Happy Birthday #60

A friend commissioned me to make a birthday card for her husband. He is a woodworker, so she wanted a woodworking theme of some sort. I couldn't find any woodworking imagery per se (e.g. tools) that really worked for a birthday card, so I incorporated other elements.

For design inspiration, I perused my Pinterest board I have saved birthday cards on. I found this one, & liked the overall layout & how the greeting ran vertically rather than horizontally. So I decided to go that route.

I began with the balloons. I die cut the large balloon with a "Nesting Balloons" die from Paper Rose from cherry wood veneer paper that I've had in my stash for years. I die cut "60" from the balloon with the "Little Numbers" from My Favorite Things (discontinued), as the recipient was turning 60. I also die cut the numbers from gold mirror cardstock. I backed the balloon with kraft cardstock, & inlaid the numbers. I made sure also to add the inside bits of the numbers that had been die cut from the wood paper. For the 2 cardstock balloons with a woodgrain pattern, I first die cut the balloons, and then stamped the woodgrain with a slightly darker color ink, using the "Tree Ring Background" stamp from Concord & 9th. I cut another balloon from a plaid paper from Recollections, & a fifth from an inky technique piece that's been sitting on my desk for ages. I tied a string around the neck of each balloon, and set them aside while I worked on the rest of the elements.

For the presents, I decided to make them look like blocks of different species of wood. For the maple block, I just used a scrap of cream cardstock. I "dyed" another cream cardstock scrap with Seedless Preserves Distress ink, going direct-to-paper, for a purpleheart block. For the walnut, I used Walnut Stain to color a scrap of brown cardstock, again with the direct-to-paper technique. After drying those with my heat gun, I stamped the woodgrain pattern on each with darker shades of ink, using the "Designer Woodgrain" stamp from Hero Arts. Finally I stamped the gifts onto my scraps, using Sweet 'n' Sassy Stamps' (now Creative Worship) "All Wrapped Up" (discontinued) for the 2 larger ones & Lawn Fawn's "Birthday Before 'n Afters" for the walnut block. I also stamped each gift box onto a scrap of a contrasting cardstock. I fussy cut the gifts, and then fussy cut the ribbons/bows from the plain cardstock pieces to glue on top. I also stamped the "maple" gift image onto a scrap of kraft cardstock & cut out just the tag. After I'd cut everything, I "painted" the edges with a black felt-tip pen to camouflage the paper core, & glued the ribbons & tag to their respective boxes.

I die cut the "happy" word from navy cardstock with the "Happy" die from Winnie & Walter (discontinued). I also cut it 5 more times from scraps of navy. After I embossed the first die cut with the "Woodgrain 3D" embossing folder from Honey Bee Stamps, I glued them all together for a stacked, chipboard-type word. I gold heat embossed the "birthday," from Altenew's "Birthday Builder" stamp set, on a scrap of Bazzill Icy Mint cardstock, and cut it into a label. I glued it over the descender in the "y," and added a few layers of cardstock to the end of the label that hung past the letter, just to keep it level when I glued it to the card.

I found a piece of tone-on-tone blue paper in an old patterned paper pad from Momenta. I thought it looked like a page from a notebook like a crafter would work out designs in, so it seemed serendipitously perfect. I cut it down for my background, & adhered it to a white 5x6" card base. I used liquid glue to adhere all my elements, running the balloon strings to end behind the presents. And that finished this card! It was a lot of work & took a lot of careful thought to follow the woodworking theme, but I really love how it came out in the end.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Seize the Birthday Challenge #309: Anything Goes

Inkspirational Challenge #346: "Birthday"

Ellibelle's Corner: "I Spy with My Little Eye - Something to Celebrate"

The Paper Funday Challenge #78: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)

One Sketch, Two Cards

I created not one, but 2 cards for Lawn Fawnatics' Challenge #106. They posted a sketch, & challenged participants to create a project based on that. For my first card, I rotated the sketch 90 degrees. I stamped the Be Merry greeting from Lawn Fawn's "Peace Joy Love" stamp set (discontinued) 5 times at a diagonal, shifting the card panel up in my MISTI stamp positioning tool each time I stamped.

I stamped the joy (from the same set) several times with Lawn Fawn's Kiddie Pool ink, onto a scrap of white cardstock. I die cut it with a "Small Cross-Stitched Rectangle" die from Lawn Fawn. After I  trimmed my blue panel slightly, to 5-1/4x4", I adhered my main greeting panel in the middle. I adhered the blue panel to a white A2-size card base. I added several Pretty Pink Posh 4mm & 6mm Sparkling Clear Sequins, & that finished this first card.

My second card is for the mother of a friend of ours. Her husband passed away earlier this year, & we heard she is not doing well now. So I decided to make a card to send to her, to try & lift her spirits a little. This time, I kept pretty much with the sketch.

I die cut an oval from Strathmore Vellum Bristol paper with one of Lawn Fawn's "Large Stitched Oval" dies. I stamped the image from "Rain or Shine Before 'n Afters" towards the top of the oval with a light grey ink. I also stamped one of the greetings from the set below the image, in a slightly darker grey. I used an orangey-yellow ink to stamp the sun portion onto a scrap of yellow cardstock, & fussy cut just the sun out. After I colored the rainbow & clouds with my Prismacolor colored pencils, I glued the sun in place.

I felt the empty bottom area threw off the design, so I die cut another portion of an oval from a scrap of pale blue cardstock, & used a Lawn Fawn "Puffy Cloud Borders" die to cut the top portion. Then I glued that to the bottom of my main oval. I also inked the perimeter outside the stitching line with Speckled Egg Distress ink, to help the oval stand out from the background.

I cut a piece of patterned paper I'd gotten as a gift in a Lawn Fawn order to 3x4-1/2", & glued my oval centered on that. I covered the front of my 4-bar card base with a yellow cardstock, & added strips of different colors to that, to mimic the rainbow in the image. I backed the patterned paper panel with another piece of white cardstock that I'd cut the same size, so the cardstock strips behind it wouldn't create any dents in the paper layer. Finally, I adhered the patterned paper pane to the card.

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

613 Avenue Create's August Challenge: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)

Hero Arts Stay Crafty with Hero Challenge #26: "Rainbow Cards" (second card only)

Aud Sentiments Challenge #281: "Anything Goes + a Sentiment"

Dies R Us Challenge #175: "Anything Goes Using Any Brand of Die that DRU Sells" (used Lawn Fawn dies)

A LegenDairy Birthday Card

My aunt's birthday is next week, so I "had" to make her a card. ;) I wish I could take credit for the greeting, but honestly I was inspired by this card by Eloise Blue that I saw on Pinterest.

For the bowl, I downloaded a graphic from Pixabay.com. They have a ton of free images! Unfortunately, when I opened the file in Photoshop, I discovered that the artist had apparently used a soft-edged (digital) brush to draw it, since the edges of the lines were kind of fuzzy. Not at all what I was going for! But I was able to use it as a guide of sorts, and drew my own ovals with the Ellipse tool in Photoshop. I drew a rectangle for the base of the bowl, and used the Warp tool on both that and the base oval of the bowl to get the shapes I wanted. Finally, I erased the top of the vertical oval (that forms the body of the bowl), and that much was done! :) I printed the image onto a scrap of patterned paper, & fussy cut around the edges. For the inside, I cut that part off from the patterned paper bowl and used it as a template. I traced around it onto a scrap of Bazzill Marshmallow cardstock, cut it out, & "painted" around the perimeter of that & the bowl with a black marker, to conceal the paper's white core. I adhered it to the bottom part of the bowl with a strip of scrap cardstock I stuck to the back of both pieces.

I used Hero Arts' "Color Layering Ice Cream" stamp set for the ice cream scoops. I stamped the strawberry with Lawn Fawn Ballet Slippers ink for the base & Hero Arts Bubble Gum for the detail layer. For the vanilla, I stamped multiple times with Hero Arts Pale Peach, and used Altenew Vanilla Cream for the detail. I used Hero Arts Cup o' Joe ink for the chocolate, with Memento Rich Cocoa on top. For the cherry, I used Memento Love Letter for the bottom & Memento Rhubarb Stalk for the stem. Finally, I die cut the images with the coordinating dies.

I die cut the greeting using My Favorite Things' "Little Letters" & "Little Lowercase Letters." Pulling from the ice cream colors, I used pink for the first line, brown for the third, & I split the second line between off-white and red shimmer papers. I used the red to accent the punny spelling of "legendairy." I backed each scrap of cardstock with Stick It adhesive before die cutting the letters, to make it easier to adhere them when it came time.

I felt the background needed a bit of interest, but nothing that would overwhelm the image & greeting. So I pulled out my Colorbox "Swirl Dot" stencil & inked through it with Tumbled Glass Distress ink for a tone-on-tone effect.

To place the die cut letters, I marked horizontal lines for each part of the greeting lightly in pencil. I also marked the center point on each line. I lightly tacked down my letters, enough so they wouldn't move but not so much that they were permanently adhered. I worked one line at a time, and when everything on one line was where I wanted it, I moved on to the next. When I had positioned all the letters, I burnished them with my teflon bone folder to secure them firmly. Finally, I glued down my bowl of ice cream and adhered my panel to a white card base. It took me quite a bit of time, especially since I had to draw the bowl in Photoshop myself rather than use the one I'd downloaded, but it was all a labor of love! :)

Bee Strong

My Favorite Things' "Summer School 2018 Session 2" began with a lesson on monochromatic cards. I created this card as my homework, to send to Send a Smile 4 Kids, to encourage a hospitalized child.

I chose the "Mini Chicken Wire" stencil from My Favorite Things (apparently discontinued) for my background. I wanted to do the background in 3 sections, each inked a different shade of yellow. (I chose yellow to go with the bee theme.) After trimming my panel of Canson XL Mixed Media paper to A2 size, I first used the circle die from MFT's "Blueprints 13" (discontinued) to die cut 3 circles from my panel. Then I die cut it into sections with a "Stitched Basic Edges 2" die, also from MFT. I taped the top section of my die cut panel to the back of the stencil, and inked it with Squeezed Lemonade Distress ink. Before removing that section, I lined up the middle section with the first, and taped that in place on the back of the stencil. I wanted the stenciled design to be continuous down the whole card, but still have the shades of yellow sharply defined, so I had to line the panels up this way. Before I inked the second piece with Mustard Seed Distress ink, I removed the top section. Finally, I lined up the bottom piece, removed the middle, and inked with Fossilized Amber Distress ink. I had to adjust the stencil a bit, since it does not cover a full 5.5", but it wasn't too hard to line it up so I could extend the design down the rest of the section.

After I adhered the 3 sections to a white A2 card base, I glued the upper & lower circles I had previously die cut into place, doing a bit of die cut inlay. Using my MISTI, I stamped the greeting, from Simon Says Stamp's "Circle Friends" set, in the bottom circle, and the bee from the same set in the top. I also used my MISTI to stamp the honeycomb circle from "Circle Friends" on the remaining die cut circle. I used Simon Says Stamp's Sunshine ink for that, since it seemed a good match with the Fossilized Amber. I actually had to die cut a new circle and re-stamp, because my stamp was not clean the first time, and I got a bit of black ink mixed in with the yellow on the paper. At least it was easy to line everything up the second time! When I had the circle stamped, I glued it into place on the card front.

I stamped the bee again onto a scrap of mixed media paper, and also onto a scrap of Essentials by Ellen 40 lb. vellum. I colored the paper one in with colored pencils, and fussy cut just the body. I fussy cut the wings on the vellum piece, also cutting a section across the body to connect them. I used a glue dot to adhere just the center part of the wings piece over the stamped bee on the card front, leaving the wings themselves loose. Then I glued the body part down with liquid glue, basically sandwiching the wings in between that and the card front. The only reason I'd stamped the bee in place on the card front, was to have the antennae without having to try and fussy cut around them. I just figured it would be easier to paper piece. I don't know how effective the vellum wings are, but I think they do add at least a little something in real life.

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

Live Love Cards August Challenge: "Monochrome Cards"
a2z Scrapbooking's August Challenge: "Anything Goes"
613 Avenue Create's Challenge #212: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)

Silver Bells

The challenge at Merry Monday this week has been to use Blue, Gold, and Silver/White on your card. I must admit, I struggled with this a bit. I know silver & gold can be used together, but there's just something about it that seems a bit off to me. But I think I managed OK! :)

I decided to use the sketch from the Stella Says Sketch #410 challenge at Catch the Bug for my design:

I began with my focal image, the "Christmas - Bells" from Bugaboo Stamps. I decided to combine painting with a bit of paper piecing. After sizing the image in Photoshop, I printed it onto a piece of Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper. I also printed a reverse image of just the bells onto the backs of silver foil cardstock from Die Cuts with a View, and light blue & dark blue shimmer cardstocks (from my stash). I cut the bell pieces out, and set them aside while I painted the rest of the image with my Zig Clean Color pens & a water brush. I also used a silver glitter gel pen to color in some of the spaces on the hanger in the bells image. I then glued the silver and blue pieces in place. I used the outside of the largest of Spellbinders' "Classic Ovals LG" dies as a template to trace an oval around the image. Finally, I cut it out with my scissors, and erased the pencil lines.

For the background, I cut a piece of navy cardstock to 4.25x5.5". I die cut the bottom edge with one of the "Stitched Borders 1" dies from Pretty Pink Posh, and trimmed the panel down to 4.75" high. I cut two 1/2" strips from the light blue shimmer cardstock I'd used for the bells, and adhered them to the top & bottom of a white A2 card base. I adhered my navy panel in place, and then it was time to determine what to do about the strips in the sketch.

I ended up cutting two 7/8" wide strips of silver foil cardstock, and a 1/2" and two 1/4" wide strips of gold. I adhered the wider gold strip in the middle of the navy panel, and positioned and glued down the narrower strips. Finally, I adhered the silver strips, centered between each pair of gold. I adhered my focal panel, & added some silver Stickles around the perimeter of the oval. I put some dots of gold Stickles over the berries in the image, and along the scalloped border.

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

Catch the Bug Challenge Blog: "Anything Goes"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Anything Goes"
Through the Craft Room Door: "Anything Goes"
Craft Your Passion: "Anything Goes"

Owl Card Trio

a2z Scrapbooking's challenge theme for March is "Embossing." Either wet or dry--use embossing on a project, and also use at least one Hero Arts product.

I created a trio of cards, using Sketch #SC579 from Splitcoaststampers.com & Hero Arts' "Curious Owl" stamp. For my first card, I stamped the owl on a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper using Hero Arts Cup o' Joe ink. I then stamped him again right over top with Versamark ink. (I had already converted my stamp to cling mount, so I could use my MISTI, or this would have been almost impossible.) Next I clear heat embossed the image. I used Distress inks in Antique Linen, Brushed Corduroy, and Gathered Twigs to watercolor the image, adding some Fossilized Amber for the beak & feet. After that dried, I painted the background with watered-down Salty Ocean Distress ink. I added some water droplets to the blue with my paintbrush, making sure not to get any on the owl. After that sat for several seconds, I blotted up the water with a paper towel, effectively bleaching the color under the droplets.

I ran 2 strips of kraft cardstock through the "Polka Dots" Cuttlebug embossing folder. I punched a half circle in the wider strip with a 2" circle punch, to create an opening for my owl. Finally, I glued them to the top & bottom of my watercolor panel. I printed my greeting, from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' "Owl Sentiments" digital stamp set, onto a scrap of light blue cardstock. I cut it into a banner shape, and stapled it to my card front with my Tiny Attacher. Finally, I matted my panel with cream cardstock, and adhered it to a white A2 card base.

For my second card, I paper pieced the owl. I stamped him onto a piece of kraft cardstock for the background, and also onto 3 neutral patterned papers from my scrap stash. I fussy cut the paper sections, and glued them in place over the background image. I colored the eyes in with a white gel pen, using a black gel pen for the pupils. I masked off the image, and blended over the kraft with Brushed Corduroy & Gathered Twigs Distress inks. I added water splatters, and blotted them to leave lighter spots on the background. I added green cardstock strips to the top & bottom, again using my 2" circle punch on the wider strip. Finally, I printed & adhered my greeting (also from "Owl Sentiments"), matted the panel with cream, and mounted it to a white A2 card base.

I colored the owl for my final card with Prismacolor colored pencils, and used Gamsol on a paper stump to blend the colors. After masking the owl, I blended an ombre background with Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive, & Peeled Paint Distress inks. I again used white & black gel pens for the eyes, added my yellow cardstock strips, greeting strip, and matted it with kraft cardstock. I adhered my card front to a white A2 card base, and my trio of cards for Send a Smile 4 Kids was done!

I'm also entering my first card in Live Love Cards' March challenge to use colored cardstock.

Birthday Shaker

We have a friend who is significantly visually impaired. Her birthday is this week, and I wanted to make a card for her. It took a bit of brain-wracking, because I wanted it to be something she could enjoy, despite her poor eyesight. Finally, I found this card on Pinterest, and it hit me--a shaker card!

I stamped the cupcake from this set by Tim Holtz on a scrap of Strathmore Mixed Media paper, using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink. I watercolored that with Distress inks in Worn Lipstick, Gathered Twigs, and Twisted Citron & Mowed Lawn for the candle. I also stamped the candle flame on some gold paper, and the cupcake wrapper on some striped patterned paper from my scrap stash. Then I die cut the whole cupcake, the wrapper, and the flame with the coordinating dies.

I die cut a piece of what a painting workshop instructor I met would have called "screaming green" cardstock, with the two largest of Simon Says Stamp's "Stitched Rectangles" dies to create a frame for my shaker. I also cut a piece of acetate and a piece of polka dot patterned paper with the largest of those dies. I adhered the acetate to the back of the frame, and applied 2 layers of foam tape to the back. I used a mix of sequins from Doodlebug Design & Pretty Pink Posh, along with some seed beads, for my shaker material. (As I tend to do, I think I went a bit overboard, but I didn't realize it until my shaker was together.) I glued my cupcake pieces to my polka dot paper, gluing the cupcake wrapper & flame on top of my "base" cupcake. I also glued a few sequins around the candle, so some would be visible, without absolutely everything falling to the bottom of my shaker. Finally, I removed the liner papers from my foam adhesive, and applied my patterned paper back to it.

I created my card base from 110 lb. white cardstock. For the inside sentiment, I typed it in Photoshop, on a portrait-oriented, A2-size "canvas." I made the font larger than I normally would, so our friend could read it (with the help of her magnifying lens). I then printed it out directly on my cardstock, then cut & folded that piece to form my card base. Finally, I matted the shaker portion with some pink polka dot paper (also from my scrap stash), and mounted the finished card front to my card base.

I'm entering this card in Through the Craft Room Door's challenge: "Anything Goes."

Moose You So Much

I noticed, the last time I sent cards to Operation Write Home, I had a dearth of "missing you," "birthday," and "thank you" cards. So I decided to make a greater effort to create more of those cards to send in. When I made this card, since I already had my Hero Arts "Missing You" stamp set out, I decided to create another card. This time, rather than color the image in, I decided to do some paper piecing. I've done that on the sheep from this set, but never on the moose. Turned out to be a little more challenging that I originally thought!

I began by choosing Sketch #119 from OWH. It is a simple design, which I felt would work well with the somewhat more complex paper-pieced moose.

I stamped the moose and greeting onto a piece of white cardstock, in Versafine Onyx Black ink, then die cut it with one of Spellbinders' "Standard Circles LG" dies. I also stamped the moose onto 3 different patterned paper scraps: one for the antlers, one for the nose, and a check pattern for the body & ears. I then cut out each section. The nose was pretty easy & straightforward to cut. Since the body included the ears, that was more difficult. One of the ears I had to cut out by itself. The antlers were also rather fiddly, since I had to cut around where the ears went and in and out of the top parts. Finally, I had all my cutting done, and glued each piece on the image I'd stamped on the white cardstock. I did leave the eyes white, and just colored in the hooves with a black pen.

To create the card front, I cut 2 pieces from patterned paper scraps on my desk to 1.75x4". I also punched a strip from a third piece with the Martha Stewart "Arch Lattice" border punch. I glued that behind the yellow paper, with the punched area just peeking out above the paper. Then I adhered my patterned papers in place on a kraft cardstock panel. After inking around my focal circle with Gathered Twigs Distress ink, I glued it on top of the patterned paper panels.

I applied adhesive with my ATG gun to the back of the kraft panel and went to glue it to an A2 card base. That's when I noticed the panel was about 1/4" shorter than said card base! Apparently I'd lined it up in my paper trimmer wrong. So I cut 2 strips from dark brown cardstock, and glued them to the top & bottom of the front of my card base. I adhered the front panel over those, and this card was done. I did add a little Glossy Accents to the moose's eyes, just for a bit of shine. I will be sending this card to Operation Write Home.

I'm entering my card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes" challenge.

Happy Day

The theme for Simon Says Stamp's Monday challenge this week has been "Rock the Techniques." I've been struggling with that, mostly trying to figure out just what that means. I didn't want to enter something that didn't fit the theme! I finally came up with this card, employing a few different techniques.

I did not use a sketch for this card. I saw a card online a while back, that used the sheep from Hero Arts' "Missing You" stamp set. The card maker had stacked the sheep one on top of the other. Unfortunately, I can't remember where I saw the card! But I liked the idea of the stacked sheep, so I decided to CASE that element.

***Edited Note: I have since found that card! You can view it at Sarah Gray's blog, Funky Fossil Designs.***

I began by creating my background. I stamped Hero Arts' "Highline Ironwork Background" stamp onto a piece of white cardstock, using Versafine Onyx Black ink, & clear heat embossed it to create a resist. After trimming the panel to 4x5.25", I blended Scattered Straw, Shabby Shutters, Crushed Olive, Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Fired Brick Distress inks over the embossing.

I stamped the sheep 3 times on white cardstock, using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I stamped it again onto 3 different patterned papers, so I could paper piece them. I cut out the white sheep, and then cut out the wool part of the patterned sheep. I glued the wool pieces onto the bodies; "painted" the edges with a black brush tip marker to hide the white paper; and colored the noses, ears, and feet with a slate colored pencil, blending with Gamsol.

I stamped the greeting on a strip of green cardstock using Versafine. (Sorry, but I don't know the name or manufacturer of the stamp set.) I cut a black piece to go behind the sheep, as they kind of got lost if I put them directly on the background. I adhered the black and green strips, and the glued the sheep down. The greeting strip looked a little blank, so I stamped one of the borders from this set in Versafine. I matted the card front panel with a piece of black paper cut to 4.25x5.5", and adhered it onto an A2-size card base. As a finishing touch, I added some Glossy Accents to the sheep's eyes, just to give them a bit of shine.

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

Send a Smile 4 Kids "Fall Colors 4 Kids"
Operation Write Home/Our Daily Bread Designs "Create Your Own Background"

Birthday Fishes

A friend of ours celebrates her 19th birthday this weekend. Since she has an aquarium and likes fish, I decided this card, which I found demonstrated in the "Digital Crafting Essentials" magazine, would be perfect for her. The pattern for the fish is the "Cute Fish" by Anna Marie Designs.

I cut the overall fish and small fins (for the side of the body) from blue glitter paper that I had in my scrap stash. I cut the body from a smooth silver cardstock, also from my scraps. I embossed the body with Cuttlebug's "Spots and Dots" embossing folder. I glued the body in place, and glued the small blue glitter fins on top. I cut the small fin accent pieces from the same silver cardstock, painted the backs with silver paint to cover the stark white, and scored the larger piece before gluing both in place. I set the fish aside to dry while I worked on the card front.

I wanted a watery-looking background, so I started with a mid-tone blue cardstock. I rubbed Picket Fence Distress stain over it in a swirling motion to lighten it and add a sense of movement. I painted the seaweed along the bottom of the panel with green acrylic paint. Then I used Heidi Swapp Color Shine spray inks in Teal & Seafoam; and Dylusions White Linen and Vibrant Turquoise sprays, until I got the look I wanted. Finally, to get the look of bubbles, I thinned down some white acrylic paint with water, then used a paintbrush to spatter some drops on the background. All this moisture made the piece pretty warped, so after it dried, I set it under a heavy book overnight to flatten out.

After the glue on the fish dried, I punched the eye from white cardstock using a 5/8" circle punch. I punched the pupil using a 1/4" hole punch, then glued it down in a slightly wonky position, to give the fish a bit of character. I glued the eye to the fish, and coated it with Glossy Accents to give it some shine and dimension.

I printed the greeting onto white cardstock, then cut it out & inked the edges with Salty Ocean Distress ink. After the card front panel had flattened, I adhered the fish and greeting strip with foam adhesive. I added a few silver sequins layered on blue sequins from Tree House Studio. Then I adhered the front to a card base with my ATG tape runner.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Spots & Dots"
Simon Says Stamp's Work It Wednesday: "Anything Goes"

Happy Birthday Balloons

This July 4th weekend, Operation Write Home is hosting a Virtual Card Making Party. The idea is that, every 2 hours, a different blogger will have a challenge to make one or more cards using a specific theme. One of the challenges, at the a2z Scrapbooking blog, is to make a card appropriate for a child, using paper piecing. So I decided to do a birthday card.

I used this sketch from OWH as the basis for my card:

I am not sure if the width measurement in the sketch for the long vertical piece is correct, since it looks proportionally narrower there, but I used that measurement for my card anyway. Hey, it works!

I used a stamp from this Hero Arts set for the balloons. I stamped just the balloons once on each of 3 patterned papers from My Mind's Eye "Boy Crazy" 6x6" paper pad, then cut each balloon out. I stamped the whole image, using the same black dye ink as I'd used on the patterned papers, onto a piece of white cardstock, and glued the patterned balloons in position over that.

For the greeting, I cut a piece of yellow paper with a subtle stripe pattern that I had in my scrap stash. I stamped the "Happy Birthday" from this set by Lawn Fawn in Versafine Onyx Black ink.

The paper for the vertical layer is from the same My Mind's Eye pad. I cut it to size, and adhered it to a piece of aqua blue cardstock. Next I adhered the greeting panel. I felt the contrast between the balloon panel and the rest of the papers was too stark, so I inked the edges of the white cardstock with Barn Door Distress ink. The I stuck that down, adhered the whole front to an A2 card base, and was done.

I'm also entering this in Simon Says Stamp's Monday "W is for White" challenge. (used white cardstock for the background of my paper piecing)

Keep Calm & Eat a Cupcake

I've had this Fiskars cupcake punch for at least a few years now, and have never really done much--if anything--with it. The current challenge at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge blog is "Happy Easter and/or Sweet Treats." I figured, what better sweet treat than a cupcake?

I chose Operation Write Home's Sketch #199 as the basis for my design:

I flipped it horizontally, enlarged the squares just a bit to accommodate the cupcakes better, and added a greeting in the large blank space. Otherwise, I kept to the sketch.

First, I punched the cupcake pieces. I used a white glitter paper for the frosting, and brown cardstock for the cake part. I cut squares from 3 colors of cardsock to glue the cupcakes to, and matted them with the same brown cardstock. Then I glued the cake & icing sections to the squares. For cards sent to Operation Write Home, glitter that flakes off is an absolute no-no, because it makes soldiers visible to night-vision goggles. So, to keep the glitter on the icing from coming off, I coated those pieces liberally with Glossy Accents to seal it.

For the main panel on the card, I used a patterned paper from Doodlebug Design's "Take Note" 6x6" pad. Because I wanted to print the greeting directly on the paper, I was careful to choose a small, tone-on-tone pattern. I typed and formatted the greeting in Photoshop, and printed it onto the patterned paper. After lightly inking the edges with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink, I matted the panel with yellow and brown cardstocks. Finally, I glued down the cupcake squares.

The side with the greeting still looked a bit too stark, though, so I decided to add some flourishes. I used two matching dies from Spellbinders' "Ironwork Accents" set to die cut the flourishes from the same white glitter paper I'd used for the cupcakes. Then I adhered them above and below the greeting, and again sealed them with Glossy Accents.

I'm entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Happy Easter and/or Sweet Treats" challenge.

Thinking of You

Recently, one of Operation Write Home's card makers unexpectedly passed away. Since 2011, she had donated almost 1,000 cards! She had also been OWH's Featured Cardmaker last June. So, in her honor, Operation Write Home has invited card makers to CASE one of her cards from that Featured Cardmaker post, then post a link on their blog. Her family will be invited to view both posts. This is my contribution.

The card I'm CASEing is this one:

To paper-piece the hot air balloons, I first colored the stamp with a brown brush-tip marker, then stamped two balloons onto white cardstock. I also stamped the balloon portion onto 4 different pattern papers from the "Take Note" 6x6" paper pad by Doodlebug Design. I fussy-cut the sections and glued them in place onto the cardstock base. (Note to self: when using liquid glue, do not stamp the base with a water-based marker, as the color will bleed!) I also colored the balloon baskets with the same brown marker I'd used for the stamping, using a lighter brown colored pencil for the inside of each basket. Finally, I fussy-cut the balloons, leaving a small white border around each.

I die cut the clouds using these dies from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps & glued them to a blue patterned paper from my scrap stash. I drew birds in with a blue marker. Then I adhered the paper-pieced hot air balloons to the sky panel. I stamped the greeting on white cardstock, cut it into a banner shape, and inked the edges with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. Then I adhered that towards the bottom of the sky panel, which I matted onto a dark blue cardstock.

I adhered the focal point panel to a piece of white cardstock cut to 4.25x5.5", and wrapped blue baker's twine from Maya Road around the card front below the focal panel. Finally, I adhered this to a standard A2 card base with foam tape.

I'm linking this to Operation Write Home's blog. I'm also entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Journey" challenge.

You're my Rainbow

I just received the Hero Arts "You're a Rainbow" stamp set recently. Since the current challenge at A Blog Named Hero is "Paper Piecing," I felt this rainbow image would be perfect for that.

For my design, I used this sketch from Operation Write Home:

I rotated it 90 degrees, but other than that, kept pretty true to the sketch.

To create the paper-pieced rainbow, I first stamped the image in black on white cardstock, both for the cloud portion and to use as my base. I then stamped it once each on scraps of red, yellow, orange, green, & blue patterned paper, keeping them basically in ROY G BIV order. I fussy-cut the bands and glued them onto the cardstock base. I went around the edges of the whole image with a black brush-tip marker to hide the white edge and finish it off.

I applied a bit of shimmer with my clear Zig Wink of Stella brush marker, then sealed that in with Glossy Accents. I had seen Jennifer McGuire do this in one of her videos. It not only gives the element the subtle glittery sparkle, but also a nice shine. It keeps the glitter from the Wink of Stella from rubbing off as well--a requirement for Operation Write Home cards.

For the patterned paper strips behind the main panel, I cut them to size from paper scraps that were in my collection. I rounded the two adjacent corners on the (outer) yellow strips with my 1/4" Corner Chomper, to frame the main panel better. I adhered these to a Kraft panel, cut to a standard A2 card size.

I cut the focal point panel out of a scrap of light blue patterned paper. I thought the subtle white streaks on the blue background imitated cirrus clouds, making it perfect for the imagery in this card. I rounded the corners with my 1/4" Corner Chomper, and stamped the greeting directly onto the panel. Then I glued down the rainbow, and adhered the panel to the card front. I adhered the front to the card base with my ATG adhesive runner, and there it is--another card for a hero overseas to send home to his/her loved one!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

 A Blog Named Hero's "Paper Piecing" Challenge #40
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Transparent" challenge (used clear Wink of Stella & Glossy Accents)