Celery Pool Party Delight

This week's color challenge was to use the colors Celery, Pool Party, and Daffodil Delight.  Since I don't have official Stampin' Up cardstock and papers, this translates to medium green, light blue and yellow.  I thought the theme lent itself well to a baby card, and came up with this:

I started with a sage green card base and layered papers from a baby-themed American Craft pad.  I cut out a circle (my sophisticated circle cutter: take card-in-progress to kitchen and try various bowls and containers face down on it til I find the right sized circle shape, then trace the edge of that container on my designer paper and cut out with scissors!).  I attached the circle shape to the card.  I inked the edges of the card and each layer of paper with light green ink before gluing them in place.

I cut a strip of light blue cardstock and inked the edges, then stamped the sentiment (Stampin' Up Mini Mates) in the same ink.  I attached the strip to the card and ran a yellow sheer ribbon under it.  I took a metal circle tag and put a light blue brad in the hole, and added a sheep sticker that matched my colors perfectly.  I finished off with a button in each of the three colors.  It doesn't exactly match the colors of the theme for the day, but it is a reasonable approximation.

I wanted to make another card with the same colors, so I turned to my scraps collection and came up with this:

I chose various scraps in coordinating colors, mostly from the Recollections and Basic Grey Archaic lines.  I punched out circles in three sizes, inked the edges with dark olive ink and played with them on the card until I had an arrangement I liked, and attached them.  For the centerpiece I made a paper rosette and attached it, topping it with another button.  I stamped the greeting (Stampin' Up Wow Flowers) on a scrap of sage green paper and snipped it out, planning to use the corner rounder on it.  But when it fell onto the card I liked the contrast of the angles and circles, so I left it as is.  What do you think?

Thanks for looking, and have a great weekend!

A Banner Day

I am taking a break from the massive catch up posting, so will spread the last few days' cards over a couple of entries, along with (hopefully) the daily cards I continue to make.

Before I do today's cards, though, I want to note one milestone:  I have passed 1000 pageviews!  Since I do relatively little to promote this blog, I am very excited about this.  I started the blog basically as a way to keep track of my goal, and to have something to show for it when I finish the year.

Today's cards are for the Thursday Ways to Use It challenge at Splitcoast Stampers.  The theme for today is banners.

I actually made this card several days ago, so I didn't officially submit it for the challenge.  It is based on a sketch in my new Sketches for Papercrafters book, which has been very inspiring.  For this card, I made a 5"x5" card from white cardstock, then cut one-inch strips of designer paper (all from Basic Grey Cupcake collection) and trimmed them into banners.  I attached them to the card and decorated each with a coordinating button.  I layered an aqua blue ribbon onto a cream colored one across the top of the card, and attached a layered flower (Michael's dollar bins!) with an aqua button center.  Finally I stamped the greeting (Studio G--Michael's dollar bins again!) in orange ink at the bottom.

For today's challenge, I CASEd my own card and made a Father's Day version:

This time I used coordinating papers from Authentique (Loyalty line) and left out the flower!  The sentiment is from Stampendous.

Making this card left me with a strip of 3.5" x 11" cream cardstock, and 2" strips of each of the banner pieces, so I decided to make a coordinating gift card holder:

(The colors of both came out truer in this photo, by the way.)  I cut the strip of paper down to 10", to make a 5" card when folded, so that 5 1-inch squares would fit perfectly across.  I cut the 2" strips into 1" squares and played with them til I had a good pattern.  I had to cheat a little and use the flip sides of the double-sided paper so there are a couple of pieces that don't show in the original design.  I measured the center of the card and drew light pencil guidelines 1" to each side, then added strips of roll-on adhesive and attached my squares, keeping the line straight and even.  I stamped the greeting, this time in denim blue, and finished off with ribbon and buttons that match the big card.

Finally, one more birthday banner card:

This is a variation on the card I recently made for my brother's birthday, again using the Basic Grey Cupcake papers, both because I am ready to use them up, and because they are so perfect for birthday cards!

I made this card on kraft cardstock and punched the right edge of the card front into a scalloped border, then punched a scrap of paper with the same punch and lined it up on top.  I added a wide strip of the red swirl paper and a yellow ribbon between.  To make the cupcake I again used my Dollar Tree stencil set and cut out a wrapper piece and the icing.  I attached the wrapper to the card.  Then I used the banner stencil that was part of the set to make the "happy birthday" banner.  I had to adjust it to be a little longer, then cut it out and stamped the sentiment (A Muse Art Stamps) on it.  I should mention that I made it on a folded piece of paper, so that I could put a line of glue down the fold and wrap it around a toothpick.  When it was dry, I made a small slit in the icing piece and put the banner toothpick through it.  I added foam tape to the back to hold it in place, then several more pieces to give dimension to the icing.  To make the cupcake stand out a little, I lined the edges with a black thin Sharpie.

So that was my banner day!  I hope you have a banner day as well, and thanks for looking!

Birthday Cards

One last massive catch up post from cards made in previous weeks, then a post to catch up the last two days' production, and I will be really, truly caught up.  YOWZA!

I've been in a birthday card making mood so this post features birthday cards I have made in the last couple of weeks, starting with two I made for family members.

My sister's birthday was way back on May 1st, and I made this card for her:

I can't remember exactly where I found this design but I was using a card from a magazine as a sketch.  I used a bunch of scraps from my Basic Grey Cupcake papers, still my go-to for birthday cards.  I covered a white card with the orange background paper and lightly drew a line like faux stitching around the edge, then added the strips of various papers and outlined them too.  Then I inked up the largest flower from Petal Pizzazz (Stampin' Up) by inking it first in orange and then dragging each edge through the red pad to give it a two tone look.  If you are doing this, remember to do the light color first and then the darker color because it is less likely to muddy up the inkpad.

After stamping the flower I cut it out and mounted it with foam tape.  Then I stamped the small round Happy Birthday stamp from Wow Flowers (also Stampin' Up) and used a circle punch to punch it out, and mounted it on foam tape at the center of the flower.

My brother Mike's birthday was May 4, and this was his card:

This card took a while longer.  I had some various red and blue papers (unknown source) that all seemed to go together nicely.  I started by layering the striped piece on a white card, and adding a strip of red dotted paper across it.  To make the cupcake, I traced a cupcake wrapper stencil on the same paper and cut it out, then traced the stencil for the icing on a coordinating blue scrap and cut it.  I glued them together and punched a small red circle out of a scrap for a cherry.  I attached the cupcake pieces to a rectangle of white cardstock, and used a dimensional dot to add the cherry.  Then I stamped the greeting (Stampendous) under the cupcake.  I colored all the edges with a red inkpad, and layered it on a piece of red and white patterned paper that coordinated well.  I am getting more comfortable with adding pattern to pattern without separating them with solids!  The cherry was a little blah, so I added some glitter glue to it.

While that dried, I made homemade "baker's twine" with plain twine and a red sharpie. I have a large clear plastic quilting ruler that is about 6" across.  I covered it with saran wrap to keep it clean, then wrapped plain twine around the ruler nice and tight for about 15-20 loops.  Then I drew stripes across the lined up twine using the red sharpie.  I did one side, then flipped the ruler and did the other.  When I unwound it, I had my own "baker's twine"!  I still want the real thing, but this will do til I get some!  I wound the twine around the focal piece a few times and tied it off in a simple bow.  Then I mounted the layered pieces onto the rest of the card.

The other birthday cards are just cards for my stash at this point, none of them have found a home yet.

I made these two cards while playing with a set of retired Stampin' Up stamps (Alphabet Soup).  I like these because the words become the main image and all I have to do is add some papers and embellish!  On the first card, I was trying a new technique for the Monday challenge where you are supposed to dry emboss a pattern onto paper (using a Cuttlebug, Sizzix, etc.) and then ink the reverse side, producing a negative where the parts that are popped up on the front side are white and stand out from the inked part.  Not having a machine, I took some embossed designer paper that I have, where the front is covered with embossed stars, and cut a strip off and tried inking it up.  I think the embossing is a little shallower than you get with the Sizzix, etc. because there wasn't much contrast.  But I decided to still use it on a card.

I covered a card with denim designer paper from Elizabeth Ann, then added the star embossed strip across it.  I stamped the sentiment in denim blue Adirondack ink on a white square, and layered it onto a scrap of green denim paper.  I attached that and a diecut from K&Co using foam tape, and was done!

The other card was made for the Tuesday color challenge that week, which was to use orange, light blue and navy blue on a card.  Since I lovelovelove orange and blue combinations, this was right in my wheelhouse!  I made the base card from light blue Bazzill cardstock and layered on a sheet of faux ledger paper that had orange lines on it, then layered two contrasting pieces together into a stripe.  I cut a square from another piece of plain orange paper and used that to highlight the white cardstock on which I had stamped the sentiment.  Then I layered that on a delicious bit of orange and blue patterned paper.  All the papers are from the Recollections Mosaic Memories pad.

I wanted to finish off with a line of orange flowers but did not have any orange flowers in my assortment of deconstructed dollar store flower sprays.  But I did have some white ones of the right size, and an orange inkpad, so I very quickly dyed them orange by pressing them on the pad.  The only hitch is that they took a long time to dry so I had orange fingers from checking them too often.  I finally had to leave them overnight.  The next day I attached them to the card with black brads and it was finally finished.

 This was from a challenge to use vellum on a card.  I took some lightweight white vellum and stamped a flower from the Stampin Up Petal Pizzazz set in orange and pink ink.  Then I took a stylus and outlined the white sections of each image, presseing down on it to make it pop up on the reverse side (use a piece of fun foam or an old mouse pad underneath to cushion the paper while you trace).  To make the card I took a plain white card and embossed a simple frame by tracing a line around it using my Martha Stewart scoring board.  Then I used a scrap of designer paper to make a "vase" and attached the vellum flowers with brads, and finished the card off by stamping the sentiment (A Muse Stamps) in the lower right corner.  I really like how this card turned out!

Finally, two quick and easy cards, that work either for birthday, graduation, or general congratulations.  I layered the red graphic design paper onto a white card, then cut another scrap of the denim paper from the card above to fit.  I used pinking paper edgers to cut the edge and attached it over the red.  I stamped the star image using a foam chunky stamp and denim Adirondack ink, and cut it out.  I stamped the sentiment (Denami Designs) in Frost White Colorbox ink, and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  Then I mounted the star image on foam tape, and finished it off with a button in the center of the star.

Here's is another variation using the same stamp:

For this card I layered designer paper (unknown source) onto a light blue card.  There was a bit that said "Rock Star" so I cut out the "Rock" and layered it onto a scrap of the blue cardstock.  Then I stamped the chunky foam star in yellow ink and cut it out, then covered the star with clear glitter glue and let it dry.  To make the letter I stamped the letter "U" from a set of alphabet foam stamps on the back of a piece of sky blue glitter paper and cut it out (this trick only works on letters that don't have a backwards and forwards, since you are cutting it from the reverse side).  I glued the letter in the middle of the star and added the "Rock" piece next to it. 

Whew!  Tomorrow I will catch up on all the cards I made yesterday and today!

Have a great day, and thanks for looking!

Today So Far...

As promised/threatened, here is another post for today.  I want to show off the two cards I have made so far today!  I'm pretty pleased with both.

First is a card I made to undertake two different Monday challenges: the Clean and Simple challenge, which called for using letters in our cards; and the Try a New Technique challenge.  The Try a New Technique challenge had an option of doing two different things, picking one or the other or using both.  I picked "the other."  This is the "see through image"--basically an image is stamped and then a shape is cut out around it so that the stamped image touches the sides of the frame but the rest is cut away.  I chose to use the combined challenges to make my second Christmas/holiday card for June:

I started with a plain white card and cut a piece of Fancy Pants designer paper to fit, leaving a 1/8" or so border.  I found a square stamp in my collection with a wood mount the right size to make a window around my image and traced it in light pencil, then stamped the ornaments image (Imaginisce) in light green ink.  Next I took my Xacto knife and cut out the square, going around the ornaments so that they "hang" from the top edge.  I cut a square of light green paper just a bit larger than the window and attached it to the white card, then used foam tape to mount the pink designer paper on top of it.  I added the letter stickers to spell out "joy" at the bottom.  Finally I decided that it was a little plain even for a clean and simple card, so I outlined the window with silver glitter glue, and decorated the ornaments with stick-on rhinestones (Martha Stewart).  I am so happy to be playing with some less traditional Christmas colors for a bit!

I also tackled this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

I was going through my scrap boxes to decide on papers to use--I knew I wanted a really vibrant mix of patterns for this card, and once again I found myself drawn to my current obsession, turquoise blue and orange.  I picked out some partially used sheets and found some embellishments to go with, and got to work.  Here is the finished project:

I stuck to the sketch pretty closely.  Again I started with a white card and covered it with some background paper.  I inked the edges using Colorbox cocoa.  I decided to use black under the layering pieces so that I could pile on patterns and have them set off from each other.  When I cut the black pieces out I made them a little bit long on the bottom side, and punched the bottom edge with my Fiskars "threading water" border punch.  I attached the longer layer first and then added the square layer with foam tape.

I read an interview today in a Cards magazine back issue from last June, and the artist interviewed (Michelle Phillipi) said something that was still rumbling around my head as I worked--she said she comes from the "more is more" school of thought on layers and embellishments, and one of her tips is to add embellishments to embellishments, so I tried that here.  For the focal image I layered a paper flower on the bottom, then stacked a turquoise felt flower, and a smaller paper flower (all paper flowers by Studio 18, in the dollar bins at Michaels; the felt flower and rhinestone flower are from a Chatterbox Artsylicious set).  At this point I put a brad through them to hold them together, and then glued the rhinestone flower to the top of the brad with a glue dot.  I used a couple more glue dots to attach the flower to the card.  Then I added some orange ribbon across the top and covered the knot with the smallest of the paper flowers and layered an orange button and a turquoise blue pearl bead.  Sometimes more is more!  I normally would have stopped with the brad on the big flower and the button on the small flower but adding one more thing made it look better, I have to agree with Michelle!

Thanks for looking, enjoy the rest of your day!