I'm back, and for a second week in a row, I'm participating in the CAS-ual Fridays challenge. This week's challenge (CFC17) is to use a sticker. Ages ago, I bought a sheet of Mrs. Grossman's stickers. I thought they were great, as they had all different styles of "Happy Birthday" sentiments. I just never remember to use them. So I broke them out for this card:
Supplies: cream cardstock, orange & brown paint chips, yellow vellum, Stampin' Up Fifth Avenue Floral stamp, Versafine onyx black ink, clear embossing powder, Sharpies, Prismacolor pencils, Mrs. Grossman happy birthday sticker, epoxy sticker, dimensionals, Fiskars glue dot.
Pin It Now!
I usually make two cards for my granddaughter's birthday, not least because she's the second-biggest fan of my creations (after my husb, of course). The first one is her official birthday card:
The background is made with a stencil, sponged with distress inks. The butterflies are coloured with a combination of Sharpies and Laurentien markers. What doesn't show up in the photo are the black diamond Stickles on their bodies. I had originally intended to put a sentiment on the front, but decided to let the butterflies speak for themselves. It does say "happy birthday" on the inside.
The second card includes a certificate for a back-to-school shopping trip, so I wanted it to be stylin'.
Stylin', but oh so easy! Both the patterned paper and the cat sticker were gifts from my generous and talented friend Angela. My big contribution, other than noticing that the paper and cat were a perfect match, is the pink rhinestone collar. :P I'm linking this second card up with the current Crafty Creations challenge to show your inner animal. I am, after all, a stylin' cat... at least in my own mind.
Supplies: (butterfly card) white & pink cardstock, Heather's Stamping Haven butterfly stamp, Versafine onyx black ink, spun sugar & worn lipstick distress inks, Crafter's Workshop Mini Butterfly Ballet stencil, Sharpies, Laurentien markers, black diamond Stickles; (cat card) white cardstock, Anna Griffin Fifi and Fido patterned paper & sticker, Queen & Co. Pretty in Pink rhinestones
Pin It Now!
It's August, we've been having a perfect summer... and I've started to make Christmas cards. Sad but true. :P I'd rather make them a few at a time starting now than be in a rush when all the other holiday preparations also go into overdrive.
There, at least I'm not subjecting you to snowflakes and Santa. :D I really like the pearl metallic embossing powders I found in a great stamp store in London, Ontario -- they are much nicer than I can capture in a photograph. The tree stamp is from the same store. Since this card is primarily about the heat embossing, I'm entering it in CAS-ual Fridays current embossing challenge (CFC 16), as well as Christmas Inspirations challenge (#31) for Clean and Simple cards. After all, clean and simple (and occasionally PAB -- plain and boring) is what I do. ☺
Supplies: white & green cardstock, Artful Stamper tree stamp, Versamark ink, Artful Stamper gold pearl, silver & copper pearl embossing powder
Pin It Now!
You may remember this little puppy tag from the lead-up to Amber Ink's first birthday party last month. It turned out this guy had greater aspirations than being a tag... he wanted to be part of a full-fledged card, so here he is:
A while back, I gave my husb a tshirt with a cartoon dog and the caption "party dog". I borrowed that for this card, printing it on computer and layering it on some of the same Spin Pin iPaper that the puppy's party hat and tag are from. The dog is popped up on a Cuttlebug-embossed layer of cardstock and then some more patterned paper.
My Cuttlebug layer qualifies this card for the current CAS-ual Friday's challenge to use embossing. And it proves I don't HAVE to heat emboss, though I may be going through a bit of withdrawal. ;) And the puppy qualifies this for the latest All Things Unity challenge (ATU#38), Anything Goes.
Supplies: white cardstock, Amber Ink Spin Pin: tiny iPaper, Unity Tailwagger stamp, Brilliance graphite black ink, green Divine twine, Cuttlebug and Happy Birthday embossing folder, dimensionals
Pin It Now!
... is not very appealing if you happen to find it at the back of your fridge, but can be very attractive in stamps. :D Unity's Friends with Flair and the All Things Unity vintage challenge were all the nudge I needed to try another of my Vintage Fruit Bundle stamps.
Unlike my strawberry card, which translated rather nicely from imagination to paper, this one is very different from my initial idea. I started by creating an acrylic block background on my white card using two different distress inks. Then I stamped the image. Unfortunately, despite using my stamp positioner... it was just a BIT crooked. And when there are a lot of horizontal lines in the image, crooked is obvious, especially if it's not crooked enough to look deliberate. ;) So the background got cut down to a layer instead of being directly on the card itself. Then I had the idea that I'd use the darker of the two background inks with an even darker one to sponge a bit of cardstock and re-stamp the apple, so I'd have this cool gradation of colour. No, looked bad. So I sponged the same two colours and then stamped and embossed the apple with the darker of the two. Wait, what's that you say? CAS-ual Fridays is having an embossing challenge this week? It's like they created this challenge just for me! I never have moved past my love for heat embossing. Who knows, maybe it will inspire me to start using that new Cuttlebug and do some dry embossing, too. :P
Since you're here... what do you think of my little dollar store easel for displaying my cards? Thanks for stopping in and have a great weekend!
Supplies: Colorbök pastel card, white & black cardstock, Unity Weekly Schedule Vintage Apple image & Take Time to Laugh (Oct. 2010 Kit of the Month) sentiment, Tim Holtz spun sugar and worn lipstick distress inks, clear embossing powder, Martha Stewart border punch
Pin It Now!
The current challenge at All Things Unity (ATU #37) is to create something vintage. Not exactly my go-to style. However, I do have the Unity Vintage Fruit Bundle, so anything made with those stamps has to count, right?
Here are the things I'm happy about on this card...
1) The address is Canadian -- Regina, to be specific! As it turns out, the stamp designer, Lesley Langdon, is Canadian. I didn't expect that happy Canuck connection with a Unity stamp.
2) I think the gingham paper works perfectly with the image and adds to the vintage feeling.
3) This gingham paper also happens to be a fine match for Riding Hood red cardstock from Stampin' Up, on which I stamped and embossed the strawberry, then popped it up on the main image.
4) All Things Unity is calling the Challenge "Going Old School"... and this image is addressed to someone at a school! Gotta love serendipity like that. :D
I'm also linking this post to this week's Unity Friends with Flair. It's been awhile! It's nice to get back into entering a challenge or two, but this card also has a specific purpose... it's a get well note for a friend who broke her leg recently. :(
Supplies: white & Stampin' Up Riding Hood red cardstock, AmberInk Plaid Picnic Gingham-tiny iPaper, Unity Strawberry Greetings stamp, Versafine onyx black, Versamark & Stampin' Up Riding Hood red inks; clear embossing powder, Stampin' Up ticket corner punch, dimensionals
Pin It Now!
Last month, I received my first card commission! (Well, you know, other than my husband occasionally mentioning a card that I could make for someone, usually right away. :P) I had sent this thank you card to a family friend back in June, and received an email asking if she could order some! When I wrote her back to ask how many... she said twenty-four. GULP. Fortunately, not all twenty-four had to be exactly the same. Eight looked like this:
And eight looked like this:
Yes, that's SIXTEEN roses coloured with Prismacolor pencils and cut out. Here's what they looked like when they were all done:
And then, three more roses, but these were easily coloured with Twinkling H2Os:
I think I'll be taking a break from this stamp for a little while. ☺
To finish off the two dozen cards, I made three of these:
And finally, two of these:
These leaves were inked with three colours of Colorbox ink and stamped -- not hand-coloured! ;)
It was very exciting to be asked to make cards by someone... but I was also very glad when the last one was done. ☺
Supplies: (rose thank you card) see this post; (rose card) as previous, with Stampin' Up Whisper White ribbon instead of vellum; (mauve rose card) see this post; (pussywillow card) see this post; (leaf card) Stampin' Up kraft, early expresso & very vanilla cardstock, Artistamps leaf stamp, Colorbox inks, Offray orange ribbon, Marvy corner-rounder punch, dimensionals
Pin It Now!
A couple of weeks ago, I joined in the celebration of Amber Ink's first birthday. (I even won some of their birthday giveaways!) There are other birthdays to celebrate this summer, though... including mine! I received some amazing cards:
Emily's post with all the details about this card can be found here. She often says she can't heat emboss, yet look at the beautifully-embossed red and purple panels! With this card, Em included some Stampin' Up rich razzleberry cardstock and ribbon... I apparently like purple tones much more than she does. :P
Angela's card arrived reasonably soon after the Canada Post lockout ended. I had already had a sneak peek when she wrote about it on her blog, but it's even better in person! In with the card, Ang sent several die cuts, including the clouds she cut out of this card, several from the Papertrey Ink (PTI) set she used to make her card, plus die cuts I can use with my own PTI set, Fly Away!
Now this card I thought had been lost forever in the postal lockout. Finally Meg posted it on her blog and the Unity blog... and the next day, there it was in the mailbox! It was worth the wait... Meg works wonders with her Silhouette. Meg also generously included several die cuts in with her card. (Many in red!) And speaking of Meg -- have you seen her finalist party trio project for Paper Crafts Magazine's Gallery Idol contest? Go, admire -- and vote before 2 pm Eastern tomorrow!
This was not a birthday card, but it came with a blog candy win, so that's practically like a birthday present!
Virginia included this card with some awesome Hero Arts stamps I won on her blog; she also added an assortment of fun SRM stickers! I always admire speckle-free white embossing, and this card has it. My grandson was utterly fascinated with the main image; first with how it was stamped (we had used "magic powder" together before, but not in white), and then I had to name all the buildings for him!
Are you still reading? If you are, thank you -- I'm not done yet! My husb also has a summer birthday. Here is the card I made him:
My card is very much inspired by this one; of course, I didn't bother to actually READ how Vicky made hers and went ahead and did it my own way, using an acrylic block background on watercolour paper and heat embossing some of my music stamps (or parts of them) on top. (No, the vellum did not originally bow out like that; I'm blaming it on the humidity.) His grandkids made him a card, too, with just a little help from me:
They decided the stamps and colours on their own, and my granddaughter (who's nine) cut out the guitar herself. My contributions were cutting the background to size and assisting with the magic powder for the guitar. ☺
Thanks for surviving this marathon post!
Supplies: (heart & soul) white & navy cardstock, watercolour paper, vellum, Hero Arts musical clef stamp, Stampendous double note stamp, Local King Rubber Stamp Noteworthy, Versafine onyx black ink, Tumbled Glass, Broken China & Stormy Sky distress inks, clear embossing powder; (guitar) white & blue cardstock, Local King Rubber Stamp Noteworthy, Studio G guitar stamp, Faded Jeans distress ink, clear embossing powder, dimensionals
Pin It Now!
