Purple Iris Card

I made this card for JustRite's Friday Challenge, Color it Pretty.

I stamped the iris image from Botanical Medallions and Banners then die cut it out using Vintage Labels die 7.  I very lightly inked the edges of the die with purple ink before removing it, then coloured the image with pencil crayons.

I stamped one of the labels from Ribbon and Swags Vintage 7 Labels set and die cut it out, layering it under my iris image.

For the card base, I stamped a ribbon border from the above stamp set, and added a piece of ribbon. Then I attached the labels.

JustRite Iris Card

I made this card for JustRite's Botanical Bliss challenge, to use a flower and/or butterfly on your card.

I started out by stamping the frame from Botanical Medallions and Banners in purple ink on white cardstock.  I die cut it out using the co-ordinating die (Nested Oval Medallions).  I then stamped the iris from the same stamp set and die cut it out using an oval die from Spellbinders.  I used a Versamark pen and dusted the image with Perfect Pearls.  It turned out too pale, so I added more colour with markers. You can't see it in the picture, but there's a fantastic shimmer to the flowers.

I stamped another piece of white cardstock with Elegant Fronds and embossed it with a light green/aqua embossing powder.  I then rubbed some purple and blue gelatos onto the unembossed sections.

I layered a piece of light purple ribbon on top of a darker shimmery ribbon, and wrapped it around the embossed panel.  I glued the panel on a purple card base and then glued the medallion on top.  The Iris panel was added with pop dots and a die cut butterfly glued to the side.

White on White Challenge

I've wanted to do a white on white card for ages and it's taken this JustRite challenge to get me to try it.  I realize that if you're only using one colour you either need lots of textures or lots of layers so I pulled out my dies.  I recently got some border dies (my first - which is my excuse for why the layers don't line up) and got to work.

I started by die cutting an edge from a piece of glossy white cardstock.  Then I cut it again so that the good side of the paper looked good (apparently die cutting glossy paper from the back warps the glossy layer, so you want the cutting edge to face the glossy side of your paper).

Then I lined up my card back and die cut the fancy layer out of it.  Then I took out a new card base because I couldn't get the die cuts to fall out on the other one despite passing it through the machine several times, and remembered to use wax paper so the pieces came out properly.  I cut the edge and glued the two layers together.  For fun (and to cover some of the glue tape that showed through the die cuts) I added some sparkly glitter glue to the die cut areas.

I used a spellbinders die to cut out a medallion shape, then stamped and heat embossed the JustRite medallion inside (from the You Inspire Me set) with white embossing powder.  The sentiment (from Botanical Medallions & Banners set) was stamped with white ink and heat embossed with a glittery clear powder, so it shimmers in the light.  It's a bit hard to read so I may have to ink some colour over the sentiment when the time comes to give it away.

Back to the card base, I stamped the flourish, also from Botanical Medallions & Banners set, three times to make a large flourish for the medallion and heat embossed it with white powder.  The medallion was attached with some pop-dots and I put a few dots of glitter glue around the flourish.

It's not perfect, but I really like how it turned out.

Bonus Iris Card

I've got my crafty mojo back, so today you're getting two cards because there are a lot of great card challenges I want to enter.  LOL.

This card is being submitted to two challenges, JustRite's Delicate Doilies (use a doily on your project) and Mojo Monday's 300 Sketch Challenge, to use this sketch:

Well, that circle to the side made me think doilies, and so I got out a new JustRite stamp set and picked the iris stamp from it for my focal image.  I wanted to use blue and turquoise as my card colours, and so coloured the image using those shades of pencil crayons.  I started with a light colour and then added a darker shade on top.  The bow I did purple, just for some contrast.  To get a good, soft blended look, I also used gamsol (an alcohol solution) with a blending stump over top.

I cut out the square from regular cardstock and flag from Core'dinations.  I then ran the flag through my Big Shot with a vine embossing folder and lightly sanded the embossed parts.

The doily came from one of my UmWow Studio kits.  I love how intricate it is!

Instead of the small flag, I decided to use feathers (I love feathers but have had trouble deciding how to add them to cards, so this was great).

Finally I glued everything on.

And here's a close-up of the flowers:

Window of Opportunity Challenge: Life is Better

After several days of not having time to card craft, Saturday I managed 3 cards.  The two butterfly ones I've already posted and didn't take much time at all to make.  This last card was time consuming but I'm very happy with how it turned out.  I made this for JustRite's Window of Opportunity challenge.  The idea is to have a window from one layer of your card to the next, that draws your attention as you open the card.

I had the idea that I wanted more than one window and so started with a piece of cream cardstock and scored 2 lines rather than one center line.

Starting on the inside, I stamped my frame and the two sentiments (one fudged a bit so I evened it out with a marker).  Then, using my light table I carefully traced my window on the two flaps, so only parts of the sentiment would show up on each page.  I then cut the windows out with a craft knife.

Once the windows were cut I stamped the frames around them so they'd be properly centered.

I thought the card looked too plain so I started adding embellishments.  For the front I started with the little accent stamps in the corner and the ribbon, then I added the Spellbinders vine and punched ivy leaves.  The tiny butterflies were punched out of vellum and coloured in pink marker on the back.  This made the wings curl up (which I wasn't expecting but worked out great).  I added a dot of glitter glue in the center of each.

I thought the middle panel needed some colour so after stamping the corner accents I added green to the frame.  In retrospect the marker I used had too thick a head to keep the detail in the stamp, so I should have used pencil crayons for that.  I added some larger punched butterflies to this page, punched out of a thin pink paper.

I decided the last panel was fine with the frame alone.  All of the stamps are from JustRite.  They're stamped with increasingly darker inks as you open the card (so light pink on the front and red inside).

Wishing You Well Card

I made this card following the sketch for JustRite's 88th card challenge.

And here's the card I came up with:

I used JustRite's Vintage Rose Medallions for all the stamping, including the smaller stamps on the backing paper and flag.  I used a purple Stampin' Up marker for the stamps, but included a second Crayola purple on the roses of the main tag.  The circles were cut with Spellbinders Standard Circles small and affixed using pop dots, and I cut the flag ends by hand.  I finished off the card with a piece of purple ribbon I bought from a fabric store.