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.