crystals Mix and some BRAND NEW Frosted Hearts embellishments!!  And of course some Clear Wink of Stella over the sentiment!
I love this card!
Now onto something a bit more colourful!!  I started by stamping the butterfly image from the Mini Thank You set all over a white panel.  I used a variety of Copic markers, in rainbow colours to make these beauties come to life.
Again, to fill in the spaces, I stamped the little heart. This panel was also cut using the BRAND NEW DIE!!   I didn’t want to cover up any of my colouring, so I decided to die cut the sentiment directly out of that panel and do some inlay die cutting!  I also die cut the sentiment 3 times from some black cardstock to give it some dimension before adhering it into place.  I used ATG adhesive to adhere the butterfly panel onto a grey panel cut with the largest die from the Darling Ribbon and Dotted Frames Creative Dies Set (see how those two dies co-ordinate? Awesome, isn’t it?)  To make the sentiment “pop”, I added glitter pen and Glossy Accents.  I also added sparkle and shine to parts of the butterflies and hearts!
And to finish this card off, I used some Plum Smoke Sequins with a dot of Crystal Stickles.
Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you’ll come back everyday this week for a look at some more new products, which will be available in the shop on May 27!!  And stay tuned because on release day we’re having a blog hop to celebrate!!!
See you soon!!
Laurie
I hope you have enjoyed this look at Mini Thank You and Frosted Hearts Embellishments! Tomorrow we have another new set to show you! And now, it’s GIVEAWAY time! Leave a comment bellow to win this set by May 26th, and we will randomly pick one winner for this set! (If you already own this set and win, you can choose another set!)

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for another great preview.
Thank You!

Distress Oxide Thank You cards with Erica

/ CATEGORIES - Cards, CAS, New Release, Thank You Cards

Hello, it’s the birthday girl Erica on the blog today! Happy birthday to me, I’m 25 today, whoop whoop!! Admittedly, it’s something like the 13th time I’m 25 but honestly, who’s counting? I’m not one of these ‘let’s grow old gracefully’ kind of gals, nope, not me. Kicking and screaming is more my style. And when that fails, denial. Oh, and then drown my sorrows in cake! I have never denied being a bit of a drama queen when it comes to ageing.

The birthday cards and presents have been trickling in for a little while so I thought I’d best make some thank you cards to send out to people for making me feel special. One of my early birthday presents from my sweet husband was the full set of Distress Oxide inks and I decided to try some of these out for today’s cards.

The Distress Oxides are super smooth and so easy to ink blend (which I will most likely be doing on a card in the near future) but I thought I’d try some easy ink smooching on both white and black card stock to see how it came out. I did watch some tutorials by Tim Holt himself before I started because to be honest, I kinda had the ‘need the full set syndrome’ before even having tried a single one and told The Man who prompted me to get them. Which I did right away as the dutiful and obedient wife that I am….*I nearly managed to write that without falling off my chair laughing, lol*

Anyway… *still snickering to myself*… I picked out Fossilized Amber, Spiced Marmalade and Fired Brick as my colour combination. These I rubbed directly onto my craft mat and then spritzed some water on it to ‘activate’ the oxide process. Then it was a simple-ish procedure of putting a piece of card stock down on top, smooch-smooch-smooch and flip over. I used my heat tool to help the drying process along and watched the magic. My first piece was white card stock and it looked amazing!

Moving on to the black card stock, I did the same thing in the same ink puddle. This didn’t work out as great. In hindsight, I should have started from scratch with this one too but, not one to give up, I dried it with the heat tool. Once it was dry, it had a really unique and fun pattern on it so I decided to use it anyway. Next time I will use less water and more ink on dark card stock though.

As these were going to be thank you cards, I grabbed the ‘Mini Thank You’ stamp set which has been a freebie with qualifying orders but will be released on its own in June. On the black card I decided to heat emboss it in white to make it stand out, I thought just stamping it with white ink might make it disappear. Before I stamped it with VersaMark ink, I sprinkled the card base with my anti-static tool to avoid those pesky stray bits of embossing powder sticking where I didn’t want them. On the bright coloured card I decided to go with black ink and not heat emboss it. When I look at it now, I think I should have said yes to heat embossing on this one too but you know, you live and learn.

Even with the fun backgrounds I thought the cards looked a bit plain. What’s that? Me? A sequin addict?? Where is that coming from?! *erm, totally guilty* So, yeah, it should come as about ZERO surprise that I grabbed some sequins to add some pizazz to these cards. One of my favourite fusions is the Crystal Rainbow mix and I got out some yellow, orange and hot pink ones in different sizes. These I added in a ‘meteorite shower’ kind of pattern across the card, yellow sequins on the yellow ink, orange sequins on the orange ink and hot pink ones over the red ink.

 

These cards are actually quite quick to make, especially once you get the hang of the Distress Oxides and how much water to add etc. They are even quicker when you don’t stop and faff as much as I sometimes do whilst making a card!

If you take the plunge and get these inks, take some time to get to grips with them and play around. You never know what might come out of it, and having ready made backgrounds are always a time-saver for those times you need to make a card in record time.

Well, that’s it for me for today, I’m off to celebrate the rest of my birthday with The Man and The Cheeky Chicas. And most likely a big piece of cake or four, since birthday calories don’t count.

Happy crafting from Erica

Save

Pop-up Box Card with Erica

/ CATEGORIES - Cards, Floral Cards, New Release, Other

Hi there!

Erica on the blog today with a bit of an experiment: a box pop-up card! I had never made one before this one so it’s full or trial and errors but you know, I’m all about keeping it real crafting wise. Warts and all. And there are a few on this one but more about that as we get to them. It did also take me several days to get this one done and I actually finished another one in between the start to finish of this one! I’m not one of these ‘one project at a time’ kind of people, I have several on the go at all times… I can’t help it.

SUPPLIES:

Together We Bloom Clear Stamp Set

Brush Strokes Clear Stamp Set

As you all probably know by now, I’m obsessed with the Together We Bloom stamp set. I can’t stop using it for every project I’m doing for the blog… in my defence, I’m hoping this shows how versatile it is and how many possibilities there are with this set. Everyone ok with that? Yep? Ok, let’s get to the card then.

First a small confession, I’m TERRIBLE at watching tutorials before trying something new. I tend to be so impatient that I simply dive in the deep end and hope my swimming skills will save me. It has backfired more than one time but so far I have not learnt my lesson. Like at all. This was no different. I was super excited about getting this scalloped box pop-up die from Lawn Fawn and just started cutting pieces of card stock before having a single clue about what I was even going to do with them. Ack… If you are shaking your head at me right now, I do not blame you at all.

Right, so the idea that formed was that it was going to be a green box with hot pink flowers inside it. I have a big hoard of card stock and picked out a nice leafy green one for the actual box. Rolling this through the Big Shot twice, a quick glue job and done. So far so good. This is the simplest bit though so no wonder I was feeling ok about it at this stage!

I thought I’d use some kind of green-ish patterned paper for the die cut box panels on the outside of the box but I didn’t have any that I liked enough. Thinking quick on my feet, I decided to make my own using the Brush Strokes stamp set and green inks. I stamped it in a grid like pattern to create a loose gingham look. When I had a big enough piece to cut out all the eight boxes I put it through my Big Shot and glued them down on the box.

After stamping up lots of flowers and leaves, I coloured them with my Copics before it was time to fussy cut. And fussy cut some more… aaaaaand some more. I wanted a big bunch of flowers in the box and ended up using seven blooms of different sizes. Here I made my first mistake: I made three smaller bunches by gluing the flowers together without really knowing where I needed them to go. Memo to self for next time: DO NOT DO THIS!! Wait until everything is ready to be put together and don’t jump the gun! I ended up having to pull some of them apart and even with all the re-arranging and taking apart, I still managed to cover up one of the blooms in the middle layer and you can see one of the bits I had to use to elevate another flower.

Mistake number two happened here: I decided to stamp the sentiment ‘Together We Bloom’ from the stamp set on the biggest flower in black and then heat emboss clear embossing powder over it. I should have waited with deciding on a sentiment before I knew what the card was going to be for. As it is, I’ve sent it to my Mother-In-Law for Mother’s Day along with a present I made for her. I’ve sent another card with it to explain that this one is for decoration. It’s a good thing she already knows I’m quite sentimental and overly gushing at times..

On the inside flaps of the box I decided to cut up more panels instead of leaving them bare. These I stamped with flowers and leaves too, because why make it easy for myself?? They got coloured in with the same Copics as the flowers inside the box. On the back panel I stamped the big flower from Thank You So Much set. After colouring that one I also decided to fill in the white spaces with a very light green Copic, I’m pretty sure I used G11 for it but because I forgot to write down my colours I can’t be sure. Here I made mistake number three: I should have stamped the front flower panel with the flower coming out of the bunch instead of as I did.. I think that would have made for a more ‘organic’ look but by the time I thought of this, I couldn’t pull that bit off without risking destroying the whole box.

Here you can also see how messy it looks from the back. For the next time I really need to come up with a better solution to this as it’s nice if it looks good from, if not all but most angles, not just the front one. I’m thinking that masking the flowers together into bunches at the stamping stage might be the way to go? Then maybe I can plan the layout a bit better and avoid the green card stock piece showing?

Ok, so it’s not terrible but I’m sure I can do a better job of it next time. IF I remember all my ‘memos to self’ that is! Which isn’t something you should bank on…

Well, that’s it from me for this time and this is my last post for March so see you all in April!

Happy crafting from Erica

Save

Save

Mother’s Day Present project with Erica

/ CATEGORIES - New Release, Other

Hello, hello!

Erica here with a very different but fun project today! It’s not a card..! How rebellious is that?? LOL, that feels a lot more rebellious than it really should. Maybe I need to get out more?

Well, I really fancied trying something I’ve never tried before and thought, why not blog about it in case it inspires someone else to try it too?

My idea was to stamp some flowers on these little framed canvases I found at a local shop and paint them as part of a Mother’s Day present for my Mother-In-Law. Mother’s Day fell on the 26th of March (as in today) in the UK this year. It’s nice to make something special for her as without her, I wouldn’t have my sweet, darling husband.

At the risk of becoming a one-trick-pony, I got my beloved Together We Bloom stamp set out and also some Archival Ink as I wanted to use the Kuretake Gansai Tambi 36 pack water colours.

After stamping the second largest bloom on one canvas and the second smallest on another one, I got my colouring supplies ready. I didn’t really know how this was going to come out but thought what the heck, you win some, you loose some. The first layer was a thin one, like with normal water colouring. That tactic didn’t really work that well as the canvas material is quite thick and coated but by going over it several times and being patient, it eventually sank in. The next layer wasn’t making any difference colourwise so I compensated by making the paint very thick to create some contrast. The third layer needed to blend the dark and the light bits together and that was much easier.

When I was happy with the flowers and the leaves, I decided to do the background black. It might seem strange and a harsh choice but black really makes the colours of the flowers pop. This I had to do in several layers to get a nice and even coat but got there in the end. Then it was a time for the boring part: letting it sit and dry. I really am not very good at this part! The temptation to touch it to check if it’s dry is so high.

If you try this yourself, at this stage (once they are dry that is) you can either leave the canvases as they are and put them back in the frame/frame them if they don’t already have one OR coat it with a glossy varnish for a nice shiny finish. I decided to keep mine as they are but might try the varnish next time. Even if it’s just to see what it looks like.

I’d love to hear if you tried this and what you think about it, any tips or hints you might have. Pop it in the comment section below if you do!

Happy crafting and Happy Mother’s Day from Erica

 

Save

Save

Together We Bloom with Yana

/ CATEGORIES - Blog Spotting, Cards, Floral Cards, New Release, Other

Hello friends, this year at Creativation I’ve met so many wonderful people. I was fortunate enough to meet talented Yana Smakula. I’m in love with this card and matching envelope. Simply stunning.

Here’s another photo.

You can read the entire post HERE.

Thanks all for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!

Katia

 

Studio Katia and A Blog Named Hero Collaboration card with Erica

/ CATEGORIES - Cards, Floral Cards, New Release, Other

Hello,

Erica on the blog today with a very blingy card for the A Blog Named Hero collaboration. I was so excited when I found out about this collaboration and the theme, gosh, I had so many ideas right off the bat! This card is the fruition of one of my first ideas and I’m so happy with how it came out! Let’s get right to it, shall we?

I adore the sentiment ‘Throw kindness around like confetti’ from the Hero Arts Acts Of Kindness set and decided to make that the centre of my card. Around the sentiment, which I stamped in black ink and added clear heat embossing powder over, I created a big flowery wreath with the gorgeous flowers from the Together We Bloom set. I cut out several masks to get a “bushy” look with all the flowers and leaves overlapping. If you only buy one set from the new release, this should be the one. I think I must have used it for about 7 out of the 10-ish projects I have created since it’s release. It’s got everything: big blooms, medium and small ones and lots of leaves. I love this set!

As I had already decided to use Copics, I stamped up the images on Simon Says Stamp White 120lb card stock which is a thick and smooth card stock. The Copics go on like butter on hot toast.

Grabbing my hex chart, available from Sandy Allnock, and my pinks Copics I got to work. Some of the flowers are a little better than the others but I wanted them all to have slightly different shades of pink on them. I used the flicking technique for all of the flowers, this is my favorite way of colouring flowers. A lot of people prefer blending until the colours are super smooth and blended to perfection but I like this look.  Each to their own, right? It would be boring if we all coloured exactly the same.

For the leaves I went a little bit more blended, but not much. In all the gaps around the flowers and leaves, I used a very light green (G11 I think it was) just to give a little colour and to bring the ‘wreath’ together. This light green I also extended a bit in the middle, towards the sentiment.

Once I was happy with all the colouring, it was time to add some bling! The theme for this collaboration is bling after all so what better excuse to go crazy?? Out came all sorts of fun sequins, crystals and Nuvo drops! I settled for different sized green-ish coloured sequins from the Crystal Rainbow Fusion (this is my FAVOURITE sequin fusion ever!) as well as Sparkling Crystals and transparent green Nuvo Drops. The sequins I added to leaves and green areas, the sparkling crystals got sprinkled in the centre to frame the sentiment and the Nuvo Drops got dotted on the leaves to make it look like dew drops. I really like doing this for a subtle little touch. While I was on a roll with all this I also added some Glossy Accent drops all over the sentiment to make it look like rain drops falling from the sky.

I set the panel aside to dry as I didn’t want to mess up any of my dots and drops. While this whole shebang was drying, I cut out a card base in a fushia coloured card stock, about 2mm bigger than the actual panel. Once glued on to the base, a tiny little bit peeks out and frames the whole thing beautifully.

With that, it’s a wrap! Everything I have used for this card that’s available at Studio Katia I have linked in the post so if you want something, just click on the link and it will take you right to it! If something is out of stock, check back regularly as you are going to want to grab it as soon as you can, trust me!

That’s it from me this time, have a great day and happy crafting!

Erica

Save

Thank You Card by Kathy

/ CATEGORIES - Blog Spotting, Cards, Floral Cards, New Release, Thank You Cards

Hello friends, it’s day 17 of the #thedailymarker30day and I’m so thrilled to see Kathy’s no line coloring technique used on beautiful flower from Thank You So Much Stamp Set.

Click HERE to read the entire post. Make sure to stop by Kathy’s Blog and learn more about the The Daily Marker  #thedailymarker30day and for your chance to win some great prices.

Thank You!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Katia

Hello Friend by Laurie

/ CATEGORIES - Cards, Floral Cards, New Release

Hello, everyone!! Laurie here to share a pretty in pink card using stamps from the latest release!  For the main element of this card I used the large blossom from the Thank You So Much stamp set.  This flower is large!!!  It will definitely be the star of the show! The leaves are from the new Together We Bloom stamp set.

SUPPLIES:

Thank You So Much Clear Stamp Set

 Together We Bloom Clear Stamp Set,

Darling Ribbon and Dotted Frames Die Set

Stitched Nested Creative Squares Die Set

Pink Lemonade Fusion

MISTI

I decided to heat emboss the flower in gold.  To colour I used my Tombow Dual Brush Markers.  This way of colouring is so simple!!  I just use one colour, adding it to where the darkest part of the image will be and simply drag out the colour using a water brush.  And these particular markers have some beautiful and vibrant colours!  If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I actually coloured two of these gorgeous flowers, one in a light pink and one in a darker pink.  For todays project, I decided to use the lighter flower.

After the colouring, I fussy cut everything out.  For my cardbase, I embossed the front using the largest panel die from the Darling Ribbon and Dotted Frames Die Set.  This gives nice texture and dimension without adding any extra bulk.  I used the middle die from the Stitched Nested Creative Squares Die Set to die cut a piece of Woodgrain Cardstock to house my sentiment.   I stamped the “hello friend” in Versamark and heat embossed it in gold again.  Note:  because this is textured cardstock, I double stamped the sentiment before applying embossing powder…thank goodness for the Misti!!!
After everything was adhered with a combination of foam adhesive and liquid glue.  I embellished the card with one of my favourite sequin fusions, Pink Lemonade.  I added a dot of Crystal Stickles to each sequin and a few drops scattered on the leaves and the flower.

 

Thank You for stopping by have a lovely day!

Laurie