Enjoy Life's Moments

This card is for Simon Says Stamp's Anything Goes with Twine or String challenge.

I started out by making a cloud mask out of paper, than inking it with a sponge and light blue ink.  I wanted a string kite string and string ground, so I stamped the girl in pink (I originally wanted black, but thought with the other colours I was using it would look too harsh).  I added the string 'ground' and stamped the sentiment.  I added the kite string, gluing the hand end with glossy accents and the kite end with a pop dot.  I stamped the kite in black and coloured it in with a dark blue marker, then fussy cut it out.  I wanted it to pop, hence the darker colours, so I went over it with glossy accents.  In retrospect, I should have made it a bold bright colour for contrast, rather than black and blue.

I added the panel to my card base and, once the butterfly was dry, attached it to the top of the pop-dot I'd used to glue the string down.

The girl and kite are by Mama Elephant, the sentiment is Kaiser Craft.

Butterfly Window Screen Card

I made this card following the video for Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday challenge to make a window screen card.

I wanted to do something a little different, so I made my window using 4 wing tip to wing tip butterfly die cuts.  Since the butterfly design wasn't obvious, I used a different die from the same set (Beautiful Butterflies die collection) and alternated it upright and upside down several times to make the die cut panel in my patterned paper.

I stamped some flowers from the Daydreamer stamp set in complementary colours around the frame, cut my parchment screen and layered them.

At this point I realized I didn't have room for a sentiment and my frame was quite large, so I took two of the die cut butterflies I'd used to help space the frame cuts and glued them together.  I added a sentiment - also from Daydreamer - and glued the butterflies to the card.  I finished it off by adding 3 mini flowers.  They're officially for nail art, but I thought they'd word well as rhinestone substitutes.

Bliss Tag

I wanted to do some quick colouring, so I whipped this image up using my water based markers.  You can't blend these as well as you can the alcohol based ones (since good blending - for me - requires putting light colours over dark ones, which would ruin the tips of my lighter water based markers).

I'm not sure if the panel at the bottom with the heart trim works or if I should have just left the frame as the tag.

Forever and Always

For this card I started out by die cutting the frame (LR0236), then masking the card with the insert from that set (rather than die cutting it).  I knew ink wouldn't get through the spaces if I used it as a stencil, but I thought a spray would, so I cut off slivers of red and silver gelatos and made a mist spray from them by adding some water.  It worked, mostly.  The lines aren't crisp the way a stencil and ink would get them, but it made a softer pattern for the background.  There's a slight shimmer (from the silver gelato) as well.

The label is from the same set, inked around the edges with black and stamped with a Kaiser Craft sentiment.

I die cut flowers from CR0168 (red) and LR0129 (white) as well as a flourish (CR1245).  It was my first time using the flourish die, which is painted white.  For some reason some of the white came off on my black cardstock, edging the die cut.  It looks fantastic.  I inked the red flowers with a little black to make the edges stand out.  I glued down the swirl and flowers, and added the label with pop-dots.  I finished the card by adding black rhinestones to the centre of the flowers.

Fancy Butterfly Card

I've wanted to do some more complicated cards but didn't have time before - or during - the holidays. So I manufactured some extra time for crafting and came up with this window card.

I wanted to use the 'Verdant' stamp from Penny Black and my new Cheery Lynn butterfly dies.

I started the card by die cutting the base card and then die cutting the insert (Spellbinders Radiant Rectangles).  I then needed another double die I could use for the 'window'.  I picked out JustRite's Nested Oval Medallion dies for that.  I inked the area between the dies so there would be some distinction for my frame.

Then I marked off where my frame would go on the card and masked the outside so I could stamp the leaves a few times.  I used black and grey inks for that.

I die cut a Spellbinder's vine to cross the window and give my butterfly something to sit on.  For the butterfly I die cut an outline and a detail.  The outline I coloured with metallic gelatos then layered the detail die cut on top (you can't see it, but the shimmery gelatos come through the holes on the top butterfly).

Here's the finished card:

 

Love Rose Card

I made this card for Simon Says Stamp's Emboss It challenge and I'm also submitting it to Penny Black's Sending Hugs challenge (even though I used a PB die rather than stamp).

I started out by making the accordion heart, die cutting the form twice and glueing it down.  I cut and embossed the red panel and then die cut the rose out of watercolour paper.  Because the Penny Black rose die is so delicate, I coloured it with gelatos before taking it out the negative paper.  I wet a cloth and melded the colours so it would have a slight watercoloured look.

I stamped 'love' on the cardstock and assembled the card, using a piece of glitter ribbon as a border.  I'm really happy with how this turned out.

Snowflake Frame Card

Things are going to be a bit slow here while I build up a small stash of cards to post.  I didn't have much crafting time in December and my schedule's still a bit wonky.  There are a lot of card challenges I'd like to join though, so you may get more cards than I expect.  Oh, and I didn't get to make many Christmas cards around Christmas, so expect some festive cards to come.  I got a bunch of Christmas craft supplies as gifts. :D

Anyway, here's a card I made yesterday using a large snowflake die as a window.  I got the idea from Kittie Kraft.  I wasn't going to add the embossing to the blue paper at first, but the design looked odd disappearing under it, so I embossed it too.  I love how this turned out.  The sentiment was supposed to go along the bottom, but I guess it's going inside now.

I die cut the snowflake and used a rounder punch on the corners.  I later came back and embossed the scrollwork to match the white cardstock.

For the white cardstock, I used the die to mark where the snowflake would cover and then stamped my deer and trees and sponged some ground for them (using 2 tones of blue dye ink).  The deer were coloured in with a brown marker (because I couldn't locate my black one).

I used pop-dots to attach the blue cardstock and it was done.

I'm submitting it to Simon Says Stamp's Ice Inspiration challenge.

Thinking of You Bouquet

Happy New Year!

This is another make'n'take I did at the Creativ Festival.  I saved it for now as I'm sure we're all dreaming of flowers.

The scalloped edge is the bottom of the front of the card.  The striped paper is a border on the bottom of the back of the inside.

The flowers were punched and topped with doodlebug design stickers.  The mini straws used for stems were glue taped down, with the flowers on pop dots on top of them.  I added my sentiment banner over the straws to help hold them down.