The beauty of nature

Here's a fairly straight forward 7x5 card I did with some of the new stamps I got at a rubber stamp convention this summer. The edge underneath the mountains is also a new Spellbinders Edgibilities die. The mountains have been colored with 4 shades of  nuetral gray Copic markers with a little bit of warm gray mixed in a few places. Rather than try and make a scene with the mountains, I opted to cut them out and mount them on dark blue cardstock since the words speak about the beauty of nature and giant mountain peaks are awe inspiring examples of nature that dwarf anything man has built.

As always, click on the images for full directions including the stamps used and paper sizes.

Swing Card

Here's a new card type I haven't made before - a swing card. When you grab the left and right hand sides and pull outward the image in the center swings and changes. Technically, when it's folded up and comes out of the envelope you are actually looking at the image on the back and then when you open it you see the image on the front.

I'm using rubber stamps that were specifically designed for a card of this type but you could actually use any front and back images.

Here's the card - it should show as an animated image that shows the card opening and closing. If it's not working because of where your reading it from, you'll need the click on the image to view the web directions.

After trying to make this a few times, the easiest way I found to cut the paper was to use a trimmer with a cutting blade that has a mark on it where the blade has/will cut. This helps ensure that your lines are straight even if your template placement wasn't perfect.

As always, click on the images for full directions including the stamps used and paper sizes.

That's One Sick Bear

Here's an image I stamped out a long time ago and just recently got around to coloring. Maybe subconsciously I was just waiting for the newest die set I got so I would have something large enough to fit the image without having to do a simple square. This is a 5 x7 card base so the image is quite large. The coloring is all Copic markers. I thought about putting a get well saying on the card somewhere but the image and worried look in the dogs face seemed to say it all already. The colors are on the instructions you can get by clicking on the image.

Waterfall Get Well Card

It's taken a little longer than I was expecting to get this one posted because I have to take extra time to make the animated gif but here's a waterfall/flip card made using the get well image set I brought. Mom made this one because she is always in need of new get well cards for sick relatives. She used colored pencils and Gamsols instead of markers.

Speaking of the animated gif, I noticed on the pumpkin post that a bunch of the reposting and publishing services did something to the image and it wasn't always animated so if you are not seeing the tab being pulled down in the image, you will need to go read the original post or view the card directions.

As always, click on the images for full directions including the stamps used and paper sizes.

Flipping out!

I brought the stamps for this card in early spring. Some people call this a flip card but most seem to call it a waterfall card. The stamp sets for these usually have a series of 4-5 images that show the progression of something happening and then reader pulls the tab to flip them like an old paper stack of hand drawn  animations or pictures were flipped to create a moving picture before we had these cool LCD displays with millions of dots that can be changed hundreds of times a second to any color you want with a little electricity.

I am working through them and planning to use each of the stamp sets to make a card. Here's the first one themed around Halloween. Click on the card if you want to see the directions.

Three Goals Achieved Using Three Stamps Sets That Cost $3 Each

I've usually been getting my paper in multicolor packs. I open them up and then put them into a couple of hanging file folders so I can get at the individual sheets without struggling. I sort the old stuff into the new so all the cardstock of the same color is together and keep the whole bunch of about 150-200 assorted sheets in 3 hanging folders. It's almost time to open a new pack. Most of what I would call the "guy colors" seem to be used up but certain other colors like light pink and purple seem to still be in plentiful supply so goal number one in making this card was use some of these "leftover" colors.

Goal number two was to use some of the stamps I just got. I scored some nice $3 Brenda Walton Inkadinkado clear stamp sets this weekend and they fit the colors better than the Christmas stamp set I was thinking about using. Unfortunately these were very ink phobic, at least when it came to using Memento inks. The ink just beaded up on the stamp. I had to use chalk ink to get a good image.

Goal number three was to make something nice, but at the same time keep it simple, mostly be a stamping card. After glittering two of the images and hand cutting one out I am not sure I kept it as simple as I wanted, but it was worth it.

Here's the end product of these goals. Click on the image for full directions if you want to read more.

Groundhog Day

Today the news referred the today's US debt debate as another Groundhog Day in Washington, DC. Keeping with that theme, I thought I would post yesterday's card in the yellow version I forgot to put up last night. There is a new card in the works, but I can't share details yet because the glitter on the background mat is still drying. If the mat doesn't dry as flat as I am hoping for it will completely derail my plan for the card, but, I'm hopeful that you will see a new card by August 2nd that meets my objective of using up more of my excess of pink card stock that I have been avoiding.

As always, click on the images for full directions including the stamps used and paper sizes.

Pink Flower Soft Leafy Branch

Here's a card I made using Flower Soft. You can do something similar with almost any branch. This one happened to be the right size and full enough to fill the front a card. On the surface it's fairly simple and straight forward to make, it's just a matter of creatively bringing the background, ribbon and die cuts together into a nice card, which isn't always so easy to accomplish. I leave the insides of these blank since they can be used almost any occasion.

If you want to read the full directions on how to make this card, click on the image.

Fun Somewhat Random Creation

Here's fun card that doesn't involve a lot of measurement but is a bit of challenge to put together and get all the layers in place. If you have three colors of nicely coordinating scraps, it could even be a good way to use some scraps. Even if you don't have this set, most stampers probably have some kind of similar set they could substitute in for the images. I stamped it in more neutral colors but you could also easily make it a lot more feminine and then slap a big flower in top center. Hmm... maybe I should go do that. As always, the full directions are on the website, just click on the card image if you want to see them.

New HoneyPOP Get Well Card

It's been a while since my last post. I have been uploading stuff but it was all changes to make the website more compatible with the latest html specifications and trying to improve some of the web site infrastructure. One side effect you may notice if you have memorized the card positions is that a bunch of cards that got edited will shuffle around position when I put up the next set of indices later today because they are actually computer generated by the file modification time.

I do have a few new cards to put out too, starting with this new Inky Antics HoneyPOP get well card. This one is kind of interesting. I actually used marker and colored pencil on the inside because there were areas I didn't want to bleed though and show on the other side. I didn't do a lot a shading and blending on this one. I did some (applying a second layer after the marker dried and using the blender to lighten the other side) but I was more concerned with color matching the image to the cardstock so I only used the one marker color for each area instead of full blending set.

As always, click on the images for full directions including the stamps used and paper sizes.

Happy Birthday Definition Cards

Here are two more new cards. These were inspired by two new stamps I got and some one pound packs of cut up paper that had bunches of a few different colors cut down to 4x6 or smaller. Everything except the white card stock and the card base came out of these bargain packs.

I started out making a male design and decided to make a female version with pinks and yellows from a second pack. Like the last design, it's practically the same except for the color choices and glitter on the pink one but the choice of colors made the male card a female one. The cupcakes weren't part of the original design but that area looked too empty so I colored coordinating cupcakes and added them to the design.

As always, click on the images for full directions including the stamps used and paper sizes.

New Cards - If you didn't see them on the website already!

If you haven't noticed on the website yet, here is a new card design I made with as many masculine choices as possible, then with as many feminine choices as possible and then one that has elements of both.

	This the masculine version. The background stamp is a line pattern and none of the main colors are feminine.
	This the feminine version. Purple is just not a guy color for the most part and swirling heart pattern adds to that feeling.
	This the neutral version. The main colors are neutral or even lean toward being earthy guy colors but the swirling hearts are more feminine.

You can see how just a few simple choices made the card masculine or feminine and totally changed the card from something more formal into something more whimsical. Using tricks like that can help you get a little mileage out a card design you may have spent hours to get right.

The other thing I really like about this card front is that you can use it for almost anything. It could be a thank you, a birthday card, a sympathy card or a missing you card depending on what you put inside the card.

As always, click on any of the images to see the larger versions or the full directions if you want to know what stamp set was used.

New HoneyPOP Cupcake Card

I found a leftover HoneyPOP cupcake from my previous card and you can't let a cupcake go to waste so I whipped up this new card design using it. Enjoy!


Outside Front

Inside of Opened Card


As always, click on the images for full directions from the website.

HoneyPOP Happy Birthday Cupcake

Here's a really cool card I designed using another of the Inky Antics HoneyPOP stamp sets with a honeycomb cupcake on the front that folds down for mailing. The recipient opens it up when they get it and folds it over so they can display it open and then close it back up when they want to store it. To add more dimension the bird is mounted using dimensional foam. The cherry was stamped again, cut out and then mounted on top of the other cherry on the mounted bird, which helps get the image up to same dimension as the honeycomb cupcake. The foam I used is very squishy so it collapses down in the envelope.

You can use almost any color you want for the cupcake top. I started out by using yellow so it was gender nuetral. The pink went best with the cherry theme though so that's the one I am sharing here.

As always, click on the image if you are interesting in reading the full directions.

HoneyPOP Hoppy Easter Card

Here's the cool follow on to the previous post. This uses the same HoneyPOP set as last time and a second Easter one. The set includes a stamp for a normal carrot image, which I used last time, and the stamps for the honeycomb paper, which is what I used this time.

Here's the outside front of the card.


Opening the card, opens the honeycomb paper to reveal this surprise inside. The inside here is mostly following the standard pattern established by the set. You have to put the carrot in the middle so it will open, and the sentiment goes with the carrot. If you ran out of the honeycomb paper, or opted not to use it like I did in the last post then you use the full carrot image instead and you can put it anywhere even on the outside like I did last time.


As always, click on an image for the full directions and supplies.

Tomorrow, I'll start working on the post of a card using a different set, where I figured out how to put the honeycomb image on the outside of the card!

Carrots For You Easter Card

I wasn't planning on posting any more Easter cards this year, but then I saw the new HoneyPOP collection Inky Antics had in person at a stamping convention and had to get them, so now I have 2 more cards to post before Easter. This card is actually made with the stamps that they designed for the inside of the card, but I flipped things around and used them on the outside to make a card that doesn't actually use any of the new HoneyPOP paper. Here's the card:


I'm still working on the post and web page for the other card that does use the new HoneyPOP paper. Stay tuned, I hope to post it tomorrow night.

As always, click on the images for full directions including the stamps used and paper sizes.

Easter Lily Card

Here's another Easter card using the same stamp sets as the last two cards have used but this time the main focus is the Easter lily stamps from the set arranged on paper cut with a new Grand Nestibilities die I got with a 50% off coupon at the local store before they ran out and quit selling them.

This card isn't that hard to make if you have the dies but it takes a while to fussy cut out all the lily images for the second layer so plan to spend an hour or more per card if you try to make one like this. Here's the card image:



As always, click on the images for full directions including the stamps, marker colors and paper sizes.

Copic Rejoice Easter Cross Card

Here's an Easter card I made a weekend or two ago. The cross image is colored with Copic markers while the rest of it is cardstock and stamping.

This one took a long time to design. I had originally stamped the cross in gold embossing. Then I decided to try black ink thinking it would stand out better and could just be a bottom layer but I really didn't like the way a gold embossed cross stacked on top of it. I stamped one in purple and that didn't look right either. After much playing, I was about to give up and just use an embossed gold image, since it looked the best out of what I had tried, but then I remembered Copic has a nice gold colored marker (Y28) and went back to the black stamped image and colored one with markers, which finally gave me a cross that could stand on its own against the background. I was hoping to stamp the sentiment on the card directly, but the Bazzill paper had a texture to it and the little stamp proved it required a great a deal of precision to produce a good image so I had to go with a mounted sentiment.


As always, click on the images for full directions including the stamps, marker colors and paper sizes.

Purple Daisy Bike

Here's an any occasion card I made using a delicate looking bicycle stamp. Usually I would make my card a little brighter but I wanted to do something different with this stamp. I wanted to avoid using white paper, since a lot of the cards I make incorporate white paper so I can color the image. With that direction in mind, I decided to stamp the image on pink and emboss it with a super fine gold embossing powder to preserve all the delicate lines.

I didn't avoid using white paper, you just can't see it. The "gold" cardstock you see started out as white. I used a gold Adirondack dabber to paint the edges of the paper gold so they would accent the bicycle.

The embossing folder was chosen to play on the curled spokes in the wheel and finish off the edges. Since the image was so large and I was making an A2 card, I didn't try to squeeze a sentiment on the card front so now it can be for any occasion, even a simple note to someone.


As always, click on the images for full directions including the stamps used and paper sizes.

Simple Elegant Easter Cross

Mom got into my last Heartfelt Creations stamp order and the gold embossing powder I was using and made this simple and elegant Easter card with one the cross stamps.

She made three embossed crosses and then cut out different layers from the stamp and mounted them on top of each other using dimensional foam tape. The image is large enough that it covers an A2 sized card front as you can see so she embossed the edges of the card front to make a gold mat and mounted the layers onto that.


As always, click on the card image to get the step by step directions for the card from my website if you want to know exactly which stamp or embossing powder was used or more about how it was made.

Watering Can, Take 2

Here is Mom's take on the watering can image. She colored hers with colored pencils but used the same circle and scallop mat. She wanted her card to be an A2 sized card (4 1/4 x 5 1/2), which didn't leave much room for anything else on the card other than the scallop mat. To add more elements, she stamped the image a second time, colored some of the flowers on it again and then cut out and mounted some the flowers on top of the original image to give it more dimension. This proved difficult to do though because the colored pencil added a layer of wax that required a better adhesive than what was on the dimensional foam.

It makes sense, stickers are essentially on a wax paper and colored pencils use wax to hold the pigment particles together so you basically end up making a small area of waxy paper that resists dry adhesive when you color with them, although you may not be thinking about it at first. Some liquid glue solved the problem of the extra layer falling off.


As always, click on the card image if you want the full directions.

Masterpiece Watering Can

Here's a masterpiece I created. This is a masterpiece card because it's the kind of card you would see at a vendor booth at a stamping convention. It's beautiful and eye catching. It requires lots of expensive stuff to make - 4 different Spellbinder die sets, 3 different stamp sets and Copic markers. It takes a long time to create one, an hour or more, even if you are talented and even after you have designed it and know how to make one. If you were going to sell it, you would have to sell it for $15 or more just to get minimum wage for your time. It's not a card, it's a masterpiece.


As always with my posts, just click the card to get the directions if you want to know more about the stamps, die sets or just want to read more.

Lottery Ticket Card

Here's another humorous birthday card using a different stamp from the same Stampin' Up! set that I used last time. The characters legs and arms are so skinny, I went straight to the colored pencils this time.

In an effort to get as many different possible colors, I have picked up a number of brands of colored pencils ranging from more expensive artists brands, to store brands and even Crayola ones from the kids section. This time I decided to try out a dirt cheap A.C. Moore branded set that had 36 different colors in it. This set has a nice color range and includes many normal colors. I've been surprised how hard it is to get a basic, normal, "box of 8 crayons" shade in the expensive sets. Surprisingly, it also had a really nice peach that worked perfectly as a skin tone when lightly applied.

I made the paper on the left myself by using stamps. I stamped each number in a different color, trying to play on the idea of the balls mixing together during a lottery drawing and get as many different colors into card as possible. Can you figure out how many different stamp pad colors I used on the card in total?

As always, click on the images for full directions including the names of all the stamp colors used.

Who Wants A Cruise For Their Birthday?

Here's a cool birthday card that proposes just that thought. I made versions of it using both colored pencils blended with mineral spirits on a blending stump and Copic markers. Since most cruises seem to be to warmer destinations, at least where I live, I tried to make a bright warm summer card, inspite of the snow that was on the ground at the time. The Copic marker version is brighter naturally while the colored pencil one looks good but the colors are a little fainter. Here are the two different versions:



Copic Marker Version



Blended Colored Pencil Version
Of course the recipient will not be getting a cruise. Inside it reads "Will you pick up my mail while I'm gone?" The perfect funny card for a cruise lover to give to someone or for you to tease a cruise lover.

As always click on a card image to see the full directions.

Happy St Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is a difficult event for cardmaking because most people aren't going to be giving out too many cards except maybe to a few special people. This means I am not usually going to get a lot of use out of whatever I buy for the event. Ok, a good portion of what's in my craft room has never seen any use but will one day (don't laugh you know its true of yours as well), so maybe that's not the best criteria but you know, whatever you get, you are going to make a few cards for that year and then probably never it use again because you already made them one with that stamp or cut out.

This year I found a super cheap and easy solution to that problem. A. C. Moore had a big pack of Nicole St Patrick's Day stickers for $1.00 that inspired me to make this year's design. I started with the stickers in mind and found paper that matched the sticker colors and then worked out a paper layout that made the card be more sophisticated than just putting down some stickers.

The top and bottom yellow sections had a bunch of small shamrocks stamped in them in a light green to step it up further but for some reason the scanner totally missed them. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until today after I had the images cropped and straightened and ready for posting so rather than delaying them and having a Happy Belated St Patrick's Day post, here are my cards for this year:

As always, click on the card image for the full directions from my website.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Another Thank You Card Link Correction

I just realized the link in the thank you card post did not work because of a typo in one of the HTML tags that I didn't catch because blogger's preview mode doesn't use live links.

I've corrected the original post but for those reading from other sites that are pulling in an RSS feed that may not update the post, here's a working image to click on if you wanted to get the directions:

Mindscapes Butterfly Birthday Card

Here's a card Mom put together from butterfly leftovers I gave her.


I had stamped out a sheet or two or three of these butterfly images last year when I was planning to make one of these cards:


      
Not really sure which one started it all now but the original image turned out to be too big for what I had in mind so I moved on to a smaller butterfly image from another set and left these abandoned at the bottom of a paper scrap heap that I clean up recently. Good to see them put to good use.

Another Thank You Card

Here's another card using the same technique as the last post. The flower is from the same Stampin' Up! stamp set but the sentiment is from different set. Mom made this card when she tried the technique.


Just like before, not much was really needed to have a nice card because the contrast of the colored and stamped image on the dark cardstock makes the image pop naturally without a lot of extra work.

Directions for the card are up on the website - just click on the card image if you want read the exact steps to the technique or know which stamps sets where used.

Thanks So Much Card

Here's a versatile card design using Stampin' Up! images. The image is created in three steps. Essentially you use colored pencils in between two step stamping the image on a dark paper. The web site directions explain it all step by step if this is confusing, just click the image to view them. I made it as a thank you card but you could use just about any elegant sentiment on the card and it doesn't take that long to make.


I didn't add a lot of additional elements because most of the time images are stamped on a lighter color and then need things to give them weight on the card. Using this technique though, the image pops out immediately as the focal point because of the contrast against the darker paper.

As always, click on the card image for the directions on how to make it if you want to know more.

Don't Feel So Hot Leftovers

Last year I made this Don't Feel So Hot Card:

This was not how the card started out though. I have been buying paper in packs that have 10 sheets each of 20 colors and after going through most of a few packs this particular color was accumulating in the hanging file folders I use to store my 8 1/2 x 11 card stock. My major goal for this card was therefore to try to use up some of this particular green paper.

I had played with different colors for the blanket before I settled on the design above. My original coloring choices didn't quite work for me at time and got set aside. I was cleaning up and gave some of my first attempts at coloring the image and other leftovers to Mom to see if she wanted to do anything with them. She copied the design I had done but came with other papers to mat them. Here is what she produced:

I still prefer my original design - the way the background stamp tones down the paper and provides black in the background to coordinate with the black mat, but maybe my original coloring choices weren't as bad as I thought they were.

The two new variants are up on the website now, along with the original one. As always, just click on any of the image to see the full directions with stamps set, marker colors and paper sizes.

A Purple Daisy Design Letter Card

Here's another card I did with the Purple Daisy Designs stamps that fit in the EK Success punches.

Rather than color the flowers, leave them white, or glitter over the whole thing, this time I used pink card stock and stamped on it with a darker pink. This gave me a pink flower without any coloring. It doesn't have shading, but it took a lot less time to make. To add another dimension I used Stickles over the stamped areas on the flower at the end after it was mounted. This allows me to finish the card in one sitting and just set the finished product aside to dry. This works well for Stickles because it has a lot of glitter in it so you can don't need to apply much which means the paper won't warp up on you. For cheaper glitter glue products, you might need to let it dry first so you can glue down any warped areas.

This is what I call a letter card. It's sized to fit inside a standard business envelope in the US, so they are easy to mail and it's easy to find envelopes for them. This format works well for a long narrow design like this one.

Overall the card isn't that complicated to make but with the Stickles on the flowers and the dimensional foam under the petals it looks nice. As always, click on the card for the full directions on the web site. When making these, I did put things together in a specific order for specific reasons and the direction on the web site explain this order.

Larger Get Well Card That A Group Could Sign

Here's the last variant Mom made of her get well card. This one was designed as a 5x7 card so there is more room on it so a larger group of people could sign it if someone wanted to pass the card around in an office or group setting. It doesn't show up on the web background well but the card base is white so the entire inside surface and the back surface of the card are usable for writing.

She changed the sentiment stamp to something larger with a little more weight and rearranged the elements a little to take up more space on the front of the card but the rest of it is similar to the way the elements on the previous cards where made.

Here's the card. As usual, click on it to see the full directions for it on http://www.sharedcards.com.

Two More Get Well Cards

About a month ago, I posted this get well card that my Mother had made.


She made two more variants using the same basic design but using a more monochromatic color theme instead of the a Red Hat Society color theme that I just put up on the website. Here they are:

  
One thing that she did that didn't translate too well into web images is to place Crystal Effects on all the heart images. This gives them a clear dimensional shiny appearance in person. You can see the light reflection in the bottom of the some of the hearts from the dimensional layer it added if you look closely at the enlarged image on the website.

The full directions with stamp sets and techniques used are up on the website, as I normally do. Just click any of the images to go to that page on the website.