Another colored glitter paper card

After finishing my last card, I had a little bit of the glitter paper I colored left over.  Using a couple of Simon Says Stamp dies, I cut out a smallish heart, and the word Always.  Laying them out on the card front, they looked a little lonely, so I cut out two of the larger nesting dies hearts from scraps of glitter paper I had in my scrap pile, one from a thin white glitter paper, and one from a gold glitter card stock.  After layering them and attaching them to the card front, I played around until I was satisfied with the way the small heart and word looked.  I think this card turned out fairly well.

New Online Class--Sparkle & Shine!

When OnlineCardClasses.com sent the information about this upcoming class, I was elated!  I love cards with sparkle and shine, but I'm never too sure how to add it without overdoing it.  So I generally just use a bit of glitter paper for the background, or else add some glitter to my shaker cards.

Since I had some glitter paper handy, I started off with the idea presented by Carissa Wiley, and used some Sharpies I had to color over some silver glitter paper.  I used a bright yellow, bright orange and bright red.  The result was a little different than I imagined.  It wasn't as bright and bold as I had anticipated, and the bright yellow ended up looking slightly green.   The orange ended up looking like a copper color, while the red turned into a brownish color.  Even with this, I thought the resulting glitter looked pretty good.

My original intent was to die cut the three words, and attach them to the front and be done.  However, when I laid my design out, it looked a little too sparse, so I die cut the black card stock frame, and was more happy with the result.


I did have a little trouble with the die cuts.  While they looked like they were cut all the way through to the back, apparently there was a thin layer of some sort of adhesive to attach the glitter to the base card stock, which did not cut through in some places.  The card stock was cut through, the glitter itself wasn't a problem, but that adhesive just stretched instead of being cut through in several places. The most troublesome places like the cut outs in the middle of some of the letters, or the skinny indents, such as between the g and h in laugh.

It took me longer to get the words cut out cleanly, then all the rest of the card put together, including the coloring. I believe the next time I will look for my metal plate and see if using that helps at all.

Creating with a color challenge

Alyse, Becky, and I, decided to use a color theme for our card making day this month.  The colors were light yellow, straw yellow, mustard yellow, deep orange and a deep red.  We were to use as many of these colors as we could as we made our cards.

I started off using my new Distress Oxide inks of Fired Brick, Fossilized Amber, and Spiced Marmalade.  I stamped a couple of bowls, and a spoon, along with a dotted border from the My Favorite Things November 2016 Card Kit--Kitschy Kitchen.  When it arrived I put it away because of the holidays, and basically forgot about it.  When I found it again a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to use it as I really liked it.  I made a card and was fairly pleased with the layout, but for some reason it just didn't grab me.  After looking at it, and thinking about it, I decided it just wasn't bright enough for such a fun stamp set!

I redid the card, using the Catherine Pooler inks of Tiara, Orange Twist and Rockin' Red.  I used Momento Black for the sentiment, as I did in the first card. I deleted the spoon, and added an additional bowl.   I also added yellow card stock for the first layer.  This card I really liked!  It just pops, and the colors complement the fun bowls!

I also made coordinating envelopes.  I think they turned out pretty cute!

One more Easter Card

Made another Easter card, this one for my grandson.  I stamped the bunny and the sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp March 2017 Card Kit, with black Versafine Ink, then colored in the bunny with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers.  I stamped the hearts in Momento Pink and colored with the Zig markers.  I accented the front by adding a scalloped border in pink on the left side.  All in all, I think it turned out pretty cute.

Easter Cards for the grandkids

Used my Simon Says Stamp March 2017 Card Kit to make some Easter cards.  The kit this month included some fun items I hadn't used before, so my first card  was trying out the Nuvo Embellishment Mousse.  This was an interesting experience.  The mousse feels a little slick when you're applying it, but goes on fairly easily.  I applied it through the flowered egg-shaped stenciled that was included, using all three of the included colors (Pure Platinum, Aquamarine, and Peony Pink).

It wasn't perfect, but almost, which is really saying something about ease of use right from the get go.

I cut the white card stock down, leaving enough room for the sentiment (from the included stamp set), which I stamped in Momento Black.

The background is one of the papers that was also included in the kit.





My next card was fairly simple.  I used a sheet of the included paper for the background.  I stamped the bunny and sentiments in Versa Fine Black ink on Neenah Solar White card stock.  I used my new zig markers (I know, I'm a little late in trying out these markers). I didn't bother with much shading, but think it came out pretty nice.

 I then fussy cut half of the bunny before attaching it to the front.  I think my granddaughter will like it. 

Envelopes To Match Recent Cards I've Made.

I thought it would be a fun idea to decorate my envelopes, so here are some photos of my recent cards.

 I stamped some of the elements from the card front on the lower front left of the envelopes.  I think it adds a little something to the envelope!

 
This photo shows the lower front left of the envelopes in blue, and the flap on the back of the envelope in green.  Both envelopes have the stars both front and back, in the color that matches the stars on the card front. This was just a little something to make the card special.

I Don't Need a Reason--Another card from the SOA box

Today I used the the Paisley Peacock stamp set from the Perfect Reason Stamp of Approval box for this month.  While I didn't use the Peacock, I definitely used the Paisley!

There were three paisley outlines, and I stamped all of them to cover a 5.5 inch by 4.25 inch piece of white card stock.  I then used my Catherine Pooler inks in Orange Twist, Lime Rickey, Fiesta Blue, Party Dress and Tiara to stamp three different insides for the paisley outlines.  In between the paisley, I stamped little leaves in Grass Skirt and Flirty Fuchsia, and some dots in Party Dress. I attached this to the card base.

I think the card turned out great!  I love bright colors and this one definitely was bright!  I stamped the sentiment " I don't need a reason" on a circle die cut, and used foam tape to attach to the front of the card.  Inside, I stamped "Because of course!".

Worry Less Giggle More from the SOA box

Still making cards from the Perfect Reason Stamp of Approval Box, and haven't even gotten to the Peacock/Paisley stamp set yet.  There are so many different possibilities in this collection!

For this bright and colorful card I started off with a sheet of Recollections card stock from Michael's, a lovely animal print, and die cut an oval from it.  I matted it with black, then cut the oval in half.  I attached it to the upper left card front, and cut off the upper section even with the card front, and attached that piece to the bottom right hand side.

Using black to ink the worry less stamp from the Perfect Reason stamp set, I stamped it more or less in the middle of the card front, then set it off with a couple of flower stamps from the same set.  I used the Catherine Pooler inks in Fiesta Blue and Tiki Torch on the big flowers, stamping it off once before stamping the card front, and using Orange twist and Party Dress for the small flowers.  While I also stamped off once with the small flower, for the center I used the Party Dress full color.

After attaching the card front to the white card base, I was done. 


Sorry about the shadow on the photo, the card front is actually white card stock.

Another card from the SOA Collection

Still playing with my new Perfect Reason Collection.  Using a border design from the Everyday Mod stamp set, I used the Catherine Pooler inks in Rockin' Red, Orange Twist, Tiara, Grass Skirt, and Something Borrowed in a rainbow color scheme across the card front measuring 4 1/8 inches by 5 3/8 inches of white card stock.

I stamped in Midnight Black the Congrats and seriously stamps from the You Did It stamp set on a 2 inch by 4 1/8 inch piece of white card stock, and attached it to the front. This was then attached to the card base with foam tape.  It was finished off with an assortment of colorful sequins scattered across the front fairly randomly.  The inside says I'm so happy for you, also from this stamp set.

It is a bright and colorful card, and makes me happy when I look at it!

SOA Perfect Reason Collection First Cards

My Collection arrived a few days ago, and today I got the chance to play with it.  I decided to start pretty simply, just to get used to the new ink I also ordered from Catherine Pooler.  I wanted to see how well it blended for me, so started off by blending Something Borrowed, Aquatini, Lime Rickey and Grass Skirt diagonally through the Mod Squared Stencil included in the Perfect Reason Collection.

It seemed to blend pretty easily, and looked good when I was done.  I matted it with white card stock I had colored around the edges with Lime Rickey, leaving a small border of 1/8 inch. I then cut it in half diagonally, resulting in a mostly green half, and a mostly blue half.  Attached them to card fronts at an angle, trimming off the overhang, then stamping with a sentiment from the You Did It Stamp Set included in the collection.  Using the stars stamp from the same set, I stamped them in colors matching the stenciled section.  On the inside I stamped You Are Fabulous, from the same set.

I think they turned out pretty nicely, and will make nice graduation cards or will be good to congratulate any one for their success.

Back to blogging

The holidays are over, and hopefully everything else that was keeping me busy for the last few weeks!  I have managed to do a little crocheting, but the card making was a little more difficult to slide into my schedule, but now I'm able to do some!

I've been working on a couple of cards for our card making day. My daughter, daughter-in-law, and I have an Etsy shop where we sell our hand crafted card creations. Once a month or so (skipping November and December), we try to get together to make cards.  We each design 2 cards, and provide the materials for them.  When we get together, we each make one of each of the cards up.  It's a lot of fun seeing what each of us has come up with.

Sometimes we come up with an idea we all try to work with, like a sketch we've found online or in a magazine, sometimes a theme, like birthday or love, and sometimes color ideas.  This month we did a color idea, using a bright pink, aqua blue, white, and light and dark gray. My first card was a Miss You card.  The inside says You make me smile. You can't really tell in this photo, but the hearts have a little Wink of Stella glitter on them, really looks sharp in real life!

We thought it would be cute to add a little decoration to the envelope, too.

Needed a couple of sympathy cards, and found I didn't have any left.  Made several very similar cards, the only difference being the colors.

I cut out the shape with a die, then used distress ink to add some color to the die cut.  Stamped with a tree stamp, then attached to a coordinating background mat, which was then adhered to the white card front.  Besides this blue, I made green and purple. 

Another Crazy card

Here is a Tim Holtz Crazy Dog card, with sentiments by Dylusions.  It was possibly influenced by all the political things going on.  Colored with Copic markers.

Monday cardmaking

Decided to make a couple of cards today to start off the week.

The first card features Tim Holtz's Crazy Cats, with a sentiment from dylusions.  I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I colored the cats with copic markers, and didn't fuss much with the shading. 

After taking the photo I decided it needed another couple of lines to indicate the floor, so I added them.  I think it really added something.

With love at Christmas

One of the challenges for World Card Making Day at The Stamp Nation was to make a card with something to do with weather.  As I've been trying to get my Christmas cards done, I thought a card made with snowflakes would satisfy both requirements.

Thus, my Christmas card, "With love at Christmas"  was created.  The stamps I used are from Simon Says Stamp ( Cute Snowflakes) and the sentiment is from the last Stamp of Approval (Candy Cane Lane--Catherine Pooler Designs).

I embossed the snowflakes with silver embossing powder on some blue card stock, and did the same for the sentiment. The snowflake panel was glued flat to the white card front. I matted the sentiment with white, and attached with foam tape to the snowflake panel.

Fairly simple, but I think it came out pretty well.