September 26, 2014

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.

September 25, 2014

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.


September 11, 2014

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.


September 5, 2014

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.


September 4, 2014

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).