Have a Lovely Birthday

  

I created this card for a friend's upcoming birthday. The "Symmetry" lesson on Day 3 of My Favorite Things' Summer School 2020 inspired the design. The symmetry on my card actually runs along both the horizontal & vertical axes of the panel.

I began with the flowers. I used MFT's "Watercolor Flowers" stamp set (discontinued) and the coordinating dies. I die cut 2 sets of flowers & leaves first, since the dies are solid & it is a bear to try to line them up after stamping. I put the negative space from die cutting on my Cricut sticky mat that I cut down to fit into my MISTI stamp positioning tool. With that butted into the corner of my MISTI, all I had to do was stick the die cuts to the mat in the appropriate spaces, line up the stamps & pick them up with the door of my MISTI, and stamp away. I used Hero Arts Lemon Yellow, Lawn Fawn Sunflower, & MFT Pineapple inks for the yellow flowers; MFT Peach Bellini, Hero Arts Orange Soda, & MFT Coral Crush for the smaller peach flowers; Lawn Fawn Peach Fuzz, Apricot, & Guava for the larger peach flowers; and Hero Arts Bubble Gum, Lawn Fawn Wild Rose, & Memento Rhubarb Stalk for the pink flowers. For the leaves, I used Memento New Sprout & Pear Tart, adding Hero Arts Lime Green for the third layer on the larger leaves. I used Gina K Charcoal Brown ink for all the flower centers.

I stamped my greeting, from MFT's "Birthday Greetings" (discontinued), in the center of a blue panel, and heat embossed with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. I adhered that to my white card base, and arranged my flowers above & below. I taped the flowers in place temporarily with low-tack painter's tape, then lifted them one-by-one, applied glue to the back, and stuck everything down. I like the look of the flowers extending onto the white border of the card base. I cut off the bits that were overhanging the top & bottom edges, and that finished this card.

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

613 Avenue Create August 2020 Challenge: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)
Die Cut Divas: "Flowers"

Rainbow Prayers

 

This card is for the Day 2 lesson from My Favorite Things' Summer School 2020. The lesson theme is "Rainbow." Because I wanted to make a sympathy card, I decided to go with a more pastel rainbow.

I used one of the brushstroke stamps from MFT's "Abstract Art" stamp set (discontinued) to stamp my rainbow. I lined it up on my card panel in my MISTI stamp positioning tool. I used Memento Angel Pink; Lawn Fawn Peach Fuzz; Altenew Vanilla Cream; and Memento New Sprout, Summer Sky, & Lulu Lavender inks. I started with the pink, and just moved my panel up in my MISTI for each subsequent stroke. I ended up cutting the panel down after I finished stamping, as I had extra space after the lavender, & didn't want to add any more colors.

I stamped the "prayers" from MFT's "Sending Prayers" set (discontinued) with Versafine Clair Morning Mist ink. I initially tried Hero Arts Soft Granite, but even a couple of impressions didn't cover the rainbow stripes adequately. The Morning Mist covered with only 1 stamping. I stamped the sub-greeting, from the same set, onto a strip of Bazzill Icy Mint cardstock, and adhered it below the prayers word.

I double-matted my panel with black & dark grey cardstocks, and finally adhered it to a white A2-size card base.

Take Care of Yourself

  

Karolyn Loncon's lesson about white space on Day 5 of My Favorite Things' Summer School 2020 inspired this card design. I'll be the first to admit, I don't generally do CAS cards. I find I'm more of a "kitchen sink" crafter--as in, everything and the kitchen sink! LOL But I decided to give this a go, and my card actually came together pretty quickly, once I had a direction.

For the butterfly, I inked up a scrap of white cardstock with Dried Marigold Distress ink, creating an ombre effect. I let that dry before die cutting. When the ink dried, I lost some of the darkness at the bottom, so I inked over that part a bit more with the same color, then dried it with my heat tool. I die cut that using the largest butterfly from MFT's "Flutter of Butterflies - Solid" die set (discontinued). I die cut the corresponding "Flutter of Butterflies - Lace" butterfly from Essentials by Ellen 40 lb. vellum, & the body from a scrap of a champagne-shimmer cardstock. This is actually my favorite way to layer these butterfly dies. I gently folded the lace butterfly where the wings join the body, and then glued just the body to the inked layer. Finally, I glued the body on.

I die cut the scalloped rectangle from "Blueprints 20" from MFT (discontinued) from white cardstock. I stamped the "Itsy Bitsy Polka Dots" background on that, with Lawn Fawn Kiddie Pool ink, then adhered it to a white A2-size card base.

For the greeting, I die cut the stitched banner from "Blueprints 20" from white cardstock, and inked it with Dried Marigold. I dried it with my heat tool, then stamped the greeting, from MFT's "Get Well Wishes" (discontinued), with Versafine Clair Morning Mist ink. I glued that & my butterfly centered on the upper part of my scalloped panel. I love how this card came out. Maybe I should do CAS cards more often! :)

Happy Birthday

  

The lesson on Day 1 of My Favorite Things' Summer School 2020 inspired this card. It's all about the visual triangle. I actually created more than one triangle on my card: 1. the balloons; 2. each individual group of sequins; and 3. the three groups of sequins overall.

I have a lot of people's birthdays coming up that I need cards for, so I decided to make a birthday card. I die cut the balloons from pattern paper scraps, using My Favorite Things' "Birthday Balloons" die set (discontinued). I die cut the greeting with My Favorite Things' "Cause for Celebration" (also discontinued).

I grouped my rainbow balloons in 3 areas on my card front, to form my first visual triangle around the greeting. I glued them & the greeting in place, slightly overlapping the purple & blue balloons with the birthday word.

The "Birthday Balloons" die set includes string dies, but I wanted to use real string instead. So I pierced a hole on either side of each balloon's neck. I stitched 2 plies of white embroidery floss around each balloon neck, & then extended one end of the floss to a letter in the greeting. For the bottom 2 balloons, I just wrapped the floss around the bottom of the panel & taped the end on the back. Because I'm a glutton for punishment, I also tied 12 tiny bows with 1 ply of floss, & glued them to either end of each string. I felt this helped further anchor the strings, so it looked like they really were tied.

I matted my panel with a piece of mint green cardstock, & adhered it to a white A2-size card base. Finally, I added my 3 groups of sequins.

I'm also entering this card in Creative Knockouts Challenge #362: "Sparkle & Shine."

Joy

 

 My Favorite Things' Summer School is in full swing! Day 4's lesson was all about ombre. I decided to make a Christmas card, inspired also by Christmas Card Throwdown's August Color Challenge palette of orange, green, & gold. I based my design on the Sketch Challenge #501 from My Favorite Things.

The bands in the sketch combined with the ombre lesson made me think of faux dip dye. Kristina Werner had taught a lesson on this technique in one of the Spring Card Camps at Online Card Classes a few months ago. I found a scrap of Canson Montval 140 lb. watercolor paper in my stash that was already a great size. I trimmed it down just a smidge to square it up, and tore one short side. I then taped the 3 untorn sides to a cutting board to help keep warping to a minimum. I used only one shade of watercolor--Mijello Mission Gold's Hunter's Green--to paint the panel. I began by painting a very dilute mix for the first layer, and dried it with my heat tool. I kept adding more layers of paint, drying in between, and not going as far up the panel as the previous layer. For the bottom-most section, I went over the green with Indigo, which darkened it up considerably. I dried the panel one last time, removed it from my board, & die cut it with the stitched rectangle from My Favorite Things' "Blueprints 13" set (discontinued). I left the torn edge uncut, however.

I stamped the greeting, from My Favorite Things' "Joyous Christmas Sentiments" set (discontinued) in Versamark ink onto a scrap of off-white cardstock. I heat embossed it with Ranger Gold Super Fine Detail embossing powder, then die cut it with a circle die. I cut a dark orange mat with a slightly larger scalloped circle die, and glued the pieces together. I glued that centered on my watercolor panel. I matted the panel with more of the same dark orange, and adhered it to a white A2-size card base. Finally, I added 3 gold sequins for even more of a festive touch.

I'm also entering this in Creative Knockouts Challenge #362: "Sparkle & Shine."

One Sketch, Two Cards

The current sketch challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown inspired the design for both of my cards:

For my first card, I chose the ornament image from Sunny Studio's "Holiday Style" stamp set. I first used the coordinating dies to cut the ornament & topper 4 times from white cardstock. I placed the negative space in my MISTI stamp positioning tool, & temporarily adhered an ornament & a topper in their respective "holes." I stamped each with the first base color, then replaced them with unstamped die cuts, and stamped with the second base color. I repeated that for all 4 ornaments & toppers. That way, I didn't have to keep repositioning the stamps, which made things much faster. Once the first layer was stamped & dried (so the inks wouldn't blend), I positioned & stamped the second layers as I had with the first. I used Hero Arts Fresh Peach & My Favorite Things Coral Crush inks for the coral ornament; Hero Arts Pool & Memento Teal Zeal for the light blue; Altenew Vanilla Cream & Memento Cantaloupe for the yellow; & finally Memento Danube Blue & Lawn Fawn Deep Sea for the dark blue. For the toppers, I used Hero Arts Soft Granite & Black inks.

I glued each topper to an ornament, so I could maneuver them as one unit. After I adhered the patterned papers to my card base, I roughly positioned the ornaments. I went ahead and tacked them down with ATG adhesive instead of liquid glue, so if I had to move them I could pull them up easily.

I cut a banner from a pale cream cardstock, to echo the yellow ornament and coordinate with the patterned paper strip. I used Lawn Fawn's "Milo's ABCs" to stamp the greeting, using Teal Zeal, Coral Crush, & Deep Sea inks for the words.

 

I positioned the greeting banner, and repositioned the ornaments so everything was a bit more centered. To make sure the ornaments wouldn't detach, I did squirt some liquid glue under each. I tied a triple bow from metallic thread for each ornament & the banner, and glued those in place. After the glue dried, I adhered my card front to a white A2-size card base.

I used Paper Smooches' "A Blessed Christmas" stamp set for my second card. I stamped 3 of the images onto Strathmore Vellum Bristol paper with Simon Says Stamp's Fog ink. After die cutting them with circle dies, I colored each with my Prismacolor colored pencils. To provide a little definition between the circles, I inked around the perimeter of each with Speckled Egg Distress ink. Finally, I stamped my greeting on another scrap of bristol in Gina K Charcoal Brown ink, die cut that into a circle, and inked the perimeter.

I adhered a piece of green "crackle" patterned paper from The Paper Studio to a 7-1/4x4-1/2" white card base. (I have a stash of envelopes for that rather odd card size, so I'm trying to use them up!) I cut a strip from a scrap of holiday paper from my stash and adhered it along the bottom. I created a banner grouping with another piece of that scrap & 2 other scraps.

I positioned my circles in the pattern I wanted, and went ahead & glued them together, so I could move them around as one unit. I positioned my banner grouping at the top of the card, 1/2" in from the right edge. I glued my focal circle unit down with the left edge 1/2" from that edge of the card. And that finished this card!

I'm also entering both cards in 613 Avenue Create's August Challenge: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist).

Happy Birthday

The current Fusion Challenge is "Summer." The ice cream cone image & overall color scheme in the inspiration photo provided the jumping-off point for my card.

I first stamped the cone from Hero Arts' "Color Layering Ice Cream" (discontinued) with Memento Desert Sand ink. I stamped it 4 or 5 times with my MISTI stamp positioning tool, to get good solid coverage. I stamped the detail layer twice with Memento Toffee Crunch after heat setting the Desert Sand layer.

I used Lawn Fawn's Sunflower ink, and Memento Ladybug & New Sprout inks for the ice cream scoops. I placed a strip of scrap white cardstock in my MISTI, stamped the solid scoop layer with the yellow, cleaned the stamp, moved the strip up in my MISTI, stamped the green, & repeated for the red. I stamped the green 3 times to get a darker image that went better with the embossing powder I'd chosen.

I dried the ice cream images with my heat tool, and treated the cardstock with my anti-static powder bag. I placed the strip back in my MISTI, and stamped the yellow scoop with Versamark ink. I heat embossed that with Wow Opaque Primary Sunny Yellow embossing powder. I repeated that process with American Crafts Zing Leaf powder, & Ranger Red Geranium powder for the green & red scoops, respectively. After the embossing cooled, I die cut the 3 scoops & cone with the coordinating dies.

For my card front, I chose a sand colored cardstock. I adhered a 1" wide strip of teal cardstock along the left side, and machine-stitched 3 patterned paper banners at the top right corner.

The birthday greeting in "Color Layering Ice Cream" didn't fit my design, so I pulled the Happy Birthday from another Hero Arts set (fittingly called, "Happy Birthday"). I triple-stamped it onto a scrap of yellow cardstock with Ladybug ink, then cut that into a narrow strip.

I went ahead & glued the ice cream scoops & the cone together, so I could move it around as one unit. I determined where I wanted it, and where it would intersect the greeting strip. I drew a light pencil line on the greeting strip just inside the right edge of the cone, & cut along that line. I adhered my greeting to the card, and glued my ice cream cone in place. There was a bit too much space between the cone & the greeting, so I used the small heart from "Color Layering Ice Cream" as a "filler image." I will send this card to a friend of ours whose birthday is later this month.

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

A Blog Named Hero: "Embossing"

Creative Knockouts Challenge #361: "Tic-Tac-Toe" (did the middle column: embossing, image, & sentiment)

Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge: "Happy Birthday"

Dies R Us Challenge #150: "Just Desserts"