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.