Zoom!

Well, with all the "stay at home" orders, Mom and I were not able to meet in person for our regular paper crafting session.  SOOOOO - we did it virtually via Zoom.  Worked well (once we figured out how to get Mom's mike turned on! :) )  We both had the HOTP Artful Card Kit called Sunshine and Smiles, so we decided to use that.  We each got one card made.  This is mine.  

Materials:

• ACK (Artful Card Kit)
• card blank (6.5" x 5")
• stamp set (Circle of Love from JustRite)
• red sheer ribbon from my stash
• black sharpie
• black paper scraps
• black ink

Method: 

1. After covering the card front with patterned paper, I inked all the edges with black, added the ribbon & tied it in a bow.
2. I layered a cut out sentiment on a die cut (both from the kit).  The die cut didn't have the black edge even all around, so I used a black Sharpie to even it up before adding it to the card front.
3. The butterfly embellishment completed the card front.

Inside:

1. A scrap of the patterned paper - with edge inked - formed the start of a border on the right hand side of my card.  
2. I started to put the big butterfly on top of the patterned paper, but it was so big it didn't work well.  I decided to add it to the ribbon instead.
3. I added some black strips to help solidify the border & give something for my sentiment to hang from.  The sentiment is stamped from the JustRite set (Circle of Love).  A small butterfly at the point where the two black strips meet completes the inside.

Tea-serving!

I couldn't resist making up this card.  The materials are from a HOTP Cardmaker's Personal Shopper kit except for the ink & ribbon from my stash & stamp from JustRite's Grand Sentiments set (on tag at upper left - everything else was pre-printed in the kit).  As you can see, I made it up as a Center step card - very straight forward.  Oh yes, I DID add some black Sharpie to some of the edges.  Here's the inside.  The four little panels behind the sentiment were placed there because I was taking inspiration from a sketch (May 2018 Card Map from PageMaps.com).

The inside uses more of the same materials:

Once that card was completed, I wanted to use up the rest of the materials (I'm tired of having bits of stuff left over everywhere!).   I started out with this card (stamp from HOTP Watercolor Roses set) on layerd labels cut with Spellbinder's Gold Labels Four & Labels Four die sets.  I inked the edges of the card & of the die cut to blend with the papers, and once again added some ribbon from my stash.

I DID finish the inside, though I forgot to get a picture.  Then I used the rest to make a couple of tags:

Cat House!

This card was made using stamps I got from a cardmaking magazine - images & words (Cardmaking and Papercraft Vol 204 (Jan 2020).  I heat embossed the stamped images with clear powder before coloring with my Inktense and Watercolor pencils.  The "wallpaper" is hand drawn on the plain white card after the main elements were in the room.  The patterned paper used for the mat was an old HOTP pattern.  I was working to fulfill a couple of challenges, so added two sequins to hold up the "picture" on the wall to fulfill the final necessary element of the challenge.  After taking the picture, but before I mailed it, I added "shadowing" by the plaque on the wall & the picture on the fireplace mantle.  That helped create a more cohesive look.

Instructions and Promises

Yesterday I discovered that though I thought I had completed the page on the right in 2017 (it's dated!), I never posted it - and it wasn't really complete! :)  This chapter is full of instructions and promises and I found I wanted to add a lot more to the page - and the facing page.  

Since I did the much of the page on the right a long time ago and didn't post about it, I can only guess about the materials I used there.  It's clear I had used clear gesso to protect the page.  I suspect I used watercolor pencils and water brush to draw and color the bread (since I don't think I had my Inktense then). The word "God" was stamped with brown StazOn ink (stamp from Sing Praise set by Inky Antics), and the rest of the words hand lettered with a brown fine-line marker.  I'm really not sure what I used on the background, but I'm guessing I used Distress Ink - and then something with a bit of shimmer - a spray or metallic gelatos - not sure.

As I worked some more on these pages, I first added color to the facing page.  I sprayed it first with Glimmer Mist (Sea Glass and Blue Icing) then added Distress ink (Salty Ocean) with a round sponge applicator. After that dried well, I added more stamped messages (Bible Promises stamp set from Stampendous and Memorable Messages from Inky Antics) & more hand lettering with my black Pitt pens.  I also decided to trace over much of the brown lettering on the original page, turning it black so the two pages went together better.

   

For thoughts about what these pages mean to me, check out my other blog here and here.  

Please note: I realized I had mis-quoted the passage on the right hand side of the page - corrected version is:

A Couple More Sympathy Cards

Sometimes when I'm running low on inspiration for card making, I turn to purchased card kits to jump start my mojo.  I was out of sympathy cards and like to have them on hand, so wanted to get a couple made, but was fresh out of ideas.  I decided to use materials from a couple of old card kits from HOTP.  

This first card was from a Cardmaker's Personal Shopper kit, and I suspect there may at one time have been a focal that went with it.  If so, it was used long ago for something else.  Looking at the small pieces of patterned paper in the set, I immediately thought "Center Step Card" so that's what I made.  I layered a couple of cut out pieces together to make the tag, and used one of my dies (from Divinity Designs - "With Sympathy" stamp and die set) to cut out the focal sentiment.  I added two shadows - the white was made by tracing around the outside of the die & fussy cutting.  The dark green I just fussy cut around the white.  Speaking of the green what I used for mats & borders was not in the kit, but was actually scraps of wallpaper from an old wallpaper sample book! 

Below you see the inside of the card - once again using wallpaper scraps to mat the border strips I cut from the patterned paper.  I stamped a sentiment on the tag (from JustRite's Antique Autumn Tags One stamp set).

I used some of the leftover paper to decorate the front of the envelope (you can see more of it in the first picture above). 

Not wanting to throwaway useable patterned paper - nor wanting to collect a bunch of scraps, I used the rest of the patterned paper to make some tags - adding it to scrap card stock from my stash. They're unfinished.  I'll want to punch a hole & add ribbon, as well as stamping a picture or sentiment - but I don't know what sentiment/picture I'll want when I use them and want to do that before punching the hole & adding ribbon.  Depending on what I use them for, I might also add flowers or other embellishments.  But the basics are complete.  Here they are:

My second card was from one of their older books called "Clearly Collage".  A set that uses transparencies.  You can't tell it very well in the picture, but the card front has a stamped transparency window that allows you to see through to the inside of the card:

As you can see in this first picture, I once again used scraps to decorate the front of the card.  Below you see a close up of the card front - done pretty much the way they suggested in the instructions, except that I added a wider brown border for the sentiment.

And here's the inside of the card.  I also made a couple minor changes on the inside compared to their instructions.  I decided to ink the edges of the center piece and mat it on white before attaching it to the brown background.  I also chose to stamp my own sentiment (stamp from the "With Sympathy" stamp & die set from Divinity Designs).

Great Is Thy Faithfulness!

Here's another page made with my inktense pencils and a water brush (after protecting the page with clear gesso).  The lettering was done with Pitt pens.  For a discussion of this page, see my other blog here.

Birthday Wishes

I've needed 3 more birthday cards for upcoming birthdays - one for my Mom & two masculine birthdays.  This first, is for my Mom.  Since Mom is a papercrafter too, I always feel I need to make hers extra special.  I had a hard time figuring out what that would be, until I was reminded of this Hunkydory paper I got in a Magazine that was given to me for Christmas.  It's beautiful, and my Mother LOVES roses.  Perfect! 

I immediately realized I wanted to make a larger card than usual to accommodate the frame/focal that I wanted to use.  I ended up making the card 8" square. 

Materials:

• Hunkydory: All Things Bright and Beautiful kit
• Spellbinder's dies: Grand Scalloped Squares, Decorative Triangle from Botanical Swirls & Accents, Fleur De Lis Squares
• Stamps: Celebrations Borders One and Bracket Borders One (JustRite), Wreath Builder (Gina K Designs)
• Clear Acetate from packaging
• Poster Board: gold metallic 
• Card Stock: Plain white
• Inks: Spun Sugar (Distress Ink), Pearl Orchid (Brilliant Inks)
• Foam Tape

Background and card prep: I started with one piece of card stock that was 8" x 8", and a second that was 8" x 8 1/2".  The extra half inch was to create a tab for gluing the two pieces together.  I used that piece for the card front and wrapped the tab behind to secure it to the 2nd piece.  Before I did that, though, I die cut the center portion out of the card front.  I didn't have a lot of dies that were large enough, so I used my Grand Scalloped Square dies (Spellbinders) to cut through both the card & the backing paper (without gluing them together first!).  Then I trimmed the inner pointed parts from the inside of the scallops so they would not be visible inside the frame.  I cut a piece of clear acetate a bit larger than the hole and glued it in place - sandwiching the acetate between the background paper and the card base.

Focal and Greeting: I put a double layer of dimensional tape on the frame & added it so that it framed the hole created in the last step.  I arranged the focal on point like a diamond.  To adhere, I cut another strip piece of dimensional tape to put behind the focal - arranging things so this would be covered by a sentiment strip (see inside of card).  That helped keep the focal in place - along with a touch of glue at each corner.  I added the sentiment tag - with a double layer of foam tape on the outside edge of it & glue on the inner corner to keep it in place.

Inside:

I discovered my foam tape was visible from the inside, so I used borders from the Hunkydory kit & strips of gold poster board to create a frame that hid it.  I also added a couple more decorative pieces from the kit to fancy it up a bit.    

On the other inside panel, I covered most of the inside with a coordinating striped paper from the kit.  Then I added a couple of gold die cut "Botanical Swirls and Accents" triangle pieces (cut from the poster board) in opposing corners.  My message/focal here started as a piece of white card stock that was die cut with a Fleur De Lis Square die & inked before being stamped using sentiments from the two sets mentioned in the materials list.  In order to get the color I wanted to coordinate well with the papers, I used both inks listed - one on top of the other - for shading & stamping.  

Here's a closeup of the two inside panels:

 

Back:

The back was decorated with a border strip of leftover paper (to hide where the card base pieces joined) and stamped with my "priceless" stamp (from my stash - not sure who made it.)

Next up - Two Masculine Birthday Cards:

Materials:

• Printed papers & cutouts from a HOTP cardmaking kit.
• Black marker (Sharpie)
• Stamps: Wreath Builder (Gina K Designs), Grand Sentiments (JustRite)
• Premade Focal: Botanical Swirls Labels (JustRite) and matching Botanical Swirls & Accents dies (Spellbinders), Tiny Words & Images (HOTP), alcohol inks
• Scraps of gray, brown, and black cardstock 
• Ink for edges of papers/cutouts

First Masculine Card:

Here you can see that I cut strips of the starred paper to form borders for the gray paper - then added a bunch of cut-out elements from the kit.

On the inside I stamped a sentiment from the Gina K set & added inked papers & cut out.

2nd Masculine Card:

For this background, I combined the star paper with some of the grey and a printed border strip (once again inking the edges). I added the pre-made focal sentiment, but decided it needed the additional bits of brown card stock for the border & "ribbon" at the top.  I outlined these with a black pen so they would stand out better.

The inside was more of the same at the bottom, but I created a tag from scraps & added it to a strip of black card stock at the top of this page.

More Sympathy

It sure seems like I've needed a lot of sympathy cards lately!  Here are three more.  Background for this first is from some backgrounds I created to make focals (like I've done for the second card shown here), but I decided to use this for a background piece.  It was made by applying "Gunmetal" mixative (Ranger) to glossy white card stock.  The flowers were stamped (Floral Sentiments 8 - North Coast Creations) with onyx VersaFine ink and then heat embossed.  Coloring was done with markers (scroll & brush) and a bit of Smooch Ink.  Sentiment was stamped in the same way (Stamp from Heartfelt Greetings - HOTP).  Gold ribbon from my stash finished it.

Here I use a pre-made focal.  It had started with an alcohol ink prepared background. I stamped and heat embossed it first with black ink and clear embossing powder (stamps from Circle of Love Vintage Labels Three & With Sympathy - both by JustRite).  However, the result was dull and not as dark black as I wanted.  Soooo, I re-heated the embossed areas, added black embossing powder, and re-embossed it.  I cut this with a Vintage Labels Three cutting die (JustRite) and then heat embossed the edges in black (ink the edges, apply embossing powder, heat).

I paired my pre-made focal with a patterned paper that blended well - and some plain black for accent. But something was missing.  I realized I wanted more white in the design.  This lattice die cut was just right (Cheery Lynn French Lattice). 

The inside is simply borders of the patterned and black papers with a stamped sentiment (With Sympathy by JustRite).

When I went to use the pre-made focal for the last card, I first tried paring it with this flocked paper scrap (HOTP).  I loved it - except that the colors weren't quite right.  So -- I decided to make a similar focal that WAS the right color.  I took some glossy card stock and colored it with distress ink in a color to match the background (actually needed to blend both Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry to get the color I wanted).  This was stamped and heat embossed with black powder.  In addition to the frame (stamped with JustRite Circle of Love Vintage Labels Three stamp & die cut with matching die), I added two sentiments to the center (JustRite's Sympathy Vintage Labels).  I decided I wanted to add a bit of white to help it stand out from the background, so die cut some white using a Spellbinder's die (Victorian Medallion).  A bit of black glitter ribbon from my stash finished the card front nicely.

I once again added a stamped sentiment to the inside (With Sympathy by JustRite).  Scraps of the paper form borders top and bottom.  I wanted them to stand out a bit better, so took a black Sharpie and drew around the borders!

Berry Happy Birthday!

This quick card was made using a freebie from Debbie Moore.  Most of the papers and cut outs were from that, though I added a lacy die cut along the border on the card front.  

Materials/Method:

• Card Front Background: I embossed the printed patterned paper using a "Damask" embossing folder from Darice.  I then hit the raised areas with red ink using a sponge applicator from Ranger.  After inking the edges of this with black and adhereing it to the card front, I die cut through both layers with a circle die (Quickcut), making sure it would line up with image I was planning to put inside.
• Border & Greeting: The checkered border strip & heart were from the freebie.  The lacy die was die cut from white paper (die from Spellbinder's Parisian Accents) & then added just a touch of distress ink to turn it more ivory in color. The greeting was from the freebie.
• Inside (see below): both elements on the inside were from the freebie.  I added a touch of black ink around the edges of the sentiment.
• Back (see 2nd picture below): another piece from the freebie - added with a strip of the freebie patterned paper.