Let It Snow Card

Wishing you all the best this New Year, and may 2015 be full of laughter and joy.

For this card I used a new tool, a Crayola marker airbrush.  It's a bit less spotty than the hand pump ones you can buy and a LOT less expensive than an actual airbrush system.  This was my first experiment with it, making snow drifts.  I then stamped some snowflakes and the sentiment.

For the snowman I die cut three circles, punched two branch arms (and trimmed them down), then added a paper nose and rhinestone eyes and tiny nail art jewels for the mouth.  I used pop dots to affix the snowman to the card and glue tape to put the white glossy card on the blue cardstock base.

Festive Christmas Bear Card

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas.

This is an easel card I made, using a circular die for the base.  For the front panel, I used the same outer die, but added an enhancing die to make it fancier.  I used a branch punch to make the Christmas tree, then decorated it with punched ornaments and a star.  I used nail art tape for the tinsel.

The bear was stamped on white cardstock and coloured with copic & spectrum noir markers.  I used stamps to decorate the base and a flower bead and two cut leaves to hold the card open.

Jingle Bells Card

I started this card by printing out some Christmas sheet music on resume paper.  I die cut a sleigh out of shimmery brown cardstock, some poinsettias out of red cardstock and greenery out of dark green cardstock.  The poinsettias have 3 dots of gold embossing liquid in the center.  I layered everything on a cream cardstock base.  I probably should have had another layer, possibly behind the sheet music, but ah well.

The First Noel Card

I started with a small sheet music piece printed on cream resume paper.  I took two silhouette cut candles and lightly inked the edges, then used a black marker to add in the wick and a orange marker on the yellow flame to show more fire.  I glued the flames and melting wax on and then glued the candles together.  I glued foliage around the base of the two candles before attaching them to the cream cardstock base. 

Mittens Card

Here's another simple card to make.  I cut the mittens out of dark red cardstock on my Silhouette (it's a pattern I bought from their store), glued a piece of cord to them, then glued them on the white card base.  I hand wrote the sentiment with a glitter gel pen.

Button Bauble Card

The idea for this card came from this one from Beccy's Place.

I used some red nail polish to cover three brownish buttons and set them aside to dry while I stamped the circle pattern and my sentiment.  I used a ruler and marker to draw the strings, but should have drawn the bows at this time too (I did them after gluing the buttons down, which is why they're a bit wonky).  When the buttons were dry I used a hot glue gun to glue them down along with a gold button and a pearlescent button.  Pretty easy!

Easy Paper Christmas Tree Ornament

This was a pretty easy ornament to make.  I started by using the EK lily pad 2-in-1 edge punch and punching 8 cardstock panels, four in red and four in a shimmery white.  I attached the ends using two snowflake brads, closing the brads on the inside of the ornament.  On the top I wrapped a pipe cleaner under the brad to hang it with, and on the bottom I made a quick tassel by wrapping and hot glue gunning down a piece of ribbon around some ribbon strips.  I then used red glitter glue and pearl embossing liquid to add dots in the centers of the middle flowers on the panels.

Christmas Ornament Card

This was a quick card I whipped up.  Just some simple stamping and a marker ribbon and bow.

Quick Bauble Card

This was a very quick card to make.  I ran cardstock through my bigshot with a bauble embossing folder, then die cut 3 foil baubles and embossed those too.  To finish off (since it looked too plain) I added some black marker to the string and green glitter glue to the flourish.

Stocking Stuffer Treat Bags

Last year I saw some great stocking stuffer ideas and whipped up a few really quickly.  This year I wandered around Bulk Barn with a few ideas and looking out for new ones.  Here's what I came up with:

Returning from last year are the reindeer noses, front left.  Last year I used hard chocolates but I didn't like them that much, so this year I carefully picked through the peanut m&ms at the store (hence the benefits of buying bulk) to find all the brown ones.  The bag looked a bit empty with only 9 candies (8 brown and 1 red) so I added a few more brown ones.  I made a little reindeer to top that bag.

Next to the noses are dirty snowballs.  I used yogurt covered raisins.  I did this one mainly because I like yogurt covered raisins. :D  The tag sports a small pile of snowballs.

The back row starts with yule logs, chocolate covered biscuits.  For the tag I took a piece of brown paper, added some wood grain lines and then 2 leaves and 3 glitter glue berries.

Santa's beard is my favourite.  I was looking for something clever and stumbled on a clear plastic container with a big outline of Santa's face.  Inside, white cotton candy.  Yup, thin strands of spun sugar.  I filled those bags to the brim and still had some left over. :)  These tags took the longest.  I used a punch for Santa's face, hat topper, and beard (a cloud), and hand cut the hats.

Finally, I found these cute white chocolate mints that look like hershey's kisses with their bottoms dipped in coloured sparkles.  Elf hats.  I hand cut the hats for the tag and added a flower sequin for the pompom.

I can't wait to see how these are received.

Forest Scene Card

I don't normally keep aside Christmas cards for myself, but this year I've made an exception.  Today's card was a strange lesson in how doing everything wrong can sometimes be right.

Let's start with the stencil.  I made it out of green acetate on my Silhouette SD.  I'd intended the silhouette to allow me to make white birch trees on a dark background.  So, first mistake: I made a stencil of the birch trees rather than a stencil of the spaces between the trees.

I managed to mostly get the delicate stencil off the sticky backing it's cut on.  I believe there was only one minor tear.

Despite getting the stencil wrong I still wanted to try it out, so I went on to step two, spraying the stencil with a repositional adhesive, so I could lay it on my paper and not worry about it moving around while I inked around it.  I was a little too impatient with this step and didn't let it sit long enough to become tacky rather than sticky and just slapped it down onto the die cut oval of glossy paper I was using (taped to my scrap paper on my craft mat so it wouldn't move either).

I started the stencilling by running a black marker over the indents in the trunks, so it would have the birch bark look.  I then took black, blue and metallic blue gelatos and preceded to smear them into the spaces between the trees, forming a night scene.  It took a fair amount of time to get this dark enough and blended enough, but I was happy with how it looked.

Then I pulled up the stencil.  Because it was more gluey than tacky it stuck to the scrap paper, ripping  the paper and the stencil.  The panel didn't tear, but the glue came off the stencil, making the front of the panel sticky.  I also noticed that the black marker ran, making the indent bits less defined than I'd intended.

Here's a photo of the stencil after removing it from the panel.

I decided the panel was probably a waste, but thought it might be worth trying the old eraser trick on it.  I was hoping the eraser would pick up the glue, allowing me to still use the panel.  Well, the eraser had two effects, the first was to smear the gelatos onto the white trees, the second was to form a grey mess with the glue.  Now, had I continued erasing I would have gotten rid of the glue in time, but the trees would have been ruined due to the smearing colour.  But I realized that the darkness where the eraser hit the glue - and the texture that formed from it - looked surprisingly like actual tree bark.

So I stopped erasing and flicked some white paint pen flecks at the panel.  I also ran a marker around the edge, so it would have a black frame.

To finish the card I used some silhouette cut holly flourishes, deer and poinsettia (the larger poinsettia was done with a die and accented with a marker).  I also took some white plastic wire and glued beads to the ends to add to the flourish.  Finally I added some gold embossing liquid to the centers of the flowers and stamped the greeting.

Santa's Down the Chimney Card

A few days ago I mentioned how I'd bought light modelling paste.  Well, I also used my silhouette SD to cut a few stencils.  I did a sunburst, a brick pattern, a forest silhouette and a diagonal striped page.  I decided to use coloured acetate for the stencils, as they'd be easier to see than clear ones.

I wasn't sure how well acetate would work for stencils, being thinner than the stencils you buy at the store, nor did I know how well modelling paste would work.  So I mixed some red dye into the paste and tested out the brick stencil.

I'd meant to leave a border around all of the stencils so I'd be able to tape them down, but forgot to factor that in when I made the brick pattern, so I ended up with a stencil just barely larger than my paper.

I was able to secure it, then used a plastic palette knife ti smear the paste onto the stencil.  I mixed the paste and colour on a Spellbinders die package.  The lip around the packaging helped keep the paste from making a mess and it was easy to clean up.  You can see the panel in the photo below, with the stencils.

I let the panel dry over night, then cut a rectangle out of it for my card.  I'd tried to be smooth with the paste, but found the rougher areas have nicer texture and a more realistic old brick look.  The paste once dry is a little spongy but very flexible and light.

I cut a chimney top out of white cardstock, some red legs, cloud punched white boot toppers and black boots.  I assembled the vanishing Santa, then stamped my sentiment in black ink and added a piece of glitter ribbon as a roof before attaching the chimney to the white cardstock base.

I'm submitting this card to Simon Says Stamp's Christmas/Holidays challenge.

Noel Snowflake Card

This was a quick and fairly simple card to make.  I started out by embossing the snowflake swirl embossing pattern onto white cardstock.  I die cut two snowflakes, one from vellum and one from white paper.  I glued them on the card and added a pearl to the center.  Finally, I stamped Noel in black ink.

I'm submitting this card to Simon Says Stamp's anything goes challenge.

Winter Stampscape Scene Card

Today's card is similar to yesterday's in that I stamped Stampscapes onto glossy cardstock.  I used a piece of scrap paper to mask off the hill so I could ink in some light blue to make a snow bank.  I didn't think to add the snowman right away or I would have done that first and masked it.  Ah well.  I added a bit of liquid applique, let it dry and then used my heat gun on it to make puffy snow.  I also inked in some snowy clouds in the sky.

Once again I scored the cardstock base above and below the panel.  I lightly inked my die cut tag and then stamped the sentiment.

I wanted an accent and so made a metal wire tree, which I attached using hot glue.

Santa Flying Over the Mountains Card

I started this card by stamping the mountains and trees using Stampscapes stamps on glossy paper.  The santa stamp went next.  It's a wooden stamp with one reindeer, so I carefully lined up my stamp and only inked the deer to get the extras.  I inked the card using a mixture of greens and black blended in at the edges.

I originally had it mounted on a plain dark yellow base, but I didn't like the yellow, so I blended some gold and dark yellow gelatos into the paper.  I scored it above and below the green panel and die cut a label and stamped my sentiment on it.

Sweet Birthday Card

I've avoided using embossing paste due to the expense (both of the paste and for the stencils) and mess, but finally broke down and got something similar, light modelling paste.  I made some stencils of my own using my Silhouette and some acetate sheets, though I didn't use one for this card.  This card was patterned off of this card by Jennifer McGuire.

I started out by cutting my cone and wafer out of gold cardstock.  I then scored the diagonal lines using a score board.

For the ice cream scoops, I put some ink on a piece of plastic (I used a spellbinder's package, as it had edges to keep the modelling paste contained so I didn't make too much of a mess and could easily clean it off), then used it to colour some modelling paste.  The pink dye ink turned out to be too light, so I added some watercolour marker to it (scribbling on another part of the plastic and then mixing the colour in).  I used a palette knife to spread the paste onto the card in the lightly penciled area.  I used another marker for the blue ice cream, after cleaning off my palette.  I pressed the wafer into the paste.

I used the same markers to colour the stamps for the sentiment so they'd match.  A few hours later my card was dry with a very cool almost spongy texture to the ice cream.

Space Scene Card

Since I posted a space card yesterday I figured I'd post another one today.  I made this card for a science fiction fan I know using Stampscape stamps and techniques.

I used a piece of glossy cardstock to stamp on, so I could blend the different inks.  I started off by stamping the astronaut, then I masked an area off to be the planet and stamped the satellite (so part of it would be behind the planet, making it look further away.

I stamped the astronaut and satellite again on scrap paper, which I fussy cut out and sprayed with repositional adhesive so I could use them as masks.

With the figures masked, I masked off the sky and started inking the planet using different shades of red and black.  I used a marker for the black spot.  I then masked the planet and sun and inked in my background space in shades of blue with black at the edges.

After removing the masks, I inked the sun and gave it an aura of yellow glitter glue and added some grey marker to the satellite and astronaut.  I then stamped in some meteorites to show that space isn't empty.

I mounted the card on black cardstock and added 2 mini spaceships die cut out of metallic cardstock.

May Your Holidays be Out of This World

I've got a rather unorthodox Christmas card today.  Using markers I coloured the Lil Lads and Lasses image, Futuristic Willow, that I'd printed and cut out with my Silhouette, in holiday colours and then had to fit a card around it.  I thought of the sentiment and the rest flowed from there.

I cut a panel out of black cardstock and punched a bunch of stars out of it.  I layered that on a piece of neon yellow cardstock, which in tern was glued to a black cardstock base.  The sentiment was written on a piece of red scrap paper in metallic gel pen (and finishes inside on a second banner).  I die cut a circle out of gold cardstock and rubbed some red ink on it to make it look more shadowed, then die cut the red and green spaceship.  I attached all the pieces and voila, a space themed Christmas card.

I'm submitting this to Simon Says Stamps' Wednesday challenge, We're Seeing Stars.

Candle Card

This is a card that was pretty easy to make.  I cut the candles out of cream cardstock on my Silhouette and lightly inked the edges of the dripping wax so they'd stand out a bit.  I punched a ton of branches out of green cardstock to stand the candles on, and embossed a piece of red cardstock with a music notation folder.  I glued the layers on and added the yellow cardstock flames (with some orange ink added) to finish it off.

Happy Holidays Fairy

This is a similar card to one I posted a while back, only with a different colour scheme and some other minor changes.  I embossed a piece of dark blue cardstock and stamped Happy Holidays in white ink pigment on it.  The stamp is a digital image (Lil Lads and Lasses: Jackie Frost).  I coloured her with markers and die cut the circle.  I layered the circle on a die cut snowflake and put everything on a white card base.

Angel Holiday Card

I started this card with a piece of dark green cardstock for the base and a piece of slightly smaller white cardstock for the front panel.  I stamped the angel and then die cut an oval next to it.  I stamped the harp and then started punching out lots of branches.  I lined the oval and glued a piece of music notation (a scrap piece from a public domain song I printed on resume paper a few years ago) behind it.  I added some red glitter gel pen to the stamps (the angel's corset and various flowers) before gluing the front panel onto the card base.  

I very lightly inked three poinsettia flowers (cut on the Silhouette), and glued them together.  I used 3 daubs of a thick gold embossing paint in the center.  I took a sewing pin with a bead on the end and added beads I bought that form an angel and glued it to the back of the poinsettia before gluing the poinsettia to the page.  To finish, I added a few gold embossing dots at the ends of some swirls.

I'm entering this in Simon Says Stamps' Anything Goes challenge as well. 

Snowman Card

This was a pretty easy and fast card to make.  I used a snowman embossing folder and cut out the embossed shape, then coloured the appropriate parts with markers.  I die cut the snow bank and used a gel pen to write the sentiment.  Finally, I embossed the card base with snowflakes (I'd left a bit of border along the top rather than bottom by accident, which is why I used the debossed rather than embossed side for the front)

I'm submitting the card to Simon Says Stamp's anything goes challenge.

Presents Under the Tree Card

Simon Says Stamp is having another 'anything goes' challenge on their Wednesday challenge blog, so I'm submitting this Christmas card.

I started this card by cutting out the window and used a background stamp from JustRite in light blue ink that looked sort of wallpaperish before taping the window back in place.  I used a calendar page of one of Thomas Kinkade's paintings for the view (it's a Christmas scene at central park in NYC).

I glued on the presents (cut and punched squares that I applied glitter glue to) and lots of punched branches (from the bottom up).  For the tree decorations I glued on several punched circles with glitter glue accents, a star and two pieces of nail art tape that approximated tinsel (it was a bit of a pain to attach, but looks really cool).

Unwrapping Card

This was a pretty easy but somewhat time consuming card to make, as I had to fussy cut the kitty stamp out.  I glued some old wrapping paper to my cardstock, something nice with snowflakes first, then the dog paper on top.  I carefully - but messily - ripped the top layer of wrapping paper, and then glued the kitty on top, making it look like it was tearing it open.  This is a great card for a 'naughty or nice' sentiment inside. ;)

Sparkly Holiday Card

This was a pretty easy card to make.  I embossed three poinsettias with gold embossing powder on the lower left corner, then a fourth that I cut out to layer on top.  I stamped the sentiment and added a sparkly green bow with a gold angel sequin on top.  The red panel was mounted on a dark green card base.

Bad Kitty Christmas Card

I bought this french stamp recently of a kitty lying down and it looked so much like it had just done something bad that I had the idea for this Christmas card.  What if a family had a nicely decorated mantlepiece.  What if some bad kitty came by and knocked half the decorations off so it could lie there?

I started by stamping the kitty on a piece of cream cardstock (and realized that I needed to reink my stamp as it came out grey).  I drew in the fireplace and coloured the bricks, then stamped and coloured the fire.  I punched a few circles as ornaments and ripped them (to show they were broken) and added some glitter pen decorations on them.  I put down some string and attached the stockings and punched some pine branches and glued them down.

Frost Fairy Card 1

I started this card by printing out and colouring with markers the digital Lil Lads and Lasses Jackie Frost image.  I added some glitter pen to the wings to make them shimmer a bit.  I die cut the image out using a Spellbinders circle die.

I die cut a Spellbinders snowflake and used a marker to highlight the embossed parts, then added the fairy's circle on top.

For the background, I embossed a sheet of light blue cardstock and added the Casual Friday greeting.  I also added a piece of glitter ribbon before attaching the panel to the darker blue cardstock base.  

I'm submitting the card to Simon Says Stamp's Anything Goes challenge.

Happy Skating Card

One of my sister-in-laws did some figure skating in her youth, so I looked around to find a nice digital stamp and stumbled on Lil Lolita Sookie Skates by Tickled Pink (via C.C. Designs)

I started out by printing the image on white cardstock and colouring it in using markers.  I used the Spellbinders Devine Eloquence as a template and cut around the edge, then used a blue marker to edge the cut.  I cut a frame using the Devine Eloquence die out of a light blue paper to back the image, and used a marker to darken the two side panels.

I die cut the skate (Marianne Designs) and used a silver gel pen for the heel and blades.  When mounting the image on blue cardstock I thought the card was missing something and so added two pieces of silver glitter ribbon behind the elements.

Look Who's Turning 1 card

This is a card I made for my nephew who turned 1 recently.  I'm submitting it to Simon Says Stamp's Stamp It Challenge.

I started out by carefully stamping a corner stamp all the way around the card, masking it so I could make a full frame (you can see one spot where there's no blue dot between the shapes and another with 2 hearts meeting, showing where the stamp didn't do quite what was needed).  I stamped the hanging moon and stars, and the presents, then started colouring all the shapes with markers.

I stamped the sentiment and ran over the 1 with blue glitter glue and the large moon with yellow glitter glue.  I finished the card by attaching the panel to a piece of light blue cardstock.

Books, Bonbons and Wine Card

I made this card for a friend I hadn't seen in ages.  I'm submitting it to Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Stamp-It Challenge.

I started out by stamping the image on a piece of white cardstock then die cutting it out.  With the die still in place I inked the background with a dark blue ink.  I then coloured the image with markers.  I picked the colour scheme to match her former apartment, where she had a big orange couch and dark blue walls.  It sounds strange, but it looked fantastic.

I wanted to use a variegated thread I bought, and so threaded it between and around the holes of the die.  I didn't have my full layout in mind or I'd have had it end in the middle at the bottom with my charm, rather than at the side where it's so close to the faux bonbons.  I tied the string into a series of loops and glued it in place with a piece of shrink plastic.  The plastic has a box of bonbons stamped on it in black ink and coloured with permanent markers, then shrunk down with a heat gun.

For the bonbons, I used metallic cardstock and punched a circle, trimmed on the bottom and three squares with rounded edges.  For the main bonbon I added a paper rosette underneath then put them all into brown crepe paper I coloured brown with a copic marker.  I finished them off with some dimensional glue on top.

I glued everything on my blue cardstock then added a few finishing touches: glossy accents to the wine glass and liquid applique to the slippers (this puffs up if heated once dry, making them look fuzzy).

Fairy Dance Card

I made this card for Lavinia stamp's 'Add some glitter' challenge.  I started out by die cutting the square out of glossy paper.  I stamped the 2 fairies and the mushrooms (all from Lavinia stamps).  I then used 3 shades of blue ink for the main image, and the second tone all around the outer edge (I kept one of the dies in place as a stencil for the ink, leaving that area white).  I added some purple tinted glitter glue to the fairy on the left, and some greenish blue glitter glue to the one on the right.  I topped the mushrooms with red glitter glue.

I die cut a companion circle out of blue vellum, and three flowers from crepe paper.  I added some glitter glue dots to the circle and put a pearl sticker in the middle of the flower.  I wanted something else and decided on a piece of glitter ribbon, which shows through the inset die cut of the square.  Then I glued everything down.

Ivy Prayers Card

I made this card for the Marianne Design Diva's card challenge "Anything Goes".

I started out by cutting out the image from the MD Vintage Christmas 2 cutting sheet.  I decided to use the square passe partout die as a frame, but needed a backing so cut out a plain square and the passe partout from cream resume paper.  I inked the edges of the plain square with tan dye ink.  I die cut the ivy (CR1253) out of green cardstock and a rectangle of red paper that I stamped with a french script background stamp.

When it came time to put the card together I decided to turn the plain square so it would make a kind of star double framing the image and then glued everything down on a base of cream cardstock.

It was meant to be a summer card, but looks more like a Christmas card (despite the use of ivy rather than holly).

Rainbow Medallion Card

I made this card for a challenge but didn't like it enough to submit it.  The challenge was to use a stamp not designed for medallions and create a rainbow medallion with it.  I used my stamping gear wheel for it, and didn't notice in time that the placing of my stamp wouldn't be properly spaced in the circle for the corners, so the cardinal directions stamped right but the corners are slightly off (the pink being the most noticeable).  I finished the card with a die cut circle and white stamped sentiment.

Christmas Carollers Card

I made this card for Lili of the Valley's Christmas in August challenge.

I stamped "Carol Singing" and coloured it in with alcohol markers, then fussy cut it out.  I die cut a frame out of cream cardstock and inked the edges in tan, then die cut some vellum snowflakes and a poinsettia.

I glued the vellum down with glossy accents, hoping it wouldn't show through but it did.  I've tried other means of gluing vellum with equally poor results, including a specialty vellum tape runner.  Ah well.  I used a regular tape runner on the frame and pop-dots on the image.

I think I should have added another backing paper as it feels too empty.  I'll have to try that on the next card.

Rockin' Out Card

I made this card for Kenny K's current music challenge.

I coloured the Download Diva clear stamped image with alcohol markers, then die cut her out and inked the edges in a light blue.  I stamped, die cut and inked/coloured the sentiment and notes from the same set.  The background is a piece of patterned paper that I ran through a music embossing folder.  I glued the patterned paper to the card back and used pop-dots for the other elements.

Green Mountain Waterfall Card

This is another stampscape card I made.  I stamped the images in black ink on glossy paper and then used a mix of yellow, green, brown, grey and black ink to colour the paper.  I mounted the image on grey cardstock with a medium green card base.  As an accent, I added two Lawn Fawn maple leaf sequins in the bottom left corner.  They overlap a bit more than I wanted but I used a glue gun to make sure they stuck on properly and couldn't adjust them afterwards.

Stampscapes

I recently bought a bunch of Stampscape stamps.  It's a company and technique using silhouette stamps with inked backgrounds.  As they're mostly all nature stamps, I figured they'd make amazing masculine cards.  I also went through the stamp sets I already own to find other silhouette images I could use (mostly for foreground elements).

Here are a few of my starter images.  The point is to do rough stamping, rather than carefully measured and arranged works.  The images are stamped on glossy paper (I got mine from Local King Rubber Stamps at a craft show a few years back).  The stampscapes site recommends against using photo glossy paper.  I'm not sure what the difference is.

Here's a finished card, with foreground, focal images and background images.  I've inked it with several shades of blue, and black around the edges, and finished it off with some white gel marker highlights.  I mounted it on dark blue cardstock with a black cardstock mat.

Better Days Card

I made this card for a challenge but it doesn't quite fit the criteria so I'm just posting it here.  I did the diamond pattern with a sun ray stamp in a pale dark purple on white cardstock.  You can tell I didn't measure before stamping as the diamonds are different sizes.  It turned out ok though, as the sentiment (in dark grey) went on one side and the orange 'sun' fit inside the pattern beside it.  I used a piece of grey ribbon to cover the not properly lined up reverse rays and mounted the panel on a piece of grey cardstock.  To make the sun shimmer a bit I added some yellow glitter glue.

Two Toned Butterfly Embossing

I saw this technique on this blog via pinterest and loved it, so tried it myself.  I glued some lighter punched butterflies onto the darker cardstock, then, when they'd dried, I ran the panel through my Big Shot with an embossing folder.

I added a piece of sheer blue ribbon with a butterfly bracelet charm off to one side, then glued the panel to a piece of cream cardstock.

I'm entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge, anything goes.

Kitten Cuddles Card

I made this card for Lili of the Valley's challenge of using 2 of their products on a card.  For my card I used the stamp Kitten Cuddles and a piece of cardstock from their Promises paper pad.

I coloured the image using a mix of Spectrum Noir and Copic markers, then fussy cut it out.  I die cut the oval out of my card base, and a larger oval out of my patterned paper.  I layered the paper on, glued the stamped image to the back of the inner cardstock and embellished the card with some die cut flourishes and punched flowers.  I used a turquoise marker on the gold brads in the flower centers so they'd match the colours scheme of the card.

Fairy Wish Card

I've been seeing Lavinia stamps in various places on the card craft blogs I follow and I love their look, so I placed an order and my stamps arrived. :)

I checked out the company's blog and saw that their current challenge was to make a project using summer colours.  I wanted to use the wishing tree and one of the 3 dancing fairies.  I started out by die cutting a circle out of glossy cardstock.  I stamped the tree, minus the base and then masked off the trunk and inked it in so the tree would be taller than the original stamp (so there would be more room for the fairy).  When I was done I decided I wanted some ground after all, and so stamped a segment of the branch from tree goddess luna for it.

I masked a circle around the fairy to be the sunset, inking it in with yellow in the centre and some orange around the circle, then I covered the circle and inked red and blue around it.

I die cut a scallop to set off the circle and glued them together, then embossed my card.  To make the embossing show up better, I lightly inked it with a darker shade of blue.  I added a bit of glitter glue to the fairy's wings so they sparkle.

The flowers were punched out of crepe streamers (the black one was white crepe paper coloured with a black marker).  For the red flowers I glued the layers together and added some black enamel to the centre and when that was dry, some glitter glue.  For the black flower I added glitter glue to the edges of the flower petals and covered a black button with it.  I then glued the layers together and the button inside.

I die cut a butterfly and added glitter glue before attaching it to the card.

Bundle of Joy Baby Card

This is a card I made for a friend who recently had a baby.

I started out by stamping the pram on purple cardstock with a dark purple ink.  I stamped the sentiment with the same ink.  The top and bottom were die cut to fit the card base.  I coloured the blankets pink and added some pink rhinestones.

The backing paper was originally pink, but I didn't like how it looked when I went to put the panel piece on, and so changed it to a darker purple.  I die cut the bottom edge (both front and back) with a Spellbinders die.

I don't normally add stamped sentiments inside my cards but I did this time so I could use the hand prints.  My husband pointed out that the hands are backwards.  In my defense the stamps came joined and I'm not sure I can separate them without tearing the stamps and the mini hands are so cute.