Saturday, February 28, 2009

A rose by any other name


I'm still playing with stencils with at least one more to go. This one was a fun one although in real life VERY glittery!
The background roses and Happy birthday are both Dreamweaver stencils.
First off I applied white Dreamweaver paste to the roses stencil on a red piece of cardstock while the paste was still wet I applied Sand and Liberty Blue Glitter Ritz glitter to the paste making sure it fell in a diagonal pattern and tapped off the extra. I set it aside to dry. While that was drying I used the white paste on the Happy Birthday on a scrap of blue paper. While the paste was wet I sparingly applied Sand glitter. I let that dry as well.
When everything was dry I matted with red and blue and attached the Happy birthday on top of the background. I thought the Happy birthday panel needed something on the ends so I used Antique Linen Distress Stickles. I did not pay attention while they were drying and ended up putting my hand in it so the dots ended up larger than I had intended. :)
All the supplies for this card are available from Crafty Capers in Lantzville BC. Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Black Magic



Here is another card done with a Dreamweaver stencil. It was done with Black Dreamweaver stencil paste. I let the paste dry overnight then the next morning I put the stencil back on the card then I applied Ranger's Perfect Medium (found in 4 packs of Perfect Pearls) to the black paste. Having the stencil in place acts as a mask stopping the Perfect Medium from getting on your cardstock. Once that was done I applied Sunflower Sparkle, Turqouise and Green Patina colored Perfect pearls to the black paste. The Perfect Medium acts like a glue for the Perfect Pearls so they stay in place. After that was done. I did my matting using scraps of Bazzill cardstock and a piece of Fancy Pants patterned paper. I stenciled the Happy Birthday with a Dreamweaver stencil but left the paste black. I have at least 1 more stencil card coming tomorrow so stay tuned...

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Best Wishes


I have a bunch of Dreamweaver stencils that I needed samples for so I've been playing with my stencils this week. This one I'm quite happy with. It's pretty simple. I started with (white) glossy cardstock that I brayered with Ranger's Big and Juicy rainbow pad called Happy Birthday. I really like this pad because it is nice and bright. After I had brayered I taped the Best Wishes stencil down with low tack tape on all 4 sides and used Dreamweaver's Pearl Paste. I let the sample dry for a few hours then cut out the Best Wishes part out with my Spellbinders ovals. I cut a larger mat out of black cardstock with my Spellbinders Scallop oval. I attached the ovals and voila! done. This card is much nicer in person. The paste did not photograph very well. The supplies for this card are all available from Crafty Capers. Thanks for looking!

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Summer Day


It's been so sunny here lately that I had almost forgoten it's still winter! I heard last week the Luminarte the makers of Twinkling H20's are closing their doors so I thought I would have a play with the H20 paints in honor of them. This image is by Impression Obsession. I stamped the image and embossed it with Ranger Detail Gold embossing powder on blue cardstock. I then painted the image with my Twinkling H20's. I really love these paints because they show up nicely on darker cardstock which not all coloring materials do. Once the image was painted I cut out the image with my Spellbinder Labels 2 template. I also cut a mat with the larger matching die. One final mat layer was embossed with my new D'Vine swirl Cuttlebug embossing folder. Before I attached the embossed cardstock to the main card I used my Solar Gold H20 paint and painted all the raised swirls. I attached everything and added some gold ribbon as an accent.

Thanks for looking!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Penny Black Saturday Challenge

This week is a sketch challenge. I was humming and hawing about participating then my friend Yvette called all excited that she had done the challenge so that spurred me on.
I used the Penny Black stamp called Bunny Friends. All the layers in the sketch were a bit of a challenge since I usually make simple cards. The cardstock used on the card is by SEI (striped paper) and by Bazzill. I used Versafine ink for stamping and Shimmerz paints for coloring. The large flowers are by Bazzill and the small ones by Prima.
The card is pretty simple if you take away the layers. I stamped the bunnies on a scrap of white and colored them with Shimmerz paints (olive green, coffee, bubble gum and magenta). I cut out each bunny and attached them to my turqoise cardstock. The bottom two bunnies are attached with foam mounting tape. I did my cardstock layering then attached my flowers. The large flowers were white originally but I painted them with my Bubble Gum Shimmerz so they are now pink. The centers of the flowers are white Fun Flock by Stampendous as is the upside down bunny's tail.
Thanks for looking this was a fun challenge!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Balloon Day

This is a card I've been wanting to make for quite a few months now. I've found that just because a card looks cool in your head does not mean it comes out of your head easily. This one came out pretty well.
The image is 1 large image from Penny Black called Balloon Day that I stamped pieces of. The image in available in store at Crafty Capers and on the on-line store.
This card is a 3 panel card 8.5 long divide in equal sections. On the front panel I stamped the little hedgehog in the upper right side just coming down into the picture and embossed him with Rangers Detail Gold embossing powder. In fact pretty much everything is embossed in detail gold powder. I sponged Ranger Stonewash dye ink around the edges of the card to color the white card up a bit. I then stamped a flower border from the clear set called Happy Day by Hero Arts. I use this border a lot definitely worth the money. The butterfly is from a different clear set from Hero Arts stamped with Ranger Stonewash ink. I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head. The hedgie and flowers were all colored and blended with my Tombow markers. To finish this panel I added a bow of yellow gingham ribbon.

Panel 2 I again stamped and embossed the little hedgehog but he is now in the center of the panel. Sponged stonewash ink around the edges, embossed the flowers and colored with Tombow inks. This picture really shows the Ranger Glossy Accents I added to all the balloons on this card.
The final inside panel I embossed the other 2 hedghogs on this stamp waiting for the floating hedgehog. I added a line of green Tombow for them to be standing on to anchor them. The "what's up" saying is from the same clear Hero Arts set as the butterfly. It was stamped in Stonewash after I sponged the edges of the card. After I'd taken this picture I realized I'd forgotten to add the small Hedgehog one final time on the right of the card for the 2 hedgehogs to be looking at. Anyway, you get the idea! Thanks for looking!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Enjoy!


I made this card earlier this week but did not have a chance to post it. The main image is by Magenta (Crafty Capers has them in stock). This image is so fun to color. This time I used Luminarte's Twinkling H20 watercolor paints on a piece of watercolor cardstock. To help keep the colors in place I embossed the image with Crafty Capers Moss Green embossing powder. You can't tell in this photo but I actually layered the flowers so I stamped 2 extra images on watercolor paper for my layers and then cut them out and attached everything with foam mounting tape. I found a bunch of scraps for matting and used my scallop square Nestabilities and Provocraft's Spots and Dots Cuttlebug folder. The enjoy stamp is actually from Hero Arts Tags and Tickets clear set. Crafty Capers is sold out of this set but we have it on order. I finished off the card by making a flower with Punch Bunch's medium sized Burst punch that had been punched out 4 times then layered. The center of the flower is Ranger's Lemon Yellow Liquid Pearls. I also added the same color Liquid Pearls to the stamen's of the flowers as well as some Lavender Stickles.
Thanks for looking!

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Smile!

I took a bunch of photos of this card but because it was so sunny I kept getting lots of shadows! I am not complaining about the sun mind you!!

The blog Penny Black Saturday Challenge has a weekly challenge. This week the challenge is to make a circle card. All images are by Penny Black. I stamped the Bunny Friends (1927K) stamp on a piece of watercolor paper with Versafine onyx black. I painted everthing with Shimmerz paints. I then cut all the bunnies out and thought these two looked cute together by themselves. I cut a piece of patterned Imaginesce paper with my scallop circle Nestabilities. I made the card using the same die. I painted the white background of the card with sky blue Shimmerz to liven up the background then attached the scrap of green that I had edged with Versamagic green tea ink. I stamped the Penny Black saying with black ink on the green scrap and attached the bunnies with a punched heart in the middle. I find this type of card tends to splay until it lays flat (not a good quality in a card) so I used my Crop-a-dile Big Bite and punched to holes and threaded ribbon through the holes to help keep the card upright. For more information on how to make this shape with Nestabilities check here.
Thanks for looking!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Girly Birthday

My niece's birthday is coming up and I felt like doing a fun card so I thought I'd get to work on her card in advance!!
The girly image is by Penny Black. I am not sure if it was one of the recently discontinued ones but Crafty Capers does still have her in stock and she is on the webpage.
I stamped her twice, once on my main white cardstock (Bazzill) and once on a scrap of white. I colored both images with my Tombow markers. I found 2 scraps of Imaginesce paper and stamped the girl again on the patterned scraps and cut out her top and skirt and mounted them onto the girl stamped on the scrap of white. Using my Long Spellbinders Rectangles I cut her out and as well a blue mat. Please note in order to get such a skinny mat I had to use both the small long rectangles and the large long rectangles. I mounted the cut out girl onto the blue mat and then attached her over top of the girl on the main card with popdots. I stamped out Hayley's name on more pattern scraps using a Stampendous clear aphabet and mounted each square onto a scalloped mat (again cut with Spellbinders squares and scallop squares). I thought the main card looked a little bare so used a couple of daisies from Stampendous's clear set Circle Talk Spots and stamped them using my Tombow markers as ink. I mounted the Hayley squares to the right side of the card with foam mounting tape and then stamped Happy Birthday on the bottom with black ink. The Happy Birthday is by Inkadinkado.
Thanks for looking!

Monday, February 2, 2009

Seize the cupcake!

Another coloring card! This time I used Tombow markers, mainly. I started off stamping Hero Arts Clear Design cupcake set on watercolor paper a bunch of times with Versafine Onyx black. I let the ink dry (this is very important if you are in a rush use your heat gun to speed things along). I colored and blended with my Tombow markers as previously stated. I then found a scrap of Shrink Plastic in my scrap bin and stamped on of the larger cupcakes on the shrink plastic with my black Stazon ink and colored the image using my Sakura Souffle and Stardust gel pens. For those who don't know what shrink plastic is(the brand I use is Lucky Squirrel). It is a sheet of thin plastic about cardstock weight and when you heat it in an oven or with your heat gun it shrinks up to about 1/3 of it's original size! Very neat stuff!

I then cut out the cupcake image carefully because the gel pens take a while to dry, I found this out the hard way too! Then heated it with my heat gun. You know it has fully shrunk when the image is fairly flat. When you are actually heating it it curls and flips around it's quite scary the first time you do it. To make it fully flat after shrinking I put a pad of paper on top of it and press for a minute or so. Don't use your hand because the plastic is HOT.

I stamped my saying on a piece of blue Bazzill cardstock with Versamagic ink and mounted it. I mounted the cupcakes on blue then my main cardstock. I ran a silver ribbon down the side of the card and put my saying and mini cupcake on the ribbon. I would have added some magnetic tape to the cupcake but one of my employees is a "tidier" and has put my Xyron machine up higher than I can reach!

Thanks for looking!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Limes


There is nothing more relaxing than spending the afternoon coloring! Ok, maybe a trip to the spa is more relaxing but coloring is cheaper!
This card is pretty straight forward both images are made by Impression Obsession. Everything was colored with Prisma and Laurentian pencil crayons.
I used small and large standard Spellbinders circles to cut the circles. I used Ranger Diamond Stickles glitter glue around the lightest orange circle.
Thanks for looking!