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!

Happy Birthday Rainbow

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamp's current challenge is to "Make it Colorful." They only ask that you use at least 5 colors (other than black and/or white) on your project. I figured, why stop at just five?! So I ended up using all 7 of the colors in a rainbow, in ROY G BIV order, around my card front.

My inspiration this time came from this post on Darlene DeVries' blog. She used Inktense pencils and water to create a rainbow effect. I basically followed her coloring technique exactly to create my card.

I started by cutting my panel of watercolor paper, and marked the center point. I lightly penciled lines going from that point out to the edges, to make sure I would have the right number of rays for the color pattern I used to come out evenly. Once I got that worked out, I erased my lines so they were just barely visible, then went over them with the Inktense pencils. I feathered the color out from the initial line into the rest of each section, to create a gradient. I colored every other ray first, to keep the colors from bleeding from one section into the next. Finally, I went back and filled in the remaining rays.

For my greeting, I used a stamp from this set by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps. I stamped it with Versamark ink on black cardstock, then white heat-embossed it. I cut out the panel, and rounded the corners with my 1/8" Corner Chomper. I finished it by making a dashed line around the outer edges.

After my watercolor panel had dried, I rounded the corners with the 3/8" side of my Corner Chomper, doing the same to my card base. I felt the panel needed something more, like faux stitching, but was afraid to ruin all my hard work. So I started penciling in dashed stitching lines. I decided I liked the look, so I erased my pencil marks and went back with a black marker to do my "stitching."

I tried adhering a piece of black paper to the front of an A2 card base, to act as a mat for the watercolor panel. But I couldn't make it work out like I wanted. So I finally--and VERY carefully--inked over the front of a white card base with Black Soot Distress ink. Thankfully, I didn't get ink anywhere I didn't want it on the card! Finally, I adhered the greeting to my watercolor piece, and adhered the whole panel to the card front with foam tape.

I will be sending this colorful birthday card to Operation Write Home, so one of our military heroes overseas can send it to his/her loved one!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' Challenge #13: "Make it Colorful"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes"

Embossed You're in My Heart

I don't usually make square cards for Operation Write Home, simply because there's not as much room for writing. But I like the following OWH sketch, and it fit my design idea, so I decided to shake things up a bit.

The only thing I changed from the sketch was to make the bottom strip 5/8" instead of 1/2", just to give the greeting more breathing room.

I used a pattern from Prima's "En Francais" 6x6" paper pad for the background. I stamped the greeting from this set by Hero Arts on white cardstock in Ranger Archival Jet Black ink, and blended Brushed Corduroy Distress ink over the strip. After determining where the circle element would go, I adhered the strip to the patterned paper, and added a mini heart brad to either side of the greeting. Finally, I inked the edges of the card front with Brushed Corduroy.

For the focal panel, I cut a 4" circle from blue cardstock, using a Spellbinders Grand Circles die as a template. I then embossed it with the "Medallion" embossing folder from this Hero Arts set by Sizzix. I adhered it to a circle of white cardstock, just to give it more support. I inked the edges with Brushed Corduroy, and glued it in place on the card front.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

A Blog Named Hero's Challenge #44: "You're the (em) Boss"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes"

Happy Birthday Tunnel Card

Recently, I came across an online contest called "The Craftys"--kind of like the Oscars or Emmys for crafters. Even though the entry deadline was right around the corner, I decided to go for it. I figured, with a contest of this caliber, not just any card would do. So I went through my Pinterest board of card ideas & tutorials, and came across this tutorial by Beate Johns for a tunnel card. Ah-ha! So I printed off the instructions and went back to our craft room to get to work.

I started by creating the inside. I scored a piece of patterned paper from my stash as instructed, and die cut an oval from the center with a Spellbinders Classic Ovals die. I cut a slightly smaller oval from teal cardstock, and glued it behind the patterned paper, to create a more defined frame for my greeting. I stamped my greeting in Ranger Archival Jet Black ink, using a stamp from this set by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps, in the center of the inside of a white A2 size card.

Full shot of inside

Close-up of greeting seen through "tunnel"

I created 4 balloons by tracing over a template I'd made, onto a piece of watercolor paper. I painted them with watered-down Distress inks in Peeled Paint, Mowed Lawn, Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire, Worn Lipstick, and Barn Door. After they were dry, I cut them out with scissors, and glued them to the side panels on the inside. I tied strings cut from blue bakers twine around the bottoms of the balloons, and glued them to the patterned paper with Ranger Multi Matte Medium. Finally, I covered them with my clear Wink of Stella marker for shimmer, and then Glossy Accents for shine. Then I set the card inside aside for a few hours to let the Glossy Accents dry.

Detail shot of 2 of the balloons

I stamped a cupcake from the same SNSS set, in Ranger Adirondack "Clover" and Stampabilities "Teddy Bear" inks, onto a piece of white cardstock for the focal panel. I rounded the corners with my 1/8" Corner Chomper, and inked the edges with Worn Lipstick. After creating the card front with a striped patterned paper from The Paper Studio and a strip of that same teal cardstock I'd used for the oval frame, I adhered the focal panel with foam tape to give it a bit of dimension. I added dots of Ruby Red Liquid Pearls for "sprinkles" on the frosting, and set the card front aside to dry.

After the Glossy Accents and Liquid Pearls had dried fully, I adhered the card inside to the base with strips of Scor-Tape. While this card is not appropriate for Operation Write Home, because of the glitter in the patterned papers, I will find a use for it!

*Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK AIP31468	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD MOWED LAWN Ranger SUMMER	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD BROKEN CHINA Blue Ranger	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD PEACOCK FEATHERS Ranger SPRING
*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD SALTY OCEAN Ranger SUMMER	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD CHIPPED SAPPHIRE Blue Ranger	*Tim Holtz DISTRESS INK PAD BARN DOOR Red Ranger	*Claudine Hellmuth Studio MINI MULTI MEDIUM MATTE Glue Adhesive Paint Ranger
*Ranger Inkssentials GLOSSY ACCENTS Glue Dimensional Adhesive	*Ranger Adirondack PIGMENT INK PAD CLOVER Green	*Ranger RUBY RED Liquid Pearls Decorative Glue

InLinkz.com

Miss You All the Time

The entry deadline for the sketch challenge at Hero Arts' blog is today(!), so I decided to do one more card to enter into that. I used their Sketch #1 for my card.

I cut 2 pieces of Core'dinations cardstock, and die cut the lower edge of the beige piece with the Simon Says Stamp A2 Curved Edge Die. I temporarily adhered the beige over the green, spritzed the cardstock lightly with water to help me get a better embossed impression, and ran them through my Grand Calibur with the "Gear" embossing folder by The Paper Studio. After that dried, with the cardstock still on the folder, I lightly sanded over the raised areas to get the tone-on-tone look. (Leaving the cardstock on the folder helps give support to the design when sanding.) I inked around the edges with Walnut Stain Distress ink, and matted it on a mid-tone cream cardstock.

For the greeting, I used a stamp from this Hero Arts set on light cream cardstock. I couldn't get the brown I wanted with my ink pads, so I ended up coloring the stamp with a dark brown marker. After stamping, I die cut it with a Spellbinders Classic Circles die, and inked the edges with Walnut Stain ink.

The Hero Arts sketch shows small branches coming out from either side of the greeting. Since I wanted this to be a more masculine card, and don't have any small "branch" dies to speak of, I chose one of the dies from Spellbinders' "Ironwork Accents" set, cutting those pieces from the same brown cardstock I used for the card front. I lightly marked where the greeting would go on the main panel with a pencil, and used that as a guide to glue my accents down. Finally, I adhered the greeting with foam tape and adhered the main panel to the card front; and another card for Operation Write Home is done!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Hero Arts "A New Sketch"
A Blog Named Hero "You're the (em) Boss"

You're Always in My Heart

The current challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs' blog is to use this sketch they posted:

I tend to find sketch challenges difficult, especially when there is so much room for interpretation (e.g. no measurements provided). This card could be any size, any theme, not to mention being able to adapt the sketch to your own idea. The possibilities are almost endless! This kind of "freedom" tends to lead to creativity-freeze for me. But I decided to give it a go nonetheless!

To begin, I rotated the sketch 90 degrees. I also moved the scalloped border to the middle, as my greeting strip. Otherwise, I tried to stay true to the basic premise of the sketch.

The floral stamp is the mid-sized one from this set by Our Daily Bread Designs. I stamped it several times on a purple paper (which had a subtle pattern) in Versamark, then clear heat-embossed it. After the embossing cooled, I blended Dusty Concord Distress ink over the whole panel with my Mini Ink Blending Tool. Wherever I'd embossed resisted the ink, resulting in a pretty two-tone look.

For the greeting, I cut a strip of the same purple patterned paper, and punched the bottom edge with the Martha Stewart "Arch Lattice" edge punch. I stamped the greeting from this Hero Arts stamp set in Dusty Concord. I placed the greeting slightly off-center overall, so it would be centered between the left edge of the panel and the bakers twine I added.

I double-matted the focal panel, added my bakers twine around the one side, and mounted the whole thing onto my card front. I will be sending this to Operation Write Home, for one of our military heroes to write home to their loved one on.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Our Daily Bread Designs "Sketch"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Botanical"
A Blog Named Hero Challenge #44: "You're the (em) Boss"

Operation Write Home Memorial Day Bloghop

I'm truly honored to be part of this year's Operation Write Home Memorial Day Bloghop! I'm relatively new to creating for OWH, so this is my first time doing this.

The theme this year is to make a red, white, & blue card, preferably using one of OWH's sketches, and making it fit one of their themes. My card started its life with OWH's Sketch #222:

I don't normally do CAS cards, but this sketch "spoke" to me, so I decided to go for it! I stayed true to the sketch, making no alterations. The patterned papers are from We R Memory Keepers' "Red White and Blue" 6x6" pad. I used the small heart and "I Love You" stamps from this set by Simon Says Stamp for the greeting strip. For the mat, I inked a piece of white cardstock, cut to an A2 card size, with Salty Ocean Distress ink. I glued the patterned papers and greeting strip to that, and then adhered it to my card base.

Thank you so much for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of the hop!