Today is a Gift

I've been on a card making streak lately. Here's one I made a day or so ago. I took a scrap of white cardstock and embossed a square using a large square Nestabilities. I then cut out a window the same size out of a scrap of cardstock. I used the frame I made as a mask. I laid the mask over the outside of the embossed square to keep a nice white border. I took an Inkadinkado stamp and inked it with Ranger Big and Juicy soothing sunset rainbow pad. I stamped the flower randomly inside the square inking only every second stamping. When the space was covered I took a Penny Black saying and stamped it in black ink.

I matted the white piece on a yellow main piece of cardstock. I filled up the bottom of the card with a different yellow cardstock strip that I had stamped with one on Penny Black's stitches borders again in Soothing Sunset. I finished off with a gold ribbon bow. I've put a close up of the flower so you can see it better. Thanks for looking! I'm late for work!! :)

Treasures of the Heart

I have had to make some cards for people who sent me Christmas cards but I didn't know they were sending me Christmas cards. You know when you go get the mail on Christmas eve and you have a card from your Great Aunt that you have never before had a card from! Anyway, I got a few of those this past Christmas so I've decided to send spring type cards to them since I am now just getting around to sending to these people. Here is the first one I did. It is for some roommates I had when I was in University.

The first thing I did was find a scrap of glossy cardstock that someone had done a brayering demo on with Ranger's Big and Juicy Waterfall rainbow pad. It was not the best demo since the color was all mottled. :) I stamped the main imaged with clear embossing ink and embossed the image with black powder. I then took my beloved Tombow felt markers and colored the flowers and leaves. I matted it with pieces of scrap out of my scrap bin as well as stamped my "friends are special treasures of the heart" stamp on a matching piece of cardstock. I thought the main cardstock needed a little something so I took my Scor-It board and scored lines around 3 sides of the card which you cannot see in the photo. I edged all my mats with Versamagic white ink for extra pop.

Thanks for looking!

Stamps: Stampington Garden view, Penny Black Treasures of the Heart

Ink: Ranger Big and Juicy Waterfall, Ranger Big and Bossy embossing ink, Versamagic cloud white

Other: Tombow markers, black embossing powder

Baby card practice

I know someone who is having a baby in February so since it has been a year or so since I had to make a baby card I thought I should brush up on my skills. Also, it gave me an excuse to play with the Glitter Ritz glitter. :) The buggy image is from Penny Black. I embossed the image on a scrap of blue cardstock with black embossing powder then took Art Institute clear drying glue and applied glue to each area by color. ie I did the wheels first then applied Gunmetal glitter, then did the body of the carriage and used Liberty Blue. Finally, I did the sunshield (is that what the top part is called??) with Champaigne glitter and added liberty blue glitter spots. I matted the card with scraps of Bazzil cardstock. I stamped a Hero Arts "new baby" stamp around the outside of one of the mats and added a blue bow. I added some Ranger Stickles in diamond around the scallop oval and buggy because the card really was not glittery enough! Thanks for looking.

Made with Love

I made this card a few days ago using a layout from the blog Card Sketch a Day. I am very proud to say I even used all scraps! I had the strips all pre-cut from the Crafty Capers December Make and Take.

Anyway, a pretty straight forward card. I used a new Inkadinkado buy 2, get 1 free stamp from the Valentines collection, Ranger Pesto dye ink and Kaiser Craft yellow rhinestones.

Thanks for looking!

February Make and Take

I promised the February make and takers a romantic card since it is being held Feb 14. This design just came to me while I was thinking about this blog and what she had done with a new Spellbinders design.

The scalloped oval was cut with the Small Scalloped oval set while the die was still attached to the paper I stenciled it then stamped my message. The heart was made with 2 pieces of Grand Illumination border by Spellbinders. The embossed background is Textile Texture by Provo Craft.

There are still spaces in the free Make and Take Fri Feb 13 6:30 pm, Sat Feb 14 10:30 am & 1:00 pm. Call Crafty Capers at 250-390-1107 to register. Thanks for looking!

Koi Pond

I love fish ponds when I saw this stamp a few years ago I had to buy it however I have not used it much. Naughty me! This stamp is made by Magenta Design.

I started this card by stamping the pond image with Versafine Onyx black on watercolor paper. I then used my Tombow markers and colored it. I made sure to add a little blue color to the background to make it less stark.

I cut out the image with my circle Nestabilities and matted it with another circle of Magenta paper. My blue main cardstock is Bazzill stamped with Magenta's falling petals stamp (stamped in Ranger Cloudy blue dye ink). I used a scrap of Colormates green cardstcok stamped with an Art Impressions leaf stamp stamped in Ranger Meadow dye ink. Along the blue/green cardstock join I added Prima flowers in orange and added flower centers with Rangers Distress Stickles in Denim.

My final steps were to add Rangers Glossy Accents on the lily pads and Rangers Diamond Stickles on the water bubbles.

All items on this card are available for sale at Crafty Capers. Thanks for looking!

Black and White butterfly

I was working on cards for my class Puttin on the Glitz in a few weeks. This is a card that did not make the cut.

The image is a wood mounted Butterfly by Stampendous.

The first thing I did was put Be Creative tape (5 mm) down the open side of the card unfortunately the tape went on crooked so I had to put the bottom one on crooked too! I then cut a wiggly line on the pieces of tape and peeled one side of the backing off and put Glitter Ritz Black micro fine glitter on the exposed tape then I peeled off the other side and put Crystal Clear glitter on it.

The image I had planned to use did not work with the border so I stamped butterfly with Versafine Onyx black (love this ink!). I thought the butterfly needed a little bit of color so I used my Tombow glue pen and put glue on the dots of the butterfly and used Fire Red Glitter Ritz on them. Hopefully, the closeup picture will show this

better. Overall a pretty quick card.

Thanks for looking!

Bloom

This card sketch came from a site I found last night called "Card Sketch a Day" I used sketch 136 as my inspiration. I'd actually had a bunch of stamped circles from Hero Arts "Big Circles" clear set done and I'd been playing with them off and on since before Christmas. This sketch gave me the inspiration to finish it up.

I stamped the circles with Ranger Meadow dye ink and cut them out with my Spellbinders circle Nestabilities. I also cut 2 circles of green Co-ordinations cardstock. I stamped Inkadinkado's Bloom saying on a scrap of yellow cardstock. I attached everything and embellished with Kaiser Crafts Large Rhinestone flowers in mint and used Rangers Distress Stickles in Antique Linen in the centres. I realize now I should have taken better pictures but at least you get the idea.

Thanks for looking.

Feeling sheepish!

Ok I'm not really feeling sheepish I just thought it made a good title! (give me a break, I'm sick!).

This is the Crafty Capers Make and Take this weekend. Friday Jan 16 and Saturday Jan 17. The make and take is free but we need to know how much paper to cut. Phone Crafty Capers if you want to register 250-390-1107.

The stamp set used for this card is by Hero Arts. The paper is Fancy Pants. The ribbon is Crafty Capers. Inks were Ranger Archival black and Versamagic Agean Blue. Cardstock by Bazzill.

Thanks for looking. Hopefully, I will be back at work tomorrow so I can play! Thanks for looking.

Another Thank you

I managed to get another thank you card done last week hopefully, more tomorrow but I am sick with a coughy cold that is going around and at the moment I only have energy to feel sorry for myself :)

Both stamps used in this card are by Inkadinkado. The thank you stamp was actually all on 1 line so I had to carefully, ink up 1/2 stamp then ink the other 1/2 and stamp. I used Tombow markers for the tulips and colored directly onto the stamp before stamping onto a scrap of white. The thank you is stamped with Ranger's Adirondack Butterscotch dye ink. The white background was done with the Tiny Mosiac Cuttlebug folder.

Thanks for stopping by.

Special Thanks

I was asked by a friend to make some thank you cards.
It was kind of fun to have a specific "assignment". Here is my first one. The flower is by Penny Black and the saying is by Hero Arts. Both are available from Crafty Capers.
I colored the flower with Shimmerz paints unfortunately, the shimmer does not show up in the photo. I used Bubble gum, Magenta and Sky blue Shimmerz after I had embossed the saying and flower with black embossing powder. Before matting the card I stamped the diamond border twice over top of the Thanks part of the stamp. The brads are by Creative Impressions "pearl" collection.
Thank for looking.

Bandana Technique

I heard about the Bandana Technique (invented by Robin Beam) months ago. I finally got around to giving it a try. Basically, the bandana technique involves stamping a bold image on a patterned background, in this case an Alcohol ink background done with Caramel and Eggplant inks, and then taking a Ranger White gel pen and doodling around the image. This image is one of Hero Arts new 2009 images. Thanks for looking!

Running Free

I actually, made this card before Christmas but did not get around to scanning it before now. I usually give my Dad "man" cards in his stocking for sending to his friends. This is actually the only one I got done! Sorry Dad!

I started with a scrap of glossy cardstock that had been sprayed with Memory Mist ink "pale ale". I then used a Dreamweaver stencil and embossed the horse 3 times with black embossing paste. This took a while because I did not want to accidently squish the wet paste so had to let each horse dry before moving onto the next one. For the record I started with the middle horse. When everything was dry I matted the glossy cardstock with brown cardstock that I had cut with a Fiskar's patterned scissor. I used the scrap "wiggly" brown cardstock as a mask to make the ground below the horses. I used Ranger's Adirondack Espresso dye ink for this. To finish off the card I stamped Art Impressions Clouds in Espresso ink and edged the top and bottom of the card with a Posh Gold Metallic pen.