I Love You to the Stars and Back

I've had this idea percolating in my head since Sunday and I finally had some time to get my fingers inky.  I used two Lawn Fawn stamps sets:  Happy Trails and Lucky Stars.  I inked the sentiment and stars using Versamark and heat embossed them with clear power.  Then it was time for some inky fingers.  I used Scattered Straw, Seedless Preserves, a little bit of Dusty Concord and a whole lot of Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink to make my night sky.  I really need to get those round blending tools, but I made the rectangle ones and some Tsukineko dabbers work.  After stamping out my trees, car and trailer in Momento ink, I colored them pretty simply with my copic markers.  Then I cut them out with the matching dies.  I decided they needed some grass, so I cut out some green card stock with my Lawn Fawn grassy border die and added a little Mowed Lawn Distress Ink to the edges.  Then it was just a matter of building the background with some tape and pop dots. 

Withholding Judgment

So I'm not so sure about today's card.  I had this idea but it didn't quite translate the way I had it in my mind.  So I'm not in love with this card.  I keep looking at it thinking that it needs something, but I'm not sure just quite what.  So I'm going to sleep on it and take another look at it tomorrow.  In the meantime, what got me started tonight was the newest sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches, another challenge block that I stalk read every week, but haven't participated in for a while.  I really liked Rita's sketch this week and I've had this Happy Trails set from Lawn Fawn that I picked up at CKC about two months ago, but haven't broken out yet.  But now that I've played with the set, I really, really want to go camping, but the RV is in the shop.  Boo.

I had stamped the stars from the Lawn Fawn Lucky Stars set, heat embossed the stars with some Versamark and clear embossing powder, stamped the car and trailer from Lawn Fawn's Happy Trails set, inked the starry night background and grass with some colors of Distress Ink, and had the car and trailer pretty much colored with Copics when my husband came in my craft room.  He immediately commented on how cute it was (which he rarely does when something is in progress).  So I felt like I was on the right track, especially when I added Wink of Stella to the starry night, but it just fell apart after that. I love the starry background embossed with the Darice Stars folder using paper from the Lemon Lush 6x6 pad from Studio Calico.  I wasn't sure on the banners because I couldn't find a paper I liked, so I just colored them with a marker to match.  Basically I like each of the elements by itself, but they just don't really come together right...  So you just may see this card again soon when I figure out what's not quite right.  Do you ever have that happen to you? 

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. 

Happy Birthday - Inspired by Watercolor for Card Makers

Today's card features a background I made on the first day of class when I was so inspired by what I was learning that I just wanted to play.  There was a fabulous class where the instructor mentioned circles.  If you follow me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, you saw this picture (love the post-it note list of all the cards I need for coming up occasions in the background):

 

I was just having fun inking up circles in Distress Ink with no idea where the end product would be.  There's something very freeing about just playing with ink.  Well, today, I'm going to share with you where it ended after lots of circles, some water and some more water.  The background was so colorful and really beautiful, it just made me smile so I decided to let it shine.  I just stamped a quick sentiment from the Stampin' Up set I bought during their free shipping/retiring product promotion recently called Perfectly Penned.  I used Versamark and some white embossing powder, then added a black mat on a white card base and a few clear sequins. I just love the result:

Happy Birthday Card as Seen on Papercrafts

I was browsing through the blogs when I stumbled upon this adorable card using my favorite Stampin' Up stamp, Swallowtail, on the Papercrafts and Scrapbooking blog here.  So while I watched the Seattle/49ers game yesterday, I made my own version.  I stamped the butterfly in Versafine ink and heat embossed it with some clear embossing powder.  I then colored in one with my Spectrum Noir markers and left the other black and white for the base.  I then cut the black and white one down to fit a standard A2 card with a black mat and the colored version smaller.  I then matted both of them on plain black card stock and layered them together.  I stamped the sentiment from my Hero Arts All Occasions set in the Versafine on some vellum and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder to match.  I ran the sentiment through my Xyron and adhered it across the bottom of the panel.  Then all I had to was adhere the panel to my card base and I was done.

Looking back on it now, I kind of wish that I had made the colored panel a touch smaller.  Well, maybe next time...

Happy Birthday!

For today's card, I really didn't have to look anywhere for inspiration; it just sort of made itself.  I recently bought this Crafty Secrets' set called Dahlia while shopping at yet another local scrapbooking store that is going out of business.  My sister was over to watch some TV and I just wanted to play with the new stamp.  Without any real idea of where I was going with it, I stamped it in Versamark ink on some kraft card stock from my stash then heat embossed it with some Zing white embossing powder.  I colored the flower in with some colored pencils to add a pop of color.  Then I stamped on the sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Happy Sentiments set using Versafine ink.  I decided it needed a bit of a mat, so I cut the finished piece down to 3.75 by 5 inches and then cut a white mat at 4 by 5.25.  Then it was just a matter of gluing it all down to a kraft card stock card base.