Leopard Print

Hello Crafters!

I have a bonus card featuring the “shoe” digi stamp by Coffee Bean Designs. Today is my last guest design team post over on the Coffee Bean Design’s blog which is where you’ll find the first card I made with this digi stamp. I just want to take a second to Thank all the wonderful ladies over at Coffee Bean Designs for letting me craft along with them.

This card was inspired by my favorite pair of heels that I got when I was maybe 19. I have worn my leopard print heels on many occasions because they are fun and flirty which is exactly why I love them.

For my card I printed the heels a little larger so I could play with coloring the leopard print. I am most comfortable coloring with my Copic markers so that is what I used. I started by shading in the whole shoe first with a warm gray combo. The inside of the shoe heel, and sole were all colored in red combo.

W1, W4, W7, &W9R17, R27, R29, & R59Y35, YR23, E35

Drawing the leopard pattern is easy, start my making dots with the lightest yellow then add a mid and dark tone on top off setting a bit. Then make C shaped scribbles around each dot with layers of gray, filling in with smaller gray and yellow dots as needed.

Once everything was colored I fussy cut out my now leopard shoes edging them with a water based black marker. I typed up a sentiment on my computer and printed it out onto white cardstock and trimming it down to slightly smaller then an A2 card base. I like my card to have lots of dimension so I popped the front shoe up with foam. lastly I made two small bow black ribbon from my stash to each shoe.

I hope you enjoyed this craftroom creation as much as I do. If this inspires you to create please tag me on social media @TheCraftBean.

ThanksBrandi M.

The Craft Bean

Birthday Cake

Hello Crafters!

I hope everyone is doing well. My family and I have been spending a lot more time outside since the weather here has been beautiful. Today’s craftroom creation is a Birthday card featuring the “Wedding cake” digital stamp by Coffee Bean Designs.

The great thing about digi stamps is you can resize them to fit your project. For this card I printed my cake larger so it would take up most of the card front. For the Card I made for the Coffee Bean Design’s blog I printed it smaller.

I had a ton of fun turning this Wedding cake image into a rainbow Birthday cake I used the dotting technique to create rainbow sprinkles at the bottom of each cake layer. To add more depth to the cake I used light gray Copic makers to add shading.

I have been stamping for over a decade now, many years ago big box craft stores sold small clear stamp images in the 50 cent bins. well I have a ton of them in my stash so I dug through them and found a rainbow that was perfect to make a cake topper. It is very satisfying to use thing from my stash that haven’t been used in years.

I trimmed out my cake and rainbow with my favorite fiskers scissors and like always when fussy cutting I ran a black water base maker around the edge to hide the white core of the cardstock. I stamped my “Happy Birthday” sentiment on the bottom cake layer. lastly glued my two images together and add foam tape to the back.

I kept the background simple I add light blue clouds with tumbled glass distress ink and my cloud stencil by Kindred stamps. I popped my cake onto my A2 card base and was done.

I hope you enjoyed this card and I will be back soon to share more craftroom creations with you.

Thanks

Brandi M.

@TheCraftBean

Perfume Bonus

I have another craftroom creation bonus for you all today! I was playing with the perfume jars digi stamps from Coffee Bean Designs and made this fun foiled slim line card.

The inspiration for this card came from the paper scraps I had been digging through while making my other two card for the Coffee Bean Design’s blog. I loved this 12 x 12 sheet that Said ” Truly madly deeply” at the bottom center, it made me think “love potion”. However I was unsure how to use it, so I set it a side and worked on my other two cards.  In the middle of creating them I got an idea for this card that I just had to try.

I printed the digi on white 80 pound card stock then I traced over the image lines with a deco foil adhesive pen. Well sort of… the tip on my glue pen was clogged, so I pulled the top off and poured out the glue onto my glass media mat and used  a small paint brush. But feel free to skip all that if you actually remember to put the tops back on to your glue.

I heated up my laminating machine and folded a piece of  standard printer paper in half to make a carrier sheet. I place my glue covered image face up inside the carry sheet, then added my silver deco foil shiny side up on top of my jar image, then closed my carrier sheet and ran it thorough my laminating machine.

Since the paper was 12 X 12 I decided to make a slim line card (3 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches)  I cut the patter paper down to be an 1/8 of an inch smaller then the black card base. To fill in some of the white space and play of the love potion idea, I made smokey potion by ink smooching watered down fired brick distress ink onto the pattern paper with left over clear stamp packaging.

The now potion bottle was fussy cut out but this time I left a white boarder around the image. Popped it up on an bit of foam tape and this card was done.

I hope you have enjoyed spending time with me and if you want to see more of my craft room creation follow me on social media @TheCraftBean.

Brandi M.

The Craft Bean

May Flowers Bonus

Hello! I hope everyone is enjoying all the extra crafting time quarantine has allowed.

Today’s craftroom creations is a bonus project made with the Coffee Bean Design’s “Daffodils” digital stamp. To see my guest design team creations check out their Blog.

I recently watched a Kristina Werner video where she showed how to water color a digital stamp image and knew I needed to try it.

I created a light box out of a light and a large rectangle plastic container. I place my printed image down first then laid my water color paper over top.

Then traced over the digi images with a pencil. If I were to do it again I’d either use a water color pencil or trace over my line with a waterproof black pen because some of my pencil lines got trapped under the water color.

I wanted the no line look so I traced over the lines with a yellow and green water color pencils by Arteza. I used my Daniel Smith water color dot chart to paint the daffodils. (Mayan yellow, Indian yellow, Raw sienna, chrom. green oxide, Duochrome mauve) it took me a bit to find the right yellow

Things I learned along the way:

Less is more when it comes to water coloring. You don’t need a lot of water.

Start with the darker shade and add water to lighten as pull it out to the edges of the flower.

Paint one section at a time so you don’t end up with color blobs instead of petals.

Paint in layers to get more dimension and contrast.

To finish my card I trimmed it down to be a 1/4 inch smaller than an A2 card base. added a sentiment strip and pretty pink posh 4mm clear droplets. 

Even though I am not a water colorist and have more to learn I really enjoyed playing with this technique. If you are inspired to create please share and tag me on social media @TheCraftBean

If you want to see more of my craftroom creations follow me on social media @TheCraftBean.

Happy Crafting

Brandi M.

The Craft Bean

Building Blocks Party!

The last couple months have been crazy but I’ve missed sharing my craft room creations with you, so I took the morning off to hang out in my craft room and update my blog.

My twins just celebrated their 6th Birthday and they wanted a building blocks themed party, Which means that is what has been taking over my craft room. I started out with creating invitations to send into school with my kids. Yes, I am that crazy mom that invited both of my kids full classes to the party. I needed to make 36 invitations and the fastest way to do this is mass production. I knew I wanted to use the Building blocks stamp set by Kindred stamps, I picked the to building block boy and girl as the main images. Before I could start any stamping and coloring I need to design the invitations on my computer with all the party information. I use open office and paint to keep it easy and simple. I do measure the stamp images I plan to use to leave enough space for stamping. The invitations are A2 size 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 in order to fit 4 on a page. I printed them on yellow card stock for a fun pop of color and cut them down with my large paper trimmer. A stamping tool like the misti is amazing when you need to stamp the same image multiple time. I lined my stamps up in my misti inked them up in blackout ink by ink on 3. I recently switched to this ink since it a hybrid ink that is Copic safe and waterproof. 36 cards later I cleaned my stamps and started coloring with color Copic markers.

Boy Shirt: G05, G14, G19 Girl shirt: RV04, RV13, RV19, Pants: C5,C7 or B16, B18 Girl Hair: E23, E25, E57 Head/Arms: YR24, Y13, Y35.

Next I hit up the dollar store because they have great party supplies for cheap! plates, napkins, table cloths, decoration and goodie bags all in my building blocks theme. I am all about inexpensive and easy, mixed with a little handmade.

To add a handmade touch to the goodie bags I created small circular “Thank you” tags using a sentiments from the building blocks set and Polynesian Adventurers set by Kindred stamps. I set the stamps up in my misit again so I could stamp all my tags at once. Using my colored pencils I colored the heart block from the building block set. lastly I had my kids sign the back. Add to the goodie bags with ribbon and your done.

To entertain the kids during the party I had simple games and activities. like building kits from the dollar store, bean bags made out of felt and rice, coloring pages, block key chains to decorate and I even brought my kids block table so they could build and play with their friends.

For me adding little handmade touches takes my inexpensive party supplies to the next level without being to over whelming.

P.S Theses are the cakes that the kids Grandmother made for the party!

I hope you all enjoyed these craft room creations. I will be back soon to share. If you want to see more of what I am up to you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube @TheCraftBean.

Brandi M

The Craft Bean.

Playing with digital stamps

Today I am sharing my last project as a member of the Kindred Stamps design team, the awesome ladies at Kindred Stamps set up a fun collaboration with the Therm-O-web to send off the designers. I have had a blast designing for Kindred Stamps, I am a huge fan of their stamps and will continue creating new project to share. My craft room creation today is a custom t-shirt featuring the Ocean Royalty add on digital stamp.

I have spent the last week or so playing in my craft room with some new to me Therm-O-Web products, my favorite of them all is the Heat-n-Bond inkjet transfer sheets. I experimented a lot with these sheet and want to share what I’ve learned.

Digi stamps work prefect with these sheets because you can print them right onto the transfer sheets and they can be added to any fabric project like t-shirts, tote bags, backpacks, and quilts. something really amazing is you can color on them with your markers. I tested several types Copic, Zig, Tombow and Crayola super tips. The softer the nib the better the results; I had the best luck with my Zig clean color real brush pens.

Coloring Tips:

To get the best blend use a two color blend and utilize the tip to tip method, where you pick up a bit of the darker color with the lighter maker.

Use a light hand so you don’t scratch up the coating on the paper with the tip of your maker.

To get a smooth finish use long even strokes all in the same direction.

For best results let your coloring sit and dry, the ink take awhile to absorb all the way into the paper.

Tips on fabric types:

Smooth quilters cotton gave me the best results.

Cotton knits work great you just have to wait a bit longer for the the transfer sheet adhesive to cool before removing the backing paper.

Canvas fabric works but you can see the texture and the transfer isn’t always perfect.

Tips on heat setting:

Use a craft iron (its a regular iron but only use it on craft Projects) just in case you get any ink or adhesive on it, you won’t ruin other clothing.

Stand up and press firmly, more even pressure I used the better the results I got on all fabric types.

Don’t wiggle or slide the iron. Pick it straight up and place it down, less chance to move or shift the image.

Pay close attention to the edges of the image they tend to curl.

Another fun thing I learned about the transfer sheets is you can also stamp on them for all you non digi people. I personally used Versafine onyx black ink but I’m sure most inks would work.

I hope you all give this technique a try and my tips help you along the way. A huge thank you to Kindred Stamps team for inviting me to design for them. To stay up to date with all of my craft room creations by following @TheCraftBean on social media.

If you are interested in this stamp set or any by Kindred Stamps consider using my affiliate link, It cost you nothing but helps support my blog Kindred Stamps.

Brandi M.

The Craft Bean

Boss Babe

I have an exciting new design team project to share this week for you all! It’s a traveler’s notebook featuring the fashion boss stamp set from kindred stamps.

For this project I used:

– 4 sheets of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper.

– Guts of a dollar store calendar and notebook

– Plain white card stock

– Elastic cord

– Embroidery floss with a needle

– Laminator with 1 laminating sheet

– Stamp set

– Zig markers

My notebook and calendar were 5x 7 inches, all of my measurements are based around that.

All my notebook covers were cut to 10 1/2 X 7 1/4 and scored at 5 1/4 inches. The decorative spine papers were 1 ½ x 7 ¼ inches scored down the center.

My pages for my blank notebook were 10 x 7 inches scored at 5

The notebooks need 3 binding holes along the center fold. 1 center and 1 inch in from each end.

My measurements for my binding holes on the inside pages of the notebook are 1 inch, 3 ½ inches and 6 inches and the binding holes for the notebook covers are 1 inch 3 5/8 inch and 6 ¼ inches .

To bind the notebooks start your embroidery floss in the center hole on the inside of the notebook go though all of the page and cover and into the top hole from the outside of the notebook. Then from top hole back into the center hole. Now on the outside go into the bottom thorough the cover and all the pages. The end is now inside the notebook at the bottom. Bring up to the center and tie the two ends together and trim off any extra.

Once all my notebook were bound I stamped and mounted my sentiment labels on to the covers. For the Main cover I stamped and colored the Boss Babe onto a 2 ¾ x 3 ¾ piece of white card stock.

Outside Main cover is 11 1/8 x 8 inches scored at 5, 5 ¼, 5 ½, 5 ¾ and 6 inches

Outside decorative spine is 3x 8 inches ( added to center of outside main cover before scoring)

Once you have scored and decorated the cover it needs to be laminated.

Binding holes are going to be place a ½ in from on the top and bottom on the 1, 3, 5 score lines

you need 1 binding hole on the center score line in the center at 4 inches for the elastic closure.

Staring your elastic on the bottom right hole go in from the outside and up to the top right, then to the top center and down to the bottom center, then to the bottom left and up to the top left and into the top center. Tie off and trim. Then bring the other end that is on the outside bottom right in to the bottom center and tie off and trim.

The center hole is for the elastic closure, measure out enough elastic to go around the cover and tie the two end together then thread the loop through the center hold from the inside.

Place the notebooks into the elastic binding at their centers and you are all done.

For a video walk through of this project check out my YouTube Chanel: TheCraftBean https://www.youtube.com/user/blbean151

I hope you enjoyed this project if you recreate it tag me on social media @TheCraftBean so I can see!
If you are interested in this stamp set or any by Kindred Stamps consider using my affiliate link, It cost you nothing but help support my blog. Kindred Stamps.

Brandi M,

TheCraftBean

Winter Friends Valentines and planner spreads

This week I am sharing the Valentines I made for my daughter’s classmates and my February planner spreads using the frozen friends stamp set from Kindred stamps

I found some heart shaped mini notepads at the dollar store, I decided to alter them with my stamps and makers to make candy free valentines. The First step was to take apart the notebook and measure the notebook. The notebooks I found were about 3 inches x 3 inches, I cut my card stock to 3 ¼ inches x 6 ½ inches and scored at 3 ¼.

Fold and crease the score line. Using the notebook cover I removed as a temple I traced the heart and cut it out.

Whenever I am making multiples of a project I use my Misti because I can stamp everything all at once and its always perfectly aligned. For quick easy coloring I like to used my Zig clean color real Brush Makers.

Light blue 030

Gray 090

Mid Brown 065

Orange 070

Bright Yellow 052

Cobalt Blue 031

Light Blue 036

Shadow Mauve 303

Light Pink 026

Wine Red 024

Ochre 063

Flesh Color 071

Oatmeal 064

Lemon Yellow 051

Warm Gray 2 900

Pale Green 045

May Green 047

Persian Green 033

Dark Gray 095

Gray 090

Brown 060

Wine Red 024

Dark Oatmeal 066

Oatmeal 064

Ochre 063

Flesh Color 071

Flesh color 071

Oatmeal 064

Mid Brown 065

Warm Gray 2 900

Brown 060

Wine Red 024

Gray 090

For the background I used the ink smooshing technique I scribbled Cobalt blue, light blue and Persian blue onto my craft mat and sprayed it with a bit of water. Using the clear packaging form the stamp set and mushed it into the ink and then onto my covers. The last thing to do was to staple the notebook back together and add a crayon.

Bonus Projects!

I adore this set so much I Had to used it for my February monthly spread and my first weekly spread. I used my Zigs right in my bullet journal but its not the best paper for Zigs, I think Tombow markers would of been a better choice. My snow queen and Snowman (on calendar spread) were stamped onto card stock and fussy cut because I needed to cover some oops. I used the snowman to cover up where my little Peanut scribbled and the snow Queen to cover up the bad stamping job I did.

I hope you enjoyed all of my projects! if you recreate any of these tag me on social media @TheCraftBean I would love to see your creations.
If you are interested in this stamp set or any by Kindred Stamps consider using my affiliate link, It cost you nothing but help support my blog. Kindred Stamps.

Brandi M

The Craft Bean

Royal Throne

I am back this week to share a fun project featuring the Royal Thrones stamp set. I am a planner girl so I created a double sided magnetic page maker.

on the first side I stamped out one of the members of the royal family.

leaving about ¾ of an inch and remembering to flip the direction I stamped out the throne image.

Using my score board I scored about a ½ of an inch above the Throne Image. Next fold and crease the score line.

using my zig makers I colored in both images. Next I backed the whole piece onto black card stock to make it more durable since it will be moved through out my planner and then I used my scissors to partially cut out each image. To finish off the the edges I used a black memento maker to hide the white core of the paper.

To add the magnets to the back I added double sided tape to each magnet and line them up, making sure one was + and one was – . To keep them in place and make them blend into the background I punched out two small circles from black card stock and added them on top with liquid glue.

Once the glue is dry your page maker is ready to add to any planner, notebook or book.

here is a little bonus project! I used Royal throne and the retired Cute Dragons stamp sets from kindred stamps.

I stamped out and masked the throne onto a card stock panel then created a blended background with distress oxide ink in faded blue jeans and distress ink in black soot.

The crown was borrowed from one of the characters from the Royal Throne set I just fussy cut it out.

The cute dragon took a bit of masking since I wanted him to be sitting and looking forward. I first stamped out both onto full back post it notes, then I trimmed out the head I wanted and then the body I wanted. A misti stamping tool is very helpful when trying to mix and match to stamps. I stamped the head first making sure to only ink up that part of the stamp and mask off the body. Remove the body mask and place the head mask down and line up the body stamp. Ink up only the body part this time and stamp down. I used a Copic safe pen to fix any gaps in the image.

I colored all of my images with my Copic makers and then fussy cut out the dragon and crown.

I stamped out the Greeting in black versafine ink and added the stamped panel to a black top folding A2 card base. I glued the crown to the dragon and popped them up on foam dots.

for the inside I added a white card stock panel and stamped “it’s a Boy” which I found in a very old baby stamp set that’s in my stash.

I hope you liked these projects if you recreate any of them tag me on social media @TheCraftBean I would love to see your recreations.
If you are interested in this stamp set or any by Kindred Stamps consider using my affiliate link, It cost you nothing but helps support my blog. Kindred Stamps.

Brandi M

The Craft Bean

Little Town Life

The January 2019 release for Kindred stamps is magnificent! I am excited to share with you all today the projects I created showcasing the Little Town Life stamp set.

The entire Kindred Stamps January release will be available Friday, January 25th at 8am PST/11am EST. Be sure to check out the Kindred Stamps blog on Friday for the full product release as well as the complete line up of all the Kindred Stamps Design Team projects from release week! If you visit and comment on all of the designers’ blogs this week, you could win $15 in Kindred Stamps shop credit! So join the Fan Club and release event, show the design team some love, and get ready to empty those wallets this Friday!

For my first project I created Sweetart candy heart valentines. Side Note: buy extras because you will end up eating at least one box while crafting

I started by measuring my candy box which is 1 ¾ inches x 3 5/8 inches x ¾ inches, I cut my card stock to 5 ½ x 3 ¼ and my pattern paper to 5 ½ x 3 both pieces were scored on the 5 ½ inch side at ½ , 2 ¼ , 3 and 4 ¾. Fold and crease all the score lines. The ½ inch tab is where you want to place your adhesive of choice I used ATG tape. Side Note: Each box is slightly different so you just have to work the paper a bit to get it lined up. I placed the card stock layer down first then add the pattern paper on top.

Next I colored up all of the characters from the Little Town Life stamp set with my Copic markers, my full color list is below. I then fussy cut them all out. Side Note: use a water base black marker like Memento along the edges to make it look like you cut them out perfectly. To add them to my candy box valentines I used foam squares on the back of each character.

I wanted to add sentiments to my valentines but they were to long so I need to do a bit of creative stamping. Using a post it I covered up one half of the sentiment then inked it up, Before stamping down remove the post-it. You can also use the same technique to mix and match two different sentiments like I did for “ You’re my magnificent beast”

For my second project I made a custom phone case.

I found a clear case for my phone at The Dollar Tree. As always first I measured the inside of the phone case mine came out to 2 5/8 x 5 7/16 inches Side Note: 7/16^th of an inch is just ½ inch minus 1/16^th. After cutting down my Card stock I used my We R Memory Keepers corner chomper on the ¼ side. I placed the card stock in and traced around the camera area with a pencil I didn’t trim it out until the background was done so I would have a continues pattern.

When I am grouping multiple images together I start by stamping all my images out on full back post it notes to make masks. This way I can play with the layout without wasting my good card stock. Once I like the layout I take a photo so I can refer to it as I am stamping.

when grouping images you want to stamp front to back, I stared with the my fractured tea cup and then moved onto Mama pot and so on adding my masks onto each image before stamping the next.

I started the background by drawing in the floor which is really just a square grid. The Bookshelf is also a grind but of rectangles with an added long rectangle on the top and bottom. The books are smaller rectangles with slightly curved tops. I colored everything in with my Copic markers and added a sentiment at the bottom. I used a craft knife to trim out the camera hole and finished off all the edges with my memento black Marker.

These are the Copic colors I used on each of my images.

I hope you enjoyed my projects! I will be back soon and don’t forget to check out the rest of the Design teams projects.
If you are interested in this stamp set or any by Kindred Stamps consider using my affiliate link, It cost you nothing but helps support my blog. Kindred Stamps.

Brandi M

The Craft Bean