Set Challenge

Yesterday I took part in a "set challenge".  3 of us were all given the same set of materials & asked to make a card.  It was fun to see how different they all turned out.  This was mine. The papers came from the Christmas Wonder paper pack.  The tag was stamped using the Christmas Tags and Trims - heat embossed in gold.  After being cut with the matching die, it was matted twice - once on red patterned paper and once on white.  It was colored with inktense pencils & Dazzles were added.  A red ribbon finished it off.

I like the inside even better than the outside: 

It has another stamped image - this time a sentiment from the Christmas Cheer set (HOTP).  It was again heat embossed in gold.    More dazzles and a bit of inking finish it off.

Pay It Forward Challenge

A friend on the Paper Wishers Message Board sent me this small card kit - card, 3 pieces of coordinating paper (2 were 5" x 6.5" and one was more like 4" x 5" - from HOTP "Home Grown" paper set), 4 small brads (2 each of tractor & star), a piece of grosgrain ribbon (16-18" long), a couple of stamped images, and a stamped greeting - greetings and images were stamped on larger pieces of paper/card stock so that I could cut them as I chose.

This was a real challenge because I didn't want it to look too busy, but also wasn't wanting to add to the materials in the kit (except for adhesive & coloring!).  I decided to cut the sentiment apart (and add the 3 dots for elipses) so that I could have part of the greeting on the front of the card and the remainder inside.  By cutting down the focal image, I was able to get white strips that I could piece together to form the white mat.  To help it and the greeting stand out further, I used the red ribbon that was included in the kit. 

Then it was time to do the inside:

Focal was colored with Inktense pencils & a water brush.  Scraps from the other papers helped to form a bit of a frame & a separating strip between the message and the stamped image.

Ambition

To illustrate this one, after protecting the page with clear gesso, I used a stamp from a set called "Sew Pretty" that came with a Cardmaking and Papercrafting magazine.  I used StazOn ink, but had some problem with the stamping and needed to go over many of the lines using a Pitt pen.  I waited to do that, however, until after I colored the "thread" with a bit of marker & water brush.  I used my Scroll and Brush markers to do all the coloring & lettering.  I actually created the lettering on my computer, then used a thin light pad (like a light box) to trace the letters with the markers.  I used just one edge of the "scroll" side of the marker to draw the finer lines of the lettering.  The black lettering was all done with Pitt pens. 

Promises of Healing

After protecting the page with clear gesso, I stamped the girl ("Janie's Girls" stamp set from HOTP) with black StazOn.  I colored her with Inktense pencils and a water brush - and highlighted the relevant texts with the same.  Except, I colored her skin with a watercolor pencil as I don't have a good flesh tone in my Inktense set.  The lettering was done with Pitt pens.  I actually made a mistake when doing the lettering, so "fixed" it by adding a pink heart sticker & writing the word on top of it.

HD Twilight Forest - Howling Moon

My husband likes wolves & with his birthday coming up, I thought this HD set would be perfect.  However, the first day I pulled it out, I just sat staring at it trying to figure out what to do with it.  Yesterday, however, it all came together & I got 6 cards from the set.  

This first card started with a frame and small focal from the set.  I used a bit of coordinating card stock to back the frame.  After using an embossing folder on the card front, I added the focal & a sentiment from the kit.  Here's the inside: 

For the inside, I cut borders from one of the pieces of coordinating card stock, and added another sentiment from the set.

For many of these cards, I'm not sure what sentiment I'll use, but it's nice to have them mostly done.  The background for this card is pieced from the coordinating card stock - then simply has another image from the set added to the card front.  Here's the inside of this one:

For the inside, I used scraps from the card stock & another image from the set.

This next card started with a background piece from the coordinating card stock & a piece of glitter/velvet ribbon running across it as a border.  The lacy frame was created using Dazzles stickers (HOTP).  The focal was created using a Dazzles frame over an embossed blue glimmer paper.  A small image from the set finishes the focal.

For the fourth card, I backed a piece of coordinating card stock with HD black miri.  The focal has a matching frame that was raised with foam tape.

Card number four starts with a piece cut from the coordinating card stock - backed with black paper.  The sentiment was stamped on a scrap of card stock & heat embossed in white - matted on white glimmer paper.

For the inside, another piece of card stock backed with black forms the backdrop for a greeting from the set.

The sixth and final card used the final piece of the card stock for the card front. I used the same sparkle/velvet ribbon for a border & added the last sentiment from the set.

The inside is just a bit of white card stock & the last image from the set.

Family Fun

Yesterday I got together with my Mom & SIL & we made some cards.  We decided to make the "special" cards. from the "A Touch of Shimmer" Luxury card kit from Hunkydory.  While the "special" cards are nearly always beautiful, I find myself avoiding them because: 1) if made as described, you don't get an "extra" cards out of the kit, and 2) I don't like to repeat myself!  I prefer to creatively use the products to design my own.  However, it was a LOT of fun to do them as a group!  

There are usually 4 of the same type of special cards in a kit - and this kit had two different ones - which meant one of each for the three of us and all of us got a choice as to which one we worked on.  (I'll probably make the "unpicked" one later.)  

This first card (top of post) was extra fun because we all did the decorations differently.  The only thing specified in the instructions was the structure itself - and it's a fun structure.  I wish I had pictures of all 3 of the cards, but I just have the pics of my own.  It is made like a full step card - with acetate holding it together.  Very fun!  

I decided to do some decorating on the back as well:

This first set of materials made a 5 1/2" square card.  The main card base consisted of a piece of card stock approximately 5 1/2" wide by 9" long - scored at 1", 2", 3 1/2", 5", 7", AND a piece of acetate that is 5 1/2" x 11" - scored at 5 1/2".  There was also 3 more card stock pieces: a piece 5 1/2" x 2" & scored at 1" to glue over the acetate at the top, a piece 5 1/2" x 2" to cover the adhesive in the back, and 5 1/2" x 1" to cover the adhesive in the front.  Put it together this way:

1. Accordion fold the card stock & use bone folder to crease the folds well.  
2. Fold the acetate in half and crease the fold line with the bone folder.  THEN glue the ends of the acetate to the front and back of the steps.
3. Fold the remaining scored piece and crease well - then glue in place at the top of your card.
4. Glue the remaining pieces over the lower front & back of the card - the larger one goes on the back.
5. Decorate as you wish.

Here's the 2nd card we made - theirs were different colors & different focals, but all basically the same.  This is an easel card, but it is made quite differently with the top and bottom of the card in 2 separate pieces connected by a narrow strip of card stock!

This structure doesn't leave as much room for writing your message, but DOES open you up to a WIDE variety of shapes & designs.  Here's how this one is made:

The top and bottom layer of the card are both about 5" square.  The connector piece is about 2" by 3" long & scored at 1/2" on each end (score at 1/2" and 2 1/2").  

1. Decorate card front.
2. Prepare greeting or embellishment for inside of card to hold easel card open (a rectangular piece works well).
3. On the connector piece, fold score lines as mountain folds & crease well.  
4. Put adhesive on front of connector piece - ONLY on each 1/2" section at the end.
5. With right sides together, carefully line up one end of connector piece along inside edge of decorative border (folded side toward inside of the card), and adhere well.
6. Lay strip flat on the bottom piece but with remaining adhesived end folded back (so it can adhere to the card top).  Line up top and bottom pieces carefully and then press well so adhesive edge adheres to the card top with both top and bottom lined up one on top of the other.
7. Stand up as an easel card to determine where you want your inside greeting or embellishment & put in place with foam tape so your easel will stand on its own.

Quick Thanksgiving Card

I needed another quick Thanksgiving card, so thumbed through my stash.  I found this piece of napkin (on freezer paper) that was left over from other cards, and a HOTP freebie printed label.  I chose a 5 x 7 card base & a piece of rust colored glimmer paper and embossed it for the background. I rounded all the corners - added a ribbon & stamped the label (JustRite stamp set).  I decided the accent on the label wasn't quite the right color, so I used a marker that was in a closer shade & went over those lines.  Done!

Taste and See

After applying my standard 3 layers of clear gesso to this page, I traced the outline of a picture I found online with Inktense pencils - then used a water brush to color the picture in & add a bit of shadow around it.  I then used Pitt pens to add "seeds" to the strawberries & add the words.

A New Die of Roses

This card started with a Paper Artist die (HOTP) that my Mom gave me.  The colors in the picture aren't true as the flowers are more pink than what it looks like, but holographic paper is hard to photograph - and that's what I used to back the focal piece (cut from gold Glitzy card stock - DCWV).  I'll admit that I find it quite difficult to die cut the glitzy card stock - usually end up fussy cutting to get a clean cut.  But I LOVE the look, so am willing to fight with it a bit. :)  As you can see, the word "You" is also cut from the Glitzy - but used a Paper Artist die (HOTP).  For the 3 dots (elipses), I used a small paper punch.

For the card base, I started with a 5" x 7" card & the biggest Spellbinder's die in the "Elegant Labels Four" set.  I wrapped the card around the base plate so the die would only cut the card front.  I found I had to tape it in place with painter's tape to make sure it didn't go anywhere.  I also made sure that the left edge of the die wouldn't cut by hanging it off the edge of the wrapped card.  Because it was an intricate die, I ran this through my machine several times.  

This resulted in the beautiful lacy look on the front of the card - but a crease on the inside where I had wrapped it around the base plate.  I covered the crease with a piece of gold poster board that peeks through the lace when the card is closed:

The focal and greeting are actually mounted on a 2nd die cut piece (from white card stock) - this one cut with a grand labels four die & then embossed with a gorgeous roses embossing folder (Cuttlebug Rosa 5X7 with border by Anna Griffin).  This panel was added to the card front with foam tape.  On the inside, I cut another white piece with a Labels Four die and added it in the center of the gold tag board for writing the message to the card's recipient.

The "YOU . . . " from the outside is finished with the words "put the ZING in amazing" on the inside (HOTP stamp set), and can be adapted for several different occasions: graduation, birthday, anniversary, other celebrations, thank you, etc.

A Very Merry Christmas - Winter on the Canal - Challenge!

As the title suggests, we're back to working on the A Very Merry Christmas Deco large set I bought with the additional little book and papers & inserts.  As I've done in the past, this is 1/2 of that set.  But I made it more interesting for myself this time by challenging my Mom to see what she could create with the other half.  We were to get as many cards as possible & strive for variety.  

This set of nine cards is what I did with my half (and a bit of my stash).  All of them are finished on the inside, though I did not take pictures of the insides - except where it shows like the inside of this easel card. The focal on this card uses one of the pieces that was intended to stack for the "deco" or paper tole style focal.  I mounted it on paper from the papers & inserts to give it the purplish background and matted it with silver tag board.  A strip of scraps forms the border on the inside where one of the greetings from the kit is raised on foam tape to hold the easel open.

This picture does NOT do this card justice.  It's very hard to see from the picture, but this one has several layers, including a raised frame around it (cut and embossed using a nesting spellbinder's set of dies). It, too, started with one of the pieces that had been intended as a layer for the focal - this time put against a green snowy background that is the flip side of the purple in the last one.  It was then layered with several of the deco pieces - each on foam tape.  The star greeting (from the Essential book) was added flush to the frame, but with foam under part of it so it was level. 

This is the third card I got using the deco pieces (one of just the boat went into the inside of one of these cards).  This was the base focal piece and looks so pretty with all of the silver highlights on it.  The background is one of the insert papers from the "papers & inserts" pack - I cut it a little smaller than the card & inked the edges of it before gluing in place.  The silver glitter ribbon is from my stash, and the greeting is from the Essential book. 

I LOVE the way this purple one turned out.  It uses the "leftovers" of punching out the base deco piece to get the oval ring & triangle shapes.   The main picture is the border of one of the "Papers & Inserts" papers.  The corner pieces are from the kit & are put on foam tape for dimension.  Violet glimmer paper was embossed & serves as the background.  I added a glittery ribbon from my stash & a couple of greetings from the Essential book.

These next three focals are from the coordinating "Little Book".  For this first, I used a green gingham paper from my stash for the background & to "enlarge" the greeting from the little book.  I cut 2 ovals from silver tag board using Spellbinder's dies.  Since I wanted these silver mats to have a narrower border than the dies would normally have, I traced the inside of the die & fussy cut the ovals - once from insert paper, and once from a picture from the little book.  I also backed the greeting with the silver tag board.

Next up is a 4" x 8 1/2" card that just fits inside a business sized envelope.  I could have made this a card that you see through to the inside, but that's not what I did.  I just die cut the oval from the papers and inserts piece that would form the background for my card and put the picture from the little book behind it.  After wrapping it with a ribbon border (from my stash), I adhered this to the card leaving a narrow border of white on either end.  The sentiment is from the Essential book.  I didn't feel there was enough definition around the picture, so added a Dazzle border to help make the focal pop.

This last little book focal was cut in thirds before being mounted on silver tag board.  I embossed a white panel for the front of the card & wrapped it with wide red ribbon before adding the focal pieces.  A greeting from the Essential book completes the front of this card.

By this point, I had used all the pictures from 1/2 of the deco kit, little book & one of the papers & inserts set.  But I still had card stock and paper left over, along with a border strip.  I didn't have a large enough piece for the front of this card, but pieced the background together & covered the join with the border strip.  I matted the whole with silver tag board before turning my attention to the focal.  This was made by layering a large silver "cut and fold" snowflake (Spellbinder's die) with a smaller white snowflake (Paper Artist die from HOTP), before adding the greeting from the Essential book.

At this point I only had scraps left - but realized I could piece together this center step card with them - mounting the oval piece (center piece cut from one of the earlier cards) on a piece of silver tag board.  I used snowflake Dazzles to decorate the card & added another greeting from the Essential book.  Those little books of Essential Christmas greetings seem quite expensive, but they sure help out for a lot of these cards!!!!

Okay, that's 9 more cards from just 1/2 of the deco large set (with 1/2 of the coordinating little book & one of the coordinating papers & inserts sets).  That brings the grand total of cards from this half to 66 - with two more sets to go.

Thank You Swap

Today's card was made for a "Thankful" swap - simply needed to be a thank you card of some sort.  I chose to use a napkin for the main part of the card (using the freezer paper technique I've used before).  I cut a second butterfly out of the same napkin & attached it with the wings free so it could be a bit 3-D.  The border was from the same napkin.

I matted the napkin on purple card stock from my stash & added a gold edged purple ribbon to the sides of the border.  The sentiment was die cut from suede paper (HOTP) with a Paper Artist die (HOTP).

Glitter & Snow

I like the simplicity of today's card.  I embossed the white card base using an embossing folder.  The blue is a glittered fun foam.  The sentiment is a Paper Artist die set (HOTP) and the snowflake is a cut-fold-tuck die from Spellbinders. That's it!

More Christmas Napkin Cards

I LOVE the way this card turned out!  The rocking horse on the red background is the napkin - but I covered it with distress stickles to get the glimmer.  Green background is shine design paper from HOTP.  The lace down the center is made with a Martha Stewart punch - and a red ribbon from my stash is glued on top.  The sentiment is a Spellbinder's die.  I traced around the outside of the die & fussy cut that to get my mat.  I cut the sentiment from cream & from dark green, offsetting them a bit.

Here, the stocking & blue background is all from the napkin.  I added Dazzles stars over the original stars (that were already on the napkin) and I glued white flocking to the top of the stocking.  The doily was from my stash & the star greeting is from a Hunkydory Essential book of greetings.

This card started with a piece of green paper cut & embossed with a Marianne embossing folder.  The tree on the white background is the napkin.  I added a bunch of poinsettia & star-shaped Dazzles, & used Smooch ink on the candles on the tree.  The greetings are again from the Hunkydory book of greetings.

The last card is sized to fit a US business size envelope.  The napkin piece is most of the front - matted on metallic gold poster board.  The ribbon, from my stash, adds just the right touch at the top of the card.

Using those "Innards"

A couple of days ago I talked about using paper napkin "innards" (see post here).   Today's cards use one of those innards for the card backgrounds.  I LOVE the look I got on these backgrounds!  These particular ones were colored with Color Burst and Perfect Pearls using the technique described in the previous post.

For the focal on this first card, I used a Spellbinder's die to cut my tree out of a sparkly green adhesive backed sheet.  It is very pretty in person. I matted it on white and added red poinsettias & dots from a Dazzles sheet.  The sentiment was stamped using a stamp from HOTP and multiple matted before adding with foam tape. 

This card is even simpler.  I simply inked the edges of my background, cut the sentiment twice (once from adhesive backed foam and once from the sparkly adhesive-backed vinyl using a die set from HOTP), layered them, and added them to the card.

Xmas Napkin Cards #1

If you've been reading my blog, you've seen several Thanksgiving cards made with napkins.  Today I've got some Christmas cards made with napkins (using the freezer paper technique detailed here).  For this first card, I fussy cut the poinsettia from the napkin - then mounted it on a white card stock mat (so I could attach it with foam tape).  The background is embossed glimmer paper, the ribbon is from my stash, and the greeting is from the Hunkydory Essential Book of Christmas Greetings.  Here's the inside:

The inside uses more of the embossed background, ribbon, and another greeting from the Essential book.  I also added some punched ferns (Martha Stewart punch) & red Jewel Dazzles.

The greeting focal on this second card is a napkin - red embossed mat with ribbon from my stash & metal snowflake from my stash.

This last card started with my making a mistake - I put the napkin wrong side up when I adhered it to the freezer paper!  This meant that I couldn't use the whole square because it had words that were now mirror imaged!  So, I cut the napkin mice out much smaller than intended & glued it to a die cut/embossed mat (Spellbinder's die).  The background is also embossed & has a ribbon from my stash.  I finished off the front with a Tim Holtz die - cut once from white glimmer paper & once from white adhesive backed fun foam to give it nice dimension.  I used another napkin - adhered to the freezer paper the right way so I could use the whole square - for the inside:

Napkin "Innards"

After making a bunch of napkin cards using the freezer paper technique (see post here), I had a bunch of the inner layers left over - plain white or with a bit of bleed through from whatever was the top layer.  What to do with them all?  I hated to just throw them away!  I decided to find ways to color them & then use them with freezer paper like the top layers of the napkins.  

I used 4 coloring mediums for coloring them - but basically all meant getting the napkins wet & then gently drying them with a heat tool.  I used:

• Color Burst - The dark green in the foreground & the pinkish one on the right both were colored by sprinkling Color Burst powder over them & then misting with water.  (The green one also had some white Perfect Pearls added.)
• Perfect Pearls - I sprinkled various colors of Perfect Pearls on some & misted with water. (I put this on several, but in the picture you can see it best as the silvery/white on the dark green.
• Distress Oxide Inks - I used the ink pads to add ink to my craft sheet, misted the colors with water, and then put the napkin over it to soak up the colored water.  I found that I had to be VERY careful so the napkin didn't tear (this was true for all of them, but more so for this one since I was laying the napkin into the color rather than just sprinkling/spraying on top.  It was best to add a bit of color, dry the napkin thoroughly with a heat tool, then add more color if needed.  The peachy/red at the top was made this way.
• Glimmer Mist - I sprayed them with various colors of glimmer mist.  I love Glimmer Mist and used it on many of my examples, including the silver, and light greens that you can see in the picture.

For several of them, I combined color mediums.