Hey crafty friends, did you know March 8th is International Women’s Day? I’m celebrating with a group of amazing cardmakers in an uplifting blog and Instagram hop. I hope you’ll celebrate with us, and upload one of your cards too! In addition to lots of inspiration for encouragement themed cards, you’ll also have a chance to win some fabulous prizes!
With this theme in mind, I thought it would be appropriate to finish up some of the cards I started at the last Unstoppable Retreat. If you’ve ever been to one, you know there is a similar focus. We spend a lot of time encouraging each other to let our inner artists out to play. I had the honor to teach in February, and I will tell you, there were some extremely talented ladies (and new friends) there!
At the retreat, I worked on the backgrounds for both of my cards, but didn’t turn them into cards until I got home. Do you ever play with background techniques? Sometimes, it’s fun to create a whole stack and put them aside for later. Die cut sentiments and gems are the perfect way to quickly turn background pieces into finished cards.
The first card features a stamped background with brand new images from The Greeting Farm. In Carisa Zglobicki’s class, we stamped out the images and then watercolored them. It was really fun and relaxing. One of Carisa’s tips was to introduce a second color to our flowers while they were still wet. I dropped in a touch of yellow to the sides of my pink flowers, and I was surprised at how much richer they became.
To finish the card, I trimmed the panel down and mounted it to a card base. Then, I die cut the sentiment MY HERO from several shades of cardstock that matched the colors in my panel. I glued them together, slightly offset, and added embossed sentiment strips with the sub-sentiment underneath. A few flat-backed gems add sparkle.
My second card features a background I created in Beth Duff’s class. We spread alcohol inks out on a craft mat and let them dry. Then, we misted the area with rubbing alcohol and picked up the ink with one side of an embossing folder. Working quickly, we sandwiched a cardstock panel in the folder and ran it through a die cutting machine. I love the way my panel turned out; the color and texture are awesome!
Finishing this card was quick and easy too. I trimmed the panel down and mounted it to a slightly larger piece of gold glitter cardstock, then a pink card base. Like I did with the first card, I die cut the word HUGS several times in coordinating colors and gold mirror paper. I glued them together and added another sub-sentiment. A mix of black flat-backed gems and gold sequins, topped with Diamond Glaze, are scattered around the sentiment. Aren’t the bold colors neat?
I want to share a group picture from the retreat too; it was so much fun and I made some wonderful new friends…
Who do you craft with? If you’d like to craft along with us for International Women’s Day, head on over to the main blog and link your cards up so we can see! You have until 12:00 pm IST on March 22, 2020 to be entered to win. Winners will be selected randomly. Open Internationally. See main blog for complete details. Then, hop along with us…
Main Blog
Guest Designers
Casual Fridays
Craftyscrappers
Funky Fossils
Jane’s Doodles
Kitchen Sink Stamps
Pear Blossoms Press – you are here
Power Poppy – next stop
Time for Tea Designs
Uniko
Your Next Stamp
Hosting Designers
Anila
Deepti
Ishani
Jasleen
Mugdha
Pooja
Radhika
Raga
Rahmat
Sathya
Don’t forget to hop along with us on Instagram too!
Thank you for stopping by today. I’ll be back soon with more fun cards to share.
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Such lovely cards and perfect for IWD! Thank you for the inspiration!
Both are amazing colors! I LOVE the MY HERO one the most! Thank you for sharing your women’s empowerment creations! Happy Woman’s Day!
Oh my goodness, so adorable!! They’re both so sweet!! I love how you colored them and the details you added!
Valerija xx
A duo of gorgeous cards that speak to both the power and softness of women! Feminine colours; strong messages! We all need to recognize our female heroes; we all need hugs! Wonderful inspiration to celebrate International Women’s Day!
hugs~carol
Fantastic cards. I see an eye watching me
in the second card. Good for Women’s Day
as we are always watching out for someone.
thanks for sharing
txmlhl(at)yahoo(dot)com
I love the bright and beautiful colors in your cards! They are feminine and beautiful and perfect for this awesome time to celebrate being a woman!
arm Hugs,
Michele K. Henderson
crimsonowl@comcast.net
I craft with my twin sister. Love both the cards. The sentiment on first card is awesome. Sometimes we tend to make lots of stencilled background, but never turn them into cards. Your idesof die cut is lovely, hope to give it a try.
Beautiful cards. I think my favourite one is the “my hero ” one cause I love the colouring and the sentiment.
wonderful cards. Yes I do create backgrounds and put them aside to use later its fun and saves time when you need something in a hurry.
This craft retreats sound very interesting ! I have never been to any..must be fun to craft with like minded peoples.. learning new techniques .Both your are very beautiful ,i like the backgrounds as well as the colors.
We are grateful for the sponsership and that you took time to create not one but two beautiful cards specially for the Hop and joined as Guest Designer.Thank you Amanda.
Appropriately pretty and powerful cards Amanda. Best wishes today!!
OOh, that’s a fun technique with the alcohol inks. Beautiful card. Happy International Women’s Day. Thanks for sponsoring. Hugz
Awesome cards like always. So pretty.
Beautiful Cards Amanda… Love both of them.. both are so unique and different from each other… I really love how you have arranged the flowers around the corner in the first one and WOW .. what a fun technique you have used for the second one.. I will definitely give it a try.. its looking awesome…And i really love this idea of Craft retreat.. though I have never attended one…
Thank you so much Amanda to be part of this wonderful hop and for supporting us… Hugsxx Deepti Aggarwal
Both of your cards are wonderful with such great sentiments! I love the flowers on your first one and background on the second one is amazing too! The retreat sounds like a wonderfully fun time! Thanks for being a part of this wonderful blog hop!
These are both so beautiful! I really like the ones with the flowers; so pretty!
Beautiful cards! Love the colors you used!
What a lovely inspiration Amanda.. Thank you so much for amazing inspirations. Lobe both of them. And yes the the technique on the second card is new to me and I would to try it out soon. I love the concept of craft retreat, I’m sure it just be the happiest place for all crafters.. Thank you for the lovely inspiration again and my wishes to all the women crafters of the team.. ❤️❤️
Love both inspirations, Amanda! Thanks SO much for joining us as Guest designer and for your generous sponsorship. We are SO happy to have you as part of this Hop.Very Happy Women’s day!
—Sathya
Both cards are so beautiful! I am in LOVE with your Hero card, it’s fabulous!!! Happy International Women’s Day.
Such great creations.
Your retreat looks like a great inspiring time! It is so much fun to create with others.
Both cards are beautiful thanks for lovely inspiration 😍 loved the sentiment ‘ my HERO ‘ .. will definitely love to try the technique of second card.. Also the concept of craft retreat is amazing !! I would love to be a part of such events 🙂
First of all, Happy women’s day! I love both of your gorgeous cards. Especially love the alcohol technique bg with embossing folder. Definitely, in my must try list. Your craft treat idea is so amazing!
We are really so glad and honoured to have you guest designing for our hop. Thank you so much for inspiring with your stunning creations and exciting us with your generous sponsorship to make our hop a grand success. We are so grateful to you. Hugs! Raga.
love your cards – so pretty
These are wonderful, Amanda! Thank you so much for being one of the wonderful sponsors of this great blog hop!
Wonderful cards! I adore your flowers and love the tip of adding a drop of another colour while the first is still wet – what a result! And the second abstract – well I’m going to be trying that technique for sure.
These cards are gorgeous. I love tye beautiful flowers and the background on the second card looks just amazing!
so gorgeous cards!
Happy Woman’s Day!
Wonderful cards! Love all the bright colors . Happy Woman’s Day!
Love the card!
Both cards are amazing and beautiful 😍
Both cards a sooo Pretty!! I love the colors you used. Have a happy day!
Not one but two beautiful cards! Thanks for sharing and also for joining in on the “cool” Women’s International Day hop. 🙂
What a brilliant use for alcohol inks! And I love the result so much!!! Your first card is beautiful too… the watercoloring looks so natural with the warm yellow tones in the flowers. And I think everyone can use a Hugs card!!!
Beautiful cards. What a fun time to get together and nurture and learn.
Ooh I love both these cards! The flowers one is just gorgeous! <3
Your beautiful use of color draws me in immediately.
Wow! Your creations are so amazing Amanda. Loves the colors and techniques which you have used to design these gorgeous cards.
Love your cards! I never thought about playing with backgrounds then finishing later, but that’s a great idea. It would make for having something nice put together quickly when I want something at the last minute. Thanks for the inspiration.
Both cards are amazing… Gorgeous.
Both cards are mesemerizing and captivating..
Great idea !
Loved your techniques
Payal Mittal
Both of your cards are gorgeous! Love how you coloured the flowers!
Both cards are so beautiful…
Lovely cards…