And The Third Card

Continuing from yesterday's post... here is the third card that I created for the TIME OUT inspiration challenge:

The technique for this card was very different from the first ones - not nearly as much die cutting!. I started out by cutting the Swirly Curl Border die from a piece of white cardstock and a piece of "scrap" cardstock. I then sprayed the back of the "scrap" die cut with some temporary adhesive (note to self - it is a BAD idea to do this indoors over carpet - next time - go outside!), and I lined it up on a piece of watercolour paper (4 1/4 x 5 1/2). I used the Distress Markers to outline the inside of the petals in three different colours but I didn't colour the space completely. I then removed the "scrap" cardstock and painted in the inside of the petals using some plain water mixed with a little bit of Perfect Pearls. Once it was dry, I glued the white die-cut over top. I finished the card with a Clearly Besotted sentiment embossed in silver on vellum. Here is a closer look at the watercolour effect...

I will link this card to the TIME OUT challenge.

Supplies:

Dies: Memory Box - Swirly Curl Border Outline Die
Distress Markers & Re-inkers: Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Evergreen Bough
Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Flight of Fancy
Embossing Powder: Stampendous - Detail Silver
Other: Perfect Pearls

Thank you for stopping by!

TIME OUT Inspiration

This weekend, I decided to give the TIME OUT Challenge a try - the challenge is to use this beautiful card by Anita as inspiration. I was so inspired that I ended up creating not one, not two but three cards!!! 

The First Card:
I started out by covering a piece of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 piece of white cards with three different colours of Silks acrylic glaze to create a blue to green ombre effect. I then die-cut the cardstock using the Memory Box Swirly Curl Border Outline Die. I repeated the same process on the card front and then (painstakingly) pieced the outline back in the card front and lined up the blue/green inlay pieces to create and inlaid die-cut on the card front. 

I finished up the card die cutting different colours of cardstock (DCWV Shimmer cardstock) using the Studio Calico Happy die and layering them like Anita did. I stamped "Birthday" and heat embossed it using some Teal embossing powder.

Supplies:
Dies: Memory Box - Swirly Curl Border Outline Die; Studio Calico - Happy die
Acrylic Glaze: Silks
Stamp: My Favorite Things - Celebrate You
Embossing Powder: Zing - Teal Metallic

The Second Card:
So this was a card that started going in one direction, went off the rails, and ended up somewhere completely different!!!

I wanted to replicate the first card but using the rest of my Silks painted cardstock and a different die - the Memory Box Mod Flower Border die. After I did the die-cuts and inlaid the insides in the white outline - I didn't like how it looked so I decided to "pop up" the green/blue outline over the white one. To do this, I die cut the border from white cardstock four more times and glued them under the green/blue one to create the dimension. I have to admit that the card was looking better but I still wasn't happy so I pulled out some patterned paper and die cut the outline again. I then fitted the patterned paper background around the glued-down die-cuts....it was not easy with all those layers!!!

I finished the card by stamping a sentiment and using my last bits of the green/blue cardstock to border the patterned paper. Here is a view of the dimension and a little bit of the shimmer.

All that to say that I never could have imagined this card (and I love it!) What a happy accident!!

Supplies:

Die: Memory Box - Mod Flower die

Acrylic Glaze: Silks
Stamp: Clearly Besotted - Flight of Fancy
Embossing Powder: Zing - Teal Metallic
Patterned Paper - Basic Grey - Out of Print (my favourite patterned paper ever!)

I will link this card back to the TIME OUT Challenge that inspired it, and also to the Simon Says Stamp Work it Wednesday that features the colour Blue, and finally I try linking to the Pretty Pink Posh Cutting Edge Blog Hop featuring die-cuts again (my last one didn't work so well!)

Thanks for looking!!!

More Birthday Cards

(Upfront apologies for the photos in this post - I am still working on how to get decent shots on cloudy days...)

August is filled with family birthdays - including both of my bothers and one of my brothers-in-law - so that's quite a few masculine Birthday cards that I need inspiration to create. In the past I have always tended to create cards featuring gears or Tim Holtz stamps but this year, I wanted to challenge myself to do something a little bit different... 

This first card was for my youngest brother - his favourite colour is red so I wanted to use that but not too much. Here is what I came up with:

I used the Simon Says Stamp July Card Kit and chose an assortment of patterned papers and the navy cardstock. The first die-cut was the patterned paper "Happy". I then mounted that on the white cardstock and die-cut the Star Parade out of the card front, white cardstock and navy cardstock. The pattened paper stars were inlaid where they were partially "covered" by other stars and popped up where they were not to create some dimension. Here is a view of that from the side:

For finishing touches, I went crazy with the Glossy Accents and I also added a few of the red star gems that were included in the kit.

The supplies used for this card:

Dies: Simon Says Stamp - Star Parade; My Favorite Things - Celebrate Die-Namics

Stamp: Cocoa Daisy

Glaze: Glossy Accents

Embossing Powder: Stampendous Detail White

Everything Else: Simon Says Stamp July Card Kit

The next card that I made was for my brother-in-law and it also featured die-cutting. I started with a standard panel of white cardstock - and I blended in three colours of Distress Inks -  started at the top with Peeled Paint - worked into some Weathered Wood - and then into some Faded Jeans. I went around the edges with some Vintage Photo and then flicked some water and Distress Stain onto the panel. I then die cut the panel using the Full Card Hourglass die from Simon Says Stamp. I took out the triangles and inlaid them back into the card at the opposite end of where I had taken them out to create the reverse gradation of colour. 

I finished the card off with some black gemstones (origin unknown), washi tape, and a greeting on a piece of cardstock blended with the same colours of Distress Inks.

Supplies used:

Die: Simon Says Stamp - Full Card Hourglass

Distress Inks: Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo, Faded Jeans, Weathered Wood

Washi Tape: Black - Cosmo Cricket; Green - Prima

Stamp: Cocoa Daisy

With all this die-cutting, I will link my cars up to the Pretty Pink Posh Blog Hop:

Thanks for looking :)

CASE Study Inspiration

This morning, I did the CASE Study week 3 blog hop, and I was of complete awe of the incredible creations that were featured - amazing!!! After all that inspiration, I was ready to get crafty - there were a lot of cards that caught my eye but the one I decided to CASE was by Anni - you can see it here. Here is my interpretation of what she created:

I followed the same basic process as Anni but I used Distress Markers to outline the shapes before removing the stencil and the mask to do the watercolouring with Distress inks (re-inkers) mixed with Perfect Pearls for a little bit of shine. I thought that the watercolour was drying too evenly so I added a bit of rock salt to give a little bit of texture to the blocks of colour.

A few of the supplies I used:

Distress markers and re-inkers: Festive Berries, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean, Seedless Preserves

Stamps: Walter and Winnie - The Big, The Bold and You

Stencil: Carabelle Studio - Trame Multi-Fenetre

Embossing Powder: Stampendous - Detail White, Marcasite

I will link my card to the CASE Study gallery and I will also link to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge which is for back-to-school encouragement cards. 

Thanks for looking :)

SYS - Building Stamps

I thought that I had some floral building stamps in my collection but I was wrong - so what to do - I used some snowflake stamps to build a wreath similar to Julie's card. I have to say that I'm pretty happy that I have already done two Christmas cards - I usually don't start until October so I'm feeling way ahead of the game now!!

This is one of those cards that looks much better in real life than in the photograph and I'm really happy with it. I'm planning on stamp "Holidays" somewhere inside the card but I'm still deciding between having it show through the opening or not... I probably won't decide until I actually need to send the card.The snowflake stamps are from a set by Aladine and the Happy was made using DCVW glitter cardstock and a Clearly Besotted die. I used an assortment of SSS and HA inks for stamping.

Thanks for looking!

SYS More Background Stamps

This is my version of Shari's card; it has been sitting half-done on my desk since the second day of class and I finally got around to finishing it today. I really enjoyed making it and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The dragonfly diecut is from Clearly Besotted and the Love diecut is from Penny Black.

Thanks for looking!

SYS Background Stamps

So I know that this is going backward instead of forward in the class but I really wanted to share this card. This card is my favourite one from the class so far - not because it is the prettiest or the nicest but because I learned so much when I did it.

So I have had a stash of perfect pearls sitting in my craft cabinet for a long time but I have never really learned how to use them effectively --- until last week! Despite the fact it is August, I knew that this IO snowflake background stamp would work really well so I pulled it out and followed Jennifer's example. This card is actually the second one that I did because the first one didn't cover properly (like I said - a lot of learning). 
The second way that I used the perfect pearls was on the base card - I thought that the white looked too stark so I "softened" it up a little by adding some perfect pearls along the sides and behind the die-cut. I really liked the effect that it gives and I can definitely see myself doing this more often.
The third way I used perfect pearls was on the embellishments - little wooden Studio Calico snowflakes. I painted them with Distress Paints (a combination of Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar) and while they were still wet, I dipped lightly them into some perfect pearls. I let them dry (mostly) and then brushed off the excess. It doesn't show up well in the picture but it gave the surface of the snowflake an uneven, mottled look that I love. I am definitely going to be repeating this technique with bigger surface areas to see what it gives me.
And finally, I can't forget about one of the best parts of the card - the die-cut itself (SSS die)! I love this snowflake so much that I am going to be repeating the process just to cut out some more for another card!

SYS - Day 7 Graphic Stamps

I have fallen so far behind in my homework that I'm not sure that I'll catch up this weekend - but I'll give it a shot!!

I have to say that despite the fact that I have A LOT of stamps (if you don't believe me - just ask my husband - it drives him crazy lol!), I couldn't find very many that I would consider "graphic". I was surprised but that is the great thing about this course - it teaches you to think differently so I fully expect that I'll be buying more "graphic" stamps in the future. I finally found a triangle set from Studio Calico/Hero Arts and I used that along with some SSS inks. I also broke out my new Studio Calico happy die for the sentiment which I layered in 2 different colours of SSS cardstock and covered with some Wink of Stella for sparkle. I finished the card with some Studio Calico star sequins - I am pretty happy with the final result but I regret the corner chomping a bit...

Thanks for looking!

SYS - Outline Stamps

So this is my card from Day 6 using outline stamps. I spent some time sorting through my stamps trying to find one that worked well for the technique and I eventually settled on the Hero Arts Delicate Blossoms stamp. I masked one of the blossoms to allow space for the greeting (Clearly Besotted). The card seemed to be coming along nicely... until I went to add the gold splatters - and then things got a little bit more messy than I would have liked! Lesson learned: use a small brush for the splatters not the mist tube!!!!

Thanks for looking!!!

Birthday month

So August is a big month for Birthdays in my family which means that I make quite a few Birthday cards at this time of year. This one is for my sister-in-law and I created it using my new Clearly Besotted "Flight of Fancy" stamp set (on a side note - I have to say that I am loving Clearly Besotted products and I have already placed a second order with them!). I used three different shades of pigment ink on the butterfly and the strips down the side, and then I embossed them with Stampendous kaleidoscope powder. I have recently rediscovered this powder in my stash and have been going a little bit crazy with it - it adds a really cool rainbow sheen to the image - similar to what you see when oil on water gets reflected in the sunlight - I don't think that the camera can do it justice (or at least not the photographer lol!!!)

I would also like to enter this card in a couple of challenges (another first!!!): Time Out Challenges featuring butterfly and also the weekly weekly Simon Says Stamp Challenge to make it sparkle.

Thanks for looking!!! 

SYS - Day 3

It has been a long work week - so not much time to do any crafting during the evenings but the weekend is here so I can finally catch up on the class (or at least give it a decent shot!).

I absolutely loved Debby's card and spent and tried to find a die in my collection that I could use to replicate her cards. I didn't have many choices but eventually settled on the MFT balloon dies. I also didn't have any alphabet stamps that were the right size for this technique so I cheated and used part of a greeting stamp for the "happy". I used a SSS stencil and platinum modelling paste for the background - I like the effect of the shiny stars - and a few wooden Studio Calico stars for contrast. The "Birthday" die is also SSS.

So that was Day 3 - now only 2 more day to catch up on!!! Thanks for looking!

And the Second Card

Here is the second card which I love. I used the MFT Cityscape Nightline die and mounted them on black SSS cardstock to highlight the colours. With the Glossy Accents it is hard to see the detail of the background stamp - it does show up better in real life :)

Stretch Your Stamps 2 - Day 1

So first things first - I have decided to start a blog to share my cards. The main reason for doing it is that I spend a lot of time visiting other card-making blogs for tips, tricks and inspiration so I feel that I should be also sharing my work. The blog is pretty basic right now but I'm sure that I will pretty it up as time goes on...

Today was the first day of Stretch Your Stamps 2 and there was a whole lot of inspiration in the videos. Luckily for me, it is a holiday in Canada today so I had time to play after I watched the videos. I followed Kristina's cards quite closely but I don't have any large word dies so I had to improvise there (note to self - need to buy large word dies - very useful). I wasn't quick enough to get the supply list products for the class so I will be improvising and using what I already have on hand. For both cards, I used the Hero Arts/Basic Grey Diamond Background and greetings from Clearly Besotted; I also used Inktense pencils for the watercolouring. 

Here is the first card - I really like it but it still feels a little bit naked. I tried playing with some sequins but I have decided to hold off and think about it for a bit.