Monday, November 16, 2009

Sunflower

Today was so warm here in New England it reminded me of a day where sunflowers were still in bloom. Since it's mid November, nothing is in bloom here, but we still enjoy a sunny day regardless.

This card uses an old (and borrowed) image my friend let me use. I colored these babies in using summer sun marker and kiwi kiss for the stems/leaves using the blender pen. The card stock is from a retired DSP of kiwi kiss and i added a twine ribbon around the edge to complete the rustic, yet simplistic card. The inside sentiment could say anything really. I think I'll leave it blank for an unknown occassion.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Christmas Dove


I have been playing with some blue themed christmas cards this weekend. I happened upon a card I made at a stampin up meet up last year that I loved. It used the home scene of the 'to you and yours' stamp and had a great layering technique that took DSP and put 1/2 the layer in DSP and the other 1/2 something neutral. I decided to try that with the dove image and my Christmas Cocoa DSP. Here is what I came up with. I had fun spritzing some shimmer paint/alcohol solution on the dove after embossing him with some irredescent ice. The photo probably doesn't do it justice because these subtle glimmer techniques are best seen in person.

Now my dilemna is that I have made about 5 cards and am out of bordering blue. I may sneak in a small order to get some more because I love this card. I also need some stampin dimensionals and the stuff they sell at the discount craft stores just isn't as nice. But then the dilemna is 'well since I'm placing an order, how about some of that wide ribbon in old olive? and if I'm getting bordering blue paper - why not getting a bordering blue stamp pad (and not use up all the ink in my little spot.) I'm sure anyone reading this blog will understand the way these 3.00-5.00 items just creep up on you! the next thing you know you have a $45.00 order and you just needed some bordering blue card stock! I have such a hard time staying on budget for stamping supplies - well anything for that matter - but especially stamping supplies. Maybe I'll move on to another design that uses red and green. I have plenty of those colors!!!

so, the recipe for this card is:
Stamp sets: To you and yours, teeny tiny wishes
Accessories: Jumbo eyelet (silver), Frosty White Shimmer paint, irredescent ice emboss powder
Ink: Versamark (pen), Bordering blue
Paper: Christmas Cocoa DSP, Kraft, Bordering Blue, Carson Manga Paper
Ribbon: Kraft, wide organza white, narrow organza blue

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Fall Card - bloggers challenge

Hello. Here in New England we have a rainy & dreary fall day so it's a perfect day to do laundry and housework, but an even better day to STAMP. I'll hopefully do a little of both. This weeks bloggers challenge was a fall card so I knew right away I wanted to use my Autumn Days stamp set and some of the in-colors. This card uses Inspired by Nature - a favorite stamp set that my friend owns and I borrow often. I did the grass in a mix of colors using my markers. I stamped the image initially in kiwi kiss and then used soft suede and crushed curry to streak in some extra color. The pheasant is stamped in soft suede and cut out. The 'give thanks' saying is also borrowed from my friends set and stamped in crushed curry, then layered on a thin layer of soft suede, a larger layer of textured crushed curry and then raised up over the corner punched kiwi. I added a brad to give even more accent to the message. The card is made with Very Vanilla.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

You make me smile

Here is a card I made for my nieces birthday but then decided to give her another card. ah well, at least she got a card. If you are like me you have big plans to make a card and then nothing goes out. The recipe for this one is:
Stamp Set: Window Dressing
Ink: Sahara Sand, Cameo Coral
Card Stock: Sahara Sand, Cameo Coral, Whisper White, Blissful Blue DSP
Accessories: Blissful Blue Taffeta Ribbon



Saturday, November 7, 2009

Bloggers Challenge - Technique - Embossing


So Friday's challenge was 'technique.' It didn't say it had to be a new technique, which is good because I'm not very good at new things on short notice. So I decided to use a technique that I use occassionally but not often and that is embossing. I love the look of embossing - especially clear embossing, but it is a lot of extra work so I don't do it often.

This is one of my three Christmas cards. I had posted a different version of this stamp/card earlier in the week and didn't love it. I like this card more - it's just a little more 'me.' So, I hope you enjoy and please give me feedback. If you have a suggestion to make it better - let me know. In a few weeks I plan to make at least 10 of these and I'm open to ideas.

The recipe for this card is as follows:

Card Stock: Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Real Red
Ink: Versafine (oil based black ink), versamark clear
Technique: Embossing
Accessories: Copic Markers, Shimmer Paint, Alpine ribbon, Large Gold Eyelet.
Stamp Set: Holy Triptych, City of David

I colored in the image with various Copic Markers and then did the star, Mary's halo & Jesus's halo with an extra layer of shimmer ink in Champagne. The saying is done in clear embossing. Oh and I tore the old olive paper on one side.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Two birthday cards

Here are two birthday cards I made today. The one with the colored cupcakes that is angled is the card I made for my 8 year old niece. She is a cutie pie, but quite precocious. My sister tells me she reads at a 4th grade level, but that is sometimes hard since she's only 8. For her birthday I got her the 'little house on the prairie' book series. It is designed for 9-12 year old readers but I know the content won't be too old for her - well compared to some other 4th grade books she could be reading. I hope she hasn't already read them!!! Anyway, I had made two of the cupcake images so I decided to make the other one for a more adult person. I kind of like the adult one - the red and brown make a great color combination. I used the shimmer paint for the cupcakes and then used the glue to make the cherries pop with a glossy raised finish.
The recipe is:
Card Stock Chocolate chip, whisper white, pretty in pink, read red, real red DSP.
Ink: chocolate chip, real red
Accessories: White embossing powder (for hope your day is sweetest ever.) and the glue for the cherries.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Whimsical/Cute christmas


So here is my second take at my whimsical/cute Christmas card. This is pure Rubadultery - a term my friend told me to describe stamping and card making with non-stamping up products. I do feel naughty, but I like it. The biggest issue with rubadultery is the cost. When you stay in the stampin up line - everything coordinates. As soon as I venture off (like I did with this Stampavie image) I need new papers (better paper to handle marker ink), new markets (better quality markers like copic) and of course MORE STAMP's. and the joke is the other stamps are so darn cheap, that it hardly feels like spending money - that is till you see your paypal bills and see that when you get three $5.00 stamps - that's $15.00 that you could have spent on Stampin up stuff. Ah well.

So, here is my second attempt at this card. The first time around I used Soft Suede, which I liked with the Christmas DSP, but the bear done in soft suede is just too dark. So this guy I did in creamy caramel and I kind of like him. You can't see it well in this photo, but the hat trim and pom-pom were done with the new shimmer paint and it has a nice look. You may be able to see the Christmas message in the upper left (from the teeny tiny messages) and the clear button with twine bow. The only real debate now is the bird. I had wanted to do him red - like a cardinal, but both my husband and son liked him better in blue. So now I need to find the perfect blue - is it bordering blue? Ballet Blue? Bashful blue? Oh and the birds belly is with shimmer white ink also. Let me know your ideas. I won't start making this card in bulk until later this month. Now I'm still in trial and error mode to get the 'perfect' design.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Playing with some Christmas Card Designs


This weekend I started playing around with some Christmas card designs. My plan is to come up with 3 original designs and make about 10 cards from each. One design is going to be whimsical and fun - maybe even youthful. Another design will probably be using a nature theme - simple and elegant and the most important design will be one celebrating Christ's birth - the real meaning behind Christmas.

So tonight I have a sample of the faith card. I was playing with a borrowed stamp set Holy Triptych. The image is stamped on vellum and then colored in on the reverse side. Then the vellum got mounted on white and then Soft Suede. Then that is mounted on a shimmery white and the message is from an old retired set 'city of david' but I like how it matched the mood of the card.

The red is (of course) real red and the DSP is from the Christmas Cocoa DSP from the mini-catalog. I'll probably continue to tweak it. I'll post other attempts to refine it on the site.

Thanks for looking!