ColorMe

 

Today I decided to tackle a stash buster challenge - to use up some ColorMe products from HOTP.  The pattern on these products is designed to behave like an embossed resist - letting you fairly easily color in the pattern with colors of your choosing.  What I have is from years ago and working on these reminded me of why I haven't used it much!  Truthfully, though, what made it most frustrating to work with these was less the fault of the ColorMe, and more the fact that for some reason, none of my water brushes will let water through any more!  

Card #1: (above) - To color this first one I used Gelatos.  I colored them on my craft mat and picked them up with a wet brush to color in the design.  These are designed to be used on 5" x 6 1/2" cards.  My card blanks are 5" x 7", but this design worked well.  I fussy cut the bottom off the design and then it fit centered on my card front nicely.  They included sentiment pieces, so I colored one and then matted it on white card stock that had been die cut with one of Spellbinders Fancy Tags dies.

Inside:

 

Figuring out what to do on the inside was a bit challenging since I didn't have similar paper.  I found some scraps in similar colors and created a border.  They DID have a little rose on the sentiment page that I colored and added here.

Card #2:

 

This time I used Inktense pencils with my water brush - much easier to control!  Again I colored a coordinating sentiment and matted it on a Spellbinders Fancy Tags die cut piece of white card stock.  However, this time I decided to create an A2 sized card.  That meant that I cut off part of the ColorMe - which gave me something for the inside of the card!  I used a black Sharpie to color the top and bottom edges, and added a turquoise sticker border along each outside edge.  Then I added some little butterfly stickers, and some Jewel Dazzles to complete the look.

Inside:

 

Inside I simply added a strip from the leftover piece to create a coordinating border - again using a black sharpie top and bottom.

2025 Jan - Digi-Paper

Today I have 4 cards that I created using digital papers I printed on 1 sheet of paper - the digi-paper is not new, but it's the first I've used in the new year.  The first 3 cards are all similar - cut from two patterns and an embossed white glimmer paper (Cuttlebug Divine Swirl embossing folder) that were all the same size.  I simply stacked the three and cut two cuts to create 3 pieces from each - then mixed and matched.  On all 3 I used thin white sticker strips (Dazzles) to separate the papers. Then inked the outside edges of each panel.

Card #1 (above):  Before gluing the panel in place, I ran a white ribbon across the top.  Then, after gluing the panel in place, I added a Sassy's LLC sentiment matted on a double-layer of punched pink circles (top layer is vellum) and added a couple of ribbon bows - one pink, one white.

Card #2:

This one has the pieces arranged upside down from the previous (because I preferred to have the white toward the top.  I again added a Sassy's sentiment, but this time the double layer was in green (again, the top layer is vellum).  I finished it with a green ribbon bow.

Card #3:

Again, I wanted the white at the top, so this time I created the card vertically.  As you can see, I added a strip of the ribbon across the top before gluing the background in place and adding the sentiment & ribbon bow.

Card #4:

This last card was made using the scraps left over from cutting the previous to size and gluing border strips of patterned papers to the inside of the previous 3 cards.  You can't really tell it, but the top patterned piece doesn't extend the full width like the bottom piece does.  In addition to adding the matted sentiment, I added a few flowers & leaves from my stash (Spellbinders - Be Bold Blooms, Grand Tropical Flamingo, and Tropical Friends die sets - may be others)

New Year Table Cleanup!

I had a bunch of stuff on my table that was leftover from making things for the holidays and it was past time to clean it up!  This card was made to use up scraps of patterned paper that were leftovers sitting on my table.  The flowers were made using dies from Spellbinders Be Bold Blooms set - a great set for flowers!  All sentiments were from a stamp/die set my Mom has.  Here's how I made it.  1) I took all the pieces, taped them together, narrowly matted them on white, and added white strips between the papers.  2) I cut a piece of black paper just smaller than the card and embossed it using a Cuttlebug Divine Swirl embossing folder - then glued it to the card front before centering the matted piece on top of it.  3)  I added inked stamped images, die cut flowers, and punched dots to complete the card.