Tropical Shaker Card

Sometimes you just need a little bit of color in your life!   I made this card (idea from Rubber Stamp Tapestry and Lindsay Weirich) with just that in mind.

First of all, to give credit to Lindsay, here is a link to her card and video:

             http://ideas.pegstamps.com/2016/06/11/aloha-card-selective-die-cutting-technique/

  Here are the details of my card:

1. I used my Cricut Explore to cut a shape that I could use as the window of my card.
2. I traced around the shape with a pencil onto the center of a 5 1/4" x 4" white mat.
3. I stamped the troical flower and foliage images using Memento inks and the Aloha peg set from Rubber Stamp Tapestry, stamping some of the images around the penciled shape and some of the them extending into the penciled shape.
4.  Following Lindsay Weirich's advice, I used color dusters to add in shades of blue and yellow around the penciled shape.
4. I cut out the shape, cutting around the images that extended into the shape opening.
5.I then made my basic shaker card with acetate covering the window.  Sentiment at top is from Hero Arts.  The colorful birds (Inkadinkado) were stamped in the center of the folded white card and colored with Copic markers to match the colors of the Memento inks.  
6. The shaker is filled with some fun tropical confetti I found in the party section of Hobby Lobby.
7.  Lastly, and I don't think you can see it in this photo, I went over the stamped flowers and foliage with Spica glitter pens, matching the colors of the flowers.

The main difference between my card and Lindsay's is that I used my Cricut to cut my shape, rather than using a physical die.  I love using my Cricut whenever I can when I die cut.  I have the Cricut subscription so I have access to thousands of images.  In this way I don't have to purchase lots of expensive physical dies to get variety in my cardmaking.  Here is more information about the Cricut Explore:

http://us.cricut.com/home/

I am sending this card to someone who needs a little cheer in her life.  Wouldn't it be fun to get this card in the mail, along with the bills and junk?!!

Cricut Banner for Church

Today was our Chirstian Education Sunday in church, where we present the new fall offerings for classes.  The pastor wanted me to make a banner showcasing the church's mission, so I used my Cricut to help out.  I uploaded the graphic she provided into Design Space, and with a bit of slicing and copying came up with a fair design I could use to cut a paper pattern.  I cut the pieces from some colorful Patrick Losey prints I still had from my quilting days and then ironed them onto the background.  The lettering was cut from Gold Glitter and White Cricut Iron On.  A bit of gold fringe delineates the bottom border.

Stamp Class!

Tuesday night at our stamping group I presented a little class I had previously done at Hobby Lobby.  The cards are pictured above.  All feature simple coloring with copic markers.  We had lots of fun and probably got one card done but a lot of talking and laughing!  I updated the butterfly card with some Ranger Enamel Accents in various colors.  I am loving this product!   I had of course unmounted the large flower stamp and the butterfly and re-mounted on EZ Mount Thin.  It works OK if you use a stamping mat.  I use either the Bazzill black mat or the pink Sew Easy mat.  Amazed at my organizational skills!  I found all the products to re-make this class, including the washi tape and the ribbon!.

We all Scream for Ice Cream!

I love my new Hero Arts Ice Cream Layering Stamp!  Plus, I am in the mood lately for ice cream.  I have decided to have ice cream rather than cake for the September birthdays at church, and I think I will have the children offer the toppings for the ice cream.  For some reason we haven't had our annual ice cream social so this will be a good substitute.

For the card above, I stamped the cone in Clearsnap Chestnut Roan chalk ink and added the details with Clearsnap Dark Brown chalk ink.  I stamped the ice cream itself in Clearsnap Orchid and Lime chalk inks and added details with Clearsnap Pinkolicious and Grasshopper Archival Dye inks.  I did not purchase the coordinating dies for this stamp set, but the cones and ice creams were easy to cut out by hand.  I must have made about 20 ice cream birthday cards!

The kraft background oval die is from Spellbinders.   I nearly had a heart attack embossing the oval kraft die in my Tim Holtz Vagabond machine--I must have used too thick of a sandwich and nearly got stuck--I only was successful by pressing the Go button every little bit, letting the machine rest between presses, and little by little, inch by inch I did get the sandwich to move until all was clear--close call, that one!  I will have to be really careful of my sandwich in future.

 I stenciled the confetti background from a Hero Arts plastic stencil onto white card with regular Dreamweaver's embossing paste and then added color with Tsukineko pigment ink cubes.   A little bit of Prismaglitter later and a cherry on top completed my Happy Birthday Ice Cream cone card!

You can't see the inside of the card in this photo, but I also filled the inside of the card with ice cream cone, too!

Now, let's have some ice cream!

Quilt Card

Hello Bloggers!  Today I made a project I have been wanting to do for a few weeks, ever since I saw Lindsay Weirach's post/video using Rubber Stamp Tapestry peg stamps to do a quilt-look card.  You can see her original project/post here:    http://ideas.pegstamps.com/2016/07/02/diy-puffy-paper-quilt-card/

First of all, loved several of her techniques to make this look like a real quilt--she embossed all the quilt lines, adding faux stitch lines and then "puffed" it up with a hot glue gun.

I had to make a few tiny changes.  I could not remember where I put my color dusters, which she used to add the background color, but my Tim Holtz Distress Inks were to hand, so used those in the colors of Mandarin, Aged Mahogany, Barn Door, and Wild Honey to add the background color in the blocks.  This worked great, with the exception that my backround was a little wet from the inks, so I had to let it dry before stamping.

I didn't have the actual peg stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry that she used, so I combined two different sets to get a look of old fashioned flowered quilt fabrics. Also, I tried at first to use some Tsukineko pigment inks for the stamping, but I think my inks were too dry so I penciled over those with a Poppy Prismacolor and switched to Memento Rhubarb and Potter's Clay dye inks.  These worked much better on my well-inked backgrounds.

I also learned  don't sponge Distress Inks over a Micron Pigma pen--it is not colorfast.  I think a very fine line Sharpie would work much better.

Overall, I am happy with this card and am already at work on a second one in this style.  This will be perfect to send to one of my quilting friends.

Thank you, Lindsay, for always provided a fantastic project idea!