A Good Day

This is my second card for the Send a Smile 4 Kids "Winter Fun 4 Kids" challenge. I must admit, it was kind of hard coming up with ideas for winter cards. Hopefully this one fits the bill.

I first chose my stamps. When I was looking for my "Winter Penguin" stamp set for this card, I came across Lawn Fawn's "Winter Sparrows" set, and thought it would be great for a card for this challenge. I wanted a more substantial branch than the one that is in that set, so I die cut one from brown cardstock using Impression Obsession's "Bare Branch" die. I also stamped my birdies in Memento Tuxedo Black ink, colored them with colored pencils and Gamsol, and die cut them with the coordinating dies.

For the background, I die cut a piece of white cardstock with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Large Stitched Rectangles" dies. I taped off the edges, up to the faux stitching lines, to create a white border, a tip I got from watching Nichol Magouirk on YouTube. Then I blended Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Peacock Feathers Distress inks to create the sky. I knew I wanted to use one of the "positive" greetings from this stamp set, so I wanted a daytime-looking sky.

To assemble the card, I first applied dots of glue to the back of the branch. After daubing off the excess on scratch paper (a tip from Debby Hughes), I used my tweezers to position it and stuck it down. I positioned my birdies where I wanted them, and stamped the music note from the "Winter Sparrows" set in Tuxedo Black ink around them. I also stamped the greeting in Tuxedo Black in the lower right corner. After applying foam tape to the backs of the birds, I stuck them down on the branch. Finally, I mounted the completed panel to an A2 card base. I will be sending this card to SAS4Kids.

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

Make Today Amazing

The theme for Send a Smile 4 Kids' final challenge for 2014 is "Winter Fun 4 Kids." So I decided to create a couple of cards for that challenge, which I will send on to them. This is the first of those.

I got my inspiration from this video by Tracy of Tracy Mae Designs. I used the same basic idea, but tweaked it a bit.

To get started, I stamped my little penguin from "Winter Penguin" by Lawn Fawn onto a scrap of white cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Then I colored him in with colored pencils, blending them with Gamsol on paper stumps. After cutting him with the coordinating die, I set him aside while I worked on the background.

I created my greeting using 2 stamps from My Favorite Things' "Simply Fabulous Sayings." After die cutting a piece of white cardstock with the largest of Lawn Fawn's "Small Stitched Rectangles" dies, I positioned my greeting stamps on that. I picked them up with my Fiskars stamp press, and stamped them in Versamark. I used Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder to heat emboss the greeting. I stamped the snowflakes from "Winter Penguin" and Lawn Fawn's "Winter in the Park" over the upper portion of the background, and white heat embossed them as well.

After masking off a border just outside the faux stitching on the panel, and a portion for the "ice," I blended Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans, Dusty Concord, and Chipped Sapphire Distress inks over the sky area. I removed the masking that I'd put across the panel to preserve the bottom portion, and masked above that line. I blended below that with Tumbled Glass Distress ink, and went around the edges with Broken China to add some depth. Finally I removed all the masking. I ended up going over the greeting with a white gel pen, since the embossing powder had not coated the letters thoroughly, allowing some spots of Distress ink to show through.

I decided I wanted some snow drifts at the horizon, so I die cut 2 pieces of white cardstock with one of the dies from the "Landscape Trio" set by Mama Elephant. After inking the tops with Tumbled Glass, I glued the shorter one on the front of the taller, and glued them to the background. To complete my little scene, I adhered the penguin with foam tape.

I die cut a piece of dark blue cardstock with the largest die from Lawn Fawn's "Large Stitched Rectangles." I adhered the focal panel to that, and adhered the completed card front to an A2 size card base.

My Top 14 OWH Cards of 2014

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope 2014 was a great year for y'all, and that 2015 will be even better. Operation Write Home is having a "Top Cards of 2014" bloghop today, and I am happy to be participating. (To see everyone's work, click the link at the top of this post to go to the Operation Write Home blog.) We were encouraged to choose our top 14 cards of the year. It was hard to choose just 14 cards as my favorites, out of all the ones I made for OWH this past year. But here they are (in no special order)!

This one was a new-to-me design, that I'd found on Pinterest. I die cut all the letters and the heart, and arranged them on the card front. I later found a stamp in Hobby Lobby that does pretty much the same thing!

I love the watercoloring on this one. For quite some time while I was coloring it, I really wasn't sure it would work out, but in the end, I think it turned out quite well!

I like this one just for the "grunge" factor. I felt the opening around the truck, which I tore and then inked, turned out really great. A good card for a boy--or a tomboy girl!

I used a technique I'd seen Jennifer McGuire do, involving stamping the hearts in Distress inks and then flicking water with a brush onto them so the ink would bleed. Striking effect, I think!

Like many card makers, I don't tend to do masculine cards. I've been trying to do more, though. I especially the second one here, because it's also a one-layer card--something else I don't do much of.

I did a couple of techniques on this card. I used alcohol inks on glossy cardstock for the greeting panel, then stamped the "Hello handsome" on top. This was my first time doing this, and I was amazed how well it came out. I also did a faux letterpress technique on the background, by inking up an embossing folder before inserting my cardstock. I don't always get good results doing this, but this one was close to perfect the first time.

I used a stencil and inking for the sunburst in this card. I like how the blue panel anchors the sunburst & light bulb.

I love the cute critters in Hero Arts/OWH stamp sets. For the moose card, I stamped the plaid background behind the moose--not a quick process! The elephant card won a Heroine award in A Blog Named Hero's "Ombre" challenge!

I created this card for OWH's Memorial Day bloghop. I was surprised at how many people who commented thought the strip in the middle was pre-printed. In fact, I stamped the hearts & greeting and cut the strip out.

Another of what Laura Bassen would call a one-layer wonder. I masked the middle, used gel medium over a star stencil, and did a gradient inking for the background. Then I just removed the masking and stamped my greeting.

I really enjoyed doing the embossing in these last 2 cards. The brightly-colored one employed another new-to-me technique: monoprinting. I inked the back of a Tim Holtz layering stencil with Distress inks, spritzed it with water, and laid it down on a piece of cardstock to get the star-patterned print. I was glad it turned out right the first time, too!

So there they are, my top 14 choices for 2014. Hope you enjoyed--and congratulations on making it this far! :) I'm so glad to have found Operation Write Home, and feel honored to be at least a small part of their work! Have a wonderful day, and again, Happy New Year, y'all!

Happy Happy Birthday

The theme for December's Our Daily Bread Designs challenge at Operation Write Home is to use primary colors. I couldn't help but think of doing a child's birthday card. When I was looking through my stamps, I came across Spellbinders' "Your Day" set. I just love the elephant in this set, and had to use him. Thankfully, I was able to find an OWH sketch to accommodate the image!

I did have to "doctor" the sketch a bit. I made the focal panel slightly wider, to give the image a little more "breathing room." I also flipped it horizontally, and replaced the banner in the upper corner with the balloons.

I began by stamping my image onto a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper with Ranger Archival Jet Black ink. I taped the panel to my cutting board that I use for watercoloring, and painted it with watercolors. For the ground, I smooshed some Pumice Stone Distress ink onto an acrylic block, then watered it down and applied a light wash to the bottom of the panel. I did the same with Tumbled Glass Distress ink for the sky portion. After drying it with my heat tool, I removed the tape and set it aside while I worked on the rest of the card.

I decided to use a greeting from this stamp set by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. The set comes with a solid balloon stamp that coordinates well with that particular greeting. I first stamped the balloon in Stampabilities "Light Pink" pigment ink onto white cardstock. When that dried, I stamped the greeting over it with Ranger's Adirondack Brights "Clover" ink. After giving that time to dry thoroughly, I fussy cut the balloon. I also used the smallest die from this Simon Says Stamp set to die cut 2 more balloons from patterned paper scraps.

For the background, I decided to go with a bright red. I found a piece of yellow gingham patterned paper in my scrap stash, and cut a strip of that to go along the side of the red. After gluing the gingham paper to the red cardstock, I die cut the panel with the largest die from My Favorite Things' "Blueprints 13" set. I also matted the focal panel with blue cardstock, leaving a 1/16" border all around.

Finally, it was time to assemble the card. I determined where I wanted the focal panel in relation to the 3 balloons, and adhered it to the background. I tied white embroidery floss around the bottoms of the pink & yellow balloons. (The bottom of the blue balloon would not be showing, so I didn't add floss around that.) Since I wanted the elephant to be "holding" the balloons, I poked a hole on each side of his trunk. After gluing the balloons in place, I threaded the other end of the embroidery floss through the holes, and wrapped it around the trunk. Finally, I tied a small bow with more floss, and adhered it over the floss around the trunk with a small dab of Ranger Multi Medium Matte. I decided I had to use a googly eye to up the cute factor, so I used more Multi Medium to glue one on the elephant.

The only thing left was to adhere the finished card front to a cream A2 card base, and this card for Operation Write Home is DONE!

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

One Sketch Two Ways

Our Daily Bread Designs' biweekly challenge this time is a sketch challenge. I also decided to create a few love/Valentine's Day cards for Operation Write Home. So I figured, why not combine the two and create a couple of cards based on that sketch for OWH?

I decided to create a masculine and feminine card for this challenge. For the masculine version, I used the "Anchor Single" stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs. I stamped it onto a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper, and colored it with Inktense pencils and a damp brush.

After matting the focal panel on black, I cut 2 pieces of patterned paper from my scrap stash and matted them with black as well. I also used a piece of burlap paper from The Paper Studio as my background. After wrapping some jute twine around the card front panel, I matted it with more black paper.

For the greeting, I die cut a banner from grey cardstock with a Spellbinders die, and stamped the "I Love You" from this Simon Says Stamp set in Versafine Onyx Black ink. I shortened the banner a bit, and punched a hole in the end. I threaded jute twine through the hole. I tied it to the twine wrapped around the card front, and that finished card #1.

I used ODBD's "Violet Single" stamp for my second card. I stamped it onto 140 lb. watercolor paper as well, and also used my Inktense pencils to color it. I fussy cut it out, and mounted it onto a piece of lavender cardstock I'd die cut & embossed with a Spellbinders "Classic Ovals LG" die.

I used a Stampabilities background stamp and Hero Arts' Soft Leaf shadow ink to stamp the background onto white cardstock. I cut 2 pieces of patterned paper from Fancy Pants Designs' "Park Bench" 6x6" paper pad, and matted them with more of the lavender cardstock. I adhered those in place, and wrapped yellow bakers twine around the card front.

For the greeting, I used one from Avery Elle's "Love Notes" set. I stamped it on white cardstock using Adirondack Eggplant pigment ink, & clear heat embossed it. I cut it into a tag shape, punched a hole, and used yellow bakers twine to tie it to the twine wrapped around the card front. Finally, I matted the front panel onto more lavender, and adhered that to my card base.

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

Merry Mail

Catch the Bug challenge blog has their "Stella Says Sketch #221" challenge going on right now. I created this card for that. It's actually one of a set of 4 cards that I made using the same design and stamps, but different papers.

I decided to go with a kraft card base this time. I felt it kind of went with the homey, "country" style of my focal image. I stamped the "Holiday Mail" image, from Deep Red Stamps, onto a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media Paper, with Ranger's Archival Jet Black ink. I die cut & embossed it with a Spellbinders "Labels Four" die, and colored it with Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush to blend the colors. Once I'd finished coloring, I replaced the panel inside the die, and lightly blended Tumbled Glass Distress ink around the mailbox. It's subtle (so subtle, in fact, that it doesn't show up in the photo!), but I think it adds just a touch of dimension to the image panel.

I chose my patterned paper from the "Woodland Wonderland" 6x6" paper pad by The Paper Studio. I used a pale blue cardstock to mat it, die cutting the long sides of that with one of Pretty Pink Posh's "Stitched Borders 1" dies. I adhered the patterned paper piece to the mat, and adhered that to the card base.

After gluing the focal panel in place, I stamped the greeting, using one from Hero Arts' "Merry Christmas Message" set, in Versafine Onyx Black below the patterned paper. And that finished this card. Hopefully the recipient will enjoy getting it as much as I enjoyed making it! (If not, they just don't get to keep it! LOL)

Happy Christmas

I recently got this stamp set from Simon Says Stamp. It's kind of a "build your own" Christmas greeting set. It's nice for simple greetings on the front of your cards. I also came across this image on Pinterest. I have a similar embossing folder, and decided to pair that with two of the dies from Spellbinders' "2013 Snowflake Pendant" set. I felt, with the elegance of the embossing folder and dies, a simple greeting was in order, so I used the SSS set.

I cut my white background panel to 4x5.25", and ran it through my die cutting machine with the Darice "Snowflake Swirl" embossing folder. I also taped 2 of the snowflake dies together (one inside the other), and die cut a snowflake from sliver glitter cardstock and another one from white cardstock. I glued the silver to the white, just in the middle, and slightly offset to provide some layering and dimension. Finally, I glued that to the embossed panel, again leaving the "arms" of the snowflakes loose; and glued a jewel to the center with a bit of Glossy Accents.

I stamped the greeting on vellum. I had quite a bit of difficulty getting the right effect, especially since the inks I used all seemed to have a tendency to bleed on the vellum as they dried. Finally, I figured out to stamp in Memento "Gray Flannel" ink, which gave me a light grey to complement the silver snowflake, and immediately blot off the excess ink with a piece of scrap copy paper. That gave me the result I wanted--subtle and NOT blurry! :)

I ran the vellum strip through my Xyron machine, to apply an even layer of adhesive to the back. Finally, I stuck it down towards the bottom of the embossed panel, matted that panel with more silver glitter cardstock that I'd die cut with Avery Elle's "Custom Panels" A2 die, and adhered that to a 4.25x5.5" card base.

I'm entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Winter Inspiration" challenge. (I thought of this design when I saw the photo of the snowflakes on their mood board.)