You're Tea-rrific!

You might have seen a shot on Instagram of my watercolor of a tea cup.  I've never inked it up because it just isn't my style; it was part of some supplies that a friend gave me when she cleaned out her closet.  But once I started playing with watercoloring with Distress Ink markers, I realized that I just hadn't yet seen the potential in this vintage Stampendous China Tea Cup stamp.  It was the perfect stamp for a little watercoloring.  I finished the coloring and it's sat on my desk for a while.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but then I remembered I had bought this Fiskars Latte Love stamp a while ago and I was pretty sure it had something tea in it too.  Sure enough, it had the perfect sentiment.  I opted for a simple treatment.  I cut out the panel using the stitched frame from Mama Elephant's Femme Frames and used the larger scalloped piece to cut our some vellum.  I topped my card with piece of paper from the 6x6 paper pad from Crate Paper called Flea Market cut to fit the whole card base, then topped it with the vellum and watercolor piece.

Happy Birthday Inspired by Lauren Bassen and Simon Says Stamp

Today I got to spend the whole day in my craft room (whoo hoo!) and, for once, I actually had some  mojo.  It all started with some big screen time watching videos.  I loved one on the Simon Says Stamp blog with a card created by the talented Lauren Bassen that you can see here (really, go check it out.  It's fabulous.).  

I didn't have the stencil, but I was able to find an image on the Silhouette store (design ID 38579) that worked for my purposes.  I then used a stack of Distress Inks and my mini round blender to ink up some balloons.  Since I still have the fabulous stamp from the July 2014 Simon Says Stamp card kit, I decided to selectively ink the happy from the happy mail stamp then added the birthday from the it's your birthday stamp on the Fiskars All Year Greeting set.  A few sequins finished the cards off.  So much fun I had to make two.

 

XOXO with the Simon Says Stamp July 2014 Card Kit

Now that the card samples from the kit are done, I feel free to play around with the rest.  I had this diamond panel sitting on my craft desk for a long, long time.  I made it with some multi-medium and Rock Candy Glitter using a stencil from StencilGirl Products.  I just selected a sheet from the paper left over in the kit as the background, added my panel, some baker's twine from Queen and Co., a couple of flowers punched from the kit paper with a Fiskars punch layered with a sticker from the kit to build my card.  It still seemed to need something, so I punched a Martha Stewart heart punch through some red card stock sitting on my craft table.  I added a few of the hearts, brushed them with some Wink of Stella and finished them off with some Glossy Accents.  I swear those two products have been my go to finishing touches lately.

Thinking of You - Inspired by Kristina Werner

I spent the first part of the week in DC.  I never really sleep well when I'm away from home, especially if I'm on my own.  So I watched a lot, I do mean a lot, of crafting videos and couldn't wait to get home to get into my craft room.  But, jet lag, work and life just got in the way until today.  It turned out that was okay because I also got to open some new goodies, including the new round blending tools, so I was super excited to play with them.

One of the videos I watched was a fabulous one-layer card made by the equally fabulous Kristina Werner.  You can find her blog post and the video here.  I encourage you to subscribe to her You Tube channel and blog.  They are amazing.

So for today's card, I made my own version into a thinking of you card.  I used a Heidi Swapp heart stencil I picked up at the Creating Keepsakes Convention, some Worn Lipstick Distress Ink and the new round blending tool.  Can I just tell you how much I love, love, LOVE the round tool?  It's so much easier to use.  I can see a lot more blending with Distress Ink in my future.

After I had my hearts down, I shifted the stencil and used a black pen to outline the hearts on the shadow and added Wink of Stella to the hearts.  Then I added a sentiment from the Fiskars All Year Greetings set with some Versafine Ink.  Then I matted it on some black card stock and popped it onto a white top folding card base.  But I didn't like how the sentiment looked.

 So on to version #2.  I did all the same, except I masked off the place for my sentiment and made the panel slightly larger.  I made the mat a little smaller too.  I liked this version a lot better. 

Happy Birthday Card with Ferro

I liked working with the Ferro so much for my dotted card that I had to try another pattern.  This time I used the mini peacock feathers stencil from the Crafter's Workshop to make my Ferro background.  Then I decided to try out some other techniques I've been admiring around the web.  I cut out some vellum with my Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling Die, then heat embossed in white some stamps from the Blissful Botanicals set on the back side of the vellum.  I colored it in with my colored pencils and then stamped the sentiment from my Fiskars' How Many Candles set in Versafine Black Onyx ink then heat embossed that.  I used my Xyron sticker maker on the vellum to attach it to my Ferro piece and then mounted all of it on a standard card base. 

It's Your Birthday - Inspired by Watercolor for Card Makers

I'm not so sure about this card.  I like the concept, but I'm not really happy with the execution.  I might try it again, but I'm hoping this one will just grow on me.  I was trying to do a technique from my watercolor class, Watercolor for Card Makers over at onlinecardclasses.com where you use the stamp as the starting point using an ink that will blend in..., well, while I love the class samples, I just don't think this technique fits with my style.  I couldn't bring myself to blend away the outline.  I combined that with another technique of masking an area to watercolor without getting any in that area.  I think it might work, but I couldn't quite get all the mask up and somehow I managed to rub away some of the paper too.  It look okay from a distance, but, up close, I'm not as happy with it. 

I used Lawn Fawn's Our Friendship Grows for the flower, some Distress Ink in Walnut Stain and then my watercolors from Michaels to finish it off.  The sentiment is from a Fiskars set called All Year Greetings.

 

Masculine Birthday Cards Inspired by Watercolor for Card Makers

I'm starting to actually put together cards from the myriad of playing I've done based upon the lessons from the onlinecardclasses.com class Watercolor for Card Makers.  So far, I'm really liking the background techniques and I love that I found something that will work for masculine cards.  I struggle with those the most.  For today's cards, I broke out a set from Impression Obsession called It's About Time.  I bought it a while back at Runaway Arts and Crafts (too close of a walk from work for my budget's liking, but budget smudget).  I haven't really had the time to play with it (ha!).  But when I ran out of background stamps to play with, I thought about making my own.  So stuck all the big stamps to my Fiskars press and made my own background.  For version one, I just stamped it with Versafine ink but I then heat embossed the second version.  I broke out my cheap watercolors from Michaels and went to town!   Once the background were dry, I cut them down to size and made a couple of banners.  I didn't want the cards to look exactly the same, so I matted one on black paper and then played with that angle look that is so popular right now (by played with I mean I put the paper on the angle and fought my natural instinct to straighten it).  Then it was just some taping it down.  But I still needed a sentiment.  I went with the traditional banner for one but on the angle card, I decided to balance out some of that white space that looked weird to be since it was such an angle.  I added a few sequins to the more traditional card (there can be sequins on a masculine card, right?  Of course!) but the angle card had finally grown on me so I left it alone and called it good.

Happy Birthday Andy!

Today is my father-in-law's birthday and also the day that we will bury him.  Rather than focusing on the latter, we have chosen to focus on the former.  At today's services, instead of flowers, we'll have balloons and birthday cake because he wanted us to celebrate.  And, no birthday celebration can go by without a card and cake (did I mention cake?).  So for my favorite herdsman, I created this birthday card featuring the oh so cute stamp set Critters on the Farm from Lawn Fawn (and the clouds from Sunny Skies also from Lawn Fawn).  The sentiment says "hay there," so I added the "It's your birthday" sentiment inside from the Fiskars All Year Greetings set to finish it off. 

 

So happy birthday to you Andy!  I hope you have a cow by the tail and are having a great time telling tales to Jason.  We'll see you in the Morning. 

Happy Birthday Card - Inspired by A Busy Llittle Craftee Bee

Today's card I gave to my aunt for her recent birthday (I'm a little late in getting it posted). I took the inspiration for this card from one I saw posted on A Busy Little Craftee Bee that you can see here. 

The picture isn't the greatest because it was dark when I took the picture and every attempt I made to compensate for that made the stamping practically disappear.  I did not have the oh so cute flower used in the inspiration piece from A Busy Little Craftee Bee, so I used one in my stash from the Heidi Grace Designs' Paradise stamp set.  I used Stampin' Up's So Saffron ink.  In person, it looks quite nice combined with the Hemptique baker's twine and the sentiment from Fiskars' How Many Candles set stamped in Versafine Ink.  I finished it up with rounding the bottom corner with my We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper. 

Celebrate - Inspired by The Card Grotto

I needed a birthday card for my cousin's recent birthday and she just loves Mickey Mouse.  I looked for some inspiration on Google and I didn't really see anything.  So I started trolling through my Pinterest Card Layout Ideas board to see if something caught my eye.  When I came across this card from the The Card Grotto, I thought I could make a variation on the theme that would suit my needs. 

I had a cut file in my studio files for my Cameo that I had made a while back, that I decided would substitute well for the butterflies. I cut it from some black card stock from my stash. I cut a banner and stamped it with the sentiment from the Fiskars' Happy Birthday set using (what else?) Versafine ink. 

For the background, I cut a 4 by 5.25 piece of some paper from Creative Imaginations meant to be a Disney paper.  Then it was just a matter of gluing it all together. 

 

Go Fore It - Inspired by Snippets by Design

My brother-in-law's birthday was back in June, but his party was cancelled by an unplanned hospital visit.  Thankfully he's fine, but we never did get around to celebrating his birthday.  So when his wife, who is my best friend as well as sister-in-law, celebrated another birthday on October 1st, it seemed like perhaps it was long past due for giving him his gift and card.  I knew he was getting golf clubs for his birthday, so I wanted to keep with the theme. My quest for a golf themed card began with a Google search (yes, a good Google search often is the solution to my inspiration needs) that took me to Snippets by Design where I found an adorable golf card. 

I began by cutting a piece of white card stock down to 4 by 5.25.  I then cut a mask from a piece of scratch paper in the shape of a hill using a French curve (because we all know I cannot draw a straight or a curved line).  I used the top piece to mask off the "sky" and used Mowed Lawn Distress Ink to add the darker hill in the background.  Then I masked off the hill and removed the sky mask.  I colored in the sky with Broken China Distress Ink.  I die cut a couple of clouds from some spare white card stock using the dies from Lawn Fawn's Sunny Skies set.  For the rest, I decided to use the A Perfect Summer 6x6 pad from Echo Park.  I cut one of the green papers down to 4 inches wide then cut in the curve using a French curve.  Once I adhered it to the background, I finished trimming it to size.  Then I drew an oval in my Silhouette software in my Cameo and cut it out of another piece of paper from that pad.  I also hand cut the flag from another sheet from that paper pad. For the hole, I punched a hole from some scrap black paper using (believe it or not) my Cropodile big bite on the largest hole punch setting.  For the golf ball, I used the smaller setting on some scrap white paper.  I cut a long, thin strip from the black scrap paper and cut it down to a height that worked for the card.  Then it was just a matter of taping it all together, cutting off any excess and then mounting it to the background.

For the sentiment, I used the Happy Birthday from a Fiskars set called How Many Candles stamped with Versafine Ink.  For the inside, which I completely forgot to take a picture, I stamped the sentiment "Go fore it!" using Lawn Fawn's Harold's ABCs.  I love that I can customize the sentiment with those stamps and I love how this card turned out.  Too cute and just perfect for the occasion. 

Happy Birthday Card - Inspired by I Create and Freshly Made Sketches

A friend at work is celebrated acknowledged her birthday this week so I needed a card to celebrate acknowledge it.  I turned to my lovely card layout board on Pinterest where I pin all the cards that I find in the blogs I read that I think I'll want to try my hand out or will inspire me.   This wonderful card from Jen of I Create for the Freshly Made Sketches sketch #89 caught my attention.  You can see the card here. 

For my version, I changed it up from a square card to a A2 size.  I stamped my rectangle of white linen card stock with some stamps from the Chocolate Chalet set from Cloud 9 Designs using Stampin' Up So Saffron ink.  I then topped that with a sentiment from the Fiskars Happy Birthday set using Versafine Onyx Black ink.  I cut little banners from some Jillibean Soup paper (yellow stripe) from the Southern Dumpling 6x6 pad and some Echo Park (yellow chevron) from the A Perfect Summer 6x6 pad. 

I then layered the stamped paper on some black card stock, added the banners and then adhered it all to the kraft paper. I added the Hemptique baker's twine and cute white button from my stash.  Then I was ready to at it to my A2 card base and call it cute!

Denver - Day Four

Oops - I thought I had this post ready to go for Thursday of my trip, but apparently I goofed up the process.  I just have to laugh though because it's ironic that the grey skies card stayed up on Thursday night.  The skies of Denver were very grey (the picture below does not do the sky justice - it was soo much darker than that) that night as it was the worst night of thunderstorms while I was there and they left me sick as a dog (or perhaps it was food poisoning), and I really wished that the hubster was there with me...

I loved this bird card uploaded by Silli when I saw it in the Splitcoaststampers Gallery.    I don't have the die she used, but I found a birdie in the Silhouette shapes I had that would work and branch in the Silhouette store that I liked (Design ID 1679).  Then it was just a matter of cutting the birdies from some scraps from my bin (I'm pretty sure they are DCWV card stock) and the branch from paper from the Swagger 6x6 pad from Fancy Pants.  I used another piece from that pad and my 1 inch punch to cut some circles.  Then it was just cut my white card stock for the background, round the corners with my Fiskars corner rounder and build the layers of the card.  For the glue, I used Glossy Accents and finished the card with a sentiments from the All Year Greetings from Fiskars stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink.

Denver - Coming Home

Yeah!  Today I come home from Denver and the hubster will get his last card for this trip.  This one is really outside of my comfort zone - it's messy!  I'm not a fan of splatter, but when I saw this card on Rita's Creations, I knew I just had to lift it so I could use the new stamp set I got from Fiskars called Latte Love. 

There's a fabulous stamp from Hero Arts that does the messy coffee stain circle, but I don't have that one, so I had to improvise with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink mixed with water.  I mixed the two on my craft sheet and used the stem of a candle holder as my "stamp" to simulate the coffee cup ring.  I sprayed the card with Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist (how appropriate is that name for this card?) and added a few extra larger drops.  I then stamped the sentiment in Versafine Onyx Black and cut out the banner.  After coloring the stamped coffee cup image with some Spectrum Noir markers, I fussy cut it out (the steam was not fun to cut) and added it to the card with some pop dots. 

Warning:  Those who are purists about their stamp sets should skip this paragraph.  I added a coffee bean border along the top and bottom of the card on this inside.  I wanted a sentiment that said "love you a latte" but the stamp set only comes with "thanks a latte" so I cut the thanks off (oh, the horror!) so I could team it with the "love you" sentiment from my Fiskars All Year Greetings set.   Too bad I also managed to get the feet of my Martha Stewart stamp press in the ink and ended up with some stray marks.  But hubby won't care. 

Denver Cards - Day Two

For today's card, I visited Tracy Casil's blog Learn to Stamp after being inspired to scraftlift the card she made that was shown on Stampin' Pretty the other day.  For this card, I used a 6x6 pad from My Mind's Eye called Love Me, plus some scrap pink card stock and a white card stock base.  I again used Word to create my sentiment and the Silhouette to cut the hearts out of my patterned paper and the card stock.  I used my Martha Stewart border punch on the edge of the pink card stock then layered my pattern paper on top of it.  Then all I had to do was layer the hearts then adhere them to the card.  I found a cute sparkly button in my stash and tied some Queen & Co. bakers twine through it.  I punched the little pink heart out from a Fiskars (I think) heart punch.  Finally I layered my sentiment on the pink card stock with the pennant edges cut before adhering it to my card.  I found the cute little heart in my stash (I think it's from Queen & Co. too if I recall correctly) to finish it.  Fun!

Butterfly Birthday Card

I needed a birthday card but realized I was out so I did a little trolling of my Pinterest board for cards to find some inspiration and settled on the Hugs and Kisses card by Jane Beljo posted on the "Create" blog.  I used my Silhouette to cut three sizes of the butterfly then ran the largest and smallest through a Sizzix embossing folder.  For the background, I used some Jillibean Soup paper and a scrap of brown to punch a border with an EK Success border punch.  I found a scrap of ribbon in the drawer although I have no idea where it originally came from but it was perfect for this paper.  I added a sentiment stamped with an old Fiskars stamp I found when sorting through my stamps the other day (part of that challenge to use all one's stamps or stamps sets or purge them) and then finished it off with some rhinestones from Darice. 

Happy Birthday Card Inspired by the Artistic Avenger

Last week was a week filled with birthdays and I had tons of fun making cards.  For this card for my cousin's husband, I was completely inspired by the Artistic Avenger.  I simply loved this card.  I loved the colors and style.  For my version, I wanted to a little more masculine so I went right to the Swagger collection from Fancy Pants.  I really love this paper pad for masculine cards.  The brown background and the candles are all from the Swagger paper.  I used some of the Snap line from Simple Stories for the centers of the flame and the yellow paper from the Park Bench pad from Fancy Pants that was on my desk from the last card for the base of the flame.  The sentiment is from Fiskars and I stamped it with Momento Espresso Truffle on some twill ribbon in my stash.  I just love how this card turned out.  Nice and masculine.

Another Birthday Card Inspired by the Technique Tuesday Blog

Since I my last try at the card inspired by Teri Anderson's card from the Technique Tuesday blog didn't turn out quite like what I originally had in mind, I thought I would give it another try.  This time, I really focused on the banner and the card came together very quickly.  I used some washi tape from my ever growing pile to create little pennants for the banner.  I strung them on some Martha Stewart baker's twine.  I hung the banner over some kraft card stock, backed it with white paper and used another DCWV card base from the Brights set.  Then, I stamped a sentiment from a set from Fiskars using Momento Espresso Truffle ink.  I still thought the card needed a little something so I added some Studio Calico veneer stars.  The Glossy Accents I used to glue them down were a little messy so I'm definitely going to have to work on my skills of attaching small embellishments.  But I do have to say that overall I really liked this card and I can't believe how one card can inspire so many looks. 

Happy Birthday Card

I spent quite a bit of time over the weekend looking at old blog posts of new blogs I've started following.  One of the new blogs I picked up was Rita's Creations.  She's a Stampin' Up demonstrator and I don't have a lot of that product, but her style is pretty universal and beautiful.  I like the challenge of trying to recreate the beautiful work she does in the supplies I have on hand, which is great because I have a huge stash and I really want to put it to use.

So for this card inspired by her post here, I used that NEVER-ENDING 6x6 pad from My Mind's Eye called Stella and Rose.  I feel like I have been using that pad forever and yet I still have a lot of it left.  For this card I used two coordinating papers with a cream background and a sentiment from the Fiskars Happy Birthday set stamped in Night of Navy Stampin' Up ink.  I fished a button out of my stash and added some embroidery thread to finish it off.

Sympathy Card

Continuing my quest to build my card stash, I just couldn't resist making my own version of this amazing card by Ann Schach from the Paper's Player's blog for challenge number 142.  I just loved it and I love that I get to break out my new Swallowtail stamp from Stampin' Up again.  It took me three, yes three, tries to get this one.  On the first two attempts, I got ink everywhere, but on the third attempt I finally managed to stamp one without getting ink blotches on the card while removing my mask (that's a skill I just haven't mastered yet).   Too bad I didn't fully ink my stamp so the image didn't come out as clean as the first two, but it was good enough that I could live with it.  Unfortunately, I was a little heavy handed on the sentiment from the Fiskars' All Year Greetings set, but I decided I could live with it too.  I just colored it a bit with my colored pencils and called it good.