Sending You Monster Hugs

Darlene DeVries is collecting encouragement cards to include in snack bags for foster children while they are sitting in court. I admit, after volunteering to create two cards, I struggled with this one. The requirements are that the cards be for a child age 2-12 years old, and be suitable for either a boy or a girl. I have no clue what children that age might like! I've made cards for people I don't know, like for Send a Smile 4 Kids, but in those cases, someone else is choosing one to give to someone from the cards I send. Not unlike going to a store to buy a greeting card. But I don't often make cards to give/send to complete strangers from me. But I decided to give it a go anyway!

I got my inspiration from this card by Nicole for Lawn Fawn. I felt this sort of card would be perfect for a young child. I began with my background. I die cut a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Large Stitched Rectangle" dies. I smooshed Distress inks in Mowed Lawn, Mustard Seed, Mermaid Lagoon, & Peacock Feathers on my non-stick craft mat, and spritzed the ink with water. Then I pressed my watercolor panel into the puddles, swirling it a bit to get good coverage. When I'd covered the whole panel with color, I dried it with my heat tool, then dipped it into the ink puddles again to get more unblended drops of color. When it looked like I wanted, I dried it again with my heat tool, then set that aside.

For the monsters, I used Lawn Fawn's "Monster Mash" stamp set, with the coordinating dies. I stamped them onto a scrap of Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper with Versafine Onyx Black ink, then heat embossed them with Recollections Clear Detail embossing powder. I colored them with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens, using a water brush on some to fade the color out for highlights. On the 2 bi-colored ones, I just blended the colors together with my pens. When they were all colored and had dried, I die cut them.

I cut a strip of white cardstock, and used the "Large Stitched Rectangle" die to add the stitching detail to either end. I spelled out the word "monster" with the "Little Letters" dies by My Favorite Things. After I got them spaced right, I ran that through my die cutting machine. I liked the graphic look in Nicole's card, so I decided not to glue the centers of the O & R to the background. I did trim a little off the top & bottom of the strip, then adhered it to my background with my ATG adhesive, adding some liquid glue around the letters so they wouldn't pop up. I also stamped the "Sending you" part of the greeting from "Monster Mash" at the top of my strip, again using Versafine.

For the "hugs," I die cut a piece of white cardstock with one of the "Delightful Day Conversation Bubbles" from Taylored Expressions. Rather than use the greeting stamp from "Monster Mash," since the word was really too small for the speech bubble, I used Lawn Fawn's "Riley's ABC's" to spell out the word. I used my MISTI stamping tool to get everything lined up, and stamped on the speech bubble with Versafine.

To assemble my card, I glued my monsters in place with Perfect Paper Adhesive, and popped the speech bubble up with foam tape. After adhering it to a white A2 card base, I added googly eyes to the one-eyed monsters. And that finished off this card. Hopefully it will bring a bit of a lift to the spirits of whomever gets it!

I'm entering my card in the "Encouragement" challenge at Live Love Cards.

Season's Greetings

Merry Monday Christmas Challenge Blog has been having a "Snow Globe" theme this week. I immediately thought of my "Snow Globe Gala" digi stamp set by Doodle Pantry. As it turned out, having a greeting was probably the most problematic part of this card!

After sizing & formatting my elements for the snow globe in Photoshop, I printed the image on a panel of Canson XL Mixed Media paper that I'd die cut with one of the "Small Stitched Rectangle" dies by Lawn Fawn. I stamped the penguin from Lawn Fawn's "Winter Penguin" set inside the snow globe using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink. I also extended the line for the base behind the globe using a fine-tip black marker.

I die cut a piece of patterned paper from my scrap stash with the "Small Stitched Rectangle" die I'd used for the main panel, then trimmed it to size. I printed just the base for the snow globe on that, and cut that part out with my scissors. I laid it in place on my main panel, and marked where the top of it was with pencil.

I used my Inktense pencils to color in the penguin, adding a little of the Payne's Grey to the "ice" he's skating on for some shading. I also colored in the base & topper of the snow globe, using a damp paintbrush to pick up color from the pencils. When that had all dried, I painted the background with diluted Shabby Shutters Distress ink. I let that dry, and added "snowflakes" inside the globe with a white gel pen. Finally, I added a few light streaks of white acrylic paint to the globe, as highlights.

For the greeting, I applied Tarnished Brass Distress Stain to a scrap of bristol paper. I formatted the greeting in Photoshop, and printed it on the bristol. Then I cut it out, following the curve of the text, and glued it onto the snow globe.

To finish my card, I glued the patterned paper in place, die cut a mat from some pearlized cardstock by The Paper Studio with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Large Stitched Rectangle" dies, and adhered everything to a white A2 card base.

Deck the Halls

Merry Monday Christmas Challenge Blog's theme this week is "Woodgrain, Kraft, & White." Of course, it has to be a Christmas card, as well! Since I've gotten a bit out of practice with Christmas cards lately, I decided to create this clean & simple one.

After cutting a panel of kraft cardstock to 4.25x5.5", I taped the largest of the "2013 Snowflake Pendant" dies by Spellbinders (discontinued) to the center. I die cut that, and embossed the positive piece with the same die. I inked up Hero Arts' "Designer Woodgrain" background stamp with Hero Arts Unicorn white pigment ink, and rubbed the front of my kraft panel onto the stamp to transfer the ink to the cardstock. Then I set that aside to dry.

I heat embossed the greeting, from the "Deck the Halls" stamp set by Lia Griffith for Hero Arts, in the center of my die cut snowflake, using Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. (I was glad to find the stamp was a perfect fit!) I ran my snowflake through my Xyron Creative Station to apply adhesive to the back, and then used a sponge dauber to sponge more Unicorn ink over it, just to lighten the tone of the kraft a bit.

By this time, the ink on my background was dry. So I adhered it to a white A2 card base, using my ATG gun around the sides & Perfect Paper Adhesive behind the small areas around the cut-out portion. Finally, I adhered my snowflake in place.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

a2z Scrapbooking's "Clean & Simple"
Craft Your Passion Challenges #311 "Anything Goes"
Through the Craft Room Door "Anything Goes"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge "Emboss It"

Thinking of You

I found out recently that the mother of a woman I used to know passed away. So I decided to make her a card, just to let her know I'm thinking of her at this time.

I based my design on this card that I did a little while ago, which in turn was based on this one by Darlene DeVries. I did things a little differently this time. Because I knew I wanted to watercolor the butterfly, and also wanted to use what I thought was a non-waterproof ink to stamp the background pattern, I stamped, heat-embossed, and colored the butterfly first. As it turned out, I could have done it either way, since the background ink I ended up using is waterproof!

I cut a piece of 140 lb. Canson XL watercolor paper to 4.25x5.5". I wasn't sure if I wanted to trim it smaller, so I cut it to full A2 card size, figuring I could trim it later if I decided I wanted to. I stamped the outline butterfly from Hero Arts' "Butterfly" set in Versafine Onyx Black ink, then clear heat embossed it. I remembered at that point that I still had to add the body, so I stamped that in place with Versafine, and heat embossed it as well. Thankfully, the second layer of embossing powder melted into the first, so there's no bumpiness!

To color the butterfly, I used a damp paintbrush to pull color off my Caran d'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons. I filled most of the areas on the wings just with solid color, but blended 2 colors in a few of the sections.

Once the color was dry, I put the panel into my MISTI, and stamped the "Looped Circle" background, also by Hero Arts, in Hero Arts Soft Granite ink over the entire panel. I was glad I had decided to use the MISTI, because I did have to re-stamp, since I didn't get a good impression the first time. At that point, I decided to trim 1/8" off each side of my panel, so that I could have a small border.

I used one of the greetings from the "Jumbo Stripes" stamp set from Simon Says Stamp. I stamped it on a piece of black paper with Versamark ink, then heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. I cut that into a banner, and adhered it below my butterfly. Finally, I matted my panel with purple cardstock, and mounted it to a white A2 card base.

I'm entering this card in a2z Scrapbooking's May "Clean & Simple" challenge. (I hope this is CAS enough!)

Happy Birthday

I've been taking "Sheer & Clear," the newest class from Online Card Classes. Jennifer McGuire's lesson on Day 2 of class was on coloring vellum with dye inks. I used her lesson as inspiration for my project.

I began by cutting a piece of vellum to 4.25x6.5", & masked off the top 1". I used Memento dye inks in Bamboo Leaves, Pear Tart, Dandelion, Cantaloupe, and Tangelo to color it, going direct-to-paper with the ink pads. I wiped the excess ink from the vellum after inking each color. When I'd finished with one side, I flipped the vellum over and did the same to the other side. Finally, I hit it with my heat tool for a few seconds to make sure it was dry.

I stamped the flowers from Stampendous' "Daisy Thanks" in Versmark on the front of my panel, and heat embossed them with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder.

For the greeting, I used one from the "Happy Messages" set, also by Stampendous. I cut a piece of white cardstock, and die cut the pierced holes in the top & bottom edges with one of the "Basic Stitch Lines" dies by My Favorite Things. I repeated this process to create a second panel. On the first panel, I stamped my greeting and heat embossed it with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. I adhered that to my vellum panel, and adhered the second cardstock piece on the back side, to hide the adhesive.

To finish my card, I scored my vellum at 1" from the top to create a flap. I sandwiched the flap between my A2 card base and another piece of white cardstock cut to 4.25x5.5", so the adhesive is again hidden.

I'm entering my card in Simon Says Stamp's Work It Wednesday "Flowers" challenge.