Mockingbird Thank You

As I mentioned in this post, May is Military Appreciation Month in the U.S. So Operation Write Home is collecting thank you cards & letters to send to our overseas military heroes. A friend's son is in Boy Scouts, and so I asked if the boys in his troop would like to participate by writing notes, if I provided the cards. The leader said yes, so, at least for the next few days, I'm on a thank you card kick!

I used the following sketch from Operation Write Home as the basis for my design:

I did make a few changes. I rotated the sketch 90 degrees, added layers, and added the "thank you" scalloped circle piece.

I started with this stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs. I stamped it on watercolor paper with Ranger Archival Jet Black ink. As one of the lessons in Online Card Classes' "Watercolor for Cardmakers" is on watercoloring images, I colored the image using Inktense pencils and water. For the background on that piece, I felt it was a little too plain, so I applied a wash of blue watercolor over it, being careful especially to leave the flowers white.

For the background, I first cut a piece of black-and-white checkered paper to about 1/2" smaller on both sides than an A2 card. To tone down the pattern, I blended Pumice Stone Distress ink over it with my Mini Ink Blending Tool. To create the mats for it, I cut 2 pieces of white cardstock and blended Weathered Wood & Stormy Sky Distress inks over each. Finally, I cut a piece of navy cardstock to 5.5x4.25", and adhered all the layers to each other. The narrow rectangle behind the focal panel is patterned paper from my scrap stash.

When I placed the focal panel on the card front, it kind of blended into the light blue piece directly behind it. So I cut another piece of navy cardstock large enough to leave a 1/16" mat all around, and adhered the panel to that. To do the greeting, I stamped the "thank you" onto navy cardstock with Versamark ink, then heat embossed it with Ranger Silver embossing powder. I die cut that with a Lifestyle Crafts die, and adhered it to the front of the card.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Our Daily Bread Designs' "Wing It"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Spring Flowers"
Simon Says Stamp's May "Work It Wednesday" (use patterned paper)

A Million and One Thanks Bluebird

May is Military Appreciation Month in the U.S., and Operation Write Home is trying to collect as many thank-you cards & letters as possible to send to our military heroes. While they do this year-round, this month is especially important, given the MAM occasion. So I have started making thank-you cards for people to write a note of thanks in. This is my first.

I based my design on the first sketch on Hero Arts' Sketch Challenge post. (Unfortunately, I can't enter this card in their challenge, as I forgot the requirement to use a Hero Arts stamp. SIGH! But at least I have until May 25 to create more cards for that!)

I started by creating the curve on the card front. I cut a standard A2 panel from watercolor paper, then cut off the bottom portion with Simon Says Stamp's A2 Curved Edge Die.

I used this digital stamp from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps for the focal image, printing it directly on the upper watercolor paper panel and coloring it with Inktense pencils and a wet brush. I stamped the greeting using this stamp set on a piece of white cardstock in Versafine Onyx Black ink. I then die cut it with a Spellbinders "Labels 8" die, and inked it with Tumbled Glass Distress ink and my mini ink blending tool.

For the bottom part of the background, I used a technique I learned this week in Online Card Classes' "Watercolor for Cardmakers" class. Laura Bassen showed how to apply Distress ink to an acrylic block, mist it with water, then smoosh it onto a piece of watercolor paper. You do this with several colors in a row on your paper to give a gradient effect. The colors I used for this card were Mustard Seed, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean, and Barn Door. I didn't get them to blend quite as much as I wanted, despite being very generous with my water mister, but I still think it turned out OK.

Once I had my pieces stamped, inked, and die cut, I was ready to assemble my card. I used a 5.5x4.25" card base, and adhered the background panels directly to the front of that. Then I glued down the label and the flourishes, which I had cut with a My Favorite Things die. Finally, I used my 1/2" Corner Chomper to round all four corners.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamp's Challenge #10: "Birds"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Spring Flowers" (dogwood blossoms in the bird stamp)

Happy Mother's Day, Grandma!

This is kind of a silly card I made for my mom for Mother's Day this Sunday. We have 3 cats, whom I consider my "kids." So, of course, my mom is their grandma! I have never made her a Mother's Day card from the cats, so this is certainly a first for me (and for her, too)!

I used the following sketch from Operation Write Home as the basis for my design:

Because of the stamp I used, I had to flip the circle to the right side of the card, so the cat would be looking "inward" on the card. I also ended up leaving off the 2 smaller circle embellishments, feeling they would make it too busy.

I stamped the cat using this stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs onto a piece of white cardstock. I colored the flowers and grass with colored pencils, and added just a bit of pink to the cat's nose and ear. I die cut & embossed that with a Spellbinder's Standard Circles (Sm) die. For the mat, I used the next size up of their Standard Circles (Lg) die set, and cut it from yellow cardstock.

The floral patterned paper I used for the background is from Simple Stories' "Vintage Bliss" 6x6" paper pad. I punched a piece of green patterned paper I pulled from my (all-too-vast) scrap collection with the Fiskars "Scalloped Sentiment" border punch. I adhered the floral pattern to a piece of the same yellow cardstock I'd matted the focal piece on; and glued the circle piece, after I'd cut off one side, to that. I adhered a piece of black cardstock below the floral panel, overlapping the focal panel and tucking the scalloped piece under the bottom edge of the black strip.

For the greeting, I combined 2 of the images from this digital stamp set by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. I used one of the "Happy Mother's Day" greetings, adding the "Grandma" after it. For the comma between them, I actually copied and pasted the apostrophe from "Mother's" and positioned it where I wanted it in Photoshop. Finally, I added the exclamation point at the end, and printed it out onto a piece of light teal cardstock, which I adhered to the black strip on the card front.

And there it is--a card I hope my mom will get a kick out of!

I'm entering this card in Simon Says Stamp's "Work It Wednesday" challenge for May.

Happy Mother's Day Watercolor

The latest course from Online Card Classes, "Watercolor for Card Makers," began this week. The theme of the first two days is watercolor backgrounds. I was inspired by Kristina Werner's emboss-resist technique to create this card.

For my card's design, I knew I wanted something with a large panel for my watercolor background. I finally chose the following sketch from Operation Write Home:

Since I wanted to make a 5x7" card, rather than an A2 card as in the sketch, I just enlarged each element, keeping the basic proportions the same.

For the focal panel, I stamped a background stamp from (I believe) Stampabilities onto a piece of watercolor paper in Versamark ink. I then clear heat-embossed it. When that cooled, I misted it with water, and mixed up 4 colors of watercolor paints. I applied the colors to the wet paper, blending the bands as I went. I dried it with my heat tool, being careful not to remelt (or burn!) the embossing, and then went back in with more pigment to darken the colors slightly. After the watercolor was dry, I lightly wiped any excess paint off the embossed areas with a baby wipe.

I matted the embossed and watercolored panel onto dark purple Core'dinations cardstock, then onto a lighter teal cardstock, and finally onto a piece of dark green cardstock. I mostly tried to take my color inspiration from the colors of watercolors I'd used in my choices of cardstock colors, but going darker to show off the watercolored piece better.

For the greeting, I cut a strip of another light blue cardstock, and punched the ends with Fiskars' "Apron Lace" border punch. I die cut the "happy" from this Simon Says Stamp die. I scanned the panel & die cut into my computer, then positioned them digitally in Photoshop. I was able from there to type & format the "Mother's Day!" text in the proper location. Finally, I printed that part of the greeting onto the label, and adhered the label and the "happy" die cut onto the card front.

I felt the card needed something, as it seemed a little bottom-heavy. So I colored some clear acrylic gems with Wild Plum alcohol ink, and adhered them to the front, primarily on the upper portion of the watercolor piece.

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

Happy Mother's Day!

I offered to make a card for my brother & his wife to give our mom for Mother's Day, and he jumped at the chance to give an "Andrea La Vigne Original"! So here's my latest.

I took my inspiration from Operation Write Home's Sketch #152, changing the circle & scalloped circle to ovals, and enlarging the measurements to make a 5.5x8" card:

I stamped the "Violet" stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs on watercolor paper and die cut it with a Spellbinders Grand Ovals die. With the paper still in the die, I inked around the panel with Tumbled Glass Distress ink, and colored the violets with Inktense pencils. I did the sentiment in Photoshop, and printed it directly on the panel. Then I matted that with a panel cut with a Spellbinders Grand Scalloped Ovals die.

The green patterned paper is from graphic45's "Botanical Tea" 6x6" paper pad, and the more floral design is from Anna Griffin's "Olivia Collection" 6x6" pad. I used Core'dinations cardstock in 2 shades of purple for the card front and scalloped mat.

I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Our Daily Bread Design's "Spring Colors and ODBD Stamps"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes"

You're the Bees Knees!

Every month, Operation Write Home has a themed challenge sponsored by Our Daily Bread Designs. This month's theme is to use an insect on your card. I have had these "bee" greetings from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps for quite some time now, and had gotten the bee rubber stamp that I used in this card with those greetings in mind. I had yet to use them, though, so I decided this challenge would be a perfect time to break them out and make a card!

For the design, I used the following sketch from OWH:

I did make some alterations to the sketch. I left out the 3 circular embellishments in the upper left corner, didn't add twine (actually, I forgot about that until it was too late!), made the focal panel/mat slightly smaller, and matted the card front panel. But I did keep the basic "bones" the same.

For the background panel, I taped Colorbox's "Swirldot" stencil over a piece of white cardstock, and inked through it with Mustard Seed Distress ink and my mini ink blending tool. I felt it was a bit too stark, though; so after I inked it, I lightly spritzed some Lemon Zest Dylusions spray ink over it. Then I set that aside to dry.

I cut my focal panel from white cardstock to 2-7/8"x4-1/8", and printed the greeting directly on that, towards the bottom. I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to get the bee positioned just right, and stamped that in Ranger Archival Jet Black ink. I had initially intended to color it with my Inktense pencils & water, so stamped it in that waterproof ink. But I ended up coloring it with colored pencils instead. No big deal, though!

I felt the upper right corner was a bit bare, and thought about adding brads. But I was afraid it would unbalance the design a bit too much, so I ended up adding one brad to each corner. To mat the panel, I cut a piece of yellow patterned paper from The Paper Studio to 3"x4-1/4", which left a 1/16" border around the focal panel. I further matted that onto a piece of black paper, also leaving a 1/16" border.

From there, the assembly was fairly easy. I adhered the stenciled panel to another piece of black paper that I'd cut to a standard A2 card size. I left a 1/16" black border around the yellow panel, which I felt "grounded" the yellow better. I glued the focal panel to the card front, and then adhered the front to my card base with my ATG adhesive runner.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Operation Write Home ODBD "Insect" challenge
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Not so Mellow Yellow"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes"

Birthday Wishes Sequin Shaker Card

Pretty Pink Posh is hosting a "Sequin Shaker Blog Hop," from April 26-28. The challenge is to create a sequin shaker card, any theme. Prizes are available from several sponsors, and you can win either by uploading a project or commenting on others' posts (or both!).

I can't say that I've ever really made a shaker card before. And the fact that this needed to use sequins created another challenge, since that is one supply I do not have in abundance. The ones that I do have are mostly bright, bold colors, so any "soft" theme was kind of out of the question. So I finally decided to make a birthday card.

I found a sketch/example in the book Card Sketches for Paper Crafters, by the editors of Paper Crafts magazine. It didn't have a shaker element, but rather, a large party hat, complete with pleated-ribbon brim and pom-pom. I felt that the main part of the hat could serve as the shaker cut-out, so I decided to go for it.

I created the card front by cutting a piece of scrap cardstock to 5.5x7.5", mostly for use in testing my placement of the hat. When I had the hat drawn in where I wanted it, I cut it out with my ruler & craft knife. I adhered a piece of patterned paper I got from my scrap stash to the front of the cardstock panel, and cut the triangle out from that as well. Finally, I stitched around the triangle with my sewing machine.

I applied a double-thickness of foam adhesive around the opening on the backside of the panel. Only then did I remember, I was supposed to adhere a piece of acetate to the back FIRST to keep the sequins from falling out the front! So I carefully peeled the adhesive off, cut a piece of acetate from some leftover packaging, and glued it in place with my ATG adhesive runner. Then I replaced the foam tape.

I embossed a piece of yellow cardstock with Cuttlebug's "Happy Birthday" embossing folder, to use for the back panel of the shaker. I peeled the release papers off the foam tape sections, and adhered the cardstock panel onto those. Um, wait a minute...what about the sequins? Yes, I'd forgotten to put those in first--my second bumble! So I oh-so-carefully pulled back a corner of the yellow embossed cardstock, and stuck sequins through the opening. Finally, I determined I had enough, and resealed the shaker portion of the card.

The rest of the hat was fairly easy. I pleated/glued ribbon down for the brim, and used DMC embroidery floss to make the pom-pom. The pom-pom actually turned out to be a bit more difficult than the brim. Mostly because I didn't realize that I really needed to separate the strands of floss and THEN wrap & tie them together into a loop and cut the strands; not the other way around. But I finally managed to get it fluffed out enough.

After all that, the greeting was pretty straightforward. I stamped one of the greetings from the Simon Says Stamp "Birthday Messages" set onto a piece of bright turquoise cardstock, heat-embossing it with American Crafts' Zing "Mustard" embossing powder. SIDE NOTE: I frankly think it's a brighter yellow than "mustard," but they didn't ask me when they named it! :) I positioned the greeting panel on the card where I wanted it, and made tick marks where it met the edge of the shaker window. The I cut off that angle, added more ribbon above & below to frame it, and glued it in place. Finally I adhered the whole front panel to a same-size card base with more foam adhesive, to match the thickness of the shaker portion.

And there it is--my first (but not last) shaker card. WHEW!