“Holidays Are A Nightmare” – Kindred Stamps Guest Designer + Blog Hop

Hello! Today, I’m please to announce I’ve joined Kindred Stamps as a guest designer. I have had the opportunity to work with one of their latest releases, “Holidays Are A Nightmare”. I am also able to offer my readers a Kindred store discount, but more about that later…

I am discussing all three cards in this post, which makes this rather long, so please stick with me as I describe each creation I’ve made with this stamp set.

For my first card I decide to have a go at making a nondescript couples congratulations card that really could be used for an anniversary, engagement or wedding. I also decided I would use lots of orange in the design.

I started by stamping my three characters, onto Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock, with Tsukineko Tuxedo Black dye ink and colored them with my Chameleon Pens. I then fussy cut the images leaving a small border around the edge.

To begin the card itself, I cut a piece of white cardstock to 4.5″×6.5″ and dry embossing it with Hero Arts Infinity Hearts die set, as I did in this post. I then sprayed the panel with Tsukineko Sparkle Shimmer Spritz and set it aside to dry properly. I also cut a panel of orange cardstock down to 4.75″×6.75″ to use as a matting layer and attached it to a black 5″×7″ card base. As the orange was a fairly thin cardstock, I used a tape runner to secure it in place, so it wouldn’t buckle the entire card. I added the top, white card layer on top of the orange card and added some faux stitching around the edges, using an orange Sakura Glitter Gelly Roll pen and a ruler.

Moving onto embellishments, I cut two hearts, using a generic die, once in black and once in orange. I glued those two die cuts together, slightly offsetting them so the black die would show from behind the orange. I also die cut lots of tiny hearts in orange and cut a “congrats” sentiment using Tim Holtz Celebration Words Script die set. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I glued them all into place using Ranger Multi Medium Matte Adhesive and added glitter to each heart with a Spectrum Noir Clear Overlay Sparkle Pen. I didn’t have to be too precise with my pen because the Sparkle pen‘s glitter matches the glitter in the Tsukineko Shimmer Spritz. I didn’t spritz the panel after adding the hearts for two reasons, I was concerned the orange card may not be color fast and the color may run. I also didn’t want any glue that may ooze out from behind my hearts to stop the Sparkle spray from adhering to the cardstock and leave areas of card without glitter on it, when the glue repels the spray.

I stamped the “meant to be” sentiment onto a scrap of Neenah cardstock and die cut it, and a post out with the Impression Obsession Signpost Die Set. I colored both die cuts with my Chameleon Pens, blending to give the look of plenty of shadow. I glued them together and added the post, and the dog to the bottom corner of the card. After all, what dog doesn’t love a signpost?

I attached the couple onto the card on either side of the main hearts, propping them up with some foam tape.

My second card is another take on the enduring love theme, only this time I decide to try a shaped easel card. This card is a tiny make for me! I’ve become so accustom to making 5″×7″ cards that this one felt more like a gift card to make. This card is only about 4″ square but it looks great in the easel position.

The main reason this card is so small is because this design is limited by the size of the die used to create the shape. In this case, I used the largest die from a generic set of lace edged hearts. I started by cutting a piece of cardstock to measure 8.5″×4″ and folding it in half to create a card base measuring 4.25″×4″.

Next, I die cut my card base. I’ve created this quick photo tutorial to show how I went about it and it’s in jpeg format, so it’s easy for you to download.

While I had my die cutting machine out, I cut two feature hearts from metallic gold cardstock backed with Elizabeth Craft Designs double sided adhesive. I also cut two more hearts from white cardstock, to use as supports for the gold card that was a little too thin to use alone. I removed the backing sheet from the adhesive and glued the gold hearts onto the white. The two layers of card were now quite strong and would hold up well when in the easel position.

Before attaching the gold hearts to the shaped card base, I decorated them by adding strips of border peel off stickers around the edge of each heart, choosing a style that would curve easily as I stuck it to the heart, without me having to cut it.

My next task was to stamp my Kindred stamp images and sentiment. Using my Misti, I double stamped the characters onto Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock using Tuxedo Black Memento dye ink that is alcohol ink friendly. I also stamped the sentiment directly onto the small gold heart with Versamark Ink and heat embossed it with gold Wow superfine embossing powder.

I glued the small heart onto the inside of the card base at the bottom of the heart shape, only gluing the lace and the bottom quarter of the gold heart. This allowed the heart to raise up slightly at the top, to function as a stopper for the card front to rest behind. I could have added a piece of foam tape beneath it but decided not to, the small heart curved more than the tape would have allowed and, as a result, the heart didn’t get creased when the card front was slipped behind it. I also glued the lower portion of the large gold heart to the lower part of the card front and allowed everything to dry. I used the really strong Ranger Multi Medium Matte Adhesive for both gold hearts.

I colored all three characters with alcohol markers and fussy cut each, leaving a small border around the edge. I added foam tape under the couple and centered them onto the large gold card front and simply glued the dog to the small heart inside the card, making sure he couldn’t be seen when the card was closed.

I finished off by testing the easel mechanism wasn’t interfered with by any of the embellishments and adding some black Tsukineko Pico Embellisher liquid to the eyes.

My final card is the inevitable Christmas card, using the other characters from the stamp set. This one layer card was just fun to make and quickly became my favorite. I started by making my long life masks for all the stamps I was going to use (I describe fully how I make the masks here). Along with elements from the Kindredstamp set, I wanted to add a tree and some gifts. I found the right style of additions in My Favorite Things Santa’s Elves stamp set.

Once all my coated masks were made, I started my stamping with the Santa stamp and the front gift box and, again, used my Misti and Memento Tuxedo Black dye ink to do the stamping. I added their masks as precisely as I could and stamped the tree and the second layer of gift boxes.

After dabbing the ink off the previous masks with a tissue, I added the next layer of masks to the latest elements. I finished my stamping with the last character, arranging him to look like he was jumping out from behind the tree, as well as stamping the sentiment in the upper right corner. I thought his stance would help tie the greeting into the design perfectly.

Instead of removing all the masks to start my coloring, I added the final mask to the last stamped image and began my ink blending for the background. I adhered a straight piece of acetate with repositional tape to the lower part of the card. This would act as my mask for the lower section of my card that I planned to use green for, to help ground the stamped images.

I also cut a mask for my speech bubble area at the top of the card, using plain copy paper and one of the dies from Mama Elephant’s Speech Trio set. I covered this mask as well, to extend its life and make a great platform to blend my inks out from. I applied Scotch Restickable Glue on the back of the mask and positioned the mask. The Restickable Glue is great to keep the long life masks sticking and, even after all this time, I still haven’t thrown out a single mask that I’ve made this way and, of course, there’s never any ink bleeding through the older masks.

I started blending the blue areas of my background, using Salty Ocean Distress Oxide Ink as my base layer. I then added Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink over the top to deepen the color just below the speech bubble. If you curious about blending Distress Inks and Distress Oxides and would like to know more, you can find out all about it in another of my earlier posts.

I repositioned the acetate mask over the blue and blended Cracked Pistachio Distress Oxide over the lower portion of the card. I then went back with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink to deepen the color around the outer edges. I allowed all the ink blending to dry while I removed all the masks, ready to color my stamped images.

I always lay a tissue over the finished blended areas to rest my hand on while I’m coloring. This helps to keep already completed areas of my one layer card clean and free from any marks leaning on those areas while coloring may leave.

Once all my stamped images were colored with my Chameleon Pens, mixed with other brands of alcohol markers, I die cut the panel with one of Sue Wilson’s Noble Pierced Rectangles dies, matted it onto a slightly larger piece of black cardstock and glued the layers onto a 5″×7″ card base.

To finish off, I added white dots to the eyes of each character, using a white Sakura Gelly Roll pen. I also coated the tree’s star with a layer of Shimmer Pico Embellisher liquid and I added dots of different colored Ranger Enamel Accents as tree decorations.

Kindred Stamps Blog Hop

We are really excited about this release! We have 9 new sets being released on Friday! 9! Can you believe it! We are reaching back into your childhood hardcore this month, and we’re giving a brief nod to one of our most vocal Supreme Court Justices! And we want to know which is your favorite set of this release. Are you Old School, like our 80s Girl set? Are you Retro, with our Strange Friends set? Or are you Pop Culture with our Annoyed Boss set? What will you be snagging on Friday?

One lucky person will win a $10 credit to the shop! Will that be you?

All you have to do, in order to win, is to visit the following blogs and comment on the posts! Easy Peasy!

Kindred Stamps

R Winn Creates

The Frolicking Fairy

Kindred Stamps Guest Design Team Blog – Molly Dagg

Kindred Stamps Guest Design Team Blog – Amy Moser

Constantly Carding << You Are Here>>

Fanciful Spaces

Little Wings Creates

Kindred Stamps Discount

At last, the discount! If you’re loving the look of the new range, head to Kindred Stamps store directly from here and you’ll get 10% off your first order! Who doesn’t love a discount?

And, I personally would love to know what you think of the stamp set and the cards I created with it. It’s my first time as a guest designer and I’d really appreciate the feedback.

Thanks so much for spending time with me today, and thanks for sticking with me through this very long post. I look forward to next time…😊