Never Stop Dreaming

A student my mom tutored for a while is graduating from high school this week. Since he sent her an invitation, a gift is in order. :) As money is always apropos for a graduate headed to college, I made him this card, with a pocket inside to hold a check.

My inspiration for the front design came from this card I saw on Pinterest. I have the same WPlus9 "Dream Believer" stamp set (apparently discontinued), and I liked the somewhat grungy look of the stenciling.

I used The Crafters Workshop "Mini Navajo" stencil and Stormy Sky Distress ink for the background. I actually had to do it 2 times before I got it like I wanted it. Thank heavens there are 2 sides to a sheet of paper! After I finished that, I set the panel up in my MISTI stamp positioning tool. I first stamped the ring for the dreamcatcher with Delicata Golden Glitz ink. I stamped it a few times, just to get a good coverage over the background stenciling. I used dark green & tan inks for the inner pieces, but really didn't like the colors in the end. So I started over from scratch--thankful that I hadn't gone very far! After I did the stenciling--for a third time--I restamped the ring with Golden Glitz. This time I stamped the inner pieces with Hero Arts Cornflower & Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide inks. His high school colors are blue & gold, so this palette is more fitting anyway.

For the feathers, I used Golden Glitz to stamp the hanging pieces, then Cornflower for the feathers themselves. I ended up using blue acrylic paint to stamp the beads on the hanging pieces, since the inks I was using never gave adequate coverage over the gold. I stamped the detail layer on each feather with Golden Glitz. The inspiration card had silver glitter washi tape (or maybe cardstock) in the lower right corner. Since this card is for a guy, I didn't want that much shine. So I stamped 3 of the brushstroke images from My Favorite Things' "Abstract Art" set (discontinued), one right above the other and overlapping, then stamped a fourth stroke with Golden Glitz.

I used Chipped Sapphire Oxide ink for the greeting, nestling it in the curve of the dreamcatcher. I felt the front was too plain, and considered adding some splatters. But, since splatters can be rather unpredictable & I didn't want to mess up at this point, I got out a new favorite of mine, Nuvo Crystal Drops. I added drops in Navy Blue & Pale Gold in a diagonal path from the upper right to the lower left. I let that dry actually for more than 24 hours in the end, since it took me a couple of days to come back to the card.

Inside of the card

I used this template as a guide for the inside of my card. Because I was making my card 5.5" square, rather than 6x6" as in the template (so I can fit it in an A9 envelope), I had to modify the measurements a bit. That took quite a while and a LOT of math, but I was able to figure it out! :)

I die cut the numbers & letters from gold mirror cardstock, using Winnie & Walter's "Cary Numbers" & "Cary Letters." I had backed the cardstock scrap with Stick It adhesive before die cutting, so I just had to stick the numbers onto each block and burnish them. I cut a piece of Essentials by Ellen 40 lb. vellum to make a pocket. I temporarily taped it to the inside of my card, and poked holes for stitching. I hand-stitched along the 2 sides & bottom with gold thread to attach it to the cardstock. Then I adhered the letters, and burnished them in place.

I thought the area above the pocket was just too plain. I toyed around with stamping confetti in gold ink, but felt that would look better if it was "bursting" up from the pocket, Since I'd already stitched the pocket on, that wasn't an option. So I decided on balloons. I used my Ranger alcohol inks on a piece of Yupo paper to create a panel to die cut them from. I wanted to stick with warm blues, but didn't have any really light shades of ink. I messed with it for quite a while, adding ink, spritzing with 91% rubbing alcohol, squirting on alcohol ink blending solution.... I ended up with a piece that I wasn't overly happy with. But, having spent all that time, I didn't want to waste it, so I added leafing glue, let that dry until it was tacky, and stuck down gold Nuvo gilding flakes.

I die cut my balloons, using Lawn Fawn's "Party Balloons" set, from the best parts of the panel. I tied a piece of gold thread around the bottom of each, and glued the balloons in place with liquid glue. After the glue dried, I pulled the balloon strings together & tied them in a knot. I rolled up a glue dot, added it above the pocket, stuck the knot firmly in that, and added a little bit of powder to deactivate any adhesive that was still exposed. I trimmed off the tops of the balloons that were hanging over the edge of the card, and that finished it!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Creative Knockouts #298: "Favorite Embellishment"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Stitches"
613 Avenue Create #221: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)

Two Graduation Cards

The son & daughter of a friend of ours are graduating this weekend; he from high school, and she from junior college. Since we are giving them each a gift card, I decided to create cards to go with those.

The inspiration for my first card came from a tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.com for a "Free-standing Pop-up Card." I had seen a similar card recently on Dawn Olchefske's blog, and substituted her measurements for a landscape-oriented card for the measurements in the tutorial from Splitcoaststampers.

I used 2 patterned papers from BasicGrey's "Hey Girl!" 6x6" pad for the box part of my card. After cutting & scoring the green cardstock piece per the instructions, I glued the patterned paper strips in place. For the tag, I cut a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper to size. I pressed Distress ink pads in Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, and Mermaid Lagoon onto my non-stick craft mat, the spritzed the ink with my homemade Perfect Pearls mist. I dipped and smooshed the watercolor paper into the puddles, until I had the look I was after. Finally, I dried that with my heat tool. I stamped & white heat embossed the greeting onto a piece of vellum cut slightly smaller than the background piece, and stitched that to the watercolored panel. I matted that with a piece of pink cardstock.

The card fully opened

As a finishing touch, I created an envelope out of vellum with my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board, to house the gift card. I adhered it to the bottom of the tag, and then finished assembling the card.

I created my second card based on a tutorial on Debbie Henderson's blog. She had done hers from an 8x8" piece of cardstock for the base. I had a larger image for the center panel, so I went with a 12x12" sheet, scaling her measurements up for the panels.

After scoring & cutting the base according to her instructions, I cut 4 patterned paper pieces using one of the patterns from Fancy Pants Designs' "Burlap & Bouquets" 6x6" pad. I adhered them in place, and did likewise with the green cardstock mats for the other panels. I cut 4 small squares of white cardstock & one large one for my focal panel. I used Hero Arts Navy Mid-tone Shadow ink to stamp the lighthouse (by Inkadinkado), loons (source unknown), and anchor (by Our Daily Bread Designs) on their respective squares. I then inked all the white squares with Antique Linen Distress ink, to help them tie in color-wise with the arrow patterned paper a little better.

For the inside sentiment, I scanned the focal panel into my computer, then opened that image in Photoshop. I used the quote, "Go in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined!" for my sentiment. (Although attributed to Henry David Thoreau, it's actually misquoted from "Walden." He wrote something similar, but not those exact words. Oh well--it works anyway!) I typed it onto the image layer, and arranged the words above the lighthouse. Finally, I printed the sentiment directly on the panel.

I die cut a tag from white cardstock using one of Pretty Pink Posh's "Stitched Tags" dies. I inked it with Antique Linen, punched a hole in the top, and printed the greeting I created in Photoshop onto it. I punched holes in the corners of the card front panels, and threaded some jute twine from The Paper Studio through. After stringing on the tag, I tied the card shut.

I'm entering both cards in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes" challenge.

Two Graduation Cards

Recently, a friend of mine contacted me, wanting to know if she could commission me to make a couple of graduation cards, to give to her daughter and a friend's daughter, for their high school graduation. She gave me a few ideas, and I set about designing and making the cards.

Her friend's daughter comes from a very musical family, and plays at least both fiddle and guitar. So I decided to make her a guitar-shaped card. My initial idea was to make the guitar vertical, so the curves would be on the fold. Unfortunately, that just wouldn't work. So I rotated my design 90 degrees and placed the fold at the base of the guitar, making it a side-folding card. I downloaded a photo of an acoustic guitar from the Internet and used that as my pattern for the card front & base.

After cutting the front out of watercolor paper, I roughly painted the body with Wild Honey, Vintage Photo, and a little Walnut Stain Distress inks and LOTS of water to give it a woodgrain look. I die cut a circle from black paper for the center hole, and used Pitch Black Distress paint for the neck. I went over the end of the neck with Brushed Pewter Distress stain, and drew the strings in with a silver gel pen. For the greeting, I scanned the card front into Photoshop, and created the curved text there, which I then printed onto the guitar. I used a mortarboard template I'd also downloaded, tracing it onto the card and going over it with a black pen. Finally, I adhered the front to a card base, and trimmed around the shape of the guitar.

The woman who commissioned these cards is blind, and has a black lab guide dog, who is also VERY attached to her daughter! So her idea for her daughter's card was to have paw prints increasing in size across the card front, symbolizing her daughter's growth through school; and a picture of a black lab with a mortarboard or diploma on the inside. I used one of the custom shapes in Photoshop to create paw prints in increasing size, and positioned them curving along the front. I created the greeting in Photoshop as well, and printed everything onto a piece of white Bristol paper. I cut the Bristol along the curve created by the paw prints, and mounted it on a piece of black paper for the card front.

For the inside, I downloaded a photo of a black lab from the Internet, and traced the major outlines onto a piece of Bristol paper. I colored him with watercolor pencils and my water brush. The more I colored, the worse the dog seemed to look. Just as I was about to give up, I decided to paint in the eyes, as a last-ditch effort at saving my painting. It worked! The brown eyes made all the difference in the world! I added a little black gel pen for the pupils, and white gel pen for the catch lights in his eyes. Finally, I die cut around the image with a Spellbinders Classic Circle die, and traced around the outside of the same die on black paper, cutting along that line to make a slightly larger mat. I adhered the matted panel to the inside of the card, cutting off the excess that hung over the card edges. I made a mortarboard from watercolor paper, using the same template I'd traced for the guitar card. I colored it with watercolor pencils and added a tassel made from embroidery floss. Thankfully, my friend loved both cards, and was very pleased with my work!

Congratulations!

A friend of ours, who has been homeschooled, is graduating this week. So I decided to make her a shaker card. We had gotten her a gift card to Hobby Lobby, and I wanted to incorporate that into the design. Thankfully, I came across this blog post by Renee Robbins during the Pretty Pink Posh blog hop. That gave me just the inspiration (and direction) I needed!

I started by choosing a few patterned papers from Doodlebug Design's "Take Note" 6x6" pad. I used one pattern to make a mini envelope with my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board, to hold the gift card.

For the front, I cut another patterned paper to 5.5x6", and die cut a window using an old Spellbinders die. I also cut a window with the same die in the card base, and the patterned paper I put on the inside of the card front.

I adhered some plastic from leftover clear packaging to the reverse side of the front patterned paper panel, covering the die cut window. I placed foam adhesive tape around the window in the card base, making sure there were no gaps. On the back side of the base, I adhered another piece of plastic, to make a see-through shaker.

I brushed over the plastic pieces with my EK Success powder tool, to help reduce static cling. (I discovered this is important after the sequins in my first shaker card stuck to the plastic too much.) Then I poured in several sequins from a Tree House Studio value pack onto the window within the foam tape. I removed the liner papers from the foam tape pieces, and adhered my card front over the base, being careful to line up the window cut-outs.

For the inside, I adhered 2 patterned paper pieces to the card base, and glued the mini envelope to the back, behind the shaker window. I cut a banner shape from yellow cardstock, and glued it inside the card, so we'd have a place to sign. I cut another banner shape from the same cardstock, inked the edges with Picked Raspberry Distress ink, printed the greeting onto it, and adhered it below the window on the card front. Overall, I think this shaker card came out much better than my first, mostly because I remembered the order of steps to make it!

I'm entering this card in Sweet 'n Sassy Stamp's Challenge #12: Congrats!

Go Confidently in the Direction of Your Dreams

My cousin-in-law is graduating from the University of Maryland this week. So my brother suggested I make her a card for her graduation. (He's apparently been very impressed with the cards I've made so far!) I started by looking up UMD's school colors, which are yellow, red, black, and white, inspired by the state flag. I felt the colors were a bit bold for a feminine card, so I decided to go with more pastel tones of yellow & pink.

Once I had chosen my colors of cardstock, I went through my collection of dies. I finally settled on this Spellbinder's die set. I cut the pink layer from the largest die, and cut the yellow from the next largest.

I felt the yellow layer needed something extra, so I embossed the center with one of Spellbinders' Gold Ovals One dies. I stamped a butterfly in the center of that embossed area, using Colorbox Archival dye ink in Putty.

I printed the quote on vellum, and cut it with a Spellbinders Classic Ovals die. I ran it through my Xyron machine, and adhered it over the butterfly.

I inked the front of a white card base with Aged Mahogany Distress ink, and then glued my die cut pieces to it. And there it is--a complex-looking, but fairly simple, graduation card!

I'm entering this card in the Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Die Crazy" challenge.