Sunny Hello

Saturday, May 11, 2013


I've got a card today that uses one of the images I've recently colored since my Copic classes. See if you can spot the blooper I made on this card. I'll tell you what it is at the end of the post. ;)
I've had that cute Elisabeth Bell stamp for awhile, but have been too intimidated to color it until now. I can see areas that could have been colored better, but all-in-all, I like how it turned out.  The yellow pearls in the corners are made with a Pearl Pen.
You can see the layers a little better in this photo. I lifted the image layer with layers of crimped cs, and popped the "sun" up with a foam dot. 
The inside is blank for plenty of room for personalization.

Did you spot the blooper? Well, the little girl is facing the yellow "sun" die cut, but the shadow under the umbrella would have been cast with the sun a little bit behind her right shoulder. Nit-picky, I know, but ever since my Copic classes, I'm more aware of things like that. C'est la vie, right! :) 

A BIG Happy Mother's Day to all you beautiful mothers out there! 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Sketch Saturday #258
ColourQ Challenge #188
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #219 (Black Accents--I used black matting)

~Hugs,

Stamps: April Showers (Elisabeth Bell Designs); Sunny Days (Verve); April Showers (Flourishes)
Paper: Tangerine (My Mind's Eye)
Ink: Copics; Distress; Memento; Versafine; white gel pen
Dies: Classic Squares Lg & Sm, Peony (Spellbinders); Dainty Lace Border (MFT Die-namics)
Accessories: Pearl Pen; sewing thread; foam dots
Size: 5.5" sq.
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A Letter

Friday, May 10, 2013

I've been busy for the past several days making fabric covered boxes for my daughter's birthday party, and I finally finished late this afternoon, so I had to rush to get a card made for Flourishes Colorful Creations Challenge. I hope I'm in time!

I'm entering this in the Flourishes Colorful Creations Challenge, if I'm not too late ;) (FLLCMay13)

Thanks for stopping by and have a fab weekend.

~Hugs,

 
Stamps: From the Desk Of (Flourishes)
Paper: Kraft; Shine (Design House Digital-Karen Funk) 
Ink: Distress; Versamark
Dies: Labels 3, Creative Page Tabs (Spellbinders); Classic Bookplate Template (Tailor-Made Dies-Spellbinders for Flourishes)
Accessories: Ribbon; Prismacolor pencils; Gamsol; rhinestones; Copic marker; pins; beads; sewing thread; white embossing powder
Size: A2 (4.25" x 5.5")
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Mother

Friday, May 3, 2013

Hi there! I've seen several pretty cards lately that have lots of patterned dp layers, so I thought I'd give it a try with the Viva la Verve April 2013 Week 4 sketch and {PIN}spirational Challenge #55 inspiration photo.

       pic name                  pic name
Isn't that inspiration photo adorable! :)
All the patterned papers have white ink sponged along the edges, I did some sewing, and added a couple of trims. The word "Mother" was heat embossed with white.
The sentiment on the inside was created in Word, printed on a transparency, and rubbed onto the cs, and I did some doodling with a red Sharpie and a white gel pen.

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the weekend!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Viva la Verve April 2013 Week 3 Sketch Challenge (VLVApr2013)
Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #71 (RRR71): Sparkle, Bling, and Ribbon
(Pin)spirational Challenge #55
 
Stamps: Mother (Studio 112); inside sentiment created in Word
Paper: For Her (My Mind's Eye); Vintage Damask Digital Paper (Print Candee)
Ink: Distress; Colorbox; Sharpie marker; white gel pen
Dies: A2 Matting Basics A & B, Ribbon Banners, Labels 18 (Spellbinders); Ribbon Banner Die, Classic Label Die (Verve); Banner Stacklets 1 (Taylored Expressions)
Accessories: White embossing powder (Zing); pompom trim (Fancy Pants Designs); lace; twine (The Twinery); rhinestones; buttons; Stickles; sewing thread; foam dots
Size: A2 (4.25" x 5.5")
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Serve the Lord

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Hi there! My friend, Lori, gave me some beautiful napkins a few weeks ago, and I used one of them to make this card. It's sealed with Sparkle Mod Podge. It was a lot easier than I thought, and I love the look.
The blue pearls on the left side were made with a Pearl Pen.

The color is more accurate in this pic, and the big jewel is much more sparkly in real life. :) See all that sparkle on the napkin!

A lot is going on on the front of the card, so I left the inside simple.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light Challenge #152 (ODBDSLC152): Needle It! (Piercing)--   [UPDATE: ODBD Shining the Light Challenge Award Winner!]
Simon Says Stamp Challenge: Happy Mail (a "just because" card)
Really Reasonable Ribbon #71 (RRR71): Sparkle, Bling, and Ribbon
Tuesday Morning Sketches #196 (TMS196)
Color Throwdown #240 (CTD240)

~Hugs,

 
Stamps: Serve the Lord (Our Daily Bread)
Paper: Paper Napkin
Ink: Memento; Distress
Dies: Classic Rectangles Lg, Labels 25 (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Textile Texture embossing folder, Decorative Tile embossing folder (Cuttlebug); sparkle jewel; Pearl Pen; paper piercing tool; Mod Podge; Sparkle Mod Podge
Size: A2 (4.25" x 5.5")
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Believe Wish Dream

I combined a sketch challenge, a travel challenge, and an "ingredient" challenge to come up with my card today. Did you notice I don't have a color challenge in there? I like color challenges, but I have to tell you, it sure was fun putting colors together randomly this time. ;)

For Flourishes' Timeless Tuesday "Date" Challenge this week, I needed to use the November ingredients: a stamped sentiment and a tag. Using the Viva la Verve April 2013 Week 5 sketch challenge, I turned the main focal panel into a burlap tag with a sentiment on it, and tilted it a little bit. I worked the Simon Says Stamp & Show travel theme into the card with My Mind's Eye Traveler dp. I used my Copic air brush to color the red pearls, and I adhered the burlap to a piece of kraft cs with iron-on adhesive so it wouldn't unravel.

See the green design on the burlap? That's a leafy stamp. I first stamped it with Distress Ink, which worked well, but I also added a red butterfly, which didn't work at all, so I had to cover it up with acrylic paint, which I also added to other parts of the burlap to keep it from looking like a mistake. Then, I re-stamped the leafy image in green acrylic paint. It took me longer to figure out how to fix that one mistake than it did to make the rest of the card!!! :-/

I used leftover pieces of dp on the inside of the card. To bring a little more red inside the card, I scribbled a red Sharpie marker inside the "Adventure" text. The teal sparkly dots in the corners are Stickles.

DIE-CUTTING TIP: In my last post, I had a tip about using cereal bags when die-cutting to keep intricate die cuts from getting stuck inside the die. That's still the best thing I've used for die-cutting, but I don't have very many of those bags, so I tried out several other items to try to find one that was fairly comparable, but easier to come by. Waxed paper works, but not as good as I would like. I also tried parchment paper, but it worked about as good as the waxed paper. I found something called Silicone Release Paper on Amazon, and I'm thinking that would be ideal, but I couldn't find any locally. Then, I saw that Wilton says their parchment paper is coated with silicone, so I gave that a try. Bingo! That works almost as good as the cereal bags. I tried a single layer, double layer, and triple layer of parchment paper between the die and cs, and I recommend using a double layer. I cut multiple intricate dies using this sandwich, and it worked well every time.

So here's my sandwich for die cutting now:

cutting plate
sheet of white scrap paper (helps you get a cleaner cut, and keeps your cutting plate clean)
cardstock or paper, facing up
2 layers of Wilton Parchment Paper
die with the cutting side facing down
metal shim (optional, but it does help with intricate dies)
base plate

Seeing that all written out, it seems like a lot, but really it's not. If you cut intricate dies and can get your hands on some Wilton Parchment Paper, test it out. And, if you've found anything better, I'd love to know about it. I can think of about a zillion things I'd rather do that fiddle around with getting a stuck die cut out of a die. :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a crafty week!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Viva la Verve April 2013 Week 5 Sketch Challenge (VLVApr2013)
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #218 (FTTC218): It's All in the Date! (November)
Simon Says Stamp & Show: Passport to Fun 
Simon Says Challenge: Anything Goes

~Hugs,

 
Stamps: Pears (Flourishes); Sunny Days (Verve)
Paper: Traveler (My Mind's Eye); Best of K&Co
Ink: Versafine; Distress; Copics; Sharpie
Dies: Banner Stacklets (Taylored Expressions); Std Circles Lg & Sm, Labels 18 (Spellbinders)
Accessories: 1.5" circle punch (EK Success); ribbon; rhinestones; pearls (colored with Copic air brush); acrylic paint; burlap; mini staples; Stickles; Angle Corner Chomper; iron-on adhesive
Size: A2 (4.25 x 5.5")
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