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.

Thanks so Much

For my card, I decided to try a technique I'd seen Jennifer McGuire use, called iron-off embossing, in this post on the Hero Arts blog. I used this sketch from Operation Write Home for the basis of my design:

I stamped a piece of watercolor paper with a background stamp by Stampabilities in Versamark ink, then heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. I smooshed Distress Inks in Evergreen Bough, Peacock Feathers, Mustard Seed, & Mowed Lawn on an acrylic block. I picked up color with my water brush, one at a time, and painted it over the stamped image. Once the ink was dry, I ironed off the embossing powder, rounded the corners with my 3/8" Corner Chomper, and adhered the panel to a piece of black cardstock.

The greeting is from Lawn Fawn's "Grand Greetings" stamp set. I stamped it in black pigment ink on yellow cardstock, then clear heat-embossed it. I cut the panel into a banner shape, and adhered it to the card front. I glued 3 gems from The Paper Studio's "Jewel Tones Mosaic" set onto the front with Glossy Accents, then adhered the completed panel to a white A2 card base. I felt the card didn't look complete, so I ended up going around the focal point panel with a white gel pen to create faux stitching lines.

Happy Birthday

In honor of their 5th birthday at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge blog, their theme is "Happy Birthday." I took my inspiration for this card's design from this one that Kristina Werner had done on her blog:

For mine, I used the cupcake from "Turn 29" by Technique Tuesday. I stamped it repeatedly in various colors of inks by Ranger, Stampabilities, and Memento to create the background.

I used a Fiskars border punch to punch the top of the greeting panel. I backed that with a strip of patterned paper from the "Take Note" 6x6" paper pad by Doodlebug Designs, and fussy-cut the paper around the scalloped edge from the punch. I stamped the greeting from "Grand Greetings" by Lawn Fawn on the panel in Versamark ink, then heat embossed it with Recollections "Snow" embossing powder. (I masked off parts of the stamp when I inked it, so I could stamp the greeting on 2 lines, since the stamp was longer than the width of the panel.) I stamped the cupcake again in Memento "Grape Jelly" dye ink on white cardstock, fussy-cut around it, and glued it to the greeting panel. Then I adhered the whole panel to the stamped background.

I matted the stamped panel onto a piece of pink cardstock. For the outer mat, I cut a piece of white cardstock to 4.25x5.5", and inked around the sides with the same yellow ink I'd used to stamp one of the rows of cupcakes. I adhered the matted stamped panel to that, and mounted the whole front to a standard A2 card base.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Monday "The One with Lots of Rules"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Happy Birthday"

*Technique Tuesday Clear Stamps TURN 29 Teri Anderson

*Lawn Fawn GRAND GREETINGS Clear Stamps

InLinkz.com

Happy Day

The current challenge at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge blog is "Happy Birthday." So I decided to take a short break from Father's Day cards and make a few birthday cards, also to send to Operation Write Home. I based the design for my card on this sketch by OWH:

I did stay pretty true to the sketch, though I made a couple of alterations.

For the focal image, I used the cupcake from the "Birthday Blueprint" set by Tim Holtz. The greeting is from another set, though I don't know the manufacturer. I stamped the cupcake on watercolor paper with Archival Jet Black ink. After that dried, I colored the image with Inktense pencils, blending the color with my Ranger water brush.

For the background, I chose a sheet of patterned paper from the "Take Note" 6x6" paper pad by Doodlebug Design. I used a polka-dot pattern from the same pad, matting it on black paper to make it pop a little more, for the middle layer. I sponged Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges of the focal point panel, to give it some more definition without having to mat it. Then I adhered the 2 panels to the background paper, angling the focal point panel slightly, as in the sketch.

I stamped the greeting in black on white cardstock, then cut it with a Spellbinders Classic Ovals die. I inked the edges of that with Black Soot as well, and glued it to the card front. Finally, I adhered the front to a standard A2-size card base made from 110# white cardstock.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Happy Birthday"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "The One with Lots of Rules"

*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps 2013 BIRTHDAY BLUEPRINT CMS153	*Derwent 72 INKTENSE COLORED PENCILS Watercolor	*Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK AIP31468	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD BLACK SOOT Ranger
*S4-110 Spellbinders Nestabilities CLASSIC OVAL LARGE

InLinkz.com

Two Sympathy Cards

Sympathy cards are probably not the most favorite ones for card makers to create. But, at times, they are necessary. Recently, 2 friends of my mom & me experience losses. So I created sympathy cards for each of them.

For the first card, I broke out this Majestic Elements die set from Spellbinders. I had never really used it before, mostly because I wasn't sure how to incorporate the die cuts into a design. I was pleased to discover that I also had the coordinating labels dies, which made it easier to cut out elements. I cut the outermost frame from black paper with the largest of the Majestic Elements dies. I used a striped paper & the next largest die to cut the inset, then cut that with the same size labels die. Finally, I die cut the panel for the sentiment, which I'd found on the Internet. After formatting the text in Photoshop and printing the sentiment on the die cut-panel, the assembly was pretty straightforward. The pieces fit together much like a puzzle onto a piece of light blue cardstock.

For the second card, I took my inspiration from this card I found on Pinterest:

I was most drawn to the butterfly, as it is a symbol of transcendence and new life. This seemed perfect for a sympathy card. (That I already had that same die didn't hurt, either.)

I used this Spellbinders Expandable Patterns die, cutting it out of a dark bluish-purple cardstock from my scrap stash, & trimmed off the border. Then I glued that to a light blue panel. I die cut the butterfly portion a second time out of yellow cardstock, then trimmed it out with scissors and glued it on top of the butterfly in the base die cut, just along the body, so the wings would have some dimension. I printed the greeting on a label I die cut with another Spellbinders die. I adhered the greeting label to the butterfly panel, and used Glossy Accents to glue 2 small clear acrylic gems to each end. I mounted that whole panel on another cut from the same yellow as the butterfly. I matted that with green (a color symbolizing new life) and then grey cardstock. So, out of a base of grief (symbolized by the grey cardstock) comes new life and, with it, new hope.

Happy Father's Day!

The current Midweek Throwdown challenge at Operation Write Home's Stars & Stamps blog is to use purple & yellow in a card. I usually don't remember to participate in their challenges, but decided to give this one a go.

For the design, I chose this OWH sketch:

As you can see, I followed it exactly.

I learned in Online Card Classes' "Stenciled" class, which I took a couple of months ago, how to dry emboss with stencils, using a manual die cutting machine. I decided to try that with this card. I cut a panel from purple cardstock a bit larger than I'd need to cut the 4 sections in the sketch, and ran it through my Spellbinders Grand Calibur with the "Mini Houndstooth" stencil by The Crafter's Workshop. That gave me the texture I wanted. To enhance the design, I kept the stencil in place as a mask and inked over the panel with Dusty Concord Distress Ink and my ink blending tool, just hitting the raised portions of the embossing. Once that had dried sufficiently (which doesn't take long), I cut the 4 small panels from that piece.

I used a greeting from this digital stamp set by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. I die cut & embossed a circle from white cardstock with one of Spellbinders "Classic Circles" dies. Before removing it from the die, I lightly sponged Dusty Concord ink in the center portion. After I took the cardstock out of the die, I further inked around the edge with a darker application of Dusty Concord. Then I printed the greeting onto it.

To assemble the card, I cut a piece of yellow cardstock to 4.25x5.5". I adhered the 4 purple panels to it, spacing them apart slightly. This was not as easy as it might sound, since the houndstooth pattern has a directional motif. So I had to pay close attention to which way the design was going when I adhered each panel! Thankfully, I realized this before I started adhering, and got it all right the first time. I popped the greeting up on foam tape, adhered the front to an A2 card base, and this simple card was complete.

Happy Father's Day Star

I recently got a couple of new 6x6" patterned paper pads at my local scrapbooking store. They have lots of more masculine-looking papers, which I felt I needed to make Father's Day cards for Operation Write Home this month. I decided for this card I wanted a design with lots of layers involved. I looked through my OWH sketch collection, and found this one, which definitely fit the bill:

I searched my stamp collection to find a focal image. The one I chose was too large for the panel in the sketch, so I had to improvise a little. I cut the second and third panels, as shown in the sketch, using papers from the FarmHouse 6x6" "302 Paper Pack." I overlapped them and adhered them temporarily with repositionable adhesive. Then I stamped the star image from this stamp set by Tim Holtz on the panels in Versamark ink, and heat-embossed it in gold. I separated the panels, and matted each on tan cardstock. I did change the "layer" measurements in the sketch slightly, so those panels had only a 1/16" mat, rather than 1/8", so it wouldn't break up the image too much. I layered those on another pattern from the same pack, and mounted them to a paper from 7gypsies' "Venice" 6x6" pad.

For the greeting, I was going to use one from this digital stamp set by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. But I couldn't find one that seemed to fit the general look of the card. So I finally created my own in Photoshop, and printed it on the same tan cardstock I'd used for the mats on the middle layers. I inked the edges of the panel with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, and adhered 2 threaded buttons to it. Then I glued it on to the card front, and mounted the whole front onto a standard A2 card base.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes with Buttons"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "The One with Lots of Rules"