Are you guys ready for next set of cards? This time I used the second watercolor set - Small Watercolor florals. And I am so so so happy with the output. I didn't really think I was capable of making cards like these. They have loose florals which I really, truly struggle with. But the stamps helped a lot. I also added splatters here which usually which intimidate me. So, a win in my books for sure. Here are the cards: Here is what I did: Create panels from Canson Mixed Media paper to be slightly smaller than A2 panels Mist to make the panel nicely wet but not really dripping wet Use the flower stamps with distress oxide inks and also use a wet brush on top to move the color around a little bit. Very minimal, I didn't do this much at all, but just enough to make the stamped image not exactly like the stamp itself. I used Festive Berries and Worn Lipstick inks. I also added more intense colors towards the flower centers. Stamp leaves on top and again play with wet brush. I also added some extra small leaves. I used Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide for these. Add each color on the wet brush and add splatters. Dry everything thoroughly. This impatient one used a heat gun. :D Use a fine liner to swiggle lines on top. I went with outlining flowers, and adding tiny 'o's and 'c's in flower centers. I also did the leaf outlines. Stamp the sentiment with Black Archival ink and mount on matching colored card bases. Hope you like this idea of using wet paper and stamping with water reactive ink. Let me know how it goes. :) SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada

Hi friends, I feel super duper blessed to be able to bring forth stamp designs that help create specific types of art easily. In my latest release with rubberstamps.com, I am bringing 2 stamp sets that help build loose watercolor style florals. Today I am sharing 2 cards with one of these stamp sets. For the first card, I did the stamping using Altenew Inks and then added pencil shading on top with Polychromos pencils in darker version of the same color. The sentiment as well as the leaves are from the same stamp set. While stamping I had a boo-boo near the top, and then went on to cover it up with a confetti butterfly ;-) A sprinkling of gems and mounting the panel on silver card base finished this card. For the second card I used very diluted distress inks to create pink-blue-purple-ish wash on the background before stamping on top. My panel was at least slightly damp when I stamped on top and that gave me some ideas for my next cards :D For this one I added a die cut sentiment on top and added a similar silver card base like the previous card. I have more ideas for this stamp set to be used on other projects (and yes, using the same stamp + pencil shading technique to get the brush painted look). Will be sharing in the days to come. Do stay tuned. And hope you give this idea a go :) SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada

Hi my crafty friends, I am thrilled, excited, happy to share that my latest release (collection of 6 stamp sets) is live with RubberStamps.com. Here's a quick video which shows the sets and also inspiration using those stamps: Do check it out and let me know what you think! I will be sharing the individual cards, having Instagram giveaways and also an Instagram live in the next few days/weeks, so stay tuned. In case you don't already follow me on Instagram, here's my handle: @varadasharma Talk soon, Hugs! ~Varada

Today I am playing with another of my solid stamp sets. This one was meant for Fall / Autumn and released late last year. Finally I got a chance to play with this. But, it is a floral image - so it was easily work for any season, right? I also took this opportunity to challenge myself to make the flat stamped solid images look different from simple stamped images. I did play with this in one of my previous videos on YouTube. You can check out the video here or the blog post here. I took that same idea but added another twist on it (so that now you have 2 ways to make your solid stamped images different from everyone else's!). :) In that post/video I had only added pencil coloring details. For my cards today, I used the Ranger EmbossIt pen to add details with heat embossing on top. Love the results :) Here's the card with pencil shading: And the one that has heat embossed details: To add more interest to my cards I added some matching colored patterned paper frames behind the stamped panel. For sentiment I added 'hello' which I die cut from Rose Gold mirror paper (die from Spellbinders) and also sprinkled gems in matching colors. Tell me which you like better :) SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada

Hi friends, I am back to playing with digis today for creating some simple cards. Last few days (weeks?!) have been stressful for me, so I didn't take up anything more complex. All of these follow my usual steps Plan, size and design the card front in Microsoft PowerPoint Print on Mixed Media paper Color (I used Spectrum Noir alcohol markers) Die cut rectangles as needed and assemble. In one of them I added a die cut sentiment on top but that is totally figure-out-able. Speaking of figure-out-able, here I am actually using one of the tips I shared about getting out of a creative block (induced by life stress in my case here!) in my recent interview with Bold Journey. Do check out the interview and share your thoughts with me :) And last but not the least, here are the actual cards :) SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada

Playing with digis again today and I used a single stamp to create two cards with completely different looks. Yes, Yellow Sunflowers or Pink Daisies from the same digi stamp Sunflower Field. For both these cards I used the same Sunflower Field digi stamp set from my store. In the first card I used it as is, only made sure that the size would fit a mini slimline card (3.5"x6"). I used Waffle Flower Mini Slimline nested dies to cut it out and colored with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers. I also used my micron pen for going over the lines again, and a green colored pencil for leaves and stem. In the second one, I flipped the image horizontally (yes, easy mirroring in PowerPoint with no fuss, just one click!). I also sized it to be slightly smaller than the original and die cut it out using Wrapped Stitched rectangle dies from Memory Box. For coloring this one I used Copics. Rest was simply assembling and adding gems in matching colors. Two different looks with very minimal changes between the two cards. Tell me which you like better? I look forward to hearing from you :) SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada

I designed the "Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart" stamp set to have modern florals that are easy to color and I love how this one turned out. Yes, I created yet another arch shaped card... Oopsey :D I think at this point this one is really straighforward to figure out, isn't it? Here are the actual Copic colors I used Let me know if you have any queries :) SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada

So my love affair with washi tapes is still going strong. I recently decided to explore one other kind of washi tape - this speciality washi tape has matching dies (and even stamps and maybe even hot foil designs) to go with the ones on the tape itself. The collection I picked for playing is an older one and I purchased it from Amazon (free Prime shipping!). It is called the Painted Peony Mix. I did have too much fun with it and created 4 cards :D Here are the ones I made so far. All of these cards follow the same steps add the wahi tape on top of a white cardstock, die cut the floral clusters out, and assemble the card. I have several pieces left over and will be creating more. Although I did enjoy making these cards, I have too much of the tape left over. Would I be making so many cards with the same design? Probably not. Unless I decide to donate a whole bunch of cards that are similar. If you have any ideas for using the leftover tape, please do share. And here are the card closeups SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada

I realized I had been neglecting my dear digis for some time, so I decided to pull them in to play to make this arch shaped handmade card using copic colored digital floral image. This image from the Forever Love stamp set was printed a while ago. I had already sized it to fit an A2 sized card and the arrangement of sentiment was such that I was able to cut an arch shape out of it. I am loving this shape for my cards lately. Could you suggest a different shape for me? I want to try new ones. I used my beloved copics for this one: After coloring, I added the panel to an arched card base. For extra interest, I took a piece of glitter paper and used two arch dies to cut out a frame. This one is a very chunky glitter, so I had go back and add some glitter that fell off back into some empty spots. But I think a normal glitter paper with reasonably sized or very fine sized glitter would work better. I used what I had. As final step, I added some Ivory gems from Pretty Pink Posh and called it done. Nothing fancy, just very simple coloring and an interesting shape. I only let the flower design shine. Hope you like it! SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada

I have two quick-ish cards to share today. Both use my new stamp set 'Take a moment' from Rubberstamps.com and washi tapes, but look significantly different. For the first card, I added Washi tape to the entire card front. Next I created an arched panel, stamped my image, heat embossed my sentiments and foam mounted it on my card. A sprinkling of matching gems that look black + gold and the card was done. For the second card, I used my Altenew Stampwheel like a MISTI by placing my paper in one of the corners in stead of at the center. I knew I needed to remove the paper out and then put it back in after adding washi tape stripes on top of the stamped image, and then stamp on the exact same spot again. By adding my paper to one of the corners I was able to achieve this look. After stamping my sentiment, I foam mounted the panel on my card base and added silver metallic gems on top. By switching up the washi tape from b&w in card 1 vs colorful one in card 2, I was able to make the cards look significantly different. What do you think? Which one you like better? Let me know in the comments below. SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada

Each month I join a challenge on Instagram where we share 3 cards that have a common theme + common category across all cards. Category can be either common supplies or a common technique. I chose to feature my own stamp set - Thankful for you - from RubberStamps.com @rubberstamps_com I created 3 birthday cards showcasing various ways to create a stamped pattern on an arch shaped card and as a bonus added one easy way to add interest to solid stamped images. I stamped my 3 patterns as intended (from the stamp packaging) as over hanging from top of the arch (like the ones they have at weddings) in 3 clusters of flower + leaves And on each flower I also sketched some easy lines with Emboss It pen @ranger_ink and heat embossed in @simonsaystamp ultra fine gold embossing powder. A few gems + die sentiments from @teamspellbinders dies and the projects were done. Here is my spread: SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada

Hi guys, this card was like a journey to an unknown destination :-) You start in a general direction and let the paths take you with them. One thing leads to another and your eyes are blessed with a beautiful view. I started only with the intention of wanting to use one of my left over gelli printed panels by die cutting leaves out of it. I used Pinkfresh Studio's Curvy Leaves die set for this. I felt the leaves needed something else with them, so I added another vine cut with the same die out of vellum. I was looking for some sort of a sentiment to go with this, when I found an older journaling card I had cut out of a paper pack but never used. This had sort of matching color and theme with my leaves. It also had some small stamped text, and that gave me the idea to use a similar older stamp from my stash to create background for my panel. Also, before foam mounting this journaling card, I went over the sides of it with Black Soot distress ink. When I stamped the card front, foam mounted my sentiment panel on top, and added the die cut leaves on it, I felt like it needed just a little something to hold the leaves together. That lead me to create and use a wax seal. Oh and how can I make cards without at least some bling? So I added gems in several of the colors matching with the colors on the journaling card panel. :) Yes, it was a journey. One I thoroughly enjoyed. Does this happen to you too? SUPPLIES LIST For your convenience, I am sharing links to the supplies I’ve used or the ones you can use for making similar cards – click on the picture or link to go directly to the product. Wherever available, I have used affiliate links, which means when you make a purchase, I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) which I use to run this blog. I truly appreciate your support! Hugs! ~Varada