Dinner Thank You

This is a quick card I whipped up as a thank you for a dinner invite.

The lace is from Kaisercraft's English Rose stamp collection and the food stamps and sentiments from Papertrey Ink's Foodie Fun set.  I used black ink and markers for the brown.

I haven't been feeling well lately and so today's my first day crafting in a while.  Got some new products to mess around with.  I may post more cards today as it's the last day for some of the card challenges I've had my eye on.  We'll see...

Bookmarks

My father asked me to get him a book and I thought that was a wonderful opportunity to make a couple of bookmarks, one for him and one for my mother.

I started with a piece of cardstock and stamped some of my new Papertrey Ink, All Booked Up stamps. I punched the hole and added a piece of ribbon and then punched the bottom.  For some reason I had trouble lining up the holes so they'd be even, hence why they're not.  I also need to learn how to stamp straight, as the bookplate stamps are just slightly out of line.  Ah well.

For my mother's bookmark I used Papertrey Ink's Daydreamers flowers.  And here you can see why conditioning your stamps with an eraser the first time you use them is important.  That spotty look to the flowers and leaves?  That's because I didn't remember to condition them (the oils/whatever left on from processing make it so the ink won't cover the stamp properly).

Again, I finished it with the Fiskar's scallop/eyelet punch and a bit of ribbon.

Papertrey Ink Thank You! card

It occurred to me that I should do something nice for Papertrey Ink for being so generous, so I decided to send them a thank you card.  This isn't the first project I did with their stamps so I remembered to condition the stamps with an eraser, hence, the crisp inking on the flowers and sentiment.

It was also my first time using the largest die from the Spellbinders Decorative Labels 8 set.  I forgot to put in the wax paper, and so had some trouble getting the die off without ripping the cardstock.  Luckily some careful prying got the paper loose.  Alas, I didn't think to ink the edges before removing it, so it doesn't have the crisp lines such sponged ink outlines usually do.  It ended up looking a bit more distressed than I'd planned, but it's fine.

I stamped the flowers (Daydreamer) and sentiment (Think Big Favorites 2) in Papertrey Ink Royal Velvet, with green Crayola marker for the stems and grass.

The butterfly is from the Beautiful Butterfly Die collection.  I inked the edges with PTI Winter Wisteria ink (the same as the card base).  I thought it needed more, so I went around the edge with an Atyou Spica glitter pen and then used glitter glue on the body and wings.  

Here's a close-up:

My Papertrey Ink Stamps Have Arrived!

A few weeks ago I was extremely lucky to win one of Papertrey Ink's monthly giveaways.  Using the coupon and my credit card, I bought a large order of stamps/supplies from their shop (I made sure it was a large order as the shipping fees were high).  Well, a few days ago the package arrived. :D

I must say, the company uses very nice packaging for their products.

The stamps come either in a large plastic case (with care instructions, a CD case for storage and stickers for placement) or a thinner plastic case or plastic bag, depending on the size of the set.  The die set I got came in the cute brown envelope.

The first thing I did was open the larger stamp sets and organize them in the CD cases.  The stickers go on the outside and show how to orient the stamps so they fit in the case.  I cut off the side label so it wouldn't force the rest of the stamps so close to the edge.  

The stamps originally come on a piece of thin plastic with a very thin plastic backing to keep them from sticking.  I figure I can use the backing plastic for projects, so there's minimal waste.  Do be aware that they don't give quite enough room for the stamps (since the pictures are the image you get when you use the stamp and they've got a bit of extra acrylic on all sides, making the actual stamps larger than the image).  As I wasn't convinced the stamps wouldn't stick together when I closed the case, I kept one of the super thin pieces of plastic inside to keep them apart.

Here's one set done. :)  

The stamps themselves remind me of my Close to my Heart stamps, only a bit sturdier.  They're quite think and I had little fear of them ripping when I took them off the plastic (as is the case with some of my other stamp sets).  

Do remember to condition them with a white eraser though.  I kept forgetting to do it, so my first few stamping attempts had that spotted 'the ink didn't want to stay' look, especially with markers.  My next project (after I remembered) came out beautifully, with both inks and markers.

Cupcake Party

This card started with another item from my Um Wow Studio kit, the paper flags.  I've never used flags on a project before (though I did use hanging letters on a string once), so I wasn't quite sure what to do with them.  I ended up picking out the blue cardstock, punching 2 small holes and threading the string through to tie the flags to the paper.  Then what?

The flags made me think of a party, which is when I remembered my new There She Goes: Make a Wish stamp set.  I pulled it out and considered the images, settling on the cupcakes.  I stamped the pieces in black and grey, then coloured it in with blue and grey markers (to match the paper and flags).  To mimic sprinkles, I dabbled on some glue and then sprinkled the icing with blue mica pieces.

Voila!  The sentiment is from the same set as the cupcakes.

Mini Valentines

These cards are for a card challenge I've wanted to do all month but forgot about and thought was finished and so am only submitting it now.  The challenge is Moxie Fab's Make an Itty Bitty Card.  I had the idea for the cards last night and couldn't wait to craft them this morning.

I recently bought the Spellbinders Decorative Labels 8 dies, and haven't had the chance to use them yet.  I wondered if I took the smallest die and then folded it in half, if it would make a nice mini Valentine's day card.

Well, I couldn't stop at one when I realized my idea would work, so I tried 3 techniques.  The card on the right is the die cut through and folded, with Memento Love Letter ink sponged inside.  The center card is the die cut laid over a piece of cardstock.  The left card is only half die cut.

I wanted printed fonts, so played with a few on my computer.  I printed out several fonts in a few different sizes (between 5-7) and ended up using the bold font on the middle card (Arial Black) and the handwritten style for the other two (Snell Roundhand).

The images are also from a font.  It's called Love Romance (link goes to the font) by Blue Vinyl (link goes to his website) and I downloaded it for free from Dafont.com.  I printed out several 'letters' and punched them out with a punch bunch heart punch.  The confetti is mostly leftovers from using the Martha Stewart Lace Heart Edge punch on other projects.  The dark red hearts I punched for this using that punch out of red velvet paper.  I coloured the images with markers.

The sentiment on the center card is backed with red cardstock, while the right one has inked edges and the right one is plain.

The cards all measure 1 3/5" x 7/8" or 35mm x 25mm.  Here's one of the cards with a quarter for the sake of comparison.  Note, the quarter is partly sitting on the card so as to keep the card closed (otherwise it looks larger in the picture).

Gorgeous Purple

I finally got my energy back and made some cards yesterday.  Here's the third card I made, which I'm publishing first as I'm submitting it to the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge and the Moxie Fab's Creative Card Challenge: Make Your Own Background Paper.  I even used Penny Black stamps for the card (which SSS requested but isn't a requirement).

I started out by stamping the woman on white cardstock, then die cut it out.  I inked up the frame with purple die ink then coloured the image.  Next, I stamped the purple shoes on the cardstock (for once I actually pencilled a grid so they'd be mostly in line with each other).  I originally had the sentiment on dark purple paper, but though the white with ink would go better with the rest of the design.

I took some ribbon I got a Fabricland and did a bow using this fantastic technique, added the backing ribbon before tying the center and then glued the whole thing on the page (one dot of hot glue gun glue at the edges on the back of the card and one under the ribbon to keep it in place).  To finish it off, I finally used a pin!  I took a sewing pin I got in a package at the dollar store that has pearled balls on the ends in different colours and so chose the purple.  I then added a metal bead and a pearlescent glass bead before pinning it through the bow.  As the card's planned for an adult who has no kids I'm assuming the pin end sticking out won't be a problem.

The final touch was adding a bit of glitter pen to the necklace, bracelet and purse chain.

Supplies:
Cardstock: Recollections
Dies: Nellie's Multi Frames - Square Lily, Spellbinders - Fancy Framed Dies 2
Stamps: Penny Black - Hello Gorgeous
Atyou spica clear glitter pen
Crayola markers, Memento ink, ribbon, hot glue gun, sewing pin + beads