Saturday, June 29, 2013

Captivating Digi Santa

Inspirational Photo from
 Christmas Card Challenges
This is my second card for the hybrid challenge at Jingle Belles. The challenge is to create a holiday card with at least one digi image. So, I'm continuing to play around around with the digi stamp of Santa that I found at STAMP-N-doodle. I've already linked up one card at Jingle Belles using this image. I am usually not drawn to coloring images, but this Santa has me captivated. I used colored pencils to color the black and white image then fussy cut around it. I adhered it to a die cut snowflake, using dimensional adhesive in the center and double sided adhesive around the edges. You can't see it in the photo, but Santa looks 3D in person.  I used a red cardstock for a mat, then poked holes around the snowflake.  I love how the light peeks through those little holes. The die cut frame and cardbase have the same scalloped square shape to allow the light to pass through. I printed the sentiment onto the white frame using MS Word. I'm also going to link this card up over at Christmas Card Challenges. They are having a photo inspiration challenge. I love the red door in that photo. It really pops against the white siding of the house and snow.


Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Bazzill, Recollections, Die Cut Snowflake: Fiskars, Die Cut Frame: Fiskars, Digi Image: Stamp-n-doodle.com, Scrapbook Adhesives Dimensional Foam Squares, Scotch ATG, Printed Sentiment: MS Word, Crayola Colored Pencils         

Heat-Embossed Resist Background

I saw a heat-embossed resist technique video by Jenny at Craft Test Dummies. I just had to try my hand at it. I decided to use the technique to create a background. First, I inked a stamp with Versa mark and stamped stripes onto a white piece of white cardstock. Then I sprinkled on some white embossing powder and heated it. In the Jenny's video, she used Gelatos to color over the embossed design. Since I didn't have any Gelatos, I used my Elmer's Crayon Sticks.They are soft and silky and go on smoothly. Once I had the red and yellow randomly spread across the surface, I used a paint brush dipped in water to blend the colors. Using a paper towel, I smudged and removed color until I was satisfied with the results.  I cut the background into strips with decorative scissors and then adhered them to a black cardbase. For the flower, I used a digi image, colored it with markers and adhered it to an oval that I cut with the same decorative scissors. I added embroidery thread stitching around the oval and adhered punched leaves.

Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Recollections, Digi image: COLORINGPAGESKIDSBOYS.COM, Elmer's Crayon Sticks, Ranger Seafoam       Embossing Powder, Markers: Bic Mark It, Decorative Scissors: Fiskars, McGill Leaf Punch, Adhesive: Scotch ATG, Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares, Versa Mark Stamp Pad, DMC Embroidery Thread


Coloringpageskidsboys.com

Digi Santa

Don't you just love this digital Santa stamp? I found it over at STAMP-N-doodle.com. I printed it in black and white then used colored pencils to add color and detail. Santa really came to life once I added the color.  I trimmed around him and rounded the corners than adhered the image to a red mat. I added the ribbon, bow and pearls than layered the mat on a piece of gray patterned paper backed with red cardstock.  I'm playing with digital images today because I was inspired by the current challenge over at Jingle Belles. The challenge is to use at least one digital image on a card to create a hybrid holiday card.

Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Bazzill (red), Recollections (white), Patterned Paper:Carolina Breeze, Santa Image: Stamp-n-doodle.com, Colored Pencils: Crayola, Corner Rounder: Creative Memories, Adhesive: Scotch ATG, Ribbon: Offray, Pearls: Queen & Co

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Cards for the June Sketch


Here are two more cards based on this month's sketch at The Sketch File. I hope you get a chance to create something based on the sketch and will share it with us. We'd love to see what you can do with the sketch.





Wednesday, June 19, 2013

One More Card before Vacation!


I'm fitting in one more card before I leave for vacation. This card is for the sketch challenge at Jingle Belles. I just had to use Stephanie's sketch one more time! To create the card I used patterned Kraft cardstock. I cut three banners and layered them on a piece of polka dotted Kraft cardstock. Then I punched a snowflake from Kraft, punched around it with a circle punch and adhered it with dimensional adhesive to a piece of polka dotted Kraft. I tucked a Santa in between the layered snowflake and the polka dotted circle adhering it with dimensional adhesive as well. The Santa image was fussy cut from a piece of scrap. I wrote the sentiment on a banner shaped piece of Kraft, backed it with polka dotted Kraft and attached it to the panel with dimensional adhesive. I  also added a small embroidery thread bow. Inside, I attached a snowflake punched from polka dotted Kraft.

Thanks for stopping by....I'm off on VACATION!
Supplies:
Cardbase: Recollections, Kraft Cardstock: My Mind's Eye, Santa Image: Fancy Pants, EK Success Punches, DMC Embroidery Thread, Scotch ATG Adhesive, Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive


Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Inspired by MUSE & SOS


Inside the card
It's time to play along with another Monday Muse challenge. This week Marion Vagg has a beautiful CAS card to inspire us. I loved every aspect of her card including the beautiful shades of color, the large bold white lettering, and the banner shape. So, I created a card that is VERY similar. To create the various shades of color on my banner, I cut out geometric shapes from different shades of blue cardstock and adhered them in a mosaic fashion along the blue banner. I hand cut the letters for the sentiment out of white cardstock and layered the letters over the mosaic background. I repeated a similar mosaic banner inside but decided not to add the white strip on the base. To add a little more texture to the front of the card, I dry embossed it with a basket weave pattern.

If you've seen my previous posts you'll know that I have also been playing along with the Geometric Shapes challenge aShopping Our Stash. I think this card will work for that challenge as well so I'll link it up over there.

Hope you are having an amazing, fun, creative week! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Scrap pieces from my stash (some are DCWV), Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, Scotch ATG, Darice Embossing Folder

Geometric Shapes


I'm playing along with the current geometric shapes challenge over at Shopping Our Stash. It's one of those challenges that has me trying to narrow down what I want to do. There are just sooooo many possibilities! The focus of this card is the circles.  I created the background using an embossing folder with circle swirls and yellow cardstock. Next, I layered rectangular strips of decorative tape down the left hand side. The green tape with numerals is from a new roll that I just purchased. I'm currently really drawn to decorative tape and can't seem to get enough of it.  After punching black and yellow circles of various sizes, I layered them and adhered them to the embossed mat. I finished by adding more tape to the top and bottom of a cardbase and then adhered the mat with all the circles to the cardbase.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

Supplies:  Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Recollections, DCWV, Darice Embossing Folder, Darice Decorative Tape, EK Success Punches, Adhesive: Scotch ATG

Tumbling Blocks Revisited

Tumbling Squares is the current sketch challenge over at The Sketch File. Kathy's created a clever and fun sketch. I hope you'll stop by The Sketch File                to see what Kate and Kathy have created! I'm sure you'll be inspired and we'd love to see your creation. Kathy's rotated the sketch and provided two sketches to inspire us. Which one inspires you?



For my card, I used both punched circles and decorative slides. Remember those slides that were popular many years ago? Well, I still have a stash so I put them to use.  I kept my color palette the same as the circles on the slides and used a MS Word document to print the sentiment on a piece of cardstock that I adhered behind the center slide. This was a pretty simple card to put together and I love the movement the squares and circles create.

Since the current challenge over at Shopping Our Stash is geometric shapes, I'm linking my card up over there. Wait until you see the incredible geometric inspired cards created by the DT over at Shopping Our Stash!

Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: DCWV, Slides ???from Paper Wishes or Oriental Trading (I can't remember), Circle Punches: EK Success, Ink: Studio G, Adhesive: Scotch ATG, Scotch Quick Dry

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Moonlit Night

I'm in need of a few masculine cards so I used the sketch from CAS(E) this Sketch to create this card. I began by creating the background with two shades of ink. To create the moon, I punched a circle and adhered it with temporary adhesive to the white cardstock before inking the background. Once I was satisfied with the background color, I removed the circle leaving a white "moon".  So it wasn't too stark, I inked over the moon ever so slightly.  Next I used an embossing folder to create the trees from black cardstock. I added the detail to the trees with a white marker then fussy cut around each and layered them on the left hand edge of the background paper. A torn piece of black represents the earth at the base of the trees.  The sentiment finishes inside with "a very Happy Birthday".

Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Recollections, Embossing Folder: Darice, Marker: Galaxy, Sakura Gel Pen, EK Success Circle Punch, Adhesive: Scotch ATG

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

My Son's Interpretation

This card was created by my teenage son. He wandered into my studio while I was working on cards for The Sketch File.
When he saw the colors I had chosen for my cards, he mentioned my tendency to use pastels and/or flowers. Then he decided to create a card from a masculine point of view. Secretly,  I was thrilled that he was creating a card. He doesn't consider himself artistic so I figured this was his chance to be creative. I enjoyed watching him (out of the corner of my eye) as he played around with the placement of his squares and circles. He tilted the squares, straightened them and then ended up layering them so so they looked liked diamonds. Satisfied, he adhered everything in place and handed the card to me asking me to write "Happy Birthday"  while giving me specific, detailed instructions on how to write it.  I have to admit that I love his color combination (black, white, tan, and dark brown work well together).  So there you have it...a masculine interpretation of Kathy's sketch!

I hope you'll hop on over to The Sketch File to see what the other DT members have created. You can go HERE to see the cards I was creating when my son wandered into the studio.

Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Recollections, DCWV, EK Success Punches, Adhesive: Scotch Quick Dry, Scotch ATG

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Washi Sailboat

Are you a fan of Washi or Decorative Tape?  I have a growing collection of it. It's fun to use on various projects and best of all, it's super easy to use. One of the best qualities is that it is re-positional. I've used quite a bit of decorative tape on this card. I began by hand cutting a sailboat from white cardstock. I covered both sails with strips of red and blue decorative tape, alternating the colors. Then I covered the base of the sailboat with black polka dotted washi.  I attached a brown cardstock strip to use as a mast and adhered the finished sailboat to white cardstock edged with more blue washi tape. I matted this onto black cardstock before attaching it to the cardbase.  Just Us Girls is having a WASHI Technique challenge this week. This is my second card for this challenge.


Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Recollections, Decorative: Elmer's (blue), Darice (red/black polka dotted), Adhesive: Scotch ATG

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Shades of Green



The inspiration for this card came from three different challenges. The layout is based on the sketch challenge at Jingle Belles. I've also used shades of green for the color palette, which is the current color challenge over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. Lastly,  I'm playing along with the WASHI tape technique challenge over at Just Us Girls. I don't often have a chance to combine so many challenges but these three worked very well together.

Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Fox River Paper Co., Decorative Tape: MME, Darice, Tree Punch: All Night Media, Tag Punch & Stamp: Stampin' Up, Ink: Studio G, Embossing Folder: Darice, Adhesive: Scotch ATG

Father's Day Card with Coupons

This is one of those cards that serves two purposes. It not only wishes a father a Happy Father's Day, but there are 5 little "coupons" dangling from the card in the shape of banners. These little banners can be used as coupons for chores to be performed from the child giving the card.  My inspiration for the layout came from the current sketch at  Freshly Made Sketches. I used shades of green and black as the color palette.

Since the challenge at Craft Lovin Challenge Blog is Father's Day (June 1 through June 14), I'll link up there and hope you will too.


Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Recollections (black) ???(green), Patterned Paper: Colorbok, Twine: The Twinery, Pearls: Queen & Co, Sentiment and Coupons printed with MS Word, Adhesive: Scotch ATG

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Merry Christmas for Merry Monday Challenge

Always Playing With Paper has a new Merry Monday Christmas Card Challenge based on a sketch by Debbie Marcinkiewicz. It's a fabulous sketch! When I first saw it, an image of the card I wanted to create popped into my head.  I began by layering red decorative tape  with white polka dots along a strip of white cardstock. Then I handcut the word MERRY from it leaving a slight white edge on the top and bottom of each letter. I adhered the letters to two strips of dark green cardstock.  From the same dark green cardstock, I handcut the word CHRISTMAS and matted it on a piece of white cardstock with the red tape running down the center. I cut the end of it into the shape of a banner before adhering it beneath the word MERRY. I added red polka dotted decorative tape down the right side edge of an embossed cardbase and layered a piece of green cardstock partially over the tape. The trees were punched then I cut around them in an oval shape. I layered the trees onto a piece of white cardstock, then onto a piece of cardstock with the red decorative tape. I finished by adding small white polka dots on the green oval surrounding the trees. 
  
Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Bazzill (green), Recollections (white), Punch: All Night Media, Darice Decorative Tape, Embossing Folder: Spellbinders, Adhesives: Scotch ATG, Scotch Quick Dry

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Tumbling Squares at The Sketch File


It's June which means that it's time for a new sketch at The Sketch File. Kathy has a fun sketch for us! She's called it "Tumbling Squares". I've played around with it and created these two cards.  For more inspiration, head on over to the The Sketch File to see the fabulous layout created by DT, Kate!  Each Tuesday, Kathy will share more DT designs based on the current sketch.  Hope you'll join the fun!
Supplies: 
Cardbase: Recollections, Patterned Paper: Fancy Pants, Darice Embossing Folder, Stampin' Up stamp, Darice Decorative Tape, Ek Success Punches, Family Treasure Bear Punch, Buttons, Sakura Gel Pen, Scotch ATG and Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive.

Monday, June 3, 2013

White on White: Warm Winter Wishes

A white on white Christmas card...now that's a challenge! It's the current "optional" challenge at Christmas Card Challenge. I began by dry embossing several pair of white mittens. I fussy cut around them and layered one on top of the other using dimensional adhesive in the very center and double sided adhesive around the edges. Next I added a bit of polyfil to represent the white fur. It gave the mittens additional dimension and a warm "fuzzy" look. Over the embossed heart in the center of each mitten, I used Diamond Glaze.  I wanted the hearts to pop to add focal interest.  Then I embossed a white piece of cardstock (I thought that chevron pattern looked a lot like a knitted texture), ran it through the die cut machine and created a frame. I added white embroidery thread to each mitten and along the left edge then used dimensional adhesive to adhere the frame to the cardbase. I made several attempts to include the sentiment on the front of the card. No matter what I came up with, it looked out of place and distracting, so I  end up printing "Warm Winter Wishes" inside.

Since the theme at The Corrosive Challenge is "I've Been Framed", I'll link up with that challenge as well.

Supplies: Cardbase & Cardstock: Recollections, Embossed Mittens: Fiskars Shape Boss, Polyfil, Embroidery thread, Embossing folder: Spellbinders, Die Cut: Fiskars, Judi Kins Diamond Glaze, Adhesives: Scotch ATG, Scrapbook Adhesives 3D Foam Squares.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Kitty Ribbon Christmas Card


The current Jingle Belles RIBBON challenge is making my mind buzz with creative ideas! On this card I used a dark green Christmas ribbon with kittens on it. From a second piece of ribbon, I fussy cut around the kittens and adhered them with dimensional adhesive over the matching kitten. The white space on the card was just begging me to create some kitty paw prints.  I used a heart and circle punch to create them and adhered them so that they "walked" all over the card. I even dug out my embossing marker and wrote "Merry Christmas" and embossed it with green embossing powder. I'm loving this ribbon challenge! (Oops, I see one of my tiny paws is missing a circle...gotta go adhere one on before I forget about it.)

Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections: Cardstock: Recollections, Ribbon: Offray, Embossing Marker: EK Success:Zig, Embossing Powder: Stampin-n Stuff, Adhesive: Scotch ATG, Punches

Bookmarked Christmas Card

This is one of those cards that serves dual purposes. Not only does it wish the recipient a Merry Christmas, but it includes a handmade bookmark as well. The bookmark was made with Christmas ribbon, cardstock and a shear white ribbon. It is tucked behind a strip of musical embossed cardstock that is layered over a larger pieced of embossed cardstock. Inside I adhered a piece of white cardstock that has a strip of the Christmas ribbon running down the right hand edge. My inspiration for this card comes from the current RIBBON challenge at Jingle Belles as well as the BOOKMARK challenge at My Time To Craft

Supplies: Cardbase: Bazzill, Cardstock: Bazzill, Recollections, Ribbon: Offray, Embossing Folder: Spellbinders, Chalk, Punch, Adhesive: Scotch ATG

TREE-MENDOUS Embossing Fun


My wonderful teenage son gave me several Darice embossing folders for my birthday and I am having a blast with them! I found myself embossing scrap pieces of cardstock, just to see what each new embossing folder reveals.

For these cards I kept the design pretty simple. I inked the backgrounds and then embossed them. To make the trees pop, I did a light inking over the top of the embossing.

Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Recollections, Bazzill, Ink: Studio G, Ribbon: Offray, Rick Rack ?, Embossing Folder: Darice, Adhesives: Scotch ATG