KS May 2020 Release- Icons

All you all ready to sing your hearts out with excitement for one of the newest Kindred Stamps release sets? Because Icons is HERE and they are just so perfect!

Today I am sharing my collection of projects using the new Icons set by Kindred Stamps, and oh boy, I think this set may have moved into the realm of absolute FAVORITE sets ever! It has 5 amazing and talented ladies who are just a dream to color up and pair with so many awesome sentiments! Not to mention, they pair so incredibly well with the Kindred Stamps stencils and glitter glosses! I have 5 projects to share, so let’s get to it!

For my first Icons project, I took the Bubble Girl & Independent Woman and colored them up with my Copic Markers. I have to be honest, I almost felt a sense of therapy coloring all 5 of these ladies up. My skin tones felt so on point, and their hair styles just lead to some of the smoothest coloring of hair I’ve ever done! I fussy cut these ladies out and set them aside.

Next, for my background, I took a 4.125″ x 5.375″ piece of white cardstock and began to ink it up with a Distress Ink blend (top to bottom): Candied Apple, Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves & Wilted Violet.

Side note: Now, usually I am exclusively using my Distress Oxide inks, but I have started to branch out into some other inks lately. These Distress Inks blend up beautifully with a foam applicator (I haven’t really gotten the hang of using brushes on the mini ink pads).

I spritzed my Distress Ink layer with water and some glittery liquid. Once dry, I used the Mosaic stencil, tacked it down with Pixie Spray, and applied a layer of Amethyst Glitter Gloss using my Stencil Pal. I then set this layer aside to dry.

While I was waiting for my main panel to dry, I began preparing my pieces for putting my card together. I made a sentiment strip using the sentiment “Call Me”, stamped in Catherine Pooler Grape Crush ink, with some scrap light pink cardstock and patterned paper with my stash. I also cut out an A2-sized reddish purple piece of cardstock. Once my panel was dry, I adhered it to the reddish purple cardstock, adhered my ladies to my sentiment strip, and then applied the sentiment strip & ladies piece as 1 unit with foam tape. I accented this layer with some sequins from a past Kindred Stamps shaker pack, and adhered it to an A2-sized card panel!

Also, if you’re an eagle-eyed crafter, you’ll see that the Envelope is lined with a pattern using the Crackle stencil. This is actually the envelope I made during the May 9th Facebook Live in the Fan Club!

For my 2nd Icons project, I came up with the idea of using this girl who’s feeling great as heck on a juice box! And honestly, I love this idea so much. The concept works so well as an extra touch for a party, and you can easily change up the sentiment to make it a little more child friendly!

For this card, I colored up my female singer with Copic Markers and fussy cut her out. I also used some Wink of Stella to make her outfit look sparkly and almost holographic! I set her aside and began working on my panel.

I cut out a 3″ x 5″ piece of red cardstock, and then a 2.875″ x 4.875″ piece of light gray cardstock. I took the light gray cardstock, placed the Confetti stencil on top, tacked it down with Pixie Spray, and used my Stencil Pal to apply a layer of Diamond Glitter Gloss. I set this layer aside to dry.

I prepared the sentiment “100% that Birthday Bitch” and made it into a sentiment strip, stamping it onto yellow paper and framing it with that same light gray as the main panel.

Once my glitter gloss was dry, I used Black Soot Distress Oxide Ink on a blending brush and distressed the sides of my panel for a little dimension. I adhered my glitter gloss panel to my red cardstock, and then used foam tape to adhere my sentiment and singer. I used some sequins from a past Kindred Stamps shaker pack as embellishment, and also adhered the straw on top as well!

To adhere this to my juice box, I just used (2) glue dots to hold it down. I figured that this allows the panel to be easily removed and you can tack it onto a card later if you wanted!

For my 3rd Icons project, this was another one of those ideas that popped into my head that I just had to run with. I colored up my school girl with Copic Markers, fussy cut her out, and set her aside. I also used the Doodle Uppercase set, stamped out “A-G-A-I-N”, and colored each of them up using Neutral Gray Copic Markers. I fussy cut them out as well.

I took an 4.125″ x 5.375″ of white cardstock and placed the Hearts stencil on top. I used my blending brushes to ink up a pink ombré of Distress Oxide Inks (top to bottom): Tattered Rose, Spun Sugar, Worn Lipstick & Picked Raspberry. After I did my ink blending, I used my Picked Raspberry Re-Inker with an old watercolor paint brush and splattered some ink onto my card as well. I set it aside to dry.

Next, I cut an A2-sized piece of gray cardstock. I also stamped the sentiment “Ooops I forgot your birthday” onto the same color paper using Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink. I used my guillotine trimmer to cut the sentiment line by line. I then framed each strip with light pink cardstock. I also took a piece of gray cardstock, cut it to be about 1″ x 4.25″ and adhered my Doodle Uppercase letters to spell out “AGAIN” to the strip (trying to get them as evenly spaced as possible).

I could now start adhering pieces of my card together. I adhered my school girl to look like she was standing on top of the “I” and “N”, and then adhered the strip, girl, and little sentiment bits all with foam tape.

I added some sequins from a past Kindred Stamps shaker pack for a little bit of embellishment, and adhered this card to an A2-sized card base.

For my 4th Icons project, I knew that I needed to pair the Bubble Girl with the Crackle stencil.

First, I colored up the bubble girl with Copic Markers, and I want to talk for a second about how I colored up these bubbles so they don’t come across as too difficult. I colored everything underneath the bubbles first, almost as if the bubbles didn’t even exist. When it came time to color in the bubbles, I just colored each bubble up like the colors underneath didn’t even exist with my Copic Markers. I knew that my ink would blend together well because that’s how the Copic Markers work. For my bubbles, I used a simple BG13 (dark tone) BG11 (mid tone) and BG10 (highlight) color palette. I also accented each bubble with a small white gel pen highlight. Finally, for personal preference, I went over each bubble with a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush to add a little shimmer. I know it sounds long, but it’s not, and the effect turns out wonderful.

Now, back to my tag! With my bubble girl cut out, I set her aside. I then fired up my trusty (and a tad dusty) Cricut Explore Air 2 and cut out a face mask out of black cardstock. Once cut out, I took the Crackle stencil, adhered it with Pixie Spray, and then applied a layer of Therm O Web Transfer Gel so I could foil this. I set my mask aside to dry completely (which usually takes at least 30 minutes).

While I was waiting for it to dry, I took the sentiments “You’re my favorite” and “Monster”, stamped them in Versafine Clair Nocturne Ink on gray paper, and framed it with black cardstock. I set it aside to dry. I also fired up my laminator to be ready to foil.

Once the Transfer Gel was entirely dry, I took a quick folder I made of parchment paper, placed a piece of iCraft Silver Deco Foil on top of my mask, and ran it through my laminator. When it finished going through the laminator, I let my mask cool for a few minutes and then I removed the foil. And all I can say is that I had one of those super exciting moments where something turns out EXACTLY how you wanted.

I was in the endgame for my tag now. I adhered my bubble girl and sentiment onto my mask using foam tape. I then punched a hole on the top portion of my mask and looped through some thick black string I had in my stash (seriously, it was almost the thickness of like male dress shoe laces). I finished by adhering some Celestial Shimmerz bits!

Now, I know this is supposed to be a tag, but I almost want it to hang on a Christmas Tree!

For my final project using the Icons set, I colored up the guitar girl with my Copic Markers and fussy cut her out.

Originally, I was going to use the sentiment “Let’s write a song about your ex”, but then I had an idea that I thought was just funny, and I went with it.

I took an A2-sized piece of gray cardstock and set it aside. I then took a 4.125″ x 5.375″ piece of white cardstock and began ink blending it. I went in a sunset pattern (think how the half circle of the sun is the brightest image on the horizon, and then the colors gradually get darker in that same half circle pattern the further you get from the sun). I used the following Distress Oxide Inks (top to bottom): Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans, Peacock Feathers, & Cracked Pistachio. I then spritzed this layer with water and let it dry.

I also wanted to create a spotlight, so I took 2 pieces of scrap cardstock and used the flat edges to make my spotlight shape. I tacked the cardstock down so it created a triangular spotlight effect, and just went directly over my blended portions with Squeezed Lemonade Distress Oxide Ink. I removed my cardstock, and then splattered the paper with some glittery liquid for shimmer.

I took the Flash stencil, tacked it down to this layer with Pixie Spray, and applied a layer of Azure Glitter Gloss using a Stencil Pal. I set this layer aside to dry. My reason for using this stencil is that it reminded me of when you go to a concert, and you see all the flashing lights from people’s phones!

While my panel was drying, I cut a piece of dark gray cardstock to be about 1.5″ x 4.125″. I took the Weave stencil, laid it on top, and blended using Black Soot Distress Oxide Ink to give this layer some texture. After removing the stencil, I distressed the edges with the same ink using my blending brush.

I heat embossed the mashed up sentiment “You’re my favorite ex” (the “ex” comes from the sentiment “Let’s write a song about your ex”) in white powder.

Once everything had dried, I began assembling my card. I glued my Flash glitter gloss background to the A2-sized piece of gray cardstock. I adhered my guitar girl directly to my stage with the sentiment, adhering this as a whole unit with foam tape! Finally, I used some Celestial Shimmerz bits to add some embellishment. I adhered this whole panel to an A2-sized card base and was done!

And wow! This blog post feels like it went on forever, but I feel like that is absolutely perfect with how filled this set is with so many awesome things!

The entire Kindred Stamps May release will be available Friday, May 22 at 8am PST/11am EST. Be sure to subscribe to the Kindred Stamps blog to see a daily line up of sneak peeks from our amazing Design Team and see the full product release on Friday! Come join the Fan Club and release event to be part of the release fun, and you may just win some Kindred Stamps credit!!

I hope you enjoyed my projects with this brand new Kindred Stamps set and are so excited to get your hands on the new Icons set! Be sure to stick around the May Release Facebook Event page for sneaks and projects of all the other sets being released this month, along with some fun giveaway opportunities!

Happy Crafting!

Justin

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