Miscellany

This is another catch up post with an assortment of cards I made over the last few weeks.  One more of these after this and I'll be totally caught up! Woot!

This is really a grab bag of cards here.  First, a baby card for the new baby of one of my cousins:

I was playing with a sketch for a tall vertical card, which is not a format I use very much, but I liked this so I should try it more.  I combined an assortment of papers from an American Crafts "girl baby" themed pad, which is where the sentiment and the die cuts come from as well.  I added a couple of buttons from Jessie James/Michaels to finish it off.

Next, a couple of 10-minute all purpose cards:

Both were based on sketches but I did not keep track of where I found the sketches so I don't have them to add here.  For the top one I layered a piece of Basic Grey Out of Print paper onto plain brown, and then onto an ivory card.  I ran a cream grosgrain ribbon 2/3 of the way across the front, and added a light green ribbon on top.  Then I stamped the greeting (Hampton Arts) on a scrap of ivory cardstock and layered it onto more of the brown, and attached it with foam tape.  A brown button in the corner finishes this off.  This is also part of my long-dormant project to go back and do all the CAS card challenges from the beginning.  This is for the second challenge (you can see how far along I am with this, but there's no time limit!).  The challenge was to use one button on a clean and simple card.

The second card is a simple botanical.  I layered some brown paper with a fabric-like texture to the print (unknown source) onto an ivory card, then added a rectangle of K&Co Edamame paper.  I layered a Sticko/Cathy B sticker on top--the sticker comes pre glittered and everything!  Finished it off with two green buttons along the edge of the brown.

My final card for this post is a Father's Day card:

Does it look a little familiar?  I used the same sketch as this card that I posted a few days ago:

One of the great things about sketches is that you can get such different looks from the same basic structure just by varying stamps, papers and embellishments--and that's before doing things like turning, flipping or reversing the sketch, or changing it in certain details.

The Father's Day card started with some sage green cardstock, on which I stamped an ornamental design (from an All Night Media set) in Versamark watermark ink. I then inked the edges of the card in light and dark brown.  I layered a scrap of green plaid paper onto a slightly wider strip of ivory with the edges also inked.  I punched a circle of ivory card and stamped a handwriting stamp over it (Hero Arts).  I inked the edges and punched a smaller circle from the middle.  My original concept was a sort of belt buckle but the circle slipped off center as I punched it, and I like the result even better!  To finish the card off, I tied some coordinating ribbon scraps around my off kilter circle and attached it with foam tape, then added Sticko typewriter key stickers to spell out "DAD".

I am off work today and anxious to get to my craft stuff and play, so there may be another post later today!  In the meantime, have a great day and thanks for looking at my stuff!

Playing with Wood

I found a bunch of little wood shapes on sale at Michael's for 20 cents and played with them recently.  I kept to a simple card design and decorated the wood pieces.

I have to admit that these are my two least favorites of the cards I made.  I started out painting the trees but couldn't find any paper that matched as I liked, so I covered the tree tops with some designer paper and put it on a card covered with coordinating papers (all papers from s.e.i.).  I finished them with a variegated ribbon.

Happy summer flower.  I painted the flower yellow and punched a circle from a scrap of the red patterned paper for the center.  Layered it with foam tape onto circles of blue and orange, and attached that to a square card covered with denim and dotted paper.  I used a light blue ribbon as the divider here.  The denim paper is from Elizabeth Ann, the red patterned paper is from Recollections, the orange and blue is from Deja Views, and the dotted paper is a scrap of unknown origin.

I like these two the best of the set.  I painted the wood dragonflies light blue and added a scrap of Recollections paper for the body.  I used glitter glue for some shimmer on the wings, which I love, but I think it made the cards a little too foofy to use as Father's Day cards as I had originally planned.  The background papers are all from Basic Grey (Archaic) and the solid colors behind the dragonflies are Bazzill cardstock.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Out of my comfort zone

Today's challenges took me outside my comfort zone.  First, the SCS Friday Free for All challenge was to make a graduation/congratulations card without using caps, diplomas or owls.

I started with some happy pogo-ing sock monkey paper (Daisy D's) and built the card from there.  I was very frustrated because first I couldn't find a stamp set I wanted to use, and second I couldn't find alphabet stamps that I KNOW I have around here...somewhere!  I ended up computer-generating the sentiment, which was okay.  I made a brown scalloped edge for the patterned paper and mounted it on pale blue Bazzill cardstock.  I sponged red ink onto my sentiment panel and mounted it on white cardstock.  I added three bright red brads and mounted it onto the card using foam tape.  Finally I added 3 rhinestone stars along the right edge.  I am still dissatisfied with this card but it will have to do because I want to move on!

Next, I took on the Queen for the Day challenge.  This is similar to the Featured Stamper challenge on Sunday, as it again honors an SCS member by sending card makers to her gallery for inspiration.  She likes a lot of layers, shapes and details on her cards, and her look is often very vintage.  I was not in the mood for fussing a lot over a card today, at least when I started, but the project drew me in and I ended up liking it very much.

Here is Becky's card that inspired me:  Nature Inspired.  And here is my card that I made:

As you can see I kept the same overall color scheme and theme (vintage, nature) but tweaked the design somewhat.  I started with a sage green card base and layered on a rectangle of sky blue Bazzill cardstock.  Onto that I added three strips of designer paper (Recollections, Graphic45) and inked all edges with Colorbox cocoa ink.  It adds a lovely soft brown that complemented the colors of this card beatifully!

I cut an oval out of cream cardstock and inked the edges as well.  I stamped it with leaves (Autumn Leaves) in Adirondack pesto ink.  Then I used a mini flower punch to punch several flowers out of a Basic Grey scrap--if you look close you can see it's the same paper I used for my butterfly card yesterday!  I folded up the edge of the flowers and glued several green seed beads in place for the flower centers.  After they dried I mounted them to the oval with foam tape.  I layered the oval onto a slightly larger sky blue oval.  I added a cream ribbon to the card and layered the oval on with foam tape.  The ribbon and beads came from Dollar Tree.  Finally I punched a butterfly out with my Martha Stewart punch and stamped a flourish on it with the pesto ink (also Autumn Leaves).  I used some more seed beads to make the butterfly's body and used a dimensional to mount it to the card.  The last touch was gluing on 2 bugle beads as the butterfly's antennae.

I like a card that presents a series of problems to solve one by one and makes me think a little to figure it all out, but doesn't frustrate me by not working out.  This is one of those cards--more work than one of my quick and easy cards, but I think the results were worth the effort.

Thanks for looking, and have a great weekend!

Productive!

I have had a busy couple of days and have been pretty happy with the cards I've made!

This card was for today's Ways to Use It challenge on Splitcoast Stampers.  The challenge is "Let's Get Negative," and the idea was to use the negative left behind after using a die cutter or punch to cut out a shape.  I used my Martha Stewart butterfly punch to punch three butterflies from a piece of green Authentique paper and backed it with a strip of a printed paper from Basic Grey's Out of Print collection.  To get a little more contrast between the layers I outlined the butterfly shapes with a black Sharpie.  I held the Sharpie so it was just touching the paper and let the natural small tremors in my hand make the line skip and stutter to make faux stitching.  I attached both strips to a 3"x6" kraft card and created the greeting from DCWV letter stickers.

This was from last week's Ways to Use it Challenge, which was simply to make a card using green in the design.  I recently got a great card making resource, Card Sketches for Paper Crafters, and this is based on one of the sketches.  I simply dug through my scraps for anything green, used a circle punch punch out circles, and then played with the arrangement til I had the colors and designs I liked.  I cut another scrap into the banner shape and backed it with solid brown paper for contrast, and stamped the sentiment (Stampendous) onto it.  I added an antique gold brad and attached the banner with foam tape.  This card is a great way to use up scraps, and depending on the color combinations and sentiments, can be used for all sorts of occasions!

This is for another challenge from Splitcoast, last Friday's Free for All challenge, which called for using hot pink.  I don't have a whole lot of hot pink papers in my collection, but I did have a lovely multi colored one with these paisley shaped color splashes which I had never used because it is so busy, I wasn't sure what to do with it.  I decided to fussy cut a section out of it and attach it to a white card for contrast.  I added a Me and My Big Ideas dimensional flower sticker in complementary shades.  Not sure if the flower is exploding off colors, or streaming them behind like a comet.  It's a little weird, but I like it.  I thought the exuberant look of the "Celebrate!" stamp went well with the card, so I stamped it in orange.

This one is a ridiculously simple card, I am almost embarrassed to post it here.  It came about for Splitcoast's Tuesday color challenge, that called for a green/pink/brown combination, and I had just been fiddling around with some K&Co. die cuts and border stickers that I had gotten on clearance.  Since the colors worked, I combined them into a quick card using another sketch from my new book.  I used a white card as the base and layered on some brown, that I sanded on the edges and outlined with distress ink in walnut brown.  I also added some distress ink at the edge of the card.  I placed the border sticker on the brown paper and used foam dimensionals to pop up the bird die cut and the heart, which I had stamped in the walnut distress ink with the sentiment from A Muse Art Stamps.  Not only did this fit the color challenge, but it also works for both of Monday's challenges this week, Try a New Technique (distressing) and Clean And Simple (love themed card).  I was a little disappointed that the sanding distressing isn't more visible and I would probably try to do some more distressing if I had it to do over again, but I think it turned out okay.

Here is a bright happy birthday card I made using just Basic Grey papers and stickers from the Cupcake collection, which I bought a bunch of when it came out a few years ago.  I love it for birthday cards because it is so bright and festive.  I used a design from another recently purchased book, 175 Fresh Card Ideas by Kimber McGray.  The blue loopy border and the two presents are stickers from Basic Grey, the "It's my party" sticker is from Sticko.  The star brads are from Joann's.

Another birthday card.  Have you noticed that I am a little obsessed with orange lately?  It is just such a happy summery color, and it goes so well with aqua or sky or turquoise blue, which are also favorites of mine.  Here I used papers from Recollections Mosaic Memories pad for the background and orange strip.  The light blue solid cardstock is Bazzill so it has a nice subtle texture to it.  I used that to back the orange strip as well as the circle birthday greeting, and used light brown ink to set off the edges of both.  The circle and cake are from Stupendous! and since they are clear positionable stamps, you can change out the circle edges and the images in the centers of the circles, which makes for nice variety.  I finished off the card with some half pearls, which I had been coveting for a while but always found the stick-on ones at Michael's too expensive, and not enough in the colors and shapes I wanted.  I found an Etsy seller selling them in bags of 100 for the price of one sheet of stickers.  I have to use my own glue but it's worth it!

Another Father's Day card, this one made for the Featured stamper challenge on Splitcoast.  Each week one member is designated as the featured stamper, and we choose cards from her gallery to inspire cards of our own.  My card was inspired by this card by this week's Featured stamper, Susan Bridgman (Susanbri).  By changing the color scheme to more masculine colors I was able to make this a Father's Day card, though I kept the basic layout including the shape of the squares, the centered greeting, and the embossed edges.  To make the center element I punched a circle out of a scrap of designer paper (both papers on this card are more from the Mosaic Memories pad) and stamped the sentiment on it.  I layered it onto a white metal-edged tag from Staples, and mounted it with foam tape.  I used my new Martha Stewart scoring board for the edges and finished it all off with some navy blue eyelets in the corners.

This card was for two challenges:  the monthly Christmas card challenge and another card for the Featured Stamper challenge.  I made four of this card to fulfill half of my monthly goal of 8 Christmas/holiday cards.  I used this card by Susan as an inspiration, but the size of the image I was working with determined various changes that ended up wandering pretty far from Susan's original.  I finally got to use this gorgeous Christmas image from a set by Inkadinkado, which I stamped in red onto cream cardstock.  That was layered onto dark green plaid, which was layered with foam tape onto the front of the cream card, that I had covered with dark red plaid paper.  I ran a metallic gold ribbon across the bottom and stamped the sentiment (JudiKins) on another cream scrap, added green backing paper and a bit of foam tape to pop it up as well.  I kept the "doodads" to a minimum to make this a good card for mailing.

One last card, made last week:

This is my other card for the monthly goal, as I also made four of this one.  It was inspired by a torn tree design in a Cards magazine back issue.  I again used a cream card base and more paper from my ProvoCraft Christmas slab.  I layered red and dark green plaids onto the cream card, then tore a triangular tree shape from a different plaid paper.  I decorated the tree with various Christmas colored buttons, and stamped the sentiment (Studio G) in dark green ink onto a metal edged tag.  The tag is attached to the card with small gold brad (Making Memories).

Whew!  That was a lot of cards!  I still have a backlog of cards to load up and will try to do so this week.  But for now, I think I want to make a few more before I have to start preparing for my return to work tonight.

Have a great day, and thanks for looking!