Online Card Class--Holiday Card Workshop 2014

Just remembered there was an OnlineCardClass.com Holiday Card Workshop class that I wanted to take--and discovered it had started 2 days ago, on Monday.  I quickly signed up, but I'm a little behind.

When I started watching the videos, I saw that I didn't have the supplies that were used.  No problem, just used what I had on hand.  It won't look the same, but I'll get the ideas. 

I used some silver pigment ink to stamp snowflakes of various sizes (Lawn Fawn--Critters in the Artic) on a piece of blue cardstock. I don't have any embossing paste, and only one stencil I was given and haven't tried.

 I had originally tried to add some color to the card stock with dye ink spritzed with some water at the top, but it isn't really noticeable. When the ink was dry, I adhered it to a white card base.

I then stamped the moose and got out my Copic markers and colored it in (stamp is from the same set), and cut it out using a matching die.  This is more time consuming than the stamping and embossing that was used in the video, but I just got the stamp set and matching dies and wanted to use them. : )

I didn't do any fancy coloring, just a base coat and a single darker color added to give it a tiny bit of shading.

To finish the card, I tied a piece of gray baker's twine around the card, and stamped a Merry Christmas at the top (the stamp is probably from a Fiskar's stamp set, but I'm not sure which).
 
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Copic Markers for Card Makers Day 7

Another interesting day.  Sandy showed us different ways of coloring things with white, red and black.  I tried out the white using grays for the shadows on my flower.  The first one I think the darkest gray was too intense, so I did it again with a slightly less deep gray, and liked it much more.  I also had a little trouble with the reds, as my reds tend to be more toward the pinks, but I tried with what I had. 

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out.  I also experimented with some different greens on the leaf and stem, and I thought that was interesting, too. 

Sandy did a bonus video, and I was really pleased with how she taught the flicking method.  She demonstrated what was meant by sweeping, and I also noticed she uses the side of her marker when she flicks.  I'm going to have to try that later.

Copic Markers for Card Makers Day 6

Today's lessons were really interesting, but I'm not doing as well as I'd like with my coloring today.

We started with Sandy showing different techniques to use on animals, including adding dots to the  dog figure with colorless blender.  My dots either didn't show up at all, or were much bigger than I wanted.  Definitely a technique I'm going to need a lot more practice on.

Kelly Marie illustrated how she colors animals, and also how to add spots and blend them in.  I was a  little more successful with this technique.

Jennifer's video show how to use different colors to add highlights to the fur, I need to practice that some more, although I wasn't totally horrible at it.  I need to try different colors probably.

Sandy also showed us how to make long hair on the fox, and curly hair.  I need to practice these techniques, too.

Very interesting class, lots of helpful information.  Glad it is going to be available in the future for reference!!

Copic Markers for Card Makers Day 5

Another great class from OnlineCardClasses.com, and another great lesson in this class.

In this lesson, we covered skin and hair.  Kristina illustrated the flicking or feathering motion to add colors to hair, while Kelly Marie used the darker markers to add shading. They used different colors of markers for the face, which really made a difference in how it looked.

Then Kathy used the ballerina to illustrate her way of shading, along with using the blender pen to create a graduated color in the dress.  She also add eye shadow and a little Wink of Stella, and also used the Wink of Stella to add sparkle randomly across the dress.  Sandy also used the ballerina to show how she used a little of the BG in the hair to bring the color of the dress in, and also used the RV colors in the lips and on the underskirt.  She used 2 of the BG colors in the eyes.  Very nice!

I'm fairly pleased with how my work turned out, not that there isn't a lot of room for improvement.

Copic Markers for Card Makers Day 4

Today's lesson is about shading flowers.  Sandy explained how to divide the picture up into circles and ovals to determine where the dark and light areas are--and I think I finally get it!! Yay!!

Kristina showed how to add a little texture with your shading, and Jennifer suggested the shading could be added to the things that are in the back or under something else.

I decided to use the same colors for all of the different techniques today, so (to my mind, anyway) it would highlight the different techniques in a better way.  I was pretty amazed how different the flowers looked with the same colors, but different techniques.  They would probably show up even more if I was a little better at the techniques (practice, practice, practice!).

Copic Markers for Card Makers Class Day 3

Today's class was great!  Up first was Sandy, who showed us how to use gray to make the shading really pop.  She suggested using different grays and experiment with the Cs and Ws and Ns.  I think I like the shading with a bit of gray better than just using the darker matching colors.  Sandy starts with the darkest, then the medium and finally the light when she did the color families and with the gray as your dark, coloring over the gray with your medium.

Kristina used the gray to add shading, too, but also showed how different kinds of gray can have different effects on the base color.  She also pointed out that we might have to go to a lighter gray for some colors, even if its on the same image, like with the multicolored umbrellas.  Very nice.

Laura used gray on her umbrellas, too, and her practice sheet showed shading not only along the bottom, but on the sides, and on the top.  Very attractive shading!

The last teacher was Kathy, who used feathering along with the gray.  I really need to work on this technique!

Copic Markers for Card Makers Day 2

The first video was by Jennifer.  She showed us the technique of touching the tip of the lighter marker to the tip of the darker marker to get your own medium shade, which is effective if you're trying to blend to different color families together.

Laura Bassen showed us how to scribble one marker on an acrylic block, and to use another marker to pick up some of the color to get an in-between shade to blend.  The results look to be similar to the tip to tip method.

Kathy Racoosin showed the technique of using feathering to blend two separate colors together.

Here is my practice sheet.  I didn't really care for the colors I used in the last butterfly.  And I didn't do a good job of shading.  I can see I'm really going to have to work on the feathering technique.

Copic Markers for Card Makers Day One

Today the lesson was on basic blending techniques with both two color and three color shading.  The first teacher was Sandy Allnock, who went over basic blending techniques. I spent some time on this to get some practice in.

The next video was by Jennifer McGuire, who saturates the paper with the lightest color before adding the dark color.  She also uses colors from different groups to blend together.

Kelly Marie Alvarez showed her technique for two color blending on the boxes..

The last presentation was by Kristina Werner, who concentrated on showing us her way of doing three color blending.

My practice sheet has each of the teachers' techniques labeled so I'll be able to go back to the correct video in the future if I want to refresh my memory of how to do any of these.

Copic Markers for Card Makers Online Class Pre-class worksheet

I've been looking forward to this class for several weeks, so took the opportunity to practice a little shading, using some of the color combinations the teachers shared with us.

I'm not happy with some of the hearts I colored, but that's part of the learning process.  Here's a look at my first practice sheet.

 

And there are several of the hearts I do like.  

I also printed out a Copic Marker Hand Color Chart and filled it in.  It makes it easy to see where I have natural blending groups, and where I need to fill in.

Stretch Your Stamps 2, Day 11

Today was a play day, and the last day of lessons.  Sad it's over, but happy about how much I've learned!

I decided to use Laura's video as my starting off place, and made a background by stamping one stamp over and over.  My sentiment was made by taping off everything from a sentiment of That's what you are except for the that's.  I added the word Awesome to finish the sentiment.








My card base was white, and then I added a piece of blue cardstock to the front just a bit smaller.  I cut the piece with the sentiment on it a bit smaller, then cut the background and sentiment apart. I  popped them up them up on the card front with a small gap between them.  I added a few sequins and enamel dots for bling.

Stretch Your Stamps 2, Day 9

For my card today I followed Julie's video almost exactly, with the exception of the colors.  I was in more of a blue mood, rather than a pink mood, thus the change.

I drew my circle, and added first the small leaf cluster (Hero Arts Field Greens), then the blue flowers (Distress Salty Ocean), followed by the smaller flowers (Hero Arts Pool), lastly stamping the single leaves in Hero Arts Green Fields.   After the stamping, I started to use my Atyou Spica pen in lemon to add some sparkle to the center of the flowers, but didn't think it added enough bling, so I ended up using Stickles in Scattered Straw for the smaller flowers, and Silver Stickles for the larger flowers, which I liked much better.

  

I didn't have a die to cut a sentiment available to use, so I cut a circle in the card base front and stamped a sentiment on the inside. The card stock with the wreath was popped up on the card front.

Stretch Your Stamps 2, Day 8

More great ways to use graphic stamps in today's lesson!  I really like Kelly's idea of using graphic stamps for a border, so combined that with Nichol's idea of a window card.  This is what I came up with--I used Distress Ink Squeezed Lemonade and stamped my graphic rounded diamond on to a strip of white card stock, and also used the ink to color a strip of white card stock.  I then over-stamped the rounded diamond with a heart in Momento Tuxedo Black.

I die cut a window on a separate piece of white card stock a little narrower than the card front.  I attached the stamped strip to the left hand side of the card base, then centered my colored strip under the die cut window and attached the strip to the card front.  I stamped my sentiment in Momento Tuxedo Black.  I then popped up the card stock with the window, and called it good--for now.

 

I think the front needs a little something more, but I'm not sure what.  Maybe a ribbon and bow?  Black or yellow?  Or maybe I should do some yellow and black spatters?  Or maybe stamp some of the hearts in yellow and black randomly on the card front?  Maybe I'll just leave it the way it is.  I'm going to spend a few days thinking about it before I make up my mind. 

Stretch Your Stamps 2, Day 7

I thought I'd try the random background stamping from Debby's video today.  I'm not really sure I like what I did, but I tried a smaller stamp that wasn't so bold for the background.  I might try it again later with a larger, bolder stamp.

I stamped the background with Hero Arts Soft Pool and Pale Tomato (I also did a second stamping with this without re-inking my stamp), and Momento London Fog (also did a second stamping with this ink).  I used Momento Tuxedo Black for my over-stamping of the sentiment. 

I added a black and white polka dot ribbon for interest.  I first added the ribbon at the top of the stamping (first photo), but it just didn't seem to look right.  I removed it, and was just going to go with the plain stamping, but decided to try it first on the bottom of the card (second photo).  I liked this so better.  I will be adding a few embellishments--as soon as I find my little box of embellies that has gone missing! 

I then popped it up on a slightly larger piece of red card stock, off center.  The whole thing was then attached to the white card base. 

Stretch Your Stamps 2, Day 6

Wow, I've learned so much in this class!  Although I'm not surprised, as I've also learned a lot in each of the other onlinecardclasses.com classes I've taken!

When I watched the video by Laura, I really liked the idea of stamping a little off center, and while I loved her tags, I wanted to do a card, so I combined these two ideas in a way.

I die cut a piece of white card stock, and I stamped the floral design off center with black Momento ink.  My original plan was to color the flowers with Copic markers like Laura had done on her tag, but decided instead to just blend some ink around the edges (after putting the die cut back in the die) with Salty Ocean Distress Ink.  I then mounted it offset to another die cut, this time in black card stock.

A small sentiment stamped in black Momento ink on white, then mounted on black card stock, was popped up for a little dimension.

I added the whole thing to a white card base, also popped up.  I really liked how this one turned out, which is completely different then my original plan! 

Update:  A few days after posting this, I added a little color by dotting Atyou Spica  Sky Blue in the little circles in th middle of each flower, then used my brand new, just arrived Zig Wink of Stella brush to highlight all of the petals  Love it!

Card made from Class Scraps

I was gathering up my scraps from the cards I made while camping, and noticed I had a bit of the watercolor paper with some spatters on it, along with some red card stock and black cardstock scraps.  I decided to put them all together and make a quick card. 

I stamped Happy Birthday with a rainbow ink pad (Tahiti by Kaleidacolor) on the watercolor paper, then matted it with red, and popped it up on a blue rectangle that was matted by black and put on a green card base. I think it turned out pretty good!

Stretch Your Stamps 2--Day 2 revisited

When doing the rainbow water-coloring of my background stamp I made a second one on regular card stock.  I liked how it turned out, and decided to make a card with that one. 

The front of the card

I used the die cut technique that was presented in the video by Jennifer McGuire.  I'm really happy with how this card turned out.  Now I just have to find someone really special to get the card!

The inside of the card

And here's what the inside looks like.
















And then I had to make a card with the leftover heart from the background, and the negative of the yellow heart, so I inlaid the background heart in the cutout, and popped a sentiment on top!

Stretch Your Stamps 2 Day 5

Today's lesson was about using outline stamps.  I decided to try the technique from Jennifer Rzasa's video, using Distress Ink and watercoloring with them.

I used Distress Ink to stamp the floral design on watercolor paper, then used a waterbrush to spread the color out.  I matted the watercolor paper on tan cardstock, tied tan organza ribbon around it, then popped it up on the green card base.  I stamped the inside with a sympathy sentiment, but decided not to add anything else to the front.

Stretch Your Stamps 2 Day 3, Card 2

I really liked the way Julie used the alphabet as a background, so I thought I'd give that a try. 

 I didn't try to do a word search type background, but stamped the background in multicolored ink (Tomato Vine by Kaleidacolor). I inked the edges with red before attaching to card front.

I then stamped the sentiment in the same ink, and matted it with three different colors of cardstock, then popped it up on the front of the card.  Still missing are my enamel dots, which, when found, will be placed on the sentiment and possibly the rest of the card front randomly.

Stretch Your Stamps 2 Day 3

Day 3 concentrated on using alphabet stamps.  They gave us several ideas on how to use them.







When I watched Debby's video, I liked the idea of using the alphabet stamps on the card embellishments, so die cut some leaves and stamped them in multicolored ink with the words Happy Thanksgiving.  I then stamped the sentiment in brown ink on tan card stock, and matted it on two sides with red.  I then popped it up on the card front (which really doesn't show well in this photo).








I made the card while camping, and while I took a lot of my supplies with me, I couldn't take everything (at least, that's what my husband told me) so I didn't have a lot of choices as far as card stock was concerned.  And I can't seem to find my enamel dots, so you'll have to imagine some red, yellow and orange dots scattered on the card front.

Stretch Your Stamps 2 Day Two

I thought I would try the Perfect Pearls technique from Jennifer McGuire's video, but then discovered I actually had PearlEx.  They are not exactly the same, but close.  I decided to do try the PearlEx, and then looked for a background stamp to use.  I didn't find a reverse background stamp, but did find a pretty sea shell background stamp I had forgotten I had.

I used VersaMark to ink up my stamp, which was made up of various sea shells for the background.  I then applied the PearlEx, and used hairspray as a fixative.The photos do not do this justice.

 The first photo isn't very good, but does show the shiny gold where the flash hit it.  In real life the whole front has nice shiny gold highlights.










The second photo doesn't show the shine as well, but you can actually see the whole stamp.  I accidentally got my thumb on the VersaMark and rubbed off a bit on one of the shells on the right edge, but that will be covered by the sentiment--as soon as I decide what sentiment I want to use!

 

I'm really enjoying this class, as I have all of the classes I've taken from OnlineCardClasses.com.  They are just chock full of different ideas, and are clearly explained!  They also include helpful hints that make it easier to use the techniques in my own cards.

Here's a photo of the updated card with sentiment and ribbon.

Stretch Your Stamps 2 Day One, Card 3

Card 3 from Day 1 lesson

I had a bit of the water-colored background stamp left over from my first card, so decided to put it to good use in another card.  I also used the spatter technique that was mentioned in Lisa's video by adding some spatters to the sentiment.  I like the way it pulled in the colors from the watercolors.

Stretch Your Stamps 2 Class Day One, Card 2

After making the first card from Kristina's video, I decided to try making a card based on Lisa Spangler's video.  She used VersaMark ink and heat embossed the design, then sprayed the card with gold spray ink.  She then removed the embossed areas.

I stamped and embossed my background design, then sprayed it with a red spray ink.  When I lightly wiped the surface to remove the ink from the embossing, it spread the ink around, and when it dried it was very dull looking.  I decided to spray it again with a gold spray ink.  I was much more pleased with how this turned out.

2nd card from 1st day of class

I followed her directions on how to leave enough room for your sentiment, stamped it on black card stock with VersaMark and used gold embossing powder, and it came out pretty well.  Due to my embossed background design being slightly warped, I taped it directly to the black as oppsed to popping it up as Lisa had done.  I then taped the whole thing to a red card.  I'm pretty pleased with this card, although I know there is a lot of room for improvement!

Stretch Your Stamps 2 Class Day One

I signed up for an online card making class called Stretch Your Stamps 2.  I've taken several other classes from OnlineCardClasses.com and have learned so much from each of them.  I've been looking forward to the start of this class for weeks.

The first day of class was about using background stamps, and different ways to use them.  Kristina Werner's video intrigued me as she used watercolors on the design after she had heat embossed it, and I decided to try it as I've never used watercolors before, but had some on hand.  I didn't use a full background stamp, but used a border stamp by Paper Smooches to mimic one.  I had a lot of trouble lining up the stamp for the repeats when I used VersaMark ink, so I switched to white pigment ink, and for some reason the embossing powder didn't seem to be working well. I'm not sure if the ink was sticky enough.

I then decided to just go with Momento black ink on white cardstock, and then to use the watercolor paint to add color.  This worked out a little better, except the black ink smeared a little with the watercolors.  Still, not too bad as a learning experience.

2nd attempt using watercolors with background stamp

Wedding Cards for a purple and silver wedding theme

One of my daughter's friends was married over the weekend, and I made a card for her and her new husband. I've known Candice since she was in 1st grade, and was her Brownie leader.  She and my daughter, Alyse, have been friends from 1st grade on, and were roommates at college for four years.  I wanted to make a special card, and wanted to incorporate her wedding colors of purple and silver.  

I had found instructions on making a cascade card, and thought that would make a perfect card.  After several attempts over a couple of days, I finally got the base finished, and it didn't look too bad.  I proceeded to add silver hearts on thin strips of plastic (liner from a stamp set ), and purple hearts scattered on the  card front.  I decorated the flaps with a silver designer paper, and made a bride and groom from card
stock.

Cascade Wedding Card for Candice and Andy

It turned out pretty well, I thought.

When I showed my daughter, she loved the card and said she'd like to give it to Candice and Andy with her present.  That worked out well for her!

Front of wedding card

I then made another card, a little plainer because I didn't have much time to get it done.  It came out pretty nicely, and I finished it in time to take to the wedding.  I used a couple of embossing folders to add a little interest, and the silver ribbon for a little bling.

Inside of wedding card

When my husband I arrived at the reception, I was surprised and delighted to see my cascade card on display on the gift table!  When Candice and Andy had opened the card they loved it!  Alyse told Candice I had made it, and Candice was impressed that I could do that.  She showed it to her parents when they got there, and she decided it was so cute, she wanted to use it as part of her wedding decoration!  So as much trouble as I had with that card, it was worth it!

Sunday Afternoon

Today I decided to spend a couple of hours making a set of cards with a new stamp/die set I just bought.  It is called Joe To Go by Taylored Expressions.  When I ran across it online, I thought it was a cute set, and it was made in the USA, which was a plus. I had some Christmas money left, and it was burning a hole in my pocket, so I ordered it!  I wanted to make something when it arrived Saturday, but already had plans, but knew Sunday afternoon would be perfect for making a card.

I thought it would be nice to use it for something that would work for Valentine's Day, but wouldn't be limited to just that.  I decided the coffee cup, with the heart accent, would be perfect.  After stamping and die-cutting the cup, I colored the wrap area with a R29 Copic.  I then stamped and die-cut a lid from red card stock, and die-cut a wrap from brown card stock.  I glued the cup/lid/wrap together, and thought it looked pretty good.

I decided to use one of the sentiments from the set, stamped it on white card stock and matted it with the same red I used for the lid. I added the leftover heart from cutting out the wrap for a little accent on the sentiment, attaching with a pop dot for dimension.

I made a card base from the brown card stock, layered with red card stock and added a white embossed layer (Darice Beach Waves) which I thought looked a little like steam when turned sideways, attached the cup with a pop dot, and was done with the front.

Inside, I just added white card stock to write on,
and added a red heart to accent it.