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.

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.

Life Without Copic Markers

Here's a card I made a year or two or three ago, that reminded me of another reason I'm really glad I got Copic markers. They have nice flesh tone colors. When I made this I tried every marker set in the house and could not find a usable flesh tone color for Santa's face. They all looked like he'd just come back from a week at the beach without suntan lotion or like he was a pink alien. I ended up having to leave his face blank and I'm sharing the card here in its original form.

The card does show an interesting use of the snow foam they sell in the large chain craft stores at this time of year. The foam is really made for other stuff like painted wood, which is what I first used it for, but it works just as well on paper as a thin layer.

Here's the card. As always click on it if you want the supplies and sizes.

Witching You A Spooky Halloween

Here's another fairly simple card using mostly dollar stamps, but this one has a lot more design elements so it looks a lot nicer. It has all five of the traditional Halloween colors on it and it incorporates 5 different stamps. Another key design element is how the images manage the flow of your eye across the page. The witch takes you to the spider, the spider is going toward the start of the words and the bat and skeleton are headed toward the words as well. It wouldn't be nearly as interesting if the images had been arranged so they lead you off the page and away from the card. This is an important concept in scrapbooking and anytime you make a card like this with a bunch of different things on it that cause your eye to naturally follow them and see where they are headed.

As always click the image to go the instruction page on http://www.sharedcards.com for more information on the stamps, paper sizes or supplies used.

A Deceptively Simple Male Birthday Card

Here's a deceptively simple male card I created. It's just rubber stamping and paper so it looks pretty easy to modify to just about any occasion but it's the little design choices that make it different. The center paper isn't just blue, it's patterned paper that I stamped on. The photo tabs only hide half of what's underneath and the center paper is smaller, which means all the colors come together in the photo tab and it ties the different elements together physically and visually. The background paper is also textured which helps it be a little more than just a simple paper card.



Click on the card for the website page if you want full directions and larger images.

Two New A7 Floral Oval Cards

These are simple and elegant male and female versions of a card I made using one of the new stamps I got this summer at a rubber stamping convention. The oval is fairly tall so I decided to put it on an A7 sized card. A7 is the fancy way of saying 5x7 or 7x5 in this case. I buy these cards prefolded with envelopes from a local craft store. They end up being about 30 cents per card or 15 cents after coupon so its not a bad deal for most of a sheet of Bazzill paper when I have made the trip up there but they don't have anything new I want to buy.

There is a lot of penwork in the image so the leaves are tough to color and get any detail but I colored it with Copic markers and then had to fussy cut out all the layers. I used a little tracing wheel though (see instructions) so it wasn't so bad. I also found out that even though I thought I didn't need any more ribbon I didn't have any black ribbon wide enough for the card so I had to go buy some. This turned out to be a very good idea because there was nice black ribbon with a green and pink floral pattern on it waiting for me at the store for the pink one. In order to make it wide enough though I mounted the ribbon on a wider white ribbon. The final double stacked ribbon pulled in all the colors from the image. For the blue card, they didn't have a plain black ribbon that wide but they had one with a white diagonal pattern which added another detail to the card.

Here are the cards, click on them to see more detail or get additional directions: