Thinking of you

There were some constellation type stars in the kit (stamped in Chipped Sapphire), so I used two of them, plus a few smaller solid star stamps (stamped in Festive Berries), along with the sentiment thinking of you stamped in Momento Tuxedo Black. I matted it in the dark blue card stock included, and attached with foam tape to the striped paper I used for the card front.  Another card that can be sent to either man or woman.

Masculine Card

I received the Simon Says Stamp August kit several weeks ago, and finally decided to make some cards from it.  I started with a  thinking of you card, and wanted it to be suitable for either a man or woman.
I used one of my pre-made card bases (I make a bunch at a time out of heavy white card stock from Michael's).  Using the kraft card stock from the kit, I blended the chipped sapphire distress ink over it.  There were several different resist designs included on the card stock that came with the kit, but the distressed looking dots were the one I chose.
I cut it out at 2.25 X 4.25 inches, and then matted it with the red card stock from the kit cut to 2.75 X 4.75.
Using the "thinking of" and the dots and stars stamps, I stamped them in the chipped sapphire.  I used the festive berries distress ink to stamp the word you on a 1.75 X 3 inch scrap of white card stock, and then matted it in the same red ( cut 2.25 X 3.5 inches) I matted the kraft card in.
The kraft unit was glued directly to the card base, while the sentiment was attached with foam tape for a little dimension.

 

It still looks a little plain to me, so I will be adding some enamel dots in red and blue as soon as I find them again.  

July 2016 Stamp of Approval box arrived!

My SOA Lovely Notes arrived yesterday, and I made a few cards.  I love the Concentric Circles die!
And the stamps are pretty neat, too.


I started out by using some Distress Inks in a rainbow pattern on some white card stock, then cut out the Concentric Circles.  For my first card I centered the rainbow die cut on a 4 x 5.25 inch piece of black card stock, then attached to the front of my card base.  Using a scrap strip of black card stock, I wrote with a white Signo pen my sentiment.  After rounding the corners, I used dimensional tape to give it some height.  I am really pleased with this card.

 
I also cut out the die on a piece of black card stock. I heat embossed in white my sentiment on the black die cut.  I attached the leftover piece of rainbow card stock to the front of my card base, then inserted the black die cut in the opening.  I then attached all the leftover rainbow pieces in the appropriate places in the black die cut.  A little time consuming, but not hard to do.  And I think the card turned out pretty nice!

For my third card I blended some Distress Inks on white card stock, then cut out as panel using the outline die that comes with the Concentric Circles die.  I stamped it using the Fill in the Blanks stamp in black.  After cutting a 4.25 x 5.5 inches rectangle from black card stock, I attached it to the front of my card, then centered the stamped piece and attached that.  I used the included word stamps to personalize it for my son-in-law, whose birthday is in a few weeks.  I think it turned out pretty masculine looking, although maybe a little bright.  But then again, I really like bright.

My last card for today was the leftover frame from cutting out another of the Concentric Circles.  Unfortunately, the circles did not make it out of the die in one piece (my fault, not the die's, I was rushing).  After attaching the frame to the front of the card, I stamped several sprays of leaves from the Lovely Notes stamps on the left side of the opening. I also stamped the sentiment in black on the right hand side of the opening. I stamped and die cut several of the large flowers, and a couple of the branches of leaves, and attached them to the left side of the card, using dimensional tape on a couple of them (and very handily covered up someone's black fingerprint).

I'm not sure why the yellow flowers seem so dull, in real life they are bright and really pop!





I'm really loving this kit!  I will be making more cards over the next couple of weeks from it!

Online Card Class--Watercolor Day 3 Watercolor Pencils

I didn't get a chance to watch the Day 2 videos until last night, so didn't do any water coloring yesterday.  Today, the Day 3 videos were available, so I watched them this morning.  As I had just received my Derwent Inktense ink pencils, I was eager to try them out, so I skipped the pan water colors for today.  I'll be trying some of the techniques out for that tomorrow.

I had this idea to emboss some watercolor paper with a butterfly folder I had on hand by Darice, and then color in the design with the pencils before spritzing it with a light mist of water. 

As it turned out, some of the colors bled into the background a little, and I had to use a brush to aid in the blending I had imagined.

I also wasn't happy with the blending on the largest butterfly, so I added a little more color and used water on a brush to blend it.  All in all, after it dried I liked how it turned out.

I stamped a Thinking of You Sentiment from My Sentiments Exactly in Hero Arts Pool ink in the upper corner, matted it on avocado green card stock, and used foam tape to attach it to a cream colored card base.

It was pretty obvious to me that I need to practice quite a bit on my coloring with the pencils, as I don't seem to be using consistent pressure, causing some places to be darker than others.

I'll be doing some Day 2 cards with pan watercolors shortly, and probably some more watercolor pencil cards.

Another card from Day One

This was made from the second watercolor strips card I made on the first day of class, and I was hoping it would turn out a lot better than the first one I'd done, as I was using a better watercolor paper.  However, I couldn't really see all that much difference, and so I was a little disappointed.









Looking at it, I thought I'd cut it down into a circle and stamp a flower on it.  Using the Simon Says Stamp largest Stitched Circles die, I cut out a nicely colored section of the strips.  I then used Onyx Black VersaFine Ink to stamp the flower stamp on the circle.  I attached it to the center of a white A2 card base.

When I stamped the Thinking of You I tried to curve it a little to match the curve at the bottom of the circle die cut, without being too obvious about it.  I think it turned out pretty well.

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!