Button Anniversary

Inspiration

Here's a whimsical anniversary card I made last fall for a few anniversaries that I never had a chance to post. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

Note: Finished card size: 5" x 7"

Paper

Garden Green (SU!)	7" x 10", and 3 1/2" x 3 1/2"
Crystal Blue (CTMH)	4" x 5 1/2"
Cafe Mediterranean designer paper(DCWV)	3 3/4" x 5"
Very Vanilla (SU!)	3 1/4" x 3 1/4"

Stamps

Flowers (Inkadinkado)

Happy Anniversary (Annette Allen Watkins)

Ink

Basic Black (SU!)

Garden Green (SU!)

Marina Mist (SU!)

Accessories

Label 1 Nestabilities (Spellbinders)

Grand Calibur (Spellbinders)

Corner Rounder punch (Fiskars)

Buttons (SU!)

Embroidery floss

Needle

Raffia

Watercolor brush

3-D Foam Squares (Scrapbook Adhesives)

Clear tape (3M)

ATG (3M)

Scor-Pal

Scissors

Rotary Trimmer (Fiskars)

Instructions

BASE CARD

Cut a piece of green card stock measuring 7" x 10", score at 5" and fold. Use the corner rounder punch to round the two outer corners.

MAT LAYERS

Cut a mat of blue card stock measuring 4" x 5 1/2" and mount at the top center of the card front. Cut a mat of designer paper measuring 3 3/4" x 5" and mount on the blue mat.

SENTIMENT

Stamp the sentiment in green ink below the mat layer.

IMAGE

Cut a label 1 die cut from vanilla card stock, and stamp the flower image in black ink on the die cut. Use a watercolor brush to color the flowers and leaves using ink from ink pads. Use a needle and embroidery floss, attach the buttons to the image, fixing the floss on the back with tape. Wrap a piece of orange raffia around the bottom of the die cut and tie a knot.

Cut/emboss a label 1 die cut one size larger than the image die cut using green card stock. Attach it to the card front using foam squares. Add the image panel onto the green die cut using foam squares.

Thanks for stopping by, and again I wish you the very best in the coming new year!

Look Up at the Stars

Just a Note

I missed last Sunday's post, AND I'm a little late today. I've been transitioning to a new computer over the last two weeks, and it is a BIG transition - I'm moving to an iMAC! My dear husband surprised me with a beautiful new iMAC for our anniversary. So, after 20+ years as a Windows devotee, I'm making the switch and I love it!! However, the transition is a little painful - for things I do by rote on my Windows machine, I now have to do a little research to figure out how to make it work! Like... how to right click the mouse or select text one word at a time! LOL! Anyway, it has somewhat slowed me down. Today is the first post I've done entirely from the iMAC, including the pictures and text. I'll get caught up on my Splitcoast, Technique Junkies, and Facebook galleries soon.

Inspiration

This card is one I made as part of a group of "inspirational" cards. My customer asked for 5 "girly" cards with inspirational sayings. I'll show them all to you over the next few weeks.

Ingredients

Note: Finished card size is 5" x 7"

Paper

Pixie Pink (SU!)	7" x 10"", scored at 5"
Whisper White (SU!)	4 3/4" x 6 3/4"

Inks

Pixie Pink (SU!)

Stamps

Beautiful Fairies (Inkadinkado)

Birdie Inspirations (Unity)

Star Background (Rubber Stampede)

Accessories

SPICA Markers (Imagination International)

Sheer Shimmer Spritz - "Sparkle" (Tuskineko)

Pixie Pink and Basic Black markers (SU!)

Sponge

Scor-Pal

ATG 714

Rotary trimmer with straight & deckled blades

Instructions

Cut a white panel using the deckled blade on your rotary trimmer. Ink the fairy with the markers - color the fairy in black and the stars in pink. Stamp the image in the middle of the white panel. Color the image with SPICA markers. The colors I used were Pink, Sand, Baby Blue, Lemon, and Clear.

The sentiment from Unity is all one stamp, so I inked the upper portion of the saying with the black pen and stamped it above the fairy, and the "stars" portion below. I used the Gold SPICA to fill in some of the letters for a little more glitz.

To finish up the the image, I used a sponge and the pink ink to color the deckled edge of the panel, then stamped the star background around the edges. I filled in the largest stars in the background using the Clear SPICA pen.

Finally, mount the white panel onto the front of the card, and spritz the whole card front with the Shimmer Spritz.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rock Star Birthday

Inspiration

Well, I'm getting started on my April cards - and one of the first is a young man who LOVES music. I saw this new Stampavie stamp in the craft store on Friday, and immediately thought of Patrick (I'm sure he doesn't ready my blog, so I'm going to show it today).

Then to choose a layout, I went to the SCS Sketch Challenge, and found challenge 322. This is a fun card - one that can be made in a short period of time. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

Note: Finished card size is 4 1/4” x 5 1/2”

Paper

Brilliant Blue (SU!):  4 1/4” x 11”, scored at 5 1/2”

Jackpot DSP (SU!):  1 3/4” x 5”, plus a 3” x 4” piece

Yo Yo Yellow (SU!):  1 3/4” x 4 3/4”, plus a 3” x 4” piece, and a 2” x 2” square

Real Red (SU!):  3” x 4 3/4”

Stamper's Select White (Paper Trey Ink):  3” x 4”

Whisper White (SU!):  3” x 3”

Inks

Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)	Real Red (SU!)
Brilliant Blue (SU!)

Stamps

I'm a Rock Star! (Stampavie)

Rock Star (Inkadinkado)

Accessories

Classic Ovals (Small) Nestabilities (Spellbinders)	Grand Calibur (Spellbinders)
Deckled Ovals (Large) Nestabilities (Spellbinders)	Star Punch (SU!)
COPIC Markers (Imagination International)	Scissors
Adhesive Transfer Gun 714 (Scotch)	Scor-Pal
Rotary trimmer with straight blade (Fiskars)

Instructions

Image

Stamp the rock star on the large white panel, using black ink. Color with COPICS, and trim the image closely.

Here are the COPIC colors I used:

Jeans	B0000, B32, B34
T-Shirt	B34, B37
Shirt	Y0000, Y08
Guitar	R0000, R46
Skin	E000, E00, RV10
Hair	E41, E43, E47
Shoes	W00, W2

Sentiment

Stamp the sentiment twice on the lighter weight white paper - once in red, and once in blue. Then cut out the blue word "rock", and the red word "star".

Punch a star out of yellow paper, and attach the words to the star.

Assembly

Step 1: Mount the long patterned paper rectangle on the card front, followed by the yellow rectangle, and the large red rectangle.

Step 2: Cut a deckled oval from the patterned paper, and a plain oval from yellow paper. Run the yellow oval through the die cutter again to emboss it.

Step 3: Mount the patterned oval, and yellow oval on top of the large red rectangle.

Step 3: Add the rock star on the yellow oval.

Step 3: Finish it off with the star sentiment in the lower left corner.

Final Touches

I often use the computer to generate a unique saying for the inside of cards - there are so many cool fonts available, it's fun to find one to match the theme of greeting.

For this card I used Microsoft Word to create a text box, with blue borders, and a red greeting with a "rock star" font for the word "rockin'."

I cut another patterned paper panel, measuring 4" x 5 1/4", and mounted it inside. I closely trimmed the text box, and added it on top of the patterned panel.

Thanks for stopping by!

You Rock!

Inspiration

I was lucky enough to attend a workshop by Michelle Zindorf early this year – it was SO much fun!  Michelle does amazing work with white paper, a brayer, and beautiful combinations of dye inks – AND she writes fabulous tutorials on her blog – check out Freedom in Creating. (When I went to look for the correct link, I noticed she has 377 tutorials posted – WOW!!!!)

Here’s one I received rave reviews from the young folks who received it as a birthday greeting this year.  It’s a case of the “Sunset Skateboarder” tutorial.

Ingredients

Paper

Note: finished card size is 5” x 7”

Bordering Blue (SU!)	7” x 10”, score at 5”
Brilliant Blue (SU!)	2.5” x 6 1/2”
Only Orange (SU!)	2.5” x 6”
Summer Sun *SU!)	2” x 5.5”
Whisper White (SU!)	3” x 5”

Ink

Bordering Blue (SU!); Brilliant Blue (SU!), Only Orange (SU!), Summer Sun (SU!), Basic Black (SU!)

Stamps

You Rock (Inkadinkado); Musical Score (Art Impressions); Extreme Guitar (SU!); Sanded Background (SU!) 

Accessories

Rubber Brayer (3M); Post-It Notes; 1 3/8” circle punch (SU!); sponge; Scor-Pal; Adhesive Transfer Gun 714 (Scotch); Foam tape; Rotary trimmer with straight blade (Fiskars); Scissors

Instructions

Background Panels

Stamp the background pattern using blue ink on the bright blue panel, and the orange panel.  Stamp the background pattern using orange ink on the yellow panel.

Sentiment

Stamp the sentiment in black in the upper right corner of the base card.

Image

Punch a circle from a Post-It note to use as a mask.

Using the brayer, apply yellow ink lightly to the lower part of the white panel.  After a couple of coats, attach the circle mask, then apply some more yellow with the brayer.  Follow up by applying orange with the brayer – not quite all the way – this achieves the color gradient.

Now start at the other end of the card. Brayer the lighter blue ink just until it touches the top of the brayered orange ink, then add the darker blue ink to create the gradient effect.

Before removing the circle mask, stamp the music image in black 3 times.

Then remove the mask, and stamp the guitarist image in black near the ending point of the music lines.

Finish up the image panel by sponging black ink around the edges.

Assembly

Assembly is easy – simply mount the panels in order on the front of the card.

Thanks for stopping by.

Valentine Countdown: Day 13

Inspiration

As promised, here’s the second “made to order” Valentine.  It is a trifold card, as well, but more traditional in color and message.  When you see my husband’s Valentine gift I post tomorrow, you’ll see that working on this card inspired what I created as a gift for him.  See if you’re inspired, too!

This one is a 5” x 7” card in traditional red, black, and white, and trimmed with gold for a little sparkle.  It’s pretty simple in sentiment and design.

Hope you like it!

Ingredients

CARDSTOCK: Base: Real Red textured (SU!); Mats: metallic gold cardstock (Wassau), and Basic Black textured (SU!); Images: Whisper White

STAMPS: CARD: Love You Much (SU!), Full of Life (SU!), Flourish clear stamp(Inkadinkado)

INK: Basic Black (SU!), Versamark (Tsukineko)

ACCESSORIES: Acrylic block, Detail gold embossing powder (Stampendous), heat gun, Stamp positioner (Stamp-a-ma-jig), Real red and basic black markers (SU!), Heart to Heart punch (SU!), Gold Metallic pen (Uniball Gel Impact), hearts printed ribbon (Michaels), Magnetic Snaps (Basic Grey), Rotary trimmer with straight straight blade (Fiskars), redline double-sided adhesive, ATG with ¼” adhesive (Scotch).

Instructions

BASE CARD:  Cut a piece of red cardstock to measure 10” x 7”, and score it in the middle at 5”.  Cut a piece of black cardstock measuring 7” x 3”, score it lengthwise down the middle at 1 1/2”.  Fold each card on the score lines, then adhere the black to the red to make a tri-fold card.  Cut a strip of gold cardstock 7” x 1” and mount it the front of the black panel.  Mount the ribbon on top of the gold mat.

FRONT IMAGE: Cut rectangles: gold measuring 3.25” x 3”, black measuring 2.75” x 2.5”, and white 2.5” x 2.5”.  Stamp the image in black ink on the white paper.  Color the letters with the red marker, and the flower with the gold pen.  Punch a heart from gold paper and mount it in the middle of the O.

INSIDE IMAGE: Cut white cardstock measuring 6.75 x 4.75”.  Using the acrylic block and flourish stamp, stamp the flourish in Versamark ink, and emboss it using the gold embossing powder and heat gun. 

Apply black dye ink to the stamp, and stamp it on the stamp positioner clear sheet using the Stamp-a-ma-jig. Clean the stamp; then ink the word “LOVE” using the red dye ink marker, and the remaining words using the black marker. Position the clear sheet with the Stamp-a-ma-jig over the white layer to place the sentiment under the flourish, then remove the sheet, and stamp the image.

Punch hearts from red paper, and adhere them to the flourish.

FINAL CARD ASSEMBLY:  Mount the white sentiment inside the card, and attach the magnets to the inside of the black flap and the front of the card as a closure.  Hint: The adhesive on the back of the magnets was not too strong – I peeled it off and used tiny squares of redline adhesive instead.

Note – a photo would look great on the inside of the front panel as an extra special touch.

Thanks for stopping by & be sure to check back tomorrow for the last, special Valentine in the countdown!