A Manly card

Well as promised I am, finally, getting around to posting another "manly" greeting card.

This card was super quick to make and used limited supplies as well!

I began by cutting a square hole out of a 4.5x5.5 piece of scrap cardstock. I used this as a mask. I placed the mask on the front of a white card and stenciled the green leaves using a Dreamweaver stencil. Once I was happy with the amount of leaves in the square I removed the mask and using my Scor-it board embossed a square around leaves to define the edges a little more.

I then put the stencil back down on the card (now without the mask) and taped it down with low tack tape. I decided to use my new Dreamweaver Glossy Black embossing paste which I applied into the holes of the stencil. I removed the tape and stencil while the paste was still wet. I used some oooold Luminart Primary Pigments (dry pigments similar to Ranger's Perfect Pearls) and sprinkled the pigments onto the wet paste. I let the paste dry overnight then brushed off the extra pigments with a blush brush and a Swiffer cloth.

I finished the card by stamping a sentiment in black ink.

Thanks for looking!

Card Recipe:

Stencil: Dreamweaver LJ846 Maidenhair fern

Inks: Brillance Pearlescent Tyme, Versamagic Green Tea & Ranger Mussel Black dye ink

Stamps: A Muse Happy Birthday Mix

Other: Luminart Primary Pigments, Dreamweaver Black Glossy Embossing Paste & Scor-It board

Changito Picnic!

My father in law's birthday is early next so I have been in "man" card mode for the past day or so. Tomorrow's card is gender neutral as well.

I was thinking about Canada Day and summer fun then saw all my Stampendous Changito monkeys. I thought they would make a good scene together. I don't normally make scenes so thought that would be a good challenge for me.

I began by stamping all the standing monkeys and about 1/3 of the tire swing monkey in the upper right corner on a piece of watercolor paper then colored all the standing monkeys with my Tombow markers and Tombow blender pen (N00). I used a green Tombow marker to fill in more grass around the BBQing Changito along the horizon. I sponged green ink around the monkeys for grass and blue for the sky with some of my inks. To make the grass more interesting I added little dots from my grass colored Tombow marker.

Next, I stamped the tire swing monkey on a scrap of watercolor cardstock and colored him and cut him out. I did not color him on the scene cardstock I just wanted the first partial stamp as a guide where to place him and I didn't want to cut his tail out! I sponged blue inside the tire because I did not want to try to cut that out either!

Stamped the sentiment in the upper left hand corner of the card with black ink. I layered everything as shown. Just wanted to point out that the green gingham is actually a placemat that my husband brought me home when he was in England last with his Dad. We'll see if he notices. :) Thanks for looking!

Card Recipe:

Stamps: Stampendous - Changito tire swing, BBQ, Bubbles, Solo & Bday Messages

Inks: Versafine Onyx black, Adirondack Stonewash, Memento Bamboo Leaves

Tombow: White gel pen (for chef's hat), 192, 249, 847, 856, 885, 977, 992, N65, N89, N95 & N00 (blender).

June Make and Take

This Saturday, at Crafty Capers between 10:30 - 1:30, we're having a free card make and take!

I finally had a few minutes to get something made up for the class.

Sooo, if you are interested in making this card, for free, come by Crafty Capers this Saturday.

Thanks for looking!

Stamp used: Stampendous Ranunculus stamp.

Paper: Bazzill and Upsy Daisy pattern paper

A bouquet for you!

This one is for you Ann! I was lucky enough to be given a bunch of Penny Black and A Muse stamps by a great Crafty Caper's customer. I've had them a few weeks now I have been dying to play with them, especially the Penny Blacks, of course!

I colored this image on a circle of heavy white cardstock (not watercolor) and then when I was doing the background it went horribly wrong so that version went in the recycling! However while I was sitting there trying to figure out how to make a nice background around the hedgie I saw some leftover Tombow marker scribbles on my plastic sour cream container (aka my palette) and I wondered hmmmm... I cut out another circle with my Spellbinder circles and left it in the Spellbinder die. I spritzed the colors on my palette with water and grabbed a sponge dauber and starting at the edge of my die pulled each of the three colors towards the middle of the circle. Worked like a charm!! I then stamped my hedgie with Onyx Versafine ink and colored him up using the indirect Tombow coloring technique using my trusty palette. I wanted a really colorful designer paper for my background but the store seems a little lacking in the bright designer catagory at the moment so I used my Tombow markers and doodled up my background cardstock. It was quite easy just a bunch of dots, lines and hearts - trust me I am no artist if I can do it you can too! Best of all it matched my colored hedgehog.

I stamped the Happy Birthday (Stampendous) with black Archival ink. I matted the hedgehog image with a bunch of green and pink scraps cut out with my Spellbinder circle/scallop circle dies and assembled the card as shown. I'm pretty happy with how the card turned out very bright and cheery!

Thanks for looking!

NEW Cuttlebug!

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week things have been a little hectic around the store. The 8th annual garage sale has come and gone. I hope everyone is enjoying their new treasures!

Speaking of treasures - Provocraft has finally released their new Cuttlebug folders! We received our first order last Monday and have already had to reorder - twice! Our first reorder should arrive today or tomorrow. As always, the Cuttlebug 4x6 embossing folders are $6.50 and the 5x7 folders are $7.98.

We have also started stocking embossing folders that work in the Cuttlebug by a UK company called Crafts Too. The butterfly folder is proving to be the "hot" one to buy!

We also have sponge daubers back in stock. For those desperately in need of them.

Thanks for stopping by. I should have a card to post for you all tomorrow! :)

Micey Nice!

I purchesed the Penny Black clear set "Micey Nice" two weeks ago and have slowly been working on this card since then.

The card is fairly simple. The mice were colored with my Tombow markers, watercolor paper and Tombow blender pen.

Cut out shapes are Spellbinder Nestabilities. All stamped images are by Penny Black.

Designer paper is by Basic Grey.

Thanks for looking!

Biking along!

This bike stamp by Hero Arts is so cute and so springy not that it seems at all springy here on the west coast at the moment!

This image makes a fairly quick card since there is not much to color except the flowers in the basket. You can't tell very well in this photo but I stamped the basket a second time on a scrap of cardstock, colored them, cut them out (roughly) then popped it on top of the original, uncolored, image.

I used my Tombow markers to add a border around the bike. I also used the markers to draw some flowers in the right corner as well as the dragonflies. The sentiment is by Hero Arts.

Cardstock is by Bo Bunny (double dot) and Bazzill.

Pearls by Hero Arts

Thanks for looking!

Don't forget the Crafty Capers garage sale tomorrow!

Hugs!

I have a friend who's little girl has been hospitalized with pneumonia. She is making progress but I though her and her mom could use a little cheer so I whipped this card up.

It's pretty straight forward the main image is by Stampabilities colored with Tombow markers on watercolor paper with a Tombow blender ben. The pattern paper is by Basic Grey. I added a border of Tombow dots and swirls around the edge. The solid cardstock is by Bazzill. The sentiment is by Hero Arts.

Thanks for looking!

Enjoy!

The clear "enjoy" set by Penny Black came back in stock late last week and I had a chance to play with it today. I was reading about the "blackboard technique" recently and thought this particular set would be perfect for the technique and would make me finally give the technique a try!

I started by finding a scrap of black cardstock in my stash and I stamped the birds image with Cloud Versamagic pigment ink on the black. I LOVE the Versamagic white because it actually shows up on dark cardstock unlike many other white inks.

After the ink was dry I pulled out my watercolor pencil crayons and colored over top of the white ink because the base color is light the pencils show up perfectly on the black cardstock! Amazing! I used my Tombow white gel pen to add the eyes of the birds.

After quite a bit of playing around with the layout I found one I liked but I did not like the solid white Bazzill bling I had chosen as my top layer. I thought the card had an Asian feel so I decided to use my Tombow markers to "draw" some bamboo on the white to jazz it up a bit. It turned out perfect!

I finished off the card by using my Tombow tape runner to lay a line of adhesive down which I used to adhere some gold leafing to the card.

Thanks for looking! Just a reminder, Crafty Capers is having their 8th annual garage sale this Sunday June 6 10:30 - 1:30. Hope to see you there!