Anniversary Card

Hello - out there is Blogger land! I am almost feeling like myself. Just a little cough left but that is pretty much it. I normally do not get sick so having such a bad infection/cold (I suspect that I actually had more then one right after the other) was really hard for me. One of the interesting side-effects of being pregnant, I guess.

On to today's card. My husband and I have an Anniversary tomorrow. This actually isn't our wedding anniversary which is in February, but the anniversary of our first meeting, 14 years ago. We have pretty much been a couple since we met in college so we acknowledge this anniversary. (Really and truly we don't do anything or buy presents but just say Happy Anniversary). I don't normally even make a card but this one was knocking around in my head, since I saw a version of this on Linda aka Oz's blog Wood INK.

I start out with my quarter sheet of cardstock. In this case I am using Neenah Classic Crest Cover in Solar White (80 lbs). This is actually what I have been using for awhile and I have been very happy with it. I can pick it up locally at a paper store and it works out to be about .10 per sheet.

Next, I created two masks using plain printer paper. I used my Fiskars Shape Cutter and the Heart Template also from Fiskars. I was careful not to tear the paper so I would have both a positive and negative heart. I am using the positive image first. I have placed the heart cut out in the center of my cardstock and stamped the French Script background image from Stampin' Up in Frayed Burlap Distress Ink from Ranger.

Once I remove the mask you can see I have a heart shaped void in the center of my card.

Then I used the negative of my mask, so the area around the heart would be protected. I lined up my new mask with my previously created void and stamped Antique Flower Background from Hero Arts in Weathered Wood Distress Ink from Ranger.

Once I stamped the image I wanted to add a little dimension to the heart. I took my Inkssentials Blending Tool with the Weathered Wood Distress Ink and worked that over my heart, keeping the darkest area to the outer edge of the heart. My intention with this is to give the heart more dimension. Once I had the grey as I wanted it I went back over the edges with a very light application of Black Soot Distress Ink.

When using printer paper you have to be very careful not to tear the mask, you can easily do this is you use a bit too much gusto when inking. I use my left had to hold the section where I am working down, so as not to catch the edge of the paper and tear it.

You can see how the Distress Inks give added dimension to the heart. I think that it really pops.

Now I needed to add some color to the script portion of the card. Again I picked up my Inkssentials Blending Tool. I worked in Antique Linen and went all over the script. I did put my mask back over the heart to protect it while I worked close to it. If you like to live dangerously you could probably just risk it, I know that I cannot be trusted. :-)

At this stage I worked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink keeping it to the outer edges, then to Frayed Burlap on the very edge of the card. I really like the contrast between the cool grey heart and the warm paper.

I mounted my card to a piece of Basic Black cardstock and added four brads in a vintage metallic from Making Memories.

My very last step was to add the two birds. I broke out my Silhouette Digital Cutter and cut them in a grey cardstock. These birds are from a dingbat font called Birds of a Feather. Once they were cut out I inked them with Weathered Wood and Black Soot Distress Inks. I mounted them to the card with foam dots. I left this step to the end so I could use my ATG without having to go over bumps. I normally forget that and smoosh the front of my card while trying to lay down adhesive or I end up putting the adhesive on the card base.

Here is the finished card. Thank you, as always for stopping by.

Mahalo - Thank You Card

About two years ago my husband and I took a trip to Maui for a friend's wedding. We had never been to Hawaii before and we loved every minute we spent on the island. This card takes me right back to that special time.

This card was inspired by Bunnie800 over on the Quickutz Community Gallery she made a very similar card using a flower punch. To start I cut my flowers out of white cardstock. There are actually two sizes of flowers. They were then inked with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink. To create the curl to the petals I used a cuticle stick and/or a small dowel to wrap the petals around. (I used the cuticle stick for the small flowers and the dowel for the larger) Once I did that I sprayed them all with Tattered Angels in Pearl and added the pink gems from Hero Arts. Now you can't really tell in the photos but the background paper has a shimmer to it, it is from Brazzil. For my final step I cut out the sentiment using my Silhouette and a font called QK Marisa.

On the flowers, I had a really hard time getting the pink to look like I wanted and I ended up with a strange technique. I tried using a sponge, which made the ink blotchy. Next, I tried my ink blending tool from Inkssentials but that was giving me way too much color and a clear line in the ink. So, what I ended up doing was pouncing my pinkie on the ink pad and picking up ink and then dabbing that in the very center of the flower, then while the ink was still wet I used my ink blending tool to smooth the color outward towards the tips of the petals. Here is a close-up of the soft color. After that just a light spritz of glitter and we were ready to go.

All in all, this is a very simple card. It took me forever to really work out what I wanted and this time I managed to edit myself and go with less. I am thinking that I may have to make this card with yellow flowers. Have a wonderful weekend and thank you for stopping by!

Cards for January 14th

Hello - I hope that everyone had nice New Year's Eve. I haven't been able to post much because I have been fighting a wicked sickness/cold/infection. Since I am pregnant, there aren't a ton of medications that I can take. I am still sick but I have to believe I am on the mend. Anyway, I have a few cards for you today to make up for my absence.

I love the Medallion stamp from Stampin' Up, it is pretty new to me so I haven't used it a ton. I saw a really inspiring card over on Splitcoast Stampers using lime green on black and this is what I came up with for my version.

I started with a black card stock base, just a little something I had lying around. I stamped the Medallion using Versamark and embossed with American Craft's Zing! Embossing Powder in Frost. Next I colored in some of the openings in the image with a white Gelly Roll gel pen. I also added a few silver touches using a silver paint pen.


I then added the Nailhead stickers from Mark Richards. They are red and are in essence the same thing as gems. I was digging around in my box of brads and found the center gem brad, it was just perfect. I am not sure where it came from. Next I added the two ribbons the blue ribbon is a fuzzy velour that came from the dollar bin at Target. I bought it last year right before Valentine's Day. On top of that I adhered a piece of red grosgrain ribbon from Stampin' Up. The two ribbons together were pretty thick and so I used Tombow Aqua Glue and then set a weight on the card while it dried to adhere them to my card. I added the three square brads from Memory Makers for an additional accent. For my last steps I adhered my main element to a piece of Real Red card stock from Stampin' Up and then all of that to a piece of Taken with Teal.




I love Tim Holtz and this card is a direct inspiration from his 2008 Christmas Tags. The paper flowers are an idea that I found on Jennifer McGuire's blog but they originally came from Dawn McVey. There is a great tutorial video here http://dawnmcvey.typepad.com/these_are_a_few_of_my_fav/2010/01/new-raspberry-suite-sneakie-peek.html. I didn't have a vintage book to use for the flowers so I made my own vintage pages.

I started with a piece of vanilla card stock and I painted the whole piece with Adirondack paint in Pitch Black. I let that dry and then stamped the flourish images from Stampers Anonymous and then the French Script from Stampin' Up. All images were embossed with clear embossing powder and the heated. Once that cooled I dabbed on Adirondack paint in Pool and then scrapped it around with a make-up sponge. I let the paint mostly dry and then rubbed off the extra paint with a slightly damp paper towel. This takes the paint right off of the embossed images. Once everything was dry I added a little Distress Ink in Black Soot around the edges. Here is an image with the background by itself.

This image is a little yellow, I am still getting used to the natural light in my new craft area. I mounted this to a teal piece of card stock and then black card stock.

My next element was the swirl, this is a piece of Grungeboard from Ideology. I painted it with Pewter Crackle Paint by Ranger. I put it on pretty thick and as such it look forever to dry. Once it was completely dry I sponged over the element with Distress Ink in Black Soot. I adhered that to my card.

Now on to the flowers, if you have watched the tutorial video you pretty much know how to make these but I am going to walk you through how I did it without the vintage book pages. To begin I cut out eight flowers using my Silhouette Cutter, instead of card stock I used printer paper. Here is a single plain flower.

Next, I stamped La Lettre from Hero Arts in Black Soot Distress Ink. It was at this point that I have both French and English on my card but it works for me. I took French in High School and sometimes I try to pretend that I can still speak French. So I am really speaking some strange hybrid language I call Franglais.



Next, I aged each layer with Distress Ink. For the lighter flower I used Tea Dye and then Vintage Photo on the edges. For the darker flower I used Vintage Photo and then Frayed Burlap on the edges. There is a big difference in aging printer paper versus card stock , you have to be much more careful or you can easily tear the paper.


The next step is to take four layers and place them on top of each other and add an eyelet.


The final step is to squish up the top three layers.

I then added the large element in the center. It is a brad from Making Memories but I snipped off the fasteners and then just glued it on to the center. The fasteners were too big to fit through the eyelet. I really wanted to use a nice button but I don't have any buttons in my craft stash.

Well I guess that isn't exactly true I did have bright pink and lime green but I didn't think that they would have worked with this card. :-)

To finish my card I added a sheer black ribbon from Stampin' Up and three small adhesive pearls. I really worked on this card and made countless changes to it, I think that it paid off in the end.

I have one more card for you but I think I'll save it for tomorrow. Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!

Our Holiday Card

I have been very under the weather this week, since I am pregnant I can't take all the medication that I would normally. I am feeling a bit better today but still not great. So, per usual our holiday cards have gone out a little late. We ended up with two colors because I didn't have enough of the raspberry cardstock.

I started by stamping the deer image in Rich Razzleberry. The deer is from the Basic Grey set Figgy Pudding. My next step was to shadow stamp the image with Going Gray. Of course I forgot to take a photo of that step. It was an overcast day while I was working and I just couldn't get the light bright enough, so sorry about the poor quality.

Next I stamped the background with the Rich Razzelberry. This image is from the same Figgy Pudding set.

I know that it is a little hard to see but this is where I stamped the Going Gray as a shadow.

My next step was to color my crystal elements with Adirondack Alcohol Ink in Currant. This is a great technique.

Here you can see the clear crystals and the Currant colored images. I didn't have any navy colored ink so those stayed clear.

Once I assembled my card I added the clear crystals on the background and the colored crystals on the deer image. While you cannot see it in the photos, I spritzed all the cards with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl.

Here is the Razzleberry card assembled with Silver Cardstock.

Here is the Night of Navy version.

Here they are together. Fairly simply but when you make a lot you have to keep them pretty easy. I forced my husband to help me with assembly process. He loved my ATG 714 which validates my purchase of it. :-)

I finally had a moment to make and post a card!!

I know that I have been slacking off on this blog. In all fairness I have been busy and we got a new puppy and she doesn't give me many free moments.


Here she is "helping" while I made this card. Actually this was the reason that I was able to get anything done today. She has crazy times where you cannot ignore her.


Here is the card for today. I actually dreamt of this card. I love my damask stamps and I think that the shading turned pretty nice.







I was feeling very Fall-ish although it is very cold and Wintery here in Colorado.

I started with a white sheet of cardstock, I use Neenah Classic in Solar White. I cut this sheet to 4x5 1/2 inches.

My next step was to sponge my cardstock with Crushed Curry by Stampin' Up.

I waited for my first layer of ink to dry, it wasn't quiet as dry as I would have liked by I can be a little impatient. I stamped the damask image using Chocolate Chip Craft (Pigment) ink from Stampin' Up and embossed with Chestnut Zing! embossing powder from American Crafts. The stamp is from Technique Tuesday from the Small Damask set.

I then sponged around the edges and over the damask images with Dried Marigold Distress Inks by Ranger.

I then added Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink by Ranger. I went around the edges and over the damask making sure that I left the previous colors.

I came back over the center of the images and lightly over the edges with Chocolate Chip Classic Ink (Dye) by Stampin' Up. I also added Fired Brick Distress Ink by Ranger over the brown. I think that this gave the colors more depth and kept the brown from standing out too much.

I went back over my card with Crushed Curry to blend in all of the colors. I then mounted the background to a quarter sheet of Chocolate Chip cardstock.

To finish off my card I added brown organza ribbon from Creative Impressions. I cut the accent piece using Spellbinders Label 4. I replicated the inking process and added the custom colored brad.

Why the Silhouette Rocks!

I have used my Silhouette Craft Cutter for a few projects that I have posted here but I did something with my machine that I had to share. This machine rules. I can cut any font that I have on my computer and really any shape that I load to it. I love it. Last week The Greeting Farm offered a set of digital stamps inspired by Twilight. They were so cute that I bought them all.




Smooth and even cutting has never been a strength of mine. So I printed out a few of the images and colored them with my Copic markers. They were great until I cut them out. So, I thought that maybe I'd try and load them to my software and see what I could do. So loaded them to the software clicked on Get Outline and choose Select Outer Frame Only and voila - I have now told my machine to cut out the outline. So I can print the image through the software then load that paper to my cutter and voila it cuts out the shape I just printed.




I love layering, I feel that it just gives the imaged more depth and weight. Once I printed the images I went back to my software and selected Offset Shapes. I can choose how much offset (or shadow) I want and just like that I have a layering piece. I was so impressed, I had to share it. :-) Here are the photos of what I am talking about. I am using the Ebony image from The Greeting Farm.

Here she is printed and cut out with the Silhouette.

Here is a close up so you can see how well the machine cut everything out. I know that it isn't perfect but since this was my first time with this process it may be me. Plus my bossy printer keeps asking me to calibrate it. It is still way better than what I could do.

Here is the shadow I cut out.

Here she is with her shadow. I love that you can make it whatever size you want. For this one I went pretty small. This is a great feature for text too.

Here she is with her shadow under her.

I know that this isn't Ebony but I haven't colored her yet. So here is a completed Jeremy. He was colored with Copic Markers. I know that I have said this before but every time I use them I feel like I need more. This time was no different. I have about 20 markers in my online shopping cart, just waiting.

Here is the Ebony that I colored before I found this awesome trick. :-( Now I have to cut her out as neatly as I can, or bribe my Engineer Hubby. Hmmmmm!

Until next time!

A little Halloween Card

Well, I am finally back. I have been so busy with my photography and then travelling to family weddings. It was great to sit down and make this little card.

I started with a quarter sheet of Basic Black cardstock I stamped the flourish image from the Majestic set by American Crafts with Versamark ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. Since it is hard to see the images I stamped one at a time and then poured on the embossing powder but I didn't heat them until they were all done. Since the powder is white until you heat it you can see where the previous images were. I edged it with the EK Success punch and mounted it to Brushed Silver cardstock.

I then cut out the three label shapes using the Spellbinders Label Four set. I stamped the bat from Inkadinkado with Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black. I then embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. I added a silver bellyband and black grosgrain ribbon. I threw the in some black brads and voila we're all done. I have a large collection of metallic brad so I just use embossing powder to color them to match my cards.

I pretty simple but fun card. Of course everything in my house is covered in glitter. Have a Happy Halloween!!